Thinking Out Loud – Episode 17

This is the seventeenth episode in a series called Thinking Out Loud. In these videos, Armando Lanuti, the President of Creative Works, shares some of his thoughts on business, leadership, growth, operations, and anything else on his mind. Below is a transcript of some of the points he discusses in the video.

Hey everybody! Its Armando at Creative Works.

I wanted to talk to you guys today about an old adage.

And that is that, you’re the sum of the people that you hang out with.

When you’re a business owner, when you’re an entrepreneur, or just the average Joe in everyday life, look at the people that you are spending the most time with and you’ll typically find that you have a blend of traits, aspirations, and characteristics that they all have.

As a business and a business owner, you need to also consider that with the partners that you have in your business, some of those partners are going to be very logical and make sense.

For example, we build laser tag arenas and we partner with a lot of laser tag gun manufacturers. There are going to be others that are gonna be a little bit more different from that standpoint where we’re partnering with software companies that also work in the FEC industry.

It’s not as much of a direct relationship, but there’s still a lot of synergies that can be had there.

So when you’re operating your center, sometimes you need to look at the partners that are going to be obvious, but also some that might be a little less obvious.

And when you’re doing that, you want to align yourself with businesses and companies and individuals that have a very similar mindset that you do, that they have the same goals, the same aspirations.

And we’ve had recently at our 360 Event a gentleman by the name of Jason Barnaby come and talk about his Firestarters book and his philosophy and this idea that you have a tribe.

And going on that, “Hey, I’ve got these five people that are closest to me and I’m the sum of those people,” he talks about, there are different partners and different relationships that you’re going to have at different stages of your life.

Those that are in your tribe or in your circle today might not be the ones that need to be in your tribe or in your circle tomorrow as you grow, as you evolve, as they grow and they evolve you may no longer be the right person to fit in their tribe in their circle as well.

Always look to find those mentors and those partners and those friends, whether it be on a business level or a personal level.

They’re gonna push you. They’re the ones that when you are in a crisis you can call and you know you’re
going to get help.

His comment or his experiment to do is: Who are you going to call at 12:30 in the morning when something goes sideways?

And, if they’re not you know in that vein then they may not be the right person to be in your tribe from that standpoint.

One of those things that I found just hugely impactful in my life over the last several years as Creative Works has experienced a lot of growth, as I have experienced a lot of personal growth, is looking at those people that I surround myself with and those that are just, for lack of a better word, “time sucks.”

And for those that you know actually want to improve and want to get better at their lives, whether it be on learning a new skill a new trait, improving their business, improving their health, whatever the case may be, versus just stayin stagnant and being okay with the status quo and just complaining about the status quo and never doing anything to change it.

It’s one of those things that’s a huge pet peeve of mine and I know many of you out there.

So take a look at the people that you surround yourself with from a personal standpoint, from a business standpoint, and do a little bit of an evaluation, a little bit of an inventory, and understand, “Hey, are these the right people that I’m spending my time with that I am spending my resources with,” and if not, start looking for the right ones so that you can continue to grow as you need to.

And realizing that sometimes those people aren’t going to change.

That’s all I’ve got for today and we’ll talk to you soon.

For more business and leadership tips, follow Armando Lanuti on Facebook and LinkedIn.