May 7, 2025 • 26 mins
Are you stuck in a business plateau despite working harder than ever?
This episode reveals the three critical mindset shifts that successful entrepreneurs make before their revenue and profitability soar.
We share the stories of real business owners who transformed their companies by changing how they think, not just what they do. From Maria's design agency trapped in overwork to James's marketing consultancy stuck on a profit plateau, discover how these entrepreneurs broke through their mental barriers.
Learn why the roadblock to your next level of success might not be in your strategy or market. Your breakthrough is likely in your mindset. We explore how to shift:
- From income thinking to asset thinking
- From revenue obsession to profit prioritization
- From operator to owner
Key Quote: "The hamster wheel will never lead to the next level unless you step off it and change your approach."
Listen now to discover how small shifts in your thinking can create dramatic improvements in both business performance and quality of life.
Plus, get our bonus The Million-Dollar Diagnostic at wealthwisdomfp.com/community
00:00 Introduction: Overcoming Business Growth Barriers
00:58 Welcome to Wealth Wisdom Financial Podcast
01:36 This Month's Theme: Growing and Scaling
02:44 Maria's Story: The Exhausted Entrepreneur
05:17 James' Journey: From Income Thinking to Asset Thinking
08:43 Sophia's Shift: From Revenue Obsession to Profit Prioritization
12:24 Daniel's Transformation: From Operator to Owner
16:44 Rachel's Realization: Stepping Off the Hamster Wheel
18:49 Conclusion: Scaling Your Thinking to Scale Your Business
23:09 Join the Wealth Wisdom Financial Community
Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/F2vg_AkJtyA
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Are you ready to scale your business but
feel something holding you back?Perhaps
you aren't quite sure what it is, but
you're hitting a ceiling of fear or
anxiety and you aren't sure you'll be
able to continue growing. Today we're
talking about the million dollar mindset
that happen before your net
profit really begins to soar. Yes,
(00:23):
you heard that rhyming, right?Your
million dollar mindset that happens
before. Your net profit
really begins to soar. Stay tuned
to discover why your thinking needs to
shift before your revenue
and profitability does
in a world where chaos seems to reign
(00:45):
supreme, where uncertainty lurks around
every corner and financial markets 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
(01:07):
finance to assist you in navigating
through the chaos and building 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,
(01:29):
your money shouldn't be. Subscribe now
and never miss an episode.
Welcome to this month's theme, growing
and scaling. And you know, we all love
growth and scaling, right?As business
owners, this month is all about
helping business owners break through
barriers and build sustainable
(01:50):
wealth. We're passionate about helping
entrepreneurs like you create businesses
that serve your life, not the other way
around where the business is serving
everybody else and you know you know what
I'm talking about. Or you're serving your
business like a slave. Yeah, like we
don't want that. We want it to serve you,
and that's the whole point of this
episode and frankly, all the stuff that
(02:12):
we do. Yeah. So we're going to share a
few stories today and break down some
mindset shifts we believe are essential
to unlock growth. Whether you're six
figures trying to get to seven or seven
trying to get to eight, the mindset
shifts come for different people at
different times. As we tell these
stories, pay less attention to the
numbers and look for the mindset shifts
(02:33):
that stick out to you. And before you
think you already have a particular
mindset shift that we go through,
remember, there's always another layer
deeper to explore. Ready?
Okay, let's start with Maria. Yeah, so I
sat across from Maria at her favorite
coffee shop, you know, because we love
coffee shops. So she has a
design agency that had hit
(02:55):
750,000 in revenue. And from the
outside, everything looked incredible.
She had a new downtown office, a team of
eight designers, big name clients. But
as she sipped her latte, I could see the
exhaustion in her eyes. Have you ever
been in those places where you could just
see it on somebody else, you, you knew
(03:16):
they were struggling. So she told me,
I'm, I'm working 70 hour weeks. She
confessed, My revenue is up, but my
profit margins are shrinking.
Everyone's congratulating me on my
success, but honestly, I made more
money and had more freedom when it was
just me and two contractors. Yeah.
(03:37):
How can that be?Well, Maria's story isn't
unique. We often see this pattern with
clients who are stuck. They're working
harder than ever, and that million dollar
milestone seems just out of reach. And
here's the truth that Maria needed to
hear. The roadblock isn't her strategy
or her market, it's her mindset.
Yeah. Before you can scale to record
(04:00):
profits, we believe three mental shifts
are critical. These aren't just nice
ideas, they're fundamental changes in how
you think about money, time, and your
roles in your businesses. And
again, we work with a lot of, uh,
business owners and I talk to a lot of
business owners and these three, uh,
(04:21):
ideas or mindsets come up
every time. Yeah. It's kind of strange.
And what we're going to talk about today
got you thinking of an episode that came
out last month. Yeah, we a
couple weeks ago we had, it was April
16th episode Delegation Strategies
for Control Freak Entrepreneurs. It's
really fun episode and a really fun title
(04:43):
because you know, there's control freaks
sometimes. Uh, around. Uh,
and what do we do?How do we overcome that?
In that episode, we discuss what got you
here won't get you there. Try to say that
again. Yeah. What got you here won't get
you there. So not required, but maybe if
you're like trying to figure out like,
how do I get to that next level and
(05:04):
you're looking for delegation strategies,
we had a really cool matrix that we
developed. It's not the one you think you
know. That's we premiered. That's the
word I'm looking for, premiered in that
episode. Today, we got a bunch of
stories. First, we're going to tell you a
little bit about James. Three years ago,
James had what looked like a thriving
marketing consultancy. He was making
(05:25):
$500,000 a year, but felt trapped on a
profit plateau. Every time his
business grew, his expenses seemed to
grow right along with it. And, you know,
and he was always never making more
profit. During our first session,
I asked him a very simple question. It's
going to sound too simple, James.
What happens to your money after you earn
(05:47):
it?He's a little confused. Well, like,
what do you mean?I pay my expenses, my
team, myself, and whatever is left goes
back into growing the business. That's
when I realized his first mental
block. He was stuck in income
thinking instead of asset thinking.
That's a That's a big one. Income
(06:07):
thinking versus asset thinking. So
most six-figure business owners like
James are still in the paycheck mindset.
I mean, they they literally probably were
working for the man, and
now they are the the man
for themselves. And they're focused on
bringing in more money each month. But
(06:28):
millionaire business owners think
differently. They focus on building
assets that create lasting wealth.
This is exactly what banking yourself
concept teaches us. Instead of chasing
higher income that gets eaten up by
taxes and lifestyle inflation, the
business owner creates generational
wealth builds businesses that
(06:49):
continuously fund their
and their family's future. Your
business should be creating assets you
control, not just income you
spend. So what did James do?James
began setting aside 10% of his revenue
immediately when it was received,
before allocating it to expenses. He
(07:10):
would put in a specially structured asset
that grew tax-free. That's when something
remarkable shifted. Not only did he
create a wealth-building machine separate
from his business, but the discipline of
allocating that money first forced him to
make smarter decisions with the remaining
90%. James learned that greater income
(07:31):
does not translate into greater wealth
automatically. Actually, the
default is that greater income expands
lifestyle, and then when that income goes
down, debt and bankruptcy often follow.
James didn't have to start eating ramen
or skipping his morning local brew to
make this happen. Even though, you know,
we'd love our ramen. I mean, good ramen.
(07:51):
Good ramen, yeah. His His business didn't
have to downsize the team to save 10%.
He simply decided building wealth was
more important. He had that mindset
shift, and then he just started shifting
a mere 10% toward that goal. And
then, as his business grew, so did his
wealth, and that wealth gave him a
cushion for when income went down. And
that wealth also gave him freedom to work
(08:14):
more profitably rather than just take on
projects to get bigger and bigger for
bigger sake. Yes. Shifting from
income thinking to asset thinking is
powerful, and it closely relates to the
second mindset shift. The second
mindset shift is from revenue
obsession to profit
(08:35):
prioritization. Revenue obsession
to profit prioritization. Now, at first,
this isn't gonna sound like the last one,
but it's different. Sophia is a great
example here. Sophia. She runs,
not that Sophia. Yeah, from
Golden Girls. Yeah, not the Golden Girl
Sophia, different Sophia. She runs a
(08:55):
thriving e-commerce business selling
sustainable home goods, notorious for low
profit margins. A couple of years ago,
she proudly announced she'd hit $80,000 a
month. But when I asked her about her
profit margins, her smile faded. To
be honest, I have no idea, she admitted.
We're so focused on growth that we
haven't really tracked our profit margins
(09:16):
very closely. When we dug into her
numbers, we discovered something
shocking. Despite doubling her revenue
over the past year, her personal income
had actually decreased by 15%. She
was working twice as hard to make less
money. This is where Profit First
principles changed everything for Sophia.
(09:36):
Instead of the traditional formula,
revenue minus expenses equals
profit, we helped her learn
to flip that equation around. Revenue
minus profit equals expenses. It sounds
too simple, but this mindset shift
changed everything. She set up those five
separate bank accounts that Profit First
teaches income, profit, owners pay,
(09:57):
taxes, and operating expenses. And every
time money came in, she would wait till
the 10th and 25th and then transfer by
predetermined percentages into each
account. At first, as we
were setting this up, Sophia was
panicking a little bit. She's like,
There's no way I can run my business on
just 55% of my real revenue. But here's
what happened. When our operating expense
(10:19):
account became a constraint, instead of
her revenue, she started making smarter
decisions. She canceled three software
subscriptions she barely used. She
negotiated with her suppliers and she
focused her team on high margin products
instead of vanity projects. Six months
later, her business was still at $80,000
a month, but her personal income had
(10:42):
increased by 40%.
Sophia learned that just because a
product has a higher revenue than another
product, if it costs more to make
that,you know if there's a higher profit
or a higher like cost, then the
profit margins could be smaller and thus
actually hurting the business. Often the
(11:03):
products she thought were the most
beautiful were the least profitable. So
she focused her team on the higher margin
products, she cut some of the lower
margin products, she raised prices for
some lower margin products that still
sold well, and guess what?They continue
to perform at this higher price. Now,
with an e-commerce business, profit
margin is pretty simple to
(11:24):
calculate, right?If you if you kind of
know what you're doing. If you have a
service business or sell a mix of
products or services, you might know that
calculating profit margin isn't as
simple. So make sure you don't miss next
week's episode where we're going to talk
about the systems to ensure
profitability, not just high revenue,
(11:45):
because I mean, again, I hear people say
their high revenue goal or, or number all
the time, and I want to know what their
real profit is, and then they say profit,
I don't know, it gets complicated what
people say. It's all about- Next week is
going to make it a lot simpler. It's all
about tracking profitability by
(12:06):
project rather than by month or
year, which is way less complicated than
it sounds. So stay tuned. For
now, we're going to move on to the third
shift. We've shifted our focus from
income to assets and from revenue to
profit. Now we're ready to shift from
operator to owner. Now, I'll never
(12:26):
forget Daniel, a brilliant web developer
who built an agency that was hovering
around $800,000 in annual revenue.
One day, I asked him to show me his
calendar for the previous week. As I
suspected, it was packed with client
meetings, coding sessions, employee
training. Every hour was accounted for,
and not a single block was dedicated to
(12:46):
strategic thinking or business
development. Daniel, I said. You
haven't built a business. You've built
yourself a demanding job with employees.
He nodded slowly, right?Not wanting to
realize, but realizing. And then he came
up with a rebuttal. He's like, well, wait
a minute, but my clients expect me
personally. They'd leave if I handed.
(13:07):
Them off to my team and they got had to
work with my team and not with me. Like
I'm the business. This is the mindset
trap that keeps so many business owners
stuck. They're still the primary
operators in their business. They're the
ones fulfilling services, serving
clients, putting out fires. And as long
as they remain in that role, their
business can never grow beyond their
(13:28):
personal capacity. So
Daniel spent the next three months making
that mental shift from operator to owner
first. He decided he's going to do it,
and then he documented his unique process
for client work. Then he identified his
three most talented team members and
trained them on that process. And then
(13:48):
finally, and this was the hardest part,
he started transitioning existing clients
to these team members. Now, did he lose
some clients?Yes, he lost about 15% of
them. But here's the amazing part. With
his newfound time, he was able to focus
on high level strategy and business
development. And within six months, new
client acquisitions were up 40% more,
(14:10):
more than making up for those who had
left. Now, this isn't about removing
yourself entirely. It's about elevating
your role. As the cliche goes, you should
be working on the business, not just in
it. And again, people use that that
cliche all the time. And I I
think most of the time those people are
working on the business. Not just in it,
(14:32):
right. So and that's just interesting
what we see. And this shift has to happen
in your mind before it can happen in
reality. It has to happen here
before it happens out there. Daniel
decided to move from operator to owner,
and it took three months to make
real, meaningful progress. It took
(14:53):
many more months to continue moving
towards more and more ownership work
and less and less operator
responsibility. It never would've
happened, though, if you wouldn't have
decided to do it, if you wouldn't have
stepped into that change. Yeah. So stay
tuned after the break for the roadblocks
that keep too many business owners from
making these three shifts from income to
(15:16):
assets, from revenue to profit, and from
operator to owner.
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
(15:36):
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
today and let's discuss your questions
and your financial goals together. Don't
wait any longer. Your financial freedom
(15:57):
awaits. Schedule your discovery call at
www.wealthwisdomfp.com/call.
So I can already hear what some of you
are thinking. We heard it from
Maria, from James, and from Sophia,
and from Daniel. Got to say it like
(16:18):
Amanda. Sophia. They say, I don't
have time to think about my mindset
shifts. I'm too busy just keeping my
business afloat. You know, you've heard
that, and you might say that. I can't
afford to take profit first. I need
every dollar to keep business growing.
My clients would leave if I won't
(16:38):
personally be involved in every
project. Those are just a few of those
things. Have you ever said those?Yeah. So
another story. I remember sitting across
from Rachel, a talented consultant who
had built a $500,000 practice. When I
suggested she needed some of these
mindset shifts, she just laughed at me.
She's like, huh, that sounds great in
theory, but you don't understand my
(16:59):
situation. I'm working 60 hours a week
just to keep up with my client demands. I
don't have the luxury of stepping back to
think about mindset. Six months later,
Rachel called me. Her voice was a little
different. This time, more tired.
I'm in the same place, she admitted.
Still working 60 hours a week,
still making roughly the same revenue.
(17:22):
Nothing has changed. That's when I told
her something and it finally clicked. I
said, the hamster wheel is never gonna
get you to the next level. Unless you
step off of it and change your approach.
I mean, kind of picture this in your head
right now. Picture a hamster on a wheel
is in the cage. There's two levels to the
cage, the wheels on the bottom, the
(17:42):
wheels on the bottom of the cage, and the
hamster is just continuing to go, go, go.
How does the hamster get to the second
level of the cage?They get off the
hamster wheel, they look around, they
find the ladder or the stairs or whatever
it is that's there. They have to change
their approach. So Rachel started small.
She blocked off just two hours every
Monday morning for strategic thinking.
(18:02):
Those two hours, she was off the hamster
wheel looking for the different approach,
right?She opened a separate profit
account, started transferring just 2% of
that revenue into it. She identified one
small client project she could delegate
to her most trusted associate. And she
has kept going two hours every Monday
morning, finding small shifts to make.
And a year later, Rachel's business had
(18:23):
grown to 750,000. But more
importantly, she was only working 40
hours a week instead of 60, and her
profit margin had doubled. So remember
that every successful business owner
once stood where you are now. The
difference is they realized they couldn't
scale their business until they scaled
their thinking first. Have to
(18:45):
scale your thinking first before you can
scale all the other things. So this is
the same thing that happened to us in our
business. We're talking from experience
here. We were a couple of years in, we
were starting to get burned out and we
started just taking one evening off every
week. No phones, no e-mail, just us, some
food, maybe a card game, a movie. The
number one rule was no talking about
(19:06):
business. That's it's really hard to do
because, you know, business was
everything for us. Yeah. Then we started
adding a morning of strategic thinking
where I would have a morning, Brandon
would have a different morning where we
just have some time to do some thinking
about whatever problem we were trying to
solve and come up with, you know, the
alternate approach to to to make it
(19:27):
happen. A short time later, we adopted
Bank on Yourself and started building an
asset separate from the business. I think
if we hadn't done those first two things,
the one night off and the two hours of
strategic thinking, we we wouldn't have
been ready to hear about Bank on
Yourself. Yeah, right. It's kind of funny
how that worked. And then we adopted
Profit First and started taking our
(19:47):
personal pay seriously. I think if
hearing about Profit First after Bank on
Yourself, I think made us ready, more
ready to start Profit First too.
Your order might be different, but for
us, it's how it went. And then over the
next few years, it just started to
snowball in a really good way and
ultimately helped us sell our business.
Yeah, I think those things, again,
(20:08):
thinking about the mindset, having that
time to think was really important.
A similar thing happened to Alex. His
business was stuck at 800K in revenue.
He had a dedicated team, loyal clients,
and industry recognition. But despite
working 12 hour days, he couldn't break
through to seven figures. Today, just
(20:30):
14 months later, his business has cleared
1.3 million in revenue. More
importantly, his personal income has
doubled and he's working thirty-five
hours a week instead of 60.
What's the difference for Alex?Well, not
a new marketing strategy, not a
revolutionary product, not an injection
of venture capital. The difference was
(20:50):
these three mindset shifts that we talked
about today. Alex started
taking 15% of every dollar that came into
his business and directing it to wealth
building assets that would grow
regardless of his business performance.
He implemented profits first principles,
setting up separate accounts and taking
his profit before calculating what he
(21:12):
could spend on operations. And he
truly embraced his role as
owner rather than the operator, investing
in systems and team members
who could deliver excellence without the
constant involvement that he was doing.
Yeah. So that million dollar mindset
shift isn't something that happens after
you scale. It's what enables you to scale
(21:34):
in the first place. But here's the key.
Alex didn't make these changes overnight.
The mindset shift, done. But then
he had to work out that mindset shift. He
started small, just like we're suggesting
you do. This week, maybe you open a
separate account for profit and commit to
transferring just 1% of your revenue
there. It's not about the amount, it's
about establishing the habit. And then
(21:56):
you can gradually increase that
percentage as your business grows. Then
look at your calendar and block off just
two hours next week for a strategic
thinking, that thinking time book, right?
Do this and think about your business.
Protect this time as fiercely as you
would your most important client meeting.
Put that on there and make sure that you
protect that time. If you're not sure
(22:18):
what to do with that- With that time,
yeah. Use it to identify just
one task you currently perform that could
be documented and delegated. Take the
first step towards elevating your role
from operator to owner and schedule the
time to be able to do the
little shift. That you can delegate.
(22:39):
Yeah. Actually, I just thought of
something. Today, this looks like 20
minutes Monday through Saturday in the
morning as part of my morning routine,
which is to, I guess, more than two
hours, roughly maybe 20 to 30
minutes per day each day is when I'm
doing my strategic thinking. It's been
really hard to have a two-hour block to
do that. So mix and mingle this, you
(23:01):
know, see how it could work for you. At
least 20 minutes, right?Yeah. But then
more days, especially as part of your
morning routine, you'll make it happen,
right?OK. And finally, if you
haven't explored the Bank On Yourself
concept as a way for business owners to
build wealth independent of their
business that can still be used to grow
their business, then we invite you to
schedule a discovery call with us at
(23:23):
wealthwisdomfp.com/call.
We'd love to help you learn more, confirm
if it's a strategy that could help you
shift from an income focus to an asset
focus and start building, you know, this
kind of asset using the Bank On Yourself
concept. Again, that website is
wealthwisdomfp.com/call.
(23:44):
Just one month after starting these types
of changes, Alex reported. For the first
time, I feel like I'm building a real
business, not just chasing the next
client or the next project. Are you ready
to experience that same shift where you
feel like you're building a real
business, not just chasing after the next
thing?Well then today we're publishing
the $1,000,000 diagnostic. This is going
(24:06):
to help you identify exactly where your
current thinking is holding you back. To
get this diagnostic, join the Wealth
Wisdom Financial Community as a premium
member. You can find out all about
membership at
wealthwisdom.mn.co.
We'll put a link in the show notes too.
Check out this diagnostic, see what it
reveals to you. It could be the turning
(24:26):
point in your business journey, just like
it was for Alex. Yeah, there are so many
resources in the community at Wealth
Wisdom. MN dot CEO that
Amanda has created, that the community
has created that can help you level up
the business. You don't have to do it
alone, right?That that's a big thing. And
in case you didn't know, we publish
Millionaire Mindset post every
(24:48):
Monday in the Wealth Wisdom Financial
Community. We call it Millionaire
Mondays. Yeah, if you want to learn to
think like a millionaire, even if you're
one already. Learning to think like a
billionaire, I guess. Or working on your
next million. Yeah. Then join us
free at
wealthwisdom.mn.co for
that Millionaire Monday mindset shift.
(25:10):
That is the free part of the community.
Yeah. So it's the free version and
there's a premium version. The premium
version has a lot to offer. The free
membership is amazing too. Particularly,
I love those Millionaire Monday posts
that we do that are all about mindset.
You can check out all of these things.
Start a free trial of the premium. Or,
you know, whatever at
wealthwisdom.mn.co.
(25:33):
Again, link in the show notes. Thanks for
joining us. Hit that subscribe button so
you don't miss next episode. We're going
to talk a little bit about how you do
some financial systems to be able to
track things like profitability, and we
hope that you live long and profit.
The stories in today's episode are based
on real life, but just like Law and
Order, they are fictional and do not
(25:54):
depict any actual person or event.
Also, the topics presented in this
podcast are for general information only
and not for the purposes of providing
legal, accounting, or investment advice.
On such matters, please consult a
professional who knows your specific
situation. So should we have done the dun
dun dun dun at the end?Yeah, for sure
next time, next time.
Are you ready to scale your business but
feel something holding you back?Perhaps
you aren't quite sure what it is, but
you're hitting a ceiling of fear or
anxiety and you aren't sure you'll be
able to continue growing. Today we're
talking about the million dollar mindset
that happen before your net
profit really begins to soar. Yes,
(00:23):
you heard that rhyming, right?Your
million dollar mindset that happens
before. Your net profit
really begins to soar. Stay tuned
to discover why your thinking needs to
shift before your revenue
and profitability does
in a world where chaos seems to reign
(00:45):
supreme, where uncertainty lurks around
every corner and financial markets 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
(01:07):
finance to assist you in navigating
through the chaos and building 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,
(01:29):
your money shouldn't be. Subscribe now
and never miss an episode.
Welcome to this month's theme, growing
and scaling. And you know, we all love
growth and scaling, right?As business
owners, this month is all about
helping business owners break through
barriers and build sustainable
(01:50):
wealth. We're passionate about helping
entrepreneurs like you create businesses
that serve your life, not the other way
around where the business is serving
everybody else and you know you know what
I'm talking about. Or you're serving your
business like a slave. Yeah, like we
don't want that. We want it to serve you,
and that's the whole point of this
episode and frankly, all the stuff that
(02:12):
we do. Yeah. So we're going to share a
few stories today and break down some
mindset shifts we believe are essential
to unlock growth. Whether you're six
figures trying to get to seven or seven
trying to get to eight, the mindset
shifts come for different people at
different times. As we tell these
stories, pay less attention to the
numbers and look for the mindset shifts
(02:33):
that stick out to you. And before you
think you already have a particular
mindset shift that we go through,
remember, there's always another layer
deeper to explore. Ready?
Okay, let's start with Maria. Yeah, so I
sat across from Maria at her favorite
coffee shop, you know, because we love
coffee shops. So she has a
design agency that had hit
(02:55):
750,000 in revenue. And from the
outside, everything looked incredible.
She had a new downtown office, a team of
eight designers, big name clients. But
as she sipped her latte, I could see the
exhaustion in her eyes. Have you ever
been in those places where you could just
see it on somebody else, you, you knew
(03:16):
they were struggling. So she told me,
I'm, I'm working 70 hour weeks. She
confessed, My revenue is up, but my
profit margins are shrinking.
Everyone's congratulating me on my
success, but honestly, I made more
money and had more freedom when it was
just me and two contractors. Yeah.
(03:37):
How can that be?Well, Maria's story isn't
unique. We often see this pattern with
clients who are stuck. They're working
harder than ever, and that million dollar
milestone seems just out of reach. And
here's the truth that Maria needed to
hear. The roadblock isn't her strategy
or her market, it's her mindset.
Yeah. Before you can scale to record
(04:00):
profits, we believe three mental shifts
are critical. These aren't just nice
ideas, they're fundamental changes in how
you think about money, time, and your
roles in your businesses. And
again, we work with a lot of, uh,
business owners and I talk to a lot of
business owners and these three, uh,
(04:21):
ideas or mindsets come up
every time. Yeah. It's kind of strange.
And what we're going to talk about today
got you thinking of an episode that came
out last month. Yeah, we a
couple weeks ago we had, it was April
16th episode Delegation Strategies
for Control Freak Entrepreneurs. It's
really fun episode and a really fun title
(04:43):
because you know, there's control freaks
sometimes. Uh, around. Uh,
and what do we do?How do we overcome that?
In that episode, we discuss what got you
here won't get you there. Try to say that
again. Yeah. What got you here won't get
you there. So not required, but maybe if
you're like trying to figure out like,
how do I get to that next level and
(05:04):
you're looking for delegation strategies,
we had a really cool matrix that we
developed. It's not the one you think you
know. That's we premiered. That's the
word I'm looking for, premiered in that
episode. Today, we got a bunch of
stories. First, we're going to tell you a
little bit about James. Three years ago,
James had what looked like a thriving
marketing consultancy. He was making
(05:25):
$500,000 a year, but felt trapped on a
profit plateau. Every time his
business grew, his expenses seemed to
grow right along with it. And, you know,
and he was always never making more
profit. During our first session,
I asked him a very simple question. It's
going to sound too simple, James.
What happens to your money after you earn
(05:47):
it?He's a little confused. Well, like,
what do you mean?I pay my expenses, my
team, myself, and whatever is left goes
back into growing the business. That's
when I realized his first mental
block. He was stuck in income
thinking instead of asset thinking.
That's a That's a big one. Income
(06:07):
thinking versus asset thinking. So
most six-figure business owners like
James are still in the paycheck mindset.
I mean, they they literally probably were
working for the man, and
now they are the the man
for themselves. And they're focused on
bringing in more money each month. But
(06:28):
millionaire business owners think
differently. They focus on building
assets that create lasting wealth.
This is exactly what banking yourself
concept teaches us. Instead of chasing
higher income that gets eaten up by
taxes and lifestyle inflation, the
business owner creates generational
wealth builds businesses that
(06:49):
continuously fund their
and their family's future. Your
business should be creating assets you
control, not just income you
spend. So what did James do?James
began setting aside 10% of his revenue
immediately when it was received,
before allocating it to expenses. He
(07:10):
would put in a specially structured asset
that grew tax-free. That's when something
remarkable shifted. Not only did he
create a wealth-building machine separate
from his business, but the discipline of
allocating that money first forced him to
make smarter decisions with the remaining
90%. James learned that greater income
(07:31):
does not translate into greater wealth
automatically. Actually, the
default is that greater income expands
lifestyle, and then when that income goes
down, debt and bankruptcy often follow.
James didn't have to start eating ramen
or skipping his morning local brew to
make this happen. Even though, you know,
we'd love our ramen. I mean, good ramen.
(07:51):
Good ramen, yeah. His His business didn't
have to downsize the team to save 10%.
He simply decided building wealth was
more important. He had that mindset
shift, and then he just started shifting
a mere 10% toward that goal. And
then, as his business grew, so did his
wealth, and that wealth gave him a
cushion for when income went down. And
that wealth also gave him freedom to work
(08:14):
more profitably rather than just take on
projects to get bigger and bigger for
bigger sake. Yes. Shifting from
income thinking to asset thinking is
powerful, and it closely relates to the
second mindset shift. The second
mindset shift is from revenue
obsession to profit
(08:35):
prioritization. Revenue obsession
to profit prioritization. Now, at first,
this isn't gonna sound like the last one,
but it's different. Sophia is a great
example here. Sophia. She runs,
not that Sophia. Yeah, from
Golden Girls. Yeah, not the Golden Girl
Sophia, different Sophia. She runs a
(08:55):
thriving e-commerce business selling
sustainable home goods, notorious for low
profit margins. A couple of years ago,
she proudly announced she'd hit $80,000 a
month. But when I asked her about her
profit margins, her smile faded. To
be honest, I have no idea, she admitted.
We're so focused on growth that we
haven't really tracked our profit margins
(09:16):
very closely. When we dug into her
numbers, we discovered something
shocking. Despite doubling her revenue
over the past year, her personal income
had actually decreased by 15%. She
was working twice as hard to make less
money. This is where Profit First
principles changed everything for Sophia.
(09:36):
Instead of the traditional formula,
revenue minus expenses equals
profit, we helped her learn
to flip that equation around. Revenue
minus profit equals expenses. It sounds
too simple, but this mindset shift
changed everything. She set up those five
separate bank accounts that Profit First
teaches income, profit, owners pay,
(09:57):
taxes, and operating expenses. And every
time money came in, she would wait till
the 10th and 25th and then transfer by
predetermined percentages into each
account. At first, as we
were setting this up, Sophia was
panicking a little bit. She's like,
There's no way I can run my business on
just 55% of my real revenue. But here's
what happened. When our operating expense
(10:19):
account became a constraint, instead of
her revenue, she started making smarter
decisions. She canceled three software
subscriptions she barely used. She
negotiated with her suppliers and she
focused her team on high margin products
instead of vanity projects. Six months
later, her business was still at $80,000
a month, but her personal income had
(10:42):
increased by 40%.
Sophia learned that just because a
product has a higher revenue than another
product, if it costs more to make
that,you know if there's a higher profit
or a higher like cost, then the
profit margins could be smaller and thus
actually hurting the business. Often the
(11:03):
products she thought were the most
beautiful were the least profitable. So
she focused her team on the higher margin
products, she cut some of the lower
margin products, she raised prices for
some lower margin products that still
sold well, and guess what?They continue
to perform at this higher price. Now,
with an e-commerce business, profit
margin is pretty simple to
(11:24):
calculate, right?If you if you kind of
know what you're doing. If you have a
service business or sell a mix of
products or services, you might know that
calculating profit margin isn't as
simple. So make sure you don't miss next
week's episode where we're going to talk
about the systems to ensure
profitability, not just high revenue,
(11:45):
because I mean, again, I hear people say
their high revenue goal or, or number all
the time, and I want to know what their
real profit is, and then they say profit,
I don't know, it gets complicated what
people say. It's all about- Next week is
going to make it a lot simpler. It's all
about tracking profitability by
(12:06):
project rather than by month or
year, which is way less complicated than
it sounds. So stay tuned. For
now, we're going to move on to the third
shift. We've shifted our focus from
income to assets and from revenue to
profit. Now we're ready to shift from
operator to owner. Now, I'll never
(12:26):
forget Daniel, a brilliant web developer
who built an agency that was hovering
around $800,000 in annual revenue.
One day, I asked him to show me his
calendar for the previous week. As I
suspected, it was packed with client
meetings, coding sessions, employee
training. Every hour was accounted for,
and not a single block was dedicated to
(12:46):
strategic thinking or business
development. Daniel, I said. You
haven't built a business. You've built
yourself a demanding job with employees.
He nodded slowly, right?Not wanting to
realize, but realizing. And then he came
up with a rebuttal. He's like, well, wait
a minute, but my clients expect me
personally. They'd leave if I handed.
(13:07):
Them off to my team and they got had to
work with my team and not with me. Like
I'm the business. This is the mindset
trap that keeps so many business owners
stuck. They're still the primary
operators in their business. They're the
ones fulfilling services, serving
clients, putting out fires. And as long
as they remain in that role, their
business can never grow beyond their
(13:28):
personal capacity. So
Daniel spent the next three months making
that mental shift from operator to owner
first. He decided he's going to do it,
and then he documented his unique process
for client work. Then he identified his
three most talented team members and
trained them on that process. And then
(13:48):
finally, and this was the hardest part,
he started transitioning existing clients
to these team members. Now, did he lose
some clients?Yes, he lost about 15% of
them. But here's the amazing part. With
his newfound time, he was able to focus
on high level strategy and business
development. And within six months, new
client acquisitions were up 40% more,
(14:10):
more than making up for those who had
left. Now, this isn't about removing
yourself entirely. It's about elevating
your role. As the cliche goes, you should
be working on the business, not just in
it. And again, people use that that
cliche all the time. And I I
think most of the time those people are
working on the business. Not just in it,
(14:32):
right. So and that's just interesting
what we see. And this shift has to happen
in your mind before it can happen in
reality. It has to happen here
before it happens out there. Daniel
decided to move from operator to owner,
and it took three months to make
real, meaningful progress. It took
(14:53):
many more months to continue moving
towards more and more ownership work
and less and less operator
responsibility. It never would've
happened, though, if you wouldn't have
decided to do it, if you wouldn't have
stepped into that change. Yeah. So stay
tuned after the break for the roadblocks
that keep too many business owners from
making these three shifts from income to
(15:16):
assets, from revenue to profit, and from
operator to owner.
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
(15:36):
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
today and let's discuss your questions
and your financial goals together. Don't
wait any longer. Your financial freedom
(15:57):
awaits. Schedule your discovery call at
www.wealthwisdomfp.com/call.
So I can already hear what some of you
are thinking. We heard it from
Maria, from James, and from Sophia,
and from Daniel. Got to say it like
(16:18):
Amanda. Sophia. They say, I don't
have time to think about my mindset
shifts. I'm too busy just keeping my
business afloat. You know, you've heard
that, and you might say that. I can't
afford to take profit first. I need
every dollar to keep business growing.
My clients would leave if I won't
(16:38):
personally be involved in every
project. Those are just a few of those
things. Have you ever said those?Yeah. So
another story. I remember sitting across
from Rachel, a talented consultant who
had built a $500,000 practice. When I
suggested she needed some of these
mindset shifts, she just laughed at me.
She's like, huh, that sounds great in
theory, but you don't understand my
(16:59):
situation. I'm working 60 hours a week
just to keep up with my client demands. I
don't have the luxury of stepping back to
think about mindset. Six months later,
Rachel called me. Her voice was a little
different. This time, more tired.
I'm in the same place, she admitted.
Still working 60 hours a week,
still making roughly the same revenue.
(17:22):
Nothing has changed. That's when I told
her something and it finally clicked. I
said, the hamster wheel is never gonna
get you to the next level. Unless you
step off of it and change your approach.
I mean, kind of picture this in your head
right now. Picture a hamster on a wheel
is in the cage. There's two levels to the
cage, the wheels on the bottom, the
(17:42):
wheels on the bottom of the cage, and the
hamster is just continuing to go, go, go.
How does the hamster get to the second
level of the cage?They get off the
hamster wheel, they look around, they
find the ladder or the stairs or whatever
it is that's there. They have to change
their approach. So Rachel started small.
She blocked off just two hours every
Monday morning for strategic thinking.
(18:02):
Those two hours, she was off the hamster
wheel looking for the different approach,
right?She opened a separate profit
account, started transferring just 2% of
that revenue into it. She identified one
small client project she could delegate
to her most trusted associate. And she
has kept going two hours every Monday
morning, finding small shifts to make.
And a year later, Rachel's business had
(18:23):
grown to 750,000. But more
importantly, she was only working 40
hours a week instead of 60, and her
profit margin had doubled. So remember
that every successful business owner
once stood where you are now. The
difference is they realized they couldn't
scale their business until they scaled
their thinking first. Have to
(18:45):
scale your thinking first before you can
scale all the other things. So this is
the same thing that happened to us in our
business. We're talking from experience
here. We were a couple of years in, we
were starting to get burned out and we
started just taking one evening off every
week. No phones, no e-mail, just us, some
food, maybe a card game, a movie. The
number one rule was no talking about
(19:06):
business. That's it's really hard to do
because, you know, business was
everything for us. Yeah. Then we started
adding a morning of strategic thinking
where I would have a morning, Brandon
would have a different morning where we
just have some time to do some thinking
about whatever problem we were trying to
solve and come up with, you know, the
alternate approach to to to make it
(19:27):
happen. A short time later, we adopted
Bank on Yourself and started building an
asset separate from the business. I think
if we hadn't done those first two things,
the one night off and the two hours of
strategic thinking, we we wouldn't have
been ready to hear about Bank on
Yourself. Yeah, right. It's kind of funny
how that worked. And then we adopted
Profit First and started taking our
(19:47):
personal pay seriously. I think if
hearing about Profit First after Bank on
Yourself, I think made us ready, more
ready to start Profit First too.
Your order might be different, but for
us, it's how it went. And then over the
next few years, it just started to
snowball in a really good way and
ultimately helped us sell our business.
Yeah, I think those things, again,
(20:08):
thinking about the mindset, having that
time to think was really important.
A similar thing happened to Alex. His
business was stuck at 800K in revenue.
He had a dedicated team, loyal clients,
and industry recognition. But despite
working 12 hour days, he couldn't break
through to seven figures. Today, just
(20:30):
14 months later, his business has cleared
1.3 million in revenue. More
importantly, his personal income has
doubled and he's working thirty-five
hours a week instead of 60.
What's the difference for Alex?Well, not
a new marketing strategy, not a
revolutionary product, not an injection
of venture capital. The difference was
(20:50):
these three mindset shifts that we talked
about today. Alex started
taking 15% of every dollar that came into
his business and directing it to wealth
building assets that would grow
regardless of his business performance.
He implemented profits first principles,
setting up separate accounts and taking
his profit before calculating what he
(21:12):
could spend on operations. And he
truly embraced his role as
owner rather than the operator, investing
in systems and team members
who could deliver excellence without the
constant involvement that he was doing.
Yeah. So that million dollar mindset
shift isn't something that happens after
you scale. It's what enables you to scale
(21:34):
in the first place. But here's the key.
Alex didn't make these changes overnight.
The mindset shift, done. But then
he had to work out that mindset shift. He
started small, just like we're suggesting
you do. This week, maybe you open a
separate account for profit and commit to
transferring just 1% of your revenue
there. It's not about the amount, it's
about establishing the habit. And then
(21:56):
you can gradually increase that
percentage as your business grows. Then
look at your calendar and block off just
two hours next week for a strategic
thinking, that thinking time book, right?
Do this and think about your business.
Protect this time as fiercely as you
would your most important client meeting.
Put that on there and make sure that you
protect that time. If you're not sure
(22:18):
what to do with that- With that time,
yeah. Use it to identify just
one task you currently perform that could
be documented and delegated. Take the
first step towards elevating your role
from operator to owner and schedule the
time to be able to do the
little shift. That you can delegate.
(22:39):
Yeah. Actually, I just thought of
something. Today, this looks like 20
minutes Monday through Saturday in the
morning as part of my morning routine,
which is to, I guess, more than two
hours, roughly maybe 20 to 30
minutes per day each day is when I'm
doing my strategic thinking. It's been
really hard to have a two-hour block to
do that. So mix and mingle this, you
(23:01):
know, see how it could work for you. At
least 20 minutes, right?Yeah. But then
more days, especially as part of your
morning routine, you'll make it happen,
right?OK. And finally, if you
haven't explored the Bank On Yourself
concept as a way for business owners to
build wealth independent of their
business that can still be used to grow
their business, then we invite you to
schedule a discovery call with us at
(23:23):
wealthwisdomfp.com/call.
We'd love to help you learn more, confirm
if it's a strategy that could help you
shift from an income focus to an asset
focus and start building, you know, this
kind of asset using the Bank On Yourself
concept. Again, that website is
wealthwisdomfp.com/call.
(23:44):
Just one month after starting these types
of changes, Alex reported. For the first
time, I feel like I'm building a real
business, not just chasing the next
client or the next project. Are you ready
to experience that same shift where you
feel like you're building a real
business, not just chasing after the next
thing?Well then today we're publishing
the $1,000,000 diagnostic. This is going
(24:06):
to help you identify exactly where your
current thinking is holding you back. To
get this diagnostic, join the Wealth
Wisdom Financial Community as a premium
member. You can find out all about
membership at
wealthwisdom.mn.co.
We'll put a link in the show notes too.
Check out this diagnostic, see what it
reveals to you. It could be the turning
(24:26):
point in your business journey, just like
it was for Alex. Yeah, there are so many
resources in the community at Wealth
Wisdom. MN dot CEO that
Amanda has created, that the community
has created that can help you level up
the business. You don't have to do it
alone, right?That that's a big thing. And
in case you didn't know, we publish
Millionaire Mindset post every
(24:48):
Monday in the Wealth Wisdom Financial
Community. We call it Millionaire
Mondays. Yeah, if you want to learn to
think like a millionaire, even if you're
one already. Learning to think like a
billionaire, I guess. Or working on your
next million. Yeah. Then join us
free at
wealthwisdom.mn.co for
that Millionaire Monday mindset shift.
(25:10):
That is the free part of the community.
Yeah. So it's the free version and
there's a premium version. The premium
version has a lot to offer. The free
membership is amazing too. Particularly,
I love those Millionaire Monday posts
that we do that are all about mindset.
You can check out all of these things.
Start a free trial of the premium. Or,
you know, whatever at
wealthwisdom.mn.co.
(25:33):
Again, link in the show notes. Thanks for
joining us. Hit that subscribe button so
you don't miss next episode. We're going
to talk a little bit about how you do
some financial systems to be able to
track things like profitability, and we
hope that you live long and profit.
The stories in today's episode are based
on real life, but just like Law and
Order, they are fictional and do not
(25:54):
depict any actual person or event.
Also, the topics presented in this
podcast are for general information only
and not for the purposes of providing
legal, accounting, or investment advice.
On such matters, please consult a
professional who knows your specific
situation. So should we have done the dun
dun dun dun at the end?Yeah, for sure
next time, next time.
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