Parker J Thomas

06/26/2023

Think about this: The reason something is an industry norm is because it is what all the normal people in the industry do. That's why it is an industry norm.

And what results do they get?

Normal results- Ordinary results

If you want ordinary results, then follow all the rules. You'll get them.

If you want EXTRAORDINARY results, then you've got to break all the rules...

Except the ones that will get you in business jail- or otherwise...

The best thing I ever heard was, "If you don't have a successful role model to emulate, then just look at what everyone else is doing... and don't do it."

Earl Nightingale said that.

Say for example you're in sales and you ask yourself, well what do I do?

Well, go to your local car dealer and take one look at their sales team. They're all standing around at the counter with styrofoam cups in their hand drinking coffee just waiting for somebody to show up with a check in their hand so they can run out in the parking lot and get them!

They're like vultures sitting on a fence.

So whatever you do, don't do what they're doin!

If you want extraordinary results in your industry don't do what everybody else is doing.

06/21/2023

05/26/2023

"People romanticize their plan but dread the ex*****on. The magic they're looking for is in the work they are avoiding." This statement rings true for so many of us who are business owners and professional service providers. It's human nature to fantasize about the end result - the successful business, the best-selling novel, the dream body - the have-it-all lifestyle, but the PROCESS that moves these goals can feel overwhelming and really un-sexy. We naturally gravitate towards the easy and the comfortable, but anyone promoting "free, easy, or fast" is selling you a dream that never comes true.

The magic is in the work that you're avoiding. Success doesn't show up for dreamers and talkers. It's reserved for those who go into the trenches and commit to doing the work, no matter how difficult or mundane it may seem.

That doesn't mean that planning and strategizing are pointless activities and that business owners should just run in blind - far from it. They're critical components of any successful and well executed process. But they're just the first step. Once you've mapped out your process, you you need to started executing, one step at a time.

In other words, don't just dream - do. The real magic is in the doing. It's stacking wins and proof of your concept. It's in the consistent, relentless pursuit of your goals. It's in the hard work, the setbacks, the small victories, and the lessons learned. That's where true magic lies.

Now get out there and build.

05/25/2023

The tongue works as a nice accent to the black and grey

05/25/2023

High level and ground zero.

Air warfare and ground warfare. Ray Dalio's "Shapers" can do both.

Bezos emphatically stated that effective leaders need to be the kind of operators who have mastered both.

Also, John C Maxwell covers this concept in nearly all of his work on leadership.

But, what am I even referring to?

Ground Warfare is what’s happening at the front lines of your business. It’s where nearly all your feedback is coming from.

As an owner/operator it means you’re intentionally dropping down into the weeds listening to a sales call, going through your own onboarding experience, or talking with your most junior employee about what it’s been like for them working with your team.

Air Warfare is your high-level strategy & tactics in action. The ideas, judgment-based decisions around where to deploy assets, what strategy to pursue, what the next one single step great leap forward is for the coming year is across your org.

As an owner operator, it’s fairly uncommon to have both of those nailed. And, that’s ok because you’re probably too busy running a successful business. Not just that, but one can be perceived as the other.

That’s why we’re sharing this today, to help keep you out of the weeds and elevate levels of thinking about what's possible inside your business. Bill Gates is well known for his biannual “think weeks” he’d take to consider the future and direction of his company.

Flip-side to that: If you're always thinking big and you don't know the little details about your business, you need to get your hands dirty more often, just like how you need to play more on the ground-level or do more ground warfare. Think of Jeff Bezos, of Amazon. Sometimes, he talks directly to customers through his customer service department. This way, he understands better what's going wrong in his company, and he uses these lessons when deciding what to do next.

I hope for you to achieve a balance between the two.

How do we tune this up?

Here’s some actionable tips for leveling up your Air Warfare:

"When in Doubt, Delegate" - When you're feeling stuck deciding whether to hand over a task or do it yourself, it's best to delegate the task out. It's good to give others more responsibilities rather than overloading your plate. You have an inadequate amount of time to do an adequate job, so give yourself a restricted amount of time to craft a crystal clear outline of what you need your team to achieve with the project. Then, let them do it, and keep you updated..

"Seek Leverage, Not Control” - The most efficient entrepreneurs focus their energy on using their assets to create leverage, not control. These two ideas - using assets wisely and controlling everything - are pretty much opposites. To really excel in air warfare strategy, you've got to let go of some control. By focusing more on using your existing assets efficiently, you'll find that you're able to execute with greater speed.

"Let People Make Mistakes” — When you give your team freedom to create and execute on their own, it also means you have more time and energy to work ON your business rather than IN it. Everybody wins in this scenario. Don’t be the leader who hesitates out of fear. But it's okay to let them make some mistakes. Give them some freedom to learn - even if it means they could fumble a bit. Two things will likely happen; first, they often won’t mess up and will achieve more with less guidance from you. Second, even when they do mess up, they'll learn from it and get better faster, much faster. And, that gives you future leverage.

"Develop a Culture of Outcome Ownership” - A high performing team is owns the outcome, not the small steps they take to get there. For example, you need to increase the bottom 25% of your sales teams close rate, you don’t just hand them a new list of tasks to achieve that. Instead, delegate the overall sales goal to your team members and allow them the opportunity to create the path there.

“Orientation to the Process” - Andy Grove, a past CEO of Intel, once shared: "Everything is a process. Grasping the components of production — the inputs, outputs, timing, limiting steps, quality controls, variability - allows us to construct and enhance the 'machinery' required to achieve our organizational objectives. Our common aim is to produce high-quality results efficiently and with minimal waste." A successful business operates like a well-oiled machine. Make sure your systems are solid and work well together across the entire operation. (We will provide more information on this topic soon).

“Create Space” - Finally, a straightforward suggestion: follow Bill Gates' practice. Extract yourself from the daily grind and allocate time for high-level strategizing. Occasionally, this is the necessary course of action - the disorder can become too overwhelming. You must put aside everything (despite the risk of some disruption) and carve out space for innovative planning. Each time I've implemented this approach, it's yielded tenfold value.

The Ground Warfare - How do you create the most value from entering into your businesses operations?

"Experience the Process” - Choose a segment of your business and dive in to 'experience' it firsthand. This could involve personally handling a sales call, processing a refund request, or directly providing your service to a customer. By diving into the detailed operations yourself, you'll gain valuable insights that will inform your strategic decision-making at a higher level.

"Promote a 'Doer-Leader' Culture” - A significant challenge in Ground Warfare is becoming too removed from the fundamental tasks of your business - the key processes that create value. Overly layered management structures, where managers only oversee and do not participate, can stifle moral. Avoid this at all costs. Instill Ground Warfare practices throughout your team and make a management team that can demonstrate A-player skills. Your sales managers should handle sales calls, your COO should respond to support requests, and your CMO should contribute to copywriting. By doing this, you prevent anyone from becoming detached from the essential tasks that define your business.

“Anecdata > Anecdotes” - To solve a problem, demand a comprehensive analysis that includes both qualitative and quantitative data. Collect the appropriate metrics, i.e. rates of engagement or sales conversions, and combine these with narrative accounts like call recordings or an overview of your sales process. The combination produces 'Anecdata' - a blend of anecdotes and data that provides a framework for your decision making process.

I’m excited to see you stack these tools to become a multidimensional leader — a master of Air Warfare and Ground Warfare. The best always are.

I can’t wait to see you add these tools to your kit and become the operator you’re meant to be. The best always use these.

Ray Dalio calls these kind of leaders “shapers” →

It’s a combination of the Visionary and Operator in one entrepreneur who dominates their corner of the market… a SHAPER. An absolutely unique specimen.

Now get out there and build.

I’m behind you.

05/25/2023

Hey, don’t hate me. We're going back to microeconomics for a minute. Just know that I manufactured this to help you master your pricing strategy and beat the profit margins of your current controls.
Cool?
Here's the rundown:
Price Elasticity of Demand - It measures how a change in your product’s price affects its demand.
If your product/service is highly price elastic, raising the prices means you'll sell less. But if your product is price inelastic, even when you hike the prices, sales will remain steady.
Here’s where it shows up…
Most owner/operators wildly overestimate their pricing elasticity. Worrying that if they raise prices from $3000 to $5000, sales will plummet by 70, 80, or 90%.
This belief is almost always false - especially in higher-end professional services or educational businesses.
Put simply: Price barely alters demand…
Shifting prices from $3000 to $5000 might cause sales to drop 10% — or not drop at all.
If we’re to apply the law of Occam’s Razor, the simplest strategy to increase profits without simultaneously increasing output, raise prices as high as is reasonable.
Here’s the exciting part - every extra dollar you add to your price is 100% profit. Why? Because your cost to service or supply your product doesn’t change.
Look at it like this: if you charge $2000 for your service and margin is 20%, you keep $400 of the $2000. Raise your price to just $2400, and you've doubled your profit to $800. That's a 100% increase in profit for a simple 20% price increase.
Double your prices from $2000 to $4000, and your profitability is elevated to $2400. That's a 500% profit increase.
Pretty cool, right?
The takeaway:
You work too hard to be leaving money on the table. And, if you don’t believe me then look at the size of your database and ask yourself if those clients would be there if you didn’t provide a service they valued.
Check out what your competitors are charging and ensure your pricing reaches its upper limit. This is where understanding Pricing Pockets comes in handy.
Pricing Pockets are windows of inelastic demand - price ranges where your demand will stay constant even if you raise the price.
For example, in online education services, I've run into these Pricing Pockets:
$30 → $300
$300 → $1000
$1000 → $5000
$5000 → $9000
$10,000 → $24,000
So if your price is $2000, you likely won’t see any decrease in demand by raising prices to the top of that Pricing Pocket ($5000).
Now, how do you go about increasing prices? Here are some pointers:
Value First: Your brand is only equal to the value you provide beyond what you charge. You should always ensure your value exceeds the price. Value is primary.
Trust the Market: Don't project your personal beliefs of "expensive" onto your prospect. Let them decide what is and isn't expensive. In other words, don't fire from your own wallet.
Pricing Is Flexible: Remember, test your upper-limits and find what works. And, research your competitors. That last point cannot be over-emphasized.
So go ahead, I dare you to go out there, do it, raise your prices, overdeliver like a madman, and watch as your profits grow. There is massive opportunity in the market right now for business owners to deliver real, original and authentic value. Now get after it!

05/24/2023

Half way through the year so I want to take a minute here to share some lessons on recruitment I’ve learned the hard way in 2032 so you don't have to.

If you own a small business, think of this as a letter to you from a friend 🙂

I’m going straight to the meat of this one.

Here’s the top mistakes to avoid when hiring top talent. After this, we will switch gears and I’m going to share what I’ve learned about sales process working across multiple major industries (solar, hedge funds, education, professional services) i.e. marketing, sales, data-driven decision making… but that's later because this is kinda long already

And other cool stuff…

So stick around, I won’t tell you anything you can’t start using immediately.

Top Mistake - Hesitating on making the tough decision

Unpopular truth:

The quickest and simplest way to boost your business performance?

Let go of the bottom 25% of your team. It only takes 1 turkey to turn away the stallions from your team. Let’s face it, you won’t be recruiting A-players to your team if it has underperformers on it.

Yes, it's tough and counterintuitive. It's easy to rationalize that "they'll improve" or "we need the manpower". But it just doesn’t happen.

The top entrepreneurs I’ve worked with shared a certain line of thinking: "When there's doubt, there's no doubt".

If you find yourself questioning a team member's capability during their initial months, don't hesitate. Cut your losses and part ways respectfully.

Remember to treat everyone with love and respect. This means, when you have to let someone go, do it with some grace and do what you can to assist them in their next step.

Mistake 2 - Not hiring prospects who are ready for your job

A friend of mine, John O’Dowd who specializes in hiring and recruiting said "Hire people that come with batteries included". This means hiring individuals who are already equipped with the skills for the job.

I know you’re too smart to fall for the trap of hiring based on potential alone. Sure, growth is essential, but recruitment is not the time to test it. Your focus should be on their current skills.

Remember, we deserve better because we're betting when we are focusing on our company's future, because our companies future is service.

Mistake 3 - Letting Mediocrity Win

Your best team members despise one thing above all else: Working with underperformers. Over time, one side will win. You either keep the wrong people, and your A-players leave, or you uphold high standards and create an environment where A-players can thrive.

It's not right that top performers should have to bear the brunt of poor recruitment choices. If an employee isn’t working out for you, it's likely the role isn’t working out for them either. Free them to find a better fit.

Importantly, none of this advice is about being ruthless or inhumane. On the contrary, fostering a respectful, high-integrity, deeply bonded culture is entirely compatible with this advice. In fact, talent density is a prerequisite to a thriving culture.

By avoiding these three mistakes, you'll find yourself leading a team of rockstars, making business feel like a winning game. As a mentor once said to me, "When you hire the best people and only the best people, business becomes so good it feels like you're cheating".

Take what you need from these lessons I’ve learned, and continue your process of mastering your craft. Stay tuned.