The Freedom Flywheel - Blog , Business Freedom

Do you have "Owner Overload?" Here are 5 symptoms.

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 16:22:47 +0000

I had a practice as a veterinarian for racehorses and my life revolved around working.

I practically lived in my truck.

My truck was my office, my pharmacy, and sometimes I even slept in it overnight if there was an emergency.

Most days, I would drive to one of the area racetracks where I worked and park my truck in the barn area.

Everybody knew my truck.

It was always parked out in the open and it was like being in a fishbowl.

Even if I was on the phone or trying to eat my lunch (on the odd occasion I had time for it) people would bang on my window, open my car door, or (my personal favorite) stand really close to my window with their face up against it until I had to acknowledge their presence.

The only way I could get any peace was to hide out in the barn bathroom.

The downside to this approach was that apparently the bathroom stalls were built for jockeys because the doors were really short and if you didn’t actually sit down on the “throne” your head was above the door and everyone could see you, even at my height. So I had to sit on the toilet in order not to be seen. This became symbolic of the way I felt. Like my life was in the toilet! This is when I realized that while my partners and I had built a very successful business and we were making really good money...I had also had a case of "Owner Overload." Perhaps you can relate?

Here are 5 signs that YOU may have Owner Overload

1. You can't take time off for fear that the place will fall apart without you.

You come in early, you work late, you rarely (if ever) take a vacation - and when you're away? You're worried about how things are going at the office or clinic. Even if you DO manage to escape for a week of R&R, your phone is on and you've invited your people to call you anytime. Not only are you waiting for them to contact you...you're calling them to check in to tell them that "one more thing" that is on your mind.

2. You're the center of the action.

If your business was a wheel, you'd be the hub at the center. Everything needs to flow through you. Your clients request to deal with you, personally. Your staff run every decision past you. A problem comes up? You are called on to solve it. Someone doesn't know how to do something? You need to show them. (Again.)

3. Your business has taken over your life.

When you're not physically at work, you are still *mentally* at work. You are kept up at night, thinking about problems or challenges at work. Thoughts about your business distract you when you should be spending quality time with your friends and family. You worry about being the "boring one" at the party because all you talk about is work and business. (Who am I kidding? You don't have time for parties! The person you are boring is probably your spouse who is tired of listening to you talk about your business.)

4. The weight of responsibility is taking a toll on your health.

You've embraced the idea that "the buck stops here" - with you. It's your business, so you're responsible. For everything. Right? The stress of this is having negative impacts on your health. You may be indulging in a few extra glasses of wine to relax after your long days. Or maybe you're stress eating (or forgetting to eat.) You can't remember the last time you made it to the gym.

5. You can't grow because you're maxed out.

You enjoy your work. (Even though you're working more hours than you really want.) You make good money. And also? You're making less than you'd like. And... You have ambitions to grow but can't see how because you're already maxed out.

How many of these feel true for you?

ALL of these were true for me before I shifted to a self-managed business. I kept believing that if I just worked a little harder for a little longer...that things would get better. Spoiler: they did not get better. In fact, they got worse. I let my Owner Overload go untreated and it progressed to Burnout. It wasn't until I learned to work (and think!) differently that things began to change. Marshall Goldsmith famously said:

"What got you here, won't get you there."

Owner Overload is something that we create for ourselves due to our SUCCESS. You might even think about it as a milestone achievement on your journey - so if you've made it this far: congratulations!!

The good news? Owner Overload is a sign that you're ready for the next level.

The GREAT news is that the next level is about working less, stressing less, and enjoying more. To get there, you need a new way of thinking and a new way of operating.

Achieve More with Less: How 90-Day Sprints Can Transform Your Business

Tue, 04 Jul 2023 15:25:27 +0000

When you’re stuck in Owner Overload, the road to breaking free can seem long – and it can be hard to stay on track with business improvement projects when the daily demands of running your business are unrelenting. (Ask me how I know!) One of the best ways to combat this is by embracing the 90-Day Sprint. 90 days is long enough to make a LOT of progress, but short enough to provide a sense of urgency and focus. When I work with my clients, we begin by establishing a 3-Year vision. What do you REALLY want? Then we work backwards, reverse-engineering a roadmap to get there. Once the roadmap is in place, we’re clear to commit 100% to the first 90 days in front of us. The 90-Day Sprint is where the action happens.

How to run a 90-Day Sprint

Successful sprints follow a 3-step process that is repeated every 90 days.

1. Planning

Planning is about answering questions. Bring your team together and consider: What are we going to accomplish during this sprint? What are the goals and objectives? How do we break tasks down into bite-sized pieces? Who will do what? When? The better your planning process, the easier your execution. While you might not stick to the plan 100% - the process of planning better prepares you for action. You’ll have a realistic idea of the work involved, your team will understand their role and their teammates’ roles, and you’ll have uncovered (and dealt with) any anticipated issues.

2. Execution

This is where the work happens! Successful sprint execution includes the following:

Regular short meetings to update each other on progress, identify any obstacles, and adjust the plan as necessary.
Synergistic collaboration. Working together as a team to deliver results that are better than what lone individuals could achieve.
Tiny celebrations along the way to recognize progress and keep everyone engaged and motivated.

By coming together as a team on a regular basis, you keep focus and energy on the project. One of the biggest mistakes owners make is letting these meetings slip. It’s easy to skip a progress meeting when there are so many urgent issues calling for attention. But without regular focus on the project, you lose momentum and accountability. This is one of the reasons why engaging with a business coach/advisor is so helpful. They provide outside accountability and perspective to keep these important, but not urgent projects moving forward.

3. Review

Your review is a chance to learn and improve. What went well? What could be done better next time? How can we improve our process? How could we communicate better? It’s also an opportunity to celebrate achievements and recognize contributions. Make sure you take time to savor your accomplishments and progress. The end of a sprint can also be a good time to take a short break before repeating the process.

Maintain energy, avoid burnout, and achieve your goal of Business Freedom faster.

Executing a 3-Year vision is a marathon that becomes more manageable when approached as a series of 90-Day Sprints. The shorter time frame provides increased focus, more accountability, and a sense of momentum. It also allows you to learn along the way and make adjustments as necessary. The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll be on your way to Business Freedom.

Reclaiming Your Life: 9 Essential Steps to Attain Business Freedom

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 15:44:04 +0000

Do you ever feel like running away from your business? If you’re an ambitious professional who owns their business and wants to take it to the next level, but feels trapped or overwhelmed, you’re not alone. Many successful professionals struggle to strike a balance between achieving their goals and avoiding burnout. While working harder may lead to financial success, it can wreak havoc on other aspects of your life. It creates a vicious cycle where you’re so busy and over-committed that you can’t quit, can’t take time off, and can’t even find a minute to think. I call this place you're in now "Owner Overload." If this sounds like you, CONGRATULATIONS! Getting HERE to your current level of business success is a MAJOR accomplishment. The “I want to run away from this business” phase is a natural result of your success. Everyone goes through this stage! It’s a clear sign that you’ve gone as far as you can with your current level of knowledge and thinking – and you’re ready for a shift. As Marshall Goldsmith says:

“What got you here won’t get you there.”

Here are the nine crucial steps you need to take to break out of Owner Overload and achieve business freedom:

1. Articulate a Clear and Compelling Vision

When you can clearly and concisely articulate your company's vision, mission, goals, and objectives – you are able to stay focused and lead your team to understand and act on your plans. Your vision should include both your business and your life – including your eventual exit from the business. By aligning your business vision with your life vision, you ensure that your business pursuits are not isolated from your personal aspirations, but instead complement and enhance them.

2. Reverse-Engineer a Roadmap

Reverse-engineering means you start with where you want to go and design your roadmap working backwards from that point. You set (and vet!) goals and milestones so that you can move forward with confidence. Planning this way keeps you focused on the end result and makes it more likely you will get there.

3. Set up a Progress Dashboard

As Peter Drucker famously said: "You can't manage what you don't measure." By tracking and monitoring the key metrics you want to manage, a well-designed dashboard provides you with the necessary information to make informed business decisions. Keep your dashboard simple and focused on the essential indicators.

4. Build a High-Performing Team of People

Your goal in developing a high performing team is to make yourself replaceable. This not only enables you to take time off, but also increases the value of your business. This way, when the day comes and you decide to sell it and move on to your next adventure, you and your business will be ready.

5. Develop Sustainable Systems

Systems serve as the framework for running your business smoothly. They introduce efficiency, boost productivity, and facilitate the training of new team members. Most importantly, they make it possible for other people to run the business – a key requirement for owner overload. The key to developing sustainable systems is to keep them simple.

6. Foster Synergistic Collaboration

Collaboration, where individuals work together to achieve a common outcome, is beneficial. However, true magic happens when you have synergy —when two or more people combine their efforts to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Cultivating a company culture founded on trust and transparent communication is essential for achieving synergistic collaboration.

7. Become a badass leader

When you become a better leader, EVERYTHING gets better in your business. Yesterday’s leadership won’t work for today’s professionals. The old-fashioned hierarchy is broken. Badass leadership starts with leading by example.

8. Integrate Work with Your Life

Striving for balance between work and personal life is unrealistic. Instead, aim for integration, viewing your work, your life, and your self as interconnected and mutually supportive. Your business and home are both vital components of your life and should complement each other.

9. Apply Productive Pressure

Productive pressure is just enough to ensure great performance without tipping over the edge into stress and overwhelm. A healthy amount of stress is good for you! The sweet spot is in the middle: sufficient pressure to crush your big goals - but not too much so you avoid burning out.

Diagnosing Success: Solving Business Challenges at the Core

Tue, 30 May 2023 16:56:06 +0000

For many busy business owners, a lot of time is spent “putting out fires” - solving problems quickly and in the moment. We think fast, we’re quick on our feet, we’re the person everyone turns to when something goes wrong. Many business owners pride themselves on their ability to do this. (I certainly did!) It’s a great skill and ability to have – until you find yourself caught up in a cycle of constant problem-solving - working tirelessly to overcome challenges, only to end up feeling exhausted and burned out. Sound familiar? I have good news. There’s a better way.

Want to solve problems once and for all so they don’t keep popping up like mechanical rodents in a game of whack-a-mole?

Guess what? You’ve been using it all along in your business with your clients and patients. You may call it a checkup, or a diagnostic, or a discovery assessment. It’s the process of analyzing the current situation to get at the root of the real problem. Imagine if doctors only treated the visible symptoms without understanding the underlying causes. The treatment might alleviate the immediate discomfort, but it wouldn't address the true source of the problem. The same principle applies to your business. By taking the time to delve deeper into the challenges faced by your business, you gain invaluable insights that can transform the way you do business. Conducting an assessment first allows you to move beyond quick fixes and band-aid solutions, and instead develop effective strategies that address the core issues and pave the way for sustainable growth.

How to Break Free from Owner Overload

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 15:19:19 +0000

Do you ever feel like running away from your business?

If you’re an ambitious professional in the legal, architecture, engineering, or healthcare fields who owns their business and wants to take it to the next level, but feels stuck or overwhelmed, you’re not alone. Many successful professionals struggle with finding a balance between achieving their goals and avoiding burn out. The more you work, the more money you make, which is great financially, but it can wreak havoc with the rest of your life. It also creates a trap where you’re so busy and over-committed that you can’t quit, can’t take time off, and can’t even find a minute to think. I call this place "Owner Overload." It doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve identified three cornerstone elements that are crucial for transforming any business, and they form the foundation of my Business Freedom Accelerator™ framework. Each cornerstone – clarity, capacity, and command – contains 3 actionable steps.

Clarity

Clarity is essential for the success of any business. When you have Clarity:

You know where you're going, how you're going to get there, and what you need to DO next.
Your work has meaning, and you're excited about your business and your goals.
You find it easy to make (good) choices.
You understand your financial numbers and use them to make sound decisions.

Three Steps to CLARITY

Clarity arises at the intersection of 3 things:

A clear and compelling vision of where you’re headed.
A roadmap of the steps you need to take to get there.
A dashboard to show how far you’ve come and to let you know when you’ve strayed off course.

1. Articulate a Clear and Compelling Vision

2. Reverse-Engineer a Roadmap

Reverse-engineering means you start with where you want to go and design your roadmap working backwards from that point. Planning this way keeps you focused on the end result and makes it more likely you will get there.

3. Set up a Progress Dashboard

As Peter Drucker famously said: "You can't manage what you don't measure." Measure and monitor what you want to manage. A great dashboard gives you the information you need to make solid business decisions. Your dashboard should be simple. Only track what you need to. A good management dashboard will track both leading and trailing indicators.

Capacity

Capacity is your ability to get stuff done. It directly impacts both your revenue ceiling and your ability to take time off. Capacity looks like this:

You feel like your business has room to grow - you can welcome new business, feeling confident that your systems and team can handle it.
You have great systems and tech in place so that you feel organized, and things run efficiently.
You have a high-performance team in place that can not only run the place without you - but they’re also actively engaged in helping you make your business better.

Three Steps to CAPACITY

You’ll have capacity when you have these 3 things in place:

A high-performing team that can run things without you.
Systems that ensure things get done well and consistently.
Communication skills and channels that encourage collaboration and synergy.

1. Build a High-Performing Team of People

Your goal in developing a high performing team is to make yourself replaceable. This will allow you to take time off and make your business more valuable in case you want to sell it in the future.

2. Develop Sustainable Systems

Systems provide a framework for how your business is run. They provide efficiencies, increase productivity, and make it easier to train new people. The key to developing sustainable systems is to keep them simple.

3. Foster Synergistic Collaboration

Collaboration: working together to achieve a common outcome is good. Synergy: when 2 or more people develop something better as a whole is magic. The key to synergistic collaboration is a company culture built on trust and transparent communication.

Command

Command is about being the captain of your ship. It’s about setting an example and providing clear guidance and direction to your team. Command gives you a bit of a swagger, but please don’t confuse it with military-style “command and control.” Command looks like this:

You feel confident and in control of both your business and your life.
Your business no longer takes over your life - you feel comfortable setting boundaries.
You support and mentor your team, challenging them and providing feedback to help them grow.
You've found the "productive pressure zone" where you accomplish a lot without burning yourself out.

Three Steps to Command

Command isn’t something you’re born with. It’s a collection of skills you can develop. Your 3 steps to command are:

Become a badass leader – both of yourself and for your team.
Integrate your work with your life so that you never feel you must sacrifice one for the other – recognizing that your business can help you both make a life and a living.
Apply productive pressure so that you can find the sweet spot of high productivity coupled with sufficient rest and relaxation.

1. Become a badass leader

2. Integrate Work with Your Life

Balance is unrealistic. Integration of your work, your life, and your self is a more holistic approach. Business and home are both LIFE. They should support each other.

3. Apply Productive Pressure

Where does your business need the most work?

Consider the 3 cornerstones of Clarity, Capacity, Command.

Which do you feel most strong in now?
Where do you feel you need to do the most work?