June 27, 2024 • 24 mins
When the road from hands-on operator to strategic business owner seems fraught with uncertainty, Robert Poole's insights from Total Business Results light the way. Our latest Virtual Antics podcast episode delves into Robert's compelling transformation, exploring the trials and triumphs that come with the loss of a business partner and the subsequent plunge into survival mode. His story isn't just a chronicle of personal resilience; it's a beacon for entrepreneurs searching for the delicate balance between business success and personal freedom.
Imagine reshaping your role from a skilled employee to a savvy business owner with mastery over high-level strategy and the nuances of team culture. This conversation with Robert isn't just talk; it's packed with actionable advice for those yearning to scale up. We dissect the significance of seamlessly integrating sales and marketing while placing a strong emphasis on systematic procedures over mere automation. It's the kind of episode that equips you with the necessary tools to lay a solid foundation for sustainable success, transforming your day-to-day grind into a well-oiled machine that aligns with your life's vision.
For those eager to amplify the potential of their team, we share the game-changing power of robust Standard Operating Procedures and effective employee onboarding. Streamlining the hiring process, as I've experienced, can be a game-changer, leading to rapid business expansion and allowing for self-guided learning that gets new employees up to speed in record time. And when it comes to support, Robert's open invitation to assist fellow entrepreneurs in navigating their business challenges is an invaluable opportunity. Tune in for a genuine conversation filled with guidance designed to transform your business into the dream venture you've always envisioned.
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Reach out to Robert:
Website: totalbusinessresults.com
LinkedIn: therobertpoole
Facebook: therealRobertpoole
Instagram: @therobertpoole
Twitter: @therobertpoole
YouTube: @therobertpoole
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Virtual Antics podcast, where we
help entrepreneurs streamlinetheir business to six figures
and beyond.
These short, sweet and infopacked episodes will inspire,
educate and leave you feelingmotivated to take one more step
forward in your business.
So put down your never-endingto-do list, because in this
podcast we are interviewing thebest of the best in the
entrepreneurial world as theyspill their secrets to success.
(00:23):
This podcast is sponsored byNandora, the all-in-one software
for entrepreneurs to grow theirbusiness, with unlimited
landing pages, automations,emails and text campaigns, and
so much more.
I'm your host, natalie Guzman.
Now let's get into it.
Hey guys, welcome back toVirtual Antics podcast.
As always, I'm your host,natalie Guzman, so excited to
(00:44):
have Robert Poole on the callwith us.
He is the co-founder of TotalBusiness Results.
He helps entrepreneurs who aretied to their businesses make
the transition from operator toowner in their business so they
can finally achieve the freedomthey got into entrepreneurship
in the first place.
Welcome, robert.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Oh, perfect.
Great Thanks for having me onthe show, Natalie.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, I'm so excited to have you.
You're coming all the way fromArizona super cool.
So tell us a little bit abouthow you got started.
Especially.
This is such a cool thing, sounique, and I think a lot of our
listeners need to understandand hear about how they can
really be the operator.
So how did you get into this?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, absolutely.
I've been in sales andmarketing for many years,
started as a young man back inthe 90s, dating myself a little,
and I started a B2B marketingfirm with my best friend right
around I think it was around2000.
And so we took it from justnothing, didn't have any money
(01:43):
no seed money to start off with,and grew it into multi-million
dollar business focused mostlyon B2B cold calling.
That was our expertise and sowe were really successful.
We were making a lot of moneyand, because I had a business
partner, a lot of partnershipsdon't work out that well, but I
was very fortunate.
(02:03):
We complimented each other verywell and we were best friends,
and so we went along and, as Isaid, had all these employees
and had a good company making alot of money.
I had freedom to take time off.
I took a three-way honeymoon,he took vacations.
I took vacations because wecould cover for each other.
(02:24):
There's that mental crutch ofhaving somebody else at the
company.
He handled, he was sort of thepublic face of the company and I
worked behind the scenes doingoperations around the sales
teams, things like that, and soit was a great situation.
And then, 2017, day after 4th ofJuly, I came into the office
like normal and he didn't comein and I thought that wasn't
(02:49):
completely strange.
And then his fiance startedcalling me and saying I haven't
heard from 24 hours.
And I thought, well, he'll goMIA for a while, not a big deal.
But as a favor to her I said,okay, he was not interested, so
I'll just run over to his housereal quick.
And unfortunately I found hepassed away from a heart attack
the day before.
And so I've got this personaltragedy, of course, because he
(03:12):
was my good friend and thenbusiness wise, all of a sudden
I'm in charge of thismulti-million dollar company and
I'm trying to do his job, myjob, and then I'm thrust into
the being the public face of thecompany, being the leader,
which I wasn't used to.
I was starting working at fourin the morning until seven at
(03:33):
night, seven days a week, tryingto hold things together, and I
realized I couldn't even take amorning off, much less a day or
a week, and I'm tied to thisbusiness, that we had gotten to
that point where I had all thisfreedom and so— you know, I
realized that.
You know this is killing myfamily, my personal life, and
(03:53):
it's not a sustainable model inbusiness, and it's something
that a lot of people in businessstruggle with, you know, and so
I figured I've got to figureout a way out of this.
So I've spent, you know, abouttwo years trying to figure out
how do I get myself out of thebusiness where I can get that
freedom back, and so I was ableto do that.
Like I said, it took me acouple years, a little trial and
(04:15):
error, and so since then I'vebeen helping other business
owners kind of achieve the samething, and so it's a long answer
to your question, but that'skind of where I got to where I
am now.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, and I think it's really important that we
have that background and I'm sosorry for your loss.
It's definitely not somethingeasy, you know.
You're kind of thrust in thatsituation where it's kind of
like survival mode.
Right, you're just trying tofigure out, and the fact that
you pivoted and try to figureout a way to fix that and get
out of that survival mode super,super impressive.
We, I know like I've gonethrough that.
(04:50):
I struggled with that.
I had a lot of clients say, oh,you're always going to answer
the phone because businessowners work 24 seven, right.
And I was like no, I got thisbusiness.
I got into this business tospend more time with my kids.
My husband's a first responderand so I have to be the main
caregiver, the main parent, andso I need to be the one that
(05:10):
shows up to all the differentyou know activities and school
events and doctor.
We have a child that goesthrough a lot of health issues
and so going to all the doctorsappointments and keeping track
of that, and so having abusiness that would take all my
time, it just it would not makesense, right, and my business
was my passion, but I didn'twant it to be my whole life.
So we I took on a partner tokind of help that load and then
(05:35):
us together kind of did thisoperation thing that you talked
about, where we're not reallyworking in in in the business,
we're working on the business,and I think there's a very, very
important then distinction.
Distinction between that.
You know, we're not doing theevery day, we're not working one
on one clients, we're notworking on the everyday tasks.
(05:55):
We're really we do strategizeand things like that, but we
also have figureheads.
So what does it look like toyou to be an operator versus,
you know, someone that's justworking in the business?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
And you know.
And your description of whatyou said you know.
You know it's so funny becauseall of us pretty much get into
entrepreneurship.
For you know the reason that.
You know, we want to be our ownboss, we want to set our own
schedule, we want our income notto be limited by you know what
somebody else says.
And then you know you check inwith somebody two or three years
after they start and andthey're working 60, 70 hours a
(06:29):
week and can't get away allthose things you know.
So it's kind of funny how thatworks.
But you know, I think for me therealization, you know, the real
difference between an operatorand owner is how necessary you
are for the business to not onlyrun on a day-to-day basis but
to grow.
It is, I always say, if you can, you know, leave tomorrow.
(06:53):
And you know, go to Tahiti forthree weeks or whatever, and not
take your phone and yourcomputer.
And you come back and yourbusiness is, one, is it still
there?
And two, is it still growing?
Then you become a full businessowner.
Of course it's a spectrum, likeeverything.
You know you can't always 100%get there unless you're, you
(07:13):
know, become sort of an investor, where you're completely out
the hands off.
But you know you go from beingtask oriented, doing you know,
you know for lack of a betterterm low level things to doing
what you're talking about nowthe strategy, the bigger picture
, working on the business itself.
You know what kind of clientsdo we have, what kind should we
have.
You know how do we serve themthe best.
(07:35):
You know what do we need to doand make a difference.
You know those types ofquestions.
So to me that's really thedifference between the operator
and the owner role.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Yeah, I 100% agree.
And it's such a nice feelingtoo once you're there.
You're like you can breathe,and the fact that you've hired a
really because you can't get tothat position without having a
really good team behind you.
And so once you realize, oh, Ihave an amazing team and I am
relying on them and you gottamake sure you nurture them too.
(08:05):
Right Is nurturing an importantpart about being the operator
and handing your business overto your team.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh yeah, I really teach four main principles, and
that's a big one.
The building a team and it'sone of those things that I
struggled with for many yearsbecause I came from a military
background and I went to WestPoint.
I was an army officer for awhile when I was younger, and so
that environment is very topdown, sort of you tell somebody
what to do, they have to do it,whereas the real world, in
(08:37):
business, people don't have todo what you say.
They can go get a job somewhereelse, and so it takes a
different skill set and we haveto learn to.
If we really wanna have thatautonomy and be able to walk
away from our business and leavepeople that we trust and charge
, then we've gotta create what Icall a set of many owners, and
(08:59):
it doesn't necessarily mean theyhave to have equity in the
company.
I mean they can.
But primarily what I'm gettingat is you wanna build a team so
that people have a vestedinterest, that they almost feel
like an owner of the company,and that way you don't have to
worry about watching whatthey're doing on a daily basis.
You don't have to bemicromanaging over their
(09:20):
shoulder.
I remember this was probably2010-ish or something like that.
I mean, the technology is wayoutdated.
But we even had basically a spyprogram that was installed on
all the work computers to trackwhat people were doing and
everything.
And I look back at that now Ithink, oh my gosh, but creating
(09:41):
that team of people that youtrust and that have that vested
interest is just probably themost critical part of any
business as far as how to grow.
You always talk about, from abusiness valuation standpoint,
an outside investor thatconsidering buying your company.
What do they look for?
And a lot of times they'rebuying your customer list.
(10:02):
It's like Facebook when theybought Instagram, it wasn't
because they couldn't do thetechnologies, because they
wanted the user base, but from asmall business owner's
perspective, I believe that yourteam is your absolute single
most valuable asset that youhave.
So if we create that right team, create that culture of
(10:23):
nurturing like you're talkingabout, let's say, you get
basically sued out of businessor you lose your biggest
customer or any number of things.
If you have the right team inplace, those people are gonna
stick with you and you canrecover from that.
And I will take that any day ofthe week over any customer, any
situation because it really isbusinesses about people, life is
(10:47):
about people.
So, absolutely, I totally agreethat that is one of the most
critical things in making thattransition.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Amazing.
Yeah, so my partner actuallystarted out as one of my very
first hires and so she wasactually just hired as an admin
assistant and then going to likewebsite and funnels, creating
programs, operations manager,and at one point I was just like
you've given me so much valueand we worked so well together
(11:14):
and we both had a passion.
That's when the business becamemore than just me and I was
like this is actually like aliving, breathing thing that's
giving other people passion, andthen she eventually became
business owner.
So that was kind of it was avery don't recommend it for
everyone.
It just really worked for us.
Her personalities worked in.
The fact that we're both momswas like very helpful.
(11:36):
That's awesome.
Thanks, yeah.
But I realized with her thatnurturing and also giving them
responsibility you don't thinkthey're necessarily ready for.
She used to yell at me becauseI would not really yell at me
but she would make fun of mebecause I would throw her into
the ocean is what I would say.
I'm gonna throw you in, see ifyou can sink or you're gonna
(11:56):
swim.
And I would give her scenariosLike first time she ever had to
upsell a client, I put her wewere on a call together with the
client and she had me theirsupport to in case to try to
upsell the client on somethingthat they really needed.
Like it was something thattheir business, like, was really
absolutely needing.
We both were really passionateabout that and we knew it would
(12:19):
be easy sell.
So I was like I texted her onZoom.
I was like, hey, you're gonnahandle this, you're gonna bring
up the offer.
She was like you can just seeher eyes widening while she was
reading it.
But she killed it.
She got the upgrade, which wassuper cool, and then she felt
comfortable doing like discoverycalls and things like that.
(12:39):
So I added even more skills toher list and I feel like that's
although nurturing is givingthem some about the benefits or
the support they need, but Ithink it's also giving them
challenges, cause when you'regiven a challenge, you get
really interested and you wantto accomplish it and then you
feel really good after it Onceyou accomplish it.
(13:00):
And I think it's just a reallyreally cool way of nurturing
your team and I love to do it,even though they don't always
necessarily love it.
Yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, you'reabsolutely right.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
You know and I'll just make one comment on that
Cause I think that you're soonto it there, Natalie you know,
if you look at surveys ofemployees and again, I did this
wrong for many years, which iswhy I can speak to it I used to
think that, hey, we'll just payabove market, we'll give them
lots of benefits and they shouldbe happy.
It's all about the money.
But if you look at any kind ofstudy about employees and people
(13:36):
who work for companies, moneyis like third or fourth on the
list.
Growth is probably the numberone thing.
And so what you're talkingabout, Alice, is kind of forcing
people into growth, becausehuman beings normally were
status quo creatures.
Let's face it, if we're notpushed sometimes we won't do it.
(13:57):
And so what you did to helpyour partner grow by pushing her
into those situations, actuallythat's what she really needed
and wanted, and so that's whyit's so powerful.
So, whether you knew it or notat the time, that was brilliant,
so yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
I've always tried different things.
They don't always work out good, but I say that was definitely
one of my favorite things.
Now you said that's one of thethings that you teach out of
four.
What were the other three?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Well, I always yeah.
The first one I always startwith is you know and I hate the
word you know.
It's just pet peeve of mine.
I hate the word mindset, butthat's what people use.
It's a mentality of becoming.
You know who you have to become.
Because we have this idea that,well, you know, I want to grow
(14:47):
this company into whatever, andwe forget that the only way that
company is going to grow andbecome the company that we're
dreaming about is for us tofirst grow.
We have to grow as businessowners first in order to get
that growth.
You know, I always use theexample of you know somebody
famous like you.
Look at Mark Zuckerberg.
You know if I am.
(15:07):
I forget an exact story, butyou know when he started
Facebook at Harvard or whereverhe was, and you know.
So imagine him starting thatlittle company and then, if you
took that kid at that age andyou put him into running
Facebook today, it would bebankrupt in three months because
he's not, he did not become andgrow into the person that can
(15:29):
handle that kind of company anddeal with it.
So so we first have to focus onus as a business owner.
We have to realize and learnthe skills that an owner has,
because we usually get intobusiness because we're good at
something and we want to servepeople with that.
You know particular skill, butthe problem is that that's
that's a skill, that's anemployee type of skill.
Business ownership is different.
(15:52):
You know all the things youwere talking about, the high
level strategy and the workingon the business.
Those are skills that weregenerally not taught, so we have
to learn how to become thatperson first.
So that's long.
That's what number one.
Number two is we talked aboutbuilding a team and how critical
that is.
And I'll say one thing on thattoo Some people, when they hear
(16:13):
that they'll zone out and think,oh well, that doesn't apply to
me because I'm a solopreneur orwhatever, don't have any
employees.
But that counts just as thesame if you have contractors
that you work with on a regularbasis.
That culture that you'retalking about, natalie, that is
so critical, whether they'reemployees or contractors, it's
how you do things as a business.
So so you've got you knowyourself working on you sort of
(16:38):
you ink, if you will.
You got the HR, the teambuilding aspect of it.
And then the third thing is whatI've found is that we need to
really have our company.
It needs to sales and marketingneeds to permeate the whole
company and a lot of companiessiloed in the sense that you
know if you have a marketingperson, you have a few
(17:00):
salespeople, you have one.
Whatever doesn't matter.
Those people are skilled inthat area, understand marketing,
they understand humanpsychology, things like that,
and somebody who's doing anadministrative task may not have
that skill set.
They don't understand theoverall company, what they're
trying to achieve.
You know they may not have thepersonal skills that that a
(17:23):
salesperson's learned personalpsychology you know.
And so what I did was I startedteaching everyone from at our
time, you know, receptionist topeople who are in IT, those
skills.
You know basic stuff how to,how to sell somebody, how to
deal with people, how tounderstand what's going on the
sales and marketing process, andwhen everyone starts to
(17:46):
understand that they gettogether and it just explodes
the company because everybody'son the same page versus being
siloed in their own little thing, and so I think that's a
critical part of it.
And then the final thing iswhat people usually think of
when they think of making thetransition from operator owner,
and it's really kind of a lot ofthe stuff that you're very good
at, natalie.
(18:06):
Obviously the systemization, ifyou will, of a business and you
know, a lot of times peopleconfuse systemization and
automation to Automation isawesome.
I love technology.
I'm a geek, you know.
I want to play with every newshiny object I can.
But sometimes we you, we takeautomation and we forget that
(18:29):
it's just a tool to help usimplement systems.
So systems are basicallyprocesses of how we do things,
how we can scale the business.
So, if we have, can we repeatthis at a higher level than just
one person, one customer?
What are these standardoperating procedures they would
call in the military?
And then we use tools likeautomation and other tools to
(18:50):
help us implement those things.
So, so that's the final step.
I would say.
So it's really those fourthings Again, you know, you
think, as the business owner,growing, growing that team.
You know helping sales andmarketing permeate your whole
company.
And then you know the last part, systemization.
You know the company.
So those are the things that Ipersonally found in my
(19:11):
transition that I think had beenreally helpful with a lot of
business owners I've worked with.
So so those are the big four,if you will.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
That's amazing and, you know, I really feel like
that is just.
Those are kind of like thetiers to a really healthy
business.
I talk about SOPs a lot on mypodcast, probably too much,
probably every single call.
I am a systems and processesgirl and SOPs, your standard
operating procedures, are superimportant.
I even go as far as where Ihave I actually redid my tracker
(19:42):
today for the podcast.
I have a tracker with everysingle step that you take within
a certain system.
So, for instance, you know mypodcast right.
So you have to, they have to.
I have to have the interview, Ihave to write the person's name
in the episode and theneveryone else has tasks.
So it's like editing the longform, editing graphics that were
(20:04):
part of a template and I haveit linked.
I have a tutorial and I havethe name of the person that's
doing that task and then theyhave to check it off.
And I love it.
It's so easy and we're hiringthree people today and the only
reason I'm able to hire threepeople and onboard them all
within just like an hour or twois because I have the trainings,
(20:26):
I have the SOPs and I'm able tojust kind of add their
information into a couple ofsystems and they kind of do the
rest.
I'm not gonna have to take asmuch time training them
one-on-one, and so when we dohave meetings, they'll be more
about nurturing them instead ofteaching them, which I think is
really, really important.
Plus, everyone learnsdifferently.
(20:47):
So if you give like a video orlike an SOP where it's written
and very detailed, they can goback, they can take their time,
they can review it in the future, whereas if you just have a
call with them for an hour, it'snot recorded or written down.
They're gonna forget.
Oh, yeah.
And then there's gonna bemistakes that happen.
So I think it's really.
(21:08):
I love SOPs.
I'm so happy you mentioned that, because every business owner
needs one.
They need one every aspect oftheir business.
I personally think so.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah, no, and I'll reiterate your point, what you
said there.
Now I think it's so criticalagain from my past experience
when it comes to onboardingemployees, cause, again, people
think about systems, they tendto think in the terms of sales
and marketing, they don't tendto think in terms of internal
operations, particularly theydon't think in terms of people
and training.
And Wade again did this wrongfor so many years where we have
(21:41):
a lot of technical things thatare in-house, proprietary, not
really something that somebodylearns, that another company
pops in and already knows how todo it, so we would have to
teach somebody and it would takethree months, six months, a
year before they were actuallyproductive in making the company
money by accomplishing things.
And eventually we changed towhat you're talking about now
(22:03):
the creating tutorials, doingall the documentation, doing all
that stuff.
Our most recent employee shewas up to a job that the same
job for the previous employeetook her almost a year to get it
down.
This person got it down at lessthan a month, like a few weeks.
And it's because of exactly whatyou're talking about.
(22:23):
And what was interesting is I'mnot a very good person when it
comes to creating systems.
I love systems, but that's notmy gift.
And there wasn't really anybodyin our company that I felt was
that anal and that good atcreating those kind of things
like training and all that topass that knowledge.
So we actually hired anoutsider.
(22:45):
We just some way we found anupwork and I didn't even know
what to call it.
I don't remember the searchterms, to be honest with you,
but it was like policy rider orsomething like that.
But Basically, we paid her as acontractor.
She basically interviewed theperson in the job.
She had them screen recordeverything they did and ask them
(23:07):
some questions, and she createdall these SOPs, all these
tutorials for us and they'reawesome and, just like you said,
now somebody can walk rightinto that position.
So I think that's so awesome.
You know what you did and youknow the huge relief, like you
said, to be able to onboardthree people at once.
I mean, my gosh, try to do thatwhen you're teaching them one
by one.
You know I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
So that's just totally awesome.
Yeah, I used to do that and itwould just take way too long.
And then I stopped hiring for awhile because I was getting so
exhausted and the point where Ineeded to hire a lot more people
I stopped because I was scaredon that it was going to take up
all my time.
And you get in this place andthat's when I was working in my
business I wasn't the operatorat that point and so you're
(23:50):
trying to do all the client workbecause you're trying not to
hire.
And sometimes you get in thepoint where you're like, oh, I
need to save money right now, soI can't hire.
You're doing all these clienttasks and then your business
isn't growing.
You're stuck in the cycle ofyou're doing client work and
you're not growing.
You might get one or two newclients, so it feels like you're
growing, but you're really not.
And then you, your home lifegets neglected, your team starts
(24:12):
failing.
It's like don't get in thatcycle.
It's very, very easy to thinkif I hire some, especially
payroll is your biggest expense.
It's like if I hire someone,I'm going to lose money.
It's not true.
You actually have theopportunity to make more money
and that's, I think the reallycool thing about business.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Now that's why I think what youdo is so cool.
You know the stuff they puttogether, because you know, it's
all I think.
Like you said, we think, ohgeez, you know, if I hire
somebody I'm going to pay them Xamount per hour, you know, or
salary, whatever.
But we don't realize that we,as the business owner, we have
an hourly two, whether we knowit or not or want to admit it,
and so if we're doing itourselves, then we're paying the
(24:53):
company's paying us that hourly, and that might be 50 bucks an
hour, when you can hire somebodyfor 30 bucks an hour to do the
same task.
So we're actually losing moneytrying to do it ourselves.
So I, like I said, I know frompast experience, but that's why,
like I said, I think it's soawesome what you do.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Thank you, I think it's amazing what you're doing,
because you're helpingentrepreneurs with, I think, an
area that we all tend tostruggle with, that one prayer
or another.
So how can we find out moreabout you and your services?
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Of course you know I'm on most of the social media
channels see, usually under theRobert pool, and a lot of
YouTube videos and that's worthuncovering the subject.
And you can go to our mainwebsite, total business
resultscom.
Reach out to us that way.
Or I always you know onpodcasts that I like that I talk
(25:41):
to people.
I always like to give out mypersonal email as well, so I'll
do that.
You can reach out to me atRobert, at operator2ownernet, so
it's operator to ownernet, andjust you know, put in the
subject line hey, I was, youknow virtual antics, you know
podcaster or something.
So I know where you came fromand I'll reply and we can set up
(26:03):
a time to chat.
You know and you know and wecan kind of go through your
business, see where you're at,you know, and see if I can help
you with any ideas and if Ican't, maybe I'll refer you to
somebody else.
And you know, if you want myfurther help, we can talk about
that, certainly, but no pressureor anything.
But I'd love to help anybodywho's who struggle with that,
just because you know I canrelate and I know a lot of
business owners can 100%.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Well, I'll make sure I put that in the show notes.
Thank you so much, robert, forgiving us so much knowledge and
I really hope that we're goingto start creating.
You know everyone is going tosit down, put, implement this,
put it into their business sothey can actually have their
dream business and not just beworking 24 seven.
So thanks again, Robert, andwe'll talk to you guys next time
on the virtual index podcast.
Welcome to the Virtual Antics podcast, where we
help entrepreneurs streamlinetheir business to six figures
and beyond.
These short, sweet and infopacked episodes will inspire,
educate and leave you feelingmotivated to take one more step
forward in your business.
So put down your never-endingto-do list, because in this
podcast we are interviewing thebest of the best in the
entrepreneurial world as theyspill their secrets to success.
(00:23):
This podcast is sponsored byNandora, the all-in-one software
for entrepreneurs to grow theirbusiness, with unlimited
landing pages, automations,emails and text campaigns, and
so much more.
I'm your host, natalie Guzman.
Now let's get into it.
Hey guys, welcome back toVirtual Antics podcast.
As always, I'm your host,natalie Guzman, so excited to
(00:44):
have Robert Poole on the callwith us.
He is the co-founder of TotalBusiness Results.
He helps entrepreneurs who aretied to their businesses make
the transition from operator toowner in their business so they
can finally achieve the freedomthey got into entrepreneurship
in the first place.
Welcome, robert.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Oh, perfect.
Great Thanks for having me onthe show, Natalie.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, I'm so excited to have you.
You're coming all the way fromArizona super cool.
So tell us a little bit abouthow you got started.
Especially.
This is such a cool thing, sounique, and I think a lot of our
listeners need to understandand hear about how they can
really be the operator.
So how did you get into this?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, absolutely.
I've been in sales andmarketing for many years,
started as a young man back inthe 90s, dating myself a little,
and I started a B2B marketingfirm with my best friend right
around I think it was around2000.
And so we took it from justnothing, didn't have any money
(01:43):
no seed money to start off with,and grew it into multi-million
dollar business focused mostlyon B2B cold calling.
That was our expertise and sowe were really successful.
We were making a lot of moneyand, because I had a business
partner, a lot of partnershipsdon't work out that well, but I
was very fortunate.
(02:03):
We complimented each other verywell and we were best friends,
and so we went along and, as Isaid, had all these employees
and had a good company making alot of money.
I had freedom to take time off.
I took a three-way honeymoon,he took vacations.
I took vacations because wecould cover for each other.
(02:24):
There's that mental crutch ofhaving somebody else at the
company.
He handled, he was sort of thepublic face of the company and I
worked behind the scenes doingoperations around the sales
teams, things like that, and soit was a great situation.
And then, 2017, day after 4th ofJuly, I came into the office
like normal and he didn't comein and I thought that wasn't
(02:49):
completely strange.
And then his fiance startedcalling me and saying I haven't
heard from 24 hours.
And I thought, well, he'll goMIA for a while, not a big deal.
But as a favor to her I said,okay, he was not interested, so
I'll just run over to his housereal quick.
And unfortunately I found hepassed away from a heart attack
the day before.
And so I've got this personaltragedy, of course, because he
(03:12):
was my good friend and thenbusiness wise, all of a sudden
I'm in charge of thismulti-million dollar company and
I'm trying to do his job, myjob, and then I'm thrust into
the being the public face of thecompany, being the leader,
which I wasn't used to.
I was starting working at fourin the morning until seven at
(03:33):
night, seven days a week, tryingto hold things together, and I
realized I couldn't even take amorning off, much less a day or
a week, and I'm tied to thisbusiness, that we had gotten to
that point where I had all thisfreedom and so— you know, I
realized that.
You know this is killing myfamily, my personal life, and
(03:53):
it's not a sustainable model inbusiness, and it's something
that a lot of people in businessstruggle with, you know, and so
I figured I've got to figureout a way out of this.
So I've spent, you know, abouttwo years trying to figure out
how do I get myself out of thebusiness where I can get that
freedom back, and so I was ableto do that.
Like I said, it took me acouple years, a little trial and
(04:15):
error, and so since then I'vebeen helping other business
owners kind of achieve the samething, and so it's a long answer
to your question, but that'skind of where I got to where I
am now.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, and I think it's really important that we
have that background and I'm sosorry for your loss.
It's definitely not somethingeasy, you know.
You're kind of thrust in thatsituation where it's kind of
like survival mode.
Right, you're just trying tofigure out, and the fact that
you pivoted and try to figureout a way to fix that and get
out of that survival mode super,super impressive.
We, I know like I've gonethrough that.
(04:50):
I struggled with that.
I had a lot of clients say, oh,you're always going to answer
the phone because businessowners work 24 seven, right.
And I was like no, I got thisbusiness.
I got into this business tospend more time with my kids.
My husband's a first responderand so I have to be the main
caregiver, the main parent, andso I need to be the one that
(05:10):
shows up to all the differentyou know activities and school
events and doctor.
We have a child that goesthrough a lot of health issues
and so going to all the doctorsappointments and keeping track
of that, and so having abusiness that would take all my
time, it just it would not makesense, right, and my business
was my passion, but I didn'twant it to be my whole life.
So we I took on a partner tokind of help that load and then
(05:35):
us together kind of did thisoperation thing that you talked
about, where we're not reallyworking in in in the business,
we're working on the business,and I think there's a very, very
important then distinction.
Distinction between that.
You know, we're not doing theevery day, we're not working one
on one clients, we're notworking on the everyday tasks.
(05:55):
We're really we do strategizeand things like that, but we
also have figureheads.
So what does it look like toyou to be an operator versus,
you know, someone that's justworking in the business?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
And you know.
And your description of whatyou said you know.
You know it's so funny becauseall of us pretty much get into
entrepreneurship.
For you know the reason that.
You know, we want to be our ownboss, we want to set our own
schedule, we want our income notto be limited by you know what
somebody else says.
And then you know you check inwith somebody two or three years
after they start and andthey're working 60, 70 hours a
(06:29):
week and can't get away allthose things you know.
So it's kind of funny how thatworks.
But you know, I think for me therealization, you know, the real
difference between an operatorand owner is how necessary you
are for the business to not onlyrun on a day-to-day basis but
to grow.
It is, I always say, if you can, you know, leave tomorrow.
(06:53):
And you know, go to Tahiti forthree weeks or whatever, and not
take your phone and yourcomputer.
And you come back and yourbusiness is, one, is it still
there?
And two, is it still growing?
Then you become a full businessowner.
Of course it's a spectrum, likeeverything.
You know you can't always 100%get there unless you're, you
(07:13):
know, become sort of an investor, where you're completely out
the hands off.
But you know you go from beingtask oriented, doing you know,
you know for lack of a betterterm low level things to doing
what you're talking about nowthe strategy, the bigger picture
, working on the business itself.
You know what kind of clientsdo we have, what kind should we
have.
You know how do we serve themthe best.
(07:35):
You know what do we need to doand make a difference.
You know those types ofquestions.
So to me that's really thedifference between the operator
and the owner role.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Yeah, I 100% agree.
And it's such a nice feelingtoo once you're there.
You're like you can breathe,and the fact that you've hired a
really because you can't get tothat position without having a
really good team behind you.
And so once you realize, oh, Ihave an amazing team and I am
relying on them and you gottamake sure you nurture them too.
(08:05):
Right Is nurturing an importantpart about being the operator
and handing your business overto your team.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh yeah, I really teach four main principles, and
that's a big one.
The building a team and it'sone of those things that I
struggled with for many yearsbecause I came from a military
background and I went to WestPoint.
I was an army officer for awhile when I was younger, and so
that environment is very topdown, sort of you tell somebody
what to do, they have to do it,whereas the real world, in
(08:37):
business, people don't have todo what you say.
They can go get a job somewhereelse, and so it takes a
different skill set and we haveto learn to.
If we really wanna have thatautonomy and be able to walk
away from our business and leavepeople that we trust and charge
, then we've gotta create what Icall a set of many owners, and
(08:59):
it doesn't necessarily mean theyhave to have equity in the
company.
I mean they can.
But primarily what I'm gettingat is you wanna build a team so
that people have a vestedinterest, that they almost feel
like an owner of the company,and that way you don't have to
worry about watching whatthey're doing on a daily basis.
You don't have to bemicromanaging over their
(09:20):
shoulder.
I remember this was probably2010-ish or something like that.
I mean, the technology is wayoutdated.
But we even had basically a spyprogram that was installed on
all the work computers to trackwhat people were doing and
everything.
And I look back at that now Ithink, oh my gosh, but creating
(09:41):
that team of people that youtrust and that have that vested
interest is just probably themost critical part of any
business as far as how to grow.
You always talk about, from abusiness valuation standpoint,
an outside investor thatconsidering buying your company.
What do they look for?
And a lot of times they'rebuying your customer list.
(10:02):
It's like Facebook when theybought Instagram, it wasn't
because they couldn't do thetechnologies, because they
wanted the user base, but from asmall business owner's
perspective, I believe that yourteam is your absolute single
most valuable asset that youhave.
So if we create that right team, create that culture of
(10:23):
nurturing like you're talkingabout, let's say, you get
basically sued out of businessor you lose your biggest
customer or any number of things.
If you have the right team inplace, those people are gonna
stick with you and you canrecover from that.
And I will take that any day ofthe week over any customer, any
situation because it really isbusinesses about people, life is
(10:47):
about people.
So, absolutely, I totally agreethat that is one of the most
critical things in making thattransition.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Amazing.
Yeah, so my partner actuallystarted out as one of my very
first hires and so she wasactually just hired as an admin
assistant and then going to likewebsite and funnels, creating
programs, operations manager,and at one point I was just like
you've given me so much valueand we worked so well together
(11:14):
and we both had a passion.
That's when the business becamemore than just me and I was
like this is actually like aliving, breathing thing that's
giving other people passion, andthen she eventually became
business owner.
So that was kind of it was avery don't recommend it for
everyone.
It just really worked for us.
Her personalities worked in.
The fact that we're both momswas like very helpful.
(11:36):
That's awesome.
Thanks, yeah.
But I realized with her thatnurturing and also giving them
responsibility you don't thinkthey're necessarily ready for.
She used to yell at me becauseI would not really yell at me
but she would make fun of mebecause I would throw her into
the ocean is what I would say.
I'm gonna throw you in, see ifyou can sink or you're gonna
(11:56):
swim.
And I would give her scenariosLike first time she ever had to
upsell a client, I put her wewere on a call together with the
client and she had me theirsupport to in case to try to
upsell the client on somethingthat they really needed.
Like it was something thattheir business, like, was really
absolutely needing.
We both were really passionateabout that and we knew it would
(12:19):
be easy sell.
So I was like I texted her onZoom.
I was like, hey, you're gonnahandle this, you're gonna bring
up the offer.
She was like you can just seeher eyes widening while she was
reading it.
But she killed it.
She got the upgrade, which wassuper cool, and then she felt
comfortable doing like discoverycalls and things like that.
(12:39):
So I added even more skills toher list and I feel like that's
although nurturing is givingthem some about the benefits or
the support they need, but Ithink it's also giving them
challenges, cause when you'regiven a challenge, you get
really interested and you wantto accomplish it and then you
feel really good after it Onceyou accomplish it.
(13:00):
And I think it's just a reallyreally cool way of nurturing
your team and I love to do it,even though they don't always
necessarily love it.
Yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, you'reabsolutely right.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
You know and I'll just make one comment on that
Cause I think that you're soonto it there, Natalie you know,
if you look at surveys ofemployees and again, I did this
wrong for many years, which iswhy I can speak to it I used to
think that, hey, we'll just payabove market, we'll give them
lots of benefits and they shouldbe happy.
It's all about the money.
But if you look at any kind ofstudy about employees and people
(13:36):
who work for companies, moneyis like third or fourth on the
list.
Growth is probably the numberone thing.
And so what you're talkingabout, Alice, is kind of forcing
people into growth, becausehuman beings normally were
status quo creatures.
Let's face it, if we're notpushed sometimes we won't do it.
(13:57):
And so what you did to helpyour partner grow by pushing her
into those situations, actuallythat's what she really needed
and wanted, and so that's whyit's so powerful.
So, whether you knew it or notat the time, that was brilliant,
so yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
I've always tried different things.
They don't always work out good, but I say that was definitely
one of my favorite things.
Now you said that's one of thethings that you teach out of
four.
What were the other three?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Well, I always yeah.
The first one I always startwith is you know and I hate the
word you know.
It's just pet peeve of mine.
I hate the word mindset, butthat's what people use.
It's a mentality of becoming.
You know who you have to become.
Because we have this idea that,well, you know, I want to grow
(14:47):
this company into whatever, andwe forget that the only way that
company is going to grow andbecome the company that we're
dreaming about is for us tofirst grow.
We have to grow as businessowners first in order to get
that growth.
You know, I always use theexample of you know somebody
famous like you.
Look at Mark Zuckerberg.
You know if I am.
(15:07):
I forget an exact story, butyou know when he started
Facebook at Harvard or whereverhe was, and you know.
So imagine him starting thatlittle company and then, if you
took that kid at that age andyou put him into running
Facebook today, it would bebankrupt in three months because
he's not, he did not become andgrow into the person that can
(15:29):
handle that kind of company anddeal with it.
So so we first have to focus onus as a business owner.
We have to realize and learnthe skills that an owner has,
because we usually get intobusiness because we're good at
something and we want to servepeople with that.
You know particular skill, butthe problem is that that's
that's a skill, that's anemployee type of skill.
Business ownership is different.
(15:52):
You know all the things youwere talking about, the high
level strategy and the workingon the business.
Those are skills that weregenerally not taught, so we have
to learn how to become thatperson first.
So that's long.
That's what number one.
Number two is we talked aboutbuilding a team and how critical
that is.
And I'll say one thing on thattoo Some people, when they hear
(16:13):
that they'll zone out and think,oh well, that doesn't apply to
me because I'm a solopreneur orwhatever, don't have any
employees.
But that counts just as thesame if you have contractors
that you work with on a regularbasis.
That culture that you'retalking about, natalie, that is
so critical, whether they'reemployees or contractors, it's
how you do things as a business.
So so you've got you knowyourself working on you sort of
(16:38):
you ink, if you will.
You got the HR, the teambuilding aspect of it.
And then the third thing is whatI've found is that we need to
really have our company.
It needs to sales and marketingneeds to permeate the whole
company and a lot of companiessiloed in the sense that you
know if you have a marketingperson, you have a few
(17:00):
salespeople, you have one.
Whatever doesn't matter.
Those people are skilled inthat area, understand marketing,
they understand humanpsychology, things like that,
and somebody who's doing anadministrative task may not have
that skill set.
They don't understand theoverall company, what they're
trying to achieve.
You know they may not have thepersonal skills that that a
(17:23):
salesperson's learned personalpsychology you know.
And so what I did was I startedteaching everyone from at our
time, you know, receptionist topeople who are in IT, those
skills.
You know basic stuff how to,how to sell somebody, how to
deal with people, how tounderstand what's going on the
sales and marketing process, andwhen everyone starts to
(17:46):
understand that they gettogether and it just explodes
the company because everybody'son the same page versus being
siloed in their own little thing, and so I think that's a
critical part of it.
And then the final thing iswhat people usually think of
when they think of making thetransition from operator owner,
and it's really kind of a lot ofthe stuff that you're very good
at, natalie.
(18:06):
Obviously the systemization, ifyou will, of a business and you
know, a lot of times peopleconfuse systemization and
automation to Automation isawesome.
I love technology.
I'm a geek, you know.
I want to play with every newshiny object I can.
But sometimes we you, we takeautomation and we forget that
(18:29):
it's just a tool to help usimplement systems.
So systems are basicallyprocesses of how we do things,
how we can scale the business.
So, if we have, can we repeatthis at a higher level than just
one person, one customer?
What are these standardoperating procedures they would
call in the military?
And then we use tools likeautomation and other tools to
(18:50):
help us implement those things.
So, so that's the final step.
I would say.
So it's really those fourthings Again, you know, you
think, as the business owner,growing, growing that team.
You know helping sales andmarketing permeate your whole
company.
And then you know the last part, systemization.
You know the company.
So those are the things that Ipersonally found in my
(19:11):
transition that I think had beenreally helpful with a lot of
business owners I've worked with.
So so those are the big four,if you will.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
That's amazing and, you know, I really feel like
that is just.
Those are kind of like thetiers to a really healthy
business.
I talk about SOPs a lot on mypodcast, probably too much,
probably every single call.
I am a systems and processesgirl and SOPs, your standard
operating procedures, are superimportant.
I even go as far as where Ihave I actually redid my tracker
(19:42):
today for the podcast.
I have a tracker with everysingle step that you take within
a certain system.
So, for instance, you know mypodcast right.
So you have to, they have to.
I have to have the interview, Ihave to write the person's name
in the episode and theneveryone else has tasks.
So it's like editing the longform, editing graphics that were
(20:04):
part of a template and I haveit linked.
I have a tutorial and I havethe name of the person that's
doing that task and then theyhave to check it off.
And I love it.
It's so easy and we're hiringthree people today and the only
reason I'm able to hire threepeople and onboard them all
within just like an hour or twois because I have the trainings,
(20:26):
I have the SOPs and I'm able tojust kind of add their
information into a couple ofsystems and they kind of do the
rest.
I'm not gonna have to take asmuch time training them
one-on-one, and so when we dohave meetings, they'll be more
about nurturing them instead ofteaching them, which I think is
really, really important.
Plus, everyone learnsdifferently.
(20:47):
So if you give like a video orlike an SOP where it's written
and very detailed, they can goback, they can take their time,
they can review it in the future, whereas if you just have a
call with them for an hour, it'snot recorded or written down.
They're gonna forget.
Oh, yeah.
And then there's gonna bemistakes that happen.
So I think it's really.
(21:08):
I love SOPs.
I'm so happy you mentioned that, because every business owner
needs one.
They need one every aspect oftheir business.
I personally think so.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah, no, and I'll reiterate your point, what you
said there.
Now I think it's so criticalagain from my past experience
when it comes to onboardingemployees, cause, again, people
think about systems, they tendto think in the terms of sales
and marketing, they don't tendto think in terms of internal
operations, particularly theydon't think in terms of people
and training.
And Wade again did this wrongfor so many years where we have
(21:41):
a lot of technical things thatare in-house, proprietary, not
really something that somebodylearns, that another company
pops in and already knows how todo it, so we would have to
teach somebody and it would takethree months, six months, a
year before they were actuallyproductive in making the company
money by accomplishing things.
And eventually we changed towhat you're talking about now
(22:03):
the creating tutorials, doingall the documentation, doing all
that stuff.
Our most recent employee shewas up to a job that the same
job for the previous employeetook her almost a year to get it
down.
This person got it down at lessthan a month, like a few weeks.
And it's because of exactly whatyou're talking about.
(22:23):
And what was interesting is I'mnot a very good person when it
comes to creating systems.
I love systems, but that's notmy gift.
And there wasn't really anybodyin our company that I felt was
that anal and that good atcreating those kind of things
like training and all that topass that knowledge.
So we actually hired anoutsider.
(22:45):
We just some way we found anupwork and I didn't even know
what to call it.
I don't remember the searchterms, to be honest with you,
but it was like policy rider orsomething like that.
But Basically, we paid her as acontractor.
She basically interviewed theperson in the job.
She had them screen recordeverything they did and ask them
(23:07):
some questions, and she createdall these SOPs, all these
tutorials for us and they'reawesome and, just like you said,
now somebody can walk rightinto that position.
So I think that's so awesome.
You know what you did and youknow the huge relief, like you
said, to be able to onboardthree people at once.
I mean, my gosh, try to do thatwhen you're teaching them one
by one.
You know I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
So that's just totally awesome.
Yeah, I used to do that and itwould just take way too long.
And then I stopped hiring for awhile because I was getting so
exhausted and the point where Ineeded to hire a lot more people
I stopped because I was scaredon that it was going to take up
all my time.
And you get in this place andthat's when I was working in my
business I wasn't the operatorat that point and so you're
(23:50):
trying to do all the client workbecause you're trying not to
hire.
And sometimes you get in thepoint where you're like, oh, I
need to save money right now, soI can't hire.
You're doing all these clienttasks and then your business
isn't growing.
You're stuck in the cycle ofyou're doing client work and
you're not growing.
You might get one or two newclients, so it feels like you're
growing, but you're really not.
And then you, your home lifegets neglected, your team starts
(24:12):
failing.
It's like don't get in thatcycle.
It's very, very easy to thinkif I hire some, especially
payroll is your biggest expense.
It's like if I hire someone,I'm going to lose money.
It's not true.
You actually have theopportunity to make more money
and that's, I think the reallycool thing about business.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Now that's why I think what youdo is so cool.
You know the stuff they puttogether, because you know, it's
all I think.
Like you said, we think, ohgeez, you know, if I hire
somebody I'm going to pay them Xamount per hour, you know, or
salary, whatever.
But we don't realize that we,as the business owner, we have
an hourly two, whether we knowit or not or want to admit it,
and so if we're doing itourselves, then we're paying the
(24:53):
company's paying us that hourly, and that might be 50 bucks an
hour, when you can hire somebodyfor 30 bucks an hour to do the
same task.
So we're actually losing moneytrying to do it ourselves.
So I, like I said, I know frompast experience, but that's why,
like I said, I think it's soawesome what you do.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Thank you, I think it's amazing what you're doing,
because you're helpingentrepreneurs with, I think, an
area that we all tend tostruggle with, that one prayer
or another.
So how can we find out moreabout you and your services?
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Of course you know I'm on most of the social media
channels see, usually under theRobert pool, and a lot of
YouTube videos and that's worthuncovering the subject.
And you can go to our mainwebsite, total business
resultscom.
Reach out to us that way.
Or I always you know onpodcasts that I like that I talk
(25:41):
to people.
I always like to give out mypersonal email as well, so I'll
do that.
You can reach out to me atRobert, at operator2ownernet, so
it's operator to ownernet, andjust you know, put in the
subject line hey, I was, youknow virtual antics, you know
podcaster or something.
So I know where you came fromand I'll reply and we can set up
(26:03):
a time to chat.
You know and you know and wecan kind of go through your
business, see where you're at,you know, and see if I can help
you with any ideas and if Ican't, maybe I'll refer you to
somebody else.
And you know, if you want myfurther help, we can talk about
that, certainly, but no pressureor anything.
But I'd love to help anybodywho's who struggle with that,
just because you know I canrelate and I know a lot of
business owners can 100%.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Well, I'll make sure I put that in the show notes.
Thank you so much, robert, forgiving us so much knowledge and
I really hope that we're goingto start creating.
You know everyone is going tosit down, put, implement this,
put it into their business sothey can actually have their
dream business and not just beworking 24 seven.
So thanks again, Robert, andwe'll talk to you guys next time
on the virtual index podcast.
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