A Renewed Vision of Success (#68) — Transcript
Updated: Oct 26
THE PICTURE OF WEALTH · EPISODE 68
Dustin Serviss examines what success looks like after reaching an earlier financial goal. He explores engaging a team, creating more freedom and reconsidering the habits that keep an owner tied to work.
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This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. It may contain transcription or speaker-attribution errors. Refer to the recording for exact wording.
Chapters
[00:00:01] Introducing the Picture of Wealth
[00:01:35] Choosing a new definition of success
[00:03:20] Patience, family lessons and expression
[00:05:04] Richard’s struggle to find balance
[00:06:55] Using savings to create capacity
[00:08:47] Taking the first practical steps
[00:10:34] Flexibility, staff and taking Fridays off
[00:12:31] Finding excitement beyond business size
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Transcript
[00:00:01] Show announcer: Welcome to the Picture of Wealth, a podcast all about living more of your life now yet being responsible for your future. Lifestyle experimenter, wealth scientist, and financial coach, Dustin Service, shares life hacks, wealth tips, and interviews successful entrepreneurs on how they're thriving in happiness, purpose, and prosperity.
[00:00:22] Dustin Serviss: I wrote this podcast while listening to, Viking battle music, called dark and powerful and, you know, lots of chanting and crows cawing and the sound of oars and water rowing and, you know, magic smoke emitting from the edge of the screen. But, I don't know why this inspired me to write ways to leverage and engage your staff so you can take Fridays off, but here we are. And the common situation I come across when I meet clients is they've got money in the bank. They work six to seven days a week. They... You know, nine hour minimum, no flexibility in their day to help the family duties or go on a date with your new fling or enjoy a workout
[00:00:59] Dustin Serviss: like you did in your twenties. Eat, sleep, work, repeat. God. How did it get like this? Well, to be successful, you learned somewhere along the the journey you've been on that you needed to work hard. You don't know how hard, so you just work fucking hard. And this you did over and over and over, and here you are now. So you're working hard. You're successful. You've got money in the bank. And now you've hit your goal. You set this goal a long time ago that, you know, if I could ever get this, I would be in the holy grail of happiness and shit. Now here you are. You're still young, but now what do you do to set your goals?
[00:01:35] Dustin Serviss: Is there someone or something that's out there that's gonna give you the permission to act different or start by even thinking different? Scary? Yes. Do you take a socially ordinary safe goal, like more revenue, bigger company, nicer, bigger, shinier, or do you risk all you know and say something, you know, become an artist, a priest, or devote your life to nonprofits? Chances are you're somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. What if it wasn't either or, though? What if you could have your cake and eat it too? But how do you redefine your new vision of success or accomplishment?
[00:02:10] Dustin Serviss: Let me help you speed up the research process as I've gone through this classic scenario in the past couple years as I passed the age of forty. I've also successfully coached over sixty business owners on how to set up a financial framework that gives confidence and courage to think different. As for my own journey, I'm still on it. I would call it still in, you know, the discovery process. I'm cool. With that, though. At first, I wasn't. My old mind was saying, you know, I'm a go getter, and when I set my mind to something, I get it done now. And that's what I want, you know, people to know me as as, you know...
[00:02:43] Dustin Serviss: But in this case, living a certain lifestyle is not a finish line type race. It's a mission, a mission bigger than start and finish. Having a certain dream to own an acreage property is something I had since two thousand ten. And that coming to fruition this past year has come with a bunch of challenges, land, the weather, the trees, my distant neighbors, the city that I live in, and the garbage man even, but it's still all part of the program. I've met several great people. Simple situations like my five year old selling firewood, to people to provide heat to their home, teaching him that stick
[00:03:20] Dustin Serviss: your hand out and greet someone and say thank you with eye contact when they hand you your money to pay for the the products that, you know, he's selling. But this old school man etiquette needs to be upheld. Embracing the patience. It takes time for great things to mature. To be honest, this podcast is part of the new discovery of expression for me as well. When I was younger, I thought similar to what I previously mentioned. You could be either a business person or an artsy person. You couldn't be in both worlds. Wrong old belief. Art is individual and is not just painting or music.
[00:03:57] Dustin Serviss: You could have an inner artist in you If you just looked at yourself from a different lens for a minute. Do you have the curiosity to look at yourself as an identity different than what you think other people think your identity is? I will say it different. Are you living your true self, or are you living a life based on the identity that you think other people see you as? Most of the time, people are so worried about their own worlds that they don't care as much as you think about what agenda you're trying to construct. Unless you're a celebrity, chances are your friends like you for who you are without the identity front.
[00:04:32] Dustin Serviss: I'm getting way off on tangent, but let's get back to Friday's off and how to leverage your staff. Walk with me. I wanna introduce you to Richard. For simplicity's sake, he has money in the bank. He runs a successful manufacturing business, three managers, approximately twenty staff. It's a blue collar industry, and his wife is starting to make comments about how he has no balance in his life. He used to have hobbies, friends, and be very dynamic at parties with lots to talk about. Now he wants to talk about work all the time and forgets there is a world outside of work.
[00:05:04] Dustin Serviss: She's supportive to his hard work, but wants to encourage him to be better for his own long term wellness. Richard's uncle just passed away recently from cancer. So he's in my office saying, I love to work. I have money, but I have no life or vision of how I can actually get balance. I don't really know what to ask or or if you can even help me, but my wife listens to your podcast and thinks you may have an idea. I took a sip of my coffee, set it down, and here's what I asked him. What would happen if you took Friday morning off? Insert confused look. What would happen if you took a Friday off? And he's... He replied saying, Not gonna happen.
[00:05:46] Dustin Serviss: What would happen if you took every Friday off? And he called me funny. Would your staff still work as hard for you? He said, no. They they would see me as a slacker. Would your staff respect you? He didn't think so. What if you gave your staff the same freedom as you have? Well, he said, obviously nothing would get done. And where are you going with this? Okay. Let's get back to breaking this down. And I wanna unpack a couple things. I asked him to pull out his cell phone. We looked through it and we looked through the last two days of phone calls and we broke it down of where those calls could go to instead of him.
[00:06:22] Dustin Serviss: We then looked at the management and their interests in the growing company that that was in front of us. And and there was one particular management person who was keen to step up to the plate and take a bigger role. We looked at the risk management. If Richard or the other key managers were hurt or died, what happens to the business? This was a gap that was not handled, and we noted it and parked it for another day. We reviewed all the insurance costs from commercial to employee benefits, and I later helped him negotiate some of the riders that he had on his policies to reduce some of the cost.
[00:06:55] Dustin Serviss: But the real kicker to create space for Richard was as simple as staring him in the face. One thing he had a pot of money in savings doing nothing. He was not interested in the stock market. He liked the idea of reinvesting in something he controlled his own business. Now look at the savings, I said. The business brings in cash flow consistently, and we've stress tested this scenario. What if the business did twenty five percent less? What if it did fifty percent less revenue? Would Richard Holko still have some money? Yes. We then looked at what if he gave each manager an x thousand dollar
[00:07:33] Dustin Serviss: raise, and it was more like x ten thousand and called it the business development raise. As in Richard needs Fridays off to recharge and focus on new and innovative opportunities so the business exists three, five, ten years from now. And so he doesn't get divorced. Remember, it's better to approach divorce and disease with prevention rather than treatment. And after some resistance, the plan was rolled out, and bingo, one manager stepped up to grow... To general manager. One of the foremen stepped up to project manager, and they were able to hire a junior level employee who recently moved from Alberta to fill in underneath the foreman.
[00:08:10] Dustin Serviss: Now everything is in place, and the cadence is currently being ironed out. I thought this was a slam dunk. And within six months, you know, Friday's off would be happening. Guess what happened? I checked in about two months ago. Richard is still waiting for the email to come in and say, it's time to start taking Fridays off. Well, guess who that email needs to be sent by? You, I said. Richard, if you are listening, if not now, when? No one else is going to send that email. No one else is going to mail you the letter. No one else is going to text you. My comment to you is simple. Your risk is managed. Check that box already.
[00:08:47] Dustin Serviss: Make the move and figure things out after. I know those emails and phone calls are important. But if you think you're stressed out now, wait till you have a divorce lawyer, meetings, or doctor appointments, and those emails are still going to be coming in. Then what? Now here are three steps that you can take. And, you know, most of your driving, so I'll just make it really simple. You don't even need to write this down. Ask yourself, do I feel like I'm in balance? Yes or no. When I'm eighty and looking back, is there something you wish you should have done more of? What is it?
[00:09:21] Dustin Serviss: Finally, you are laying on your deathbed and around your bed are the ghosts that represent your unfulfilled potential, the ideas you never acted on, the talents you never explored, and they are angry and upset. They say, you could have brought us to life, but now we have to go to the grave together. So when your time comes, what ghosts are going to be around your bed? Now this story is from Denzel Washington who is giving a commencement speech to university grads, but it applies to many people at any stage in your life. And it's that simple. Whether you're afraid of ghosts or not, setting your attention now is the equivalent
[00:09:57] Dustin Serviss: to having your own handheld proton pack to capture those ghosts and remove them from your universe. Looking for more strategy on what staff want in today's world? Keep listening. This is... I'll call it the informal part two. In a world today where there are many things are different than they were before, the modern day successful business owner should be aware of the new staff desires. The large accounting giant Ernst and Young did a work reimagined survey in twenty twenty one. This is what they found. The findings show that seventy nine percent of employers are planning to make moderate to extensive changes in order to allow for the more
[00:10:34] Dustin Serviss: hybrid working, reflecting the views of ninety percent of employees who say they want flexibility in when and where they work. However, only forty percent have communicated these plans, creating a potential disconnect with employees on crucial issue... Issues such as flexibility, culture, and productivity. Now here are ways to create time and systems to take every Friday off. Figure out how to give your staff a raise. Look at the numbers. This may mean you save less. Can you live with less savings? Ask your planner or me to do a quick BAM calc. If you don't know what BAM is, go back and listen to early episodes of this podcast.
[00:11:15] Dustin Serviss: It will open up your mind and free your mind. You may be closer to freedom than you think when you know what your BAM is. Train your employees. Reinvest in your business. People training is like investing in stocks. White collar salespeople train in technology, equal leverage. Blue collar workers training communication may lead to more sales. Make it routine and schedule way out into your slower periods in your business cycle. Anticipate the slow and set up training during that time. My father used to say, mend your nets while the tide is out. So when it comes in, you're ready to thrive. The simple act of taking it off and fill it in.
[00:11:55] Dustin Serviss: Fill in your calendar off Friday. You will not be there Friday mornings, period. Start with that. Be available, but start training your people to not say anything to your customers about offering meetings on Friday, but offer the meetings Monday to Thursday. Be on the offense, not defense. Your employees will respect you for taking a moment to provide more clear vision for the sustainability of the company, and their future mortgage payments depend on you as a leader making prudent decisions. When you started your business, it was small, and you did what you want, when you wanted, with who you wanted, but there was maybe not the same
[00:12:31] Dustin Serviss: level of level of income as there is now. But when you step back, is the income and revenue as exciting as you fantasize about when you were younger? If not, then use the above to springboard your creative juices into seeing excitement, achievement, success as something other than revenue and profit, or how many staff you have, or how many square feet your shop is. Remember, your business has many moving parts to it. And if you fear making a small tweak and thinking it will crumble to the ground, test this thought and actually break down how it would crumble to the ground. I think you might be surprised at what you find out.
[00:13:09] Show announcer: If you found this episode valuable, share it with a friend. If you found this episode super valuable, leave us a review on iTunes. It will help us continue to bring you top quality content. For more information on anything discussed on this show, visit w w w dot servicewealth dot com. That's service spelled s e r v I s s. Any investment topics covered on the show are not investment recommendations, and you should seek professional advice before making any investment decisions. This show was produced by Prodigi Podcast. Thanks for listening.