4 things that INSTANTLY separate HIGH PERFORMERS

#entrepreneurship #franchisebusiness #podcast 

On the Built4Profit Podcast, hosts Sha and Elizabeth share 4 unique traits they’ve observed in successful people, drawn from their careers and mentors rather than typical advice. 

 👉 Subscribe to learn the playbooks, sharpen your strategy, and build the business (and life) you actually want.  

Send us your guest nominations for 2026: https://iq4profit.com/speaking-630887

• Subscribe: @Built4ProfitPodcast 
• Find IQ4Profit on LinkedIn: /iq4profit/
• Find Elizabeth on LinkedIn: /elizabethrosenbergmm
• Find Sha on LinkedIn: /shagrondin
• Follow us on Instagram:   /iq4profit 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

There are things that successful people do differently. And you can look at them and see it. You can be around them and you can feel it. And Shay and I really sat down and thought about what are things that we have seen and experienced in our careers. We made the agreement with ourselves as we thought of these four things. They're not gonna be what you're gonna Google and find. Welcome to Built for Profit Podcast, where entrepreneurs and strategies that actually work. We're here to inspire, challenge, and give you the playbook to profit with purpose. Let's get into it. Let's do it. We've had some amazing mentors along the way, been surrounded by some great people that we've really been blessed to see some of this firsthand, and we're sharing it with you. So don't Google the successful things that people do. We wanted to share some unique insights. So this is an IQ original on the Built for Profit podcast. Welcome to another episode. And Elizabeth, I'm excited about this one because what we get passionate and I think we stand on the shoulders of giants, right? We were very blessed to have great mentors, great leaders. And I always say you learn from good and bad. And there's certain things I think successful people is a given that they would show up. They're kind of like seat at the table qualifications. Yeah, kind of the entry level, but kind of the next level ones. And I like the fact that we really did think about it and not only our personal experience and showing up over and over again, but also the world experience, right? But we have our top four, and we did not compare. And ironically, this is the part that really amazed me that we did not have the same ones. So two totally different perspectives. And I'm gonna let you kick it off with your first one. Yeah, we have four, because the the challenge was you come up with two and I come up with two. That's right. And my first one is they get in the right rooms, they are in a higher level room. Lots of times we're in rooms that we don't feel like we're ready for yet. But successful people put themselves in uncomfortable situations to level up. When you're around those people, you think differently, you end up elevating your own standard for yourself even without realizing it. And you just show up differently. A lot of people tend to just stay comfortable. That's intimidating, that's uncomfortable. And so they kind of shrink back. And successful people want to be challenged and they want to be a part of groups and rooms and thought leaders who are pushing to the next level. And you know what, Shay? It's just so hard to think big when you're surrounded by people who are thinking small. Absolutely. And you know how mom used to say, you know, you show me your friends, I show you you. Probably something to be said for that. I always want to be the least common denominator in my circle. Sorry, friends. And lots of times, if I'm talking to a new entrepreneur, they're like, what does that mean? Because lots of times they might not run businesses, which you don't have to, but they might not think the way an entrepreneur thinks in a lot of areas. So they're first looking at like, join a chamber of commerce, do those things, which that's great. But one of the things that I've seen work is even just going to conferences. If I was going to a conference where my clients were, even if that wasn't for me to learn, like they're not teaching my skill set, but my clients are there. I'm learning more about that industry. Of course, being around them, but I'm learning way more than is necessary for even just to do my role. And that expands the knowledge, that expands the influence. You're building relationships even before you need them. And then when you do need them, they're there. And so putting yourselves in those rooms, taking those steps to get around those people and in those rooms because you show up differently. And not to the point of like transactional. I think it's really you're showing up genuine. You're seeking to understand them, to learn more, make real connections because people know. And if it seems weird, it's probably weird. Yeah. So being authentic. But yeah, proximity is powerful. Yep. Having connections. All right, coachability. We're big believers in coaches. We've had a lot of them, a lot of shout-outs. Being able to take feedback, observation, to re-engage, because people will see things that you can't see. And I have uh several examples of that. I mean, that was a lot of what I did with advisors. I've had it done with me and my practices and things. But many, many, many years ago, I was very young. Talk about awkwardness. I was actually in front of someone who went to hotel who's an owner, trying to sell them something. So I'm sitting in front of them doing this, I think, amazing presentation. And I am rocking this thing going on. When we get done, he sits back and he says, Can I tell you something? I said, Well, sure, I'm thinking he's gonna sign up for this big contract. He tells me, You sound stupid when you keep saying, Do you know what I mean? It makes you sound less intelligent. He goes, and it assaults my intelligence. And I never realized ever that I said over and over again, Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Sorry for those people who say, Do you know what I mean? I don't think I've ever said it since in that regard. I would imagine that would be profound enough to uh shake that out of your vocabulary. Yeah, I was like, okay, kind of back on my heels, but I thought he didn't have to say anything to me. You know, and I just really literally met him. So I appreciate that. But I took it to heart, I thought about it and processed it. And trust me, I've had a lot of other coaching moments since then. But one of the examples, and I'll say this because someone really famous coaching moment, because it doesn't matter what level you are, Michael Jordan, all-time great, talented person, already a superstar, but he was being coached up by Phil Jackson and Tex Winter. And what it was is he was doing all this stuff by himself. And they said, in order to be better, Michael, you gotta learn how to utilize your team and learn a triangle uh offense. And he's like, Well, I'm really good. Why would I do something different? Long story short, that was his weakness, that he was relying on himself and not leveraging the team. They went on to win, I believe it's six championships under that triangle offense. But him being open, he's like, I'm already doing great and wonderful. Why do I need to change something different? But being open to that perspective and that coach takes you to the next level. The thing that I just want to say I love about your personal story that you shared with the hotel is that I think it's easier to be open to feedback and coaching when you're already successful because you're you kind of have the confidence ego and you can take it. And when you're not, when you're like at the very beginning, and then you have someone kind of harshly coaching, he was, it just speaks volumes of it. Doesn't surprise me then that you took that the way that you did and had it escalate you. Okay, I cried in my car, but that's besides lower. Do you know what I mean? I do know what you're gonna do. Everybody is gonna be thinking about when they hear this now. Every time you're in a meeting and someone says, Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I'm saying? Do you know what I mean? You're gonna be like, apologies. He was correct though. It is a little demeaning. I think you can get away with it maybe perhaps a couple of times. Obviously, I said it quite frequently in that meeting. Let's move on to my next one. Being in the right room can take you so far. It will only take you so far, though, if your mentality is not in check. And so successful people do not ride the emotional roller coaster the way others do. And that's easier said than done, okay? Because we are emotional people, we're humans, but there's a difference between you can still have the emotion, but you don't let it dictate your decisions. And I think that's the big difference. It's not that highly successful people don't feel those emotions because they do. Something great happens, you're elated. And when something really tough happens in business, you still feel it, but you don't ride your next week or months of decisions based off of that. And that's really the difference maker. You're not saying don't have feelings or emotions. We're not gonna suppress them or eat their way or something. It's embracing, but you move through them. Because you know, I always say the fear you feel is real, the reasons may not be. Absolutely. And if you're constantly making your decisions based on the emotions or what just happened, you are guaranteeing inconsistency in your business, in your life, because the reality is your business. It's like a relationship, like there just are going to be. To think there's not is naive. So managing those by not making decisions based on emotions. And I remember seeing some different mentors, and I just thought that they were not even mentors necessarily, but some other successful people in business. And I was like, man, I just don't have really emotions. Like they didn't show it. Yeah. And that can seem stoic, but it can also seem like, oh, I wonder if they're really excited about this great news that just came in. Or like, and then I realized when negative things happened, I saw the way if they didn't freak out, the rest of the people didn't freak out. And it just has a ripple effect. And that can go either way. So you celebrate, of course, the highs, but for the lows, you don't let it rock you. Probably your next step to not let it rock you, you tell me if you agree, is you get on the phone or get in the right room with your mentors, get some coaching, and that's how you kind of work through it. Fabulous four, the fourth one. I'm gonna call it personal responsibility. We can call it all kinds of things, but I consistently see the people that own their outcomes and they're not the victim. We were talking about this earlier. There are lots of examples of that. I've seen great leaders who could go blame the sales department, the marketing department, the product. And instead, they go, okay, you know what? Let's regroup, let's redo the product. It was not a good launch. They didn't point the fingers, they readjusted, took ownership, and made corrections. And if you're a victim all the time and you're always blaming other people, you're giving away your power. Yep. We can't control everything, but we can control a lot of stuff, and especially how you show up. And if you show up in that victim mentality, it's gonna be really hard to own the results, to influence people. I mean, just as a leader itself, if you're like, well, I hope this product works out if that salespeople and everybody else does their part. What do you think? Yeah, no, you gotta have that certainty, that conviction. And even to the fact in point, there is a book that I read, and actually my son recommended it, Extreme Ownership. And that is from Go Will Link, hopefully I understand his name correctly. A Navy SEAL. And but they're leading these teams, and you think about results. If you have many, many layers of people, they're going, they still own the outcome, the result of that mission. And if something goes wrong, they don't start looking in the field, they look to themselves. What could I have done better? And that's responsibility and ownership. And then you're not giving away that power. We had a software launch in one of the firms I worked with, and it was supposed to make our lives better, right? It was not going well, people were adapting it. It was like a hot mess situation going on, and they kept saying, Let's do it, let's do it. And I really appreciate the leader getting out there and saying, Okay, we should have deployed this better, let's pause and regrouped and showed up differently for us, as opposed to going, okay, guys, get with the programming. So sometimes you have to go, I'm gonna take the ownership and control. Then you can change the game because you still have the power. Yeah, you're not even motivated to do something if you feel like you have no say, no control. No, so I think personal responsibility in anything you do, own the outcome, be the boss of it. Yeah. I want to say for that last one, I was just reading about this dad who had five sons. And by the time they were 30, they all were successful in different ways or different businesses. And they said, What is the one thing that you did here specifically? And he said, By the time they were age seven, we had a rule in the house, in the family, and it was we don't blame and we don't complain. Doesn't mean we can't acknowledge something didn't work, something's going wrong. But when we do, exactly what you just said, you keep the responsibility. And I just love it when I hear something that I'm like, I want to apply that in my house. I would think it would be empowering. And you know, and just to clarify, when we're talking about characteristics of successful people, because that's one of the things I used to ask people when we bring the career, you know, what do you deem a successful? I felt like you were going this direction. No, it's like I'm so predictable. And success is many, many things to different people. And you have to define your own level of success. I mean, I think in an ideal world, it hits all those things, right? Relationship, family, satisfaction, and what you're doing, purpose. And hopefully a lot of your monetary has to do with your impact, right? Yeah, how you show up. So, you know, uh impact and value, get off on that. But absolutely, success is different things to different people, and it's not always monetary. It's fulfillment, family, all the things that should be. So I don't want people to think we're just tying it to that because even the things we just talked about are very applicable to any of those departments. Absolutely. If I feel in control, I'm happier and I feel more fulfilled, and that's not a monetary value. And the ownership of your relationships and your family and how you spend your time. Deep stuff over here. Oh my goodness gracious. The good news is we are bringing you more original episodes like this because we've spent a lot of time working and talking with entrepreneurs most of our career. And this is this is who we love sharing some of that with. And it's also why we've built IQ for profit and the tools and the resources that are there all comes together full circle. And if you're not familiar with this online platform that we have built, go check it out at IQforprofit.com. It is the powerhouse of resources, vetted, experts, video training forms, all the things you need to catapult your curve of learning to avoid costly time and money mistakes in your entrepreneurial journey. We're here with you. We want to make an impact and happy profiting. One of the heaviest loads business owners carry are taxes and expenses. They can make or break your bottom line. Yes, we see it every day. And that is why we have partnered with Lightening the Load, expert tax strategists, and CPAs, and they help you get a deep dive on those numbers, uncover different strategies, and keep more of what you've actually earned. They don't just file returns, they lighten the load for you with confidence. And that way you can grow and scale your business. So check out it's in the show notes below. We got a 30 minute free consultation for you with lightening the load, and you're talking to a CPA. Unbelievable. So click on the link below and take advantage of it. We'll see you in the next episode.