The Business Guide
Just a regular guy that decided to quit his stable job and start a business. After successfully being in business I've learned a thing or two, unfortunately the hard way. I've created this podcast to share my successes & failures and to talk about the "real" ins & outs of business. I'll be personally sharing my stories along with guests.
As Business Owners we wear so many different hats and we have so many different struggles, we will breakdown those struggles together and talk about how we've overcome them and how it's shaped us to be better. If your a business owner currently going through a struggle, I hope this content helps!
The Business Guide
Turning Challenges into Opportunities: Cultivating a Growth Mindset for Business Success
What if every business challenge you faced could be transformed into a stepping stone for success? Join me, Jonathan Wagoner, as I invite you on a journey to cultivate a growth mindset that's pivotal for entrepreneurial triumph. Through candid personal stories from my business ventures, I unravel the stark differences between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. Discover practical strategies to embrace challenges as opportunities for growth, turning setbacks into valuable lessons that propel you forward.
Ever wondered how resilience and positivity can reshape your business trajectory? This episode underscores the power of genuine connections and open discussions among entrepreneurs. I dive into my experiences in the fire damage restoration industry, illustrating the essence of hard work, dedication, and adaptability. By fostering a "move on" mindset and strategic thinking, learn how you can skillfully navigate through business hurdles, transforming them into opportunities for innovation and growth.
Curious about the unpredictable nature of business expansion and marketing efforts? Listen in as I recount the rollercoaster journey of adding new services and the trials of hiring high-paid representatives. Hear about the lessons learned from financial setbacks and how a positive mindset can pave the way for recovery and success. Plus, get insights from a restaurant owner's challenging direct mail campaign. Engage with this episode by sharing your thoughts and feedback – your input is invaluable to our collective growth.
Hey everyone, what's going on? It's Jonathan Wagner and I am your host of the Business Guide. Thank you for tuning in for another episode. Today we're diving into one of the most powerful tools that an entrepreneur can have in their toolkit, and that is a growth mindset, but, more specifically, a mindset for success. So if you're looking to take your business and personal development to the next level, then this episode is going to be for you. Have you ever wondered what sets entrepreneurs apart, specifically the ones who make it and the ones that struggle to make it? It's not just about skills or luck, it's about their mindset. Stick around on this episode as we explore how cultivating a growth mindset can unlock your full potential and set you on the path to success.
Speaker 1:I want to share a quick little story from my own journey of being a business owner. You know, I think, when I originally started my first business the carpet cleaning restoration business I had faced so many different challenges and those challenges continuously change, right? So you know, at first it's, you know, securing clients. How do I make the phone ring? Maybe it's as I got into doing the restoration, it was managing cash flow. I'm billing my services out, and sometimes it's taking me three or four months to get paid. I think every business owner deals with this. But it is keeping up with your competition. You need to be able to change and adapt to your market I've spoken about that on previous podcasts always adapting to the ever-changing market.
Speaker 1:And I think that sometimes, with all of these different issues, as you're dealing with them, you can feel overwhelmed, and I know that I have felt overwhelmed in the past. I know sometimes I still feel overwhelmed. I don't think that's ever going to go away, but I am like you and most other business owners, and it is. We face struggles and ups and downs in business, but when you start looking at those challenges that you have in your business and you start looking at them as opportunities, that's where you're going to really learn and grow your business. Specifically, when we have an issue in one of my businesses, I like taking that problem head on and creating a solution so we don't deal with that again. And if it's different systems, if it's different policies, the way we do our work, the way our employees handle our customers, we're always adapting and I don't think that ever changes. It's always giving me a fresh perspective on my business.
Speaker 1:I've been in business a little over 12 years and I can tell you that every single day is something new that I'm dealing with. Now we do deal with getting into our rut of the same thing over and over again, but I'm always dealing with something new. Over again, but I'm always dealing with something new. So when I started to look at my challenges as opportunities and opportunities to specifically grow within my business, that's where my mindset started to shift right, and that's something that I would say I've been able to carry in all of my business ventures since is looking at those challenges and turning them into opportunities and at the end of the day, I am succeeding, right, my businesses are succeeding. So I do have somewhat of a mindset for success. I don't look at all of these hurdles and say how am I going to get out of this? I don't understand this, and just kind of give up. I'm always adapting, I'm always willing to learn and willing to grow, and I think that when I'm not wanting to grow anymore, that's probably when I'm not going to be in business. So if you're dealing with a challenge, look at it as an opportunity and change your mindset to grow within your business. Okay, if you're having problems getting the phones to ring. Dive into your advertising If you're having issues with your cash flow. Time to dig into the books. See where you can cut waste. Make a better cash flow plan Okay, there's so many different things that you can do to grow your business right. Okay, there's so many different things that you can do to grow your business right.
Speaker 1:So in today's episode we're going to talk exactly about a growth mindset and how it differs from a fixed mindset, right? So I want to say back in my day but it's not really back in my day but I've seen with older competition, if you would, they are so stuck in a fixed mindset Like I've been doing this business for this long and I don't need to change it and unfortunately, those particular people slowly lose sales over and over again until maybe they're non-existent or they sell their business. So we have to continuously adapt and we have to have that growth mindset, not the fixed mindset. We're also going to dive into practical strategies that you can start using today to cultivate that growth mindset, and I'm going to share some common challenges that you might face along the way and how to overcome them, because, again, I have probably faced the same challenges as you and I want to work through them and talk with them, with you.
Speaker 1:So first we're going to jump into understanding the growth mindset. Specifically, what is a growth mindset? Let's break it down Simply put, it is a belief that your ability and your intelligence can be developed over time with effort, learning and persistence. On the flip side, a fixed mindset is a belief that your ability is static. You're either born with talent or you're not. You don't deviate from that. If you have a fixed example, you might have thought I'm not good at this and I'm just going to give up. And as entrepreneurs, I mean, I think for the most of us we don't really have that fixed mindset because we don't take no for an answer. We see the challenges and we get over them and unfortunately, the people that don't are no longer in business. But with a growth mindset, you're gonna see challenges as an opportunity to learn and improve, not just on your business but on our personal side.
Speaker 1:The distinction in this crucial. I'm sorry, I'm trying to read my notes and talk. This is a first time Again remember guys, unscripted podcast here, and I'm trying to mix up a little different. I jotted a ton of notes down and I'm trying to read them to you, but I feel like it's unnatural. So bear with me on this episode. Maybe I won't do this in the future, we'll see. So going back to on this episode Maybe I won't do this in the future, we'll see.
Speaker 1:So going back to the growth mindset right, you're going to give up If you have a fixed mindset. You're either born with this or you're not. If you have a growth mindset, you're going to see opportunities to improve and learn, right? So this distinction is crucial in business, because it's how you view your abilities. It's how you view your abilities that impacts your success. Now I can tell you on a personal level right, you're running your business. Things are going great. You know what? And maybe you're working too hard. Work, work, work, work, work. You're running your business. Things are going great. You know what? And maybe you're working too hard. Work, work, work, work, work. You're not taking a step back, you're not letting off the gas and, by the way, I suggest you do. It's going to help you in the long run. Right, I forget the analogy of a rabbit and the crossing line, or whatever. That story is right. Who makes it past the finish line first? The rabbit or the crossing line or whatever. That story is right. Who makes it past the finish line first, the rabbit or the turtle? And it's the turtle because the turtle went slow and took his time right and didn't burn himself out. Same thing in business Sometimes we're so focused on pushing the gas that we don't let off the gas to let ourselves breathe and have that break.
Speaker 1:And sometimes and I am guilty of this, I am so guilty of this we get burned out. And for me, what my burnout is is I know that I have to be this motivator in my business. I need to motivate myself and for me, I lose that motivation to motivate others and that can plague your business very quickly. So right, if you're the outgoing talkative person in your business and you like to engage your employees and you're always giving them that feedback and that TLC that they need, that's what I like to do. And then, when your employees don't get it, they know something's wrong, what's going on. Well, if Jonathan's not engaged, I'm not going to be engaged, and you know you do need a good team that kind of can see past that or see when you're dealing with a burnout.
Speaker 1:But being able to step back and re-get your motivation is super crucial and super important and that is really in the mindset, right. I mean, earlier in this episode we talked about struggles that you can overcome. Let's see cash flow issues, you know, maybe getting the phone to ring, things like that but for me, this mindset for success is really in the motivation, right, if I don't apply the gas to my businesses anymore, then they're not going to grow. If I'm not going to grow, my phone's going to stop ringing. I'm going to have less work, maybe layoffs, maybe downsizing, layoffs, maybe downsizing, right. So it is so important that we keep the business going and we keep our mindset right.
Speaker 1:So I have learned it has taken me time to learn, it's literally taken me years where when my mindset is not right, I take some time off, I take a breather. I mentioned this, I think, on the last couple episodes, but I just got back from a little bit of a vacation. I was fortunate enough to take about a month off, a little checking in on the business, but for the most part, completely off. That gives me the reset that I need and that is so important. Now, I'm not saying that everybody needs to take a month off. I happen to have a lot of camping scheduled and it was a well-deserved break. But take the time as you need and your mindset needs right. That is something that I saw as an opportunity to learn from my business.
Speaker 1:Sales actually decrease when I am not motivated to pump up my team and be the person that they need me to be, and that happens to be the cheerleader. I really don't do much in my business. I've hired well, I've put the message across of what we do, I've trained well. My businesses for the most part, can run themselves, but I'm the motivator that goes in and checks in, and that's really my job, right? Of course, there's other things that I do, but being that person that can bring that culture into the business is important for me and my business.
Speaker 1:So, understanding your mindset and it's not going to happen overnight you may be dealing with a struggle, you may be dealing with something, you may be in that rut and you're not noticing it. I know of somebody that just recently got out of a little bit of a rut and they didn't even know they were in that rut until it hit them like they slammed into the wall. Right, they said, gosh, I really need a break, I need to take a couple steps back and I need to get this figured out. And then, hey, guess what? Business starts to grow again, mvp is back in the playing field and just a heads up the sports reference. I'm not a huge sports guy, so I hope that that little analogy worked All right.
Speaker 1:So, moving on to the benefits of being able to cultivate a growth mindset, and just a mindset for success, first, I mean, just right off the bat, having a growth mindset is going to make you more resilient. I mean, in business we have so many setbacks and you know hurdles right, it's inevitable you're going to have a setback or something is going to happen. And when you have that growth mindset, you really see your setbacks as learning opportunities rather than failures. And again spoken about this in the past on previous episodes but being able to scale my business and then taking some steps back and saying you know what actually this is not what I want made my business more profitable, made me more happy or happier as a person, as a business owner, so being able to pivot, you're going to look at those opportunities. I'm just I'm. I mean, I've got, I've got some notes here that I think I want to talk about, but I also. I also feel like I have to swim back and and and talk about that setback.
Speaker 1:Right, there are so many people and so many business owners out there that deal with setbacks on a daily basis. But as you talk with them, as you go up and you shake their hand, say, hey, how's business, how's it going? They're going to look like the best salesperson in the world and say, everything's going great, I'm doing good, business is great, but they're dealing with a setback. Maybe their mindset's not right. As entrepreneurs, we really need to come together and take that. Let's take that stigma away.
Speaker 1:If you have a group you've networked with other entrepreneurs, business owners, you've got a group of people that you network with or you've made friends. Check in with them. But really check in with them. Create the friendships that you can break down and say, hey, what's going on with business? What are you dealing with? This is what I'm dealing with. Open up, offer something that's going to help your mindset as well. Now you've got other people that you can transparently talk to that have skin in the game with you as well. Hey, I'm dealing with this setback. Unfortunately, this happened. Was there a time that you dealt with your phone's not ringing, the customer's not paying, competition taking over your market How'd you handle it? How'd you get in that right mindset? But it's going to open up the door for you to think about turning these into opportunities. I make the joke, but when things aren't going my way, that's when I work the hardest and my business thrives because of it. For whatever reason, sales aren't coming in, I'll amp up my advertising, right? So I think that there's so many different people in business that you can talk to and really help cultivate your, your mindset for success.
Speaker 1:I've met so many different entrepreneurs and business owners, some that have succeeded and have been in business and some that have failed. And pretty early on when I started my business, I started having people ask me hey, could you come down? And you know, sit down, have lunch with me, have dinner with me, can we talk about maybe my new business venture or whatever. It is what I really noticed. There were clearly two types of people there and you can really tell in their mindset what they were willing to do to be a successful business owner. Sometimes they weren't willing to work the hours, sometimes they weren't willing to do what they needed to do or they just kind of had a mediocre or lukewarm attitude going into opening your business or their business and unfortunately, those people nine times out of 10, did not succeed right.
Speaker 1:Being a business owner is hard work. You have to check in every single day. You're finding yourself listening to this podcast on your way to work, your way to a job site, your way to buy in some inventory, whatever it is. What struggle are you working through today and how are you going to turn that into an opportunity to grow your business and grow your mindset? Once you start understanding that, that's going to get the juices flowing. Right, that's going to get the juices flowing of cultivating that mindset. This kind of funnels into the practical strategies for developing the growth mindset. It's just, you know.
Speaker 1:Recapping again embrace the challenges If things aren't going your way. Look at it as like a board game or a game that you know. I don't know. I'm trying to use an analogy here, but I think a board game pretty much sticks or some sort of frustrating strategy game. Right, I like to go to Monopoly. By the way, anybody ever wants to play me on Monopoly? You got a seat right here. Let's do it. I love playing Monopoly. But look at those challenges as strategic moves. Write them down. How are you going to navigate through this? How are you going to succeed and how are you going to grow?
Speaker 1:Ironically, I do fire damage restoration. I do fire damage restoration and I have seen more than my fair share of businesses unfortunately affected by a fire damage that puts them out of business essentially for six months to a year and a half. Water damages where they're out of business for three months to six months. These business owners now have their livelihoods completely pulled away from them and some of them unfortunately close up shop, but most of them you know what it's a part of doing business. We got to get this done. Let's get this done as quickly as possible and they adapt. So how are you going to adapt to something that you are struggling with? Roll up your sleeves and get to work on them.
Speaker 1:I know when we decided at my business to I don't want to say it, I mean I. I mean I could talk about so many different challenges, but I think I also have something in my, my mindset and my wife often will point this out, but I have a very move on mindset, right. So, uh, we have a challenge. I solved the challenge. Tackle it head on, but I don't dwell on it, I move completely on and that does fade into my personal life, for sure. So there are things that I can't remember because I've just I've put them in the back of my mind and I have moved on. I'm just trying to think about a time that really sticks out. Okay, I'm going to give you a very vague where I could have given up, but I didn't, just because I still have some business relationships there and I want to be careful.
Speaker 1:So there was a service that I wanted to add on in my company and I thought it through, did my research thoroughly over a couple months and decided, hey, we're going to do this. And this is when I'm on my up and up. Right, we want more, we want to generate more revenue, we want more employees. So we took on almost like a business development rep, if you would, but something slightly different, super high paid. It was an occupation from another field. Once they retired, we brought them on and I had this whole buy-in thing and it was a big thing. I spent a lot of money on it. At the end of the day, let me tell you that, and for you know, probably a solid six months. I mean I put all of my personal resources into this. So right, the business is doing well. I've got great leadership there or, excuse me, management. I've got great employees, so it's running. So now I can break off to put this new service on.
Speaker 1:I dedicate a lot of money and a lot of my time and the person just ends up not liking what he's doing there. And that was the first time that I was really really putting all of my eggs in a basket where I had to. I don't want to say trust an employee, but I put a lot of eggs in one basket for an employee and it didn't work out. And you know, through this kind of this pivotal time, there was something I belonged to where I had to pay like an exit fee because I no longer had somebody doing that and this cost me a lot of money and I was totally bummed out about it, totally bummed out that, you know one. I put all my eggs in one basket with somebody that can just leave, right. I felt that, you know, I did my research, I did my due diligence and some things still crossed or still slipped through the cracks and I was definitely down feeling bummed out. But it took me about a month.
Speaker 1:I put it in my back, you know, back of my mind for about a month, moved on, went back into this business and got back to work and when my mindset came around which is, it's always grow, it's always learn, you know, learn from these challenges, turn them into opportunities I decided to go a different route. I was trained up and knew what we were doing and I knew exactly who I needed to look for. I didn't have to play by anybody else's rules we can talk about this in another episode, which I really would break it down because I feel like it's not fair, being vague. But I went out, I hired another person, I put this team back together. I went out, I hired another person, I put this team back together and quickly excelled at that service and it was on my own terms.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it was a huge challenge that I spent money on this particular guy. I spent money on this training, I spent money on this program. I spent so much money and then the rug was gone right, super down. But I took it as an opportunity to grow, took a break, pressed a giant reset button and got back into it and made my money back well over. So, again, talk about it on another episode, where maybe I can disclose what it was. I'll let you in on this. It's something called a fractional franchise. If you don't know what it is, we'll talk about it in another episode and I'll have some warnings on it for you. But these are the challenges you're going to deal with in business. Every single day there's something new.
Speaker 1:So I was able to use my set to, or my, my mindset to, help me get out of that. I mean, I'll be honest, cultivating that mindset isn't always easy. It it it takes time, and that situation took me a month. Now I don't go around completely unmotivated, but there are certain setbacks that just take you a couple minutes to digest and move on from. But I'll tell you what I think. Out of everything I do in business, I walk in with a positive mindset and a positive approach. There's not where I'm going into something lukewarm. Into something lukewarm. Look, if you're deciding to open a business, as I've decided to, for me it's months Shoot, my media company's taken me over a year where I was like, okay, now I'm ready. So it's gonna take you time, but write it down. This is a strategy game, right? You are playing the game of being a business owner. Win that sucker, win that sucker. Don't let the setbacks overcome. Don't let the setbacks overcome your everyday life and your business.
Speaker 1:I think little things. That I can kind of give you an example of is my marketing campaigns. Sometimes you'll spend money on marketing campaigns that don't always work, or sometimes you'll have marketing campaigns that are doing a great job and then all of a sudden just completely go flat, dive into it, right to it, right. I talked to a restaurant owner where they were doing these like these, direct. What is it called Direct mail? So you get these postcards printed out, right, you spend money on that, you sort them out. There's a lot of legwork in it. If you decide to do it, you sort it out, you go to the post office, you pay for it, you go to the post office, they send them out. That worked really, really well for this business owner for about a year had it down, had an employee dedicated to it, consistent stream of income coming in because of it, and then overnight, for whatever reason, just stopped working. And of course, there's a scale-up that this particular business owner did right Got more employees, there's a little bit more overhead and now this portion of his sales were completely gone, definitely down on his luck.
Speaker 1:We spoke about it, so I had a suggestion. They were going to throw in the towel. There was something that I had tried years ago and a little bit more. I would say cost effective because you could reach more homes. But it was essentially one of these packs. I don't want to say the name, just in case you know. I don't know, I'm not allowed to, or whatever. Come after me. Copyright, I guess I'll say it's ValPak. I don't know, I'm not allowed to, or whatever. Come after me. Copyright, I guess I'll say it's ValPak. I don't know. Is that a nationwide thing? I think it is. These ValPak books have you know 20 businesses in it and instead of spending you know 1500 bucks on reaching you know maybe a thousand homes that he was doing before right With this direct mail, he spent maybe 1500 bucks or $2,000 and reaching five times the amount of people. So he launched this campaign, didn't throw in the towel, definitely was discouraged, but didn't throw in the towel, saw it as an opportunity, changed his marketing up a little bit, changed his marketing up a little bit and that book does well to this day. And we're four years into it right now. So now direct mail would be something he doesn't talk about.
Speaker 1:When you see these challenges, you have to have the mindset of how can I strategically fix this and move on. That's what I'm trying to hit home on this episode, because if you don't have that, you're going to get stuck in a rut that you can't get out of that. You're going to get stuck in a rut that you can't get out of. So be willing to adapt, be willing to change, be willing to see these things as opportunities and and strategically get yourself out of them. Okay, okay, yeah, I don't know. I think that I'm sorry, as we deal with challenges of our own. I'll tell you right now I've got my little studio that I've put together and done a pretty good job at soundproofing, but I've got a guy over on the other side just completely yelling so I can hear it. We are all not immune to little challenges.
Speaker 1:Today I think it's interesting. I got at my office at about probably 6.30. I was up about 5.30. And I've been working nonstop and wanted to jam an episode out. Today I'm a little bit more tired and wrote all my notes down and I could tell that the episode didn't go super well, but nonetheless I'm going to put the episode out and see how it did with you guys. I know this isn't my best, but thank you for being here today on this episode. I hope that.
Speaker 1:I really hope that I was able to just get the juices flowing in your brain of being able to cultivate that mindset that you need to grow your business and, overall, just succeed. And having that, I am going to succeed. Right, what defines a successful person? It's a person that was able to make something out of nothing, and that's what you've done as a business owner. You have made something that did not exist, and there are going to be so many challenges along the way, but not getting discouraged and continuously saying gosh, I did not think I was going to deal with this type of issue starting my business, but here I am. How do I get over it and how can I help a fellow business owner that is dealing with it, right? So surround yourself in a network, open up to these people transparently, like nobody wants to hear everybody's problem, right? So you need a friendship as you go into these, genuinely, engage about other people's businesses, and you would be surprised at how many people and friendships are made because of that. And now that funnels into hey, I'm dealing with this issue. Have you dealt with it before? Absolutely. Here's how I handled it. Thank you so much. That's right.
Speaker 1:Business is roller coaster ups, downs, bumps. We need to be able to have our mindset, be the right mindset at all times, or at least be able to think that we've got the mindset right, because I mean, I'm a normal guy that deals with it. I'm not going to lie to you, I've got my burnout. I've got things that unmotivate me and I have to figure out how to get out of it. And in business we have to keep pushing. So we want to put that food on our table for our family and I mean, I just think it's super cool when you create something out of nothing and you can turn a profit with it. That's pretty cool and something to be proud of. So kudos to you for starting your business and being in it and working as hard as you do every single day.
Speaker 1:Guys, if you like this episode, please give it a thumbs up, hit me with a comment in the comment section, send me a text message on the podcast link. I really like reading what you guys have to say. It means the world to me that you're listening and you've taken the time Again. I've dealt with so many things in business and being a business owner and I just want to work through those, give you friendly tips to get through. You know, being a business owner, where we all deal with the same struggles. So, anyways, that's it for today's episode. Thank you again for joining me. I'm your host, jonathan Wagner, and
