My favorite part of being a small business owner/photographer is the people I cross paths with. I get to meet so many incredible people with unique stories on different journeys - people who continually keep me inspired. One such individual is Josh Kwasny. He is one of the most inspiring people I’ve met and I always look forward to learning from him. (You’ll get a taste of his wisdom below, as these 5 steps are his.)

Josh and I met through a networking group and he quickly became someone I admire and look up to. He works with the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), and meets with businesses sized 10 employees to 100 employees to help them instill an empowering and effective work culture. Well, really that’s the end result of the work that he does. It’s much more involved - making sure the structure can support the workers and the clients, helping people step into/be placed in the proper role, teaching companies how to work the EOS on their own so they can problem solve quickly and efficiently. Making sure work is producing money and that money is working for them. He is a truly valuable asset for any business that works with him. In fact, if you’re interested, make sure to reach out to him - https://www.eosworldwide.com/josh-kwasny - and you can even let him know Jasper & Fern sent you.

Well, recently Josh gave a short presentation on what he does. But, instead of taking the time to talk about himself, he decided to share some of his favorite information that he finds helpful for all businesses. I popped on my recorder and snagged my notebook because I knew it was going to be valuable to learn and I wanted to pass along the value to you as well. Below is the transcription of his presentation.

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What's the worst thing that can happen to a business? They fail, right? And many, many businesses dock in the first five years just because they hit ceilings. Now, I am a strange person because I celebrate ceilings. Ceilings means you're growing. I don't celebrate the revolution of the ceiling. I celebrate breaking through the ceiling.

So here's five leadership abilities that you can use when you're stuck against a ceiling - because you may be stuck as a business. You may be stuck as a department, or you may be stuck as an individual worker in the business not knowing how to break through.

Okay, ready to go.

1. Simplify.
   The first step is to simplify. If you think about it, if you're stuck, sometimes it's an issue of complexity. We are constantly pushing against complexity. So if you think about this, you have two people in a business - or maybe as marriage or a marriage relationship -, right? Two lines of communication - easy, right? It’s so easy to communicate the marriage because there's just two lines of communication.
   * audience chuckle *
   Just imagine though, that someone else comes into that. You now add a 50% increase and, what do you get? A 200% increase in complexity. That’s exponential.
   Do that one more time. You add yet another person and now you went up a 100% increase in complexity from where you started with your original 2 people.
   Your new complexity is up 500% from the beginning,
   Just imagine, imagine, imagine the more people in the business, the more people on your team, the more the complexity.
   So the first leadership ability is the ability to dumb things down. Right? Like, keep it simple. Keep it simple. Dumb it down.
   You're constantly pushing against complexity. You have to have simplicity. Sometimes you're stuck, because you got too much complexity.
   

2. Delegate
   The second step is this : we have to be able to delegate, right? We have to ask “who can I have to help me?”
   In order to grow the business you started, you've got to make duplications of yourself, and you have to delegate responsibilities to those duplications.
   But here's the problem, sometimes you're like, “I can't delegate because I don't have the right person”. Or sometimes you can't delegate because you don't want to delegate - because you think you're the only one on this earth that can do the things you need done.
   But as long as you stay without the ability to delegate, you will be stuck. You cannot grow if you can't delegate, all right?
   You need to delegate to be able to elevate your unique ability. If you can live in your unique ability - what you've been made to do and you are best at - can you imagine?! You have so much more capacity. So delegate.
   Delegating doesn't always mean hiring someone. It’s asking this question “Who?” not “How?” So when you're like, “Oh, I have to do this new thing. Well, how do I do it?” Don't go to YouTube first'. Ask “Who do I know that might be able to help me?” They might be able to give their time. They might be able to come alongside and coach me.
   ”Who?” not “How?”
   Delegate.
   

3. Predict
   You need to be able to predict. Sometimes you're stuck because you don't understand what's coming up. Prediction is on two different planes - long term predicting and short term predicting. You gotta get really good at predicting 90 days and out, quarter by quarter. What's happening next, what's the future? What does it look like from a year from now, three years from now. We have all this strategic planning stuff, but you've got to be good at predicting long term.
   Now here’s the one we often miss : we've got to be good at predicting short term - which means week in and week out. When we're meeting as a team or when we have our teams together or when we're just sitting down and trying to understand what to do, we need to prioritize the most important things for that week. Are we constantly in the tyranny of the urgent, right? We need to think about what's most important right now first.
   

4. Systemize
   Sometimes you're stuck because systems are broken. I have some good news for you. There's only a few systems you really have to work out.
   In a business, you have an HR process, right? You have a way that you bring people in, or maybe for your team, like hybrid peopling.
   You've got a marketing process.
   You've got a sales process.
   You've got a couple operations processes of how you make or complete a certain the service that you provide.
   You've got some accounting.
   You’ve got customer service.
   You only have a handful of systems, yeah? You don't have hundreds. You have a few. The ability to simplify those things by systemizing them is essential in helping you break through your ceiling.
   One of my favorite quotes is from the leader of the Four Seasons, he says “ Systemize the predictable so you can humanize the exceptional.”
   ”Systemize the predictable” the things you do all the time. “So you can humanize the exceptional” - spend that limited energy you've got spending time with people you have and the exceptional things that can happen in the business.
   

5. Structure
   Sometimes you're stuck because the structure is broken.
   Picture a vine right growing all over the place. If a vine does not have a trellis what happens to the vine? It dies. It'll grow on itself until it's dead. But if you put a structure in place, it will flourish. And a structure needs to be something substantial, not sort of organizational chart that shows what you’re doing right now. It needs to be [what we call] an Accountability Chart - which is six to 12 months of actually thinking about growth so that the vine of your business growth can actually be supported.
   

So those are your very quick tools for today to help you when you’re stuck. Focus on these five things. Ask yourself the question - “Is it too complex?” Ask the question, “Do I have any help? Or am I trying to do everything myself?” Ask the question, “Am I actually aware of what's coming? Am I preparing for what's coming?” As yourself the question, “Do I have systems in place or am I constantly herding cats?” Last but not least ask the question, “Is the structure right?” Look again at the structure so that you can have the support because I would love for you all, personally, as a department or as a company break through your ceiling.

I do my best to keep the practice of not working on Sundays. There's a reason the seventh day was made for rest, after all. For the past few months, I've been making time on Sundays for refilling my body and soul; I am making efforts to get in a better routine of self care. That means anything from spending time with family, napping, cuddling with my puppies, napping, making good conversation with my husband without distractions, walking, napping (I like naps), taking a hot bath, creating and (another favorite) sitting in silence surrounded by nature. I'm stepping outside of my habits today to share part of my self-care journey with you while it is fresh on my heart and I have the words to say what I mean.

Today, part of my self care was opening a book that took me three years to crack the cover and has taken me two years to get to the midway point. This book is both thrilling and unnerving. It's the source of both joyful and disquieting self-examination. In the oddest of ways perhaps, it is a source of self care.

You see, the woman who wrote this book, as an autobiography and memoir of her own struggle with bi-polar disorder, seems like she wrote MY biography. Her experiences, her actions, her struggles - they resonate with me on a deep level. For so long I've felt alone in my bi-polar. I've felt alone in the darkness of my depression. I've felt alone in the joys of my mania, never sure which loneliness is worse - not having someone who understands the depth of the pain in the darkness or the emptiness of seeing the most beautiful moments and experiencing the highest levels of joy and having no one to share that experience with. Now, don't get me wrong, I have wonderful people in my life whom I am incredibly thankful for that love me and share space with me and share deep relationships with me but, the pain of being alone in my experiences with my bi-polar... that is a loneliness I struggle with.

That's where Kay comes in. I've never met her but I feel like I've known her my whole life. I feel like she's me - the me that knows every nook and cranny of who I am, the me that gets my existence. The Me that can relate and explain to me in my struggles what's going on, where I need to be careful and how to take care of myself. On many levels, reading this book allows me the opportunity and perspective to care for myself. It reinforces my confidence that I am not alone; it helps me watch for signs no one else may see but I may notice and helps me know how to care for myself during these times. It helps me accept me for me - especially when I'm struggling.

Through my own journey, I've come to learn that self-care can come in many forms. Accepting and learning about You is a big part of that care. Setting aside time for your mind, body and heart to recover is an integral part of that routine as well. So, after turning a few pages while cuddled with my pups and giving myself the opportunity for introspection, I'm going to take a nap and continue this #selfcaresunday routine.

I literally started this blog by taking a massive, slow, deep breath in followed by a slow breath out to get my mind in the right place. You see, seeing that my last blog post was back on the 30th of May made me slightly stressed. With my deep breath in though, and even as the continue deep breathing as I write, it's so much easier to focus on all of the good things that have happened and all of the progress that has been made in that 16 day gap. 

So often we get wrapped up in all of the ways we failed or in everything we've done wrong. We minimize our progress and growth because we aren't exactly where we want to be in this moment. By doing that, by letting ourselves be overwhelmed, we are also giving up our joy and strength. 

No matter what you've failed with, no matter the mistakes you've made, your shortcomings or your missteps - you don't have to live in them. You've been given the opportunity of grace and redemption. Just as we have been extended grace, we can give ourselves grace on occasion now too! 

It's so encouraging to breathe deep and know that I am more than my mistakes and short comings - even if they are as big as mistreating someone or as small as not blogging as often as I "should." And, yes, just like "with great strength comes great responsibility" the fact that we have the opportunity for grace and redemption doesn't give us the reasons to just act however we choose. We should always carry the integrity of our lives. 

In those moments of overwhelm where you feel yourself sinking into despair, shame and regret stop yourself. Take a few deep breaths and remember the good. Let yourself smile and sink into grace.