10 Secrets Every Motivated Entrepreneur Uses to Drive Business Growth

Vinay Koshy 0:00
Successful entrepreneurs are known for their tenacity and commitment to lofty ideals long as and success. They essentially had workers who go into project passionately and find success because they can convince other people of the value of their ideas. And a key factor and sustain this kind of energy, creativity and drive is motivation. You could say in fact that over the long term, a motivated entrepreneur is likely to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, staying motivated as an entrepreneur is easier said than done, but it is without doubt essential for the success of your business. Whether you're in the startup phase, or well established, stay motivated is what will continue to guide your business to success. But becoming a motivated entrepreneur isn't easy, and our guest has helped others find success through innovation. Hi, and welcome to the predictable b2b success podcast. Overnight coaching. On this podcast, we interview people behind b2b brands who aren't necessarily famous, but do work in the trenches and share their strategies and secrets as they progress along the journey of expanding their influence and making their businesses grow predictably. Now, let's dive into the podcast he is referred to as the entrepreneurs or wingman. There is a good reason for that, because his business career spans over 30 years from retail to franchising to business development. However, it is through his coaching practice that he has helped many business leaders from a wide range of backgrounds ranging from event planning, to advertising agencies and commercial companies that his clients have achieved success. In fact, his clients turned to him when results matter. And they include everything from startups to more well established companies. Brad Halliwell, welcome to the podcast.

Brad Halliwell 1:51
Oh, thank you very much for having me, Vinay. It's great to be here.

Vinay Koshy 1:53
Pleasure to have you bread. Why is it that you decided to get into coaching Tell us about that moment or type.

Brad Halliwell 2:02
I often laugh about it because it was the accidental career. And what I mean by that is, I started working with a coach myself when I wanted to make the leap from from corporate life to do my own thing. And when I when I first branded myself, I did it as a business consultant. And fate got in the way is, as it were, and my very first client sought me out at a chamber meeting and says, Do you do coaching? And I said, Yeah, kind of half heartedly, because I was, I wasn't really sure what to do. And so we made a consultation appointment, and I phoned my coach and just kind of said, I'm kind of nervous, like, my very first client, I'm really not sure. And she said, Brad, you've done this for years with with developing management, just go listen to what he's looking for. If it if you feel it's in your wheelhouse, take them on, if you don't do the honorable thing and just say, Hey, I'm sorry, this doesn't sound like it's a fit. And and that'll be okay. So as luck What happened? Yeah, he had, he had the troubles that I'd had dealt with many times over my professional career. So I took them on and had great success with them. And the rest, as they say, is history where I changed my branding to coach and never looked back.

Vinay Koshy 3:14
Excellent. And Brad, given your journey to date, what would you say is your personal area of strength?

Brad Halliwell 3:22
My best area of strength? I'm, I have, I'm pretty happy with my ability to assess the situation fast and generally very accurately, when I when I am reviewing whether it's it's personnel issues, or whether it's it's the business itself. I haven't been told I asked very, very good questions, but I'm very observant. I'm actually a student of body language and things like that, which is just served me very, very well. So I would have to say that Yeah, my mind power of observation and being able to get down to the root cause would be one of my strengths,

Vinay Koshy 3:53
Certainly. And in that area of strength, what would you say is something that businesses don't know? But should?

Brad Halliwell 4:01
About the about the business?

Vinay Koshy 4:04
in general? Or about your area of strength?

Brad Halliwell 4:07
Oh, my area of strength? Well, it's, a lot of times people say what coaching they asked the question about, well, what does a coach do, and I can really appreciate the quandary because it's ambiguous. If I said I was a dentist, you know exactly what I'm doing. But as a coach, it's it can be used for just about anything, I have several colleagues that have the moniker of coach or business coach, and don't do anything close to what I do. So let me differentiate just quickly. In my view, a coach is somebody who works with you to extract information from you and your expertise to get a very solid understanding of what it is you're trying to work towards. And you together, work out solutions or you together really root out what the real problem is, and then work together on coming up with a solution for yourself which is incredibly satisfying consultant, you're paying for that person's expertise, which is just fine. The consultant comes in your you've got labor problems, you have sales problems, you name it, they have a particular program, they'll take you through the program, they'll solve the problem for you, but your uncle and you're on your way. So that's, that, to me is the difference. So it's a downloading information or its extraction, which is, which is the one you're looking for. That's, that's how I differentiate I'm a coach to the pure sense of the word of coach, certainly.

Vinay Koshy 5:32
And given your area of strength of being able to analyze and observe issues in the business, would you say that most entrepreneurs are probably too close to their business to be to have that level of observation or insight?

Brad Halliwell 5:48
Excellent question. I would say 100% of all entrepreneurs are very close to the business. And that's only natural that I do understand and appreciate that. And it's the objectivity that they are getting to help them get a little bit removed, and help look at things like like part of the technique that a coach will use, and I certainly use it is, when I assess the situation, I'm starting to understand what they're talking about, I give them a different context. So they can literally evaluate the scenario that they just described for me. But I'm talking about an entirely different situation might be one that's happened to me or one that I've observed. So then they get that constructive criticism about that situation. They go, Oh, they should, I can see that work, I go the Great. Now let's press that back onto your business, then the massive aha moments, and that's, to me, there's nothing better than watching somebody and the light goes on. And they're excited because there's no more barrier. They just blew right through it. I love it.

Vinay Koshy 6:48
Certainly. So how would you define a successful entrepreneur? Or another way to put it would be, what would you say makes for a great entrepreneur?

Brad Halliwell 7:00
In my opinion, a great entrepreneur surrounds themselves with people that are stronger in other areas of business than they are. A strong entrepreneur is somebody that is that's got really laser focused vision. They know exactly where they're going, they might not have all the answers. And frankly, no one does. When you recognize that I found really good business people are the ones that like to seek out find information are always developing themselves. They always want to stay sharp, they want to sit, they never ever are the person is sitting back going, I got it. I know what all that just that, to me is a recipe for disaster. As soon as you think you've got it all figured out. You don't? Quite frankly. So that's that's, that, to me, is top of mind when I think of a strong solid entrepreneur.

Vinay Koshy 7:52
Okay. And given that you deal with people across a range of levels of maturity in their business, what would you say is a problem that you see are many problems that you see entrepreneurs make time and time again?

Brad Halliwell 8:11
Yeah, it's, it may sound cliche, but it's so true. If you don't know what you don't know, what any people getting into business, I'll start there for just a moment people getting into business, try to save on the wrong thing. So for example, I had a client of mine, this was years ago, that they went to the registries, you're in Canada, you go to the registries, and incorporate a business. Yep. So they did this few $100 Bob's your uncle, and you're in business. But you get this minute book, you don't know what to do with as many books. So it goes into a drawer. And before you know it, you have problems like you wouldn't believe, because you've built up the business to a certain point, but the share structure isn't set yet. And because the business already exists, it may cost you 1000s of dollars now to try to fix what could have been done at the very beginning for about 12 $100. So they you know, this is not a bargain store proposition. I would always tell people that, you know, getting into business, get professional advice. Absolutely. Because you don't know what you don't know. So that could be a lawyer, that could be an accountant, that could be a business coach, that could be a consultant that could be a financial advisor. I recommend them all because go in at least like hedging your bet, as I call it, right? is is is arm yourself with different perspectives and build these relationships with people at the very beginning. And then as you're moving your business forward, you've got this arsenal of talent that you can tap into at any time. Now people that have gone into business and I see this a lot as well. They're they're successful in spite of themselves. And one of the one of the photos that I find is they're so they're so wrapped up In the day to day operations, they're not coming out to check their companies, as I call it. So for an example, you get folks that'll that'll spend a lot of time, which is great into a business plan. And then they secure their financing for their business, and they get into business. And that business plan goes into Georgia has never seen or heard from again. And that's unfortunate, because if you're not stopping, and along the way to measure what's going on, and are you on a trajectory that you had planned, if there's adjustments that need to be made, and people can become victims of their own success is because the business starts to overtake them. They don't know why this is happening. All they know is I have always done it this way. But now I'm working 16 hours a day, six days a week, and I can't seem to get ahead of it. And I know because nothing's changed, you've not you've not adjusted as you're going along. Those those are the biggest missteps I found is, is those

Vinay Koshy 10:56
Certainly. And if I can just try and unpack the point that you made early on, especially with startups, where you suggest we develop relationships, and people perhaps get on board, people like lawyers, coaches, accountants, etc. For a lot of people that could be pretty daunting, given the expense, perhaps of hiring this this kind of talent, wouldn't it be better as is perhaps more commonly advised to actually build out your audience or your market to ensure you do have some traction before you look at the legal and other logistical aspects of the business?

Brad Halliwell 11:35
That's good question. And that's a fair question as well. And my response is this when it comes when it comes to the legalities of things, and the structure getting out of the gate. I think that that's absolutely somewhere that you should you should devote some resources to. But let me be clear, when you say about hiring some, like myself will give a free consultation. So you can go meet some accountants, and we want to you want to start working with somebody you're comfortable with. But then you can you can ask your questions during this consultation process, I believe some lawyers will do the same thing is they'll they'll have they'll give you a 30 minutes, ask your questions or whatnot. And then you can you can decide at that particular point, it just ignoring it, or being afraid of it, because of the potential expense is just not a not a good idea. If you're you know, you want to hedge your bet. So, like source these things out, understand how they work, or at least have some appreciation for how they work. And then when you decide, or when that situation arrives, like you're getting some clients or your your store is now open, or whatever you're doing to generate revenue, you're going to go back to your notes on those particular conversations that you've had with those experts. Yep. And then decide when you're going to need to bring them in, but at least you have that knowledge.

Vinay Koshy 12:53
So if I can put that another way, perhaps in your early conversations, find milestones or checkpoints where you might need to restructure the business in order to allow for growth, both from a legal standpoint as well as operational standpoint.

Brad Halliwell 13:10
Yeah, absolutely. It has a lot to do with capacity, which is a whole other wing of of information that we can talk about.

Vinay Koshy 13:19
Yep. And you've touched about the idea of getting so involved in the day to day operations that you kind of forget, or can't see the visionary longer. And I guess my interpretation of what you said was that, if you're not using that as your compass, then perhaps you're losing motivation, because just getting bogged down in the drudgery of everyday life, so to speak, and operations, which means you lose motivation. And that is felt by those around you would that be great.

Brad Halliwell 13:52
Yeah, no, well, said. It's so true. And I have many examples that could rush into my mind of people over the last 15 years that have had that exact same thing happened. I had these partners that were in a well, I had these partners, they started up their business Five, four or five years prior to me meeting them. And they've had some some fantastic success. And that we met at this networking event, we led to a conversation that we scheduled and so one of the partners started off repeating by saying, Brad, we got into business about four years ago, it's been very, very successful up to this point. We don't know where we're going, and we're really not sure what we're doing and they both started laughing. You know, how ridiculous that must have sounded. And I was just I was just like, Oh my gosh, so it's, it's it's common, right? Because we if electrician gets into business, they know the operations a plumber gets into business, they know the operations and so on. But it's the mechanics of how a business work. There's no one person that's an expert on all divisions. So it's it's the when I when I coach Somebody's on time management, which is the number one thing, the number one thing, okay? for their workflow, I always say you have to schedule yourself CEO time I call it because I want, I want to shape them into that thought process of going, someone needs to be in charge and guess what it's you. So when you own your own business, you have the most demanding boss that you've ever had in your life, who sometimes doesn't even pay you and ask you to work incredibly long hours. And at the same time, you're the most problematic employee you've ever had to manage. So it's a difficult is a difficult life. So when I'm helping them structure themselves as far as controlling workflow, and yes, it can be done folks, controlling workflow, the CEO time is special, because this is a time that's blocked out. And you can decide when that's going to happen. But you you make it happen, and it has an agenda. The agenda could be okay, well, Monday, CEO time and CEO times going to be approximately 30 minutes, I'm going to review the marketing statistics of what's been going on with the company and how those results are happening. CEO time could be happening again on Tuesday for approximately 30 minutes. And that's when you're going to take a look at your manpower and see what's going on, and so on. So it's it's it helps to segment these things to make absolutely sure they don't fall by the wayside. But you're you're creating a fantastic habit to take your head out of there and check your compass. And it has if you don't measure it, you can't manage it.

Vinay Koshy 16:32
Certainly, okay, makes makes a lot of sense. You also mentioned when we were talking offline that fear of fear of success is probably another big issue that you contend with, with with entrepreneurs. Could you elaborate on that?

Brad Halliwell 16:47
Happily, first of all, I don't, I'm not a fan of the phrase fear of success. I feel that that's a misnomer. It's fear of change. Right? Now, and I thought that was important to say because of this. People can say well, success, who would be afraid of success? Well, people that fear change are afraid of success to folks. Because Have you not heard about people that self sabotage? And that's a real thing, because I've done it myself when I was young. And in when you become older, and you're and you're doing that hindsight, you recognize where you did it, it's when you're successful things change. And my earlier example is about the success of your company is doing really well. And the numbers look fantastic, you know, a lot faster than you thought it would ever happen. That's called success, but it's freaking you out. Whatever reason. Yeah. So it's when I, when I talked to when I coach people, and we talk about fear, we really drill down like, what are we talking about? Tell me what you're afraid of. And it's an interesting process. Because, as I always say, you know, you get lost in your head, think overthinking things, I'm the king of doing that. So I can empathize with people, you get lost in your head, because anything that you're thinking of can change in a nanosecond. Right? Now we say write it out. We're, if you're, if you're afraid of something, or start writing it out, right? If you want to go somewhere, as far as your company is concerned, write that out to get it out of here, get it out of your noggin, it becomes tangible, you can analyze it, and you can think about it a lot more logically. Because it's right there. Right. It's interesting when people say like, I had this gentleman, and I really, I could really feel his anger about his company. Brad, you know, he says, I'm making time to meet with you. But you know, I'm so concerned with this. And I'm so concerned with that money here and money there and customers and all these things. He was going on this bit of a rant and as a coach, you know, this is, this is what we call a little bit of distraction that you have to let happen. So this person has to get it out. So I let him go. And then I bring them back by going okay, let's have a serious, powerful conversation about your fear. So I go, your company fails, that's what you're telling me is your worst situation. He says yes. So I go, okay. Well, let's talk about that. What's happened now that your company is failing? What's going on? Start walking me through it. So he talks about the financial component. I said, Okay, what else? Well probably have to, you know, repossess certain equipment. I said, Okay, so the equipment's gone, what else I'd have to get a job. So I said, Could you get a job? And he sat back and he goes, Well, yeah. And I said, Okay, what else? I said, I said, Are you thinking that somebody is going to come and you're no longer going to have your family because they'll have to leave and all these other I said, Are you you know, it's something like that. And he goes, Well, no. And I thought, well, well, what is it? Well, he just exhausted himself about the just the things I just rattled off, I go, money, debt, whatever doesn't define you. So I said, if that was to happen, and you're talking worst case scenario, if that was to happen, it happens and your know what you're going to get Tomorrow, you're going to put air in your lungs, and you're going to carry on, because that's what's going to happen. Because guess what, it's probably happened before in your past, we've had serious setbacks. And you were able to push forward. But I said, consider this throughout your entire life. And I mean this for anybody listening. When you are considering the worst case scenario of anything in your entire life, has it ever really come true? To the degree in which you had thought it would happen? largely I get back. No, it isn't. We love for some reason to scare ourselves. We always look at like, I've got, you know, what would you heard there's a new boss that we're getting it at our at our shop here? Well, I hope this person isn't it's always negative. I hope they're not a jerk. I hope they're not mean, I hope they're not a power trip. Why are you talking about I hope they have great ideas, I hope they're, you know, person, I hope they're a fantastic leader. We're just programmed that way. I was reading where the human beings hear the word no, approximately 15,000 times, by the time we're five years of age, this is what I this is what I said, and I'm reading this kind of going, you know, like, gosh, you have to think about that. And then when we go to school, we're told what's wrong on our exams, and so on, and so forth. So when I'm training, management, and even entrepreneurs, but management, and I would say, Listen, if you you want to be a good leader, look for things done, right? You'll see more of it. But we constantly, you know, if we're not vigilant, and careful, always look for what was done wrong and kill motivation of others and, and self worth of others. And I'm not saying we have to,.... and self deceive about like, oh, everything's rosy, nothing to see here. Everything's fine. That's not what I said. My point was, is that, you know, when you see something done, right, acknowledge it, that's what we don't do very well. And even for ourselves, like, I've even caught myself, because I've had to train myself to do this. And I'm still not 100% good at it. But I try. And that is, is to go, you know, Brad, that was good. That was good. I'm really happy the way you handled that. And I said out loud, sometimes I think it and it's important, because because the way we talk to ourselves when a we've never talked to another human being.

Vinay Koshy 22:19
I'd like to dive into that a bit more. And perhaps we'll begin by me asking you if in order to combat fear of change, we should really take the time to invest in motivation. Okay. And would you say that motivation would be a cure, perhaps what's wrong with motivation allows for a greater ability to embrace change.

Brad Halliwell 22:49
Motivation is incredibly important, incredibly powerful. motivation comes from within the biggest misnomer we hear about, you have to go out there and motivate your team, No, you do not. You go there and influence you're in the business of influence when it comes to a team. But an individual a human being motivates from within and no one else can do that. You're motivated to be nice, you're motivated, not to be nice, and so on, and so forth. So getting getting absolutely laser focused on where your motivation is going to be. So if we're, obviously we're talking in the context of an entrepreneur, okay, so we can lose, choose to lose our motivation based on setbacks, self talk, like I said earlier about why something won't work, and we talk ourselves out of it, and then our motivation drops to the floor. So what I always recommend is, is capture the spirit, which was at the time that you came up with this idea to become an entrepreneur. Like, what, what was it? For some people, it's like, I want to control my destiny, I want more time. If I work hard, I want to benefit from it, not just the company, I want to, I could never find a job that really suited me. So I'm going to create my own one, I go, all these kind of things I go, that's great. Write it down and put it somewhere. When you start feeling your energy level dropped a little bit. And you can see that symbol, it could be a could be a word, it could be a picture, it could be a phrase, it doesn't really matter. But if if it's one thing that was that energy, where you're feeling so excited, like you said to yourself, I'm going to do this and I'm excited you could literally be that phrase that's that's that's in your vehicle that's that's in your office that's in your kitchen, I don't care, whatever. But it's bridling that and bringing that inner peace and kind of saying what can go right stop with the What can't go rap was not going to go right what could possibly fall out of the floor here. And creating that little like some people and I like these two but having positive affirmations Why not? Why not start your day As I always say, to anybody I work with, you win the morning, you win the day. So why wouldn't you start off with, instead of grabbing your damn phone and looking at emails or checking your bank balances and all this other stuff that just really doesn't serve you at seven o'clock in the morning, perhaps you should start your day a little stronger by saying something positive. You know, I'm gonna win this day. I'm so happy that I get the I get to go run my own business. How about that? I get to go do that. If you ever if you own your own home, and you say to yourself, oh, I have to go clean the bathroom? No, you get to? That's how fortunate you are. Because you worked hard. And you have something here. So it's it's it's, it's it's working with that and finding that motivation that you require, because you know you. So what works. Does that make sense?

Vinay Koshy 25:50
Certainly, so in saying that are you recommending that people build a ritual to motivate themselves and keep their compass oriented the right way?

Brad Halliwell 26:04
Yes. Absolutely. habit is very, very important. Because it's also habit that takes you off your path, bad habits, negative talk as a habit. So yes, I am saying that.

Vinay Koshy 26:17
And that makes a lot of sense, because it resonates quite well with the book that I'm reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. So I've just started but it certainly resonates with some of the things that you say, certainly. So if we're looking at increasing motivation, you've talked about creating a habit, if I'm not mistaken, I also heard the fact that we need to take the time to recognize small victories. Yes, because we might have milestones chalked out. But in our day to day activity, or even our weekly activity, they're probably smaller victories that we could learn to recognize and celebrate.

Brad Halliwell 26:55
Yeah, no, absolutely been a part a part of the routine that I like to do. And I certainly recommend this to my clients. Is that that starting off, portion that I mentioned about lights and positive talk, focus, you know, that's your time. It's, it's it's getting off the record. But at the end of the day, as I said, Do it Do a date a sort of big burden? end of day post mortem? Right. So when you're finishing your day, you're looking back through how things went? How did they go? Are you? What were the wins? So I always say like, what were the successes? What were the challenges, not as what I did write this, but I didn't want you again, language is important. So whatever your challenges were, we can get there. But the successes God have felt good, like I had a really good conversation with been a recumbent. You know, that would be one of the things that I pat myself on the back and say, Boy, I'm really happy I met Ben had a great conversation with him today. The thing I could say is, is I hadn't had, I was really happy that I stayed with my exercise Regiment, you know, good for me, I'm really happy that I'm feeling better. so on so forth. I didn't like the way I planned out my day, or their lack of I think I portrayed myself by being a little too Cavalier with how it was going to run my day. And it showed, Okay, no problem. Do we sit there and call ourselves stupid? No, we do not. What we do is we go, how is tomorrow going to be better, I'm going to make sure that that doesn't happen to me tomorrow. Okay, I'm going to spend another 15 minutes here and do some proactive work, perhaps. And that's what I'm going to do. And then I'm going to set myself up a little better. And then when I get to work site, or when I get to my office, or whatever your deal is, I'm going to do one more review. I think that would work out better. And then post mortem at the end of that day, how did that go? Was that a successful and so on? That's a big way of how we can we can have those checks and balances. Because it's so easy to just, I'm working hard and I'm busy. Well, we've all heard that. But we asked the question, well, you're busy, but are you productive?

Vinay Koshy 28:55
Yep.

Brad Halliwell 28:55
Well,you know, if you're working 16 hours a day, six days a week, I don't see how that's how that's fun.

Vinay Koshy 29:02
Absolutely. I was gonna say what about friends and family? especially those that we hold dear to us? How do we bring them into this journey because having talked to a few people, and notice this bit of a mixed bag, sometimes they can be quite supportive of the journey, and others not so much until you've hit a certain level of success.

Brad Halliwell 29:24
You know, it's my dad once said this to me and it's it stayed with me my whole life. Now it was people wishing well to do well. And I really hope that that's not entirely true. I mean, yes, sure. There's people out there that they do too much of measuring themselves to other people's lives, and they they can get jealous or threatened and that's unfortunate because they have their own journey to worry about. But with with family, it's it's you know, Far be it for me to give counseling on how but I noticed about having really good conversations with people that need to have happen. For example, if you if you think you have, you need to have a conversation with somebody you do. about structuring, there's a really good book called fierce conversations by Susan Scott. It's a fantastic book. And it really delves into things like that, or conversations that need to have happen, how to structure though, and how to prepare, and then have really good open dialogue. And so when you talk about, you know, family and bringing them in, so, you know, the question is, like, into the company or into the, into the, into the environment or whatever, like I said, for people that want to be involved in support you then you just you embrace that, and you thank them so much for it and the people that aren't so much with you in the beginning. Well, I know for myself, I limit or eliminate is that kind of contact? Because I am not a fan of negativity. And so I'm not. I'm quite, I'm quite guarded on that, because it's just, it's just not something I want to invest a lot of time in. So it's about if I have to do that, then then I will, but like I said, I would leave more information. But I would be I don't I wouldn't be in the habit of psychologists.

Vinay Koshy 31:13
Certainly, so so my takeaway would be to be very jealous of the thoughts that you surround yourself with. And that will include people as well. And I think that resonates I think I just retweeted something James clear was saying again, which is that he's very careful about the thoughts that he he surrounds himself with whether it be books or people and being very conscious of that is is really important.

Brad Halliwell 31:36
Yes, yes, I agree. Yeah, there's there's no, I that's a great book, by the way. Yeah. Atomic habits is a fantastic book, I would highly recommend as well.

Vinay Koshy 31:46
I also gather from what you were saying perhaps a little bit earlier that developing a morning routine, his or her sort of habits is important. What would you recommend? I mean, my take away from what you said was that you should go through a bit of an affirming ritual. Would that be great? Yeah, absolutely.

Brad Halliwell 32:07
I mean, it's, you know, what, what, what what reinforcement would serve you Vinay for an example. So, you know, we it's too easy to go down the negative path, which we've already established. So it's about what what do you need to confirm, or affirm, you know, that I am just so happy and blessed to have this day, I get to go to this company that I created with some help. And I'm very excited for that moment, this is going to be an excellent day, I'm going to have a positive experience, because I'm going to choose my mood, I'm not going to have any distractions Take me down, I'm going to be abundant. I really love the fact that I'm healthy. And that I can do anything I want to do this, as I said to my son, when he was young as a young adult now, he remembered me saying to him, Why not you? You know, when you're thinking about your dreams, and this is something if you don't mind I'd like to share with with people Sure, is get when you get into that mindset about thinking about your dreams, and what you would like to achieve or bring into your life. Just focus on it and have some fun with it, and then start writing it down. Where we get messed up in the planning stages. This applies to as well as we bring in the word how way too early, you need to park that, how it does not belong in the dream process, when it started, how it comes much later. Why I always say this is because of this reason, is, you know, my son wants to become a musician. And he can probably come up with several reasons of why that that wouldn't work. But I said, that's not that's not what you should be doing. You should be enjoying the dream of going, what does it look like? Like, what kind of musician or what kind of what kind of music? What kind of crowd what, what would it What would a year be like, if you were a musician? Like how would your life look like? Well, I don't know how dad and I go doesn't matter. We're not there yet. Just enjoy it have some fun with the idea. And that's where that's where the most successful entrepreneurs on earth came from is when they're just enjoying that dream for the moment. And when you get laser focused on what it is you're trying to bring in. what it is you're trying to achieve what would make you so excited and so happy and so fulfilled. The next stage is like you got to be prepared now to welcome it in because it's going to start showing itself opportunities are going to start to present itself. You know, what I talked about with my own practice is I one of my visions for my life was to be was to go international. Right now I'm talking to a gentleman who's in Australia and I'm in Canada. So isn't that interesting because of the people who started to meet and then I started making connections and I started coaching people in the in Europe. Well, boom, it happened because a I made I was very focused on what it is I want to achieve. And then number two, I paid attention and welcome to them when it happened, as I always kept saying to myself might not be

Vinay Koshy 35:14
Certainly. And thank you for that reminder. It's something that seemed forgotten along the way.

Brad Halliwell 35:21
Here. Yeah, we all get distracted. Absolutely.

Vinay Koshy 35:25
Yeah. But in a way, it's also remind me of the Why is there anything else that you would recommend we do to establish a bit of a routine and a sort of good happens, especially when we start the day?

Brad Halliwell 35:38
Well, like I said, I would, these things need to be written down, but you can stay true to the spirit that what you intended those, those positive affirmations stay consistent there. The other thing too, is what I what I just mentioned about having a life vision, having things written out, that you're you're looking to do, and then you start developing strategies to start making that happen. So let's let's go back to atomic habits. For a quick example, well, I'm going to send James clear a bill I've been up in, you know, you, you want to get into better shape. So it's about Okay, well, what's the one thing I can do right now to start living a healthier life? And let's say I, you eat candy bars? Well, I'm gonna take Candy, candy bars out of my life for now. So you're when you go with your morning affirmations, and then you're looking at your life vision, what you want to do, and you remember your strategy, and then Off you go. And yes, it can be that easy. Because a, you didn't you never start off doing a climb on mode ever staring at the top. It's always about one step at a time and that people say all, Brad, for heaven's sakes, that sounds so trivial. Well, it's trivial, but it's true. Like, there's no point in overwhelming yourself with all the things you have to do. It's important that you're saying, I know a step I can do right now, that's going to start me in this direction. And some things are going to come into your life very fast, and it's going to be very exciting. And other things are going to be delayed. You just have to believe and have faith that things are going to unfold as they should, and just be paying attention and ready to receive

Vinay Koshy 37:21
Excellent. Money. But that's often an important topic. Is there anything you would recommend in terms of embracing change around the issue of money? And then say tracking it?

Brad Halliwell 37:35
Okay, well, I can you give me more context, are you talking about like sales? Like what what are you ...

Vinay Koshy 37:40
Okay. So whether it be revenue or or expenses, or if I can use the term cash flow, it's important to track it. And most of us use some form of software, whether it be QuickBooks or something of that nature, it's one thing to track it. But again, having had a few conversations, I know that not everyone enjoys necessarily monitoring money on a regular basis, yet it is almost the lifeblood of a business. So is there anything you could I guess, advise on or speak to in that regard?

Brad Halliwell 38:15
Yeah, no, it's You're right. It's Isn't it funny how we'll want to avoid things that we don't like. But at the end of the day, let me just share this with you. When I when I was working with my coach. I said to her that I'm really not a big fan of the social media stuff stuff. Say that is it just kind of doesn't sit well with me at times? And she says, Well, no one asked you. And that was really powerful. Because like no one asked if I liked it or didn't like it. It's not that's not the point. The point is it works. And that's where your customers are. So the sooner you get over yourself and embrace it, have to use it because it's a tool of the business. I think the better off you're going to be breath. So there's my my comment to people that and I've run across them that they don't know how to read a profit loss statement, financial statement, they're not comfortable with the bookkeeping, and all these other kinds of things. Look it not liking it, no one asked. But it's just it's a it's a requirement of business if you wish to be successful. So if you're in business, I'm trusting that you wish to be successful. So what did I say earlier about? If you don't measure it, you can't manage it. It's a dangerous position to be in anybody that doesn't understand the basics of the financing gets up their own business or their own personal wealth. It's dangerous. There's situations that I've come across where people delegate that abdicate and that's, that's asking for trouble, delegate, you know, critical part of their business because they don't like it. Yeah. Because they don't like it. They don't watch it and then because they're not watching it, anything can happen, you know, and you Especially with the finances. So yeah, you choosing choosing the accredited sock software, you know, whatever, you know, that accountant that you had a free consultation with would have recommended for you the bare minimum. But as long as you understand it, then when you get wealthy enough that you can delegate this stuff out, that's fine. But at least you know how it's supposed to look. And you review it when you check. So I can't stress that enough. Because there are situations that I've come across, where in conversations, I've had a person and you look the little sheepish, and he says, I don't know how to read a profit loss statement. It's p&l statement. And I said, No sweat. I said, I've encountered that many times. Let me teach you some of the basics. And then next time you get with your account, let's go over this. Now there was this other chap that I was working with. And he brought him busy and busy, but I'm just not making any money. And that's a red flag. As soon as I hear that you're busy, you're not making any money. So I'm pretty sure I know what's happening. But then we start drilling down. And I'm not an accountant. But I know the basics. So I started asking pointed questions like, well, what's your cost of sale? deer in the headlights look, and I'm like, Oh my goodness, okay. It's very possible, then that what you're doing your estimate slash quotes, that you're not factoring in enough properly, and you're losing money. My strongest recommendation that individual is you get an accountant and get them quickly. And I gave him a few options of people who I recommend. Well, this guy is doing gangbusters now, I'm proud to say, but he was in danger of losing everything because he was just doing it wrong. didn't recognize it. Because the old I've always done it this way. nonces came out of that mouth. But I said you not knowing is killing you. And you don't even realize it. So yes, I said that's where those cost cutting measures. That's the wrong bloody place to save money.

Vinay Koshy 42:02
Okay, so what about mapping your goals? It's one thing to, I guess write out your vision and, and goals. But is there any particular process or way that you would recommend people map out their goals?

Brad Halliwell 42:17
Sure. Yeah. I do. Mind mind mapping. So I use the seven habits. Stephen Covey. Covey, yeah, begin with the end in mind. And that is a very smart piece of advice. Begin with the end, what does the animal look like? Then what I would do is I would start rolling back, like when I when I got into my own practice, I said, Okay, well, if I was going flat out capacity, this is what it would look like. And I'm like, Okay, so let's, let's kind of reverse this here. So what would have pre happened pre this, what would have happened pre this, and I would have had to this and how much time with this. So I started like rolling it all back, and I go, Okay, so basically what I needed to do with and I started figuring out my goals, one of my goals at one time was I said to myself, if I could get a client, every other month, I would blow my expectations away. Like I thought that would just be phenomenal. And when I got this was after a few years of going, but yeah, it started becoming a client a month, client every three weeks or so, you know, like it's it started to really pick up momentum and things like that. But at least at least I had an understanding of what that road looked like. And so I can measure to my, to my theory and what I thought it would look like, and just adjust as I went. But that's that's, that's, that's the method I always recommend is just like, start there. But then, as I said earlier, we're getting overwhelmed, like, oh, for heaven's sakes, that's, you know, I'm never gonna pull down $500,000 Oh, my gosh, what did you hear what you just said, like, stop, just relax, breathe, I go map it back. And always like, Don't forget, like, with Apple and Dell computer, and Amazon's all started in garages, they all started like so meek, but it started folks. Just start ditch the excuses. And and just take a step. Do as much calculation as you can. And what I mean by that is, is getting information as much as you can we have the internet these days. Right? So this is this is a lot of stuff that you can start to search out. I certainly did. I started looking at other people's websites and how they marketed themselves and what I liked what I didn't like, you know, why reinvent the wheel to some degree. Also, you know, you just you do your research in that and just pay attention to how things are, how things are going. And you're gonna have your good days and you're gonna have your tough days, both of which are positive when you really think about it, because you know, getting knocked down and getting back up is the when getting knocked down and quitting. That's when you've lost

Vinay Koshy 44:59
Ok. Very good.

Brad, is there an element of seeking inspiration that would help keep us motivated?

Brad Halliwell 45:05
My, you know, it's interesting I from my own experience, Vinay I found that what I started learning more, I got inspired. So when you, you, you talk about a few books that I have read and what I read, and I learn, I can get inspired. And I've noticed that when when I wasn't reading as much and I was working, and not really focused on personal development, I did find that by inspiration lacked, I find that getting complacent also seeped into my life, which was a learning experience for myself. So I would strongly recommend to people is if it's audio books, fine, I don't care, just always be in the in the mode of wanting to learn and what's going on out there. And we've seen big companies fall flat on their faces because they didn't pay attention to what was going on. So I think it serves everybody well, to to stay stay educated, and to keep keep pushing the boundaries as far as as far as your learning and how you can develop yourself.

Vinay Koshy 46:14
Okay, certainly, and I think we've covered a fair bit, but we do say it's a good idea to take a break. And remember to have fun.

Brad Halliwell 46:26
You know, it's I'm glad you said that, because it is important to kind of sit back and do just that is you know, there's this one fellow I really wish he would I don't work with him, but he was recommended to me by a client of mine. His issue is, is he's he's working crazy hours, he has his own company, and he's the primary guy. And he's, he's missing out, you know, his, his kids are gonna get older are getting older. And I know he he will look back one day and go, Oh, my God, like, I missed everything. You know, they'll they'll start talking about situations that they were having in their life. And he's going to be clueless going bald, where was I? Well, you usually work late. My my old man, I've never worked for somebody else. He was assigned writer. And he bought that company from my grandfather. And I remember him working basically seven days a week. And when he got home, I was already in bed, I heard him come home sometimes. And then on Sundays, he was in the garage, lettering another sign or whatever, sometimes you'd have to leave and go do work and whatnot. So he pretty much missed most of my childhood for sure. And he never said it to me. But he said it to send it to somebody else that I knew that he says he really messed up. And that's, that's important because he's he's a good man. And he and he did great work. And a lot of my values that I have today, in my life, and in my business I got from him. Like he always said, like, if you're going to do a job, you do the best job, you can't even if it's a job that you don't really like you do a good job. Another one was, when I started my own company, I said, I'll never chase a check, meaning I'm not going to take on just any project that comes along, I have to be true that I, I can do it really, really well. And then I can also work with this individual, effectively, and I can get a great result for them. Otherwise, don't do it. So I would just recommend to people, it's like, yeah, just remember that, that that you're doing this. So you can have a better life. But to do these things, at at all costs, and flat out 16 hours a day, you're assuming you a lot like you're going to be here next year. Next year's next five years, nobody that was close, I guarantee. So have some fun along the way. Absolutely. And also enjoy what it is you just created. Like take a step back and go this is fantastic.

Vinay Koshy 48:55
Suddenly, really good advice there. We've covered a fair bit of ground. But is there anything else that you would recommend we think about in order to sustain motivation?

Brad Halliwell 49:09
I think Yeah, we've certainly have covered a lot. It's, it's, I just go back to the to the one fold that I coach people on and that's that self talk. I can't stress that enough. That when you're paying attention to how you talk to yourself. The other thing is, is you know, we it's usually used as a punch line, but dare to dream, right? We all dare to dream, you know, that kind of thing. It's just, you know, anything's really possible if we if we put our shoulder into it, but also following the steps that I talked about before. Being an entrepreneur is not for everybody and that's not supposed to be anyway. It's it's some folks like to be on that assembly line and do the same thing over but that's their personality and they're happy well then that's great. That's not a problem and it's there's nothing wrong with that at all. But what if you have that burning desire to to branch out and Do something on your own or with a partner or with a group of people or whatever. That's significant. And don't ever ever downplay it. Like, like, play it out. Like I said before, dream, have some fun with it, what's the possibilities? And just I'll share with you the five self deceptive words of planning that I came up with, with people that I'm coaching and listening to. When they're talking about their plan. I listened for these five words, because I know they're self deceptive. So the five words are, I think, I feel I believe, I wish, I hope. So I hear any of that in a planning conversation. I always push. You know, you think, you know, like, I think I've hired the right guy. Why do you think that I want to, we want to really kind of get down to it. Because I want my client to go in frantically. I know. You're not there. That's okay. But recognize, I believe, and I feel and I wish is self deceptive words that we use way too often in our lives, and put us in a false sense of security thinking we've covered the basis, but we're kind of missing something if you can't say I know. So I always say what it is, you need to find out to get you to the I know. So I hope I didn't get too philosophical. I, I have the greatest respect and admiration for anybody that takes that risk and follows that dream to have their own business. And that's why I love doing what I do is because I'm on that's business owner side, I want them to be successful.

Vinay Koshy 51:43
Certainly. And I think that's critical, given some of the statistics out there, even prior to COVID. I think it's something like 70 or 90% of businesses fail within the year starting. So yeah,

Brad Halliwell 51:54
yeah, the the number is staggering. And so I'll just share with people that, you know, some of the things, if not all that I've talked about is is obviously factors in why people fail.

The ...

it's been my experience that the first couple of years, like when you're probably not even taking a paycheck in the first couple of years, it's that hard to get it to get a business going. But once it starts going, I usually see it on year three is when it's it's the odds, things are coming to fruition and then the flow is starting to happen and whatnot. So I like to I like that bit of realism there because I've been in the franchise world as well. And I've seen sunshine people come in and what I mean by sunshine people is they'll they there, there's the folks that come in way too Cavalier, you know that they're Yes, they're buying a process has already been designed. And that's the beauty of a franchise is that you don't have to figure out a lot of these things. And that's great. And you're also buying a brand. It's, it's already been established. But the problem is, is that they're they don't, I have people that have come into that or they don't respect it. They think that I'm going to buy this, yeah, I'll go through the training because I have to I'm contractually obligated, but I'm going to hire some 18 1920 year old to run it. And I'm going to go sit on a beach and collect checks. And that's why I call them sunshine people. But it's the franchise model. Anytime I have a person talks to me about like I'm thinking of buying your franchise, I always ask the question, why what do you think you're getting into like, you tell me what you think this is. And hopefully I'm doing that that master franchisor favor because, you know, it's let's be honest, if you if you want to sell more franchisees you want them to be successful they'll sell for you. So that helps raise or it's just it's just another component where I just say you can't go in so Cavalier that you don't understand what it is you're buying.

Vinay Koshy 53:47
Yep, certainly. Is there anything else that you feel we should highlight because we haven't quite covered it as yet.

Brad Halliwell 53:57
I would definitely tell people that making time to to quiet the mind and have some self reflection is important. Also to trust your instincts at times you know, we call it your gut response but there's times where it's telling you something you're ignored because you either a you don't want to believe it or be just you just don't get it. So it's it's it's just slow things down and enjoy the process. I mean, being busy does not mean you're productive. And I go back to that controlling the workflow but just enjoy the journey everybody you know, like I'm so excited for you if you're getting into business and you're making a COVID like good for you like blink Go for it, why not? You You can do it. So it's take some of the things that I've said hopefully if they're helpful to you, I'm happy I'm honored that helped you and pushed you into the direction you needed to be just just a see honest to yourself, set yourself up for success. And and go for it. You know, it's it's it's worth it. You're worth it. Something excellent

Vinay Koshy 55:00
Brad, if you were listening to this episode, what would be your top takeaway?

Brad Halliwell 55:06
I think from from my own past, it's it's about writing things down is I just want to say to everybody, as a business coach, the reason I can empathize is because I, I've done a lot or have been doing some of the things that I talk about from time to time, because all of us slip, but I would overthink things to death. So I would hear that and my younger self would, yeah, dummy, like, they're gonna talk, right? Yeah. Calm down. So that would be the biggest takeaway out of latched on to.

Vinay Koshy 55:40
Sure. And Brad, if anyone's listening to this and curious, would like to find out a bit more or connect with you. Where would you recommend that they head to?

Brad Halliwell 55:51
I'd ask them to go to my website that Brad Haley well.com Hallowell is spelled h a l l i w e LL. And yeah, take a look here. You can see if people have worked with companies, I've worked with testimonials that that may or may not relate to you. And yeah, if you'd like to reach out, I'd happily set up a time to chat with you and see what it is you're taking on a be awesome.

Vinay Koshy 56:14
Excellent. Brad, thanks so much for doing this.

Brad Halliwell 56:17
I appreciate it. Thank you for having me, and all the best to you and your listeners.

Vinay Koshy 56:21
No worries. If you enjoyed this episode of The predictable b2b success podcast, I would love your support, head on over to the Apple podcast app and give us a rating. And as always, you can catch every episode of The predictable b2b success podcast on Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for tuning in.