How well do you think your company’s processes are documented? If a person in a key role left today, would it create a vulnerability? Documenting and creating processes is always a popular topic of discussion and that’s exactly why we brought our guest, Ryan Niddel on to the show.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- You can visit our guest’s websites at: https://ryanniddel.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/exitwealthy/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanniddelstrategies/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RyanNiddelStrategies
- If you are ready to franchise your business or take it to the next level: CLICK HERE.
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Ryan Niddel is a CEO, Board Member and Entrepreneur. He is also the leading authority on improving revenue of companies by improving EBITDA through increased operational efficiency, lean manufacturing principles and more. He has helped with the acquisition or exit of more than 11 companies while seeing their collective revenue surpass more than $237M. Niddel has successfully tripled the revenue of more than 5 companies in under 2 1/2 years adding an extra $950M in valuations.
Niddel began his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 10 with a local lawn mowing operation which led to being taken under the wing of a local businessman and being mentored starting at the age of 14. He currently is a principal in a private equity group, the CEO of two 8-figure companies, and sits on the board of directors for several other companies. He has built a reputation as Ohio’s top business growth specialist, and as someone able to rapidly improve the profitability of a company in order to achieve a higher valuation and sell for significantly more revenue.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/ or by calling Big Sky Franchise Team at: 855-824-4759.
If you are interested in being a guest on our podcast, please complete this request form or email podcast@bigskyfranchise.com and a team member will be in touch.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:00):
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success Podcast, where each week we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team, and I’m wondering as we open how well you think your company’s process is or systems happen to be documented. One way to help figure that out is if a key person in a key role were to leave your organization today, would it create a vulnerability to your company?
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:32):
Our guest today is Ryan Niddel, who we wanted to bring on to talk about creating processes and systems to help your business. Now, Ryan is a CEO, board member, and an entrepreneur, and he’s also the leading authority on improving revenue of companies by improving EBITDA through increased operational efficiency, lean manufacturing principles, and more. He’s helped with the acquisition or exit of more than 11 companies while seeing their collective revenue surpass more than $237 million, so this is going to be a great, great interview. I think you’re really going to enjoy Ryan’s perspective on how you can scale and build businesses with your process, so let’s go ahead and jump right into it.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (01:18):
My name is Ryan Niddel. My title, I get to wear two hats, so I get to be the CEO of MIT45, which is one of my companies, but I also get to have the hat of general partner in Columbus Capital Equity Group, which is my private equity fund, so a little bit of both.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:34):
Very interesting. Well, one of the reasons I was interested in having you on the show, you have 148 proven profit processes that you talk about. I’d love for you just to explain what that is and start talking through that.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (01:49):
Yeah, Tom. Those proven profit processes, you like alliteration, those are those multiple ps. Those are a life’s learnings into what has made me successful and sometimes not so successful inside a business ’cause I look at the history of started in the automotive industry and the illustrious world of automotive sales. I was a used car salesman, I can water it down a little bit more, jumped into web hosting, and entrepreneurism, sold a couple of companies. I’ve had three or four exits of my own so far and have helped, gosh, 11 or 12 other businesses exit themselves.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (02:21):
It’s just shown me there’s literally a duplicatable process to maximizing profitability. Some of those processes are consistently thinking about what you’re thinking. What are those inputs that are coming in where there is value? I laughingly say that small hinges swing big doors, and that’s certainly not my saying, it’s something that’s been shared by so many people before me, but if we can increase your marketing efficiency by 5% and increase your closing ratio by 5% and decrease your cost of goods by 5% or your cash conversion cycle, the waterfall effect of that starts to become pretty exponential.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (02:58):
There are different things you can look at in all of those. One of those, as we look at client acquisition, we look at the marketing side, which I think is a great place to always start, it’s how are you marketing your product? Are you focused on a true customer experience? Are you maximizing lifetime customer value? Are you simply looking for a transactional relationship? If it’s transactional, I always encourage to build out a brand, to build an ecosystem that invites someone in.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (03:27):
Certainly, there’s many ways to do that. We can use a Discord community, we can use a Facebook group, we can use private software, we can use an email list, we can use Manychat or WhatsApp. There’s so many different ways nowadays to start to build that loyal fan base. A thousand raving fans really creates a different environment for any business to thrive in, where you start to then use those raving fans to become affiliates or referral partners. Are you incentivizing people that already know, like, trust, and respect you to bring their friends and family in to just lower your cost of acquisition?
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (04:01):
Then as we go through a sales process, how are you maximizing that average order value? Whether that’s you’re a restaurateur, which is a great profession. It’s almost like the old McDonald’s saying, “Would you like to biggie size your fry?” It’s that small little increment, or the assumptive close of, “What type of ice cream do you want with your meal?”, even if you haven’t ordered an ice cream. There’s so many of those little incremental processes that can be added to any business where it doesn’t sound like much, but that extra $1.50 for that ice cream cone across a long enough period of time, it really maximizes what that profit looks like per customer.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (04:36):
That’s some of those 148 and that list keeps growing and sometimes I take some stuff off of it, so I don’t want to sound too high on my own horse right now, but it’s just the acknowledgment that every business, every industry is this great way to learn. It’s a great way to learn something new and then to see how readily those lessons can be applied to other industries is a really scalable process.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (04:59):
Interesting. With this 148 proven profit process, is it kind of like a checklist for you to review it and see which might apply to your own business? How have you found different businesses or clients you’ve worked with use this process?
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (05:15):
Yeah, Tom. Really, really good question. I do use it a little bit like an internal checklist. Now, I get to cheat a little here because on one side, I buy businesses, and so part of it is I’m going through my due diligence cycle. As I’m interviewing the leadership teams, as I’m considering what’s possible, I’m seeing how many they probably don’t know, which is beautiful because that’s that hidden enterprise value that I know I can typically pick up pretty quickly, which is a beautiful blessing into itself.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (05:40):
The other side of things is if I actually own a business, or I’m coming to consult, or some things differently that way, I’m literally just going through these 148 items and seeing what fits and what doesn’t. Not everything is applicable to every business, of course. I need to also acknowledge that. Some of them are very simple like, “Do you have a proven sales process that you’ve documented and then revisited at least twice a year?” Most entrepreneurs I know say, “Oh, yeah, absolutely.” “Okay, can you show me the document?” “Well, there’s a lot of tribal knowledge. You see, my sales guys are doing…” “So, the answer’s really no.”
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (06:12):
It starts with the boring stuff. It’s that success swing singles type of conversation where it’s the things that you do consistently and you get just a little bit better every day that really create a massive windfall in the business that I’m a part of, and so Tom, as just a way to say thank you for being on the show, I would love to give you that 148 item checklist. Feel free to pass it through. If anybody wants it, they’re more than welcome to it. I don’t need anything for it. Just a way to say thanks.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (06:40):
Well, I appreciate it. Certainly, we’d love to take you up on the opportunity and share that with folks who might be interested in just reviewing their own business. As we help companies franchise, that’s always a question that comes up, “What kinds of things should we be looking for?” It’ll be a way for us to bet how we’re doing with that and bounce it off of what you’re doing. I love it.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (06:59):
Coupled with that, I had a question on is why it’s important to create some of these systems. I mentioned folks are thinking of franchising. I think whether they’re growing as you’ve grown with businesses you’ve owned, or invested in, or through franchising, there are some universal practices that need to be applied, so talk a little bit about why that’s important in creating these internal systems.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (07:24):
Yeah, Tom, the internal systems aren’t sexy. I apologize as you’re listening to Tom and I’s conversation where this is a little bit of like, “Oh, gosh, another system-based conversation.” This is the anti-exciting part of the conversation, but to me, it’s probably the most important, whereas you start looking at your business and whether it’s a franchise or you’re an entrepreneur yourself, if there’s any part of your business where one person could leave and create a vulnerability, that’s an area in which you should document that process.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (07:55):
The documentation, there’s typically this thing that happens inside of an organization where you start talking about, “Gosh, have you documented your processes yet? Have you created …?” One of my companies is MIT45, so we call it the “MIT45 way of doing business.” It’s everything from how to park in the parking lot and secure the building to how to confirm inventories, arrange the right way, all the way into how to ensure a exciting customer experience, and what that follow-up looks like. The part about a process is it’s never complete. That quintessential done is better than perfect.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (08:26):
As you look at things as an entrepreneur or a franchise owner, to me that’s one of the brilliances of franchising is you literally create that playbook and that playbook becomes the duplicatable, replicatable way in which you’ve conducted business, which is, “Why, I absolutely love what you’re up to and how you help individuals do that,” because it’s so infinitely scalable, and you don’t water down the quality of the experience for a customer, which is really to me, what the documentation’s all about.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (08:50):
I do it a little more on the micro level. It’s more an internal basis where, gosh, if I have to shift people around, or let’s say, for instance, my CFO wants to take a monthlong vacation, well, I think my CFO should be able to do that, but do we have the checklist in place? Do we have those SOPs in place so that when she steps away, we’re at 90, 95% efficiency without her being there? We can follow the playbook and know that, gosh, the train’s not falling off the tracks because we don’t know what we’re doing.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (09:16):
There’s just a lot of tribal knowledge that happens, especially, I’ve been a part of some really fascinating rapid growth organizations where you look 5 million in revenue, 12 million in revenue, then 30 million, then this year was 76 million. What ends up happening, Tom, is each new year is an entirely new business. If you unfortunately don’t document some of those processes as you’re growing, a lot of times I found the staff that got me from 5 to 11 million probably isn’t the same staff that’s going to get me from 11 to 70. There’s going to be some piece, some parts where I love helping people learn on the job, but at some point, learning on the job is not as efficient and effective as having someone in the role that’s already been there before, and so it’s that tribal knowledge back and forth.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (09:58):
I’d love for you to talk a little bit about what’s unique about the RNS approach to growth and some of these things you’re doing started hinting at some of these things, I think, so I’d love for you to talk about that.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (10:10):
It’s easy to start by saying, “What’s unique is the fact it’s my way of doing things.” Inherently, I think as entrepreneurs, we don’t give ourselves enough credit for that. Our tenacity, our forward-thinking, our glass three-quarters full all the time, there’s a lot of actual value in that where someone like yourself, someone like me, I’m likely to say you could probably put us anywhere on Earth, and as long as we had a cell phone connection and a couple of dollars in our pocket, we could figure out a way to start making money.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (10:35):
That’s part of what goes into this RNS solution, the Ryan Niddel System, if you will. That starts from having this Socratic method of analyzing a business. It’s assuming that I’m the dumbest person in the room at all times, and I don’t say that flippantly, I generally mean it. When I step into a business, just explain this to me like I’m a seven-year-old child. Explain to me what you do, how you do it, and then let me walk through the process from start to finish, and just literally just ask questions. Sometimes that interview process, Tom, is a half a day, sometimes it’s a week depending on the complexity of the business.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (11:08):
It’s not to poke holes in. I’m not looking for things that are wrong. I’m generally curious. How did you get into the business? Why did you get into the business? The staff that’s around you, how did they come on board? How long have they been here? When’s the last time you’ve analyzed their pay? Or is it in the proper pay bands? Do you have a bonus structure put in place for them? Do you have SOPs in place? What’s the customer life cycle? There’s just questions that come up from a level of curiosity.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (11:30):
Then I’m able to, by taking those questions, and I like to say analyze them, it’s really just reviewing them, I start to look at those versus those 140-plus profit multipliers and say, “Okay, here’s some areas of opportunity.” Whether it’s a consulting basis, whether it’s a friend basis, whether it’s I’m looking to acquire the business, all these things end up really tying together pretty nicely where it’s just asking questions and being humble enough to say, “I’ve got some experience in life, but I don’t know everything.” If my wife was on here as well, she would say I don’t know half as much as I think I know, so I’m keenly aware of that as well.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (12:02):
That’s phenomenal. Well, we’ve been talking about franchising a little bit. I’m always curious how you would apply these kind of growth systems into a franchise-type model. With some of the different things you’re doing, the proven processes, and so on, in that franchisor-franchisee relationship, it is unique relationship where the franchisee owns and runs their own business, but they also are following a process, and they have their own unique things that they do, but everyone’s doing the same thing. How do you see something like what you do play into a franchise model?
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (12:35):
Yeah, Tom, I’ve been fortunate enough to help out from an advisory role a franchise that’s Clean Eatz. It’s a national healthy food kind of restaurant and pieces and parts like that. The two co-founders became friends and allowed me just to poke around, ask questions, try to understand. What I noticed was that the franchisee/franchisor is beautiful, that relationship with, “Okay, I can walk into any Clean Eatz, and it’s the same font on the menu, it’s the same menu in every store, the layout’s roughly the same.” That is fantastic.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (13:10):
But as I went to a store in Akron versus a store in Columbus versus a store in Wilmington, where they’re founded, the experience was much different in every one of those environments. Now, the experience, and what I mean by that, was what was the process that I went through as a consumer? How was I greeted? Was there a logical upsell process? Was I walked through as a value-added customer, or was it just a transactional experience? The big difference is the Wilmington store where they’re founded out of, you start feeling like family pretty quickly. They want to know your first name, they want to know where you’re from. They want to know why you’re in the store if you’ve been there before. It doesn’t sound like someone’s reading off a script. It sounds like someone generally cares. Then I look at an Akron-based store, and it was a one-off situation, it’s no judgment to this, but the Akron store was really, “What can I get for you today?” That was the sum total of the conversation.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (14:03):
I was able to really uncover with that, Tom, is it’s great to have that franchise model from some of the high level, the branding, the offerings, things like that. But how much can we expand that model where the franchisor is able to bring information back to the franchisee as well and say, “Hey, in my market, these sort of things are working really well,” or, “My average order value is way outside the standard deviation that’s going on right now”? As I’m looking at our comparison, they do some really great analytics across every franchise in the country. Well, they’re actually comparing so they’re learning from each other on what’s working, and what’s not, what’s right. What are effective labor hours? What’s the average order value? What’s the reorder rate?
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (14:45):
Some things like that that end up having massive value that when you’re able to start figuring out those, again, I sound like a broken record, but those really small incremental changes, the franchisee has already, to me, done a lot of the hard work. They’ve done the heavy lifting. They’ve got an established business model that’s really successful. But that franchisor, there’s some uniqueness in every industry, in every market to me. The Columbus, Ohio market is certainly different than the Wilmington, North Carolina market, different way people spend money. I mean, gosh, it’s miserable and gray here in Columbus, Ohio as I speak to you. It’s not miserable and gray in Wilmington, so it’s a different mindset when someone walks through the door, and so it’s really maximizing the marketing prowess, maximizing the sales process.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (15:27):
I look at, franchising is great for the operational and the service side of things. I look at every business. I keep things really simple, Tom. Every business is marketing, operations, sales, and service. It’s the MOSS method to me. There’s only four things to focus on. Though each one of those might have 50 or 60 things underneath them, when you really get right down to it, they’re almost four legs on the table. If you spend more money on marketing, you’re hoping that sales increases, but if your operations can’t support it, the table starts to slope on one side, and things break down. Then if you can’t maintain those customers with a high level of service, the whole process breaks again.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (16:00):
No different than if you bolster up operations too much and you’re too focused on that and you spend no time on marketing, no time on sales, well, the best operation in the world won’t matter without customers. It’s really just applying some really simple leverage points. What’s the efficiency of your marketing spend? What’s the throughput on a customer? Then what’s that lifetime customer value? What are we doing to create, again, those raving loyal fans?
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (16:22):
Again, this is a one-off situation where it’s a food store, it’s a restaurant, and so it was instituting a loyalty program. It was instituting reward points. It was putting different point systems on slow-turning inventory that had higher points to incentivize people to buy them a little more frequently. It was then renegotiating with suppliers to drive down our cost of goods because we’re getting those cost of goods for every one of the 70-plus stores instead of some of the one-offs, all things that I know you help people with. I don’t know that I’m reinventing the wheel here, just some really simple things of, to me, it’s just questioning everything. Asking questions is different than questioning, I should say. I’m not questioning the two founders of Clean Eatz. They’re brilliant. I’m asking questions to understand, which then allows me the opportunity to share some different thought processes.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (17:12):
I love the detail you went into there. This would be a great time in the show for us to make a little transition to where we ask every guest before they go the same four questions. The first question we ask is, have you had a miss or two on your journey, and something you learned from it?
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (17:27):
Tom, I think “a miss or two” would be underselling how badly I whiffed some of these endeavors, so I certainly have. I’m 38 years old now. At 29 years old, I sold my first company. I sold a web-hosting company to a subsidiary of GoDaddy and I was convinced at 29 years old, I might as well have been the reincarnation of King Midas. Everything I touch was just destined to turn to gold. Well, to get to the punchline, it certainly wasn’t the case at all.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (17:51):
I launched a high-risk credit card processing company that specialized in some of the obscure online transactions. Think gambling and gaming, things like that. Really high risk, high reward. In 18 months after launching that business, my vehicles were in repossession, my two rental properties were in foreclosure, I was writing a multiple six-figure check to shut down the business, and I was laying off or terminating all my employees December 21st, where the lessons I learned from that, really, a pretty solid misstep, were I didn’t build systems and processes, I didn’t have a level of duplication of my business, so the only sales that were being generated were being generated by me, which is fine, but I didn’t have an operational specialist at the same time to fall behind me to help clean up some things, so I would close a customer and nothing would happen, and I’d have to keep putting on multiple hats versus creating a leverage of really finding people that are brilliant in those industries, in that specific vertical of the business.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (18:49):
Another lesson I learned from that is, I struggle with this one, but it’s really, I don’t like to slide all my chips at this point to the middle of the table. I’m not always going to bet on black. Literally, with that ego I had at 29, I was just convinced I’m going to take these winnings from my first business, I’m going to put them to the center of the table, and I’m going to triple them, and I’m going to sell this next business. It’s going to take me three years. I got the entire plan mapped out. 18 months later, there’s no chips left on the table, and I’m really, I think, 40 or 60 grand in the hole as a net worth.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (19:20):
Some pretty quick lessons that have stuck with me today, where now, it’s that measure twice, cut once. It’s be more intentional with my thought process. It’s out a desired destination and see, “Am I the best person to get myself there?” It’s really some of that Dan Sullivan training of who, not how. To me, so much of life now is, “Who’s the person that’s best at that?” not, “How do I get there?” ’cause they already know the how. A couple of lessons sprinkled in there from a misstep.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:48):
Oh, thank you for sharing. Let’s look at the other side. You’ve shared a little bit about this, but let’s talk about a make or two that you’d like to share.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (19:56):
Yeah, Tom. Thank you. The make that I would say in this moment is my company MIT45. Company MIT45, I came on as a consultant. We were at a $5 million year run rate. As we wrapped up 2022, as we’re having our conversation now, our financials are looking just a little bit more than 70 million in revenue. As we’ve done that, we’ve kept our marginalization consistent. While the numbers are all well and good, the biggest win for me isn’t any of that, it’s pivoting our company into a corporation and going through and doing a stock issuance for all of our employees and really acknowledging the fact that it’s the power of the sum total of the whole that got us to where we’re at. It’s not me, it’s not my partners, it’s not any individual contributor. It’s the collective brilliance of all of us together.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (20:45):
By seeing those fiscal wins come up, it starts to present this new opportunity of, gosh, there’s going to be an IPO in the future for us, there’s going to be some sort of large capital gains event. While it certainly it’s going to feel good to win at that level, it’s going to feel a lot better to have the line worker that’s making our product get five, six, seven times annual salary as a check. These are things that really, really alter people’s trajectory and what they’re capable of and help create a level of generational wealth for them. That, to me, is the biggest win.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (21:14):
I’m sure, Tom, you can relate to this. You get to a certain point inside a business that the difference between a million dollars and $10 million is just another zero on a balance sheet. It matters, but you just kind of get numb to it. But to see a coworker’s face light up when they see a sheet of paper and says, “I literally, I own part of what I’ve helped build, and I’m going to get paid from this?” The tears and the emotion, Tom, it’s probably the most meaningful day of my life in the past 38 years was that stock issuance stepping into the fourth quarter of 2022.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (21:45):
That’s incredible. Wow. What a huge, huge win. Well, let’s talk about a multiplier that you’ve used to grow yourself, your businesses along the way.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (21:55):
Yes, Tom. The biggest multiplier for me has been really removing myself. It’s multiplication by subtraction. I think it’s natural as I look at my trajectory and some of the business I’ve been a part of, there’s that hustle phase that I know you and I and as you’re listening to us, we’re already past that phase, but that’s like that zero to a million, maybe zero to five million. You can strap the business on your back. You can work harder, you can work longer hours, and poof, if you got a good market message match or product market fit, you’re going to be at the million to 5 million range. It’s just kind of what happens.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (22:27):
But then as you start growing more and more, that 5 to 10 million range, then I start to look at other people. You need some other people to help carry the boat, if you will. But then that 10 to 20, it’s really, “Gosh, I don’t want to make the decisions anymore. I’ve got great people around me, that I need to start decentralizing every decision.” That starts to become a leverage point, and it’s a challenge as an entrepreneur, especially if you started from scratch. It’s like, “Gosh, I’ve risked everything. I’ve put all my chips on the table,” or whatever amount of chips you’ve decided to put on the table. How do I know that the people that are supporting me are going to make the right decision?
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (23:00):
The answer, quite frankly, is you don’t. You got to create those guardrails, create those systems and processes to allow people to, I’ll say, fail forward, fail gracefully. To me, I don’t know about you, Tom, but I’ve learned from my missteps probably even more than my successes, and so allowing some simple ecosystems inside of the business in which not only is there leverage on me, but there’s leverage on the people that support me at the C-suite level where authority metrics and signing metrics, so there’s scalability, so really, the multiplier is me getting the heck out of my own way and being able to think further and further down the road. I need to be 18 to 24 months ahead at all times and use chief of staff and some people that support me to be more involved in the day-to-day operations.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (23:40):
Ryan, the last question we like to ask every guest is, what does success mean to you?
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (23:46):
Success means to me being able to do what I want, how I want, when I want, with who I want. That success is a combination of the systems and processes that are put in place for a business. If Tom, if I said, “Gosh, buddy, let’s take a trip down to Mexico tomorrow. I’m buying.” Can I do that and can I step away for a month from my business and know that the business will probably succeed beyond what I’m doing by being involved in it? Then in that, am I able to travel the way I want to? We might be able to take a Greyhound, you and I, to Mexico, but that doesn’t sound all that exciting to me. I’d rather fly private. Can I come pick you up on a jet and then we go down? Then you’ve got a couple of buddies that want to come, too, so how do we all get to go?
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (24:32):
Certainly, there’s a fiscal component to that, but there’s a lifestyle component to that. There’s, am I spending the right quality time with the right quality people? Are there people that are dragging on my energy, or adding to my energy? It’s consistently auditing that to get, I don’t want to say “get rid of,” but to help the people that are draining my energies fall to the wayside, or get to speak to somebody else, and the people that add energy to me, I want them around me all the time. That’s really what success looks like to me.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (24:56):
Ryan, as we bring this to a close, is there anything you are hoping to share or get across that you haven’t had a chance to do so yet?
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (25:02):
I’ve been fortunate to be interviewed on a couple of podcasts, and this is really me speaking to myself, and so hopefully, there’s something in it for you as you’re listening to us, and that’s capable of far more than you’ve ever given yourself credit for, and that if you can find that one person, if you can find that mentor, you can find that inspiration that can hold a slightly higher belief in you than you have in yourself, it’s amazing what can happen and what can transition, so if that’s someone like Tom, if that’s someone that we’ve never even experienced before.
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (25:30):
I just look at my own life and say, “Man, eight years ago, I was flat broke, a negative net worth.” It took a series of events, it took me recalibrating my mind into what I thought was possible, and having people along the way that kept saying, “No, you’re better than how you’re showing up you, you’re capable of more.” That really started to open up a new reality to me. If there was something to leave, it’s really that. The story that you tell yourself in your mind creates a preview of coming attractions in reality, so if you think you can’t, you’re right, and if you think if you can, you’re right, that old Tom Ford saying.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (26:03):
Thank you so much, Ryan. How can someone get in touch with you, get in contact if they’re interested in learning more, or just connecting?
Ryan Niddel, Techvestors (26:10):
It’s just ryanniddel.com. That’s R-Y-A-N N-I-D-D-E-L dot com, or any social handle, LinkedIn, Twitter, all the big ones. It’s just Ryan Niddel. I keep it pretty simple and all I’ll share on social or on my email list is just what I’m up to and what’s working and also what’s not. Fortunately, I don’t have an offer. I don’t have something to sell. I’m not going to solicit you to buy a bunch of stuff. It’s really just a way to add value back to the world.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (26:36):
Ryan, thank you so much for a fantastic interview. Let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. Takeaway number one is when Ryan talked about his proven profit process and he described that there is a duplicatable process to everything you do. I love that quote that he said, “Small hinges swing big doors.”
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (27:01):
Takeaway number two. He said, “Well, why are systems important?” He said, “Well, it helps create an internal system. If someone leaves your company, it could create a vulnerability if you don’t have some of these processes documented.” He also said that getting your process done is better than perfect, so getting something in place is better than perfect. I know at our organization, when we help our clients document their process, we like to apply the 80/20 rule as part of what we look at when we go through that, where we look at what are those 20% of activities that are producing 80% of the client’s results, or that positions results, we want to document that 20%. That’s the most important thing. If you’re going to spend any time anywhere, focus on that and you can backfill all the other things later.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (27:52):
Takeaway number three is when Ryan was talking about the RNS method. Part of that RNS method is that he asks people to explain to him about their business as if he were a child, and he uses the Socratic method to ask a bunch of questions, and he shared that he has a 148-question process that he takes people through. Lastly, he said, part of that RNS method is to be humble enough to recognize that you have experiences in life, but that you don’t know everything. That final takeaway on this part is that he said asking questions is different from questioning. I think that’s great if you are the questioner, but also if you’re the person being asked those questions, to understand what is the true intent of the person asking those. Are they just asking questions, or are they questioning?
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (28:46):
Now, it’s time for today’s win-win. Today’s win-win came from the very tail end when Ryan said, “You are capable of more than you’ve ever given yourself credit for.” I thought that was just a great way to close and I’d like that to sit with you for a minute and just repeat that to you, our listener. You are capable of way more than you’ve given yourself credit for. He described that situation for him where he had started a business, sold it, took all of his proceeds, invested in a new business because he was very ambitious, and as he described, overly confident, and he put everything he had into that business, and 18 months later, he was shutting it down, and out of money, and flat broke.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (29:39):
Eight years later, by changing his mindset after that incident, he’s now at a place where he owns multiple businesses and is very successful in terms of his outlook and life and career and all the various things that he’s doing. So much so that he’s shared with us how he’s taken his company and issued stock in the organization to all of his employees to share dividends to them as the company makes profit.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (30:07):
That’s the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review, and remember, if you or anyone might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at bigskyfranchiseteam.com. Thanks for tuning in and we look forward to having you back next week.
