Frank Lind

Interview with Frank Lind

What got you interested in helping struggling businesses?

I know what it’s like to struggle. I can remember one of my first companies, working long hours, cashflow was tight, and I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. I would lay awake staring at the ceiling wondering how I’m going to make it. I was too proud to call anyone and ended up losing everything. Over the years, I learned through trial and error, and the school of hard knocks, what it took to go from good to great. I took my next company to a 7-figure business.

Around that time, I had a friend who was struggling with his company, so I showed him what I was doing and he added over a hundred thousand dollars to his company’s bottom line in less than a year. The feeling I got seeing him succeed, was overwhelming, so I started showing other business owners my framework. I wrote a book to help even more people and this really opened the door to helping struggling businesses.

What makes a company innovative?

What makes a company innovative is its ability to reinvent itself. You don’t just improve, you have to change the rules of the game and be ahead of the trend. Companies like Amazon, Nike, Google, they changed the rules. They’re in competition with themselves.

When was the last time you looked at your company as an insider? A company that gives a voice to its people is innovative. Your people are there day in and day out, sometimes decade after decade. Your people have deep technical knowledge inside the company and can give you a new perspective. I was always asking my people “What can we do better?” Because as the company grew I didn’t know everything. I wanted to know what they were thinking.

What are 3 habits for success?

• First, Condition the mind. The biggest chokehold on any business is the psychology of its leader. All successful business owners feed their mind and condition their body. Make sure you have a ritual that is supporting your habits. If you want to be an industry leader, you have to be willing to do the things the other 99% aren’t doing. Whatever you focus on you will get. Period.
• Second, have a positive attitude. There is a direct correlation between attitude within a company and the altitude of that company. Attitude affects everything, company culture, employee morale and productivity. Keep it positive and watch the growth of your success.
• And lastly, get clear. If you’re not clear on the direction of your business or yourself, you’re going to go wherever life takes you. If you don’t know what you want in a certain area of your business or your life you’ll follow any path. Getting clear means coming up with strategies that will move you closer to your goals. Getting clear is a decision. It’s a pathway to power.

What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years?

I could remember when bottled water hit the market, people said, “Who’s going to pay for something we can get for free?” It took about 5 years before anyone thought twice about paying for a bottle of water.

If over the next 5 years I could shift the mindset of business owners to start their journey with a mentor or coach before they find a good lawyer or CPA, maybe this could save the 33% of companies that fail within the first year of business, mainly due to lack of experience.

If you could give one piece of advice to yourself when you were starting out in business, what would it be?

Fear nothing. Don’t waste time and energy being afraid. Just roll up your sleeves and get in there and keep moving until you reach your goal. Once you get to the other side you’ll look back and say “That was easy! What’s next!” Fear holds everyone back, especially when we’re starting out. We spend a lot of energy on things that will never happen. Stay focused on your goals and polish your skills.

Do you have someone you consider a role model?

My father. He was an entrepreneur and a real estate investor. I watched how he did everything. He would buy a business, fix it up and sell it. He would take me with him to meet with renters, collect rent, clean apartments, deal with bankers and lawyers, etc. He was my first business coach.

He worked every day, doing everything by himself. Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack at the age of 42 and left my mother to figure it all out. Because he did everything himself, my mother knew nothing about business, so the banks repossessed everything. Everything he worked for was gone overnight.

What does your typical day look like?

My day starts at 4:00 am. The first thing I do is create my day through meditation. This takes about one hour. I have to settle my mind down, stop thinking about all the emails I have to send, the people I need to talk to, and just unfold into nothing. Then comes the rest of my day, work out for about an hour, stretch, walk the dogs, make coffee. Making coffee is critical! Then I’m open for business.

Since I have a home office, I rely on a tight schedule. Although I allow myself the flexibility I need, everything has a set appointment and is blocked out according to importance. Email responses, coaching sessions, media posts, cold calls, networking events, speaking seminars, book signings, etc. I am pretty discipline about not letting myself get wrapped up in social media mania. Although I enjoy a good cat video to break up the day.

What is the most important thing in life?

My wife, she’s my biggest fan. You need a partner who is going to take that journey with you and be 100% supportive or you’ll never make it. My wife is the daughter of a Marine. Need I say more. Then comes my two dogs, Ava and Hanna. They are hilarious and they keep me in the now.

Also, trusting in a Loving Intelligence keeps me connected to everything around me. I believe that helping people is a gift and I want to see business owners truly achieve their dreams without financial struggle.