10 Vital Lessons From Top Entrepreneurs That Actually Work

You've got to be flexible and fluid in a business because things do change. All of the things that I'm doing now that are successful are because I'm doing it with other people. You know it's like opening up the jewelry box and you see all this like glistening stuff. You can see it all, you can take it all. Whereas if you just stick to the same kind of thing in the same kind of people, all the time you're never going to get these rich jewels. I'm Mike Harris and I help businesses to successfully grow their profit and turn over. In the last year alone I have helped over 20 companies at least doubling size. And I work with a mixture of firms for small, medium and large businesses including startups and multinationals. Every business grows differently. There's no single playbook. The best lessons come from those who have been there before know what really works. Which is why I'm delighted to be exhibiting and speaking at the festival on to Penoers, the UK's new national event for ambitious business owners. I'll be sharing the lessons I've learned about growth also. I'd found as companies such as Lush, Kid Baker, Grenade and Remedy Health. The dates are the 8th and 9th of October. It's at the NEC Birmingham. And you can still get three passes from the Festival of Entrepreneurs website. I'll be there. Come and meet me and I'll stand. So this week to time with this fantastic event with a very special edition about what it means to our special guests to be an entrepreneur. For me it all basically what it boils down to is that in this country we have a ridiculous number of, don't ask me to quote it, of entrepreneurs and business owners. But how many actually get to scale their company and become the next unicorn, etc. When you look at it compared to something like America, it's tiny. And you look at their attitude to being an entrepreneur and what it can mean. In this country, especially what's happened without getting political, seems to be really stifling that free enterprise that the Fraser is looking for. So we're all in the business of bringing these people in to not just inspire those who are trying to get to where these guys are, the luscious, the grenades, etc. But to actually break down, so what is it that you've done that's gotten you to there? Because yes, there must be an element of luck in there. But there's also would have been decisions that you've made. There would have been leadership decisions. There would have been strategic decisions that you made. Be that non-intentional even at the time, whereas other super-intentional, but can we break that down? And I know that for example Richard Harbiff, my home service, got a book that he's launching, which is like the nine steps to becoming a billionaire, which is obviously a very catchy title. But to get someone to distill their knowledge like that, I think it's going to be fascinating. I think everything that I've done in the business has been kind of out of my comfort zone. So networking, social media, things like this. It was so 25 or whatever, it was still out so my comfort zone. You're a pro, you're a pro. But that's the way you're going to grow though. So if I just did what I can do and that's it, I stopped myself. I wouldn't be growing. So everything that I do, it might not look like it and linked in my look grave, but I don't like posting about myself. I don't feel comfortable, but I do it because I have to. I network because I have to. And things do get easier. You got the house of laws, could you have to? Mentioned her, and she was at the house of laws. When was that last week? Friday, yeah. Friday, yeah. And then you're dropping. I do. That you do, yeah. But yeah, yeah. It's a habit. Yeah, do. Hattie is the tube, that was scary. But it's, yeah, we, so yeah, being at the house of laws was, you know, it's a big deal. Yeah, absolutely. But it was, again, I did it because you're getting out of the comfort zone. There's so many things that I've done. And if you don't, I think we stop ourselves. It's our thought. So I think we touched on that earlier. We stop ourselves from doing things because we tell ourselves, well, I'm not good enough, or I haven't got the experience. We do work last time and whatever. Exactly. Our experience says, you know, it's, yeah, we stop ourselves. But if we just clear those thoughts and just look at what it is, okay, I've got to travel to London. Okay, I'll get a train. That's okay. That's fine. I'm going to turn up. There's going to be people. I'm just going to talk. Yeah. No, it doesn't matter if I don't know anybody. You know, you just cut things open to smaller chunks. You're in. That's really important, that is, yeah. Yeah. And it's not as bad as you think. Yeah. But in the moment, sometimes we just tell ourselves, I can't do that. But yeah, comfort zones are things that we do fall into. But breaking those barriers and coming out of those comfort zones really lets you excel. I think it's trying to do it all on my own. Right. I think that's been the biggest challenge. Not asking for help. Thinking I can figure it all out myself. Yeah. This is all just coming out now. No, no, no. And actually, I think so. And I've been going through a period of reflection lately and I've done that exercise. And again, it's literally like a couple of pages for a business plan that I have. And that encompasses all the things that I'm doing, but literally going, you know, grading. What gives me the greatest pleasure? What gives me the greatest reward? What do I want to do more of? What do I want to do less of? How can I not make the same mistakes that I've made before? And all of the things that I'm doing now that are successful are because I'm doing with other people. Which is really interesting. I literally just looked at the commonality and went, that's really interesting. I've always been this way that if somebody almost tells me I can't do something, I then say, I'll show you and I can. And so I've always had this almost rebellious streak. I've also had this part of me, this projector where I can almost can see the big picture. And I can see all these dots. And then I'm like, well, that's not working. And so I just like, well, let's just fix it or let's just change it. And I always say to businesses, unless it's a law or legislation, everything you do in your businesses may believe you've just made up these rules. So you can just change them. Like, nothing's going to happen. And so I challenge people because that's the way I've gone through it. I don't like something that's shifted. Or you learn from it or change it. But then when last year I got diagnosed with ADHD and everything made sense. Why I'm a risk taker, why I think differently, why I get really excited about new things and get hyper focused. And then once it's embedded, I get bored and I move on. But I think when you invite people with neurodiversity, in fact, any kind of diversity into your organisation, it's almost like you've got this magic key for to get different perspectives and ideas and ways of thinking. And it's like opening up this jewelry box and you see all this like glistening stuff. Whereas if you just stick to the same kind of thinking, the same kind of people all the time, you're never going to get these rituals. So my newly found neurodiversity has got a lot to answer to. But equally, the amount of people in leadership or entrepreneurial businesses who have got ADHD is phenomenal. So maybe we're here to change the world. Maybe. I mean, I just had a kind of rock and roll philosophy to life, which is about challenging and doing it differently. So maybe I should go and have a check in for some really cool. Yeah, it's liberating. Yeah, because to be permanently honest, I'm the same. I'm always asking, why do you do it that way? Have you thought about doing it somewhere differently? And there's a bit of me that likes just playing devil's advocate to challenge the, and sometimes there's really good reason for it. And therefore you don't want to change it. But equally quite often, it's just because that's the way it's always been done. You've got to kick it around a bit to figure it out. And just because that's the way you've always done it, if you want to improve, if you're not going to improve hugely, if all you do is what you've done previously. Taking leaf out of the successful media companies that are out there, you know, look at the Netflix, look at an Amazon, etc. When they launch something, they usually launch with a series, a limited series, okay. So you hook someone in, but instead of them watching that and then going, oh, there's nothing else. And going elsewhere to the competition that you hooked them in and you've got a whole library of content that they can dive into and fully immerse themselves. Because you want to take them from a casual listener to a follower, if it's audio or a subscriber, if it's really, you want them to click that button. So for me, it's, you know, launch with that. And again, look, they still say 50% of podcasts are found through organic search. So people can't find your podcast by searching online. Then you're missing 50% of your potential audience. So if you've got, for example, 100 followers and you send them and there's one piece of content there, what's the maximum you're going to get 100? If you send them there and you've got four, five, six episodes, your 4, 5, 6, X in your potential downloads, meaning you could get crashed the podcast to get in the charts for your category. Yes, there's a bit of ego in there as well because everybody likes to take the screenshot and look at my number one, look at my top 10 podcast or whatever. But more than that is that you'll you've then got visibility, right? You will then start attracting other casual listeners viewers who you can turn into super fans for your podcast. If you haven't got that visibility, if you hadn't launched with more than one episode, it's not going to happen. Your environment changes, politics change, you know, cost change. So you've got to be constantly looking at things but those core things while you're doing what you're doing and what your values are should remain intact. They change your business changes. Yes. People will view the business differently as well. You know, I'd have to change the name of it. It's got to represent what it says on the tin. Exactly. On the box. On the basket. Yeah. Well, I think I sort of fell into it if I'm honest. It wasn't something I planned and sat down that, right, this is the avenue I want to do. But I was really lucky that I was very busy with presenting and choreographing and running the business. And somebody one day said to me, can I just have a chat with you? You know, you seem to have, you know, it all's working and I firstly said, well, that's not true. So we need to dispel that. Yeah. Everything seems very calm and smooth on top. Absolutely. But what it did is that conversation, they were actually in quite a high profile business in Australia. And what it did was it really opened my eyes to the images that are coming out about us, the persona that we put out there. And we ended up having this conversation where I actually learnt just as much as they did. But what happened was afterwards, they said, you need to start doing this. You know, you are giving confidence to me. You have really inspired me. And what I was doing was I was giving them tips because they were saying, I'm really nervous. I have to stand up and speak in front of people. And I said, all go and see a public speaking coach, you know, maybe that would be helpful. And they said, yeah, but I'm overall, I don't feel too confident. They said, I know my subject matter, but it's getting it out. Whether it's public speaking or on a podcast or however. And I sort of started thinking, yeah, this is something that I do. And I do it with my friends and whatever. And so I basically just sort of put the feelers out. And people started saying, oh, yeah, could I come see? And what I found is some people would come and see me and say, I need confidence because I've got to do a talk. And I've got to speak in front of a hundred people in my business. I'm really confident with what I've got to talk about. But it's the actual talking. It's the standing up on stage. And then some people would come with just more of a general, I just don't feel really confident in my decision making at the minute. And so I started doing it. And I just found it crew and crew and crew. And what I always find interesting is people, when I came back to the UK people who message me. And it's very private. Most people don't want necessarily anyone to know or message me. And I might have met them at an event. I might have seen them at a business. And I'm thinking, wow, interesting. Because sometimes the people who we perceive as very successful, very confident actually are maybe people putting in the most work, you know, they are maybe working really hard on that. And I always say confidence is built. You know, people will say to me, oh, you're so confident. I wish I could be like that. And so I didn't, I wasn't always like this. It is a real building blocks. And our confidence gets knocked all the time. Every single one of us, you know, you have those days where things don't go right and your confidence is not. So confidence is more than people think, people think, oh, you're going to ruin your confidence, your land, it's not that at all. It's being so self assured. And having that self belief. And I absolutely love it. It's such a great feeling when you have somebody who you've worked with who then goes on to fulfill whatever that ambition or that dream was. One of the only ways that you can actually make a difference and stand out is using your personal brand because people can copy your methodology. They copy your words. They can copy your ideas, but they can't copy you. People feel that they know you when they've seen your face. Online. And it does help towards that, no, like, you're interested. Apparently the brain can't tell the differences to whether they've met you online or they've met you in real life. That's why when you see a famous person, sometimes you kind of go, do I know them? Do I know them somewhere? Because you feel you know them already. Well, I've got a little anecdote about that. A couple of weeks ago, I was in a client's reception area. And this guy comes down to the list and he's coming out through security. And I guess Mike Harris. And I think who are you? Yeah. Not what he who you are. He comes over and shakes me. He goes, I feel like I know you already. I see you on LinkedIn all the time. So there you go. It just shows it. It does happen. Yeah. I think it's one that I heard about a month or two ago. I think it was by somebody called Myron Golden. And he said, all work works. Sometimes it works for you. Sometimes it works on you, but all work works. And for me, that just shattered so much. Because I think too often you post something and like crickets or you set up a workshop and you don't really get the kind of turn out, you were expected. Or you know, you just do a big launch. I thought it was going to be a big launch. And he's like, oh, it falls a bit flat. And you feel like, oh, maybe this is not working. Maybe it's not for me. That changed it for me because I hope it's see that life is compounding. Right? It's like it's not one big because I think sometimes like the key stories of the books have a lot of survival bias, right? They tell you, oh, it was amazing. It was plain sailing. It just kind of started and overnight, overnight success. And you're like, or why is mine not overnight? And like, I'm working so hard on this thing. Why is it not churned? But when you realize that all work works, like so sometimes even though you're not seeing the fruit immediately, doesn't mean that the roots and building right. So it's realizing that as long as you're building based on your values and you're following the blueprint of what you believe your life's purpose, you know, then keep doing what you're doing. But of course, listen to the environment for signal and see if there's better ways to alter the cells on your your sheep. But don't stop because you're not seeing immediate results because all work works. Right? Sometimes on you, sometimes for you, but it's working. All the same. Get the right structure. Critical to the success of any organization is to have a robust, strong structure. But inevitably, the question is, do you pick the structure first and then point the team to fit the structure? Or do you get the best people possible and then look at forming the right structure around them? And the truth is there is no right or wrong answer to that. Now for me, I normally start with getting the best people. I feel that I've got the most opportunities to success. I've got the best people I possibly can. And then I will build the structure around them. I will look at what they're good at and put a structure accordingly. As an example of that, if I've got an operational guy who's very focused and really good at customer service and getting on with the clients, then the structure will reflect that. However, if I've got an operational guy who's very inward looking and is making sure that the delivery is first class and that the performance of the people in the businesses first class, I may have to look in the structure complementing that with somebody who's much more outgoing and much more customer focus. So as I say, you can quite often build a structure that will be different depending on who you put in place with the team that you're recruiting. And also remember that the structure that is right for today may not be right for tomorrow. So that might be literally in a few days time, but more likely in a month's time or six months time here, years time or whatever. So it's important as the business grows, the structure can grow with it. And also the structure is able to cope with the challenges and opportunities that arise. So make sure that the structure that you build is adaptable in his fluid. So why is this important? Well, the stronger the structure, the more your business will be able to cope with. The business will have a much wider span of control and built and flexibility will mean that you're not wrong-footed by the unexpected. Thank you everybody for watching. Hope you've liked it today and you've got a lot out of it. And I'll see you all soon on the leaders and strategy podcast. One will be talking about strategy leadership and all things business. I'll see you there. Thanks.