Tell me what your vision was when you decided to become and do Bay Area of mastermind
Yeah, so I as a participant had seen so much value from being part of mastermind groups over the years
So, you know, I knew that was an going to be an important part of my life because there already was and at times
You know, it's not unusual to find folks in a few different mastermind groups
But with you know to your question earlier different focuses, right?
So I was looking for
You know a version of a mastermind group that is what we have now today in the Bay Area mastermind
And what's valuable with that is I'm surrounded by people who are sharing what's going on in their business
and I'm able to lend you know my expertise from decades in business serving entrepreneurs as
You know as a facilitator. Yes, right
So I keep our meeting on track make sure everyone gets their hot seat
Help to guide the conversation having that longitudinal knowledge of each member's businesses and really, you know
Keep that conversation not just on track, but really productive. It's not unusual for someone to
Be sharing something going on in their business and for the group to jump on and want to fix something
That is not what that person wants help with and so if you're able to help guide that person to you know
Make sure they get their questions answered and the help they need
that's really powerful and
You know the accountability piece as well
Like you were touching on is so valuable for us entrepreneurs because as the entrepreneur it's lonely at the top
Yeah, who hold who holds you accountable to you do what you say you're gonna do because the good news is you're your own boss
But the bad news is you're your own
So when you have that peer accountability of you know
People you've committed to getting certain things done with and you know
You're gonna see them in a month and they're gonna be asking how you did on things
You don't want to show up there having let down your you know, your fellow colleagues
So it creates that accountability that we so need as business owners
To keep us from just going with our whims or whatever the idea of the day is
Yeah
and it's it's it's um
I keep thinking about when I was in the in the corporate business and we had a weekly meeting and
Then we had a meeting about that meeting the next week because we couldn't get it all out and then we had a whole
ginormous meeting once a month about those meetings that we could not get everything out and I think that this would be it's such a
unique
form a way of putting everyone together and having that to be
That that solid piece to having that like big discussion
And like you said a full day and I know some businesses tried to start that but it didn't seem to work
Well to keep everyone away from your desk or doing the job
Or they would do it on a Saturday when no one really wanted to do it
So I love the fact that you can you know, you'll have these these masterminds and they'll be for a day and accountability piece
And not only that is just hearing the outside voices
I always tell people you working on you or you working on your own business
That's not gonna work out like
Workout at all. You'll just be as confused as you were when you first started
So when you're working with go ahead, I'm sorry
Well, if I hold like you don't know what you don't know and your perspective is only from where you are
You know, I always think of it like, you know, if you're at the gym
You've got the perspective whatever that wherever that mirror is, but you're still tied to what your eyeballs see
Yeah, whereas like if you're in a yoga yoga class, for example, and the instructor comes over and they provide a minor correction
Yeah, you couldn't see it. You heard what you're supposed to do, but you couldn't see it
But all they do is make an adjustment. You're like, oh, that's what I needed
yeah, I was out for I was out for run with a friend of mine recently and
We're getting towards the end of our run on our way home. And and he said to me is like, hey, you know, Jeremy
Your core is collapsing. I'm like what now? He's like your core is collapsing and like I'm hearing his words
But I don't think I don't actually know what that means. So I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, oh like, you know
Put more power, you know use the glutes more this and that he's describing it and I'm you know asking like this and he's like
No, do this and so we very quickly
Iterated onto and he's like there you go that that's the change and I'm like, oh, okay now I feel it
So I didn't even know the problem I was facing someone else had to tell me about it
But even hearing about it, I didn't know what to do with that. So having someone with a perspective I could never have on myself
Point out a problem provide the solution and then guide me to
Executing on that was so powerful and that's exactly the kind of stuff we do in the mastermind for your business all the time
And I love how you say point out the problem
Find a solution and guide you you never use the word fix
You know every most people want to fix it like just fix it
And that's also when you went back to the analogy of working out working out without a mirror
You don't know what you don't even see, you know what I mean? I feel yes. Yes
And most of the time feeling is surface and not really that core like you were saying
Exactly with all of this and all of the learning and the experience that you have
What was your most significant learning experience in this all?
Well, I think I remember back to being at an event for us business owners and entrepreneurs and at that event
I think there was like a thousand of us entrepreneurs in the ballroom and my friends up on stage and she's speaking and
She's something something that's always stuck with me
She said, you know look around and you'll see you're in a room full of people who are about the ooh shiny
And I remember being accused of being an ooh shiny person and that was always said almost like derogatorily
Like you're so distractible
But what I realized on that moment was what makes us entrepreneurs entrepreneurs
Is that we do see things that most others don't yeah
We see opportunities where others just walk right on past and so what I found is that us entrepreneurs sort of go through
Three checkpoints that that you know, most folks don't get through three gates as it were, right?
The first is that we see opportunities. Yeah, right. We see a gap in the marketplace. We see a problem
We see something out there. That's wrong. Yeah, right
Whereas most folks walk on by have the blinders on we see the problem. All right, so that's one
Now most folks at that point if they see the problem will probably just complain about it or talk about it to others
But won't actually find a solution, right?
So the second thing as entrepreneurs do is we see a solution to the problem where others might complain
We see a way to make it better. Yeah, but the third one is the reason we're in business and others aren't
That's not that we actually do something about it
So some folks see a problem they know how it could be better, but they don't do anything about it
We entrepreneurs do
Right. So, you know getting that clarity over the years has been so so vital and this helps me not just for myself
my own businesses, but for you know clients and mastermind members and so on over the years is
is recognizing that and others and
Knowing that the fact that we see opportunities is not a problem
It's actually our gift. It's why we're entrepreneurs in the first place
So long as we can harness it and make it through those three gates and actually execute on the ideas we have
And not just see the opportunities without doing something
Yes, yes, I mean that that was that was so spot on and you know, we often mention entrepreneurs
And then I was looking on your your site and I see solo prenuers. What's the difference?
Oh, I love this so a solo preneur someone who's out there running the business on their own
Right and look we all start there almost all of us start out wearing all the hats in the business, right?
From you know from sales to service to invoicing to sweeping up to washing the bottles and everything in between
We do it all as a business owner. So you're a solo preneur when it's just you
When you start to grow you start bringing on team members and you start to think about
You start bringing on team members to help out and when I say team members
Yes, this can be a full-time employee and it might be a part-time employee
But especially early on it might be like a va like a virtual assistant
It might be a contractor or an outsourced person or it might be a vendor
Providing an area of expertise, right?
Whatever it is you're starting to hand off some of the responsibilities of the business to others
You're not handing over the entire thing. You're just handing off a piece of it, right we had um
You know a very common one that comes up again and again is like having someone just take care of the bookkeeping
Yes
Bring you up from like entering receipts and transactions and all of that to then handling invoices and payments and paying the bills and all those things
Like that's not something that you need to be worrying about every single day. You want oversight and management of it
Yeah
But that is something you can have a specialist take care of for you to free you up
Right another common early hire is customer service or customer support
Someone to be there on the front lines taking care of your customers while you work on the business side
I had someone I was working with
He started a business and he was running his own business, but he was also loved mountain biking
The problem was the mountain biking he'd be out in the forest in the mountains enjoying nature. Yeah, that's where he recharged
That's where he got that oxygen and you know the fresh air and really recharged himself and got space from things
And that's so important for our you know, our mental health our physical health and so on. Yes
The problem was he had built himself a little prison
He started a business and if he knew if he wasn't there to answer a customer call
That customer can be offline or you know, not able to handle their customers
Until things got fixed so he felt like he had to be by his phone
Which meant he couldn't go out to the mountains where there wasn't cell phone coverage and do the thing that was so important
Yeah, and so he was like many business owners feeling stuck and feeling trapped in the business
Yes, so the first hire we made was an outsourced outsourced part-time support person
Yeah, suddenly there was someone to answer the phone and respond to customer emails during business hours
while he could go and get back to nature and also do things like
Handle sales for new customers work on product and do all these other parts of the business
Without feeling like he was always going to be interrupted and having to be right there to answer a phone call
Yeah, yeah
And that's that's actually a really good point because of the simple fact that he couldn't find that balance
which I really never think there's a real big balance, but at least balancing getting away and
And enjoying the things that you like to do and being a business owner
And a solo or an entrepreneur and then I see on your site
It goes solopreneur to business owner or entrepreneur to business owner. So the difference between that
And business tell me so self-employed like you're going out. You're hanging a shingle and you're in business, right?
Then we move on to you being self-employed
Right. You may still have a team you can even have a large team and yet still be what we call self-employed
And here's the litmus test that I use to determine are you self-employed or are you a business owner? And that's this
For our listeners who aren't driving or doing something else close your eyes for a moment
And imagine what would happen if you stepped away from your business for a day
or a week
a month three months
And then you come back to your business
Do you come back to your business being the same as when you left it?
Is your business better than when you left it?
Or do you come back to a raging dumpster fire of a business?
For most folks the answer is the latter you come back to you know, being out of business and things are in chaos, right?
So that's just an indication that you don't truly own your business just yet
You are still self-employed because the business still requires your presence on an ongoing basis. Yes, and that's okay, right?
We're just looking to gauge sort of where you are
You know in that spectrum on that journey. Yeah
When we think about what does it take to be that business owner that can step away for an extended period of time?
Right. And when I say step away, I mean like no email slack phone call
Calls text like just you're not you're on a desert island. You're on a cruise. Whatever it is. You're away from the business, right?
So in order to do that, we need a few really important things
One is you need systems or processes. Yeah, and then you need people to run those systems and processes. Yes without those
You are tied to your business
right, so
Our first step is to figure out what those roles are
We need to hire for and what the systems are and we start to think about what are the roles that we need to hire for
The systems are and we start to build that out and the more we pull you out of that business
The more you move towards being a true business owner
And we're not saying you can't work in your business, right?
Like most of us have a business because we're doing something we love right some of us love working with our customers
Some of us love doing the work of the business. Some of us love working with our team, right?
Those are okay things to do
The question is does the business require that from you constantly or is it something something that you just can do when you choose to do it?
Yeah, yeah, and I and I when you separate all of those uh solo entrepreneur business owner
I can see where the mastermind would be so helpful in a solopreneur
and being able to sit in a in a group of people that have probably reached a different level than you and helping you
Understand and design your business in a way to you can get to that point, you know to be on
Uh an island and not have to answer the phone
So I I love that and interesting enough is i'm a real estate agent and I love being around a group of people that are like-minded
However, I don't believe that I got into a point to a mastermind
So I am a solopreneur looking to be an entrepreneur looking to be a business owner
So I I see that vision definitely. Yeah, we work with folks who you know started out as real estate agents, right?
But then moved on to you know, actually being a broker broker record and having a team of agents which suddenly means
You get to work with the boutique clients you want to work with when you want to work with them
Otherwise your agents are out there making you money on every single transaction they do
Yes, that starts moving you more towards business owner
And then I you know, I know folks who as brokers went off and actually sold the brokerage, right?
So they actually cashed out of the business because they had an income producing asset, right?
So that's one of those questions is you know, uh, if you look forward for your business, whatever model you've got
There's only three directions it can go right?
You can pass the business on to your kids. Yes, which you got to ask like do you really have a multi-generational business?
Right, right
Probably not most of us don't and like, you know, do your kids want the business is it? You know, is it going to stand that test of time?
The answer is probably not it does happen, but it's really really rare, right? The second direction your business can go and uh
This is where most go
Is that you hang up you hang up the towel you run the business to the ground you shut it down. Yeah
right and like
We don't want to admit it
But that's where most businesses are going to go and you have to ask is that where you want it to go?
Probably not i've had businesses that have gone that way right we see them all the time, right?
So then you look at the third option
Well, the only thing left is you sell the business
So give them the choice of passing on to your kids who don't want it, right somewhere down the line, right?
Running it into the ground or selling it. What seems the most attractive? Yeah, well
Building a business you can sell. Yes, if the business is you how do you sell that? Exactly
So we need a business comprised of systems
And people yeah, and that does not block on you when you've got that now you have an income producing asset
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
It's 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