How can entrepreneurs align passion with business for success?
I’m thrilled to share with you some exciting insights from our latest podcast episode. We had the pleasure of hosting Chad Price, a seasoned entrepreneur, author, and athlete, who shared his wisdom on aligning passion with business for ultimate success.
Passion and Expertise: Chad emphasizes the importance of identifying your passions and becoming an expert in those areas. He believes that by aligning your passion with your business, you can become more efficient and excel in your work.
The Power of Teamwork: Drawing from his sports background, Chad highlights the importance of building a strong team and the rewards of entrepreneurship. He believes that regardless of the specific idea or mission, team members should be fully committed to the overall goal.
Lifelong Learning: Chad mentions that being a lifelong learner is crucial. He emphasizes the importance of becoming an expert in your field and continuously expanding your knowledge.
The Rewards of Entrepreneurship: Chad talks about the rewards of building a successful business. He believes that even the challenges and setbacks along the way contribute to personal growth and make the journey worthwhile.
Appreciating Your Supporters: Chad discusses the importance of appreciating and valuing the people who support your dreams and business. He believes that brands should create a community of supporters who are proud to be associated with their logo and values.
Navigating Challenges: Chad explains that as a business owner, you are responsible for all the hard problems that arise. He believes that pushing through challenges helps build camaraderie and galvanize the team.
Vision and Goal-Setting: Chad emphasizes the need to visualize the goal and be open to change. He mentions the concept of a SMART vision, which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Setting the Tone for Success: Chad and I discuss the importance of creating a roadmap and setting the tone for success in business. The tone refers to the intensity and effort required on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to reach those goals.
COVID-19 and Business Decisions: Chad discusses the impact of COVID-19 on his business decisions. He emphasizes that as an entrepreneur, it is crucial to make strategic decisions that are best for the particular company.
I hope you find these insights as valuable as I did. If you’re curious to hear more, I invite you to listen to the full podcast episode. And remember, align your passion with your business, and success will follow.
Summary:
As the host of the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast, I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Chad Price, a seasoned serial entrepreneur, author, and athlete. Chad shared his insights on finding passion and expertise in business, and how to build a successful company. In this blog post, I’ll share some of the key takeaways from our conversation.
Aligning Passion with Business
Chad’s advice to listeners was to identify their passions and become experts in those areas. He believes that by aligning passion with business, individuals can become more efficient and excel in their work. For tasks that they are not as passionate about, Chad suggests outsourcing or finding someone who is passionate about those tasks.
Chad Price: The Serial Entrepreneur
Chad has an impressive track record as a serial entrepreneur, including founding Kettlebell Kings and orchestrating a multimillion-dollar acquisition. He has also ventured into natural lifestyle products with his new company, Life Grows Green.
The Journey of an Author
Chad reflected on his journey as an author, stating that holding his completed book was a significant milestone in his life. He aimed to share his knowledge and experiences in a digestible way for readers.
Leadership and Teamwork
Chad believes that there are different types of leaders, drawing inspiration from his experiences in sports. He emphasizes the importance of consistency, perseverance, and inspiring others through one’s efforts. He also discussed the importance of building a strong team and the rewards of entrepreneurship. He believes that regardless of the specific idea or mission, team members should be fully committed to the overall goal.
The Importance of Discipline and Lifelong Learning
Chad mentioned that being a lifelong learner is crucial, using his own experience with kettlebells as an example. He emphasizes the importance of becoming an expert in your field and continuously expanding your knowledge.
The Rewards of Entrepreneurship
Chad also talked about the rewards of building a successful business. He believes that even the challenges and setbacks along the way contribute to personal growth and make the journey worthwhile. He compares the sense of accomplishment in business to winning a state championship in sports, where the excitement and reward are unmatched.
The Success Formula
In the second part of Chad’s book, he shares his success formula, starting with the importance of appreciating and valuing the people who support your dreams and business. He emphasizes the need for good coaches and leaders to be empathetic and make people feel connected to something bigger than themselves.
The Role of a Leader
Chad explains that as a business owner, you are responsible for all the hard problems that arise. He mentions that pushing through it means tackling and overcoming these problems while inspiring and motivating your team.
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
Chad emphasizes the importance of learning from his own experiences and the challenges he faced while setting up the operation and infrastructure. He believes that constantly seeking growth and being passionate about one’s business are essential for success.
Vision and Goal-Setting
Chad discusses the importance of vision and goal-setting in building a successful business. He mentions the concept of a SMART vision, which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Creating a Roadmap and Setting the Tone
Chad explains that the roadmap is like a strategic plan, outlining the steps and actions needed to achieve goals. The tone, on the other hand, refers to the intensity and effort required on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to reach those goals.
The Impact of COVID-19
Chad discusses the impact of COVID-19 on his business decisions. He acknowledges that the pandemic has had both positive and negative effects on different aspects of his company.
In closing, Chad highlighted the importance of overlapping personal passion with business endeavors. He encourages entrepreneurs to become experts in their passions and outsource tasks that they are not as passionate about.
I want to thank Chad for sharing his insights and experiences with us. You can find him on his website, social media platforms, and LinkedIn. And remember, always strive to build a vibrant culture in your business.
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Chad Price: Try to find what you’re passionate about and become an expert at that. And if there are other things that you’re not as passionate about, maybe you have to do them at first because you don’t have the resources, but try to outsource them, or find someone who does have a passion for those to do those things. Ultimately, you’ll be more efficient and better at what you’re doing. If you can kind of overlay your passion with your business.
Voice Over: This is the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast, your source for the strategies, systems, and insights you need to turn your dreams into your destiny. Every week we dive into dynamic conversations as our host, Nicole Greer, interviews leadership and business experts. They’re here to shed light on practical solutions to the challenges of personal and professional development. Now, here’s your host, a professional speaker, coach, and consultant, Nicole Greer.
Nicole: Welcome, everybody, to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. My name is Nicole Greer and they call me the Vibrant Coach. And today I have an author, an entrepreneur, and an athlete with me today. So I have with me the author of this book, look at this, Preparing for Battle by Chad Price. I’m so glad to have him here. Let me tell you a little bit about him. Chad is a seasoned serial entrepreneur. He can’t get enough of this stuff, and he has an impressive track record spanning over a decade. He founded Kettlebell Kings from scratch and orchestrated a remarkable three year, don’t miss this, multimillion dollar acquisition back in November of 2021. Today, it stands tall as a thriving international company making waves in the esteemed Inc 5000. And in 2019, Chad pivoted into another passion of his natural lifestyle products. His new company, don’t everybody write this down, Life Grows Green, is uprooting negative stereotypes about hemp and creating new products by only using the elements found in nature. And you can find more about him at chad price.com. Welcome to the show, Chad. I’m glad you’re here.
Chad: Thank you for having me. Thanks for the nice intro as well.
Nicole: Yeah, of course. All right. So what’s it like to be an author? What happened the day you held this in your hand? What was that like?
Chad: Oh, I mean, it was an interesting experience. I mean, I think writing it was more than actually physically holding it. So, like, seeing it completed, that was like a kind of a milestone in my life, like I think, um, but you know, the fact that I had kind of a ten year journey in the sale that really gave me a chance to recap and, you know, turn the next chapter in my own life. So, I tried to kind of culminate everything I learned so far in a book and really put that information in a way that I think is most digestible for most people.
Nicole: Oh that’s fantastic. Well, in Build a Vibrant Culture, my company, we work with leaders to help them, you know, get lit from within. And you being a central, serial entrepreneur and being somebody who’s been in business for a long time, I know that you have that inner energy. I’m just curious. I’m collecting definitions of leadership. How do you define leadership?
Chad: Well, I mean, I think there’s different, you know, different types of leaders. So, I take a lot of my experiences from, from sports and from the athletic teams I’ve been on. So I’ve had coaches who are, you know, completely just a hard ass and, you know, is there a way or the highway. And then I’ve had people who are more democratic, I’ve had more dictators. Um, you know, it’s really so, so many different ways to do it. I try to talk about this in the book, the different kinds of leadership, the different types of learners, different things like that, so that you can kind of find your own style. I don’t think there’s one type of leader. Um, you know, if I was looking to try to say, what’s the common denominator, I think is consistency, perseverance, you know, having that kind of grit to continue the fight no matter the circumstances. Um, and people, when they see you putting that level of effort for, uh, it’s kind of hard not to get behind that in terms of a leadership in trying to inspire people.
Nicole: All right. So, tell me a little bit about your story. So in your book, you talk about growing up and that you discovered sport and fitness. Uh, you actually won a football state championship. Tell me a little bit about your background, and then let’s talk about how you developed Kettlebell Kings.
Chad: Sure. When I mean, I grew up in a small town, Bay City, Texas. Growing up there was, you know, not much to do besides sports. So I played sports 24/7. You know, I was outside every day for, you know, 12 to 16 hours, probably every single day playing some type of sports or, you know, started off recreationally, got a lot more competitive as I got older. So when I got to high school, I really started focusing on, you know, what was my next step going to be. And that culminated with me getting a football scholarship to Rice. And so I’ve had so many kinds of sports experiences in every different type of sport, um, sports where I’m on team sports, individual sports. And I really learned so many lessons from trying to improve myself in the, in those particular activities. And I take a lot of those lessons into entrepreneurship. So, you know, when I started my companies, I had no idea how to do a lot of the things. But I knew, like sports, I was going to have to practice every day. I was going to have to get better and really try to create a regiment of skills or a regiment of activities that would develop those skills that I needed to succeed.
Nicole: Yeah. So you said you learned a lot of lessons and you’ve brought them forward. Share with us a lesson that you learned in sports and how you apply it to entrepreneurship.
Chad: I mean, even when I talk about it in the book, you know, a good example I think is just brand building. Um, at the time when, like when I was in high school, I did not realize what brand building was. You know, I wasn’t even thinking about brand building. I was just, you know, trying to figure out who I was going to be as an adult, I think. Um, but I saw I got an opportunity to see a new coach coming into my high school. And in that first year of him coming in, we won a state championship. And he did create a new brand in that short amount of time that he came there. And I saw everything from, uh, the graphics and the material and promotional marketing, everything he did with the city, the networks of people that he influenced and worked with and tried to partner with and kind of create some type of culture and sustainable momentum, if you will, uh, behind the community. I saw him actually do that, and I was an observing kid, but I didn’t realize I was observing him build a brand. But now when I, you know, once I started my own company, I was like, you know what? I’m kind of doing that now. And, and I could reflect on those types of lessons that you know, fortunately for me, were business lessons as well as just lessons in kind of brand building and trying to achieve something that’s bigger than yourself.
Nicole: Yeah. Isn’t that so fun? All right, so tell me a little bit about how you founded Kettlebell Kings. You talk about it in chapter five in your book, and it’s a great story. Tell us a little bit about how that got started. And, you know, one of the things that a lot of people are listening is, you know, starting something and being responsible for it, you know, giving birth to a business, it’s a big deal. Tell us about how you got that started.
Chad: Sure. When I was in college, you know, I always kind of knew. And even before college, I kind of knew I wanted to potentially start my own company or work for some type of company that I, you know, extremely respected. I want to be a part of a unit or a team that did things that other people you know, aspire to do or looked up to, and I thought I could do that through my own company. But when I graduated, obviously, like anyone else, I need to make a living. And, you know, I need to try to figure out what I’m going to do and kind of where I fit in a company or a larger role. So I had quite a few different jobs, ended up in oil and gas. And while I was working there, I was progressing pretty good in my career there and was kind of setting myself up to where I knew that if I wanted to have a stable, you know, corporate job, I could have that. But if I wanted to start my own company, you know, I kind of need to make that decision. And when I decided to make that decision, I got two of my friends together. Um, and really, I just started asking around in my friend group to people who I talked about before, and I just said, hey, I really want to start my own business. And, you know, I’m doing this kind of with or without you. And I’d love to find two people who want to join me. And I didn’t even know what the company was going to be or anything. When we started this, it was just like, hey, I want to start something online. I want it to be e-commerce. I want to build an online community of people who really appreciate the content generation and the extra value that we bring to a community besides just the product. So the product was almost like a second hand or secondary, uh, objective compared to really trying to build an online community of people who let’s say we’re enthusiasts about a particular topic and that ended up being kettlebells.
Nicole: Okay. That’s fantastic. So I’m kind of hearing that teamwork is important, right?
Chad: For Sure.
Nicole: Like I gotta find two people to help me out. Yeah. So with all of your football experience and then this entrepreneurial experience, what do you think the keys to teamwork are?
Chad: I think. I mean, it varies in a lot of different ways. You know, I think you have different size teams. I think you have teams that are trying to basically achieve something that one individual may struggle or can’t achieve on their own. And a lot of times, you know, I’ve had to do that so many times in my career. I tell people all the time, I didn’t like all the people that I played sports with, you know? I think no one does. You’re on a team with 100 people on the football team. You don’t like every single one of them, but it gives you an appreciation for the different roles, um, the effort and the discipline required to show up and practice every day, to run every day. And you start kind of respecting one another just because of the effort that you put forth towards that larger goal. And so for me, that’s what it was really about. You know, I mentioned not even having an idea of what the company was, that was important to me. So even if I would have had the idea, I wouldn’t have told them because I wanted them to be committed to the team, regardless of the idea, whether it was, you know, we’re going to, uh, mine moon rocks or if we’re going to build a kettlebell company. You know, I need you on board with the mission so that that kind of stuff, you know, it it kind of oozes from me, from my sports background where, you know, it doesn’t matter what the coach says we have to do, we do it as a team and we get it done together.
Nicole: Yeah, yeah. And I love the fact that you mentioned the word discipline. And I’m going to tell you that is something you definitely need if you’re going to be an entrepreneur or an athlete. So what are some of the disciplines that an entrepreneur needs or a business person needs to be successful?
Chad: I think one of the big ones is, you know, just being a lifelong learner, you know, thinking, thinking of your field as a never ending kind of learning journey. So, I knew nothing about kettlebells when I started, and I think that was a good thing for me. Um, and I approached things like this anyway, but I know it was a good thing because I was able to completely just nerd out on what is a kettlebell. What is the history of a kettlebell, what types of kettlebells are there, what types of workout affect, you know, people? In this way, you can keep going forever with these types of different perspectives of your particular field or industry. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs kind of miss that point, and they try to maybe outsource some of it, and it doesn’t really come off as genuine or as, uh, as authoritative as you would like. So for me, as a leadership role, there’s no one that knows more about Kettlebell Kings than me. There’s no one that knows more about life grosgrain than me. It just can’t exist because I’m always trying to outpace anyone else that’s even there. I’m trying to outpace my competitors. Uh, you know, I want to be more of an expert, and I want to be seen as more of an expert. So I think that requires some kind of life learning and, and educational efforts on your part as a, as a business owner and as a leader.
Nicole: Yeah. And I think that lifelong learning is like doing your sit ups, running your laps.
Chad: It’s the same.
Nicole: Yeah, yeah, absolutely I agree. Yeah. And you know, you’ve got a quote right before we get into part two of your book. And that’s where I really want to focus, because I think everybody listening can benefit from the ten building blocks and business that Chad Price has in his book. So he’s, uh, built a company, Kettlebell Kings, right, and he sold it. And now he has this new company. And so he knows how to do this. So we’re going to get the down low from Chad. But you said building a successful business has been one of the most rewarding experiences in life. So obviously you make money. But what are the other rewards you’re talking about?
Chad: I mean, I think it empowers you, right? I mean, I think when you achieve something that’s difficult, you actually you’ve proven to yourself that you’re capable of more things than you may have thought previously possible. Um, it makes you want to tackle new challenges. You know, I, I look back and even like the, the bad things that I experienced or, you know, those are the things that toughened me and made me who I am today. So, it’s almost hard to regret it when you’re going towards a positive goal. And I think starting your own businesses is one of those things that wants to succeed. It doesn’t matter how long it took to get there. You’ll be happy with having, having, having made it and having had something that is recognized by other people as something valuable. You know, I think even being recognized by other companies that are in the space and different things like that, those all bring a sense of, uh, appreciation and a sense of gratitude for how difficult the journey is. And, you know, I think it’s the same as sports. I remember winning the state championship in high school, and it felt like the world was ours there. Yeah, it obviously wasn’t and there were other things going on in the world. But to us in that moment
Nicole: And to a young guy that is everything.
Chad: It was everything. I mean, it was everything there. Because my excitement does not get any higher than that level of excitement. So I think it’s the same with the business. When you know you’ve done something that other people appreciate and you’ve kind of quote unquote made it, it just feels super rewarding. And I think if you’re an entrepreneur or if you’re a competitive person, you get something out of it.
Nicole: Yeah, 100%. And for those of you that are listening that aren’t entrepreneurs, you might be employed inside a company that is owned by an entrepreneur. These same lessons apply. Right.
Chad: For sure.
Nicole: You know, because you’re getting the life lessons along the way. Okay. So in the second part of Chad’s book, after he tells about his story with the Kettlebell Kings and how he did all that, he gives you basically his success formula. So please don’t miss that, everybody. Uh, so the first thing you say is building a team. Now, we already kind of touched on it, but, um, I love this. At the beginning of that chapter, you say, and I’ve already, you know, underlined and highlighted in the book. As you all know, I read all the books. It says a company is born to solve a problem or answer a need. And I just, that that is so important for everybody to understand. Why is this company boring? You know, it’s to solve a problem in the world. And, you know, you said you were so happy when you won the championship. Uh, so happy when you started Kettlebell Kings. You know, in my company, like, you know, we change people’s lives, right? And, you know, you might be like, it’s just a weight. No, it’s like we’re changing lives here. So I think that’s really important. So talk a little bit about how building the team and the fact that a company is born to solve a problem or answer a need, and how those two things work together.
Chad: For sure. And I mean, I’m glad you brought up like the state championship because I think it it even in the book, I talk about kind of my first lesson and really seeing that happen in the real world was the state championship, where, you know, the coach came in, he had a message, one thought, one goal: state champions. If anything deterred from that message, you were the problem. It was no such thing as well, this is going on but today this and you know it was no debating this. This was the reason we existed was for the state championship. That might seem intense and severe and harsh to some people. Um, but when you’re committed to a large goal like that, it builds a kind of a loyal fan base, a loyal community of people who really appreciate that effort towards that one goal. And it’s the same for a company, I believe is, you don’t have to be perfect as a human being. You don’t have to be perfect in life, but you can come to work and you can come to practice, and you can try to be perfect together every single day. And you can get better and closer to perfect. And what was, you know, previously impossible will become possible if you keep working together. I did every single day, and I think that’s what I try to do with my teams is I, I try to create that singular focus and that singular purpose that will drive everybody. And when the team gets distracted, when we were kind of deterring off of that path, I think it’s, you know, a leader’s job to say, hey, why are we here? We’re here to, you know, if it’s kettlebells, we’re here to support the kettlebell enthusiast community. That’s why we exist. There’s no other kind of your personal ego or anything else involved, and someone always has to police that and keep everyone on that, on that focus. And I think that’s what sports has taught me to do. And I’m pretty good at it.
Nicole: Yeah. Fantastic. And so you say the number one thing you need to do with the team is instill a sense of cooperation. So how does a leader get people to cooperate? What are some keys to doing that?
Chad: One of the things I think is as easy as you doing things that you don’t want to do a lot of times. Um, you know, I think a lot of times, especially when you have partners, you will have conflicting strategies on how to think, get things done. Supporting their strategy will give you a lot of leeway in the future. And I’m super big on that. So I mean, a lot of times I will even go as far as to support something that I know is wrong and I support it with the same effort and kindness and, you know, love and support that I, that I would if we were doing it my way or the right thing. And I think when people see you doing that, it’s one of those things where they know you have their back regardless and they know that they’ve been heard, and now you get an opportunity to really focus on moving as one. How do we continue to move as one? I like to tell people a lot of times in sports, especially football, it doesn’t really matter if you’re running a run play or a pass play, sometimes. It matters that everybody’s running the same play. So if everyone’s not running the same play, the chances of you succeeding is almost zero. But if you can get everyone running the same play, even a wrong play can go right because you have everyone on the same page. And that’s kind of the philosophy I try to take in, just getting people to move on the same page, even if sometimes we have to move, quote unquote, in a wrong or sideways direction.
Nicole: That’s right. Because otherwise you’re going to drop the ball, they’re going to get possession and it’s all over. Okay. All right. But another thing you say under, uh, build, uh, build, build a great team is that you say don’t take anything for granted. Why is it so important that leaders not take anything for granted?
Chad: I mean, I think, you know, people say terms like, you know, you could be anywhere here in the you could be anywhere in the world, but you’re here with me tonight type of deal, right? I think it is that kind of appreciation for people even being there in your space and committing any effort towards your dream, you know, it’s no one else’s dream for me to become a multi-millionaire. And the fact that they believe in quote unquote Kettlebell Kings or believe in Life Grows Green. That’s a, you know, that’s appreciation that I should show them as well for even seeing my light, seeing the effort that I’m putting forth, seeing the dream that I might have and trying to support that dream. So, I think good coaches and good leaders are, you know, they’re empathetic and they can kind of make people feel associated with something that’s bigger than themselves, where there’s extra value that goes along with that. Uh, you know, I tell brands all the time. I think a lot of brands miss out on having a community of people that would support them just because they’re proud to wear the t-shirt, because they’re proud to be associated with that logo and with that movement or with the, the, uh, values and culture that that movement stands for. And that’s what I try to create. And I try to show people that, hey, there’s additional value here for being a participant in the Kettlebell Kings community. Like, it’s bigger than just the paycheck that you receive. You know, it’s a, it’s a personal mission of mine. And if it’s a personal mission of yours, I want to empower you and whatever other personal missions you have in life. If I can empower those, I’ll empower those as well. But it’s more than just, you know, the points on the scoreboard.
Nicole: Yeah, and I love what you’re saying about, don’t miss this, everybody. He said, you know, people have a personal mission. They could work for your company, but they have a personal mission. And I couldn’t agree more. That’s one of my favorite things that I talked to people about is, uh, creating a mission statement for work in life. If you don’t have that from Nicole Greer yet, we build a vibrant culture, everybody reach out to me, and I will get it to you. So I think having a personal mission is absolutely huge. All right, so we’re going through, uh, Chad Price’s book, Preparing for Battle. Because it is a battle to build a business. But he’s given us his ten building blocks for business. And the first one was building a team. We got to get the team in place, and then we’ve got to do this thing you say, pushing through it. Will you talk a little bit about building my business? I got to be pushing through it. What is the it, in pushing through it? What are you talking about?
Chad: Well, I mean, I think, you know, a lot of people are unaware with the amount of potential problems that exist when you are complete owner of the company, you know, like, I think you you are you’re a little naive when you’re an employee that someone else takes care of that and someone else takes care of, you know, the most difficult decisions when you become the owner, at the end of the day, you’re responsible for all the hard problems. If it was easy, someone else would be doing it. And what’s going to happen is your desk is just going to be flooded day in and day out with the most difficult problems that the company faces. And you’re going to have to not only tackle and overcome those problems, but you’re going to have to do it with a smile on your face and do it in an inspirational way so that the team doesn’t get demoralized. And, you know, everyone’s still moving in a positive direction. So to me, that kind of pushing through it is about that and that, you know, that comes from my sports background as well. You have no money, no money. You have no idea how many times. I had to push through practice, had to push through running weights, whatever that may be. And you know, you do it in an inspirational way because you’re trying to make the team better. So you almost, you almost look for those opportunities so that you can show the team how committed you are, how much energy and effort you’re willing to put towards achieving this goal. And without kind of pushing through it, you don’t really have those opportunities to kind of galvanize your team and really build those moments of, uh, camaraderie that you know you will need for the future.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, if we relate it to sports, you know, pushing through it is just like, you know, building that endurance. And don’t miss what Chad said. He said, handling all the problems, which is absolutely true. And for those of you who aren’t entrepreneurs but may work inside of companies when you become the VP over a department or you are the manager of a team, he said, and I quote, “you have to do it with a smile on your face.” One of the things, Chad, I tell people all the time is, you know, leaders aren’t allowed to have a bad day, and they absolutely do not like it when I tell them that. But I’m like, because, listen, if you don’t show people how to navigate the tough spots, they’re not going to know how to do it with, you know, style, with proper emotional intelligence. You know, they’re not going to know how to do it. You got to be you got to do this thing, this old fashioned thing. Lead by example.
Chad: Yeah. And I mean, that’s the kind of stuff that I love. I’ve always been an observant person. So, you know, even when I was 14, I was watching my coaching staff and trying to figure out, okay, why are they treating people like this and what is the real goal behind this? And if I was a coach, would I do it this way, blah blah blah. And I’ve had coaches send other coaches home because they weren’t leading in the correct way that day. And I love that. I was like, oh man, this is serious. And it does send a message to everyone else that, hey, this when we come here, everyone puts their best, best foot forward to try to achieve this goal that we set forth at the beginning of the season. And if anyone can’t do that then sorry, you know, unfortunately, this is not the place for you. I really believe you have to kind of have some level of respect and commitment for that goal. And for me, that comes supernatural from my sports background. But I don’t think it comes naturally for most people. And that’s what I found since, you know, since I’ve graduated and started my own companies is for a lot of people that can come shocking that it’s a there’s kind of no days off as a leader, and you have to have that same level of commitment that you started with, you know, long after the emotions and the, uh, the passion that you, you know, initially used to, to fuel that is gone.
Nicole: That’s right, that’s right. Okay. So his second thing in how to build a company is pushing through it. And he says at the very end of that particular part of the book, he says pushing through it means not allowing obstacles to stop your progress. I mean, you know, one of the things that leaders need to do and I tell them, I have this yesterday, in fact, I was working with a manufacturing team and I showed them this image and it had like, a, a bus across an intersection and there’s a traffic jam on one side and a traffic jam on the other side. And I said, you know that’s the leader’s job. Get the bus out of the way so these people can do their jobs. And so the tough problems, you get them out of the way, you do it with a smile on your face. Chad, I love that. All right. So the third thing he says is you have to manage your money wisely. All right, and so this is what your daddy told you, your grandma told you. All your people told you this. Talk a little bit about getting your money in order. And this is personal and in your business, right? You’ve got to have all these things together.
Chad: For sure, I think it’s easier sometimes when you have partners because the resources at the company don’t get mixed with your personal income. You know, it’s very easy when you are the only owner of a company to mix your personal income with the business resources. But when you have either one of those situations, you have to, you know, you have to kind of take accountability as a leader and manage or, you know, budget everything that you’re doing. When they came to, let’s say, Kettlebell Kings, for example, we didn’t pay ourselves for five years, which I don’t recommend doing that, at all, for anyone. It’s a terrible five years to go through. Luckily for me, I had made other arrangements. I started another company. I started a nail salon at the same time, so that was able to generate cash flow for me while I was building this online brand and community. But also I had partners who were just as committed to me to seeing the company grow, and we didn’t want to pull money out. Every time it was time to pull money out, you could only think of more things that the company needed. So it was almost just continuously reinvesting into the company. With a growing brand, it will never not need new financial resources to grow. So, you know, it just became this kind of never ending cycle of us just dumping everything to grow inventory and to grow the brand. Well, at some point we even had to say, we need to get this budget in order and pay ourselves, or we need to, you know, do something else. We can’t do this forever. But at least we already had an understanding, and we already had clean books to look at and to make a decision on. Okay, this is where we need to go if we want to be able to pay ourselves $5,000 a month or $10,000 a month or whatever that is, we were able to construct that very clearly because we had budgeted, you know, for the last five years, basically, you know, dime to dime. We knew everything where everything was going.
Nicole: Yeah. That’s fantastic. Yeah. And he says on page 57, I made a little circle around this. I think it’s worth telling everybody, effective management of material resources is critical. You’ve got to have an inventory management, supply chain optimization, cost control, uh, maintain an adequate inventory, avoid wasting resources, and reduce your operating expenses and improve profitability. That’s all one paragraph, but that is a financial lesson in a major paragraph. Yeah, so you know, we’ve just got to do what the business moguls have been saying for years.
Chad: Well, for me, I learned it. I got to learn that lesson the hard way, especially with just setting up the operation and infrastructure. One of the things that I realized setting up a, let’s say, a kettlebell infrastructure is, you know, there’s not going to be many things that ship online that are going to cost more than that kettlebell shipping online. So it’s probably that the cost of shipping is more than the actual product itself at times and quite a bit of the time it’s more than the product itself. Unless you have a strategic, strategically placed in a geographical region close to where it’s being delivered, the shipping can really be a cost prohibitive for most companies to even get into this particular field. So you have to get your volume to a certain level before it even really makes sense to offer things like free shipping and these types of things. Well, we had to go through that process and work out all our efficiencies at the extreme end. So, when you have it at that extreme, you know 5% is a big deal. 2% becomes a huge deal because you’re paying so much. And we just have to continuously improve, improve, improve on that. And I think a lot of business owners miss out on that because they, you know, they’re worried about the tapping in versus, you know, making it as efficient as they can as they go along. So having those building blocks in place I think is what helps you scale and build a system that’s going to make money over the long run versus kind of looking for the short or the quick money upfront.
Nicole: Yeah, and I love what you’re saying. And again, even if you’re not an entrepreneur, if you wonder why the leaders in your organization are talking about the budget and squeaking, you know, the numbers and making sure the revenue is where it needs to be, is for this very reason. Right? We’ve got to have the money in a proper function so that we can stay in the black, keep people employed, and we can keep moving the thing forward. And in order to do that, number four, in your building blocks to building a company is having an entrepreneurial mindset and a high level of personal energy. And so, talk a little bit about entrepreneurial mindset. What is that exactly?
Chad: I mean, the way I describe it is you’re always looking to grow and you’re always looking to kind of create a creative deal, you know? It really never turns off. Um, you know, I used to tell people all the time, I used to sell kettlebells everywhere I went, there would almost be no such thing as me not talking about Kettlebell Kings. If I met somebody there, why would I not talk about that? Doesn’t make sense to me to not talk about it.
Nicole: Right.
Chad: And I think when you’re looking for opportunities like that, you find them. And I think when people see that passion in you, and that’s what you’re talking about, even if they’re not the opportunity, they go, oh, you know what? Who would love you? You know who would you know I’d love? I need to put you in contact with this person. That happens time over and time over. And it just wasn’t for me. It was with my business partners. And what you can get kind of your entire leadership group, your entire ownership group to think and move that way. It just opens up your networks completely for every opportunity that exists in that space. And that’s where we were able to do. And I think when you have that kind of focus and the personal energy to sustain that, it makes it very easy or a lot easier, I should say, to start a brand like Kettlebell Kings.
Voice Over: Are you ready to build your vibrant culture? Bring Nicole Greer to speak to your leadership team, conference, or organization to help them with their strategies, systems, and smarts to increase clarity, accountability, energy, and results. Your organization will get lit from within. Email her at nicole@vibrantculture.com and be sure to check out Nicole’s TEDx talk at vibrantculture.com
Nicole: And here’s the thing. You know people love a passionate person, right? Like it’s attractive. It’s like the law of attraction, right? It’s like, why is he so excited about kettlebells? You know, and and and then it goes back to what you said at the beginning, which is like, we have one focus, to get these kettlebells in the hands of people so they can have a better life. I mean, like, we’re not messing around here. This is big stuff, right? And what’s the difference between somebody, Chad who, is out of shape, doesn’t feel good in their body and someone who’s in shape and feels good in their body. What’s the difference?
Chad: Yeah, I mean, you see it. You can feel the energy. You can feel the kind of it. And I, I feel like especially from its sports, I feel like you’re seeing their previous work kind of on display. So, you know,
Nicole: That’s right.
Chad: When people work out physically, that’s what you see. You see the body that, oh, I want that body. And that’s years of working out. And that’s countless push ups and pull ups and whatever other exercises they’ve done. And when you have a passion and you’ve aligned that with your business, I think that really shows up in the same way because people are like, wait a minute, you really do do this. Like, this is something that you’re dead serious about. You’re a professional at, you know, if I, if I ever need anything in regards to this, you’re the guy. Well, that’s what I’d be trying to create. If, you know, when I’m trying to start off a community or a brand, I think every leader should be doing that and trying to inspire the people underneath them to move and think that way as well. Because if you want to move into that leadership role, if you want to start your own company, you know, no one’s going to kind of create that spark of energy other than you.
Nicole: That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. And I love it. You know, again, it goes back to lead by example. Right? You’re a walking talking example of what you sell and what you do and you’ve got this passion. All right. So number five in how to build your company is embracing the competitive playing field. So we’re back to football and business being a metaphor here. So tell me a little bit about how do I embrace the competitive playing field. What do I need to do?
Chad: Well, I mean, I think in every field there’s, you know, there are limited exceptions if you’ve created some product that does not exist. You know, it’s a it’s a patented new product that’s yours. And, you know, you can brand that and market that as you see fit. But in most companies that start it already, the company companies like you already exist. And I think a lot of companies miss out on kind of studying them and the market and understanding how these companies make money, understanding what their most lucrative products and services are. Um, really studying the competitive playing field that they’re going to go into. I compare that to playing sports. And, you know, in football, there’s no such thing as that’s not watching the other team’s games. Like we watch them religiously. I mean, we we watch their games as much as they probably watch their games. And it’s because we want to understand the capabilities, not just of them, but of teams that we’re going to play. And I think in business I try to do the same thing. So I would literally sign up and try to study every, you know, every fitness company. So before we started bookings, I literally signed up for every newsletter I could think of, every popular fitness company, every one that I thought, oh, you know, we’d like to have something cool like that. I would sign up and become one of their fans or customers to to really understand, okay, this is the level of expectation to build a community like this. And I think doing that kind of stuff calibrates you for the the effort and the, uh, the bar of where, you know, where you have to reach in order to really make, make, you know, progress. And for me, that that comes natural just from from watching film and sports.
Nicole: Yeah. That’s right. And, you know, doing a market survey on the people that are in the same business as you, it’ll tell you where you stand out, your unique selling proposition, right, and it’ll tell you where you’re falling short. So you’ve got to do your homework. You’ve gotta watch the tapes as he’s saying, okay. All right. So the next thing is you’ve got to have a clear vision and oh my gosh, I love this so much because I think this is something that, um, at the beginning of a company, there’s a vision. And as a company is around for a little while, if they don’t keep this fresh, we could get lost. So tell me a little bit about having a clear vision.
Chad: Yeah. I mean, I think you’re 100% right. I think even the vision can shift
Nicole: 100%
Chad: And it still needs to be kind of reiterated or reframed for the company so that people can understand it. Uh, when we started Kettlebell Kings, this great example, we didn’t, we didn’t even want to make our own equipment. Our original goal was to be a content generator for kettlebell enthusiasts who would bring every single kettlebell community to one place online. And then we would have a superstore where all the kettlebells from the world would be in that store, and we would just partner with brands and bring all of them, you know, we’d have a wholesaler relationship or, you know, we create up whatever kind of operational strategies we needed to make it make money. But we didn’t really even want to have our own brand. But as we started learning more about what kettlebells were, what the kettlebell enthusiasts really wanted, we realized, like, well, maybe we need to design our own kettlebell. And that’s what we keep getting asked by people that we’re, um, deeming to be the most credible people in this space. And eventually that’s what we did. And that kettlebell became the main kettlebell that people would use to compete internationally or nationally and internationally. So, you know, it ended up going great for us to go in that direction. But that was a shift from what we originally did. And when we shift it, you know, we basically told everyone, hey, we are manufacturing kettlebells now. So, you know, we take pride in the specs and the feel and every single thing about manufacturing and kettlebells, just as we would selling someone else’s kettlebell. So it was kind of an update of the original mission statement, but it was an update that everybody was kind of already aware of. And it wasn’t completely different, but it was something that complemented what we were already doing. And it really kind of focused us even more on how we were going to achieve that original mission statement.
Nicole: Mm. That’s fantastic. And so in his book, he’s got tips about this, about the vision as first you got to visualize the goal, be open to change. Like you just said, he thought he’s going to be the Amazon of kettlebells. And he ended up building his own. Uh, and then here is an oldie but a goodie in his book. Chad goes back to this thing that, I bet you many of our listeners have heard before, because you’ve got to have a smart vision, right? Something that’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. I think that’s huge.
Chad: Yeah. I mean, I think just, you know, I try to equate a lot of things to sports, but in sports you kind of know how much you need to train. Like, we have all of these metrics that have been used to train previous generations, previous teams, blah, blah, blah. So there’s kind of all of these measurable ways to get faster, to get stronger, to get better at this particular skill, whatever that is. You know, there are methods that have been developed. A lot of times when you start your own company, there is no method. There’s you’re designing a fitness program, you’re designing it for the first time and how it’s going to fit your team and how it’s going to, you know, achieve whatever goal you want to achieve. Well, there still needs to be some thought and strategy to that. And you need to apply logic to trying to achieve those things, and you apply it in a way that you can measure yourself. So what we would do is, the same thing that I would do in sports, is try to watch and measure myself, go out and measure it, and use things like Smart, and then go back and review that and see how we did. And then make criticisms of that and get better the next time. And just iteration after iteration of doing that, you eventually get to something that moves the needle and actually makes you money or makes, you know, makes the goal you were trying to achieve actually possible.
Nicole: Yeah. And don’t miss what he’s saying. Like you have to put goal setting and vision work like on your calendar. You don’t just cast it and then, you know, do the day to day operations. You got to kind of get in that leadership seat and look at the Smart goals. Look at the vision over and over. That’s fantastic. All right. So he says on page 72, which I love. Put a circle around this too, Chad. Vision statements’ purpose is clearly defining your organization’s long term position and purpose. A well-crafted vision statement gives meaning and purpose to everything you do, so it’s something that you are constantly measuring against, right? Like is what we’re about to do. This strategy we’re going to put in place, is it going to help us get this vision done so it helps you not get lost?
Chad: Absolutely. And I think it’s one of the things that I realized pretty quickly, you know, especially because you play sports, everyone knows what it is to win a football game. Everyone has a clear understanding of the score on our side is higher and the score on their side is lower, right? But when you talk about winning it, entrepreneurship or a brand like everyone has a different version of what winning is and you’re winning might be at a million, my winning might be at 100 million. And if you don’t talk about that and have a clear understanding, you could be so far off from what your actual goals are that, you know, they’re thinking they’re winning, and you’re thinking that you’re losing because you don’t. You’re not communicating from the same perspective. And those vision statements, mission statements, kind of having that clear vision will help everyone understand this is what winning is. This is how we define success, is how we define progress, whatever that is. It’s all measured through this particular lens. And I think that’s kind of how I try to look at it, where. I’m giving you the actual, you know, scoresheet of how you will score this match or how you will grade this practice or whatever that is, so that we can all stay on the same page in terms of trying to quantify our success.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. And the last thing I’ll say about the vision, because I really think this is important. And I think leaders struggle with vision, you know, like they get an idea for the product or they get an idea for a strategy. But they’re not tying it back to the vision, and they’re not tying it back to the people or making sure the people are on the same page. And the very last thing you say about vision is a vision denotes where people and teams contribute, and it should be their motivation for the work that they do every day. So the leader has to have that intense personal energy you’re talking about, and they have to refer to the vision often, you know, like this is what we’re doing.
Chad: Yeah. And I tell people all the time, like, you have to, you have to say it over and over and over, and to you it becomes annoying because you can just say, like, I can think of a vision and it’s just it’s in my head. Everything’s there. Every detail is there, no questions. It’s all there.
Nicole: Yeah, yeah, I’m sold.
Chad: Yeah, I’m sold on the idea. What are we talking about? But to sell to someone else, it takes more and more. And you know, I think experienced entrepreneurs see that even trying to sell or sell to a customer like you get customers like, oh, thank you for sending me this email. You’re like, I sent you 20 emails. You know, I don’t know how you missed it, but if it takes 20 emails and hey, it is what it is.
Nicole: That’s what it takes.
Chad: It’s the same with employees and with anyone who’s trying to follow you to something that’s complex or difficult. It will take a repetitive amount of times for you to say things where you get a little annoyed doing it, but it’s just part of the process. And sports is giving me that kind of thick skin to be able to do that. And, you know, like I say, do it with a smile on my face where I know, okay, well, this is time 15, but we’re going to keep going till we get there.
Nicole: That’s right. And if it’s 16, we’ll hope it will do it.
Chad: Yeah. It’ll do it. Yeah. It’ll do it. We’ll get there next time. And it’s just to me it’s just part of the process. And even in doing that are you making those kind of small steps towards the goal or are we getting a little bit better do I? Do I not have to say it as frequently? You know, there’s ways that you can still measure success in doing that. And for me, it’s one of those things that it just has to be a consistent thing that’s done as a, as a leader. And like you say, a lot of people do struggle with that because, you know, I think they think, well, I understand the complete vision. So, you know, are you dense? Why don’t you understand it? And it’s almost like, you know, it comes natural to an entrepreneur or a visionary. And it doesn’t come as natural to other people to understand your ideas.
Nicole: That’s absolutely right. Okay. Number seven, I love too. All right. So we’re doing the ten things that we need to do to build a great business. And you have in here you need to become a leader and you need to have a mentor. I think that’s a fantastic piece of advice. You know, I don’t think a lot of people have mentors anymore, and I have one. I am so lucky, so blessed. I have a woman named Anne in my life, and she just tells me I can do more and she supports me and she challenges me and she just pushes and I’m so grateful for her. So tell me a little bit about becoming a leader and having a mentor. I know you had all your coaches, but is there anybody else in your life who’s come alongside you and said, come on, Chad, let’s do this?
Chad: I mean, yeah, absolutely, you know, I’m one of those people that I don’t, I don’t, like, I think you’re very fortunate if you can find that one person that is going to be able to mentor you in life, and, you know, if you have a great family member or father, mother type of type of deal, like you should, you should thank your stars, cross your fingers. Thank your God, whoever that is.
Nicole: That’s right. I thank God every day for her.
Chad: Whatever that is, because that’s very fortunate. But I think we all can have mentors in the different things that we really want to grow in. And I think trying to seek those people out become something that is just part of kind of that life learning process for me. If I see someone who is a kettlebell enthusiast and they have a lot of kettlebell knowledge, they become a kettlebell mentor for me for that space, that doesn’t mean that they’re mentoring me on the business decisions. But when it comes to how do I do that particular thing? Or how was the most effective way to utilize this tool? I’m not even going to second guess myself. I’m going to try to find someone who I know is more credible to me in that space, and I do that with a lot of things. So some of my mentors have been, you know, let’s say, the CEO of a company that I hired or a, uh, you know, a contractor who does pay per click. And now all of a sudden, you know, I’m like, this guy really gets it. And he’s a mentor for me for social media advertising or, you know, Google advertising, whatever that is. And so I look at it like that to where I have really good relationships with people that are based on me respecting their experience and their knowledge in a space. And I think when you show that respect to people, they want to share that knowledge. And, you know. And I want to take it. So it’s, you know, it’s a mutually beneficial experience. And I think a lot of people, they want to be a part of something like that. Even at this point in my life, I’ve been able to mentor quite a few college students, for example.
Nicole: That’s fantastic.
Chad: So, you know, I’ve been doing that for a couple for a couple of years now. And I think it’s the same thing where, you know, I’m trying to give back as much as I can to where they are in their journey, and I want them to pull it out of me so I can give it to them. And I try to take that same approach to, you know, people who are maybe ten, 15 years older than me or maybe 10 to 15 years more experienced in a particular space, but it’s just a never ending kind of approach for me to continue to find more knowledge in life.
Nicole: Yeah. All right. So that dovetails what he said earlier, a lifelong learner. If you didn’t write that down, please write it down now. Okay. All right. So we’ve got three more to go in just a little space of time. But I don’t want to miss a single one. You talk about creating a roadmap and setting the tone. So we’ve cast the vision. We’re surrounding ourselves with mentors so that we’ve got partners along the way. How do we create the roadmap and set the tone? Let’s talk about the tone. A roadmap would be like a strategic plan, but what’s the tone? What do you mean by that?
Chad: Yeah, I think that the tone for me is more, you know, the intensity level. You know how much effort is going to take on a daily basis, weekly basis, monthly basis to actually reach our goals? A lot of times, you know, we want things to be easy, and we don’t necessarily know the pace that we need to be running in order to make a real significant change. And, you know, in health and fitness is very easy. You know, most people when they first start a workout routine, they struggle with just getting to the point where they’re in shape enough to be able to then continuously work out and build everything that they want to build. Most people assume they can come there and just start. Well, you know, I want my legs to be skinnier, so I’m just going to start there and it just doesn’t work. Like you haven’t even built a foundation to be able to start focusing on these specifics. And I think it’s like that for business as well, where you have to design a foundation of habits that you’re going to do every single day, every single week, month that you’re going to check in on these things. And then you have to overlay that with your plan and see, okay, do I need more resources? Do I need more people? Do we need to work more hours? Do we need to make more calls? Like all of that is something that as an owner or as a leader, you have to figure out yourself. And so that’s what I mean by setting the tone is, uh, you know, when we had a kettlebell warehouse, for example, people, every single person that started would complain about the weights and it was like, oh my God, it’s so heavy. How do you guys do this every day? And it’s just like, and we don’t do that here. So that’s my job to come and to let you know on day one, we don’t complain about how heavy the weights are. It’s a good thing when someone orders something and it’s £20,000. That’s one of the best things that could possibly happen to us and we’re going to act like that. So we’re going to be excited. We’re going to go get it and I’ll show you, let’s go do it together. We’ll load this up together. That’s the tone to me, is it? It’s an appreciation for the reason that we’re here and what our goals are here, regardless of, you know, what you were told before, you know where you came from, whatever that is. Now that you’re here, we’re trying to be positive and trying to really work on the vision and the mission of the company in general.
Nicole: Mhm. That’s right, that’s right. Okay. So I’m kind of hearing like the tone is a little bit of an attitude.
Chad: Sure.
Nicole: Yeah. Yeah okay. So I had a shirt for many years that said, “Attitude is Everything.” One of my employees gave it to me as a gift. I was like, I used to say that all the time. It’s like it could be five minutes to closing time and here comes the customer.
Chad: Perfect example.
Nicole: Yeah, we treat them exactly the same as the customer who was here when we open the doors, right?
Chad: I’ll give you, I’ll give you an even better one. When I was at the line, we would close at 7:00. And the appointments are 30 minutes. Some of the appointments are 30 minutes long. Everyone hates when someone shows up at 6:30 because you want to leave it at seven. You’ll probably leave at 7:10. But that customer, when they come in, they feel that same level of anxiety. They know they came in at 6:30. If you treat them with the level of kindness like they were there early and there’s no no big deal, they will be a lifelong customer every single time. So that’s an opportunity. The people that come in late or an opportunity for it to find like rabid fans for your company. And most people go, oh man, you’re here late, I can’t believe this, blah, blah, blah. And it’s like, no, no, no. This person chose to drive here even though they knew it was going to be late. And they were like, please just let me in. So treat them like that. Treat them like they could have went to any other nail salon in the world, and they decided to come here and give you that opportunity. So that’s setting that type of tone. It really changes your brand because people see it, they go through it. They might not agree with it at first, but when they actually see the results from it, it changes them forever as well. And then they take that culture and they teach other people that culture and it becomes, uh, contagious amongst everyone at the, at the company. And that’s, that’s really what you’re going for.
Nicole: Yeah. And that’s why I teach everybody to build a vibrant culture. You’re preaching, I love it. Okay. We got two things left, Chad. The next one is you’ve got to build a community. Um, so you’re going to surround yourself with people who know, understand and believe in your product and your business. Talk a little bit about how you built the community and how you’re building one today with your new company.
Chad: I mean, I think we live in an age where we’re all so connected that it’s just a matter of you kind of figuring out how to truly bring value to those people who are interested in your brand. Um, you know, content generation is a part of every business. Now, it’s almost no business that doesn’t have a content generation wing. And that wasn’t the case 20 years ago. So we are entering a space where I, you know, I truly believe the community behind you can provide so much more value than any advertising dollar could do, or, you know, any kind of direct sale advertising that you’re going to go after. If you can use that same resources to build a community of people, then you have the people that are your kind of like forever spokesperson spoke people for your particular brand. So with the kettlebell community, you know, I’ll give you an example, there are people who believe in kettlebell sport, which is one style of using a bell and there are people who will believe in the hard style or let’s say like more CrossFit style of the kettlebell usage where there’s not, it doesn’t have to be a right or wrong in this scenario. The question is, why are they at competitions with each other and they should be working together to, you know, build the kettlebell community. And as a brand, that’s the types of initiatives we would do. So we would purposely go after groups who may have been, let’s say, in some type of controversy online and try to be the mediator and bring those two groups together underneath one umbrella of, hey, we’re here for whatever the best thing for kettlebells is. And so, you know, you could have two different competitions where one competition is a hardstyle competition. Another competition is a kettlebell sport competition. Well, Kettlebell Kings is going to sponsor a competition. We’re going to do both. And that kind of stuff brings communities together and it gives you more than just the product. So whenever you’re looking for the product, you say, hey guys, we have this product to a community versus trying to go find someone randomly off, you know, the internet who wants to buy a kettlebell. It’s more 90% of our efforts would go to, to generate and to build more people in the community, versus 10% to actually try to market or sell kettlebells or products.
Nicole: Yeah. And you were very successful doing it. Congratulations. And and then finally, number ten, the final one is knowing when to let go. So leave everybody with an idea about what that means.
Chad: You know, one of the things that’s hard for business owners is it does become personal, you know.
Nicole: It’s your baby.
Chad: It’s your baby, and you will have, you know, personal attachment to it. You know, I could not believe I had tears in my eyes when we were selling.
Nicole: Oh, I believe.
Chad: I was like, man, what am I? Why am I getting like, I don’t know what’s going on with me. You know, like I feel all this overwhelming emotion coming up inside of me.
Nicole: Yeah.
Chad: But, you know, I think it’s one of those things where if you are a true entrepreneur, you try to make the best business decisions that you can. And I think that is a real thing. You know, if you were an AI, there would be a right play most of the time. And that’s the way I try to, you know, look at businesses. I want to make the right moves. I want to make the right plays. I don’t want to be doing things because of my ego and because there’s a personal agenda, and I don’t want to be that type of business partner to someone else either. You know, that’s really big for me because I’ve had to deal with business partners like that myself, where there’s I’m dealing with your ego now, I’m not really having to deal with the business. And that’s a different problem that some people have. And I don’t want to be that problem for someone. So for me, it’s really strategically looking at the business, uh, taking these snapshots and watching the film, like I say, in, in really trying to assess, are you making the right decisions? You know, sometimes the best decision is for maybe you not to be the coach anymore, someone else to be the coach, or maybe you not to call the plays and someone else calls plays. You can still, you know, be over charge of this, but someone else needs to take charge of that. And that’s the kind of stuff that I like to be able to do. Uh, give you an example for the salon, the nail salon.
Nicole: Yeah.
Chad: We had a very successful nail salon. My girlfriend and I, Covid happened.
Nicole: Uh oh.
Chad: We had to go home for six months, so we obviously weren’t making any money. The back rent accumulated, uh, in order to sign a new lease. They wanted us to pay the back rent, which we weren’t going to do, and we couldn’t have done anything we wanted to. We never kind of dug ourselves out of that hole. And so at that particular time, it made sense to close that business down. That to some people would have been like, oh man, that’s devastating, I had to close down a business. But for me, it made clear sense that there was no debating. I talked to my accountant, I talked with my I have a, you know, a management consultant that I work with who mentors me on these kinds of decisions. I had done all the research I could about what was the best move here, and then it was just a matter of making that move. Well, at the same time, I’m selling another company. So, you know, Covid does a good thing for me over here and a bad thing for me over here. But it’s still a strategic business decision. And that’s, that’s ultimately, I think, where you’ll find yourself when you really get deep into entrepreneurship is you just have to sometimes make whatever the best decision is for that particular company. Sometimes it’s for yourself or for your resources.
Nicole: That’s right, that’s right. Well, everybody, I have had a fantastic guest on the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast, and he is the author of Preparing for Battle. Chad Price, it has been such a delight to have you on the podcast. I know that there’s probably one special listener that’s like, I wish Chad would give me one more little piece of information, a piece of advice, final word. Do you have something else you want to share?
Chad: Sure. I think one of the things that you know, I’m passionate about as well is, and I didn’t even realize when I started my company is trying to overlap your own personal passion with your business. Uh, you know, I think that’s easier said than done. I did not have a personal passion for nails, but I had a passion for building something and building these online communities. And so, I was building that online community at the same time I was building a fitness community. And I was able to study those communities and how to build these different types of communities. So even from that perspective, I quote unquote found my passion in that. And I think that’s what a lot of entrepreneurs miss sometimes is trying to find what you’re passionate about and become an expert at that. And if there are other things that you’re not as passionate about, maybe you have to do them at first because you don’t have the resources, but try to outsource them or find someone who does have a passion for those to do those things. Ultimately, you’ll be more efficient and better at what you’re doing. If you can kind of overlay your passion with your business.
Nicole: Absolutely. All right, everybody, we’ve had author and entrepreneur Chad Price on the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. Do Chad and I a favor. Would you press the like button on this episode and will you do us a favor, go down and leave us a little nice little note. Tell Chad how much you appreciated his ten steps to building a business. And Chad, I’m grateful. Where can people find you?
Chad: I’m everywhere. Um, you can find me on chadprice.com, social media real Chad Price, uh, LinkedIn, YouTube, pretty much anywhere you can find me. If you’re looking to get in contact with me, probably LinkedIn or chadprice.com is the best way.
Nicole: Okay. Very good. Thank you so much. Everybody, have a vibrant day.
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