Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to create wealth through franchising podcast.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: And Kim Daily TV. I am your host, Kim Daly. I want to educate, motivate and inspire.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Your business ownership journey by interviewing ceos, leaders, sales, coaches, and exceptional franchisees to learn their valuable insights and strategies that we can apply to our own business ownership dreams. Now onto the show.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Welcome back to create wealth through franchising podcast and Kim Daily TV. I am your host, Kim Daly, and our special guest with us here today, she's like a neighbor to Kim Daly in Clarksboro, Massachusetts, which automatically makes her a New England Patriots fan. Lisa Leveck, welcome to the studio of Kim Daly TV.
[00:00:56] Speaker C: Thanks, Kim. It's great to be here.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: It is great to have you. Now, you all who are following me know that in 2024, I have launched a new series on coaching, business coaching. Because it's one thing to say yes to your dream to own a business, but it is quite another thing to show up for that dream every single day. You need some tools, tools that are going to help you to grow into the owner that you want to be so you can ultimately live the life that you thought you were saying yes to the day you signed your franchise agreement. Now, what's super cool about Lisa, about, like many of the other coaches I've had on thus far, is she is also a franchisee of focal point coaching. So she lives the life that you listener franchisee out there, live the life that I live. And what's even more cool is Lisa was placed by one of my colleagues, Tom Scarda. So a little shout out to Tom Scarda, who's now in Florida for this amazing placement. So Lisa loves to talk about leadership, and I love this topic as well. So before we just sort of dive into the topic at hand, which is a massive topic. Lisa, how about you just share a little bit about your background and why you turned to franchising in your life and how that decision has changed your.
[00:02:20] Speaker C: Oh, great question, Kim. Yeah, I spent most of my career in a corporate type role, which a lot of us in the business coaching side do. We get great experience there. But kind of you reach a point where you need more. You're ready for something different. And for me, I wasn't 100% sure what it was. I actually didn't even know that business coaching existed until I met Tom Scarda.
As soon as he said business coaching, something just rang a bell with me.
I have a business background of an undergraduate degree in business. I have an MBA. I worked in a big company.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: All of that.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: I've learned it all and I wanted to be able to transfer that information to people who haven't had that opportunity.
And so learning about focal point, which is my franchise, I've been with for over six years, what I liked about it and why I chose franchising was because it came with great content. It came with a culture that matched who I was. We're a very collaborative culture.
It's really all about helping each other any way we can.
They're always trying to make things better for you. So it was all these things. So I kind of said, well, I couldn't go from this big corporate world where I could walk down the hall and get an answer from anybody about any question to I'm sitting in my home office by myself, so I still kind of have a company behind me, even though it is my small business. So it's really the best of both worlds. That's why I chose it, and that's why it works for me.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Yeah, you're in business for yourself and not by yourself. And like a couple of the other focal point coaches have said, when you said yes to focal point, and this isn't a pitch for focal point by any means. It's more just for understanding of why would you own a franchise for coaching, right. Because they have all that ready made content. Because creating the content isn't what makes you money. Right. It's working with clients with that content and having all of those ready made tools. And so it just makes sense to buy all that and then launch your business in coaching rather than spend years creating content that then you can go coach with.
[00:04:36] Speaker C: Right, exactly.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: Get moving.
[00:04:37] Speaker C: It gets you moving so much faster.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Yeah. The same reason you buy down the learning curve, no matter what the business is when you partner as a franchisee. So that's amazing. Great setup. Okay, so this giant topic of leadership, right? Like, where do we even begin? It's so important. When I asked, know, what part of business do you like to focus in? And she said, leadership. I mean, she just went into this amazing.
Just go ahead, Lisa. Just start the conversation the same way you started it with me because it was so beautiful. Like, when you bring this up to your clients or how does it start? Where does the conversation begin?
[00:05:14] Speaker C: Yeah. And it honestly starts from the.
You know, I work with a lot of small businesses, all kinds of different business types, and a very consistent thing that happens along the way is I meet the people, I ask them, jeez, why did you get into your business? And a lot of reasons, but a lot of times I hear, well, I didn't think a corporate job was for me or I could work at a kind of corporation I'd like. So I thought, well, why don't I just start a business or buy a business?
But they really are treating it like a job. And so I kind of say with no disrespect, they buy a job, but what do you want to do with your business? So when I get them, they're kind of doing the work along with their team, et cetera. And so when I meet them, I start talking about vision and mission, vision, purpose, values. Is it communicated? How do you set expectations? And they're like, whoa, wait a minute. We're just working the job every day.
And so it's a fun challenge to kind of start to work through. What does leadership mean and why is it important? So a lot of times that visual of these individuals are spending time pushing that boulder up the hill by themselves. And when they start to set up their organization and set the expectations, have the right people in the right seats. Now everyone's pushing the boulder. Maybe they're a little bit further ahead. They're seeing, oh, wait, we don't have to go straight up. We can go the side. I see the other side. Let's go together. They get really excited when they see that they can be even more successful if they get the right people in the right seats, set the expectations, communicate the vision, live the vision, all those things.
They get excited about the fact that that will make the business more successful. But it's a journey. They fight me. I'm going to be honest, they fight me on it because they want to be touching the business. And I get that it's their business. It's their lifeblood.
And until they see that, wait, if I put all these other things in place and truly become the leader, and I'm actually going to be so much further down the road, they're just going to keep fighting. So it's an interesting thing, but it's really fun and cool and exciting when you see them start to step back and say, hey, here's my vision, and this is where I want to take this place.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: Hey, daily coach fans, if you're loving this episode, please do me a quick favor and leave me a five star rating and a short review. Your feedback fuels my growth and rankings and shows others that this podcast is valuable. Now back to the show.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: It's so freeing because you're setting people free to build what they actually should be building, right? When you say yes to own a business, you shouldn't be buying yourself a job. And at some point in business ownership, I think we all feel like we bought ourselves a job, because sometimes you have to learn through doing before you can lead other people to it, right? But if you get stuck in that mindset, then you are stuck. There's no leverage. If you want to ten x your result, you can't do every job forever, right? You have to be able to let go of the reins. And so what I love, I want to go all the way back to, you said, it starts at the beginning. And I believe it always starts at the beginning, too. Like when you said, okay, you start talking about vision, I was like, oh, stop right there. Because this implies that people have a vision, right?
And I know that those of you listening may be like, well, of course I have a vision. But I'm like, seriously? Because I've met you and I always start my conversations with, okay, stop telling me what company you think you want to own. And let's back up. And where do you want your life to go? So project forward with your vision. 3510 years from now, where do you see your future? And how much of that future did this business help you create? Because the owner that you become along the journey.
How do I want to say this? The business is going to reflect the owner that you become. And that's basically what you were saying, right? Like, you have to have the vision for what you want to build, and then you can step into becoming that leader who can lead that business to that future with the help of someone like Lisa, who could be your coach on the sideline, giving you all the tools that you need and maybe even holding you accountable at each different step, which is important. Right? Like a personal trainer in the gym. It's just sometimes the best thing a personal trainer does for someone is holding you accountable to saying you were going.
[00:10:04] Speaker C: To show up today, and if you.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Don'T show up, you're paying me anyway, so you're more than likely to show up.
[00:10:10] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
Great point. But you're right. I mean, the coach in the element of accountability is so critical, right?
Just teaching the leader these concepts and then holding them accountable to actually implementing, and then kind of going into the next meeting and hearing them say, oh, I'm upset with XYZ person. Okay, why are you upset with XYZ person? Well, they didn't do whatever. Okay.
Do they understand their expectation? Have you communicated the expectations? Maybe they've met a roadblock. Have you talked to them about it? How are you helping them get to the place where they can help you. Instead of thinking of it as a negative, think of it as an opportunity to switch and help them grow. Because one thing that I love when the business owner who bought the job becomes the business leader is that everyone else becomes better, too.
It's so true, though. They want to contribute. They want to own something. They want to see how they're making a difference. Everyone feels great when they see their contribution. Rather than think about a job where you come in and every day someone says, now go do these five things. You don't know why, you don't know where it's taking you, and you don't feel any better about yourself at the end. But if someone comes in and says, hey, I need you to build this staircase, and here are your tools, and then you're done, it's like, I did that.
And so owning it, being held accountable to it, makes everyone better.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. So go back, listeners. When you were in your w two life and you had that job or that boss that you hated, right? Think of the reasons that that was a miserable situation for you, and then imagine fast forwarding now. You want to own your future and you want to own your business, and you were tripping over. I love how Lisa, people are like, well, do good employees even exist? And I'm always like, create them. And that's basically what you're saying to do, right? Through your own leadership and your vision, you're going to be able to create good employees and put the control in your hands, Mr. Listener.
[00:12:23] Speaker C: Right.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: So that it doesn't feel like it's this thing outside of your control, right. That you can hire people that you like, bring them into your company, and then groom them into the employee. And what she's saying is, think about the impact that then you have on their lives, because you've just maybe given them a job that they actually love or a career, a job that turns into a future career. Think of all the different ways by you standing up and becoming the leader that you're saying you want to be when you say yes to being a business owner, the impact you actually can have on however many employees, whether it's two or whether it's 20 or more that you have in your company.
Yeah, that's amazing.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: It feels great. So not only are you helping your external customers, but you're also helping all these individuals within your organization grow and be better. Again, to your point, whether it's two or 20, it doesn't matter, or 100, it doesn't matter. But, yeah, it's just as satisfying to make a client or a customer happy as it is to see an employee grow, develop and become the star that they can be.
[00:13:36] Speaker B: In some of the services based industries that I place people into, like a home cleaning franchise or like a junk removal franchise, people love the idea of the essential quality of these businesses, but then they trip over.
Those businesses need a lot of employees, and I'm going to spend a lot of time managing turnover. And so what do you say to that business owner who has that mindset?
[00:14:04] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. I understand why someone might have that point of view. But at the end of the day, if you can create a situation where your employees see that their contribution is valued, they see their impact, and maybe even an opportunity for a career path in some of those, maybe not.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: It'S.
[00:14:30] Speaker C: Going to make a difference and it's going to make them stay. So when you think about employee retention, it's about engagement. Right. And so how do you keep your employees engaged? And part of it is, again, recognizing their struggles, recognizing, by the way, that they're an asset and not a tool to your business. Right. And I think that is such a little. It's a nuance, because tool could be an asset. I get that. But a tool is a tool, an inanimate thing, this asset of these human beings. And recognizing how much more they can do for you and your business. If you treat them with respect and you're a trustworthy leader and you give them opportunities, you listen to their thoughts and recommendations. If they know it's a safe environment to give feedback, to receive feedback and know that there's an opportunity to grow, that's when the engagement begins to get stronger and that's when you're able to retain your employees. I mean, it's really straightforward because it's tough right now. Hiring employees is hard and the marketplace is tough. So creating an environment where people want to work and feel good about their contribution is going to be the differentiator.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: It's so good. It makes me think of years ago we worked with one of the national hair cuttery chains, and they used to say recognition is more powerful than money sometimes. And they used to have, like, they called it the Gold Star program, where back in the break room, if an employee, like the owner of the business who was never there. Right. This is a semi absentee business. But that doesn't mean absent, it just means your people are working in it. While you may maintain a w two job or you just don't have to be in it every single moment, the business is operating but so then how do you as a leader, get control over what employees are doing and build that culture and instill your values when you're not there? And they had this program called the Gold Star program where back in their break room, so every stylist would have a headshot and the CEO, the owner of the business would be in touch enough with the manager on a daily and a weekly basis to get certain feedback on retail product sales or customer reviews or whatever it is that they were managing very closely that week or all the things their KPIs, and then personally recognize that stylist with a gold star on their headshot. Now, we laughed. We were like, come on, these are grown adults. Like, this isn't first grade. And they were like, oh, no.
Because when there's a new person being hired and an employee takes that new stylist back into the break room, this is like bragging rights.
That was years ago. I heard about that and it left such a deep impression on me. And it's so true. I hear so many w two executives say, I just did all of this work and gave my whole life to this company, and I feel like I was never respected or recognized for the work that I did. And it's so unsatisfying. And so be the leader who has processes in place to recognize your team.
And it's not always a monetary thing, like, you've got to give a bonus or there are those things, too. I've heard in the cleaning company especially.
But I think it's also about just recognizing what people are contributing because that instills loyalty and makes them want to work hard even when you're not there, because they know that while they don't see you, you know what's going on in the company and they want to please you.
[00:18:37] Speaker C: Yeah. That feeling of appreciation for what you do, it goes so far.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: What's a practical tool? Like, is there a book that you recommend on leadership? What's one takeaway we could leave with the listeners today? If you're struggling with defining the leader you want to be or just getting a grip on this massive topic, and how do I really grow into the leader I want to be? Is there one tip or tool that you would recommend?
[00:19:07] Speaker C: Lisa, great question. And I want to get the guy's last name correct. So I have to tell you, we in focal point, along with our own content, always introduce new stuff. And last year we introduced a book called the Trusted Leader.
I'm going to get his name.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: We can google it, too. If you're out there anybody you can google?
[00:19:31] Speaker C: No, I got it.
And you know why I like it so much? Because there's tons of great books on leadership. Just absolute tons of great books on leadership. But at the end of the day, he makes the point so clear. If people don't trust you, if your staff doesn't trust you, if the organization doesn't trust you, if you're not consistently doing what you say you're going to do, and all of those things. He's got eight pillars of leadership, and it's all about making sure that you're kind of meeting all eight pillars of trust for your leadership, for your team to actually be successful. And it's nice, too, because he starts it as a story about an executive. Yeah, an executive who can't understand why things aren't getting done the way he wanted them to get done and all that. So it's an easy read to start out. I mean, there's a whole course on it, but it's a great read that I highly recommend for anyone who's truly serious about being the best leader that they can be. So maybe we can put the name of the book and the author in the show notes. How's that? Instead of trying to be distracted by that. Yeah.
Again, there's tons of great ones I really commit myself to reading, like serially reading business books, one after the next after the next. And the leadership ones are always great. So you can't lose as long as you have the mindset, right.
You recognize the importance of it, right? You're not just another employee.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Hey, daily coach fans, if you're ready to begin your own journey to find the perfect franchise, please email me right now at inquire at KimDaily TV. My services are totally free for you. That's inquire at KimDaily TV. Now back to the show.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: Right? Be the leader that you want to be. Be the boss you always wish you had or you had an amazing boss and you loved that job because of that boss. How can you emulate that boss in your organization? And I want to say this now, and I've said it in other coaching series, videos. Look, what I'm trying to help convey here is business ownership is a journey. I want to provide you with tips and tools and strategies that you can take one by one and start implementing in what you do, not to throw more on your plate. Oh, great. Now I got to go become a great leader and I got to learn and I got to read books. It's not about that at all. This is about you showing up for your own goals and dreams and being accountable to that and understanding that to be accountable to that, you get to grow into this owner who then gets to be the boss that everybody in the community loves to work for or whatever it is in the business that you're focused on. And over the tenure of owning a business, your focus will change. You'll master the leadership skills that you need for your business, and then you'll want to focus on some other part of your business. That's what I've done for the last 13 years, right? You know my story. I made history in my 9th year by doing over 300 times more revenue from 2010 to 2011. What the heck? My skill didn't increase in one year, but my skill has increased the last 13 years that I've been hyper focused on what I did that first year to grow by such massive results. And so over the last 13 years, I've been incrementally getting better at all parts of my business. And incremental is the key. Consistency is the key here, not perfection. Somebody asked me, how have you created over 800 videos in three years? When do you sleep? And I said, wow, that's a lot of videos. You're right if you put it that way. But you know what?
It's all incremental. I'm just consistently producing content. And oh yeah, after three years, it added up to all that content, right? The same thing with you growing into leadership or growing into whatever part of your business you need to master in order for you to wake up fully accountable, feeling in control of the business that you said yes to. That's the day that you own it, when you wake up to be accountable. And that's what you said yes to the day you signed your franchise agreement. This is the subject that I am most passionate about. Lisa, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us today and being our special guest.
[00:24:28] Speaker C: Oh, Kim, it was a pleasure being here. Thank you so much for having me. And such a great topic. So I'm glad you embraced it.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: It's a massive topic that we barely scratched the surface of today, if that at all. So for those listeners out there who may be interested in learning more about leadership strategies, tactics, tips, who want to work with a coach who loves to talk about leadership, Lisa can be your girl, right? So we're going to put her contact information in the description below so that you can reach directly out to her. Like she know, when we talk about the need for a personal trainer, sometimes it's all about the accountability. Saying you're going to do something and then holding yourself accountable sometimes can be two different things because life gets busy and so having a coach there on the sideline who you have to be held accountable to sometimes is the difference between following through and not following through. And your dreams are worth it. So maybe you listeners want to give that some thought. Her contact information will be below. If she can help you, I'm sure that she would love to. And for those out there who are just excited to get in the game of business ownership, you know that I want to be your franchise consultant. So please follow the email on the screen right now or reach directly out to Inquire at Kimdaily TV. That's Inquire at Kimdaily TV. And until next time, my name is Kim Daly and I want to be your daily coach.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: You can find more content just like this on my YouTube channel at Kimdaily TV. And if you're inspired to take the next step to explore franchises match to you, please email me right now at Inquirer at Kimdaily TV. That's Inquire at Kimdaily TV.
