Generating a Winning Entrepreneurial Mindset for Your Investing Career

Doug Slaybaugh  0:02  

entrepreneurial myth is that business owners entrepreneurs, they know how to run a business. They don't write, they know how to be technicians. They know how to be coaches, you know how to be accountants or to be agents, or flippers. They don't know how to run a business. So they jump into business. And they do doo doo doo in in the business, but never stepped back to look on it. So who knows what happens to their pricing schemes, they don't have a model. It's not sustainable, run out of capital. They're not growing, they're not prospecting. They're just focused on what's in front of them what's urgent, and in front of them. Unfortunately, the business gets away from

Derek Marlin  0:42  

Welcome to raising the flipping bar. My name is Derrick Marlon, and I've redeveloped over 80 properties in metro Denver. I've bought and sold 115 multifamily doors in Cincinnati, Ohio, and my team has done just under 300 single family rental acquisitions for our clients. On this show. My goal is to help you make more money, save you a bunch of time and create a well oiled flipping machine. Let's dive in. And if you want more information, head to fix and flip dot show. Okay, guys, thank you so much for joining us on another episode of raising the flipping bar. I'm super excited. I have Doug slaver here the founder of the CPA coach, Doug is my good friend. He's been my business coach, my business consultants, probably my therapist too often over the last six or seven years. So we're going to talk about mindset and how that helps your investment career. Doug, welcome to the podcast. Thanks

Doug Slaybaugh  1:34  

for having me. It's a pleasure. It's an honor.

Derek Marlin  1:36  

Absolutely. Again, we're gonna dive into mindset because I think it's something that you've got a ton of experience on, you've obviously helped coach me up on. But tell me a little bit about before you got into coaching, tell me about Doug. Pre coaching days, give us a little bit about your background and professional background before coaching.

Doug Slaybaugh  1:56  

So I grew up in the mountains, and a very small town called the salt. My graduating class was around 42. And then I decided to go to Boulder, University of Colorado. And I went through a bit of culture shock. So I went from 42 people to about 20,000. And I had a really good time. I might have the record, I probably have the record for the lowest GPA of any partner in public accounting ever. i Oh, wait seven, six, okay, my first semester of college so strong, my dad lost his shit. And he didn't pull me though. Okay, he gave me a chance. Okay, and I recovered and I got my grades back up, and I was able to stay Okay, good. I went to school for accounting. I am a CPA now. I worked with the biggest firm in the world at the time, Arthur Andersen, it's gone now. I owned a construction company for a couple years and Aspen sold that. And then I went to Price Waterhouse. And I went to another firm called V cast net. So I've owned three firms in my career. And now I own the CPA coach. How I got here. Today, it's a combination of purpose and values. I really wasn't living either of them in my my professional career as a CPA, I wasn't being true to myself, I wasn't doing the things that I've been proud of, I was making great money. Yep. And I was signing a little piece of paper with my name on it. And that's how I made my money. And that just didn't really provide me the value I was looking for. So 2014 Or so I started journaling started figuring things out, got in touch with my purpose and values. And that ultimately led me to being the CPA coach.

Derek Marlin  3:43  

Awesome. Well, actually, you couldn't have hit spot on any better for the intro to what is your why now? I mean, I It sounds like you had your why and that that kind of rapidly changed. But what's what's your why now?

Doug Slaybaugh  3:57  

So I think I think I was blessed with a superpower of empathy. Yeah. It's like, if I was Superman, instead of like an S, I'd have like an E on my chest. And I'd fly around and, and I'd have empathy. But the thing is with empathy is empathy is is just being able to feel being sensitive to how you're doing. And that's not enough. Like I had compassion, which is really empathy and action, like I wanted to do something about people that I thought were hurting or having a hard time or just needed someone. And so I had to have a conduit to act on that empathy and coaching was it through coaching, I'm able to help people with whatever their problems are, whether it's work or life for relationship or promotion or career like I can, I can use this as a vehicle to act on my empathy in a way that drives me and the other part of my wires is really just not interested in anything else. There you go. Done. Check and check. That's it. That's it.

Derek Marlin  4:54  

No, and it's been great for me to see obviously your why translates to your clients. Super, super effectively give kind of our audience a little bit of a background on what you do. Now, it's I've always thought was interesting because the name of your company is the CPA coach, you lean more on the financial side. But I think everybody has their own definition, I'm always quick to say that I think for some people, they might not need a coach, because that is perceived from a motivation standpoint, I kind of consider you my strategists, my see Oh, again, my therapists, I don't really know. But tell us a little bit about kind of what you focus on day to day at the CPA coach,

Doug Slaybaugh  5:30  

I have this range of skills and knowledge, and expertise and understanding that I get to draw from to serve my clients. So depending on who they are, and where they're at in their lives or their careers, I pick in that range. So if it's an entrepreneurial focus, and they need help driving their business, those are the skills that bring forth. If it's someone who's I need to get to the next level, I need to get promoted, I bring those skills forth. So I'm able to draw on this wide range, just mostly from my experience, plus my reading and my learning and everything, to really meet my clients wherever they're at. The trick with coaching, because coaching is a nebulous thing. Another another pendulum, I guess, I'd say, on this end is mentorship. On this, on this side, the mentor asks are known that the mentor gives you advice. It says, Hey, this is what you should do. Over here's the coach who says, I don't know what you should do, what do you think you should do? Is really curious and ask really good questions. And so I swing between mentor and coach, depending on the circumstances. Yep. So I can be both. So I am a professional coach, I'm licensed and credentialed. I'm with the international coaching Federation, I'm on their board. So I know what coaching is. But I also recognize the benefit of a mentor. And so I'm not afraid to say that's a stupid idea. And don't do that, or, Hey, get your shit together, let's get focused again. Which is something that coach usually wouldn't have the ability to say, or they'd hold themselves back from saying, Yeah, I'm willing to go in.

Derek Marlin  6:57  

Dump it. Well. And I think the thing that I love too, is that I think a lot of times coaching is is more of an emotional side, it can be rah, rah, but you've got the financial in the accounting chops to look at a business and say, you might be the most motivated person, you might be the most charismatic person, but your business is shit right now. So let's fix it,

Doug Slaybaugh  7:16  

I'm still a CPA, I still have my license, I'm still credentialed, I still take classes, 80 hours every two years. So I've still got that. And I was a partner in public accounting, which is the highest level you can get in public accounting with us for over a decade. And so I've got the experience. I've been in the boardrooms, I've been in the audit committees, I've been in front of the SEC, I've been deposed. You know, I've done public work, I've done oil and gas work, I've done the most technical stuff you can do. So I've got a lot to bring forth to my clients. It's just up to me, and just being able to pick what serves my client best, because it's not all of it at once. And sometimes had to be careful not to do some things and just really focus at the other day. You know, what I what I go to bed with and wake up with every morning is the best for my clients. Yeah, whatever that is, whatever that means. Totally. Well,

Derek Marlin  7:57  

the cool thing that I'm super pumped about at raising the flipping bar is that yes, we're going to do 75% on investment, real estate, we're going to lean far into what we call property redevelopment, and fix and flip. But 25% of this podcast, and every season we do is going to be on personal development, it's going to be on business strategy, you know, things that you and I work on. So I think this could easily be a three hour episode. But I want to give kind of our audience, three anchors, or three things that we're going to talk about today. And the thing that I love about you is you're able to give people tangible things they can dive into so tell us a little bit about the first philosophy they don't want to talk about that you've helped me a ton with, you've helped really our students at our academy with is the concept of working on your business versus in your business. Where did that come from and and kind of maybe give that the definition to our audience of on versus in the business.

Doug Slaybaugh  8:41  

So I would say, you know, the in the business is going to be the day to day, it's going to be selling properties, flipping properties, it's going to be coaching for me, it's going to be doing tax returns for CPAs. That's in the business, you're driving revenue with it. So it makes sense to spend a lot of time there because it equates to dollars, tangible, visible dollars on the business is when you step back from the doing and you actually take a look at the business as a whole actually see where's it going? Like what's his trajectory? Where is it headed? What have I done lately to really change this or build this or drive it towards a vision or a strategy? And and that that ability unfortunately, is lacking? Yeah. And I think you'd mentioned Gerber's E Myth. Yep. And and the E Myth. The entrepreneurial myth is that business owners entrepreneurs, they know how to run a business. They don't write, they know how to be technicians. They know how to be coaches, I know how to be accountants, and it'd be agents or flippers. They don't know how to run a business. And so they jump into business and they do doo doo doo in in in the business, but never step back to look on it. So who knows what happens to their pricing schemes, they don't have a model It's not sustainable. They run out of capital. They're not growing. They're not prospecting. They're just focused on what's in front of them what's urgent. And in front of them. Unfortunately, the business gets away from that was a long winded Yep. response to your question.

Derek Marlin  10:14  

No, but I think that it's something that's super, super important. Because you're right people, I went to Tony Robbins business mastery, and they break it down into three different tiers.

Doug Slaybaugh  10:21  

Remember, you came back with like a binder like that thick.

Derek Marlin  10:24  

We paid a lot. So we should have gotten binder got a couple of things. But But yeah, I mean, I think part of the cool concept there was, Tony broke it down into three different buckets. And actually, to what you just described, they called one of the people that they need in your business to be successful as the artist, and the artist is a person who's great at their craft. And I think that's what a lot of entrepreneurs are, that you just brought up is that they're great at their thing, but they kind of suck at other parts of it. I know, we're trying to improve upon it all the you know, all times. So it's like, yeah, how do you step out and kind of become looking down on yourself and work on the business versus you're right in it. And we all talk about the grind. And

Doug Slaybaugh  11:01  

so I got asked, so how do you step back and away from your business?

Derek Marlin  11:07  

You know, I think it seems super, super simplistic, but to me, it's actually gaining physical space. So one of the best ways that I've worked on my business, and this is going to probably make half of our audience shut the mic or shut their stuff off and listen to us. They might never come back. But I went to visit my best buddy who lives in Casper, Wyoming. And so Denver, it's a six hour drive, six hours of uninterrupted time, either listening to podcasts, or even just having silence, I can work on the business and think about big picture stuff, rather than being in the business. So it's actually just physical proximity. I think for me, it's just kind of a nice moment there, though, too, that you mentioned. There's there's something else about that trip. That's important. What else? As far as working on the business versus in the business? It's, you know, working on stuff that you're passionate about

Doug Slaybaugh  11:56  

that six hour time block really lunch interrupted time, right? You couldn't check your your driving? Yes, I was driving. Right. So you weren't checking? I hope you weren't checking. Yes, of course. That's never right. Yeah, no, our

Derek Marlin  12:07  

kids are listening. Yes, of course, and our kids don't text and drive.

Doug Slaybaugh  12:10  

But but you had this block of time. Doesn't land in your lap. Yep. You never get that time. It doesn't just show up and say, hey, guess what, you got six hours today, you get to choose what you want to do. And when you when it does show up? Like Well, I'm gonna go to the bar, I'm going to hang out with my kids. I'm going to long run. I'm gonna hit target because it's overdue. I'm gonna work on the backyard. Yeah, we don't even know what to do with it when it comes. But that time, that block of time, the only way you create it so that you can work on the business is by being intentional. That's the key word. You have to be intentional about working on your business, you have to create that space because time and clients and prospects and business will not give it to you. You have to create it. Sure.

Derek Marlin  12:52  

Well, and that's perfect. Because intentionality is key. One of the concepts that you've helped us with that I would love for you to kind of give to our audiences is the Eisenhower principal. You know, our former president slash military leader, and to your point, it has to be intentional. So maybe kind of tell us about the Eisenhower principle,

Doug Slaybaugh  13:07  

and it was bullshit. Yeah, Eisenhower didn't come up with really shows how much I know. I'm glad you're here fill me in heavy quotes. Some and Jim Collins quotes them. Yeah, that's what I remember in Good to Great. Yeah. And he didn't come up with well, who did some other dude named Miller or somebody Lau pricing? Eisenhower was quoted professor or something. He was quoted as saying, what's important is rarely urgent. And what's urgent is rarely important. Okay. And he said in a speech that and he quoted another dude, yeah, you said it. And then Collins and Covey, get a hold of it and turn it into the Eisenhower matrix. Yeah. And give it the Dwight Eisenhower name. But let's just pretend for a second that white Eisenhower did.

Derek Marlin  13:45  

Okay. Yeah. So tell us about the matrix that may or may not be Eisenhower related.

Doug Slaybaugh  13:49  

Thank you. The theory was, was that Eisenhower would come into his office, and he said his desk and have this giant stack of papers. And he said, sucks. I doubt Dwight said that that's probably what he's thinking. Right? And he would he would take the papers even organize them in four piles, you'd have a pile of urgent and important. He would have a pile of not urgent and important. A pile of not important but urgent and a pile of non urgent work. Okay, so what do you think he did with the not urgent not important pile?

Derek Marlin  14:22  

He's not urgent and not important. You should hopefully not do that. Or wait. Chuck it

Doug Slaybaugh  14:29  

at the desk onto the floor and into the trash. Yeah. And then what about the stuff that wasn't important but urgent? He hopefully carved out time to do that. No, even like someone else carve out time to do Oh, there

Derek Marlin  14:41  

you go. Okay, delegate it. Yeah, delegate is like, That's shit. I

Doug Slaybaugh  14:43  

don't need to do. I'm gonna give that to Bob. Hall. Yeah, Bob's gonna do the stuff that's not important, but urgent. Yeah. And then he looked at this big stack and it was urgent and important. Okay. What did what do you do with us? You should have done it probably got urgent and important. Gotta get it done. Yeah, yeah, like that's just stuff that, you know, he's got to figure out all kinds of stuff in United States. And he's got to move this in there. And he's got to go to the meeting and whatever. So he focused on that and got it done the stuff that he had to be involved with. But what about this pile? That was not urgent, unimportant? That's the one. Hopefully he carves out time. makes time for every day. Yeah, time blocks in some fashion. Yep. Whether it's what's big our block like, I mean, rarely in business. Do we get like an hour where it's like, Oh, I'm gonna do Yeah. But if you create one, recreate it, if you block it. And if you keep clients and people from getting in that way, you can have it. But he would be intentional about he would be intentional about creating that time. But the point is, is like, like what in life goes in these boxes, like a physical goes into? Not urgent and important, right? Yeah. Because there's nothing like wrong right now. So I don't need to go to the doctor. Physical, I put it off for six months, until it becomes urgent. Yeah. And what about like working out about spending time on date night? Yep. What about spending time in strategy and vision for your business? By defining your values in your culture, of thinking ahead about planning for the next three months? That isn't in the urgent and important, it's in the non urgent and important and so unless we make time for it, it doesn't happen, ya know, and we end up working in our business, urgent and important, and not on our business, which is not urgent. Yeah.

Derek Marlin  16:24  

So give me something that is another good kind of tip for some of our listeners out there, which are people that are fairly similar to me in the investment space, they might be the one man or woman show, they might be a midsize firm, they might have 100 employees, but talk about maybe some tip that we can give our audience about when to hire, you talked about, you know, the matrix part we're like, is delegating. Talk about maybe when is an appropriate time for somebody to say, When should I replace myself? When should I step out just something about staffing, because I mean, we obviously have worked on this together personally, many times, I'm always late to hire, and I hem and haw about it. And I worry about the money. And then I hire and as long as it's the right person, typically, it's this huge sigh of relief. So maybe just something tactical, to our audience of it helps you get on the business versus in the business, if you can hire and our delegates

Doug Slaybaugh  17:14  

make it intentional. I mean, that's the first and easiest thing. And you're gonna hear that word probably a couple more times from me today, because I do it a lot in my coaching is just kind of the are you being intentional? Or Did you plan this? Are you one thing this? Is this what you need for your business? Like actually like designing your gear? And just seeing what you're capable of doing on your own? So okay, that's a pretty good year. Yeah, bad? And what if I had help? What if I had someone like a delegate to? What if someone could do this work for me? What if someone could make these calls for me? What if someone could make these appointments? Like, you and I have talked a few times about what goes on in your head, which is that's going to cost money. And I don't know if I'm quite ready for that yet. And you've made this decision numerous times. But you go quickly to the cost. And you're like, I don't know if I can afford that. I don't know if the business can afford that. I don't know if I want to spend the time onboarding, we kind of go to that place of the MCQ. Yeah, we don't look at the other side of the coin, which is what is this person going to enable you to do? What are you going to be able to do with this extra time now? What part of the world have you not been to that you can go to now? What part of the thoughts around your business? Can you start to entertain that you haven't given any attention to that person might be the key to your business going from where it is to where it needs to go or where you want it to go? But because we get stuck in this muck of cost, we don't think about the benefit. Right? And I guarantee now I don't I can't do that. It's an absolute. Likely Yeah, that if you mapped it out and said, Okay, this is what it's gonna cost. That's great. But what's the benefit of having more of my time to build this business, I can create more clients, more opportunities, more prospects, more leads, more flips, whatever it's gonna pay for itself. There's that there's a little bit of a bridge of okay, I'm gonna pull the trigger on this, but you can justify it with logic, right justify it with action and goals. You can justify it with common sense. Awesome. Oh, intentional. Awesome. Be intentional.

Derek Marlin  19:01  

A investors thank you so much for listening to today's episode of raising the flipping bar. I'm Derrick Marlin, your host and today's sponsor is the elevation academy. The academy is an intensive one day training session where we teach you every single step of our system to increase your profits, find great properties, save you time, avoid costly mistakes. Essentially, it is your roadmap and it's 105 step system to your fix and flip success blueprint. So sign up today. We've got an academy coming up in a couple of weeks, we only are taking 20 guests and we've actually got a money back guarantee. So if you try our system, you put in the old college try and you don't find it right benefit. we'll refund every penny of your money but we'd love to have you join us for the elevation Academy. We've got info in our show notes and we'd love to have you join us. I think the second big kind of point I want to hammer home is what we call shiny object syndrome. It's again something that I I suffer from I'm sure for those of you that are listening and not watching Doug is just gauging at me knowing that it's a little area of improvement for me is shiny object syndrome. And I think where that comes from actually maybe to help frame this for our audience is we are big proponents of, or I should say I am a new work with some people in the coaching world of the Entrepreneurial Operating System, Eos, a book written by Gino Whitman called Traction and it kind of breaks people up as visionaries, and integrators. And so the visionary is a person who has these visions, these ideas, thinks up, hopefully the good ideas to start the business but then needs help executing them. Well, visionaries get totally pulled off track by shiny object. And I think the crazy thing about the investment business is there's so many shiny objects, and they can all be profitable. And if something isn't working quickly, it's like, oh, well, maybe this slip didn't work. So I should wholesale and okay, I didn't wholesale as much as I want. So maybe let's do Airbnb. And you know what, no, that's not the thing. Let's get into multifamily. Like shiny object. Maybe tell us a little bit about working with your other clients that might not be in real estate investing, have some examples of how people get that shiny object where they get pulled away from what's maybe their core of what they should be focusing on. And just kind of going down the golden brick road to nowhere, maybe somewhere. where's

Doug Slaybaugh  21:12  

the where's the Marlin? Family summer vacation this year?

Derek Marlin  21:18  

So this year, normally, it's in Montana, visiting one side of the family and then it's normally in North Carolina visiting the other side of the family this year. It's this this year, actually, it's Costa Rica, Costa Rica. We're doing a solo Marlon. So when adjacent to Costa Rica solo, wow, just my family. Yeah. And

Doug Slaybaugh  21:34  

when did you decide this?

Derek Marlin  21:35  

I decided this two months ago,

Doug Slaybaugh  21:38  

two months ago? And when do you take the trip? We go in June, go in June. And what has the decision to make that trip afforded you?

Derek Marlin  21:47  

Way? What do you mean?

Doug Slaybaugh  21:48  

I mean, what does it allow you to be? Was it done for you,

Derek Marlin  21:52  

it is helped me crystallize that the business has to be running efficiently for me to leave, the business has to be profitable, so I can pay for this non pricey trip. But more importantly, it's getting all my shit together and my ducks in a row so that I can be intentional. I'll steal your phrase. And really enjoy this. I mean, this is going to be one of those kind of once in a lifetime type of trips where we're taking the whole family we're gonna go to the jungle, we're gonna go to the beach again. So we've got to be I have to be intentional to get everything dialed in. So this what

Doug Slaybaugh  22:23  

happens is when I call you and say, Hey, listen, we're going on a fishing trip into May. It's gonna be sick. You're gonna be catching Marlin. Yep, you're gonna be awesome. It's in. It's in Costa Rica, too. Okay, I go.

Derek Marlin  22:35  

Of course, I want to go. I don't know if I can go. Why not? Well, is it a shiny object? Is it taking me off my path? It is. Because it will probably cost a lot money, and then will cost a lot of money here, which may take

Doug Slaybaugh  22:48  

away from your family's experience, right? Yep. So you have a reason to say no to me. Yes. decision, right? Yes. It's not what if what if I said, Hey, you know, what? Could you just cut that trip short by like two days? So we can go camping? That'd be cool. Oh, that's a hard. No, it's a hard note. And so it was easy. When I was little, I almost took that personally. I don't know that that maybe another time? Why am I taking you through this horrible exercise? Just to prove a point that once you've decided where you want to go, it allows you to know what you should say? And yes and no to? Yes, you have your decisions all laid out? Yep. For me, like when you're going to Disney World, you know that you're going to save a shit ton of money. You're not prepared. And you're going to ask certain things. You have to figure out meals every single day, and allows you to know that, hey, we're not going to go to main event this weekend and spend a ton of money on video games. And hey, we're not going to buy a couch right now. Because we're going to Disney World. Like it allows you the power to say no, because you're convicted with what you want. It's clear to you. It's obvious. You're going to Costa Rica, which affords you the ability to make decisions between now and then like yes, and like no. But without that decision. If you didn't know what your family vacation was assured you'd be saying yes to frickin everything between now you'd be camping with me when you go fish when nobody wouldn't go camping with me because I'm such a hard no. Yeah, that was at least go fishing. Yeah. Sounded like it like that one. Yeah, I could do that. But but it affords you the ability to know what to say yes or no to and when you don't have that vision when you don't have that focus, which is what traction is great at Yep. With the ability to see that three year old three year vision. Like when you have that you know what you say yes or no to? And when Las Vegas shows up? If it doesn't fit in that plan. That's little bell goes off in your head and says, no, no, no, that's not what we're doing right now. We are focused on this. This is too important. And if you start saying yes to things, you have to go back and question yourself, was that important? Yeah. Because I am making sacrifices now that are hindering me from getting there. I don't get to take the kids to Disneyworld this year because I went to main event this week. Yeah.

Derek Marlin  24:39  

Well that's the other cool thing is there's something refreshing about knowing where your attention needs to be focused and saying no, that's actually was one of my my quote unquote New Year's resolutions was to say no more often because there are so many opportunities that come down the pipeline in real estate investing it is sexy, it's freakin profitable. You know, if you model out I know you and I worked on this a couple years ago have great let's expand the last of it. I guess let's flip in Vegas at a person who was going to partner with there, we had some great ends on finding properties, but it really took me off track. And so if I really would have had those, those guidelines and those guardrails up of knowing what was the fit for me at that point, who knows maybe what I actually, you know, opportunity cost, what did I pass over? So that's here, right in front of me. It's

Doug Slaybaugh  25:18  

like it was in our wheelhouse. I said, target earlier. So you imagine been a target lately? Yeah. What happens when you go to target, unfortunately,

Derek Marlin  25:24  

spend never under $100? I don't

Doug Slaybaugh  25:28  

know what and then you get home, you're like, What the hell was this stuff? Why was I think was doing whatever. It's like that with not being focused if it costs money, and it costs time. So when you're saying yes to the stuff on the checkout aisle, you're losing money, like that money going out the door, that's taking you preventing you from having the thing you truly want, without defining it without actually having it be able to articulate it, you're just guessing. And so it's gonna be really expensive. It's gonna take a lot of time while you're guessing. But if you can really get focused on what's most important to you and your business and stay true to it, it's cheaper. Yeah, quicker. And it's not more effective.

Derek Marlin  26:04  

Yeah. No, that's huge. And I think that goes into the third point that I want to hit home, which again,

Doug Slaybaugh  26:09  

I do want to mention one thing. Okay. Yeah. There's, there's two books out there. One by Keller. Williams, right. Okay. He wrote the one thing Yes. Which already Keller? Yeah, yeah, which helps you focus on on that one thing, which is mostly process for him, but that's not so important. It's anything. And then there's First things first by Covey, which he also covers eyes in our box and our two, but it's a great book. Both of those are great reads for getting focused on what's most of them.

Derek Marlin  26:36  

Actually, I'm glad that you said that. Because yeah, Gary Keller, obviously the founder of Keller Williams, real estate, one of the most successful real estate companies out there, and who continues to reinvent themselves. It's funny, because we're more investment focused, we've got a division of agents that we're building that want to focus on investment, real estate. But yeah, his principle is phenomenal. And it's if you work on that one thing, first thing out of the gate every single day, how you can move the needle in 3060 90 days is kind of mind boggling. And it's it's almost like what you always say, it's simple, but it's not easy, simple.

Doug Slaybaugh  27:08  

And that is I hate that I know it but it's true. Two quick things on that, and I had them that maybe I lost him. But every, every 30 days, a great exercise is to ask a certain question or two every day could be what am I grateful for? What am I letting go of? Or what's something that I can do today that will impact my business? Long term? If you can ask that question. And if they knew the day, you can reflect and say, did I do one thing affect the long term viability, sustainability, my business? You do that over 30 days time? The world changes for you? Yeah, it does. But we go through days so much, and that urgent and important, we get the kids where they need to go, we're going to the appointments, we're making the meetings, we're answering emails, and we get to the end of the day, and what did we do, we did a whole lot of in the business and not a lick of on the business. And over a period of time. That comes back to haunt you.

Derek Marlin  28:05  

Well, and if you think about it, we're going a little off script here. But if you're thinking about when you can work on the business versus on the business, well, it sounded good, okay. And it'll look good, you know, to our audience, good. But working on the business versus in the business. And we you know, joked about my cheesy six hour trip, but one of the ways that I'm personally most effective is I know you're a big morning guy, and you have your routine. I am as well. And there's times where you need to give your ability to afford yourself that time to work on that non urgent, but important things. And for me, that's always first thing in the morning. And so, but I also got to get my workout in, I know you do as well. But if you can get out there and do whatever, 60 to 120 minutes early in the morning, and then go work out and then show up at the office at you know, or wherever at 10 o'clock. I think most people would say, Well, why the hell is Doug rolling in at 10 o'clock. But if you got more done in 6090 120 minutes of your one thing, and you just stack that for five days, if you're gonna be so much further off again, simple. Excuse me. Easy, simple, but not easy. Easy, but not simple. I don't know.

Doug Slaybaugh  29:10  

I know, I can tell you and I don't want to tell you, but it's a lot. How many people I've worked with in time management. And I'm talking to him like so what are you working on? What are you doing? How are you trying to manage your time and like, well, I wake up at like seven or 730 it's like,

Derek Marlin  29:23  

yeah, who?

Doug Slaybaugh  29:26  

i Sorry, listen, listen, I get that. But there's a reason why in a marathon. You want to be in the front line. Yes, better chance of winning the race. There you go. You gotta get out early. Gotta get out ahead. And if you stayed there, you will stay ahead. But if you start in the back of the pack, like if your day starts two hours, three hours later than everyone else. Yeah. Where are you going to end up? Yep. Well, I'm not going to say you're gonna lose, but you're probably not going to be as far ahead as you'd like to be. So I it's stupid and I feel like I feel like an old man saying like the simplest time management tools wake up Earlier Yeah, use your time better. And and go to bed earlier if you have to. Yep, stop Netflix sing and whatever else you're doing okay, I know we need to move on.

Derek Marlin  30:07  

No, no, no, you're you're good and that you're right and not jumping in email. I think that's the other thing is people like, oh, I wake up at five or jump into email. It's like

Doug Slaybaugh  30:15  

no dollars,

their iPads and phones and whatever it's like, every time an email comes, it's like, whatever I'm doing, yeah. Focus on this. And then they say it only takes a couple seconds, but it takes you like total five minutes to come out of the mindset into another one out of that one back into another one.

Derek Marlin  30:32  

Okay, so I know we could obviously be here for three more hours. But I want to hit on the third point with which is growth versus scarcity mindset, can you give our listeners and our audience I know you work with a ton of really smart clientele, kind of your definition of of a person and an entrepreneur or a business owner of growth mindset versus scarcity mindset.

Doug Slaybaugh  30:53  

So I would probably respectfully change your question a little bit. Yeah. And, and there's kind of like a polar opposite. So scarcity mindset is, you know, the glass is half empty. Okay. London's mindset would be the glass is half full. So how does that? Well, first of all, what's a mindset? Let's back Yeah, there you go. That's harmful. Mindset is attitude. It is it is what you carry. It could be set of beliefs. It could be disposition, but it's truly an attitude. And so if you walk around with an attitude of, of everything is half empty. i What does that do to you? The way you see the world looks different, and nothing looks optimistic, and everything's a little bit pessimistic. And maybe you're, you're fearful of doing something or approaching something or trying something because there's not enough, you know, someone else is doing it. There's not enough for me, I'm too late. How could I be successful doing this? It's very limiting. And when you take that more of an abundance, mindset, possibilities are everywhere, everything's full. Everything has the opportunity to become something more. And so that attitude helps you create, innovate, be more bold, be stronger, be more perseverance, be more intentional, like it's much more freeing. And I guess that's best way to look at is like the abundance mindset is freeing and allows your possibilities to happen. Whereas the, the scarcity is very limiting. Like, I don't want to leave my house with that. I don't want to make that phone call. I don't want to write that blog. I don't want to make this podcast, right. It's It's terrifying, almost. But I do want to identify the growth mindset because that's a very important one. There's a book called Mindset, written by Carol Dweck, which is kind of like the Bible of mindset. And she's a psychologist. So you're smarter than both of us? Yep. Maybe? Yeah. Daily me? Well, I don't know. But but she identified a growth in a fixed mindset, which is very similar to an abundance and scarcity. The growth mindset believes that what happens to me is based on my effort, my hard work, my learning, my failing, my trying, like, it's all about just putting things out there and trying them and becoming more. Meanwhile, the fixed mindset is much more entitled, they think they got there because it's me, because I'm intelligent. Yeah. Because I have this innate ability to just be the successful. I don't like fixed mindset. And I run into it a lot. I bet, especially in the executive suite, because a lot of them do get to a position where they just stop. There's a there's a concept called The Peter Principle, which I'll let your listeners look up. But they get to a point where they just stop. Yeah, they're making a lot of money. And they're no longer developing. Yep. And they just kind of camp. Yeah. And they're not growing, they're not developing them becoming better. They, they probably should they get stuck there. But having a growth mindset as what your listeners, an entrepreneurial, individual, myself, yourself, we need to have that drive to want to learn and try and fail and try again. Like that's what helps us become more of what we could become.

Derek Marlin  33:55  

Yeah, and I think the failing and trying and continuing to do that, again is super important. One of my favorite books is called the obstacle is the way by Ryan Holiday and what I love about that as his his philosophies are actually rooted in stoicism and stoic philosophy and all the great you know, philosophers. But his his kind of thesis between that or behind that book is, you don't know that unless there's an obstacle in your way that you actually had to go the different path. And you never would have chosen that path ever, because you're dealing with some bullshit or you're dealing with some heartache or you're dealing with, you know, whatever, whatever the issue is, but the obstacle actually is the way and there's been so many times I know we've worked together in my work with with our company, even helped my wife actually come to a point where deciding to sell her business was the right decision. So yeah, maybe talk a little bit about how your other folks that you coach like those obstacles are important and we don't know really where the hell we're going unless there's a big boulder that's put in our way and sometimes you just got to push it up a different Hill.

Doug Slaybaugh  34:54  

I would get any with John Whitmore is kind of one of the godfathers of coaching in this equation. And I love this equation. And it's performance equals potential minus interference. Again, performance equals potential minus interference. None performance is an outcome. Yep. It's on the other side of the equation. It's just what we're going to equal. So you can't really focus on it. Yep. Potential we can't really focus on either, because we don't know what our potential is. I don't know what yours is. I don't know what mine is. All we can do is explore it. Yeah, we can, like try things and see how far we can go with them. Yeah, without a growth mindset, we're not going to explore a whole lot. And then there's interference. Interference is something we have to focus on. Interference is things like, I played too much candy crush, I watch too much Netflix. I spend too much time. being lazy. I drink too much. Yep, I screw around, and I'm not productive. And I and I get distracted. And I play with friends and I golf too much. And those are the bad ones. And there's also good interference, too. Like, I'm a family man. Like, I like to take my wife on a date. I like to play Scrabble with her. I like to play with the kids like to watch me with the kids like to take them outside every once in a while. Yeah, there's good interferes, but some of the obstacles that we have in our lives are ones we have to push through and beyond. And usually they're a waste of time. Sometimes they are squirrels. Yep. Sometimes they are just things about ourselves that we haven't really learned about yet that we need skills, behaviors, leadership, being more efficient, more effective at learning how to leverage how to delegate, how to communicate, how to build trust, some of those things are obstacles to you, if we're able to recognize them, take an inventory of them, and push through them develop through them, we open up the potential, and we get to explore it. And then that outcome or performance goes. Yeah,

Derek Marlin  36:34  

well, and I love that concept. Because and I liked the fixed mindset maybe versus scarcity. I think that was a really great kind of nuance to bring up because one exercise that I stumbled into, and it kind of came from my wife and I have a ritual once in a while. And we call it wine ants, which actually sounds like a horrible idea. You mix wine and finance together. So I'm sure there's some people that are thinking that's the least romantic thing ever. And some people think, oh my God, why are they doing that, but it actually helps me a ton to actually have a glass of wine, and just chill out a little bit. And I know when we were doing kind of one of those next jumps and evolutions of the company of like, okay, how can we break this barrier? It was actually my wife that was like, Okay, cut the shit. Here's the deal. If if everything if the shit hits the fan, if everything goes wrong, and we have to sell everything, what would happen? Because I was kind of coming up with all these what if scenarios, and this on the other end, I kind of did the math. And I just quickly said, Okay, I would have felt like that was a bit of a failure. But from a financial perspective, it's like we had about a five year runway where I wouldn't have ever had to work, going to retire forever. But like, Okay, if that thing got worse, and it just gave me then the ability say, well, that's not going to happen. But if it does, that's that's kind of the worst case scenario that do for you knowing that it gave me the ability to say, oh, no, this is like the next level that I can reach. And I could go so much further than I thought that I ever could, because I knew I had that like so they're confidently OSHA backs. All the above confidence, comfort, just the ability to know also that your partner had your back, which is really cool. But it was yeah, it just gave you that next level to say, Okay, now I can grow into whatever this next evolution is. Because I know, okay, here's the worst case, the worst case wasn't, you know, we're going to be homeless, or, you know, it's, we were I was watching a show with with my son last night, and it was the most dangerous jobs in the world. And it was some guy was doing sulfur mining, with a bandana on. I mean, you just know, and I kind of looked down on like, our deal is not that bad. Right? Like, we're fine. We're okay. And so yeah, that's not our life, you know, our life is is yeah, we have to start back over or actually was something that my dad instilled in me, who's a successful business owner, was, it's like the Home Depot philosophy, which is if shit hits the fan for him, he's gonna just go work at Home Depot, and it's not great. You're not my homie. Right? Actually, that doesn't sound too bad. Some days, you're not homeless, you know? So it's like, yeah, it's that fixed versus growth mindset. And I think you framed it perfectly. Like, that's the way to look into it. Give maybe some of our listeners a little bit, kind of what's the right way to say this, maybe give our listeners something that is, again, a good tactical way for somebody to maybe get out of a rut, if they're feeling like they're in that being stuck, or that fixed mindset or that scarcity mindset that maybe can, you know, help reset them to get them maybe more on the growth side of things reinforce

Doug Slaybaugh  39:28  

a little bit of what I said earlier, and so I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna create anything new here. But have you heard of the Camino in Europe has said like, long hike that people go on and it's like, nothing has actions, but apparently, it's cool. I haven't done it. Yeah. Okay. But it takes a long time takes like 30 days to does. So yeah, it's a big deal. And I think we all could use something like that in our lives. Kind of a reset kind of a, you know what, let's just for the next 30 days, let's try something different every single day. Just Just one thing that I think is going to change And let's just be committed to it. Let's just see what happens. Let's just go ahead and say, You know what, on every day for the next 30 days, I'm gonna call three prospects. Or I'm gonna call 50 people, or I'm gonna write a bit of a blog, or I'm gonna record a little bit of a video, where I'm gonna go to a networking event, whatever it is, yeah, but like, just for 30 days, do something every single day. And that includes weekends. Yeah, if you're working on the weekend, if you touch your computer on the weekend, you have to do this. Yeah. You're not working at all on the weekend, like you're on vacation, you get a pass. Yeah. For the next 30 days. If you work any day, it has to include something that is on your business that is intentional. That is using a growth mindset, so that you are becoming more than you were before. Yeah. And if you do that for 30 days and doesn't work, then call me

Derek Marlin  40:48  

out. Okay. I like it, that would be a good tool. We should do that, like that lead magnet of hey, what are 30 things to do to like, get you out of that rut? Right? I mean, because yeah, I mean, just resetting

Doug Slaybaugh  40:57  

the power of writing and journaling is becoming a lost art. True. There's a book out there called Think and Grow Rich. Oh, yeah. Which supposedly good class secret on how you're going to get rich. All it is, at the end of the day is you wake up in the morning, you say, I'm gonna have this much money by the time I'm this. And I'm gonna be blah, blah, blah. And then every night you write the same thing. I'm gonna be this much money when I'm this old. And you do that every single day? Yeah, that's the secret. Right? Yeah, it was it lead to thinking and growing rich. But is that exercise that puts you in the mindset of I am going to do this? Yeah. And after you repeat that over and over again, guess what fucking happens? Yeah. It starts to show up. Yes. It starts to be in there in ways and like, all of a sudden, you're like, you know, I'm gonna be rich. And I don't want to do some things. Yeah. And riches relative term, whenever you're talking to him. But I'm going to do some things in this arena with this mindset so that I have more than I have now. Yeah. And I'm no longer living in those obstacles.

Derek Marlin  41:46  

Totally. And surrounding yourself with the people that are going to do that, too. I think

Doug Slaybaugh  41:50  

the second best thing to do about getting rich is to hang I was rich people. Yeah, that's number two. Yeah, absolutely. One you right. At number two, you hang out with them? Absolutely.

Derek Marlin  41:57  

Well, we are winding down this episode. Again, this could easily be three hours. Thank you so much for being here. I know we have a lot of opportunities to talk and I'm super excited to have our audience get a chance to know you and meet you. I'm gonna ask you one final question, which would be, gee, you've mentioned some great books and some great resources, kind of framing those last three topics that we've talked about, is there any other book or any other resources that you would kind of recommend that people can go out and grab and, and hopefully, maybe get them in there.

Doug Slaybaugh  42:24  

And this is, this is almost self dealing, but it's not. There's a book out there right now called the creative. The creative act, way of being kind was written by a gentleman by the name of Rick Rubin Dahlia, which if you can see me on video right now and you Google wreck, you'll see why it's somewhat self dealing. There you go.

Derek Marlin  42:42  

I don't know about that. Rubenesque beard. Hello, Rick.

Doug Slaybaugh  42:45  

Rick was a music producer, for Beastie Boys for Red Hot Chili Peppers for Andrew Dice Clay, like a lot of a lot of people that have gone far in their careers. But he's kind of a, he's a, he's a hidden gem in music production, because he gets creativity out of his artists. And he's able to help them think outside of the box. And instead of following the traditional ways of doing things, he makes them play music in the dark without clothes on. Or they had to change instruments where they have to go outside or they have to record with with gargle, like, like he does creative things that bring stuff out of his artists that otherwise wouldn't exist in the world. And I think each of us can tap into that in our businesses, being an entrepreneur, being a creative, that will take us in directions that no one's gone before. I look back on your product, I look back on P flip. And I look back on some of the origins and the way you've been creating it and building it and very much of that is inspired by creativity, and different ways of doing it. That's the stuff that sticks. That's the stuff that makes a difference in this world. So long winded answer diatribe. No, that's good. The creative act by Rick Rubin would be the read that I would recommend. And it's a little bit of a breath of fresh air compared to mindset and traction. And First things first.

Derek Marlin  43:55  

Yeah, you're right. As as my daughter's say that that's not some of the books that I read her little businessy. So this would be a little less business, the more creative which we're all we're all creatives, we're all entrepreneurs in our own, you know, business journey, if you will. So we'll definitely I want people to be able to get a hold of you. Where can people get a hold of you? Whether it's website, whether it's Instagram, how like, how can people reach out to you, which we'll put in the show notes, but how there are people that connect with you. LinkedIn

Doug Slaybaugh  44:20  

is fine, like, email is probably the best. I'm very responsive on on that. And that's just Doug at the CPA coach.com. website is www dot coach dot CPA, you can check me out there

Derek Marlin  44:30  

Cool. Any anything else? We didn't cover any parting words of wisdom, or I think we covered a lot, but I want to make sure I didn't steal your thunder and make sure it wasn't something that was, you know, no, we

Doug Slaybaugh  44:39  

covered a lot of ground and a lot of topics today and I think every single one of them have the opportunity to change the perspectives and the trajectory of the folks listening and I hope they they take them to heart.

Derek Marlin  44:53  

Awesome. Well, Doug, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. I'm excited to have you guys listen to dog meat dog ducks label with the CPA coach. Thanks. We'll catch you guys on the flip side. Thank you so much for listening to raising the flipping bar. My goal is to help you successfully and profitably redevelop properties in competitive markets. And I encourage you to listen to some other episodes on this podcast. If you're a new investor, make sure you subscribe or follow raising a flipping bar on your favorite podcast platform. And make sure to share this episode with somebody you know would enjoy it had to fix and flip dot show to stay up to date with future episodes of raising the flipping bar. My name is Derek Marlin and I'll catch you on the flip side