Ep19 The Batteries Included Test: Why Most Entrepreneurs Are Too Comfortable to Win

Joe Blackburn  0:00  
But I don't know if anyone else goes through this. You know, I'm not getting back rubs and rainbows every day. I mean, really at the end of the day, it's about your resilience and your desire to get through things and not being complacent. So I'm always looking is there an edge of a little of a mofo in this person?

Jason Croft  0:19  
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. We're here for wisdom. We're here for we're digging in.

Joe Blackburn  1:00  
I hope you're here for being disappointed. I'll drop a little knowledge.

Jason Croft  1:06  
I think this applies in a couple of ways, one for folks who are in the lion and a great fit for the lion, but also a little wider view of what have you seen over the last few years, specifically working with these folks, those qualities that make a strong business owner, entrepreneur, that might be beyond the obvious. You know, when you get into the day to day, and what it really takes to succeed, keep going and grow that, that business.

Joe Blackburn  1:48  
Well, you know, when we're when I look at the group and then at large, meaning intros people, I know whatever the the thing I'm always evaluating, and it's not something you can score, is how hungry is someone? You talk to a lot of people, you can sense pretty quick they're okay. And I think we've talked about this 1000 times, but the self deception of being okay is super dangerous, and it's hard to get someone out of that, because, you know, they respond to pain and pleasure. Well, if I'm baby bear's porridge right in the middle, and I'm not feeling really either, I can just keep doing what I'm doing, surviving whatever. And that's fine. I mean, there's, you know, I'm not I try not to judge them. A lot of times, they don't know what they don't know, and they don't realize the risk of longevity in that, especially in, you know, successful young people. They're like, man, I've made it. I'm good. I'm just gonna save and, you know, ride it out, whatever, whatever that is. So I see a lot of that, and that's, I mean, I think that's pretty normal. I don't condemn that. I'm, you know, worried about it, because I think if that's where you are, you're not gonna probably enjoy, you know, your 50s, your 60s, your 70s and 80s would probably be pretty stressful. But when I'm looking, when I'm looking in the group or outside the group, and I totally stole this, but I love it, I'm looking for what's called a B van batteries included value in adding MF mofo. And I stole that. I think the person who did it said, Be vamp. But I can't say that fast enough, so I just went, be Vamp with motherfucker, is the one word. But what I mean by that is, if you're in the group, do you bring some energy, like, do I have to, like, install power into you, or do you naturally have some energy, because it's not really additive. If you just sit there and do nothing, you're not getting anything. You're not giving anything. And if you're that way, here are you, you know, good question you might want to ask yourself is, when I walk in in the morning, do they feel me? People feel my energy? Or is it, Ah, shit. You know, Joe's here again, and so I want that energy level. And then do they add value, meaning they don't have to know everything. But do they ask good questions? Do they participate when we're together? Are they adding value through ideas? I mean, there's a lot of people in the group now that, you know, I start calling them out that have really good ideas that when they have one or they do one, they share it. And that could be, you know, how they handled something, or a process they're using, you know, Tyler Bloom's really good on that. Shout out to Tyler, when he does something, he'll generally put it in there like, Hey, I did this is how I did it. Here's my, you know, Word doc, or just the recommendation. So are they adding value to each other? That's important. I mean, why have the mastermind if you're going to do it in a silo, and then the last one is, and I'm not real excited about saying the F word on camera that my kids may want. Watch, although they say it back to me like I said it my older ones and then, no, they don't cuss like I do. I got in trouble last night for cussing by Scarlet, my 11 year old, but the mofo, you have to have that in you, and that doesn't mean to be mean or to be obnoxious or to try to hurt people. But I don't know if anyone else goes through this. You know, I'm not getting back rubs and rainbows every day, and you've got to have I mean, really at the end of the day, it's about your resilience and your desire to get through things and not being complacent. So I'm always looking, is there an edge of a little of a mofo in this person are, you know, it's we were talking yesterday with one of our clients, and there's two of them, and they've got a business venture that they're going through, and one of the partners that's on the fulfillment engineering side, I think he's brilliant, but I'm Not and when we were talking, so like to give it, I'm giving an example of this. He's he goes right up to where he needs to break through, and then kind of tamps down. And so if you're partnering, it's okay. If you got two mofos or two people that'll bust through, you can pull that person. But to get in, what I'm, you know, looking for is, are they going to persevere? Are they going to no matter what, you know, have had the even if conversation, no matter what, are you going to succeed? Is success your identity? And, you know, I, I've got a lot of great examples of that. You know, the probably the most lion, lion. Sam Thomas, yeah, he's got adversity, but he's a good example of no matter what I mean. Hell, they and I think I've mentioned this, but they started a business in a new community, in the store next to them, burnt to the ground or and smoke filled there like they couldn't even operate. They couldn't even come to work. They found another location in the same block, and fought through it. And now, you know, he's not sitting around worrying about, what am I going to do here? They fought through that. Now he's like, where am I going next? So they're looking at a new location. So that mindset of like, I'm just it's not that I'm never satisfied, it's that I'm never going to stay where I'm at and be okay with that. That's, I think that's a really important quality. And what we're doing is, once I hit a certain level, now I just want to go, you know, I call it gap to potential. So if I get to here, I'm not stopping. And that that's rare, that's rare, and that's who I'm looking for to help all. I mean, it helps me, it helps them, it helps their clients. I mean, when you've got someone, you know, in our value, we do values, by the way, one of them is relentless. So am I relentless? You know, the first one's faith, by the way. So if I don't have any faith, then all this probably isn't worth anything, and I'm never going to do anything big. So it's faith and then focus. Can I be effective? Action? Take massive action. Am I relentless? And how simple can I make this? And that's kind of that ladder. But if you're unwilling to take a leap of faith, why? Why invest in yourself if you're not going to do the things that you're a little hesitant on with the help of us? So that's kind of how I look at that.

Jason Croft  8:37  
Yeah, if you don't believe there's anything on the other side of doing all of that, you're not going to take that first step to jump. There's, there's an aspect of, certainly, as you describe it. You know, folks in the lion, people out there at large, who are successful. How do you, how do you cultivate some of this. I mean, I don't think you necessarily go from zero to 100 but what if you've been in that, you know, you're more like a 40 in all of those things, you know, just like, I could probably do it like, is that a piece of you come into the line and get kind of pushed that way? Or is that you kind of have to have these things developed first, and then you're going to you have the skills and abilities in business to kind of really push through. How do you cultivate some of that stuff?

Joe Blackburn  9:38  
Well, there's a real interesting part of that, where a lot of people think they know I already know this shit. I already know I'm doing what I'm doing. I know, and that doesn't work well for very long for anyone like being a know it all. I mean, most people probably do know what to do, by the way. I. The question is, do they do it? You know it was said to me, if you know it, you don't do it. You don't know it. So the first step is coming in and thinking, I don't know everything. I'm here not only to execute, but I'm here to learn from others who have done it or are doing it. So you that's kind of your baseline is like, I'm willing to learn. And I'm not sure that's relative to revenue. I think it's just relative that I'm going to come in with the attitude I'm here to learn in our in person, what was that two weeks ago, a week ago, or whatever? It's a really good example of this. We have a very, very successful businessman, and I could, and he's, you know, if you measured wealth. He's way at the top, and I can kind of sense on Friday. And from the other experience I've had with him, he wasn't quite sure this was the group for him. Wasn't quite sure. And you know what Saturday morning, first thing out of his mouth was, you know, I was unsure if this was for me. And I woke up this morning talking about what we talked about yesterday. It's like, and he's he's playing at a high level. So it was, it's that I'm not everything I can be. It's always that gap. I think you have to come in and be a learner. And you know, it's like anything else. If I start out with the attitude that I already know all this, I'm probably not gonna get anything. So it's like a weird, like, transition of I'm gonna open myself up to learn and execute and learn from that and learn from others, and then how, you know, it's interesting we do. So we'll do a 10 year dream, and we've talked about that. I think we did an episode on it one time. It's interesting to me when someone reads that out, because in their second group meeting, they'll read out the 10 year dream, and I think they surprise themselves with how big they fought. And if I can get so if I can get someone to see not just today, but a decade from now, that's the beginning. And then it's, quite frankly, it's reverse engineering and flight plan to get there faster. So but it starts with, I have to have the attitude is, I don't know all this, or I know it, and I don't do it, or I don't know how to do it. I just know what it is. You know, it's the levels of learning, unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, unconscious competence, which is, I do this in my sleep, like if you were looking at levels of where I want to go in anything, everyone has to go through that. And more importantly, you're it's interesting. Brought it up, and I know I'm diatribing As usual, all this new technology, AI stuff that's critical mass. I got good and bad news. It is gonna change your life, your business and everything, everybody in your business has to go through what I just talked about in what you're trying to teach them go try to roll out new technology. Just pick one that's awesome and go try to implement it across 10 people. So the levels of learning are critical. And it starts not with how smart I am, it's how receptive I am to learning something and then being willing to fail at it. And that's the other thing, is, I don't wanna look stupid. So, you know, there's a, you know, we have a no assholes rule, right? Pillars, no way. I can become somewhat of a dick at times. But I'm willing to look stupid and I make mistakes, right, lots of them, but the no Asshole Rule is really implied because they think they're perfect, and they don't have the awareness of how they impact others. So if they're on your team, if they're in your client book, if they're at your house, those are three key areas might want to address that, but that that person is like, I don't need this. I know everything. And so it's like a weird tug of war between confidence and being humble. I don't want someone that has zero confidence in themselves, and if they lack some confidence, there's things we can do, but you also have to have the humility to mess up, and that's okay. And by the way, we adhere to the muster principle, and it's expected that you're going to get some feedback that isn't exactly what you wanted to hear. And that's a good thing. And like, I tell my kids, if I'm hard on you here and you go out in the real world, it isn't going to be as hard. Same thing applies if we're if we're together and in confidence and hard on each other here, when you mess up out in the real world, it's less impactful. So that's how I look at it. Yeah.

Jason Croft  14:53  
And I, I'm, I love. I had had somebody, a buddy of mine, give me some fee. Back, you know. And he was basically on language, you know, ums and ahs and things like that. And I don't do that kind of stuff. He was, he gave me that feedback the other the other day, and it, and it stung like it I want that. I always walk, oh, please give it to me like I'll, I'll think about that constantly, and even then, and even though I want it, it stung, especially because he kept going on, like, Yo, you say it a lot. I mean, like a lot. Like, you say this, were all the

Joe Blackburn  15:33  
Okay, I got it. I'll never do that. Oh, did I tell you say it a lot?

Jason Croft  15:37  
Oh, yeah. And, but I, but I love that I've thought about that conversation, I appreciate him so much more. And it is, it's that taking this in, I have confidence I could stand in my abilities here, here and here. But anyone on their journey in business going forward, they know things are going to pop up. It's that difference between kind of zero confidence in what you're doing and I'm looking for somebody to just tell me what to do across the board, versus, man, I'm I've got this stuff dialed in. We're really hitting the wall here. Who can help? Who can help me in this this area, and that's okay, great. Handled moving forward. What's the next one? Because I know it's coming, right? That's that mindset that that makes all the difference.

Joe Blackburn  16:31  
Well, it's kind of like, Bring it on, you know, if that was your kind of motto of just bring it on, like, you know Gary. Shout out, Gary two drinks. Gary has a lot of talent. He's a unique person. And you talk about batteries included, shit I about had to take a battery out of him in Charleston. He stepped up and ran the meeting on Friday, by the way, and he actually did a really good job. Surprise it No, he's like, he's got the he's got that energy, but what he is really good at is problem solving. And he in, he'll have moments just using there's moments where, you know, frustration, you know, we call it the success tax, or he does, but he's really good at honing in on that problem and completing it and getting it off his plate, and then going and knowing there's the next one. And that's a rare trait, because a lot of people, you know, it's I think some people think that if I solve this problem, I won't have another problem. And that's not how it works, and I've also seen so in our coaching, when we view the what didn't you do and why, I get some great answers on the why, rich bales, he'll come up with extravagance on why, and he's being funny. It's like I've spent too much time reading or watching your last last podcast, so I didn't get around to this. But if you look at it and say, Okay, why didn't I get this done? Sometimes people have a ongoing problem as the reason to not do what's actually important. So we look at it in two ways. You're either there's something you can't do, or you're afraid of, or there's something you're focused on that's really not as important as you think it is. But if I spend all my time in this vicious cycle of this problem, I don't have to face what it is I should be doing. So that's a really, and he's, that's Gary's like, problem, kill it. Problem, kill it. Bring on the next one. So I like that mentality of, you know, pro, I'm not a victim of problems, I'm a solver of problems, and bring them on,

Jason Croft  18:49  
yeah, especially when they're problems that are a sign of growth, they're just life. You know, it's going to happen. And the beauty is, too that that that is a rare quality. So that is something that makes you valuable when you can solve those and the next one and the next one, because those are there. That's what makes this thing called business, and even life difficult at times, but that's how you move forward, and it is. It's quite the funnel, right? Of the people who are actually in that mindset to handle those and have that ability to do so, the bigger problems you can handle and solve, the more successful you can be. There's quite a correlation there? I think,

Joe Blackburn  19:41  
yeah, well, I think it's the separator starts. When do I run and own my own thing, or do I go work for someone else? Because it's different problem sets. They're both gonna have their own, you know, array of problems. It's if you do it on your own and you solve the problems, you're rewarded more heavily. Most of the time, and then you get good at it, and you're good at picking up the next problem before it happens. That's called anticipating, without focusing on all my problems, just anticipate that a little bit. So learning how like, learning how to deal with self responsibility, I guess, is the best way to say it. I own everything that happens in my life. It's the third pillar of success that's a huge thing. And I think people get caught in this wasn't my fault. This is something I can't handle. You know, the other side of the shoulder starts talking in your ear. But I really, I'm really focused on helping people believe they're capable. You know, like there's nothing you can't handle, is there? I mean, that's so that comes back to let me learn this. I can do this. Here's where I'm going to get the assistance, help, support, ideas, strategy, and I'm just going to keep going.

Jason Croft  21:10  
I think that's where the most turmoil happens, is when we fight against that, or, like you said, Oh, let me just get these problems taken care of so I can get back to business instead of my business, and my role in this business is handling these problems. So as long as we're moving forward in those and it's not, hey, this same problem keeps coming and I haven't, and this problem maybe a person or you need to deal with that, or whatever that is, but handling that, and it's, I think that alone, that mindset shift is huge, just from a stress and anxiety aspect, and so you're not delusional and fighting against yourself well.

Joe Blackburn  21:58  
And you know, what's going to be interesting is this AI thing finally takes off because I it's in its infancy. IQ is no longer the most valuable thing. Is it? So if it's not my intelligence, because there's artificial intelligence, and I don't have to learn all these things. How am I going to separate myself? Is it toughness? Is it relentlessness? Is it empathy? Like, where is it being able to teach 10 people to use AI, because it's, you know, I have an extremely high IQ. I know you can tell by talking to me that I'm brilliant, right?

Jason Croft  22:42  
But, but how valuable is the we'll beat that out.

Joe Blackburn  22:48  
But, but how valuable is intelligence now? So where if, if I want to be successful and not a slave to, you know, high universal basic income, how do I separate myself? So what I'm looking for is someone who's not going to give up solve problems, has high big I mean, it's all the cliches of America. I don't think that goes away. So it's just going back to like that rite of passage. I There may be a new rite of passage before it was learning an IQ. Well, what's the new rite of passage? I'm gonna this is happening in real I think it's your toughness, your endurance, your commitment, like

Jason Croft  23:42  
in inhumanness.

Joe Blackburn  23:44  
Well, I don't like those, but fine, if we have to deal with them. By the way, in church, they're talking about true love, and it was in Corinthians when they go through all the things of love, and the last ones are resentful and irritation, because you have to love people. So like, I'm really working on not resenting them and not being irritated by them. That's my new I got so I took away. Now the reality of that, if you know we had a psychologist on here, is they probably say I'm irritated in myself. So self love and then love others. It's a new it's a whole new thing for me. I'm really like, I'm into it.

Jason Croft  24:24  
Almost 50. And you've probably discovered this. I'm like,

Joe Blackburn  24:29  
so what? I got another 70 left? I think I don't have the answers to that. I just, you know, I mean, it's like, you don't hear about all these things. So to bring it into the in the lion, okay, AI is a tool. Great. Do you have the resilience, the relentlessness, the humility, all those things, to just keep going and try to go faster and get you know, I'm starting to like momentum more than speed. You. I keep momentum, that's there. I mean, if I wanted to go on the other side of it, it's like, when people lose momentum, that's when it gets really hard. And do you have the fortitude to start the momentum back? So it's, it's very interesting. You know, we're wrapping up 2025 ish, and I, you're right. I'll be 50 on January 2 of 26 so I'm looking forward to the next three years, five, I don't know, somewhere in there. I think it's a recipe for the biggest mofos that bring the most energy and add the most value to their clients, to my people, your people, that's probably who's gonna win. That's probably who's gonna win. Bring value and whatever tool you got to pull out of the box. Do it. You know, I here. I'll give you when I look at my goals, use every thought minute ounce of business savvy, skill, grit, Will, toughness, connection, tool, faith, hope, luck, determination, ambition, dream, tactic, strategy, fear, doubt, failure, humor and favor, no excuses. Maybe that person wins. We'll see. You guys can judge, but I read that every morning, like everything works and nothing works. I love pillars. It does work, but at the end of the day, whatever it takes do that Happy Happy Tuesday.

Jason Croft  26:24  
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Speaker 1  26:59  
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