Focus On Talents: How Personal Assessments & Proper Processes Produce Profits with Pete Mohr

🎙 Welcome to Pathways with Amber Stitt where we delve deep into the strategies behind personal growth, professional development, and sustainability in business. 

💡In this episode, host Amber Stitt is joined by lifelong entrepreneur and business coach, Pete Mohr. Pete brings valuable insights into using assessments like Gallup, Enneagrams, and especially Kolbe to understand and leverage the strengths of teams in businesses and beyond.

🔍 What we cover in this episode:

- The power of Gallup, Enneagrams, and especially the Kolbe assessments in coaching and team-building

- Pete Mohr's journey from retail shoe store owner to guiding business owners towards freedom and success

- The impact of understanding your team's strengths and the crucial role of leadership

- The PROCESS acronym and its role in preventing overwhelm and aligning business operations

- Pete's personal story of a costly business mistake and the lessons learned about business location and team input

- Strategies for preparing a business for succession, focusing on Communication, Process-Management, and Accountability (CPA)

- Empowering decision-making within your team with Pete's "Four A's of Accountability"

- Encountering the heights of resilience and aligning work with one's natural talents for optimal performance and satisfaction

📚 Resources and exclusive content:

- Visit our website to find more details about this episode, access books, articles, and additional resources: www.AmberStitt.com

- Download Pete Mohr's "Four A's of Accountability" worksheet to streamline your decision-making process: https://simplifyingentrepreneurship.com/4as/

- Discover how to break through business barriers with Pete's "Business Owner Breakthrough" series: https://simplifyingentrepreneurship.com/business-owner-breakthrough-podcast/

🌟 Connect with Pete Mohr:

- Website: https://simplifyingentrepreneurship.com/

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermohr/

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petesmohr/

💡 Whether you're a business owner, a leader, or someone passionate about personal development, this conversation offers invaluable wisdom on achieving harmony in your work and personal life. Don't forget to hit the like button, subscribe to our channel, and click the bell icon to stay updated with our latest episodes on the Pathways podcast.

Join us as we discuss, discover, and dive into the essential elements that define and drive successful people and businesses.

Thank you for tuning in—embrace your journey at home and at work, and we'll see you in the next episode! Remember to take action today!

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✨ Watch this podcast:  https://youtu.be/T3RtUGM2ZRk ✨

👇 Don't forget to check out our social media for more insightful content and updates:

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Transcript

Amber Stitt [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Pathways. I am your host Amber Stitt, and today we welcome Pete Mohr to the show today. Welcome, Pete.

Pete Mohr [00:00:07]:
Thanks so much for having me, Amber. I'm so excited to be here with you and your audience and I think we're in for a good conversation today.

Amber Stitt [00:00:14]:
I think so. I've been following you and I feel like we have some commonality bonds here with some big ideas. We love processes, maybe not always implementing all things, you know, delegation, but we also share some kindred spirit of personal assessments. So there's so much to cover. So we're going to kind go quickly through, I think, a lot today. Can you let people know if you could condense what you do? Because I just learned a few more things.

Pete Mohr [00:00:39]:
Long story short, lifelong entrepreneur, I've owned businesses, variety of different service related businesses. I'm currently a retailer and have been for many years. We own some shoe stores here about an hour or so outside of Toronto. I'm in Canada and what I spend most of my days coaching entrepreneurs and other business owners. And, you know, the old adage of getting out of your business and working on your business, right from owner to operator, or as I like to use the terms, from frustration to freedom. And I know that rings home where a lot of business owners are still making all the decisions in their business and working through all this stuff and, you know, frustrated. And as a former business broker, because that's one of my things that I did in the past to help people buy and sell businesses. It was interesting when you're working with people trying to sell businesses because a lot of times they really actually do like their business.

Pete Mohr [00:01:26]:
They're wanting to sell their business because they're frustrated with it. And the reality is if we can get them out of their frustrations into the areas that they really love about their business, and once we work through our processes to do that, often they don't even want to sell their business because they were trying to sell to get out of the frustration. There are so many interesting things there.

Amber Stitt [00:01:45]:
So 20 plus years of entrepreneurship. How did you hop into just that life?

Pete Mohr [00:01:50]:
You know, I kind of grew up in an entrepreneurial family. My dad didn't own the business, but he ran a fairly substantial, heavy construction business for another person that had multiple businesses. So he was the sort of the point person for that business. And my mom was always entrepreneurial too. She was a stay at home mom, but she was making crafts and doing things and selling things and buying and selling things. And she was always sort of entrepreneurial in nature along the way. And, you know, some of my very first jobs, you know, were literally making crafts and going with my mom to the craft stores and selling them and stuff like that. And I had that typical entrepreneurial sort of upbringing where it was like I was cutting grass in the summer, I was doing landscaping jobs, I did all that sort of stuff.

Pete Mohr [00:02:27]:
I have business degrees, but after business school, I worked for somebody who, long story short is I'm actually named after one of my dad's best friends named Peter. And, yeah, you know, I loved Peter and loved his business. But during the six months that I worked full time for somebody else, I realized that I really wasn't meant to work for someone else. I was really meant to be my own boss. And I really haven't looked back. That was 1994, and here we're almost in 2024, as we're recording this 30 years later. And I've been an entrepreneur doing multiple different things along the way.

Amber Stitt [00:02:59]:
Love that. So is this something that you talk about around the house and your kids? Because I know that sometimes with parents, if we bring it up, it's not cool. So I try to do things in front of my daughter but not say work or just to have her see, like, wanna be like mom. Okay, well, anything you're doing currently with the family?

Pete Mohr [00:03:18]:
Well, my kids are all in their twenties now, so my youngest just turned 23. 23, 24, and 26. All boys. And they all have entrepreneurial vibes. Two of them are carpenters, and one of them, he works at a brewing business, and they brew and they have a restaurant and all that sort of stuff.

Amber Stitt [00:03:33]:
How fun!

Pete Mohr [00:03:35]:
Yeah, he just told me today. He said, "You know what, dad?" He was going to go on a three month excursion after Christmas to Vietnam and all sort of over there and explore. And he said to me today, he said, "I think I'm going to cancel that one because I want to buy property in Mexico and I'm going to go to Mexico and start my entrepreneurial journey there." So, yeah, I mean, I think they're all entrepreneurial in their own way.

Amber Stitt [00:03:56]:
We need everyone as, you know, as a Certified Kolbe™ coach, correct?

Pete Mohr [00:04:01]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:04:01]:
That if you are in this flow of where you're naturally talented, because there's technically, you've talked about freedom, there's freedom. And his choice to say no to the travel, there's some business to tend to first. And I think sometimes when people see successful people doing a lot of things, they're like, "Whoa, whoa. If that's business ownership, that is not for me." But I know that we'll talk about it a little bit later. When you get your kind of your core elements down, there's other pathways, and that's what I really want to talk with you about.

Amber Stitt [00:04:28]:
The resilience factor and a lot of these lessons learned along the way that can help pave the way to the next opportunity. And many successful people have multiple things happening, which I know you do. So we focus on really staying within our talents. And do you want to talk a little bit about, like, is Kolbe, was that one of your favorites? What assessments do you bring into your life and then with your clients, too?

Pete Mohr [00:04:51]:
Well, even before I became Kolbe Certified™, and for those of you that are watching my Kolbe, oh, it's on this side. My Kolbe's up here. And basically, it's just one of those things that, you know, in order to become a client of mine, one of the things that I require is that we put you through the Kolbe, and I did that before I even became Kolbe Certified™, because I've always been a big believer in Kolbe. We use Kolbe in our retail stores as well. Kolbe is finding your instinctual, natural strengths, essentially. And I know from your side on the Gallup StrengthsFinder™, which is my other favorite one. Those are my two favorite.

Amber Stitt [00:05:24]:
I paid you to say that.

Pete Mohr [00:05:25]:
No. Yeah. No, but it's true. I mean, I love StrengthsFinder, and I pretty much have done them all. But the thing I like about Kolbe is that it's really, you know, on the StrengthsFinder, it's more EQ around sort of how you think and what you like. It's sort of the how you perceive your liking and all that sort of stuff. With Kolbe, it's how you do. So there's the thinking tests, like all of the IQ type stuff, like how smart are you.

Pete Mohr [00:05:50]:
There's the emotional ones, emotional intelligence ones, like StrengthsFinder™ or DiSC® or any of those other ones, which the greater majority of them sort of fall in that zone. But to the best of my knowledge, Kolbe is the only one that really is instinctual around how you take action and how you actually do technical.

Amber Stitt [00:06:07]:
I think it really can help you see how you dive into the project, where with Gallup, it's more of on the positive note. And I know Enneagrams and some others have made fun of Gallup being way too positive. But for me, when I'm in a room talking with people that I coach, you can see the....when I say, "Don't try to fix what you're not, stay within your top ten." But then when you can pull the Kolbe in and really dive in into it from there. Our teams have really benefited from that. And then you're having this common communication and you're not upset with people. So I think couples, you can take it from a business side and then roll it into your family, and it's okay that people are different.

Amber Stitt [00:06:41]:
Just like your team should not all be the same people. We wouldn't get anything done. I think there's some benefits. Even though opposites could drive partners kind of crazy sometimes with spouses in the house, but if you have the awareness, it can be frustrating at times, but I'm sure you do the same to them, you know? So it's just kind of like give yourself some grace and have a laugh about it. It's kind of the way I see it. Once you know what's going on, it's so good.

Pete Mohr [00:07:04]:
And when you take Kolbe, and I was saying before we hopped on air, I was just doing a Kolbe session with eleven of the owners and kids as they transition and look at some of their stuff in their family owned business. And it's just so interesting when you sort of overlay your Kolbe scores onto the accountability chart and see where everybody's at and all these different things. There's some really good learnings there. And there was some real, like you said, some real "A-ha" moments when we sort of looked at how that all lays out and when you're doing that from a team perspective, and I know one of your big topics is team, and really understanding how your team works and makes decisions is such a crucial piece of being a good leader. And using some of these assessments, StrengthsFinders™ and Kolbe™ and, you know, whatever other ones out there that are in alignment with what you're looking to do. Such a crucial piece of other information, because even people that have been working together for a long time will find something that really is like, "Ah, that's why," this is like, it just clears it out.

Amber Stitt [00:08:03]:
It's like put together. Yeah. That there's an understanding. Talking about teams. I know you work with people sometimes on that transition, succession plan side of things. I have seen....have you ever seen this where the leaders bring this in? Everyone does this process together, but the team should be doing it. But the leaders kind of, there's some respect factor when the actual leaders are continuing with their growth along with their team.

Amber Stitt [00:08:28]:
We are all needing to innovate and have that personal development over time. Is there anything that you would like to say to the potential leadership about these types of assessment and teamwork, like working the team consistently. Do you want to speak to that? Because I know you travel into the states, too. It's not just one time to have the talk. It's got to continue. Do you want to speak a little bit to maybe an application, something that would be almost a takeaway? Because I chuckle a lot at the big entrepreneurs that are go, go, go and making the money and the ideas, but sometimes we have to come back down to ground level for the team. So that's kind of where I was heading. I've seen where leadership tends to forget after application, like round one.

Pete Mohr [00:09:08]:
So I absolutely have had that experience where by, you know, doing the group exercise with Kolbe and then everything being left sort of, as you mentioned, sort of crickets. Well, it's so interesting. Doesn't everything sort of stem from the leader? I mean, that's the idea here. Right? And if the leader isn't behind something like this, you're not going to get take up from anyone else.

Amber Stitt [00:09:32]:
Yeah.

Pete Mohr [00:09:32]:
And so it really has to start from leadership. And if it doesn't start from the leadership, I've often found that it's not an exercise worth doing because there won't be adoption.

Amber Stitt [00:09:41]:
Yes.

Pete Mohr [00:09:42]:
And, you know, it's one thing to have those "A-ha" moments, but not do anything about them. And really, in business, we need to be doing things that are going to enable action instead of enable sort of throwing the book in the back of your truck or car and letting it collect dust.

Amber Stitt [00:09:56]:
Right.

Pete Mohr [00:09:57]:
So from those sort of perspectives, it's really interesting when we look at some of this stuff, and that's why I like, and I don't know, StrengthsFinders™ as much, but from a Kolbe™ perspective, there's lots of different reports that we can use as new people come on board as teams shift in order to understand communication between team members, we can do hiring tests as people change around on the accountability charts, there's all sorts of different things to keep the ball rolling. And in my opinion, the best way to do that is really work depending on the size of the team. Right? But work with the HR manager that's going to be doing that and keeping things fresh and current, because not always are things changing at the very top in the C-Suite of the organizations, but often things are changing in those middle zones and that's where it might be the most predominantly used. And that's good, because eventually those middle zone people are going to be moving up.

Amber Stitt [00:10:47]:
Well, yeah, you hope so. And that's, again, going back to efficiency, saving time, money and the culture hopefully there's happiness and people want to stay and move within and you have to relearn and retrain. I like how you talk about accountability. I guess that's what I meant by the leadership is it's not like a dinner out that's just like, "Hurrah!" And then we've had this. There's constant application. I think as leaders, sometimes we do these things and then we might just pioneer. There's a lot of futuristic, you know, ideation, but we all need to continue on, on our personal development.

Amber Stitt [00:11:15]:
And so I think ultimately that can help. Again, like I was saying, with the succession, if people are not studying who they are and what they like to do, I know you and I have talked about it before where when they get to this point where they're looking at their practice and they're not innovating even on the technology and kind of keeping things fresh, there's a bit of a mess and a little bit of chaos when they're trying to figure out, "Do I need to sell?" "Do I need to stay?" Is this something that just makes financial sense to sell and move on because you're going to go do X, Y and Z, or is there a way to still attach yourself in a certain way? But if you don't know who you are to the core and what makes you tick, I don't know that you can fully grasp what the next steps would be. And I know this is part of what you do is really getting people prepared to figure that part out. And you've even gone through that yourself, too. Do you want to talk a little bit about even having to sell something that was just maybe not right for the location? One of your companies?

Pete Mohr [00:12:07]:
Yeah, there's a variety of different things. You know, we went through, I had mentioned that we're retailers. We had one of our locations that I thought probably would have been my biggest location after researching and going through all the stuff. And one of the things, if we take it back to Kolbe, of people that have a high Quick Start for anybody who understands what Kolbe is, a high Quick Start are usually the idea generation people and all that sort of stuff. Not always, but generally they like things in sort of jot form and maybe not as detailed as some of the other people in their organization. And quite honestly, in this particular location, I really thought that after I'd done my preliminary information and everything, I'm like, "Yeah, this is the right place." It would have been helpful if I would have used some of the other people on my team that were higher Fact Finders to go and do and dig some information out even more, because that was a six figure mistake, like a big mistake, and a lot of time wasted, several years, and it cost us our cottage, to be quite frank, when we look at this sort of thing, it's like we ended up having to sell our cottage in order to stave off that side of our business because we had other stores that were really in good shape and continue to be in good shape. It was really that one that was taking us down.

Pete Mohr [00:13:18]:
So whenever, you know, when we look at our risk side of things, because I know you talk a lot about risk, the way for was literally we had to stop the bleeding of that one. And with a good team of accountants and lawyers and, you know, professionals, we got that done. You know, it still cost a lot of money. It was still a very bad decision, but at the same time, we were able to sort of stem it there and then move on. And I mentioned to you before we hopped on the air here that I was out looking at a new location this morning. So if we didn't stop that, I probably wouldn't be a retailer anymore and we would have gone through another three years of misery to finish out that lease instead of buying it out at the beginning. So there was a variety of different things that we had to look at in the process of that whole decision. And ultimately, I'm not going to say that if I would have had more information, I still wouldn't have made the decision at the time because I really did think it was a good location at the time.

Amber Stitt [00:14:08]:
Right.

Pete Mohr [00:14:08]:
But, you know, there's other circumstances around how ever we make whatever decision in our businesses. Right. Whether, and I know you talk to a lot of medical professionals, but I mean, even opening the professional office in the wrong spot where you're not going to get traffic and all that sort of stuff. It could be the same, we're talking the same sort of thing here.

Amber Stitt [00:14:25]:
I mean, from what it sounded like in a previous interview, I mean, high traffic, all the things, it should have made sense. But with the culture you provide, you're not the Amazon because there's more customer service that you provide and you want to.

Pete Mohr [00:14:38]:
Yeah. And I mean, ultimately, one of my biggest learnings from that that was in a bigger city. Our other stores are in smaller locations. Small town, basically. Right? And ultimately, one of my biggest key takeaways from that particular problem was that we are small town vendors. We have a small town vibe to us. We want to talk to our customers.

Pete Mohr [00:14:56]:
We want to help them, we want to, you know, understand them, know like them, trust them. We're looking for repeat visits from our customers. Not one time stops. Like all of that sort of stuff. I just thought based on the sheer traffic and volume, this is going to happen. But ultimately, that's not who we are. So we dug down into what I call, in my sort of jargon, around Simplifying Entrepreneurship and how I talk "Our True Promise" and our promise to our clients and our promise to who we want to do business with, which is how everything starts, right? And I've got another structure called the five P's, and we don't have to dig into it today, but it's really when you know your promise, you align your products. Or if you're a service based business, you align your products to it, your process to it, your people to it, so that you can drive the right amount of profit.

Pete Mohr [00:15:40]:
And the profit is the stuff we were talking about earlier, like, what do you want out of your business? Is a big place to start for people that are kind of being frustrated, it's like, well, "What do you truly want out of your life?" Because your business really should be the thing that's supporting your life, not you supporting your business. You have to use the reciprocal outlook on that in order to get your business starting to deliver back what it is you want. But if you don't know what you want, it's really hard to do that.

Amber Stitt [00:16:06]:
I think when you're bringing these types of things into your business as leaders, it's going to trickle down into people's personal lives, too. Yeah, huge. And then you can apply that to your personal life. And then again, like you're saying, are there certain things that make sense to then maybe transition out or not, or whatever the goals might be, there's more clarity. So thank you for sharing about the business, and I'm sorry to hear about the cottage and not to bring that up one more time, but when I learned about this, what I wanted to share with the audience is, to me, let's say it wasn't ideal, and I haven't talked to your wife about this, but there was some freedom, I think, for you to turn off one asset, to apply it to the next thing, to keep things moving and you were able to decide. Wasn't ideal. But that's where, like, when we talk about the Pathways and really starting as a foundation, like knowing who you are, how you can handle money as life can throw you curveballs, which it will, how do you then work through and "pivot"'s kind of a buzzword, but I know that you're really serious about keeping systems in place, because as things pop up, you can then have ability to transition and you were able to make some of those decisions for your family and business. Can we go talk about how you have worked through with your clients with their, like, systems? And I know you had a potential coach talk. There's a system step or something you've mentioned before.

Amber Stitt [00:17:22]:
Can we hang out there for a little bit? What did you learn about setting up the right systems and how have you applied it to your life?

Pete Mohr [00:17:28]:
Well, you know, when I think about process, one of my coaching clients said, "You're sort of the most processed person I personally know," and I like to set up processes, but I don't always follow them.

Amber Stitt [00:17:39]:
Well, let's just be honest. I think, yes, but then it can pull us back and say, "No, no, follow the rules."

Pete Mohr [00:17:46]:
It's an interesting thing. Like Amber, when we look at our Kolbes and we understand, it's like some people, I'm a high Quick Start. I'm a nine Quick Start.

Amber Stitt [00:17:54]:
Yeah. So I think you and I can get ourselves into trouble sometimes as a Quick Start.

Pete Mohr [00:17:58]:
Yeah. So, and I'm a low Fact Finder. And so for anybody who doesn't know, Fact Finders are the people that like all the detail. They're going to send you, the long emails, they're going to be very detailed and stuff. And then there's the Process people. They're the people that want everything checklisted and all that sort of stuff. I'm very low on that. And then there's the Quick Start people, and the people who are low on Quick Start want to sort of keep everything the same and they don't want to rock the boat where I'm the change agent, essentially.

Pete Mohr [00:18:23]:
And then there's the Implementers, and those are the people that either sort of visualize things or they build things with their hands. So I've got two carpenter sons, they're higher Implementers. Well, we used to own a bathroom renovation company, so I can do that sort of stuff, but I'm actually a very low Implementer. I'd prefer not to do it. It's not my innate sort of strength. I have the capability of doing it. So all of these things with Kolbe, when you look at that sort of stuff, it's not that you can't, it's that the best energy is spent where. Where it's spent.

Pete Mohr [00:18:54]:
Right.

Amber Stitt [00:18:54]:
Yeah.

Pete Mohr [00:18:55]:
And so it's got nothing to do with capability. That's a different sort of set, but this is how you get the most energy. And so from that sort of side of things, I just think it's really interesting to look at how all of those things align.

Amber Stitt [00:19:08]:
You're big on processes, but you almost poke fun at yourself that you're not always going to implement. But the processes are important to keep us all on track, no matter who we are and what might be going on or what emotions we feel that day. So let's talk about some of those that you implement.

Pete Mohr [00:19:21]:
I surround myself with process people. You know, I need to. Right? So, yeah, so getting back to the system side of things, Amber, you know, I use the word process in my sort of structures as opposed to system. And a couple of years ago, I came up with an acronym for the word "Process" and it is this: so processes should Prevent Recurring Overwhelm, they should Clarify, Evaluate, Simplify and Systematize. So I'll give that one to you again.

Pete Mohr [00:19:47]:
They Prevent Recurring Overwhelm, Clarify, Evaluate, Simplify and Systematize. So when you have a process that does that, it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do, right? Because if you think of something that's being repeated and repeated and repeated especially, let's just say I'm just using an out there example, right? That everything's in your head and you don't have a process. Because I know there's a lot of business owners out there that that's exactly the case.

Amber Stitt [00:20:12]:
The YouTube videos like, "Make a peanut butter jelly sandwich, or make some toast." And there's so many ways to do that, right? Depends on who you're talking to. So you have to give the details.

Pete Mohr [00:20:20]:
But sometimes we're trying to move from frustration to freedom, right? So we want to prevent recurring overwhelm with the process that we're going to drive. We're going to clarify, which is that whole communicate thing, right. We need to be very specific and clear about the process. So when we start developing the process, be specific and clear about what the desired outcome is, what it looks like, and what it doesn't look like, then we're going to evaluate. So we evaluate sort of the existing process that we have in place, at least in our head. Or if there is a process piece, we're going to evaluate that piece and make sure that it's efficient and running the way it's supposed to. We're going to simplify because people don't necessarily always want an 85 point structure. They want the simplest way to get there and they'll probably bypass anyway.

Pete Mohr [00:20:59]:
So let's simplify it for them and then systematize it so that we do actually have something. When I think of that, it's got to be searchable, it's got to be understandable, it's got to be repeatable, and it's got to be really honed down so that it's effective.

Amber Stitt [00:21:14]:
Love that. In my head, I just thought, "Cross-train" if you're out, if you're sick, if you're going to hire, or you can then give this box of this manual, in a way, to somebody else to rinse and repeat. I mean, Tony Robbins talks about consistency, and I know that other people that I followed, it's not about the most talented. Like, you need to understand your talents, but how do you then apply and follow consistent processes? And I love the way you can remember it, too, because memory coaches will say, "Build that acronym," and then it helps you remember, too. So that's very clever of you.

Pete Mohr [00:21:46]:
Yeah. You know, one of the things, as a former business broker, Amber, helping people buy and sell businesses, and one of the things I do with a lot of my clients is to help them set this sort of stuff up. Because eventually, someday your business will either be sold, you will transition it to next generation, or you'll pass on and somebody else will have to do it. And that's the reality. Someday you will exit your business, and in order for you to have it set up in a way that it's going to have maximum potential, maximum benefit, if you sell it, having all this stuff, you're going to get the most dollars for it. You're going to get the most returns, all of that other stuff, when we look at our valuations, because it's really running on rails without you. The more the business can run without you, the higher value it is going to have.

Amber Stitt [00:22:30]:
That's tough. You're like, because you don't think anybody can do it the same way as you. And that might be true, but I've also heard, "Don't be the smartest one in the room." Surround yourself with others that can kind of outwit you, and then it goes on and on to innovation and leveling up.

Pete Mohr [00:22:45]:
Yeah. I wouldn't be here today, Amber, if I didn't have our business running in this way with our shoe stores, because I practice what I preach. I mean, I very seldom ever have to work the floor in our shoe stores. I do the stuff that I truly love to do. This morning, I went into one of our shoe stores because Michelle on our marketing team said, "Can you do a couple of videos?" And I'm still sort of the face of Shoetopia. So I went in and did a couple of videos for her, but literally, after I download them into our Google Drive, then I've done my stuff. Everything else gets done by someone else after that.

Amber Stitt [00:23:14]:
Yeah.

Pete Mohr [00:23:15]:
And so understanding where you're best suited and understanding where the best uses of your time are and understanding where, as the business owner, you deserve to work in the area of the business that you truly love to do. I have an exercise called, "Love it, or leave it," which really sort of comes up and brings you into your love it zone. And you start parsing off all the leave it areas through process, proper process management and through aligning and assigning your accountability chart so that you can have other people who, by the way, probably love doing the stuff that you don't. Yes. That's an interesting thing.

Amber Stitt [00:23:47]:
It can happen.

Pete Mohr [00:23:47]:
Right? So my bookkeeper, you'll hear her go, "Woo-hoo". Like, she'll "Woo-hoo," when she balances the Visa. And for me, I'm like, "Oh, my God, balancing the Visa." I can do it, but I hate that stuff. And I have business degrees, you know, so, I mean, I'm capable of doing it. It's just not what I choose to do. And for her, so it's a frustration for me, and for her, she loves to do it.

Pete Mohr [00:24:11]:
Like, so why wouldn't we complement each other? She would never want to be in front of the camera doing some little social piece, or whatever the case is. A video for Shoetopia. Not a chance. That's not her.

Amber Stitt [00:24:23]:
Well, so many things, Pete. We'll have to do another episode, I think, for sure. So I wanted to kind of wrap up today with, we're looking at business owners and whether or not they're going to stay in or out.

Pete Mohr [00:24:34]:
Okay.

Amber Stitt [00:24:34]:
And you mentioned next generation. Let's just say if it's like, the product that you might be selling, you might be closing the business, or it's like the intellectual property, or like an email list. So what I've noticed is if we're not building ways to potentially be attractive to next generation, whether we're going to be the ones running it, or what if your clients have children that eventually have children, if we're not innovating and making this, like, a safe place, if you will, for, like, being able to cross reference over into that other world, like, we have to package for the ability to, as my business partner would say, like, "Squeeze more juice out of the orange." It would be so ideal whether or not you're completely selling or you're going through some sort of installment transaction, whatever it might be. There could be so much more business within what you already have created by adapting and innovating and using some of those other people that can understand another side of the world. There could be so much more value to your company if you build for those next future generations. I know you do a lot of work with next generation conversations, too. That's probably a perfect place to kind of segue to, because I know that I'm really passionate about it, too.

Pete Mohr [00:25:38]:
I think one of the really interesting things, Amber, is when we look at sort of the structure of aligning your business for succession and all these other things, I like to use a framework called the CPA. And the CPA really is mastering your Communication, your Process-Management, and your Accountability throughout your organization. And so whether you're aligning this business for you to have more freedom, whether you're aligning this business so that you can pass it on to the next generation, maybe it's your kids, or maybe it's just the next generation of owners, somebody who's going to buy the business from you, right? Or whether you're aligning it just for the reasons of moving, I'll say to the owner's box, instead of being the operator of your business every single day, it's all the same sort of thing. If you spend your time this next year, if you spend your time really honing in on proper Communication, proper Process-Management, and proper Accountability, it will do you nothing but good. Because once you get to this point and you can actually have something in a systematic form that you can then transfer to somebody else who's going to take ownership of the decision making. This is where most people get frustrated, is the ownership of the decision making. And one of the lines I like to use a lot is decisions should be made at the lowest possible level of the organization. I'll say it again, because I think it's important.

Pete Mohr [00:26:57]:
Decisions should always be made at the lowest possible level of the organization. And if you, as the business owner, are always being pulled down into low level decisions, you know you have problems in the alignment of the process, because people aren't sure that they know what to do if they keep coming to you and ask, or you haven't transferred the accountability to them so that they can actually make the call themselves. And until that sort of starts to happen, you'll never be free. So whether you're looking to free yourself up in semi-retirement, or maybe you're freeing yourself up because you're looking at another business opportunity, or whether you're trying to free yourself up to actually leave the business and sell it, it's always the same sort of process, so that you can actually obtain maximum value and think, even if we look at it back to talking about next generation, if you're handing the business down, or selling the business to your kids, don't you want them to have the best leg up so that they can add all of their juices, all of their interest, all of their innovation from the next generation that's going to take this business and the legacy of this business, which is also important to so many business owners, and where is it going to go from here? But think about the power that next generation has to inject into this business. On top of the processes and all of your processes. If they're living in your head and you're still making all of the decisions, then they can't be a part of that, because you have to be. It's time to release those accountabilities and let other people in so that you can enjoy freedom and you can use all of those best bits and juices and energies and information and capabilities that the next gen has to offer.

Amber Stitt [00:28:39]:
I like that, it's almost that you have to put yourself in that. You say, "Business Box," or "Owner's Box."

Pete Mohr [00:28:44]:
Yeah, Owner's Box.

Amber Stitt [00:28:44]:
It's your trial run to be there, but really empowering others to make those decisions. I imagine once you let that start, it will feel really good when you can see people just handling things, and then you can go on about whatever the business is for you at that time. You can see the transition. There's probably a lot of peace of mind in that, too, but you can still stay involved until it's time, but kind of have to step outside and enter the box. I love that.

Pete Mohr [00:29:09]:
The idea really is that it's up to you. Once you're at that stage, you can make the choice.

Amber Stitt [00:29:14]:
Yeah.

Pete Mohr [00:29:14]:
And until you're at that stage, you can't. So it's really interesting where you're at that stage where when everything's kind of running without you. Do I want to sell the business now or do I want to keep it? Because actually it's a good investment and maybe I'm making more money with the business than I could ever make anywhere else. And that becomes a money decision, which I know you're very involved with and all those sort of things as well. But I mean, sometimes just keeping the business and having somebody else make all the decisions is a really good choice and a really good investment.

Amber Stitt [00:29:43]:
That's awesome. Well, I know that there's a lot of resources that we can put into our description boxes. Is there anything that's like a favorite thing going on right now that we should tell people about?

Pete Mohr [00:29:52]:
I think for me, I mean, anybody can catch me on the "Business Owner Breakthrough," which are small clips, you know, ten minutes long, eight to ten minutes long. Just me kind of going through some of these concepts along the way. But one of the ones that I think is appropriate for today, because we've been talking about Communication, Process, and Accountability, is I have a little worksheet when you're looking to transfer accountability, and the worksheet is called the four "A"s of accountability, which really is Assess it, Address it, Align it, and Assign it. And your thinking process to go through that in order to offload some of these things. And for anybody that's looking to grab ahold of that sheet and kind of the understanding around how you might want to unload some of your issues, that you would like to unload some of your decision making so that it can free yourself up, you can just go to my website, which is pretty simple. It's a long one. SimplifyingEntrepreneurship.com/4as for four "A"'s and you can download that sheet.

Amber Stitt [00:30:43]:
Yeah, I've seen the downloadable button on your website. We'll link that up for sure. I'm going to go get mine. Yeah.

Pete Mohr [00:30:48]:
Nice.

Amber Stitt [00:30:48]:
Let's see if I'm following the plan, right, we all have to kind of reflect.

Pete Mohr [00:30:53]:
I just love to put stuff in frameworks, Amber, and I think a lot of the sheets that I create and a lot of this sort of stuff, I've done it because I had to to get the craziness out of my own head and into a format that I can follow and that I can share with my team because often I'll come up with lots of ideas, but I don't actually get to flush them out and finish them. And I have an awesome team around me that they love doing that sort of stuff. So I kind of come up with the ideas and they put it to use and it seems to really work well that way.

Amber Stitt [00:31:20]:
Well, I know that there's so many things to relate to you on in this episode, and I really appreciate you sharing your stories and I'll let everyone know where to find you and we'll talk more. I think there's more to come. So I really appreciate you being here today.

Pete Mohr [00:31:33]:
Thanks so much for having me, Amber. Make it a great day.

Amber Stitt [00:31:35]:
Thank you. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of The Amber Stit Show. For more information about the podcast, books, articles, and more, please visit me at: www.AmberStitt.com Until next week, enjoy your journey at home, and at work. Thank you for listening!