How to Flourish in Your Business with Kenneth Vogt

0:28Who's ready to rock today Fire Nation? if your business has outpaced you in what to do. We'll talk about humility, executive coaching, how to measure the success of your business, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Kenneth and our sponsors. Marketing Made Simple, hosted by my friend, Dr. JJ Peterson, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Marketing Made Simple brings you practical tips to make your marketing easy, and more importantly, make it work. A recent episode all about how Liquid IV is using marketing to shake up the beverage world, dives deep into the strategies that have propelled Liquid IV to remarkable success, a must listen.

1:05Listen to Marketing Makes Simple wherever you get your podcasts. Want to meet me, JLD, in person? Attend Clay Clark's two-day interactive business workshop and meet me, Tim Tebow, and Clay Clark this June. Experience the highest rated business workshop in America and hang out with me in person at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire. Again, that's thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire. Learn more and request your tickets at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Canada, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. I will say what's up to everybody out there.

1:43And I can't believe John contacted me again after all these years. We talked back in the day and here we are again. It was 2012, brother, 2012. Time flies when you're having fun. Well, in answer to your question, I would say something that maybe it's not that everybody doesn't believe, but it is something that's overlooked a lot, is that humility is a cornerstone of success. And sometimes we think you've got to be on fire. You've got to be arrogant. You've got to be bold. And all that's true. But if you're not humble, you will miss things. that wrote B things you never have a chance to learn because you don't even know to ask.

2:28Be humble out there, folks. Be humble, be happy, Fire Nation. It's actually one thing that my uncle told me when I was growing up. And I was starting to think, all right, I got this figured out. I'm starting on the basketball team. I'm dating the head cheerleader. Life is pretty good. He kind of saw my swagger. He was like, John, be humble, be happy. And I've always equated those two words since then because I was like, you know what? This guy's a wise man. I'm going to listen to them, and I could not agree more. We're actually going to be talking about this later, Fire Nation, as we talk about how to flourish in your business.

3:02And Kenneth, in a day where most people spend all of their free time just trying to keep their business above water, you structured your business to flourish. Tell us more. The idea there is if you set the bar at survival, then you absolutely have to make the bar every single time, every single day. If you miss one time, it's over. So you got to set the bar higher. You got to set the bar at a place that if you don't quite make it there, you're still going to be around the next day to fight again. So that's always the issue. So if you have enough business right now, don't stop looking for more business.

3:46If you're getting a large enough chunk of money from a particular client, don't stop asking if there's more you could do for them. If you're in a market, could you be in another market? You've got to keep looking for a way to expand, to be bolder about it. Because there's going to be contractions. There's going to be contractions that are your own fault. There are going to be contractions that you can't control. The markets change, times change, some things play out and they're done. And you got to be ready with the next thing when that happens. Because if you invent the next great waffle, at some point, somebody is going to decide to switch to pancakes and now what?

4:33You're out. You don't ever want to put yourself in a position where your business has no future. One of the phrases that I love is the only constant in life is change because it's so true, Fire Nation. We evolve. We're always evolving. And guess what? That's a good thing. You better be evolving. You better be progressing as a human with your relationships, with your financials, with your health, with your wellness. Evolution, evolve, learn, improve, make a mistake, take a step back, but then take two steps forward the next week because you're just evolving. you're progressing. That is the beauty of life where fortune does favor the bold.

5:15Now, a lot of people have this nagging fear, Kenneth, that their business has just outpaced them. Do you have this fear? I do not at present, but I've had that fear in the past and I had to face it. I had to look at, well, what am I going to do? Just real quick, what was that business and were you right? Did it Alpicio. That particular business was a retailing business. I was selling a product to a certain market and at a certain point I realized I don't even understand my competition. I don't know what it is they're doing that's different than me. Why would they what they do works and whether or not what I did was going to be able to compete with that.

6:01I just didn't know. Competition was, it scared me. It was like, these people want to put me out of business and I don't know why. What do they got against me? So there were some things there I clearly just didn't understand. And it'll be different things for different people. But what happens is you start off doing what you do because presumably because you're good at it but the doing of it is just part of it then there's the running of the business you know if you're a good carpenter it doesn't mean you're automatically going to be a good general contractor you know if you're good in r &d doesn't mean you'll be good in manufacturing that they're different they're different areas and they have different skill sets and sometimes you just got to look at yourself and go okay I am not qualified to run this thing that I've started.

6:53So your choice at that point is either get up to speed or find people to help you or occasionally hire your own boss. Fire Nation, there just is continuing to be this theme of evolution. Are you evolving? Are you progressing? Are you keeping your finger on the pulse? Do you want your finger on that pulse? There are certain things that just run its course. And that's okay too, because there's endless opportunities out there. you don't need to keep beating this dead horse if that horse is just not going to get up. So a lot of entrepreneurs, Kenneth, especially today in this crazy, weird, fake social media world that so many people live in, they believe that false bravado, they believe that faking it till you make it is the only path.

7:38You believe in humility. So tell us, is humility a weakness? First off, I will admit for some people, yes, it is, because they're not actually humble. What they are is they have low self-esteem. It's not the same thing. And that's where you realize that true humility is not a weakness, because you maintain your self-esteem while being humble. You support it. You stand ready to fortify it. So it's very different than, oh, I'm a moron. I'm no good at this. I'll never make it in this trade or this business. No, that's not how this goes. People can learn to do stuff. Think about it. When you were first born, you didn't know how to do anything.

8:27But now you know how to do lots of things. What happened? You learned. And so the next thing to learn, whatever it may be, you can do that. You need to learn how to read a financial statement, acquire a skill. You need to use some kind of new software. You got to stop telling yourself, I'm not good at X. I'm not good at math, man. That's my favorite. Math isn't that hard, folks. And I know you're bristling at that, but it's just not. You can do it. Or think, I'm not good at technology. Or, you know, I was fine 10 years ago, 20 years ago, but things have changed so much and moved so fast, can't keep up.

9:08the problem is you don't have to keep up with everything that's happening you just you just got to keep up with everybody else that is you got to run as fast as the guy running next to you you're competing against humans not super humans and i know people are worried about ai these days but i want to say don't worry ai is a tool and and you're smarter than ai and that might be hard to accept. Yeah, it thinks faster, but it doesn't think as creatively. And if you've gotten anywhere in any kind of entrepreneurial effort, you're clearly a creative person. You can handle it. Fire Nation, there's so much wisdom here.

9:51There's so many value bombs that we've talked about when it comes to humility, when it comes to just being bold, because fortune will favor the bold, and it's time to flourish. We're going to be talking about some really interesting topics around this theme when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Things change fast in the online business space, and when you have a team to manage and a business to run, it can be tough to keep up with all the latest and greatest marketing trends. That's why HubSpot created the 2024 State of Marketing Report to pull together the top marketing trends that you need to perfect your marketing strategy.

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11:05Want to meet me, JLD, in person and grow your business this year? This is your chance to meet Tim Tebow, myself, and Clay Clark while learning the proven success systems that have been used to create thousands of millionaire success stories. Go to thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire to see thousands of Clay Clark's real clients who he has really helped to grow their real businesses. Clay's proven business coaching program is month-to-month and less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Visit thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire to request your tickets to attend the highest rated business growth conference on earth because Clay only takes on 160 clients and allows only 300 attendees to each business conference.

11:43You will interact directly with Clay Clark to implement a proven plan, see thousands of real success stories, and get your tickets to meet me, JLD, Tim Tebow, and Clay Clark at the June Business Growth Conference today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire. Remember, knowledge will only attract money when it is organized and directed through implementing practical plans of action. Become the next success story and request tickets to join Tim Tebow, myself, and Clay Clark at the June Business Conference today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire. Kenneth, we're back, and many of my listeners, Fire Nation, they've heard of the term executive coaching before, and it sounds like a kind of fancy form of coaching, I guess, but they're not quite sure what it actually means.

12:29Can you fill us in on this? First, let's address what coaching itself is. And if you've ever played in any kind of sport, you've had a coach. And if you look at people that are really, really, really good at a particular sport, they don't forego a coach. They don't get, well, I'm so good at this, I don't need that anymore. That's for these losers that hardly know how to play the game. Exactly the opposite is true. You look at professional sports, everybody has a coach. And it's not just teams either. Individuals like tennis stars. Every single one of them has a coach. Sometimes they're the exclusive client to that coach.

13:10Well, often. And why? Why would they need that? Why would Serena Williams need anybody to teach her a single thing about tennis? Well, it isn't so much about teaching. It is about having a second view, somebody who can dispassionately be at the sideline and notice what's going on. Notice what things are going right. Notice what things are going wrong. And knows enough about the game to be able to anticipate if this keeps going wrong, things are going to go really wrong. and for somebody who's being coached if they can have the humility to listen it's like all right I don't know that I necessarily agree with this person but they've been there done that and they care about what I care about they've bothered to find out what matters to me what's what's important to have happen what part of the business really needs attention and they're feeding that back to me.

14:12And sometimes, you know, you don't want to hear it, right? You're being told, well, you're doing something wrong. You're failing to do something. You're not doing something as well as you're capable of. Oh, ow, sting, that hurts a little bit. But if it's true, if it's true, don't you want to know what's true? More than anything, do you want a bunch of yes men around you just singing your praises all the time, telling you how wonderful you are? Well, I mean, maybe you do want that. If you do, good luck in your business. At some point, reality is going to smack you upside the head. And it's so much easier if you have a coach that will tap you upside the head first, say, hey, watch out, the blow is coming.

14:56And it can help reset you. Sometimes we get so deep into things, we can't see the forest for the trees. And that's natural. It's human. it is very difficult to take a 10-foot view and take a 10 ,000-foot view at the same time. And maybe you can do that occasionally or for a minute or for spans of time, but you can't do it constantly. But your coach can be looking from a different vantage point 100 % of the time. And it is extremely valuable. And it doesn't have to take a lot of your time, because I think sometimes people are worried that I'm busy enough. The last thing I need is to have to spend hours in meetings every week with somebody.

15:39That's not how coaching works. Coaching is meant to be refined. It just goes straight to the core. You don't mess around with, okay, I've got to massage your ego for a little while, and I've got to tenderly approach this topic for you. No, they just go straight to it. But when you have the right coach, and you trust them, and they're trustworthy, and you realize they're not saying anything to hurt my feelings. They're not saying anything to tell me I'm bad or I'm stupid or I'm failing. They're just trying to help me move to the next step that I want to get to. And you define that. I mean, their coach will help you define that.

16:17But it's up to you what you want to do with your business. Maybe you want to have a single premier location. Maybe you want to expand a chain. Maybe you want to franchise. Those are different approaches, and you will do different things to get there. And once you make it clear to a coach what it is you're trying to get to, and as they draw it out of you, well, then they'll help you get there. Fire Nation, there's so much truth in this. And in fact, it kind of brings me to Netflix a little bit, actually, because you did bring up tennis. And there's so many great sports documentaries now that are just tracking individual athletes and just the sport in general.

16:57I mean, there's some on Formula One, golf, and there's one on tennis. I believe it's called Breakpoint. It's fantastic. And I'm not even a lover of tennis. I really like pickleball, but I've never really fallen in love with tennis yet. But I kind of enjoy and appreciate it, so I did enjoy the documentary. But to your point, Kenneth, it was crazy. These professional athletes who are the best of the best, guess what? They don't say I'm the best of the best, so I don't need anything. No, they need it more than your average person. They have a coach on hitting, a coach on serving. They have a nutrition coach.

17:31they have a sleep coach, they have a physical therapy. I mean, it's crazy, the bevy, the team, literally the entourage that these professional athletes have. And Fire Nation, you need to take from that and say, man, people at the top of their game have more coaching, not less coaching. And that is where I want to move into next, actually, because there's a great quote by Peter Drucker that says, what gets measured gets improved. So how can we measure the success of our business? A lot like these athletes that we're talking about are measuring the success of themselves professionally. The beauty of this is you can measure the success of your business by your own standards.

18:17You can decide what a success is going to mean for you. Maybe for you, it means having a job that you work at 10 hours a week, and you've built a team that is handling things and you just don't have to be there that much. Maybe you have the kind of job that, you know, it's like the four-hour work week talks about where you could vanish for a couple of months to Bora Bora and the business will be just fine. Now, that's not for everybody. Some people are like, no, I want a job that I love going to work every day and I work there 10 or 12 hours and I'm just digging this completely. or perhaps it's a matter of I want to see a certain amount of growth in revenue or I want to see a certain amount of growth in profit or I want to see a certain amount of growth in headcount.

19:07You get to decide what is it that you can measure that is worthy of measure for your business. You don't have to do what anybody else says you have to do. You don't have to do what your competitors do. You don't have to do what other industries do. You can do what works for you. In Fire Nation, I feel like this is the key. This is a choose-your-own-adventure. But those people that are choosing fortune favoring the bold, those people that are choosing to learn from others, those people that realize the fact that we're all standing up on the shoulders of giants, all of us who have come before us, have benefited and learned from those who have been there, done that.

19:47Now, you have the right team for your company's success, Kenneth. How did you build this team? We can go back to the humility question of recognizing where am I weak? Where would I call for support? If I had to have one more person, what would they do? It's easy enough to figure out certain things. And sometimes it's a, you know, a team is comprised of employees plus contractors plus maybe services that you hire on. You know, it's not merely just the people that are on the payroll, right? It's whatever you need because you probably, unless you're a large business, they're not going to hire a CPA, you know, as an employee to work for you full time.

20:32you need somebody that'll work for you part-time but work for you well and get the job done same thing may happen with the attorneys for instance maybe your business may not need an attorney on staff but you still may need an attorney and of course there are different kinds of attorneys that do different things so it's it matters and you can't just have that that one person well they're very good at litigation like well we never do litigation who cares you know um and then and And then there are things that it helps you better if they already have an established system. So sometimes you use a company that's already doing something kind of as a package.

21:15And so you're hiring the company rather than a person. But then there are other settings where you're hiring individual contractors or individual employees. And you're making those decisions based on which is more economically advantageous. I have to provide employees with benefits and payroll taxes and all that. Contractor could be a little simpler, but you have a little less control. So you weigh these things and you figure out where are the holes they need to fill. And I will go back and say that's one of the things that I am frequently working with people on as a coach. is helping them figure out where are the holes and then how do we want to fill them.

22:00Sometimes it's, you know, software is a solution. I don't actually need a person. I need a thing. So that's the approach you take. But we're living in a world that is just rich with possibilities these days. It's amazing. The change in the software world in my lifetime has been ridiculous. I started off, you know, I got my computer science degree, literally working with punch cards on a mainframe. I haven't seen a mainframe since university. And now everything's in the cloud. There's all these services out there. I remember when Amazon Web Services started and it was it was a service. Now there's like 200 of them.

22:47And every time I see a new one come out, I'm like, that makes sense. I can see why they would do that. And sometimes you look at it and go, well, that's cool, but I don't need it. Other times you look at it and go, wow, that would really solve a problem for me. And other times it's like I need the right person. There are people who are experts on very esoteric things, and it keeps you from having to be an expert on that. You mentioned social media earlier. I mean, that's just a world that is deep and keeps changing. Search engine optimization is another one. I used to be an expert on that. I wouldn't claim that you hardly have knowledge of it these days, but I don't need to because I know people that do it and they stay up to date and they do it well.

23:30So why should I learn it again? Kenneth, you dropped countless value bombs in today's episode when it comes to building a team, how to measure success in your business, humility. What is the one takeaway you want to make sure Fire Nation gets from our conversation today? Well, this might sound a little self-serving, but I think there is a shortage of coaching going on out there, especially in the entrepreneurial world, and especially of those that have gotten past the startup stage. They've gotten to a point where they have success by some measure, but they've poured themselves out. They're at the end of their own road, and yet they know it's not the end.

24:09So get help. And on that note, Kenneth, give Fire Nation a direct call to action about where they can connect with you, et cetera, and then we'll say goodbye. All right. Well, please come visit our website. It's veraclaritas.com. V-E-R-A-C-L-A-R-I-T-A-S. Veraclaritas, it means true clarity in Latin. Take a look at the homepage. It's a two-minute read. And if that speaks to you, you'll see right there a way to reach out to me. I would love to help some Fire Nation alumnus, alumni, and see what we can do. There's so many exciting things going on in the world, and it's just great to connect with other people that are there with their finger on the pulse.

24:56Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with KV and JLD today, so keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, just go to eofire.com and type Kenneth in the search bar. The show notes page will pop up as well as the episode that we did, what was it now, 12 years ago, Fire Nation, about 11 plus years ago. So if you want to hear a couple different young chaps chatting away on EO Fire back in 2012, 2013, just go ahead and check that out as well. And Kenneth, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation.

25:34For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Kenneth for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation's successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals, huge goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. And we're talking step by step. Visit thefreedomjournal.com. I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. marketing made simple hosted by my friend dr jj peterson is brought to you by the hubspot podcast network the audio destination for business professionals marketing made simple brings you practical tips to make your marketing easy and more importantly make it work a recent episode all about how liquid iv is using marketing to shake up the beverage world dives deep into the strategies that propelled liquid iv to remarkable success a must listen listen to marketing made simple wherever you get your podcasts.

26:26Want to meet me, JLD, in person? Attend Clay Clark's two-day interactive business workshop and meet me, Tim Tebow, and Clay Clark this June. Experience the highest rated business workshop in America and hang out with me in person at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Again, that's thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Learn more and request your tickets at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire.