Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Breaking Down Business | Ken Wentworth a.k.a. Mr. Biz

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

TAKEAWAYSKen Wentworth's experience as a fractional CFOPractical outcomes of Ken's expertiseNature of Ken's business acumenChallenges of implementing business strategiesImportance of having a willing client to listen and implement changesKen's insights on increasing sales, managing margins, and improving cash flowImportance of having a fresh set of eyes to help businesses overcome tunnel visionKen's three pillars of financial success: cash flow, open-mindedness, and growthCritical importance of budgeting, measuring performance, and optimizing margins for businessesMindset required for growth and common mistakes businesses make when scalingKen's perspective on the current business environment and opportunities for growthImportance of a mindset shift and trying new strategies for scaling businessesEnsuring original business operations are optimized before expanding to multiple locationsCHAPTERSThe entrepreneur gene (00:00:00) Discussion of the entrepreneurial mindset and the enjoyment of flexible work hours and pursuing ideas.Flexibility and business opportunities (00:00:53) Ken's preference for diverse challenges and the value of flexibility in his work.Starting a radio show (00:03:01) Ken's journey into hosting a popular radio show and its impact on his career.The role of a fractional CFO (00:05:16) Ken's strategic approach as a fractional CFO, addressing common business challenges and practical outcomes of his expertise.Challenges of implementing business strategies (00:08:44) Ryan's realization of the challenges in implementing business strategies and the importance of a willing client to implement changes.The push for business growth (00:12:47) Ken's assertive approach to pushing businesses towards growth and the importance of aligning goals with clients.Budgeting and Measuring Performance (00:14:57) Importance of having a budget, measuring performance, and mining margins for financial strength.Reading Business Indicators (00:16:33) Ken's ability to read business indicators and the importance of observing subtle signs of decline.State of Business (00:17:52) Ken's perspective on the overall state of business and the potential for growth in challenging economic times.Opportunities in Tough Economy (00:18:23) Seizing opportunities for growth in a tough economy and the potential for acquiring struggling competitors.Media Influence on Perception (00:21:22) Discussion on how media portrayal can influence perception and the importance of considering the whole economic picture.Positive Business Sentiment (00:22:56) Positive sentiment and abundance mindset among business owners during challenging times.Mindset for Growth (00:24:38) The importance of mindset and adapting strategies for growth, including shaking up traditional approaches.Scaling and Business Development (00:24:38) Different paths for scaling businesses and the need for a growth-oriented mindset in various industries.Expansion Pitfalls (00:27:50) Potential pitfalls in expanding locations and the importance of maintaining consistent business practices.Key Ingredients for Successful Business (00:29:21) Critical elements for a successful business, including cash flow, budgeting, and the role of a strong and open-minded leader.A Malleable Leader (00:30:20) Ken discusses the importance of a leader's willingness to make changes and not sticking to ineffective strategies for too long.Employee Satisfaction (00:31:04) Ken emphasizes the significance of treating employees well, which leads to happy customers and business success.The Impact of AI (00:33:30) Ken and Ryan discuss the significance of AI in business and its potential impact on various industries.Don't Fake the Funk (00:39:03) Ken talks about his latest book, "Don't Fake the Funk," and shares insights on goal setting and achievement.Impact of Politics on Business (00:37:11) Ken shares his perspective on how political dynamics in the United States may impact businesses, irrespective of the election outcome. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

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 get a lot of baby boomers that are considering exiting and want 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. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. Right about now. Hey, guys, what's up? Right About Now. the BS out of business, then talk to Mr. Biz himself, Ken Wentworth, author of three best-selling books and a known radio master. What's up, Ken? Hey, man. Good to be here, man. Hey, you know, it fit the narrative, man. We're taking the BS out of business. We got to go straight to Mr. Biz. That's right, man. That's right. I'm here. I'm here for it. And I do. I know we talked pre-episode. I do respect the registered trademark

on Mr. Biz as a marketing guy. You know, I, 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, was memorable. Actually. And I see on your wall back there. Actually, the first time I met Grant Cardone, someone introduced me to him as Mr. Ken Wentworth. He's also known as 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 then in my last book is don't fake the funk. And he's been on my show a couple of times as well. 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. He, he, I come in his office and Brandon Dawson, one of his business owners, is with me. He comes in. 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 were bringing Mr. Biz 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, he remembered it. I'm like, it's definitely something catchy that people remember. People remember stories. And they also remember 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 brand is aligned. So, uh, yeah, it is what people remember you know so uh i get and our our network our our show was called the radcast we've changed the name but we're now the radcast network

uh with multiple shows but i get the radcast guy you know they remember simple naming naming uh so uh 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 going to 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? Depends who you ask, Ryan. It depends who you ask. You know,

now I, I, I worked in, I had a corporate career for a long time. I worked at JP 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, or maybe London. And, uh, I had young kids at the time. I was like, I don't really want to do that.

And, uh, 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 as a, like a fractional CFO business strategist. Again, I'd been in the corporate world my entire career. So I had no idea what I was going to do. I didn't know what I do now as a fractional CFO, business strategist. Again, I'd been in the corporate world my entire career. So I had no idea what that was. Got a mentor, walked through things, and he said, you need to be a CFO for six or eight businesses. 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? Are you going to clone yourself? Like, what the heck? He's like, no, you do it 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 J.P. Morgan. And again, nothing. 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 but i got my first client and i was about two weeks into my first client i was driving home they were local here uh around me i was driving home and it was just like one of those corny moments you see in a movie where like the sun the clouds part and the sun comes out and you hear this like heavenly music, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, this is, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. 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,

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. And you know, they said, what do you mean you don't know? Like you don't work a certain, I'm like, no, I don't. I mean, I have flexibility. My kid's got a game. I take off and I quit work at two 30 in the afternoon and go to the game. And you know, I might work it from nine, nine o'clock at night to one in the morning or something too. Right. Um, and they like that people understand that. I'm like, I do some form of work almost seven days a week, 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 people are like, man, there's something wrong with you that's it that's the true entrepreneur like I think whatever it is entrepreneur the biz whatever whatever I mean but I'm the same way like I 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, basketball's on. The wife's on the couch chilling. She'd had surgery and is doing nothing. So it's downtime. So I had two hours. So I'm writing. I'm doing business.

And not because you had to, but you enjoyed. You got an idea. You want to flesh it out. So same thing. I think that's the – I don't know if it's the entrepreneur gene. I don't know what it is, but it helps when you do what you love. Yeah. I mean, I just look at – yeah, I'm very grateful, blessed that I'm in a position I'm in now, like you said, with that flexibility.

I had a client who I had been working with for a while, and 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 a great client, great people. I just, I didn'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 of my corporate career, I just can't imagine now being 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, 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, but no, it's, it's, it's, like I said, it's just, uh, I'm, I'm very, very grateful that, uh, to be in a position I'm in now to be able to do, you know, it's, it's pretty rare. I mean, how many times you talk to someone who actually loves what they do for a 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, I, you know, I'm not that way. I, Sunday nights, a lot of times I have trouble sleeping because I'm excited about, I 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. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that Wednesday. I'm going to talk to some, 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. You have a popular radio show. Talk about that. 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, we've been on the show for about seven and a half years now. 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 will call and ask a question. And depending which one of us, it was in our wheelhouse, we would, you know, answer their question, try to give them help. So I was on the show two different times, did a couple of different segments. And the GM of the show or 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 got to do it. You got to host

a show. I'm like, nah, that's not, I don't do that. Right. This was fun, but that's not in my wheelhouse. And he said, what I'm finding is 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, 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 a used 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 wait a minute. I'm not sure how to take that. But, uh, 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. Um, and so, yeah, it's been, I said, seven and a half years now we've been doing it and expanded and don't have done a much different things over the years, but, uh, yeah. And it, it's funny. I think a lot 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. Um, I mean, I do enjoy it, but, um, 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 the show and things like that. So,

um, 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. You know, as a fractional CFO, define what, like, I think people listening probably know what a chief financial officer is. 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 and what you end up helping businesses with? I'm my, my undergrads in accounting, but I would just, it bored me to tears. I worked for the first couple of years of my career in accounting and I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is like way too far in the weeds for me. Um, but typically coming in and helping a business, a lot of times their

businesses that, I mean, probably a lot of people can relate is they've been in business for eight, 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 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 like massive changes where, you know, managing their margins better. So they're in a nutshell, meaning that for every dollar you bring it in and sales,

you're keeping more of it, more of it's ended up in your pocket at the end of the day. And that's not just cutting expenses and things like that. It's, it's a lot of other strategic things to 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 want to 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 see the forest a little better and a little clearer. But yeah, I mean, the outcomes we've had as 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 it's like, holy crap. Like, 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 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, 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've got a lot of baby boomers that are considering exiting and wanting to sell their company. Like, geez, how do I improve the value of my company so I can get out of the, you know, the multiple I get out of is better and things like that. So, yeah, that was kind of a long answer to a short question. It was actually enlightening. I was sitting here thinking. 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 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 agency side of the fence. So they want to listen to me. But unless you're like on the team, even if fractionally, it's hard to get implementation to happen. And so I was sitting here going, you know. Yeah. Like half the time we were working with a client, I'm like, if they would get 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, 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, you know? Yeah, for sure. 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, like I said, you've got to have someone who's willing to listen and willing to implement. Because I had one client, and this is 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. And then I'm like, I really have to make sure that when I'm talking to someone, the 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, 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, the COO or something like that, that's actually going to be implementing some of these things, it's critically important. And one of the things I do that I require for a client, if you have a staff meeting with your leadership team, I'm in it. Because I want to be part of the team. 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, Hey, 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. You're, you're, you're not even an employee of ours. You know, I'm like, no, I gotta 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, it's critically important that, like you said, to be involved. And like you mentioned, like, it's so frustrating to have someone that doesn't implement it.

You're like, man, if you just did these two other things, it could be explosive. 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 cause I, you know, I'll pull the card on the client. You hired a fucking agency named radical and you're telling me that's, that idea is too crazy. So, you know, I don't want to hear it. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, yeah. I've done the same. I've done, I don't want to hear it yeah so uh yeah yeah i've done the same i've done i don't

have the i don't have the name to be used uh radical or anything like that but i do the same thing and i tell people you know i had uh the last big client i brought on um it was a company they've been in business for almost 40 years um doing pretty well they're doing 20 million a year and i they gave me their books. I'm looking 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, let's roll. And the guy would get, the guy stood up, he pounded his hands on the table and he's like, you're my guy. That's fucking good. I'm like, okay. I love it.

But again, I wanted to be very clear. I knew that company and the potential they have. And I'm like, man, they're going to drive me nuts. 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 cards on the table. If that's not going to work for you, then we probably shouldn't work together. Exactly. Talking with Mr. Biz, Kent Wentworth. Again, I mean, before we transition into the state of business, like talking with you, you've had, you had a lot of experience, JP Morgan corporate thing, like you said. I'm always fascinated, like, because you talked about I thought everyone you say you made the statement earlier.

I thought everybody knew this or I didn't think what I was saying was insightful. What is what is formulated, Mr. Biz? Like, is this nature or nurture? Like, is this are you a student of, you know, some form of business technique or like you've read a billion business books and you've just distilled it into your own thing? Or is this just innate 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 world at 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, you, we would go into businesses and, you know, private equity, we would go in and turn businesses around. And I re 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. 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 as I start with every client I start with, we start with cash flow, you know, cash and other business. And there's almost always ways you can improve your cash flow. flow you know if cash from a business 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 and then I hate to say this Ryan not everyone's gonna like this B word not that one though budget if you're not gonna 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 and not get six months into the year and go, holy shit, we're not going to hit our sales goal for the year. Now what do we do? Right. And then the last part is, 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. 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 got three strong pillars to set the business on. And then we can start, you know, talking about other things, but really for me, foundationally, you got to start with those, but yeah, I think it's a combination of my experience. Um, just seeing a bunch of different businesses and, you know, as people will see, and again, I, now I look at it and I go, man, you know, like I said, not, not sound like a bragger, but I'm like, I am pretty good at this because someone will give me their P and L and I'll look at it and I'll be like, you know, uh, bet you guys, uh, your sales have been declining for the last six or six to nine months or so I can see here. You know, and they're

like, how can you tell that from looking at that? I'm like, I don't know. You know, I remember, I remember, uh, if anyone remembers, uh, the baseball player, Barry Bonds, right. Infamous, right. I remember seeing him interviewed this This is 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, they give him the remote control. And the pitcher, like, starts to rock back in his stance

and in his windup. And he pauses 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 dipping back further to get more in. And they're like, you saw that? And then he gets a little bit further, and he's like,

you see how he's got his glove held? It's probably a changeup 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 don't know. know he's like i just i don't know i just i i see it i think why can't everyone else see it you know uh it was interesting yeah and barry bond had a few home runs so uh i think he uh did all right without the juice right you know yeah it was amazing it was amazing amazing. It was natural for sure.

Ken, what the hell is happening in business these days? You know, it's 2024. 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 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 far as for business owners.

And I know we were talking a little bit before the show. You know, one of the things that I see this year, Ryan, this year and anytime there's a kind of a down economy 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, 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. Now you got to have the wherewithal, right? So if you got, you know, some great CFO that's helped you build a strong balance sheet

that withstand that economy. But no, seriously, like even like during COVID with a couple of my clients, we were able to not only get market share, but we are able to buy some competitors that were not ready to withstand that terrible time. And so it sounds like a bad thing, like, oh man, so we end up buying assets for dimes on the dollar and expanding our business. And people go, oh man, a lot of people go, oh, you're taking advantage of somebody. No, not at all. Because what happened was a lot of these, or at least these two businesses 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, 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 fly and high. 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, you know, 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've got to make sure you're heading into it, not in that direction. But I think overall, like I said, I don't 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, how bad it is or whatever.

But I think things are better overall on business than most sources are portraying to be. That's my opinion. Yeah, 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 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. I'm just sort of a tried and 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. Be ready for the bad. And the government's trying to be. We really got tried to be talked into this recession, 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, 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 and it starts to become an echo chamber. Right. Then you're talking to your neighbor and your neighbor is 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 you 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. And, again, there were parts of it that were and 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. So what do you think, you know, you talked 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, what's the general sense, like 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? sentiment of most of the business owners and people that you talk to? Is it like, you know, they 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, it's so I'll answer your question, but it's a little bit difficult and not difficult. But so I pretty much try to associate myself with people that are like minded, i.e abundance thinkers so i'm probably

not the you know i'm probably hearing more from people like that um so i might not have as balanced of a view that's okay we like positivity on this show you know yeah 100 right you know uh if you're if you're debbie downer man i don't should be in business anyway it just sucks the life out of you yeah yeah yeah so i probably i'm probably skewed a little bit because i hear probably i think for man. I don't, I just, I just sucked the light out of you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I probably, I'm probably skewed a little bit. Cause I hear probably, I think for more people who think along those lines, but you know, I, 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 owner right now is a

time for opportunity, you start looking for opportunities. If you think, man, this, 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, is pretty, uh, from what I hear from people is pretty on the positive side. And again, thinking of growth and thinking of seizing opportunities and things like that. 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, Salesforce and growing,

you know, internally and externally, like business development. But do you have – does it just depend 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. For example, if you've got a professional services firm, let's say you're an attorney or a consultant, you're a marketing agency, something like that, completely different than if you've got a brick and mortar.

You've got, I don't know, restaurants or something like that. Or if you've got a service-based company, a plumbing, HVAC type of thing. I mean, really, it kind of all depends and it's all, it's different for each one industry specifically. But, um, you know, generally speaking, I think the biggest thing, and you, I'm sure you'll relate to this. The biggest thing I find with companies that, that hire me or I work with and they go, you know, we just haven't been able to grow. It's like, because their, their mindset's not right. You know, they're, they're still doing things the same way they've been doing them. And so, yeah, well, we're only growing 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, 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 us 3% a year. You don't want 3% a year. You want to go 30% this year. Well, we got to do some different things. And so just, and it's funny, a lot of times when we have that type of conversation with somebody, the owner will be like, man, I feel like an idiot.

Like you say this stuff and it's super obvious. He's like, man, I feel like an idiot. You say this stuff and it's super obvious. He's like, why couldn't I figure this out on my own? 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 really depends on the industry and things like that of really what the key things are and the financial position they're in. If they're sitting on a bunch of capital, and especially right now with a lot of baby boomers saying, I don't want to do this anymore. 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 beating the bushes a little bit, looking for some opportunities of maybe some acquisitions or some complementary businesses. It's instant growth, right? But I'll mention one other thing. One thing I see, especially with companies that have multiple locations that I see as 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 ensure that the original is working at a 9 out of 10 or 10 out of 10. And then, so when you make a copy, you know, I'll go back to the old copy machine days, right?

So you get a sheet of paper and you make a 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, I just kind of see a difference. Then you make a copy of the copy of the copy, right? 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 a copy of a copy of a copy and the copy they're making is not of a copy of a copy and the copy they're making is not a 10 out of 10 to start with. So when businesses are like,

yeah, I want to go from three locations to 10, I'm like, we got to get these three perfect before we do anything else. And they're like, I thought you were a growth guy. I'm like, I am. Do you want to grow to grow or do you want to grow profitably? Sustainably, right? And that's one thing I see

is everyone when, 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, they're making those copies of copies and it ends up location eight is performing so shitty. And you're like, why? I'm like, well, look at the original where you're, you're at all every day, all day, you're running into what should be. And then 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. Um, so that's one of the things I see often it's, you know, people swing

and miss on, I think when they do try to grow and they just don't, they don't grow. You see, they go from three to 10 and then the next, you know, a year later, you see, they're back down to five and you're like, what happened? You know, what, um, you know, talking with Kent Wentworth, Mr. Biz, are there, it's gotta be some similar ingredients for you of what makes a great business. 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 great businesses? Uh, well, first, uh, again, you gotta have a cashflow, you gotta do the budgeting,

you gotta do the, you know, your, make sure your margins 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. is not afraid to take feedback. You get a lot of these 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 the owner is not facing the customer ever. And they're trying to give you feedback, and they don't want to change. They don't want to make changes.

A non-self-aware business owner is going to be a failed business owner at some point. It's just, 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. 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 box? Like, oh, I should bring in someone to help me. But this guy's, is this guy hiring me because he's checking a box? Like, oh, I should bring in someone to help me, but this guy's not going to listen to me. Guy or girl's not, they're not going to listen to what the heck I'm going to, you know, they're just hiring me to

hire me, uh, to say, Oh yeah, I got this guy, you know? Um, and so being willing to make changes, not sticking to things, uh, too long, right? If something's not working, let's fix it. Like don't wait six, eight, 10 months. Like, and again, you know, financially you see those things with a budget and things like I mentioned, but, um, you know, and the other thing I talk about this all the time, and again, it's kind of one of these mushy things, Ryan, but it's, I'm thinking of these core things that I see in successful businesses. If you have happy employees, you're going to have happy customers. You've got happy customers. You you're gonna 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 gotta get that right. If you got employees who are not satisfied, first of all, you're gonna have turnover, retention issues, you're gonna have trouble hiring people because word's going to get out, going to get out that you're, you know, you treat people crappy or whatever. And then that's going to reflect in their

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, it's, you gotta have, you gotta do those things. You gotta be an employer of choice. You know, you gotta do things that in your industry, you gotta be a little bit better. You gotta 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, which makes a huge difference. And then again, you, you indoctrinate 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, it's probably not that the you know, financial related answer you again, it's probably not that the, uh, you know, financial related answer you were, you were probably expecting, but, you know, I, like I said, I think a malleable leader, um, that's willing to take feedback and willing to, to have make changes and then, you know, making sure you're treating your cost or your, uh, employees, you know, uh,

really well. 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 the ones that seemingly have upside and headroom, and a lot of it is driven by those variables a lot. Ken, what's your perspective? I know you're not like a proclaimed tech guy or anything like that as a city to business, but you have to be hearing the word AI.

You know, is that hitting your radar? 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 radar screen. I think if it's not on your radar screen, you're probably behind. And you probably should at least have a foot on the train at this point, depending what industry you're in. But man, it's going to be a competitive disadvantage for you if you don't get on it, especially in certain industries, a thousand percent.

And it's funny you mentioned, you know, are robots going to 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? When they invented a tractor, a tractor took jobs. 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 freaking uh you know the fields right oh that tractor took his job like this is evolution man this this happened a million times like um over the years and everything um when they invented a, oh, taking a horse and buggy, taking a horse's job, 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 start thinking about those things. I've got one client who's manufacturing and we're testing stuff out now with different types of robots and things like that. And some of the 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 costs to go down. We're trying to kind of weigh the costs and the benefits and all that kind of stuff, just like anything else. 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, I did one of my shows recently, I had someone on who's like an AI expert, expert, quote unquote, and she was amazing. And, you know, some of the things she brought up too, expert, quote unquote. And she was amazing. And, you know, some of the things she brought up too, of ways 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 is she said, 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 wild and crazy

radical person on that side of things. She said, AI was developed by men. 80% of people who use AI right now are men. So AI is becoming more and more male-focused because 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, uh, you know, thinking of things. I hadn't really thought about that. I'm like, Holy crap. Yeah. It, it learns from the input it's getting. If it's getting input 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, 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 thought about that either. And, uh, it does learn a generative learning, you know, from, uh, everything else. Um, yeah. What do you think, you know, as we've, we've closed out here, Ken, um, you think, as we close out here, Ken, not to get into politics. I don't want to get into politics. But we are in election year. Are we going to be able to stay sane as a company? Are we going to be able to keep with this coming? Are we going to be able to keep it out?

Are the politics 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.

There's hardly anything that's moderate anymore. So I feel like it doesn't matter, left or right, Democrat, 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 headed in 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 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, depending, you know, who wins and who ends up controlling the House and Senate 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. Maybe they have some moderate views, whereas now I feel like you kind of got to be more. If you're a Democrat, you got to be more. You got to skew more of the left or if you're Republican, you got to skew more to the right. So the party is going to be putting pressure on them to do that. So I definitely think there'll be an impact. Um, 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, uh,

Now, Ken, where can everybody keep up with everything you're doing, your books? And, you know, maybe as a final closeout segment, you know, talk about Don't Fake the Funk, you know, your latest book. You know, like what can people expect from that and where can they find it and all that stuff? Yeah, the easiest way to find everything we've got going on is MrBiz.com. All the stuff's out there, the radio show, the books, all that good stuff. But, you know, the book me, just kind of going along, I used to be a competitive power lifter and had a lot of success there. And, you know, 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, 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,

let me make sure I got this right. It's basically just like four steps, right? I'm like, yeah, I guess so. A couple of weeks later, I had gone 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, that second meeting. 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. It was this guy, the speaker backed out on him. It was, it was early December and it was like a holiday party kind of thing. And he's like, Hey, can you come and talk to him? I'm not to talk about business at a holiday party.

People don't want to hear that crap. People are having some adult frescas. They don't want to listen to someone talk about cash flow or whatever. I said, I got this new topic. Let me – can I talk about this? I've never talked about it. He's like, oh, yeah, yeah, great. Talked about it.

Everyone loved it. Standing ovation, all this other crap. And people come up 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 I need to write a book about it. So that's what ended up becoming Don't Fake the Funk. And the subtitle you might appreciate 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 brought it down to four options and 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. 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 profanity, let alone the F word in a subtitle of your book. And I'm like, I mean, the people have spoken. Let's go, you know? Yes. Does not surprise me. You know? I mean, yeah, it's, it's, you know, it's, it's funny. It's like you said, I was surprised by the results. Um, and we put, you know, we put the

asterisks, right. Uh, it's not often spelled out, but still, I mean, I was very surprised and I caught some heat, you know, people will say, uh, 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 people. I got it. We could. So many people get caught up on the cussing thing. I mean, 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. But man, the amount of people that really get their panties in a wad over that shit is mind-blowing. Who decided 100 years ago that the F word was some terrible word?

Who decided what the profanity words were and which ones are bad and which ones are good? What if all of a sudden I say desk is a bad word? Like, oh my God, Brian, you said desk. you can't say desk you know oh god like 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 like, and motivational. That's why people like it, you know. And, you know, and I'm assuming from the premise, and I did skim through it, but admittedly, from show booking 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 absolutely yeah it's i'm not a fake it till you make a guy at all i think that's i think that's yeah trash i think that's trash it's just if you're faking it till 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 is really the premise i thought to back to if if what you're making a copy of isn't great then what you get out of the other it's not going to magically have higher resolution if you make a copy of a bad photocopy. It's almost the exact same thing. I think if you listen to this full episode,

there's a lot of substance, Ken, 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 was a good conversation, Ryan. Absolutely. You can find him at MrBiz, B-I-Z.com, and at MrBizSolutions on Instagram.

You know where to find us. RyanIsRight.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 can buy it. We'll see you next time on Right About Now. at Ryan Alford with that blue check before you can buy it. We'll see you next time on Right About Now. This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production.

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