Today my guest is Jonathan Raymond the former CEO of E-Myth, he became the CEO in 2011 when the owner wanted to modernize the brand. He decided to break out on his own in 2015. The idea behind the E-Myth is that running a business is different than being great at whatever the business does. An example would be a great dancer who opens a dance studio and discovers there is more to running a dance studio than being a fantastic dancer. Jonathan now focuses on what it takes to create a great business and the culture, scale and team involved with doing so. 

He now focuses on refound.com and the core principles required to be a great leader and business owner. Jonathan has a new approach to leading and managing teams. He is also the author of the upcoming book, “Good Authority”. When it comes to managing teams, we not only need a new set of skills, we have to reimagine who we are and Jonathan and his business help leaders to be the best they can be. Enjoy!

Today’s topics include:

• As an entrepreneur there is still culture and team building and interpersonal dynamics that need to be dealt with
• It also comes down to referrals, so good relationships are important
• People make referrals in relationships
• Going into a relationship with a freelancer, you want to be able to refer them to others because of the great job they did
• We want freelancers who do their job and don’t need to be micromanaged, we also want to refer responsible people because it is a reflection on us
• People overestimate the big stuff, but the small stuff is important, like email response time
• Be the type of person people want to do business with, no BS around communication
• If you mess something up take responsibility and not only apologize, but say what happened and take ownership
• We have a pretty good sense of which clients are happy, reach out and restore amicability
• People don’t like confrontation and bury stuff, but then it stacks up
• Understand who your ideal customer is, challenge assumptions that the client has, the client is in their own bubble, coach and mentor them
• Fill the gap with challenge and communication
• Scarcity can prevent you from pushing the envelope, yet it is counter intuitive to not take the risky road
• Some clients aren’t’ the clients you want to work with anyway
• Actually, have requirements and screen clients so that you are not stuck with an unresponsive hard to communicate with client
• The fear that it turns off clients is unfounded, people want to buy a process, so having a set plan to deliver will set you apart from the competition
• Set expectations from onboarding to deliverables
• Build accountability into the process
• Your time is valuable
• It comes down to the way you see yourself and your value, at some point being superman is not sustainable, hold space and create context for change
• Be Yoda not superman, self value and self worth
• Fixer, fighter or friend – 3 styles of taking on superman role
• Good Authority is Jonathan’s new book coming out
• Mentoring your own clients – Small business owners don’t have anyone to question them
• People at the top are in a bubble and they don’t see what they don’t see
• You can add value by mentoring and asking questions and building a personal relationship
• What is the purpose? What is the result? Find the why, you will have a happier client and deliver a better product and maybe make a friend on a way.
• To get the right website figure out why they are doing what they are doing.
• “Mentoring means questioning the assumptions they don’t realize that they are making” Jonathan Raymond
• Imposter Syndrome – Roadblock of it not being my job and self doubt coming up.
• Take a small risk and you will be amazed how people will open up

Resources and links:
Refound

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