The Gift of Pain with Tony Kitchens: The Inspiring Story of The Highs and Lows of a 30-Year Business Career

In this episode, we speak with Lance Cayko, co-founder of design/build firm f9 Productions, about strategies for growth and value creation in the construction industry.Topics Covered:Lance's background and journey into architecture, construction, and real estate developmentCreating consistent customer satisfaction and managing quality controlThe challenges of brand differentiation in a competitive industry Exploring recurring revenue models and diversification strategiesLeveraging technology trends like automation and prefabricationInsights on the evolution of the construction industry Links:- https://virtualstrategysprint.com/-https://infhorizons.com/podcast/- f9 Productions company website: https://f9productions.com- Lance Cayko's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lance-cayko-1227031aConnect with Lance:Email: [email protected] us know what you thought of this episode, and send your questions for future guests to [email protected].

Valerie is a former A-list personal assistant and Chief of Staff, current founder and CEO of ChatterBoss, the first and only remote executive assistant service of its kind. Her mission is to guide entrepreneurs to building friction-less teams using a human-centric approach. She joins Nana on Build Value By Choice to discuss her company and what it can do for business owners.  KEY TAKEAWAYS ChatterBoss is the brainchild of Valerie Trapunsky, who founded the company in 2017 after a decade spent working as a top-level assistant for A-list celebrities and as the Chief of Staff for high-net-worth individuals and CEOs. During that time, Valerie developed a passion for effective problem-solving, and became committed to bringing the same level of excellent service to solo entrepreneurs and small business owners. Valerie’s problem-solving skills and genuine love of people are the foundation of everything at ChatterBoss. They solve customer needs through a combination of intelligent technology, intelligent systems, and most importantly, intelligent people. Together, the whole team has built a product that clients can trust to deliver personalized, reliable, and thoughtful service. Your dedicated assistant will be in the same country as you, this has nothing to do with education or quality. This is because it makes the process easier with day to day things someone in your country would know. For example in the US someone would know what the DMV is, but someone in France may not. The most effective advice Valerie has is to give yourself grace and start slow. You’re not going to become a master delegator overnight even if you come from a corporate structure. Work at delegating over time and giving up that control we all feel we need to have. BEST MOMENTS ‘I was supporting these really powerful people who utilize assistants in ways I never imagined’ ‘Customization is the foundation of what we’re built on’ ‘We have a goal to scale and be the top executive assistant company in the US’   EPISODE RESOURCES   Valerie Trapunsky | LinkedIn ChatterBoss VALUABLE RESOURCES Infinite Horizons Free Webinar Productize ebook Leave your comments on the show's facebook community page: https://www.facebook.com/Buildvaluebychoice Get your free valuation here: https://bit.ly/get-free-valuation Podcast website: https://infhorizons.com/podcast/ ABOUT THE HOST Nana Bonsu: “I am an entrepreneur and ex-Corporate Executive who's applying his experience and knowledge from working in various ways to pursue my passion of helping small business owners increase their choices in life by leveraging my knowledge and experience, their employees, systems and money. I help small business owners transform their business and increase value through action-oriented education and implementation of strategies and tactics to make their business sellable even if they are not planning on selling. Known for establishing an environment for personal growth and development. My multicultural background equips me with the intuitive understanding of different cultures and how they impact business owners.” infhorizons.com <a...

Tony Kitchens is our guest today. He's a speaker, author, and entrepreneur who believes in transforming fear and pain into fuel for an amazing life. With the book "The Gift of Pain," Tony inspires as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. His companies have generated over $100 million in revenue and serviced multinational corporations worldwide. He's on a mission to share his wisdom globally. KEY TAKEAWAYS The Gift of Pain is a story of entrepreneurship, mental toughness, and above all the power of charting a path of your own choosing in life. It will teach you how to find the courage and strength to reach for your dreams. One of the lessons Tony learned from the global pandemic was to plan as much as you can but be open to changing those plans when the situation changes. You can’t allow yourself to be defeated when you face challenges, you have to rise and overcome them.  Through Tony’s philanthropic work he and his family helped put 37 Kenyan children who had never had any education before through school. They even built water systems and an entire technology center at a school there. Thanks to Tony the students had access to laptops for the first time and the local community could use them as well.  The 5 key takeaways Tony wants you to take from his story are: 1. Build your mindset. Don’t give your mind the opportunity to talk you out of your dreams. 2. Have faith. The biggest rewards come after the biggest leaps of faith. 3. Face the pain. Embrace adversity and challenge as opportunities to dig deeper and grow more. 4. Channel your strength. Learn to draw on past pleasure and pain to move through life. 5. Cultivate the future. You never know when the seeds you plant will grow, so tend carefully. BEST MOMENTS‘Closing a business is way more difficult than starting one’ ‘I wanted other people to see tough situations and how the pain can propel us’‘Never in your business plans did you ever see a situation where global trade would stop’ ‘What can you do for others outside of your space’ ‘It’s not about them as business owners, it’s about what they can do to serve the greater good’ EPISODE RESOURCES  Experiences he shares in his book entitled “The Gift of Pain” available at www.giftofpainbook.com Life and Business Strategies, available at https://www.tonyrkitchens.com/programs Motivational Speaking events, inquire at https://www.tonyrkitchens.com/book-tony-to-speak Online Business Courses, available at https://academy.tonyrkitchens.com/how-to-win-in-business Youtube Channel: youtube.com/@tonykitchens LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-r-kitchens-466778209/ VALUABLE RESOURCES Infinite Horizons Free Webinar Productize ebook Leave your comments on the show's facebook community page: https://www.facebook.com/Buildvaluebychoice Get your free valuation here: <a...

We have a special guest today who is going to be talking about business owner burnout: how do we recognize the signs, how to prevent it, and what strategies we can use to deal with it if, and when it occurs. Our guest today is Michael D. Leavitt . Michael is the founder and chief burnout officer of the Breakfast Leadership Network, which is a San Diego and Toronto-based burnout consultant firm. KEY TAKEAWAYS As business owners, especially when starting out, we often find ourselves juggling multiple roles, from bookkeeper to janitor to CEO and everything in between. This can consume a lot of time, and if we neglect self-care, monitor our energy levels, and ensure sufficient rest, it can eventually catch up to us. Balancing these responsibilities while prioritizing our well-being is crucial to sustainably building a successful business. Effective delegation is vital for business owners. By entrusting routine tasks and responsibilities to skilled workers or team members, owners can focus on strategic decision-making, client relationships, and leadership. Embracing delegation maximizes productivity and leadership impact, leading to greater overall success for the business and vital time for yourself.  If the numbers on your screen are literally moving around, it's a sign that you need to shut the laptop down and take a break. The work you're doing in that state won't be productive or beneficial. Is the toll on your health and well-being worth it? While striving for business success is essential, it should not come at the expense of your health and happiness.  Good nutrition is key for sustained focus and alertness at work. A balanced diet supports brain function, concentration, and mental clarity, leading to improved productivity and overall well-being. Staying hydrated is also essential for cognitive function and preventing fatigue. Prioritize nutrition for optimal work performance. BEST MOMENTS‘I was guilty of not being good at delegation because I was afraid I’d burnout my employees’ ‘The damage we do today gets piled on top of the damage we do tomorrow and the next day’ ‘If the things that normally interest you are not interesting anymore, that’s a good warning sign’ ‘In an 8 hour day the actual productivity of a worker is 4 hours’ EPISODE RESOURCES LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/MichaelDLevittTwitter: https://twitter.com/bfastleadership Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bfastleadership/ YouTube: youtube.com/@breakfastleadership Blog: https://BreakfastLeadership.com/blog Interviews: https://BreakfastLeadership.com/mediaPodcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4fJZLyoYQ82T3DR4OPqRIb Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bfastleadership Books: Burnout Proof: https://amzn.to/37prw48 369 Days: How To Survive A Year of Worst-Case Scenarios: https://amzn.to/38Zd807 Burnout: How You Entered The Path To Burnout: https://amzn.to/2GQWFyZSpeakerHub: <a...

Today’s guest is Anne Hill, creator of Hilltop Virtual Solutions. Anne and host Nana Bonsu will be discussing business operations. We will explore how business owners can thrive by leveraging their zone of genius, optimizing assistance processes, conducting data analysis, managing teams, and improving overall business owner health. Join us as Anne shares her expertise and insights on these important topics. KEY TAKEAWAYS After suffering from burnout, Anne took her experience building processes, teams and businesses in the healthcare space and started her own business. While Anne started as a Physical Therapist and Rehab Manager, she now spends her days rehabbing and restoring businesses.  In the medical world it's easy to see if you’re healthy or if you’re sick, whereas in the business world you can’t necessarily see if your company is healthy or if there is something wrong. There’s no set guide to what a successful business is.  To run a healthy business you need to be healthy yourself as the business owner. We see so many business owners work constantly, continuously trying to grow, and try to wear too many hats at once. We need to learn to let go of some control to allow ourselves that space to take care of our own personal needs.  As your business grows you need to keep track of how your increasing team size will affect your profits. What is the breaking point where the cost of hiring more staff will overtake the growth in your business financially.  When hiring you need to have a clear understanding of what specific role they are there to do and how it will compliment your zone of genius. To avoid a revolving door in your hiring, you need to find someone who fits in with your business culture and values so they’ll be there for the long haul.  Anne’s key piece of information for growing your business is having that foundational structure in place so that when you are building and growing, not everything revolves around you as a business owner doing it yourself.  BEST MOMENTS‘It took me a while to notice everything I did as a rehab manager correlates to what small businesses need’ ‘There needs to be a line of when is business time and when is personal time’‘When the business owner is taking care of themselves the better shape the business is in’ ‘It’s all in looking at the data and the metrics’ EPISODE RESOURCES Hilltop Operations + Consulting VALUABLE RESOURCESInfinite Horizons Free WebinarProductize ebookLeave your comments on the show's facebook community page: https://www.facebook.com/BuildvaluebychoiceGet your free valuation here: https://bit.ly/get-free-valuationPodcast website: https://infhorizons.com/podcast/Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and share it. ABOUT THE GUESTAnne Hill has had the desire to help others for as long as she can remember. She spent over 15 years in the Physical Therapy field, where she thrived at managing the operations side of the business, along with supporting multiple other rehabilitation managers in the area. Anne went on to create Hilltop Virtual Solutions, an agency dedicated to fine tuning...

Chris Fagnant joins Nana Bonsu on this episode of Build Value By Choice to discuss making your business more sellable, specifically in the manufacturing industry. As a broker and ex-business owner in the manufacturing industry, he’s the perfect person to advise and guide you through making your business more attractive to buyers.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   The key factors that determine the value of a manufacturing business are people, productivity, execution, and cashflow. Much like any other business, potential buyers will want to see proof of healthy and sustainable cash flow. They will also want to see that the supply chain you’re a part of works and if you control your own product lines. It can take at least 3 years to correctly prepare your business for sale, even from the day you buy or start the company, you should be working out your exit strategy. If you run your business in a way where it can operate without you, then you’re on the right path to preparing your business for sale. There are personal expenses for business owners that get wrapped up in the company books. These minor expenses should be worked out of our books because when your business is being appraised they want the true business expenses, they want to see how it will look when they run it and not have to work out what it looks like without you. The number one mistake business owners have when selling their business is understanding how their business is valued. Top line revenue is not the main driver and when it comes to your specific IP, 99% of the time is not the reason someone wants to buy you. If you’re looking at building the value of your business for the next 3 to 5 years, look at the suppliers you have, are they the right suppliers or are there better ones out there. You need to foster those relationships with regular lines of communication and even paying a day early will put you top of their list of people they like to work with. SDE = Seller's Discretionary Earnings. EBITDA = Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.   BEST MOMENTS   ‘It was an opportunity to put a lifetime's worth of experience in manufacturing to work for others’ ‘The outcome of that was a 95% reduction in demand from our largest customer, so we had to pivot’ ‘We leveraged relationships with the right people to ensure we had advocates for our business’ ‘You don’t sell a business and get a check the next week’ ‘Only 30% of businesses successfully transfer for the 1st generation to the next’   EPISODE RESOURCES   https://www.fbb.com/ [email protected] https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherfagnant/   VALUABLE RESOURCES   Productize ebook Leave your comments on the show's facebook community page: https://www.facebook.com/Buildvaluebychoice Get your free valuation here: https://bit.ly/get-free-valuation Podcast website: https://infhorizons.com/podcast/ Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and share it.   ABOUT THE GUEST Chris’ role as a business broker is born out of a lifetime of experience living and working in family-owned businesses. He grew up in the heat seal lidding business. Initially, Chris pursued more corporate opportunities and...

Today we’re going to be talking about information overload. How do we prevent information overload for business decision makers and how do we overcome those problems when they do occur? To answer this, Nana is joined on Build Value By Choice by Jonathan McPike, co-founder of Haven, a one-stop-shop app for small businesses. KEY TAKEAWAYS Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and the foundation of their communities. When a small business fails, the ripple effects hurt a lot of people. Haven is about supporting the small businesses that support all of us. Software is designed with large organizations in mind, and that creates a lot of headaches for small businesses. Co-Founders Luke Mongin and Jonathan McPike believed that small businesses deserved tools that were right-sized for them. Whatever information we need, we can get. But we forget that not all information is equally as important. So when we’re looking at information to make decisions, we’re often overloaded with information. Instead we need the relevant information available in one simple easy to use place.  By enabling systems to communicate and share information, businesses can eliminate manual tasks and allow data that would need to be manually input several times to be shared between systems. BEST MOMENTS‘A lot of times if you’re a small business, you might be using software designed for larger companies’‘You need tools that are the right size for the job’‘You want all those core tools in one place and you want them speaking to each other’‘Most normal users will say this is too complicated and hard to use’ EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.withhaven.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanmcpike/ VALUABLE RESOURCESProductize ebookLeave your comments on the show's Facebook community page: https://www.facebook.com/BuildvaluebychoiceGet your free valuation here: https://bit.ly/get-free-valuationPodcast website: https://infhorizons.com/podcast/Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and share it. ABOUT THE GUESTJonathan McPike is a co-founder of Haven, a one-stop-shop app for small businesses. He is a recovering lawyer with over a decade of experience in business and corporate law. While representing investment fund sponsors, he has formed private equity, venture capital, real estate, and hedge funds ranging from $1 million to over $1 billion in capital commitments before deciding to move into the small business space. Jonathan holds an MBA from the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business and a J.D. from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law--Bloomington. PODCAST DESCRIPTIONHosted by Nana Bonsu of Infinite Horizons, this show aims to serve small business owners who want to grow their businesses while reducing their own personal involvement. We do this through a combination of interviews with industry leaders, and host presentations. We are certified value builder advisors and leverage a statistically proven methodology to help clients such as you scale

Brett Quinn and Brian Marshall, Co-Founders of Strategy X SaaS platform join Nana today on Build Value By Choice to discuss the topic of building your dream team and changing human behavior with Strategy X. Listen in to find out how this platform can help businesses create high performance teams and create growth and alignment in their organizations. KEY TAKEAWAYS Strategy X is a global Software as a Service (SaaS) platform designed to help individuals, leaders,  or businesses consistently achieve desired outcomes or results. This platform provides tools, methodologies, and resources to support strategic planning, goal setting, performance tracking, and execution of strategies. It aims to streamline and optimize the process of achieving desired outcomes across various industries and sectors. The big firms can afford expensive management consultants that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but with Strategy X you as a smaller business can help level the playing field. Processes typically fail between events, not at the start or at the end. With Strategy X they use AI and automation to help ensure that these vital steps don’t fail halfway through.  Your entire strategy on the Strategy X platform is all on one page, as is all of the data used to measure and monitor that strategy. This allows you to use that real time data to make faster and better decisions in a much easier and more efficient way.  When communication is spread over multiple platforms, it becomes difficult and time consuming to collate all that information together and make an informed decision. Strategy X allows you to keep all your communications in one place which streamlines the whole process.  BEST MOMENTS‘We needed to help leaders and managers succeed’ ‘The failure taught me more than the successes did’ ‘75% of strategic plans never get implemented, how frustrating must that be’‘Waiting a whole quarter to plan is far too long, it needs to be dynamic’ EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.strategyexe.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sxstrategy/https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianmarshall/ VALUABLE RESOURCESProductize ebookLeave your comments on the show's facebook community page: https://www.facebook.com/BuildvaluebychoiceGet your free valuation here: https://bit.ly/get-free-valuationPodcast website: https://infhorizons.com/podcast/Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and share it. ABOUT THE GUESTS Brett Quinn, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Strategy X, applies expert knowledge, industry experience, and relentless energy to solving one of the biggest challenges in business; building high-performing teams that consistently deliver world-class results. The way he does it is what sets him apart. Brett has refined the process and developed a technology platform to fulfill the promise of business operating excellence in a way that’s affordable, automated, and sustainable. S.A.M the StrategyX Automated Manager (www.strategyexe.com) takes proven strategy execution principles, aligns them with your specific...

Nicky Billou, The Millionaire Maker, is an acclaimed author of 8 best-selling books, including Finish Line Thinking: How to Think and Win Like a Champion, and The Thought Leader’s Journey: A Fable of Life. Nicky is also the host of The Thought Leader Revolution, the world's top podcast for thought leadership, featuring esteemed guests like Dr. Ken Blanchard, John Maxwell, and Jack Canfield. He joins Nana today on Build Value By Choice to discuss strategies and techniques to achieve success in business and personal branding. KEY TAKEAWAYS Nobody wants to be sold to, Nicky prefers to teach people to put others first so that you’re not trying to sell to them, you’re trying to show how you can serve them. Then when you’ve shown your value and that you really want to help them, that’s when people want to buy.  An expert is someone who knows something while a thought leader is someone who is known for knowing something, and is therefore more valuable. Think of it like an expert being the cover band of the thought leader’s original band.  Charge what you’re worth. When you undercharge, you’re not properly serving the client. When you pay more for something you expect more from it, when you pay less they expect less from it. If you don’t get what you should get then you don’t give what you should give. All good business people have had good coaching and mentorship, too many people think they can do it alone even though they lack the skills and base knowledge to do the task at hand. It’s investing in personal development.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Someone who comes from a country where freedom doesn’t really exist really values their freedom’ ‘I saw good people shoot themselves in the foot because they didn’t understand sales and marketing’ ‘Get your message out there, so you’re seen as a go-to authority’ EPISODE RESOURCES  Nicky Billou - Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Professional Profile | LinkedIn VALUABLE RESOURCES Productize ebook Leave your comments on the show's facebook community page: https://www.facebook.com/Buildvaluebychoice Get your free valuation here: https://bit.ly/get-free-valuation Podcast website: https://infhorizons.com/podcast/ Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and share it. ABOUT THE GUEST Nicky Billou, aka The Millionaire Maker, is the #1 International Best Selling Author of 8 books, including: Finish Line Thinking TM: How to Think and Win Like a Champion, The Thought Leader’s Journey: A Fable of Life, The Power Of Connecting: How To Activate Profitable Relationships By Serving Your Network (with Kai Bjorn), and How To Create A Million Dollar A Year Income: The Priceless Guide For Insurance Agents, Professional Salespeople, And Anyone With A Big Dream (with Perry Wong). He has read over 4000 books, in genres from biography, history, fictional literature, self-help, health and fitness, poetry business, sales, spirituality and religion. Nicky is the host of the #1 podcast in the world for thought leadership, The Thought Leader Revolution, featuring guests like Dr. Ken Blanchard, John Maxwell, and Jack Canfield. PODCAST DESCRIPTIONHosted by Nana Bonsu of Infinite Horizons, this show aims to serve small business owners who want to grow their businesses while reducing their own personal involvement. We do this through a combination

Are you tired of the traditional networking methods that fail to bring real value to your business? In this episode, Nana interviews the owner of a business to business networking group that operates on an invitational basis. Discover how this unique approach to networking leads to predictable results from word of mouth marketing and real business growth. Clay Hicks is an entrepreneur with a portfolio of 5 different companies, including H7 Network and he is on the podcast today.    KEY TAKEAWAYS H7 Network is a networking hub for the following values and principles, these are: Connect - Serve - Ask - Influence - Focus - Champion -  and Win-Win. H7 network is an invitation only group to prevent those who just want to sell to the room from joining. Clay wants to build a community of people who really want to work with each other and grow each other's businesses.  The key to transforming your business is not just having customers, it’s the relationships you build with those customers, with your staff, with your team, with your prospects. Having people know that you’re reliable, trustworthy, and good to work with is more valuable than any marketing strategy you can have.  Connect, serve, and ask is the philosophy behind how Clay builds relationships with people in one on one business meetings. Simply put it’s building a relationship, then giving them something they need, then asking them for something that you need. The connection part is the most important and that’s why it comes first.  The real success in networking is becoming a champion for other people and them being a champion for you. It’s about finding someone who is intentionally active in networking your skills to other people, instead of waiting for those opportunities to arise.    BEST MOMENTS ‘We’re looking for a very strong community of professionals who want to grow their businesses, who also want to work with other people’ ‘We had over 1000 visitors to our community all through word-of-mouth, not a single dollar spent on marketing’  ‘I keep smarter people around me than myself’ ‘It’s not just who you know, it’s how you know them’   EPISODE RESOURCES    Clay Hicks - CEO and Founder - H7 Network | LinkedIn [email protected] H7 Network   VALUABLE RESOURCES Productize ebook Leave your comments on the show's facebook community page: https://www.facebook.com/Buildvaluebychoice Get your free valuation here: https://bit.ly/get-free-valuation Podcast website: https://infhorizons.com/podcast/ Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and share it.   ABOUT THE GUEST    Clay Hicks is an entrepreneur with a portfolio of 5 different companies, an author, a speaker, and trainer on professional relationships. Clay Hicks founded his first company, H7 Network in 2008 with the hopes of positively impacting the many under-served entrepreneurs and sales professionals. His vision is to globally revolutionize the way business professionals "Connect" first, "Serve" with purpose, and "Ask" of their peers. H7 Network, a Franchisor, is a national B2B networking platform, In person and Virtual, for professionals to build their own audience and develop champions for their business. His responsibility as the CEO/Founder is to innovate new programs, develop new markets...