The Owner Is the Ceiling: How Blind Spots Create Execution Drift with Georges Hanna

0:00Hey Mark. Hey Katie. Hey you want to do a podcast? Yeah. Sweet okay. Welcome to the Umforget Yourself Show where we use the power of Lou and the proof of science to help you identify your blind spots and get over your own bullshit so that you can do the fucking thing you actually want to do. Absolutely. I'm Mark. And I'm Katie. And we're the founders of Unforget Yourself and the creators of the Unforget Yourself system. Look, being a business owner is tough with vulnerability and with humour, we'll be sharing with you the real stories behind the success of those brave and crazy enough to start their own business and to show you that you're not alone. Not from the accidental entrepreneur to the laser focus CEO. We have honest conversations about how they get to where they are today. We talk about the challenges that they faced and what they're currently dealing with in real time on the roller coaster. Long the way we want to show you that it's you. You are the most important asset in your business. Yeah you are. So let's cut the bullshit and start

1:02the show. Enjoy. Okay. Hello everyone and welcome to the show. Now just a quick interruption to a normally scheduled episode. It's okay to want more paying clients. Every business owner does. And so this is for you. Most coaches and consultants are out here doing everything. Social media networking, events, outreach, all of it just to hopefully land the right clients. It costs you time, money and energy. And most of it doesn't work as well as you want it to. Or you could record simple conversations that actually creates clients. That's exactly what the profitable podcast system is designed to do. And as a bonus, that same conversation also creates all your content. It makes an impact in the world and it grows your visibility or at the same time without any extra efforts. Now you're probably thinking, Hey, podcasting sounds hard and time consuming. Well, not when we do it for you. You just show up and have great conversations, exactly like this one. And we do the rest. We design your podcast.

2:03We run your podcast and we support you as the host. So you don't need a big audience. You don't need to become a marketer or an influencer. You just need the right people hearing your voice, feeling your energy and thinking, I need to work with this person. So that sounds interesting. Head over to profitablepodcasts.com to see exactly how it will fit in your business. And now we're scheduled podcast episode. So today we have this George Hannah, the founder of smart income lifestyle, who upsurface companies overcome execution drift and build businesses that are profitable, trusted and less dependent on the owner. Through leadership standards, execution systems, AI supported workflows, stronger offers and value based sales. George helps business owners to stop being the bottleneck and become the highest value asset in their company. Now, George's journey, a rebuilding after losing everything in 2013, demonstrates how transforming your identity, thinking and standards can create

3:06lasting freedom and success. And while continuing to confront his own blind spots as an entrepreneur, he's helping others build businesses that create profits, impacts, trust and freedom without it becoming a prison with just better branding. George, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Just a product. I love it. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to host you. So to kick us off, can you expand a touch more on where you are today with your business and who is it you love to work with? My business right now, I help business owners to how to grow like the person or the owner who runs that business. And that includes like how to execute how to create the systems, how to how to run the business in a level that most business owners sometimes they don't even think about it or they consider it. So I need to move the business owner as the bottleneck in the business where the business owner is

4:06everything and everything has to run through through that person. So we work with the business or to execute in a different way. And I work mostly I work with professional services. I work with like MSB like IT field, those kinds of professional servers like this kind of stream and I'm focused on to help them with the execution. I do. Fantastic. So let's let's dive into that because I mean we don't we don't want to be the bottleneck. We don't mean to be but it's this is so it's it's subtle and it's so easily done. Normally through worry or fear or just not looking at the long-term vision. So with this, can you just unpack what are the before they start working with you? What are the biggest mistakes that you see happening in a business like time and time again? Mostly they're like a couple of couple reasons and mostly people they like they they had like

5:09big plan. They have the vision for the next five years or ten years and so they they plan big but they execute small. So when the when the when the real execution comes like a vision cannot be that like you cannot reach a result unless you know what to execute every single day and when the when it comes to every single day execution you have like something exciting and you have you you have lots of boring stuff that you have to do and when it comes to both like business owners they start to become kind of like an isolation of the the big old that they have and they want everything to run through them. Not only that so what does it mean exactly? It means that sometimes they underestimate the power of five-minute task. They are doing that five minutes. Usually they say like I can't do it for five minutes and this is something like super quick but sometimes it takes you maybe two hours or three hours to delegate it to someone to do this task but the calculation is

6:13only made on that five minutes. Okay I love these are there's just pause on that moment because you know that's so right you underestimate the five-minute task. People say that I'm really good at multitasking. There is no such thing as multitasking. We can only do one thing at a time. You're very good at switching switching tasks. Very rambling from one to another. Exactly but I look at it in terms of like changing gear. When you change gear sometimes it takes a lot of energy to be able to do that and then you can't get yourself back up to speed so there's the lost energy, the lost focus not just the lost time. So we think it's a five-minute task I'll just do it. There is a maybe you can unpack this there's a natural wear and tear if you will on you. Exactly. When you're driving a car you change gear. You can feel like the car is pushing like

7:14hard and you can smell it and the business also you can see it but most business owners even though sometimes they see it they try to neglect and this is when I start working with someone I say all right we need to start to separate what is a signal what is a noise most of the things that people they do it's a noise like you should not be focusing on those. So let's focus on literally what what drive that business and what are the the core things that's that what is this signal this is noise yes so like if you are spending like five hour checking your emails or checking your emails every single half an hour this is noise you are just making excuses to to like to do something it doesn't add any any value to the top line that that that you have. So you can check I tell my clients you can check your email once in the morning once before maybe once if you like during the day and once at the end of the day like things could could wait like one hour to hours like nothing

8:20is like as always like urgent you like you can prioritize things but I think and especially if you are the the the the only person like in the business or you have like very small team like two three people so like this constant urgency and like it happens because there is no clear plan there is no it's like clear execution the the business owner or even the leader if we are talking about corporations the business owner could be a director could be the supervisor could be the manager exactly it works the same way it depends on the on the size of the business so when everything is being executed on urgency you can tell there is no a clear execution plan and in there so we we we start working on that but before we work on the execution because like at the end the execution of the business is exactly the same if you go in the business school at Harvard or the business school like here at that house university or you go a business school in South Africa you are

9:22worried you are going to learn exactly the same principles but the problem is not in the in the system itself or the business execution the problem is in the leadership execution the mind behind that kind of business execution so before we we execute before we fix the business system we fix the mental system we fix the emotional system of the leader so they can make the right decisions when the right decisions being made now they can lead the right system and implement those systems they can create other leaders and and everything starts from there so working on the leader working on their decisions working on how to extend that into into your business as systems because at the end the business is just an extension of the person you are and the business can that out to grow the the the the owner or the some like the the person who who is running that business or running this this organization so hard that this sometimes what I've heard is the most frustrating

10:23thing in business that we we just want the plan the system we know what to do to work on us the human being is like it's fine just tell me what to do give me the marketing plan if you will give me this but eventually as you mature as a business owner you realize oh it's my fear is my doubts even my perspective my my false belief my limiting beliefs just what I think about this so we've all gone through we go system systems systems first and then realize oh it's the thing fuel we had a guest on a couple of weeks ago where we spoke about the quality of of food and the statement is you are what you eat no no no you are what your food eats which like are there's that so it's not incorrect but is one level deeper so if the animals are eating rubbish they're quote that's changed the quality if the vegetables are in lacking nutrition soil so you are what your food eats so from your perspective other the similarity your systems

11:30are a direct representation on you your fears your doubts your worries your outlook so fix the mental and emotional system of the leader like and like I like this like talking about the food because I didn't think about it like that way before but this is this exactly works exactly the same way because at the end you are working with the same mechanism like you are working with the same human being so what applies in business that applies for food what applies in the like in this industry it applies and another industry or another aspect of what a human being like is is doing so I like you can see exactly the same similarity because at the end we are where are human beings and we function exactly the same way so the business cannot outgrow the owner's identity cool fantastic that's set the foundation so how do you help these founders these business

12:30owners to then evolve and grow themselves so that's their business can grow with them like the first thing we start to work on the character on the identity on the values on the the the mental on the emotions the state like I called those like the the inner system the inner operating system so once once we work on those and we start to working and like I don't call it fixing because it has to be developed from from within but once once the business owners start to work on that like this is this is the inner operating system now we can extend that into the the business operating system so so basically we we want to standardize like we want to create your own standards before we standardize your operating system in your business so before the SOP let's standardize your values your character your identity like what stand for like all those details

13:31they are they cannot be like they cannot change like from day to another they can change in the course of life but cannot be chaotic every every single day like every single day yeah they are down I mean KTW. Yeah yeah the start of this year we we went back and revamped our values and our mission because I think it's a great it's a great process to do but also what we found was with when you have your your values now down your personal values and your business values and chances are they're going to share like 80% it's not like a completely different thing but then decision-making becomes so much easier because rather than having to make a decision based on what you think it's like no it's it's actually based on these values there's there might be a few nuances but it's like oh decisions so much easier now it either lines it or it doesn't so it makes things more efficient and streamlined and we need to understand like we were talking about the mental and we we we understand that when you make decisions you make decisions at two levels

14:36you make it like at the logic which is the desire mind and you you make all your plans through that that mind but the operating the actual operating system is the emotional mind the subconscious mind that runs everything so if you don't standardize your values you don't standardize like those identity like the your identity your character would stand for your programming your thoughts all of those like all that package if you are not clear on that again nothing is going to be fixed but if you do does it that that emotional side does that does that take over so if decisions are made in two ways as a logical and emotional without any regulation or control over this it sounds like the emotion the chaotic takes over like you you you you take it as as this the logic is the CEO the emotional at the employees so the emotional mind is one million time more powerful than the logic so meaning you have one million employee and one CEO so the CEO make decision one million

15:36employee against this decision you can you can imagine like how how it's going to to to be done so what what the job of the CEO is to help a part of those employees to start to support future decisions so this is what we call like learn and learn relearn all right so I need I need to create more new habits I need to create new programming I need to create like new mental models so the more you create the more you start to have group of those employees to support any future decision DCO will take like your logic mind this is exactly how it works so this is why when when we work with with with the business owners yes we overcome the fear and doubt and all of those but this is this is kind of we want to to to let those rest we we don't want to fight those because you cannot fight that once you fight like you know these for surviving more even the logic will be will be under the control of the emotional mind so we want that to settle and we want to create new

16:42like new habits new programming new thoughts new like all those new like with time start to grow that becomes the new model and those those doubt and fear they start to fade with time like because you are not you are not relying on those you are not using them anymore and the less you use them that that the more likely they're going to fade like through that practice yeah so I love that we kind of trading stories and allergies here obviously the soil and the food story that that's the night you like I've not heard it said in that way before beautiful but what you just said there I've not heard it said in this way so to simplify this the logical is the CEO an emotional is the employees if you look at it from a business perspective and I think you're right because if you're you have 100 employees if the the one programmer is like oh this needs to change this whole model because of this thing they're only seeing things from their lens the receptionist only sees one aspect of the business and what they think might need to change is relevant and realistic but they don't

17:43know that oh because that happens here's the all the things that happen from that so it's the employees the emotions are very filtered so that yeah I that's a great idea I like people and most people they they say I especially in business like every single you see those shows like you are talking to billionaires and millionaires and they're you are taking their advice and most of them they say follow your guts I say what I but what if your guts is empty like you're following what so you cannot just like follow your guts you will have to work on like like like the same like the food when you feeding your stomach you are feeding your survival but this is not enough most people they spend on their stomach and most people they spend on their shoes more than they spend on their on their mental like literally sometimes people they they refuse to buy a book for 40 dollars and they buy a shoe for 500 so the 40 dollar book will make you buy a shoe company

18:47down down the road but that shoe will not will not make you build the business or build the freeman the freedom that's that you want so yeah this is it's visible that's which is invisible or cannot be seen has less value to us so traditionally we value things that are physical that is seen I mean let's let's make this real because I mean with your business you over the years you shifted your model you shifted you were aligned then lots of you know contracts and now you're coming back into this online space which society has changed technology has changed the way people interact trust has changed so how how has this changed and evolved for you as as the business because you have to look at that logical not be emotional so you're actually implementing and using the very systems and principles that you teach as you now expand and grow your business within the online space tell me more about what's what it's like for you to actually see and experience that

19:50do you know like just a couple days I saw this photo back in the days and but for some reasons it pop up again two days ago that you see lots of people right now like you see this photo they're saying like in 2026 everybody is looking at their phone and then another another photo like it from 1916 everybody was reading the newspaper like you can see like a photo I think the photo was taken in New York City everybody like the news so the human the human functionality doesn't doesn't change big time even though the technology it could be newspaper at that at that time could be AI right now could be the phone could be any any other technology the technology will not change like the person like the perspective and the human behavior how we do things so this is why like when when I work with with with my clients we work on what what I call the four levels of profit so when you have distractions it means that the mental is not being fed in the right way

20:53so when you don't take action your emotional is not being fed in the right way maybe you are feeding your stomach you are feeding just like you were in your body like you are having that nice shirt and that's it so when you feel when you see people are being distracted by technology or newspaper or reels or tiktok like you don't blame the the tool you you you blame maybe like those people again like I don't want to blame but the idea is those people are not being exposed to right to the right system so the right system always it works like like this way you have to feed your mental the mental will feed your emotional the emotional will move you into taking action and the taken action it gets you exit like anything that you want from time to money to survival from food to castles whatever you want real estate you can you can like this this is just kind of the the the the the outcome or the bespoke of of the action that that you take but that without that system you're going to be distracted all all the time and this is like the first the first thing

21:57I work with business owners so let's let's remove that noise like to remove that that destruction but you cannot just tell them remove we have to build a the inner system to help them feed their mental feed their emotional take that take action in the right way and like having that system will will will will explain well explode into into the the business system itself so the business just an extension or the reflection it's just a mirror of the person that you can become who can run like this kind of of of execution that business and so yeah that you're right the the human one maybe the human has changed because with this fast pace world we've been conditioned for more more quick hack hack result result results and that's why a lot of businesses they want this easy results they want it quick because they've been told hey you can grow your gazillion dollar business in like two days unrealistic but we've been conditioned with the speed of social media technology which is a blessing and a curse so that what what's that change been like for you

23:01as as your you know visibility business growth you're you're having to play the game of what society is created and then also then help them to shift whilst they're also in their own game some make sense exactly like the problem is this I'm not sure like we can call it the hidden system the hidden system makes you like keep you occupied once you are occupied with distractions the sports media tick-tock this and that once they keep you occupied it's easier for them to or for you to be controlled and once you are under control you consume more so the the idea of like personally them and let people become what they want let them run the life that they want doesn't doesn't appeal for people who are running sometimes like this kind of system in certain places so like what happened to me is when I started to shift those gears when I started to change

24:03even my environment the first thing I started to say like you start to feel like I am thinking I can't think like now like I can't can oh my god like I was so much occupied like the the I had so much stress on me that I cannot even think before so the first thing started to happen like I I started to take control of my decisions I started to control like the the taking control of everything that that I want to to plan so even though it took me a while now I when I work with with the clients we can do that super quick but it took me years to to start to understand like how to take control of yourself how to get that clarity how to execute on that clarity how to make decisions on on that execution and and like that reflect not only on your business there flags on my kids to relax on my relationship with my wife to relax on my relationship with my friends my community and everybody around me hmm so what are those what are those decisions

25:06that now you you feel like you're having to make or have to shift because again with marketing sales exposure connection there all everyone's been conditioned it being controlled by this hidden system beautiful way of putting it so true um so you're having to engage with that system to be able to connect so what are the decisions that you found that maybe you're making today for your future business that maybe five 10 years ago it may not have been the case how's that changed for you two things I work on myself every single moment so be back in the days and that that's what like when I remembered it was like I start to laugh the first business idea I I had I called my my friend he is a lawyer and I said I need to patent my business idea and he got excited there let's let's do that but now like you you think about it like you you want to patent a business idea like the the idea has no value like the value is in the in the actual execution so why

26:10I wanted to patent or I want to protect my business idea because this is all what I have so what I what I have learned that I need to grow every single moment every single day at least one percent two percent every single day like that is like this is my constant uh uh like way of thinking and again you don't have to have the answer all the time but you have to think in that right way all the time so when you ask that at questions every single day you get you get the answer at some point uh there's a uh a the commentary about Albert Einstein it's on YouTube one hour and a half and they're asking like why you were able to create all all what you have created and he said like for one thing I was asking the right question every single day so it took him like because it was not the gated formula what he had what he has created but like asking the right question every single day for 10 years let him to get the formula like the the relativity formula which is like what

27:11what made him like famous so making myself uh one percent better every single day uh this is one this is this is what I call this is the inside the inner but the inner like you cannot just like make your like the more the more you receive the more you have to give so there's a law always giving and receiving you cannot just keep giving giving without receiving and you can just receive without giving so this is my my receiving but now my giving is not just like I want to help people I want to help people at level 10 so every single time I create something I ask myself do I am I creating something like level 10 opportunity for those people and again this kind of thinking leads me to to find the answer at some point or the create the right offer for those people or creating the the right system or how quick I can help them to to to do that so I look in the market what everybody is doing what is the average in that market and I say how I'm how I can go 10 levels above this the the market this way of thinking helps me to serve people at the higher

28:15end at the highest level comparing what they can find in in any market that you can go like those two things change change the way I do change everything in my life my life my business my outcome my money you you you name them George this is fantastic so we've ended with just very tactical principles there those two core principles everyone rewind this go back listen to these two this is there's a blueprint there it's it's it's a great blueprint so George thank you so so much for sharing not only you know the amazing work that you do and and how you help your but also behind the scenes as you're also using this doing this I love how congruent you are with the work you do that we're all the great businesses come from so thank you so much for sharing thank you so much super happy you're welcome and for those people that like oh my gosh they want to know more about you the amazing work that you do how can they reach out how do I find out more you can reach

29:17up to me on my website smart income lifestyle dot com or on social media with the handle at coach georgeous with an s coach georgeous herna perfect well everyone if you're curious or think it sounds fantastic please go and check it out and then reach out and just hey start the conversation same arc sent you and it all starts with a great conversation um but look George thank you so so much this has been awful lot of fun I really enjoyed it thank you thank you so much very grateful ah you're welcome all right everyone that's a wrap what a great episode I love tangible episodes now if you're listening to this and you're thinking actually hey I would like my own podcast that actually does some of my business that's exactly what we help with so not content for the sake of content not yet another thing you need to do but a system that brings you clients referrals and partnerships all through fun and engaging conversations that help other people it's simple it's efficient and it's effective so if you're not quite sure how a podcast would fit inside your

30:20business or maybe you tried it before and it didn't quite work that's usually a strategy problem not a podcast problem so I'd love to show you what it looks like when done right and we'll then do it all for you so if you want come have a chat you can email me directly at mark at unforgetyourself.com that's mark at unforgetyourself.com and we'll start the conversation and in the meantime we'll see you on the next episode hey Katy yeah mark want to do an outro sweet hey thank you so so much for listening and making it to the end yay you so what happens next we ask them the things that podcast you're supposed to ask at the end of an episode but can you please rate review download subscribe yeah but why is it important because that's how our podcast gets noticed some people find us it is and we want all their earballs all the earballs all over place we do nice yeah so please do all those

31:21things we'll be ever so great and then more people here you're beautiful voice oh yeah see you next time bye