593 | Build an Unstoppable Support System to Maximize Your Business

Introduction (00:00:00)

Today we're addressing common barriers like fear, imposter syndrome and pride, offering practical advice on how to break through these obstacles and build the support network needed for long term success. That is coming up next.

Welcome to the Chris LoCurto show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.

Today we are diving into a topic that is a tough one for many business owners and for others. It is a welcome thing. And that is why we need to build a support system, why it's crucial for our success to have a support system.

Now listen, running a business is very hard. And for many entrepreneurs, many business owners, it's even harder when they try to do it alone.

Here's the catch. So many business owners became business owners because they didn't like input from other people.

So it's kind of this interesting thing where you probably worked out of business, where you had a terrible boss and somebody who didn't understand where you were coming from or what you were experiencing and led you in bad ways.

And so then you may have decided, this isn't every entrepreneur, this isn't every business owner. But a lot of them go through this process where they decide that they don't like having that input.

They want to be able to do things on their own. They want to be able to make their own decisions. There's nothing wrong with that. That's fantastic. That is excellent.

However, there is a difference between having a bad leader, a bad boss who's telling you what to do, who doesn't listen to you, who doesn't know what the heck they're doing, and having a phenomenal support system of other business owners and leaders that are going through what you're going through, that have experienced what you're experiencing or are working through this stuff at the same time you are, or maybe you're ahead of them and that, and it helps you to support them in the process.

That's what we're going to talk about today. So if you're hearing this and you're thinking, well, that's, that's just not me, I don't need that.

You know, I've, I've got my family members who are always telling me what to do and they don't know what the heck they're talking about.

I've got, you know, my friends who are always telling me how to run my business and they don't know what they're talking about.

That is not what we're discussing today. What we were discussing today is the importance of actually having people who do know what you're going through, not those folks who are always offering up information, always offering up advice.

And they literally have no clue what you're, what you're experiencing as a business owner or leader. We're talking about folks that do or folks that are going through a lot of the same stuff that you are.

So we're going to explore why a solid support system is not just helpful, but it's absolutely essential. We'll discuss the benefits it brings, what holds people back from creating one, and how to overcome those specific barriers.

So in this journey, we're going to be discussing some specific key points.

Purpose and Benefits of a Support System (00:03:26)

The first key point is, what is the purpose and what are the benefits of a support system? So here's the thing.

This is going to hit each personality style in a different way. Support system of solid people, phenomenal people. Sometimes certain personality styles view it differently.

Some personality styles view it as a place for them to go and glean as much information for them as they possibly can get, and then they're frustrated when it's not all about them. This is not a great support system.

A great support system is a system that helps you with their expertise, with their input, with their holding up your arms, where they're calling you out, and the same thing coming from you when you're giving, when you're giving input, when you're giving expertise, when you're giving wisdom and knowledge, when you're holding other people's arms up, and when you're pushing on people, and they need it as well.

So we're not talking about a place for you to just go and be incredibly selfish.

Instead, we're talking about a group that brings fresh ideas, a group that brings insights, a group that's going to help you save time, save money, because there's things that they've experienced in the past.

So information and perspective, if you will. I'll never forget a time where we had one of our great clients who was an attorney who was struggling with having to get something done.

And the thing about attorneys is that they, their calendars can be completely controlled by the courts. And she was running up into this, trying to lead her business.

At the same time, she knew she was going to be stuck in court for weeks and she had to get something done, and she didn't know what to do. And a suggestion came in asking, hey, what, what does your weekend look like?

And it was like, you know, here's how? Family stuff. Saturday, usually a Sunday night family dinner where she's cooking the whole time, and, you know, it's a great time for their family to be together.

And so the suggestion came, what if just one night, you asked your family, how much time do you need? And the answer was, I need 45 minutes to knock out this thing, to get this thing done.

If I could spend 45 solid minutes. And she was literally struggling with finding that time and didn't want to also lose, you know, precious family time at the same time, she was working late, all kinds of stuff.

And the suggestion came in, well, what if you just knock out, if you take that family dinner time, what if you ordered pizza one night? Would your family be okay with that?

Oh, my gosh, my family would love if we order pizza. Okay, so we're cutting back your cooking time. And what if we said, you asked your family, hey, guys, can I just put a 45 minutes block or an hour block in here?

Give yourself a little bit of time, an hour block after our family meal for me to just work on something and then come back and spend time.

Would everybody be okay with that? And she was like, of course they would be okay with it. Great. What if you put that in? Could you get done what you need to get done? And it was just this.

Yeah, I could totally do it that way. Now you're thinking, well, why couldn't she just do that on any other night?

And literally, it was because her schedule was so slammed with court and then taking care of family and kids in, uh, dance and, you know, all kinds of different things that her time.

By the time she got to an open slot, she was just beyond exhausted. It was late. She was beyond exhausted.

And so this allowed finding a time where she could wedge something in that wasn't filled up with commitments, that wasn't filled up with, um, you know, what they believed to be required.

Family time, which was great. It gave her a different way of looking at her personal time to say, if you got this knocked out, would you feel less stressed out going into the next handful of weeks?

Totally. That's exactly what I need to do now. Again, it may sound simple. It may sound like, well, that's really not that big of a deal. That's just one aspect of people being able to see things that you're not seeing.

We've had phenomenal accountability situations where, you know, clients might be struggling in not being able to hit targets or, you know, struggling by, you know, pushing on their own selves and thinking, man, I'm failing.

I'm doing a bad job. I remember two high ds, one high d was struggling, and the other one was like, man, I'm just going to call you out. Pushed on him. And it really frustrated the other guy.

And then afterwards he came back and he was like, oh, my gosh, that's exactly what I needed. I needed somebody to push on me, to call me out, to show me, you know, hey, you're not doing this thing.

You're saying you want this, but you're not doing this over here. And then he absolutely did it. It was exactly what he needed to do. He accomplished his targets perfect, excellent.

Just what he needed in that support. The great thing was the ability to go, wow, I actually needed somebody to push on me because I wasn't pushing on me, you know, I was struggling with myself in a different way.

And the moment I got pushed on, I was able to, you know, recognize the things I needed to do and go after those things.

These are the types of things, information, perspective, accountability, confidence, resilience, where like, you'll have team members. And--

You know, a great comment that we had years ago from our Next-Level Mastermind groups, was somebody saying, you know, this isn't just my brain trust. This is also my prayer group.

You know, the supportive community is also those in, you know, in groups that have people who are praying, willing to pray that will hold each other up, that recognize the difficulties that they're going through and recognize, you know, it's not just all about business.

You know, how many times is what's going on in your family life affecting your company, affecting your day to day? And how many times do you just need a group of people to pray with you and support you through it and help you walk through it?

We've seen a ton of support from other business owners, other leaders that help somebody to walk through situations, have different perspectives, push on them to make decisions that they need to make that's best for them.

These are all incredible benefits that you experience when you have a solid support system around you.

Once again, not a terrible boss who's constantly telling you what to do and they don't know what they're talking about, not your family members or friends that have never run a business, people who are in the same place that you are.

This is what you're looking for. You want to find folks that are walking through, you know, the same aspects, or maybe they've gone ahead of you on this, or maybe they're behind you and you can lift them up.

Challenges and Realities of Entrepreneurship (00:10:46)

So another key point here is the challenges and realities of business ownership. So what am I talking about? It is amazing how when we set out to build a business, that we do not realize that it is a long haul and that it is intense.

It is. You know, I think most business owners believe that when they start their business, it's going to have a heavy duty startup time.

But that's probably only going to take a handful of months, maybe a half a year or so, but we'll be able to make it through no problem. Folks, I'm here to tell you that business ownership has a lot of intensity for usually a long period of time.

You're consistently pouring in, consistently working your backside off to try and build this thing out, to try and hire the right people, to try and make sure you've got the right processes in place. There's a lot going on.

This is something that if you're not in it for the long haul, you might find yourself being very burnt out in a short period of time, a year, two years, three years, because you didn't realize that there's a lot to this, especially when you're doing it by yourself, right?

Especially when you're trying to tackle everything on your own. So it's not uncommon for seasoned business owners to experience burnout. It is a major reason, it's a major contributor to why business owners spend so much time.

You're going to hate this, but in isolation. Yes, I'm talking to you business owners who have isolated yourselves. It's crazy to me when a lot of business owners will come through Next-Level Life.

One of the aspects that will go through, you know, the spiritual side of their life, the family side of their life, the financial side, you know, just going through, how are these things? How are you here? What do you think here?

And one of the things that I tend to find with business owners is that they don't have a good system of friends. I mean, it's shocking if they even have one or two.

I'm not talking about, you know, a high C that doesn't like big groups, but they have deep relationships with one or two. I'm talking about somebody who doesn't have relationships with even one or two.

And when you dig in, you find out that this isolation has been because of their air quotes, love of their work, and really what it is. And I get it. I understand it. I've been doing this a long, long time.

I've owned businesses for a very long time. And I understand you love pouring into your business. I get it. I get it. However, there's a problem when you isolate to only what you do in your business and the small amount of family time that you have, right.

When you don't actually have an outlet for you as an individual. And it doesn't have to be. These don't have to be, you know, great, deep friendships of people that you're going and spending a lot of time with.

It doesn't have to be people that are in your community. It doesn't, you know, have to be people that you're going out and, you know, having coffee with or having a beer with or, you know, taking a weekend camping trip with.

That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is, the isolation is so horrible for you, no matter who you are, everybody listening to this: isolation is so terrible because you're left alone to your own thoughts.

And the bad thing about that, which we all know and we all understand, is that your thoughts aren't that great. There's a lot of negative self talk in there. There's a lot of junk.

There's a lot of, you know, lies that we tell ourselves and we believe. And when we don't have a quality support system around us, then we stay stuck listening to that tape in our head.

And the crazy thing is, as we think, well, I'm around people all the time because you're at business. You're doing your thing during the day, and you're convincing yourself that you're having relationship, which you're not. You're really not, right?

And then you're coming home late and spending time alone with your family, and, you know, you're exhausted and they're exhausted.

And you know, how great of a relationship. And even if you're having great relationship at home, it's still not getting any outside perspective.

It's still not getting any outside inspiration right. So it's often a negative thing that happens with a business owner is that they end up in this isolation. And that isolation really can cause them to burn out.

So you'll find that their energy dips, which is affecting all kinds of things, obviously, their health, when you find a person in isolation, doesn't matter if it's a business owner in this situation or just anybody.

The run of the mill person that is isolating themselves, you will find their health tends to dip. Their faith in things tends to dip. Their perspective on life tends to only be coming from the tape that they're hearing in their heads or whatever they are putting in.

Maybe they're watching or listening to things that aren't very healthy. Because they're not being surrounded by good input. You will find their decision making.

Listen to me. Isolated people do not make great decisions. I know some of you out there are challenging me on this. You're saying, Chris, I live an isolated life and I'm just fine. No, you're not.

Remember, this is what we do for a living, is helping people to get as healthy as they desire to be. And what you will always find is a great lack of health.

And isolation doesn't matter if you've convinced yourself that you're doing such incredible stuff by spending, you know, 12 hours a day working on your business or not.

Or if you're someone who's just decided that you don't like people, you just want to be isolated. It doesn't matter. It's an unhealthy place to be.

And what happens is, is that the reality of bad decision making enters in how you make decisions, how you run your operations.

There tends to be a level of desperation that creeps in because of things that this person is struggling through. So that is a terrible place to be.

You do not want to be in burnout. You do not want to be struggling with the ongoing intensity. You definitely don't want to be struggling in isolation.

How does a great support system help you with this? They tell you to get out of it. A great support system helps to ask questions. They're curious. They're the kind of folks who want to know, how are you doing?

What are you doing as far as spending time with other people you know, or even if you're not going out, spend time with the support group, spend time bringing discussions, things that you want to talk through, things that you want to get off your chest, things that you just want somebody to have, you know, to gain their opinion because you're curious and you'd like to know what somebody else is thinking.

That's a powerful way to make sure that you're doing exactly what you need for you, right?

So, yes, this is one of those times where we're talking about being somewhat selfish. I want to know what my brain trust, my prayer group, my support system thinks.

I want to be able to talk to them in confidence. And that's another great thing. Now, this is something that you have to agree on with a great support system is that, hey, this stuff is in confidence.

This is here, this is us talking through this stuff. It doesn't mean that you're dragging a bunch of crap to the support system. It doesn't mean that you're there to berate or talk badly or gossip about.

None of that is healthy. That's not we're talking about. What we are talking about is, hey, I'm struggling. Can I bounce some things off you guys? I'm feeling alone. I'm feeling, you know, I'm finding myself isolating.

I'm finding myself spending so much time at work that I don't want to go do anything else. Can you help me to solve some of these things?

So, you know, another great key point is the challenges and the realities of business ownership. Sometimes you will work so hard that you will find yourself struggling to have a life.

I will tell you, I don't mind that when it's startup and it's for a designated period of time that you're okay with, your family's okay with or if the ox is in the ditch.

If the ox is in the ditch, get the ox out of the ditch as fast as you can. Right. Spend some time doing that. But you should not live in this place of I'm so busy, therefore I isolate.

You should not live in this place where there's so much business intensity that you don't want to do anything else at except go to work, try and solve things, come home and just rest.

Right. So these are things that you should think about.

Folks. If you've been listening to me for any length of time, then you know the number one issue when it comes to business, when it comes to family, when it comes to friendships, is having a lack of high quality communication to make sure that you are absolutely winning in every aspect of your life.

It all starts with having great communication.

The best way to get that communication is to understand your personality style and to understand the personality style of the folks that you're spending the most time with, whether it be at work, whether it be at home.

The best way to do that is to go to chrislocurto.com/store and get your personality profile and personality profiles for your team today. Get it for your family members today.

As you go through that profile, you will begin to see the greatest ways to communicate.

Go to chrislocurto.com/store today.

The Dangers of Leading in Isolation (00:21:34)

Key number three is the dangers of leading in isolation. So we just talked about what it's like for you as an individual to be leading yourself in isolation and how much that can affect you.

What about your team? What about the business? We know that decision making tends to tank when you're burnt out, when you're exhausted, when the intensity is just wearing you down.

But what is it like when you feel lonely, you know the old cliche of feeling lonely at the top? Well, that type of isolation can lead to really desperate decision making in your business.

One of the things that we tend to see all the time is that the poor decision making tends to be the make the decision that brings the least amount of struggle, that brings the least amount of stress.

Leading people with control, because maybe you're feeling so burnt out that people are bringing ideas and things that are causing you to feel out of control. Therefore, you institute control.

What we see many times is a lot of anger and frustration in leading. When a person is living in that isolation, they don't have that quality support around them, right?

Which all of these things ultimately lead to business failure, which is not what we want. That's not our goal. Another terrible thing is just leading to a place of not enjoying doing what you do right.

You should enjoy running the business. You should enjoy leading. You should enjoy making things happen. You should enjoy taking care of clients, taking care of team members.

You should enjoy strategizing, you should enjoy not being in the Leadership Crazy Cycle. These are things that you should enjoy.

But so many times folks get so burnt out because they're so lonely at the top that it leads to this almost life of desperation, you know, this decision making of desperation, this, this poor leadership, which, again, can lead to business failure.

We don't want that for you. Right. A terrible and unfortunate example of this is the former CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh.

Many of you have probably learned some of what his revolutionary customer service teachings were at building a vibrant company culture.

Lots of great stuff from Tony Hsieh, you know, again, former CEO of Zappos, but he was celebrated a lot, had a great community within Zappos, was super focused on employee happiness, had all of this stuff around him.

But when he stepped down later on in, you know, later years, he became increasingly isolated. He, you know, he stepped out of his role. He moved away.

And unfortunately, without that support system that he relied on, his perspective changed. He started to struggle with a lot. He became preoccupied with these personal experiences and some things that included some risky behavior.

And unfortunately, his lack of accountability, his lack of isolation may have exacerbated his struggles.

And without friends, without colleagues pushing back, offering guidance, giving him reality checks, unfortunately, he became way more isolated.

He lost sight of a lot of the principles that he taught himself, you know, things that made him successful.

And ultimately, unfortunately, the isolation and loss of perspective, you know, led to him, you know, struggling with mental health, substance abuse, all that kind of, you know, terrible stuff.

So unfortunately, all of that led to, you know, a bad, terrible situation that led to his death, that the circumstances pointed to declining mental health. Right.

So, you know, I, I'm not bringing this story in to say, hey, you need to be worried about, you know, this is, could lead to your death.

I'm just pointing out somebody who came from a phenomenal culture, a phenomenal input, phenomenal support system around him, who eventually isolated the daylights out of himself.

It affected his mental health. And according to reports, this is, you know, according to the reports, led to his death.

So, folks, yes, this, this can be a very difficult place for business owners. Now, some of you out there are going, man, that just seems so, you know, out there, so, so far away from most people's reality.

Well, it is and it can be, definitely. But I can tell you the depression that business owners feel from isolation, again, the mental health, the physical health aspects, these are real things, guys.

So what does it take? Stop trying to solve it on your own. Stop trying to be the one who has all the answers. Stop trying to fix everything yourself. Allow yourself to become somewhat vulnerable.

And again, you've heard me talk about this multiple times. Vulnerability comes with trust, right? If I can trust you with my vulnerability, then I can be vulnerable. So finding people that you can be vulnerable with is absolutely important.

But if you find yourself feeling unhealthy, unhealthy in isolation, if you're leading your team in ways that is desperate, if your decision making is jacked, if all of this is leading to some level of business value.

And another thing that a lot of people don't think about is sometimes when you get to this point, for some folks, it would almost feel better if their business did fail. So they didn't have to deal with the day to day, here's what I am telling you.

All of that is unnecessary. You don't have to live that way. What you need to become is curious. What you need to become is a little adventurous, like you did starting that business, right?

Like you did stepping into that role. What you need to do is seek people who are going through what you're going through. Seek people who have quality perspective. Seek people who understand. Seek people who have maybe been through this before.

Seek people. Seek a support system, right?

What Holds Business Owners Back from Building Support Systems (00:28:56)

So number four, key point is actually addressing what holds business owners back from building support systems.

And I kind of talked about this a little bit in the beginning of how so many business owners, you know, don't want somebody speaking into their lives.

They don't like the term accountability, because accountability in the past is probably a horrible term where, you know, it's been more beating somebody up instead of helping them, you know, solve things or lifting their arms when they need it.

So we're going to go through a couple of things.

Fear of Judgment (00:29:31)

The first is the fear of judgment. The fear of judgment is a very real roadblock for many business owners and leaders who don't want to have a support system. Right.

There's this fear that, you know, people are going to be peeking into their operations or peeking into their P & L. And believe it or not, this can absolutely paralyze some owners from seeking help. Right.

So what tends to happen is a lot of times a business owner will actually become super paralyzed with this fear that if they join a group, that they're going to be discovered, that this group is going to discover that they're, you know, they're not doing as good as they should.

As, again, my air quotes here as they should be as business owners. Listen, every single time we sign up a new group of business owners and leaders for our next level mastermind program, it's funny.

When they come to their very first retreat, I will ask the question, how many of you in here feel like you're sitting in a room full of people who all have it together and you're the only one who doesn't?

And you'll see these new folks, their hands will go up, all of them, right? They'll all put their hands up in the air. Yep. That's exactly how I feel.

Great. Now, how many of you veterans that have been with us for years, how many of you felt the same exact thing when you walked in the door for the first time and all of their hands will go up.

It is a powerful moment for people sitting in a room with a bunch of other business owners to recognize that you tend to think that you're the only one in the room who doesn't have it together, but everybody else in the room does.

And then you find out, none of us have it all together. None of us have it all together, right? We're all trying to do the best that we can.

We're all trying to get to the best information. We're all trying to solve problems, lead people well, understand our team members have, you know, some level of work life balance, have great relationships at home.

We're all trying to discover all of these pieces, right?

But the fear of judgment of, oh, these people are going to judge the daylights out of me, which is a lie unless you're in some crappy group that I guess that's definitely a possibility.

But if you're getting into a solid, you know, support system, then it's not a system of judgment. It is a group of people that are looking for help and to help.

It is a group of people who love talking to somebody other than their cousin Frank, who has all of the great ideas, who's never run a business before, but instead talking to other folks who are actually running businesses to see what they're experiencing, to see how they can help them and how, you know, vice versa.

This is what it's about. It's not about judgment. It's not about sitting there going, oh, my gosh. Well, you should be making way more money.

And another great thing, at least about our groups, I can tell you this, is that it's not about comparing yourself. Well, so and so over here is, you know, $2 million more than my business is. And, man, I need to be doing better.

I need to be. It's. It's literally not about that at all. So the fear of judgment has to go. If you do live in this place of man, I'm afraid that I'm going to get judged and people are going to think that I'm a terrible business owner or terrible leader.

Then you will never seek getting support in your life. You never will. Because that fear will keep you from making the smartest decisions. Right.

It'll keep you stuck, which unfortunately, and I hate this, but so many thousands and thousands of business owners are stuck in that place of man.

I don't, I don't want to compare myself or I don't want, you know, I don't want somebody to know how my business is running because I'm afraid of what they're going to say.

For the love, stay away from the people who would judge you and find the folks that won't find people who don't give a rip.

That about, you know, judging you on how your business is, but instead would rather give input.

Imposter Syndrome (00:34:00)

Another thing is another big, big fear is the imposter syndrome. You know, this is where we have feelings of inadequacy. This is where we have feelings of, you know, self doubt.

Who in the world do I think I am to be a business owner? Who do I think I am to even be in a group of other business owners?

Or, you know, this imposter syndrome will absolutely keep business owners from opening up to other people. Right. It can keep you from sharing information.

One of the things we always do with every one of our retreats now, you know, our. Again, I'm talking a lot about our. Our Mastermind group, but I'm telling you, find a solid group of people.

But our folks meet on a weekly basis. Um, they come here for retreats. And one of the things we do every one of our retreats is we spend time doing team building stuff. Yes.

Fun, crazy, difficult, super challenging, super stupid. Sometimes we spend this time because this is something I learned.

Gosh in, I don't know how long ago, but we were doing an event, and we had this, you know, extracurricular thing, and I was watching all of these grown business owners, men and women, that were doing this fun aspect of this business event that we were doing, and they became like kids.

They literally became like young folks having fun, enjoying that time, helping each other out. And that was something. It wasn't intended. You know, we didn't intend that outcome. We intended fun.

But that is something that I've been doing ever since, is making sure that we put something in place for these tired, overwhelmed business owners and leaders to spend time together, not as individuals, but together going through something that's challenging, difficult, fun, funny, silly, whatever it is that allows them to connect on such a deeper level.

Right. You have to have. Well, for us, we believe that is a very valuable piece of the time that we're spending together before we dig into lessons and teaching and growing and all that kind of stuff.

Now, we've been doing this for a very long time. A very long time. And I can tell you the reason why we continue to do it is because it works, because our clients love it.

It is a refreshing thing. We've talked before. We've asked clients, well, what if we didn't do this? No, no, no. I need that. Don't change things.

We've been told multiple times, don't change this stuff. I need this. I need to get away from my office. I need to come down there.

I need to experience this stuff with other people, and literally what they say with other people who are going through what I'm going through, I need that time.

I need that time. It changes everything. So the imposter syndrome of thinking, who are you? It's got to go. It has to go.

If you're going to be able to find and allow yourself to open up to a great support system, then you're going to have to get rid of the mask.

You're going to have to stop believing that you don't deserve to be where you are.

One of the things I absolutely hate, of all the stuff that I do probably one of the top three things that I hate is people thinking that they don't deserve Next-Level Life, that that's for somebody else, that that's not for them, they don't deserve it.

Their spouse can go through or somebody else can go through, but, you know, they don't deserve something like that. Oh, for the love.

It is one of the most powerful things that we do to help people have a better life, and it's for everyone. Everybody should go through Next-Level Life. Everybody should. And the first time I heard that, it broke my heart. I mean, I was just stunned.

I'm like, this cannot be. And unfortunately, it was, and it wasn't the only time I heard it. I started hearing it again and again and again, and it just broke my heart.

So please get rid of the Imposter Syndrome. Get rid of this thought that you don't deserve, that you shouldn't be a part of, that you're not as good as. All of that stuff has got to go.

Pride and Independence (00:38:51)

Another big issue that, that business owners need to overcome is the, the pride and independence, the, the, you know, the, like a kid says, me do it. The me do it mindset. Me do it. Me do it.

That's got to go where you insist on figuring out things alone. That is always, always going to hold you back, because once again, the only perspective you have is yours. This type of mindset backfires all the time.

The I have to do it myself backfires and creates even more pride when it doesn't work out that you have to cover up or come up with reasons why or throw people under the bus or whatever when it doesn't work out right.

As opposed to finding great input, great perspective, being curious, being curious about what other people think. We call it taxing the collective intelligence.

You know, what is it like when you tax the collective intelligence of people and find out how would they do it?

What would their input be? What would they do differently? What can they see that they would change? You know, what wouldn't they change? What do they think is great?

Whatever that is is going to help you to fast track yourself to greater success. Your project, your business, whatever it is, because you're opening yourself up to not being the only brain focused on accomplishing something.

You're taxing the intelligence of other intelligent people. And the other great thing is, you know, we don't talk about this a lot on the show, but we talk about a lot in StratPlans and things like that.

You're also opening yourself up to if you have not done the DISC and Values for the love. Go to the website, get it done in your team, get it done in your family. Right? Watch the video. We teach get it done.

It will take. You think communication is good. Now, what you will discover is your communication most likely is chaos when you input disk and values.

When you understand how to communicate with people, go do it. Go to our website, chrislocurto.com. Go to the store, get it done.

A very important part of that is the Values piece. And what you can discover is how many people do not think the same way that you do.

So one of the most powerful pieces of taxing the collective intelligence is actually getting the different points of view. So I'll just give you an example.

High Aesthetics, high Individualistics. They consistently think outside the box. They don't think the same way as most people do, right? And for them, there's no box. There's no box.

They're constantly focusing on what can they see differently, experience differently. You know, high Individualistics, they don't want to think like other people.

They always want to think differently than other folks as well, because they're Individualistic.

So when you are taxing the collective intelligence, not only are you getting the experience that people have had, you know, the backgrounds that people have had, but you're also getting the way that they think, the way that they process.

So the pride and the independence piece, that will always be something that holds somebody back from experiencing and building a phenomenal support system.

How to Overcome These Barriers (00:42:34)

So what do we do to overcome these barriers? Well, what you need to do is you need to take steps forward to building a support network. And how do you do that?

Well, the first step, the absolute first step is awareness. You've got to acknowledge that you need to be vulnerable. You've got to acknowledge that you don't have all the answers. If you can do that, then you can open the door to growth.

If your struggle is, nope, I don't want any input from anybody. You're never gonna build that network. If your struggle is the fear aspect, you're never gonna build that network.

Or you might take some steps. But if you're not curious, if you don't have curiosity, then I don't see how you can. Because a big aspect of getting a support group around you. And keep in mind, for me, I love people.

You know, I'm a high S decently high. I I'm a high Altruist, but I'm not the type of person who wants to live in a group of people. I don't. You know, that's. That's not my thing.

I love deep personal relationships, but I'm also a somebody who loves developing others. I love being around a group of people to help, to. To speak into their lives. I love taxing the collective intelligence.

Ask anybody who knows me. I am constantly asking tons of questions to all kinds of people because I want to know what they think, what they're experiencing. Right.

I want to know, you know, where do they come from? What do they. What have they done in this situation? You know, what. What's their background?

I want to know what they've experienced. I want to hear from them. Right. So these are big key pieces for me.

I don't have a problem being vulnerable. I used to when I was younger, I did.

When I was younger, I didn't care to have anybody speaking into my life because so many people back in those days were the type of people who spoke into my life to hurt me, to affect me.

And if you've surrounded yourself with those kind of people, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

The thing is, you have the ability to shut that off. You have the ability to nothing. Give them the strength, the authority in your life that they could speak into your life in ways that bring you pain.

Instead, find people who don't. So you've got to be aware. I don't have all the answers. Be aware that if you do get other people's input, then it could be the exact thing you need to change the way you look at any given situation.

It could be business. It could be leadership. It could be family. It could be anything. Right? So first step is, is one of a level of vulnerability.

And obviously, like I said, admitting that you don't have all the answers. The other thing is, is that you've got to find the right group.

You've got to clarify, you know, what your goals are. What do you want to experience? Do you want to experience business growth?

Do you want to experience, you know, support? Do you want to experience personal development? These are all things that you need to define.

Then you got to look for people who have shared values. You know, look for groups that align with your mindset, with your vision, with your ethics, with your, you know, your moral standards. Right?

We have tons of people that are believers that are in our groups, and we have people that are not.

So you got to look for, you know, what aligns with you, what has the shared values, or I, you know, I prefer diverse experiences. You know, I like people that come from different industries.

They're in different stages, of their journey. Right. Because some people are going to have fresh perspectives. Some people are going to have great experience from a, you know, years of doing something that maybe I have not done.

So I'm always looking for, you know, diverse experience, length of time. You know, maybe some folks that are new to it, they've got new, fresher ideas.

A big, big key thing for me is group dynamics. Can I trust these folks? Can I be open? You know, are they committed to the same thing? Are they committed to accountability in a group? Are they committed to, you know, what we discuss is here.

It's just with us. And that's, again, another thing that I absolutely love about our groups is that we have adults. It's important to have adults, not kids, in large bodies.

Group size, that's important as well. I don't think a group of 25 people, 20 people, 15 people, ten people, you know, I think those are all too big. We have a tendency to leave our group sizes at six or seven.

It's a, it's a really good size to create relationship, to get things done. So, you know, if you're somebody who loves being in a large group, find a large group of people that you want to be with, you know, a strong facilitator.

Do you have somebody who's going to facilitate this in a way of grace, in a way of strength, in a way of, you know, pushing on people when they need to?

In a way of, um, you know, having mercy when they need to, you know, whatever somebody's going through. These are things that, you know, ask yourself, do we have this available?

You know, do I have somebody who's going to know when to push on me, but at the same time, know, hey, this is where this person needs just great understanding, you know, at this time.

So a great way to get going on this is ask for, you know, ask for referrals. You know, maybe you can test, you know, the group before committing to it.

You know, be, be open to both giving and receiving in the group. Don't just go looking. And by the way, for folks that are really high Ds, many times you're going to be looking for a group that you only glean from in your mind.

You're not showing up to be a giver. I'm telling you, you've got to change that mindset if you're going to come to something like this.

Remember that you have the ability to help people definitely gain and grow from the group. But also, one of the times that you should be giving, right, you should be pouring in.

So I happen to love what our groups experience. We have had. We've been doing this, gosh, for ten years in our groups. We have folks that have been in the groups for ten years, nine or ten years.

It's been phenomenal. It's been powerful to see that these are people that, that stick together, that they, they support each other, they help each other out, they help each other grow their own businesses, they help each other increase their profits.

It's just all, it's all fantastic. So. But all this only comes through when you break down pride, when you break down fear. I. When you do those things, then you can absolutely see tangible results.

So a great support system is so much more than just something that's, you know, nice to have. It is a critical element for long term success in business.

I'm telling you, ask anybody who's been in a great group. Now, if you talk to somebody who's been in a crappy group, they probably have never gone to another group.

It's understandable. But what they should do is keep searching, keep seeking, right. Till they find a great group to be with. Right? That's super important. So talk to people who've been in great groups.

What is it like? What do they experience? Why are they still in it? You know, why do we have people that have been in our groups for 9, 10 years? Right?

So take action. Make sure that you evaluate your current support system. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it helpful? Is it the wrong people? Right? Identify the gaps that you're experiencing.

And once you've done that, then take the next step towards building a network that's going to lift you, your business to the next level and allow you to do the same thing.

So check out resources, you know, take a look at some Mastermind groups. You know, ours is not only a Mastermind group, it's also an accountability group.

So take a look at what's out there. Reach out for more information on building your own support system. We would love to help with that if we possibly can. But remember, this is not just a solo journey.

So get connected, stay resilient, keep growing, keep doing. Keep yourself from being isolated, keep yourself from being desperate. Help yourself to have a phenomenal, phenomenal business.

Additional Resources (00:51:43)

Now an episode that we would love for you to listen to. Go back and listen to episode 564, which is The CEO’s Quiet Battle: Combating Isolation at the Top.

Now this is where we talk about feeling isolated may be costing you your health, the people around you, and how to make better decisions in business and life. So go listen to that. 564.

Well, folks, that is all the time that we have for today. As always, we would love to help you with this.

If we can reach out to us, go to our website, take a look at the resources. We would love to help. And if you want more information, we can get more information.

If you'd like information from people that have been a part of it, we can do that as well. But the key is, whether it's with us or somebody else, you've got to find that support system. You've got to find it.

Well, again, that's all that we have for today. So take this information, change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.