Duarne: 0:00

camera. Today it's actually.

Dave: 0:21

All right, all right, all right. Now you got me into the Matthew McConaughey impression for pre-show, but we're here, with another episode of Business Unscripted Podcast.

Dave: 0:32

It is episode 26. We are half a year in six months. Warren, we've done this week in, week out. Obviously you've had some things come up, but that's all right. But if you are a business owner, or maybe you're an aspiring business owner and you're like I don't know who I should learn from, or you know obstacles that you may face, you're in the right spot. We're here every week. We talk about different strategies, different tips, things that we've gone through in our own business as well, to kind of give you guys, you can learn from our experiences, what we've worked on with clients as well. So you are in the right spot if that is you. So why don't you grab your favorite cup of Joe and let's jump into the show?

Duarne: 1:17

What an intro. That was a very high energy intro for this early in the morning for you yeah, I've had a couple of cups of coffee, we're ready.

Dave: 1:27

I'm excited today. So if you don't know, then you're under a rock, because I've been sharing it on all my socials but Triumph Business Solutions was running a grant program where we were giving away six months of our done-for-you service, which was basically worth $18,000, right, fully done you accounting, bookkeeping strategy, profit first implementation, everything that we've been talking about here on this podcast lately. And I'm excited because later soon in the episode we're going to announce the individual, the business owner, who won that grant. So you listen up for that. So I'm very excited to kind of do that today and kind of help making an impact on on one of the business owners. I'm very was I was, I gotta say, jordan like I am impressed with the individuals who submitted an application. It was very hard for me to kind of decide, right, who I was going to be able to give this to, because there's a lot of people that that were deserving based on their applications. So I'm excited to, you know, make an impact with somebody.

Duarne: 2:26

I love that Some of the questions you're asking require the business owners to be a little bit vulnerable with their answers. Right, they had to be honest, and that's something we're very most business owners we struggle with to be honest with ourselves, let alone others, about how well we're doing in business or how well we're not doing in business.

Dave: 2:47

So it's that mirror moment, right when you have to. You have to, like, stand in front of the mirror and really be honest with yourself. And a lot of times, as you said, a lot of people don't have that ability, you know, or you know to see inside or even ask for help, like that's the other thing. They feel like if I'm asking for help or I'm asking for assistance, then then you failed at something and that's not at all what help is, cause you know you can't grow. You know, if you look at any billion dollar company or any, you know, even a million dollar company, it's not done on the backs of one person. They have teams, they have to outsource company. It's not done on the backs of one person. They have teams, they have to outsource, they have to automate, they have to, you know, be efficient.

Dave: 3:28

And so if that's your aspiration, you should, from the get-go, realize that it's never going to be done by yourself. And, and so, you know, start planning it out, start thinking about, like art, what are the areas? That is your strength, what's my weakness, how can I get partners that know a lot more than I do? I always been the Henry Ford example, right? So Henry Ford knew nothing about motors, knew nothing about cars. He just surrounded himself in a room of people who knew a lot more than he did, and now his name is on. You know hundreds of thousands of cars, millions of cars across the world. So you know, that's all you have to do.

Duarne: 4:03

He's around himself with smart people, brought them together and solved a problem exactly. And I? This is one of those things and this is where, like, I really hate that statement fake it till you make it right. And it's such a common statement that people use in business like I'll just fake it till I make it. Well, no, you don't have to fake it till you make it. There is opportunities to self-help, self-develop, ask for assistance, join a group to help you. You know, learn what you don't know, because you know what a lot of us we don't know, what we don't know, and it's nothing to be ashamed of. You know, I wouldn't go to an accountant and ask him to fix my car. I wouldn't go to an mechanic and ask him to do my taxes right. It's just, it's not their forte and that's expected, that's normal.

Dave: 4:49

So no, one has to be just be authentic.

Dave: 4:53

You know, like, don't, don't try to oversell, and I think like that's the the big thing to you know, think about like when you're running a business, you're not and don't need to sell every single person you talk to.

Dave: 5:08

And I think that's the pressure that a lot of business owners feel right away is that if I don't make a sale right away, that I'm a failure or this maybe isn't right for me, when, in reality, just be yourself, just be open. If you're just starting out, don't be afraid to start small and kind of work your way up or get some experience under your belt, especially if you're a younger entrepreneur. But if you're somebody who's coming from corporate, who's got a lot of experience, you also should have a lot of contacts. You should have a lot of relationships that you've built over the years that you can leverage those warm connections, those warm networks that you've created. So don't be afraid to be authentic. That's the biggest thing. And people, you know salespeople can or not salespeople, people that you are having conversations with prospects, potential clients, et cetera they can smell and sense when you're being inauthentic and that you're not believing even in what you're saying, and I think that's a mistake.

Duarne: 6:10

Yeah, and it's interesting you say that, because one of the other things I always consider is that level of desperation for the first sale and feeling like every meeting's got to matter, every meeting's got to count, and holding off on making that really possible sale call because it's too early, you haven't perfected your pitch, you haven't perfected. It's not about a perfect pitch, it's about just having a conversation, building that rapport and then just seeing where it goes, because you know what a lot of these relationships we've built over the years. People want to help each other. They want to be in a position to be able to assist and help where they can. They'll do business with you if they like you, but people put so much pressure on themselves.

Duarne: 6:54

The amount of times I've had conversations where I'm not going to do it because I haven't got the perfect process yet, I haven't built my SOPs around that yet. We're not talking about hiring a staff member to join your team and not having enough time to train them or not having anything documented to train them. We're talking about just having a conversation with someone who may or may not be interested in what you're doing, but just letting them know that you're doing it and you can always come back to them later and talk to them about more interesting things or things that come up, because you've already touched the base with them. So, yeah, I think there's no need to be fake about it. Just be real, be authentic, like you said, and just have simple conversations to start with.

Dave: 7:33

It's really helpful, but yeah, I think be yourself is another one that is really important when you're having conversations with people. So if say, for example, cold calling is one thing that a lot of people hate, right, they make up this vision of failure before they even hit the first number on the first phone number they want to call. But be yourself, and you know, hey, the first thing you could say is listen, john, I know like I hate cold calls, you know, I'm also a business owner. But I just wanted to call as a local and I wanted to see if maybe XYZ might be something that you're experiencing in your business. If not, great, maybe we can have a coffee sometime and talk through and maybe invite them to a local networking event that you're part of. But be open and just have a conversation. It's like you and me, right, but be open and just have a conversation. It's like you and me, right. Figure out how would you have a conversation with a family member or a friend who's a business owner to talk about what you do, and then that's how you approach the conversations, with all your prospects. And then it becomes like this pressure just gets released off of you, because then it's not like oh, I don't have to try and sell, but I can still sell. Yeah, exactly that's the point. Like, just have conversations.

Dave: 8:49

I can't tell you if I actually think of all the clients that I've made right. Honestly, if I think back and be, you know, honest with it, the ones that I actually signed were ones that I just had a conversation with. I wasn't like trying to be overly self and I wasn't trying to, you know, talk about benefits or talk about this and talk about that and try to. It was just hey, you know, are you experiencing X, y, z? Would you be open to exploring a potential solution to that, you know?

Dave: 9:22

And then we can, you know, maybe start with a, you know, 30 day, you know, kind of overview. How can we get started Like, give it, give the little kickstart and then go from there and everything has has driven right from that in my business, and so that would be my biggest suggestion, I mean, dwarin, for yourself, like, if you look at your clients, how many of them happen to be your clients because you sold the shit out of them, or was it? You were authentic, you know, dwarn had great conversations with them and then they decided to sign up look, most of it's all based on the conversation, the rapport, yeah, actually some of my oldest clients.

Duarne: 9:55

We completely messed up on a bunch of things in the early days and we got them wrong and we just owned it and stood by it and helped resolve those problems and move forward and through them, some of my clients have been working with me for close to 14 years now and that's fantastic for us because we've got team members who have been on board for eight, nine years, who have been working with those same clients over that period of time. So I think the reality is you are going to make ups, you are going to have moments, but the authenticity you can't put a price on that it's one of the biggest strategic benefits that we have as business owners is just being authentic. We had an issue with one of our business products just recently and we could have hidden behind what had occurred and what had happened and we didn't. We got out in front of it. We said, hey, look, something went wrong. There was a change. We weren't notified, the communication broke down and something went, you know, caused a conflict. It happens. We went offline for a while, we let everybody know and, at the end of the day, most people have stuck by and said, yep, thanks for letting us know. Appreciate, I appreciate it, really appreciate that raw honesty.

Duarne: 11:08

I've worked with other companies in the past who they'd have outages and they would sit there and try and cover up where it was coming from or why it was there, and one particular one which had a pipe burst in the roof of a data center and literally pour a waterfall of water for 30 minutes into a rack full of servers and equipment, and some of it was client-owned machines. That was co-shared space and the data center decided not to take responsibility for it. But the client who I was working for at the time actually owned it and said look, yeah, this has really happened, even though the data center's, you know denying and here's the photos. This is what happened. And guess what? All those clients that they service turned up to help clean up. Nice, and it was such a positive experience at the end of it. Yes, there was still some shit to clean up at the end.

Dave: 12:07

You know financially and you know payouts and so, like we, said before, like when you're trying to sell, or even afterwards, like your clients are going to be able to call bs on your bullshit, right, you know? And ultimately it's do you want short-term save a face or do you want to create long-term relationships? And that's where you have the choice, and that's the thing. You have the choice. In every situation that you face, whether in life or in business, you have the choice, you have the power of how you're going to react to that situation. And so you know it is what we'll call a pet peeve of mine when people tell me that they don't. Oh, I was, I was, I was. It was totally not out of my, out of my reach, like, but yeah, that event might've been out of your reach, but how you're choosing to react right now to that situation, that's your choice, that's your action and that's what you have to.

Dave: 13:01

As we say, the proverbial, you know, mirror moment. That's the mirror moment. That's the mirror moment. Are you acting or reacting to whatever happened in a positive or negative light? Ultimately, the more positive reactions you can have to situations, the more you're actually going to see more success and see more positivity around your life. That's true in life, relationships, friendships, whatever it is, just as much as it is in business. 100%, yeah, that's true in in life relationships. Friendships, whatever it is, just as much it is in business.

Duarne: 13:31

So 100 yeah, um, yeah. So you know I will. I earlier to me.

Dave: 13:34

But pre pre-show yeah, give me, give me, give me a second, let me jump into that. But you know, what I wanted to let everybody know is, if you have questions, drop them down below in the comments. Or you know wherever you're at, wherever you're watching this, even if it's a replay, drop it in the comments down wherever you're at, wherever you're watching this, if it's a replay, drop it in the comments down below. We'll make sure to answer it live. Also, as I mentioned last week, this month, my goal for this podcast is to get the business owner signups so that we can start having some of you all on the episodes live starting in October. So that way we can help either answer your questions, we can talk to your business, talk to an obstacle that you're going through and give everyone here live support, because, as I mentioned, I'm on a personal mission in Triumph Business Solutions to have an impact on a thousand business owners by 2028. And this is just another one of those avenues that we can hopefully generate some impact for your business.

Dave: 14:23

But getting back to what Duane was just saying, there was a quote that I came across this week and it really how do I want to say it kind of impacted in terms of my thought process and that quote, we probably have all heard it one time or another, and that is if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And where it irks me right is because if that's true, if it's not broke and you're not going to fix it, what happens? Especially if I'm thinking in business terms, but it's also in your personal life as well. But we're here to talk business, dwayne, let me get your reaction first before I give you my thoughts. When you hear that saying, when you think of business, what does that mean?

Duarne: 15:09

Yeah, basically it's like close enough is good enough. Yeah, look, you know, I know there's a problem, but it kind of works. I'll just stick with it for now. And we used to hear this a lot as an objection in sales from businesses, where you know you had a better solution that you present to them and they just weren't ready to take action. And what it tells me is the pain isn't enough to make that change and fix the problem. So you know, or not, enough people are complaining to you about it internally. That to's to be a problem.

Duarne: 15:50

We used to joke when I was growing up we'd see council workers and they'd be standing around fixing a road and we'd be like there was nothing wrong with the road. Why did they break it? Why did they dig that up? And have that exact statement. We'd go. If it wasn't broken, why did you fix it? And they'd come back with some sort of excuse. So from a government perspective, I've seen it in a bunch of times and that was where I've seen it used and it was from a different point of view. But in a business it's actually for me it's very concerning to hear a business owner or someone in a business say especially if it's your employee saying it. Oh you know it works. I'm not going to fix it right. That's a concern, because it means they're not.

Dave: 16:27

Either they don't see it as a big enough problem or they don't care enough to fix it well, and I think the and here here's for me one you're right like if you're only looking for things that break, you're only becoming a firefighter in your business. You're never being proactive, you're literally always choosing to be reactive in your decisions. That's what that quote means to me. And so, as a business owner, as a entrepreneur and you're looking to grow, you're looking to scale you should never fall into this quote, and the reason why is because you should always be looking for ways to improve your business. Whether it's a process, whether it's a platform or a procedure or a new program, you should always be finding ways to improve and evaluate how things are going in your business. And if you're not, what happens? You're going to get left behind, especially nowadays.

Dave: 18:08

If you just think of the last six months, the improvement in different systems and processes and everything that are there to support you and your growth, it's vastly different.

Dave: 18:20

And if you just decided to say, you know what, I'm just going to stay even 12 months ago and I'm not going to make an improvement because things are working for me right now, well, you've missed out on 12 months of advancement and actual improvements that you could possibly have made your business to make you more efficient. And so that's why I would never apply that sort of quote to my business If it ain't broke, don't fix it, because even if it's working, it doesn't mean it's the most efficient. It doesn't mean that I can't save some time, save some hours, get some money back for myself or use that time to better have more conversations, make better relationships, make more of an impact, whatever it may be. And so in your business, if you find yourself saying that and saying, well, it's not broke, I'll just leave it, I don't need to fix it, lose that mindset, get rid of it, cut it out, axe it. And if somebody says it, it's like nails on a chalkboard. There's a lot of quotes like that for me, but this one just really hit me.

Duarne: 19:19

You got to ask the question. If you hear it in your own business, you've got to ask the question, like you know, why is it okay to leave that? What's the repercussions if we don't fix it? What is? What does it mean if we don't fix it? What's the cost to the business if we don't fix it? You know are we talking about.

Duarne: 19:39

Is it a machine? If it came into a scenario, it does apply. Sometimes if we've got a machine in the business that's kind of limping along and working and the new one's on order and it's going to arrive in a few weeks and yeah sure, leave it the way it is well and keep it working until the new one arrives. But if you're relying on that one machine like, let's say, I've seen this in workshops so they've got a cnc machine with a computer running it, the machine and the computer is 10 years old, they're like you know, it ain't broke, don't fix it, and then the machine dies and then they can't use the machine for three weeks while they wait for the new machine to arrive and it's like, well, look at the consequences and the cost that that just had to your business because you didn't feel that it warranted the attention it needed at the time those things happen.

Dave: 20:22

I mean, and of course, like everything you evaluate, you're not going to go and fix, obviously Like there's a cost benefit, but you should have a recurring system or process in your business where you review expenses, you review your systems, you review your processes. And again, I'm not saying you have to do this thing every single month and you're probably like Dave, that's crazy, it's going to take a lot of time, maybe it's every quarter. When we worked in corporate, we did it every quarter. We took a set amount of processes and reviewed them. We weren't doing 100% of the processes every single quarter. It was make a process and a system for yourself to maybe review something every quarter. And then you're constantly doing this in your business and you're not being that reactive person who is always feeling like they're fighting fires and that's probably why, because you're not evaluating things proactively, you're just waiting for things to happen. And then you're going and you're saying, oh yeah, this is when I'll fix it.

Duarne: 21:20

There's a flip side to that too, though. Right, I mean, it's about just because that something can be fixed, it doesn't need to be fixed. Like, there is some things in your business where, if you're constantly fixing something rather than you know accepting that it does work, well, you know, like marketing, for example, sometimes marketing does work if you give a little bit of time in a certain aspect, but trying to fix it and trying to, you know, change it all the time doesn't. So there is also going to be occasions when you do want to do the opposite, but you have to evaluate it on a case-by-case basis. But for the most part, yeah, I definitely get a little bit of a tingling feeling in the back of my neck when I hear it and I go well, hold on, hold on.

Duarne: 22:07

And 90 of the times, as a business owner, the first thing we ask is go well, hold on, how could you fix it? If your first thing isn't like, how could we fix it, that means that you, as a business owner, may not be in the right mindset, because you don't want to hear out the possible solutions and the fixes that your staff and people are putting forward to you. It's like the old story of the salesman comes along and to the guy who's using a square wheel and says, hey, I've got this new wheel if you're interested. No, got one already, don't need it. Go, move on. And the guy rolls his wheel away because it's a circular wheel. Yes, he could have solved the problem and he could have made that guy's life a lot easier if the guy had given him a minute to demonstrate and show him what it was. But he felt that he didn't have a problem. He didn't need to fix the problem.

Duarne: 22:55

So just being open to listening to other people's suggestions, whether it's in your business, outside your business, you know, sometimes that's a good thing too. Maybe there's problems that you don't even know need fixing in your business and you're oblivious to the fact. Or you're just too damn busy running your business to notice it, too damn busy running your business to notice it and you're putting out fires all the time instead of being able to. You know. You know, just get in there and plow forward and grow your business.

Dave: 23:21

Listen, I'm going to. This may be a harsh reality for some people, especially if you are smaller and you're not where you want to be in terms of your business. I am pretty confident that anybody who tells me that they have no time for anything and they don't have a lot of clients, but they're running around and they're always feeling like they're doing everything, they're doing everything I can probably, within a 90% percentile, tell you that they are not doing everything that they need to be doing and they're wasting time throughout the day. So then they feel like they're being busy, they're doing busy work, but they're not doing the things that are actually going to grow and generate more business for themselves, but they're not doing the things that are actually going to grow and generate more business for themselves.

Dave: 24:11

So if that's you and you're like I'm doing all this, I do all this, let's have a conversation, because I guarantee, if we go through your week, there is a lot of dead time, there's a lot of lost time, there's a lot of busy work that you're doing that doesn't need to be done. You know, throughout the day, or even like as much as you're doing it AKA checking emails or you know there's a lot of stuff out there that you're probably doing inefficiently again, right that we were just talking about that. You're not actually doing everything. You're not actually, you know, so busy that you can't do something else.

Duarne: 24:48

You're just failing to evaluate what you are doing understand how to do it or they're failing to plan. You know, that's the other thing I mean. Like if you're a business that does you know, say you're shipping products every time you get an order and if you process that order, go down, pack the order and then send it out. Well, that could be considered wasteful where, if you know, you get an average of five to ten orders come in a day, set a time, 2 pm every day. That's the cutoff. Everything that comes in before then go down at 2 pm, pack it, process it, send it Not much good right.

Duarne: 25:29

Exactly, create a schedule and what you'll find is just that one process. He streamlines the process and can save you a bunch of time checking emails. You know it's a big one. I mean the amount of times that and one of the other big things like it's. If you've got multiple screens I have lots of screens, right, try not to have a screen up when you're in focus mode that has emails or messages popping up on it. If you've got smart watches, try not to have a smart watch on your wrist with that's. You know, got notifications enabled, turn off, turn off your notifications.

Dave: 26:04

yep, I did in my emails. Like you know, if you still have like the notification every time another new email comes up on your computer, you know you've got to turn that off, because what automatically happens is you see it and you and it's taking you out of your whatever your productive mode that you're working on, and if it's something that you think is important but it's not, you then leave what you're doing to go respond to that email. So number one thing that I did when I was in corporate now I rolled, rolled it over when I'm, when I'm now working for myself is I turn those things off I use do not disturb in my phones as well. So only a limited number of people get through through when I'm, when I'm working, even notifications from apps. Only a limited number of things get through when I'm, when I'm done with my work hours. I say this all the time you have to control your time or your time will control you and that's the bottom line.

Dave: 26:59

And I get it because I was there. I was there. Let me give you an example here. Initially, when I was just starting out, networking it's a big thing, it's important.

Dave: 27:11

On the Alignable platform, I was doing a lot of these smart connects. You know where I was meeting people. You know, going in it was like speed, speed dating for networking. So if you're not on alignable, I highly suggest that you are, as a business owner and you're, and you're b2b.

Dave: 27:21

But what I was doing was I wasn't scheduling specific time for follow-up, so I would just say, hey, here's my calendar, let's have, let's continue the conversation after our seven minute intro, not realizing that most of the people there you know we're trying to like, either waste my time or, you know, sell me things that obviously I wasn't, I wasn't in the need of and they weren't trying to find that out, and so I wasted probably hours upon hours and probably weeks upon weeks of this, these meetings back to back, most days, some days that meant nothing because they weren't my ideal partners, they weren't my ideal clients and I wasn't theirs either, but we just wasted 30 minutes of a day and so, until I actually went back to my calendar link and limited the hours.

Dave: 28:07

One, that I could have those meetings, but two, limited the actual number of those meetings that I can have in a day. I was wasting time and now I actually feel like I have more control over my time. And that's one step. The second step would be like using your calendar, blocking off time on your calendar for different aspects.

Duarne: 28:28

It's interesting let's just go to that one thing that I, if you're a salesperson, typically your job is to get, one of your kpis is going to be get as many meetings as you can, because there's this mentality as many as you can.

Duarne: 28:41

For me, I think you're better off focusing on fishing in the right pond than trying to just cast nets on everybody.

Duarne: 28:47

So I remember when I first started doing the networking game on and dance on alignable, I had this process where I'd spend about four hours on a sunday and, because I'm philippine, sunday was falling on your saturday, so what would happen is I'd spend four hours and I'd send messages out to individuals, comment a little bit on the feeds and reply to people and all that sort of wonderful stuff, and typically by Tuesday I'd have a full calendar with about three to five meetings every day for the next week and I'd fill my calendar up Right, and it was really easy to do.

Duarne: 29:23

It was about a month in two months and I've realized that, just like you, there's like I'm wasting so much time. So I adjusted my approach and, instead of allowing people to book 45 minute meeting with me, all meetings became 30 minutes and I put a 15 minute buffer between meetings. So it allowed me that if the meeting went over I could stay on it for longer, but I could cut it at 30 minutes because that was the time that I'd set. That one little little thing helped. But then I took it that one step further and I started being a lot more selective on who I accepted meetings from.

Duarne: 29:57

And what I found is it's not the volume, it's the quality of the meetings and the people you're meeting with. And the one thing we as business owners all struggle with but we all have the same amount of is time, and stop feeling like your time is not worth anything or of little value. Instead, you need to start focusing that your time is the most expensive and limited commodity you have, and once you realize that that's your commodity and that's your value proposition, you can start to monetize that in the way where you're only going to limit yourself to a couple of these discovery meetings a week, or you're going to force people to go through an evaluation process in order to evaluate if it's worth having that meeting with them. You know there's you know and that can stop people from wanting to meet with you, but in most cases, if it's something that you know, if they want to meet with you and be able to, you know work with you, do business with you and not waste your time, and you don't waste their time, that could be a big part of the process.

Duarne: 31:08

You know it's like the housebroker like you're not going to go and entertain somebody who can't demonstrate that they've got the ability to get accepted for a loan to buy the house that they're looking at or you're not going to take and show them the 16, you know $16 million house if they've got a budget for a $1 million house.

Duarne: 31:28

You know whatever that may be Exaggerated of be exaggerated, of course, but you know you have to be sensible in these things and your time. If you're entertaining people who are always coming in there, the wrong type of customers and this was something that you know we talked about if you advertise and you're selling the cheapest product on the street, you're going to get the wrong type of customers. That take up a lot of your time typically, and you're going to end up finding yourself having to do that sell not the authentic, not be authentic. You know not being able to just be authentic to yourself and your value or proposition, but it becomes a cost conversation as opposed to a value proposition. So these little changes and tweaks and adjustments we you make in the way you handle yourself and your business can have massive side effects for the amount of time you get to focus on better things to help grow your business.

Dave: 32:55

Right? No, I 100% agree with you, and it's game-changing when you just pay attention.

Duarne: 33:05

A little bit liberating too sometimes when you first do it.

Dave: 33:08

Yeah, I would give that Holy cow a little bit liberating too, sometimes when you first do it.

Duarne: 33:10

Yeah, holy cow. The other thing that you know we've spoke about in the past right, is if you do feel overwhelmed and busy and start taking note every time you know about what what you're doing, for every 15 minutes of the day, and if you start seeing exactly, do it for a week and then just review it again. Oh shit, I'm spending a lot of time doing that. I didn't realize I was checking facebook that often.

Dave: 33:32

I'm gonna close that tab and just check that on my phone, you know, a couple of times a day instead yep, and I think, like, once you do like you said, you'll identify patterns and then you can adjust those patterns based on what you need. So, like if you find that you were doing a lot on Facebook and it's meaningful for your business, you're not just scrolling, you know. Block the time, instead of doing it four or five times for 10, 15 minutes at a time. Just block an hour, you know, maybe between 1130 and 1230, like block the hour, because then you're actually in that mode, like it's's, you're not breaking your productivity mindset five times a day, you're just getting it done one time a day, but then you can be productive in it and it makes the best use of your time.

Duarne: 34:19

So one other thing when I worked in an office and we used to have like 20 plus staff working in the office, we had a open door policy and it was because you know everyone would be telling you oh, he's a manager, you need an open door policy. As a business owner, you should have an open door policy so people can come and talk to you anytime they've got a problem. Well, that's fine, but you need to set expectations around that as well, because what I found very quickly is people would come up and interrupt your train of thought. So find a way to encourage I have opened doors between these hours or encourage people to use things like the instant messaging platforms, but not expect an instant reply. Use it to send the message and if it's something urgent, then add a process in place where they will call you on top of that, so that you they can alert you to the problem. But if it's something of non-urgent nature, then it comes. They can send it through via an email. I can send it through via a, you know, an instant message. Or and that goes for clients as well you know, educate your clients and how you'd like to be communicated with. You know if you've got clients who keep calling you multiple times a day just to check in and ask little questions that you could have answered or your team could have answered. Then encourage them to go back through the right channels.

Duarne: 35:43

One of the client types we have for our virtual assistant staffing back in Australia is managed service providers and in IT you get a lot of people in businesses calling you up asking for things like I need to reset my password, oh, I forgot this. How do I connect the printer? Right? So you know, one of the things they introduced is putting in ticketing systems. All right, is there a ticket for this? All right, let me log the ticket.

Duarne: 36:11

That way the person calling feels like you've done something initially and you've taken action, but then you can schedule the work to the technician to get the work done and you don't need to take instant action on it to resolve the issue. But you can also prioritize. If it needs instant attention, you can handle that. But just putting in processes again and we keep coming back to these processes If you've got the right processes, you can save yourself time, you can improve communication with your clients, you can channel communication from your clients and your staff in the correct methods and ways that make sense for you, for the situation that you're in. So, just yeah, don't don't feel bad about saying no to things, don't feel bad about blocking out a little bit of time for yourself, because otherwise you're always going to feel like you're fighting fires. Oh for sure.

Dave: 37:04

And, like we talked about, like you want it to feel, like you know you're being proactive with the majority of your decisions. Now, obviously, things are going to break in your business. It's inevitable.

Duarne: 37:14

Like things are going to happen no-transcript time management and stuff, but I think it's a nice one to revisit occasionally and remind yourself and yeah, there is a lot of things that you can go in on that, but what's this other exciting news that you wanted to discuss? That yeah.

Dave: 38:01

So I I mean I think we're, we're in let's. So obviously, as I said earlier in the episode, we were running the labor day profit clarity grant program for business owners and what we were doing is we're giving away six months of our done for you partner program, right, dorn? And so it's a fully done for you sort of basic bookkeeping, cashflow projecting, helping you install the right processes and proactive thinking in your business, around your finances, with profit first, et cetera, to help you kind of grow your business. And while I said we got a ton of great applicants, I only can give away one grand prize. I can't give away everything for free, right?

Duarne: 38:44

And how much was that grand prize worth again, Dave.

Dave: 38:48

Six months of the Done For you program is $18,000.

Dave: 38:52

So it's about $3,000 a month for six months thousand dollars, so it's about three thousand, yeah, so I, you know, I'm looking forward to, you know, seeing the impact to the business owner that has has won. And I think now, uh, I guess now might be a good time to kind of go forward and kind of make that announcement. What do you think? Do you want? You want to announce who we, who we should be talking about, or not? Do you think we should just leave it to you know, just let them figure it out later oh, I don't know, do you want to be mean about it?

Duarne: 39:20

I think we let them know. I mean, maybe they're listening. If they're not listening and one of their friends is hearing this, they can let them know, and I'm sure you're going to let them know anyway.

Dave: 39:28

Directly after the podcast yeah, if this is you, if, if the winner is you, I will definitely be reaching out later today. Also, don't remember too, like as part of this, for anybody who shared the link, if their referral is the winner of the grand prize, they're also winning six months of our Done With you program, which is another sort of level of support and that's got a value of about $6,000 as well. So, maybe a referral one, but yeah, let's get into it All right. All right. So our winner of the first ever Triumph Profit First Grants is I hope I don't mess up this first name is Queda Johnson. Her business name is Candid Mood Fragrances. So, queda, I hope I didn't mess up your name. I'm sure over the next six months I'll know how to say it right, but you have been selected as our first ever Triumph grant. Now, cuida was actually referred to the link. So she was actually referred to by Tracy. Good. So, Tracy, thank you for sharing the link and for, you know, kind of making Cuida known about the application process as well. So, tracy, I'll also be in contact with you to talk about the Done With you program as well.

Dave: 41:01

So, everybody, everybody who applied like it was, I want to thank you all because it was. It was a difficult decision to make. There was a lot of you out there that were you know very detailed, that you know could really use this, could really use this support in this program. So I apologize. I will probably be doing this again in the future. So, again, this was one of those things where it's like, hey, let's support our mission, let's kind of make an impact.

Dave: 41:28

So, cuida, I will be reaching out to you later today. Same thing with Tracy. So, if that's you, I'm very excited to meet you. And for those that did apply, that did not win, I encourage you to stay up on what we're doing at Triumph and we'll probably be running these types of programs again. So I thank you all. It was very exciting, like I said, great to see all the responses, all the interest and looking forward to seeing the transition in Greta Johnson's business over the next six months. And I'm sure we'll be, you know, probably paralleling that here on the podcast, we'll talk about those types of things and maybe even we'll have her up.

Duarne: 42:06

So I love it, dave. Just for those who may not be aware what are you actually? What do you actually get in that six month program? What are you actually? What do you actually get in that six month program? So what is she going to be getting as part of that prize or that grant?

Dave: 42:22

Yeah. So we're going to be giving her six months of basic bookkeeping, so monthly reconciliations, financial statements, cashflow projecting, so actually working with her to implement a 12 month cashflow. Also, the biggest thing that you know as a profit first professional is implementing profit first in her business, so she actually knows where money should be allocated and how to spend it, as well as looking at the different strategies and processes around pricing, around expenses, everything that we talk about on these episodes. So that's what our done for you program is. It's basically a fully done for you.

Dave: 42:56

I also give up to three to five hours every month of like CFO level support in that program as well, so we can develop processes. We can, you know, you know, look at budget first, actuals, everything like that that a business owner should need needs, but maybe, as a small business owner, doesn't have the funds to the funds to invest in a full-time individual for that. So that is our partner program and again, typically we have 12-month investment programs and our navigator done with you is more or less the same, except we just don't do the items and the actions for the business owner. We advise them and teach them how to do it and give them the strategy and the support and the implementation of it. And then we're there every single month to make sure that they're doing it and walking them through it. So Fantastic.

Duarne: 43:44

So a bit of accountability there to help.

Dave: 43:47

Absolutely, and that's the biggest thing when it comes to processes like that is that accountability to keep you moving forward is what a lot of people miss when they try to do it alone. It's so easy to convince yourself of excuses, it's so easy to say, ah, this isn't working, I'm just going to stop it. But when you actually have that person or team like we are behind you to keep you pushing forward, you actually have the ability to continue to move, and that's ultimately what the programs have been developed about.

Duarne: 44:16

Very cool. Well, congratulations to those two who have managed to get this amazing offer. That's really cool. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, so what happens to everybody else who's applied? There's obviously a lot of people there. Should they reach out to you, or are you going to reach out to them and have a chat? What's going to happen with everybody?

Dave: 44:38

else.

Duarne: 44:39

Because it was really hard to choose. There's obviously a lot of people out there.

Dave: 44:42

It was definitely hard to choose. There were some good people out there that potentially deserved it just as much as Cuida. But ultimately, as I said, I would continue to, you know, follow I, you know, keep up to date If there's anything that we're doing. I'm going to continue to kind of do some of these things on a regular basis for you all and I will be reaching out to each one of you, to, you know, kind of personally. Thank you as well, and you know, kind of keep up to date and what we're doing and we can have a conversation from there. So I appreciate everybody's interest in time.

Dave: 45:16

I know, I know some of those answers weren't, weren't done in like a four minute.

Dave: 45:19

You know, kind of like boom, boom, boom.

Dave: 45:21

So I definitely appreciate people taking the time and doing that, but ultimately, taking that time to think through your business, for the answers that people were giving is is like that, like we talked about at the beginning of the show, is that, you know, mirror moment, where they have to just be raw and open with themselves.

Dave: 45:39

It's like why do I deserve this?

Dave: 45:41

You know why, why do I, you know, need to make this impact?

Dave: 45:45

What will happen, you know and really thinking through all the different things that you know will will happen from that and and getting that support and so just being able to take a step back and do that for your business is just impactful. Like you should have gotten so much from that and like hopefully it opened up some you know juices or ideas you know flowing by giving the answers that you all did Cause that's ultimately what this is about too is like, by by you thinking strategically about your business, it's almost like unstoppable for you not to then think like, oh wait, like let's, let me like figure this out or let me go in and take this next information and go, you know seek information somewhere. As they did this, they were able to think like, oh wait, let me go research this or let me go look into this or let me start planning this, because that's what the ultimate kind of back end idea around getting people to think about their business like this was supposed to do.

Duarne: 46:47

That's fantastic, and I mean they can always reach out to you directly as well, right, and get in touch and talk about some of the programs you are offering and still get on board with some of the other programs that you're offering.

Dave: 46:58

Absolutely. We got, you know, do it yourselves. We got you know, done with you, done for you. We even have, you know, a five week kind of sprint program for people to like, if they just want to get up and running, they want to, you know, just get started. We have, we have programs like that. So you know, we're trying business solutions, we're trying to support everybody at every sort of stage of business to really make an impact. Like I said, we want to impact a thousand business owners by 2028. You know, dwarin, you're part of that, you know we're here. That's why we decided to kind of, you know, make this show the way that it is, as well as to start including business owners. Because, know, hey, if we do 200 shows, and you know, and we can impact 200 business owners with business owners on it, that's 200 towards a thousand. You know, we'll see. Now, obviously I don't think we can do 200 shows unless you start doing multiple a week. But who knows, we'll see what it looks like.

Duarne: 47:48

So that's a lot of time. We're talking about times a little bit of a commodity, right that.

Dave: 47:53

That is true, that is true. So, so I did want to ask you, like you know, obviously you know. So, moving forward, cuida, I look forward to talking with you, and same thing with Tracy, and look forward to, you know, touching base and getting started. But, moving forward, like I, we've chatted a little bit the last couple of weeks about some big things that have happened maybe in your business from the result of our conversations, in terms of like things that you know that you've taken away, and then looked at your own business and went, oh crap, like I need to make a change, like I need to make an improvement. One of those was looking at the profitability by client right what was. And there was one other one that you mentioned. So I want to kind of, maybe briefly chat about that and then we can kind of, you know, wrap up the show here in a little bit.

Duarne: 48:41

Yeah, I think I was top of my head. I don't know if I got the right one here, but just resetting, like just taking a minute to reset, right, and you know, you might know it's got a different backgrounds with the blue wall and the flag and everything up in there today. You might know it's got a different background with the blue wall and the flag and everything up in there today. This is my new office that we've finished, finally, at the back. We've talked about previously that this would be happening and it's got some nice coffee shop vibes going on in here. It's very chill At least that's what everyone keeps telling me when they come in. And yeah, I just feel like it's a refresh for me. It's much more open space. I'm actually happy and I probably didn't value enough that something as simple as a change in environment can be that refresh that you need just to feel reinvigorated and motivated again to uh, just keep doing what you're doing right.

Duarne: 49:35

So that little reset coming out here and look it was I'm not the most excited to move my desk change computer because there's a lot of work involved in doing that, so I probably delayed it a little more than I should have by a few days. A rolled ankle certainly didn't help the situation. So, yeah, it was a fairly lengthy process over two weeks to get little more than I should have by a few days. A rolled ankle certainly didn't help the situation. So, yeah, it was a fairly lengthy process over two weeks to get after the room was ready to move out to here. But I'm so happy that I'm here now. I'm feeling relaxed and comfortable and it's a new environment, it's a great vibe.

Duarne: 50:09

So this was something we'd spoken about a few times. Like you know, what can I do to to you? Know what can you do in your business just to hit that little reset? You know whether it's a weekend away or whether it's just grabbing your laptop and going down to the local cafe and working, or setting yourself up in a new office environment. You've had a change in office in the last couple of months as well.

Dave: 50:32

Right, you've got a fresh environment you're working in and it's an adjustment period, but it can be a very positive experience as well yeah, and I think ultimately, you know, when we mentioned it, I was, I did it in corporate, where I would move my office around a little bit and you just feel like you're in a fresh spot and it's that great reset that you have the opportunity to just you feel a little bit more invigorated, you know, and sometimes you can even do this as small as during the day, you know, sometimes just getting up and moving around, or, you know, maybe going to work at a coffee shop for a day of the week. You know, but having that little change of scenery can just mean so much to your productivity, to your, you know, your business mindset when you're working on things.

Duarne: 51:17

So absolutely, and one of the other things for me today was the conversations around creating project marketing plans based on the Alex Hamosi book launch that was done recently, and just incorporating some of those project products in with some of the client stuff that we're working on at the moment and we're already starting to see some really positive effects for the clients. So I think you know, just being open to those changes and considering something different and creating some changes that not necessarily are going to be life-changing initially but certainly can have big effects in the future. So just being having the openness and the willingness to have those conversations with people about changing some of the things that we've been doing for a while and just picking them up and improving those. So that was probably the other thing that you know I thought I'd make a mention of as well, based on our conversations over the last few weeks I 100 agree.

Dave: 52:19

So with that, you know, obviously we had a great conversation today. Jordan, I always, I always love when, when you join me one, because we have good topics and kind of you know, are able to play off of each other, but then two people don't have to just listen to my voice all the time. So I I do gotta ask, ask, how's the ankle? You know, I'm sure everybody was wondering how the ankle is.

Duarne: 52:39

It's much better. It's much better. There was a couple of painful what they call helots. It's like a native Philippine massage where they do a realignment which is extremely painful and I do not recommend it. But I do recommend the fact that the results don't lie. I'm able to be walking around within a few days after the ankle because of it. I may have misunderstood through a communication problem that I wasn't meant to walk on it as much as I did during the week and caused a little bit more grief than I should have and had to get another one of those realignments done, which is certainly not a fun experience to have done. But I listened after that and I rested for a good four days with minimal walking around and, yeah, with very lightly limping now, but mostly good happy days.

Dave: 53:35

so big difference. Yeah, I can imagine that. Like you know, I, I I just envision you hobbling on your ankle.

Duarne: 53:47

You know, after being told hey, that's not what you're supposed to do I'm like I can walk on it, sure, and then it's good to walk on it, right? Yeah, and then going and doing some house searching and errands the next day and walking up and down stairs.

Dave: 54:07

I don't think that was the walking that they were thinking about.

Duarne: 54:09

No, no, I think she was referring to more like maybe just you know, walk to the bathroom, walk to the kitchen, maybe a little walk outside see what's going on, check on the kids. Was referring to more like maybe just you know, walk to the bathroom, walk to the kitchen, maybe a little walk out to outside see what's going on, check on the kids. But yeah, I might have misunderstood that a little bit got a little bit too ambitious, might have thought that the this, it was a miracle cure as opposed to a remedy which needed some additional rest to work.

Dave: 54:36

Jeez, well hey you know, get some rest. What do you feel like today? Biggest takeaway that you want a business owner who's listening to this to learn from today's episode or walk away with what. What are you thinking today?

Duarne: 54:51

look for me, I think. Be willing to open yourself up to a little bit of change. Change can be a good thing. Don't walk away from problems. Face them. At least understanding them gives you the power to make the decision whether it's something you should focus on now. And yeah, big congratulations to those two grant winners from today. I think they're going to have some very great success in their business over the next six months.

Dave: 55:20

Love it, Love it.

Dave: 55:21

And I would say, you know, biggest takeaway would be implement some sort of process in your business for review of whether it's expenses, whether it's your systems, et cetera, on a regular three-month, semi-annually, depending on the number of you know, things that you have. But you have to be proactive, no matter what you do, and if you find yourself being reactionary, it's because you aren't doing those proactive type of activities in your business. And if you find yourself, as we said earlier, if you find yourself saying I just don't have time, you're probably in the 90%, especially if you're not where you want to be financially, et cetera, You're probably in that 90%. That it's just. It's not that you don't have time, it's that you're misusing your time. And and I I mean that, like you know watching TV, you know taking too much time to, you know, know, be free because you're a self-employed person there's a lot of things social media right, there's probably a lot of things that when we, if we were to sit down and do a time study of your week, you're gonna see that.

Duarne: 57:10

Oh wait, maybe I do have time that's it something like if you're working from home. He's like one thing that's really interesting, right? The majority of us, if we go, we get thirsty, we go up and get a glass of water. Right, gives us a chance to get up, walk out, go to the kitchen, get a glass of water. If you're only going to focus mode, just try grabbing a tumbler or a bottle of water and sitting it on your desk so you don't have to get up so often where you might get distracted on the way to and fro. Or if you are up getting snacks all the time because you like to snack, pre-make some snacks for in the morning and bring them to your desk and snack while you're working on something, or snack while you're doing something else.

Dave: 57:52

Here's what you also and here's another one that I think a lot of people run into when they're working from home. If you have dogs, letting your dogs out every two hours is a 10 to 15 minute experience, and so if you're doing that three to four times a day, that's 45 minutes to an hour out of your day. That's gone because you're letting your dogs out. But if you were at an office, your dogs would not be being let out that often, and so you really have to like people think awesome, like I'm at home, I can work from home, but if you're not acting the same way that you would at an office, then you are not being as productive as you would be at the office.

Dave: 58:34

Yes, you save some drive time, but then are you working, you working extra, like, are you working now nine and a half for hours because you have to lose an hour to let your dogs out? You know, those are the things that you're probably not evaluating. You're probably not thinking about when you're like oh, I, I'm, I'm always busy, I can't. You know that's an hour, an hour out of your day, that you could be doing something productive, you know, yeah, and so a lot of people do that at home if they have dogs, so that's another one.

Duarne: 59:04

It's interesting, right? I mean and it's also about training those people at home too that are with you that just because you're at home doesn't mean you're available to do things around the house or help with different things, like maybe, so making sure you share what your actual goals are for the day, or sharing what your agenda is for the day with those around you, so they're less likely to interrupt you introducing a knock first policy, and if I don't answer then maybe I'm busy or on a call.

Dave: 59:34

just I've used to have that same conversation, right? Well, you're home all day, you could get this done. Oh really, if I was at an office, would you expect me to have the dishes done? No, I'm working right. So why would I be then expected, while I'm working, to now have the dishes done and all this other work done at the same time? If I, if you know, if I was at an office, I wouldn't be expected to have that done. So why do you want me to do that same exact thing? And I'm sure it's vice versa.

Dave: 1:00:03

Right, it's not just one way or another, but like just setting the expectations is another one. You know, same thing with people that are external from you. You know, just because you're self-employed doesn't mean you have the most flexible hours throughout the day. You actually, as a self-employed person, have to work more, because if you don't work, you have no income coming in. It was funny because, thinking through, obviously we made the announcement now that my fiance and I are expecting in January and the question came up hey, how much paternity time do you get, dave? And I'm like I get none because I'm self-employed.

Dave: 1:00:42

You know, yes, do I get to be a little bit flexible with things? Perfect, yes, but I still have to work Like if I stop, my business stops. You know, maybe not all of it, because there's people that are doing different pieces and parts, but you know the networking revenue generating part of it does. So you know, that's the thing. We don't get the flexibility right now, especially if you're growing.

Dave: 1:01:05

Now, if you're established, there's still ways that you could probably improve and give yourself some more time back, but not not when you're growing, and so it's it's expectation setting, and I think, if you're listening to this and maybe you have somebody who's a business owner as we wrap up, change your expectations of business owners. Business owners don't have the ability to just drop everything at the seat of a dime because they're a business owner and they can make their own hours or they can make their own decisions. That's not what is the beauty of being a business owner. Yes, eventually, when you've grown, a business that is successful and is bringing in the revenue that it needs and can do things autonomously from you, yes, but definitely not in the first three to five years when things are growing and being set up. So change your expectations.

Duarne: 1:01:54

That's an interesting point. One of the things that's really bugged me in the past is I have had mates turn up whilst I'm working at home with an expectation that I could just stop work and spend a few hours hanging out, having coffee and beers with them or whatever. And when I turn them away and say, look, I just don't have the time or I've got meetings for the next hour. If you want to sit outside on the couch or something like that at the office and watch some TV and relax, that's fine, but I'll come out when I can. And some of them have got offended by this. Some of them have been like well, you know. Well, you're at home, you know you're working from home. Why can't you just hang out with me? Because that's not what it is, especially when you're working from home, even if you work for somebody else. It's not how it works.

Duarne: 1:02:46

Can you imagine telling your boss sorry, I need to take a couple of hours off? My mate's just turned up, he's bought a six-pack, we're gonna have a catch-up. You know, I'll be back after. It's like isn't that what you do after work? What are you doing now? Well, he's got to shift after work, so he can't. It's like well, that doesn't sound like a productive use of your time. So I mean, you've got to have the ability to make sure that people understand. Like we've got. Like I let my family know that if people turn up during the day that I'm not available because I'm working, unless I tell them someone is coming, I'm expecting them, then I'll, you know, open the door and we'll allow for that to occur.

Dave: 1:03:30

I 100% agree. So we'll end with that, like I think that's a good sort of takeaway, multiple takeaways, from today's episode. So if you made it this far again we're on a mission. So if you could help us grow this podcast and you found something that was entertaining or impactful or both for you and your business, you're going to run away from today's episode with it. Begin to implement. Do us a favor. Like the actual episode, whether it's on YouTube or wherever you're listening to it as well. Like it.

Dave: 1:04:02

Make sure you're following our profile, because we come up with these live episodes every single week, every Friday, 8.15 am Eastern Standard Time, and share it with your network. We would appreciate that. We love you all for listening. We look forward to having these conversations for you all. I look forward to having some of you on in the near future, so keep your eye open for that. If you are a business owner, you want to come on and have a chat about your business. I will have that open up soon, in the next few weeks, but until then, dwarren, thanks for joining me, my friend, and for those who are watching.

Dave: 1:04:33

I look forward to seeing everybody. We love you. We thank you for spending your time with us or even spending your afternoon. If you're watching this replay later on, we appreciate you watching this. And for Cuida and I apologize if I'm really messing up that name, you can tell me how I'm supposed to say it when we meet. But, cuida, congratulations on winning our first grant. And Tracy, thank you for the recommendation. So you also win. So I'll be in contact with both of you all later this afternoon. But I hope everybody has a wonderful and fantastic rest of your day and we'll see you in the next one. Take care everyone.

Duarne: 1:05:06

Thank you.