Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: We'd like to welcome you to another episode of Closing the Digital Divide.
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Welcome to Closing the Digital Divide, the podcast dedicated to creating meaningful conversations and sharing valuable insights from industry leaders, policymakers, equipment manufacturers, and others on Closing the Digital Divide. I'm your host, Charles Thomas, and together we'll explore policy challenges, triumphs, and innovative solutions reshaping the digital landscape.
I am excited to have my good friend with me today, Mr. Kim Stromire, the CEO of Stillwater Business Coaching. Kim, how are you today?
[00:01:11] Speaker B: I am doing well and I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Well, you know, Kim, we were talking a few weeks back as we have our regular meetings, right? And you dropped a.
An article that you had written in front of me, and I started reading through it and I was like, oh my gosh, this is me, this is me, this is me.
And we had a great discussion around that, and to me it sounded like a podcast. So we're going to dive right into our topic and our topic today is the art of letting go.
Man, I think a lot of us struggle with the art of letting go. Can you, can you give us a quick background, first of all, on Stillwater's business coaching and what draw you to focus on helping business owners to let go?
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Well, I guess there's kind of, kind of two questions right there. Who I am and what the business is, and then focusing on this itself.
I've been coaching Charles for about 20 years, coaching business owners. My wife and I had a small business and about, oh, well, about 20 years ago, we'd had it for about 15 years. About 20 years ago, we finally had to sell it because we'd been struggling all along and we just, we just never were really to gain. Able to gain some traction, the traction that we wanted. Well, about the same time I had the opportunity to get involved with a real intensive leadership development program program in my home state of Kentucky that was designed to help rural community, rural Kentucky communities become more entrepreneurial.
I pretty quickly figured out the reason that our business did not succeed like I wanted it to was we, we knew our business well, which means we knew the technical aspects of the business.
What we did not know was the management and the measuring and the marketing aspects of the Business.
And I remember thinking at the time, man, why did we not know this ahead of time 15 years earlier?
But I also kind of look at it from the standpoint of, I think it was probably God's way of telling me, buddy, I got something in mind for you. Well, over time, I studied. I'm going to fast forward 15 years after that using all this information that I had learned and continued to educate myself on. I had, I, I would say I was, I was kind of thrust into the opportunity of managing my dad's campground when he went into the hospital and stayed there for. He was there for six months. Well, in that. In May. And I, I managed the campground for about a year until he came home, until he was able to get back in. Well, in the, in the time period I, I was. I was able to raise the annual revenues for that campground by 25% from the previous year. And I didn't start until after the camping season was a third of the way over. And it's just using some of the same principles at the same time at the same program. I learned how to coach and I was fascinated by it. And I thought, this is the way that I can help other business owners not have to go through struggles that we did.
As this relates to the art of letting go, this boils down to delegation.
There are so many business owners that I've talked to, they're just working too many hours.
And a lot of that, A lot of that pain is involved because they just, they can't give up control. They don't want to give up control. They built this business. They know all about it. Nobody knows anything knows it better than they do. And it's their baby. They. They just don't want to give it up.
So what I have learned is part of it is the process. But probably the biggest part, the biggest challenge in delegating is the mindset.
They, it's just, it is just hard for them to give up control.
And, and that's, that's where the art of it comes in. The, the process of delegating is a, is a structured, step by step process. The art comes from fixing, fixing the heads, fixing the head to where. Okay, I'm okay with letting this go.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Well, and as I was reading through this, you, you use a interesting metaphor, and that was of a symphony conductor. Where did that come from? And how does it resonate so strongly with your coaching approach?
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Well, I, with anything. I'm a, I'm a storyteller. I think I have been for a long time. But Just in the last few years, I've really realized that this is a good way to get a point across, using stories and using analogies. I. I'm not sure. I think that this story came from something that I was reading about John Wooden, coach John Wooden at ucla.
And, and it was.
The word I was reading was that he was kind of like a conductor.
And that made sense to me.
It just, it just really resonated with me. Okay, he's a sports coach, I'm a business coach. Very, very different there. But, you know, a business owner, if they're doing it right, they are the conductor of their own business. You know, there's various things going on. The, they got the violins playing in one spot and the drums in another spot, and the oboe is in another spot. And they, if they're doing it right, they got all of these working together to where it makes that business work. They're. They're the conductor of the, of that business. I, for me, I see it, I see it kind of working for me as a business coach. To most people, when you get right down to it, most people know what they need to do, but so a lot of times what they need to do is hard.
And because it's hard, it doesn't get done.
And so as a coach, I'm there to provide some accountability. And I've got my own coach, too. And brother, when it's, If I say I'm going to do something, it bothers me if I, if I don't. When I'm supposed to meet with that coach and say, oh, man, I didn't get that done this week, that bothers me. So accountability is important there. Now, sometimes I recognize that, that business owner, there's some things they need to do, they just don't know how.
They just don't know what they need to do. And so, like John Wooden, like the basketball coach, I'm able to help make some suggestions. Well, you could try something like this, or here's a process that you might go through. And sometimes if they say, well, I've tried that and it doesn't work well, sometimes I've got to devise another process that will work.
So, So I think that that's why that, that's why that analogy of a conductor of a classical symphony, of a symphony orchestra really seemed to resonate with me.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: So.
And, and I, you know, I struggle with this, too, and I shared some of that with you when we were sitting down talking through this. But why do so many small business owners struggle to give up Control. Even when sometimes we are sorely overwhelmed.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: It's our baby.
We. We built this business. We developed it. Nobody knows it like we do.
I know it's your business. It's my business. Anybody listening to this, they, even if they bought their own business, they made some changes in it. They know what they did. They know it better than anybody else. So. And I think that's why it's. That's why it's so hard to give up control. Because, you know, when, if you have somebody else do it, it's not going to be done as just the way you want it done. I struggle with it. You said you did. You know, it's a, It's a challenge with myself, too. I mentioned I got a coach myself. And it's important for me.
You know, the accountability is important, but also ideas I have.
It's important to have an. It's. It's important to have an, an objective outsider listening to this and listening to your ideas. Listen to what you're doing and giving you some giving you help, helping you see what, what might be right in front of you, but you can't see it. You can't see the forest because of the trees, so to speak.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: So, you know, one of the issues that. And, and I'm gonna.
I'm gonna give away some of my own trade secrets here, but one of the, one of the issues that I, I always had and, and we talked about this.
The difference between responsible leadership and micromanagement.
How do you draw that line?
[00:10:56] Speaker B: As a leader?
You got to help others grow as the leader in your business.
Responsible management means helping other people grow in that business so that they can help you, so they can help the business grow.
Now that you see there's a line between being responsible and, and micromanaging it. That line is going to be different for. Depending on the job and depending on the person.
And I'll. I'll just give you a personal example. I do a fair amount of writing.
My standards for writing are very exacting. I'm. I'm going to have a hard time giving that up.
But I'm not a tech person.
But, you know, tech is. It's.
It. We've got to have it in our businesses. You know, designing a web page, doing some of the. Martin, Doing some online marketing. I'm very exacting in my writing standards.
I'm not so exacting in what a web page or what a. What. What some marketing campaigns might look like. So I can, I can depend on somebody else to, to do some of those Things I'm, I'm going to be more micromanaging of the writing. If I had somebody doing some writing for me.
And I think that's. That's where that line is. It depends on. It depends a lot on the job itself.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: So you mentioned, as I was reading through that, that document, which is. I'm assuming it's going to become a book at some time, at some point, but you mentioned a couple of practical tools in there, and I'm going to walk a few of these. One of them is the Profit and Play prism. Can you walk us through that, how that helps business owners decide what to delegate?
[00:12:49] Speaker B: Okay, that's a, That's a tool I came up with.
Delegation starts with, you know, it just when, when you break it down to its simplest elements, delegation starts with what to offload and what to keep if.
And really that needs to be determined by how important the job is to the profitability of the company and how much you, as a business owner enjoys doing it. So really the first things to offload are things that, yeah, it's important to the business. You got to have it, but it's not directly tied to making money and you hate doing it.
Those are going to be the things that you would offload first.
Let me give you, let me give you an example of that.
For most business owners, I know it's not everybody, but most that I know, they hate bookkeeping.
You hate it too. You know, I'm not, I'm not real keen on it myself, but bookkeeping itself does not. You know, you got, you got to do it.
But sure, sure. Doing it really, really good versus, oh, there's a few mistakes in it. That's really not going to affect the profitability of the company.
And if you hate doing it, well, that's one of the first things you have somebody else do and you can find somebody that does like it. I developed this tool to, to help a person figure out the first things to get rid of it. Just, just a, just to see it. It. And basically it just outlines how important is it to profitability.
And it's, it's four quadrants. How important to profitability and how much fun it is for you to do. How much, how much like play it is. The Profit and Play prism, I call it a prism because a prism reflects light in different ways. When you actually sit down, there is so much value to sitting down and writing stuff out.
I mean, it forces you to.
It forces you to verbalize what you're thinking.
If you can write out these things that you enjoy doing and don't enjoy doing with a tool like this, like a prism. It's just a different way of seeing things.
So that's, that's the power of that particular tool.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Well, we are, we are burning through our time for the show today, but I want to get to one more tool and then I got a few more questions I want to ask. The next tool is that I want. And you kind of touched on this a little bit. What makes the empower through apprenticeship worksheet. Worksheet different from a typical delegation checklist?
[00:15:54] Speaker B: I'm very structure oriented.
That's just, just the way I'm wired. I have found that a lot of business owners are not so much so now that's early on. That's okay. They don't really need a whole lot of structure. But as they grow, that lack of structure can hold them back.
This tool just provides some structure. It provides a process that you don't have to think through it. Here's okay, do this first, do this next, do this next. It's just a step by step process that allows them to do what needs to be done to effectively delegate. I'll just, just add real quickly, people that might be listening to this right now, they can't see it. But, but this worksheet is essentially just what task list? What task do you need to delegate? How does that fit in that profit and play prism?
Who are you going to delegate it to and why? That person.
That's him. That's an important thing. We might not have time to talk about that. But selecting, excuse me, selecting the person is really important.
And why they're, why you're delegating it to that person.
What authority are you going to be given that? Are they going to, are you going to have them follow some step by step instructions just exactly the way you do it or are you going to give them some autonomy in deciding, you know, figuring out options and deciding and either bringing it to you. This is what I think we need to do. Or even just giving it to them and let that, letting them act on it. And then another. And then there's a particular process what I call milestones to mastery. And that is showing, you know, sometimes, sometimes people say delegation doesn't work. I told somebody how to do it and they didn't do it right. So okay, delegation doesn't work.
It's the process that they used that didn't work. Their instructions weren't very good. So this milestones of the mastery, it's you first.
If you're going to delegate something to somebody, you show them, you do it, you do that job and they want you.
The second time you do the job and they help you.
You do the job a third time, but they actually do the job and you help them.
The fourth time they do the job and you keep your hands off. You just watch and you give them some pointers at the end.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: That is awesome.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: That is a four step milestones to mastery process. That will, that will get people, that will get jobs off your plate and giving them to somebody else.
That's the, I see that as being the, the real value of this worksheet. It's just a tool. It's just a tool, but it, it can be a pretty powerful tool.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: So what, what the time we have left. Once someone has delegated one or two tasks, whatever that is, and they walk through that process, how do they build momentum and make it a part of their business culture?
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Charles I think mine, I think once again, mindset's the key.
You got to start with some small wins, some easy things to delegate. That's going to, that's going to build for the person that's having the problem delegating that they, they, they, this is my baby. I don't, you know, nobody knows how to do it like I do with those small wins that give, that helps get them the mindset that hey, I can do this and you start small and you build and, and what that's going to do, that's you get, you're building your own, your trust in the person you're delegating to.
But also, and this is important too, they're, you're, you're building trust on other way. You know, they're beginning to trust you because you are in entrusting them some of these jobs so they're more empowered. Does that make sense?
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So just a quick follow up to that. Are there indicators or are there a point where an owner or business leader can delegate too much or too fast?
And how do you calibrate that?
[00:20:43] Speaker B: You got to remember this is still your business and you are ultimately responsible for that.
If a person is working with me, you know, I've, as a coach, I've got some sense, you know, if I'm working somebody week by week by week they're telling me things.
You know, a coaching, a coaching relationship where you get into, you get in some pretty deep stuff. I've got a sense that how, how things are going. They, if they're, if they're being too aggressive, I might hold them Back a little bit. If they're being, if they're being too cautious as a coach, I feel like my job is to, okay, let's, let's push it, let's push a little bit. And I, and I just, I just got a sense, you know, you got to do that yourself. If you're doing it yourself. If somebody is actually using a coach, that coach is going to be helping that way.
[00:21:37] Speaker A: So what, what changes have you seen in your clients or what have they reported in their well being? And that mindset change after learning how to delegate more effectively?
[00:21:48] Speaker B: I've got a great example of that.
Started, started working with a IT provider a couple of three years ago and I actually did a case study. I wrote, wrote, interviewed him for a case study here. Fairly recently. When we started working, if he wasn't there, the business did not work.
He had to be there. And in his, in his own words, he said, you know, he was, he was kind of given the idea that Mr. Business Owner has got to do it. And his employees picked up on that. And if he wasn't there, his employees say, well, well, we got to wait to wait till Mr. Business Owner gets back so he can take care of that. He, he realized that he was killing himself.
He was working 60 to 70 hours a work week.
He told me, you know, his, his, his wife was an entrepreneurial widow. He was never home.
Over time, we spent some time doing some stuff we want. One real key was helped him develop a strategic plan.
And he was nervous about this, but said, okay, let's, let's get your team involved on this. His team bought into this big time. He told me after this was over with, he said, you know, I'm tickled to death with what they've done. And he said, you know, they scared me to death.
He said, they, they've come up with ideas I've never thought about and it scares me how, how much they're pushing me. They want me to do this. Okay, let's fast forward a year to say that, you know, when we first started, Mr. Business Owners got to be there. Well, a couple of years later, he took a vacation. He was gone for, he and his wife were gone for a whole week.
Things had changed so well that he said, you know, I got back, I got back in the office, I didn't know what was going on so that they had never called me. The first time I got back, I said, how's things going? They said, oh, going great.
No fires he had to put out. He said, they didn't Hardly know I was gone. He said, man, it was great.
That's what, that's, that's kind of a key. That's what delegation can do for you.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: So I think I know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask it anyway. How does delegating relate to business sustainability and succession planning?
[00:24:14] Speaker B: If you don't delegate, you don't have a business.
You got a job and great point, you.
And you've got a really sorry boss yourself.
You know, if you're not, if you're a business owner and you don't delegate, it's just like this, this example I showed. You know, if you're not there, the business doesn't work.
And if the business is you, there is no succession, there is no sustainability.
It's really just that blunt.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: Before we wrap up today's episode, let's talk a little bit about our new sponsor.
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So Kemp, this has been awesome. I mean, every time we sit down together, I feel like I'm in a master class.
This has been a master class.
Now you offer a, a no cost, 25 minute session. What should someone expect during that conversation?
[00:25:39] Speaker B: This is really when somebody call and this is 25 with kim.com.
this is a, this is really just for that person to see if what I do might be of some benefit.
In a way it's kind of a, it's kind of a two way interview for me.
I talk to that person, I get a sense of what they're, who they are or what their, what their business is, what's working, what's not working as well as they would like. And if something's not working, okay, is this something that I feel that I could help with for them?
They're interviewing me as well and you know, they would need to kind of ask themselves as they're going through, as we, as a conversation goes on, you know, can they see themselves working with me? Do I have the attitude, do I have the temperament that would, that would work, that would work with them? Maybe, maybe not. And that's okay.
At the end of that phone call, if they feel like maybe Tim is not the right person for them? Well, hopefully I will have given them some ideas on how to move forward either without a coach or even with finding another coach.
There's plenty of good Plenty of really good business coaches out there. This 25 with Kim, I understand some, you know, somebody. Somebody. Well, I don't know if I need this and I don't want to give somebody my phone number or make a phone call, something like this. There's no sales pitch. At the end of, at the end of that phone call, I'm going to, if I feel like I can help them, I'm going to say so.
And I'm going to ask if you want to continue this conversation. That's the sales pitch? You want to continue this conversation?
[00:27:33] Speaker A: Well, that's a, that's a, that's a direct, hardcore sales pitch there, man.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: So that's.
[00:27:38] Speaker A: That's 25 with Kim dot com. Right. So one last question and okay, wrap this up.
For someone who's listening right now who's feeling burnt out but still hesitant to let go, what is the first small step you recommend they take today?
[00:28:01] Speaker B: Okay, the first step. Step.
Close your eyes.
If you're listening, close your eyes.
Imagine waking up in the morning having a good night's sleep because you didn't have to worry about business.
You took some time and had a couple of cups of coffee with your significant other, kind of ambled along.
You came into all office or the store or the shop, whichever it might be about the middle of the morning, you walked in, all your employees looked at you, looked up at you and smiled. And you can see that they're enjoying themselves. You know, you're catching them in the middle of work. They're doing the things that you had them do and they're doing them well. And you, and you think back a week ago when somebody, one of your employ employees said something to you about, man, I really appreciate you hiring me. I really love working here.
So you, you come in and you see these engaged employees that are having a good time doing what they're doing.
And you walk back to your desk and there's the report on your desk that one of your employees has put out there for you as financial report showing what the numbers are this week, this past week. And sales are up, revenues are up, profits looking good, leads are in the right direction where you want them to be.
Good numbers. Numbers look good. Well, you sit down and you're kind of thinking, well, I've.
There's no fires to put out.
Everything's being handled. So you sit down and you do the, you do the things that really give you energy, the things that build your business. You do some visioning, you do some figuring out, some marketing, things that you need to do and it works. You get some ideas done, you feel good about it, you get a lot done. And long about the middle of the afternoon, you think, okay, I've got done what I need to do today. I think I'm going to go out and take the rest of the day and I'm going to go out and play some golf, or I'm going to go out and go fish, or I'm gonna go out with my daughter and go shop.
And you leave and everybody waves by at you, say, you know, see you, see you tomorrow.
You don't feel a fit of guilt for leaving early. You go out and do what you do. It's been a great day. So you decide that you and your significant other are gonna go out to the best steakhouse in town and you're really gonna splurge. You don't feel guilty about spending that hunt.
Okay, you, you open your eyes, Nick.
That is a.
Imagine that happening to you.
That's the first step.
If you're not there, the next step is, okay, let's do something about it to make that happen. It could be a 25 minute or, or 25 with Kim call and I, you know, we can walk through some of the things that would help you do something like that. And I recognize if you're not ready to call, okay, go ahead and download the worksheet that we talked about, the, the empowering apprenticeship worksheet. When I, when you get that worksheet, you're going to be put on my email list and you're going to get a few emails about how to use this worksheet, how to make, move through some of the steps of delegation, where it's going. If you follow this, it's going to help you do a better job.
And you're also going to get emails from me about once a week just on various things relating to building the business. And then when, when the time comes, you feel comfortable, say, okay, I think I, I think I might like to work with this guy. Then you, then you can call me. Then you, you can schedule calls. 25.
Life's too short and there's too much potential for joy to continue dealing with a business doesn't work.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Amen to that, brother. There you have it, folks. The art of letting go with my good friend, Kim Stromire. Kim, it's been a pleasure. I forgot to mention also that you are an author, sir. The first book that I got from you that I read through was turn your business into a powerhouse. There are some really good tips in, in that too. Where can people buy this?
[00:32:35] Speaker B: You can, you can get it from Amazon, about 15 bucks.
You can do. You can probably the best way of looking forward is searching for my name. M Stromire K I M S T R O H M E I E R and of course if you're listening to this, you may be getting that may be getting your newsletter, Charles. So you know my, my name will be on that part of letting go too. So you search for that and that's, that's how you can get that.
[00:33:04] Speaker A: And there's some pretty cool tools in here to work through as, as well. So again, Tim, it's been great. I appreciate you coming on. We are flat out of time and I look forward to sitting down with you real soon, my friend.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: Charles, it's been a pleasure. I appreciate the invite.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: All right, have a good day.
