Building Better Businesses - Key Lessons from the Podcast

Welcome to Building Better Developers, the Developer podcast, where we work on getting better step by step professionally and personally. Let's get started. Well, hello and welcome back. We are continuing and not only that, but wrapping up another season. This is Building Better Developers, the Developer podcast. We are wrapping up the season of Building Better Businesses. I am just getting started with my introduction. My name is Rob Broadhead, one of the founders of DevelopNoor and also a founder of RB Consulting, where we help you do technology better. The whole point is to come in, understand your business, talk to you about your business and how we can find ways to leverage technology to help you do business better. This is whether you are a very big established business and you just got the sprawl of stuff and you need to simplify that down so you can sort of reign in and have control over what you have or whether you are a brand new startup and you're just trying to figure out what's out there and what I can do and all places in between. Our goal, we sit down, we have a technology assessment just like you would do like maybe your accountant comes in once a year or something like that. Talk to you about your business, what you have, some of the places you can go, help you maybe either provide or help you build a technology roadmap and then figure out the way forward, whether that's us working with you to implement it or you taking that roadmap and running with it on your own. Good thing, bad thing. There's been a lot going on lately. Let's see, it's a really interesting one. So last night, it was a, went to a show and it was actually a show as part of a rodeo, which sort of the bad thing was I was not looking to go to the rodeo. I was just looking to the go to the show. So that was, I guess, the bad thing of it. The good thing is, is that the rodeo was actually entertaining. It was actually a really good time. So it turned out to be a great evening. So even though there was like this little tiny bad thing, it turned into a really good thing. Just like this little tiny introduction Michael's going to give is going to turn out to be a great thing. Go for it, Mike. Hey everyone. My name is Michael Milosz. I'm one of the co-founders of developer NERF, Building Better Developers. I'm also the founder of Envision QA, where we partner with businesses to help you solve your technology problems, be it through software assessments, building customer applications, or helping you find the right software to do the job. At the end of our help, you will have a, your business should be more streamlined and hopefully you'll have better return on investment from your software instead of working for your software. Good thing, bad thing. Kind of mixed this week. So like most consultants in that we tend to have a home-based business. Most of the time we can work anywhere. And for the last three, four years, I've had impeccable internet and we've had some really bad storms lately and everything's been great. But all of a sudden in the middle of important sales calls, everything died. Like I lost cell service, I lost internet, everything gone. And when you have a stacked calendar, you freak out. You're like, crap, what do I do? So the good thing of that is thankfully Jackson has a, we work type place called the Cove. And I was able to hop in my car, get over there and be back up in about 30 minutes. So the good and bad is we can work anywhere, but we do need internet. So we are wrapping up another season, a season of building better businesses. And we have covered a lot of ground in this season. And I think hopefully with the challenges and things like that, we have given you guys some good things to work on to go back, review and make your business better, essentially make it build a better business. Whether it is short-term, kind of some of the more tactical kinds of things of just making sure that you've got stuff in line to get your work done. Keeping track of the stuff that needs to be done, better customer service or more long-term things like planning out growth strategies and things like that. When do you go higher or how do you bring in consultants and things like that? So it's a, again, as a follow-up to the prior season where we really had, we've had challenges every week. I don't know if we're going to continue that or not going into the next season, but first I do want to look back on the challenges and I guess I'm going to throw out to you and I'll give you an example. It's like, what are you, what was one of the challenges that we threw out there that was one that's like really, I don't know, hit home with you, things like that. And one of them, I will just go back to one of them we talked about early on, was reviewing your marketing side of stuff, your social calendar, social media, those kinds of things. Sort of your general like, polishing up, cleaning the dust and the cobwebs off your website and some of your materials, because it's one of those things that when I looked at it, I was like, I really need to, you know, I'm due for an update. How about yourself? Was there any challenges stuck out to you? Yeah. So some of the ones that stuck out for me definitely came around kind of like the automation, you know, focusing on your business resetting, because a lot of times we get stuck working in our business, not working on our business. I had gone through a period of months where I had been so heads down writing code, working with customers that I had neglected a lot of the business side of things like financials, taxes and that fun stuff. So it's like you had to rip the bandaid off and get it done. And the only way I was able to really do that was to kind of reset, refocus, turn off all those, you know, notification pop ups, emailed all the distractions that were keeping me from really doing the things I needed to be doing. Yes, I was working in the business writing the software, but kind of the other important things for the business again, like, you know, like you said, like social media reviews, marketing reviews, looking for talent, because, you know, at some point I need to figure out how I can extract myself from some parts of the business so that I can build and grow other parts of the business. So I spent some time, but the big one was really, you know, kind of resetting and focusing more on what needs to be done, kind of your get it done approach and focusing on the lists. Yeah, I think that really is, particularly when you're starting out and then particularly if you're very much a hands on part of your business, whether you're a developer or I think you run into the same thing if you're like baked goods or custom, like craft goods and things like that, like you're building really cool windmills or something like, you know, the things where it requires your skill in your time, I think is those are probably the biggest challenge. And I think actually software developers may be a little less so because we can find other people that can do, that can write code, that can solve the problems. It's a matter of shifting our focus so that we, you know, one, write better requirements and write a better roadmap essentially for like what needs to be done, a list of things that needs to be done. But then also we've got to figure out where are, where do we really add a value to it and where are we more of a commodity for lack of a better term? Like, what are the things we're doing that say we could get somebody else to do it and it's going to be, it's not going to take away from our time. And it's going to allow us, like you said, that allows us then to free up and work on growing the business as opposed to being in the business so much. And it's really, really hard. I don't think there's anywhere I've ever gone that's a business, you know, books and blogs and podcasts and stuff like that, where this hasn't come up somewhere along the way, where it's just basically that's a challenge you're going to have. And whoever can, those that can find a way to find that balance are the ones that are going to be most likely to succeed. And I think that's where the challenge for that was where that challenge sort of spoke to me is it really is getting back to for myself, what worked is having some sort of a schedule, having some sort of a regular touch base on that. I went back, like I think the day we did that, like right after the podcast, I went and I slapped a bunch of calendar blocked out pieces on my calendar and had to play around with a little bit because I didn't want it to be completely unavailable. You know, I don't want myself unavailable, but I put them tentative or whatever it is so that at least to me, I look at my calendar and I see that I've got these things blocked off. This is what I should be working on. And if I don't, then I have the bonus of which one of the things I do is I'll just like drag if I didn't get it done today, I will drag it over tomorrow and fill a spot. And if I don't have a spot, you know, eventually it moves into like, OK, I'm maybe working on Saturday or something like that because I need to keep that kind of stuff going. Now, it helps that I now have somebody have an operations person and she will whip me on a regular basis and say, hey, you haven't you know, you haven't done this, you haven't done that. But she sometimes gets called into the business as well. So it's like it was one of those we had a little bit too much time in the business. And then we're like, oh, pride, we got to jump out. We got to work on the business a little bit more. So I think those kinds of things, there's like one of these little things that we've talked about over the years now that do really help. I think for me, they really help with these bigger things such as that. So anything else is sort of like or maybe an episode or something that sort of stood out to you this season? Yeah, because this season, interestingly enough, you know, it's been business has been very busy. So some of the episodes really resonated, especially, you know, taking breaks, you know, and resetting because, you know, we we kind of talked about that in episode 22. But then we also talked about where was it? The work life balance strategies back in episode 10, where I think the combination of the two challenges really helps. But I still struggle with that because, like you said, you know, if we don't get the work done, we keep moving over because we have to get it done. But that takes time from somewhere else. So you got to be very conscious of are you being busy? Are you getting working on what you need to get done? And then the other thing is, are you listening to your body? Are you mentally or physically fatigued to the point that you're not getting your work done because you physically just can't do it? You're just spinning your wheels and wasting time. And I found that a couple of times where if I just unplugged for a day or two, I felt guilty as hell doing it. But at the end of it, I was more productive, kind of like a full reset. But there's still days where, you know, you do have to get it done. And it's it is a constant challenge. You know, you always want to make sure you're providing, you know, quality services to your customers. You want to make sure that you're constantly getting your work done. But at the same token, you do need to take care of yourself. If you don't take care of yourself, it's like a car. If you don't change the oil, eventually the motor is going to blow up. So you have to take care of yourself. And that was one of the biggest things that I still struggle with. But I'm glad we touched on it, because I think a lot of business owners, a lot of developers and consultants deal with this, but they don't know they're dealing with it unless it's kind of called out sometimes. Yeah, and I think that you start that off with something I think is good to note is that there are depending on what you're struggling with or what your challenges are or even some of your blind spots, whatever it is, there are certain combinations of challenges, I think, that really work together that we've covered over the season. And sometimes a lot of times we did them in pairs, but there are more than a few times that there would be something we would catch. You know, there would be a challenge related to some area of weakness, we'll just call it and then it would be five or six episodes later, we'd have another one. It would be some area of weakness or challenge. And so I think it is one of those that just sort of looking across the season. There'll be certain topics, I think, that probably will. I know there were for me and I think for most of you that will speak more to what, you know, you want help with, you need guidance with or you need consulting with. And I do think it comes down to from the really going into like, you know, posture and burnout and some of those kinds of other things that we talked about. I think a lot of that stuff does come down to, like you said, it's listening to your body, it's understanding your rhythms. And honestly, a lot of it is really it helps me to push myself more on it. But and some people have different ways, but it's really figuring out what matters and what doesn't. There are things and sometimes it really boils down to 80-20 rule. And that's a little bit along the lines of what matters and what doesn't. It's like, do I have to perfect this or do I just need to get it done? There's like, you know, there's there's certain things where it's like, you know, I don't need to go for the touchdown in this play. I just need a first down. There's some things like that. And I think when we make ourselves more aware of those kinds of things and aware of like getting to the end of the week and I just didn't have enough time, those are kinds of things that I think for most of it, that makes more likely that we're going to look back and go, well, why did I run out of time? And sometimes it is. It's like this thing just took too long. OK, then I, you know, that's going to cause some stuff to shift and that's OK. And eventually, you know, there's certain or, you know, we'll have to cut something. We'll have to do something to make room because life happened. The world happened. Business happened. Whatever it happens to be. We have to adjust. And it's funny that we're now only a few hours, few hours, few years out of the covid shutdowns where people were forced to do dramatically different stuff. And now we're you know, some of us are already back to I can't lose a I can't lose a minute. I've got to like have everything, you know, scheduled out to the minute. I've got to get every every minute has to count things like that. And it really doesn't. There's we have to, you know, take a grain of salt with the kinds of the things we do. And also, you know, sometimes it's just working with the customers and helping them to communicate to them to say, hey, this is this happened. Sorry, it's going to be a little delayed or whatever it is. There are other ways sometimes to to solve the problem in the OK, just work through the night kind of thing. You know, sometimes it's as simple as like instead of waiting till the night before the exam to study, maybe you start studying beforehand. There's it's the equivalent of that. And that's where it is. It's like if you work in your business all the time, when you suddenly need to work on it, you probably don't have the the momentum and kind of those kinds of things built up for it. Thoughts on that? Yeah, it's as you were kind of talking through that, it made me think, you know. Especially like from the covid, because we just got done talking about the whole remote versus in office thing. And it's interesting to see industry wide across industries, like just in the work market in general. The shift in. Understanding between, OK, yes, we can work from home, we get a lot done at home, but then, oh, we lose a certain amount of, you know, the in office communications, the interactions, the relationships, and there's no easier right way to do this. It all depends on your business. And the end goal, though, needs to be. Are you doing what's right for the business? Are you doing what's right for the customer? And are you doing what's right for your employees? Because if you don't really have all three of those, something's wrong in your business, some either you're going to be losing talent, you're going to be losing customers or you're just your business is going to suffer because something isn't right. So. A lot of it needs like you're going to go through seasons, just like we do seasons of developer where we change. Kind of our theme of what we're going to be talking about. Everything we talked about with building a better business, every episode we covered here. Can probably resonate with you from day to day. One episode might be more pressing this week, one episode might be more pressing to next week. You may think one episode doesn't apply at all, but then two months, three months down there, a year from now, you might hit that and be like, ah, now I understand what they're talking about. So. So. Regardless of what's going on in the world, you just have to understand that you need you and your business need to be flexible enough to kind of weather the seasons, whether what's going on. And I think we did a very good job covering a pretty comprehensive. Level of topics and challenges to get our viewers through their problems with their business or their challenges. Yeah, I think we went and it's. We covered it. We did great in our breath. I think every one of these, there's a you could go deeper in each of those topics. And so I think that's where we leave it for you to build a better business is to look at where those topics speak to you, essentially. And for those go spend a little more time on it, go a little deeper on it to make sure that you are covering what you need to. I think I want to go back to that balance. I think there is in business, just like people talk about work life balance. I think there is a a business business balance that you need to balance within the business, the the needs of the business itself, the needs of the employees and the needs of the customers. And this goes back to your why, because that's going to help you figure out what that balance is. That gives you sort of a your North Star, essentially, for those of us in the northern hemisphere hemisphere, that gives you that to guide you to say, hey, am I am I serving my customers the way I want to? Am I solving their problems and not solving problems that they really don't have or they really don't care about? Am I serving the business or am I just doing, you know, filling out paperwork for the business and just just really helping the business grow? Or am I just going through the motions and keeping it going? Is this keeping my is this something that is going to help my customer employees grow and be happy and improve morale and have culture? Or is it something where it's just like they're it's building more of it. They just want to, you know, clock in, get a paycheck and move on. There's a lot of it's why business is challenging and why it is such a draw to so many people that are certain types of people, because there's a lot of there are a lot of problems there. There's a lot of things to solve and there's a lot of moving parts and they all impact each other. It's just like very complex software. There's a lot going on there. So, you know, if you're struggling with these, if you've gone through the season and you're like, gosh, every one of those episodes are something that like that speaks to me, that's OK, because probably almost by intent, they should, to some extent, if you're you should have some relation to those things. That being said, we get to wrap this up, this episode and now this season. We don't really even know what the next season is going to be yet, because we've got some ideas and I keep changing that in my head as we're going through it. So we'll see how that pitches as we as we step into the next season. There will be an episode one. And by that time, by the end of that episode, we'll know what that season is. I'll give you that much. As always, this is the best time. Give us feedback. I'd love to get an email from info at toinfoatdevelopmentor.com or feedback, whether it's just comments on the on the YouTube channel or on the podcast or go out to develop a new or dot com, go out to our Facebook page. Hit us up on X at develop the more. What did you think about this prior season? Were there some thoughts that come out of the season for yourself? And then also, do you have recommendations? Are there things that you would love to see us cover in next season or future seasons? We are, as always, we're always open to this kind of things. We are looking at some talk about this for a while, but we're still looking for some interviews and things like that. I think we'll start pulling some of those in along with some of the other ideas that we have for next season. But I don't want to get ahead of myself because we'll figure that out in Episode one next time around. As always, go out there and have yourself a great day, a great week, and we will talk to you next season. Thank you for listening to building better developers to develop a newer podcast. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon, anywhere that you can find podcasts. We are there. And remember, just a little bit of effort every day ends up adding into great momentum and great success.