Jerry, Sheryl, and Brandi

CVC Succcess Group coaches Jerry & Sheryl Isenhour

Just as a wheel out of alignment gives a bumpy ride on your vehicle, the wheels of your business and your personal life need to be in balance for a smooth ride. Join us on this week’s episode of The Chimney & Fireplace Success Network as Brandi, Sheryl and Jerry share ideas to make both life and business a smoother ride.

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.

Video Transcript

Intro: Welcome to the chimney and fireplace success network. A weekly broadcast sponsored by CVC success group. Hosted each week by industry speaker, coach, author, and educator Jerry Isenhour.

Our presentations are produced to assist business owners and managers in turning their business dreams into their business realities. And now here is your host, Jerry Isenhour.

Jerry Isenhour.: Well, good afternoon. I want to welcome you to today’s live broadcast of the chimney and fireplace success network. And here today with me, I got two great people on here, part of our coaching team here at the CVC success group.

That’s Brandi Biswell, she’s sitting in her office out there in Kansas City right now. And that’s Sheryl Isenhour sitting there in her office right upstairs in the same building I’m in right now. So, we have got a great subject matter today, and we are going to go into some detail.

It is all about The Wheel Of Success!

And it is all about the wheel of success. So I want you to stay with us, we’re going to be right back with you. We are going to play that little intro music, and we will be back live in just a few seconds.

Jerry Isenhour.: So, let us talk about the wheel of success. But to start this, I want you to know where this came from. And for this, I’m going to turn this over to Sheryl, because this actually comes from her training working with the Ziglar organization.

And she became a Ziglar certified trainer and coach, which is a pretty hard level to attain. Took a lot of training. So, Sheryl, can you explain a little bit about the Ziglar wheel of life that we developed the wheel of success from?

The Wheel Of Success was based on the human factor.

Sheryl Isenhour: Basically, the wheel of life there was based on the human factor, and the things that you did. And I do apologize, we are weeding out here. But with the situation, the more points that are equal makes for a rounder wheel. I mean, he always said a round wheel rolls more easily.

And so with that situation, you tried to fill out the parts of your life that were not as fluent as others. If it was your family life, you tried to boost it up. So you tried to come up with a round wheel, but as they went on with their things, they realized that wheels could mean anything in any situation.

So they have taken it farther yet, and then Jerry took it even farther into the business aspect. But as always, and you’ll see as we go farther in this, a round will rolls easier. So that is basically where they came from in it.

The Wheel Of Success using the Ziglar Principals.

Jerry I.: Got you. So what we’re talking about here, if you look at this, and like I said, we developed our wheel of success using the Ziglar principle. Because Sheryl is licensed to use Ziglar works, Ziglar talks, Ziglar philosophies. So as I developed this out over the last couple years, in life, there’s a certain balance that you have to make your life whole.

So, Brandi, I’m going to go over you a minute. When you look at personal life, because this is vastly important, having this round wheel because you’re a person I see that has such a balanced life. You have your spiritual side, you have your children, you have your business.

You balance your coaching practice, you balance the group coaching that we do and all these things. Which means you have to have a tremendously smooth wheel or you’re going to encounter bumpy roads. Am I true on this?

Brandi Biswell: Yes. And I don’t want anybody to have the false notion that I do it well, and this is where we may differ a little bit Jerry. I don’t believe that anything can ever be truly balanced. I always believe that there is going to be part that is a little bit heavier than the other.

That has to do with the seasons of our life.

And I think part of that has to do with like the seasons of our life. So I’m in the season where my kids are teenagers, they’re getting a little more independent and that allows me more time to focus on the work aspect. When they were younger, I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss any field trips, anything at school, any parties.

And so I focused more there. And a lot of it I think also comes into boundaries, and just knowing where to place those boundaries. I get up at 4 am to go work out every morning, and my boundary is I’m not going to miss that. That is my time.

Last night our daughter needed picked up from the airport late, and my husband went and did it, so I could get up and go work out early. That’s just my private time that I try to hold on to, and not let anybody interfere with.

And then just having a schedule I think helps too, and just scheduling all these different things in. And then just being flexible.

This is all a part of balancing your personal life there.

Jerry I.: Correct. But this is all part of balancing your personal life there. Like Brandi, you are very health-oriented. It’s in the ways, the foods that you take, it’s the habits that you take. And this a lot of times is how I think you are so stable in what you do. It’s like I know that, I’m off limits calling Brandi Biswell after seven o’clock in the evening, okay.

Seven o’clock, that’s not a time we’re going to have a conversation. And I think you know that if your texts were to go off and said call me after 7 p.m. you know it’s vastly important. Because I understand and recognize what you do, and how you live.

It’s the same thing with all of us. And Sheryl and I live together, and a lot of times what it comes to is, I have to recognize that Sheryl is a very intelligent, powerful person that has her strengths that are vastly superior to mine in some ways.

The same thing, we operate where we recognize this, but as we get to our age and we look back, many times I look at my own life in younger years and saw how it was so dabbling out of balance for so many years.

I wrote a book about it called Chaos To Reinvention

And it was so bad, I wrote a book about it called Chaos To Reinvention, which was a very difficult book to write. Because I talked about all my failings, I talked about, it was like having my inside split wide open and look right in here. But it was all in the desire not for anyone to feel sorry for me, but rather you could use this and put it to work.

So that’s kind of the personal side. Sheryl, is there anything else you would like to add on the personal side before we go into the wheel of success in business?

Sheryl: Well, like Brandi said, you can balance things to a certain point. As I get older, I tend to look more at some of the personal things, because as I raised children, I was a single parent and by doing that, I had to really donate more time than I ever wanted to, to raising, not raising them, but supplying them with their food, their home, their thing. Because I wasn’t privy to having the second income.

So now, things are different, we’re older, the kids are grown, in fact, the grandkids are grown. And so now I am kind of moving back more into the work than I did the personal, because the grandkids do not need us any longer, except the special times.

But if you do not balance it out, there are different balances.

But if you do not balance it out, there are different balances. And Jerry and I both I don’t think will ever retire, because I don’t see a whole lot of fun things out there that I haven’t already done. So we kind of find our enjoyment where we can, I don’t have to play golf six days a week.

In fact, Jerry doesn’t hit golf balls, so I don’t play golf. But the main thing is, just balance yourself where you’re at in life. Like Brandi said, it’s the season that you’re in.

My season’s turning into the winter season, it’s going into the deep side. But stay true to yourself, that is the best advice I can give anybody, stay true to yourself.

Jerry I.: Right. So now let’s switch it to the business side because that’s where we’re going to key this today, is on your business. Now I feel very lucky because I have been into probably more businesses in this industry than any other individual.

Brandi, I visited your business many years ago and did an analysis for Jeremy when you were located down the street. And I’ve watched how businesses have grown, I’ve watched how they’ve matured.

And you and Jeremy, you all are example to anyone of how you can move and mature a business into one that brings you great satisfaction in life. But here’s what I see, and Brandi since you’re coaching and Sheryl since you’re talking to people and also working with a lot of our clients, I want to know if you see the same.

You see, this is what I see. Every business owner, every manager has the major things that they look at all the time. The things that drive them crazy, or the one single thing they want to get better. Like one of the ones that bothers me Brandi is, I see there is this high concentration on sales.

I got to become a better salesperson.

I got to become a better salesperson. My people have to become better at sales. We even have trainers like Donovan that go out to help people become better at sales. But here’s my concern, we actually build up the sales part, but on the other side of the coin, we don’t have the capacity in order to turn out the work. Or we don’t have the capacity to make things flow properly through the business.

Now Brandi, let’s go to you first. Do you see where these folks in the business are not of equal length, and what happens is the business is riding down a bumpy, bumpy road all the time? What is your input on that from your side?

Brandi: Oh, I could not agree more, and we see this every day, and we see business owners struggling with this. Or we see where they have focused so much on hiring let us say on the technician side, and now that is great, that is all built up, but they do not have the office staff to support it any longer.

They did not focus on hiring over there.

They did not focus on hiring over there. And so you really do have to look at all aspects on a daily basis and analyze them. It’s okay to focus on certain things for certain periods of time. We talk a lot about waste, and it is okay to focus on waste.

But also, you keep in mind that as the business owner, you don’t have to be the one doing that all the time, you can outsource that to your team. We have a client that does that very well. So, looking at what parts and pieces of the business you can outsource so that you can focus on what is most important to you.

Jerry I.: Got you. So Sheryl, the same token, one of your primary roles in the CVC group and where you feel is from the area of human resources, and we’re going to narrow this down, even more, is you’re heavily involved in the recruitment process.

And you do recruiting for people, you do the process of the interview, the search, the recommendation, the disk assessment, so many different things are involved. But let me ask you a question, do people look at the hiring until they are in a panic mode?

And as I listen to other coaches such as one that I have respected for many years, his name is Al Levy.

Or do you see more people that are not going, ongoing recruiting always? In other words, they’re up against the wall and I’ve got to find somebody. And as I listen to other coaches such as one that I’ve respected for many years, his name is Al Levy.

He comes out of the plumbing industry, we spoke at the NCSG convention about 10 years ago. And Al believes, and I agree with him, that we have to have backups. In other words, we got to have reserves.

So Sheryl, do you see people focus on the recruiting before they get panic-stricken, and they’re up against the wall? And let’s say someone has turned in a notice, and it’s a small company. And all of a sudden, 50% of the workforce is going away.

What do you see in the hiring realm where they have got to get this spoke out to the length that is needed to keep this wheel running round?

Everybody hires when desperate.

Sheryl: Earlier, I would have said everybody hires when desperate. But we have more and more clients coming on that are hiring 12 months out of the year, because as you know and I know, usually when you’re looking for somebody, that gold nugget is not out there, they’re not looking at that time.

So we’re beginning with a lot of our clients to hire 12 months out of the year and have them as Brandi said over-hire. Because it’s always easier to have one extra than it is to need one and have to call businesses off.

So more and more companies are starting to put more money into hiring than what they were as you were talking earlier, on the sales. They’re taking part of the money that they would invest on trying to sell right now, putting it into steady hiring. And we are finding a whole unique group of people out there.

Jerry I.: Right. And earlier this week, Wednesday night I think that we had a very unique experience.  So people where once a month, we have what we call a group call, and this group call, there’s all of my 101 clients, also the members of our coaching group are all invited to attend this call.

And it was held this past Wednesday evening at 7 00 p.m. So this is not a conversation amongst the people, I try to bring in what I call a subject matter expert on these monthly calls. And the gentleman that joined us this week was nothing short of phenomenal.

What did you think of Glenn Mooreshower?

In fact, Brandi before I go further, tell a little bit about what you thought of Glenn Mooreshower, whenever Glenn was speaking on Wednesday night to us.

Brandi: Well, I still feel like I have not come down from the high yet, that feeling of that high I got. I loved him, I think he’s one of the most phenomenal speakers I’ve ever heard. Just the way he looks at the world and the way he looks at people.

He’s appeared in many famous movies and TV shows, and so I think I have this bias of how Hollywood actors are supposed to be, and he is absolutely completely the opposite of everything I ever thought a Hollywood actor would be.

He’s just so down to earth, and so giving of his time. And just answering all of our questions. My biggest takeaway was COI, he talked about COI, which is the cost of oh great, now I forgot it.

Jerry I.: Cost of inaction.

I had never thought about the cost of inaction.

Brandi: Thank you. I have not had enough coffee yet today, the cost of inaction. And we talked about ROI all the time, but I had never thought about the cost of inaction.

And I’ve been thinking on that the last couple days since he spoke, and thought about what things have I not taken action on, and how has that affected me in my life and business. And part of that goes back into the hiring like you were talking about Jerry and the hiring year-round.

I think of it, my husband and I go to Costco, and if you know anything about Costco, they get these certain things in just for a very limited time. And so I would see something I like and I thought oh, I don’t need it right now, come back and get it.

Well, the next time you come back it’s gone, it’s not there anymore.  Because they only have it for a limited amount of time, so if you see it, you better grab it. And that’s kind of how I look at the hiring, is if you don’t have to be in that desperation hiring, you can be very picky. And so if you’re hiring year-round, and can be very picky, that means when that golden egg does come along, you can snatch them up. And the meh people can just go by the wayside.

Jerry I.: Yes. Sheryl let me ask you, you had heard Glenn before because you heard him on the coaching calls of the group that I was in.

But of the things that Glenn said the other night, in light of what we’re talking about here, of making your wheel round for success. Was there a quote that jumped out at you from the other night about how this would apply to your own life and your business?

The thing that got me the most is he listens to his whispers.

Sheryl: I am not real sure it was a quote. The thing that got me the most is he listens to his whispers. He listens to that interior self or whatever is out there that just gives you those little nudges that we tend not to take.

And they’re there for a reason, we’re all very intuitive. We are, we were born with intuition. The problem is most people don’t bother to see it.

They just let it pass them by, and that’s a lot of what I’m saying with whispers. It’s that thing that you inside you know you need to go do and it’s like well, maybe I won’t. And to me, that’s what drove me to like Brandi she was questioning herself.

What whispers or what inner action did I not take that could have driven me to a whole new level. And that’s why I like him, he’s business, but he takes it back into the personal part. You have to listen to yourself.

A lot of times, we’re always listening to everyone else. We’re a figment of the last conversation. The one person we do not listen to is ourselves.

Jerry I.: And going back to what Brandi said, and one of the things I have used. And as everybody knows, if you’ve ever heard me, I always use analogies. It’s like when the hiring, you’ll hear me talking about fishing, those kind of things there.

But as you listen to it, and you listen to what we’re talking about here, what you’re finding out, what you’re hearing us say is these are quotes, these are statements that can help you get to where you want to be in life.

And see that’s all about the dream, and the business that you have because your business exists for one reason, and that’s to bring you the things that you want to do, things that you want to have in this lifetime. And then you can make the decision about what you want to do with them.

But at the same time, you can let her have that dream as a child.

It is like Brandi, your daughter just returned from a trip to another country. Now that from a parent standpoint, that had to be kind of scary maybe, just going to there.

But at the same time, you’re able to let her have that dream as a child, and just think about what that’s going to mean to her later in life, it’s unreal when you go to that. But again, this was the quote that got me the other night, and it rolls down so much to the hiring role.

Whenever he talked about a statue of Michelangelo.

Whenever he talked about a statue of Michelangelo. And what he talked about was that as you view this statue of Michelangelo, you’re thinking look at the sculpture that someone built here. Now I want you to keep it in your mind this could be a future employee, because as you’re looking, Sheryl, Brandi you both hire people, but you really don’t know what you’re getting. You really don’t know until you start.

So what he described was when a sculptor is sculpting this statue of beauty, it’s not what they’re sculpting, but they are chipping away the bad things. They’re chipping away the part to reveal the beauty that’s underneath.

And Brandi, I know yourself, you’ve told the stories at times about the people that work for you, that maybe you really didn’t need a spot there right at that point. But you found that person and hired them, and they’ve done an immaculate job at this day.

In fact, I believe I would classify your operations manager that’s there today when he first came to work for you. It was like do I really need this guy? Do I really want him? But underneath all that, which while training him, yes you had to chip some pieces away.

You had a work of art in the person that you did.

But when you got done, you had a work of art in the person that you did. So it was those kind of things like that. And see this comes down to how to round out yourself, yourself as a manager. A lot of it comes down to the people that you listen to, the people that you are around.

I listen to is a gentleman by the name of Jeffrey Gitomer.

Earlier this morning, one of the people that I listen to is a gentleman by the name of Jeffrey Gitomer. Now Jeffrey’s got an attitude, he can turn people off. He’s at that stage of his life. He’s kind of like Larry Winget, Sheryl. If he offends you, sorry about that, he has his following.

And by doing that, but everybody has words of wisdom, I want you to understand this. And you need to listen to people whether you agree with them or not. In fact, I just had a conversation with a client, and it was about Glenn and the other night.

And when he said this, I kind of got turned off. And I’m thinking to myself yes, in fact, Brandi’s not a cat fan, and he talked about cats. And Brandi sent me a note said Hey, he is talking about cats now and you are not a cat person are you, Brandi?

Brandi: I am not a cat person whatsoever; I am highly allergic to them. And when he said he had eight, I just I was like oh.

Jerry I.: Yes. So the whole thing is but same time, Brandi kept listening to get that value, and the value kept coming out that night, out of him, of the different things that you could do there.

So Sheryl, let me ask you this, as we talk about carving this statue, chiseling away all the bad things. Is that what you have to do in business?

Got to analyze what’s good, bad, chip that bad stuff in order to make everything smooth? Because we want that wheel to roll smoothly and not go bump up like we are on a pothole-ridden roads?

One thing that I have learned at Ziglar, it is not always what is going on at the moment.

Sheryl: Yes. One thing that I’ve learned at Ziglar, it’s not always what’s going on at the moment. But if you want something bad enough, you need to be willing to give something up. Other words if you want to be thin, you need to give up so much food.

And the whole deal of that, you’re chipping away at the bad things, personally and in business. I mean get rid of, the more the bad stuff you get away, the more you can mold into the right materials.

And so we tend to search so much to get the new that we don’t get rid of the old. So being saying the chipping away. So that’s where businesses need to go, get rid of the bad.

Jerry I.: Right. So a lot of times what it takes is, and this is where so many people have a real problem, they don’t want to hear bad things.

They do not want to hear bad things about themselves, they do not want to hear bad things about their business, those are hard things to look at.

As a coach, that’s what I do, is I look at it and we talk about the good things, we talk about the bad things. Like Brandi, what are you and I doing next week for one client?

Brandi: We are doing a SWOT.

So, what a SWOT is, we are going to talk about their strengths.

Jerry I.: Right. So what a SWAT is, we’re going to talk about their strengths. Now, Brandi, this is a strong company, would you agree?

Brandi: Oh, absolutely.

Jerry I.: It is exceptionally good, exceptionally good numbers, exceptionally good training system. We’ve worked with them for quite a few years, Brandi and myself both work with them from different aspects. From the coaching side, I am dealing with operations, I am dealing with sales, I am dealing with other things, leadership.

What are we also going to be talking about is their weaknesses.

Brandi is working with the office staff; we are trying to make everything smooth. And at times, there’s a bumpy road. So we’re going to be talking next week about their strengths. What are we also going to be talking about is their weaknesses.

And one of the most important things that we’ve got to accomplish in this, is get everybody on the team bought into conquering the weaknesses. Now, this is a company that does a SWAT every year. This will be the first time that Brandi has participated face-to-face with this particular company in a SWAT.

You and I have two more to do in August I believe of coming in. But what we’ve got to do is get everyone built up, because what we have to do to have that round wheel, is we’ve got to discuss the weaknesses, and we got to come up with a strategy, with the process to make this wheel roll round.

Because the round wheel when it’s rolling is much less chaotic. It is kind of like, Sheryl when you had your kids, do you ever drive down a bumpy road and the kids are just around, this was back before car seats, Brandi, okay?

Jerry I.: Yes. Back when our kids were little, you didn’t trap them in with a bag of groceries, okay. It’s a different world out here today.

But running this Sheryl, is it kind of like when the kids were bouncing around in the back of the car, coming up on those dirt roads you used to live on down at five points or what?

I am talking about life is bumpy.

Sheryl: Yes, it is. And like roads are bumpy, and I’m not just talking about asphalt or dirt roads, I’m talking about life’s bumpy. And your business is bumpy, you have got to be able to withstand those bumps as you go by.

And that’s part of life. If the road was smooth, and it was always good, you wouldn’t know what was bad. Or you wouldn’t know the good was good if you didn’t have the bad to balance against. But yes, that’s just part of life. And the round whale, like Brandi said, you probably will never have a total round wheel.

Jerry I.: Right. One of the airlines that I fly on occasion, which is Brandi’s favorite airline, which is Southwest airlines.

Well, southwest airlines is renowned for being able for their flight attendants and their captains to speak not as companies speak all the time. They come out, you will see flight attendants, they do YouTube videos of all the interesting things.

I have been on a Southwest flight, and we are taking off.

I know I have been on a Southwest flight, and we are taking off, and suddenly here come the peanuts sliding down the aisle. They try to make it smooth, they try to make the flight smooth. So anyway, when you’re flying, one of the things that you often encounter is turbulence.

And I’m a person that hated this. And years ago I had a fear of flying, I mean it was profound. Whenever I got on a flight, I turned nervous. And when I got turbulence, it was nerve-racking. I actually went through coaching, because I would see the wings move and this kind of stuff, like oh my god, we’re going down. It’s like Elizabeth, this is the big one, okay.

We’re going down, I wish I’d told my wife I love her again before I leave because I want to make sure I’m gone whatever. But a very unique time, and this is kind of what you got to be in life. This pilot came over and he said attention all the passengers, I want to alert you, we have some turbulence ahead.

The turbulence you may encounter, we will make it through this without a problem.

But I want to reassure you, this plane is very well built. The turbulence you may encounter, we will make it through this without a problem. I want you to put in your mind the following, that you are riding down a bumpy road, that is full of potholes.

And what you’re going to encounter is some bumps, it’s going to be very similar to that. And this is from the air pressures, but I want to assure you, we will get to our destination you can bet on that, okay. So from that point to be honest with you from, him saying that I am now able to get onto a plane today because of that reassurance.

And when the turbulence happens, it is not a big deal. As long as my coffee is not jumping up in the air and that kind of stuff, I am okay. And I think this is where being able to network with other people, and share our fears, and share our resolutions.

Now Brandi, let me ask you a question, are you seeing that happening in our group coaching calls with our group coaching members?

Brandi: I think that to me is just one of the most exciting things about group coaching. I’ve been very fortunate in my life to have wonderful mentors, but it can be very uncomfortable to seek out a mentor.

And sometimes, especially if you’re new in the industry, it can be uncomfortable to reach out to another company and say hey, I’m dealing with this issue, how do you handle it? In group coaching, we come together, we always joke what happens in group coaching, stays in group coaching.

And so we’re able to be vulnerable with each other, and share what’s going on with our businesses, our employees. And share that and get ideas from the group of how they’ve handled those situations, and then contribute our own ideas as well.

Gosh, it is invaluable, I have said it before, but I really wish that something like that was available when we started in business.

Jerry I.: Right. And whenever we started this weekend, when we have a group coaching session, one of us is a different person that facilitates this group. We try to have all three of us on, but we also try to let, and Sheryl you facilitated the first meeting of this group.

Brandi, you facilitated the one that was the other day. But it was amazing as people came out, and some of the questions that were asked, how other people have answers of things that work.

Sheryl, did you notice that we had this month’s group of group coaching call yesterday morning, did you see where answers were being delivered out to people that have been tried and true, tried in the field. Did you see that?

Sheryl: Yes. And to me, that’s the thing that’s the most accommodating of this type of a thing, because the three of us have gone through a lot. We haven’t gone through everything. And we may not have gone through the exact trials that a person in the field’s gone through.

So you’re learning from your peers, and you’re learning from somebody that has been there, they’ve done it, they’ve worn that pair of shoes. And it just makes it more real.

And not only do you have us and maybe one more, we had discussions the other morning there were four and five people that had the problems, and they all had different methods of solutions. So what all of them worked for the company that asks the question? Probably not.

But out of everybody that had them, they drew a whole lot of information. And they’re going home and they’re implementing it. And so can we help them yes, but can these other people help them more? Yes.

Jerry I.: And that goes back to what Jeffrey Gitomer was talking about because right now, his mastermind group is meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana this week, they have been there for three days. And he talked about the way that they are sharing information.

Even putting an SOP out, they have worked hard on and sharing it with these other people.

And that is what I saw here, somebody ask a question, and someone else says hey, this is the process we use. Even putting an SOP out, they’ve worked hard on and sharing it with these other people.

So this is a big thing to me being able to be in a structured environment such as this, not just a freelance Facebook group that can go anywhere that anybody can make any comment on.

But rather, we have a facilitated group that works together. Now, Brandi, we are coming up right now on finalization of group coach, group number two. So would you give people, when are we going to call the membership to an end, and when can you not get in? And when have you got to make a move if you want to participate in group number two?

Brandi: Now capital NOW, so we are closing enrollment at midnight tonight, and we do have to be strict with that.

We have very few spots left, but we would certainly if you’re watching this and you’re thinking this is what I’ve been needing. We would love to have you in the group. You can send an email to any of us, we will get you an engagement letter out, and get to a part of the group.

Jerry I.: Yes. And this is something very big, and I want you to think back. Brandi, what’s it like to get something at Costco? And you see it, and you get home and you think you know I should have bought that outfit, I should have bought that. I saw this super thing, and the next time you go back it is no longer available. How does that feel?

Brandi: Very deflating, very defeating. And like why did not I do it, why did not I just buy it when it was there.

Jerry I.: Yes, that is it. And we got a question here, and you want to address this. We have one from Jessica, how much for the groups? Brand, do you want to tell her what that is?

Brandi: Yes, sure I will make sure I am telling the right price. It’s $172 a month, and if you pay for the 12 months in advance, you do get a bit of a discount. But I think the thing to keep in mind too is it’s not just the group coaching.

Like I can’t believe the $172 I feel like gosh, we should have probably charged more. Because it’s the group coaching, it’s the Wednesday night calls once a month. It’s calls with the three of us, if you’re having we call 911 calls.

Maybe something’s happening in your business right now, and it’s an emergency and you don’t know how to handle it, you can call us. It’s access to all the other companies in the group. You get their emails, their phone numbers, how they like to be reached.

So if you have a question, maybe somebody spoke to you in the group, and it was something that you thought hey, I need to follow up on that, or I want more information on that. You have their information, had one more thought on that, the 9-1-1 Facebook, that’s what it was.

You can tell I just need so much more coffee; it is Friday and I feel like it is Monday. We also have a private Facebook group where you can come and interact. Yesterday, in our group coaching, we asked very specific things that people would post in the Facebook group, which was from questions that came out of that group.

So just love to hear from you, if you have any interest at all you can even call my cell (913) 206-2182. I would be happy to talk to you, just to answer any further questions you guys have.

Jerry I.: That’s it.

Sheryl: And the yearly cost and it is $1797 covers the full year.

Jerry I.: Right, and we do ask for a one-year commitment, to be honest with you. And part of it is going to be accountability. We expect you to be on these calls, we do not want people that do not participate, we really would have you in there.

So Sheryl, let’s go a little bit. Brandi mentioned our monthly call, which is a group call that has our one-on-one clients, that has the members of both coaching groups are invited. And all the people that have joined the second group were actually invited to join in the other night, even though the group has not gotten going yet.

Tell people some of the presenters we have had in the last year, year and a half since we have started doing this that come to mind.

Well, we have had Larry Winget.

Sheryl: Well, we have had Larry Winget. We’ve had Tom Ziglar was with us one weekend. Randy Pennington has been there, Scott’s been there with us. A lot of authors. We have had people that were titled business, we have had.

Brandi: Tommy Mello.

Sheryl: Excuse me, yes. One to Brandi’s favorite, Tommy Mello was with us. We’re always trying to find people that can help the complete business. It’s not just that for one particular business.

So we’re always digging for other people, and when you throw that at me, Jerry, you sit here and you try to think, and they kind of wheel around.

But we have had some good calls like Tom Ziglar spoke mainly on the personal side of people. Just as they did last night, Tommy Mellow was all business. So you never know what’s going to be in these calls. We try for the best of the best.

Jerry I.: Yes. We started this last year when the COVID crisis first hit. Because if you remember back a year ago, remember what business was like then? We weren’t real sure where it was going.

So we actually had these calls every week last spring, and we were bringing in people, we brought financial experts in, we brought people that had experience in the PPP loans, we brought different subject matter experts.

But Brandi, don’t you feel like those calls during that period, did they help give you strength? Because let’s face it, it was an uncertain time for you and Jeremy in your personal businesses.

We all went through this, we didn’t know what was going on. Did it help you as a business owner to be able to mix in that group of people?

Brandi: Yes. It helped just to have the other business owners to be able to talk to and realize that hey, we’re not alone, and we’re not the only ones going through this. And sometimes, they had creative ideas that could help us out as well.

They always say it is lonely at the top.

They always say it is lonely at the top, and especially when you are a business owner and you are running a company, it can be very lonely. So, when you can network and you can have people a cohort of people that you can rely on, its life changing.

Jerry I.: Yes. So Brandi let me ask you this, usually, when we prepare for a broadcast, you prepare, okay? I know that somewhere on that desk in front of you, pile is nuts, okay.

Brandi: I have not even gotten to go over half of them.

Jerry I.: I know. And that is what I am going to do, because you now have the floor, and I want you to cover everything that you have so diligently prepared for today’s broadcast, okay.

Brandi: All right. What I did is I went through the spokes, I went through your little spokes on the wheel. And so, I started with leadership, and one of the things that I always ask anytime I am teaching or maybe working with a new client, is I say who are the leaders here at this company?

And everybody starts naming off whoever owns the company, maybe who’s the general manager and that’s wrong. I need to get my no button for these calls, I have a funny no button. It’s everyone, we’re all leaders in the company.

And so it’s our responsibility to keep up our education and to display leadership every day. Next, I went on to sales and marketing, and one of the things I wrote down for this is if this is not your strong suit, and this also goes with administration and HR.

If this is not your strong suit, then outsource it.

If this is not your strong suit, then outsource it. We can’t all be great at everything, that’s why in CVC we have subject matter experts, because I can’t do what Donovan does, and I can’t do what you do Jerry. But at the same time, you guys probably can’t do what I do.

So outsource anything you can, and this actually goes for your home life and your work life. You and Sheryl have, I’ve never been to your house, but Jeremy has, and I hear it’s just gorgeous, and they see pictures. And I asked Jeremy one time like how on earth do they do that?

How do they keep up with all that, with all the time they’re working? But you guys outsource so much of it, and I think that’s just fantastic and genius. So if there’s something that you’re not good at, outsource it. Or rely on your group. If at sales and marketing, maybe you’re trying to figure out how to get more reviews, or you’re trying to figure out how to get higher up in the rankings.

That’s where you can rely on that group coaching that cohort of people that you have, that they’ve already been there and done that. And then the next was operations, and so this is just like the day-to-day operations.

And again, this is where I go back to boundaries. When you’re in the day-to-day thick of it, it’s easy to do a lot of firefighting. And then you really actually at the end of the day, when you look at your list, you didn’t get anything accomplished.

And so this is where it’s really important in those day-to-day operations to have your boundaries, to really set aside a schedule, to not check your email all day, but only a couple of times a day. And then shut that door when you’re doing something important, so that everybody knows that that is your time and you are off-limits.

And then let’s see, we did administration, HR, personal. I just put make time; you know there is that saying about how you never see like a Uhaul following a hearse after somebody dies. They are not taking everything with them.

I never heard anybody at the end of their life say I wish I would have worked more.

And I used to tell my patients when I was doing nursing in the hospital, I never heard anybody at the end of their life say I wish I would have worked more. So this is where it’s really important to make that personal time.

Certainly, when you’re brand new in business, those first couple of years, you have to work the hundred-hour workweeks, there’s just no way around it. But as you grow and as you get more efficient, and as you learn from your group coaching, this is where you can start to have more of that personal time.

Make time, make a vacation, like especially this year after COVID and everybody is just exhausted and ready to get out and travel. Research has shown it’s not actually the vacation that’s so helpful, it’s actually just looking forward to the vacation.

I know my family’s going to San Diego at the end of July, and it’s all I can think about, I just want to be on the beach right now. So make time for that personal, because you’re never ever going to regret that. We have a lot of business owners, me included, who will work from home for a couple of days.

So that way we’re still working, we’re still getting the same work done, that we would at the office. But we’re also present if our kids need us for example. Or we can change the laundry in between working. It’s just really finding that balance that works for you.

And then I’ll just, I still have more, but I’ll wrap up with take inventory. And so, what I mean by that is Jerry you send out a survey to our clients at the end of every year, just asking them to really take an inventory of their business throughout the year.

I would recommend is people take this wheel and take an inventory.

And what I would recommend is people take this wheel and take an inventory and write down how they think they are doing in each category. And then maybe if your personal, you think you are doing 10% well, but in your sales and marketing, you are doing 80%, well we need to look at that and balance that out a little more.

Jerry I.: Yes. So folks you just saw self-preservation, because that young lady prepares for these broadcasts, and I am not about to do another broadcast until she gets everything, because she prepares so meticulously, but that is Brandi Biswell.

So Sheryl what about you? What do you have there in your notes, in your mind that you want to share with the people that have given us the privilege to speak with them today?

Sheryl: What I would like to share is to take time like Brandi said, take the wheel, printed off, make it personal, make it yours. And if you have another spoke that you think that needs to fit, stick it in. Your life is different from everyone else’s life.

And it’s what you make it, what you make your life, you can make your business. So take the time to do this. If anybody’s interested, I’ll be more than glad to send them the Ziglar wheel also.

So they can work on their personal life. My email is showing on the screen, and I am sure they would love for me to send it to you, because it really rounds it out, it is business and impersonal. But take each of them, use it, use it to your best ability.

Don’t do it because we asked you to, do it because you need to. I mean I try to work on mine every time I turn around, and it’s mine round? No. Jerry keeps flattening it on one side by adding more work. But it’s getting rounder.

And so that is what I wish for everybody that is listening here, round your wheel out, personal and business.

Jerry I.: Right. So what we’d like to do as you listen, Sheryl just gave you the gift. That all you got to do is send her an email, her email addresses right there on the screen. Sheryl with an S, Sheryl@CVCsuccessgroup com.

Now Brandi brought up something that I would like to provide you also if you’d be interested, you’ve got my email address on the screen. So each and every year, what I do is I put together a worksheet for clients to use in order to gauge their business like Brandi just said.

And we spend a lot of time, and we add to this every year. And it has the questions, and then it’s all about balancing out the wheel of your business.

And if you would like to have this worksheet that comes to you in a word document, all you got to do is email me and say send me that worksheet about that wheel, and I’ll be glad to send it out to you for the one we do this year.

And what’s really interesting Brandi is, the people that do this year in year after year after year, you’re able to track and measure the progress that you’ve went through and where you’re sitting at today. Because each and every year, new challenges come up, so we’ll always send that.

So I’ll probably spend a couple of weeks every year in December, putting together this questionnaire for people to use. And also I want to touch on something that Brandi talked about, and Brandi, you talked about herring expertise to do the things probably that you’re not that good at.

Or the other is, that you just don’t want to do. Brandi, is there anything at blues brothers that you just do not want to do?

Well years ago, you talked about the suck bucket.

Brandi: Well years ago, you talked about the suck bucket, and that has stuck with me all these years. Yes, that’s so funny, that it stuck with me. Because yes, I hate to scan. I don’t know what it is about that scanner and paper, but I hate to scan and file.

To me, it is like putting away the laundry, and so scanning is what I put in my suck bucket, and so I delegate that out.

Jerry I.: Yes. Actually, when you were talking while ago, I actually went back there and got one of my suck buckets. I had the dream room, brought it in here was like [Inaudible 00:47:13.10]. But it’s all about, so the suck bucket to give you some background on this a couple of years ago, and Jeremy was with us on this trip. We went down to South Florida, and we went to what was called Lindemann University.

It was down in West Palm Beach I believe, so we went down there. And they had a speaker there, and he was what they call an EOS coach, which is the entrepreneurial operating system. So today, I’m going to give you if you having a problem in rounding out your wheel. I am going to give you a suggested, the book to read and consult.

Traction is what that seminar was based on.

One of them is the book called Traction, and Traction is what that seminar was based on. And it was all about taking the things that are in your suck bucket and putting them there. The things that either you’re not good at or you don’t want to do. You see that’s what you got to do, there are so many things in business.

Some people are really into numbers, I mean for them numbers are everything. But some people, they don’t want to deal with those numbers. Some people are in the writing SOP’s. Other people, you could not get them a ride an SOP if you had a bullwhip right at them, you’re not going to get it.

So, from there, another book and Brandi you met the author of this book, his name is Mac Story. And he has a book here called blue-collar leadership. And between Mike and Rhea, I think they’ve written like 23 books at this point. But in the business, you are in, does Mike and Rhea share wisdom Brandi that people could use to ramp out that wheel?

Brandi: Oh absolutely, and they write it in such a simple way is what I really like. It’s not like real complicated to read.

You don’t have to look up words or try to figure out what they’re saying, it’s extremely simple to read and quick to read. Like that right there that you are showing, I mean you can read that in a couple of hours.

Jerry I.: Yes. This book is 114 pages. So, if you would take, I mean between when you get on that plane in Kansas City, by the time you get to San Diego, you could have read two or three books that size, digest them, and put them together.

And it is called the CVC Success Journal.

Now we have got a new book coming out that we are all participating in, and when we rolled this out, we are going to be giving this book away just for shipping and handling calls. And it is called the CVC Success Journal.

And Brandi, this will be your first time at being a published author, and we have about 18 authors right now. In fact, Brandi doesn’t know everybody that’s going to be in here. We’ve been putting this together. We have got an editor, Sarah Shippee, that is going through, this has done a lot of editing for me, and we are putting this all together.

And what it is, it’s a collection of what I consider subject matter experts such as Tommy Mellow, he put a thing in there. He’s got an article coming in, and he shared wisdom. And Scott McCain, Randy Pennington, a lot of people do not know these people Sheryl, but how much value is this book going to give them which will be in a workbook format?

Sheryl: I would love to get all these people into one room for about a month, and just pick their brains.

Jerry I.: Right. So again, today is all about how to make your business roll smoothly. And the next book I’m going to share with you if you have never read this book, do it. I am just going to tell you, and this is a book that I have seen changed so many lives it is unreal of business owners.

This is the E-Myth revisited.

And that is a book by a gentleman by the name of Michael Gerber. And this is the E-Myth revisited. And what it talks about is how to systematize your business, how to make your business a success. How does it operate without you? How do you replicate that business?

How do you make it deliver? You see, that’s one of the things you’ve got to look at, because as you age when you look at it, to be honest with you, CVC, the company that I own, is a non-sellable company. I am this company, and if something happened to me, basically who wants to be Jerry, could you sell Jerry Isenhour to someone else?

I am not Zig Ziglar, I am not Tony Robbins.

I am not Zig Ziglar, I am not Tony Robbins, I know that. But your business [Inaudible 00:51:36.25] for you, your business can be one that can continue to support you in retirement as long as you put the systems together, and you replace yourself and the business.

And what you want to strive for, a business that can service as an investment to you, can support you and create the legacy for your kids, for your grandkids, for whatever goes on. And this is the best exit plan. A lot of people think that what I want to do is build this business and sell it one day.

But the problem you have got is, having a sellable entity and then get the return, the income to support you as you want to. So some of the purposes and mission that we work with here at CVC is to get people to build their businesses to where they can exit out of it.

And see, that’s part of the problem here. I want you to think for a minute if you are listening to me. May I ask you a questions, Brandi? How much information do you think is in your husband’s head about the work that you do?

Brandi: Oh my gosh, like so much. Like if his head was the moon, it is a full moon.

Jerry I.: Correct. So, one of the things and one of the authors in this is a client of ours by the name of Josh Kelly.

Josh Kelly has devised a system.

And Josh Kelly has devised a system, and it is a website called what would Josh do? Brandi, how much information is in Joshua’s website, what would Josh do?

Brandi: I mean pretty much everything you could ever dream of. To have a systematized business is in there. From employee handbooks to SLPs, to stone scripts, to warranty, to how to pull a permit, I mean I could go on and on and on, everything was there.

Jerry I.: Right. And what this enables is not to be handcuffed. If you’re a business owner, and you’ve become a crutch to your office. You become a crutch to your business, it’s just chaos.

If every time your phone’s ringing, so what you have got to do to systematize your business, you got to get what is in your head, and you got to get it down in a replicable manner. This was my desire, when I started our virtual academy some years ago, Brandi, I don’t know if I’ve ever shared this with you, but I’m going to share it in public.

I did it for a selfish reason. The selfish reason was I knew one day I won’t be here, that’s the way it is. Maybe as you hear that maybe you’re crying, and maybe you’re clapping, whatever. That is immaterial at this point, and I am seeing my wife smile right now, okay.

I wanted to get it down where it would survive beyond me.

But the whole thing is I have so much in my head, I wanted to get it down where it would survive beyond me, okay. So that is what I want you to think about as you are thinking about the systems in your business and the systems of where you are going through.

It is called Standardizing Standard Operating Procedures.

And with that, I am going to give you another free gift just for listing in us today. I also offer the book a couple of years ago, and it is called Standardizing Standard Operating Procedures. And I’m not wanting to sell you a book, I want to give this to you.

All you got to do is email me, and I’m going to send you an eBook of this, which will be an electronic downloadable format that I’m lucky enough that my wife can do that EBook. Because if it had been up to me, there will be no eBook available.

But she knows how to do those kinds of things. So again, that’s something that went in my suck bucket, okay. It is just like, let us be honest, Brandi, do you make a lot of grammatical errors?

Brandi: Oh my gosh. English is not my forte.

Jerry I.: That’s it. So what do we do? When the chapters come in, they go straight to Sarah. Sarah does a phenomenal job, she gets everything right. She sends you a copy back and said okay, these are the changes.

Are you cool with this? Making sure it didn’t lose none of your intent. So we want to watch you for this coming back, coming out soon. Ronald Clark my friend, thank you for joining us, sir. It’s always good to see you now, and I hope things are going great for you up there in Burlington, Vermont if I’m correct where your hometown is, okay.

So Donovan has added, he’s one of our team members, great book. It is the SOP for SOPs. Thank you brother, I appreciate that high compliment, it means a lot to me. So, the whole thing is as we end this, and Brandi, give me a thumbs up Have you got all your thoughts out today.

Brandi: I did have another one.

Jerry I.: What is it?

Brandi: It goes back to the wheel really quick. So, I was also going to suggest not only should you do the wheel but give it to your significant other or maybe somebody in your business that you trust and have them do the wheel as well for you, and then compare and see how the two compare.

Sign up for the group coaching.

And then my last thought is just really sign up for the group coaching, you are going to get something out of every single lesson that we do. Every single meeting, you will not regret it.

Jerry I.: Right. And here’s the whole thing, we’re not going to be like Jerry was where Brandi had something else. Here are the rules, when we get 20 companies, it’s closed. Now our company so you know can be you and your spouse, you and your partner, you and your general managers.

In fact, we have a couple of general managers in there. So if we get 20 companies today, and there are very few seats left. When we hit the 20, we’re done. If midnight tonight, no matter where we’re at, we’re done. At midnight, we are going to close the membership completely.

So I want you to think it’s just like Costco, and you go back, and there’s a lousy, you really want it and you can’t get it now Brandi. Don’t be like Brandi tomorrow morning and say I should have got into it, it does close tonight. So, Sheryl, anything else you want to add into today’s broadcast?

Sheryl: Just ditto on the thing for tonight, for our coaching. But I also want to invite everybody, we’re going to be doing the 12:15 lunch with us weekly.

And we want to invite all of you to keep up. You never know what we’re going to talk about, and some days I’m not sure myself. We just freewill and go, Brandi plans a lot our freewill.

Well, Jerry kind of sort of knows what he wants. So, if you have something that you want us to maybe touch on, let us know, we are wide open.

Jerry I.: Okay Brandi, your last chance. Anything else to slide in here?

Just to take advantage of the free resources that have been offered here today.

Brandi: Just to take advantage of the free resources that have been offered here today. I love free anything, and I just love education and tools. So definitely, take Jerry and Sheryl up on their offers. Send them an email and get those free resources.

Jerry I.: Yes. So with that, hey, we want to thank you for joining us today. It is truly an honor, it’s a pleasure and it’s a privilege to be able to speak to people.

Because like I said, yes we talked about joining our group coaching, and we sincerely hope that you will. We’d love to help you in any way it is. But the reason we do this broadcast every week is we feel like we have some things of value, and we want to give them.

We want to provide that help to you. So you see all of our email addresses up on the screen right now. And there’s a warm people on our team. We have got Donovan our sales trainer, we got Bob Wise, we got Victor M. Garden who does our beginning sweep training, we got all kinds of things for you.

And what we’re trying to provide you is an avenue, a path, a road to get to your dreams. And remember this, it’s not what we dream for you, it’s what you dream your business to be. We’re not going to convince you to scale your business, we’re going to convince you of the path to take you to the business that you dreamed of.

What you dreamed the day you started, and that we want to help you become your reality. So appreciate you joining us, and we’ll see you next time on a future broadcast of the chimney and fireplace success network.