Jason Miller of the Strategic Advisor Board says it starts with S.P.I.R.I.T. and becoming the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. of your own business
As anyone who has met me or been a participant in one of my success coaching sessions will tell you, I have the greatest job in the world. To me, as an Air Force veteran and self-taught entrepreneur, getting the opportunity to connect with and advise high performing business owners on a daily basis is a thrill that never goes away.
In the two years since I launched Imperium Authority, my PR agency, I have had the pleasure of helping accelerate the careers of a wide spectrum of people, from newly minted young entrepreneurs to seasoned leaders of industry. Interacting with smart, highly focused pros is beyond exciting – it’s a rush of adrenaline mixed with admiration.
Imagine earning a living being around men and women, young and old, from an endless variety of backgrounds, all driven to improve the lives of their customers and change the world! It’s nothing short of a privilege, and one I don’t take lightly.
If you think I’m exaggerating about the goals and the impact these exceptional people envision making while they’re being successful, you need to talk to a few of them!
Among my favorite CEOs to exchange ideas with is Jason Miller. A business strategist extraordinaire, Jason is one of those rare breeds of people so inspirational that other enormously successful people become even more inspired after just a few minutes with him. When I first encountered Jason, that’s exactly the influence he had on me.
In every way imaginable, Jason and his Power of 10 team at the Strategic Advisor Board (SAB) have made my business stronger, my work life more manageable, and inspired me to be a better person. He’s a very special individual and literally the most generous man I know when it comes to helping others turn their dreams into reality.
When I tell friends, family and my clients about what I call the ‘Jason Effect’, they ask me how he does it and what the magic formula is. Here’s how he describes his approach which has proven to work wonders with the hundreds of clients he and his SAB team have taken to the next level.
Jason Miller’s Next Level Formula
People ask me all the time why success comes to some so easily while most struggle to simply survive and earn a living. Obviously, talent and drive factor into the equation, but I’ve often seen people with average skills become world-shakers despite their ordinary abilities. How do they do it and what allows them to pull away from the pack?
The keys to success are similar to looking for buried treasure. You know there’s a gold mine out there somewhere – the challenge is finding it. Having a map would be a big help, right?
Starting a business and turning it into a market leader and winning more customers than your competitors also requires knowing where you’re going and drawing a path to getting there.
In the same way, developing a strategy and then implementing it effectively is essential to building a thriving business.
To make it easy for my clients to remember and follow these imperatives for having focus and determination, I created two acronyms. This goes back to the early part of 2001, and as a guiding light for success I have never seen it fail. I personally have used them in every company I have owned and insist upon it in the entrepreneurs I work with at the Strategic Advisor Board.
To begin, it takes SPIRIT
Achieving greatness at multiple levels of your endeavors requires having the spirit of an entrepreneur. This is what will get you through the hard times when running your own business. There are no shortcuts, only entrepreneurs who sell themselves short.
Follow these simple tips as you get started and use them as a guide to your success. Write this acronym down and look at it in the morning when you face the day and at night when you think back on the victories and hurdles you experienced.
S.P.I.R.I.T.
Self-sufficient and disciplined
Passionate
Integrity
Respected by others
Imagination
Tools for success
Use these principles as your guiding light and you will always be heading in the right direction in your business:
Be self-sufficient and disciplined in everything you do. Whether it’s setting your hours of operations as a business owner or deciding how much family time you want to spend daily, be self-sufficient and disciplined with your choices. You are now accountable to yourself!
Do something you are passionate about. Find your passion in life and work your business and your lifestyle around it. If you are passionate about what you do, then it won’t feel like work. It will be fun, and you will enjoy doing it every day. You can also share your passion with your family and make it a family business like my family and I have done.
Always maintain integrity. It’s something you can’t get back. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Be honest with your customers and don’t be afraid to admit that you did something wrong. Mistakes happen in business, own them and move on.
Be respected by others. That means everyone you come into contact with – in your community, with your customers, employees, family and other leaders in your field. Respect goes a long way with the people that surround you. They are the ones that will help you take your business to the next level.
Use your imagination. In childhood our minds are open to everything we take in. That mindset breeds creativity. Many of the legendary business leaders and greatest creative thinkers openly admit they embrace wonderment and allow themselves to view the world through the prism of how they were as a child. Steve Jobs comes to mind as do Walt Disney, Elon Musk, Frank Gehry, and Steven Spielberg. Some of your best ideas will come with creative thinking and being a dreamer. No idea is too big or too small to try. Be inventive, innovative and adaptive by letting your imagination take you to new levels. The only unsuccessful idea is the one you never tried!
Get the best tools. Having the right resources and systems at your fingertips is invaluable. When you save time by operating more efficiently, you’re creating the foundation for maximum success. Having the right tools, systems and processes in your business endeavors will allow you to make breakthroughs that you never thought possible.
Having the right SPIRIT to succeed is critical to your success. What else does it take?
To go all the way, you must be a PATRIOT
Equally important to character and how your shape your thinking processes is the ability to operate as a business. You must be the PATRIOT (The Protector) of your own business and business ventures. Know how your business operates from start to finish. Know your products and customers on an intimate level and you will achieve greatness.
P.A.T.R.I.O.T.
Planning with consistency
Actions that create revenue
Train, mentor, and coach
Reinvent yourself often
Integrate your systems
Operate with consistency
Turn your ideas into profit
Remembering these operational principles will point you in the right direction for managing your business effectively on a day-to-day basis and into a bright future.
Plan with consistency. If you are consistent with your budget, your products, inventory, and customers, you will see success in your operation. Always be planning the next big thing and thinking about how you can tweak your business to net more profit.
Actions that create revenue are crucial to the health of your business. Often business owners get tied up with doing little tasks that can easily be outsourced or completely done away with all together. Focus on revenue generating processes in your business that affect your bottom line in a positive way. Do this every single day! You must learn how to delegate tactical tasks to those employees in the right seats. A great place to start is working with a staffing agency like Reliable Staff Solutions. They can identify the right employee that sits on the right seat on the bus for your company.
Train, mentor and coach. This is what true leaders do. Do it thoughtfully and across all those you work with, from your employees to the customers you serve. Step up and be the inspirational leader that you are. The world will not automatically brand you as a leader or an expert. You must own it and become it yourself.
Reinvent yourself often. Don’t get tied to a specific idea on an emotional level. If it doesn’t work, then scrap it and move on. Reinvent yourself again and continue to make forward progress. Being stubborn and married to a failed idea will lead to poor decision-making and will only cause heartache and driving your business into bankruptcy.
Integrate your systems. Developing and using processes are what make your organization efficient and on track. Technology which standardizes and automates manual or repetitive tasks is a wonderful thing. Do your homework and ensure that the systems you use will work for your business.
Operate with consistency. Owning a successful business is all about finding what works and then building upon it on a consistent basis. Think of it as shampoo instructions: wash, rinse, and repeat. Find what works and then maintain the consistency required to simply build upon and accelerate the success you have found.
Turn every idea you have into profit. Be a thinker and be inventive with the things that you do. Aspire to remain on the cutting edge in your field and develop new ideas that produce profit. Remember, the greatest ideas in the world have changed all of our lives. On the same note, an idea is useless without execution!
I invite you (no, I implore you) to use these two acronyms above as a road map in your business. These simple tips and strategic ways of thinking will assist you in your path to breaking through and taking the needed steps to your own success. If you need support in your business with either creating strategies that help you grow or staffing to help transition to the next level, we are here to help.
Jason Miller, Founder and CEO of Strategic Advisor Board
That’s it. Pretty powerful stuff!
As I said, my life changed significantly and for the better the minute I met Jason. Use his principles in how you operate your business and live your life and I know you’ll see an amazing difference and enjoy the success you’ve always desired.
