The Art of Strategic Framework

Jason · 00:00Welcome to episode 209 of The Numbers Game. I'm Jase. I'm here with Nick and

Marty · 00:04Marty. How are you fellas? Doing well, thanks, Jase. Great to be back. And um, you're looking a bit disheveled, mate. What's, what's going on with you? What's, what's happening, Jase? It looks like there's a lot of motion on your face.

Marty · 00:17Before I introduce Nick, what are you going

Jason · 00:20through? Mate, it's just the, the You know, one of those things you learn is like, you need to know how to say the word no. I have still not mastered the art of saying no, so, uh, I bit off more than I can chew. I'm chewing damn hard. I'm, uh, at this point in time, meant to be going on a two week road show around the country presenting in all different states all over the country.

Jason · 00:40So, um, just juggling all of the different responsibilities between business ownership, CPA, Xero. Life. Oh, good day, mate. We'll, I'll, I'll get there. We'll get through it. And um, maybe a few lessons to learn from some of the episode stuff that I'll talk about today.

Marty · 00:55Oh, well you are a chewer mate, so keep, keep chewing.

Marty · 00:58How are you Nick?

Nick · 00:58I'm good. Yeah, no, good.

Nick · 01:00Good. Look, I won't tell you my problems because someone told you all theirs. So let's just, uh, let's, let's crack on. I can see Jase is keen. He's come prepared today too, which is even better.

Jason · 01:12Oh God, you guys. I love it. Um, I do, I do have some fun stuff to share with you today and, and I'm excited to get into a little bit of a chat around, uh, business strategy and strategic framework.

Jason · 01:24So if we've just lost most of the listeners that did tune in up to that point, uh, thank you for joining us so far. Um, I swear there is some value to come from this. So, um, boys last week, uh, I attended a course. Um, so I'd like to throw back to each of you guys and just ask the question from an education point of view.

Jason · 01:41I know we do podcasts and things like that, but, um, Nick, when was the last time you got out of the business and attended a course and did some training?

Nick · 01:48Yeah, yeah. It's a good question because it's been quite, quite some time. I think, um, I think we've had some training come internally when I say internally, I

Nick · 02:00mean, we're obviously going through a lot ourselves and just seeking external parties to help us.

Nick · 02:05But, uh, that's probably as far as my, my training's gone, mate, to be honest, in the last couple of years. Yep. There you go, Marty.

Marty · 02:11Well, I think most of my training is coming every minute to minute, hour to hour, uh, as a 52 year old, everything's an adventure, but I, I'm glad you're doing what you're doing.

Marty · 02:21Cause it is good sometimes to get out of your business and actually just do some strategic, uh, thinking at a different level away from the business. So I've certainly have done that in the past, but, uh, I haven't found anything that's intrigued me as yet. So what do you got?

Jason · 02:36Uh, it's a good question. And I'll, I'll set the scene a little bit, just, um.

Jason · 02:39You know, and also start by saying, you know, this is just, I wanted to share a bit of the experience because it was my first time getting out of the business and especially three days back to back. Um, I think often, you know, you might attend a webinar, you might do a podcast, you might go away somewhere, but to, to spend three days back to back out of my business with, and with my business partner too.

Jason · 03:00So Greg and I both attended a course together, which yeah, would have felt like the first time in a couple of years. And I guess the background of it, we were away, uh, back in May. Um, 2024 and we went to the CPA conference down in lawn and my old boss, uh, Brent Saleh, uh, was an exhibitor at the CPA conference and, and he had a stand and, you know, he runs an accounting practice, but this, this stand was around a business called leaders in business.

Jason · 03:26And it was all about business education, basically empowering business owners to run better businesses. But then another byproduct is training accountants to be better advisors. So one of the things, and you know, the big statistics that are thrown around is that in our country, 97 percent of registered businesses are small business.

Jason · 03:45Um, more than half of our country are employed. By a small business. So 50 percent of employees are employed by small business, but then there's the, the downside of, um, the statistics, which is like eight and 10 of these businesses don't exist five years later, you know,

Jason · 04:00and when majority of these businesses go under, end up in liquidation and don't survive.

Jason · 04:05That, that, you know, that negative effect on our economy, um, you know, is, is devastating. You know, people don't get their super paid, taxes aren't collected by the government and so on and so forth. So the, my old boss, you know, I worked with him nearly 10 years ago and, and a big part of what he was focusing on was, was how advisory.

Jason · 04:22Was a big part of the future and something that we all needed to do more of. So basically spent the last 10 years creating this course, which is what we went on. And, um, yeah, basically just want to run through today was, uh, a few of the different modules that we went through and more so to share that even as a, I see myself as a pretty decent business advisor, but what I think was lacking was structure.

Jason · 04:46around business advisory. So, I mean, you know, Marty, you, you probably deal with a lot of business owners and, and, you know, just think about the problems that you face. You know, if you were, had to put together a bit of a, uh, uh, for yourself, what's a bit of

Jason · 05:00a structure you go through when you meet with a business owner and the types of questions you ask to get to know them?

Marty · 05:05Uh, for me, it's about, Just understanding the business at a high level and then working back down through that in regards to management, in regards to how they make their money, how much of their money do they keep? Uh, you know, you look at culture, you look at various different components and, and it's, it's really interesting.

Marty · 05:24Like I think about starting a business, even at 29 years of age and how naive I was coming out of the bank. Um, And, um, just the lack of mentorship. And we've talked about this on other episodes. Uh, but there's a really, I've always admired, uh, there's a group in the US called Iron Sharpens and it's a business mastermind group where all business owners get together once a week.

Marty · 05:47I think they're groups of eight to 10 and they have quarterly retreats. And it's all about creating. Uh, better relationships, but also better structures with various different experience levels of

Marty · 06:00entrepreneur as well. And I haven't seen that really in Australia. I think, you know, I think accountants, you know, at the front end, right, that, that, that this could be happening.

Marty · 06:08But when I see clients, the biggest struggle, Is that even when they're buying a business is they look at the revenues, but they really just don't understand the many complexities around business and different categories they've got to get their head around. And even to delegate effectively into those categories, it really, A lot of the time, business owners will just go through the process of building the business and sort of do it reactively.

Marty · 06:35And the opportunity cost of that is huge, but you don't know it at the time. So I think advice around good structure is really, really vital as there's so many elements we'll be here all day talking about it, but, but that to me is a critical, you must get good people to give you a leg up in regards to building your business, otherwise you'd be gone and you won't even know why.

Marty · 06:58A hundred percent.

Jason · 06:59Yeah, Nick,

Jason · 07:00anything on that?

Nick · 07:00Uh, no, I think you're spot on. I think most people that go into business only see the good side externally. Um, whether it's because their friends are in business and drive nice cars or have nice houses. Um, so yeah, I think where people do come unstuck is all the little things that you don't see.

Nick · 07:17Um, the other, the other thing that comes to mind for me is, You know, really going into business with, uh, a purpose. So what is it that you want that, what you want out of that business or what do you want that business to do for you? Because I think a lot of people don't think about that. Um, and I think that can drive a lot of your decisions.

Nick · 07:36Um, that's probably the only other thing, but Marty, yeah, spot on.

Jason · 07:39Beautiful. Well, it's no surprise that, that purpose is number one thing that actually gets worked on in this course and through the strategic framework and business strategy. Yeah. You know, we've talked about it before on the app, but you know, if you can't understand why you're doing it and your purpose for it, it's very unlikely that success is going to be on the roadmap for you.

Jason · 08:00Um, so, you know, that's, that's absolutely pivotal and by far the first thing that, that people need to understand is the purpose. I'm glad you did mention that. Um, part of, you know, this, this thing was around, you know, the four levers that we have to, to help business, small business be better. And again, something we've talked about before, which will be no surprise, but anyone can start a business.

Jason · 08:20There's no formal qualification. Um, you know, everyone has the power to basically jump onto the ABN register and register an ABN. And all of a sudden you're, you're a business owner and you can start doing something that makes you running a business. But it doesn't mean that you've got the tools or the knowledge and understanding to do it.

Jason · 08:36Um, so, you know, getting clarity in purpose and direction is, is the first thing. The part of this that, that I did enjoy myself was, you know, knowledge. I mean, just, just doing a course for a couple of days and, and refilling some of the things that, that I hadn't visited or thought about in a long time. Um, being in the thick of it, um, you know, we work with business owners all day, every day in this stuff, but it was putting around some, some thought process into.

Jason · 09:00How we ask questions as well, rather than doing all the talking all the time, but some of the overarching goals we talked about for a business owner might be they want to grow. They want to sell, they want to improve, they want to get time back, they want more meaning in their life, or they're a startup and they're starting.

Jason · 09:17Um, do any of them resonate with you, Nick? Do you have anything where you want to grow, sell, improve, get time back? You know, what do you think about innovate and your journey? Is there a particular area where you're at at the moment?

Nick · 09:27Uh, it's definitely grow, um, for us and that's, you know, if I'm, if I'm not giving it too much thought, that's the first thing that comes to mind.

Nick · 09:34Yep. Yep. I'd say grow. And you got

Jason · 09:36synergies with that, Marty?

Marty · 09:38Yeah, definitely. I think one of the things is, uh, and Nick does this, this well, and something I didn't do as well, certainly, uh, is to carry, because there's so many different components of business, you feel almost obligated as a small business owner to be over every part of that business, and that can really lead to burnout.

Marty · 10:00And just time away from family and important things. So I think the quicker you could sort of delegate to the point where you're doing what you're good at and what gives you energy and put people that are even more effective in the areas, um, that, that are doing their role. It's, um, it's amazing how you can create a rising tide, but I think that's the thing I say, most business owners, they either can't make the money and they don't do well and they, they have stress around that or they do well and take on too much responsibility and don't delegate effectively and then cook themselves that way.

Marty · 10:35So I think that's a, but for me, growth is always a necessity. I love growth and I love getting a result and then. strategizing more, even more effectively based off the result rather than trying to get everything right up front and then never getting an initial result. I've seen business owners do that.

Marty · 10:55So I'm sure there's a halfway point here.

Jason · 10:57100%. And, uh, before I get into a little bit

Jason · 11:00more detail of some of the modules and some of the points, uh, interesting question that were asked up front, which, which is a bit thought provoking in the room, but, um, Nick, I'll start with you and you don't know this question before I'm asking it.

Jason · 11:10So putting it on the spot here, but What would you do with one extra hour every day for 365 days? So if you had an extra 365 hours, one a day for the next year, what would you do with it? Uh, are we talking business or personal? Up to you. This is, this is why the question's a fun and interesting one. How would you spend it if you were given an extra hour a day?

Nick · 11:33I'll just bend it on my golf game and that's been completely transparent. Um, that's, that's where I am at life in life at the moment, the listeners may or may not know, but you know, we're expecting a baby soon. So I think that that answer will thank you, but that answer will change. Um, so I would imagine if I had a family and I will very soon, it'll be spending time with family.

Nick · 11:57A hundred percent.

Jason · 11:58Okay, well, we might not

Jason · 12:00come back and ask you that episode, uh, that question a couple of months, uh,

Nick · 12:03He's trying to work out how to get away.

Jason · 12:06And, uh, you know, Marty, if you had the one extra hour per day, what would you do with it? Oh, Nick

Marty · 12:11answered my question. He futurized, uh, you'd spend it with, uh, your son and your family and you'd do something fun in it.

Marty · 12:19But from a, uh, From a profession interest, I always love learning. I'm curious about just consistently learning. So I'm really interested in options training at the moment, just for the sake of not to particularly do it yet, but I just fascinates me how they do it. So again, just following the curiosity, I probably put a little bit extra time into that.

Nick · 12:40I'd just go back to, and just, because I think this is an important, um, comment to make. If we were talking business, um, and I had an extra hour in the business, I would probably sit down and just think alone time, just thinking about the business because I find, and the only reason I say that

Nick · 13:00is because, um, I've recently been on a tour.

Nick · 13:03on a reasonably busy week of travel, so a bit of air, a bit of airport time and, uh, time on the planes. And it's the, it's where you do your best work when you're on a plane and you've got no distractions. Although these days it's quite easy to get distracted, um, with the various apps that you can download, but I try and use that as thinking time.

Nick · 13:20So from a business perspective, I'd almost do nothing with it. Except just sit down and think about the business and almost meditate or digest on the business. So I think that is huge.

Marty · 13:31I just had an awareness shift as Nick was talking on that. The reason why I want to do the options trading is it challenges my thinking and thought process.

Marty · 13:40So it takes me out of the business so I can. Think differently about something and use that pattern in a way in the business. That's interesting. It might not even be related to finance as such, but it's more a strategic game of chess in my head. So from that point of view as a professional development

Marty · 14:00thing, I just find I learn a lot more from different industries that I'm, you know, that I'm in or different structures.

Marty · 14:06So, but like what Nick says, just to have that hour professionally, I, I Do something like that just to challenge myself. So, yeah, but I like the, I like the contemplation. I don't think we do enough of that strategic thinking and give ourselves that time as well.

Jason · 14:24Perfect. Love, love the answers. Um, and look very similar resonating around the room.

Jason · 14:28There was nearly a dozen people that were doing the course last week, um, you know, that had, had varying answers. And. Think somebody else in the room also said golf and then reverted back to family and then business and all sorts. So, um, it's in these things were like brought up to kind of challenge our thought, you know, thought process at the time and where we're at.

Jason · 14:45Um, and basically that we flowed into, you know, as I said over three days, very hard to cover it in, in one podcast. Um, but for people who are, you know, business owners or thinking about being business owners, you know, the, the, the. where to start, how to do it, what to do over

Jason · 15:00five different areas. Um, it was structured in the way that, you know, the, the part ones, you know, dreaming up your ideal business and whether you're in business now, starting a business, um, you know, that is something that you can, you can do today.

Jason · 15:13So it's, what does your ideal business look like? And this can be the dream version of it. So it doesn't have to be innovate today or future advisory today, or, you know, if you're whatever business you're running, but even if it's drawing, some people are visual and it helps to, you know, get out a whiteboard and draw.

Jason · 15:27If I was running my dream business today, what would that look like? And then as you start to mind map this out, you start to go into all different areas without even starting to reel about, you know, what number of employees, how many locations, what's our brand known for? What are we, what are we known for in the market?

Jason · 15:44What's our unique selling proposition? But again, That's kind of part one. So, you know, the, the part one is your ideal business. Now, the, the main components that are purpose, vision, and values. So it's the big picture stuff. As, as you started on Nick, what was the purpose of why you had the business? So that's

Jason · 16:00realistically what you focus on when you mind map and draw your, your ideal business.

Jason · 16:04And obviously that's extremely big picture. You might have problems day to day that you're trying to resolve, but if you can't. Visualize what the dream business looks like. How, what are you working towards? You know, what are you trying to achieve and how are you going to get there if you don't know what the end result looks like?

Jason · 16:19And that's going to be different for everyone. So, uh, any comments on step one?

Marty · 16:23Yeah, I think, um, it's interesting if you were to clear the slate and have to start again, it might be a bit more confronting, but I go, I look at all the elements of what I get to do, you know, and innovate. And I go, I'm on a podcast, so I foster my creative side.

Marty · 16:39I like numbers, you know, so, you know, we do finance, right? And then I also like helping people. And I think you, you have to be very, you have to be very careful in regards to jumping to a whole different context and You know, sometimes people will do that and not

Marty · 17:00recognize the value and enjoyment of where they're at because they get bored.

Marty · 17:04And I said, you could really find all those great components of what connects you as to where you're at as well. So sure. If you haven't got a business. You know, go and, go and explore that. And I've talked to many business owners that have been in their businesses for 20 years, and they've just got flat and bored, even though the business is doing okay.

Marty · 17:22And I go, and every time I said, you've got to find what invigorates you within your business at another level, instead of thinking, Just jump ship and do something else. Cause that's the, the propensity is I need to do something else elsewhere. So it's like, you gotta find that enjoyment. And I think that subtlety is really, really important.

Marty · 17:42Cause it's very easy to go, ah, bored and do something else. You know what I mean? It's like I've been doing this, but you know, you're good at it too. So you go find the enjoyment. And challenge yourself within the business you're at to find different levels of curiosity within yourself as well that adds value.

Marty · 17:59So I

Marty · 18:00think, I think that's just important to stipulate as well.

Jason · 18:02Yep. 100%. Uh, part two, which is probably a more interesting area if you have an existing business, it's, it's analyzed. So it's looking at your current situation. Now having a real good, I guess, unpack of where you're at today, um, versus that big journey or the big picture that you've just kind of painted before of, you know, how far off your ideal business are you and what that might involve, you know, is, is doing your SWOT analysis, whether it's yourself or with some of your team, analyzing your client base.

Jason · 18:28Are you working with the right clients that you should be working with or do you find yourself starting to work with people that, you know, aren't your ideal clients? Looking at your brand, how's your brand perceived in the market and have you built the brand that, that, you know, you thought you'd have, or does it need some work, your products and services, your people and culture finances.

Jason · 18:47So, you know, they're, they're, you know, looking at your current situation, they're all things that we should constantly evaluate. Um, you know, whether it's once a quarter, at least once a year when you're kind of setting your vision and goals each year, but they're all some kind of like

Jason · 19:00really good place to, if you haven't done a strategic plan for a long time or revisited, you know, it's.

Jason · 19:05What's the ideal business step one. What is your current situation? Step two.

Marty · 19:08Jayce, can I ask you a question? Of course you can. With the, um, with what your vision for the business is and where you're at, was there a big discrepancy and what is that vision in comparison, like just out of interest from, you know, having done the course, you've done it for, done it for a reason.

Marty · 19:28Um, so where would you love it to be given your thought process, where are you at and what, what's the bridge?

Jason · 19:36Love turning it around back on me. I like it. Um, to be, to be completely transparent and honest with you. Uh, we did a SWOT not long ago. We have a lot of work to do on, on a lot of the SWOT responses that came from us and our team.

Jason · 19:48Um, you know, and part of that, which, you know, the, the step five of this is, you know, your execution plan. We need to properly set up an execution plan to work on. some of

Jason · 20:00the things in our business. So when talking about our current situation of where we are at future advisory today, compared to the ideal business of what I want to be, or where, what I want to be known for and where we want to get to the biggest discrepancy there, Marty is, you know, as a brand we're called future advisory.

Jason · 20:16Oh, and I want to be known and respected in, in our, in, in the profession of accounting and beyond that we are one of the go to destinations for advisory work. And we're talking about helping people achieve their future goals. When I assess where we are today, you know, as an accounting firm that does a lot of taxing compliance, we're probably still quite heavy in looking at historic data and going, here's your tax bill, you know, catch up with you next time.

Jason · 20:42So what, what I'm trying to create a space for us to work on way more advisory work, which is more impactful, helping more people achieve, you know, the things they want to achieve in their lives, whether, you know, it's making money, more time with family, selling businesses. So that's the biggest discrepancy that I kind of look at of, of where we are.

Jason · 20:59And that means, you know,

Jason · 21:00analyzing our clients, you know, are we working with too many clients or not the right kind of clients? You know, I know the clients we do magic with and I, and I want to work with more of them, but I also need to make sure we're doing more work for our existing clients. So yeah, there's, and you know, looking at our products and services, you know, we're still doing the same thing accounting firms are doing five to 10 years ago.

Jason · 21:18And, and am I okay with that? Or should we be setting the way and paving a path for a new way of doing things with more business owners?

Marty · 21:25I think that's a great answer because to me, I see you as that advisor already. And it's like, I'm just interested. Would you outsource? Would you bring someone in to do that component?

Marty · 21:35Would you do that yourself? Given what you learned?

Jason · 21:37Yep. And. Great question. Again, I think part of the step one of Greg and I doing the course was that Greg and I know this is the high value stuff that we really love doing with our clients, and we're already doing it with our clients. But what this, the whole idea of this was to create a strategic framework and structure.

Jason · 21:54Yeah. So then once Greg and I do a few more of them, we also bring our team members along for the

Jason · 22:00ride to, to, to train, educate, and mentor our existing team to deliver these valuable strategic sessions with our clients. Um, you know, cause there's only so many hours in a day that Greg and I can get in a room.

Jason · 22:11But if we then empower our, you know, our good senior managers and our good advisors to become not just good senior accountants or not just good accountants, but they become business advisors. And again, you know, not everybody is naturally able to become a business advisor. They need some structure, some training, some education.

Jason · 22:29And I think that's, you know, part of what this course was, was in power, you know, set up to do was to create more business advisors rather than, you know, and I think the accounting profession is, is ripe for that. I think, you know, accountants, as you said, Marty, we're, we're privy to the numbers. And if you can, you know, start to make business decisions off rock solid numbers, good financial forecasts, and an understanding of, of what a business should look like from a margins and profitability point of view.

Jason · 22:56Accountants are actually in a pretty good hot seat to become

Jason · 23:00the advisor. There's a lot of business coaches out there, you know, that, that aren't necessarily making decisions with numbers. We've got a pretty good combination of understanding a client's business really in really good detail and having the numbers to back up our decisions as well.

Marty · 23:14Love it.

Jason · 23:14Awesome. Won't go on too much longer. I mean, there's plenty we can unpack here. Um, you know, the next couple of, uh, modules or areas across the five steps, um, we've looked at our ideal business. We've reviewed our current situation. Um, the next one was our strategies, our strategies, you know, once we've looked at our current situation, if it's not where we want to be, you look at your strategies of your clients, your brand, your products and services.

Jason · 23:37Your systems and processes, your people and culture, and your sales and marketing. Now, most of them are exactly what I told you in module two, but it's looking at the strategies of how you're going to change it. In step three, if you're not happy with where your clients were or your brand was, um, and that's all about establishing the growth part of the next stage of the plan, you know, in the business strategy, we've started

Jason · 24:00off with basically leadership part one is, you know, the purpose, vision, values, and then we've moved into, you know, The review of the current situation, which is your current strategy.

Jason · 24:09Step three, what's the new strategy. If you're not happy with where you are, how are you going to do something different to, to pull the levers, to get you where you want to be. And I think that's what a lot of business owners do is they, they get complacent. We keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

Jason · 24:24From your point of view, I mean, you guys look at this stuff as well. Quite often each year, do you come up with different strategies or something? You know, is there any kind of major. Major wins or major changes year to year. I guess after being around for 15 years, maybe there's not, um, not as. Uh,

Nick · 24:40no, it definitely changes, but I, but I think the overall, uh, strategy, which I think needs to be simplified, stays pretty constant.

Nick · 24:50It's just the, the small things that, that drive towards that strategy that change or, you know, the roads to getting there. Um, but no, there's, there's no doubt.

Nick · 25:00And, you know, if I look at our strategy, 10 years ago, probably was almost non existent. So I think we've gotten better at, okay, what is our strategy and what are we trying to achieve, but it's definitely involved and as, as it should, I think you should be, um, re you know, looking at your business every 12 months and, you know, are we on the right path?

Nick · 25:17And this is where we're going. Is it the right way or do we need to deviate based on a few things? So.

Jason · 25:22And look, it's, it's going to be very hard to, to get a whole, the whole point of a strategic framework across in, you know, a 30 minute podcast, but you know, once we've gone through those first three things, the fourth one, um, that I want to say here, I mean, do you think back to our, if you haven't listened to it, the Adrian Hondros, um, episode of soap strategy on a page, realistically, once you've kind of, you've painted the picture of your ideal business, looked at your current situation, looked at where you want to be, Part of one of the documents that you need to create as part of step four is your strategy on a page.

Jason · 25:52What is that one pager that encapsulates all of, you know, the mission, vision, values, um, your key objectives and some of the

Jason · 26:00work streams that you're going to do to achieve those objectives. If it's not on a one pager that your whole team understand, you probably got a bit of a missed opportunity there.

Jason · 26:07Um, you know, and then part of rolling that out is also the KPIs and the measurement tools that help you to know what success and define what success looks like. So, and then lastly, guys is leadership. You know, when you think about the, the leadership and, you know, if it's not just the business owners, the other thing you need to look into, um, you know, if you're going to roll all this stuff out, you need to know who's in charge, how are we measuring and monitoring, who's the management team and leadership team.

Jason · 26:35And what, I guess, what skills do they have as well? I mean, if they're not trained to be great leaders, it's one thing to be a good manager, but there's another thing to be a good leader. And, uh, you know, one of the really interesting kind of stats or numbers that I'll share with you guys that came out of it, you know, part of it was mindset training over this three days.

Jason · 26:52And it was that 7 percent of communication is verbal. And that blew my mind. The other part of it, you know, was, was

Jason · 27:00around your physical, what your body's doing when you're talking. And then, um, the, you know, I guess the tone and, and how we're coming across. So, um, you guys heard that as well, that, um,

Marty · 27:11Definitely.

Marty · 27:12I've done a lot of work around 2008 on that stuff, just in regards to the impact of tone in regards to building confidence, simplifying. Effective strategy that works like you can overwhelm and overcomplicate things that really don't need to be. So how do you put it into a simpler format that people can take action on?

Marty · 27:31And, um, and yeah, even physicality, you can come across threatening in your physicality. So how do you have an open stance and, um, and even your tone? Like, is it encouraging? Is it, it can still be directive when needs to be and you can use it to advantage, um, in collaboration with someone. And vice versa, you could start to read these signals as well and know when to pull them out of a rut.

Marty · 27:56Um, if they're walking off the edge of a, of a cliff, which happens sometimes in

Marty · 28:00business and it's, um, you know, it's, it's very, very powerful. So I did a lot of work around three years on that and that's, that's been very helpful to me. Very helpful. Yeah.

Jason · 28:107 percent words, 55 percent body language, 38 percent tone of voice.

Jason · 28:15So, and you know, and when we, we, we experimented in the room, the lady, um, who took us through that was called Dr. Marley, what, um, so, you know, if you look up Dr. Marley, what I'm sure she'll have some stuff online, um, that will train and educate around that. But that was mind blowing, um, trying to understand all that.

Marty · 28:33Yeah. Well, we're just in the midst of a hail storm here. So if you hear anything going on, it's just absolutely gone berserk. But it's, uh, Yeah, I'm very conscious of my communication to people and at different stages of their careers as well. And understanding the person as to who you can be direct with, sometimes who you need to build some confidence before being direct with.

Marty · 28:56And other times, you know, you can have more open discussions,

Marty · 29:00but it depends on the individual that's across from you. And I always remembered, uh, An activity standing in the other person's shoes, where you would actually have a scenario that you'd play out, you'd have the person across from you, you, and then a third position, and you had to, you had to move throughout the chairs, and have a conversation, and then work out what that person was feeling, listening to you, and you got so much enrichment from going, Far out, am I really that blunt?

Marty · 29:30Or, you know, you'd pick up a lot and then you'd sit in a third position where you'd see how the conversation could be optimised. Like, what could both individuals be doing? So it just took you out of yourself in regards to dealing with people and I found that to be a really powerful exercise and you should always even with, you know, Business partners, your own, you know, life partners, you always want to understand the other person's position, even though you might have your own, it's, it's, uh, you usually come to a better

Marty · 30:00result, ultimately,

Jason · 30:01and the deeper, the more deeply you can understand the people you're working with, whether that's your business partner, your employees, even your partner at home, um, you know, if you haven't done a disk Profile or a Myers Briggs, I definitely say go and have a look at some personality profiling as part of the leadership plan.

Jason · 30:15When you do kind of get across those five modules of, of how to work on your strategic plan and your business improvement.

Marty · 30:21Chase, this is not work, right? This is like, you know, when you look at it, you go for me. And it always has been the numbers directional lies, what the business expectations are, right?

Marty · 30:32So there are KPIs that need to be met. There are performance that needs to be met, but how you get to that performance with an individual changes per individual. And that's, that's the subtlety that most miss. And you go, if you can, if you can. Build confidence, inspire action, and for that person to get a result, they might get a result in a totally different way.

Marty · 30:54'cause different people have different attributes and they have different capabilities too. But you need to

Marty · 31:00understand that and foster that to, to get an expansion on the result with them. They're ultimately gonna do it. You, you can't do it for them, but you have to have understanding as to what drives, you know, each person within the, and that takes time and effort, but uh, it's, uh, it's very important.

Jason · 31:17And the thing is, at the end of the day, you can have done all of this work on the business, but if you have poor leadership and a poor mindset, it's going to be very hard to lead and inspire a team to be on the same page and help you achieve the goals that you've set out in that plan. So yeah, I just thought I'd share that with you guys.

Jason · 31:33I mean, it was hot off a couple of days of it being out of the business and I just thought, you know what, it's nice to put some structure into where you are now, how to analyze it, where you want to get to, and then rolling that out with a, with a good plan and, and good guidance. Thanks guys. And, um, you know what, as I said on the end of episode 200, which is a little while ago now, we must be, we're pretty much nearly at 300 episodes.

Jason · 31:53Uh, you know, um, but, you know, um, Nick, Marty and myself are here. If anyone

Jason · 32:00ever wants to, you know, debrief on these kinds of things, uh, any episode content that you hear. If you think should, I'd love to pick Nick, Marty, or Jace's brain on that. Um, please do reach out to us, connect with us on LinkedIn, send us a message on Instagram at the numbers game podcast.

Jason · 32:14Uh, we absolutely love your feedback and ongoing support. Um, continue to like follow, subscribe and until next time

Marty · 32:21plan to win. We plan to fail. Game over.

Jason · 32:26This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. The conversations are of a general nature and do not qualify as financial or tax advice.

Jason · 32:34We recommend before you make any financial decisions, you consult a licensed professional. Individuals on the podcast may hold positions in the companies discussed. ---