I’ve certainly learned a lifetime’s worth of memorable quotes from my time working with Clay as a business coach. Some of my favorites consist of, “Don’t let people pee in your pool”, “It is your duty to please the booty”, “Put a perm on that frog”, “You’re going to be dead soon”, and countless others. But one that has absolutely stuck with me and applies to a sizable amount of the businesses that I’ve ever worked with is “business is a contact sport”. When I first heard this phrase I wasn’t quite sure of the overall meaning it truly held. As anyone that knows me can tell you, sports metaphors are typically wasted on me. I’m about the least manly man you’ll ever meet, so grasping the weight of this quote eluded me for quite some time. It wasn’t until I experienced my clients running into their authority being challenged that I fully grasped the concept. When playing a game of any kind, you’re undoubtedly going to face an opposing force. If you lack the energy or strength to face this opposition head-on then you will lose every time.
Please allow me to channel my inner masculine business coach energy and attempt to explain my own version of a sports metaphor in order to make this actually make sense. Picture yourself as a true football fan. You’ve spent your life following the same team, analyzing each play, and memorizing the stats. Now take that absorbed knowledge and try placing yourself in an actual position having had no formal strength training. What’s going to happen next? Well… a 400-pound defensive lineman is going to lay you out faster than Clay rips a liberal a new fart box simply because you were not prepared for the challenge at hand. You didn’t possess the skill or strength to overcome said situation.
So, you’re probably asking yourself at this point how in the hell this applies to your business. I’m so glad you asked.
Any business owner that has taken the time to create systems that ensure their business baby runs smoothly will most certainly run into the normal opposition of at least one employee that doesn’t agree with their approach. You should be familiar with how it goes. Some hourly employees that most likely lied on their resumes and are most certainly named Skylar will tell you that your focus on getting reviews is unethical. They’ll say that it’s unnecessary to call leads repeatedly in order to secure sales. Finally, they’ll b*tch about how this isn’t how business was conducted at their previous failure of a job and try to tweak your systems to better fit their lazy ass work ethic. I know the government name for such an individual is technically Skylar, but let’s just call them what they really are… fired.
As a business owner, you determine the drumbeat of your company’s success.
You’ve worked far too hard on creating scalable business coach systems to completely throw everything away just for one person’s comfort. The last time I checked, the following professions are the only ones that anyone should pay for feedback: a consultant/coach, a personal trainer, a doctor, and the list goes on. The last damn person you need to be taking advice from is an $8 per hour employee that can’t even bother to show up on time consistently. You’re better than that. I recently had a conversation with a client in regards to how an employee kept challenging their systems. This resulted in further employees not implementing the proven systems which ultimately concluded in a lack of growth. When the client asked me how they should handle the situation I simply told them, “you’re going to have to put that employee on the phone from now on. Clearly, they’re running your business so I should be coaching them moving forward.” Needless to say, this made them quite upset. But it didn’t take the matter any less true.
The sad truth is that most people fear the idea of putting their foot down and flexing any level of authority. There’s a word for that type of leadership and it’s called “weak ass”. Having a business means it exists to serve you, not the people you employ to run it. At the end of the day, the strongest and most bullheaded personality will dictate the structure of a business as a whole. If you don’t have what it takes to boss the hell up and run your company you might as well quit now, turn the rights over to the C player that bested you, and immediately apply to work at the business it took you most of your life to create. In short, strive to be the MVP or spend your life riding the business coach bench due to a lack of overall drive and spinelessness.
