Succession Planning for Business Success
with Malcolm Peace
What happens to your business when you're no longer in it? Whether it's due to retirement, disinterest, or unforeseen circumstances, every entrepreneur must consider how their business will thrive without them. In this insightful episode, Malcolm Peace, founder of Tsetsera Growth Partners, shares actionable strategies for creating a business that's built to last. Learn how to transition your business effectively while preserving its culture, ensuring its scalability, and creating peace of mind for the future.
Key Takeaways:
The Three Ds of Succession: Malcolm explains the pivotal moments in business—death, divorce, and disinterest—that necessitate a succession plan.
Documenting Your Secret Sauce: Learn why embedding processes and systems is crucial for scaling a business and preparing it for sale or transition.
People and Processes: Discover how to balance autonomy and accountability within your team to build a resilient, scalable organization.
Why Listen: If you're a business owner grappling with the challenges of growth, scalability, or succession planning, this episode is packed with practical advice and thought-provoking insights. Malcolm's experience and candor will help you avoid common pitfalls and prepare your business for long-term success.
About Malcolm Peace
Malcolm Peace is making Texas feel smaller with his fantastic work with small to midsize businesses throughout the state. His company, Tsetserra Growth Partners, works with well-established businesses with owners who are just about to retire but still want to see their businesses thrive. Malcolm and his team helped rewrite the operating playbook while maintaining the owner’s culture with a strong succession plan. With their experience and focus on operational excellence, they strive to double the company’s revenue in just two short years. The work is intensive, but Malcolm and his team put all the tools in place to give the owner peace of mind that their business will grow for years to come.
Connect with Malcolm Peace
Website: https://tsetserra.com/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/malcolmpeace
X: https://x.com/peace_malcolm
About Aleya Harris
Aleya Harris is the spark for your spark™. A trailblazer in purpose-driven story crafting, she is a marketing executive and ex-Google Vendor Partner who brings her dynamic experience to her role as the CEO of The Evolution Collective Inc. Aleya is an international award-winning speaker, the founder and lead trainer of Spark the Stage ™, and the host of the award-winning Flourishing Entrepreneur Podcast. She is also the author of the bestselling book Spark the Stage: Master the Art of Professional Speaking and Authentic Storytelling to Captivate, Inspire, and Transform Your Audience. Her unique approach as a Strategic Storytelling Consultant has revolutionized the way businesses communicate, transforming workplace cultures and market positioning. With her dynamic energy and proven methodologies, Aleya guides clients to unlock their potential, articulate their radically authentic stories, and achieve unparalleled success.
Watch the Free Masterclass
Join Aleya's free masterclass "Build Unstoppable Confidence and Book Speaking Gigs Without Feeling Like an Impostor." Discover the proven framework to own your story, captivate audiences, and land speaking gigs—even if you’ve doubted your worth or have no experience on stage.
Register at https://www.aleyaharris.com/masterclass
Buy the Book
Aleya's bestselling book will help you become a more confident and authentic professional public speaker. Buy Spark the Stage: Master the Art of Professional Speaking and Authentic Storytelling to Captivate, Inspire & Transform Your Audience on Amazon or anywhere books are sold.
Buy the Book: https://a.co/d/1T4EoJ7
Sign Up for Spark the Stage™
Spark the Stage™ is an online course and 12-month group coaching program that helps entrepreneurs and executives become radically authentic professional public speakers who can confidently deliver a compelling Radical Spark Signature Talk™ from the stage.
Enroll at https://www.aleyaharris.com/spark
Work with Aleya to Craft a Better Story
An unclear strategy, confusing brand, or undefined workplace culture will repel ideal clients, visibility opportunities, and career-making connections. Work with Aleya Harris, a strategic storytelling consultant and seasoned marketer, to develop an authentic story that differentiates you from the competition and builds stronger relationships with your target audience.
Schedule a call at https://www.evolutioncollective.com/
Book Aleya to Speak
To book Aleya to edutain your audience at your next event as a keynote speaker, please visit www.aleyaharris.com/speaking to check out her speaking topics, reels, and why. Click "Schedule a Call" to secure the speaker with "that something new" you've been looking for.
Connect with Aleya Harris
Speaking & Media: https://www.aleyaharris.com
The Evolution Collective Inc.: https://www.evolutioncollective.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleyaharris/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleyaharris/
Links Mentioned on this Podcast
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[00:01] Aleya Harris: I have some tough love for you.
[00:04] You're not going to live forever.
[00:07] I mean your spirit will and we're having a human experience right now, but in the non existential version of this conversation, you unfortunately will die.
[00:21] What happens to your business when you do? What happens to your business if you just get disinterested? What happens to your business if some life thing thing happens like divorce or disability?
[00:35] What happens then? Do you have a plan?
[00:39] Well, if you don't, then you should probably listen to this episode where I am speaking with Malcolm Peace. Malcolm Peace is making Texas feel smaller with his fantastic work with small to mid sized businesses throughout the state.
[00:53] His company set, Sarah Growth Partners works with well established businesses with owners who are just about to retire but still still want to see their businesses thrive. Malcolm and his team helped rewrite the operating playbook while maintaining the owner's culture and the strong succession plan.
[01:11] With his experience and focus on operational excellence, him and his company strive to double company's revenue in just two short years.
[01:22] It's a lot of work as you can imagine, but Malcolm does it and does it well with his team using a whole suite of tools to give you, the owner, peace of mind that your business will grow for years to come whether you are in it or not.
[01:37] So if you are worried and thinking about succession planning, if you're wondering what is the story that I've been writing and how will it be told when I'm gone, when I'm no longer in this business, then my friend, it's time to tune on in and listen to my conversation with Malcolm.
[01:55] All right, let's go.
[02:00] Yuliya Patsay: Welcome to the Flourishing Entrepreneur podcast with Alaia Harris.
[02:05] If you're looking for actionable ways to overcome communication and differentiation challenges by sharing radically authentic stories, you are in the right place. Listen in and learn how to stand in the power of your unique narrative to transform your personal life, business and workplace culture.
[02:26] And now your host, award winning international speaker, strategic storytelling consultant and Japanese whiskey lover, Ruby Coral's mom, Alaia Harris.
[02:48] Aleya Harris: Hi Malcolm. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Flourishing Entrepreneur podcast. How you doing today?
[02:54] Malcolm Peace: Doing great. Thanks so much for having me.
[02:56] Aleya Harris: It is my utmost pleasure. And so before we dive into some of our hard hitting questions, can you please tell the people who you are and what you do in about two or three sentences?
[03:09] Malcolm Peace: Yeah. So I'm based in Austin, Texas and on a typical day I'm helping small business owners that are hitting pivotal moments in the journey of their business either transition to us running the business or Advising them what it would look like to transition out of their business.
[03:24] Aleya Harris: So when you say transition, I feel like we're using euphemisms here. Let's get to brass tacks, Malcolm. Yeah, brass tacks. You like, you, you don't. You want the money, you don't have the money.
[03:34] Where's the money flowing? What are you doing with the money? Malcolm?
[03:38] Malcolm Peace: Yeah, great question. So typical client is somebody that has kind of hit a pivotal moment. And I describe pivotal moments in the 3Ds. They either hit death, life is just kind of coming to an end at some point.
[03:49] They hit divorce or life circumstances, something of that matter, or just disinterest. They've been doing it for a long time and they're wanting to do something different. And so that tends to be kind of our clientele.
[03:59] Sometimes that's at 65, sometimes that's at 45. You'd be surprised when people hit kind of those moments. But often a lot of the time the business has been built around them.
[04:08] And so we spent a lot of time creating a process, both from a people perspective inside the business, but also from their systems and processes and documentation and all that kind of stuff.
[04:19] A business that can actually transition most of the time, the reason businesses transition if they have a family member is because it's just convenient. They've been there, they've know the business a little bit, but it actually doesn't transition well because the knowledge never actually gets documented anyway.
[04:34] It just goes to the next person because they've been around for a little while. A lot of business owners don't have that luxury. They don't get the opportunity to sell to a niece, nephew, daughter or anything like that.
[04:44] And so as a, as a result, like we come in and do that, we can come in and say, hey, we might buy your business. And there's been many times where we don't want to buy the business because it's not a right fit for us.
[04:55] Maybe it's the size, concentration, whatever it might be. And I end up being a consultant to them to help them kind of prepare for a better decision for them.
[05:04] Aleya Harris: I love that. It reminds me so much of one of my favorite books. It's a business fable called Built to Sell by John Warrilow. Have you ever read that book or heard of that book?
[05:15] Malcolm Peace: I have. It's been a while. But yes, I do know the book.
[05:18] Aleya Harris: So for those, my lovely, lovely listeners out there who have not read the book, if you're, if you're picking up what Malcolm is Putting down. You should get the book. It's short and it's a fable, like a story.
[05:28] So it's not going to take you very long. I think you can read it in an afternoon.
[05:32] One of the favorite parts from that book for me was that it talks about this guy who had this graphic design business and he, you know, wanted to sell, wanted to get out, wanted to do all these things, but he realized, like, he didn't actually have a business.
[05:48] He had people and was sort of making money, but nothing sellable. Right. There was nothing packaged up. There were no real SOPs. There was no methodology. There was nothing to.
[05:59] To buy.
[06:01] Right. Because he wasn't, you know, it's not business prostitution. He wasn't out here going to sell himself. Right. So if the business is built around a human being, in the book they talked about selling, systematizing, developing a scalable process and a customer bank that you can sell.
[06:18] Is that something that you are also talking to your clients about or is there something else that we should be considering?
[06:24] Malcolm Peace: Yeah, no, that's a big portion of it. I think one of the biggest challenges that we have in businesses, particularly those that we spend a lot of time with, businesses that are doing like 3 to 12 million in revenue somewhere in there, low seven figures of got over that hump.
[06:38] They've proven themselves in the market. Whether it's a local business or retailer, whatever it might be, they've proven themselves. But the problem that they prove themselves by all their grit and ability to kind of figure it out, right?
[06:51] And the business needs to transition, and it needs to transition to where someone else could actually run it and it's not in jeopardy. And that's a hard thing to do.
[07:00] 1. Because most of the time, let's be honest, the reason we got into business is we think we're pretty good at things. So we tend to go into business because we think we can do something.
[07:08] And so as a result, like, we don't know if that next person can do that.
[07:13] Aleya Harris: And so can we just pause right here? I know that you were on a roll, but I need to stop because now you're talking directly into me and my little heart.
[07:20] And I don't appreciate it. I do. But I don't.
[07:24] I have had this problem and I've talked to so many people about this problem. So now, welcome. You are my official business slash therapist coach right now.
[07:33] So when I was before, I had this large, like, rise and then epic fall. Just epic, Malcolm. It was epic.
[07:42] I was like, okay. People come to me for My ability to tell a story and to tell a business story and a corporate story. And I tried to train people to do it.
[07:52] And still the audiences, the clients came and they're like, no, I want a Leia. I want a Leia. I want a Leia. I want Aleya. And then I tried to train the people and they just didn't seem to be able to get my magic.
[08:05] And I know that this is a problem you have solved, and it's not a problem I'm trying to solve right now, but can we please talk to you year ago, Aleyah, and tell her what she did wrong and tell her what she could do now, because I know that there are a lot of those people out there in the audience.
[08:21] Malcolm Peace: Yeah.
[08:22] So let's be. Let's clarify one thing. So one of the ways that we view it is there is going to always be some sort of secret sauce. Right. And that owner will always have that, that founder will always have that to some extent.
[08:36] And if they left the business, it might.
[08:39] Might go with them. But what the reality is, is can you be in a situation where that secret sauce is the only thing that you actually bring to the table, and the rest of it is done by somebody else?
[08:52] Optimize to that first. Then you start refining to what is a true measure of that secret sauce. Because what ends up happening is you're doing all the other things. You're the one answering the emails, you're the one doing all these other things rather than just.
[09:04] Just being the one that shows up on that day.
[09:07] So if people are so familiar with you, you've built all the trust. And the reality is, the reason your secret sauce probably occurred on that day, you actually engaged them in person, is because you built so much rapport beforehand that they were like, I don't want anybody else, because this person is actually professional on X, Y and Z.
[09:22] But they. They don't know that till you show up. Right. And so truly.
[09:27] Aleya Harris: Right. Sorry, I'm on mute for everybody that's listening. I'm right, right. Writing in the background.
[09:32] So what you're trying to tell me is. And this is good, I love knowing what my mistakes were because now I cannot make them again. My mistake was trying to embed my secret sauce into other people immediately and then telling myself I couldn't scale or grow because they just weren't getting my secret sauce.
[09:50] But what I should have done was keep my secret sauce and embedded everything else. Right? Is that what you're saying?
[09:56] Malcolm Peace: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would definitely have done it. That way. Absolutely.
[09:59] Aleya Harris: So then if. Let's say I had done that and I was sitting here with probably a lot more money than I have now, let's say I had done that. Well, but then it's time for me to leave, and I've.
[10:09] Everybody else is doing everything. But then what about the secret saucer? How does the business continue? How does it stand out now that I'm gonna go and buy an island and leave forever?
[10:20] Malcolm Peace: Yeah. So dependency is a big part of it related to the founder and what it's. Has done that. And. And everybody might disagree with the person I'm about to reference. But I think one of the unique parts of what Dave Ramsey has done, honestly, I've watched kind of from a distance, like, he doesn't do his Dave Ramsey show anymore.
[10:35] He does just entrepreneurship podcasts that he does now and all the other personalities that he has on there. And I've kind of watched from afar, just. I mean, he helped me figure some things out when I came out of undergrad and all that kind of stuff.
[10:46] Right. And so as a result, I was like, man, how is he going to transition? And he's kind of in that process now. And I've heard him on different podcasts recently say, like, they're in the last final stages of that transition.
[10:56] And I think really what it came down to is a dependency on him to be able to drive revenue. So we break down our structure in such a way where it's kind of revenue, then you got cost of goods sold, kind of all the things that it relates to, pull off that revenue, and then as a result, the next part is all the kind of operational things.
[11:13] So we kind of break a business down, very simple like that, and we try to bucket it really, really carefully in our conversations. And so as it relates to you, you might have that aspect on the revenue side where you get to be the kind of face of it, but really you're actually the fulfillment, in my opinion.
[11:28] Right. And so could you have situation. Put yourself in a situation where there was somebody else that was a strong, capable person that was more the revenue side for them?
[11:38] Like, they. They experienced the revenue conversations with, and then as a result, they got more and more comfortable with philosophies and approaches, and you were just the fulfiller at the end of the day.
[11:49] Aleya Harris: And so working the moving from face to fulfillment side, that's interesting. That means hiring a strong salesperson that maybe has a similar vibe or energy right. To the general company, having them form the relationships with the new clients, and then they're like, and now here's Aleyah.
[12:13] So, but then what happens again when Alaya is fully on her island, like, was it Richard Branson and is never coming off, who then does the fulfillment part?
[12:23] Malcolm Peace: Yeah, great question. So I think Aleyah ends up being the fulfillment of the philosophies that have been documented and sold during that revenue conversation. So you are no longer like you.
[12:35] Aleya Harris: Actually know what you're talking about. That was amazing.
[12:39] Malcolm Peace: Your. Your business you were trying to do is a tough one. I'm not going to discount that. But, yeah, there's. There's an aspect where you have to figure out, where do you fit in to add the significant value in the equation and pulling away some of that trust into the company side, rather than the people side, the individual, for that matter.
[12:58] Aleya Harris: Oh, my gosh. Okay, we could talk about all of this, and we're going to keep talking about it, but I want to transition a little bit because this is not a normal.
[13:06] I mean, maybe it is. It doesn't seem like a normal business to me. It seems like a very cool business, a very unique business. And you clearly know what you're talking about, because I just gave you a random hypothetical situation.
[13:16] And I already feel like Pastelaya made more mistakes than I thought she did, which is great, because now I know how to make even fewer mistakes moving forward. So thank you for that gift.
[13:27] But how do you start a company like this? First of all, what's the company called? Where the company name come from? And why did you start helping people be able to transition out of their businesses?
[13:40] Malcolm Peace: Yeah, great questions.
[13:41] So the. The name, Citra Growth Partners, it's spelled T S E T S E R R A Cetserra Growth Partners. And the way that it came about is my great Grandfather, we own 70,000 acres on the border of Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and he had this reputation, and basically he would take care of people internally and externally.
[14:03] So that was the genesis of kind of the thought process. So, long story, younger, Malcolm, years ago, had a accounting professor who, just be candid, he kind of showed me the side of ugliness of business and the capitalistic kind of mentality and all this kind of stuff that I ended up becoming an undergrad in psychology because I figured business was around people, and I came full circle and ended up getting my MBA and doing that whole process.
[14:29] But at the end of the day, I really believe that the businesses around the people and the structure of the people and how you scale them to a point where they can sustain themselves and the business has mitigated some of the risk of the people that might leave and all this kind of stuff.
[14:42] So I think about business that way in a lot of ways, and that's, you know, to my benefit and sometimes to my detriment. But I do view business that way.
[14:49] It's a makeup of people trying to work in a current direction, and sometimes they have competing interests, and you have to determine that and make sure there's alignment. So as a result, like our.
[14:58] Our structure, what would happen is we would go out and do some different deals. I had some partnerships at the time, and we would hire all these, like, best in the trade kind of people.
[15:07] They were the person doing our surveying, the person that was doing our core sampling, all these blue collar, kind of industrial guys. And every single time that I would call, they would maybe have one secretary, and then it would be them on the field, and they would be the ones coming out.
[15:21] And I was like, man, you are coming out. You pull up your truck as close as you humanly can to the site, and you've got about 20ft that you're able to walk.
[15:29] And then you do your job and then you leave. And it's like, man, first off, great business. And second, it was like, holy cow. Like, you are the best. And I don't see anybody that's supposed to come after you, and you haven't built anybody.
[15:41] And so I started realizing there was a big issue there. And there's many other people in my space that have kind of pointed this out, but there's a huge amount of people that have built great businesses that were all dependent on that owner because they were the tradesman or the person that was able to get it done.
[15:56] And they have nothing behind them after that. And so we found that we could kind of fill in this hole in a niche kind of way.
[16:03] And the name, yeah, so the name was the piece of land that my great grandfather owned, as at the border of Mozambique, in Zimbabwe, at Mount Sitara. So family farm kind of situation.
[16:15] My mom, aunt, uncles, all kind of stuff grew up there like it was part of the family. And so it's always been this kind of touch point in my family of, you know, this is how they did entrepreneurship.
[16:25] Right. And took care of people again, internally and externally, by just having a great product and a good place to be employed.
[16:31] Aleya Harris: Oh, that's amazing. And I love that it has the personal connection. And it is sad to see someone who is the best in their field and there's no one that comes after them.
[16:40] And it's like watching a dinosaur right before the. The. The extinction of the dinosaur, right? You're like, oh, my God, like, this really cool thing is about to leave and be gone forever.
[16:50] And so I'm really glad that you've been able to help business owners avoid that question, though. How do you plan to avoid that in your business? What did you. What have you.
[17:03] Malcolm Peace: I completely agree. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So great question. So I have made all the mistakes, much like you had mentioned you've done in the past. And one of the things we did really, really wrong at the get go is again, too much credit put on my shoulders of what I was capable of doing at the time.
[17:17] And so what we would do is we would buy the business. Malcolm would come in as the CEO and president for the first six months and then plan to hire somebody.
[17:25] Doesn't work that easily. I have learned. And so what we do now is every time we look at a deal, we've got an operator in mind, somebody that we've already vetted, someone that's been through kind of our process and philosophy, and we're in alignment.
[17:39] There's so that when we're looking at the business, we know we can place them in the process that can go implement our thesis, implement the way that we would want to do the business, because there's that kind of alignment.
[17:50] So again, it was Malcolm comes in the middle.
[17:54] And ultimately, you did that on purpose, didn't you?
[17:58] No, I have made a lot of mistakes, that's for sure. But Malcolm in the middle.
[18:02] Aleya Harris: No, you didn't get it, The Malcolm in the middle.
[18:03] Malcolm Peace: No, I get it. Okay.
[18:05] Aleya Harris: Okay, okay. I'm gonna stop with my mom joke. Go ahead.
[18:09] Malcolm Peace: No, I mean, I think you're right. It's like, it's. It's. You become the center of the story. Right. Which is kind of the premise of that whole show. And. And so you, as a result, like, what I didn't appreciate, and this is just, again, learning.
[18:21] I didn't appreciate that you could have systems and communication that is centered around the owner, and you can change that and you can create kind of intercommunication, external communication. You can do all this kind of documentation.
[18:34] But what I highly underappreciated is the amount of time and effort it was going to take to actually rewire and retrain the employees that you wanted to keep and have them stay, to not do that habitually.
[18:47] Like, they actually liked the fact that their job was predictable and that every day when the boss showed up, they got told what to do or they Got to ask the boss the question about everything under the sun.
[18:57] It's a huge change when I say, no, no, no, no, no. No one has my email, no one has my phone, no vendor knows who I am. And I'm going to run this completely in a different way that they're like, well, hold on a second.
[19:09] He's always solved those problems. Now I have to. So big change. And I've learned a lot from that experience and what we've done over the last few years.
[19:17] Aleya Harris: I think that that is very interesting because in your. Your undergrad degree probably comes into play really well here with, with humans, because businesses are made of humans, no matter what we are making or doing.
[19:30] And we've already talked about some of my mistakes. We've talked about some of your mistakes. But I would love for you to go a little bit of a layer deeper and tell us a story about maybe even your greatest mistake or your greatest moment of we're going to call it failure.
[19:46] And what did you learn from it? How has it transformed you? How has it transformed the way that you approach business?
[19:56] Malcolm Peace: I did not tee this one up, so you're putting me on the spot. Biggest failure.
[20:00] Aleya Harris: I do this really well. Welcome to the flourishing on.
[20:06] Malcolm Peace: Expose yourself. This is one of those moments where you're like, how can I take a bad thing and turn it into a good thing at the end, but no.
[20:13] Aleya Harris: Bad thing, and we can find the good together if you need to. I'm good at that.
[20:18] Malcolm Peace: Yeah. I mean, here's the reality, and I say this with a lot of pride, but also the reality of, like, I think we've done it right. And I think that, you know, to the way that I wanted to honor kind of my legacy of my family is I.
[20:30] I've never fired somebody. And I really mean that. I've never, never fired somebody. And that maybe that's. I haven't had enough reps at the. The business ownerships that we've had.
[20:38] But I've never had to fire anybody. And the reality is, is that every single time someone has left, it's been by way of us changing the culture to more accountability, more autonomy, which I think have to go and kind of balance each other.
[20:53] But what I did so in that process is I saw potential in people to kind of adapt to what we were creating, and they just didn't really want to. And I tried very hard to keep them in the system as long as I could.
[21:06] So much so that I went out of my way on a few people that I poured my Soul. I mean, I'm just being candid to try to get them to change their ways and they just didn't want to.
[21:16] And eventually they ended up leaving on kind of their own terms. But it wasn't without issues that came about. And I mean that I've had all sorts of things been thrown at me where it's.
[21:26] It's a matter of, you know, they just didn't want to adapt to true accountability. But they asked for autonomy, which was always the challenge that I always struggled with, is that, you know, the employee, often the ones that even inspiring and not inspiring type of employees, they.
[21:44] They want more autonomy, they want to be respected, they want to have ability to make decisions. And yet that comes with it, responsibility and accountability as it relates. And so that's probably my biggest failure.
[21:57] I know it doesn't sound like a big one, but I've gotten situations of cops called on me saying all sorts of egregious things that I did that and the other.
[22:04] And in reality it was me begging for an employee to not mouth off to another employee and threaten them. Right. And so it's been a series of learnings that people are going to make the decisions that they're going to make with, you know, as much good intention as you have for them.
[22:19] You can obviously change their mind sometimes.
[22:22] Aleya Harris: Yeah, that's a really great learning. When you are thinking then about realizing where your responsibility and accountability ends and when their responsibility and accountability should at least begin, how has that changed your approach to either people or choosing the businesses that you choose or how you do the work that you do, realizing that you can't change everybody and you definitely can't change anybody who doesn't want to be changed.
[22:53] Malcolm Peace: Yeah, this is going to sound a little bit lack of human humanness to it, if that's the word. I don't know. But we. What I've. What I've come to realize is every business that we've ran or operated or even advised on for that matter, is that it's okay to have some sort of shelf life on the employee side of things.
[23:14] And I mean that in the sense that based on that type of person that runs that particular position, it's okay that they're only there for two years. You have to adjust your business model, but it's okay.
[23:27] And I think sometimes we treat, you know, them leaving at two years as like a complete surprise. And I did that for many years and I was looking at it and saying, gosh, you're so great.
[23:38] Da, da, da, da da. You're just not seeing it my way. Why don't you just want to stay here long term? It's going to be so great for you. And in reality, they, they, the reason they are good at what they do is because they have a certain archetype or person, personality that allows them to be good in that role.
[23:55] And as a result, they might not be there forever. And so, and that's okay. And I've just learned that. And then there's some, some people that are like, I'm going to be here for a long time and I want to develop and grow and that's my personality type.
[24:09] And you have to just identify that and allow for opportunity within that. And so, yeah, I just think again, I, I tried for a long time to create the person that says in an interview that they're innovative and they're thoughtful and they're this, that, and the other.
[24:25] And it's like, now hold on a second. I need somebody in this role for four years because of the following reasons. I need somebody that's really pragmatic about just executing on a task that we have in front of us.
[24:37] Right. And, and that's all they care about doing as just taking the next task and doing that. And so matching kind of your business model to the archetype or type of people that you're employing in those particular roles was a huge learning for me and many stories there.
[24:50] But that, that's the, that's the harsh reality of business. You have to learn.
[24:55] Aleya Harris: And I don't know if it's harsh or actually quite compassionate, because when you expect someone who is pragmatic to be a visionary, that is very stressful for that individual. Right. As opposed to saying, actually, I see you and I need exactly who you are for this clear, definitive amount of time.
[25:15] Or in the back of your mind, you know, it's a definitive amount of time. And you let them shine with the skills and the personality that they have.
[25:23] It's, it's, it's helpful. And I think that that is the best way that you can be of service to people is to understand who they are and where they can, where they can shine.
[25:34] I think that's wonderful.
[25:35] Malcolm Peace: Yeah, absolutely. I think sometimes the challenge is it doesn't in line with their personal circumstances and that becomes in conflict. Right. And that, that's always been the challenge that I have is that we make decisions as a business, but they don't align with the personal circumstances that that person's going through.
[25:54] And it probably is best for them to move to their next chapter or whatever that might be or, or, or grow in the company and take on more responsibility but they can't because of X, Y and z reason or they, they show up every single day late because they got to drop their kids off at school or whatever it might be.
[26:10] That's been. Yeah, I don't know. I think you only learn that through trial and time and that's just been the learnings I've learned over the years as I guide business owners that constantly say, you know, they've got these same issues over and over and over again.
[26:22] Well let's go see why. Maybe it's the person you're actually hiring for that role.
[26:25] Aleya Harris: So anyways, yeah, people, people are 90% of the solution and the problem for most things I've discovered as an entrepreneur and an executive. But you mentioned some of the other mistakes that they made.
[26:39] Can you give us like the top just rundown of a list? What are some of your top and even comical or favorite business mistakes that you have? See that a lot of business owners make.
[26:56] Malcolm Peace: The big one that I do and I'm just, just so guilty of it is I've got an idea. I think it's going to be the next great thing. Stir up a ton of energy and then it gets to like 90% completed and something else comes up and I put myself attention to something else.
[27:12] I, I do a decent job at working on the business now than, rather than working in the business. I'm pretty proud of that. But that's because I have great people around me.
[27:21] But the byproduct of that is because I'm always wanting to work on the business. Those that work in the business, I'm trying to stir up their energy all the time.
[27:28] So you know, it could be a 7 o'clock at night trying to get a hold of somebody because we got this great thing and it needs to occur tomorrow or whatever the case may be and they work all night long and then the next morning comes along and it's like a 9:00 meeting that gets moved to two weeks from now.
[27:40] So I've done that many, many times to people. I'm so guilty. The team. Oh my God.
[27:45] Aleya Harris: No, them.
[27:47] Malcolm Peace: So they, that's, that's my flaw. I'll, I, I'll put it there. I owned it.
[27:53] Aleya Harris: You owned it.
[27:54] Malcolm Peace: I've got, I've got one guy that I work with and I've been working with for a number of years now. He's great and he'll, he'll email me when he gets like, to the point where, like, there's a lot of things thrown his way of just like, unique things that we could be doing and working on.
[28:07] He'll shoot me over a message like, you need to prioritize me because you're continuously, you know, communicating like, we're just going, going, going, going, going, and you don't recognize this one thing takes much longer than you anticipate.
[28:17] So I've learned. I, I, it's my flaw. I, I tend to think that time and energy is endless, and eventually, you know, at some point, my energy will kind of slow down, I'm sure.
[28:29] But for right now, I, I do run a little bit of a hundred, you know, 100 pace kind of speed over time.
[28:33] Aleya Harris: So anyways, well, I share that flaw. There's nothing wrong with that, I think, as long as we recognize it and we're working to fix it.
[28:40] And we talked a lot about those stories and storytelling. As far as, like, the story that you want to leave when you're leaving the company or what do you want to leave behind?
[28:53] What, Malcolm, do you want the story to be that people tell of you when you are either off on your private island or you're on your private island in the sky?
[29:04] What would you like the story, story to be that others are saying?
[29:10] Malcolm Peace: Yeah, great question.
[29:13] I, I would have to consider this, like, in a deeper thought, but off the cuff, you know, I, I do believe to some extent there's a ceiling and there's a, there's a philosophy in the Marines that I think is really interesting and Navy seals and what have you, that we ultimately only reach about 40% of our capacity often, and that we can really go a lot further.
[29:34] And your job should not be all of what you are. Your job, your career, your impact in that way should not be everything you are. But however, I often find myself in situations wanting to inspire others to what I think they're capable of becoming and doing.
[29:51] And what I often try to communicate is that it doesn't matter if you're working here in five years. I feel proud. The fact that we went down a path that you're invested in and so great example is I've got some supervisors and one of them in particular, you know, doesn't have a college degree.
[30:08] And is it kind of came up in the trades and has become a supervisor and is young and learning a ton. And he came to me the other day just essentially saying, like, if I wanted to get another job somewhere else at another machine or manufacturing company, I don't have any skills any longer within welding or within kind of that trade.
[30:26] And in reality is I see him so much bigger than that skill set, but in him as a default to being able to provide for his family. He didn't want to lose that.
[30:36] And so it was a very honest, direct conversation where I said, you know, over the last two years, you feel like you haven't developed or been invested in. And we listed off 10 to 15 things that he had never done before and actually had done in those two years, which is what I defined as a supervisor, which I think is incredibly important, is that that alignment needs to take place on a definition basis of what my goal for you is and what your goal for yourself is.
[31:03] And so I think, and I hope that when I've come and I've made an impact or I've been there for a period of time or worked with a business owner, that I have aspire, you know, help them, you know, see or see the potential that could come from their team or their business or whatever it may be, and kind of a pathway to get there.
[31:21] I think that's what I'm decent at. Someone asked me the other day, like, what is my superpower? Maybe we're just in the Halloween season right now, but, you know, that's like that.
[31:29] That's what I hope is kind of what I'm able to do and. And kind of create that upward mobility for people within the organization.
[31:36] Aleya Harris: I love that. That's a wonderful thing to leave behind. Allowing people to grow. There's. There is. There are few things better than that than helping to grow your other humans to reach their highest potential.
[31:46] I think that's wonderful.
[31:48] Malcolm Peace: Well, it can. It can. It can bite me in the butt when I have so much aspiration for them, but yet they don't want to do it. So I've learned that, too.
[31:54] Aleya Harris: I've been there, too. I'm like, but you can be so much more. And they're like, nope, I'm good. All right.
[32:00] Malcolm Peace: Don't want the accountability or anything like that. Yeah, yeah, I've learned well.
[32:04] Aleya Harris: Malcolm, thank you so much for joining us here. I've learned so much that I wish I had learned about two, three years ago. So I'm glad that I will not make those same mistakes, and I will.
[32:14] I will definitely be better because of this conversation, as I know our listeners will be as well. If people want to get in touch with you, where should they do that?
[32:24] Malcolm Peace: Yeah, I'm on, like, social media side on LinkedIn, on Twitter, and what have you but also on our website@sarah.com Tse Tsera Like I said, we do consulting, you know, in circumstances where we're trying to help that business owner transition their business, but also create a business that is sellable or create the systems that allow them to kind of scale that business up, whether it be kind of automations built in.
[32:47] So our whole thesis is that we can buy these businesses or run businesses and add tangible value in that way by creating systems and processes that mirror the people side and the KPIs related to those people.
[33:00] So anyways, not to belabor that you can find me on there, find me on Twitter, find me on LinkedIn and what have you and happy to answer any calls or take a take a message.
[33:08] Aleya Harris: Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for an illuminating discussion, Malcolm. I'm so glad that you were here today. Thank you.
[33:16] Malcolm Peace: Thanks for having me.
[33:19] Aleya Harris: The mistakes we make are so important to our lives.
[33:27] However, they're only important if we learn from them. If we continue to hide them and not share them, well, then they don't do us or anybody any good. And I really appreciated how in this conversation, Malcolm shared his mistakes, he shared his pitfalls, and he helped me avoid some of my own.
[33:44] Golly, when I said I wish I had known about two, three years ago, I meant it. Because if I had listened to him, I probably would be, you know, taking bubble baths and diamonds right about now.
[33:56] But since I'm not doing that, I at least know what to do in the future to make sure that I build a business that is smart, scalable, replicable, and something that can carry on for years to come.
[34:07] So I super appreciate Malcolm's advice and I hope that you do as well. If you've liked what you heard, please go ahead and subscribe. Leave a Review Reviews are super important.
[34:19] They allow other people to understand how wonderful this content is and you could be helping someone else in a similar situation that you are in. Get out of it. So share it like it, subscribe it, review it, and in the meantime, just know that I am sending you lots of love, light and abundance from me here, Alayah Harris on the Flourishing Entrepreneur Podcast.
[34:43] All right, bye for now.
[34:46] Yuliya Patsay: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Flourishing Entrepreneur Podcast with Alaia Harris Vibing with what you hear. Leave a five star review to spread the love and be sure to click subscribe.
[34:59] We wish you love, light and abundance. See you next time.
