Ep1 Find Your Gusher: Why Most Entrepreneurs Never Hit Their True Potential

Joe Blackburn  0:00  
One of the things that we really try to focus on, especially after you've kind of gotten out of that starting phase of the business, but now it's like, where am i Great? Where's my Gusher? So we help people determine where their greatness lies, and then pour into that first before you go out and try to diversify your revenue streams, for God's sake, get great make a million dollars in one place.

Jason Croft  0:23  
Welcome to the lion's edge, where top performers sharpen their teeth. Hosted by Joe Blackburn, founder of The Lion who is relentlessly dedicated to helping business owners lead multi million dollar teams and me. Jason Croft, I transform unseen entrepreneurs and industry leaders by developing their market gravity, each week, we reveal proven strategies and raw insights to help you maximize your business, multiply your wealth and make your family indestructible. Now let's create your edge. Welcome to the lion's edge, Joe, it's good to be back here, my friend. Hey, I haven't seen you in a while. Let's go. I know. So for the fans, the millions of fans out there who watched sales, assassins, three, 3 million or I said four,

Joe Blackburn  1:18  
four total. I was talking total, the

Jason Croft  1:21  
ones of people out there who watched, watch the show. We've, we've made a quick pivot here, phenomenal show. We had a blast doing it so important, and that's going to be up there and live. I think, something that you mentioned to me, you know, it's, it's such a great succinct it's almost a course in and of itself, a standalone Hey, you want to sales course. Go watch 18 episodes as a sales of sales as

Joe Blackburn  1:49  
a master class, I believe, is what they call that in the interwebs, a master exactly,

Jason Croft  1:53  
very much so, right? And we really want to expand certainly your expertise, how you're helping people with your bigger groups, your more in depth groups, yeah, so talk to us about that and fully what's going on there, what you have constructed and how you're helping folks. And now give people a taste in this first episode of sort of the bigger topics that we'll be talking about here, sure.

Joe Blackburn  2:23  
Well, we have something called the inner circle, and I think we did one around that when I'd come back from an in person. So it's lion inner circle, and that's our that's our foundation, that's where our biggest and best clients, and really my best friends and the people that I care about the most outside my family live. And a lot of our assassins were placed into assassins from those people, they were their sales force. So we first wanted to help people that needed to get more revenue, more clients, all those things, and we did that through assassins. The platform's doing great. Our results are unbelievable on our rolling 12 so I now look at it month over month. I think our lowest was a 4x and our highest was an 11x so in their sales results, that was working. And, you know, you and I talked before we started to do this, I'm thinking, you know, we're helping people do things that aren't, as you know, granular and task oriented as a daily sales role, it's more about how I lead my business really trying to maximize that. And then what am I doing to start to multiply wealth, whether that's through real estate, business, acquisition, reinvesting in my own business to get the equity value up, things like that. And then, of course, in the line, the most important thing is family. So we say, max your business, multiply your wealth and make your family indestructible. So I believe we could help more people through this with those types of things. And, you know, it's, it's bigger problems, different problems. It takes, you know, more leverage within your skill set than it does. You know, once you get those invaluables down that we talked about in the assassins, you know, there are 15 things you master, those you can do what you like with who you like, when you like, and all make a lot of money. Now you need to take that and leverage it within your business. Have other people do that, become the chief marketeer of the business, and make bigger decisions and not blow your family up in the process.

Jason Croft  4:18  
So give me an example, kind of some, some tangibles for folks, both with how you're helping, like, what's a problem that's happening, or a transformation that that somebody is in their their business owner, they come into the into the lion, and they're in this inner circle, and they what Is that transformation they're helping with? Because I think that's going to help people in this episode to understand the kinds of things we're going to talk about, even, even more tangible. I mean, you certainly went over the main core topics, but, but how does that show up in real life?

Joe Blackburn  4:56  
Well, I had an example this morning, so we have. One of our best clients. And I won't say his name today, he'll be on someday. So he's, he's went from $780,000 to $2.8 million in revenue, and grown his business pretty rapidly over a couple years. And that involves, you know, bringing on managers, sales people, service people. You know, you're starting to, I hate using this word, something real careful scale. I think it's way overused. But as you as you're growing and the problems become bigger, you have more people issues. So it it. You know, he's the best at what he does in the business, but now you have other people you have to rely upon, and they actually expanded into another market. So not only did he have fantastic growth, he had enough to where now he's building out new location, new marketing, everything. And in the interim, you know, one, one of the people that was pretty good at sales and could do some leadership, they asked that person to lead, and we found out that they weren't the person that really wanted to lead. Number one, they kind of wanted to lead, but it's who they had. So we talk about one with team you got, but working through getting the people in the right place, and giving setting them up for success and helping the business. So trying to make that decision by yourself is pretty difficult, because you don't have any feedback. You only see what you see, and you're growing so rapidly, you're you're here. So one of the things we always talk about is Right place, right person, and that's something this is literally happening in real time. And you know, you get a little, I guess, uneasy about having that conversation. And you know, most of my experience has been when you have that tough conversation with some someone, most of the time, they're relieved. They know it. You know it, they just hasn't been brought to the forefront. So I got the text, and the conversation went great, because people intuitively know where their lane is, and you have to plan there. So what we help people with is more about that's what I call leverage decision. It's not what I'm doing, it's what I'm leading. So we have that. And then we've got, you know, clients all over the country, in different industries and doing different things, different geographies, family situations and everything. One of the things that we really try to focus on, especially after you've kind of gotten out of that starting phase of the business, like starting your business, getting up and running, that's more assassins, but now it's like, where am i Great? Where's my Gusher? So we help people determine where their greatness lies, and then pour into that first before you go out and try to diversify your revenue streams, for God's sake, get great. Make a million dollars in one place, try to make it one thing, you know, you hear that a lot online. It's harder to do in in tangible, physical businesses, but we've got clients that I would say had shiny object syndrome. I'm a victim of shiny object syndrome. I think I can do everything, and I probably could, but then, when I'm trying to do everything, the one thing isn't that great, so getting laser focused on that. So we've got clients that were doing multiple different businesses, and now it's like, fill that gusher up. First, get great here. Make this your unconscious competence, and then you can grow and expand and allocate capital and do all those fun, flashy things you see online about, you know, being a speculative investor, which is a hobby, by the way, but that's something that, that we really focus on in the beginning is identifying that so that you have the profit and capital to do the things you want in in the lion, just like when I talk about it, in Assassins, doing what you want with who you want, When you want, is the true definition of wealth. It's not easy. It is simple, and we tend to over complicate. So I, you know, my philosophy on everything is make it as simple as humanly possible. Complexity never works unless you're a coder or something like that, and we've got some SaaS stuff in our in our business, but that's usually offloaded contract or something like that. Being in the lion, you know, I call it an environment. What it means is, I'm gonna put myself in this environment where a I've got my own accountability. Now my team accountability, me as the coach and facilitator and leader of it accountability. And now I got other people, so I got four levels of accountability around what I'm doing. And I don't know maybe I'm wrong, but I've never seen people do their shoulds. They just don't. I mean, life's too busy, so it's about getting a level of leverage on yourself through that environment to do what you need to do what must be done. And and getting clarity on that, because I could do everything right. Oh,

Jason Croft  9:46  
yeah. And that's, those are, those are areas that I've seen. They're so powerful with this that I love is, is these, these buckets of of. Assets, essentially, of of what you could come in to do, of to go, not only is there core training and just mind expansion right to come into this and understand from you what's even possible, but then secondly, on that unique case by case, hey, I'm dealing with this thing in my business, getting that handled. And then third, you're you've got the other people in the line, that becomes a massive asset, and that's huge. And there's so many just great lessons to bring to this show for folks out of all three of those sections, because, you know, you mentioned that tough conversation Number one, he he had to realize first, that that was even a conversation that needed to be had, right? So that that helps by being a part of this, but then also, even if he had on his own. We hear this all the time, but it's so true. It is this lonely business. Who else would he have gone and talked to about, I've got to have this conversation? How should I bet so many times we're isolated like that, and I think that's all three of those areas are what's so powerful with both your group and then what we're going to bring into

Joe Blackburn  11:30  
the show, agreed? You know, I always say most business owners are on an island, meaning they're kind of on the island. They have some inhabitants, but they don't have the confidants, they don't have the mentorship they can if they, you know, if you were straining on an island and you went to your people and started showing all kinds of concern and all these different things, it could turn into chaos. Now, I know that's not the you know topic of the day. I It's called Be vulnerable or something like that. I think in one of our schools, there's a book out there called Get naked and or something like that. And I said, I'm going to write a book on how to get other people naked, because I can be vulnerable. It means I can be human, but you have to be careful in a especially in a business that's more family, boutique esque, in air and out everything and all this dialog, it's not that you are deceptive. It's just that it's like a family. You have to treat it that way. So you have to have you still as a leader. Have to have some authority and some courage. That maybe isn't the popular thing to post on LinkedIn right now, I don't know if anyone's even noticed this. Like the leadership across the universe isn't where I would say it needs to be, and not that I'm great, I'm just direct. So my intentions are good. And even we may have spoke about this when we did that show in Assassins, the mustard principle is really powerful there, meaning, if you had mustard on your chin, I should tell you, because if I don't, it's because it will make me feel awkward, and then you're gonna get embarrassed. So just being honest there. But yeah, I mean, one of the things I think people start to realize is it's okay to tell the truth, and it's okay to be direct, and it's okay to make tough decisions, and your job isn't to make everyone happy, and unless you've been in a large, large leadership role where you have to make big decisions that half the people are going to be unhappy. You don't have a lot of muscle memory there. You're just going off your natural intuition on relationships. And sometimes people just want to stomp out the problem, and they go the other direction. It's like, I'm just going to get rid of them. So again, we talk about winning with the team you got. You have to make sure that you can win with the people you have first before you start doing that. That doesn't mean you let someone you know underperform or not do their job or whatever. It just means make sure that you're looking at it and saying, Okay, this is someone that may be better placed here. Let's have that conversation and see how it happens. Now you got to measure, hold and accountable all those different leadership aspects, but that makes it a lot better in that environment. And plus, when everyone knows that you're being honest, a lot of the chirping goes away. You know, I don't know about you. I like transparency, and I like people telling me the truth, so that alone is a great way to approach things. And you know, you have to have some courage. You you you could run an employee off. It's happened. I've done it once where someone didn't like working with me. It was weird, but it happens,

Jason Croft  14:32  
unbelievable. Yeah, there's no way, yeah, yeah. But that is, it's such a it's such a balance to that transparency, that quote, unquote vulnerability, the truth. And I think that's where the lines get blurred there too. I equate it with almost on a marketing side, and putting yourself out there and creating content people don't. Want to hear the the flailing while you're flailing, right? They want to hear because it's not, it's not just this vulnerability and weakness or anything like that. It's okay. What do I do with this? Hey everybody, I'm bleeding right now. Right? Like, cool, great information. But like, if, hey, I was bleeding yesterday, here's how I stopped it. Here's how you could stop it too. That's what I equate it with. It's that it's, there's a time and place for it. It's not that you're covering up because you it's all the intent, right? It's, it's, you're not covering up because, oh, I don't want anybody to know, but hey, this doesn't help anyone right now, until I get this thing figured out in there. I mean, if you want to go back to tribal days, whatever that wiring is, we want to feel confident in our leaders that, yeah, to some level, we are being taken care of. We're in a direction. And maybe next year, the leader can share. Man, you know, last year we were this close to right to going off the edge, but you guys pulled through. We did it. But another key in order to do that is exactly what we started this with, is that to have someone you can as a leader, go to and say, Wow, I need help here. Wow, I need this and that. And that's important to to both have that and not do that to your, you know, wishes your employees necessarily, right?

Joe Blackburn  16:33  
And, you know, it's, it's interesting. So we do something called a hot seat. So we'll do one this coming Thursday, where one person has something they want to bring to the group. They'll talk about what it is you know, where they believe they are stuck, or what you know is keeping them from taking the next step, or just wanting advice, and what have they tried? And then everybody goes around and gives input, asks questions, and you you get per what's cool about it is you get a perspective from other people's viewpoint, because we see and hear the world the way we see and hear it. You can tell me all day long to see something, I see it the way that I see it. So when I hear it and get that feedback, it can give you a frame of reference on how someone else is going to look at it, and to avoid some mistakes, because we want people to, you know, do this faster, with less pain, less mistakes, and a lot more fun. So that's a that helps, and it creates less friction. It doesn't mean you don't own your own decision. It's just now, I've got all these people that are wanting me to win, giving me real feedback, and that helps me make better decisions. And again, you're, you're not going to come into something like this and just sit there. You know, it's, it's something that you feed as well. We call it feed the beast. Feed the right one. Feed the one that will help you grow. Don't feed the one that will make you hide and shrink. So it's, I love the hot seats. And we didn't always do it that way. So we, you know, we're always trying to make things better and more enjoyable and more profitable. So this has been really powerful. We've got a great one coming up this Thursday, and it's, you know, one of my it's, it's our favorite, by the way, Gary, Gary from assassins, our number one fan. Gary nice has got a big hot seat. And I mean, that dude, you know, he's creative. He's a ton of fun. I mean, he's the Grand Poobah of all of our in persons. Now, sometimes he does piss me off, Gary, but no, I mean, he's just, it's, it's interesting, like, you get all these people together, don't know each other, and they and the way they gel and everything, but he's got a he's got a big one, he's got big stuff he's doing, and it just, that's why, I mean, if you tell that's the shit I love. Like, let's, you know, like, I had people do something called the extreme version of themselves. Like, if you're gonna, especially in this environment, notice the markets and economy and stuff are a little choppy. But get, you know, in the extreme version of yourself you have, it doesn't mean to be loud and ignorant. It means to get as close to your potential as possible. That dude is is like, here all the time. He's always like, and if he gets down here, we get into an accountability routine. And now he's back here, and now he's going up here. You know, he's selling some businesses, buying a business. He's always thinking of creative ways. It's just, it's, that's the shit I really enjoy, or stuff, sorry, I get fired up. That's the stuff that I live for. It's why I do this. And you know, he's gonna walk away from that on Thursday. I'm confident with way more clarity, a lot more questions and a better action plan from having the other people in the lion feed into it.

Jason Croft  19:48  
Oh, yeah. And what I've found in those environments too is, yeah, it's great when you're in the hot seat, you get this help and you get this other perspective. But I become better. When I can give that feedback, all those other people in there, their minds are expanding and they're going, I mean, we all learn better when we teach, right? So it's that same principle, get your brain fired up on someone else's problem, get you out of that. But there's a little bit of confidence in there too. Of Oh, I do kind of know my shit, like I can again, help other people. So it's just a boost all the way around. Yeah, I love it. I think we should, I think we should wrap here. I think this gives people a good taste of these bigger topics that we're going to cover in this show, because each one of those so many lanes I wanted to go down already just having this that we can expand on it, and we absolutely will. So I'm excited that we've jumped and started this new one. Always

Joe Blackburn  20:54  
take a leap of faith, my friend. All right, that's right. All right, please

Jason Croft  20:59  
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Speaker 1  21:36  
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