August 14, 2024 • 34 mins
Unlock the secrets to integrating faith and business for unparalleled success in our latest episode with visionary entrepreneur Brandon Gano. Brandon takes us on a profound journey from his bustling New Jersey upbringing to the serene landscapes of North Carolina, and reveals how his faith evolved from a ritualistic practice into a deeply meaningful relationship with Jesus. Discover how this transformation has not only shaped his personal life but also revolutionized his business approach, fostering authenticity, community, and a sense of fulfillment.
Intrigued by how faith can guide business decisions? Brandon's insights into discerning motivations behind business growth and ensuring they align with God's calling offer a refreshing perspective. We delve into his "Four D's" strategy—Delete, Delay, Delegate, and Do—providing a practical framework for prioritizing tasks and reclaiming precious time. This segment is a must-listen for anyone looking to align their business practices with a higher purpose and achieve clarity and serenity in their entrepreneurial journey.
Our conversation also covers effective time management and growth strategies tailored for small business owners. Brandon explains the concept of high-impact activities "above the golden line" and the importance of delegating less impactful tasks. Learn how to build a harmonious business culture that aligns personal missions with the company’s vision, fostering trust and clear communication. For those navigating business failures, Brandon's advice emphasizes the importance of being impact-driven and mission-focused, underpinned by mentorship and unwavering faith. Join us for an inspiring episode brimming with practical wisdom for faith-driven entrepreneurs.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dorsey Ross (00:01):
Hello everyone, thank you again for joining me
on another episode of the DorseyRoss Show.
Today we have a special guestwith us.
His name is Brandon Gano.
He is a visionary entrepreneurwho turned frustration into a
successful business which hebuilt, franchised and later sold
(00:23):
for significant profit.
Now, with his business partnerand friend, shane Delaney, he's
pioneering an unprecedentedapproach to educate and empower
small business owners to achievebusiness growth like never
(00:44):
before.
Landon, thank you so much forjoining me today.
Brandon Gano (00:48):
I am so happy to be here.
Dorsey, thanks for having me,absolutely.
Dorsey Ross (00:52):
Well, I usually like to start off with an
icebreaker.
So where did you grow up, anddid that affect who you became?
Brandon Gano (01:05):
Yeah, that's a good question.
So I grew up in the middle ofNew Jersey.
It was a town calledBridgewater, a relatively big
town these days, and did itshape me?
I would say I mean it has toright.
Wherever you are in life, atwhatever stage you're at, I
think it always shapes you insome way.
If I was to think about theways it shaped me, it definitely
(01:27):
made me want to get away frompeople from some extent.
Not that I have anything aboutpeople, but it's a very crowded
town and as I was growing up itstarted to get just more and
more crowded, with stores,subdivisions, all that fun stuff
, and I just wanted to find alittle breathing room.
So I think it's definitelyshaped me and actually prompted
(01:50):
the move to where I am now inNorth Carolina, in the Raleigh
area, where things are a littlebit more spread out.
But no, it was.
Overall it was a pretty goodplace to grow up.
Dorsey Ross (02:00):
Yeah, now, you mentioned actually I mentioned
that you're a business owner.
You're a Christian businessowner, so can you share with us
a little bit of your faith, yourChristian story?
Brandon Gano (02:17):
Yeah, so I actually.
I was introduced to faith morefrom the religion side.
Growing up, I was raisedCatholic.
My parents, my grandparentswere Catholic and for me it
wasn't anything special.
It was a ritual.
You go to CCD classes once aweek through kindergarten to
(02:39):
eighth grade, which was annoying.
I never wanted to go.
I'm not a school person anyway.
So you're telling me I have togo to more school about topics I
don't understand, like not coolfor me.
And then you go to church andyou stand up, sit down, stand up
, sit down, kneel and then leaveand nobody talks to each other.
So like why are we doing thesethings?
It doesn't make sense and itwasn't really integrated into
(03:00):
our lives.
So I went to college.
That was my break-free moment,if you will, where I was able to
.
I never explored any otherreligions or anything like that,
but I was just like all right,my life didn't really change,
not going to church on Sundays,and I don't really know what
that was anyway, I just know Ididn't like it.
So long story short, fastforward to pretty much until,
(03:25):
Well, after I was married, rightbefore we left New Jersey, we
tried another church.
It was a Christian church thistime and it was more about like
the rock concert at the churchthan Jesus.
So it was kind of cool.
Like at the time it was likeall right, this is awesome, Like
there's people here, they'refun.
But then as we started to getinto it, I realized that those
(03:46):
people who were there on Sundaymorning, I had a local business
in the area and I would dealwith some of them on Monday
through Friday and they were twodifferent people.
The same person is twodifferent people and I was like,
wait a minute, this alsodoesn't make sense, because
you're saying you're one thingon Sunday and then you're saying
you're something completelydifferent for the rest of the
week, really from Sundayafternoon until the following
(04:07):
Sunday morning.
You are a different person.
So I again just started toquestion some of that stuff and
when we moved down here, we Isaid, let me, I have to try this
again Like I really I felt Godcalling me back to the church,
really through my wife.
So praise, praise her for sure,and praise God.
But we found this church.
It's called Faith BaptistChurch and it has been
(04:27):
incredible.
I mean, the focus of themessage is only ever about the
relationship with Jesus andbeing what the Bible calls a
Christian and as a church too,so it is.
I mentioned to you before westarted recording I actually
we're recording this on a Fridaymorning.
Friday morning is my Biblestudy, our men's group, so
(04:48):
there's about 20 of us 15, 20 ofus to get together every Friday
and we dive deep into the Bibleand relate that to, of course,
our lives, our challenges, ourstruggles, our businesses, and
it's just a beautiful way tohave that hope and that faith
and know that you get that acouple times a week and it's not
this religious thing anymore,it's a faith and it's a
(05:09):
relationship.
So very long-winded story.
I'm sorry for that, but it tookme a while to get here, and
that's, I think, the whole pointis.
Everybody has a different story.
That's mine, but hopefully thatinspires somebody to continue
pursuing or find Jesus for thefirst time.
Dorsey Ross (05:23):
Right Now somebody to continue pursuing or find
Jesus for the first time RightNow.
You mentioned in our discussionbefore we're doing this now
that you were doing.
You had one business and youkind of said that you were
struggling with that businessnot maybe struggling financially
, but you're struggling with howyou were dealing with it.
(05:45):
But then you went to you knowmore, you implemented it into
another business, implementedyour faith into that more, and
you said you were doing betterwith that business.
How did that?
How did that?
Will you do that?
Brandon Gano (06:04):
Yeah.
So that last business, which isthe one that you kind of
mentioned in my bio there yeah,I mean it was.
It was a great business, itmade money, it was successful.
It kind of blew up and wassuccessful relatively quickly
and unexpectedly and big thingscame from it.
But what I was struggling withwas I lost a passion for it and
it was because I kind ofrealized along that journey this
(06:27):
was up in New Jersey I wentfrom chasing the mission of what
I started the business to solvereally the problem that it's
solved in the world and in themarketplace and I shifted to
chasing money and dollar signsand I felt empty and I felt
hopeless because I had it.
It made money, I was profitable, I had all these things.
(06:49):
None of it fulfilled me, whichI know is not a story unique to
me, but that's.
I started to pursue bigger andbetter things and wanted to make
the business even bigger andeven more profitable and it was
really in a disservice to myemployees at the time, our
(07:09):
customers and the vision of thebusiness.
So that's where I did turn itinto a franchise.
I went through that process,focused on the dollar signs, and
it started to just become moreand more apparent that the
company I partnered with wassnakes, we'll say.
They were just not good peopleand they were selling these
franchises to people and lyingthrough their teeth about what
(07:31):
they could produce.
So ultimately they were sayingthings like if you invest in
this franchise, it's going tocost you.
The franchise fee was like$40,000 or $50,000.
You pay that by the end of thefirst year in business, you
don't have to work at all andit's going to produce a million
dollars for you.
And I was like what, how did Iget here?
(07:52):
How did we even get to thisspot right now?
And I felt disgusting aboutmyself, to be honest with you.
So that's really where thestruggle came in, because I
invested all this time and moneyand it was my dream to make
this business into a franchise.
And I had that moment of where Ijust, you know, I kind of
snapped out of the trance I wasin, if you will, and I was like
this is not right, like I hatethis, I hate everything about it
(08:13):
.
So I canceled all of ourcontracts, we ripped up,
basically, that business andcompletely abandoned it before
we stole anybody's money.
Thank God, I said well, I'm notinvolved with this anymore,
abandon it before we stoleanybody's money.
Thank God, I said, well, I'mnot involved with this anymore.
And then the other, my originallocation.
I completely fell out of lovewith it and that's what the
struggle was too, because I waslike I don't want anything to do
with this industry, I don'twant anything to do with this
(08:35):
business, and I ended up sellingit in the middle of last year
at this point, so I was able tokind of wipe my hands clean and
walk away.
But I still had that passion toserve small business owners and
really give people the gift ofbusiness ownership, not business
operatorship.
And that's when I met mybusiness partner, sean, who,
again you mentioned in the bio,he has the very same passion,
(08:56):
but he comes from a backgroundof consulting the biggest
companies in the world Nike,uber, johnson and Johnson.
He's been doing this for 25years and he's really, really
effective at making very complexthings extremely simple and
scalable.
And that's now what we do withour business, with our
consulting business.
We are both Christian men,incorporate faith very heavily
(09:19):
into what we do, and we havejust seen that because we've
come together on them and Ifirmly believe God brought us
together because there's noother way that we would have met
.
Not even by chance should wehave ever met and gone into
business together.
But it's your purpose and yourpath.
It's not hard.
I don't wrestle with doing thework that we do every day like I
(09:50):
did in that last business.
I feel just completely at easeand guided.
So it's been.
For me, that's been the biggestdifference, which I didn't even
know was possible, because youalways hear things like oh,
business is hard, running abusiness is hard, being an
entrepreneur is hard.
No, it's not, not if it's yourcalling, you know that, first of
all, the Lord has your back and, second of all, you're on your
(10:11):
path.
So, yeah, challenges come up,but that doesn't make it hard by
any means.
Dorsey Ross (10:15):
Yeah, what encouragement would you give to
Christian owners or people offaith?
You know who know God and trustin God, who may be, you know
struggling.
Who may be dealing, you knowwith.
You know financial who may bedealing with you know you know
(10:39):
sales are down.
You know people are not cominginto their store.
Think of that nature.
You know they're dealing withthe big.
You know people are not cominginto their store.
Think of that nature.
You know they're dealing withthe big.
You know they're competingagainst the big box.
You know retailers whatencouragement would you give to
them?
Brandon Gano (10:56):
Yeah.
So I mean, what we teach peopleis a business model or a
business operating system thatfocuses on simplicity and then
scalability.
So my question in that scenariowould be are you struggling or
are you going through thisbecause you're listening to what
the world has to say, or is itbecause is this truly what God
(11:19):
has told you to do?
Because we talk to a lot ofpeople and they say, when they
come to us, we want to grow ourbusiness, we want to make more
money, we want to have more time.
I'm like that's cool.
Those are great reasons toconsult with somebody.
But why, I mean why, do youactually want to grow your
business?
And that makes people think fora minute.
(11:39):
Because the world tells you youhave to grow your business.
I'm never going to tell you youhave to.
I can show you how.
I can show you a very simpleway how to do that.
But it's not really about whatI want.
It's about what you want foryou, your community, your family
, yourself and your purpose.
So I've talked to a lot ofpeople that don't have a good
(11:59):
answer to that question andthey're struggling because they
think they should grow or theythink they should be this big
thing, and they shouldn't.
It's not what God has them todo.
Ultimately, our job is to spreadthe good news, spread the
gospel right.
So what if you could be asolopreneur and perfect example?
(12:20):
One of my good friends in myfaith group, he's a carpenter
like a general contractor.
He does home maintenance work.
Every house he goes into hegets to spread the good news and
talk to people about Jesus andthe gospel.
He's making money, he's payinghis bills, he's happy and he's
doing his work on this earth.
(12:40):
He doesn't have to scale hisbusiness If he doesn't really
want to.
If God isn't calling him to,that's totally fine.
Could he run it moreefficiently and profitable?
Maybe, but it doesn't mean he'sgot to be this general
contracting company doing 25million in revenue with 50
employees.
That would be out of line forhim.
So that's really where I wantto start with people is why are
(13:03):
you struggling?
Is it your choice?
Because you're followingworldly things and worldly
advice?
Or are you really just notclear on how to get from where
you are to where God has pointedyou to be?
And ultimately, that's betweenyou and him.
If it's a business structurething, that's where I come in,
but I really try not tointercede with people between
(13:24):
them and their message from God,because that's just a
one-on-one.
Dorsey Ross (13:30):
Talking about the four D's delete, delegate, delay
and do.
How can a business ownerleverage this strategy?
Brandon Gano (13:57):
typically what we'll see entrepreneurs do is
they start doing everything andthey get more into that operator
side of things right instead ofthe business owner, and what
ends up happening is everythingthat comes in they want to say
yes to it, whether that's aquestion from an employee,
whether that's a in order from acustomer or a contract from
somebody.
And we need to just pause andsay is this in line with our
(14:18):
mission, our vision and who weare as a company and who I am as
the leader of this business?
So the order that people tackthis in is do, delay, delegate,
delete, which is backwards, butthose four things.
Very simply, what they mean isif something comes in, they ask,
(14:39):
can I do this?
And they immediately try to sayyes or justify why it's a yes.
Then they say, okay, I can't, Ican do it now.
Can I delay it, but then stillalso do it myself?
If that's still a no, then theysay okay, can I delegate it to
somebody else, because I'm surethis is important and it must
get done.
And then the last question weask is if everything else is a
no, well then I guess can wedelete it, like can this just go
(15:02):
away and disappear, and ourargument is actually the
opposite.
So if you want your timefreedom back, if you want that
clarity and serenity from owningand operating a business, you
should actually be looking atthings through the other lens.
So first, can I delete it?
Does this thing actually addvalue to anybody and is it in
line with our mission?
If it's a no, then just deleteit and forget about it.
(15:25):
If it's a yes, that we do haveto do it and it's in line with
our mission it serves ourcustomer then can we delay it,
and the delay phase doesn'tnecessarily mean you still have
to be doing it, but does it haveto be done right now?
So when we consult with ourclients, we want them to be
laser focused on just a fewthings every single quarter.
So if this thing, whatever itis, if it's an opportunity or
(15:48):
challenge or a question thatcomes up, if it's not in line
with what we are doing thisquarter, we don't even look at
it till next quarter.
Assuming we can't delete it, wedelay it till next quarter.
If we can't get past that, it'sactually urgent, it's very
important and we have to handleit.
Can somebody else delegate it?
Or can we delegate it tosomebody else and that's like
that very last step before, orclaiming it as something that
(16:11):
gets on our calendar.
If we can't delegate it,ideally we can, but if we can't,
it has to be done, it's urgent,it has to be done by us.
Then we say, okay, that thingdoes make it to our calendar.
We still try to push things offas long as possible and say
like, okay, I'm in the middle ofwriting an email right now.
Can this wait, like a day or anhour?
(16:32):
So you just want to get out ofthat squirrel brain mentality is
really what we're getting at.
So we try to delete, delay,delegate and then, if we have to
, we do as the business owner orentrepreneur.
We call those things above thegolden line.
Everything that you have to dois the golden line.
Those are the things that youshould be doing.
If you want to grow yourbusiness, those are the things
(16:52):
that grow your business.
If you want to reclaim yourtime, those are the things that
grow your business.
If you want to reclaim yourtime, those are the things that
are going to help you get moretime back.
Or if you're just serving yourcustomers at a high level, those
are the things that you'refocused on.
So it's this framework that weteach our clients, to give them
the freedom of decision making,because that's the thing that
really bogs most people down isjust making useless decisions in
(17:13):
most cases.
So we start there and then wecan talk about what we're
actually doing.
Dorsey Ross (17:18):
Now you mentioned a golden line.
Tell us a little bit more aboutthat, and how does that work
into the business framework?
Brandon Gano (17:27):
Yeah.
So the golden line is, if youwere to picture that framework
kind of stacked on top of eachother delete, delay and delegate
are all below that line.
If it's above that line, thoseare owner or CEO type tasks that
need to be done.
So think of things like yourstrategic planning.
You're planning your companyvision, making your execution
(17:48):
map, hiring.
In some cases these are thethings that they produce the
biggest outcomes and they takethe least amount of hours
typically to do.
So if you run through thatfilter, you decide you do have
to do something, whether it isthe hiring or the strategic
planning.
Then you put it on yourcalendar.
So we just say we call it abovethe golden line because kind of
(18:11):
a metaphor for, like, those arethe things that should be
making the company the mostmoney in the long term and
that's why the CEO ultimatelyhas to do them.
Same thing at you know anyfortune 500 company.
You look at what the CEO does.
It is usually the mostprofitable work.
They're planning for the future, setting the company up for
profitable success and growth.
So when you start to thinkabout your time in that way, we
(18:33):
take those things and put themon your calendar so they
actually get done, and they getdone first and in priority.
So that's why everything elsebecomes sort of meaningless at
that point.
Because if you know that thatone activity let's just say that
next Monday morning you were toblock out four hours on your
calendar for the next quarter'sstrategic plan If you could
(18:57):
knock out your whole strategicplan and then you identify that
you're actually going to be ableto grow your company's revenue
by 35% with this plan, why wouldyou do anything else like
answering an email, sending atext, scrolling on social media,
whatever it is?
If the side-by-side comparisonis, I can either sit down for
(19:20):
four hours and grow my revenueby 35% or I can like a post on
Instagram, any normal personwould slap themselves if they
chose Instagram.
So we just want to get peoplein that mindset of saying is
this the right work for me, isthis what I should be focused on
and is it in line with myvision?
And when you can kind of getthere quickly, that's the whole
(19:42):
thing.
It's getting in that habit ofjust being able to answer that
question very, very quickly.
Dorsey Ross (19:46):
Now, would that work with even the small
business owners who don't, thesmall business owners who don't
have many employees, only havetwo or three employees, where
the CEO or the owner of thatstore may have to do some of
those things below that goldenline?
Brandon Gano (20:08):
Yeah, and there's no shame in that either.
So don't let me sound like I'msaying that you should feel bad
for doing it.
We've all been.
If you've started a business,you've probably bootstrapped it
or been by yourself, at least inthe very beginning.
Very rare scenario where you'refunded by a venture capital and
you have immediately a team of50 people.
(20:28):
So I'm not talking to thosepeople, but for everybody else,
the normal people like us.
No, but we still want to gothrough this framework because
you want to start to identify.
What are the things that I'msaying I can delete?
What are the things I'm sayingI can delegate, because you'll
start to see patterns.
You can still delete and delayeven without a team, but the
(20:49):
delegate one is the big piece,because I actually even have a
setting on my calendar to anymeeting that comes up or any
tasks that I do that I believecould be delegated.
I classify it as a differentcolor and I put it on my
calendar.
When I review my week, I lookat how many hours I spent doing
delegatable tasks and I willreview what they are.
(21:11):
If there's a common theme inthose, I can say, okay, maybe I
can either hire somebody to dothis specifically, depending on
how many hours it is, how muchrevenue is produced by doing it,
or I can maybe outsource it toa VA, or we can build that into
somebody else's work.
There's a lot of options youcan do, but what I want to know
before I just start hiringpeople willy nilly for no, is
(21:33):
what are those specific thingsthat I believe I can delegate?
Same thing with my businesspartner, and maybe we can
combine our calendars to saywe're both wasting combined.
I don't know.
Let's pick out a number 15hours a week on delegatable
activities, things that do nothave to be done by us but are
important enough to be done.
Let's hire a VA for 15 hours aweek.
(21:54):
We'll identify and buildprocesses for these specific
things.
So there's no questions.
There's no really onboarding, atraining period, and as soon as
we can get to that point, wecan then hire that person and
reclaim 15 hours of our time,versus the normal path is just
saying, ah, I'm overwhelmed, Idon't know what to do.
Let's hire three people andhope they can pick up the slack.
(22:17):
When you do that, you throwpeople into chaos and they hate
their jobs and they're alsoineffective and you think
they're bad employees, butmostly because you just haven't
trained them or told them reallywhat the outcome is that they
should be getting Now somebody'sprobably going to ask me if I
don't ask you this question,what is the neon sign behind you
(22:37):
and what is that?
Dorsey Ross (22:39):
Obviously it's a question upside down question
mark, but what is the symbolismof that?
Brandon Gano (22:45):
I host a podcast as well.
It's called Harmonious.
At Lunch it's on all podcastplatforms and YouTube if you
want to go check it out.
But yeah, so the question markbehind me, that is our logo.
So I can't tell.
Now I think my screen isreversed.
The way it should look is whatif our company name is spelled
(23:07):
with a D W-H-A-D-I-F?
That is supposed to be the D inthe word.
What if?
But it's really.
It's more than that.
It's a symbol, right?
So everything we do, beingfractional COOs and consulting
with our clients, we want to goin and instead of asking the
normal questions, we want toturn their questions upside down
and we want to ask the thingsthat nobody's ever thought to
(23:30):
ask, because that's where thetrue answers in business are.
So we turn questions on theirhead, right.
But then the other part, thegreen part on top, is, for me
personally, arguably the mostimportant, and it's actually a
play button.
So that just means we're havingfun.
If you're not having fun inbusiness, you're doing something
wrong, because you can alwaysfun as a choice.
You can always choose to have agood time and have fun in
(23:53):
anything you're doing, andthat's just one of our core
beliefs.
So we're asking the questionsthat nobody wants to ask or
nobody has thought to ask, andwe're going to have a party
while we do it in the mostprofessional way possible, of
course.
And the other thing, too, is Ihave a mug with the Princess
Belle from Beauty and the Beaston it, and I was ashamed about
this in the beginning of mypodcast journey, and then people
(24:15):
just started to point it out,like, are you drinking from a
princess?
I'm gonna look up, like youknow what?
Yeah, I am.
I'm a man too, okay, so you'regonna have to deal with it.
So those two things people askme all the time, but at this
point, that's just my brand.
Dorsey Ross (24:40):
Are you.
Brandon Gano (24:41):
I got this question off of your, I think
off of your pod but the questionis are you running your
business or is it running you?
That's one of my favoritequestions to ask people and it
usually gets them a little upset.
Not our intention by any means,but it's one of those things
where you just have to be honestwith yourself, right?
Because most people get intobusiness for one of two reasons
time freedom or financialfreedom.
Other things that could looklike is they want control over
(25:05):
their schedule and their life,they want to take vacations.
It all boils down to those twothings.
So when you start a businessfor those two things, what ends
up happening very quickly is thebusiness kind of morphs into
its own thing without astructure, without a very clear
plan and a path for how to getfrom A to B, and we build
(25:27):
ourselves jobs and your businessowns you.
So that's just the question Iask people.
And the other question I askthem is can you take a three
week vacation without yourbusiness losing revenue and or
profit?
And that question really makespeople angry.
But it's just again.
It's to open your eye.
My goal is to not offend you, isto open your eyes and say back
(25:50):
to that other question beforewhat do you want?
Why did you start this businessand what do you want from it?
And if you want to grow, why doyou want to grow Again?
If you are happy, content withyour business and you're working
80 hours a week I have metthose people.
There's no shame in that.
That's totally fine.
If you are on your path, by allmeans please keep doing exactly
(26:10):
what you're doing.
But if you want somethingdifferent, if you want something
more, if you're not serving inthe highest level that you
believe you should be or couldbe, then you may have to ask
yourself one of those twoquestions and just take a look
at how you're running yourbusiness, or is it truly running
you?
Dorsey Ross (26:27):
Teams are made up of different folks with
different ideas and things canget messy.
How does Harmonious helpeveryone trust each other and
communicate clearly, even whenthings get bumpy?
Brandon Gano (26:52):
normal approach to business where, if you think of
any company, really what comesto mind is departments or silos.
Right, so you have yourmarketing department, your sales
team, you have HR department,and where that model breaks down
is in especially largercompanies, these departments
tend to compete with each otherfor resources.
Whether consciously orsubconsciously, everybody knows
that there's only so much moneyto go around for bonuses,
(27:14):
salaries, time off, all that funstuff.
So every department is tryingto perform at its highest level
and do the best job that it can,while not realizing that
they're actually takingresources from potentially
another department.
So it becomes instead of a teamenvironment, it becomes a very
much like flesh eating bacteriaenvironment and it deteriorates
(27:38):
very quickly.
So what we argue is that,instead of looking at business
in that context, when you have aharmonious business, you
actually connect everything andeverything feeds off each other.
So when we talk aboutcommunication and whether that's
one-on-one or team to team,department to department, if you
(27:58):
want to use that language it'snot about how are my activities
helping me in my role, becausethe first thing we do with
people is tie their personalmission, vision and purpose to
the company's mission, visionand purpose, so they know how
all of their activities in theirjob affect them in their
(28:18):
personal lives and the companyand then also everybody around
them too.
So the first thing we want todo when we go in and consult
with people is bring the teamtogether and the culture
together.
So it's never like how can I getthe most milk out of this role
and get the most money, and thebiggest bonus it's if we all win
.
We're all going to win, and Imean that sounds stupid to say
(28:41):
it like that, but it's so true.
The more you can build acollaborative team working
environment where no singleperson loses ever, then you have
the highest likelihood ofsuccess.
And one of the things I alwayslike to say is or an analogy is
every deal that I go into, thatwe go into and think of anything
(29:01):
as a deal.
If you ask me to go get you acup of coffee, that is a deal.
So it could be as little asthat or as big as like a hundred
billion merger.
If we can't cut the pie andhave everybody be happy with
their slice, it's not goodenough.
And that's just one of thosevery foundational principles,
especially for communication,that if someone is trying to win
(29:21):
and make someone else lose.
Your culture is alreadydestroyed and you need to take a
step back and rebuild it.
Dorsey Ross (29:29):
For someone this is going to be the last question
but for someone whose business,for whatever reason, may have
failed and they want to go backinto the business world or maybe
even create a new business,what encouragement would you
(29:49):
have for them?
Brandon Gano (29:52):
Your business didn't fail.
You just did some things thatyou can learn from.
So I think they're in a betterposition than someone starting a
business for the first time,because there's so many things
you learn from being in businessand then, in that scenario,
going out of business that youcan start to see the future in
some regards.
(30:12):
The next time, you know whatpatterns to look for and say, oh
, I did this last time and itactually turned out poorly
because I had to close mybusiness.
So I'll take all of thoselessons, all of those learnings,
and make sure it's somethingthat you actually want to pursue
again and make sure it'ssomething that you actually want
to pursue again.
The other side of that coin, too, is entrepreneurship is not for
(30:35):
everybody, and I think weglorify it on social media and
stuff and we make it look easyand there's all these
influencers taking cool pictureswith the crystal clear blue
ocean in the background.
That is not entrepreneurship.
If you're going to build acompany and build a team, you
are now responsible for makingother people's lives better,
(30:57):
spreading your mission andmaking an impact in the world.
We don't look atentrepreneurship as like making
a lot of money.
It's making a lot of impact.
That should be your goal.
So if you have an area of yourlife you feel called to make an
impact, make a difference inchange, something that could be
a nonprofit too.
(31:17):
I mean there's no limit to whatyou can do in the scope of
entrepreneurship and businessownership.
You didn't get the result youwanted last time.
How can you use that to serveyour goals moving forward and
make sure that doesn't happenagain?
But just shift that focus alittle bit.
You got to be impact driven,mission focused and very, very
clear on where you want to goand then always seek help
(31:37):
Doesn't have to be me, butalways.
I have never in my life beenwithout a coach or a mentor in
my business journey and it'sbeen one of those things that I
can say has, hands down, paidfor itself 10 times over.
Every single time you needoutside guidance.
Now that I have found God too,I will say I told you before how
I feel just at peace, at ease.
(31:58):
Make sure you keep that.
You keep God first in yourbusiness at all times, and then
everything else will start tocome into place.
He will deliver those resourcesfor you.
But, man, if you're not focusedon the right things, it's very
easy to get off track.
Dorsey Ross (32:15):
And I always want to ask my guest to give one
encouragement to my listeners aswell.
Brandon Gano (32:26):
Oh man, it's just something that's been on my
heart recently is Romans 8, 28,.
Basically that God does allthings for the good of people
who believe in him and follow inhim, and that's been a verse
that I've carried with me for awhile now and it's been a source
of encouragement for me.
So hopefully, if you need tohear that, go read Romans,
really the whole chapter, romans8.
(32:47):
Fantastic, fantastic chap.
You'll get a lot ofencouragement from that.
Dorsey Ross (32:53):
Thank you.
Thank you, Brendan, so much forcoming on the show today.
We greatly appreciate havingyou.
Brandon Gano (33:00):
Thanks for having me.
This was awesome.
Dorsey Ross (33:02):
Thank you, guys and girls, for listening again.
Please like and share and leavea review on all podcast
platforms.
And leave a review on allpodcast platforms.
And if you would like to donateand consider donating to the
Dorsey Roadshow to continue tohelp me produce more great
content, please do that on thelinks in the show notes.
(33:27):
And until next time, god bless,bye-bye.
Hello everyone, thank you again for joining me
on another episode of the DorseyRoss Show.
Today we have a special guestwith us.
His name is Brandon Gano.
He is a visionary entrepreneurwho turned frustration into a
successful business which hebuilt, franchised and later sold
(00:23):
for significant profit.
Now, with his business partnerand friend, shane Delaney, he's
pioneering an unprecedentedapproach to educate and empower
small business owners to achievebusiness growth like never
(00:44):
before.
Landon, thank you so much forjoining me today.
Brandon Gano (00:48):
I am so happy to be here.
Dorsey, thanks for having me,absolutely.
Dorsey Ross (00:52):
Well, I usually like to start off with an
icebreaker.
So where did you grow up, anddid that affect who you became?
Brandon Gano (01:05):
Yeah, that's a good question.
So I grew up in the middle ofNew Jersey.
It was a town calledBridgewater, a relatively big
town these days, and did itshape me?
I would say I mean it has toright.
Wherever you are in life, atwhatever stage you're at, I
think it always shapes you insome way.
If I was to think about theways it shaped me, it definitely
(01:27):
made me want to get away frompeople from some extent.
Not that I have anything aboutpeople, but it's a very crowded
town and as I was growing up itstarted to get just more and
more crowded, with stores,subdivisions, all that fun stuff
, and I just wanted to find alittle breathing room.
So I think it's definitelyshaped me and actually prompted
(01:50):
the move to where I am now inNorth Carolina, in the Raleigh
area, where things are a littlebit more spread out.
But no, it was.
Overall it was a pretty goodplace to grow up.
Dorsey Ross (02:00):
Yeah, now, you mentioned actually I mentioned
that you're a business owner.
You're a Christian businessowner, so can you share with us
a little bit of your faith, yourChristian story?
Brandon Gano (02:17):
Yeah, so I actually.
I was introduced to faith morefrom the religion side.
Growing up, I was raisedCatholic.
My parents, my grandparentswere Catholic and for me it
wasn't anything special.
It was a ritual.
You go to CCD classes once aweek through kindergarten to
(02:39):
eighth grade, which was annoying.
I never wanted to go.
I'm not a school person anyway.
So you're telling me I have togo to more school about topics I
don't understand, like not coolfor me.
And then you go to church andyou stand up, sit down, stand up
, sit down, kneel and then leaveand nobody talks to each other.
So like why are we doing thesethings?
It doesn't make sense and itwasn't really integrated into
(03:00):
our lives.
So I went to college.
That was my break-free moment,if you will, where I was able to
.
I never explored any otherreligions or anything like that,
but I was just like all right,my life didn't really change,
not going to church on Sundays,and I don't really know what
that was anyway, I just know Ididn't like it.
So long story short, fastforward to pretty much until,
(03:25):
Well, after I was married, rightbefore we left New Jersey, we
tried another church.
It was a Christian church thistime and it was more about like
the rock concert at the churchthan Jesus.
So it was kind of cool.
Like at the time it was likeall right, this is awesome, Like
there's people here, they'refun.
But then as we started to getinto it, I realized that those
(03:46):
people who were there on Sundaymorning, I had a local business
in the area and I would dealwith some of them on Monday
through Friday and they were twodifferent people.
The same person is twodifferent people and I was like,
wait a minute, this alsodoesn't make sense, because
you're saying you're one thingon Sunday and then you're saying
you're something completelydifferent for the rest of the
week, really from Sundayafternoon until the following
(04:07):
Sunday morning.
You are a different person.
So I again just started toquestion some of that stuff and
when we moved down here, we Isaid, let me, I have to try this
again Like I really I felt Godcalling me back to the church,
really through my wife.
So praise, praise her for sure,and praise God.
But we found this church.
It's called Faith BaptistChurch and it has been
(04:27):
incredible.
I mean, the focus of themessage is only ever about the
relationship with Jesus andbeing what the Bible calls a
Christian and as a church too,so it is.
I mentioned to you before westarted recording I actually
we're recording this on a Fridaymorning.
Friday morning is my Biblestudy, our men's group, so
(04:48):
there's about 20 of us 15, 20 ofus to get together every Friday
and we dive deep into the Bibleand relate that to, of course,
our lives, our challenges, ourstruggles, our businesses, and
it's just a beautiful way tohave that hope and that faith
and know that you get that acouple times a week and it's not
this religious thing anymore,it's a faith and it's a
(05:09):
relationship.
So very long-winded story.
I'm sorry for that, but it tookme a while to get here, and
that's, I think, the whole pointis.
Everybody has a different story.
That's mine, but hopefully thatinspires somebody to continue
pursuing or find Jesus for thefirst time.
Dorsey Ross (05:23):
Right Now somebody to continue pursuing or find
Jesus for the first time RightNow.
You mentioned in our discussionbefore we're doing this now
that you were doing.
You had one business and youkind of said that you were
struggling with that businessnot maybe struggling financially
, but you're struggling with howyou were dealing with it.
(05:45):
But then you went to you knowmore, you implemented it into
another business, implementedyour faith into that more, and
you said you were doing betterwith that business.
How did that?
How did that?
Will you do that?
Brandon Gano (06:04):
Yeah.
So that last business, which isthe one that you kind of
mentioned in my bio there yeah,I mean it was.
It was a great business, itmade money, it was successful.
It kind of blew up and wassuccessful relatively quickly
and unexpectedly and big thingscame from it.
But what I was struggling withwas I lost a passion for it and
it was because I kind ofrealized along that journey this
(06:27):
was up in New Jersey I wentfrom chasing the mission of what
I started the business to solvereally the problem that it's
solved in the world and in themarketplace and I shifted to
chasing money and dollar signsand I felt empty and I felt
hopeless because I had it.
It made money, I was profitable, I had all these things.
(06:49):
None of it fulfilled me, whichI know is not a story unique to
me, but that's.
I started to pursue bigger andbetter things and wanted to make
the business even bigger andeven more profitable and it was
really in a disservice to myemployees at the time, our
(07:09):
customers and the vision of thebusiness.
So that's where I did turn itinto a franchise.
I went through that process,focused on the dollar signs, and
it started to just become moreand more apparent that the
company I partnered with wassnakes, we'll say.
They were just not good peopleand they were selling these
franchises to people and lyingthrough their teeth about what
(07:31):
they could produce.
So ultimately they were sayingthings like if you invest in
this franchise, it's going tocost you.
The franchise fee was like$40,000 or $50,000.
You pay that by the end of thefirst year in business, you
don't have to work at all andit's going to produce a million
dollars for you.
And I was like what, how did Iget here?
(07:52):
How did we even get to thisspot right now?
And I felt disgusting aboutmyself, to be honest with you.
So that's really where thestruggle came in, because I
invested all this time and moneyand it was my dream to make
this business into a franchise.
And I had that moment of where Ijust, you know, I kind of
snapped out of the trance I wasin, if you will, and I was like
this is not right, like I hatethis, I hate everything about it
(08:13):
.
So I canceled all of ourcontracts, we ripped up,
basically, that business andcompletely abandoned it before
we stole anybody's money.
Thank God, I said well, I'm notinvolved with this anymore,
abandon it before we stoleanybody's money.
Thank God, I said, well, I'mnot involved with this anymore.
And then the other, my originallocation.
I completely fell out of lovewith it and that's what the
struggle was too, because I waslike I don't want anything to do
with this industry, I don'twant anything to do with this
(08:35):
business, and I ended up sellingit in the middle of last year
at this point, so I was able tokind of wipe my hands clean and
walk away.
But I still had that passion toserve small business owners and
really give people the gift ofbusiness ownership, not business
operatorship.
And that's when I met mybusiness partner, sean, who,
again you mentioned in the bio,he has the very same passion,
(08:56):
but he comes from a backgroundof consulting the biggest
companies in the world Nike,uber, johnson and Johnson.
He's been doing this for 25years and he's really, really
effective at making very complexthings extremely simple and
scalable.
And that's now what we do withour business, with our
consulting business.
We are both Christian men,incorporate faith very heavily
(09:19):
into what we do, and we havejust seen that because we've
come together on them and Ifirmly believe God brought us
together because there's noother way that we would have met
.
Not even by chance should wehave ever met and gone into
business together.
But it's your purpose and yourpath.
It's not hard.
I don't wrestle with doing thework that we do every day like I
(09:50):
did in that last business.
I feel just completely at easeand guided.
So it's been.
For me, that's been the biggestdifference, which I didn't even
know was possible, because youalways hear things like oh,
business is hard, running abusiness is hard, being an
entrepreneur is hard.
No, it's not, not if it's yourcalling, you know that, first of
all, the Lord has your back and, second of all, you're on your
(10:11):
path.
So, yeah, challenges come up,but that doesn't make it hard by
any means.
Dorsey Ross (10:15):
Yeah, what encouragement would you give to
Christian owners or people offaith?
You know who know God and trustin God, who may be, you know
struggling.
Who may be dealing, you knowwith.
You know financial who may bedealing with you know you know
(10:39):
sales are down.
You know people are not cominginto their store.
Think of that nature.
You know they're dealing withthe big.
You know people are not cominginto their store.
Think of that nature.
You know they're dealing withthe big.
You know they're competingagainst the big box.
You know retailers whatencouragement would you give to
them?
Brandon Gano (10:56):
Yeah.
So I mean, what we teach peopleis a business model or a
business operating system thatfocuses on simplicity and then
scalability.
So my question in that scenariowould be are you struggling or
are you going through thisbecause you're listening to what
the world has to say, or is itbecause is this truly what God
(11:19):
has told you to do?
Because we talk to a lot ofpeople and they say, when they
come to us, we want to grow ourbusiness, we want to make more
money, we want to have more time.
I'm like that's cool.
Those are great reasons toconsult with somebody.
But why, I mean why, do youactually want to grow your
business?
And that makes people think fora minute.
(11:39):
Because the world tells you youhave to grow your business.
I'm never going to tell you youhave to.
I can show you how.
I can show you a very simpleway how to do that.
But it's not really about whatI want.
It's about what you want foryou, your community, your family
, yourself and your purpose.
So I've talked to a lot ofpeople that don't have a good
(11:59):
answer to that question andthey're struggling because they
think they should grow or theythink they should be this big
thing, and they shouldn't.
It's not what God has them todo.
Ultimately, our job is to spreadthe good news, spread the
gospel right.
So what if you could be asolopreneur and perfect example?
(12:20):
One of my good friends in myfaith group, he's a carpenter
like a general contractor.
He does home maintenance work.
Every house he goes into hegets to spread the good news and
talk to people about Jesus andthe gospel.
He's making money, he's payinghis bills, he's happy and he's
doing his work on this earth.
(12:40):
He doesn't have to scale hisbusiness If he doesn't really
want to.
If God isn't calling him to,that's totally fine.
Could he run it moreefficiently and profitable?
Maybe, but it doesn't mean he'sgot to be this general
contracting company doing 25million in revenue with 50
employees.
That would be out of line forhim.
So that's really where I wantto start with people is why are
(13:03):
you struggling?
Is it your choice?
Because you're followingworldly things and worldly
advice?
Or are you really just notclear on how to get from where
you are to where God has pointedyou to be?
And ultimately, that's betweenyou and him.
If it's a business structurething, that's where I come in,
but I really try not tointercede with people between
(13:24):
them and their message from God,because that's just a
one-on-one.
Dorsey Ross (13:30):
Talking about the four D's delete, delegate, delay
and do.
How can a business ownerleverage this strategy?
Brandon Gano (13:57):
typically what we'll see entrepreneurs do is
they start doing everything andthey get more into that operator
side of things right instead ofthe business owner, and what
ends up happening is everythingthat comes in they want to say
yes to it, whether that's aquestion from an employee,
whether that's a in order from acustomer or a contract from
somebody.
And we need to just pause andsay is this in line with our
(14:18):
mission, our vision and who weare as a company and who I am as
the leader of this business?
So the order that people tackthis in is do, delay, delegate,
delete, which is backwards, butthose four things.
Very simply, what they mean isif something comes in, they ask,
(14:39):
can I do this?
And they immediately try to sayyes or justify why it's a yes.
Then they say, okay, I can't, Ican do it now.
Can I delay it, but then stillalso do it myself?
If that's still a no, then theysay okay, can I delegate it to
somebody else, because I'm surethis is important and it must
get done.
And then the last question weask is if everything else is a
no, well then I guess can wedelete it, like can this just go
(15:02):
away and disappear, and ourargument is actually the
opposite.
So if you want your timefreedom back, if you want that
clarity and serenity from owningand operating a business, you
should actually be looking atthings through the other lens.
So first, can I delete it?
Does this thing actually addvalue to anybody and is it in
line with our mission?
If it's a no, then just deleteit and forget about it.
(15:25):
If it's a yes, that we do haveto do it and it's in line with
our mission it serves ourcustomer then can we delay it,
and the delay phase doesn'tnecessarily mean you still have
to be doing it, but does it haveto be done right now?
So when we consult with ourclients, we want them to be
laser focused on just a fewthings every single quarter.
So if this thing, whatever itis, if it's an opportunity or
(15:48):
challenge or a question thatcomes up, if it's not in line
with what we are doing thisquarter, we don't even look at
it till next quarter.
Assuming we can't delete it, wedelay it till next quarter.
If we can't get past that, it'sactually urgent, it's very
important and we have to handleit.
Can somebody else delegate it?
Or can we delegate it tosomebody else and that's like
that very last step before, orclaiming it as something that
(16:11):
gets on our calendar.
If we can't delegate it,ideally we can, but if we can't,
it has to be done, it's urgent,it has to be done by us.
Then we say, okay, that thingdoes make it to our calendar.
We still try to push things offas long as possible and say
like, okay, I'm in the middle ofwriting an email right now.
Can this wait, like a day or anhour?
(16:32):
So you just want to get out ofthat squirrel brain mentality is
really what we're getting at.
So we try to delete, delay,delegate and then, if we have to
, we do as the business owner orentrepreneur.
We call those things above thegolden line.
Everything that you have to dois the golden line.
Those are the things that youshould be doing.
If you want to grow yourbusiness, those are the things
(16:52):
that grow your business.
If you want to reclaim yourtime, those are the things that
grow your business.
If you want to reclaim yourtime, those are the things that
are going to help you get moretime back.
Or if you're just serving yourcustomers at a high level, those
are the things that you'refocused on.
So it's this framework that weteach our clients, to give them
the freedom of decision making,because that's the thing that
really bogs most people down isjust making useless decisions in
(17:13):
most cases.
So we start there and then wecan talk about what we're
actually doing.
Dorsey Ross (17:18):
Now you mentioned a golden line.
Tell us a little bit more aboutthat, and how does that work
into the business framework?
Brandon Gano (17:27):
Yeah.
So the golden line is, if youwere to picture that framework
kind of stacked on top of eachother delete, delay and delegate
are all below that line.
If it's above that line, thoseare owner or CEO type tasks that
need to be done.
So think of things like yourstrategic planning.
You're planning your companyvision, making your execution
(17:48):
map, hiring.
In some cases these are thethings that they produce the
biggest outcomes and they takethe least amount of hours
typically to do.
So if you run through thatfilter, you decide you do have
to do something, whether it isthe hiring or the strategic
planning.
Then you put it on yourcalendar.
So we just say we call it abovethe golden line because kind of
(18:11):
a metaphor for, like, those arethe things that should be
making the company the mostmoney in the long term and
that's why the CEO ultimatelyhas to do them.
Same thing at you know anyfortune 500 company.
You look at what the CEO does.
It is usually the mostprofitable work.
They're planning for the future, setting the company up for
profitable success and growth.
So when you start to thinkabout your time in that way, we
(18:33):
take those things and put themon your calendar so they
actually get done, and they getdone first and in priority.
So that's why everything elsebecomes sort of meaningless at
that point.
Because if you know that thatone activity let's just say that
next Monday morning you were toblock out four hours on your
calendar for the next quarter'sstrategic plan If you could
(18:57):
knock out your whole strategicplan and then you identify that
you're actually going to be ableto grow your company's revenue
by 35% with this plan, why wouldyou do anything else like
answering an email, sending atext, scrolling on social media,
whatever it is?
If the side-by-side comparisonis, I can either sit down for
(19:20):
four hours and grow my revenueby 35% or I can like a post on
Instagram, any normal personwould slap themselves if they
chose Instagram.
So we just want to get peoplein that mindset of saying is
this the right work for me, isthis what I should be focused on
and is it in line with myvision?
And when you can kind of getthere quickly, that's the whole
(19:42):
thing.
It's getting in that habit ofjust being able to answer that
question very, very quickly.
Dorsey Ross (19:46):
Now, would that work with even the small
business owners who don't, thesmall business owners who don't
have many employees, only havetwo or three employees, where
the CEO or the owner of thatstore may have to do some of
those things below that goldenline?
Brandon Gano (20:08):
Yeah, and there's no shame in that either.
So don't let me sound like I'msaying that you should feel bad
for doing it.
We've all been.
If you've started a business,you've probably bootstrapped it
or been by yourself, at least inthe very beginning.
Very rare scenario where you'refunded by a venture capital and
you have immediately a team of50 people.
(20:28):
So I'm not talking to thosepeople, but for everybody else,
the normal people like us.
No, but we still want to gothrough this framework because
you want to start to identify.
What are the things that I'msaying I can delete?
What are the things I'm sayingI can delegate, because you'll
start to see patterns.
You can still delete and delayeven without a team, but the
(20:49):
delegate one is the big piece,because I actually even have a
setting on my calendar to anymeeting that comes up or any
tasks that I do that I believecould be delegated.
I classify it as a differentcolor and I put it on my
calendar.
When I review my week, I lookat how many hours I spent doing
delegatable tasks and I willreview what they are.
(21:11):
If there's a common theme inthose, I can say, okay, maybe I
can either hire somebody to dothis specifically, depending on
how many hours it is, how muchrevenue is produced by doing it,
or I can maybe outsource it toa VA, or we can build that into
somebody else's work.
There's a lot of options youcan do, but what I want to know
before I just start hiringpeople willy nilly for no, is
(21:33):
what are those specific thingsthat I believe I can delegate?
Same thing with my businesspartner, and maybe we can
combine our calendars to saywe're both wasting combined.
I don't know.
Let's pick out a number 15hours a week on delegatable
activities, things that do nothave to be done by us but are
important enough to be done.
Let's hire a VA for 15 hours aweek.
(21:54):
We'll identify and buildprocesses for these specific
things.
So there's no questions.
There's no really onboarding, atraining period, and as soon as
we can get to that point, wecan then hire that person and
reclaim 15 hours of our time,versus the normal path is just
saying, ah, I'm overwhelmed, Idon't know what to do.
Let's hire three people andhope they can pick up the slack.
(22:17):
When you do that, you throwpeople into chaos and they hate
their jobs and they're alsoineffective and you think
they're bad employees, butmostly because you just haven't
trained them or told them reallywhat the outcome is that they
should be getting Now somebody'sprobably going to ask me if I
don't ask you this question,what is the neon sign behind you
(22:37):
and what is that?
Dorsey Ross (22:39):
Obviously it's a question upside down question
mark, but what is the symbolismof that?
Brandon Gano (22:45):
I host a podcast as well.
It's called Harmonious.
At Lunch it's on all podcastplatforms and YouTube if you
want to go check it out.
But yeah, so the question markbehind me, that is our logo.
So I can't tell.
Now I think my screen isreversed.
The way it should look is whatif our company name is spelled
(23:07):
with a D W-H-A-D-I-F?
That is supposed to be the D inthe word.
What if?
But it's really.
It's more than that.
It's a symbol, right?
So everything we do, beingfractional COOs and consulting
with our clients, we want to goin and instead of asking the
normal questions, we want toturn their questions upside down
and we want to ask the thingsthat nobody's ever thought to
(23:30):
ask, because that's where thetrue answers in business are.
So we turn questions on theirhead, right.
But then the other part, thegreen part on top, is, for me
personally, arguably the mostimportant, and it's actually a
play button.
So that just means we're havingfun.
If you're not having fun inbusiness, you're doing something
wrong, because you can alwaysfun as a choice.
You can always choose to have agood time and have fun in
(23:53):
anything you're doing, andthat's just one of our core
beliefs.
So we're asking the questionsthat nobody wants to ask or
nobody has thought to ask, andwe're going to have a party
while we do it in the mostprofessional way possible, of
course.
And the other thing, too, is Ihave a mug with the Princess
Belle from Beauty and the Beaston it, and I was ashamed about
this in the beginning of mypodcast journey, and then people
(24:15):
just started to point it out,like, are you drinking from a
princess?
I'm gonna look up, like youknow what?
Yeah, I am.
I'm a man too, okay, so you'regonna have to deal with it.
So those two things people askme all the time, but at this
point, that's just my brand.
Dorsey Ross (24:40):
Are you.
Brandon Gano (24:41):
I got this question off of your, I think
off of your pod but the questionis are you running your
business or is it running you?
That's one of my favoritequestions to ask people and it
usually gets them a little upset.
Not our intention by any means,but it's one of those things
where you just have to be honestwith yourself, right?
Because most people get intobusiness for one of two reasons
time freedom or financialfreedom.
Other things that could looklike is they want control over
(25:05):
their schedule and their life,they want to take vacations.
It all boils down to those twothings.
So when you start a businessfor those two things, what ends
up happening very quickly is thebusiness kind of morphs into
its own thing without astructure, without a very clear
plan and a path for how to getfrom A to B, and we build
(25:27):
ourselves jobs and your businessowns you.
So that's just the question Iask people.
And the other question I askthem is can you take a three
week vacation without yourbusiness losing revenue and or
profit?
And that question really makespeople angry.
But it's just again.
It's to open your eye.
My goal is to not offend you, isto open your eyes and say back
(25:50):
to that other question beforewhat do you want?
Why did you start this businessand what do you want from it?
And if you want to grow, why doyou want to grow Again?
If you are happy, content withyour business and you're working
80 hours a week I have metthose people.
There's no shame in that.
That's totally fine.
If you are on your path, by allmeans please keep doing exactly
(26:10):
what you're doing.
But if you want somethingdifferent, if you want something
more, if you're not serving inthe highest level that you
believe you should be or couldbe, then you may have to ask
yourself one of those twoquestions and just take a look
at how you're running yourbusiness, or is it truly running
you?
Dorsey Ross (26:27):
Teams are made up of different folks with
different ideas and things canget messy.
How does Harmonious helpeveryone trust each other and
communicate clearly, even whenthings get bumpy?
Brandon Gano (26:52):
normal approach to business where, if you think of
any company, really what comesto mind is departments or silos.
Right, so you have yourmarketing department, your sales
team, you have HR department,and where that model breaks down
is in especially largercompanies, these departments
tend to compete with each otherfor resources.
Whether consciously orsubconsciously, everybody knows
that there's only so much moneyto go around for bonuses,
(27:14):
salaries, time off, all that funstuff.
So every department is tryingto perform at its highest level
and do the best job that it can,while not realizing that
they're actually takingresources from potentially
another department.
So it becomes instead of a teamenvironment, it becomes a very
much like flesh eating bacteriaenvironment and it deteriorates
(27:38):
very quickly.
So what we argue is that,instead of looking at business
in that context, when you have aharmonious business, you
actually connect everything andeverything feeds off each other.
So when we talk aboutcommunication and whether that's
one-on-one or team to team,department to department, if you
(27:58):
want to use that language it'snot about how are my activities
helping me in my role, becausethe first thing we do with
people is tie their personalmission, vision and purpose to
the company's mission, visionand purpose, so they know how
all of their activities in theirjob affect them in their
(28:18):
personal lives and the companyand then also everybody around
them too.
So the first thing we want todo when we go in and consult
with people is bring the teamtogether and the culture
together.
So it's never like how can I getthe most milk out of this role
and get the most money, and thebiggest bonus it's if we all win
.
We're all going to win, and Imean that sounds stupid to say
(28:41):
it like that, but it's so true.
The more you can build acollaborative team working
environment where no singleperson loses ever, then you have
the highest likelihood ofsuccess.
And one of the things I alwayslike to say is or an analogy is
every deal that I go into, thatwe go into and think of anything
(29:01):
as a deal.
If you ask me to go get you acup of coffee, that is a deal.
So it could be as little asthat or as big as like a hundred
billion merger.
If we can't cut the pie andhave everybody be happy with
their slice, it's not goodenough.
And that's just one of thosevery foundational principles,
especially for communication,that if someone is trying to win
(29:21):
and make someone else lose.
Your culture is alreadydestroyed and you need to take a
step back and rebuild it.
Dorsey Ross (29:29):
For someone this is going to be the last question
but for someone whose business,for whatever reason, may have
failed and they want to go backinto the business world or maybe
even create a new business,what encouragement would you
(29:49):
have for them?
Brandon Gano (29:52):
Your business didn't fail.
You just did some things thatyou can learn from.
So I think they're in a betterposition than someone starting a
business for the first time,because there's so many things
you learn from being in businessand then, in that scenario,
going out of business that youcan start to see the future in
some regards.
(30:12):
The next time, you know whatpatterns to look for and say, oh
, I did this last time and itactually turned out poorly
because I had to close mybusiness.
So I'll take all of thoselessons, all of those learnings,
and make sure it's somethingthat you actually want to pursue
again and make sure it'ssomething that you actually want
to pursue again.
The other side of that coin, too, is entrepreneurship is not for
(30:35):
everybody, and I think weglorify it on social media and
stuff and we make it look easyand there's all these
influencers taking cool pictureswith the crystal clear blue
ocean in the background.
That is not entrepreneurship.
If you're going to build acompany and build a team, you
are now responsible for makingother people's lives better,
(30:57):
spreading your mission andmaking an impact in the world.
We don't look atentrepreneurship as like making
a lot of money.
It's making a lot of impact.
That should be your goal.
So if you have an area of yourlife you feel called to make an
impact, make a difference inchange, something that could be
a nonprofit too.
(31:17):
I mean there's no limit to whatyou can do in the scope of
entrepreneurship and businessownership.
You didn't get the result youwanted last time.
How can you use that to serveyour goals moving forward and
make sure that doesn't happenagain?
But just shift that focus alittle bit.
You got to be impact driven,mission focused and very, very
clear on where you want to goand then always seek help
(31:37):
Doesn't have to be me, butalways.
I have never in my life beenwithout a coach or a mentor in
my business journey and it'sbeen one of those things that I
can say has, hands down, paidfor itself 10 times over.
Every single time you needoutside guidance.
Now that I have found God too,I will say I told you before how
I feel just at peace, at ease.
(31:58):
Make sure you keep that.
You keep God first in yourbusiness at all times, and then
everything else will start tocome into place.
He will deliver those resourcesfor you.
But, man, if you're not focusedon the right things, it's very
easy to get off track.
Dorsey Ross (32:15):
And I always want to ask my guest to give one
encouragement to my listeners aswell.
Brandon Gano (32:26):
Oh man, it's just something that's been on my
heart recently is Romans 8, 28,.
Basically that God does allthings for the good of people
who believe in him and follow inhim, and that's been a verse
that I've carried with me for awhile now and it's been a source
of encouragement for me.
So hopefully, if you need tohear that, go read Romans,
really the whole chapter, romans8.
(32:47):
Fantastic, fantastic chap.
You'll get a lot ofencouragement from that.
Dorsey Ross (32:53):
Thank you.
Thank you, Brendan, so much forcoming on the show today.
We greatly appreciate havingyou.
Brandon Gano (33:00):
Thanks for having me.
This was awesome.
Dorsey Ross (33:02):
Thank you, guys and girls, for listening again.
Please like and share and leavea review on all podcast
platforms.
And leave a review on allpodcast platforms.
And if you would like to donateand consider donating to the
Dorsey Roadshow to continue tohelp me produce more great
content, please do that on thelinks in the show notes.
(33:27):
And until next time, god bless,bye-bye.
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