346: Korbett Miller: Teaching Us All To Spin Plates Everyday

Todays guest on Join Up Dots is a man who has been a small business owner for the last 18 years, and has learnt the hard way that to allow a business to thrive,. He believes that this means as much allowing the owner to thrive than anything else. Leaving Sienna Heights College with a Bachelor's Degrees in, Business Administration and Management, our guest set about creating one of the most successful martial arts schools in the State of Washington. Miller's Martial Arts Academy has become a key part of the neighbourhood for nearly twenty years, and is not just about teaching his pupils to break bricks with their heads (to be honest Im not even sure that this is what they do), but to teach children of all ages appropriate life skills which boost their self confidence. It teaches them responsibility, persistence, commitment and all the other things that will help the transition to adult hood and a successful life. And now with his new platform De-Mythify he is out to help the adults of the world, particularly the small business owners who have created income in their lives, but end up disliking the very thing that they have built. As he says "I have spoken to lots of burnt out business owners over the last nearly 20 years. I do not think you wake up not wanting to be a business owner. While, certainly, there could be a single event that sours you to the passion of being an business owner, that kind of change of heart only happens over time. It's what I call the "death by a million paper cuts". An owner has so many "plates spinning"– get this task going, now go do that task, hey we are out of toilet paper, John called off again, we lost our best customer, customer z is complaining again. All these little things add up so that the cumulative effect is that you wake up hating the thing that you truly loved doing just a few years ago." He seems a man who not only still loves what he is doing, but is now finding extra speed and energy because of that passion. He has found his thing (amongst being a rare horse breeder) and a real estate investor, and wants others to find theirs too. So how has he managed to stay energised, and keep all those plates spinning day after day, and come back for even more plates? And is there the right way to start a business, before even the first cheque hits the doormat? Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr Korbett Miller