5 Business Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make

What separates thriving businesses from those that fail? In this episode of The Overlap Podcast, hosts Sid Sexton and Keith Glines unpack five critical mistakes that can derail your business and share actionable insights to avoid them. Drawing from their own experiences in entrepreneurship and lessons from jujitsu, they explore how to stay competitive, embrace criticism, and prioritize profit. Whether you're a seasoned business owner or just starting out, this episode offers practical strategies to fuel growth across work, leadership, and life.

What You Will Learn

• How to identify and reach your target market effectively
• Why throwing money at problems can backfire
• The importance of profit as the lifeblood of your business
• How to handle criticism without letting ego get in the way
• Why ignoring your competition could cost you everything

Key Topics Discussed

• The hidden dangers of not knowing your market and how to fix it
• Why money doesn't solve all problems and what to do instead
• The surprising link between jujitsu and learning from business mistakes
• How arrogance can blind you to competition and criticism
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Episode Transcript

Sid (00:00):
People just think they're gonna set out, you know, a fold-up table with

(00:03):
lemonade on it and people are gonna walkby and they're gonna make so much money.
'cause everyone loves lemonade,but no one knows you're there.
You're on the wrong street corner.
Uh, you don't have a sign, whatever.
It could be the best lemonade ever.
But if you, if no one knowsyou're there, it doesn't matter.

(00:27):
Hey everybody, and welcome toanother episode of the Overlap
podcast where we dive into theintersections of work, fitness, family,
faith, parenting, and leadership.
And really with the idea that growthin one area of your life fuels
growth in all areas of your life.
And that's why we're committed to takingthe lessons we've learned from business,

(00:47):
breaking them down into simple, actionableinsights and empowering leaders to thrive.
Um, good, good morning, Keith.
Good morning.
I said that just to piss Tim off.
I,
it's now, now, anytime we dothe intro or anything like
that, I make sure that I, uh.

(01:08):
You verify

Keith (01:09):
what time of day it is?

Sid (01:10):
Yeah.
Or something just, justto kinda wind him up.
He loves it.

Keith (01:14):
Oh yeah, he does.

Sid (01:15):
He now knows that, uh, crap talk is our love language.
So he's in the fold.

Keith (01:19):
That's right.

Sid (01:23):
All right.
Um, hey, we have got a, uh, we'vegot a good episode today that, um,
that's kind of been on the docketfor a while and something we know
plenty about, which is, uh, mistakes.

Keith (01:36):
Yeah.
You and what I was just thinking,reading, the title that you put
on here is Five Stakes to Avoid.
I have way more than that.

Sid (01:45):
Well, yeah, we just narrowed it down.
We could have talked for four hours and soI was just trying to get not the top five.
I actually told Tim that.
I was like, this is notthe top five I would take.
No, I don't think

Keith (01:54):
so.

Sid (01:55):
It's just five.

Keith (01:56):
Right.

Sid (01:57):
So don't send us your hate mail that, uh, these are, aren't
even close to the top five.

Keith (02:03):
No, please do send us your hate mail.
Oh yeah, that okay.
That'd be good.
And, and let us know what othermistakes, because if you've made
'em, we've probably made 'em too.

Sid (02:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, um, speaking of mistakes, I, Ifeel like, well, and I was gonna get
into this later, but I was thinkingabout this, uh, the other day, and this
being the, the episode and just goingmistakes, kind of get a bad rap in,
uh, like in school or early in life.

(02:35):
Everyone kind of gets chastised and,and, um, and maybe, uh, I don't know.
They get it.
It, it has a bad connotation when you,when you make mistakes, but in, as you
get older, you start to realize thatmistakes are actually where you learn.
And so the people that can.
Fearlessly move forward, um, makea decision, see what works, what

(03:00):
doesn't work, the mistake, andthen learn from it and then, and
then move forward again faster.
Those are the people that win.

Keith (03:07):
Yeah.

Sid (03:08):
In Juujitsu too,

Keith (03:09):
however, I do feel some people use losing.
Are making mistake as acop out too, you know?
Okay, sure.
Yeah.
That old adage that whenyou lose, you learn.
Yeah, you do though.
Well, let me, let me tell you,when you're losing the same mistake
over and over and over again, yeah.
You're not learning.

Sid (03:27):
Yeah.

Keith (03:27):
You're just copping out when you lose your learn,

Sid (03:29):
man.
Yeah, yeah, you're right.
That's actually, that's actually fair.
That's a good point.

Keith (03:35):
Oh, I've used it.

Sid (03:39):
Oh, I'm shocked.
How

Keith (03:40):
long did I fall onto my hip?
Oh my God.
I was

Sid (03:43):
just thinking the same thing.
Long.
I was like, you did fall ontoyour hip a lot for three years.
Yeah.
Uh, years.
Not just a little.
And we were going to a lot of terms.
Well, and

Keith (03:53):
I don't think that it was really because I was falling to my hip.
I just thought I had a habit.
And that may be somethingwe need to talk about.
What mistakes are you making thatare actually habits that you formed?
Yeah.
You get ingrained

Sid (04:06):
as a habit.
Yeah.

Keith (04:08):
Yeah.
That was just my habit.

Sid (04:10):
It really was.

Keith (04:11):
Yeah.

Sid (04:11):
Scott and I would be yelling, going, don't fall to your hip.
Oh God.
There he goes.
Yeah.
And then when Jibo started, uh, coaching.

Keith (04:19):
Yeah.
When we got good coaches.

Sid (04:20):
Yeah.
He was, yeah.
May, maybe that's when it changed for you.
Hey, and

Keith (04:25):
there it is.
Maybe you need a coach.
Maybe the same.

Sid (04:28):
Maybe.
Yeah.
Uh, but really man, the using it as acop out aside, um, in Jiujitsu as well.
Another reason that that isa good microcosm of learning,
uh, for life learning is that.

(04:49):
When you're rolling or training,you know, so if you, if you've
never been to a Jiujitsu class,you're gonna go to a Jiujitsu class.
You're gonna, you're gonna warm up.
Uh, they're gonna show whatthe move of the week, the day,
the month, whatever it is.
I mean, depending on what school yougo to or what series they're in, um,
they'll show you a particular move.

(05:09):
Then you will, you know, practicethat with a partner for, I don't know.
5, 6, 10 minutes and then they'lladd a little detail to it.
You'll do that foranother 5, 6, 10 minutes.
Then they might add one more detail, oryou might do specific training with that.
And then the last 20 minutesis usually like live rolling.

(05:31):
You're going to quasi competeagainst someone else in that class.
And what I think lots of people getwrong, and I, I've been real conscious of
this in the last couple years, is just.
Lots of people stick with what issafe and they just do the safe thing
in that sort of practice arena.

(05:52):
And then they never try these new skillsthat they're trying to incorporate with.
Might be, no one's gonna know what I'mtalking about except for Jiujitsu guys,
but like De la Hiva guard, you know.
I'm not, I'm not good at it, but I'vetried it so much now that it feels
comfortable just throwing that in.
Um, and I get smashed.

(06:13):
I get smashed and I get into a badsituation all the time, but I'm
like, I'm gonna keep trying stuff andgetting smashed until I can figure out.
What it is that I need to do, you know?
'cause at, at this le at the levelwe're at, we should probably be
able to play guard, you know?

Keith (06:30):
Yeah.
Roll that into business though.
How do you do that?
In business

Sid (06:33):
it's a little bit more difficult because, um, there's
money on the line, but I think itmight be, uh, a situation where.
Um, you're use, you startsmall, you don't go all in.
You know, we're pr, we'retrying this stuff, not at pans.
We're trying this stuff on a Tuesdaymorning class, you know, or a Thursday
lunchtime class with people, you know.

(06:56):
Some are bigger, some are smaller,you know, you can kind of mix up
your game, you can do those things.
But in, um, in business, it mightbe like what we did in Foley where
we've got a concept that thistype of branch is the way to go.
Um, and we've got a guy.
And let's go down there and foras cheap as possible, let's give

(07:17):
that branch this amount of work.
It doesn't cost us anythingto go and start it.
The only thing it does cost is maybeseparating this person's overhead over
to that and just focusing on that.
But the outcome should far outweigh it.
And if it doesn't work, itjust folds back in, you know?
Uh, or let's say starting a, um,

Keith (07:37):
so a mistake you're saying that we could avoid is.
Taking real big chances on new things.
Real

Sid (07:44):
big.
Yeah.
You don't, you don't want togo get a $400,000 loan to go
start another Something new.
Yeah, something new thatyou're not really sure.
But you gotta, I mean, you'rereal passionate about it.
We're gonna do Christmas lights.
I hear that probably every otheryear for the last 20 years.
Why don't we do Christmas lights in

Keith (08:01):
a landscape company?
Oh yeah,

Sid (08:02):
dude.
All the time.
I'm like, and I'm like, you'regonna hang Christmas lights?
Yeah.
I was like, number one, because westay on the ground, you know you
need, so the truck need something.
Yeah.
You need something in the air.
Go, go call Chris Francis.
You know, they, that's what those guys do.
They're used to it.
They're doing it all the time.
Chris Francis should goput up Christmas lights.
Not, not Sexton.
Uh, what else?

(08:24):
I mean.
How much inventory do youhave to buy for for Christmas?
I'm like, I don't wanna throw down ahundred or 200 grand and then store it
all over the winter and then get it outand make sure your inventory doesn't die.
You know, just not die, but likeget stepped all over and trashed.
Look sy.
Yeah.

Keith (08:43):
If you buy bucket trucks, Scott and I will use it.

Sid (08:45):
Oh my

Keith (08:46):
God.

Sid (08:48):
No.
Just letting you know.
No, you're not allowed.
Mm. So back to it though.
Five mistakes to avoid.
Yeah.
Back to it.
Five mistakes.
My five Mistakes to avoid,which we know something about.
Um, number one, Keith, what is it?
Not knowing your market.

Keith (09:04):
Break that down,

Sid (09:05):
man.
Uh, it doesn't matter how greatyour product or service is, right?
It, if you aren't reaching to theright pe reaching out to the right
people, you're not gonna be successful.
Like you can have the bestwidget, but if you can't.
If you don't know who the widget isfor, how do you get in touch with them?

(09:26):
What's the price point they need it to be?
I'm trying to make thisas general as possible.
Um,
you're just gonna fail, you know?
Um, not knowing your market is byfar one of the biggest mistakes
you can make as a business owner.
Figuring out who your market is,how big it is, and how you'll
talk to them is the, is the key

Keith (09:46):
when you deal with creatives like I do though.

Sid (09:48):
Yeah,

Keith (09:48):
they always say.
I'm gonna start, I'm gonna dosomething that I like, and if nobody
else likes it, that, uh, that's okay.
Well, that's not a business.

Sid (09:56):
It's not a business.
It's an idea.

Keith (09:58):
Yeah.

Sid (09:59):
And you could start very small and see if you can get traction with it.

Keith (10:03):
Yeah.

Sid (10:03):
But, um, but marketing and really demographic, psychographics, um, like,
you know, possible, you know, customer.
Accountability, not thecustomer count possible.
God, what's the word?
Market cap.
Um, all those things you needto kinda have an idea about.

Keith (10:26):
Now, look, I'm all in to doing innovative things.

Sid (10:29):
Me too.

Keith (10:30):
But if those innovative things nobody else wants, yeah.
It may be a bad idea.

Sid (10:35):
Yeah.
I, I kind of put in some notes here.
Keith Cunningham says thisover and over all the time.
Find out what they want.
Go get it and give it to 'em.
I mean, it soundsoversimplified, but that's it.

Keith (10:48):
That's it.

Sid (10:48):
Find out what they want.
Go get it.
Give it to 'em.
That's it.
People want their grasp mode.
Cool.
Go get it.
Give it to 'em.
You gotta do it.
You gotta price it at the right price.
But we'll get to that.
But, or, um.
What is it?
What's a new, I'm trying to thinkwhat a new, uh, something new

(11:10):
that people want that probablythey didn't, uh, 20 years ago.
Hey, let's take Dom.
I mean, did the AI service forsmall business, uh, consultant for
AI ever exists like five years ago?
No.
People want it though, don't they?
However,

Keith (11:29):
this is a perfect example of.
Thinking you want something,but not knowing what you want.

Sid (11:35):
Right.
They just want consulting.
Right.
They, they know this is important.
I don't know how I shouldbe thinking about it.
How can I utilize that in myorganization to make me more efficient?
I had

Keith (11:46):
a company in my office yesterday.
Yep.
Probably one of the biggestcompanies in their industry.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
Mm-hmm.

Keith (11:55):
Saying that same thing.
Yeah.
Everyone's saying that,why do I incorporate ai?
Why or how?
Well.
Why first?
Okay.
What can it do for us?

Sid (12:04):
Okay.

Keith (12:05):
Everybody's wanting to do it for us, but they don't even know how
to fill the void that we need yet.
Mm-hmm.
With this new product.
Yeah.
So being on the cusp andcompanies integrate new things
to try to look cutting edge.
Hmm.
But a lot of times they cthey incorporate it like.
Probably in your industry it wouldbe much like autonomous mowers.

(12:29):
Oh yeah.
How do you incorporate it?
Well, how do you do it?
Is it even feasible to do?
I'll have a great story onthat in a few more weeks.
I can't wait to hear.
Oh, it's, it's fantastic.
But are you just, are you justincorporating new technology to look cool?

Sid (12:43):
Yeah.

Keith (12:44):
Or does it really fill a void?

Sid (12:45):
Or you Yeah.
Or are you creating real efficiencies?

Keith (12:48):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, uh, if you're thebiggest in the market.
Everybody's gonna try to sell youbecause you have the money to give them.

Sid (12:57):
Well, we will talk, we will talk about that too in a, in a second.
That's one of the biggest problems.
Um, yeah, we just put not knowingyour market as kind of a general one.
Um,

Keith (13:06):
yeah,

Sid (13:07):
but back to it, I think Dom did a good job of going, Hey, I know this stuff.
Mm-hmm.
What does my customer, what,what would a customer want?
Let me go get it for them.
So let me package this thing in athing that they can kind of, you
know, in a, in a, uh, I guess apackage that people understand.
Yeah.
You know, and it sort of connects theirneeds with, with what I'm capable of

(13:31):
doing, and then I go give it to them.

Keith (13:33):
Yeah.
He took a big business idea mm-hmm.
And brought it to small business.
I think it's fantastic.
And building solutions for small business.
I mean, AI's been in bigbusiness for a long time, right.
It really has.
That's what people don't realize,but that's all who could afford it.
Yeah.
And what Dom did was simplify itinto small business pro practices.
Mm-hmm.

(13:55):
Package a product, which was great.

Sid (13:57):
Yeah.
And we're talking about Dom, is it Fritz?
Retz?
Fritz, Fritz, um, with Port City ai.
Port City ai.
That guy needs to sponsorour, our, yeah, he does.
Um, but that's, man, that's a big mistake.
And just, just to bring it back, uh,back to the basics on not knowing
your market, you know, it's not.

(14:18):
It's not the great, it'snot the number one thing.
Maybe it's the first thing is to,uh, build a great mousetrap, you
know, build a great product, butthen know who needs your product.
How do you reach them?
How do you, and, and how do you,uh, make it available to them?
Like people just.
I think they're gonna set out, youknow, a fold up table with lemonade

(14:40):
on it and people are gonna walk byand they're gonna make so much money.
'cause everyone loves lemonade,but no one knows you're there.
You're on the wrong street corner.
You don't make, uh, youdon't have a sign, whatever.
It could be the best lemonadeever, but if you, if no one knows
you're there, it doesn't matter.
That's kind of what I'm saying too.
Maybe no one in this area likeslemonade because whatever.

(15:05):
You know, I don't know, butyou, everyone gets my point.
Not knowing your market, you're

Keith (15:09):
trying to put a landscaping business in a
community that can't afford it.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.

Sid (15:13):
That's one.
Yeah.
Know your

Keith (15:15):
market.
Yeah.

Sid (15:16):
Yeah.
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Johnny takes a holistic approach to allmy financial dealings, aligning them with

(15:37):
my long-term plans and personal lifestyle.
I've recommended Johnny to several friendsthroughout different business groups
around the country, and the feedbackhas been nothing short of exceptional.
His expertise and service are top-notch.
So if you're looking for someone whonot only prepares your taxes, but
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(15:58):
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Sid (16:42):
All right.
Number two.
What is that thinking?
Money

Keith (16:46):
solves all problems.

Sid (16:47):
Dear God.
Dear God,

Keith (16:50):
you get, I've never lost more money, oh my God, than when I had money.

Sid (16:56):
It makes, it makes you just do all kinds of stupid,
stupid, it makes you things.
Yep.
Lazy is all it is.
You're just abdicating responsibilityby throwing money at a problem.
Um, but you get the point.
You know, you, you just, justbecause you have money doesn't
mean you don't have problems.

(17:17):
And when, and when it comes togetting, when it comes to solving
problems, just throwing moneyat it is, is, like I said, lazy.
It's non-creative.
Uh, it doesn't usually get to thecore problem, you know, it only
puts a bandaid on it if it does.
Uh, you don't really learn from itanyways, other than down the road

(17:39):
as you, you lost 20, 30, 40, ahundred thousand dollars on a deal.
It just, uh, you probably need tomeet, needed to be a little bit more,
uh, bootstrappy like you used to be.
I've done it a lot,especially with software.

Keith (17:55):
Oh, I bet.
Oh, oh my God.
Yeah.
That technology can, and thatgoes back to the AI conversation.

Sid (18:01):
Yeah.

Keith (18:01):
Just because you think it's fancy to optimize your
processes with ai, you better Sure.
Be sure the processes that you'reoptimizing are the ones you need to be

Sid (18:11):
or worthy of that, of that time focus and money time.

Keith (18:14):
Yeah.

Sid (18:15):
Yeah.
Uh, I, when we talk about this man.
Technology is really what I think about.
How

Keith (18:22):
many times have I bought a new and flashy thing that I didn't need?

Sid (18:26):
Yeah,

Keith (18:26):
that's, I mean, equipment falls into that a lot.

Sid (18:30):
Mm-hmm.
We switched softwares three timesin four years, and every time it,
if you really calculate the cost,it's probably a hundred thousand
dollars, you know, human time.
Yeah.
Uh, consultants and, you know,get ramp up and, uh, you know,
changeovers and all that stuff.

Keith (18:49):
Consultants love a software flip.
Oh, they do?
They love to walk.
Hey, we'll walk you through that.

Sid (18:55):
Yeah, well, yeah, and you know, all four.
I want it clean and easy 'cause Iwant everything, all of these services
crammed into one, one sort of enterprisesoftware and it just has never worked.
Now.

(19:15):
What I will say is that I'velearned that the hard way, but
I'm very leery of software.
Not that I don't think software isimportant, but I'm very leery of buying
the story that the software salespeople ortheir pitch or their demo shows and I ask.
I ask more questions now, and Inegotiate a hell of a lot better

(19:39):
than I did three years ago.

Keith (19:41):
Well, and software also can be very confusing.

Sid (19:45):
Yeah, it can be confusing, it can be, uh, clunky.
It can be not very, um, intuitive.
It can be, uh, it could havelike APIs that are kind of
messed up that don't work great.
And you thought they would, and all things

Keith (20:03):
I got into this thought, thought process, um, over the last
six months or so, looking for.
Software to do our web apps,software, whatever, to, to
do, uh, customer management.

Sid (20:20):
A CRM.

Keith (20:21):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I thought there was one outthere that would fill my need.

Sid (20:25):
Mm-hmm.

Keith (20:26):
But after I dug in and took the time, and that's, that's what I would say.
Yeah.
That's what it is, istake the time to test it.
Yeah, I figured out it, the oneprogram that I thought would do
it all would not fill my needs.
It's just too big.
And so I'm using, I'm using multipleproducts to do it at half the price.

(20:47):
Yeah.
No, but, but what a lot, A lot oftimes, uh, software companies will
package a program and say, okay,this will run your whole business.

Sid (20:57):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.

Keith (20:58):
Well, one, the, the area that I needed it to run
the most, it was a weekend.
And so if I had, isthat the marketing side?
Yeah.
If I had, if I had to have, ifI had gone all in on it, yeah.
I would've been in contracts for a year.
Oh yeah.
Because this company makes you or three.

(21:18):
Yeah.
This company makes price.
You sign.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This company makes you signcontracts and thank God I didn't.
Yeah.
And so.
I labored over it a long timebefore I made decisions and I
made, and I brought in consultant.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
Mm-hmm.

Keith (21:31):
And then, uh, she guided me into three different products, three separate
products to do three separate things.
And I saved a boatload of money.
That's good.
Yeah.
And so what I think is we make decisions.
At a certain level, we get, we getcaught in that mentality of you

(21:54):
gotta think fast to beat the market.
Mm-hmm.
Well, sometimes you don't, andsometimes you've gotta take time
to see what the market needs beforeyou, before you decide or what your
organization needs or whatever.
Yeah.
Sometimes taking time saves money.

Sid (22:13):
Yeah, I, I would say that, I would say sometimes
having money saves money too.
That was the only other thing I wasthinking on this subject is that if
you've got some money saved up, I. Yeah,and you can go ahead and pay, you'll
get some good discounts sometimes.
Oh.
If you can pay the year up front, sure.
Oh man.
You'll get like 50% off,but before you pay 30% off,

Keith (22:35):
but before you pay the year up, you better make sure that the solution works.
Yeah,

Sid (22:38):
yeah,

Keith (22:39):
yeah,

Sid (22:39):
yeah, that's, that's a good point.

Keith (22:41):
Oh, I love th the three, we talk about this all the time to me.
Yeah.
Forgetting the importanceof making a profit.
Hey, how does a businessgo outta business?
They run outta cash.

Sid (22:51):
There it is.
It's the number one thing every man.
I love asking people that.
'cause they'll be like, oh, I don't know.
And they think about it and they're like,oh, they don't have enough customers.
I'm like, I don't think that's it.
And they're like, well, and Igo, well, what does that lead to?
And then they go, well, then they,then they, you know, lose market share.
And I'm like, oh, okay, cool.
What does that lead to?

(23:12):
And.
Whatever.
Then the cash flow is low and I'm like,okay, well what does that lead to?
Then they can't pay their bills.
I'm like, cool, what does that lead to?
And I guess they run outta money.
I was like, that's the only reason.
That's it.
Everything else is a symptom, butthe actual cause of death mm-hmm.
Is running outta cash because whatis the language of business numbers?
Numbers is the language of business.

(23:34):
It is.
I had a, a, a long, a longmeeting all day yesterday.

Keith (23:39):
I saw

Sid (23:39):
you and you were in there teaching, writing on the board.
I know, dude.
It was like, wait a minute.
We don't know what this number is.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's get out our calculators.
Let's go.
I saw you had that canfigure that one out going.
I did.
I did.
I can't believe you reservedthe other conference room.
You made me go up front, or atleast that's what Allie said.

Keith (24:02):
Ah,

Sid (24:02):
yeah.
I was like, oh God, Idon't wanna be up here.
Everyone can see us.

Keith (24:05):
Yeah.

Sid (24:07):
Keith and I, uh, have some shared workspace and, uh, I had
a, I had a meeting yesterday.
It went well, but numbers beingthe language of business was
discussed a nauseum for abouteight hours and isn't that

Keith (24:21):
amazing that.
We have to have thatconversation with entrepreneurs.
Well, I, I, you know, do you thinkyou go into business not knowing that?

Sid (24:34):
Well, I think, I think, um, so you remember the E-Myth, right?

Keith (24:37):
Yep.

Sid (24:38):
This, this is I, Michael Gerber nailed, nailed it.
He, that,

Keith (24:43):
Hey, you can go way back in our episodes and find this, I

Sid (24:46):
think it's number two.
Yeah, I think it's episode number two.
Um, and we're on 1 71 now.
So.
Um, that's a long time ago, butMichael Gerber said that most
people go into business becausethey have an entrepreneurial schism.
I'm like, uh, and what that reallymeans is, is, hey, I'm a good plumber.

(25:09):
I'm, I know how to do this.
I know how to do plumbing.
So my next logical step isto own a plumbing business.
Right?
But what they failedto think about is that.
Plumbing is one aspect andprobably just one third of
the overall plumbing business.
The other side is, is I need toknow how to market, you know,

(25:32):
know your market, who needs it?
How do I get in touch with them?
I need to know how to price it.
But if you're a plumber and you're workingfor a plumbing company, you probably
have an idea of how things are priced.
You don't know if that'sappropriate or not, but you
need, you need some accounting.
Knowledge, that's the numbersbeing the language of business.
And then you need like some realleadership if you're gonna scale

(25:55):
beyond yourself, uh, yourself.
That came out real funny.
If you're going to scale beyond yourself.
Um.
And so, man, most peoplemiss that accounting part.
And most people say, Hey,I'm not a numbers guy.
I'm just a plumber.
And I'm like, cool, go work for someoneelse because this is so important.

(26:16):
You can't abdicate this responsibility.
And what most people do and is they lettheir accountant come in and set their
books up and accountants set it up.
And it's not, nothing wrongwith them, but they set it up.
Where it's easy forthem to do their taxes.
Uh, everyone except for Johnny Barrancoand his team over at Barranco and
Associates, and I say that with fullfreaking confidence 'cause I've gone

(26:40):
through plenty of accountants and thisguy, man, they, they, they do a great job.
But, um, with that, with that littlelaid out, uh, scenario there, you just
lose track that making a profit isimportant and you fall prey to the hey.
You're gonna owe about $80,000 in taxes.
Why don't you go ahead and go buy a, youknow, an $80,000 truck and they don't

(27:05):
stop and think, man, wouldn't I ratherjust pay $80,000 in taxes and 'cause I've
got 160 saved up and then I won't havethe ongoing burden and the interest or
whatever, you know, of keeping that thing.
I don't need another truck.
It's just.
The be.
It's a better thing to do if youthink it all the way through.

Keith (27:29):
Um, so many times I've, in tax situations, I've tried to be crafty.

Sid (27:35):
Yeah.

Keith (27:36):
And it's never, yeah.
Paid off for me.
It sounds like a great idea.

Sid (27:40):
Sometimes you just have to pay the piper well, uh, to another book.
Simple Numbers.
Straight, straight Talk.
Big Profits by Michael Grab Crabtreesaid the number one indicator of your
success as a small business owner isthe amount of money you pay in taxes.
And this is an accountant.
He owns a big accountingfirm up in Huntsville.

(28:02):
He's well known, well respected,and I hate hearing that, but I.
I think he's right.

Keith (28:08):
You know what, one day I was griping to my granddad
before he passed away.
Hmm.
About the amount of money I waspaying in taxes, and he just so
eloquently looked at me and said,well, you know what that means?
Yeah.
You made money.
Yeah.
He was like, would yourather pay no taxes?
Yeah.
And be broke.
That's right.

Sid (28:29):
Um.
But if you're gonna pay yourtaxes, you're gonna make a profit.
Mm-hmm.
Back to that.
I'll never forget that.
Um, I was having, uh, a conversation withChris May the first time I ever met him.
Really?
And he was talking about, Hey, youknow, and just, I was like, oh, we were
kind of getting to know each other.
And he was, you know, uh, askingfor some mentorship on something.

(28:51):
I can't remember what.
And I was like, well, just tellme about the business and, um.
Long story short, it was like,well, the first year we did this,
I was like, cool, what'd you make?
Well, really, I thinkwe lost about that much.
I'm like, oh, okay.
First year with the secondyear we made this cool.
What'd you make?
He like, eh, we, we, welost about this much.

(29:12):
And I was like, okay.
And I was like, where are you at now?
Here?
Okay.
What do you anticipate to make?
He's like, ah, probably maybebreak even, or maybe this.
And I was like, okay, we gotta stop.
We gotta stop something like you can't.
Keep moving forward, losing money.
And he is like, what?
I was like, man, you're a competitive guy.

(29:32):
And that guy's a competitiveguy, like super, super athlete.
I. When you don't make money,you're losing, you've been
losing for three years.
Is that okay with you?
He goes, no, and IG andI gave him the story.
That's how businesses run outof bus, uh, go out of business.
And like, I think it, he, he'lltell you, man, it snapped him right

(29:53):
into check and, and started thinkingabout what he is spending and does
he actually need to spend it on this?
I mean, because everyone thinksthat they need this receptionist.
That's, that's one of thethings I see all the time.
I need a receptionist who'sgoing to answer the phones.
I was like, I don't know.
What are you doing?
Yeah, I don't know.
What's the girl?
Well, I'm doing sales.

(30:13):
I'm like, cool.
Well, between whatevertime, what are you doing?
Could you pick up that phone?
Could you help the customer?
Could you sell them something?
Do you need to spend $42,000 on someoneto just sit up there and like answer
phones when, when it does happen?
It's a nice luxury.
How many phone calls are you getting?
I mean, you can go in there andsee, but those kind of things,
you just start cutting that stuffback and you start making money.

(30:35):
You start making money, you know,you can save up a little bit.
Maybe you can add another service.
Maybe you can add some moneyin, in some other places that's
gonna generate more money.

Keith (30:44):
And typically a receptionist is not gonna sell a new product.
Only you can,

Sid (30:49):
yeah, not typically.
I mean, you can get some good ones.
Yeah, I've had some good ones, butthey usually elevate to something else.
Shout out Jamie.
Yeah.
Uh, but yeah, I mean,you gotta make money.
You gotta make money.
And so number three, forgettingthe importance of making a profit.
You could have, this is anotherpart, sorry, I know we're moving on.
But you can have the best productever, but if you don't price it

(31:13):
right where you can make money offof it, you will go outta business.
It's.
You may not be able to ramp up fastenough like some of these startups with a
bunch of cash behind them and all they'rethinking about is growth, growth, growth,
and not worried about losing money.
Most of, uh, all of our audience, I, Ibegged to, to, to say is, is not in that
category, but they hear those stories.

(31:36):
They relate it to theirsituation and it's not the same.

Keith (31:40):
However, the startups that I'm working with right now, if I go into
and look at what the, where they'refailing, they overstaff every time.
Oh, oh, see, that's what I'm saying.
They're overstaffed, I would say by.
50%

Sid (31:57):
most of the time.
Oh, Elon.
That's why Elon comes in there.
Even with the kitchen sink.

Keith (32:00):
Oh, yeah.
Yep.

Sid (32:01):
Cut.
We're gonna cut Twitter down by 70%.

Keith (32:04):
Yeah.
Then if, if you wanna look at immediateprofit, and I've seen you do this.
Yeah.
Look at your staff.

Sid (32:12):
Yeah.
Look at where you need to cut.
Yeah, dude, that is, that's it.
Because a lot of it's overhead, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
A lot of it is.
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(32:32):
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(32:53):
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(33:16):
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(33:43):
Oh, number four is hard.
Number four.

Sid (33:44):
Yeah.
Although, yeah, it'shard, but man, it just is.
You gotta get you, there's no excuses.
You

Keith (33:52):
gotta

Sid (33:52):
get

Keith (33:53):
better about this.
Hey, we dropped a podcast lastweek that'll help you with this.
Um, because if you're in theright community, you're gonna
have to learn to take criticism.

Sid (34:04):
Yeah.
The num number four mistakeis not taking criticism well.
Yeah, that's a big one.
Yep.
And that's just egogetting in the way It is.
If you're, if you're seriousabout it, it's just ego.
Um, I get it.
I want to push back immediately.
Although, speaking of community,I'm telling you that peer group I

(34:25):
was in for over 17 years, um, youweren't, you weren't allowed to not
take criticism to, to take criticism.
Badly it, they just beat it into you.
It was, I mean, it was.
A little cultish and pretty brutal whereit was like, dude, this, we would share

(34:46):
numbers monthly, uh, lots of times.
Quarterly would be, youknow, pretty serious.
And then annually for sure,like we're you better have your
numbers in a month before, oryou probably getting kicked out.
Like, don't show up with a grenade.
For this meeting and justsay, oh, I didn't have this.
I mean, you're outta there, buddy.

(35:06):
We do not waste time on that.
And we are all like young and likeaggressive business owners and
talking to each other, all aggressive.
But it, what it did is it created likethis whole environment where you had
to hear it, you would give it, butyou had to damn sure take it and you
couldn't like, push back too hard becausethat only made it worse, you know?

(35:28):
It was, it was pretty good.
Let's talk about community.
Yeah.
One of

Keith (35:30):
the things.
That I believe people who don't takecriticism well and the reason they
don't take criticism well is they'renot, and it's a lot like we talked
about in the community episode.
They're an island themselves

(35:51):
and they don't place themselvesin groups of authority that people
may have authority over them,and I think it's real important.
For entrepreneurs andbusiness owners Yeah.
To place themselves in places whereyou have to be under authority.
Yeah.
Because we walk around inauthority all day long.

(36:12):
Yeah.
No one telling us what to do.
No one's saying anything to us.
We can make all the mistakes wewant, can never pay the consequences.
Oh yeah.
We're,

Sid (36:20):
we're the boss.
And, and those mistakeskind of get excused away.

Keith (36:24):
Yeah.
And then we'll roll them under a mm-hmm.
Excuse.
Mm-hmm.
And so I think it's reallyimportant for us to place ourselves
in places like a peer group.
Yeah.
That people have the abilityto speak into our lives.

Sid (36:41):
Yeah.
I, I agree.
And to that point, the criticismitself, the one man, the one best.
Lesson, and I don't know where I heardit, but I've heard it a bunch of times
since, and this was kind of relativelyearly on in my life and career, is that,
hey, Syd, just think of it this way.

(37:04):
If you are not the problem, if you'renot the problem at your business,
in your marriage, in your family,in your life, if you're not the
problem, you don't have any answers.
'cause when you really think aboutit, you can't control anybody.
You know those people that work foryou, you can't make them get up out of
bed and love coming to work for you.

(37:26):
Like you can't, like strong arm thatyou can have some influence, but
you can't make anyone do anything.
You can only make you do something.
So if you are not the problem, if theanswers to your problems are not you
and your behavior, your attitudes,your beliefs, your words, your actions,
then you don't have any solutions.

(37:46):
You are screwed.
If you, but if you are the problem, soyou might wanna listen to some of this
feedback, then you do have a chanceto change, to be something different,
to say something different, to thinksomething different, to read something
different, to change the system.
And that's, I was like, man, that,that, that'll break open everything

(38:06):
and you'll just listen to criticism.
Maybe not.
All the time, like acceptingly, a hundredpercent and appreciate it and all that
stuff, but you, but it'll sink in.

Keith (38:16):
Criticism normally makes you mad upfront.

Sid (38:19):
Yeah, because it's ego getting checked and ego, uh, its job is to,
is to deflect that or defend itself.
Um, but you know, it's kind of a.A primal kind of quick instinct or
reaction, but man, just sit with it for20 minutes and you'll probably know that.
Yeah, that was right.

Keith (38:39):
So about 10 years ago, I went through one of the
hardest times of my life.
Everything fell apart, marriage, all ofthat good stuff, business after that.
Mm. And I was in the gym one day andI was, was it under my old office?
Uh, this was.

(38:59):
It was under your oldor over by McDonald's?
No, no, no.
It was, uh, under yourold office, I think.
Yeah.
And Scott looked at me and he said, do yourealize how many times you said, I can't,

Sid (39:11):
you've said this before?
Yeah.

Keith (39:13):
And first off, I got pissed.
Yeah.
Because I was like, do you knowwhat I've just been through?
Yeah.
Then I went home and I started thinkingabout it and I started thinking about
what the scripture has to say aboutwords and that our words matter.
And I realized that I had beengoing in there just vomiting at
the mouth about my situations.

(39:34):
Yeah.
And he was absolutely right, and itwas probably one of the most crucial.
I mean, I'm sitting here 10years later talking about it.
Yeah.
My whole existence.
Yeah.
That someone would have the balls to say,

Sid (39:50):
God just quit being such a baby.
Yeah.
And he didn't beat you overthe head with it either?
No.

Keith (39:55):
He just said it was one line.
Yeah.
Do you know how manytimes you've said I can't?

Sid (40:00):
Yeah.

Keith (40:01):
And so a lot of times criticism changes our perspective and that's what.
And, and, but I will say you haveto put good people in your life
that can give you the criticism.
That's good.
Yeah.
And you have to decipher who's who,who is giving loving criticism or

(40:22):
who's just trying to be destructive.

Speaker 3 (40:24):
Mm-hmm.

Keith (40:25):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
All criticism you should not take.
Mm-hmm.
You've gotta, you've gotta reallytake into account the source.

Sid (40:35):
That's a good point.
That's a good point.

Keith (40:37):
So make sure the people that you take their criticism
have the best out for you.

Sid (40:42):
Yeah.
Um.
Yeah.
One other, one other aspect of this nottaking criticism well, and, and maybe,
maybe I should have started with this,but this is just one, is that most of
the time we're talking to, you know,business owners or founders or, you
know, leaders and, and, and startingyour own business or, or, or climbing

(41:05):
the ladder requires immense skill,self-confidence and determination.
And unfortunately, a lotof these qualities make a
great entrepreneur or leader.
That those qualities, uh, thatturns into arrogance and arrogance
can be the downfall of any leader.
Uh, believing in the perfection of yourown ideas, uh, leads to the tendency

(41:27):
to demi dismiss criticism and ignorelegitimate concerns and questions from
both your customers and your investors.
Yeah.
So if you can't, if you can't takesome criticism because you think.
You don't stink.
It's gonna be tough, man.
It's gonna be tough.

(41:48):
So whenever the things are goingreally well, I'm usually going, okay.
I better check whereI'm, where I'm missing.

Keith (41:54):
You know, one of the truest sayings that I've heard over and
over and over again, and my momused to say it and my dad said it.
And if you're in, you know, if you'rea person of faith, you've heard
this pride cometh before the fall.
Oh yeah.
But it's the truth.
Yeah.
Every time I've

Sid (42:09):
do they have to say, cometh.
Could we, like, could we advancethat statement to just say No,
you gotta go King James on that.
Yeah.
You know, pride comes before the fall.
Yeah.
I that, there we go.
Modernized don't havesay cometh, you know?
Well,

Keith (42:22):
I was telling you how my dad said it.
Oh, I know.
I'm, I'm, I'm advocating, yeah.
I'm

Sid (42:26):
advocating for Gen Z or whatever.
Hey,

Keith (42:28):
so true though.

Sid (42:29):
Pride does cometh before the fall.
I, I, I scored there.
Not you just said cum.
I know, I know.
See,
alright, number five.
We're go, we're closingit out with this one.
You had a, you had a take on this

Keith (42:44):
ignoring your competition.
Break it down though before Isay what I, what I brought up.

Sid (42:50):
Look, I have been guilty of saying this all the time.
I'm not worried about the competition.
We're worried about us, which is true.
Um.
No matter what you say, there's otherpeople that are competition and if
you're not, at least understanding whatthey're, what they're doing, how they're
marketing their product, what theirproduct is like, who they're targeting,

(43:16):
it's kind of like that, that the arrogancethat you don't take criticism well.
You just don't ever change.
If you think that you don'thave any competition, if you're
ignoring the competition, it'sreally just arrogance thinking
that we don't need to do anything.
What we're doing ever doesn't matterthat your competition is, you know,

(43:38):
having, having the same kind ofcustomers, but they're developing a
better mousetrap and they're ultimatelygonna take all of your customers.
And when they do, when you finallysee it, it's probably too late.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
Hey Sy.
Yep.
I got something to throw in here.
I think you'll like what you got.
You've done a lot ofjujitsu tournaments, right?
Oh yeah.
You're not just gonna like.
Stand in a corner and notlook at your competition.

Sid (44:04):
Well, it's funny you're saying that.
That's what, are we recording this?
Yeah.
Okay.
This is great.
I was actually thinking about that.
There's a reason to go to competitions.
I mean, it is almost like if you go to onecompetition, it almost propels you about
three months worth of training jujitsu.
Like one weekend.
Would you say that's true?

(44:25):
Yes.
And and part of that is, is one, yougotta put your jiujitsu on the line.
But two, it's more of a mind.
It's a, it's a mental thing.
But, but the other aspect isyou get to see what's working
for all these other people.
You know, because, uh, some schoolsuse like spider guard a lot,
double spider guard and all thosethings, and you're like, oh man,

(44:46):
I see what they're doing there.

Keith (44:48):
Not, not in our age group too.
Not in our age group.
No,

Sid (44:51):
that's true.

Keith (44:53):
We really can't even get in that position.
No, I like spider guard actually.

Sid (44:57):
Yeah.
Uh, but.
I, you know, I saw itworking for lots of people.

Keith (45:01):
Yeah.

Sid (45:02):
In, in, uh, in tournaments, you know?
Mm-hmm.
So you, you're right, Tim,in Juujitsu, like, uh, you're
not gonna sit in the corner.
You're not just gonna just focus onyour one thing, you're gonna, you're
gonna see other people, other things,other, other ideas, and, and, and
going out and fighting your competitiondefinitely makes you better faster.

(45:23):
And

Keith (45:23):
there's also really no consequences in practice.
And so.
Having to compete.
That's a good point.
Lets, you know, is what I'm practicingworking and so just like in business,
there's no, there's really noconsequences in the ideas fleshing the

(45:43):
idea out and getting it as a product.
And so the, the markettests, the validity.
Yeah, it does.
And so I can have allthe ideas in the world.
And what's happened to me a lot is I'vewaited to get the idea to the world and

(46:04):
that someone came out with it first.
And so that's what you, that's yeah.
That's what ignoringyour competition on day.

Sid (46:11):
Yeah.
You'll, you'll you'll end up last.
Yep.
Yeah.
Or second, which may be worse.
I don't know.
It might

Keith (46:18):
be, it's the first loser.

Sid (46:20):
If, if you really don't have competition, you're probably in a
market that doesn't have enough.
Um.
Interest, you know, toreally be viable or scale.
Right.

Keith (46:30):
So, and that brings me to my point is that a lot of times
we become our own competition.
Yeah.
You were saying that flesh, that out.
Design and competingproducts with our main one.
Oh, okay.
Um, not following the market enough.

(46:54):
To be intuitive aboutwhat we need to change.
Yeah.
Staying blind, keeping ablind eye to the market.
It's not that they're beatingus, it's that we're avoiding it.

Sid (47:06):
Y and man, I, all of that I think sort of boils down to arrogance
Again, like I said before, right?
One of the things that come comes to mindis you heard the whole story about Kodak.
Having all the technology fordigital cameras for years and not,
and not, and not ever using it.
Like they, they locked it up in abox because they didn't wanna compete

(47:28):
with their, their existing products,
but they messed around so long.
Is Kodak out of business now?
Are they, are they done?
I think if they're not, they're real.

Keith (47:42):
I think they're in business somewhat.
I

Sid (47:44):
saw, saw, I

Keith (47:44):
saw

Sid (47:45):
Kodak.
Sunglasses one time.

Keith (47:48):
Really?
That was just a brand, I'm sure.
Or was that Polaroid?

Sid (47:50):
I don't know.
But Keith, uh, ing is Kodak in business.
Kodak

Keith (47:56):
is in business.
Oh my god.

Sid (47:58):
Well, they're not like they used to

Keith (47:59):
be 30 years ago.
That's for sure.
They are not.
No, but I think they kind ofeither got, they got bought or
they had to have, yeah, they gotbought by Eastman, Eastman, Kodak.
I think Eastman

Sid (48:10):
bought 'em.
So, so, uh, but they had thetechnology for digital camera.
Yeah, they, digital photos.
Digital cameras.
However, there

Keith (48:18):
has been a renaissance of, of

Sid (48:20):
there has been, but it's still, but it's still kind of niche.
Like, like, uh, sure.
Like, you know, records, you know, vinyl.

Keith (48:27):
Yes.

Sid (48:28):
Um.
I have seen a lot of kids with like, youknow, disposable cameras and every wedding
you go to now has them and all that stuff,but they ignored their back to Kodak.
They ignored their competitionand it, it cost them dearly.
And that was just arrogance, right?
So ignoring your competition,that's number five.

(48:49):
Uh, recap.
Number one, not knowing your market.
Bad deal.
Who's your, who's your customer?
What do they want?
How do you give it to 'em?
Uh, number two, thinking small.
Uh, thinking money solves all problems.
You, you get a little bit ofsuccess and you just start becoming
lazy, throwing money at issues.

(49:09):
Um, maybe that phone issue.
What are we gonna doabout answering phones?
Oh, well, let's not come up with a system.

Keith (49:15):
Number three, forgetting the importance of making a profit.
Numbers are the language of business.
Oh my God, that's a good one.

Sid (49:23):
Uh, you got

Keith (49:24):
four, number four to not taking criticism.
You're really good at this one.
That's why I wanted you to take that.
What?
Not taking criticism well.
You are good at taking criticism well.
Oh, thank

Sid (49:33):
you.
That's, we give you a hard time every day.

Keith (49:35):
Every day.
I love it.
It's made me into a great human.

Sid (49:40):
Yeah.
Number five.
Ignoring your competition.
That's the last one.
So there's just five.
Uh.
Mistakes to avoid.
And uh, we hope you gotsomething out of that.
We appreciate you listening.
Um, what else, Keith?

Keith (49:57):
I don't know.
I think that's pretty good.

Sid (49:59):
Okay.
Well,

Keith (50:00):
hey, I mean that we just broke down life also.

Sid (50:04):
Business life.
Yeah.
Well, uh, hey, if you like this podcast,please, please share it to someone.
Share it with someone and,uh, like, you know, follow all
that jazz, write us a review.
Uh, do anything you can.
We really appreciate it.

Keith (50:23):
Hey, thanks for the reviews lately.
I've seen some pop upand, uh, some new ones.
So thanks for, uh, it's, I'm trulyhumbled that you would listen to us.
You know, me kind of a. Metoo, and we hope we're helping.
That's our, that's our goal.

Sid (50:43):
Alright, well you guys, and we'll see you next week.
Peace.