2317 - Key Insights for Service-Based Businesses Facing Modern Challenges with Walsh Business Growth Insitute's Michael Walsh

0:04Well, hey, Thoughtful Leader. Welcome to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur. On this show, I interview purpose-driven founders, experts, and change makers who are making a real impact in the world. Want to be a guest? Simple. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click podcast. I'd love to promote your story to our audience of over 100 ,000 and across over 2 ,300 daily episodes and counting. Want to get booked on other great shows like this? Simple. Go to podverified.com and get your free guest authority score. Thousands of hosts are looking for high quality guests and Podverified connects you the right way. Now let's dive into today's episode.

0:58With us right now, it is Michael Walsh. Michael, you are the president and founder of Walsh Business Growth Institute, of which you have been at the helm. Congratulations. 30 years, my friend. That is some longevity, and that is a lot of impact in the world. Your website is WalshBusinessGrowth.com. Michael, it's great to have you. Well, thanks for having me here. Before we get going into your superpowers and your impact with your clients, I always love learning what high-level leaders do in their free time. Any hobbies or interests that you've been geeking out on lately? Well, for the last seven years, I've been an avid NFL fan of the team that I've loved for the last 30 or 40 years, actually, which is the Kansas City Chiefs.

1:49And we've been season ticket holders since then. So Saturday, I get on the plane for the first time this year to actually go see a Chiefs game. But you live up in Vancouver. I do. So tell me how that works logistically. You still get season tickets. Well, think about it. Football doesn't watch itself, you know. I mean, you know, here's the thing. In 2017, I actually had taken a motorcycle trip down the West Coast from Vancouver. We had clients in San Diego, had clients over in New Orleans, went over there, came up. Of course, I had to go through Arrowhead because I've been watching this team since 1989.

2:25And I loved that. Then came back through, you know, to get back home again. and um i decided i needed to fly down and see a game so i flew down that that uh that fall and i saw alex smith the quarterback of the chiefs beat philip rivers who was playing you know for the for the chargers at the time and i'm like this is kind of cool well i fly a lot in canada the u.s and in europe actually so i thought you know what the no matter what you say about it the cheapest part of this is the ticket because you got to have the flight the accommodation all that so we got the best tickets we could were in the club section 23 yard line absolutely love it just having a ball with it now sometimes we win sometimes we lose you know we've been very fortunate recently because with Patrick Mahomes it's like we've done more winning than losing although I must admit I was a little concerned about both the Super Bowl and and last week you know in in Sao Paulo Brazil but we'll see what this this you know year brings and we're going to start with another challenge with the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, but one step at a time, we'll see how we do.

3:30I love it. I love it. Well, Michael, let's talk about the work that you do and the impact you have in the clients that you work with. Sure. What my firm does is we help people grow companies and we help people grow companies specifically in support of their goals and commitments in their lives. We specialize in large-scale growth. And what I find is, you know, the focus we have is to help them overcome the impediments to growth. So what I find is that there's as many ways to grow a business as there are people. I mean, you talk to a lot of business owners, a lot of people in business environment, and everybody's so different from each other.

4:08You know, people claim to have some formula, and I find that there is no single formula that serves everybody. But the problems are all the same. So if we could actually help people overcome or move past the misconceptions, the impediments, and the myths that are around business growth, then we can actually help them grow. All right. Well, I would imagine you see patterns. And so if we think a little bit tactically about these patterns that you observe, I suspect that there's probably some lessons for our friend that's listening right now. Michael, maybe you could give us a little mini TED Talk on some of these common patterns that you see.

4:45Well, here's the thing. Actually, in the latest book that I just recently published a few months ago, we actually speak to four different areas where people get stuck. What I find is, you know, if a business owner can see a problem, they can figure out a way to get the resources and solve the problem. If they can't see the problem, but they know it exists again, they can figure it out. It's when they don't see a problem and they have no idea that it exists. That's when they get stuck. And that's when everything just kind of slows down and life gets hard. So what I identified in, you know, in this book was there are four times I listed specifically as a company approaches 2 million in revenue.

5:24Once they're just on the other side of 5 million in revenue, when they're approaching 10 million, and again, in the chasm between 12 million and 20 million, what I find is these are times when companies outstrip their structures, but that by itself is not enough to actually deal with things. You talk about patterns. There's two things that happen at each of these times. The problem that people have is that because the structures they're outstripping are different at each of those milestones, you're in a situation where it doesn't feel the same. It doesn't look the same. And they figure it must be a different problem, but it it's actually the same problem, which is they're outstripping their structures while at the same time, a second force is, is working on them, which is they've swelled their ranks.

6:08They've got more people there. And so what happens is that, you know, the term herding cats, I mean, people come by that, honestly, it's like, how do I control all these people? And in fact, the mistake they make is they try to actually control their people. They say, well, I've outstripped my structures. So why don't I put in new structures, try to get them to do what I want them to do instead of looking at, as I outstrip my structures, how do I support people to be at their best? And, and without a little more thorough understanding of human behavior, it's really easy to get caught in the traps that are associated with each of those danger zones is what I call them.

6:45Yeah. And I would imagine that there's likely in your longevity to kind of what you're talking about here. Have you seen some of these issues amplified with maybe some current trends that are going on? I know AI is a little disruptive. Some other factors I'd think economically, they're a little disruptive this year? What have you been seeing this year? Well, it's interesting because one of the biggest things I've seen this year is people are still getting over what I'm going to call the COVID hangover. And they're really trying to get their footing. Now, keep in mind that we have a picture of what management is.

7:24I'm the boss or the employee, you need to do what I say. Well, that actually doesn't fly anymore. I mean, if you look, two-thirds of your workforce are millennials and Gen Z. Okay. Anybody under 45, do you really believe that they're going to let somebody else control them? I mean, nobody wants to be controlled. And, you know, these are young people who were grown up as kids with a voice. Gen Xers and boomers didn't have, well, it's called you do it, mom and dad say, period. But with millennials and with Gen Z, they actually were grown up, you know, with the support of their parents. In fact, my daughter is a millennial, and she's like, Dad, you know, remember, I'm from the generation where we actually like our parents, you know, and okay, you know, she literally said that to me.

8:14I'm like, sure, let's go with that. And I looked at studies, you know, 83 % of all millennials said that number one hero was mom, and 82 % of all millennials said that number two hero was dad. You know, back in the day, 40 % of all boomers said they'd be better off without parents. So there was definitely shifts that are going on. But the other side of it is, you know, in a, we've gone from the industrial revolution to a service-based economy. And the pandemic just accelerated the dynamics of that. So in a industrial revolution, everybody had to do the same thing because they're on the same assembly line.

8:53You know, you don't have people doing the same thing. You end up with a lumpy assembly line. Whereas in service-based businesses, the power is actually shifted to the individual groups of knowledge workers. These people actually have to figure out what's going on. And you know what? I don't care whether somebody's a seasoned veteran or somebody's new. Everybody's ideas have to count. And so that's where the work actually gets done these days. And when you combine that with the increased voice that people gained after being sent home for a few years, they actually go, well, I actually do have a voice after all.

9:23And so what happened was there's this tension that's going on. And if you don't focus on your people, first of all, if you don't understand them, and secondly, if you're not focusing on them, it just gets real expensive and it basically eats up your freedom. Like you just lose your own freedom as a business owner. So it's been interesting to see the dynamics that have shifted. Now, AI is actually getting in the way of juniors learning a craft, because since AI does the basic stuff, the juniors who used to be in the craft that AI is now covering, what happens is there's a bigger leap from brand spanking new to actually having enough expertise that they can do things.

10:10Now, that's sorting itself out and it will eventually sort itself out. But I've seen that's where the most bumps and hiccups in terms of if you look at service based businesses with people that are based in their expertise, there seems to be this sort of this gap with regards to that, just because of the fact that AI is taking some of the most basic jobs that people usually cut their teeth on. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, is that that laborious work that maybe you and I did earlier in our careers? It wasn't fun, but it was, you know, it's like it was kind of like going into the gym and having to do reps all the time.

10:50And that empowers you for the future. It is. It's going to be really fascinating to see what happens. I mean, the tools are better. I mean, we had tools and, you know, we could look at and just say, well, we have more effective tools. So big deal. You don't have to chop every tree down with an ax, old timer. That's right. That's right. You know, we got chainsaws. We don't need those muscles anymore. But fascinating. Yeah. Consideration thing to consider. You know, Michael, I want to talk about your book and forgive me for not mentioning it right up at the top, but it's called Freedom by Design, the Established Business Owner's guide to grow, make an impact, and find the joy again.

11:30That sounds like a bill of goods. I love that title. I just downloaded it. It's on Amazon. You can find it, of course, on your website at walshbusinessgrowth.com. Tell me who should be reading this book. People that want to grow. It's been designed for service-based businesses that are based on the expertise of their people. Although it's interesting because a colleague of mine keeps arguing with me says listen this is not just service-based businesses anybody could benefit from them sure okay let's go with that however it's really been designed for people in services where it's based on the expertise of their people and they want to grow the biggest thing that i find the people we play with and participate with the most and for whom this was written are people that want to make an impact and use the growth of their business as a tool to help them increase the impact that they're able to make in their little corner of the world now it could be with clients.

12:22It could be with, again, you know, some organization that they have an affinity to. It could be for the growth of their people. It could be for legacy purposes. You know, I mean, impact can show up in a number of different spots. The problem is, is that if you don't understand a few basic elements of human behavior, what happens is you end up getting stuck. And, you know, there's four that I cover in the book and they're really simple, but I got to tell you, the consequence they have is huge. And so the question is, how do you navigate your way through the combination of structures and swelling ranks of people as a company grows?

12:58And then in the second half of the book, I actually provide a framework as to how to work through that so that people really can put the people first and build structures that support people to give it their best, as opposed to try to corral or constrain them into doing what the boss wants. Yeah. Michael, this sounds like a great book. I'm so excited to read it. I've got it downloaded to my Kindle as we speak. Tell me a little bit more about the work that you do with your clients. What does that look like? Well, we actually help people grow. Sales, human resources, the underlying structures. If somebody has anywhere from 10 employees all the way up to about 200, we can help them grow.

13:39If they're good at what they do with their current size, If they're not good at what they do with their current size, having them grow is just going to tell the market how crappy they are. And the problem with that, of course, is people vote with their feet to go in a different direction and they never come back. But if you've got somebody who, you know, they know how to generate a result for clients at their current size and they really want to go to that next level. Sometimes the reason they don't is just because they're not quite sure how. So we actually help them, you know, identify what's wanted and needed given the strengths of that organization.

14:11and we we just basically help them navigate their way through a roadmap that's designed for them because everybody's got different skills like if you had a business doing one thing which you do and i had a business doing another thing the you you would have one set of issues if you had a business by yourself i would have a different set of issues if i have business by myself and if you and i collaborated and had a business together we'd have other areas that are missing even though we're covering the stuff that we're covering. So, so every single situation, uh, it really depends on the skills of the people involved.

14:45And the question is, how do I tap those skills? How do I really have people work inside their top strengths, the ones that give them energy? And how do I put together teams with complimentary strengths so that we can actually, you know, accomplish things? Employees are way happier when you do that, you know, support them in their professional growth, but in growth that actually is meaningful for them. While at the same time, collectively giving the company exactly what it needs to really grow and excel in a sustainable manner. Yeah. Michael, your website is walshbusinessgrowth.com. I know you've got a lot of resources here.

15:21Do you mind maybe just kind of sharing next steps for our friend that's been listening to our conversation? Where do they go from here? How do they engage with you? And also very important, how might someone know that it would be appropriate to reach out and maybe grab some time with your team or like that they should maybe think about engaging? Well, okay. So here's how we set up. I mean, the book is always available. It's on Amazon. It's on Amazon in Canada, the US, Mexico, and UK and Europe. If somebody wants to explore possibilities, what we'll do is we'll have a conversation with them and we'll just see if we can actually help them.

15:58And if we can, then what we'll probably do is line up a little bit of time together to really explore and see where specifically we can move the needle. And what I find is in an initial exploration, you know, I don't want to take somebody's money unless we're in a situation where we know we can move the needle and help them grow. So given that that's the case, it's like, you know, even if we got together with them, we wouldn't charge them more than whatever the hard costs are associated with us being there, you know, my people will actually donate their time to that exploration, just like the business owners are donating time to that exploration.

16:34And if we can help them, then we let them know that, you know, but we'll spend a couple of days with them to really roll up our sleeves and dig in. And what we find is that I won't charge you if you don't charge me. I mean, we're all exploring here. And if I can't help somebody, or if our team can't help somebody, it's a bad deal to take their money because you know what? If the table loses, everybody's going to lose. It's just a matter of time. You're talking like someone who's been in business for a while, Michael. Yeah, a minute or two. Well, that's wonderful. So again, your website is walshbusinessgrowth.com.

17:13You can hover over books and of course you can grab the new book, Freedom by Design. As of when we're recording this, It's in Kindle Unlimited. So if you happen to have that membership, you can get access to it. But very, very exciting. Michael, thank you so much for the work that you're doing. Appreciate the conversation. Michael Washer, guest president and founder of Walsh Business Growth Institute, the website walshbusinessgrowth.com. Thanks, Michael. Thank you.

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