Feeling stuck on the hamster wheel of running your business? Like you're always on and can never take a break? You may be trapped in The Owner Prison. In today's episode of The Growth Pod, Richard Walsh shares actionable tips to escape the owner prison, gain freedom, and live a more balanced life.

Specifically, Richard shares:

• What is keeping you trapped in your business.
• How to create a plan for freedom by leveraging the power of the 5%.
• The #1 way to leverage freedom to create impact in your business.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Work with Richard - Sharpen the Spear Coaching

About Richard:

Richard is a 30-year seasoned entrepreneur. He’s the best-selling author of Escape the Owner Prison, the contractor's new way to scale, regain control, and fast-track growth while loving life. A speaker and podcast host, he’s a husband and father of six children, a US Marine, champion boxer, black belt, and an internationally recognized steel sculptor.

His expertise lies in combining both the strategic and the tactical. He's able to deliver immediate, problem solving results (tactical), along with strategic, long term implementation of systemization and scalability. With over 30 years in business himself, Richard has embraced time compression, sharing the secrets and strategies that bring rapid and lasting results to the companies he works with.

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About Angela

Angela Frank is a fractional CMO with a decade-long track record of generating multimillion-dollar marketing revenue for clients. She is the founder of The Growth Directive, a marketing consultancy helping brands create sustainable marketing programs.

Her new book Your Marketing Ecosystem: How Brands Can Market Less and Sell More helps business owners, founders, and corporate leaders create straightforward and profitable marketing strategies.

Angela is the host of The Growth Pod podcast, where she shares actionable tips to help you build a profitable brand you love.

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Welcome to The Growth Pod. Today on the podcast we have Richard Walsh. Richard is a 30 year seasoned entrepreneur.

He's the best selling author of Escape the Owner Prison, the Contractor's New Way to Scale, Regain Control and Fast Track Growth While Loving Life.

A speaker and podcast host, he's a husband and father of six children, a US Marine champion boxer, black belt, and an internationally recognized steel sculptor. His expertise lies in combining strategic and tactical approaches.

He's able to deliver immediate problem solving results along with strategic, long term implementation of systemization and scalability.

With over 30 years in business, Richard has embraced time compression and now shares the secrets and strategies that bring rapid, lasting results to the companies he works with. Richard, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks, Angela. Great to be here. Appreciate it.

I am very excited for our conversation. Today you're going to share how we can escape the owner prison.

But before we get started, can you share a little bit about what the owner prison is and how do you know if you're trapped inside it?

You bet. Yeah. It's something I came up with after being trapped in it for 20 years.

So I, you know, the title wasn't easy, but figuring out what it is, what it really is, Angela, is you run the business, you start a business, you're doing great. We all know when you start a business you work very hard. Okay. And I have not found a way out of that. Okay.

From the very beginning, you're going to work a lot of hours, you're going to put in a lot of time, you're going to wear a lot of hats. The problem is, and here's where the prison part comes in, after the first two years, you kind of get stuck in the two years.

So you might be 10 years in, but you repeated the first two years five times. So you're never able to get out of it. So if you don't show up and turn the lock, open the door, the business doesn't start.

If you don't make sure the accounting is done, if you don't send out the invoices, if you don't go get the receivables, if you're not collecting the money, if you're not making sure the guys are doing the work right or showing them that's being trapped in the owner prison, you're making money better than if you're an employee, but you're not able to make more, you're not able to scale. So you kind of just keep turning the wheels and you don't make any progress, you're not gaining more market share. Things like that.

So that's what being trapped in the owner prison is. And what happens is it takes all your time. So the prison is really.

Because you can't spend time with your family, you can't spend time with your friends, you can't. You can't work out, you can't do anything except your business. And that truly is the prison.

Awesome. So you said that when you're trapped in the owner prison, it's robbing you of your time.

So what's the reason behind why our businesses may rob us of our free time while producing little profit?

So let's look at this. Money is replenishable. I can always make more money. Making money is the easiest thing you can do in business.

Absolute easiest thing is everything else that's hard time is irreplaceable.

If your son or daughter is in a soccer game, it's a championship game and you can't be there, and your son or daughter scores that winning goal, you're never going to see that. You're never. You're never going to be there. You're not going to be. They're not going to look in the stands and look for you for that. That, right.

That cheering, that sense of pride and everything else. You're going to miss that. That's time. Okay? Money. Go make more money. No problem. And that's what it robs you of. So it robs you that time.

Because you got to be at work. You have to make sure the guys are getting stuff done. You have to deliver this. You have to complete these tasks. And that's what really happens.

That's why your time is just. It's such a valuable commodity. We've all got the same amount, but who really gets to use it to its fullest?

Yeah, exactly.

So when you see a business owner building up their business and it starts robbing them of their time, why do you see or what are some of the most common reasons that you see for the business robbing them of their time?

Well, it's A lot of guys are trying to get to next Friday, okay. They're trying to make payroll because that's one of their biggest drains, right? They got 6, 10, 15 people working for them. Well, they got a.

People want to be paid for what they do. And you now. So you now you're out. I got to collect this check. I need to draw a check on this.

I've got to make sure I get paid on this so I can meet payroll. So it's that vicious cycle that keeps going around and around.

And if they go home and they, like, try to enjoy themselves, they can't, because that's all that's on their mind is that worry. It's that. And they just, they can't give themselves to anybody else except the business. And that's. That's a bad place to be.

Yeah.

So you're saying that even when you aren't necessarily physically present and working on the business and you're at home, it could still be a mental drain and you're not present in your life, you're still thinking and the business is wearing on you.

And so not only is it taking a lot of your time to make the business work, so for your example, you can make payroll, but you're also spending all of your free time thinking and worrying about the business.

Exactly. And it's. And now it's even worse with phones, direct communication. I mean, it just makes things even worse. Yeah.

So that, that separation is so difficult. Even, you know, as an entrepreneur, even if you have your business really dialed in and you have freedom, we can't turn it off. That's just a reality.

We can, we can, we can do little blocks, but really it's, you know, like, if someone wants to talk about. For me, if they want to talk about sports or business, I'll talk business all day. I don't care about sports. So it's like, you know, just.

I'm not going to be very interested in talking about a football game. But you want to talk business, we're going to do that all day, you know, so that's, that's, that's that entrepreneurial mindset.

Yeah. I think many people can relate to that. I certainly can. I want to go back to what you mentioned just now, which is freedom.

You talk a lot about freedom, profit, and impact in business. Can you share a little bit about how we can go about creating each of these items in our business?

Yeah. So let's start with freedom.

We all got into business because we're going to work for ourselves and we're going to be free and we're going to make our schedules and we're going to make as much or as little as we want. Life is going to be just grand. We're going to have kids and do whatever, you know, and travel the world and all that.

And pretty much none of that happens. Okay. Because we're all stuck in what we already talked about. Right. So the freedom part comes from what we usually do.

We start with what's called a strategic vision. We create really where the Business is going to go and how we're going to get there. And that really is. It's three things.

It's automation, delegation and elimination. It's three things that we do. We want to automate as much as we can.

We want to delegate all the other stuff, we want to eliminate any redundancies and stuff that's just slowing us down, right? And now we start to create freedom.

Because when we've delegated, when we have the courage to let go, put the hammer down, let someone else do that, you know, yes, they might not be as good as me, but they're almost as good as me. And the clients don't know the difference. So we need to let them do their work and let them get better. That's when the freedom comes.

Now we can step away. Now we can miss three days, start with one day and then three. Now a week and two weeks. Now we have freedom.

Now I can show up at 7am, leave at 9:30 and everything's okay. The business is fine without me all the rest of the day. That's freedom. You know, I get to choose when I want to do something, right?

So I have it planned, I can put in my time at work that I need to. And I gotta try to make minimize that.

And a big part of that, Angela, is focusing what we call your 5%, that's the 5% of the business that only you can do as an owner, a founder, a visionary. Because there's certain things that you can delegate a lot of stuff, a certain, like growth trajectory, right?

The actual vision, what you actually want to accomplish, that's for you.

And if you have to do all the day to days, all the time, and you're strapped to that, you'll never get to approach your vision and make that, make that happen. But when you can, it's a beautiful thing. And there's freedom in that as well.

I love that. And then how does this concept of freedom also relate to profit and impact in your business?

So when you so think now, you show up for two hours in the morning, do you work, you leave, you delegated, you've automated, you've eliminated. Things are going.

So without even like planning it, you become more profitable because you've streamlined, you're automated, you, you understand costs, you've got everybody working on everything. When we used to be you.

And there's a lot of things it's easy to push to the left of the desk and ignore, like taxes and silly things like that, right? So now once all that's being attended to, by real people who, like, that's their job, and they're probably a lot better at that than you.

That's where the profit starts to happen. And then you go back to your freedom, that focus on the vision. Now you can look at new markets, now you can look at growth. What else can we do?

Where can we go? Because you've got the mind space and the time for that right now. When you take those two and you got that going, what's left? The impact?

Now you can really go, okay, I'm making a lot of money. I've got freedom. What am I going to do with this? I'm not just going to, you know, stuff it in the mattress, right?

I wonder, how am I going to make my people better? How am I making better people?

Not just better, you know, better competency, but literally, like, help them elevate themselves as people because they take that home to their families, and their families get that. And then they take it to the community. And then next, you know, you're affecting people way, way beyond your business. And that's the impact part.

I really love how you're bringing that concept of impact into the business, because I'm a firm believer that your business doesn't just stop with you and your employees. You can go and have this greater impact in the world.

So when you are working with entrepreneurs and business owners and founders, do you advise them to bring that in?

Is that something that you create in that vision that you mentioned, where, you know, you're going here and this is the impact you'd like to make, or is that something that sort of naturally evolves and grows over time?

I don't think it naturally evolves. It's got to be intentional. So the strategic vision is what it is.

Now, I'm going to keep it because it's a very detailed thing, but it's basically your customer journey from the first call all the way to the final outcome. But it's how everybody in your company fits, how they're the hero and they're part of the journey.

And again, once you do that and you get everyone moving towards the vision, because we do what's called future casting. So we write this vision that's going to be fulfilled 18 to 24 months from now, not what we're doing now, what we want to do.

So now everyone is working towards achieving that, right? So everyone's on the same page. And everyone knows exactly why they matter, right?

And when they know why they matter, when they know they have purpose, because that's what they're looking for in work. Everyone wants to be paid well, but that's number three in the list.

They want purpose, they want quality, feedback, hey, recognition, am I doing a good job? What's going on? Then the money, you know, I mean, everyone wants money, but again, those other things are more important.

So when they're able to drive with that purpose as a company, that's what changes your company culture. Because you hear a lot of the clicky, it's company culture, but no one says how to do it. And that's how you do it. Again, that's what moves that.

And even a lot of times what happens when that culture tightens in the business, you actually go to your people and say, well, you guys got something you're really passionate about. You know, maybe there is a local charity, maybe there's something else that we can now contribute to and make a difference. Right where we're at.

Instead of the big, big vision, right? So now they're all part of, they've got kind of buy in on all that. And that's really how you start to move the impact aspect of your business.

And they know it through the strategic vision. It's written in there. We do this because and so, so that we can do this. And a percentage of this goes to this.

And they know what it is that is really impactful. I've worked with a lot of startups who seem to have this type of impact element.

But then once it starts getting to, you know, they've scaled and they're considering selling the business or doing an ipo, that's the first thing that gets cut. So what would your argument be for keeping that impact core as a core element to the business?

I think when you look at selling a business, okay, and people come in, I've had some, I know some people have sold very large companies and they didn't want to expand anymore. Like they were doing 400 million a year. And people came and said, we can get this to a billion.

And they dropped the big, you know, 9,000 page investment strategy and everything else. And my phone says, no, I'm good, I'm gonna, I'm stepping out. I've had enough.

I've dealt with espionage, I dealt with this, everything else, but they're gonna take it. So he got a big payout left and they got it to a billion dollars. And his thing that was really cool was he goes, you know what's neat though?

The culture is still alive there, what I built. So it's really how you build into what it becomes. And like, if you're gonna sell a business, if you're gonna stay there, that's one thing.

But if you're gonna walk away, I would say who's ever coming in and you never have the final say, really. But are they interested in the culture? Do they understand if you build it right, the culture is what makes the job, which makes the business work.

So if you don't keep the culture, you're not going to have a business. You end up breaking it into pieces or just, you know, going a different direction.

So I think it's really how you solidify the culture in the business. So everyone's attached to that vision.

Understand that the vision can tweak, it can go different directions, it can get improved as they start to achieve things, but that's what drives them constantly.

And if someone get a hold of that when they bring in a new CEO or whatever that might be, they're able to carry that mantle forward if you do it right.

I love what you said about the culture makes the business. I think that's really important.

And if you are a business owner just starting off, you're not necessarily thinking about that, but I think that there's so much value and insight into having that strategic vision, not only for the business, but like you said, how that ladders up to the greater impact that you want to be making in the broader community.

So now that we talked a little bit about that and we've teased a little bit about selling your business, why is it important to have an exit strategy for your business, not just selling your business, but just an exit strategy in general?

Yeah, this is really important, Angela. And you're talking about startups, right? So I always idealized I have startup programs and things like that people do.

I don't work with a lot of startups because I need people who have scars and have been through kind of been over the bump. Structure is a hard place.

But I always tell people, well, the best time to have an exit, to create an exit strategy is before you start your business, before you launch. The second best time is right now. Okay? And here's the reason. So if I'm going to go anywhere, I'm going to jump my car and I'm going to California.

And I'm in Wisconsin right now. Right. How many get it? And I don't know where California is, okay. How easy is it going to be for me to get there?

You know, Grant, I know I just got to go west, and if I know west, I might eventually get there. But you Know what roads am I taking? Everything else, right? How much fuel am I going to need to get there? Do I have to factor that?

And what am I actually going to? What's the actual vehicle that's going to get me there? What kind of train am I going to go over? What's this actually going to look like?

For me, that's exit strategy, right? What does it look like? So here's how it looks. So, okay, I've started the business and they say, okay, I'd like to do this for 10 years.

I want to sell it for X amount of dollars, okay? And in that same time, I want to create passive income. So I want to obtain assets with my active business income. I want to use that to create that.

So that passive income replaces my active business income. So let's say I want a million dollars a year income. I want $80,000 a month in income. I want to replace that from my active business income.

Well, what do I have to do? Well, I got to plan all that out, right? Well, I got to buy three and a half houses a year, single family. I got to get this much commercial property.

I can buy this, whatever my investment strategies are. Okay? Now I know what I have to do for that. I'm starting to get the plan now. I understand. And there's a.

I know, I don't know if you ever heard of Parkinson's law. Parkinson's law is money. If it doesn't have a place to go, it will evaporate. So let's say I just gave you 100. Hey, you're awesome. Here's 100.

And you put in your purse, whatever. Then you go to lunch and you take a friend out. Next, you know the hundred's gone. You don't know what you did with it.

You don't know what you ate or drank or you did something. So that's Parkinson's Law, right? But, you know, now the paycheck comes in, okay, 10% goes here, 5% goes here. 10% goes to my church.

This goes right here. This goes this much goes to my investment. Now everything has a place, right? So now I can really get that plan.

Now you're in business, you're making money and starting to get successful. So what happens then? Opportunity tends to just show up and people have these great ideas for you to continue on a little wing of your business.

Hey, you really should invest in this and do that. Well, it could be good. It could not. But how do you know? Well, you use your exit strategy. That's your filter.

So If I do this opportunity as well, will it get me closer to my exit strategy or detract from it? If it detracts from it, I have to say no. If it gets me closer, I can say yes. Right.

So it becomes an incredible business filter to keep you laser focused on the end game.

Because remember, you know, an exit is temporary, really, because you might get nine years in and go, I'm having so much fun and making so much money. I'm not getting out of this. I'm going to just, I'm going to push it out five more years.

And you can do that, you can move the goalposts or you can make it sooner. Right.

And the exit strategy, the other huge aspect of exit strategy is it makes you build a business to sell, which means you automate, you delegate, you eliminate, you do full systemization.

You have a business that can run itself because the exchange you want at the end, when you sell, someone approaches you, they want to buy it, they give you your number, they write a check, they hand you the check, you shake their hand, you're out the door, they're in the door. No one even knows the business sold because it's run so well, because no one's coming in to recreate your business. Right.

That's what exit strategy does. It's such a massive component to running a good business. You know, when it's there, it's like everybody knows where it's going. It's pretty awesome.

So from an ownership standpoint, it is just a you. The problem is we all want to do it. And Next, you know, 10 or 15 years goes by and you haven't done it. So What'd you lose?

10 or 15 years of building assets and all that cool stuff. So that's why I think it's so critically important to put in place.

Yeah, it really brings the conversation full circle.

You have to have the exit strategy set at the beginning to be able to inform your strategic plan, to be able to make the impact that you want to make, to then be able to exit per your exit strategy and do whatever it is that you want to be doing afterwards. Or like you said, continue because you're having so much fun.

Or turns out you, you were really lucky with your investments and you can do it earlier or whatever, but it really starts at the, at the onset of your business, or like you said now, if you don't have one.

Yeah, I think one other element of that too that I think a lot of, I learned long after my first business, your family understands the exit Strategy. They know what you're working for. They know what the game plan is.

Because most people, your family, you're just out getting the next Friday, so it's nothing but anxiety for your wife, maybe not your children, but your wife will have the anxiety, which then your children will get it because they don't know the plan. And they don't need to be part of, like, working to get the plan, in a sense. But if they know that there's a real plan, that's security.

And that's like the number one human core need, you know, especially for wives, for women, you know, if your wife's at home with children like mine was, six kids, we're homeschooling them, doing all this stuff, she needs to know the game plan.

Because if she's got to worry every week, you know where things are coming from and what's going on and what are you really doing with this business and where's the money and wow, that's a lot of anxiety. So you really. You get that strategy and all that kind of goes away. It makes it a much better life to live.

Yeah, it's something that someone can easily check progress against. Okay, I do see that progress is happening. I'm feeling secure in the plan.

And even when things don't go to plan, I'm sure that it still provides security and like, that feeling of, well, things aren't going right at this moment, but we know that we can get back on track and things will be okay in the future.

Right. The old saying, no battle plan ever survives the first shot.

Yeah, I love that.

It's just how it is.

So you just gotta keep adapting, roll with the punches. Amazing. So what's next for you, Richard?

Well, my sharpness, spirit, coaching, which is what I do. So we help. My goal is to help 10,000 business owners create more freedom, profit, impact in their business.

And like I was saying earlier, when you make people better, they take it home goes in the community. Those 10,000 businesses enable us to affect millions of people. 10,000 is like a big number. I guess it's a big number.

There's 32 million small businesses in the US so 10,000 is really not that much.

But if I can get all them to do it the way that, like, we're talking about, and they influence the family and the community, that changes things in a big way. So that really is my movement. That's the movement I created to make that happen. So that's really what's next for me.

I got that on the, on the horizon. It's going to be awesome.

Amazing. And if listeners want to hear more about that or just keep up with you, what's the best place for them to do that?

Probably sharpenthespiritcoaching.com you'll get all the information on. You can contact me. You can follow us. That'd be the best place to go.

Awesome. That will also be linked in the show notes if you want to follow up after the episode. But Richard, thank you so much for joining us today.

I really enjoyed our conversation and I got a lot out of it.

Thank you. And it's been an honor to be here. I appreciate it. Angela.