People often ask me, “How did you do it?”
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I recently got back from a two-week vacation with the Cardones in the Mediterranean, and it’s a great example of what hard work can do for your life.
But, the opportunity to spend my life how I want with the people I want didn’t come without an insane amount of work and dedication to getting there. I had to work to build a business that is self-sufficient enough for me to take that two-week trip and all the relationships that came with it.
So, when people ask me how I got to where I am today, my mind immediately thinks of two essential things we prioritized while building the business that were key in helping me build the life I’ve always wanted.
The secret formula for a successful business: Customers and employees
Now, there are clearly a lot of things that go into building a successful business. You need things like a solid product that provides a solution to a problem, product-market fit, and some other logistical elements, too. But, in my opinion, the success of a business comes down to two very important things: customers and employees.
It may seem obvious at first, but you’d be surprised how many new business owners lose sight of these two things when they start building and scaling their businesses. If you don’t have customers, then you can’t hire employees, and if you can’t hire employees, then you don’t generate money. Again, seems simple enough… until you ask yourself the question, “What comes first, the customers or the employees?”
There really isn’t a single answer to this question. Some business owners find success in going solo for the first few years until the revenue can support hiring employees, and some find success in building with the right partner or partners that can grow their customer base. Really, it comes down to what your strengths and priorities are as a business owner and what path you choose to take to scale your business.
For me, I knew I wanted this business to work for me just as much as I was working for it. This was the key to continuing to live the life I had created for myself (and more!), and I knew from experience that the secret to becoming successful and creating the life I wanted relied heavily on who I did it with. And I attribute people — my business partners, employees, and customers — as the reason the business is where it is today.
Regardless of what comes first, you need to be people-centric
In order to hire the right people and get the right customers, you need to become people-centric. People are at the heart of both of the two most important elements of a successful business (the customers and the employees), so you need to know how to attract the clients, attract and retain the employees, and make sure that everyone you align with your business is going to continue to push it forward.
There are a few questions you can ask yourself to gauge how people-centric you are. For example, are the clients you have aligned with the goals and opportunities of your employees? Is your team constantly improving and getting better through working with your clients? Are the clients growing through working with your team and your business? Are your employees incentivized to stick around? Do your clients seem invested in your products and services?
Ultimately, people don’t work for crappy business owners, and clients don’t hire crappy businesses. It’s up to you as the leader to put your customers and employees at the forefront and ensure they are just as invested in your business as you are.
This is a concept we teach in almost all of our workshops, and we know first-hand how important it is to prioritize people in your business. The bottom line is you can’t be an expert in everything, and you can’t be everywhere at once. So, you need to have the right people aligned with your business who can fill in the gaps in your expertise and push the business forward on your behalf.
Once you have this in place, you can have confidence knowing that your business will run while you live the life you’ve dreamed of and created for yourself, and it will work just as hard for you as you do for it.
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Surround yourself with people who are where you want to be
My last piece of advice for anyone who is wanting to turn their dream life into a reality is to surround yourself with people who are where you want to be. Watch what they do very carefully, model and mimic what they do, and then master it and multiply that impact. You won’t get the life you want by sitting around and waiting for it to come to you.
Build the relationships. Prioritize people. Test, perfect, and multiply.
There’s so much that goes into building a people-centric mindset and creating the life you want, but I teach you everything you need to know as proven through the growth and success of our own business. Check out my new book coming soon!
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