Yesterday, after a stormy start weather wise, it brightened up and turned into a gorgeous day! Worked out in the morning even though it was extremely humid from the rain the previous day and overnight.
Also took advantage of the great weather by chilling in the backyard and listening in its entirety to an episode of Invest Like a Boss podcast. The guest was Michelle Seiler Tucker, who's the author, most recently, of Exit Rich. It was about 1 hour 20 min episode but I probably stretched it to 2 to 2.5 hours pausing every so often to reflect and take notes. Lots of valuable insight for my future businesses in addition to relevant and applicable takeaways for 2U and LL. The main context of the book is how to sell your business for huge profit. But an indistinguishable factor for what price, if any, you'll get for the business is how you operate it throughout its existence w/you as the owner. Having an exit plan right when you start and having that target that you check up on annually, perhaps more frequently, is beneficial in making decisions to get you there. She frames everything in terms of the 6 Ps: people, product, process, proprietary, patrons, and profits. Another big insight is that if you want to sell your business, make sure it's replicable without you. "Make sure it's not you next to the who." Meaning, in an org chart, if there are functions of a business that require your input, knowledge (that's not already documented), etc. then it makes the business extremely difficult to sell. If all the value of the business comes from you, then there's no real business to sell. "You don't grow a business. You grow people who help grow the business." Another big thing is make sure you get everything trademarked, patented, etc. that you can. Can save tons of headaches down the road and help you avoid having to rebuild your brand.
I think we're slowly moving in that direction at work but having everything documented from a process perspective is going to be extremely important to stand out when selling and attracting the buyers that we want and the price that we want. She worked as a franchise development person for a few years and sold hundreds of franchisees and then now works at an M&A firm. Their company doesn't charge any retainer so she actually might be someone w reach out to at some point as a company. Let's see. Lots more important takeaways that I'll share on my Media Vault update.
As I was spending significant amount of time listening to the episode, I realized I was in a sort of imbalance rn with my own TLDR of life. I've been wanting to do more learning and thinking (in the form of planning) for the last week or so instead of doing. I initially was down on myself for not having my ideal balance of all these phases. But I think it's fine to have surges of some at certain times and surges of others at other times. I may have expanded all the doing energy for the month with the sprint to create and publish the website. And now with quarterly planning approaching, my time I think would best be served doing my normal content but focus on getting the most of these 3 or 4 days. Along, of course, with learning as much as I can from all different sources. Starting to embrace this TLDR phase waves and surges. Traction's timeline and research of doing planning and regrouping every 3 months is ideal b/c that's when focus can start to shift. I def feel that myself.
Another thought that I had while listening to that episode is realizing how much Idk. Several people have been quotes saying similar things of "The more I know, the more I realize I don't know." I really felt this yesterday when I was going through the dozens of podcasts that I subscribe to and adding them to my queue to listen to. That list keeps expanding, so I don't think I'll ever reach the end of the queue (similar to my Book Vault books to read) b/c I actually want to spend time notetaking, reflecting on, debriefing, and implementing what I just learned. Like that proverb said, "Knowledge is only a rumor until it's in the muscle." Acting on what I learned is the most important step, imo. If I can do something (just one thing) as a direct action item from a piece of content, then it's a win.
As I was briefly reflecting on my current social circle rn, I think there are some things I can look to do in the next couple of quarters. I want to find more friends who I can share ideas with. Not just updates on each others' lives. The updates are important, but if there's nothing to build on from there, then I feel it is stagnant. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people." I wanna grow my network of people who are also open-minded and have great ideas to share. Tapping into Dan & Alex's network for these introductions would be useful. But I also have to take the initiative and find people on LinkedIn, IG, and other social media and platforms to connect with them. I assume some level of this type of project will exist in Q2 onwards.
Also had another personal fashion show after shopping at the usual places for clothes. Had a good selection of items, so looking forward to wearing them. Also bought a table / rack for my desk area where I'd put my laptop. Then one I ended up buying was too tall so I'll have to return it. But I did find another that looked like the right height so hopefully it's still there when I go back to return items today.
Had a YA call with Charlotte YAs last night just introducing ourselves and chatting generally. Saisahana and I were just individually messaging each other pretty much the whole time lol. Had to hold ourselves from bursting out laughing on a couple of occasions. Overall, I think it's a decent group. But again, if I feel like I'm not discussing ideas with these folks and talking about the same ol' things that the center always has been, then I won't be afraid to draw a line somewhere. The one person who I think I can relate with the most there is Sai Nitesh. Met him at ZYAF in 2019 but didn't know he was in CLT. Might have to hit him up since we had an insightful group discussion in Chicago.
Might add in another QOTW to my newsletter. Right now, the 'q' stands for 'quote.' Could add in a question of the week since I'm always trying to find the best questions to ask myself and others.
Thought of another potential name for the school idea - SpiritED. Now, depending on the availability / use of just that word, I may have to add in an adjective before it like Good or Kind or Intentionally or something. Double play on words so think it's pretty clever lol.
Also downloaded Tiktok yesterday. Yep. I gave in. Looking at it from more of a content ideation and creativity perspective rather than as a pure scrolling-thru-feed social media. But let's see lol.
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