Struggling with Business Delegation

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Struggling with Business Delegation

In this episode, we join a conversation with Brian Butkoski of Bomb Image and Howie Gross of Gross Investments. They discuss topics crucial to any entrepreneur, including authenticity in business, the importance of financial literacy, delegation, and setting up effective systems.

Time Stamps for Key Topics:

• Introduction and Importance of Authenticity [00:00]
• Differentiating Your Business: Unique Approaches [00:58]
• Struggles with Delegation and Leadership [04:36]
• Creating Effective Systems in Business [06:12]
• Financial Planning and Investment Strategies [09:23]

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Chapters

• 0:58 Differentiating Your Business: Unique Approaches
• 4:36 Struggles with Delegation and Leadership
• 6:12 Creating Effective Systems in Business
• 9:23 Financial Planning and Investment Strategies

Transcript

0:00

One of the things that I look at is the world becomes more digital, and the world becomes more AI, the more that we can actually see people in their natural light, we can go a little more analog on it, whether it's audio, video, or both. I think that that's going to really galvanize people in knowing how and why, when they're communicating with somebody, what it's really going to mean. And I think the cool part about that, and I try to fashion myself this way in almost every way, is that when someone sees me from one medium to the next or one interaction to the next, that hopefully they're seeing the same things and that it's authentic. Welcome to another episode of struggles, presented by NCBI, the podcast where we navigate challenges together. This episode, we join in on a conversation with Brian Butkowski of bomb image and Howie Gross of gross investments. What are people looking to give when they want to talk about themselves and differentiate themselves? And I think you're pretty good at that. What are some of the keys, when you look at yourself, as to how you differentiate who you are, how your businesses work and how they interact and interface with clients and customers? How are mine different? Specifically, your assets? Yeah. Yeah. How do you approach that? I mean, I have some answers, but I'd like to hear it. I'm just me, right? I mean, I've tried the. I've tried working for nine to five government. I've tried working for someone else. I'm just not a good employee. Like, that's the bottom line, and I know it. I could be a great employee. I just don't have any interest in following in someone else's footsteps. I just haven't had a lead. Maybe I just haven't had a leader big enough or strong enough to kind of bring me in, rein me in, but I just have had my own vision on how I want to do things. This. This vision of financial planning, advising for a long time. Like, it was long before I went to college. Like, I had a passion for money. And I know that people are misguided. Like, they don't understand. You know, people don't understand how money works. And my. My goal is to help people understand it. Like, and that's why I work with my friends and my family and everyone I work with, I have a close relationship with, because I want them to make money. Like, I want them to do well, and I want them to succeed. It's like, there's this. And some people have the mentality that, like, okay, I don't like doing business with friends, because, you know, we shouldn't blur those lines. Or we don't do businesses as, like, family members. Well, there are certain family members I would not do business with. Sure. Or if we did it, it has to be in a certain capacity. Gotcha. But that's just who I am. I mean, I want. You know, you're my friend. You're a client of mine. I want you to make money. Like, if I'm doing my job, you should be making money. Right, right. Everybody can be happy there, too. Everybody wins. You know, and I'm. I just. I don't play business. I don't pretend to be something I'm not. I don't act like I've got it all figured out. Like, I just put my head down and I work. Like, I. I do physical work through my landscaping company, and I do the grunt work. I cold call people. I do what I gotta do to get clients, you know, like, not everyone can do it. Not everyone. It's not fun to cold call people. I have to do it. No, it's not. I have to try to get business in the door. Right. I. You know, my problem is I don't really delegate. Well, it's something I've struggled with. I mean, I have business partners and gross investments or advisors that I refer to as business partners because they're not w two employees. They work with me. You know, when they do better, I do better. Vice versa. Right. I've had some part time, full time employees with the lawn care company, but knowing that, I've made to the point where they're like, they're on my team, they're full time. They're someone that I'm, like. They're in the trenches with me, you know? Sure. That's what I need. Honestly, just one person would make a huge difference. Cause I can't do this shit by myself. Right. You know? So there's a long winded answer to your question. Well, yeah, but you bring up some. I mean, the one thing is. Yeah, being yourself is critical, and then. Yeah. How you be yourself as the individual that you are, and then everything that you bring from your past to where you are today makes a lot of sense. But the interesting things that come out to me and some of that is, you know, you're not a good employee. I've heard that from quite a few entrepreneurs. Not something I totally relate to. I could be an employee. I could be somebody's best employee. But I'm looking at other options and avenues. I think we both could be. We just have no desire to be. Well, there's that, too. Right, right. And then the idea of the delegation thing, that's a tough one, especially for people that strive for great results. It's hard to bring anybody into that picture to get that ball over the goal line when you have a certain level of expectation that you're trying to put forth, especially when your name's on the company. So I think that that is a tough one for everybody. I think that's an interesting struggle that probably we could talk about in a lot of different ways for a lot of different people, a lot of different companies, because I think having the right people in place to actually delegate things to makes a difference. And then, yes, so much of it is incumbent on that leader. How can they bring and translate how they want things done appropriately? And I think that's a big struggle. One of the biggest struggles for me in that is it just takes a huge amount of effort and time to even bring that to the forefront of how you're going to train somebody or teach somebody. So that's one of the ones that I struggle with in the same way on that delegation front. Well, and that's where we need to have better, you have to have better systems in place and processes. Right. And I was, it's funny, I just started doing, I just signed up for consultate, like doing consulting with somebody, and I haven't really even gotten into it yet, so I can't really speak to it. But sure. Just one of the things that we were discussing was like, do you have systems? Do you have things in place? And it's like, you know, I really, honestly really don't. And, okay, like, I have systems in place. Right. But I don't call them systems. I am the systems. Oh, sure. I am the operations. It's me. Right. It's right. I do everything. So for me to have someone come in here, I can't, like, I have to be able to tell them and show them what they're going to be doing right now. And when I'm talking about landscaping, it's really simple. Right? Hey, trim this, wheel, this, you know, shovel this, whatever. It's basic. Right. But, like, if you really want to expand or grow or scale, you have to have these systems in place. And I just don't really have them. Like, I've gotten where I've gotten from grit. Like, sure. And just beat my head against the wall. Many of us have. Absolutely. Like, I don't have good systems in place. Like, so it's like, wow, I really need to take a step back here and figure this out, because if I don't, I'm just gonna stay where I'm at. Right. So at some point, we have to know when we have to take a couple steps back to move way forward. And that's what I'm trying to do. Like, I. There's just a lot of things that I really want to start thinking about differently that I've done. Like, hey, I've done some things right to get to where I'm at, but. Right. There's also a lot that I'm not doing right at all. And the more you are in this game and in this space, the more you understand that you don't know much, you know? Right. Well, I think coming to those grips and coming to those realizations are the things that can help drive you forward, understanding that you don't know certain things, and then how to find those answers, even if they have to come from inside you or from outside direction, that you actually come up with it. Cause ultimately, as you talk about desire to work for somebody, you have to have the desire to make something work in your world, or it's not gonna work. So I think that that's actually really interesting. And knowing that you have an issue and then trying to figure out how you're gonna overcome that is probably the biggest thing, is you have to understand, hey, there are different ways about this, or it doesn't have to all be grit. I struggle with all of that myself as well. Especially, too. I think that if you can come up with procedures or documentation on how you do things, that can definitely help. Sometimes in the creative space, it's somewhat nebulous. It's hard to kind of rein that in. But as I develop some of the programs that I put people through, as I advise them on brand messaging, visual identity, things of that nature, I'm trying to work through that myself to not only get better myself, because that's the only way to get better, is to really analyze what you're doing and have those, whatever you want to say, documentation or checklist. I don't like to say everything's a checklist, and not everybody checks every box, but to have those outlines on how. You check them all. Yeah. How you go across and check off whatever boxes apply and then hopefully start to translate that and see how other people can do that with you, for you, I think that those are some of the critical parts. So to me, in the creative space, it does get a little nebulous, but I have to make sure I take those steps back. I'm not good at that. I'm always a. Nebulous is a good one. I haven't heard that one before. You haven't? No, it's just out there. Yeah, I'm definitely out there. It's hard to make things brought into that clarifying nature of. Yeah, so nebulous. Well, that's. But that's why I'm working with you. Even just on my contract stuff, and just starting to come up with a way to create an investor profile. Absolutely. Cause, like, I know, like, I'll talk to a client or a potential client or whatever. And we have a game plan. We have a. We're gonna do XYZ, we're gonna invest in these stocks, these funds. Here's why. And we're good. And I put them in my notes. It's all there. But, you know, over. Over the course of five or ten years, things really can change, right? Absolutely. And I'm not necessarily redoing paperwork. I mean, I'm updating notes and stuff. But, you know, if a new advisor stepped in or if I had someone come in to help me, they'd go, you know, hey, in 2020, when you sign this account up, it says it should have been, you know, it was aggressive, and now you have them all in bonds. Why? Why would that be? How did you get from here to here? Right. Absolutely. So just coming up with a system of process. Because if something happens to me, right. I mean, there's plans in place for someone to step in if something happened. But also if I want to hire and say, hey, I want to delegate these clients to this advisor, I have to have a process where someone can come in and know nothing and go, okay, in ten minutes, five minutes. Read the notes, read the forms we have, and go, I got it. This is exactly why he's managing the money the way he is, why we've made the decisions we made in this particular case. Cause, like, as you know, like, I don't tell people what to do. Like, so you can have a 25 year old that wants to be aggressive and, you know, 225 year olds that want to be aggressive, and the plans might look completely different because those two people are individuals and they have their own way they want to do things. Sure. So it's like, how do I follow that? Right? So just trying to simplify some things. For sure. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of struggles presented by NCBI, where we navigate challenges together. Don't forget to subscribe, listen, and share this podcast with others who might benefit. We'd love to hear about the struggles you're facing or have overcome, and we'd be thrilled to have you as a guest on a future episode. Let's continue this journey together.