 Good afternoon everybody Tom Stewart here our guest today as Alonzo Adams, and this is smart business moves Alonzo How in the heck are you? I'm excellent Tom. Thanks for having me and I'm excited to be a part of this and talking about my favorite topic leadership So I'm ready to go man. Leadership is a big part of the recipe Without with a lack of leadership isn't going to get you very far It's the foundation man. It's the foundation to the success of businesses Families industries, whatever you name it the foundation of everything all revolves around leadership and biggest thing about leadership influence You know, I'm really I'm really excited to have you here today. I don't think Liz is gonna be able to make it She's on the road, you know taking care of business. She's got you know, she's got a lot of balls in the air, but Yes We'll anchor this thing down and we'll we'll we'll make it work. We'll rock it You know each other for how long Alonzo? How long we've been doing? Oh, man What we got like 20 years two decades here Two decades. So if we cannot come up with something and make this show interesting and exciting We got to just we just got to give up our whole roles of being legends in the clean industry We are Man, we could just digress and reminisce over the last 20 years and take care of the show But that's indulging. That's that's not what we're gonna do. We wouldn't have enough time though It would have to be multiple episodes But you're right. You're right. That might be a whole series like a like a like a mini series I said definitely a Netflix series You know we We're talking I guess before we we got on the air that We've got this whole ISSA convention coming out I guess that was where we met right We did we met at the first one well not there No, we actually met at the I guess that was the leadership convention We were calling it at that time when a RCP was actually have a event in San Antonio Sure what I'm tearing here because I'm working right Yeah, it was it was uh It wasn't called a RCS I at the time. No, it was called ARCP Association of Residential Cleaning Professionals. Yes That's who we were We wore that we wore that title for a while and Perry Phillips was the I Guess executive director he actually was the the visionary at pulling all that together Yeah, we're gonna be speaking about that too today visionaries. Yes. He was a visionary of it and You think about it He was he was like hopefully he's even listening No, he had that wild idea to really unite these Residential cleaning services around the world and well around the country at that time and then we had a bigger Vision to make it around the world That's when we became ARC si and we brought an international component of the international in there Yeah, and we thought we were we that was big time when we put that international behind it, man. Wow That was like that was like putting new rims on a vehicle, you know And we were we were like explorers, you know, we didn't even you know We were going in a general direction, but we didn't know What was you know over that next mountain range, we were just kind of waiting out there and figuring out as we went No, I think but guess what, you know Exploring going into the depths of what this thing can really be how many people could touch and How many great businesses were created great leaders? It's been amazing. It's been an amazing journey I'm thankful to be a part of it thankful to know people like yourself Liz and other, you know great professionals Throughout this country because we would have not united if it wasn't for, you know, Perry Phillips creating this way of actually bringing forth the importance of Association and professionalism in this industry, so it's been awesome Somebody's already asking for Liz Liz is on a road trip I'm not sure if she's in a plane or on the ground some in some foreign place Some other state anyway Yeah, she had business to take care of so she's on the road, so We will be enough we we make sure you don't miss her that much. Yeah, we're gonna hold down the fort today, so Just quick plug here about what's coming up here in November we have a annual convention and trade show for ISSA residential formally known as a RCSI or arcs a Alonzo is going to be rocking it out. He's going to be presenting at that event. It's got a long list of Talented speakers and trade show meet a lot of vendors Get together and see friends. I mean, it's it's a good time It's networking at its best, you know, it really is People sometimes decide they want to go to this event, you know to learn they want to find ways to Grow their business or their companies But the biggest caveat is the networking the networking is just unbelievable If you learn how to take advantage of it, it pays off major dividends good return on your best for the time and You know a lot of times it's just that no one idea that you leave with that you're able to do something with that can make a huge difference So if you haven't signed up and want to know more about it, I dropped the Link in chat. I can tell you there's a formula one race like immediately following conventions, so Hotel rooms are going to be hard to come by if you're interested you want to move sooner rather than later on this Always fun at those events and always good to see you guys again. So I'm looking forward to it I am as well. I am as well. It's going to be here before you know it. I know the time is down I got like a countdown timer and everything so I think we're finishing it about things like 40 45 days now to be exact So it's going to be cool Um So let's get into it We want to we want to talk about leadership and I can I can tell you that My experience working with you Alonzo over the last 20 plus years. That's kind of a cornerstone of your mode of operation you you've always been a leader you've displayed those those attributes so those Traits if you will I know like when we're putting ARC see together You know you step forward you were one of the original board members. You were one of the very early presidents and You know you've led a very successful cleaning company and the Philadelphia Pennsylvania area Yes, um, you're doing a You know You're you're like a full-time coach now pretty much aren't you? Full-time coach doing what I love Being around entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs grow their grow their businesses grow as entrepreneurs Scale their business and just be the best version of their cells You I think when you when you look at coaching it can be transformational if it's done right If it's embraced right and accept it right so I consider myself a transformational coach And transferring people into their best version of best versions of themselves You know, I mean I think that's really underappreciated I think a lot of us go through life Thinking you know, I can do this on my own. I can figure anywhere entrepreneurs, right? So naturally it's like hey, I got this. I don't I don't need any help. Oh, that was me But that would be at first It's just that extra little bit of Figuring out that one thing that that you don't even see can make such a huge difference I'm all about coach. It took me Here's my thought on it, you know It took me a hell of a long time to figure out that You know, you hook yourself up at the right coaches. It can like it's like powerball. It can 10x where you're going and Don't don't waste time being your head against the wall for years only to kind of throw your hands up and And then figure it out Do it No, you're so right tom because um, I think about when I first got coach Was I 100% coachable? I wasn't 100% coachable But um, I learned from being coach more so the more I I work with coaches The better I became about being coachable and I saw the um, the return on it Because the return on it was just leading me to um, better ideas for my business Better approach better planning and way better execution And you know and a good coach will give you the opportunity to develop those skills A good coach is gonna basically Give you the tough love and you're gonna hear it and you're gonna say well, you don't understand My business is different. How many times you've ever heard my business is different. You don't understand All the time because like I coach people in different industries So everyone thinks even I coach painters plumbers electricians again, we know residential cleaning people janitorial cleaning people and People that do all all different industries and they all say that same thing But it's the it's the foundations. It's the same principles that make businesses succeed And that's what it comes down to because some people come to coaches And they are looking for the secret sauce right the secret sauce. Give me the secret sauce. Give me the tricks How did you do it? Give me some even some hacks, right? But it all comes down to saying, you know what? I need skills Skills are what pays the bills and a good coach will work with you To to foster and grow and create those necessary skills for you can have long-term success Because if you're getting hacks and tricks and I can tell you hey look you can go do this Different different tricks or something for your business. It's it's a short game. It's a very short game But if you're playing a long game learn skills, man And that's the problem is too many entrepreneurs They don't have enough skills because they are you know, they're chasing content It's a lot of youtube stuff out there and people got a lot of different followers and these influencers out there And you don't understand that's cool. That's cool But you do need to have the necessary skills if you're going to survive like we you and I We've been in the game for a while We'll take we've we've been battle tested and you're looking at now. I'm going into 31 years 31 years in business and You have to be able to navigate through all these different challenges And if you don't have those necessary skills and you're grounded and rooted into that You're going to really find yourself on the sidelines trying to try to stay out of the game And I love being in the game even at this stage Because yeah, we're all looking for that quick fix that hack the the fast money and You know every once in a while, you know, you can get lucky and and and that works for you But you know the the real path to success is is the longer game It's all about the long game, man Because listen when you when you want to have stay in power Longevity you have to have those necessary Skills through like we're speaking about today leadership because companies are always like, okay. Well, I got to a half million I get to a million. How do I go beyond that? How do I go beyond that when you want to get to the two the three and beyond that? It's going to take the leadership the leadership is going to hold it together The leadership is going to be in a place where this business can become, you know, sellable and scalable So, you know in that train of thought, you know, what are the top qualities and entrepreneur needs in order to be successful For me one, I would have to say, you know the consistency because I I see people that are very inconsistent even inconsistent in They're they're they're planning. They're very inconsistent in strategies that they're putting together They're very inconsistent of even their vision So to me consistency is a key a key trait The next one I would say would definitely be being able to be uh visionary to have a vision You know You have a vision and you can properly articulate it and communicate it Then you can take your your your your company to a place where people didn't even think possible You didn't even think possible, but people got to be able to get behind this vision You know the vision has to be and I said this before and I got this from Cameron Harrell where he says about having a vivid vision the vision is so powerful It's almost like, you know, um, and it's a dream the vision is a dream But it's you can feel it you can feel it. It's something that resonates and people can really spill this down in their bones Are there other qualities that uh when we need in order to be successful The one I would I would definitely say is having um self-awareness, you know, I I think that's huge because I love it Here's why I say self-awareness People see their self A certain way right you see yourself a certain way But they show up differently in the world the world sees you different So it's important to know exactly how you show up You know the self-awareness to understanding what is possible with yourself Identifying your streams and as well as your weaknesses, you know, there was something that um, I was listening to was uh It was from Kobe Bryant. They did this book on mumble mumble mentality, right? And when you look at that, uh with mumba, I'm sorry mumble mentality You look at this Kobe said that he studied His opponents, which is his competitors. He studied them and I see Owners and leaders do not really looking at the field. They're not seeing what's out there But Kobe studied them deeply. He knew their strengths. He knew their weaknesses But Kobe said he didn't only do that and going back to the self-awareness He studied his strengths and his weaknesses And how many people are really being honest with themselves when they really start to Dissect themselves and look at well, you know, I'm not good in this area I'm not strong in that area when you don't do that through reflection. You don't grow There's no there's no upside to you. I always say have a version of yourself when you get to maybe 2.0 or 3.0 You have to upgrade yourself And you have to be aware what you're lacking where you're not at at that point and even we bring in coaching Would a coach make me better? Would he would he take me to that place? You know, because there is absolutely some things that I could tap into that could take my company My business to that next level But i'm holding it back because i'm the bottleneck and i'm not even aware of it You're you're primarily working with like entrepreneurs who like own the business who Are like the ceo's, right? Yes, well, well again, they want to be ceo's but they become owner operators That's part of the journey There's a lot of people who own and operate businesses that don't even really understand what ceo means. Oh No, and they're they're stuck there because One they're not realizing that for them to get to that next place They're going to have to have that self-awareness and again looking at exactly what they're lacking Identifying skills that they don't have And if you if you take take a look at leadership that leadership That's not what people come to me for tom. They don't come to me about leadership They're coming to me. Hey, you got a marketing idea, you know, we're kind of we don't have enough leads You know right now, you know, we're not making our revenue number and you're all about that leadership's not sexy No You know And good management isn't either it's really boring if you want to get right down to it, but You know at the heart of it, you know is leadership and you know, you mentioned, you know the things you mentioned in terms of like consistency vision self-awareness There's some things that the ceo has to do and if the ceo doesn't do it It doesn't get done and if the business doesn't even have an owner that recognizes that they need to be the ceo I guess that's what you're seeing. You're you know, you've got a mark You think you got a marketing issue. You think you got a sales issue. You think you got quality problem You don't have enough money to make payroll on friday You know those you're you're you're you're looking in the wrong place the wrong place. It's always it's always The mirror the man in the mirror and ban even the coach to be able to show them the mirror Because everyone Everyone will find something to blame and it usually doesn't start with them But they will find it's you know, it's not enough lead. It's the economy. That's the thing right now It's economy so the recession But are we leading in the right way to have our focus right to have our attention and our energies in the right place I see too many times where Leaders will sit back and they will let things be dictated and not dictating the pace or the momentum And then we look around quarter after quarter. We start to see decline Decline and that's when you see in the absence of leadership Where the leader shows up is the leader that's making the adjustments in the necessary corrections The difference between making it happen versus letting it happen Yes, yes, it might have happened all happened without you but You know and sometimes you get lucky Sometimes it is it is sometimes it comes down to love You know It does, you know, what's funny me and my son was talking about when you speak about looking how things happen is like You know, we looked at like tom brady the great tom brady is like man This guy is just great and we look and say well this guy was drafted late He was late. No one ever saw it coming. They didn't see it coming with tom brady And I don't want to say it was luck that true breeze got hurt, but um true breeze got hurt So tom brady went in for him and because tom brady went in He played a hell of a game and he became the guy. Did he get lucky? I would say so because he wasn't going to start any other way Well, what is it like success is when preparation runs into luck or opportunity and You know, he did the work and he was prepared and when the opportunity presented himself he was ready to do it and You know, that's a lot of what business is as well I mean you do the hard work and we're gonna you know, we're gonna as we we dive into this this leadership thing We're gonna be you know, I got a feeling you're gonna tell us that it doesn't happen accidentally I mean it doesn't it ain't about luck. It's about putting the work in Yes And then we've got to wait for the opportunity and sometimes we can make our own opportunity And sometimes the opportunity falls in our lap, but if we have to put your hard work in You know, the opportunities are going to come and go and we're not going to be able to do anything with them Oh, absolutely Totally agree about that. How do I how does one, you know start building these leadership skills? You know, you talk about, you know, being a visionary you start, you know, the consistency the self awareness Okay, that's that's what in the process, but you know, what a what is what does an entrepreneur do with that? How do they how do they build those skills? Well, the one thing is how some of these skills are built They're just built through sometimes this to being tested, you know, some are about tested and sometimes I see entrepreneurs resisting Resisting and what I mean by resisting is that they stay into a comfort place a place of comfort Okay, so if you're in a place of comfort Then you're not actually Doing the necessary things that will grow you as a leader because you get too comfortable In your day to day in your role, you're not taking any risk You're not taking any risk. You're not taking any chances And you're not putting yourself in a position to be more resilient to deal with these challenges that's coming your way So I would say Meet challenges head on Don't don't back down from meet him head on don't be don't um Minimize yourself and what's possible Leaders that have been battle tested as we said earlier about being battle tested They're the ones that they uh pick up endurance because leadership. This this is uh, this is a marathon, man It does and it's it's a lifestyle. You understand my whole thing with leadership. It's a lifestyle I just don't put on the uniform when I step step foot in the office I don't put on a uniform when I step on the stage. This is a lifestyle. It's at home. It's 24 seven I drive my wife crazy Leave it at work until the next day. That's right And this is a difference to how you have to understand If you are going to decide to be that leader and people decide they don't want it, right We have people that work for us that don't want that responsibility. They don't want that weight They don't want that obligation. They even say what was the charge bark Barkley said uh years ago Um, I'm not I'm not I'm not anyone's role model, right? People are so comfortable now with jumping in the back seat or the passenger seat that they don't want that role That level of responsibility and we were seeing leaders being passive Passive and they're not growing in and materializing into what is possible what they could be Because they want to be in the back Hiding, you know, there's there's even some things that I've heard where you know The leader wants to basically put someone in a position, but he wants to go off and do something else But if you do that you still have to make sure that you groomed other leaders Other leaders that they can be able to pick up where you left off That's why we see some companies that excel and some companies that didn't excel excel Then you see your leader having to come back in. Isn't that what happened with disney? We saw disney they had disney had to do that starbucks has done You know, what's going on there? I mean we Jobs couldn't come back, right? You know, um, steve jobs can come back. So basically you saw apple apple far exceeded jobs That to me is classic leadership and having the proper succession in place that you could have You know a tim come in and he could not ten x this thing. We're talking about 50 x in this thing Oh, yeah, you know, which is just um a tribute to where Leaders show exactly how good they were where you see other companies They put people in place and they're maintainers. They're maintainers. They're not extenders That's what I call it maintainers and extenders where they can extend that business Beyond where the business is currently at so You know, if i'm listening to this Questioning, you know, my leadership skills. I was like, yeah, I need to be a better leader I need to be a better, you know, visionary consistency self-awareness What do I what do I need to start doing and when I wake up tomorrow? What do I need to be doing differently? I think the first things what you need to start doing is making sure that one You have the right team And then the one thing is what growing your leadership is working with your team and Taking your teams to that to where they're capable of make taking them beyond where they're at today, you know and taking your time to Value them with the right connections because here's what I was actually coaching a client with today is that We we won't our people to be connected, right? You know, whatever they work, you know remotely whatever we want them to feel connected to the company We want them to feel connected to the vision But we are not connecting with them So the one thing about with the leadership is working on how we're connecting how we're connecting with our our team How we're connecting with our staff connections to me is huge because behind the connections is what we said What leadership is leadership is just influence You want to be a big better leader? You're going to have to work on how you influence people not manipulate people But how you influence people and most that influence is going to become is how you're showing up as a leader That's the biggest influence is again, uh, you know, don't tell me but show me Be be that example So that's where I've seen The best leadership grow is through these ways of working on how you're really showing up and putting in The work with reading books. Are we reading books? Are we reading only show? Are we really interested in leadership and getting a better understanding of the leadership? Let's talk about that just for a second, you know, if You know, how do how do I become a better leader? if nothing else let's just read a book and just You know, google amma go you know go to amazon or just google leadership books I mean we can could probably give a list of Recommendations here, but I mean there's a lot of class that you can't go wrong. There's nothing There's not a bad book out there to read on leadership. That's true I mean there there might be but you're you're you know, you if you google it, it's not gonna pop up Right, you know, there's you can get something. Yes you know, um But john max happens to be one of my one of my favorite when it comes down to leadership topics I'm sorry, which one john maxwell just john maxwell just he's loaded in leadership It's just a great place to go if you're looking for leadership So, you know, give me an example. I mean you you Have you know been a leader for for 30 years with it with it within your own businesses and you've been coaching Uh, a lot of other business owners entrepreneurs on on leadership, you know, can you think of an example of? You know what, you know, you've learned, you know from the from your entrepreneurial experience as it as it pertains to leadership The biggest thing I would say tom is learning that you have to adjust your leadership style You know, you have to be adjusted because everybody, you know is so different And they come from different backgrounds Um, they come from different cultures But you have to be able to one listen You have to be able to Relate You know to different People from different backgrounds and you have to be in a place where You don't have to have all the answers and when you when you present yourself in a way where you don't have all the answers And you're opening it up for other people to be collaborative You're opening up for people to be, you know, uh transparent to be who they are I think it's it's very important to understand that you have to change your style and adjust to different people And you know personality types when I see a leader that's just locked in And they just just um head strong on that one leadership style. They tend to have Problems and issues and it comes back and it hurts. And they don't fully Capitalized as they can because when you think about building the business And this is what anybody is turning in for this is probably saying, okay, how do I how do I build a business? It's not about how you build a business. How do you? Build people that build a business Because it's the people that build the business I love that. I love that and You know being able to to to adjust, you know, it's like it's like being a carpenter And the only thing and you have in your tool bag is a hammer. Well, that's great if I need to drive nails But what happens if I need to cut a board in half for some, you know, if I don't have You know, you need to have multiple tools in your bag if you're going to be an effective leader I've learned that the hard way Yeah, yeah, I've learned that the hard way I I have one way of leading in that one way leading is not for everybody In the in the in the idea that I am the leader. I need to have all the answers and I'm going to provide all the answers and You know in that frame of mind, you don't listen a lot No, it doesn't matter what anybody has to say. Anyway, you've got all the answers, right? And that's how in and what's thinking about what you said If that's the case, how are you going to have people connected to the vision, right? This is this is why people don't know the vision of Of the leaders or they don't know the vision of the company that they work for And this is why people show up for a paycheck. They don't show up for the mission But they show up for a paycheck And and and these leaders are struggling to say well, how do I get my people to show up for the mission? How do I get them to do that when everybody else is just showing up for the paycheck? and you you mentioned earlier about Building a team And even before that where we're talking about, you know, we're ceos Running our businesses and a lot of times we don't even realize we're ceos and there's certain things if a ceo doesn't do it nobody's going to do it right and Building the team as part of it and you can't build a team unless you're listening and Okay, you might even if you have the answer Don't cheat somebody else out of the team on the team the opportunity to to provide the answer because that's how they grow You know, uh As the leader if there's somebody else can do it let them do it because they're developing their skills at that point And that's what you're doing. You're helping develop people And that's why I said that these people are developed properly They're the ones that can build that business and if they if they feel and Vested into the business and they can see the fruits of their labor Then you got people that have now bought into the mission And that's what I'm after. I'm after people that's about the mission, you know Where where where where are we going? Where are we headed? Who wants to be a part of this of this mission here? And we we have seen where we have done horrible at that And we have seen where we have had to grow and improve and have people that showing up for that But that's when we did our best communication It's when we communicated clearly what that vision was and we laid it out when when when the vision was a little bit You know fluffy or it was just something we said, you know sporadically It's nothing to connect to it's nothing to connect to And two no one's saying How do they fit into it? How do they fit into this vision? Is it your vision or it's our vision? you know Andy grove was like one of the old CEOs at intel and this is back when intel had a ton of game and You know, he took them and made he was like like one of the key people that made them a powerhouse You know back in the day and he spent most of his time training in developing people building an organization that is That's what a ceo does and you know the vision and You know, I'm gonna throw strategy in there as well You know because that's at that kind of is the is vision's first cousin You know, you take your vision then you develop a strategy to to to meet your vision and You're the ceo the ceo isn't doing this it ain't happening and if it ain't happening you're not going very far That's right But here's what happens is that You start to see other things You start to see other things and again, we know entrepreneurs are always jumping at shiny objects, right? you know You know one minute they got the company going to the left one minute They got the company going to the right they go to a convention They come back with a new idea. They hear what someone else is doing in their business We should be doing that we need to implement that and they get away from the vision And people don't believe it and people don't follow because they're like, okay What's the flavor of the month? It changes too much and so if the vision was so important, why are we still not operating in that matter? so you know listening and and developing your people and not being the first one with the answer Giving you know, you're keeping people the opportunity to develop their leadership skills. All of that is certainly part of the recipe, but you know, we we both have had times and and and our professional lives where you know, it gets hot in the kitchen and you know all the pressure is on and somebody needs to step up and You know, ultimately, you know, the buck stops with with the ceo, right? I mean Do you have any tips for for how to deal with with those high pressure situations? Well, I guess we learned a lot from from kovat, right? I mean we That was good, wasn't it? We learned a lot from kovat man. We saw meltdowns. We saw breakdowns. We saw a lot You know people again couldn't handle what was being thrown at them And as we say is building that week that being resilient resilient and I love Entrepreneurs that are resilient, you know that they're they're going to keep coming regardless of it. They're not going to step back They're going to keep people optimistic. They're going to have you know, the right message to keep people going But they're going to look out for their people because too when kovat happened people were kind of on the fence Did we send them out? Do we not do what do we do? How do we protect them? You know, because you still got to show people that you care You got to have that same thing with the empathy too but the one thing is that You still as a leader got to stand in the in in the face of the fire, you know You got to face the fire You got to be able to show up every day even when you don't want to and still show people We're not going anywhere. We're not backing down and we're going to keep pressing for it We are going to be challenged. We are going to be challenged You mentioned earlier, you know, the leader is is a big part of that is influencing the right behaviors out of out of everyone in your organization and You know, I guess under those situations you're leading whether you want to or whether you even realize it and that You know, if you're you're not doing it the right way, then you're leading people in the wrong way if your behavior is oh god, we're screwed then You are because everybody else is gonna gonna gonna bind to that and they're gonna follow Oh, yeah, that's why again still that self-awareness comes back in, you know, you know if you had that meeting What was the message you delivered? How did you deliver? You know, how did you sound and the one thing is how how are you how are you, you know, walking through the door? You know, where where's your your uh, where's your head at is your head hung low is your chest up Is your shoulders back? How are you showing up and we're still again working with our people telling them those same things because I can get behind a leader that Shows boldness that's courageous that has courage That's confident, you know Those are the things that's essential that you can feel is like I feel safe. I feel safe under that leadership So if I'm going to be a successful leader, I just need to kind of give up on Other aspects of my life work life balance throw that out the window and I'm all in in terms of leading my my company, right Work life balance man. That's that's that's another subject in itself Um, when I think about it I think about it in in this in this essence one I don't believe it. I don't believe there's a search such thing is is a balance like the pendulum going up and down It's always going to be going up and down. You know, it's never it's never going to be like balance Like it's never going to be balanced. It's impossible. It's I mean it defies logic It really does it's not possible Because there are going to be some times in business and you've had a time and I have where we are going to work late We are going to work seven days. We are going to be deeply committed and we we're there man We got to accomplish it. We we have the momentum that's going And we may have to go like that for 30 days 30 days But the problem is if it's not properly communicated to your family Okay, not to your family and not um being realistic realistic about um Really understanding about what you're going after how long it's going to take a Reasonable amount of time. Maybe you say this is going to be a big lift a big project Uh, look at a time frame. Look at is this a 30 day thing? Is this a 15 day thing? What kind of hours this is going to take? This is being realistically to communicate to everybody that's involved How available are you and that sometimes you may have to ask your wife to pick up the pieces for you You may hey honey, I'm going to be home late. I'm not going to be able to make maybe a game or something or sometimes that happens It's be we're human. We are human. We're imperfect So when we're when we're going through these different things if we properly communicate it then we have people that's Understanding we have people that that one can accept that versus we're not saying anything Or we're constantly in the neglect phase You cannot keep going at a certain pace and neglect your health. You can't neglect your family You can't neglect that even if you're spiritual whatever you have to have some way to have things in proper perspectives And there cannot be over indulgence in things as as entrepreneurs most of us, you know share this affliction of being overly optimistic You know, this isn't going to take as you know, it's not going to take that long It's not going to be that hard. I can do this and You know really that's probably part of the recipe if we if if we didn't think that way we wouldn't try to begin with right? Yes But you know, so But how do you how do you find? That balance. I mean, it's like, okay, you know what I think I can do this quicker than what I probably really can you know I know I struggle with that We we all do but you know, it comes down to commitment to things, you know I mean Stephen Covey put it put it well, you know, how we have to really prioritize different things in our lives And um, that's not easy, you know, he says and it sounds easy But it's not easy because um, there's just some things that we desire some things that we want to accomplish Some things that we want to do but we have to go back and say when we're planning, right? Are we planning around what's uh around all the important things in our lives? So we identify what's important in our life and we say it's family if we say on our health and everything else They have to be at the top They have to be at the top and then all the other planning is around that or underneath it But we have to identify what's truly important to us And I think that's the issue is that we we don't all know what's important Maybe we have success high up, you know, and we want accolades and those different things and There is there is sacrifices that come with all that There's sacrifices, you know And it does sacrifices to your health your family all that it is sacrifices for all of that And um, you've had to do it. I've had to do it myself. Um, have I done it the right way? No, I haven't done it the right way, but it's no perfect way But if we do reflect reflect and the key thing is reflect on where our time is going Where our time is being invested that we make the necessary course directions To to not keep going in 90 days or 120 days where well, well, you haven't really taken care of yourself, right? You haven't you know gave time to your family You're going to find yourself in a place where you're going to not have the proper purpose to what you're doing So You know what you're described describing here would be considered I guess a pitfall that An experienced entrepreneur could fall into you know, are there other pitfalls that we should be looking out for Well being a workaholic being overworked, you know, um, you know, something is what I see the other pitfalls is where, um If you're being too much into this you lose yourself You don't have any outlets or hobbies and this is all that you do and then we're all getting old and how long can we keep up at this This pace, you know, and once it's done. What else do we do? right, right I mean, I love what I do. I know you love what you do and we we enjoy it. I actually um Actually had a period where I retired man. I did like a tom brady retirement And then I ended up coming back and getting back in the game, you know I was like, man I'm not having as much fun, you know So, you know, I guess along that thought you're spending a lot of your time, you know, mentoring other entrepreneurs, you know And I I I maybe this is a secret maybe it isn't but You know You grow from that as well as helping the people you're mentoring grow, you know So so much would you would you recommend? You know to others to uh be looking to take their experiences and mentor other leaders and if so How how would you go about doing that? uh man It's one of the greatest things that I have done um would start out with men being um being a mentor and being in mentorship because um I actually was um a chair for the entrepreneurs organizations and we headed up the mentorship program And we we we really kicked ass. We actually had um the biggest mentorship program in the country biggest in the country in ours and um very Rewarding so there's ways that people can do it through small things like boys boys clubs through your your church you can through it through the association as well and Tom and you and I have done, you know done it many times to other business owners that were You know in situations where they were struggling they configure it out and we we helped them get to the next level Helped them create a better life for themselves or families and just seeing the changes in people people I see that show up at these conventions now that I've mentored and seen where their businesses are now It's just a great rewarding feeling, you know, because Everything's about, you know, what you put into it and you get back, you know Mentorship you get so much back way more than what you put put out and um It has uh, it has helped me See better ways to how I could really help my my staff as well Eat through the mentorship, but I think people should start with first Mentoring people with inside their company people in their churches and just really find in a way that they can put their times and efforts into Creating some type of mentorship that they're they're proud of and that they can Continuously do because I continuously deal with myself. You thought coach mentorship is is is is different okay and You're developing skills as part of that And you're growing as a leader as part of that. Yes. Yes, because you you have to deal with people again You're dealing with their emotions, you know Entrepreneurship people really don't understand how much emotions emotionally wired entrepreneurs are There's some emotional wired people, you know, and you know, the emotions can be all over the map So What what's the difference between mentoring versus coaching? I would say, you know in the mentorship It's coaching is more you're listening right you need to listen more as a coach um You really need to not be this advice giver because coaching is letting people figure out things on their own Okay, coaches don't have to have all the answers. I don't think that's a sign of a good coach I think the signs is a good coach is letting people figure it out on their own and let them grow Ask them the questions to help them see the gaps in their thinking Absolutely Absolutely because when when we're supplying all the answers You're basically just doing something. I told you to do you need to feel Feel a part of it. You need to feel like you need to own it You need to and if it was if it was the wrong choice You can correct it and when you're when you're in that position where people come up with their own ideas And they solve their own problems They are in a position to grow quicker as leaders Completely and they and they feel they feel um a sense of satisfaction when that's when that's created as well Mentorship as on the other side I will say i'm i'm grooming people i'm grooming people You know, there are things that I am giving you know more feedback on more feedback on mentorship is i'm actually um We're going more even in a personal space, you know, and we're working from that standpoint As to coaching it Tends not to be as personal It can be more on the professional side Mentorship unless you're doing life coaching, of course Do life coaching, you know That is so uh So good, you know, um So the mentoring is a little more prescriptive a little more almost like A variation of of a type of teaching I guess Yeah, I teach when I go through I teach people things a lot that I've learned, you know I share a lot about the mistakes that I made And we're we're helping these people again just not just from the professional standpoint It's just you're really more committed to them in the sense of their personal well being as well Well, you know, we're running up on the top of the hour here. So You know I know that you you are a professional coach and you work with a lot of a lot of entrepreneurs you've You've invested. I mean you've you've you've developed a lot of skills and the you know, 30 plus years You've you've been an entrepreneur, but above and beyond that you've Invested in a lot of coaching yourself and a lot of training and you've you've you've Augmented that you've built upon that you've 10x that and now now you're You're working with with other entrepreneurs. Could you tell us a little bit about, you know, how how those, you know, that activity works The one thing is great about working with my clients and what I help them do is that One I look at we talk about the strength and weaknesses, right? Strength and weaknesses I do want to know who I'm working with and I do want them to understand is that I'm there to support Their vision I'm there to support their vision if they don't have a vision I'm helping them get clear on their vision, you know The one thing is that you see on my website is that the transformation happens by simplifying and removing complexity to drastic Dramatically improve their performance. So when you look at what I do when entrepreneurs, I work on how they could be exceptional exceptional performer how to really Become more efficient how they could excel how they can become at the top of their game That's why when I coach people it's like I hear them. Hey, do you know how to do this? Do you have no no? Let's look at where you're at Let's look at how we can transform you into who you need to be to get what you're after The one thing is I know from entrepreneurs is sometimes they don't understand They need to think about who do they think who do who do they need to be? To get to what they want Okay, because I will coach a guy and they were like well I'm not going to do that because that's not me. That's not me Well, we're not focused on what's you right now. We're focused on what you can be Not you in the present sense, but what you can be and that's going to result in transformation You know that's going to mean again that you're going to have to do some hard things You're going to have to let go of some bad habits. You're going to have to create new habits You're going to have to develop in the way of being that top performer So I push people to be at a at an exceptional Entrepreneur by learning the necessary skills So we're about skill building man. We build serious skills that make people better entrepreneurs So when they become that that business is is is is not going to be stopped by them It's going to grow with them too many people are not working on those necessary skills That's why the business is not going to ever go beyond where the where the leader is currently yet Is there an accountability component? Absolutely. I'm constantly looking at Exactly guys that do what they say they're going to do and I shouldn't say guys guys and girls But I'm looking for people that's going to do what they say they're going to do But we're going to we're going to map it out and flesh out What's the real important things to focus on they do? Because sometimes no one really knows where to start. They don't know where to start So we get we get granular on the stand. Okay What is the real high level important things that we should dive into and be focused on and that changes from quarter to quarter You know quarter to quarter But we're looking at everything from a weekly monthly and quarterly standpoint That's actually going to help them excel as an entrepreneur and their business go to that next level Because every business right now is looking for the right leader man And i'm working on building building and giving those companies the right leader So if you know doing the hard work and making those changes is Scary for you and it can be it's like gee. I don't know if I want to work that hard You know, I don't know but you know having a coach and creating that accountability Makes it a whole lot a whole lot easier, you know I don't coach everybody tom. I have turned out turned down a lot of people A lot of people because if I if someone's not committed man, it's at least of my time If you're not committed you got to be all in man You got to be willing to do the hard work do the hard things come out of your comfort zone Realize right now like I said who you are is not who you're going to be after we do work And man, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna show you that mirror and I'm gonna I'm gonna put that pressure on you And put some people get afraid of that they don't you know, they get afraid of it's like change me change But but the part that it's hard to appreciate is If you if you commit then you'll be able to Make change that you wouldn't otherwise be able to make or you wouldn't have the right, you know I've been working with a with a with a personal trainer just to work out and tomorrow morning I'm going to be at the gym at five o'clock and I promise you if I wasn't working with a trainer. I would be a bed tomorrow morning at five o'clock I'm better off for it, but I need the trainer in order to make that happen And I've had it. I've had my trainer now tom for probably about About 15 years And I have a gym in my home so I have a gym in my home and I do that during the week, but I work with my trainer on the weekend because um That Saturday's hard to get up and get into And because I have that trainer I paid for that trainer, you know I'm there. I show up. I do the work, you know, I do the work and two I don't I don't I don't want him. I don't I don't want to be a waste of his time You know what I'm saying, right? I'll be that guy that comes in. I'm 53 man I want I want him sometimes to think man. This guy looks like he's 33, you know He's he's going at it like he's he's he's he's 30 33 committed dedicated and willing to put put in that hard work. So Um, I think it's a great thing you're doing in there really So that's what you're doing for for for entrepreneurs for for business owners. So If if I'm listening to this and it's like, you know, I really do believe that that I should be performing at a higher level I should you know We all need to be the leader that our our people or organization wants us to be And if if that inspires you as an entrepreneur How what's the best way for me to to to learn more about how you can help them get there Connect with me facebook instagram See me right here on my website Alonso Adams Coaching reach out to to me. We can do a good fit call. See if there's a match see if there's compatibilities I would like to see Which I would like to hear your vision I like to hear where you where you want to take your business your company and who do you want to be as you know That that entrepreneur who do you want to be as that leader? So those are the things that's important to me if if if I connect with your story I think your story has to be be um be moving, you know to me and We connect love to work with people like that I you know, tom the whole thing is just even being a part of um Of the association here with the residential division of issa. It's um, I love being around entrepreneurs Um, but I really love those entrepreneurs that's fired up. They're driven You can see it in their eyes man. And um, they they don't care about putting into work They show up on time, you know Religiously relentlessly no matter what's going on how they feel they they show up, you know, they're there They're committed we if we set goals we set some some parameters They're all a man. They buy in they get it. They just want they just want to be the best version of themselves And working with the right coach just like going to the gym in the morning You're going to find that You know, you're you're lifting more weight and you're pushing yourself harder and you're accomplishing more than what you would on your own Exactly. So to me, um Coaching when I look when I first heard about it, uh about Getting into getting into coaching that wasn't my first thing But it was a natural fit because like Alonzo you're already doing it man Doing it, you know I dropped the url to your website and chat so If you're just the least bit curious just reach out and have a discussion with Alonzo Like I said, I've got the deepest respect for Alonzo and the work that he does and You know, I have no doubt that if you're an entrepreneur that's looking to develop your leadership skills and to Make an impactful change in your business and your community and just the stuff that's important to you You know Alonzo could could be an important part of the recipe Yes, sir. Thank you tom. Thanks for having me too. I really I appreciate you being here. It's been a while, you know So, uh, we'll have to make a date to do this again before too long But you know before then we'll probably be seeing each other in las vegas and What a month and a half. Maybe yeah, we'll be there. Wow Okay, that's gonna be awesome Man how many times we've been to vegas together? It's been a lot. It's been a few Okay, so we're gonna wrap it for today. Um, this is smart business moves We'll be back next wednesday five o'clock eastern Alonzo. Thanks again. We'll see you soon. Hey, I always appreciate it Always everybody