And in addition, yeah, so you served in Argentina,
your son served in Brazil. I served in Uruguay.
And since then, I'm twice divorced, actually.
Not a collection of trophies I want in my life,
but a reality that happens sometimes. And I learned
some really important leadership things there.
But my second ex is from Mexico. I only speak
Spanish. So I learned a lot more Spanish through
that relationship. And most of my team members
are from Colombia. And I've got a couple in Peru,
Panama, Mexico, and then other places throughout
the world. But those are, I probably spend three
to five hours per day speaking in Spanish. And
my little one, my littlest daughter, she speaks
predominantly Spanish as well. Yeah. English
is now hard. I could definitely tell by the by
the language that, you know, yeah, you're definitely
a more speaker. You haven't Americanized the
Spanish that you once learned. Right. Yes. It's
it's such a dangerous reality, too. And the guy's
vision, vision, vision, vision. All of this is
about vision, connecting with cultures, understand
how the world's connecting, learning that, you
know. By the way, none of our clients know when
they start with us that almost all of our team
only speaks Spanish. And they're like, what?
They do everything in English. How? And I'm like,
ChatGPT is an amazing tool. All the AI tools.
And they can interact with you. They can build
relationships with you. Everything. And so it's
opened a whole new door of opportunity for people
who are looking to grow revenues, for people
who are looking to build visions. We just have
to get out of our comfort zone. and not fear
the unknown and if we can do that we can open
so many possibilities for ourselves we've got
ryan westfall on today he's also a business guru
he's got this uh this concept rev revolutionizing
making sure that we're looking at the opportunities
that exist with revenue, getting the right type
of support that we want in business. We're both
Texans, so we're automatically family, just so
y 'all know that's how this Texan thing works.
We both happen to serve missions, like the stars
aligned for this one. So returning to that topic,
Ryan, you got international experience too. Am
I wrong? Am I right? Would you like to double
down on that and share your thoughts? How do
we... maximize our abundant opportunities and
open our doors to maybe insecurity and doubt
and fears that really are the gateways to unlocking
more full potential. No, absolutely. There was
a book I just read, another gentleman, which
we share a lot of similarities with, Ben Ward.
He's actually in California. And he wrote a book
called Pluck the FUD, F -U -D. And at first you're
like, wait, wait, what? And you're reading it.
But yeah, it stands for fear, uncertainty, and
doubt. And his whole mindset, he does a lot of
sales coaching and things like that. that theme
is, is absolutely 100 % correct. You know, those
fears and those uncertainties and doubts that
we have and entrepreneurs. I mean, if you're
a business owner, you know what this is like.
I mean, you, you have this extreme fear, maybe
when you wake up or maybe when you went to bed
and then you had this amazing success moment
at 11 o 'clock and then you had this other. put
out the fire at three o 'clock and we just call
it Monday. You know, that's just, you know, that's
what leaders, especially SMB world is. I mean,
my grandfather was an entrepreneur. My father
was a serial entrepreneur, still is. I mean,
you know, so I just grew up in that. I didn't
know anything different. I didn't know what corporate
world or anything like that was. But yeah, you're
right. I've had the privilege of working in about
15 different countries. So I've had a chance
to fly out to different places. And like you
said, languages I don't understand, cultures
I don't understand. But when you're kind of just
thrown into it and you see the people, you know,
a smile is a smile. A handshake is a handshake.
A hug is a hug. And those things don't change
just because. skin color or language you know
those things just don't change those are universal
languages they really are they really are and
so so you're you're spot on jackson i mean when
when we talk about the business aspects i mean
though those pieces shouldn't be fierce they
you know of course there's going to be some uncertainties
just because here's where i lean into this too
for all you listening in this is not about my
ego at all all right i'm just jackson At the
end of the day, I'm just Jackson. I see myself
in the mirror every day. I've been the same guy
since a little kid. Stephen Bartlett believes
the same thing. Patrick Lincione believes the
same thing. Simon Sinek believes the same thing.
John Maxwell believes the same thing. I'm trying
to help visionaries get in front of people who
they can say, you know what? Maybe I want a track
record like them. And that's what I see in Ryan
Westphal as well. So I'm looking. I'm like, okay.
I'm like, here's a guy who's got that experience.
Ryan, I'm going to put you on a hot seat. 15
countries. um you know name some of them what
are some of these countries because that again
that gets these visionaries centered around oh
wait maybe i can relate a little bit more to
where he's been and what he's done maybe he hasn't
just lived in um you know texas his whole life
and doesn't know anything outside that box like
a lot of texans right so Where have you been?
Well, I was actually born and raised in Arizona,
so I'm a transplant to Texas. But given my mission
in Argentina and speaking Spanish, that opened
up my first international projects where it was
right across the border in Mexico. And so I was
running EPCM, Engineering, Procurement, Construction
Management, for... mining operations so my first
project it was a 50 million dollar project and
we were building you know this new stuff and
they looked around well who can do the best job
and hey you speak and so that that was that was
literally two two weeks after my second child
my daughter was born i had to you know i was
quote deployed down to mexico to you know manage
an army of Mexican ants in, you know, building
concrete and structures. And so, you know, whether
it's Mexico, I've done Panama, I've done a host
of countries in South America, Africa, so Zambia,
South Africa, Liberia. The name is escaping me.
There's a couple of other countries there. I've
been to Mongolia. I've been to Armenia, Australia.
So there's a number. I mean, Mongolia was pretty
neat because it was right there in the Gobi Desert.
And when you talk desert, I mean, I'm from Arizona,
southern Arizona. So there's not much there.
But at least we have the saguaro cactus. But
in the Gobi Desert, there ain't nothing. And
the facility we put up, they actually put up
signs. Initially, they put up like a, you know,
you think of a stop sign with a wooden post.
Well, people came and took the wooden post because
they could use it as fuel because there's nothing
out there. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Those perspectives,
right? The opportunities to be in those places,
exchange, you know, really break bread, right,
with people in those environments. There's so
many intangibles that we learn from those opportunities.
um that are priceless they're things that teach
us again how we can connect with others and at
the end of the day visionaries learning to connect
your vision in a way that is clear and effective
for others to be able to know where you're going
what you're doing that's going to be one of the
greatest gifts that i believe ryan and i can
can give you is learning how to continue to do
just that so you mentioned one resource already
so i'm gonna i'm gonna cheat on that um normally
i ask people for three resources so ben ward
uh takes takes number one um pluck the fud and
um what other what are two other resources ryan
that have helped you get to where you are on
building out your vision and helping others oh
one i'm actually just started here just recently
was uh where is it chris voss Never split the
difference. Never split the difference. You're
absolutely right. It's been one of those. It
was on the back burner for a while, but I actually
started going through it. As I'm thinking about
it, if you're familiar with it, you already know,
FBI scenario, hostage, and you can't lose, right?
I mean, you have to win the negotiation, otherwise
people die. And so as he's going through it,
he does a really great job at painting that picture
of just how to negotiate, how to mirror, how
to get to the no, not the yes, and just various
topics. Definitely, that's another one. I love
that. I'll interject. Those of you who are visionaries
at the next level, right? You're really starting
to get after it. You're starting to crush it.
You're starting to understand your infrastructure
is built out. You got the right types of teams.
I'm not saying if you're a beginner, you can't
read the Never Split the Difference book. All
I'm saying is that is a very, very powerful book.
And I hope you do have a very strong foundation
as you use it. Because it's going to be like
drinking from a fire hydrant of opportunity.
And you only get a cup of water in your hand,
you know, if you're brand new. So that's a huge
book. If you're new. Blaze through it and then
read it again in five years because that book
is exceptional when it comes to understanding
how to relate to people in the world. And that's
one of the biggest things we have to do when
we're talking about a future that doesn't exist.
It's like, how do you relate to somebody if you're
constantly talking about something that you want
to build that people can't tangibly hang on to?
So glad you mentioned that book. That's a huge
resource. What's another one? What's the last
one? Another one that I've been going through,
Travis Perry. He's actually out of Utah. He has
his second book out. It's Marry and Grow Rich.
But really, his whole aspect is entrepreneurs
in building their relationship and how that combination
with your spouse is so important to the success
and or failure of your business, of your entrepreneurship.
That is a book I wish I had read long before
I got married the first time and long before
I got married the second time. That is a book
that will go right on my list. You want to prepare
before you get into those scenarios, my friends.
At least I wish I had. I wish I had had all the
right resource for those experiences. So I'm
glad we ranged the spectrum. We got some stuff
in the here and now that's helping you grow into
your future and your current vision. And we got
some that also apply to those of you who might
be at the beginning stages. We're going to come
back. We're going to talk about Ryan's depth
of vision, where he's going, what he's up to.
We're going to continue to interlace. revenue
into this. I want to put a caveat there because
as y 'all know, I'm more touchy feely. I'm more
driven around the purpose aspect, but what I'm
not driven towards is what I used to say. I used
to say, I don't care about the money. Guess what?
The money didn't care about me either. When we
don't pay attention to being wise stewards of
the resources that God gives us, y 'all know
I'm Christian. I speak about God. If I tell God,
Hey God, I don't care about your money, but please
give me some. That's not a really good way to
inspire God to say, yeah, let me trust you with
these resources you're not going to care about.
So it's super important that as visionaries,
we don't shy away from the value of resources.
that will build the vehicles to help us move
our visions forward. We got to dive right into
that. So we've got an expert to help us in that
today, Ryan. We'll be right back and we'll dive
into Ryan's vision. All right. Welcome in to
Vision Pros Live with Jackson Callum. I'm your
show host. We'll be doing interviews for visionary
entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there. What's up, everybody?
And welcome in to another episode of Vision Pros
Live. I'm your show host, Jackson Callum, founder
and CEO of First Class Business. And I'm super
excited to dive in today about growing your revenues
with your visions. And we've got an expert named
Ryan Westfall on today, who is all set and ready
to help you revenutionize your business. I really
like the twist and the play on that. I'm a big
fan of puns. I'm a big fan of dad jokes. It goes
right in there. It's a little bit squirrely,
but I love it. We need to have... gamified processes
to help inspire us to move the things forward
that matter for bringing our vision to life.
Before I bring Ryan back on board, I want to
give you some other resources to look at and
to keep in mind as you move your lives forward.
So especially your visions, home studio mastery,
huge shout out to the MVP of building out studios,
Junaid Ahmed himself. That's his studio. It looks
like a Lamborghini compared to mine. I love how
he builds these state -of -the -art podcast studios
out. The video you're about to see, I got to
go. I was taking this video, by the way. get
a little bit of credit. He did the studio for
the hair restoration clinic and we built the
studio out for three PG advisors as well. That's
the studio that he was building out for them.
And it is so awesome to create these studio environments
where these individuals are ready to become next
level industry leaders. You want to say in modern
world that you're an industry leader? Have a
studio like this available to showcase to the
industry, to the PR and media professionals who
are looking for people like you and the show
to the world that you know what you're talking
about and start hammering out videos related
to the frequently asked questions about your
industry, about your product, about your service.
And you can build a legacy where people will
say, dang, these people are super committed.
They know what they're doing. They're taking
things to the next site. Well, that's the definition
of an industry leader. It's a very, very easy
way to get on the map in a bigger way. And Junaid
does all the details necessary to pull that together
for his clients. I'm super impressed with them.
If you're looking for a bigger studio, great
distribution. He also has a podcast in the top
2 % globally. Yes, he is one of my business partners
now at First Class Business. In addition to Junaid,
we're going to move on to Dr. Danny Brassell.
Dr. Danny Brassell is a worldwide speaker. He's
hilarious. He's awesome. He has that insane ability
to motivate you quickly. What he does, though,
he inspires parents. He teaches parents how to
inspire their kids to love and have a passion
for reading. Reading and education are two of
the most powerful resources to move this world
forward. He's taught all over the world how to
do this. The reading habit is his homegrown program.
I've been working with Danny on launching the
reading habit, not just as a cheap resource,
right? One that everybody can afford. But we've
now moved Danny's program, The Reading Habit,
to a freemium business model. Why? Because the
more he distributes this process to the world,
one, the more lives that it touches. But I have
found in my life, the more we give, the more
we get. And if you want to see the truth of that
as a visionary, look no further than Google,
Snapchat, TikTok. WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook.
I can keep going. They're all billion dollar
companies. There's something magical and powerful
about empowering the world. And Danny's just
done that. So if you've got kids that don't have
a passion for reading, maybe they like to, but
they don't love to. I highly recommend checking
this out because I don't think there's more that
there's too many more things in life that have
done more for my children than helping them understand
the value of education, understanding reading.
And Danny has a superpower that I believe very
much that it takes a tribe. to build up a child
not just one single parent we need resources
and help he's loving he's awesome check it out
if you're a parent as you know i'm super passionate
about parent subjects so i'm gonna move into
the water project now the water project right
before i bring ryan back on this is something
that is near and dear to my heart not because
i've experienced it because i meditated on it
my hope is that you will do the same when i find
out when i found out there's millions of people
who actually live without knowing where they're
going to get their next source of clean water
for their family or for themselves And I started
to think through the reality that these kids
often have to leave school to get water. The
parents have to leave work and perhaps even lose
their job just to provide the most basic resource
for their families to survive. And I meditated
on, wow, what would that feel like as a dad?
Right. I couldn't take that. You know, I went
ahead and I picked out one of these projects
where you actually get to choose the project
you're contributing to. It tells you how much
it's going to cost to complete it. And they show
transparently exactly what they're building.
And they show you once you've contributed to
it, they send you email updates of where they're
at with the project and pulling it to fruition.
I absolutely love the transparency that they
live with. This picture always strikes my heart.
These kids are celebrating water the way my kids
celebrate Christmas Day. and you have the opportunity
to work with me to empower these individuals
even further. If you're not in a financial position
to contribute to this, that's okay. My hope is
that you will follow that feeling of inspiration
and say, who can I tell about this? Who can I
talk about this with over dinner? Or who could
I tell, who could I send or tag in a social media
post about the Water Project and spread the word?
You never know how many people you'll touch,
but I do know we've got about 8 billion people
in this world that really need our help. And
if I'm going to rock this microphone for a living,
then I'm going to use it to also try to inspire
others to do the same. So let's jump into that.
It's going to bring to you more than you even
bring to them. And it'll make a generational
impact on a society that very much will make
an impact to change the world. So with that said,
Ryan Westfall, welcome back to Vision Pros Live.
Well, thanks, Jackson. I'm not sure you need
me back anymore. Just keep going with those commercials.
I was like, oh, I didn't know about that. Well,
let me write that down. Oh, man. I love it, man.
I'm excited about it. And we don't need you back,
right? It's that abundance factor. You don't
need me either, guys. You need God. Beyond that,
everything's a bonus and a blessing. Ryan is
so ready to bless us with a bonus. And we're
going to dive in very simply with what his vision
is. And so, Ryan, you've built a lot. You've
done a lot with your life. You've lived very
purposely. Tell me about your vision. What do
you see ahead? My vision, what I see ahead. is
as I was going through these different countries
and I did this for probably the better part of
almost a decade and I'd go in cold turkey. I
mean, I'd communicate maybe with HQ or something
like that, but I would go into these facilities
and they'd range anywhere from a $50 million
facility to a $6 billion facility. And so very
massive, very large scale. Some of them might
have 40, 50, 60 people. Some of them have thousands
of people. I'm going to put a tiny bit of context
for those of us who've lived in a very real,
like non. multi -billion or million dollar world
right i worked at lifetime fitness guys the lifetime
fitness platinum facilities are 36 million dollar
facilities so if you know what a lifetime fitness
is you have a decent idea of the big infrastructure
we're talking about and you took that up by 14
million and then jumped to billions like i my
mind can't even fathom that to be honest yeah
when it when it takes uh That $6 billion project,
you can look it up. It was in Panama. And it
was a copper facility. But the thing is, they
had to build the entire infrastructure and ports
and everything associated with that. So it wasn't
just the facility and equipment itself. You had
to build all of the infrastructure to it, the
port, the transport. And so there was so much
more. involved than, than typical. And so there's
a quick analogy here. I'm going to, I'm sorry,
keep your train of thought. Don't lose. Don't,
don't follow me. But visionaries, I'm thinking
of you, all you people who think it's just a
book that you're ready to launch, right? It's
just the book. You just need to no, no, no, no,
no. There's a whole infrastructure behind making
sure that book launch is successful or that website
or that landing page or that Facebook ad or that
group that you want to run. There's so much opportunity
for infrastructure, not to overwhelm you. But
to help you see that, okay, you want to build
a foundation and infrastructure if you want these
resources to last. So thank you for that. Again,
let's keep going. You got this. No, absolutely.
So I would go into these facilities solely for
the purpose of performing an audit, an evaluation.
People didn't know I was there until I got there.
And then they were introduced. Hey, here's Ryan.
He's going to be. looking at some things. And
that was literally all I was given. And so I'd
spend days, weeks, sometimes almost a month just
at any given facility. And when I started doing
this, I felt like my responsibility back to quote
unquote, management to ownership, leadership
was to say, Hey, here's the things that I noticed.
And this happened bad, or this was wrong. And
But the more and more I did it, the more I realized
those were one -offs. And my responsibility lied
more so in finding the patterns, the things that
were repeatedly happening, not just the, hey,
this was a one -off situation or this thing happened,
but actually finding the patterns that were both
good as well as the ones that were not good.
And the better I got at finding those patterns.
That... always ended in a better result. I mean,
at the end of it, sometimes, you know, I was
paid $20 ,000, $40 ,000, $60 ,000 just for that
audit, just for that evaluation. And then to
say, okay, well, here's how we're going to change
that over the next 12, 18 months. And, you know,
here's the millions of dollars of work that need
to be done for this and that. And so I'd come
up with this big old giant proposals and things
like that. But I realized over and over and over
again, when I started doing these, regardless,
like we said earlier, regardless of where I was,
whether I was in Mongolia, whether I was in Africa,
whether I was in South America or even here in
the States or Canada, the patterns I saw repeated
very, very similar patterns, regardless of who,
regardless of what, regardless of skill level,
there were just patterns that I kept seeing repeated
over and over and over and over again. And so.
doing this for a number of years. And then I
ended up leaving that and I, and I came to Texas
actually for an oil and gas venture. And my partners
that I partnered up with up in Oklahoma city,
I brought in a private equity. We were launching
some new technology and building some stuff.
And that was all about eight months right before
COVID. So you can see how that future kind of
went, but. What kind of led me now as to where
I am now is last year, I finally made the decision.
And I always had this kind of nagging feeling
like, hey, I need to write a book. I mean, that's
how the thought started. But OK, write a book
about what? What am I doing? What am I promoting?
What am I talking about? And then you're asking
me, what is this vision? And what is near and
dear to me is the SMB. Right. I told you my grandfather
was an entrepreneur. My father's a serial entrepreneur.
I've got 10 uncles and nine of them are entrepreneurs.
And, you know, it's just always been about entrepreneurship
and what that does to a community. I mean, capitalism
is by far the biggest benefit to any community.
We share a massive bias on this, by the way.
Those of you who are listening in and I got a
second, you know, I got to really say what. Ryan
mentions means so much to me because my mom's
an entrepreneur. My dad's an entrepreneur. My
stepdad's an entrepreneur. My stepmom's an entrepreneur.
My grandparents on both sides were entrepreneurs.
Same thing. And the pros and the cons that exist
always, there's always going to be them in life.
But the amount of freedoms that we had. the amount
of time that we had to be able to be with family,
the amount of opportunities that we had to learn
and to live and to do things so many other people
didn't get the chance to do. When you grow up
in that, and that's kind of your bubble, you
may not realize it growing up, but then when
you see the rest of the world and how corporate
America works and jobs, I remember telling my
mom, Ryan, I said, I came home from school in
middle school. She was so mad at me. I said,
mom, being an employee, having a job, is the
same definition of indentured slavery we were
reading i was literally the definition how old
were you i was like 12 um and and she was so
mad um and uh she's like no that's not right
i was like okay so i did i was i just didn't
torture about anymore but i was like push the
button um so what she wanted me to go that safe
route Right. We tend to see things that grass
is greener on the other side. Right. But no,
I would say the grass is much greener on the
entrepreneur side if you do it the right way.
So please continue on this. SMBs helping SMBs
right there with you. So so with that, I mean.
We get into trouble as countries, as you know,
you can go to the political spectrum anytime
there's a lack. of leadership and ability of
SMBs to exist, you're always going to run into
other trickle down ripple effect issues. So knowing
that and seeing that amongst all these different
cultures, I thought, well, what can I do to help
SMBs? I mean, I've been in it, I've sweated,
I've, I've lost, you know, my bank account's
been depleted multiple times, you know, and,
and any true entrepreneur is going to tell you
the same. I mean, it's a rough road, but, but
when you're, when you know those things, okay,
how do we help others, you know, move away from
that? So, so that's, that's where I started saying,
okay. That's where I'm going to write, and I
call it the own your revenue process or program.
And that's where Revenutionize and Pep Slim and
all of these different acronyms that I've built
come into play because I realized it's taking
way too long for SMBs to be successful. Yeah.
A hundred years running and we're still at 96
% failure rates. Exactly. I mean, 96 % failure
rate. Why? Would we ever accept that of a school
for our children? No, we wouldn't accept like
a 10 % failure rate. Like that's not okay. And
we're eating that all day, every day as a society.
And so thank you. Thank you for championing this
because we're not getting going visionaries.
We're not pessimistic. There's a big difference.
We're talking about. Optimistic realism. The
reality is this is a stat that has continued
to dominate our country. And we're one of the
most successful countries in the world. And that
is our rate of failure. We can fix that. That's
the optimism is we can find the solutions. And
whether it's your acronyms, Ryan, or other people
building gaps, too, as well, like those are opportunities
for all of us to step up and say. Let's stop
ignoring this. Let's stop pretending all entrepreneurs
are successful. And let's start looking at what
are the real variables that are going to actually
move the needle and the principles. And you were
alluding to that with your process of seeing,
you're seeing all these universal principles,
but you also have your past with SMBs. You're
able to pull it together. I'm going to give one
small snippet. Those of you who feel completely
lost right now, you're like Jackson and Ryan
are nuts. They're way on a totally different
level. So we're not, no, no, no. Let me help
you. Go to ChatGBT. and just confirm what we're
talking about. Ask it. How does a society get
affected by not having SMBs? What proof exists
out there in different countries? What is it
like for Mexico? I saw this firsthand in Puerto
Rico and I am still traumatized by the few weeks
that I spent. Yes, the beaches are lovely. Yes,
the food was, the people were lovely too. I am
so traumatized by how horrific my experience
was with people trying to send me to Amazon.
Walmart, and Marshalls to get close. Nobody wanted
to admit or talk about the local stores that
existed. And the local stores that existed were
suffering so badly. And the disconnect between
those who are wealthy and those who don't have
anything. The wealthy people there said, everybody
speaks English here. I talked to over 100 people
about this. But I went 20 minutes outside the
city. Nobody spoke English. Not a single one
of them. They might have had a few words here
and there, but not to the point where they could
be on a call center team. Not to the point where
they could get a legitimate work opportunity.
The divide was so devastating in a country that
is so close to ours. Made me realize like, oh
my gosh, how many other countries are suffering
from this type of division? So I'm trying to
bring it back to the real world I can relate
to a little bit. But Ryan, keep going, man, because
you are on to something that we need to hear.
Yep. So so with that, I mean, those facilities
that I was helping, we were really I've always
used the term and I use it with my kids all the
time. Aim small, miss small. Right. And the purpose
being, hey, if I aim for a very specific target,
even though I may not achieve the whole thing,
I'm going to move that needle. And I'm you know,
if I if I do miss, I'm going to be I'm still
going to be on the target. You know, I'm not
going to be off the target, so to speak. And
so with that, as I look at those patterns and
I saw repeating patterns over and over and over
again, different cultures, but they were the
same. And so I started to see those. And this
is probably the mechanical engineer in me, right,
where I come back like, hey, where's the process?
Where's the detail? I mean, my first, not to
get off the topic, but my first job out of college
was right on missile systems, you know, and so
we were building these cool things to just blow
things up. And so that's a cool job, by the way.
But taking that approach and saying, okay, let's
compartmentalize, let's break things down, let's
analyze and see this. How can we put this into
a system? into a flow so it doesn't take 12,
18, 24 months to start capitalizing on are resources
that we have internally. Because every SMB, whoever
you are, you're going to be limited on resources.
And those resources might be cash. Resources
might be your inventory. It might be your leadership
skills, your people. I mean, you're going to
see - You can repeat the leadership skills one.
Yeah. You're going to see those. And so that
PEP SLIM, it's an acronym. It's a seven -part
acronym. And every company - can fit into those
seven parts you have people you have equipment
you have process you have strategy leadership
inventory and money and everything you do will
fit somewhere in there And every exercise, I
mean, I've created this kind of process as we
start going through it. It takes me on average
about four months to get completely through it
with any SMB. And as we do it, I mean, I was
one month into it here just last month. This
was a financial advisory group. The guy is on
his second agency, 17 years running. And he said,
Ryan, what I'm learning here probably would have
taken me. 12 to 14 months to learn on my own.
Yeah. Right. And we did it in about two weeks.
And so, you know, the whole purpose is to expedite
and speed everything up because when you find
patterns in your own company, when you realize
what those patterns are and you intentionally
develop the patterns that you want, patterns
are the key to scalability. Well, I want to tie
that to something. You tied patterns to principles.
um right ray dalio style right he's got the book
on principles but you tied the patterns to the
principles and you've created this acronym that
because of where i'm at in business right and
what i'm able to know like as much as when i
saw pepsi i was like huh um but now that you've
broken down what the each letter is it's like
okay um i can see how each one of those mechanisms
is something where you have to put your business
in a position of strength And you have an opportunity
to do that. If you do that across that board,
you're talking about making sure the pillars
are good. The suspension cables are good. The
road is good. The maintenance process is good.
I can see that with what you did with that acronym.
And most entrepreneurs that I meet are in the
entrepreneur stage where they don't even know
what they don't know. And they're accidentally,
you know, it's a process of ignorance that stops
feeling blissful. Within a few months, you know,
of going down that route. And it's like, OK,
well, they told me that I need to work on my
people skills. And so I better focus my entire
next year on just that or the six months on just
that. And no, you know, the human body and people
like, well, you know, we can't we can't do complicated.
Oh, no. The human body is simple enough that
my child can draw it. But it's complex enough
that I still have to be disciplined to understand
whether I need water. food whether i have allergies
whether any vitamins etc there's a lot that goes
in to making sure that great things are successful
so i love that you've done that because that
gives me a clear map where i can i can use that
to self -assess and make some room but i'm gonna
i'm gonna stop myself right there visionaries
i would be an idiot to attempt to do that on
my own without the person who invented that way
of thinking Ryan, I'm like all in. I'm like,
OK, like I'm seeing this. So I'm going to switch
questions here. What is your vision for those
that you serve? What's the outcome look like
for them? The outcome is I wrote this note right
before our call. I keep kind of a running tab
and there's business is full of feelings and
numbers. And we have both of them, right? I mean,
SMBs are emotion -based. That's usually, I mean,
if you look at any SMB, hey, why'd you start
that? It's because there was a passion about
something. they were they loved what they did
they were good at a certain skill or whatever
it is i mean a pain or a pleasure they uncovered
or purpose yep yeah something that resonated
with them and then they said hey i'm gonna run
that and be an entrepreneur and then you all
of a sudden realize oh i got legal i got tax
i got leadership i got i mean you start running
into all the inventory and money and well crap
this i i wasn't ready for all this and so that
there's so much more to it so really my vision
for those that i serve is to say let's Holistically,
look at the entire, you know, we all know it's
there. We all know it's important. Let's don't
ignore it. You're saying face the fear of the
unknown. Face that fear. And, oh, by the way,
let's use mechanisms to leverage our ability
to overcome all of those uncertainties. Yes.
So there's going to be, Hey, you might be really
good with people, but your equipment or your
process or your inventory or your money sucks.
Okay. Well, how are we going to address it? Let's
stop running away from it and let's address it
and let's overcome it so that your SMB doesn't
fall into the 96 percentile and fails out, you
know, after two or three years or whatever it
is, but it actually becomes one of the now fifth
percentile that survives. Right. And I love where
you're going with this because you have a certain
skill set. I can see your weaknesses too, by
the way. I'll put that out there, my friends.
And I'm actually going to take a little break
to pull from this book. This is my mouse pad,
favorite mouse pad of all time. The Effective
Executive by Peter Drucker. And what would be
really scary is if Ryan doesn't have weaknesses.
Because this book says strong people always have
strong weaknesses too. Where there are peaks.
there are valleys and he goes on to say if you
want somebody who doesn't appear to have weaknesses
you will work with people who are mediocre in
nature i do not see ryan as a mediocre individual
um so i know because of those strengths he's
got weaknesses on the flip side let me flip the
camera i have lots of weaknesses and i have lots
of extreme strengths too because i have extreme
strengths i have extreme weaknesses those things
really exist the reason why this is relevant
to all of you visionaries especially the ones
that typically follow the show. Most of us have
non -product -based businesses. We have services.
We don't have inventory at the same types of
degree or levels as somebody who sells a physical
product. We don't have manufacturing and products
to worry about because of that either to a certain
extent. But once again, I would be so short -sighted,
naive, undisciplined, and unwise to say, wait
a second. do I have gaps related to that lack
of knowledge? And if I do have gaps, what types
of people can I consult with to figure out where
those are? Because they might be glaring red
flag holes that I'm not used to looking at because
I've never had to pay attention to those elements
for the digital businesses that I serve. So I'm
seeing this opportunity and saying, okay, there's,
and you guys know, I don't think all of you know,
so I'll share it. Our vision and our plan, we
have the same type of acronym, which is an acronym
for it. Vision, culture. leadership, marketing,
sales, and support. So we've got our areas where
we do our analysis. But again, it would be so
incomplete of me to say, well, I've already got
a skateboard. Why do I need a car? I've already
got a car. Why do I need an airplane or a boat?
It's such a scarcity mindset. So you are seeing
me, guys. You're all seeing me bromance this
and fall head over heels into... oh my gosh,
Ryan's got systems that can open my eyes to how
to be more universally valuable to all the different
business owners out there. And to know that I
can turn to this guy to do assessments for clients
that I would never touch. And I would say, you
know, I can get in, but I'm gonna have to do
a bunch of research. And like your client said,
probably take me not 12 months anymore. ChatGPT
is amazing. It would probably take me a matter
of six weeks. But I would be discovering something
in six weeks that Ryan has already solved and
he doesn't need to spend six minutes on. Now
he can dive right into implementation. And when
it comes to entrepreneurs and businesses, seconds
matter, minutes matter, hours matter. They're
almost always on the brink of some type of collapse.
And we can move people from surviving to thriving
by combining these types of formulas and making
sure that we don't. overlook the potential variables
that can disrupt it. So I love the vision for
those that you serve. This helps me tremendously.
We're almost out of time, but I've got three
big questions that I want to hit. So I'm going
to be brief on my responses. I'm not going to
interrupt on these. And you're going to be a
little bit more concise than them too. But we're
going to dive into worst leadership, best leadership,
and a powerful lesson. I want a lot of time for
that powerful lesson one. So Ryan, to start with.
So what's the worst, what's your worst leadership
experience ever that you've had? It doesn't have
to be yours. It can be something that you've
observed. What we want is we want to learn from
the depths of how do we avoid that? Worst leadership
experience. One that comes to mind. is i was
working for that epcm group shortly after the
birth of my second child as you mentioned and
i'd taken those roles and one client we had uh
when you're working globally you have different
time zones and so um i was handling all of the
capital cost estimating and everything associated
with the project it was about a 248 million dollar
project so it's kind of important that you get
those things right and so I would literally get
calls direct to my cell phone at 4 a .m. from
this project manager. And so as this happened
day after day after day and week after week after
week, I just adjusted my schedule. So I just
started work earlier. But then I would leave
work at 1, 2 in the afternoon. And a certain
manager in the office noticed that I was, quote,
leaving early and didn't say anything about it
to me. I mean, I filled out my time card just
like anybody else so that we could build a client.
And two months go by or so, and we're sitting
in the office. He brings the owner in, and he's
holding this piece of paper. And I'm like, what's
going on? And he hands me this piece of paper,
says, I'm really concerned that you're not being
truthful about your time. That you're charging
the client. And he says, now is your opportunity
to correct your time card. And I'm going to give
it to you here with this red pin. And I want
you to initial at the bottom with the corrected
changes. Didn't even look at it. I initialed
it. I shoved it right back in his face. I said,
every hour is accurate. It's all accounted for.
Lo and behold, I was only with that company for
about another two more months. But it's one of
those things when you put yourself in a box and
you believe everybody should be in the same box.
He didn't know I was supporting the client. in
early hours because that's what the client wanted.
That's what they were used to. I wasn't making
them fit in my box. So that would be definitely
a not so good leadership experience. Well, and
the powerful lesson on that for us as entrepreneurs,
where do we accidentally represent that paper
leader? And it's oftentimes with our virtual
assistants where we're looking for the five -star
perfect leader and we're looking for them to
put in. you know the the work that we're asking
for well most of those people are putting in
far more than they're capable of and we're taking
advantage of that situation rather than looking
at how to create balance so had that leader come
to you with praise and with the opportunity to
understand you know like hey um can you teach
me you know what you know what you're doing and
how are you doing how can we support you best
then you probably wouldn't have been inspired
to leave within two months you probably would
have been that type of rock star to say i love
it here but they completely strangled you instead
of Two months later, when I submitted my resignation,
that owner came to me and said, we'll give you
a $15 ,000 raise. We want you to stay. Don't
go anywhere. You don't have to deal with him
ever again. I was like, at that point, it's too
late, guys. I mean, you know, there's principles
surrounding the culture of a leadership. And
when you abandon the trust. of the people that
you work with because of, you know, accountability
differences that it, it destroys a culture and
that culture ultimately will destroy your, your,
your business. Well, and you, again, I, I, I
have never heard a story in business or I've
overlooked it because I've only been paying attention
to this for the last three or four years where
somebody was that resolute about their healthy
boundaries. And I know that most entrepreneurs
would hose you for that. Most entrepreneurs would
say, oh, he's stuck up. Oh, you know, he's not
willing to be a team player. Oh, he's not willing
to, you know, he expects perfection. No, you
didn't. And so I love that you share that with
such strong conviction because I think a lot
of us, those of us who are people pleasers, right?
Those of us who are, you know, we have good intentions
to help make things right. We oftentimes take
responsibility for the actions of others. justify
it and stick around hoping things will change.
But what you're helping me see, and I think a
lot of other visionaries see is if you got a
great leader, you've got to be in that high quality
position of knowing how to respect healthy boundaries,
knowing how to live with it. They are just going
to move on. And it's not because they're a bad
person. It's because they see the writing on
the wall. And they know what their value is.
And so as entrepreneurs, we've got to step even
further into that leadership component of saying,
how do we really honor and respect the great
people who are around us and never jeopardize
losing them? So let's dive right into the best
because that also like that's like one of the
best leadership experiences I've ever heard,
too. But we're going to double down. What's the
best leadership experience that you've ever had?
Oh, best leadership that I've ever had. There's
a lot of good ones that come to mind. I would
say one of them was actually around a very bad
situation. I mean, when you get around situations
where partnerships, this one's always hard. Whenever
you develop partnerships, expectations. The root
of all heartache. Yeah, I mean, exactly. Expectations
are the root of all disappointments or heartaches.
You're 100 % correct. Shakespeare said it. One
of my favorite quotes. And I've actually been
actually using that with my kids and my wife.
Like, hey, if you're disappointed and sad about
something, it's because you would probably expect
it more than what should have been expected,
right? But setting our boundaries for expectations
in this case. Sadly enough, yes, there was a
partner of mine that had certain thoughts and
certain dreams and started taking the business.
He was actually the CEO and I was the other C.
And as he started going one way, it went against
myself as well as our private equity backer.
And the moment that started to change and the
moment his own desires started taking us a different
route, you started seeing kind of an uncrumbling
of things. And so when you're asking me, well,
Ryan, how's this lead into the best leadership
experience? The best leaders recognize when those
issues are happening. And instead of letting
them fester, you know, mold, right? Mold is best
killed when we first see it. And when we address
it, I told you I'm from Southern Arizona. I told
my kids, we got rattlesnakes. And we lived on
a, you know, a ranch and you can have them at
any point in time. You can open the door and
there it is sitting right at the, you know, it's
right there. And so I told my kids, I said, whatever
you do, do not, you know, keep your distance,
but do not take your eye off of that snake. And
you just keep yelling until somebody comes because
sure enough, the moment you take your eye off
of, you're going to come back around and where'd
it go? Where'd it go? It's not there anymore.
And so very similarly in this case, sadly, we
had to. address the snake you know we had to
address the issue um and it meant a lot of heartache
it meant you know removing people it meant readjusting
uh but ultimately the organization was better
as a result so you know there's this phrase,
I see it in my mind with the picture of a lion,
everybody wants to be boss until it's time to
make boss decisions. And that's very true of
leadership. I'd say eat your frog first. Whatever
that hard decision that you're facing and that
thing that is just nagging at you, that's not
meeting expectations, whatever it is, address
it first would be the moral of the story. Big
points. Huge. I got to ask, Ryan, we're right
at the top of the hour and I want to respect
the fact that you may have a hard stop. You got
a hard stop? Nope, I'm good. Okay. We'll expand
for a few more minutes because this has just
been absolute gold. We've been honored. I don't
want to push this off to the next show. I'd love
to have you back for sure. I do want to make
sure that we dive into my absolute favorite question.
And that is, if this were the last time for you
to speak. and share something with the world.
What powerful lesson can other visionaries learn
from your experience? Other visionaries? Well,
as it relates to business and life. In business,
I say revenue first. And I learned this from
a gentleman of mine, Rick McPartland, many, many,
many years ago when CRO was just becoming a new
thing. And so I went and got my CRO, Chief Revenue
Officer certification and all this other stuff.
And it really drove home to me the aspect and
the mindset of revenue first. Everything you
can do in business, and I had a call yesterday.
I had a lady that called me, and she's stressing
out about her business. She's launching some
things, and she's worried about how she's going
to pay this and how she's going to do this. I
asked her a few questions, but then I said, okay,
let's go through your prospects. What do you
got? What's the low -hanging fruit? When can
you get now, next week? Forget about the expenses
that are coming two, three months and the agreements
and the contracts that you have. If you don't
do this, none of that's going to matter. You've
got to be revenue first minded. So everything
you're doing when you're looking at your customers
and how to best serve them, what is going to
bring in revenue? Revenue is the lifeblood for
any SMB. And if you're not feeling... your veins,
your business veins with that blood, you're going
to go into rigor mortis. You're going to pass
out. You're not going to survive. You're going
to be one of those 96 percenters. And now in
a life lesson, as a leader, as a visionary, I
like the acronym MIRN, M -I -R -N, most important
right now. So every day we have the choice when
we wake up. Hey, I can do this. I can do that.
I can spend time with the family. I can do my
work here. And it's going to vary. You know,
like I said, I'm shipping my son off to Brazil
for two years on Tuesday. So absolutely, what's
most important right now for me is probably not
that I'm spending so much time working, but maybe
that I take off a little bit of time just to
be with him. And, you know, so there's things
in life as a leader. We are all stewards of a
variety of things, not just our businesses. But
we have spouses, we have children, we have parents,
we have neighbors, we have, you know, we have
all of this. So Mern, what is most important
right now? And if you kind of ask yourself that
question, I do it not just in the morning, but
I do it multiple times through the day. You know,
especially right after lunch is a great time.
What's important right now? What's the next one,
two, three hours? Regardless of what's on the
calendar, what is most important? So that would
be my lesson. I'm going to be the angel's advocate
on this one, my friends. Some of you are not
ready for that. And I think it's very important
to recognize those of you who are listening in
for the sake of I'm a visionary and I'm moving.
I think you are. But I grew up in a family where
what people were deciding to do as the most important
thing right now was usually alcohol, drugs, pornography.
things that were self -destructive and awful
habits. And so I would caution that those of
you who hear that, if you have destructive habits,
right? If you don't quite have your internal
compass aligned, then maybe start looking for
first, who is the person? Who are the people?
Where are the tribes? Where are the people who
can help me start to reprioritize what is truly
most important? We saw this throughout the scriptures
with Christ, coming across people who did not
understand almost ever what their most important
right now mission was, whether it was Peter who
would go back to fishing, you know, who had been
with him all the time or somebody who, you know,
was running around and doing things while he's
trying to teach, you know, and trying to provide
the most important lessons. So that is an internal
compass that Ryan and I almost have a second
nature because of the dedication that we've put
into understanding where our source of wisdom,
where our source of light comes from. I don't
share that in arrogance. I share that in sacredness.
My hope is that all of you as visionaries lean
into that. I'm not here to tell you what to do.
Ryan's not here to tell you what to do. Neither
one of us are leading well if we ever tell you
what you should do. And he didn't say that. He
gave this as a perfect opportunity to say, if
you're at that level, then of course, start leaning
into what's most important right now with that
spiritual discernment. My addition to... that
opportunity is to remember that the whole reason
why vision pros live exists is because my goal
is to honor you as a visionary to make your own
decisions to make sure that you are turning towards
that source whether you call it the universe
whether you call it god That doesn't matter to
me. That's your personal decision where you're
at. But if you follow your heart and your mind
on your things, on things as Ryan's talking about,
and those actions or those efforts are driven
towards serving and helping others, I do not
see how you could go wrong in this life. So Ryan,
thank you so much for all the wisdom that you
shared. you facilitated and uh you know this
this environment um you know with me to be able
to explore things at a deeper level i got a whole
page full of amazing notes that i'm going to
be excited to go back through resources that
you've given those of you who want to connect
with ryan i'm sure you can google him google
is a very good resource but we'll also have the
links below this below this video on the landing
page we'll also have the resources that we talked
out mapped out because again those are the wells
of wisdom that have gotten us to where we're
at today. And while I'm not the poster child,
and I don't think we're the poster child for
where you ultimately want to go, we do hope to
be the friends that you can turn to and help
you along your way throughout your journey. So
you guys have a phenomenal time building out
your vision and we'll see you all on the next
episode of Vision Pros Live. 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. All right. I got
to own something. I'm going to own this. 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.