Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the living system. I'm Chris Meredith, and today we're exploring how leadership strategy and organizational health work together to build sustainable success.
You're watching now Media Television.
Welcome to the living system. I'm Chris Meredith, and today I want to talk about what happens when leadership is not just something we choose, it's something we inherit, we grow into, and eventually we have to redefine. My guest today is Jeff Smith. He's the founder of Cyrus Works and the president and CEO of Smith family Funeral Homes. Jeff's family story is in funeral service, and it actually goes back three generations, beginning in 1955, when his grandfather, Clifford Smith, founded North Little Rock Funeral Funeral Home in North Little Rock, Arkansas. But Jeff's story is not simply about continuing a family business. Actually, it's about returning to an industry that had changed, recognizing pressure points that others may have missed, and choosing to lead with innovation, efficiency, and purpose. Under Jeff's leadership, Smith family funeral homes grew from one location to nine. A cemetery and three crematories, now serving over 3,000 families annually. That kind of growth does not happen by accident. It actually requires ownership. It requires discipline. It requires systems. It requires a clear understanding of what must be preserved and what must be redesigned. Jeff, welcome to the living system.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Well, I'm honored to be here. Thank you, Chris.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: Well, it's an honor to interview you, actually, Jeff. And we've had the privilege of working together for a number of years. So this is a fun interview for me. But as we begin, I want every leader watching to think about the legacy that they're actually carrying, whether it's a family business, a professional role, or an organization that they're actually trying to grow. Legacy by itself is not passive. It's not something that just happens. At some point, we have to decide what we are responsible for building next.
When I look at Jeff's journey and understand Jeff's journey, I see the tension that many leaders face.
Honoring the past while leading forward into the future. The original founders may never have imagined some of those tensions that existed. That's why leadership becomes deeply personal and deeply strategic.
So, Jeff, I'm going to dive right into some of these questions, and we'll just flow through, and you just feel free to answer as you will. So, Jeff, when you came back into the family business in 2006, what did you immediately see that told you that the profession had changed?
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Our family business has been here since 1955, and I entered the family business in 2006. But prior to that, in the 90s, I had worked at the funeral home. I had worked there in my teenage years. Then in my college years, I got my funeral director's license.
And roughly 1998 is when I got my license.
After school, I did not come to work at the family business right away. I went into the mortgage business with my cousin. And when I came back in 2006, consumer preferences have really changed. The consumer was much more interested in cremation. And the way that we explain options to cremation families is significantly different than burial families because there's a lot more choices for cremation families and they don't know what those options are. And so that was the biggest thing I faced when I came back in the business, is how do we communicate the options and the values without sounding like salespeople?
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Yeah. That's awesome, Jeff. Great story too, by the way.
And one part that you didn't say is your dad actually wanted you to get out there on your own and make your way for that period of time. And I think your actual quote is make mistakes on your own dime.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: He told me when I was.
Figure out what to do, he said, actually, I was like, I don't know what I want to do, dad. And he said, well, you're not really welcome to come back and work in the family business. And sorry, Mr. Jeff, we need to. Yeah, you're free for a moment.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Also, one last time. You froze again. So just. Just on that part about coming back in and him telling you to get out, that last part you were talking about. So.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Yeah, okay. Well, when I. School.
Well, it's starting. Sorry, sorry. Yeah, go. It's okay. Yeah. Actually, his quote was, go make your mistakes on somebody else's dime. Because when I finished school, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, and he encouraged me to go work somewhere else. And that quote's always stuck with me. He meant it in the best of ways and just go learn and grow. But there was also some truth in it. He knew there's some growing pains I was going to go through in my 20s. It was really good advice.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: Your dad certainly had his way of leading. And so do you, by the way. So how did you personally make the move from being a part of a family legacy to truly owning the responsibility of the leadership of not only taking over from your dad, but moving the ship forward?
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Well, I can't say that I came in with a grand plan.
What happened was by the time I came back in the business, we were ready to grow. And we made. We bought another funeral home and we had two funeral homes and I went to the new funeral home and I worked there every day and. And then in 2010, I bought both funeral homes from my parents. And shortly thereafter I bought a third location. And all of a sudden, three locations spread out an hour from one end to the other was more than I could personally manage. And I realized that leading by personality wasn't really an option anymore. And I had to change to a more structured managerial style where I empowered people, delegated responsibilities to people.
And within that, what I learned was a mentor of mine taught me the first secret is actually what you see on the wall right behind me.
You see on my wall right behind me are a poster that you may not be able to read it, but has our purpose and core values and vision and mission.
And when I wrote that and I put that in place and shared that with our team, that was the system that we still live by today. And those core values are the rules to play by. And our core values are pursue excellence, kindness, teamwork and integrity. And everything we do comes back to one of those four things. And we then create operating systems around that. But that was really the big key for me was hiring managers, giving them rules to play by, and delegating, empowering them. And from that time forward, we just continue to grow. We now have non funeral homes and another business and an insurance company and cemetery and other things. So it's been a fun journey.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: So you talk about legacy, and I certainly believe in the core values, and we're going to talk a little bit more about that in just a little bit, because obviously that's the center of everything that you do.
But in building, moving forward in innovation and moving forward with technology, moving forward in the industry that you're actually in, and yet you still have the foundation of your grandfather and your father. So how do you bridge that gap between the future and the foundation that existed?
And how do you actually preserve that legacy?
And lastly, what does that legacy actually mean? Is it something that we.
We preserve? Is it something that we grow?
Is it something that we redesign?
So looking at that foundation, looking at that legacy and moving forward, how do you actually bridge that gap?
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Storytelling. Storytelling is a really big part of that. So it's telling the stories of the past, both recent and a long time ago. And those stories are intentional. They're stories around our values. And so although we're a progressive company, we're always looking to the future and looking for ways that we can grow or improve. We don't want to lose what brought us here. And so it's holding on to those same core values that I was talking about.
Those are the cornerstones. And the stories of successes, the stories of trials, the stories of the people and the personality that got us to where we are today. That's how we hold on to the past.
But at the same time, we want and that shapes our culture. But at the same time, we look to the future and we look where people are going, we look where society's going, where technology is going. And we want to embrace those things and we bring them all in together.
So it's, it's a lot more art than it is science. But that, that, that's really our secret to success.
And I just love telling stories. I think people relate and learn most through hearing about other people's experiences and making it personal.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you do a great job at that too, by the way.
So when we come back, I actually want to move from legacy down into tensions or pressure because every industry eventually reaches a point where the old model is tested, the old foundations are tested, legacy is tested, everything becomes tested at some point. So the question is whether we see that tension as a threat or as the beginning of a better system.
So stay connected.
This conversation continues soon.
We'll be right back with more insight into leadership, organizational alignment and building systems designed to last.
So stay with us. You won't want to miss this. And we're back. I'm Chris Meredith and this is the Living System on NOW Media Television.
Let's continue the conversation.
Welcome back to the Living System.
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I'm here with Jeff Smith, CEO of Cyrus Works and Smith Family Funeral Homes. And we're talking about leadership, family business growth and systems that help organizations adapt when the market actually changes. And it is an ever changing market.
In this segment, I want to talk about pressure or tensions. When Jeff returned to the funeral service, he saw tighter margins, underutilized capacity, and a profession that was no longer operating under the same assumptions that it once had. For many leaders, these signals create fear.
But strong leaders learn to read tension differently. Tension reveals where the system is weak. It shows us where the business is carrying inefficiencies where decisions have become reactive and where the organization has outgrown from a way that it used to operate.
If you're leading a business right now and you feel pressure from your market, your customers, your cost structure, or your team, I want to pause before calling it a crisis. It may be the cleanest signal that you have had that the next version of your organization is trying to emerge.
Tensions actually bring us to that point, and the decisions we make in the midst of that is what brings the outcomes and hopefully the outcomes that we expect.
The difference between decline and transformation often comes down to leadership interpretation. How a leader sees things, how they interpret things, how they see what's actually happening. One leader sees warning signs as an example, and another leader sees design opportunities.
So I'd like to dive a little bit deeper into this conversation and go straight to the next question.
Jeff, you are a visionary, and you are truly a leader.
And I think you see tensions as opportunities to expand your capacity and to grow.
So, coming back to the margins itself, so when you see all those tighter margins and underutilized capacity, so what made you view that an opportunity instead of a warning? Because you certainly did turn it into an opportunity.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: Well, I either could.
I either could, you know, look at it as a problem and go to, oh, woe is me. Or as I did, I decided to figure out, okay, everybody's facing the same pressures we are. The business is changing, Consumer preferences are changing. Margins are getting tighter. How do we respond? How do we maximize? This mentor taught me that you either can be opportunity focused or problem focused. And I choose to look at challenges as opportunities. And so as I began to look at things as opportunities, I decided that we needed to make some changes in the way we do business. We needed to make some changes in the way that we staff, and we needed to get more aggressive in our growth.
And that's really the thing that probably is the biggest thing that I've learned. As we go through challenging times. When things are challenging is not the time to pull back. It may be time to become more efficient, but that's really time to push ahead. Because everybody's facing challenges in those same periods. In the first one to the front, the leader of the pack has the advantage over everybody else. And I think it's what led to a lot of our growth and success was we didn't act scared and run scared. And to this day, we're still facing challenges and we're still looking for, okay, what's the next idea or innovative thing or change? We need to make in our business model to adapt to consumer preferences.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: So how do you make a decision as an example between what you have to do first as an example? So in other words, when you rethink everything, whether it's in the beginning or whether it's moving forward, is it people, is it operations, is it revenue, or is it the customer experience?
What actually becomes your first line of thinking when it comes to expansion and growth?
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Well, our expansion and growth is again, primarily been driven by facing challenges. So I think actually the first step is clearly identifying what is the challenge.
And that requires question upon question.
I think sometimes I've heard you have to ask yourself the answer to a question seven times before you get to the real answer. And so clearly identifying what is the problem or the challenge that you're trying to solve for.
So it may be decreased revenue. So the challenge we're trying to solve for is we have to create new revenue. Then the second thing is, once you've identified that challenge for me, I go all the way in the future and I start to dream about what can the future look like? Where do we want to be in five years and 10 years? And that's probably where my greatest strength is. I'm really a dreamer. And so then I'll look out. Once I've looked out to the future, I've identified the challenge of the problem. I've looked all the way to the end where I try to see, here's where we want to be.
Then I back up and I start thinking, what do we need to address and change to go from here to there? So do we need to make personnel changes? Do we need to make changes in our operating model? Do we need to make marketing changes? And we begin to prioritize those. At first, it can look like you need to change everything, but you can't. You can't boil the ocean. So you have to prioritize things. And so we literally sit down with the whiteboard and we'll whiteboard all the things we can think of. And then we go back through and we start to rank those and prioritize those and start to take bites at the apple instead of trying to eat the whole thing at once.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: Yeah, sometimes I think my brain is a whiteboard. I think.
And I don't feel so bad now, Jeff, that you said asking yourself the question, you know, numerous times to get. To get to the answer. So I thought it was just me having problems by doing that. So I appreciate you saying that.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: Trust me, I question myself more than anybody. If somebody tells me I'm right too often, then I start to question them.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I say, too. I don't think you really know me well enough. But anyway, with that being said, you know when the market's telling you that the old model doesn't work, and you talked about dreaming, you talked about vision, you talked about going forward, but how do you really make that balance between the old model not being enough anymore? Because the market is saying that and what to hold on to. It's much like legacy. But what do you hold onto in the market itself?
So how do you pay attention to what the market is saying? And how much attention do you pay to the market?
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Well, the consumer is always right, so you can't change the consumer's mindset across the board. You can educate, and a lot of times, just through simple education, when consumers know all their options and all their choices, they make more informed choices, which generally are better choices.
But the place where I would say where I like to start is start small.
So rather than trying turning over the whole apple cart. In our business, funeral service has been around for a long time, and for the most part, everybody thinks it's the same, but it's really not always. You can try different things in different methods. And so we will try at a particular location. We have. We're blessed to have nine locations. So we'll try an idea or a pilot a program at one location and see if it's successful or not. And we measure the success by whatever we're trying to change. So again, if it's increasing revenue, that's pretty easy. We can track a time period and say, what was the revenue in this period versus that period? If it's to improve the customer experience, then we may be trying something. And then we look at our customer satisfaction because we ask our customers to rate us on how we did. And so we can measure. I believe very much that if you can measure it, you can manage it. So everything has to be measured. And so we start off in small doses trying things. And then the things that are really successful that we measured and we've proven they're successful, then we roll them out in a bigger way.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. Having empirical evidence is important to be able to make the right decisions. And I do think you do that very well. So in the last minute or so of this segment, what would you tell a business owner who's facing disruption and does not really know where to start? I mean, we can pick up with this in a little bit, but what would you say in Just a sentence or two to that business owner who just really don't know where to go.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: I would say the first thing is if you're married, talk to your spouse. They may not even work in your business, but the people that are closest to you oftentimes have a finger on the pulse that you may be missing. And there's an opportunity hidden in there. I guess that's the main thing I would say is there is an opportunity in there somewhere. And those that find the opportunity are not just going to move forward. They're going to move way ahead of everybody else and they're going to leave the rest of the competitors behind. So you have to find what that opportunity is. And I would start by talking to your spouse and those that are closest to you, your key leaders. It's not a time when you're scared, is not a time to clam up and get quiet and go inward. It's really time to lean on that network that's really close around you that they, they may not know your business like you do, but they, they care about you and they will help you look into your business and find that opportunity.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: Yeah, that's, that's awesome stuff, Jeff. I really do appreciate that. And I do appreciate that about you as well.
So as we continue to look, we'll look at what happens after a leader sees that opportunity. Perfect way to end in seeing opportunity because recognizing the need for change is one thing.
Scaling with purpose, discipline and consistency is something else entirely. So don't go anywhere. Stay with us. You don't want to miss this next segment.
We'll be right back with more insight into leadership, organizational alignment, and building systems designed to last.
So stay with us. You won't want to miss this. And we're back. I'm Chris Meredith and this is the Living System on NOW Media Television.
Let's continue the conversation.
Welcome back to the Living System. I'm Chris Meredith, and today I'm talking with Jeff Smith about what it takes to move from inherited legacy to, to intentional growth.
In this segment, I want to focus on scale.
Growing from one location to nine locations, a cemetery, three crematories, is not just expansion. It actually goes much further than that. It's actually transformation.
And at that point, leadership can no longer depend only on instinct, memory, or personal oversight.
That's where many organizations actually get stuck. They grow in volume, but they do not grow in structure. They add locations, people, services, and complexity. But the operating system underneath does not evolve fast enough to actually support the wait. What I find powerful about Jeff's story is that the growth was not disconnected from purpose in funeral service. Scale cannot come from or at the expense of humanity, because it's people that are actually being served. The system has to become stronger without becoming cold.
For leaders watching, this is where I want you to be honest with yourself. You have to really stop and ask yourself those questions. Is your organization truly built to scale? Do you have the capacity to do that?
Or is it simply working harder to hold everything together? And if it's working harder to hold everything together, only, you're going to face a lot of frustrations and a lot of struggles, and you're going to really struggle to scale.
Sustainable growth requires discipline. It requires clarity around roles, standards, customer experience, financial decisions, and the culture that keeps people connected to the mission.
So, Jeff, with all of that in mind, growing from one location to nine is major transformation.
So what really had to change in how you as a leader actually led versus what you were doing when you first come back into the funeral service business?
[00:24:29] Speaker B: That's a great question.
When I first came back into the funeral business, you could run the business on personality alone. As a small business, when you're the owner and you're in there and you're doing the work every day and there's a team of five to 10 people, you can lead by just simply your presence. But as you begin to grow and expand, you have to become rooted in something more stable that people can lean on and turn to when your presence isn't always there. And for me, that became rooted in what is our actual purpose.
You talked about purpose a minute ago. And I think that people want to know what they're doing has a purpose, that it makes a difference, and they need to know, why are you asking me to do the things you're asking me to do. So for us, when we define our purpose, our purpose is to share the love of Christ through our actions with those that we serve.
You don't have to be a Christian to work here, but what that really says is we want to love on people. Every single day we come to work to love on people and help people. And when I began with that purpose, and then I began to focus on the core values that I've already talked about, our core values of integrity, kindness, pursue excellence, and teamwork. Those are the anchors that allow people to run their business, do their job without having to run to me or ask me questions all the time. Because if their decisions line up with our purpose and our core values, then they know, okay, this is what's Expected of me. And this is how we're supposed to do things, either at Smith Family Funeral Homes or Cyrus Works.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: So in growing a business, obviously, and you talked about this a little bit earlier, about the empowerment, the hiring the right people, all of those type things. But there had to come a point, and there's a lot of business leaders that will listen to this show and be thinking about this next question, because it's a pivoting point, really, and not only realizing the tensions and the opportunities that exist, but at what point did you really realize that the business could not depend on your personal oversight alone, that you really had to have other people involved?
[00:26:49] Speaker B: Well, it began with internal stress and anxiety.
You know, I started feeling really stressed out and really torn and felt like I was dropping balls and I was letting people down.
When I reached that point, that was when I knew this is not sustainable. And if I try to do this for very long, the business is going to regress.
And obviously that was not an option.
I didn't want the business to regress at all. I wanted to move forward and take care of our employees and our customers. So when I began to feel that, that was when I really knew I needed to do something different.
For me, I didn't know what that was. But not knowing is not a reason to not do anything. So I began talking to people and I began expressing. I joined a business group with other business owners.
It was in that business group I shared with them, hey, I've.
I'm not really sure what to do. My exact words were, I bought three locations now where I have three locations now. I'm in over my head and I know I need to change the way I do things, and I need help.
As I expressed that and was open about the fact that I needed help, one of those gentlemen came to me and said.
He introduced me to the mentor I've referenced before who taught me so many of these principles that I learned about business and about scaling and haven't even really talked a lot about accountability. But that was the next thing that came in. Once we did the purpose and the core values, we created an accountability system that's tied to a bonus program. And so people are really incentivized and aligned with the key things that move and make a positive impact in our business.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: But it began, yeah, yeah, I think that transparency, and I think that's something you're really good at, and I think that's a part of humility.
And a lot of leaders don't like to talk about humility because they like to talk about ego and what they're able to accomplish. But you know, I believe you can have a healthy ego and be very positive and very bold and yet be very humble at the same time. Because we don't know everything and we can't do everything on our own. And I've got a question that really comes from that as well, because ultimately, as you've grown, you've been able to keep consistency across your multiple locations.
So how did you do that?
By protecting, still kept the human touch involved. So how do you bring consistency as you grow?
And how do you keep that human touch across the board at the same time?
[00:29:25] Speaker B: Well, for us, we had to identify what are the four or five things that really move the needle within our business.
For us, that started with customer satisfaction.
Customer satisfaction trumps everything because if your customers aren't happy, you're not going to make money and your business isn't going to be growing and nothing else really matters. So we identified customer satisfaction and then some other things unique to funeral service that if we can measure and manage these things, they will move our business forward in a positive direction.
And we needed to bring alignment throughout the organization, certainly among the leaders and the key influencers around those things. So we created an incentive plan. And the incentive plan starts with customer satisfaction. And then they get bonus for hitting the other key markers or KPIs, key performance indicators that move the needle in our business. And so they became owners, they became, they took on ownership thinking and they think about the same things I think about. And as we did that, we were able to create the consistent experience across all of our locations because they were now thinking in a likewise manner across all locations. The other thing we did is we had to improve our training. So we had to come up with some uniform ways that we do things. And we needed to be sure we did it the same way across every location every time. And the way you can tell that's working again goes back to customer satisfaction. The customer will tell you how you're doing if you just ask them.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I totally agree. That is the end all, end all, isn't it? You know, so in other words, I think that you and I agree that the larger you grow, the smaller you keep it. And that brings about ultimately that consistency across the board.
I want to tie together in the last couple of minutes that we have on this particular segment.
I believe you've established this very clearly and I believe you would agree with this that the things that become non negotiable as the company grew was the core foundation of your core values of the type of culture that you were trying to create.
And so as you begin to do that and you begin to grow, obviously you begin to get busy. But how did you determine the difference keeping those core values in place? But how did you teach the difference and become to the place where you knew the difference between being busy and having to be organized and still keeping that foundation of those core values? So we've got about a minute left in this segment, so if you would just elaborate on that a little bit,
[00:32:16] Speaker B: if I could reshape the question. I think what you're asking is how do you know the difference between busyness and productivity?
I think that's what you're asking. And how do you maintain your core values and your culture around all those things?
If I'm being totally honest, sometimes it's hard to know when you're in the middle of it, because when you're being. When you're busy and you're doing busy activity, you feel like I do. Sometimes I feel like I'm being productive. The way that I can tell am I actually being productive or effective is I step back and I have to set goals.
We set quarterly goals here, and every week we look to see are we moving towards those goals. And that's really where you can, for me, where I can start to see, oh, we're getting off track or I'm getting distracted and I need to delegate those things. So for me, a lot of it comes down to I can only handle a few things well, and I have to delegate everything else off as much as possible and adhere to the culture and the core values that I just keep talking about because they're so true. That's, you know, adhering to those core values is what maintains the culture.
[00:33:24] Speaker A: Absolutely. And that busyness and growth also teaches you the need for organization in even deeper ways, because without organizing, it's hard to be productive. So when we come back, I want to talk a little bit about the impact beyond one company.
Because Jeff's work didn't stop with just Smith Family Funeral Homes. Through Cyrus Works, he is helping other funeral homeowners build stronger, more sustainable businesses.
So keep watching. I promise you there's a lot more to come.
We'll be right back with more insight into leadership, organizational alignment, and building systems designed to last. So stay with us. You won't want to miss this. And we're back. I'm Chris Meredith, and this is the Living System on NOW Media Television.
Let's continue the conversation.
Welcome back. To the living system. I'm Chris Meredith and I'm continuing my conversation with Jeff Smith, CEO of Cyrus Works and Smith Family Funeral Homes. Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite live or on demand, anytime you like.
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In this final segment, I want to talk about what happens when a leader takes what they have learned and turns it into support for an entire profession. Jeff has actually done that. In 2020, Jeff acquired Cyrus Life Insurance Company and founded Cyrus Works, a company built to equip funeral homeowners with tools, services and strategies to build stronger, more sustainable business.
That matters because many owners are not just managing operations.
They're carrying legacy family expectations, market pressure, financial decisions, staffing challenges, customer needs, and long term succession.
And all at one time. And so ultimately what Jeff has been able to do is to take what he has learned, test it within his locations and within his business, and then help and empower other industry leaders as well who just may not have that guidance or that insight that God has actually blessed Jeff with.
So if you're an owner or executive watching the show today, and I want you to think beyond today's revenue, I want you to think about a business that survives for decades and it must be designed for durability.
It needs systems that protect the mission, strengthen the team, serve the customer, and prepare the organization for what comes next.
The bigger question is not how do I grow, it's how do I build something strong enough to keep serving after the current attention passes?
Because ultimately you can grow and not have the right infrastructure. And without the right infrastructure, you're not going to sustain that growth.
So Jeff, with that being said, what did you see in the funeral profession that led you to acquire Cyrus Life Insurance Company and actually build Cyrus Works? Talk about that vision a little bit.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm happy to.
Well, as we talked about earlier, I knew as we were facing challenges around 2010 that they weren't unique to us and they were being experienced by everybody in funeral service. And then over the next five, six years, about 2015, 2016, as we were starting to really grow and accelerate, looked around at other funeral homes and funeral homeowners and realized that they're still struggling and a Lot of them are still struggling. And I believe in our profession, I believe in funeral service. And I had a desire to help other funeral homes owners be successful. And as I looked at the landscape, I had the idea of some type of training, consulting, education company to help funeral homeowners. And at the same time, the platform really best to do that was through pre need life insurance companies. And without explaining how funeral insurance works, when people want to buy a funeral in advance, it's funded with a life insurance policy most often. And so I bought a life insurance company to give me that platform to connect and help other funeral homes. And then we've been growing and sharing the ideas that have helped us be successful with the partners that work with us through our life insurance company. And we're seeing good results from it. It's been a lot of fun.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: Yeah, thank you, Jeff. I appreciate that.
So what are the most common blind spots that you actually see amongst owners that are trying to build sustainable businesses? There's always those blind spots out there, and a part of leadership as you're providing is helping them see those. So what are some common blind spots that you actually see out there?
[00:39:10] Speaker B: Well, I can think of a few pretty immediately.
One is trying to do it all yourself or being afraid to share your problems and your struggles with other people.
Everybody has problems, challenges and struggles. There's nothing wrong with you and nothing wrong with your company. If you do, it's called work for a reason. It's not called fun. It's hard, and it's competition every single day. And other people out there are trying to get ahead of your business. And so I'd say the first thing is don't be afraid to open up and share. Too many owners are afraid to admit that they don't know what they're doing or that they need help.
A second blind spot that I see is the opposite of that, which is they think they do know it all. Well, you don't. No matter how great you are, no matter how much you actually may think you can figure all these things out yourself, you can't. You were made and designed to open up and work with other people. So it really is the same answer. It's bring people in, around you, talk to them, recognize you're not the smartest person in the room, and lean upon the advice that you're gaining from other people and empower them to help you in those situations.
That's the biggest problem. I see that people hit a glass ceiling. It's their own personal capacity to manage. And at some point you're going to hit that glass ceiling if you're trying to do it all yourself.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think there's any way to expand capacity without having contributions from other people. In fact, there's a principle that we believe and teach that safety comes with multitudes of various counselors and advice. Doesn't mean we agree with everything somebody says or we take everything somebody says into account. But we do want to capitalize off of experience because different people have different strengths. I may be stronger in one area than you are, you may be stronger than me in another area. And if we're contributing to each other, we actually are able to build something a lot stronger and more lasting.
So, Jeff, why do you think it's important today for operators in your industry and any industry out there to think beyond today's revenue and start designing and building systems for long term durability?
[00:41:41] Speaker B: Well, that's a good question.
And it's really easy to get caught up in thinking about today and what needs to be done today. But if you only focus on today, then tomorrow is going to be here before you know it and you won't be prepared for what tomorrow brings. So my dad taught me that you need to have time that you work in your business, but you should set aside at least 20% of your work time. If you're the leader, at least 20% of your time needs to be spent working on the business, not in the business.
This isn't a new saying, but it needs to be talked about over and over again because it's easy to get caught in the trap of working in your business. And by working on your business, you're stepping away from the day to day activity. You're trusting other people to handle that. And you're thinking about the future and you're thinking about the challenges and where you're going. And the future may be next month, maybe next quarter, next year, or 10 years from now, but you need to always be spending dedicated time thinking about and moving towards the future.
[00:42:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I totally agree. Thank you for that, Jeff. So in our last couple of minutes that we have left, a couple of things. One, I'd like to know what is the bigger impact that you want to make in the profession over the next decade? You're a visionary, you're a dreamer, and so certainly you've got sights on the future. So what, what do you really want to do and impact you want to make? And then lastly, tell the audience a little bit about how they can reach out to you if they want Some more information.
Just give us a little bit of a way to contact you, if that were necessary.
[00:43:22] Speaker B: Sure.
The impact on, you know, that's a big question. And in terms of what impact do I want to have on the profession?
Really what I focus on is I want to have. I want the people that work with me, closely around me, whether they're employees, customers, maybe other funeral homeowners, hopefully other funeral homeowners. I want their lives to be better because we work together. That's really what I think about every day. And I think if I focus on helping other people improve their own life, whether it's through improving their.
Their. Their job or their business or whatever it is, then everything else will take care of itself.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:44:05] Speaker B: Jesus was the perfect example of a servant leader. When we serve, we give back everything that we want. And that's my main focus. Beyond that, what I would like to do is encourage people that when you invite people in, you actually allow them not only to help you, but you bless them. Because you talked about it. Everybody has different strengths, and you allow them to play to their strength, which is different than your strength. And so the very things that I don't like to do, the very things that I'm afraid to ask other people to do, are the things I need to let go of and let other people do, because that may be their area of strength. And it's a blessing to them. It's a relief to me, and it's a blessing to them. And that is something that you really don't hear talked about a whole lot. It totally makes sense when you hear it explained. But we think that we got to hold on tightly and we don't want to share.
We don't want to dump this on somebody else. Really what you're doing is you're blessing them by inviting them into it. So that's probably one of the main things I like to tell people, is invite other people in and don't be afraid to do so.
[00:45:09] Speaker A: Thanks, Jeff. I appreciate that. So, real quick, we got about 30 seconds, so tell me, Tell us how we could contact you if somebody wants to reach out to you or any more information about you, how can they reach you?
[00:45:24] Speaker B: The easiest way is our website, CyrusWorks.com. you can see it right over my head. It's got all my contact info on there. My email is jeff, cyrusworks.com.
you can find me there. Find me on LinkedIn. I'll be happy to connect with other leaders and other business owners and help out.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: Perfect. Jeff, thank you. Actually, thank you for Joining me today it's been an honor for joining me on the Living System for bringing a leadership story that connects legacy pressure, growth and long term impact.
What today's conversation reminds us of is that leadership is not about protecting the past exactly as it was, but it's about understanding what made it meaningful then building systems that allow to keep serving in the future.
When we lead with ownership we turn pressure into insight. We scale with discipline and we design for durability. Organizations don't just grow, they endure and to everyone watching, keep building systems that are clear, resilient and designed to serve beyond the current season.
Stay connected with us on NOW Media TV live or on demand and join us again as we continue exploring how great leaders build what truly lasts. We look forward to seeing you again.
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