May 15, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy, and Smart Podcast, host Dr. Karen Litzy welcomes TJ Slattery, a seasoned entrepreneur and strategic advisor dedicated to helping small business owners thrive. With over 20 years of experience in small business management, TJ shares insights on how to grow your business while achieving personal and professional freedom sustainably. He reflects on his entrepreneurial journey, which began in his youth with various small ventures, and discusses the importance of leveraging experience and strategic partnerships to propel business success. Tune in for valuable tips and inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners alike!
Time Stamps:
[00:03:25] Strategic leaders vs. reactive operators.
[00:03:48] Importance of proactive planning.
[00:07:30] Delegating roles in business.
[00:12:24] Owner feedback and business growth.
[00:15:24] Transitioning from PT to CEO.
[00:19:00] Team toxicity and leadership challenges.
[00:21:20] System changes and entrepreneurship challenges.
[00:27:30] Celebrating personal business wins.
[00:28:07] The importance of asking questions.
[00:32:07] Take it easier on yourself.
More About TJ Slattery:
TJ is a lifetime entrepreneur, small business owner, and strategic advisor with an insatiable desire to help other small business owners scale their enterprise and gain freedom in their professional and personal lives. With 20 years operating in the world of small business and entrepreneurship, TJ leverages his boots-on-the-ground experience and tenure as a business advisor to partner with small business owners and propel their business to the next level.
A Denverite with midwestern roots and a passion for music, gardening, house-projects, travel, skiing, and spoiling his dog Bella, TJ has a deep appreciation for keeping a balance between running a successful business and pursuing the things in life that make us happy.
TJ earned his bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Business Management from Miami University of Ohio and his MBA from the University of Denver. Gathering more experiences along the way, TJ has worked in multitude of industries. From owning and operating a pedicab service in Vail, CO and a handyman service in Denver, CO, to becoming a partner in a facilities management firm in London, UK and starting Zuni Street Brewing in Denver, CO.
Resources from this Episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Healthy, Wealthy, and Smart Podcast.
I am your host, Dr. Karen Litzy, owner of Karen Litzy Physical Therapy,
located in New York City. And today we are going to
be talking about business, specifically your
business, your small business, and how you can grow
that business in a way that's sustainable. So I'm really
(00:26):
happy to have joined me TJ Slattery. TJ
is a lifetime entrepreneur, small business owner, and strategic advisor
with an insatiable desire to help other small business owners scale
their enterprise and gain freedom in their professional and personal lives. With
20 years operating in the world of small business and entrepreneurship, TJ
leverages his boots on the ground experience and tenure as
(00:49):
a business advisor to partner with small business owners
and propel their business to the next level. So TJ,
I'm thrilled. This is one of the things we love to talk about on the podcast is
business, especially for our entrepreneurs and small business
(01:10):
owners. So before we get into that, could you tell
us even a little bit more about you and how you got to where
Yeah, so as you mentioned in my introduction, my whole background has been small
business management and entrepreneurship, you know, since I was. kid
in middle school and high school running small companies, everything from
a lemonade stand to a handyman business. It
(01:33):
just always was driven into me to have the desire to
be running multiple different hats of business at one time. And
so I pursued business in college. I wasn't sure I was gonna be an entrepreneur or not full-time at
that point, but wound up with a degree called Interdisciplinary Business
Management, which is as vague as
it sounds. You can come out becoming a master of none, but knowing
(01:54):
a little bit about everything. And so I went when got into the business world, it
was really helpful to have aspects of your education
brought up into all right, I know a bit about accounting and
economics and finance and marketing and management. And
so from taking that as a. you know, my
educational role and then bring it into the real world, it kind of gave me
(02:15):
a stronger feel like this is so much fun to actually put this into play and
start making things come to life and saying, what's the
vision? What do you want to do? What's the goal from this kind of business? Okay, that's
where I want to get to. What are all the little steps I have to put into place to
actually make this happen? And so it was great combining the educational background
experience with making things come to life and see them, you
(02:39):
So it sounds like you are a real problem solver.
Yes, yes, yes. Were you like a big
Like puzzling, but like more of a mental problem to get through. What
resources do we have? What do we have to get with them in what amount of time? Okay,
(03:04):
Perfect. Yeah. I was the same kind of kid. I love, I'm a puzzle person
myself. Like, but not just like, you know, the putting puzzle pieces
together, but like you said, kind of looking at things from different angles
and figuring out how to make it work or
reverse engineering and see why it worked in the first place. So
I'm with you there. Now, you know, through
(03:26):
your work, as we just mentioned, you kind
of help business owners transform from
reactive operators to strategic leaders. So
can you share some of the biggest obstacles business
owners face when trying to make this shift?
(03:48):
Absolutely. So I want to start with why is it important? because
there's a lot of owners that they've been doing this for five or 10 years. And they're like, well, I'm still a
reactive owner. What's wrong with that? What do I have to become? You
know, looking towards the future. And it's because of that reactivity that
we never really quite get ahead of things. It's, you know, part of the firm that I've built
is Crozes Consulting. And the metaphor behind that is, you know,
(04:10):
your ship is your business. It's out to sea. And you're afloat. And
that's great. But you're below deck with everybody else taking on
water. And you're just shoveling out and trying to keep it afloat. But
you're below deck, and because you're below deck, you keep hitting icebergs. You
can't see them coming. And you keep missing opportunities, like land, because
you're below deck and can't see anything. So the point is to get you up in the crow's nest
(04:30):
and be able to see further off in the horizon on where is this thing actually
going? Can I plan a course? Do I have a plan if X, Y,
or Z happens? And I can see it coming ahead of time. So it's
helping owners to get into that position because it brings your blood
pressure down. You've got a plan. You're not worried about what's going to happen tomorrow
or next week because you have a backup plan, a system for everything that could
(04:50):
be coming into your view. And
so it's getting people into that mindset of changing. I'm in the crow's nest.
I can see things coming. I'm not going to be below deck like
everybody else and just feel the rock hit and be like, oh my gosh, we got hit by
that rock. Let's try and fix it. It's no, it's that rock coming on
for a couple of days. We've got a plan for it. veer away
and not have to do it that way. So A, that's why it's important. Let's get
(05:13):
to a place where we are planning ahead, not just a week or a day, but
six and 12 and 18 months and up to 10 years. We've
got a smooth plan and you have your plan if
Right, right, yes. Plans are good. So
when you're working with a business owner, I assume you're kind
(05:35):
of helping them shape that plan, but what
are the biggest obstacles you've seen with
the clients that you work with in
order to make that shift, in order to get that plan to
Yes, thanks for reiterating that question. I know I got a bit away on
my metaphor, but it's the biggest issue with those owners
(05:59):
is letting go. So if they're gonna be looking- Tell me about it. Right,
if I wanna be able to build this into a place where I've got a crow's nest
to climb into, I gotta be okay with letting go of
the bucket in the basement. Because we've built these from the ground up,
we're used to doing the hustle and bustle of
the day-to-day, and there's a lot of reasons why people don't
(06:19):
wanna let go. We can get into a few of those. One is they
have an issue with trust. Nobody else can do this job but me.
I can't possibly hand this off to anyone else. They're going to do it right. They're going to do as
well as me. This is built around my skill set. If I give it to somebody else,
I will suffer. I can't. That's my excuse for not letting go. Another
one could be as a guilt factor. This is a really hard job. It takes a
(06:40):
lot of effort. I couldn't possibly give it to somebody else. I would feel bad
letting it go. Or the guilt in that
moving up to that next level is I'm not in the boiler room every day being beat
up. What am I doing? If I've handed this off to somebody else,
do I even have a role in my business? So there's an issue with delegating that
job and evolving with the position, because they're afraid of, what
(07:02):
will I be doing next? And that I've come into a lot with clients. I think that's probably
the biggest one that we come up against. What the heck is going to be my role
in this if I end up hiring these three people, stabilizing operations?
And then there's nothing else for me to do. I'm just a knock around, you
know, turnkey owner. You're like,
no, no, no, just wait. Once you get to that stage, it's a whole new
(07:22):
set of problems that you're not addressing now that you could be, if you
could free up some time and start seeing it from the next level up in
Yeah. And I think as a business owner, I can relate
to all of those points that you just said. The trust,
the letting go, the guilt, it's all
there. And it's really, really hard. to do
(07:45):
that. So if I
were your client, what would you say to me to help let go
I mean, take each situation as
it comes. So if it's a, no
one can fix it but me, that's probably the
least common but the hardest one to overcome. And if
(08:05):
it's I've usually weeded that out. I haven't had that
as an issue with clients before because I know they wouldn't
have hired me in the first place if that was their attitude. You need
to have some level of like, I understand there's people out there that can
do part of my job better than I can. And that's a
humility that you have to gain on your own. But you have to have the
(08:25):
confidence in yourself to go and get this thing started and move it. The
humility to say like, you know what? There are people that are out there that could do better
accounting and better marketing. and better run the front desk than
I can, or at least do it as good as I can. You have to be able
to get over the hump of, no one can do this job but me. So
for that, it's more, if I'm talking with owners about it, it's hard to get
into that psyche because they kind of have to come over that hump on their own of,
(08:50):
I can trust somebody else. I'm not making Jesus tears
here in my job role. Somebody else has the potential to do this for
me. On the guilt side, it's understanding What
I like to do is look at your accountability chart or your org chart and
say, okay, you're right here right now. There's seven people in your company
(09:10):
that have these roles. Your goal in the next two years is to get to
this point in the business. with your revenue, with
the size of your business, how many employees you have, how many patients you're seeing. In order to
get from here to here, where do the roles have to shift? And
so we start planning out every six months, like what will that accountability chart
look like over the next two years? And realizing that there's no
(09:30):
way that you can stay in this same role and hit these
goals, whatever they are, over that period of
time without you shifting responsibilities and saying, oh my gosh, If
we're doing twice as much revenue this time next year and I keep this role, I'm
going to be dying. I'm going to be doing 120 hours a week plus XYZ.
So you start to visualize and see that this role is not sustainable
(09:52):
unless I find a way to start delegating. And then I'm not feeling bad
about handing off this job. It's in order for this company to
go forward, I have to hand this off and I have to find somebody
that I can trust. And so you feel a lot better about A, giving
it to somebody else, but B, I'm not just handing it off and walking away.
I'm handing it off so I can focus more on this larger role
(10:13):
and I can see what my path is and how I'm going to grow into
Yeah. And I think you really do need
someone outside your business to help with that. Someone like
yourself, someone who can come in and look at things
from a more unbiased approach. Right?
And take the emotion out of it and allow you
(10:35):
to kind of see, see
everything, you know, from the ground up, because
It is. Well, and we, as entrepreneurs, we get so caught in
our tunnel vision and our day to day, and we see the cause
and effect and the microcosm of how we operate, but to be able
(10:56):
to step back and really open up that, that vision, It's
so important to be able to do that, whether it's, you know, get somebody
in there for like a day or two workshop and just to blow this apart. Somebody
that you can trust is going to come in and be a little cynical and
ask hard questions about what that plan is. My favorite thing to do with
business owners when we're first talking is we'll take two hours, deep dive their
(11:19):
business. Say, let's go through your whole plan. Like what's your vision and
goals for the next few years? But then go through all of your different products,
services, what's your revenue? What's your marketing gonna look like? How many employees
you have to hire? And we just kind of go through the plan and asking a lot of
core questions around how they plan to do all of this. And
the goal behind it is to say, all right, well, let's either poke
(11:40):
holes in what you're doing, Well, yes, and things you've put
into place. It's already good, but we can do more. Or just say, hey, that
system looks outstanding. I bet that'll last you for the next five
or 10 million in growth. But it's getting that outside perspective from
somebody that's not in it all the time that'll say, where are
(12:01):
Right, right. And what's coming
up for me is to, as a business
owner, is to not take it personally. Right, it's not
an indictment on the owner. You know what I mean? Yes. And
I'm sure you've encountered that here and there, but you can't take it
personally. You have to be able to kind of separate yourself from
(12:24):
There's a great book out
that a lot of my friends in small business acquisitions,
if there are brokers in that place, it's like the Bible. And
it's something about how to tell an owner their baby's ugly. Like your
baby's ugly, how you sell it, because that's how they'll see
it. And so brokers, it happens every time they come in and the
(12:45):
owner rarely is actually on the money on what the company is worth.
And so that broker has to evaluate for them and say, look, I know you've put
all this into it and every single piece, but it's
really worth X, Y, and Z. And it's the baby's ugly.
So I have a similar job in that we're not, It's
to not validate everything that they're doing. Everything is perfect. We
(13:08):
don't need to be talking. But to be able to come in and you're
right, as an owner, be able to be receptive of
that feedback. And this is not an attack on you. This is
some other ideas on how to do this differently and overcome some of the problems. Like if
you have a major pain point here, you gotta be able to get feedback on
something else in the business that might actually be affecting you. Agreeing and
(13:28):
saying, this is a growing opportunity. This isn't TJ coming in
Right. And you're you're probably not coming in like that guy on Bar Rescue,
like just like coming in and berating. But then at the end,
they're happy. But it's like, oh, my God, if someone came in to
my business like that, I would just be like, this is not for me. You
(13:49):
are not the guy to help me. So, you know, coming
in with with some empathy, you
know, for the owner. But then the owner as the owner, you have to
It's a hard thing to do. You've gotten this far by
being so confident in yourself, in your systems. You
(14:11):
really can't lean on your employees that much or somebody at home
because at home it's gonna drive them crazy. Employees that kind of
gets, because of conflict of interest sometimes, if you're strategizing with them. Who
are you able to talk to about this kind of stuff and get that feedback? And
so now actually getting a moment where you're getting that feedback and
pushback, it helps you kind of push your ideas against something and
(14:34):
Yeah, absolutely. And I think like everything that
we're talking about right now reminds me of, and we talked
about this before we went on the air, is when I did the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small
Business Program, I felt like I entered as a PT who
happened to own a business, but I left as a business owner that
happens to
(14:55):
be a PT. And I know that's something that you help businesses
do. And this is kind of what we're talking about from being like the accidental entrepreneur
to a confident CEO. So in
your experience, what are some common signs that the
business owner is ready for that shift?
And part two of that question, have you ever started working
(15:24):
Very well lined up. So what's
to say that they're ready for the shift? Yeah. Major
signs that they've been doing this for a few years. Right? It's
not, it's not day one. They're able to still be, you know, in
the day to day and learn all the pieces of the business. So they've been going on for a little while, but
they keep getting bumped around or they're stuck. And
(15:47):
it's maybe my revenue has been stuck for a while. That's a major sign that I've had the same
kind of revenue or profitability year after year. There's, there's no room
for growth. What am I doing? I'm sticking here. There's a lot of burnout that's happening. You
know, be in that same spot. I'm burning out. What am I doing? I've been, you
know, kind of turning my wheels. Nothing is growing. We have a
lot of high turnover within your business. where
(16:08):
you can't really keep people on because you have some archaic systems or you
need some sprucing up on your recruitment and retention policies, you'll
start seeing some of these major really pain points that are happening within the
business that you're experiencing that's telling you like, all
right, I keep bumping into things. You know, a similar
metaphor with not being up in the crow's nest. So I'm not really planning
(16:28):
ahead. I'm still being the reactive person. I'm the one
doing 90% of the actual operational work. I don't have people
that I can depend on to go and do A, B, and C. You
start to see that I've been doing this for long enough, but I'm still the
one running the plumbing company turning wrenches. Why am
I still the one doing it? If you're the one that all of the revenue
(16:48):
generation is still based on after those three years, okay,
I need to figure out a way to start transitioning this where I'm managing other
people. And as we talked about before, the death of every entrepreneur is
we all become glorified managers. And so you're running
a PT clinic, but you're still doing all the PT. You've been
doing it for a few years and things are going pretty well, but you just can't move
(17:10):
up the ladder because you haven't taken the time to say, can
I take a little space in the business and see where would I fit in other
people into my practice? That they're taking on appointments and I'm doing
less. and working more as a manager on the marketing, on
the recruitment and retention, on the facility, on customer care
and planning for the future. And the more I'm doing that, I think you can flirt from the
business, the more I have time to put other people in my old position and grow.
(17:34):
So loaded answer on all the different things to look for.
But those are a few of the pieces that come up for me when I see
someone's ready to make that transition, ready to get more in that driver's
Yeah, that makes sense. And have you ever had someone that you said, Nope, not
Or, or just not yet. Maybe not come back. Well,
(17:57):
sometimes it's um, it's more of a mental mental capacity.
Passive mental piece of like, you need to get over this hump. Like
I can't teach you to be humble. Like we talked before,
major issue on getting to that next level is you
gotta be able to delegate and trust people. But if you alone can
fix it and you're the best in the world at this, you can't let anybody do that job, it's
(18:21):
hard for me in my capacity to change
Yeah, yeah, you have to do a little work with maybe another kind
of professional to help you get over some of those fears.
Yes, exactly, which, I end up doing some therapy
(18:42):
in sessions. Yeah, I'm sure. That's not my certification, but
Refer that one out. Another one that comes up that tells you
you're not ready is there's a lot of toxicity with the team that
you have. And again, this goes back to the old. if there is often
there is a lot of high turnover, okay, let's go look and see why this is.
(19:02):
Is it something we can fix that's in the system? Or is this what's
coming from the top down that is bleeding out
and you're really just mistreating all of your people, whether it's intentional or
not. You need to get to the bottom of that. And if it's, you're
just kind of a toxic owner that's hard to work with, that
might be a big hiccup in making you become that CEO because
(19:25):
So either fix your systems and how you're bringing people on, retaining them,
or look and say, maybe I need to adjust how I'm treating my
people because whatever I'm doing, it's a revolving door at the front.
Yeah, and that actually dovetails nicely
into the next question I was gonna ask you. You really teed it up for me there.
It's perfect. So this
(19:49):
was certainly my experience and many entrepreneurial friends is
that some of the most significant challenges we face as business owners
are implementing new systems and new processes.
It's the scariest piece. You talked about this
before a little bit. Did you ever see Indiana Jones 3? It's
(20:15):
I think there's Nazis in all of them. At least the first one. It's like Sean Connery.
One of the challenges he has to do towards the end of the movie is like
a series of challenges and one's a test of faith and you have to walk across this
And he takes that step and he closes his eyes and his
(20:39):
He's like, whew, thank God, because it would have been a thousand foot drop. It's
like entrepreneurs know that feeling because they do it every week.
I've had to do it at least one time in their career, if not 500 times, where
it's like, I've done all the planning. I've done all the research. I
know ice is important. I need to have this. I put all my faith in my background
and experience and knowledge. I just have to have the
(21:01):
nuts to go make that step. It's a reason that a
lot of people don't get into entrepreneurship, that they can't, because
there is that little bit of crazy, little bit of like, I've got faith in me, and
this mad plan is gonna all come to fruition, is
that Indiana Jones step. And that happens on
multiple different kinds of occasions and reasons, but a big one is putting in a
(21:21):
new system, because it's so scary when you finally hit the switch.
Is this gonna work? Is it gonna be, 20% more efficient,
like the reason that we signed up and planned for it? Is it going to be 100% more? Is it going
to just fall on its face when you start from scratch? Is this going to make everything else in
the company go down for three days? What are the pros
and cons of making this go into play? So for one, I
(21:42):
just want to say, I empathize heavily with that moment of introducing a
new system. And it's just, you've done as much research
Mm hmm. Yeah. And I see that a lot, that
resistance to changing systems when it comes to
certainly in the medical profession, like the electronic medical records.
(22:04):
Like there's so many EMRs or EHRs out there. And
if you're using one, people are
so hesitant and scared to transfer from one
system to the other, even if the other system is likely to
be the better of the systems. Or even going from
paper to a system, an
(22:25):
automated system that's gonna make your life so much easier, but it's really scary. That
was one of the scariest things that I did. I mean, I did it
a number of years ago, but I remember thinking, oh my gosh,
this is not gonna work. This is gonna, you know, everything's gonna be disrupted
kind of like to your point. And now working with Jane, which is
the name of my EMR, it really has like, that
(22:45):
is a system that I've been able to put into play
that has just made life so much easier. But
It's terrifying. Yeah. Especially when it's early days,
you know, because that could be a system that you had put in a place when you
started the business. And you think about this house of cards
(23:06):
you've built all this time, and that, you know, it's
this massive organization that you've built, and now you're going to
wipe the board clear and put in a new one thing to
replace all of that. And I hope it works, but I've got all,
it was like my first employee was that system. And I'm just going to get rid of it
and bring somebody else in new is a lot of attachment to that.
And it's also a mental block of like, I got to wipe all of
(23:28):
this away and hope that this new thing works. And
often it does. You've done the research. You're a smart entrepreneur. You know it'll
go, but you have to be comfortable with that letting go again, which
honestly, we could go back in our conversation and plug this one in, is you've
got to be able to let go. If you're going to move from being an operating owner to
a CEO, you've got to let go. People and systems come and go. And
(23:50):
systems like this is a big piece that even
though we're working right now on a handwritten documentation, hey,
you can move to Epic and save 400 hours of man
Right, exactly, exactly. But you know, it's scary. And
I remember after I switched and started to get used to it, I
(24:12):
was like, oh man, this was so smart of me,
and I kind of celebrated that. So when you're working with
your clients, how do you help them celebrate those
wins, whether they be big or small? Because I feel
like in the celebration of those wins, things kind of snowball and
it also helps to change your mindset a little bit. Is
(24:35):
Oh, you pulled that one right out of there. So with clients, I
will absolutely document the wins. Anytime we,
because we'll make a roadmap and say over the next 6 months, here's all the
things we identify that we need to work on and put into action or move forward.
So definitely tracking and documenting and saying, oh, my God, by month 2, we
actually had a whole turnover on that system. implemented this and
(24:55):
now those other things are, you know, the days behind us. For me, that's just a huge retention
tool. Like, look at the stuff we actually did. You used to see me every couple of
weeks, but like, we're actually working. But for owners
to do that on their own is super important. It'll look back at all the many achievements
that you've done and all those little Indiana Jones steps
that you've made over the last year. And I decline to do that for themselves. Like,
(25:15):
I just feel like I'm stuck. I'm not doing anything. I'm like, do you remember what we were doing last year? Like
who your client base was then and the problems you were working on
and the systems you were dealing with and have them go back through all of our
notes and they pulled out all the different micro steps that we had made over
that time. Like, oh my God, I can't imagine dealing with how my
company was set up a year ago. So it's good to make sure you are
(25:36):
documenting when you make those steps. So celebrating at the time, but
then going back and give yourself a pat on the back. You've come so far in
three months. It doesn't feel like it because you're moving at a million miles an
hour and you're so focused and you're in the trenches. But when you stop and
pull back up, look at all the things that we were able to knock out this year
and what a better place we are. I love tracking that and getting the
(25:58):
track record of what was my org chart like? You
know, keep that as it's a, it's a movable, you
know, accountability chart on what, who's
in the company, what they're doing, but say, Hey, the
one from when we had eight people in 2013, let's pull
that up. And like, oh my God, do you remember what that was like? And
(26:18):
I had those people were here. I was like, they had to own all the marketing. No,
it was crazy. And just see over time how that had
grown and remembering all those hard decisions you had to make, but
it got you this much further. So it's huge to document those, look
Right, and it's so ironic because as physical therapists and
as a lot of like healthcare entrepreneurs, we document our
(26:41):
patients' progress and show them,
like, remember when we did this strength testing on your leg and
your right leg was 60% of your left? And four
weeks later, look, it's 80% and it's a huge celebration. So
we do it all the time with our patients and
(27:08):
Think about even like selling. You can sell somebody
When it comes to your own self-promotion, it's like, oh, I'm good.
I'm okay. I do. Yeah. Right. Same thing with, I'm going to
celebrate my own wins. Like I'm not going to do that. Like, good job. Like you're supposed to
do that anyway, but it's important to go back and track those and give yourself
(27:30):
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So as we start to kind
of wrap things up a little bit, I have something, maybe a little more personal
question from for you as the strategic business
coach. And you've worked with a lot of different clients over
the years. So what were some of the most unexpected
lessons that you have learned from helping businesses
(27:57):
Let's see. So some of the biggest pieces that I've learned
in working with those different companies
is to always be, like, stay curious. Don't take anything for
granted and ask the hard questions. And I've learned that through
my own business dealings. And, you know, you're shy or you
don't want to be vulnerable and say you don't know something, or
(28:19):
that you understand what somebody's saying, like, oh yeah, I got it. And
you're like, Google X, Y, Z. Almost
always comes back to bite you in the ass. And with
clients, I've seen that a lot in my own business, just in, you
might make an assumption about somebody. They're really good with Excel spreadsheets. They
show you that they built this to perform in the next 12 months. Like, oh my gosh, this is great. Okay.
(28:42):
We're going to not focus on your financials right off the bat, because obviously
you have a really firm grasp of how all this is looking. And we can come
to that in like session two or three. Session two or three
comes around and I finally see your financials and it's a total bloody mess. I'm like, oh
my God, why did we not focus on this? I
trusted that you knew what you were talking about with the financials and
(29:02):
I didn't ask that extra question. And now we
should be dealing with this six weeks ago. And
now we're dealing with the, okay, and it's, I've learned that making
assumptions based on, you know, they seem really skillful at this, they're
talking about that, like, okay, show me, I'd love to see what you put together
there. And so being tactful, and you're not trying to, you know, bury
(29:23):
somebody in because they don't know something, but tactfully asking,
oh, that's great, you're really into your financials, I'd love to see what you've set up. Okay,
good. Turns out you really do know what you're talking about. All right, we'll put this aside. We can move
on. But actually be brave to ask the hard questions
and really get into the meat of it because sometimes people are coy and
they want to present that they do know everything, even though they're being vulnerable
(29:45):
and allowing you into their space. Some things they really do want to
present strongly on, but you need to be inquisitive and
tactful enough to get a layer deeper and really understand Do
they have this figured out? Is it ironed out? Because it really is your responsibility to
make sure that this is a solid system or piece put together. Because if
you don't, you've already given it your seal of approval. It's going to come and just
(30:07):
eviscerate you in three months from now when you find out it wasn't as stable as
Yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, I think that's all some great lessons
for you to learn and thanks for telling them to the rest of us
because now we can steal your lessons from you. So
before we end, well, I have one question that I
ask everyone, but before we even get to that, what
(30:29):
are the big takeaways that you want the listeners to come away with
Got it. Big takeaways from our conversation today You
know, take some time. We can address this specifically, but a lot of this was revolving around
it. Take some time to step out of your business and really get
out of your Zoom tunnel mode and
(30:50):
see what's actually happening here. and look at your systems of
processes, take some time and look at what's your plan for the next year or
two. And it's cliche, but spend time working on your business and
not just in it. What is the plan? How is my
org chart gonna grow? What are my financials gonna look like? Is
there actually a one, two, three step on how, from revenue
all the way down to profitability, that this is all gonna function together? Or
(31:13):
am I just still on the roller coaster that I built three years ago that's
still just pulling me along and we're still alive, but I have really no
control over it? So it's take some time, step back, get
a trusted friend or a counselor, take a look at your, or advisor,
take a look at your plan and be vulnerable and have somebody poke some
holes and say, maybe this is why you're kind of stuck in this loop.
(31:37):
If you're trying to get here and you're at this place now, what's
actually missing? So have an open mind, be vulnerable, but
get a little bit outside of your business so you can see what are
Yeah, perfect. Well said. And now on
to the question that I ask everyone, knowing where
you are now in your life and career, what advice would you give to
(32:02):
Let's see to my 20 year old self. Don't do it.
So many people say that I had
someone the other day. She she's they didn't
say it on air, but they said, oh, I would say
(32:24):
My advice to my 20-year-old self would be
take it easier on yourself. Take it a lot easier
on yourself. There's plenty of people out there that will beat the
hell out of you just because. It doesn't have
to come from you as well. And you're gonna mess up over
and over again. You're always gonna make mistakes. Your job is to learn from
(32:47):
them and to keep growing and to not... miss
a beat, kicking your own ass when you could be growing from
it and moving on and don't get stuck
in those trenches. So be gentle with yourself and give some room
I love that. So many other people try and beat you up. Don't be
(33:09):
No, no. I love it. Now, TJ, where can people find
you if they want to learn more about you? They want to follow you on social media.
If you want to reach out or just check out my website, it's
crowsnestmindset.com. If you want to fill out a form, you can get
an appointment and we'll grab 30 minutes and chitchat about your business. Or
if you want to reach out directly, you can hit me up on my email, which is
(33:34):
Perfect. And everyone, I know if you weren't taking
notes through all of this, not to worry, whatever platform you're listening
on right now, just scroll down to the show notes and
all of the links to all of TJ's information will be in
the show notes. So one click will take you to all of his info.
So TJ, thank you so much for coming on. It's great conversation. I
(33:58):
It's been an absolute pleasure. Karen, thanks for having me on and we'll catch you next time.
Yeah, pleasure. And everyone, thanks so much for tuning in. Again, check
out crowsnestmindset.com and stay
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Healthy, Wealthy, and Smart Podcast.
I am your host, Dr. Karen Litzy, owner of Karen Litzy Physical Therapy,
located in New York City. And today we are going to
be talking about business, specifically your
business, your small business, and how you can grow
that business in a way that's sustainable. So I'm really
(00:26):
happy to have joined me TJ Slattery. TJ
is a lifetime entrepreneur, small business owner, and strategic advisor
with an insatiable desire to help other small business owners scale
their enterprise and gain freedom in their professional and personal lives. With
20 years operating in the world of small business and entrepreneurship, TJ
leverages his boots on the ground experience and tenure as
(00:49):
a business advisor to partner with small business owners
and propel their business to the next level. So TJ,
I'm thrilled. This is one of the things we love to talk about on the podcast is
business, especially for our entrepreneurs and small business
(01:10):
owners. So before we get into that, could you tell
us even a little bit more about you and how you got to where
Yeah, so as you mentioned in my introduction, my whole background has been small
business management and entrepreneurship, you know, since I was. kid
in middle school and high school running small companies, everything from
a lemonade stand to a handyman business. It
(01:33):
just always was driven into me to have the desire to
be running multiple different hats of business at one time. And
so I pursued business in college. I wasn't sure I was gonna be an entrepreneur or not full-time at
that point, but wound up with a degree called Interdisciplinary Business
Management, which is as vague as
it sounds. You can come out becoming a master of none, but knowing
(01:54):
a little bit about everything. And so I went when got into the business world, it
was really helpful to have aspects of your education
brought up into all right, I know a bit about accounting and
economics and finance and marketing and management. And
so from taking that as a. you know, my
educational role and then bring it into the real world, it kind of gave me
(02:15):
a stronger feel like this is so much fun to actually put this into play and
start making things come to life and saying, what's the
vision? What do you want to do? What's the goal from this kind of business? Okay, that's
where I want to get to. What are all the little steps I have to put into place to
actually make this happen? And so it was great combining the educational background
experience with making things come to life and see them, you
(02:39):
So it sounds like you are a real problem solver.
Yes, yes, yes. Were you like a big
Like puzzling, but like more of a mental problem to get through. What
resources do we have? What do we have to get with them in what amount of time? Okay,
(03:04):
Perfect. Yeah. I was the same kind of kid. I love, I'm a puzzle person
myself. Like, but not just like, you know, the putting puzzle pieces
together, but like you said, kind of looking at things from different angles
and figuring out how to make it work or
reverse engineering and see why it worked in the first place. So
I'm with you there. Now, you know, through
(03:26):
your work, as we just mentioned, you kind
of help business owners transform from
reactive operators to strategic leaders. So
can you share some of the biggest obstacles business
owners face when trying to make this shift?
(03:48):
Absolutely. So I want to start with why is it important? because
there's a lot of owners that they've been doing this for five or 10 years. And they're like, well, I'm still a
reactive owner. What's wrong with that? What do I have to become? You
know, looking towards the future. And it's because of that reactivity that
we never really quite get ahead of things. It's, you know, part of the firm that I've built
is Crozes Consulting. And the metaphor behind that is, you know,
(04:10):
your ship is your business. It's out to sea. And you're afloat. And
that's great. But you're below deck with everybody else taking on
water. And you're just shoveling out and trying to keep it afloat. But
you're below deck, and because you're below deck, you keep hitting icebergs. You
can't see them coming. And you keep missing opportunities, like land, because
you're below deck and can't see anything. So the point is to get you up in the crow's nest
(04:30):
and be able to see further off in the horizon on where is this thing actually
going? Can I plan a course? Do I have a plan if X, Y,
or Z happens? And I can see it coming ahead of time. So it's
helping owners to get into that position because it brings your blood
pressure down. You've got a plan. You're not worried about what's going to happen tomorrow
or next week because you have a backup plan, a system for everything that could
(04:50):
be coming into your view. And
so it's getting people into that mindset of changing. I'm in the crow's nest.
I can see things coming. I'm not going to be below deck like
everybody else and just feel the rock hit and be like, oh my gosh, we got hit by
that rock. Let's try and fix it. It's no, it's that rock coming on
for a couple of days. We've got a plan for it. veer away
and not have to do it that way. So A, that's why it's important. Let's get
(05:13):
to a place where we are planning ahead, not just a week or a day, but
six and 12 and 18 months and up to 10 years. We've
got a smooth plan and you have your plan if
Right, right, yes. Plans are good. So
when you're working with a business owner, I assume you're kind
(05:35):
of helping them shape that plan, but what
are the biggest obstacles you've seen with
the clients that you work with in
order to make that shift, in order to get that plan to
Yes, thanks for reiterating that question. I know I got a bit away on
my metaphor, but it's the biggest issue with those owners
(05:59):
is letting go. So if they're gonna be looking- Tell me about it. Right,
if I wanna be able to build this into a place where I've got a crow's nest
to climb into, I gotta be okay with letting go of
the bucket in the basement. Because we've built these from the ground up,
we're used to doing the hustle and bustle of
the day-to-day, and there's a lot of reasons why people don't
(06:19):
wanna let go. We can get into a few of those. One is they
have an issue with trust. Nobody else can do this job but me.
I can't possibly hand this off to anyone else. They're going to do it right. They're going to do as
well as me. This is built around my skill set. If I give it to somebody else,
I will suffer. I can't. That's my excuse for not letting go. Another
one could be as a guilt factor. This is a really hard job. It takes a
(06:40):
lot of effort. I couldn't possibly give it to somebody else. I would feel bad
letting it go. Or the guilt in that
moving up to that next level is I'm not in the boiler room every day being beat
up. What am I doing? If I've handed this off to somebody else,
do I even have a role in my business? So there's an issue with delegating that
job and evolving with the position, because they're afraid of, what
(07:02):
will I be doing next? And that I've come into a lot with clients. I think that's probably
the biggest one that we come up against. What the heck is going to be my role
in this if I end up hiring these three people, stabilizing operations?
And then there's nothing else for me to do. I'm just a knock around, you
know, turnkey owner. You're like,
no, no, no, just wait. Once you get to that stage, it's a whole new
(07:22):
set of problems that you're not addressing now that you could be, if you
could free up some time and start seeing it from the next level up in
Yeah. And I think as a business owner, I can relate
to all of those points that you just said. The trust,
the letting go, the guilt, it's all
there. And it's really, really hard. to do
(07:45):
that. So if I
were your client, what would you say to me to help let go
I mean, take each situation as
it comes. So if it's a, no
one can fix it but me, that's probably the
least common but the hardest one to overcome. And if
(08:05):
it's I've usually weeded that out. I haven't had that
as an issue with clients before because I know they wouldn't
have hired me in the first place if that was their attitude. You need
to have some level of like, I understand there's people out there that can
do part of my job better than I can. And that's a
humility that you have to gain on your own. But you have to have the
(08:25):
confidence in yourself to go and get this thing started and move it. The
humility to say like, you know what? There are people that are out there that could do better
accounting and better marketing. and better run the front desk than
I can, or at least do it as good as I can. You have to be able
to get over the hump of, no one can do this job but me. So
for that, it's more, if I'm talking with owners about it, it's hard to get
into that psyche because they kind of have to come over that hump on their own of,
(08:50):
I can trust somebody else. I'm not making Jesus tears
here in my job role. Somebody else has the potential to do this for
me. On the guilt side, it's understanding What
I like to do is look at your accountability chart or your org chart and
say, okay, you're right here right now. There's seven people in your company
(09:10):
that have these roles. Your goal in the next two years is to get to
this point in the business. with your revenue, with
the size of your business, how many employees you have, how many patients you're seeing. In order to
get from here to here, where do the roles have to shift? And
so we start planning out every six months, like what will that accountability chart
look like over the next two years? And realizing that there's no
(09:30):
way that you can stay in this same role and hit these
goals, whatever they are, over that period of
time without you shifting responsibilities and saying, oh my gosh, If
we're doing twice as much revenue this time next year and I keep this role, I'm
going to be dying. I'm going to be doing 120 hours a week plus XYZ.
So you start to visualize and see that this role is not sustainable
(09:52):
unless I find a way to start delegating. And then I'm not feeling bad
about handing off this job. It's in order for this company to
go forward, I have to hand this off and I have to find somebody
that I can trust. And so you feel a lot better about A, giving
it to somebody else, but B, I'm not just handing it off and walking away.
I'm handing it off so I can focus more on this larger role
(10:13):
and I can see what my path is and how I'm going to grow into
Yeah. And I think you really do need
someone outside your business to help with that. Someone like
yourself, someone who can come in and look at things
from a more unbiased approach. Right?
And take the emotion out of it and allow you
(10:35):
to kind of see, see
everything, you know, from the ground up, because
It is. Well, and we, as entrepreneurs, we get so caught in
our tunnel vision and our day to day, and we see the cause
and effect and the microcosm of how we operate, but to be able
(10:56):
to step back and really open up that, that vision, It's
so important to be able to do that, whether it's, you know, get somebody
in there for like a day or two workshop and just to blow this apart. Somebody
that you can trust is going to come in and be a little cynical and
ask hard questions about what that plan is. My favorite thing to do with
business owners when we're first talking is we'll take two hours, deep dive their
(11:19):
business. Say, let's go through your whole plan. Like what's your vision and
goals for the next few years? But then go through all of your different products,
services, what's your revenue? What's your marketing gonna look like? How many employees
you have to hire? And we just kind of go through the plan and asking a lot of
core questions around how they plan to do all of this. And
the goal behind it is to say, all right, well, let's either poke
(11:40):
holes in what you're doing, Well, yes, and things you've put
into place. It's already good, but we can do more. Or just say, hey, that
system looks outstanding. I bet that'll last you for the next five
or 10 million in growth. But it's getting that outside perspective from
somebody that's not in it all the time that'll say, where are
(12:01):
Right, right. And what's coming
up for me is to, as a business
owner, is to not take it personally. Right, it's not
an indictment on the owner. You know what I mean? Yes. And
I'm sure you've encountered that here and there, but you can't take it
personally. You have to be able to kind of separate yourself from
(12:24):
There's a great book out
that a lot of my friends in small business acquisitions,
if there are brokers in that place, it's like the Bible. And
it's something about how to tell an owner their baby's ugly. Like your
baby's ugly, how you sell it, because that's how they'll see
it. And so brokers, it happens every time they come in and the
(12:45):
owner rarely is actually on the money on what the company is worth.
And so that broker has to evaluate for them and say, look, I know you've put
all this into it and every single piece, but it's
really worth X, Y, and Z. And it's the baby's ugly.
So I have a similar job in that we're not, It's
to not validate everything that they're doing. Everything is perfect. We
(13:08):
don't need to be talking. But to be able to come in and you're
right, as an owner, be able to be receptive of
that feedback. And this is not an attack on you. This is
some other ideas on how to do this differently and overcome some of the problems. Like if
you have a major pain point here, you gotta be able to get feedback on
something else in the business that might actually be affecting you. Agreeing and
(13:28):
saying, this is a growing opportunity. This isn't TJ coming in
Right. And you're you're probably not coming in like that guy on Bar Rescue,
like just like coming in and berating. But then at the end,
they're happy. But it's like, oh, my God, if someone came in to
my business like that, I would just be like, this is not for me. You
(13:49):
are not the guy to help me. So, you know, coming
in with with some empathy, you
know, for the owner. But then the owner as the owner, you have to
It's a hard thing to do. You've gotten this far by
being so confident in yourself, in your systems. You
(14:11):
really can't lean on your employees that much or somebody at home
because at home it's gonna drive them crazy. Employees that kind of
gets, because of conflict of interest sometimes, if you're strategizing with them. Who
are you able to talk to about this kind of stuff and get that feedback? And
so now actually getting a moment where you're getting that feedback and
pushback, it helps you kind of push your ideas against something and
(14:34):
Yeah, absolutely. And I think like everything that
we're talking about right now reminds me of, and we talked
about this before we went on the air, is when I did the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small
Business Program, I felt like I entered as a PT who
happened to own a business, but I left as a business owner that
happens to
(14:55):
be a PT. And I know that's something that you help businesses
do. And this is kind of what we're talking about from being like the accidental entrepreneur
to a confident CEO. So in
your experience, what are some common signs that the
business owner is ready for that shift?
And part two of that question, have you ever started working
(15:24):
Very well lined up. So what's
to say that they're ready for the shift? Yeah. Major
signs that they've been doing this for a few years. Right? It's
not, it's not day one. They're able to still be, you know, in
the day to day and learn all the pieces of the business. So they've been going on for a little while, but
they keep getting bumped around or they're stuck. And
(15:47):
it's maybe my revenue has been stuck for a while. That's a major sign that I've had the same
kind of revenue or profitability year after year. There's, there's no room
for growth. What am I doing? I'm sticking here. There's a lot of burnout that's happening. You
know, be in that same spot. I'm burning out. What am I doing? I've been, you
know, kind of turning my wheels. Nothing is growing. We have a
lot of high turnover within your business. where
(16:08):
you can't really keep people on because you have some archaic systems or you
need some sprucing up on your recruitment and retention policies, you'll
start seeing some of these major really pain points that are happening within the
business that you're experiencing that's telling you like, all
right, I keep bumping into things. You know, a similar
metaphor with not being up in the crow's nest. So I'm not really planning
(16:28):
ahead. I'm still being the reactive person. I'm the one
doing 90% of the actual operational work. I don't have people
that I can depend on to go and do A, B, and C. You
start to see that I've been doing this for long enough, but I'm still the
one running the plumbing company turning wrenches. Why am
I still the one doing it? If you're the one that all of the revenue
(16:48):
generation is still based on after those three years, okay,
I need to figure out a way to start transitioning this where I'm managing other
people. And as we talked about before, the death of every entrepreneur is
we all become glorified managers. And so you're running
a PT clinic, but you're still doing all the PT. You've been
doing it for a few years and things are going pretty well, but you just can't move
(17:10):
up the ladder because you haven't taken the time to say, can
I take a little space in the business and see where would I fit in other
people into my practice? That they're taking on appointments and I'm doing
less. and working more as a manager on the marketing, on
the recruitment and retention, on the facility, on customer care
and planning for the future. And the more I'm doing that, I think you can flirt from the
business, the more I have time to put other people in my old position and grow.
(17:34):
So loaded answer on all the different things to look for.
But those are a few of the pieces that come up for me when I see
someone's ready to make that transition, ready to get more in that driver's
Yeah, that makes sense. And have you ever had someone that you said, Nope, not
Or, or just not yet. Maybe not come back. Well,
(17:57):
sometimes it's um, it's more of a mental mental capacity.
Passive mental piece of like, you need to get over this hump. Like
I can't teach you to be humble. Like we talked before,
major issue on getting to that next level is you
gotta be able to delegate and trust people. But if you alone can
fix it and you're the best in the world at this, you can't let anybody do that job, it's
(18:21):
hard for me in my capacity to change
Yeah, yeah, you have to do a little work with maybe another kind
of professional to help you get over some of those fears.
Yes, exactly, which, I end up doing some therapy
(18:42):
in sessions. Yeah, I'm sure. That's not my certification, but
Refer that one out. Another one that comes up that tells you
you're not ready is there's a lot of toxicity with the team that
you have. And again, this goes back to the old. if there is often
there is a lot of high turnover, okay, let's go look and see why this is.
(19:02):
Is it something we can fix that's in the system? Or is this what's
coming from the top down that is bleeding out
and you're really just mistreating all of your people, whether it's intentional or
not. You need to get to the bottom of that. And if it's, you're
just kind of a toxic owner that's hard to work with, that
might be a big hiccup in making you become that CEO because
(19:25):
So either fix your systems and how you're bringing people on, retaining them,
or look and say, maybe I need to adjust how I'm treating my
people because whatever I'm doing, it's a revolving door at the front.
Yeah, and that actually dovetails nicely
into the next question I was gonna ask you. You really teed it up for me there.
It's perfect. So this
(19:49):
was certainly my experience and many entrepreneurial friends is
that some of the most significant challenges we face as business owners
are implementing new systems and new processes.
It's the scariest piece. You talked about this
before a little bit. Did you ever see Indiana Jones 3? It's
(20:15):
I think there's Nazis in all of them. At least the first one. It's like Sean Connery.
One of the challenges he has to do towards the end of the movie is like
a series of challenges and one's a test of faith and you have to walk across this
And he takes that step and he closes his eyes and his
(20:39):
He's like, whew, thank God, because it would have been a thousand foot drop. It's
like entrepreneurs know that feeling because they do it every week.
I've had to do it at least one time in their career, if not 500 times, where
it's like, I've done all the planning. I've done all the research. I
know ice is important. I need to have this. I put all my faith in my background
and experience and knowledge. I just have to have the
(21:01):
nuts to go make that step. It's a reason that a
lot of people don't get into entrepreneurship, that they can't, because
there is that little bit of crazy, little bit of like, I've got faith in me, and
this mad plan is gonna all come to fruition, is
that Indiana Jones step. And that happens on
multiple different kinds of occasions and reasons, but a big one is putting in a
(21:21):
new system, because it's so scary when you finally hit the switch.
Is this gonna work? Is it gonna be, 20% more efficient,
like the reason that we signed up and planned for it? Is it going to be 100% more? Is it going
to just fall on its face when you start from scratch? Is this going to make everything else in
the company go down for three days? What are the pros
and cons of making this go into play? So for one, I
(21:42):
just want to say, I empathize heavily with that moment of introducing a
new system. And it's just, you've done as much research
Mm hmm. Yeah. And I see that a lot, that
resistance to changing systems when it comes to
certainly in the medical profession, like the electronic medical records.
(22:04):
Like there's so many EMRs or EHRs out there. And
if you're using one, people are
so hesitant and scared to transfer from one
system to the other, even if the other system is likely to
be the better of the systems. Or even going from
paper to a system, an
(22:25):
automated system that's gonna make your life so much easier, but it's really scary. That
was one of the scariest things that I did. I mean, I did it
a number of years ago, but I remember thinking, oh my gosh,
this is not gonna work. This is gonna, you know, everything's gonna be disrupted
kind of like to your point. And now working with Jane, which is
the name of my EMR, it really has like, that
(22:45):
is a system that I've been able to put into play
that has just made life so much easier. But
It's terrifying. Yeah. Especially when it's early days,
you know, because that could be a system that you had put in a place when you
started the business. And you think about this house of cards
(23:06):
you've built all this time, and that, you know, it's
this massive organization that you've built, and now you're going to
wipe the board clear and put in a new one thing to
replace all of that. And I hope it works, but I've got all,
it was like my first employee was that system. And I'm just going to get rid of it
and bring somebody else in new is a lot of attachment to that.
And it's also a mental block of like, I got to wipe all of
(23:28):
this away and hope that this new thing works. And
often it does. You've done the research. You're a smart entrepreneur. You know it'll
go, but you have to be comfortable with that letting go again, which
honestly, we could go back in our conversation and plug this one in, is you've
got to be able to let go. If you're going to move from being an operating owner to
a CEO, you've got to let go. People and systems come and go. And
(23:50):
systems like this is a big piece that even
though we're working right now on a handwritten documentation, hey,
you can move to Epic and save 400 hours of man
Right, exactly, exactly. But you know, it's scary. And
I remember after I switched and started to get used to it, I
(24:12):
was like, oh man, this was so smart of me,
and I kind of celebrated that. So when you're working with
your clients, how do you help them celebrate those
wins, whether they be big or small? Because I feel
like in the celebration of those wins, things kind of snowball and
it also helps to change your mindset a little bit. Is
(24:35):
Oh, you pulled that one right out of there. So with clients, I
will absolutely document the wins. Anytime we,
because we'll make a roadmap and say over the next 6 months, here's all the
things we identify that we need to work on and put into action or move forward.
So definitely tracking and documenting and saying, oh, my God, by month 2, we
actually had a whole turnover on that system. implemented this and
(24:55):
now those other things are, you know, the days behind us. For me, that's just a huge retention
tool. Like, look at the stuff we actually did. You used to see me every couple of
weeks, but like, we're actually working. But for owners
to do that on their own is super important. It'll look back at all the many achievements
that you've done and all those little Indiana Jones steps
that you've made over the last year. And I decline to do that for themselves. Like,
(25:15):
I just feel like I'm stuck. I'm not doing anything. I'm like, do you remember what we were doing last year? Like
who your client base was then and the problems you were working on
and the systems you were dealing with and have them go back through all of our
notes and they pulled out all the different micro steps that we had made over
that time. Like, oh my God, I can't imagine dealing with how my
company was set up a year ago. So it's good to make sure you are
(25:36):
documenting when you make those steps. So celebrating at the time, but
then going back and give yourself a pat on the back. You've come so far in
three months. It doesn't feel like it because you're moving at a million miles an
hour and you're so focused and you're in the trenches. But when you stop and
pull back up, look at all the things that we were able to knock out this year
and what a better place we are. I love tracking that and getting the
(25:58):
track record of what was my org chart like? You
know, keep that as it's a, it's a movable, you
know, accountability chart on what, who's
in the company, what they're doing, but say, Hey, the
one from when we had eight people in 2013, let's pull
that up. And like, oh my God, do you remember what that was like? And
(26:18):
I had those people were here. I was like, they had to own all the marketing. No,
it was crazy. And just see over time how that had
grown and remembering all those hard decisions you had to make, but
it got you this much further. So it's huge to document those, look
Right, and it's so ironic because as physical therapists and
as a lot of like healthcare entrepreneurs, we document our
(26:41):
patients' progress and show them,
like, remember when we did this strength testing on your leg and
your right leg was 60% of your left? And four
weeks later, look, it's 80% and it's a huge celebration. So
we do it all the time with our patients and
(27:08):
Think about even like selling. You can sell somebody
When it comes to your own self-promotion, it's like, oh, I'm good.
I'm okay. I do. Yeah. Right. Same thing with, I'm going to
celebrate my own wins. Like I'm not going to do that. Like, good job. Like you're supposed to
do that anyway, but it's important to go back and track those and give yourself
(27:30):
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So as we start to kind
of wrap things up a little bit, I have something, maybe a little more personal
question from for you as the strategic business
coach. And you've worked with a lot of different clients over
the years. So what were some of the most unexpected
lessons that you have learned from helping businesses
(27:57):
Let's see. So some of the biggest pieces that I've learned
in working with those different companies
is to always be, like, stay curious. Don't take anything for
granted and ask the hard questions. And I've learned that through
my own business dealings. And, you know, you're shy or you
don't want to be vulnerable and say you don't know something, or
(28:19):
that you understand what somebody's saying, like, oh yeah, I got it. And
you're like, Google X, Y, Z. Almost
always comes back to bite you in the ass. And with
clients, I've seen that a lot in my own business, just in, you
might make an assumption about somebody. They're really good with Excel spreadsheets. They
show you that they built this to perform in the next 12 months. Like, oh my gosh, this is great. Okay.
(28:42):
We're going to not focus on your financials right off the bat, because obviously
you have a really firm grasp of how all this is looking. And we can come
to that in like session two or three. Session two or three
comes around and I finally see your financials and it's a total bloody mess. I'm like, oh
my God, why did we not focus on this? I
trusted that you knew what you were talking about with the financials and
(29:02):
I didn't ask that extra question. And now we
should be dealing with this six weeks ago. And
now we're dealing with the, okay, and it's, I've learned that making
assumptions based on, you know, they seem really skillful at this, they're
talking about that, like, okay, show me, I'd love to see what you put together
there. And so being tactful, and you're not trying to, you know, bury
(29:23):
somebody in because they don't know something, but tactfully asking,
oh, that's great, you're really into your financials, I'd love to see what you've set up. Okay,
good. Turns out you really do know what you're talking about. All right, we'll put this aside. We can move
on. But actually be brave to ask the hard questions
and really get into the meat of it because sometimes people are coy and
they want to present that they do know everything, even though they're being vulnerable
(29:45):
and allowing you into their space. Some things they really do want to
present strongly on, but you need to be inquisitive and
tactful enough to get a layer deeper and really understand Do
they have this figured out? Is it ironed out? Because it really is your responsibility to
make sure that this is a solid system or piece put together. Because if
you don't, you've already given it your seal of approval. It's going to come and just
(30:07):
eviscerate you in three months from now when you find out it wasn't as stable as
Yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, I think that's all some great lessons
for you to learn and thanks for telling them to the rest of us
because now we can steal your lessons from you. So
before we end, well, I have one question that I
ask everyone, but before we even get to that, what
(30:29):
are the big takeaways that you want the listeners to come away with
Got it. Big takeaways from our conversation today You
know, take some time. We can address this specifically, but a lot of this was revolving around
it. Take some time to step out of your business and really get
out of your Zoom tunnel mode and
(30:50):
see what's actually happening here. and look at your systems of
processes, take some time and look at what's your plan for the next year or
two. And it's cliche, but spend time working on your business and
not just in it. What is the plan? How is my
org chart gonna grow? What are my financials gonna look like? Is
there actually a one, two, three step on how, from revenue
all the way down to profitability, that this is all gonna function together? Or
(31:13):
am I just still on the roller coaster that I built three years ago that's
still just pulling me along and we're still alive, but I have really no
control over it? So it's take some time, step back, get
a trusted friend or a counselor, take a look at your, or advisor,
take a look at your plan and be vulnerable and have somebody poke some
holes and say, maybe this is why you're kind of stuck in this loop.
(31:37):
If you're trying to get here and you're at this place now, what's
actually missing? So have an open mind, be vulnerable, but
get a little bit outside of your business so you can see what are
Yeah, perfect. Well said. And now on
to the question that I ask everyone, knowing where
you are now in your life and career, what advice would you give to
(32:02):
Let's see to my 20 year old self. Don't do it.
So many people say that I had
someone the other day. She she's they didn't
say it on air, but they said, oh, I would say
(32:24):
My advice to my 20-year-old self would be
take it easier on yourself. Take it a lot easier
on yourself. There's plenty of people out there that will beat the
hell out of you just because. It doesn't have
to come from you as well. And you're gonna mess up over
and over again. You're always gonna make mistakes. Your job is to learn from
(32:47):
them and to keep growing and to not... miss
a beat, kicking your own ass when you could be growing from
it and moving on and don't get stuck
in those trenches. So be gentle with yourself and give some room
I love that. So many other people try and beat you up. Don't be
(33:09):
No, no. I love it. Now, TJ, where can people find
you if they want to learn more about you? They want to follow you on social media.
If you want to reach out or just check out my website, it's
crowsnestmindset.com. If you want to fill out a form, you can get
an appointment and we'll grab 30 minutes and chitchat about your business. Or
if you want to reach out directly, you can hit me up on my email, which is
(33:34):
Perfect. And everyone, I know if you weren't taking
notes through all of this, not to worry, whatever platform you're listening
on right now, just scroll down to the show notes and
all of the links to all of TJ's information will be in
the show notes. So one click will take you to all of his info.
So TJ, thank you so much for coming on. It's great conversation. I
(33:58):
It's been an absolute pleasure. Karen, thanks for having me on and we'll catch you next time.
Yeah, pleasure. And everyone, thanks so much for tuning in. Again, check
out crowsnestmindset.com and stay
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