Episode 141 | FAQs : Scott & Drew on Leadership, Hiring & Legacy

Why does growth make business feel harder—not easier?

In this third FAQ episode, Scott Peper and Drew Aldridge break down the real challenges contractors face as they scale—from hiring leaders and building culture to making smarter long-term decisions.
They cover:

• Why problems feel bigger as your company grows
• When it’s time to hire your first real leader
• Whether leadership can actually be taught
• Why a bad hire can be worse than no hire at all
• And how core values separate companies that survive from those that thrive

If you’re building a business and want it to scale the right way, this episode is for you.

Submit your questions for future episodes by emailing marketing@mobilizationfunding.com

Learn more: https://mobilizationfunding.com/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We almost died. Like it was almost game over.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

So you doing everything, I mean, especially as you're growing at that rate. I think rate of growth is something that's really important to talk about here. As you're growing at that rate, you doing everything is not sustainable. So then teaching, coaching others to be able to do that work, not only the way you do it effectively, but also empowering them to say, hey, I'm not like operating in this vacuum. There might be better ways to actually achieve that.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

100%. Hey everybody, welcome to the next episode of the mobilization mindset. My name is Scott Pieper, CEO and founder of Mobilization Funding, and today we are bringing you another episode of Frequently Asked Questions. These are questions coming directly from you. We hear them all the time. We are asked all the time. And today we're going to be talking about recruiting, hiring, scaling, culture, and even more. Of course, I got my cohort here with me, Drew Aldridge. And we are going to be going at it again.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Now remember, you can put your own questions in at marketing at mobilizationfunding.com. Email them in. Our team will take care of those. We'll add them to the show and we will ask the very questions you're looking to answer if we have not done that already. So again, marketing at mobilizationfunding.com. All right, Drew. Welcome, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Yeah, glad to be here. Let's do let's roll it again. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

All right. First question. Why do problems feel bigger as my company grows? Great question. Drew, what do you think?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yeah, I mean, it's I think this applies to really any company, but you know, we can apply it directly to the trades. You take a four or five million dollar company, you're focusing entirely on just getting jobs done, right? And you can probably, as an owner, handle managing a lot of the uh the back office type support for those jobs. But then when you grow to a 15, 20, 30 million dollar company, you're adding cooks in the kitchen, right? You need that support to handle your financials, your HR. You know, you're estimating, and the and the list goes on. I think a lot of the problems in the beginning really just start with, hey, I had this original culture. I had these original core values in my company. I need to then transpire those across a wider group of people and not just my guys in the field who are doing the work, right? You I have to actually empower those people who are a little bit removed from the work, who are critical to get that critical to getting that work done, right? But they're not as connected to the actual work, right? So, uh, but they're they're vital to it. So like empowering those values to them and getting them committed, that that could be one thing that that is really challenging for a growing company.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Yeah. I would add something to that too, though. And I know I don't know the context to the question that the person was asking, but I'll I'll add this. I think a company going from one million to ten million is a lot. It's probably the some of the most difficult things to do. But I can tell you also, all everything you said is difficult. But it's a lot more difficult if you aren't also educating yourself at the same time your company's growing. So true. And and I say that from experience, and I say from then going to get education. So what fun fact about mobilization funding is we had a the certain metrics we measure ourselves by one of them is funding. How much funding do you do? And like, what's your portfolio size? Well, we had a at today's portfolio size, we had that at one point in 2017. Um, probably 60-70% of it, and it was there for like maybe six months. But I'm telling you, and you know this now seeing us our growth, but that that that horse bucks like and it kicks and it does a lot of different things. And I didn't know jack shit about what was going on. And you I didn't know to add people, I didn't know, and that you get this this accrual-based PL that your account gives you, and you think you're making all this money. Yeah, in the lending business, you got to collect the money, actually, guys, to get it back. It's a little different, just like you have to perform and actually get paid. It's the same concept, but I say that because it looks good, and then these wheels were all over the place. I hadn't put in core values, I hadn't put in systems. Uh, we had me and two other partners and some like couple support staff helping us like do individual things all by ourselves. And like we almost died, like it was almost game over.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

So you doing everything's, I mean, especially as you're growing at that rate. I think rate of growth is something that's really important to talk about here. Yeah. As you're growing at that rate, you doing everything is not sustainable. So then teaching, coaching others to be able to do that work, not only the way you do it effectively, but also empowering them to say, hey, I'm not like operating in this vacuum. There might be better ways to actually achieve this. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

And it got harder, but it was like you felt like it was impossible. Now, back up, fast forward. Now we we wind the portfolio down to like 25% of its size. We hire people, we survive. It took six years before we saw that portfolio size again. Six years before that portfolio size was there. And I can't even count how many different people, employees, leaders, partners that came and went inside that six-year period. The reason I say that though is when we grew back to that point and then doubled that point and then doubled that point again, it was hard, but it wasn't chaotic and it wasn't uncontrollable. And I didn't have the same like anxiety of I don't know what the hell I'm doing. It was hard in that I know what I gotta do, which is hard in itself. And so then all the things you just said, bringing in new people, have new ideas, better ideas than yours, better ways to do it than you think. You don't have to have all the plans to be able to do that. Being open to that.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

And let like you got to let go a little bit. I mean, you you you used a really cool analogy, I think it was two or three months ago, and and we had a lot of business coming in, and and ever, you know, everything seems to be organized chaos. Everything like the box, you said use the the box is shaken, and I and I came to you, I'm like, man, there's so much going on out there. I you know, I I've my dire you know my attention is in so many different directions right now. And you said, when the box is shaken, that means things are probably about to be real good, right? And and also kind of relish in that. Just because there's stress, just because the box is shaken, yeah, doesn't mean that you're not doing the things properly, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:39

It and it like it's supposed to be hard, right? So it's like you're doing something new, every time you grow, you're it's new to you. And and people think, oh, I'm looking at everyone else, they make it look easy or they make it look lucky. Some people are they're lucky and easy, but they're not. They just they're just comfortable in it because of what I was saying earlier. They've been they educated themselves and they grew as well. So they've expanded their capability and ability while the business was expanding at the same time. And that provides a lot of comfort. Education, reading, mentorship, peer groups, all that stuff, listening to podcasts, whatever it is, it that expansion in your own knowledge gives you peace and comfort in the chaos of hard.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Yeah, and the last thing I'll just add directly to that. I mean, to close this question out is with growth comes responsibility, and you have to lean into that learning. You have to lean into that. You you don't un you don't know everything. You know, you're not a self-made man who worships you know their creator. You gotta understand that there's other people out there that that are gonna help you. Um so I think that's that's it that's the solution right there. P it starts with people.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

And and the education part's more important than actually going to the job site if you don't have it. You'll know what to do when you get there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Question number two, how do I know when to make that first leadership hire? I think the most important thing to think about is is for you to be well grounded and and understand fully where you are sort of in the journey of your company. Um usually within growth, right, you're you're trying to figure out, okay, I've got a problem or or a challenge here, but really understanding what that problem and challenge is and the core root of what you're trying to solve too, right? To get you from point A to point B as quickly as possible. I think if you identify a large leadership gap in the company, because you as an owner are just stretched too thin. I need a deputy. You know, I'm out in the field, I'm running these jobs myself, but I'm also doing every, you know, the strategy and the vision and all that type stuff. I need someone out in the field that can actually replicate me. Once you say to yourself, especially in the early stages, I need to somehow replicate myself.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Okay, so that's thought process number one. Thought process number two, you have to be extremely honest with yourself and say, am I ready to lean in? Do I have the time, do I have the energy and dedication to lean in to actually put in the work to help replicate that person, replicate myself from that person? Because the reality is they ain't gonna figure it out on their own.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

No.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Um, I think those are the two, and if you can say, yes, there's a problem, I have it. A leader is the solution, and yet internally, me, I have the time and willingness and the capability and the skill to actually lead them to be a leader. That's uh a very powerful process right there.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Yeah, I agree with that. I think the short answer is as soon as you possibly can, and sooner than you think.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

But what I'll say is a lot of times people think, oh, I I if you don't have a partner that you start the business with, you hope your partner's that. And um, I got great advice, not related to this question, but related to like just positions and teams in general. And it came from Andy Frasilla. He said, When you have one, you have none, and when you have two, you have one.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

And we have that conversation a lot.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

A lot. Yeah, and it was great advice. He gave it to me in 2018, and I remember thinking to myself, man, I got one of everything. I'm in, I'm in real, I'm a real problem. Yeah. And I think where where it comes from is two things. As a business owner or the leader of a business, you're trying to think about how you can. This is one of the reasons why you don't take money out of the business, because you need to invest in these kind of positions before you actually need them. Because leadership positions also need to understand a lot. They can't they don't come in just like ready to go. And if you're especially if you're cultivating a leader along the way and you're a newer business or a younger business, you're not going out and hiring this like seasoned CEO leader. And so you're you you have to find someone with the innate characteristics that believes in your vision and bolts onto it.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

And so I mean, I think you need to have your values set first before you even think about hiring leaders.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

100%, because then you know you live the someone's gonna at least buy into that. And so I would say those are with those are the thought processes in mind. Um, and yes, if you're the if you're the person checking out and walking the job sites every single day, and your team and staff are there and you have a superintendent, great. You definitely need someone else to be able to do that. And that's where the term, you know, delayed gratification comes in, or you know, waiting before you take any money out, just reinvesting in the business, those are the positions you reinvest into versus taking more money out yourself. And those positions then scale and grow it to a level where then by the time you're taking money out of the business, there's there's it's not a question of whether you could or should, it's it's there.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

It also depends really on what your goals are, right? I mean, if you want to eventually get to a scenario where you're not even really working in the business anymore and the business is running on its own, it's just a cash flow uh income stream for you. That's a very different scenario than if you really want to be embedded in the business in perpetuity. And the reality is in assessing whether you want to have and hire a leader and whether you're ready, it is an ego conversation. Right? I think you have to have an internal conversation with yourself and say, where do I have gaps as a leader? Where can I uh where can I really um mitigate the risks associated with my own personal leadership gaps? And that might just be a expertise in a certain subject area that you don't have, or not you, but you know, a leader doesn't have. Hey, I need to hire someone that shares my same values who can who I can replicate, but also in an in a in um uh in addition, has a skill set that it that really fills one of the gaps I have as the visionary of the company.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yeah. You know what's funny is I'm sitting here thinking about this as you're listening to you, the thought came into my mind if you talk to a typical business owner and someone were to ask you what do you do, and you go into explaining what the business does. So let's use a trade contractor, you're running a three to ten million dollar business, and some and you're the owner or you're a leader of the business, and someone says, What do you do? You're like, Oh, we are we're a stucco contractor, we do concrete, we do masonry, we do electrical, whatever. And then of course you keep going, and that's the answer to your question. You probably need a leader. You need someone because what you're really doing is you're a business owner at that point. You're running a business. It doesn't matter what the business does, you're managing people, you're building processes, you're managing systems, you're creating culture, you're handling employee personnel problems. And if you still are doing and thinking like this is what the business does, instead of paying saying, here's what I am, here's what I do, then you probably need a leader or you need to start thinking like a business owner and get out of your leader's way if you already have leaders in place.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and and when you consider that first big leader in the company, uh you know, when you're hiring that first kind of big deputy, think down the road two years, three years, four years, is this someone that can also replicate themselves and other people?

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Right? Do they have that capability? Because you can have a great leader out in the field, but if they can't create more leaders, that's not as much of a force multiplier than then maybe you deserve as a business owner.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

100%. Question number three can leadership be taught or is it an inherent trait? Drew, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Yeah, I'll actually have a thought on that? Yeah, I'll I'll take a little bit of that one. Um I think there are inherent traits in individuals that uh lend uh bend them more to leader, you know, maybe to be a little more leadership position. But I absolutely think leadership can be taught because nobody's born the perfect leader. I don't think there is even a perfect, I mean, other than Jesus Christ as being the perfect leader to me, you know, I don't think there's anybody out there alive right now that is just born a perfect leader. Um But what I would what I would say is I started my leadership journey, and I was lucky to have a father who's in the military and who led a company, and it instilled a lot of values in me, like a lot of leadership values, and I'm so thankful for that. And then I learned as well by reading biographies and reading books about leadership, and then kind of all the self-help books that some of them are fluffy, some of them are really good. I learned a lot through that. And then you learn from watching. So I've had the benefit, folks, I've been here uh a year and about four months, and I thought I knew a ton about leadership. I thought I knew how to empower people, but then I have the opportunity to watch you, which has been one of the joys of my career. And I learned something every single I mean that just today, I was like, man, we got a sales meeting today. I know you're not normally in those. Can you jump in with me? I just want to see you handle, I haven't seen you handle a sales meeting in about two or three months. I just want to watch you and learn. So you can you can watch people and then you get feedback from people. So that's a long-winded answer of me saying, I I really truly believe some people are a little bit more geared towards leadership by a function of how they communicate and who they are. But if you don't, one part of leadership is to watch your own ego, right? And watch your own ambition too. And if you can do that and lean on people like yourself, or if you have a mentor out there in your in in your company, lean on those experiences. By the way, last thing I'll say here. Some of the most profound and impactful leadership lessons that I've learned, which would be learning leadership, I've learned from leaders that I've watched and I I've said, I would never do that.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

And I take notes about it.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Well, that's how they learn too.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

I think, I think to your point, I think you can be born with certain characteristics that will allow you to be more prone to be comfortable being a leader. But I do think it's it's important to recognize that you're leading no matter what. People are watching you, random strangers are watching you, people are emulating what you do, what you don't do. So you're always leading something somewhere. And and that person or something somewhere at a minimum is always yourself. And so I think when people ask that question, they're probably thinking, oh, like, can they get on a stage and lead this company or can they go to a team meeting and be a leader? But I think at the every leadership journey, no matter what, starts with like the leadership you have in yourself, those voices you have in your head. Can you control them? Are you in control over them? Do you do what you say you're gonna do each day? I mean, what do you stand for? What do you stand for? How are you gonna be? You decide that in your own mind, and then you either emulate those traits yourself or not. But to answer the question, probably as the way it was designed, is no, once you realize that, I think you can take over your own ownership. And when you're leading yourself in a really good way, which is aligned to the way you want to be, you can then see how other people are following your lead too. And if you even if you don't work at a company and you're not a leader in the company of some kind by position, position doesn't really matter because the second you have kids, you're gonna have somebody you're gonna be leading those kids. You're gonna be leading your spouse, you're gonna be leading your family in some way. I mean, someone's always watching you. Even if you just go to the grocery store, a random stranger that's observing you is gonna be led one way or another, you know. And so I think once you realize that, you start to realize like, oh, I'm not born a leader. And if you are a real leader and you were to say that to one, they might be moderately insulted because they clearly did a lot of work to be in the position they're in to lead. They didn't just like get born into it. That would be like pretty, pretty foolish thinking that they just became this polished leader all of a sudden. They've made a pile of mistakes, they worked on themselves, they poured into that, and they might have had great mentors and guidance. But I think it's um I think it's critical to give yourself some benefit of the doubt and realize A, we're all leaders, you're leading yourself. B, you can do anything you really want to do. It might be harder for you than others, but there's things that are easier for you too. And um if it's something you want to do, start with yourself.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Yeah, I mean, I think leadership is a contact sport, right? I mean, I think one of our core values for for those of you that don't know is leadership through action, right? Um, you know, one one phrase that I also grew up with was deeds, not words. Right? It's it's it's it's incredible the influence that you can have on your people by actually just doing an action. Because people, as you're as a leader, whether I tell all of our team here, you're all in one shape or form a leader. And because you all have responsibility. And every action you take, whether it be in underwriting or or in servicing or sales or marketing, people are watching and people are judging to a degree. And if you do it well, guess what's what's gonna happen? Other people are gonna want to perform really well too.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Because one of their teammates is. That is an act, action of leadership. And what I was saying about, you know, people, I didn't mean people are born to be a leader. What I meant what I the only thing I was trying to say there is I think certain people have certain personality characteristics that just might naturally bend them to, you know, they might be able to woo people or talk very well, or but that does not make them a leader. It's just characteristics that might point them in that direction. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

And don't mistake an eloquent speaker as a leader.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

No, I mean we can see that we can see that every day on CNN, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Question number four is it worse to leave a role vacant or hiring the wrong person?

SPEAKER_01 21:04

You want me to tap?

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Yeah, I mean, Scott, I kind of want you to hit on this first.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Um all right, there's context that I think is important here, like what size is the company, how many people are there, but let's give it the benefit where you're not all by yourself and there's only two roles in the company. Okay, like like someone you need, you just there's the assumption you have some people in your company. Yeah, I think so. I don't participate in the the thought process that we might hear where it says, you know, somebody's better than nobody, or a warm body is better than nobody. I don't believe that. So I guess inherently I'd rather leave a position vacant and allow the rest of the team that are the right fit to absorb that role while we transition and find the right person, than I would to put the wrong person. In there and disrupt everyone. Because as soon as you put the wrong person in, you have to know that by the time you go from the time they start to the time you figure out they're the wrong person, and then the time you repeat the process that you just went through to basically find another person, you inherently are duplicating a lot of work and effort and dragging out what already is a need for a longer period of time. So by definition, I don't see how that could possibly be good. And I try to also make decisions for the long term, not the short term. So does that mean that you know you lose the person that's accomplishing specific tasks that are very um task-oriented roles? You can't find a person to fill that or a role to fill that temporary labor, for example, or an outsourced service to fill a gap. No, you can do that. But a permanent hire in a role should be you should take your time and you should hire the right person that meets your core value, meets your core values, and I'd rather have that position open and open for longer than I would to hire the wrong person.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

This is kind of hard to add to because I think you eloquently sort of demonstrate exactly how I feel. I mean, I I mean this guy goes back to the fact that I don't understand how you can hire people without a set of core values. And that that that's going to be incredibly redundant coming from me. I know that I know I've said it over and over again, but I don't understand how you can hire uh in in an effective way if you don't have those core values. And that's that's I mean, you've seen me in interviews, that's how I interview people. I interview people based on our core values. I mean I might I might not use those core values words in the interview, but all my questions are around uh one of our core values.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Well, what do they believe?

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Yeah, what do they I mean, I asked like, what do you believe? I mean, some one of the questions I asked in interviews is like, what do you want? I inter I interviewed two people in a row probably two months ago, and we sat down, and the first question was like, Hey, you know, Drew Alders, nice to meet you know, nice to meet you. What's your name? Blah, blah, blah. And I said, What do you want? And they're like, What do you what do you mean, what do I want? I was like, just uh this is this is your answer. You tell me, what do you want? And they talk, and then all of a sudden they talked for 25 minutes. I knew exactly what they wanted. I learned so much about them. And um, and then kind of asked more more pointed questions. Another thing is when you create a culture in a company where people are committed versus just compliant to the core values and the mission of the company, they want to be stretched more than they want someone coming in that doesn't fit within the team.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Oh, yeah, I agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

So when i i there's been oftentimes where I've talked to various members of our team out there and say, hey, you I I kind of want to pick y'all's brain, you think we need an extra person in this this department? And the answer is, yeah, we're stretched then, but let's get the right one. I'm I'm ready to be stretched a little bit. I'm ready to work a little bit harder because I would rather not go through the pain of having someone that that ruins the the you know the vibe in here. Yeah. Um and I'm using vibe loosely, but that our core values.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Yeah, culture, vibe, it's all I mean same thing. Yeah. Uh question number five. Do core values actually matter or are they just corporate fluff? Um, well, if you've if this is your first time listening to this podcast, then you're gonna find out really quickly how important they are. If it's not, then you already know the answer to this question. But from Drew, your perspective, how do you see core values?

SPEAKER_00 25:37

If if there's anything you want to add to it that you're Yeah, I mean, first off, core values are your North Star. Um, we empower our team members to make a lot of decisions on their own. There are times where they do not have someone like you or me or Rachel or or one of the directors or Autumn in the room to help guide them make that decision. But that decision needs to be made right there. And what I've told the team is if you ever don't know the answer, lean on the core values, and I promise you you cannot go wrong if you lean on the core values. But let me tell you one other thing about core values. Core values can also erode the credibility of you as a company and as a leader if you don't live up to them. Oh, yeah. There are organizations, I mean, it there's that old saying, if you have the core values on the wall but nobody really knows them and and and they're not embodied by leadership, attitude, you know, it's the uh remember the Titans. I forgot the guy's name and remember the Titans. He's a attitude reflects leadership, action reflects leadership. And if you don't embody those core values, that can totally erode your credibility as a leader.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Yeah. No, you're right. If um it might be better to not have core values.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

If you won't own them.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Than it would be, yeah, if you won't own them, than it would be to have them and do the opposite. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

I mean, yeah. Core values require I mean, I keep keep on going back to responsibility. Core values require responsibility. It's their responsibility to live by those core values. And we talked about action earlier on in this podcast, into your deeds have to match up with those core values. Not just your words, but your deeds. You gotta churn those words on a wall into actual belief through action.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

That's right. And look, does that mean you're not gonna make a mistake? No. Does that mean you have to be that way all the time? You should, but you know, look, we just we also talked today about how hard business is. We talked about expanding business, talk about pressures of business. There's gonna be times where you're gonna miss miss the mark. You're just you're you might act in a different way. Um, that doesn't mean you should you're gonna lie, cheat, steal, but you might not behave the way you normally do. But that gives you an opportunity to identify that, speak of that. Hey, here's how I miss the mark. And that also should add to your core value. So you can, you know, you're not supposed to be perfect, but you should identify when you're not, own it, and do your best the next time.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

I mean, we're all imperfect people. I mean, how many times have we had one of our colleagues uh mess up and maybe didn't embody one of our core values? But that was actually an opportunity for them to embody core value because they owned up to it, which is being humble, which is one of our core values. That's right. Right? I mean, owning up to your shortcomings, owning up to your actions is is a critical part of leadership credibility, but also just workplace credibility.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

That's right. It's hard.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Question number six What is the difference between a company that is just surviving and a company that is thriving? Scott, I'm gonna kind of let you lean in on this one.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Yeah. Um, you know, I think a company that's just surviving is one that, again, I'll use let's use the construction context. You're you're maintaining, you're doing work, you're doing the same customers, you're taking care of it, you have a couple good customers, you're adding some new ones, but you're not quite expanding and growing at the pace you want to be. Or maybe you're adding a lot of growth on the top line, but your business is getting harder and harder, and you're not making as much money, or you're not making any money, or you don't even know if you're making money. You're you're you're finding that it's difficult to run the business at the levels that you're at. So you're just kind of making it work. You're doing a lot of the same things you were doing two, three years ago when you were a quarter of the size, a half the size as you are when you're twice the size. Those are signs that you're literally just surviving. You're just kind of there, in my opinion. Um a thriving company is as you're growing, your ex your roles expanding and changing with it. The things you do on a daily basis, the things you do on a weekly basis, the types of information you're analyzing, the types of conversations you're having, the types of meetings you're running. And again, I'm speaking to the leadership or the ownership or the partners of this, and and and this should go for all roles too, but particularly the owners and leaders. If you find that as your company is growing, your roles and things you're doing are also growing and different, then you're probably thriving. And the reason I say that is you are now growing on top of systems and processes and additional leaders and people that you've either brought on or cultivated. Um, you're you're executing work, you're performing work, that work is consistent, you're able to do it better and better and better because you have different information, you have different equipment, you have different people and systems, all that stuff changes. And so I would probably say that that's a really good indicator outside of just looking at systems or looking at processes or looking at your financials. Those are feelings that you're having and you experiencing that, you're probably more of a thriving business than you are just surviving. And of course, the antithesis of that is you're just surviving instead of thriving.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Yeah. Um, yeah, to to put all that in context and in the form of I'm gonna take a little bit different of a lean, in the form of emotion. Like if you're running, if all the decisions that you're making in your company are driven by a pure emotional feeling, then you're probably just surviving. Yeah. However, to build on what you said, you've created all these systems to support that growing business. You've done done everything you can do to reinvest back in that business to support what your goal is, by the way, have a goal, have a mission, have a sort of a vision of where you want to be three, five, ten years from now. And then you have all those systems in place, then you're making decisions based on discipline. And the only way you can have an environment where you're making decisions based on discipline is by putting in that work and building those repeatable systems. Like, I mean, business is just a series of inputs, right? And if you can adequately put those inputs in a process that can run on its own, and then you're at a point where you're literally making growth decisions.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

You're making strategic decisions, partnership decisions, new vendor decisions that can better that infrastructure that you've already created. You're making disciplined decisions based on what you have and what you know you can execute versus emotional decisions when you're kind of taking your business day by day.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

Yeah. I mean, and the the the inputs you mentioned day after day after day create repeatable outputs that come to you output day after day after day after day. And that is the function of not just surviving.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Yeah, and you taught me this. This is actually cool. One day you asked me, you said, Drew, what do you think momentum is? And I've had this, and I can't, I cannot take credit for the definition of this. But I said, I think momentum is just like a big win, man. You're just getting wins after wins after wins. You're like, dude, that's not momentum. That that generates that's just that's just wins, right? Momentum is creating that system and doing every small thing right over and over and over again. And once you mess one of those up, you lose a little bit of momentum. And momentum is really, really hard to get get back. But if you can almost like, if your company can almost do all of those small little inputs that when put together, all of them are extremely important. And almost do it, the company can do it in its sleep almost. That's when you're decisioning based on discipline. Yeah. And that's when you're thriving.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Those boring, monotonous things you just do over and over and over and over again. Those are the things that you don't ever really want to talk about, but those are the things that create the big win. That consistent momentum over and over and over again is what creates those things that you do want to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

I think so many business owners out there who are filthy rich will tell you, may not tell you, but won't admit it's like the most boring things that I did as a business owner are the ones that make me are the things that make me rich.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

Well, I think one of the things about being successful is getting used to the that fact that just doing the same boring thing over and over again that you think is boring is the real success. Being disciplined to do that versus getting distracted and doing something new, doing something different, going over here, touching this shiny toy, touching that shiny toy. You pick your inline and you consistently just stay within it and be disciplined. That's the that's what leads to success. I think that's spot on. All right, Drew. I think that's a wrap on our latest frequently asked questions. Remember, everyone, uh, marketing at mobilizationfunding.com. You can put your own questions in there. We are happy to answer them. Give us some new ones, try it out, put them in. Our team's grabbing them. We're gonna talk about those on the next episode as well. Until next time, we'll see you soon. Have a great week and may God bless you.