How to Transform Your Life and Find Good People to Hire

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. So we got Gary and Susan Harper with Sharper Business, and they flew in from Northwest Indiana. And I actually asked them to come on so that we can talk about your new curriculum. Right?

The RISE business framework. So, we are on a mission to create a 100 millionaires. The information on the show, I believe, is enough to help become a millionaire in the next five to seven years. It would take if you'll take consistent action, you will become one. We're also compiling a list of the top 10 objections, that you guys are hearing in the field, compiling it, and giving you giving you what we believe to be the best answers to it.

If you want access if you want access to that, next objections is three three seven seven seven. And this show is brought to you by our sister company, Investor Lift. Go to investorlift.com. Put in disruptors to get 10% off. So it's been a couple years since we had you guys on the show.

I think a lot has changed in that time. So what are some of the biggest developments since you guys were last on the show?

Gary Harper: I mean, first, we lost a lot of weight, I think, since the last time. People saw us before versus now, they might not even recognize who we were. I think I've lost a 107 seasons lost. We won't

Steve: say it.

Gary: Yeah. There you go.

Steve: Yeah. That's awesome.

Gary: But we've been on a health journey. You know? Yeah. Trying to get healthy in life and business. And, I think, part of that leading people, you gotta lead yourself first.

Steve: Absolutely. But Cole Taylor, got a chance I got a chance to watch him speak on stage a couple weeks ago

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: At CG, and he talked about, like, you know, the way you show up. Yeah. And it FX everywhere else.

Gary: Yeah. How do you show up? Yep.

Steve: Alright. So how how accurate or how I mean, how much would you guys agree with a statement?

Gary: Man, I'll tell you. I I can give a 110% now versus 90% then Yeah. In the sessions.

Susan Harper: I 100% agree with that that statement. Yeah. It it's it you can't put yourself on the sideline and think that it it won't apply to business too because it does. Yeah. So you've gotta be take an active role in everything that you do Mhmm.

Including your health.

Steve: So Yeah. So what kind of, I guess, you know, time investment, financial investment, this and that, to make this happen, particularly since you guys are traveling? Because there's something that happens when you leave home. Mhmm. Your diet what's the word I'm looking for?

Your commitment to your diet wanes Yeah. When you leave.

Susan: Yeah. Some would say it's just harder. Yeah. Except, I it for us, it was the learning of what to eat. Mhmm.

What's the right foods? What's the right combination that our bodies need that they help provide that structure for?

Steve: Mhmm.

Susan: And it was now it's simple. It's super easy. I don't I don't even have it it's it's like a game we play with, you know, the MyFitnessPal. We put all our food in, and it's like, what fits? Where where where does it fit?

And is it something on my approved list? Yeah. So it it it's like they took the decision making away from us. It's like, don't need to. Here's exactly what I'm supposed to eat.

Did it fit in what I wanted to today? I plan out, like, tonight before dinner, when I look at the menu, I'll put it in my app to make sure I can fit whatever it is I wanna eat.

Steve: Yeah. So

Gary: Yeah. We we got to a point where we eat to live versus living to eat. Yeah. I think that's the biggest difference. You know, they they give us what we call body and operating system.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: You know? And that's what resonates with me because we teach business operating systems. Right. And they gave us a body operating system that's specific to my body. It's tailored to my body.

And a lot like, you know, I bought their body operating system very similar to a business operating system, the fact that you don't fit your business in a box Mhmm. You'd custom the operating system around your business. The same thing they do with us is they custom that system around us given the fact that we fly five times a week. Mhmm.

Steve: You know,

Gary: the we're home ninety one days last year, that kind of thing. And actually, to a point now, Susan, I don't know if you agree with this, but it's harder when we're home

Steve: Yeah. Really?

Gary: Yeah. Then when we're on the road because we're in a routine on the road. Mhmm. We come home. It's like all gloves off.

Steve: There's more

Gary: temptation. There's more temptation.

Steve: This is vacation.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: So, was it you I was talking to where they're they send, like, the meal prep?

Susan: Oh, they're they're phenomenal. Honestly, we wouldn't have done it without them. They they help with our concierge service to help, either they can actually order the meals for us, and they'll show up wherever we're at, which is beautiful and wonderful. They'll help order groceries. They'll help with food meal prep.

They help with the supplements ordering. They help us with knowing what to eat, where to eat, when to eat. It it's their hands on system is just it they they took out all the guesswork for us.

Gary: They were at our house on Sunday and Monday

Susan: Yeah.

Gary: Of this week. Coach their business. Right. Because they coach our body. And Susan cooked for them, and they were just over the top about, like, how she's figured out how to have good meals Mhmm.

With what they require us to

Steve: eat. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing once you don't have to think about it. Yeah.

Yeah. Because for me, it's that that thinking about where I really struggle. Because you're talking about, like, you know, plugging it into, MyFitnessPal and, like, planning. Yeah. Like, that's about where I stopped.

Like, this is Yeah. I was able to do MyFitnessPal, I think, consistently for maybe, like, four or five months, about as long as I can go Yeah. And log in and just after that.

Susan: Yeah. Well, I'll give Gary's secret away. The funny part is is he'll eat everything I eat because I'll track it, and he could just copy it. Right. So sometimes he just needs to eat more than I do.

But Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. That works. Yeah.

Gary: It works. But you can create my meals.

Steve: Mhmm. Yeah.

Gary: So once you get consistent with the stuff you like to eat, you log it in and put it under my meals, and then you just add go to my meals and add it every single time you eat it.

Steve: I know. I get that. It was just, Yeah. It was the routine part. Right?

Because, like, you know, we talk about our profiles. Right? Like, I'm good with, like, process, but I'm not so good with procedures.

Susan: Yeah. And

Gary: you like you don't like the same thing every day either with your profile too.

Steve: I can eat the same thing every single day. I can eat the same thing every single day, but it was really just because, like, you have a bad meal. You have to put it in there.

Susan: Yeah.

Steve: And then you just feel awful about yourself.

Susan: Oh, so that's the wonderful thing. I think they make you they don't make me feel awful. Yeah. It's that they give us celebration meals. You're allowed two a week for, you

Steve: know,

Susan: x number of calories, and it doesn't matter what is on it.

Steve: Right.

Susan: And so it's like, don't don't hurt yourself because and and, actually, his his presentation last week was, you know, winning is not just once.

Steve: Right.

Susan: You have to win every day. You have to consistently win. That's what winning is.

Steve: Well, that message really resonated.

Susan: Me too.

Steve: But I hadn't heard that message until a couple weeks ago. Yeah.

Gary: That's true.

Steve: Alright. A couple weeks ago, prior to that conversation, like, oh, yeah. Like, everything was a one time decision.

Gary: Right. Yeah.

Steve: Now it's like, no. This is just one Yep. Infinite number of decisions, which makes sense when it's explained, but we don't think about it this way.

Gary: So true. Right? Yeah.

Steve: The other thing was, so we were talking about Cole Taylor. I don't remember. What was the name of his business?

Susan: The starting line.

Steve: Starting line. Yeah. And so one of the things I saw in this presentation was they went with the the blood work. Mhmm. Have you guys gone to that detail?

Susan: Oh, absolutely.

Gary: Several times. Biome, checking what our gut tolerates, what our blood types are, looking at, you know, our hormone levels, things like that, supplementing based on that kind of stuff,

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: Testosterone replacement, all that stuff has been a part of the regimen of our journey.

Susan: Well, what's nice, it's like anytime we felt stuck, we're like, well, let's run some more blood work and find out what your body's reacted to, what is happening, what's going on. So it's it's never, I'm stuck and I don't know how to help you. It's let's I'm stuck. Let's uncover what else is wrong.

Steve: You can actually troubleshoot.

Susan: Yeah. Absolutely. Especially. Yeah. It's absolute metrics.

Gary: I love it because it literally ties back to what we do in our business operating system. So it makes it works for my brain.

Steve: How long has it been?

Susan: Been a year and a couple of months.

Steve: Okay. Yeah. So and we said almost for you, almost 10 pounds. Wow.

Gary: Yeah.

Susan: Yeah. I guess.

Steve: Yeah. Pretty pretty significant.

Gary: Yeah. That is pretty significant. How's that? Through over 300 pounds?

Steve: Yeah. So, health has changed in the last couple years. What else has happened last

Gary: Well, I've lost two parents. That's been rough.

Steve: It has been.

Gary: It's been a tough year. My dad passed away in, January 2020, then my mom passed away nine months later. Yeah. And, so that it was a tough year. It's been a year.

You know, you never get to the end of life, or going to the personal end of life with your family, your folks, and really know whether or not you're gonna have regrets until it's gone. Like, you can think you don't. Right? But then you get to the end and you don't know. And, I I don't know.

I up till now, at least till now, it's been six months since my mom and a year and a half since my dad. I haven't had that feeling of regret yet, so I'm glad for that. You know, I'm glad that I felt like I, you know, did what they wanted me to do as their son and helping them. And, so that's a good feeling. Still miss him terribly, though.

You know?

Steve: Yeah. Because you weren't really the best rule follower at

Gary: the time. Right. Still not.

Steve: But you were but that was that wasn't something that created a giant wedge. Like, you still had a wonderful relationship with your parents. Yeah.

Gary: Very much. My dad was my best friend. I had 265 emails from my or voice mails from my dad. Mhmm. And he would call me while I was in sessions, and he would say, hey, Sano.

Just calling you. I feel like today I just leave you a memory.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And so he left me voice mail after voice mail after voice mail, and I kept them all. Yeah. And they were a blessing. Huge blessing. I listened to them all the time, actually.

I have different ones categorized. Someone say, welcome home, son. Sure glad you had a safe trip. And others like, good morning, son. I had many of them that said, you know, I love you.

I'm proud of you.

Steve: So,

Gary: you know, my words are, my love language is words of affirmation.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And I really had no clue how much my dad filled that cup.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: No. He wasn't here anymore. Yeah. And, and now, you know, there's a big void left there because I didn't really need it. Honestly, if you had told me my words of information, my love language, I'm like, nah.

Because he filled the cup so much for me. Yeah. But once he was gone, it was like, wow. I'm really missing a big hole.

Steve: Not to get, you know, super, like what's the word I'm looking for? Like, Unemotional. Personal. Unemotional. Unemotional.

To get emotionally attached from this. I have found, and I'm not saying this is accurate, but just anecdotally, that if someone is a high b, right, high social, they generally like the words of affirmation Yeah. Is their love language. Right?

Gary: Yeah. True.

Steve: And so, like, I have a friend and her love language or she's a high I super social. Yeah. And, like, I could totally manipulate this. I don't. Yeah.

Well, I've seen it happen over and over again. Anytime someone needs something from her

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: They'll just tear her down. Right? Wow. And then as a result, she feels bad about it, and it should go all in to fix it. Right after they fix it, she fixes it, then they give her the words of affirmation, which, like A reward.

A reward. Yeah. And, like, she's just getting torn back and forth. And it's like, I know this about her, and I've intentionally not.

Susan: Needs to see that.

Steve: I think I've shared that with her, and I I don't think she can can get past that. Well, I'll

Gary: tell you words of affirmation is probably the toughest toughest love language there is.

Susan: Mhmm.

Gary: Because it's one of the ones that you can say something really nice, and it works really well for them. But people don't realize when they say something even remotely negative

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: It goes the opposite direction for that person.

Steve: Yeah. So she told me I made her cry

Gary: a lot. Yeah.

Steve: I'm just being You're being honest.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah. Ouch. Yeah. We're tough people to I'm

Steve: just being honest with you. Another thing too, you know, going back to the love language, you know, one challenge I have is I am I know it doesn't appear this way, you know, maybe publicly, but I'm incredibly lazy. Right? I just don't like to do anything. Alright?

Gary: That's funny.

Steve: So it might not appear that way. But if you're, you know, around people, there's a love language. It causes challenges.

Susan: Sure.

Steve: So, you know, you guys have done multiple, marriage retreats, relationship Sure. Counseling, but, you know, working on your marriage. Like, for someone that's listening right now that's never heard about love languages before, like, what advice do you have for someone like that?

Gary: Get a good counselor.

Susan: Yeah.

Gary: Yeah. Alright. Like, Steve for, you know, Keith Cowen is the person that actually does that for us. He's, he's the relationship coach that we have. Yeah.

And he's who we try we're not expert in that Mhmm. In any means, shape, shape, or form. Right? Like, it's just not our area of expertise. So but Keith is.

Mhmm. And so I would say, you know, understand each other.

Steve: Right.

Gary: When you're at whether it's a business relationship, personal relationship, one of the things I talk about is you have to have a good culture in that relationship.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And there's four things that create good culture. First is you have to align in position. So whether it's a business relationship, you have to agree the positions you're gonna roll and the place you're gonna roll. Mhmm. Or the the roles you're gonna play.

And then, in your personal life, same thing. Right? Like, somebody's gotta agree to do dishes.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: Someone's gotta agree to take trash out. Someone's gotta agree to pay the bills. Yeah.

Steve: There's gotta be roles and responsibilities. Right. Mhmm.

Gary: So aligning in position is the first part of creating culture. Second is aligning with the person, and that's where values come in. Values come in there. Purpose alignment is three.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And last, from not not least, probably the hardest one is goal alignment.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And so where we see people in partnerships of life and business split is because one of those fours break.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: So it's either position alignment breaks, personal alignment breaks, trust and values Mhmm. Purpose alignment changes, or goal alignment. And, see, would you guess out of all four of those, which is the biggest one that causes the disregard of the relationship?

Steve: I can say on my own personal experience is goal alignment.

Gary: Yeah. A 100%.

Steve: Yeah. Absolutely.

Gary: It's a 100% what it is. Always goal alignment that goes

Steve: to yeah.

Susan: Amazing. We see that in personal and professional Yeah. Realm.

Steve: Well, I mean, I can speak right. So I I mentioned before, that I had a business divorce. Right? And I would say the biggest thing was just, like

Gary: Goals change.

Steve: Goals change. Right? Like, when we started, we had the same goals. Right? And then at some point, we stopped having the same goals.

Susan: Yeah. Yeah.

Gary: You permit purpose didn't change.

Steve: Right.

Gary: Purpose didn't change. Nope. Now goals, if handled the wrong way, could cause somebody to violate your values.

Steve: Sure.

Gary: But it's usually not the first broken window of the relationship.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: Usually, the goals change. Yeah. We've seen couples split in the last two years that we're life in business together. Goals change.

Steve: Can you give me an example of that?

Gary: One person wanted their wife to continue to be in real estate with them, building a real estate business. Mhmm. She's like, I really wanna go do this other thing in education. Mhmm. He was like, but she told me you were gonna help me build the real estate.

Mhmm. And she was like, I have for twenty five years. Mhmm. Now I'm done. Mhmm.

And she's like, I'm gonna go do this. And he's like, I'm not gonna support it. Like, I'm gonna go do it, and goals change. Yeah. Right?

And But

Steve: that was a business divorce or that was also It

Susan: was both. It ended up being both. It was very sad.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, it's funny for that story. It implies to, like, seven different people. I'm not just thinking about one person.

I'm thinking about seven different people we've worked with. Like, seven, literally. So if they're listening, they're like, oh, the dark no. We're talking about seven different types of people literally that have gone through this.

Steve: In the last two years.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah. It's been incredible. It's been hard to watch.

Steve: How do you, how would someone prevent that? Is that a preventable thing? Well, I

Gary: think you gotta stay alignment.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: So it's a constant check-in in that area. Alright. You gotta check-in on goals. You gotta check-in on purpose. Mhmm.

Steve: You

Gary: gotta check-in on values, and you gotta check-in on position. Yeah. We see it a lot in business too. If it's not goals, it's position alignment that causes it. Right.

That makes sense. Visionary integrator, both visionaries, really, and they start the company together, and they're like, I don't really wanna be an integrator anymore. I've helped to get this off the ground. Blah blah blah. I really wanna set in the owner's box, and the other one feels slighted because he still wants to be the visionary.

Mhmm. Enjoys working in the business. He enjoys doing the deals. He enjoys running the company. The other guy's like, he feels abandoned because the guy wants to live in the owner's box.

Mhmm. He's like, but you're leaving me. No. I'm not. I'm doing what I started this business to do, which is reap the benefit and have freedom.

Steve: Right.

Gary: And so there's this feeling of being abandoned. Right. And so, like, it's a constant check-in. And then here's the bigger thing. Be okay if it ends.

Yeah. Like, that's where you destroy it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: That's when you destroy the relationship is when it's coming to an end and you're not okay with it, and you try to sabotage the person to stay.

Steve: Yeah. I think, you know, Leon Barnes. Right? Yeah. CG.

Like, we've had this conversation because he's been in other previous relationships, partnerships.

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: He's like, it doesn't matter what happens when the partnership ends. It's just

Gary: Just sneezing him.

Steve: Different. Mhmm. Right? Like, the relationship even though it was great before

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: And it was great during Yeah. It's not the same after.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah. Never the same. I mean, because people feel, like, down. They feel abandoned.

Steve: Mhmm. They

Gary: start to reflect back on everything they didn't do right. A lot of times, they reflect on the things they should have done better.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And that, you know, it just creates bitterness. Yeah. So, I always tell people, you know, if you wanna stay healthy in these four areas, then stay grateful. Yeah. Right?

Grateful gratitude is the one thing. When you stop having it, you start feeling entitled.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: Entitled entitlement entitlement creates bitterness. Bitterness creates silos. Silos kills communication, and there's, like, 50,000 books written about it after that. Yeah. Right?

That's why we start every one of our client sessions with good news. Yeah. Because we're centering people back into great gratitude Mhmm. Being grateful for what they have. Yeah.

Because it's the first broken window in a business.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Makes a lot of sense.

Gary: Yeah. So same thing with a relationship. You know, if you wanna center back in, look at these four areas, stay in line with them, make sure you're checking in with each other, you know, that partner of yours, and then make sure you're staying grateful for what they do are willing to do. Yeah. So I'd say that was key.

I saw it perfect. So I mean, people are most complex thing you're ever gonna do in your life is deal with people.

Steve: Yeah. You say complex. I just say unreliable. And is that a bad thing? Right?

It's not a bad thing. It's just like in any system. If if any part of the system is gonna break

Susan: It's the people part.

Steve: It's the people. Yeah.

Gary: That's why I'm excited about AI. Yeah.

Steve: I mean, I'm I'm kinda resigned to it. Robert Swanson, did you get a chance to watch his presentation?

Gary: I haven't.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, he did this whole thing.

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: Right? But, like, here are the seven things here are seven opportunities right now that you can sort for AI and real estate.

Susan: Yeah. I watched it. Right.

Steve: It was

Susan: really good.

Steve: He's going through all of it. And As he's going through all of it, I'm I'm I'm sitting, I'm in the back of the room. I'm just talking to Jason Medley. I was like, this presentation is great. Right?

It's wonderful. I'm not getting as much value out of it because for me, I'm just waiting for them to figure it out, and I'm just gonna pay them.

Susan: Exactly. Right?

Steve: You figure this out.

Gary: Yeah. And

Susan: tell me what I could do.

Steve: Tell me what I could do. You to do it. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll just pay for the software.

Like

Susan: Got it.

Steve: That's that's for me. Like, thank you for opening my eyes. Yeah. But I'm

Gary: not gonna do anything. Right. Yeah. That's so true. Right.

Steve: But also, I was sharing with Jason, like, Robert's about to make a lot of money. Yeah. Right? To figure out the problems or the opportunities Yeah. And to be the one that's the innovator

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: In that space. Yeah. Really interested to see

Susan: Where it goes.

Steve: Yeah. What, yeah, where it goes, where what he comes with, and so on. So I think also in the last few years, you had additional family join the company.

Susan: And, yes, we've had

Gary: Daughter join?

Susan: Daughter-in-law. We so our son got married.

Steve: Mhmm.

Susan: I'm not entirely sure if our daughter was married or not. Mhmm. Daughter got married. Our son got married. We're empty nesters, and we have a grandson.

Gary: Mhmm.

Susan: So he joined the company too, just so you know.

Gary: He joined our c level group.

Susan: He's our c level group.

Gary: He's our chief cuteness officer. There you go. So we're gonna pay a little bit of a salary there.

Susan: Yeah. But now they all work for us too, which is Yeah. Incredibly fulfilling. A little a little taxing sometimes at dinner when we're all talking business instead of family time, but it's all good.

Steve: Yeah. We'll talk to you about that because I think that's really cool. Like, you know, I got three girls. Mhmm. I don't know if anyone would ever be willing to work for me.

I don't know if any of them, that are are are, you know, manageable. Right?

Gary: It's funny.

Steve: But but talk to me about, like, that experience of, you know, having the ability to have your kids join you on your venture.

Gary: I once said that our kids we can measure the success of parents we were when our kids wanted to be around us when they didn't have to be around us. That's what I used to say. And now that they want to be around us, it's it's huge. Yeah. I think early on, we started prepping our kids to want to be around us through involving them with our problem.

So I used to come home from work, whether it'd be in Chicago or it'd be in entrepreneurship, and I'd talk to the kids about what happened today. Mhmm.

Steve: What

Gary: what I was frustrated about, what went wrong, and I'd ask for their help in solving the problem. And I would get so many different types of answers. I mean, one was like, Jake was like, take my teddy bear tomorrow, like, when he was, like, nine, you know, that kind of thing. And it and to him, he was contributing to the solution, but it aided him in feeling like he was not being pushed away from dad's work.

Steve: Mhmm. And I

Gary: feel like when we do that as entrepreneurs, we do that as fathers or mothers. What we do is we say, this is business world. This is home world, and you can't be a problem to me right now while I'm frustrated with business. And so we're like, not now, son. I can't play basketball.

Not now, honey. I don't wanna take you shopping because daddy had a rough day at work. All it does is create a disdainment for what we do because it robbed them of us. Right.

Steve: Free animosity. Yeah.

Gary: Yeah. So I recognized that pretty early on, and I started asking them to be a part of that bear breaking down that barrier

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: So that they felt they were invited into that world versus pushed away from that world. Yeah. And so when it became, you know, time for them to start working with us, they already felt like they did. Yeah. Now they're getting paid for it.

You know? And so it I felt like it became a natural thing. And that for me, it's it's very rewarding for our kids to be a part of what we do.

Steve: Yeah. That's why

Gary: I do it.

Steve: I had a a Larry Yatch, right, with with a

Susan: Field team leaders.

Steve: Team leaders. And, you know, when they were working with us, he said something that I thought was really powerful was that, the best thing you can do is to have your kids, be completely, unreliant on you, so independent of you where they don't need you at all. Because that's the only way to know if they really love you. Right? Like, if they need you

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: It's one dynamic. But if you raise them to be a 100 and independent, they're gonna be on their own with or without you, and they still choose to wanna spend time with you. Sure. Then they said, at that point now, you've got pure love.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah. That's really good. It's good. I mean, I think that's what we've experienced.

And having the kids being part of it, being there every single day since like Susan said, sometimes family dinners are challenged because

Steve: we

Gary: don't wanna work. They're the ones that keep wanting to work. Mhmm. Because they're still 21 and or 22 and 24 years old. So 90% of the time, they're like, hey, dad.

Can I ask you a question? I'm like, no.

Susan: It's not right now. Yeah.

Gary: Is it business related? Right? Like, so now that I used to bring them into the world, now that we're, like, grown up and working with us, now I'm like, no. Let's let's go back to the world of family versus the world of business. So Yeah.

But it's it's been fun. It's been fun having them a part of it, and they're creative.

Steve: Mhmm. You

Gary: know? And they have energy, and we don't. So that's good too.

Steve: That is good. Yeah. Somewhere along the way, you've made a new curriculum. I mean, you've been doing this for a very, very long time. Mhmm.

And this this latest version, I can tell you're extremely passionate about. I am. Right? So what walk me through what is the RISE business framework?

Gary: RISE business framework is a methodology of rising to your 100%.

Steve: Mhmm. So

Gary: every business wants to reach its 100%. Harvard Business Review says, a business reaches business maturity. That doesn't mean you're 10 x. That doesn't mean anything like that. Just means that you're mature as a business Mhmm.

To whatever degree you want to. Right? And your purpose is what determines to what that 100% is. Yeah. So resources is what r stands for.

It's resources, inspiration, systems, and engagement to help us rise. We hit plateaus as we grow to that. The first plateau we saw was we hit a plateau in resources. We get stuck in time, money, or people.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: One of those three things start to hold us back. But if we can master that and rise out of that, then we get an inspiration where we inspire the resources. Inspiration includes culture, includes goals, short term, long term vision, and what that looks like, the purpose of the organization. Then if we can rise from that, then we get into systems, which is process, procedures, policies, and even productivity. We wanna Yeah.

At this point, we're leaning out the business, making it more productive.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: From that, we rise into what we call engagement. Now we've earned the right to expand our marketing, expand our reach, expand our sales. And, if you do those properly and you rise to your 100% in a mature way, then you can move it as fast as you wanna move it, but you have to know how to navigate each one of those quadrants.

Steve: So those are resources. So Yeah. Kinda like I don't explain it in in nearly as articulately. Right? So what I always say is, like, you know, like, at first, you gotta figure out marketing.

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: You gotta figure out marketing. And once you get the once you get the phone ringing Yeah.

Gary: Then you

Steve: gotta figure out how to sell those people.

Gary: Yeah. Right?

Steve: And once you figure out how to sell those people, then you gotta be able to figure out how to, like, get the operations dialed in.

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: After you figure out operations, now you gotta work on leadership Yeah. And then finances because you don't understand finances. Doesn't matter how much money you

Gary: make. Yeah.

Steve: Right? So I look at, like, those those are, like, the five different categories, and it almost always happens in order. Right? How do I get my first deal? How do I close my first deal?

Gary: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? How do I now I gotta sign contract. Now what? Right? Now I gotta hire people.

Now what? So Rise, you're talking about it was time, money, and people. Yeah. So over the r. So talk to me about time with the resources, time, money, and people.

Like, what is that?

Gary: So people being what people do I need to get the first deal? What people do I need to you know, what resources are people? It doesn't have to be meeting people you hire, but, like, who's gonna help me write the copy? Who's gonna help me pro promote this?

Steve: So third party vendors is included in

Gary: It is. 100%. Yeah. It's just what people do I need

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: To get this thing off the ground and start making money. Right. And is it me? Am I the right person? We see it all the time in, like, you know, going to different, meetup groups and stuff where people are three or four years in trying to do their first deal.

And it's because they're not the right person to do sales.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: Right? And so they are just floundering. They're constant learners that never do their first deal because they're they haven't identified they're the wrong resource.

Steve: Are these the people that are generally highly analytical? Yeah. Usually. Yeah.

Gary: I mean, they have figured it out. They know exactly on paper exactly what this deal is gonna be and how it's gonna be, but they can't get it nobody else sell them the house. They can't sell it.

Steve: One of our camera guys today has, I was laughing at a shirt. He's like and his shirt his shirt says, like, in big, letters. Right? Hold on. I'm still overthinking.

Gary: That's those people. That's exactly what those people. Yeah. So resources, knowing what resources we need. I always say I don't start a new business until I hire my my business unit leader first, my integrator of the organization.

Yeah. Because I don't wanna be a resource to my company. Right. Right? And that's the first thing.

We lock ourselves down as a resource day one.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: So I wanna get those people in place, whether it's me, a contractor, or somebody else to be that person. Yeah. Time. I always wanna preterm in time. I wanna look at six, twelve, two years.

We just open up Sharper Studios. I gave it a two year time frame. In that two years, I needed to know the money I needed to make and how much money I needed to spend. Mhmm. Right?

When you do your first deal, same thing. You need to know how much money it's gonna cost you, how much money you gotta bring to the table, how much it's gonna cost to fix a flip it, whatever you're gonna do. So money is an essential part of every business. Yeah. We got really good in real estate of creating performance when we buy a house.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: We're terrible at it for a business.

Steve: Right.

Gary: So every business should start with what resources do I need, what time frame, and those things then create what we call a pro form a. How are we gonna perform for the next six to twelve months in this business? How much revenue do I need to make? How much expenses do I have? When can I afford to hire these resources?

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: You know, that's the other thing. We we we struggle with some of the other operating systems because we would come in and we look at that accountability chart.

Steve: We

Gary: you know, we look at that organizational chart. We're like, alright. Steve, you're in three of the wrong seats. And we're like, alright. You're gonna have to replace yourself in these seats.

Mhmm. But then if we didn't do a pro form a to project out when you could afford to replace those seats, you'd hurt your business.

Steve: Right.

Gary: And we walk away because the operating systems we were using didn't give that in the account. So then we kinda left people wanting to know when. So in RISE, we brought in finance. So we create a pro form a with the team, then that creates a budget. The budget gets monitored every month with the P and L, and the P and L creates a variance report of whether or not you're overrun or same thing you do when you fix a flipping a house.

Steve: Right.

Gary: But now we've that that's application applied now to our business. Right? Yeah.

Steve: I think this is, the first time we've talked about a variance report on this show.

Gary: Yeah. Right.

Steve: And and

Gary: I live by variance. Yeah. So every month, I get what I call our key profit indicators.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And those key profit indicators tell us if we're over or under and why we're over or under. If we've if there's a variance in any GL code on our on our spreadsheet for our pro form a versus budget and our budget versus p and l, then I wanna look at it and go, why are we over or under by 3% or more? If we're over or under by 3% or more, then I want a variance report on it. I wanna know why.

Susan: What's funny is I think most people look at that and say, oh, I'm supposed to be under. But if we're under in our marketing spend and we're not, you know, spending the amount we budgeted for because that should produce this many leads, that should produce this many contracts, we're gonna be in trouble in ninety days from now.

Steve: Right.

Susan: But that's you could have caught that right then and there because you're under the budget you had set. So being under isn't always a good thing either. Sometimes we have to spend what we expected to spend so we can get the results that we want.

Steve: Yeah. That was one of our quarterly rocks. I can't remember. I wanna say, like, two, three years ago when you guys came in. It was like, spend this much in marketing.

Yeah.

Susan: Yeah.

Gary: Because because you have to in order to project what you're gonna make in revenue. Right. So the other thing that we did in resources is you've heard the cliche statement over the years, write people write seats.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And I've said that for twenty years. There's probably at least 15 books. If you picked them up today, they would say that statement. When I wrote Rise, I wanted tactical versus philosophy. This book is a very tactical book of how to do it, not just what to do.

Yeah. Right? And I find that sometimes as an operating system, we just give the what to do, and we don't give the how to do it. Mhmm. It kills the what.

Yeah. So we got into, like, how do you make sure somebody's in the right seat? I said this a couple years a couple weeks ago, even at CG. I said, I think one of the things I did that may have hurt this industry was bring, like, a psychometric data reporting structure, like a PI to it. Mhmm.

You know why? Because it's everybody felt like it was the one cure all to decide if somebody sits in a seat. Mhmm. But it measures potential of the person, not performance. Yeah.

Right? And so we looked at it and we went, there's a heart, there's a head, there's a hands, and there's a feet that comes to the workplace with somebody every day. Right. And I write poems so it rhymes. It's like the heart, head, hands, and feet tell you if you're in the right seat.

Right? And the heart is desire. And so we gotta know your desire. Steve, you don't desire to do sales and you have the ideal profile to do it, guess what?

Steve: Doesn't matter.

Gary: You're probably not gonna perform.

Steve: Right.

Gary: Because the heart and the hands, the skills of the person tell me how you're gonna perform.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: If you have a resume of twenty years doing this,

Steve: you

Gary: have a desire to do this, you're gonna do the job. Right?

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: What if you have a low p a wrong PI for it?

Steve: You got the wrong PI. I mean, I don't know. To modify. Right? Well, they're gonna they might not last that seat.

Gary: Yeah. Because potential. Yeah. Long term potential of them succeeding.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: It could burn out.

Steve: Yeah. Or

Gary: maybe they already have if they've done it for twenty years.

Steve: Now they're gonna get somebody

Gary: that's already burnt out coming on your

Steve: day. Mhmm.

Gary: Yeah. So that's where these things start to come together. The heart and the hands tell you the performance, potential performance. Mhmm. And the head and the feet, the mobility, the well, are they willing to grow the seat or grow with the seat?

Tell you the potential of the person. Yeah. And we have to have both measured. And we actually brought in what we call a nine box system that measures potential and performance and tells you what to do with them if they're in one of those nine boxes.

Steve: Right.

Gary: Right?

Steve: So we're talking about right people, right seat.

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: That's the what. Yep. Now you're sharing

Gary: How to do it.

Steve: The how. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's funny. Like, you're talking about the the psychometrics and how it might hurt, you know, the industry in in one capacity or another.

We still won't have someone come in if they won't take the PI. Right?

Gary: And we still should. We still should. Because we that should be first interview. I always say there's three interviews to the one that's right. First interview is what's the potential of the person.

Because if you have a 100 candidates, you wanna limit it to all the high potential people.

Steve: Right.

Gary: Then second interview is will they perform,

Steve: which

Gary: is where you're measuring desire and you're measuring skills, the job resume. Third interview is do they want you?

Steve: Yeah. So let's go through the second interview. So the first one, I think a lot of people have already learned this part. Yeah. So the second interview was the whether they have the skills, you said?

Gary: Skills and desire. Skills and desire. Mhmm.

Steve: How do you measure the desire?

Gary: Desire, there's three four questions that I put in the the curriculum that helps you measure desire. But there is an assessment too if you wanted to go that route. It's called find your mojo. And find your mojo is a assessment that helps you determine somebody's drivers, like their mojo. Susan's number one mojo, if you will Mhmm.

Is learning. Yeah. So if I put her in a seat that she's gonna do something mundane and never learn over and over again or try to grow with SC, probably not gonna be desired seat for her over time. Even if she has skills doing it. Yeah.

So we all I always make fun of this. You know, the NBA, the NFL is filled with a high a lot of high potential, low performing people.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: Right?

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: Because their their heart's not there.

Steve: Right. Yeah. We we have one of those here. Phoenix. Oh, I was gonna

Gary: say that you're gonna say interrupters. No. No. No. No.

No. Deandre Ayton. You're listening.

Steve: Yeah. No no heart. Anyway

Gary: Yeah. And that's what happens. You're like, dude, this guy frustrates me. Why? To all the potential in the world.

Steve: All the potential in the world.

Gary: And how many times we hired somebody with a 10 out of 10 PI? They have the growth and the mobility to be able to grow that seed or grow with the seed or grow with your company. They have all this potential. Yeah. They might even have some of the skills.

Their heart's not there.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: And you're like, man, this guy. What the what's what are they doing? Like, if I had half that guy's talent, if I had half that guy's

Steve: Believe me. I say that all the time.

Gary: Yeah. Because that's what frustrates us. Mhmm. So we have to measure potential and performance. Mhmm.

When we get an inspiration, we also measure, are you the right people for us? The right person is different than being in the right seat. Yeah. So we get into measuring, do we align with our values, and do you align with our purpose? Mhmm.

So we wanna assess, do you have our values in your value system, and do you put are you gonna push to achieve our purpose? And then one of the ways we look to see if you're gonna achieve our purpose with us is whether or not my purpose as a company will help you achieve your personal purpose. Yeah. And if we can get a yes on those two areas right there, you're the right person. So that's the tactical side.

Steve: And that that that solves the third interview?

Gary: Yeah. So that's a that's a part of the second interview. Okay. First one is, are you in the right seat?

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: That's where we're using the heart, head, hands, and feet. Second interview is whether or not you're the right person for us Mhmm. And if you have the skills to do the job. The third interview is, do you want us?

Steve: Mhmm. What does that what does that entail?

Gary: It entails me selling you on everything about us, our purpose, our goals, where we're going. You know? Because at this point, I'm I'm resolved that I want you.

Susan: Well, actually, in the curriculum, we've also outlined the top 10 things of what people are looking for when coming to a business. Like, the number one thing is do we challenge them to get up in the morning and come to work? Is our business it's number one. It was challenge. Giving them a challenge to show up every day?

Gary: I had

Steve: no idea. But I challenged the

Gary: heck out of my feet.

Susan: Well, that's good.

Steve: They're stressed every day work for me.

Gary: And when you I don't know

Susan: about stress. That might not be the right

Gary: one. Stress and stress and challenge are probably different. It's a little different. But, honestly, it's one of those things that when you look at somebody in this world today

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: They want the emotional paycheck as much as they want the financial.

Steve: Absolutely.

Gary: And in our company Sharper Talent, we have found these top 10 reasons why people want to come to work for people. And you'd find that pay is on that one of those top 10. Okay.

Steve: But

Gary: it's not the top one. Mhmm. It's, like, right in the middle somewhere. Right? And so I always say this, when you don't help them see those other 10 or the other nine, you're gonna pay more.

Right. Right.

Steve: You have to to compensate. Yeah. So instead of going through all 10, like, what are, like, the top three that we talked about?

Susan: Recognition. Mhmm. What was the third top one? Culture. Culture.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah. They wanna feel like they belong to something. You know?

Susan: Bigger than making money.

Steve: Mhmm. I have to figure out the the mojo thing because, I mean, Susan and I very interesting. So much in common. Like, there's the the learning thing. Like, someone pulled me aside at the last CG break.

I won the belt, which was, like, you know, a great honor. Yeah. Like, how do you have so much to, like, talk about? Yeah. Every time, like, you're always, like, sharing something new.

Right. You've learned it. Because I love to learn. Yeah. Right?

Like, I just that's what fires me up. So, like like, what you're saying, like, if I'm not learning, I mean, I'm probably gonna need I already take, like, one or two of these a day. Like, I probably need, like, four or five of these a day. If you

Susan: weren't learning something.

Steve: I'm not learning something.

Gary: That's crazy.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: Yeah. I mean, so we use find your mojo for desire. We use interviews for skills.

Steve: Mhmm. Because,

Gary: yeah, there's nothing that replaces that. Yeah. You know, calling referrals, things like that. Predictive index for behavioral assessments. And then for mobility, ability to grow is we use working genius.

Yeah. So there's four different types of assessments that we use to see if you're gonna sit in the right seat.

Steve: Yeah. I think, I think Dave Coyle sent me like, yeah. You know, look at this SBI, and here's where it continues. Like, I've heard about this. Where did I hear about this?

Like, oh, yeah. Gary shared this.

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: So I wanna challenge you on this topic. Get your perspective on this. Right? So Ray Dalio, he wrote principles. Mhmm.

Yeah. Right? And he says, like, if you can get, I think, seven assessments Mhmm. I think that was the number Yep. You will never have to interview another person.

Right?

Gary: Yep.

Steve: And three gets you pretty close.

Gary: It gets close.

Steve: Right? And so, like and I did my presentation. It was a couple weeks. It was kinda funny. You you you interjected, was you know, I've done the Myers Briggs, the, the PI, the Colby, the oh, this got the the Enneagram, this and that.

It's, like, pretty clear. Right? Like, how I'm I'm wired, and then you get the the the questions from my friends. Like, hey. How would you describe my unique traits?

And there's a ton of overlap. Like, how you would inter how I would interview, I think, would show up the same way there. Right? So then going back to your thing, you were saying, like, you know, without the interview

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: This won't work. So, like, Ray Dalio says, if we do enough assessments, we don't need interview. I guess then we interview is absolutely key. So

Gary: Well, interview is a form of an assessment. Mhmm. Because you're you're validating based on resume and interview questions. An assessment is questions. Mhmm.

Whether you do those questions verbally or written, you're still assessing somebody.

Steve: Right.

Gary: So it is still a form of an assessment. I like it. I do not just subscribe to the ones I've given you, though.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: I've only put those in the curriculum because I can't get people to do one sometimes. Really? Right. No. I can't.

Sometimes I'm like, did you do a PI? And I'm like, no. I just winged it. They seem like you're a good guy. Okay.

Well, when it doesn't work out, let me know.

Steve: Yeah. Is that reliability thing we're talking about earlier? Yeah.

Gary: We do is your, doitscared.com, stuff for your assessment? Yeah. That love language we were talking about, we do the five appreciations of the workplace.

Steve: Okay. Is it the same concepts? It

Susan: doesn't always translate to how you wanna be appreciated versus how you wanna be loved.

Steve: Well, hold on. I wanna get touched at work. No.

Susan: Well, high fives are a big deal then. Yeah.

Steve: Okay.

Susan: It could be. I mean, there are there are ways to do it.

Gary: Yeah. You can make it. Like, high five, buddy. Still for endearment and touching. Right?

But that same gentleman who wrote Gary Chapman that wrote the love five love languages, he wrote the five appreciations of the workplace. Yeah. Gotcha. So we'll assess that. We do find your mojo.

We'll do, you know, some of the ones you mentioned, 16 personality histories exercise. We do, Myers Briggs. We'll do we do multiple assessments. Yeah. The average CEO does seven assessments.

Steve: Gotcha.

Gary: So, like, Phil Green is the master of assessments.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: Great. And I love Phil Green's assessments and how he does it. And he's constantly tweaking and making it stronger, which is one of the reasons why when we implemented this with Phil, he absolutely loves this curriculum. Yeah. Because it brings in the logic side of it, the tactical side of how to implement an operating system.

That's Right. Philosophy side. Yeah. So I thought that was pretty cool. But, yeah, we love assessments.

We do them all the time. Fear is a huge assessment. Like, people don't give it enough credit. Fear either causes you to do something or not do something.

Steve: Do you have an example of that?

Gary: Yeah. COVID. Okay. It's either I'm not gonna wear a mask or I'm gonna wear seven masks. Like, it's still based in fear.

Yeah. Fear of control or fear of getting sick. Yeah. Right? Either literally cause you to do it or not do it.

So you could have the exact same behavior of traits. You could have the exact same mojo. You could have the exact same experience. You could have all that, and they have somebody that has ultimate fear of people pleasing

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And somebody else has an ultimate fear of being outcast. Mhmm. And the outcast fear will cause somebody never to engage in people at all because they're afraid of getting outcasted. Mhmm.

Steve: And the

Gary: people pleaser will cause somebody who wanna be best friends with everybody. Yeah. So it does actually have a big role in somebody's life.

Steve: That's fascinating.

Gary: And so I actually put a lot of credit on it. I look at it a lot. My number one fear factor is people pleaser. Yeah. Like, at 80%.

That's pretty high. Yeah.

Steve: I'll do I know you guys have talked about it. I need to go go do it.

Susan: It's also a really good book too, Do It Scared. Yeah. And so it helps you over it helps you analyze and understand what that fear can do or or or not do. Mhmm.

Steve: And then

Susan: it tells you how to overcome it too. So it's a really, really good book. Highly recommended. Free it's a free assessment online. Yeah.

You pay a couple bucks and get the whole assessment.

Steve: What would you

Gary: what was your

Susan: my main goal? One was procrastination. And it's like, I need things to be perfect.

Gary: Because you guys are bored. Like, yeah. They are

Steve: a lot alike.

Gary: That's why I love you, Steve.

Susan: Procrastination because I want things perfect before, you know, completing them or getting them done or even attempting to do them because I need things just so before I do anything. Yeah. So the whole thing is, like, just get started. If you would just get started on something, you'll you'll push yourself to get it and give yourself a hard deadline. Like, those are easy things to put in place.

Gary: It's funny. We were on a plane one time, and I see her just, like, if any in, like, a fast paced mode, grab her computer, pull it out, and start, like, opening a PowerPoint. I'm like, what are you doing? So I have to write a presentation. I'm like, why?

This is because I just read a book and it said procrastination.

Steve: So I'm

Gary: gonna write a presentation on this book. Mhmm. And I thought, well, I'll do it next week. And they immediately hit me. No.

No. I need to do it right now.

Steve: So it's

Susan: like It it did before I even took the assessment. I was reading the book on a plane, and it's that was the first fear it was describing. Like, that is me, 100% me.

Steve: So So

Susan: let's do it.

Steve: So when you say procrastination, that's a symptom or that's the cause of It

Gary: it's It's the fear.

Susan: Basically yeah. The fear is I don't have things perfect, so I'm gonna procrastinate to get it to to to make sure things are set up right before I do anything. Yeah. So I guess that's the probably, that's the effect of what happens because I don't think have things imperfect yet.

Steve: Yeah. So, going I'm just thinking about as far as presentations. Right? Like, for me, I won't start the presentation, on PowerPoint. Mhmm.

I think, without a deadline, probably, like, at most, like, three days before.

Susan: The deadline?

Steve: The deadline. Yeah. At most. Right? Probably less than that.

But the whole time, I'm just thinking about what I wanna say. Like, here are the things that I wanna convey in a presentation.

Gary: Yeah. Because you haven't processed in your mind yet. Yeah. So you procrastinate starting the presentation until you've got it lined up

Steve: in your

Gary: mind because you're a process person. Right. Right? So you're like, I gotta get these things done first in my mind before I can start

Steve: Yeah. So, yeah, it goes like, I go through it in my mind. Yep. And then after that, at some point, it's a brain dump. Mhmm.

And after that, it's like, well, let's reorganize it so it doesn't sound ridiculous.

Susan: Yeah. My my brain dump is typically I'm writing it out. So it's it's almost like journaling at that point. And it's like, okay. Well, let's organize it to figure out which one should go where and what Right.

And you're right. I then put it on I'll then put it in PowerPoint.

Steve: Put it in PowerPoint, and then grab and then grab a bunch of memes off the Internet. Yeah.

Gary: Well and that makes sense because if you think about your PI, you're process driven. Yeah. Right? You probably have the same mode you shoot as to learn, so you're probably reading all these books. Mhmm.

And then you're processing, you know, because you're introspective, because you're high logic.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And then you get to procrastination because you're fear. Yeah. So it's literally how all those are coming together.

Steve: I I think you're absolutely right. I'll definitely have to check that. You have

Susan: to let us know.

Steve: It was funny that I just do my presentation, at Select, a couple I think a month a month ago. Right? And I'm going through and I'm do I'm sharing, like, you know, the individualist, you know, what I want, with whoever I want, whenever I want, however I want. Mhmm. Right?

And I finished making the statement, and you're like, well, there's one more thing. I was like, what's that? I was like, your e is all the way over here. Yeah. Yeah.

Then not only are all those four things true Mhmm.

Gary: If it

Steve: doesn't make sense, it doesn't matter. You can't convince me. You won't

Gary: even start it if it doesn't make sense.

Susan: Mhmm. I understand that.

Gary: Yeah. Totally understand that. And I don't

Susan: see anything wrong with it.

Gary: I'm like, but what if you let somebody down? Fear of people.

Steve: That's too bad.

Gary: Right. I mean, well, that's my biggest fear. So that kinda comes into play for me.

Steve: Actually, we were going to dinner. Right? Because, so Eric Brewer. Right? Close friend.

We're going to dinner, and he's like, this is stressful. I was like, what's stressful? He was saying, well, we gotta get everyone there, you know, at at the same time and coordinate it, make sure everyone everyone get not everyone gets there. We're not there. Everyone's there, but everyone gets there, and they know how to get there and this and that.

Mhmm. It's like, this is stressful. It's like, I don't understand your stress.

Susan: Yeah. I don't either. Gary does, though.

Steve: You understand the stress.

Gary: A 100%. Yeah. I'm getting anxiety when you just told me the story.

Susan: So He would tend to all have a great experience to get there. I'm like, no. They just need to show up. And if they don't, it's okay. They'll eat somewhere else.

They're not gonna starve.

Steve: And that's what I said. I I don't understand. Like, you just gotta tell them, here's where we're gonna be, and here's what time we start. Yeah. There's no more information necessary.

Susan: They are grown adults. They should figure these things out.

Gary: I wanna text them out about it.

Steve: And that's what Eric was doing. Uh-huh.

Gary: I'm sure people

Susan: are pleasing as his too.

Steve: Yeah. And I was just thinking, like, these people run successful businesses. Right.

Susan: They get

Gary: to know. Do they?

Steve: They run businesses.

Susan: They do. Yeah.

Steve: If you can't figure out how to get from the hotel

Susan: To dinner.

Steve: To dinner, like, you need God's help. Like, I'm not the one Right. Telling you this.

Gary: Yeah. I feel like I'm alone right now.

Susan: So He is a little.

Steve: So alright. So that was the r. Yeah. Right? So, is I then the the leadership component?

Yeah. Inspiration? Starts with

Gary: It's vision, long term, short term. We have a whole leadership training part of it as well in there. We do have a leadership and management assessment that we've put in there to help us stay on track and leadership audit that we put in. We got into determining if you're the right person by the values. We'll look at our core values and purpose.

One of the things we did that was really interesting in in in this an inspiration part is we don't just discover the company's purpose here. We actually discover the people's purpose as well Because we want because 52% of the workforce is now made up by millennial

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: And the emotional paycheck matters more now than ever. And so we want them to be able to to see that their personal purpose is being fulfilled by helping a company reach its purpose. So that's when we talked about purpose alignment.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: If they don't see that, they probably shouldn't come work for you. Yeah. Because then there they have to be, not because they wanna be. Right. And we don't want half two employees.

We don't want two employees. And George Carlin says, most people work hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough not to quit. Yeah. That's a half to employ. We won't want to.

So this is how we help drive to that. Mhmm. Then we get into long term vision. Long term vision is about inspiration. It's about hope.

You know, the Bible says there was no vision that people perish. The reason it says that is there's no hope. Short term vision is about driving results. Yeah. You know, thirteen week years, all those programs, scrum, 100% focused on thirteen weeks.

That's short term vision. That's results.

Steve: Mhmm. If you

Gary: look at 2020, it was a prime example of the difference between long term vision and short term vision. We had a cake away long term vision that year for all businesses. We said, hey. Listen. You gotta focus on ninety days or less.

Yeah. 2020 ended. I asked people better or worse year than 2019. You know what they said? Better.

It was? You know why? They focused for ninety days or less. They drove results. Yeah.

But ask them the second question was was, how do you feel about 2020? You know what they said? Stressful. It was. It's, like, it's terrible.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: Because I lost hope.

Susan: Miserable.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: They couldn't dream. They couldn't vision. Right? They couldn't be inspiring. Yeah.

And so we have to have both to have a successful business. So in the curriculum, we drive to long term, we drive to short term, we drive to purpose, we drive to goals, We protect leadership, and we protect the core, the culture of the organization Yeah. By position alignment, value alignment, purpose alignment, and goal alignment. And we're checking on that regularly.

Steve: So you're talking about leadership and management Yeah. And inspiration component. Yep. Can you distinguish difference, for everyone that's listening?

Gary: Yeah. Leaders love people. Managers love process. Yeah. That's probably the easiest way out of podcast to describe it.

Leaders just love on people. They don't like to hold always hold people accountable. Right? But they love the vision. They love where we're going.

They love the inspirational. Managers love accountability. They love managing. They love holding people accountable. They love the process.

They love driving results. Yeah. I always another way to look at it this way, leaders who are visionary, they celebrate when they dream of it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: Yeah. Sure. Managers celebrate when they get the results of it.

Steve: Got it. So I'm not a manager.

Gary: Right. And that's what we find. I mean, it happens to me. Right? It's like when I dreamed about the studio, I'm, like, so excited.

Right? We're gonna launch a studio. Here's what it's gonna be. We're gonna watch 50 of these around the country. This is how we're gonna do it.

I was pumped. Everybody on my team is like, I don't know. And I'm like, you guys are dream crushers. Like, why are you guys, like, you know, why are you guys raining down on my happiness right now?

Susan: Yeah. And then

Gary: we got it done, and they're all like, woah. They're so excited. And I'm like

Steve: Yeah. That's

Gary: why I'm like, really? That's it. I'm like, yeah.

Steve: I mean,

Gary: I already saw this. I've already lived this moment. You know? And so that's really the difference between the two. We have to have a balance.

Because when we're a good leader and we get a good manager, whether it's us learning both sides of it Yeah. Or us augmenting our weakness and by hiring somebody, then we influence people. Yeah. We encourage.

Steve: I mean, for me, right, like, you talk about the the the vision, this and that. Mhmm. It it couldn't be any clearer with my wife and myself Mhmm. Periodically when she'll come with me to the casino. Right?

And we're playing no limit poker. Right? Like, for me, I'm excited when we push the chips in. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. She's excited when she's stacking the chips. Oh, there

Gary: it is. Right? It's breaking out.

Steve: Yeah. But, like, I mean, I'm in I'm all I'm all on hope. Yeah. I got a great hand. I'm about to take all this guy's money.

Yeah. Sometimes we don't.

Gary: But see, that's the thing. You're visioning taking his money, which is the results, but you're visioning it here Mhmm. Versus when you took his money.

Steve: Right.

Gary: She's getting happy when she actually took the money back. Right. So that's the difference.

Steve: You know, we're talking a moment ago about, the the people that might might not be the right person

Gary: Yeah. For

Steve: as a solopreneur. Yeah. Right? The analytical profile. Mhmm.

What do you do? What advice do you give to someone that is an analytical person who's overthinking and so on? Mhmm.

Gary: Well, I mean, the Mark Cuban said, if you wanna be successful in business, find your opposite.

Steve: Mhmm. You

Gary: know? That's what he literally said.

Steve: But if you when you're starting brand brand new and you haven't done a deal yet

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: How do you find that?

Gary: You use contractors. You subcontract. You find creative ways Mhmm. With your analytical brain

Steve: Right.

Gary: To solve the problem. Mhmm. And it's just a problem. It's not a barrier. It's a problem.

So you find what your weaknesses are, and you find the resources, the people Mhmm. Where you pay for it with money Right.

Steve: To

Gary: overcome the problem. So you aren't the the, the the bottleneck to the problem. Yeah. That's where we will get stuck. I always tell people you fail to grow for four reasons.

Number one is fear. Mhmm. People are scared of it. Sometimes they don't have enough knowledge of it. And the way we get rid of fear is with knowledge, sustain it with faith.

Second is mindset. They think, well, I'm the entrepreneur. I'm the one setting all to do this on my own. If I can't do it, then it's not gonna be able to get done. And that's just not true.

Right. It's a mindset that holds us back from taking our fur making our first deal, from make taking the first step to success because we have an ego. I don't care what your profile is. Ego, everybody has ego. And it's like, well, I should be able to do this better than the guy that wings it.

Mhmm. Better than the guy that's emotional. I'm the smart one. I'm the one's analytical brain. Why can't I figure this out?

And then you're three to five years in.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And what you'll do is you'll justify your weakness with logic.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: I mean, that was definitely my attitude when I first got into real estate. I'm smarter than all these other realtors to be able to figure this out.

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: But then at some point, I realized, you know what? I'm not that great in the living room. This is way before I got any kind of sales training. Mhmm. I got not that great in the living room.

I was gonna hire a bunch of pushy salespeople. Yeah. That's what I did.

Susan: It worked?

Steve: Worked for a long time. Sure.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, the other thing you can do is if you are you you start to look at your behavioral traits and you go, alright. So I'm an individualist. I don't have this push that they say is perfect for sales.

Steve: Right.

Gary: So then if I create a process

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: Which is what you've done in your sales training

Steve: Right.

Gary: It's genius. Why? Because there are more people out there with that high c Mhmm. That are sitting in sales positions that need your process approach to sales. Right.

And the truth is, absolute 100% truth, is that approach of, like, hunting, you know, that driven approach Mhmm. Works really well when you're first starting.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: But when you build a business and you're in the system stage of business, you know what happens? Process is very important. You need that. Way more important. If you have a bunch of Mavericks sitting in the company, they're gonna rebel in that stage.

Yeah. I'd much rather from a sustainable business, growing my business, hitting the levels I need to hit, I would much rather have someone who has your process setting in that seat in the systems phase than anything.

Steve: Yeah. And we got a chance to to listen to Matthew Pollard speak on stage. Mhmm. Right? And it was super therapeutic myself.

Right? Like, you know, introverts can sell. Mhmm. Right? Introverts are better salespeople?

Gary: Yes. And I

Steve: was like, okay. I mean, that's that's a great statement. I I like this statement, but, like, where where is this coming from? And what he's talking about was extroverts are extraordinarily are extraordinary, inconsistently. Right?

So they're extraordinary. Mhmm. They're just inconsistent. Mhmm. And then the introverts are, consistent.

They may not be extraordinary, but they're absolutely consistent because they follow a process. And he was and he was kinda saying something along the lines, like, introverts can't not have a process because if they don't have a process, then I fall in the process. All this, introspective conversations they have in their head is gonna, like, it's gonna fall apart. So by having a process or by having a process that exists Mhmm. They must follow the process because there's no other way.

Susan: Yeah. Because it's the next step for them.

Steve: It's the next logical step.

Susan: Yeah. It just makes sense.

Gary: Yeah. I I it's like a foreign language right now. I understand.

Steve: I'm a

Gary: high b and a low c. So But

Steve: what was really cool was, I got a chance to I'm just kidding. Yeah.

Gary: Actually, it does make a lot of sense.

Steve: I had a chance to have lunch with him, afterwards. And, he said to me, he's like, because we're kinda talking about his book and, like, how it was helpful for me. Like, I wish I learned it much earlier. Yeah. He was like, engineers are actually the most dangerous salespeople, once they embrace it.

Because now you got an intelligent person who can follow a process. So long as they can, connect

Susan: Yeah.

Steve: Right, now you got a reliable

Susan: And consistent. Operator.

Gary: Yeah. You wanna hear something funny?

Steve: What's that?

Gary: After coaching over however many 1,500 businesses now in the last six years Yeah. In real estate, you know, the most common profession we see coming to real estate?

Steve: I wanted to say teachers, but I I feel like that's not the answer.

Susan: What is it? Engineers.

Gary: Yeah. It's engineers. We find more engineers coming into this industry that were once an engineer and now a real estate business owner

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And six more successful typically when they have that background. Yeah. You know why? Because it's usually a high a Mhmm. And a high d or high c that comes with it.

Mhmm.

Steve: And

Gary: that is what Disney used to call an Imagineer. And they're they're just once they've that that flip that switch flips for them Yeah. And they figure out the niche, it's almost game over for those people. Yeah. Pretty impressive to watch.

Steve: I mean, like, Ryan Wymer, you guys work with him? I I don't think so. Yeah. But he's he's he's that I mean, he's a venture. Right?

Former engineer. Right? And it's just once he has a a an old or something, he just Yeah. Makes it work. Yeah.

Gary: And the venture is a high a and a hook back d. Right. It's Ryan Bartlett. Yeah. Same thing.

Yep. He's a he's an imagineer. He's a high a and a hook back d. Yeah. Right?

So that's what those guys are great at. I mean, that's why they build great teams. That's why they great build great process. That's why they build great structure. I mean, it's just impressive.

Steve: Yeah. Well, I mean, for me, like, as someone's a captain, it's like, I have to find reasons not to hire this person.

Gary: Yeah. It's an Imagineer. Yeah. It's what Disney loved.

Steve: Yeah. Well, that's my favorite profile when I'm looking. So that's that's I. Yeah. S is Systems.

Systems.

Gary: Yeah. So in systems, one of the things we look at there is not just the process, which so many people come accustomed to doing now, but the procedure. Mhmm. I always tell people if you document your process without the procedure, what's that?

Steve: That's that's I said it's a bad word. That's the fudged word.

Gary: I know. Nobody likes process. Susan's favorite word.

Susan: I like processing. Yeah.

Steve: No. Procedures.

Gary: Oh.

Steve: I love processes. Yeah. It's the procedure because that's what we get. Yeah.

Susan: It can if you unless you simplify how you get them out of your head. Yeah. So yeah. No. We don't need SOPs.

We don't need and, honestly, AI is gonna change the way we document all of it anyway.

Steve: Oh, yeah. We've seen that.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah. Just in the last six weeks. Yeah. My Sharper process company is out in front of AI right now.

Susan: Yeah.

Gary: And the way they can pull process out of your head right now

Susan: in Procedures too.

Gary: Process and procedures and policies. So we look at in the curriculum, we look at process, procedures, policies, and we actually brought in for the first time productivity studies. So how do we measure the productivity in the process and how we measure how fast it's happening? In systems, we also create a meeting structure of culture meetings, organizational meetings, strategy sessions, and tactical meetings, those four types of meetings.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: We also tied back the four types of KPIs. So for every culture meeting, you have a key purpose indicator. Strategy sessions, we have a key profit indicator. Performance meetings or or organizational meetings, we have a key performance indicator.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: Tactical meetings, we have a key process indicator. And so we actually trademark those four types of KPIs, and, and it's something that I think has really helped the entrepreneurs know exactly. You know, in these other systems where it says everybody should have a number

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: We've been able to help identify with this new tactical way what that number looks like.

Steve: That's good because the the challenge we've always had is how do you have, for for example, a transaction coordinator Mhmm. Admin. Mhmm. Right? Like, how do you like a VA Like a number?

Like, what is their number?

Gary: It's our process indicator. Yeah. So when you document a process, if it's in a process map

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: The very last step is performance. So make make it really simple for the audience. If you mapped out from start to the end, even if you just wrote it out in bullet fashion

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: The very last step, contract sign. That's a performance metric. You look upstream from that. Everything down from that

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: Is a process indicator. Yeah. And then you have to determine what is the most important process indicator for them to track every single day. I see. Because those are what we call the, the barriers to performance.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And so every day, I wanna track a process indicator to make sure that the river is flowing to getting me to performance. Yeah. So process indicators are tracked daily in tactical means, really quick huddle meetings. Performance indicators are tracked organizationally on a weekly basis. Yeah.

Profit indicators are looked at in that variance report every month. And then, purpose indicators tracked every quarter after we've accomplished what we need to do for the quarter, then we drive towards purpose. And it's interesting because if we look at process indicator daily and you make changes to it weekly, you'll you'll actually protect your business. Because the way we do it in Arise is we start with the purpose and we build down how much money we need to make. Then we build down to how many contracts we need to get.

Then we build down to how many offers we need to have every single day. That's a process indicator. If we build down and we measure up, then we're protecting purpose every single time we perform the process. Yeah. Does that make sense?

Steve: Makes sense.

Gary: And that's what's important to us. That's one of the reasons why we built it that way. And then everybody has a number. The employee has their process indicator. The leaders the managers have their performance indicator.

The leader has the profit indicator, and the innovator of the company has the purpose indicator. Yeah. And so that's what we're looking for. I I really like it. I get stoked about it.

The same nine boxes come back in the systems. When we're looking at process, we're looking at it. Does it bring value to our customer, and is it essential to our business? If it doesn't bring value and it's not essential, then it's waste in our process steps, so we need to cut it out. Yeah.

If it brings value to our customer, but it's not essential, then we automate it. If it doesn't bring value and it's highly essential, get a VA to do it. Mhmm. So in our NIMOC system, we teach you wherever this process lands, what you do with it.

Steve: Yeah. Who's who's responsible for it? Yeah. Or the caliber of talent that's responsible. That's exactly.

Susan: Exactly.

Gary: Here's where Susan gets really excited. Because if you have a MVP type person, they are a star in the seat that you put them in in the nine box. We overlay the nine boxes and say Steve Trang is an MVP person. High value or high trust, lines with purpose. He is heart, head, hands, and feet, 100%.

He's a star in a seat. Then we find you in a low value, nonessential process.

Susan: They waste

Gary: a waste

Susan: a waste of talent.

Gary: 100%. It's gonna drive the productivity way down. Yep. So that's where we can overlay these boxes now, and we can say, Steve, we can't have you in a low value, nonessential process. We have to have you in a high value, high essential.

Susan: But it's funny. We often find the opposite is true. We have a low a low trust person who doesn't align with our value sitting in the highest, most valuable, most essential

Steve: part of our business. Salesperson.

Susan: It kinda sometimes we are.

Gary: Because here's what happens. Right? We have somebody who is a superstar in the seat.

Steve: Mhmm. Yep.

Gary: But they are not a value or a culture alignment. Right. They're the

Steve: ones that were held hostage to you.

Gary: Yeah. Yeah. They have we have a we have a wrong person, right seat, sitting in a high value, high essential process, making us a boatload of money. Mhmm.

Steve: You know

Gary: how hard it is to get rid of that person?

Steve: Extremely hard.

Gary: You know what also is hard to get rid of? The right person sitting in the wrong seat and low value, nonessential work. It's like a family member, a parent, a relative, and you're like, I don't wanna get rid of Uncle John. Yeah. Right?

Right. Those two people are critical to your business of hurting it one way or the other. Yeah. And so overlaying these three boxes at this point, now we can say, do we have the right person sitting in the right seat,

Steve: and are

Gary: they sitting in the right process? If you do, here's a cool part. If you do, you find a process that's extreme value and extremely essential and you have a superstar person in the right seat, you can go start another business with

Steve: them. Yeah.

Gary: You can actually go take that process and start a it's why Sharper Process was started. It's why Sharper Talent was started. It's why Sharper Studios was started because we found a process that was high value, high essential.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And I had a rock star person sitting in a rock star seat. Yeah. And I was like, hey. You wanna partner up?

Steve: That sounds really exciting.

Gary: And it was. And it is.

Steve: And they

Gary: I do it with the third button. And then when we get into marketing engagement, we actually get in and have the same nine boxes there. We look at it and go, is this product scalable, and is it a cash cow? Does it make us a lot of money? Is it profitable?

And that's where it gets exciting. Because if you have the right person, top right box, sitting in the right seat, top right box, and the process is high value, high essential, and it has that product of high scale and high profit, you better believe I'm starting a new business with that.

Steve: Yeah. Well, and that's something that, you know, what we were talking about last week, something that, is an idea that Eric Brewer had. Mhmm. And they were debating whether we wanna. Right?

You know, it's basically, you know, having a re rebuilding the realtor team. Right? And, and and taking all the data we already have

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: From our wholesaling company Yeah. Teaching realtors how to call. It's not leads. Mhmm. It's data.

But teaching realtors how to cold call this bucket of data, either get listings, he has referral fees, or they want a cash offer, bring it to us. Right? So we're looking at that.

Susan: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. And, me, we're looking at that. I'm not gonna do it unless I can find the right sales manager.

Susan: Yeah.

Steve: I manage other realtors that have zero desire to manage a bunch of realtors. Another thing too we're looking at was, you know, potentially starting up a hedge fund. Right? And only reason why is because I know people with money. I know the people are doing really well in sourcing properties for the hedge funds exactly in their buy box.

Mhmm. And I happen to know a guy who was the guy who could, who was the consultant for all the hedge funds. So if you come to Phoenix, start a hedge fund, like, talk to this guy. I know all of them.

Gary: Yeah. That's great.

Steve: Let's let's do this together. But, you know, like you, he had a rough year last year. So he's not quite in the right headspace, so we're just kinda waiting. He had a rough year. A really personal rough year.

Like, I talked to him. He was like, yeah. You know, 2022 was rough year. It's like, oh, it was rough year for a lot of by for a lot of people. He's like, well, here's what happens.

Like, never mind. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you like, real estate was the least of your problem.

Susan: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: You thought it was a business related rough year. Yeah. You had a personal rough year. Yeah. Wow.

Steve: So That's tough. Yeah. It's very, very similar, to yours, but it was, his his children, not his, parents. Oh. Alright.

So it's even harder.

Gary: I think that is harder. Right?

Steve: Yeah. So, alright. So that's that's that's the engagement. So, I mean, I think that's a ton of value. I mean, even for someone that's not even working with you guys, I think there's a lot of useful information there.

And then I think there was a little bit more you were saying was I think it was sherpabusiness.com/disruptors.

Gary: Yeah. Sherpabusiness.com/disruptors. Yeah.

Steve: And you're saying there's a lot of free resources. What kind of resources are there? There?

Gary: It's, links to our YouTube channel. We have hundreds of videos of free information, free content there. We have, a video series on leadership that I did that's free, that's there. We have 60 videos on engagement and branding and marketing. Really?

Yeah. That Brandon recorded for you guys. That's there. Austin did a bunch of recordings on, predictive index and how and he actually did a thirty minute, like, our our three to five minute video on each type of profile and how to analyze it and how they work and how how to motivate them.

Steve: Really?

Gary: It's it's all setting out there for you guys to go watch.

Steve: That's awesome. Yeah. Because I have, like, people, like, ask me and, like, well, here's what it is, but this is, like, you know, like, you you play that telephone game. Right? Like, that's my understanding based off

Susan: telephone game.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. This is where based off of what, you know, Austin shared with Steve on my team. Yeah.

Susan: She shared with me.

Steve: I was like, this is what I believe.

Gary: Yeah. Got it. It means Well, so we just put it in a video form. So now you can go there, copy it, and just share the video with somebody if you wanted to. Yeah.

We have a video series on the heart, head, hands, and feet to make sure people on the right seat, how to make sure they're the right people. Susan and Derek, Ann Marie and them did a video series on systems and how to run your meeting structure and

Susan: Process mapping.

Gary: Process mapping. It's just we just give it away, man. Yeah. I say I find out I I feel like most of the time, we give a lot of what we do away and teach people. And then at some point, it's just like what happened at CG.

Somebody's like, I'm just gonna have you come in and do it for us.

Steve: Yeah. You know? Well, that's the way it goes. Right? Because, it's not like this is a simple thing to do.

It's like you can't just pick up a book and do it. Yeah. You need you need help, interpreting. Right? Like, you can, you know, you you can read the what.

Right? But it's like every other skill, it's like once you start doing it, it's like, oh, that part wasn't quite I don't quite understand this particular step.

Susan: The practical application of it all.

Gary: Yeah. How do you interpret it is very important.

Steve: Right. You

Gary: know, communication. That's just communication. So along with the workbook, along with we actually have a book coming out. It's a fable. I'm excited about it.

We've been writing it. It's supposed to

Steve: come out.

Gary: It's supposed to come out at the July. Okay. So it's a it's a really fun book.

Steve: It is.

Gary: It's a fable. We have a second book coming after that. It's a tactical side. So it's, like, literally, the how to do what we're teaching you. But the, fable is about a guy named Matt.

He's a real estate a person who's left corporate America, and now he's going into real estate. He's got our turnaround Grant City.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: He is rejuvenating. He hires his sister, Charlotte. His brother comes work with him. He's a highly analytical person, goes into finance. Charlotte becomes his integrator.

He ends up putting in a wrong seat. Right? Like, we've walked through, like, you didn't measure

Steve: the hard

Gary: head, hands, and feet. Reggie Singers is a business coach. He comes in to kinda save his day after five years of flailing.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: And it just he implements the RISE system for him, and it shows how he grows. And then he ends up going through the book and coming out on the other end and helping other people.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: And so that's the fable. I just nutshell it for you, but, it's a fun read. It's actually a really fun read.

Steve: Well and just as a testament, you know, I've talked about it before, but, you know, for those that haven't watched it before is, I had you guys come out for our, I wanna say, twenty twenty and 2021. Yeah. Or maybe in 2019 and 2020.

Gary: I think it was 2019.

Steve: Yeah. Right? And you guys came out. And, and I've said this before, and I hope I don't sound too, you know, narcissistic or egotistical here. But, like, you know, I read all the books.

Mhmm. Right? I I've digested a lot of content, a lot of material, and I invest a lot in my personal development. Mhmm. So when I when you came out, I was like, I don't feel like Gary really taught me anything specifically, tactically as a business.

But, man, you expose all the blind spots. Like, here are all the things that I didn't even realize I was gonna like, I knew it. I was aware of it if I was watching someone else's company. Sure.

Gary: Yeah.

Steve: I can identify as, like, that's stupid. Why are you doing it that way? Yeah. Right?

Susan: We all do that.

Steve: Yeah. But to have another person come in

Gary: Yeah. Mhmm.

Steve: Right? That's where, have an expert come in that can see the blind spots and point them out for you and, like, just really kinda, like, push that pain button. It's like

Susan: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. You gotta really stop doing this right now.

Gary: You know, it's interesting. I like I like TikTok. I love your videos, by the way. Thank you. And I was I one of my favorite one is this guy, like, shaving hose on horses and cows.

I don't know why. I really like it. Yeah.

Steve: He was he's oddly satisfied.

Gary: It is. But he starts off with, well, the the problem is obvious here. And I'm like, I don't see it

Steve: on this for

Gary: a lot

Susan: of dirt. Right?

Gary: And I think that's what happens because he looks at hooves, like, 40 times a day. Yeah. He lifts the hooves and he sees the problem immediately, and he knows where the white wall is gonna be broken, where there's a deviation, or there's an infection. And I have to wait till the end of the video and figure it out every single time. But he makes me feel so stupid because he makes it seem like it's so obvious.

Right? And I think that's what happens with us. We don't when we come in, there are a lot of people that just don't have knowledge of business. Cebo is not you. He has a lot of knowledge in business.

Very intelligent. I told Susan, one of the smartest people we worked with was you.

Steve: Yeah. Thank you.

Gary: But sometimes you watch the video and you're like, it's dirt. Yeah. You know? And so I think that's what happens with some people. I think some people actually need to be taught.

Mhmm. Some people need to be their eyes open to just what they're in every single day. Right. We're not immune to that. I don't think any business means that.

Whenever you think that you've got it all figured out, and this is us included, and you're not willing to be vulnerable, let somebody else take a look under the hood, then you might be destroying your engine.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: Yeah. And so I think it's really important that you you know, that's that mindset adjustment that has to happen, one of the four reasons we don't grow. Yeah. I said earlier, fear. Number two, mindset.

I don't think I finished it. Number three is connections. You know? Number three reason why we don't grow is connections, why masterminds, collective genius has been so big for us. You know, we've met through connections.

Yeah. Last is systems and processes. Right?

Steve: Mhmm. And

Gary: if you don't fix the first three, the bottom one doesn't matter because nobody's ever gonna look let you look under the hood. If they think mindset wise, they have it all figured out.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: So I think that's important to keep that in perspective.

Steve: Yeah. One of the biggest things for me is a is a turn off. Like, I can never work with this person, right, is that if they've got it figured out. Yeah. Right?

The moment they've that they they know it, it's just I cannot continue this relation.

Gary: Because arrogance.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah.

Gary: I I love confident people. Mhmm. But what I love is humble confidence.

Steve: Right.

Gary: I would if I had to describe you, I'd describe you as humble confident. And humble is not thinking less of yourself. It's just thinking of yourself less. Yeah. Right?

Steve: Right. But it

Gary: doesn't mean you won't be confident. You can be confident.

Steve: Right.

Gary: But be humble enough to open the hood. Yeah. Right? Absolutely. Arrogance.

That's a whole different breed.

Steve: Well, the this you know, one of the guys in our office, giant Lakers fan. You know? Yeah. And one of the one of his favorite plays is Austin Rees. And that guy had, like, a breakout season.

Mhmm. Right? But when he screamed, I am him, I was like, I am done with this guy. Yeah. Right?

Like, I think I'm not a religious person. Right? But I think, you know, if you go back at least in this country, there's only one person that can say that. Right? And, you know, he died.

Yeah. Right? You know, for the sins. Yeah. Right?

That guy can say it.

Susan: Yeah.

Steve: Beyond him

Susan: Nobody else should.

Steve: I don't think no one should be out screaming, you know, jumping around like I am. It's like, it's just such a turnoff.

Gary: Yeah. It's so arrogant. Yeah. It's so arrogant. I don't know.

I don't work well with people like that either, so I think we're in good company. Right. For sure.

Steve: I wanna ask you. So Ren and I were doing this, sales leadership thing. Right?

Gary: So we're

Steve: talking about, you know, Ryze. Mhmm. So something that we're doing is, the the the sales leadership on it. Right? Sales leadership training.

Mhmm. And something that I've said is that you got systems and operations. Mhmm. And I think that, you know, if you're not doing it well, at least you're aware that you need to get better at this. You know where the shortfalls are because there's you know what, the the best companies are doing.

You have an aspirational target. Yep. You got a target to hit.

Gary: Mhmm.

Steve: Marketing, it's not rocket science. It's just copy and paste. Right? What's working for Susan? Mhmm.

Alright. I'm gonna do that. Mhmm. Right? And you just gotta keep track on cash conversion cycle, ROI, and this and that.

Yep. But marketing, not rocket science, operations is just having a couple of, having really one really good operator can kinda get you there. Mhmm. So I have this thesis, figuring this out, is that the difference then right now, the biggest opportunity for gain is the quality of your salespeople.

Gary: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? So he with the best sales team at this moment, he or she with the best sales team right now, all things being equal because the equalizer's out there. You've got this curriculum. Right? You have Gary Harper come through three, four times.

Like, operations are gonna be pretty good.

Gary: Yep.

Steve: It might not be a 100%, but it might be upper eighties.

Gary: Yeah. That's

Steve: the goal. The goal's

Gary: to be 90% or stronger in that area.

Steve: Yeah. But if you get upper eighties here Mhmm. Marketing is gonna be it's pretty even playing field today in

Gary: marketing. Yeah.

Steve: But the difference is just a lot

Gary: of people doing different styles of marketing or figure it out. If they do, somebody copies it tomorrow. So Right.

Steve: It it's not a long competitive advantage.

Gary: No. It is definitely sales.

Steve: Yeah. So the quality of salespeople is the, is the ultimate differentiator. Mhmm. Yeah. It is.

Gary: So I

Steve: just wanted to see, like, you guys were on.

Susan: Yeah. We totally agree with you. Yeah.

Gary: Well, I always tell people, if you're not making money, you don't have a business. Right. Yeah. So, like, you know how many people a week I call they call us, and we go, we can't work with you.

Steve: Really?

Gary: We have to. Yeah. Because when I come in, I need money to help implement the changes that neither the people. And then, you know, the first thing I do is time, money, and people. And if I can't do a performer because you're not selling to Brian houses properly

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: I can't implement a system. Yeah. Right? So my son, Jacob, every week has to tell people no every week because they call us and go, can you help me build a system so I can build my business? And Jacob says, you don't have a business.

Yeah. You're not even buying and selling houses right now.

Steve: I think he's

Gary: a bad person. Yeah.

Steve: And you

Gary: can tell him that, but he does. And I think it's important to know, like, you shouldn't be pursuing after building a business

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: When you it's not even close to being a hobby yet.

Steve: Mhmm. So, you know, one thing I do the advice I give a lot of people are like, if you're starting over brand new today and you got nothing going on Mhmm. What do you do? I always say the same two things is hire a coach and hire an assistant. Mhmm.

So with this, though, you're saying if you don't have a business yet, you're saying don't hire a coach. You're saying, like, we're not the coach.

Gary: So you have to start with the linear of what you need. So marketing, sales, operations, finance. It almost falls in that order.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: Right? There's a reason why it's built that way. If sales isn't working, you don't have sales, then you don't need an operations coach.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: You need you need a sales coach. Right. You still need a coach. It's just what coach you need. You know, the the average player has, like, seven coaches.

Steve: Mhmm. What kind of player?

Gary: Like a basketball, football athlete. They have multiple coaches. So does business owners. Mhmm. Business owners have I have five coaches.

Steve: Really?

Gary: Yeah. I have a fitness coach. I have a mindset coach. I have a relationship coach. I have a spiritual coach.

Right? Like, I have my own business coach. Like, we have multiple coaches to help us keep us on the straight and narrow. I, well, I guess we have six. We have a financial coach.

Yeah. Right? We have multiple coaches to keep us. They're guard I call them guardrails.

Steve: Mhmm. You know,

Gary: you drive a car. You drive a car on the side of a mountain. You don't wanna drive a car on the side of a mountain without a guardrail. Yeah. Right?

Because something happens, you blow a tire. You don't want it to just fly off the side of the mountain. You wanna be able to save. That's what a coach really does. It kinda keeps you on that straight, narrow path and helps see the blind spots and keep you back on the road if you blow a tire.

So, you know, I think it's important to know what coach you need at what time.

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: You know, you don't go get speed and agility coaching when your shot's off. Yeah. You go hire a shooting coach.

Steve: Mhmm. You

Gary: don't go hire a business coach when you're not your sales suck. Yeah. You go hire sales coaching. You go figure out how to get your sales up because you're gonna hurt your company if you don't have the sales to support the changes and growth of a business operating system. Yeah.

That's smart.

Steve: So at what caliber should someone be at before they reach out to Sharper Business?

Gary: So for me, what I'd like to see is somebody having consistent deal deal flow. It could be three deals a month. It could be 50 deals a month. I want consistency. I wanna see that they have a rhythm in sales, and their process of sales works.

Gotcha. That's what I want. But I will tell you, if you have that consistency in sales and it's working with to whatever degree or size

Steve: Mhmm.

Gary: You better be careful trying to grow it to that next level without putting some level of business operating system in place that helps you determine the right people, right seats, right processes for onboarding, and growth for engagement.

Steve: So going back, name of the fable that's coming out?

Gary: Yeah. It's Rise Up.

Steve: Rise Up is the fable? Mhmm. And then the, the tactical book?

Gary: The tactical book is risen. Risen. Mhmm.

Steve: And that's coming out when?

Gary: That will probably be at the end of the year.

Steve: So July

Gary: Rise Up is July.

Steve: Rise Up. Mhmm. End of the year, risen. Risen. Okay.

So, and then, real quick again. So sharperbusiness.com/disruptors

Gary: Mhmm. For all

Steve: the free content.

Gary: That's free content.

Steve: So I want you guys to think about, some last thoughts Mhmm. I'll leave everyone with. Again, guys, you know, we're doing we're compiling all the objections, what we believe, you know, be the best answers to all these. So text objections to 33777, and we'll send those to you probably in the next couple of weeks. We got, we're starting to get some coming in, so I'm looking forward to compiling all that.

Gary: That's cool.

Steve: So, what are some last thoughts you'd like to leave all the listeners with?

Gary: Yeah. Any last thoughts? For me, honestly, guys, I think it's important right now that you know your business, know where you wanna go, have a vision, have a plan. Bible says there's no vision that people perish. I think it's really important that we as entrepreneurs have the right vision that supports our purpose and helps drive us to our goals.

And if you don't have that, then you're going you're winning in life.

Steve: Yeah.

Gary: And, that's one thing I love about the curriculum. One thing I love about business operating system, it's there to support the vision and protect you and your purpose to getting you to your 100%. And so that I think that's what I wanna lead people with today is, like, go at life with some level of intentionality.

Susan: Yeah. That's the word I was gonna use, like, intentional. Mhmm. What we've put together and how we've walked people through it is very intentional. It's no longer I feel like this is the right way.

You know, feelings don't matter most of the time. Your feelings could be wrong. You could have had a bad dinner last night and your feelings off. You know? You couldn't have gotten sleep last night.

There's the feelings are hard to to to analytically put in a process to make it make it make it make sense.

Steve: Right.

Susan: So it again, those cliche statements, the right people, right seats, they're the very tactical, intentional way to measure and understand how people do that. But look at every part of your business and system as intentional. What are we going to intentionally do today? Because we're not gonna accidentally have success. We're going to intentionally get that success.

Gary: Yeah. Losing weight over the last year has been very intentional. Yeah. Building a business has been very intentional. Driving to our purpose has been very intentional.

Raising kids has been very intentional. Like, you have to have a vision, and they have to put intent behind it. Mhmm.

Steve: If

Gary: you don't do that, then you're gonna find yourself looking back wishing you had.

Steve: Yeah. Oh, definitely. I mean, I think I don't know how people live a life without it. Really, really frustrating.

Gary: Yeah. It's it's those are the other side. The arrogant side of people drives me insane, and then the people are like, I don't know. I'm just gonna wing it today. Yeah.

That's another thing. It kinda gets under my skin sometimes. But, anyway

Steve: someone wants to get ahold of you. What's the best way for them to reach reach out to you?

Gary: Oh, sharperbusiness.com.

Steve: Sharperbusiness.com. Yeah.

Susan: Website.

Gary: They can follow us on TikTok. We're on YouTube. We're on Instagram. We're on Facebook. Instagram and YouTube are probably some of our biggest platforms right now.

But if you follow us on Instagram, pushes you usually back to YouTube. I really am, you know, not to brag. I hope it says in Towncross arrogant, but I really I love what our marketing's done in our YouTube channel lately. They have our shorts and our long term content is the best, honestly, in business, I think, that you're gonna find.

Susan: Yeah. We have intentionally put together content this year.

Gary: Yeah.

Susan: We I think it's kind of the first time that we've really intentionally got in front of a camera and pushed record for me, at least. And, yeah, our team has done a great and phenomenal job of getting the message out there.

Gary: I think we've we're investing over $300,000 a year in marketing right now.

Steve: Wow. So very intentional. That's not that's not, insignificant. No. No.

Alright. Perfect. Thank you.

Susan: Thank you.

Steve: Appreciate us coming in. Safe. Thank you.

Gary: Alright, buddy.

Steve: I'll see you guys later.