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The Entrepreneurial Rainmaker - S5E6

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glenn mattson episode6 season5 building blocks of success the rainmaker

The content of this recording is copyrighted by Sandler Systems LLC. All rights reserved.

Glenn Mattson

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Building Blocks of Success. We're looking at season five, Episode Six. As we start to go through the five stages of entrepreneurial growth. We've talked about what the emerging is. We've spent time on the developing and the developing that has two paths in which they can take. A developer is someone who is looking at their business and looking to really create it out of a hobby, really into time profitability and get to the next level, which means that they're going to have to get outside their comfort zone to grow. But there are also developing, entrepreneurials, those individuals who have created a lifestyle business, and what they're looking to do is maximize their efficiency and effectiveness. We've covered those.

Glenn Mattson

So today is really talking about the next stage, and that next stage is really a fun stage for many, and that's the Rainmaker. The Rainmaker is we have to take a look at it is, honestly, they know they're good, and they know they have something special. Rainmakers, historically, are very charismatic. They have been successful in understanding how to hunt for new business, prospect for new business, and have the ability to develop great relationships. Those relationships will give them or share with them individuals within their inner circle, ie referrals, and many of them come without being asked, but the Rainmaker has the ability to shake trees.

Glenn Mattson

The Rainmaker has the ability to create business. The Rainmaker has the ability to make sure that new business is constantly flowing into the practice, into the business. So, rainmakers, regardless if you own your own business, if you have a practice, or if you're part of a larger organization, a rainmaker is someone who generates business. A Rainmaker is someone who is exceptionally good at generating business. You go into a law firm, you go into an accounting firm, you go into, really, any place of business. The individuals that have the ability to create rain, the availability to create new business, the availability of growing markets, and growing market share are absolutely 100% the individuals that typically will grow faster inside that organization.

Glenn Mattson

So when we look at an entrepreneur, an entrepreneur is an individual that as they're starting to get their sea legs underneath them about sales and the things that you have to do to be successful in sales, many of them were not born this way, trust me, they weren't born charismatic. They had lots of fears. They had lots of anxieties. They had lots of doubts and where they were and what they were doing, but they had an unbelievable vision of what they wanted to build. They also have learned that failure, although it hurts, failure, is really critically important to learn how to grow, and therefore they don't. They're not afraid of rejection. They don't like it, but they don't run from it, and they look at rejection as a, as a, as really, as a lesson on what not to do next time. So they don't see rejection as negative. They see it as part of the process of growth.

Glenn Mattson

They also look at obstacles very differently. Rainmaker looks at an obstacle, not as a roadblock, but they look at as an obstacle as just a test of their commitment to how badly they want to reach their objectives. So a rainmaker, when they get knocked down, they don't stay down. They get right back up, and they keep moving. Now look, trust me, they may not know what to do, but they're going to move because they know inactivity is the worst thing in the world. So they look at obstacles as areas that when they occur, they just keep moving. They're not looking for them, but they're never afraid of them. So you have this individual that has a great vision. They understand failure, what it means, and how it impacts them. They also take a look at that every time they take a risk, there may be an outcome that's less desirable than what they want. So because of that, they have the ability to take risks. They understand what risk-taking is. They understand that I have to take a risk to succeed. And because of that, they're not afraid of failure, not afraid of rejection. They don't like it, but they're not afraid of it.

Glenn Mattson

They also live in a very interesting world. I find a lot of rainmakers do not put fence posts around who they are. They don't live in the world of why can't do that because of my age. I can't be that person because I don't have a natural market, or I can't do that because I don't have the right speaking habits or the intelligence, etc. Those are just self-limiting beliefs. So a rainmaker has the ability to live in the world of what I call "Why not", they live in the world of, why not me? They'll be driving down the street, see someone next to them in a parked car or at a stoplight, and they will admire what the person's driving. They would admire what the person's driving as a representation of the success in which they have. They don't sit back and have resentment for that person. They don't look at them in a negative way. They respect the hard work that that individual did to achieve that objective. But what's even more important is they look at that individual and say to themselves, why not me? Why can't I have that house? Why can't I have that car? Why can't I have that income? Why not me?

Glenn Mattson

So when we look at a rainmaker, realize they have immense charismatic abilities. They really do. They have the ability to develop and bond with individuals, but they're also incredibly hard workers. They've bet on themselves over and over and over again, and in the early stages, they bet on themselves at low risk, and they succeeded. So their risk tolerance got higher and higher and higher. And when they learned that, when you bet on yourself and it doesn't work out, it's not the end of the world, you just learned a lesson. You keep moving. So these individuals really have what I call a growth or a winner mindset. They're not motivated necessarily by materialistic goods. They're not motivated by necessarily the things that other people are motivated by, in terms of stature, etc, many of the rainmakers that continuously grow through all five stages of the entrepreneurial stages, they're really their motivation is about growth, and growth is, How good can I really be if I can do X amount of production four weeks? Who says I can't do the same amount of production in three weeks? That's a growth mindset. So they think differently because they've trained themselves to be different, and because they trained themselves to be different and take different risks, they do have better outcomes.

Glenn Mattson

Now, when we look at a rainmaker and a rainmaker, you may look around your office and your neighborhood. I often find the rainmakers are the youngest people in the nicest neighborhoods. They're the ones that are younger, that are earning the income that many people want to earn later in life. My Best rain makers are individuals who have a lifestyle and an output that most people would dream of, but they got there because of hard work. So they are not someone who just skated and got it easy. Most of them have a work ethic and believe in a work hard, play hard mentality. Now, as we're looking at these rainmakers, as we start to take a look at that stage of the five stages, they start to realize time profitability.

Glenn Mattson

Very early on, they realize that if they can focus more of their time on paid time activities and less on no pay time activities, the faster they can grow. Now, unfortunately, many rainmakers are still trying to figure out how to manage themselves. They're still trying to figure out how to manage some of their own internal belief systems, like maybe they're a hyper achiever and they're a controller. Well, they have to learn that if they keep those characteristics with staff, and they do it in a way that's negative, they're not going to have staff, right? So the Rainmaker does have staff, but in the beginning, it's not about finding the right person. It's not about necessarily even training them. It's about someone just doing the work. Work. So a lot of times a rainmaker will just literally throw people over their shoulder and hope that it works out and as they grow, they start to realize they need to do a lot more in that area. So they do have staff, and in the beginning, they have a high turnover.

Glenn Mattson

But as we talk about this stage, I want to talk about some of the patterns. Some of the patterns are really important to notice when we look at a rainmaker, I believe there are four critical, critical junctions in their ability to go from a rainmaker into a CEO. The four patterns that we're going to be looking at as we delve into this and as we get into it deeper and deeper, are pretty important, and there's a lot of side views and angles to look at as we get into it. But for today, I want to just go through what they are, and in a future podcast, I'm going to really rip apart each of them into great depth.

Glenn Mattson

One of those patterns of mindset is dealing with staff. Now dealing with staff, I have found that, yes, you have to have the right staff in the right place, and we're talking about all that too. But you rain makers out there that are listening to this podcast, you know this to be true, that sometimes the staff that you've had that are loyal, they have long tenure, but their skill set is not what you need. Their skill set is not going to change. They're exceedingly great people, but for you to get to the next level, you need a different person in that place. And I'm going to share with you that I have not met one Rainmaker who's gone to the CEO level and hasn't had to make three incredibly difficult decisions surrounding staff. I have one individual who is a phenomenal person, with a heart as big as the state that he lives in, Colorado.

Glenn Mattson

Talk about having someone who is a best friend who was in his wedding party, and was an amazing ops person, but the practice was growing at a speed that their skill level wasn't there. Their heart was they were trying, but they were so far ahead of the skis that this individual couldn't keep up. Having that conversation and sitting down with somebody and talking about where you are and where you're going, and having that discussion is not easy. But I have to get my hats off to him, because he had the conversation his friend knew he was over his skis, and he felt bad that he couldn't keep up and couldn't get done what needed to be done, yet, when that individual moved on and they did the right hire, it was like a J curve that instantaneously happened. So we're going to talk about staff.

Glenn Mattson

The other one we're going to talk about is your concept as a rainmaker around money. Most rainmakers, in the beginning, look at money as spending, but to get to the CEO level, we have to look at it as investing. Yet investing just doesn't mean you spend money and hope for the best. Investing means that you have to have an understanding of what an ROI is, what the ROI is going to be, and how to measure it. I find it interesting that certain rainmakers, especially early on in their career, will expect others to invest in them versus them vesting in themselves.

Glenn Mattson

I find it incredible when we're talking to coaching clients, especially those who are part of a larger organization, right? Maybe there'll be an entrepreneur inside of a web and either an RA or they own a practice, but they're part of a larger organization, and they come and say, Yeah, I need to grow. This is what I need to do. This is how I need to get there. They're bought into it, but when it's time to invest in themselves, their answer is, well, let's see what they're going to do first. Let's see if they're going to invest in me. That's someone who looks at money as you owe me invest in me because I'm good. Heck, I may be your best person on the team. And yes, it shows motivation, yes, it shows loyalty, yes, it shows all that stuff. But you have to realize a great rainmaker doesn't wait for others to invest in themselves. Hell, a good rainmaker won't expect others to invest in them.

Glenn Mattson

What happens is they're going to invest. Invest in themselves. And if you would like to help my growth by being a partner in my investment, that's great, but a commitment is I'm willing to do it without anybody. The other issue that we want to talk about besides staff and money as we get into the Rainmaker, and maybe you're hearing some of yourself, and even what I'm talking about now is the decision-making.

Glenn Mattson

Decision-making is massive. When it comes to rain making, if you find yourself getting angry with your staff, if you find yourself jumping into processes to fix problems, if you find yourself doing what we call reverse delegation, which is called learned helplessness, that is where that you have a process your team gets stuck, and you just put it right back on your plate. So decision-making is an absolute indicator of the level of leadership that you have within your organization, if you have someone on your team, like I just had a conversation with someone the other day, and they hired a consultant to come in and to drive some accountability on the team, they all agreed in a meeting on what the process was they all agreed on what needed to be done. Now, by the way, this is a founder and a son and another partner, along with X amount of employees, the founder, the Son, and the other partner, and the son is also a partner, all agreed in the process.

Glenn Mattson

They all agreed in reading, in a meeting, what had to be done. Yet, when this consultant was going through the process, there was an individual not following it. There was an individual that, quite honestly said, yeah, the process is for them, not me. And that that process, when she held them accountable, the son actually went to the Father, went to the dad, and when he did, the father came back and took away the accountability. Part of decision-making is allowing people to own their swim lane. How destructive is that, where you ask someone to do a job, everyone agrees to it, and then when it's time to get it done, they back out and you allow it? So if you're the one that has to ensure that things are getting done when something doesn't work in your process, are you the one that has to jump in and make the decision of what should be done? Heck, are you the one that sits there and makes sure that you identify every little thing that goes in your website or goes in your marketing materials, or what they should say if you're micromanaging, you're not allowing decision-making to transfer from you to others.

Glenn Mattson

The big one, the monstrous one is all what we call being eye-centered. See a lot of times a rainmaker is going to build their practice, build their staff around them. I need someone to do the paperwork. I need someone on board. I need someone to do prep work. I need someone to prepare presentations. I need someone to do bookkeeping. I need someone to run the staff. I need someone to make sure that we're driving execution on the daily tasks. All those things are you're building the business around you. You're building it where you're the center of the universe. If you just listen to most entrepreneurs, they even use the words, I, you, you, you, you. One of the most difficult things is to understand that what you built needs to be rebuilt to get to the CEO level, and it is one area that drives success in an entrepreneur. But they have to learn in the Rainmaker phase that during these four stages of growth, within this stage, the Eye Center, is one of the most difficult.

Glenn Mattson

You heard the Superman complex, right, where all problems come back. I was talking to a leader today. It's this leader is what they call a managing partner, which means they run an office, and they have up to 300 entrepreneurs working underneath them, a lovely individual, great person. Yet as we were talking, it was clear that they still had the Superman complex, which means that when things couldn't get done. And instead of having the staff learn how to do it or make the right decisions in it, they came to him and he would solve it at the end of the day. That made him feel invaluable.

Glenn Mattson

If you're in that spot, you're going to be stuck in the Rainmaker phase for a long time. So your Rainmaker builds their practice around being eye-centered. But if they want to become a CEO, they have to go from I to we. So as we start our journey, breaking apart what I would consider four stages, four must-haves to maximize your Rainmaker stage and to get to the CEO level, we take a look at how these individuals are super hard-working, have a vision, want to grow, how to do it correctly and how to do it with less energy and less effort, because you have the right mindset. But let's talk about those building blocks around decision-making, staff, money, and being high-centered. Come join us in future episodes as we dig deep into those patterns of mindset of the rain-making entrepreneurial inside the Building Blocks of Success.

Glenn Mattson

This is the Building Blocks of Success with Glenn Mattson.

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