The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 177: Michael Gerber - "The World's #1 Small Business Guru" (The E-Myth Revisited)

Episode Date: November 27, 2016

Episode 177: Michael Gerber - "The World's #1 Small Business Guru" (The E-Myth Revisited) Michael E. Gerber is a true legend of entrepreneurship. Inc. Magazine
 calls him "the World's #1 Small Business Guru" — the entrepreneurial and small business thought leader who has impacted the lives of millions of individuals and hundreds of thousands of companies worldwide for over 40 years. Michael is the author of the mega-bestseller "The E-Myth Revisited" and five other E-Myth books concerning small business and entrepreneurship.  The Wall Street Journal named the E-Myth the #1 business book of all time (November 2011) having sold millions of copies and has now been applied in 145 countries, in 29 languages and is taught in 118 universities. The originator, in 1977, of the small business coaching industry, with his founding of The Michael Thomas Corporation, The E-Myth Academy, E-Myth Worldwide, Michael E. Gerber Companies, since that time having served over 100,000 small business clients. And today launching "Beyond The E-Myth: The Evolution of an Enterprise: From a Company of One to a Company of 1,000!: The Course – The Program – The Book" – a revolutionary process to prepare a small company for acquisition by readying it to scale (Scale to Sale). Episode 177: Michael Gerber - "The World's #1 Small Business Guru" (The E-Myth Revisited) Subscribe on iTunes  or Stitcher Radio The Learning Leader Show "You must work ON the company to perfect the system IN the company." In This Episode, You Will Learn: Common themes within the best performers: They don't think about "me" They think about the puzzle... And what's missing from it  Steve Jobs, Apple.  Tom Watson, IBM. The importance on learning how to play the saxophone and having the desire to be the best in the world -- how that translated to success later in Michael's life "I only teach people that want to become the best saxophone player in the world." Practice, Practice, Practice -- Doing it the right way. Having a plan The most important aspects for Michael's early success: Vision - You must believe that you can do something beyond what seems possible initially Discipline - You must practice A great coach - The importance of great mentors in our lives The agreement between coach/mentor and mentee at the beginning of the relationship is critical to the long term success Why McDonald's is the most successful small business on the planet Working ON the store to perfect the system IN the store Lesson: So can you. Go to work to prepare you company to scale and sell just like Ray Crock did The focus should be on the system (Starbucks, McDonald's) The eight steps to grow and scale Beyond the "E-myth" "If you can't scale it, you can't sell it." Continue Learning: Michael's best selling book: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It Follow Michael on Twitter: @MichaelEGerber  To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12 You may also like these episodes: Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon Episode 071: Nate Boyer - Green Beret, Texas Football, The NFL Episode 073: Jay Bilas - World Class ESPN Basketball Broadcaster, Toughness, Fixing The NCAA Episode 107: Simon Sinek – Leadership: It Starts With Why Did you enjoy the podcast? If you enjoyed hearing Michael Gerber on the show, please don't hesitate to send me a note on Twitter or email me. Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell The Learning Leader Show is supported by  Mizzen and Main: Performance fabric menswear. The most comfortable/durable dress shirts you will find on the market. I personally own 22 of them. To get free shipping, use the code "ryanhawk" -- To get $50 off when you purchase three shirts, use the code "ryanhawk3" -- Thank you for your support!

A small business owner is a technician suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure. It's not truly an entrepreneur. He goes to work, doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, busy, busy, busy. If he's a chiropractor, he does chiropractic. If he's an attorney, he does law. If he's a accountant, he does accountant. If he's a software guy, he does software, he does a hardware guy, he does hardware. Whatever he does is what he knows how to do.

The problem is he doesn't know how to do anything else. So the guy goes to work, doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, busy, busy, busy. And when the company starts to grow, and every single small business on the planet will either start to grow or close the doors, start to grow means I suddenly have more people than I can deal with, more customers than I can serve. And when something happens like that, he begins to flail. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders.

Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success. You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Hey, and welcome to The Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk. Thank you so much for being here. Quick reminder, please join us in our Facebook group, the Learning Leader community. Go to LearningLeader.com slash group to sign up for. the dialogue, possibly argue a bit, have some constructive conversations. It's a lot of fun.

I promise you'll like it. On to the night's featured leader. It's the legendary Michael Gerber, the mega bestselling author of 28 E-Mymyth books, 5 million copies sold worldwide. 1995, the Wall Street Journal named the E-Mith, the best-selling business book of all time. Inc. Magazine calls him the world's number one small business guru. At 80 years old, he comes with so much energy was a lot of fun. A few of the topics we got into. How music and specifically learning and practicing and playing the saxophone has led to the success Michael has had in his life.

Then why it's correct to strive to be the best in the world at what you do, how Big Donald is the most successful small business on the planet, then some key tactical strategies that Michael has for you all to implement to help you in your business and, career. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a great one with Michael Gerber. Michael Gerber. So excited to have you here on The Learning Leader Show. Thank you so much for being here. And welcome. Well, my pleasure, Ryan. Thank you for having me. So I love, you know, you've had a wealth of experience. You've accomplished some incredible feats throughout your career. The work

that you've put out has influenced so many and so many positive ways. I'm curious from your perspective, when you look at the common themes that the highest producers, the people, the people who have sustained excellence all seem to share. What are a few of those characteristics that they have? Well, the characteristics of, if you're speaking about entrepreneurs, it's one thing. If you're thinking about technicians, it's something completely other. I'd like to hear both possibly, yeah. So in my lexicon, I'm thinking about entrepreneurs. Effectively, the only one I want to emulate are the most successful entrepreneurs in the planet. I want to know what's Steve Jobs did. I want to know what Mary Kay Ash of Mary Kay Cosmetics did. I want to know what Bill Gates

did and what the Google Boys did. So essentially, I want to rise higher than simply doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, which I speak about in my books and everything that I've done over these years. I want to rise higher than being a technician suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure. Gotcha, gotcha. I want to create more than just a job for myself. So that's the first critical thing. Okay.

First critical difference, the first critical thing that great achievers achieve from an entrepreneurial perspective is, first of all, they don't think about me. They don't think about them. They're not inter-directed to the degree that they're the important part of the puzzle. They think about the puzzle. So they're puzzle focused. In fact, the greatest question that great entrepreneurs continually ask is what's missing in this picture. So they're constantly looking at the outside from the inside to discover something they don't see so obviously. And when they discover the something they don't see so obviously,

They create something that nobody has created so obviously in order to solve that problem or pursue that opportunity. Thus, Apple. So Apple was completely unlikely, meaning there were all sorts of people in that business, so to speak. But Steve Jobs wasn't in that business, so to speak. Steve Jobs lived in a completely different world. Steve Jobs was going to do what Tom Watson did with mainframe computers. When Tom Watson told his father, Tom Watson, Sr., founder of IBM, that I want to create computers for every organization.

Tom Watson, Sr. said there's probably only a market for about six of them. hear me. That's insane. There's probably only a market for about six of them. When Steve Jobs said, I want to create the computer for every man to completely transform

the way they gain information, gather information, create, produce, perform, and grow, everybody would say to him, nobody needs that nobody does that nobody etc and so you follow me yeah yeah yeah yeah Steve jobs is in a completely different world than everybody else so when you say top gun and I saw the movie yeah when you say top gun the top gun lives in a completely different world than

anybody else completely different world you get it I do so the the people listening hear this they get inspired especially by the fact that you just Did you just turn 80 years old? Is that correct? Did I hear that right? Yes, I did. This is my 80th year. 80th year.

Actually, it's about 80 and a half now. So you bring more zest and energy than just about anybody. And I love it. And I love that we're on video here for the listeners. They know most of the time I do these, and it's just audio. So I can see you. We can make eye contact, all those great things. And just to see the way that you use your hands when you talk and the energy you bring

is it juices me up, man. I got to tell you, Michael. so I'm excited. There's so many different avenues we could go here. You got new work coming out, a new platform, and we're definitely going to get to that. But I learned something when I was preparing for our time together. It's interesting that how you, that maybe has led to your success. And that is in regards to the fact of how you look at practice and playing music,

specifically the saxophone and how that's led to the success you've had in your life. And I'd love for you to explain, because I think it adds a, a real story to the method behind all of your madness? Well, it does, and it's a great question you're asking. It's usually not a question. The interviewer asks me. It's something I bring up because it was seminal for everything I was learned to do. So when I was a boy, I was born in 1936.

So when I was a boy, in 1948, my family moved from New Jersey to Anaheim, California. And I was just been studying the saxophone with a saxophone teacher in Newark. And the gentleman, my mom told the gentleman, we're moving. And so Michael has to quit his lessons. And he said, when you get to California, look up my saxophone teacher, His name is Merle Johnston, and he said, and he's the greatest saxophone teacher on the planet. And if Michael's lucky, and I think he will, because he's a natural, Merle might take him as a student. So we settled down in California.

A couple of months later, my mom comes to me, says, Michael, would you like to go meet Mr. Merle Johnston? His studio is in Hollywood, California. I said, well, sure. So my mom, dad, and I drive to Hollywood, California from Anaheim. We get to Melrose and Western. That's where his studio was. We get out of the car. We walk over to the door, and the door has Venetian blinds closed, and very grungy door.

Dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty. And ironically, in gold leaf, his name. So there's gold leaf on this strange door. we go in and it's actually a retail location, which he converted into his studio. But the first half of the store, in quotes, there's nothing in it but junk piled up to the right and piled up to the left, no fall ceiling all the way up to the top. And one light way down in the middle of it on a light bulb hanging from a chain. So the natural thing to do is go to the light, go to the light.

So we walk in a strange place to the light bulb, and there's a Moher armchair to the left. Well, this turns out to be where his students sit and wait. And as we're looking at the Moherr armchair and wondering, what are we doing here? A voice comes from the back. And he should be there in a minute. And we stand there. My mom on one side, my dad in one side, me in the middle, and we're looking at the back, waiting for be there in a minute. And this guy shows up.

Now, this guy from that distance looked about my height, and he was about my height. And that was a small kid. The only difference was he was as wide as he was high. So Merle was a big guy, a big short guy. And that walks toward us. He has this bright red crimson face. And he's got his shirt, this gabardine maroon shirt. He never wore a different shirt all the time I knew him.

Button to the top. Stuffed into this stuffed out neck. And his split back hair and his saxophone chain around his neck. And he says, you must be Mikey. You must be Mrs. Gerber. You must be Mr. Gerber. I'm Earl Johnson. you come with me and he turned around and walked back.

And that was me. Yeah. So I walked where he went and he took me into a different room. And in the different room, there's all kinds of electronic equipment, sound equipment, and a music stand and a book. And he said, where's your horn? Oh, I forgot my horn. I walked back out to where my mother and father were. they hadn't moved an inch.

And my saxophone case is sitting right there. I go get it. I bring it in. He says, open it. So I open the saxophone case, take my horn out, and he says, play this. And he points to the book. And I start to play this. The book was Closet.

And anybody who's ever studied music knows the book, Closet. It was simply scales. All the scales. He said, play this. I started to play this. He said, stop. go back with your mom and dad to be right out. I put my horn away.

I go back with my mom and dad. Mr. Johnson comes back out. And he says to all of us, well, I'll take my key. But you've got to understand, I hate kids. I don't teach kids. I only teach people who want to become the best saxophone players in the world.

That's all I teach. And in order to become one of my students, you've got to do what I say. And you've got to do what I say. because if you don't do what I say, you ain't going to be here for long. And what I mean by that, he says, is very simply this.

You got to practice. You got to practice what I tell you to practice. You've got to practice how long I tell you to practice. You've got to practice how I tell you to practice. And you're going to have to practice three hours a day, five days a week. And when you're done practicing what I tell you to practice, how I tell you to practice,

how long I tell you to practice, At the end of the week, you come up here on Saturday, just like today, at 10 o'clock, and we'll do an hour together. Now, I want to caution you, he says to my parents, should you accept the rules of the game? Should you agree that little Mikey is going to have to get here on his own in a bus? You don't get to bring him. Should you agree that we never talk to each other again? Little Mikey brings up the check. Little Mikey takes his lesson.

Little Mikey goes through when I'm going to teach him to go through. And little Mikey is going to come home if he's done what I told him to do and start complaining to you about what I do to him here. Don't listen. It's all true. Don't call. I only teach him, not you. This is between the two of us.

So what do you think? He says. my parents were already I could see on their way out. This is far too strange for any parent to actually agree to send their 11-year-old kid on a bus unaccompanied to this strange guy with a bright red face who must have weighed 400 pounds to take a lesson no matter what my saxophone teacher in New Jersey said.

But I said, yeah, let's do it. Now I said, yeah, let's do it, Ryan, because I knew the guy was getting. First of all, he knew nobody practices three hours a day. And in fact, I knew if anybody practiced three hours a day, I wouldn't need to because I'm a natural. And I also knew my parents wouldn't keep me honest. They wouldn't say, did you practice three hours? Did you practice?

They didn't have the time for that. Hey, hardly ever saw him. So I went home thinking, I get to study. with the world's best saxophone teacher. I get to go to Hollywood, California, and I get to tell all the kids in school who I am and what I'm doing. I don't need to practice five hours, three hours a day.

I could practice 15 minutes a day and make it. And that's what I did. Comes the Saturday. My first Saturday taking the bus, going to L.A., going to sit in his studio in that Moher armchair, go into the room, pulls out the book. I start to play what he told me to play.

And about a minute goes by and he says, stop. Go on the other room. Take your horn with you. I'll be there in a minute. Oh, this is strange. Nobody's ever done anything like that before. But I do it. Merle comes out.

And he said, that's one. What did I tell you last week? I told you, I don't teach people who want to become the best size phone players in the world. I told you in order to do that, you got to practice. You got to practice. What I tell you to practice? How I tell you to practice? And how long I tell you to practice.

I told you to practice three hours a day for the five days before you're coming up here to prepare, to demonstrate to me that you listened to me. You didn't listen to me. That's one. There is no two. Go home. And if you're ready to become one of the best saxophone players in the world, do what I told you to do. And if you're not, just don't show up because I don't care. So I went home.

Now what? Well, now maybe I got to practice. Yeah, but it wasn't about practice. It never was about practice. It was about the result. And the result was, if you were, want to become one of the best saxophone players on the planet, this is what you got to do. If in fact you're simply focused on what you got to do, it'll never cut it.

You follow them. That shaped everything I've done my entire life, Ryan. That simple process, and I stayed with Merle for about seven years, studying, studying, studying, studying, studying, studying, studying, the hardest teacher I've ever had, the hardest teacher I ever had. But then I learned how to sell encyclopedias from a guy just like Merle. And then I learned how to frame a house by a guy just like Merle. And for whatever reason, throughout my life, I've had teachers just like Merle who wouldn't accept my status quo.

They weren't interested in my status quo. They weren't interested in anybody's status quo. They're committed to producing the very, very, very. very, very, very, very best. And that's what's called me to do what I do. And that's what shaped everything I've ever said to any client, any coach, any partner, anybody anywhere having to do with what I'm setting out to do, which is to transform the state of small business worldwide.

You don't get to do that unless you're up to the game. and the game is the game that that little sign says in the top of your hat top gun you don't get to do that you don't get to wear that unless you do that you don't get to do anything about that until and unless you listen to merle he said you don't make music mikey music finds you your job is to prepare for it and when it happens and will happen in the least likely moment. If I'm there, when that happens, when the music finds you, I'll pick up my tenor and play harmony to whatever you're playing. And that happened with me and Merle continuously all those years. And it was stunning. The hair goes back and up on my back of my neck when I remember the sound of that,

those two horns doing this remarkable thing, like neither of us were there. Well, it's an incredible story, Michael. I appreciate you sharing. It makes me think of a couple things. The importance of disciplined practice. I think of Anders Erickson in the 10,000 hours into the discipline practice that he talks about, as well as, number two, the importance of having a coach, a mentor, somebody to help push you,

lead you, show you the way. That's what I draw from the importance of that. story and it seems like it's led to your success well on to the remainder of what you've been up to till now. Well, let me suggest and without disrespect, Ryan, that what you left out was the most important part of it. Okay. Most important part of it isn't the discipline.

The most important part of it isn't the coach. The most important part of it is the vision, the passion for something greater than everything. And in fact, that's what was behind Steve Jobs, the vision and the passion for something beyond belief. Because I don't care how many coaches there are, and I don't care how much people develop discipline and will and all the magical things that everybody is supposed to develop. I don't care how technical a technician gets without something bigger than him than her, something pulling them, something truly calling them. Without that, it's just stuff.

Nothing great's going to happen. They could become very good technicians, but they'll never become artists. They could become very good CFOs, but they'll never be a CFO for a grand and growing company. They'll always be small. They'll always stay small because they're not called by universal size things. So it's the universal size things that make the difference. And that's what's called me all the time. Now, am I ever up to it?

Sometimes I am. Many times I'm not. But of course, just like with Merle, sometimes I am and sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I forget and sometimes I don't. But you see, Merle made it not contingent upon whether he was there or not. He made it contingent upon the rules of the game. The rules of the game when you're a player and a stayer are significantly different and more onerous in a way than the rules of the game for everybody else.

So you have to be very, very careful about the rules you select to play by. And every great football player, every great basketball player, every great whomever and whatever knows that to be true. It's bigger than me. It's bigger than me. It's bigger than me. I'm better when I'm not thinking about it, but it's operating within me to produce results that everybody else thinks are miraculous. How in the world did you do that?

I didn't. It did. How do you think your life would be different if you didn't have Merle? Oh, my answer would be I wouldn't be Michael Gerber. Yeah. If no, Merle, I wouldn't be Michael Gerber. I think that's why, I think even some of the most successful people in the world, they understand the value of a coach too.

That's why I know I'm sometimes you're, we talk about vision and I completely agree the biggest Elon Musk I think of today with the vision he has of multi-planetary systems and electric cars and Steve Jobs, absolutely. But it feels like the Michael Gerber, who's sold five million plus books. The E-Meth is one of the most famous titles now

for all entrepreneurs and business owners, but you said if you wouldn't have had this coach at a young age, And maybe none of this would have ever happened. Yeah, but you understand it was the agreement. Wasn't the coach. The agreement. What do you mean?

Merle could have had 150 other students, anybody he wanted. Yeah. Wasn't the coach and it wasn't the student. It was the agreement. Yeah. So you understand it was the agreement through which we came to work together. I didn't think of it that way as an 11-year-old. You understand, but it was agreement.

And so I'm speaking again about the agreement, how you start a relationship, is the ballgame. So, yeah, everybody needs to learn. Everybody needs to be inspired. Everybody needs to be managed. Everybody needs all manner and sorts of things. But without the agreement, it's all irrelevant. Yeah. Understand the agreement is the agreement is the agreement, is the agreement.

So another example I've heard you talk about that is interesting to me is in regards to the success of McDonald's. Can you share the details behind why you feel they have been so successful? Well, it's really, really, really straightforward. McDonald's is the most successful small business on the planet. And you've got to understand that McDonald's was started as a small business. and had that small business not been built the way it had been built, it never would have become the most successful small business on the planet. People think of McDonald's as a large corporation.

Well, it is a large corporation, but of course at the heart of that large corporation is a successful, I'll call it store. The turnkey ability to produce the result that successful store produces, not the people, the system. The turnkey ability of that small store enabled it to scale. In short, if you could build one, you could build two. If you could build two, you could build 1,000. If you build 1,000, you could build 33,000, build 37,000.

You could open up 600 a year. A couple of years ago, I just noted that McDonald's had just opened in China 600 new stores. previous year. Think about that. 600 new stores the previous year. So now we're talking about a scale far beyond anything we ever talk about. So essentially I'm saying that the story of McDonald's goes beyond what it sells. Goes beyond Big Mac, goes beyond the fries, goes beyond the milkshake, goes beyond anything it sells. It goes to the way in which it sells. It goes to the way in which it sells. does business. So in fact, the great story of McDonald's is the way it does business. And the great story behind the way it does business is to go back to Ray Kroc, who became the franchisor

of McDonald's. The McDonald brothers had their own business in San Bernardino, California, and they licensed Ray Kroc to franchise it. Well, ultimately, Recently, Ray Crock then to franchise it went and opened up a McDonald's store of his own in Des Plains, Illinois. And when he opened up that store in Displains, Illinois, it became the prototype. It was a research center. It was the place he was going to go take apart the system of McDonald's and put it back together again.

And put it back together and again in a form that he could replicate faithfully. So Ray Kroc opened up two offices, a McDonald's Corporation office in Displains, and the store. So understand this extraordinary thing was that Ray Kroc didn't go to work in the store. He didn't make hamburgers, didn't make French fries, didn't make milkshakes, didn't do what every single small business owner does. Ray Kroch went to work on the store to perfect the system with people working in the store. He went to work on the store as corporate, as the inventor of the turnkey methodology, George he would scale McDonald's, and of course scale what he did. So what's the lesson we learned from that, because everything has a lesson in it.

The lesson we learn from that is, and so can you. So understand, and so can you. So can you go to work on your company, not in your company, prepare your company for scale. So the difference between we, a small business owner out here in the world, where are you located? Ohio.

Okay, in Ohio, all the small companies, Ohio, fail and failing, failing, failing, failing. They're not all failing, but you understand most of them will. All you have to do is do the numbers. Go check it out. Why are they all failing? Why don't they make it? Forget about growing like McDonald's did. Why aren't they growing at all? Why is it so difficult? Well, you begin to see it's the way they put it together in their mind. You understand that a small business owner is a technician suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure. It's not truly an entrepreneur. He goes to work doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, busy, busy, busy.

If he's a chiropractor, he does chiropractic. If he's an attorney, he does law. If he's a accountant, he does a software guy, he does software, he does a hardware guy, he does hardware. Whatever he does is what he knows how to do. The problem is he doesn't know how to do anything else. So the guy goes to work, doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, busy, busy, busy, busy. And when the company starts to grow, and every single small business on the planet will either start to grow or close the doors, start to grow means I suddenly have more people than I can deal with, more customers than I can serve. And when something happens like that, he begins to flail.

And by flail, I mean, he begins to say, how am I going to do this? How am I going to do this? How am I going to do this? and he tries all manner and forms of things. Unfortunately, he doesn't do what Ray Crock did. Now, were he to do, were she to do what Ray Crock did, everything would be different. In fact, I'm going to say, Ryan, that we're every single small business in Ohio start their companies anew, doing what Ray Crock did from getting, go. Every single one of them would grow. And grow beyond anything they'd ever believe possible

before. And it doesn't mean adding capital. Doesn't mean adding a new product. The fascinating thing also, you asked me about, what is it about really great winners and everybody else? If you look at all the great winners, they didn't succeed creating new products. They succeed converting commodities into products. So Ray Crocs sold a commodity called a hamburger. Could you buy a hamburger anyplace else when McDonald started? Starbucks, the commodity is coffee. Could you buy coffee anyplace else? Yeah, for about a quarter of the price. So it's fascinating to see that all of this attention on the product, on the product, on the product, on the product, should really be on the system, on the system, on the system, on the system.

And the system is the unique way we've packaged our company in order for it to grow exponentially, from a company of one to a company of 1,000. So all I'm doing right now with our new launch of our new enterprise is saying to every single person whoever started a company or wants to, that there's a new game in town. And it's called Keep It Simple, Stupid. And I'm going to take the E myth apart. I created it and make it simple for every single person on the street. And I'm saying to every single person on the street, whether they're high tech or low tech or no tech, makes absolutely no difference,

that there is an absolutely rigorous system for succeeding beyond anything you've ever imagined possible before. And I'm introducing it in my new book, Beyond the E-Mith, the evolution of an enterprise from a company of one to a company of 1,000. What am I introducing? I'm introducing the eight absolutely essential steps to grow. I call it the hierarchy of growth from a company of one to a company of 1,000. Because the only thing you and I are in the business to do, Ryan, is to create a company for sale. Ultimately, Ryan, you're a young guy. When you're not 20? No, I'm in my 30s.

Okay. So, Ryan, you're a young guy. And what I'm saying is you, Ryan, young guy, have to be thinking in identical the same way. is I, Michael Gerber, old guy. Okay. And that means you have to think about selling your company and I have to think about selling my company. In short, we're building it for acquisition.

If we're building it for acquisition, and there's no other reason we've been doing this unless it's, well, because they really love to do this, I really love to do this, I really love to do this, I mean, love to be the greatest coach, I love to be, I mean, all that nonsense, all the reasons everybody thinks, you know, a lifestyle business and, you know, a solopreneur

and all the garbage that everybody is talking to us about. I'm essentially saying, any other reason for building a great company than to prepare for sale, prepared for acquisition. Ultimately, why? Because, Ryan, ultimately, you're going to die. And guess what?

Me too. And guess what? That little girl is going to be sitting there when it happens. And guess what? She's going to be saying at 46, why did my dad prepare himself for this? Now, please, I know you're preparing yourself for it, and this doesn't matter to you.

I'm saying it matters to every single person you're speaking to, but nobody's paying attention to it. You can't sell it because it doesn't have the power to grow exponentially. And so if you can't scale it, you can't sell it. Why? Because the only one who's going to buy it with the sufficient capital to justify you selling it, it's a company who's focused on growth. You follow.

Because the buyer of your company is looking for scale. The buyer of every company is looking for a turnkey system they can replicate. That's the buyer of McDonald's when it went public. How does a guy go from 52 years of age to 82 years of age, 52 with nothing in his pocket, to 82 a multi-billionaire? How does he do that by creating a company to scale? Meaning to grow and replicate itself faithfully again and again and again and again. Name another one, Subway Sandwiches. Name another one, Starbucks.

name another one, Mary Kay Ash and Mary Kay Cosmetics. Name another one, the body shop. You follow, I mean, it just goes on and on and on and on. Look at it. What is it? Yeah, but Michael, those are all brick and mortar companies. Ryan, every company is a brick and mortar company if it's successful. Facebook is a brick and mortar company.

Do they have offices? Do they have people in those offices? Oracle is a brick and. and mortar company. Go visit its headquarters if you don't believe me. Microsoft is a, you follow what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. So all these folks who are attracted to info marketing, info marketing, it's called, how can I make a lot of money without having to build anything? How can I make a lot of money without actually doing the work? How can it make a lot of money without having people? Nobody wants to have people. How I do this all by myself, I don't need people.

Is that how your business is set up? No, not at all. How was your setup? My business is set up getting ready for scale. Okay. We're going to be in 150 cities by the end of 2018. Wow. We're going to have a new dreaming room appearing every month in 150 cities in the United States

and many countries as well. We're going to have a dreaming room leader in every one of those cities. We're going to be building an enterprise that, in fact, is going to reach out to the streets of every city on the face of this planet to every small business. Global, local, global, local, global, local. That's the formula that everybody's got to pay attention to. So you are absolutely not slowing down. No, no, no.

I'm actually ramping it up. I was going to say, it feels like you're getting ready to explode here. We are, we are. And we're starting, and here's the good news. And all of this is being launched in San Diego, California, on December 9th, 10th, and 11th, when we deliver, I deliver my first new dreaming room. And that dreaming room is the platform for the enterprise I've just described that's going to grow to 150 cities. And we're going to have people just like me faithfully learning, actually exercising that, leadership role in that dreaming room. Once every month, once every month, once every month,

with 50 to 100 people participating in it to awaken the entrepreneur within. That's the credo that we talk about, the mantra that we speak about in the dreaming room, to get ready to grow a company of one to a company of 1,000. We're going to simply begin to put the pedal to the metal of economic growth. We intend to become the preeminent provider, of economic development growth worldwide. I intend to enjoin you and anybody who's passionate about what I'm sharing with you to join us and to become a leader in that process. Because if you can't do it local, you can't do it global.

And so effectively, in your town, in your city, there are countless small companies suffering. Our job is to end that suffering. And the only way we can end that suffering is to change the way they think. And the only way we can change their way they think is by inspiring them to think differently, to have an epiphany, to have a moment of insight. And that moment of insight is absolutely critical if they're ever going to awaken the entrepreneur within. And so forth and so forth and so forth and so forth. So this is an invitation, everybody listening to us, to join us, because the book is

being launched in December as well. And so the book is being launched in December. All they need to do is to go to www. beyond e-myth. B-E-Y-O-N-D-E-M-Y-T-H.com. And they can get a free preview of my new book.

They'll read enough of it. And by the time they've read what I send them at no cost to them, they'll completely understand the point that unless you have a dream, a vision, a purpose, and a mission, you're not an entrepreneur. But once you have a dream, a vision, a purpose, and a mission, you can awaken the entrepreneur within you to go far beyond anywhere you ever imagined to build a scalable company from scratch. So we're also saying we're not in the business of fixing broken businesses. We're in the business of starting new ones. So think, Brian, there are two components to this picture. On the one component is what I call Old Co. Old Co is the company everybody's

got right now. We're not doing, we're not fixing Old Coe like every coach is doing. We're inventing new co. I don't mean startups. I mean New Co. from a perspective that says that there is something waiting to be done. I don't want to fix what I got. I want to create what I want. And I want it because it has the ability to transform the state of whomever my customer base is. In my case, my dream back in 1977 was to transform the state of small business worldwide. That's what we're doing. My vision was to invent the McDonald's of small business consulting. turnkey. My purpose is that every independent small business can be as successful as a McDonald's franchisee. And that's no small feat. Because if every small business in Ohio could be as successful

as a McDonald's franchisee, the entire economy of Ohio would be turned on its ear. And finally, our mission was to invent the business development system. that would make it possible to do all that. We've done all that. Now we're stepping out to do something new. We're not fixing that. We're creating this. And that's why I call it beyond the e-meth.

And that's why I call it the evolution of an enterprise. And that's why I call it from a company of one to a company of 1,000. And that's why I say to everybody listening to us right now, this isn't something you can't do. This isn't a hair-brained idea. This is keeping it simple, stupid. This is what everybody must do. This is going to become the power source for small business.

Just plug in. Everybody's going to be doing this. There won't be a small business on the planet who won't be doing this, and everybody can afford it. Isn't that cool? Everybody can do it, and everybody can afford it, but they can't afford not to. Yeah.

Well, this has been really great. Mike, I appreciate the fact that you've brought so much energy to this conversation. I loved it. I absolutely want to continue our dialogue as we both progress, man. Super. We'll do it. Absolutely got to do it.

All right. And just remember December 9th, 10th, and 11th. Join me. I'm going to be leading the new dreaming room in San Diego, California. Don't miss it. There are only 100 seats. Oh. So you've got to register for that dreaming room.

100 seats and the price of admission is only $5,000. So somebody says, Michael, I want to do it. I want to do it. I want to do it. Go to beyondemith.com and get the preview of the book and then sign up and let's do it. Sounds good, man. Well, thanks again, Michael. I appreciate it.

I loved having you. And like I said, let's keep chatting as we both progress, man. Let's do it for sure. Thank you. Take care. Thank you, Ryan. Bye-bye. Bye.

This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over, but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to learningleadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.