WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.079
Hello, and welcome in. Happy Wednesday, everyone. Hi, Addy, Bridget, and Cindy. I always want

2
00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:26.320
to wave to everybody. There's Michelle. Robin, hello. Sue, hello. And Bonnie, Leanne, and

3
00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:33.920
Owen, and Tyler. How's everyone doing on this Wednesday? It is week 38 of The Edge, so we are

4
00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:40.560
on the countdown. This is three. Next week will be two, and then one. We're happy to have you here.

5
00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:46.960
We've traveled almost 40 weeks together. That is a long time. That's a long time. We feel like

6
00:00:46.960 --> 00:00:53.120
we've gotten to know everyone. As Dion says, it's become its own little family, so it's really good

7
00:00:53.120 --> 00:00:59.760
to see you all today. So this is Wednesday. If you have any wins for the week, please drop them

8
00:00:59.760 --> 00:01:06.160
in the chat. We love to see those. Or since we are in week 38, tell us which training, which

9
00:01:06.160 --> 00:01:13.200
Edge training you are finding most helpful at this current time. So either your weekly win

10
00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:20.560
or which Edge training you are finding most helpful at this time. We've got some good ones

11
00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:26.960
like Kaizenning. You've got the QBook, Buckets, DeepWork. You have some really good

12
00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:34.960
trainings to refer back to. All right. Well, we're just going to give about another moment for folks

13
00:01:34.960 --> 00:01:43.920
to jump on and get connected to audio. And while we're doing that, Sue, thin slicing. Yes, Tyler,

14
00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:49.840
QBook, and Buckets still extremely helpful. Those don't ever. And the thin slicing. Those don't ever

15
00:01:49.840 --> 00:02:00.080
stop being helpful. Deb, QBook. Yes. Cindy, Kaizen. Yes. Those are all so good. When we did the Kaizen

16
00:02:00.080 --> 00:02:06.320
training and we utilized Kaizen here at Brilliant, but I went home and I think I Kaizened everything.

17
00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:14.320
Tell my daughter, let's Kaizen it. What? So it's very, very helpful. Robin, the three growth

18
00:02:14.320 --> 00:02:21.520
strategies. Yes. For the 10X. Yes. Yes. And Addie is Kaizen. Thank you for sharing that. That's

19
00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:28.320
good to know what is really hitting home for you guys right now. Well, last week we talked

20
00:02:28.320 --> 00:02:36.160
about the black box modeling. And the black box model, if I can say it, black box modeling is how

21
00:02:36.160 --> 00:02:42.560
we can quickly determine the financial viability of a new product or business strategy. And it

22
00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:47.840
cuts out the kind of emotional thinking that keeps us stuck, which is super helpful because

23
00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:53.360
it brings clarity to the process so that we can make well-informed decisions. And we were all

24
00:02:53.360 --> 00:03:00.480
given homework to black box a project. So how many of you guys did that? Black box to project

25
00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:09.600
or an idea? Oh, okay. Robin. Robin, we can count on you. Addie. Yeah. Good. Let us know how that

26
00:03:09.600 --> 00:03:14.720
went in the chat. I think we'd love to know how that went for you. Today's a fun topic. We're going

27
00:03:14.720 --> 00:03:20.800
to talk about existential flexibility by Simon Sinek. And these principles are exemplified by

28
00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:26.720
various successful organizations, and they can guide leaders in navigating uncertainty

29
00:03:26.720 --> 00:03:32.640
and maintaining their core mission. And right before we dive into the call, today's pro tip

30
00:03:32.640 --> 00:03:38.160
is referring back to week 29 of upgrading your meetings. Do you guys remember that?

31
00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:45.920
The FIRE meetings, to build your culture, to always have and expect FIRE meetings. So you invite people

32
00:03:45.920 --> 00:03:52.640
based on the right time, not just in case. You give permission to comment after. If you were

33
00:03:52.640 --> 00:03:58.160
watching others work, you can ask the question, was I needed in that meeting? There is a cultural

34
00:03:58.160 --> 00:04:04.240
permission to say no to meetings. And one of my favorites, the five-star permission that if after

35
00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:08.320
10 minutes, you realize the meeting doesn't really pertain to you and your role in the business, you

36
00:04:08.320 --> 00:04:16.079
have permission to leave. And we know that a meeting is the last action of resort. So if you

37
00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:21.120
find that you need a refresher on how to have FIRE meetings, go back to week 29 in the EDGE group

38
00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:29.040
on the app and give that a rewatch. All right. Is everyone ready to dive into existential flexibility?

39
00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:35.360
My word. Okay. As a reminder, as we're going through the material, feel free to post questions

40
00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:41.040
and comments in the chat. And Deon, I'm going to hand it over to you. Hey, that is a mouthful.

41
00:04:41.760 --> 00:04:46.080
Just so that you all know, I think we're running five or six meetings today as a team. So we look

42
00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:52.560
a little weary. That's why we've got a lot of things going on here at Brilliant. So that's the

43
00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:59.920
reason. Okay. So this concept is actually a pretty sophisticated

44
00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:06.840
concept. And it's only sophisticated to people who haven't been trained. So that does not

45
00:05:06.840 --> 00:05:13.520
include you, you are trained. That means if you're following this conversation, you really

46
00:05:13.520 --> 00:05:19.000
have caught a lot of the components of the edge, because what the edge does is we build

47
00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:25.840
different components up in layers, so we can get to this type of conversations. So here's

48
00:05:25.840 --> 00:05:33.200
what I want to say is that I'm going to talk about six items that make up the concept of

49
00:05:33.200 --> 00:05:39.120
existential flexibility. Now that sounds like a big word. But what it really means is there

50
00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:44.280
that you I don't know if you remember back to when we did training about the difference

51
00:05:44.280 --> 00:05:49.360
between the finite game and the infinite game. Do you guys remember that training? So the

52
00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:55.520
finite game uses language like we have to be number one, and it acts like that there's

53
00:05:55.520 --> 00:06:01.040
winners and losers and so on. But the infinite game is we want to be better than we were

54
00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:07.040
last year. The infinite game is us measuring ourselves. I just watched anybody watch the

55
00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:12.800
Apple that quick meeting they did this week. Anybody watch the launch of the new MacBook

56
00:06:12.800 --> 00:06:20.560
Pro watching Apple do events is the quintessential explanation of what the game the infinite game

57
00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:27.040
looks like. Those people do not focus on anybody else. They don't focus on what the competition's

58
00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:34.000
doing. They don't measure anything of that. And the reason is Apple measure themselves by their

59
00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:40.160
own against themselves. You know, how good are we against ourselves? So here's the interesting

60
00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:48.240
thing about the infinite game. Apple uses language like this is the fastest MacBook we've ever built.

61
00:06:49.360 --> 00:06:53.920
Well, what happens if you had a really awful MacBook last year? Now you've got a slightly

62
00:06:53.920 --> 00:07:00.720
less awful one. Be the best. That's true. It is the best. Have you seen their graphs, the 3x and

63
00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:07.280
the 2x? Those graphs are completely and utterly meaningless. They truly are from a pure, excuse me,

64
00:07:07.280 --> 00:07:11.840
engineering point of view. But what they're demonstrating is I noticed that if you watch

65
00:07:11.840 --> 00:07:17.120
that presentation, I love watching their presentations, man, especially Steve Jobs,

66
00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:25.840
that guy knew how to do this. And what he did is he always they assumed they were creating a space,

67
00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:33.120
they were inhabiting their space, and that they were so filling their space and on top of their

68
00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:40.160
game that they didn't reference anyone else. They were like, we're it, we're the game.

69
00:07:40.880 --> 00:07:44.640
And you go, what about my Windows machine? They go, the what machine?

70
00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:53.200
You know, like, acted like it didn't exist. And so as a result, everybody buys a Mac who's in

71
00:07:53.200 --> 00:07:59.840
who's in Apple world, you know, all act like it's a cult, you know, me included. So, you know,

72
00:07:59.840 --> 00:08:04.960
if Apple launches a new shiny thing, I'm probably buying it and then deciding what to do with it.

73
00:08:04.960 --> 00:08:10.880
I don't know. I think that's, I just gave up my weakness here. But the reason is,

74
00:08:10.880 --> 00:08:16.640
is because what they've done is they are selling us something. You know, they're not telling us

75
00:08:16.640 --> 00:08:23.120
Apple are not telling us that if you are in the infinite game, you're telling people why you're

76
00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:28.720
doing it, you're creating a course. If you're in the finite game, you're telling them what you're

77
00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:35.039
doing. And if you listen to Dell and all those people, oh, we have, you know, RAM and this and

78
00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:40.400
their CPU speed and the blah and the blah and the blah and the stats. And yes, all the benefits of

79
00:08:40.400 --> 00:08:46.320
all that. Nobody genuinely, only a few technical people actually care. What does Apple do? They

80
00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:51.360
start their whole event with here's some guy walking down the road, listening to their music.

81
00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:55.520
And there's some creator doing something cool. And there's somebody taking their iPhone and

82
00:08:55.520 --> 00:09:00.640
making a movie. And then there's this family event and we get all, what are they doing?

83
00:09:00.640 --> 00:09:09.600
They're connecting us to why Apple is important in our lives to do life. That is the infinite game.

84
00:09:10.640 --> 00:09:16.000
So you say, well, we don't have cool stuff like Apple. You know, we sell widgets and they're

85
00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:23.280
boring. Sure. But the why you do it involves passion. There is a passion in your why.

86
00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:30.080
So six points for creating existential flexibility, existential flexibility,

87
00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:35.760
existential meaning outside of yourself, flexibility, where you can look at your own

88
00:09:35.760 --> 00:09:41.680
business and not be so caught up in the day to day of the business that you can't see the bigger

89
00:09:41.680 --> 00:09:48.880
picture, that you can't be existential, that you can't extract yourself out of the immediate and

90
00:09:48.880 --> 00:09:54.160
look at the big picture and say, hey, this is what's going on in our industry. This is why

91
00:09:54.880 --> 00:09:59.840
our why is so important. So number one, clarify your why.

92
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:05.880
And, you know, don't just do it once as a sort of a whiteboard exercise, make it part

93
00:10:05.880 --> 00:10:07.360
of your language.

94
00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:10.600
Remember constantly driving the why.

95
00:10:10.600 --> 00:10:15.980
Have a course, make your business about a course, you know, if you can make it one you're

96
00:10:15.980 --> 00:10:22.120
willing to sacrifice for, you know, make it something that's worth it for your employees,

97
00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:26.680
for your team, for the people who are involved, for your customers, make them feel like this

98
00:10:26.680 --> 00:10:29.040
is something almost noble.

99
00:10:29.040 --> 00:10:30.280
This is something grand.

100
00:10:30.280 --> 00:10:32.440
This is something important.

101
00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:40.620
You say, well, you know, you know, I sell accounting services or whatever.

102
00:10:40.620 --> 00:10:42.120
You can make it important.

103
00:10:42.120 --> 00:10:44.700
You can literally make it important.

104
00:10:44.700 --> 00:10:50.000
And let me tell you this part about making clarifying your why.

105
00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:58.480
As founders, we get so focused or as leaders, we get so focused on making the products profitable,

106
00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:00.680
making the business profitable.

107
00:11:00.680 --> 00:11:06.160
And we don't realize that when we clarify the why, it just drives that process.

108
00:11:06.160 --> 00:11:10.840
It puts that it's like turbocharging your sales.

109
00:11:10.840 --> 00:11:13.880
It's like turbocharging your community.

110
00:11:13.880 --> 00:11:20.680
So Apple's why is challenge the status quo, you know, consider all other technology and

111
00:11:20.680 --> 00:11:24.720
all other computers to be, you know, the monolith.

112
00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:25.720
And we don't care.

113
00:11:25.880 --> 00:11:29.600
Do you remember that ad they did where the person who ran in and then threw that big

114
00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:34.360
thing up and smashed the screen and all the people, what it was saying is the entire industry

115
00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:38.960
is, you know, just a bunch of robots and it was all sort of in black and white.

116
00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:43.000
And then there's one person come running in color and smash the screen and, you know,

117
00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:45.700
think different, I think was the big thing at the time.

118
00:11:45.700 --> 00:11:51.360
So what is Apple saying, hey, if you don't fit in the little box, you know, do you remember

119
00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:56.440
the little guys with with the ads that they did with with the two guys?

120
00:11:56.440 --> 00:11:57.440
Hi, I'm a PC.

121
00:11:57.440 --> 00:11:58.440
Hi, I'm a Mac.

122
00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:02.360
Remember that they got sued out of their minds for that, that those series of ads.

123
00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:09.360
But there were a massively effective because what Apple was saying is that it matters.

124
00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:16.600
Being able to have technology that serves you and not use of your technology matters.

125
00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:18.760
Technology that empowers your life matters.

126
00:12:18.760 --> 00:12:23.040
So why does your company exist?

127
00:12:23.040 --> 00:12:25.520
Why does your why does it matter?

128
00:12:25.520 --> 00:12:31.120
Right, especially if you're in a more commodity type business, if you're a service or a product

129
00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:35.800
that maybe they can get from two or three or several sources, then then this is even

130
00:12:35.800 --> 00:12:37.200
more important.

131
00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:44.880
You have to nail down why, you know, Patagonia's why is to save the planet through sustainable

132
00:12:44.880 --> 00:12:46.840
practices and products.

133
00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:53.040
Hey, man, if you buy Patagonia, you care about the planet.

134
00:12:53.040 --> 00:12:56.520
There's no logical connection at all.

135
00:12:56.520 --> 00:12:59.120
That's not even probably true.

136
00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:01.480
But people who buy the products feel this.

137
00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:03.200
There's a passion.

138
00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:08.520
So don't underestimate the why, because it brings the passion to what you're doing.

139
00:13:08.520 --> 00:13:13.680
Number two, be adaptable, not opportunistic.

140
00:13:13.680 --> 00:13:17.440
Be adaptable, not opportunistic.

141
00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:24.520
In other words, stay flexible without compromising your core values, you know, allow a certain

142
00:13:24.520 --> 00:13:27.160
amount of adaptability.

143
00:13:27.160 --> 00:13:35.800
So here's the hardest thing about this point, the willingness to blow up your own products

144
00:13:35.800 --> 00:13:40.480
before the market does it for you.

145
00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:46.160
You know, this is a hard one, man, because we get attached like children to our products.

146
00:13:46.160 --> 00:13:48.760
We like we created this.

147
00:13:48.760 --> 00:13:50.680
The market loved it.

148
00:13:50.680 --> 00:13:52.240
It's struggling a bit now.

149
00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:56.440
And now we're sitting scratching our heads saying, what do we do next?

150
00:13:56.440 --> 00:14:01.160
And sometimes when the market is blowing up something you're offering now, don't confuse

151
00:14:01.160 --> 00:14:07.160
the difference between the markets blowing something up or you're just in a market cycle.

152
00:14:07.160 --> 00:14:12.520
Some businesses are very driven by by economic cycles.

153
00:14:12.520 --> 00:14:14.200
You know, they're very dependent.

154
00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:17.640
You know, if the market's going well, business goes well.

155
00:14:17.640 --> 00:14:21.480
You know, so if you're in the, you know, in the roofing business, bad weather is your

156
00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:23.800
best friend, right?

157
00:14:23.800 --> 00:14:28.380
So because you get to replace lots of roofs and lots going on and you have more business,

158
00:14:28.380 --> 00:14:30.400
so bad weather is your is your best buddy.

159
00:14:30.400 --> 00:14:35.240
Well, you can't put bad weather into your marketing strategy, right?

160
00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:37.040
You can't plan that.

161
00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:40.560
So what we're saying is then how do you adapt to that?

162
00:14:40.560 --> 00:14:46.400
How do you have a mechanism where you can ramp up your team really quickly during when

163
00:14:46.400 --> 00:14:51.520
there's a lot of bad weather or at certain months of the year, then scale it down and

164
00:14:51.520 --> 00:14:54.480
focus on other products or just scale it down.

165
00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:57.000
So you need a variable capability.

166
00:14:57.000 --> 00:14:58.000
That's what I'm talking about.

167
00:14:58.000 --> 00:14:59.880
Be adaptable to your market.

168
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.920
and understand what your market does. I know for us, at

169
00:15:04.920 --> 00:15:08.640
Brilliant, we just recently did this, right? We had a very

170
00:15:08.640 --> 00:15:13.800
profitable product week called life coaching was an $800

171
00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:17.760
product for three months coaching. And we made it

172
00:15:17.760 --> 00:15:23.040
basically free. And when we made it free, well, it's sort of free

173
00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:27.080
if you belong to to, you know, to the church, then you then

174
00:15:27.080 --> 00:15:32.080
that's part of that now. But we had to realize that we had to be

175
00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:35.200
flexible and willing to blow up our own products before the

176
00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:40.280
market did. So but what we replaced was a much higher order

177
00:15:40.280 --> 00:15:43.200
product, you know, for leadership training, so having a

178
00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:47.440
school of leadership. And now we have a $5,000 product instead of

179
00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:52.560
an $800 product. And we're able to offer those people so much

180
00:15:52.560 --> 00:15:58.680
more. So being willing to blow up your own products is huge. So

181
00:15:58.840 --> 00:16:03.200
Microsoft were amazingly good at this. Microsoft, you know, for

182
00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:06.800
the longest time just relied on Windows and Microsoft Office.

183
00:16:07.280 --> 00:16:10.440
And what did they do, they started to almost blow up their

184
00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:14.240
own product by using cloud computing. Microsoft put

185
00:16:14.280 --> 00:16:18.040
unbelievable amounts of cloud computing. Now, if you want to

186
00:16:18.040 --> 00:16:24.400
study in a company that in the last three to four years, and I

187
00:16:24.400 --> 00:16:28.280
can never pronounce his name, the CEO Nutella, somebody can

188
00:16:28.280 --> 00:16:32.200
pronounce it. Anyway, someone throw it in the chat for me. So

189
00:16:32.760 --> 00:16:36.840
the CEO of Microsoft, they were this day in comparison to Apple,

190
00:16:36.840 --> 00:16:39.840
they were tiny by market share. Now they're right up there with

191
00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:45.120
it. It's unbelievable how much value has come into Microsoft,

192
00:16:45.280 --> 00:16:48.480
because they were willing to blow up their own products and

193
00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:51.680
introduce new things. You know, Ben and Jerry's did this. Now

194
00:16:51.680 --> 00:16:56.840
there was some Satya Nadella. Nadella is his last name. Okay,

195
00:16:56.840 --> 00:17:00.520
I got it. CEO of Microsoft. Great leader, really worth

196
00:17:00.520 --> 00:17:05.079
studying. He's unbelievable. Number three. So number two is

197
00:17:05.079 --> 00:17:09.160
adaptable. Number three, trust your team. Now I'm not saying

198
00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:13.240
just trust your team globally, we talked about having a culture

199
00:17:13.240 --> 00:17:16.400
of trust. Now I want to bring a refinement as a leader to that

200
00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:22.319
language. Trust your team to make decisions that are aligned

201
00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:28.400
with your why. You see, if I know my team is aligned with our

202
00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:34.040
why, then I can trust them and I can let it go because they will

203
00:17:34.040 --> 00:17:38.480
do what I know they need to do. So it's not a blanket trust as

204
00:17:38.520 --> 00:17:41.880
Oh, well, we just trust you and so on. Sure, we're going to give

205
00:17:41.880 --> 00:17:45.600
them that as the starting point. But now that we're maturing this

206
00:17:45.600 --> 00:17:50.120
concept of trust, so what does that mean as leaders, it means

207
00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:54.400
that your team have to be super clear on your why, so that you

208
00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:59.280
can trust them with it. If that why is so clear that it informs

209
00:17:59.280 --> 00:18:04.160
their actual daily decisions, that puts you in a different

210
00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:08.000
league. Because now you're really buying back your time as

211
00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:10.920
a leader, when you're trusting your team, guess what you don't

212
00:18:10.920 --> 00:18:15.840
have to do? Want to tell me what you don't have to do? Huh? You

213
00:18:15.840 --> 00:18:19.640
don't have to throw in the chat. What do you not have to do if

214
00:18:19.640 --> 00:18:28.560
you trust your team? Remind them do their job. That's true. What

215
00:18:28.560 --> 00:18:34.240
else? Yeah, do it yourself. Right? Constantly manage them

216
00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:41.080
micromanage them. Exactly. You do not have to be their mommy or

217
00:18:41.080 --> 00:18:47.960
their daddy. Business wise, you know, so worry about the

218
00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:53.160
results. Good one, Joe. Okay, so when you trust your team, what

219
00:18:53.160 --> 00:18:59.200
you've looked you want your team to feel. I love my job. I feel I

220
00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:05.400
can be myself here. What I do here matters. For that to be

221
00:19:05.400 --> 00:19:09.400
real. There has to be real trust. There has to be

222
00:19:09.400 --> 00:19:15.520
opportunity to take risks, even fail and still be safe. When

223
00:19:15.520 --> 00:19:19.520
somebody when you trust your team, and then and they take a

224
00:19:19.520 --> 00:19:23.920
risk, and they fail. That's where your leadership is truly

225
00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:29.720
tested. And the integrity of your trust culture is now on

226
00:19:29.720 --> 00:19:36.840
display. Because now you're saying to them. Okay, you said

227
00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:40.440
we can go. Well, I can see it's aligned with a why it just

228
00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:46.160
didn't work out. No worries. Thank you for trying. cost us

229
00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:51.760
money. It's painful. And, and the language I use as the leader

230
00:19:51.760 --> 00:19:55.840
is when one of the when one of the people in my team fail, I

231
00:19:55.840 --> 00:20:00.000
never say they I say we. So if somebody

232
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:08.800
Our team tried something and it failed. I remember about a year ago, back when Dia was working with

233
00:20:08.800 --> 00:20:15.920
us and we launched this marketing thing and it was a disaster. It really was, and I know Dia would

234
00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:21.440
say that here, her idea, and I encouraged her. She ran by me, I said, sounds like a great idea,

235
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:28.160
it was a bit risky. We wasted, I think, $20,000 on nothing. So now for a small company, that was a

236
00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:33.040
lot of money to us at the time. And so when I presented the failure to the team, what did I say?

237
00:20:33.760 --> 00:20:40.720
We tried this thing and we failed. What did that message say to Dia?

238
00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:45.200
Now, what would be my language if it was a success?

239
00:20:47.040 --> 00:20:51.360
What would have I done? I would have used what theory? Somebody throw in the chat.

240
00:20:51.360 --> 00:20:59.360
She, and I also would have made her the hero of the story. You know, Dia came up with this idea

241
00:20:59.360 --> 00:21:05.760
and it was amazing. Isn't she wonderful? Well done, Dia. Great job. Make her the hero, right?

242
00:21:05.760 --> 00:21:13.680
She failed. Man, we tried, you know, but we failed. What does that do for Dia the next time she's

243
00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:20.160
taking something on? He will stand with me, my leader. When I asked my leader and she said I

244
00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:26.000
should do it, when it failed, she stood with me last time, she'll stand with me again. So that

245
00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:31.920
makes your team very bold, but also way more wanting to make sure they please you. You think

246
00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:40.640
that it's counterintuitive because you think, well, that just lets them go run amok. Not at all.

247
00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:48.400
When they see what it costs you, that you spend your trust chips on their behalf, they're a little

248
00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:52.640
more careful next time. Like next time we do that new thing, are you sure we should do this?

249
00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:58.800
You know, so it is incredible. You know, the thing, the thing, the companies that do this

250
00:21:58.800 --> 00:22:07.040
really well are two companies, Google and Zappos. Google empowers its employees to spend 20% of

251
00:22:07.040 --> 00:22:15.760
their time on side projects, fostering innovation and creativity. What does that mean? It means that,

252
00:22:15.760 --> 00:22:21.040
hey, we said take one deep work session. What is one deep work session? That's one,

253
00:22:21.040 --> 00:22:27.680
you know, out of 10. So that's only 10%. We're only recommending 10%. One bucket out of 10.

254
00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:34.640
One deep work. They do two buckets. If you work at Google, you have to spend two buckets of your

255
00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:42.320
time, eight hours of your week doing unrelated work to do a side project. And you say, well,

256
00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:47.360
Google, they got billions of dollars. That is true. Guess how they became Google with billions

257
00:22:47.360 --> 00:22:55.760
of dollars? Which came first? So here's what we're getting down to. A high value culture

258
00:22:56.640 --> 00:23:03.280
drives value in your business like nothing else. When you clear and your culture knows why you're

259
00:23:03.280 --> 00:23:08.640
clear and your team knows why you're clear on your why, and you trust your team to be aligned

260
00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:15.680
with that why, you drive incredible culture. Let's go to the next point. Number four, build

261
00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:21.920
resilience. You know, Simon Sinek puts it this way. He says, develop the resilience

262
00:23:23.520 --> 00:23:32.320
to weather storms, staying true to your purpose. So this is different from the idea of, you know,

263
00:23:32.320 --> 00:23:37.040
blowing up your own products and don't wait for the market to do it. This is a different idea.

264
00:23:37.040 --> 00:23:44.080
This is if you know you go through fluctuations, when interest rates are high, if you're a mortgage

265
00:23:44.080 --> 00:23:49.120
broker and the interest rates are really high right now, you better have some resilience in

266
00:23:49.120 --> 00:23:54.400
your business plan, right? And if you have a team selling products that in that space,

267
00:23:54.960 --> 00:24:01.040
you have to build the kind of resilience. Now, there's two big drivers for resilience. Number

268
00:24:01.040 --> 00:24:08.560
one driver is that you have an alternative ability to scale. So like I used the example,

269
00:24:08.560 --> 00:24:13.600
if you're running a roofing company, then being able to bring a lot of contractors in very quick

270
00:24:13.600 --> 00:24:18.320
and having the kind of agreement with them that they go to first, because the other roofing

271
00:24:18.320 --> 00:24:25.600
companies in the city will have the same idea. So what if you put those contractors on a retainer,

272
00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:30.960
or you paid them something special so that they had a contractual obligation to say to you,

273
00:24:31.520 --> 00:24:38.160
say yes to you first. So those type of little innovations builds resilience and allows you to

274
00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:43.920
scale. So you don't have to always do everything. I mean, the other way is you can do it the Tesla

275
00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:49.600
way, sleep on the factory floor. Now they asked Elon, why did you sleep on the factory floor? I

276
00:24:49.600 --> 00:24:53.760
mean, once you go to your office and just least lie on the sofa, he said, no, it was important

277
00:24:53.760 --> 00:24:59.840
for the team to see me suffer because I cannot expect them to say, I can't go sit on some island.

278
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:05.840
you know, sipping cocktails while they're suffering on the factory floor. I wanted

279
00:25:05.840 --> 00:25:10.960
them to see me suffering as much. In fact, I wanted it to hurt me more than it hurts them.

280
00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:16.080
That was his, those were his words. Now you can do that. That's not sustainable. That is,

281
00:25:16.080 --> 00:25:21.520
you can do that for little bursts. That is not a great long-term resilience strategy.

282
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:27.680
Look, Tesla has been on the brink of bankruptcy so many times, you know, and then of course,

283
00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:32.400
then in 2008, almost all of Elon's companies were on the brink of bankruptcy and he was going

284
00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:37.280
through a divorce. So, you know, it was the lowest, he said it was one of the lowest points.

285
00:25:37.280 --> 00:25:45.760
And then in 2018, he has this another massive low point when the entire market started to short

286
00:25:45.760 --> 00:25:50.480
his stock. Does everybody know what that means? Shorting stock? Okay. So if you don't know what

287
00:25:50.480 --> 00:25:55.760
that is, if you're buying shares of a company in the market, you buy them here and you plan for

288
00:25:55.760 --> 00:26:00.320
them to go up. What you're doing is you buy low and you sell high. It's called going long.

289
00:26:01.040 --> 00:26:05.920
The opposite is also true. You can sell stock you don't have, then the market goes down,

290
00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:10.160
then you buy them at a cheaper rates. You sell them at a hundred, you buy them at 50 and you

291
00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:15.840
make the difference. That's called shorting the stock. In my personal view, it's one of the most

292
00:26:15.840 --> 00:26:22.880
immoral things that shouldn't even exist on the planet. That's like, that's like taking massive

293
00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:28.000
advantage of some other person's misery. It's like somebody's business has failed or, you know,

294
00:26:28.800 --> 00:26:33.520
a woman, you know, somebody has lost a spouse, maybe, you know, wife lost a husband or whoever

295
00:26:33.520 --> 00:26:37.440
was the primary income. And now they're having to sell the house. And then you come in there

296
00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:42.400
just selling all the furniture. And in the point of their misery, in their lowest moment,

297
00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:48.720
in this terrible calamity that they're facing as a family, you're negotiating down, you know,

298
00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:54.320
because you know, that sofa costs $5,000 and they're asking 800 and you say, can I give you

299
00:26:54.320 --> 00:27:01.280
200? It's that to me, that's shorting the stock. It's one of the most moral, reprehensible aspects

300
00:27:01.280 --> 00:27:05.280
of modern business in my personal view. And as you can tell, I'm pretty strong about it.

301
00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:11.360
And the reason I'm strong about it is because when the market shorts your stock,

302
00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:16.320
it drives your stock price down. What does that do? It means you don't have working capital.

303
00:27:17.280 --> 00:27:22.000
So you can't function. So you just get, it just gets harder and harder. If you're borrowing

304
00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:26.720
money from the bank and your stock price is at a hundred, the bank's looking at how to lend you

305
00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:32.320
money. If that drops to $30, now the bank's going, hang on a second, we're overexposed here. We're

306
00:27:32.320 --> 00:27:38.880
certainly not giving you any more. You're operating capital gets nailed. And so in 2018,

307
00:27:39.840 --> 00:27:48.560
Tesla was the most shorted stock in the history of the world. Billions and billions of dollars

308
00:27:48.560 --> 00:27:56.000
short against him. Now I'm very happy to report that they were all wrong. Why did they short

309
00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:02.480
Tesla stock? Because they didn't understand this thing of resilience. Now their story,

310
00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:08.080
if you read, anybody read Walter Isaacson's latest book called Elon Musk, he followed Elon

311
00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:15.920
around for two years. He wrote the one on Steve Jobs. He's very world famous for his books. But

312
00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:20.880
if you want to read a fascinating book, it's not a pro or against Elon book. It's a very,

313
00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:27.840
Elon had no say in what was said. And he followed Elon around for two years in all his meetings,

314
00:28:27.840 --> 00:28:34.080
sat in board meetings, sat with him everywhere. Here's what the market misunderstood about Tesla

315
00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:40.800
in 2018, because he promised them that by the end of whatever it was, September,

316
00:28:41.600 --> 00:28:50.240
they would be at 5,000 cars per week. And I think it was seven or eight weeks before that there were

317
00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:59.280
2000 cars a week. And they somehow they were flying drones into the factories, spying on Tesla,

318
00:28:59.280 --> 00:29:04.880
bribing employees, getting information. And they got all their information told them,

319
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:11.760
there is no way on this earth that Tesla makes it to 5,000 a week and their stock's going to crash.

320
00:29:11.760 --> 00:29:18.720
So we're going to all short the stock. Guess what they did? They made it to 5,000 a week,

321
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:23.840
and they pushed it. And how did they do it? He realized a profound thing, which I've already

322
00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:29.920
taught you on how to make things less dumb, what they call the algorithm at Tesla. Remember the

323
00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:35.280
thing about deleting? Don't optimize something. They were spending all this time with all these

324
00:29:35.280 --> 00:29:39.680
robots, and they realized there were certain functions. They're standing there looking on

325
00:29:39.680 --> 00:29:44.960
this production line. And somebody's watching how difficult it is to program this robot to do

326
00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:49.280
something. So they just jumped in and did it themselves. And they did it a fraction of the time.

327
00:29:49.280 --> 00:29:54.480
And they said, you know, humans are underrated on the production line. So they hired a bunch of

328
00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:59.840
people, and they took out tons of robots. They literally walked around with an orange spray can.

329
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.080
marking Xs on all the robots that were going to get taken out was the most automated factory in

330
00:30:04.080 --> 00:30:09.120
the world, became a whole lot less automated because they were automating something that

331
00:30:09.120 --> 00:30:16.480
shouldn't exist. And that change unblocked the whole process and got them there. And those

332
00:30:16.480 --> 00:30:20.960
short sellers lost tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions of dollars.

333
00:30:21.760 --> 00:30:26.560
Yeah, I know you're smiling. I was smiling too. I think, I think, you know, you play that game,

334
00:30:26.560 --> 00:30:32.560
you pay the price, right? Number five, engage with humanity. Let me get to the point here very

335
00:30:32.560 --> 00:30:39.120
quickly. So when you run a business and as your business grows and the complexity grows,

336
00:30:39.760 --> 00:30:46.160
it's easy to forget that your customers, your team, your employees are people.

337
00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:53.760
And it's easy to stop relating to them at a human level. The company that's really good at this,

338
00:30:53.760 --> 00:31:00.960
two companies, Airbnb and Costco. Airbnb fosters connections by allowing hosts and guests

339
00:31:01.840 --> 00:31:06.720
to share unique experiences and spaces, emphasizing that human connection.

340
00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:15.440
Costco treats employees well. I mean, they provide fair wages, benefits, and they even have,

341
00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:22.720
they have some very creative elements to remind themselves that the team at Costco are people.

342
00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:27.920
And so connecting with your customers at a very human level, even on your mistakes and challenges,

343
00:31:28.560 --> 00:31:33.840
you'll be amazed at what your customers will do when you treat them. And you appeal to their

344
00:31:33.840 --> 00:31:44.480
humanity. Number six, and the last point, commit to long term value. I've been thinking a great

345
00:31:44.480 --> 00:31:51.440
deal in these last few weeks about the edge and how does the edge help businesses?

346
00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:58.800
And so recently I was talking to a friend who's built a very successful business and,

347
00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:04.160
you know, very successful. We're the small team that they're doing, they're doing pretty well.

348
00:32:05.040 --> 00:32:12.400
And so I asked the friend, how does this end? And they said, what do you mean? I said,

349
00:32:12.960 --> 00:32:17.360
and so I remind them of the joke from the comedian, you know, divorce ends only one of two

350
00:32:17.360 --> 00:32:22.160
ways. Are they in divorce? Sorry. Marriage ends in one of two ways, either in divorce or death

351
00:32:23.200 --> 00:32:29.680
until death has to part. Right. Sounds pretty, pretty dark. But the point I was making is why

352
00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:35.520
are you building this business? What's, what's the end game here? Are you going to sell it?

353
00:32:35.520 --> 00:32:40.320
You're going to sell it to the employees, hand it to a family member or just shut it down?

354
00:32:41.280 --> 00:32:44.720
Would be sad to have built all this and put all this energy and just shut it down.

355
00:32:46.320 --> 00:32:52.160
So when my son Bruce was starting his first business, I think it was about 20 at the time,

356
00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:56.880
he, you know, I was helping him get going. He's got registered, had a few clients

357
00:32:56.880 --> 00:33:01.200
and I sat him down and I said, okay, so Bruce, here's the deal. It's five years down the road.

358
00:33:02.480 --> 00:33:08.160
I want you to pretend that I am a private equity firm and I've come in to buy your business.

359
00:33:09.040 --> 00:33:14.800
Question number one, what am I buying? What is it? Number two, how much is it? He said,

360
00:33:14.800 --> 00:33:20.720
dad, how do I know? I said, why don't you know? So I'm starting a business. I said,

361
00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:28.800
now this question should be in the back of your mind always. As a leader, focusing on the value

362
00:33:28.800 --> 00:33:36.080
you create. So what we've been teaching you here at the edge is how to create a high value culture.

363
00:33:36.880 --> 00:33:42.160
Why? Because with a high value culture, we'll create new products. You'll attract high

364
00:33:42.160 --> 00:33:47.520
performance employees above your pay grade. You'll be able to really take care of customers.

365
00:33:48.560 --> 00:33:53.760
You'll have a situation where people love to work and they bring their most creative side of

366
00:33:53.760 --> 00:34:02.160
themselves. And it serves you as the founder, listening to this because you're freeing up your

367
00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:08.159
time, but ultimately it comes to a point that you have to sell it. We say, well, I'm not planning

368
00:34:08.159 --> 00:34:15.040
to sell it. Yes, but you should act as though you are. So how much five years time I'm buying your

369
00:34:15.040 --> 00:34:21.920
business question, how much am I paying? What am I buying? Let me tell you, I've been on the,

370
00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:26.159
I've been on both ends of that. I can't tell you how many times I've been able to buy great

371
00:34:26.159 --> 00:34:31.760
businesses at great prices because the founder never went through this exercise. And I, I fell

372
00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:36.960
for them. I was a fair price. They were happy. We agreed done. It was a fair price for what they'd

373
00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:44.560
built. However, if I'd had this conversation with them five years ago, and they could have made a

374
00:34:44.560 --> 00:34:52.080
couple of small changes, they may have been able to double the price. In one case, I think they

375
00:34:52.080 --> 00:34:57.440
could have been added as zero because they were selling distinct software is what they could have

376
00:34:57.440 --> 00:34:59.920
done is turn it into a SAS software as a service product.

377
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.040
product and provide it online. And at that time, private equity

378
00:35:04.080 --> 00:35:07.280
were paying stupid prices for companies like that. Now, I

379
00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:09.360
wouldn't have been the one buying it, but I'm sure the

380
00:35:09.360 --> 00:35:12.560
others would have. So I'm saying this to you, so well, I'm not an

381
00:35:12.560 --> 00:35:16.200
owner, I don't need to know all this. Oh, but you are, you act

382
00:35:16.200 --> 00:35:21.640
like an owner. Because that's the culture here. When you when

383
00:35:21.640 --> 00:35:24.880
you have an edge mindset, when you bring the edge is what

384
00:35:24.880 --> 00:35:30.800
value am I bringing to this business? Think long term. And

385
00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:33.560
if you were going to sell it, by the way, note to owners, if you

386
00:35:33.560 --> 00:35:36.120
are going to sell your business, make sure you take care of your

387
00:35:36.120 --> 00:35:41.840
employees. With one exception, take your executive assistant

388
00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:45.800
with you. Because that takes a long time to develop. It's the

389
00:35:45.800 --> 00:35:50.600
hardest relationship of all to develop. Okay, all that to say,

390
00:35:51.040 --> 00:35:54.520
as you're going through this process, think about the value.

391
00:35:54.760 --> 00:35:57.720
So existential flexibility comes down to six things, we're gonna

392
00:35:57.720 --> 00:36:02.080
have a breakout session. Now, I haven't got a worksheet for you

393
00:36:02.120 --> 00:36:05.320
specifically to work through today. Because I want you to

394
00:36:05.320 --> 00:36:08.760
only answer one question, I just want to have a discussion today.

395
00:36:09.200 --> 00:36:12.120
You can talk about what any of these items you want. But I'd

396
00:36:12.120 --> 00:36:16.160
like you to have one discussion today. And that is, what value

397
00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:21.280
can I bring or do I bring to this business? What value do I

398
00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:26.360
bring to this business? And as part of that value, you know, is

399
00:36:26.360 --> 00:36:30.280
there something you see you can change? Can you help number one

400
00:36:30.280 --> 00:36:35.080
clarify the why? Two, do you think there is some product you

401
00:36:35.080 --> 00:36:39.560
might need to be blowing up before the market does? Three,

402
00:36:40.840 --> 00:36:44.720
you know, do you trust the people report to you, even if

403
00:36:44.720 --> 00:36:48.400
you're not the main leader? But do you trust them to be aligned

404
00:36:48.400 --> 00:36:52.280
with a why? If the answer to that is no, then it's on you,

405
00:36:52.320 --> 00:36:56.400
what am I being as a leader that I haven't so clarified the why

406
00:36:56.640 --> 00:37:00.200
that they're not in a position to be trusted? Number four, can

407
00:37:00.200 --> 00:37:04.280
we build resilience in some area? Can we change the way we do

408
00:37:04.280 --> 00:37:08.840
things when the market shifts around us? Number five, can we

409
00:37:08.840 --> 00:37:12.640
engage with the humanity of our customers, our employees in a

410
00:37:12.640 --> 00:37:18.560
better way? And number six, what how can we build long term

411
00:37:18.560 --> 00:37:23.640
value? Now, you notice there, I left it pretty open, because

412
00:37:24.120 --> 00:37:27.080
that's a pretty sophisticated conversation you guys are

413
00:37:27.080 --> 00:37:30.000
having. So you should be massively impressed with

414
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.000
yourselves, that you if you follow this discussion today,

415
00:37:34.600 --> 00:37:39.000
and it made sense to you. Honestly, you're in you're in a

416
00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:42.600
very small percentage of people who can think about business in

417
00:37:42.600 --> 00:37:45.360
that way. Take it from me, I can't tell you how many CEOs,

418
00:37:45.400 --> 00:37:49.000
owners I've met with, that would that would have struggled

419
00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:52.960
through that, having all those elements, as well as we've just

420
00:37:52.960 --> 00:37:59.680
laid them out. Okay, very good. Any questions before we rush

421
00:37:59.680 --> 00:38:07.960
off? Okay, so I'll hand it back to you then, Jenny.

422
00:38:09.040 --> 00:38:11.920
Right, thank you. Now we're going to go into our breakout

423
00:38:11.960 --> 00:38:18.120
rooms. And we will call you back at 155. And I put the question

424
00:38:18.120 --> 00:38:21.560
for discussion in the chat. So if you would like to copy it,

425
00:38:21.560 --> 00:38:24.880
you are welcome to do that. All right, here we go.

426
00:38:26.400 --> 00:38:27.640
How was your discussion?

427
00:38:30.920 --> 00:38:33.800
How was Bridget? You're muted. Sorry, I said, Jenny had no

428
00:38:33.800 --> 00:38:38.440
mercy. She kept pushing us. That is good.

429
00:38:39.080 --> 00:38:40.360
What did you guys come up with?

430
00:38:44.920 --> 00:38:46.840
They're so quiet. Oh, Mark.

431
00:38:50.320 --> 00:38:54.520
I'm interested in knowing. In a free format conversation was

432
00:38:54.520 --> 00:38:58.080
such a big topic that I didn't want to steer it down a specific

433
00:38:58.120 --> 00:39:01.760
road. So I wanted each team to pick the thing that was most

434
00:39:01.760 --> 00:39:05.160
useful to them. So Robin, how did it go with your team?

435
00:39:05.760 --> 00:39:08.480
We just laughed the whole time. We had a great time. You're

436
00:39:08.480 --> 00:39:10.800
going to have to go back and listen to the recording. You

437
00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:15.080
won't even believe it. But we had we had a blast. We didn't

438
00:39:15.080 --> 00:39:20.480
want it to end. So I mean, it was it was perfect. I mean, I

439
00:39:20.480 --> 00:39:24.800
couldn't have scripted a better everybody telling you know what

440
00:39:24.800 --> 00:39:29.880
their bag what they brought to to Noah and everything. So yeah,

441
00:39:29.880 --> 00:39:32.680
you could you could take that recording and put it out there

442
00:39:32.680 --> 00:39:34.600
when you do breakout sessions.

443
00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:38.080
Okay, good. Well, I'm glad you liked it to vary it up a little

444
00:39:38.080 --> 00:39:41.400
bit. Yeah, so I wasn't so prescriptive. Yeah, Jenny, how

445
00:39:41.400 --> 00:39:42.360
was it for you guys?

446
00:39:43.240 --> 00:39:47.440
It was really it was it went really well. It was really it

447
00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:50.520
is it's it was definitely an exercise that makes you reflect

448
00:39:50.520 --> 00:39:54.080
in it when you have to say, okay, if someone were to buy

449
00:39:54.080 --> 00:39:57.920
this business, they're going to have to pay a lot of money. And

450
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:03.460
What would I tell them is the value that I contribute to this business?

451
00:40:03.720 --> 00:40:07.200
It really forces you to look inside and make a declaration about

452
00:40:07.200 --> 00:40:08.840
your value and your worth, right?

453
00:40:09.160 --> 00:40:14.560
But what comes with that is, is that the confidence that it can come with that

454
00:40:14.560 --> 00:40:19.160
and the freedom and the permission to really excel when you realize, Oh, I am

455
00:40:19.160 --> 00:40:24.600
a key contribution to this business, especially in this area, it really does

456
00:40:24.640 --> 00:40:28.560
allow you to think bigger and broader about what you're not only what your

457
00:40:28.600 --> 00:40:30.480
contribution is now, but what it could be.

458
00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:31.760
So creativity.

459
00:40:32.080 --> 00:40:35.120
Um, and yeah, so it was a really good conversation.

460
00:40:35.920 --> 00:40:36.360
Oh, good.

461
00:40:36.360 --> 00:40:37.720
Tyler, how'd it go for you guys?

462
00:40:40.800 --> 00:40:41.480
It was good.

463
00:40:41.640 --> 00:40:47.040
Um, we, we have like a really good range of people on this call from our team.

464
00:40:47.040 --> 00:40:50.760
It's not the whole team, but, um, like we were in somewhat of a

465
00:40:50.760 --> 00:40:54.400
crawl space at the moment, I would say it, or that's the title I'm going to give it.

466
00:40:54.720 --> 00:40:58.200
But then we have Joe, you know, who founded the business, you know, on the

467
00:40:58.200 --> 00:41:03.160
call and he's like, we're not in a crawl space, this isn't, this isn't dark enough

468
00:41:03.160 --> 00:41:04.800
yet for me, you know, kind of thing.

469
00:41:04.960 --> 00:41:10.440
And, and so it's really good for the, I think newer people or younger people

470
00:41:10.440 --> 00:41:12.640
to just have a perspective of both.

471
00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:16.080
Um, but at the same time, man, this is such a relevant topic

472
00:41:16.080 --> 00:41:18.920
for us and just really, really good.

473
00:41:18.960 --> 00:41:22.240
A lot of truth to stand on and a lot of good questions to ask, ask.

474
00:41:22.840 --> 00:41:25.400
Um, I think it's really helpful for our team to go through it.

475
00:41:25.400 --> 00:41:26.520
So thank you.

476
00:41:27.200 --> 00:41:27.920
Oh, certainly.

477
00:41:27.920 --> 00:41:28.360
Welcome.

478
00:41:28.360 --> 00:41:31.920
Anyone else want to comment on any you've took out, especially those who are on

479
00:41:31.920 --> 00:41:39.720
the, the solopreneurs here and the team, um, Eddie, if anyone else want to comment.

480
00:41:40.840 --> 00:41:45.440
Sue, you guys good.

481
00:41:46.600 --> 00:41:50.320
I'll, I'll just make one quick comment for me.

482
00:41:50.600 --> 00:41:56.560
Um, these six points were, it felt like, for lack of a better word, I

483
00:41:56.560 --> 00:41:59.720
don't quite know how to put it, the container in which the business sits

484
00:41:59.720 --> 00:42:06.680
inside of, and, um, it really is kind of a synthesis of everything that we've

485
00:42:06.680 --> 00:42:11.840
been gleaning all year and a little bit surprised that, oh, wow, I'm kind of

486
00:42:11.840 --> 00:42:14.440
doing that a little bit and I'm kind of doing this a little bit and I'm

487
00:42:14.440 --> 00:42:15.680
kind of doing that a little bit.

488
00:42:15.680 --> 00:42:16.120
And yeah.

489
00:42:16.120 --> 00:42:17.600
And why did I even start?

490
00:42:17.760 --> 00:42:20.520
Why did I even begin to think about hiring employees?

491
00:42:20.720 --> 00:42:22.560
It was all about what's my end game year.

492
00:42:22.560 --> 00:42:23.920
What's my exit strategy.

493
00:42:24.280 --> 00:42:28.240
Um, and, and what do we, and what's my why with the business.

494
00:42:28.560 --> 00:42:32.080
And it seems like that just brings me back to the way it just kind of

495
00:42:32.080 --> 00:42:33.600
brings me back around full circle.

496
00:42:33.840 --> 00:42:34.120
Okay.

497
00:42:34.120 --> 00:42:38.120
If this is the exit strategy, then why am I doing what I'm doing now?

498
00:42:38.480 --> 00:42:40.760
And why is that my exit strategy?

499
00:42:40.760 --> 00:42:44.480
And, and so, um, yeah, I loved it.

500
00:42:44.920 --> 00:42:49.120
It's probably one of my favorite conversations in the last little while.

501
00:42:49.120 --> 00:42:53.640
Um, and, uh, and I have been thinking a lot about because of my age and

502
00:42:53.640 --> 00:42:57.240
because of where we're at, you know, what are we going to do with this business?

503
00:42:57.240 --> 00:43:01.880
As my husband's retiring and I'm thinking about, you know, in three or

504
00:43:01.880 --> 00:43:05.200
four years, what am I, am I still going to be running a business at 75?

505
00:43:05.200 --> 00:43:05.800
I don't know.

506
00:43:06.200 --> 00:43:09.880
So, um, yeah, so it's been good.

507
00:43:10.360 --> 00:43:10.880
It's good.

508
00:43:11.240 --> 00:43:15.600
Which then kind of informs how I, how the team and I work together.

509
00:43:15.600 --> 00:43:19.240
And then also how I communicate things with all of our clients.

510
00:43:19.280 --> 00:43:22.280
So they all said, you're not retiring yet.

511
00:43:22.280 --> 00:43:22.600
Are you?

512
00:43:22.600 --> 00:43:27.560
And I'm like, no, no, no, no, I'm pouring into these gals so that you can,

513
00:43:27.600 --> 00:43:29.840
the, you know, things can continue on.

514
00:43:29.840 --> 00:43:31.240
You don't have to worry about your bookkeeping.

515
00:43:31.640 --> 00:43:31.960
So.

516
00:43:32.960 --> 00:43:36.280
That's it's one of the most amazing conversations.

517
00:43:36.320 --> 00:43:39.600
Uh, I was talking earlier today, Bridget and I were talking earlier

518
00:43:39.600 --> 00:43:43.600
today with, um, Barry and blue from Sage.

519
00:43:43.640 --> 00:43:47.960
And, um, it's really interesting, you know, and they said, you know, we

520
00:43:47.960 --> 00:43:52.520
spend so much time, we're getting our products tight and customers and

521
00:43:52.520 --> 00:43:57.280
focus and who's our, who, and we get everything lined up, but we, we don't

522
00:43:57.280 --> 00:44:02.360
put the same effort into the whole thing, but at some point I got to sell this.

523
00:44:02.480 --> 00:44:07.000
If so, if it's a management buyout, your, you know, your own team buys it out

524
00:44:07.000 --> 00:44:11.720
from you, or you hand it off to your kids, uh, or you sell it to someone who

525
00:44:11.760 --> 00:44:17.800
would, you know, a lot of times what a conversation like this does is it helps

526
00:44:17.800 --> 00:44:22.000
you understand the value of what you're building and therefore what price you

527
00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:22.360
should pay.

528
00:44:22.360 --> 00:44:24.480
That's why I asked the question, what am I buying?

529
00:44:24.480 --> 00:44:25.240
How much is it?

530
00:44:25.760 --> 00:44:30.360
Because most in my experience, most people underestimate the value that they

531
00:44:30.360 --> 00:44:32.360
have, or they massively overestimate.

532
00:44:32.480 --> 00:44:33.680
They don't get it in the middle.

533
00:44:33.880 --> 00:44:36.680
They are the, Oh, this is worth, you know, $10 billion.

534
00:44:36.720 --> 00:44:37.440
That's genius.

535
00:44:37.720 --> 00:44:39.960
Although I don't know what it's worth, you know, and you go, well, don't you

536
00:44:39.960 --> 00:44:44.320
have customers and IP and this and processes and a team, and isn't that

537
00:44:44.320 --> 00:44:48.600
worth something, you know, so it's, it is a good, I know we went a minute over

538
00:44:48.600 --> 00:44:51.560
there, but I'm glad you found it useful.

539
00:44:51.680 --> 00:44:56.040
And, um, you know, it was one, it was a, it was a very proud moment for all of

540
00:44:56.040 --> 00:45:00.000
you that you had that level conversation about business and your.

541
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:03.440
role and value creation in it, that's impressive.

542
00:45:03.440 --> 00:45:07.520
To me, it was very rewarding to see you guys,

543
00:45:07.520 --> 00:45:10.720
enjoy that level of conversation, very impressive.

544
00:45:10.720 --> 00:45:13.280
Thanks so much, have a great time

545
00:45:13.280 --> 00:45:15.280
and we'll see you next week.