Mind Y ur Business Isaac Bardos: Energizing Your Business

This column features business insights from a recent “Mind Your Business with Yitzchok Saftlas” radio show. The weekly “Mind Your Business” show –broadcasting since 2015 – features interviews with Fortune 500 executives, business leaders and marketing gurus. Prominent guests include John Sculley, former CEO of Apple and Pepsi; Dick Schulze, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Best Buy; and Beth Comstock, former Vice Chair of GE; among over 400+ senior-level executives and business celebrities. Yitzchok Saftlas, president of Bottom Line Marketing Group, hosts the weekly “Mind Your Business” show, which airs at 10pm every Sunday night on 710 WOR and throughout America on the iHeartRadio Network.

On a recent 710 WOR “Mind Your Business” broadcast, Yitzchok Saftlas (YS) spoke with guest Isaac Bardos (IB), CEO of Scaling to Freedom.

YS: Isaac, what topics do you touch on when helping businesses?

IB: A huge part of your ability to succeed as a businessowner is in your energy. It’s your number one greatest resource. A day that a person feels like they don’t have that energy is going to be very different than one where they do feel like they’re full of energy, charged, confident, and feeling alive. On that sec - ond day, anything’s possible. There’s no challenge that they can’t overcome, because they know they have the energy to really overcome whatever it takes. Energy is what creates more of something else. So, any creation, any problem solving, always starts with “what’s your level of energy?” Any challenge, whether it’s an employee, the marketplace, or a client or customer, that gives you a certain level of resistance requires a certain amount of energy. If you don’t have enough energy to overcome that, then that situation will always stress you out and weigh you down.

It’s all about getting into a physical and emotional state where you feel unstoppable, where you know with ab - solute certainty, that no matter what is going to show up that day, you will overcome it.

There’s also what I call H.I.L.A. (high intention, low attachment), which means going in with the energy knowing there’s such a clear intention about exactly what you’re going to do. And with that very clear, confident intention, you’re not even paying attention to the doubts, the fears, the what ifs, etc. Being smart about calculated and strategic risk, but also looking at it from a place of “this is going to work out.” But there’s also low attachment to exactly how it’s going to work out. Because when you’re clear about the destination, but you’re flexible with the route to get there, it becomes a lot less stressful. The reason traffic can be stressful is because we think, “This is the route I’m supposed to take. This is the time I’m supposed to be there.” But really, if the destination is 10:00, and then there’s a traffic jam or a detour and you’re going to get there late, when you have the right energy, then you can overcome whatever obstacle shows up. Because it doesn’t control you now.

That’s one of the foundational pieces. Getting people in a state where they really do feel unstoppable. Where there’s excitement and joy, knowing in their heart that they will succeed. There’s a high level of intention with that vision that’s in front of mind for them. But there’s also low attachment to trying to make things happen the way that they think, which is where micromanaging, stress, and conflict come in.

As a business coach, how do you approach touching on difficult subjects with clients?

In larger companies, where there’s partners or multiple leaders, one of the reasons they bring me in is to be the guy that can have the very difficult conversations. Instead of that, what I do is I teach them how to have the difficult conversations. The old saying is “give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.” But if you teach him how to fish and teach him the skill of how to teach other men, then you’ll teach him how to support a village. So, for a leader of a company, you want to teach them how to teach others, to be leaders. And very often, someone in that position is concerned about maintaining their position. There are people that even the CEO has to answer to, and everyone has different expectations and pressures.

The approach I bring to the table is that I’m willing to say something that’s more honest and direct than some other people have been willing to say to them because I truly believe that the truth will set you free. Very often, one of the reasons why people are stuck in certain business situations is because they’re not fully honest about what is the real truth about the situation. As individuals, we never see the full truth. We see our side of the truth. So, when I walk into a company and there’s an issue between people, there’s always three sides of the story. There’s their side, the other’s side, and the true side. I work with the leader to, first of all, be able to see what’s the real truth. And if it seems that the problem is with a particular person, it’s not that the person is problematic, it’s that there’s a perspective or a process that’s problematic. You never demonize the individual. You help focus in on what specifically the issue is. Then you help the person disconnect from that being their issue because they see it, “this is my process.” They’re very proud of it. They’re always going to defend it because they think that their value or authority is on the line when you’re trying to take that away from them. Have them look at it as if you’re just putting it in the middle of the table. Like a poker game, you put the cards on the table and say, “Let’s now look at this in an objective way.” Because if it’s not yours, it’s just an idea, then you’re willing to look at it in a way where you’re willing to let go of or modify it, to take other people’s perspectives.

Another important thing is helping leaders be able to say, “What if I let go of this or give in and something goes wrong,” for whatever reason they’re fearing. Really walk them down that path because when there’s a conflict or stress, if we walk down the path of where that stress is going, it’ll show me your greatest fears. And once I can see your greatest fears, I’m going to know the foundational ways that you’re mak- upon the foundation of how we see the world. Understanding our inner world, of our beliefs and thoughts, the emotional DNA behind why we’re doing what we’re doing, helps us become aware of ourselves and for the people we’re working with. Inside Mindset Mastery is also motivating employees, creating accountability, and having the confidence to do things. Most entrepreneurs grew up in a system that believes that you need to have years of experience under your belt, or a degree, for you to be confident that you can do something. But that’s totally false. Everything that you’re doing now, at one point you had can’t both be true. And at that moment, they’re at the cusp of a breakthrough. If someone’s agitated, the second step, about something because you’ve brought it up and disturbed them, they’re ready to buy whatever solution you have to offer them. It’s not manipulative, all you’re doing is highlighting what’s not working, which brings you to solve, the third step. ing almost all decisions that are creating that stress for you and the domino effect for everyone else in your company. We want to be able to release that fear, but we can’t release it if we’re not aware of what it is.

The fourth pillar is the processes, people, and productivity. Once you have the mindset that you need and the customers coming in, then you have the sales system set up. There’s an art to marketing, but there’s a science to sales. Once those things are set up, you need the operations to be able to deliver on those sales. To deliver the process, product, or service, and onboard those clients in a way that then is serving your ability to move to pillar number five.

Very often, when a business is struggling from the leadership side, it’s because there’s a mindset of belief the person is not even fully aware of, and they’re acting right now on emergency brakes, slowing them down from being able to see another perspective. There’s a fear of “what if it doesn’t work out?” They’re already seeing the eventual outcome in their mind. So, it’s not the strategy they need to change. It’s the way that they’re approaching the strategy. It’s never the person that’s wrong. It’s just the process or approach that’s not serving them. They didn’t wake up at 18 years old as a CEO. We’re talking with someone who worked their way there. They feel it was earned. And it was earned. But what was working for them up until now, if it’s no longer serving them, then it’s actually hurting them. Helping them be able to see that continuing down that same path is actually self-sabotaging is one of the easiest ways for people to realize, “I don’t want to keep shooting myself in the foot.”

Could you explain the Five Pillars To Success?

The first pillar is Mindset Mastery. Every decision that we make is all based to have never done it before. The very first major thing that any person does is learning how to walk. Well, you had zero competence when you first took those steps. If people needed competence in walking, they would never walk. But, thank G-d, around 90% of the world knows how to walk. Because even when they didn’t, they were confident they could do it. Giving leaders the confidence to realize, “who says you can’t?” is Mindset Mastery.

The second pillar is Marketing Mastery. Once you’re clear about what you’re going to your market, you must understand exactly how to communicate that to attract the attention of relevant and interested people. Then, you need to bring them from cold to sold. It’s not just getting their attention. It’s getting their attention with the intention to work together, then moving them down that marketing funnel.

Pillar number three is what we call “Sales D.A.S.” “Das” is the Hebrew word for knowledge or wisdom. In this case, D.A.S. stands for Disturb, Agitate, and Solve. Disturb is the first step of a sale. People have to be dissatisfied with the status quo. At that point, they hit a threshold where they’re no longer willing to keep things the way that they’re going. There’s a necessity, a hunger, a drive. If someone’s really frustrated or confused, it’s actually a great moment. Because confusion means that there are two different things that they’re trying to believe at the same time that

The fifth pillar is Scaling Systems. Most small businessowners don’t know their numbers. Knowing what your numbers are gives you a pulse that allows you to understand the health of your business. If you go to a sports game and there’s no scoreboard, you don’t know how many innings or outs there are. You don’t know who’s on what base. You don’t know how many runs have been scored. It’s like there’s no skin in the game because you can’t even participate in it. Part of the drive comes from knowing those numbers. Just like the crowd goes crazy when the numbers on the scoreboard are really close. Can we make it? Can we not? Those numbers are very often what determine how scalable the company is versus if it’s just in survival mode.