Hey everybody. And welcome to Episode One, an Introduction to The Leaky Bucket Podcast.
Now we, and I mean, business owners, entrepreneur's wannabes, have all been there. I'm sure. We've worked hard and then failed to achieve. And it's likely that what's stopping us achieving is the leaky bucket effect.
Now, in my view, anything, and everything starts with a great plan. You have to plan first, then execute, then review your progress, adjust where you're going and enjoy the results. But the leaky bucket is always at play. It's always there trying to stop you, but what is it? So, imagine this, a bucket plain standard, simple bucket, but it's got some holes in it and a significant number of them at that.
None of them are huge. But if you add them all together, then you've seriously got an issue if you are going to ever try and fill that bucket up. It's just not going to be possible. The more water that you put inside the bucket, the more it's going to leak out. And surely if you were trying to make that bucket full of water and you could see all these holes in it, you'd know that's not possible. And therefore, you would stop. You'd go and fix the holes or get yourself a new bucket and then fix them.
But let's relate this to business.
If you are chasing results, but there are a number of small holes in your plan, then you can't get those results that you want. That as you grow, and as you put more pressure on those holes, the bigger they get under that pressure.
Now, surely if you could see those holes, you'd stop and you'd fix them as well. Wouldn't you?
In my experience, I'd put a bet on. No. Because most of us, if not all of us, have holes in our business and we either fail to spot them or we do spot them and we just ignore them and do nothing at all. And this is a big issue because it's stopping you from achieving the very goals that you started and set out to achieve.
But how do I know this? Because I've done it.
I've chased results that I couldn't actually achieve for years and years and years, I take two steps closer and then one further away. And I keep trying these, all these different things, but I just kept ending up with similar results. Then I started to expand my thinking.
I started reading, I started becoming educated. I stopped having an ego. And what did I realize?
I've got a flipping leaky bucket.
I could never fill it up unless I changed; unless I did something about all these holes and all these problems.
So, the four key principles that I followed:
The first was the mindset that I shouldn't have an ego.
Yes. I should think that we can achieve things that possibly seem unachievable to so many people, but having an ego and going around and thinking like, “I know it all, I'm just getting in my own way” and stopping myself from making any progress at all.
That I needed financial literacy and understanding that the aim of a business is to make money. I must understand that as a business owner, because if the business can't make money and I can't live the life that I'd like to live. There's no point in the business, the business won't be there because I've failed to be fulfilled. I've failed to pay my bills and I can't carry on.
Also, I followed the accounting is the language of business.
Now as an accountant, surely, I've got an advantage here. Yeah, but was I applying it in the right way? Was I making sure that my accounting knowledge really made sure that I understood my business performance? No. So how hard is it for somebody like you who maybe doesn't have that training within accounting and understanding of that?
So therefore, I need to make sure that I'm getting educated and likewise, you are too. Make sure you understand how to read the important figures and numbers within your business.
And then financial freedom, right? We're all chasing it. What is it?
Well, I realized it's different for everyone. We all think we're in this same race and we're trying to beat everybody else. And yet we're not, we're just trying to achieve financial freedom for us. And financial freedom for me is different financial freedom for you. And it's different for the next person and the next person.
But actually, if we don't ever define that as a very clear goal, what chance do we have of achieving it?
Now I've hit hard times, right?
I've been multi-five figures in debt with it getting worse daily, living off a credit card, taking loans left, right and center, doing credit card shuffles so one card pays off another. Had to live off benefits. You know, life's not always been easy, but then we had this breakthrough moment and I've been able to refocus.
I decided that that was not who I wanted to be. And if I wanted to be somebody different, I have to define what that looks like. So, I made some real goals and some real targets. They were thoroughly thought-out. They weren't just the quick things that came to mind.
I was constantly just thinking actually, what do I really, really want?
I became a business owner, not a technician. It's so easy to start off in a business to go, “Actually, I can do that better”, but then you have to make that transition to be a business owner, not the one, just doing all the work.
I slowed down my thinking. Emotional reactions are the curse of a business owner.
You react emotionally and sooner or later you're going to get burned. I slowed down my thinking and took my time before making decisions. Not forever, just enough. So, I could go, "Do you know what? Let's get the emotional reactions out the way. And now let's really, really think."
I became a better version of me.
So, my goal through this podcast is to be able to share with you what I've learned and for this to be shared with as many people as I possibly can, because you see I've got a goal that I want business owners everywhere, not to be surviving, but actually to be thriving.
And actually, through this podcast, I get an opportunity to share.
Great processes. Great learnings. Talk with great people who have got great ideas. There's no quick win process, right? You have to want to, and I mean, really want to change things. If you want to be different, you've got to start acting differently because actually it's no good. Just saying “I want to be, a millionaire”.
And then just go around splashing cash everywhere, cause not going to work. You have to want to change things and you have to be ready to put in the hard work to change it. You have to be ready to let go of your ego. If you are going around thinking that you are the best and that everything that possibly can be done anywhere within your business, inside, outside the business everywhere, you're going to get stuck.
The harsh reality of the fact is there are people out there that are better at things than you.
Maybe not everything, but you can't be the best at everything. And the minute that you can let go of that, the minute that you can be clear and true to yourself to go, “These are my strengths and I'm aware of my weaknesses and where I need to plug holes and gaps.”
The minute you will extremely accelerate your growth and that of your business as well. You have to be able to accept that others will know more than you about some or even many things, and then embrace it, embrace the fear and just move forward.
If we start putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward, you will make progress.
Now, just remember this, the truth is we all have these buckets to our business, and they've all got holes in them. Doesn't matter whether you are the one-man band just starting out, or the company owner with hundreds of employees, we've all got holes in our bucket and we always will. Okay.
I'm not teaching you some magic pot that goes, "Oh, you'll never have a problem within your business again." That's not going to happen. There will be problems, but you have to learn how to identify those holes. And then the causes, not the symptoms. Then you've got to understand how you actually go about fixing them and then actually go and fix them, right?
This isn't just, "Oh, look, there's some hole.” and take no action. Action is involved. Then you need to be able to move forward again and find the next holes. So, see the course of this podcast, I'm going to share with you the techniques that I used in our business, techniques that my business partner uses within our business, because she brings massive different strengths to what I bring.
The techniques that we used then in our personal lives, because we are just one person. We're not massively somebody different at work and somebody different at home. If we have a problem at home, it's coming to work, you can't just park it at the door. It is going to affect you. So how do you learn to cope with it and deal with it?
And then I'm going to talk to you about techniques I've used with other business owners. And then, we'll also do some interviews about, and with, other business owners and their own techniques and their stories, what's worked and what hasn't worked for them.
The goal through this podcast is for you to become a better business owner.
One who embraces fear, who slows down their thinking and who works towards a clear goal, and achieves it. And all of this, while being aware that you do have a leaky bucket and that you'll constantly need to assess it for repairs, but the very fact that you are aware of it means that you can do something about it and you can grow and move forward.
Listen to the Podcast if this episode here or watch the full episode here.
