3 Small Business Tips from Online Writer Dickie Bush

I’d never heard of Dickie Bush before listening to this interview on the Ali Abdaal podcast, but the episode packed with insights and tips that left me feeling deeply inspired to go after my goals.

Here are the key takeaways that stood out to me:

Identify the bottleneck (journal prompt)
You pay for growth with time or money
Start small to connect with your audience

Identify the bottleneck

The bottleneck in your business or project is where everything gets held up at one critical juncture. Once the bottleneck is addressed, the rest flows more smoothly.

This is a big deal because too many people get caught up in fixing problems that don’t truly move the dial on what matters. Chances are you have a million things that need to get done, but the bottleneck is that one thing that matters the most if everything else is to flow more easily. So it’s well worth your time to figure out what that thing is that will give you the biggest result.

(The bottleneck point reminded me a lot of the main idea in The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasian, which I wrote about here.)

I love me a good journal prompt so I was happy to get this awesome clarifying prompt to work on the bottleneck issue:

If there’s a bottleneck problem, either one of two things are happening: 1) you don’t know what to do about it, or 2) you know what to do but aren’t doing it.

If there’s a problem and you don’t know what to do, journal around this: What do you need to learn or figure out? Now that that’s defined, take action.

If you know what you need to do but aren’t doing it, then you need to ask yourself: Why am I not doing what I need to do? Journal on this, get clarity, then take action.

Now what if you keep applying this exercise to your problems: What do you need to do? Why aren’t you doing it? Take action. Repeat.

You pay for growth with time or money

You can pay for any kind of growth or level up with time or money.

Look at online courses: you can pay a premium price to get access to the distilled wisdom from someone with lived experienced who’s mapped out everything you want to learn. What you pay in money saves you the time you would otherwise spend trying to figure things out on your own.

On the other hand you could save the money and spend your time learning those skills on your own.

This is the cost of growth: time or money. But ultimately, TIME is the most valuable resource. If you can spend the money to learn faster, do it.

But here’s the caveat: if you invest money to learn and get advice from an expert, make damn sure that you take the advice!!! This is what you’re paying for! Otherwise you’re just throwing that money away.

And one more caveat: Don’t fall into the trap of forever procrastination where you keep sinking time and resources into courses and mentors but never take meaningful action. That false productivity won’t get you where you want to go; it just drains you of the resources you could be allocating elsewhere on something that makes you happier.

Start small to connect with your audience

When you’re getting started it can be tempting to emulate what the people at the “top” are doing: buying expensive tech equipment, traveling in business class, joining the newest platform, etc.

But don’t be fooled. Even if that’s what the “successful” people are doing, this isn’t necessarily what you need to be doing at the start.

In the beginning, start small.

Be resourceful. Use what you have to build what you want.

Put in the work. Reach out to individual people to network and share what you’re doing.

It’s important to do these early steps to build your business, brand, etc. Not only are you doing what’s aligned with where you are right now, being smarter with your money and resources, but you’re also learning and gaining valuable experience from these small early steps. And in sharing what you are learning here, you’re connecting with your audience who is watching you for guidance themselves.

This is how both Ali Abdaal and Dickie Bush got their start. They began small, learning and then sharing what they learned of others’ teachings. (This hit home because this is exactly where I want to be, like literally in this very post.)

Dickie Bush gave a simple example of kids. Who do 3rd graders look up to the most? 4th graders. The kids just a little bit older than them are the coolest. More than middle schoolers or high schoolers, whose worlds are too different to be relevant.

That’s what most audiences are looking for: someone just slightly ahead of them in what they are trying to achieve. That’s the most helpful person for someone to learn from. So if you’re trying to share something helpful, let that be your goal.

Find people a little ahead of you on your desired journey. Learn from them. Study them. Then pass along those teachings to others who are on a slightly earlier part of their journey. Repeat.

As you continue learning more and having new things to share, you and your audience will continue to grow.

(This idea is much of what Austin Kleon talks about in his fantastic book Steal Like an Artist. I LOVE this book. I think everyone pursuing a creative life should read this.)

Conclusion

These three insights are definitely working their way into my personal life and projects!

To recap:

Identify the bottleneck
- There’s a problem. > Question: What do I need to do to fix this? Take action. > Or, Why aren’t I doing the thing I know I need to do to fix this? Take action.
You pay for growth with time or money
- But time is our most valuable resource, so it’s best to spend money to save time if you’re able to do that. Make sure you take the advice you paid for, though.
Start small to connect with your audience
- People want to learn from those who are just a little bit ahead of them on their journey. When you share the small steps you’ve taken to grow yourself, that’s when you connect with your audience the best.

Which of these tips are the most helpful for you?

If you found these tips helpful, check out the full interview here – it’s got TONS more!