December 20, 2023 • 39 mins
Come on a journey with me, as we navigate the world of entrepreneurship alongside Chris Joyce, the visionary founder of Gusher and the driving force behind 24 companies. Our conversation is not just insightful but also incredibly inspiring. Chris shares the strategies that fuel his entrepreneurial ventures, particularly his latest venture aimed at revolutionizing the startup landscape.
Explore Chris's unique leadership style, where embracing your 'superpower' can give a business an irreplaceable edge. We delve into a fascinating case study of a dog food venture that thrived on passion, emphasizing how a narrative infused with genuine enthusiasm can set a business apart in today's competitive markets.
As we dive deeper into the entrepreneurial journey, Chris and I unravel the intricacies of scaling and the strategic moves necessary for a successful exit. Chris's journey, marked by never leading the same company twice and the thrill of birthing new ideas, is truly exhilarating. We discuss the importance of designing processes that turn mundane tasks into valuable assets and how stepping back from day-to-day affairs can elevate a company's trajectory. This segment is a treasure trove for anyone seeking to understand the art of expanding a business and preparing it for a future beyond its creator.
In our final chapter, we pull back the curtain to reveal the seldom-discussed vulnerabilities of business ownership and the monumental impact of seeking guidance. I share my own experiences, highlighting the transformative power of acknowledging one's limitations and the courage it takes to ask for help—insights drawn from numerous success stories of those who've leaned on the wisdom of mentors. By sharing these narratives and personal productivity strategies, our goal is to equip you with the tools and advice needed to navigate the complex waters of entrepreneurship. Join us for this profound dialogue that could very well be the catalyst for your next business breakthrough.
Chris Joyce: Gusher, Founder & CEO
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dealrules/
Website - https://gusher.co/
Blog - https://gusher.co/blog
Email - chris@gusher.co
#ChrisJoyce #Gusher #Startup #Startups #Founder #Founders #Entrepreneur #Success #BusinessGrowth #BusinessStrategy #BusinessStrategist #BusinessSuccess #BusinessGrowthTips #StrategicPlanning #SuccessSecrets #EntrepreneurialInsights #Millionaire #MultiMillionaire #Inspiring #EntrepreneurJourney #MillionDollarBusiness #Scale #VentureCapital #Sales #CEO #SmallBusinessPivots #SmallBusinessSuccess #Success #Podcast #SmallBusiness #SuccessStories #MillionDollars #SmallBusinessOwner #EntrepreneurMindset #InspiringJourney #Entrepreneurship #BusinessOwnershipSimplified #MichaelDMorrison #BusinessAdvice #BusinessCoach #SuccessStory #Pivots #PodcastRecommendation #PodcastForBusinessOwners
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris Joyce (00:00):
I don't care who's starting a business, whether
it's in an extremely competitiveindustry or a brand new
industry, the fact that youpersonally, you and your DNA
that you're bringing to thetable, makes that company a
fundamentally different entity.
Michael Morrison (00:14):
Hello and welcome to Small Business Pivots
.
I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and
founder of Boss.
Boss helps small businessowners start, build or scale a
business that can run withoutthem there for more freedom and
more profits.
To learn how Boss can help you,go to
businessownershipsimplifiedcom.
If you enjoy this podcast andwant to stay up to date with all
(00:37):
our latest podcast episodes,make sure to hit that subscribe
button and make sure to listento the end of this episode for
my recap and coach's corner,where I share applicable action
steps for small business ownersto move the needle in their
business.
Our guest today is Chris Joyce,founder of GUSHR.
Chris is a serial entrepreneurwith a remarkable track record
(01:00):
of founding 24 companiesspanning high-tech consumer
goods, health and manufacturing.
His products have graced over11,000 stores in 23 countries
and his tech innovations havereached users in 148 countries
globally.
Frustrated by witnessingbrilliant ideas and
entrepreneurs consistentlyoverlooked for funding due to
(01:21):
superficial reasons, chrisdecided to disrupt the
traditional startup landscape.
Enter GUSHR, his latest ventureoffering a simple, quick and
capital-free approach tobuilding startups.
Gushr believes that great ideascan come from anyone, anywhere,
and aims to let the market, notventure capitalists, determine
(01:43):
the fate of these innovations.
Find out how GUSHR isrevolutionizing the startup game
across various industries, fromtechnology and media to health,
design, finance and gaming.
In this episode, chris willshare the essentials he has
learned and used to build aportfolio of successful
businesses.
Let's get to Chris now.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So welcome to another Small Business Pivots.
Today we have a very specialguest, Chris.
Where are you from today?
Chris Joyce (02:10):
I'm located right outside of Philadelphia
Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Philadelphia.
So the purpose of our show isto help small business owners.
I know a lot of us can barelyhandle one.
If we can even do that andyou've handled 20 plus plus, you
have a 300 plus portfolio.
Let's talk about that realquick.
How did you get thatentrepreneurial mindset?
Did you have upbringing in thatworld?
Chris Joyce (02:35):
Well, I always say this I have this thing that I
call.
You know you're an entrepreneurif and then.
I give 50 reasons, and thenumber one reason that I start
off with is that if you grew upin an F'd up family, you are
qualified to be an entrepreneur.
So I didn't grow up in a greatfamily, I grew up in an F'd up
family, okay, and I went intoentrepreneurship from a young
age.
It was just something I reallystarted at an early, early age.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Wow, were you studious at all.
I know a lot of us hadchallenges growing up in books,
if you will.
Chris Joyce (03:04):
Well, I had my brother, who was a straight A
student and a physicist in frontof me by about four years.
So I always went to school andthey'd be like, oh, you're
nothing like your brother.
It was kind of like a mix.
I actually had all A's and B's.
I wasn't a straight A studentbecause I was bored out of my
mind.
I used to skip school and go toearlier.
You and I were talking aboutyou going to a library.
(03:26):
I used to go to what are calledscore meetings in Columbus,
ohio I drive when I was 15, 16,skip school and learn how to
write a business plan from theseold guys that had started
businesses and knew the ropesand how to do it.
And so that's what I skippedschool to go ahead and study is
how to write business plans.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Wow, wow.
So for those listeners thatdon't know what score is, that's
the government SBA, is it not?
Chris Joyce (03:53):
Yeah, it's like it's a senior core of retired
executives.
So you run into executives inall different industries, all
different verticals, and you'reable to go ahead and get their
experience and help you out indoing whatever you're doing.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
And that's at no charge, is that?
Chris Joyce (04:06):
right, no charge.
It used to be no charge, yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah, so that's the first business venture.
I'm sure it did not go like theones that you have today, or
maybe it did.
Maybe it just took off andexploded.
Tell us about that.
Chris Joyce (04:19):
Well, it depends on your definition.
When I was six years old wasreally my first, first business
venture.
That was literally a classifiedad.
In the back of the Spider-Mancomic book there was something
called Burpee Seeds.
I think they're still around.
They were like sunflower seeds,watermelon seeds, flowers, and
I sent away for this businessopportunity ad and so you sent
(04:40):
your $5 in and you got 50packets of Burpee seeds and I
got my packets in and I soldthem door to door for a dollar a
piece, and so $50 gross $5 interms of spent.
I netted $45 knocking on doorson an Air Force base and just
trying to go ahead and sellthose seeds.
And so you learn a lot abouthumanity when you start knocking
(05:01):
on doors.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So today you are the founder ofGusher.
Tell us a little bit about that, because that sounds real fun.
Chris Joyce (05:13):
Gusher is a great company.
Gusher is a platform to launchcompanies without the need for
capital, without the need forfinancing or investing or
anything else.
People join companies inexchange for performance-based
equity, meaning they get a pieceof the pie if everything works
out, but nobody gets anything inthe company unless the company
(05:33):
succeeds, is able to go aheadand launch successfully,
including us.
So what I usually say tofounders is imagine that you had
a million or two million in thebank account, right this second
.
How would you go ahead andbuild your company, in whatever
way?
How would you put together yourdream team?
And then Gusher that.
Because we do it all day, everyday, every industry, everything
(05:56):
from B2B, b2c, b2b2c, even B2Gconsumer goods, manufacturing,
saas, fintech, ar, vr, ai,gaming, metal, good Devices,
proptech anything you canimagine.
We actually able to start andwe have founders across the
globe.
It doesn't matter what age youare, what ethnicity you are, how
much income you have, how mucheducation you have.
We have got greater than an 80%success rate, which is really
(06:19):
unbeatable with our companies.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Wow.
So you and I were talkingearlier and it intrigued me
because you asked me why, whatgot me into business coaching,
and I said because I come from asense of empathy, owning my own
business back in the 90s,referencing the library, and I
didn't have that experience ofhaving a business coach or just
being able to watch YouTube orhave people like Gusher to help
(06:42):
guide my hand.
And you mentioned somethingabout how you just come and say
it is as it is what businessowners really need to hear.
So we're going to have fun here.
So what are some of the thingspivots things that you see that
could help small business ownerslike you got to get a handle on
this or this is what I seethat's common and you need to
change that Kind of start withthat.
Chris Joyce (07:04):
Sure, I went off on a little bit of a tirade just a
day or two ago about somethingthat I call setting the standard
.
Okay, by setting the standard,what I mean by that is that, on
a personal level, a founder,when they're creating a company,
has to set their own personalstandard, their own set of
expectations for what theyexpect from themselves, at an
extremely high level and lead byexample.
(07:28):
So when they're putting a teamtogether, whether it's on Gusher
or off Gusher, whether it's forequity or whether it's for
dollars, the whole point is youneed to set that standard damn
high, especially in today'scompetitive marketplace.
Just coming up with a basic MVP, it doesn't cut it a minimum
viable product.
What they should be ideatingand really creating is a market
(07:49):
viable product from the verybeginning, and there's different
ways of doing it and differentways of going about it.
But that setting the standardalmost in a way their personal
philosophy should takeprecedence over everything.
Before they start developing,before they start putting their
ideas into paper and creatingthat whole damn thing and
(08:10):
actually making the company cometo life, it comes down to their
standard and their philosophy.
That sets the bedrock uponwhich they build that company,
how they're going to treat theirpeople, how they're going to
treat their customers, what theystand for, what they believe in
, what they're trying toaccomplish.
Those things are damn importantwhen it comes to creating a
competitive product, acompetitive company.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I almost want to say can you say that letter for the
people in the back?
Seriously, I preach and coachfrom the very beginning of the
foundations which I call guidingprinciples, which is all that
stuff, your mission, your vision, your all that stuff.
So tell me how and this may notbe applicable for the
businesses you work with A lotof businesses.
(08:53):
Let's say they were a plumberor they worked for a
manufacturer and they just goout and they just do kind of a
commodity type business wherethey're mowing lawns or plumbing
.
How would they do that?
How would they differentiatethemselves?
Chris Joyce (09:06):
Okay.
So if you go ahead and askalmost any business owner and
they've done this, I can'tremember the exact study in the
numbers, but it was around 75 or80% of these general business
owners were asked what uniquedifferences are between them and
their competitors and 75 or 80%of them said nothing.
There was absolutely nothing,and I literally said to myself
(09:27):
my God, they don't even realizewhat their superpower is, and
what their superpower is to meis that I don't care who's
starting a business, whetherit's in an extremely competitive
industry or a brand newindustry, the fact that you
personally, you and your DNAthat you're bringing to the
table, makes that company afundamentally different entity.
So you may be starting a newgasoline company, on the same
(09:50):
corner that there's three others, but that right there, that DNA
, the way that you believe, theway that your structure was in
the beginning, your philosophies, those things can have an
impact upon your day to daythings that you do, and have an
impact upon your sales, the waythe company grows, the way it's
created from the beginning.
So, first and foremost, it'syour DNA, and that's something
(10:10):
that people don't realize thatthey have.
That's a very strong difference.
Nobody else has your exact samedamn DNA.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Yeah, yeah, I hear that about writing a book too,
where everybody says nobodywants to hear my story and it's
like your story is unique, justlike the other books.
It may be the same topic, butnobody's heard your story.
Same thing with your business,what so, on the businesses is
are there any vital things that,because you work with so many
(10:37):
right, you have 300 plus in yourportfolio?
What are some things thatyou're like you must do this?
We kind of covered the visiondifferentiator, but what are
kind of those steps?
Because there's so manybusiness books out there,
there's so many YouTube videosout there, it can be confusing.
Chris Joyce (10:51):
Well, I'm going to simplify it Okay, so I'll go
into our thesis which could becomplex and whatever, but it
comes down to one thing, butI'll tell you it as a story.
Okay, so we had a founder comeinto our platform and this
founder went ahead and had thisdog, this sick dog.
Okay, and he went ahead andsaid his name is Colin Buckley
(11:12):
by the way, great founder, Iwent to his wedding a couple of
months ago, phenomenal guy.
So he goes ahead and had thissick dog and he he took it to
the veterinarian and the vetsaid put your dog on this dog
food dog, we'd need it.
Then put your dog on his otherdog food dog, we'd need that.
And so on and so forth.
And so this dog was literallydying.
It wasn't eating at all.
So Colin, in desperation, wentahead and hacked this dog food
(11:35):
together over two, three, fourmonths in his kitchen and
literally the dog magically cameto life over four, five, six
months.
Now I don't know what you knowabout dog food companies, but
dog food companies are brutal.
They've been around for morethan a hundred years.
They don't give up territory,they don't give up shelf space,
(11:55):
they don't.
They don't make it capital easyto come into that market.
It's an extremely capitalintensive market.
And he said Chris, I want tostart a dog food company.
So I said, sure, let's start adog food company.
So Colin goes ahead and bringsin this team of pros this is
what people have to understand,right Brings this in this team
of pros that had managed 50million, 100 million, 200
(12:16):
million dollar budgets, p and L,responsibility type of people.
You know people that haveworked for like Nabisco or in
Mondele, whatever the hell it'scalled now McLean Tabasco.
You know big companies, youknow good CPG companies and the
company failed and imploded sixweeks later failed miserably,
right.
So he finally listened to me andhis second team took off like a
(12:37):
rocket.
He put the second team together.
It's worth more than 10 million.
A year and a half later.
They've got nationaldistribution.
I think they got CVS, walgreensand everything else.
I'm going to ask you a simplequestion here.
It's not a trick question.
Okay, his second team all hadsomething in common that the
first team did not.
I want you to think like aneight year old, not like a
(12:59):
business coach, not like personwho's dealt with all these
founders.
This is a dog food company.
If I asked an eight year old,what do you think the second
team all had in common that thefirst team did not.
It's a dog food company, youwould tell me what?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I would guess they all have dogs.
They all have dogs.
Chris Joyce (13:16):
You won't believe how many people get that wrong?
They didn't just have dogs,they didn't have children.
They ate dog, breed dog, livedog, poop dog.
They were dog zealots.
Okay, so what we teach is thatwhen you're creating a company,
it needs to be made up of themthe I am the vested interest
market.
It has to be made up of thepeople that have the best
(13:37):
interest market.
It has to be made up of thepeople that have the most to
gain from the success or failureof that company, and that Vim,
right there, ends up taking offlike a rocket.
That's how you build companiesthat create market viable
products, not minimum viableproducts.
You leapfrog generationaldevelopment with them, so they
(13:59):
don't have to believe at thelevel that you do.
You, as founder, have to be theultimate zealot, but you need
some people there to really getat their core.
Whatever you're doing and hadthat same problem or the same
issue in some way, they have torelate to it hardcore.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I might get on a tangent now.
You got me worked up Well,because my educational
background is marketing.
So I get frustrated withbusiness owners that don't have
all this information you'retalking about.
They haven't defined itthemselves yet.
They'll go pay a marketingagency or firm thousands of
dollars to try to figure it outwith them and then they wonder
(14:36):
why their campaign failed.
And that's exactly how whatyou're talking about Well, this
is.
Chris Joyce (14:41):
You always hear this oh, product market fit and
a company will get 5 million, 10million of venture capital
funding and then they're burningthrough this money trying to
figure out product market fit.
Where I come from, when you'rein Columbus learning from the
score people, you didn't doproduct market fit.
You created a company from thebeginning that was self
sustaining and the way you didit was this very difficult thing
(15:04):
called talking to people.
I mean it's crazy, it's mindboggling, but you actually talk
to people.
You go meet them.
You meet them in the park, youmeet them in the street, you
meet them wherever you run intothem and you talk to them.
Maybe it's online, maybe it'sinfluencers, maybe it's groups.
You can reach anybody right now.
That's a potential market, butyou need to interact and talk
(15:27):
and hear and see them to be ableto hone in on what the message
is and what the problem reallyis, what the solution.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, you don't hear that Hardly at all what you're
talking about.
So what is probably one of thetop things that you get the most
frustrated at with businessowners?
Chris Joyce (15:46):
Like it could be something that you say
repeatedly that they just don'tadhere to, or Well, I don't know
if it's necessarily that, Ithink that it's it's more of
there's a lack of recognition byfounders or potential founders
or people who start a business,or in the midst of it, as to how
long it really takes.
(16:07):
Okay, so one of the frustrationsthat I have not even a
frustration, but it's kind oflike an emotional connection to
the founders feeling in kind ofa negative way is they go
through these cycles of hey,it's hard, it's rough, it's down
, and there's nobody that'sreally there with them.
That's a hard thing for them tounderstand.
Is that that delayedgratification, the ability to
(16:28):
delay gratification, isproportional to the amount of
money and success that youtypically have and being able to
do that in a very long way, along term horizon?
That's not something that manypeople can do.
They typically want it now, now, now, and business doesn't work
that way.
That doesn't mean that certainthings can, you can do pops and
you can figure certain thingsout.
(16:49):
With e-commerce, they come andgo, but building a substantial
business that has legacy legs,that is there for a long period
of time, you can't do that.
It's something that takes agood amount of time.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Oh, absolutely there's.
You can't see it in the videohere, but to the right of me is
a box of tissues.
I'm a business coach and peopleoften ask me why do you have
tissues in here?
Like, yeah, I'm like you'llfind out Because you'll be using
those here pretty soon.
Michael Morrison (17:46):
So let's talk about you yourself, and some
pivots that you went through.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
How did what business did you start first and how did
you get to be so successful?
Chris Joyce (17:56):
Sure, I mean, one of my businesses was the audio
tech industry.
It's something you don't hearabout anymore because it really
doesn't exist, but it wassomething with voice boards and
we had entertainment companiesthat came off of it.
We had data companies that cameoff of it.
We had service bureaus thatexpanded.
I had a business brokerage inNew York that was the largest of
its kind anywhere.
I've had the largest lowcarbohydrate manufacturer in the
(18:18):
world at one point where wewere everywhere I mean every
possible store you can imagineand all different companies in
between.
So what I like to do is neverthe same company twice.
I just get bored with it.
That's kind of like with Gusherright now.
I don't really have to do thesame company twice.
It's just really kind of like aconveyor belt of companies,
which is really what I like todo.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, so something you mentioned business brokerage
Was that buying, selling orhelping people exit?
Chris Joyce (18:46):
Yeah, it was basically helping people
primarily to exit and also toget in.
So I started it with one of thefounder I won't mention his
name that had one of the largestbusiness brokerages in retired.
They had a couple of hundredunits at the time.
But I did it primarily.
It was in my early twenties toreally learn more about business
, and so we ended up taking overNew York by storm.
But my primary motive wasreally learning about businesses
(19:09):
at the time and what Iconcluded with that business was
well, they're almost all thesame other than people,
philosophy and property.
That's.
The only difference is the mixof people, the mix of property
and the mix of philosophy there.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I know for a lot of business owners that are
starting up and not too seasonedin the business world.
When I mentioned you knowwhat's your exit plan, they're
like I can't even get pastpayroll this Friday.
But yeah, I know for a factworking with businesses that are
scaling.
If you start doing that stuffyou should be doing now.
It's so much easier to exitthen whenever that is, and I
(19:46):
know that's a long time away.
So what are some things that abusiness owner should be working
on on Currently, even thoughthey're not planning on exiting
in the next five years, tenyears?
Chris Joyce (19:56):
Well, there's two questions there, one regarding
scale, and then we're guardingexits, so I'm gonna answer both.
Okay, thank, regarding scalingand everything else, what, what
a person has to do.
I don't know if it's okay tocurse or not on your show, so
I'm not sure.
Okay, so I have something Icall do the shit All right.
Unfortunately, your founder hasto do that shit.
Work In some way, shape orfashion in the beginning, the
stuff that's not scalable,because that leads to the
(20:19):
scalable stuff, meaning thatyou've got to make linear phone
calls.
Hey, it's not a scalable way todo business, you've got to do
it.
There may be linear emails,linear face-to-face meetings,
where it's not something thatcan be scaled.
That stuff always leads to thescalable stuff All right.
As for exits, it comes down toprocesses.
Anything that really a founderdoes in a repetitive fashion,
(20:42):
meaning that they findthemselves doing the same thing
over and over, they should beturning into a process, a
standard operating procedure, aprocess that becomes part of the
company's DNA, so that they canhave somebody else do that
process, because a founder'smain, main Responsibility really
is that philosophy, thatmission of the company and just
(21:04):
getting resources and growing it.
It's not all those damn details.
It's creating processes.
The more processes that areable to be standardized, the
higher the valuation, becausethen it really becomes an asset
play, not just somebody's work.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah no, that that's good points.
So when they're scaling, canyou define what that really
means?
Because we hear a lot of smallbusiness owners say I want to
scale my business and I look atthem, I'm like you know, can you
define?
Chris Joyce (21:33):
it In an easy way?
No, in a dollar way?
Yes, okay.
So I think that anything thatany that basically up to zero to
five million, or if they haveyou know five or less locations,
that's really a labor of love.
It's a standard linear business.
It's.
It's a it's it's, you know, astandard Small business.
It's nothing that is scaled.
(21:54):
When they start turning it overto where they're able to grow
above 10, $20-50 million, thenit becomes more or less a poker
chip.
It becomes something that isn'tdependent upon that person
coming in every day.
It's has it.
Where you have enough peopleyou said you were at the hundred
employee mark for one of yourbusinesses, you're there, all
right.
You know that anytime you getabove 20, 30, 40 employees,
(22:16):
you're suddenly developingfundamentally a different
company.
Well, to me, scaling is eithermonetary or people, or both, but
there's different marks there.
For me, you know, it's anywherebetween 10 and 50 million is
when a company really startsscaling.
For a SaaS company it can besomething completely different,
but for most companies, is 10 to50 million Become something
that's more of an asset therethat they've developed something
(22:39):
that could be sold Sub 10 or 5million, not so much.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
How does a business and I'm just with a fire hose
here with all kinds of questionshow does a business owner we
hear the terminology or analogyof getting stuck on the hamster
wheel working in the business.
I Work with business ownersthat come to us and they say I
don't have time to do all thatvision, that mission.
I I'm putting out fires all day, baby sitting employees for 10
(23:07):
14 hours a day.
Then I have to go home doinvoicing and then watch the kid
.
How does one, like take thatstep away from getting out of
that rut?
Chris Joyce (23:16):
I'll give you another story.
All right, so I wasmanufactured.
I was, I was literally had thislow-carb Manufacturing.
It was in the beginning stages,we were just doing a couple
hundred thousand a year.
And remember, one Friday nightI went in to move a packaging
machine.
Now, this packaging machine wasa cartner.
It was a very, very longcartner, all right, something
like 30 to 40 feet, but it wason wheels so one person can do
(23:39):
it.
So I went up to the electricalpanel and I went ahead and
started disconnecting.
It was three phase 460.
I'll remember it to this day.
So I go ahead and I take thosethree legs out and everything
else and I pulled down on thiselectrical cable, thinking that
I knew what the hell I was doing.
And sure enough, right then Irealized oh my god, I'm going to
die because what happened is Iforgot about the ground, and the
(24:03):
ground went right into theborder or broke off or Something
like that.
It sent current through myshoulder, out my shin, and when
I woke up I was on the otherside of the factory, alright,
and then I ended up in the ERand everything else.
So it took.
Why am I telling you this story?
I have a story called shockblock that this has to do with,
because it was then I realized Ididn't belong in a factory Okay
(24:23):
, just like a founder doesn'tbelong really doing all this
detail stuff.
My first thing that I did wasget somebody who that really was
their life.
They understood plants, theylived it, they ate it, they
breathed it.
They did all that differentstuff and then, sure enough, our
company grew like wildfire,wildfire and blew up everywhere
over the next 12, 18 months.
(24:44):
After doing that because myonly goal was I didn't care if I
stopped business, I needed tofind that person.
That was my primary goal to getother people in there to help
grow the damn company.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
That's.
That's.
That's good information.
I'm just gonna keep asking youquestions because these are all
questions that come frombusiness owners that are
listening.
So if someone's wanting tostart a business because you
work with so many what I know,they're not easy, no, no, owning
a business is not easy at all,but what are?
How would one decide whatbusiness is right?
(25:15):
For me it's easy.
Chris Joyce (25:17):
All right, this part.
This part's actually easy.
Okay, it's two things.
One I had this gentleman comeinto our platform and he was a
middle market exeft that gotlaid off during COVID, okay, and
he started this softwarecompany.
But every time we talked hetold me about this other idea,
that he was on it, and I noticedthat he kept Smiling every time
he talked about that othercompany.
(25:37):
I said, mike, you shouldn't bedoing this company, the first
company, you should be doing thesecond idea.
And he goes really.
I go, yeah, really goes, butI'm just not really qualified.
I go, mike, it doesn't matterif you're qualified.
Make a long story short.
He did that second company.
A year later they won productof the year in the trucking
industry.
Off to the races, everythingelse cool product, cool company.
What I do when I tell foundersis this, or potential founders
(26:00):
if you look in the mirror andyou're thinking about that idea
and you smile, that's definitelythe thing to do.
If you're going to sleep andyou're thinking about it.
If you wake up in the morningand you're thinking about it.
If you're on the crapper andyou're thinking about it.
If you're eating your breakfast, you're talking to your wife or
husband or whatever it may be,and you're thinking about it.
That's an idea.
If it's something that youshould be following, you
shouldn't be doing this stuffwhere it's okay, I can make this
(26:22):
and I can generate this and, asa tam, the market is this, so
it's big enough to penetrate.
It's got to be something thatyou feel, something that
actually, at your core, issomething that you want to do,
because You're gonna need thatwhen the times get tough, and
the times are gonna get toughand brutal, and that's the only
thing that you're gonna have tofall back on is that I don't
want to say passion, becausethat's not it, but that
(26:43):
emotional tie to whatever it isthat you're doing.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Yeah, I.
I use the purpose statement forthat reason, because I'm like
you're gonna need this one daywhen you wake up and Feel like
the world is against you,reminding you why you're doing
what you're doing.
Chris Joyce (26:59):
I have a thing that I show founders.
I don't know if I have it on meoh, it's not in my wallet cuz I
gave it away but I have thiscoin that I keep and it always
says never give up, on one side,and on the other side it says
trust the process.
No, our founders get that coin.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
So, going back to your history, what is a pivot?
That you learned?
That you wish you would havetwo questions one you wish you
wouldn't have done, and thenwhat's one that you're like I
wish I would have done thatsooner.
Chris Joyce (27:26):
I don't want to sound like I'm a know-it-all or
anything else, because I'm farfrom it and I don't know
everything about it, okay, but Ifundamentally don't believe in
pivots, okay.
So the reason is that if youlook at it, historically,
successful pivots are as rare asunicorns.
You see iterations, you seeideas that started out insanely
(27:46):
bad, that then led to good ideas, but very rarely do you see a
company that let's say yourexample they were a plumber and
now they do a lawnmower service,and that's the same company.
Almost always they're not.
So I personally don't do pivots.
It's something I'll doiterations, and I'll iterate the
hell out of it what I callpicking the lock until I get it,
(28:07):
so that it may not resemblewhat it started out as.
But literally it was the sameroad in the same path.
It just was an additional stepsto get there.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Yeah, no, that's a good description, and so for
those listeners that the show iscalled small business pivots
though, that's exactly what I'mtalking about is, you're not
going into a whole differentbusiness, you're just Pivot your
what did you say that again.
Chris Joyce (28:31):
I said so there iterations iterations yes yes,
an example.
So let's use the low-carbcompany as an example.
All right, what we did is wehad this frozen product, low
carbohydrate blueberry muffin.
I'll save you the detailsbecause that's an awesome story
for another time.
But in within one year we hadsix different packaging
iterations because we got outthere.
It got us in business, but itwasn't great.
(28:53):
That product wasn't awesome,but it put us in business.
And then we created a betterone in a better version and we
went to a better packagingsystem.
And then, sure enough, then wehad shelf stable rolls and
breads and everything and thatexploded the business.
It's never the road that youstart out on, but you need to
start out on that roadregardless, and the tools you
have right now are all you need.
(29:13):
You don't need anything elsebut the tools in your own damn
intelligence.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
What would you say speaking of tools, because there
is so much out there?
Yeah, we can get so distracted,including myself.
I'm always trying to try tostay up with trends and things
and it's impossible I can'timagine for someone that's never
owned a business before andthey're trying to figure this
out.
Are there any tools that yourecommend that you would say,
hey, if you just go here orwatch this and then go, do it.
Chris Joyce (29:43):
Yep, I used my three by five cards or four by
eights, I can't remember whatthe hell they are.
All right, I know very low-techtool.
The reason why I use that isbecause I create a checklist
each morning, a checklist basedupon priorities.
What the heck the prioritiesare that bring the most value
that I can do that day, andthat's the way I operate.
So I literally operate bypriority and value.
(30:04):
Whatever brings that most valuein, I will do.
If it doesn't, I don't do it atall.
I don't care what the heck itis.
I'm here about big motions, andmaking the big impacts is what
I do, and so that's how I goabout my day.
If you keep doing that, youwill progress quickly and very
far.
Take the pick, the priorities.
The rest are what I callsquirrels.
(30:25):
Like you're walking down theroad with a dog a dog, she's a
squirrel, and it wants to takeoff at it.
Everything to me is a squirrel,all right, other than what's on
that list.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Yeah, yeah, I'm writing on one side of this
paper very low-tech.
Pin and paper.
Pin and paper I don't have.
I don't have the iPad, I don'thave all those devices to plug
this and do that.
No, I write it down and checkit off and reorganize it,
scratch it, move it all thatstuff you know yep.
Plus I retain it.
Better, a Lot better than justthrowing it on a device and it
(30:58):
sits there till I remember it ora notification goes off.
Chris Joyce (31:01):
There's something about it, but maybe it also was
the way we were brought up.
I have no clue, but it has animpact upon me in my brain that
when I put something on paper,it suddenly becomes real.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Yeah, any good books out there that you've read that
you would recommend, because youwork with so many different
business owners.
Chris Joyce (31:17):
Okay, I'm just gonna bore you with Austrian
economics books and stuff likethat is the most boring ass
stuff.
I would not recommend toanybody read the stuff that I do
.
You'll gain nothing from it.
Business wise, I think, ifanything, it'd be more of
reading inspirational stuff ordoing whatever the heck it takes
you to get out of bed on timeor early and keep doing the same
boring stuff for a period oftime until you Breakthrough,
(31:38):
because that's really all it ishaving the discipline to do that
.
I have.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Everything seems to kind of be bundled in these
three areas of business that Isay you have to have to be
successful.
One is guiding principles andI'm gonna see if you have
anything to add to that guidingprinciples.
That includes your mission,your vision, all that stuff.
Second one is systemization.
So you gotta have that.
And then third is your team.
And people say, yeah, but yougot to have cash.
(32:03):
I'm like, well, if you have theright banker and you have the
right CFO and you have the rightsalespeople, cash will come.
But you got to have the rightpeople, because I've seen
horrible people in thosepositions and you don't have any
cash.
So what right you add anythingto those three?
Chris Joyce (32:17):
elements.
Yeah, I'd say it comes down toalso this and we find our most
successful founders and this isgonna sound kind of wild Our
most successful founders are theones who are honest to a fault.
They don't fake it till theymake it.
They don't bullshit, they don'tgo ahead and and make something
seem that it isn't, and thereason I say that they're
(32:37):
successful is because those arethe Ones that if they need help,
they ask for help and they gethelp.
And many times founders in thebeginning stage are so busy
Trying to pretend to besomething that they are not, or
at a stage that they're not,that they attract the wrong
business.
They attract the wrong peopleand the wrong scenario for what
(32:57):
they really need, and so honestyis the best policy, from what I
see, when you're starting abusiness from scratch with
nothing.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Oh, absolutely.
So, speaking of nothing, when Istarted my first business, I
learned what I should have hiredfirst.
The first role what would yousay that is for a business that
doesn't have cash and they arebootstrapped and some things
they just have to do themselvestill they can afford it?
What role would you say iscritical for the first?
Chris Joyce (33:24):
Okay, well, I'm gonna say this in a two-part way
.
Okay, so a founder's primaryrole is sales.
All right, so I'm not gonna saysales.
Even though I want to say sales, it's not gonna be sales.
So I would say, literally, afounder should be selling about
90% of their time or interactingwith potential customers.
That's what they should bedoing, first and foremost.
Secondly, they should be hiringa COO, a chief operating
(33:46):
officer.
They should be putting somebodyin place that can standardize
the processes, that can takeeverything that they're doing
all day to day with the businessand creating systems,
duplicable systems and processes, because, again, that's a
bedrock that enables you tobuild.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Absolutely so.
I I always say 80%, so we're inline there on the sales.
I'm like because businessowners will ask me what should I
be working on?
And I'll ask them how longthey've been in business.
You know just couple of generalquestions.
I'm like sales.
80% of all your time should besales, sales, sales, sales.
You don't have to ever wonderabout it again Keep selling.
Chris Joyce (34:24):
Yeah, but even more importantly, when you're
selling versus when a salesmanis selling.
Yeah, what happens is you learnreal quickly what message is
working, how to iterate theproduct, what feedback you're
getting, what pricing makes themost sense, where the people are
pushing back the objections andFiguring out the rebuttals, not
just for the other sales peopleto be go, but really for the
(34:46):
better creation of the nextgeneration of product, the next
iteration of product.
That's why a founder can't stopselling.
They have to be sellingabsolutely.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
It kind of goes back to my topic of marketing
agencies and firms.
House some business owners ifthey don't even know where they
want to go, and then they hiresomebody to try to figure it out
and it doesn't work.
Same with salespeople.
I hear business owners say allthe time, where do you find good
salespeople?
And I'm like well, you have tocreate them.
I mean like you have to givethem the information, the tools,
(35:16):
the resources, the informationthey can't figure it out for you
.
Chris Joyce (35:20):
What I say to founders is a couple of things.
I say, first and foremost,you're not a manufacturing firm,
you're not a consumer goodscompany, you're not a medical
device, prop tech, ai, whateverthe hell it is.
First and foremost, you're asales and marketing company.
Period, that's what you are,sales and marketing.
And when you put that at theforefront of your company, the
rest starts falling into placeautomatically.
(35:42):
And so that to me is quiteliterally everything.
But also with a founder, that ifthey bring on other people,
other salespeople, other biz devpeople, I tell them that they
are not there to figure out thesales process.
They are not there to figureout how to really originate
those sales.
They are there just to executewhatever that plan is, and I
(36:04):
hate to say whatever that scriptis, but whatever that script is
that you figured out, they canthen expand on a script, they
can then make it better, butthey can't typically originate.
What to say to penetrate amarket?
That is actually a superpowerof a founder, and you don't have
to be a great salesperson.
You just have to get out thereand physically meet the people
(36:25):
or get on the videos or whateverthe heck it is, and talk with
people, talk with the customers.
You'll figure it out if you doit enough.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Amen, amen, unbelievable.
We are out of time.
This has been very fun.
How would someone get ahold ofyou?
Do you have a podcast blog,anything like that?
Chris Joyce (36:43):
I'm just gusherco.
You just go to gushrco, you canfind me.
My team would be happy to helpyou out.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Fantastic.
What is the process of gusher?
How does that work?
Chris Joyce (36:55):
That's free.
You literally sign on.
You start creating a startupdraft, you submit it for review.
We go over it with you.
We take an hour or two with youto get it up and running.
It doesn't cost you anything.
You need to have a corporation.
That's the one thing you needto have and then we help you get
published and we start helpingyou recruit and moving you along
the pipeline to get yourcompany successful.
We are really main strength istaking it from zero to 10
(37:18):
million.
That's where really we arestrongest.
We do do above that, but weprefer taking it from zero to 10
million are most of thecompanies we deal with.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
So you've shared golden nuggets in the business
world.
Do you have any in the lifeworld?
Chris Joyce (37:31):
Yeah, never give up , and I mean that with life also
.
Never give up, never give up.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Never give up.
Fantastic Well, you've beenawesome.
I appreciate it.
We'll see you around.
Thanks for having me.
Michael Morrison (37:43):
Welcome to the Recap and Coaches Corner, where
we break down the key insightsand give you actionable coaching
tips to help your businessthrive independently.
Today, chris reiterated theimportance of setting your own
standards in your business, likethe expectations, your core
values, what you stand for andyour differentiator.
Simply put, to be successful,no two companies should be the
(38:06):
same.
You are unique, you are unique,your business should be unique
and your business should haveits own DNA.
If you would like helpestablishing the DNA in your
business, go tobusinessownershipsimplifiedcom
(38:27):
and click the let's Chat buttonin the top right hand corner.
Now let's dive into the CoachesCorner, where I share one
actionable item for businessowners to build their business
so they can own a business thatcan run without them.
Chris mentioned an essentialtrait every successful business
owner must have honesty.
Be honest with yourself, hesaid.
(38:47):
There is no such thing as fakeit until you make it.
Ask for help, quit going italone.
Chris said In fact, more thanhalf of our guests on small
business pivots have mentionedthat asking for help was the one
thing that significantly, thatasking for help was the one
(39:09):
thing that significantly changedthe trajectory of their
business success.
So your one thing inquire aboutoutside guidance today a coach,
a mentor and if you'd like tolearn more about how coaching
works and helps, go to mywebpage, michaeldmorsencom, and
(39:30):
you will find every questionthat you could ever think of
answered there.
Thank you for listening toSmall Business Pivots and don't
forget to subscribe and sharethis podcast.
We'll see you next time.
I don't care who's starting a business, whether
it's in an extremely competitiveindustry or a brand new
industry, the fact that youpersonally, you and your DNA
that you're bringing to thetable, makes that company a
fundamentally different entity.
Michael Morrison (00:14):
Hello and welcome to Small Business Pivots
.
I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and
founder of Boss.
Boss helps small businessowners start, build or scale a
business that can run withoutthem there for more freedom and
more profits.
To learn how Boss can help you,go to
businessownershipsimplifiedcom.
If you enjoy this podcast andwant to stay up to date with all
(00:37):
our latest podcast episodes,make sure to hit that subscribe
button and make sure to listento the end of this episode for
my recap and coach's corner,where I share applicable action
steps for small business ownersto move the needle in their
business.
Our guest today is Chris Joyce,founder of GUSHR.
Chris is a serial entrepreneurwith a remarkable track record
(01:00):
of founding 24 companiesspanning high-tech consumer
goods, health and manufacturing.
His products have graced over11,000 stores in 23 countries
and his tech innovations havereached users in 148 countries
globally.
Frustrated by witnessingbrilliant ideas and
entrepreneurs consistentlyoverlooked for funding due to
(01:21):
superficial reasons, chrisdecided to disrupt the
traditional startup landscape.
Enter GUSHR, his latest ventureoffering a simple, quick and
capital-free approach tobuilding startups.
Gushr believes that great ideascan come from anyone, anywhere,
and aims to let the market, notventure capitalists, determine
(01:43):
the fate of these innovations.
Find out how GUSHR isrevolutionizing the startup game
across various industries, fromtechnology and media to health,
design, finance and gaming.
In this episode, chris willshare the essentials he has
learned and used to build aportfolio of successful
businesses.
Let's get to Chris now.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So welcome to another Small Business Pivots.
Today we have a very specialguest, Chris.
Where are you from today?
Chris Joyce (02:10):
I'm located right outside of Philadelphia
Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Philadelphia.
So the purpose of our show isto help small business owners.
I know a lot of us can barelyhandle one.
If we can even do that andyou've handled 20 plus plus, you
have a 300 plus portfolio.
Let's talk about that realquick.
How did you get thatentrepreneurial mindset?
Did you have upbringing in thatworld?
Chris Joyce (02:35):
Well, I always say this I have this thing that I
call.
You know you're an entrepreneurif and then.
I give 50 reasons, and thenumber one reason that I start
off with is that if you grew upin an F'd up family, you are
qualified to be an entrepreneur.
So I didn't grow up in a greatfamily, I grew up in an F'd up
family, okay, and I went intoentrepreneurship from a young
age.
It was just something I reallystarted at an early, early age.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Wow, were you studious at all.
I know a lot of us hadchallenges growing up in books,
if you will.
Chris Joyce (03:04):
Well, I had my brother, who was a straight A
student and a physicist in frontof me by about four years.
So I always went to school andthey'd be like, oh, you're
nothing like your brother.
It was kind of like a mix.
I actually had all A's and B's.
I wasn't a straight A studentbecause I was bored out of my
mind.
I used to skip school and go toearlier.
You and I were talking aboutyou going to a library.
(03:26):
I used to go to what are calledscore meetings in Columbus,
ohio I drive when I was 15, 16,skip school and learn how to
write a business plan from theseold guys that had started
businesses and knew the ropesand how to do it.
And so that's what I skippedschool to go ahead and study is
how to write business plans.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Wow, wow.
So for those listeners thatdon't know what score is, that's
the government SBA, is it not?
Chris Joyce (03:53):
Yeah, it's like it's a senior core of retired
executives.
So you run into executives inall different industries, all
different verticals, and you'reable to go ahead and get their
experience and help you out indoing whatever you're doing.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
And that's at no charge, is that?
Chris Joyce (04:06):
right, no charge.
It used to be no charge, yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah, so that's the first business venture.
I'm sure it did not go like theones that you have today, or
maybe it did.
Maybe it just took off andexploded.
Tell us about that.
Chris Joyce (04:19):
Well, it depends on your definition.
When I was six years old wasreally my first, first business
venture.
That was literally a classifiedad.
In the back of the Spider-Mancomic book there was something
called Burpee Seeds.
I think they're still around.
They were like sunflower seeds,watermelon seeds, flowers, and
I sent away for this businessopportunity ad and so you sent
(04:40):
your $5 in and you got 50packets of Burpee seeds and I
got my packets in and I soldthem door to door for a dollar a
piece, and so $50 gross $5 interms of spent.
I netted $45 knocking on doorson an Air Force base and just
trying to go ahead and sellthose seeds.
And so you learn a lot abouthumanity when you start knocking
(05:01):
on doors.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So today you are the founder ofGusher.
Tell us a little bit about that, because that sounds real fun.
Chris Joyce (05:13):
Gusher is a great company.
Gusher is a platform to launchcompanies without the need for
capital, without the need forfinancing or investing or
anything else.
People join companies inexchange for performance-based
equity, meaning they get a pieceof the pie if everything works
out, but nobody gets anything inthe company unless the company
(05:33):
succeeds, is able to go aheadand launch successfully,
including us.
So what I usually say tofounders is imagine that you had
a million or two million in thebank account, right this second
.
How would you go ahead andbuild your company, in whatever
way?
How would you put together yourdream team?
And then Gusher that.
Because we do it all day, everyday, every industry, everything
(05:56):
from B2B, b2c, b2b2c, even B2Gconsumer goods, manufacturing,
saas, fintech, ar, vr, ai,gaming, metal, good Devices,
proptech anything you canimagine.
We actually able to start andwe have founders across the
globe.
It doesn't matter what age youare, what ethnicity you are, how
much income you have, how mucheducation you have.
We have got greater than an 80%success rate, which is really
(06:19):
unbeatable with our companies.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Wow.
So you and I were talkingearlier and it intrigued me
because you asked me why, whatgot me into business coaching,
and I said because I come from asense of empathy, owning my own
business back in the 90s,referencing the library, and I
didn't have that experience ofhaving a business coach or just
being able to watch YouTube orhave people like Gusher to help
(06:42):
guide my hand.
And you mentioned somethingabout how you just come and say
it is as it is what businessowners really need to hear.
So we're going to have fun here.
So what are some of the thingspivots things that you see that
could help small business ownerslike you got to get a handle on
this or this is what I seethat's common and you need to
change that Kind of start withthat.
Chris Joyce (07:04):
Sure, I went off on a little bit of a tirade just a
day or two ago about somethingthat I call setting the standard
.
Okay, by setting the standard,what I mean by that is that, on
a personal level, a founder,when they're creating a company,
has to set their own personalstandard, their own set of
expectations for what theyexpect from themselves, at an
extremely high level and lead byexample.
(07:28):
So when they're putting a teamtogether, whether it's on Gusher
or off Gusher, whether it's forequity or whether it's for
dollars, the whole point is youneed to set that standard damn
high, especially in today'scompetitive marketplace.
Just coming up with a basic MVP, it doesn't cut it a minimum
viable product.
What they should be ideatingand really creating is a market
(07:49):
viable product from the verybeginning, and there's different
ways of doing it and differentways of going about it.
But that setting the standardalmost in a way their personal
philosophy should takeprecedence over everything.
Before they start developing,before they start putting their
ideas into paper and creatingthat whole damn thing and
(08:10):
actually making the company cometo life, it comes down to their
standard and their philosophy.
That sets the bedrock uponwhich they build that company,
how they're going to treat theirpeople, how they're going to
treat their customers, what theystand for, what they believe in
, what they're trying toaccomplish.
Those things are damn importantwhen it comes to creating a
competitive product, acompetitive company.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I almost want to say can you say that letter for the
people in the back?
Seriously, I preach and coachfrom the very beginning of the
foundations which I call guidingprinciples, which is all that
stuff, your mission, your vision, your all that stuff.
So tell me how and this may notbe applicable for the
businesses you work with A lotof businesses.
(08:53):
Let's say they were a plumberor they worked for a
manufacturer and they just goout and they just do kind of a
commodity type business wherethey're mowing lawns or plumbing
.
How would they do that?
How would they differentiatethemselves?
Chris Joyce (09:06):
Okay.
So if you go ahead and askalmost any business owner and
they've done this, I can'tremember the exact study in the
numbers, but it was around 75 or80% of these general business
owners were asked what uniquedifferences are between them and
their competitors and 75 or 80%of them said nothing.
There was absolutely nothing,and I literally said to myself
(09:27):
my God, they don't even realizewhat their superpower is, and
what their superpower is to meis that I don't care who's
starting a business, whetherit's in an extremely competitive
industry or a brand newindustry, the fact that you
personally, you and your DNAthat you're bringing to the
table, makes that company afundamentally different entity.
So you may be starting a newgasoline company, on the same
(09:50):
corner that there's three others, but that right there, that DNA
, the way that you believe, theway that your structure was in
the beginning, your philosophies, those things can have an
impact upon your day to daythings that you do, and have an
impact upon your sales, the waythe company grows, the way it's
created from the beginning.
So, first and foremost, it'syour DNA, and that's something
(10:10):
that people don't realize thatthey have.
That's a very strong difference.
Nobody else has your exact samedamn DNA.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Yeah, yeah, I hear that about writing a book too,
where everybody says nobodywants to hear my story and it's
like your story is unique, justlike the other books.
It may be the same topic, butnobody's heard your story.
Same thing with your business,what so, on the businesses is
are there any vital things that,because you work with so many
(10:37):
right, you have 300 plus in yourportfolio?
What are some things thatyou're like you must do this?
We kind of covered the visiondifferentiator, but what are
kind of those steps?
Because there's so manybusiness books out there,
there's so many YouTube videosout there, it can be confusing.
Chris Joyce (10:51):
Well, I'm going to simplify it Okay, so I'll go
into our thesis which could becomplex and whatever, but it
comes down to one thing, butI'll tell you it as a story.
Okay, so we had a founder comeinto our platform and this
founder went ahead and had thisdog, this sick dog.
Okay, and he went ahead andsaid his name is Colin Buckley
(11:12):
by the way, great founder, Iwent to his wedding a couple of
months ago, phenomenal guy.
So he goes ahead and had thissick dog and he he took it to
the veterinarian and the vetsaid put your dog on this dog
food dog, we'd need it.
Then put your dog on his otherdog food dog, we'd need that.
And so on and so forth.
And so this dog was literallydying.
It wasn't eating at all.
So Colin, in desperation, wentahead and hacked this dog food
(11:35):
together over two, three, fourmonths in his kitchen and
literally the dog magically cameto life over four, five, six
months.
Now I don't know what you knowabout dog food companies, but
dog food companies are brutal.
They've been around for morethan a hundred years.
They don't give up territory,they don't give up shelf space,
(11:55):
they don't.
They don't make it capital easyto come into that market.
It's an extremely capitalintensive market.
And he said Chris, I want tostart a dog food company.
So I said, sure, let's start adog food company.
So Colin goes ahead and bringsin this team of pros this is
what people have to understand,right Brings this in this team
of pros that had managed 50million, 100 million, 200
(12:16):
million dollar budgets, p and L,responsibility type of people.
You know people that haveworked for like Nabisco or in
Mondele, whatever the hell it'scalled now McLean Tabasco.
You know big companies, youknow good CPG companies and the
company failed and imploded sixweeks later failed miserably,
right.
So he finally listened to me andhis second team took off like a
(12:37):
rocket.
He put the second team together.
It's worth more than 10 million.
A year and a half later.
They've got nationaldistribution.
I think they got CVS, walgreensand everything else.
I'm going to ask you a simplequestion here.
It's not a trick question.
Okay, his second team all hadsomething in common that the
first team did not.
I want you to think like aneight year old, not like a
(12:59):
business coach, not like personwho's dealt with all these
founders.
This is a dog food company.
If I asked an eight year old,what do you think the second
team all had in common that thefirst team did not.
It's a dog food company, youwould tell me what?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I would guess they all have dogs.
They all have dogs.
Chris Joyce (13:16):
You won't believe how many people get that wrong?
They didn't just have dogs,they didn't have children.
They ate dog, breed dog, livedog, poop dog.
They were dog zealots.
Okay, so what we teach is thatwhen you're creating a company,
it needs to be made up of themthe I am the vested interest
market.
It has to be made up of thepeople that have the best
(13:37):
interest market.
It has to be made up of thepeople that have the most to
gain from the success or failureof that company, and that Vim,
right there, ends up taking offlike a rocket.
That's how you build companiesthat create market viable
products, not minimum viableproducts.
You leapfrog generationaldevelopment with them, so they
(13:59):
don't have to believe at thelevel that you do.
You, as founder, have to be theultimate zealot, but you need
some people there to really getat their core.
Whatever you're doing and hadthat same problem or the same
issue in some way, they have torelate to it hardcore.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I might get on a tangent now.
You got me worked up Well,because my educational
background is marketing.
So I get frustrated withbusiness owners that don't have
all this information you'retalking about.
They haven't defined itthemselves yet.
They'll go pay a marketingagency or firm thousands of
dollars to try to figure it outwith them and then they wonder
(14:36):
why their campaign failed.
And that's exactly how whatyou're talking about Well, this
is.
Chris Joyce (14:41):
You always hear this oh, product market fit and
a company will get 5 million, 10million of venture capital
funding and then they're burningthrough this money trying to
figure out product market fit.
Where I come from, when you'rein Columbus learning from the
score people, you didn't doproduct market fit.
You created a company from thebeginning that was self
sustaining and the way you didit was this very difficult thing
(15:04):
called talking to people.
I mean it's crazy, it's mindboggling, but you actually talk
to people.
You go meet them.
You meet them in the park, youmeet them in the street, you
meet them wherever you run intothem and you talk to them.
Maybe it's online, maybe it'sinfluencers, maybe it's groups.
You can reach anybody right now.
That's a potential market, butyou need to interact and talk
(15:27):
and hear and see them to be ableto hone in on what the message
is and what the problem reallyis, what the solution.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, you don't hear that Hardly at all what you're
talking about.
So what is probably one of thetop things that you get the most
frustrated at with businessowners?
Chris Joyce (15:46):
Like it could be something that you say
repeatedly that they just don'tadhere to, or Well, I don't know
if it's necessarily that, Ithink that it's it's more of
there's a lack of recognition byfounders or potential founders
or people who start a business,or in the midst of it, as to how
long it really takes.
(16:07):
Okay, so one of the frustrationsthat I have not even a
frustration, but it's kind oflike an emotional connection to
the founders feeling in kind ofa negative way is they go
through these cycles of hey,it's hard, it's rough, it's down
, and there's nobody that'sreally there with them.
That's a hard thing for them tounderstand.
Is that that delayedgratification, the ability to
(16:28):
delay gratification, isproportional to the amount of
money and success that youtypically have and being able to
do that in a very long way, along term horizon?
That's not something that manypeople can do.
They typically want it now, now, now, and business doesn't work
that way.
That doesn't mean that certainthings can, you can do pops and
you can figure certain thingsout.
(16:49):
With e-commerce, they come andgo, but building a substantial
business that has legacy legs,that is there for a long period
of time, you can't do that.
It's something that takes agood amount of time.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Oh, absolutely there's.
You can't see it in the videohere, but to the right of me is
a box of tissues.
I'm a business coach and peopleoften ask me why do you have
tissues in here?
Like, yeah, I'm like you'llfind out Because you'll be using
those here pretty soon.
Michael Morrison (17:46):
So let's talk about you yourself, and some
pivots that you went through.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
How did what business did you start first and how did
you get to be so successful?
Chris Joyce (17:56):
Sure, I mean, one of my businesses was the audio
tech industry.
It's something you don't hearabout anymore because it really
doesn't exist, but it wassomething with voice boards and
we had entertainment companiesthat came off of it.
We had data companies that cameoff of it.
We had service bureaus thatexpanded.
I had a business brokerage inNew York that was the largest of
its kind anywhere.
I've had the largest lowcarbohydrate manufacturer in the
(18:18):
world at one point where wewere everywhere I mean every
possible store you can imagineand all different companies in
between.
So what I like to do is neverthe same company twice.
I just get bored with it.
That's kind of like with Gusherright now.
I don't really have to do thesame company twice.
It's just really kind of like aconveyor belt of companies,
which is really what I like todo.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, so something you mentioned business brokerage
Was that buying, selling orhelping people exit?
Chris Joyce (18:46):
Yeah, it was basically helping people
primarily to exit and also toget in.
So I started it with one of thefounder I won't mention his
name that had one of the largestbusiness brokerages in retired.
They had a couple of hundredunits at the time.
But I did it primarily.
It was in my early twenties toreally learn more about business
, and so we ended up taking overNew York by storm.
But my primary motive wasreally learning about businesses
(19:09):
at the time and what Iconcluded with that business was
well, they're almost all thesame other than people,
philosophy and property.
That's.
The only difference is the mixof people, the mix of property
and the mix of philosophy there.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I know for a lot of business owners that are
starting up and not too seasonedin the business world.
When I mentioned you knowwhat's your exit plan, they're
like I can't even get pastpayroll this Friday.
But yeah, I know for a factworking with businesses that are
scaling.
If you start doing that stuffyou should be doing now.
It's so much easier to exitthen whenever that is, and I
(19:46):
know that's a long time away.
So what are some things that abusiness owner should be working
on on Currently, even thoughthey're not planning on exiting
in the next five years, tenyears?
Chris Joyce (19:56):
Well, there's two questions there, one regarding
scale, and then we're guardingexits, so I'm gonna answer both.
Okay, thank, regarding scalingand everything else, what, what
a person has to do.
I don't know if it's okay tocurse or not on your show, so
I'm not sure.
Okay, so I have something Icall do the shit All right.
Unfortunately, your founder hasto do that shit.
Work In some way, shape orfashion in the beginning, the
stuff that's not scalable,because that leads to the
(20:19):
scalable stuff, meaning thatyou've got to make linear phone
calls.
Hey, it's not a scalable way todo business, you've got to do
it.
There may be linear emails,linear face-to-face meetings,
where it's not something thatcan be scaled.
That stuff always leads to thescalable stuff All right.
As for exits, it comes down toprocesses.
Anything that really a founderdoes in a repetitive fashion,
(20:42):
meaning that they findthemselves doing the same thing
over and over, they should beturning into a process, a
standard operating procedure, aprocess that becomes part of the
company's DNA, so that they canhave somebody else do that
process, because a founder'smain, main Responsibility really
is that philosophy, thatmission of the company and just
(21:04):
getting resources and growing it.
It's not all those damn details.
It's creating processes.
The more processes that areable to be standardized, the
higher the valuation, becausethen it really becomes an asset
play, not just somebody's work.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah no, that that's good points.
So when they're scaling, canyou define what that really
means?
Because we hear a lot of smallbusiness owners say I want to
scale my business and I look atthem, I'm like you know, can you
define?
Chris Joyce (21:33):
it In an easy way?
No, in a dollar way?
Yes, okay.
So I think that anything thatany that basically up to zero to
five million, or if they haveyou know five or less locations,
that's really a labor of love.
It's a standard linear business.
It's.
It's a it's it's, you know, astandard Small business.
It's nothing that is scaled.
(21:54):
When they start turning it overto where they're able to grow
above 10, $20-50 million, thenit becomes more or less a poker
chip.
It becomes something that isn'tdependent upon that person
coming in every day.
It's has it.
Where you have enough peopleyou said you were at the hundred
employee mark for one of yourbusinesses, you're there, all
right.
You know that anytime you getabove 20, 30, 40 employees,
(22:16):
you're suddenly developingfundamentally a different
company.
Well, to me, scaling is eithermonetary or people, or both, but
there's different marks there.
For me, you know, it's anywherebetween 10 and 50 million is
when a company really startsscaling.
For a SaaS company it can besomething completely different,
but for most companies, is 10 to50 million Become something
that's more of an asset therethat they've developed something
(22:39):
that could be sold Sub 10 or 5million, not so much.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
How does a business and I'm just with a fire hose
here with all kinds of questionshow does a business owner we
hear the terminology or analogyof getting stuck on the hamster
wheel working in the business.
I Work with business ownersthat come to us and they say I
don't have time to do all thatvision, that mission.
I I'm putting out fires all day, baby sitting employees for 10
(23:07):
14 hours a day.
Then I have to go home doinvoicing and then watch the kid
.
How does one, like take thatstep away from getting out of
that rut?
Chris Joyce (23:16):
I'll give you another story.
All right, so I wasmanufactured.
I was, I was literally had thislow-carb Manufacturing.
It was in the beginning stages,we were just doing a couple
hundred thousand a year.
And remember, one Friday nightI went in to move a packaging
machine.
Now, this packaging machine wasa cartner.
It was a very, very longcartner, all right, something
like 30 to 40 feet, but it wason wheels so one person can do
(23:39):
it.
So I went up to the electricalpanel and I went ahead and
started disconnecting.
It was three phase 460.
I'll remember it to this day.
So I go ahead and I take thosethree legs out and everything
else and I pulled down on thiselectrical cable, thinking that
I knew what the hell I was doing.
And sure enough, right then Irealized oh my god, I'm going to
die because what happened is Iforgot about the ground, and the
(24:03):
ground went right into theborder or broke off or Something
like that.
It sent current through myshoulder, out my shin, and when
I woke up I was on the otherside of the factory, alright,
and then I ended up in the ERand everything else.
So it took.
Why am I telling you this story?
I have a story called shockblock that this has to do with,
because it was then I realized Ididn't belong in a factory Okay
(24:23):
, just like a founder doesn'tbelong really doing all this
detail stuff.
My first thing that I did wasget somebody who that really was
their life.
They understood plants, theylived it, they ate it, they
breathed it.
They did all that differentstuff and then, sure enough, our
company grew like wildfire,wildfire and blew up everywhere
over the next 12, 18 months.
(24:44):
After doing that because myonly goal was I didn't care if I
stopped business, I needed tofind that person.
That was my primary goal to getother people in there to help
grow the damn company.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
That's.
That's.
That's good information.
I'm just gonna keep asking youquestions because these are all
questions that come frombusiness owners that are
listening.
So if someone's wanting tostart a business because you
work with so many what I know,they're not easy, no, no, owning
a business is not easy at all,but what are?
How would one decide whatbusiness is right?
(25:15):
For me it's easy.
Chris Joyce (25:17):
All right, this part.
This part's actually easy.
Okay, it's two things.
One I had this gentleman comeinto our platform and he was a
middle market exeft that gotlaid off during COVID, okay, and
he started this softwarecompany.
But every time we talked hetold me about this other idea,
that he was on it, and I noticedthat he kept Smiling every time
he talked about that othercompany.
(25:37):
I said, mike, you shouldn't bedoing this company, the first
company, you should be doing thesecond idea.
And he goes really.
I go, yeah, really goes, butI'm just not really qualified.
I go, mike, it doesn't matterif you're qualified.
Make a long story short.
He did that second company.
A year later they won productof the year in the trucking
industry.
Off to the races, everythingelse cool product, cool company.
What I do when I tell foundersis this, or potential founders
(26:00):
if you look in the mirror andyou're thinking about that idea
and you smile, that's definitelythe thing to do.
If you're going to sleep andyou're thinking about it.
If you wake up in the morningand you're thinking about it.
If you're on the crapper andyou're thinking about it.
If you're eating your breakfast, you're talking to your wife or
husband or whatever it may be,and you're thinking about it.
That's an idea.
If it's something that youshould be following, you
shouldn't be doing this stuffwhere it's okay, I can make this
(26:22):
and I can generate this and, asa tam, the market is this, so
it's big enough to penetrate.
It's got to be something thatyou feel, something that
actually, at your core, issomething that you want to do,
because You're gonna need thatwhen the times get tough, and
the times are gonna get toughand brutal, and that's the only
thing that you're gonna have tofall back on is that I don't
want to say passion, becausethat's not it, but that
(26:43):
emotional tie to whatever it isthat you're doing.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Yeah, I.
I use the purpose statement forthat reason, because I'm like
you're gonna need this one daywhen you wake up and Feel like
the world is against you,reminding you why you're doing
what you're doing.
Chris Joyce (26:59):
I have a thing that I show founders.
I don't know if I have it on meoh, it's not in my wallet cuz I
gave it away but I have thiscoin that I keep and it always
says never give up, on one side,and on the other side it says
trust the process.
No, our founders get that coin.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
So, going back to your history, what is a pivot?
That you learned?
That you wish you would havetwo questions one you wish you
wouldn't have done, and thenwhat's one that you're like I
wish I would have done thatsooner.
Chris Joyce (27:26):
I don't want to sound like I'm a know-it-all or
anything else, because I'm farfrom it and I don't know
everything about it, okay, but Ifundamentally don't believe in
pivots, okay.
So the reason is that if youlook at it, historically,
successful pivots are as rare asunicorns.
You see iterations, you seeideas that started out insanely
(27:46):
bad, that then led to good ideas, but very rarely do you see a
company that let's say yourexample they were a plumber and
now they do a lawnmower service,and that's the same company.
Almost always they're not.
So I personally don't do pivots.
It's something I'll doiterations, and I'll iterate the
hell out of it what I callpicking the lock until I get it,
(28:07):
so that it may not resemblewhat it started out as.
But literally it was the sameroad in the same path.
It just was an additional stepsto get there.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Yeah, no, that's a good description, and so for
those listeners that the show iscalled small business pivots
though, that's exactly what I'mtalking about is, you're not
going into a whole differentbusiness, you're just Pivot your
what did you say that again.
Chris Joyce (28:31):
I said so there iterations iterations yes yes,
an example.
So let's use the low-carbcompany as an example.
All right, what we did is wehad this frozen product, low
carbohydrate blueberry muffin.
I'll save you the detailsbecause that's an awesome story
for another time.
But in within one year we hadsix different packaging
iterations because we got outthere.
It got us in business, but itwasn't great.
(28:53):
That product wasn't awesome,but it put us in business.
And then we created a betterone in a better version and we
went to a better packagingsystem.
And then, sure enough, then wehad shelf stable rolls and
breads and everything and thatexploded the business.
It's never the road that youstart out on, but you need to
start out on that roadregardless, and the tools you
have right now are all you need.
(29:13):
You don't need anything elsebut the tools in your own damn
intelligence.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
What would you say speaking of tools, because there
is so much out there?
Yeah, we can get so distracted,including myself.
I'm always trying to try tostay up with trends and things
and it's impossible I can'timagine for someone that's never
owned a business before andthey're trying to figure this
out.
Are there any tools that yourecommend that you would say,
hey, if you just go here orwatch this and then go, do it.
Chris Joyce (29:43):
Yep, I used my three by five cards or four by
eights, I can't remember whatthe hell they are.
All right, I know very low-techtool.
The reason why I use that isbecause I create a checklist
each morning, a checklist basedupon priorities.
What the heck the prioritiesare that bring the most value
that I can do that day, andthat's the way I operate.
So I literally operate bypriority and value.
(30:04):
Whatever brings that most valuein, I will do.
If it doesn't, I don't do it atall.
I don't care what the heck itis.
I'm here about big motions, andmaking the big impacts is what
I do, and so that's how I goabout my day.
If you keep doing that, youwill progress quickly and very
far.
Take the pick, the priorities.
The rest are what I callsquirrels.
(30:25):
Like you're walking down theroad with a dog a dog, she's a
squirrel, and it wants to takeoff at it.
Everything to me is a squirrel,all right, other than what's on
that list.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Yeah, yeah, I'm writing on one side of this
paper very low-tech.
Pin and paper.
Pin and paper I don't have.
I don't have the iPad, I don'thave all those devices to plug
this and do that.
No, I write it down and checkit off and reorganize it,
scratch it, move it all thatstuff you know yep.
Plus I retain it.
Better, a Lot better than justthrowing it on a device and it
(30:58):
sits there till I remember it ora notification goes off.
Chris Joyce (31:01):
There's something about it, but maybe it also was
the way we were brought up.
I have no clue, but it has animpact upon me in my brain that
when I put something on paper,it suddenly becomes real.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Yeah, any good books out there that you've read that
you would recommend, because youwork with so many different
business owners.
Chris Joyce (31:17):
Okay, I'm just gonna bore you with Austrian
economics books and stuff likethat is the most boring ass
stuff.
I would not recommend toanybody read the stuff that I do
.
You'll gain nothing from it.
Business wise, I think, ifanything, it'd be more of
reading inspirational stuff ordoing whatever the heck it takes
you to get out of bed on timeor early and keep doing the same
boring stuff for a period oftime until you Breakthrough,
(31:38):
because that's really all it ishaving the discipline to do that
.
I have.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Everything seems to kind of be bundled in these
three areas of business that Isay you have to have to be
successful.
One is guiding principles andI'm gonna see if you have
anything to add to that guidingprinciples.
That includes your mission,your vision, all that stuff.
Second one is systemization.
So you gotta have that.
And then third is your team.
And people say, yeah, but yougot to have cash.
(32:03):
I'm like, well, if you have theright banker and you have the
right CFO and you have the rightsalespeople, cash will come.
But you got to have the rightpeople, because I've seen
horrible people in thosepositions and you don't have any
cash.
So what right you add anythingto those three?
Chris Joyce (32:17):
elements.
Yeah, I'd say it comes down toalso this and we find our most
successful founders and this isgonna sound kind of wild Our
most successful founders are theones who are honest to a fault.
They don't fake it till theymake it.
They don't bullshit, they don'tgo ahead and and make something
seem that it isn't, and thereason I say that they're
(32:37):
successful is because those arethe Ones that if they need help,
they ask for help and they gethelp.
And many times founders in thebeginning stage are so busy
Trying to pretend to besomething that they are not, or
at a stage that they're not,that they attract the wrong
business.
They attract the wrong peopleand the wrong scenario for what
(32:57):
they really need, and so honestyis the best policy, from what I
see, when you're starting abusiness from scratch with
nothing.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Oh, absolutely.
So, speaking of nothing, when Istarted my first business, I
learned what I should have hiredfirst.
The first role what would yousay that is for a business that
doesn't have cash and they arebootstrapped and some things
they just have to do themselvestill they can afford it?
What role would you say iscritical for the first?
Chris Joyce (33:24):
Okay, well, I'm gonna say this in a two-part way
.
Okay, so a founder's primaryrole is sales.
All right, so I'm not gonna saysales.
Even though I want to say sales, it's not gonna be sales.
So I would say, literally, afounder should be selling about
90% of their time or interactingwith potential customers.
That's what they should bedoing, first and foremost.
Secondly, they should be hiringa COO, a chief operating
(33:46):
officer.
They should be putting somebodyin place that can standardize
the processes, that can takeeverything that they're doing
all day to day with the businessand creating systems,
duplicable systems and processes, because, again, that's a
bedrock that enables you tobuild.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Absolutely so.
I I always say 80%, so we're inline there on the sales.
I'm like because businessowners will ask me what should I
be working on?
And I'll ask them how longthey've been in business.
You know just couple of generalquestions.
I'm like sales.
80% of all your time should besales, sales, sales, sales.
You don't have to ever wonderabout it again Keep selling.
Chris Joyce (34:24):
Yeah, but even more importantly, when you're
selling versus when a salesmanis selling.
Yeah, what happens is you learnreal quickly what message is
working, how to iterate theproduct, what feedback you're
getting, what pricing makes themost sense, where the people are
pushing back the objections andFiguring out the rebuttals, not
just for the other sales peopleto be go, but really for the
(34:46):
better creation of the nextgeneration of product, the next
iteration of product.
That's why a founder can't stopselling.
They have to be sellingabsolutely.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
It kind of goes back to my topic of marketing
agencies and firms.
House some business owners ifthey don't even know where they
want to go, and then they hiresomebody to try to figure it out
and it doesn't work.
Same with salespeople.
I hear business owners say allthe time, where do you find good
salespeople?
And I'm like well, you have tocreate them.
I mean like you have to givethem the information, the tools,
(35:16):
the resources, the informationthey can't figure it out for you
.
Chris Joyce (35:20):
What I say to founders is a couple of things.
I say, first and foremost,you're not a manufacturing firm,
you're not a consumer goodscompany, you're not a medical
device, prop tech, ai, whateverthe hell it is.
First and foremost, you're asales and marketing company.
Period, that's what you are,sales and marketing.
And when you put that at theforefront of your company, the
rest starts falling into placeautomatically.
(35:42):
And so that to me is quiteliterally everything.
But also with a founder, that ifthey bring on other people,
other salespeople, other biz devpeople, I tell them that they
are not there to figure out thesales process.
They are not there to figureout how to really originate
those sales.
They are there just to executewhatever that plan is, and I
(36:04):
hate to say whatever that scriptis, but whatever that script is
that you figured out, they canthen expand on a script, they
can then make it better, butthey can't typically originate.
What to say to penetrate amarket?
That is actually a superpowerof a founder, and you don't have
to be a great salesperson.
You just have to get out thereand physically meet the people
(36:25):
or get on the videos or whateverthe heck it is, and talk with
people, talk with the customers.
You'll figure it out if you doit enough.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Amen, amen, unbelievable.
We are out of time.
This has been very fun.
How would someone get ahold ofyou?
Do you have a podcast blog,anything like that?
Chris Joyce (36:43):
I'm just gusherco.
You just go to gushrco, you canfind me.
My team would be happy to helpyou out.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Fantastic.
What is the process of gusher?
How does that work?
Chris Joyce (36:55):
That's free.
You literally sign on.
You start creating a startupdraft, you submit it for review.
We go over it with you.
We take an hour or two with youto get it up and running.
It doesn't cost you anything.
You need to have a corporation.
That's the one thing you needto have and then we help you get
published and we start helpingyou recruit and moving you along
the pipeline to get yourcompany successful.
We are really main strength istaking it from zero to 10
(37:18):
million.
That's where really we arestrongest.
We do do above that, but weprefer taking it from zero to 10
million are most of thecompanies we deal with.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
So you've shared golden nuggets in the business
world.
Do you have any in the lifeworld?
Chris Joyce (37:31):
Yeah, never give up , and I mean that with life also
.
Never give up, never give up.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Never give up.
Fantastic Well, you've beenawesome.
I appreciate it.
We'll see you around.
Thanks for having me.
Michael Morrison (37:43):
Welcome to the Recap and Coaches Corner, where
we break down the key insightsand give you actionable coaching
tips to help your businessthrive independently.
Today, chris reiterated theimportance of setting your own
standards in your business, likethe expectations, your core
values, what you stand for andyour differentiator.
Simply put, to be successful,no two companies should be the
(38:06):
same.
You are unique, you are unique,your business should be unique
and your business should haveits own DNA.
If you would like helpestablishing the DNA in your
business, go tobusinessownershipsimplifiedcom
(38:27):
and click the let's Chat buttonin the top right hand corner.
Now let's dive into the CoachesCorner, where I share one
actionable item for businessowners to build their business
so they can own a business thatcan run without them.
Chris mentioned an essentialtrait every successful business
owner must have honesty.
Be honest with yourself, hesaid.
(38:47):
There is no such thing as fakeit until you make it.
Ask for help, quit going italone.
Chris said In fact, more thanhalf of our guests on small
business pivots have mentionedthat asking for help was the one
thing that significantly, thatasking for help was the one
(39:09):
thing that significantly changedthe trajectory of their
business success.
So your one thing inquire aboutoutside guidance today a coach,
a mentor and if you'd like tolearn more about how coaching
works and helps, go to mywebpage, michaeldmorsencom, and
(39:30):
you will find every questionthat you could ever think of
answered there.
Thank you for listening toSmall Business Pivots and don't
forget to subscribe and sharethis podcast.
We'll see you next time.
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