Grit, Growth, and Grown-Ups: Richard Walsh on Business and Life Lessons

Speaker A: 00:00:41

Well, hello everybody and welcome to another amazing episode of Unstoppable Success. I am your host, Jaclyn Strominger.

And on this podcast we hear from just the most amazing humans who have amazing things to share about how they have themselves unstoppable success. And they will share their insights, their tips, their strategies, and how they have become that unstoppable successful person or business.

And today I have a great person to introduce you to, and his name is Richard Walsh. Let me tell you a little bit about Richard. He is the CEO of Sharpen the Spear Coaching. He is a 30 year seasoned entrepreneur.

He's a bestselling author of Escape the Owner Prison. We all can understand that. The contractor's new way to scale, regain control and fast track growth while loving life. He.

He's a speaker, he's a podcast host, he's a husband, he's a father of six children, a US Marine, a champion boxer, black belt, and an internationally recognized steel sculptor. But more importantly, let me just tell you that Richard has been. He's seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.

He has gone from having it all to losing it all and back. So, you know, he's got great insights to share. And so, Richard, welcome to Unstoppable Success.

Speaker B: 00:02:09

Thank you, Jaclyn. I've been looking forward to this interview. It's great to be here.

Speaker A: 00:02:12

I'm so, it's so great because, you know, Richard, I was actually on Richard's podcast. It was awesome. And we were just like, oh, we gotta, we gotta, gotta have you on mine.

So, Richard, as I shared it just recently, obviously in that intro you did, you had it all, then you didn't, and now you are just like beaming.

Speaker B: 00:02:37

Yeah, yeah. It's been a journey. It's been a journey. Jackman. It was cool. Yeah. The, the first 20 years, amazing. Building, struggle, build, right?

And I became this custom water feature builder, steel sculptor, and started putting all this stuff together. People were paying me a ton of money and I was doing what I wanted, living like my dreams.

goes, they weren't. Okay, so: 0809

So took a pretty big hit pretty fast. And not just for the economy.

The economy is only your final indicator, as a lot of people may learn, depending how long you've been in business, there's like doing what you do. Like, I'm an artist and I build these incredible water features and stuff, steel sculptures and that's great.

But what I wasn't good at was business because I thought making lots of money was business. And newsflash, it's not. It's a fun part of it. It's a really fun part of the business, but it's not going to keep you.

Speaker A: 00:03:42

That looks like a byproduct, right?

Speaker B: 00:03:44

Yeah, it's like, well, that's nice. But Even it took 20 years to figure out that you gotta, you do have to pay attention to the business part, which I kind of did.

Didn't then hire someone and get an accountant and get this. And I ignored a lot of things. And when the real pressure came, when things started to collapse, why couldn't I weather that, right?

,: 2008

People canceling contracts. Everyone was freaked out. You know, just the phone's ringing.

I remember hanging up the phone at the end of the day, Jack, when I looked at my office manager and I go, I think it's over. I don't, this is not a good day. And it just kept going, right?

So by, by early 09, I'm like this, we're done, you know, and, and for me, for the, the, the, the cooler part of the story was at that time I had six small children, four years and younger, okay? So I'm like, I got this, I got, I'm losing my house, I'm losing my business. Tried to do some, I call them dumb things to keep the business afloat.

Much longer story than we'll get into here, but didn't work, okay? So now I'm losing all that. And I woke up one day and I'm still trying to keep it going.

I started thinking about my kids and they're again all under four. And when I come home at night, they'd run and jump on me and do all that.

And one day my four year old's chasing my truck out the driveway crying because I'm leaving, you know, but hey, I got to go to work. And I realized I had this epiphany at that moment that if I continue down this path, that business is first it was who I am.

I am the business best at what I do. I've been in every magazine and TV and all this stuff, right? Committees and everything.

I'm actually going to destroy their futures because more is caught than taught with kids, right? So they're only going to do what they see me do. I can tell them all the Right things, but only going to do what I did, right?

So they might be good at. I'm air quoting business, which now we know is not really business, just making money. But everything else in their life.

They're going to have failed relationships, broken marriages. They have all kinds of bad things because of what they saw me do, what I prioritize. So I walked in the office that day and said, we're done.

Said I'm not doing this anymore. And like, oh. And I went to my construction yard and met my guys who had been with me for 10 years. We had our last cup of coffee together.

It's like, guys, we're finished. I can't do this anymore. I'm not going to do this. And to this day I haven't built a water feature or dental sculpture. It's been like 16 years.

Said I'll never do this. I'm going to start now.

Speaker A: 00:06:14

I could use one. Just kidding, right?

Speaker B: 00:06:16

Yeah, I'll give you a discount. But it became, because it became my identity, right?

When your business becomes who you are, you're going to make bad decisions because of that identity. You're going to do dumb things because it's ego and pride and like it's mine. It's me. Without me there's no business. Everybody needs me, right?

It's that whole self centered, just crazy. And I just. And I'm like, I'll never. And I know if I go back to it or went back to it, it would stir that in me again. So I've just nothing.

So I have to start over. We had to relocate, we lost a home, right? We had to go to change states. I'm like, okay, now what do I do? I was like, hmm, I don't know.

Oh, I really like to train people. I like fitness, I'm a boxer, I'm blackball, all this stuff. Like I'll do that. So I went to Anytime Fitness. You know, they're everywhere, right?

And like I'll be a personal trainer because I already had done that in the past. And I'm like started that doing really well, built this whole program. Next thing you know, I'm trainer of the year. Okay. So I'm like, oh, that's cool.

But I'm also an entrepreneur, so you know what that means. I gotta go open a gym. So I opened a boot camp style training gym. Really great, you know, did that, grew that like this was awesome.

But my key to that Jack was like, okay. So my goal was we homeschool our kids and everything else, right? And so now they're, you know, they're growing, they're getting those ages.

I'm like, if my wife needs me to be at home, I need to be there in 15 minutes. Okay. That was like, this is what I set as my goal. How do you build a business where I can have that kind of freedom? And I did.

I said, so I will hire trainers, I will train them, they'll run this stuff. I'll be here doing this, and it'll never have me. I'll never have to be there.

Other people had keys to the door, you know, I didn't have to open it up every day. And that went really well. And then I started the construction company. It's like, oh, I'll do that. Roofing, siding, windows. And I built that out.

Same principle, get subcontractors. I don't have any employees. I have subcontractors. And I do all the work. And I was able to just. And scale that and do that. Wow, that's really great.

And then people start asking me, well, how'd you do all that? How'd you go from all that to nothing and back to all this? And I said, well, I, I go, what are you doing? And I started helping them.

And that's kind of where coaching was birthed, because I was mentoring, which is cool. I love to help people. But I'm an entrepreneur and mentors don't get paid. Coaches get paid. So I'm going to be a coach.

So I wrote a best selling book called Escape the Owner Prison.

Like you said, I built an academy around it, started bringing people in, started helping all these businesses and doing this stuff and turning them around and giving them the freedom that I created. And a few iterations later, here we are at Sharpen Spirit. Coaching and helping incredible, doing incredible things for incredible businesses.

It's a blast.

Speaker A: 00:09:09

So let me go back to a couple of things. First of all, do you still have the construction and the gym and the other business?

Speaker B: 00:09:16

Nope, nope, nope. I got too busy with coaching.

Speaker A: 00:09:19

Okay, so did you sell those?

Speaker B: 00:09:22

Yes.

Speaker A: 00:09:23

Okay. Which is in, in itself like a way to hit, to be. Have unstoppable success too.

Like you built something, now you actually sold it to help somebody else have success with it. Like you started that, Right? That's great.

And I think I, I would, I would think that a lot of people ask you not just how you did it, but, but how did you, how did you go from the low out of, out of the low to the high? Because that's, that's a lot of emotion. That's a lot of mindset. That's a lot of, you know, for lack of better word, pain, suffering and fear.

Speaker B: 00:10:18

Yes, a lot of suffering. Yeah. So. Because I get to ask this a lot and really what it is, I'm. I'm a. I'm very much an optimist. Like, so if I take all my training and my.

How I grew up, what I suffered through that, and how I got to the next stage, then the Marine Corps, then I'm boxing, and then I'm. And I'm doing this and I'm building businesses and then all this stuff. There's. It's all kind of suffering.

But so when everything collapsed, I'm like, well, I have six children and my wife and I have to provide. I have to do something. So what would have been smarter? This is the joy of hindsight, is like, I owned everything.

I had all my equipment, all my trucks, all my excavator. I owned everything. It was all cash. I paid cash for everything.

And would have been probably smarter to keep a couple things and do some side gigs, like go excavate for and make that. You know, looking back, I mean, my wife was kind of upset. I didn't. But I'm like, no, I. I'm an all or nothing guy.

I can't have one foot in, one foot out. I don't do anything in my life like that. So, like, I can't. I'm selling everything, you know, and got like 20 cents on the dollar.

I mean, it was a terrible. The worst time in history to sell anything was then, okay, in 09. So. So, you know, good meme.

The guy doesn't know business right at that time is selling stuff for 20 cents on the dollar because I'm an idiot, okay? But I just, like, got rid of that, so that would have been probably a wiser thing to do. But I'm also a pressure guy, Jaclyn.

I only perform under pressure. Like, if it's easy, like, I'll give you an example as a.

As a sculptor, someone will commission me for a piece and I'll say, okay, when would you like it done? And I say, oh, whenever I go, oh, yeah, that time frame doesn't work for me because, you know, the last part of that word is never. Okay?

So I. I don't. If you don't have a date, I'm never going to get to it because. But if you tell me Tuesday, it'll be done.

No matter what it is, I'll make sure it happens. I get creative under pressure. I solve problems under pressure, I work really, really diligently. So I can't have that loose whenever timeframe.

So that was probably why I was really able to push through and make this happen. Because I had this pressure. Like I got to feed my kids, I got my wife, I have to get a home to rent a place and then do this. But it was the problem.

Jack was like, what was I going to do? So I tried to be like, well, what'll make me happy, man? Training people. Now here's the funny thing about. So I want to train people. And I'm.

I'm very much the warrior mindset. You see spears in the background, okay. So I'm sharp in the spare. So I'm like, how to get trained people, man. We'll be out in the woods.

I'll be dragging them through streams and coming trees and digging holes, man. We're going to be. I'll be rocking their world, man. Climbing. I'm like, we're going to do that. Okay. I never got to do that. Okay.

I ended up at Anytime fitness, you know, 10 miles away riding one bicycle. Riding my bicycle 10 miles each direction because we had one car. You know, at that point my wife, my wife knew that for the kids.

So I'm getting my bike and riding. I'm hiking 10 miles one way and 10 miles back with 60 pound ruck sack. You know, I'm like, okay, I'm just being so.

Yeah, the dream of dream that never happened. Okay. So at Anytime Fitness, like, you know, whatever and. But I made that work then did my own thing right then, my boot camp style.

And I created this whole new system, like a belt system for fitness. And it was really cool and, and all that. So it kind of got. That was good. But you know, but you have to start somewhere.

So like I had to have the forward movement. You have to have that forward movement. So my ability was like, I'm. If you read the book Grit by.

Speaker A: 00:14:08

Angela Duckworth, I have not read it, but I. But I totally get the concept.

Speaker B: 00:14:13

So what she great researcher, really cool. She, what she discovered after interviewing them, all these guys at West Point.

West Point, all these other places was it has nothing to do with physical prowess. It has nothing to do with like, you're intelligent. It's grit. It's the ability to stay in no matter what. All the greats have that. Okay?

So I'm like, wow. A friend of mine said, you got to read this book. He goes, it's about you. I go, okay. So I read it. I go, that's A great book.

I don't know if I'm worth 300 pages, but it's that. But what it was, was there's a test and you get the grit scale. Where do you rank on the. And you take this test. Well, go figure.

I was 97% on the grid scale, okay. Because I'm, to use a Marine Corps term, I'm too dumb to quit, okay? So I'm just like, I'll keep pushing through.

I'm like, I have to get where I want to go. And it doesn't. Quitting isn't part of what I do. You know, failure is totally okay. Like, I. Right. Quitting is very different.

Speaker A: 00:15:17

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:15:18

It's disgraceful. I'll just say, okay, so I don't allow it.

Speaker A: 00:15:22

Right. Well, you know, but. So it's interesting. So have you always been built with that, you know, opportunistic mindset?

Speaker B: 00:15:36

Yeah, I don't. I don't. I guess you can be born with it now. You can train grit. You can. I learned that, you know, you can do all that.

But I think again, you know, a lot of us have some rough past, you know, like, upbringing and stuff. Like, it's not abuse and stuff and all that. And like, for whatever reason, whatever, I'm blessed to turn that into power.

Speaker A: 00:15:56

Right.

Speaker B: 00:15:57

You know, like, overcome that. Okay, I'll get through that. I'll get through the next thing and the next thing, and I keep going up the next level.

And I noticed too, Jack, as I was doing things in school, like sports, I was only drawn to individual sports. I was a cross country runner, and I was the biggest cross country runner. I'm like £190, 6 foot, 6 foot 2.

And I'm like, running cross country, like you said. Yeah, I can do it. And I was one of the top runners, you know, really good, good. Then I go in the Marine Corps, you know. Okay, that's.

Yeah, there's a team, but it's really individual, right? Because you gotta kind of gotta put your own weight, right? Then I box. That's one on one. Two men enter, one man leaves. Okay, so that's.

That's that then. Taekwondo. It's me, I gotta train, I gotta work, I do all this stuff. So my business, I have to do it right?

So I'm doing all this stuff and this where it becomes a problem. Okay. Individual sports are great. Like cross country running. Every step is suffering. Okay. It's horrible.

If you, if you want to experience suffering, go run, okay? Like, and run cross channel. They just run all Them. It's horrible. Okay. And I did it for. I, I stopped running at like 50 years old. Okay.

But I guess I embrace suffering. But, but it's like, it's, it's that kind of thing like you get and all of a sudden that. Do it all yourself. In my business, that's what hurt me.

I wouldn't accept help. And again, we're going back a little bit. There wasn't like a coach at every corner like there is today on the Internet. We didn't have the Internet.

Right. So I'm building all this stuff and I had billionaire clients giving me advice. But do you think I took it?

Speaker A: 00:17:35

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:17:36

No, I didn't. Because what do they know? They don't build water features. They just own a couple professional sports teams and manufacturing plants.

But how could they possibly help me? Okay. So that's the level of stupid I operated at. Okay.

Still succeeded in kind of the, the front facing way, but I just was not going to accept that help. So was hard.

Speaker A: 00:17:59

So two things. Number one, I wouldn't call, you know, let's be kind to yourself. It's not the level of stupidity or that you were.

Everybody has that point in their life where they're, when they are, when they're not ready or when they are ready to receive information. So at some point, you know, obviously you weren't, you weren't ready.

You were not ready to take in that information and process it, or you took it in, but you didn't do anything with it. But then you reached a point where, or you know, you reached a point where like, you know what, they were wise.

And I think there's also something in there too where there's a level of, there's humility, but there's also a level of confidence to understand that that comes out when you are ready to accept and hear from other people. There's insecurity or fear is, is a way of stopping us from hearing and taking on information. Right.

And so you reached, you know, it's, it's, you reach a point where you were ready and there was probably a point when you were like, oh, you know what? Inner confidence came out in a different way or confidence came out in a way that you were able to actually take in that information.

Speaker B: 00:19:28

Yeah, I, it took losing everything. So that time, again, hindsight, best thing that ever happened to me, like, would never change that.

Like I needed to be at the bottom, you know, because I was always too doing, doing, doing and doing great things. I tell people I was only concerned about the next Great thing.

I was going to do the next great thing, I was going to create and build and that's all that mattered to me. I wasn't thinking past that next project. I wasn't thinking about business sustainability.

So when I lost everything, I look back again, back to the hindsight thing. All those suggestions, my great clients who just, they truly love me, they're like, just really like, you know, like they were right on every point.

I went, okay, so now this is my main focus is going to be asking for help. How do I do this, where do I go, what conference do I need to go to?

What, what do I have to do to, to, to regain not not just knowledge but like how do I apply what I want to do? I said that 15 minute thing with give them one. How do I do that? Like I, I don't know how to do that because I never did. Was always business first.

So now I really had to reach out. I'm like, I'm going to try something that I've never done before because what I, Yeah, because for 20 years what I thought worked, didn't work.

So that's enough time to test something. Okay.

20 years of doing enough time to figure out like maybe this doesn't work, you know, so that, that's what really helped me going forward, you know.

Speaker A: 00:21:09

And I love, I love, I love the fact that you understand that having to asking help. So listeners, I want you to understand something. This is the way to have unstoppable success.

And that's something that Richard has been able to do and that is ask for help. You cannot have unstoppable success with by yourself.

Now it's so funny that you were talking about, about sharing how you like the individual sport because it's very true. It's, you're, it's like because you only have to rely on you, but then you learn like business is, a, business is a multi sport team and Right.

And you have to ask for help. You have to be able to collaborate, you know, in order to take those steps.

Speaker B: 00:22:00

Yeah, you have to build teams.

Speaker A: 00:22:02

Yeah, teams.

Speaker B: 00:22:03

You can't do everything because most owners, when we talk about the owner prison, they're their own jailers. They go in, they shut the door, they turn the key and lock it. Then they toss the key on the floor out there and they're trapped.

And that's where they're at because they don't build the team. They think, not everybody, but like I'm the best at what I do. My clients would not accept anything less.

And I'm like, okay, we're going to start with the first lie, and that's it. Okay? Because if I have someone who's 95% as good as I am, or 97 or whatever, I guarantee you, your customers will not know the difference.

That's where you begin. And if you're really concerned, train them up the next, the last 5%, and get them as good as you. You got to put your ego in the little box.

What I do for clients now, I have this little wooden box. I send a nice, beautiful, hinged little box. And I said, and there's a brass plate on the front that's engraved, and it says, my ego.

And I said, so lock it in there and put that on the shelf. And, like, look at that. Every now and then go, yeah, I put that in there. It doesn't come out. There's time for ego a little bit. Not really.

You could define it differently, but you understand that ego can't play anything in your business, right? Your business is not about you until you.

Speaker A: 00:23:23

It's not about you. Your business is not about you.

Speaker B: 00:23:26

But that's a hard concept, man. You birthed this thing. You birthed this business. You built. You struggled those first couple years, right? You did everything. And you have to.

There's no secret sauce and not working hard when you start a business.

But the problem, Jaclyn, is people, they work hard the first two years, but next thing you know, 10 years has gone by, and they've repeated the first two, five times. They're on the hamster wheel. It might be a golden hamster wheel, but it's a hamster wheel. You know, they can never get off. They can never leave.

They can never shut it off when they. When they go home. They got to be there. It's not just a control thing. It's. I don't know. I don't know how to get out of this.

What I create, I have momentum. If I jump out, the momentum stops. I'm the driver, right? And that's not good, right?

You need to get these people who are better than you at all these things. You're not great at accounting. No entrepreneur is.

Unless you're an actual accountant who started an accounting business, then you might be really good at it. Okay, but, like, you don't know marketing. You know, you don't know any of this stuff, but there are people who do. Get them on the team, right?

Speaker A: 00:24:34

And even if you are the marketer, even if you started a marketing business, guess what?

Speaker B: 00:24:39

Oh, yeah.

Speaker A: 00:24:41

Hire people who. Who are Smarter than you who actually know something different. Because you know what, at some point, and this is the other key thing.

And I think this is something listeners. This is so important. You know, as. As Richard is saying, you know, he had to understand how to build the team.

In order for you to actually build the team, you have to be able to work on your business, not be in your business. In order for you to work on your business, you have to be running things. You're the, you know. You know, you're the grand master, right?

You're the grand master. You're the conductor who's putting all the pieces together. Or you're the coach of the team, right?

Or, you know, there's so many different analogies, right, that we could talk about and like, you know, but you become that grand master and you have to learn how to work on your business and have other people work in the business and have those people who are working in the business tell you what and be open to listening. What needs to. What are the needs that the business needs to have to keep going, to get bigger and to build for you to work on the business?

I mean, it's, you know, it's kind of like this. Like you were kind of, you know, right. Like you got the team and you're up here then routine, and you're always growing and you're moving. I love it.

Like, I like thinking of it also in terms of like a baby, right? Babies. Babies. You know, obviously they're. There's a team. You know, you got the parents, they're feeding the baby.

The babies start out, you know, whatever their size that they're starting out of, right? I'll take my kids for a minute. Like, my son came out 9 pounds, 12 ounces, long skinny thing, right? We as parents were feeding him.

So what does baby babies do? They go fat and they go skinny. They go fat and. Because they're always evolving, right? And they're growing and you have to get a little fat.

But, you know, and then we're learning because we're the team. We're. We're, you know, what is. What are the needs that he has? Right? So think of your, you know, it is the baby. Your business is your baby.

But it's gonna have that growth. It's gonna do that ebb and flow.

Speaker B: 00:26:54

Yes. You know, what we teach is we want our owners to focus on the 5% of the business only they can do. That's your goal, to keep it super simple.

It's like, that's vision, that's growth. Strategies, right? That's reeling into big clients, little clients or salespeople can do.

But you get the big ones, you know, because you've got everything, right? So we want to get them to focus on that. And that takes from their 60, 80 hours a week down to about 10 to 12 in the business, right?

But everybody else is doing things. They have their systems, they have processes, people in their team. Here's the thing about any kind of team, okay? You have to know how to win.

What does winning look like on the day, on the week, on the month, on the quarter, on the year? Okay?

If your team, all the people who work for you and with you, if they could come to work every day knowing how to win and they win every day, do you think they're going to ever stop coming to work? They get to come there and be a winner every single day. Try to do that in regular life, okay?

Like, you're giving up a place to, like, come and win and feel great about themselves if you build it right, okay? This is a really good. It's a concept I had to learn later, okay?

But I really like when you turn your eyes out off of you, which again, I was very much me, me, me. You know, I literally was like, well, that's enough about me. Let's talk about me. Okay? I was that guy, right?

So it's like, once you turn out facing to your team to build that, that's what you start to create, man. It's an amazing place to work. And people love their. Everybody struggles with retention, client or employee retention, right? It's a huge thing.

I go into companies all the time and see it like, oh, you only have a 565% turnover rate. That's a little massive. Okay, why? Oh, oh, here's why. Right? So we want that.

But once you create that kind of stuff, you start to realize, wow, and these. And they can excel and they start bringing ideas to you, make things more efficient, because I tell them to. The door's open for that here.

We're going to have these meetings every week and you're going to bring what you got. Tell me how. And it might be as simple as minimizing some mouse clicks. Why do we got to click so many things just to get to this page?

You know, fix that. You know, come up with an idea. I'll give you a bonus.

Speaker A: 00:29:15

And the key thing is, I love that because it's also, you know, again, but the key thing is also listening. You have to at some point, you know, as the owner of a company or the person who's built it. Again, it's not about you.

You have to remember, you know, even the day one, your business is never about you. It's about the people that you're serving. It's about the people who you are trying to help. Then it know.

Then it becomes about the people that you're serving and the people on your team who are also people that you're serving. Right? So. But those people that you are serving, you have to be ready to listen and open to listen from day one about. You have to hear suggestions.

You have to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly and be able to take it in, not make it personal, but be able to use that information for the greater good of the business. That is not you.

Speaker B: 00:30:16

That's right. That's right. Basically, I do this, they bring it, and they give me an idea. And I'm like, well, let's workshop that real quick.

Get on the whiteboard and say this, and they run it, and we run some scenarios and what do you think? And you get the input. It might be the greatest idea ever. And it also might get to the point where like, oh, yeah, I didn't think of that.

Yeah, I guess that won't work. Totally. Okay, bring me more next time. Like, we want to stay on this. This is why we do this. Like, everyone's got a good idea.

I mean, you're quoting, right? But it doesn't mean it. Once you pressure test it, it may not be a good idea. I've had more than most that don't work out. Okay. I do things.

I literally get them done. I go, this is spectacular. And then two days later, I go, no one's coming to this. I'm taking them out. I'm like, what did I do? And I have to.

But, man, I was it. I. This is the greatest. No one could top me. I mean, literally, I still deal with that, but I catch it way sooner now.

Speaker A: 00:31:10

You know, I had a guest on my podcast, and one of the things that we talked about, and it's sort of. It's the same thing. You have to be ready to listen.

And as soon as you say to somebody, as soon as your business, or if your business is a business where somebody says, you know, I have. I have an idea, or you or the people in your business say, well, this is how we do it.

And somebody says, okay, but there might, you know, I think I have an idea to do it better. And you say, and you. If you say no, because this is how we do it, you're automatically closing the door. And it's. And it's a.

It creates a culture immediately of people who don't want to raise their hand. And so, again, as a. To have unstoppable success, key thing is you.

You know what Richard is really, you know, what you're saying is you have to be open to listening, you have to be open to suggestions. You have to let people raise their hand on the team and share.

Speaker B: 00:32:19

Yeah. You need a mindset of innovation.

Speaker A: 00:32:21

Yeah, right? Innovation.

Speaker B: 00:32:22

You have to encourage that. Like, you got to bring me that. Innovation is messy, okay? And you tell everyone that it's messy. So you're going to bring ideas.

You're going to have a great idea. You're going to bring it again. We'll workshop it. It may. It may go right in the trash, okay? After three iterations, we'll throw it in the trash.

But it doesn't mean you don't continue to innovate, because if we all got. Got it right the first time, like, we'd be in constant change, right? Like, we'd never. We wouldn't actually get in any kind of routine at all.

So we want to understand that, you know, so we really. Doing it just because we've always done it that way is trouble. You ever hear the one about the Easter ham? So this guy gets married. He's a newlywed.

Easter's coming up. He says, honey, I've got this unbelievable family recipe for the ham for Easter. She goes, oh, that'd be great. So we got to do it that way.

We got to follow to the letter we're going to do that. So it comes. Here comes Easter. He gets a ham out, and he cuts the end off off of it, right? And she goes, oh, why do you cut the end off?

He goes, well, you're questioning the recipe. Like, this is how we do it. This is part of the recipe. You do it that way. So he gets. She goes, well, I just want to know why.

He goes, well, let me call my mother. So he calls his mother. He says, mom, why do we cut the ham off? She goes, it's the recipe. What do you mean, why do we cut the ham?

They go, but no, we just want to know why. Well, call your grandmother and ask her. So. So you get color. Because no. And. And he goes to grandma, grandma, why do we cut the end off the ham?

She goes, oh, you don't like the recipe or whatever? And he goes, no, we just want to know why. She goes, so it fits in the pan, okay? So it's it's, it's that kind of mentality. It's like, come on, man.

Like, you're not even, like, we have bigger pans now, right? So it's the whole. It's, it's, it's that mindset.

And I'll tell you, I do a lot in manufacturing these places, and you see that, and it's, and that's, that's how things kind of work. That's the best way to put it, you know?

Speaker A: 00:34:14

Yeah. I love it. I absolutely love that. Well, that is really great. Well, Richard, you have given us some great tips. Food for thought, wonderful information.

How can our listeners connect with you and get more of the greatness that you have?

Speaker B: 00:34:29

Sharpenthespearcoaching.com.

Speaker A: 00:34:34

Sharpen this coaching dot com.

Speaker B: 00:34:37

Yes.

Speaker A: 00:34:38

Fantastic. Okay, listeners, you got to do me a favor. A couple of them, actually.

Number one, go and connect with Richard at sharpen the sphere.com and then you also need to do me the favor. Hit subscribe if you haven't already.

But really what I need you to do is to share this episode with other business owners, your friends, your colleagues, and people that are in your circle and even out, because this is great information. We need and want everyone to have unstoppable success. I'm Jaclyn Schminger, your host.

Thank you all for listening, and thank you, Richard, for being a great guest.