Stop Chasing Vanity Metrics

 keywords

success, business, family, values, leadership, priorities, fulfillment, metrics, hustle culture, community


 summary

In this episode of the Off the Ladder Podcast, Branden Sewell discusses the true meaning of success, emphasizing the importance of aligning business goals with personal values and family priorities. He challenges the conventional metrics of success, advocating for a holistic approach that prioritizes fulfillment over financial gain. Branden shares insights on leadership, delegation, and the need to balance work with family life, encouraging listeners to reflect on what truly matters in their lives. He also highlights the significance of community support in achieving business goals and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.


 takeaways

Success should align with personal values and fulfillment.
Avoid comparing yourself to others' success metrics.
Define your priorities to guide your business decisions.
Family and personal life should not be sacrificed for business success.
Leadership involves delegating authority, not just tasks.
Hustle culture can lead to burnout and neglect of family.
Long-term success is about perspective and priorities.
Creative solutions can help balance family time and work.
Community support is essential for business growth.
Reflect on what you will wish you had more of in life.


Titles

Redefining Success: Beyond Metrics
Values-Driven Business Leadership
Balancing Family and Business


 sound bites

"What does success look like?"
"Don't chase vanity metrics."
"What matters most in this season?"
"Is it worth sacrificing family time?"
"You can get creative with family time."
"Community is how you can support me."


Chapters

00:00 Defining Success Beyond Metrics
03:08 The Importance of Values and Priorities
05:55 Balancing Business and Family Life
08:51 Leadership and Delegation in Business
12:12 Rethinking Hustle Culture
14:59 Long-Term Perspective on Success
17:47 Creative Solutions for Family Time
21:10 Building a Business That Supports Life
23:54 Community and Support in Business
26:48 Closing Thoughts on Life and Business

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Transcript

Branden Sewell (00:01.858)
Hi, I'm Brandon Sewell, owner of SEAL Pro Painting and the host of the Off the Ladder Podcast. And we exist to help home service business owners learn so that they can lead well and ultimately live life off of the ladder. Welcome back to today's episode. today I really have on my mind to talk about you know, just the metrics that we measure our success with in business.

and really talk about success. I've spent a lot of time, you know, really since I was a teenager reading about just personal development, personal growth, success, business, and have really studied people who have been successful and you know, try to figure out, okay, well, what it how do you become successful?

and and what does that look like? I think the biggest thing that we miss in the midst of looking at other people's success and what I would say the world defines as success is we miss

Whether that is really going to make us fulfilled and does it align with our life purpose and our values, which I think is more important, but unfortunately that gets buried underneath what I would call vanity metrics. You know, we're looking at what did this other guy in my industry do? And and what does he look like to?

to everybody else and how is he perceived as being successful. And then we take that and we compare it to where we are and what we're doing. And then if we're not adding up to that, then we can kind of get down on ourselves or think that we're not being successful. And I think that's kind of a trap because you could have what looks like success, right? You could have the bigger business. You could have

Branden Sewell (02:14.028)
you know, the the what seems to be a thriving business with a lot of revenue and but all the while be unfulfilled, be depressed, anxious, not really like what you're doing, and all of these things. you're you know, you could be lacking a spiritual life, faith. you could be lacking

in your marriage or in parenting your kids or whatever that may look like. but at the end of the day, I think it's important to have this conversation of what success looks like. And I think there's another piece to this too, which is like the seasons of life, right? And and priorities. there's no doubt that by

doing one thing, you're going to miss out on another one. and I think what is important is to kind of try to dive into what's more important and what is a higher priority. and I think that can help us in this journey of success because we can look at it from a more holistic point of view rather than just summing it up to money or

bigger companies or more trucks or vans or whatever you want to make that look like. so here's what I want to kind of start with. If you are a business owner, I think one of the most powerful things that you can do is sit down

In a quiet place, get away. If that this might mean that you need to take a little day trip, it might mean you need to take a weekend, whatever it looks like. You need to get away, you need to get quiet, and you need to write down and define what are my values, what is important to me, what is the foundation that I want to build from. Meaning you write down, okay,

Branden Sewell (04:27.682)
the what comes first. You know, for me, that's my faith. Okay. So how do I do everything that I'm doing from the lens of my faith? Okay. second is my family. How do I make sure that in what I'm doing, I'm making sure that success is for me is defined by how am I doing as a husband and a father? Okay.

you know, next would be my finances, personal finances, and my personal health. so from what I'm doing as a business owner, how am I being successful and thriving in personal finances and my health? and what I always say, and where I've come to as a person is I say, I don't want success at the expense of these things. So

In this season of my life, the well, my faith will always be the most important. but in this season of my life, besides my faith, I am a husband and I am a father. I have three kids, and so I constantly look at my business and say, Okay, how do I become successful, but also make sure that my family is a priority?

Because I don't wanna work, work, work, strive for success as far as money goes or or whatever in a bigger business and then lose out on my family. I only have my family for, you know, well, I mean, they're always my family, but you'll get what I'm saying in the sense that my kids are only going to be in my home living under my roof for a season.

And then there is going to be a season when they grow and they go off and they go and do their own thing. And so I have this little season, you know, if we look at the grand scheme of things, I have this small season where I get to hone in and be present and intentional in my parenting of my kids. And I think that that's really important to recognize,

Branden Sewell (06:51.766)
Because I think too often I I mean I heard it recently in an interview on the School of Hard Knocks. the guy was interviewing this this one person, he's like, Hey, how did you, you know, become successful? And he's like, Unfortunately, I missed a lot of my kids' lives because I was off chasing success. And I don't know, like for me.

That's not the success I want. I would much rather put off the financial success of my business, right? put that off for twelve, thirteen, fourteen, whatever, fifteen years and focus on my kids. Now that doesn't mean that I push off responsibility or that I don't

you know, do what I need to do to provide for them, right? But providing is is like, okay, how do I give them the essentials that they need? they need a roof over their head, clothes on their body, and food, right? So those are three essentials. you've got that as a responsibility as a parent. everything else, right?

it's really just added. Like it's a bonus, right? If we can take a nice vacation, if we can buy really nice things or go to nice outing, whatever. those are all just added. They're not anything that we're entitled to or that they are entitled to. And if we get to do those things, that's great. but more than anything, I want to be present and intentional.

with them. And so that's my priority in this season. Now obviously I have a there's there's temptations to be like, hey, I want to go, you know, pursue this or pursue that. But I have to remain disciplined and remember what matters most. Right. It's not that success is like this bad thing or like

Branden Sewell (09:17.902)
monetary success is a bad thing or financial success, or having a bigger business or whatever, big more revenue, more profit is a bad thing. It's not, right? But it's it's for me, it's about priorities and like where are my values at? And so I think there's a lot of right now as business owners, we're inundated with tons of information telling us that if we want to do X amount of revenue

We need to do this. If we want to have this profit, we need to do this. If we want to scale and grow, then we have to do this. But unfortunately, we don't take a second to stop and ask, okay, yes, maybe I need to do that, but am I willing to do that in this season of life? Because there is no doubt that it's going to cost you somewhere. Right.

My approach to business it has been, at least in this season, is how do I strengthen my leadership ability and my ability to delegate authority? I love Craig Groschel because he says, don't delegate task, delegate authority. Because when you delegate tasks, you create followers who depend on you. When you delegate authority, you create leaders who

who go and they act with the same values that you have created for them, right? Like we have our values and our mission statement in our office. and we go over it. And so my guys know, hey, every day we go out and we work in according in accordance to these values. Right. So I'm delegating authority and I say, you guys can I'm hiring you to make decisions, right?

I don't want to be on a job site every day making decisions for you because I simply don't have the ability to do that at scale as well. if I'm running multiple crews, I've got multiple jobs happening at once, I can't be in multiple places at once, I can't make decisions for everybody, right? So I delegate authority, the authority to make decisions based on a set of values, and that's like your framework. Okay.

Branden Sewell (11:43.98)
Does the decision that you make today on whatever's going on in this project, does it reflect our mission and our values? And if it does, then you're good. And if it doesn't, well, then you know that that's probably gonna lead to a mistake and failure. but again, in this season of my life, that's where I'm at. I'm like, okay, well, I don't have to be the the one to do everything. So if I'm going to scale this.

I'm not gonna do it alone. I'm not gonna be the business owner and the leader that feels like, okay, the only way that this is going to succeed is if I work 80 hours a week and drive myself into the ground and hustle, hustle, hustle, and like that whole hustle culture approach. you know, I saw something posted recently where it was someone saying, like, hey,

If you're gonna win, if you're gonna be successful, you've got to work when nobody else is working. that and Saturdays is the best day to work because when everybody else is with their families or having fun, you need to be out there hitting the concrete and you know, meeting with people while they're home on the weekend. And while there is absolutely some truth to that, right? That there is a reality that more people are gonna be home on the weekend.

They are going to be more relaxed. They're not going to be worried about work. and you might have a higher potential for meeting with people and converting business on a Saturday. That may 100% be true. But what is also true is that you might be a husband and a father with a family that needs your presence and your intentionality in in being there. And so

What I ask you if you're watching this is what is more important? What's the higher priority? What do your kids and your family really need? in sixty, seventy years, eighty years, whatever. I don't know how old you are, but you know, let's just say you're thirty years old, you've got another, you know, forty years of life, fifty years of life, and when you get to that time.

Branden Sewell (14:03.072)
At the end of your life, ask yourself this because I ask myself this all the time. What am I going to wish I had more of? Am I gonna wish I had more money? Am I gonna wish I had a bigger business? Am I gonna wish I had more vans and trucks? Am I gonna wish that I had higher revenue and more profit? I can almost guarantee with 100% certainty that.

That I am not gonna wish for more of that stuff. I am going to wish for more time with the ones that I love because that's what matters. When you get to the end of your life, you're gonna want to, you know, wish that you could, you know, be with your your spouse just a little bit longer, that you could go back to when your kids were babies and toddlers and

young kids running around and having fun and relive those moments. I am willing to say with almost a hundred percent confidence that you probably feel the same way too. That at the end of your your life with you loved ones surrounding you, you're not gonna wish that you could leave them in that moment and go work on your business just a little bit more. So this this episode is really about, you know, in a world that is

you know, throwing information at you about success is to like pause and really reflect on what matters the most in the season that you're in. And what I would encourage you to do is say it's not about whether I'm going to do that. It's a question of timing, right? That's not my time. Okay. the way that I view this is that

So many, you can, you know, we see it all the time. There's even you know, videos that pop up on social media and stuff that talk about some very successful entrepreneurs, business owners, actors, whatever, actresses, who didn't get their start until later in life. You know, maybe they didn't start that booming business until they were

Branden Sewell (16:22.934)
you know, 50 years old, 60 years old, and then they had their great breakthrough and success. Well, think about it this way. Maybe right now you're in your twenties, your thirties, and you're thinking, man, I've got to do it all now. I would ask you to stop and reflect and say, Hey, is that really what's most important? No. Maybe what's better is right now you focus on yourself.

Your spouse, your kids, if you don't have kids, focus on your marriage. But really hone in on what matters the most. And then in we think, I think where we're standing in the moment, right? In the moment that we live in, the present moment, we think that ten, fifteen years is so far away and we're gonna be so old. And that we might have missed out on something.

I would rather miss out on big business success than to miss out on moments with my family. So I believe that there's going to be a season where my business is really going to grow rapidly. And I believe that's going to be when my kids are older and I have more time.

and and focused energy to put on that, right? And I I think there's also there's gonna be another season in my life where you know my kids are grown and maybe one day I'll have grandkids. Well then I have to think what's gonna be more important the business success or spending time with my grandkids. again this is all about perspective today. This is all about, you know,

Trying to take those vanity metrics that we see all the time and really kind of get ourselves to stop and ask like, is that really what is going to make me happy? Is that really going to be what makes me fulfilled? And then also hear me out on this. I'm not saying don't do that stuff. I'm just saying do it in a smart way. If you're going to accomplish it, do it in a healthy way. Do it in a way

Branden Sewell (18:44.098)
Where you're not having to compromise what matters most. And there might even be people out there that say, well, that's not possible. It's not possible to do this and focus on your family and be there for your kids. I would question that. I would say, is it a matter of being possible or not? Or is it a matter of finding the way to make it work? Because what I believe.

Is there's a way to make it work, right? Does it take it takes hard work, but it's a different kind of hard work. It's like a mental strain, right? It's a you're you're having to learn, you're having to kind of work through the the nuances of people and behavior and you know how people do things and respond to certain things. And and that's leadership, right? So I'm constantly evaluating my approach to leading my team.

And how do I lead my team and have them be successful in what they're doing, which leads to company having success and overall growth and you know opportunity. So again, it's it's less of a how do I do it? Like put all of the the man hours in and the hard labor.

And how do I lead my team? How do I and then the here's the other trick is helping to instill that same value that you have into your team, right? It's not, hey team, how do you make you know, a hundred thousand, a hundred and twenty five thousand, a hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred thousand? It's not about, hey, how much money, how much income can you make? It's hey,

How can you be smarter with your money? Right? How can you sit down and look at your finances and say, hey, if I cut this out that I don't need, if I eliminate this, if I eliminate that, that doesn't really matter, that would mean that I don't have to make as much money and I can be more present. I can, I don't have to work all the time.

Branden Sewell (21:10.37)
And look, I the reality is, is like, I don't want my guys to work all the time. I don't want my guys to spend their life at work. I want them to work, be able to make enough money to take care of their families, and then to be present and focus on what matters most. And unfortunately, this world has fed us all of these lies that you know, if we just spend

you know, 60, 70, 80 hours at work and make a bunch of money, that that's gonna make us happy or more fulfilled. Or if we buy a bigger house and a bigger boat and a nicer car and all of this stuff, that there that's gonna be the thing that makes us happy. But if we spend our lives working and we never have an opportunity to enjoy the fruit of our labor, then what is really the point of that? So and there's just the reality too that

Time put in is going to give you, you know, a return, right? So we can't get away either from the fact that it takes work, right? but here's my big question is like, is it worth that? Right? What you think you're gonna get from it, is it worth that? Or are you willing to, I don't want to say settle for less. It's like,

It's like taking and settling for something that's more important, right? You're giving up, you're gonna give up one thing either way. Something's gonna get sacrificed. Is it gonna be money and success? Or is it gonna be your family and your time with your loved ones? For me, I'd rather sacrifice the money and the success for time with my loved ones. And now there's ways that you can get creative. Like,

My family, we're in a season, I think I mentioned on the last episode, my wife has decided to stay at home with our kids, right? So we lose about half of our household income, right? So we had to sit down and evaluate. We met for like four hours, my wife and I, and we evaluated what can we cut out to make this work? what are we going to eliminate?

Branden Sewell (23:30.35)
what is essential and what is non-essential in our finances and what's gonna make it possible for you to stay home. So we did that. but then also in an effort to we're not saying hey let's not make more money. We're like, okay, we're gonna cut this out because we have to right now, but we're we're still gonna try to make more income, right?

Because we still want to be able to do the extra stuff, the fun stuff. It's just right now we can't. We're choosing for her to be home. but we decided to start a family YouTube channel, Instagram, Facebook. If you haven't seen it, it's called the Bees Fam. B's spelled with three E's because we have three kids and their names start with E's. And so it's Brandon, Emmett, Everly, Easton, and Sammy. the first initial creates beats soap.

Anyway, we created that as a way for something that we can do together as a family. We're getting Emmett involved, Everly, as she gets a little bit older, she'll be able to get involved and stuff. But we're doing that so that's something we can do as a family. It it necessitates family time because the things that we're doing is together as a family. And if anything, this has created some fun moments like

my wife the other night, she said, like, you know, one of my favorite parts about doing this is just I feel like every time we're like making a video, it's like having a date night. so we've actually been staying up until like almost midnight every night, creating the content for the videos that we're gonna put out.

And you know, so that's been exhausting, but I've been spending a lot of time with my wife. we've been getting Emmett involved and playing little games with him and challenges and he's having fun, he's laughing. And of course, as the kids get older, you know, Everly and Easton, they'll get involved too. but it's just been super fun. So it's like, okay, it's not that I and we want that to turn into a we want to monetize that and be able to make money from that channel.

Branden Sewell (25:49.658)
and so I'm I'm taking that as like an opportunity to do it as a family, right? And so you can get creative, right? If maybe if you know you have your business that like guarantees, brings home paycheck, right? Pays your bills. maybe you can start a fun side project with your family to to make additional money.

But you're doing it as a family. And so again, I just really want to encourage with this episode to just really take the time to think about that and reflect. don't think about the here and now. Think, man, what am I when I get, you know, sixty, seventy years down the road, what am I going to wish I would have done different? I often kind of just like sit in those quiet moments and I

imagine myself, I know this might sound a little silly, but I imagine myself going into like let's say you know, a hospital where there's all elderly people who are, you know, they're literally in their last moments of life. And I just imagine going to them and asking them, Hey, you know, what do you wish you could have done differently? Or what do you wish you had more of or more time for? And I I just I just imagine

those people saying they want more time with their family and loved ones around them. So anyway, with that said, I'm gonna bring this episode to a close and hopefully this conversation has inspired you to take some time and pause and really reflect on what's most important. Hopefully today

and all of the noise of what's going around you, the Facebook strategy groups, the gurus that you see online, through all of that stuff, all of the noise, I hope you hear this message that hey, not all of that is really what's most important. I would encourage you to find a way to modify your lifestyle to require less.

Branden Sewell (28:10.58)
of you in your business, right? And when it your business requires less of you, you can delegate more. And it's not that you're not successful, right? it's just that you're taking you out of the equation and making it less about revolving around you. make it more about how do I become a better leader? How do I lead this organization better?

And you know, we we really see too, I'll just leave this last little you know, thing here. We always talk about this saying, I need to work on my business and not in it. I think this is a huge part of, you know, getting off the ladder is realizing one, that leadership and leading an organization is less about you than you think.

and it's more about leading and getting the right people in the right seats so that they can do what they're great at and thrive and suc and and succeed. and then that's gonna give you your time back and and then with that time you've got to decide, okay, what's most important with this time that I've created for myself and and this freedom that I have. and then be smart with that that time. Don't

I would encourage you, like once you get your business to a place where it doesn't require you, and you're you're you're thriving, right? You're you're able to take care of your bills, you're able to pay yourself, right? Without having to be on the ladder. Once you get to that point, work on the business and keeping it healthy, but have the right perspective. I just can't emphasize that more. Just

Really work to have the right perspective and and focus on building something that keeps the main things the main thing and not about something else. Don't lose sight of that. So anyway, I'm gonna bring this episode to a close. If you need any resources to help you get off the ladder and to build a business that gives you freedom, check my show notes. There I have resources in there that I use.

Branden Sewell (30:28.36)
I could not do what I do without Jobber. Jobber really helps me to run my business. That's the main thing that I would say is you need a really healthy CRM and Jobber is that for me. in my absence, it's automating, it's doing things for me. just a huge part of of working off the ladder. So any of those resources are in the show notes below. If you use them, I would ask that you use my links or whatnot because I do get credit if you sign up or use.

one of the resources in the show notes. and I would ask you come back for another episode. and, you know, also share this with somebody. So if you, you know, what you heard today, if you got something from it, then like it, share it, help somebody else by forwarding on this information so that they can benefit from it. and then have them join this this family as well.

get them in on the Off the Ladder podcast and the conversations that we're having and the community that we have. and if you would please go check out, you know, I'm also on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all those different channels as well if you want to check in there. and I guess the last thing I would say is you know, one of the biggest ways that you can support me is

Just helping this community grow and help me with ideas. you know, reach out to me. If there's somebody that you want to see as a guest on the podcast, if there's a conversation you want me to cover, reach out to me. The best way that you can help me is to build community. reach out to me, talk to me, you know, introduce yourself, say, hey, I've been listening to your podcast, I've really enjoyed this, or I'd like to see more of this.

that would really help me. So again, community is really how you can support me in what we're doing here at the Off the Ladder Podcast. Thank you so much for being a part of this. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next time on the next episode of the Off the Ladder Podcast.