Your Oh Sh!# Moment - What Happens When The Work Stops

One moment you are fine and seemingly healthy. The next, instant you are in the hospital and unable to work. As a leader you can no longer do the tasks once simple to you.

Your world has come to a halt and your business has stopped. Employees are doing their best to keep the engine running but are struggling? How prepared are you?

Many of us think we will forever. The reality is we never know what lurks around the corner.

In this episode we touch on a sensitive subject because we need to be ready for when the unexpected happens

[00:00:00.00] - Alice

Hello. Welcome to Books in the Biz, a podcast that looks at both the financial and operational sides of success. Please welcome our hosts, Dan Paulson and Richard Veltre. Dan is the CEO of Envision Development International, and he works with leaders to increase sales and profits through great cultures with solid operations. Rich is CEO of the Veltre Group and a financial strategist working with companies to manage their money more effectively. Now on to the podcast.

[00:00:44.26] - Dan Paulson

Good afternoon. Welcome to Books and the Biz. We are back. Rich, how are you doing?

[00:00:50.00] - Rich Veltre

I'm great, Dan. How are you?

[00:00:52.17] - Dan Paulson

You are great. Well, I am better today than I was a couple of weeks ago, which is some of the subject of our Our podcast today. So you know, way back, oh, what was it? Five or six weeks ago, we did our succession planning webinar and had a number of people attend that. What do we preach about? You remember?

[00:01:14.16] - Rich Veltre

Say again.

[00:01:15.06] - Dan Paulson

What did we preach about in that succession planning?

[00:01:20.18] - Rich Veltre

Well, we definitely talked about, is your business able to run if you were to take a vacation or if you were to leave for a period of time? What would the business look like when you came back?

[00:01:34.29] - Dan Paulson

Well, we now have some real world experience with that, or at least I do. Well, I guess you do, too. You're going to share a little bit of a medical experience you had. So I'm not going to get into a ton of the details on it. But shortly after our webinar, Rich and I are sitting here. We're getting ready to put together our workshop, and it's right around Mother's Day weekend, and I'm getting a bit of a headache and thinking it's a sinus infection, except the headache keeps getting worse and worse and worse. Ended up in the hospital that weekend because I had a brain bleed. And after the brain bleed, I had a clot. So over the course of about seven days, I had two tours of duty in the hospital. I have been poked so full of needles that it's not even funny. I I gave enough blood to feed a couple of vampires, not to mention had several CT scans, MRIs, and everything else. Fortunately, I was very lucky. I was very lucky because I'm sitting here talking to you today. I am talking normally. My thoughts and my wits are all about me, and I'm not in a situation where I was cognitively hurt.

[00:02:56.21] - Dan Paulson

The only negative side effects right now that I'm having a little bit of vision issues. That's going to take some time to come back because of where the bleed was. But yeah, I have literally experienced what is it like to not be able to work in your business for about a month. And I will tell you For as much as I thought I had in place, and much as you and I have been working on with XCXO to try and get some of the work off of our shoulders, you start to realize how quickly just a few little things can upset the apple cart quite a bit, because like you see now, I can hold a conversation. I can do a lot, but for a while there, I couldn't even read because my vision was so bad. When you are in a business that half of what you do is reading and writing, and you can't do either of those things for a while, that makes it very difficult. So Rich and I are here to, I guess, share the ahas of what's it like when crap hits the fan and you can't work? And in our case, and you can speak to your situation, business comes to a screeching halt.

[00:04:09.27] - Dan Paulson

And now, can your business survive that? Can it afford that? Even if you have employees, there's a lot of you out there, and I know a lot of you that don't have good systems in place where if you are not able to run the show, that your employees could take over, because a lot of times your employees rely on you for making final decisions, or moving forward on procedures and whatnot. This is why we're preaching hard about this, and this is why this is the subject of our podcast today. Rich, maybe you want to share a little bit about your experience. Fortunately, it wasn't as serious as mine, because mine is going to put me six feet under. But you also ran into some situations where you couldn't work for a while.

[00:05:02.09] - Rich Veltre

Yeah. I mean, for me, obviously, like you said, my situation was scary, but it wasn't yours.

[00:05:09.19] - Dan Paulson

It definitely wasn't yours.

[00:05:11.14] - Rich Veltre

And you and I have talked, so I know your situation. So when you see my camera smile on, like when you're walking, I'm not sitting here going, No, this was a big deal. But anyway, what I had was two years ago, I wound up doing some work on a weekend in my garage, and I I thought I was getting attacked by a sworn of nets, doing this, because my left eye suddenly saw this disturbance, I would call it, right? But then when I turned my head and turned back, it was gone, and I thought I was just going crazy. Turned out, I had a detached retina, and that was actually the point where everybody thinks that that's where the retina detached from my eye, which they say is normal when you're my age. This can happen to you. But if it tears, you wind up with liquid getting where it's not supposed to. And if you let it you can lose your eyesight. So you can lose your eyesight in that eye, which is where I was headed. I could see it actually becoming where I couldn't see out of this lower corner. Well, in my case, it was where I was seeing was the lower corner, but that meant that the rip was actually at the upper left.

[00:06:18.15] - Rich Veltre

So I wound up basically went to the doctor on Monday thinking they were just going to give me some drops and send me home. And Wednesday morning, I had major surgery on my left eye. So 8: 00 in the morning, it's like, okay, this is crazy that I have this. And the problem that I had was not that the surgery had to happen. The recovery was six months long. So I had basically no ability to see out of my left eye for at least three or four months. And then I could see that it started to get better because they put a gas bubble in my eye, and I had to wear a medical bracelet to say, I can't fly, Because if I flew, it would have burst the bubble.

[00:07:02.09] - Dan Paulson

That wouldn't have been good.

[00:07:03.15] - Rich Veltre

And that would have been exactly the same reason that I went for the eye surgery would have happened anyway. So to mirror what went on with you, that's essentially where it became the effect on the company. How do I keep working? I mean, I had to be on an audit call three days after surgery, and I'm like, I can't believe I'm doing this.

[00:07:25.27] - Dan Paulson

Well, I can understand where you're coming from there because, well, I had a bunch of meetings set up. Obviously, all those meetings got canceled either because I was alert enough to notify somebody that I wasn't going to be able to attend, or just the fact that I was in the hospital and didn't have access to a phone or anything and just didn't show up. These are the little things that we can't prepare for, because in my situation, basically I had a stroke, and they said, your situation pain is rare. It's unique, which, of course, I can never do anything standard. I got to do something unique because they said, well, you're not old enough that you should be having a stroke or anything like that. So it turns out it was basically a misformed vein in my brain that caused a leak, and that created a lot of the problems. But Rich, if you and I were talking while this was going on, other than probably hearing the pain in my voice because my head hurts so bad, We could hold a conversation. You could talk to me. You could ask me questions. I could respond to those questions.

[00:08:35.24] - Dan Paulson

I didn't lose any of that cognitive ability, which is part of the reason why it delayed the diagnosis of what was going on, because originally they thought, well, you just have a migraine. We'll give you the shot and it'll go away. And the shot helped briefly to some degree for about 40 minutes, which was about long enough for me to get back home from the urgent care before I was right back in the same level pain I was at before. I had people visit me in the hospital, held conversations with them, talked about a number of different subjects, and again, everything was fine. But the problem was I couldn't work. I just got to a point where, again, it required surgery. I was out for a week, two different stints, where basically I was on my back with an ice pack on my head and couldn't function. It was very difficult to do my job. That led into two weeks, then led into three weeks. And you're sitting here thinking, my mind works fine. I can do my job. And I did have some meetings with clients because I didn't have to read or write anything.

[00:09:46.02] - Dan Paulson

But at the same point, if it required any of that other stuff, it shut down. Actually, I had a marketing friend see some of my posts online as I started trying to get back into work. And he He texted me. He said, Dan, I noticed a couple of your posts have a few grammatical errors. This isn't like you. Are you having somebody else do the work for you? And I had to explain what was going on. So you start realizing that even the simple stuff that you try to do can really throw you off. And I don't know of too many business owners that are set up in a way that, A, protects their business when they're unable to work like that, protects their family, protects their employees. I mean, there's a lot of different issues going on here that I just see time and time again when I talk to business owners, they think they got it all dialed in. But you and I have asked that question, what would happen if you couldn't work in your business for a month or two? And most people think it's, as we've talked about, you're on vacation, you're not accessible by email or by phone.

[00:10:54.05] - Dan Paulson

There's very few situations anymore where that happens. Or they think the most drastic thing, which is you're dead. So you got killed in a car accident. You had maybe a massive stroke and died, heart attack, whatever it might be, and you're not really that worried about it. But this is those in between situations. So for you, it was your detached retina For me, it was the brain bleed I had. Those situations to me are the ones that you need to be prepared for, and you need to set your business up so that way there's continuity when you're not able to be there. Yeah.

[00:11:30.17] - Rich Veltre

And it's difficult, right? Because it's one of those, if you're starting out and you're in the small... I'm mostly a consulting business, right? Sure. The consultant right now is me. So What do I do about that? How do I get over that hump? Believe me, after you get a detached retina, you start thinking about, okay, what's my plan here if something ever happens again? Because they say it doesn't have the likelihood that it can happen again, but I have another eye. So it sure could. You can make me feel better all you want, but that doesn't mean that you're 100 % right or that I believe you.

[00:12:14.00] - Dan Paulson

So I think- Don't worry. They told me the same thing, too, when they fixed the vein that was acting up, but they want to go back in and check it. And there's no saying that it couldn't happen again.

[00:12:26.20] - Rich Veltre

There's nothing. They can't guarantee you. There's no way I can buy a guarantee. So, yeah, it becomes, what is the importance? Do you know or do you recognize how much of the business you actually do? I always told the story, When I started out my career, there was a business that I was working with that was down in Florida. And the guy that was the CEO went to Australia for six months. And everybody in that office saying, Oh, I'm waiting to hear from Joe. Their whole world stopped. So not only did his world change because he went and was working out of Australia, the office stopped working unless they heard from him. So I'm like, okay, well, the only way you're going to hear from him is you wake up and you stay up all night because you got a 12 hour difference between where he was and where you are. So the business can't stop because he's not available. And that's the same thing that happens here. You have to find a way to understand what is it that you're responsible responsible for? And how do you get some of that off of your plate so you only have the critical stuff and people can operate without waiting for you?

[00:13:38.22] - Rich Veltre

And then things can keep going. And the other benefit to that is that means that you're still making money while you're out sick or while you're out, because the business still will function. So I think you have to think about it that way. It's not that we just want to tell you that you need to make sure you're covered. Make sure you're covered because you're also going to be making money. Maybe you won't make the same money, but you need to still be making money and achieving your goals, because the business is taking care of you.

[00:14:10.23] - Dan Paulson

Yeah, and that's really a big reason why we started XCXO, because back, actually, it was about two years ago, so it was right around the time you had that detached retina, we started talking about, we both need to be in a situation where if something were to happen to either one of us, we have a backup plan. And the two points you pointed out, there's somebody who can step in if we are unavailable, and B, we create a secondary source of income, so that way, if we are unable to work, we still have something coming in. And we saw the need for executive level talent, at least at a fractional level, stepping in and helping companies with these very issues. So the whole point of creating XCXO was to deal with this problem for other companies. Little did we know that it would also impact our own business as well, and really demonstrate why you need to step up to do this. You brought up something earlier when you were talking about the solopreneur. I'd be curious on your thoughts of How should a solopreneur really handle their situation? Because they can be unique. How do you create a backup when typically there is no backup?

[00:15:27.09] - Rich Veltre

Sometimes it just becomes relationship building, right? You don't necessarily need to say, oh, I have to build a business. In the next six months. I have to take on all this extra work because I have to hire employees so that I have this whole thing. So if I misled anybody on that one, I apologize. But taking a step back, when I first started out, and I was really solopreneur, some of my time or most of my time was spent business development, meeting new people, getting new clients. But I And it also still led some business development with other accountants, other finance guys, other CFOs, because at the end of the day, it became, if something were to happen to me, I had people that I trusted that I knew could do the work. So if I really had to make a phone call and say, hey, I need help, I probably could get it pretty quickly. I probably could get it pretty easily. A little bit scarier because those people could wind up building a bigger relationship than me and steal the client.

[00:16:28.15] - Dan Paulson

Right.

[00:16:31.01] - Rich Veltre

But in an emergency, what do you lose? It's probably worth at least that little bit of risk of having someone that you potentially could partner with or make a deal with that they could cover you for a little bit. Maybe you set something up where you tell people, look, we're going to share the revenue or you're going to help me cover that. And that way As long as you don't steal a client, you could do almost an NDA type set up. But you could do something that allows you to have coverage without having to take on clients you really don't want and build to a size that maybe is not in your plan. That would cause you probably just as much pain as having to take on somebody on the outside.

[00:17:24.14] - Dan Paulson

Well, and also, if you really care about your clients, you should be looking at ways that you take care of them if you're unavailable to do the job yourself, because those clients are counting on you. So you do have to have backup plans in place. I'd say the only other thing I'd add to that is take good notes and have good systems. So you and I are service-based businesses. You know your clients better than anyone else, but you need to take notes of what you're working on with them or what's going on in their business so that if there was a handoff, somebody They wouldn't be starting from a blank slate. They'd have something down so that they could could figure it out. You also have to have, I believe, some systems or notes on your own business, on how you handle certain situations, or how you follow up with certain clients, and how you get the results that you do, because whoever's stepping in, they're going to do things their own way, and in most cases that's fine. But they should at least know what you're trying to work towards, and what your methodology is, so that way there's some continuity there.

[00:18:35.07] - Dan Paulson

I think any business of any size needs to really look at this, but especially as you get into, I'd say that 10 employees or less, or that solopreneur situation, you really need to start thinking about how you have your backup plans in place, your plan B, because you never know when something is going to happen. You could get hit driving your car today. You could end up in a situation like we ended up in, where you can't work for a while. Well, what are you going to do? How are you going to follow up with that? Fortunately, it sounds like you have a good network. I'm hoping you can count on me, but I also have. I also reached out to you, and I reached out to several of my colleagues to assist where they could, back meeting with somebody today who's going to help with some things, because right now, while my brain works fine and while I can do my job, there are some limitations to what I can do for the next month or two. So I have to do some workarounds with that. I have to figure out some different solutions for that.

[00:19:40.05] - Dan Paulson

The nice part is it gets you to be more resourceful, more creative, but at the same point, it would be nice to be prepared for the next time, should something happen that it was more of a smoother handoff instead of the situation we both ended up in for each of our situations.

[00:20:01.05] - Rich Veltre

No, I totally agree with that. And I'm happy to help.

[00:20:06.05] - Dan Paulson

So if you need me- I know you are. I know you are.

[00:20:09.02] - Rich Veltre

But yeah, this is the big issue all the time, that people just really need to understand that everybody thinks they're invincible. I thought I was invincible until the middle of 2023. And then all of a sudden it hits and you go, oh, boy. Now, I'll add one more piece, right? I just bought my new house two months before I actually had Yeah, that always seems to happen, doesn't it?

[00:20:34.25] - Dan Paulson

You make a big purchase and then something goes on. But yeah, much like you, I knew my own mortality, but we all go into that denial phase. And until a month ago, I thought I was going strong at 90 miles an hour and everything was going to be fine. And of course, life had different plans. And fortunately, those plans are working out just fine. I'll call it a setback, a brief setback. But I could have just as easily been in a situation where it could have affected me cognitively. It could have left me completely paralyzed or worse. So when you look at that, you start thinking about things differently. And while we never wish this on anyone who's listening to this or any clients, prospects, friends, whoever it might be, I really encourage you to take a second look at what you have going on in your life and making sure you are covered, because I will tell you, it's not fun, and you can never prevent bad things from happening, but you should at least do things to protect your family, your friends, your employees, your community, your business, whatever it might be, because you start realizing there's a lot of people that rely on you, and you don't want a negative situation to compound itself and end up in a It's an issue where maybe your business can't continue to run and it shuts down or it really upends itself.

[00:22:08.15] - Dan Paulson

And now you have months or years worth of recovery that happens because maybe you can't do the job anymore. And nobody else knew the job, and nothing was documented. So now there's a whole rebuilding process. I've talked to a couple of bankers in the last couple of months, which is why we've been pushing on this, where they talked about somebody was driving home from work and got killed in a car accident. Their business was basically sold because there was no way or nobody to take it over. And then there was another situation where somebody had a massive heart attack and died, and their family took the business over, but they had to basically build it from scratch. So these situations do happen. As you point out, Rich, we're not immortal. We might think we are. We at least live in denial. But we really need to start looking at how we do business and make sure we have our systems in place. With that said, this is the whole reason, again, why we started at XCXO. If you have questions about how solid your business is, how should they get a hold of you?

[00:23:12.23] - Rich Veltre

I'm still an email guy. So send me an email at rich@xcxo.net.

[00:23:18.04] - Dan Paulson

And you can email me at dan@xcxo.net. Rich, this was a great and hopefully enlightening conversation for those who are listening. And hopefully we will get some calls or at least get to think twice about their situation so that they can prevent a similar thing from happening to them.

[00:23:36.29] - Rich Veltre

Got it. Sounds good, Dan. All right.

[00:23:39.04] - Dan Paulson

Let's have AI Bob take us out and talk a little bit more about XCXO.

[00:23:43.22] - Bob

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