Okay, I need some advice. You do. I do. I have a problem.
Actually, I have a problem with advice. There's a problem with advice, don't you think? I do. I do.
I just started a daily coaching program in my market and it's free and it's recently come to my own awareness by no thought other than me overthinking a problem that may or may not exist. That I might come off as a little preachy because I'm putting out these videos that are, you know, their advice. Without context. Yes.
Problem. That could be a problem sometimes, you know? Advice without context. Advice from people who don't have your problem but maybe they had your problem five years ago.
Yeah, that's what I feel is a big challenge for business owners is that we want. We want the answer. We want. We want the answer, which is why we love turning to people, which is why we love reading all those listicles.
You know, top five things to do to grow your business. We love like it's that clickbait that we love so much because we just want the answer. And so often when you read those things or you watch those videos. They do they don't give you any context of how they've gotten there or why these solutions make sense.
And then people just kind of start sharing these tips and advice like, oh, this is the way to do it. I have to grow an email list or I have to start doing video or I have to, you know, they have the answer, but it's not really the answer to their particular problem because. Again, going back to context. Yeah, when you when you run your business, you don't know what you don't know.
Yep. And so when you're confronted with a challenge where you don't know exactly right away what the answer is. You start searching for the answer and the problem is you may be getting advice from someone who has a different problem that calls it the same thing. Ah, yes.
Good point. You know, I, when you when you call tech support and you're like my computer won't turn on. That could mean like 80 different things. Like it doesn't power up.
Like there's no there's no light. It comes on or it doesn't boot up and good tech support knows how to ask the questions that create the context that allow you to actually solve the problem. Yes. And I feel like it's sometimes in business if we're just typing our problem into Google, it really just lacks that context that you need.
And that that is a problem for a lot of business owners. And that's why that's why entrepreneur communities exist. That's why things like VISTAGE and my friend Chris Kaplan at scaling up coaching. Our friend John Pound offers solutions for with context for certain specific industries.
This is why they have this is why they have a business because they've got a reputation of delivering value through context, not just advice. Yeah. Yeah, you know, we talked about, we talked about the show the profit before Marcus, I would love to meet that guy. Oh my gosh.
Marcus, if you're listening, if your team is listening, let's do this. Come on. Let's do this. He is just so he's so brilliant.
And the thing about Marcus is that and really great advisors or people that it is good in business to get advice from is because he knows so many industries, businesses, people types, just he has this wealth of knowledge in all of those different things. And that's who we want to get advice from. We want to get advice from people who we know that even if they're not in our business, they've seen, they've seen the industry so they know what we're going through versus when you call and ask someone for advice, who is this like a great friend of mine. He owns a tech company growing rapidly year over year.
We have different challenges. It's really helpful for me to talk to him. But what I've noticed is that when we're talking about he's giving me advice, he's giving me advice from his point of view of how he's dealt with this past year for him. What's worked for him this year?
Because that's what we base that's we base it off of. So it's so helpful when you can find someone who is in your industry to give you that advice because they kind of already get the context because they've done it. They've been there. They've seen it.
They've experienced it. I want to get all my advice from someone like Marcus. Yes. Yeah.
I feel like I don't have any problems big enough for him yet. No, no, no, no. One of the things that is a real challenge though in growing your business is everybody really has an opinion. Of course.
And a lot of people, a lot of the people whose opinions don't matter are the most eager to share them with you. Right. So at various stages, there are several different stages at which people love to give you their unsolicited advice. And I admit, I have a flinch for this because this is like, this is my only gift.
Sorry. But here's number one. Number one trigger word for unsolicited advice is I have an idea. And then whatever comes after that idea, it's like it's like it's like moths to a flame or light.
I think it's a light. People just, I have an, if you say that at a social group, there are certain people who go, oh, business talk. She's got an idea. And then one person says, you know, you should do another person is, you know, you should do, you know, you should, you should, you should, you should, you should, you should, and then end up shooting all over you.
All over you. All over you. I, I try, when I notice, I try to catch myself when I'm talking to someone and I say, should I really am way more conscious of it than ever before because I don't want to say you should, I don't know what you should do. I can share my advice.
That's, that is context. Right. That's, that's context coming out from you without any advice attached to it because you don't yet have enough information. I think that's what's so important about being around people who have experience.
The people who are so quick to give advice are probably not the people that you should be listening to. For example, if over the holidays, you've been spending time with family and this came up, if your mom was in the room, she's probably going to say, I love that idea. Right. So, so play this out.
I'm thinking about auditioning for American Idol. Oh, that's wonderful. I love your voice. You've got to say, you sing like an angel.
No, you sing like a hundred year old accordion. Oh my God. That's why we watch. That's why we watch all the, that's why we watch the beginnings of every season of American Idol, where it's just a cattle call for all the people whose mothers have been lying to them.
But they got advice. They got encouragement from the wrong people from people who are just yay go and no context. Yes. The I have an idea is, is, is one of those big triggers, second big trigger around unsolicited advice is I have a problem.
Because everyone wants to fix your problem. No, not everybody, but some, some people. Yeah, it's two thumbs and a podcast this guy. Some of those people that they have a flinch like, Oh, hey, puzzle.
I'm here. It's your lucky day. It's your lucky day. I know that I'm a sponge for other people's problems and challenges and opportunities.
And that's what I'm wired for. But like you, I'm also trying to hold that back and get more context and actually wait for them to ask. Yeah, for advice. That's why a coach is so good, because a coach doesn't give you advice.
A coach just gives you questions, just ask you questions to help you think through what it is that you're trying to get to. So there's like a coach that helps you with the questions. There's an advisor that can help you with thinking through and getting it or a consultant that's going to help you get the answers to something, but you just have to make sure you're going to someone who you know has, has done it. Who's been there?
Like that's the thing is like when we look at success, like success leaves clues. This is the craziest thing when when I even noticed my, some of my friends will call me and say, Oh, well, these people think this and I'm like, Oh, they do. So you're trying to build an online business and you asked those five people, none of whom have done anything remotely what you're trying to do. Like they have none of them, none of them have a successful online business.
In fact, some of them have and they stopped doing it because it wasn't successful, but those are the people you're getting advice from. Yeah, go go get advice from people who quit on their dreams. Yes, right. And get advice specifically on your dreams.
Quitters and this is the other problem with advice. So the other problem I think is people have already made their decision or they think a certain way and then they get advice, but they reach out to people who they already know the advice they're going to get. Almost like you've made the decision. You've made the decision to buy a home versus not buy a home.
What are you going to do? And then you're going to have friends who own homes and they're going to talk about the reason why it's a great investment and all this. Instead of your calling your friends that only rent and hearing all the reasons why that's a better option. So we kind of put ourselves into this bias already.
That is very interesting. It's advice theater. Don't you think like they don't they don't want advice they want confirmation. Exactly.
Yes. Yes. You bring you bring an idea to me and you're like I want to talk about this you come to me for confirmation. Okay.
So the reason why you know that that is so not true is exactly what happened the other day because Kyle. So I plan to call with Kyle. I wanted to work through something with him and the night before the call I texted him. Are you going to make me cry tomorrow.
So you're the opposite. You're the opposite when I know that I need someone to challenge me on something then I call Kyle, which you saved you saved up the big problem for me. I'm not a consultant. I'm not a consultant.
He doesn't trade his advice for cash. He always has skin in the game. Yes. Always has skin in the game.
And that's how you know that his you know that his health is aligned with his health. He's about how he actually. But he's not a consultant and he says that all the time. I'm not a consultant.
He doesn't trade his advice for cash. He always has skin in the game. Yes. Always has skin in the game.
And that's how you know that his. You know you know that his health is aligned with a positive outcome. And it's it's amazing to me if you've ever watched watched some of the shows where there's not a positive outcome where he actually the whole show is about starting to work together and then him breaking it off and I'm like, wait, what? What?
Yeah. Oh, what about the heavy ending with the bow on top? Those guys are assholes. I can't believe they totally used Marcus like this.
I get so I get so defensive about Marcus this time. Don't you guys waste Marcus's time. Oh, it's not a waste of time. I'm sure it helps the I'm sure it helps the show.
I'm sure it does. But I'm sure it does. But I just watched one of those with two guys that had a sock business. Did you see that one?
I'm gonna dial it up now. It ended. Now I just now I just told you the ending. But I was like, oh my gosh, but I find those to be really interesting, especially what I think is so interesting about Marcus is when he.
Finds a he finds a business is a great business, but maybe they're in like way too much debt. They have. What? And they and they held some back, right?
Oh, yeah, they always like they held they held some back and they don't tell everyone. They don't tell them all like all the truth. They haven't they haven't paid their taxes in years and they haven't. It's crazy.
Businesses are crazy. So, but what I like is that he doesn't invest, but he tries to do what he can to help them and like you keep on you wait throughout the show because you're like, all right, he's going to get them to a place of goodness and then he's going to invest and then it doesn't. And he's just like, I wish them well and I hope they figured out and he's able to help them in some way, but not get a deal. Oh, oh, by the way, he spent like a hundred and fifty grand.
On something related to that project and he just walked away from it. Oh, yeah, he's so consistent about about the lessons in that he said I'd rather lose a hundred and fifty grand and lose the next two years of time when they don't have a mindset that is going to be compatible with my with with my experience. He's totally cool. Just just walking away from that.
And I, you know, I really got to respect that because that's a guy who that's a guy who knows that he lives within these boundaries. Yeah, it's so respectable. But the thing that makes someone like Marcus Lomonas so compelling is is that he only get he only shares his advice when he has skin in the game. Before he has skin in the game, he asks a lot of questions.
Yeah, he starts to get the whole picture before he makes an offer and he's not he's not doing what what what scaling companies do where they offer a product they offer free samples of what they do. That's not what Marcus does because market is not a consumable market. Marcus is not something that is marketed. He is he is a solution for businesses for jobs and and for making money.
That's like his parameters and he's got a process and he's so he's just out hunting. He's not farming. He's hunting for business partners and his business partners have a process that he puts in place on how to farm for customers and for revenue. And it's just brilliant.
And it's respectable. But when you're getting it by the opposite of that is getting advice from people who have no skin in the game. They don't have they don't have any there's no there's no upside or downside to your outcome. Yeah.
Yeah, it's true because it's a people who those are people who might be shooting all over you. Those are often the people who are shooting all over you because it's easy. It's easy to tell someone what to do. Right.
I mean, we all we all know we're we're all pretty good at giving advice. We're all going to giving our own advice. We're not so good at taking our own advice. But you are especially good at giving advice.
But you know, that's what we do with trajectory here is we try to give we try to give context to the lessons that we've learned. We stay in our lane. We're not going to we're not going to venture. We're not going to start talking about this stock market all of a sudden.
Right. You want you want advice with stock market, not your guy. Nope, not your guy. I invest in my business.
Like I doubled down on my business. My business is growing faster than the market to support. I'm not your stock market guy. Sorry.
Which by the way is a great investment because I even I just I saw something like Warren Buffett was talking about the best investment you can make is in yourself. Like what you can what you invest in yourself to learn and grow and continue to learn into your business is that's going to be what's going to move you forward and really help you with your even with your wealth. Well, that's what he was talking about with your wealth. Instead of trying to find like the best places to put stuff, especially when you're younger, like investing in yourself, taking that course, doing the, you know, going to those events meeting great people, learning how to code or create a website or any of those things, which.
I think, you know, one of the one of the solutions that comes to mind in this problem, Kate is, you know, we're around no context and kind of that passive. No skin in the game passive ownership problem is is to have a mentor. And I've always found that a mentor paid or not is someone who is really invested in in you and your success and outcomes because they care about you. And it's not about it's not about a financial arrangement, but there are for people who are looking for advice where they're skin in the game.
There are a lot of ways to to get skin in the game, for example, anybody who invests in your business has skin in the game, anybody who invests in you has skin in the game and, and if you're trying to grow your business and you're strapped on cash. There are lots of consultants who would consider taking a percentage of your upside growth as, as compensation for an advisory position. And that's what happened to not be one of them, but I know plenty who do that. I know one who's, who's helped a, who's helped an accounting firm, multiple locations grow six figures in the last year.
Right. And that's again multiple location. And his payout on that is going to be giant because he does it for a percentage, but he's careful about that's his, that's his space. I know someone else that does his own investing and he's in real estate, mostly.
He does his own investing, but he also does consulting for nonprofit organizations and small businesses, and he's got room for 12 projects at a time. And he does it for a percentage. There's some monetary commitment that's pretty low, but then there's also a percentage of the upside. And he's careful about who he works with, because he, he wants to be good use of his time and it's also his way of maybe giving back to the community to help these organizations and small businesses grow, but there is an upside that doesn't, doesn't come with a giant financial commitment at the beginning.
If you're looking for, if you're looking for great advice that has context to it. And if you're, and if based on good context, and if you're looking for non passive ownership in, in the advice you seek and solving problems and opportunities that you face. Look for, look for a mentor and look for somebody who's who's been where you are and you've been really good at that in your career too. What with finding mentors you surrounded yourself with like goers goers doers.
I know. Yeah, but there's a fearlessness to you right so Kate the extrovert walks into the green room at the conference that she's like she's. Hey, I've been wanting to meet you like. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, well, it's kind of funny it's like when people say so many of those top people. I mean, of course there everyone's going after like the big time guys right like the people like a Richard Branson kind of person but some of those people that have a that are really well known in their industry that have done phenomenal work that are top of their game. They think that are a lot of people don't reach out to them because they think there's no way they're going to respond but those people. They actually are very most of them they've gone to the top because they are good people they're great at their business and they're also good people so I found that a lot of those influencers as long as you're not just like, you know, sending emails like I want to pick your brain or like something like that you're really caring about them as a person.
I feel like you can make those good connections. And of course, it's way better when you can make those connections in person. Yes, absolutely. I only will do video conference with people who are seeking my advice so that they can have that kind of connection and I own when I'm seeking it from other people I will only do it face to face that for that same reason it's super important.
So we talked about getting a mentor is one way that you can solve that problem. We talked about finding people who have already have already been where you are. But the third opportunity I think for people who are looking for advice that has context and that has ownership or skin in the game is joining a mastermind of people who are on the same path as you a guided a guided mastermind not not five people who are all lost at the same time without a guide Let's let's band together since we all have the same challenges similar challenges and no guide let's all band together so we can sync together and don't get a guided have a guided mastermind from so and it is absolutely worth every penny. And I'm one who says, I think maybe you should change up your mastermind groups from time to time.
Yeah, I think that's the hard we should there we should do an episode on how to find the right one because I think that's that's a challenge for people because you do have to find the right mix. And we talked about this before on a show you have to find that you have to find that you need blend of plus one minus one and equal. And that's where you know you have to find all those different levels and unless you have that plus one which is people that have a couple steps ahead of you have those equals that are there in the same space as you and then those minuses which is they are a couple steps behind you so you can help them. But unless you have that that group of individuals together and it's hard to put them to get I found that it's hard to put them together because depending on your personality.
Everyone's fine and cool and doing great stuff so when people are like do you want to do this mastermind I'm like yes let's do it and then I find oh this is not a good group for me to be in. So you really have to do some betting and figuring it out and that's why I think like we mentioned VISTAGE or EO or some of the local organizations that you can become a part of. Masterminds are great sometimes they're paid sometimes they're not I think it's really worth the investment obviously with what I do for a for a living I am 100% think that people investing in a coach or some in actual dollars again skin in the game for you in that type of a mastermind situation or coaching situation is really important because otherwise you know free has no value like you have to really put a price tag on it so that you actually show up and you do the work and you. You know do the things that you say that you're going to do so I think it can be very helpful I also think they can be extraordinarily distracting that's why finding the right one is so important.
Yeah you know I have a renewal date on it for everybody where you think about whether or not you're going to continue so that things don't just kind of go into infinite timelines and fade away you know that's that's going to be a killer. But like anything else in business you know when you grow it's going to feel a little uncomfortable. I think you ought to embrace that. Yeah let me put this in and you should embrace the uncomfortable that that's that's the advice without context and it's totally passive I have no skin in the game if you're going to take that advice.
Well here's the context. I've been the lonely business person not with with 360 degrees of options and getting in a mastermind of other people who weren't so who had all these options. And this is where they want to go. What should I take with me.
That was the right room for me versus going vertical with acquisitions or spreading yourself out. Having that kind of kind of I think you'll know it when you see it and if it's uncomfortable if it's if it's a little bit uncomfortable I think you're in the right place. If if something doesn't feel right, I would probably follow that. I wouldn't try to fit a square peg into a round hole when it comes to mentorship or masterminds.
So that's my that's my two cents on advice. Take it leave it with it what you will. Can't buy anything for two cents. Call to action say Kate be careful who you get advice from.
But when you're in need of it, when you're in need of it. Instead of saying I have an idea or I have a problem. Use your network to say I'm looking for someone who I'm looking for someone who. I like that and fill in the blank with whatever you need it to be someone who's been where I am I'm looking for someone who has a mastermind I'm looking for someone who coaches people through this type of growth.
I'm looking I'm looking for someone who. The answer probably isn't on Google but maybe the person that knows that person can be found through your network so in the meantime, you can always email Kate and she'll give you. I'm going to tell you what to do tell you what you should do. I'm shooting all over you.
Oh my gosh. Until next time, K-Boma. You get yourself rejected. Get yourself.
Go on get yourself rejected. Get yourself. See you next time. Hey, thanks for listening.
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