CVC Succcess Group coaches Jerry & Sheryl Isenhour
Do you know what your business is going to look like in 3 years?
Do you know with the certainty how to get there?
In today’s episode of The Chimney and Fireplace Success Network, Jerry and Sheryl are going to
go over some of the things that you will want to do to get yourself and your business to the
position that you envision in 3 years.
The Chimney and Fireplace Success Network is a weekly podcast brought to you by the CVC
Success Group and hosted by industry expert, Jerry Isenhour. Each week you will find new
presentations to assist business owners and managers in turning their business dreams into
their business realities.
Transcript
Jerry Isenhour.: I want to welcome you to another edition of the chimney and fireplace success network podcast. This is presented by CVC success group every week, and we’ve got a really good subject for you today. Here is my question for you, do you know what your business is going to look like in three years?
Do You Know With A Certainty How To Get There?
Do you know with the certainty how to get there? Do you know where you’ll be personally what life will look like three years from today? Stick around with us, we will be right back, and Sheryl and I are going to go over some of the things that you need to do to get yourself and your business to the position that you want them in three years.
Clear your mind for a minute
Here is what I need you to do. I want you to just clear your mind for a minute. If you’re driving down the road listening to this, then try to clear it as much as you can, because I’m going to ask you to do something. And what I’m going to ask you to do is paint a mental picture of what your business and your life’s going to look like in a short three years. Not in 20 years, not in 25 years, rather in three short years.
And the reason we want you to do that is, so you can put together a path, the steps to get there to make that a reality. Sheryl, what do you think about looking at it three years out like I am talking about?
Is it a change that is going to come involuntarily?
Sheryl Isenhour: Well, that gives you another distance that you can speculate that there is going to be change. Is it change that you can make, or is it change that’s going to come involuntarily? But at least, you’re looking forward. You’re planning in the future, and it’s a reasonable goal. Three years is much more reasonable than what would you like to be in ten years.
Jerry I.: See, because often you know if you were to ask myself or Sheryl when we were in our 40s, what do you think you are going to be doing in your 60s? I don’t think even the one of us could predict where we will be at this point. But we look at it if we turn this into short-term looks, then it gives us something we can manage and stay tuned.
What you would like your business to look like in 3 years?
Now here is my question, if you have got this mental picture, if you have got it in your mind of where, what you would like your business to look like in three short years, and your personal life, what you would like it to look like? What are the steps that are going to be required to get you there? You see, I want you to think of it for a minute like it’s a plateau up on the side of a mountain. And to get to that plateau on the mountain that gives you that viewpoint that you have been looking for, you are going to have to go up some steps.
Is it going to be building your systems
What are those steps composed of? Each and every one of those steps that you’re going to have to walk up needs to have a subject matter. Is it going to be building your systems? Is it going to be getting to know your numbers? Is it going to be building processes? Is it going to be upping your training game? Is it going to be upping your hiring game? Upping your onboarding game.
Is it going to be updating your tools and equipment
Is it going to be updating what you have as far as your tools and equipment, what are all the things that are going to be required of you, to move to that plateau that we are setting up three years from now? Sheryl, what’s your idea on the steps that you got to travel to get to that plateau? And that plateau is that life and that business that you set as your dream goals.
As Ziglar said, there is no elevator to success
Sheryl: Well, as Ziglar said, there is no elevator to success. The only way you can get there is to take the steps. You take them one at a time, you take them in a sequence, and you continually grow. If you miss one step, you will falter by the time you get to the top.
Jerry I.: Okay. And here’s what’s also so vastly important, don’t listen to what other people tell you, your life and your business needs to look like. It is up to you to make those decisions. A lot of times, people may look at someone like myself as a coach, that is a person, and our job is to come in and make your business grow and grow and grow.
You cannot let others decide what is going to be your path in life
Well, that is our job. If the client decides that is their goal, but you can’t let others decide what’s going to be your path in life. You may be a person who has a desire to have 20-50 or more employees. And that’s great, but you may also be a person that’s decided that the role for you is to be a solopreneur. And that’s an entrepreneur that they are the only one in the business.
Or perhaps it’s a partnership between you and a loved one, a son, a spouse, a daughter, whoever. But I want to encourage you, make sure as we go through today that you understand that where you’re going to is the plateau, the level that you determine is right for you. Nothing that anyone else has decided should be your path. What are your thoughts, Sheryl?
Only you can decide what your plateau is
Sheryl: Well, ourselves, you and I, other coaches, we can help you with your idea, your plateau. We cannot make that plateau; we cannot decide what it is. We cannot tell you what level you need to go to; that is all internal. We’re here to help you to the plateau; we have other people that help you also. You have your family; you have your friends; they are all in to help you to reach your plateau.
Running a business is hard work
Jerry I.: And let us put this out there, running a business is hard work, wouldn’t you agree? Running a business takes a lot out of you. Running in business takes a commitment. And as one of our mentors, Larry Winget, has often said, sometimes to go up, you’ve got to give up. And see, as an entrepreneur, that’s what you’re going to be doing. You’re going to be investing hours and hours into getting to that path. And up that path that you have got to get to that plateau.
The business exists because you had a dream
But you got to remember; the business exists because you had a dream. Now that dream may have been many things, but one of the key purposes of a business is to bring to you the means, the financial means, the time means that you can accomplish and have the things in life that you’re looking for. So you want to keep in mind, we’re not talking about this being easy; this will be hard work. But isn’t your dream worth it? Isn’t it worthwhile to do these things, the sacrifices that you’re going to go through?
If you want a stronger business you are going to have to give up time
Sheryl: If you want to lose weight, you got to give up food. If you want a stronger business, you’re going to have to give up time. If you want more family life, you’ll have to give up more of your business. Again, if you want more family time, it’s just the way it is.
Everything is a balance; to get you must give. And a lot of us don’t want to do that; we want to hold on to all we have and reach for goals that are not there. Plateaus, goals, whatever you want to call them. You have got to be realistic. You’ve got to see that there are things that you’ve got to lose to win.
You must read books
Jerry I.: See, one of the things you have got to do is many people have traveled the path before you and have gotten there, and some of these have detailed their voyages in books. So to be there, I’m going to encourage you not to listen to audible, rather to read books. Because when you simply listen to an audible, you don’t get the true effects as you do from reading it.
Reading it embeds it in your mind much better. One of the people that I am going to recommend if you have not read this, that you need to, is a book by a gentleman by the name of Michael Gerber. Michael Gerber wrote a book and a series of books about something he called the E-myth. And what’s the E-myth? That’s an entrepreneurial myth. And what he did was he detailed out the needs for systemizing the business, for building a business that can be replicated.
Recently I was listening to Michael Gerber speak to Tommy Mello
But recently, I was listening to Michael Gerber speak to Tommy Mello, another person that I follow intently that has a lot of great wisdom. And Michael gave the four characteristics of an entrepreneurial mind. And how to be successful as an entrepreneur. And he says the successful entrepreneurial mind will have these four qualities. Number one, they’re going to be a thinker, they’re going to be able to think and reason and come up with solutions. Number two, they’re going to be doers. They’re going to be doers; they’re going to be people that make things happen.
Number three, they’re going to be a storyteller, because they’ve got to be able to tell others the story. Not only customers but future hires and others. They got to be able to tell the story of how does this business makes a difference in the world. And that’s a question for you, how does your business make a difference in the world? And lastly, they’ve got to be a leader. They got to be able to lead people, and most of all, they must be able to self-lead and lead themselves. So Sheryl, as I give those four thought processes, four characteristics, what do you hear me saying?
You have got to be a person with drive
Sheryl: You’ve got to have a person with drive. You’ve got to have a person that is willing to push forward even in hard times. But most of all, you’ve got to have a person that when it doesn’t go perfect, he’s got the backbone to get back up and get on it again. He’s not a quitter; he is someone that stays with the game whether it’s up or down.
And he helps people along the way to help him. He’s the person at the top that holds someone’s hand and brings them along. He doesn’t expect them to follow right behind him; he wants them in line with him. So he can carry everyone to the top as he goes. The storytelling, that’s so he can get his words across. That is as you know, and we have heard so many times, there’s so much more value in a story than in just a comment.
When you are a leader you must have all four skills
So that is one reason I think in one place that when you are a leader, you have got to have all four of those things. You might not; you might have some stronger than the others. But you take the ones you’ve got, and you push forward with them, and you help the other pieces fall into place.
Jerry I.: Okay. So that’s one gentleman that you need to read his book if you haven’t. And if you have read it, maybe it’s time to go back and review it. Now another gentleman and another book that I highly recommend is a gentleman by the name of Gino Wickman. And Mr. Wickman published a book by the name of Traction. And in the book Traction, the author talks about the need for the business to have two characteristics of leadership.
Number one is the visionary
Number one is the visionary; the visionary is a person that could perceive where they are going. The visionary is the person that can see the path to the future. But the problem is, visionaries are not good implementers. They’re not good integrators. As Gena describes it in the book. So what you’ve got to do to be successful is, you got to have the skills of the visionary. Being able to see that plateau that you’re going to in three years as we’re talking about. But you got to be able to implement and integrate all those steps to get there. So these are all the things of what needs to be done. As you go into this, you also see that Wickman talks about the need to have the right person in the right seat.
Are YOU in the right seat?
And this is something that you have got to take a real hard self-examination of, are you in the right seat? Or do you need to take things that presently fall to you, that either you don’t like to do, or you don’t want to do and assign those to somebody else. What we often refer to as putting them in your suck bucket? Because many times, if you’re not good at numbers, you got to have the background of numbers in your business and understand your data.
So many times, this is going to involve delegating many of the needed job requirements out to others. But this is where you as that leader has to understand that. So, as I talk about the visionary and the integrator, Sheryl, what are your thoughts on these behavior patterns I am talking about.
Anyone can do both, no one can do both well
Sheryl: They are two extremely different behavior patterns; anyone can do both, no one can do both well. So I’ve seen leaders that are implementers; they like the work factor, they like getting things done. So they need to find a visionary to set up the vision to where the business needs to be. Yes, it’s their business, but they need somebody looking from thirty thousand feet. They need somebody to be able to see what they can’t.
They see more the day to day; they need somebody to see the month to month. Other way around, if you’re the visionary, yes, find someone to do this stuff because you can see all the examples; you just can’t do them. So that’s why we always look for, I’m not going to use the words opposite, but opposites there, to be our second in business because that is what will take you forward.
Jerry I.: Right. Now I’ve given you two excellent authors, two excellent books to do research into, here’s another one. Like Mr. Gerber said, one of the things, in order to move to that level, is to become a leader. And one of the best books I can recommend on leadership is one by Dr. John Maxwell; it is called the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership.
McDonald Brothers had a lid they could not operate past
And the neat thing about Dr. Maxwell’s book is, it is going to talk about real-world scenarios such as the McDonald’s brothers. And the McDonald’s brothers had a lid that they could not operate past. So that’s a question for you, is where you’re wanting to go going to require you to go past the lid of your own abilities? Don’t take that personal, please, but you’ve got to realize these things. And a lot of times, that’s where it takes some help with each of us in order to get past those challenges. Because our lids simply hold us back. Sheryl, if I were to ask you, what would you recommend from the immortal Zig Ziegler that people could read to help them understand how to get to that plateau?
See you at the top
Sheryl: I would suggest see you at the top; that is one of my favorite books that he ever put out. There are so many. Here, I mean his sales presentations are good. But the see you at the top will put you in the mode, the spirit, the transition to go where you need to go. So that’s why I think he is, that’s the number one, but he again, he has so many.
Everybody can; they’re easy to find, they’re easy reads. But they are so important; the man was considered a genius of his field. And if you can just grasp 10% of what that man knew, you can be a super leader.
Scott shared a story of a conversation with Zig Ziglar
Jerry I.: Yes, let us share a little story. A lot of times, stories help us in this. Someone shares a story, one of the coaches and mentors that we work with is a gentleman by the name of Scott McCain. So one day, Scott was talking to myself and Sheryl, and he shared a story about when he had met Zig Ziegler. And what you have to understand in the world of speaking Zig was the top, okay. Zig was considered the; he was the supreme being of the speaking world.
Probably the highest-paid public speaker in America at his time. But he was the guy that they all looked to get as big as him. So when Scott met Zig, it was early in his speaking career. And Zig asked him; he said, well, Scott, when are you going to write your book? Because this is one of the things that we do, is we write books. And Scott said, you know I just don’t have the time. And Zig looked at him and said, well, you know, so you know I never wrote a book in my life.
This is a man who had published many books
Now, this is a man that had published many books, but Scott said, what do you mean you have never written a book? You’re one of the best-selling authors in America. He says, Scott, I’ve never written a book; I just written a few pages every day. And after a while, we figured out I had a book. So it’s kind of the same thought process of going up these steps.
Is you’ve got to take it a step at a time. You cannot jump from here to there; you have to travel the steps, travel where you’re going to get there, that’s what you got to do. Sheryl, your thoughts on that?
Sheryl: You can’t get anywhere in one step, and you can’t go up without making an effort. It’s just the way it is; it’s like Zig when he found out he needed to lose some weight. He decided to go out for a walk when they bought all the fancy clothes, he gets out there, and he starts walking. He barely makes the block.
So, he comes back, and he is breathing heavy, and the redhead looks at him and says, well, are you ready to quit? And he said no. So the next day he went out, he made a block and a mailbox. And the next day, he went back, and he made a block and two mailboxes. And that is why they call it the bam, a box, and a mailbox; it is tiny steps to get to a huge ending.
Jerry I.: Yes. And I think that’s one of the advantages that Sheryl and I have, and we would love to hopefully impart this to you. We can network, talk to, get to know many people that are extremely knowledgeable about how to get to your goal destination.
The people we have watched move to immaculate levels
When I look at all the meetings we have sat through, the classes we have been through together and separately, it is amazing the people that we have watched move to immaculate levels. And they did this because they had a goal, and they were willing to take the steps to walk up to that plateau, which was their future. So, Sheryl, anything else you would add to that?
Sheryl: No, I think that pretty much says it all.
Jerry I.: Okay, so stick around with us. We got some parting words for you in just a minute. So, do not go nowhere; we will be right back.
Jerry I.: So, here is what you got to remember, for success, you must establish first what does success look like for you? Not what it looks like for anyone else. Do not walk into a classroom, do not go to a seminar, and let someone excite you for something that does not fit your personality, your style, or where you want to go.
What is that plateau you want to be sitting on?
What we are talking about here is for you to decide what is that plateau that you want to be sitting on, where is it that you want to go to. You got to remember, decide what is your mental picture, and decide what are those steps that it takes to get you there. Sheryl, what will be your parting thoughts on today’s podcast?
Sheryl: I would say make your plan, follow your path, be willing to alter it, and only if in a good direction. And most of all, enjoy your journey.
Enjoy the journey
Jerry I.: There you go, that is what it is all about. Enjoy the journey, look for the fruits of what you’re going to get when you get there. Set your gold destination for what you want, for what fits your life. For what fits your dreams, not what anybody else tells you, you should be doing. This is of utmost importance. Don’t develop a plateau where you’re not happy.
And with that, we’re going to end this week’s episode of the chimney and fireplace success network. We are a group of subject matter experts, and our job is not to take you where you don’t want to go. Our job is to help you get to the plateau that you say, that is your hopes, your dreams, your future, and everything else. With that, Sheryl, is there anything you would like to add before we end this episode?
Sheryl: As I always say, be able to say I am glad I did, instead of I wish I had.
Jerry I.: There you go. So this is Jerry and Sheryl Isenhour; we appreciate the honor, the privilege, the pleasure for you to spend this time with us. If we can help you, just reach out to us at any time. Info@CVCsuccessgroup.com.
We’d love to have a conversation; we’d love to help get you pointed in direction to get you to that magic plateau that exists out there for you. See you next week on the next episode of the chimney and fireplace success network.