September 12, 2023 • 21 mins
In this episode, Pete Mohr sits down with Krista Fairchild, a second-generation dance studio owner, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of transitioning from decision-making to delegation. They dive into the importance of process, communication, and accountability, offering actionable advice for business owners looking to elevate their operations. If you're stuck in the day-to-day and want to move from detail to dashboard, this episode is for you.
Here are a few things Pete covers:
- The journey of Krista Fairchild, a second-generation dance studio owner.
- The importance of process and communication in business.
- How to transition from being a decision-maker to a delegator.
- The concept of accountability and how it can transform your business.
- Real-world advice on how to start delegating tasks effectively.
It's Time to Take Action:
After listening, your next step is to identify one or two small accountabilities that you can delegate right now. Don't wait for the perfect time; make the time. If you've been holding back, this is your sign to take action and empower your team. If you’d like to find out more how Pete can help your business book a chat at www.speaktopete.com
Are you looking to make some changes in your business and your life in 2024? Head over to speaktopete.com and book a chat with me to see if we're the right fit!
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Don’t leave your business’s future to chance. Click here to take the Value Builder Assessment and start building a more valuable, resilient business today!
Book a no charge Freedom Call with Pete, to see if you’re a good fit for his business coaching or talk to Pete about speaking at your next event head over to http://speaktopete.com to find a time that works for you!
Pete's Websites:
Pete-Mohr.com
The Exit Ready Business
Kolbe Coach
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LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/petemohr/
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pete Mohr (00:03):
Are you ready to move from operator to owner? Well,
decisions in your organizationshould be made at the lowest
possible level of your business.
Every day. There is a frameworkthat can help and it's called
the five P's. Understanding yourpromise, aligning your product
process and people to it willgenerate the most amount of
(00:24):
profit. And that's when thefreedom comes. Freedom from the
day to day management andfreedom to start doing the
things that you want and deserveto do. Inside and outside of
your business. No one ever saidit was easy, but it's time to
start the process on thebusiness owner breakthrough. If
(00:44):
you'd like to chat with me abouthelping you break through in
your business, simply go tospeak to p two.com. That speak
to pete.com to book anappointment and to see if we're
a right fit. Hey, Krista, it'sso great to see you again.
Krista Fairchild (01:04):
It's so good to be here. Thank you so much
for the invitation.
Pete Mohr (01:07):
Yeah, you know, we met at REI gold's dance
conference, which was so awesomedown in Las Vegas, three days of
dance school owners comingtogether talking business
talking program. You know, itwas really good. We had a few
hours together at one of thesessions that we did, and
reached out and said, Hey,listen, would you like to come
(01:27):
on the show? It's been a whilesince I've had some guests on
the show. And I want to reopenthis door. And as I said, before
we hopped on, you're my guineapig here, Krista, you jump back
in because we're gonna do alittle live coaching today and
get some ideas out around yourbusiness and how you want to
structure your business. Movingahead, why don't you tell us a
(01:49):
little bit about you and yourbusiness, how you got here, and
how you got to sit in the seatthat you're sitting in right
now.
Krista Fairchild (01:56):
Okay, so I'm Kristin Fairchild, I own energy
arts dance in Marysville, Ohio.
It's a little suburb outside ofColumbus. And this is our 33rd
Season dance. My mom started thebusiness in 1990. So I am a
second generation owner. And Istarted teaching for her right
out of college, and bought thisstudio in fall of 2019. So my
(02:18):
first full year business wasCOVID, we just expanded into a
second location in our town. Sowe have grown quite a bit since
2020, which is good and nineemployees. And one of them is my
mom. Yeah. And so I'm excited tokind of learn more about how to
(02:40):
strategize so that I'm notmaking every decision in the
Business Daily, but to empowermy employees to start in that
leadership kind of role.
Pete Mohr (02:52):
You know, I do a lot of work with people who are
transitioning from we call itnext generation. So the next
generation like yourself takingover whether the next generation
is taking over from your ownparents, or whether like, most
people that are listening to thepodcast here know that we have
shoe stores. Well, I took overfrom an existing business owner,
a couple of these shoe stores,two out of three, I took over
(03:15):
from existing businesses and onethat I just opened myself. But
there's differences there. Andwhen we put our own leadership
spin on things, and we have aclarity of what we want out of
this. There's process there'scommunication, there's
accountability, there's thingsthat change. And one of the
things I'm seeing a lot withthese days is that this
generation who are taking overbusiness, as baby boomers are,
(03:37):
are leaving businesses in drovesthese days, don't necessarily
want to run business the waythey did. And there's so much
out there now to help us writeall the different process
management tools and tips andcomputerized things that that
give us our time back. And whatI find with a lot of owners is
that they even though they theyhave expedited a lot of this
(04:01):
stuff through point of salesystems and communication
systems, and a lot of thesethings that do give you your
time back, you don't actuallytake the time, right reallocated
into into more things to do.
Right. You know, it's reallyinteresting, when you reach out
and you said, you know, I wantto start to have some other
people rise in the ranks. Do youhave credit, especially now with
(04:21):
this new opening? Because youcan't be in two places at once.
It's, it's now physicallyimpossible for you to make every
decision and the physicality ofthat sometimes is needed.
Because one one of the thingsI'll recommend to a lot of
people when they're looking atstarting to release, some of the
accountabilities ask your teamif I wasn't here, what would you
(04:43):
do? Now you can live it becauseyou've got your attention,
right? But for those that arelistening, that only have one
business, or one one locationand you're there most of the
time. If you're thinking thesequestions around this idea
around like they should knowought to do now they've been
with me for six years, or threeyears or, or 10 years, whatever
the case is, or your mom's case,she founded it. You know, she
(05:05):
didn't know what to do, why sheasked me this, like, you could
say, well, what would you do? IfI wasn't here today? If I was
away on vacation, or if I was atthe other location, wherever the
case is, the hard part issitting in waiting for them to
add, I think the biggest thingaround that is, don't cave in.
Just wait for them to answerbecause 90% of the time, if they
know your promise, and theyunderstand what you're all
(05:29):
about, and they've been with youthat long, they already have the
answer. The difference is for alot of small business owners is
they haven't actually allowedthem the end, given them the
authority to make it. So when welook at the transfer of
accountability, and you know,because you were at one of the
are a couple of the differentthings that they put on, but the
(05:51):
idea of having an accountabilitychart, and for those of you who
are listening, andaccountability chart is looks on
paper, it's similar to aorganizational chart. But the
idea around accountability chartis really, what are the
accountabilities not just thetitles, but what are you
responsible for? Right. And whenyou start thinking about this
stuff from your business, like,give me one of the
(06:12):
accountabilities that you wouldlike to shed and that you think,
and you don't have to give me aname of who is going to but
you're thinking right now, thisperson could probably do this,
Krista Fairchild (06:22):
right. So one of the systems that we'd like to
put into places, and we'll headover each of our departments
like preschool, or competitiveteam, our recital program, and
so one of those would beresponsible for all the
curriculum and the themes eachmonth for preschool classes. And
(06:43):
right now, I am basically havedone all those, but I know I
have identified employees, Ithink would be really good in
those roles. And now it's just amatter of getting over the
worry,I think, right? And ambience, my
mom always did it all. So Isometimes feel a little bit of
that pressure to, to do that.
And guilt. And I don't know thatI'm the one, I'm not necessarily
(07:06):
the one that might be the bestone for that either.
Pete Mohr (07:12):
That's an interesting piece right there. Because we
aren't our parents, right? Andwe are to our previous business
owners, if we bought yourbusiness or if somebody else,
they may have had specific,unique qualities, and they did
have any sort of cific uniquequalities that made them
different than you. And that'sokay. And they may have had a
different outlook on what theywanted out of their business in
(07:33):
their life. And hence, okay. AndI think when I look at this
stuff, Krista, because you gotit, you took over this business,
you bought this business fromyour your mom, not only because
there's some legacy there, andit's family and all that kind of
stuff, but because you thoughtit would bring you a better
life, right? It's like, yeah,this, I do have an option of
going to work for somebody.
Right? But when you think aboutthat, and if you sometimes we
(07:56):
reel back to 2019, before allthe COVID, mass and all that
sort of stuff, when that wasn'teven in the picture, sometimes
we need to roll back to when wefirst got into business and
think a little bit around thefact that hey, if I buy this
business, off my mom or offwhomever, what will this bring
me in my family? What kind offreedoms Am I looking for? And
(08:16):
those frames, like I said, are alot times different for this
generation than they maybe werefor the generations before us.
And that's okay. Right? And so,but what with clarity, what does
that look like? And I thinkdoing some journaling on that
kind of stuff is really, reallyinteresting, because it'll help
you guide you through some ofthese accountabilities, that you
(08:37):
want to set up with all thedifferent structures within your
dance school. And within the twodifferent dance store, like the
dance studios, right? You gottwo different ones, and there's
going to be people involved inthose. But the next piece that
is, do you have clear andeffective process in place, so
that because one of the wordsyou used was trust, I'm not sure
(08:58):
whether I'm ready to release,you know, which a lot of people
will say I don't trust themquite yet. A lot of times around
the trust idea, it's notnecessarily do we trust the
people it's around? Do we trustthe process in place? Right. And
so when we look back at takingthat up a step, that step is, I
really need to hone down thisprocess so that I feel confident
(09:19):
that I can just hand it over,and knowing what they know, and
knowing that they're part of theculture and all that kind of
stuff. Because most of thepeople that work for us, let's
face it, get that side of it. Ifthey don't, they shouldn't be
working with us. You know, sowhat is it that holds you back
from releasing? Do you think,Krista,
Krista Fairchild (09:39):
I do think that it's probably not having a
process in place, and a lot ofthose that that will allow me
to, and I definitely trust theemployees in place. Yet. It's
more like my worry and fear ofand I need to get over that. But
then it may not happen just theway I pictured then in my head,
(10:01):
but honestly, the big picture ofit is, it doesn't have to look
like what I think it needs tolook like. Because they may do
it in a totally different way.
And I'm always surprised,because some of my employees,
when I, when we do do some ofthese visionary things, they,
they'll come up with things thatit has never even occurred to me
to look at it the way they lookat it.
Pete Mohr (10:25):
And I've loved this.
Krista Fairchild (10:28):
And I think that that's why, because we have
the people in place, now I needto, I need to get myself on
track, to give them moreresponsibility, because I think
that that will be morefulfilling to them as well, to
realize that they they have avested interest in growing their
own program or within thebusiness that they have a little
(10:49):
bit of vested interest in thatand said,
Pete Mohr (10:52):
I love that you just said that, that because it's my
feeling that our employees dowant to take ownership in parts
of their job. And in that doeshelp them the whole culture, the
whole belonging, your team willnotice it, your students will
notice it. I mean, everybodynotices that when that sort of
the culture of everybody's in.
And the bit. The biggest thingwith this kind of stuff I find,
(11:16):
Krista is that a lot of timespeople procrastinate, because
they find that it's just toooverwhelming to start releasing
one of my suggestions to you forthis upcoming season, because as
we're recording this, you know,September is pretty close now.
So for this upcoming season iswhat are one or two small things
that you can release, as opposedto the bigger things. And we
(11:41):
often you know, as businessowners think about, oh, I just
need to get rid of this bigthing. And I'll be good. But
that's the hard stuff. Sostarting with something that's
maybe a bit smaller, as opposedto releasing, you know, let's
say costuming or something likethat, it's like, that's a big
one. So what are two or three ofthe small things that are on
(12:01):
your accountability plate rightnow that you do think you have
process pretty good, but youmight need to tweak it just a
little bit to finish it off foryou to feel confident about, I
can hand this over now. Right.
And then when you're handing itover, people learn in different
ways. So you're handing them theprocess, essentially. And that
(12:22):
should be in sort of a writtenformat of some sort of way of
this is the process, this is theway and then if you can, in a
video format is really good fora lot of people learn better on
video than they do readingsomething. And then of course,
the training side of things whenyou're training them along the
way. But once you have some ofthis process piece in place,
(12:44):
then you as the business owner,even if they get this stuff 80%,
right, you're releasing 80% ofthat accountability that used to
be 100%, yours, and the coachingmoments for you or that other
20%. And so if you need to tweakthe process a little bit,
because it wasn't perfect, youtweak it with that other 20% of
your time, you have aconversation with whomever is
(13:06):
now accountable on thatparticular piece of the puzzle,
that program that you know,whatever it is, you know whether
even down to answering the phoneor doing the book or fortnight
or doing the marketing or theInstagram or any of this other
stuff. It's like this is the wayand if you veer out of that way,
then we need to have aconversation but you as the
owner come in, that's where youhave the conversation as opposed
to you trying to dreameverything up and do everything
(13:27):
and be accountable foreverything and everybody else is
sitting there twiddling thumbsbecause you're making all the
decisions, and they actuallywant it right. From this side of
things. If we pull it into thisnew season. What do you think
are probably the two things thatare low hanging fruit that are
like 90%? Ready, but you haven'tactually pulled the trigger on
(13:48):
yet to release accountability sothat you can free up some of
your time?
Krista Fairchild (13:51):
That's a great question. I think probably the
one that we're closest to. Andhonestly, I could do it pretty
much like this week if we neededto. So I've just recently put a
my first employee like on a on asalary, which was a big step and
so they have one now on Zapier,which is awesome. And she's the
(14:13):
one that will then take on someof this responsibility, but
probably the monthly curriculumand themes and oversight into
our two bigger programs, whichis our preschool program, and
then our primary program. Sothere's like five, eight year
olds, and so the planning ofimplementation, and that
(14:33):
honestly is just have beenholding off on a disparate, like
time issues, thinking that Idon't have time to really put a
process in place, but I think itlooks I think just after hearing
me talk, it could be even just amonth long, like we put it onto
paper and then I kind of mentorthat for a month or two just
(14:55):
making sure that our boxes aregetting checked and then I think
it will be able to flow Great,so my HOA probably would flow
fine without me just write thisstuff.
Pete Mohr (15:07):
Like in 15 minutes, we're releasing some
accountability here, right. Andso this is what the goal is
Kristen. So as we wrap this sortof conversation of my goal for
you today is to spend the nexthalf an hour, and write down how
this can actually transfer forthis season, not for a season in
(15:30):
the future, this seasonhappening now. And we like it or
not, right. And for you, whenyou look at if you don't do
this, now, you've got anotherseason to wait, that. And so I
want to raise the sort of fire alittle bit here in your gut to
say, I want to try this, I wantto, I want to actually do this,
(15:51):
especially now that you have asalaried employee, this is a
great opportunity to make thishappen. And this is one of those
low hanging fruits that you'realmost there. But it's been
sitting there for such a longtime. And my suggestion to you
is, you need to find the time tofinish this so that you can
release it because it will neverbe there time is always taken up
(16:11):
by the daily events of life,hey. So if you ever want more
time, you need to do even moreof this kind of work. So you can
release more accountability andlive the way you want to live,
especially now that you have twostores, you can't be at two
places at once. Right? So whenyou have two locations, it's
impossible. And if the processaround that, and if there isn't
(16:33):
clarity in the communication ofwho owns what pieces of these
two locations? And who do I goto as as a junior staff member?
Who do I go to when I have aproblem? And what is the system
of communication? And who Howcan I get my answer, then these
are where our customers feelpain, these the areas right,
then customers are let downbecause nobody else has the
(16:55):
answers for stuff that needs tobe answered. And as you start
rolling through some of theseminor process pieces, you're
going to feel the excitementabout what else can I offload?
And I sense that, that's fun.
And you know, when you startthinking to yourself, who else
can do this? Cuz we talked aboutthe fact that they do want to do
(17:16):
it, and most of them do. Andit's, it's super fun. So will
you commit? And I'd like tofollow up with you. Would you
commit to saying I'm going toget this done for this season?
And I'm going to coach this newperson that has the
accountability as the owner ofthe business as opposed to take
on this accountability thisseason?
Krista Fairchild (17:37):
Yeah, I do want to commit to that, for
sure. Yeah.
Pete Mohr (17:40):
Good. I mean, I'm excited for you. Because as you
start moving through thisjourney of accountability, you
know, communication process andaccountability, the CPA that we
talked about a lot, it becomesreally engaging not only for
you, because you can startseeing other things out there
that you never thought you hadtime or the energy or the
(18:01):
passion for because you werepowered down in the decisions,
the smaller level decisions inyour business. Now, as you move
up that totem pole, you can lookat some of these bigger things,
and other people are moving upto and that's exciting for them.
Krista Fairchild (18:15):
growth for them, too. Yeah, for sure.
Pete Mohr (18:18):
Everybody wants to grow in their business. Right?
Why in their job, and we want tofeel as though we're we're
contributing and making a makinga go at whatever it is we do. We
want to feel that that passionand that reward, or else 10
People tend not to stay. And assmall business owners, we need
people to stay.
Krista Fairchild (18:37):
We want them.
They're the most important partthat
Pete Mohr (18:40):
mean the right people anyway, right? Yes. Do you have
any last minute findings? Whatwas your biggest takeaway here
today?
Krista Fairchild (18:46):
Besides the fact that it's time to do it is
that I'm just not devoting thetime to actually put it in
place. And I think that that'ssometimes one of the hardest
things about being a smallbusiness owner, you tend to be
super busy, so you don't devotethe time that you should devote.
And then it just becomesexcuses. And I usually try to do
(19:09):
some self focus things like whatam I actually falling down in?
In my business, likeconstructive criticism type of
things? And my Am I really toobusy to do that, or do I just
not want to spend the time thatit takes to put it in place?
Yeah. And that for me is forsure. One of my weaknesses. And
(19:32):
my biggest takeaway,
Pete Mohr (19:33):
I think, the big the biggest thing there too, is just
the understanding that that isone of your weaknesses. When you
we understand. And I don't evencall it weakness, really, it's
just the way you are, you know,and we are who we are, and
that's okay. But understandingwho we are and allowing
ourselves some grace around thatis okay. But there's also time
(19:53):
where we just have to get to itright. And I like that and just
do it. Yeah. Well, it's beencool. Thanks so much for
spending some time with me hereon the business owner
breakthrough today. I've enjoyedour conversation and would love
to follow up with you here inthe near future, how the seasons
going, how the accountability isgoing, and we will touch base in
(20:14):
the near future.
Krista Fairchild (20:15):
I really appreciate the opportunity and
thank you so much for all yourtime. Yeah, and I definitely
want to touch base.
Pete Mohr (20:21):
Cool, make it a great day. We'll talk soon.
Krista Fairchild (20:23):
Thanks so much.
Buzz Burbank (20:30):
And ironic media production visit us at ironic K
media.com.
Are you ready to move from operator to owner? Well,
decisions in your organizationshould be made at the lowest
possible level of your business.
Every day. There is a frameworkthat can help and it's called
the five P's. Understanding yourpromise, aligning your product
process and people to it willgenerate the most amount of
(00:24):
profit. And that's when thefreedom comes. Freedom from the
day to day management andfreedom to start doing the
things that you want and deserveto do. Inside and outside of
your business. No one ever saidit was easy, but it's time to
start the process on thebusiness owner breakthrough. If
(00:44):
you'd like to chat with me abouthelping you break through in
your business, simply go tospeak to p two.com. That speak
to pete.com to book anappointment and to see if we're
a right fit. Hey, Krista, it'sso great to see you again.
Krista Fairchild (01:04):
It's so good to be here. Thank you so much
for the invitation.
Pete Mohr (01:07):
Yeah, you know, we met at REI gold's dance
conference, which was so awesomedown in Las Vegas, three days of
dance school owners comingtogether talking business
talking program. You know, itwas really good. We had a few
hours together at one of thesessions that we did, and
reached out and said, Hey,listen, would you like to come
(01:27):
on the show? It's been a whilesince I've had some guests on
the show. And I want to reopenthis door. And as I said, before
we hopped on, you're my guineapig here, Krista, you jump back
in because we're gonna do alittle live coaching today and
get some ideas out around yourbusiness and how you want to
structure your business. Movingahead, why don't you tell us a
(01:49):
little bit about you and yourbusiness, how you got here, and
how you got to sit in the seatthat you're sitting in right
now.
Krista Fairchild (01:56):
Okay, so I'm Kristin Fairchild, I own energy
arts dance in Marysville, Ohio.
It's a little suburb outside ofColumbus. And this is our 33rd
Season dance. My mom started thebusiness in 1990. So I am a
second generation owner. And Istarted teaching for her right
out of college, and bought thisstudio in fall of 2019. So my
(02:18):
first full year business wasCOVID, we just expanded into a
second location in our town. Sowe have grown quite a bit since
2020, which is good and nineemployees. And one of them is my
mom. Yeah. And so I'm excited tokind of learn more about how to
(02:40):
strategize so that I'm notmaking every decision in the
Business Daily, but to empowermy employees to start in that
leadership kind of role.
Pete Mohr (02:52):
You know, I do a lot of work with people who are
transitioning from we call itnext generation. So the next
generation like yourself takingover whether the next generation
is taking over from your ownparents, or whether like, most
people that are listening to thepodcast here know that we have
shoe stores. Well, I took overfrom an existing business owner,
a couple of these shoe stores,two out of three, I took over
(03:15):
from existing businesses and onethat I just opened myself. But
there's differences there. Andwhen we put our own leadership
spin on things, and we have aclarity of what we want out of
this. There's process there'scommunication, there's
accountability, there's thingsthat change. And one of the
things I'm seeing a lot withthese days is that this
generation who are taking overbusiness, as baby boomers are,
(03:37):
are leaving businesses in drovesthese days, don't necessarily
want to run business the waythey did. And there's so much
out there now to help us writeall the different process
management tools and tips andcomputerized things that that
give us our time back. And whatI find with a lot of owners is
that they even though they theyhave expedited a lot of this
(04:01):
stuff through point of salesystems and communication
systems, and a lot of thesethings that do give you your
time back, you don't actuallytake the time, right reallocated
into into more things to do.
Right. You know, it's reallyinteresting, when you reach out
and you said, you know, I wantto start to have some other
people rise in the ranks. Do youhave credit, especially now with
(04:21):
this new opening? Because youcan't be in two places at once.
It's, it's now physicallyimpossible for you to make every
decision and the physicality ofthat sometimes is needed.
Because one one of the thingsI'll recommend to a lot of
people when they're looking atstarting to release, some of the
accountabilities ask your teamif I wasn't here, what would you
(04:43):
do? Now you can live it becauseyou've got your attention,
right? But for those that arelistening, that only have one
business, or one one locationand you're there most of the
time. If you're thinking thesequestions around this idea
around like they should knowought to do now they've been
with me for six years, or threeyears or, or 10 years, whatever
the case is, or your mom's case,she founded it. You know, she
(05:05):
didn't know what to do, why sheasked me this, like, you could
say, well, what would you do? IfI wasn't here today? If I was
away on vacation, or if I was atthe other location, wherever the
case is, the hard part issitting in waiting for them to
add, I think the biggest thingaround that is, don't cave in.
Just wait for them to answerbecause 90% of the time, if they
know your promise, and theyunderstand what you're all
(05:29):
about, and they've been with youthat long, they already have the
answer. The difference is for alot of small business owners is
they haven't actually allowedthem the end, given them the
authority to make it. So when welook at the transfer of
accountability, and you know,because you were at one of the
are a couple of the differentthings that they put on, but the
(05:51):
idea of having an accountabilitychart, and for those of you who
are listening, andaccountability chart is looks on
paper, it's similar to aorganizational chart. But the
idea around accountability chartis really, what are the
accountabilities not just thetitles, but what are you
responsible for? Right. And whenyou start thinking about this
stuff from your business, like,give me one of the
(06:12):
accountabilities that you wouldlike to shed and that you think,
and you don't have to give me aname of who is going to but
you're thinking right now, thisperson could probably do this,
Krista Fairchild (06:22):
right. So one of the systems that we'd like to
put into places, and we'll headover each of our departments
like preschool, or competitiveteam, our recital program, and
so one of those would beresponsible for all the
curriculum and the themes eachmonth for preschool classes. And
(06:43):
right now, I am basically havedone all those, but I know I
have identified employees, Ithink would be really good in
those roles. And now it's just amatter of getting over the
worry,I think, right? And ambience, my
mom always did it all. So Isometimes feel a little bit of
that pressure to, to do that.
And guilt. And I don't know thatI'm the one, I'm not necessarily
(07:06):
the one that might be the bestone for that either.
Pete Mohr (07:12):
That's an interesting piece right there. Because we
aren't our parents, right? Andwe are to our previous business
owners, if we bought yourbusiness or if somebody else,
they may have had specific,unique qualities, and they did
have any sort of cific uniquequalities that made them
different than you. And that'sokay. And they may have had a
different outlook on what theywanted out of their business in
(07:33):
their life. And hence, okay. AndI think when I look at this
stuff, Krista, because you gotit, you took over this business,
you bought this business fromyour your mom, not only because
there's some legacy there, andit's family and all that kind of
stuff, but because you thoughtit would bring you a better
life, right? It's like, yeah,this, I do have an option of
going to work for somebody.
Right? But when you think aboutthat, and if you sometimes we
(07:56):
reel back to 2019, before allthe COVID, mass and all that
sort of stuff, when that wasn'teven in the picture, sometimes
we need to roll back to when wefirst got into business and
think a little bit around thefact that hey, if I buy this
business, off my mom or offwhomever, what will this bring
me in my family? What kind offreedoms Am I looking for? And
(08:16):
those frames, like I said, are alot times different for this
generation than they maybe werefor the generations before us.
And that's okay. Right? And so,but what with clarity, what does
that look like? And I thinkdoing some journaling on that
kind of stuff is really, reallyinteresting, because it'll help
you guide you through some ofthese accountabilities, that you
(08:37):
want to set up with all thedifferent structures within your
dance school. And within the twodifferent dance store, like the
dance studios, right? You gottwo different ones, and there's
going to be people involved inthose. But the next piece that
is, do you have clear andeffective process in place, so
that because one of the wordsyou used was trust, I'm not sure
(08:58):
whether I'm ready to release,you know, which a lot of people
will say I don't trust themquite yet. A lot of times around
the trust idea, it's notnecessarily do we trust the
people it's around? Do we trustthe process in place? Right. And
so when we look back at takingthat up a step, that step is, I
really need to hone down thisprocess so that I feel confident
(09:19):
that I can just hand it over,and knowing what they know, and
knowing that they're part of theculture and all that kind of
stuff. Because most of thepeople that work for us, let's
face it, get that side of it. Ifthey don't, they shouldn't be
working with us. You know, sowhat is it that holds you back
from releasing? Do you think,Krista,
Krista Fairchild (09:39):
I do think that it's probably not having a
process in place, and a lot ofthose that that will allow me
to, and I definitely trust theemployees in place. Yet. It's
more like my worry and fear ofand I need to get over that. But
then it may not happen just theway I pictured then in my head,
(10:01):
but honestly, the big picture ofit is, it doesn't have to look
like what I think it needs tolook like. Because they may do
it in a totally different way.
And I'm always surprised,because some of my employees,
when I, when we do do some ofthese visionary things, they,
they'll come up with things thatit has never even occurred to me
to look at it the way they lookat it.
Pete Mohr (10:25):
And I've loved this.
Krista Fairchild (10:28):
And I think that that's why, because we have
the people in place, now I needto, I need to get myself on
track, to give them moreresponsibility, because I think
that that will be morefulfilling to them as well, to
realize that they they have avested interest in growing their
own program or within thebusiness that they have a little
(10:49):
bit of vested interest in thatand said,
Pete Mohr (10:52):
I love that you just said that, that because it's my
feeling that our employees dowant to take ownership in parts
of their job. And in that doeshelp them the whole culture, the
whole belonging, your team willnotice it, your students will
notice it. I mean, everybodynotices that when that sort of
the culture of everybody's in.
And the bit. The biggest thingwith this kind of stuff I find,
(11:16):
Krista is that a lot of timespeople procrastinate, because
they find that it's just toooverwhelming to start releasing
one of my suggestions to you forthis upcoming season, because as
we're recording this, you know,September is pretty close now.
So for this upcoming season iswhat are one or two small things
that you can release, as opposedto the bigger things. And we
(11:41):
often you know, as businessowners think about, oh, I just
need to get rid of this bigthing. And I'll be good. But
that's the hard stuff. Sostarting with something that's
maybe a bit smaller, as opposedto releasing, you know, let's
say costuming or something likethat, it's like, that's a big
one. So what are two or three ofthe small things that are on
(12:01):
your accountability plate rightnow that you do think you have
process pretty good, but youmight need to tweak it just a
little bit to finish it off foryou to feel confident about, I
can hand this over now. Right.
And then when you're handing itover, people learn in different
ways. So you're handing them theprocess, essentially. And that
(12:22):
should be in sort of a writtenformat of some sort of way of
this is the process, this is theway and then if you can, in a
video format is really good fora lot of people learn better on
video than they do readingsomething. And then of course,
the training side of things whenyou're training them along the
way. But once you have some ofthis process piece in place,
(12:44):
then you as the business owner,even if they get this stuff 80%,
right, you're releasing 80% ofthat accountability that used to
be 100%, yours, and the coachingmoments for you or that other
20%. And so if you need to tweakthe process a little bit,
because it wasn't perfect, youtweak it with that other 20% of
your time, you have aconversation with whomever is
(13:06):
now accountable on thatparticular piece of the puzzle,
that program that you know,whatever it is, you know whether
even down to answering the phoneor doing the book or fortnight
or doing the marketing or theInstagram or any of this other
stuff. It's like this is the wayand if you veer out of that way,
then we need to have aconversation but you as the
owner come in, that's where youhave the conversation as opposed
to you trying to dreameverything up and do everything
(13:27):
and be accountable foreverything and everybody else is
sitting there twiddling thumbsbecause you're making all the
decisions, and they actuallywant it right. From this side of
things. If we pull it into thisnew season. What do you think
are probably the two things thatare low hanging fruit that are
like 90%? Ready, but you haven'tactually pulled the trigger on
(13:48):
yet to release accountability sothat you can free up some of
your time?
Krista Fairchild (13:51):
That's a great question. I think probably the
one that we're closest to. Andhonestly, I could do it pretty
much like this week if we neededto. So I've just recently put a
my first employee like on a on asalary, which was a big step and
so they have one now on Zapier,which is awesome. And she's the
(14:13):
one that will then take on someof this responsibility, but
probably the monthly curriculumand themes and oversight into
our two bigger programs, whichis our preschool program, and
then our primary program. Sothere's like five, eight year
olds, and so the planning ofimplementation, and that
(14:33):
honestly is just have beenholding off on a disparate, like
time issues, thinking that Idon't have time to really put a
process in place, but I think itlooks I think just after hearing
me talk, it could be even just amonth long, like we put it onto
paper and then I kind of mentorthat for a month or two just
(14:55):
making sure that our boxes aregetting checked and then I think
it will be able to flow Great,so my HOA probably would flow
fine without me just write thisstuff.
Pete Mohr (15:07):
Like in 15 minutes, we're releasing some
accountability here, right. Andso this is what the goal is
Kristen. So as we wrap this sortof conversation of my goal for
you today is to spend the nexthalf an hour, and write down how
this can actually transfer forthis season, not for a season in
(15:30):
the future, this seasonhappening now. And we like it or
not, right. And for you, whenyou look at if you don't do
this, now, you've got anotherseason to wait, that. And so I
want to raise the sort of fire alittle bit here in your gut to
say, I want to try this, I wantto, I want to actually do this,
(15:51):
especially now that you have asalaried employee, this is a
great opportunity to make thishappen. And this is one of those
low hanging fruits that you'realmost there. But it's been
sitting there for such a longtime. And my suggestion to you
is, you need to find the time tofinish this so that you can
release it because it will neverbe there time is always taken up
(16:11):
by the daily events of life,hey. So if you ever want more
time, you need to do even moreof this kind of work. So you can
release more accountability andlive the way you want to live,
especially now that you have twostores, you can't be at two
places at once. Right? So whenyou have two locations, it's
impossible. And if the processaround that, and if there isn't
(16:33):
clarity in the communication ofwho owns what pieces of these
two locations? And who do I goto as as a junior staff member?
Who do I go to when I have aproblem? And what is the system
of communication? And who Howcan I get my answer, then these
are where our customers feelpain, these the areas right,
then customers are let downbecause nobody else has the
(16:55):
answers for stuff that needs tobe answered. And as you start
rolling through some of theseminor process pieces, you're
going to feel the excitementabout what else can I offload?
And I sense that, that's fun.
And you know, when you startthinking to yourself, who else
can do this? Cuz we talked aboutthe fact that they do want to do
(17:16):
it, and most of them do. Andit's, it's super fun. So will
you commit? And I'd like tofollow up with you. Would you
commit to saying I'm going toget this done for this season?
And I'm going to coach this newperson that has the
accountability as the owner ofthe business as opposed to take
on this accountability thisseason?
Krista Fairchild (17:37):
Yeah, I do want to commit to that, for
sure. Yeah.
Pete Mohr (17:40):
Good. I mean, I'm excited for you. Because as you
start moving through thisjourney of accountability, you
know, communication process andaccountability, the CPA that we
talked about a lot, it becomesreally engaging not only for
you, because you can startseeing other things out there
that you never thought you hadtime or the energy or the
(18:01):
passion for because you werepowered down in the decisions,
the smaller level decisions inyour business. Now, as you move
up that totem pole, you can lookat some of these bigger things,
and other people are moving upto and that's exciting for them.
Krista Fairchild (18:15):
growth for them, too. Yeah, for sure.
Pete Mohr (18:18):
Everybody wants to grow in their business. Right?
Why in their job, and we want tofeel as though we're we're
contributing and making a makinga go at whatever it is we do. We
want to feel that that passionand that reward, or else 10
People tend not to stay. And assmall business owners, we need
people to stay.
Krista Fairchild (18:37):
We want them.
They're the most important partthat
Pete Mohr (18:40):
mean the right people anyway, right? Yes. Do you have
any last minute findings? Whatwas your biggest takeaway here
today?
Krista Fairchild (18:46):
Besides the fact that it's time to do it is
that I'm just not devoting thetime to actually put it in
place. And I think that that'ssometimes one of the hardest
things about being a smallbusiness owner, you tend to be
super busy, so you don't devotethe time that you should devote.
And then it just becomesexcuses. And I usually try to do
(19:09):
some self focus things like whatam I actually falling down in?
In my business, likeconstructive criticism type of
things? And my Am I really toobusy to do that, or do I just
not want to spend the time thatit takes to put it in place?
Yeah. And that for me is forsure. One of my weaknesses. And
(19:32):
my biggest takeaway,
Pete Mohr (19:33):
I think, the big the biggest thing there too, is just
the understanding that that isone of your weaknesses. When you
we understand. And I don't evencall it weakness, really, it's
just the way you are, you know,and we are who we are, and
that's okay. But understandingwho we are and allowing
ourselves some grace around thatis okay. But there's also time
(19:53):
where we just have to get to itright. And I like that and just
do it. Yeah. Well, it's beencool. Thanks so much for
spending some time with me hereon the business owner
breakthrough today. I've enjoyedour conversation and would love
to follow up with you here inthe near future, how the seasons
going, how the accountability isgoing, and we will touch base in
(20:14):
the near future.
Krista Fairchild (20:15):
I really appreciate the opportunity and
thank you so much for all yourtime. Yeah, and I definitely
want to touch base.
Pete Mohr (20:21):
Cool, make it a great day. We'll talk soon.
Krista Fairchild (20:23):
Thanks so much.
Buzz Burbank (20:30):
And ironic media production visit us at ironic K
media.com.
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