Business for Builders Podcast

Slow Leaders Create Slow Companies, Here’s How to Fix It (Ep 290)

Max Peterson Episode 290

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The speed of the leader determines the speed of the pack. 🐺

Today, Max talks about key principles that make him a better leader and how they affect your business.

Are your leadership skills up to the task of running a $2 million business? 🤔

Catch today's episode on the whiteboard --> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL76rc3DrCOMb7VM9icAOQmLodNCSZTfKf

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SPEAKER_00

You've heard me say it before, the speed of the leader determines the speed of the pack. If you don't know what you're doing as a leader, today I'm going to share with you five principles that help me be a better leader in my business. Enjoy. How old are you going to be before you start to experience life like you want it? I want to tell you right now, whether you like it or not, there is a better way to do business. Hi everyone, welcome to the Business for Builders podcast. My name's Max. Thanks for joining me. Welcome to you if you're in podcast land, uh, or welcome to you if you are watching this on YouTube. I'd encourage you if you haven't listened to this and there's some things that you hear, maybe just shoot across to the Business for Builders YouTube channel and check it out. And uh, if you've got any other questions, hit me up, max at elite businessadvisory.com, um, and uh you can get a hold of me there. If you'd like to catch up for a complimentary coaching session, um bit of a strategy chit chat, then uh don't hesitate. Get across to elitebusinessadvisory.com, hit the book a consultation button, and uh let's have a quick chat, see what you're doing good, see what you're doing not so good, and take it from there. Right, you know, I often deal with builders where we we all come from the same background, pretty much as far as young, get an apprenticeship, become a carpenter, go, gee, I want to make more money. And uh well, if you're like me, working for supervisors was okay until it was not okay anymore. And uh, I tell you what, I needed some motivation to go get my builder's license, but eventually did that. And uh, you know, what it did is it was like jumping out of the frying pan, which was hot, and you know, you're working as a subcontract carpenter, and then you jump out and go, I'm gonna be a builder, and you think life's gonna be much better once I get a builder's license and I can run a building company. Well, that is no, that is absolutely jumping out of the frying pan into the fire because what we do as builders is just dramatically different to just running as a carpenter. And look, I think, guys, that really the the biggest thing that stands out for me when I used to work for some of these bigger corporates as a sub, running, say 15 carpenters and apprentices, is that I never ever knew about the concept of customer acquisition cost because it was always through word and mouth, and I'd go and work for this company, and then I'd have also had purchase orders from that company and then this company as well, and I was always making you know money. I wasn't making a lot of money as a carpenter, but I was making money, and you know, I was, I guess I was a little bit greedy, and I'm like, I want to make more money. Well, when you pivot from being a sub, where if you're good enough, supervisors, superintendents want you to come back and do the next frame or the next fix out of you know, carpentry finishing, and you just jump from one to the next to the next to the next. I remember driving around estates, you know, with my trailer on the back, trying to keep the boys busy, and I'd see I'd see pumps like um pump trucks going, and uh I'd go, well, there's another slab going down over there, I'll go and check it out. And we'd see it was a you know, this builder was doing it, and so you'd ring them and go, Have you got carpenter sorted out for this? And so, you know, I think what what I'm getting at, and you know, I'm thinking about this episode and probably the next one, and it's it's based around your personal leadership. So when I'm coaching builders who have got that kind of background, where really they just make the pivot, get the credentials, I'm a builder now, and they I now haven't got any work, you know, or they're not making any money, but they're working twice as hard, or they're working, they're doing a lot of during the day work, and then after hours they're doing a lot of work as well. And and so, and they always seem like this, you know, that like this uh, what do they call it, that rat on a wheel and just keep on pedaling, pedaling, pedaling and not getting anywhere. And so, you know, I felt compelled this morning that I think we've got to, we, we've gotta not, uh, we've got to make sure that we understand how important it is to be personally responsible and the leadership level that's got to kick in in our minds because it is never ever gonna work for you if you don't become, if you said, Max, I want a five million dollar business and you're a $500,000 leader, you'll you'll never ever make it there because the personal level of commitment and leadership is not being established, and we really misrepresent ourselves because we think, oh, we should be at $5 million or $2 million, but we're really running only a $300,000 business. Like, I think sometimes you've got to get the perspective and understand. So maybe this little episode here is a quick awareness campaign about how important it is as the the business leader, you, me, we determine the speed of the pack. And so this is where sometimes it comes down to the capacity and what you want. So you don't want to have big eyes for big goals, but you're not prepared to put the work in. And some of that work is not just out in the out in the field, that work is committing to an education program. And so if you've been around the show a little bit, you know that we've got free podcast, welcome, right? And then you've got you've got the contractor academy, and then we can step up from that to coaching on demand, which is a 90-day slot, and then you go full on, full-on one-on-one coaching when you really got the business happening. And so I want to urge you guys, because there's really not one individual that I've met that can't build a house. In all of the clients that I've had in and around, past and present, there's not many guys that can't build a house, but there's a lot of other stuff that it takes to build peripherally to the construction side of it, that really requires us to learn more. Okay, more you learn, more you earn, all that sort of stuff. So I'm going to run through four points, four things whereby um how the speed of the leader determines the speed of your business. Remember, money loves speed, and uh, you know, there's things that I do on a daily basis that I go, if I didn't know about that, or if I did not know about that technology, or I didn't know about that approach, I would just be dwelling aimlessly. I'd be trying to figure it out, and you know what it's like. You when you know, once you've got a system to hang a door, you know, you go through and hang doors quickly and at a high quality level, okay? So what I'm gonna urge you to do, um, especially in this episode, maybe in the next episode as well, is we're gonna really just focus on, I want you to focus on yourself, okay? First thing, leadership sets the pace. Now, I can be accused, ha, I can be accused of potentially being impatient, okay, and and you, you know, for those that know me, you you you might find that hard to believe. However, I you know, what I'm I'm not trying to be impatient. What I'm doing is I'm just moving out pace. And so, you know, if you can't, if you've got what you'll do is you might be a really nice person, you're good at attracting talent into your business, but because you're dragging your feet and you haven't got your stuff together, those good people aren't going to stay. You know, it's it's very difficult for me to think, you know, there's there's only a small minority of EBA clients, the builders that I coach, that I could actually get in behind and work with from an operational standpoint, whether that was in the office, end or out on a job site, being a supervisor or what have you, because I would bully the thing forward so much. Push, push, push. Every time there's a waking moment, I'm like, how can we do it better? Not a wasted motion, continuous improvement. Okay, because for some reason, my mechanics, you know, I am driven to get better. I'm driven to do it more efficiently than we did it last time. Like, you know, we we've got two jobs on the go. Collectively, they're worth almost 1.5. And one is about a third of the size, you know, of the other. Yeah, about that, probably a third. And based on my performance, and I say my performance of the first job, I look at the situation. There's there's two clear determining factors, right? And I won't get into those now, but I look at those things that I would do better. And on the smaller job coming back around, when I had my opportunity to do it again, this time going forward, it is way more controlled. We change those two factors and we determine that this is how we're going to do it, and we're going to do it a lot better. So the company naturally moves at the speed of its leader, and so there's nothing wrong with your speed. The company naturally moves at the speed of the leader, and so there's nothing wrong with maybe where you are or who you are, as long as your goal is in alignment with your capability, your capacity, your dream, what it is that you want. If you've got a misalignment there, your life is going to be pretty ordinary. So when we talk about the leader setting the pace, we're talking about leadership, your ability to lead. Okay, slow decision, slow communication, slow follow-up, create organizational drag. See, I think a couple of episodes ago we're talking about execution. And so if you execute slowly, if you make decisions slowly, if you communicate slowly, um, if you follow up slowly, what you're doing is you're creating operational drag. And so, you know, having a little bit of a motorsport background, everything that we did was all about reducing the drag, enabling the vehicle to move faster around the track. And some of that was the driver technique, and some of that was the setup. So the easier combination, it's like you, the builder, and how is your company infrastructure set up? Okay, so you're by thinking about that alone gives you the best chance of moving faster as a leader, which means then the business will move faster by default. Your energy, your urgency, and your consistency from you, the leader in your business, will create a ripple effect throughout the entire business. Now I reckon, and I'm pretty sure I know this, because you know, I'm pretty intense, and all of my, you know, most of my EBA uh coaching clients will they will get this, and it's because I'm all about speed, getting after it, making it happen. Shit will get off the pot. Like, let's go. You know, I want to, you know, when I was when I was growing up as an apprentice, you know, my boss at that time, Phil, he would say to me, we work hard and then we play hard. You know, that was kind of the thing. Um, when we work, we work, when we play, we play. That was kind of his thing. And so, you know, I think what you are as a person, and this is where the alignment's important, when when you're a mellow kind of, you know, um pretty can you know conservative type of individual, then the business that if you want to build a big business, it might just take you a little bit longer because of the operational drag. Or you might never build the business you want because you don't spend the time developing your own leadership. Number two, speed influences every department. So we kind of just talked about that. Um all departments. Leadership, well, sorry, speed influences every department, and that's a leadership thing, so maybe I should change that. Speed influences all the departments, branding and marketing. So let's talk about three majors branding and marketing, sales and closing, construction delivery. So branding and marketing requires consistent momentum and visibility. Because, guys and gals, as a builder, that is your social proof. Who I mean, I'm sure you've done it. Think about an area where you go, I'm gonna just I want to do this and I'm gonna search out that company online, and you go to their Instagram and they haven't posted since 2018. Like it's just that you sort of you go, okay, so what's happening? Are they just not doing the business anymore, or what's what's going on? So branding and marketing that requires consistent momentum and visibility because that is your social proof. Sales and closing depend on responsiveness and clarity. Especially, and you know, obviously I've talked about sales and close, that's why it's in there. It's like, well, selling is one thing, closing is another. There's a distinct point in the journey between first call and contract where it flips from you being the salesperson where you're trying to influence the deal and the decision maker, to it's time to close. Too many guys keep going on the sales, sales, sales, sales side, and they never ask for the business. That's a problem. Okay, and so if you are slow to ask for the business, you're gonna have a process that draws out much longer than it ought, or maybe much longer than I would, and therefore your sales velocity is a lot slower. Okay, so the speed at which you move a client into your system through the pre-construction, stand them up at contract, that actually affects your ability to hit a revenue target. So if we're gonna set a goal this year of you know, doing a million dollars in your little building company, and it just takes you all day to give the person a callback or a quote, we we're never we we haven't got a shot. And so this is when we're measuring metrics. So when we're looking at our activity, we're saying, okay, so in January of a year, what deals are we gonna sign up in the next 90 days? And so we start projecting. Now, what that does is that draws a line in the sand and says, Max is standing there saying, Well, I think we should be able to sign somewhere in the vicinity of $300,000 to $500,000 worth of contracts between January 1 and March 31st. And so what that does is that now there's an intentional focus on what activity am I doing today that's gonna help me do that deal or create that um those those contracts. And am I can I do it faster? Now, if if I think I can do it faster, it's like, well, how can I do it faster? And that's where the revision kicks in, it's where I've got to do an audit on my cat on my capabilities and on how I go about executing. And then construction, delivery, uh, delivery, warranty, and client care all reflect leadership standards and pace. That is reputational uh development. So coming from or speaking with or hearing from a guy that's been in and around the franchise business in construction for you know seven or eight years, everything that we do is about reputation protection. We're making sure that, yes, when a phone call comes in from a you know a new inquiry, we want to be quick. However, if something comes in across my desk that is a warranty item, that actually has got to be handled as quickly or more quickly than a new inquiry. Because I'm gonna be over here trying to sell a new deal, meanwhile, I've got a warranty issue over here with a client and they've been begging for rectification or at least for an inspection or some communication or collaboration around what's up, what are we gonna do to fix it? Okay, and so the guys that just put their head in the sand, forget about this, because the warranty thing's a little confrontational. And I would urge you guys, and this is where I'm not saying you've got to do it like Max, or you've got to be as intense as Max, but what Max does is Max goes after it head on, head on, okay? Like there is stuff that's happening in this town right now that's got nothing to do with Max the Builder from a warranty standpoint, it's from other franchisees that haven't done their job. Furthermore, they're not around to do the warranty. So, guess who's got to handle the communication? I do. Okay, and so you know, I think if you are part of the solution, life as a builder becomes more enjoyable. You know, to me, because the thing is, if there is a defect in a product, then we avoid that product going forward. So what you're getting is you're getting marketplace feedback, or if something didn't get done right, the guys that you've got on the side are not doing a good job, or your quality assurance, quality control mechanism is not good enough, right? And so there's all of this feedback loop, okay? Whether it's good, bad, indifferent, or ugly, or my fault, their fault, nobody's like, there's an opportunity to get an education, okay? So when when I have the fluency to be able to not get emotionally wrapped up in it, although I do, because whenever somebody comes in and says, I've got this problem with Smith and Sons, and I'm like, well, that was done two years ago by our mate, and he's not with Smith Sons anymore, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna try everything I can to figure out how to navigate that. So all that's giving is marketplace data that I can go, well, is this something I can use to improve my here and now and the way that I operate? And I'm telling you, having been in the industry since 1989, what are we, six, however long that is, okay, it's a it's it's a long time. Um, 36 years, something like that. I'm still there's because of technology, both digital as far as building technologies, there's it just seems like there's there's so much more I can learn. Like I'm always going to learn something today or tomorrow that I didn't know yesterday, right? And so that's the challenge that is part of you becoming a better leader, moving through challenges faster. Remember, it's not what you're going through, it's where you're going to. Life is a journey, not a destination. You know, I have no desire to retire, whatever that looks like. I want to be busy and on my feet doing it until the day that I literally am gonna tap out and be done. Because I mean, you know, what else? I sit still for five minutes and you know, it's just like I've got to be doing something. You know, I watched my wife working in the garden, help her, I help her build a little, a little veggie garden the other other weekend, and mate, she just keeps busy building that garden and planting and irrigation and all kinds of stuff, and it's just so in, it's a great little hobby, you know. And so, you know, for me, we would have to minute I stop enjoying life is because I'm not enjoying what I'm doing. So, two things. If you're doing nothing, find something to do. If what it is that you're doing is not giving uh, you know, you the satisfaction that you want, you need to pivot, change direction slightly, do something different. Now, don't make a habit of doing that just because it gets hard. That's not what I'm talking about. Anyway, moving right along. Um, number three, growth happens every 90 days or in 90-day increments. Now, so what we're talking about is we set these what they call rocks, right? Just, you know, a bit of a term for, and I normally say to my EBA guys and gals, I'm saying, what is one thing that we actually, because it's a you go through phases. I see this in the coaching world with builders, is that there's there's this whole elementary side, then there's secondary, and then there's tertiary. And so when we get you into that tertiary zone, it's not just like, oh, we need another checklist or another SOP. There is all of that still to be polished. However, what we're talking about now is getting very a lot more intention around, okay, what's one big thing that we've got to improve in the business? What's one thing that we've got to bring and introduce into the business? Because remember, we're not just sort of ad hoc picking whatever's feeling good at the moment. We're talking about the 12-month goal, two years, five years, and we're saying this quarter is going to make a lot of difference if we could achieve this. And that could be as simple as paying down some debt. Okay? It could be, hey, by the end of 90 days, I want to have sold this many contracts at this price point so that when I start that job, I can put a supervisor on or a superintendent that I've got my eye on. I've been talking to her for a while. So what we want to do is look at that, you know. I say in construction, now remember Jed's construction management. He's doing on-site, he's doing all of that. But there is a part of what I do in procurement and scheduling, okay, that that in that that requires of me to have a certain amount of vision and planning in the in the next not too distant future to make sure that we execute efficiently. Okay. And so when I'm in, when I'm doing it, so we've just kicked off a job yesterday, um, and you know, we've got a new carpentry crew helping us out there, so I'm watching very intently as to how things are getting done. Um, but I always look at that 30-day primary window and then a 60 day secondary. So obviously, the thing's in 30 days. We've got a like I've got cabinets getting measured up, you know, about eight days from now. So they're two days into demo, then there's probably another day left in demo, and then we're going to be spending probably three to four days in reframing it, and then we're good for cabinet maker to come out and do a final measure before we place orders for cabinet. Now, cabinet's Take eight to ten weeks, you know, depending on where you live, sometimes six weeks. But if we are on the side of caution, we're talking two months. Well, that contract is only four months old. Excuse me, it's only four months long. So 50% of that time I'm gonna be waiting for cabinets. And if I'm not careful, I will overshoot the completion date. Okay. And so great leaders think in focused 90-day targets and priority priorities. Okay. And so that's why I break it down to an immediate 30-day window and a 60-day window as it relates to construction. Um, but if I was talking about building the business as well, there's a few factors I've got to think about. It's like, well, do I have the cash to expand? Have I got my minimum capital height that is going to enable me to take a chance at putting somebody on? You've got to think about that. That's very intentional, okay? So we're not just flippantly going, I think I'll put on a guy because I want to go fishing and I need someone to babysit my projects. It's not what we do, it's not what we do at all. You know, I think there's got to be some thought around what is it that's going to help move the business forward and then use that. And maybe it's a six-month goal. Maybe you've got a lot of work to do in the business to get your pricing right, to be able to sell jobs at the right money. Okay. Short-term execution creates long-term momentum. So there's activity in and around the business on a daily basis, okay, that the hope is that the activity and the work that we put in now is going to create momentum in the business down the track. So do I always want to be playing in the departments that I'm playing in in my construction business right now? No, neither Jed nor I want to keep doing with the way we're doing it. There's an expiry date on that. Okay, and so we're in the throes of that now where we've actually got the carpentry gang or crew that we've just started yesterday, and we've also got our own on another carpentry crew. So, what that does is now that I've got those two extras on top of our own in-house payroll guys, I can increase my sales velocity and start closing deals. So I'm not pumping the brakes. Because remember, if you're like me, you've got a project start schedule, and you know that you don't want to finish jobs at the same time, and you certainly don't want to start new jobs at the same time. You want to create some air between those, some blue sky, a little bit of separation, okay? Otherwise, it puts too much back pressure. And I'm all about winning jobs and signing contracts, I think it's great, you know. Um, however, what what can happen is you can go from being a rooster to a feather duster, right, in two minutes when all of a sudden you've done your part, Max, in sales and you've got it to contract, you've got deposit, and you've got a start scheduled start date, and then you've got your team that says, Well, nobody can get there to start it. You've just outrun your supply line, okay? And so we've got to be mindful of the dynamics within your business. This is leadership, your ability to lead, okay? Both personally, privately, okay, and corporately. Growth requires constant adjustment, review, and recommitment. So there's this assessment process that happens. What you don't measure, you can't manage. What you don't measure, you can't improve. And so, with all of that being considered, this is where mature leaders will look at their past performance and do an honest review. They'll they will assess the activity that went on in the last 90 days, and they will say, okay, this is what we need to improve for the next 90 days. And that's that's that continuous improvement, the attitude towards we wasted some motion back here. So, what we're gonna do when we go forward, this is how we're going to do it, and that will fill the gap that was that we noticed off the back of a 90-day uh in review. Right, capacity and consistency wins the day. Now, if you've not heard the word capacity before, then this is your lucky day. Capacity and consistency win. And I think I think I was thinking about the old hair and the tortoise thing, right? So, you know, the ability for the tortoise just to keep going and then the hair would sprint and come back and play around. Well, you know, for you and me, I think this is where patience probably kicks in as well, because you can only, I know this, whenever I'm trying to learn and you know, we're actually in our little rock and roll band we've got going on at the moment, um, we do a 15-minute medley, and we've just finished putting together another 15-minute medley, and you know, that sort of thing is not, it becomes like much more complicated both physically but also mentally, because there's transitions between songs that you really don't have time to wait on. So if you miss it, you miss it and it looks bad, right? And so I think we've got to be very patient in our ability, but what it also um demands from say me the guitarist is there's got to be this capacity, so you've got to be able to play the tune you're playing now, you've got to be able to recall the next tune, and then you've got to remember the transition between the two. And so, you know, if you're busy thinking about how to play XYZ song going into the other XYZ song, it's there's you've there's got to be muscle memory. And I think when we're talking about capacity as leaders, what we don't want to do is we don't want to go and operate at a higher level than our personal capacity will allow. Okay. Now the other thing is, and so okay, so what happens when what happens? You might say, well, Max, what happens if if my business grows beyond my capacity? I will tell you right now what'll happen is there will be no consistency. Because you will essentially you will crash and burn. Because it's hard to be consistent when you're operating something that is larger than your capacity will allow. So, guys and gals, you know, I just want you to just think very deeply about you as a human, you're an emotional beast, okay? You will do what you love to do indefinitely, but whatever it is that you don't enjoy doing, you will not touch. So this is why business at a high level maybe is not for everybody, because it does require a a larger capacity and b consistency to win. Right? So we know that it takes so much uh, you know, it's it's almost trial by fire, and out of the the error suite, the things, the the aspects of the last job that we didn't do particularly well, we've got to do a little bit of an audit and understand what went wrong, why did it go wrong, and what can we do now to make things better going forward. Now, remember there's two phases of growing your business. There's the the first phase is consolidation, and that word just means to make strong that which you have. And the second part is expansion. Okay, so in the consolidation phase, you might be preparing for expansion, but you'd want to know what's going to happen in that scenario of expansion so that you are adequately prepared as best you can be in the consolidation phase. Sustainable growth is a capacity game, okay? It's not an emotional sprint, right? We're talking about building the business up, not because we want to brag about a vanity metric like a revenue target, but what we're saying is we want to we want to build that because the larger the business, it makes sense that, you know, like the EBA motto is more profit, better lifestyle. Okay, we don't want to just try to have a better lifestyle, but really we don't have the more profit. So what we're gonna find ourselves is going back. I've seen guys, you know, they would they would get with me in the Smith Sons operation and they would come in and they're doing $250,000, $300,000 a year. Within 18 months, they're doing 1.6, but they are imploding as leaders because their capacity wasn't there or wasn't large enough, so their business outgrew them. They were no longer leading the business, and what happened? You got die back, and the business came back to their level of leadership. I hope that's making some sense, guys. Okay, consistency beats intensity over the long term. Now, I know this because I when I get in a mood and I'm like, I'm gonna just pull my sword out and slay dragons, I just know that that intensity level is not sustainable. So is my business going to be built? Is my leadership capacity going to be built through intensity? Not long term. Okay, it's gonna come down to being consistent. Oh, yeah, I could get started, I could get I could get talking about going to the gym. You know, if you want weight loss and you increase muscle mass, you don't just do it over the weekend. If mate, they will tell you weight loss and muscle gain comes down to what? Consistency beats intensity. Okay, it has to be that way because it is a natural fundamental. It doesn't matter about your opinion or what skill sets or talent that you have, it just requires a more of a long-term view on how to put it together. Final point here under capacity and consistency win. Determination and commitment separate the builders who scale from the builders that stall out, right? And so, guys and gals, you know, you you do have to have a commitment to your commitment, you know, and you you're listening to someone that's been in the game and around the construction industry since 1989, and I've not really deviated. The biggest deviation I've had is since I came to Canada, where I was, you know, 24 months waiting on my permanent residency. So I was semi-retired. Um, it's a good way to blow all your cash, just by the way. Um, and then, you know, got back into the construction sector by way of being a CEO and president of a franchise group in the construction sector. And now I find myself in the coaching sector in the building game, um, but also now operating a general contracting firm with a business partner. So, you know, I love the game that much. I I don't I don't look around and go, I would love to go and try that, drop shipping or freaking something else. Like everything that I'm doing, whether it's franchising or business coaching or you know, operating a building company, it's all contained. There's massive overlap, right? And so when you love what you do, it's easy to be committed to getting better, right? Nothing's worse. You know, who said it the other day? Yeah, I mean, there was someone, there was uh a gal I met at an AFL game, and she was starting to be an engineer, and she got five minutes into that, and when I'm not doing that, so she left and and started to travel, you know, in good honor. Like that was that was what she felt to do. She didn't feel like she was gonna love that as much as she did, but it was more like this over here, and there was massive sacrifices to make, both in the short term and long term. Okay, so you know, uh, your commitment is what's gonna set you apart over the long period of time, and I think you've got to be mindful that change is so subtle, right? Something I've worked out recently, um, and it's always I've understood the theory, but when I sat in the president and CEO chair for the best part of seven or eight years, you don't realize how your physical flexibility deteriorates so slowly. So it was like there was die back there, and you just you always, I mean, from ages 40 to 42, I was playing the best footy of my life. I was enjoying it, I was fit, you know, I was running three times a week, five and a half K's in 28 minutes. I was loving it. My weight was on point, my fitness and my capabilities, that's why I was enjoying the footy. That was a byproduct. And then I've just caught him back to try and play this game of rugby because all my sons are playing it, and I want to pull on a jersey and play some rugby. But boy, to get back in the zone, mate, it's so much work. And so there's a commitment there, but what I've got to do is understand that it takes, it's a natural process. You can't force feed it. Doesn't matter how many books you listen to, it doesn't matter how many audio books you listen to, how many books you read, how many webinars you attend, how many podcasts you listen to, you can't force it, right? Your ability to get it is it just comes subconsciously and over time, but it's through consistency, okay? If you want your company to move faster, clearer, and stronger, it starts with you, the leader. If you've got any questions for me, max elite businessadvisory.com on email, but probably just spending 20 or 30 minutes with me on a Zoom call is going to be by the guys that have done it who are listening to the show right now, they'll be sitting there going, You should talk to Max. Don't worry about sending him an email. Get on the blow and have a chat with him. Now, um, on that Elite Business Advisory website, there's a number up there that's WhatsApp, okay? So that number is go straight to my phone. Mate, it's like this. Hey Max, have you got a second to chat tomorrow? I'll be like, well, tell me what uh what time zone you're in so we can sort of line up there dots. I don't want you ringing me at two o'clock in the morning, and then we can just have a chat. I'm I'm happy to do that. I've always got a little bit of time where I can have an impromptu conversation with you. So I would encourage you if that is less friction and easier for you to access, then go and put that 604 number in there, add me to your phone as a contact, and then let's light it up on WhatsApp to have a chat. Um, go be able to kick ass business. See you on the next episode. Cheers.