How 3 Simple Words Changed My Life Forever

There're three words that transformed my life a few years ago.

 And rather than bury it way down inside today’s and I’ll tell you straight up.

Who. Not how. 

Let me tell you why they’re so powerful.

All my life I’ve been a doer.

I was the youngest child of a work-obsessed family who worked their face off 7 days a week between the family construction business, our small farm and infinite hobbies.

I remember as kids we were always rewarded for looking busy. 

(Or maybe it was that we’d get in massive trouble if we looked remotely comfortable while everyone else was working…?)

Either way, I grew up spending most of my time looking for things to get done.

More accurately, I became a HOW guy. 

- How can I fix this?

- How can I solve that?

- How can I do that better?

- How can I improve myself?

The good thing is, I’ve always had a passion for building things. 

So when I finally figured out how to combine that passion with business, I never looked back.

The curiosity and drive to figure out how to do shit yourself is exactly what you need as a new entrepreneur.

But there’s a problem when you apply this approach later when trying to grow your business.

If you’re always thinking about the ‘how’ then there’s only so much you can do at once. 

It means a lot rests on your shoulders. And that normally leads to burnout or the feeling of being tied to your business.

So what’s the solution? 

For me, it was about forcing myself to switch from HOW to WHO.

To change the narrative...

I started by deleting little things like the notion that “if you want a job done right, you gotta do it yourself” (such a stupid line)

And started reframing my identity from that doer who jumps in to solve every crisis and save the day (what a hero…), to finding others who can do that and own the glory.

I looked for Who. Not how.

The thing is, it sounds simple right?

But it took me a couple of businesses to figure that out. 

But the next one? The bakery.

I started focusing on it about a year in.

I'd ask WHO can I recruit that can figure out the HOW? 

I let go of trying to manage it all myself.

Because I knew that if we had any chance at growth, other people would need to help overcome massive challenges.

And if you hire correctly, the person you recruit is likely to do it way better than (you) the owner who’s stretched to the limit and stressed to the eyeballs. 

Let’s look at how to apply the concept of Who. Not how.

It’s about offloading the right work to other great people.

And it all starts with you accepting that things won't go smoothly all the time.

(Who are you kidding, they don’t for you either)

But rather than wait for them to fail so you can point the finger or jump in the save the day, you need to do something really uncomfortable.

You've gotta accept responsibility for their failures, but give them the spotlight when there are wins. 

(Read that again)

You see, when you accept responsibility for their failure early on, it creates a safe environment for testing and eventually succeeding.

By doing it, you’ll encourage others to try to solve problems early before they escalate into massive headaches later. 

Now, no doubt you have questions right now.

I did too.

Here are 5 that I asked myself during this transition:

1. What things do you delegate?

It’s hard to define what is low and high value in a small business.

Because everything needs doing and it’s all important. 

I found it easier to think in terms of skillsets and projects. 

Every business prioritises things each year. These are your projects.

No doubt you need a variety of skill sets to pull it off.

Generally speaking, you hold a few of them as the business owner but you can’t do everything.

So you need to assess the strengths of the people on your team and those around you. This includes employees, family, friends, advisors and contacts.

Then ask, what is something that only you can do? 

For instance, my accountant couldn't sell our bread for us. I probably needed to do that and delegate the bookkeeping.

And me sitting in a delivery van at 3 am wasn't the best use of time. I needed to be in front of customers and the team.

Both were important jobs but not something I needed to keep doing.

2. When do you find people?

In my experience, 6 months before you need to so you have enough time for them to learn your culture, understand the business and become effective.

3. How do you monitor their progress?

Catch up regularly or ask for a simple update that details a few key points that were important to you when you did that role.

Remember: What gets measured, gets done.

4. What do you do with your time instead?

When you end up delegating work to someone really capable, you gain some of your time back. 

The thing I see happening most often is the business leader then relaxes.

They don’t use that time to double down on other things that add revenue or create efficiencies.  

I did this the first time too. What a waste!

It creates a big risk because you’re adding salaries (costs) but not adding revenue or finding efficiencies.

Remember to move on to other high-value work with your spare time

5. How do you reshape your identity afterwards?

Those few months after someone takes your job and you become redundant in a little way are really uncomfortable. 

It’s like you gave away a part of your identity.

Remember to reshape the way you see yourself and what it means to do good work.

For me, that was making sure I understood leadership and future growth opportunities.

It's about learning new skills and helping others own and refine the ones you had.

That’s it for today. 

I hope it helps!