Welcome to the Business Abundance Podcast, providing
the tools and knowledge to help small business
owners succeed. For additional resources, visit
www .businessabundance .online. Hello, welcome
back to the Business Abundance Podcast. I'm Zee
and I'm here with Rowan and Ian. And today we're
going to be chatting about why most advice doesn't
work and why business owners keep buying it.
I see a lot of Instagramers, I guess, coming
up with advice, sitting from their Lamborghinis,
looking pretty. Did they just go up to someone
on the street and say, that's a nice Lamborghini,
can I take a photo in front of it? Maybe. But
they might actually own it. I mean, I can't just
bring them down. I think Instagram is possibly
the richest place on earth, just based on Instagram
posts. What, from the amount of money they're
having? Just the perception, yeah. Everyone's
so successful. It is. But you're, so you have
to be careful when you look through the information
that you're being fed through Instagram or TikTok
or wherever it might be. I mean, that's for everything,
isn't it? You got to filter the advice. Yeah,
literally. Trust the podcast. This is not legally
binding advice for businesses. But there's a
guru for everyone. So how are we meant to sift
through the information and figure out who is
actually giving advice that is relevant to you.
That's, I guess, the real question. And how can
you implement that in your business so that it
works? I mean, you can watch a video and in 30
seconds, they can give you seven tips to increase
your business's value by $1 million. And that's
30 seconds of information and you've got to take
that home and try and do something about it.
Now you're on their email list. I like just like
the title, why most advice doesn't work and why
business owners keep buying it. Which is an interesting
one because a lot of people don't even buy the
advice. They'll sign up for the email and then
get the initial PDF sent to them. And they'll
ask everyone questions about what they should
do. Yeah. But they won't buy the advice. I think.
So they're still getting the advice, I guess.
I think when you're drowning, you'll reach out
to any hand, if that makes sense. So a lot of
businesses could be doing better. Some might
feel like they're drowning. Some are probably
going really well and just want to top up, but.
it'll always come across your algorithm on whatever
social media you're on or you'll have a cold
call or you'll have something. I saw into a new
client's admin person. They're explaining all
the issues that the business had and what they'd
noticed through the years and whose fault was
particular things. The opinions seemed pretty
sensible explaining the reasons why. Dangerous
phrase whose fault it is. Yeah well yes and no
but really talking about lot of things that we
talked about with the client. Anyway, the admin
person over the course of an hour and a half,
I think it was, basically said that everything
that was in the plan that we're going to do for
them seemed sensible and she can back up a lot
of that and has seen the issues it caused and
then made the comment, which I hear often, I've
said all these things through the years but he
never listens to me. And I say to everyone here
that does advise clients that the clients always
know what they need to do. So you don't have
to be an expert in everything, but they don't
know, sorry, a lot of the time they don't want
to pull the trigger, I guess. The admin person
showed frustration that they've been trying to
help and sort of given up because blah, blah,
blah, never listens and thinks maybe if they
were a professional or different color of hair,
they get listened to, but they're not taken seriously.
I said it's very different. Someone is paying
for advice. paying a good amount for advice from
someone they think is professional and respectable
and doesn't mean they're going to listen to it
and stop. It's not so much the advice that's
important or what to do, it's the ability to
communicate that that's what they should do.
So most people get advice or they ask their friends
or they look on social media but they don't do
anything with it. Like and then they might have
got 10 different opinions and then one of those
might have been right they did in the future
and they're like I told you so. Why don't you
listen to me? So that's easy to say what people
should do. But another thing is that people won't
do it. And most advice doesn't work because people
take the advice because they've got a problem
and they want help and they want to throw money
at it or throw someone else at it, make it their
problem and hope it goes away. Yeah, blame it
on someone else. Yeah. But if they don't take
the advice and then run with it, nothing changes.
I think sporting there like you can get. get
some tips on how to improve as an athlete or
whatever and then you don't actually go and practice
it or take it on board or figure out how it works
for you, nothing changes. With the advice, like
you look at the generic advice and going back
to... Places that you get it you look at would
like like where don't say the words like on blog
posts But you get the the advice that sounds
something like systemize everything yeah seven
steps to People or things going wrong if you
had systems for everything would you post more
content like it's it's so Incomplete well, it
doesn't have context. Yeah, you don't Advice
without context, it's just noise. Yeah, it doesn't
take into account the stage of your business,
your cash flow, what your team's capable of,
your risk tolerance. It's fast food, basically.
Did you go looking for the advice or did you
come across the advice? If someone called you
up and said, have I got a deal for you? It's
the fast food of the industry. Whereas if you
know your specific pain points and you went seeking
a business abundance, for instance, for advice.
then you've come to them with direction, you've
come to them with context. It's not just a happy
meal. And a lot of the time, I think, back in
the days of cold calling as a, say, a radio executive,
you're going out trying to sell advertising and
you're trying to sell people the idea of advertising
and that's your advice. You should advertise
more on our radio station for $12 ,000 a month
and we'll get you here, here and here and here
and we'll have a non -compete clause. That's
the advice we're going to give you. Whereas if
you went searching for advertising, you would
be a bit more pinpoint, you'd have a plan, you'd
have a strategy in place. So same with advice,
if you know what you need, probably don't need
the advice to be honest, in this day and age
you just - Well, no, you do. If you know what
you need, you still need advice sometimes. But
you might not need to pay for it. But going back
to what Rowan was saying, they often know what
they need. maybe they just get the generic advice,
which feels like that's what I need. They just
don't know how to get there. Just take business
out of the thought. So life, I've got a problem
with this person, my friend, what do I do? It's
no different. You're being in different opinions.
You know what you need to do, but you'll find
about 20 reasons not to do it. And then suddenly
you've got all these options and it just drags
on and drags on, drags on. Insert anyone's problem
there. And then yeah you get some advice and
you might listen you might not but someone's
eventually going to convince you that's the most
sensible thing to do or slap you around enough
or my grandmother used to get three different
newspapers and read the horoscope for her herself
and choose the one she liked choose the one she
liked yeah i don't know who i'm saying this to
but i say this all the time sometimes people
pay us just because they want us to tell them
that they're right yep But maybe that's all they
need. Some of my closer clients, they'll know,
they'll ring me and they're like, oh, so I'm
thinking about this. I just want to get your
opinion. No, no, hang on. Let's rephrase it.
You want me to agree with you. So tell me what
you want to do. Yep. That's all. They're only
ringing me to say, hey, yeah, I've got a great
idea. Rowan's going to tell me it's a great idea
and I'm going to do it. I must be a really, really
close client because you go, no, that's stupid.
Just don't be an idiot. I think I never said
that to you. That's the one. There's so much
advice out there that I think it's good to put
a bit or understand how we think. If you can
understand as a person, we're always getting
advice. We always have problems and we can't
decide what to do even though we know we need
to. I know I need to follow that person, but
I can't do it. You know, drags on and on. Okay.
So, you know, the good advisors not only can
give the advice, but they can show the before
and after. they can show what happens if you
don't do it. They can show what happens if you
do it. They can make the sale as to why it's
a great idea and get you to the point where you
are comfortable making that decision. And going
back to the story about the admin person, it's
very different than someone just saying, hey,
you should do this. Because if I do that and
my business fails, what happens then? We're not
covering those things. But I still think with
the advice that you get, you have to sort of
discern if it's for a $3 million business or
if it's for a $300 ,000 business. Yeah, you need
some perspective and you need to know what's
going on and you need to be comfortable making
a decision. I think when there's so much advice
out there now with the internet and social media
and AI and chat, GPT, et cetera. So the fact
is that most of those people, their business
is getting you to subscribe to something or it
is getting you to listen to their videos because
they get ads. One of our clients was talking
to me. And I said, Oh, you really like this guy
I'm listening to at the moment. And he told me
all about him. And he goes, Oh, I just really
changed my business. Like I've signed up to his
thing. It's $200 a month and I'm getting these
right tips and man, cool. Good on you. And then
I was like, do you know what his business is?
Oh, no, he's doing it. Like you can charge more
for this, but he's, he's doing for that because
he doesn't need the money as a billionaire. Now
what's their business? Yeah. The business is
getting you to subscribe and that's what's made
making them a billionaire, you know? Absolutely.
Cause once you've. passed over your credit card
details once for $200 a month, next month we've
got a sale on the next level. But I think that's
where that advice can be really good because
you can learn things and then some people have
the ability to go and apply that or try it and
mix that up and do it but a lot of people don't
and that's probably the second reason why. most
advice doesn't work is because people watch all
the different people, they read all the different
books, they've tried all the different systems,
they get advice from everyone and it hasn't changed
anything and it's probably that's too much advice.
In my opinion, and this is purely my opinion,
every business help book or get rich quick scheme
book that's been released in the last 50 years
is just a paraphrasing of Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill. and people have just put their
own spin on it and people keep buying because
people might like some of the stuff from Think
and Grow Rich but some of it's quite difficult
and this person might have an easier way and
so I'll buy his book as well and then I'll sign
up to his newsletter and I'll watch his podcast
and I'll watch him on YouTube and I'll follow
that guy for a while until he says something
that's a little bit difficult and then I'll find
someone else who says they're going to make it
easier. Humans are inherently lazy. We all are.
We'll always take the path of least resistance.
And I think that's why the 1 % are the 1 % because
they do what 99 % of people won't do. But how
many people forget the information? I'm just
reflecting on what I do. Like I'll read a book
and I'll be like, totally forgot that seven step
process that they just told me. Yeah. Totally
forgot it. Forget the seven step process. It's
just when you come across something, something
triggers you to think about something. That's
what I find. Like it's all... you know, sometimes
you read it and you forget it. Sometimes you
read it and you remember, oh, where was that?
Go look that up again. Sometimes you'll just
think of an idea and you won't know how you thought
of it, but it will be something like you've read
in the past helps you get there. I could probably
have entire conversations that are cliches from
books that I've read, but I wouldn't be able
to reference them. You reference a lot though.
Zee, when you're talking about the advice for
different size businesses, not being the same,
but a lot of advice sort of assumes everything's
the same. That's, I guess, what I touched on
in the Lamborghini incident where you have someone
sitting in a Lamborghini and let's just say,
for argument's sake, their business is a multi
-million dollar business. Yeah, I scarred I've
got 2 ,000 employees now dominating. Set and
forget. This is how I do it and I just hire on
tap and it has nothing and these are the criteria
and that sort of thing. It's totally different
to someone who lives in a rural area, has five
employees and is isolated from large communities,
not smack bang in the middle of New York City.
I think that does have to be considered when
you are taking on their advice. And I know that
when I look at those sort of Instagram things,
I always go, I'm such a skeptic with these sort
of things. I just look at them, I'm like, oh
my goodness. A lot of it's true. Oh, totally
fair. But does that apply to you? But yeah, if
you're saying, oh, we'll just hire more employees
and someone who is in crisis in their business
is hearing that and they're just like I need
to hire more employees because then I can take
on more work. It's not actually the problem.
Imagine if your pricing wasn't quite right and
then you employed another 10 people to do more
of it. It's so much worse. And so I have, what's
the word, guru fatigue. Guru fatigue. You've
consumed too much advice and not enough thinking.
Yeah, well now I'm thinking. Well, always thinking
but it's just a... You just really need to take
that advice carefully. And I kind of get to the
point where I only take advice from the people
that I trust the most. I won't take advice from,
if I look at a, I enjoy the gym. So if I look
at someone who has a workout routine and they
just put it on Instagram, I'm not going to follow
that. I'll go to my PT and say, is this a good
idea instead? What they are telling me might
be right on Instagram, might be a really good
split, but. it doesn't necessarily mean it's
right. So I need that person who can sift through
all of it and tell me if it's right or wrong.
Yeah. I think you was talking about something
before and it relates, it all relates, ties together,
but people are looking for that advice because
they want the shortcut. So a lot of advice is
like, this is going to be quick, it's going to
be exact and it's confidence. And to be honest,
like that's, that is something that advisors
need to sell. Like it's much better to have advice
that works quickly and they can trust. I've been
to whole events, two main events that I remember
clearly was one where the keynote speaker was
Richard Branson and then there was a whole heap
of speakers before that during the day and they
were all selling something, they were all selling
advice but you got there because Richard Branson
was there and another one was in Auckland with
Gary Vaynerchuk and again he's the keynote speaker
and the first thing he did when he walked out
was said unlike some of these speakers I'm not
going to try and sell you anything and then he
just did what Gary Vee does. But I remember the
one guy, a real estate guru in Australia, and
he was talking in Auckland, and he was talking
about being the number one real estate guru and
mortgage broker in Australia, who I hadn't heard
of being an Australian, and money advisor as
well, financial advisor. And I'm thinking, well,
you didn't write the Barefoot Investor, so you're
probably not number one in most people's eyes.
And then he went on to talk about how he reduces
your mortgage by 20 years. And if you sign up
to my $2 ,000 a month program, you'll be able
to invest in property easily. And a lot of advice
that you could get from your local financial
advisor for a fraction of the cost. And it was
these sorts of perceived value offerings throughout
the entire schedule at both events, but they
had an audience. And a lot of the audience that
were there to see Richard Branson at one and
Gary Vaynerchuk. So you know what they're there
for. They're here to learn from some of the best
captive audience have eyeballs on your offer,
guaranteed eyeballs on your offer. And now it's
a pitch off. Grant Cardone was a minor speaker
at one of them as well. And if there's anyone
who can speak really well, he spoke well. He's
up there. Yeah. And like the 10X theory that
he's written. Got some good stuff. Yeah, it's
brilliant stuff. But again, he's a salesman.
And for me, it was awesome just to sit there
and watch him. do his thing and watch how he
crafted this offer over 45 minutes of his presentation
to then here's the pitch and build up the perceived
value. And I think that's what a lot of people
in various businesses succumb to is that sounds
too good to be true, but what if it is true?
Yeah, it's much easier to pay someone to feel
like you're doing something to not do anything.
A good framework for thinking is to think why
is someone doing something and then you go one
level is what were they thinking when they decided
to do that. Which I actually got from some guy
from France who owned a gallery and donated it.
It's an older guy and his partner and they were
looking at murals in Sheffield locally here and
I went past one and had some nice colourful...
aquatic life. I loved it. It was great. He walked
straight past it. Anyway, after three or four
and he stopped the one I asked and said, what
do you like about this one? And he goes, oh,
this one's nice, but you know, like some of them
are drawn well, but there's no nothing to it.
Some of them are something to it, but they're
not drawn well. He's like, this one's got, you
know. And I'm like, oh, so with art, are you
just trying to, what's the artist trying to communicate?
Like, that's pretty much art, isn't it? And he's
like, no, no. So what is it? He goes, I always
look at the art. What was the artist's thinking?
I'm like, oh, that's different. It's not what
I was trying to communicate. What is the artist
thinking when they did this? And then it became
quite interesting. I haven't quite a tickle there,
but if you look at something and you go, what
was the artist thinking at the time? It's actually
quite interesting then. And I do, when people
are talking to me now, or advising me to do something,
or they want you to do something, I say, well,
what are they thinking? So they're desperate
because of something. They're trying to. So we
have a lot of advisors and everyone, every advisor
has to make a sale. So is this advice or is this
a sale? Am I income or am I, you know, but they're
allowed to do that because it's their job, right?
There's a market for it as well. I think, you
know, you've got to then be able to go, what's
one that's where we're giving you all the promises
for the sale. but then we've also got to balance
it with you saying the silver bullet before you
didn't say silver bullet but that result. Perceived
value versus real value. I'm constantly, part
of my job day to day is slowing people down.
Yep. So you've got to be patient. We've done
a few changes, let's just let it sit for a few
months, see what happens. So you mean if I don't
just do these seven steps I'm not going to instantly
be a millionaire? No, let's do this way. Keep
doing the right thing, you know. Do the boring
stuff, business is boring, right? So why is your
business dominating your life? Because you you're
doing everything all the time, you're constantly
changing it and, you know, well, let's just sit
and forget and see what happens and then make
some changes. So, you know, we need patient,
we need judgment, we need trade -offs. So if
we do this, that's not going to work as well,
but this is going to work better, right? There's
always this flow. So I think why people love
buying the advice is that it means they're doing
something, but in reality, we also need to. why
it doesn't work is because they think it's a
quick fix and they go do it and then they take
on the next bit of advice and as soon as they're
not doing something it's more advice when in
reality though sometimes you need to be patient
do the right things well but what it comes down
to people just don't want to think true story
that yeah don't want to be totally responsible
don't want to think um turns why do people basis
of marketing right there why do we keep like
why do people keep getting the advice. So watching
it on the TikToks, you know, we've got the reels,
where everyone's doing it. You're in the gym,
you're looking at things, asking your PT. So
why does everyone keep buying advice when they're
not actually making the changes? Because someone's
going to make it more comfortable, easier. Yeah.
More hope without risk. It's easier now. Obviously,
you've got more exposure, easier exposure in
the pocket in your phone. But it hasn't changed.
In the 1940s and 50s, it was newspapers, billboards.
Then the advent of television made it even easier,
so you had to recraft your message. But they
were always still selling advice. I mean, at
the end of the day, Napoleon Hill went, I'm going
to write a book. And here's what I found. And
probably the Bible for advice in the history
of mankind. But why is there a market for so
many spin -offs? Why do you have your Simon Sinek's
of the world being able to stand in front of
a stage at TEDx and practically say the same
thing, just paraphrased and slightly different,
but get a massive audience? Because I think it
stems back from what Z said, I trust him more.
The same thing with the admin person I said before.
I heard it from there, but if I hear it from
you, I trust you so I can do something. Which
makes it effective advice, doesn't it? Absolutely.
So how do you as a business owner then hack that,
I suppose, for want of a better word, hack sounds
nasty, but hack it in a beneficial way to go,
how do I get my audience to trust me and want
to buy from me? Maybe that's the key conversation.
Or looking at it from the different perspective
of receiving the advice and what Zee said, you
know, that's good. She's listening to a few people
that she trusts to get that advice and she's
cutting out the rest. That's taking. that fatigue
out of things or the uncertainty. Very important
point. I think why people keep getting the advice,
though, is it makes them feel better. So it's
safer than going, oh, I'm doing the wrong thing
or I know I could be doing better. Yeah, but
I've got some advice. It's easier than making
the decision. And if they're feeling uncertain
about something, it makes them comfortable. I
mean, in the most, like, brutal way of putting
it, it just transfers blame to someone else,
doesn't it? It's just someone else's fault if
it doesn't go right. Yeah. Well sometimes you've
got to take the thorns with the roses and I think
that's a good way to put it. We've had meetings
with people that might have made sense at the
time and who are taking the advice and how are
you just saying yes because we're giving you
the advice and you're playing for it making you
feel better. Like you've actually got to go do
it. Might not work, you know. Well, that's chat
GPT. If you don't train your GPT to be critical
of your ideas, it's just going to sit there and
go, that's a great idea, Ian. Well done. Yes.
It's not even that, but people ask for the advice.
They get the advice and then they sit there and
they're like, oh, no, I've done something now.
No, you haven't. You've asked, you've paid, you've
received the advice. Now you have to implement
it. That's not our job, that's yours. Yep. But
you can see when people aren't actually going
to do it. And I've had clients two years later
go, oh, remember you telling me this two years
ago? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the back of my head, I was like... Nah Well,
I work like you're an idiot. You should have
said nah, and we could have talked about it It
still could have been the arts could have been
no But then now you two years later going I really
need to do that and I'm glad I've done it now
But I waste two years like what's the point?
I worked with it was comfortable that she had
helped many years ago that sought advice from
you actually in a different world and I was the
person who was nominated to go to these seminars
and bring the information back and and brilliant
advice just to pump your tires up mate and then
bringing it back one owner was very very on board
another owner was skeptical and then the general
manager was there's no way we will implement
that here because we've always done it this way
and so then you have to have a look at your team
and go well is everyone on the same page it was
literally like running headfirst into a brick
wall bringing this you could see the plan you
could see where the business could be And not
being a key decision maker, just being a marketing
person, not having any real influence, but then
disseminating the knowledge, knowing full well
that if we do this, this, this and this, we're
going to go from being a $10 million a year business
to hundreds. And that person over there doesn't
want to do it, so we're going to fail. Yep. And
I think that's the last part about why people
keep getting it is advice often fails because
no one has ownership over it. Yeah, I was just
thinking they get the information, go, that's
a great idea. And then they kind of think about
it and they go, oh, I don't have time for it.
And then another video shows up. And then they're
like, oh. Can't do that. I don't like that step
there. So the whole lot of it is garbage. Yeah.
And then they go. And it didn't work. That advice
wasn't good. So I'm still fine. It wasn't me
who failed. Yeah. Oh, now I actually need to
fix my time management. That's more important.
And then someone says something about time management.
I can't do that. So then I got to figure something
out. And that's why they keep. The people that
you probably trust more, it's a bit easier but
what you find with advice and coaching, coaching
is a different topic to advice but the coaching
is how do you help someone get somewhere and
it's not just about giving the advice but it's
with them figuring out how are they happy to
do something to get to a point and that might
not be the gold standard, it might not be the
platinum standard, it might be the silver standard
but that's the one they're happy to do. So I
think just understanding that people keep assuming
advice because it's also an excuse if something
doesn't go wrong, sorry, if something doesn't
go right, they can blame the advice and it's
their problem that they've already got, it's
not their fault. It's almost like the worst advice
is advice. If you want a good advisor, you probably
get someone you get along with, someone that
understands where they're at. If only there was
a team that had a group of people where you could
find... Here comes the sales pitch. It's not
a sales pitch. If only there was a team where
you could find someone within the team who you
would get along with, because there's so many
different personalities in your team, Rowan.
Just for all the listeners, Ian only does this
because it annoys me. But yeah, get an advisor
that understands what you're going through and
you get along with and can help you think because
it's not the advice, it's how you consume it
and how you adapt that for yourself. And then
the last thing is that it's good to not just
get some off the internet and when it doesn't
work, throw it away. Like if you're going to
get advice, get someone that when you're implementing
it doesn't work, talk to them again. And like
how do we fix this? It doesn't matter what advice
you get, it matters what gets executed and what
the outcomes are. And the best advisors will
help you get that income. that outcome, sorry,
which creates the income. And that's what they
sort of, they stand by. You know, there might
be five failures along the way, but they'll get
the outcome in the end. Business abundance will
get the outcome. At the end of the day, most
people aren't failing because they lack the information.
It's because they're outsourcing it. They don't
want to think. Yeah. Well, thinking's hard. Look,
if something isn't working in your business,
the answer is usually not more advice. Just start
discerning. Keep it simple. And keep it simple.
On that note, we'll leave it there everyone.
Have a good afternoon wherever you are. Morning,
whatever you're doing. Driving. Night. Good night.
Podcasting. They could be listening at any time.
Exactly.