Transform Your Message To Grow Your Business | 361

Share this post:

Dan Kuschell 361

May 30, 2022

Dan Kuschell is a husband, dad, serial entrepreneur, and angel investor. He runs Breakthrough3X, a company that gives you instant access to a Fractional CMO Team. Breakthrough3X helps founders and CEOs grow their businesses 3 to 10x and generate more clients daily with a simple system that gets them free from the day-to-day. Dan has owned 12 companies since 1992, building multiple businesses with revenues exceeding eight figures before selling. He is also the Host of the Growth to Freedom podcast, where he interviews industry leaders and experts in a variety of fields.


Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • Dan Kuschell discusses the difficult obstacle he overcame after selling his business
  • The top issues that medical leaders face today — and the main reasons practices fail
  • Dan shares the importance of using data to drive your decision-making
  • The first step to solving your biggest challenges: identifying your “why”
  • How Dan’s problem-solving method can help you grow your business, improve your company culture, and implement quality ideas
  • Why accountability is essential for business success

In this episode…

What challenges are you facing in your business today? Are you dealing with burnout, struggling to make a difference with your marketing, or wearing too many hats in your business?

No matter your obstacles, Dan Kuschell has a strategic method to help you solve them. The first step? Identifying why you want to solve your challenges. As Dan says, this is the lever that will help you transform your message, improve your team’s culture, and grow your business.

Join Dan Kuschell in this episode of Growth to Freedom as he shares the problem-solving strategies that can help you transform your business. Listen in as Dan shares one of the biggest challenges he faced in his career, how to solve today’s most common business obstacles, and the importance of accountability for company growth.

Resources mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode

Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com.

Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall in growing your business? Well, let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. You can do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com. That’s breakthroughstrategycall.com.

In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free small business toolkit. You can get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com. That’s activate.breakthrough3x.com.

If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com.

Episode Transcript

Dan Kuschell 0:03

Welcome to growthtofreedom.com, the show that brings you inspiration, transformation and leadership are helping you connect the dots, see the blind spots, and get unstuck. So you can go out and generate more leads more sales, more profits. More importantly, so you can go out and have a bigger reach a bigger impact and make a bigger contribution, I’d like to introduce you to a concept of how to solve your biggest problems anytime, anywhere, anyplace anybody be interested in that. And it’s not what you think that what we’re going to cover is a new way to think about solving problems, partially because of our education, partially because of our education system. We have a tendency I’ll speak about myself, is I’ve taken the long route to solve a lot of problems in my business. I don’t know if anybody here has ever felt like you were the lone wolf, or a lone ranger, right. Or sometimes if I want something fixed, it’s better to fix it myself. That type of thing. I’d like to share a quick story with you. Because at the end of the day, not only for myself, but I’m going to introduce you to six rebels, and misfits and other entrepreneurs that maybe you didn’t know who were using this same method to solve some of their greatest problems, some of their greatest challenges gaining all the way back in history. Because what would happen for you, if you could solve problems at a faster rate? You know, whether it’s a hiring problem, a staff problem, you know, in the SERPs, you got a little glimpse of this with each other in the small group exercise, right? How many got a lot out of that exercise, by the way? Right? How great was it to be able to hear insights and wisdom from your peers? Right? Did you get some great advice? Right? See, you can solve problems, you know, if it takes three weeks to solve a problem, or you can make one phone call and solve it in five minutes, what’s that worth to you? You don’t have to go figure it out on your own. But it takes a different way of being able to think about it. I’m gonna prove that here over the next few minutes. But why is this important? Anybody ever hit that spot in your business? We kind of felt like you were at rock bottom. I have a story where it’s probably a little different than you think I want you to imagine, you know, building a business that you’re excited about. You’re proud of it started out at your house, you grew it, and it became 30 People then it became 60 people. Then it became 100 people and it became a couple and then it became 200 employees. You’re doing some big things. You’re you know, had like 2000 clients a week that you’re you’re building. Right? It was amazing. And then and then one of your dreams was because you realise that the beginning, maybe I should begin with the end in mind. Anybody ever heard that from Stephen Covey, brilliant guy, Steven, begin with the end in mind. Even if you never plan on selling your business, begin with the end in mind with the idea you might sell it one day. But I got excited about the idea of selling it. And then I started talking to a couple Have you ever thought about selling your business? And so I set the stage. And I decided, oh my gosh, I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go sell my business. And it was a process. And that was interesting. That’s a whole different, like crazy set of problems that you anybody here ever sold a company before? Right? A whole different set of problems. It’s fascinating. But then that day came, we signed it. The deal was done. And I had an exit and a pretty substantial one at that. Now, how many have you sold a big company, 200 employees, you’re doing 25 million a year, 100 million over a handful of years, you’d be pretty damn excited how many be excited. I was excited for about three weeks. And then something happened. I share this because it’s a little different than you might think after about three or four weeks, I went into a massive state of depression. This isn’t something I talk about a lot openly up until the last six months. But I hit a massive state of depression. And then what happened is because I’ve you know, had a tendency over my lifetime to be the lone wolf, the Lone Ranger take on things myself, instead of reaching out to people, anybody want to guess what I did? I tried dealing with it on my own why I had insecurity around. I was like, Man, this should be so damn awesome. But like why do I feel this way? Why do I feel empty? Why do I feel like something’s missing? Why do I feel like it’s not working? Am I the only one I felt like I was the only one feeling this. So I didn’t want to go to my peers. I had all these successful people. I’ve been fortunate to build friendships with the thought of reaching out to them. I was like, I don’t want to read now. Like, I should be at the highest point in my life and I’m feeling miserable.

And I don’t know if you can relate to this at all. But whether it’s this I also realised now looking this is a habit. This is a pattern in my history of building businesses. In the early years I would take things on on my own I would go oh, let me solve this problem and I almost get a lot of Joy on a being the fire hat person running into fires and saving the day 911. And my team would be excited Oh, here, Dan is here to save the day. Anybody have a business like that where maybe you’re that person. This idea that we’re going to talk about, I hope is a new way for you to think about it. But again, it does go against traditional education. Many of you have invested, you know, half a million dollars in your education and plus your experience in building your business. So write this now this I forgot, I think I learned this from a guy named Peter Diamandis, I’ve had a good fortune to work with a bit. Peter says that the unlearning is more important than the learning. No kind kind of ties into an idea that it isn’t practice that makes perfect. It’s perfect practice that makes perfect.

It isn't practice that makes perfect. It's perfect practice that makes perfect. - Dan Kuschell Click To Tweet

So the unlearning is more important than the learning. So part of this is going to be a little bit of a warp shift. I’ll just warn you, this is still not easy for me today. It’s this process that I’m going to share with you this idea of the number one way to solve a problem. Now, we did some research before this event, with like multiple, like about a dozen different sources, a couple of like modern medicine, network medical economics, here’s what we found are the top issues for practices. I don’t know if you’re facing some of these. But as you’re looking at some of the issues that are common in your in your field, admin issues and bookkeeping, how many are dealing with that? Just out of curiosity, how about avoiding burnout, like you’re wearing too many hats, difficulty with EHR, which is like a dirty little secret, getting new patients insurance issues, claims, hiring, wearing too many hats, right? These are some of the top issues and worse, there are six reasons in this research that we did, that practices fail. Number one, making the shift from a doctor to being actually wearing a hat of a business owner. huge distinction that they talked about. Number two is lack of patience, marketing your business. Now, as I was going around in the the exercise that Dr. Scott led here just a few minutes ago, that seemed to be a common theme, like my marketing or social media, the difference between social media and social advertising, right, and solving that solving that problem. So I want to play this short video. In a second, let me back up I went too fast, which I do sometimes. Number three is lack of delegation wearing too many hats, right? How many are that type that are kind of the lone wolf Lone Ranger, you come in to save the day, put your fire chief hat on. Okay. So this again, this is going to be a little bit of a mind warp a little bit of a mind shift that you go through number four is lack of an effective marketing and business plan.

Right, so So tying in check this short video out about how a lot of people have seen to operate them, right. I know, in the first decade, I’ve been at this for almost three decades started my first business all the way back in 1992, before the internet stuff, you know, became a sensation. And I got fascinated by psychology, anybody here fascinated by human behaviour? Like, like, I feel like if I had to describe like, my, my background, really, it’s studying human behaviour. Like, why do people do the crazy shit they do? And why do they not do the shit that they do? Right? That’s fascinating that that whole idea in and of itself. And so my sister got me a job working in a direct mail company all the way back in the late 80s. And I got to, you know, we were doing direct mail campaigns, and we were running radio and TV ads, and we’d put out a 62nd spot, and we’d have hundreds of phone calls, the phone would lit ring off the hook by what people said, and then we’d run some ads and we’d get like, zero. What was the difference? Our direct mail campaigns, and it’s what Dr. Scott has been sharing with you that triangle, you know, ingrain that triangle, in your mind and in your business, whether you ultimately work with Dr. Scott long term or not. It’s market, its message its media, its market message media. So you’re going to have the right message going to the wrong market. What are you going to get? Donut crickets? Right. But you might be beat yourself up. If you’re anything like me, be really hard on yourself and go, Oh, God, what the hell I suck. That’s how I used to be. And that I go deeper and trying to figure out let me go figure this out. And I would lengthen the time it would take instead of shortening it. So this process is going to teach you how to shorten it so you can have a bigger impact a bigger reach a bigger contribution in your marketplace. So check out this idea and see if maybe you can relate to this just a little bit. I find this a little bit humorous and how to look at marketing month Great work everyone launched means marketing though marketing means content. We need something that’s like punchy and shareable and digital and social. Who is the customer? Yeah. That’s right. They’re so great. So let’s hear your ideas. What do you got? Nice. Okay, wait, I have something much better. I like it can make it go viral. But check in with the social media managers. Oh my God, look at this tiny hamster eat a tiny burrito. Oh my god, it’s so tiny so dead. That’s not good enough it’s ideation time. Series What does on fleek mean? Tell us when our customer would concentrate harder you know, we haven’t tried? Marketing. Think this is just how the brainstorm seems labour intensive.

Dan Kuschell 10:51

Yeah. Anybody ever felt like your marketing is like that? Just throwing it on a wall? I’m guilty. I’m guilty. I’m way guilty of that instead of using the science instead of using the numbers, the data to make decisions. One other thing about working with Scott’s team, Dr. Scott’s team is it’s data driven, let the data help you make the decision. It’s there for you if you take the time to be able to use it. So next is lack of effective follow up. Dr. Scott had talked about this a little bit right. Again, six reasons that most practices are lack of follow up. Right? What would happen if you had better follow up with your text messaging, your email, you know, things like doing a voice shot which can deliver a voice message one message can go to 100 of your patients, right? That you can stay in contact with them and is simple technology to be able to use overall. Next is lack of a great system for collecting payments. And a couple things that came up as we were circling around is like how do I attract customers? And how do I create like building options or financing options? Right? Not having that what does that cost the company? Right? Or not making it simple? You want to Dr Scott’s key values. Keep it simple. Keep it here’s a great line you might want to write down my buddy Dean Grazioso, who I’ve been friends with for a couple decades, has this quote he says keep it so low. The goats can eat it. Keep it so low, the goats can eat it. In other words, my dad had a version of this. He said keep keep it simple, stupid, which is what he used to say to me all the time. Keep it simple. Right? Keep it simple kiss approach. Keep it so low that goats can eat it. Right? So what would happen for your business if you could create financing options or billing options that made it so simple that they just made it a natural? Yes. Right or made it risk free? So keep that in mind. So everybody wrote down a version of a top struggle you’re handing handling. Now maybe you got that addressed? How many got their problem solved in that group discussion? Okay, awesome. If you didn’t, if you did write down a new one, what’s another top issue or problem that you’ve got that you’re facing right now. And if you didn’t get it address, you can just use that one. But just write that down real quick. And as we go through this exercise, I want to share an example of how to solve this problem. Now why is it important for you to solve this problem? Here’s the key to think about why? You know Tony Robbins? How many are Tony Robbins fans? How many are not Tony Robbins fans? How many don’t know who Tony Robbins is just out of curiosity. Okay. Couple of people. So no big deal. But Tony Robbins has this belief system. He says, you know, it’s if your why is big enough, you will find a way to solve it. It’s a lever you know, think of a lever we got a big lever here. And if this is your problem, it’s sitting here right in the middle of the room this big elephant in the room that’s sitting here and we got a lever we got a little lever and we’re trying to move that problem that’s our a little why we’re not going to be able to move that problem out of the way are we How many have ever had problems like that where they you thought they were upon but you took it casual? The why wasn’t big enough? The emotional reason behind it wasn’t any it just it stayed a problem. How many have had that happen? Right? When the levers long enough? When your why is long enough, when it’s big enough, you can move it? What’s your why? So whatever that problem is, the first thing to identify is why is it important for you to solve this problem? Why is it important to solve it? Why does everybody have your why for whatever that problem is? Why do you feel that it’s an absolute necessity? It’s a myth. Ask when it becomes a must, and have to that’s when you’ll solve it. But so many of us I know on I’ll speak about myself for many years, I played small, Brendon Burchard. I know how many know who Brandi says, Don’t let your small business keep you small minded. I took it casually. And it became a casualty of the problems that I faced in my business. I don’t know if you’ve been there. Right. So when you’re wise, big enough, you can solve it.

So the number one method to solve any problem before I get into the number one method, I want to share five benefits that you get when you solve the problem and use this method that we’re going to talk about. So the number one is you’re part of something, you’re a part of something where you’re, you have values in alignment, you have culture leading value, it’s about contribution, collaboration, and giving and supporting How many think that that would be a pretty cool thing to get a benefit for anything that you would want to do contribution collaboration. See right now, as you assess your business, your practice your team, how collaborative is the environment you have set up as the leader of your team? How collaborative is it? Do your does your team feel like there appear to a degree working with you and can provide value and add value and can openly share and contribute to the betterment of growing the business. Many of you probably have team members that are brilliant if you gave them a chance to be more brilliant, right. And ideally, this idea, this shift that we’re going to talk about here in a second to shift from solving problems will give you a new way to include them in the process. So number two, it gives you a sounding board to be your best self. Right, the old idea that iron sharpens iron. Maybe when you haven’t, I first heard this from a buddy of mine, Joe Polish. He says that irritated oysters create pearls. Right? So many I’ll speak about my culture in my early businesses, a couple of them tanked. In the early years, I was afraid of you know, conflict in the office, I don’t know if anybody’s been there, I was afraid of people, you know, getting into like conflict with me or other managers in the business. And we would try it at all cost to avoid it. But what we found is you can actually create a more healthy workplace by creating a healthy way to deal with conflict and address it and allow the irritated oysters to actually become pearls. Right? Or iron sharpening iron or coal termit turning into a diamond.

You can actually create a more healthy workplace by creating a healthy way to deal with conflict and address it — and allow the irritated oysters to become pearls.” - Dan Kuschell Click To Tweet

Right? What would happen in your business, if you were able to do that and create this culture around this way of solving problems? Number three, it drives more than ideas. Right? Chances are I mean, you’re here, you don’t need more ideas you need you want probably deep in your soul to implement more, right? You want to implement more, you probably are the type the creative type that has more ideas by 9am in the morning than most people do in a month. I don’t know if you’ve ever felt that way. So it’s not about just ideas. It’s about bridging ideas and implementation, right ideas and implement anybody here. Oh, here’s the other part. There’s a difference in the quality of ideas, isn’t there? Right? We talked about the not to do lists yesterday, we talked about the not now list yesterday, and we talked about the to do list. But here’s another way to think about your ideas, even the ideas that you’re coming up with here. And maybe you’re making those notes and putting those needle movers in your in your notebook. Right? They’re different ratings. And here’s a simple way to maybe look at rating them. They’re gold ideas, silver ideas and bronze ideas. Right gold ideas, silver ideas and bronze ideas. See if you focused on your gold ideas, and you got rid of the silver ideas, what would happen for your business? Right? Chances are it would grow would it not? Right? So keep that in mind gold, silver and bronze.

There are gold ideas, silver ideas, and bronze ideas. If you focused on your gold ideas and you got rid of the silver ideas, what would happen for your business? Chances are it would grow. - Dan Kuschell Click To Tweet

Number four, this method we’re going to talk about provides accountability provides a count how many you feel accountability is important. How many if patient let’s go to a patient level first. How many of you have patients and you have a follow up protocol? And then they don’t follow it and then they get pissed at you? Anybody bad deal with this? Right? It’s it’s no fun, right? God if they just followed the plan, right? And you probably have some version of follow up, we kind of hit on that one earlier. The importance of having follow up in our model, follow up for accountability or almost what if you saw yourself as a coach, not only for your team, but for your patients and created that accountability for them to stay on track to get on track to keep on track? Right and also were able to do that with your patience. You know, part of Dr. Scott’s process that we hit on yesterday. Why does he give this out to the people he works with? It It’s smart. Yeah, yeah, I would say big one bit is this a gold coin? It’s damn heavy to to gold coin but what is in here? Here, it’s a protocol for follow up, right, and accountability and coaching that he’s done something we learned from Gary Halbert, his name is Gary Halbert, he says can and clone what you do? He’s automated it. Basically Dr. Scott in the box. How many like Dr. Scott in a box? So he’s a little taller, you know, but you can fit them in this box. Right? Right. Think about that. So how about you in a box accountability for your team again, it started What’s the number one asset probably in your in your business, I hope you’ll maybe consider your team because they can help free you up they can get you out of the clinic they can allow you to grow your claim can bring in another Doc’s as part of your team to be a part of your system, your process, you are in a box, right? You in a box? Accountability, a coach. Now speaking of coaching, I want to share this quick clip with you for a few reasons. There’s a few levels that this video that I’m going to share with you will address number one, it’s what would happen if you had more accountability, like how many of you realise that with accountability you perform better raise your hand real quick, you perform better, but how many of you in a business growth environment really have true nudging and accountability and coaching to take you to that next level to put your feet in the fire to call you out on your your stuff? Right? See if you don’t have that what’s what’s missing for you? What is it costing you? So as you watch this short video, which has nothing to do with medical practice, but has everything to do from a a player level, but also a coach level. And I want you to look at this from two sets of eyes one, you as a player, and what would happen for you having the accountability and the coaching every day in every way holding your feet to the fire and how it can help you get to the next level and doing things doing the impossible. being unstoppable. How cool would that be? To be like that almost on a daily basis. And then on top of that is helping your team become unstoppable.

Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com. Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall and growing your business? Let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. Do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com That’s breakthroughstrategycall.com. In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free Small Business toolkit. You get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com that activate.breakthrough3x.com. If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com.

 

Share this post: