In November 2018 Tyler Schaub spent two days with me in Las Vegas. On our last night, out by the Bellagio, I asked him to look at the camera and say what he got out of it. Tyler studies how people think. That's his whole lens on the world, so I was curious what he'd say.
He said some generous things about me that I won't repeat here. What I want to keep is what he actually learned, because it's the stuff I wish every business owner heard.
Stop building out of wood
We first met at a friend's office. Over those two days we got very specific: how many people he should have on his team, how to structure it, how to organize the tasks. Not just knowledge, but actually implementing it. That's the part he kept coming back to.
I was the type of person who would wait for the problems and then try and put out the fire rather than just not building out of wood. Don't build out of flammable material if you don't want to have to deal with fires.
I love that line. Most owners I meet are firefighters. Systems are how you stop building out of wood.
Let go
We also went up the Stratosphere. Tyler is afraid of heights. We got on the ride at the top that shoots you straight up and drops you back down, and he was gripping on tight. I told him to let go. Hands free, not even his elbows touching.
I did it and it was really scary. But it was also really free.
That's the part I care about most. Systems will help your business grow. But you grow as a person when you get out of your comfort zone, because that's where you learn the most.
Branding on Facebook is a system
Tyler also watched me speak on stage that week. He'd studied marketing, so he knew branding mattered. What surprised him was how much detail sits underneath it. His words:
If you were to follow this step by step, there's no way you could possibly fail. You just have to have the patience and the consistency to see it through.
He caught himself and said consistency is the better word. He's right. The system isn't the hard part. Doing it every day after the excitement wears off is.
Tyler, thank you for letting go on that ride, and for saying it out loud on camera. I'm glad I pressed record. That clip sat on my phone for years, and now it's part of how I'm turning my phone video into a content factory.