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What's going on, everyone?

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Happy Friday.

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Hope you guys are having a good start to your week, and by good luck to your week, I mean,

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good start to your weekend, so good end to your week.

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I wanted to continue the topics that are most frequently asked, and this one is about partnerships.

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I have tons and tons of scar tissue around partnerships, I think I have eight field partnerships

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that I can think of off the top of my head, and the common trait of those partnerships

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is me, and it is my fault.

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That being said, from a lot of field partnerships, I have learned a lot, and I have developed

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some fairly strong viewpoints around the subject matter specifically with fitness-owned businesses.

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I titled this, you work harder than your partner does, purposely to somewhat illustrate some

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of the issues that happen with initial partnerships is that, if you are reading this, you have

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a partner, and you think that you work harder than your partner does, and if your partner

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reads it, they think that they are working harder than you are, right, just by the very

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nature of the title, right?

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That is kind of why I did it, but there is some underlying truth there in that two people

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describe different levels of value towards effort, right?

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If I take out the trash, I think it is a three out of ten, or a six out of ten, excuse

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me, and then my partner sees me take out the trash, and they think that is a three out

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of ten effort.

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And here, there is a discrepancy between how much effort we think is put into X, Y, and

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Z, right?

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And so the first issue that comes up typically in partnerships, and so I am going to make

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this specific two small businesses, right?

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Because if you are, let's say, like, you are, if you are trying to found a company, right,

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you are being your co-founders, and you are starting technology or something like that.

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Typically, there is clarity of roles, right, and that is the number one issue that we are

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small businesses don't have that because most times the entrepreneurs are starting out,

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our new entrepreneurs don't know that.

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I say this having failed eight times, like, so I am saying this because I also did not

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know, is that there is no clarity of roles, isn't there is no division of roles, it is

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just like, we are both doing this together, we both put half our money in, and we decided

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to start this gym, right?

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And like, you take the left, I take the right, like, the thing is that both of you doing

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everything never ends up working because both of you start judging how the other person

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is doing the same thing, and you also start wanting to do things your way, and so that

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you get, you press cross lines, you think there are different levels of effort, when one

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person takes a day off, it is because he thinks he deserves it, and the other person thinks

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he is lacking, right?

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And so this happens and it continues over time.

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Now, before I go further, what I do want to note is that, if I bet against a partnership,

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I have like a very, very, very high mathematical likelihood of being right, right?

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And so I am saying this with the understanding that I definitely have the chip stacked in

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my favor, right?

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It is like betting against a relationship when you see two people together like, it is not,

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that is not going to last, that is not going to last, well, think about how many people

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date, and then what percentage of the people who date get married, and then what percentage

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of marriages fail, right?

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If you go from like total number of relationships to number of relationships that make it all

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the way to death, right, very, very small.

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So if you are a betting person, and you want to be a negative Nancy, you should bet against

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partnerships in relationships, because that is typically what happens, right?

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That being said, it is not going to help you.

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So you work harder than your partner does.

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Getting back to basically one of the questions that I get all the time is like, what should

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I do with my partner?

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We are kind of at odds, like, you know, they kind of do this, I kind of do this.

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And so the easiest way, the only way that I have seen this work is that you have clear

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division between the entrepreneur and kind of an integrator.

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The problem is in a small business, the level of operations necessary is not super high.

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And so you can find someone with a skill set to run a small business as you, the entrepreneur

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who does the promotion and selling, et cetera, you can find that person and replace them

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for a lot less than it costs to have a partner.

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And that's kind of the fundamental issue, right, is that one of you is kind of typically

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in charge of acquisition, and the other part of you is kind of typically in charge of

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doing the fulfillment, where it does work is when you have one bank account.

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And so I do see married couples all the time working together, but that's typically because

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they're delusional.

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What I mean by that is I include myself in this being delusional, like I believe Leila

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is better than anyone else thinks she is, right, because I'm married to her.

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She believes I am better than anyone else thinks I am because she is married to me.

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I disproportionately value her level of effort compared to what other people would value,

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right?

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And so we have these innate, these built-in safety mechanisms in our relationship where

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if she gets busy because of something outside because of personal life, it's my personal

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life too.

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And so I'm totally okay with it, whereas if a partner has something that takes him away

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from work, if I were, you know, partner with another guy or whatever, in the business,

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then I'm going to be like, well, that's stuff that's not my problem, right?

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And you can see how the same situation, how I approach it differently based on my relationship,

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right?

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So going back to this, partnership situations, partnership dynamics.

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I have seen it work in small businesses fairly exclusively with married people, okay?

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They tend to do really well together because they have innate partnership dynamics.

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There's no real conflicts about money because it's all going in the same bank account.

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If someone has to take the day to do something for both of them, everyone's kind of on the

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same team together, all right?

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Now, if you don't have that dynamic and you are in a partnership, then the way, and really

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the only way to make it work is to have clearly defined roles because then you don't have

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well, I do this better, like, well, I should be doing that because I do it better than

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you.

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It's cool.

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Once you define the roles, you have to let that person run their ship, right?

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If you're in charge of marketing, then you're the one who's owns every aspect of that.

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It also means you have to take responsibility when you mess up, right?

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The same degree.

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If you're running the back half of the ship, which is going to be, you know, fulfillment,

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retention, essentially, all that kind of stuff that's happening on the back side, then

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that's going to be what you have to own, right?

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And operations and the weekly cadence and talking to, you know, doing one-on-ones, just

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daily huddles, all that stuff.

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If that's you running the engine inside, then you have to own that piece as well.

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And so those are kind of typically the division of roles.

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The problem is that partnerships in small businesses, there's just not a ton of money

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that is left over in a small business, typically, right?

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And so if you have two true entrepreneurs, they would usually be best served, just both

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running their own small business and finding the person to do the extra things that they

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don't do for a fraction of the price of a partner, right?

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And so most people just think of, like, what can I do today?

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Which is, like, I don't have enough money to start this gym, I need a partner.

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But then, like, you're giving half a way for, like, 20 grand, you know what I mean?

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And I know this because, like, I did this stuff, right?

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But the thing is, it doesn't really make sense financially.

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Yeah, there's just really no other way to say this, it doesn't really make sense financially.

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And so big picture, most times, if I say, I don't think that your partnership is going

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to work or make sense, it's because I also know that math is on my side, and I try

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not to be negative in it, but this is also kind of true.

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The emotionation, quick break, just to let you know that we've been starting to post on

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LinkedIn and want to connect with you.

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All right, so send me a connection request and let me know that you listen to the show,

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and I will accept it.

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There's anyone you think that we should be connected with, tag them in one of my or

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layless posts, and I will give you all the love in the world.

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All right, so let's get back to the show.

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Right?

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And so if you're watching this and you're like, okay, we're listening to this if you're

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a popcaster.

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What do I do if I'm in the relationship, right?

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Well, one is you have to clearly define, and you have to have like a real hard to heart

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about the stuff that you are good at and that you're not good at, and you have to underline

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all of the tasks that are in the business.

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A good way to do this is write every single thing that has to get done in the business.

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The easiest way to divide it up is lead generation, lead nurture sales, fulfillment, and then

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ascension, right, or attention in ascension, and then list all of the activities underneath

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of those things that you do as a company, right?

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And then all you do is you have to circle those things and assign them.

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And then from that point going forward, that is your clarity of roles, right?

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Then you kind of have to just deal with them.

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It's just long term.

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What ends up happening is that typically resentment starts to set in because if the business stops

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doing well or isn't doing well, then you're like, you're, if it's not doing well, no one's

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making money, no it's happy, right?

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And typically it's like, that's always there.

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If it does start to work, then you start to look at how much people are getting paid

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per unit of effort of time and work, right?

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And then like I said earlier, me taking out the trash feels like a six out of 10 to me and

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to you, it looks like a three out of 10, right?

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And then there's this inequity that happens.

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And inequity happens typically because there's not clarity of roles that wasn't agreed

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upon in the start, right?

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And then you start looking at replacement cost.

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How much would it cost me to find someone else to do the same job as this person has right

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now?

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Right?

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And then you start looking on the market, right?

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And looking out for other relationships, like, huh, I wonder if I get someone else to

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operate the business for like 30 grand a year because my partner costs me like 80.

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Huh?

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Interesting, right?

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And then you start, you start thinking thoughts that you don't like to think or that

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you don't want to think.

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And you can't imagine the fact that your partner's thinking that about you, like, oh crap,

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right?

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But that's just being real.

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And so I think fundamentally if I like, like, I try to always give contextual, so I don't

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know your business.

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I don't know your partnership.

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I don't know your dynamics.

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But I'm saying, what I have observed in general is that for small businesses, partnerships

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that are not marriage partnerships have a very hard time working in the long run.

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I also acknowledge that betting against a partnership in general over the long run

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is in my math favor, right?

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My mathematical favor.

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But you should think about why it's in my mathematical favor.

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And maybe you think about that when you were, if you're, if you're starting a gym or

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you're starting a second location or something like that, you're like, I'm going to just

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partner up really, really, really, really, really think hard about it because usually you're

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trying to partner because you haven't fully developed out a skill set that you should

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have, right?

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In a small business, you should have all the skills that are necessary to operate a small

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business.

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If you get into, like, bigger levels of business, like the required knowledge is more niched

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and more deep, right?

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Like, to run a small business you don't need to have, you don't need to have relationships

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with bankers and, you know, know how to do fundraising and know how to do it.

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IPO, like, you don't need those skills.

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And so, like, I just get, I get annoyed when it's like, you should be able to delegate

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and bring people in who can do each of these, like, in a small business, the level of, like,

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skill that's required is really fundamental basics for the majority of the quote departments.

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And most of the departments are headed by one person, right?

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Like, finance doesn't have, like, you have accounts receivable, you've built, like, you

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have all these things that don't really exist in a smaller business.

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And so, woo, don't get in the rabbit hole.

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All that to say, you probably think you work harder than your partner does, and your

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partner, and there's reading this thinking that they work harder than you do, which is

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the fundamental issue when you have a small business because everyone's sharing the roles

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because the skills are basic, right?

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And it's hard to create clarity around those.

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So if you were considering getting in, I'd strongly consider you get all of the skills

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and being able to hire and create a model that doesn't require having a partner.

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If you do have a spouse in it, then you probably have a head start compared to everyone

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else.

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And I have seen that work many, many, many, many times, successfully.

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The times where it's different is where the same people with the same skillsets come

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in the door.

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Both of you are trainers, both of you are clients, both of you put money in, and then

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the games begin because both of you have, bring the exact same thing to the table, and

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which means that there's no need for one of you.

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And both of you realize it very soon and then just spend the next few years slogging

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back and forth and talking to your spouse and talking to, you know, your friends about

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how the other person doesn't do X, Y, Z, and so it just gets into this shitty relationship

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and it's just a shitty dynamic.

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So I vote no for proposition 15 for partnerships, for small businesses, which is different

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than co-founding like a large entity or something like that that requires more niche based

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knowledge.

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If you're developing a product and you have a product person who's going to be a co-founder,

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you have a kind of marketing slash promoter person who's going to be a co-founder, or

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like a CTO, like a coding slash co-founder with, like those situations make sense because

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there's clearly to find roles and niche experiences necessary in small businesses, it's really

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rare.

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And so I would say don't make that mistake and if you're in that situation and do the

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best you can to clarify roles and set expectations, then also set out buyouts, right, to establish

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early on, what you would, what math you would both buy one another out for.

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And the nice thing is if you both agree on it then it goes two ways, right, it's not

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unfair to anyone.

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It's like I think that we would sell or any person can buy the other person shares for

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X times profit or X times revenue or whatever, right, and then you can stick with that on

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trailing 12 months, whatever.

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And then that way at least you have like you have an exit flap, if you want to pull it,

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you can pull the cord and you can start over after you have more skills or you can buy

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the other person out and start that and really take the whole ownership of the business

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and cut the overhead of having a partner.

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So anyways, hope that was out before you.

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I would say tag your partner, maybe don't tag your partner in this.

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Maybe if you have a wife or someone like that you can tag them in it.

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But if you did like this, drop a like or comment.

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Anyways, lots of love.

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Hope you have an amazing Friday and I will catch you guys soon.

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Bye, bye.