Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Breaking Down Business | Ken Wentworth a.k.a. Mr. Biz

Starting point is 00:00:00 A lot of times business owners are really good at the widget they produce or whatever service they're providing. But they're not really good on the business side of things. Increasing sales, increasing your net income, increasing the value of the company, especially now you've got a lot of baby boomers that are considering exiting and wanting to sell their company. Like, how do I improve the value of my company? This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over one million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes.

Starting point is 00:00:35 You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. Right about now. Out now. Out now. Out now. Hey guys. What's up?

Starting point is 00:00:48 Welcome to Right About Now. We're always getting right. We're always right now. We're taking the BS out of business. And, hey, what better way to take... The BS out of business. Then talk to Mr. Biz himself. Ken Wentworth,

Starting point is 00:01:06 author of three bestselling books, and a known radio master. What's up, Ken? Hey, man. Good to be here, man. You know, it fit the narrative, man. We're taking the BS out of business. We've got to go straight to Mr. Biz.

Starting point is 00:01:24 That's right, man. That's right. I'm here. I'm here for it. And I do. I know we talk pre-episode. I do respect. the registered trademark on Mr. Biz as a marketing guy. You know, I,

Starting point is 00:01:36 hey, you got to lean into that brand, baby. Yeah, honestly, I was very hesitant initially, and enough people kind of pushed me. This is several years ago, and I finally said, I might as well lean into it. Like you said, it was catchy, it was memorable. Actually, and I see it on your wall back there, actually, the first time I met Grant Cardone,

Starting point is 00:01:56 someone introduced me to him as, you know, Ken Wentworth, he's also in the, Mr. Biz. I saw him, I was in his office eight months later, eight months later. Now, how busy of a guy is he, right? He comes in. And the end of my last book is Don't Fake the Funk. And he's been on my show a couple times as well.

Starting point is 00:02:14 And in the intro of my show, it says, you know, if you're something about, you're ready to stop faking the funk, something like that. I come in his office, and Brandon Dawson, one of his business owners was with me, he comes in and he goes, I don't know if you remember, Grant, you met him. This is Ken Wentworth. He goes, you didn't tell me you're bringing Mr. Binn. by and he said you know what one thing i know about this guy this guy doesn't fake the funk and i was like holy crap eight months later you know he remembered it i'm like it's definitely something catchy

Starting point is 00:02:40 that people remember people remember stories and they also remember like catchphrases and things it's there's there's mastery and simplicity and mr biz is simple it's but it's straight to the point you're mr business and you know you talk about business you own business the brus the brand is aligned. So, yeah, it is what people remember, you know. So I get, and our network, our show was called the Radcast. We've changed the name, but we're now the Radcast Network with multiple shows. But I get the Radcast guy, you know.

Starting point is 00:03:19 They remember simple naming. So there you have it. I love it. Let's set the table before we go down the path. You know, Ken and I talked pre-episode. Like, we wanted to make this juicy. I think we're just talk, you know, I guess we'll table this as the state of the state of business. But let's at least, for our audience, Ken, set the table on who is Mr. Biz?

Starting point is 00:03:44 Depends who you ask, Ryan. Depends who you ask, you know. Now, I worked in, I had a corporate career for a long time. I worked at J.P. Morgan and was able to ascend a pretty high level there. And I always want to do my own thing. and, you know, I was being promoted in the top 1% of the company, and it sounds great. But then I knew I was going to need to relocate, uproot my family, probably have to move to New York City or maybe London. And I had young kids at the time.

Starting point is 00:04:15 I was like, I don't really want to do that. And so I'm like, this is the time. I'm going to take the leap. I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't know, like, what I do now is like a fractional CFO business strategist. Again, I'd been in a corporate world my entire career. So I had no idea what that was. Got a mentor, walk through things, and he said, you need to be a CFO for, you know, six or eight businesses.

Starting point is 00:04:36 And I'm thinking, how the heck do you do that, right? Because being a CFO in my corporate world for one business in J.P. Morgan is a 60 to 80 an hour a week job. Like, how can you do that for multiple? Like, what are you going to clone yourself? Like, what the heck? He's like, no, you're doing on fractional basis, part-time basis. Once he explained it to me, it made a lot of sense. And I got to tell you, Ryan, I left.

Starting point is 00:04:56 JP Morgan. And again, corporate career was great, loved it there. I didn't leave out of anger or they mistreated me or anything like that. They treated me very well.

Starting point is 00:05:06 But I got my first client and I was about two weeks in and my first client. I was driving home. They were local here around me. I was driving home. And it was just like one of those corny moments you see in a movie

Starting point is 00:05:17 where like the clouds part and the sun comes out and you hear this like heavenly music. Oh, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

Starting point is 00:05:28 Like, it is, it's not work for me. It's, it's like my, what I do for a living is like a hobby now. It's like a hobby you enjoy to do because I love it so much. Someone asked me one time, a bunch of times, but the first time they're like, how many hours a week do you work? And I go, I mean, I don't know. I don't punch a clock, you know. They said, what do you mean you don't know?

Starting point is 00:05:47 Like, you don't work a certain. I'm like, no, I don't. I mean, have flexibility. My kids got a game. I take off and I quit work at 2.30 in afternoon and go to the game. You know, I might work it from 9 o'clock at night to 1 in a morning or something, too, right? And they like, people understand that. I'm like, I do some form of work almost seven days a week.

Starting point is 00:06:08 And I don't say that to brag or like, oh, man, I'm this big hustle grinder or whatever. It's just because I like it. You know, a lot of times my wife and daughter will go to bed. And in the evening, I'll pop into my home office because I've got something I'm working on. I'm excited about. I'd rather do that than sit and watch TV a lot of times. And so, and people are like, man, there's something wrong with you. That's, I think that's a true entrepreneur.

Starting point is 00:06:29 Like, I think whatever it is, entrepreneur, the biz, whatever, whatever, I mean, but I'm the same way. Like, I own multiple companies, but, and I might be gone at 11 a.m., you know, to do something that no one else has the flexibility to do. But just like yesterday, you know, basketball's on. The wife's on the couch, chilling she'd had surgery. and is doing nothing. So it's down. So I'm writing. I'm doing business.

Starting point is 00:06:58 I'm, you know, like, and not because you had to, but, you know, you enjoy it. You got an idea. You want to flush it out. So same thing. I think that's the, I don't know, I don't know if it's the entrepreneur gene. I don't know what it is, but, you know, it helps when you do what you love. Yeah, I mean, I just look at, yeah, I just look, I'm very grateful, blessed that I'm in a position I'm in now.

Starting point is 00:07:18 Like you said, with that flexibility. I had a client who had, I had been working with for a while, and they, you know, they had, they're getting to a point where they need a full-time CFO. So I said, okay, I'll help you transition. I'll help you find someone. And then, you know, we'll do the transition or whatever. And she said, well, why don't you just come work for us? And I said, and I love working with them. They're great client, great people. I just, I don't want to do it. Like I can't imagine ever again working with one company, going to one office, all the, you know what I mean? Like I just, even though I did that for, you know, 20 years in my corporate career, I just can't imagine now being

Starting point is 00:07:52 kind of locked down to that now to just working with one company or whatever. It's one of the things I love about what I do is I'm different challenges at different companies, different personalities, different industries. And she said, well, there's got to be a price. Give me a price. And I said, $5 million. She said, for what? Like for like a 10 year contract or I said, no, for one year. She said, you know I can't afford that. I said, right. So that means the conversation's over. So let's move on. So, but no, it's, it's, like I said, it's just, I'm very, very grateful that to be in a position I'm in now to be able to do, you know, it's pretty rare.

Starting point is 00:08:30 I mean, how many times you talk to someone who actually loves what they do for living? And they're not just checking the box. You know what I mean? They're not on Wednesday going, oh, my gosh, is the weekend here yet, you know? You know, I'm not that way. Sunday nights a lot of times I have trouble sleeping because I'm excited about, actually, start planning my week on Sunday, and I get jazzed up about what I got going on during the week. And so I'm laying in bed on Sunday night going, man, on Tuesday, that's going to be awesome.

Starting point is 00:08:56 I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. Wednesday, I'm going to talk to something. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I know there's not many people that are in that position. So I don't take it for granted, but I'm definitely very grateful for it. I know you have a popular radio show. Talk about that.

Starting point is 00:09:10 And, you know, that's sort of where the Mr. Biz came, I guess, through that. But maybe talk a little bit about that journey. Yeah, so I was a, we've been on the show for about seven and a half years now. So originally, say it asked me to be a guest on someone else's show is to come on as like the business expert, right? So they take callers. So there was me, I think there was an attorney and there was like a marketing person. So business owners would call and ask a question. And depending which one of us, it was in our wheelhouse, we would, you know, answer their question and try to give them help.

Starting point is 00:09:44 So I was on the show two different times, did a couple different segments. and the GM of the station said, hey man, I've been looking for someone to host a business-related show for almost a year now. He's like, you're my guy. You've got to host a show. I'm like, no, that's not, I don't do that, right? This is fun, but that's not in my wheelhouse. And he said, what I'm finding is I'm finding people who are either super knowledgeable,

Starting point is 00:10:09 but they have the personality of a thumbtack, or they don't have any depth of knowledge, and they're just super charismatic and sound like you. use car salesman. He's like, you're a combination of both. I'm like, wait a minute, I'm not sure how to take that. And so I said, they finally wore me down. I said, I'll do eight shows and see if I like it. And probably about three or four shows in. I was like, this is pretty cool. I really enjoy it. And so, yeah, it's been, like I said, seven and a half years now we've been doing it and expanded and done a much different things over the years. But yeah, and it's funny. I think a lot

Starting point is 00:10:43 of people think, like, oh, you're a radio show host. I'm like, that's like this much of what I do, right? That's just like one, that's almost like a little side project thing that I do. I mean, I do enjoy it, but, but yeah, it's a lot of fun. I get to meet a lot of cool people and talk to a lot of cool people and learn from a bunch of different people as well. I guess I have on a show and things like that. So, yeah, it's another avenue creating content and be able to put content out for people and things like that. So I definitely enjoy it. What's the, you know, as a fractional CFO, define what, like, not all, I think you will listen I probably know what a chief financial officer is.

Starting point is 00:11:19 But like when you step in, what are people looking for you to help with? And maybe what's some of the most practical outcomes that come from your expertise in what you end up helping businesses with? Yeah, typically I come in as very strategic. So I'm, my undergrad's in accounting, but I would just, it bored me to tears. I worked for the first couple years in my career in accounting. and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is like way too far in the weeds for me. But typically coming in and helping a business, a lot of times they're businesses that,

Starting point is 00:11:54 I mean, probably a lot of people can relate is they've been a business for 8, 10, 15, 20 years, and you kind of start to get a little bit of tunnel vision, right? And you start to get the, this is the way we've always done it mentality, and having a fresh set of eyes that come in and say, wait a minute, guys, why are we doing this? Like, it's so often I come into a business and there's so much, I don't mean this in a bad way against any business owners, but there's so much low-hanging fruit of ways to improve and make massive changes where managing their margins better.

Starting point is 00:12:27 So in a nutshell, meaning that for every dollar you're bringing in in sales, you're keeping more of it, more of it's ending up in your pocket to the end of the day. And that's not just cutting expenses and things like that. It's a lot of other strategic things that do and making sure you're pricing things. I mean, a lot of people just kind of, you know, do the, you know, kind of thumb in the air, like when they're pricing things a lot of times without considering, you know, what your margin, what should your margins be on those different things and managing through some of that stuff, ways to increase sales. I mean, you know, this stuff's in your warehouse as well. It's like there's so many times, again, I think you get so, I don't say pigeonholed, but you get that mentality. Like, we've kind of always done it this way and kind of, you know, picking their head up out of the weeds to like,

Starting point is 00:13:12 see the forest a little better and a little clearer. But yeah, I mean, the outcomes we've had is just it's when I first started doing this after I left my corporate career, I was like, can I really do this? Can I help people? Can I really make a difference? And then like the first client I'm with like in 90 days, like, you know, the change, you could see the transformation in just the first 90 days and then obviously beyond that. And then the next client I got and, you know, that's like, holy crap. And again, it gave me a lot of confidence to say, yeah, I am pretty good at this. And it's easy for me to go in. And I just always thought because that everyone has this knowledge. You know, I was in the corporate world. I was in a financial company and there's a lot of

Starting point is 00:13:52 financial smart people around me. So I just kind of thought, well, everyone has this knowledge. Everyone thinks this way. And, you know, a lot of times business owners are really good at, you know, the widget they produce or, you know, whatever service they're providing. But they're not really good on the business side of things. And so I think that's another way that I can come in and be able to help people, you know, really transform their business. And, you know, again, increasing sales, increasing your net income, increasing the value of the company, especially now you get a lot of baby boomers that are considering exiting and wanting to sell their company.

Starting point is 00:14:26 Like, geez, how do I, how do I improve the value of my company so I can get out of, you know, the multiple I get out is better and things like that. So, yeah, it was kind of a long answer to a short question. It was actually in light, I was sitting there thinking. I in my agency now my role a lot of times with the client is what you just described you know because that's my expertise doing this for 22 years in marketing and branding and but it's really almost more that business consultant type role and I was just sitting here thinking I'm like man I'm going at this wrong because some of the challenges we have is we're kind of always on the

Starting point is 00:15:05 agency's out of the fence so they want to listen to me but unless you're like on the team, even if fracturally, it's hard to get implementation to happen. And so I was sitting here going, you know, yeah, like I half the time we were working with a client, I'm like, if they would get this, this, this and this out of their way, you know, or do this, a lot of times that's more than one ad, you know, is going to save the day. It's like, this ad could do it, and we can write you a great campaign, but that's just going to be a lipstick on the pig. Yeah, for sure.

Starting point is 00:15:41 Yeah. But you know, you bring that up, Ryan. It's very important. Like when I'm talking to someone who's a prospective client, and I found this out early on, you know, I said, you've got to have someone who's willing to listen and willing to implement what,

Starting point is 00:15:56 because I had one client. That's how I learned it, that, you know, I'm giving them all these different things to do and change in their business and they're not implementing anything. And I really took a step back and thought, I tried some different approaches.

Starting point is 00:16:09 And then I'm like, I really have to make sure that when I'm talking to someone to prospective client that they are going to listen. And again, I'm not saying everything I say is gospel. Like I've got every great idea in the world. But when we do agree on something that they're actually going to make the change. And so for me, having someone that's an ally in the business that's not just the CEO, but someone under the CEO that's CO or something like that that's actually going to be implementing some of these things, it's critically important. And, you know, one of the things I do that I require for a client, like, you have, if you have a staff meeting with your leadership team, I'm in it. Because I want to be part of the team.

Starting point is 00:16:46 I want to be perceived as part of the team. And that way it helps me keep my finger on the pulse of the business. And it gives me a voice at that table to push some of the initiatives that I'm trying to get, you know, some of the changes I'm trying to think like, who's picking up on this? Like, how come, have we made any progress on this? And that made a huge difference, really making sure that I'm involved in some of those key meetings. When they have, you know, quarterly planning off-sites, I'm there. And a lot of the clients are like, like, you'll do that.

Starting point is 00:17:13 You're not even an employee of ours, you know? I'm like, no, I got to be part of this. Like, I want to. And it's going to help me be able to help you better. And so it's critically important. Like you said, to be involved. And like you mentioned, like, it's so frustrating to have someone that doesn't implement. Right?

Starting point is 00:17:28 You're like, man, if you just, like you said, if you just did these two other things, like, it could be explosive, you know? The name of our agency is radical. and that was intentional because I think of myself as a progressive marketing guy and progressive thinker. But it was also to give license to ideas. And because, you know, I'll pull the card on the client. You hired a fucking agency name Radical and you're telling me that's, that idea is too crazy. So, you know, I don't want to hear it. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:03 Yeah, yeah. I've done the same. I don't have the name to be used, radical or anything like that. But I do the same thing. And I tell people, you know, I had the last big client I brought on. It was a company. They've been in business for almost 40 years, doing pretty well. They're doing 20 million a year. And they gave me their books. And I'm looking at them over and everything. And I went back and had a second meeting with them. We get to the end of the meeting. And I said, look, if you want a CFO that's going to help you, maintain your 20 million a year, 22 million a year, I'm not your guy. Because this company is a $50 million company. If you hire me, I'm going to push your ass to $50 million. And if you don't like that and you don't want that, don't hire me. Because you're going to frustrate the crap out of me and I'm going to frustrate the crap out of you. You want someone to push you to 50, then hire me. Then let's go.

Starting point is 00:18:57 Let's roll. And the guy stood up. He pounded his hands on the table and he's like, my guy. That's fucking good. I'm like, okay. I love it. But again, I wanted to be very clear. Like, I knew that company and the potential they have, and I'm like, man, they're going to drive me nuts. Like, if they want to just chum along at 20 or 25 million, that's going to drive me crazy because I can see the potential for it. So again, just put the cars on the table. If that's not going to work for you, then we probably shouldn't work together. Exactly. Talking with Mr.

Starting point is 00:19:27 Biz, Kent Wentworth. Again, I mean, Before we transition into the state of business, like, talking with you, you've had a lot of experience, JPMorgan, corporate thing, like you said. I'm always fascinated, like, because you talked about, I thought everyone, you know, saying, you made the statement earlier, I thought everybody knew this, right? I didn't think what I was saying was insightful. What has, what has formulated Mr. Biz? Like, is this nature or nurture? Like, is this, are you a student of, you know, some form of business? business technique or like you've read a billion business books and you've just distilled it

Starting point is 00:20:08 into your own thing or is this just innate like practicality? I think it's a little bit of a combination of almost a little bit of everything. A lot of it was just the experience I got in the corporate order, J.P. Morgan, working in a lot of different types of businesses. At one point in my career, I worked in the private equity group and we had, you know, we would go into businesses and, you know, private equity. We would go in and turn businesses around. And I love that. The only reason I didn't stay with that is I started, we started a family and I was traveling a lot.

Starting point is 00:20:41 And so I don't want to be on the road and missing out on my kids and all that kind of stuff. So I pulled out of that group. But, you know, I call my three pillars of financial success. And so this is what I start with, with every business. And it's, you know, kind of one of those things where is I start with every client I start with, we start with cash flow, you know, of cash and a little business. and there's almost always ways you can improve your cash flow. Subtle, usually things are very simple to implement to improve your cash flow pretty quickly.

Starting point is 00:21:11 And then I hate to say this, Ryan, not everyone's going to like this. It's the B word. Not that one, though. Budget. If you're not going to have a budget, you can't work with me because a budget is so critically important on making sure you're measuring how you're doing every single month. That way you see what the heck is working and what the heck is not working. And you could fix it right away, not get six months into the year and go,

Starting point is 00:21:34 holy shit, we're not going to hit our sales goal for the year. Now what are we do, right? And then the last part is I call it mining your margins, talking about your pricing and your margins and everything. I touched on a little bit earlier. But again, there's almost always subtle ways to improve that. And I don't mean just cutting expenses and things like that, but ways to improve those things.

Starting point is 00:21:53 So I start with those. I think those are the foundation of any financially strong company. You have to have those three things right. Once you have those right, you've got three strong pillars to set the business on, and then we can start talking about other things. But really, for me, foundationally, you've got to start with those. But yeah, I think it's a combination of my experience,

Starting point is 00:22:12 just seeing a bunch of different businesses. And, you know, as people will see, and again, now I look at it and I go, man, you know, like I said, not sound like a bragger, I'm like, I am pretty good at this because someone who gives me their P&L and I'll look at and I'll be like, you know, I bet you guys, your sales have been declining for the last six to nine months, or so. I can see here. And they're like, how can you tell that from looking at that? I'm like,

Starting point is 00:22:34 I don't know. I remember, I remember, if anyone remembers the baseball player, Barry Bonds, right? Infamous, right? I remember seeing him interview, just when he was still playing. And they were doing a slow-mo of the pitcher. And they said, tell me what you're thinking. And they show a pitcher and he's winding up. And they literally, to give him the remote control. And the pitcher, like, starts to rock back in his stance and in his windup. And he paused it. And he said, did you see how he rocked back on his left foot, he took a step back further than he did the last pitch. He said, that probably means that it's going to be a fastball because he's he's dipping back further to get more imp. And they're like, you saw that. And then he's like,

Starting point is 00:23:14 he gets a little bit further. And he's like, you see how he's got his glove held? It's probably a change up because of this, this and this. And they're like, how do you know that? He goes, I don't know. He's like, I just, I don't know. I just, I see it. I think, why can't everyone else see it? You know, it was interesting. Yeah. And, and, Barry Bond had a few home runs, so I think he did all right. A couple two, three, yeah. With the juice. Right.

Starting point is 00:23:39 You know. Yeah. It was amazing. He was amazing. It was amazing. He was a natural for sure. Ken, what the hell's happening in business these days? You know, it's 2024.

Starting point is 00:23:52 The headwinds of a million different. We're going to stay out of politics, but I don't know whether we're in a good economy, bad economy, it's who you believe. What is Ken Whitworth's belief is the state of business right now? I think things overall aren't nearly as bad

Starting point is 00:24:14 as a lot of people are portraying it in the media. I think there are sections that are bad, for sure. But I think overall, it's not as bad as people think as for business owners. And I know we were talking a little bit before the show. One of the things that I

Starting point is 00:24:30 see this year, Ryan, well, this year and anytime there's a kind of a down-accom here or whatever is I think a lot of business owners start to think about shrinking and about preservation and, you know, cut all my expenses and especially for something like, you know, with your agency, like, man, I cut my marketing in half. And, you know, I think that's absolutely the terrible thing to do, the wrong thing to do. I think in times, tough economy, it's a huge opportunity for growth. because a lot of your competitors are thinking that way, and they're shrinking and they're cutting their market, and it's an opportunity for you to seize market share like crazy.

Starting point is 00:25:07 Now, you've got to have the wear with all, right? So if you got some great CFO that's helped you build a strong balance sheet that withstand an economy. But no, seriously, like during COVID, with a couple of my clients, we were able to not only get market share, but we were able to buy some competitors that were not ready to withstand that terrible time. right and so it sounds like a bad thing like oh man so we we're you know end up buying assets for

Starting point is 00:25:33 dimes on the dollar and expanding our business and people go oh man you know a lot of people go all that you're taking advantage of somebody no not at all because what happened was a lot of these or at least these two business I'm talking about they weren't doing well they're probably going to fold all these people are going to lose their jobs we buy the company we buy the assets and we keep people employed we grow like crazy the owner leaves it has an exit plan doesn't have to just fold up and not get anything out of it. So it was actually a win-win. But that's another example. Like if you've got a strong balance sheet heading into difficult economic times, man, there's tons of opportunity. You should come out of this thing like just flying high.

Starting point is 00:26:13 But you can't, you got to think abundance. You can't think of like, oh my gosh, it's time to just really batten down the hatches. If you're in bad shape, that's one thing. But you got to make sure you're heading into it, not in that direction. But I think, you know, overall, like I said, think it's as bad as people think. I think, like you'd mentioned, it depends what media source you're getting your news from of how bad it is or whatever. But I think it's, you know, things are better overall on business than most sources are portraying to be. That's my opinion. I mean, but I'll say this, have we ever in history, you know, I'm talking like 12 months ago, the beginning of last year and like the first half, have we ever been tried to be talked into a recession?

Starting point is 00:26:57 by media, by the government. I mean, I felt like, and I'll be honest, I'm not with my show. I say out of the prognostication, like future telling. You know, I'm just sort of a tried-true, but there's certain things that I will get on my soapbox. And last year I was going, I don't think the economy is going to be bad. And a lot of the gurus were saying, oh, it's going to be bad, you know, be ready for the bad. And the government's something. Like, we really got tried to be talked into this recession.

Starting point is 00:27:26 but somehow we've stayed ahead of it. Did it not feel like we were kind of being tried to be convinced that we were going to be, even though the data didn't necessarily support it? A hundred percent. And again, think about it. You know, if that's what people were hearing every day, this is bad, that's bad, you know, gas prices are up and, you know, milk prices and eggs and whatever. If you hear that constantly, you start to really believe it.

Starting point is 00:27:54 And it starts to become an echo change. Right? Then you're talking your neighbor and your neighbor's like, oh man, you know, the HOA fees are going, you know, whatever, right? And so it's like it's just piling on another thing after another thing. Oh, this is going up. That's going up. This is going up. It's like, how about your income? How about your wages? How's that going? You know, like you got to consider the whole picture and not just, you know, certain aspects of it. Yeah, I agree with the 100%. I think there was so much push to that of like the gloom and doom. Like, oh my gosh, things are terrible. This economy is terrible and everything.

Starting point is 00:28:25 And again, there were parts of it that were, and there were peaks and valleys here and there. But again, overall, I think we were really just kind of being pushed into, you know, hey, this is a recession. What do you think, you know, you talk to a lot of business owners. And, you know, like you said, there's parts that are up, parts that are down. We can agree that it didn't turn out as bad as we were tried to convince to be. But what is the general sense, like you,

Starting point is 00:28:54 You talk to people that call you on your show and you've got a pulse out there. What is the general sentiment of most of the business owners and people that you talk to? Is it like, you know, they ain't ambitious? Are they excited? Are they still a little hesitant? You know, what is sort of that general sentiment you're seeing and feeling? Yeah, so I'll answer your question, but it's a little bit difficult. Not not difficult, but so I pretty much try to associate myself with people that are like-minded,

Starting point is 00:29:22 i.e. abundance thinkers. So I'm probably not, you know, I'm probably hearing more from people like that. So I might not have as balanced of a view. That's okay. We like positivity on this show. Yeah, 100%, right? If you're Debbie Downer, man, I don't, shouldn't be in business anyway. I just sucks the light of you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I probably, I'm probably skewed a little bit because I hear probably, I think, for more people who think along those lines. But, you know, a lot of people that I talk to are really thinking along the lines of what I mentioned earlier, like, this is a time of opportunity, you know. And I think it's like anything else, Ryan, right? So if you think about, if you think as a business center right now is a time for opportunity, you start looking for opportunities.

Starting point is 00:30:07 If you think, man, this economy is in the shitter. I'm in trouble. Then you're going to find reasons that you're in trouble, right? Or that's bad or whatever. So I think that really makes a big difference. But the pulse generally for me is pretty, from one of the problem. I hear from people was pretty on the positive side. And again, thinking of growth and thinking of, you know, seizing opportunities and things like that.

Starting point is 00:30:28 You counsel companies that want to scale. You know, like there's obviously, and you even mentioned it, the path to scaling, sometimes buying other companies, sometimes growing, you know, sales force and growing, you know, internally and extra, you know, like the business development. But do you have, is it just been company to company? or do you have a specific path when you have these scaling discussions with companies that you like to take? Yeah, it really depends. It depends on the industry. You know, for example, if you've got a professional services firm, you're, you know, let's say you're an attorney, you're a consultant, your marketing agency, something like that, completely different than if you've got a broken mortar, right, you got, I don't know, restaurants or something like that. or if you've got a service-based company,

Starting point is 00:31:18 a plumbing, HVAC type of thing. I mean, really, you know, kind of all depends, and it's different for each one industry specifically. But, you know, generally speaking, I think the biggest thing, and I'm sure you'll relate to this, the biggest thing I find with companies

Starting point is 00:31:34 that hire me or I work with, and they go, you know, we just have to grow. It's like because their mindset's not right. You know, they're still doing things the same way they've been doing, them. And so, yeah, well, we're only grown 3% a year. Well, that's because you're doing the same stuff that grew 3% a year for the last 10 years. Like, we got to shake the tree a little bit here, right? Guys, like, we got to do some different things and try some different things. And so again,

Starting point is 00:32:00 that's another way that I was alluding to earlier is that when I help companies, it's just kind of shaking the tree of saying, guys, that's the old way of doing stuff. What has that gotten us? That's gotten a 3% a year. You don't want 3% a year. You want to grow 30% this year. Well, we got to do some different things. And so just, and it's funny, a lot of times when, you know, we have that type of conversation with somebody, the owner, like, will be like, man, I feel like an idiot. Like, you say this stuff and it's super obvious. He's like, why couldn't I figure this out of my own?

Starting point is 00:32:28 I'm like, almost everyone does it. So don't feel bad. You know what I mean? It's like human nature almost. So I'm not trying to be evasive, but it is, it really depends on, you know, the industry and things like that of really what the key things are and the financial position they're in. you know, if they're sitting on a bunch of capital, and like especially right now with a lot of baby boomers getting saying, I don't want to do this anymore, right? I was thinking about retiring in a few years, selling my business. Let me just sell it now. There's a ton of opportunity that's going to happen happening already and it's going to happen over the next five to eight years. So if you've got the capital and wherewithal, yeah, let's start, you know, beating the bushes a little bit, looking for some opportunities of maybe some acquisitions or some complimentary businesses. It's instant growth, right? But I, I I'll mention one other thing. One thing I see, especially with companies that have multiple

Starting point is 00:33:19 locations that I see is a huge mistake is when people want to scale and they want to grow from, you know, three locations to 10, let's say, is they don't, they don't ensure that the original is working at a nine out of 10 or 10 out 10. And then so when you make a copy, you know, I'll go back to the old copy machine days, right? So you got a sheet of paper and you make copy of it. You see the copy and you're like, it looks pretty good, right? You make a copy of the copy, and you compare it to the original, and you're like, it doesn't look, yeah, it's kind of see a difference. Then you make a copy of the copy of the copy, right?

Starting point is 00:33:54 The further you get away from the original, the crappier it looks, right? And I think that's one of the mistakes I see a lot of businesses when they're expanding locations is they're making of a copy of a copy, and the copy they're making is not a 10 out of 10 to start with. So, you know, when businesses they're like, yeah, I want to go from three locations to 10. I'm like, we've got to get these three. perfect before we do anything else. And they're like, I thought you were a growth guy. I like, I am.

Starting point is 00:34:19 Do you want to grow to grow to grow comfortably? And sustainably, right? And that's one thing I see is everyone, when they do get that growth mindset and they want to hit the gas pedal, which is great. But sometimes they do it prematurely. And without, like I said, and they're making those copies of copies. And it ends up, Location 8 is performing so shitty. And you're like, why? I'm like, well, look at the original where you're, you're,

Starting point is 00:34:44 you're at all, every day, all day. You're running into the way it should be, and you look at eight, what's different, right? You're not running the business the same way. They're not going through this. They're not treating the customers the same way. They're not pricing this, whatever, right? All those different things. So that's one of the things I see often that's, you know, people swing and miss on, I think,

Starting point is 00:35:01 when they do try to grow and they just, they don't grow. You see they go from three to ten, and then the next, you know, a year later, you see they're back down to five. You're like, what happened, you know? What, you know, talking with Kent Wentworth, Mr. Biz, are there there's got to be some similar ingredients for you of what makes a great business

Starting point is 00:35:21 you know like uh you've worked with enough you've got the experience you've got the innate you know like what are you know two three four what are some of the like absolute key ingredients that that define

Starting point is 00:35:36 great businesses uh well first again you got to have a cash flow you got to do the budgeting you got to do the you know makes your margin are tight. Those are the first three. But, you know, beyond that, honestly, any successful business, you got to have, first of all, you got to have a strong leader. Sounds obvious, but you also have a leader who is not afraid to take feedback. You get a lot of these

Starting point is 00:36:04 owners that are big egomaniacs and think that they are the smartest person in the room. And maybe they are, but they're not willing to take feedback from their employees who are customer facing. And they go, you know, the owner's not facing a customer ever. And they're trying to give you feedback and they don't want to change. They don't want to make changes. You know, a non-selfaware business owner is going to be a failed business owner at some point. It's just, it's just.

Starting point is 00:36:30 And again, I know it's kind of a mushy thing, you know, as far as, you know, what it's going to be. But it's so critically important. And again, I see this all the time business. And like I said, when I'm talking to a prospective client, I want to know, is this guy hiring me because he's checking a boss? like, oh, I should bring in someone to help me, but this guy's not going to listen to me. They're not going to listen to what the heck I'm going to, you know, they're just hiring me to

Starting point is 00:36:51 hire me to say they're, oh, yeah, I got this guy, you know. And so being willing to make changes, not sticking to things too long, right? If something's not working, let's fix it. Like, don't wait six, eight, ten months. Like, and again, you know, financially, you see those things with a budget and things like I mentioned. But, you know, and the other thing I talk about this all time. And again, it's kind of one of these mushy things, Ryan, but it's a, you know, I'm thinking of these core things that I see in successful businesses.

Starting point is 00:37:19 If you have happy employees, you're going to have happy customers. You've got happy customers, you're going to have a happy owner. It's like, you know, the dominoes, right? And so I think that's another thing is a lot of business owners don't think of their employees as their biggest asset, their best asset. And again, you've got to get that right. If you've got employees who are not satisfied, first of all, you have turnover, retention issues.

Starting point is 00:37:44 you're having trouble hiring people because words going to get out that you're you know you treat people crappy or whatever and then that's going to you know reflect and they're dealings with your clients your customers and things like that right they're not going to go that little extra mile and maybe that doesn't hurt for one client or two clients but over two three five 10 years the cumulative effect of that you know again like I said it's kind of a mushy thing again but it's you got to have you got to do those things you got to be an employer of choice you know you got to do things you know, you've got to do things that in your industry, you've got to be a little bit better.

Starting point is 00:38:18 You've got to do something for employees that's a little bit better than what your competitors do. If you do that, you're never going to have a retention issue. You're never going to have trouble finding people. You're going to have a wait list. People are going to be wanting to come and work for you,

Starting point is 00:38:30 which makes a huge difference. And then, again, you indoctrinated them into your philosophy into your vision of your company. Everyone starts thinking alike, treating customers consistently and all that kind of stuff. So, again, And it's probably not that the, you know, financial related answer you were probably expecting. But, you know, like I said, I think a malleable leader that's willing to take feedback and willing to make changes and then, you know, making sure you're treating your employees, you know, really well.

Starting point is 00:39:00 I think it's practical, but it's real. I mean, it's like I'm sitting here thinking about clients we work with and, you know, the ones that aren't, you know, seemingly have upside and headroom. and a lot of it is driven by those variables a lot. You know, Ken, what's your perspective? You know, I know you don't, not like a proclaimed tech guy or anything like that, is a significant to business. But you have to be hearing the word AI. You know, is that hitting your radar?

Starting point is 00:39:33 Are you the businesses you talk to at council? You know, where do you fall on the AI train as it relates to business? and are all the robots taking our jobs? Yeah, definitely on a rare screen. I think if it's not on your radar screen, you're probably behind. You probably should at least have a foot on the train at this point, depending what industry you're in.

Starting point is 00:39:59 But, man, it's going to be a competitive disadvantage for you if you don't get on it, especially in certain industries 1,000%. And it's funny you mentioned, you know, or robots can take our jobs. You know, you hear a lot of people complaining about AI and saying, you know, those type of sentiments like, oh, it's going to take your job. Look, I'm going to go back, right?

Starting point is 00:40:19 When they invented a tractor, a tractor took jobs. Because before that, it was a horse or a mule and a dude with a, you know, a thing trudging through the frigging, you know, the fields, right? Oh, an tractor took his job. Like, this is evolution, man. This happened a million times. Like, over the years and every year. everything. When they invented a car, like, oh, taking a horse and buggy, taking a horse's job.

Starting point is 00:40:46 Like, it's evolution. And look, you can stick your head in the sand or you can pout about it or whatever. That's great. It's going to fly by and you're going to be way behind if you don't, you know, start thinking about those things. I've got one client who's manufacturing. We're testing stuff out now with different types of robots and things like that. And some of stuff out there is absolutely amazing. I'm sure you've seen some of it. It's mind blowing. We're waiting on some of the cost to go down. We're trying to weigh the cost and the benefits and all that kind of stuff, just like anything else.

Starting point is 00:41:17 But yeah, it's critically important, especially, I mean, almost any industry, but some specific ones, especially anything that's, you know, information based. I'm sure your agency, you're probably, you guys are probably super deep into it. You know, I'm using it a bit on my side as well. It's just crazy. I mean, I was talking to someone. One of my shows recently, I had someone on who was like an AI expert. expert quote unquote and she was amazing and you know some of the things she brought up too of ways

Starting point is 00:41:46 to use it one real quick thing that's i'll mention that she mentioned that i hadn't ever thought of ryan in regards to ai as she said uh you know it's female and she said you know one of the things that's a little bit and she's not some you know super feminine you know pro i mean she's pro woman of course but she's not some you know wild and crazy radical person on that side of things. She said, AI is developed by men. 80% of people who use AI right now are men. So AI is becoming more and more male focused because, you know, AI continues to grow with the feedback it gets. And she's like, so I'm trying to get more women into it. So there is some female influence. And it's not just thinking like a guy, right? It's going to have a more balanced,

Starting point is 00:42:32 you know, thinking of things. I hadn't really thought about that. I'm like, holy crap. Yeah. It learns from the input it's getting. If it's getting input, but only from, you know, a certain aspect, you know, a certain gender or a certain type of person or whatever, it's, you know, it's going to start to skew that way. So it was kind of interesting she mentioned. I'm like, holy crap, I hadn't really thought about that. I hadn't have thought about that either.

Starting point is 00:42:52 And it does learn, a generative learning, you know, from everything else. Yeah. What do you think, you know, as we close out here, Ken, you know, not to get into politics. I don't want to get into politics. But, you know, we are in an election year. Are we going to be able to stay sane as a company? Are we able to keep with this coming?

Starting point is 00:43:21 We're able to keep it out. The politics is going to impact business one way or another? I think it definitely will. And I think the main reason, the primary reason I would say that it will, regardless of who wins. is that I feel like now things politically in the United States are so black and white. Like there's hardly anything that's moderate anymore. So I feel like it doesn't matter left or right Democrat.

Starting point is 00:43:50 Probably doesn't matter who wins. They're going to be beholden to their parties, you know, more extreme side than in the past. I feel like, you know, in the last 30 years we've kind of been heading this way where there's more and more divide between the two parties. and then now the candidates to have support from their party have to be sort of more on the on the stronger side or more extreme side of their party to continue to get funding support from other people within the party so I feel like yeah there's going to be it's going to have an impact again one way or another

Starting point is 00:44:25 depending you know who wins and who ends up controlling the house and senator or whatever but you know I think it's because there's so much divide there I think, you know, if you're a Democrat and you win, you're going to have to lean a lot more left than maybe 30 years ago, a Democrat would have. You know, maybe they have some moderate views. Whereas now I feel like you kind of got to be more, if you're a Democrat, you've got to be more, you've got to skew more of the left. Or if you're a public and you've got to skew more to the right. So the party's going to be putting pressure on them to do that. So I definitely think there'll be an impact.

Starting point is 00:44:54 It'll be, it's going to be a wild ride. Yeah, for sure, no doubt. Ken, where can everybody keep up? with everything you're doing, your books, and, you know, maybe as a final, um,

Starting point is 00:45:10 close out segment, you know, talk about don't fake the funk, you know, your, your latest book, you know, like what can people expect from that and where can they find it and all that stuff?

Starting point is 00:45:21 Yeah, the easiest way to find everything we got going on is Mr. biz.com, um, all the stuff's out there. Um, every radio show, the books and all that good stuff.

Starting point is 00:45:30 But, um, you know, the book was, um, it's different. My first two books were business-related books. This one was completely different, not business.

Starting point is 00:45:39 It's more goal-oriented. So I had, unbeknownst to me, just kind of going along, I used to be a competitive powerlifter and had a lot of success there. And a lot of the goals I tackled in life, I developed this sort of four-step approach on how to tackle goals and achieve, like, big goals. And, you know, I was talking with someone who I mentor, and was kind of walking him through.

Starting point is 00:46:05 He was trying to do something. I'm like, well, I would do this. And I was kind of walking through. And again, not even knowing. And he's taking notes. And he's like, really, there's, let me make sure I got this right. It's basically just like four steps, right? I'm like, yeah, I guess so.

Starting point is 00:46:17 A couple weeks later, going through the same process with someone else I mentor. Same thing. The woman's like, it really sounds like it's kind of just like four steps. And I was like, so I started thinking I'm driving home from that second meeting. And I'm like, yeah, it is kind of four. And they're like, you know, this is great. So I do a lot of speaking engagement. So I was doing it.

Starting point is 00:46:37 It was this guy, his speaker backed out on him. It was early December and it was like a holiday party kind of thing. And he's like, hey, can you come and talk about? I'm not going to talk about business at a holiday party. People don't want to hear that crap. Like people are having some adult frescoes. They don't want to listen to someone talk about cash flow or whatever. I said, I got this new topic.

Starting point is 00:46:54 You know, let me, let me, can I talk about this? I've never talked about it. Oh, yeah, yeah, great. Talked about it. Everyone loved it, you know, standing ovation, all this. crap and people coming back afterwards and they're like, please tell me you have a book about this that outlines all this. I'm like, no. So I'm like, maybe you need to write a book about it. So that's what it ended up becoming, don't fake the funk. And the subtitle you might appreciate

Starting point is 00:47:18 is F being average. So from marketing branding, so you'll appreciate this, Ryan. So we were testing out subtitles for the book. I knew Don't Fake the Funk was going to be a title, but like what's the subtitle? Right. We came up. We can't brought it down to four options. And we did it. We hired a company. We surveyed a thousand people that were in the demo for the book, right? F being average had more than the other three options combined.

Starting point is 00:47:49 It had like 55, 54% of the votes. And the other three combined had 46%. I was like, okay, let's go with it. Because people were like, you can't put, you know, profanity, let alone the F word in a subtitle your book. And I'm like, I mean, I mean, the people have spoken. Let's go. You know? Yes. Does not surprise me. You know? I mean, yeah, it's, you know, it's funny. Like I said, I was surprised by the results.

Starting point is 00:48:16 And we put, you know, we put the asterisks, right? It's not spelled out. But still, I mean, I was very surprised. And I caught some heat. You know, people were saying, you know, I know what kind of person you are. You put that word in the subtitle of your book. And I'm like, hey, man, if that offends you, you probably don't want to read the book. You probably won't like me either. People, I got, we can, some of the people get caught up on the cussing thing. I mean, I, I don't, I don't think I have a potty mouth, but it's just natural. Like, it's just words, man. It has emphasis, like, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:48:45 But, man, the amount of people that really get their panties in a lot over that shit is like, it's mind-blowing, you know? Yeah, who decided, you know, a hundred years ago that the F word was like some terrible word. Who decided what the profanity words were and which, which ones are bad, which ones are good. What if all of a sudden I say desk is a bad word? Like, oh my God, right? You can't say desk. You know, oh, God. I don't know. It's like, anyway, I love it. Don't fake the funk. Fuck being average. And look, let's be honest, with or without the fuck, it's like, it's empowering, you know, like, and motivational. That's why people like it, you know, and, you know, and I'm assuming from the premise, and I did skip

Starting point is 00:49:32 through it, but admittedly, from showbooking to getting you on, I haven't read the full book. But I have to assume you're kind of saying, you know, don't fake it till you make it. Like, you got to live it, you know, to get there, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:49:51 I'm not a fake it until you make a guy at all. I think that's, I think that's trash. I think that's trash. It's just if you're faking it to you make it, it's always. fake, you know. It's like you can't. Right. It's kind of like you said, making the photocopy. It's really the premise I thought to, back to

Starting point is 00:50:09 if what you're making a copy of isn't great, then what you get out on the other, it's not going to magically have higher resolution if you make a copy of a bad photocopy.

Starting point is 00:50:25 Yeah, right. It's almost the exact same thing. I think if you listen to this full episode, uh, there's a lot of substance can and a lot that speaks to your ability and your expertise. I really appreciate you coming on. Yeah, I was honored to be here, man. I appreciate it. It's good conversation. You can find him at Mr. Biz, B-I-Z.com and at Mr. Biz Solutions on Instagram.

Starting point is 00:50:47 You know where to find us, Ryan is right.com. You'll find all the highlight clips and the full episodes from today, including the YouTube video. We've got some exciting things coming on the video side, and I'm always at Ryan Alford with that blue check before you. you can buy it. We'll see you next time. I'm right about now. This has been right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit Ryanisright.com

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Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Breaking Down Business | Ken Wentworth a.k.a. Mr. Biz

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