How To Harness Boring... Why better leads to bigger...(innovation & customers) And why better is better than NEW in business not marketing Ep 81

In this discussion, the host reflects on the value of consistency and the concept of "boring but rich" in business, using examples like McDonald's and Chipotle to illustrate the profitability of predictable, reliable services. He emphasizes the importance of focusing on betterment rather than expansion, advocating for improving current operations to increase profit and customer satisfaction. The host, whose personality is that of a launcher, keen on initiating new projects, challenges entrepreneurs to channel their innovative drive into refining existing processes. He also notes the significance of customer feedback as a continuous source of improvement and innovation. The conversation concludes with advice on achieving sustainable growth through customer referrals and the pursuit of excellence, rather than novelty, in business practices.

• Sarah Goosen expresses gratitude for the community and the audience's attention.
• The sense of gratitude is set against the backdrop of a typical Austin day.

"What's going on, everyone? Happy Thursday. I am having a gratitude filled Thursday, like, creamy gray skies here in Austin. But I can't help just, but feeling just a huge sense of gratitude to this community and for all you guys who tune in every day."

The quote highlights Sarah Goosen's appreciation for her community and audience, setting a positive tone for the conversation.

• Sarah Goosen describes a post by Sarah Goosen about feeling bored with her business after successful growth and systematization.
• Boredom in business is discussed as a sign of consistency and successful operations.
• Entrepreneurs often seek new ventures, which contrasts with the stability that can lead to boredom.

"And so this originally started from Sarah Goosen, actually. She posted something in the Legacy group, which our gym Lords group, our highest level program, about how right now she's bored."

This quote introduces the topic of boredom in successful businesses, as experienced by Sarah Goosen.

• At a high-level business event, attendees, including CEOs and COOs, took personality profiles.
• Sarah Goosen's personality was described as a "ram rod" and a "launch person," indicating a propensity for starting new projects.

"And my personality profile, the guy was like, you're a ram rod. And I was like, I guess that's okay. But he's like, you're a launch person. He's like, you just make new things."

The quote reflects on the categorization of entrepreneurial personalities, emphasizing Sarah Goosen's inclination towards launching new initiatives.

• Sarah Goosen discusses the importance of embracing a "boring" but consistent and profitable business model.
• The marketplace often rewards consistency over novelty, as seen with brands like McDonald's.
• Consistency is a valuable asset that customers are willing to pay for.

"Now, the reason that I titled this how to harness boring is that, if you'll notice, a lot of the messaging that we've had, even in our marketing, is being around being boring."

This quote introduces the theme of harnessing boredom in business and the value of consistency in the market.

• Sarah Goosen uses Chipotle as an example of a successful business that has maintained a simple and consistent menu.
• The challenge for entrepreneurs like Sarah Goosen is to apply their innovative tendencies to a business model that benefits from being "boring."

"Chipotle, right? They've been around 20 years, has only added two things to their menu in 20 years. They added queso and they added sofritos."

The quote is used to illustrate the success of maintaining a consistent and simple business approach, as demonstrated by Chipotle's limited menu changes.

• Consistency in leadership behavior is crucial for team stability.
• Inconsistent behavior from leaders can put the team in "threat mode" and negatively impact customer experiences.

"And that consistency is also how you show up to your team. Because if you're like hot one day, cold another day you're mean, one day you're nice, one day you're moody, whatever."

The quote emphasizes the importance of consistent leadership and its effect on team morale and customer perception.

• Sarah Goosen advocates for improving business quality before pursuing aggressive growth.
• She often advises gyms to downsize initially for better long-term success.

"But the second line that I had here is why better leads to bigger, is that a lot of times we as entrepreneurs want to force growth, right?"

This quote touches on the strategy of focusing on improving business quality as a precursor to sustainable growth.

• Sarah Goosen emphasizes the importance of profit over the number of gym locations.
• She suggests consolidating multiple locations to focus on making a single location highly profitable.
• Gyms often expand locations without increasing net profit, which can lead to increased liability and workload.

"If you have three, cut down to two. If you have two, cut down to one. And then let's make this one incredibly profitable because most of the gyms that we encounter who have two or three locations or five locations. And I am in no way impressed by how many locations you have. I want to see how much profit you're taking home."

The quote highlights the advice to gym owners to reduce their number of locations and focus on maximizing profit at a single location rather than expanding without substantial financial benefit.

• Sarah discusses the misconception that more locations automatically mean higher profits.
• She points out that additional locations can increase revenue but not necessarily profit.
• The goal is to make one location highly profitable, aiming for significant monthly revenue targets.

"And then what's up happening is that the profit from one location dips down, the revenue total goes higher because there's two locations. But the actual profit and take home either goes down or stays the same. And now you have twice the liability and twice the work for the same amount of profit."

This quote explains the common pitfall where gym owners expand their business to multiple locations, mistakenly equating higher overall revenue with higher profit, without considering the increased liabilities and workload.

• Sarah believes innovation should be about improving quality, not just expanding size.
• She asserts that by becoming better, a business will naturally grow due to customer satisfaction and referrals.
• As a market leader, Sarah looks to other industries for inspiration, emphasizing the importance of customer feedback for innovation.

"Now, I said, why better leads to bigger is that your innovation should be targeted around becoming better, not bigger. Because what happens is if you are better, then you will become naturally bigger, because the product and the service that you're providing is so good that people can't help but tell their friends about it."

The quote encapsulates the idea that focusing on improving the quality of products or services is a more sustainable path to growth than simply increasing the size of the business.

• Sarah highlights that customers will always demand more, and businesses should be comfortable with constant improvement.
• The goal is to make services so consistent and excellent that they become reliable and boring in their efficiency.
• She encourages focusing on perfecting existing offerings rather than always seeking to create something new.

"But if you can expect the fact that your customers are not going to be satisfied ever, then you can take your innovative personality and your desire to make new things and target it around making things better. Not new, not new programs, not anything. Just make the thing that you have. Make the burrito that you have. Make the food that you're serving consistently."

Sarah's quote emphasizes the importance of continuously improving current services to meet the ever-increasing expectations of customers, rather than constantly creating new offerings.

• Sarah addresses the challenge of maintaining high performance in sales teams.
• She stresses the need to replicate successful processes and ensure consistent sales performance.
• Sales team management and motivation are critical skills that require time and expertise to develop.

"How can we replicate that exact process? How can I have my sales guys be hot every single day, not just one day, and then they're mediocre and then suck, or they're only good for a week or two, and then they have another two weeks of like, one of the questions that we get is around sales is like, I feel like your sales team is always so good."

This quote discusses the necessity of finding ways to consistently replicate successful sales processes to maintain a high level of performance from sales teams over time.

• Sarah encourages listeners to promote the podcast through word of mouth, as it relies on organic growth rather than advertisements or sponsorships.
• She asks listeners to share the podcast in the same way they discovered it, fostering a community of entrepreneurs supporting each other.

"The only way this grows is through word of mouth. And so I don't run ads, I don't do sponsorships. I don't sell anything. My only ask is that you continue to pay it forward to whoever showed you or however you found out about this podcast, that you do the exact same thing."

The quote requests listeners to help grow the podcast by sharing it with others, emphasizing the importance of community support and word-of-mouth promotion in lieu of traditional advertising.

• The team's success is attributed to a culture that is both collaborative and competitive.
• It is emphasized that creating such a team dynamic is rare and highly valuable.
• The process of building this successful team dynamic takes time and effort.

"We've had internally, and he pours into the sales team and fosters a culture that is collaborative and competitive and awesome and amazing."

This quote highlights the importance of leadership in cultivating a team culture that balances collaboration with competitiveness, contributing to the team's success.

• Improving the current business can lead to more profit and a better customer experience.
• Organic growth, where more customers are acquired naturally than lost, is a sign of a healthy business.
• Entrepreneurs should focus on addressing customer dissatisfaction rather than expanding prematurely.

"There are so many places that you can improve your current business to make more profit and give a better customer experience so that it grows."

The quote suggests that businesses should prioritize internal improvements to enhance profitability and customer satisfaction for sustainable growth.

• Entrepreneurs must be willing to confront their own business's shortcomings.
• The desire to innovate should be directed toward resolving customer issues.
• Jeff Bezos is used as an example of an entrepreneur continually seeking to improve customer satisfaction through innovation.

"I need to take my itch as an entrepreneur of innovation and target it towards every single thing that my customer is dissatisfied with."

This quote emphasizes the importance of channeling entrepreneurial energy into solving customer problems to improve the business.

• Focusing on continuous improvement can be more profitable than constantly seeking new ventures.
• The speaker advocates for a business approach that prioritizes being better over being new.

"And if you can continue to focus on being better and not new, then believe it or not, it may seem boring, but boring is what will make you rich."

The speaker explains that while it may seem less exciting, improving existing processes and offerings is a more reliable path to wealth.

• In marketing, the words "new" and "free" are powerful.
• Making existing products seem new can attract customer attention.
• Improvements are less attractive in marketing than new opportunities.

"The two most powerful words in marketing are new and free, right?"

The quote identifies "new" and "free" as the most impactful words in marketing, highlighting the challenge of marketing improvements versus new products.

• Examining and improving every process and customer touch point can drive retention and profitability.
• The speaker suggests that regular outreach and follow-ups could enhance the customer experience.

"And so if you look at every single process and every touch point that your customer has or doesn't have... Maybe that'll make you more money and improve their experience."

The quote suggests that thorough examination and refinement of all business processes can lead to increased revenue and a better customer experience.

• It is acceptable to run a business that may seem boring if it is functioning well.
• Innovation should be aimed at making existing processes better, not necessarily creating something new.

"It's okay to have a boring business it's okay to be like, I don't know what to do right now. Things are working pretty well with my gym."

This quote reassures that a business does not need to be constantly exciting or innovative to be successful; stability and good performance are valuable.

• Small details can significantly impact business processes and customer satisfaction.
• The speaker uses the example of Chipotle improving their process for handling double meat orders.
• Minimizing errors is crucial as even a small percentage of negative experiences can have a large impact on customer retention.

"So what? Things that are small like that, because the devil is in the details, right?"

The quote emphasizes the importance of attention to detail in business processes, as small improvements can lead to better customer experiences and retention.

• Negative customer experiences can significantly harm a business.
• Disney's model suggests that many positive experiences are needed to make up for a single negative one.
• The goal should be to eliminate negative experiences through consistency and process.
• Improving, simplifying, and streamlining processes enhances the end-user experience.

"If one out of ten experiences is negative, you've probably heard Disney says for every tragic moment, you have 39 magic moments, right? In order to compensate that for that. And the reality is that what you really need to do is just never have tragic moments."

This quote emphasizes the importance of providing consistently positive customer experiences to avoid the detrimental impact of negative ones, as per Disney's approach.

• A key metric for business health is whether more people are leaving than joining organically.
• A positive ratio indicates potential for viral growth and is a benchmark for success.
• Continuous improvement is necessary regardless of the current growth state.

"First question to ask is, do we have more people leaving our business than coming to our business organically? From word of mouth, if the answer is no, then it means that the business needs to improve."

The quote suggests using customer retention and acquisition as a measure of business health, with organic growth being a key indicator of the need for improvement.

• Entrepreneurs often struggle to maintain focus, getting distracted by new ventures.
• Success requires focusing on less exciting, more routine aspects of business.
• The skill set and identity of an entrepreneur must evolve to prioritize these areas for growth.

"Because they can't focus, right. They have all these other things that they're focusing on. They're splitting their attention because it's new and it's exciting and it's interesting."

This quote highlights the common pitfall of entrepreneurs losing focus by chasing new, exciting opportunities instead of concentrating on the core business, which is essential for sustained success.

• Business is viewed as an infinite game, where the objective is to continue playing, not necessarily to win.
• The concept of the infinite game can fundamentally change the business perspective to a long-term view.
• Achieving a "golden ratio" of referrals to departures is crucial for organic growth and longevity.

"It's a game about lasting."

This quote encapsulates the idea that businesses should aim for endurance and continual improvement rather than a finite victory.

• Customer dissatisfaction should be seen as an opportunity for improvement.
• Entrepreneurs should not take customer criticism personally but use it as a source of innovation.
• Appreciating customer feedback is key to adapting and evolving the business.

"Your customers are your biggest source of innovation for you. So take that to heart."

The quote underscores the value of customer feedback as a driver for innovation and business improvement.

• The speaker expresses gratitude for the community's attention and engagement.
• Encourages community members to actively participate and share their thoughts.
• Invites listeners who are not part of a specific program to join and benefit from it.

"I'm so grateful for this community. Thank you guys for your attention."

This quote reflects the speaker's appreciation for the community's support and the importance of fostering a strong, interactive community.