Bill Konves – Trusted Advisor for Entrepreneurs Looking to Scale

Glenn Harper:

All right, welcome to another Empowering Entrepreneurs

Glenn Harper:

podcast. Glenn Harper here, Julie Smith What's up, Julie?

Julie Smith:

What's up?

Glenn Harper:

Not too much. Just another day making some doughnuts.

Glenn Harper:

We've got a please to have a great guest today.

Glenn Harper:

A friend, colleague, client compadre, fellow wingman, bill

Glenn Harper:

Converse. He has a bunch of litany of companies that he

Glenn Harper:

owns, primarily in the marketing and scaling of one's

Glenn Harper:

business. But this guy is into everything.

Glenn Harper:

Bill, how are you doing?

Bill Konves:

Hey, good, good.

Bill Konves:

Good to be here. Thank you, Julie.

Bill Konves:

Thank you, Glenn.

Glenn Harper:

You bet. Your your bio or your email says chief of Staff Is

Glenn Harper:

that like you're the head of a client's company or a part

Glenn Harper:

of the Kansas City Chiefs?

Bill Konves:

I know that part of the Kansas City Chiefs, unfortunately.

Glenn Harper:

All right. What does that mean?

Glenn Harper:

Chief of Staff.

Bill Konves:

I help business owners, successful business owners, scale

Bill Konves:

their business, bring in the right players, mostly around

Bill Konves:

marketing a lot of businesses that are trying to scale.

Bill Konves:

They have a hard time finding the right marketing partners

Bill Konves:

to help that without hiring full time staff.

Bill Konves:

And that's not always the best solution.

Bill Konves:

You hire someone full time, then you have to manage that

Bill Konves:

person. You might only need them for a few months, and

Bill Konves:

that's it. So.

Bill Konves:

So that's what we do. We bring in people to get jobs done

Bill Konves:

and then those people move out.

Glenn Harper:

A lot of people say, you know that this part time CFO and

Glenn Harper:

these part time HR people.

Glenn Harper:

Would you like a kind of that kind of thing like an

Glenn Harper:

augmentation of marketing department?

Bill Konves:

Yeah, that's that's exactly what it is.

Bill Konves:

You could call outsourced CMO.

Bill Konves:

Ok. I do much more for many of my clients than just

Bill Konves:

marketing. And so that's where the chief of staff comes in.

Glenn Harper:

When you say more, what is more mean?

Bill Konves:

Hiring for production, for example, the e-commerce company,

Bill Konves:

we were building a great marketing plan for them and I

Bill Konves:

said, why can you not get the product produced?

Bill Konves:

We're having all kinds of issues as well.

Bill Konves:

This is actually where the chief of Staff's concept

Bill Konves:

started. I said, I know people.

Bill Konves:

Let me help you get that out.

Bill Konves:

I called some colleagues x Victoria's Secret people.

Bill Konves:

We got the production work.

Bill Konves:

I hired them on my staff. They came in, they did some

Bill Konves:

projects for us. Then they exited back out.

Bill Konves:

So that's an example.

Bill Konves:

A lot of times businesses are able to scale or we can scale

Bill Konves:

marketing, but then they can't handle the marketing.

Bill Konves:

So what are the other issues in your company?

Bill Konves:

What do you need? What do you need to do?

Bill Konves:

Do you need more employees?

Bill Konves:

Do you need a project done?

Bill Konves:

That's the stuff that we look at.

Julie Smith:

So Bill, what I hear you saying, though, is that you've been

Julie Smith:

able to create all of these relationships to ultimately

Julie Smith:

help others in their business.

Julie Smith:

How were you able to cultivate and create those over your

Julie Smith:

career? How did you figure out the key to that success?

Bill Konves:

Well, a lot of it starts with people like Glenn and

Bill Konves:

networking with Glenn.

Bill Konves:

Networking with other people in our group, mastermind

Bill Konves:

groups being open, being at conferences, just just being

Bill Konves:

open to have these conversations with people and learn and

Bill Konves:

not shut down and think, you know what, I only do marketing

Bill Konves:

in this what I am going to do, and it's only people I'm

Bill Konves:

going to talk to.

Bill Konves:

You really open up your your experiences when you talk to

Bill Konves:

people in other industries.

Bill Konves:

I'm scheduled to go to a real estate conference next week.

Bill Konves:

I help some real estate investors scale their business.

Bill Konves:

I don't need to go learn more about real estate.

Bill Konves:

I've done real estate myself, but I'm going to a real

Bill Konves:

estate conference just to learn to hear what they say, and

Bill Konves:

I'll probably meet a couple of people and make some

Bill Konves:

connections through that.

Glenn Harper:

So you're telling me you don't just sit around and just be

Glenn Harper:

happy where you're at and be content, you're always

Glenn Harper:

questing for more.

Bill Konves:

I wish I could.

Bill Konves:

That is correct, so.

Bill Konves:

So I'm envious of people that can just sit and work their

Bill Konves:

nine to five and come home and hang out with their kids,

Bill Konves:

see their dog and go to sleep.

Glenn Harper:

Don't lie to us. That's not true.

Glenn Harper:

And you know it. You love what you do.

Bill Konves:

Yeah, I do.

Bill Konves:

But I am envious at times.

Glenn Harper:

Yes. So back in the day, I think you had some, you know, you

Glenn Harper:

came out of college and you I think you got what's called a

Glenn Harper:

real job and you work for the man.

Glenn Harper:

And then at some point you decided to, you know, not work

Glenn Harper:

for a man and do the thing you're on your own.

Glenn Harper:

What what was your experience prior to becoming an

Glenn Harper:

entrepreneur when you're working for someone?

Bill Konves:

It was it was a good experience.

Bill Konves:

Yeah, I worked at I worked for the man in Victoria's Secret

Bill Konves:

limited brands, Coles, Je Gap, several large companies and

Bill Konves:

I was promoted. I moved through the ranks.

Bill Konves:

It was. It was good, but I guess something was always

Bill Konves:

missing because I once I hired a supplier once and we

Bill Konves:

worked very closely together to build a loyalty program for

Bill Konves:

Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy.

Bill Konves:

And I liked his life.

Bill Konves:

I liked what I saw.

Bill Konves:

He was out signing deals.

Bill Konves:

He was traveling all around.

Bill Konves:

He was doing some entertaining.

Bill Konves:

He was he was capturing business and enjoying that life.

Bill Konves:

And I thought, I'm never going to have that in the

Bill Konves:

corporate world unless I get to the level of CEOs.

Bill Konves:

And that's just not me and how many of them are there.

Bill Konves:

That's like high school trying to make a college athlete

Bill Konves:

and then college trying to make it in the pros.

Bill Konves:

It's the same thing when you're going up through the

Bill Konves:

corporate ranks. If you want freedom and you want something

Bill Konves:

big and you have to either be a CEO C-suite level.

Bill Konves:

Which is probably not going to happen then you have to make

Bill Konves:

it happen on your own. And so somewhere they're working

Bill Konves:

with that guy. Shifted my thought process and I actually

Bill Konves:

went to work for that guy and left the corporate world and

Bill Konves:

went still working for the man.

Bill Konves:

But it was a three million dollar company.

Bill Konves:

Instead, we were working back in selling to all those

Bill Konves:

retailers we worked with.

Bill Konves:

And so we took that business from three million to 20

Bill Konves:

million over the course of three years.

Bill Konves:

And I thought, Wow, maybe I could do this myself, and then

Bill Konves:

I took the next step out.

Bill Konves:

To be fully on my own,

Glenn Harper:

Did you have a like when you're a kid, did you have, you

Glenn Harper:

know, entrepreneurial tendencies or did you just listen?

Glenn Harper:

I just got to go up and go to work.

Glenn Harper:

Do you think this did?

Glenn Harper:

Did that trigger you, those thoughts when you were young or

Glenn Harper:

did it trigger you when you saw this different kind of

Glenn Harper:

lifestyle dealing with this vendor?

Bill Konves:

Yeah, that's that's hard to say.

Bill Konves:

Not when I was young, because I grew up in a blue collar

Bill Konves:

family. You know, my dad worked for the city and so it

Bill Konves:

wasn't there. I wasn't even supposed to go to college, so I

Bill Konves:

got lucky and figured that out.

Bill Konves:

It wasn't in college.

Bill Konves:

When I graduated college, I was always messing around with

Bill Konves:

with side businesses, side hustles, trying to figure things

Bill Konves:

out. So it's always been in me.

Bill Konves:

And then when I saw that guy, that lifestyle and joined his

Bill Konves:

company, that's when it probably hit me that, hey, there's

Bill Konves:

more to this, but I can't identify where it happened.

Bill Konves:

It definitely wasn't. When I was a kid, I did not have the

Bill Konves:

lemons. Lemonade stand was not shoveling too many walks, so

Bill Konves:

it was not walking dogs.

Julie Smith:

Do you think that that supplier that ultimately helped you

Julie Smith:

make that jump was ultimately your mentor?

Julie Smith:

And do you still keep in contact with that person as

Julie Smith:

you've, you know, turned into the entrepreneur yourself?

Bill Konves:

I do not keep in contact with him, he's changed lifestyles

Bill Konves:

as well. He sold his businesses.

Bill Konves:

He was 15 years older than me.

Bill Konves:

So he's moved on.

Bill Konves:

I think there were people that worked with him inside his

Bill Konves:

company. I liked his lifestyle.

Bill Konves:

I liked how he saw it. I liked how he made things happen.

Bill Konves:

I like some people, more of a mentor that were in his

Bill Konves:

management team that I followed more closely and the

Bill Konves:

entrepreneurs that I like have somewhat of a corporate

Bill Konves:

experience. Everything I do in life, I run more in a

Bill Konves:

corporate manner. But I like the freedom of the

Bill Konves:

entrepreneur, so I'm kind of a hybrid.

Bill Konves:

You might be able to throw me back into the corporate

Bill Konves:

environment, and I might be able to do just fine.

Bill Konves:

I like to think I could.

Bill Konves:

A lot of entrepreneurs will say no way do I ever want to go

Bill Konves:

back to the corporate world. I just can't handle it.

Bill Konves:

I don't. I don't look at it and mind it.

Bill Konves:

So but again, I haven't been back in that world.

Bill Konves:

I have a few phone calls once in a while and I realize it's

Bill Konves:

tough.

Glenn Harper:

Yeah, it's funny. The typical entrepreneur, when they leave

Glenn Harper:

a real job, they've successfully will never be employable

Glenn Harper:

by anybody else.

Glenn Harper:

That just is a rule.

Glenn Harper:

But you, you definitely have a little bit of tendencies

Glenn Harper:

that you, I guess.

Glenn Harper:

A Segway is you kind of like process.

Glenn Harper:

You like structure.

Glenn Harper:

You like that plan the the.

Glenn Harper:

I don't want to say a corporate game, but just

Glenn Harper:

understanding all the different pieces because you're not

Glenn Harper:

just doing one thing, you're doing multiple things.

Glenn Harper:

And most entrepreneurs only do one thing when they can do

Glenn Harper:

the other things. That brings a little bit of that

Glenn Harper:

corporate back into you and works on that.

Glenn Harper:

Do you feel like, you know, that gave you a competitive

Glenn Harper:

advantage, being an entrepreneur, having that experience to

Glenn Harper:

understand that you can't look at things in one dimension,

Glenn Harper:

it's more of a, you know, all over the place looking at

Glenn Harper:

things like a spider monkey or do you feel like you went

Glenn Harper:

into this just doing one thing?

Bill Konves:

I think the corporate background probably is a hindrance

Bill Konves:

because it's a crutch.

Bill Konves:

I always think, Oh, I can always go back, I don't anymore.

Bill Konves:

I've been out so long. But for the first seven, eight, nine

Bill Konves:

years I kept thinking, Man, it'd be nice to have a paycheck

Bill Konves:

every week, man.

Bill Konves:

It'd be nice just to talk to people at the water cooler and

Bill Konves:

not work as hard as I'm out here working.

Bill Konves:

You know, eating what you kill is much different than

Bill Konves:

getting that, that paycheck every week.

Bill Konves:

So it's difficult to leave that and make that transition.

Bill Konves:

But once you're once you're gone long enough, yes, I'm

Bill Konves:

probably not employable because I would drive people insane

Bill Konves:

with with.

Bill Konves:

Let's get something done now.

Bill Konves:

What are we doing? Why are we talking for an hour and a

Bill Konves:

half about this category here?

Bill Konves:

Why is everyone here?

Bill Konves:

You know, this is a marketing project.

Bill Konves:

Let's just move this forward.

Bill Konves:

Let's take a baby step.

Bill Konves:

Let's test it. We don't have to.

Bill Konves:

We don't have to have the whole committee agree that this

Bill Konves:

is the way we're going. So yes, I would probably frustrate

Bill Konves:

myself and frustrate others in a corporate environment at

Bill Konves:

this point.

Glenn Harper:

Do you think the you know what I see a lot with

Glenn Harper:

entrepreneurs? Is this the speed that things can get done

Glenn Harper:

and the no hindrance of any have to worry about what

Glenn Harper:

anybody else thinks you can just say like, well, I just

Glenn Harper:

want to go, do that. Let's get it done versus, well, I got

Glenn Harper:

to go market it to this person.

Glenn Harper:

This person and this person figured out, get a budget for

Glenn Harper:

that and everything. As an entrepreneur, do you you?

Glenn Harper:

I mean, you just said that you really, really enjoy that.

Glenn Harper:

But can you imagine that if you had to deal with that in

Glenn Harper:

your business and have to go through committee to get

Glenn Harper:

something done, it'd be nauseating, would it not?

Bill Konves:

Yes, it would be I was on a call last week where we were

Bill Konves:

going through this with a corporate environment or a

Bill Konves:

corporate client corporate environment.

Bill Konves:

And I was, I was I was not happy and I probably showed my

Bill Konves:

frustration a little bit in the fall when you ask a

Bill Konves:

question in the first five minutes of the call.

Bill Konves:

No, no, no, no, no. We'll get to that.

Bill Konves:

And then you go through an hour and a half.

Bill Konves:

And then I said, you, by the way, remember that question?

Bill Konves:

I ask, Oh yeah, that's what we are.

Bill Konves:

That's what we can do. We can do that.

Bill Konves:

I ask that in the first five minutes.

Bill Konves:

We wanted to do a dog and pony show for the entire, you

Bill Konves:

know, because you've you had a dog and pony show to present

Bill Konves:

and you wanted to get it all out.

Bill Konves:

Well, if you don't need to get it all out, then let's just

Bill Konves:

get the job done and move forward.

Bill Konves:

So, yes, that is one big difference.

Glenn Harper:

Do you enjoy working?

Glenn Harper:

I mean, in your career, you definitely being this chief of

Glenn Harper:

staff, you have to deal with different sizes of companies.

Glenn Harper:

Do you find it more rewarding working for somebody who's

Glenn Harper:

little trying to get things started?

Glenn Harper:

Somebody who's kind of rolling or a company's already

Glenn Harper:

established and rocking and rolling?

Glenn Harper:

Do you have a preference of which level you like to enter

Glenn Harper:

in with a client and be their advisor for that?

Bill Konves:

Yeah, one hundred percent and I've done all three and I just

Bill Konves:

I can't identify any longer with the first two you

Bill Konves:

mentioned. You have to be rocking and rolling because my

Bill Konves:

experience is too deep.

Bill Konves:

Startup's product launches all those things.

Bill Konves:

One, the client looks at you in a much different light.

Bill Konves:

They're ready to fire you every second because they're

Bill Konves:

like, Hey, we're small. We don't have a budget.

Bill Konves:

This is it. You've got to go.

Bill Konves:

And so if you don't perform very quickly, they're looking

Bill Konves:

at you to get to push you out the door.

Bill Konves:

And that's and that's not the way to run a business.

Bill Konves:

You have to be well invested and think this is, I mean, you

Bill Konves:

know, if it's six months and we have to invest ten thousand

Bill Konves:

dollars a month in this for six months, that's what we have

Bill Konves:

to do. So unfortunately, the ones in category that are just

Bill Konves:

starting up. Not well-funded startup and even well-funded

Bill Konves:

startups. They have their challenges.

Bill Konves:

Everything is about the return on investment and then

Bill Konves:

number two, the ones that are.

Bill Konves:

It have a product and it's starting to work, they just

Bill Konves:

don't typically have the hindsight or the foresight to say,

Bill Konves:

Look, we've budgeted for this.

Bill Konves:

We're going to write it for six months.

Bill Konves:

We're going to see what happens.

Bill Konves:

We're going to analyze it and then we're going to make

Bill Konves:

decisions from there. The guys that are rocking and

Bill Konves:

rolling. They're fun to try to keep up with.

Bill Konves:

They have the challenges because they're scaling their

Bill Konves:

business, and we don't know who to put here, and we don't

Bill Konves:

know who to put there. We don't know what marketing is

Bill Konves:

going to work, but we're doing great right now.

Bill Konves:

So I like to jump in with those owners and say, OK, where

Bill Konves:

are your problems here and here?

Bill Konves:

All right, let me go. Solve those two problems today to

Bill Konves:

knock those out of the way those roadblocks are done.

Bill Konves:

So I definitely I actually I only now take clients and it's

Bill Konves:

in my LinkedIn bio successful scaling businesses because

Bill Konves:

it's much easier to take a business that's already scaling

Bill Konves:

to a much higher level than it is to take a startup because

Bill Konves:

a lot of startups fail.

Julie Smith:

So Bill, you're talking about where you are now, can you

Julie Smith:

kind of take us, you know, you went with that supplier, you

Julie Smith:

took that leap of faith.

Julie Smith:

You did that. Can you kind of walk us through what's

Julie Smith:

happened in your journey to where you are now, where you

Julie Smith:

just want to work with successful rock and roll and

Julie Smith:

companies?

Bill Konves:

Um, yeah, it was it was an interesting journey, Glenn, being

Bill Konves:

my tax advisor, knows the journey very well.

Glenn Harper:

I can't talk about everything.

Glenn Harper:

Maybe just some things.

Bill Konves:

Yes, exactly.

Bill Konves:

Some of the during the journeys that happened here in Ohio,

Bill Konves:

it's been tough because when I went out, I actually bought

Bill Konves:

a concrete company. When I left the small company that we

Bill Konves:

took from three to twenty five.

Bill Konves:

I bought a concrete company and I wanted to go out on my

Bill Konves:

own. I needed to make sure I had enough cash flow to

Bill Konves:

support myself and my family and my wife because she she

Bill Konves:

doesn't work. And so I was looking at different businesses

Bill Konves:

that had certain cash flow that I could handle and would

Bill Konves:

support us. And so we looked at probably five or six

Bill Konves:

businesses. I was in Glenn's office a few times looking at

Bill Konves:

a couple of them. Some of them just don't pan out, which is

Bill Konves:

a good piece of advice. Don't buy a business without

Bill Konves:

getting your your your strategic partners involved, your

Bill Konves:

attorneys and your accountants, tax advisers.

Bill Konves:

Then we ended up with a concrete company purchase that then

Bill Konves:

at the same time, bridal company purchased that.

Bill Konves:

I had to repeat the shops at the same time.

Bill Konves:

And I had twenty eight rental properties.

Bill Konves:

That was probably way too much to be doing at the same

Bill Konves:

time. And so.

Bill Konves:

Um, what happened there was concrete was we had more

Bill Konves:

business than we know what to do with.

Bill Konves:

Well, I'm a marketing guy.

Bill Konves:

I needed a chief of staff and that's one of the things I

Bill Konves:

learned in my experience is that we were scaling.

Bill Konves:

We were growing. We had every builder in town, custom

Bill Konves:

builder. We just couldn't keep up and said, the pleasing

Bill Konves:

guy I am, the marketing guy is let's find a way to do it.

Bill Konves:

Let's find a way to do it. Let's find a way to do it.

Bill Konves:

And we overcommitted, and it just was not a good situation.

Bill Konves:

And I'm out there just marketing away.

Bill Konves:

If I had that number two person, that was with me to say,

Bill Konves:

Wait, stop, slow down.

Bill Konves:

You got issues here. You've got challenges here.

Bill Konves:

Let's fix those because you have a great product.

Bill Konves:

Don't get too quickly.

Bill Konves:

So that was going on at the same thing happened in a few of

Bill Konves:

the other businesses. We're just scaling too quickly after

Bill Konves:

it was all said and done, I was worn out being being the

Bill Konves:

owner operator.

Bill Konves:

And it made me realize that, wow, I really like being

Bill Konves:

number two. I want to be number two in all these companies

Bill Konves:

and help people.

Bill Konves:

I don't want to be the number one guy.

Bill Konves:

So working with my coach, we developed that that scenario

Bill Konves:

in that marketing plan of of how can I go out and help

Bill Konves:

other people? And so I ended up selling all the companies,

Bill Konves:

selling real estate and just focusing on being that true

Bill Konves:

supporter of that founder in a business.

Bill Konves:

And so to keep me busy at the level that I need to be kept

Bill Konves:

busy. Yet it has to be a company that's scaling that

Bill Konves:

successful. That's moving quick because it gives me all the

Bill Konves:

things that I want to get my fingers into.

Julie Smith:

So Bill, what it seems like you're saying, though, is you

Julie Smith:

kind of took all the lessons you learned throughout your

Julie Smith:

journey came to a conclusion through a lot of

Julie Smith:

self-awareness, it sounds like.

Julie Smith:

And then we're able to take a step back and use kind of

Julie Smith:

where you were able to pivot in your journey to help

Julie Smith:

everybody else and still be able to succeed.

Bill Konves:

That is correct. And so that's that's continual analysis of

Bill Konves:

yourself and where you're going helps because once someone

Bill Konves:

goes on the entrepreneurial journey, they don't really know

Bill Konves:

where they're going to end up. But if you're too focused on

Bill Konves:

where you're going to end up, it could end bad.

Bill Konves:

And some of my business does not end up where I wanted them

Bill Konves:

to go, but because I had a bigger awareness of myself, I

Bill Konves:

knew where I wanted to take myself.

Bill Konves:

So where I'm at today is perfect.

Bill Konves:

All those lessons, the great lessons, the hard lessons they

Bill Konves:

add up to where I want to be today and I'm close.

Bill Konves:

You think I'd figured it out by now, but I'm close to being

Bill Konves:

exactly where I want to be, isn't everybody?

Bill Konves:

Yes. Everyone.

Bill Konves:

Everyone should be. Yes, they should not have had it

Bill Konves:

figured out yet.

Glenn Harper:

The fun is actually figuring it out, right?

Glenn Harper:

I mean, we don't want to have catastrophic failure at any

Glenn Harper:

level, but the only way you can kind of develop and evolve

Glenn Harper:

is you have to go through the schnitzel.

Glenn Harper:

Is there anything prior to what you're doing now that you

Glenn Harper:

wish? You know, if an entrepreneur is listening to this

Glenn Harper:

podcast and trying to figure out what they're going to do

Glenn Harper:

and where they're at and they may be on their journey at

Glenn Harper:

the very beginning, having some challenging times, you

Glenn Harper:

know, what is that one thing that you took from when you

Glenn Harper:

had to make all those changes?

Glenn Harper:

That man, if I had just thought of that or if I had just

Glenn Harper:

did this, or if I had to cut the cord sooner here, if I had

Glenn Harper:

just got that advice, what would you advise fellow

Glenn Harper:

entrepreneurs that are struggling, perhaps or trying to get

Glenn Harper:

to the next level,

Bill Konves:

Rely on your network and ask a lot of questions?

Bill Konves:

When I look back, there were quite a few times I'd ask and

Bill Konves:

listen to the questions.

Bill Konves:

I mean, I'm sorry. Listen to the answers that they give

Bill Konves:

you. In my in my most challenging times, some of the

Bill Konves:

answers that I had received from people like tax adviser

Bill Konves:

plug for Glenn. There was some good advice.

Bill Konves:

Do you think about this and this?

Bill Konves:

I mean, hey, but I don't worry about I got it.

Bill Konves:

I'm good. I'm going.

Bill Konves:

Instead of stopping slowing down and thinking, Wow, what

Bill Konves:

did my attorney say or not even paid help?

Bill Konves:

I mean, you just ask questions that my mastermind group

Bill Konves:

joined mastermind groups.

Bill Konves:

Be around people that have already been in your shoes that

Bill Konves:

can give you that advice.

Bill Konves:

Don't hang around the same friends and family and don't

Bill Konves:

talk about your business with your friends and family

Bill Konves:

because they're going to give you the wrong advice unless

Bill Konves:

they've already been there.

Bill Konves:

So listen to your advisors.

Bill Konves:

Have a good, strong group of advisors.

Bill Konves:

Reach out to your network.

Bill Konves:

Free advice But people have already been.

Bill Konves:

There are people that are on the journey that you're on, so

Bill Konves:

you can all share your experiences.

Bill Konves:

I did not do that.

Bill Konves:

I learned that too late.

Bill Konves:

I went from the corporate world to the entrepreneurial

Bill Konves:

world. I didn't know all these groups existed in mastermind

Bill Konves:

groups, and I didn't know to align myself with all those

Bill Konves:

people. And I didn't know really to listen to my advisors

Bill Konves:

as closely as I should have.

Bill Konves:

So it is.

Bill Konves:

I do it all over again. It's pretty simple.

Bill Konves:

Open up your network and listen to people and move a little

Bill Konves:

slower.

Glenn Harper:

It it is kind of funny that a lot of entrepreneurs that are

Glenn Harper:

like industry specific or doing whatever they do, they

Glenn Harper:

generally feel like they know everything there is to know.

Glenn Harper:

And it's the second they realize that it's possible, just

Glenn Harper:

slightly possible that they don't know it all, and they

Glenn Harper:

listen and try to learn.

Glenn Harper:

The light switch comes on, and all of a sudden things just

Glenn Harper:

happen. And it's the hardest thing is to get an

Glenn Harper:

entrepreneur to understand that at some point, hopefully

Glenn Harper:

early on in their journey that they don't know it all and

Glenn Harper:

they should go out and get this information.

Glenn Harper:

Can you imagine being a entrepreneur?

Glenn Harper:

You know, twenty five years ago, 30 years ago before the

Glenn Harper:

internet existed, before all this stuff, you would have no

Glenn Harper:

support structure.

Glenn Harper:

I mean, the men and women that came prior that started

Glenn Harper:

businesses, how the heck did they do it without all these

Glenn Harper:

resources? You ever wonder about that?

Bill Konves:

I do. I also know that the competition wouldn't be as fierce

Bill Konves:

because it was harder to start a business then, so there

Bill Konves:

were much. There were many fewer people starting

Bill Konves:

businesses. So I think it's all relative.

Bill Konves:

There are so many resources now, but we all have access to

Bill Konves:

those resources, so we take advantage of it.

Bill Konves:

But when you start, a business is probably other.

Bill Konves:

Five other people start the same business in the same week,

Bill Konves:

whereas 20 years ago there wasn't.

Glenn Harper:

What do you think most entrepreneurs have, like we call it,

Glenn Harper:

a superpower like something that they're just they just

Glenn Harper:

can't figure it out other than the fact that they're just

Glenn Harper:

darn good at something, whatever that thing is.

Glenn Harper:

And they're just they're unique.

Glenn Harper:

They're they've got this special thing that can help other

Glenn Harper:

people. It's very rewarding for the entrepreneur.

Glenn Harper:

What do you think your superpower is?

Bill Konves:

I think you're going to have to wait a few more years till I

Bill Konves:

figure it out, but if I had to answer today.

Bill Konves:

It's definitely supporting a founder of a business and

Bill Konves:

being their trusted chief of staff.

Bill Konves:

Most, most people, most founders don't have someone to go

Bill Konves:

to. They have their C-suite or they have their partner or

Bill Konves:

they have someone that has a completely biased opinion.

Bill Konves:

They don't have someone to go to and say, Hey, this is my

Bill Konves:

challenge. This is my struggle.

Bill Konves:

What should I do? You know my business, your side by side

Bill Konves:

with me and my job, much like the chief of staff for the

Bill Konves:

president, is to serve at the pleasure of that founder.

Bill Konves:

I have no other.

Bill Konves:

I have nothing else that I want out of life except to help

Bill Konves:

my client get the best results.

Bill Konves:

So I think that's my superpower is that I can focus on

Bill Konves:

that. I don't care about my results.

Bill Konves:

I love to spend money.

Bill Konves:

I love to make money. But the money will come.

Bill Konves:

I'm not looking for the dollars.

Bill Konves:

I'm looking to take care of my client.

Bill Konves:

And if the client gets taken care of, I'm going to find out

Bill Konves:

how I'm going to make my money.

Bill Konves:

So I think that's unique.

Bill Konves:

I love to be the number two.

Glenn Harper:

I mean, who doesn't want to be Austin Powers number two guy?

Glenn Harper:

So when you're sitting there, you just said something too

Glenn Harper:

that was kind of unique is the entrepreneurs they always

Glenn Harper:

start. Some of them start out like, I got to do it for the

Glenn Harper:

money. I'm doing it for the money.

Glenn Harper:

But we find the most successful ones ultimately really

Glenn Harper:

don't do it for the money. They do it because they like to

Glenn Harper:

build something like to do something.

Glenn Harper:

They like to exercise a skill set.

Glenn Harper:

And if they can figure it out quick enough, how to how to

Glenn Harper:

scale and turn that into valuable process and systems and a

Glenn Harper:

team, then the money will always come.

Glenn Harper:

You said something interesting, like you never did it for

Glenn Harper:

the money. You did it because you I mean, you had to get

Glenn Harper:

the bare minimum to survive.

Glenn Harper:

Glenn Harper:

can make $500 a year, make a million dollars a year.

Glenn Harper:

I don't think you have a limit or a base on that, do you?

Bill Konves:

No, I don't. My best earning years, very high earning years

Bill Konves:

when Glenn, you said you need to do more of that and

Bill Konves:

replicate, I'm like, I just I just don't like, I don't like

Bill Konves:

that. I don't like what I'm doing.

Bill Konves:

I don't like the person. I am doing it.

Bill Konves:

And so I didn't.

Bill Konves:

And I know where my base is and it's interesting right now.

Bill Konves:

I'm having the discussions because I have four clients that

Bill Konves:

I really enjoy working with, and they pay me well enough to

Bill Konves:

do everything I need to do in life and have a really nice

Bill Konves:

life. And I could do that and probably 30 hours a week.

Bill Konves:

But here I am, building these other potential projects,

Bill Konves:

building other potential revenue streams that I don't need

Bill Konves:

and I have. I have a coach that I that I speak with every

Bill Konves:

Friday and we talk about this and why am I doing this?

Bill Konves:

It's because I like to build things.

Bill Konves:

And you know, there are certain things that I haven't

Bill Konves:

achieved yet, and I want to know what they are.

Bill Konves:

But I am in a position right now to pick and choose my

Bill Konves:

clients, pick and choose my work, pick and choose how much

Bill Konves:

I work. And yet I'm working more because I don't know why

Bill Konves:

there's something I'd like to build, and there's a couple

Bill Konves:

exciting things in my life that I want to make happen.

Glenn Harper:

So are you potentially off your meds and you're not staying

Glenn Harper:

focused? Is that why you keep doing this?

Glenn Harper:

Of course, I'm just kidding.

Bill Konves:

No, I know. No.

Bill Konves:

But that's that's the one thing that that's why I meet with

Bill Konves:

the coach every Friday, we call it.

Bill Konves:

I said, Will you call me like, it's not business coach,

Bill Konves:

it's not life coach. It's just my clarity coach going, you

Bill Konves:

know, I like to chase squirrels.

Bill Konves:

I always have like to chase squirrels.

Bill Konves:

Me with someone every Friday to talk about squirrels that

Bill Konves:

you could chase and to make sure it's not a squirrel is

Bill Konves:

very valuable. You have been with her for two years.

Bill Konves:

She knows me very well.

Bill Konves:

And if I bring up anything crazy that doesn't match with my

Bill Konves:

personal mission, vision and values, she'll question it and

Bill Konves:

say, Why are you looking at this?

Bill Konves:

Where are we going with this?

Bill Konves:

And then I talk through it.

Bill Konves:

And most of the time before she even answers me, I've

Bill Konves:

already talked through it and figured it out for myself.

Julie Smith:

So has she become your number two essentially as you're

Julie Smith:

being the number two to these four companies, has she

Julie Smith:

become your number two?

Bill Konves:

No, she she's just simply a coach we meet every Friday.

Bill Konves:

We talk. She gives me advice.

Bill Konves:

By this good point of clarification, when I say, number

Bill Konves:

two, I want to be a sounding board, but also I'm not simply

Bill Konves:

a consultant. I want to get it done with them.

Bill Konves:

So, OK, these are your three problems.

Bill Konves:

I got it. I'm going to go solve it.

Bill Konves:

Let's go figure it out. I'm going to bring it back to you.

Bill Konves:

We're going to make some decisions and go, whereas I call

Bill Konves:

her a coach because she is simply a coach, we meet.

Bill Konves:

She gives me some advice.

Bill Konves:

She goes away.

Glenn Harper:

You know, you've seen very most consultants in your space.

Glenn Harper:

They come in fire and brimstone.

Glenn Harper:

Go through chaos everywhere.

Glenn Harper:

Analyze everything. Do this.

Glenn Harper:

This is here's what you need to do.

Glenn Harper:

And I'm going to charge you 50 grand for that.

Glenn Harper:

And then they walk out, and that company has to now figure

Glenn Harper:

out how to execute it.

Glenn Harper:

So you're telling me that you do some a little bit

Glenn Harper:

different, you not really get the plan, but you actually

Glenn Harper:

finish what you start and do what you say and assume that

Glenn Harper:

role very seriously and make sure things get done.

Bill Konves:

That is right. Good summary, you're right that on my right,

Bill Konves:

that on your blog, if I had a website which I don't.

Glenn Harper:

Yeah, well, you want to stay on the down low so you know

Glenn Harper:

where you're at right now in your career and your journey

Glenn Harper:

is there every every entrepreneur generally will have some

Glenn Harper:

sort of like dream deal or what they would like to be part

Glenn Harper:

of and be like, man, if I could just get in with that

Glenn Harper:

company or that person.

Glenn Harper:

And I think I can take that company to that person's their

Glenn Harper:

product service, whatever, to a whole different level.

Glenn Harper:

What is that dream deal for you?

Glenn Harper:

Do you have you thought of that?

Glenn Harper:

You have one of those.

Bill Konves:

I do not have one, I have a I have a dream deal for each of

Bill Konves:

my clients, and maybe that's how I look at things

Bill Konves:

differently if I work with a client.

Bill Konves:

Then they have to have long term potential for me and they

Bill Konves:

have to have something really, really unique that I can see

Bill Konves:

and I can dream with them.

Bill Konves:

So, for example, I'm working with a Saudi Arabian fashion

Bill Konves:

luxury brand startup, which is not my rule, but this but

Bill Konves:

this we've been working together for for 40 years now.

Bill Konves:

So I didn't know that real then.

Bill Konves:

So we are we have a dream.

Bill Konves:

I know the founders dream.

Bill Konves:

We're doing some great things with the Saudi government.

Bill Konves:

They want to support us when involved in international

Bill Konves:

consulting, and we're pushing this dream out.

Bill Konves:

I have the founder's dream.

Bill Konves:

I'm excited about the founder's dream.

Bill Konves:

I want to be a part of that dream.

Bill Konves:

So I'm connected.

Bill Konves:

That's my dream as well.

Bill Konves:

And I can say the same about all my clients that I work

Bill Konves:

with. I know what they want to do, and I want to be a part

Bill Konves:

of it. Long term?

Bill Konves:

I don't know. I don't know if that answers your question.

Bill Konves:

But for myself, you're probably asking for myself, do I

Bill Konves:

have something that I really want to do?

Bill Konves:

Yeah.

Glenn Harper:

Well, what I mean is like, you know what?

Glenn Harper:

What you're saying is that you really don't want to work

Glenn Harper:

for a client.

Glenn Harper:

You want to work with a client and be part of not on the

Glenn Harper:

outside looking in, which is really hard for a lot of

Glenn Harper:

entrepreneurs to be fully vested like that because that

Glenn Harper:

takes a lot of emotional capital, a lot of because you're

Glenn Harper:

all in, you're not just on the outside kind of playing

Glenn Harper:

around, you're going deep.

Glenn Harper:

So that's why, like you said for clients, is probably more

Glenn Harper:

than enough to do that because that takes a lot of

Glenn Harper:

bandwidth. And so I guess what I was suggesting is that if

Glenn Harper:

you, you know, you listen to a lot of podcasts, you listen

Glenn Harper:

a lot of, you know, educational things, you read a lot, you

Glenn Harper:

travel a lot. Have you seen a company or individual out

Glenn Harper:

there that would be like, Man, I just know they're doing it

Glenn Harper:

wrong. And if they would just do this, I could take them

Glenn Harper:

from a to the Moon here.

Glenn Harper:

It'd be an amazing journey for them if they would, if I

Glenn Harper:

could just get in front of them.

Glenn Harper:

Do you have anybody like that that you've kind of looked or

Glenn Harper:

identified with and say, Man, if I could just get with

Glenn Harper:

them?

Bill Konves:

I do not I cannot think of one.

Glenn Harper:

Well, you've got to go read more Listen more, I guess is the

Glenn Harper:

take away from me.

Bill Konves:

I know we're here. I'm invested, fully invested with the

Bill Konves:

clients that I have now.

Bill Konves:

I do. I will tell you this.

Bill Konves:

I guess it has an industry.

Bill Konves:

I guess we could talk about an industry if the industry.

Bill Konves:

So I've been pushed into the home services industry to help

Bill Konves:

with marketing and other things by a good friend of mine

Bill Konves:

that owns, operates by sells or services company, plumbing,

Bill Konves:

heating, all these different things.

Bill Konves:

And we're doing some marketing work for him.

Bill Konves:

So there are some really large agencies out there that

Bill Konves:

charge a lot of money to do work for these guys.

Bill Konves:

And once they get their claws in most home services

Bill Konves:

companies and founders, they're like, We don't know the

Bill Konves:

questions to ask. We're afraid to turn them off, but

Bill Konves:

they're charging us with too much money.

Bill Konves:

So he and I are working together.

Bill Konves:

We fired his agency.

Bill Konves:

We're putting together a plan that helps those guys.

Bill Konves:

And so he said, Bill, I gave your information to another

Bill Konves:

fellow in Denver. Twenty eight trucks.

Bill Konves:

Really large company.

Bill Konves:

Same problem.

Bill Konves:

Wrong agency.

Bill Konves:

Charging way too much.

Bill Konves:

And I just did a free analysis for him.

Bill Konves:

It's like three page report sent it to him a couple of days

Bill Konves:

ago. Within an hour, he responded back, Hey, this thing's

Bill Konves:

amazing. We've got to work together.

Bill Konves:

What are we going to do? My other, my other agencies on

Bill Konves:

contract until May. I'm ready to push them out.

Bill Konves:

Let's go. And I said, Well, I appreciate that because all

Bill Konves:

the home services companies are having these same

Bill Konves:

challenges, but my job is not to come in and compete and

Bill Konves:

push people out. My job is to come in and help you from a

Bill Konves:

sea level perspective, look at your partners and say, Hey,

Bill Konves:

maybe they can do this well, maybe they don't do that well,

Bill Konves:

we don't need to throw them out.

Bill Konves:

And so that industry overall, it needs to outsource.

Bill Konves:

Chief Marketing Officer, if there was a term for that

Bill Konves:

because that industry and those in those business owners

Bill Konves:

are being taken advantage of by a lot of different

Bill Konves:

marketing agencies that charge way too much money for what

Bill Konves:

they're doing. So I'm aligning myself in that world since I

Bill Konves:

know it. I owned a concrete company.

Bill Konves:

I know the struggles.

Bill Konves:

So that might be my my dream challenge fixing industry.

Bill Konves:

And if I do that, it would be very lucrative.

Glenn Harper:

It would be.

Glenn Harper:

When you are, you know, working with clients, you know,

Glenn Harper:

there's definitely certain sizes that you want to work with

Glenn Harper:

and and challenges like we indicated you like the more

Glenn Harper:

complex, sophisticated type ones.

Glenn Harper:

But again, when you describe your portfolio of clients,

Glenn Harper:

you're kind of all over the board with that because I think

Glenn Harper:

the challenge is again, that was my initial thought or

Glenn Harper:

question was is it funner to take somebody that has nothing

Glenn Harper:

and bring them up?

Glenn Harper:

Or is it better to take somebody who has something and make

Glenn Harper:

them even better?

Glenn Harper:

Which one do you like more, which is more rewarding for

Glenn Harper:

you?

Bill Konves:

More rewarding.

Bill Konves:

Well, yeah, that's a tough question.

Bill Konves:

I know, because then it becomes a financial question

Bill Konves:

because you do, everyone needs their base minimum, what

Bill Konves:

they're worth, what they feel, what they just, what they

Bill Konves:

have to pay their bills. So if I could look and say this is

Bill Konves:

a product that's amazing and it's a startup product and I

Bill Konves:

know it's going to be amazing.

Bill Konves:

I want to ride that journey, then that would be extremely

Bill Konves:

fun and fulfilling.

Bill Konves:

However, those are unicorns for every hundred products.

Bill Konves:

Ninety nine of them just aren't going to make it.

Bill Konves:

And so you can hit your your wagon to a lot of tough

Bill Konves:

emotional rides.

Bill Konves:

Those are also the most emotional.

Bill Konves:

You alluded earlier to the emotion.

Bill Konves:

When you're all in with a team, you're not playing on the

Bill Konves:

outside, you're like, Yeah, hey, here's my bill.

Bill Konves:

This is why I think you should do cool paying my bill and

Bill Konves:

you walk away when you're inside, you're worried about

Bill Konves:

every penny. I mean, you cut your own pace sometimes when

Bill Konves:

the client's not doing well.

Bill Konves:

I've cut my own pay in half like, Look, I'm still here, but

Bill Konves:

I'm cutting my own pay. We're going to make this happen.

Bill Konves:

It's going to work. It's very emotional to be in that

Bill Konves:

situation.

Glenn Harper:

Wasn't that like what they always say?

Glenn Harper:

Don't get emotional in business.

Glenn Harper:

So how how do you balance that?

Bill Konves:

I well, yeah, well, I think you need to be emotion in terms

Bill Konves:

of passion, you have to have passion about your product to

Bill Konves:

push it forward. If you don't have emotion about it, you're

Bill Konves:

not going to have much of a product.

Bill Konves:

You're not going to wake up every morning and be jumping

Bill Konves:

out of bed, say, I'm going to make it happen.

Bill Konves:

I'm going to take over the world today.

Bill Konves:

But don't be emotional about the day to day decisions.

Bill Konves:

That's where a lot of entrepreneurs get caught up.

Bill Konves:

They're emotional about every single decision that's

Bill Konves:

happening, instead of even the passion and the emotion for

Bill Konves:

the big picture.

Glenn Harper:

Perilous by analysis, right?

Glenn Harper:

They just can't get out of their own way.

Bill Konves:

Yes.

Glenn Harper:

So as an entrepreneur, you are out there, you know, making

Glenn Harper:

the donuts, slaying the dragons, doing what you do at some

Glenn Harper:

point when you're identifying a client that you want to

Glenn Harper:

work with. Do you feel like today versus 20 years ago?

Glenn Harper:

I can't remember how long you been doing this as an

Glenn Harper:

entrepreneur, but it seems like since I've known you.

Glenn Harper:

But do you feel like you have a good, I don't know, gut

Glenn Harper:

instinct to recognizing your client if they've got that

Glenn Harper:

quote it factor like you like, whoa.

Glenn Harper:

They know they they got it figured out.

Glenn Harper:

If I can just get in with them, we'll take it to the next

Glenn Harper:

level. Do you feel like you have to have that gut check and

Glenn Harper:

kind of just recognize that up front, if we're working with

Glenn Harper:

them? Because if somebody comes up to you and say, Hey, I

Glenn Harper:

need to scale, let's rock and roll.

Glenn Harper:

Are you going to just jump in with them or are you going to

Glenn Harper:

say, you know, that got to when you said successful

Glenn Harper:

entrepreneurs and you said, you know, ones that really got

Glenn Harper:

it figured out, how do you know that they could say it?

Glenn Harper:

But you have this gut instinct with them that you can just

Glenn Harper:

recognize the type of character they have and that they if

Glenn Harper:

they have it.

Bill Konves:

Yeah, you can definitely tell people that are already doing

Bill Konves:

well and just ready the conversations you're having with

Bill Konves:

them. But I mean, the

Glenn Harper:

People that aren't aren't doing well, like like you just

Glenn Harper:

like

Bill Konves:

I won't. Yeah, well, I will only work with well, I shouldn't

Bill Konves:

say that. I know at least busted my target customer right

Bill Konves:

now today, and it's happened over the last three months.

Bill Konves:

Yeah, actually, in the last two weeks I've had people

Bill Konves:

referred to me. A startup was referred to me and I said,

Bill Konves:

You know what? It's just not who I work with, but I'm going

Bill Konves:

to talk with them and chat with them.

Bill Konves:

We'll put them through my my initial survey fill out a

Bill Konves:

survey. One of the things I have to do is fill out a

Bill Konves:

survey. If they're not willing to fill out this survey,

Bill Konves:

which is kind of complex, then it qualifies them away the

Bill Konves:

opposite way. So I still have conversations with people

Bill Konves:

because maybe there is something there.

Bill Konves:

But when we talked with this plumber, I looked at his

Bill Konves:

business. I saw he had twenty eight trucks.

Bill Konves:

I saw he's spending.

Bill Konves:

An ungodly amount of money in a marketing budget every

Bill Konves:

month that tells me there's a lot of money in that company

Bill Konves:

somewhere. And if he's seeing it or not, that's my job to

Bill Konves:

figure it out and make it better.

Bill Konves:

So you can ask questions to say, Oh, you're twenty eight

Bill Konves:

trucks. Wow, you have an x amount marketing budget.

Bill Konves:

Wow. There is a lot of cash flow in your business, so

Bill Konves:

someone is making money in there.

Bill Konves:

It might not be the owner, as we know in many cases, but I

Bill Konves:

can help you figure that out so you can ask questions and

Bill Konves:

figure out how successful people are.

Bill Konves:

And yeah, I think I'm getting close and what?

Bill Konves:

I'm not close. I bring it to my coach every Friday and we

Bill Konves:

talk about it like, is this a client for me?

Bill Konves:

Is this is this something that matches my values and where

Bill Konves:

I want to go?

Glenn Harper:

So your coach definitely talks you off the ledge, which is

Glenn Harper:

which is good because most entrepreneurs are on the ledge

Glenn Harper:

all the time. And it's not only just a ledge or literally

Glenn Harper:

walking on the top of the peak on that ridge, and they

Glenn Harper:

could slip either way and fall off.

Glenn Harper:

And it's over, right? I mean, that's a real thing.

Bill Konves:

I lived that life for many years.

Glenn Harper:

It's the best to make you feel alive, doesn't it?

Bill Konves:

Yes. Until you hit 50,

Glenn Harper:

I was something bad happened at 50.

Glenn Harper:

I thought, that's when we have all the wisdom.

Glenn Harper:

No.

Bill Konves:

Well, yeah, exactly.

Bill Konves:

You don't want to live that life when you're 50, you're

Bill Konves:

supposed to have the wisdom. So that's good.

Glenn Harper:

So one thing you said and and I and I applaud that because I

Glenn Harper:

find a lot of entrepreneurs that, you know, we work with

Glenn Harper:

that they hit the point where they have their.

Glenn Harper:

They're not satisfied, but and they're not content, but

Glenn Harper:

they're they're doing fine.

Glenn Harper:

They're doing OK.

Glenn Harper:

And they still have a lot more to give.

Glenn Harper:

But they don't want to give in like all in to give to

Glenn Harper:

somebody, and they end up turning into these mentors and

Glenn Harper:

part of these mastermind groups and just give away some

Glenn Harper:

free advice and just sharing those experiences to kind of

Glenn Harper:

help other people. And you kind of, I guess, alluded to

Glenn Harper:

that with this one. You just said you've got to fill out

Glenn Harper:

the survey and even though you will probably not work with

Glenn Harper:

them, you may be in a situation we want to mentor them.

Glenn Harper:

Do you find that that mentoring is a rewarding thing?

Glenn Harper:

Is it backfire?

Glenn Harper:

Is it a good thing or is it a way to give back?

Glenn Harper:

I mean, somebody had to mentor you at some point to help

Glenn Harper:

you get where you are?

Glenn Harper:

Do you do you feel like you're at that point where you're

Glenn Harper:

giving back?

Bill Konves:

I don't I think I would be.

Bill Konves:

And currently, I am not a good mentor.

Bill Konves:

I can give advice.

Bill Konves:

And that's where I'm at right now.

Bill Konves:

I love giving advice, but I don't have any long term mentor

Bill Konves:

shifts and that I'm mentoring people.

Bill Konves:

I just don't right now.

Bill Konves:

I don't think it fits my personality.

Bill Konves:

I'm still driven to, you know, when you're mentoring,

Bill Konves:

you're giving advice, you're not helping them take action

Bill Konves:

in a lot of times.

Bill Konves:

They don't take action, and it really frustrates you.

Bill Konves:

So if I find someone that takes every bit of action, then I

Bill Konves:

give them, then I'd be all in and probably be excited about

Bill Konves:

it. But I'm not actively mentoring anyone.

Bill Konves:

I don't have anybody, really.

Bill Konves:

That I'm looking to mentor, but that would be the key if

Bill Konves:

I'm going to work with you and give you some advice.

Bill Konves:

You better take it. Because what's the point?

Glenn Harper:

Correct? I've got a list of like 300 people that would like

Glenn Harper:

to hire you right now and maybe not even hire, just mentor

Glenn Harper:

you. You want that list.

Glenn Harper:

Absolutely not. You know, you've got a scarcity of of

Glenn Harper:

product, a scarcity of mindset, and it's very valuable and

Glenn Harper:

it's to the point where why waste that on somebody who's

Glenn Harper:

not going to do anything valuable with it?

Glenn Harper:

It's hard to screen that as an entrepreneur about all those

Glenn Harper:

opportunities in front of you, of how you get engaged with

Glenn Harper:

them. Because just because it's a perfect situation, if

Glenn Harper:

they aren't going to do what you tell them, then why even

Glenn Harper:

waste that emotional capital and all those things to get it

Glenn Harper:

set up? A true statement?

Bill Konves:

True. And then that's the emotional part.

Bill Konves:

Some people really get mentors can can bounce away from

Bill Konves:

that. I get very frustrated.

Bill Konves:

There's money sitting on the table here.

Bill Konves:

There's a product on the table.

Bill Konves:

There's this problem in your life.

Bill Konves:

You've got to take care of it. I'll take care of it.

Bill Konves:

Let me let me do it for you.

Bill Konves:

So I can't.

Bill Konves:

That's why I can't be a consultant.

Bill Konves:

I need to be involved inside of businesses and work with

Bill Konves:

the founders to say, Look, I got it.

Bill Konves:

Let me do this. Go do what you're doing.

Bill Konves:

I'm going to take care of this. We have a better week next

Bill Konves:

week.

Glenn Harper:

So I think there's a you're in a unique space because a lot

Glenn Harper:

of times an entrepreneur is going to either say, Hey, I'm

Glenn Harper:

going to do business and I do all the work and I'm in

Glenn Harper:

charge of all those things and make a great career doing

Glenn Harper:

that. And you've got a great job to do that.

Glenn Harper:

And that's one school of thought.

Glenn Harper:

And there's nothing. It's a great, great model.

Glenn Harper:

Then there's another set of entrepreneurs that say, Look,

Glenn Harper:

I'm tired of being on the hamster wheel and I want to build

Glenn Harper:

a business and I'm going to scale this and other people

Glenn Harper:

help me do achieve this huge business where I'm not really

Glenn Harper:

actively involved and I'm still getting paid.

Glenn Harper:

You have a very unique situation because you kind of have

Glenn Harper:

like a a hybrid thing.

Glenn Harper:

You have this job that you do as doing business for

Glenn Harper:

clients, but you are actually helping them build a business

Glenn Harper:

and you're part of it.

Glenn Harper:

That is very unique in this industry as an entrepreneur.

Glenn Harper:

If you looked at it like that before,

Bill Konves:

I have and I struggle with it sometimes because I'm not

Bill Konves:

doing anything myself and as a builder, I want to build

Bill Konves:

something and that's a conversation that I go through every

Bill Konves:

Friday. With with again, with my coach, it's like, am I

Bill Konves:

ready to build something?

Bill Konves:

Do I want to build something? Or am I satisfied just

Bill Konves:

building these clients businesses with them?

Bill Konves:

And that's all I need.

Bill Konves:

So that's why I do have these other small projects sitting

Bill Konves:

out there. You know what might work?

Bill Konves:

What might take off? What might I get passionate about over

Bill Konves:

the next 15, 20 years?

Bill Konves:

Because people are like, Oh, you're going to retire?

Bill Konves:

Oh no, I'm looking for that thing that I can retire and

Bill Konves:

work 20 to 30 hours a week because that's what I like to

Bill Konves:

do. I don't like to golf.

Glenn Harper:

What that's that doesn't sound normal.

Glenn Harper:

Yeah. What do you like to do if you're not going?

Bill Konves:

I like to go to kids sports, probably for kids and travel

Bill Konves:

sports, you know, that life, so that's fun.

Bill Konves:

In about seven years, that's going to be done gone out the

Bill Konves:

door. So do I want to still be helping clients build their

Bill Konves:

businesses or do I want to build my own?

Bill Konves:

And so that's where I'm at in life.

Bill Konves:

Like, do I want to build something for myself that's going

Bill Konves:

to take me into retirement and let me have something?

Bill Konves:

My wife doesn't kill me sitting home all day, something

Bill Konves:

maybe for my kids to get involved in something like, you

Bill Konves:

know, just something bigger out there.

Glenn Harper:

So I think that's the final thought today is the fact that

Glenn Harper:

all the entrepreneurs out there, you think you have to have

Glenn Harper:

it all figured out and you're really don't because it's

Glenn Harper:

ever evolving, ever changing.

Glenn Harper:

But try to focus on one thing at a time.

Glenn Harper:

Dominate the space before you go to the next thing.

Glenn Harper:

Don't run amuck and do a shotgun approach and shoot out of

Glenn Harper:

everything. Stay focused.

Glenn Harper:

And then you can always pivot and change.

Glenn Harper:

Don't try to do everything.

Glenn Harper:

Try to do one thing at a time and work through it.

Glenn Harper:

Do you think that's a fair assessment bill?

Bill Konves:

That's a great assessment.

Bill Konves:

And don't forget to expand your network and listen to your

Bill Konves:

board of advisors.

Glenn Harper:

Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us today and taking time

Glenn Harper:

out of your busy day.

Glenn Harper:

Good luck out there trying to figure it out, but darn it

Glenn Harper:

sure is fun, isn't it?

Bill Konves:

It is, yeah. Thank you, Glenn.

Bill Konves:

Thank you, Julie.

Glenn Harper:

All right, Bill, take care.

Glenn Harper:

This is Glenn Harper.

Julie Smith:

And Julie Smith.

Glenn Harper:

Signing off, talk to you guys soon.