How to Build a Business that Runs Without You w/ Pete Mohr

[Intro Track]

Courtney Elmer 3:18  

Alright, so before I introduce you to my guests today, can we acknowledge for a moment that at the time of this recording, at least, we have flipped the calendar into a new year?

Courtney Elmer

Let me ask you something. Have you given any thought to what you want to get out of your business systems? Not what you want to achieve in your business? What you want to get out of your business systems this year? That was a question I started asking myself recently not what do I want to achieve? Complete and total perspective shift, because suddenly, it wasn't about hitting our sales goals anymore or generating more leads. It was about asking myself what needs to change in my business so that it can afford me the lifestyle that I want to live to have the time freedom on my calendar that I want to have to have the revenue available to do the greater things that I want to do as part of my bigger brand vision and as part of my vision for my life. 

Courtney Elmer

My guest today, Pete Moore, is a business owner turned business coach with over 25 years of experience applying the tips and tools and the techniques that he's about to share with you here on the show today, to his businesses. And he believes that every entrepreneur should learn how to build a business system that runs without them, or at the very least, with minimal effort on your part. And I agree, this is something I teach my mastermind students all the time, I'm telling them this up and down, left and right. I'm like, if you are not focused on building business systems that run without you, then you will always be working in your business.

Courtney Elmer

Pete, and I see very eye to eye on this, and he has been able to achieve this turnkey business system, he has been able to achieve this within his own businesses that he works no more than six hours a week. And today, he's going to reveal his secrets to help you get rid of the shiny objects and the distractions, and identify the work that you should be focusing on so you can get the most results with minimal effort, and spend the bulk of the time that you have available to work in your business systems in your zone of genius. Pete, welcome to the system is made simple Podcast.

Pete Moore 6:34  

I'm excited to be here with you. Thanks so much for having me, Courtney Elmer.

Courtney Elmer 6:37  

Absolutely. When you reached out to me and when I was looking through your expertise and what it is you do, I'm like, Oh my gosh, yes, of course, Pete, you have to come on the show and talk about all of the things that we're about to dig into today. With your background, you've got what over 25 years experience as a business owner yourself.

Courtney Elmer 7:15  

it goes quick. The thing that's so I find so refreshing about when I was reading about you and learning about you was how you're applying everything that you teach within your own businesses. And that's a big piece, because there's so many people and influencers out there all day, who could talk your ear off about what you should be doing. But unless you're actually doing it boots on the ground, it's, it's hard to put that into practice. So where I'm thinking, the best place for us to start is to have you share with us. What does it mean to have a turnkey business and to, to build that and to always be thinking about your business systems in those terms.

Pete Moore 8:08  

It's a big piece Courtney Elmer. It's something that you need to plan for, you need to work towards, and you need to understand why you even want turnkey type business systems. The idea of having turnkey business systems sort of flows back to this concept around real estate, where when you walk into a house, it's in turn key condition, which means you don't have to do anything. From a perspective of a business owner, when you have your business systems running in a turnkey fashion, it's ready to sell, it's ready to operate, all the business systems are in place. All of those kinds of things function so that you as the owner habit, you can look at it in a variety of different reasons. 

One, you can look at it as a passive investment where it's running itself, and that's sort of the ultimate of setting up turnkey bustiness systems so that you can then do what you want to do with your life. And that may be in fact going back and working a little bit in your business, but working because you want to work in it not because you have to work in it. 

Business owners, get into business because they're they're like business owners have a great life and they get to do their own stuff and all this stuff. But the reality of it is, it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of effort. There's a lot of frustration. There's a lot of 50,60... hour weeks to get through what we need to get through in order to start developing the the systems and processes that allow you to have turnkey business systems.

Ultimately having turnkey business systems is such a benefit on so many areas that it's something that most people don't give enough thought to. The key thing that we want to bring up here today, Courtney Elmer is you need to understand how powerful that becomes for you as the owner, and the leader of the business for your life, but also the powerful idea around having turnkey business systems and the ability to have the value in that business.

Courtney Elmer 10:49  

Yes, such a nugget there. Most of us get into business with the dream to have business systems that run like that. And then we're like, wait a second, there's so much to do the kids hard to find good help, It's like all the headaches and all the stress and all the things and so we work ourselves to a point where it's very difficult to work ourselves out of the business, or as I like to say, to build ourselves out of the business.

Pete Moore 11:14  

That's a big piece of what I coach to at simplifying entrepreneurship everyday with my clients is, is working through those business systems and frameworks in order to alleviate frustrations and that chaos. One of my coaches along the way, Courtney Elmer, his name is Joel Weldon, introduced me to this concept. It's an acronym for the word system. And system is something that saves you stress, time, energy and money. 

So business systems save you stress, time, energy and money, by putting in the right business systems in your business. And the right people, all of those different business systems, whether it's operational systems, the marketing systems, the sales systems, the human resources systems, making sure that you're systematizing your business systems in a way that allows other people to understand what's going on, so that they can then be accountable. Thats where people feel the pressure, this frustration that keeps you up at night Courtney Elmer.

Courtney Elmer 12:30  

For someone listening right now, let's pretend that I'm coming to you, as a client, and I'm imagining someone listening right now might relate to this. I've been in business, let's say a couple of years, things are going okay. But I am nowhere near where I want to be yet I have these huge revenue goals, but it seems like I can not get to it all. . But I'm having such a hard time finding the right people to hire. I don't have time to hire. Pete tell me where do I begin?

Pete Moore 13:06  

Courtney Elmer, start with the low hanging fruit. Start with the simple things to change. Use automations, where you can use automations. Clean up your calendar. Make one simple appointment. There are so many tools out there now that allow anybody to get their time back. Get a few of these things going understand how a few of these things can happen. Take the next two weeks and write down every single little thing. And I'm talking the minutiae detail. I had to answer 42 emails today, I had to set for appointments, I had to answer the phone calls, I had to do my marketing, I had to do my social media...

All of those different things, start writing them down. And for anybody else on your team, they should be doing the same thing. Once you understand that full idea of what you're holding yourself accountable, it can become like pages of stuff that doesn't matter. You need to do it because that's only going to give you the understanding. But then you're going to take those areas break them down into four different categories. One is that the stuff that you love to do and you're good at one is the stuff that you love to do, but you're not that good.

One of the things is that the stuff you aren't good at, but you still love to do. And the last one is you don't love to do them, and you aren't good at them. And you're probably going to find yourself categorizing in all of those. And what you want to do is you want to elevate and delegate yourself as the leader of the business into the areas of the things that you personally love to do, and that you're good at. And everybody else in your team wants to do that.

When you do that sort of thing with your team and with yourself, you start building the process around all of those business systems we talked about in order to make things work.

Release yourself of that accountability, so that you can go and do something that's even better in your area of genius. Working through some of those business systems are some of the areas that we start with Courtney Elmer, so that we're seeing where everybody fits in the accountability charts, working through some of those things, and then driving down the business systems and the processes within those. As we as we maneuver people into the right seats, then stuff happens.

And those right seats could be outsourced partners, they could be people within your team. Whether using automation tools, like we talked about or you're jiggling around your accountability chart, ultimately what you want to do is have accountability. As your business systems grow, you need to start letting go.

It's okay not to know every single little thing in your business systems. Elon Musk doesn't know what every single little thing that's going on in his business systems, and he couldn't. He never would have the business systems that he has today if he did.

Courtney Elmer 17:32  

Such an important point about not only focusing on your zone of genius, those things that you love to do and the things that you're good at. But positioning your team members in such a way that they're operating the bulk of their time in their zones of genius as well. Everybody's thriving, everyone feels more fulfilled in the work that they are doing.

Courtney Elmer 18:51  

Let's dig into this idea of of leadership a little bit more in operating your business systems as the leader of your business. We hear this phrase all the time, you need to be working on your business systems, not in your business. But that is so much easier said than done. It is why is it so important, though, to think of your business systems in those terms.

Pete Moore 19:28  

I think it all starts with one of the things you said Courtney Elmer, how do you maximize your time? I mean, a lot of a lot of business leaders don't maximize their time. They they let things happen as they happen. And from that case, when you're when you're sort of living by other people's timelines and other people's schedules and other people's phone calls, and all of those different things that abuse Your day, I'm going to use that word abuse your day, when they interrupt your levels of focus and time and all of the things that you need to be doing to grow your business systems. 

The real power there Courtney Elmer, is that you actually book yourself some time to work on your business. It could start with something as little as a half an hour a week, it could be Monday mornings, set yourself up to have a 30 minute coffee with yourself. And think about the stuff that you need to work on your business systems, not the stuff in your business, not the the fires that you're putting out from yesterday, the bigger picture stuff.

And then a little while down, maybe you should actually think about doing a half day a week as the leader of your business. And what do you want out of your business systems? What do you want out of your life. There's a lot of talk out there about Balanced Life, and all of that sort of stuff. But the reality of it is, is that most of us in our businesses, we have seasons. The way I prefer to look at it, where you're all out in a given season, because you've got a product launch, it's your busy time of year, your summer based business, you're a winter based business, whatever the case is, but you're on. 

Courtney Elmer, you have to understand the time management around seasons and the time management around your off seasons. That's the big piece where you need to understand the flows of your business systems so that you can work on your business systems in those slower times in particular. And even in the busier times, if you can allow yourself even a half an hour or an hour a week, to keep that flow happening to look at your notes again. And keep that in the back of your mind. Refreshing yourself with that all the time. 

When you're having your team meetings and refreshing them around your vision and mission and your goal. All of those things are important and crucial in the growth of your business systems as you as you roll along from from day to day, month to month, quarter to quarter and year to year.

Courtney Elmer 22:28  

As you're sharing this, I'm sitting here thinking about this most recent season in my business where I picked my head up out of the weeds and realized I had gotten so far removed from my vision. I've been focusing on one aspect of that vision and pouring my all into that. Forgetting about the greater vision the bigger picture, that you talked about that we're actually working towards. 

Courtney Elmer

Let's talk about that bigger picture. It is the first thing to slide to the backburner when life gets busy when you're in the weeds of your business systems. It's so important to stay connected to it. When it comes to putting on that visionary leader hat, you've got that time blocked out. What do you recommend we focus on during that time? What specifically should we be thinking about in order to stay connected to our vision? And to develop our mission?

Pete Moore 23:36  

A lot of interesting stuff there, Courtney Elmer. I like to use a tool for that. And I've created a tool called the one page planner. Everybody's used to planners, and we've probably all tried a bunch of them and what have you, like many people, I wasn't satisfied with the ones that I found. 

So I created my own. I use my planner to do that. What's my vision, I've got my vision written down there, And how that breaks down into my year and how that breaks down into my quarter.I use that for myself for my own purposes, when I'm sitting down, keeping my life vision and my vision for the business systems because we get into business to create the life that we want to lead.

That's the thing we're not we're not there to Courtney Elmer, to prop up our business. Our business is there to prop up us. From that perspective, what what's truly the life that I want to lead and what now do I need to do? What's the next step in the business systems that's going to help me get there? And then I'm thinking about what's the next step that's going to help me get there from my business systems? Here's where we're at now, and what are the couple of things that I need to do in order to live the life that I want to live?

That's how I use that time, it's because it's always coming back to the life that I want to live. I'm crafting that life. I'm crafting the business underneath it. And from that perspective, that's the that's sort of the guiding principles that I use along that sort of focus time that I have is, what's the life that I want?

Then I come back to the business systems Courtney Elmer, and I'm like, Okay, here's where we're at with the business systems. And here's what we want out of the business systems, because once I get the business systems there, I can use that to develop my life even better. Then I'm thinking more in lines of the business systems and vision of the business. I'm tweaking and you've got, again, your 25 year visions, you're bringing it down, I don't usually use like a 10 and a five year because it's too far out.

I use that sort of idea of a 25 year future for my business and my life. Then I bring it down into what can I accomplish in the next year. I kind of look at the three year framework, but what am I doing this year, and if we've knocked off one or two of the things on that year, then I'm always replacing them with the next things that are going to drive me up to the bigger future have that 25 year life. 

The key here Courtney Elemr, is that in your in your rhythm of meetings with your management team, and with your partners, all of those different people that are involved in your business systems- they need to know that.

We want to help people look great and feel fantastic Courtney Elmer. If we do that, then we're going to drive home, the mission of our business systems and everyone knows that's the mission. And that's what we need to deliver to our customer. That's our promise every every day, it's clearly communicated. When you give them the accountability that we talked about earlier, the systems and all of those things, they're the worker bees, they want to, they want to feel part of something. They want to feel part of the whole, you know what it's all about. And that's where this whole idea of the great resignations happening because leaders aren't communicating the vision and the mission. And all and people are have lost. 

They don't know what their piece of the puzzle is. And it's interesting when you look at it, but it all kind of starts with working on your business systems. So that you know truly what it is. And then it kind of comes back to now I have to communicate it to everybody around me.

Courtney Elmer 29:03  

We should have you back on the show to talk about mission statements. Without a clear mission, first and foremost, how are you going to communicate it? That's your rudder for your ship. Where are you going? Are we actually steering the ship towards it?

Courtney Elmer

Pete, if you could share with us what should they be thinking about when it comes to their mission? for their business systems?

Courtney Elmer

They're intertwined. I find that our mission is intertwined, too. It's not the mission for the business, but it's about the greater legacy you want to leave. Can you give us a starting point for if someone has thought about their mission maybe hasn't gotten it super concrete yet?

Pete Moore 30:43  

Courtney Elmer, I like to put everything on a one page. We start off by having a guiding guiding principles page is what I call it. From the mission side of things, if you think of these three simple steps, and a mission is something that people should be able to repeat, understand. 

It's got to be simple, it can't be lawyer speak, it can't be drafted. So that's the first piece and it's got to be memorable. Number one, what is the problem that you solve? Number two, what is the solution to that problem? Number three, what will life looked like after they use your goods or services? So problem solution life after? 

And if you think of those three frameworks, the problem is, I'm tired, I'm overwhelmed, I'm frustrated. The solution is, you know, we've got the business systems in place that will take you to the next level of leadership. I'm living the life that I want, I've got my time back, I'm not feeling frustrated, I've got great business systems.

Start with the problem Courtney Elmer, then your solution, and then what does their life look afterwards. That's the sort of mission that you can begin to wrap some language around. And we'll help you on your way to making something that's not like we had so and so is such and such, and you go through a page long mission statement that nobody even understands what you're saying. It sits in the back of your employees trunk and collects dust, and nobody's ever read it after day one of working.

Courtney Elmer 33:22  

You should be able to recite this at gunpoint. And I mean, maybe that sounds drastic, But seriously, it should be that urgent for you to absolutely be able to get out there and accomplish this mission. And it should also be that simple, that if someone were holding you at gunpoint, they should be able to be like, Oh, I get it, I get okay.

Pete Moore 33:43  

That's one way of looking at it Courtney Elmer. Another way that we talk about a lot. If you want to be more specific down to it, it's we should accomplish x by why because of Zed. So we should be, you know, we should we're going to accomplish X, whatever that is. And so this is like a more of an internal type mission statement, as opposed to the external one by a given time so that you're putting wrapping time around this goal that you're trying to meet. And why is the because of right. So that's another way of of using two different sort of flavors there of how you want to wrap around, you know, your mission and vision for either internal or external purposes.

Courtney Elmer 34:28  

Pete, I do have one final question for you. This is something I ask every guest that comes on the show. And it's fascinating to me, because no two people have ever given me the same answer. So I'm curious to hear your take on this. And the question is simple, but maybe not so simple to answer. I'm looking for kind of your your gut. What's the first thing that comes up for you? What does it mean to you to live an effortless life?

Pete Moore 34:54  

Well, to be honest Courtney Elmer, I don't mind effort and I'm okay with putting in the effort, my big thing is that I want to be able to put the effort in to the areas of my life that I choose to put the effort into. And that I feel aligns with my sort of direction, my vision, what I want to accomplish, as opposed to having to do something that I truly don't want to do. And so when I look at that I'm I work. I mean, it's I we talk about turnkey business systems and stuff like that. And, you know, am I working everyday? 

I'm working everyday, because, you know, the stuff that I'm doing, I love doing. And when you're living in that area of we talked about it earlier, the area that you love doing what you do, I love having these conversations, Courtney Elmer, I love working with my coaching clients and all this stuff. I love my shoe stores as well. So I'm involved in there as much as I need to be, I don't have to be involved over there very much. Which is, which is a nice position to be in, because I've got things set up. So I look at, you know, if you can dial your effort level, and you're you're at that point where you can kind of dial your effort level into the areas of of your choice, I would consider that to me. And effort free life.

Courtney Elmer 36:19  

It makes the effort worthwhile. Yeah. And you doing what you want to do? Gives it a purpose. Love it. Thank you so much for being here today. Where? Oh, yeah. Where can our listeners connect with you and find you online?

Pete Moore 36:32  

Easiest way Courtney Elmer, is simplify, simplify on simplifying entrepreneurship. If you Google that, you'll find my website https://simplifyingentrepreneurship.com, you'll find me on LinkedIn that Pete Moore, Instagram at Pete Moore. And the other thing we talked a little bit about before we jumped on is we've created, I'm a Business made simple coach. And we've created this awesome assessment on the website. And you can go and click the assessment, but in about 1012 minutes, you'll get back a 45 to 60 page PDF, depending on how you answer those questions around all of the things you're killing it at in your business, and a few of the things that you need some help on and whether you use a coach like me, or whether you, you have that knowledge to know and where to go start searching on some of those areas that will help you improve for next year, then that's the whole idea around the assessment. But it's a great tool. And I'm thrilled, it's a new tool for us. And it's been going awesome.

Courtney Elmer 37:29  

That sounds awesome. Yeah. And I think that's so helpful when you can have someone else essentially take a look at what it is that you're doing. What are you doing well, where could you maybe use some support and help and guidance, and to clarify that for people. That's huge. Awesome, we will be sure to link to up to all of that in the show notes for you. Thanks again for being here.

Pete Moore 37:48  

Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate you having me on today Courtney Elmer.

Courtney Elmer 37:53  

And we have linked up to that assessment Pete mentioned at simplifying entrepreneurship calm, you can find that in the show notes. So you can go take that assessment, and diagnose what's going wrong in your business systems, and get a customized plan for how to fix it. 

Courtneuy Elmer

Now special announcement. In exactly two weeks doors are opening again to our signature podcasting program, where we teach coaches and course creators and online business owners how to launch a top ranked podcast. So if launching a podcast of your own is something you have ever remotely considered, then you owe it to yourself to get on the waitlist theeffortlesslife.co/podcastworkshop and see what this is all about. So head to @podcastsmadesimple And when you enter your info there, I'll even send you a free copy of the guide that I created that will show you the five things you should know before launching a podcast so that you can position your show for the most success. 

Courtney Elmer

So again, that is @podcastsmadesimple and enter your info there. And we will fill you in on all the details about the program. And of course, that free guide as well that is worth that's worth its weight in gold right there. So you can figure out if hosting a podcast is the right move for your business. And speaking of podcasting, next week, we are kicking off a special little mini series about how a podcast whether that is starting one of your own, or being a guest on other shows, could help you drive more traffic and sales to your business and position you as a respected expert in your industry or niche. And this is part of our greater theme for this season that we have going on right now. But helping you get more visible in your business in podcasting, I believe is one of the fastest, most effective ways to do that. So tell your friends and make sure you join me back here next week. I'll see you then go live your EffortLESS Life®.