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June 18, 2024 18 mins

In this episode of the United States of Small Business podcast, host John Quick sits down with Chris Lautenslager, a seasoned business veteran and the founder of GET LOOPED. Chris introduces us to the Prosperity Loop, an innovative organizational model designed to foster shared success and collective prosperity.

Tune in as Chris shares his insights on transforming capitalism, building a culture of trust and value, and the importance of investing in employee well-being.

This episode is packed with invaluable lessons for business leaders and entrepreneurs looking to create a more inclusive and successful business environment. Don't miss it!

Buy his book here: https://amzn.to/4eE6uiK

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Episode Transcript

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(00:00):
Welcome to the United States of Small Business, a podcast where
the essence of American entrepreneurship is celebrated
in every episode, with host JohnQuick at the helm.
Join us as we embark on a journey through the heart of the
nation, uncovering the inspiringstories of small business owners
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(00:20):
bustling cities and the serene beauty of Small Towns Hall while
discovering how individuals are turning their entrepreneurial
dreams into reality, even against the greatest odds.
Each episode brings you face to face with the dreamers,
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country, all sharing their spirit of innovation and

(00:40):
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(01:01):
For deeper insights and to connect with the heart and soul
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smallbusiness.com. Subscribe to United States of
Small Business with host John Quick now and be inspired by the
powerful stories of entrepreneurship, community, and
the unwavering pursuit of the American Dream.

(01:22):
Begin your journey of inspiration with us today.
Welcome to another episode of the United States of Small
Business Podcast. I'm your host, John Quick, and
today we have an exceptional guest guest, Chris Lutensleger.
Chris is a seasoned business veteran with over 40 years of
experience in the finance and economics world.
He is the founder of Get Looped and the creative of the
Prosperity Loop, an innovative organizational model designed to

(01:45):
foster shared success and collective prosperity.
Join us as Chris shares his insights on transforming
capitalism, building a culture of trust and value, and the
power thing in employees well-being.
This episode is packed with valuable lessons from business
leaders for business leaders andentrepreneurs alike.

(02:05):
So without further ado, Chris, welcome to the United States of
Small Business Podcast. It's a pleasure being here,
John. I'm I'm so grateful to be able
to share some time with you and your audience.
Well, this will be fun to hear kind of your story and how the
Prosperity Loop has the potential to maybe help small
business owners or entrepreneursor people that are aspiring to
that. First, talk to me about what?

(02:28):
What's the story behind creatingprosperity?
Luke, Everybody's got their story.
What's yours? So my story is, is that I was
actually retired. I was living in Breckenridge.
I had a full career in New York City on Wall Street and had
moved on to quote the next phaseof my life.

(02:51):
And then the pandemic came. And during that time was so
painful and hurtful to watch allthese small businesses, all of
these business families essentially be told that they
had to sacrifice for the good ofeveryone.

(03:14):
And and then there was no followup with them.
There was no like, hey, are we, are we all seeing the same
thing? Are we recognizing that these
families, these businesses are being destroyed and, and is that
OK with us? And for me, it wasn't OK.
See, John, I grew up in a small business family.

(03:34):
My father had a small construction company.
And I know that with families across this country that that
business is like a sibling, thatbusiness is a member of the
family. And when that business gets
killed, gets shut down, it impacts everyone.

(03:55):
So I took it among, you know, I didn't hear a voice out there
saying, hey, we need to acknowledge and recognize the
importance of small business, ofhow valuable they are to our
communities. And we just can't allow this to
continue to go on. So I became engaged.

(04:15):
I started talking to small business owners and and became
impassioned with being an advocate and supporter of small
businesses in our communities. I think it's just so paramount
for the health of our townships,of our neighborhoods, that they
participate in our lives. That's awesome.

(04:36):
So give me the premise, you know, for folks that have maybe
never heard of prosperity, what is the basic idea behind it?
So the Prosperity Loop is the book that I wrote during this
time, and it was from talking with business owners about their
experiences of staying alive or having to start over.
You know, the the the nature of being an entrepreneur is

(04:59):
failure. See, we all struggle from, you
know, failure, failure, very, very success, growth,
advancement, and we end up learning as we go along and then
we struggle, struggle, struggle,struggle, struggle.

(05:21):
And so these were sort of an accumulation of stories and
experiences from people that I've met, from people that I've
read and and learned from their experiences and essentially
about how to make your workspace, your company
environment a positive, prosperous, continuous, infinite

(05:43):
loop of prosperity. And so there were six steps
associated with it about from people's experiences, how are
they creating a positive work environment, a profitable work
environment that they'd like to share with others?
That's awesome. So for folks listening in, the
first person to e-mail me, that's John at United States of

(06:06):
smallbusiness.com, I'm going to send them a free copy of the
book and I'll send it to them and and they can enjoy that.
So e-mail me quick because it'llgo fast and I'll get a ton of
emails. But the first person that'll do
it, I'll send a copy of the booktoo.
Chris, share with us maybe one of your favorite stories from
the book. So one of the things that I that

(06:30):
was so refreshing, actually insightful to me was the hiring
process. And I intuitively recognized how
important hiring is for small businesses.
Literally one bad employee can be disastrous for a company.
And I don't think business owners give that enough

(06:54):
recognition, enough credence. You know, there was this
mentality for many years of I'lljust hire someone else.
I'll just, you know, someone leaves, I'll fill in that spot.
And that mentality, by the way, is transparent to all the other
employees. So it's poisonous to have that
mentality to begin with. But if you are actually not

(07:18):
investing in your employees as being part of the team, it's
really, really hurtful. So hiring and identifying the
right employee is just so key. And what most people do is they
focus on skill sets. They focus on.
This is the skill set that I need an accountant or

(07:41):
salesperson. And they don't put as much
emphasis on character, on integrity, on honesty, on
disposition. These are the softer.
I actually think they're they'reparamount skills as as important
as being productive, because youcan teach those skills.

(08:04):
You can teach skills how to be asalesperson.
You can teach scales and skills on how to be a good accountant.
If they have the foundation, youcan craft them into a master in
those areas. But the the softer underlying
issues of character, integrity, honesty, those are less

(08:29):
available, so to speak. They're kind of taught when
you're younger and subsequently being able to pull those out,
being able to identify those as contributors to the success of
your organization, I think is anunderlooked skill, is an
underlooked variable of success in a company's business.

(08:51):
So talk to me a little bit aboutkind of picking yourself back up
and trying again. As you mentioned before, you
know, if somebody wants to become an entrepreneur, is an
entrepreneur, wants to open a small business, often times it's
fall on your face 20 times before you experience success.
How important is is it? How important is it for somebody

(09:11):
to pick themselves back up and keep going?
It's, it's the most important, you know, have having proper
capitalization, having proper motivation are so fundamental to
being successful in a small business.
But having a thick skin, being able to recognize that or just

(09:32):
know in advance you're going to struggle at times and it's going
to feel like there's nobody there with you.
In fact, one of the things that I do is I coach entrepreneurs
that are struggling and feel like they have no one to talk
with because it's a lonely business.
You're the guy, you're the OR, or you're the woman, you're the
one in charge. You're the one who everyone is

(09:54):
coming to for answers. And that doesn't mean that you
don't have questions. So I highly encourage people to
get coaches to get support, to get insight in running your
business and having someone to talk with because as as I was
mentioning, it's super lonely and you are going to fail.

(10:15):
It is the nature of being an entrepreneur.
It is the toughest game around. I really do believe that because
in a corporation you fail and you're given multiple
opportunities to try again, so to speak.
But with with your own business,it's inevitable.

(10:36):
And so being able to pick yourself up, know that
tomorrow's a better day and sometimes that's all that you
really have to go on is the belief that tomorrow will be a
better day. That's the type of mental
toughness that's required to be successful as an entrepreneur.
That's awesome. So you mentioned that you coach

(10:57):
and kind of mentor other folks entrepreneurs.
What's that look like? What's the process like?
How could somebody get a hold ofyou?
There's going to be folks here, here that listen to this and be
like, man, I got to get a hold of Chris.
He sounds like he is speaking mylanguage.
What's the easiest way to do that and what does that process
look like? So the easiest way to do that is

(11:17):
to reach out to my website. Everything's on my website.
All my activities, all my training, all my seminars.
The golf outing that we're having in Waukegan, IL for small
business owners on August 12th is all located at my website at
www.gethyphenlooped.com. GET hyphen, LOOPE, d.com.

(11:40):
That's where you can find all the activities.
My coaching's a little unique inthe sense that I work
specifically with small businessowners, successful small
business owners who have gotten distracted with some shenanigans
in their personal life. Because what I found is that,
you know, I've talked about thatit's lonely.

(12:01):
Well, what happens particularly with small business owners when
they have some flexibility of time, when they have some
success with some money, when things get a little bit boring,
they find a way to get distracted and sometimes it
leads down an unhealthy path andthey feel trapped.
They don't have anyone to talk with.

(12:22):
They don't have any options. They aren't thinking logically
because that neighborhood in your mind which you're walking
down a very dark street is kind of dangerous.
Being able to have someone who is non judgmental because I'm
non judgmental because I've beenthere before, who has worked
through being in difficult situations and come out on the

(12:46):
other side. And I'm not saying it's easy,
but I am saying it's possible and having a great life after
that experience. And that's really the key is
being able to recognize that there is a future regardless of
how dark it seems right now. That's what I coach people
through on. Amen to that.

(13:07):
Well, what kind of advice would you give to somebody that's
maybe fresh out of college, you know, 2324 age range, they want
to start a business, maybe they've dabbled in some TikTok
or Instagram. What kind of advice would you
give somebody just starting out in the small business or
entrepreneur space? There's so many ways I can go

(13:32):
down this, but I'm going to actually start with the fun one.
Don't do it by yourself, all right?
The concept of being a self-mademillionaire is a fallacy.
There's no such thing. Everyone is a partner is a
collaboration of work with others.
And if you go in with the mentality of how can I be of
service to someone? How can I help someone fulfill

(13:55):
their dreams? That will lay the foundation of
them helping you fulfill your dreams.
OK. Being able to collaborate,
communicate, network with othersis key to being successful.

(14:15):
OK, so that's the best advice I have is to work with others.
You're not doing this by yourself.
So you mentioned before that your previous career, you know,
you had a successful career, I think in the financial industry
or on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

(14:35):
Why not just sit my ties on the beach and enjoy retirement?
You know, What is it in you thatkeeps you going?
Well, actually, so there is, youknow, for people that do that,
for people that retire and are like I've put in my X number of
years, I've earned enough money,I'm going to retire.

(14:58):
More power to you if that's whatworks for you.
I found though, that, and I believe that I'm actually going
to say I went down that road. Obviously I was in Breckenridge,
I was in my spot. I love the mountains.
I was skiing, I was golfing, I was doing all that.
But there were these parts of methat were not as engaged and I

(15:18):
noticed that my thought process was slipping, was not as sharp,
was things weren't coming to mind as quickly as they used to.
I found that physically I wasn'tas active or engaged.
So once I became re engaged in life, once I became re engaged

(15:42):
in interacting with others, my mental facilities sharpened up
my desire to be in good shape, to be fit, to be active.
Also correlated, I'm finding that when you are in a healthy
environment, a healthy cycle, itleads to all areas of your life,

(16:06):
to most areas, whether it's yourhealth, whether it's your mental
acuity, whether it's your relationships, all seem to
improve. Similarly, when you're in a kind
of a down slope, things just kind of start to slip away.
Your health, your aches, your pains, your, your, your positive

(16:30):
mentality, they seem to just allslide down the hill.
And I don't want my next 20-30, fifty years.
And I am saying 50 legitimately,I'm 66 years old right now.
With the changes that are occurring in our healthcare
system and technology, our next 5 or 10 years is literally going

(16:53):
to be revolutionary in regards to our health.
So the goal really is stay healthy now because we're going
to be around a long, long, long time.
Just I can't, I can't emphasize enough that now is the time to
be engaged. You're not too old.
It's life hasn't passed you by. There's still so much more to

(17:15):
go. Find something that brings you
passion, get engaged, it brings you joy, it brings you
fulfillment, it brings you interaction and relationships.
I'm just finding that for me it was, and actually for so many
others that I'm talking with that are following this path

(17:36):
also, we're finding that it brings A level of joy in life
that I think people don't realize is available to us.
Yeah. Well, Chris, 20 minutes here has
gone by in a flash. Do you have any last minute
thoughts here before we head off?
Just that the life that you leadtoday is a reflection of the

(18:00):
choices you make now. Not necessarily directly as in
if I do XY will happen tomorrow,but play the odds of probability
of good things happening to you by doing good things, and the
likelihood of you finding yourself in a good spot
increases dramatically. Nice.

(18:22):
Well, you got that book. We could throw that up one more
time on the screen for folks listening in.
I would encourage you to go buy that book right there.
Prosperity Loop. We're going to put all the links
in the podcast description. And Chris, we wish you nothing
but success. We hope everybody has a
phenomenal rest of their week. And until next time, I'm John
Quick from the United States of Small Business Podcast.

(18:42):
Thanks, Chris. Thank you, John.
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