Your Business Can't Grow If Everything Still Depends on You

Full transcript

Hey guys, welcome back to the Anthony Amen Show. I am Yaw the co-host. Anthony, let them know the topic today. Transitioning out of your company. Getting out of it. And what happens when you do? Oh, the good bag and ugly as my lead. Yes. The good bag and ugly. So I think, Anthony, the thing is when you're building a larger scale, when you're building a larger business and you have clients that have been with you from day one, four, five, six years, it's hard for them to let you physically go and grow. They want to just stay with you. They're used to coming in and seeing your face, Anthony on the treadmill, Anthony laughing and making jokes to them. And to know that this is not going to exist anymore, it hurts. What do you say to those clients, Anthony?

Truly want to see me succeed. Let me go.

Okay, cool. Now I'm gonna play the devil's advocate a little bit here. Yeah. All right, ready? Anthony, I'll let you go, but are you gonna still be in contact with me?

I'm gonna have people in place that are gonna be layers for me.

Okay. No, I didn't ask. I don't want any employees. I want you. You're the one that signed me up here. I want you. Been here for five years. Why do I have to now go? I feel like you're just in it for the money, dude.

I would never hire anyone that wouldn't be able to help you get what you need, be there for me, help you through, but it'd be physically impossible for me to have a relationship with you and everybody else. And I need to have this company grow so we can bring them more services that will better support you and give you a better environment. And ultimately, the day I'm here for you guys is to do for my higher position. So if I wanted to call you, would you pick up? If you absolutely had a one-off emergency, yes, but it would be far and few between.

So, Dilfer, do you would you agree that our relationship is kind of disingenuous? It's not as thorough as I thought. Like you're not a friend. Why is a relationship based upon contact? Because you're not used to being in contact all the time. You come to the gym, we talk, you know about my kids, and like we have a really good relationship. Now you're leaving, I can't contact you anymore.

Yeah, I'm sorry, but it's best for you and the company and to grow. And I need this to grow. That's always been the plan. You've always wanted to support me, right? And how's that best for me? Because I'm gonna be able to bring in more things for you. Like, what do you mean? Like, like what are you gonna bring in? We're gonna have more support, better employees, we're gonna grow in more locations, we're gonna have better training, we're gonna have better quality uh people in their positions, so we'll have to be able to have a dietitian that'll know more of multiple dietitians, multiple trainers. And this company's gonna grow. Isn't that what you always wanted for me?

And there. And that's what I was looking for. I think any entrepreneur that doesn't have those answers sorted out, you're not ready to move. That was my point. If you're prepared to leave your business, you build a rapport with the clients that are coming to you, you have to have these things sorted out on how to answer it. And what is the purpose of you moving? One of the purposes, you moving, you said you want to move because you want to expand. A lot of the clients here in New York will go to Florida snowboard doing it, right? That's what they do. So you plan to build more locations out in Florida. So that's one of the reasons why. Now, what do you say to the entrepreneur that's afraid of leaving and expanding and leaving it in the hands of the CEO and other people? What do you say to him or her?

I think it's important to mention I'm going through this right now. Correct. Like right into this present moment. And I wanted to do this because it's real. Mm-hmm. Life goes through, yeah. I've had two employ uh two clients quit recently because of this. That's so childish, though, bro. Because they see that uh the or they think that I'm in it just for the money, and now why don't I reach out to the actual effort to do XYZ? Like you're moving, so I'm gonna quit. So therefore, what was the It's not because I'm quitting, it's because I don't constantly I'm moving, it's because I don't constantly reach out anymore, I don't constantly talk to them because I'm so bogged down with everything else. And what I've come to realize it's a real fear, because I want to answer your question. Okay, but it's a necessary fear, and I think it's a growing pain. Because I will actually what what I've thought and what I've seen is that the clients I didn't sign up don't really care. The ones that never relied on me, because they signed up under a new salesperson, went into training, never I don't even know them. They don't care I'm moving and growing. It's the original clients that care, the ones that signed up three, four, five years ago, the ones that remember me being her 100 hours a week, the ones that are personally signed up or maybe used to train. Those are the ones that care. And it's it goes to a saying that people want to see you succeed until you actually talk about it. There you go. I love that. I love that because they and I think that I think that finish that sentence because I don't think it's complete. People want to succeed, see you succeed until you do because they don't understand what comes with success.

I like that. And that's the missing part of the sentence. And a lot of the times that's potentially ending relationships or being. And then when they see what happens, they don't like it.

They don't like it and they clamor back and then pretend that it's not because of success, it's because you changed.

Correct. You know why? They want a certain amount of ownership over you. That's really what it comes down to. They want a certain amount of control. Well, what else is it? I'm gonna leave for whatever reason. If your purpose was to come here and work out, you shouldn't quit solely because I'm moving. That doesn't make any sense at all.

I mean, it's it's people in your life, it's friends, family, and clients, and there's different aspects of it. When you first open a business, everyone cheers for you, right? Supposedly. It's the best thing, grand opening, hundreds of people there. But then when you start working and you start working 100-hour weeks and you start seeing people less, phone calls stop, yeah. Then they're like, Oh, you've changed what's going on with you. Like, I don't understand. And those relationships die down.

So say that again because they sit with some relationships.

Some of those relationships really start to die down because of that. The same happens with clients, it's like that cycle repeating itself. But now with clients, because they're used to seeing your hundred hours like your friends of family are used to, but then that slowly dissipates. But it's not they failed to put together. That's just the growing pains of success. Yes. So it's hard to explain that to people. It's called selfishness. Let's just be real, selfishness, selfishness and tied in with having the wrong people in the wrong positions or not teaching the people you have, and maybe this is more of an education component from my perspective, just to accountability for it for a second. When I hire people and I train people, I train them the job, I hire them about what XYZ, but I guess I don't prep them enough for like what comes next. Correct. Like your job is to replace me. If I hire a fitness specialist to hire train this, like work with these clients that I no longer work with, your job is to replace me. You need to have my back. They're going to complain. Where's Anthony? Why isn't Anthony here? Why is Anthony doing that? And if your team doesn't do that, that resentment starts growing.

But that goes without saying. Do I have to really tell you these things? Just like, no, just like the oh we spoke about in the episode with um Mr. McNeil's book. Just be good enough to let them talk about you about dinner. You should know.

But then you're at employees' stomachs, right? So your friends, family, clients, and you're at employees. Employees you hire initially, they see you all the time. They used to this mom and pop feel. That's how they signed up for your company. They want to see you successful until a mom and pop gym all of a sudden becomes a corporate gym.

Yeah, but I mean, come on.

What did you expect? But that's but that's what people get, they get so used to this. And it goes into the other saying that the people that were there and liked you at phase one aren't going to be there at phase two, and those phase two aren't going to be there at phase three unless they learn and grow. It kind of ties into that loyalty conversation we keep coming back to. Loyalty without anything else is horrible. It means nothing. Loyalty with growth, you learn as a level one employee, phase one, mom and pop to be great, but the company moves to phase two and you stay a mom and pop phase one. Does loyalty really mean that much anymore until you're growing up and leveling?

So you don't know how loyal person is. Loyalty mean the ability to level up with me. Come on now. So you have to, it has to be tested. Correct. It has to be tested.

So if I stayed a mom and pop mentality, which a lot of owners do, come on, they never grow their company and mentally fizzle out and die.

And you don't know how loyal the people are to you until you are decided, and that's in that's in any aspect. Like you said, family friends, that's in every aspect of life, until you you figure that out. So do you blame yourself for this, for getting too close to the clients?

No.

Why not?

Because it was necessary for what the company needed in the beginning. Do you think so? Think about that for a while. So you don't think so? I had no choice. So how's that? I was doing the sale, doing the sessions, doing the front desk. I had to have these communication.

Okay, so you oh, okay.

There was no option.

And most of this pushback has come back from those clients?

Yes. But then but then the flip side of that is like I would expect my employees to do what I used to do. Getting to know the clients, knowing their names, knowing their anniversary dates, knowing their birth dates. Like that's company expectations for our model.

Okay.

So they need to now embrace that. Correct.

What I used to do.

The biggest thing is just defend the company. And that ties back to culture. And someone comes in, it's not a clock-in-clock out job. It's I am here for a mission. If we need a common mission, a common purpose, then everything else just seems like, oh duh.

Yeah.

What's better for the mission? The better mission is for us to defend and have the company's back. 100%. So is it beneficial to have employees on your side that don't defend you and don't protect you? No. No, no. But is it beneficial to keep those employees that do and constantly growth? Those are your best employees. Yeah. Like it's the cost. It comes back to will and culture.

Yeah. It all comes back to that. Everything comes back to that. So the question is if you have employees that are not defending you, right? You always find yourself doing the defending. That may be a reason as to why some of you have disgruntled employees, uh clients. Oh, it's definitely the reason. See what I'm saying? That that is that is definitely one of the reasons. So you can always take accountability and blame yourself and say, well, one of the reasons I have disgruntled employees and clients is because one, maybe I didn't fire people fast enough that were defending me and understand and being able to make that transition so that I can grow and get another get another location.

I would take it first. Maybe I didn't explain it to my employees.

You always say calculator, SOP got it.

So that's what I did. Explained recently. Sat down with everyone and talked to them, explained to them.

Can you go a little in detail with the explanation with gym owners or people that are watching? Like, what do I say to my employees? What did he do to change it?

Let me be very clear about everything related to overlapping everything. Tell the goddamn truth. Okay. And this is the lesson. It sounds so fucking easy. Tell the truth. Yeah. Right?

It's the hardest thing to do.

It's the hardest thing to do. Because they're afraid of hurting your feelings. How about you though? It's the same fucking thing. No, you struggle with it. I did. I struggled with being honest enough for how to felt about people. Now, how about now? It changed. And it's so much better because people respect me more. I have an employee, I have an issue. I say, here's the freaking issue. We need to fix it. This is why. I love it. Now it gives them the opportunity. They love that. They're like, oh, it's it's hard to hear in the moment.

I always say that. I just said it this morning to an employee. In the beginning, it's always hard for me to tell you, reprimand you, or tell you what you're doing wrong, correct it, but later you'll learn to respect it. Because in life, you don't find people that are transparent. You don't, it's very difficult to find someone, hey, listen, you're not doing this right. This is what happens, this is what you do, or X, Y, and Z, or I will have to let you go. It's hard to find people like that.

And let's go out drinking all the time, and we still live at home and mom and dad, we're all shit broke, and we're none of us are married with kids. Like, do you want that? Do you want people to tell you life's great and that's the losers, man? No, I'd rather have a friend be like, You're a fucking asshole. Yes. You are go out drinking every week and you're losing below $400 at the bars. You don't invest any of that, you're gonna be broken or dead by 50 because you know this lifestyle.

Did you ever have someone like that? And you're like, No, right? So that's why it took as long as it did for you to eventually reach that point because you you don't have an example of someone that can hold you accountable, or people around you just holding you accountable. No, friend-wise, no. The only person that would do is my wife. Exactly. Exactly. You think that propelled you into who you are today? Like being able to hold other people accountable? Absolutely. Life is business, business is life. So, what does Anthony do now? And for the entrepreneurs watching this, now that you're moving, when you establish a new location in Florida, what do you do differently than you did in this uh location to not let that reoccur? Tell the entire team the truth from the beginning. From the beginning. So, what did you do in the beginning that you didn't do that you're doing now? What didn't you do?

I think everyone ever I said we're going national, everyone went, yeah, because it sounded cool.

Yeah, it was just big, yeah. But they didn't see they didn't see the detail national.

We're like, oh, that's a big stage. Let's go. I'm gonna work 40 hours a week. You're gonna do 10,000 hours a week, bro. There's not 10,000 hours in a week, and that's when the smile stopped. That's when the smile stopped. And you're like, no, no, I'm gonna go national. I'm gonna move out of state, yeah, and you guys gotta run this whole company while I grow the next one.

Let me tell you something, man. Isn't that the goal of everything though? Isn't that who wants to just stay in the same location, same place for the rest of their life?

Isn't it business owners? Yeah, but you don't grow. The point is to grow. You're business owners, that's they don't care.

Like, yeah, I just can't get with that program.

The whole point of two growing point, business owners versus entrepreneurs, yes. Being an operator in the business, don't say you're an entrepreneur and you never want to grow, you never want to do things different. You want to run mom push up. No, you just bought yourself a job.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're a business owner with a job.

You're a business with a job.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I want to be an entrepreneur. I said that you don't want to be here for 40, 50 years in the same place. No, you don't.

And yeah, it's so crazy to me that some people just don't get it and it's just it's unexplained, and they don't understand what comes with it, the challenges, the tribulations, the no, I can't see you every Saturday and Sunday, twice a week for it. Like, no, if I'm not working weekends, I'm not gonna be able to do what I want. If I don't move out of this state, I'm not gonna be able to do what I want. Like, take take this growing pains, for example, right? You live where you grow up. Take Long Island, New York, where we are. Your family always wants you to stay, but it's better for you to move for your business and for your family, for your immediate family. Correct. Is it right for that extended family to continue to harass you to stay?

No, this goes back to my point. Selfishness. You're thinking of yourself only. No, why? If you care about my well-being and moving makes me happy and it's going to make me grow in every aspect of my life as an adult, don't you think it's selfish to tell me not to do that? Yes or no? Oh, I agree with you. That's selfish. And I'll just just generally speak for the audience, comment below. That's selfishness.

It's selfishness because they don't get to see you more for them.

They just say for themselves. That's called selfishness. So, therefore, you want to control a certain aspect of my life where there's a limitation on it.

You can do what you want, but you gotta do it in Long Island. People put limitations on you all the time and you don't even realize it. Yeah, you need to be here, you need to be here, you gotta get it. Yeah, yeah. So you need to set aside those limitations to be set for disappointment and learn my favorite word. What is it? It's two letters. Uh-oh. And the big O. Oh. That's it. The power of no.

I have met people in my life, and because I've still done assessments that don't even know how to say no. Oh, brother, come on. I was just about to say that. It sounds so funny and simplistic. Oh, it's not a big deal. Do you know just assess your own life for those that are watching this? How often have you said no versus yes? Sometimes fear is what pushes us to say yes most of the time. Sometimes you don't even want to be here, you don't want to do this, but you say yes out of fear. And if you continue down that road, you're gonna end up in a place you don't want to be. And that's the worst feeling. But try to please everyone, you please no one. You just you got it. Or you no, or you end up doing it but yourself. When you end up trying to please everyone, you you do it, but you the last person you don't please.

I shared a I shared a reel two weeks ago, one week ago, I don't remember. But it was on death. Okay, they interviewed a thousand people on the deathbed.

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It was last week, last week. Fire. This was I was about to say, but I forgot. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, go ahead.

The number one thing people say they resent on their deathbed was being themselves. Crazy. Because they constantly live the life for somebody else that wasn't them.

So what do you think? So that means 99% of people you see are truly, truly at the heart of it, unhappy. So they don't do that because they don't get to be their authentic selves. Whether that's being a lawyer, doctor, going to dinner, whatever the case, any scenario, most people you see are not really myself. Most won't like me, or me. So therefore, I just got to do my parents say this guy says this. You're 100% right. But for the percent, the small percentage of people that step outside of that and say, I don't care. We we actually share the reel. Did you see it? I'm not embarrassing. I don't care. Did you see that reel? It's very hard, man, to get to that point in life. Took me a long time to finally say I don't care what anyone thinks, I'm gonna live for me. I'm still learning that.

Like it's I was about to ask you that question. It's not easy, and that's what it's hard. It's so easy to say, yeah, but to do. That's what I just said. No, it's so difficult. To tell your parents, to tell your siblings, to tell your spouse, your spouse, your kids, whatever. Yeah, like your kids. Oh my god, your kids. That's the worst one, right? There. To tell your kids, no, I I need to go to work to do this. It's hard. Come on, man. Yeah. Because they don't like they don't conceptualize it at all in general.

But like everything, you just gotta train yourself. That's really what it comes. You know, it's just I said this. The way, you know how the easiest way to start telling people no to better yourself? Do you know the easiest way? You gotta start by telling yourself no. If you gain discipline, watch how easy it becomes to tell people no. No, I'm not coming there. No, I don't have to talk to you until this happens. Like, no, the problem is we don't we you when you lack discipline, it's hard to tell others no. You gotta discipline yourself for so do you love your business enough to tell to let employees go? To tell people right there on the spot instead of letting it build up and mustering the strength to say, no, this is not okay.

Tell them right there. Because you're so afraid to hurt someone's feelings because you don't want to tell them that what's wrong, you got it, but really that's better for everybody else, including yourself. And them, yes, correct. And then maybe maybe the person is in the wrong career.

No, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say maybe maybe they need that lesson.

Like, I'm gonna give a really, really like personal story. Okay. I had a job, I worked at a comp like top competitor now, which is kind of funny. So I won't mention a name. I know you don't know that. But I worked for that fitness studio for four years. And before we went on vacation, they met with me and told me, and I'm gonna quote, you're one of the best employees we've ever had. You broke this company sales record we've never had before. We're gonna make it up to you. When you get back, we'll talk.

Okay. And you went on event you up.

We went on a vacation. Came back from that vacation. Ten days. We need to talk. Oh, yeah, when? This time, this day this time. I came in an hour early. I sat outside and ate launch. I was so excited. Yeah, you know something coming. I green. I was like, oh man, this is great. I'll wait. And that green. I sit in the office. There's all three of them are there, and they go, We just want to let you know, we're moving forward with the company, and you're no longer part of the picture.

Your heart sunk to your stomach.

Bro, I was like, What? Yeah, you're no longer part of this puzzle. I was like, well, why? Yeah, like I don't I don't get it. Like, I'm like, I'm genuinely like, I don't get it. Just no longer a fit. No reason. You can collect unemployment. We're not gonna fight it.

That's crazy, bro.

Heartbroken. Of course, 100%.

I was set I was gonna be at that company until I retire. It's even worse because they you were expecting something good. They told you when you come back, we're gonna that's horrible. But let me go back to what I said earlier. What was better for me? Yeah, 100%, yeah. It worked out in the end. None of us would be here right now. So it'd be happy. Yeah.

Oh, you weren't because I was holding on to that job and saying it would be the retirement because I was giving up my real dream. Which is, which was like I always talk about, I want to live forever. And then the sense that I want people to always make it legacy, yeah, yeah. I want that legacy, and I can't do that if I'm inside another company.

But I'm saying even at that time, you wanted that?

Oh, I wanted it since I was five. Ah. But I was willing to give it up for security. For security. But they let me go, and then it hurt me for years. Like I was so like taking it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it was the best thing.

100%. You were forced into build that, into build it. I think about how hard that conversation was for them to tell me to get out, knowing what they were doing. I don't think that was hard for them. It was hard. I know that I found out the reason later. Oh, well, whoa, whoa, whoa. Do you mind or no? You don't want to share.

You don't want to say who it is. Okay. So I will say that. Okay. But the other person in my position that was in the AM and I was PM had a friend who wanted my job, and she had control, and we'll just leave it at that. Oh, that's dirty. And they gave her friend the job. Oh, that's dirty, man.

To do a favor for her. Well, that's a bad business. That's stupid. That was that's really stupid. The best guy, record breaking because of a a favor. Yo, wow, life is funny. That's why.

But that's effort. But like point being like, it's okay.

No, I mean, of course it look what you built.

It's great, man. If it wasn't that we'd be here, yeah. That's what I'm trying to say. So look at your employees. Maybe there's more they can do in a different job or doing it on their own. Oh, I see what you're saying. Like you, it's selfish of you to keep someone that's doing a bad job but not pushing to their best. That's a good point. That's selfish.

That's a good point.

You're not doing them a favor, doing your fucking self a favor because you don't want a hard conversation. That's a good point. That's a really yes, you're right.

How do you know? Sometimes firing.

You know the best decision for that person? Nah.

No, you don't. Yeah, you're right. Nah. You're a crab shoot. Stay here or go. It's a crapshoot. You don't know what's they only they know what's best. That's a damn good point. Sometimes underperforming is them in indicating to you maybe they don't want to be here because they don't want to have a hard conversation with you.

Take it to the other, take it to a boyfriend, girlfriend scenario. You have a girlfriend. How many people have stayed with their spouse or staying with the other that they didn't like but they felt bad for breaking up with them? Have you ever been in that situation? Bro, years. Oh I was there was people that are bad at it. I was the worst. Were I dated a girl for two and a half years after I knew I wanted to break up with her? Dang. Because she told me that I was the only one that made her happy. And I took that to heart and stayed with her. And I did I was not happy in that relationship. Really? Yeah, maybe it's like because I grew up in a household. Maybe it's like always like always give in, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Maybe it's me. God man. So when when did you master the strength for that? My asshole self waited till after Christmas because I knew she liked Christmas to break it with her the next day. And I knew it was gonna do it weeks prior. Ooh, you cold, brother. It was I was just cold. It sounds cold, but in my going back, I thought it was doing her a favor. Which maybe maybe potentially you did. But it's so screwed up in hindsight. My immature asshole self thought that it was okay to wait.

Uh yeah, that's dirty. Yeah.

Right? But like you don't, you have to these are lessons you learn along the way. That's what I'm saying. And take it to the original point of the conversation. How do you transition out of your business? My immature asshole self would think that, you know, I can't, I need to stay here from my client. Like I mean some employees. You used to think like that. I still should just come up and pop. No, I've learned through growing a business that I can't.

No, but my point, when did you come to that decision and say I can't stay? Because at a certain point, you probably still thought like that. And then when did it when did that turning point happen? That's the take-home here. When what happens where you say, I can't stay, bro? I'm not listening if you're gonna quit, then quit. But I have to grow for the benefit of everyone. Once I got kids, aha, there you go. That's what I'm asking. Is when you hit the kids who you say, I gotta do something bigger than me.

Yeah, man, I understand. I had the legacy thing, it's always one I do, but I never knew how to let go and let things grow. So then I had to learn how to build trust with specific people, build trust in my model, not just people model and the model trust in the operations. Build trust of people, build trust with my clients. It's like, okay, I will lose people, it's just inevitable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's life. But you know, the company, it'll be fine. Like, I remember my first big fire. Like, employee that brought in the second most money in the meta company. Was I here? No. Okay, okay. All right. That was hard. Really? It took me months to fire that person.

You don't mind and you don't have to do anything, but what made you fire that person? Because similarly.

And I was so afraid we're gonna lose people. I was like, we're gonna we got the budget. Oh man, we're just gonna kill us, we're gonna go out of business, blah blah blah. We had 30 something clients that worked with that person. Whoo!

You know how many people we lost? How many? No way. You I you were probably bewelled. You were shocked. Bro, I was bewildered. I was like, we lost one. You thought you how many did you think you're gonna lose? Half. You thought 15 were gone. I was like, we're done. This is it. Close the doors, and only lost one. And I was like, wait, but model come on now. I was about to say the model is good. So therefore, you found out through that fire, the people that signed up were more in love with your model in business more so than them.

They had the trust that I was gonna hire someone better and they were gonna get even more results and feel better by coming here. Because I think once you explain that to people, so if you're a client listening to this, I'm always gonna hire better. So the person you have now might learn and grow and be that better person, or it might be someone new that is even better. Exactly. So it's just a matter of trust. It's I had their best self-interest, right? Yes. Like this is what this is the way where you break it apart, where those that quit because I'm in it for the money and don't care them, that's sort of bullshit.

Yeah, if not, that's what they find.

Even if you take it to that extreme that I'm in it for the money, right? Isn't it in my best interest to keep you? Of course. Of course. So am I gonna do everything I ever want to keep you? Exactly. And to keep you happy? Exactly. Because I'm only in it for money. So then if I don't want to lose you, right? So how do I best chance better my odds in order to keep it? I hire better people. Yep. I have better training. Yep. I have more systems in place to do that. Which is what I'm doing. Which is what I'm doing. Exactly. The whole point of going to Florida is to do that. So am I gonna hire someone worse? No. Am I gonna fire someone because I don't like the way they smile, that I'm a mean person.

And if you trust me, and you've been cut, you trust me, you want me, you want me around, you trust me, you should know I'm leaving knowing that my business is strong enough to survive without me, and you're gonna be taken care of. Yeah, and you're gonna you should know that already.

And you're gonna get a better experience.

Exactly. And now I'm just taking that experience that you have here to another state so others can enjoy exactly what you're getting here. That's that's all it is. That's it. You're not losing.

As I learn and as I grow, you're gonna get more, you're gonna see how you're gonna enjoy this place better. Exactly. Like you're gonna see all these things. Exactly. So as a client, no one in their right mind would ever disown everyone and say, I'm gonna make things worse for people. You're out of the mind, they shouldn't be a business owner.

Yeah.

Doesn't matter if they're in it for the money or they're in it for the people, both for the same exact answer. It's you want to do what's better for them. And what's better for them is to always hire more, is to fire the wrong people. Like, that's why we do that for the client. At the end of the day, it's for the client.

Yeah. But the clients, see, the thing is, but the client has to have that right state of mind. And I think it's I think so. I think us as entrepreneurs, it's okay to have that conversation with certain clients. If you run into them on passing, it's okay to ex break that down.

It's so until he calls into my office and says what's going on, I do it, I do tell them.

Okay, good. That's what I'm saying. I think it's uh it's if they're giving you money and they're paying for a service and they're up, they're upset that you're leaving, I think you owe it to, especially if not, it's you know, not to me anybody you owe it to a handful of people to tell them.

Let's take this to the extreme, yeah. Because this is what I used to scroll up to when I stopped. I talked to a client. We house whatever. Hey Anthony, um, I was gonna call the gym, but can you do mind just switching my appointment tomorrow? Okay, hey Anthony. Um, also, can you just uh move my session from this time to this time the next day? Uh he started up thinking, yeah. No, no. Hey Anthony, can you uh I want to do a different program. What's the price of that program again?

Nah, yeah, yeah. You see what's happening? Yeah, so taking advantage now. Now people don't err and boy just quick access to me to come and tell me.

Yeah, talk to you at XYZ. Yeah, no, no. Now they're asking for these small little favors. They're not the only ones. I'll take that times 15 people.

Yeah.

And you're just shot answering small favors. 100%.

Not that access.

So now you're now I say, I I can, but I'll be like, that's Amanda's job. Reach out to her. Here's your number.

Yeah.

That's this person's job. Reach out then that's the number. I pass it off. I could do it.

Don't give it a stop. I shouldn't be doing it.

But the second I like keep going and doing this, you're gonna keep passing.

But this is the same thing we looked at, the power of no. You have to allow you at a certain point, you have to tell people no, because if you don't, not all, but a lot of people will take advantage of you, and that is a perfect example of that. So, yes, in passing, if you someone comes in and wants to have a conversation, you explain to them as to why you're leaving and expanding, but you still have to limit access and understand you are the CEO, and these minuscule jobs should be handed off to other people underneath you so that you can grow the business. Not that you're better than anyone, you just have a job to grow the business.

One last final point, then we'll wrap. As the CEO, and as you become more and more the CEO, you are not the COO.

Yeah, but you're not anything, yeah, you're not anything other than the CEO.

Explain because people hear it, hearing and doing are two separate things. You are not responsible to do the day-to-days. 100%. You were not responsible to come and do XYZ, monitor people. You step out. Okay. It's a hard lesson. You're so used to when you open a company doing everything. Yep. And you think that success is working from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. or whatever, seven days a week. But let me tell you from experience and lesson I learned time and time again the point of the CEO is visionary work. It is absolutely impossible to be a visionary. Yes, if you are bogged down. Can't do it. Day to day, answering texts, phone calls, doing little operation things. It is impossible to think. Can't do it. And I learned this by traveling.

Okay.

When I go on vacation, that's when all my ideas come to me. I step away from everything. Oh, yeah, you and I spoke to that. Yeah. It all comes. I remember, and this is such like a flashbulb. I'm with uh Sarah. We're hiking the Grand Tetons in uh Wyoming. Okay. And I just an idea just came to me, and I was like, Sarah, what about this? For three hours on this hike, poor my poor wife. I'm like ironing out this idea thinking about it, because I we had no service in the middle of Wyoming. And I just came with this awesome idea. Ended up coming home and doing it. But like, that's when you think I might see it.

That's why everyone thinks that's what the greatest creations are. I mean, it's when you can't be scrolling on your phone answering technology.

Isolation, you need to be isolated. So, me moving is isolation in its purest form. It's gonna be the callus food, yeah. Because I don't have to my only place to work right now is my gyms. So people take advantage they see me. Because you're right there.

Hey Anthony, um, yeah, I know it's a manager's job, but can you answer this real quick? What are you gonna say? No, I do no, but at times you I'm strong. But it's employers. I say that okay, okay, there you go.

But I I don't know ask Amanda. Yes. I don't want to build up muscle. People keep coming to me and asking me because I like I'm trying to think and get work done, and this is bonded up by stupid shit.

Yep. That is the sole reason why you have to eliminate yourself here, your presence here, or you'll never grow. You know, it's funny. I was watching um Steve Jobs, I think it was Yale or one of the Ivy League schools, but he was giving a speech, and he's and one of the students asked them, um, is it difficult for you as an entrepreneur? Like, what do you do when as a business owner when someone makes a mistake? And Steve Jobs took like 30 seconds of silence. People probably know the clip I'm talking about and kept quiet, and he was thinking. And he said, Naturally, when you grow something that's your baby, when you start it, you always have the urge to want to jump in and fix it. He said, But the hardest thing as an entrepreneur for me, as Steve Jobs, is telling myself, no, don't do it. Teach them how to do it and leave them alone. Allow them to make the mistakes and figure it out. He said, That was the hardest thing for me at Apple, because I know how to fix it, I know what to do, but I had to fight and no, don't do it, Steve. And you know what Apple is today.

And then we get the people that keep reaching out to you and saying, well, just tell me real quick, just tell me real quick.

Yeah, but see, this is your fault though, if you're answering that, tell me real quick. That's your fault. You have to eventually say no, or guess what? You got the wrong guy or girl at your job. If you keep asking me how do you do stuff and I taught you, that means I gotta get rid of you. And as an entrepreneur, just like Steve Jobs said, it's that urgency. You have to fight it. So you always there's always internal battles you're gonna have as an entrepreneur, but you gotta stop it and say, no, I hired you to do this, I gotta allow you to mess up and learn from it and not fix it. That's the point of you going to Florida. Take a seat and go expand somewhere else. I taught you guys enough. I gotta go now. And that's the point of it.

Yeah, I'm gonna sit up myself. So don't forget, guys, transition out of your business. And we have done this in a couple episodes, but what are you gonna take accountability for? Fire right now. Yep. To transition out of your company. What steps are you gonna put into place? Comment below. Maybe we'll talk about it on the show.

And not just out of your business, out of your life, from your old life to your news. What are you gonna take accountability for today to transition not just out of your business, but also out of your life, your old life, to go and step into your new life and your new self? Anthony's going to Florida and turn on a new leaf, man. Fix it.

Yeah, I'll be there too.

Don't forget, like, comment, subscribe. See you next time. Peace.