Fritz & I discuss: is your business really a battlefield?

20 Jul Fritz & I discuss: is your business really a battlefield?

Pat Benatar said love is battlefield, but what about your business? My first guest, Michael “Fritz” Fritzius, has returned and in this impromptu and very honest episode, we discuss:

➡️ Is business really meant to be an uphill battle? Is self-employment inherently built to be a terrorizing experience?
➡️ How should you prepare for your day?
➡️ What you expect is often what occurs for you.
➡️ As humans, we often tend to make simple things more complicated!

To find Michael online, go to https://archdevops.com/.

If this is a topic you’ve been grappling with yourself, email me and we’ll talk about it: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/

Transcription by Otter.ai:

Hello, hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Causey Consulting Podcast. I’m your host Sara Causey and I’m also the owner of Causey Consulting, which you can find online anytime at CauseyConsultingLLC.com. Today’s episode is quite special because it is the return the celebrated and much lauded return of Michael Fritzius and me sitting here going “don’t say Michael Fritos, don’t say Michael Fritos,” so I wanted to do this special episode and we are very much on the fly, improv style which I love. I always feel so electric when I know that there’s not some like hollowed out agenda. We must do everything like this. But Michael and I were talking and I’m like, okay, we need to, we need to hit the record button on this because it’s too good to not share with the listeners. And just to pull the curtain back a little bit. The topic at hand is morning routines. How do you prepare for your day? And how do we really define like mental toughness and what do we expect around our business? So I’m going to stop talking for a minute. And and let Michael weigh in on this. Yeah, so I mean, I have no idea and that’s why I emailed you. So I’m like, Ah, oh, my goodness. But yeah, a few days ago, catch listeners up I emailed her and I’m like, what, you know, what kind of process do you have for mental toughness? Like, what do you do? Do you have routines and things like that? And, and I realized something about, you know, where I was like, you know, where my footing was when I asked the question like, how do you prepare to take on all the wild crazy, like bad things that can happen. And I think you were the first person, I asked a few other people to you, the first person was like, you know, maybe we shouldn’t try to armor ourselves and get ready to just like, take punches to the face, about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard and how you can get moving. That’s how winning is done. And it’s like, well, maybe that’s not the right attitude. And I’ve really been doing some soul searching. It’s like, well, maybe I need to be trying to find the things I’m really, really awesome at. And then the things that punch me in the face, let somebody else handle that. They know that they can handle it not get punched in the face. It’s like hey, oh, that kind of sucks. I have an opposite, buddy. Yes. Oh, that’s so good like at that. And that’s something that I see a lot with solopreneurs and very small business owners in particular. I mean, if you’re an executive at a huge company, we already have these people in place to delegate various tasks to but when As solopreneurs so often we get into this mindset of, well, I’m pretty good at this, like, I guess I could do it. We don’t always think about do I enjoy doing it? Is it taking too much time out of my life to go over here and do bookkeeping or logo design or website maintenance or writing blog posts? like is that what I got into business to be doing in the first place? But, you know, we maybe we’re on a budget. And so we think going on like Upwork, or Fiverr, and finding some help is going to be cost prohibitive, or sometimes it’s about control, right? Because people get into this mindset of like, Well, nobody could write a blog post as good as me. So I just don’t think I could outsource it. And then yeah, we wind up being overwhelmed and spending too much time, as you said, doing those things that feel like a face punch. Yes. Well, I think too along with that there’s there’s a somewhat related phenomenon, I guess. I mean, here in the US, it seems like we have a cold Have busy dentists. Yeah, you know, like, if you’re not if you’re not staying busy, you’re doing something wrong. You’re not businessing the correct way. Yes. Like, yay, we’re verbing around. So kind of look into that. And it’s like, I feel that I feel like, you know, I’m not doing a good enough job. I’m not getting a good enough work out unless I feel like I had to do something that sucked. You know, like, Oh, my goodness. So draining, but it builds character. And it’s like, you know, you know what else those character is? doing the things you love doing and having the strength and the willpower to hand off things that, you know, yeah, you probably could do it and it would be comfortable to do things that you have control of that. Nobody knows better than you. But other people can do it better than you. And it’s like, Man, I’ve just, you really I think I’ve had like, maybe three to five Tiffany’s just talking with you about this, you know, because you’re introducing a person But I’m like, I literally have never thought of that. Oh gosh, oh, that gives me the little goose pimples like I, I’m gonna be recording an episode soon with a guest where we’re going to talk about making a living through creative pursuits whether it’s writing or painting or sculpting. And it’s interesting because I have a client right now who is trying to wrap up her corporate career and step full time into writing. And one of the things that she told me is deep down I feel like it’s self indulgent. I feel like it’s wrong on some level. Like I’m, I’m doing something that’s karmically wrong against the universe if I get paid to sit and do something that I love so very much and it just Oh God, like it breaks my heart when I hear people think in those terms. And and I think even it translates for solopreneurs and non creative businesses like well, it makes me self indulgent. If I could be writing blog posts, if I could be doing my own bookkeeping, if I’m capable of doing my website updates, and I just really don’t wanna, you know, I’d rather have that time to lay on the beach or to be with my family or to do whatever, then it makes me lazy and self indulgent in some way if I’m not businessing all the time. Yes, yes. And it’s interesting. You say that because I literally had two podcast guests yesterday, just yesterday. All right. And the first one, you know, she has a business where she helps small business owners. And she said, I learned really quick. I needed to find out the stuff that I hated doing. And even use bookkeeping as an example. taxes on like, hate doing taxes and making work that you got to pay to do the work you just did. They should know you, right. So I’m like, I hate taxes, like give it off to somebody to do it every year. She’s like, I hate bookkeeping as a bookkeeper. She’s like, I really am good at enabling small businesses to succeed, and we do what we can to help build those businesses. And then yesterday evening, the second podcast was talking about what she does. And she said, I help people create their businesses so that they have the freedom to live the lifestyle they want. And it starts off with, here’s the amount of money I need to get, you know, here’s how much I’m making with my job. I need to replace that revenue. I need this much more, and I’m ready to go. And it’s a it’s a doable thing. It’s an attainable goal. And it’s like, it does take such a mindset shift, I mean, thinking about, okay, how much money do you actually need? What is it that you want to do? How much does that cost? What lifestyle do you want? How much money do you really need? And then Okay, what can you do to create recurring revenue or create side business something so that you can do remotely so you have a freedom to move around? And it’s like, why is that such a hard mindset to it? I mean, you think it’s like, just do this thing right? Do the thing and no, we just we have such a culture of you got to be you got to be putting in your time you got to be building callus you got to be like, you gotta gotta gotta and it’s like, No, you don’t gotta do that. You gotta but misery loves company. That’s a principle, right? Yes. Preach it, preach it blue. Every time I get it. I agree so much because we are conditioned. It’s like you heart work is supposed to be difficult. You’re it’s supposed to be hard entrepreneurship. When you own a business, it is supposed to be difficult. It is supposed to take everything that you have. And there is this misconception if it were easy, everybody would do it. And I take a lot of issue with that statement because it’s it’s not true on many levels, but one of which is not everybody wants To be an entrepreneur, not everybody wants to be the head cheese and the main decision maker. And there’s nothing wrong whatsoever with saying, you know what I enjoy my eight to five job, I enjoy being able to plug in, let somebody else make the decisions, you know, just give me my part of the project or my part of the task that you want me to do. And I’ll do it. And then at five o’clock, I’ll punch out and be with my kids and do the other stuff that I’m passionate about. So it’s like this idea of if you are going to be a business owner, if you’re going to make that big, scary, spooky kind of leap into the haunted forest of being a business owner. It’s like all these goblins and Gremlins are going to come out and get you and and in my opinion, part of that is in order to keep people on on the wheel. You know, in order to have enough cogs to operate the machine. You have to create some fear around what’s lurking in the scary Hall. It woods. Yeah. I mean, you know, I can tell you from experience when I first started the business and it was, it was I think I mentioned before I kind of fell into it accidentally I didn’t plan to be a business owner just what I happen. Yep. Um, but what ended up happening was I just filed for an LLC and it wasn’t that difficult and then I found a client’s pretty quick but the longer I do it, the more I realized that like, yeah, there are there are challenges, but they seem to line themselves up in order of difficulty like I’m not I’m not like a level one new getting getting mixed up with like level 85 goblins and orcs and Marathi. Like they’re pretty much they’re at my same level or a little bit tougher. So I’m always leveling up. It’s not it’s not as scary as I thought it was going to be. Yeah, it is. It’s different. Like it’s really on my own worst enemy. Like, yes, my mind is the thing. That’s the worst part, right? I worry and it’s like there has yet to be Some kind of external problem that hasn’t been sorted out, and I’ve gone through losing clients, I’ve gone down to zero clients, I’ve had three clients at the same time. And that holds you is I gotta hire people, right? Yes. Um, I mean that that’s a thing. And it’s always been like, the physical stuff seems to sort itself out. It’s the mental stuff that mental like, oh, my goodness, am I doing this right? second guessing myself. And I think that’s, that’s really the hardest part. So, you know, when I was asking before about mental toughness, it’s like, How do you feel? How the heck and it’s like, well, take a step back, you know, if you’re, if you’re pushing hard, trying to push through a particular wall, is it a wall that you can hand off to somebody you feel like this is not really in the bailiwick? Or is it something like it’s mental, you know, so? Yeah. So, so the mental toughness part of it is, yeah, if you’re feeling like you’re, you’re pushing against something, and there’s a particular test that actually Deep down, I’m not the best person to do this. I kind of suck at this. I don’t really need to do it, and just hand it off. Yeah, if you’re, if you’re second guessing yourself, it’s like that’s a that’s a totally different things son. Yes. And and I think, you know, as I mentioned to you before it, we can also start to tweak and redefine this idea of what toughness means because I think society especially as it relates to like owning a business or trying to grow a business from scratch, the society’s idea in America of what what that means is not necessarily what I would subscribe to. I mean, I think I told you things like, resilience, patience and tolerance are more of how I would define mental toughness because it’s not that every day is going to be a bed of roses and you’re never going to have any problems. It’s a misconception that okay, well if I do mindset work, if I’m able to meditate and to become Spiritually grounded than all my problems will just magically float off into space somewhere and every day will be the most awesome day in human existence. That’s not true. You know, that’s sort of taking it too far in the opposite direction. But it’s about being able to have patience with yourself. So if you wake up and you’re like, Oh my god, I have a headache today, I don’t really feel like doing my marketing. You know, you can, it’s okay to have an off day. You don’t have to just like, you know, do self flagellation and beat yourself across the back and go, you know what, you’re lazy. If you take a day off because you have a headache and you don’t feel well, well, then you’re just the laziest person and your business deserves to fail. But yet there are people that have that kind of monologue going on. And I think being able to, you know, see a difficulty or a potential setback and half the tolerance for it and say, all right, well, I maybe I don’t have to solve this problem. Immediately. Maybe I can outsource it. Maybe I can get help in order to deal with it. You As opposed to this idea, like you said, Well, how many times can you get punched in the face and get back up? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe stop, maybe get out of the rig. Maybe that’s not a good place for you. Yes, well, yeah. And being able to give yourself the space for that, you know, I think it’s also about redefining failure, redefining what it is to quit. Like, you know, I did an episode before about this idea of when winners never quit. And will bs Of course they do. There is such a thing as strategic quitting. There is such a thing as the fallacy of sunk costs where you go, you know, I tried this particular Avenue, I’ve put a lot of time and money into it. I have enough data collected to be able to say it’s not working well. So I think I’m gonna stop pursuing this avenue. And change course, like that doesn’t make you a bad person or lazy or weak willed in some way. Right. I think it’s just it’s another example of that. I Do I have? This should be hard? Okay, well, you should never quit. It’s like, Alright, well, it doesn’t really make sense. I mean, first off, there’s always an exit criteria. There’s a point at which you can say, I can stop doing this because I got the desire. Yes, I want it, right. Like if it’s working, quit, you know, let the flywheel do the work, you know, and then focus your energy on other things, right? That’s a form of quitting. But also, it’s just another example of that, Hey, you got to keep pushing hard. If it’s not like hurting you. If you’re not like, you know, maxing out every day if you’re not dead yet. Yeah, it’s like good sleep when you’re dead, man. Yeah. That’s really That’s no way to live. Now the way to live. And I’ve, I’m really, I’m thankful because you brought this up. And it’s like, there have been so many times and I and I thought of scenarios right away when you said that I’m like, holy gee whiz, that’s me. You know, like, I’m that guy. I’m that guy. Don’t be that guy. Well, I was that guy. And it’s like, man, I haven’t been visiting properly. Realize that because I’m constantly looking like, well, how can I? How can I do this and take on harder and harder things? How can I challenge myself? And I mean, to an extent that’s, if it’s a, if it’s a mental thing, you’re trying to strengthen yourself mentally and get yourself used to stepping out and taking more risks and saying, alright, well, right, I used to have a problem handling this kind of mental issue before, and I can handle it a lot better. But if it’s a task or something, I’m so much more likely to hand stuff off. Now. I’m like, I’m excited about building the business and scaling it back up to the point where I can hire people to do some cool things. That kind of stuff. Right? So nice, exciting. Exciting. This is Fritz 3.0. So how do you envision your morning routine changing I mean, if you if you do step out of this idea of Okay, I need to put my armor on. I need to prepare for holy hell. There’s going to be a lot of doodoo that gets flung at me all day long, and I need to Be able to deflect it. Like how do you think that things would change? If instead of expecting turmoil and problems, you had a really good expectation for every day? You know, what do you think that would look like for you? Well, I mean, either way, you know, I always start my day with Bible study. And previously, you know, I would look through and be like, Okay, what can I find in here? What scraps of armor Can I like, deduct? Like, all right, sure. I go, you know, and get ready to start getting blasted right. But now it’s like, it’s kind of like a story. You heard about the the college professor first day of class. And he brings all the students in there and he says, I want you guys to know that as of right now, everybody has an A in the class. I want you to enjoy the material. I don’t want you to worry about, oh, my goodness, I got to flunk this test. He’s like there’s some really cool stuff in here. And I want you to enjoy it and I want it to enrich you. And it’s like, that is how we should be living our life. We shouldn’t live life as if, hey, there’s just a bunch of obstacles all around, and holy moly, I got to get past them. It’s like, no. I mean, there are things that are going to stop you. But you can go around them to your advantage or you can work with the environment you’re in and trust yourself, that no matter what happens, you’re going to come through just fine. You’ve got an A in the class, just enjoying life. Even if it seems like a negative. It’s not it’s just, it’s just energies, it’s information. It’s meant for good for you. So, you know, if you get tripped up, it’s not the end of the world doesn’t mean you suck doesn’t mean you’re a failure. It just means, hey, this just as an event happens, what are we going to do about it? Let’s figure it out together. So I think that’s great. And I think if you can look at it in that way of like the battle has already been one. I don’t have to go and fight the battle by myself. The battle has already been won. And if Some things if as I’m walking through the path today, if some things pop up that I would call contrasting experiences so that I can see Hmm, I picked a piece of fruit. I ate it. I didn’t like it. So I don’t have to pick that piece of fruit again. It just, it’s so much more freeing than going alright, how can I? Where’s my shield? Where’s my sword? Where’s my helmet? I’ve got to be prepared to slay all these dragons by myself. It’s like, hey, somebody already slayed that dragon for me. Exactly. Exactly. You know, another thing too, that I realized that I should said third thing is the amount of activity and energy that you have to pour into your endeavor should be less right. And then so many people are like, I got to do all the stuff. I can do all this stuff. I know somebody whose job it is to help business owners figure out like what are the top three things you actually have to focus on? Right? Just focus on that what’s working best for you right now, in this post COVID world that we live in, you know, what do you really need with a capital N? What you’d need to do? It’s like, I need to figure out what my top three things are, you know, ya know what they are, you know, just fostering conversations, having relationships, building rapport with people. I mean, that’s it. That is, that is the thing. There’s a big need that’s ready to do. And so many people just go through it and thinking, well, I showed you more and more and more stuff, and I gotta, you know, if I’m not performing enough activities, then I must be doing something wrong kind of goes back to that culture of business we have. Mm hmm. And it’s just, there’s just so much to unlearn. Sarah, I think just for decades, centuries, even probably, there have been so many misconceptions about business, and how hard it’s supposed to be. And it’s like, it’s, it is difficult, but not in the way people think. Not the way people think. Yes, so much is about like, mindset and your expectations. And I think, you know, speaking of centuries ago, people used to be much more connected to the land and much more connected to the seasons, and certainly being an aggregator culture it’s like by default I have to be you know I have to be aware of what time is the sunrise What time is sunset? Is it going to rain today and and just following the natural progression of the earth you know when is a good time to plant seeds and then how do you fertilize them properly when is it a good time to bring in the harvest what should you can and preserve to get through the winter and people used to have that sense of like there’s a time to sow and a time to reap there’s a time to work there’s a time to rest and now it’s like I guess with technology being so prevalent it’s almost like you can’t shut off the social media is always there the internet is always there and therefore the pressure to always be like all like Alec Baldwin you know always be closing that pressure to always be working and always be closing is also there even though all we have to do is like look out the freaking window at Mother Nature and go you know there’s a daytime and a nighttime there’s a time to be active and to do what needs to be done for the day. And then there’s a time to chill the heck out. Yeah, very true. That’s almost killer in it. Well, yeah and and i think that the more I’m not I’m not one of these people that’s like just anti social media anti internet. I mean, I will confess to you though I have been watching some very interesting videos on YouTube about people who have like, sort of taken a social media detox people who have been on the, like, the belly of the beast, if you will, Google that are like, so much of your life is being tracked. You don’t even know the level of spying that’s going on, like in your life and the way that these algorithms control your thinking, I’m like, Damn, that’s a really interesting rabbit hole to go down some other time. But it’s like, I’m not I’m not, you know, anti social media. My point is, you have to be able to watch that FOMO out of your brain and get this you know, like I saw it in staffing all the time, where it’s like, well, you know, if you want to go home at five o’clock, you can but you know, just understand that you’re competitive. Down the road is still working. You know, if you don’t find a candidate for this job tonight, then somebody else might scoopy on it and you’re really going to regret it and it’s like, oh Buzz off like, you know, I have a life outside of work and and I have a right to have a life outside of work. We do we do. There’s just it’s just it’s fear really is pervasive. It’s everywhere. Yes, your everything which is so scared, sucks. It’s oppressive. I hate feeling scared. I mean, any more fear just pisses me off. Me personally, like I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been like, Oh my goodness, what the heck and I make this stupidest decisions. And then I’m like, Okay, I need to get above this sphere. And it’s hard. But I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t spend a large portion of my time swallowing in fear. And when I take that to myself, I’m like, Okay, I’m feeling fear for something I need to like figure out like, why am I feeling this way instead of just like cycling it around. But then Um, around other people and especially in the corporate world is like, you’re just scared and it’s masseuse Come on, like, what are you scared of? What are you scared of? And it makes them into jerks and it makes them make poor decisions. It makes them you know, better the Devil You Know, than the devil. You know? The devil, you know, is working, will maybe change and add since No, no, no, we can’t we don’t have the budget like, Okay, well, you know, side note, how many thousands of dollars are you spending doing things the wrong way? I mean, you know, whatever mean, can’t can’t force people to buy but that’s a I could I could ramble. We ought to have like a part 12 Well, we might, you might have to be a recurring fixture. I know. I like how you said I know we’re bumping against time but like, I I like how you said, you know, getting above the fear because there’s, there’s a meditation trick that I use, you might find it useful. The listeners might find it useful, but you know, when I’m feeling like there’s something going on at a ground level, and I need to Get above it. Like I actually just I go into my little I call it my meditation cave, but it’s just like this little area that I’ve carved out of solitude. And I really like I picture myself kind of like a bird or something going up like physically just being catapulted up in the sky just like you would, when you’re flying, you know how it is like if there’s a thunderstorm going on, on the earth at this level, and then you’re on an airplane and you get above it, you see that the sun is still shining, like the clouds are obscuring your view, but the sun is always there. So sort of do this technique in my meditations where I’m like, Okay, I’m going to get above this storm cloud, and I’m going to get up there, into the sunshine. And I’m just going to be for a little bit and just having that that quiet time, that peace of mind that place where you’re away from that storm cloud, even if it’s just for five minutes. It helps me to feel calmer and to get that sense of ease so that instead of making a snap decision, because you’re right when we make those snap decisions out Fear or FOMO, then it’s often not a good decision. And it’s a decision we later regret. And just having that solitude, even like I said, just for five minutes, helps me to be like, Okay, I think I can do this or I think I can start brainstorming some strategies that aren’t coming from a place of Oh my God, I’m freaking out. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. It’s so wide. It makes you feel so airy. And it’s like, yeah, this is how it’s supposed to be fam. I’d make a killing. Yes, you would. Awesome. Well, I’m so glad that you had some time this morning for us to just hit the record button on this conversation. I’m sure it will happen again, because we, you and I are not even sure how or why it happens. But it’s like from time to time we just get into these like deep philosophical topics. And I’m like, yeah, this this is something that should be talked about because if you and I as business owners are talking about it. I know other business owners are experiencing the same thing. They are. Yeah. And that’s what’s really cool is you get you get an email with something like this is bold Jerry gold and it’s like Alright, let’s do it. And you just got you just sent you said they said the messaging I think it was last evening yesterday evening and we’re like, I got a time today and I’m like, Alright, let’s do it. So I mean, this is the quickest turnaround I’ve ever had. Awesome. Well, Michael, thank you again for allowing me to. It’s not Watergate. I’m not taping this without his knowledge. Just to be really clear. This is gonna be published. Sara. WTF. I even call my hair. What the heck? Oh, I definitely did it. And you already know that because you know how I’m living out here. I know. I know how it is. I don’t have makeup on. I don’t have hair combed. Um, yeah. It’s all natural. It’s all real. It is. Well, Michael, thank you again. I know we both got some other things too. This morning but I really appreciate you taking the time to come back and be a guest for a second time. Anytime, girl when you’re ready for number three, let me know you know where to find me. hells Yeah. Once again, my guest today on the fly was Michael Fritzius (Free-choose). You can find him online at archdevops.com. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it. If you haven’t already, please take the time to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review for us on iTunes. Bye for now.