The 7 Parts of Every Business — and Why Your Mindset Runs All of Them

RJon Robins has spent 15+ years helping entrepreneurs stop working for their businesses and start building businesses that work for them. His new book — Truth, Lies, Mistakes or Bullshit: What's Driving Your Business? — started as a talk and became a business parable about what separates thriving organizations from struggling ones. Spoiler: it's not the business model. It's what's running in the owner's head.We cover the seven parts of every business, why HR exiled itself to a compliance island, and what it means to invest in leadership before you actually need it.Guest: RJon Robins is an 8-figure entrepreneur, licensed attorney, and bestselling author. He founded How to Manage a Small Law Firm in 2009 and has since achieved 8,000% revenue growth, with 600+ of the fastest-growing small law firm owners in the country as members. His company has been named to the INC 5000 every year since 2015 and recognized as an INC Best Place to Work.In this episode:00:02:06 — RJon's background: founding How to Manage a Small Law Firm and building a business he's away from 270 days a year00:04:21 — What led to the book Truth, Lies, Mistakes or Bullshit and why it's written as a business parable00:07:38 — The difference between owning a business and owning a job00:10:40 — The 7 parts of every business: marketing, intake, production, people, physical plant, financial controls, and you00:17:36 — The 7th part: your mindset is in the center of the clock, and it's affecting every other part00:22:02 — Why HR should be called Human Development, and what it looks like when it's treated as a profit center00:25:42 — "This is 100% HR's fault" — why HR exiled itself to the compliance island and what it costs them00:32:13 — The Peter Principle in action: what GE and other big companies do differently with talent development00:38:56 — How intrapreneurs can navigate any organization by understanding its core motivations00:42:44 — The Doctrine of Sacrifice vs. the Doctrine of Profit — and what profit actually means as a voluntary exchange00:46:43 — How RJon opens every interview: treating candidates as CEO of their own career00:50:00 — Advice for leaders pursuing promotion, and for leaders on day two of a new role: pursue truth, find out what's realResources mentioned:Truth, Lies, Mistakes or Bullshit: What's Driving Your Business? by RJon Robins and John David Mann — truthliesmistakesorbs.com or order at Barnes & Noble (pre-order at time of recording)The Automatic Marketing Machine by RJon Robins (search on Amazon or Barnes & Noble)Profit First for Lawyers by RJon Robins (25,000+ copies sold; search on Amazon or Barnes & Noble)The Doctrine of Sacrifice vs. The Doctrine of Profit — RJon's proprietary framework on why suffering isn't a requirement for building a profitable businessThe E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber (referenced on systems-driven business)Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon HillThe Peter Principle — concept by Laurence J. Peter (search "The Peter Principle book")Links for today's show:RJon Robins on LinkedIntruthliesmistakesorbs.comKent Kniebel on LinkedInThe Promoted Leader ToolkitMusic for this podcast comes from a live recording of the song Needle & Thread and is provided with permission by Pert' Near Sandstone. Check them out on pertnearsandstone.com and on all major streaming platforms.Enjoyed the episode? Leave a rating and review wherever you listen — it helps more leaders find the show.