Disclaimer: The Transcript Is Auto Generated And May Contain Spelling And Grammar Errors
James: 00:00 You know, I’m working with startups or I’m working with
companies that you are doing 50 or a hundred million, whatever more than that a year. Taking
that approach to saying, all right, this is day one, right? Everything that’s happened has already
happened and if this is day one, where are we going from here? And I think that sort of mentality
inspires creativity and more of the entrepreneurial energy. Like no entrepreneur that I know
wants to work in a company that culturally believes we’ve already made it. And we’ve done
everything that we’re here to do.
Intro: 00:29 From ABC News Radio, KIBT 1490 in Southern California,
this is BizNinja Entrepreneur Radio, with your host, Tyler Jorgenson.
Tyler: 00:43 Alright. Want to welcome everybody out to BizNinja
Entrepreneur Radio. I’m your host Tyler Jorgensen and have a guest flying in digitally, I think from Idaho. Am I right?
James: 00:55 You are. You are indeed
Tyler: 00:58 Idaho by way of Florida originally I think from New York. I
don’t even know. We’re going to learn a little bit about the man that is James P. Friel. What he
does to help entrepreneurs and executives get the most out of their life and their business. So
we’re going to talk a little bit about who you are and what’s going on. Thanks for coming out,
James.
James: 01:16 Yeah, thanks for having me man. Appreciate it.
Tyler: 01:18 So, you’re known by a few things. You’re the host of Just
The Tips podcast, which is an awesome show co-host. Then you’ve got a consulting company.
As well as a couple ecom things. When did you first realize that you’re an entrepreneur?
James: 01:36 Wow. I guess the difference between when I first realized it
and when I actually like acted on a full time. Like there’s a span of, a lot of years in there. The
first time I realized it was when I was a kid, I think it was like eight or nine, somewhere in that
neighborhood. My parents were out doing something and I was home by myself. One of our
neighbors came up the driveway. He was looking for my parents, seeing the knock on the door.
He opens his door. I was like, what’s up? You know, like parents here. I was like, no. And we just
kind of stood there looking at each other. I was like, well, is there anything else? Like they’re not
here. And he just looked and I had a swing set in the yard that I’d gotten for birthday,
Christmas or something.
James: 02:16 And he’s like, oh, it’s a really nice swing set. I said, well, do
you want to buy it? He’s like, oh, you’re going to sell it. I was like, well, if you want it. He’s like,
well, how much do you want? I was like, well, just make me an offer. So he wound up offering
me $75, which I thought was amazing. I wasn’t really using the swing set anymore. So as he’s
driving down the road with this swing set, like hanging off both sides of his pickup truck, my
parents pull up the driveway and they’re like, what? Why did we just see him driving away with
your swing? I was like, oh, I just sold it for 75 bucks. I think that was the first time I realized, you
know, just sort of wanting to sell things and do capitalize on opportunities so that
Tyler: 02:58 Your approach to situations was a typical.
Tyler: 03:01 Right. And that, yeah. Go now. Then you said though, it
took a while before you really started acting upon it. You know, going through like schooling and
that kind of stuff. Did you follow a more traditional route?
James: 03:14 I did a very traditional routes. I actually feel like there’s a lot
of conversation in the entrepreneur community about how, you know. All entrepreneurs receive
students or they were like, you know, had learning problems or just like bad in school. The only
thing that they could do in life was to become an entrepreneur. I don’t relate to that at all. Like I
was a very good student. I actually loved school. You know, I was good at it. I got A’s and except
for in music class. I got a D, which was an anomaly and there’s no reason I should be playing
the drums now because of that.
James: 03:49 But I did follow a very traditional route. Went to a wind up
going to college to study aerospace engineering and loved math, science, all these things. I was
just like if I go and I get a really great education, then I get a great job. Like this is going to be
my path to success, wealth and everything else, you know. I left school and I worked for some
very large corporations. Had some really amazing roles in those corporations. Then after being
in the corporate world for 10 years and always sort of having like a side thing going on, whether
it was real estate investing or some other sort of, you know, income producing thing. Eventually I
was just like, I gotta get outta here.
James: 04:33 I got to like really pursue running my own companies full
time. So that was seven years ago that I left my corporate gig. But it was very traditional path
before I made that leap.
Tyler: 04:45 Nice. And what was your first leap?
James: 04:49 Well, I just sort of seized an opportunity. I was at the time,
the head of digital strategy for HSBC bank, which is really a big company. I think at the time we
had like 330,000 employees. That’s actually more people working in that company than live in
Boise where I live right now. Just sort of put things in perspective and you know, I had teams all
over the world, Asia, Europe, North America and everywhere. I was doing amazing and, you
know, climbing the corporate ladder.
James: 05:29 My boss was the chief marketing officer of the entire bank and I remember having this conversation with my grandfather. I was just so excited. I was like
29 or 30 at the time. He’s like, Oh man, you’re really climbing the corporate ladder, aren’t you? I
was like, yeah, it’s an in. Then he just paused and he’s like, what if your ladder’s leaning against
the wrong wall? I was like, holy, I like, dude. all right, well the leg. Yeah, totally. But I knew deep
down he was totally right. So I was sort of like thinking about it. Then I got to this point where my
boss and I were in this conference room in London. He looks at me, we want you to like move
over here full time.
James: 06:13 We want to promote you. I want to eventually like groom
you to take over my role in all these things. I just looked across the table at him and thought to
myself. I can’t imagine ever wanting your job, you know. If that’s the next rung of the ladder,
maybe is the wrong ladder. I knew beyond a shadow of doubt. So he was kinda like, well, listen,
you either do this or you’re gonna, we’re gonna let you go in the next round of layoffs. I was like,
all right, you know what, so be it. Let me go. So I got took my severance package. Then trying to
figure out what do I do next? And you know, I had relationships with many different outside
companies and stuff at that point.
James: 06:56 I found this one firm that was based in Manhattan. I said,
Hey, what if I came in and is like, you know, a partner in this company. But I only eat what I kill.
Like, let me go out and let me start selling, like bringing in some consulting services. I wound up
like the very first thing that I did. I wound up selling millions of dollars in consulting services back
to HSBC and other big companies. I was like, okay, well this is really cool. So that was how I
made the leap. And fortunately I did.
Tyler: 07:30 I like that it’s a little bit of a hedge bet, right? Like you gave
it on commission. Like I am only going to eat like what I bring in. However, I’m going to start with
a little bit of a team behind me and an umbrella behind me, right. To play. You played both sides.
Strengths, which sounds like you know, that’s a nice way to start. Most entrepreneurs don’t do it
like that. They go and pick the hang their shingle, right? Especially in the service based industry,
right? They hang their shingle. They do every piece of the fight. What did you learn from that
strategy and that kind of taking that leap? But that you then now teach to other entrepreneurs.
James: 08:06 Well, I think like you just sort of alluded to
James: 08:10 planning is really valuable. I don’t think a lot of
entrepreneurs really plan things well enough. I feel like they’re, you know, there’s like applauded
and praised to be. The guy who’s jumping off the cliff with no idea how you’re going to land at
the bottom. I’m not like that. I like to plan things out. I like to figure out what’s, you know, what’s
coming in. And obviously I’m not advocating analysis paralysis here. But I am say like, Hey, let’s
at least have some sort of idea on if I make this move. What are the logical consequences that
are likely to happen if I do it, right? Instead of just like running into something with this like
irrational amount of enthusiasm and then crashing into a wall. I don’t think that’s like very
intelligent, you know. So I am a big advocate for helping people see the different consequences.
Evaluating the different options and planning out where they’re going with their business
strategically. So that when they actually execute on things, more often than not, they get the
results that they want and don’t get blindsided by all the stuff that they don’t want.
Tyler: 09:20 And that’s a big deal. Like it would blows me away, how
many entrepreneurs start without even really knowing what it is they want. They don’t know.
They might have a nugget, right? Maybe they wanted freedom from their job or maybe they
wanted, you know, to be more creative. Whatever it was, but they didn’t then think about any of
the other steps or the big picture. Okay. Now that you’re your own boss, what are your goals for
your company? What are your other, you know, narrow focused, right? What was it that you
started doing that’s not what you’re doing anymore. What was your next step?
James: 09:55 Yeah. So, you know, it’s always one of these things where
James: 09:59 every crisis sort of presents a new opportunity.
Tyler: 10:03 And I think that’s the nugget of the entrepreneur, right? The
crisis is an opportunity. That viewpoint is, I think, what sets an entrepreneurial way and apart
from the person who sees the crisis as the pit.
James: 10:14 Yeah. Well like what are you going to do? Like you’re going to stay in the pit? I guess that’s an option. But it seems like it’s kind of a sucky one.
Tyler: 10:23 It does. But people accept that reality all the time.
James: 10:26 Yeah, they do. I’m like, what are you doing? Like you know,
James: 10:30 I heard somebody say once like, play the hand that you
were dealt as if it was the one that you wanted. That’s again, I think it’s really cool because
there’s a lot of stuff that we can’t control. So why not just use the things that you have in front of
you and turn them into something. And you know, sort of that transition from then until now. That
partnership I entered into, sort of fell apart and we went our separate ways, right? Then I was
sitting there wondering, well, now what do I do? Right? Now I’m not selling back to these big
companies that I have, you know, 10 years of familiarity with key relationships and all this other
stuff. The truth was I had really gotten tired of the giant corporate bureaucracy, red tape and like
all that stuff.
James: 11:20 Anyways. So, along the way I had picked up one or two
smaller consulting clients that I’d been working with. You know, who are running multiple seven
figure to stuff, size companies. I thought to myself, I was like, is it possible that I could start
working with more of these types of guys and still make the kind of money that I want to make
and have the kind of impact. Do the things that I’m really good at or do just absolutely necessary
that I work with all these big giant corporations on sort of sick of, and it feelsl like they’re sucking
the soul out of me. I had some great mentors at the time and I started looking at buying
companies.
James: 12:04 I started looking at working with more entrepreneurial type
companies. During my process of looking to buy companies, I found, I think I looked at like 200
plus companies over the course of nine to 12 months. They all the way we’re like indentured
servants. Like all the entrepreneurs inside of these companies were like indentured servants.
Like shackled to the business, couldn’t go on vacation. Like couldn’t have the life that they really
wanted. Like all these things, their marketing was horrible, their systems were worse. And I
remember I took a tour like of a guy who was selling a puppet factory and I was like, well, he’s
making money. Like on paper, the business looked pretty good. I asked them before I left, I was
like, why are you even selling the business you make and you know, good cash after, expenses
and like all this other stuff.
James: 12:58 He’s like my little girl is grown up and I’m not getting to
spend time with her, right. I learned two things from that. One, I learned that I didn’t want to buy
a puppet factory. And two that was a really common problem that entrepreneurs were facing. So
a lot of what I’m doing now is really addressing how to liberate entrepreneurs from the company
that they created in the first place. To give them freedom, income and give them all the things
that they really wanted. But somehow or another they lost their way and they wound up
becoming a prisoner inside of this like highly paid job, which looks more like a hamster wheel. It
just doesn’t have to be that way. But most of them stay stuck there because that’s where they
think like how life is.
Tyler: 13:50 So one would think that because the corporate ladder that
you climbed was built on, you know, digital services and advertising, marketing, that kind of
stuff, that’s the part you’d be helping. But if I’m right, you help more on the, creating processes
and systems within the company. Just to allow them to, even the entrepreneur would even like
breathe a little bit.
James: 14:10 Yeah. So there’s like a plot twist here in this story, right?
What I did after I said no, I don’t want to buy any of these companies because I don’t want to
become the next indentured servant.
Tyler: 14:24 The next puppet maker.
James: 14:25 Right. The next puppet maker
Tyler: 14:26 End of the puppet.
James: 14:28 Yeah. I was like, man, it would be really scary walking
around this puppet factory at night. So I was like, I don’t want any part of it.
James: 14:34 So I did get back to my core and I started running a full
service digital marketing agency for small to mid-size companies. And we were, you know, we
were running traffic, building funnels, running, creating back end automation, like all of these
things that combined marketing and technology. Like online sales and stuff. What happened
there was that company started growing so fast that I wound up getting stuck in that business
and I was like, Holy mother of God. Like, how did I do this to myself? And I was working 70-80
hours a week. I had this gorgeous condo right on the beach. But like the closest I got to the
beach was sitting on my balcony while typing on my computer, looking down at the people who
are actually enjoying the beach.
Tyler: 15:20 Right.
James: 15:21 And I realized, like I had inadvertently created my own self
made prison. But I became really determined to figure my way out of it. So over a lot, through a
lot of trial and error period of where I, 18 months I hired and fired six operations people. I tried
every project management productivity software tool on the planet. Like all these different
things. I finally just sort of like cleared the decks and said, you know what? Like going back to
my engineering days, this is a complex problem. Let me figure out how to solve this. Like not
just thinking that some magic person’s going to come by or some magic software is going to be
the silver bullet that solves everything. I end up creating some frameworks that really helped me
systemize my own business. Get out of that cycle that I was in.
James: 16:16 I went from working 70-80 hours a week down to like 20 to
25 with the same client workload. My team was happier. We’re more productive and I had no
intention of teaching anybody how to systemize their business at that point in time. I just was
like, I got to solve this problem for you. And I just figured I keep on moving along, building my
marketing agency and ultimately a few people here and there, you know, kind of ask for my
help. But one that really got me. Got me raised my eyebrows was Russell Brunson. And Russell
at the time was, you know, had just started ClickFunnels not that long ago. They had made, I
think they had just cleared like the $10 million mark in annual sales. He saw what I was doing
and he’s like, dude, I want that in my company.
James: 17:05 And I was just like, really? Like, it seems so obvious now that I’ve figured it out. But
Tyler: 17:09 Yeah, now that you see it all. It’s obvious, right?
James: 17:12 Of course. It always is. So I helped Russell out and created
a tremendous result for him. Then he started sharing it. At that point I would’ve had to be stupid
to not turn that into something. Because I realized between the buying the business, doing it for
myself, help in Russell, all those things, I was like, getting stuck inside of your business is a
predictable problem for almost every entrepreneur who’s really trying to grow and scale. So
that’s how we sort of pivoted and I still have all the marketing stuff. We only do it for companies
that we own. We don’t actually like do that as an agent to service.
Tyler: 17:50 Yeah. So you know, I went through a little bit of a similar
thing except for all the ending parts. But we were, I’ve been building my own, you know,
ecommerce stores and websites for a long time. We started doing that for clients a little bit. And
when we started doing it as an agency, I would reach out and I would talk to other people like,
Hey, what’s your process? What’s your intake? How are you managing it? Because I’m like, oh,
there’s gotta be other people that have these amazing systems. I found like, no, they’re all just
winging it. They’re all just figuring it out. And I’m like, oh. Then I look at the system I built and I’m
like, man, my system, I’m frustrated by it. But it’s like years ahead of what these other guys are
doing, right? What is one major like nugget? If you will, that you would get with what’s Just The
Tip, right? What’s something that we’ve done one? One thing they need to know about
processes or you know, Trello. Whatever that anyone can apply and just go do one thing to at
least see a beginning of benefit.
James: 18:49 Yeah, absolutely. So I think we have to get back to defining
what a system really is. Systems in business are what give you leverage and help you actually
get more output for the effort that you’re putting in. right? Like that’s all that leverage really is.
And it’s funny cause I was hanging out with this guy the other night, who recently sold his
company for $2 billion. He’s got a ton of money and he looked at me, he’s like if I thought about
systems the right way, my net worth would be like five times what it is. And, and I think that
really thinking about what is a system and how do we implement it is something that’s important. So for me, what I’ve really bought into my own companies and in all the companies that I’ve been working with is that a system. A combination of people, processes and tools all working together to achieve a common result.
James: 19:50 And all too often, like this is so obvious now that I’ve seen
it, right? Like I can go anywhere and people like, you know, we’re working too hard or we’re
stuck here. Or systems aren’t working. I can trace it back to either, not having people who are
clear on what they’re supposed to do. Not having processes for those people to follow. Or if they
have people and processes, but they don’t have tools to support it, then it’s really not gonna
work. And so any area of your business that you are wanting to get leverage in, the way to get
leverage is to put a system in place. The way to diagnose what needs to be put in place for that
system is people, process or tools. And at a very high level that simple to get to the root of the
problem. Once you have those things in place, their coordinated, just making sure that you’re
measuring
James: 20:47 what you expect
James: 20:48 out of that system so that you can tweak those three parts
to make sure that the measurements are trending in the right direction and giving you what you
want.
Tyler: 20:56 So I’ve seen a lot of times where entrepreneurs, they understand that they need people, process and tools. But they rely on the people to like fix the other two instead of them as the leader and the visionary. Like creating all of that kind of triangle of effort and so they blame the people. But the people are like, well look, like you said, first of all, they have to be clear on what their goals are. But then if they don’t know what the process is or they don’t have access to the tools, right? Those other pieces are actually what’s broken. Probably not the person. How do you triage that when you like, come in and work with the company?
James: 21:32 Yeah. So I mean there’s a couple things that have to be
considered. Like most people problems can be traced back to a faulty interviewing and hiring
process. My story that I just shared about, you know, how I hired and fired six operations people
in 18 months. Clearly at that point I was not doing things the right way. I would say maybe a
couple of those people were mis-hires. But a couple of them were actually good people. They
just lacked leadership and direction on my part to get clear on what they needed to do. And so,
defining what that person’s role is, what they’re actually responsible for and how you’re gonna
measure their success. Like those three things to begin with, make an enormous difference. I
think a lot of entrepreneurs and even seasoned business people will hire people and be like,
hey, you know, like they see somebody walking across the parking lot and they’re like, you like,
you look good.
James: 22:40 Get over here and see if you can fix this problem for me.
Right? And without a clear definition of the problem, it’s very difficult to fix a problem no matter
who you are. I think we have to be clear on, in terms of our expectations about what is the role,
what are the responsibilities and how are we going to judge whether you’re successful or not.
Because most people really need that feedback. They need that at least those very high level
parameters to be able to do a good job. So triaging that we sort of like peel back the onion and
say, all right, well where are we missing things in those three areas? Right? Like the sub
components of the system, the people. Okay. Digging into that role, responsibilities and
measurements of success, like what’s in place there and getting those set up.
James: 23:24 I think one allows for us to at least have a clear set of
expectations about what we’re going to accomplish together, you know. Sometimes depending
on the size of the company that you’re running, you do need people who are creating those
processes. You do need people who are hiring other people, right? Who are bringing in those
tools.? But if the area that person is operating within is not clear. They don’t know what success
looks like and they’re not given that benefit of direction on any level. It’s just like, hey, here’s a
problem. You go fix it. While I like runaway to every other mastermind that I can get my hands
- Like that’s not responsible, right? And you’ve got to care enough about the future of your
company to set direction. Have clear and direct conversations with the people who are there to
help you.
Tyler: 24:22 Yeah. There’s a tendency in some management styles to
delegate, the expectations of success. Like you delegate all of that away and then you don’t,
you’re not involved on that. But then when things don’t go well, it wasn’t you. Yeah. And you
know, I’ve worked with some people like that before and I called them the absentee
micromanager, right? They would not be present for any of the decisions and then they would.
But then, they were really quick to take credit for things were working, really quick to be like,
well, I wasn’t involved in that decision if it didn’t work, right? I think we all have to battle that as
the CEO or as an entrepreneur. Make sure we’re holding ourselves accountable just as much as
we’re holding anyone else accountable. We’re staying, it’s our job to paint the vision, right? We
can’t tell you, I always say you can’t delegate. Don’t delegate your role away. But delegate the
tasks surrounding that. Right? So like you’re at your job to create the vision. If you’re an
entrepreneur or the CEO, you’ve got to create that vision for the people. Then make sure that,
you know, you’re giving them the tools, processes and people to actually deliver.
James: 25:27 Yeah, absolutely. And then it’s not like in that case. It’s not
delegation, it’s abdication, right? Which is a completely different ball of wax that is literally
throwing something over the fence and running away. I think as leaders, it is on us to have the
utmost integrity. That means expecting ourselves to be clear in our communication. That allows
us to demand that other people are clear back to us. But if the demands only are like from you
out and you don’t allow those same expectations to be back towards you. Like that’s when
there’s going to be lopsidedness in the relationship. That’s going to breed a lot of level of distrust
amongst the people who are working for you because they’re like, oh, well, he just plays by his
own set of rules. But he expects us to do all these other things We’re not like, and that’s not it’s
honestly. It’s not fair and it’s not core leadership.
Tyler: 26:24 Yes, it is. I’ve just laughing because I’m thinking of anecdotal examples of that exact thing.
James: 26:31 Yeah. The thing is like, it’s easy to sort of laugh at those
anecdotal examples and see those people. But I think just like anything else, I believe this is a
learned skill, right? This doesn’t mean like I hear a lot of times, oh, I’m not a great people
manager, or I’m not great at delegating. I’m not great at this. And for all of the people, groups
that you would expect, do you feel completely empowered to do anything they put their mind to?
You would expect entrepreneurs to do that right there. Like at some point you didn’t know how to
make hundreds of thousands or millions, or tens of millions of dollars either. Yet somehow you
figured out how to do that. You weren’t born with that skill, right? But people skills and the things
that are associated with that somehow fall into some untouchable camp that, oh, I’m just not
good at it. I think that’s kind of bullshit. And I’m like, well, you can learn. You don’t have to
become the best in the world at it. Right? But you can at least develop a skill set that enables
that facilitation of great communication, goal setting and accomplishment inside your
organization. Like
James: 27:42 there’s nothing stopping anybody from doing that.
Tyler: 27:45 Yeah. And I think it’s interesting, I’m a big believer in
leaning into our strengths as opposed to just trying to always spend our energy fixing our
weaknesses. However, there is that moment, that kind of like the core strengths that you have to
have if you’re going to run a business that involves other people. Being able to talk to those
people is probably one that you should work on if you’re struggling. Being able to lead with
clarity. And I really liked that, you know, when you kind of said that leadership has a demand. It
demands that you have clarity in your communication because you can’t expect that back.
Right. And so I think a lot of the things you’re talking about, which is interesting, cause I didn’t
really think we’re going to go this way.
Tyler: 28:24 It comes down to growing as a leader, right? And then
allowing those things to trickle down into creating better systems and doing those other things.
But none of those things outwork our own capacity. No. And so, you know, you’ve been working
with a lot of really cool companies. I mean you currently help some really neat ones and then,
but you also helped some, you know, some you’ve been working on a few startups and stuff as
well. How do you still feed your average scratch the entrepreneurial itch even as you work on
some big clients?
James: 28:55 Well I think, for me it’s kind of like Jeff Bezos, right? So,you read the letter that he wrote to his shareholders in 1997, you know, after their first year. Like the ending, the last line was, this is day one, right? Every letter that he’s written to the shareholders since then has ended that same way. This is still day one, right? Like we’re, you know, 2018 now and Amazon is just, you know, cross the trillion dollar mark right there. One of the only two companies in history to ever do that. The mindset that he has about, no matter how big we get. This is still day one for our future, I think is a very interesting mindset. And so regardless of whether
James: 29:40 you, I’m working with, with
James: 29:42 startups or I’m working with companies that, you know, are
doing 50 or 100 million or whatever, more than that, a year taking that approach to saying, all
right, this is day one, right? Everything that’s happened has already happened. And if this is day
one, where are we going from here? I think that sort of mentality inspires creativity and more of
the entrepreneurial energy. If you’re like, okay, well, nobody wants. At least maybe there are
some people know entrepreneur that I know wants to work in a company now culturally believes
we’ve already made it and we’ve done everything that we’re here to do, right? Like that is the
beginning of decay, right? And as entrepreneurs, we’re trying to drive growth and you know,
channel our passions and our energies into something that’s gonna continue to move forward.
James: 30:31 And so, I think that whole day one mentality is super
important regardless of where you are. Because it continues to allow yourself to believe in the
fact, that you’re starting from scratch, everything from scratch, every single day. I don’t know
what could be more entrepreneurial than that.
Tyler: 30:50 I love that mindset. I think there’s a big difference between
putting parts of your business on autopilot and completely like complete complacency. And so I
think that’s,
James: 31:02 Yeah, well, I mean like, okay, so you know, autopilot for me
as a former aerospace engineer has a very specific meaning. It doesn’t mean that the cockpit is
unmanned. It means that the pilot is getting leverage and he doesn’t have to do every single
thing required to fly that plane. And for me, when I talk about, you know, getting systems on
autopilot and putting your business on autopilot, I’m not talking about like going on a beach for
the next six months and forgetting that you have a business.
Tyler: 31:33 Right.
James: 31:34 I’m talking about being in the driver’s seat of that business.
But not having to pedal the car like the Flintstones, right? Like there’s a difference between
those things and yeah, it’s not running away from your role. It’s stepping into your role and
making sure that you have systems in place. Meaning people, processes and tools to do those
things, which really aren’t your role. Like there are a lot of things that you shouldn’t be doing as
the person running your company. But you can’t really do those things until you have systems
that are helping you do that. And so it’s almost like in order to get into the driver’s seat. In order
to put things on autopilot where you have leverage, you need to make sure that those other
things are happening. But the pilot in the cockpit is still monitoring all of the instruments. He’s
still the first one seeing the alerts. He’s still the one saying, hey, are we going to run out of fuel?
Are we flying it at the right altitude? Like all that, like he has sat, has things set up to give him
the information he needs in order to fly the plane. I think that’s why when I talk about autopilot,
that’s what I’m talking about.
Tyler: 32:43 Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I think it means, I
really liked the way that you explained leverage and use the concept because you still have to
be the one manning the end of the lever. The lever or whatever way you want to say it, for it to
get any result. Otherwise it’s just a stick and a rock and what, you know? But to me like
businesses is like somewhat, we do it for the game sometimes. But it’s also for me, it’s about
like eventually it’s about lifestyle and building the life that we truly want. What’s one major item
on James P. Friel, his bucket list not work related that you’re going to do in the next 12 months?
James: 33:19 So we’ll go back to Italy. Yeah, I’ve been, this is the second year in a row that we’ve gone. I just love going over there and hanging out. And you know, just, I love the culture. I love the food. I love the art and history. Like all of it. And I think that, and it’s interesting because the first time that we went, was I guess almost two years ago and it was a 12 day. Like it was a 12 day trip and I was like, man, how am I going to like not work for 12 days? Historically I’ve been terrible at taking vacations and I was like, all right, well I guess I’ll see how this goes. So I took 12 days. I had like two text messages with my team and one video conference with somebody cause I just really wanted to say hi.
James: 34:09 And the rest of the time I didn’t do anything. When I came back, my team had implemented all sorts of things that like had been needing to be done. Like my clients were totally happy. Like everything was working really well. I think it was for me, it was like one of the first times where I allowed myself to step into the leverage that I had created and come back to something that was working really well, if not better, to be totally honest. Then when I had left. So I don’t know if Italy represents for me that like that sort of Aha. Like, okay, I have created a certain amount of leverage that allows my business to work for me. But I think there’s like a whole bunch of things wrapped up and going back there. So in the next 12 months, I think we’re planning, going back in April. I’ll probably take another cooking class.
James: 34:57 I’ll probably, you know, drink some more wine. We’ll go towards some more museums and that’s sort of what I like to do that’s unrelated to business.
Tyler: 35:05 I love it. We just did. I took my wife and my oldest daughter through Italy just a couple of months ago. It was awesome. Absolutely loved it. So that’s cool. Want to thank you for coming out. Where can people get to know more about you?
James: 35:18 Sure. So they could just go to my website, jamespfriel.com. That’s F R I E L and they can check out everything that’s happening there. So we’ve got, you know, links to the podcast, Just The Tips. We’ve got free downloads, you know, training information. Like all sorts of stuff like that. And I think that would probably the best place if people
James: 35:38 want to continue the relationship pass today.
Tyler: 35:38 Absolutely. I know a lot of people that have worked with you and that have attested the help and helping them create systems has truly transformed their business. So please, if you’re listening, go check out jamespfriel.com. Get some of the free goodness and maybe you’re a candidate to work with James more, you can, you’ll figure it out there. But James, appreciate your time. I know it’s valuable. Thanks for coming out and sharing your story, some advice with other entrepreneurs.
James: 36:11 Yeah. Tyler, thanks so much for having me, man. This was a lot of fun.
Tyler: 36:14 It’s my pleasure. Now my BizNinja out there, wherever you’re listening, it’s your turn to go out and do something.
Outro: 36:22 Thank you for listening to BizNinja Entrepreneur Radio with Tyler Jorgenson. Please make sure to subscribe so you’re first to hear new interviews and episodes. If you found this podcast to be valuable, please share it with a friend. Don’t forget to visit our online talk show at BizNinja.com to claim your reward for listening to this show.
