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Crippled CEO Blog #172:

Everyone hates being ignored. It’s so traumatic that the dating version of being ignored is called “ghosting“. It sounds like something out of a horror movie. 

I have long said that upset customers are rarely truly pissed off by the mistake you made. People are generally pretty forgiving of mistakes. No, they become truly pissed off when they feel ignored, which often happens after a mistake, because we don’t know what to do to fix it, or because the whole situation makes us feel yucky so we don’t engage with it. That’s when the real anger kicks in. The screwup is the seed, but the ignoring that followed was what made it bloom into full on rage.

So, don’t ignore people unless you want to make them very angry.

But what do you do when you’re being ignored?

More specifically, what do you do when you’re being ignored by email or text message? 

Chris Voss, in his masterpiece, Never Spilt the Difference, has a one sentence message that will get you a reply back almost all of the time. Like 94% of the time. 

It is pretty magical. It is like one of those “this one weird trick“ clickbait things, but it really is one weird trick that actually does work. 

It is important to only use this as a last resort; you have followed up several times, but just can’t get a response. It is also important that you only use this on someone you know, who you are currently working with in some way. And lastly, it is critical that you send it just like this, with nothing changed, added, or taken away.

The magical phrase that will get you a response almost every time is: 

“Have you given up on this?“

People hate to give up. They hate other people to think they’ve given up on them. They hate to give up on things that they thought they wanted to do. People are also eager to correct you if you’re wrong about them. And, to top it off, this is a “no oriented question”. Like, “Is now a bad time?” or “Would it be crazy to…?”, the answer you are hoping to get is “no“. People have an easier time saying no than yes. All of these factors make this the perfectly calibrated question to get a response.

Again, this won’t work on people you are spamming who don’t know you. There actually has to be a thing that they are giving up on. And you don’t want to use this prematurely. It invokes an emotional response and defensiveness, which is why it works, but you don’t want to do that unless you have no other choice. Try following up nicely a bunch of times before pulling out the big gun.

So, that’s it. That’s the one weird trick to stop being ghosted. 

(Do you know who would never give up on me? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #171:

I’m fantastic! 

That is my typical reply when someone asks me how I’m doing. I use it because that is the most positive word I can come up with. Sometimes, to mix it up, I replace “fantastic“ with terrific, tremendous, incredible, or amazing. But 85% of the time, I’m fantastic. 

And why do I tell people that I’m fantastic? Because I am. 

And I am because I get to choose.

Some days are rougher than others, and there are times when I’m not feeling 100%, either physically or emotionally, but I do still tend to tell people that I am fantastic, because that hasn’t changed.

And saying it out loud, over and over, to everyone who I encounter who asks, helps to reinforce and solidify that choice to be fantastic. I make it real and remind myself of it every time I say it. You can be sad or down every now and again and be honest about it, but I know people who typically tell me they are “hanging in there“ or they are doing “not too bad“. Every time I hear it, I wonder how much this idea they are telling themselves is part of their problem.

Plus, besides all of the benefits you get from choosing to be fantastic, a vibrant and positive response rubs off on the person you were talking to. They get happier because you are, which then rubs off on you, creating a feedback loop of positivity. It is one of those times where you can be selfish and altruistic at the same time. I love those. 

So, try choosing to be fantastic, and then tell people how fantastic you are. It works best if it’s not a secret.

(Do you know who thought I was fantastic last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #170:

So much has been written on how important it is to have the right people in your company. All a business is, really, is a collection of people. That’s it. So, it follows that getting the people right is practically the only thing that truly matters.

And while I have seen this repeated ad nauseam, I don’t see a lot of people saying what those right (or wrong) people look like – what attributes they possess.

So, I wanted to talk about one of those attributes, and in particular one that I think isn’t just overlooked, but the very concept itself isn’t known, making it impossible to look out for at all.

This attribute is resistance. 

In his fantastic book, Extreme Ownership, former Navy SEAL commander and current CEO Jocko Willink talks about the idea of “leadership capital“. As a leader, you have a leadership capital “bank account.” Everything you do, from your facial expressions to the way you talk, deposits or withdraws from that account. If I trust someone with an important project, that deposits “money” into my account. If I listen to their feedback, that puts “money” into my account. When I give out bonuses or Fridays off in the winter, more deposits into the account. And it’s important to have that account filled up, because eventually, I need to spend that capital. If I need everyone to stay late to get a bunch of important orders out, that withdraws from the account. If I ask someone to do something that they think is a bad idea, that is a withdrawal from the account. If I screw up, that is a withdrawal. You are OK with your boss trying something you’re not sure about if he’s had a track record of success previously, but if this is his 10th bad idea in a row, then you’re not. If you spend too much from the account without enough deposits, eventually, your leadership capital is bankrupt, and that’s when you lose people. That’s when folks are fed up and can’t take it anymore.

What does this have to do with resistance? 

Employees who have lots of resistance force you to spend more leadership capital. 

I’m going to give two examples. Here is the first:

Let’s say that someone working for you gives a presentation, and it goes really poorly. Afterwards, you ask them how they think it went, and they tell you that it was awful. They already have a bunch of ideas on how they’re going to improve it for next time.

The next day, same situation, different person. They give a bad presentation, and you ask them how they think it went. They tell you that it was amazing. They couldn’t be happier with their performance.

The second person is going to be a lot more resistant to change and feedback than the first person. That resistance is going to force you to spend more leadership capital — a finite and valuable resource.

The second example of resistance is a bit different. 

I’m so thankful that the team that I have now share the same foundational philosophies and ideas. We all see the big picture. We are focused on long-term success, and willing to make short term sacrifices for the long-term success of the brand. We believe that doing the right thing is always the right thing. They all believe that our company should be a happy, enjoyable place to be, where our customers, coworkers, and vendors are treated with kindness, fairness, generosity, and grace. Everyone is on board with trying interesting and creative ideas, even if they might not work, and with constantly trying to evolve.

Because of this, when I (or someone else) want to try something new, bold, or creative, the response I get is typically enthusiasm and excitement. Now, it is important to note that this is different from being surrounded by “yes men” who just agree with me all the time, because that’s certainly not the case. People definitely speak up if they think something is wrong. But when I want to make crazy company shirts, donate to every drowning prevention nonprofit in the country, upgrade the products in a major way, or develop a new warehouse management software, everyone is generally eager to help out, and on board with the larger ideas, even if we debate the details or implementation. 

This makes such a big difference, and it wasn’t always the case. In the past, I had resistance from people on every level of the company, from the leadership all the way down to the person sweeping the floor in the warehouse. Because there was such a gap in our core ideologies, the result was that every new project or idea or direction was immediately viewed negatively, and everything was a fight. And this constant arguing, cajoling, and convincing was a massive expenditure of leadership capital. Because even small things took so much capital, we were limited in what we could do. I was also always second-guessing myself, which caused decision paralysis. It was like being stuck in a quagmire. And the truth is that even a flawed plan is better than no plan, that it’s often better to do something rather than nothing, but if you’re constantly being told that everything you try to do is wrong, nothing is what ends up happening. 

That’s the painful result of resistance. 

Once you know the concept, it is easier to spot it when it’s happening. And once you know how detrimental it is, it is easier to prioritize replacing the people for whom it’s the most salient. 

(Do you know who showed zero resistance last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #169:

You may not realize it, but both your eyes have a natural blind spot, or scotoma. Everyone has them. They’re normal and you probably don’t notice them.

Your retina, which is a thin layer of neural tissue at the back of your eye, is made up of tiny, light-detecting cells called photoreceptors. When light lands on your retina, it sends electrical bursts through your optic nerve to your brain. Your brain turns the signals into a picture.

The spot where your optic nerve connects to your retina has no light-sensitive cells, so you can’t see anything there. That’s your blind spot.

It is honestly not the best design, and many vision experts agree that they would have done it differently if they were consulted. 

If you don’t believe me that you have a blind spot, or you just want to prove it to yourself, it is easy to do. 

To find your right eye’s blind spot:

• Close your left eye.
• Hold your left thumb out in front of you, with your arm straight.
• Look at your left thumb with your right eye.
• With your left eye still closed, hold up your right thumb.
• Place your right thumb next to your left thumb.
• Keep looking at your left thumb.
• Slowly move your right thumb to the right while looking at your left thumb.
• When your right thumb disappears, you found your right eye’s blind spot.

To find the blind spot for your left eye, just switch eyes and thumbs.

So, now you know that you are constantly living with this blind spot that you possibly had no idea about. Every moment you’re awake and looking around, you are missing stuff that you think you are seeing.

This happens in life and business, as well. We think we have a clear picture of what’s going on, but the reality is, we all have blind spots, and the scariest possibility is that we don’t even know about them.

Just like with your optical scotoma (blind spot), you’re never going to get rid of all of your business scotomas, but you CAN reduce them. 

There are two main ways to heal some of your blind spots.

The first is quality data and reporting. The most basic and necessary version of this is financial reporting. Whether you do it yourself or you get help from a bookkeeping service, having up-to-date financial reports for your business is going to eliminate so many blind spots. There is so much that you don’t know you don’t know if you’re not doing proper accounting and seeing your profit and loss and balance sheet statements.

Beyond that, a CRM, customer relationship management, tool can help you track other metrics that don’t fall into financial reporting. How many phone calls or leads you get, how many of those turn into quotes, what percentage of quotes turn into jobs, how long that process takes, the average size and profitability of each job, how those things change over time and compared to previous periods, and so much more. Just like with the financial statements, if you’re not doing this, you really don’t have any idea what you don’t know about. It is a massive  blindspot. 

The second big way to reduce blind spots, besides analytics and reporting, is through customer and employee feedback. The people you sell to and the folks on the front lines of your business have invaluable information, and if you’re not proactively trying to solicit that information, you’re missing out in a huge way. You might get some feedback from customers and employees without asking, but the amount opens up like a flood gate when you go out of your way to ask in a consistent, systematized way. You will be shocked by what you learn.

Those are the two big ways to get rid of some blind spots, but there is a third, bonus method that I think is worth mentioning, also. Self improvement and education. Constantly learning as much as you can from books/audiobooks, podcasts, YouTube videos, mentors, etc., can open your eyes and make you see things you just missed entirely before.

No matter how many blind spots you get rid of, the truth is that you’re never going to eliminate all of them completely. Being cognizant of this, staying humble, and being open to the fact that you’re likely missing things will go a long way towards mitigating the negative impact they can have on your life and business.

(Do you know who got something in her eye and had a blind spot last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #168:

Today is January 1, 2023. Happy New Year, y’all. 

I don’t normally set resolutions. 

Study after study has shown that the typical New Year’s resolutions are wholly ineffective, if not counterproductive. 

Typically, we use the genesis of the new year as an opportunity to crank up our motivation on some sort of long-term improvement that requires discipline and willpower. We decide that the new year is a good excuse to shed our past mistakes and start doing that thing we were failing at — eating well, exercising, reading more, quitting smoking, saving money, etc. 

The problem is, the new year doesn’t create a new you. You are still the same you, so without any additional changes to your life, nothing gets better.

That’s why, this year, I decided to  try a different kind of resolution — a higher resolution image of what I want my life to be. A 4k image of my life instead of 720p. And then I took that high resolution image, and I laid the groundwork to make it reality.

I decided, during the fantastic New Year’s Eve party at my house, that I wanted more of these kinds of things in my life on a more regular basis — to be around my favorite people, while they’re having a great time, laughing and smiling until my face hurts.

After making this decision, I went through my calendar for the rest of the year, I made a list of all of the events and gatherings I wanted to host on what dates, from now through December 31, and I sent that list to a bunch of my friends. Hopefully, a lot of them make it to a lot of them.

So, perhaps this year, instead of using the dawn of the new year to resolve yourself to do something, maybe make the New Year’s resolution a higher resolution picture of your ideal life — go from 72 dpi to 600 dpi. And then once you have that clear picture, do something right away to start making it come true. 

I’ll let you know next year how this worked out for me. 

(Do you know who had a clear picture of what she wanted last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #167:

Today is Christmas. It might be your last Christmas with your mom, your dad, your favorite aunt, your grandma, or your child. If they get on your nerves a bit, try to imagine that this is the last Christmas you’ll ever spend with them, and give them some grace with that in mind. Because it just might be. 

Merry Christmas, y’all. 

(Do you know who came for Christmas? Your mom. A bunch of times. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #166:

I’ve been thinking a lot about Parker, Saxon, and Boyd. 

Parker was the golden retriever that we found at the park near my house. He followed us home one day, we couldn’t locate his owners, and he stayed with us for the rest of his life. He was an amazingly intelligent and compassionate dog. As a small child with cerebral palsy, when I’d be on the floor playing with toys, he would routinely push things closer to me that were out of reach or help me to move to where I needed to go.

I didn’t realize how unique this was at the time, but he also came in and out of the house freely as he desired, and often spent his days wandering around the neighborhood. When my friends and I were out playing, he was often with us, without a leash, just following us around and hanging out — watching over us and playing along with us. It was never even a question of whether or not he would come back home. He always did. Every single night.

One big reason why it didn’t seem very weird is because the exact same thing was happening across the street. My best friend, Casey, also had a dog that came and went as he pleased, and wandered about the neighborhood with no restrictions. Saxon was a German shepherd and husky mix, and the lore was that he had a bit of wolf in him. He was a lot scarier than my golden retriever, Parker. Everyone knew that when he was circling you, you just had to sit still inside the circle until he was done.

Parker and Saxon were also best friends. They were often together as they went on adventures in our little neighborhood.

Unfortunately, Saxon had a habit of getting into people’s trash cans. Most people forgave this because the dogs were so well loved, but one neighbor, Boyd, hated Saxon. He hated that he wandered around without a leash. He hated that he got into his trash. He hated that we didn’t take his complaints seriously. 

On one particularly sunny day, we were out playing in the street, and Saxon was out among us, as he so often was, loitering on the edge of the road, smart enough to be out of the way of what little traffic came down our street. While Saxon was on the edge of the northbound lane, Boyd’s truck came driving south, in the opposite lane. We all saw him coming, stopped playing, and got out of the way. And it was at that moment that he sped up, swerved to the other side of the street, accelerated again, and deliberately smashed into Casey Buckley‘s dog. It seemed absolutely surreal as his beat up pick up truck rode over Saxon, went back into his lane, and continued down the street until he pulled into his driveway and went inside.

Saxon laid twitching and crying in the street. His white and black fur was matted with blood. Pretty soon, the commotion had everyone’s parents and other neighbors out in the street, circled around him. 

Wordlessly, my dad went back into the house for a moment, returning with his pistol in his hand. “He’s dying,” he said. We all understood. He didn’t tell us to look away, but one of the moms pleaded that we do. I didn’t. I watched my dad raise the gun up and shoot Saxon in the head. His body stopped twitching. I was 9 years old. 

I don’t know what happened to the body, but I remember Casey, only 10 years old, rinsing the blood of his dog from the street with a garden hose. 

Boyd became our enemy after that. On Halloween, we egged and toilet papered his house. One time, we painted the words “DOG KILLER“ onto a sign and put it in his front yard. My mom encouraged us and helped us secure the supplies. He eventually moved away. 

When I look back at it now, I am struck by the depth of understanding we showed at such a young age. Maybe we don’t fully appreciate what young people are capable of.

Also, today, I only feel bad for Boyd. I can’t imagine how angry and miserable his life must have been if he was capable of something like this. I really hope things turned around for him. It’s easy to villainize people who do us wrong. It’s important to remember, though, that everyone is just out for themselves, trying to survive and thrive as best as they can. I’m sure that was true of Boyd, as well.

(Do you know who was out for herself last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #165: 

Things are going to change. It’s not always going to be this way.

I know you think that you’re done becoming who you think you’re going to be at this very moment, that this version of you is the completed, fully realized you, but you also thought that 12 years ago, remember? And think about how much different you are now than you were then.

The things that are really bothering you right now aren’t going to matter in a few years. You are probably going to forget most of them even existed. In fact, in a decade, some of the hobbies that you are super into and the people you interact with every day won’t really be part of your life at all.

And by the same token, things that don’t matter to you whatsoever currently are going to be massively important to you in eight or eleven or thirteen years.

Not only are your friends, hobbies, and coworkers going to go away, and be replaced by new ones, even some of your strongly held beliefs and opinions are going to change. You’re going to think back and have a hard time understanding why you ever thought the way that you do right now.

Your routines in the morning and evening will be different. You’ll probably be in a different car. You might live far away from where you do right now, even though you currently have zero intention of moving. 

The good, the bad, the critically important, it’s all going to change. So, stop worrying about it so much. None of it is going to matter much, and some not at all. 

This, too, shall pass.

(Do you know who wasn’t worried about the future last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #164:

I recently asked my (good) friend Jennifer Gomez — y’all know Jen, the rockstar estate attorney whom you should call if you think you might die one day; I talk about her a lot here — what topic she would benefit from my writing about. 

Jen: Delegating.

Me: What part of delegating do you struggle with?

Jen: Mmm. Things that are too personal like client relations. 

Me: What do you mean by client relations?

Jen: Like sales and keeping clients happy. 

Jen is in luck, because I am a big fan of this topic.

When I asked Jen what part she struggled with, she said “client relations,” but I think what she really meant was something broader that all managers struggle with when delegating. 

“Client relations” was code for “things that I think are really important/I can’t imagine someone doing as well as I do.“

It’s hard to trust someone with something that you think is really, really important, and especially if you believe that no one is going to do it quite as excellently as you do it.

 And knowing how much Jen cares about her clients being happy, I can understand why she would be worried about trusting this to someone else. 

It’s important to, though. Anything you don’t delegate is a chain tying you to the business, and keeping you from freedom. That chain has a weighted ball attached to it, and that weight is going to keep you from growing and progressing forward. 

Delegation is the key to unlock that ball and chain, giving you more freedom and allowing you to grow. 

So, how does Jen achieve this dream?

I’m going to skip the obvious ideas and focus on a few that I think are important, but counterintuitive for most people.

The first step is to hire someone great. I like to tell people that the secret to hiring a great person is to change your goal. Your goal is not to find one perfect employee. Your goal is to fire TEN mediocre employees. If you go into this with the goal being to try out and let a bunch of people go, you’ll have an easier time getting rid of people you’re not sure about until you find THE ONE. 

Next thing: you’re going to have to be okay with whoever you hire doing the job a bit differently than you — and probably not as good as you, especially in the beginning. This is really hard to do. Sometimes, you will have an employee who gets better than you in an area where you have a weakness, and this is great. But other times, no one is going to do that thing you’re amazing at with the same panache that you’d do it with. But the reality is, if it’s… 80%?… as good as you, that 20% is probably worth the freedom and extra time you’re getting by delegating. I often sit and watch, biting my tongue, while someone handles a phone call differently, and probably not as perfectly, as I would. And unless there is a clear and important criticism, I usually don’t even say anything. This is the trade-off that you’re making, and the reality is that everything will still be OK.

Lastly, there is only one secret you can use to get an employee to care about your company as much as you do. Give her half of your business. That’s it. That is the only way. If she’s just working for you, you can never expect her to care as much as you do. And yet, for some reason, this is the number one complaint I hear from business owners, that they can’t get their employees to care like they do. Well, no kidding. That is a crazy expectation. Unless you want to give away 50% of your business, temper the amount of dedication you think your hires should have.

So, that’s it. That’s how you get your head in the right place to give someone else an important responsibility that you think only you can do. The truth is, there is no task in your business that you can’t find someone excellent to handle. You just have to be willing to let them do it. 

PS: Jennifer Gomez is the best estate attorney in North America, Europe, and Australia. if you’re intelligent, professional, and you can afford the nicer things in life, you should consider hiring her. Find her here: www.JenniferGomez.com

PPS: Do you own or manage a business? What do use struggle with that you would like to see me write about?

(Do you know who was delegating some tasks to me last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #163:

I asked my friend Dani Douglas of Dani Paint Co. (who does amazing murals for businesses) what challenge she was struggling with that she would like to see me write about, and I thought her answer was one that was extremely relevant to all small business owners: burn out. 

How do you overcome the burnout that causes you to not do the things for your business that you know are needed?

A big part of my job is helping entrepreneurs start, grow, and maintain their businesses. Over and over, I’ve seen successful Life Savers seemingly sabotage their companies, and that burn out mentioned above is often the reason. Consciously or unconsciously, they don’t do the right things that they know they should do because they can’t stand doing it anymore. Maybe, secretly, in the back of their mind, they want it to fail, so they would finally have an escape. 

They feel stuck on a treadmill of their own creation and they don’t know how to get off. 

I certainly get it. I’ve been there. There are no worse feelings than 1) knowing that you’re not being as successful as you could be, and the only reason is your lack of motivation to execute the things you know you should do, and 2) dreading going to the job that you literally created for yourself.

So, this is the problem. What do we do about it? 

Let’s use Dani as our example since this was inspired by her. 

Dani paints murals for businesses. Her schedule is STACKED. She’s booked out. 

If I’m her, the first thing I’m doing is doubling my prices. 

That’s right. Doubling. 

She’s going to lose a lot of customers this way. But if she ends up half as busy, but people are paying twice as much, she’s making the same money for half the work. 

I’ve said before that the price you charge should be the number that makes you thrilled to do the work. Everyone wins when this happens — including the customer.

I bet doing half as many jobs for the same revenue would get Dani a lot closer to being thrilled.

Plus, now that you’re doing half as many gigs, and each gig is bringing in a lot more money, all kinds of new things become possible. 

You now have the time, energy, and brain cells to do all of the marketing and other stuff that you knew you should’ve been doing, but you weren’t because you were so burnt out doing all that work. You get to spend time working on your business instead of in your business. 

My favorite quote by Tim Ferriss is, “What would this look like if it was easy?“

The next thing that Dani should do is list out all of the things she hates doing the most, both on the job sites themselves, and also in the administration of the business.

How many of those things can be eliminated entirely? What would happen if you just didn’t do them anymore?

Of the ones left, what would be an easier way to do them?

Now that she’s charging twice as much per gig, she can afford to hire a helper to do some of the more tedious grunt work and prep stuff that takes up a lot of her time, leaving her to do the parts that she really enjoys. 

She can also start to find what I call micro employees to do the most painful administrative stuff that she doesn’t like doing — inexpensive folks you hire to do one or two small things, not an entire part-time employee. Meanwhile, because she has all of this extra time and energy and she’s doing more marketing, networking, and promotional stuff, she is able to fill in the calendar and replace some, but not all, of the work she lost because of the price increase. But because she now has people helping, she is going to avoid the burn out that plagued her before.

It’s hard to figure out how to fix the airplane while you’re busy flying it, but when you’re operating a small business, that is exactly what you have to do. It’s hard to get out from under everything to see the big picture and understand what big changes you can make to help yourself, but if you can manage to get that view from 10,000 feet in the air, you’ll have a much better chance of making the drastic changes that will help you not just survive, but thrive, for many years to come.

PS: Dani creates incredible hand painted murals — think your logo on something big. Below is the photo of the one she did for my company. If you’d like to hire her before she hopefully takes my advice and doubles her prices, go to http://Danipaintco.com. 

PPS: if you have a small business challenge that you would like me to tackle, leave it in the comments below and I may use my answer/your business as a future blog post.

(Do you know who doubled her price last night? Your mom. And she was thrilled to be doing the work. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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