How to Handle Bad News in Your Business | Businessing

How to Handle Bad News in Your Business | Businessing

How you handle bad news in your business is one of the differentiators between the owners who make it and the ones who don't. The trick is a four-step move: pause, get objective, act swiftly, then reflect. Bad news is coming. A client fires you, a deal falls through, the letter shows up in the mail. React emotionally and you make bad decisions right when you can least afford them. Pat walks through the exact way he handles it now: pause before you respond, get objective about the job that actually has to get done, act swiftly once you're clear, and save the reflecting for after the heat has passed. Along the way, the daylight saving time change that could reshape your winter mornings, and a Claude move that turns your whole business into something your AI actually knows. In this episode: 00:00 - Welcome to Businessing 01:28 - How to Handle Bad News in Your Business 03:36 - Make More Good Decisions Than Bad Decisions 03:59 - Pause Before You React to Bad News 05:20 - Get Objective About the Job to Be Done 07:01 - Act Swiftly, Then Reflect 10:04 - News You Need to Know: Iran and Oil Prices 11:37 - Permanent Daylight Saving Time and the Sunshine Protection Act 16:29 - How to Prepare Your Business for Darker Winter Mornings 20:47 - Athena Legal Solutions 22:49 - Giving Your AI the Full Picture of Your Business 30:47 - Automation Bird Dog and Tribal Knowledge 33:17 - Why the Small Business Owners Community Is Worth It Resources mentioned: - Athena Legal Solutions (show sponsor): https://athenalegalsolutionsllc.com - Automation Bird Dog (show sponsor) - free automation readiness session, promo code OWNIT - Free Claude webinar for small business owners - happening next Tuesday Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PatMillerFridaysOff?sub_confirmation=1 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/businessing-with-pat-miller/id1870663109 Listen anywhere: https://businessing.captivate.fm/listen Fridays Off Newsletter: https://fridaysoffnewsletter.com Small Business Owners Community: https://smallbusinesscommunity.com #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #PatMiller #DaylightSavingTime #AIforBusiness #SmallBusinessTips

Your AI Emails Sound Too Much Like You | Businessing

Two friends told Pat they couldn't tell his emails from AI anymore, and now he's having an identity crisis. If your AI writes exactly like you, how does anyone know it's really you knocking? Pat opens with the "we're not fooling anyone" problem: Claude's ghostwriting has gotten so good that his own contacts can't tell his voice from the AI's, and it's injecting real doubt into email. He walks the junk-mail progression we've all lived, asks whether email is dying (sick, not dead), and weighs what could replace it. Then the news: inflation cools to 3.5%, Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, and a produce parasite making people sick. Plus ChatGPT's new voice that listens and talks at the same time, and why that matters when robots come home. In this episode: 00:00 - Your AI Emails Now Sound Exactly Like You (Big Story) 01:58 - The Junk Mail Progression We've Seen Before 03:43 - How Do You Prove a Real Human Sent It 06:26 - Is Email Dying? Sick, Not Dead 08:31 - What Could Replace Email 09:42 - News: Inflation Cools to 3.5% 11:04 - Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and Oil 13:52 - Healthy Food Is Making People Sick 16:35 - How to Protect Yourself From Contaminated Produce 19:08 - Athena Legal Solutions 21:16 - AI Story: ChatGPT Voice That Listens While It Talks 24:16 - Why This Matters When Robots Come Home 25:05 - The AI Haters Riff 26:50 - Automation Bird Dog 30:20 - Free Claude Training Webinar Next Tuesday Resources mentioned: Athena Legal Solutions: https://athenalegalsolutionsllc.com Automation Bird Dog: https://automationbirddog.com (promo code OWNIT) Start Here Claude Training webinar, next Tuesday at 1pm: https://event.smallbusinesscommunity.com/aitraining Small Business Owners Community: https://smallbusinesscommunity.com Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PatMillerFridaysOff?sub_confirmation=1 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/businessing-with-pat-miller/id1870663109 Listen anywhere: https://businessing.captivate.fm/listen Fridays Off Newsletter: https://fridaysoffnewsletter.com

Two Questions That Clear Your To-Do List | Businessing

Your to-do list has a bad houseguest on it, and today is the day it goes. Pat runs your whole list through two questions and cuts everything that can't earn its spot. Some tasks sit on your list for weeks, quietly draining your brain space. Pat gives you two questions to judge every item: will it make you money in the next 90 days, and can you finish it in the next two weeks? Fail either one and it's gone, with authority. Then Michael the Magnificent joins for a round of Hype or Haze on AI, we try to figure out what's really happening with Iran and the markets, and Netflix quietly rebuilds cable. In this episode: 00:00 - To-Do List Judgment Day (Big Story) 02:31 - Two Questions to Keep or Cut a Task 04:59 - Strategic Quitting in Real Life 06:53 - Michael the Magnificent: Hype or Haze on AI 10:33 - Why "AI Changes Everything" Is Hype 13:04 - The IKEA Story: Cobots and Redeployed Work 16:31 - Cost Per Unit of Judgment 20:54 - Why AI Won't Replace Business Owners 27:29 - Athena Legal Solutions 29:11 - The News and What's Going On With Iran 34:52 - Consumers Are Still Spending Through Inflation 37:04 - Netflix Is Rebuilding Cable 38:38 - Deliver Your Business Like It's 20 Years Ago 43:34 - World Cup Semifinals Are Set 44:41 - Automation Bird Dog 46:48 - SBOC Awards and the September Conference Resources mentioned: Athena Legal Solutions: https://athenalegalsolutionsllc.com Automation Bird Dog: https://automationbirddog.com (promo code OWNIT) SBOC Awards, nominations open through July 31 Small Business Owners Community Conference, September 15 to 17, tickets $399 through July 31 then $499 on August 1 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PatMillerFridaysOff?sub_confirmation=1 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/businessing-with-pat-miller/id1870663109 Listen anywhere: https://businessing.captivate.fm/listen Fridays Off Newsletter: https://fridaysoffnewsletter.com Small Business Owners Community: https://smallbusinesscommunity.com

Why Your Phone Isn't Ringing | Businessing

When your phone isn't ringing, it's almost never bad luck. It's one of two things: people can't find you, or they don't know why they should call you. I've been out training owners on AI, and I keep watching the same arc: connected, competent, then curious, right about when it starts feeling like a video game. That's the fun part, and it's why I do Claude training for small business owners. Then we get into the AI price war heating up between OpenAI, Anthropic, Grok, and a Chinese open-source model that's up 27 times in a week, and why that competition is good news for your budget. In the main event, I answer the question I hear constantly: why isn't my phone ringing? It comes down to whether people can find you and whether you're selling the transformation instead of a laundry list of services. In this episode: 00:00 - The AI adoption arc: connected, competent, curious 06:23 - The AI price war heating up between the big labs 10:15 - Why Claude Fable going pay-as-you-go matters 12:48 - When you actually need a business lawyer 15:08 - Why your phone isn't ringing 17:15 - Sell the transformation, not your list of services 19:51 - Bring your problem to the Idea Slam Resources mentioned: - Athena Legal Solutions: athenalegalsolutionsllc.com - Automation Bird Dog: automationbirddog.com (code OWNIT) 🎙️ Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PatMillerFridaysOff?sub_confirmation=1 🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/businessing-with-pat-miller/id1870663109 🌐 Listen anywhere: https://businessing.captivate.fm/listen 📬 Fridays Off Newsletter: https://fridaysoffnewsletter.com 👥 Small Business Owners Community: https://smallbusinesscommunity.com #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #PatMiller #Marketing #LeadGeneration #AI

How to Fire Someone the Right Way | Businessing

Firing someone is a skill, and nobody teaches it. After 20 years of managing people, here's exactly how I do it, whether it's for cause or for performance. This one starts personal. I got a once-in-a-lifetime call to take my son David to a World Cup game in Seattle, and I said yes without blinking, because that's the whole point of building your own thing. Then David Belman from Belman Homes joins me to explain something strange in the housing market: for the first time, new homes are cheaper than existing ones, and why about $131,000 in regulations is baked into every new build. We get into the new strikes on Iran, the news that Claude Cowork is finally coming to your phone, and Claude Fable getting extended to July 12. Then we close with the Idea Slam every owner needs: how to fire someone the right way. In this episode: 00:00 - Why owning your business beats a paycheck 01:29 - Cashing in your freedom for a World Cup trip with my son 10:01 - Why new homes are now cheaper than existing homes (David Belman) 21:48 - When you actually need a business lawyer 23:53 - New strikes on Iran and what they do to oil prices 25:04 - Claude Cowork is coming to your phone 28:41 - Claude Fable extended to July 12 29:45 - How to fire someone the right way (Idea Slam) Resources mentioned: - David Belman, Belman Homes - Athena Legal Solutions: athenalegalsolutionsllc.com - Automation Bird Dog: automationbirddog.com (code OWNIT) 🎙️ Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PatMillerFridaysOff?sub_confirmation=1 🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/businessing-with-pat-miller/id1870663109 🌐 Listen anywhere: https://businessing.captivate.fm/listen 📬 Fridays Off Newsletter: https://fridaysoffnewsletter.com 👥 Small Business Owners Community: https://smallbusinesscommunity.com #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #PatMiller #Leadership #Hiring #AI