July 23, 2025 • 25 mins
A 6-Part Series about growing your business in 2023 and beyond. Josh unpacks what he learned at two major marketing conferences recently. On this episode, Josh gives his "Reader's Digest" notes so you can learn fast and prepare for the future. Listen to this episode and learn more about all of the ways Josh and his team can help you. Then you should connect with Josh at GoSocialExperts.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
And welcome to the Ghost Social Podcast with Josh high Tower.
Go Social is a relaxed and unedited conversation with marketing
expert Josh high Tower. Josh is an author and the
owner of multiple businesses, including Go Social Experts. Josh can
help you create a thriving business using the wisdom, strategies,
and experience he's gained through the years. Prepare yourself to
(00:24):
enjoy the next few minutes as we chat with online
marketing experts and business growth strategist Josh high Tower. Hello,
(00:44):
Josh h Tower. How's your day going, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
It's fantastic. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm unbelievable, super excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
We are.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
We're wrapping up a series of six episodes of what
you must do to make sure your business is super
profitable and growing. Last episode, we talked about how to
prepare for a recession, talked a lot about I mean,
you had some great gems there that people need to
go back and listen to that. Today we're talking about
how to let's see if I get this right, how
(01:14):
to become an automated how to get an automated CEO
so that the less I do, the more I make
that's intriguing. Do tell Josh Hitewer yep. Yep.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And this came from the Scalable event in Austin to
give credit where credit is due, because you know, I'm
a big fan of what they do down it with
Ryan Diyce and Rolling Frasier and Richard Linder at Scalable
and their whole thing is about systems. And the previous
episode we talked about how to excitedly or be excited
(01:48):
about the recession coming up with your first rule was like,
how do we build our systems and optimize our systems.
The goal here is taking advantage of a potential downturn
in the economy in some way somehow and really fine
tuning those systems to make sure that your business is
running at an optimized level without you having to do
(02:11):
all the work.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's the key, because most business owners it's you know,
I got to roll up my sleeves and I'm gonna
grind through it. And there's there's some times like that. Yep,
absolutely happens to the best of us.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
We don't want to sustain that either though, it's not sustainable,
so we want to have those sprinting strides is kind
of you know, the track analogy I think of in
terms of I'm gonna have you the sprint and really
focus on things and then stride it out to give
myself a little bit of a break. And so there's
really three you know problems where three concerns that most
(02:53):
entrepreneurs and small businesses, uh, you know, and and founders
come into too many plates spinning in the air. We
got all these things going on. Two we are in
reactionary mode. We're in firefighting mode. You know, it's which
of these is, you know, burning the hottest. It's not
(03:15):
a matter of what's on fire, it's which where's the
biggest fire? Yeah, with the most danger. And the third
one is feeling trapped. You kind of have that feeling
of well, this is a lot to take in and
a little little overwhelming and you feel really trapped and
you don't know which way to go now. I would
(03:37):
challenge everybody that and that those feelings are all normal.
It kind of happens to all of us having that
inner circle around you, people that you can collaborate with
and talk to and talk through these troubles, whether it
be in a mastermind or you know, some kind of
community where you can engage to where somebody who may
not be suffering with that kind of they can kind
(03:59):
of talk you through those rubles and help you put
together a plant. And that's where I think that having
that inner circle of people that you communicate with help
bridge that gap so absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Because you said, uh, you know, how many plates are
you spending the being in a reactionary mode and feeling trapped?
Those are regular occurrences, right for me, for for business
owners I think of but when you get into an
inner circle of mastermind a group of friends, and you
start addressing this or or sharing how you're feeling, the
(04:31):
heads start nodding, and somebody's gonna say, yeah, I was there,
here's how I here's how I deal with it right,
and you just realize I'm not the only one, and
that helps tremendously.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
My favorite masterminds, and and I love the way it's structured,
is it's when you when you're kind of going through
the hot seat, you're like, here's the here's where I'm
gushing blood right now, and you you bring up the trouble.
In my favorite type of masterminds when they go around
the room like okay, who has direct experience with this
particular problem. That's who gets to speak first, because you
(05:07):
always have the person that mastermind, that kind of they
the it's the extrovert, and they're going to tell they
have a solution of everything makes no sense whatsoever, and
they don't have any experience. But it's a hey, here's
another idea. I don't need another idea. I'm gushing blood.
I need a solution to the problem I need to solve.
So my favorite mastermind is when we when we you
know the ones that are structured like that. So there's
(05:28):
three automations to really help get you through this, you know,
those those those three problems, and and within each of
those three automations there's gonna be different levels. So the
first one be to automate execution, and within that execution
will be how can I improve the systems that I
(05:50):
have and the people that run those systems? How well
are they running the systems? So the people that operate
the system. So that's the first automation is automation x cution.
The next one is how to automate the optimization of
the business, So not just do we continue to operate standard?
(06:13):
How do we take that next level? How do we
continue to improve that system. So we're seeing that progress,
so it's not just status quo, it's we're improving that system.
That's the second automation. The third one and this is
the most difficult and that's why you do it. Last
is how do you automate the decision making process within
(06:34):
your business? Because what overwhelms us as business owners is
everything rolls uphill and I don't know about you, but
I don't have anybody to call to ask for the
answer because there's no answer to this, and I'm it
if I don't know the answer. Now, that's where the
inner circle of people come into play also because they
may have it similar. But whatever the answer is, I
(06:56):
don't have somebody else to say, this isn't my problem.
I'm gonna let somebody else handle this. I don't have
that option. I don't know about you. So how do
we better automate the decision making process for our teams?
And the having that and the way we do that
in part is having clear goals and then also having
(07:19):
a decision diamond. Here's like, here's how we make decisions
around here in communicating that with the team.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
So that's huge, boy, having anything like that even from
a simple piece of paper or something on your remarkable
that you can share. But this is how we make decisions.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
This is.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Why we make decisions this way, right and here and
maybe here's the support you can have when making a decision.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Here's some people. I was listening to a podcast the
other day and the lady was like, she used to
run our business, and she would be the shell answer
person for her business. Right, people come and say, hey,
here's the problem, and she answered it, and that jazzed
her up until she realize the bottleneck was her. And
so she now somebody comes up and says, here's here's
a problem. And she's trained herself to ask three questions, Josh,
(08:08):
how would you solve that? Josh, what would you do?
And her people are starting to solve their own problems,
so freeing her up. But it was a mindset shift
from her to realize she needed to automate that whole
process through communication and instructuring herself. But then her teammates
as well, very much what you're just talking about, but
communicating over communicating that process. Here's how we make decisions
(08:32):
around here.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Here's how we make decisions and empower them to be
able to do it because you do have those team
members that they almost thrive. They want to feel that
that feeling of importance. I want, I need everything to
go through me because I'm going to make the best decision.
I try to be just the extreme opposite. I don't
want to I don't want to have I don't need
any more on my plate. And then yep, well yep,
(08:54):
and so now they know, like right away, if you
bring me a challenge or a problem, you have to
bring me three sous to come with it. What are
the three things you propose? And then we talked through
that because I'm not going to start from ground zero
and have to come up with the three solutions, I
need you to bring that to me first. And then
we in a lot of times in there thinking about
(09:16):
here are the three options. They're like, well, duh, this
is the one that he's going to pick, or they
preface it by saying, here are my three options. Here's
the ones I think you're going to pick. Well, just
go with that one. Let's save the conversation. You're probably right,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah. Well, and when you build a good culture and
they know they're not going to get fired from making
a quote wrong decision. They're going to make more decisions.
I think it was Henry Ford. One time. Somebody did
something and cost the company ten thousand dollars and they're like,
are you going to fire him? He's like, no, I
just paid ten thousand dollars to teach him, right. It's
that mindset that no, no, no, we're all here's the goal,
(09:50):
here's what we're trying to go. Make your best decision.
Let's go make sure it's an informed decision, but just
run with it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Good Gottley, Yeah, yep, because I mean, I don't know
about you, but I've made some pretty decisions that costs
a lot more than that.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I would have been fired a long time ago to
my business. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, a lot of times it's us as small business
owners to find the worst employees. You have to look
in the.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Mirror, oh, without question.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, because we don't you know, we don't follow our
own systems and uh, you know, the decision making is like, yeah,
whatever I feel like today, and so the quicker you
can get out of that mode, the better, And he goes, Yeah,
that decision making process isn't just for our team, but
it's also for ourselves too.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well, it is, and there in lies one of the
challenges I know I have is is I delegate to
my son Kleb to build the systems. That's his job
as COO. But then I have to follow that system.
I have to submit myself to his systems because that's
in his world. I've chosen to not be in operations
(10:53):
because that's not my strong suit. But now I can't
even though it's my company, I can't say, well, I'm
not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
No, I get disciplined for that. That's how you grow
a business, you know. It's like the guy who owns
who runs McDonald's. He can't come in and say, we're
not making prize that way today, right, No, this is
how we make pries.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Ye, even to the lowest level team member, I mean
to the.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Lowest level, and even to the CEO of McDonald's, he
cannot change the system because he wants to make a
different right, I'm sorry. Go to Indy.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah that's right, yeah, yep, yep. And and so us
as business owners, we have to make that clear. And
we're doing them a disservice when we don't follow your example.
If you don't follow Caleb system. Well, you're creating a
huge problem not only the fact that you broke the system,
but also disincentivizing Caleb, for example, that I don't have
(11:51):
to follow the.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Rules right well, and at one level, we really have
to understand his business owners. We own a business, an
entity that sits out here, and I'm really in an
employee of that business. Yes, I'm a major stockholder a
shareholder in that business, but I don't have the freedom
to do whatever I want to do. Otherwise it's not
(12:14):
a business. I mean, it's just a it's a mindset shift.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yep. You really have to be conscious of that. And
so I kind of joke about it when we onboard
a new team member at the gym, for example, But
I tell them, like, these systems in place are not
just for us team members, but also for me and
my wife. So here are the rules that we follow too,
because I need that same where I'm not in the
(12:39):
heat of the moment where I'm making a rash decision.
Here's the system I can go back to that I
defined in thinking about and closed Doors. Here's the system
I created that. Here's the system we follow. Here's the
rule that here's the rule book or playbook that we
follow and it gets a heated moment.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Everybody knows it, and I think that that build great
integrity in that culture, to know that the boss does
the same checklist for cleaning the bathroom as the guy
who's been here three days. The bathroom gets cleaned the
same way because of the system.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yep, they just follow the system.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
It makes life so much easier.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
It's amazing, you know, it's funny how that works. So
here's some rules to follow as you begin to build
out these seven or these three executions. And this ties
in with our previous two episodes, episodes four and five
of the series. So, first of all, the first rule
is never throw good people at a broken system. The
quickest way to break a good person is to do that.
(13:48):
So and broken systems will break good people. So you
have to really empower that that good person to say,
here's the system right now, I kind of know it
needs to be improved, and it's that constant iteration or
that constant improvement of that system, so it just continues
to operate better and better and better in the future.
(14:08):
So but allow that good person, that good team member,
to help you improve that system. So also it goes
back to that same role of a lot of times
there is no system, but I'm gonna hire somebody anyway,
and that's don't break that rule. Start. So the second one,
and this is as part of the that execu automate
the execution is the best system is really only as
(14:31):
good as the people running the system. Yeah, you you
have to have that good team member that can run
that system effectively. If you got the person running the
fries at McDonald's and they don't know what they're doing,
you you're gonna have a huge problem, right, So you
(14:53):
gotta have those.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
You got and you've got to train, you gotta on board,
you've got, you gotta you gotta train on the system.
And then let's them let them run the system. But
you need to check up on them too.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yep. And really when you begin to optimize those systems,
there's two phases. There's a broken system that now becomes
a fixed system, and then you have a good system
that's already working now becomes a great system. So you
want to be thinking about it in two different layers,
because sometimes it goes back to the which fire is
burning the hottest right now, it's probably the broken system.
(15:25):
If you really look at it, is the system broken
or we didn't? Did we not follow the system? That's
another question to ask. But then okay, did we followed
the system, but the system is broken, Go fix that
system exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, you've got to fix that otherwise you're just going
to keep going off the off the cliff every single time.
Build the bridge, Build the bridge.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So the third rule, and this now ties into that
second level that automating the optimization, is that if you
can't measure it, you can't optimize it. So what you
do is in your systems you create scorecards and dashboards
to measure the effectiveness of your systems to see how
well it's working or not. And then now you create
(16:09):
that baseline of here's how well my system is currently working.
What steps can I take to improve that system? The
only way you know that is based on scorecards. So
we use weekly scorecards. How many leads that we have
come in? Of those leads, how many took the next
step of those, how many took the next step after that,
And we measure every single step of that and we
(16:32):
look for the drop offs. And just in the recent
weeks I found a problem and it was what I thought,
and what people were telling me the problem was wasn't
in fact where the problem was, because when I looked
at the scorecard, it told me this full story.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, data doesn't lie.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It's hard to dispute that, you know, hard to view
the numbers. So we got to really have those scorecards
in place step one. And they're not going to be
perfect initially, but have those scorecards in place. Then begin
to review those weekly because you got to look for
those trends and then every ninety days is the cycle
(17:14):
that I recommend. You're looking at the scorecards, you're looking
at the systems. What systems do we need to improve
or optimize because the scorecard is lagging or the score
is lagging.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So, you know, a lot of times business owners, we
need that circle of friends to help us, to challenge
us to go, oh, I need that number one, number two.
I don't want to do that, Josh, that's not in
my sweet spot. I need to either find somebody, hire somebody.
I need to figure out how to get that done
in my business because it is important. I don't want
(17:48):
to do it right, and so having those people around
you can help. You could say, here are my scorecards
here's what they look like. So I'm not starting from scratch.
I may not use them identically, but it sure would help. Right.
That's why having that circle, that mastermind group with it
peers really really helps.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
YEP, because oftentimes in your mastermind, the question, a good
mastermind is going to say, well, tell me your numbers,
you know, because the first is I need more leads, really,
you know, show me your numbers, show me your whole process.
And then if the first answer is typically well I
don't have my numbers, well let's start with that first,
(18:27):
because you know, I don't know what you're trying to
fix if you don't know your numbers. So it happens a.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Lot, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Fourth, the fourth rule, and the sizes on something you
just said earlier is the data doesn't lie. The fourth
rule is good is not subjective. So you can't just
be good. You have to prove that it's good with numbers.
And that goes back to your scorecards, your dashboards. It's
not just a warm and fuzzy feeling. I need to
see the data.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, and when you when you run on data, it
really it's a system in and of itself, and it
makes you. It helps you become a better business owner
because you're running the business through systems and people, and
that's really where the join and the freedom and everything happens.
That you can apply your strengths into these systems and
(19:18):
tweak things, empower people to get things done.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yep fi thrial f thrial ties in perfectly with that
is the optimization of those systems is a ritual, it's
not a task. You have a rhythm of that where
you're reviewing your scorecards weekly, on a monthly basis, you
have a monthly business review, and then you you've already
set your targets ideally quarterly your monthly business review, you're
(19:43):
looking at how are we trending towards that overall quarterly goal?
Are we lagging, are we ahead? Where do we need help?
You only know that if you have the scorecards that
you're reviewing on a weekly and monthly basis, and then
how do we move, how do we change? What do
we need to ad app But you're constantly improving that
(20:03):
on a rhythm. Most businesses don't have any kind of
meeting rhythm at all, So daily it's kind of like
if you need a huddle ad hoc kind of thing,
weekly is like the team meeting. We're going to review
the key numbers, monthly business review, how are we trending
towards our goal? And then every ninety days we do
a quarterly deep dive. Here's our planning for not only
(20:26):
review of this current quarter, but our upcoming quarter.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Yep. Absolutely, And then I would add an annual planning retreat. Yeah,
but it is very iterative. They don't have to be oh,
I got to go to that. No, this is fun,
this is cool. We're going to spend some time looking
at the future, making some plans and let's get going.
But it all is based on data, and you look
at it and you make some tweaks and you realize
(20:50):
some things work and some things don't. That's okay. You
make changes. And that's what we do as entrepreneurs. We
look at things just like this. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
A couple last rules, and it ties in with the
decision making process. So your company, your business really scales
at how well you and your team make consistent decisions,
how quickly those decisions are made, and are they consistent
across the board, whether you're making it or Kaleb's making it.
Here's how we make decisions around here. How consistent is that?
(21:23):
And then the last one. And when it comes to
systems and building this whole platform, rule number seven is no,
there's no such thing as set it and forget it right.
I don't care what anybody tells you. It just that's
not the case. You constantly have to be improving. And
I don't remember who said it, but they were like,
they wake up every morning with the feeling that somebody
(21:45):
or their competition is trying to put them out of business.
And so instead every morning, wake up and try to
put yourself out of business, so you're ahead of your competition.
So I'm trying to break stuff because in breaking stuff,
I'm going to improve absolutely.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Yeah, And again it goes back to that mindset. I
always say, I want to be content, but not complacent
of it. I want to keep pressing forward and looking
at things and going okay, I mean good guying. You
know you and I are both were marketing guys.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I'm always looking at my messaging, my offers, I'm always
tweaking them, changing them, and you would think after a
few years i'd get it right. Well, there is no
right right, it's right for today. It might be wrong
for tomorrow. So let's let's try something different. There might
be a better way. And it's that exercise that keeps
our brain sharp and go, okay, what's going on with
(22:35):
the market? How do we do this? And that's just
one example. There are probably a dozen examples of how
you need to do that in your business and your systems,
with your people all of that. Wow, okay, you definitely
have to go back and relisten to this one a
couple three times on slow speed at least one maybe
point seventy five take good notes, because man, you've you've
(22:56):
just dropped a bunch just in this last episode. This
is this is number six in a six part series
that Josh got a lot of information from a couple
of conferences, and he's distilled the highlights, but today's episode
was worth the price of admission. Oh my goodness. Automating
and understanding the execution, the optimization, and the decision making process.
(23:21):
How do you do those? How do you automate those
so that you, as the business owner are not over
always overwhelmed, people are not always coming to you. Now,
you need to build the business based on systems, processes, KPIs, dashboards,
all of that so you can run that business and
it'll be profitable. Lot there. Obviously, listen to this, reach
(23:46):
out to Josh. He's got so much more to give
that we cannot get to on the podcast. But that's
where being in a mastermind with him, having him on
your team as part of your marketing arm, or just
having him in your world as part of your circle
of friends and business owners would be very valuable. So
(24:06):
you can always be at Josh at go social experts
dot com. That's probably the easiest place to start there.
Follow him wherever, but just have conversations with him because
you can tell just by listening to this the dude's
got lots of information. He's just lots of experience. He
runs a brick and mortar, he runs an online business.
He can help you grow in so many ways. Have
(24:27):
the discussions. Start building a relationship Josh Man. This has
been a phenomenal series. I think more of these should
should come in the future. As you're learning and just
sharing bits and pieces of your expertise with others. That's
so so helpful. So thank you for doing that.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
That's been fun.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Appreciate it all, right, take care of my friend. Have
a wonderful week. Social media marketing should be part of
your overall business growth plan. Josh Hihitier can help you
(25:06):
leverage the power of online marketing without wasting your time
or money on hit or miss tactics. Learn more about
how Josh and his team can help you by reaching
out to them at gosocialexperts dot com. Be sure to
subscribe to this podcast so each new episode will be
sent to you automatically when it's released. Thanks for listening
(25:26):
to the Go Social Podcast with Josh high Time
And welcome to the Ghost Social Podcast with Josh high Tower.
Go Social is a relaxed and unedited conversation with marketing
expert Josh high Tower. Josh is an author and the
owner of multiple businesses, including Go Social Experts. Josh can
help you create a thriving business using the wisdom, strategies,
and experience he's gained through the years. Prepare yourself to
(00:24):
enjoy the next few minutes as we chat with online
marketing experts and business growth strategist Josh high Tower. Hello,
(00:44):
Josh h Tower. How's your day going, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
It's fantastic. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm unbelievable, super excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
We are.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
We're wrapping up a series of six episodes of what
you must do to make sure your business is super
profitable and growing. Last episode, we talked about how to
prepare for a recession, talked a lot about I mean,
you had some great gems there that people need to
go back and listen to that. Today we're talking about
how to let's see if I get this right, how
(01:14):
to become an automated how to get an automated CEO
so that the less I do, the more I make
that's intriguing. Do tell Josh Hitewer yep. Yep.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And this came from the Scalable event in Austin to
give credit where credit is due, because you know, I'm
a big fan of what they do down it with
Ryan Diyce and Rolling Frasier and Richard Linder at Scalable
and their whole thing is about systems. And the previous
episode we talked about how to excitedly or be excited
(01:48):
about the recession coming up with your first rule was like,
how do we build our systems and optimize our systems.
The goal here is taking advantage of a potential downturn
in the economy in some way somehow and really fine
tuning those systems to make sure that your business is
running at an optimized level without you having to do
(02:11):
all the work.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's the key, because most business owners it's you know,
I got to roll up my sleeves and I'm gonna
grind through it. And there's there's some times like that. Yep,
absolutely happens to the best of us.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
We don't want to sustain that either though, it's not sustainable,
so we want to have those sprinting strides is kind
of you know, the track analogy I think of in
terms of I'm gonna have you the sprint and really
focus on things and then stride it out to give
myself a little bit of a break. And so there's
really three you know problems where three concerns that most
(02:53):
entrepreneurs and small businesses, uh, you know, and and founders
come into too many plates spinning in the air. We
got all these things going on. Two we are in
reactionary mode. We're in firefighting mode. You know, it's which
of these is, you know, burning the hottest. It's not
(03:15):
a matter of what's on fire, it's which where's the
biggest fire? Yeah, with the most danger. And the third
one is feeling trapped. You kind of have that feeling
of well, this is a lot to take in and
a little little overwhelming and you feel really trapped and
you don't know which way to go now. I would
(03:37):
challenge everybody that and that those feelings are all normal.
It kind of happens to all of us having that
inner circle around you, people that you can collaborate with
and talk to and talk through these troubles, whether it
be in a mastermind or you know, some kind of
community where you can engage to where somebody who may
not be suffering with that kind of they can kind
(03:59):
of talk you through those rubles and help you put
together a plant. And that's where I think that having
that inner circle of people that you communicate with help
bridge that gap so absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Because you said, uh, you know, how many plates are
you spending the being in a reactionary mode and feeling trapped?
Those are regular occurrences, right for me, for for business
owners I think of but when you get into an
inner circle of mastermind a group of friends, and you
start addressing this or or sharing how you're feeling, the
(04:31):
heads start nodding, and somebody's gonna say, yeah, I was there,
here's how I here's how I deal with it right,
and you just realize I'm not the only one, and
that helps tremendously.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
My favorite masterminds, and and I love the way it's structured,
is it's when you when you're kind of going through
the hot seat, you're like, here's the here's where I'm
gushing blood right now, and you you bring up the trouble.
In my favorite type of masterminds when they go around
the room like okay, who has direct experience with this
particular problem. That's who gets to speak first, because you
(05:07):
always have the person that mastermind, that kind of they
the it's the extrovert, and they're going to tell they
have a solution of everything makes no sense whatsoever, and
they don't have any experience. But it's a hey, here's
another idea. I don't need another idea. I'm gushing blood.
I need a solution to the problem I need to solve.
So my favorite mastermind is when we when we you
know the ones that are structured like that. So there's
(05:28):
three automations to really help get you through this, you know,
those those those three problems, and and within each of
those three automations there's gonna be different levels. So the
first one be to automate execution, and within that execution
will be how can I improve the systems that I
(05:50):
have and the people that run those systems? How well
are they running the systems? So the people that operate
the system. So that's the first automation is automation x cution.
The next one is how to automate the optimization of
the business, So not just do we continue to operate standard?
(06:13):
How do we take that next level? How do we
continue to improve that system. So we're seeing that progress,
so it's not just status quo, it's we're improving that system.
That's the second automation. The third one and this is
the most difficult and that's why you do it. Last
is how do you automate the decision making process within
(06:34):
your business? Because what overwhelms us as business owners is
everything rolls uphill and I don't know about you, but
I don't have anybody to call to ask for the
answer because there's no answer to this, and I'm it
if I don't know the answer. Now, that's where the
inner circle of people come into play also because they
may have it similar. But whatever the answer is, I
(06:56):
don't have somebody else to say, this isn't my problem.
I'm gonna let somebody else handle this. I don't have
that option. I don't know about you. So how do
we better automate the decision making process for our teams?
And the having that and the way we do that
in part is having clear goals and then also having
(07:19):
a decision diamond. Here's like, here's how we make decisions
around here in communicating that with the team.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
So that's huge, boy, having anything like that even from
a simple piece of paper or something on your remarkable
that you can share. But this is how we make decisions.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
This is.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Why we make decisions this way, right and here and
maybe here's the support you can have when making a decision.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Here's some people. I was listening to a podcast the
other day and the lady was like, she used to
run our business, and she would be the shell answer
person for her business. Right, people come and say, hey,
here's the problem, and she answered it, and that jazzed
her up until she realize the bottleneck was her. And
so she now somebody comes up and says, here's here's
a problem. And she's trained herself to ask three questions, Josh,
(08:08):
how would you solve that? Josh, what would you do?
And her people are starting to solve their own problems,
so freeing her up. But it was a mindset shift
from her to realize she needed to automate that whole
process through communication and instructuring herself. But then her teammates
as well, very much what you're just talking about, but
communicating over communicating that process. Here's how we make decisions
(08:32):
around here.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Here's how we make decisions and empower them to be
able to do it because you do have those team
members that they almost thrive. They want to feel that
that feeling of importance. I want, I need everything to
go through me because I'm going to make the best decision.
I try to be just the extreme opposite. I don't
want to I don't want to have I don't need
any more on my plate. And then yep, well yep,
(08:54):
and so now they know, like right away, if you
bring me a challenge or a problem, you have to
bring me three sous to come with it. What are
the three things you propose? And then we talked through
that because I'm not going to start from ground zero
and have to come up with the three solutions, I
need you to bring that to me first. And then
we in a lot of times in there thinking about
(09:16):
here are the three options. They're like, well, duh, this
is the one that he's going to pick, or they
preface it by saying, here are my three options. Here's
the ones I think you're going to pick. Well, just
go with that one. Let's save the conversation. You're probably right,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah. Well, and when you build a good culture and
they know they're not going to get fired from making
a quote wrong decision. They're going to make more decisions.
I think it was Henry Ford. One time. Somebody did
something and cost the company ten thousand dollars and they're like,
are you going to fire him? He's like, no, I
just paid ten thousand dollars to teach him, right. It's
that mindset that no, no, no, we're all here's the goal,
(09:50):
here's what we're trying to go. Make your best decision.
Let's go make sure it's an informed decision, but just
run with it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Good Gottley, Yeah, yep, because I mean, I don't know
about you, but I've made some pretty decisions that costs
a lot more than that.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I would have been fired a long time ago to
my business. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, a lot of times it's us as small business
owners to find the worst employees. You have to look
in the.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Mirror, oh, without question.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, because we don't you know, we don't follow our
own systems and uh, you know, the decision making is like, yeah,
whatever I feel like today, and so the quicker you
can get out of that mode, the better, And he goes, Yeah,
that decision making process isn't just for our team, but
it's also for ourselves too.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well, it is, and there in lies one of the
challenges I know I have is is I delegate to
my son Kleb to build the systems. That's his job
as COO. But then I have to follow that system.
I have to submit myself to his systems because that's
in his world. I've chosen to not be in operations
(10:53):
because that's not my strong suit. But now I can't
even though it's my company, I can't say, well, I'm
not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
No, I get disciplined for that. That's how you grow
a business, you know. It's like the guy who owns
who runs McDonald's. He can't come in and say, we're
not making prize that way today, right, No, this is
how we make pries.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Ye, even to the lowest level team member, I mean
to the.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Lowest level, and even to the CEO of McDonald's, he
cannot change the system because he wants to make a
different right, I'm sorry. Go to Indy.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah that's right, yeah, yep, yep. And and so us
as business owners, we have to make that clear. And
we're doing them a disservice when we don't follow your example.
If you don't follow Caleb system. Well, you're creating a
huge problem not only the fact that you broke the system,
but also disincentivizing Caleb, for example, that I don't have
(11:51):
to follow the.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Rules right well, and at one level, we really have
to understand his business owners. We own a business, an
entity that sits out here, and I'm really in an
employee of that business. Yes, I'm a major stockholder a
shareholder in that business, but I don't have the freedom
to do whatever I want to do. Otherwise it's not
(12:14):
a business. I mean, it's just a it's a mindset shift.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yep. You really have to be conscious of that. And
so I kind of joke about it when we onboard
a new team member at the gym, for example, But
I tell them, like, these systems in place are not
just for us team members, but also for me and
my wife. So here are the rules that we follow too,
because I need that same where I'm not in the
(12:39):
heat of the moment where I'm making a rash decision.
Here's the system I can go back to that I
defined in thinking about and closed Doors. Here's the system
I created that. Here's the system we follow. Here's the
rule that here's the rule book or playbook that we
follow and it gets a heated moment.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Everybody knows it, and I think that that build great
integrity in that culture, to know that the boss does
the same checklist for cleaning the bathroom as the guy
who's been here three days. The bathroom gets cleaned the
same way because of the system.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yep, they just follow the system.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
It makes life so much easier.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
It's amazing, you know, it's funny how that works. So
here's some rules to follow as you begin to build
out these seven or these three executions. And this ties
in with our previous two episodes, episodes four and five
of the series. So, first of all, the first rule
is never throw good people at a broken system. The
quickest way to break a good person is to do that.
(13:48):
So and broken systems will break good people. So you
have to really empower that that good person to say,
here's the system right now, I kind of know it
needs to be improved, and it's that constant iteration or
that constant improvement of that system, so it just continues
to operate better and better and better in the future.
(14:08):
So but allow that good person, that good team member,
to help you improve that system. So also it goes
back to that same role of a lot of times
there is no system, but I'm gonna hire somebody anyway,
and that's don't break that rule. Start. So the second one,
and this is as part of the that execu automate
the execution is the best system is really only as
(14:31):
good as the people running the system. Yeah, you you
have to have that good team member that can run
that system effectively. If you got the person running the
fries at McDonald's and they don't know what they're doing,
you you're gonna have a huge problem, right, So you
(14:53):
gotta have those.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
You got and you've got to train, you gotta on board,
you've got, you gotta you gotta train on the system.
And then let's them let them run the system. But
you need to check up on them too.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yep. And really when you begin to optimize those systems,
there's two phases. There's a broken system that now becomes
a fixed system, and then you have a good system
that's already working now becomes a great system. So you
want to be thinking about it in two different layers,
because sometimes it goes back to the which fire is
burning the hottest right now, it's probably the broken system.
(15:25):
If you really look at it, is the system broken
or we didn't? Did we not follow the system? That's
another question to ask. But then okay, did we followed
the system, but the system is broken, Go fix that
system exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, you've got to fix that otherwise you're just going
to keep going off the off the cliff every single time.
Build the bridge, Build the bridge.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So the third rule, and this now ties into that
second level that automating the optimization, is that if you
can't measure it, you can't optimize it. So what you
do is in your systems you create scorecards and dashboards
to measure the effectiveness of your systems to see how
well it's working or not. And then now you create
(16:09):
that baseline of here's how well my system is currently working.
What steps can I take to improve that system? The
only way you know that is based on scorecards. So
we use weekly scorecards. How many leads that we have
come in? Of those leads, how many took the next
step of those, how many took the next step after that,
And we measure every single step of that and we
(16:32):
look for the drop offs. And just in the recent
weeks I found a problem and it was what I thought,
and what people were telling me the problem was wasn't
in fact where the problem was, because when I looked
at the scorecard, it told me this full story.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, data doesn't lie.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It's hard to dispute that, you know, hard to view
the numbers. So we got to really have those scorecards
in place step one. And they're not going to be
perfect initially, but have those scorecards in place. Then begin
to review those weekly because you got to look for
those trends and then every ninety days is the cycle
(17:14):
that I recommend. You're looking at the scorecards, you're looking
at the systems. What systems do we need to improve
or optimize because the scorecard is lagging or the score
is lagging.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So, you know, a lot of times business owners, we
need that circle of friends to help us, to challenge
us to go, oh, I need that number one, number two.
I don't want to do that, Josh, that's not in
my sweet spot. I need to either find somebody, hire somebody.
I need to figure out how to get that done
in my business because it is important. I don't want
(17:48):
to do it right, and so having those people around
you can help. You could say, here are my scorecards
here's what they look like. So I'm not starting from scratch.
I may not use them identically, but it sure would help. Right.
That's why having that circle, that mastermind group with it
peers really really helps.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
YEP, because oftentimes in your mastermind, the question, a good
mastermind is going to say, well, tell me your numbers,
you know, because the first is I need more leads, really,
you know, show me your numbers, show me your whole process.
And then if the first answer is typically well I
don't have my numbers, well let's start with that first,
(18:27):
because you know, I don't know what you're trying to
fix if you don't know your numbers. So it happens a.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Lot, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Fourth, the fourth rule, and the sizes on something you
just said earlier is the data doesn't lie. The fourth
rule is good is not subjective. So you can't just
be good. You have to prove that it's good with numbers.
And that goes back to your scorecards, your dashboards. It's
not just a warm and fuzzy feeling. I need to
see the data.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, and when you when you run on data, it
really it's a system in and of itself, and it
makes you. It helps you become a better business owner
because you're running the business through systems and people, and
that's really where the join and the freedom and everything happens.
That you can apply your strengths into these systems and
(19:18):
tweak things, empower people to get things done.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yep fi thrial f thrial ties in perfectly with that
is the optimization of those systems is a ritual, it's
not a task. You have a rhythm of that where
you're reviewing your scorecards weekly, on a monthly basis, you
have a monthly business review, and then you you've already
set your targets ideally quarterly your monthly business review, you're
(19:43):
looking at how are we trending towards that overall quarterly goal?
Are we lagging, are we ahead? Where do we need help?
You only know that if you have the scorecards that
you're reviewing on a weekly and monthly basis, and then
how do we move, how do we change? What do
we need to ad app But you're constantly improving that
(20:03):
on a rhythm. Most businesses don't have any kind of
meeting rhythm at all, So daily it's kind of like
if you need a huddle ad hoc kind of thing,
weekly is like the team meeting. We're going to review
the key numbers, monthly business review, how are we trending
towards our goal? And then every ninety days we do
a quarterly deep dive. Here's our planning for not only
(20:26):
review of this current quarter, but our upcoming quarter.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Yep. Absolutely, And then I would add an annual planning retreat. Yeah,
but it is very iterative. They don't have to be oh,
I got to go to that. No, this is fun,
this is cool. We're going to spend some time looking
at the future, making some plans and let's get going.
But it all is based on data, and you look
at it and you make some tweaks and you realize
(20:50):
some things work and some things don't. That's okay. You
make changes. And that's what we do as entrepreneurs. We
look at things just like this. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
A couple last rules, and it ties in with the
decision making process. So your company, your business really scales
at how well you and your team make consistent decisions,
how quickly those decisions are made, and are they consistent
across the board, whether you're making it or Kaleb's making it.
Here's how we make decisions around here. How consistent is that?
(21:23):
And then the last one. And when it comes to
systems and building this whole platform, rule number seven is no,
there's no such thing as set it and forget it right.
I don't care what anybody tells you. It just that's
not the case. You constantly have to be improving. And
I don't remember who said it, but they were like,
they wake up every morning with the feeling that somebody
(21:45):
or their competition is trying to put them out of business.
And so instead every morning, wake up and try to
put yourself out of business, so you're ahead of your competition.
So I'm trying to break stuff because in breaking stuff,
I'm going to improve absolutely.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Yeah, And again it goes back to that mindset. I
always say, I want to be content, but not complacent
of it. I want to keep pressing forward and looking
at things and going okay, I mean good guying. You
know you and I are both were marketing guys.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I'm always looking at my messaging, my offers, I'm always
tweaking them, changing them, and you would think after a
few years i'd get it right. Well, there is no
right right, it's right for today. It might be wrong
for tomorrow. So let's let's try something different. There might
be a better way. And it's that exercise that keeps
our brain sharp and go, okay, what's going on with
(22:35):
the market? How do we do this? And that's just
one example. There are probably a dozen examples of how
you need to do that in your business and your systems,
with your people all of that. Wow, okay, you definitely
have to go back and relisten to this one a
couple three times on slow speed at least one maybe
point seventy five take good notes, because man, you've you've
(22:56):
just dropped a bunch just in this last episode. This
is this is number six in a six part series
that Josh got a lot of information from a couple
of conferences, and he's distilled the highlights, but today's episode
was worth the price of admission. Oh my goodness. Automating
and understanding the execution, the optimization, and the decision making process.
(23:21):
How do you do those? How do you automate those
so that you, as the business owner are not over
always overwhelmed, people are not always coming to you. Now,
you need to build the business based on systems, processes, KPIs, dashboards,
all of that so you can run that business and
it'll be profitable. Lot there. Obviously, listen to this, reach
(23:46):
out to Josh. He's got so much more to give
that we cannot get to on the podcast. But that's
where being in a mastermind with him, having him on
your team as part of your marketing arm, or just
having him in your world as part of your circle
of friends and business owners would be very valuable. So
(24:06):
you can always be at Josh at go social experts
dot com. That's probably the easiest place to start there.
Follow him wherever, but just have conversations with him because
you can tell just by listening to this the dude's
got lots of information. He's just lots of experience. He
runs a brick and mortar, he runs an online business.
He can help you grow in so many ways. Have
(24:27):
the discussions. Start building a relationship Josh Man. This has
been a phenomenal series. I think more of these should
should come in the future. As you're learning and just
sharing bits and pieces of your expertise with others. That's
so so helpful. So thank you for doing that.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
That's been fun.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Appreciate it all, right, take care of my friend. Have
a wonderful week. Social media marketing should be part of
your overall business growth plan. Josh Hihitier can help you
(25:06):
leverage the power of online marketing without wasting your time
or money on hit or miss tactics. Learn more about
how Josh and his team can help you by reaching
out to them at gosocialexperts dot com. Be sure to
subscribe to this podcast so each new episode will be
sent to you automatically when it's released. Thanks for listening
(25:26):
to the Go Social Podcast with Josh high Time
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