Ep14 Get Your Gusher Going First (Before You Blow Everything On Shiny Objects)

Joe Blackburn  0:00  
What we're talking about with that silver tsunami. The smart thing to do is bolt one arm that fits into what you already do. So you're not now doing two different things. But a lot of people, you know, have one gusher that they're great out and then they wanna dive into something they have no experience in. They don't know what a bad decision looks like. A lot of people don't think that one through. They're like, oh, I'll just hire someone to run that. Well, how do you know if they're making a good or bad decision? If you have no idea,

Jason Croft  0:24  
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 into 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.

Joe Blackburn  1:01  
I think first of all, there's a misconception on on two things that I hear a lot, and actually in prospecting or in potential line calls in last two weeks, is scaling and passive income. I think people have this notion that I can remove myself from something and then get passive streams of income, and, yeah, that is possible. I just, I think there's a maybe. I even said this when we were talking last week or two weeks ago, there's a huge amount of work leading into that before that happens. And with you, what you see as the end results on online is that, but that you don't see what it takes to get there and Pat, you know, it's like, is there anything that's truly passive? The only thing I've ever really seen would be, you know, if you own securities, because you just own securities, and you don't get the tax benefits of leverage, and, you know, I had a guy who wants to put there's a guy who wants to do gym startups, and he wanted to put a bunch of capital into it. And I'm like, You know what? What could possibly be your expectation on that? Does he have

Jason Croft  2:35  
any experience in that world? Is it just like, hey, I met someone,

Joe Blackburn  2:39  
the person doing it? Yeah, it does, but it's just like, if I was allocating capital, you know, the last two places I would go is that or a restaurant. I mean the odds of success, the profitability. I mean, you can model it all day long. It just, I think people just want it. You know, it's all it's almost like I don't want to deal with it, and I want the rewards and the none. Nothing in capitalism works that way. There's no such there's now you get $100 million and you have a family office, ask, or your own family office. Yeah, you can be a capital allocator and invest in different companies and different things, and you could maybe hit the bid on an angel. That's possible. It's just

Jason Croft  3:33  
that's work in different way. It's not

Joe Blackburn  3:38  
I'm aware, so it's i That's why, when we, when I talk about simple wealth, the simple part of it is, if I can identify my gusher, where I and I say that word a lot, I don't know if people know what that means. There's something that you do that is valuable, that you can do without thinking, and you can get better at it, and you can, you know, get better at you because you're the product. So in the gusher, if I can identify what I do unconsciously, without a lot of effort, and multiply that, that's the best form of leverage. Some people are great at leadership and making decisions. Some people are great at marketing and sales. Some people are great at, you know, engineering, if you can identify where you are unconsciously competent. Meaning, I have gotten so good at this, I don't have to spend mental energy anymore. I can show up and perform. That is the best investment to make, is to grow that until you just can't grow it or stomach it anymore, then you can take your capital and become an investor. But if you're, you know, I talk to a lot of people where they're working a day job and trying to do something else, that's a bridge, that there is a process to get to the other side. Yes. Yeah. But if I am just great at something, or can become great, I want to go there first. It doesn't mean I don't do those other things. It just means first have I maxed out my ability to earn where I am, and most people get to like, a halfway point, and then they want to become Warren Buffett, and it's, do you? And I don't know if it's and I look, I've every shiny object on the planet has crossed my mind, don't get me wrong. But if you could stay there and just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger there, then you really could create some passive income streams that are meaningful and not another job that's more probable than, you know, doing weekends at a freaking Airbnb where you have to bring the toilet paper and towels over, because now that's a starting point, but I will tell you what. There's two ways to go about that you could start and what is it called brr or something in real estate where they cash out refi, you can keep growing in that works. It all works. But if I just make kept getting that gusher bigger and had big capital, I can be a bigger player and less work, because bigger is always better. But most people kind of stop and then they want to take small chunks and diversify, which, by the way, I don't know if anyone's studied wealth. No one becomes wealthy by being diversified. They diversify after they're wealthy. You know, I've heard multiple income streams, or I want to, you know, I want all mags in one basket. Yes, once you have created a big amount of wealth, you should diversify that. Or if you're in a cubicle somewhere, and you get all you have is your 401, K, you probably, unless you can buy your company stock, probably have to be diversified. But that's a choice too. But for entrepreneurs like grow the gusher to the point to where it doesn't kill you physically or financially to allocate your capital. And I just hell, I talked to a guy I see even making 100 grand and wanting to start other things. And I get it. The aspirations there, I don't want to kill that. It just, why not get to a million or 2 million or 3 million, doing what you're great at, and then you can do those other things? That's just where I was. I mean, I want the simple part is I don't want to make things more complex so that it steals from my Gusher. It robs me here where I'm great. So how'd you like that diatribe?

Jason Croft  7:50  
I love it as always. Of course, what people don't know is like behind the scene, before we start rolling. I I poke. It's like a, you know, like before the bull ride, they give you the electric shock, gets you angry and amped up. Yeah, that's what we do, Joe. And get him going. I say, hey, what about this, Joe? And then, yeah. Then we hit record and go, yes, but, but really? And I want to, I do want to clarify even more this idea of a gusher too, because there is. It's that business you're creating that you're great at. You can do really well. It's thriving. Keep that focus, keep the pedal down, go the way you're describing it, though too, is almost a personal skill, like I'm good at this. And those are two different things, though, as well. So I don't want to cause more confusion for folks, because there's like, the gusher, the business I've created, and they're like, Hey, I'm great at, like, you said, leadership or sales or marketing. But there's, it's almost two different conversations, yeah, lean into your strength as you're building out your Gusher. But your gusher is also an entity that you're going to get help from these places and kind of build it up. Am I meshing those things?

Joe Blackburn  9:14  
Or if you've So, if you're looking at it from an entity standpoint, you only do the things within your wheelhouse. So we, we actually talk about gusher and wheelhouse. Well, okay, this is the Gusher. What's my wheelhouse? Meaning, if you throw me a fast while, I'm gonna knock it 400 feet. I've never done that in my life. But proverbially, if you know, if I could hit one, that's so then, oh, here. So you know how people talk about scaling, okay, so then I just have other people do the stuff that's not my wheelhouse. I mean, this is not novel, by the way. It's just, you know, for most people, especially in the beginning, they're doing everything. So that would be normal. That is called bootstrapping. That's normal. But when. Once, I've identified the Gusher. Now my decisions have to be what I say no to and refuse to do. We're having a conversation. Who was I talking to? I remember, but they noticed my ineptness around some things in the business, like the calendar. I stink at that. Do you think that's an accident? Or or sending emails or, I mean, yeah, if I'm the most inept person, except for the the gut, the core of the gusher that makes all the money, that's how you scale. I don't want to be good at those things. I don't want to spend my time on and even, and you can ask Warren, we should have her on some time. Ask her what happens when I try to do one of those things. It just makes things worse. All the time. It's like, then she's got to come play cleanup. So if I can just, you know, for me, it's being in front of someone and helping them do what they didn't think they could do, and giving them real feedback in real time or being in a in person, like, I don't have to think about that, and I'm great. I don't think there's any debate there greatness. But I don't have to sit around and be like, Man, what should I say? What should I how do I prepare for that? I don't have to do that. And everyone has that in their business. I mean, they have something they can just do now, if they can teach others to do it as good, or almost as good, or even better than them. Now we're talking,

Jason Croft  11:33  
yeah, that's because that's an interesting point, too. As you're growing that business, there's, there's there's a difference between, like, partnering with someone and hiring for you that I think get gets mixed up to, like, if you're partnering with someone to go start a business, no, they shouldn't be like you. They should have the things you don't have and all of that. But as you're trying to take you and put those things off. You know that next person in that second in command, they should be exactly like you all those strengths and stuff, so they can actually take those things off your plate. Otherwise, you're still doing the same stuff while they do a different skill set. And then it's math, right? Like, get those people and compliment and all of those things, because, just like you mentioned in the calendar, it's like, it's not that those things don't matter. So I'm not going to do them. No, I'm going to get someone to do them, because those are important aspects while I stay in my lane and kick butt.

Joe Blackburn  12:40  
Well, it's like, okay, yeah, you don't want to overlap. However, if you're, let's say you're in sales and marketing, that was part of your business, because I pretty sure it's part of every business. Just thinking of it from a pillars perspective, if I'm doing mine, and I'm the Chief marketeer, and I have five other people that learn that skill set and can do theirs. How much leverage is there now? I mean, it's so Yeah, they'll have some uniqueness. They're the product, and certain people be attracted to them, and so forth. But that just expands, that makes the gusher wider. And then if I have excess capital, I can make decisions on, do I put it in the market? Do I buy real estate? Do I acquire another business? And you said it mathematically. Math is math. Numbers are numbers. We can look at the numbers all day long. I always say you need to look at number one, dilution of return, because if I truly want passive income, someone has to do that work. So my return is going to be diluted. Do I syndicate? Do I put it into the secondary market through stocks? Do I own part of a business as a partner? And then after everything's taken out and there is some profit, I get a dividend, or, you know, appreciation, that's dilution of return. Or what type of leverage, if I don't want to spend any time on it or have any, you know, problems, I put it into marketable securities, because I don't do anything there. But if I want tax advantage and leverage in other people's money, maybe I look at real estate now I got to deal with some tenants, or I have to dilute my return by having someone else do that. If I really want a pain in the ass. I, I, I acquired a business, and like what we're talking about with that silver tsunami, the smart thing to do is bolt one on that fits into what you already do. So you're not now doing two different things. But a lot of people, you know, have one gusher that they're great out, and then they want to dive into something they have, you know, no experience in. They don't know what a bad decision looks like. That's a tough like a lot of people don't think that one through. They're like, oh, I'll just hire someone to run that. Well, how do you know if they're making a good or bad decision? If you have no idea. So where's my leverage? Is it people, time, money, all the above, and then it's, you know, there is a lifestyle aspect. I've heard people talk. Talk about balance. If you don't want to be up at night, pulling your hair out and, you know, an insomniac, if there's other people involved, you're going to get some of that. So how much headache Do you want? Like, do you want to be worried about making payroll? Do you want to be work? I don't know. I'm just saying when you're evaluating capital allocation, make sure you understand that, aside from numbers, because we do live on a mathematical planet, there are those three things. And the last one is hard to Encap, you know, encapsulate in your mind, like, how much headache is this actually gonna be and especially if you have some roles and responsibilities in there, because if you're partnered, or you're in a startup or something like that, I promise you, there is gonna be no shortage of the headaches. So if you So, here's where it becomes simple. If you could get your gusher so big that you can tolerate the dilution of return, you can maximize your leverage that way, and then it's not so important to hit a home run in any of that allocation, thus becoming wealthy and diversifying my wealth once wealthy, and that's all I got,

Jason Croft  16:18  
well, and that's the thing. It's it's first and foremost, not pretending that those headaches aren't going to be there like and we're just, I don't know, especially the entrepreneur time. We're just, we don't want to look at that. We're optimists. Of course, we can make this work. Here's the creative way I can make this work. And yes, you can, and there will be headaches if you can just let that part in. It's all decisions, right? It's not you can't do this, or you can't right, or you have to do this, or that. It's what you want, but that's the point that you're making. Is being realistic in what it's actually going to take.

Joe Blackburn  17:04  
Well, I think it's being focused on what's gonna do it, versus thinking, well, this isn't gonna be a big deal. And look, we all if you don't have problems, raise your hand. I'm not saying to avoid problems. I'm saying be strategic in how you allocate your capital. And if you want, I call it simple. If you want simplicity, Max the gusher first, then you can talk about all those other things, and we can weigh what ifs and all all the other podcasts we've had. But what I'm kind of bring it back. What I'm seeing is people are trying to be a, you know, a hedge fund manager or private equity manager, and they're not making 300 grand, and that's just recipe for disaster. So my rule of thumb is, get your gusher to a million. Take home, then go here. Just get a million dollars in your in your unconscious competence coming in you're in what then the top point zero, 1% of the United States, if you're making them, if you know, if you're 1099, or w2, to million. Do that. Then go here, that's my thought. And reinvest in that gusher until it gets there, because that's pretty hard to break. Yeah.

Jason Croft  18:30  
And then what'll happen too, is that what it takes to get there. And once you get it to there, you'll see, oh, I should keep going here. Those things are distractions. Oh, here's what I could do to emit, oh, here's how I get this to three. Okay, here's five and yeah,

Joe Blackburn  18:52  
then you can work on the business, not in the business, because that's everybody's dream. Apparently, double crosses that you get there. So and then after about four weeks of not doing anything, you'll find something else to do, because you're human, yeah,

Jason Croft  19:07  
and hopefully it's not you know, what you find to do is ways to break your business at that point. Interesting.

Joe Blackburn  19:15  
You said that. Interesting. You said that. You know, because we will start delving more into mindset. There is a strong epidemic of self sabotage. Things are going so well, I'm gonna find something to blow this thing up so I have something else to focus it's like a whole litany of psychology on inch from greatness. I got this close, and then, boy, this problem popped up. Now I'm consumed with it. Maybe we'll talk about that someday.

Jason Croft  19:43  
Sunshine and rainbows. That's by

Joe Blackburn  19:46  
Joe Black. All it is here,

Jason Croft  19:50  
all right lines, there's your edge. You've just experienced the lion's edge. If this episode lit a fire, if you're ready. Push past your current ceiling. There's more waiting for you. Want to see what it takes to become a member of the Lion, visit jointhelion.com to discover how successful entrepreneurs become unstoppable forces, and make sure you never miss an episode by hitting subscribe wherever you get your podcast. This isn't just content. This is your edge.

Speaker 1  20:27  
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