Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Excuses. Here I am.
[00:00:02] So first I want to tap into why I'm talking about having a birthday break. Because it actually links to you as an entrepreneur, as a business owner. It's not just about taking time off to do the things you want to do. It's actually going to benefit your business. I promise you. Taking time off benefits your business because we need our batteries to be recharged, our batteries get drained, we get stuck in every week, every day, every month. If it feels the same, we just get a little bit depleted and we need to be inspired, we need to be energized. And having some time off is a great way of doing that. You don't need to jump on a plane, you don't need to go on a cruise ship.
[00:00:43] You could literally, you know, some of my favorite places in the UK are just near the seaside. Weymouth, Cornwall, Carwin Bay and sort of North Wales.
[00:00:52] Getting away, whether it's a night away, whether it's a weekend away is huge. It just gives you a little bit of a reset in the EOS system. They actually call it a clarity break. And I've, you know, I do a lot of self developments. I got hypnotized last year and the reason I share that with you, so I do a lot around the mind so I actually understand where the benefits come from. So you've probably heard people say my best ideas come when I'm on holiday.
[00:01:22] I decided to start my business when I was on holiday in Weymouth. I made that decision in 2013. Some people say the best ideas come from the shower. Some of my best ideas come from the sauna.
[00:01:35] The reason being. Or you could be going for a walk, you know, walking the dogs in the, in the local track park, forest. The reason for it is it's to do with your subconscious.
[00:01:45] So essentially the way I think of it is your, your subconscious is kind of the hard drive to your computer where all the real information is. And, and the everyday part of your mind is like having all the windows open on your computer.
[00:02:01] So when we go to sleep, all the windows close down and our subconscious has got some space. That's why our dreams a bit crazy, but it's the same when you go away.
[00:02:11] You haven't got as many windows open, you're not trying to juggle as many things. So the hard drive or subconscious has got this space to think and breathe. And often, although I'm going to move on to something that counteracts this a little bit on the, on what I want to talk about Today. But often we have more answers than what we realize. We don't need to often read the next book, go to the next workshop, next event. I'm a huge fan for that and there's a time and place for those things.
[00:02:41] But sometimes you already have the answers. You just need the space, the clarity to think and let your mind breathe. So I'm a huge believer in that.
[00:02:52] So I would literally make it part of your routine to take time off. However, that is not the core of the content on this week's Profit first newsletter. And when we say Profit First, I'm a certified Profit first accountant, award winning in the uk and we work with lots of business owners to basically implement Profit first, help them make more money. It's a different way of looking at your finances. However, Profit first is one thing in your armory, it's the foundation of a lot of stuff we do. But all these other things help you grow. And that's why we've rebranded to grow Profit first accountants, grow your business, grow your profit, you know, whatever sort of growth means for you. So it's not always just about the finances in terms of what, what I talk about. So today I've probably talked about this in the past, but it's, you know, human beings need to hear the same thing six or seven times.
[00:03:43] You've probably had this experience when you're trying to train your team, teach your team.
[00:03:49] Even when you read books yourself or you've learned things, it doesn't sink in the first time.
[00:03:54] So I'm going to repeat the most important things for you to know, for you to learn. And one of those is the power of a mastermind. So the person who kind of started a lot of this thinking is Napoleon Hill, who is the author of Think and Grow Rich, which was published around late 20s, I believe, 1920s, so quite a long time ago.
[00:04:15] But he basically studied Andrew Carnegie. He was the most successful, richest person in the world at the time, a Scotsman who moved to America and basically controlled and ran the steel industry.
[00:04:28] And, and there's some amazing stories behind that. You know, you had opportunities to invest in the sort of train lines and all that sort of stuff. But essentially he said that one of the most fundamental reasons for success was having a mastermind. And what is a mastermind? A mastermind can start very simply with two people. It could be me, one other person, it can be me and you, it could be you, and so on, you know, and essentially you've got a definitive aim or purpose and you're both trying to Achieve something. So you're both trying to move forward, forward towards a goal. You're both trying to be successful at something, getting that clarity, what you're aiming for, the aiming point is super, super important because otherwise it's like, you know, getting in your car and having no directions in your Google Maps.
[00:05:15] So a mastermind is more than one person getting together and helping each other with some kind of goal.
[00:05:22] So the idea is, particularly as a business owner, this is why it's so powerful, is you don't need to know everything, you don't need to be the expert at everything. As Profit first accountants, we are the expert for the finances for our clients. So you don't need to be. We are the experts for the bookkeeping and the tax.
[00:05:42] So you don't need to be. As a business owner, we often wear way too many hats, particularly new business owners. In my experience, it took me five years to kind of break out of this. As you think you should have all the answers, oh, I've started my business, I want to be successful, I'm good enough to run my own business.
[00:06:01] I need to have all the answers. I'm just going to work harder, persevere, do loads of marketing, probably sort of in a scattered gun approach and be busy and hopefully my business grows. And that will grow your business to some, to some extent, but you're probably going to hit a ceiling.
[00:06:17] And if you're.
[00:06:20] This is not necessarily the case for everyone. But sometimes you're waking up at 3am in the morning wondering how you're going to pay your corporation tax, your vat, your wages, or wondering why your business is not growing, wondering why you can't go on that big holiday, wondering why you're working harder than you've ever worked. All of these things are symptoms of a root cause. And the root cause is you're probably doing the same thing you've always done.
[00:06:46] Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing, expecting different results.
[00:06:53] So the whole point of a mastermind is you're going to have to do things differently. You haven't got your own bias. When you've got someone in the room who knows their stuff and they've got experience in that thing, they can hold your account, they can ask you one question that might save you 10 years in your business.
[00:07:12] You might be about to do something, they've already done it, they might have wasted 10 years of their life and you say, I'm about to do this. But because you're in a mastermind, someone might say, don't do that because this is what happened to me doesn't mean, you know, everyone's story, everyone's journey is exactly the same. But if that person's got success at the other side and they've already achieved that thing, you're not going to ignore their advice. So we can literally accelerate our success by 5 years, 10 years, 20 years. But more importantly, it's not about the extra time you get from being in a like minded group of people.
[00:07:50] It's the fact that you're on the right path. Because when we're trying to do it on our own, there's this little bit of uncertainty, am I doing the right thing?
[00:07:59] And you need different types of specialists, people with different experience. A good mastermind wouldn't have all of the same people with the same experience in the same profession, in the same business. If I want to get feedback, to get fitter at the gym, I want someone who's done that. I want someone who's, you know, really good shape, they're fit, they're strong, they're healthy, that I aspire to and I know their advice and their system works. If I want to get better at marketing, I find someone who's an expert in marketing. So when you put your mastermind together, it's super important that people are bringing something different to the pie. But you know, Henry Ford once famously said they were trying to kind of assassinate his character a little bit in, in the courts, someone, there was a bit of a sort of slander case going on and, and he got asked, you know, on the stand by the, the, you know, the other sort of party asked him some questions about history and they were trying to make out, because I don't think he was educated, that he, he's not intelligent, you know, trying to shoot down his credentials. And they asked him what happened in this historic event. And Henry Ford stuck for a minute and said, with all due respect, why do I need to know such trivial information?
[00:09:19] In my office I've got a panel with all these buttons and I can press any button and someone can come to me and give me an answer. I want, in this day and age, with ChatGPT, with technology, with meeting people virtually online, with Google, with social media, with books, you don't need to have all the answers yourself. So one of the biggest takeaways I want you to have is if you're trying to do everything yourself, there is a better way. And I could end the, you know, the podcast, the newsletter here, but you know, I just want to share with you some exciting news. So I've been looking to build our own mastermind for over a year now. Not actively been sort of forcing it. Because I'm a business owner myself, we've got lots of things going on. I mean, lots of different things around the country.
[00:10:08] I've been in three or four different masterminds myself. I actually really released my own book last year, so been lots of other things going on. But I know a mastermind will benefit most business owners. So if everything I shared with you resonated with you, and you want to learn more about our mastermind, how it works, just drop me a message. More than happy to have a chat and hope you all have an amazing week. Thanks, guys. Cheers.
