Stefan Angelini is Joined by Ben Ivy to discuss how you can become the ultimate business owner or Entrepreneur. It's easy to be a creative, idealistic and vision orientated business owner, but it's also easy to suffer from burnout.
Stefan Angelini
Good day everyone thanks for joining us for another episode of Investor Types I'm sitting
here with Ben Ivey we're talking about how you're going to become a better entrepreneur
and Ben's corners all the way from the U.K. hey Ben thanks for joining us mate can you please tell us how you got started working with entrepreneurs
Ben Ivey
Sure a fantastic question so to put it very simply I was in Silicon Valley managing my own business and then I ended up losing my father to suicide who was also an entrepreneur and that really shook my world because he was my bestfriend I had no idea at the time and I ended up quitting my business and searching for you know why is it that entrepreneurs do
what they do how come everything can seem fine on the surface but underneath there's something going on and this took me on a journey where I've traveled all over the world helping entrepreneurs from all walks of life to break through some of those mental
barriers stopping them from moving forward more sustainably
Stefan Angelini
Alright okay look there's this big thing about you know entrepreneur it's almost like it's
been the buzzword of the last I don't know five ten years everyone wants to be an entrepreneur young kids coming up through high school I want to be an entrepreneur
can you please explain to me and the audience mate exactly what is an entrepreneur because even I'm confused
Ben Ivey
Sure for me I think ultimately I think an entrepreneur is someone that just does something different and wants to create their own thing so they can create freedom right when I look into entrepreneurship I look at it as a vehicle to be able to do what it is that you desire so some people look at entrepreneurship I want to make a bunch of money some people say I want to have a bigger amount of income so I can retire early other people say I want more freedom other people say I want more control so I look at entrepreneurship as a vehicle in order to achieve what it is that you desire
Stefan Angelini
Alright get it get up get off your horse and achieve your dreams
Ben Ivey
Yeah pretty simple
Stefan Angelini
I've often had the argument with people about you know am I an entrepreneur or am I just a
businessman and people have said oh you're an entrepreneur you know you think outside the box you're creative and I go mate I'm in finance I don't have a creative bone in my body
I can execute on an idea but I can't come up with an idea
Ben Ivey
Yeah
Stefan Angelini
And then but I think what you just said is that you can be that person that executed you don't have to be the creative guy that's becoming that's coming up with the next app and you know your Elon Musk trying to change the world that doesn't you don't have to be that
kind of entrepreneur
Ben Ivey
Yeah so when I look at the different types of entrepreneurs like I think that these three core different types we have right and you describe one of them that this creator so I look at that as the artist right if someone loves what they do they create stuff they just you wouldn't even have to pay them they'd still do that right
Stefan Angelini
It's not me
Ben Ivey
Then you have another one another one who's like a system manager so these people just
love managing systems automations other people in the background they just love automating everything and then the last one is about a business creator these people love creating businesses it doesn't matter if it's a small business in retail or a huge property portfolio they're just in it for the business
Stefan Angelini
Yeah
Ben Ivey
And you get these three types and I think that often when we look at entrepreneurs in different types suddenly you realize it's a much broader spectrum than us identifying it in such a small way
Stefan Angelini
But it's it's so easy to get caught up even if you are one of those people the artist will typically hone in on an idea whereas the person who gets obsessed with creating businesses tries to spread their wings so much that they just lose focus on what actually works
Ben Ivey
Yeah
Stefan Angelini
and that's where the execution becomes so important like if you've got an idea nail down on it get it good build a team around it make sure it runs and then maybe go and start the next one right
Ben Ivey
Yeah you've hit the nail on the head like whenever I speak to entrepreneurs I I attempt to figure out as best I can and obviously people are a combination of these but once someone knows what they are they understand what are the common issues that that person will face right an artist as an example usually they avoid tasks that they don't like doing right
Stefan Angelini
Yeah
Ben Ivey
So they end up procrastinating on it they avoid it or they're a dreamer and they just expect
things to happen and they don't do the dirty work they're thinking I'm great at what I do I've got a great product people should come to me
Stefan Angelini
Yeah
Ben Ivey
And these are often some stereotypes that that I see that is really important for entrepreneurs to overcome
Stefan Angelini
Yeah 100% so talk to me you've outlined a few of the personality types of entrepreneurs but what do you think makes an amazing entrepreneur because that's what we're here to talk about what makes an amazing entrepreneur
Ben Ivey
Sure well I think an amazing entrepreneur is ultimately someone follow through and times are very challenging it's easy to be an entrepreneur when everything's going well right
I mean before before Covid was happening I business always been like everything's fine it's great la la la it's easy and then Covid hit and suddenly you're like oh my God I can't do this like people are questioning themselves and I think really it's that it's that mental toughness to be able to to say you know what I'm in this for the long run and have the patience and the
follow through and it's ultimately also thinking long term and allowing yourself to build that foundation from which to grow thereafter and not trying to rush things
Stefan Angelini
Yeah and that just goes for people who are business owners or want to be business owners like you've gotta grit and grind when things get tough you don't have a choice to shut down because especially if you're if you've got mouths to feed if you've got employees to pay if you've got a family to feed and you're responsible for bringing in the income you cannot let tough times just push you down and drown you and just say even rely on government stimulus to try and keep you going you know you've got to try and figure ways to adapt and
change and I guess that entrepreneurship just fits in with being a business owner in
general you know you have to change with the times in order to just keep the wheels on the bus moving
Ben Ivey
Yeah it's incredibly important to be innovative and to change what you're doing during any period of time I think Covid has really shook the world in a sense of am I doing something that is actually sustainable because you speak to business owners if they only have one revenue stream and that's been cut off due to Covid like their business is screwed and this
is where I you know obviously you have a diversified investor portfolio and I know that's a lot of what you speak about on here I think it's very important to have those different revenue streams and be able to pivot your business to have that flexibility I think otherwise a lot of businesses get they get too tunnel focused and they don't see the wood between the trees
Stefan Angelini
Yeah that's what we talk about like when you build out a portfolio you build out you try to
diversify your investments just in case one thing falls your whole portfolio isn't shot same as if you run a business like if you've got four five six seven different revenue streams coming through even if it's in the one business but they're completely separate lines like I might be selling a financial advice service but then also run educational events and that's something
we're pushing on more at the moment but then I've got other service ongoing revenue streams coming through correct create support for a business but as a business owner and even as an entrepreneur look we typically because you're wearing so many hats and you're trying to make sure that everyone else is happy but as well as you're trying to think of creative and new ways to keep bringing business in like it's so easy to just become
exhausted
Ben Ivey
Yeah
Stefan Angelini
Do you have any tips for these business owners and entrepreneurs out there on how they can overcome overwhelm
Ben Ivey
Yeah so that's a fantastic thing I mean yeah I've got different resources on hacks to overwhelm I think ultimately when I think of like the best things for people I think the one of the things that a lot of business owners get overwhelmed with is taking on too much
Stefan Angelini
Yeah
Ben Ivey
What I say is that a lot of business owners they they think about everything in their head and
their head acts as more as this big storage unit and what I tell people is in fact it's better to externalize your mind what I mean by this is getting everything you're thinking about down on a software or down on paper or something outside of your head so you can use your brain to analyze instead of a storage unit for things you have to do what that does is it frees up space for you to actually focus and I think that a lot of business owners are attempting to do so many different things it really does become overwhelming
Stefan Angelini
Yeah
Ben Ivey
The other thing that I think is really really cool is something called the core seven what I mean by this is that there's seven things as a business owner that you should do in your business and nothing else right and once you figure out what those core seven things
are what happens is life becomes much easier because you know where to focus and when someone's starting out they probably have a core 50 right
Stefan Angelini
Yeah yeah.
Ben Ivey
But ultimately they if you can whittle it down and you hit core seven and then after that actually become a business owner you hit core five core four and you start working it down
it clarifies your responsibilities and you have different buckets to put tasks so that your mind can think in different sections as opposed to taking everything on at once
Stefan Angelini
What does that mean core seven give me some examples
Ben Ivey
Sure let me give you an example so let's say in your business for finance right you probably create the portfolios right so you're obviously going to be in there actually creating it
Stefan Angelini
Yep
Ben Ivey
Now another section maybe you're in charge of perhaps marketing it to begin with right you need a market get it out there maybe you're doing the podcast right so you're actually interviewing for the podcast this is three now are you gonna edit all the podcasts are you gonna create the images for the podcast are you gonna to be doing other things like
those are some elements that perhaps you're going to outsource to other people maybe you're gonna give them to someone else so that you don't have to be stuck down with those
mundane challenging things and what happens is it just frees you up to realize what you
need to outsource and it enables you to focus on your strengths so that you can move forward faster in a more enjoyable way
Stefan Angelini
Outsourcing and letting go is actually so hard because my personality I was very much a control freak and then finally I've learned to say alright well I can give this off and I can palm this off and you know I don't need to do this because my my efforts are better spent elsewhere and you know what you're so right I felt myself so much more relieved after like I
ended up building processes and procedures for people to follow to ensure they did it the way I wanted them to do it and which took time in itself but now it's set up and it's just a wheel that just keeps on turning turning so look I'm there I feel so much easier just by
letting it go
Ben Ivey
Yeah most certainly yeah automating systems checklists I think it's very important when you
start first start outsourcing in and and getting other people on board
Stefan Angelini
And I don't know what you're like all the people you train to like but if I have an idea in bed or something comes to mind I have to send myself an email to get it off my head or I won't sleep or if I don't if I don't send myself email anymore I need to get out of bed and do it
Ben Ivey
Yeah I think that you know as as as different you know stereotypes of artists business creators like there's always ideas going through your head right something that I really enjoyed recently is is doing something called thinking time it's something that I took off
Keith Cunningham you sit down you just think for like an hour on a specific thing and I find you get so many great ideas then execute on and that's just a fantastic practice and then the other thing is having you know an idea book or something like that you keep near you so you can jot that down or email yourself I think you're fine everyone finds their own system it's just finding out what's right for you on that journey
Stefan Angelini
Yeah 100 percent I even so I do a lot of strategy papers for clients and things like that and I find that and it brings me back to university days that if you cram everything just before a deadline you don't get the don't get the chance to come up with new ideas and think of new strategies and new ways to do things because you're just sort of in that pigeonhole frame of mind whereas if you write things down and you give yourself time to expand on something you can really start to get creative with what you're doing
Ben Ivey
Yeah
Stefan Angelini
I think it's kinda works for me
Ben Ivey
Yeah I think it's really important to give yourself space as an entrepreneur right I see a lot of
entrepreneurs being very busy and not being very productive it's because we get stuck in a frame of mind of I need to do it like this and what happens is they spend so much time on one direction it's like they've got a very low trajectory but if they spend time being creative what happens is they shift their trajectory suddenly they make much more progress 'cause they're thinking in a different way which is why I always say your business growth will never outgrow your personal growth 'cause often we have blocks limiting us moving forward
Stefan Angelini
Beautiful beautiful so look as a business owner so I look I don't know if I consider myself an entrepreneur a business owner a businessman I think it's all sort of the same thing right
but one thing we chatted about before is procrastination it's so easy to get caught up doing
different things going I'm gonna do that and that and I don't even know it work I've got two three screens on operation at any time and I get caught up just bouncing between screens
do you have any tips to help people get sort of laser focused when they're doing something
to beat that procrastination
Ben Ivey
Sure yeah yeah I I think that's very very very important and as I was alluding to earlier very often I see that the different types of entrepreneurs have a stereotype of procrastination
they go to right so like the example we were talking about earlier was the artist but if we go to the business creator right often I find that they're a novelty explorer that they procrastinate by doing so many new things and it's actually an active type of procrastination they explore so many different options right so for entrepreneurs that are a novelty explorer where they're exploring loads of ideas one of the challenges and one of the things that I offer to them to help them with procrastination is about focus one of the things that I think is paramount important is I usually break down instead of a yearly goal I tell my clients and even for myself I set power year goals so this is like a three month period where you're very honed in and you have one major that you want to accomplish by giving yourself that focus what happens is as opposed to you working on lots of projects like you understand what your overlying focus is for the period and by giving yourself that focus it allows you to move forward the other thing is about some sort of boundaries that you have I find suddenly as an entrepreneur if you've got emails open if you've got different projects it's very easy to feel like you're being shifted in lots of directions and then you know by 11am you almost feel burnt out because you've made so many little decisions throughout the day like you've got email here, Linkedin there, podcasts there
Stefan Angelini
Your time are volatile
Ben Ivey
Yeah right and and then you get frustrated 'cause your energy isn't at a really really high state right
Stefan Angelini
Yeah
Ben Ivey
So one of the things that I often pose to people is about breaking your day down into certain segments where you can actually focus on one thing and working on proactively working on
tasks that affect the long-term growth of the business as opposed to being reactive and yes there's times to look at email and you can do that in the morning you could do that in the afternoon like there's times to do that but what I find is if you've got things open that can
distract you constantly it takes away from your task and it stops you really getting the things that you need to get done as an entrepreneur
Stefan Angelini
100% I use my calendar for everything booking in meetings I'm like I'll go to my wife though if you want me to do something put it in the calendar or I'm going to forget and even when it comes on to time to work on the business strategy to get a task done I've set a time on my calendar and I say I'm going to do it at this time no ifs or buts and it's just that laser focused time and that's what I find works for me it's all about finding what works for you how do you remind yourself to do that
Ben Ivey
Yeah I think it's so important and I often find recurring tasks in a calendar whether you're blocking out your personal time on whether you're working out and things like that and
that's so important like as entrepreneurs I see so many people saying yeah yeah I'll I'll get to exercise later I'll do that later but you know if if you don't prioritize it business will take over and I think it's very important to have those boundaries in place so you can spend time with your family so you can work out and actually look after yourself because you are the most important asset in your business as a business owner to be able to have that viewpoint
and to be able to build it in a sustainable way
Stefan Angelini
Well the tasks are never ending right I mean as a business owner there's always something else to work on there's always something else to go to there is something new you can try
so if you don't put that time away from your side like I know myself like you can stay up until one two three o'clock in the morning just getting on a roll with ideas so you need it you need to be able to dedicate that time to yourself I guess yeah
Ben Ivey
Yeah it's so important one of the things that I speak about with business owners is about the
entrepreneur lifestyle like like understanding the lifestyle you want to live as you're building your business and also the ideal lifestyle you're aiming for what happens is it gives you a better understanding if you look at a week and you figure out okay well what would be an awesome week for me like a lifestyle was like am I seeing friends am I relaxing in the evening am I just spending time with my wife am I going for a walk and by by figuring out that way what happens is we move away from this addiction of when I have this then I will
like when I have this amount of money in the business then I'll relax then I'll spend time with the family because what happens is we spend so much time focusing on the what you feel is a prerequisite to having what you really want that you're just wasting years in the process I think identifying that lifestyle and actually figuring out what you want it to be like is a paramount importance so that you can build it in a very sustainable way which is much more
enjoyable
Stefan Angelini
Yeah man I talk to them I talk to my clients and everyone about you know goals vision where do you want to be as an individual and how do we have to structure your life to enable you to achieve that because everyone thinks you know I can have a goal and I want to do this this and this but if you can set the wheels in motion to try and get there well why not but I've always got told my father stop and smell the roses along the way
Ben Ivey
Yeah it's it's so important and you know happiness is a is not a destination it's a way of life and I think very often as entrepreneurs someone like we can become so obsessed with a goal and a specific target that very often I see entrepreneurs sacrifice everything they care most about to achieve a goal along the way be it relationships health connections I think being able to take that time to stop and actually breathe and have patience to just chill
out it's really important I'm lying entrepreneurs need a lot more fun as well I find that there's
entrepreneurs that are just working and working like you need to chill out have some fun like
let your hair down relax and I find that yeah I told one of the entrepreneurs I worked with
last year he had his first holiday in a year he came back he was just completely different right just completely different person looking at the business in a whole different way and i think that's that's so so so key to give yourself that break and to schedule it in in advance
because otherwise it would just go on the back button
Stefan Angelini
Yeah man 100% and I see like time away spent even spending time with family going away for a weekend with your family just tuning out from the world it does it brings you a new and newfound energy when you can do that especially like because if you're a business owner
you're on emails Saturdays Sundays night times you're taking calls on weekends you don't get that time to switch off if you take that time to switch off I found it helps me
Ben Ivey
Yeah I think it's so important and actually it was it was funny like during Covid I was wondering why I was feeling tired and I couldn't figure it out I was like why am I tired I was like oh wait well I've been in one place of four months and I haven't taken a holiday and I was like but it was because everything's locked down right you can't take flights you can't go to different places and I canceled places like all my holidays but I didn't schedule time off so I decided you know what I'm just gonna take like a four day break and even that was just re-energizing because I think especially with Covid happening everyone pivoting like we haven't given ourselves that that break and that that mini holiday that I think is really revitalizing
Stefan Angelini
Ben how much do you go on holidays man
Ben Ivey
Come on I I like my lifestyle yeah well you've to bear in mind like previously I I'd be flying to
different places like once a month at least I'd go to different places on the way like mini holidays 'cause yeah I find personally I prefer to go on like a three four day holiday it's like a mini break and like yeah you know we could go on like a summer holiday or like skiing for a longer period of time but I think I think building that into your ideal lifestyle is really important like you know going to Paris on a weekend because I'm in the U.K. like that's a cool thing to do and it's it's those mini things that I think are really important that a lot of like I had someone say you know Ben how can you do that and I'm like it's not like I fell into it it's
because I designed my life in a way that allows me to do that and I think that's a really important point that people don't get it's not like you drop into it it's you work your way towards it and you build in that foundation to allow you to do so
Stefan Angelini
Yeah you know what it's such an important task like it's it's so important what you're saying I
like you've got some people that want to go travel and like you can go to Paris on a weekend in where I am we can go to Tasmania for a weekend oh you've got to I think you look at what's important to you so with us our my week my weekend and my time off time is important to be spent with family you know I've got a young growing family and we've got we've got a young family around us we want to get out and see as much family as we can
with our time off you know and that's the thing I think everyone's different everyone's got those different important factors to them and so important shape your life around what you want
Ben Ivey
It's go on please
Stefan Angelini
No I was gonna ask you I was gonna ask you man so for those of you who for those people out there that that are business owners or they might be you know entrepreneurs do you have any tips or hacks out there to help them become better entrepreneurs on top of what we've just chatted about
Ben Ivey
So I think ultimately when I think of being the best entrepreneur you can I will always tell people to get coaching and the way that I explain this is that and I'll do this with you as well right if you raise your hand as high as you can okay as like high as you possibly and
I say no but as high as you possibly can right right we suddenly go higher right and and it's so important because as an entrepreneur we believe we can get to a certain place but having coaching or someone to guide us what happens is they can view everything in a
different perspective and I think perspective is probably the biggest gift that any entrepreneur can have whether it's a perspective from a mentor a perspective from a coach or someone that sees something in a different way and suddenly it becomes much easier I'll give you like an example I had a client call yesterday and she said right Ben I want to hit 300k in the next three months and I said that's amazing fantastic let's actually figure out how to do that and as we started to look into it her business model didn't allow her to hit that like she could max out on one-on-one she could max out on group coaching she could max out on her products she was still only hitting 90k and I told her listen you either hit the business the business model needs to change or your goal is to change and I think that's important because very often I see entrepreneurs underestimating what they can do in a decade and overestimating what they can do in a year right and it's because we we often have these huge goals and I think getting that realistic point of view getting the systems in place and having that outside perspective is probably the biggest gift you can give yourself as an entrepreneur
Stefan Angelini
Yeah that outside view is very very very important and being realistic right we can we can chase goals and have dreams and have visions but you want realistic numbers because you
can build your life around realistic numbers
Ben Ivey
Yeah and and obviously you're in finance and I think a lot of people think they need you know xyz millions of millions in order to live a great lifestyle and I'm sure you you sit down on them realistically you're like look you don't actually need that much to live like your ideal
lifestyle like how much does it actually take and I think often when you have that realistic view you can actually figure it out suddenly it becomes much more manageable achievable and it becomes much easier as a result
Stefan Angelini
Yeah that's it so Ben look thanks so much for taking time with us mate like I've got some amazing insights if you are a business owner or aspiring business owner or or entrepreneur out there hopefully it's giving you some insight as to what you can look out for some tips on how to make sure you're keeping yourself mentally healthy but as well as get achieving the most from what you do Ben if anyone's got any questions from you what's the best way for them to contact you
Ben Ivey
Sure they can reach out to me at ben-ivey.com they can download like five hacks to
overcome overwhelm at ben-ivey.com/overwhelm I've got a bunch of resources for entrepreneurs on their journey and I'm more than happy to jump on a call and explain
how I can support them
Stefan Angelini
Awesome man thanks a lot so guys uh thanks so much for listening that's another episode of investor types I'm your host Stefan Angelini really hope you enjoyed it if you've got any questions for me feel free to reach out leave a comment below wherever you're watching this or if you're listening to it and if you really got some good questions or you have someone you want to hear from on the on the channel feel free to email me [email protected]
thanks again for listening Ben thanks so much for your time mate everyone we'll see you soon
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