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[0:02] And we are live on pirate broadcasts it is an exciting day.
And you know there's only three weeks until Thanksgiving so we're going to be talking about a lot of different topics in the next little while.
However today I have a very special guest. And you know we're all into entrepreneurs and you know linked it is here and we've got our business.
We got all these activities going on and Wendy helps really create and break through those,
challenges you have with overwhelming you know some of the things that go off in your head and just kind of reel around there and kind of bounce around so we're going to be talking to Wendy today about that.
And if you're joining us live thank you all the gratitude in the world and follow pirate broadcasts please.
Because you know we're we're bringing interesting people doing interesting things to the platform and we want to be able to share these things.
Everybody has a gift. Wendy and we want to be able to share your gift today. So how are you. Good morning.

[1:03] Well rest. Good morning thank you for having me.

[1:06] I am noticing that I think it still says Rob at the top.
So just as a disclosure I am not. Rob Rob here. I am Wendy breaks down you are Scott.

[1:19] We were talking about jogging this morning and getting all her colors ready. It's like okay.

[1:26] Yeah I am. I'm not I'm I'm ready to. Oh look there I am. Woo hoo.

[1:30] Well that brings up a great point because you know Wendy you know you're known for building systems and checklists and and eliminating overwhelm.
And here I am just wandering all all morning long and just kind of not going through my checklist and updating my graphics.

[1:50] Yeah. But you know what. This is a great example of kind of going with the flow.
And I that a lot of the times we forget about that piece of our lives where stuff happens.

[2:04] You know Done is better than perfect. Like who cares I can say I'm not Rob I'm Wendy right.
I'm not your guest from yesterday. We can test today. It's it's a lot of things that I think we make.
That overwhelm us as entrepreneurs as people as parents as you know partners.
Whenever a lot of it is just in our heads and it not it's really not that important and it's really not that big of a deal. It's not a big deal that you didn't have the right thing.
So like don't sweat the small stuff and like you said you know we're getting close to the holidays like there's a ton of reasons that people get overwhelmed burnt out maxed out.
It's just you just gotta kind of roll with it. And I'm the first one that need to take my own advice.

[2:48] Yeah. And I think you have to give yourself permission to laugh at. It's like OK yeah whoops just.
Sorry Woody.
I mean let's let's just keep going because you know we're here to enjoy the moment.
And I think really you know the whole thing about the entrepreneurial journey is we were talking before we started was this.
It's it's kind of exciting. And you know you run into opportunities that you never imagined and you meet people that you didn't think that you would ever meet. And.
It's so fascinating to me what people are doing online in five years ago this streaming live and broadcasting and everything else was a completely different scenario.
You know it wasn't possible. And what we can do now is amazing.
And I know that you're doing some amazing things. So I wanted to just kind of have you share with people that don't know you,
know what your focus is because it's really important for people understand that they have help out there and you help in a lot of people so kind of things. Tell us about that.

[3:56] Yeah.

[3:57] So like you said everything's moving so fast and as entrepreneurs the path is not a straight line it whines and curves you step off the path,
you pivot you fall back you move forward all these like magical things are happening,
but when you're a six figure entrepreneur or your you know growing a business and you've been acting as a solo partner and then you at that kind of precipice of,
wow I have an opportunity to expand and you know what they say like new level new devil right.

[4:31] So it can be really overwhelming. And I always say that I. OK so here's my my spiel.
So I'm a business systems and operations consultant.
And really I work with six figure entrepreneurs that want to accelerate in scale and also reclaim their freedom along the way.
They started creating a job for themselves and their business and lost sight of their entrepreneurial fire.

[5:04] Or they ended up kind of falling back into feeling like they're in a corporate job. And they're the bosses themselves or their business.
They've created a monster for themselves basically.
You have the dream turned into a nightmare. Yeah exactly.

[5:18] Or the dream just didn't turn out to be as Technicolor as they wanted it to be right.
I like that. And so and a lot of it is you know I tell people like they're you know a lot of the times people come to me when they're like burning out freaking out or on the verge of selling out.
And if you're feeling like those things if you're like,
constantly maxed out and you're leaving money on the table but you're like I'm booked like you can't scale it's just not you've created something that isn't a scalable situation for yourself.

[5:52] So now somebody people are in that spot that oh my god is that.
And and because it's like yours you start something that you're passionate about and you scale to capacity and because you're doing all of the work it's difficult and it's very challenging to step through to the next level.
It's like I'm in the storm I'm just waiting for the rainbow. Right.

[6:14] Yeah. It's like the light at the end of the tunnel and you hear these people say oh you know just keep going and it's gonna get better and you're kind of like this doesn't feel like it's gonna get crushed crushed.
It just you know so many bits for losers you know.

[6:31] And so,
the entrepreneur is faced with this this entrepreneurial anxiety and tension.

[6:43] Yeah I've talked about this a lot too because I have always struggled with anxiety and one of the reasons why I became an entrepreneur is because,
I didn't like the anxiety that having to go to work and sit in a cubicle and follow directions and keep my mouth shut. I didn't like that.

[7:01] You get out of the and a person.

[7:03] Yeah. I mean that like made me crazy and it was soul sucking for me.

[7:08] And so and and I'm good with systems I know that if you put systems in place it gets the stuff out of your head and then it actually frees you up you get,
more freedom but a lot of the times entrepreneurs get really like stressed out thinking about systems and they feel very Where do you think that is.

[7:28] Because I I built systems in and out of corporate environments and I love systems.
I love automation I love workflows.
I like delegating things.
Well let's be honest. I I I do have a little slight sense of control that I need to maintain power systems can.
Just it just eliminates a lot of stress when you don't have to think about what you're going to be doing next.
Yeah. So what are some common steps that we have to think about as we're considering going from a freelancer to a real entrepreneur.

[8:07] So I think a lot of the times people are fearful of systems because they fear that it's going to be complicated.

[8:19] And and when you set up systems that aren't.

[8:24] I mean people have systems for everything they do. Right you have a system for the way that you brush your teeth. You just don't even realize it right. Because.
Yeah but there's a flow there's a workflow there right.
You have a system for the way that you put on your shoes and socks or make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich right.
There are systems in every part of your life. Super uncomplicated systems.
But when people start to think about Oh my God if I grow I'm going to have to have a system for this and a system for that.
And the brain their mind is making it more staticky than it has to be.

[8:57] Well I think a lot of people have a tendency to overcomplicate the simple one hundred percent because they do it inside a vacuum and when they can talk to someone like yourself and,
you know identify three systems that they could create that would eliminate and reduce some of the workload that they have to go through every time they set up something like onboarding a client.

[9:22] Yes that's a very simple system to create maybe a communication system.
You know it's like Oculus let's figure out how we're going to communicate with ah ah ah well community.

[9:37] Yeah. Or just internally and externally. And if you just set it in stone like for internal communications we are only going to use,
this and that the external communications with clients we are going to only allow them to communicate with us through this or that. Right.

[9:56] And so a lot of people leave everything a little bit nebulous and willy nilly and they don't set these structures and these structures are what gives you,
the freedom to expand and grow because when you don't have to think about it you're open to work on other things.

[10:15] Right.

[10:16] Like if I know that I've got a system for Prospect pipe lining and lead tracking I don't have to worry about the leads that are coming in like I know what is going to happen. Right.

[10:30] They're going to land here. I'm going to do that so-and-so is going to do that.
And so these little systems you know you can pick four or five and I have four or five that I always try to get people started with.

[10:42] When I'm working with a client and I'm happy to share some of those because I think they're super valuable.
But when you can just set those few systems up.

[10:52] You don't have to conquer the world in a week like it's not. It's not an all or nothing game when it comes time to systems.
And that's what I try to tell people to is like you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Like start where you are and move forward.
You don't have to go back. You don't have to do it all this week.

[11:09] Pick one thing you want to work on this month and one of the things that I love to focus on is daily progress. Yes.
Do something daily. So what are some of the big lies that people tell themselves about what they can or cannot do to build systems and create something else.
So what can you share with us here.

[11:33] The four big lies that I've been just one big lie. Those like these like entrepreneurs that are that they really need to become a CEO like whether you're a wellness producer or a spiritual pioneer.
You know info printer at the heart of it you need to start thinking like the CEO of your business. Yeah.
One of the guys you're not like hanging out with your buds like run a business like a bad ass basically like I got this I got do this.
I could do it all part of becoming a CEO is letting go of some of these lies and so the first lie that I find that people are telling themselves all the time.
And I always love to see which ones people relate to the most.
But the first lie that I come up that I hear a lot is nobody can do it as good as me.

[12:19] I have to do it all myself.

[12:21] And it's like yeah a lot of people out there that can do it as good as you.
You just need to put the right people in the right seats so that you're confident to let it go.
And it's practice practice delegating and we'll talk a little bit about delegating in a minute. But.
So that's the first lie is this is this nobody can do it as good as me.

[12:43] I need to do it all in my business. Well that's great. You can but you're not going to scale your business. That's it that's not a recipe for scalable.

[12:50] Are you comfortable where you are because you're not going anywhere.

[12:53] Yeah exactly. You know take your foot off the gas you are in neutral.

[12:57] Yeah. And so then the second lie that I hear a lot is.
Well I'm just going to throw more money at marketing and that will probably fix my problem.
And when I tell people is if you're already into the six figures you probably don't have a marketing problem.
You have a fundamental systems are foundational problem.

[13:19] And if you keep trying to build on your house and make the house prettier with all the marketing and you know decorating the house or building a second story on your house.
But the foundation below it and the framework of the house isn't built to withstand the weight of all that marketing problem.
Yeah you're you're building a house it's going to sink into the ground.
And then again you're in neutral you're not growing it's like one step forward two steps back and you know an entrepreneur is pretty much you want to be two step forward one step back so you're always moving forward.

[13:52] I think you always want to be thinking about you know going back to the CEO statement.
It's you always want to be thinking about what can I let go.
Because the real job of a CEO is to develop the vision of where Rygel Future Focus future focus exactly.

[14:11] It really is important for people to understand it's like how quickly can I remove things from my plate delegate and move forward with the vision and keep it moving as fast as quickly as possible because,
you know a lot of businesses you know you've got 18 to 18 months of runway before you crash and burn.
You know working 18 hours a day and in just it's burnout you know you have to learn how to transition from doing it to delegating it.

[14:45] And I have an exercise for that actually.
I want to tell you that two other lies and then I want to tell you about this exercise. Okay. Or bring them home. Okay I'll bring them home.

[14:57] So the third lie is I'll just hire a virtual assistant and drop everything on their plate.

[15:05] And generally what happens I find is that if you haven't setup the right systems and framework in your business and you hire a virtual assistant who's a great implementer or doer you end up spending a lot of time working for the V.A.
You're spending a lot of time managing and micromanaging the V.A.. And I find that most people then.

[15:26] If they if they haven't thought through it and a pot you know letting the V.A. go after a couple of months they haven't set the V.A. up for success.
They haven't set themselves or the relationship up for success.

[15:36] And so I could also see where would amplify bad processes.

[15:41] Oh my God. Now a lot of times you can get a V.A.
That kind of is you know got got Gil G.
But most of the time a V.A. like I said is a doer. And so you need to make sure that you've got your ducks in a row that you have a system for like we talked about delegation,
in place before you just kind of start like winging it or throwing it over the fence at your V.A..
So that's a that's a lie that I think a lot of a lot of entrepreneurs a lot of CEOs think that's going to solve the problem.
Yeah and then the fourth lie is I can't afford it so I'll just work an extra hour every night and eventually it'll get easier.
And you know Parkinson's Law says that if you open up time if you set a time to do something you'll fill the time like you aren't all of a sudden going to be able to shrink the amount of work into a lesser amount of time.
You actually have to give yourself less time.
And so it doesn't just mean it's not just going to miraculously get easier. Never know Dracula's is not.
And the reality is is that you can afford it. You have to invest in your business.
And if you aren't willing to invest then again take your foot off the gas and stay kind of where you're at because scalability is gonna be a tough tough road.

[17:06] Yeah absolutely. And for some you know not everybody is created to be an entrepreneur.

[17:13] Not everybody is you know like you said some some people are doers and they they really like the structure of being informed about what needs to be done given a task and doing it because there's a tremendous amount of stress involved in,
you know starting your own business running your own business growing your own business and that's I think.

[17:34] I think in today's social media posts and communication it's really your being entrepreneur you know live on the beach and do all this.

[17:45] You know it's like that's another lie that I just spell out here.

[17:49] And let me just say like if you bring your laptop to the beach the glare is terrible you'll end up with a headache.
Yeah I'm getting any. And anyways like I the tell over your head immediately. It's ridiculous.
It's ridiculous. Here's the thing about that and that goes back to that entrepreneurial anxiety and this idea that.
You know there's so much risk involved with being an entrepreneur like you're talking about some people aren't prepared for the risk that's involved with being an entrepreneur and cause a lot of anxiety.
The other part about being an entrepreneur that that people kind of get sucked into is this idea of their value.
And so they start to equate their personal value as a person,
by how much money they're making how that's their businesses and your personal value is not connected to how much money you make but we fall into that trap because we're spending time on all these,
years and seeing all those people you know drive in the cars and those all those cars are rented by the way. Nobody owns those cars right.
Everybody's at home in their yoga pants or in their track pants right.
Working hard. And so what you see and what you think you need to be is different than what is actually happening.
And so people get filled with a lot of anxiety around that.

[19:16] And I was just having this conversation yesterday with somebody about you know you're standing in line for a movie or a show or an event of any kind.
It's like there are people in front of you and there are people behind you.
And it's always going to be that way. So don't don't compare your your position of where you are with anyone else.
Do what you can to improve who you are right now today and stay in that moment.
And so it's really important for us to understand that it's not about what everybody else is doing it's about what you're doing to make your own progress and feeling you know for myself it's like,
I want to design a lifestyle that I'm comfortable with so I can define my own success.
And it has nothing to do with money. It has to do with what I do and how I spend my time.
And of course money affords me to do what I want with my time.
However it's not necessarily attached to what I do every hour.
So that's the difference. That's the difference between having a job and and doing something that you love to create.
And I just want to take a moment here Wendy because there are so many people in the room right now.
Randall Cathy Sherry Julia Emma.
Kenyatta. Good morning Carol Vicky all of you.
I just have a tremendous amount of gratitude for everybody here joining us Damone.

[20:45] And it just it's a tremendous thing to be able to share your gifts with me and I just want to appreciate and thank you so much for being here.

[20:54] And as we go through this entrepreneurial journey and build systems,
you had some exercises that you wanted to share and I just wanted to highlight a few people and thank them for being here and acknowledge the fact that we're having a conversation and I appreciate the fact that you're here so,
and I want to talk about.
I want to talk about exercises actionable things that people need to think or consider and do to get passed because we're all hurtin to a certain extent.
We need to stick together and you know I think there is an abundance in the world because when you start opening up your mind to possibility all of these things all of a sudden,
they start appearing out of nowhere. It's like I never saw that before.
It's like then you start thinking in a different way. And you know if you have an exercise that people could start doing or are considering or you know contacting you for the next step it would be a good thing right.

[21:51] Absolutely. And you know there's there's there's a few systems that I think are you know everybody needs to have.
And the first one I always try to tell people is protect your calendar protect your time and this is really about implementing a scheduling system,
because if you don't put boundaries around your calendar and around your time and are on your schedule you are you know again it makes it hard to have a life.
It makes it hard to develop the freedom and reclaim your freedom.
And that goes for during your workday setting boundaries for your family your partner or your friends.
That goes after hours setting boundaries for your clients during work time if you set up what I call like the quiet zone where you're not interrupted by your V.A.
Or your S.O. or whoever you work with during certain hours because those are like focused hours protecting your your calendar will is number one.
And as far as anything you can do to help yourself.

[22:58] Well for me if it's not on my calendar it doesn't happen. And I've been one that has always been overly available.
And so I have to really be cautious about self-preservation.
And one of the biggest challenges I have and I know this could be an entirely different show is the biggest frustration I have is I can combine all my emails into a system into a single system.
I can't seem to find one that works for my calendar because I have I have multiple calendars depending on which client I'm working with and because I work with different in and out of different organizations.
And you know. And so it's so it's frustrating because I just want one place where I can manage all of my time.

[23:53] That's hard. I mean it's hard. Sometimes the system isn't just a little pet peeve of mine.
And also sometimes you can't fully automate something and that's OK to like you know that that's an area where because you've got these you know separate things floating around you are going to it is going to take some manual work your V.A.
May have to help you with that your system may have to help you with that a little bit but that's a system in and of itself is how you communicate with your V.A. about your time management.

[24:25] Well then I think it's the way I've always developed in the past is the,
There's digital systems like email calendar and there's business processes which is you know,
just actual communication and know phone calls and activity and so it has to be,
improved in one side or the other to fulfill the goal of the business system.

[24:57] Absolutely. We can talk about it. I know the calendar.
I wonder. But you know what. A little bit of you know for people that aren't using a calendar system for people that are like you know I was on the phone with somebody the other day and she said everything on my calendar is like the same color.
And I was like well then just color coded you know have a color for this and that so you can look at it and see and it was like well some people don't like that that's a possibility.
Yeah. And so when you can like take you know like check the small things off the list that's really beautiful like that's where I think the magic happens. So OK.
So you've got this kind of like here's something that I think happens a lot that I try to get people to focus on.

[25:43] Is squirrel vision right here.
And talk about color vision or Technicolor and now we're talking about squirrel vision squirrel vision is when you're standing in a park and you're watching a squirrel run through the park and then you realize wait a minute there's another squirrel.
And now you're trying to watch all these squirrels run around in a park and that's what we do with our businesses sometimes.
So I really try to encourage business owners to focus on their one main thing.
And if you can focus on your one main thing that you do better than anybody else the reason that you are attracting people to you your superpower your bold greatness and you make sure that,
that what you're doing supports the one main thing of your business and everybody working for you is also focused on that.
Then you've got a an opportunity to really grow. And so that's where my 3D exercise comes in.

[26:40] It's do it delegated or ditch it.
And so the first thing I just have people do is you know for a couple days up to a week on a piece of paper it doesn't have to be fancy track,
what you're doing doesn't have to be by the minute but track all the tasks that you're doing because you know you've taken on stuff because you think nobody else can do it as good as you.

[27:02] Right. You've taken on stuff because you don't think that you can afford to hire it out. So you're just full of minutia.
And once you kind of can look over a couple of days at everything that you've been working on then you can really assess Is it something that needs to be done because it supports the one main thing of our business.

[27:23] And is it something that has to be done by me. If it is then you keep it as a duet.
Yeah and that's to be done because it supports the one main thing but it can be done by somebody else.
You delegated and then you come to realize that there's stuff you're doing that aren't really money making they're not income producing activities and not generating anything or frustration.
Yeah. Did you get rid of it.
And so the 3-D is really critical when you look at them through the eye of.
Does it support the one main thing. Yeah.

[27:56] And that would encourage you to put your one main thing up on the on your absolute extra note and put it somewhere where you can remember it's like because anchoring to the why you're doing this is I think absolutely critical for a lot of,
those days where you're thinking oh this is why am I doing this right. Why am I doing this.

[28:16] Well and even the Y can be more visionary but your one main thing is like you know I am a business systems consultant.
Yeah I help people with their systems right. That's my one main thing and I decided to start helping people with video marketing and the line to my one main thing that's attached to your one main thing.
Exactly. And so while it might be fun why that might be a squirrel that's running through my park that is like kind of catching my eye.
It really doesn't align with my true purpose.

[28:51] And I think that's the you know you bring up a good point that could be another topic for another day.
However I think a lot of people have.
I know I have personal challenges around this because I have such a diverse background and a lot of interest and so.
Driving home the idea that I have one main thing I know it improves my business when I do that however that's a whirl.

[29:19] That's why a has an opportunity to chase it down. You know the idea is it's like oh I could do that. That looks interesting. Yep.

[29:26] I know we have two hundred years maintain and put boundaries on it. I think so.

[29:31] Yeah and let's we want to just take our foot off the gas and just,
say well what happens is if you don't focus on the one main thing then the CEO stays at the nucleus of the business and everybody's revolving around the CEO and the whims,
of the CEO which is you.
And if you're like sending your team and all these different directions because you wake up and see it saw a new squirrel that you think is gonna be fun to chase through the park,
your team is going to go that direction and it's their responsibility as much as it is your responsibility to drive to the one main thing.

[30:07] I think that's how you define insanity. Squirrels launching Squirrel Squirrel Squirrel watching. Yeah.
So what's the takeaways for today Wendy.

[30:17] Because I know that you're busy and you got things going on and I just want to bring the gifts that you have.
You know you're able to deliver today and share them with everyone we can.
And so what's the one main thing that you had if you had to share with the world today what would what would you want to share today with growing your business and building system.

[30:38] Keep it as simple and as straightforward as possible.
There is always an opportunity to overcomplicate you're going to have plenty of time in your life to overcomplicate your business.
Keep it simple. And if that means that you had a system that worked and maybe you tried a new system because the Guru or whoever told you to and it's not working it doesn't feel right.
Fall back to the other system. It's okay to take those baby steps.

[31:08] Absolutely absolutely I totally agree with you. And how do people get a hold of you. What's the best way for them to connect with you.

[31:16] Besides LinkedIn I mean besides LinkedIn I love getting new connections on LinkedIn and starting conversations.
I'm over on Facebook. You can just look for Wendy breaks down and then you can go to my Web site at Wendy Brookstone dot com.
Very simple but easy. Keep it simple.

[31:34] Wendy I truly appreciate your gifts and sharing them today with us.

[31:38] And I just I just you know I love this because it allows me the opportunity to you know interesting people doing interesting things and sharing it.
And it's just fascinated me to see that I am not alone.

[31:54] You know it we're all in this world together and we can do great things when we start coordinating and getting together and doing things great together.
So it's like this is a gift and I appreciate you.

[32:05] Well likewise and I appreciate you and the show is so much fun. Thank you for bringing it to us every morning.
I don't want to do a show at this time of day every month so more power to you.

[32:18] Well you know to me it's kind of therapeutic because I like systems and I like getting things going.
It's like just like the mishap this morning is like I have a system and it's set up to be that way.

[32:29] And I had a client call before our call today so because I have called I have clients around the world and,
and so it's it gets me going every day I have something to look forward to and this is kind of like my little sense of joy and I could I can bring things to the world and share it.
And when you when you help others around you somehow your life is not infinitely better intimacy.

[32:54] Absolutely absolutely. And so as I always say kindness is cool.
Smiles are free and you enjoy the day.
Thanks for us. You bet.