September 20, 2021 • 49 mins
Charles Gaudet is the author of “The Predictable Profits Playbook: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Dominating Any Market and Staying on Top“ (voted #1 Book on Sales & Marketing by Indie Excellence) and host of The Beyond 7-Figures Podcast.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm David Grosso and you're listening to Follow the Profit. Today,
I'm going to feature a very interesting LinkedIn connection I have.
I follow him and his business called Predictable Profits. His
name is Charlie Gaudet. He's new Hampshire base and he's
(00:20):
just getting over COVID just in time for recording. How
you doing, Charlie, I'm doing fantastic. I'm happy to be here.
Thank you. Yeah. So, how did you get started as
an entrepreneur? I saw that this week the founder of
Netflix said, Oh my goodness, being an entrepreneur is something
that we make out to be pretty glamorous, but it's
(00:40):
really not well, I mean, in a sense I can
understand why they say it's not glamorous. I say that
because um and working with thousands of entrepreneurs over the
last decade. When I asked him, hey, why did you
become an entrepreneur, most people will say, in the beginning,
I did it for freedom, uh, and I also did
(01:01):
it to make more money. Yet the first year of
running a business, they generally are working more hours than
they have ever worked a day in their life, typically
by multiple of two. And then in terms of money.
Yet the money doesn't come until later. So ultimately it
does become ah, it becomes almost a pursuit of passion.
(01:25):
And you asked me a question, why did it or
how did I become an entrepreneur? And people do things
either at a desperation or inspiration. Um for me, it
was a little bit of both. My I started my
first business at the age of four and selling artwork
to my neighbor. And the reason why I started my
business is because my dad was an entrepreneur. He worked
(01:48):
every waking hour of every day, and when I did
see him, he would say, kid, if you ever want
to make something and stuff, you've got to start your
own business. And so, trying to get my dad's affection,
I started a business so that when I did see him,
I'd be like, hey, Dad, look at me. And I
guess Freud would say, forty years later, here I am
(02:11):
still trying to, you know, fight for my father's you know,
affection still. So yeah, So that sounds pretty interesting. Charlie
age four and a family tradition actually not really out
of the ordinary for entrepreneurs. Right. You either come from
a family that has entrepreneurship and its DNA, or you don't.
(02:32):
And it seems like you're the former. Yeah, I mean, um,
I definitely. I came from a family of entrepreneurs and
I very quickly learned what I liked about entrepreneurship and
what I didn't like about entrepreneurship, which afforded me the
(02:52):
ability of perspective. So as I begin to create my
own business, I had certain negotiables that I made sure
that I had in in my life so that I
didn't um make some of the same sort of mistakes
that I witnessed through throughout my family. So predictable profits,
(03:16):
what does that mean? Our profits ever? Predictable? Charlie. That's
a great question, right, Well, you know it just to
some extent, I want to say, yes, it's and predictable
profits is more about creating sustainable growth. Uh. A lot
of companies, when you look at their revenue, you're gonna
(03:37):
see a some month's or feasts, some months are famine
that there's a lot of rollercoaster type of scenarios that
go on from either one week to the next or
or one month to the next. And that's usually symptomatic
of a company that has built their business being too
reliant on word of mouth and referrals that they're not
(03:57):
thinking in terms of scalability, uh, in building multiple different
profits centers into their business, and so predictable profits is
all about eliminating the the ups and downs, focusing more
on predictable and consistent growth from one month to the next,
as well as that sustainability that doesn't seem like something
(04:18):
you hear in business these days. We tend to focus
on the quarterly report, the little sugar rushes, like even
Corporate America doesn't really practice that predictable profitability. They just
kind of fly by the seat of their pants every quarter. Yeah,
I see that, and you know in some cases, actually, uh,
I do think that a small business owner, if they
(04:41):
were to think more like a larger business, it would
serve them better. I say that, um with context because
as a small business owner, the only person that we're
generally being held accountable to is ourselves or maybe our
significant and so we'll set goals and will say, look,
(05:03):
this is what I want to do. But then when
we don't hit our goal, we're like, oh, well, there's
no consequence. But when you look at some of the
more more larger companies, like the uh, the public companies,
a public company will set their quarterly objectives UH in
events and they do that for the investors to set expectations.
(05:27):
But should they fail to meet their expectations, then there's
a consequence, and usually there's a gap down in price,
and if it's real bad, then there could be a
change of leadership and management and so forth, and so
it becomes really um consequential. So when we're working with
our clients over our predictable profits, one of the things
that we do is we ask them what is going
(05:50):
to be your goal in the next quarter, what is
your goal over the course of the next year, and
we get their permission to hold them accountable towards achieving
that goal, and we want them to envision in their
minds that there's going to be a consequence whatever that
might be if you fail to meet that goal that
(06:10):
you know, now you're reporting to somebody else. And some
of our clients have gone so far as to say, actually,
I want to feel a consequence, So let's put together
a you know, a plan for what that would be.
In for some people it's a you know, contribution to
a charity of our choice or whatever that might be. UM,
but there is that level of accountability that a small
(06:33):
business owner once that they they say that they're gonna
do what they're gonna do and they follow through on
It also kind of helps them get over to that
next level, which which is important. We live in an
era of big business, and it seems like COVID killed
a lot of small businesses, but small business is the
big job engine in this country, and of course ground
(06:55):
zero for ingenuity, innovation, and so much more. What can
we do to compete as a small business in a
world where bigger is better? Well, um, I may actually
even push back a little and suggests that may be
small is better. Um big has more resources. We know
(07:16):
that to get to a goal, it's actions plus resources
equal coal and so big has more resources and that
can weather the storms typically a little better. But small
is more agile and they can adapt and evolve very
very quickly. COVID crushed a lot of small businesses, not
because that they were small, but it had to do
with the fact that they had to be more innovative
(07:39):
in in their approach um because the limited resources in
many areas. Actually, COVID was one of the biggest gifts
and benefits to the small business world and usually started
by an understanding that in a type of pivotal moment,
(07:59):
and that's what was COVID. There was an inflection point
in twenty. In my lifetime, there's been foreign inflection points
two thousand, two thousand one, two thousand and eight, and
then COVID, So I guess that would have been the
fifth inflection point. We're faced with four decisions. Decision number
one has changed the message to meet the market. Decision
number two changed the market to meet the message. Decision
(08:21):
number three changed both the message in the market, or
decision number four do nothing, cross your fingers, sit in
the corner, close your eyes, and hope things change. If
you look at the companies that struggled and that suffered,
and in those are the ones that chose option number four.
Those other companies that said, you know what, we're going
(08:42):
to change the message to meet the current market, or
we're gonna change the market to meet the current message,
those adopted and they and they tend to thrive. We
have a client in the travel industry. His largest client
doing hundreds of millions of dollars a year, or as
all just competitor doing hundreds of millions at all a year,
went out of business. Within three weeks he had a
(09:02):
billion dollar UM. He had another competitor that got absorbed
by a billion dollar company. But yet our client quickly
changed his message to meet the market and ended up
having record KPIs from one week to the next. In
December of at a point when he couldn't physically even
put people on a plane because most of his travel
(09:25):
was international, he had four percent more ACoM sales than
he did the year prior. So how the only way
you can justify that is not saying, oh, COVID handed
you an opportunity on the silver platter. Ors No, he
became more strategic, and you can find that in the
restaurant business. You can find that among the heaviest, hardest
(09:47):
hit industries is just changing their approach. And that that
if there's one thing people can take out of COVID,
it's understanding how quickly they need to adapt and evolve.
But a lot of times in these inflection points, it's
not just busy this. We have to change our personal
lives too, and it seems like people either fail miserably
or thrive more than ever. Yeah, it's true, um, And actually,
(10:12):
if excuse me, and speaking of COVID, I just got
over it. Hence you have to apologize or I'm apologizing
for my coughing um. But a lot of that is
mindset too. So when COVID hit, I'll let readily admit
that everything happened so quickly and unexpectedly that right away
(10:36):
I had that that gasp, like like what's going to happen?
And immediately I had to ask myself this question over
and over again, why is now the best time in
the world for me to be in business? Why is
now the best time in the world for me to
be in business? And I continued to ask myself that
over and over again and still until I started creating
(10:58):
this plan. And then we did this same thing for
our clients, Why is now the best time in the
world for you to be in business? And they started
thinking differently and the opportunities and whatnot, so that it
created a lot of stress, a lot of turmoil and
whatnot because it was unexpected and we didn't know what
to do next. But as we changed our mindset and
(11:20):
we saw the challenge is an opportunity, it really did
sort of fulfill it itself and and create opportunity for
many well. It seems like you're still getting over COVID there.
Did you have a breakthrough case or did you choose
not to get vaccinated? And what happened after you got COVID? Well,
great question. So I actually my doctor had recommended that
(11:45):
I wait for one of the vaccines that were on trial,
and so I figured, hey, I live in Hampshire. I
mean the cases are real low, that's risk worth taking.
And clearly it didn't work out as I at planned. Um,
So I did end up getting COVID. My whole family
got covid um and it was stuff. It was two
(12:07):
weeks of really being ineffective inside of the organization because I,
you know, I had a fever every day for two weeks,
a lot of heavy coughing. Couldn't really lead meetings and
so forth. Um. That being said, there, one of the
(12:27):
blessings that came out of this is that we had
a dry run ahead of time. And that dry run
was actually inspired by a friend of mine who's the
CEO of a multi multibillion dollar organization, and her and
I were sitting down at dinner one time and she
says to me, I'm taken off. I gotta go. I'm
(12:49):
going to France for a couple of weeks. And I said, Wow,
with everything going on in the market and whatnot, I'm
actually surprised that you're taking off for for two weeks.
She says, I'm taking off and completely disconnecting. And I said, wow,
how how has that happened? And she said it is
(13:11):
a prerequisite in an organization. Anybody, once they reach a
certain level, they have to take off and they have
to completely disconnect for two weeks. Failing to do so
will result in the mediate termination. And I said, well, interesting,
why and she said, because it ensures that the company
isn't dependent on any one person in the organization, and
(13:33):
that when you take off for two weeks, very quickly
you begin to see as an organization where the dependencies are,
where there may be gaps in the systems and the processes,
and how you have to fix it in order to
make sure that the company can move smoothly when each
individual is for whatever reason removed from the company. So wow,
that's genius. So then an our organization, I was really
(13:57):
impressed by that, and so I really started to wander
that in our own organization. So um, with my leadership team,
we tell them when you go away on vacation, You
go away and don't check in if we need you,
you know, please, you know, respond to ours your cell
phone and blahl blah, but please don't check in. For
(14:20):
the same reason, we need to see where the systems
and the processes ultimately breakdown, where we need to improve
it so that the company isn't dependent on you. And
earlier this year in June, I took off to Hawaii
for two weeks, and my removal from the business in
Hawaii was the dry run that we needed to make
(14:42):
sure that as nobody knew, I was going to get COVID,
of course, but when I ended up getting COVID, I
if there was one thing I didn't have to stress about,
it was the business. All I had to worry about
was taking care of myself and my family because the
business is able to then run without me, because we've
(15:03):
already gone through that dry run process. And so for
all the business owners listening right now, I cannot emphasize
the importance of that enough. You know, in the beginning,
it might be try taking off for a long weekend
and seeing what will happen if you take off for
a long weekend. For many business owners. The company is
so dependent on them, the idea of taking off for
(15:24):
a long weekend is almost impossible. But try taking off
for a long weekend that means don't check your email,
don't respond to phone calls and whatnot. Then extended a
little bit longer, you know, try taking off for you know,
several more days. Then take off for a week, and
then the ultimate is, you know, take off for two
weeks and and see how well the business grows thrives
(15:46):
without you and what opportunities exist to improve the systems
and the processes. Charlie, I don't feel like I've done
that since completely checked out. I think the last time
I completely checked out was when I went to Cuba.
And as you know, internet is very limited in Cuba,
and you know, it's a repressive country. So I feel
like I need to do exactly what you're saying. Yeah,
(16:10):
you know, UM, I I totally get that. It took
me many many years before I started doing that, UM
and frankly almost embarrassing me, embarrassing for me to admit UM.
But the first time I really disconnected and took time
off it was because I was quote unquote fired by
(16:32):
an employee and he said to me, I was in
the Cayman Islands and I was talking to one of
my employees and I was saying goodbye to my family,
and he says, where's your family going. I said, the
heading out to the turtle farm. And he says, why
are you going? And I said, well, I gotta get
some work done. And he said, with all due respect,
(16:54):
you need to go with your family. And I said
what does that mean? And he said, you're not doing
us any favors. See with you working the way that
you're working, what's happening is a couple of things. Number One,
the others might not tell you this, but I'll tell you.
It makes it feel like. It makes us feel like
you don't trust us. You don't trust us to to
run the business while you're gone. Number Two, you're not
(17:14):
giving us the opportunity to prove to you that we
can do this and to step up, So that's another issue. Thirdly,
you're making the company to dependent on you. Everything that
you teach your clients and whatnot. You're not taking your
own advice, and you know that's not helping us in
the long run. Um And he goes forth. When I
take off, I take off and I disconnect when I
(17:36):
go on vacation. But I can't help but feel guilty,
feel guilty knowing that I can take off and go
on vacation, but you can't. And he said, so, he says,
you've always asked me to be honest with you, So
do you trust me? And I said I do. And
he said, then, with all due respect, you're fired. Please
(17:57):
go with your family, disconnect and give me the opportunity
to prove to you that not only can I run
this business while you're gone, but when you come back,
it will be better off having had you left. And
I was in such shock by the brass that this
(18:17):
individual had by such a frank conversation. But my family
was out in the car and they getting ready to
take off. I had to make a split second decision,
so I said, fine, uh you you got my word,
and I shut my computer down. I ran down, met
my family, we went off to the turtle farm, and
he was right. When I came back from vacation, to
(18:39):
my surprise, the business was actually better off having had
me gone. And then when I was there, it was
really a remarkable thing. I think people inherently they want
to they want to prove to you that they're capable
of a lot more, and it really gives him that
opportunity to thrive. Ventures tend to take the shape of
(19:11):
their leader, right, But at a certain point, the leader
has the whole venture hijacked according to his or her
you know, personality. How do we do that? Because you know,
a lot of times the leader is the reason everything exists.
But at a certain point, like what you encountered, you
might be the limiting factor. We almost always are the
(19:31):
limiting factor. Um. You know, a lot of the companies
that we work with, they usually get stuck around that
three million dollar level. One to three million is sort
of like that that sweet spot where many of them
get stuck. And one of the reasons for that. I mean,
there's multiple reasons, but one of them is that, excuse me, um,
(19:56):
the entrepreneur has this mantra that only I can do it.
You know, only I can do it, Only I can
do it. So they take on so much but actions
plus resources equal goal, and so they can only take
on so many actions. Um. Eventually, though, to get beyond that,
they you know, you get you get stuck in your being.
(20:17):
You're forced to let go and as you're forced to
let go more and more and more. You begin to
realize that the story you've been telling yourself for a
long time only I can do it is is actually
just that story and not real Probably the most eye
open the example for me, because we still wrestle through that.
Just you know, I look at I've been in this
business for ten years. There's definitely only certain things that
(20:40):
I can do. Were so I thought. We recently brought
on an intern, and there's a certification program that I'm
doing and building, and there's certain elements of the certification
program that I'm like, this is gonna require me to
be involved in that. But given the limitations of my time,
I decided, well, I'm gonna ask the intern to do
(21:01):
a part of this, and even if he only does
of the heavy lifting, that's okay because it will save
my time and I can do the remainder. And when
he delivered that his output back to me, I looked
at this and I ate the biggest slice of humble
pie if I had in a long time. And that's
because what he actually delivered to me was better than
(21:23):
I would have done myself. That's great, that's actually good
for you. It was phenomenal. But you know that the
story that nobody could do it as well as me
um was just the humbling reminder that there's actually not
as much as we think that is really unique to us.
(21:48):
You know, there's a small part, but that small part
is what makes the business awesome, and that is what's
unique to you. But if you could just focus only
in and on that small part, like Steve Jobs with Apple,
like Steve was a visionary that was unique to him,
but the majority of the stuff that happened throughoutout Apple
(22:11):
was stuff that other people did and created and so forth,
but it was all aligned with his vision. Walt Disney
the same thing. Everybody keeps talking about how it all
started with a mouse, right, Well, Walt Disney had a vision,
a vision for disney World, and that was a small part,
but that was a huge part of the success of
(22:32):
the organization. We just have to really know what is
that small part that is going to make that big
difference and be willing to empower the team to fulfill
that that vision and that that part that's really unique
to us. So you work with a lot of entrepreneurs,
what exactly is vision? So what exactly is vision? Then
(22:56):
well there's um the who Well. I think the best
example was described by a good friend of mine named
Ari Mizel, and he describes us in the form of
a metaphor, and he said, running a business as much
like that of a train. And he said, at the
(23:21):
lowest level of the organization, we have our cogs. And
the cogs are the daily, repetitive activities that go on
over and over and over again that takes the train
and helps the train move up and down the tracks.
They generally require the lowest level of skill, can very
(23:41):
oftentimes be systematized, process driven, sometimes automated, But those the cogs.
Once you start to move up a level, then you
have the engine. The engine is has to It drives
the business forward. It drives the cogs, so provides management,
it provides structure, It drives the cogs forward. They take
(24:05):
a higher The engine has a higher level of skill
uh in ability, but the engine, just like the cogs,
still have to make sure that they show up every
day and that they are on the tracks. The next
level beyond the engine is the engineer. The engineer has
an even higher level of skill. The engineer can run
(24:28):
multiple engines at the same time, I'm sure you've seen
the trains with you know, multiple different engines in the front,
maybe a couple in the back that are pushing the train.
The engineer is the one that, you know, so manages
not only a bunch of the different engines, but it's like,
all right, we have to be here by a certain time.
I'm going to make sure that we reach that goal
of being there at the certain at a certain time,
(24:50):
that we have enough fuel that we're not going to
hit anything along the way, that the passengers are going
to be safe, and so forth. And that's the engineer.
But then at the high level that would be the visionary.
And the visionary is the one that ends up they
can run multiple trains all at the same time. And
(25:10):
the vision area is the one that envisions the path
of where the trains are gonna go, and the and
the direction and and so forth. And and that's the visionary,
just like you know, Walt Disney and uh and Steve
Jobs like they just had they had the vision of
where it was going to go. But if you look
(25:31):
at business owners, we start at the very beginning of
our company in that visionary role. Big time. We have
a dream, we have a vision, we have a passion,
we know we're getting into business because we're going to
do this. And then what happens is, as you start
taking on more clients and more customers, you have to
fulfill in those orders, and so you start doing more
(25:54):
cog based activity and engine based activity, and you start
spending more and more time working in the business and
less and less time as a visionary. And then you
look at the companies that tend to get to about
that one to three million year and you ask the engineer,
how much time do you do you spend, you know,
doing strategic thinking and developing new profit centers and forming
(26:16):
new relationships and new partnerships whatnot. You're gonna find it's
actually a very limited point of time because most of
their time is actually spent on fulfilling orders or their
founder led sales, meaning that the founder is the only
one making the sales right now, or involved in hiring
and managing and customer relations and so forth. And so
(26:38):
they're spending too much time as a cog or an
engine little time even as an engineer, and that also
can limit growth in a very substantial manner. Yeah, so
it's kind of like this balance, right, because We do
start off with that vision when you first get a
business off the ground, but then we get kind of
stuck on the day to day, right, and this whole
(27:00):
thing that you're describing, right, you think you're the only
one that could do it. You don't trust others to
do it, and furthermore, you're worried about seating that power
because you're back to the fallacy, I'm the only one
that can do this. That's right, That's absolutely right. And
you see this across all your clients because you work
with a lot of entrepreneurs who face a lot of
(27:22):
these same problems. And let's face it, Charlie, a lot
of entrepreneurs feel like they're alone. Yeah. I think most
entrepreneurs have this feeling of being either misunderstood um or
that they are the only ones that are going through this,
(27:42):
or nobody would really understand their problem. And it's funny
because it doesn't matters so much on the level whether
or not we're working with somebody doing a million dollars
a year or we have clients doing hundreds of millions
of dollars a year um. A lot of the same
emotions and feelings, concerns and worries are are similar. So
(28:08):
what do you think small and medium sized businesses should
be doing right now in this environment? Wow? That's a
really really good question, loaded question too. Um. You know
today it's in addition to what we talked about earlier,
(28:36):
which is making sure that you know if you're going
to meet them, you may have to evolve the message
to meet the market and so forth. There are three
stages for creating sustainable growth that you know many times
are overlooked. I think the smaller the business, they tend
to get involved in this. You know, they're always chasing
(28:59):
the latest dr to g um and you know they're
always saying, you know, I've tried this, now I'm gonna
go on, I'm gonna try this, and now I'm gonna
go on, I'm gonna try this and just hoping something sticks.
I just start to evolve as an entrepreneur and you
start realizing, oh my god, I feel like I've tried everything.
Now what you start looking at those three stages in
(29:21):
those streets, three stages of first optimization And when I
say optimization, you begin to look at your business. You
put KPI s around the business so you fully understand
like what's working and what's not working inside of my
business right now. And as you can understand what's working
and what's not working, and you've got that clarity, clarity
(29:43):
equals power, and it's a lot easier for you to
then start saying, Okay, how do I do more of
what's already working and less of what's not working. And
while that might sound like super basic to some extent,
when people look at some of the results that we've
helped achieve for other companies, you know, whether we've taken
(30:03):
them from a million to twenty four million in three years,
or you know, we've even a smaller company from two
hundred and fifty thousand to four point six million within
a year, and all those other you know, fun things
that we like to talk about, you know, all the
companies that we've taken on the INC five thousand. We've
done that by starting with optimization. Because when you just
(30:26):
see what's working and you put a little bit of
fuel on what's working, you can get results much easier,
much more efficiently than just trying something new. But as
you turn your company in that file finally to a
machine using optimization, the next step is systemization, where you
make sure you put systems and processes around those things
(30:47):
that are working inside of the business, because, as you know,
when you're running a business, the last thing that you
need to be doing is taking on more responsibility. And
when you look at a juggler, juggler might be able
to juggle ten balls in the year, but what happens
when they when they drop one ball, what usually happens
to the rest of the balls? They all drop, They
(31:11):
all drop. It's weird how that happens, but that's what
also happens as an entrepreneur. We're juggling so many balls
in the air, we tend to think like, hey, look
at me, this is awesome. Look how busy I am.
I'm doing all these things. But you can only handle
so much. And eventually we start dropping a ball and
they all dropped, And so we make sure that we
put the systems and the processes so that nothing drops,
(31:33):
so that the business can run less dependent on you
are a few key people, so that you're generating more
consistency or predictability inside of your business. Then as you
do that, then that opens the door for the third phase,
which is innovation, and that innovation is typically a brand
new profit center in the business. And if you look
at the most successful companies in the world, the most
(31:54):
successful companies in the world are generally building out one
new profit center per quarter. And that profit center might
be a new partnership, the profit center might be a
new marketing funnel, a new sales strategy, a new product offering,
whatever that might be. And it allows you to continue
to grow and expand. And then as you go through
(32:15):
that innovation, then you start the cycle all over again.
And that's optimistic optimization, systemization, and innovation. And so today
entrepreneurs really do because we're busier than ever before, we
need to take a take that time to say, okay,
let's identify what's working, what's not working, let's optimize it.
(32:37):
It's put into systems and processes, and then we can
begin to innovate. So what industries are you seeing really
rapid growth in right now? UM? I mean, frankly, every
industry right now is experiencing in a tremendous amount of growth.
(32:58):
I mean, even the industry you wouldn't expect um, I
mean more travel, I guess is rebound, so you would
see that rebound. UM agencies are crushing it right now. UM.
You know the bigger reason. I'm having a hard time
actually telling you which industries would would not be doing
(33:21):
real well right now. Um. And the reason for that
actually comes down to the fact that, you know, to
some degree you could argue that we're still in a
quote unquote bad economy. Okay, and tell me more. I've
been interviewed in the past where somebody's quoted a mentioned
(33:45):
in my book where I said I love about economy
and they're like, was that a misprint? Like what does
that mean? You love a bad economy? And and the
thing is is in a good economy, people oftentimes think
they're better than they are. It's a lot easier to
make money, and you don't have to be that strategic.
(34:07):
And the result of that is you tend to get
a lot of inferior competitors that cloud the marketplace, and
everybody's kind of screaming to get the business, and some
are making crazy promises, and you know, it becomes harder
to run a business in a really really good, strong
economy and a bad economy on the on the contrary,
(34:29):
inferior competitors start to go away and people are still buying.
But the biggest differences that consumers are far more discerning
than they ever have in the past. And so when
you're a strategic entrepreneur and you can appeal to the
more discerning customer, making it clear as to why you're
(34:49):
the better option and why you're a must have for
doing business as opposed to a nice to have, there's
an abundance of opportunity that's available to you. And so, um,
when we look at what's happening right now in twenty
and one, are consumers are more discerning than they've ever
(35:10):
been throughout history. So in two thousand nineteen, the average
consumer was looking at between twelve and fourteen different sources
of information before making a buying decision. That's in twenty
nine and twenty, that number went all the way up
to seventeen. So they started looking at seventeen different sources
of information before making a buying decision. But in one
(35:34):
that number then leapt up to uh twenty twenty seven
different sources of information. So think about that. That tells
us that our consumers of former discerning the buying the
people in their buying committee, you know, who influences a
buying decision that grew in one. So now, yes, there
(35:59):
are industries as a whole that are slower. There are
industries as a whole that are larger, but there are
micro pockets and every single one of those industries that
are taking off like gangbusters. And that's because they managed
to appeal to the discerning consumer. When we turn on
(36:27):
the TV, we hear about death and destruction and unemployment
and the lack of opportunity. And you know, especially people
in my generation, Millennials and younger gen Z, you know,
we're struggling to make it. This kind of conflicts with
what you're saying. Yeah, it it, uh, it does. Actually,
I mean, look, when I got covid, um it was
(36:51):
actually rather disturbing. But when I got COVID, people felt
the need to tell me all the people they knew
who has who have eyed, all the people they knew
that were in their twenties and they were in the
hospital on ventilators and and all that other stuff, and
so as mentally strong as what I like to think
(37:13):
I am, I started to express some doubt the symptoms
that I normally wouldn't have bat an eye. Over All
of a sudden, I'm sitting there going, oh my god,
you know, could this be my moment? Like you know
how if this gets any worse, am I gonna end
up in the hospital. Like there's all these like concerns
and anxieties and whatnot. That happened because you hear the
narrative over and over again. And I had this client
(37:36):
that said to me, wait a minute, Um, you've had
a fever now every day for the last twelve days. Yeah,
I have. And you're coughing up a storm. Yeah I
know you have, yus. Um, you know your body is
doing exactly what it should be doing. Your immune system,
you must obviously have done a great job building that
immune system. You know, your immune system is strong, it's
(37:58):
it's doing well, like really, you know, I want to
hand it to you, a great job. And that became
a new story that I continued to repeat, you know,
to myself, which about empowering and so forth. But the
people by and large in the news, you know, it
is much more entertaining to talk about death and destruction
(38:18):
and all this other stuff because that old saying misery
likes company. But the few people that are doing really,
really really well, you know, it's not as sexy or
or appealing, But it is true that there are microcosms
that are doing awesome. And it really comes down to
the mindset. You know, one of the things that I
(38:41):
remember thinking when I ran my podcast, or you know,
I still run my podcast, but how exciting it is
that I get the opportunity to interview some of the brightest,
smartest people on the planet. And how exciting it's going
to be to listen to more strategies and techniques and
tips and this is gonna be really great. Yeah. No
matter who I interview, when it comes down to it,
(39:04):
the number one attribute for their success always his mindset,
and mindset is is everything. I mean I wanted to
I offered to fly down and see Richard Branson and
um pay for you know, buy him lunch. And I
(39:24):
was paying my whole way and the whole deal. I
couldn't wait to meet this guy. Unfortunately, it just didn't
work out that way, and all because I was like,
I can't wait to hear his secret. But then the
more I I mean, I fortunately did hear Branson talk
with the more I studied him for him too, it's
(39:44):
the same thing as mindset. Mindset just happens to be
more important than any single tips, strategy, technique and so forth.
And if you believe it will happen, you'll begin to
see more reasons to justify how it will happen. Well,
I got to meet Richard Branson. That's an interesting story,
(40:05):
you know, as a journalist. Yeah, as a journalist, you
get some rare occasions when just weird things happened. And
you know, news journalists, especially ones that cover entrepreneurship, are
not that common, believe it or not, especially in the
mainstream media. So I was invited to go meet the
entire Branson family on a very snowy day and they
(40:26):
had flown in from the British Virgin Islands. Of course,
the Bransons live in the British Virgin Islands. And honestly,
to give you Richard was great, but I was more
impressed by his daughter, Holly. It reminds me a lot, Yes,
reminds me a lot of you know, just a higher
version of him. And I'm sure he would be happy
to hear me say that. You know, a lot of
(40:48):
times these entrepreneurs, just like your father Charlie, pass on
their trade to their children. And I feel like we're
going to see a lot of big things from Holly,
who I believe is a better version of her father. Wow,
that is fascinating yea, and that any father would be
would love to hear that about about their children too,
(41:11):
So I'm sure he would be honored and probably the
best thing he would have heard all day today if
he if he could hear this interview. Yeah, I mean
it was great. The entire family was lovely, and you know,
it's really interesting to see how entrepreneurship permeates family culture.
And Holly's husband seems like he's very involved as well,
and just the whole family culture was fascinating, the way
(41:32):
they view the world and whatnot. And I believe you
were in that situation, you know, you're it runs in
your d n A. How are you passing that on
to your children? So, uh, my son said to me,
this is actually just recently. My son. By the way,
his name is Branson, So take a guess where what
(41:52):
inspired his name? Um? So, uh my son said to
me earlier the summer, he said, Dad, have you ever
thought about what age you want to retire? And I said, Branson,
if you're my age and I'm in my forties, So
(42:14):
if you're my age and you're already looking forward to retirement,
you've already failed and he said, what do you What
do you mean by that? I said, you want to
love what you're doing so much that you want to
continue doing it over and over again, and for so
(42:35):
that work almost feels like play. And I had in
my thirties, I had a gentleman flew out to meet
me out in St. Thomas and he said, I think
we should hold a retirement party for you. And I said,
(42:55):
I don't. I'm not sure I'm following you, like, I'm
definitely not ready to retire. And he says, yes, but
you have. And I said, how do you figure I'm
working more hours than you know? Or I haven't. I'm
not working any lighter hours rather, and he said, but
(43:17):
what strikes me as interesting is you've said multiple times
that you don't work all day, that you have the
opportunity to play, and that you get to play all
day with your friends, you get to play all day
with your with what you work, that you actually don't
feel like you're working. And I stopped and I thought
about it, and I'm like, you're right, I don't feel
(43:38):
like I work at all at any given point in time.
I really don't feel like that. The people that I
work with just so happened to be some of my
closest friends. My clients just so happened to be some
of my closest friends. And So to get back to
your question in terms of how am I going to
inspire this with my kids? You know, if they want
to run their own business, that's awesome. In my on
(44:00):
already has his own business. Uh it's called BCG Perspective,
and it's a video marketing company. He's a freshman in
high school and he's already had all these different clients
and whatnot, and he's he really, really really enjoys it.
My daughters talk about running their own business, but they
also talk about working for somebody else. Either way. The
only thing that that only guidance that I've given them
(44:23):
so far when it comes to a career choice is
whatever it is, just make sure it gives you energy,
it makes you excited about about getting up in the morning,
about working, whatever that is, because no matter what your
career or what your businesses, you're gonna hit rough spots,
(44:46):
rough spots that are gonna be so hard that you're
gonna want to quit more than anything else that you
know that you're doing right now. But it's at that
moment that you want to quit more than anything else,
that you're the closest you're ever going to be to success.
But what gets you through that moment of wanting to
(45:09):
quit is passion. It's the love for what you do,
because you know, you obviously look like you you love
your job and you're really really good at your job
and whatnot. And my guess is that even if I
was to write you a check for let's say a
hundred million dollars or whatever that is, you might go
(45:31):
and enjoy and you know, spend a little money traveling
the world and maybe on neck Ro Island with Richard
Branson and his family. Right but at some point you're
going to get bored, and then you may go back
to what you're doing right now because you're good at
it and you love it and it gets you energy,
not even for the money, but just because you enjoy it.
(45:54):
And you know, that's ultimately what I want my kids
to think about is find a career that they love
so much that even if they were doing it for free,
they'd still do it. Well, Charlie, that's a beautiful way
to end. Where can we learn more about predictable profits
and your career. I see you have a very active
LinkedIn page. That's where I found you. Where else Well, UM,
(46:16):
Predictable Profits dot Com would be the best way for
for people to to learn more about us. UM we
have a sign up of them. Want to join and
get some free daily business coaching videos. You could do
that right on the website of Predictable Profits dot com. UM.
You know also learn more about us on our podcast
Beyond seven Figures podcast or or my book, The Predictable
(46:39):
Profits Playbook. Well, on that note, we're so happy that
you were done with COVID just in time for this episode,
and we look forward to being in touch. Thank you
so much. It's been my pleasure. So Charlie taught us
that the number one issue with running your business, and
(47:01):
really with all our personal pursuits, is yourself. A lot
of times we think we're irreplaceable. Hint, hint, we're not.
A lot of times businesses and organizations need to grow
past their founder, and sometimes getting out of the way
is the most important thing. I also, something that stood
out to me was that even if you did write
(47:22):
me a check for a hundred million dollars, I probably
would still be sitting here today, I'm one of those
people that really does enjoy my work. And if you
don't have that same impulse when you think about your work,
maybe it's time to change jobs. Right now, the labor
market is really good. People around me are all getting
new jobs with relative ease. So if you're not enjoying
your job, maybe it's time to do something else. The
(47:44):
other thing that really really stood out to me about
Charlie's interview was that this is a great time to
start a business. You really don't hear that in the
mainstream media. You really hear about death, destruction and lack
of opportunity, especially as it pertains to young folks, and
how big business is eating small businesses lunch. Well, that
(48:04):
doesn't seem to be the case. And as Charlie mentioned,
it's about mindset. I think we all can work on
our mindset. A lot of times we can't rise past
the noise and following the profit is about doing exactly that,
having the right mindset to succeed, having the right mindset
to chart the future, and that's really where it comes
into being a visionary. A lot of times, like Apple
(48:27):
said famously, we don't think differently. We just get bogged
down in the day to day and really don't think
about where we're going or how we could grow what
we're already doing. Vision is something that's lacking in today's world.
The past twenty years have been about applying tried and
true formulas to nearly everything in this world, and as
(48:49):
we're seeing painfully in politics, in business, and in our culture,
we desperately need new ideas and new models in order
to charge away forward. And that's what this podcast is
all about, trying to think differently, having vision, and really
trying to chart a brand new future. And thanks to
(49:11):
all of you for joining me as we Follow the Profit.
I'd like to thank my hard working staff for putting
the show together. It's not an easy task and really
what you're hearing is the result of a lot of
work behind the scenes. I'd also like to thank our
executive producers, Debbie Myers and Nuke Gingrich. Follow the Profit
as a production of Gingridge three sixty and I Heart Radio.
(49:32):
For more podcast visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts. Part of the Gingwich Network,
I'm David Grosso and you're listening to Follow the Profit. Today,
I'm going to feature a very interesting LinkedIn connection I have.
I follow him and his business called Predictable Profits. His
name is Charlie Gaudet. He's new Hampshire base and he's
(00:20):
just getting over COVID just in time for recording. How
you doing, Charlie, I'm doing fantastic. I'm happy to be here.
Thank you. Yeah. So, how did you get started as
an entrepreneur? I saw that this week the founder of
Netflix said, Oh my goodness, being an entrepreneur is something
that we make out to be pretty glamorous, but it's
(00:40):
really not well, I mean, in a sense I can
understand why they say it's not glamorous. I say that
because um and working with thousands of entrepreneurs over the
last decade. When I asked him, hey, why did you
become an entrepreneur, most people will say, in the beginning,
I did it for freedom, uh, and I also did
(01:01):
it to make more money. Yet the first year of
running a business, they generally are working more hours than
they have ever worked a day in their life, typically
by multiple of two. And then in terms of money.
Yet the money doesn't come until later. So ultimately it
does become ah, it becomes almost a pursuit of passion.
(01:25):
And you asked me a question, why did it or
how did I become an entrepreneur? And people do things
either at a desperation or inspiration. Um for me, it
was a little bit of both. My I started my
first business at the age of four and selling artwork
to my neighbor. And the reason why I started my
business is because my dad was an entrepreneur. He worked
(01:48):
every waking hour of every day, and when I did
see him, he would say, kid, if you ever want
to make something and stuff, you've got to start your
own business. And so, trying to get my dad's affection,
I started a business so that when I did see him,
I'd be like, hey, Dad, look at me. And I
guess Freud would say, forty years later, here I am
(02:11):
still trying to, you know, fight for my father's you know,
affection still. So yeah, So that sounds pretty interesting. Charlie
age four and a family tradition actually not really out
of the ordinary for entrepreneurs. Right. You either come from
a family that has entrepreneurship and its DNA, or you don't.
(02:32):
And it seems like you're the former. Yeah, I mean, um,
I definitely. I came from a family of entrepreneurs and
I very quickly learned what I liked about entrepreneurship and
what I didn't like about entrepreneurship, which afforded me the
(02:52):
ability of perspective. So as I begin to create my
own business, I had certain negotiables that I made sure
that I had in in my life so that I
didn't um make some of the same sort of mistakes
that I witnessed through throughout my family. So predictable profits,
(03:16):
what does that mean? Our profits ever? Predictable? Charlie. That's
a great question, right, Well, you know it just to
some extent, I want to say, yes, it's and predictable
profits is more about creating sustainable growth. Uh. A lot
of companies, when you look at their revenue, you're gonna
(03:37):
see a some month's or feasts, some months are famine
that there's a lot of rollercoaster type of scenarios that
go on from either one week to the next or
or one month to the next. And that's usually symptomatic
of a company that has built their business being too
reliant on word of mouth and referrals that they're not
(03:57):
thinking in terms of scalability, uh, in building multiple different
profits centers into their business, and so predictable profits is
all about eliminating the the ups and downs, focusing more
on predictable and consistent growth from one month to the next,
as well as that sustainability that doesn't seem like something
(04:18):
you hear in business these days. We tend to focus
on the quarterly report, the little sugar rushes, like even
Corporate America doesn't really practice that predictable profitability. They just
kind of fly by the seat of their pants every quarter. Yeah,
I see that, and you know in some cases, actually, uh,
I do think that a small business owner, if they
(04:41):
were to think more like a larger business, it would
serve them better. I say that, um with context because
as a small business owner, the only person that we're
generally being held accountable to is ourselves or maybe our
significant and so we'll set goals and will say, look,
(05:03):
this is what I want to do. But then when
we don't hit our goal, we're like, oh, well, there's
no consequence. But when you look at some of the
more more larger companies, like the uh, the public companies,
a public company will set their quarterly objectives UH in
events and they do that for the investors to set expectations.
(05:27):
But should they fail to meet their expectations, then there's
a consequence, and usually there's a gap down in price,
and if it's real bad, then there could be a
change of leadership and management and so forth, and so
it becomes really um consequential. So when we're working with
our clients over our predictable profits, one of the things
that we do is we ask them what is going
(05:50):
to be your goal in the next quarter, what is
your goal over the course of the next year, and
we get their permission to hold them accountable towards achieving
that goal, and we want them to envision in their
minds that there's going to be a consequence whatever that
might be if you fail to meet that goal that
(06:10):
you know, now you're reporting to somebody else. And some
of our clients have gone so far as to say, actually,
I want to feel a consequence, So let's put together
a you know, a plan for what that would be.
In for some people it's a you know, contribution to
a charity of our choice or whatever that might be. UM,
but there is that level of accountability that a small
(06:33):
business owner once that they they say that they're gonna
do what they're gonna do and they follow through on
It also kind of helps them get over to that
next level, which which is important. We live in an
era of big business, and it seems like COVID killed
a lot of small businesses, but small business is the
big job engine in this country, and of course ground
(06:55):
zero for ingenuity, innovation, and so much more. What can
we do to compete as a small business in a
world where bigger is better? Well, um, I may actually
even push back a little and suggests that may be
small is better. Um big has more resources. We know
(07:16):
that to get to a goal, it's actions plus resources
equal coal and so big has more resources and that
can weather the storms typically a little better. But small
is more agile and they can adapt and evolve very
very quickly. COVID crushed a lot of small businesses, not
because that they were small, but it had to do
with the fact that they had to be more innovative
(07:39):
in in their approach um because the limited resources in
many areas. Actually, COVID was one of the biggest gifts
and benefits to the small business world and usually started
by an understanding that in a type of pivotal moment,
(07:59):
and that's what was COVID. There was an inflection point
in twenty. In my lifetime, there's been foreign inflection points
two thousand, two thousand one, two thousand and eight, and
then COVID, So I guess that would have been the
fifth inflection point. We're faced with four decisions. Decision number
one has changed the message to meet the market. Decision
number two changed the market to meet the message. Decision
(08:21):
number three changed both the message in the market, or
decision number four do nothing, cross your fingers, sit in
the corner, close your eyes, and hope things change. If
you look at the companies that struggled and that suffered,
and in those are the ones that chose option number four.
Those other companies that said, you know what, we're going
(08:42):
to change the message to meet the current market, or
we're gonna change the market to meet the current message,
those adopted and they and they tend to thrive. We
have a client in the travel industry. His largest client
doing hundreds of millions of dollars a year, or as
all just competitor doing hundreds of millions at all a year,
went out of business. Within three weeks he had a
(09:02):
billion dollar UM. He had another competitor that got absorbed
by a billion dollar company. But yet our client quickly
changed his message to meet the market and ended up
having record KPIs from one week to the next. In
December of at a point when he couldn't physically even
put people on a plane because most of his travel
(09:25):
was international, he had four percent more ACoM sales than
he did the year prior. So how the only way
you can justify that is not saying, oh, COVID handed
you an opportunity on the silver platter. Ors No, he
became more strategic, and you can find that in the
restaurant business. You can find that among the heaviest, hardest
(09:47):
hit industries is just changing their approach. And that that
if there's one thing people can take out of COVID,
it's understanding how quickly they need to adapt and evolve.
But a lot of times in these inflection points, it's
not just busy this. We have to change our personal
lives too, and it seems like people either fail miserably
or thrive more than ever. Yeah, it's true, um, And actually,
(10:12):
if excuse me, and speaking of COVID, I just got
over it. Hence you have to apologize or I'm apologizing
for my coughing um. But a lot of that is
mindset too. So when COVID hit, I'll let readily admit
that everything happened so quickly and unexpectedly that right away
(10:36):
I had that that gasp, like like what's going to happen?
And immediately I had to ask myself this question over
and over again, why is now the best time in
the world for me to be in business? Why is
now the best time in the world for me to
be in business? And I continued to ask myself that
over and over again and still until I started creating
(10:58):
this plan. And then we did this same thing for
our clients, Why is now the best time in the
world for you to be in business? And they started
thinking differently and the opportunities and whatnot, so that it
created a lot of stress, a lot of turmoil and
whatnot because it was unexpected and we didn't know what
to do next. But as we changed our mindset and
(11:20):
we saw the challenge is an opportunity, it really did
sort of fulfill it itself and and create opportunity for
many well. It seems like you're still getting over COVID there.
Did you have a breakthrough case or did you choose
not to get vaccinated? And what happened after you got COVID? Well,
great question. So I actually my doctor had recommended that
(11:45):
I wait for one of the vaccines that were on trial,
and so I figured, hey, I live in Hampshire. I
mean the cases are real low, that's risk worth taking.
And clearly it didn't work out as I at planned. Um,
So I did end up getting COVID. My whole family
got covid um and it was stuff. It was two
(12:07):
weeks of really being ineffective inside of the organization because I,
you know, I had a fever every day for two weeks,
a lot of heavy coughing. Couldn't really lead meetings and
so forth. Um. That being said, there, one of the
(12:27):
blessings that came out of this is that we had
a dry run ahead of time. And that dry run
was actually inspired by a friend of mine who's the
CEO of a multi multibillion dollar organization, and her and
I were sitting down at dinner one time and she
says to me, I'm taken off. I gotta go. I'm
(12:49):
going to France for a couple of weeks. And I said, Wow,
with everything going on in the market and whatnot, I'm
actually surprised that you're taking off for for two weeks.
She says, I'm taking off and completely disconnecting. And I said, wow,
how how has that happened? And she said it is
(13:11):
a prerequisite in an organization. Anybody, once they reach a
certain level, they have to take off and they have
to completely disconnect for two weeks. Failing to do so
will result in the mediate termination. And I said, well, interesting,
why and she said, because it ensures that the company
isn't dependent on any one person in the organization, and
(13:33):
that when you take off for two weeks, very quickly
you begin to see as an organization where the dependencies are,
where there may be gaps in the systems and the processes,
and how you have to fix it in order to
make sure that the company can move smoothly when each
individual is for whatever reason removed from the company. So wow,
that's genius. So then an our organization, I was really
(13:57):
impressed by that, and so I really started to wander
that in our own organization. So um, with my leadership team,
we tell them when you go away on vacation, You
go away and don't check in if we need you,
you know, please, you know, respond to ours your cell
phone and blahl blah, but please don't check in. For
(14:20):
the same reason, we need to see where the systems
and the processes ultimately breakdown, where we need to improve
it so that the company isn't dependent on you. And
earlier this year in June, I took off to Hawaii
for two weeks, and my removal from the business in
Hawaii was the dry run that we needed to make
(14:42):
sure that as nobody knew, I was going to get COVID,
of course, but when I ended up getting COVID, I
if there was one thing I didn't have to stress about,
it was the business. All I had to worry about
was taking care of myself and my family because the
business is able to then run without me, because we've
(15:03):
already gone through that dry run process. And so for
all the business owners listening right now, I cannot emphasize
the importance of that enough. You know, in the beginning,
it might be try taking off for a long weekend
and seeing what will happen if you take off for
a long weekend. For many business owners. The company is
so dependent on them, the idea of taking off for
(15:24):
a long weekend is almost impossible. But try taking off
for a long weekend that means don't check your email,
don't respond to phone calls and whatnot. Then extended a
little bit longer, you know, try taking off for you know,
several more days. Then take off for a week, and
then the ultimate is, you know, take off for two
weeks and and see how well the business grows thrives
(15:46):
without you and what opportunities exist to improve the systems
and the processes. Charlie, I don't feel like I've done
that since completely checked out. I think the last time
I completely checked out was when I went to Cuba.
And as you know, internet is very limited in Cuba,
and you know, it's a repressive country. So I feel
like I need to do exactly what you're saying. Yeah,
(16:10):
you know, UM, I I totally get that. It took
me many many years before I started doing that, UM
and frankly almost embarrassing me, embarrassing for me to admit UM.
But the first time I really disconnected and took time
off it was because I was quote unquote fired by
(16:32):
an employee and he said to me, I was in
the Cayman Islands and I was talking to one of
my employees and I was saying goodbye to my family,
and he says, where's your family going. I said, the
heading out to the turtle farm. And he says, why
are you going? And I said, well, I gotta get
some work done. And he said, with all due respect,
(16:54):
you need to go with your family. And I said
what does that mean? And he said, you're not doing
us any favors. See with you working the way that
you're working, what's happening is a couple of things. Number One,
the others might not tell you this, but I'll tell you.
It makes it feel like. It makes us feel like
you don't trust us. You don't trust us to to
run the business while you're gone. Number Two, you're not
(17:14):
giving us the opportunity to prove to you that we
can do this and to step up, So that's another issue. Thirdly,
you're making the company to dependent on you. Everything that
you teach your clients and whatnot. You're not taking your
own advice, and you know that's not helping us in
the long run. Um And he goes forth. When I
take off, I take off and I disconnect when I
(17:36):
go on vacation. But I can't help but feel guilty,
feel guilty knowing that I can take off and go
on vacation, but you can't. And he said, so, he says,
you've always asked me to be honest with you, So
do you trust me? And I said I do. And
he said, then, with all due respect, you're fired. Please
(17:57):
go with your family, disconnect and give me the opportunity
to prove to you that not only can I run
this business while you're gone, but when you come back,
it will be better off having had you left. And
I was in such shock by the brass that this
(18:17):
individual had by such a frank conversation. But my family
was out in the car and they getting ready to
take off. I had to make a split second decision,
so I said, fine, uh you you got my word,
and I shut my computer down. I ran down, met
my family, we went off to the turtle farm, and
he was right. When I came back from vacation, to
(18:39):
my surprise, the business was actually better off having had
me gone. And then when I was there, it was
really a remarkable thing. I think people inherently they want
to they want to prove to you that they're capable
of a lot more, and it really gives him that
opportunity to thrive. Ventures tend to take the shape of
(19:11):
their leader, right, But at a certain point, the leader
has the whole venture hijacked according to his or her
you know, personality. How do we do that? Because you know,
a lot of times the leader is the reason everything exists.
But at a certain point, like what you encountered, you
might be the limiting factor. We almost always are the
(19:31):
limiting factor. Um. You know, a lot of the companies
that we work with, they usually get stuck around that
three million dollar level. One to three million is sort
of like that that sweet spot where many of them
get stuck. And one of the reasons for that. I mean,
there's multiple reasons, but one of them is that, excuse me, um,
(19:56):
the entrepreneur has this mantra that only I can do it.
You know, only I can do it, Only I can
do it. So they take on so much but actions
plus resources equal goal, and so they can only take
on so many actions. Um. Eventually, though, to get beyond that,
they you know, you get you get stuck in your being.
(20:17):
You're forced to let go and as you're forced to
let go more and more and more. You begin to
realize that the story you've been telling yourself for a
long time only I can do it is is actually
just that story and not real Probably the most eye
open the example for me, because we still wrestle through that.
Just you know, I look at I've been in this
business for ten years. There's definitely only certain things that
(20:40):
I can do. Were so I thought. We recently brought
on an intern, and there's a certification program that I'm
doing and building, and there's certain elements of the certification
program that I'm like, this is gonna require me to
be involved in that. But given the limitations of my time,
I decided, well, I'm gonna ask the intern to do
(21:01):
a part of this, and even if he only does
of the heavy lifting, that's okay because it will save
my time and I can do the remainder. And when
he delivered that his output back to me, I looked
at this and I ate the biggest slice of humble
pie if I had in a long time. And that's
because what he actually delivered to me was better than
(21:23):
I would have done myself. That's great, that's actually good
for you. It was phenomenal. But you know that the
story that nobody could do it as well as me
um was just the humbling reminder that there's actually not
as much as we think that is really unique to us.
(21:48):
You know, there's a small part, but that small part
is what makes the business awesome, and that is what's
unique to you. But if you could just focus only
in and on that small part, like Steve Jobs with Apple,
like Steve was a visionary that was unique to him,
but the majority of the stuff that happened throughoutout Apple
(22:11):
was stuff that other people did and created and so forth,
but it was all aligned with his vision. Walt Disney
the same thing. Everybody keeps talking about how it all
started with a mouse, right, Well, Walt Disney had a vision,
a vision for disney World, and that was a small part,
but that was a huge part of the success of
(22:32):
the organization. We just have to really know what is
that small part that is going to make that big
difference and be willing to empower the team to fulfill
that that vision and that that part that's really unique
to us. So you work with a lot of entrepreneurs,
what exactly is vision? So what exactly is vision? Then
(22:56):
well there's um the who Well. I think the best
example was described by a good friend of mine named
Ari Mizel, and he describes us in the form of
a metaphor, and he said, running a business as much
like that of a train. And he said, at the
(23:21):
lowest level of the organization, we have our cogs. And
the cogs are the daily, repetitive activities that go on
over and over and over again that takes the train
and helps the train move up and down the tracks.
They generally require the lowest level of skill, can very
(23:41):
oftentimes be systematized, process driven, sometimes automated, But those the cogs.
Once you start to move up a level, then you
have the engine. The engine is has to It drives
the business forward. It drives the cogs, so provides management,
it provides structure, It drives the cogs forward. They take
(24:05):
a higher The engine has a higher level of skill
uh in ability, but the engine, just like the cogs,
still have to make sure that they show up every
day and that they are on the tracks. The next
level beyond the engine is the engineer. The engineer has
an even higher level of skill. The engineer can run
(24:28):
multiple engines at the same time, I'm sure you've seen
the trains with you know, multiple different engines in the front,
maybe a couple in the back that are pushing the train.
The engineer is the one that, you know, so manages
not only a bunch of the different engines, but it's like,
all right, we have to be here by a certain time.
I'm going to make sure that we reach that goal
of being there at the certain at a certain time,
(24:50):
that we have enough fuel that we're not going to
hit anything along the way, that the passengers are going
to be safe, and so forth. And that's the engineer.
But then at the high level that would be the visionary.
And the visionary is the one that ends up they
can run multiple trains all at the same time. And
(25:10):
the vision area is the one that envisions the path
of where the trains are gonna go, and the and
the direction and and so forth. And and that's the visionary,
just like you know, Walt Disney and uh and Steve
Jobs like they just had they had the vision of
where it was going to go. But if you look
(25:31):
at business owners, we start at the very beginning of
our company in that visionary role. Big time. We have
a dream, we have a vision, we have a passion,
we know we're getting into business because we're going to
do this. And then what happens is, as you start
taking on more clients and more customers, you have to
fulfill in those orders, and so you start doing more
(25:54):
cog based activity and engine based activity, and you start
spending more and more time working in the business and
less and less time as a visionary. And then you
look at the companies that tend to get to about
that one to three million year and you ask the engineer,
how much time do you do you spend, you know,
doing strategic thinking and developing new profit centers and forming
(26:16):
new relationships and new partnerships whatnot. You're gonna find it's
actually a very limited point of time because most of
their time is actually spent on fulfilling orders or their
founder led sales, meaning that the founder is the only
one making the sales right now, or involved in hiring
and managing and customer relations and so forth. And so
(26:38):
they're spending too much time as a cog or an
engine little time even as an engineer, and that also
can limit growth in a very substantial manner. Yeah, so
it's kind of like this balance, right, because We do
start off with that vision when you first get a
business off the ground, but then we get kind of
stuck on the day to day, right, and this whole
(27:00):
thing that you're describing, right, you think you're the only
one that could do it. You don't trust others to
do it, and furthermore, you're worried about seating that power
because you're back to the fallacy, I'm the only one
that can do this. That's right, That's absolutely right. And
you see this across all your clients because you work
with a lot of entrepreneurs who face a lot of
(27:22):
these same problems. And let's face it, Charlie, a lot
of entrepreneurs feel like they're alone. Yeah. I think most
entrepreneurs have this feeling of being either misunderstood um or
that they are the only ones that are going through this,
(27:42):
or nobody would really understand their problem. And it's funny
because it doesn't matters so much on the level whether
or not we're working with somebody doing a million dollars
a year or we have clients doing hundreds of millions
of dollars a year um. A lot of the same
emotions and feelings, concerns and worries are are similar. So
(28:08):
what do you think small and medium sized businesses should
be doing right now in this environment? Wow? That's a
really really good question, loaded question too. Um. You know
today it's in addition to what we talked about earlier,
(28:36):
which is making sure that you know if you're going
to meet them, you may have to evolve the message
to meet the market and so forth. There are three
stages for creating sustainable growth that you know many times
are overlooked. I think the smaller the business, they tend
to get involved in this. You know, they're always chasing
(28:59):
the latest dr to g um and you know they're
always saying, you know, I've tried this, now I'm gonna
go on, I'm gonna try this, and now I'm gonna
go on, I'm gonna try this and just hoping something sticks.
I just start to evolve as an entrepreneur and you
start realizing, oh my god, I feel like I've tried everything.
Now what you start looking at those three stages in
(29:21):
those streets, three stages of first optimization And when I
say optimization, you begin to look at your business. You
put KPI s around the business so you fully understand
like what's working and what's not working inside of my
business right now. And as you can understand what's working
and what's not working, and you've got that clarity, clarity
(29:43):
equals power, and it's a lot easier for you to
then start saying, Okay, how do I do more of
what's already working and less of what's not working. And
while that might sound like super basic to some extent,
when people look at some of the results that we've
helped achieve for other companies, you know, whether we've taken
(30:03):
them from a million to twenty four million in three years,
or you know, we've even a smaller company from two
hundred and fifty thousand to four point six million within
a year, and all those other you know, fun things
that we like to talk about, you know, all the
companies that we've taken on the INC five thousand. We've
done that by starting with optimization. Because when you just
(30:26):
see what's working and you put a little bit of
fuel on what's working, you can get results much easier,
much more efficiently than just trying something new. But as
you turn your company in that file finally to a
machine using optimization, the next step is systemization, where you
make sure you put systems and processes around those things
(30:47):
that are working inside of the business, because, as you know,
when you're running a business, the last thing that you
need to be doing is taking on more responsibility. And
when you look at a juggler, juggler might be able
to juggle ten balls in the year, but what happens
when they when they drop one ball, what usually happens
to the rest of the balls? They all drop, They
(31:11):
all drop. It's weird how that happens, but that's what
also happens as an entrepreneur. We're juggling so many balls
in the air, we tend to think like, hey, look
at me, this is awesome. Look how busy I am.
I'm doing all these things. But you can only handle
so much. And eventually we start dropping a ball and
they all dropped, And so we make sure that we
put the systems and the processes so that nothing drops,
(31:33):
so that the business can run less dependent on you
are a few key people, so that you're generating more
consistency or predictability inside of your business. Then as you
do that, then that opens the door for the third phase,
which is innovation, and that innovation is typically a brand
new profit center in the business. And if you look
at the most successful companies in the world, the most
(31:54):
successful companies in the world are generally building out one
new profit center per quarter. And that profit center might
be a new partnership, the profit center might be a
new marketing funnel, a new sales strategy, a new product offering,
whatever that might be. And it allows you to continue
to grow and expand. And then as you go through
(32:15):
that innovation, then you start the cycle all over again.
And that's optimistic optimization, systemization, and innovation. And so today
entrepreneurs really do because we're busier than ever before, we
need to take a take that time to say, okay,
let's identify what's working, what's not working, let's optimize it.
(32:37):
It's put into systems and processes, and then we can
begin to innovate. So what industries are you seeing really
rapid growth in right now? UM? I mean, frankly, every
industry right now is experiencing in a tremendous amount of growth.
(32:58):
I mean, even the industry you wouldn't expect um, I
mean more travel, I guess is rebound, so you would
see that rebound. UM agencies are crushing it right now. UM.
You know the bigger reason. I'm having a hard time
actually telling you which industries would would not be doing
(33:21):
real well right now. Um. And the reason for that
actually comes down to the fact that, you know, to
some degree you could argue that we're still in a
quote unquote bad economy. Okay, and tell me more. I've
been interviewed in the past where somebody's quoted a mentioned
(33:45):
in my book where I said I love about economy
and they're like, was that a misprint? Like what does
that mean? You love a bad economy? And and the
thing is is in a good economy, people oftentimes think
they're better than they are. It's a lot easier to
make money, and you don't have to be that strategic.
(34:07):
And the result of that is you tend to get
a lot of inferior competitors that cloud the marketplace, and
everybody's kind of screaming to get the business, and some
are making crazy promises, and you know, it becomes harder
to run a business in a really really good, strong
economy and a bad economy on the on the contrary,
(34:29):
inferior competitors start to go away and people are still buying.
But the biggest differences that consumers are far more discerning
than they ever have in the past. And so when
you're a strategic entrepreneur and you can appeal to the
more discerning customer, making it clear as to why you're
(34:49):
the better option and why you're a must have for
doing business as opposed to a nice to have, there's
an abundance of opportunity that's available to you. And so, um,
when we look at what's happening right now in twenty
and one, are consumers are more discerning than they've ever
(35:10):
been throughout history. So in two thousand nineteen, the average
consumer was looking at between twelve and fourteen different sources
of information before making a buying decision. That's in twenty
nine and twenty, that number went all the way up
to seventeen. So they started looking at seventeen different sources
of information before making a buying decision. But in one
(35:34):
that number then leapt up to uh twenty twenty seven
different sources of information. So think about that. That tells
us that our consumers of former discerning the buying the
people in their buying committee, you know, who influences a
buying decision that grew in one. So now, yes, there
(35:59):
are industries as a whole that are slower. There are
industries as a whole that are larger, but there are
micro pockets and every single one of those industries that
are taking off like gangbusters. And that's because they managed
to appeal to the discerning consumer. When we turn on
(36:27):
the TV, we hear about death and destruction and unemployment
and the lack of opportunity. And you know, especially people
in my generation, Millennials and younger gen Z, you know,
we're struggling to make it. This kind of conflicts with
what you're saying. Yeah, it it, uh, it does. Actually,
I mean, look, when I got covid, um it was
(36:51):
actually rather disturbing. But when I got COVID, people felt
the need to tell me all the people they knew
who has who have eyed, all the people they knew
that were in their twenties and they were in the
hospital on ventilators and and all that other stuff, and
so as mentally strong as what I like to think
(37:13):
I am, I started to express some doubt the symptoms
that I normally wouldn't have bat an eye. Over All
of a sudden, I'm sitting there going, oh my god,
you know, could this be my moment? Like you know
how if this gets any worse, am I gonna end
up in the hospital. Like there's all these like concerns
and anxieties and whatnot. That happened because you hear the
narrative over and over again. And I had this client
(37:36):
that said to me, wait a minute, Um, you've had
a fever now every day for the last twelve days. Yeah,
I have. And you're coughing up a storm. Yeah I
know you have, yus. Um, you know your body is
doing exactly what it should be doing. Your immune system,
you must obviously have done a great job building that
immune system. You know, your immune system is strong, it's
(37:58):
it's doing well, like really, you know, I want to
hand it to you, a great job. And that became
a new story that I continued to repeat, you know,
to myself, which about empowering and so forth. But the
people by and large in the news, you know, it
is much more entertaining to talk about death and destruction
(38:18):
and all this other stuff because that old saying misery
likes company. But the few people that are doing really,
really really well, you know, it's not as sexy or
or appealing, But it is true that there are microcosms
that are doing awesome. And it really comes down to
the mindset. You know, one of the things that I
(38:41):
remember thinking when I ran my podcast, or you know,
I still run my podcast, but how exciting it is
that I get the opportunity to interview some of the brightest,
smartest people on the planet. And how exciting it's going
to be to listen to more strategies and techniques and
tips and this is gonna be really great. Yeah. No
matter who I interview, when it comes down to it,
(39:04):
the number one attribute for their success always his mindset,
and mindset is is everything. I mean I wanted to
I offered to fly down and see Richard Branson and
um pay for you know, buy him lunch. And I
(39:24):
was paying my whole way and the whole deal. I
couldn't wait to meet this guy. Unfortunately, it just didn't
work out that way, and all because I was like,
I can't wait to hear his secret. But then the
more I I mean, I fortunately did hear Branson talk
with the more I studied him for him too, it's
(39:44):
the same thing as mindset. Mindset just happens to be
more important than any single tips, strategy, technique and so forth.
And if you believe it will happen, you'll begin to
see more reasons to justify how it will happen. Well,
I got to meet Richard Branson. That's an interesting story,
(40:05):
you know, as a journalist. Yeah, as a journalist, you
get some rare occasions when just weird things happened. And
you know, news journalists, especially ones that cover entrepreneurship, are
not that common, believe it or not, especially in the
mainstream media. So I was invited to go meet the
entire Branson family on a very snowy day and they
(40:26):
had flown in from the British Virgin Islands. Of course,
the Bransons live in the British Virgin Islands. And honestly,
to give you Richard was great, but I was more
impressed by his daughter, Holly. It reminds me a lot, Yes,
reminds me a lot of you know, just a higher
version of him. And I'm sure he would be happy
to hear me say that. You know, a lot of
(40:48):
times these entrepreneurs, just like your father Charlie, pass on
their trade to their children. And I feel like we're
going to see a lot of big things from Holly,
who I believe is a better version of her father. Wow,
that is fascinating yea, and that any father would be
would love to hear that about about their children too,
(41:11):
So I'm sure he would be honored and probably the
best thing he would have heard all day today if
he if he could hear this interview. Yeah, I mean
it was great. The entire family was lovely, and you know,
it's really interesting to see how entrepreneurship permeates family culture.
And Holly's husband seems like he's very involved as well,
and just the whole family culture was fascinating, the way
(41:32):
they view the world and whatnot. And I believe you
were in that situation, you know, you're it runs in
your d n A. How are you passing that on
to your children? So, uh, my son said to me,
this is actually just recently. My son. By the way,
his name is Branson, So take a guess where what
(41:52):
inspired his name? Um? So, uh my son said to
me earlier the summer, he said, Dad, have you ever
thought about what age you want to retire? And I said, Branson,
if you're my age and I'm in my forties, So
(42:14):
if you're my age and you're already looking forward to retirement,
you've already failed and he said, what do you What
do you mean by that? I said, you want to
love what you're doing so much that you want to
continue doing it over and over again, and for so
(42:35):
that work almost feels like play. And I had in
my thirties, I had a gentleman flew out to meet
me out in St. Thomas and he said, I think
we should hold a retirement party for you. And I said,
(42:55):
I don't. I'm not sure I'm following you, like, I'm
definitely not ready to retire. And he says, yes, but
you have. And I said, how do you figure I'm
working more hours than you know? Or I haven't. I'm
not working any lighter hours rather, and he said, but
(43:17):
what strikes me as interesting is you've said multiple times
that you don't work all day, that you have the
opportunity to play, and that you get to play all
day with your friends, you get to play all day
with your with what you work, that you actually don't
feel like you're working. And I stopped and I thought
about it, and I'm like, you're right, I don't feel
(43:38):
like I work at all at any given point in time.
I really don't feel like that. The people that I
work with just so happened to be some of my
closest friends. My clients just so happened to be some
of my closest friends. And So to get back to
your question in terms of how am I going to
inspire this with my kids? You know, if they want
to run their own business, that's awesome. In my on
(44:00):
already has his own business. Uh it's called BCG Perspective,
and it's a video marketing company. He's a freshman in
high school and he's already had all these different clients
and whatnot, and he's he really, really really enjoys it.
My daughters talk about running their own business, but they
also talk about working for somebody else. Either way. The
only thing that that only guidance that I've given them
(44:23):
so far when it comes to a career choice is
whatever it is, just make sure it gives you energy,
it makes you excited about about getting up in the morning,
about working, whatever that is, because no matter what your
career or what your businesses, you're gonna hit rough spots,
(44:46):
rough spots that are gonna be so hard that you're
gonna want to quit more than anything else that you
know that you're doing right now. But it's at that
moment that you want to quit more than anything else,
that you're the closest you're ever going to be to success.
But what gets you through that moment of wanting to
(45:09):
quit is passion. It's the love for what you do,
because you know, you obviously look like you you love
your job and you're really really good at your job
and whatnot. And my guess is that even if I
was to write you a check for let's say a
hundred million dollars or whatever that is, you might go
(45:31):
and enjoy and you know, spend a little money traveling
the world and maybe on neck Ro Island with Richard
Branson and his family. Right but at some point you're
going to get bored, and then you may go back
to what you're doing right now because you're good at
it and you love it and it gets you energy,
not even for the money, but just because you enjoy it.
(45:54):
And you know, that's ultimately what I want my kids
to think about is find a career that they love
so much that even if they were doing it for free,
they'd still do it. Well, Charlie, that's a beautiful way
to end. Where can we learn more about predictable profits
and your career. I see you have a very active
LinkedIn page. That's where I found you. Where else Well, UM,
(46:16):
Predictable Profits dot Com would be the best way for
for people to to learn more about us. UM we
have a sign up of them. Want to join and
get some free daily business coaching videos. You could do
that right on the website of Predictable Profits dot com. UM.
You know also learn more about us on our podcast
Beyond seven Figures podcast or or my book, The Predictable
(46:39):
Profits Playbook. Well, on that note, we're so happy that
you were done with COVID just in time for this episode,
and we look forward to being in touch. Thank you
so much. It's been my pleasure. So Charlie taught us
that the number one issue with running your business, and
(47:01):
really with all our personal pursuits, is yourself. A lot
of times we think we're irreplaceable. Hint, hint, we're not.
A lot of times businesses and organizations need to grow
past their founder, and sometimes getting out of the way
is the most important thing. I also, something that stood
out to me was that even if you did write
(47:22):
me a check for a hundred million dollars, I probably
would still be sitting here today, I'm one of those
people that really does enjoy my work. And if you
don't have that same impulse when you think about your work,
maybe it's time to change jobs. Right now, the labor
market is really good. People around me are all getting
new jobs with relative ease. So if you're not enjoying
your job, maybe it's time to do something else. The
(47:44):
other thing that really really stood out to me about
Charlie's interview was that this is a great time to
start a business. You really don't hear that in the
mainstream media. You really hear about death, destruction and lack
of opportunity, especially as it pertains to young folks, and
how big business is eating small businesses lunch. Well, that
(48:04):
doesn't seem to be the case. And as Charlie mentioned,
it's about mindset. I think we all can work on
our mindset. A lot of times we can't rise past
the noise and following the profit is about doing exactly that,
having the right mindset to succeed, having the right mindset
to chart the future, and that's really where it comes
into being a visionary. A lot of times, like Apple
(48:27):
said famously, we don't think differently. We just get bogged
down in the day to day and really don't think
about where we're going or how we could grow what
we're already doing. Vision is something that's lacking in today's world.
The past twenty years have been about applying tried and
true formulas to nearly everything in this world, and as
(48:49):
we're seeing painfully in politics, in business, and in our culture,
we desperately need new ideas and new models in order
to charge away forward. And that's what this podcast is
all about, trying to think differently, having vision, and really
trying to chart a brand new future. And thanks to
(49:11):
all of you for joining me as we Follow the Profit.
I'd like to thank my hard working staff for putting
the show together. It's not an easy task and really
what you're hearing is the result of a lot of
work behind the scenes. I'd also like to thank our
executive producers, Debbie Myers and Nuke Gingrich. Follow the Profit
as a production of Gingridge three sixty and I Heart Radio.
(49:32):
For more podcast visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts. Part of the Gingwich Network,
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