Ep. 63 The Stern Truth: Business Therapy Thursday with Steve Hayek

It’s another Business Therapy Thursday. This is a story so many small business owners will recognize. I sit down with Steve Hayek, a home inspector in year seven of his business, and he is still doing almost everything himself. 

He’s got real growth happening for his company, All Branch Inspections, along with a solid reputation, and referrals coming in organically. But like so many entrepreneurs I work with, he’s stuck in a 90/10 split - 90% working IN the business, barely 10% working ON it.

Steve tells how the marketing, business development, and all the repetitive conversations are his biggest drains when it comes to his day-to-day. It comes with the territory of growing a client base. Walking him through the Energy Audit, we find that his systems and automations need to get out of his head and into his business.

We dug into exactly what’s been sitting on Steve’s to-do list, things like a proper client intro email, follow-up templates for buyers' and sellers' agents, and a buyer and seller checklist. He already knows what needs to go in them. Steve just needs to block the time and treat those tasks just the same as client work. 

We also talked about a hidden revenue opportunity that most solo business owners completely overlook. Simply put, it’s reaching out to clients or prospects after your initial meeting. A simple, repeatable process that just needs to be built once.

Steve already knew what needed to be done. Sometimes we just need an accountability partner, and that’s exactly what Business Therapy Thursdays are for.

If you’re a small business owner who’s running on the hamster wheel, feeling isolated, and watching great ideas collect dust, I invite you to the ONtrepreneur Inner Circle. A small group of driven entrepreneurs who get real mentorship, coaching, accountability, and encouragement to make growth happen. Find out more here: https://marshallstern.net/landing/innercircle

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I encourage you to reach out with feedback, topic suggestions, and share your own entrepreneurial challenges.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Marshall Stern: All right. So yes, there are a lot of business coaches out there. There are a lot of mentors, consultants, you name it. There's a lot of them out there. We're everywhere. But here's the thing, there's a lot of you out there as well, and today's episode is quite special to me because I sit down with a fellow business coach and mentor, Michael Morrison.

[00:00:19] He's also a fellow podcaster, and I had the privilege of being on his podcast recently. And it was an amazing conversation. I want you to listen to this conversation that two of us have about small business, growing, operating, the pitfalls, the opportunities that we've had in our businesses, and there's so many things that we have in common because you're going to hear his story, which is so similar to mine, and we are aligned with the way we shop.

[00:00:44] I think with our clients. You're going to get some golden nuggets. You're going to get some takeaways. Grab your pad of paper and pen, my friends. Enjoy this amazing sit down with Michael Morrison.

[00:01:01] Hi, I'm Marshall Stern and I've spent over 35 years leading and growing multiple small businesses. I know firsthand the struggles of entrepreneurship, feeling isolated, lonely, overwhelmed, and feeling like you have to do it all by yourself. I've been through multiple recessions, and I have felt the highs and the lows.

[00:01:21] I've been there, and I get it. This podcast is here to change that. Every week I will bring you straight talking advice, real world strategies, and honest conversations about what it takes to succeed in business without the fluff, the gimmicks, or the sugar-coated. If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress, then you are in the right place.

[00:01:44] This is the Stern Truth. 

[00:01:49] Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered and we have a special guest today, Mr. Michael Morrison. How are you doing, Michael? 

[00:01:59] Michael Morrison: I'm doing fantastic. Thank you. 

[00:02:02] Marshall Stern: Excellent. Well, just like you do on your podcast, which we'll get to in a moment, I would love for you to introduce yourself.

[00:02:08] Michael Morrison: Absolutely. My name's Michael Morrison. I am a business coach and business loan officer. We help small businesses just like you do, get unstuck and build a profitable business. I am in Oklahoma, which is almost dead center in the United States. 

[00:02:26] Marshall Stern: Very nice. And so what's the name of your business? 

[00:02:30] Michael Morrison: So we use my name for the coaching, which is Michael D. Morrison. And then for our business loans, it's Boss, B-O-S-S. 

[00:02:39] Marshall Stern: Perfect. Love that. We have a podcast. 

[00:02:43] Michael Morrison: We do have a podcast. So we've been, I believe, we're going on three years. We have about 130 plus episodes now, and it's called Small Business Pivots. And when we started it, we tried to interview people that had got unstuck.

[00:03:00] So in other words, a lot of business owners get stuck in the United States, less than 500,000 annual revenue, and we wanted to reach out to people that had hit the million dollar mark. That seems to be the milestone that a lot of people want to hit. And so we were interviewing them to see how they got unstuck and, and what it took.

[00:03:19] And then it kind of evolved into, well, let's open the door to other resources, other coaches, and let's hear some different angles, perspectives, insights. And so now we're just kind of focusing on areas of the business that can help business owners grow and scale. 

[00:03:34] Marshall Stern: I love that and I've listened to many of the episodes and I highly recommend it.

[00:03:38] Obviously we'll put all the stuff in the show notes below. 

[00:03:41] Michael Morrison: And you're going to be on there here in a few weeks. So. 

[00:03:43] Marshall Stern: Yes. 

[00:03:43] Michael Morrison: Your listeners need to listen to your perspectives because you asked the questions and now you'll be able to offer some answers. 

[00:03:50] Marshall Stern: Perfect. Speaking of asking the questions, let's dive right in.

[00:03:54] Michael Morrison: Alright, let's go. 

[00:03:56] Marshall Stern: Alright, so I guess maybe start with your journey into entrepreneurship. Did you grow up knowing this is you were going to do something on your own, or how did that all happen? 

[00:04:08] Michael Morrison: I did not, and it wasn't until I was adulting, as they say, that I had a desire to do it. I grew up in a domestic abuse family and was allegedly kidnapped by gunpoint, by my biological father and my mother put us up for adoption.

[00:04:23] So we were kind of in a secret hiding, if you will, went by alias last names. You know, the technology and things were different back then. My adopted parents, when we went to see. My biological mom would have to take a different route each time in case they were being tracked or anything like that. So I kind of became an introvert, big introvert actually.

[00:04:45]  Always kind of in hiding, kind of the last kid picked on the playground. Lack of self-worth, all that cool stuff that, you know, many people go through. And that's the life that I lived. And so when I got out of high school and college and things, I was working for the man, as they say, and I got to the point where I got tired of the lack of culture where I was at.

[00:05:10] And so one of the things that often happened was the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, it's a Thursday, Thanksgiving is, and the Friday after Thanksgiving, we were like the only business it seemed like that had to come to work. But when we'd get to work, the business owner would say, well, the phones aren't ringing, so everybody go home at night.

[00:05:30] I'm like, why did we even get out of bed? You know? But what I found out was that he didn't care to be home, and so he had everybody come up and enjoy his misery. So, I, I got to the point where I just realized I did not come from an entrepreneurial family. We were lower middle class. We were loved. We had shelter.

[00:05:50] There was nothing wrong with the family life. We didn't know any different, but we just didn't have any entrepreneurial spirit in, in our family. And so I just got to the point where, if I want a different culture, I’ve got to go create my own. And the one thing, to this day, that was almost three decades ago, 30 years to this day, I've never been open the day after Thanksgiving, right?

[00:06:14] It was – here's one thing that bothers me. I want to respect people and their families. And not everybody sees things the same way as I do, but we're going to build a culture. So building a culture is one of the most fun things. It can be challenging. But it's one of the most fun things to me because that was one thing why I started a business and I've been a business owner ever since.

[00:06:38] Marshall Stern: Wow. Okay. That's a story. That's a, that's a story. That is a story. What - what? Okay, so you started your actual - Boss. When did you start Boss? 

[00:06:52] Michael Morrison: So that, I just started about three years ago. I've been coaching about 15 years ago. My very first business was back in the nineties. In fact, we were, we founded around the time Google did. But at the time, no one knew what Google was, right?

[00:07:09] If you look back in the history of when they found it, it was back in the nineties, and so they weren't anything yet. We still had to go to the library to, to learn about business and as a business owner. So the first business that I started was marketing. And back then we just had traditional marketing, direct mail, TV, phone, book, radio, billboards, those kinds of things.

[00:07:32] There was nothing digital out that small businesses could use. So I got into the direct mail space because that's the company I had come from. That's what I knew best. And we just kind of evolved into a marketing firm, if you will. And that was back in the nineties. And I exited that company the year before COVID, which was 2019.

[00:07:55] We had about 80 employees, I believe. So we were of size and we offered everything at the end from printing, promotional products, web design. So we were kind of the full gamut of marketing, if you will, and we evolved over time. That was my big business. And when I hired a coach back in. 2000 somewhere in there.

[00:08:16] Over time, he was like, you need to be a business coach. Have you ever thought about that? And I said, I thought you had to have a license or credentials. And he said, you've got the credentials that most business coaches don't. You've actually owned the businesses, so forget that other mess you have real world experience.

[00:08:32] And so I kind of dabbled in it for free and didn't enjoy that because no one really does anything with free information. Along the way, to scale the marketing company, we had hired high-end coaches. We had them come in, work with our teams, everything from the sales to the leadership, to the owners.

[00:08:50] So I had experienced different types of coaching, different types of frameworks, different angles, and so that's why he kind of encouraged me and so I did. And so, you know that coaching was expensive for a company of our size. So it got a little frustrating, right? I'm sharing this information to the younger entrepreneur, not doing anything with it.

[00:09:13] I'm carving out time of my day, so I quit and. Someone asked me later down the road, hey, do you still do coaching? I was like, yeah, that, that's not for me. Nobody does anything with that information. And, and my original coach came back and said, well, why don't you charge something? I was like, these people can't afford anything.

[00:09:29] And he is like, well, that's why they're not doing anything with the information. So I started saying, hey, I'll, I just going to charge you a hundred bucks. Right? I mean, that's, that's reasonable. I thought for an, an early entrepreneur, little investment of them, accountability and vice versa. And they all left, like, right.

[00:09:48] They all had excuses of why we can't coach, why I don't need coaching anymore. And it was because they had to pay for it. And so having scaled a business to the size that we were, there were some organizations in town that wanted me to come speak at their events, you know? Because everybody wants to know what made you successful.

[00:10:06] At what point did you feel like you were successful? Well, there's not one point, you know, that most of us know that it was a combination of things over a period of time. And so at the event I had spoken about, we had coaches and, and kind of mentioned I had dabbled in coaching. And so people started coming up afterwards and said, hey, would, would you be interested in coaching me, giving me some guidance?

[00:10:26] And I said, well, for a fee. And the first one that ever asked me that, I thought I threw out an astronomical number. And he said, when can we start? I was like, okay, I guess we're, we're, we're getting on. So, so that's how I kind of got into the coaching professionally. So that would've been back in, even though I was doing it, I call it my philanthropy years when I was doing it for free, but, as, as a paid profession, I'd say it was probably around 2015.

[00:10:54] So at this time, that would be 10 plus years ago. But I started coaching about 15, and so that's how I got into the coaching. And then I shut down some of my other businesses and then, like I said, exited my marketing business in 2019. And I've been doing the coaching full-time since then. And then we got into the loans about three years ago.

[00:11:16] We partnered with a loan company that we can offer the SBA, SBA short term lines of credits, all that good stuff. We're not a bank, but we do offer the loan. So I'm still dabbling, offering what I think business owners could use to get them to the next level. 

[00:11:32] Marshall Stern: Okay. So I think when we had our conversation a while back, I remember there was a lot of similarities with us in, in, in our entrepreneurial journey in that we both had businesses.

[00:11:44] We started coaching. I started 14 years ago. You were 15 years ago.  Or sorry, you, you were 2014, 2015. I was 2014, but I had myself a graphics company. You had your marketing agency. You exited in 2019. I exited in 2023 to do this. There are a lot of – and you had different coaches in your organization, right?

[00:12:05] Michael Morrison: Yes. 

[00:12:05] Marshall Stern: My question to you – there's a lot of different kinds of coaches. You talked about leadership coach, I mean, they're all under the business umbrella, what we're talking about, leadership coach, executive coach, sales coach, marketing coach, mindset coach, you name it, coach. Right? What do you think, being in this space – okay, I have lots of questions actually, but what do you think business owners…

[00:12:29] It's a big question. General question, what do you think they need the most? Very general, because it obviously does depend, but what do you think is the missing piece for a lot of business owners? I would say in the million dollar, $250,000 to $1 million range. 

[00:12:43] Michael Morrison: So it subjective opinion, but – 

[00:12:46] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:12:46] Michael Morrison: From what I remember when I started and then going through the journey with business owners, it's simply in my opinion, clarity.

[00:12:56] Just a lack of clarity and direction. So we kind of have what we call the GPS or business and they're just simply lacking that map. I think most entrepreneurs are incredible people. They've got incredible souls and they're in the right space because they know what they're doing, but they, they just don't know what they don't know.

[00:13:18] And so a lot of times it comes down to lack of clarity. And once they gain that clarity. And that could be with a different coach. Right. But I, I think it's just clarity. 

[00:13:31] Marshall Stern: I knew there were a lot of similarities. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And taking action because they don't know what the clarity is, so they don't take – 

[00:13:36] Michael Morrison: Absolutely.

[00:13:37] Marshall Stern: Or they take the wrong. or they take the wrong action. because they don't want the clarity. 

[00:13:40] Michael Morrison: Yep. Yeah. I see. I could write the shortest personal development book. It would be half a page with three steps. That's get serious. Make a plan and take action. 

[00:13:51] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:13:52] Michael Morrison: And, and until you're serious, you know, and there's a lot of people that say they're serious, but are you really, when you're scrolling through your feed, just nonchalant in the middle of the day and you look up and it's been an hour? I don't, that's not really serious to me. 

[00:14:05] Marshall Stern: Okay, so there are a lot of systems out there. Business systems, coaching systems, right? And I'm not going to name them, but you know, some of them you're familiar, maybe you've taken some of them.

[00:14:16] I, I have people I've had recent conversations with who have implemented some of these systems. Right? What do you say – actually, I'm going to change course here. Systems versus implementation. Okay. In your experience with your own business and also coaching others, do you think a business owner, again, $250,000 to 1 million, aside from the clarity, where do systems come into place?

[00:14:40] Okay, because I've talked to people, they say, oh, I think I need to have standard operating, standard operating procedures. I need to put systems in place. But then you work with them on that and or they take a course, they take a program on systems, right, but they don't implement. They don't follow it.

[00:14:57] So I guess my question is how much, how much is too much when it comes to systemizing a business and spending all your time on SOPs and all that kind of stuff? 

[00:15:07] Michael Morrison: I'll give a quick story about a comp contractor that does exterior work on residential homes, and they almost purchased for $5,000 a set of SOPs for their industry.

[00:15:21] And I said, you know, there's other avenues within your industry that may pan out better than what you're considering doing. And after they got into it, they didn't buy the SOPs, which is good because they were a startup. They'd been in business less than eight months. They didn't buy the SOPs, and they are not doing what they would've bought the SOPs for.

[00:15:47] So, in other words, if you think about a landscaper, are you just mowing yards? Or are you also planting trees? Right. So there's different aspects of landscaping, and this was a similar situation where. They went into it wanting to do this one thing, here's a resource that they could buy the whole suite of SOPs, those would've been worthless for them.

[00:16:09] So I think it really depends on how much clarity you have. I know we go back to that word, but is this really what you're going to be doing? And then for systems, just for me, if you're still a solopreneur, what are some of those things that you catch yourself having to go back and refigure all your steps to get it done?

[00:16:29] I would start there. You're systemizing some things, but I think there's still some businesses that are still in the early stage. We just don't have enough data. We don't have enough history to, is this going to be a repeatable process that I need to remember? So I, that's how I always do with a new business is if there's something you always have to go back and research, like, how did I get to here?

[00:16:51] I don't remember. Write it down. If it's something that you're going to do, again, time and time again, because there, if it's something that you remember every day. Do we really need to write it down? Maybe, maybe not. But then when you come to, when we have an employee, you know, that's where you really need to decipher what systems we need in place.

[00:17:11] That are replicable for that person to be able to do their job. And that's a whole different income level. because if you can afford an employee for them to be successful, they've got to know what to do and how you did it. And so that's when you put a little bit more time into it. But I think there's a life cycle of business and I think the first step in that cycle is survival, right?

[00:17:32] We're just trying to survive. Where's my next customer coming from? Once we get past survival, and I call it the stability. So you feel like you have some recurring revenue, you can sleep at night, you can pay your bills. I think that's when you really need to consider systemizing something. 

[00:17:51] Marshall Stern: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:52] Michael Morrison: So that, because you are about ready for employees, right? If you're getting that busy where you've got enough repeat business, we're probably going to have to get some employees. And I think that's when you really need to consider, like, organizing systems and processes. You know, is it marketing? Is it accounting?

[00:18:08] And even if you're hiring VAs. Right? They still need to know how you do things within your organization, because most accountants use QuickBooks. They know how to use QuickBooks, but do they know how to accept your forms of payment and the forms that go back, the emails, the back and forth. You know, every company does things a little bit different.

[00:18:28] Those are the things I feel like are probably the first steps in systemizing. But it really depends. I think also in the industry that you're in, you know, if there's legal compliance, like some of them that I work with, I think you need to systemize those from day one so you don't forget, you know? So it really depends.

[00:18:46] But I think at first, to spend a lot of time on it, when you don't have enough recurring revenue to feel like we understand who we are, what we do, I think that's a little premature in my opinion. 

[00:18:59] Marshall Stern: Yeah. No, I, I agree. I agree. I remember, and I still love, I love the philosophy of the book, the EMyth.

[00:19:06] That's the only program I'll mention, right? Absolutely. I think it's the, the bible of, for entrepreneurs. Really. There's, there's a few of them, but the EMyth still, EMyth still stands.  but I remember early on in my, and I've seen, I've seen Michael Gerber speak a few times, and it was like. It was amazing.

[00:19:22] And I remember early on in the nineties,  a few years into my entrepreneurial journey in my, that, that my, my sign company, which I had, which I had for 29 years, I remember reading it and I remember rereading it and then rereading it and, and I saw them live. And it's all really got into both systems.

[00:19:41] Systemizing your business, the people and the systems. And I remember I spent so much time putting systems in thinking about it, I spent so much time planning and systemizing the systems that I was focused on what was right in front of me. And I got stuck. I guess I got stuck. I got, I got system, whatever you want to call it, system mania, system over – like it was just system.

[00:20:04] System overwhelm. Right. And I wasn't ready. I guess that's what I, looking back, I probably, at that point wasn't ready for. And it obviously, when you work with the clients, I work with the clients you, I'm sure you work with, if you want to grow, you want to scale, which is two different things. We need to put systems into place, but it's at, at what point and, but it all starts with what you said at the beginning.

[00:20:25] Clarity. Right. 

[00:20:28] Michael Morrison: Yeah. If you're not doing things the same way each time you're still exploring, you're still learning. I think that's a little premature for systems. because you're always going to be going back and trying and then you get stuck. Always trying to make it perfect and it's like, no, you need to be going and getting sales.

[00:20:46] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Okay. Speaking of getting sales, okay, what, well, actually, I'm going to, on that note, maybe this, what do you get with people you coach or that you're in conversation with and you have on your podcast? What do you see and from your own experience, one of the, so one of the things on this podcast is I love my, my guests to, and you've already shared some golden nuggets.

[00:21:07] Okay, and what would be one golden nugget that something you see time and time again that small business owners are making and that's preventing them from the growth that they really, truly want? 

[00:21:21] Michael Morrison: From my angle, from my lens, I see them following. The, whatever the latest trend is, whether it's a video trend, social media trends, or here's the new platform you've got to be on, and they try to rush in there and gain their followers before everybody else does.

[00:21:40] I see that being one of them. And I also seeing, be working on the wrong thing at the wrong time. So for instance, if, if, if you're trying to build your website. I know everybody needs a website, but I know business owners who will spend hours, first of all, trying to figure out the website platform. And then secondly, trying to get the shades right, the right photo, the right pick, the right content, and I'm like, you need to be picking up the phone and calling someone.

[00:22:13] You need to go have a coffee because that website, every hour that you're delaying, you're delaying sales. And so yes, you do need a website. Not going to lie, I'm not saying that, but the amount of time that they're spending on the little things that don't matter today, that website is not going to get you a client today.

[00:22:33] I can go have a coffee with someone right now, and at the end of it, they may say yes. When do we start? And so, you know, kind of focusing on prioritizing. Basically, they're not prioritizing what really matters. So I always questioned or ask business owners to question themselves. Am I working on the right thing?

[00:22:52] That's going to make a difference now, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, but today, making viral videos. Unless you're in that space, I don't think we need to be worrying about trying to get a video to go viral. I think we need to be having those coffees, those lunches, going to those networking, really honing in on our ideal prospect if we don't have a sales system in place, like follow ups and when we.

[00:23:18] Follow back and a CRM for most businesses. I think sales is the number one challenge starting off. So let's focus on what sales can we get today? 

[00:23:27] Marshall Stern: Yeah. But don't we want followers and, and Mike, it feels good. Yeah, exactly. No, I, again, I agree. I agree with you a hundred percent. I mean, there's just so much noise out there.

[00:23:37] We talk about this a lot on the podcast. Right on, especially in the marketing, the coaching space, in the marketing space. There's so much noise. Everyone's telling you to do this, to do that, you know. You know, you see those, like, again, not that I'm on it, but once in a while, Instagram or Facebook, you know, you see, you see the people doing, the Instagram is canceled.

[00:23:57] You know, Facebook's canceled, webinar is canceled, and why is it canceled? Because I got something else to sell you. Right. 

[00:24:03] Michael Morrison: Well, and speaking on that note, I, I forgot to mention there's a lot of courses out there. Right, and they all seem to be an astronomical number that promises you to 10x faster, build your business faster.

[00:24:17] Within a day you'll have a hundred thousand dollars in sales. It's a bunch of bunk. Okay. Most business owners will tell you that have been in it for a while. It takes a plan, it takes hard work and it takes taking action. There is no simple, do this one thing, take this one course, and by the end of the week you're going to be living in the Caribbean.

[00:24:40] t just doesn't happen. 

[00:24:41] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and that goes back to, you know, and I'm not promoting coaching here. Oh yeah, I am. Okay. Let's face it, this is my podcast. I'm promoting it. Okay. Because you got two people right here who've been in business and have been through in the trenches, and we've been through the ups and downs.

[00:24:57] We've been through recessions, we've been through pandemic and all that kind of stuff. There are a lot of coaches out there, or people call them coaches who have very little, if any, business experience, and I'll say this one step further. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but it's also for our listeners.

[00:25:13] There are so many marketers out there. 

[00:25:16] Michael Morrison: Yes. 

[00:25:17] Marshall Stern: Disguised as coaches and marketers out there. Sell it like marketing agency coaches, right? And they've never built, they say they built a successful marketing agency and the, the most success they've had is selling the program that they're selling. Right?

[00:25:31] They don't have, right? And so I always say to my clients, or, or I always talk about, like, if someone shows you, now if you've done this, I apologize, but if someone shows you their, their bank balance, right? On a video, like, look, I, you know, in six months says, look at my bank. Come on. Really? 

[00:25:46] Michael Morrison: Yeah. Well, we got to remember, you know, as business owners, we know this stuff.

[00:25:51] And I think if you pay attention to the people you're following, the listeners, people that are following if, if we don't know their backend story either, I have five contractors, one of them's doing significantly better than the other four. 

[00:26:10] And I mean, like, top of the moon, he had money to begin with.

[00:26:15] He bought SEO, he bought a domain. These other, they're like, well, what is he doing that I'm not? I'm like, well, he started with more. You're bootstrapped, so you're having to do it, but you're learning a lot along the way. Like this person, when they get in a bind, they're not going to know what to do because they've always had a crutch, if you will.

[00:26:35] They've always had, but if they don't have money, that business is probably going to be doomed because they haven't gone through the, the ebbs and the flows of owning a business. And so it goes both ways. So, you know, with those courses and those marketers, they're selling you what worked for them, but we don't know how they started.

[00:26:55] Marshall Stern: Mm-hmm. 

[00:26:55] Michael Morrison: They could have had wealthy parents that gave them a house. You know, these kids, I know some people in California, that's where a lot of the big homes are. And you see these, the younger generation with driving these Maseratis and these big mansions, you know, doing their videos in front of. I know people that live out there, they're asked consistently, hey, if I paid you a thousand bucks, can I take a video in front of your house?

[00:27:21] Like, we don't know that as a consumer, we're just right. So we can't assume just what they're pitching us will work for you. There's other business coaches out there that say, I've got the program that scaled me 10x in one year, or did this or that. Okay, well. Maybe that worked for you and that's it. And I see so many franchise owners, I feel so sorry for them that buy into a franchise that worked for that person, but it doesn't work for anyone else, right?

[00:27:49] Every business is unique, even if you're in the same industry, you're a coach. I'm a coach. I would bet that most of our systems are different. Our bank account is different. Our quality of life is different, so we can't always trust. That that system or that program is going to work for us. But what you and I can promise is there are essentials to growing and scaling a business, and we're going to teach you those principles.

[00:28:18] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:28:18] Michael Morrison: And then it's up to you to customize your business and that's how a business grows and scales. 

[00:28:25] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Love it. Lots of gold nuggets here. So if you guys are listening to this, I mean, I always say grab a pad of paper and pen.  So if you're driving, pull over. Watch this again.

[00:28:37] Rewind. YouTube, Spotify, Apple, whatever you're listening to, listening to this on. Okay, so here's a question I'd like to ask. If you could go back to young Michael, right? You're starting out your entrepreneurial journey. What would you tell yourself if you, you know that whole thing you, if you knew then what you know now, what would you tell yourself?

[00:29:02] Michael Morrison: Hire professionals. In other words, the professionals that you don't know, the profession. An accountant, an attorney. If you need legal documents, don't be downloading stuff that'll get you in trouble down the road. 

[00:29:16] Marshall Stern: Mm-hmm. 

[00:29:16] Michael Morrison: It's nice to have in your file cabinet. Say, I've got an operating agreement, but is that operating agreement going to hold up in the court of law when you bring on a business partner?

[00:29:26] You know, that kind of stuff, the marketing, the editing, the video, whatever it is. The website I mentioned earlier. It's okay to have a simple landing page, but then move on until you can afford someone to build it for you, because we don't know what we're doing. I see so many business owners trying to do their own accounting and it doesn't if you don't know accounting, yes.

[00:29:47] QuickBooks is friendly, user friendly, right? Easy to navigate. Sometimes they keep changing it all the time, so every time I go back to it, it's like, now where was that? Oh, they moved it, you know? But for the accounting part. I'd like to challenge business owners. You're basically going against what you say you're an expert at.

[00:30:07] So let's just say that you're a pool installer, swimming pool installer. If you're trying to learn all this other stuff, why would people hire you to install pools? 

[00:30:17] Marshall Stern: Mm-hmm. 

[00:30:17] Michael Morrison: Aren't you the expert? Aren't you the professional? So I say treat your business the same. If it's something you don't know, hire somebody.

[00:30:27] Well, Michael, I don't have the money. Well, guess what? Go to that coffee. Go to that network. Go find more sales and earmark that money, right? If you're able to pay yourself right now, earmark that money to say, hey, it's going to cost me $3,000, $5,000 for a website, and earmark that money for that. All the new monies, and then you can go afford it.

[00:30:47] And it's just like this domino effect. But don't be doing things you don't know anything about is, is my suggestion. 

[00:30:54] Marshall Stern: Again, I, I agree with you a hundred percent. And also what it does is it, not only are there people out there who are better than us at that skill and can do it better and do it faster, it might be, it's an investment.

[00:31:06] People say, well, but it's a cost, it's an investment. It'll also allow you - look, why did we all go into business? Why do most people start a business? It's for that F word. It's the freedom. Freedom of time, freedom of money. So let's go back to that. Don't you want to have more time to spend with family, friends, yourself, traveling, whatever.

[00:31:27] Or how about, growing your business and for, and we're stuck. Like, I, when I started my sign business, I did my own books. Okay. I did own books. 

[00:31:35] Michael Morrison: Yep. We all did. 

[00:31:36] Marshall Stern: Right, right. I did it for about a year. At the beginning I loved it. It was my baby. I'd go in on the weekends. I didn't have kids, and it was like I'd spend six, seven hours every weekend.

[00:31:46] Loved it. because it was like, oh, this is exciting. Right. It was the honeymoon period. It started to get old fast. Like I tell the story, you know, it became springtime and everyone was like, I would – walking and golfing and just being in the fresh air and the sun. Because in Vancouver here, it rains a lot in the winter.

[00:32:01] And when we get the sun we want to enjoy it. And then thankfully my accountant then came in one day and fired me as the bookkeeper. He, he did me the best favour. He said it because I was starting to make mistakes. And he said it’s time. It's time we get you a bookkeeper. And that freed up my weekend. Right.

[00:32:22] So let the experts, as you said, let - I agree, let the experts do their thing, and then that allows you to conserve your energy and focus on what is really truly, you said earlier what really does move the business forward or move the needle of the business. 

[00:32:36] Michael Morrison: Yeah, yeah. So quick time trying to do it yourself.

[00:32:40] The DIY we all know that most DIY projects turn up about half the quality and double the time. And that's really what you're costing yourself is that time could be spent on sales. So you can afford that profession as well as especially accounting. We have a CFO controller level type CFO. And I know, for a fact, if you're trying to do your own accounting, you're costing yourself money as well.

[00:33:07] So that money you think you don't have to pay them, they could be saving that for you because they know how to categorize. They know how to prepare financials and taxes and all that stuff that you really could afford someone. You're just not thinking clearly about that side of it. 

[00:33:25] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Yeah. No, a hundred percent.

[00:33:27] Okay. So I would say, before we go, I want to ask you what has been one - I always say, talk about this on, on the podcast - well, this business thing is hard, right? It's not for the faint of heart. It's hard. It can be shitty. Some days it can be amazing. Some days it's hard. What is, what is one of the, some of the challenges you've faced in your entrepreneurial journey and how have you overcome them?

[00:33:52] Michael Morrison: The unknown, right? We think everything's clicking, revenue's great, and the next day the, the sky is falling. The wheels are falling off the, you know, the car, if you will. But what really gets me through it is going back to the word clarity, right? So we're big believers in guiding principles, which to me just to name a few of those are like your purpose statements, your mission, your vision, who you help, why you help them.

[00:34:20] Because there's days where I felt, I, even, to this day, as a business coach, they think, well you'll, you got it all together. No, we don't. We're just sharing what we've experienced and what we know you should know, and we're trying to help each other, but we also learn from our clients. 

[00:34:36] Marshall Stern: Mm-hmm. 

[00:34:36] Michael Morrison: Right? Because there's things that happen because COVID.

[00:34:39] Perfect example. I know everybody keeps referring back to COVID, but that was a perfect example. No one's been through that. So together, we're learning together. Well, I know this wasn't COVID here, but here's something in an economic downturn back in 2008 when our economy was collapsing, you know, here's some things we did and that's literally what's kind of going on.

[00:34:59] But there seems to be a disease behind it, but it's still creating economic chaos. So, you know, there's things we can do, but having that clarity. I like to see our purpose statement more of a passion statement. So why is it, why do you do what you do? Like for us, our passion, our purpose statement just says nothing about business coaching.

[00:35:19] It says to be a voice of hope for every small business owner who is working hard and not getting anywhere. Now, when I'm, when the sky is falling, I refer back – it's up here on our walls. I refer back to that go, you know what? But there's a lot more people that fit that category and I need to get back to work and help find those people.

[00:35:41] So as, as long as you're understanding why you're in business, who you serve, as you build those elements, it becomes more clear like, you know what, that was just a bump in the road that was just a little detour at the end of the road. But there's still a lot more people that need me. Let's learn from that.

[00:35:59] Let's get through that. Put it into a system. If it's something that you need to do to, to not have it happen again, and then move on. Because having those guiding principles, you now have purpose, and I don't mean just with the statement, but you have purpose of why you even exist, and that helps guide me through those challenges.

[00:36:19] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Again, I'm so glad I have, I've been able to connect with you and have you on because everything you're saying, I, I agree with a hundred percent for whatever it's worth. My listeners know it. We talk about our purpose, the why, the why we do what we do. It's, and that's what I, with my client, same thing.

[00:36:38] Like that is one, one thing I teach them. You need to get really clear on why you do what you do because there are some shitty days out there. 

[00:36:46] Michael Morrison: Absolutely. 

[00:36:46] Marshall Stern: There are… people get sick, we lose people we love, we lose clients. Clients ghost, prospects, ghost us. Clients don't pay. And if you kind of forget that purpose, the mission, the why, it can be really, really difficult and you could just give up.

[00:37:04] Michael Morrison: Yeah. 

[00:37:04] Marshall Stern: Right. So yeah. 

[00:37:06] Michael Morrison: Absolutely. 

[00:37:06] Marshall Stern: Yeah. So clarity, last question about clarity. What do you think clarity does for someone? 

[00:37:13] Michael Morrison: I think a lot of business owners were living in this fog because we don't know what to do next. And I think clarity, if, if I were to, if I were to say, the one comment I hear from most business owners that call us, that reach out to us, they're, they say, you know, if I just had a step-by-step plan, I could, I could conquer this.

[00:37:35] And that's what clarity is. When you understand what you do, who you do it for, you've got systems like sales funnels and systems and things in place. You just keep following the steps. Right. Let that little bump in the road, but I got something else to do next. I never let it bring me down like it's the end of the world.

[00:37:55] It was a speed bump in the road. Now let's learn from it and move on. Because we have a lot of work to do. There's a lot more steps that I haven't done today. Right, as long as I've got my day lined out. And so that really helps with getting the fog cleared is steps, but you can't do that without clarity and all those other things we've talked about.

[00:38:19] Marshall Stern: Love it. Love it. Well, Michael. Thank you so much for sharing your, your wisdom, your golden nuggets on our, our podcast, because I know people have, are going to take lots of golden nuggets, lots of insight from this. And what I want to know from all of you is, don't be shy. Like go out there, give us your comments, give us your feedback.

[00:38:38] I'll put Michael's contact information in the show notes and reach out, have a conversation, have a coffee chat with them. And my question to all of you is do you have clarity? Do you have clarity over tomorrow, over the next day, the next steps? Do you have clarity over why you're doing what you're doing?

[00:38:55] And if not, it might be time to spend some time, get clarity, reach out to one of us, just spend some time and look within yourself. And one other thing I'll suggest is go back to why you started your business in the first place. That is sometimes we look in the wrong place. Why'd you start in the first place?

[00:39:12] Alright. 

[00:39:13] Michael Morrison: Amen. 

[00:39:14] Marshall Stern: Amen to ,amen to that. Alright, thank, thank you everyone, and we'll see you again next week on another episode of the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered. Bye now.

[00:39:25] Thank you so much for tuning in to the Stern Truth. If you found today's episode helpful, we would love to hear from you. Please like, share, and leave us a review. Also, if you'd like to be a guest in an upcoming episode or join us in one of our Moment Accountability Group sessions, simply email me to marshall@marshallstern.net.

[00:39:45] That's marshall@marshallstern.net. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Until next time, keep pushing forward and leading with confidence.