You are listening to the scale with speed podcast because scale equals revenue.

Welcome back to scale with speed. Your host, Judge Graham. I’m here with my good buddy. Matt Manero. If you’re just listening in the car and audio, it’s amazing. So today we were talking about, something that’s in my book. I mean, the whole premise of my book Scale With Speed. And for those who’ve read the book, they understand that speed is an actual formula. It’s a lot of the things that we teach in burn the ships. And there’s a lot of the reason Matt and I got together and just huge kindred spirits because Matt was already executing against this and we were just aligned.

He was calling it a different thing and that’s why we’re here. Right. But, it was mine and wasn’t as good a formula as yours as comprehensive as yours. Mine was really the torch. Yeah. And yours was Scale With Speed. Mine was, mine was how do you blow the place up? And then rebuild it properly. And yours was, you know how you get it moving super fast, total. So when we brought them together to burn the ships, I think it was great. And let’s do a shout out to our man, Darren Palmer, absolutely. Who listened to our celebrate everything episode. And you saw his desk, just everything, everything we talked about, he bought the stuff. He bought the trophies. He thought of the names for the trophies. He got the trophies and got engraved and now is ready to begin celebrating everything for his clients and for his staff.

And dude, that’s the reason we do this stuff, man. This is, you know, we are not mindset guys. We are tactical people. So we love when people text, you execute. And then you saw all the comments in this feed. And so if you guys don’t know, we’re talking about, there’s an episode you haven’t listened to. It’s called celebrating everything. And Darren literally took that to heart and he posted this picture on Facebook and he went out and bought all these trophies and all these things. And one of them was like, I forgot what the award was, but even if you saw his wife chime in and go, I better get that one. That one better come to me. So anyhow, thank you, Darren. Let’s talk about speed today. Maybe there is a grad of, of, so let’s talk about the speed formula. So we’re going to go through every letter because it means something when you give it to you, right?

So speed is an acronym and S starts with your endgame. So if you’re listening now, I mean, this is, this is, this is a big podcast because if you just do the speed formula on your own, it’s going to radically help you in your life and your business. Right? So right now either write it down or capture this S is Start with your endgame in what that means is what do you want? Why do you want it in the most important win, right? Madam, and this is something we teach all the time. And so many of us in business, you start the business out of a passion or an idea, or you’re good at something. And all of a sudden you want a couple of clients and you make a couple bucks and then you go get an office and then you get a couple of employees. And then you’re just on a freaking hamster wheel. In that business that you thought you’ve created is turned into a glorified

Dude. I know I’m freaking out, man. I lived it. I never started my business with an end game. I serve my business to survive. And that’s what most of us do. And your first business was that way totally failed. Right? And your, your biggest wins were the exact opposite

In game. Started with the end game, every business, since then I’ve started Matt instance.

And I started a couple of businesses together,

All of them. And we’ve said, this one is cash flow, right? I’m talking about the Amazon business, right? Which, which also could exit if we build enough brands on it. And then the other business, it’s like, no, dude, 36 months for your dumb

Business is out. We did not start these businesses to work in them and with the shit that goes along with it. And that is why this, the S start with the end game is so freaking important for people because you listen, I’m 51 years old. I do not have the energy. I was just talking to my buddy Sapio. We had lunch on Tuesday and we’re talking about cold calling and all that. So he said he loved it when he was on wall street. Loved it, hated it now. Well, I said, could you do it now? It’s like, yeah, it’s only you can compartmentalize energy and so many times in your life. Right. And, uh, and people need to get their hands around it because if you’re 20 years in business and you still don’t have the end game figured out from you, you don’t have the energy to do it. So

Just think about this right now. This is an important thing. Are you happy in your life? Uh, financially. Okay. Are you happy in your life right now with your, your work life balance? Most entrepreneurs, the answer to that is going to be no. You know, now if you are, God bless. I think there’s another level, right? If you clearly understand, let’s just use an example. When we force people to remember, start with your endgame, what do you want? Why do you want it in? When, if you really mapped that out, what do you want? Okay. I want a work life balance. I want to only work 30 hours a week. I won, uh, Island. I want a fucking Lamborghini, whatever it is. Okay. You’re going to have to now start looking at those things and going, Whoa, working 30 hours a week on an Island, those nitro little shifts.

So that does a gut check of really understanding what you want, because that moves you to the column of why do you want it? You really want an Island. Yeah. How much of an Island do you want? Do you want the pocket Island? Like all those things. And I think what you figure out is some of those monetary things aren’t as important to you is, is, is you may think they are so get, you know, when, if you want an Island really put that on there, but, but figure out what do you want and then challenge yourself on why do you want them? Okay. But then the most important piece of it is when, okay. And when I say, when it’s not, you know, five to six years, that’s not a win, win is I want it January 1st, 8:00 PM, 2023.

But listen, some people have a really hard time even figuring out what they want. So let me ask you a specific question. When you guys built out the sq one model, how did you come up with what you wanted it to look like? What did you, did you, I mean, did you, did you just guess and say, well, you know, X millions would be nice or did you, did you really have, did you really have this crystal clear vision of it? I had a crystal clear vision

Business partner. I have that too. And what was amazing about that is, um, what we wanted, it actually exceeded what we got. Right. Which is even better. Right.

That’s a nice bonus, but, we followed the money, right. So I figured, yeah,

Like this is what I want. And there was that view. Everything’s personal, it’s own name. I’m not going to share those things, but I figured that out. And then I challenged myself, like, do I really want that? Why do I want it? Right. And those things change over time, but what can’t change is the wind part. And then we set that goal on that date, the magic happens on the date because it forces you, like we teach a bar on the shifts to build a plan. Okay. If you want 30 million in your bank account, buy in five years in an exit, that means you have to have, you know, X size company so much in EBITDA is so, and you break that down to how many sales do you need every single day? You know, all those things. It forces you to build the mathematical formula to go, Holy shit. I have something I have to get done every day. In order to back into that five-year date in order to get that lump sum of money or whatever it is. And most entrepreneurs and business owners never take the time to do that. And if you never have the formula, how do you fucking build the plan

And execute against it? You don’t. But again, one of the things that you said, which we can often glaze over, is that you followed the money. And I remember you telling me that, that you knew that there was going to be most likely a private equity, private equity exit, and therefore the decisions needed to be made on what would a private equity acquire locally want to see within your business? Absolutely. How was it? So would this decision pass the muster of the super sharp Ivy league wall street, guys in your conference room pounding you about questions and knowing the answer. So all of that gives crystal clarity to the whole clarity. And this is one of those things. And again, we’ll plug around the shifts. Do you want to get clarity on that compass? Something like burning the ships. We believe that not a lot of things like that exist, but reach up and get mentorship because

Matt took his company from 18 million to a hundred million to 36 months when he did it because he had a mentor and a plant.

We did more business on Monday of this week, three times as much business on Monday of this week than I did the entire first year of the major fleet. And there was no plan for that first year, right? No. Right. There’s a plan. Now. There’s a, there’s a great plan on now. And the one thing that, that, uh, XE and ramps and I were talking about just before we fired up today, which is, which is really powerful, is that none of it happens today without everyone’s involvement in the early days. It could be the owner selling deals, but once scale kicks in the whole place as the fire on all cylinders. Right? Yup. And that’s the freaking magic. It is the magic man. It’s, it’s the,

It’s a great, I mean, it’s the magic of me being able to do,

Just walk in here three minutes before we go on and we just roll. Right.

I mean, that’s, that’s the magic. All right. But we’re not talking about the magic. We’re talking about the formula. There’s no human speed. Right. And there’s no, I in team, that’s a different podcast. All right. So as to start with the end game, hope you guys capture that P is pick your niche. Okay, Matt, I talk about this over and over again. Niche.

We’ll get you. Rich. CFF is a great example of it. The reason we’re in this studio and the reason Matt has all these employees and this great

The office makes a ton of money because Matt is in a niche. Matt sells commercial fleet financing,

Two tow trucks, trailer, I mean construction and trailer companies. That’s its comma, but more niche. Five years in business, minimum of five units in the fleet and 700 credits where the owners, okay. Would you call a five, five, seven? Yeah. Okay. When you get

Clarity on a niche, pick your niche is the P everything becomes easier.

The struggle we have as entrepreneurs, we feel like we’ve got to have it all right. And what we’re doing, if we don’t, you know, if you’re a marketing

Company and you want to market to everybody, or you’re a video company, you know, man, anybody that needs a fucking video, we’re going to go after that’s the wrong answer. Right? Amateurs get crushed, experts get paid. That’s another thing Matt says all the time. So what’s your niche, right? Once you understand your end game, then you have to go back to what can I do? Phenomenal that has scale in is an untapped market that I can become the market leader. Right? Okay. We use the analogy all the time and the burn, the ships. It’s like, dude, if you’re an insurance agent and you sell fucking all insurances, you’re like every other Allstate agent on the corner. Okay. Best buyers expect what you’re talking about. Do. They don’t, they don’t need, they are, the buyer already has everything. Okay. That’s why they’re the buyer. Okay. They only buy little missing things that they don’t have.

Okay. A buyer doesn’t need you. A buyer needs a skill set specific to a market. They may have not untapped yet that you could do that for them using the insurance. Back as an example, dude, the person who sells horse insurance, the guy or gal that owns that category is that multi-multi multi multimillionaire. Okay. Why is that? Because they do one thing. If you have a million dollar horse, a hundred thousand dollar horse, you want to get that thing insured. What are you going to do? I’m on a search or insurance agent. And if you have the website that, that, that frames that up, that has market leader content, as testimonials show that you’re the best at it. Are you focused on the source insurance? You know how the policies, you know, you know, a horse breaks her leg, this happened like all of that guess who was that?

Right. But, you don’t sell flood insurance, life insurance and whatever. Right? So, so the, the, the pick, um, the niche is such a scary thing for most entrepreneurs. But Matt and I would just challenge you like you do your research, but I can promise you if you look at it and you go, man, that’s only one 10th of 1% of what I was looking at. If you got half of that, one 10th of 1% or one 10th of that 1%, you’d probably be fine. You’ll be fine. You’ll make more money. You’ll have less problems. Higher margins or staff will be happier. They’ll be better trained. Your marketing effort will be more laser focused. You can charge more. Your relationship with your customers will treat you as an expert. It’s just, it’s the most important thing. And it should happen early in the process.

Yeah. The whole business should not always be about, let me do whatever the customer wants because I need the customer revenue. Yeah. I’m a hundred percent. All right. So now we’re moving on to the first E, which is, uh, energize your culture. Okay. Matt and I talk all the time about, you’re not a real business that GF people. Okay. You’re like a real business and have people. If you want scale, you want an exit. You need people. And dude, you’ve got to energize them. Right? You’ve got to energize that culture. You’ve got to infuse core values. What’s your belief system? What are your habits, behaviors that you want to do, your people to, to, to, to do? What do you, who do you want to be around? Right.

You know, my, my buddy, Sapio, who’s a culture, core value freakazoid, right? When he came to, he hadn’t seen the new office on Tuesday when he came up here. And the first thing he said to me, when he walked through was you took your core values down. Cause I had them when you walked through, I said, no. And they were now, Oh shit, there they are. And he stopped and read every single one of them. And I want to stress the listenership, the great vendors, the great clients, the great companies that you’re doing business with. We’ll do the same thing. It’s the one that passes right by them. And doesn’t even think about it and pad, I mean, I think those are the ones you gotta watch out for. Yeah. In

People drive the scale. Right. Well, we’re seeing that in one of our current businesses right now. Right. And we’re starting to get some momentum, some wins, right.

Culture is starting to happen. But is the leader for you guys

Listening to a stand, maybe you’re a manager, right. Or maybe you want to start a business or maybe you’re in a business. What are you doing to build a culture? What are you doing to energize and what are you doing to help people sell them? Right. And when, and in all those things are so important to realize the growling, right? Cause 86 was the stat, 86% of your employees. Whether you know it or not, the freaking checked out. Why? Because they don’t have a belief system. They don’t have it. They don’t have behaviors. They don’t have a culture that they want to come to work. It’s not a winning environment. You’ve got to create that. So that’s energized your culture. That’s the E K. So the second E and the speed formula is, is speed. It’s executed with speed. Okay. I would rather see you make 10 decisions versus wait and make, okay.

That’s, that’s a philosophy that, that I, you know, that’s just how I roll. Okay. So, but, but what happened? It’s executed with speed. Let, I’ll be very, very cautious. When I say this, we’re not talking about haphazardly speed. You’ve got to have a plan. You’ve got to have an end game. You’ve got to have a niche. You got to have all those things, but you gotta move fast. Okay. You’ve got to make this. Let’s do a great example. I came into the studio, we just got some new mics. Okay. And the mikes that are set up behind us, which you guys can’t see, are a better mix. You’re sure it’s the Joe Rogan mix or whatever. We were thinking. We were going to use those today. Okay. Now some entrepreneurs say, Whoa, we need to stop undo all this stuff, switch. ’em put them over here. No dude, we’re doing a free podcast. We’re gonna knock it out. And when this thing is done, we’ll switch the mikes. And that’s a very elementary example, but there’s hundreds of decisions like that, that are happening every day in your organization. And if you’re not just executing fast and understanding what’s important to stop and not, you can’t build momentum.

Look, I want to give a shout out on that specific topic of these mikes twosie for saying, I think there was a miscommunication and there was a miscommunication, which is important for everybody to understand. Especially if you talk about the first E we just dropped these mike’s off, we can drop them off and be like, Hey, Z, put them on the table because of Joe Bogan. Right. And Z did set the mix up so that he had Ramsey right? During the podcast. If they want to, or we think it’s necessary or they have something to contribute. So the point is you have to be flexible a hundred percent on the, on the desired outcome. And speed as a value system allows that dude. It’s okay. Let’s keep going. Let’s keep going. It’s all right. Sorry. And by the way, I think it’s a shout out to Z’s confidence that he can come in and say, not feel bad about the fact that you brought it up right now. I feel bad. The point of listen, it’s the way we do it. And you don’t remember what he said. You said we’ll do it for next time. Yeah, totally cool. Let’s go fire it up if they’re hitting the right button, but that’s the importance of speed.

Can you pivot? Can you adjust? And that’s one example of several. So if you create an organization or back energize the culture that gets mired with, I can’t make a decision or it has to be a hundred percent, right? And you’re not moving fast. You’re not shipping the product. You slow down. Nothing happens, you know, in, in, in. So what, you know, when you leave the day and you, you look up in,

You have a loss column in a wind column.

If you can’t calculate those winds up and feel really good about it, dude, you’re not moving fast enough.

Yeah. Because if you move fast, you’re getting shit done, dude. Here’s w w I’m living this in, in, in one of the other businesses in which speed is a core value of that company. And we’re making a lot of progress on organizing client relationships and tactically, where we need to go and pivots and strategies for the clients and all that sort of stuff. Except the one thing I keep seeing is okay, good. You guys got it? Yeah, we got it. No, you don’t get it. Like now let’s do it. Now I’m going to stay and we’re going to do it. And the reason we have the luxury of doing that is because speed is the core value. And we as ownership, haven’t pushed it on you guys hard enough. And you guys haven’t bulk bought into it enough, but we’re going to keep pushing the concept of speeding. It’s not that we did it, though it’s that we executed on it. We closed the circle. That’s what’s

Makes you want to feel good. Think about how many times you call a meeting about something in the future that you want to get done. Everybody you call into the meeting is who you need in order to get it done, dude. Fuck. Get it done. Just do it right. I mean, just the meeting should be about getting it done. Now I know there’s certain things that are too big to get done, but I would rather see this compression of time to use teamwork in meetings to actually execute and create, not to fucking talk about who’s going to do what and assign a day to then meet again about it,

Do that. I’ve never seen anybody do it. Like you appreciate that. That’s amazing that you just took it as a compliment to that. She never dawned on me.

So,

But I have never seen anybody say we’re not done yet. Right? We think we’re done. Right. But no, now we’re going to pick up the phone and now we’re going to start the ball in motion. Right. And we’re going to stay on, sell. It keeps getting done and action keeps happening. And what I have learned in our time together, and we’re starting to see that in the people that we work with and partner with is that it no longer becomes uncomfortable. It just becomes part of the culture. It’s part of how we do it. Right? And so for everybody, who’s wondering, how am I going to put speed into it? You’re going to declare it. And then you’re going to start doing it. And you’re going to lose some people who say it’s ruined too fast. I wish it was the old way too much pressure to drive me crazy. He’s a slave drive is a part of your culture anyhow, so good. And then it’s going to become calm, just commonplace. And that is the piece of the puzzle that everybody has to understand. It does work.

Yeah, man, you know, the, the fundamental thing and know this is dragging on the reason I’ve been successful. That’s my super power speed period. Okay. Because nobody could out speed me. So our competition, whatever they were getting done in a week, I was getting 10 X more. Even if I fail 50%, I was still 50% ahead in, in, in what happens in that, that, that operating with speed winning is just forced into it. Okay. Because you have to it’s mathematical at that point, when you’re moving that fast and you’re doing so many things in, in your doing it plan was speed from a mathematical probability. You’re going to just inherently have more.

Okay. What happens when you have more wins? You create momentum culture. People want to win. I want to, I want to, I know where we’re pushing on this one specific thing, but you just have to ask yourself part of the burn. The ship’s bootcamp is we, we put you through the competitive analysis. And when you begin to do the competitive analysis, you begin to see how slow your competitors operate. Oh my God, your secret shop, your competitors. You begin to see it. And, and for those from specific listening to you like this, you need to buy more shit. You need to buy more shit. And I don’t care whether it’s expensive stuff or cheap shit, but you just need to buy more shit and realize how slow most people work. Yeah. I’m doing a mortgage right now in this Lake house and I am pounding,

Oh, I have a bank

You’re going nuts. Like I’m sending an email and I’m following up with a phone call. Cause I’ve learned in the three weeks that we’re working on this, that I send the email and I don’t get a response. So I had to have a call with her this week that said, listen, this is the way it works with me. This is how the relationship is going to go. I’m gonna send you an email and you’re going to reply that you got the email. Then I’m going to call you. And you’re going to call me back. I’m literally. So you need to test the marketplace and see how it’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for competitive advantage. And if you embrace speed, your competitors aren’t and in a good economy, you see it more than ever. They are fat, lazy, or fat and lazy. We’re good. We’re busy.

And you know what, they start to. They give you all the excuses of why they came with, Oh my God, we never visited each other for 30 years in the mortgage business. I’ve never been in a specific problem. Right. We’re closing on time. Right. That’s why, why do I need to, I don’t need to close on time. Right? Right. The closing date was picked out of the blue. There was no logic to it. Right. I just picked a date on the 24th of September and said, we’re going to close. And that’s all there is to it. I’m sure I could go to the seller and say, Hey, we’re going to close on the 25th or the 27th. We’re closing on the 24th. Why are you making it so crazy? Why do we have to sell just the way it is?

I wouldn’t know, knowing how crazy I am.

I would have booked a party on the 20th

And hired a band or whatever, with the unveiling of this new, you know,

A beautiful Lake house. And I would use that to force the momentum. Right. So we’ll let you know. I’ll tell you the strategy though, that I had done is, uh, I’m, I’m working with the president of the bank too. So I’m working with the mortgage person at the bank, but I’m giving the president of the bank updates all the time as well. So I’m forcing speed gotchas because he doesn’t want to hear that shit. You don’t want to do your job, get this guy what’s going on with minerals and what’s going on. What’s going on when I’m in there with you, I’m peppering him constantly when they haven’t heard. And now you might say, well, you know, doesn’t that piss person you work with. It doesn’t matter. Right? I need the 24th. That’s just the way it is. Right.

So speed. Now we’re on to the last one, which is deal. We recap these, right? So start with your endgame, right? Pick your niche, energize your culture, execute with speed and then dominate your top priorities is the D K. And this goes into the plan. When I talked earlier about speed, I can’t be haphazardly. It has to be planned and something Matt and I build out or rigorous on, on plans. We call them a one page attack and Cocker plan. And it literally maps out the annual goal to the quarterly objectives, to the owners for days to then how it gets executed, a monthly, weekly, and daily, which we do through a nine one, one meeting. And that’s dominate the top priorities. Okay. So once you understand, I can’t get to my end game in less. I break it down mathematically into what I have to achieve as an organization daily. Then you’ve got to dominate those. It just has to happen, right? You’ve got to have a culture in a team and an environment where they’re empowered to move fast. They have the ability and the skill sets to dominate what you’re putting in front of them. And you have the, the, the aptitude and the ability to understand where the organization is, measure it, adjust and optimize it in order to move fast. And in order to hit your end game,

There’s one piece to this judge that nobody thinks about. Cause this is the way this plays out, right? It’s a hard concept for people wanting to know what their top priorities are. Their big boulders are. It’s a big deal, right? Then they start, it takes a month to, they get it all started. We’ll figure it out. Right? And here’s the judge Graham deal. I’m so glad that you achieved that top priority. Now put another one on don’t make what most people do is it’s five and they check it off over the course of a long day or a week or a quarter or whatever that timeframe is. And then they’re like, Oh, awesome. And judge this. No, no, no.

[inaudible]

No. Find another top priority and backfill for the one that you just erased that you just completed.

Yeah, you have to. And we’re going to talk about, um, you know, mediocrity here on another podcast, but that’s it do, what do you want? What do you want? Okay. Do you want to go into an office where you celebrate fucking getting three things done today? I don’t, I don’t. What do you want? That’s why starting with the end game is so important. You don’t have to be a maniac like me or Matt. You know what we want is different, but I can tell you if you want a successful business, dude, start with you and gang pick your niche, energize your freaking culture. Cause you have to have people in order to have a real business, then you gotta move fast. You have to execute with speed and you have to be relentless, relentless to daily dominating your top priorities. And that’s it. That’s the speed formula. It’s totally mapped out in scale

Speed. But, um, you know, we thought were, was relevant. That podcast is called scale.

It’s a great formula. It’s a simple formula. It’s a simple concept. But the magic happens in the work. The magic happens in the plan and then the execution. And that’s just how

Play out. And it’s easier than y’all think the chaos that you have allowed to creep into your business over the period of time can go away pretty quickly. And when that chaos is gone, you will, you fall in love with your businesses.

Yeah. I mean, listen, if you’re not happy now that’s on you create an environment when you walk in fire up. Yeah.

So listen, the judge’s book scale was being available on Amazon. The title scale was speed type in Judge Graham on Amazon. Get it. And equally as important if this type of info relates to you and you find it interesting, which I would assume you do. That’s why you’re listening to the podcast. Come to burn the ship’s bootcamp. The next bootcamp is October 8th and ninth. Go to burn the ships, put bootcamp and just sign up,

Burn the ships.com a dilemma, Matt and I sell you. Go there. Watch the testimonials that result out. It’s amazing. Alright, we’ll see you on the other side. See you down the road as always!