The 3 Time Leaks Killing Your Business Right Now with Brent Wm. Bauer

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down the three time leaks killing your business right now. And to drop these value bombs, I brought Brent Wm. Bauer and EO Fire Studios. Brent equips entrepreneurs to reclaim lost time and focus by identifying hidden inefficiencies and making small intentional shifts that drive clarity, momentum, and measurable business results. And today we'll talk about how it's not a time problem, the reaction trap, clarity driving execution, the founder bottleneck, and oh, so much more.

0:38John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Brent and our sponsors. Do you have a great business idea, but feel like you don't have the right tools to get started? Shopify makes it easy by giving you everything you need to start selling from day one. Start your free trial today at shopify.com slash on fire. Start your free trial at shopify.com slash on fire. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more.

1:17John Lee Dumas:Visit highlevelfire.com. highlevelfire.com. Brent, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Well, first of all, it's great to be here today, Fire Nation. Very excited just to spend time with you today. So what's something I believe, I would say that I think that we overvalue education and we undervalue decision making because success hasn't come from knowing more. I believe it comes from choosing better. And most entrepreneurs haven't been taught how to think or to think through decisions in a structured way. So they default to reaction, urgency, habit, and that's where time starts slipping away.

2:13Not in big, obvious ways, but in small, repeated choices that never get evaluated. And that's why I say most people don't have a time problem. They have a decision problem.

2:23John Lee Dumas:Well, Fire Nation, you are in for a treat today. We're talking about the three time leaks killing your business right now. And man, this is going to be a doozy. And I want to start by talking about how it's not just a time problem, Brent. As you mentioned, a perfect segue into this part of the conversation? Because you say that most entrepreneurs don't actually have a time problem. They have a decision problem. Now is the time. Let's expound, break that down for us. Yeah. So I think it really dives in. We'll dive in deeper as we get into the time leaks. But as we start looking at those small little unmeasured details and their cumulative impact on us, where we get off track is just not having made some clear decisions about where our time is going to go, where it's going to be spent.

3:12And as we take a look at each of these time leaks, I think that is really going to kind of open up some really good thinking for your audience.

3:20John Lee Dumas:I want to talk about the reaction trap. I mean, this is something that I think a lot of people are going to take a step back and say, wow, what is the hidden danger of operating in constant reaction mode? And why does it feel productive even when it's not? Yeah, this is probably the most common one I see. It's what I call the reaction loop, and most entrepreneurs are living in it all day without realizing it. This is when your day is driven by your inbox, your messages, Slack, text, voicemail, and constant notifications. You feel busy, you feel productive, but you're not actually deciding what matters.

4:02You're just responding to whatever shows up. And when you're operating this way, at least three things are happening here. First, it feels like work, right? You're active all day, you're checking things off, but not moving anything forward meaningfully. Second, you're being driven by other people's priorities. Whoever emails, texts, or pings you the loudest, they're the ones that are setting your agenda for you. And third, there's really no intentional decision making. You're reacting instead of choosing. Reaction feels productive, but it rarely produces progress. And this isn't just anecdotal.

4:46I've done some research of my own and study on this. but folks like Harvard Business, there's research there that shows that leaders spend about 28 % of their work week in this mode. Another study that shows the average professional checks his messages around 15 times a day. And if you stop and do the math on that, that's roughly every 30 to 40 minutes. Wow. So you never really get out of reaction mode long enough even to think. So that's where time starts leaking because you're not deciding how your time is used. You're effectively surrendering it. So here's a simple shift that I think your listeners can make immediately.

5:33Stop checking your inbox constantly and start deciding when you'll engage with it. In the toolbox that accompanies my book, I walk through something called the Inbox protocol builder, and it helps folks set clear standards around when you check your messages, how you respond, and what actually deserves your attention. And I've said this to many business owners before, half joking and half serious, but if email were an employee, it would be your most expensive underperformer.

6:08John Lee Dumas:Man, that's going to hit people hard right there. Yeah, but the goal here isn't to eliminate communication. It's to stop letting it control your day because the moment you shift from reacting to deciding, you start taking your time back. And that's the reaction loop. Fire Nation, are you down with OPP? Now, before you scream, yeah, you know me, OPP is other people's problems. Are you down solving other people's problems all day long? Well, here's a problem with that. They are setting your agenda. Other people are setting your agenda. You have a goal. You have needs to do. You have a process that needs to be fulfilled.

6:48John Lee Dumas:You need to put your priorities, your goals, your intentions first, not other people's first. There's a reason why they say when the plane's going down, put the oxygen mask on yourself and then help other people. Guess what? If you are always dealing with OPP, other people's problems, you're not helping yourself, your own business, and it's going to go down in flames. So these are such key things that Brenda's sharing right here. And I want to talk about how clarity drives execution. So how does a lack of clear outcomes lead to a lot of things, lead to wasted time, rework, and just overall inefficiencies across a business?

7:28Yeah, this one is subtle, but it is everywhere. And most time wasted in business doesn't come from people being lazy. It comes from people being unclear. So what I call the clarity gap is where we start working before we've defined what done actually looks like. So people jump to action, but they're aiming at a moving target. And when that happens, several things start to show up every time. First is rework. The team delivers something and you say, well, that's not what I meant. So now you're doing the same work twice. You're doing it over again. Second, you end up with bloated meetings because nobody's unclear.

8:12You end up talking in circles, trying to find things after the work has already started. And just for some quick math here too, you know, meetings really consume a lot of time, not just yours. You have to, you know, multiply that times the number of key leaders or stakeholders that are in the room. So it's a big one, bloated meetings. The third is slow execution because people hesitate. They second guess or they wait for approval instead of moving forward. So instead of progress, you end up getting friction and friction is where time routinely disappears. So at the root of all of that, again, is one missed decision.

9:01No one clearly defined the outcome before the work began. So here's a simple shift I think listeners may connect with and can do something with, that before you start anything, ask one question. What does success look like when this is done. And don't accept vague answers. Define it in a way that someone else could execute without guessing. I think it's worth noting here too that this is especially critical in delegation because most leaders think they've delegated, but what they've actually done is assigned a task without defining the outcome. And that's why work comes back wrong. So in the book, I walk through tools that help leaders align their time and energy with priorities.

9:52But it starts here. Clarity before action. If the outcome isn't clear, the time will be wasted. But when the outcome is clear, execution speeds up and time starts working for you instead of against you. And that's the clarity gap.

10:09John Lee Dumas:I love that sentence and I want to repeat it right now. what does success look like when this is done? I mean, Fire Nation, that one sentence can change everything. It can change obviously the outcomes, but it can change everything, the intention. I mean, how much more excited are people to work on a project when they have such clear outcomes that have been outlined? Like everybody's on the same page or working towards the same goal. They get it. They want it. They need it. And guess what? They have it. Everybody wants success. So give them a chance to know what success looks like when this is done.

10:43John Lee Dumas:Now we're going to be talking about the founder bottleneck, shifting from managing to investing time and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Do you have a great business idea, but I feel like you don't have the right tools to get started? Shopify makes it easy by giving you everything you need to start selling from day one. The moment your first customer is ready to buy is a big one and Shopify makes sure that moment is as smooth as possible. Shopify checkout helps more customers actually complete their purchase. And when they come back, their information is already saved. So all it takes is one tap and they're done.

11:16John Lee Dumas:And because Shopify takes care of the setup and checkout experience, you can spend less time worrying about the technical side of your store and more time growing your business. I speak from personal experience. Shopify is a platform I use to sell all three of my physical journals. Plus Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide from From household names like Mattel and Gymshark to small businesses just getting started and you can be next. With Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and a real business. So go make it one. Start your free trial at shopify.com slash on fire. Start your free trial at shopify.com slash on fire.

11:50John Lee Dumas:Shopify.com slash on fire. Fire Nation, ideas are exciting, but systems will allow you to create freedom. That is where high level comes in. High Level allows you to build and run your entire business from one platform. Website builder and hosting, funnel and landing pages, email marketing, automation and workflows, calendar booking, payments and subscriptions, even course and membership hosting. Everything works together seamlessly. Plus, award-winning 24-7 support so you are never stuck. And when you go through my link at highlevelfire.com, you unlock my full bonus stack. a 30-day free trial of High Level with full access, a private 50-minute coaching call with me, weekly live office hours with me, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 days to something execution roadmap, and more.

12:39John Lee Dumas:Stop piecing tools together. Start building momentum. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Brent, we're back and I want to talk about the founder bottleneck. Why do so many successful entrepreneurs become the bottleneck of their own company? This one hits a little closer to home for most entrepreneurs because the very thing that made you successful early on is the thing that will eventually cap your growth. I call this the control trap. It's when founders keep holding on to work that they've already outgrown, but not because they have to, but because it's familiar. It's comfortable, and they know that they can do it well.

13:27And if this is you, you'll start to see these things, these things that I'm going to mention next, start to break down. First, you become the bottleneck. Everything has to go through you. Decisions, approvals, problem solving. so the business can only move as fast as you do. Next, your team slows down or disengages because if they know that you're going to step in anyway, they stop taking ownership. And, you know, I see a thing that I refer to a lot as the owner versus renter mindset. And I get this complaint from a very high percentage of the founder owners that I work with is they just can't understand why they don't see more ownership from their key leaders.

14:14And they fail to see that this bottleneck loop that they've created is actually contributing to the problem. So when the team slows down or disengages, that's not a good thing. So then you end up losing strategic capacity. And this is, I think, where many owners really start to feel the frustration. They get so buried in doing the work that they're no longer thinking about where the business needs to go. So when the control trap is in play, growth doesn't stall because of the market. It stalls because the founder never got out of the way. So it's worth noting here, too, that at the root of this, I keep coming back to the decisions that we're not making.

15:00And here's another decision that most people never make. They don't decide to let go. because letting go in this case isn't a skill issue. It's really an identity shift. So here's a simple challenge again for listeners. Identify one task that you're still doing today that you know you shouldn't be doing anymore. And don't just delegate that task. Define the outcome. Give someone else ownership and let them run with it. so the the book in the book i walk through levels of delegation because not everything should be handed off the same way but the goal is this that you're not just getting work off your plate you're building people who can think and operate without you real scale happens i believe when decisions move through the organization, not back to the founder every time.

15:58So if you're identifying with this, just remember. Remember this. It's so important that what got you here will keep you stuck here. And the moment that you start releasing control in the right places, that's the moment that your business starts to grow beyond you.

16:15John Lee Dumas:What got you here will keep you stuck here. I mean, Fire Nation. I hope that's hitting home for some people listening right now because it is so, so true. And Brent, before we move on, what would you say is one common task that you often find owners and entrepreneurs identifying when they go through this process? Like one common task that they can release? I think it's when they have a key leader who's ready. And maybe this a really general response to this. But, and I do think that some of this is anchored to that whole idea of stopping doing the things it's releasing, it's allowing ourselves to go through that identity change that, that we're no longer the person that has to do that task.

16:59It's looking at those things that are, are low, let's just say low impact items, being able to release those to folks so that their attention can be given to those important things that only they can do. I think that's, again, it's a general response, but it's learning to identify, maybe this is the way to frame it, learning to identify the key important things that only they can do, the things that leverage their superpowers so that their team can start taking the handoff and start shining in their respected gifted areas.

17:38John Lee Dumas:Let's talk about the process of shifting from managing to investing time. What would you say is a practical framework for shifting from just managing time, which a lot of us seem to be doing every day, to actually investing it for higher returns over time? Yeah, I think some of the secrets there are kind of wrapped in and all wrapped up in what we just talked about here. So if you look at all three of these time leaks, and we're only naming three here, bear in mind, these are not the only three. These are the ones that I see most commonly, but there are many, many more that we can identify. But if we look at just these three time leaks together, the reaction loop, the clarity gap, the control trap, they all come back to one thing, and it's unintentional decision making.

18:29I've kind of highlighted those as we've moved through them. But most entrepreneurs think that they need better time management. And what they actually need more is better decision discipline. Because managing time, if we're managing time, it looks like we're reacting, we're organizing, we're trying to stay on top of everything. But investing time means that you're making intentional decisions that produce a return. So when you tie all three of these leaks together, you stop reacting to everything, you get clear before you execute, and you let go of what no longer requires you. And the way to do that is through a simple rhythm.

19:14And it goes like this. It's measure, reflect, refine, repeat. I'm going to give that to you again. Measure, reflect, refine, repeat. when you start doing that consistently time stops slipping through the cracks and it starts

19:34John Lee Dumas:compounding in your favor measure reflect refine repeat hang that on your wall fire nation until you really feel like you're where you need to be because man that's powerful those are four powerful words that can change everything for you now brent i want you to take us home give us the one key takeaway that Fire Nation should walk away with from our entire conversation today. Then of course, tell us how your book can just kind of bring this all together for us. And of course, where we can go to acquire this great work of art. And then we'll say goodbye. Excellent. So one shift. This is as simple as I can make it.

20:13Make one better decision today. Not 10, just one. Because those small decisions, the intentional ones, repeated daily, that's what creates real progress over time. time. So for folks who want to go deeper on all of this, they can grab a copy of my book, Time Gambit, at timegambitbook.com. And if they're interested in learning how to apply frameworks like these inside one of my peer advisory groups, they can learn more about those at advantagealliances.com.

20:48John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, you're the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with BWB and JLAD today, so keep up the heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Brent, that's B-R-E-N-T in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And Brent, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, and value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. It's been my pleasure. Thank you. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Brent for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world.

21:26John Lee Dumas:If yes, we are now accepting applications for EO Fire. So to learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. With Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and a real business. So go make it one. Start your free trial at shopify.com slash on fire. Start your free trial at shopify.com slash on fire. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more.

22:07John Lee Dumas:Visit highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com.