Overcoming Your Single Greatest Limiting Factor to Achieving Business Growth

Like it or not, accept it or not, it’s still going to be true. Leadership happens everywhere, and if you ever want to grow beyond a side hustle, or maybe you’ve already grown your business beyond a side hustle, this is your full time, 9 to 5. You’re all in on this thing. If you ever want it to grow, to become an asset that supports you and your lifestyle. And it’s not just a job that you have to work now. So you’ve got money coming in. Or then, my friend, one day you’re going to have to lead other people. But a leader doesn’t need people to be a leader. You’re leading yourself now. Today, I want to share five things you should always be doing to grow as a leader. Now why? Because every time I upskill my leadership, I scale up my business, and the same will hold true for you. Welcome to the Digital Nomad Entrepreneur podcast, everyone. My name is Eric. I am a full time digital nomad entrepreneur and traveling around the world with my wife and our four kids. And at the end of today’s episode, I am going to give you a travel update. I keep those to the end because not everybody that listens here wants to be a digital nomad. Travel isn’t their cup of tea, but they want to grow in business. And there they like leadership and business growth. And that’s why you are listening. And so I’ll save the travel updates to the end. Now, if you have been a listener for any length of time, then, you know, I talk a lot about leadership. You thought I was going to pause there and just leave it at talk a lot? I do talk a lot, but I do talk a lot about leadership. In fact, leadership is handily the the thing that gets the overwhelming majority of my time, seven out of ten books I read are about leadership. 75% of the podcasts I listen to are on leadership. The majority of my day spent in my my businesses is leading. And you, my friend, well, you’re a leader and your leadership skill set is hands down the greatest limiting factor to your business growth. But the opposite. Now, it’s also true. The greatest fuel for your business success is an expanding leadership skill set. Now I do, and every single episode with a leadership tip of the week, and I am going to do the same in this one because I believe so adamantly that leadership is the greatest deciding factor on your future success. That I want to make sure I give you a little nugget each week. But today I’m going to spend the the majority of the episode talking about how to grow as a leader. Five Things that you should always be doing, whether you’re a leader of just you or your you have a team or maybe you’re an aspiring future leader. Well, you need to be learning right now. It doesn’t matter. Now was the time to start leading this week. Right now, in fact, you’re already doing it because this is this is a leadership podcast. I don’t promote it. Is that but in in a lot of ways, it is a leadership podcast. And so if even if you don’t want to see it as a leadership podcast, it is a leadership episode and you’re listening and you’re going to be growing as a leader. You’re putting in the work right now. So I congratulate you because as you grow as a leader, you’re going to grow your business. Now, real quickly, what do I mean by leadership? What I mean by leadership, because it’s not just about having people. It’s not about giving out orders. It’s not about delegating tasks or anything like that. What what do I mean when I talk about leadership? Well, a leader sets a direction. That’s the first thing a leader does. A leader gets an idea of where they’re going, and they set a direction and they say that way, that’s that’s where we’re headed with where we’re going to take that mountain. Or they may say we’re going to we’re going to cross this ocean, or they may say we’re we’re going to traverse Antarctica. A leader sets a direction. They cast a vision. They see a different future ahead of them. And they start to share that future with others. They start to work towards that. That’s vision. That’s what vision. Vision is a picture of a preferred future and a leader set. The direction a leader comes up with a vision. A leader then ensures that the resources are in place to move forward at least one step. What do I have to do? I may not be the one making sure all the resources are resources are there. So the first step. The next step is getting somebody to get resources. Or maybe I am going to be a resource provider for a while, like whatever that is. It varies, depends on the place you are in your journey. But a leader is definitely ensuring that resources are in place to move forward. At least one step, maybe 50 steps. Maybe a hundred steps, but at least one. Leaders adjust their plans based on new and updated information. Leadership isn’t about getting it right. It’s about making adjustments. Leaders also empower others to find their own personal success as they help you reach your best success. Leaders lead with gratitude and an abundance mindset. So that’s what a leader does. A leader sets direction, ensures that resources are in place to move forward. At least one step, adjust their plans based on new and updated information empowers others to find their own personal success as they help the leader reach the leaders best success leaders lead with gratitude and an abundance mindset. I’m glad I wrote that down because I would have never been able to say it twice like that. Now, real quickly, before we get into the five things you need to be doing to improve as a leader so you can overcome your greatest limitation that your greatest limiting factor in your business growth, your business reaching success. I want to lead with a bit of gratitude and I want to say real quick thank you to J. Bledsoe Jr for leaving a review of the podcast they wrote. Eric does a great job of taking complex business concepts and creating simple systems that are applicable across businesses. It doesn’t matter your business, you’ll get tons of value from the Danny podcast. Well, thank you, Jay Bledsoe JR. And you picked up on it. I, I love a good framework. I love a good framework. I love systematizing for success. And so and once I do, I like to share it. I like to create frameworks, create systems, and then and then share those with others. So thank you very much for leaving that review. I really appreciate it. And it was really kind of cool to see you picked up on that. All right. So how do you get better as a leader? Well, first off, it’s important to understand that as a leader, you may be alone. Leaders may start out alone, but they never traveled that way for long. You’re going to attract some followers. You’re going to attract a tribe. So what are the five things that you should be doing? Number one, always be reading a book on leadership. Always be reading a book on leadership. Even if you have another book, even if it’s not your, you know, nighttime bedtime reading, you know, maybe you maybe you like to read fantasies, maybe you like to read fiction, maybe you like a good Tom Clancy, you know, maybe maybe that’s match your thing. That’s totally okay. You know, whatever you maybe your romance novel, maybe that’s your cup of tea. All right, that’s fine. You’re going to have you’ll be reading more than one book at a time. But one of the books always should be on leadership. I used to always and still do, but even more so when I was starting out, I had a leadership book with me at all times, and if I was out doing something and I had to wait, I opened my book and I read it like I was always trying to read. I get up early in the morning, do a little bit reading. I read a little bit in the evening. I would read the leadership book whenever I can. And I’ll tell you something. When I discovered audio books or. Boy, that was. That may be the best thing that’s ever been invented in my world. I love audiobooks, so always be reading at least one book on leadership. Now, if you’ve never read a leadership book, which one should you start with? Well, I put a link to it in the show notes. I think you should start with the book Axioms by Bill Hybels. Again, the book is called Axioms and it’s powerful Leadership. Proverbs is the subtitle. I’m going to put a link to it in the show notes. If you’ve never read a book on leadership, that is one I would start with. All right. So number one, always be reading a book. Number two, always have at least one leadership podcast episode per week that you listen to. Boom! Check it off that you’ve done it for this week. Congratulations. But there’s going to be times that you are going to be able to put information in your brain through some headphones, driving, mowing the yard, grocery shopping, going for a morning walk, whatever it is. Have a podcast that you look forward to that talks about leadership and make it a priority. Yeah, I listen to some other podcasts, listen to lots of other podcasts every weekend. I like to listen to shipwrecks and sea dogs. I like that podcast. I like to listen to American Scandal. I like that podcast I like to listen to. What’s there’s one that. Oh, no, I forget. I should have looked it up. I forget his name. I’m going to look it up here real quick. I’m going to grab my phone, open the podcast app here, and I’m going to go looking and see what it is. Oh, American elections, wicked games. Oh, I like it. It’s really good. Recently I discovered the American Revolution podcast. There’s a I like history podcast. I like history podcast. And I’ll be honest, here’s why. Because if I fall asleep listening to it, I don’t care. I don’t care. It’s I’ll pick it up when I listen. It’s history like is not going to change when I listen some other time. So I like to listen to a lot of those. Not that they put me to sleep, but if they they well, they do sometimes, just to be honest. But I’m I’ve got all kinds of podcasts, but I’m always, always listening to at least one leadership podcast episode per week. And actually I have several leadership podcasts that I listen to at their episodes every single week. So number one, always be reading a book on leadership. Number two, always have at least one leadership podcast episode per week. You listen to number three, always have one leadership lesson you’re working to master. Have one. You know, maybe you’re just going to write it on an index card. Maybe it’s going to be on a Post-it note. You’re going to be learning lots of leadership things. And that’s okay. That’s good. And they’re going to start to stick over time. You’re going to hear some things get repeated. And that’s good because what what get repeated gets remembered. A lot of leaders like to put their their leadership axioms in the quick little sayings because memorable is portable and so is you in you know, as you make sure that you are in training yourself in this more and more more of it’s going to stick. But you don’t want to just leave it up to chance. You want to have one leadership lesson that you’re working on to master. I have a morning reading that I read through every morning, and it’s a list of things that I read down through. And it’s either my, you know, my personal doctrinal affirmation. I’ve several past or statements that I read that are directly from scripture verses that what I believe about me as a child of God. And so I read those. I read our three year plan. Right now, every morning I’m reading it’s January 2028. We are about to and it goes on from there and explain what we’re about to do as a family, how much revenue the business is bringing in, what the team looks like, what my weekly schedule looks like. And I read that. And then under that I have a list of five things I’m working on on the business. And it’s the 5 to 5 business engines are the five processes that four that make a business engine work. I have one leadership thing I’m working on. I have one lead gen thing I’m working on one lead conversion, one collecting and managing money and one project management process. These are all these processes I’m working to improve one process at a time. And so I read down through what are my priorities right now? What are the what’s my leadership priority for the company? What’s my lead gen priority? What’s right? So I’m reminding myself of that. Then I get to the next statement and it’s the it’s the personal leadership skill I’m working on. And I remind I have to read these things every morning because this is my personal vision collected up together in vision leaks, I have to remind myself. And so I read this every single morning. I’m like, I kind of have this, this is it. This is fuel for me. And so I read that and you should have something. You don’t have to have it that elaborate. You may not have any. That doesn’t take me a lot of times, but, you know, it takes me about 6 minutes to read through it, you know? I mean, it’s it’s worth it to me. I want to give my day a great start with these 6 minutes. And so I, I read down through that. But even if you’re not going to have a whole bunch of things like that that you read, you know, that’s okay. That’s okay. You grow into it. Don’t go into it. Don’t compare your beginning to my middle, but it’s okay. But you need to have one thing that you’re working on and this needs to be one leadership lesson and you need to always be working on at least one. Have a list of others as you learn something. Oh, that’s good. I want to remember to work on that later and keep a list. All right, just keep a list. I have a a list, a note in my Apple Notes that is just, you know, leadership lessons. That’s it. Just all call that. And when I hear a new out rule and I’ll just open the note and I’ll put it down in there, and then when I’m looking for some that next thing out, you know, sometimes I go back to and read that list and I remind myself, I’m like, That’s something I won’t work All right. So number one, always be reading a book on leadership to always have at least one leadership podcast episode per week. Let’s do number three, always have one leadership lesson you are working on. And number four, leader, subscribe to the Digital Nomad Entrepreneur podcast. All right. I’m just I’m just kidding. They do they share it with others. That’s what they really. No, seriously. Real quick, before I get to actually number four and number five, they kind of go together. It would mean a lot to me if you would subscribe and share the podcast, share this episode with someone, share a past episode and leave a rating review. I’d love to hear from you. Like Jay Bledsoe, Junior. They’re leaving the review. I’ve got a couple more I’m going to read over the next few episodes here. And I want to read yours. I want to read George. And so that would mean a lot. And also send me emails. I got a really great email question from Dan I’m going to answer in an upcoming episode. It was really it was the first time I’d ever been asked this question in this way, as I’m really looking forward to answering Dan’s question in an upcoming episode. And so emailing Eric at D and E podcast dot com. Leave a review, a rating for the show. Make sure you subscribe, do all the nice things. All right, so back to our list. Let’s recap. Always be reading a book on leadership. Always have at least one leadership podcast episode per week you’re listening to. Always have one leadership lesson you are working to master number four. Always have a Batman. Now I’m going to give you number five because number four and five makes sense when put together. Always have a Robin Ock. You need to be somebody Robin. You need to have a mentor or a leadership mentor that’s just a little further down the road from you that can let you know, hey, hey. You want to avoid stepping over there? Hey, you don’t want to do like if you’re lucky and you can have a mentor that is miles and miles and years and years and years down the road. Great. But they don’t have to be really super far down the road from you that especially you don’t want somebody that is so far down that they don’t remember the stage you’re in right now. But you want to have a Batman, you want to have somebody that has the answers, has the gadgets, has put their time in, that can invest in you speaking to you. You can bounce ideas and questions off of you. Always want to have a mentor that is your Batman. You always want to have one Batman. And because up earlier where I said that leaders lead with gratitude and an abundance mindset, always have one. Robin, you are already further along than somebody else. You can already begin to mentor somebody negative. You may not be able to say, Well, hey, I know how to get you to $1,000,000 business, all right? Because maybe you’ve never done that. All right? But you may be able to like, hey, hey, I can I can I can give you some advice on what I learned starting a side hustle and how I’ve started this side hustle in a way that isn’t taking time away from my family, how I’ve learned, you know, or how it used to. And I had to rebalance or whatever it is. But you’ve got enough experience in life that you can be somebody. Robin A leader always has a Batman and they always have a Robin. Be somebody is Robin be somebody Batman. This is what this is how you have the the it’s really the leadership energy flowing through you. If you just receive and receive and receive and never give. I mean, it’s terrible. Now, maybe, maybe you’re going to start with with somebody that’s much younger, maybe maybe there’s a volunteer program at your neighbor school or, you know, maybe you volunteer at the Boys or Girls Club or a summer camp or something like that, like you can be investing in the next generation of leaders. All right. Maybe you are the next generation of leaders. And so you’re going to help out in an elementary group somewhere like you. I don’t want to hear it. You have what it takes right now to be Robin, because here’s the thing. You’re already working to make you better. You’re trying to learn, you’re trying to grow. You’re doing the right things. You are going the right direction. Is it hard right now? Yeah, it is. You know what? I got to be honest with you, it’s always going to be hard. This is what we are doing as entrepreneurs is hard. Now, here’s the thing. What’s hard today isn’t going to be hard from three years from now and three years from now, you’re gonna be like, I can’t believe I used to think that was hard. All right, but you’re going to have a new thing in three years. That’s that’s hard. That right now would literally crush you. But it’s not going to pop up right now because it’s you’re not that far, far enough along. You’re not that far down the road. Like, it’s it’s okay. But you got to know it’s it’s coming now. You can choose to let that stress you out or you can just accept it as it’s it’s hard to be stressed by reality. I am when I find myself being stressed, it’s because I have an I have a misalignment with with reality and my ideal where I think it should be, how I think it should be, what I perceive to be fair and and right. Or I’d let myself get into a situation because of a lack of systems or I just I don’t believe that I can say no. And so I start to let myself be overwhelmed by things because I say yes to many things. And now I’m feeling overwhelmed. I’m feeling stress, but it’s a choice. I let myself get there. Now, are there some of you that are listening that may have, you know, diagnosable anxiety conditions that is that legitimately causes stress and you may need counseling. And the medications are absolutely the healthiest. People are the ones that get help. So so get the help. But don’t don’t be have don’t use if you’re if you’re not that if you don’t have that really going on in your life. Well, don’t don’t let something become a crutch that that isn’t real. All right? Like this is hard. It’s it’s always going to be hard. But here’s the thing you’re trying right now. You’re trying right now. You are working hard right now. That’s what you’re doing and that’s what a winner does. And you’re going to get better and you’re going to learn. You already know more than you did last year. You already know more than you did three years ago. The you right now is very thankful that you three years ago learned something, did something, accomplish something? And do you three years from now is going to thank you. At this point the you right now for learning, for trying for taking chances, for picking yourself up and brushing yourself off and trying again because that’s what it takes to win. And you buy just the fact that you are listening to a podcast, trying to learn something, trying to get better, trying to achieve that. That is what it takes. You are winning right now and I’m so stinkin proud of you. And I am humbled that it’s my voice you’re listening to and I take it seriously. And so I make sure to really come to you with actionable things. Come on, be reading one book, be listening to one podcast episode, have one leadership lesson you’re trying to master. Those three things aren’t hard. I must saying you have to read. You can have. It could take you all year to read a leadership book. That’s okay. Just work on it a little bit here. A little bit there. Work on it. Have one that you’re digesting from beginning to end. Have one podcast like think most. Like my podcast is hardly ever over 30 minutes. You, you, you got 30 minutes. There are a lot of other pod leadership podcast that are even shorter behind one embrace it. Always have that one leadership lesson. You’re trying to master a Batman and have a Robin. These things are not time consuming. They’re not hard. You can do it now. What is this week’s leadership tip of the week? I’m going to give you. This is one of this is the leadership leadership tip. But when you have a team, are you ready? Leaders never throw their team under the bus. Leaders that we we have a client right now and my business that is very, very upset. And I am taking full responsibility, taking all of it on and taking the brunt of all of it. And that’s okay. I’m not afraid they’re going to hurt me. My value as a person is not wrapped up in, you know, one person being upset. Now they have a legitimate reason to be upset. They should be upset. I would be upset if I was them. But I have praised my team in public and I will correct in private and to this this client of ours, it’s 100% my fault because it’s always up to. We had we had a system that failed. And it wasn’t my people that failed. It was a system that failed. And I’ve stepped in as a leader and I’ll take the blunt, and I never throw my team under the bus. And as a leader, you should never throw your team under the bus. All right. Now, real quick, a travel update. I’m so we’ve got about let’s see, we’ve got about three weeks left here in Costa Rica and then we are headed to Argentina. We’ve bought our airline tickets. We have our first Airbnb for our first three weeks. We’ve got some plans. Things are happening. Learning all about Argentina, learning about the the the blue rate and the red rate for exchanging money and getting ourselves set up to to get the most pesos for our U.S. dollar are get the most Argentina Argentina pesos for our U.S. dollar. And so we’re learning, we’re getting excited, ready to go, ready to move there. But before we do, my my parents are coming to Costa Rica for the second time. It’s so cool to have them join us for a week as on our travels. And this is this is really out of this is new for them. They’ve not done much international traveling, really none. They’ve always gone to the same place, a resort. And so the first time they came to visit us last year here in Costa Rica was big for them, was huge, and it was so much fun. And this time we’re expanding the adventure. We’ve rented a car and we’re going to travel around Costa Rica a bit, see some sights with them, stay in a couple of different Airbnbs, which will be exciting and an adventure for everyone. And so really looking forward to that. And then when they leave, we’ll be leaving two days after them headed to Argentina to do two months of fast travel through Argentina. We’re going to be in one place for three weeks and then we’re going to be moving every week, week and a half by bus. We’re going to be taking a night bus one time. We’ve got some different ways. A night train. We’re going to take an overnight train. I’m really excited about the kids are pumped for it. And so we’re going to see when I see a lot of Argentina and I’m looking forward to it because I love steak. I love steak and well, Argentina, they got to meet you all. And so I’m really looking forward to that. All right. So there you go. Woo! We’ve been through a lot there. Five things that you need to be doing. We’ve cracked through a leadership tip of the week. We heard from Jae Bledsoe Junior. We’ve talked about some travel updates. And now I’m going to go ahead and just remind you that I really would love to read a message from you, an email. I appreciate all the emails. I’d love to read a review from you in an upcoming episode. And so until next time, chase the big dream lead with courage and safe travels.