071: There Is No Overnight Success: How Leaders Build Lasting Impact

Send us a text

Money makes stuff easy, but it's not everything. The real challenge lies in breaking through those invisible barriers that keep your business from reaching its full potential.

Ever felt stuck in your business growth? You're not alone. Successful entrepreneurs often hit plateaus where traditional strategies no longer work, leading to years of stagnation. The breakthrough? Realizing you're not the smartest person in the room.

This raw conversation unveils how peer groups transform business trajectories by connecting you with others who've walked your path. When you surround yourself with diverse perspectives and expertise, you discover solutions you never considered. As one business owner candidly shares, after joining a peer group in 2022, their company finally broke free from years of stagnant performance.

The dialogue tackles the myth of overnight success, revealing how true business growth happens through consistent small improvements—"a little bit of a little bit." Just as weight gain doesn't happen overnight, neither does sustainable success. It's built through daily habits, continuous learning, and the humility to adapt.

Most revealing is the admission that ego prevents growth. "No book can teach me how to run my business" was the mindset that kept one successful entrepreneur from scaling further. After finally reading business books like "Traction" after a ten-year hiatus from learning, everything changed. The message becomes clear: success at any level requires constantly evolving your knowledge and approaches.

Ready to break through your own business plateau? Join us to discover how small habit changes, peer connections, and continuous learning create the foundation for sustainable growth. Subscribe now and share your own business breakthrough moments!

Support the show

Links to Follow Empower & Elevate Podcast 24/7:

• https://linktr.ee/empowerelevatepodcast
• https://www.youtube.com/@EmpowerElevatePodcast
• https://www.facebook.com/EmpowerElevatePodcast
• https://www.instagram.com/EmpowerElevatePodcast
• https://www.threads.net/@EmpowerElevatePodcast
• https://www.twitter.com/EmpowerElevateP
• https://www.tiktok.com/@empowerelevatepodcast
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/empowerelevatepodcast

Hi, I’m Marc Thomas, Founder and CEO of Current TEK Solutions and CYBER GUARDIANS. If you or someone you know could benefit from our cutting-edge IT and cybersecurity services, we’d love to help. Reach out to us today to learn how we can secure and elevate your business. https://www.currentTEKsolutions.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Money is a tool.
Money actually makes a lot ofstuff easy, but it's not
everything.
The first year in retail, afterwe went door knocking and get a
lot of business, my income washigher than what it is today.
It's crazy and it's reallyreally.

(00:23):
I would say after a few years,if I stayed it would have been
very easy money right.
There's no overnight success.
This is, this is overnightsuccess.
Is some a lot of times illegal,but yeah, there's no over

(00:47):
overnight success.
People look at me.
It's like I have friends lookat it's like, hey, you're very
successful man, you just made itlike it was like this.
It was like, no, it wasn't likethis.
Uh, I put a lot of hours, I puta lot of, a lot of heart into
it, a lot of thinking, a lot of,and the road to own your own
business on your own is freakinglonely like it's.

(01:09):
So you gotta make decisions onthe top of decisions and you're
affecting everyone around youand just, it's not that easy and
, as we, as you said, it's like,hey, we're gonna leave an
impact.
Then giving that torch, as yousaid, to to the, to your team,
to kind of do exactly what yourpurpose in life do, and my team

(01:33):
actually loved this fact thatthat's what the company was
supposed to be and that's wherewe lost.
I'm just gonna say it we, as we, lose track of what we're doing
because there is a lot ofchallenges on the way, but
nothing wrong with that.
Learn from them, get stronger,get back to it.
As long as you know you'regoing to get back to it, you're

(01:54):
good and, uh, I totally at onepoint forget about it with the
challenges.
You're going to try and make aliving too right, and we get
back to it.
And here we are Now.
The nice thing and one of thethings that I walk around and
talk about it and everything andthat's actually how we met Mark

(02:15):
is just the peer group, theeducation, the training, the
self-improvement.
A lot of people feelcomfortable and I was like they
stuck where they are and theycan't just get it to the next
level or the one good to greatkind of scenario or scale it or

(02:35):
basically.
And that's why, unfortunately,you see, and specifically here,
I think, the number above 70% ofsmall businesses, that's one or
two man, show right, or I don'twant to be sexist there, but
it's just two people working ina company and it's forever, so

(02:55):
the owner always working, andbasically what you did?
You just get yourself a job,you own your job, that's all and
nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
No, it's a lifestyle.
No, it's a lifestyle.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, it's a lifestyle.
Some people go for it, somepeople loves it, and you know
what?
Not being that person sometimesis actually struggling.
So I hear a lot of story aboutpeople that they wanted to own
their business and want to growtheir own business and scale it
and have employees.
And what have you right?
Uh, it's a hurdle, it's there,it's just it hits you at one

(03:33):
point and you just kind of likecannot lift your head up and
you're stuck and it's it's uh,it's.
It's so sad.
And one of the fact thatactually keep talking about it
is having somebody help you,hold your hand through the
journey, and there is nothingbetter than having somebody that

(03:57):
actually took your steps andthey're ahead of you or in the
same boat as you, or even theyjust started to learn from each
other.
So when I and that's how we metright Just back to it, the peer
groups, I mean joining peergroups I joined a peer group, I
think in 2022.
And we were stagnant, like as abusiness, we didn't grow for

(04:21):
years.
And just because, wherever I go, I feel I'm the smartest in the
room, around all mysurroundings, I feel I'm the
smartest in the room, and youknow, it becomes life.
It's just, hey, you're makingmoney, you're making a living,
your kids are comfortable,you're doing investments, et

(04:43):
cetera.
You're good, you're set forlife, right.
And then it's like, oh, butwe're stagnant, we're there,
we're not going to move, we'renot even adding 1% year over
year, and you just think aboutit like, oh, I don't have a
proper education for thisspecific phase.

(05:03):
I'm in, yes, I've done one, two, three and I want to go to five
, but I don't know how to dofour.
And you can't find a seguearound it.
You got to have to go throughit and you need education.
So for a long time I quitreading, I quit learning.

(05:23):
Of course, on a technical endwe're learning technical, but on
a business side of things,nothing.
And when I joined that peergroup the first peer group I
joined, which is, uh, in thesame organization.
You're in different peer group,yeah, but we're in the same
organization.
And the 10, 12 peers that Ihave in my group they're smart,

(05:47):
intelligent people.
They have a different lifestory than me or you, and they
made it.
And you know what.
They're smart.
Yes, you think you're smart,but they're smart too.
And you take all that knowledgefrom all these different people
.
Then you started reading booksand just kind of self-develop on

(06:08):
myself and it's like, oh, I'mon seven, I passed four a long
time ago, then you're on 10.
And people say, oh, the firstmillion is the hardest thing.
And when you hit a million Ithink Shark Tank it was on Shark
Tank it was like, hey, you makethe first million, that's the
hardest thing.

(06:31):
Then everything is snowballingfrom there and it's not.
The 2 million has a challenge,the 5 million has a challenge.
And if you don't read, buildprocesses like.
I didn't know how to documentall what I do and I sat down and
was like, oh, I do this, Ishouldn't be doing this, this is
taking a lot of my time.
This delegate, elevate delegate, this is taking a lot of my

(06:55):
time.
Let's delegate, elevatedelegate.
Whatever the story is, it's like, hey, find the right person in
the right seat to do what I do,exactly what you said is like
pass that torch.
Pass that torch and just keepfocus on your why.
It's like, hey, we're going toget more kids that don't have a
career, don't have education.
Teach them, give them a properjob, not a minimum wage, and let

(07:17):
them go and thrive, either withour company or any other
company, but that's our why.
It's like, hey, sometimes itdoesn't work and not a culture
fit and what have you.
But yeah, it's amazing, it'schallenging, you get hurt

(07:37):
throughout sometimes, but it'sjust what keeps us on our toes.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
You talk about obviously learning, right.
So you know, if you're notlearning, you're not growing and
as a leader, it's ourresponsibility to learn.
It's just face it and, justlike talking about business, you
can't grow past a certain phaseif you've never been there.
I've had conversations withCEOs that were still trying to

(08:04):
run their $120 million businesslike a $12 million business.
It wasn't working out well.
They had to reach outside,outside of their comfort zone
right, what they know to bringin some you know different
processes and and hire differentpeople to do these things to
start operating like 120 milliondollar business.

(08:26):
Yep, and you know it's.
That's just all part of thatgrowth.
And you know, sometimes we weget so stuck in what we're doing
we don't realize that we shouldbe doing all these other things
because we're not.
You know, once again, if you'rebusy with the day-to-day you
know BS or whatever you'redealing with you're not opening
your mind to these other things.
You're not learning to knowthat you need to apply these

(08:47):
things.
You just know that, yeah, maybeyou get some inefficiencies or
maybe you know you're fightingwith these things but don't
realize that there's a solutionto that If you're to go out and
look for that right.
Look for that knowledge thatthen apply it to your business.
So you've mentioned I heard youand I'm looking down here to my
my notes I heard you mentionatomic habits.
I heard you mentioned good togreat.

(09:08):
I heard you mentioned scale it.
Um, obviously, we know allthese are some very good
information, right, and how you?
Once again, it's only as goodas what you, how you apply it,
right.
Most recently, you hadmentioned the atomic habits.
You're reading that now correctyes, right now.

(09:32):
And so far in that.
What's that one thing you'repulling out of that that you
could see yourself applyingtomorrow?

Speaker 1 (09:43):
so self-improvement.
Yeah, the the funny part is, uh, I always like you see me next
year, I'm shred.
Then you see me the year after,I'm like, gained a lot of
weight.
And honestly, yes, I'm verylike I try not to be addictive

(10:08):
to anything and just figuringout, I was like okay, I'm a food
addict, it's a thing, and I gotto work around it.
It's just how right.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
So tell me more about that.
What do you say?
A food addict?
What does that mean?
Help me understand.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
We're very foodie, so it's like we like to go eat and
try food or whatever, althoughI'm very like I work out as much
as I can, but I've never hadlike that schedule.
So the atomic habit habit andthe reason why I started that

(10:45):
book is just a little bit of atweak so you can change daily
and make it a good habit versusa bad habit, because it's all
about habits Like hey, yeah, youknow, I eat this chocolate
today, I should be fine.
Then you eat that chocolatetomorrow and you should be fine.
And it's a little bit, a littlebit.
Then what we do is like one day, oh shoot, I gain a lot of
weight.
What are you going to do?
You diet.
One day you step up at thescale and it's like, oh shit,

(11:09):
I'm still in that same weight.
You're not going to lose weightin one day.
Same weight, you're not goingto lose weight in one day.
You've been building that upover years.
Same thing.
You don't build success in oneday.
That's what I said.
There's no overnight success,it's just a little bit of a
little bit of a little bit.
And what you're doing you'rejust changing and changing and
learning better changing yourhabits, learning, learning,

(11:30):
learning and changing the habitof my egos.
I was like, hey, no book canteach me how to run my business.
Not even $200 million CEO canteach me how to run my business,
because that CEO got lucky,it's at some point and I'm not

(11:58):
lucky, or whatever the story is.
I'm trying to get my point here, which is no, it's just you
gotta figure out what you'redoing.
It's not gonna work anymore.
And every single day you'redoing it that becomes a bad
habit.
Just tweak it.
Whatever it is learning.
Learning is essential, like,honestly, our culture

(12:22):
unfortunately nowadays is mybackground is not.
There's not not a readingculture.
And just to go back to the factthat I can read a book or even
listen to a book when I'm in thecar, it was just, who's going
to teach me what I already knowabout my business?

(12:44):
Like, nobody can teach me.
And the first book I've readafter 10 years of not reading
books, it was a very good bookcalled Traction.
I know you read it because Iknow you touched a little bit on
that module and I was like, oh,my god, this guy knows what

(13:06):
he's talking about.
And then it took.
It's like, oh, I should startsitting with Mark and see what
he does and how he does it.
And then you collectivelycollect all these ideas and see
what all people are doing andyou share with all these smart
people, because you're not thesmartest in the room.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
We all know something someone else doesn't that we
can share, and that could be anexperience, right, that could be
a I mean, I want to say a trialand an error, or you know a
lesson through a mistake thatyou made and you came out the
other side and you can sharethat experience.
So, yes, we all have knowledgethat someone else doesn't, that

(13:46):
we have to share, and so,regardless of whether you think
you're the smartest guy in theroom or not, everyone else in
there knows something you don't.