What Do You Do When It Gets Difficult? | Ep 117

My business is getting its ass kicked. More cars, more ads, more staff... still losing deals.

My wife and I got into it over something I've NEVER talked about publicly. Something that made me question everything about how I show up as a husband.

My back injury? Nearly broke me. Like... I didn't want to get out of bed level broke me.

Look, I could've sugar-coated this episode. Made it sound all motivational speaker-y. But screw that.

This is me telling you EXACTLY what I did when life came at me sideways. The actual phone calls I made. The uncomfortable conversations I had with my wife. The cold plunges at 5 AM when I wanted to quit.

Because here's the thing... when shit hits the fan (and it WILL), you've got three choices: shut down, make excuses, or do the work.

I chose option three. Even when it hurt. Especially when it hurt.

No fluff. No theory. Just what actually worked when everything was falling apart.

Transcript

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I'm going to delete social media off of both of my personal phones. I am going to get an accountability partner who is a male to help walk me through these situations. I'm going to take specific action within my relationship and my conversations that I'm having with my spouse to avoid this separation. And I am going to intentionally build unity in these moments where there was unintentional separation. So I'm going to intentionally build unity where there was unintentional separation. And, you know, that has been the path that I have been following in my relationship to create that unity and that oneness between me and my spouse, because that separation should never occur. You know, we should be intentional about having that unity and that oneness in our relationships with our spouses. Welcome to the Value Race. It's more than just a podcast. It's a way of life. Hey, in this race to add value in life, there's no balance. We're using our gifts. We don't bury our talents. It's all about serving. Music. Welcome to another episode of the Value Race podcast, where the journey is the destination and the person who has the most value wins. Today, you got an episode with me, your host, Kyle Ciponi. I appreciate everybody for taking your time out, for tuning into this episode, and I hope that something that i've been through an experience that i've had or a lesson that i've learned along the way i'm able to relate that in a way to add some value into your lives today i ask you guys a couple favors if you are getting some value out of these episodes please like subscribe share on all major podcast platforms we're on all major podcast platforms please shoot the value race on instagram and follow please shoot me your host mr underscore no ceiling on instagram and follow and you guys if you are getting some value out of these episodes please share this out with somebody else who really needs to hear this because if you don't, the person who really needs to hear this might not. Today, I got an episode for you guys that I am calling, what do you do when it gets difficult? What do you do when it gets difficult? I know that this is not only isolated to me, but this has to be relatable to all of you guys who are tuning into this episode. But it's like, I know for me that I can have a huge tendency that when things get difficult, that I can pull back. That I could stop my progressional journey, that I could get off of the gas pedal and apply the brakes, that I can start to get deterred, distracted. I can lose motivation. I can lose discipline. You know, I can stop performing in the ways that have gotten me to that point or to this point in my journey. And I can lean away from the disciplines and the dedications, the routines that ultimately have gotten me there in the first place. So I have a few specific principles that I want to lay down today for you guys that I have seen applied in my life. I have Some real examples out of my life that I have been going through recently and even the last few weeks, the last few months, in the last few years and what I have gleaned from those situations. And I want to pull those lessons out. And lay them down for you guys and hope that something that I have done or a way that I have responded in the difficulties in the difficult seasons of my life that hopefully if one of you guys are going through a challenging season currently in yours that you can take of this lesson and you know pour or extract some of the things that I have done in my life and apply them into yours. And the first that I'm going to dive into over this year is business. Business this year, which I have talked about a few times on this podcast in the last few weeks, you know, business this year has been a little difficult. You know, it's been a challenging season for us at our company and you know I have said a lot is that I don't really look to the expectations or the standards of what they are saying so-called in the economy or like the seasons of entrepreneurship as like something to lean into like I lean into the disciplines and the dedications of business understanding or believing that as I implement our strategies properly and desire to really build a structured, organized, systemized business that ultimately by doing so, when you really put your heart into it, you can overcome the obstacles and the seasons of what is currently happening and the economies. You can create your own economy. But the fact is, is that this year. Has been a very challenging season. And, you know, you know, there's somebody who asked me recently, they're like, is this just currently like a uphill battle that you're enduring? Or is this really like a challenging season? Because you can have seasons in entrepreneurship, where you know, you are you're fighting an uphill battle because of the growth that you're enduring. And I had to really analyze that when I was asked that question. And I said, you know, I don't believe that this is simply just like an uphill battle or a challenge in my entrepreneurship career because I've been going uphill almost my entire time in business, growing a lot year on year on year. I truly believe that what we're facing right now is not just growing pains, but it might be a mixture of that, but growing pains mixed with, you know. The difficulty of the economy and what our customer base is facing and challenging seasons in the automotive industry and so many other things that we are currently facing in our economy right now. And, you know, again, as I said, I'm really not a person who looks for justifications or excuses of why we're not able to perform in the way that I see that we're able to. I just look for solutions to those issues. But as I was talking to a friend the other day and when he asked me that question, is this just like uphill season or are you really facing some struggles in business that need to be corrected? I kind of explained to him, I said, you know, I think it's a little bit of a mix. You know, we had a changing of our staff and our team. So it's definitely an adjustment there, a learning curve with new staff members, new team members having to retrain and re-educate and re-teach the core values, the principles and the sales processes of our company. But at the same time, I also see a changing in the lead quality, the lead generation that we're having, the amount of leads that are being created, the strength of those leads that are coming in, the consistency of those leads that are coming in. And so I'm seeing it on on a lot of different fronts. I'm seeing that the cost of our acquisition is going up. The profit on our sale is going down. And yet each client is a little bit more difficult to obtain and to secure than what it was previously. So, you know, there's a lot of different things that are happening within our business that I kind of want to dive into. And what I told my friend was like, you know, there's a few different levers that you can pull in the automotive industry to generate more lead traffic and more traction. One of those is inventory. So if you have more inventory on site, on hand. Then ultimately you will have more inventory listed on your lead platforms, which in theory should generate more traction or more lead generation that should come into your company. Another one is you can increase your ad spend or your marketing. So you can increase the amount that you are spending in your ad budget, which in turn should generate more lead traffic, right? And then the third one is staff, right? So you can increase the amount of staff that you have on site. And with those three things, those are kind of like the three main levers that you could pull to generate more traffic into your company as an automotive dealer. So what I explained to him is like, well, I pulled all three levers and yet our lead gen is still going down. The sales are still going down. We have more inventory. We're spending more on advertising and we have more staff than what we had previously. And yet we're closing less deals and we're bringing less traffic into our dealership. So with that is what do you do then? Right. So the the title of this podcast is what do you do when it gets difficult? Right. What do you do in difficult seasons? And I've pulled the levers. I'm still not seeing the result that I desire to see. So what do you do then? Do you give up? Do you stop moving in the direction that you feel called to do? Or do you analyze the position of your life and how you're performing and operating and then reconstruct, reverse engineer that process? So what I've begun to do inside of my business is... One is I analyzed, for one, what is it that we're desiring to produce and what is it that we're currently producing, right? What is it? So I really thought long and hard about what it is that I wanted to create. And I know what it is that I want. I have a long-term vision. I know exactly where it is that I want us to go. I know what the goals are that I have for this year and ultimately the long-term vision that I have for us as a company. So I kind of dialed in on those specific things and then said, what do I need to do to achieve those things? And as I said, I pulled the three levers that I thought would produce the results and I'm not really seeing it. So now I'm going back to the drawing board and I'm saying, okay, well, what is not working in our marketing? What is not working in our sales process? What is not working in our training regimens? So I've changed up a lot of our marketing. I've hired a new marketing company, so I'm trying something new on the marketing front. Instead of relying solely on third-party platforms to generate our leads, I've hired a marketing company who's doing Facebook marketing, Instagram marketing, SEO, and Google ads for us to attempt to generate our own leads into our website portal themselves to create a stronger candidate. For a sale. So to tighten up our sales process. So then the other piece is, is I'm analyzing, you know, what could I do differently, right? So I'm doing a different form of marketing. And then I'm looking at what I am currently doing and saying, what of these things is not generating the lead traffic that I desire to see? So I've already went in and I've canceled a couple different third party platforms that we were paying that were not really producing any quality results for our company. So I've added more ad spend that would generate traffic directly to our website, but I'm also decreasing ad spend in areas that I feel like are not being rewarded to us. And then I'm going to continue to dial in that process. So I'm looking at. What's working, what's not working. I'm adding some things in and I'm taking some things away. Also, I'm looking at our sales process specifically and I'm saying, okay, well, where could we possibly be falling short in a sales process? And I'm beginning to document and organize, okay, what is my sales member? What is my, you know, my, my sales staff, what are they doing in their process? So I'm literally going back and listening to their phone calls. I'm reviewing their messages. I'm paying attention to the scripts that we're following and possibly that they're not following. I'm dialing in the process that he's following each client and each time he gets somebody on the phone and what sort of appointments he's setting and how he's keeping track of the credit applications and how he's following up and following through with that sales process. Right. So I'm dialing in my sales process, making sure that our team member is doing what he should be doing to generate that lead into an appointment and to a credit app and ultimately into a sale. I'm also looking at our CRM, which is our customer retention management program. Right. So I'm looking at our CRM and I'm saying, where is our CRM following falling short? Is there some things that should be added into it? Are there some adjustments that should be made? Should we change our CRM completely? I'm looking at some of our other portals, our dealer management system. Our inventory management system, a lot of other things, trying to dial those things in to see the if I can incorporate that into a way to generate more traffic and more leads in itself. I've also reached out to an individual who I know who runs VAs, virtual assistants, and I'm going to have a conversation with them on the 30th of this month and see where that goes. And, you know, from there, I am going to continue to dial things in, right? I'm going to see if maybe I can get VAs to begin to act as, um. Are, um, like to reach out to cold leads and, and to, um, you know, just call and call and call these customers that like my sales staff on site may not be reaching out to anymore and see if we could turn those over into new leads. And, you know, these are specific strategies and tactics that I am taking to apply this, that I say, okay, it's getting difficult. The season is getting difficult in my business. I'm facing challenges. What can I do to overcome these challenges? That's one scenario in my life currently that instead of giving up, instead of just accepting the status quo. I am dialing it back in, looking into what I can do, what adjustments can be made, and how we can move forward differently to produce the results that I desire to see. Another one is in my relationship with my spouse. I shared with you guys recently. That, you know, I was in an argument with my significant other about something that I had done. And transparently, I'll share with you guys is we were in an argument over masturbation. And this is not something that I'm proud of. It's something that I'm shameful of and I feel guilty about, but it is a fact and a reality in life. And what can happen is that, you know, you get into relationships with your wife, your significant other, your husband, if you're a female, and you can begin to take that relationship for granted without even realizing it. And then subconsciously, you are creating an environment in your mind where you are actually separating yourself from your spouse. And I believe in my marriage and our relationship that we have a strong relationship, but at the same time, we're both very busy individuals. And I think that what happened there and where I stumbled in that area is that I allowed separation to come in. And it wasn't anything huge. It was probably just like small, rather seemingly insignificant moments that ultimately without being corrected or adjusted in the time led to this internal subconscious separation to where then I turned to myself, you know, to relieve that tension and that pressure instead of turning to my significant other and my spouse. And the problem with that is that what you're doing is you are internally. Without realizing it, creating separation in a place where there should be unity, right? So in our marriages, with our relationships, with our significant others, we are supposed to be united as one flesh. In the Bible, it talks about. A man and a woman being joined together as one, you know, a marriage, a marriage matrimony unites two people as one. We are supposed to be one flesh. And if we allow these rather insignificant moments and times not to be addressed and allow them to build up, we ultimately will create an environment where we are separating ourselves internally from our spouses. And and where as this issue arose and it was a difficult season and challenge for us to overcome, I became specifically intentional about what I could do to maintain that unity with my spouse. Instead of allowing a difficult season to allow me to give up, to distract me, to deter me, I allowed that difficulty and, you know, the repercussions of that to be a moment where I addressed myself, where I did an internal audit of what was occurring in my life that caused me to conduct in this activity. Right. So when we face these difficult seasons in life, do we just shut down? Do we turn off or do we get introspective and analyze self, do the difficult work internally to see what led you into that position in the first place? And then from there, not just doing the self audit, but after the self audit. I made adjustments. I took action. Right. So it's one thing to have an idea and understanding of what difficulty it is that you're facing, like in business or in a relationship. It's one thing to understand and to see it. And then it's another thing to do the internal audit to say what can be changed, what can be adjusted, what's actually causing it. And then it's a whole another level to say, I'm going to actually take specific action to change these behaviors and these outcomes that I'm ultimately receiving in my life. So when you look at business, you know, when you're facing a difficult season and a difficult challenge, you have to self audit, you have to audit that business. See where it is that you're following short, see what issues it is that you're having, and then analyze those, make the adjustments, but then you also have to put action behind it, right? So in my relationship, I said, okay, well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to take specific action in this moment. I'm going to delete social media off of both of my personal phones. I am going to get an accountability partner who is a male to help walk me through these situations. I'm going to take specific action within my relationship and my conversations that I'm having with my spouse to avoid this separation. And I am going to intentionally build unity in these moments where there was unintentional separation. So I'm going to intentionally build unity where there was unintentional separation. And, you know, that has been the path that I have been following in my relationship to create that unity and that oneness between me and my spouse, because that separation should never occur. You know, we should be intentional about having that unity and that oneness in our relationships with our spouses. Another one has been my physical well-being. Over the last few years, you know, I injured, I herniated my L5-S1 in my back. And, you know, it was a very, man, it was a very destructive, difficult situation to overcome. And it was, man, it brought me down to my knees. It made me want to give up on my physical progress in my journey. But, you know, I refused to do that again is what are we doing in the difficult seasons of our lives when things get difficult? Do we just give up? Do we just throw in the towel or do we figure a way out and figure a way through those situations that we are addressing, that we are enduring? So with my physical body and, you know, I started going to chiropractors and figuring out, you know, doing MRIs, doing x-rays, trying to figure out what was wrong. Started going and getting stretched, getting deep tissue massages, started doing cold plunges, saunas, stretching and all these different things. Changed my bed. So I did an analysis of what was causing the pain in my body. Right. I figured out I have a herniated disc in my back. Now, how can I overcome this situation? Am I just going to accept the pain and accept the fact that I can't move my body and I can't work out? Or am I going to figure out a path through? And, you know, through that, over the last couple of years, not giving up and not giving in to the difficult challenge and season of my life, I was able to find different ways to overcome the significant obstacle in my path, the difficult challenge and season that I was facing. And, you know, the specific methods that I took was I ended up, bought a new bed. I bought a firm mattress that helped a lot with a movable base. So a, an automatic base that you can lift and up and down that helps release the back. I bought a cold plunge. So now I've been doing my cold plunge every day. I started getting deep tissue massages. So I do deep tissue massages about once every three or four weeks, all depending on how my back is feeling. I stretch out almost daily, but recently it's been a little bit less and I've just been doing it as needed. I began to do backwards walking, which helps release the hips and the glutes and I just really focus on different exercises that help strengthen and structure my core and help release the tension from my hips my glutes and my back but a couple big pieces that really helped me in this area was changing my mattress I changed to a firm mattress the cold plunges daily. And the deep tissue massages about every three to five weeks, all depending as needed. Those have been some huge game changing environments in my life. Also, I do saunas. So I do the sauna at least like once or twice a week. And I'll go in the sauna for about 30 minutes and I'll stretch out while I'm in the sauna. And that really helps relieve the tension from my muscles and release those things. So like what happens to me in those moments is my muscles will tense and then that creates the pressure on my back, which hyper intensifies that pain. So if I can keep the muscles loose around my back, they don't pull on it, which allows me to have the relief in my back. So those are some specific things that I implemented in my life during a difficult season for my body. So for you guys, I don't know what environment or time or season where you're currently at, but this could be in your spiritual life, in your physical life, in your emotional life, in your relationships, in your business. All of us are going to face these difficult seasons and challenges in our lives. The question is, how are you going to respond in those moments? And the lessons that I want for you guys to learn that I've received in myself is in all of these areas. If you're having a disconnect with your creator, with Christ, you do the self-analyzation, the introspection to say, why am I not connected? Why have I lost this focus? Why am I not united with my creator? And then you analyze that. You figure out what it is that is serving you, what it is that is not serving you, and then you put four specific applicable steps of action to move forward a little bit differently to unite with your creator. And the same thing goes for your significant other. The same thing goes for your body. The same thing goes for your mind and your emotional state. And the same thing goes for your business is we when we're facing these difficult challenges. These difficult seasons in our lives, it's all on how we respond to them. You know, doing the introspection of being able to analyze the environment that you're currently in, what got you there, what is serving you, what is not serving you. You're doing that self audit. But then you're also figuring out new action steps to take. So you're, you know, you're figuring out these action steps. So you're doing the self audit, you're figuring out the action steps, but then you're also having to do the difficult work of taking the action, right? Doing that self audit, figuring out what the problems are. That's just one piece. And I think a lot of people don't even take the time or refuse to accept, um, that they have a responsibility in the outcome of their lives. So they don't even do that self audit to determine that, hey, it's actually these actions that I'm specifically taking that have gotten me into this position. And because of that, the good thing about that is I can actually adjust and change those behaviors in the moment right now to change the outcome in the future. But then after you do that, that's a huge piece. But then after you do that, you have to be willing to do the difficult work of actually taking the action, doing the work necessary to change those outcomes and to change the positions of your life in all of the areas that you are going into. And man, that's really what I got for you guys today. I appreciate you guys for tuning in. This has been another episode of the Value Race podcast where the journey is the destination and the person who has the most value wins. I ask you guys a couple of favors. If you are getting some value out of this podcast, please like, subscribe, share on all major podcasts platforms weren't all major podcast platforms please shoot the value race on instagram a follow please shoot uh meet your host mr underscore no ceiling a follow on instagram, and you guys if you are getting some value out of these episodes please share this out with somebody else who really needs to hear this because if you don't the person who really needs to hear this might not god bless y'all peace hey in this race to add value. Music.