The Road to Real Success

Hayden Lee

Welcome, everyone, to the Success Elevated podcast. As always, I’m your host, Hayden Lee, and I am joined this week by my co-host, who is sitting next to a guest who’s also kind of a host. It’s going to be an awesome podcast.

Eric Sprague

Not me, I’m a guest.

Hayden Lee

This is this is going to be a great podcast because we’ve got people that have been on multiple times. Katie’s been on obviously well over a dozen podcasts. And Eric, I think this is like your fourth or fifth episode you’ve done with us. So awesome to have you back. But Katie Harris obviously, a founding partner at Spot On Solutions. She’s here on this podcast, as well as Eric Sprague, who is the owner, operator, founder of Super Tech University, but also now with Katie is an author of a book, whoever, whoever would have thought that one day, Eric Sprague and Katie Harris, we’re going to also be authors together? So super, super cool. It’s great to have you both on today and excited to talk about this book. So thanks for coming on.

Katie Harris

Thank you, thank you. I’ll say to like as of a couple days ago, it’s an Amazon bestselling author, mister Eric Sprague.

Eric Sprague

I, I wish I could go back to that freshman English teacher that told my mom, Yeah, like not not like normal. The normal class material.

Hayden Lee

Oh, it’s so great

Katie Harris

Go to everybody, you know, and be like I wrote a book

Eric Sprague

Stick it lady. even though she’s probably not around

Katie Harris

like, I don’t know. I think we met each other probably 12 years ago, and and really, I think if you have said, hey, you two are going to write an Amazon bestselling book together, we might have both laughed.

Eric Sprague

I would have known that. Yeah, totally. I was a restoration contractor at that time. Like the idea of writing a book was absolutely insane to me. You know, I was just trying to do jobs and get paid.

Hayden Lee

Oh, yeah. Well, the book is called The Road to Seven Figures, and I think I want to start by asking both of you, Katie, obviously, you wrote a section, and Eric wrote several sections in this book, but I’d love to start. And both of you can answer this because I’m just genuinely curious. because I hear of a lot of people, you know, hey, I want to write a book. I want to write about this and talking about this. Why write a book? Why go through all of and and I’ve been kind of a fly on the wall for some of the, the editing process and the writing process to both of you. It’s been a long process over the last, you know, six, 12 months working on this. Why write a book? Why go through the hassle to do it? Either one of you can start with this however you want to go about it, but I’d love to hear why? Why do this? Why write a book?

Katie Harris

All right. Well, first of all, I. I’m just super grateful that Eric asked me to help because this is really his baby. That, he had the outline for it, and it was really like, hey, I have a roadmap that I want to share with people. And, and so thanks for inviting me to be a part of it. It’s been it’s been awesome to be a part of it for me. my heart and soul is actually in journalism. So that’s where I started as a, as a writer and as a journalist. And so whenever I can write stuff, I think there’s so much power in the written word. And, beyond that, for me, it’s like we’re talking about something we’re both really passionate about. So when you walk into our office, Spot On Solutions and get found first, there’s a big mural up on the wall that says Elevating People and Businesses. It’s everything we’re about is elevating people and businesses. And and for me, the opportunity to write this book is able to do that on just such a bigger scale because it really is a roadmap to success, to seven figures and, and really beyond, it’s, it’s the roadmap to success. So for me, it’s, it’s super fulfilling to be able to put that into words and put it into people’s hands and say, take it into your business and and and grow.

Hayden Lee

Yeah.

Eric Sprague

For me, Hayden, it was born out of the frustration. I, I was at a conference and there was a speaker and I’m sorry who were speaking. I don’t remember who it was, but one thing that that person said was only 5% of all this is Brett Gilliland. Actually, only 5% of all businesses ever reach seven figures in a year.

Eric Sprague

And I was like, super offended by that. Like, that was unlike that can’t be. This is not I mean, it’s hard. I understand, but it’s not that hard. Right? But then I started looking at myself and it’s like, well, if I didn’t go get coaching and surround myself with people who know what the roadmap, it’s a roadmap, right? If I didn’t go seek out the roadmap, I wouldn’t have either, to be honest. Like first I was judgemental. I’m like, come on, you know? Then I’m like, oh man, if I didn’t go get help, I probably would be pushing a carpet wand today instead of writing a book, you know? And there’s nothing wrong with pushing a carpet wand, but, you know, if if you’re going to I’m a believer. If you’re going to do something, let’s do it. And if I start a business, I want to make some money, right? You know, and I don’t mean that in like the greedy way. It’s like, let’s be good at what we do. And, so I started that thought like that sat in my head for like two years, and then simultaneously, I started a coaching practice, almost accidentally, to be honest. And I saw lots of my clients getting to like 5 or $600,000 and they would just stall because they didn’t understand what it took to get to that next level. That gets them to a million, 2 million, 3 million. And you know, I was like, I can only coach so many people in a month, right? I can only touch so many people. But if we wrote a book and I immediately thought of Katie, I didn’t tell her for quite a long time, actually. And I’m like, we have a book and we have a roadmap. We can touch way more people than I could ever coach, and that’s really where I started.

Katie Harris

I can’t even tell you. So that’s interesting because you’ve never said that to me before. I didn’t know you thought about me before, but when I look back over time, I can’t tell you how many conversations Eric and I have and I have had over the years about why only 5% like, what can we do? How can we help people when it’s what we do every day in our business, right. We’re trying to drive leads to people’s companies to help them grow. And Eric’s on the phone, helped me coach them and set up their systems and build their team and and so we just like honestly, to me, it kind of breaks my heart that somebody that puts their money and their family on the line and their dreams out there to just they’ll quit a job to go start a business. And and then only 5% make it to $1 million. I’m like, we can do better. There’s a way there’s a way to make that better.

Eric Sprague

Well, the other there’s another step to that that nobody talks about. Just because they made it to $1 million doesn’t mean they have any profit. Yeah.

Hayden Lee

No, you’re right.

Katie Harris

You can make it to $1 million and have no money.

Eric Sprague

you Can. You can make it to $10 million. And have no money. Right. So, you know, my whole thing is like I’m a numbers person at heart, Hayden. I’m I’m a task oriented person. It’s like what I would see is they’d be like, yeah, I have a 20% net profit. And I’m like, where’s your pay? Oh, well, that’s out of that 20%. And it’s like, well then you have no profit, right? And to me, you know, you should get paid for what you do in the business, right? That’s your job, right? I’m here every day, ten hours a day or whatever. I should get a paycheck for that. That 20% is what I call hazard pay. I’ve taken risk way beyond having a job to do this, I deserve extra.

Eric Sprague

That’s my hazmat and that’s my rainy day fund. That’s my retirement. That’s my whatever. And I just wasn’t seeing many people with anywhere near that amount of profit.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. It’s you both mentioned multiple interesting things there. And you know, whatever the barrier is, whatever the plateau is, it does feel like at some point, whatever business you’re in, if you’re in the home service industry, if you’re selling t shirts online, like it doesn’t matter, like you kind of hit this point where there’s a plateau and that plateau could be like like you said, Eric, could be $250,000 could be $500,000 could be $1 million, like whatever, whatever that plateau is. It seems like every business at some point hits a plateau of some kind. Do you have any thoughts? And we’re going to get more into the book and some of the details and the cool things you talk about in here, but I’d love to hear from from one or both of you. Why do you think that is? Is there is there one reason why everybody hits a plateau?

Eric Sprague

This is what I see with contractors anyway. It could go further than that. They run out of themselves. Right. And everybody has a different threshold. So yeah, let’s say my thresholds $300,000. Right? I’m involved in everything. I’m involved in the marketing, the sales, the doing the work, the working on the van. And then, you know, and I have no life. I have I have almost no time for anything because that business can’t make $1 without me touching it in some way. Now, Katie’s threshold could be 600,000. Maybe her, her, you know, energy level, aptitude, whatever is double mine. But she’s going to run out of her.

Hayden Lee

Yeah.

Eric Sprague

So you see so many contractors. It’s right after $1 million, right after a half $1 million, like right around six, 700,000. Like, they may have a couple people, but they’re still touching all those jobs in some way, and they run out of runway. And I think Chuck Violand calls it the entrepreneurial stall. Right. Meaning I don’t have leadership skills. I don’t know how to build a team. I don’t know how to hire somebody. I don’t know my numbers to even know if I can hire somebody. A lot of times they can’t because I don’t charge enough and they go, and they could be there. Hayden, for 30 years. Wow. And now they don’t have a business. They have a job that’s not sellable. Nobody want nobody wants to climb. Let’s look at ten grand for it at the end. That is not how we want to live our lives.

Hayden Lee

No.

Katie Harris

Well, I had the opportunity to, yeah, I’ve had the opportunity to to grow several different businesses and work with hundreds of entrepreneurs. Right. And there’s not just one plateau. There’s multiple.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Katie Harris

You’re going to you’re going to plateau at different parts. And you know what? It’s you call it growing pains. You call it plateaus. You call it whatever you want. Right. But on this journey, whether you, you’re going for $1 million or $10 million or $100 million, they’re you’re going to have the same pains all along the way. And all the plateau is, is when you hit a pain point where you got to do something different than what you’ve always done. You’ve got to do something different than what you’ve always done. And usually you don’t know how to do it because you’ve never done it before. That’s what causes a plateau, and it causes it. I can almost predict when they’re going to happen in businesses. Like Eric said, as soon as you run out of yourself, that’s going to be your first plateau. And whether that’s 500,000 or just at 1 million, you’re going to hit a pain point. I think that first million is the hardest to make. Yeah, hands down, first million is the hardest to make because once you hit that first million, like you can get to 3 or 5 million. But guess what? You’re going to hit another plateau. About 7 million or about 10 million. And it’s because you’re doing things you’ve never done before, and you stall out if you don’t get help.

Hayden Lee

Yeah, yeah.

Eric Sprague

It’s interesting too, Hayden, it even goes past 10, 20. I have a friend who’s super successful, and he and I were sitting eating dinner one day, and he’s kind of at the end of his career. And by anybody’s metric, he’s a success. So as successful as it comes, and he looked at me and he said, I really messed up my life, right? Or whatever, like my work life. And I’m sitting and thinking like nobody believes that. But he was like, I could have been like that person that you read about in fortune magazine or Steve Jobs or, you know, on and he goes, I get my point of comfort. And I didn’t learn to let go. And this is a person with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of employees. Yet he’s still saying he didn’t know when to let go. And so I think it I don’t think I think that number of the stalling, it grows with us. I think it’s infinite to a degree.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. It’s almost it’s it’s almost like, yeah. It goes back to you as an individual so many times. And yeah, you can have a plateau at 500,000 and then you’re like, okay, I need an operations manager, and you bring somebody in and then you get to a million. You’re like, okay, now I need to figure out this problem and take another thing off my plate. But it’s almost yeah, it’s almost like you kind of have to keep taking things off your plate in order to keep pushing past those, those growing pains, those, those plateaus. The I love the I didn’t know Chuck Violand called it the entrepreneurial stall. I think that’s a good way to phrase it too, that you just kind of feels when we’re working so hard, where we get so many jobs right now. But like, why? Why isn’t our revenue growing? Why is and why is our profit not increasing? Right. Like and I think it goes back to, you know, kind of that, that, you know, how can you take more off your plate and how do you get, you know, get more of yourself? And, I think that leads perfectly into the first section of the book.

When you guys put the book together, you broke it down into four sections and the first and, you know, probably the first thing you thought of, Eric, was, was I’ve got to write this first section about the business owner, and it goes back to some of these plateaus and how do we break through them. But the first section is all about you, you being the business owner. What was kind of the the genesis behind that? You share some really, I think personal and deep stories in there that I think are incredible. And you can talk about them now if you want. Talk about them, whatever. But I think that’s what’s so powerful about it.

Eric Sprague

I think in a lot of ways, the first section is, is almost a section that I wrote to myself, and it’s a cautionary tale for other people to not do what I did. I have a large capacity to work a lot and a willingness to do so.

Katie Harris

You’re a little addicted to it.

Eric Sprague

Whatever. You know what we want, you know, and I really. Well, you know, I just I’m a person who’s very goal oriented. I like to win, and I’m willing to do anything to do it right. And I believed that if I just worked always harder and I could reach the goal and my mindset was, and this is part of the stall, right? Like, well, of the people that work with me aren’t as willing to do it as I am, then I’ll just do it right. And so I had worked myself to the bone. I had a cardiac event at 49 years old that had to be in the hospital, wondering if I was going to see the next day. And that was the turning point for everything. The book is basically everything’s based off that one visit to the emergency room, because it was the first time that I realized what I’m doing isn’t working. I think most people would have looked at me and said, it’s working, but they didn’t see all the behind the scenes of me missing every single piano recital, parent teacher conference, never seeing my family, just working, working. And then, to be honest, I don’t even know if I address this in the book, but. I said it was for them. I’m doing this for them to have a better life and they have what they want. I want her to have the, you know, whatever she desires. But they probably would have just rather had me around a lot more, and I was doing it for my own ego, to be honest. I wanted to be successful, whatever the definition of that is. And then after I had the heart issue, I had to revamp everything and how I did it. And then that was actually what our company got way better because I’m rested, I’m happier, I’m exercising. But you know, it’s so funny. Hayden. So I got in this good place, the business took off and we sold. And then I started Super Tech University and went right back to my old habits, which I’m right now trying to undo. And my default is just work hard instead of, well, I gotta figure this out, right? So like it’s the same thing that Katie just said. It’s just a different level. It’s a higher level. But I’m bringing me to the game. Yeah. So, you know.

Katie Harris

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read the first section of the book. I didn’t know a lot of the stories that he tells in that first session section of the book until I actually read it. And, I’ve said this, I’ll say it a million times, but if all you do is pick up the book and read that first section, I think it’s a game changer, because I think all entrepreneurs can see ourselves in it in some way. And Eric does a really beautiful job of telling what that felt like. Like you can feel it and what it did to him personally, and the sacrifice that his family made for that to happen. Like it is a cautionary tale, but it’s it’s something that I see. I see business owners and managers and high performers doing every single day all the time. And so, man, I, I, I’ve read it, I reread it, I’ve reread it, and then I heard him stand on stage and tell the story for the first time, and I didn’t know he was going to do that on stage. That you were at Howard Partridge’s inner circle? We were in Houston, and he gets up on stage in this beautiful theater, and I think it’s going to be Eric’s regular pitch there that he does from the stage. Right? I’ve heard at a time or two. And he stands up there and he starts telling about this experience of what it was like to sleep in a shop and what it was like to miss his kids events and what it was like to be sitting on the side of the road thinking, I, I think this is it. 

And, it’s super compelling. So, I mean, go read it. And number one, know you’re not alone in the journey and and know that when we take care of ourselves. Right. I love to say that in business as we’re going to business, like the most important thing is you like, you are the number one asset of the business. And sometimes we forget what that looks like to take care of ourselves. And it’s been really cool to watch. We gave out a few early copies of the book to some people that we know and trust and that Eric coaches and man, it hit. It resonated. All of a sudden we just start getting people after person after person of person coming up to us and and they want to talk about it and they’re like, what do I do? What do I do? And it’s been super cool.

Eric Sprague

It’s interesting too, because I get, you know, a lot of text messages from people that have read the book, especially the early copies. And, you know, I mean, I’m not going to get into specifics, but I got like people that have had very bad habits, substance abuse issues, you know, depression and all the things that entrepreneurs are like way more prone to than everybody else saying like, hey, I stopped smoking pot all day to cope with my life, I start, I stopped, you know, missing family dinner every single night. Like, these are things that are game changing in people’s lives. And, it’s, a it’s a big deal to me when I hear that, it’s like, okay, you know, I worked on that book for almost a year and a half, which seems insane but I mean. Not full time, obviously, like a little here and there. But I mean, I was thinking about it for 2 or 3 years, probably, and then to hear somebody say, I made this huge life change, just that one person, okay, that work was worth it.

Hayden Lee

Totally worth it. And, you know, the the coolest part, I mean, there’s there’s so many cool elements to the book and especially that first section, but just the general concept about it. Eric, like entrepreneurship, if you are on the internet, as we all probably are to some extent more than others, but entrepreneurship is so much, so much of the culture right now is hustle, grind. You’re not working hard enough. Get up early or stay, you know, work later. But it’s so refreshing to have you write a section of a book, even if it’s a couple chapters or whatever, to be about, hey, take care of yourself. Like, that’s not that’s not healthy. That’s not that’s not a long term success.

Eric Sprague

Well, not only that. Yeah. You see, these people, including myself in this, the book’s kind of good for me because it’s a constant reminder that I have to live the tenets of the book. Right. You know, because it’s it’s not my natural default.

Hayden Lee

If I wrote it, I should probably live it, too.

Eric Sprague

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, like the rest of us, I go up and down with all these things and, you know, the hustle culture on Instagram and Facebook drives me crazy because it’s like, you know, work 25 hours a day and hundred. Yeah. Like why do I have to get up at 4 am to be a success, right? Like that. But, you know, I get up at eight every day, right? You know, like, I know that sounds lazy, but I was not more successful the more I worked like, the more I hustled. Yes, there’s a degree of hustle and grind, but what the book is trying to tell you is, no, there’s a roadmap. If you have the map, you don’t have to do so much.

Katie Harris

You don’t have to just be busy, not to be busy.

Eric Sprague

I believe that people often mistake activity for accomplishment, right? They don’t go at the end of the day and go, I, I hear people all the time like, you know, I’m so busy and I’m, you know, Tim Ferriss has the greatest thing ever. He says busyness is a form of laziness, lazy, no, indiscriminate thinking, no, lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Right?

Hayden Lee

Yeah.

Eric Sprague

So that’s became my mantra. It’s like I read gear after the heart thing. I read Gary Keller’s book The One Thing, and it’s like, okay, in my business, what’s the one thing that’s holding us back? And for us, it was my systems were not good enough. I couldn’t scale because I didn’t have like a thing for everything. Right? There is too much of me involvement and Larry, my business partner involvement. So all of a sudden I stopped working the 15 hour days and all that, and I would work like six hours and then I’d disappear. And then for 2 or 3 hours a day, I would just sit there and build a system and build a system. And the next day, instead of doing all the crazy stuff, I and I learned to delegate. And then I would work on implementing a system. And my goal is a system a month, which is about as fast as I could go. But you know what? If you did 12 and my litmus test, Hayden, was, I’m going to fix whatever cost me the most money or makes me the most angry and frustrated. Yeah. I mean, like, I don’t need to build a system about which way does the toilet paper go, right? We can get to that point. But like if, if I have something that just on a consistent basis is like making everybody upset, wasting lots of time, costing lots of money. If I fix 12 of those things in one year, it probably wipes out like 80% of my problems.

Katie Harris

You have a different business and a different life.

Eric Sprague

So everybody’s like, oh my gosh, there’s 2000 things in like, how am I going to build a system for everything? It’s like, just build one at a time. You’ll be shocked how much it fixes.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. The the inverse way to maybe and correct me if I’m wrong, Eric, but it feels like what you’re saying relates again to kind of what it was. It’s a section of the first section. But you talk about, like energy management, not necessarily as much about granted, time management is important too, but what you’re describing here is like, hey, I’m going to focus on the things that frustrate us and, and cause the most problems for us. That sounds like, hey, you’re prioritizing based based on like managing your energy. I can’t fix everything all at once. So how do I fix the thing that bug us? That bugs us the most, right? And that is energy management was not something that I had heard of before. It was it was, a different concept there. I don’t know, I just thought that was really cool.

Eric Sprague

Most of us run out of energy before we run out of time.

Hayden Lee

Yeah.

Eric Sprague

Like I can run. I’m a person who can run on, like, four hours of sleep a night. Like, I don’t suggest that I try not to do that now. I’m still not a great sleeper, but like, I would literally for years, I just ran on four hours, right? So in my mind, I got 20 hours to grind and thing was, is that at 8 or 9 hours, I’m kind of already out of energy. And then I’m keeping going. Right. And I’m and I’m that’s stress. Stress comes in many forms. It’s not just worry. It’s not I mean it can also be just it’s too much volume. Right. And I started looking at my whole life and going, well, I want to exercise because I need to be healthier. But that’s exercise is stress. It’s good stress, but it can be bad stress too. And then my work is stress. And then not sleeping enough is stress. So I started adding up the stressors and saying like, okay, what’s the maximum amount of time that I could really effectively work in a day? It’s about 5 or 6 hours. Like if I’m super focused and giving everything I have five hours ish, I’m done.

Hayden Lee

Energy management.

Eric Sprague

Nobody wants to hear that because they work. Ten but if you started really time studying it, they waste all kinds of time in between. So the ten is really five.

Katie Harris

And we justify that and make ourselves feel good about it by being like, I’m so busy.

Hayden Lee

I’m so I’m, I’m busy.

Katie Harris

So much to do. And I think as entrepreneurs we all we all play a little bit of the martyr game too. wait, I can do this. See what I just did in. Then we’re like, oh man, I’m so tired. I’m the only one that can do it. So we we put ourselves in a position where we’re the only ones that can do this, and we go save the day, and we feel really good about that. And we get this hit of, oh, look what I did. I’m so great. And then we are the martyr. Like, I’m so tired.

Eric Sprague

I call that the hero and the victim, right? And I was the king of the hero, the victim. So I’d sit at my desk and there’d be a problem in the field, and I’d be like, I’m going to get in my truck and drive over that job, and I’m the smartest guy in the room, and I’m going to save the day. So I would get there and do it and get the massive endorphin rush of being the smart one. And I drive back to the office and sit with everybody in the office and go poor me. They keep pulling me out here. And then there’s like, you know, oh Eric, it’s so tough being you. And now I’m getting another adrenaline rush as being the victim. Like, you can get addicted to that, right. And all of a sudden that’s now your identity. That’s not scalable.

Katie Harris

Or healthy.

Eric Sprague

Or any of the things.

Hayden Lee

Yeah, yeah.

Eric Sprague

And I think, I think this thing that we’re talking about right here, that addiction to being I guess the endorphin rush or the being the smart one. That’s the stall for most people. I think you agree with that?

Katie Harris

I think you mix in with that ego.

Hayden Lee

Yeah.

Katie Harris

You mix in the ego with the endorphin right of like, I’m, I’m the person. I’m that person. And you’re and you’re going to hit a, you’re going to have a problem.

Eric Sprague

Yeah. That’s a great point.

Hayden Lee

So as people are going through the book, let’s you know, read that first section okay. We’re going to we’re going to figure out the UPS. It’s going to help us break through some of these barriers. The next three sections I think are some I want to say, like tools in the tool belt that help you scale and push even further. Right. you guys have a there’s there’s a section there about the business, which I know Eric, you mentioned that you’re big on the numbers. You got to understand your numbers. You got to know how to help scale your business and, and become more profitable in a lot of cases, like, oh, man, we’ve got $1 million in revenue now, but our profit’s not any better than it was six months ago or whatever it. Right. Like that’s a crucial piece. Katie, you write a section about marketing like marketing is a tool in the tool belt that you’ve got to figure out the U.P.’s first. But once you get there now, you can start focusing on how do I get in front of more people? How do I bring more customers into our business? And then it kind of wraps up with the team, but in the in the middle of each and I shouldn’t say the middle at the end of each of these sections. Again, one of the cool things about the book is you guys have these action items. You have these great pieces where you say, hey, I know I just told you all these awesome stories, and I talked about these cool concepts like energy management or Google Business Profile to go talk about, you know, the marketing section. But now here are some actual things that you can go do. Very different than a lot of self-help books, which I think is a really, really cool concept. What’s what was the idea behind these action items? Why, why, why were they a focus for you? Why are they in each of the sections? Why? Why the action items?

Eric Sprague

You know, I do one on one coaching with a lot of small business owners or business owners. And, you know, we end every call with what their action items are. I’m big on accountability. And if we don’t have an actual something for me to hold you accountable to do for the next week or two weeks or whenever we meet again, we just wasted a great hour just having a chat. I’m not into that. So we try to, you know, we end every call with like, okay, these are your homework assignment. These are the things you need to work on. And at least in my head, Katie might think differently. I was like, I want to end every chapter kind of with these are your homework assignments. These are things you have to do so that, I’m a super practical and linear thinker type person. Like, just give me the list and I’ll start implementing. Yeah, you know, because I read all these business books or listen on, you know, and I’m always like, okay, well, what am I supposed to do? You gave me all this theory like.

Hayden Lee

Yes, yes.

Eric Sprague

That’s great. Tell me what to do and I’ll do. I’m an implementer. I might not always come up with the idea, but if you tell me what the what the action is that goes with it, I’ll go do it. Yeah. Maybe to a fault.

Hayden Lee

Yeah.

Katie Harris

So I, like, I hate to sit in a meeting and the meeting gets over. I was like, okay, what are we going to do? Right? I hate to read a book and get through the chapter, and like, What did I just read? What am I going to do? It’s a whole idea of what’s the next step, how do we keep moving forward. And and so we put it in there for that reason. mostly because I think it’s like how we like to do things like I’m like, okay, tell me, tell me what’s next, and I’m ready to go. And it just kind of pulls it all together. What we didn’t expect when we did that, which has been really cool, is the people saying, okay, tell me more, right? Let’s do that some more. Which has led to, some really cool retreats that we’re doing on, building a seven figure business and beyond. And that’s been a lot of fun when people are like, I’m in like, I like it. This is me. I can see myself here. And, and to sit in a room with a small group and take those action items and put them into place and hold each other accountable. Super fulfilling thing to do.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. Going back, like I just you you said something there that I’ve just I’ve thought about a ton as well. It’s it’s it’s one thing to talk about it, but it’s another thing to like be about it. Right. We and this is something we kind of joke around with our team at work, Katie, that like we can we can have these meetings, like you said, we can we can have a great motivational speaker come in, we can read a great book, but you get to the end and you’re like, okay, what are we doing? What are we doing here? What’s what’s what’s what? What are we actually supposed to get done? And, that’s it was just it was a refreshing thing to see because. Yeah, I read self-help books.

Katie Harris

And I believe, yeah, we all want to be better. That’s why we have the meetings. That’s why we read the books. That’s why we do the things we do. Like we are driven to get better. but sometimes it’s just, where do you start? Where do where do you start? And and you get lost in it. I really love, you know, you hear me say this all the time, but I love the book Atomic Habits and I love the concept of 1% better. Yeah, it’s like 1% better. But here we’re going to tell you. Yeah, things that are most important to spend your 1% on.

Hayden Lee

Yeah, one 1% better is cool. But like yeah, now how can I actually do it today? Okay, go do this thing right. It’s cool.

Eric Sprague

I think also with the retreats that Katie was mentioning in Utah. Yeah, it all started on a whim, right? Like it wasn’t like, oh, we’re going to write this book and make retreats and, you know, like there’s like, there’s no master plan, right? I would love to be that smart, but I’m not. And so, you know, we wrote the book and hadn’t released yet, but I was giving it to clients and they’re reading it. And just in our conversations, they were just like, oh, man, you know, I’d love to just sit and work on this, you know? So I invited a whole bunch of my clients to Utah. I’m like, yeah, we can do that. But you got to come to me. I’m not. I’m not flying all over the country for this. Right. And, and then I started thinking about it and I’m like, I love coming to events, but there’s a lot of rah rah, and there’s a lot of people and a lot of speakers that I’m not interested in. I mean, I am at some level. Yeah, okay.

Katie Harris

D Personality right?

Eric Sprague

Just like, oh yeah, come on, let’s just get this here, this person going.

Katie Harris

come on, let’s go.

Eric Sprague

But, you know, I’ve always kind of like I’m an introvert and I’m task oriented, and I’ve always wanted one where I just kind of sit in a small group and we have some like minded people, and they just give me things to really think about and work on. So I started coming up with like this retreat idea like, well, we’ll get 15 people in a room or whatever, and we’re just going to sit and do deep work, right? I’ve never been anywhere where they just like it was. No singing, no dancing, no, none. Like I don’t care about any of that. Right? I just want to sit and work on my business. And then I called Katie and I was like, hey, you know, have some people in town, you want to come down and talk about marketing because, look, I’ve used Katie, I’ve used you guys for marketing since I had a restoration company.

Hayden Lee

Yeah.

Eric Sprague

Like it’s foolish for me to think that I’m going to be the one talking about it right. And then Hayden, it was wild. They came, Katie came down, and it was just magical. I don’t know any other way to put it. Like, it just it felt good to everybody. Katie and I were looking at each other like, I think we just found something here, you know, and we had some house rules, like, you know, we’re here to work quietly. We’re not going to do rah rah. Like, what happens in this room in the set of this room stays in this room so that people can be a little more vulnerable and talk about their issues. I mean, look, it took me a lot to write that first section and tell those stories. I mean, look, Katie and I have been good friends for a long time, and she didn’t even know a lot of the stuff. Right? Yeah. I mean, I had to step away out of my comfort zone, so, I mean, they start they do that at the retreat, which is.

Katie Harris

And they do it. It’s crazy. Hayden, because you there’s I think as entrepreneurs are so hungry for that opportunity and it’s never their get out of the office, get focused on growth right. And then sit in a safe place and, and be willing to get super vulnerable. And within the first 30 minutes, we have people like in tears, like this is what is weighing me down. This is what I can’t figure out. And, after two days, man, you got people so excited. They’ve got an action plan. They know what the next steps look like. They’re hungry to get home and start putting it into place, but they’re also like, revitalized. And they have purpose and they have, maybe renewed passion, renewed passion for stuff and, and a plan. And that’s just, you know, that is the entrepreneurial journey at its best. At its finest.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. So cool. I love that

Eric Sprague

Look, you gotta go to the big events and get that singing and the dancing and the motivation to sometimes you need that

Hayden Lee

Hundred percent. Yeah.

Eric Sprague

And in those are kind of you’re taking in information, you’re not really doing anything. But then you sometimes but you always leave and the motivation wears off. Right. The like the good vibes wear off and yeah, but I want to walk up a plan.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. Because then you can go execute. Right. Like it’s, it’s one thing to be motivated and fired up, but that should just be the it’s the motivation maybe behind the plan. It keeps you going when you’re like, I don’t know if this plan is going to work. The motivation is great to be like, nope, hey, I can do this. I can, we can do this. We can do this as a team. But you need to have something to go execute. Like, hey, let’s actually go do this thing today. And it it’s it’s, I don’t know, it’s it’s different. It feels it feels different. It looks different. And probably because it is, you know, I don’t know, it just I love the idea and the concept of action items in a book. Something like this, but also in your retreats, which, you know, the book is the retreat and the retreat is the book. They’re obviously very connected there. like, you go to a place where you’re going to sit down with other like minded people, you’re going to get vulnerable, which again, I don’t I hate talking about the the culture of entrepreneur. The culture of entrepreneurs is a whole other topic we could have. But that’s not something that entrepreneurs like to do, right? It’s get a little vulnerable, say, hey, maybe I’m making a mistake here, maybe I need to humble myself a little bit. Like, that’s that’s a cool and unique concept that we could spend a whole bunch of time talking about. But you’re going to come to a place, you’re going to get vulnerable with like minded people, and you’re going to leave with a plan. You’re going to say, hey, here’s how I’m going to be more profitable. I’m going to break through this barrier. I’m going to make $1 million, whatever it is. the fact that you can do that is, again, it’s it’s unique. It’s not, it’s not something you guys should take for granted. I that’s what’s so cool about what you’re doing is, nobody else is really doing this. It’s very cool. It’s very cool.

Eric Sprague

So now we talk about what Katie brought to the book, because we keep talking about me. And not only did she write a quarter of the book, but her fingerprints are all over the rest of it because I’m always talking to her on the phone, and we’re just going back and forth about our experiences, so I don’t feel Katie’s getting enough due, just so we’re clear.

Katie Harris

He gets so much Katie in his daily life.

Hayden Lee

Like I’m listening. I’m, Katie’s mic’s not even on, Eric. We’re not even talking to her. This? No, I’m just kidding. no, 100%. We need we need to dive in a little bit to that because. Because, what Katie and I do every day is talk to people about their marketing, which is something especially in the home service industry, that people miss on, and they miss on a lot. And so the fact that, again, that you took a, you let Katie take a quarter of this book and say, hey, we’re just going to talk about like digital marketing, we’re just going to talk about how you’re going to get in front of more people. it’s cool. It’s super, super cool. And again, Katie has action items. It’s not it’s not just a cool concept to talk about. Oh, yeah. You should marketing is really important. Make sure you’re doing it like, it’s like, no. Hey, here’s some actual things you can go do to help grow your business. Which is super cool. Katie did talk a little bit about the thought process behind your digital marketing section in the book.

Katie Harris

Okay, so really, I’m just a dork, right? I’m just kind of like a person.

Hayden Lee

A little bit of a nerd, a little bit of a nerd, kind of a nerd.

Katie Harris

I can get really. I can hear myself when I start talking about digital marketing, get, like, really excited. I’m like, you’re such a dork.

Eric Sprague

Just like we were at dinner the other night. Hayden was one of my clients, and Katie was like, super nerding out on his digital. And he he came to me after and he’s like, that was awesome. I have no idea what she was talking about. That’s something real passionate though.

Hayden Lee

Yep. Real passionate. Real passionate.

Eric Sprague

Just give him the credit card. You’ll be fine.

Katie Harris

I mean, here’s the thing is, I. I love looking at people’s businesses and seeing opportunities and, and it’s fun to talk about something that you can do. Like there are some things you can do to go win. And, and it’s a little bit different with people, but there’s some basic things that, if you understand, it can make a difference. And I’ve always said, like, I don’t take it lightly when somebody comes to us and they’re like, hey, I don’t know you. I’ve never met you before, which happened the other night. Okay, I don’t know you. I’ve never met you before, but hey, here’s my business and it’s all my hopes and dreams, and it’s all my money and it’s all my family’s money. And I’m going to give it to you. We please go take care of it and and help it grow. Like. Like when it’s our business, it’s our baby. Like we love it. And, And I, I’ve always thought that. I’ve always thought, man, when I’m asking somebody to let me help with their marketing, it really is like saying, hey, you can trust me. Give me your baby. I’ll take care of it. And I hate, I hate, hate, hate when I hear people talk about how they got ripped off or they were promised something and they didn’t get it because I’m like, this is I take it seriously. When somebody trusts us to help with their digital marketing, I know what’s behind that. Ask, right? It’s somebodies dreams. It’s somebody’s livelihood. And and often it’s a whole lot of other people that they employ their dreams and their family as well. And so I take it seriously. I love to talk about it. I love when the light bulb clicks for people and they’re like, I just got off of a of a sales call a couple hours ago and they’re like that. I never thought about that before. And I’m like, things can change your business when you really understand them. And so I love it. I love talking about it. Talk about it all day long, every single day.

Hayden Lee

And you do to your credit. You nerd out a little bit in that section, which is is good because we got to nerd out a little bit on some of the finer details of it. But again, you give people action items. Hey, this might seem like a lot of information. There’s a lot of stuff going on here. There’s a lot of moving parts with your digital marketing, social media, Google Ads, SEO, all this stuff.

But here’s some things you can go do. Yeah. To start, you know, building your digital marketing, and it just it, it makes total sense when you break it down like that. you know, you know, you’re going to have less people be like, man, that sounded cool, but I have no idea what she’s talking about. You can actually be like, hey, there’s some things that I can go do to help grow my business, which is.

Eric Sprague

Even for somebody who reads it, hating that now they they’ve peek behind the curtain of what you guys do a little bit and even if they don’t use you guys and they have a digital marker now, they know how to hold that person accountable. What they should be looking at.

Katie Harris

I think one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever got. We worked with a writing coach on this and, and I, I think she’s a great person. I really trust her. And one of the greatest compliments I ever got is she sent us an email and after she got our draft and she’d been doing some editing on it, and she sent me a thing and she said, hey, Katie, just so you know, I went and implemented some of your tips for SEO and I’m already seeing results.

Katie Harris

And I thought that is pretty cool.

Hayden Lee

That’s cool.

Katie Harris

Cool was super cool. And that’s my hope. That’s my hope with it.

Eric Sprague

And, you know, she told me.

Hayden Lee

Oh, oh, she said something different.

Katie Harris

Got yor bleeper button on?

Hayden Lee

no, no, no

Eric Sprague

I’m going to do the clean, I’m going to do the clean version of this okay. So I started working with her. Katie turned me on to her right. And said, I think she’s a good fit for you, which she was the perfect fit for me. Shout out to Patricia. And, so yeah, we had been talking a few times and she’s like, you’re quite right, a chapter and we’ll just see how it goes, right?

Eric Sprague

I said, okay, so I wrote the chapter and we probably spent like three hour, three, one hour meetings talking about ideas. And we get on. I’m nervous because I already know she’s hardcore, right. And,

Katie Harris

So good.

Eric Sprague

Good. She’s like, Eric, I have a I said, well, what do you think? And she’s like, I only have one question for you. I’m like, okay. And she’s like, why is it that when you speak to me, you sound so smart? But when I read it on the page, you’re so freaking stupid. And I literally said, she’s the one for me. That’s the person for me.

Hayden Lee

There’s some D personality there, right there.

Eric Sprague

I just like I know by her saying that, that if I write crap, she’ll tell me. And if I if she says it’s good, she means it, right? And like, that’s important to me. So good I think I say. And I got slightly less stupid, apparently.

Hayden Lee

Oh, that’s so great. See? That’s what. So again, that’s a peek behind the curtain of the book, right? Be like, hey, we had somebody telling Eric that he was writing stuff that was freaking stupid. And so it was. Now it’s no longer freaking stupid, you know what I mean? Like, that’s just it’s a that’s a cool peek behind the curtain there.

Eric Sprague

I think what’s important about that lesson too, for entrepreneurs, a lot of us have so much ego tied up in our business that we don’t want feedback because we’re afraid that will hurt our self-image. Right? Again, that’s the ego part. Your ego is not your ego, right? Like you need to be able to take criticism and look inward and go, I could do that better.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. So good. Well, there’s so many. I mean, we could spend another three hours talking about all these sections of this book. I want, I want to kind of let you both have an opportunity. Let’s, let’s plug the book a little bit. So we’re going to release the podcast. The book releases the second week in November. it’s already been it’s already on some top lists on Amazon for for sales with just the pre-sale. But I, I’d love for you to kind of give like one final plug on the book. Give me, give me. If you could sum up your favorite part of the book, your favorite thing, give give me one final thought on either why you decided to write it, why you think it’s impactful. But give me one final thought on the book, Katie. I’ll let you start.

Katie Harris

Okay? I said part of the first one is that first chapter is a game changer. it’s game changer. So I guess there’s bookends on it. The first chapter, I think is so good, and being able to just stop and evaluate where you are and personally, what you need to do to be your best self, to bring your best self into everything you do. I love. And then the very end of the book, Eric has one page at the very end of the book that I just, I think is beautiful. I think he wrote it so well. And so that to me is it right? It’s all about, I, I love to read books. I love to follow smart people. I love to learn from good coaches. And, and I hope that it it finds itself in some people’s, you know, arms and, and it makes a difference in your business. And, and it doesn’t take a lot to move the needle in your business. It takes, you know, being really intentional about your day, about what you’re doing, getting 1% better and following a roadmap. There’s there’s things you can do to make this journey a whole lot easier.

Katie Harris

And, you know, the road to seven figures becomes the road to eight figures. And it goes on and on and on. The pattern doesn’t change, the information doesn’t change. It just gets it just scales right. There’s more zeros added to it as you go along the way. I think that this is a book that wherever you’re at in your business journey, there’s stuff you can take from it and really love it.

Hayden Lee

It’s awesome. Eric.

Eric Sprague

I, I think the book is kind of like a judgment free zone in a lot of ways, because a lot of us start a business with all these really big dreams and hopes for our lives and our families and improve our Situation

Katie Harris

seeing so many pretty things. On social media.

Eric Sprague

Everybody does a highlight reel of the, you know, standing in front of somebody else’s Porsche and, you know, like none of that stuff. At least none of this is important to me, right? It I think the people I hope when people read the book, I hope people read the book, and if they haven’t had an easy path in entrepreneurship, which most, most people don’t, they go, oh, I’m not alone.

I’m not the only person that’s had this issue. Right. And I hope it came through that. Like, you know, if Katie and I can do it, you. I don’t mean that, actually. Hayden, let me just let me rephrase that. Here’s if I believe.

Hayden Lee

In it and leaving it in, I.

Eric Sprague

Can do it. Katie’s way smarter than me. If I can do it, you can do it right. I mean, Katie, you talked about the last the last know I can’t. Yeah, I can’t read verbatim what I said in the end. But, you know, basically the last page is a personal note from me to the reader. And I did that very intentionally because I wanted them to understand that, like, if I can do it, you can do it, right?

Like literally, I’m of average intelligence. I’m above average everything. I do have a strong desire to win, which, you know, I think is an aid. But literally anybody can be successful. And and to be honest, I mean, if you have a smaller business that even is doing around $1 million, but you’re doing all the right things and you’re pulling in like a 20% profit on $1 million business, and you’ve paid yourself some sort of salary. It’s more money than most people would ever make in their life. Right? So you stack that year on year and all of a sudden you’re a millionaire, right? I mean, it really, they don’t think that way. It’s like, oh, well, you know, I saw on Instagram a guy who built a $150 million business in five years. Okay, you know, that’s all right. And that’s another point. And I’m going to end on this. And I think this book speaks to the non guru. This is the non guru book right? I don’t like I know people who have built amazing businesses. They’re incredible operators and marketers. But that’s like saying I want Michael Jordan to teach my kids the peewee basketball league. Right. Like like it doesn’t translate because a lot of times that person has been so Uber successful, they have forgotten or they were just really outliers and really good at business. So to get them to relate to the person is struggling over year after year to get to a million. They’re like, I didn’t, you know, I’m doing a million a week. You know, like they can’t relate. Like I think this book, if it has anything good in it, it’s that it’s relatable to any size. Yeah.

Katie Harris

I agree, I agree with that.

Eric Sprague

But I think that’s what I’m most proud of. Hayden. It’s the it’s the UN guru book.

Hayden Lee

It’s the it’s the UN guru. It’s the non guru book. Yeah I mean it’s we’re not.

Katie Harris

Putting that in our marketing.

Eric Sprague

No no no no no no no.

Hayden Lee

I’m sure that’s going to be the new tagline on the next.

Eric Sprague

Meeting that the gurus bad. I’m not judging them. I mean, I just hope we’re clear on that. It’s just like a lot of times.

Katie Harris

Okay, no judgment zone. I like what you said. It’s no judgment zone. Like, just come with your desire to be better. Yeah. And lay your problems out and and I’ll show you I’ll show you some solutions.

Eric Sprague

You know, when I’m coaching, I, I have a hard time getting certain clients to show me their books. Right? Like, I had one that took two years. I asked every month for 24 months in a row. And finally they’re like, please don’t judge me. And I’m looking at and like, oh, well, I’m they’re way worse than that. Like, you’re good, you know.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. You know.

Eric Sprague

So like the non-judgment thing I think is big for a lot of entrepreneurs.

Hayden Lee

Yeah. So good.

Eric Sprague

Cut the guru part out Hayden

Hayden Lee

We’re keeping that in. No cause. But I get your point, though, Eric. It goes back to the original piece. Like it’s one thing to be I feel like gurus are really great at, like, motivating, right. Like get fired up. You can do.

Eric Sprague

That where they’re awesome.

Hayden Lee

But but a lot of times they miss out on the action items because in a lot of ways it it came easy to them. There was some there was some God given talent there, something that just made him really good at business. But they’re missing. They’re missing what you guys have at the end of the chapters, which is, hey, here are some actual things you can go do. that’s that’s the difference, right? And whether it’s the road to seven figures or it’s the road to half a million, or the road to eight figures or whatever, right there, there are things in this book that you can apply actual action items that will change your business for the better. and that’s my, you know, if I can give a plug, I don’t own a business. But I said before, like I have some entrepreneurial tendencies for sure.

Eric Sprague

Hayden youre an intrepreneur.

Hayden Lee

There we go. There we go. That’s a good way to put it. but if that could be my plug, it would be. It would be. There are this isn’t just a rah rah go kick, butt you got to hustle and grind every day kind of book. This is an actual application. It’s a textbook almost. Do you want to learn how to get to seven figures. Here’s a textbook. Here’s a, you know, for lack of a better term, here’s a roadmap to get you there. which is really, really refreshing and cool. So, Eric, Katie, thank you both. I know you’re traveling and busy, and this is just one more thing on your plate. I know you both need to go get, you know, go have some dinner. Go, go relax. Go do something. But really appreciate you coming on the podcast. looking forward to all the feedback we’re going to get because I know it’s going to be awesome on the book. like I said, comes out the second week in November. you can purchase it on Amazon. I sure there’s other places you can purchase it, but most people are probably going to buy it on Amazon. if if people are interested in learning a little bit more, we’ll make sure there’s some information in the show notes that can let you know if you have any more questions on. You want to talk to Eric- You want to talk to Katie, you want to go to one of those retreats, to learn more from them and maybe again, meet some like minded people and go build a plan that will help their business be successful. we’ll have all of that information in the description below. but again, Eric, Katie, thank you so much.

Eric Sprague

Thank you.

Katie Harris

Thanks Hayden!

Hayden is Joined by Eric Sprague and Katie Harris to discuss their new book The Road to 7 Figures. The three of them discuss a few chapters of the book as well as some anecdotes on the journey to writing and publishing their first book together. Eric takes the reigns for the beginning of the conversation discussing his motivations for writing a book and how it all came together. Katie discusses her passion for marketing and how she “nerds out” about helping those who need assistance. They all wrap up discussing how this book can help entrepreneurs of all levels with a dedicated action plan and step by step road maps to get the best out of their business. The book releases the second week of November.