April 22, 2025 • 18 mins
Jeff McLarty’s journey from successful business owner to leadership coach highlights a common challenge many entrepreneurs face: losing the passion that once fueled their ventures. After growing his own company from a three-person team to 25 employees before eventually selling it, Jeff now dedicates himself to coaching others through similar transitions. His focus is on “technical founders”—those who built businesses around a specific skill but now find themselves consumed by management duties. When the joy fades and leadership starts to feel like a burden, Jeff steps in to help founders reconnect with their original purpose and build systems that support sustainable growth.
One of Jeff’s key insights compares an entrepreneur’s workload to a bucket overflowing with balls—many assign themselves 60–70 hours of tasks each week, then feel like failures for completing only 45. This unrealistic pressure creates a cycle of disappointment and burnout. Jeff encourages more thoughtful planning, treating personal appointments with the same respect as business ones. He also helps clients navigate the challenges of post-pandemic work, emphasizing the need for intentional, informal team interactions to maintain culture and connection. Whether you're transitioning into leadership or simply trying to rekindle your excitement, Jeff’s approach offers clarity and direction. Connect with Jeff through LinkedIn or at focalpointedmonton.com and rediscover why you started your business in the first place.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
What's up everybody.
This is Ryan Van Ornum, withScaling Up Success powered by
Synergist.
Today I have on Jeff McLarty ofFocal Point Coaching.
Jeff, how the heck are youtoday, sir?
I'm doing great.
How are you doing, Aaron man?
It's been an amazing day andI'm just so excited to be able
to have this conversation withyou, because you have so many
(00:24):
amazing little nuggets to beable to share with the masses
and I can't wait to dive into it.
So you ready to jump in?
Yeah, I'm looking forward tothe conversation.
All right, let's do this thing.
So first tell me a little bitabout your business and what
inspired you to go into thatroute.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
You know, it was kind of a windy path, as we all end
up as entrepreneurs, going fromone thing to the next.
But I was running a business.
We grew it from three staff to25 and sold that off and then it
was a question of, okay, nowwhat?
And the thing I love about whatI do now is working on
(01:03):
businesses, like helping peopleget to that next level, that
next potential, and that led meinto leadership, coaching and
doing business training andthose types of things, and
that's how I kind of stumbled insideways to what I do now.
I'm kind of trying to be theperson I wish I would have had
access to when I was firststarting out and growing a
business.
(01:23):
And it's what I love doing Lovetalking to entrepreneurs.
I love the energy thatentrepreneurs bring to the table
and they're always thinkingabout something.
They've always got a plan,they're always trying to take it
to the next level.
So I just love working withfolks like that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I mean, we were just talking about that kind of that
certain thing off camera, aboutlike being able to change
different models and salesthings, and you know, I'm sure
that you know just being able tohave those conversations with
people and guide them in theright direction.
They're in good hands with you,jeff, so that's really cool man
.
So, um, so, once you went, howhas your business evolved since
(01:57):
the start?
Like I'm sure you've had, youknow, like some is there, is
there certain, uh, clients thatyou are like this is my like, if
I could chisel them out ofstone, like this is the avatar
that I want to work with.
Who are those people and hasthat changed since the beginning
?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well, I think you always kind of adjust as you go
along in business and you alwayshave this envision, this avatar
of a perfect client.
But I think really business isbusiness and it goes to all
different stripes.
But the people that I reallyfeel like I connect with the
most are the ones that I like tocall them technical founders.
Most people that get intobusiness get into business
(02:37):
because they're really good atsomething or they really have a
passion for it.
And they start off with kind ofit's usually themselves, maybe
themselves or their wife, andthey start growing.
They get a couple of staff andpretty soon maybe they start out
as an electrician or anengineer.
Then they get to about 10 staffand they're not the one doing
the drawings anymore, they'renot the ones putting plugins
(02:59):
together.
They're running a company andthat's not necessarily where
their strengths are and that'swhere I love coming in and being
able to provide the tools theyneed to take their business to
the next level.
So I guess that technicalfounder is really where I excel,
because I get where they'recoming from.
They love doing what they'redoing, but now they're running a
business and they want to takeit to the next level.
So those are the people Ireally like to focus on.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That's super cool, man, and it's pretty cool to
like.
It's like, tag me in, tag me in, I can, I can take you to the
next level.
I can help you rewrite your jobdescription.
Let's go, let's do this, bro.
You know I love that stuff.
That's cool.
So what are you most proudabout when you're working with
clients, like, is there like acertain level that you're like,
yeah, yes, we got here, you know.
(03:41):
Or is there like, do you justenjoy every piece of it?
Is there, is there any setbacksalong the way that that, like
you know, that you kind of seewith?
Is there a threshold that hasto get past?
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Probably the biggest thing for me is I love giving
people back the fun in theirbusiness.
Sometimes we grow businesses tothe point where it's not fun
anymore and I don't want to dothis anymore.
I just I want it to stop beingso painful and I love being able
to work with people and getthem over that hump to put in
the systems or help make thatchange or mind shift that helps
(04:13):
them go from being just tryingto get through the day to being
excited again to go to work likethey were the day they first
started that business, thereason they had that passion.
That's the thing I'm looking forand that happens at different
levels and scales for everybody.
Sometimes it's, you know, Ijust want to be able to make it
to my kid's soccer game at seveno'clock, and maybe it's I want
(04:35):
to double in growth.
I want to see how big I cangrow a company, but helping them
remind them why they started acompany in the first place and
getting those tools in place toreally be able to get that part
back Cause, instead of it beinga job, if you want a job, you
can go work for somebody else,but if you want to build a
business, you got to know whyyou're in it and you got to keep
(04:55):
that passion going Right.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I love that, I totally love that.
So like that kind of flows intothe next piece of this is like
that kind of flows into the nextpiece of this is like how do
you, how do you whatrecommendations that that you
have for people to help build ormaintain a strong culture in
business?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I think I spend a lot of time talking with my clients
about what's realistic toaccomplish in a day.
One of the examples I reallylike to talk about is imagine
everybody's carrying a bucketfull of balls and if everything
you had to do was a ball and youhad to put it in a bucket, if
you looked at your own bucketand it was already full, you
wouldn't be taking more ballsfrom people because you know it
(05:38):
would fall out and you wouldn'tbe giving just handing balls out
to your staff constantly,because that would also
obviously not be good.
And I think too many peopledon't have a good visualization
of how much they have to do andthey're a little unfair with
themselves and what they planout for the week.
They'll get their to-do listand then they'll be oh, I'm
(05:59):
Superman, I'm going to do all ofthese things and then every
single week they feel like afailure because they didn't
actually accomplish all of thethings they wrote down.
But when I've worked withpeople on that, I found when you
actually take at the start ofthe week and write how much time
you think everything's going totake.
When you add that up to whatyou've assigned yourself, most
people are giving themselves 60or 70 hours of work a week and
(06:22):
then they're feeling like afailure when they only got 45
done.
And I think that's one of thebiggest things that I like to
suggest to people is you need towork hard.
It's business, it's hard, butit doesn't have to be impossible
.
And you have to set yourself upfor success because you're
going to feel a lot better whenyou get to the end of the week
and you've accomplishedeverything on your list because
(06:43):
it was realistic, as opposed tosetting yourself up for failure
and then feeling that letdown atthe end of every week that you
didn't get everything done,maintaining a good work-life
balance.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
on top of that, then, because there are so many
people like you said that wouldmay sacrifice going to their
kid's soccer game at fiveo'clock at night or in the
evening, as opposed to, you know, leveraging out those tasks to
somebody else, you know, likethat work-life balance is
(07:15):
important, wouldn't you agree?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I would agree, and I think one of the biggest things
I had to learn for myself and Ithink I occasionally forget, as
we all do is the importance withyour kids yourself, your gym,
are just as important as therest of the appointments you
make in a day.
If you don't keep your healthup, you don't keep your family
life up.
It starts to become pretty hardto be motivated and successful
at work.
(07:38):
So I try to.
When I put something in myschedule whether it's a personal
commitment or a work commitmentI try to treat them with the
equal care, that I don't justcancel family things because
somebody happened to want tohave a meeting or whatever.
I mean we all have to makeadjustments, but I think it's
important to give yourself thatvalidation of personal things
(07:59):
matter just as much as yourbusiness tasks do.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
As well, oh, absolutely.
You know there's been timeswhere I missed, like certain
school performances, or youcan't get that stuff back when
it's there.
You know, your little, mylittle 10 year old daughter is
only going to be in fifth gradeonce, hopefully.
(08:25):
Sorry, sorry, you know just theway you know, stupid dad joke
stuff.
So, but no, what?
What unique challenges are youseeing with business today?
Like I know, with technology ischanging all facets of business
.
You know, I'm sure, that theculture is changing as well.
(08:49):
Where do you see businesschanging right now?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, by the news this morning, I think business
is going to change a lot for alot of people, but I think,
overall, the biggest, thebiggest changes, I think, are
people are readapting to ablended work environment, but
being in the office as opposedto a whole bunch of work from
home.
I would like we're going backand forth.
(09:15):
First nobody wanted to workfrom home, now everybody wants
to work from home, and I'mfinding a lot of challenges that
people I'm working with areexperiencing with these split
groups in terms of people arehave half their staff working
remotely and the other half inthe office, and how do you
manage that as an integratedteam?
So I've had quite a fewconversations about that.
(09:38):
Just off the top of my head,that's one of the things that
comes to mind.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Do you feel like the pandemic arose?
I mean, we've always had, likeyou know, where you can have
remote work in certainsituations.
Now, with the pandemic, livevideo was brought into work and
now being able to, you know, butat what sacrifice for culture
(10:07):
does remote work have onamerican workers?
I think?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
that's actually a good point, like the remote work
.
When you're on a Zoom call withsomebody, you're expected to be
working Like we're here for areason, let's do the work, and
you miss a lot of that.
10 minutes before the meetingwhere everybody visits and has
that conversation.
That only was supposed to takefive minutes and I think if
you're going to have a remoteworkforce you really have to
create environments where youhave that kind of conversation
(10:37):
going on, whether it's you know,we're just going to have a half
hour Zoom conversation, like wedon't have an objective for
this meeting and as much as thatseems like it's a waste of time
because it doesn't have anobjective.
Those were a lot of the softthings get taken care of Like
hey, how do you do that?
How does this thing work?
Can you give me a little adviceon X?
(10:57):
And if you don't provide thoseopen opportunities for
engagement, you lose a lot ofthat.
And that's what you get in anin-person workplace.
It's hard to recreate online,although there are great tools
like Basecamp and othercollaboration software that do
allow for a little of that.
But there is something to besaid for that face-to-face
conversation as well.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I always thought, like, how do you have a virtual
water cooler?
Yeah, that's a good question,cause that's where, like where
it stimulates that kind ofconversation of what you're
talking about.
Those soft, those soft skillsright, like God, I hate working
with that guy over in freakingaccounting, you know, or
(11:38):
something like that.
Like that gets softened bybeing in the workplace with each
other Because, like, you can'twalk by Jim and accounting and
be a jerk to him every singleday without having to be like
get a resolution to it.
Like online you could just likehide your avatar and still
(12:01):
continue to have these, you know, like like detrimental culture
aspects to it.
Would you kind of agree on that?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, I think you can .
I mean, zoom has gotten prettygood and there's a lot of
engagement tools, but you miss alot, like I could be sitting
here with a broken leg and youwouldn't even know about it,
right, and it's that kind ofoverall context that you miss
when you only get this much ofsomebody's personality.
And even I've learned to sitback further from my camera
(12:30):
because I talk with my hands andthen when you're right up here
you feel like you're insomebody's face and it's hard to
communicate with your hands,right, and it's all those little
things that I think are hard toduplicate in the digital
environment.
But if you take good care tohave those conversations, you
can at least bring some of thatback into the workplace where
you're having that kind ofcommunication.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And I think that starts with leadership from the
business owner themselves.
They have to want that, theyhave to see it, they have to
engage in it and understand howto build from that.
So, no, I totally agree withwhat you're saying on that.
So thank you for your insighton that.
What, what, what advice wouldyou give to somebody that's just
starting out on theirentrepreneurial journey?
(13:13):
Say that they're, you know,stepping away from corporate, or
you know, just wanting to, to,to stop start on their own.
They're, uh, you know, uh, uh,a journeyman, electrician, you
know, like, maybe just a coupleof different examples what, what
advice would you give them?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I think just starting out with.
A lot of people come out ofcorporate and they want to go
into business because they don'twant to work for somebody else,
which I understand.
But you have to have a passionin your belly for something and
until you know what that is,until you know who you want to
serve or the thing you want tocreate, I think it's pretty hard
to build a cohesive business.
(13:52):
But once you've got thatpassion, I think a lot of people
get lost in the logistics ofsmall business.
There's 10,000 things to do andthey all seem like they're
urgent, but you really need tofocus on what is actually moving
the cart forward.
What's that one thing?
Who are we trying to serve andhow are we going to do it?
(14:14):
And trying to sort what isimportant from what isn't
important and, when possible,hire some help for everything
else, because the ship doesstill need to get running.
But what's the best use of yourtime and what's the best to
have to hire somebody to helpwith?
Because you can't be Superman,you can't do everything right.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Absolutely.
And the other thing that I'vekind of seen too is like man,
somebody else's perspective canbe invaluable, trying to do this
thing on your own.
Like I'm really an outgoingperson but I suck at paperwork
and operations, like I need that.
I need that person so badly andif I did not have them I would
not have a business in every oneof my businesses.
(14:57):
So, like I guess you knowputting it out to the masses,
trust others.
You know you got to hire right,but trust others to be able to
take um, fill in those roles andthose, those skillsets that you
may not be the strength set.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, I think you're a hundred percent strength at.
I think you're 100% right.
Recognizing what you're good atand what you're not good at is
just as important.
It's hard to admit to yourself,you know I'm not great at this,
but if you can say that andbring somebody in to fill that
gap, you can go a long, long way.
You've done very well,obviously, for yourself, um play
(15:33):
out to your strengths andgetting other people to help
with the areas that uh aren'tyour uh strength.
I think that's a great lessonfor a lot of people starting out
in business is play to yourstrengths and uh minimize your
weaknesses.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Definitely, definitely.
Uh, so you know.
With that being said, what'snext?
What's next for your business?
Where, where do you see yougoing?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
what's next?
What's next for your business?
Where?
Where do you see you going?
Um, my next step is I'm I'venoticed there's a lot of smaller
businesses that could reallyuse my help, and I'm rolling out
a group coaching program toallow me to help people in
growing companies kind of under,kind of 10 team members grow
out to or get the same kind ofsupport that I'm able to offer,
kind of one-on-one to a largercompany.
(16:17):
So that's really what I'mfocusing on now is having a
little more balanced offering tokind of fill the spectrum of
where people are at with theirbusinesses help them start
smaller, help them grow, andthen we can move into more
directed training and one-on-onestyle of coaching.
So that's really what my bigpush is right now.
I'm hoping to be launching agroup platform here in the next
few days so excited about that.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
That's, that's fantastic.
Now, man, I wish I could.
I could talk to you all day andbe able to, you know, really
dive into, you know, the minutiaof everything that you got
going on, but unfortunately, youknow, these things go so
quickly.
You know, if you couldsummarize, like, like the
(16:59):
journey that you're on, how,what would that be, what you
know where, where, what, whatwould that encapsulation look
like for you?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Journey I'm on, I think, is trying to.
I really have a passion forwanting to help business owners
and entrepreneurs, and thejourney I'm on is finding the
best ways to connect with them,whether that's through in-person
conversations or how we connectwith each other, because I
think there's a lot of value tobe had in having conversations
(17:32):
around how to build businessesbetter, how to collaborate, how
to see what the possibilitiesare.
So that's really the journeyI'm on is trying to connect with
as many of those people that Ican help as possible.
And, yeah, I really appreciatethe opportunity to visit with
you today and I'd like to flipit around at some point and do
an interview with you, becauseI'd love to ask you questions
(17:54):
for half an hour and learn whatyou've learned along the way as
well.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Absolutely, I'm all about it, man.
So you know, let's, let's,let's, let's.
Give you a shout out, man.
How can people get ahold of youif they're looking to, to grow
their business?
And they, they need you intheir lives.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Well, the easiest way to reach out to me, either on
LinkedIn or or throughfocalpointedmontoncom, comes to
my uh, my website.
It's probably the easiest wayto find me.
Um, or, hopefully can we put alink in the comments for the
show?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I'm not sure, Absolutely.
I got your back, my friendright down below, guys check
them out.
So thank you so much, jeff.
I appreciate your time today.
Once again, jeff McCarty, withFocal Point Coaching, he is the
man.
Go find him and make sure thatyour business grows with him.
Enjoy your day, my friend.
Take care, you as well, takecare.
What's up everybody.
This is Ryan Van Ornum, withScaling Up Success powered by
Synergist.
Today I have on Jeff McLarty ofFocal Point Coaching.
Jeff, how the heck are youtoday, sir?
I'm doing great.
How are you doing, Aaron man?
It's been an amazing day andI'm just so excited to be able
to have this conversation withyou, because you have so many
(00:24):
amazing little nuggets to beable to share with the masses
and I can't wait to dive into it.
So you ready to jump in?
Yeah, I'm looking forward tothe conversation.
All right, let's do this thing.
So first tell me a little bitabout your business and what
inspired you to go into thatroute.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
You know, it was kind of a windy path, as we all end
up as entrepreneurs, going fromone thing to the next.
But I was running a business.
We grew it from three staff to25 and sold that off and then it
was a question of, okay, nowwhat?
And the thing I love about whatI do now is working on
(01:03):
businesses, like helping peopleget to that next level, that
next potential, and that led meinto leadership, coaching and
doing business training andthose types of things, and
that's how I kind of stumbled insideways to what I do now.
I'm kind of trying to be theperson I wish I would have had
access to when I was firststarting out and growing a
business.
(01:23):
And it's what I love doing Lovetalking to entrepreneurs.
I love the energy thatentrepreneurs bring to the table
and they're always thinkingabout something.
They've always got a plan,they're always trying to take it
to the next level.
So I just love working withfolks like that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I mean, we were just talking about that kind of that
certain thing off camera, aboutlike being able to change
different models and salesthings, and you know, I'm sure
that you know just being able tohave those conversations with
people and guide them in theright direction.
They're in good hands with you,jeff, so that's really cool man
.
So, um, so, once you went, howhas your business evolved since
(01:57):
the start?
Like I'm sure you've had, youknow, like some is there, is
there certain, uh, clients thatyou are like this is my like, if
I could chisel them out ofstone, like this is the avatar
that I want to work with.
Who are those people and hasthat changed since the beginning
?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well, I think you always kind of adjust as you go
along in business and you alwayshave this envision, this avatar
of a perfect client.
But I think really business isbusiness and it goes to all
different stripes.
But the people that I reallyfeel like I connect with the
most are the ones that I like tocall them technical founders.
Most people that get intobusiness get into business
(02:37):
because they're really good atsomething or they really have a
passion for it.
And they start off with kind ofit's usually themselves, maybe
themselves or their wife, andthey start growing.
They get a couple of staff andpretty soon maybe they start out
as an electrician or anengineer.
Then they get to about 10 staffand they're not the one doing
the drawings anymore, they'renot the ones putting plugins
(02:59):
together.
They're running a company andthat's not necessarily where
their strengths are and that'swhere I love coming in and being
able to provide the tools theyneed to take their business to
the next level.
So I guess that technicalfounder is really where I excel,
because I get where they'recoming from.
They love doing what they'redoing, but now they're running a
business and they want to takeit to the next level.
So those are the people Ireally like to focus on.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That's super cool, man, and it's pretty cool to
like.
It's like, tag me in, tag me in, I can, I can take you to the
next level.
I can help you rewrite your jobdescription.
Let's go, let's do this, bro.
You know I love that stuff.
That's cool.
So what are you most proudabout when you're working with
clients, like, is there like acertain level that you're like,
yeah, yes, we got here, you know.
(03:41):
Or is there like, do you justenjoy every piece of it?
Is there, is there any setbacksalong the way that that, like
you know, that you kind of seewith?
Is there a threshold that hasto get past?
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Probably the biggest thing for me is I love giving
people back the fun in theirbusiness.
Sometimes we grow businesses tothe point where it's not fun
anymore and I don't want to dothis anymore.
I just I want it to stop beingso painful and I love being able
to work with people and getthem over that hump to put in
the systems or help make thatchange or mind shift that helps
(04:13):
them go from being just tryingto get through the day to being
excited again to go to work likethey were the day they first
started that business, thereason they had that passion.
That's the thing I'm looking forand that happens at different
levels and scales for everybody.
Sometimes it's, you know, Ijust want to be able to make it
to my kid's soccer game at seveno'clock, and maybe it's I want
(04:35):
to double in growth.
I want to see how big I cangrow a company, but helping them
remind them why they started acompany in the first place and
getting those tools in place toreally be able to get that part
back Cause, instead of it beinga job, if you want a job, you
can go work for somebody else,but if you want to build a
business, you got to know whyyou're in it and you got to keep
(04:55):
that passion going Right.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I love that, I totally love that.
So like that kind of flows intothe next piece of this is like
that kind of flows into the nextpiece of this is like how do
you, how do you whatrecommendations that that you
have for people to help build ormaintain a strong culture in
business?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I think I spend a lot of time talking with my clients
about what's realistic toaccomplish in a day.
One of the examples I reallylike to talk about is imagine
everybody's carrying a bucketfull of balls and if everything
you had to do was a ball and youhad to put it in a bucket, if
you looked at your own bucketand it was already full, you
wouldn't be taking more ballsfrom people because you know it
(05:38):
would fall out and you wouldn'tbe giving just handing balls out
to your staff constantly,because that would also
obviously not be good.
And I think too many peopledon't have a good visualization
of how much they have to do andthey're a little unfair with
themselves and what they planout for the week.
They'll get their to-do listand then they'll be oh, I'm
(05:59):
Superman, I'm going to do all ofthese things and then every
single week they feel like afailure because they didn't
actually accomplish all of thethings they wrote down.
But when I've worked withpeople on that, I found when you
actually take at the start ofthe week and write how much time
you think everything's going totake.
When you add that up to whatyou've assigned yourself, most
people are giving themselves 60or 70 hours of work a week and
(06:22):
then they're feeling like afailure when they only got 45
done.
And I think that's one of thebiggest things that I like to
suggest to people is you need towork hard.
It's business, it's hard, butit doesn't have to be impossible
.
And you have to set yourself upfor success because you're
going to feel a lot better whenyou get to the end of the week
and you've accomplishedeverything on your list because
(06:43):
it was realistic, as opposed tosetting yourself up for failure
and then feeling that letdown atthe end of every week that you
didn't get everything done,maintaining a good work-life
balance.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
on top of that, then, because there are so many
people like you said that wouldmay sacrifice going to their
kid's soccer game at fiveo'clock at night or in the
evening, as opposed to, you know, leveraging out those tasks to
somebody else, you know, likethat work-life balance is
(07:15):
important, wouldn't you agree?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I would agree, and I think one of the biggest things
I had to learn for myself and Ithink I occasionally forget, as
we all do is the importance withyour kids yourself, your gym,
are just as important as therest of the appointments you
make in a day.
If you don't keep your healthup, you don't keep your family
life up.
It starts to become pretty hardto be motivated and successful
at work.
(07:38):
So I try to.
When I put something in myschedule whether it's a personal
commitment or a work commitmentI try to treat them with the
equal care, that I don't justcancel family things because
somebody happened to want tohave a meeting or whatever.
I mean we all have to makeadjustments, but I think it's
important to give yourself thatvalidation of personal things
(07:59):
matter just as much as yourbusiness tasks do.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
As well, oh, absolutely.
You know there's been timeswhere I missed, like certain
school performances, or youcan't get that stuff back when
it's there.
You know, your little, mylittle 10 year old daughter is
only going to be in fifth gradeonce, hopefully.
(08:25):
Sorry, sorry, you know just theway you know, stupid dad joke
stuff.
So, but no, what?
What unique challenges are youseeing with business today?
Like I know, with technology ischanging all facets of business
.
You know, I'm sure, that theculture is changing as well.
(08:49):
Where do you see businesschanging right now?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, by the news this morning, I think business
is going to change a lot for alot of people, but I think,
overall, the biggest, thebiggest changes, I think, are
people are readapting to ablended work environment, but
being in the office as opposedto a whole bunch of work from
home.
I would like we're going backand forth.
(09:15):
First nobody wanted to workfrom home, now everybody wants
to work from home, and I'mfinding a lot of challenges that
people I'm working with areexperiencing with these split
groups in terms of people arehave half their staff working
remotely and the other half inthe office, and how do you
manage that as an integratedteam?
So I've had quite a fewconversations about that.
(09:38):
Just off the top of my head,that's one of the things that
comes to mind.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Do you feel like the pandemic arose?
I mean, we've always had, likeyou know, where you can have
remote work in certainsituations.
Now, with the pandemic, livevideo was brought into work and
now being able to, you know, butat what sacrifice for culture
(10:07):
does remote work have onamerican workers?
I think?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
that's actually a good point, like the remote work
.
When you're on a Zoom call withsomebody, you're expected to be
working Like we're here for areason, let's do the work, and
you miss a lot of that.
10 minutes before the meetingwhere everybody visits and has
that conversation.
That only was supposed to takefive minutes and I think if
you're going to have a remoteworkforce you really have to
create environments where youhave that kind of conversation
(10:37):
going on, whether it's you know,we're just going to have a half
hour Zoom conversation, like wedon't have an objective for
this meeting and as much as thatseems like it's a waste of time
because it doesn't have anobjective.
Those were a lot of the softthings get taken care of Like
hey, how do you do that?
How does this thing work?
Can you give me a little adviceon X?
(10:57):
And if you don't provide thoseopen opportunities for
engagement, you lose a lot ofthat.
And that's what you get in anin-person workplace.
It's hard to recreate online,although there are great tools
like Basecamp and othercollaboration software that do
allow for a little of that.
But there is something to besaid for that face-to-face
conversation as well.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I always thought, like, how do you have a virtual
water cooler?
Yeah, that's a good question,cause that's where, like where
it stimulates that kind ofconversation of what you're
talking about.
Those soft, those soft skillsright, like God, I hate working
with that guy over in freakingaccounting, you know, or
(11:38):
something like that.
Like that gets softened bybeing in the workplace with each
other Because, like, you can'twalk by Jim and accounting and
be a jerk to him every singleday without having to be like
get a resolution to it.
Like online you could just likehide your avatar and still
(12:01):
continue to have these, you know, like like detrimental culture
aspects to it.
Would you kind of agree on that?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, I think you can .
I mean, zoom has gotten prettygood and there's a lot of
engagement tools, but you miss alot, like I could be sitting
here with a broken leg and youwouldn't even know about it,
right, and it's that kind ofoverall context that you miss
when you only get this much ofsomebody's personality.
And even I've learned to sitback further from my camera
(12:30):
because I talk with my hands andthen when you're right up here
you feel like you're insomebody's face and it's hard to
communicate with your hands,right, and it's all those little
things that I think are hard toduplicate in the digital
environment.
But if you take good care tohave those conversations, you
can at least bring some of thatback into the workplace where
you're having that kind ofcommunication.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And I think that starts with leadership from the
business owner themselves.
They have to want that, theyhave to see it, they have to
engage in it and understand howto build from that.
So, no, I totally agree withwhat you're saying on that.
So thank you for your insighton that.
What, what, what advice wouldyou give to somebody that's just
starting out on theirentrepreneurial journey?
(13:13):
Say that they're, you know,stepping away from corporate, or
you know, just wanting to, to,to stop start on their own.
They're, uh, you know, uh, uh,a journeyman, electrician, you
know, like, maybe just a coupleof different examples what, what
advice would you give them?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I think just starting out with.
A lot of people come out ofcorporate and they want to go
into business because they don'twant to work for somebody else,
which I understand.
But you have to have a passionin your belly for something and
until you know what that is,until you know who you want to
serve or the thing you want tocreate, I think it's pretty hard
to build a cohesive business.
(13:52):
But once you've got thatpassion, I think a lot of people
get lost in the logistics ofsmall business.
There's 10,000 things to do andthey all seem like they're
urgent, but you really need tofocus on what is actually moving
the cart forward.
What's that one thing?
Who are we trying to serve andhow are we going to do it?
(14:14):
And trying to sort what isimportant from what isn't
important and, when possible,hire some help for everything
else, because the ship doesstill need to get running.
But what's the best use of yourtime and what's the best to
have to hire somebody to helpwith?
Because you can't be Superman,you can't do everything right.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Absolutely.
And the other thing that I'vekind of seen too is like man,
somebody else's perspective canbe invaluable, trying to do this
thing on your own.
Like I'm really an outgoingperson but I suck at paperwork
and operations, like I need that.
I need that person so badly andif I did not have them I would
not have a business in every oneof my businesses.
(14:57):
So, like I guess you knowputting it out to the masses,
trust others.
You know you got to hire right,but trust others to be able to
take um, fill in those roles andthose, those skillsets that you
may not be the strength set.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, I think you're a hundred percent strength at.
I think you're 100% right.
Recognizing what you're good atand what you're not good at is
just as important.
It's hard to admit to yourself,you know I'm not great at this,
but if you can say that andbring somebody in to fill that
gap, you can go a long, long way.
You've done very well,obviously, for yourself, um play
(15:33):
out to your strengths andgetting other people to help
with the areas that uh aren'tyour uh strength.
I think that's a great lessonfor a lot of people starting out
in business is play to yourstrengths and uh minimize your
weaknesses.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Definitely, definitely.
Uh, so you know.
With that being said, what'snext?
What's next for your business?
Where, where do you see yougoing?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
what's next?
What's next for your business?
Where?
Where do you see you going?
Um, my next step is I'm I'venoticed there's a lot of smaller
businesses that could reallyuse my help, and I'm rolling out
a group coaching program toallow me to help people in
growing companies kind of under,kind of 10 team members grow
out to or get the same kind ofsupport that I'm able to offer,
kind of one-on-one to a largercompany.
(16:17):
So that's really what I'mfocusing on now is having a
little more balanced offering tokind of fill the spectrum of
where people are at with theirbusinesses help them start
smaller, help them grow, andthen we can move into more
directed training and one-on-onestyle of coaching.
So that's really what my bigpush is right now.
I'm hoping to be launching agroup platform here in the next
few days so excited about that.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
That's, that's fantastic.
Now, man, I wish I could.
I could talk to you all day andbe able to, you know, really
dive into, you know, the minutiaof everything that you got
going on, but unfortunately, youknow, these things go so
quickly.
You know, if you couldsummarize, like, like the
(16:59):
journey that you're on, how,what would that be, what you
know where, where, what, whatwould that encapsulation look
like for you?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Journey I'm on, I think, is trying to.
I really have a passion forwanting to help business owners
and entrepreneurs, and thejourney I'm on is finding the
best ways to connect with them,whether that's through in-person
conversations or how we connectwith each other, because I
think there's a lot of value tobe had in having conversations
(17:32):
around how to build businessesbetter, how to collaborate, how
to see what the possibilitiesare.
So that's really the journeyI'm on is trying to connect with
as many of those people that Ican help as possible.
And, yeah, I really appreciatethe opportunity to visit with
you today and I'd like to flipit around at some point and do
an interview with you, becauseI'd love to ask you questions
(17:54):
for half an hour and learn whatyou've learned along the way as
well.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Absolutely, I'm all about it, man.
So you know, let's, let's,let's, let's.
Give you a shout out, man.
How can people get ahold of youif they're looking to, to grow
their business?
And they, they need you intheir lives.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Well, the easiest way to reach out to me, either on
LinkedIn or or throughfocalpointedmontoncom, comes to
my uh, my website.
It's probably the easiest wayto find me.
Um, or, hopefully can we put alink in the comments for the
show?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I'm not sure, Absolutely.
I got your back, my friendright down below, guys check
them out.
So thank you so much, jeff.
I appreciate your time today.
Once again, jeff McCarty, withFocal Point Coaching, he is the
man.
Go find him and make sure thatyour business grows with him.
Enjoy your day, my friend.
Take care, you as well, takecare.
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