Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Is your business growth coming at the
expense of your health and happiness?
Are business growth and personal
fulfillment batting it out for your time
and attention?Today we're diving into
sustainable scaling, how to grow your
business strategically without
sacrificing your emotional, mental,
relational, financial, and spiritual
(00:21):
well-being in the process. Stay tuned to
discover why working harder isn't the
answer to reaching new levels of growth.
And what to do instead?
In a world where chaos seems to reign
supreme, where uncertainty lurks around
every corner and financial markets
(00:42):
are now more unpredictable than ever.
There's one place you can turn to to find
clarity and control. Welcome to the
Wealth Wisdom Financial Podcast. Hey, I'm
Brandon. And I'm Amanda. Join us as we
dive deep in the world of personal and
business finance to assist you in
navigating through the chaos and building
(01:02):
the financial future you deserve. We
believe when conventional financial
thinking doesn't get you where you want
to go, you need wealth wisdom. So if
you're ready to take control of your
financial destiny. Tune into the Wealth
Wisdom Financial Podcast because in a
chaotic world, your money shouldn't be.
Subscribe now and never miss an episode.
(01:26):
Welcome to this month's theme, Growth
and Scaling. This month is all about
helping business owners break through
barriers. and build sustainable wealth.
We're passionate about helping
entrepreneurs like you create businesses
that serve your life, not the other way
around. Today, we're focusing on how to
scale without burning out
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because true success includes
your wellbeing, not just
their wellbeing, but we wanna make sure
you're living through it and enjoying
what you're doing. So I'll never forget
the day Tom called me from the
hospital. His e-commerce business had
just crossed the million-dollar revenue
mark. We had just celebrated it because
(02:09):
it was something he'd been working toward
for years. But he wasn't calling to
continue the celebration. The doctor says
it's exhaustion, he told me, his voice
barely above a whisper. My blood pressure
is going through the roof. I've lost 15
pounds without trying. I can't sleep. I
can't remember the last time I saw my
kids awake. Tom had retrieved the growth
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he wanted, but at a devastating cost.
His million-dollar business had become a
prison. And his body was sending
urgent distress signals that he could no
longer ignore. I don't get it, he said.
Is this what success is supposed to feel
like?Because if it is, I don't want it
anymore. Tom's story might sound
(02:52):
extreme. But it's alarmingly common, and
Brandon's going to share just how common
it is here in a second. But I want you to
know we've worked with dozens of
entrepreneurs who have reached their
revenue goals only to discover
they'd sacrificed everything that
actually mattered along the way. Yeah,
at one time I was in a similar shoes
as Tom, except it wasn't a million-dollar
(03:13):
business, that's for sure. I was doing
all this stuff in the coffee shop. I was
working really hard and my blood
pressure kept going up. I remember
talking to somebody saying, this place is
gonna kill me. And, And I
I finally got him to go to the, uh,
like an urgent care center and they
(03:34):
told him, sorry, you need to go to the
emergency room right now. Yeah. That's
how high his blood pressure was. I was
just like, I don't know this, I'm, I'm
not gonna do it. I need to keep working.
You need to keep going. and go to the ER
and they tell me, you're having an
anxiety attack, some blood pressure
issues. And they told me a
couple things, stop drinking coffee,
(03:55):
which I wasn't gonna do, lower maybe,
but it was a lot about the staff
problems that I had. So what I
learned is that I was on some medication
for a little bit and had to
change my habits. And one of the
habits that I changed was firing an
employee, uh, that
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was always constantly showing up to
work. I'm pretty sure she was stealing,
uh, doing some crazy stuff. She raised my
blood pressure. And when I fired her,
uh, or Amanda fired her, I don't
remember. Yeah, it was me. I fired her.
Uh, probably cuz she would've raised my
blood pressure if I was doing it. Um,
and that blood pressure went back to
normal immediately. Like the next
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day I was back, almost back to normal.
Now I I still lowered my coffee and take
a little bit and I started going to the
gym more. But that was a wake up
call for me saying this place, these
people are not going to kill me as I'm
trying to help grow this empire.
Yeah, so that was many, many years ago.
What we've learned along the way is that
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is what most business gurus aren't going
to tell you. Scaling your business and
preserving your well-being, they're not
competing goals. In fact, they're deeply
connected. The entrepreneurs who build
truly sustainable businesses understand
that their own health, happiness and
balance. I hate that word balance. Their
own health, happiness and well-being
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aren't luxuries to be enjoyed someday.
They're essential business assets that
must be protected today and every single
day for the rest of your life. Yep. So
let me tell you about Eliza. She built a
thriving marketing agency that hit
900,000 in annual revenue. You know, she
was on those boards and they were saying,
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oh man, you're amazing. From the outside,
everything looked perfect. I mean, she
was in the webinar saying how big it was.
But behind the scenes, she was working 80
hour weeks, missing her daughter's soccer
games and waking up at 3:00
AM with panic attacks about client
deadlines. Have you ever had those where
you just wake up thinking about a client,
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right?I feel like I'm running
on a treadmill that keeps getting faster,
she told me. And I don't know how to get
off without everything falling apart.
Have you ever seen somebody running on a
treadmill and then they try and get off
and then they fly?You know, those funny
meme videos?That's what I'm thinking.
Yeah, that's where most business owners
are. They just keep running on the
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treadmill and the treadmill keeps getting
faster and faster, like a ghost is
hitting the button there and making it
faster and faster. They don't know what
to do. This is what we call the hustle
trap. the belief that working harder is
the only path to growth, but it's the
most dangerous myth in entrepreneurship,
and it's claiming more victims every
single day. The first thing to
sustainable scaling is understanding that
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you are the most valuable asset
in your business, not your client list,
not your marketing strategy, not your
team, you. That's why I
love what we do, right?When Eliza
decided to turn offthe
treadmill and reorient, she started by
conducting a complete energy audit
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of her business. This isn't about time
management. It's about energy management.
She tracked every task that she
performed over two weeks and
categorized them. Energy creators,
activities that left her feeling
energized, creative, and fulfilled.
Energy neutral tasks that neither
(07:28):
Drained or nor energized her
and energy vampires, you know, some of
those clients work that constantly
depleted her energy and motivation. No,
these are not people. These are task
energy creators, energy neutrals and
energy vampires. Sometimes they they
might be the time she was spending. It's
about her time, not about the people. OK,
(07:50):
OKWhat she
discovered was eye opening. Eliza was
spending over 60% of her time on
energy vampires, not people, but the-
Administrative tasks, putting out fires,
managing difficult clients. Which would
be the vampires too. Maybe they are
vampires. She spent less than 15%
of her time on the strategic work
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that she loved and was excited about,
and the work that actually drove the
business forward and the growth, and that
was a problem. Yeah. And this is a
pattern we see with almost every
struggling business owner and
entrepreneur. They've built businesses
that systematically drained their energy
rather than sustaining it. It's an
impossible to scale successfully when
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your most valuable asset, you, is
being depleted daily. The solution
is not working harder. It's restructuring
your business to preserve and amplify
your energy. So before Brandon starts
talking about the shifts Eliza went
through,You probably already can kind
of know, think about like the past few
days. When you finished that task, did
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you feel most alive?Do you get stuck in
that state of flow that people talk about?
And was that just a small part of your
work?Probably, right?Think about that
part of your work. And then also now
think about the energy vampires.
Maybe something that you left that
task, you finished that task, and you
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felt drained, depleted, you had no
energy left. and you want to just call it
quits for the rest of the day. Keep those
in mind, those examples in mind, as
Brandon starts to share about the shifts
that Eliza can make. For Eliza, this
meant three major shifts. First, she
implemented what we call strategic
elimination. Instead of asking how can I
do everything on my plate more
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efficiently, she asked a more powerful
question. What's on my plate that doesn't
need to be done at all?Liza
realized she was producing
detailed weekly reports that clients
rarely read, attending internal
meetings that could be handed through
asynchronous updates, and personally
(10:00):
managing client projects that her team
was fully capable of handling. By
eliminating these tasks entirely,
she immediately reclaimed five hours
per week without any negative impact
on her business at all. Okay, so that's
the first thing. Eliza did strategic
elimination of some of the energy
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neutrals and some of the energy vampires.
The second shift was aligned
delegation. Most entrepreneurs try to
delegate tasks they dislike or aren't
good at, some of those energy vampires,
but this is backwards. The key is to
delegate based on your unique value to
the business. We identified the 20% of
activities that Eliza
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deliveredunique exceptional value
that no one else can match. Her unique
ability zone and everything outside that
zone became a candidate for delegation.
Even Tash she enjoyed or excelled at.
Some energy creators were actually
things she also needed to delegate. This
wasn't easy. Eliza loves some of the
creative aspects of client work and was
(11:03):
reluctant to hand them off, but she came
to realize that her highest value to the
business wasn't in production. about
client strategy and business development,
where she got way more energy from,
'cause even energy creators, there's some
that create more energy and less energy,
right?So by delegating 80% of her
previous responsibilities and focusing
almost exclusively on her unique ability
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zone, something remarkable happened.
Revenue actually increased by 22% over
the next six months while her working
hours dropped. Now the third shift that
was implemented is what I call rhythmic
renewal. Eliza, like most
entrepreneurs, had been operating in
perpetual sprint mode, working
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flat out until exhaustion forced her to
crash, then getting up and doing it all
again. But she had no running capability,
right?She replaced this with a
sustainable rhythm that included a
strict no-work policy after 5
PM and on weekends.
She had quarterly two-day retreats for
(12:06):
strategic thinking and planning, a daily
30-minute energy renewal break in the
mid-afternoon, her previous low energy
points, monthly innovative plays
where she stepped away from Operationto
think creatively about the business,
right?And this wasn't about working less,
though her hours did decrease
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significantly, it was about working in
harmony with her natural energy
cycles rather than against them. Yeah, so
six months after implementing these three
shifts, Eliza's business had grown to
1.1 million in annual revenue. More
importantly, she was working 42 hours a
week instead of 80. She hadn't missed a
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single one of her daughter's soccer
games, and the panic attacks that had
once been routine had disappeared
entirely. For the first time, she told
me, I feel like my business is working
for me, not the other way around.
This is what sustainable scaling looks
like. It's not about grinding yourself in
the pursuit of a number. It's about
building a business that grows without
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consuming your health, your
relationships, and your joy in the
process. If you think it's impossible for
your business and your industry to do
what Eliza was done, stay tuned after the
break cause we're going to bust that myth
there.
(13:33):
Ready to take the next step towards
securing your financial future, whether
you're planning for retirement, saving
for your dream home, or you just want to
make your money work harder for you. The
team at Wealth Wisdom Financial are ready
to assist you, and now it's easier than
ever to see how we might give you a boost
on your financial journey. Schedule a 15
minute discovery call with one of us
(13:54):
today and let's discuss your questions
and your financial goals together. Don't
wait any longer. Your financial freedom
awaits. Schedule your discovery call at
www.wealthwisdomfp.com/call.
(14:14):
Now I know what some of you are thinking.
We heard it from Eliza, from
Tom, and from countless other
entrepreneurs. That sounds great in
theory, but my business is different. My
clients expect immediate
responses. Again, I've heard this one
before. I can't delegate because no one
(14:35):
can do it as well as I can, I don't
have time to take breaks,We're in growth
mode, after all. So let's address these
concerns directly because they're based
on dangerous misconceptions.
So first, let's talk about Michael, who
ran a thriving web development agency.
When I suggested he implement boundaries
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around his availability, he was adamant.
My clients expect me to be available
24/7. That's our competitive advantage.
How could I ever?So I invited him to run
an experiment. You're not committing to
this forever, just experimenting and see
how it goes. Survey your top
customers. Ask what they valued most
about working with your company.
Immediate response times didn't even make
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the top five when he did that survey.
What clients actually valued was the
quality of the work, strategic guidance,
and reliability in meeting deadlines,
none of which required Michael to be
perpetually available. When he
implemented office hours and a team
response system for urgent issues, not a
single client complained. In fact, client
(15:38):
satisfaction scores actually increased
because the quality of their interactions
improved. When Michael talked to people,
he was not exhausted and distracted. As
for delegation, I understand the fear.
Jake, a consultant who worked with a
Fortune 500 companies, told me no one
can deliver at my level if I
(15:59):
delegate. I'll lose
clients if I do that. This is the
perfectionism trap, and it's the
scaling killer. The truth is
that good enough for your team is better
than your delivered last
minute version of perfect. Jake started
small, delegating just 10% of his client
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work to the most trusted team member.
Yes, there were minor quality issues at
first, but within 60 days, the team
member was delivering work that
clients couldn't distinguish from Jake's.
Meanwhile, Jake's freed up time allowed
him to land two major clients, something
that would have been impossible when he
(16:41):
was buried in deliverables.
And then for that, we've got no time for
breaks. We're in growth mode objection.
This is perhaps the most dangerous
misconception of all. Carla, who ran a
rapidly growing startup, told me, we're
in hyper-growth mode. Breaks are a luxury
we can't afford right now. And six months
later, Carla's business had stalled.
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Two team members had quit due to burnout,
and Carla herself was making costly
mistakes due to chronic exhaustion.
The reality is this. Sustainable energy
is not a luxury. It's a
prerequisite for sustainable growth.
The research is unequivocal,
equivocal, yes. Regular
breaks and renewal activities
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dramatically improve cognitive
function, decision-making,
creativity, and productivity. When
Carla finally implemented regular renewal
practices, including mandatory weekends
off for her team and scheduled thinking
days for herself,Growth actually
accelerated rather than stalled.
These objections all stem from the same
(17:48):
flawed assumption that your well-being
and your business success are separate
concerns or even competing priorities.
The truth is that they're
inseparable. Your physical energy,
mental clarity, and emotional balance are
the foundation upon which your business
grows. Sacrificing your health
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and happiness for growth
isn't just personally
unsustainable. It's bad business
strategy. It is not very good overall.
Yeah. When we were starting our first
business, we were told by people we
respected and admired that we had to live
like we never lived before for at least
two to three years if we ever wanted to
(18:30):
get that business off the ground. So we
did it. We're like, sure, they know what
they're talking about. We went all in.
And sure enough, about two years in, we
were in a really bad place, emotionally
and physically. You heard a little bit of
that story before. It was a learning
lesson I'd wish on no one. Sustainable
businesses require sustainable energy.
Make that a mantra of yours. Sustainable
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businesses require sustainable energy.
You know, energy creators, not energy
vampires. We almost lost that business.
Among other things, a lot of other
things. And more important things in the
business because we tried to live
unsustainably. Actually, I
didn't tell you
the story. The other day I was staying
(19:11):
late to do a presentation for some women
and an empowerment thing. I really wanted
to, you know, be there, be present.
You know, the family was going to the
scouts and I wasn't going to go anyway.
And I was, you know, like, I could have
kept working all the way up until the
presentation, but I was like, no. I had
brought my novel with me. I went over and
sat in a little, you know, the the comfy
(19:32):
chair in my office and read my book for
20 minutes, giving my eyes a break from
the computer screen. But also I think I
had way more energy and I didn't need to
drink another cup of coffee to do that
presentation later. Sorry, I interrupted
you. Let's go back to Eliza. So,
so today we're in a much better place.
Let me tell you where Eliza's is
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today. Just 18 months after making these
shifts towards sustainable scaling, her
business has grown to 1.8 million in
annual revenue. double what it was when
she was working 80-hour weeks and burning
out. Her profit margins has increased
from 12 to 28%. Her team has
expanded from 5 to 12, all working
(20:14):
within the same sustainable boundaries
she established for herself. Most
importantly, Eliza recently took a
three-week vacation, her first in seven
years, and returned to find that
everything had run smoothly in her
absence. Her business was no longer
dependent on her constant presence
and intervention. I used to think
(20:36):
success meant sacrificing everything else
for my business, she told me recently.
Now I realize that real success is
building a business that enhances my life
instead of consuming it. This
is possible for you too, but it
requires rejecting the hustle at all
costs mythology. that dominates
(20:57):
entrepreneur culture and embracing a more
sustainable approach to growth. Start
small. Conduct your own energy audit this
week. Track where your time and energy
are going. Identify those energy vampires
that are depleting you daily. Choose just
one task to eliminate completely. Not
delegate, eliminate. Most
entrepreneurs are shocked to discover how
(21:18):
many tasks they perform habitually that
deliver minimal value to their
businesses. Identify your unique
abilities zone, the 20% of activities
where you create exceptional value that
no one else can match, and make a plan to
gradually shift more of your time to
those high leveraged activities. And
finally, schedule one non-negotiable
(21:38):
renewal activity this week, whether it's
a complete day off, a two-hour strategic
thinking block, or simply a daily
30-minute break when your energy
naturally dips, or you know a break
before you have to exert a lot of energy
so you get a little bit of store built
up. Yeah, and read a novel. Right. And I
love reading novels. It's one of my
renewal activities. Commit to it as
(21:59):
seriously as you would commit to your
most important client meeting, and put
your phone in a different room or leave
it at home,It's important to just
fully disconnect in order to really
renew. So remember Tom from the beginning
that called me from the hospital and told
me about his health scare?That's actually
forced him to rebuild his business with
sustainability at the center. Here's what
(22:21):
he said recently. Quote, I thought
scaling meant doing more. Now I realize
it means doing less, but the best things
and doing them better. So are you ready
to build a business that scales without
sacrificing your well-being?
Then join us at Wealth Wisdom Financial
Community today. We've shared a practical
framework called the Sustainable Scaling
(22:43):
Blueprint. It's a system that
entrepreneurs use to build their revenue
while working fewer hours. To get that
framework, join the Wealth Wisdom
Financial Community as a premium member,
and it could be the turning point for
your business journey, just like it was
for Eliza. Also, if you didn't know, we
share practical wealth building tools
(23:05):
every Wednesday in the Wealth Wisdom
Financial Community. Wanna learn how the
business works without burning out?Get
the entire library by joining as a
premium member at
wealthwisdomfp.com/community.
And there's a free version too. So,
wealthwisdomfp.com/community.
Yeah. And a lot of people want to have
(23:27):
these, you know, time blocks to not just,
you know, read a novel, which if you want
a recommendation, let me know. I found a
new author, but they also want, you know,
strategic thinking about their business.
What do I do in that time?How do I think
strategically about business?Those are
exactly what the resources in the Wealth
Wisdom financial community are for. I
think you just shared that even with
one of our mentors, one of those, those
(23:49):
things. And he was blown away
by what you shared. Yeah. So. Thanks for
joining us for today's episode. Hit that
subscribe button. Next week, we're going
to be wrapping up this growth and scaling
series by addressing the business owners
who have already scaled well, but you're
still feeling like something's off,
something's missing, something needs to
still shift. Until them, live long
(24:11):
and profit. The stories in
today's episode are based on real life,
but just like Law and Order. Dun dun dun.
No, it's just dun dun. Dun dun. They are
fictional and do not depict any actual
person or event. The topics presented in
this podcast are also for general
information only and not for the purposes
of providing legal, accounting, or
investment advice. On such matters,
(24:32):
please consult a professional who knows
your specific situation.