When to Take the Leap

Podcast Transcript

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Nicole Winkler: Welcome to Lift Your Future, a podcast that teaches you coping skills through stories, methods and proven techniques to improve relationships and outcomes in your personal and professional life. I'm Nicole Winkler, a licensed therapist and executive coach. On this podcast, we'll share a relatable life experiences designed to help you grow. I will provide easy, practical ways to develop thoughts, feelings and behaviors to impact your life, both personally and professionally. My goal is simple to help you lift your future. Welcome to this episode of Lift Your Future! Today, we're going to talk about company and culture. We're going to talk about leadership, and we're going to talk about taking a big leap of faith in a goal that you have. Our guest today is Shaun Peterson. Well, welcome, Shaun. Thank you for being on Lift Your Future podcast today. I know that you recently took a big leap to go out on your own as an entrepreneur, so I thought that you would have some excellent tips for our listeners about when to take that leap. How do you know when the time is right? What advice have you gotten over the years and kind of go through your story?

 

Shawn Peterson: Hey, absolutely. Thanks so much for having me, Nick. Happy birthday, by the way, even though I know this will probably play at a later date.

 

Shawn Peterson: I don't think there is a perfect time to take the leap. I think the time is always now. One thing that I've really spent a lot of time discussing in the past few months with other entrepreneurs or people that want to become entrepreneurs is this concept that everything that I was afraid to give up, I ultimately gave up to do it anyway. So you know me a little bit, but I had other homes and boats and was doing trips, and I had a lot of fun things going on. And those were the things that actually, in hindsight, probably held me back from making the leap earlier. But ultimately, I had to let go of all those things anyway. So all I had done is delayed the inevitable by not making the leap four or five years ago. But ultimately, we're here today and I'm happy that I've made it now.

 

Nicole Winkler: Yeah, yeah. So can you speak a little bit more to kind of the sacrifice that's involved with making the decision to go out on your own?

 

Shawn Peterson: Absolutely. I think that there's really nothing more rewarding than ultimately chasing your dreams, fulfilling a vision and being satisfied when the day comes that you're no longer with us. And so with that, you have to be willing to put it all on the line. It's going to take more money, more hours, more energy, more connections than you probably ever thought it would to be successful. But I'll tell you, I'm having a blast with it, and I've been able to be really successful already in just a short period of time by going all in. And when I say that I never sugarcoated, I put it out there on social media all the time. I've had to cash out retirement home equity, sell things, leave jobs that were paying what most people do really happy making and move a couple of times. There's a lot that goes into it. But as it starts to come together, I don't think there's probably been many things in life that are more exciting than seeing have a vision fulfilled and become a reality.

 

Nicole Winkler: Well, because there's dreamers and there's doers and and I think traction. The EO book Traction says it best when they say it's something to a dream. A dream is a dream, but it's really a hallucination until you make it a reality.

 

Speaker3: Yeah, I would

 

Shawn Peterson: Maybe take one little twist on that, which is I think everybody has a dream. I just think that there are certain dreamers that will actually go after the dream. And so they get viewed as the visionaries, the entrepreneurs of our fallen eagles. And then there's doers. A lot of doers have a dream with them, too, but they're just not confident enough to make that leap, and maybe they don't know how they would monetize that dream. But I've seen people be successful in many different areas and be able to have commerce, whether it's art, music, sales, therapy, coaching. I mean, no one wants, it really doesn't matter. There's probably a market if you're willing to put in the time and energy and work. That's where I feel like the piece falls for most people is ninety nine percent of human beings aren't willing to put in the work that it takes to be successful. I was watching an Elon Musk video recently, and he was talking about putting in one hundred and twenty hour work weeks. And if you know anything about his story and how he's gotten to where he's at, it's pretty remarkable. But he's been willing to do things that frankly, ninety nine point nine nine percent of people just won't do to actually accomplish his goals and dreams.

 

Nicole Winkler: Mm hmm. Exactly. So what did you have to do to accomplish this dream? I know it's still early on. It's still early on for you. But already we've had conversations about I'm so glad I did this. This is what I'm supposed to be doing. I did it last year, went out on my own, and so I'm still pretty fresh and new as well in the entrepreneurial world world. But what have you had to to do? What's the mindset that you've had to keep pushing on the days where it gets tough?

 

Shawn Peterson: Well, philosophically, I think the key here is you have to raise your standards. So when you raise the standards of what you think, you're worth, what you think your times are at the impact you want to bring to the world, that excitement and drive will pull you. And then it's about executing and having the discipline to do it day in and day out, even when you don't feel like it, which there's some days that you don't feel like it. And part of what I do to try to challenge myself is I did six hundred and seven workouts last year. My goal was fifty two books. I fell short. I got forty seven done. So I I'm going to go for fifty two again this year. But you have to start setting that mindset in all areas of your life because you can't really be mediocre over here and then be excellent in elite over here. It just doesn't work that way. And so if you can start challenging yourself in any area of your life and begin to show your mind that you're someone that executes and what they say they're going to do, it starts to grow for you and that confidence starts to grow. And so there's people that will talk about the concept of make your bed in the morning, brush your teeth like you've already accomplished something. Some goal has been done, and those are obviously very small. But if you're not ready quite to make the leap, start setting a goal of if I wanted to do a side hustle, how many hours a week would I set aside to actually make that come true? How many books will I read to become an expert in my side hustle? Whatever.

 

Shawn Peterson: If it's graphic design, it's graphic design, how many YouTube videos and I wanted to watch? Am I willing to invest in a training course? What am I willing to do to put myself down that path so that someday I can have a business doing just graphic design if that's what somebody wanted to do? But most people want to go to work and work 40 hours and I say work 40 hours, there's the water cooler time and all those other things that go into it and then they get home and they don't want to invest the time. So there's a calculation that I'll use with people. There's one hundred and sixty eight hours and a week, let's say you slept seven, right? So now you're down to one hundred and nineteen. If you spent two hours a day really intense with your family, you put all devices the way you were very present, very focused. That'd be a lot for most people and you get a lot accomplished. So that's another 14 officer. One hundred five, you spend two hours a day eating, showering and working out, so you're at ninety one. If you then work for 40 again, work and people can run a mile in four minutes so they can run it in 10. So when we say work, that leaves fifty one hours. So even if I gave myself two hours a day of that white space, like where did it go? So there's about thirty five to forty hours a week for the average person that no one really knows what happened or where it went.

 

Speaker3: Yeah, that's

 

Shawn Peterson: The difference between somebody that's a billionaire and somebody that's barely getting by and making forty fifty thousand a year.

 

Nicole Winkler: And I love that you brought up the point of like, we have time. That's one of my favorite things to say to people when they tell me I don't have time, it's like you had time, but you chose to do something else with it. That's something I learned a long time ago and try to remind myself of that, too. What did I do with that last 15 minutes? What did I do with that last half an hour, really? And if it can't really, if I didn't really accomplish anything, I'm not going to remember what I did with it. So I love that you brought that up. And then additionally, it's so small wins, those small victories like, Hey, I'm not closing up shop and quitting my job tomorrow and opening my own business, what do I need to do to get there? And I read a quote.

 

Speaker3: This week,

 

Nicole Winkler: Recently and it was I butcher quotes, quotes and jokes I butcher all the time, but it was something to to the effect of, you know, use your weekends or you're not trying to escape from your work week, use your weekends to create your next work week or your side hustle or whatever. It's going to be next. Why are we using our weekends to recover and recoup to go back on Monday and keep doing the same thing over and over again that we feel stagnant, bored, whatever that might be? Use it to improve yourself.

 

Shawn Peterson: Yeah. So I think the quote is something like instead of using the weekend to escape your life, use the weekends to create the life you want.

 

Nicole Winkler: That's exactly what it is.

 

Shawn Peterson: Yeah, yeah. And so that concept is there. The other thing is knowing your value time management at the concept, I teach a lot with sales and with leaders.

 

Speaker3: But really,

 

Shawn Peterson: What that comes down to is what am I supposed to be doing with my time and what's the value of that? And like a quick example is you can only cut the expenses down to nine, right? But you can make the top line in your business, go to infinity as high as you want. And so I know a lot of people that will mow their own one something they could pay somebody and say 50 dollars to do for that hour or, well, maybe not your yard, but the rest of us fifty dollars for that hour. If you take that over the year, that's fifty two hours. So it's like a week or excuse me, it's about a week and a half worth of working hours that you could have gained, and the expense on that would have been somewhere around twenty five hundred bucks or depending on what you're doing, could have you made more than two thousand five hundred dollars if you had put that time and energy into something that could produce revenue? Now, if you start looking at all those little things that you do throughout sales, throughout business, throughout life that just eat up your time. That's how you buy your time back so you can buy your time back with software. You can buy your time back with outsourcing to other businesses. You can buy your time back with hire and employees, and that's how you create time. So there's a myth out there that we all have the same twenty four hours. That's not really true because somebody that has one hundred employees also has eight hours a day of their time. So they have eight hundred plus they're twenty four. So they have eight hundred and twenty four hours

 

Speaker3: For the day.

 

Shawn Peterson: And that's how you continue to scale. And even if those

 

Speaker3: People are

 

Shawn Peterson: Only a seven out of 10 on the scale of whatever you're really great at, but there are seven out of 10. If you took one hundred, you still added 70 net employees.

 

Nicole Winkler: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And then that's what you help businesses do right is is gain time back through AI, through people, through performance, leadership, all those things. So can you speak a little bit more to that?

 

Shawn Peterson: Yeah, absolutely. So quantum business solutions helps organizations systemized, optimize and automate. There are people, processes and technology around revenue growth, and so nobody

 

Nicole Winkler: Knows how long did it take you to memorize that? Because I've heard you say that like many times now, and it is like on how long did that take you to like, define it, get it down, because that's a lot that's that's a lot to wrap my head around even.

 

Shawn Peterson: Yeah. So it took me probably about five minutes, but it's also my idea. So that's really not fair. But one of the key concepts in business. And then I'll get back to your question that's made things so important is are you role playing in your life to have the conversations with the employees or your role playing of the sales conversations in every organization that I've been a leader in? We literally have a daily development call, so there's two key components that are different with working with me versus anybody else. We write down our life goals personal, professional, physical, financial, whatever it is every single morning. The second piece is we have a daily development call every single morning, so we actually role-play. Like, if it's sales, we're going to sit and role-play just the opening of a call over and over and over again. Not until we get it right, but until we're so good.

 

Speaker3: We never get it wrong. Mm hmm.

 

Shawn Peterson: And so that's how we end up knowing things like systemize, optimizing automate your people, processes and technology around revenue growth. And then everyone goes, Well, what does that mean when you look at the overall revenue generation cycle? It's a little bit different than just sales. It's a little bit different than just marketing because people usually break things into that. But as we continue to evolve with technology, more people have worked from home the ability to have sales and marketing and alignment, but with data with a great customer experience with nurturing the opportunities all comes together and that's where it created the quantum growth model. So who are we targeting? How do we attract them? How do we nurture the opportunity? How do we convert them into a customer? Then how do we allow that customer to get repeated referral business? And I can walk into an organization and usually within five or 10 minutes, pick out a lot of things that would make a big impact. And nobody I found yet has had that entire revenue generation process actually mapped out. And so we help businesses create ten times the sales productivity. They would otherwise have to eliminate the lack of funnel and slow revenue growth.

 

Nicole Winkler: Mm hmm.

 

Shawn Peterson: One key component I'm sorry to cut you off. One key thing that I think is important, too, is the client fit. So we have a meeting called the quantum client fit. I tell them the three reasons they won't do business with us right up front. And then I go right into our core values. If they don't match our core values, we're OK not doing an engagement with them. And so we'll go through our core values with every client and get their buy in. And that helps because our core values are growth mindset when, when, on and on. So that's very key when you're hiring people. And I think it's also very key when you're working with clients to be successful as you have to be in alignment and that starts with what are your values?

 

Nicole Winkler: Absolutely. I completely agree with that with my clients. I share my philosophy about life and business and how I'm not just going to talk about business. I'm not just going to talk about your life because they ebb and flow, and they intertwine so well together that if you work on one, the other one is going to be affected. And so wherever you want to start, we can start. But that's my philosophy. I think it's really important because there are some people that say, Well, I only want to work on business. Ok, well, if you only want to work on

 

Speaker3: Business, we can

 

Nicole Winkler: Talk about that. But if you're not willing to be open to the fact that that will impact your life in your relationships and your parenting and all these things, then what? What are we really doing here? They're not separate. They're together.

 

Shawn Peterson: Yeah, harmony. People talk about balance and they talk about blend, and somebody said it best the other day. But harmony is what you're looking for. Work life, harmony.

 

Nicole Winkler: Mm hmm. Exactly. So, OK, so you have employees now after starting recently. How do you get people to buy into your idea to your business? Because this has been a seed that was planted and you've been watering it and and it's growing. It's been growing and growing for many years. But how do you get other people? I think that that's a special kind of magic to be able to have other people see your vision and then buy into that and say, OK, I'm going to go work here.

 

Shawn Peterson: Well, first of all, you have to really care, and that's a key thing, right? So that's like a prerequisite. But I think the biggest thing that comes into play in our ability to recruit and that I want to talk about this concept a little bit because I think it's important for other business owners and leaders to hear, but you have to understand the goals. So we actually have a higher to retire process that I've created. Goal setting is in the interview process, so I want to know their goals before they even work for me or work with us because those are going to be the things that ultimately drive them. And if I can't correlate where they want to end up, where they are today, and if we're not somewhere on that path, because keep in mind, you're not going to keep most employees their entire career. So we should be somewhere on that path and authentically be able to help them. And again, back to the core values of the Win-Win growth mindset, one to take the leap, which is like risk. But everyone that works for quantum has an opportunity to make their life dreams come true. And what I mean by that it's not just a cheesy line, is when I look at their goals and I look at what they want to do, I know exactly what they each want to accomplish, and we are on a path for them to be able to do that through quantum, which when you talk about alignment, people going the extra mile, people want to work extra hours, do all the things it takes to be really successful.

 

Shawn Peterson: That's only going to ultimately happen if it comes down to everybody's winning and everybody's going the same direction. So I can't be successful without them because I need the team. There's only certain skills and gifts that I have, but they also need the vehicle, or at least have chosen this vehicle to reach their dreams and goals too. So it has to be a mutually beneficial relationship. And when someone starts in an organization, there should be a mutual agreement that happens before you even start working there, and that's what helps you hold accountability. So when they come in and they're a weekend, I'm able to say, Hey, Nicky wanted to sit down with you. Those are great goals you sent this morning. Let me ask you real quick, do you believe that everything you're doing today and the actions you're taking are going to help you accomplish those? Or do we need to make some shifts here and they'll recognize that that's way easier than to try to pound on somebody for what you want, because that's extremely difficult. So understanding what their goals are now and then the next step is helping elevate those goals by getting them to believe in themselves. A lot of people just need someone to believe in them and tell them what they'd actually be capable of. They don't even know.

 

Nicole Winkler: Yes. And it's.

 

Shawn Peterson: Yeah, I think back early in my career, I didn't even really know what was possible. And so there's always somebody else that has a different vision of the world that can see things in you that you can barely see in yourself. And so why would you believe so much in other people, but not in ourselves? And so that's like the second piece. And then when they get there, I just try to make them feel really special. So everybody that comes on board, one of the first thing that happens is they get to take out their. A loved one friend to a celebratory dinner. I want to celebrate and coming on board, I want this to be a big deal because it is a big deal and so that's something we do. We start out every single meeting with our core values so those keep getting pounded home or sending our goals every single morning. So when it comes to team building, it comes to culture, it comes to being on the same page. We're able to do that with the best of them because of some of the triggers and some of the things that we have in place to make sure that happens.

 

Nicole Winkler: Mm hmm. And you know this from your years working in organizations and businesses, in developing yourself and then growing and developing teams. So can you speak to your journey as a leader, you know, becoming a leader and believing in yourself enough to be on that path because there had to be people along the way that believed in you?

 

Shawn Peterson: Yeah. So one of the things I've been fortunate to have is a lot of different mentors. But I'll say the caveat to that is I also chased a lot of them down and went and found them. You've got to be you've got to be willing to go ask somebody to have coffee or to be a mentor. And not everyone's going to stick. Not everyone's going to fit, but some will. And successful people want to give back because they remember what it was like to not be where they are today. And so if they're really good people, a lot of times they'll get back to you. So that's key. But yeah, I really

 

Speaker3: Ended

 

Shawn Peterson: Up in sales by accident. So just I like transparency because it helps people feel better about where they're at and their journey. But you know, I started working when I was probably 12, and I would work on roofs and do all these things working with my family's business with construction at that time. I have details with corn. I've been in storm sewers like I've done all these things, so I knew I wanted to get in business and my first job in business was in a call center when I was 19 or 20 years old and I ended up becoming a manager there. And then that's when I really started getting excited about it. And so through that and there'll be like a really key point to this story, but through that, I gained my first experience managing people and this is like nine ten dollar an hour employees. And in a call center, it's a very challenging environment. And then I took a step back and ended up at a large credit card company and was in collections and did pretty well there and was making twenty dollars an hour or so.

 

Shawn Peterson: We'll we'll say I don't remember the exact amount, but it was about that and I had an internship opportunity and I didn't have a mandatory internship for my major, but I had an internship opportunity in Sioux Falls at corporate headquarters and I took it. So I took a step back and pay right. And then I ended up meeting the CEO and the executive team of a multibillion dollar company. That helped me kind of learn from there. And that's where I started learning data analytics and some of the other things that go into running really successful businesses, which ends up helping, like all these years later. Now, understanding that at the time, I didn't have any idea what any of that would be worth. I always wanted to be in marketing, ended up in a marketing agency after like just going above and beyond. That's one thing I could tell people. Always is going to get you head. Just keep trying harder. If you do 20 percent more than everybody else, you're going to get to sell results.

 

Nicole Winkler: Yeah, it shows up.

 

Shawn Peterson: And so I got this job at this marketing agency at about two and a half months, and they brought me to the outside. So how do you think this is going? And I'm like, It's fine. And they asked me if I liked the job anyways. I resigned. They fired me. I. It was a mutual ending. We'll call it, which is really usually a firing, but it wasn't the right fit.

 

Speaker3: And so I kind of started

 

Shawn Peterson: Working on that concept and they were nice about it. They paid me for like a month. I'd only been there for two months. I was like twenty two years old. And then I ended up in sales for the first time on accident, selling newspapers like ads in newspapers in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and so had a really great time doing that and ended up ultimately in copier sales. And I won't get into the details of this organization a whole lot. But they went through several leaders and my first couple of years, and then I ended up making my own pay plan, my own business plan, etc.

 

Speaker3: And

 

Shawn Peterson: Because I had an offer from medical device for, we'll just say like

 

Speaker3: Two hundred thousand

 

Shawn Peterson: A year. Mm hmm. And I made one hundred and thirty seven grand, I think my first year in sales selling copiers, first year as a VP of sales, I made one hundred and thirty five. So if you take the money from what I was doing in sales, but really from where I could have been going, I chose to go into the leadership route and then think of all the years until it took me to get to that. In that position, it took me like four years, probably to get up to that two hundred K in that role. And along the way, I ended up sitting there and this goes back to some times people need someone to believe in. I'm just sitting there with a couple of buddies and said, Man, I'd really like to have this consulting and coaching business, and one of them said, I'd hire you. So I went home and I thought he would. I made my own little plan up and took them to lunch the next. You can he paid me I probably wasn't very good at the time, but I still brought value and I said, Hey, man, I appreciate it. I've always been appreciative of this gentleman just for that. And he said, Yeah, sometimes people just need someone to believe in them. So like all these little things stick, right? So so far, like you're seeing me, I've taken steps back and pay from what I could have had two to three times already in this journey, and I'm not even close to where we're at today. And but I kept sacrificing your

 

Nicole Winkler: Leadership skills, and I found in many organizations to get into leadership. You have to be passionate about it. When you're passionate about it, you care about it. You're not getting paid, sometimes as much as the people that you're leading. But it shows and it makes a huge impact on the team and the culture in the organization.

 

Shawn Peterson: It's so big and you've got to have a vision. So I knew I wanted to be a CEO, and I knew that device probably wasn't the direction as much as this. So I did it right. And then ultimately, I wanted to make a decision to leave and start my own business and won't get into this a whole lot, but ended up going to North Dakota to run another copier dealership as the CEO for a period of time to help them kind of turn around some things they were going through. And then I had an opportunity to potentially own some businesses, is what we'll say, and I broke off and decided I wanted to chase my dreams. I wanted to live where I've always wanted to live, and so I just risked it all. And so if I look over the years, stay in my path, I'm not sure how you'd calculate this, but has probably cost me a few million bucks already because if I would have been making two hundred, if I'd even make another 70 grand. Ten years ago or eight years ago, and you keep parlaying that right. And so now here I am, and again back to everything that I've sacrificed to be here.

 

Shawn Peterson: But I have this opportunity where I always say I'd risk five hundred thousand for five hundred million, but it's really about the journey and all the people you can impact along the way and all the positive influence. And I love what I do. So like last week, I was talking at nine o'clock at night and I'd been working since six in the morning, so 14, 15 hours into the day and I sounded just like I do right now. My behavioral energy was still this high. Like, it's hard to go to bed. You want to just keep going. And at other points in my career, I've been sitting there after five or six hours thinking, when do I get to go home? Yes. And so that's why you go through the path. That's why you go through the journey. That's why you take the pay cuts like it's all building up to get into living the life that you want to live. I know that was the long answer there, but I walked you kind of through the path that I took, I guess.

 

Nicole Winkler: No, that's exactly what I wanted. So thank you for sharing that very much. And I think what you're also speaking to so much as authenticity being who you really are, where do you get your energy? And having that for yourself? But then also as you hire employees? I hear that that's so important as well. I want to make sure that they are their most authentic selves. We are. We are authentic. So if those two things are aligned, then the clients and the customers will come and we'll we're going to be we're going to be in alignment and everybody's going to be happy that win win mentality.

 

Shawn Peterson: I think well, so here's the here's the thing that I think is really important to look at is when you talk about alignment, you talk about when, when and really, truly doing the best thing for someone. We don't do any contracts.

 

Speaker3: And the reason

 

Shawn Peterson: For that, I don't want clients and I don't want employees that are only with me because there's a nasty contract. And so that's something I believe in at any point. If you're not the right fit for us or we're not the right fit for you, I'm completely OK with that. And now I know some businesses have hard goods and they've had to finance something. You've got to do that. But you know, there's this whole thing out there to hit on a point from earlier about this concept of nobody can find good people to hear that a lot. I don't think that's true because we went from zero. If you include myself to four or five people in a very quick period of time, excellent people, by the way, they're all past and all excited, all driven, talented. And I'm even doing it like I pay them as contractors, right? That's how I pay them. We don't have health benefits and they still want to come work with me because they see the the passion, they see the dreams that can come true for them. Then there'll be a company out there with one hundred employees that can't find one person to hire. Well, it's because it's not because there's no good people out there.

 

Shawn Peterson: We just had the great resignation. So think about what you're saying when people say that. So there's more people than ever that left their job. But yet you can't find anyone. It's probably not that there's no good people. They don't want to work for you. So then the question is, are you emotionally intelligent enough to sit back and think, Well, what is it about me or my culture or my organization? Do you have one? You should have one hundred recruiters at the organization if you're running a really good, strong company because everyone should be so excited about it, they're telling their friends and family to come work there. And so I really get a warrant out here in that from everybody that they can't find any good people. There's great people everywhere. You don't know how to ignite it within them and you don't know how to attract. Because maybe the only reason people are working for you is because you have a nasty contract or non-compete or something like that, well, that isn't really the the purpose of business. And if that's the only way you can hold people, then it's probably not going to be successful in

 

Speaker3: The long run. Mm hmm.

 

Nicole Winkler: Mm hmm. I believe that too. Self-reflection, though, right? Self-reflection and self-awareness, other awareness. And those are all components of emotional intelligence. And that is critical,

 

Speaker3: I think, for

 

Nicole Winkler: Culture and to keep people happy because we can have people come in and apply and get people in the door. But are they happy? Do they feel valued? I mean, we're finding more and more research is showing us. It's not necessarily about how much money people are making. As long as they make a living and a comfortable living. It's not about that. It's about feeling valued, feeling like they add something to the organization.

 

Shawn Peterson: Sixty seven percent of people, this is a stat from about a year ago, but sixty seven percent of employees aren't satisfied in their current position. So my question would be to somebody with one hundred employees, just an average company. Who are the sixty seven in either a you need to get them on board or B you need to let them go because it's not helping you to hold back people. And so like a theory of mind is, let's just say, a position on average would pay fifty thousand. And so what people will do is they'll go out and they'll hire two people for 50 grand, and then those two people will get together and gossip and be mediocre. And all these things will happen. I would rather pay somebody sixty five grand for that fifty thousand a year job. And let's say if the two that are getting paid 50 are busy and productive, we'll call them like seven out of 10, like 70 percent of the time. So you're getting one point four employees out of the two. You know what I mean with all the wasted energy in motion? Sure. But they're not happy. They're not a happy one point four. What if I pay someone sixty five? I get the best of the best and guess what? They go above and beyond. They're great. They're amazing, they're productive. They're an evangelist for the organization. I can probably actually get more out of the one person for sixty five than they're getting out of the two people for one hundred, and they're happy and pleasant and we're getting more accomplished.

 

Nicole Winkler: Mm hmm. Exactly. And that's what you look for. That's what you. So how do you find people like that?

 

Shawn Peterson: Well, they're all over. I mean, so you'll hear leaders say things like, well, you know, the average is making 18 bucks an hour. We pay 19.

 

Speaker3: Ok, so you

 

Shawn Peterson: Want like one notch above average, but yet you want amazing people. I would almost challenge somebody. Now I understand math and business models and financials, and it'd be hard if you just did it in one position to. I figure this whole formula out after you've already started, but take a job that pays 20 bucks an hour. Go post today that you're going to pay 30 for that same job or call people that are qualified. There's some things you do with automation, too to recruit to them, and I bet the quality of candidate goes way up. Or if it's one hundred thousand dollar position, look at paying one hundred and fifty for it. Or, you know, as an example, I bet you're going to get the best of the best for that position.

 

Speaker3: Mm hmm.

 

Shawn Peterson: And then they're happy. They're motivated. I know it's not all about money, but that concept is there. But if you want to, if you're trying to get one hundred thousand position filled for 80, which is what a lot of business leaders try to do. Well, why did you think you were going to get the best of the best?

 

Speaker3: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. That's a valid

 

Nicole Winkler: Point. That's a really good question.

 

Speaker3: And we're just

 

Shawn Peterson: Using the money side, but pretend it's the culture, pretend it's the work, our whatever it is that they're looking for. Give them more than they would expect and see who you end up recruiting.

 

Speaker3: Mm hmm.

 

Nicole Winkler: And something else that you said earlier about the recruiting that you've done for your business in particular. And I know that you've done this with other organizations as well prior to going out on your own, finding out what motivates people. Are they intrinsically motivated, intrinsically motivated? And you spoke to that. What are your goals? Do they align like? Do we fit in that I'm not going to bring you on board if that's not what? What is going to work best for you? And so speaking of that, how do you figure out what motivates people?

 

Speaker3: Well, if they write

 

Shawn Peterson: Down their goals, they'll just tell you it's like a customer telling you exactly what to do to sell.

 

Nicole Winkler: Yeah, but I get goals. I get, I get clients, I bring in goals and it's kind of like a lot of fluff. I have to pick through it, get to the bottom of it.

 

Shawn Peterson: Well, if you're writing them down every day, though, what happens is they have to reflect on them and they start every day and they start to realize which ones maybe aren't as important and which ones are really sticking to and holding on to. Those are the ones that are really bringing the bang for the buck. I think most people just want to be heard. They want to be treated with respect, they want to feel valued, everybody wants to feel valued. And I don't mean feel valued, like, Hey, I gave you a raise. I mean, like their opinion matters, they're valued in the organization. Does that make sense?

 

Nicole Winkler: Absolutely. And so I have the same belief system. I think people really need to be heard and felt.

 

Shawn Peterson: It's kind of like if you're if you're in a relationship and you send flowers on Valentine's Day, it's expected. So if you give someone a trophy at the all company meeting at the end of the year, that's kind of expected. It's the random thank you's. It's the random things you do throughout the year that will mean more to them. So go give an employee five hundred bucks or go recognize them out of nowhere. Take them somewhere for a one on one coffee. I've learned over my career. If you get people onto neutral ground, they become a lot more open and will share a lot with you. So I always try to take employees out there like a coffee or lunch or something because it's a different environment than in the office. Because just from a physiological standpoint, if I'm behind the desk and you're over there and I'm in a higher chair than you, you're probably not open it up. Not the way you would if we were out on neutral ground.

 

Nicole Winkler: Mm hmm. So developing and fostering and building relationships?

 

Shawn Peterson: Yes, absolutely. Mm hmm. Really, truly know what?

 

Nicole Winkler: I'm sorry.

 

Shawn Peterson: Yeah. Really, truly know the people.

 

Speaker3: Yes.

 

Nicole Winkler: Yes. I'm going to switch gears here for a minute because I know you are an avid reader, and I'm curious if you can give us your top two or three books that have helped change and mold your mindset.

 

Shawn Peterson: Well, I think one of the best books for changing your mindset is probably grant curtains 10 x rule. So he goes into the theory of like big goals and massive action, et cetera. So that's a great one. One book that I go to, I don't know if it's mastering the mindset, but I still love Dale Carnegie and just how to communicate with people. It's so easy when you're a driver in your high energy to lose track of communication basics, and every time I go through that book, it kind of slows me down and reminds

 

Speaker3: Me a little

 

Shawn Peterson: Bit again. And I think that always helps communication go much better. Mm hmm. And as far as big mindset stuff. I do a lot of business books that are like somewhat tactical and sales and those sort of things. Not as much of the mindset. Most of that usually like podcasts or videos, but. Probably, I prefer to say the 10x rule. That's the one that changed me the most to think bigger. To execute.

 

Nicole Winkler: Actually, I love your story about that one. Would you mind sharing it?

 

Shawn Peterson: Which story are you looking for specifically

 

Nicole Winkler: The one about how it was like this book that somebody gave you? Isn't this the book that somebody gave you to read?

 

Speaker3: And then you just kind

 

Nicole Winkler: Of read it and then you bought it for all your employees?

 

Shawn Peterson: Yeah, yeah. So this is this is a business example, too. But so I found this book maybe twenty fifteen or so bought it on audible for nine bucks.

 

Speaker3: Listen to it. And I thought,

 

Shawn Peterson: Well, this is great, so I give all my employees. And they went through it. One of my employees actually bought another one of the books. The team there at Cardon reached out to me and said, Hey, do you want to get on this card on university? And I was like, No. But eventually I took their demo and did it. And then years later, they've literally got millions and millions of dollars of business through me, my referrals and some other ways that they've been able to monetize the relationship with me. And it all started with like a nine dollar audible book. So who you never know who in your customer base is going to be your raving fan? And most of us will be very happy if we had just a couple raving fans that way, right? But the thing too is. I really felt like it made an impact. They were just selling a widget, it was something that I believed in and I felt like made an impact, and so I really took it on.

 

Speaker3: I became an evangelist for it.

 

Shawn Peterson: And you need that. There's a few other lessons here,

 

Speaker3: But direct

 

Shawn Peterson: Selling isn't as easy as someone else referring you in, because then you're like 70 percent on the buying cycle. And that's kind of the concept of some of the stuff that quantum is to is like, how do you get people warmer before you actually try to put the sell on them?

 

Nicole Winkler: Mm hmm. Yes. And all of it, we trust people. So when we trust somebody and I get a referral even for a haircut, who should I go to for a haircut? If I like somebody's hair and they recommend somebody, I'm going to go to that person. So we really do take people that we trust. We take their opinion as fact and weigh it very heavily.

 

Shawn Peterson: Yeah, absolutely.

 

Nicole Winkler: Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I appreciate it very much. You are in warm weather right now. I'm jealous.

 

Shawn Peterson: Seventy five, I'm looking at the mountains. The Sun. Don't stop. I don't know. Maybe I hit the pool after this. Finish out the workday over at the pool.

 

Speaker3: We'll see.

 

Nicole Winkler: But rounding it out, like there were a lot of sacrifices that you've made to be able to do this and live this life that you're living now. And I know we talk frequently and but it's something you're very grateful for. It's something your gratitude is very high for it and you're very happy with the decisions that you've made.

 

Shawn Peterson: Yeah, absolutely. And the only thing I would tell anybody that's listen is make the sacrifice sooner because nothing's going to feel better. And all the other things that you're worried about are going to take care of themselves because even if you failed and you went bankrupt or whatever, you think, the worst case scenario is that you can come up with in your head what you're going to learn and who you're going to meet and the growth that you're going to have. You would pop right back up. So if you're leaving a one hundred thousand year job to go do your own thing, you can replace the one hundred thousand your job over and over again, especially after you pick up all the skills and mindset that you'll get from doing your own business for a while.

 

Nicole Winkler: Yeah. Failure is absolutely the biggest opportunity sometimes we

 

Speaker3: All get

 

Nicole Winkler: To experience.

 

Shawn Peterson: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for having me on. I appreciate

 

Nicole Winkler: You. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Look to Your Future. Make sure you like and subscribe and leave a review.

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We'll see you next week.

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When To Take the Leap

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