This Is Why Your MSP Isn’t Growing

00;00;00;01 - 00;00;19;08

Unknown

So my family and I are on this flight and we start to smell smoke. And my my oldest son is sitting next to me, looks at me for for reassurance. And about that time the pilot's voice comes across the intercom and says, flight attendants prepare for emergency descent. I'm kind of startled by this, you know, like I've never heard that on I'm on a plane and all right, what is happening here?

00;00;19;09 - 00;00;37;16

Unknown

And the thing is, this is not a video about a flight. This is actually a video about focus and how one decision can make or break your business. But to share that lesson and the reframe for for me, I want to take you back to this jet, to this flight, because that's what that's what started it all.

00;00;37;16 - 00;01;01;48

Unknown

Ron. It's a small regional plane. Like my my wife and two kids are on air. We're leaving DFW. It's nighttime, and we're one of the later flights out. So we take off and we get about five minutes into the flight and we hear a boom. It's not an explosion. It's not something dropping, but it's. It's just not something that you want to hear when you're, I don't know, ten, 20,000ft in the air.

00;01;01;48 - 00;01;31;01

Unknown

But that is the only data point we go. All right. So we we keep flying, but then we start to smell smoke. First it's really faint and then it starts to get more pungent or the hell you call it, like. So we can be smart more and more and I'm starting to get concerned and you're kind of kind of looking around and my, my oldest son's looking at me and I kind of glance at my wife sit behind me about that time, the pilot's voice comes across the internet, and that's when he says, flight attendants prepare for emergency descent.

00;01;31;01 - 00;01;50;04

Unknown

I'm thinking emergency descent. We're going to try to glide this thing into an open field or what the hell's going on? Like, I have no idea. The oxygen masks pop down and I out of order. I don't follow instructions. You know, I put this on on my son. I turn around, you know, make sure my my wife's putting on my my youngest son.

00;01;50;08 - 00;02;07;09

Unknown

Now, the good news is my youngest son is somewhat oblivious to this. Like he's watching this movie and he's, you know, blame his games. And he's like, all right, what am I? I mean, why do I have to put this thing on? We get the oxygen masks on and the the pilot comes on and says, hey, we're going to we're going to be turning around.

00;02;07;14 - 00;02;24;04

Unknown

We have to we have to land. We're going back up to Dallas. And I didn't know at that time he had already he had already turned the plane. Right. Because at that point, whenever I didn't feel any banking after that. So we come back into the Dallas. And the thing is, because it's nighttime, it looks like a fucking crime scene, right?

00;02;24;04 - 00;02;42;21

Unknown

Like as you come in, you see lights everywhere. Fire trucks, ambulances, cops. And we hit the ground. And instead of slowing down, we just, like, keep rolling, like hauling ass. I've never gone this fast on on a runway before. You can hear the sirens, we can hear stuff behind us. The the fire trucks. Everything's chasing the plane.

00;02;42;21 - 00;02;59;51

Unknown

And I know DFW pretty well. I really like where in E 38 they've put us. Is as far out as you kinematic in the in the airport. And I'm like this. All right. So I'm so I'm nervous and I mean from the point of being told were emergency to sent to this. The whole thing is scary scarier in the air.

00;02;59;51 - 00;03;16;23

Unknown

But we're we're now so like holy has and all right they're putting us out in the like as far as they can for for a reason. Right. Here's where the lesson really starts to kick in. While the first responders kind of swarm to them to the plane and they don't come for us. They don't come to get us off the plane.

00;03;16;28 - 00;03;35;39

Unknown

They head to the luggage and you can see like they're they're chucking shit out of them, out of the whole, like, get it? Like they're clearly going for something. Get me off the plane. Right? Like it's like, if there is something on the plane, get me off the plane. And, you know, I'm not going to lie. Like, at some point I thought, I'll fucking do it right?

00;03;35;39 - 00;03;57;28

Unknown

Like I'm get my family out of here. Like, this is, this is nuts. So I, you know, I kind of like, sit there patiently, calmly the whole time I'm playing it cool, right? Like, I understand my wife and my sons are looking at me. So the whole time I'm saying it's all right, like it's all right. And inside it's like a duck on the surface, you know, pretty calm and underneath, like paddling like crazy.

00;03;57;28 - 00;04;14;39

Unknown

They eventually get what they need. From from the luggage. They get us off the plane before we even got inside. I'm getting stuff from the airlines like, hey, free this and free that without even making a phone call, so clearly something's up. But I'm talking to my sister about this. The other day, and she's a paramedic.

00;04;14;44 - 00;04;30;30

Unknown

She's been a first responder her whole life. And her husband is the fire chief in the city that they live in. And we're talking about this, and I'm sharing my experience of us sitting there on the plane, and I remember and I'm telling her, thinking, yeah. And they didn't come for us. Like, isn't that wild? Isn't that dumb?

00;04;30;30 - 00;04;57;32

Unknown

You know, depends on what was going on. Like, obviously, you know, you need to know a little bit more information. But she said if you have a live threat, if you have a live problem and you've got limited resources, you send all your resources at the problem. If they split and have half the people trying to get all of you off the plane and then the other half trying to get the thing, it probably slows down the the progress that they're going to make over here, or makes it less likely that they get it, you know, like whatever is going on.

00;04;57;32 - 00;05;25;35

Unknown

It was like at that moment we have this conversation and the lesson hit me, she's absolutely right. Like, this is this is about triage. This is about prioritization. This is about understanding that you have limited resources as a first responder. You've got a very quickly assess the situation and say with this limited pool of resources, where do we where you put it like what's what's going to have the greatest impact at keeping those people safe?

00;05;25;35 - 00;05;45;29

Unknown

Is it actually trying to get them off the plane, or is it actually just sending everybody after the thing that's basically your job as a CEO? Like at the end of the day, as a CEO, what do we do? We allocate resources like that. Is that is our number one job. That's actually our core job, whether that those resources are our time and our money.

00;05;45;29 - 00;06;06;34

Unknown

If we're in a small business like a micro business, solopreneur or those those resources are our team, other capital that we have coming in, time energy of everyone else, like we have all of these resources. And our job is to say, where do I point these things to have the greatest impact? Do I point them at marketing to point them at sales?

00;06;06;34 - 00;06;26;14

Unknown

Do I point them at, you know, client success? Do I point them on, you know, wherever that is right? In your business, we oftentimes dilute our resources, right? Like we say, gosh, we've got this fire and this fire, metaphorical fire in our case, like this fire in this fire, in this fire. Let me send a little bit over here, a little bit over here, a little bit over here.

00;06;26;19 - 00;06;49;18

Unknown

And what I'll do is I'll solve multiple problems simultaneously instead of taking the time to sit down and think, what's the biggest problem, the biggest impact on the rest of the business? Right. Like if that that single thing probably actually eliminates the fact that nine of these fires are starting in the first place. And I'm as guilty of this as anybody.

00;06;49;18 - 00;07;19;37

Unknown

I'm impatient. I'm ambitious. I want maximum results. I want everything fast. And it's easy to make the mistake of thinking, let's address all of these things right. Let's tackle let's take all these opportunities. I understand I can't do everything, so let's do. These are our five priorities for for the month. And the challenges that by doing that what you do is you distribute the limited pool of resources that you have, which then either reduces the probability of success in a specific area.

00;07;19;42 - 00;07;51;35

Unknown

Right. Because I have if I take five priorities, I have one fifth the resources going to that priority that I would have if I put all of my resources on that. On the one hand, I reduce the likelihood of success, even of probability, even if I'm successful with that thing, I slow down the progress. Even if I'm able to solve that problem right, or I'm able to capitalize on that opportunity because I'm doing it with one fifth the resources, I'm not going to do it nearly as quickly in the best CEOs, the best businesses, what they're good at is not tackling all the problems.

00;07;51;35 - 00;08;13;42

Unknown

They're good at identifying the problem to solve. They're good at actually prioritizing not just not in name, right, but in actual practice. Like taking the time to sit down and understand what is the most important thing that we need to focus on. And that is the hard work. That is the hard part to me of being a CEO.

00;08;13;46 - 00;08;36;42

Unknown

It's understanding I've got 52 problems over here. I've got seven really good opportunities to capitalize on over here, and I have to look at all these things and say, we're picking one. We're not going to try to tackle three, four or 5 or 10 of these things at the same time. So that's one aspect of this, right? Is the prioritization like identifying that thing in the first place.

00;08;36;42 - 00;09;01;17

Unknown

And the good thing is we as CEOs, we have the luxury of spending days or weeks making sure we get that right. Meanwhile, like first responders, like they've got to figure that out in seconds. They've got to figure that out in minutes. We have a luxury that we just don't like to use because we're impatient, but we have the luxury of saying, hold on, let's make sure we get the identification of the priority, right?

00;09;01;22 - 00;09;25;14

Unknown

Right. Like let's make sure the focus is absolutely right. Okay. So that's one aspect of it, the other aspect of it and lesson in this whole thing was even when you do identify the priority, you're going to get criticized, right? So imagine sitting out looking out the window going what are you guys doing? I'm thinking that I know better than the first responders that are doing all of this work, because I know it's important to me.

00;09;25;26 - 00;09;47;16

Unknown

I know it's important to me through my lens, literally through the window that I'm looking at. I know it's important. I want to get off the plane, but that may not be the actual best thing to do to maximize the likelihood of all of us getting off the plane so they identified the priority, and then they're executing. And when you do that, you're going to face criticism.

00;09;47;21 - 00;10;04;15

Unknown

You're going to have naysayers, you're going to have critics. You're going to have people that say, I know better than you. And really what they're saying is my perspective of that priority is different because I'm coming at this from a different angle. But you, as the CEO, come at it from the angle. What is best for the business as a whole.

00;10;04;15 - 00;10;26;05

Unknown

And when you choose to focus your limited resources on the thing that you determine to be the most important priority in the business, people are going to question it. People are going to criticize you. People are going to bitch and complain. And that's okay. Sometimes the best thing that you can do to help people, to help the business is to do something that doesn't seem at first like it's helping the business.

00;10;26;09 - 00;10;50;50

Unknown

Right, or helping from that individual perspective, like it's a form of leadership. And that's what you do. Again, as a CEO. And so identifying that priority and then having the discipline to focus your resources on that priority and maintain that focus through the execution, despite the criticism and despite the uncertainty, because we're never 100% sure that that's going to work.

00;10;50;55 - 00;11;09;14

Unknown

Right. Like we're we're making the best bet that we can. And so we're saying we believe that that is the most important priority. We're going to focus on it. We're going to move the needle on that, going to have the longest term, best impact on the business. I'm pretty sure like we are we are absolutely positive. And by the way, neither are first responders.

00;11;09;14 - 00;11;29;37

Unknown

Like there's no guarantee. There's no way of absolutely guaranteeing that. You're right. So there's like this little voice of doubt that's like, but what if I'm wrong quick. What if what if this isn't the right priority? Maybe what I should do is hedge, right? Like, maybe what I should do is add just a couple small prayers for like 10% of the reaps in like ten here and ten here and ten here.

00;11;29;42 - 00;11;50;14

Unknown

Because I'm not I'm not absolutely certain that this is the thing. Let me tell you, this is tough, right? It's tough to identify the priority. It's tough to have the confidence to focus on it. And it is tough to maintain the execution on it, despite the criticism and some uncertainty. But that is how you win the game. That is how the best businesses are run.

00;11;50;28 - 00;12;08;40

Unknown

They are focusing on less but doing better. So that's the lesson that I wanted to share. It was a it's a really is an interesting experience. It was frightening. But it was, you know, good test of, of character how you handle things under pressure. So there was that. But the, the reframe that came from it, felt like it.

00;12;08;40 - 00;12;26;39

Unknown

I internalize that and it resonated and it clicked. So I wanted to share that with you, and I hope that it's been helpful. Now, as far as what it was thumbnail, my chances are battery or some is one Wheeler blew up something I have no idea. They never actually told us. But everybody was safe. First responders did their job.

00;12;26;39 - 00;12;45;22

Unknown

Shout out to everyone who puts their life on the line to to save everybody else's, and the people that run towards the burning battery or whatever the hell it was, rather than away from it. So, thank you to to all of you that do that. And I hope this has been a helpful lesson. If it has, you don't want to hear more, go ahead and subscribe to the channel.

00;12;45;26 - 00;12;45;50

Unknown

I go.