Ep. 68 The Stern Truth: Business Therapy Thursday with David Wallace

We’re back with another Business Therapy Thursday, and this one is extra special. David Wallace, owner of Around the Block Butcher & Market in Ottawa, was first featured on Episode 23. We talked about his incredible entrepreneurial journey through the pandemic. Now, a year later, David is back, and this time, we go deeper.

Around the Block just celebrated 13 years in business, and David has built something truly special with his wife and business partner, Chantelle. He came into this episode with a lot on his mind—where to direct resources, how to lead more effectively, and how to break the tunnel vision from being deep in the day-to-day grind.

David describes success as having the right systems, the right team, and the freedom to take two full weeks off and actually enjoy it. He and Chantel took their first week off in years back in January, and it went fine. So, what’s stopping them from doing more of that?

David also opened up about the challenge of that last 10%. He’s a self-described 90-percenter, great at getting things almost done, but the follow-through is where the wins live.

We tackled the concept of “CEO Day," a dedicated block day each week where David can step away from the counter, close the office door, and work ON the business instead of IN it. Not for clients, not for staff, not for urgent orders. Just David, his vision, and the clarity to grow his business.

The Stern Truth of this episode is that “later” is not a strategy. Things don’t slow down, so you need to specifically create the time and space. As a business owner, YOU have to be the one to make the change.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Marshall Stern: My friends, you are in for treat today because we have a first on this podcast, the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered. And we are – it's a cross promotion between the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered, and the Business Therapy Thursday. You see what I'm talking about? It is back on episode 23 we featured, we've had a sit down with amazing David Wallace, who was the founder and owner of Around the Block Butcher Shop in Ottawa, Ontario.

[00:00:29] And we talked about his entrepreneurial journey and how he and his wife have built this business now going into our, completing their 13th year very shortly. But today we come back and we sit down and have a deep dive coaching session, which is what we call Business Therapy Thursday and, like I say to David in this session, what got you there may not get you where you want to get to.

[00:00:55] What got you to where you are now probably won't get you to where you want to go. So having said that, we help him get clear on what might be holding him back and what the simple things that he needs to do him and his wife need to do in order to get the next 13 years. The growth, the traction building, what he and his wife have vision for this amazing company that we can have the ideas, we can have the insights, but sometimes we're too stuck in the weeds of our business to actually see them.

[00:01:30] And even if we do see them, to actually implement and act on them. I think today we have some good clarity. Enjoy. Grab your pad of paper and pen my friends. This is a deep dive Business Therapy Thursday session.

[00:01:47] Hi, I'm Marshall Stern and I've spent over 35 years leading and growing multiple small businesses. I know firsthand the struggles of entrepreneurship, feeling isolated, lonely, overwhelmed, and feeling like you have to do it all by yourself. I've been through multiple recessions, and I have felt the highs and the lows.

[00:02:06] I've been there, and I get it. This podcast is here to change that. Every week I will bring you straight talking advice, real world strategies, and honest conversations about what it takes to succeed in business without the fluff, the gimmicks, or the sugar-coated. If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress, then you are in the right place.

[00:02:30] This is the Stern Truth. 

[00:02:34] Hey David, how are you doing? 

[00:02:35] David Wallace: Good. Well, it's afternoon. We are so to say good evening. I'm well, thank you. I just wrapped up a day here. We've been closed for 10 minutes now at Around The Block Butcher market in Ottawa. I'm doing well. How about you? 

[00:02:47] Marshall Stern: Awesome. I'm doing well as well. I need has been a minute since we last spoke.

[00:02:50] David Wallace: Yes. Thanks for having me on again. 

[00:02:53] Marshall Stern: My pleasure. My pleasure. No, it's been great. Been looking forward to this. So you're here, it's Business Therapy Thursday. What would make this conversation really powerful for you? 

[00:03:03] David Wallace: That's an excellent question. I've been trying to premeditate what maybe we ought to go into today, and I didn't narrow it down to anything hugely, hugely specific.

[00:03:13] And I've mentioned to you before that sometimes my business brain can be a little abstract, and I'm trying to grow out of that in some ways and address the things that do float across my mind regularly. So, things that would make today profound or impactful or, or productive, I think come down to picking direction for the business, picking direction as a leader, where we ought to apply resources.

[00:03:39] Are we making good use of time on a day-to-day ongoing basis? Addressing some of those, what I suspect are quite common things within a lot of the entrepreneurial people out there. 

[00:03:49] Marshall Stern: A hundred, a hundred percent. So I, I love that because most of us, as, as business owners and entrepreneurs, the road is somewhat windy and sometimes there are forks in the road as we know.

[00:04:01] We're not sure which direction, which path to take. Just refresh my memory. So, Around The Block Butcher has been – you're in the region, Ottawa area. 

[00:04:10] David Wallace: That's right. 

[00:04:10] Marshall Stern: West Ottawa. And you've been in business for what, 13, 14 years? 13 years. 

[00:04:14] David Wallace: End of June will be 13 years. And on February 21st, we had two years open in our second location, with our first one, I close, we closed that one when we moved into this larger space.

[00:04:30] Marshall Stern: Right. So first of all, I want to, acknowledge you and compliment you, but really acknowledge you for 13 years. 

[00:04:37] David Wallace: Thank you. Well, we haven’t hit 13 yet, but we–   

[00:04:40] Marshall Stern: 12 and 12 and change? 

[00:04:41] David Wallace: Yes. 

[00:04:42] Marshall Stern: Okay. And getting through the pandemic, and I know in our podcast episode we did earlier on last year. We talked about that, about how you, the famous work, pivoted, adjusted, and survived through the pandemic.

[00:04:55] David Wallace: Yes. 

[00:04:55] Marshall Stern: So, Oh, I just wanted to acknowledge that because 12 and change is amazing. 

[00:05:00] David Wallace: Thank you. Thank you. 

[00:05:02] Marshall Stern: What do you think, okay, you mentioned a few things. Leadership, you as the leader. I know we talked about that quite a bit last time in our regular episode, but you talked about where to put our resources and our focus, our attention, and this is a hot topic, like it really is because I think it's what we talk about a lot on the Stern Truth, right?

[00:05:21] It's just focusing on the important activities. 

[00:05:25] David Wallace: And it's, all those things are finite. They're very finite. 

[00:05:27] Marshall Stern: Right. And, and do you even know what are the right activities that you should be focusing on versus other people on your team right now? 

[00:05:36] David Wallace: Do I? 

[00:05:36] Marshall Stern: No. Yeah. 

[00:05:38] David Wallace: I, I, I think, I think deep down, I know, I think, when in, in quiet moments of reflection or what have you, the truth presents itself.

[00:05:49] Things like that day-to-day in year has a lot of immediacy and taking a bird's eye view, removing myself from that, taking a bird's eye view. And some of what I'm saying also applies to my partner and wife, Chantel, who works in the business full-time as well. She under, she undergoes a lot of these things, just as I do different roles, but.

[00:06:07] You know, where we have a lot of commonality on some of these things. Do I think I'm gaining clarity on some of these things and, falling short on my own standards in a number of ways, a number of times. Having said that, you know, there's a lot that we are proud of and we have come a long way as,  as business owners and entrepreneurs, and we've gained professional skills over time.

[00:06:33] So it's not like it's, it's non-existent, but it does feel like we're, we're always a bit behind the eight ball on the growth of our business and the growth of ourselves. So. 

[00:06:43] Marshall Stern: Hmm. Tell me more about behind the eight ball. Gimme an example of what I know. Look, every business has, its sort of, you use the word immediacy. Every business has that. 

[00:06:54] Obviously, if when you're in a retail environment and you have customers coming in, orders come in, you got to get them out fast and all that kind of stuff. 

[00:07:02] It's a lot of, you said you use the word immediacy. There's things you have to deal with. For other people who have more of an office environment and they have employees, it might be them not banging out their door or the phone ringing or the email, all that kind of stuff.

[00:07:15] Right. People, yeah. Stuff. Right. But what would be, when you said behind the eight, sometimes we get behind the eight ball of our growth of the business. Is it because you're stuck in it too much at times? 

[00:07:25] David Wallace: It can feel that way. And, you know, and I don't mean that with any sort of victimhood attached to it or anything like that, 

[00:07:32] Marshall Stern: No. 

[00:07:32] David Wallace: This is all a, this is all a scenario of our own doing.  it does feel like there are days when, it would be nice to sit down and map out or do some framework, about how we wish to proceed and move the business forward. I don't know how many days in a row I've worked now. It's been a bunch. And, and again, and that's on account of most part that immediacy.

[00:07:59] So we're looking to do some onboarding of staff, not too distant future. Since we spoke last, we've got a new back of house and kitchen manager, who's been fantastic and has, you know, come to us with a lot of experience and skills already, and a really big professional drive. So that's relieved a fair amount of pressure.

[00:08:24] My oven is dinging, 

[00:08:26] Marshall Stern: So that is kind of fitting that we're having a conversation and get to go to something. 

[00:08:33] David Wallace: Yeah. And I try to avoid things like that, but there's a immediacy and then there's, and there's cycles in here and there's, there's, and there's building pressure. Which, really good thing, I think that that's, you know.

[00:08:47] Being a catalyst or forcing us to think about our business differently. And we do think about our business differently now than we did well years past for sure. You know, just the quality of thought that we have surrounding it. It is coming from minds that are a bit more experienced in it. And granted, we have much to learn and this place takes me to school all the time.

[00:09:08] All the time. But it has been very educational. 

[00:09:13] Marshall Stern: I like that actually. See, that's putting a positive spin on it all because a lot of people, you use the word victimhood and that's the, the least thing you are and you are actually. One thing I really appreciate about you, and this is not really something I normally do in a coaching session.

[00:09:30] Well sometimes I might in a different way, but, and I remember this from our first conversation, you put a lot of thought and emphasis onto your team, onto your leadership, your role as the leader. Now do, do we have it all figured out in business? No. Can we do things better? For sure. We all can, right? 

[00:09:44] David Wallace: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:09:45] Marshall Stern: But I know you invest a lot of time and resources on your people and you have really good people, and I'm wondering for you now, because you put so much into your people. What does, what will, well, here's a question. I'm just going to throw it out there. What does success look like to you? 

[00:10:03] David Wallace: Success with within the business for me would look like, you know, I mean, the simple practicalities of us dealing with perishables, increasingly costly perishables, would be having them, you know, turn over, you know.

[00:10:21] Steadily increasing rates.  yeah, our stuff turns over pretty quick, but there's always, there's always room for improvement, and especially in this economy too. I think success in, in some ways, would be or could be attributed to, you know, having the. Having the business grow to the point where it's got the financial resources or there's opportunity for rein reinvestment and that could look like a number of things.

[00:10:51] That could look like, you know, maybe onboarding more professional services that could look like new pieces of equipment. We're certainly not looking to expand beyond the space that we're in now. We're in 3000 square feet, which is, we have room to grow into for sure. We're not looking at anything like that, at least on any time soon.

[00:11:08] I think success could look like, you know, getting, getting to the point where, you know, Chantel and I could leave the continent for two weeks, and feel like it's sort of under control. Part of that would be, you know, having the right amount of people and the right people in the right places, and having the business being sustainable enough. 

[00:11:36] Or busy enough rather, the, you know, that the sales are there to support, something like that. I think it looks like us collaborating with,  organizations within our community, getting involved more so in, fundraising initiatives and collaborations of that kind. I quite like the idea of supporting the arts community through the business in, in ways that we can as we go.

[00:12:05] We're going to be a small sponsor on an upcoming folk festival. Neighboring us is a, an excellent small theater. Well, actually not that small. I think they're, they have two rooms. The main one holds, I think, I don't quote me on this one, I'm pretty sure.,1400 people or something. Anyway, they're our next door neighbor.

[00:12:25] We've got a great relationship with them, finding ways to, work together more, things like that. And you know, all well giving the team room to grow into better versions of themselves professionally and hopefully personally too. It looks like a lot of things. 

[00:12:43] Marshall Stern: Okay, so one of the first ones you mentioned was you and Chantel taking, being able to take two weeks away and the place, you know, running smoothly with not missing a beat.

[00:12:53] David Wallace: Yeah, yeah. You know, we, we took a week off at the beginning of January. It was the first time in years that we've taken a week off. And it was all totally fine, you know, 

[00:13:01] Marshall Stern: So why not, why not two weeks? 

[00:13:02] David Wallace: Well, yeah. But also, the business needs to be there to get to the point where, you know. Not to go into it too much where, but where we could, you know, afford flights and accommodations to go elsewhere.

[00:13:14] Marshall Stern: Oh, okay. 

[00:13:14] David Wallace: What we did for the week off before was very economical, but there's the places we'd like to see and things we'd like to experience and what have you. 

[00:13:21] Marshall Stern: Right. Okay. But the idea of, so yes, there's an investment or the cost of travel, hotels, all that stuff. Flight for sure. But even, especially like, even in the summertime, and I, I assume summer gets to be a busy time.

[00:13:35] David Wallace: Yes. 

[00:13:35] Marshall Stern: Tough for you. 

[00:13:36] David Wallace: Yeah. Yeah. There can be a little, like the odd lull here and there in summertime, right? Where a lot of our client base may, may be away, but, for the most part it's our most consistently busy timeframe. 

[00:13:46] Marshall Stern: Right 

[00:13:46] David Wallace: Day to day. 

[00:13:46] Marshall Stern: So, I think in the big picture for most businesses, if we can build the business, because you, you have an a solid established business, but you and Chantel, if you're in there doing it, the idea of building it, like going, the business is building it so that you can take two weeks off. And I'm not talking, forget the financial cost of going somewhere, even just staying at home. 

[00:14:08] David Wallace: Right. 

[00:14:09] Marshall Stern: Staycation or in the summertime, because, you know, there's obviously this country is beautiful. You can even just take day trips or whatnot.

[00:14:15] David Wallace: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[00:14:17] David Wallace: Mm-hmm. 

[00:14:18] Marshall Stern: Sorry. 

[00:14:19] David Wallace: We love road tripping. So, yeah. 

[00:14:21] Marshall Stern: But even like day, yeah. Day trips or what, whatever it be. The idea of being able to take two weeks off, having the systems and policies and people and procedures in place so that you can take it off without a care in the world. Okay. And also, well, you use the word sustainability and then there's all the other stuff, the collaboration, the community, the fundraising, the arts, all the other things that you want to support, and all the other projects that you have, and some of them you're already working on and you have implemented.

[00:14:48] Right? 

[00:14:49] David Wallace: Yeah. 

[00:14:49] Marshall Stern: I guess the question would be, do you, to you, do you find – tell me how many hours of work a week? 

[00:14:57] David Wallace: It ranges, but on an average week, you know. Geez, I'm trying to say an average week, but there's nothing, there's… 

[00:15:07] Marshall Stern: No average. 

[00:15:08] David Wallace: week, week to week. There's no average. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, of course there's an average somewhere hidden in those figures, but,  

[00:15:15] Marshall Stern: Normal week or not even normal, just- 

[00:15:17] David Wallace: Yeah, 

[00:15:18] Marshall Stern: Yeah.

[00:15:18] This week. What, what does it look like? 

[00:15:20] David Wallace: Well, this week I've been here a lot. And I've been here many days in a row now too. And there's all sorts of reasons for that.  one is, you know, offering or not offering, but, you know, team members taking vacation here and there and, 

[00:15:36] Marshall Stern: Okay. 

[00:15:36] David Wallace: That was, some of that pressure that's come on recently has been through stories in our local news media that have been very positive about our business here.

[00:15:46] Which is, you know, created an up an uptick of new customers coming through, et cetera, et cetera. We need to, sort of foster that carefully and to the best of our ability. 

[00:16:01] Marshall Stern: Okay. 

[00:16:01] David Wallace: So, you know, I mean, these are all good things. We're at a very critical stage for the business, I would say just over two years in the grocery business with a bit of restaurant DNA to it too.

[00:16:11] And these businesses are quite fragile. And we're, we're there to just give it as much deals as we can, at, at this point in time, is sort of the agreement that we have amongst ourselves, like Chantel and I. That is because the business really needs it right now, and if the business needs it, we need it and we need to secure a, a promising future here.

[00:16:30] So these, these opportunities that are coming our way are, are fantastic and it's up to us to take advantage of them and 

[00:16:37] Marshall Stern: Right.

[00:16:37] David Wallace: And create long-term value for the customers. 

[00:16:41] Marshall Stern: Okay. So, everything you want to build in your business over the next the – let's say, three to five years. 

[00:16:46] What do you think, like where you want to take the business, what do you think could, let's say it will, could prevent that?

[00:16:53] David Wallace: What, what, what do I think could prevent – 

[00:16:55] Marshall Stern: you achieve, achieve success? What you want, the success that you ascribed. 

[00:17:00] David Wallace: What sort of obstacles, could impede that? So – 

[00:17:05] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:17:05] David Wallace: I mean, within ownership and, management, you know, burnouts, burnout can be a force at times. And that I, I've gone through some bouts of it before.

[00:17:17] I'm better at dealing with the warning signs earlier. Now that I have been in, you know, 10 years ago, increasing costs of goods,  resell. You know, we sell a fair amount of beef in our business. And beef beef's pricing is, is no joke and how expensive it has become, or how high dollar value that is that, there's, you know, say we were to lose good people, that would be okay.

[00:17:46] That would flow the pace. Yeah. Yeah. But I think the left interest from ownership is just sort of getting higher and higher all the time. You know, like we're more engaged by this business all the time. 

[00:18:00] Marshall Stern: Is that a good thing? 

[00:18:02] David Wallace: I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I would say so. Yeah. 

[00:18:05] Marshall Stern: Okay. 

[00:18:05] David Wallace: Actually, you know, I, I'm using some soft language around that.

[00:18:09] Yeah. From my experience, definitely. 

[00:18:10] Marshall Stern: Okay. 

[00:18:11] David Wallace: Yeah. 

[00:18:12] Marshall Stern: I'm not saying it's not, I'm just a question. 

[00:18:13] David Wallace: No, no, and people will enter into business for different reasons, right? The type of business that we're in, at least the one that we're looking to create in the next three to five years, will require a high level of involvement and engagement.

[00:18:27]  We're here for it. We're really excited for that. 

[00:18:31] Marshall Stern: Yes. That's great. Of course, we can't do that if you're burnt out or burning out, which, you know, which you, you mentioned you did say something in the form leading up to this session, so I want to dive, like, I want to go right into this. Okay. I just want to get to the heart of it, right?

[00:18:44] Because you said, I'm going to read quote, actually, let me just pull it up again. Because your words. One, one outcome you'd like to achieve during our session, to break my, quote, to break my tunnel vision. End quote. What do you mean by that? 

[00:18:58] David Wallace:  I, I think what I mean by that is partially, you know, taking a bird's eye view of, of the operations and procedures here, and identifying the fractures or where the friction is or wherever and, and smoothing that out.

[00:19:16] Smoothing that out. And in the day to day, like I said, I can.   put a lot of energy into, what's happening then and now, you know, and later is very abstract. 

[00:19:35] Marshall Stern: Right. 

[00:19:36] David Wallace: But the, the timeframe that is not right now where all this needs to happen, task X, y, Z or whatever. Mm-hmm.   there's now, and later and later,   

[00:19:51] Marshall Stern: It is elusive because later. Always later. 

[00:19:53] David Wallace: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:19:55] Marshall Stern: And you used the word, immediacy. So obviously the stuff that HA is immediate, it's always going to be immediate. 

[00:20:03] Stuff that can be, oh, everything else can be later. Will always be later, so, exactly. 

[00:20:07] So that's great insight to have. I guess the, that is probably, and this is the stern truth, that is probably the number one thing that's going to not hold you back, but it will slow down the process.

[00:20:17] It will slow down giving that success looks like for you. And again, success is, success is not an end game. 

[00:20:24] David Wallace: Right? Right. 

[00:20:25] Marshall Stern: In fact, I would, I would suggest you have success right now. 

[00:20:28] David Wallace: And you know, I. Yes, and thank you. And, and I agree with you too. I hope I'd never become of the mindset that we've achieved something and that it's all done.

[00:20:37] Right. You know, I, I hope that I don't mature into that. I, I don't think it'll, but – 

[00:20:46] Marshall Stern: No, there's always more. It's about having goalposts three-year plan, five-year plan. Right. And it's always moving out another three, another five hitting the goalposts. Okay. We're on, we're on track. We're on track. We're on track.

[00:20:57] But yes. 

[00:20:58] David Wallace: And, and, and, and the, and the definition of success by, you know, from, from personal success or professional success is subject to change. And that's probably. Probably a good thing too. 

[00:21:11] Marshall Stern: No, for sure, and it's for everyone. Success is, is defined differently by everyone, and sometimes it might be a financial, sometimes it might be more spiritual.

[00:21:20] Sometimes, you know, success is it's, it's all by the beholder, as they say. 

[00:21:24] David Wallace: Absolutely. Absolutely 

[00:21:25] Marshall Stern: Right. You talk about, you made a comment a little while ago about building the business to a point where you can start, can't remember exactly how you put it, but you talked, talked about having other, bring on other resources, professional services.

[00:21:41] David Wallace: Mm. Mm-hmm. 

[00:21:41] Marshall Stern: What did you, maybe elaborate a little bit more on that if you could? 

[00:21:44] David Wallace: Sure. So whether that's a marketing and social media company or individual to relieve some of that pressure so that again, it can help increase the bird's eye view what we're doing here. Free up, free up that head space, you know?

[00:21:59] HR is one of the trickier hats to wear. I think a lot of people would agree with me there, if not the trickiest hat to wear.  and, you know, having rock solid resources to utilize within business to build better framework. And I kind of got a little off topic there, but I might ask – go, go ahead.

[00:22:22] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Well, it really goes to what do you think you really like truly, David, what do you think you and Chantel need? In order for this business to continue to grow and get to this different stages that you want, what do you think would really help in the next, let's just say, the next six months? Because you talk about tunnel vision.

[00:22:39] What's going to help you get out that bird's eye view? What is going to help you stay accountable and do work on the right activities and move away from some of the wrong? What is it that…? 

[00:22:48] David Wallace: I mean even, even something as simple as I think four to five days being physically offsite from the business and focusing on nothing but the business for to 11 hours a day within those days, and really talking things out in detail and doing more homework and, you know, knocking on more doors.

[00:23:10] And again, just sort of starting to map it out what, what we want the not to distant future to look like. I think that'd be a hugely beneficial exercise for us. And we talk about it, and then, you know, sometimes a day off together will appear, and we don't tackle these things. And I think that's because you may have just worked a good number of them in a row.

[00:23:35] We get one off and then we're going to work a number of them in a row again. So, it's right, more like, you know, laundry and groceries kind of stuff. But I think if we were to, again, do a lot of that mind work.  by the end we could come up with a pretty good, deliverable, if you will, business and to introduce the staff to, and things like that.

[00:24:01] Marshall Stern: What, what – 

[00:24:01] David Wallace: If 4, 5, 4 or five days wouldn't do it? But it'd be a great start. 

[00:24:04] Marshall Stern: Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, four it would be, it would be. What if, okay. What if I said to you, it's going to be very difficult for you to not have tunnel vision when you're actually in the store. 

[00:24:17] David Wallace: Yes, I agree. 

[00:24:19] Marshall Stern: Okay. Now I don't know where, do you have an actual office or are you sitting in your office?

[00:24:24] David Wallace: No. At the moment, I'm sitting in our customer area. Yeah, to my right I've got some of our display cases right and to my left I've got our big front windows that give us lots of natural light, which has been a huge quality of life improvement compared to our old store. But, we do have an office here and it's not as utilitarian as I thought it might be.

[00:24:46]. But however, it is very nice to have an office on site. Our previous store, we didn't have an office on site, so that's been a, a major bonus, but you know, it, it has, it works and it has its downfalls and it's, yeah. Yeah. It's not necessarily a peaceful retreat to get into deep flow work.

[00:25:04] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:25:04] David Wallace: Yeah. 

[00:25:05] Marshall Stern: I, I, I'm imagining it. So I'm imagine, I'm imagining that you're rarely in your office and –

[00:25:10] David Wallace: I’m not there that much Chantel’s in there more. Yeah. 

[00:25:13] Marshall Stern: And, and if you were in your office, you might get some interruptions from frequently with questions. 

[00:25:20] David Wallace: Yeah. And you know, I have a do not disturb sign that I could put on the door handle.

[00:25:23] I just don't use it that much. 

[00:25:25] Marshall Stern: You don't use that? 

[00:25:26] David Wallace: Yeah. Because if, if the staff are coming to me for something often because they felt they had to, so. 

[00:25:32] Marshall Stern: One of the things we talk about a lot on the, on the Stern Truth, and one of the reasons why I started like the ONtrepreneur Inner Circle, entrepreneur being O-N, is because we talk about this a lot is as business owners, we need to work more on the business than just in it.

[00:25:46] Now, when we’re starting a business, and you're not, you're 13 years in, sorry. 12 and change in, okay, we need to be – we need to move away from just being in means being physically in as well. 

[00:25:55] David Wallace: Yeah. 

[00:25:56] Marshall Stern: Okay. So that we can be on it. Especially when you're in an environment that you're in, where you have your staff there, you have a small little office, and there's going to be interruptions and you just, you are not, it's boundaries too.

[00:26:09] Right. You're not respecting that space to be your space. Probably. It's just my assumption. 

[00:26:15] David Wallace: Yes. I never thought about it that way, but, there might, there might be a bit of truth to that. Yeah. 

[00:26:21] Marshall Stern: It's just a hard Stern truth. Stern, stern truth. So instead of taking four or five days away, one thing I would suggest is one day, like, how many days a week do you actually normally do you have off?

[00:26:34] David Wallace: You know, maybe one and a third. 

[00:26:39] Marshall Stern: Okay. Are you guys open seven days? 

[00:26:42] David Wallace: Yeah. And it ranges, right? You know, like on a quieter week and the dead of winter, you know, maybe I'll take three off, 

[00:26:48] Marshall Stern: Right. 

[00:26:49] David Wallace: But usually it's not consecutive weeks or whatever that, it might just be one week. But. 

[00:26:52] Marshall Stern: So, really, this is where the whole team has to be involved.

[00:26:55] So, my suggestion to you, we can talk about this further, but my suggestion to you would be to have one day, one. Now you could work it, it could be a half a day, or it could be a full day, a CEO day. I would do one day a week. And this is not like you are out golfing or playing tennis or pickleball or whatever you'd like to do.

[00:27:17] David Wallace: Well, a lot of business is probably done on the golf court. 

[00:27:19] Marshall Stern: I was good unless I'm doing business. Okay. 

[00:27:22] David Wallace: Yeah. 

[00:27:22] Marshall Stern: And, and so I on the pickleball course court as well. Oh yeah. 

[00:27:26] David Wallace: Is that right? Okay. 

[00:27:26] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Not as much tennis, but pickleball's, very social pickle ball's, a lot of social. Like, a pickle baller, but I've only played twice.

[00:27:34] David Wallace: Mm-hmm. I've only golfed four times, so, yeah. 

[00:27:37] Marshall Stern: So maybe don't do the golf. But honestly, like if you, if you could, and it's discipline, but it's blocking the time. Now, I would suggest, depending on, for other people, it might be, if they have a proper office and there's boundaries and there's, and they can get away and they can go in there and they can focus, then block the time.

[00:27:54] Do the audit work. So audit work is when you're totally freeing your mind of all the stuff that's going on there and the staff and everything, and you're actually able to, as you use the word, be in flow and think about opportunities for the, the business, the growth, collaboration, opportunities, making phone calls, visiting people, all that kind of stuff.

[00:28:13] Right? It's probably very difficult to do when you're there. So. 

[00:28:17] David Wallace: It, it is and, and I think. You know, with the right mindset and the right opportunity to do so, I could be quite effective in it.  yeah, it, it does feel like, it does feel like something that doesn't happen regularly in my, in my – 

[00:28:32] Marshall Stern: You have to be the one to make the change.

[00:28:35] David Wallace: Mm-hmm. 

[00:28:36] Marshall Stern: You have to be the one to, first of all, want the change. And if I was, if I were your coach, I would be holding you accountable to doing that. Pick a day. If you want to start with half a day or you do a full day, right? It depends on how you operate and what you work best. Some people think a whole day, what am I going to do for a whole day?

[00:28:54] There's a lot you can do, but if you want to start with half a, half a, just a full day away from the store, it could be half a day doing whatever you want, and then half a day inflow. Right? 

[00:29:01] David Wallace: What for me too, a little bit of homework before that time about what I actually want to achieve would be hugely beneficial too.

[00:29:08] So, I don't go in blind because there, when I go into things blind, I'll fall apart. But. 

[00:29:12] Marshall Stern: Well, we would have to make a plan a hundred percent like you would've to make a plan. We're, we're trying to tell on it, or we could talk about it, but you'd have to make a plan. It could say, these are my goals.

[00:29:21] This is what I – for the month of March, for the month of April, this is what we want to achieve. This is what I want to achieve. These are the rocks, so to speak, that I want to achieve. Let's do this. So it's Monday is the day I'm going to do this. I'm going to, it's day, day's blocked, and the staff know this is your CEO day.

[00:29:41] So, because a lot of business owners, before we go, I just want to get to this. A lot of business owners, oh, I can't take time off, but staff's going to think that I'm like playing around. I'm playing hooky and doing whatever. First of all – 

[00:29:52] David Wallace: I've, I've been in that trap. Yes. 

[00:29:54] Marshall Stern: So first, first of all, I wanted to say who cares?

[00:29:56] Oh, we do care, right? We, there's the two mindsets. 

[00:29:59] David Wallace: It's hard not to.  

[00:30:00] Marshall Stern: What's that? 

[00:30:01] David Wallace: It's hard not to. 

[00:30:03] Marshall Stern: Well, it's hard not to, but there, there's one school of thought. Well, I pay them. So I pay them to do the work. I can do whatever I want, right? Honestly, most of us into business, we started business. We buy a business.

[00:30:13] We're in business because we want freedom of time, freedom of money, and then we end up getting less of both. So if we want to have more of both, we have to be the one to take control of that and we have to communicate that to our team. This is what I'm doing, right? You could even blame me. Okay. You could just say, I was in a coaching session and my coach said, you got to do this.

[00:30:34] And he suggests he really wants me to do the CEO day. I'm going to try it. So Mondays or whatever day it is, I'm going to do this. I'm not going to be available. Okay. Now if you and Chantel do it together, I don't know how that works or you just do it yourself so she can be the go-to or they can figure it out on their own unless the place emergencies, I'm not available.

[00:30:54] David Wallace: I, I, I think in the not-too-distant future, we'll be onboarding, two more full-timers. At, at the moment the staffing levels are such that frankly, it, you know, it needs people power and we're going to give it that to the best of our ability very soon. And I think that, that, that will be helpful as well.

[00:31:13] And the business needs it. 

[00:31:14] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:31:15] David Wallace: You know, it, it, and we need it to, but the, the business needs us to get adequate people of power in here so that we can again. Do these ownership tasks that are expected of us and frankly, make the place, or at least hopefully if we're successful in it, make the place, a better place for our customers and a better place for our, our team.

[00:31:35] But it – 

[00:31:35] Marshall Stern: a better place for the two of you? 

[00:31:37] David Wallace: Yes, but you know, it is not going to, none of this stuff is linear from my experience. You know, it's all a little 

[00:31:43] Marshall Stern: Yes, but it does take, but it does take bold action. 

[00:31:46] David Wallace: Mm-hmm. 

[00:31:47] Marshall Stern: Okay. And, and, and that's the thing. So even if they don't have the staff right now to be able to do that.

[00:31:52] What can you do? Can it be two hours? You go out for two hours, you go to a coffee shop, right? 

[00:31:57] David Wallace: We do love coffee. 

[00:31:59] Marshall Stern: So there are things you can do. So before we go, I'm going to ask you this, what can you commit to trying, at least in the short term, that can eventually grow into something maybe a bit longer that would allow you away from the store to be able to work on some of the, as you call it, like the bird's eye, having the bird's eye view.

[00:32:19] David Wallace: Yeah. You know, I, I think that three to four hours a week is probably not too much to ask of myself, nor of this place, nor of the team. That day of the week may change.  

[00:32:34] Marshall Stern: Okay. 

[00:32:35] David Wallace: Excuse me. Been battling a, a cold for the little bit and not sleeping too much and just working, working, working. So, eh, but.

[00:32:43] You know, three to four hours a week I think is probably realistic.  and you know, what momentum that three to four hours creates, you know, as it spreads across the other business days of the week in terms of communication with. You know, outside people elsewhere or whatever. Also, putting a bit more stricter measure on the follow up and follow through of everything.

[00:33:09] You know, I, I've taken a lot of things to 90% and it's that last 10% where the, where the winds are. And I’ve adopted 90 plenty of times. 

[00:33:20] Marshall Stern: You're not the first person I've heard that from. 

[00:33:23] Okay, so we might have to have you back for the, for the, for the, to make to check on the, how the remaining 10% went.

[00:33:30] David Wallace: Okay, great. 

[00:33:32] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:33:32] David Wallace: I'll switch my focus to the last 10%. I think it's a great concept and goal. So. 

[00:33:37] Marshall Stern: Here, here's the thing. Okay. We talked about, like, you talked about the tunnel vision, you talked about burnout, you talked about  really building this business and ultimately being able to go away for two weeks.

[00:33:49] A, afford it, B, afford B to be able to do, do it financially and also team wise, right? 

[00:33:55] David Wallace: Yes. 

[00:33:56] Marshall Stern: All that is going to be possible. The only way that's going to be possible is for you to start to work more on it. And I'm not taking away those three to four hours is not coming out of your one and three quarters days that you're not in the store, those three to four hours come out of your workday because it is work.

[00:34:12] Right. Okay. 

[00:34:14] David Wallace: Yeah. And in fact, you know, it's, it, it ought to be treated as deep work. 

[00:34:19] Marshall Stern: It is deep work. It is critical work. I call it on it work. You want to call it CEO work, whatever kind of work you want to call it. And you communicate that to your team and, but you have to be consistent about it. Now obviously a team member calls in sick and you've got it cover, then you can move it to the afternoon or to the next day.

[00:34:36] But the point is not to let it be the later we talked about. Right?  

[00:34:42] David Wallace: We did. We could talk about later. Yeah. 

[00:34:44] Marshall Stern: Because later - 

[00:34:45] David Wallace: I'm familiar with later. 

[00:34:46] Marshall Stern: Because tomorrow never comes. Tomorrow's always tomorrow. 

[00:34:50] Okay. So the later does isn't, it's out of the vocabulary. Just say, okay, if, if it's not today, I'm doing it Tuesday this time to that this time or Wednesday from this time to this time and getting away from this.

[00:35:03] Okay. I'll just, I'll just do it later. I'll do it when I can get around to it. because you're never going to get around to it tomorrow never comes. Right. 

[00:35:09] David Wallace: I, I needed to hear from somebody else. 

[00:35:11] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Okay. So I hope I, hopefully this was helpful, but we'll see how helpful it really was when we do a follow up.

[00:35:18] David Wallace: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay, great. Yeah. 

[00:35:20] Marshall Stern: Okay, so how, in your words, David, before we go, what are you committed to trying and doing over the next couple of weeks? 

[00:35:28] David Wallace: Three, three to four hours a week. In the morning is when I'm best. In a business day, Monday to Friday, actually, no, not on a Monday to Wednesday, those three business days.

[00:35:41] Yeah. Thursday and Friday have different personalities. 

[00:35:44] Marshall Stern: Yeah, yeah. God, no, I understand. Yeah. 

[00:35:46] David Wallace:  Monday to Wednesday in the morning. I should be looking critically at things that are concerning me within the business, where I think the opportunities are. 

[00:35:57] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:35:58] David Wallace: Even simple little, you know, things to smooth out our point of sale for better, smoother transactions executed by the staff.

[00:36:05] I mean, things like, there's, there's a, there's a lot, there's a lot, there's a lot. We bit off a lot, but we, but we. We like what we bit off. So, 

[00:36:12] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Well, you know what? But honestly, if you start doing this consistently, that tunnel vision will go away because you're going to actually be seeing it from a 30,000 foot view, the bird's eye view, and you're going to be able to actually look at the op, see the opportunities, and not get to that point where you might have been 10 years ago when you're burnt out.

[00:36:29] Right. You're, you're going to be refreshed. You, you've got the passion and energy to grow this business, but we have to maintain that, and we have to see things from, not from the inside, but from the outside. 

[00:36:39] David Wallace: Right. And, and, you know, and then we've had just, you know, a 13-year run that I'm very proud of. And the next 13 years in a lot of ways I want them to look quite different.

[00:36:51] Marshall Stern: What got you here will not get you there. 

[00:36:53] David Wallace: Yeah, yeah. Exactly 

[00:36:54] Marshall Stern: As they say, right? 

[00:36:55] David Wallace: Yeah. 

[00:36:56] Marshall Stern: So let's, let's go, let's do this. Okay. So thank you for coming onto this Business Therapy Thursday episode. We will follow up with you. You don't go anywhere. All of you go somewhere. Go down. Go down and give this podcast a five-star review so that everyone else can see David's insights and what he's committed to more than anything, and we're going to all follow up with him in the future.

[00:37:18] We'll see you again next week in another episode of The Stern Truth Business Unfiltered.

[00:37:24] Marshall Stern: Thank you so much for tuning in to the Stern Truth. If you found today's episode helpful, we would love to hear from you. Please like, share, and leave us a review. Also, if you'd like to be a guest in an upcoming episode or join us in one of our Moment Accountability Group sessions, simply email me to marshall@marshallstern.net.

[00:37:44] That's marshall@marshallstern.net. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Until next time, keep pushing forward and leading with confidence.