Dream First, Plan Second

Most contractors get business backwards, they let their businesses results dictate their lifestyle instead of dreaming on what they want and then figuring out how to build their business to suit it. On this episode of the Elite Business Advice Podcast, we share the importance of dreaming, how to make sure you do it right, and break down the limiting beliefs behind why we have head trash that prevents us from envisioning the life we want to live.

Looking to map out that vision in your head for what your business needs to look like? Schedule a free business analysis meeting with us at www.elitebusinessadvisors.com to see how we help painting contractors all over north America in their business.

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Your life goal and vision becomes your business plan. Once you're clear on what you want in life and what it's going to take to get there, the business plan becomes the easy thing to figure out and then execute on. But most entrepreneurs can't get clear on what they want. Welcome back to the Elite Business Advise Podcast. My name is Chris Moore, the founder of Elite Business Advisors, your host here for the podcast. Let's talk about dreaming. And I know that may sound weird. It might sound like Chris, we're just trying to survive busy season right now. And we can't even think about what tomorrow brings. And I can respect that, but I want to challenge you on this one. Okay. When's the last time that you really stopped and thought about what you want in life? Okay. When was the last time you really sat down and you thought about it? Um, I think that this is something that we don't do enough as entrepreneurs. Um, I've shared on here before. I think we don't do a good job of looking back at the journey we've been on, stopping and reflecting on where we started, where we've, you know, where we came from, um, you know, where the business has grown on, what that journey has looked like. We really suck at that. Um, but the other thing I think we arguably suck at is stopping and thinking about man, what is it that we want our lives to look like? Because here's the thing, and I say most contractors, but I'm also gonna say here most entrepreneurs, they get it backwards, they let their business, you know, be what it is. Okay, either at the the top of their um, you know, personal uh ability to grow it, uh, but but regardless, what it they do is they let their businesses' results just choose the lifestyle they have. But the successful entrepreneurs, and again, to find success and successful, think of whoever comes to your mind is gonna be different for everybody. Um, they choose first and design second. That's why we titled this dream first, plan second, right? Because they figure out what they want and then they figure out how do they go accomplish that and live that life. And so today we're gonna talk about the dreaming part because I think that's where a lot of us get it wrong. A lot of us fall short, a lot of us can't maybe figure out what do we want in life and get clear enough to where then we can put a plane together to go make it happen. So I hope it helps. Thanks for plugging in. Tell me if this sounds familiar. You start to dream a little bit, you think about what you want, you think about that vehicle, that new house, um, that new office, whatever it is, whatever's coming to your mind that you want your life to look like, and your brain immediately stops and says, Let's figure out how we're gonna do that. We're going to implement our mode. Okay, if we're gonna do this, it's gonna cost X amount of dollars per month. And how are we gonna go figure out how to make X amount of dollars per month more? And you immediately become stressed out at the dream. Does that sound familiar? Guess what? I identified that was me. Here's my moment of truth, here's my vulnerability here. Yeah, this is why everybody in life needs a coach. Because a few weeks ago, probably a month ago, my business coach called me out on this. And he said, Chris, you know what your problem is? And I was like, I don't I don't have any problems, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm perfect. Um sarcasm, if you couldn't sense that. He said, as soon as you start thinking about what you and Christina want your life to look like, your brain can't not think dollars and cents and how you're gonna do it. And he said, and that's not a bad thing, it's actually a great trait. I think that's why you've you know done what you guys have done, because you've you've been, you know, smartly calculated about it and stuff. He said, but you don't even allow yourself to dream. He said, because you immediately start stressing about how you're gonna do it, and you don't even let yourself just think about what it would be like. And I was like, hmm. I was like, well, that that's that's worth the entire last year I've paid you for right there in that nugget. Um and so if you're like me, if your brain is wired like me, first off, I apologize, but I really don't because we're awesome and our brains are a gift. Um secondly though, if you are like me and you struggle with that and you start dreaming and you and you you keep stopping the dream because your mind is going into action implement. How are we gonna do this mode? How are we gonna make this happen? And you get stressed, it's okay, but you gotta figure out how to let it go. You gotta dream first, game plan second, right? Here's why I really think that dreaming is so important, and I know I keep saying dreaming, and some of you guys are like, dreaming, that sounds cute. Like, I just mean like dream building, envisioning, thinking about what you want, right? I'm just gonna call it dreaming for sake of argument the rest of this podcast, but that's what I mean by it. Okay, the the power of having the dream and coming up with the dream first is that your life goal and vision becomes your business plan. Once you're clear on what you want in life and what it's going to take to get there, the business plan becomes the easy thing to figure out and then execute on. But most entrepreneurs can't get clear on what they want. Okay. And again, if that hits home, kinda sorry. Kinda not. So I'm on here. I want to tell you the hard truths and the things that maybe you didn't want to hear today. Um, but as we talk about this, as we talk about like figuring out what we want and then letting that become the business plan, I think it's good to also figure out why most entrepreneurs can't get clear on what they want. And when I say what they want, before I share why, when I say what they want, what we want, what you know you want in life, it's it's more along the lines of like you don't have to know what your 20-year vision is. You but you need to be really clear on at least the next one to three years. Um, I really appreciated Dr. Jeff Cornwall here. Um, because he and I are very similar in this. Having a 10-year business plan is like arguably to some degree, like not even a practical thing to waste your time on. Because so much is going to change. Okay. I think it's good to know the vision you want to go towards. I think it's good to have a clear picture, you know, down the road of just where you're going. But I don't think you have to have it all mapped out. But I think you need to know what the next one to three years looks like for your life and for your business. And after that, you can revision the next one to three years, right? Um, if I'm being perfectly honest, I have a really clear vision for where EBA is going in the next one to three years, and like what that like next kind of big decision point probably is gonna look like for our business is is, you know, I think we have decision points very similar to you guys as painting contractors. You have those decision points, right? When you decide to go beyond yourself and an administrative person, you're you're kind of making that decision that like we're gonna grow to probably a million or a little bit more than that, because financially that's just what needs to be done to make sense. But then you can kind of get to that one to one point five million range with your project manager, with your estimator, with your office staff, and then like you get there, and then you can decide, okay, if we're going to the next stage, which is closer to two and a half to three million, now you're gonna need double all of these positions. That's the next big decision point. But until then, you don't really have to worry about that next stage, right? And so, but really clear vision on where we're going the next one to three years. I have a really clear vision of what that next decision point looks like, and I'm not too worried about what comes after that just yet, because I'm just focused on getting there, and then I'm gonna see if that's enough, if that's what we want, if they're you know, if we should continue going and trying to grow, if you know, I mean, there's so many different things that come into my mind with that, and and so we don't have to be clear on what the 10 to 20 year business plan looks like, but we need to get clear on what we want in life, even if it's just over the next one to three, arguably five years. Okay. Here's why I think most entrepreneurs can't get clear on what they want. It's because they have limiting beliefs based on what their past has been. They have limiting beliefs based on the things that they teach themselves, tell themselves, continue to reinforce that may or may not even be true. Right? If you've maybe never, you know, I'm just gonna throw something out there. If you've never made $200,000 in a year in your life before, um it's gonna be really probably hard for you to believe you can do it. Right? Now there's people that are gonna say, Well, I've made a hundred, why couldn't I make two hundred? And they're gonna go do it. But then there's other people that are gonna go, Well, yeah, I've made a hundred thousand, but I've never made two hundred grand before, so I don't think I can actually do that, right? And so they start to limit themselves and tamp down their expectations of what's possible in their life and in their business. Okay. And so I think we have a lot of limiting beliefs in a lot of different ways. Whether it is we've never done this, so we don't think we can do it, and we have to rewire our brain to be like, well, that's stupid. Um, I never walked before when I was, you know, two years old, but guess what? I figured it out. So I didn't go, well, mom, you know what, you're right. I know I'm only two years old, but I've never walked before, so I'm just never going to. No, like I've figured you you figure it out, right? So I think it's it's really important that we have to like check our thinking here, okay? Some of you guys are gonna listen to this and you already are thinking it. You already have head trash, you know. We're 10 minutes into this episode, and you're already trashing your own head about stuff here. Um, and you're gonna say, Well, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, right? Well, I've been doing it this way for 15 years. Like, what's gonna change? I don't know. Have you met my good friend Nick Slavic? Have you heard his story about how it was him and I think two or three painters for like 17 years of their business? And then he finally was like, Nope, there's gotta be a different way. And he plugged into PCA and education and all these other things, and kind of changed his business, changed his life, has changed a lot of your lives probably because of Nick making a switch. So don't tell me that. Here's my favorite quote. And I've come up with this. If I'm being truthful, I came up with this while playing sports. Not gonna lie, but I think it's probably one of the best quotes that we need when it comes to mindset in our business, in our lives, and it's that past performance doesn't dictate future results. This is a foundational thing. Gary Chupik from Elite Mindset, he's coming back to speak the VIP on our retreat again this year. He'd tell you that all day. Past performance doesn't dictate future results because what's happened in the past doesn't actually dictate what the future holds. Right? If you're open to new thinking, here's where that came up. Golf, softball field, all these different places where I'm sitting there about to hit a t-shot, right? And I'm like, man, that last hole I really hooked it left and you know, hit it in the water, whatever. And I started thinking that, and I'm like, nope, hold on. Past performance doesn't dictate future results. Did the same thing on the church softball field this year a couple of times, like bobbled a ball, something. It's like, oh man, like I'm already getting my head about it, and it's like, nope. And guess what? I've done the same thing in business too. Because what we've done in the past doesn't automatically guarantee what we're doing in the future. Whether that's good, okay. Let me also say this. Just because I hit a drive 340 yards down the middle of the fairway and just crush it doesn't mean that I'm also gonna do that on the next hole. And if you're a golfer, you know why that's hilarious because it probably won't happen. It's okay. It's gonna happen sometimes, but it's not always gonna happen. So we can talk about bad past performance, we can talk about good past performance. It's not gonna dictate those future results. Okay. So stop limiting yourself, stop limiting your mind, stop telling yourself these stories that's keeping you from dreaming to figure out what you want in life. Because again, nothing about your business and your business plan matters if you're not clear on what you want your life to look like. And I always say, look at that in terms of time freedom and money freedom, whatever that means to you. How much time do you want to spend working in your business? What do you want to be doing with that time every week? And then how much money do you need or want your business to make to provide this life that you want for you and your family? All right. Life isn't all about money. Let me be clear. But money gives you options, okay? Um, money gives you options to think about things. Here's some things I want you to dream on, okay? Um here's a perfect one. The options and freedom, obviously, of time, as I just said, but what about for your spouse or for your kids? Right? Like if your spouse didn't have to work in a job and could be a stay-at-home mom or homeschool your kids or whatever that looks like, what what would that do differently? Right? What is that number you need to even make that happen? Again, don't go there first, but what would that dream even look like? Is that something you want, right? Um, would you put your kids in a different school instead of maybe public school, they'd go to a private school, or instead of you know, hodgepodge and daycare together, it's like, man, there's this great place, we'd send them there if if just you know money wasn't like you know the only thing stopping us, right? Um that's what I say. Like, I I this isn't about greed or having as much money or just you know living on a yacht, burning hundred dollar bills like it's a music video. That's not what I'm talking about. Like, I'm talking about money that gives you options in life. Here's another big one. Not just where would you travel, what would you do, where would you want to go, but let's talk about how you travel. Okay, I made a rule a long time ago. Actually, two rules. Um, one, I'll never do a budget vacation ever again because there's nothing, in my opinion. Now I'm saying like we're not, I'm not gonna be stupid here, okay, but there's nothing worse than going on vacation and like counting every dollar and penny while you're there. We have a vacation fund, we put money into it, we know roughly, you know, what a good trip would cost. And if we're a little over, we're a little bit under, we're gonna go have a great time on vacation. Okay, that's not a flex, by the way. I'm sharing that because I want that for you. Because the first trip that we ever took to Vegas, I was like, Christina, we're, you know, I don't know, 27 years old, whatever we were at the time. Um, we have $2,000, $2,500. We stayed at the Flamingo Hotel, no offense to Flamingo. And her introduction to Vegas was as we were getting on the elevator to go to our room at nine in the morning, somebody was puking in the trash can. Um, and I was like, okay, well, uh, this is interesting. Um, and we we made it work and we had a great time. But guess what? I was like, I don't want to do that again. I want to stay somewhere maybe a little bit nicer. Um that's never happened any place we've stayed since then. Um, and I want to just, if we want to go to dinner here, we're gonna go to dinner here. Now I'm not gonna get a $400 steak because I don't need to. But guess what? If our bill is $200, I'm not gonna worry about it, right? So that to me was a big thing. Um, on that same note, uh, I also if unless I can't avoid it, I have another rule. It's I only take nonstop flights and I don't do flights before 8 a.m. Because I don't want to get up and go to the airport at four in the morning, because that's not a way to start a vacation. Okay. Again, not a flex, not crispy and picky. It's just what I've realized that a little bit more money solves problems. Now, again, there's times where I might have to take a 6 a.m. flight with a connection because of where we're going, what we're doing, whatever. But I'm gonna do everything I can to get that 10 a.m. flight on a non-stop somewhere, and as long as it flows, we're gonna start our vacation because we left our house at 8, not at 4 in the morning. Okay. So those are some things I want you to think about. What's your lifestyle look like? What are the options that you would do that you would have differently? And it it can be material things. Okay, I'm not one of those people that says, like, material things are terrible. I think they can serve a purpose. Um, I would argue not to become obsessed with them, and I think that's part of the reason why I am not completely anti-materialistic things because I'm very guarded and try to have a good relationship with those things, right? Um, I know where my joy and my hope and my happiness comes from, and it's not in material things. That being said, material things to some people can be a terrible thing, right? So I don't think it's bad to think about the material things you would have, right? If something brings you happiness and joy, again, as long as it's not the only source of your happiness and joy, right? It's not gonna solve all your problems if you're miserable, depressed, and sad, buying a new truck that makes you happy isn't gonna do much after that first month when the newness wears off, right? So that's where I think it gets dangerous. Um, I wanted to keep this short because this could get drawn out, but I I believe in concise over just drawing things out. Okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go make a list of a few things. I want you to make two lists and put at least five things on each list. I want you to make the the big hairy audacious goal list. Like, man, like if if if literally money were no object and our bank account had unlimited zeros, what would life look like? Right. Um And that may sound crazy, but just do it, okay? And then the other thing I want you to do is I want you to make a list of what in the next one to three years do you want your life to look like? Whether that is a new house, whether that is your, you know, a spouse not working in their business, whether that's a lake house. That's something that Christine and I are dreaming about, trying to figure out if it's something that we really do want in the next couple of years. Um, maybe it's putting a pool in at your house and doing something to your current house to make more memories and you know, host people and entertain people, like whatever it is. Two lists, five things on each one. Shoot me an email, shoot me a DM once you do it. I want to see it, and I want to celebrate those wins with you as you chip off that list over the next one to three years. Dream big, play and stuff. Thanks for plugging into this week's episode. I hope you're able to take a few nuggets away from it to implement into your business. Remember, knowledge without implementation is useless. If you're curious about what we do and how we help painting contractors all over North America, schedule a free business analysis meeting with us at www.elitebusinessadvisors.com. Our entire team of advisors can brand and manage painting companies just like myself that are here to help support you on your journey. We have packages available for contractors at every stage of business, from flying solo and just starting out, all the way to multi million dollar businesses. And lastly, if you love this episode, please leave us a rating and a review. It helps others on the platform find our podcast, and it can be the best blessing that's ever happened to them. Thanks to you. Thanks for plugging in, and we'll see you back for next week's episode.