So I have a question for you.
Why do most businesses fail today?
Well, it depends who you ask.
The Harvard Business Review will say it's under capitalization.
That's why they fail.
They're wrong.
I'm not scared to say Harvard's wrong.
Businesses fail because they don't sell enough product
or service at a high enough price.
Hands down, that's all.
I can't make it any simpler.
You need to sell.
You've got to move your product or service, whatever that takes.
And it's not having the greatest marketing company in the world,
either.
It's you getting it done in the beginning.
But you can sell.
That's what we call the fuel for the economic engine.
Your business is an economic engine.
Your fuel is sales.
And it's got to be priced right.
People can sell, but they're not pricing it properly.
And that also stalls out the business.
That's scary.
It is, because I hear a lot of people in real estate
were not really selling anything other than our commission rate
kind of thing.
You know what I mean?
That's how we make our profit.
However, I hear so many businesses that sell products
start off at the low end because they want to get familiar.
They say, hey, I want people to come to me
and talk to me.
And then they raise the price.
And unbeknownst to everybody else, they just click on it.
It's like, oh my goodness.
How does that happen?
How does that work to move, to get someone motivated to be OK
to have a price that could actually lead to profit?
Yeah, it's really simple.
It's one word.
It's called value.
They have to drive value.
They have to be a value-driven business, not
price-driven business.
You want to compete against Walmart, have fun.
You're going to have to be the lowest every single day.
It's a race to the bottom.
You'll never get out of that.
You'll never scale.
But if you know, because I make this assumption,
I make the assumption that everyone I work with
is great at what they do.
You've got a great idea.
So you're great at it.
But now, how do you convey that value to the customer
that they can attach a dollar amount to the value, which
means when someone buys, they buy a car for $40,000.
So you just go out and buy a new car for $40,000.
They didn't buy it because they wouldn't pay $40,100.
If it was $100 more, they'd say no.
That's not it.
It's worth more than $40,000 to them, not just in money,
but value and prestige.
I can drive around with the sun roof open.
The whole thing.
That's what they're buying.
They're not buying the dollar amount.
Yeah.
You understand?
So they're not shopping because I have $10 to spend.
You know what I'm saying?
So the value is how you present the value.
Again, and we always, one of the key factors in everything
that we do is we always deliver more value
than someone's paying for it.
Always.
20 years as a custom water feature builder, never once.
I built over 1,000 of them.
Did anyone ever tell me they overpaid?
It was always, you don't charge enough.
And I charged a lot.
Yeah.
OK.
It's not that you buy.
I get to whatever I want.
They're still like, you should charge more.
I'm like, yeah, now that yours is done, right?
You know?
So it's kind of good.
But that's value.
It's all about value.
Can you teach someone how to be valuable
or to put value in their product?
Yes.
Absolutely.
Because here's a weird psychological thing.
None of us value ourselves properly.
Yeah.
Almost hands down across the board.
And you can probably, right?
You're shaking your head.
I'll shake my head.
I don't.
Everyone.
It's just we don't.
So you need outside eyes on that.
I had an office manager who literally made me $400,000 more
on a single job because she valued
what I did more than I did.
Because I said, hey, we can do it for this.
She goes, no.
She kept going higher, higher.
Let me do that.
She wrote it out.
We made an extra $400,000.
Because someone else had higher value in what I did than I did.
OK.
That's amazing.
Yes.
So then there has to be voice behind the value.
And voice meaning someone that, if it's not yourself,
someone that does see the value to give you that,
I guess, that encouragement to show you your value.
And I get goosebumps saying it because we
should know ourselves how valuable we are
and what we put our brains and our vision and our passion into
is just that valuable.
But we don't.
We don't.
Yeah, we spend our life with people telling us
no all the time.
Yeah.
Even as a kid.
No.
I try to work with my children.
I really tried not to do.
I mean, there's time you say no because they're
going to stick a fork in the outlet.
OK, like, I'm not going to do that.
But sometimes you got to let them stick the fork in the outlet.
Then they learn.
But at the same time, I want them to work for it
from a sales standpoint.
Because kids will just keep asking, asking, asking.
And I want them to drive it, go, go, go, and find, all right,
yeah, that makes sense.
We'll go with that.
I'll let you do it because they persisted for four days
on what they want to make sure they know it.
Of course, they're going to ask.
That's easy.
But we want to make them work.
I think understanding the value of what they have to bring
in order to get what they want.
Yeah.
Right?
So they have to show me something more than just
asking just because I'm your dad.
Yes.
Show me why.
Show me why you deserve this.
And then make them walk through that exercise.
And now if they can do that when they're young,
it kind of becomes habit.
Now they're always willing to stay in the fight, which
is part of my terminology.
I just want you to stay in there and make it work.
So that goes back to the name of your business,
Sharp in the Spear.
We always think that for ourselves
that we are in the right place.
And I'm sure most business individuals that do contact you
are like, hey, I got it all down pat.
But what they don't realize is you need someone to sharpen.
And I'm thinking of the little knife set
where it has a sharpener.
And you don't realize that it's there for you to actually
sharpen it because it gets dull.
You're the one that actually helps a dull business
become sharpened and actually to make profit and to progress.
That's what it sounds like to me.
Is that what the name means?
Exactly.
We're honing entrepreneurial warriors
on the battlefield of business.
Absolutely.
So honing is sharpening that spear.
When you sharpen it, anything sharp,
you got a kitchen knife, it cuts better.
It cuts faster.
You're not going to cut your finger off
because it slips because it didn't
cut through what it did.
So you actually make things safer.
You make it more profitable.
I can cut more, do more.
The sharper you are, again, you're improving everything.
You're starting to see things.
So outside eyes, do the sharpening.
Wear that ceramic sharpener.
And you can do 30 strokes and you've got a sharp knife.
Now you can cut anything you want.
You're up there with all the TV chefs now.
Yeah, right.
Just hitting things that don't work.
So yeah, it really is that, really understanding
where they're at.
Like everyone, and I have an assessment they can do as well.
It shows them exactly where they're at right now.
But we all can improve.
And how are we not learning every day and improving?
I mean, that's business in general.
Business is uniquely that way, even more than just
regular life or going to a job because things shift every day.
The competition is always on your heel.
I call it the endless war.
That's why it's a battle.
We use a lot of the war terms.
But it really is a battle.
It's a battle against obscurity.
Right?
People have to know you.
You've got to stay out.
You can't just get them to know you, then stop getting to know you.
And then you go away and say, hey, I remember that.
What ever happened to you get there?
Whatever happened to, oh, they're still there.
Whatever happened to jazzercise?
Whatever happened.
There's these places and they're still there.
But you never hear about them anymore.
They had their big run, but they're still there doing business.
But they're not out in the front anymore.
They've changed their stuff.
So very interesting.
But it's very, very challenging from a day to day basis.
Absolutely.
So I wrote a few things down.
And one of those things for us in the real estate business
is staying top of mind.
When you think of jazzercise, who would you
would have thought about that?
When you think of real estate, does Javanka stand out?
And so I get that part, definitely.
But I want to go back to you saying improving
and sharpening the knife.
And the first thing I thought about was time.
And I kept thinking about time.
And a lot of people want to birth something quickly.
And so if you take out the time piece
or work with the time piece, then I
think that we could probably, we as in business owners,
could probably manifest it a little bit faster
than if we were all alone using sharpen the spear quicker
with the coaching parcel.
Yeah, it's time compression.
So what I didn't do in the first 20 years of my business,
I would not accept help from anybody.
I'm doing it all by myself.
It's all ego.
It's all me.
I won all the awards.
I built the greatest stuff.
I have world class exhibits.
I actually recognize it's all about me.
So it all comes crumbling down.
And you realize, you know what?
This is not all about me.
Now, if someone would have helped me, first,
never would have collapsed.
I would have survived all that.
No problem.
Would have got through it.
But you have to bring them in because that wisdom
that someone like 35 years in business I can bring
will compress 10 years of causing mistakes, bad decisions,
poor relationships, right?
All that stuff we can get because we've already
been through it.
So it's really important to understand
that's how you compress time.
So whether you're two or three or five years in
and you feel like you're getting stuck,
that's when you bring the outside eyes in.
You've got things going that's good.
But like you said, you sharpen it.
Hone it so you can get back on track so you're cutting faster,
moving quicker, bringing the right people on,
having your business attract the right people who can actually
thrive in your culture and continue
to move this business forward with you just at the helm
and not down in the engine room.
Absolutely.
So really important to think about that.
Compressing time.
That's probably going to stick in my head all day long
as I continue on.
And you mentioned war several times.
Were you in the military?
I'm a Marine.
Yes, I'm a Marine.
So that's where it kind of comes from.
Yes, yes, yes.
Thank you for your service.
I see war room behind you.
And I loved that movie.
I totally loved that movie.
So with that being said and being kind of your time,
I have a question.
Just give me two or however long you want to go.
I just don't want you to go overtime.
You probably have something to do.
But tips for early entrepreneurs.
I just start with get.
So we will talk about this.
We get a mentor.
Mentors are different than coaches.
Mentor is someone who's been where you want to go.
They're already there.
They're successful.
Get their ear.
Ask them a question here or there.
Now, don't beat them up.
Don't try to drag the life out of them because it's free.
Be very respectful, but listen to what they have to say.
They will give you one or two little nuggets that'll, again,
time compression.
They'll save you from making some really dumb mistakes.
In your head, you think you got it.
It makes sense to you.
If you need to talk to someone who's already been there,
go, yeah, I thought that too.
But it doesn't work like that.
It works like this.
You go, oh, then you do that and poof.
You just jumped ahead two steps.
So really important to seek those people out.
Find out who's been where you're at, who's where you want to go.
That's key.
Another thing is just be sure when you begin,
you understand where you're going to go,
like we spoke about earlier.
Exit strategy.
The best time to do an exit strategy
is before you launch your business.
Is it 10 years?
Is it 20 years?
When you have somewhere to go so now you can dial that backwards
and understand when you can hire your first person,
you'll actually know when you need to because you've
done your exit strategy.
How are you going to create passive income
to replace your active business income
that you're making in the business when you leave?
If you sell it, you're going to lose all that money.
You're not going to get that salary anymore
because someone else bought your business.
But if you can create assets that are now
generating income to replace that when you get out,
that's a big win.
Yeah.
Now you're basically still getting your salary
and you sell for a big number at the end.
And now you go start another business and life is good.
Those would be probably the two biggest things I would say do.
I love that.
So the tips is get a mentor and know where you're going to go
and create an exit strategy when you begin your business.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.