Escape the Trap of Working IN, Not ON your Business with Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell

Welcome to The Real Life Buyer podcast where we delve deep into the core of business leadership and growth. In this episode, I explore the challenges faced by small and medium-sized business owners: getting unstuck from working 'in' their business and shifting focus to working 'on' it.

Joined by expert business coach Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell, we uncover the root causes of this dilemma and unveil actionable strategies to facilitate this transition. From the role of procurement professionals in strategic leadership, to real-life success stories, discover invaluable insights to propel your business forward. Tune in as we empower SME owners to unleash their full potential and drive sustainable growth.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Today, I interview Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell.

Daniel has been a Business Coaching Specialist for around 7 years and is the founder of Business Mindsets. His extensive experience and accreditations include being an NLP Master Practitioner and an accredited PROFIT System Business Coach.

Before founding Business Mindsets in 2017 Daniel held positions including “Director and Licensee of Spartan Race UK”; “Start-Up Business Coach” for the UK Government Department for Work and Pensions and “Higher Education Business Lecturer” for the East Sussex College Group.

To learn more about Daniel and his work I recommend you go to:

Website:       www.businessmindsets.co.uk
Instagram:   https://www.instagram.com/business_mindsetsuk/
X:                   https://twitter.com/businesmindsets
LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielandersent/

ABOUT THE HOST

My name is Dave Barr and I am the Founder and Owner of RLB Purchasing Consultancy Limited.

I have been working in Procurement for over 25 years and have had the joy of working in a number of global manufacturing and service industries throughout this time.

I am passionate about self development, business improvement, saving money, buying quality goods and services, developing positive and effective working relationships with suppliers and colleagues, and driving improvement through out the supply chain.

Now I wish to share this knowledge and that of highly skilled and competent people with you, the listener, in order that you may hopefully benefit from this information.

CONTACT DETAILS

@The Real Life Buyer
Email: david@thereallifebuyer.co.uk
Website: https://linktr.ee/thereallifebuyer

For Purchasing Consultancy services:
https://rlbpurchasingconsultancy.co.uk/
Email: contact@rlbpurchasingconsultancy.co.uk

Find and Follow me @reallifebuyer on Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads and TikTok.

Click here for some Guest Courses - https://www.thereallifebuyer.co.uk/guest-courses/

Click here for some Guest Publications - https://www.thereallifebuyer.co.uk/guest-publications

Transcript

Intro  00:00

Welcome to The Real Life Buyer podcast. In this podcast, you will hear interviews with business owners, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, authors and technical specialists in their field. These professionals will hasten your development, accelerate your career and broaden your business know how. Now introducing your host, Dave Barr, interviewing with a purchasing twist.

Dave Barr  00:21

Hello and welcome to The Real Life Buyer. In this episode, I have the pleasure of introducing you to Daniel Anderson-Tuffnell. Daniel has been a business coaching specialist for around seven years now and is the founder of Business Mindsets. His extensive experience and accreditations include being an NLP Master Practitioner, and an accredited Profit System Business Coach before founding Business Mindsets back in 2017. Daniel held such positions as Director and Licensee of Spartan Race UK, Startup Business Coach for the UK Government Department for Work and Pensions and Higher Education Business Lecturer the East Sussex College Group. In today's podcast I'm keen to explore with Daniel the strategies, actions and tactics that can help SME business owners raise themselves from the trenches of business ownership and deploy their businesses onto a faster path to growth and success. So without further ado, I'll welcome Daniel onto the podcast. Hi Daniel.

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  01:27

Oh, Dave, so nice of you to have me. Thanks very much.

Dave Barr  01:29

Absolute pleasure. We've had a couple of false starts shall we say trying to get this podcast together. And assuming we don't have any scaffolding going on later on, we should be okay for today.

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  01:40

Hope so, we should be we should be good. Perfect.

Dave Barr  01:43

So before we dive into the sort of core purpose of today's podcast, I always like to get my guests to share some things about them themselves, their journey, their background, obviously so the audience can get to relate to them. Would you mind sharing some of your journey and the key moments that have led you to where you are now?

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  02:03

Yeah, I would love to thanks so much, Dave. I'm like you I mean, we've chatted before but I'm an entrepreneur at heart. So you know, even from a kid I was looking for ways to do the classic lemonade stand. And so I've always had that keen focus on people business and leadership. And my real journey started was sports, no one could get a cricket bat out of my hand for for years and it turned quickly into a kayak paddle or a climbing climbing kit and I just a passion for for adrenaline I got really stuck into adventure sports, got qualifications in leadership and sports. And then my, you know, my venture through life took me out to the Middle East for five, six years where I developed a national curriculum, part of his personal development program with the military and police, my experience with Spartan Race to me around the world, throughout the UK, which was an incredible journey, although I don't remember sleeping for those two, two and a half years, three years, increasing that and then had a little stint in Vegas really love getting involved after Spartan and just getting involved in real people management like the coaching again, it's been so significant in my life. And that's where Master Practitioner, the business support, I was always called myself the business dragon around Sussex and Portsmouth area which launched 700 businesses in the space of two and a half years when I was doing that. So yeah, a vast amount of experience just helping people tackle their mindset around business and their business around their mindset. It has all the all the difference, like everyone struggles through the pandemic, before that I had a health issue with my eyesight. So I really know everything comes down to vision, what you can do what you can see. Yes, so on that business journey, and I love what I do.

Dave Barr  03:35

Brilliant. And it's interesting, you got a big association with sport. And just, just curious, are there certain elements of that association, that time you spent in the sporting world, that have particular lessons that you found really helpful for you today?

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  03:52

Yeah, I think that's a really deep question. And I really love that, because I think we can transfer knowledge from different different sectors, can we apply it into different areas, and I do that continue with my clients, and I see clients do it with their clients as well. I think with sport when you're playing a sport, a team sport, the real players like we're seeing in the Euro's right now. They're not looking at the clock of what you know, they're not looking at their clock thinking, Oh, we've got 45 minutes to go there on the pitch during it. And we're in the business. One thing like it gets so lost in actually being in operations, we actually don't get to look at what we're actually doing on the business again, and again, I see this and it's actually taken that step back where people in sport can see the overall like everyone's talking tactics about has Southgate got it right at the moment or not, or even the cricket like how are these coaches picking it? Right, everyone's got an opinion. But we've got and have an opinion thinking about ourselves should chiefly and I think sport is a great analogy for that and a metaphor that.

Dave Barr  04:47

Right. Yeah. And that really leads me on to the first question that I had prepared for you. And that's talked about common challenges that certainly SME business owners face and you mentioned about that kind of aerial view that people take in sport. So what do you say is the sort of common challenges that businesses find themselves trapped when they're trying to work, on their business, rather than in their business?

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  05:12

It's a classic word if you use it a lot at Spartan because he had the three medals. It's called the trifecta. But there's a trifecta in business, no matter what sector you're in, and even line managers and across the business, there's three things that always in our personal lives, and business is Time, Team and Finances or numbers. They're the biggest three reoccurring issues that are always going on in people's lives or people's businesses. I see, you nodding, in frequency that you can relate to that, I'm sure but you know, the time is like, is our most precious resource, we've got all got the same amount of time, 164 hours a week, how we use it, and how we make it not that precious resource, we've got to use it effectively. If we're losing time, how can we gain back, I just recently got a client again, back almost 45 minutes a day, because he couldn't pick which podcast to listen to every morning on the commute. Like he knows what he's watching on the telly with his lovely wife, but he was just like, I'm just overwhelmed with the options. So we've got a lot more strategic, and then suddenly, it gives us more efficiency tastes. 

Dave Barr  06:08

Okay, so that's a big emphasis on time there. So you obviously you've had a number of clients in your, in your time in your journey. So I'm trying to think of now, what's the hardest way for people to review the way they plan their day and take the things that really not essential, is we always tend to look at everything that we've got as but oh, that's really important to do that. But quite often those things are time fillers, rather than a benefit to you. So how do you sort of pull out those wasted elements of time, they actually bring you back so you can spend some effective time on your business?

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  06:48

Yeah, there's so much we can do with this. And obviously I talk a lot about this, is that number one, I call it the five pillars of life, you know, we've got putting your pillars first, and then the business really pays, the ripple effect becomes bigger. So the pillars of life, fitness, health, diet, love relationships, and then finances, put them first, whether it's one minute a day, or five to 10 minutes a day, allocating time into spirituality, meditation, the different areas, then slot in the working responsibilities. I'm sure a lot of a lot of people can relate back at school when we're doing our GCSEs. Or we had a set timetable, we had 13 subjects back at school, we've got 13 subjects, most 13 departments in any business in the world really comes down to whether it's business development, or English, maths or finances. So is allocating specific amount of time per week or per month in a percentage way of how much time do I need to put in to that part of the business that's going to give me return? So is it 25% of my team needs to go into marketing every week? Or is it 10%. And obviously, that compounds, if you've got a team around you, or if you're just you know, a one man band working on yourself, you've got to, you got to be really careful with where your time goes. Number one, you've got to get results. So tracking your time away, you spend it you can learn out where you're losing it as well.

Dave Barr  08:06

Okay, that sort of makes you thinking about key indicators. Now, some people get obviously overwhelmed with the day to day. But what is an indicator of that being overwhelmed is it people refer to stress regularly, how do, they know they are getting stuck in the operational trenches. Sometimes we don't realize we've, we've got into a trench and we're not getting out of it. But they don't realize that they're actually there. So hopefully get out of those trenches, and start focusing on the initiatives and actions they need to get them out of that situation and become more proactive. 

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  08:42

Wow. Overwhelm is a key word. So I call it the five, the five levels of "O", we're in business. So we're told you this, I don't think I have got these five levels of "O"'s. So let's start the you know, we've got Overwhelm in business, then we can be Overworked. We can be Organized. When we get organized. Then we become an Overseer. And then we come to Ownership. But many, many I'm sure business owners, leaders can all relate to all of those five at different times of their journey. All businesses, no matter what the size if their, you know, 5 million pound turnover. 30 million pound turnover, 100,000 pound turnover, they're all going to experience all that one of these "O"'s at different times of the year or month. If we're really feeling overwhelmed or overworked, we've got to get really clear of that constant firefighting is always feels like a downward strategy. So its getting grips back with a time or delegating, bringing the team in to really look at different ways of planting focus into the mindset. And to get to grips of that bottom layer of the pyramid I call it periods are not built on sand are they. They're built on really dense clay soils, our businesses have got to be in so alive. So what the rules of the game what are you setting as expectations to allow that overwhelm? Are you what's your lifestyle design? Or how are you operating your lifestyle and your business to create the overwhelm that are just constant firefighting. So to come out of that, to answer your question, we've got to be strategic have a strategic plan, but turn that into an implementation plan, I no longer do the business plan. So I might have done that 15, 20 years ago, everyone just never uses it. It's all about what actions can I take day to day, week by week, month by month, and having that written down, or in a app or in your diary and a Gantt chart, whatever it might be, that suits the individual learner visually, then that helps them give them focus. From that, we can start building the layers up through the O's.

Dave Barr  10:29

Okay, so that sounds like a strategy that you've helped to deploy, when speaking to some other people on various, shall I say various guests that come in on the podcast, and one of the people coming up was talking about how they use their diary in a very visual way to organize themselves. And using colour coding to pull out certain activities, let's say you're going to have a video call, actually make that orange, you're gonna have some personal time you put that as a yellow, and they structure their diary very carefully. So their, their mindset, everything about what they do is organized. Now, do you think that's an effective strategy is is that one of the things that people use? What other things can you use.

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  11:13

It's a great strategy, I actually use that strategy as well. So you know, and also, when I'm reading a book, I like the yellows for a quote, greens for like, I can use this into a post or blue, I got to share that with a client. So by locking in key colours, you can help your memory think and direct you of where you want to go. In terms of additional strategies, everyone has a to do list how we do that to do list on paper on apps, there's loads of science behind it. Now, to do list, the success rate of an average to do list is like 13% is really low. When people start putting it into color coding or putting it into their diary, it can go up to 30, 50%. I'm sure you're aware of the Eisenhower matrix, you remember the classic one, urgent, not urgent, important, not not important, when people start prioritizing and then putting a deadline date, that's when we start hitting over 65, 75% success rate of completing key tasks that have to be done, I'm going to chuck in there as well, in that our own internal language or linguistics to ourselves, there's a big difference of saying I will try to do it, rather than saying, Dave, I will do it. If Dave says I will do it i but it's 100% success, right? If Dave says try or maybe then you're already telling your brain I'm not really committed. So I work a lot around helping people understand that internal dialogue, even to our teams, can you try to do this? Or will you do this, give it your best attempt. It's very subtle on the unconscious. But suddenly, over a period of time, people start coming to me after six months, they never used the word draw in front of me again, because we've ingrained them not to think and try we've ingrained in think of them do.

Dave Barr  12:48

Okay, that's quite quite interesting, because you kind of give yourself a Get Out of Jail Free card by say you can try you allow yourself to fail. I've been listening to some of the work by Marissa Peer recently, and she uses the word, I "choose" to do this, and I choose to do something else. And that's a different way of expressing to yourself that you she wants to make sure that you're training your mind to say I'm selecting to do this because I want to do this. I've got the energy, the passion, the drive to do this. So it's interesting how you use that analogy there. I'm gonna ask you about another thing you you mentioned just a few minutes ago, and that's about the strategic plans. Now common in business is to have a plan, possibly three to five years, especially if you're going out trying to get some money. People expect to see a plan. And if you look at say the Japanese culture, that's a tendency to go even further, out? What's your thoughts on those kind of plans? Do you feel think they're really effective when they go three and five years out from where you are now? Or do you think they are? I think you're inferring should be closer to the day to day perhaps the one year or two year plans? What's your thoughts on that?

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  13:58

I use, I use them all, for different reasons as well, when you're looking out like 90 day plan is a 90 day plan is crucial. You've got to know what you're doing in the next 90 days. But like I just said, It's week to week, month by month, quarter to quarter add up to years very quickly by knowing where you're going. We know what we got to get to so then we can reverse engineer if we're both on another venture to Edinburgh right now. Would we use a sat nav? Yes, we probably would. Because we just like it's easy. But if we don't know where we're going, we haven't got a sat nav if we don't know what roads, we don't know what the conditions in so the same applies for the business. If we don't know what we going we don't know the best way to get there. And knowing that best way to get there allows us to reverse engineer like what numbers do I need to have how many sales do I need to have to get to 50,000 pound a month or 20,000 pound a month. The numbers don't really matter in the scheme of things. They they do matter but it gives us a guideline to set the plan out to then restructure like your data or your actions every day or creating the ripple effect to get to those going along. current plan. Mine is two and a half years in the journey working with me. And we're going through this journey, too. We go off in different ways in different places. But of course we do. But it's much easier to take a side road and say, Actually, we're just going to go to Dundee, rather Edinburgh because that's more important now with what's going on with the weather trends in the industry, or trends in the country or trends in the business or what he's changed his mind to do.

Dave Barr  15:22

Yeah. Now, just going back to where we started through on this theme about getting stuck in the trenches, and thinking about planning, you just mentioned a number of things there. Do you think one of the reasons why we do get stuck in the trench get involved in the business because it takes us away from having to think longer term, because that can be quite difficult. For some people. They'd much rather get it stuck into what's in front of them here and now knowing they can make a bit of a difference, rather than thinking, Okay, what's going to be in six months time 12 months time, two years time, that can be quite challenging to look at that far forward? Is that something you think is correct or not?

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  16:00

Yeah, I do is pressure isn't it? If people have got to make you know the sales or get the team that you're saying it's not so much short term thinking as a negative, it's they feel that's the current situation. It's also there's a getting a turn, there's is psychological factor going on off, I've got to be doing stuff right now in the present, to feel like I'm doing the work that has to be done, which actually, the more you do that you're more though, you're putting the repeat cycle, on the reoccurring problems, such as constant firefighting. Without goals, without, with a lack of long term goals, you end up working excessive, excessive hours, because you don't know what you're working for. You're stuck in the trenches again and again, and it's getting really muddy because you're wearing it out and then you're getting exhausted, you're getting stagnated. It's actually your, your drive for what you set your business for, it's turned into a job it's turned into that job. It's no longer. I'm not working on that business. I'm in it all the time, day to day, I talk about you probably I think you've mentioned to me before my LinkedIn headline at the moment, it's got, you know, bottlenecks happen at the top, you know, and it's true, you know, we only want bottlenecks to happen in bottles, not in businesses. And if it's the way you're thinking is that I've got to be in the business 20 hours a day. And that's a bit like me, it's fine. I was throwing it all bits of time, you know. But if I stepped back a little bit more, I would have been way more efficient, more effective and more productive, not just for myself, but across the team. And that increases profitability.

Dave Barr  17:28

Now you mentioned the term there, firefighting. Now, I've worked with a number of different people over many years, and some particular people stand out to me as absolutely loving the firefighting. They love to solve problems here and now. It gave him those adrenaline rushes, the satisfaction of people around them saying, oh, well done Barry for doing such a great job, or whatever the case may be, do you think because people get those little rushes on achieving things quickly, frequently, often throughout the day by firefighting, in other words being in the trench. They don't get that same satisfaction from thinking longer term. Where are they getting their next hit from the next high from where they're thinking strategically? Do you think it's important to try and find a way of giving you some excitement from longer term thinking as opposed to short term? You know, quick highs?

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  18:20

Yeah, you used to try were there twice. So firefighting doesn't stop. If you're in overwhelm, overwhelm, you still get the finest out as owner, as you well know. So it's thinking considering, as you're going to draw the conversation, let's go really our people are firefighting, because there could be some fear based thinking of like, I haven't done this X, Y, or Zed. But sometimes it's easier to stay in theory based thinking than it is to say, actually, I need to be success based thinking. Whereas the change is easier to stay in that situation of my present state, rather than turn up every day and think about how do I need to show up in my desired state. And the firefighting feels easier in that state, rather than in the while making how I like to be in three years time or one year time? And believe me, How sustainable is it, to be firefighting every day for the next five years? That's going to be exhausting. We're back to the five pillars of health then aren't we? The health the fitness, if we're exciting every day? What are you carrying around on your own shoulders invisibly? What are you not telling your spouse? What are you telling your spouse? It's going to be grinding, isn't it?

Dave Barr  19:29

Yeah, another thought that's just come to my mind, like people stuck in the business is quite often in a small business, they feel they're probably the best qualified to do certain functions, and they find it very difficult to let go and let other people have a go at it. So coming back again, to those people with a small business again to they get the positive impact of doing it themselves that little high, as opposed to this is another symptom again, of a low In other people to try and fail and perfect the way they could do it, perhaps sometimes even better than the original person, the owner.

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  20:07

So just to confirm, you're saying is it they get more from doing themselves?

Dave Barr  20:12

Yeah, because I think that's familiar territory, they felt they perfected the art, let's say they were having they owned a coffee shop, and they can make the best coffee with the most fancy thing on the top. And they are highly skilled at that. That's like a comfort zone. So if they're in the midst of things, you know, they jump onto that they get a high, a positive, you know, the customer saying, oh, that's a fantastic coffee. I love the way you've done the, you know, the top layer, and they avoid passing that kind of thing on that opportunity for the staff sometimes to learn from their experiences. Do you think that's why they get stuck in?

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  20:47

Yeah, yeah, there's a great song that if you read the book, and Michael Gruber E Myth, no, I haven't. Okay, it's fantastic. It's quite classy, but and he talks about a cake shop, but we're going your coffee analogy. So you're, you're the best barista in Eastbourne. Okay, and everyone's coming to see Dave and his coffee, Dave gets so good, he needs to bring in staff. So then Dave has got to stop serving the coffee and come into the back room to make sure everything's going on the performance and the product goes down. Because Dave's no one you've hired is as good as you. So that triangle then, of that E Myth triangle, the entrepreneur triangle myth is how do you delegate effectively, so the coffee stays on the same standard, the business is still attracting the same level of clientele, or growing, and you're growing the business from from the back. And that comes down to leadership, but it's understanding like, you're amazing at coffee. But then the skills I bring to clients and you bring to your clients is actually we can teachteach other people to do it effectively. But they might do it in their own way, not the way you've designed it. And that's the key about being a liberating leader is getting out of the way, sometimes of your team members, because they can come up with even better method of what you've invented. But it's learning about how to help them, but also support them and keep them accountable at the same time.

Dave Barr  22:04

Great, great. It's great having on this chat, because I'm constantly thinking of things that like signals to those owners that are too stuck in their business, and not given people the opportunity to develop and grow and thrive in their own business. And obviously, that, therefore takes them away from looking at the longer term opportunities to get the second coffee shop, a third coffee shop, find the best locations and so forth. So it's really good that we're teasing some of these things out today. Now, obviously, my background is in procurement. And before that was in quality, and I'm intrigued to know how other procurement professionals may play a role in assisting business owners to shift their focus from operational activities considerations, again, being in those trenches to strategic ones. So in the context of SMEs and your experience, have you come across other procurement professionals that have helped their owners to make that shift? 

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  23:03

Yeah, I have. And I think it's a really great question, obviously, for your audience as well. And your podcast is really getting to grips isn't it sharing across your, your sector? The one key thing is relationships. It's like it comes down to everyone knows what ROI is return on investment, I actually attempted to trademark this term but ROR are I attempted to get it like few years ago? Can you guess what it is?

Dave Barr  23:26

Umm not on the top my head quickly. No, go on. 

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  23:29

No pressure, no "Return On Relationships". 

Dave Barr  23:32

Okay.

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  23:32

If you get a return on relationships, your ROI is going to come naturally, isn't it? Because you're building it? And especially as a procurer, you're dealing with everyone, you're dealing with external internal stakeholders, the director, maybe team people that you need need below? So it's building that? How do you build relationships? You know, much easier at school? Will you be my friend in business? We're gonna do that in a little bit more strategic way? How can I give value? So the value elements I think around your industry in particular, I kind of got a little list to share. That I think is how can you look at help them and give value around strategic sourcing, cost efficiency? Everyone loves saving? So how can you do that? What is coming up? What's working for others that you can say, Oh, I've saw this in X business? Have you thought about it here read some more about it, then that leads into process optimisation, doesn't it? Again, across industries and especially in in procurement is automation? how knowledgeable are they looking at the different elements of automation, integrating AI, AI is here to stay, either fight it or resist it, you know, is a negative, you've got to make it your best friend, at least understand it. So you know what potentially you can or can't do? That. Obviously a big one is, if you're working closely across the procurement industry, is if you see risks across your industry, share that with your network, whether you're doing it in a LinkedIn newsletter, a private email or to someone you know higher up in your own organization is being being that point. have a point of interest of like, Hey, I've seen this, I'm going to share this with you, but be consistent with it. Not just once in a blue moon, you're just showing up consistently by saying, I'm a thought leader in this space. I'm not I'm just a leader, or I have thoughts and never share. It is actually I'm demonstrating all the elements of being a thought leader, you know, your market trends you can you've got the core business focus at the heart of everything you do, and you're sharing that across it across the board. Does that? Does that hit what you're looking for? Yeah, I think so. And you mentioned a great word that I love talking about is relationships. And when I tend to see businesses stuck in the trenches, and to their focus on a task, quite often more than a relationship, if they're not meeting people, developing their relationships with external parties, and sometimes internal parties, then the network, as you mentioned that Iran isn't growing either. And is that another signal that they're too stuck in their business? Because they're not getting to meet new people. They're not hearing new ideas, new thoughts, new concepts, new challenges, and solutions to what other business owners are facing at the moment?

Dave Barr  27:09

You mentioned about books, something I read quite a lot of books as well. Now, I know a number of people who openly read numbers of books, but struggle to retain key nuggets of information there. The fact that you read so many, and you're clearly absorbing key pieces of information. Are there certain techniques or certain strategies, the way you read books, you take notes? What sort of things do you do to retain that valuable information?

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  27:37

I love that question. I could talk about that all week. People say on my profile, I'm splendidly dyslexic, you know, I struggled through school, you know, I've got I've got two degrees. I really love learning. When it comes down to bring a soaking information, I can do it in different ways. I love listening, you know, it's a really good book though Dave, if if I've got the book and the audio book, because it really, I've got my thing going on it because I'm allocating time for that learning. So I do obviously keep notes. The other thing I do is take notes. If there's an audio note, for example, I keep a clip, oh, I save the bookmark, and then come back to it and re listen to it, or come back to it. And again, I mentioned it before, I've got a color coding. So if it's, I don't mind marking up my own books, I've got my highlighters. I see people frowning on the train when they see me in a book. They see it as a textbook though, because if we're buying a book or a book from a library, how we can get we can get a return from a book from a very low investment of 10 pounds. I've gotten a book that less than that. And people have gone and made 1000s of pounds, because there's so much valuable knowledge in there. So again, it's having a color code system may be yellow, right, I'm going to turn that into a post, blue, that's a deeper newsletter. Oh, I'm going to send that to a client. So I listen. Also, because time is so important to me. I listen to my books on 1.5 or 1.2 speed. I don't know if you do that as well. Yeah, I do occasionally. Yeah, but it's great. And some people find that a real struggle. But the top tip of that if you want to listen a book quicker, put it up to two, it's really hard to hear a book or two, but it's much easier then to drop it down to 1.3 or one point for 1.2 and hear the book faster. If you drop it down to one it feels like slow motion. So if a little hack, put the book up to 2.5 You won't understand anything, but then drop it back down for 1.3 and you're really gaining a little bit more efficiency listening to your stuff.

Dave Barr  29:24

Okay. I quite often listen to people like Jim Kwik, you know the, the in the mind guy trying to learn how, what techniques he uses to absorb information and he does find from a rightly I think one of his things is to whizzed through a book extremely high level and just get the flavor it almost before you come back and start to you know, go through it again. Is that something that you've ever done to pick out highlights?

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  29:50

Yeah, not quite like that. I skim read a lot of books and then can go back. So it's, again, it depends on the book. If we're reading a fiction or nonfiction, they say it's a business book in them friction. One technique I did learn from a speed reading course I did a few about 10 years ago, I haven't thought about this radius is imagine a book, it's got four columns, just read column one and column four. It sounds bizarre. And then you read the two like, so you're not reading it line by line, you're reading going down. It's like a skim reading technique. And so it's like, when you see that text, where it's kind of like dyslexic language, it's getting the brain, the brain will recognize what the author is trying to say, or saying. So you can actually your brain will compute like, oh, they're saying this, again, it's a way of tricking the brain by reading a column going down. I've just like, you know, the first inch or two of a book, you get the flavor, you get the kind of substance of the book and then when you go reread it again, like the whole thing, it the memory is lasting, because you've You've tricked the brain of like having to think a little bit harder. And your memory recall will be longer. 

Dave Barr  30:55

That's good. Thanks for the tip there.

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  30:57

One other one is if it's a really, I mean, I did like you read a lot, listen to a lot. I mean, I think during the pandemic, it was 52 books a year, if not more, I just crammed it, I had to go back to some of those books are so good, because it was just too fast a volume. So everyone talks about, you know, the famous, I actually did a book list on my LinkedIn a few days ago. But there's a great book kind of like Essentialism or Atomic Habits. Everyone talks about and references, whatever the book is, if it's a really good for a book, looking for what you need to do right now, whether it be sales, listen to it four times in a row, because on the fourth, listen through or the fourth read, it will, it'll be ingrained. And that will become part of your daily actions. An average book is around about six hours to read six hours, you know, people think, Oh, it's so long to read a book, but break that down into 20 minutes. And suddenly, you can have a whole, you know, you know, average sized book done completed in six hours. So there's lots of different ways. Great question. I love that I can talk about books, and David, the scaffolders has just turned up, 

Dave Barr  31:57

Oh, excellent. Oh, well, well, hopefully, they won't disturb us too much. Perfect. But that's, I think some of these tips are very useful for people, those people who are absorbed in the day to day to know that actually, they could take short soundbites shall we say, from their day, half an hour, that could give them the kind of information or knowledge that could set them on a new path. I think it's important, people are aware of those kind of techniques, those things that could break them out of the trench. So that's why I picked onto that one. Now I just want to jump on you've, you've been, obviously serving clients for a number of years now, you mentioned quite a few hundreds that have, you've got under your belt now, which is great. Now out of them, you probably have lots of stories where you've met very successful business owners that are stuck in what they're doing. And they probably asked you to help them to think more strategically or to change the way they do things for the better of their business going forward. Can you share some of the experiences you've had some of the things you've done, the techniques and activities, perhaps that have helped them to move forward? 

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  33:06

Yeah, absolutely. Client in manufacturing, small business, maybe 20 employees have, you know, part time staff as well. And if he wants to sell the business one day, if you want to sell your business one day, you being the hub of everything lowers the value of that asset. So he was like, I want to sell it one day, but I'm just tied into everything. So he's deeply involved across all operations from you know, production, quality control, sales marketing, like you were saying, No delegation, he wants to do it all because he's so proud of his baby, rightly so he loves his business. And suddenly he sees the end result of actually, it's going to be it's almost depreciating the value now. So as a result, over the last few years, three years we've been working together, it's been removing him and creating different elects SOP standard operating procedures for other people to step in, and follow those procedures, systems run this business, people run systems. So if like, you'll come across this, I'm sure we spoke about this as well, brain drain, if a person is directly running involved in the business, they leave it's huge brain drain to the business. So is having the system running the business, and people run the systems. So training your people on how you want your systems to run is key. So we've been doing that very effectively. The big trifecta, we've talked about the time team, and money, generally goes in a slightly different order. It's normally time then money and then team, it could take, you know, one year to go over one of those really fully across the business. And then you're going on this repetitive cycle of building out the different areas. I think, outcome wise he that breakthrough was in like he suddenly saw the idea automation within the business. Fantastic, then that automation going through the other departments of actually delegating and having them integrate some automation and some systems effectively increases communication. Then the lesson there is like he really took on board. He's a strong manager. But if he is really honest about it, I'm sure he won't mind me saying it is but a poor leader. Whereas the flip has been now he's much more strengthened leadership strength and management, but way more like outsourcing operations to be operational rather than him in that operation. Does that help answer the question? 

Dave Barr  35:18

Yeah, yeah, no, that makes perfect sense, brilliant. Well keeping an eye on the time and the fact you've got some people almost knocking on the window outside? Where can people find out more about you what you do, perhaps learn from your teachings? 

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  35:31

Well, fantastic that you should ask me on this day. So I'd really appreciate it really enjoyed it. Number one, come to LinkedIn. It's Daniel Anderson-Tuffnell. on LinkedIn, you can probably find me very quickly by typing my long name in there is such Daniel Anderson-Tuffnell. And then obviously, business mindsets. co.uk are the two places you can find out more. I'm sure you can come through yourself as well, can't they. 

Dave Barr  35:52

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So let's do a quick final question. Now, we've talked about people trying to break out the trenches. But there's a risk because the business environment, should we say particularly at the moment is changing so rapidly, there's a tendency, perhaps, for people to fall back into that trap, what kind of things would you suggest are ways to ensure that the warning signs of that happening are spotted, and people change from that direction, and come back to working on their business again, without falling into the trap of working in it again?

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  36:29

There's a huge amount we could share here. And I'll be as brief as possible because I know time for coming up. Dynamic, let's become more dynamic. If we're staying in that stagnation of the on on it, then, that it's kind of the same behaviour creates the same results. So we've got to be really thinking about becoming dynamic. What how can I change my mindset, my energy, my presenting to me, my team? What practice or routine and habits do I need to create and a key to there is motivation only last two weeks. So if someone comes in all motivated, two weeks, motivation will stop after two weeks is the limit limit we've got discipline is everything. So getting really disciplined and thinking, let me just work on one key problem over the next 90 days or one month, we'll create that, again, looking at that habit of creating a different schedule to break you free of the on, and working, working overall in the, you know, on the long term performance. Last but not least, set realistic expectations is like, you're not going to just jump from overwhelm straight into own ownership, there's going to be some sweat and tears. There's going to be some fun on the journey, though. But he's stepping back and enjoying that journey. And thinking, how I show up from this moment on is actually my pathway to choose. And I choose again, comes down to like be a bit holding yourself in cause you're not living in effect. It's like, what can I do right now? What do you who I want to be? How would you show up.

Dave Barr  37:54

Brilliant and it's a great way to finish today. Thanks very much for sharing your time today. I know you're a very busy guy, and for sharing so much information with my audience.

Daniel Andersen-Tuffnell  38:03

Thank you so much, Dave. Take care.

Dave Barr  38:05

Bye bye. So there's another Real Life Buyer podcast. I do hope you enjoyed it and it has given you some ideas and inspiration for greater action and achievement. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes, and a five star review will be most appreciated. If you would like to discover more about me and what I do take a look at www.the real life buyer.co.uk. Bye.