Listen Now:

Look, we all get into business to afford ourselves a certain level of freedom. And all too often… business owners find themselves stuck in a business that’s not serving them. It’s eating up all their time, not making them the money they want, and generally giving them a tough time all around.

But here’s the thing… If you aren’t experiencing your better future through your business… It's time to build out the business that will deliver that better future to you. Pete Mohr will talk to us about how to make that happen on purpose… including the 5 things you can focus on to run your business with more freedom.

Pete’s Website – where you can get your business assessment (and your 50+ page report on how you’re doing with your business!)

Find Pete on Instagram
Connect with Pete  on LinkedIn
Follow Pete on Facebook
Pete’s Facebook Group
Watch Pete on YouTube

Check out the entire library of business 101 episodes here.

Alyson Lex 0:03
When you start your business, the one thing you don't really realize is that it's pretty complicated to run your own business. And that you start a business to do more of what you love. And what ends up happening is you do less of what you love, because you do so much of the running of the business. And that's frustrating for so many business owners. And so when Jenny and I met Pete Moore, he's an entrepreneurial coach. And he is the one that helps you simplify this stuff so that you can do more of what you love and less of what you don't. And that is what simplifying entrepreneurship is all about. Right. Pete, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Peter Mohr 0:51
Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, that's exactly what it's all about. I mean, so many entrepreneurs are, you know, frustrated, they're tired, they're overworked, they're overwhelmed. They're, you know, for those of us who have been in business for a while, in particular, you kind of look back and you're like, oh, my gosh, where did those three years go? Where do those five years go? Where are those 10 years ago, and I'm still doing the same thing. And I got into business, because I thought I'd want to have a better life and maybe have a bit more money now. But I don't have a lot of the freedoms that I thought I would have. And yeah, that's kind of its kind of find a lot, a lot, a lot of entrepreneurs are in those positions. And that's what I help people sort of overcome and work through some processes in order to, you know, give you give you those freedoms that you want out of your business, and that you deserve out of your business. And that's why you got into business in the first place, right?

Jennie Wright 1:38
Yes. There was a unanimous Yes, yeah. Yeah. How do you simplify it? I feel like I'm 10 years in my 10 year anniversary was in March. And how are you simplifying it? Because even after 10 years, I still feel like even though there's delegation still wear a lot of hats.

Peter Mohr 2:03
Yeah, yeah. I mean, every business is different. And it's uniquely different. And that's okay. So there's no right or wrong answer for any of these. And it's just working through a variety of different processes. And, you know, I've come up with this, I'm writing a book right now. And it's all around this framework called the five P's. And I'll give you the five P's really quickly, we can dig into some of them that are pertinent, you know, they're all pertinent, but depends on where you want to go with it really. And it all starts with understanding what your promise is, and then aligning the next three things to it, the product or service, the process, and the people. Because when we align the product, the process and the people to the promise, we are really getting the business humming on all sorts of fronts. And that's when we get the fifth P which is the profit when you get the fifth P the profit, then you have what you need to do to create the freedoms that you want from your business. How are you going to allocate those profits? Are you going to buy more time? Are you going to have somebody else do something for you? Are you going to buy a triplex because you know, maybe that's something that you you're thinking of doing and diversifying out of your business? Are you are you looking to, you know, any of these different things that are uniquely your freedoms? Do you want better relationships? Do you want to spend more time with your health because you've, you haven't, you know, looked after your mind and your and your physical body over the last 10 years, because we've worked so hard, you've been, you know, nailing this stuff and trying to trying to grow your business? Well, you know, what, you can't lead your business if you don't have good health, mentally and physically. So you know, it all kind of comes back to when you first started that business. And you're starting to think if you go back to that stage, you know, two years, three years, 10 years down the road, like you, Jenny, why did you get into business? Are you enjoying those freedoms? Are Are they there for you, and if they aren't, then you got some homework to do. And you got to go back and understand what it truly is you want out of your life. And that's usually where I start with most of the people that I work with is what is it that you want out of your business, so that we can help make that happen? Because everybody buys a better future, right? And when we started a business, we're looking at ourselves and our future and we're thinking, that's a better future. And if you aren't experiencing your better future through your business, then that's where we come in, and we're like, Okay, now let's build out the business that's going to deliver back what it is you truly want with those freedoms. How

Alyson Lex 4:36
do we do that on purpose when we are so busy in it? So I think one of the big freedoms that I know I've struggled to find and have been better at finding but I think most of our lives, listeners struggle to find is that time freedom. We're chained to our desks. How do we You do this stuff still make the profit that we need and want to support our families. And free up time when we don't have time to do the work to see where that just that catch 22 is? How do we start?

Peter Mohr 5:16
You start by the low hanging fruit, Alison, you know, you start by the low hanging fruit. And so many people think that this is such an overwhelming task. It's like, there's so much here, I can't even start. Well, really, so much has changed over the last couple of years. Does your promise. So let's let's start with the promise and roll through some of these because it really starts with the promise. Does your promise really even? Is it still relevant to your customers? Has it changed over the last couple of years? And when we're developing a promise, it's like, Okay, what's their problem? What's the client's problem? What's your unique way of delivering the service different from your competitors, that's going to give them a better life, right? Because we said it already about ourselves, everybody buys a better life. So a lot of people haven't actually gone back and re looked at their promise, and whether or not those processes those products and the people aligned to it. So without doing that homework, and going back and doing that, and working on your business a little bit, and not in it. So you start off by giving yourself an hour a week to work on your business and work through some of these strategy things. And then you're working through that stuff. And I've got a whole plan and process, it's called Love it or leave it. And that's the kind of stuff you're working in the areas that you love to work in, and you're leaving the rest for other people that that's their area, their love its own their area of genius. And when you start doing that the business grows and thrives. And when that happens, you're working in the area you love, they're working in the area they love, and you're making more money, and how can that happen, it can only happen through aligning the right process. And that's that that sort of P in the middle there, you know, the word process or system, one of my coaches gave me the word system, an acronym for the word system, which I also like, just starts with an S Not a P. But from that perspective, a system is something that saves you stress, time, energy and money. So what does the system do? It saves you stress, time, energy and money. So if you're feeling that overwhelmed, you're feeling all that your processes and systems aren't up to par. So what do you do you start with the low hanging fruit, and you go back how many systems are there in your business? There's a gazillion, there's, there's your marketing systems, your sales systems, there's your hiring and firing systems. There's your your accounting systems, your billing systems, your receivables, I mean, all of these different things, everything you do every day. And, you know, it's funny, I just posted on LinkedIn today. But this this idea around, if you do something more than three times it needs a system, it needs a process. Okay, so if you're repeatedly doing something more than three times, your process isn't right. So big, and if it is right, then you need to hone it to if you're gonna own that process, then you need to understand that you can own it. But the idea there with the process is that you're really maximizing that process, really getting all of it down to a very fine structure so that either you or someone else, which is the part I like it, someone else you can now assign, here's the key piece, you can now assign accountability. And you know, a lot of lot of entrepreneurs delegate, but they don't hold their the person that they delegated to accountable. So have they really delegated? No, they say they have, but they haven't, because that person doesn't own it. That's the true difference. When you delegate a process to the right people, you know, people, I sprayed down three people into three, your ideal client, which I'm sure you guys have talked a lot about, and all that sort of stuff. And you know, everybody does. And then the other one is your ideal team member, and your ideal outsource suppliers, anybody else who's helping you deliver your promise, right? So your ideal client has to be aligned to the promise, your team members have to be aligned to the promise and understand what it is. And that's our job as leaders to communicate that promise always so that they're fully in alignment, and all of our outsource suppliers, all those other people that potentially we're assigning authority to, to give some of those processes to so that we can alleviate ourselves of that frustration. And go on the trip for a month. I just got back from a month ahead. We own some retail stores I hadn't been in or retail stores for a month. And why is that? Well, that's because I have the right processes. We have the right promise. Everybody knows that our products aligned to it. Our processes are in place so that all of my team can make the decisions they need to make at the lowest possible level in the organization. That's the other key right? You want the decisions to be made at the lowest possible level of the organization. So that You can enjoy your freedoms. And my one of my freedoms that I wanted this year was I wanted to go away for a month

Jennie Wright 10:05
using a phrase that Allison likes to use this. So that phrase, by the way, and you're, you're tickling her ears every time you use it.

Alyson Lex 10:11
Why? Now I know I love it. When you hit me with an acronym, too, so, you know, thrive in System to THRIVE is an acronym. So now I can make our whole podcast and acronym. Jenny's gonna hate it. I'm gonna love it.

Jennie Wright 10:25
I'm not gonna love it. I can't remember acronyms that are more than three letters. It's just not

Alyson Lex 10:32
know how my brain works. The system one's easy. The system one? I really liked that one. Yeah. And I think too, you know, I've been in those places where I'm either telling someone to take an hour a week, or they're there. I've been struggling to take the hour a week. And really, how do you get past that panic part of overwhelm. And this can happen at any stage where you're in that panicky overwhelm, you're kind of in that spinning mode, where you're moving too fast, just trying to keep up. Because building processes, hiring the right people, you know, clarifying things and understanding things that all takes energy that we don't necessarily have when we're just in that overwhelm. Pit. Yeah. So I want to back you up, and how do we even get get there?

Peter Mohr 11:35
You get there really by, you know, first of all, you know, I love that you use the word clarity. And I have a little phrase that I use clarity creates confidence and confidence ignites momentum. And when we look at that sort of stuff, if you're feeling confused, you need to go back and clarify. So I have, one of my models that I have is called the wheel of momentum. And basically, anytime you're feeling confusion, it means you don't have enough clarity, you got to go back to that clarity step, you got to take a sheet of paper and get out your get it out of your head and under the sheet of paper, and write down what it is you need to do in order to get clarity, so that you can build a process around whatever it is, it's frustrating, currently. And when it when it starts, it's like, it's like automations, I don't know how much you guys use automation all the time. I mean, whether you're using Zapier for staff, or whether you're using all these different things, you know, I use all kinds of automations, for my email, and all sorts of stuff. When you start that, it's like, it's hard to stop, because you're starting to see all your time back. And you're it's like, oh my gosh, this is this just alleviated this, and this, just alleviated that, and when you start doing that, and assigning authority, because the process is right, and delegating that to people that can actually make the decision. It's, it's very, you're almost more anxious about getting the next one out than you are about worrying about whether I need to do it. And so it's a flip of the switch that really starts by you starting to develop those low hanging fruit processes that need to be done. And so I mean, you tag them in, there's lots of stuff on habits out there, whether it's Brendon Burchard, or tiny habits, or atomic habits, all that sort of stuff. But when you tag them in to something else that you're already doing, it really makes sense. And it really allows you the opportunity to set yourself up and time manage better. I mean, I use a calendar and All my stuff's on an on a calendar, it's very simple to know that I'm going to be on this podcast at this time. Right? So how do I do that? Well, I start by getting Google Calendar and actually putting my stuff in, you know, you have to start somewhere. And that's I think the big thing with most people is they find it's overwhelming. And when we procrastinate stuff, it's because we're finding it's too big. So you need to chunk that down into these smaller bits. So that a year from now, you're so much further ahead from where you are at this point.

Jennie Wright 14:01
All right. You've said something that's interesting to me, and it's bringing back this thing. So a couple of weeks ago, I was running these webinars, and I felt I don't know why. And I'm not the only one that felt this way, I felt a little out of tune with my marketing. And no, like I'm struggling, not like there's anything happening, that's bad or anything, but just felt a little out of that sync. And I think what's really important is that you get back to those basics, right? So getting back into whatever those basics are, I think is really, really key and going back and just getting, you know, just realizing what worked. We have the bad habit as entrepreneurs that if something doesn't work, we make minute adjustments. And those minut adjustments, if not done correctly, and those aren't like the the adjustments that you were talking about the promise product product or process people in profit. These are the minut adjustments of oh, that email didn't hit or nobody's went up for that webinar or five people showed up or whatever it is, we make these little adjustments. And what I'm finding is that those little adjustments, start taking you off course a little bit. Until you are, you know, it's, it's like being a millimeter out on building a house, if you're a millimeter out, and you just keep going, you know, you mean, eventually, there's not going to be there's not gonna be a straight wall in the place. So I think a lot of people need to realize that those minut adjustments can take you off of that course. And perhaps even just knowing that, you have to revisit that promise. I think that is an important piece that people need to go back to just revisit that promise of what you said you were going to do what you were going to stick to and put it in writing. Because if not, you're gonna forget,

Peter Mohr 15:44
yeah, no, I love that. And I think you know, we didn't really get around to the products or service and you hit on it there. But you know, once you have gotten to the promise, then you you need to reassess whether your product or service is still in alignment with the current promise. And I like to use a little framework, which is the sort of that 8020 rule, everybody's heard of it. But basically, shave off the 10% of the products that are no longer relevant, Hone, cure, make them quicker, faster, cheaper, easier, have your have your 80% core part products, and always be looking for that 10 to 15% of the new stuff that's going to come in to help deliver your promise even better. And when we look at that sort of stuff, so many people refuse to shave off their low producing products or services. It's amazing. And they say like, there's always done that. We've always done it, we need to do this. Well, have you actually dug into the information? Have you actually dug into the data? Have you actually found out whether your clients even value it even more anymore?

Alyson Lex 16:46
You know, I've really loved that. And I like the way that you just said it's just the 10% You're not getting rid of your biggest offering. You're not. You're just shaving off. And it's not even necessarily like we've done it this we do this because we've always done it, but I had somebody buy it last year. So I want to keep that.

Peter Mohr 17:09
Yeah, that one that one sale of your 300. Yeah, somebody bought it last year, I got you know, $200

Alyson Lex 17:17
I'm guilty of this. I just said to Jennie the other day, I was like, Hey, I have this thing. And you know, not a lot of people buy it, but people really seem to like it when they do and she's like, What? Seriously? Allison, it makes you like no money. It doesn't lead to bigger clients, why is this going to even be a thing?

Peter Mohr 17:33
Because there always has been? I get what they say

Alyson Lex 17:37
to me, Well, somebody might buy it. So you're missing? It's, it's total FOMO.

Peter Mohr 17:45
Right. It also deletes your current offering or not deletes but yeah, you know, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, that's the word I was looking for out to dilute, you know, and, and it's my COVID brain here today, I wasn't getting the right word. But, you know, we need to be focused on those things that are truly actually going to deliver our promise. And does that does that product still delivered your the promise that you currently have? And those are the things I mean, these are the things when you're working on your business, you sit down at your desk, and you kind of like, okay, I'm going to work through my promise that I'm going to work through my product, I'm going to like, you can do this with your people too, you can do it with your your we talked about ideal client who's the best ever, who's the worst ever do it with your team members to who's the best ever? Who's the worst ever? Well, you know, when you get that framework down, now I know who I'm going to hire. And now I know maybe who I need to fire. You know, these kinds of things are thinking tools. And as owners of our businesses, we don't typically give ourselves enough time to think about this kind of stuff. Because that in essence, once we have those things aligned properly, that's the only way to freedom. It's the only way to get your time back, Allison, that you were saying, you know, it's the only way to make more money. It's the only way to, you know, think about all of those things, why you got into business, and you know, all these steps along the way, if you don't think about them, you're just going to continue on, as you've continued on and nothing's going to change. And so I love to work with people that are ready to take action and want to change and want that freedom.

Alyson Lex 19:26
How often should we be revisiting all of this should we be? I mean, considering it weekly, monthly quarterly? Should it be a year meeting a yearly meeting with ourselves like

Peter Mohr 19:39
typically, I'll tell you how I do it, and it's your own rhythm. And you know, how you do it, but I do it every quarter. I have quarterly rhythms, weekly rhythms, you know, with my team, quarterly rhythms, weekly rhythms, daily rhythms and yearly rhythms, you know, but quarterly, I want to look at that sort of stuff personally, and I want to go through that and I go through the process. A little bit and kind of tweak things out. And then I then I bring it to our quarterly meeting with my team. And we talk about some stuff. That's just part of our rhythm, right? And then the trickle down stuff happens in those weekly meetings or even on the daily conversations. And setting up meeting rhythms is a really important piece of getting your freedom pack. Because that way, when we talked a little bit about it earlier around the fact that our job as leaders is to communicate what the promise is, and communicate everything. Well, if you aren't, if you don't have a meeting rhythm, and you don't you aren't communicating these things. How the heck is anybody supposed to know what they're supposed to be doing? And if and if they're always coming to you for the answers, that's why you're frustrated?

Jennie Wright 20:37
Yes. Having so I'm a big fan of Patrick and I always bastardize his last time Lencioni is how I say it, but Lynch oni I mean, depends on how you say it. But I love his books. Have you ever read them before? I haven't. Oh, okay. So he's in my bookcase. And these are great books, like some of them talk about the need for a meeting, each book has a fabled in it, they're really worth listening to, or sorry, reading. And what I like about it is like, there's a rhythm to the meetings, he has a whole thing in his books about having like a five minute meeting, but you're doing it standing. Right so that nobody's sitting through these things. And it's not causing a problem. And the same thing can go for having an you know, an organization where you have online, people that you work with, if you don't have in person, people, if you're working like Allison and I do where teams are stretched far across the world, right? And having that rhythm that you were talking about, I think is so key, because then everyone knows what to expect. And you know, you create this, and I know that Allison Allison has somebody that's working with her and every single day, at the end of when that person finishes what they've been doing, they just give her a little we update. It's like a paragraph, I finished this, I did this, I did this, I did this, you know, I have a question about this with my neck, you know, blah, blah, blah. And it's hugely helpful to somebody like Allison, who is, in my opinion, I was gonna say, very creative.

Alyson Lex 22:01
She's so nice. I'm a hot mess sometimes.

Jennie Wright 22:05
But she's our hot mess, and we love her. He's like, just this one little paragraph creates that organization. And it's helping, funnily enough, he's, he's helping to set a rhythm, which makes it easier for her to do what she needs to do.

Peter Mohr 22:20
Yeah, with our shoe stores, we have our daily rhythm with my management team that that talks to me is we use Voxer, which is a Voice app. And every one of them boxes me in the morning, and tells me their three priorities for the day. And the next day, they say if they got their three priorities done, and here's my three priorities for today. So I know what everybody in my team that I'm managing needs is working on and whether they're actually accomplishing. So whatever that meter meeting rhythm for you is and whatever communication tools you use, you know, it's uniquely yours. But if you don't have one, that's maybe one of the first place is to start after this conversation, you know, when you're listening to this listeners is to start thinking about, okay, we need to get a meeting rhythm in place, and you don't have to meet for four hours or anything like that. But start even with a little conversation, like you said, a paragraph is maybe all you need every day. Bullet points

Alyson Lex 23:17
exactly. And what's really important, and I think this goes to the another key, which is the people is I knew that building processes and setting rhythms and was important to me, I needed it. But I'm not the person to do it. Because that's not my zone of genius. And so I specifically hired someone who has that ability to support me in that way. That's the definition of the right person. Now, he does the test too. But he's building the SOPs and the processes as we go. And I say to him, this is so confusing to me. I need your help. And he's like, I got you. I'll put a plan together. Oh, okay. So I just wanted to share that, because that's my personal experience right now, with doing something that's part of your five P's of freedom. Yeah. Which thank you so much for coming and sharing them with us

Peter Mohr 24:16
today. It's been a pleasure to see you both again.

Jennie Wright 24:19
Where can we get in touch with you? Where can people find you? How can they get into your world?

Peter Mohr 24:24
Yeah. So you know, I'm active on LinkedIn, Pete Moore, Mo HR, I'm on Instagram, Pete Moore underscore coach, or the best thing to do really is to hop on over the website and the website simplifying entrepreneurship.com So which is the name of my business? And on the website, you'll also there's a great little business assessment there too, that you can take. It takes about 12 minutes to do and spit you back. A report that's between 50 and 60 pages long on how you're doing with your business. And you know, it green I love green light yellow light red light. I don't know but you guys I like that all the time. Yeah, so it green lights, all the areas that you're really doing well, and that red light some of the areas that you might want to work on this year. So it's a really great PDF that that just takes you through some of that sort of stuff.

Jennie Wright 25:10
Sounds like a really valuable resource. So we're going to make sure that that link is in our show notes. So head on over to system to thrive.com. Look for Pete Morris episode, it's mo HR. Actually, Pete is going to be episode 156. So you can actually make it simple system to thrive.com forward slash 156. It'll take you right to the episode. Make sure you check out that assessment. I think that's a really cool thing. And I think you know, 15 or 1215 minutes of your time to get like a 56 page report. Sounds pretty cool to me. So I like that. And then if you're enjoying the episodes, make sure that you do follow us or like us on whatever platform you're using to access this podcast. And leave us a review. We'd love to hear from you. So thanks so much for listening, everybody. Pete, thanks so much for being here, especially working your way through COVID. You've got like the COVID voice going on. We really appreciate it. And we'll see

Peter Mohr 25:59
Awesome, thanks for having me. Thanks. Take care.