2233 - How to Stop Being Your Own Worst Enemy in Business Growth with Your Modern Legacy's Aaron Goodwin

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1:05With us right now, it's Aaron Goodwin. Aaron, you are the founder and CEO of Your Modern Legacy. You're a business coach. You're found on the web at yourmodernlegacy.com. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me, man. I'm super excited to be here. Thank you so much. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, hey, before we get going, Aaron, I obviously want to talk about the work that you do. When you're not working, what are you doing for fun? I know you're super busy right now, but in terms of hobbies or maybe things that you've geeked out on. What do you do that maybe most people don't know that you have superpowers in or you just really kind of obsess on or you geek out on?

1:44Yeah, right now, honestly, the biggest thing outside of work is we have a three-year-old. So hanging out with her is like the one thing that I love doing. So it's really what she loves doing, right? So what is that? Yeah, we're either gonna be heading out to the park. We live in Indiana. So there's those indoor playground places that we like to go to. and then you know with memorial day weekend coming up she really wants to get up to the lake so this weekend we're gonna head up to the lake so it's really a lot of the things that uh she wants to do but that's the thing that i enjoy most is just yeah but you like going to the lake right i love going to the lake absolutely 100 what do you do at the lake uh so we actually i grew up in michigan um so my parents they still live where in michigan i'm from michigan oh really waterford michigan north of detroit about 45 minutes oh okay yeah i'm from the uh i'm from between kalamazoo grand Rapids area.

2:31Okay. Yeah. Familiar. Well, of course. Yeah. If you live in Michigan, then you love the lakes. So did you ever go ice? Did you ever go ice fishing? So we weren't much of the winter type. We did a lot of like, so growing up, we did a lot of water skiing, wakeboarding, sandbar, everything that kid rocks sings a lot, sings about exactly. Well, Aaron, tell us about the work that you do and the clients you work with. Yeah, so our business, we partnered up with Grant Cardone and the 10X movement. And really what we focus on is helping business leaders scale past themselves and stop working within a job.

3:09So we really help those business leaders build effective teams and grow their income by 20 % over a six month period. And we're really focused on business owners that are in that$500 ,000 range to$8 million range. So that's a pretty sophisticated crowd. So obviously they're not necessarily going to, you know, just listen to, you know, magical fairy dust and stuff. Do you mind being a little tactical in exactly like what you're doing, how you're embedding yourself and what that activity ends up looking like? Like, how do you get to that level? And again, I think a lot of folks are also pretty familiar with Grant Cardone and his work and kind of what he teaches.

3:45But do you mind kind of breaking it down of what like what that actually looks like? Yeah, absolutely. So we're really focused on not what vertical or what industry you're in. we're focused on how much revenue your business is doing. So we first, we identified that and that that's where they're just transparent with their financials and how their business is doing the health of their business. So we'll focus on businesses that are doing zero to 1 million, where we really target sales and marketing, getting attention and closing deals in the funnel. And then we move into the one to 3 million, where we're really focused on bringing people into the organization so that you're not really working.

4:19Because right now, those businesses that are in that zero to 1 million, they quit a job to go work, to go own a job, right? So once you're in that one to 3 million, it's recruiting and finding amazing people and bringing them into your organization and building up those role duplication skills and delegating skills that a lot of people miss out on, right? And then from that one to 3 million, we jump into the next break point, which is a three to$8 million range. And that's where we're starting to create a lot of process so that you can effectively train and duplicate others in your organization so that at the$8 million point, you start stepping away and start running a business and not working a job anymore.

5:00Okay. So a lot of, you know, a lot of experienced business leaders that listen to this podcast. So, so you, so it sounds like your biggest things that you want to implement are just making, probably taking a look at what the owner is doing and saying, yeah, you need to stop that. We need to hire some people, get some, get some right systems and processes put in place, get the right people in places. Is that kind of the crux of it? Yeah, absolutely. Because the number one thing that I hear from most of my clients is, oh, I just don't have the time for this. I don't have the time for this. And it's, it's not that it's, you're not making the time for it.

5:33You're not making the time for the things that are important that will actually grow your business forward. And the only way that you can multiply time is to bring people into the organization and get them thinking the way that you're thinking? Okay. So, I mean, again, if you're talking with an audience of pretty sophisticated business owners, help them see what they're not seeing, because I think everyone would agree with you. I mean, everyone would agree with you that delegation and systemization is appropriate. But if they're still kind of hitting a ceiling, what are you able to see that they're not able to see?

6:08Well, they're not doing it. They agree with it, but they're not doing it. They're not executing on it. They're not pulling through. The common response that I hear out there is no one great wants to work anymore. There's no great people out there anymore. And I find that very hard to believe because - Me too. Yeah, that's silly. Yeah, we've scaled out organizations that we find amazing people. It's the fact that we're not out there looking for amazing people. We're not promoting our business. We're promoting our business to get the sale, but we're not promoting our business to attract great people to come and want to work for us.

6:43Because the truth of the matter is great people want to work for great people. Great people don't want to work for crappy business owners. Okay. Well, like what break down the steps then that, you know, and again, I'm hoping that someone listening can get inspired by the work that you typically do. But what would be examples of the people that you bring in and how do you take charge in a way that they have not been able to do for themselves? We, the big one, and this is something that we have for free to give away. So on yourmodernlegacy.com slash great people, there's a free breakdown of an interview process that you can implement in your business right now.

7:25A lot of people that I'm talking to don't have that interview process. They don't have a deselection process. Someone comes in, they apply for a job, they get really excited that someone's eager and they're going to show you the best version of themselves on that interview day, but you might miss that red flag, right? So we've created a process, a four-step process that we take people through. And that process helps business owners deselect from a large amount of people down to the two or three that they might bring into their organization that will help their business grow forward. A lot of those business owners, they get excited that someone's excited to come work for them.

8:03And they're like, yep, yep, this is the person, let's get them hired. And in 90 days, six months, they're turning them over and they're in this constant battle of having to find multiple people every single year, and they're not fixing the problem. They're not fixing what's causing the turnover in their organization. Okay. Okay. So much better hiring is what I'm hearing. Yes. Okay. So we've got hiring and then obviously systemization. And again, I'm probably biased because like I live in this world of optimized businesses. So I think we, you know, I'm probably coming from a position of luxury or privilege, I should say, that, you know, a lot of what you're talking about is kind of like, yeah, duh.

8:46But the reality is like when we, a lot of us, you know, we're kind of stuck in that E quadrant of business. And again, I think just like you said, we've created a job for ourselves. And even though we intellectually agree with this, yeah, but what are you doing to break out of it? Why are you still doing all of this work? So I think one of the biggest things I know I'm a big fan of is if you're a founder, man, I mean, this is E-Myth 101, get the heck out of operations. That is not your job. You need to get some good people in there. How do you, Aaron, deal with the objection that they say, well, I don't have the budget to hire someone, which is why I'm kind of stuck doing all of this other work.

9:30and I mean, obviously you see the error in logic there, but how do you help them break free of that? Yeah, the biggest thing that we talk about is how do you start living in your future self and living towards your targets, right? So say you have a business that's doing$300 ,000 right now and I can't afford to bring someone into the organization. Okay, sure. You can't afford to bring someone into your organization right now, but there are silly things that you might be doing at home. You might still be mowing your lawn. You might still be doing your laundry. You might still be cooking for yourself.

10:00All of these things on the personal side take time, even like cleaning your house. So could you take and hire a cleaning crew to come in and clean your house and get that 30 minutes to an hour back once a week that you could focus on, you know, focus on the growth and getting attention towards your business, right? So it's not only hiring for your business. It's also hiring for your life, right? That's one of the things that transformed us, me and my wife, right? We hired someone to do our lawn. We hired someone to cook for us. We hired somebody to clean our house so that we could really focus on the more important things, the getting attention, the going to events, being known, right?

10:34And, you know, so it starts there, right? Okay, so can you afford the$35 lawn crew to come mow your lawn? My guess is you probably can if you're making$300 ,000 a year, right? And then it's the piece where you get to that half a million to a million and you're like, oh, I still don't have the money. But again, it's are you living in that future self? Are you living towards your targets? You want to be a$10 million business. How do we start acting like a$10 million business? How do we start behaving like a$10 million business? And how do we grow towards that$10 million business? Look at other$10 million businesses.

11:09What are they doing? Who do they have? How do they build to where they're at? Success leaves clues. Go out there and look for those clues and copy and repeat successful actions. Yeah. Yeah. So Aaron, when you get started with someone, I would imagine probably one of the first things you do is probably do an audit of how the owner is spending their time. And just like, listen, some things are going to go into the delegation column. Some things are going to go into the systemization slash delegation column. I mean, some things are going to be like, hey, no one needs to do that. You need to stop altogether.

11:45together. And then some things are going to be like, listen, this is the 1 % of the 5 % or 10 % of your time that is most valuable that only you can do. You should only be doing that stuff. And I guess it's almost like you're coming in to make the hard decisions that they might be afraid of. They might be afraid of making some of these decisions because some of these decisions might feel very risky. Yeah, 100%. You're spot on with that. And what we do a lot of times with the clients that are coming in is we call it the time audit, right? Go through your last two weeks or your upcoming two weeks and document everything that you're doing.

12:21And does that thing, does that action really add value to the growth of yourself or the growth of your business, right? And if you can't monetize, or if you can't see that it grows your business forward, why are you doing that thing? Or who else could be doing that thing? There are a lot of, I mean, most of the people I I ask right out of the gate, how many hours are in a week? Not many people can answer that question. Right. And then it's like, OK, well, they know how many hours are in that day, but how many hours are in that day are blocked out on your calendar for the things that will help grow your business forward.

12:56And that's, I think, where you're spot on with having those columns of like, what should I be doing and what could I be delegating out? And then really, what can I just absolutely get away from? Because it adds zero value. Yeah. Well, Aaron, your website is yourmodernlegacy.com. You'd already mentioned that you have an e-book that you give away. But let's share to our friend that's listening to this conversation right now, what steps could they take to kind of move toward that, with you specifically? Move towards working with me? Where do they go? They're listening to our conversation right now.

13:32What's next for them? Yeah, so we do monthly free webinars. So like you shared earlier, yourmodernlegacy.com is our website. But if you go slash webinars, we always have a monthly webinar that's reoccurring completely free for people to come and come sign up for a join. We're going to just have a different topic every single month that we're talking about. We do live events. So that's just slash events. And then the booklet that I was talking about that will help with that recruiting process is yourmodernlegacy.com slash great people. We're not looking for any emails. We're not looking for any phone numbers.

14:05You just type that in and it will give you all the information right there of how to implement a recruiting process in your business today. And then there is a little connect with me at the bottom if you're interested in learning more. Aaron Goodwin. Again, the website is yourmodernlegacy.com, your founder and CEO. Aaron, it's been great. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your insights. Thanks, Josh. Appreciate it.

14:33Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

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