Navigating the Struggles of Change with Sarah Blesi

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In this episode of the Struggles podcast, guest Sarah Blesi discusses the challenges business owners face when embracing change. Sarah shares her own journey of overcoming resistance to adopting AI in her business and the benefits it brought in terms of efficiency. The conversation highlights fear as a major barrier to change and suggests tackling it by taking incremental steps, seeking advice from trusted advisors, and conducting thorough research. Chris Inman, the host, and Sarah emphasize the importance of empathy and understanding the motivations of those involved in the change process. They address the need to protect and support people during transitions and acknowledge that change can introduce new challenges. Ultimately, the episode encourages stepping out of comfort zones and collaborating with industry peers or even competitors to drive growth and improvement. 

Key Topics Discussed:

• Embracing Change and Efficiency [00:00]
• Overcoming Fear-Based Resistance [03:19]
• Importance of Trusted Advisors in Change [04:08]
• Real-World Examples: Implementing Technology [04:45]
• Empathy in Leadership and Change [06:50]
• Identifying and Addressing Mindset Problems [07:41]
• Challenges of Implementing New Processes [09:00]
• Managing Unforeseen Consequences of Change [10:29]

Listen in and get ready to navigate the turbulent waters of entrepreneurship with newfound confidence and perspective. Don't forget to subscribe, listen, and share with others who might benefit from these invaluable insights. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Embracing AI for Efficiency
• 5:21 Embrace Risk for Growth
• 6:50 "Empathy and Reading the Room"
• 9:23 Unintended Consequences of Change

Transcript

0:00

See this new, you know, they envision this new outcome and all it takes to get there and this whole new world they're gonna be in. Well, hold on, let's take a step back. You know, what's this stupid saying about eating an elephant? I don't know. Why? One bite at a time. I hate that. I wish we had something better. I'm sure there is something better, but it's kind of grotesque. So I like to look at, you know, ask my. Ask myself when I'm dealing with facing change and my clients take it one step at a time. Welcome to another episode of Struggles, presented by ncbi, the podcast where we navigate challenges together. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Struggles, presented by ncbi. This is Chris Emman with Idea Cleveland. Hi, I'm Sara Blasey with Simple Clear Payments. And today we're going to talk about the hurdles of change. It's so hard for so many business owners to. To change things, to change their habits, to change the way processes are in their business. And it holds them back ultimately, because as things change in the sense of processes, things become more efficient. You maybe become a better manager, maybe you make more money. There's all these advantages of change, but people hate change. Yep, it's a tried and true tale of change. It's between like this forever and it will continue to be so. And not only do I see change management being difficult within my business. Well, not only do I see it with people, my clients, I also see it within my own business. For instance, people have been embracing AI for at least a year now as just small business owners. And I was for a while now saying I wasn't going to get involved, I didn't need it. And I, when it comes down to it, I was scared, scared of change, scared of embracing something you heard a lot of what it could come to and everything. I had to learn a lot about it. I just didn't want to put the time in to really learn and explore how it could impact my business. Until I did. I did. And I realized all the efficiencies, as you mentioned before, Chris, the efficiencies that it could give me as a solopreneur. I do a lot on my own. Time is my limiting constraint. So how can I give myself more time? And AI has done that for me in just little ways, but just how to writing a proposal or writing a letter or doing an rfq, it just kind of helps me move along a little bit faster and do things more efficiently. So when I look at that, I See how difficult it was for me to embrace change when I'm a proponent of change. Maybe some of the challenges that I was facing, how could I use what helped me get over that hurdle? How could I use those tips to help my clients embrace change? I have a number of merchants who are needing to adopt some new technology, for instance, POS systems, and they just, they don't want to. And I hear all the time, we've been doing it this way for X amount of years. That is my least favorite saying. This is the way we've always done it. Right. And that's exhausting to me. Yes, absolutely. But I think that a lot of people are in fear of if they change, something is going to fail and they're just going to go back to the old way. Right? Yeah, it is, it's all fear based. So how do we overcome that? How do we get through the fear? And how I do it or how I recommend to my clients is take a step back. We don't need to make one big change. We're not going to overhaul the whole organization instantly. And I think that's the biggest. And the next step is really let's rely on trusted advisors who has done a similar approach successfully. Can we ask them questions? Can we interview them? Can we have a conversation? Can we learn from them what went wrong, what went right? What would they have done differently? And I think surrounding ourselves with people who have done something that we want to do really can enable us to make the decision decisions and to move forward. And I think it gives us a level of comfort. So when I have, say, a POS opportunity and I'll say, okay, here's an organization similar to yours, they made this change last year. In fact, I went out and sought out similar businesses of my clients, they're basically competitors to each other and said, hey, did this work out? Yes. Would you do it again? Yes. What went wrong? This went wrong. We would have done this differently. And I've gone so far as to say, can I have my customer call you and just kind of talk through this? And most of the time, if you approach it in a way of helping others, people are glad to do that. So I've done that. I've helped people connect with each other who can associate with one another. I mean, it's easy for me to say, oh, we should do this. But when they hear somebody of their own, somebody from their peer, their competitor, if you will, in the field, then that gives them a little better sense of, okay, maybe we can do this. So I Think again. So taking things one step at a time can help enable change. Relying on others and really doing the research on your own. So many times I'll hear, well, we tried that and it failed. Well, why did it fail? Well, this guy came in and tried to sell us something, and we just did it. Well, maybe that wasn't the right approach. Maybe we need to take some ownership in our decision making, stand back, do some of our own research, as well as relying on others that have done something similar, and make an informed decision. And you know what? If it's a little bit scary, it's gonna be. I mean, that's how people grow, right? We hear the same thing over and over again. You know, you have to take big steps, you have to take leaps. They're scary. Get through it. And even if there is a failure along the way, if you're doing things with the intention of growing your business for the future and investing in it and trying to make the best decision, and if something didn't go exactly right, at least you know you were doing it with the intention of growth, with the intention of helping others, with the intention of being a better business. And I think if we keep that in mind and do things in that regard, then how can you fail? I think one of the things that I struggle with is I love change. I have a problem with that because when I'm in a room of people that don't like change, I'm like a bull in a china shop, because I'm like, just change, change, change, change, change. And I'm fast. I'm a small business. I move fast. Corporations move slows, molasses. For me, I don't know how people even work at them anymore. And so I get involved with an organization or something, and I want change. And I see the change being a positive. People in the room see it as a positive, but nobody has the mindset to move forward. Have you had a mindset problem to try to get some of these people to change? And how have you come over those hurdles? Oh, absolutely. And I think it's about being empathetic and knowing how you're being perceived. If you're a bull in a china shop, and that's great, and it's high energy, and you come in, you want to make change, but when you're dealing with leaders who aren't like that, they're going to throw up their hands immediately. So I think you really need to read the room. I'm dealing with an organization now who some within the leadership want to make change and some don't. So it's really knowing what the personalities of whom we're dealing with and what's motivating each one of them and really playing to each of their needs, wants and desires and their fears. So how do we evaluate that and really create a case that is best for the organization, but takes into account what each individual is feeling or fearing at the time. So it's really, you know, it's a lot. And you have to know how to approach a situation in order to effect change. And sometimes it's not going to work. There are people who are going to dig their heels in and not want to change. And the sooner we as influencers can recognize that, then the better for us. Because I'm not going to deal with an organization who's not going to change. I mean, I hear this oftentimes I'll walk into an organization and I look at who they're processing with and I see what the rates are they're paying. I was like, this is wrong and I can help you. We need to make a change and it could just be a simple change. And they're like, oh no, no, it's too risky and you'll pursue them a little bit and I'll review with them and I'll. But after some time you get a feeling like this isn't going to, they're not going to change. I'm out of there. I mean, we can only do so much, right? You present something, you explain to them the process and how to make a situation better. And if they're not gonna embrace it, then we need to cut ties and move on. There are a lot of people out there who are willing to change and that's where we need to spend our energy, I feel. And you gotta be protective of the people that you can influence to change and you need to make that change work for em, Right? Absolutely. Because I think that's what happens is some salespeople push a change, especially in your industry. Change, change, change. And they change and then things aren't better. Right. I see this often. There may be they fixed one problem, but then they gained two other problems. And so what happens is people don't like change because every time I change is just new issues. I know how to fix the issues that are already here. I can get through them. If I change, what are going to be the new issues? So I think it's very important that you protect the people that you are influencing the channel. Right. And be clear and transparent and honest about what ripple effects may occur or what downstream effects may occur if and when those changes are made. For instance, I had a client who we wanted to implement, and I've probably told you this story before, we wanted to implement ach. It was just a better way to collect checks, to process them electronically. So we went through this whole process and got everything set up, and one of the county woman pulled me aside, very upset, and she said, well, now I can't leave early on Fridays to go to the bank because she would have no checks to take to the bank. So she was upset with the change that I was making because the efficiencies I provided no longer afforded her to leave early on Friday. So that was a ramification that I didn't see coming. I was all proud of myself for making this, implementing this change and driving efficiencies, but different people saw it differently. Now, is that. I mean, this is kind of a. Does it really matter at the end of the day? No. But you created a new challenge. I created a new challenge, not necessarily for myself, but for her and for her manager. So now there's this expectation that she was leaving early on Fridays. There's a creative way to get around that. But anyway. But it's just kind of like you just sometimes you don't realize. I think what you're getting to, Chris. Right. Is sometimes you just don't realize what's happen when change is there. The grass isn't always greener on the other side is what people recall. Right, Exactly. So it's all good. All right. Well, this has been a great conversation about change, so hopefully you've got some value out of it and, you know, step out of your comfort zone. Figure something out that, you know that really gives you a lot of headaches this year. Yes. And think about how you could change it. As Sarah said, find a strategic partner. Find somebody that knows about that industry, find somebody that maybe already had that challenge and see how they've changed and how they could be a competitor. And you know what? We all grow together. Absolutely. So even though you think competitors are competitive, there's plenty of work for us all to succeed, let's be honest. So we hope you got a lot of value out of this. And we'll catch you on the next episode. Thanks, Chris. 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.