A cause for some celebration…wow! It’s hard to imagine I’ve done this 100 times now. Crazy how time flies!
I want to start off today’s episode expressing gratitude:
- Thank you to all of the many amazing business owners and experts who have given their time to be guests on our podcast.
- Thank you to PredictiveROI who is a tremendous thought partner and resource for us as we consider what content to share and which guests to invite. The PredictiveROI team has also done an outstanding job of producing this podcast (editing audio and video, creating show notes, and promoting our episodes via social media). Truly, this podcast wouldn’t exist without their help and guidance.
- And last but not least, a heartfelt thanks to you, our listeners. Without you, this podcast would be meaningless. You not only provide the inspiration for us to keep doing this but you also provide valuable feedback to us as you comment and review the podcast.
I want to say something about the inspiration you provide. As a 7-figure business owner, you represent the 3-5% of all businesses that ever make it to $1M or more in revenue. You are an Elite Entrepreneur.
We celebrate you as an Elite Entrepreneur. Your business serves a real need in the world…for many of you, that impact is felt right there in your local community. Some of you sell to customers throughout the world, and bring outside revenue into your local economy. You all provide jobs for people and help fuel local, state and national economies.
You are awe inspiring and we absolutely love to live our Purpose of helping elite entrepreneurs like you build meaningful businesses.
What have we learned or gained over the 100 episodes?
First…Interviewing so many amazing business owners about their 7-figure growth journeys has only reaffirmed for me a strong belief that you have three primary responsibilities as the owner or president or CEO of your business once you pass $1M in revenue:
- Set the Vision
- Build the Team
- Secure Fuel for Growth
First, here are some highlights from past episodes about your responsibility to Set the Vision:
- Grant Botma (43) – just a really awesome business owner who truly understands how to put people first and what creating an amazing culture does for performance.
- Erika Flora (71) – never a good idea to hire someone just because you desperately need to fill a position; Erika talked about the importance of defining your Values and building the company based on those Values
- EK Navan (60) – speaking of the importance of Vision, EK shared, “You gotta get them to buy into it and let them run with it.”
- Misty Lown (84) shared something similar. She talked about how collaboration across the team and working toward a shared Vision for the company is the key to getting real buy-in.
Next are some highlights about Building the Team:
- Angela Olea (44) explains why you need to take time to find that leader in your team, every company needs a “Switzerland” who can take and share ideas, both good and bad, and offer you a different perspective”
- Lamar Tyler (92) – “Being a successful entrepreneur isn’t the same as being a great leader.” Lamar realized he needs to keep learning about leading at the next level, and he seeks out the right mentors to help him with that.
- Bryan Clayton (97) shares a helpful hack that can allow you to bring in “fractional” high-level leaders to help you move the needle for your organization more quickly.
We even had some great episodes about your third responsibility to Secure Fuel for Growth:
- Episode 48 with JD Graffam – understanding your Cash Flow; the lifeblood of your business
- Episode 77 with Rick Barrera – developing a Sales Mindset
- Episode 28 with Clate Mask – what to do when cash is tight
As I scrolled through show notes of all of the podcasts on our website, there were a few quotes that caught my attention that don’t necessarily fit into one of your primary roles as a business owner…but they are great insights for every business owner:
- Tommy Breedlove (88) – “You can’t serve others in leadership and business and life and family and love, unless you truly love, lead respect and are confident in yourself.“
- Ed Rush (86) – “If you can bring a little discipline into your life, what it creates is these massive opportunities for Freedom.”
- Jessica Stellwagon (65) – “We were able to ask ourselves what are the things that differentiate us and how do we successfully weave that into all our marketing, in every experience the people have from the first touch on our website, to the phone call, to the text messages, to walking in our office, to being treated and then the follow up. Consistency brings confidence in prospects and clients.”
And here are some key Insights/lessons from guests that changed or improved upon the way I think about what it means to be a great leader of a 7-figure business:
- Mary Crafts (21) “The most powerful asset you will ever have is your integrity, without that eventually your business is going to be in trouble. With that, your business will grow and flourish.”
- Tim Cameron-Kitchen from Exposure Ninja (80) – divorced himself from his previous identity as a doer. Realized he had to let go of how he created value and felt valuable previously to evolve into the new leader that the business needed to keep growing. Done that multiple times.
- Casey Graham from Gravy (81) Put employees first – not customers, not partners, not shareholders… their team members come first and everyone else benefits as a result. Really cool!
- Noah Gottlieb (96) – practice of pushing tasks to others and helping them grow into new levels of responsibility. I loved Noah’s gauge for when to hand things off. He said, “If I’m doing something longer than 6 months I know it is time to give it away.”
I had a couple episodes (that happened to be back-to-back) that reminded me how awesome people can be…to me, these two examples represent very well the grit, determination, and tenacity I see when I work with entrepreneurs:
- Mary Crafts (21) – hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro at 65 years old!
- Scott Sambucci (20) – endurance athlete…multiple Ironman races, ultra-marathon runner (including a 200 mile race) and a marathon swimmer. Just a crazy fit person and an amazing entrepreneur who teaches other entrepreneurs how to scale their sales processes
And then there’s episodes 39-42: a four part mini-series on the Elite Business Growth Method:
- Set the Vision
- The Two Sides of Every Business
- Organizing the Work & Hiring, Leading and Firing to the Vision
- Meeting Rhythm
Learning to grow and lead a successful business is like learning a language…you can spend a lifetime working on it and never arrive at full mastery. You keep learning and improving throughout your life.
- We have a member of our Elite Momentum community named David Blatner. When I think of language mastery, I think of David. From the time he was young, his father would teach him vocabulary that most of us will never encounter or use in our entire lifetime. Decades later, David continues to work at improving his vocabulary and his mastery of the English language. Incidentally, he is one of the most gifted writers I’ve ever met. He is a great example to me of what it looks like to always learn and improve in his mastery of language.
- So let me ask you this…Are YOU being thoughtful about becoming a master at growing a business and leading your people?
- The transition from operating a business to growing and leading a business doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen without effort. Just like anything else worth doing, it requires intentional effort and practice.
I want you to ask yourself a question…How are you pushing yourself to be intellectually challenged and grow? What are you doing to make sure you are genuinely curious and always learning. I challenge you to find ways to ensure you are learning…that you feed and encourage your own intellectual curiosity.
- In parallel with the stages of small business growth, there are stages of personal growth/understanding for the business owner. If you become a capable 6-figure business owner, that’s where your business will grow. If you learn how to become a 7-figure entrepreneur, that unlocks some additional potential in your business.
- I am a firm believer that a business can only grow to the level of the leader’s capabilities. In other words, I’m suggesting that the growth of your business is capped by your personal growth. If you agree with that idea, then the question you should immediately be asking yourself next is, “What am I doing to raise that cap?” or maybe even “What am I willing to do to raise that cap?”
- Now, I’ve placed a lot of emphasis on your growth and your abilities to enable the business to grow further…In reality, it is the collective capability of the leadership team and ultimately the collective capability of the entire team that determines how far your business can go. But it starts with you!
It is consistent work over time that produces the end result…like a brush stroke in a painting. The journey to become and do doesn’t happen overnight. It is a process…remember, consistent focus and effort over time is the key. And you can do it! I have yet to meet a business owner who couldn’t do this work. I’ve met plenty who wouldn’t do the work or felt like they didn’t have the energy left in them to do it, but learning and growing as a leader is completely within your grasp.
Again, thank you for making the Elite Entrepreneurs podcast a regular part of your learning and growth. And I want to give another shout out to all of our incredible guests for making the first 100 episodes not only possible but incredibly valuable for anyone who is working to scale from 7 to 8 figures.
Please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you are using to access it and please share it with other 7-figure business owners. We want to help as many elite entrepreneurs as possible build meaningful businesses.
If you are getting everything you need to scale your business by listening to this podcast, that’s great. We’re genuinely happy you are getting what you need. But…if you need any help with your 7-figure growth journey, we spend all of our time teaching business owners our Elite Business Growth Method and supporting them as they implement what we teach. For more information about how we might be able to help you, please go to our website at growwithelite.com or send us an email at info@growwithelite.com.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode and be sure to join us again next week for episode 101.
