Why Contractors Get Stuck in Hustle Mode: Liz Chism on The Future Factory Podcast
Addicted to Hustle? Liz Chism Reveals How Contractors Break Free
(Liz Chism on The Future Factory Podcast episode #232 with Anthony Amunategui)
If you’ve ever wondered why you’re working 80–100 hours a week and still feel like you’re barely keeping your head above water, you’re not alone. That exact pattern is what I unpacked on my recent interview with The Future Factory Podcast, and it’s one of the biggest traps contractors fall into as they try to grow their business.
In this episode, we went deep into the real problem behind burnout in the trades:
👉 your business is running you… instead of supporting your life.
From the myth of “no one can do it as well as I can,” to why SOPs don’t work without structure, to the mindset shift required to go from operator to owner, this conversation is packed with transformational takeaways for contractors who want to scale without adding more chaos.
What We Covered on the Show
Here are a few of the highlights:
1. Why working 100+ hours isn’t a badge of honor, it’s a bottleneck
I shared my own story of burnout, running a multimillion-dollar brewery, and realizing that hard work alone doesn’t build a scalable business.
2. The real reason SOPs fail
Most contractors think SOPs are the answer, but an SOP without structure is like “putting a stove in a house with no foundation.” We talked about the three things every SOP must include to actually work: a trigger, a clear process, and a defined output.
3. Accountability that doesn’t require micromanaging
We dug into the difference between holding people accountable (owner-driven, exhausting) and helping employees BE accountable (team-driven, scalable).
4. The biggest mindset shift contractors must make to grow
Humility. Letting go of the belief that you’re the only one who can do things “the right way.” The moment owners stop stepping on their team’s “air hoses,” businesses grow, and lives change.
Untitled document
5. How to find your next most immediate constraint
Instead of trying to fix everything at once, I shared how contractors can identify and remove one bottleneck at a time, creating outsized results and freeing up hours each week.
6. Why people, not just systems, will determine your long-term success
We talked about culture, ownership, and why a people-focused business will always outlast any tech or trend.
If you're a contractor feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or overworked… this episode is your blueprint.
You’ll walk away with practical tools to step back from the day-to-day, empower your team, and start operating like the CEO your business actually needs.
Ready to build a business that runs without you?
If this episode hits home and you're tired of white-knuckling your business, your next step is simple:
👉 Book a free Gameplan Call and I’ll help you identify the #1 constraint holding your business back, and the system that will fix it.
And if you want to dive deeper with a community of growth-minded contractors who are scaling the right way…
👉 Join us inside the Contractor’s Roundtable Mastermind, where we implement the systems, structure, and accountability your business has been missing.
Key takeaways from the episode
[0:35] Liz pushes back on the idea that 100-hour or 120-hour weeks are required. She says you can, but you burn out, and she has done it.
[0:52] She calls the "nobody else can do it as good as you" stance selfish, and says pulling back lets you collaborate instead of living in 100-hour weeks.
[1:53] Wanting to be a mom while brewing and running the company forced her to leverage other people instead of working 100 to 120 hours.
[11:45] She says systemize the real constraint first. Example: a remodeler with too many jobs and untrained people should fix the employee issue before new marketing systems.
[6:43] For SOPs she wants a start, middle, and stop, plus a trigger for what happens when the SOP finishes, so processes connect like puzzle pieces.
Questions answered in this episode
Do you have to work 100-hour weeks to grow?
Liz says you could, but you burn out. Her own story is leaving 100 to 120-hour weeks by leveraging other people.
Why do owners stay stuck doing everything?
She describes the belief that nobody else can do it as well as you, and says pulling back is how you become a better leader.
Where should you systemize first?
At the constraint. If employees and fulfillment are broken, fix that before adding marketing systems.
What makes an SOP usable?
A clear start, middle, and stop, plus what gets triggered when it is done, so processes link together.
Full episode transcript
Transcript cleaned from YouTube captions. Speaker labels only where clear. Bracketed [unclear] marks uncertain words. Liz Chism's wording is kept as spoken.
[0:05] Welcome back to the podcast. You know, today we got Liz Chism with us. She is a mastermind, coach, business leader. Uh
[0:11] going to help you really show you how to get into your business and stop working 100hour weeks and getting nothing done. Look, some of you entrepreneurs out there think that working harder is the way to go. She's going to show you how to work on your business instead of in your business the way you're doing it. I'm so excited to have her on. She's grown multiple uh brands and her wisdom uh is something you're going to love. So Liz, welcome to the show. >> Thanks for having me.
[0:33] >> You know, come on. If I don't work hard,
[0:35] if I don't work 100 hours a week, look, Elon Musk, he works 120 hours a week. I mean, come on. Can I work 120 hours a week? >> I mean, you could, but you'd burn
[0:43] yourself out. I've been there, done that. [laughter] >> Yeah. Right. It's not sustainable,
[0:47] right? >> Yeah. And it also is very selfish to be
[0:52] in that position where you feel like nobody else can do anything as good as you and you are God's gift to mankind. And instead when you pull back from that, you can actually help collaborate with people and become a better person without working that 100 hours 120 hours a week or however long it is that you're working each week. Well, it just it look
[1:11] for a lot of for 28 years I've run CDO group and there are times when you know I I part of me is gets some payoff from it, right? I I when all the business coaches have come in like yourself that come in and work with me, I something to notice is like all right, there's a cost, right? But I also get some sort of payoff, right? Maybe some of the lower part of me and maybe some of you entrepreneurs can relate to this. There's something you're showing the world, right? I I maybe in my early days I wanted you to see I wasn't a college graduate. I didn't have a degree. This this business was was showing you who I was. So I got some payoff in that. But as I started to really look at creating a life and a family, it wasn't sustainable. >> Yeah, that's exactly my story, too. you
[1:53] know, I was working 100 hours, 120 hours a week sometimes, and it really came down to, well, I also want to be a mom and how am I going to brew beer and run a business and also be a mom? And so, when there's that tension there, you start figuring out how to solve it and then you start realizing that you don't actually need to work that hard. You can leverage the resources around you in order to get to reaching your goals and
[2:21] beyond. Well, let's go back for a second because you said brewing beer. So, I I I just I just want to get I don't see a beard on you. I'm not sure how you how you could brew beer without a beard. >> Yeah, I don't have a pot belly either.
[2:32] So, [laughter] >> so yeah. So, you learn a lot doing it.
[2:37] So, let's really kind of dive into, you
[2:40] know, when you say that, right? We we're going 100 miles an hour and we're working 100 hours plus a week and there's a cost to that that impacts really your ability to to see what you need to see as an owner, right? >> Yeah. And I feel like there is this idea
[2:57] and you know I work with a lot of contractors that they've turned what they know how to do a craft, a hobby, you know, for me it was home brewing. I was a home brewer. I won a lot of awards and I was like, well, let's take this hobby on the road and turn it into a business, a micro brewery. And you don't really think about the business side of things because you open up your doors and people walk in and buy your beer and you're like, great, like, I got money. And you kind of just float through owning a business and all of a sudden you turn around, you realize that you got there at 6:00 in the morning and it's 1:00 in the morning and you're still mopping the floor from closing the tasting room and you're like, "What am I doing here?" like I shouldn't have to actually be doing all these things because I see all these other successful breweries and they're not doing the same thing. They're going to bed. They're
[3:43] having vacations with their family. So, what am I doing wrong? But, you know, it doesn't matter really which business you go into. A lot of times you don't have the training. You have, you know, the business side of the training. You have the hands-on. I know how to work. I know how to build. I know how to do the thing. >> That's right. But then how do you
[4:00] actually add on the business side of things so you don't have to work the 120 hours? >> Well, and I think there the the problem
[4:06] is I was great at being, you know, a carpenter or a painter or a you know, I'm great at being a contractor, but running a business isn't necessarily the skill set that comes with that, right? That comes with understanding construction well. And I and certainly from my early years, I knew con I know the wise of construction because I grew up in the field and I I worked with my hands. I knew how things operated. So I I look I could sit in front of anybody and talk about the work that I was going to do. >> Now growing a business, right?
[4:34] Understanding payroll and internet and and HR and all the stuff that comes to No, no one told me that to be an entrepreneur, to be a general contractor, I was going to have to be a, you know, an internet expert. I'm going to have to figure out how to do social media. I didn't I didn't know I have to be an HR expert. I didn't know I had there was like seven or eight other business I had to run besides running just a general contracting business. >> 100% 100%. And then like in the beer
[5:00] industry where I started is you know and I grew up in the trades too. My dad's a third generation contractor. So I was swinging hammers and building houses when I was 9 years old with him. Um I had the privilege of being homeschooled. So I actually worked like two to three days a week as a nine-year-old which most people don't because they're in school all day. Um I would just do my school in the evenings and on the weekends. But you you even then at that
[5:23] point in time you wear all these hats and then it's like how do you take everything that's in your head and actually delegate it in a way that you've even learned how to do it or trust the people that the way they're going to do it is going to be better or more optimal than the way you learned it from the school of hard knocks. >> But is it just doing SOPs? Liz is all I
[5:42] have to do is write up great SOPs. I wish it was that simple. And that's where most people fall apart because an SOP is just a documentation of the best
[5:53] practice of how to do something. But if you don't have the structure behind it, if you don't have the strategy behind it, then it's like putting a stove without in a house that doesn't have a foundation or walls. It kind of doesn't do anything for your business or for your house. And you know, if it's a stove because all you do is have a stove. It's like, okay, well, this is how you turn the stove on, and you know, this is how you heat things up, and you know, this is how you work the oven. And it's like, okay, well, that's great, but why do I need to learn how to do the stove? I'm freezing cold. The floor's falling apart underneath me, and I have no roof over my head. And so, that's where we have to put the structure in place and the strategy in place so that way there's a time and a place for everything. And so, SOPs need to have three things. They need to have something that triggers them. They need
[6:39] to have the output of what is the goal
[6:43] that we're going to actually do. So what are the steps and processes to actually make that output? And then you need to have what is triggered because of this SOP being finished. So you have a start, a middle, and a stop. And if you have all three things in place, then you start weaving together all your systems and processes like a puzzle piece once you actually have the structure in place and you have the strategy in place. >> Well, so let's go kind of go through
[7:06] that again. So let's go through the start from the beginning. So what triggers it? How do you figure out what triggers an SOP? >> So let's say you have a process for
[7:15] permitting. >> Yeah.
[7:16] >> Okay. What triggers the permitting
[7:17] process? What point in the process? Is it because you got to a certain part in the project and the plumbers signed off and said that their work is done? So what is that process? Most of the time the plumber will finish what they're doing and they'll mention it in a text message to someone saying, "I finished it." And then that someone's got to go remember that they've got to go do an SOP to go follow the process to go do the permitting. And that's where you end up having these gaps in communication because you don't actually know what the next step is. And so when you know what triggers it, hey, when that plumber says that they're done, then we need to do the permit or, you know, get the inspection or before they do this, this is what we need to do for the permitting process. Or um another example would be
[8:01] when the client decides that they are
[8:04] going to use you as a contractor. What is that next step? >> It's to sign the contract.
[8:09] >> Don't I just start working?
[8:11] >> Exactly. And that's where it all falls
[8:14] apart because they don't have the foundation. They don't have the structure. >> That's right. That's right. I mean, we
[8:18] do this all the time where we start a project and by the way, I'm probably the worst in the company for do because all of a sudden I get a call from a client or someone that really likes me. Anthony, hey, can you take care of Yeah, I got it. and I jump in. I don't follow SOP, right? I don't go through the structure of, "All right, good. Look, we need we need a we need to >> Can I let you in on a secret?"
[8:35] >> Yeah.
[8:36] >> Most owners are horrible at following
[8:38] their own systems and processes. >> It plagues me. I look I I got it though.
[8:42] They bust my chop. I had it this morning. I I got called aside by by the county department like, "Anthony, we need to have a conversation." And I'm like, "What do I do now?" Well, if you remember this client, we don't have a contract. We we just issued contracts to subcontractors without a contract from the owner. [sighs and snorts] Oh, don't worry. He's over on vacation. Okay. No, no, no. But look, we you said adamantly, no one can do this and we've done this. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I did it. And and and you look at it and go, what does what does the domino effect of that behavior cost our organization, right? Because, you know, if if those don't happen properly and we have an issue somewhere down the road or this guy changes their mind, which I'm hoping they don't, right? because I've got a good relationship with them. But, you know, we create SOPs to prevent, you
[9:29] know, disagreements later on. >> Yeah. And most people make the the SOP
[9:34] way too complicated. >> So, I actually have I've trained a whole
[9:38] chat GPT bot to make SOPs. And the way I
[9:43] have it trained is that you brain dump what the process is. Hey, the process is, you know, we get a contract and uh, you know, then we we call up the subs and we, you know, get them scheduled out and then we start the job. That's usually what the brain dump looks like. And then I have the bot trained to go and ask the questions. Okay, what is the first step? Who gets to create this schedule? What are the key points in the schedule based off of the contract? And so it goes through and asks all the questions that are pertinent to the SOP. And then it creates the SOP with a checklist that's usually a three to five long of like, hey, if you scanned this SOP and didn't actually read it, here are the five things that you actually need to get done in order to make sure that this is successful. And so when you really simplify things, it can make your
[10:30] jobs run so much smoother because people can only run remember two to three things at a time. >> I think that's really where what what
[10:37] I'm noticing is that in a world that is faster than ever before. I mean, just the amount of speed by which our we're asking our human beings to work is dramatically different than anything the universe has ever seen, right? Just and then and we're looking at them going, you're you're behind. But look, 50 years ago, you you couldn't even you couldn't do a tenth of what we do today. And we're asking people to do, you know, 10 times more. And you know, they're overwhelmed. Like a lot of us are overwhelmed. If if we start to look at, you know, or maybe we should walk through kind of a 100 hour work week and start to think about, all right, what are the systems I want to start putting in place that are going to make it something where people can actually get some traction and get things done. >> So, where I always start is what is the
[11:26] next most immediate constraint? because people tend to blanket SOPs for their
[11:33] whole business and then they go and start systemizing things that don't actually need documentation. >> So give me an example of that.
[11:42] >> So for instance, I just got a new client
[11:45] and he's in construction. He's a remodeling business, been in business for 20 years, and right now he actually knows his numbers. And he knows that he's wasting a ton of money on the wrong employees who are not trained, who have no SOPs, and he needs more employees because he's got too many jobs in the pipeline, and he can't fulfill it. So, for me to go in and say, "Okay, let's go systemize your client acquisition system would be a waste of time. Let's go put in some marketing systems. Let's let's create job signs to put out in the front and put, you know, put the yard signs out there. Let's go, you know, add a Facebook account cuz they're an old school business and they don't have a Facebook account. Like all of those types of things is a complete waste of time because he's dealing with the fact that he has too many jobs. He's got a
[12:31] high reputation and he has employees that are not actually doing the things that they need to be doing and therefore he's coming back and fixing all their problems resulting in 100 hour work weeks. And so therefore, we actually have to go fix the employee issue first before we go look at the systems and processes for how he does his accounting and his client acquisition and his punch list and all of those things because we have to fix the problem that's going to then free up resources to go fix the other problems. >> Can't we just create punch checklist for
[12:59] our employees to go through every day? >> I mean, you could. [laughter] They may
[13:04] not follow them. >> Well, I mean, look, checklists aren't
[13:07] working, right? If I find it I I I think look just because you've got this piece of paper there I I finding out that it really doesn't work that way right the human brain the way they go through it the way they now look I think I think they're great in idea and understanding the structure of something and as we go through it but I think you've got to train you know we we have to back up a little bit more and look at how we're training people to do you know with their behaviors right what what does it mean to be accountable what does it mean to be you know you know what are we looking for in the behaviors when you're doing the checklist Yeah. And that's where you have to create a culture of accountability in your business and not just a dictatorship where you pass a piece of paper on to somebody and you expect them to follow it. In fact, what I teach all of my contractors that I work with is every time they put out an SOP and we
[13:52] create an SOP and we're working through things, instead of asking your employees to follow the SOP, I actually ask
[14:00] employees to find 10 things wrong with the SOP. Because when they find 10 things wrong with the SOP, they're actually now collaborating with you to create the best processes and they're like, "Wow, no, that's not how we do things. Oh, this is how we do things. Oh, this is, you know, we did this once and it actually worked out really well or you the way you have it written down is not going to work because of X, Y, and Z." And so when you ask for the feedback upfront from an SOP, it now becomes a live breathing living document inside your business versus a mandate of
[14:31] something to follow. because most employees do not like to be bossed around and most employees quit businesses because of their managers, not because of the business. And so you have to think about your SOPs as a tool and how to collaborate with your employees and create the feedback loops and the culture of accountability to actually implement the SOPs into your business. What's the biggest mind shift change that an entrepreneur needs to make to to really uh you know step back from their day-to-day work?
[15:06] >> I would say the biggest mindset change
[15:11] would be to have humility and to not
[15:16] feel like you are the only one that has all the answers. Because if you stay stuck thinking that you do things better than everybody else, that nobody can do it as good as you, that everyone needs to follow your way or the highway, you end up having a culture and a business that still runs around you, and you can never free yourself up as the bottleneck. >> You know, I had a business coach come in
[15:42] once, and she's this wonderful woman, right? She just great coach and she's she comes in one day and she's like, "Anthony, today we're going to lock you in your office." I'm like, "What?" "Oh, go good, good, good. I get some private. I get some." "No, no, no, no, Anthony. We're going to lock you in." Right? See, the idea is that you got these amazing people out there and you keep going out there and stepping on all their air hose, their air hoses, right? And they they can't breathe. You're sucking the oxygen out of the room. Goes, "We're gonna lock you in and you get to talk to six people for one hour a week. You have six people. You get a one-on-one with one hour a week and that's it. And I'm like, "All right, great. So, here's what I'll do. I'll plan all week. I'll plan I'll get this checklist of things you're going to do. You got this and you got to do that. You got to do this and you have this. I'll just make sure they they make their matrix and they get the do list."
[16:28] And you know what I found out? My one-on- ones are about them. What's going on their families? What's going on their lives? That I found out that as I step back, those first couple of weeks were just torture. I was like biting my tongue to sit in my office and literally had to stand on my hands and just bite my tongue because it was like what's going to happen? The world's going to fall apart and and it maybe some things didn't go perfect, right? But then as things did go great, right? You started noticing something that was unbelievable, >> right? That I didn't I didn't have to
[16:58] make all those decisions. And there was an ability to stand back and be supportive to people in a way that I was never able to do as opposed to the what about this? What about that? What about this? What about that? what about this? You know, I could really look into them and look at what their goals were and their lives were and really build a relationship that trusted them, right? And I think that's what you're talking about, isn't it? >> Yeah. I think one of the biggest
[17:22] qualities that owners have to have is the ability to listen. And I usually take a poll when I work
[17:32] with somebody and I'm like, "Okay, on your last meeting that you had with all your employees, what ratio did you talk
[17:38] versus them talking?" And I typically hear it anywhere between 90 and 95%.
[17:44] That they're talking and fiveish% their
[17:48] employees are talking. And I said, "What do you think if we flipped that and you actually came up with a list of five questions that you wanted to get answered during that call?" And the only words that could come out of your mouth was those five questions and tell me more. That's all you could say the entire meeting. And it completely shifted the entire culture and helped the employees be accountable because now they weren't just listening to somebody preach at them for an hour in a meeting. They were actually able to solve the problem and let their abilities and their genius shine in that moment.
[18:22] >> What do you think? Why do you think
[18:23] owners do that?
[18:29] I mean, I think some of it is they just don't even they're not even aware that they do that. I think some of it is just >> they've been told, you know, they see a
[18:36] teacher from elementary school, sit there and jab for hours and lecture, they go to a class and they learn something and now they've got employees and so they feel like they have to talk. I think some other ways is the whole humility side of things. like they are scared to have an answer that's different than what they have preconceived in their head of what the answer should be and they're not really willing to be open to having another possibility. >> Oh, right. It's almost if I talk long
[19:03] enough, I won't have to hear any other options. You'll do what I say. >> Exactly.
[19:07] >> Oh, that's interesting. That's that
[19:09] that's a good that's that's a that's a really good one to I mean, look, I I if I look back, there's definitely been times in my life when I've been that guy for sure. You know, I I can look back and clearly see that I just kept going because I didn't want you to know anything else. Right. By the way, maybe some of it was fear that you'd find out I didn't know what I was doing. If I just talked long enough and loud enough, you you know, you know, you wouldn't know that I was scared. Right. >> Exactly.
[19:34] And I think too there is this idea that
[19:37] because as you grow and you go from
[19:41] employee to your of your business to a manager of a few people in your business to the leader of your business that at one point in time you were wearing all the hats and juggling all the things and as you start hiring people you now don't
[19:54] think that there is any other way that the way you had been doing things is the way to go. it's my way or the highway. And there's this idea that there's obviously no other answer to this problem. So why even try? And when you
[20:10] think about it that way, it ends up stifling your employees and then they like to leave because they don't like to be stifled. >> Well, it it it's it's also you haven't
[20:20] created a future together, right? You've kind of dictated this future. No one wants to work for a dictator, right? when when when we collaborate on a creative future now they have engagement they have enrollment they're part of it just like you said about look you get me to work on that SOP and and and work on that all of a sudden now it's it's my SOP >> exactly
[20:41] >> it's a whole different relationship to
[20:43] what they're what they're doing and create a future together >> 100% 100%
[20:48] >> that's interesting
[20:49] >> anytime an owner goes on vacation the
[20:52] first thing they ask their employees is not how'd it It's what system broke and how can I support you to fix that system.
[21:02] >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's that's
[21:04] funny. I what what I found out is I took I took a month off. I came back the company ran better than I did when I was there. >> Yeah. You you put people in place, the
[21:14] right people in place and all of a sudden things work really well. There's some gifts that I have that I give that that are really needed as an entrepreneur to, you know, really create where the green space is and look for the opportunities. But that now that's a different space I get to be in rather than trying to figure out what about this, what about that, what about this, what about that. That that behavior was was maybe [clears throat] fine when I was one or two of us, but uh when we get to, you know, large organization, it doesn't work anymore. >> Yeah. And I think that's where really
[21:42] understanding what your zone of genius is and staying in that and trying to delegate everything else out to people who that's their genius works a lot better than trying to figure out how you can be all things to all people. >> Well, let me So, when you put together
[21:58] these mindset these uh mindset groups, right, these mastermind groups and and you really work on bringing other people together, tell me about what the experience is and what what do people get out of them. So, it's a tight-knit group of people and what we do is we work on your business for an hour and a half together every single week and then usually there's questions that pop up. So, that's where I have on demand coaching via WhatsApp to me because usually there's things that pop up in between. And if I can answer a five-minute question once a day for 5 days a week, I
[22:34] can supercharge your business five times than just getting on a call once a week with a coach. Uh so the way it looks is
[22:41] really understanding what am I working on right now and what is that most immediate constraint. A lot of times it's really hard to identify what is the thing that if I were to move that needle and I focus on that one thing which is the hardest thing for people to do and not have that squirrel mentality but if I just focus on that one thing I will actually free up resources free up time to then go focus on the next thing. So I always give the illustration of like a hose. If we think about a bucket as our business and we want the bucket full, aka we want profits in our business and we have a hose that goes to a faucet and there's kinks along the way. The first thing that we need to do is go to the faucet and make sure it's plugged in right. Then we need to make sure that the first kink is undone, then the next
[23:28] kink that's undone, and so on and so forth. But if we have a bunch of kinks and we fix the middle kink, it does nothing to our business. we don't get that dopamine hit that we've done anything in our business, then we get all discouraged and we have no hose
[23:42] pushing past all those kinks to fill up our bucket. Obviously, we've got to block the holes in our bucket so we're not losing profits as we're gaining them. And there's a lot, you know, to that analogy, but really thinking about,
[23:54] okay, if I were to just focus on this for the next 90 days, what is the ROI on this? >> What would I actually get done? Like,
[24:01] how much is that worth? Um, one guy we had a one-on-one the other day and we figured out that if he could just understand his numbers for his jobs cuz
[24:11] we could do a couple of rough calculations and he was about 15% off on every job which you add 15% to a job and
[24:18] all of a sudden you got a lot of profit to deal with. >> It's like that's a big problem. So, it's
[24:23] like, okay, if we worked on this for just the next 90 days and we really knew your numbers and we could get it down to your virtual assistant giving you the right data, everything being entered in, how much is that worth? And it was worth $150 $50,000. And I said, "Okay, so if
[24:38] that's worth $150,000, what do you have to take off your plate in order to prioritize $150,000 going to your bottom line?" And it's like, "Oh, well, I don't need to do this. I don't need to do that. I have this meeting that's kind of a pain in the neck and I should probably just cancel it. Okay. And so we started clearing the schedules in order to focus
[24:58] on what we needed to focus on in order to move the needle in the right direction. >> I I think that's one of the biggest
[25:03] things to look at is in order for me to create something different, right? I one I need some space to do that. And I can't tell you how entrepreneur or entrepreneur groups I jump in where that that's the start, right? Let's start with let's clean out some space to do work. Mhm. >> Yeah.
[25:21] >> 100%.
[25:22] >> Yeah. I mean, like like if not if you
[25:23] just run around doing do, you know, I I worked for a guy a long time ago and and and um at the time I was building this chain and we're building a lot of them. I traveled around the country all the time. I mean, I traveled seven days a week and I would I would I would land on Saturday morning and I would take off on Sunday night. I would travel every day of the week and sometimes I'd get home, you know, for for dinner some nights, but most of the time I was traveling. And one day I I go I I came in, I had a meeting in the office on on a Tuesday at like 10:00 and I flew in that morning, ran to the office, you know, a taxi and I I walk into my boss's office and he's got his feet up on the desk and he's got the Wall Street Journal up and I'm looking at him going, "How could you possibly be reading the Wall Street Journal?" And he looked at me, he goes, "Look, I run this company. You know, one
[26:10] day you're going to learn that you running around isn't serving the group. you need to sit back and think, right? But to work on the business, not in the business. And you know, he he ran a huge organization and there was some wisdom to that, right? There's there's some wisdom to having having the ability to stand back a little bit and be able to
[26:30] look at your business in a way that you know, you're not you're not just running around doing the same thing over and over and over and over again. And I think that happens all the time because it happens with entrepreneurs all the time. We're just literally going so fast we can't bring better ideas to the table. >> 100%. And I think a lot of it is people
[26:48] don't know how much their time is worth. >> So I have everyone that I work with
[26:52] take, you know, fill in a little thing of what their time is worth. Not how much they're making, but what time how much is their time worth. And
[27:03] you know, if you think about it, for a contractor making a million dollar, their time usually is around $300 to $500 an hour. And I'm like, okay, so if your time is worth $500 an hour, what are you doing that you would not pay somebody $500 an hour to do? Entering receipts, would you pay somebody $500 an hour to do it? And they're like, no. Like, okay, so that's off your plate. Would you go and run to Home Depot again for a tool because something happened and got lost on another job site? No. Like like what is
[27:37] it? Hey, would you go meet with a high worth client that wants a huge remodel done? Yes, you would go have dinner with them or you know spend some time with them like that are those are the things that you need to spend your time with or even just sitting down with your employees and listening >> because those employees if they can make
[27:55] you a lot of money and they're happy where they work well then that's worth your time but all these other little things need to be off your plate but you really have to think about is it worth my time and is it not and then make that hard decision. I think sometimes you back up and ask why am I doing it here? Why do I slow myself down, right? I mean, I I often use that analogy that I'm very much like a thermostat, you know, at at at you know, if as the temperature gets hot in here, I maybe it's, you know, gets at 72, 73, 74. All right, now it's a little too hot and I got to I got to, you know, things are cooking too hot. I'm too busy. And then I I I start to almost sabotage things, right? I I stop returning calls. I stop following procedures. I I start getting out of whack. And all of a sudden it gets cold again and I I get down to maybe you know 68 67 6 oh 66 the things
[28:43] are mess let's get back into practices right you know and I start and sometimes I feel like there's that range that I operate but to break through that range right is it fear is it fear of success I mean I don't want to mean to get get weird about but what what stops me from taking that next step and being bold and badass and going from you know 74 to 84 or 94 or 104 >> I I think there's a couple of things at
[29:08] play. Uh, one of the first things that I thought of when you were kind of describing all of that is who you are
[29:15] and who you identify yourself as >> plays a huge role into it. So, I
[29:20] identify myself as somebody who's strong, who's an athlete, and I work out every day. Now, I don't work out every day because I have been told to work out every day or I feel like I should work
[29:32] out every day. I do that because of who I am and I want to be strong for my family and my kids. And so that identity dictates my behavior. But I think some contractors and business people and entrepreneurs, they have this identity that their business is who they are. And so if they don't do all of the things, therefore they are letting their identity down and they're not actually being true to themselves. And I had to learn that when we had the brewery and then we decided to shut it down. And I had a business coach and I'm like, I don't even know who I am right now. And she's like, yeah, because you were a brewer, you were a head brewer, you were a master brewer, you were speaking around the world, you were all of these things and you tied up your identity in all of that. And now all of a sudden,
[30:17] you don't have that anymore. And so you kind of just are floundering. When your identity is in your business and you don't actually know who you are, then you end up wanting to do all of the things and, you know, fix everything and be everywhere and try to fill in all the holes because that's a reflection on who you are. And you need to separate that so that way you can say, I am a leader. I am a business owner. I am an entrepreneur. And I have people that follow me because I lead them to a vision that I'm creating. And I can communicate that vision. And now the things that happen in your business are just business things. They're just things that happen and things that move along to make the business actually fulfill the vision. >> Well, I mean, Liz, when I look at, you
[31:05] know, sometime I call that being stuck, >> right? You're you're stuck in this this
[31:08] hamster wheel of of not knowing that sometimes you can't even see it. And I think one of the best gifts of having a coach like yourself or a mastermind group with of people around you that you trust, maybe call it your your unofficial board of directors, right? They can sometimes see you and call you out on that. And I think there's a gift in that >> 100%.
[31:29] >> Yeah. I mean, I just I mean I I I know
[31:31] for me having people that are around me that can look and go, "Yeah, yeah, here you understand. You don't need to do that." No, but I do. I I have to. No, no, no, no. You don't. And when you do, you're impacting and you're taking the gifts away from the people that that could be doing that that for you and they want to, right? And and you you're stepping on their air hose. So I think it's it's fun to have uh you know, I think that's one of the greatest gifts of having a mastermind group like you, you know, when you look forward and and you start looking at the next uh you know 20 years of the construction industry, what do you see? What do what do you see? What do you think is the most important thing for an entrepreneur a construction entrepreneur to know? Obviously technology is changing rapidly and so being a part of it. I don't feel
[32:15] like they need to be the cutting edge or have it be the end all be all but being a part of technology is going to be important. But with technology changing
[32:26] I feel that creating a culture and a community within your business that's people focused is going to outlast any changes that come in technology. >> Got it. So stay people focused and let's
[32:38] talk a little bit more about that.
[32:41] >> So obviously it's going to be a while
[32:45] before there's a robot that can come into your house and hang drywall. >> Hey when there are a ton of them.
[32:53] >> Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Exactly. I mean,
[32:55] I know there's people that come in, you know, robots that can come in and clean your house, but there's going to be an aspect where, yes, there is technology, but how can people leverage technology and still have the heart, still have the relationships? You know, I threw a message out to all my members in my round table and I said, "Hey, if I threw an in-person event, would you come?" And within minutes, every single person in
[33:22] my round table said, "Yeah, I'll be there. And sure enough, they all showed up and we planned it within like six weeks because I was like I had it as a goal to do it this year and I was like, "Oh, my coach was calling me out saying I wasn't doing the things I was going to supposed to do." And so I did this in-person event and everybody showed up and they're like, "Yeah, we can, you know, be on these Zoom calls and we can be in our business and we can have phone calls with you, but being in person, face to face, talking, being a part of each other's lives, it has a bigger impact than anything else that we have done in the last year." You know, listen, for for those entrepreneurs that are out there right now, they're listening to this podcast and they're feeling stuck, right?
[34:07] They're they're the ones who are literally stuck today. The ones right now they're having a what can we do today that will bring them real freedom?
[34:16] >> I think really understanding what you
[34:18] want. What do you want to create?
[34:21] >> How do you figure out like look like
[34:23] Look, I'm 57. I don't even know what I want to be when I grow up yet. [laughter] >> You and me both.
[34:28] But I do know what I want my life to look like. >> Yeah, let's talk about that a little
[34:32] bit. How do you start to really unwind? What do you want it to look like? Right? How do you start to really create a vision for a life that you want to live? >> So, some of the things that I've done
[34:42] personally have been to have some
[34:45] reflection at the end of the day and go, okay, what did I like about my day and I would keep doing the rest of my life? And what is it that I really don't ever want to do again? and think about okay if I wasn't doing that 24 hours doesn't change you don't get 18 one day because you were more efficient and you don't get 36 hours a day because you are busy and you need a little extra time like all of us get 24 hours so it's like okay well if I wasn't doing that what would I be doing how would I be filling my time and then you slowly start to shift into that you start thinking okay you know for me I'm a mom I homeschool I have three kids and I had to go through and So, okay, I really don't enjoy cleaning my bathrooms and picking up toys and folding laundry and prepping dinner. I
[35:31] love cooking. I don't want to do the dishes. And so, I was like, "Okay, well, if I could really choose, what would I do?" I was like, "Okay." So, I tried a housekeeper and I'm like, "Well, they just like pick up the dirt and then put a put the cup back down. Like, they don't actually tidy the place." Like, "Okay, that's not going to work." Then I explored and I was like, "Okay, maybe I'll get a nanny cuz then I'll have time to go clean the bathroom and somebody else can take, you know, my kids to the park." And I'm like, wait a minute, somebody else is raising my kids. Like, this is not what I want. So then I was like, okay, well, now I need, you know, what about a house manager, a house assistant? And so we found a house assistant. And she's phenomenal. And I haven't done dishes, laundry, cleaned my house, cleaned my bathrooms, picked up the toys, organized stuff, gone through, you know, my kids summer clothes, and switched them to winter. I haven't done any of that, but it's given me the
[36:17] opportunity to actually go play with my kids more and to go camping with my kids cuz she does all the packing and all the camping food and all of the clean. She cleans our whole trailer when we're done, too, and we come back. And so, you have to really think about like, well, if I'm not going to clean the bathroom or if I'm not going to file receipts or if I'm not going to do whatever it is that I did today, what am I going to do to fill my time? And then you start delegating all of that and you create the life you want versus the life that you're actually trying to [clears throat] achieve some point in time when you become a multi-millionaire and you're sitting on the beach drinking my ties in Hawaii for you know hours on end with no purpose in life. Like we don't really want that. We actually just want a different life than we have now. And so you can create it. >> That's awesome. Listen, I got to tell
[37:00] you if people wanted to have you come in as a coach and guide them. Look, a lot of us are lost and I need a coach like you. I needed a coach to come in and start to work together. Uh how do I get a hold of you and how do I bring you on to start start looking at an engagement for you? >> So if you want to have a conversation,
[37:16] uh the thing that I haven't delegated is DMs that actually go beyond spam. So my
[37:22] team filters out the spam and then we can have a conversation. But everything else is on my website at lizchisum.com. >> Lizchism.com. I'll make sure I have all
[37:31] that down below in the in the notes. Look, audience members, if you're looking for a coach or a mastermind group to jump into, look, this it's time for you to start doing that. Get bold, jump, jump out there. Look, if you're feeling stuck right now, the information you have that got you stuck will not get you out of being stuck. Having a coach that can come to the table and work with you and guide you out of those woods, right, and start to see the light in a way that you couldn't see before. I has been the biggest gift of my career is having great coaching in in my in my place that can can see can stand outside the woods and see in the forest and help me come out of it. So, uh if you're looking for a great coach, I'm going to put that uh contact information down below. Please go and look that up. Now,
[38:13] Host: Liz, anything else? Any last minute things you want to say to the audience as we as we close? >> One last thing is never forget to dream
[38:21] about what's possible, >> right? creating a little bit of hope,
[38:26] right? A little bit of a dream of of of that's that's out there. I mean, that that truly is the exciting part about it. When I start to see possibility, right, and create that, I think ultimately that that's, you know, [snorts] as long as I'm still in that place, that's that's great. Thank you for that. >> You're welcome. All right, audience
[38:44] members, if you could take a second and like and subscribe, it makes a world of difference to us getting great guests on here like Liz Chism and having her come on here and talk about uh what you you know, how to be a better entrepreneur. And by the way, please make sure you go to her website today. Uh when you get a second, like and subscribe and go to her website. As always, thanks for listening.
