Breaking Barriers: Lani Dickinson's Rise from Nurse to CEO

Ross Williams: 00:05

All right, Ross B. Williams here. And I am super excited to have our guest Lani Dickinson on our

show today. Lani has an amazing story that we're going to talk about. And she was actually a

fortune 175 CEO, which is probably one of the hugest achievements you can have in our

country in the world of business. And then also her stories about how she's going into

entrepreneurship and helping entrepreneurs now with all that knowledge we have. So Lani, I

want to welcome you to the show. Thank you for being here.

Lani Dickinson: 00:36

Thanks for having me, Ross. It's great to be here with you.

Ross Williams: 00:39

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I'm super excited to have you tell us in like 30 seconds, 60

seconds a little bit about yourself?

Lani Dickinson: 05:50

Well, you know, I have hard time answering questions in 30 or 60 seconds. So I'm gonna keep it

as brief as possible. I, you mentioned I was a former Fortune 175 CEO. I recently left that two

years ago and went full time as an entrepreneur, been side hustling for about a decade, well

more than a decade, and decided I was pretty much done with the whole corporate side of

things as a full time person and wanted to really help entrepreneurs, kind of install the things

that are that make corporations successful, but not the bureaucracy. Because I find so many

entrepreneurs don't do those things. And so they can't get out of the business, they're doing all

the doing, and they're fighting all the fires, or when they go to truly exit their business and sell it,

they kind of get screwed out of valuation. So passionate about that.

Ross Williams: 05:40

Awesome. So, basically, you're taking your skill set, you learned from being a CEO of fortune

175 company, and you're applying those to help small business owners scale their business

Yep, develop so that they don't get screwed over when they go to sell it. They want to maximize

the dollars when they sell it, or create time freedom for them. So they can actually enjoy the

fruits of their labor, and enjoy their life and keep the business but you're you're setting them up.

So their business runs smoothly sells, or is valued at the most money possible. And then they

actually get the time freedom to enjoy their life and location, freedom and locate time and

location freedom. So they're not stuck in the office. So they got to get that that's awesome. So I

know there's a ton of people out there that really want to hear this story and this message on, on

how that happens. Tell me a little bit about like, what was your first experience with

entrepreneurship?

Lani Dickinson: 02:36

Well, to be very honest, my mom was a street drug dealer. And you know, I'd be in the back of

the car when they'd go pick this stuff up. And when I tell people that I don't think they realize this

was the 70s My mom was the owner of her company. And it was enough of an operation she

had a cop living with us to protect the operation. So I would come home second grade, piles of

cocaine on the table. I can tell you all about how they cut it and weighed on the scale and all of

that little different than probably the way they do things today, but I watched that operation from

the inside out for a very long time.

Ross Williams: 03:06

Wow, that was not what is expected. So second grade that seven years old.

Lani Dickinson: 03:20

Yeah. And prior but that's where the memories are really clear for me.

Ross Williams: 03:24

Right. And so, you're literally watching your mother run a drug dealing business out of your

kitchen.

Lani Dickinson: 03:30

Yeah.

Ross Williams: 03:32

On the streets.

Lani Dickinson: 03:32

In the living room.

Ross Williams: 03:34

In the living room, that's absolutely wild. So what was how do you think that impacted Your

journey on, in business?

Lani Dickinson: 03:40

Well, it, it took me a long time really to think back and realize how that's impacted business. But

my intuition is through the roof for sure. And sales, that's, you know, I have a sales team, but in

general sales, I can kind of sense where we need to go. I'm sure it came from that because, and

this is where the biggest impact was. That is your gut has to be strong. That's true live or die

stuff, right. And this was a woman running that empire in the 70s. I want to reiterate that. So how

it impacted me more so than in business, I think it's held me back in many ways, because I have

been incredibly security programmed, and reluctant to kind of take the risks. In my own place,

like push myself took me 20 years to leave corporate. Why? Because along with the dealing, all

the things that happen in a dealer's life happened to me, you know, all the things you might

imagine happened to a little girl whose mom is high and dealing drugs. It happened and I would

come home from school and we didn't live there anymore. But I didn't get the memo. So I'd be

trying to get in.

Ross Williams: 05:00

And we're not talking living like Scarface and mansions, Lamborghinis and Ferraris. We're

talking like apartments, live in apartments in the what projects.

Lani Dickinson: 05:10

Not necessarily the projects, but definitely the hood. Okay, yeah. Yeah, like a guy next door, I

heard a gunshot go off. And I heard it. And I wasn't afraid of gunfire because it was a normal

thing in my life. But I found out later that the guy committed suicide. So at a very early age, you

know, there's this exposure to this suicide thing. It's not normal to have a cop live with you and

have their guns out and that kind of stuff. So how that impacted me growing up was, I left home

when I was 15. It was like, I can't live this way anymore. And

Ross Williams: 05:40

So, at 15, you're on your own with no, no family support. Nothing. Just I'm going to do this by

myself.

Lani Dickinson: 05:55

Well, I, I can do this bad by myself, I may as well not have to deal with, you know, your stuff. I

learned very early that adults don't make great decisions for me. So as soon as I was in

California, 15, you can get a work permit. Soon as I got a work permit, made some money,

became a waitress made a lot of money on Saturdays and tips. I was like, Yeah, I can support

myself now.

Ross Williams: 06:16

Wow, that's, that's, that's something. You know, because I know a lot of entrepreneurs, we all go

through these ups and downs, we have struggles, but now you're talking about you literally grew

up in probably one of the worst scenarios you could think of. And then at 15, you're like, I gotta

get away from this and make my life better. Because if I stay with them, I might end up like

them. Right? So you pull yourself apart. So from there, you're 15, you got a job? What are you

doing to future? What's your next steps to like, future yourself? It was a college was it more

worth it? Were as you were going through that phase before.

Lani Dickinson: 06:50

I don’t really have a plan, honestly, and this is a theme of kind of my life for a long time. I didn't

really have a plan, I was moving. I'm an NLP person. So I was moving away from instead of

towards, like, I don't want that and what all that is, and it wasn't really worried that I was going to

be an addict, when you kind of grow up with that you decide very early. I'm either not going to be

that and I know that and I my grandmother's influence. So, she would always tell me like, you

don't have to be like them, you you know, you can make different choices. And she pounded it

into my head that I needed to do well in school. So I was a straight A student when I dropped

out at 18. So, I didn't really have a plan. I just knew that wasn't it. And it was actually a situation

with her boyfriend to be frank, he tried to kiss me and I was like, fuck this. We're not going down

this route again. And I said, Hey, Mom, you know, Dick, his name was Dick for real. Dick just

tried to kiss me. And she's like, Oh, I think his he's misplacing his affection for me. And I was

like, Y'all motherfuckers are crazy. I'm out. That's when I left. I didn't really have a plan. I just

knew I'm not living like this anymore. And I don't have to, I knew that I didn't have to and I had

my own money. Now that was legal. So, when I was 18, though, I, well, get pregnant. And that

was my wake up call was like, I'm not just going to screw up my own life. I'm screwing up this

baby that I hadn't met yet, but I loved more than anything. And so, I left school and went to

junior college and became a nurse because I met with a counselor and I said, you know, I'm

pregnant. I'm single, I don't have any money. I don't have any high school education, but I

dropped out with 4.0. And he said, Well, it's two things you can do quickly nursing or

corrections, nursing. It is Yeah. So, I became a nurse.

Ross Williams: 08:40

Awesome. And then so So you started your journey that was when you started your career. As

you went to become a nurse, how did you? We were talking about you being a fortune 175

CEO. Now you're talking about you were a nurse, explain, like, what does this journey explain

this to me?

Lani Dickinson: 09:00

Well, I went to work in the hospital. And there's a lot of conflict in the hospital, nurses and

physicians, administration and physicians. And based I think, based on the way I grew up,

conflict doesn't bother me. I'm not afraid if we're going to get into physical altercation, I promise

you, I know how to fight actually, before even before this, you know, street fight, I can do that.

So, I get my ass kicked when I'm gonna get a few hits in and I'm not afraid to fight. So, conflict

and you know, sticking up for myself and being yelled at and all those things. They don't bother

melike they do many people who don't have the background with the criminal side, right. So, I

really think that was key to my success early on, because I wasn't afraid of the physicians. Now,

I'm not saying physicians are monsters, they're not. But they're often quite demanding,

especially specialists. They just don't put up with it. That's great. If you're the patient, right? You

don't want somebody accepting mediocrity. But that feels like conflict. They're just saying,

stating, hey, this is wrong. And so a lot of people shy away from that. Oh, they were mean to

me, and you know, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, they get offended. I lean in. And that's not conflict

to me. So, I think that was a key part of my early success.

Ross Williams: 10:22

Where other people are going, Oh, my God, I'm offended. They hate me. They're mad at me.

You're going? Awesome. How do we fix it?

Lani Dickinson: 10:29

Yeah, let's fix it, which is very entrepreneurial. Like we take feedback and go, Okay, let's fix it.

Right. So, I went into leadership very early by like, the third year, I was a nurse. I was like a shift

leader. Yeah. 22-23 shift leader. And I discovered that I loved leadership. Moving obstacles for

other people was awesome for me. There were a couple of things I was going through at that

time, I started my career as an ER nurse. And that adrenaline, I love that adrenaline. But I also

had to deal with a lot of what's going on in the ER, matches my family of primary origin. So, it

was too much for me emotionally, I hadn't done the work yet. I had been running away from

what my past was, I hadn't really dealt with it. So, I had to leave the ED pretty quickly. Then I

went into ICU did open heart, and that kind of stuff. And that's where I learned that, you know, I

got along well with a specialist, and I wasn't afraid of them and that kind of stuff. So, I was

working through my own where can I fit in to nursing because I didn't realize that the drug

overdose stuff, and the early death and those kinds of things were going to show up in haunt me

in my career. So, I was dealing with that personally and running around, frankly, pretty angry. I'd

like rage, anger. And, but then I discovered this leadership thing. And I was like, wow, I can be

strong and help other people. And that was amazing. I love that part. And from there, it really

just took off, like, administrators would listen to me because I wasn't emotional about the stuff.

Right? And I just kind of grew on the nursing leadership side of things. And there was this guy, I

don't even remember his name, I wish I did. But he was chief operating officer in a hospital I

was in. And I was in some meeting. And he said, you know, you really should be a chief

operating officer, you know, you're not emotional, you stick to the thing, you fix the problem.

You're all about the system. You should go get an MBA, I really didn't even know what that was.

I had just finished my you know, I did an AA and then I did my bachelor's in nursing didn't really

know what an MBA was. So, he said, You should go to a couple. You know, those meetings,

they have to say, hey, come to our school. So, I did and I, I ended up choosing University of San

Francisco. And I just fell in love with the idea that I'm passionate about outcomes in health care.

But I discovered I'm not really, I liked the science. And I liked the outcomes. Like I taught

pharmacology for four years. So, I really liked the science side of things. But based on my past,

I'm not really the handholding nurse. And I hadn't really at this point gone through my journey of

healing all my stuff and doing all my NLP and all that kind of stuff. So anyway, I went and got an

MBAand here's what I discovered. I was in love with making it better for the people working in

the hospital. So, my first job after my MBA was director of quality, so I use data to make the

people who had the money make the right decisions for the system, for the patients, for the

nurses, for the physicians, and I thought that was the best job in the hospital. And that, I

thought, Okay, I'm going to do that forever. And then I became the Chief Nurse, and then a

Chief Operating Officer, then a Chief Executive Officer, and you know, about every 18 months

after I did the healing journey every 18 months or so I had a promotion after that.

Ross Williams: 14:04

Wow. So you basically literally went in as a 22 year old nurse, 20 year old nurse, and worked

your way up to CEO of this hospital conglomerate. And it wasn't even just one hospital. Right? It

was like, a string of hospitals.

Lani Dickinson: 14:21

Yeah, eventually, not in a couple years, this whole journey was 28 years.

Ross Williams: 14:25

But right, but still the thing like most people, you know, they go to college, if they become a

nurse or school teacher, whatever their degree led them to, to think that it's possible to literally

climb the ranks from I mean, in the hospital, that's not It's not like reception front desk. So, that's

basically entry level position in medical.

Lani Dickinson: 14:40

I did start I started as a nursing unit clerk.

Ross Williams: 14:47

Right and worked your way up to CEO of this fortune 175 company, which is impressive.

Lani Dickinson: 14:53

I was over a region for a while to just 23 facilities over California and Arizona. I've done it all. I've

done it at the hospital level, the market level, the region level, the state level, a couple states.

Ross Williams: 15:03

So, tell me what are the skill sets that you've learned by doing that, that most small business

medium businesses aren't doing?

Lani Dickinson: 15:14

Well, that's a long list.

Ross Williams: 15:16

Let's start with the top three.

Lani Dickinson: 15:19

Immediate, getting somebody else into sales, you wouldn't think in healthcare, it's sales, but it is

sales. So, getting someone else selling the product, so that the CEO is often external facing,

and their job is to grow volume and all of that this is true of any business. But oftentimes, you

can't grow fast enough. If it's just the founder doing the sales. So, that's a big one. I see. They

feel like yeah, their close rate 78-80% And their salespeople or maybe 50%, or whatever. And

so they're like, Oh, well, you know, nobody can do it as well as I can. That's probably true. The

founder selling their own stuff is, is probably better at it. Yeah, it's going to be better at it. But

that's not best for their time and location freedom, it's certainly not best for their exit valuation,

you know, if they're going to sell it,

Ross Williams: 16:12

Well, that and I tell my clients a lot, because I have clients that do a lot of sales. And I said, they

expect their employees to sell at the same rate as them to never gonna happen. And I'm like,

that's not gonna happen. Like, you're, you're gonna close, like you said, 80%, they're gonna

close it. 20-30 If you're lucky, yeah. So, you got to base your numbers and percentages off of

that.

Lani Dickinson: 16:32

Yeah. So that's the big one, I see that because somebody else has got to start bringing money

in, it can't just be the founder, if the founder is going to get a day off a week off a month off. The

revenue can't stop. So, that's the big one. The next really big one, I see. I guess this kind of

lumps in is just consistent, repeatable sales system, not one off sales, where they're

customizing everything, like consistent, repeatable sales. And people think, Well, how do you

learn that in healthcare? Well, you have to develop programs, it's no different. It doesn't matter

what business you run, you have to develop programs that people will seek you out, you have to

be really good at them and be clear what their needs are. It's it's no different, right. So,

consistent, repeatable sales, and then salespeople who can close I guess is the top thing. And

then you got to get a number two, sooner than you think, as soon as you can afford it. And when

you add salespeople, you should be able to afford it very quickly. Get a number two, and the

idea is transfer how you think how you make decisions to this person. And every job I've had,

whether it was the Chief Nurse, the Chief Operating Officer, or the Chief Executive Officer, or

when I owned a gym, or when I first started my coaching company, and even now. The first thing

I say is who's going to sell? The next thing I say is how am I going to get Fridays and Mondays

off, that means I need a number two write at first thing when you want to have your time and

location freedom you need that when you want to sell your business guess what they're going to

ask you? Is there a number two and will they stay? Gotta have it right? Can it run without you

can't run without you if if the business requires the owner to run, your exit valuation is nothing.

And if you're not looking to sell, you have no time and location freedom, you're constantly

putting out fires. The third thing I would say is every entrepreneur, small business owner on the

planet detests SOPs, but guess what, if you don't have a system, you don't have anything you

can sell, you're never going to get out of firefighting. So, developing as much automation as

possible and not losing the human touch, if you're in a human type of a business, and then

figuring out, okay, we get to whatever our goal is, let's say a million dollars, those systems aren't

going to get you to 10 million. So, now you got to start optimizing the system. If you don't have

things documented, and you don't know which segment is doing what you're spending a lot of

time on the wrong thing. You know, if your problem is your landing page doesn't convert, let's

not focus down here on what was engaging in the Facebook group. Like we're losing money on

the landing page not converting, right. So, if people don't know what their system is, in every

segment of it, and how it's converting, and what's happening there, they're paying a lot of people

to do the wrong thing. And then they say, this doesn't work. No, Facebook, ads work. But if you

don't know where you're losing money, and what's converting, you're in trouble. So, first, getting

that system documented, and all pieces of it. And then looking at the numbers and saying, What

are we going to spend the next 90 days on and optimize? And then systematically going through

all pieces of the system every 90 days? What are we going to work on next. So would be the top

three for me.

Ross Williams: 20:00

Awesome. So basically, step one, the owner, the founder needs to pull himself out of sales, so

to say find people to replace him to do the sales for him, and successfully and with that, you can

multiply your salespeople and you can scale up.

Lani Dickinson: 20:14

No drug dealer that has an empire is selling their own drugs.

Ross Williams: 20:19

That's true. They don't even leave the kitchen table.

Lani Dickinson: 20:22

When I was in the gym, we put in all the automation to bring in the leads, I wasn't closing sales.

And that's you know, we scaled that after in the hospitals, you go out you meet with the

physician, you say what program can we build that people need? It's not my face on the ads.

Right? You got to get the founder out of sales

Ross Williams: 20:42

Right? And that will increase their value when they go to sell their business right? In their life,

right? Give them their life. What what rate, like when the founder? Well, that goes to the number

two. So, that was number one was remove yourself from sales. Number two was find a number

two that can run that business. So, if you're not there, it keeps running. Yeah, right. And then

number three was develop SOPs systems, which is basically allows someone else can come in

hire brand new people with no experience, give them the SOPs, and they're up and running in

no time number two gets in number two, right? And now the business runs without Yeah. And

when they get those in line, how much more can they sell their business with those three things

in line versus if they don't have those in line,

Lani Dickinson: 21:27

Each of those, I think, would have a varying impact. And I said them in the order of importance,

because the future buyer, if we're talking about selling your business, the future buyers buying

future cash flow, so they're going to estimate, you know, time value of money, and they're going

to apply a discount to that. So, a growing business, they're going to apply a different number

versus one that's kind of plateaued, they're going to apply a different number. So, there's a lot of

variation that goes into that. But consistent repeatable sales system and the founder is not in

sales, you're gonna get a couple more times earnings for that. When you go into is there

number two, and will they stay, what that gets them is if there's a number two, and they're going

to stay, and they are running that business and the owner spending months and months and

months and just drops by and or maybes on the board or, you know, something like that, that

valuation is going to soar. But here's how it, how it impacts the owner directly. If you have a

number two, you're probably not going to get stuck with an earnout. And so what I why I'm

passionate about this is there's a whole industry teaching people how to acquire these

businesses. First question, are they a consistent, consistent repeatable sales? Will this cash

generating happen when the owner leaves? Is there a team that's going to stay? If not, the

owners probably financing the sale. And it's the proceeds from the business making the

payment. And they probably have to stay three to five years, because they're not sure that the

business is going to work without.

Ross Williams: 23:01

So, can they not sell it for what it's truly worth. They can't even leave.

Lani Dickinson: 23:05

They can't leave and someone else is now making the decisions. So now they have a boss and

they have a boss. So, they sold it for less money.

Ross Williams: 23:13

I can't think of one entrepreneur that wants a boss again.

Lani Dickinson: 23:16

None of them. None that I've met that's why we became entrepreneurs.

Ross Williams: 23:19

Yeah. So and then so if they are able to do that and create that number two in that team, so

then how many more times are they able to sell their business?

Lani Dickinson: 23:30

So if, I if the owner, what are the key things is does the owner know everybody by name the

customers, if they do, that's probably going to be a valuation of like, maybe 2.5, if they have

these other things in place, but they know all the customers by name, that's going to be like 2.5

2.8 times earnings. And this might be different in various industries. But that's a good kind of

ballpark, maybe even three if it's certain industries, but that's going to soar up to like four times

earnings, if they have these things, just these first three things up in place, that's going to soar,

let's get to like double what they can sell it for. Two, amazing.

Ross Williams: 24:12

Wow. So let's say they're $2 million company, they're now an $8 million, your company. By fixing

these things.

Lani Dickinson: 24:20

I can't tell you that because you know, every industry is a little bit different. But yes, they're

gonna, they're gonna drop more money to the bottom line, if they do all of these things,

whatever that bottom line is, like, once you hit a million dollars, somebody with a million dollars

in free cash flow, at the end of everything you've done, when you can drop a million dollars in

profit down to the bottom line, you are suddenly very buyable. A million dollars is a worthy

number. And if you have all of these things, if you let's say, if you don't, if you don't have these

things, people are going to try to buy that for one and a half times earnings. That's the

difference. So now you got a million dollars in cash, you know, at the end of the year, somebody

wants to buy that for $1.52 million, right? Instead of four, instead of four, or six or whatever. So if

somebody has, you know, monthly recurring revenue in there that valuation is going to go up.

So, it kind of depends on the industry. But one and a half times earnings, two times earnings,

when you've put 30 years into the business, that sucks. Let's get that up to three and four and

517. Just by doing, you know, 100%, three or four of the 12 things I'd love you to do.

Ross Williams: 25:37

Right. So now you recently you were telling me about a company that you came in, that was on

the verge of going bankrupt? And you and was it six months or 12 months, you turn them

around for sale?

Lani Dickinson: 25:51

Less than 12. 11 months they were sold.

Ross Williams: 25:54

So wait, you took them from almost they were basically like, Hey, we got to fix this or go

bankrupt. And in less than 12 months, you brought them to the success they needed to sell.

Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Lani Dickinson: 26:07

It’s painful. But yeah. So yeah, I came in in July, and I was just going to be the consultant. And I

poked around in the data, looked at all this stuff for about two weeks, came up with first blush

plan, presented that and the CEO resigned. I'm not doing that it's impossible, whatever, because

it's hard work. So, they said, well, we don't have a plan B and we were going to file bankruptcy.

You're our Hail Mary. So, can you stay and be like the fractional CEO. So, I did first week of

August, and did all the things you have to do to do a turnaround. I've been doing turnarounds

most of my career, all the things you have to do to do a turnaround. We did, of course continue

to lose money because it takes time to put those things in place. But the first thing is obviously

labor, you got to get out right sizing the labor, which is the painful part. You got to figure out who

can stay with the team who's gonna get on board with the new way of doing business profitably,

all those things, you got to work through all that. So the parent corporation was putting in all the

payroll at this point. So fast forward to April of this year. And the place was paying its own

payroll. And then in May, it was paying its own payroll and slightly positive. And they're on track

for a $6 million a year, which is great, because they were losing $2 million a month when I got

there a month.

Ross Williams: 27:35

So, they went from negative 12 million a year to positive 6 million a year in 11 months.

Lani Dickinson: 27:41

Yeah. So 2 million a year, 2 million a month would be 24 million a year, right. Two times? Yeah.

But they had just gotten to the 2 million mark. They were like one one and a half for the month

prior to that. But anyway, yeah. So from I took over in August.

Ross Williams: 27:57

If that kept going at that exponential number, they would I mean, they wouldn't have lasted a

couple more months, probably.

Lani Dickinson: 28:03

They were ready to file bankruptcy. They were done. Yeah. The guy said to me, could you do

what you did at this other place? I don't have any other options. I'm either going to file

bankruptcy or you're going to see what you can do. I don't have any other options. And so they

just transition to their new owner. And that guy said to me, Hey, I got about six facilities you

could go to actually he said, So who's your team you did this with? I was like, what team? Like it

took me a minute to figure out he thought that I had a team of 10 people doing this. I was like,

No, I actually eliminated every director-level position and rebuilt with lower salary and all those

kinds of things. That was me. I didn't even hire a CFO until January. It was me, dude.

Ross Williams: 28:50

Right? So what's your plan? Now, I know your goal, the reason why you left corporate to come

into helping small businesses and medium businesses.

Lani Dickinson: 29:00

Yep. So currently, I am helping seven figure entrepreneurs, that you can get to seven figures,

but not have all this stuff in place. But you can't get to eight figures and not have all this stuff in

place. Or you can get to eight figures and have a couple of them in place. But I'm helping seven

figure entrepreneurs go to eight figures and get their time and location freedom. So build all

these things to two versions of exit, get your time and location freedom or sell the damn thing

and take the money and go do something else. So, I'm pretty excited about that.

Ross Williams: 29:33

That's awesome. And what, what types of businesses or is it just any, any type of is there a

certain.

Lani Dickinson: 29:41

For me, that doesn't matter. Business, people don't realize this, but I've done online, I've done

brick and mortar in my own businesses, I've done corporate, my husband's a brick and mortar,

he's an attorney, all the principles are the same. It doesn't matter what kind of business you run,

whether it's HVAC, plumbing. I find small businesses where they're doing the work of the world.

They are people who are experts at what they do. And they've developed a team of people who

can do the work they do. But all of these things are missing. And then there's the online

entrepreneur, where they might be more focused on the data and the segments and all of that.

But they don't necessarily know all these other, they're missing the same thing. It doesn't really

matter the kind of business for me. The small business owner, who jumped out there and

started doing the work that needed to be done most oftentimes, they're missing these other five

or seven things. Like it's amazing to me, you'll talk about the numbers, and they don't know Him.

And they're written on a napkin, or they don't even have a spreadsheet yet. I mean, it's, it's

amazing.

Ross Williams: 30:54

Because, well, they're out there doing their work. They're doing what they're passionate about.

Lani Dickinson: 31:00

And they’re damn good at it. Yeah. But they're fighting all the fires and doing all the doom.

Ross Williams: 31:03

They're just trying to live. They're literally doing the job of 12 people. Exactly. And so you come

in and help them clean all that up and grow their business. Yeah, grow their business and live

their life, and then sell it for more when they're really happy. The most important part. That's

where my passion because no one becomes an entrepreneur, so they can sit in an office all day.

Lani Dickinson: 31:22

Yeah, that's the amazing thing. We I think if you ask, you know, 100 entrepreneurs, why are you

doing it? They'd say freedom and family, right? And then they end up not spending as much

time with their family. I've been guilty of that myself. And this is really the passion for me.

Because when I tell you, I was in corporate for 28 years, and my son is 33. What does that tell

you? I built that career while he was little before I was aware of this time runs out thing, right? I

hadn't when I was 18 so I was young and dumb. So my passion for getting people time and

location, freedom comes from the regret I have of driving my son to college going shit, we are

really out of time I cried from the Central Valley of California all the way to University of Santa

Barbara, because that was the day I figured out. Oh, man, he doesn't live at home anymore. So

that's why I'm passionate about that. Like, hey, I want to get you back. Are you really

Ross Williams: 32:22

Get those years back.

Lani Dickinson: 32:23

I say never miss a moment that matters. That's what I'm passionate about. I also want people to

be like, stinking rich, because I believe if my mom had different resources, she wouldn't have

had to make the choices she needed to make to survive, right? She came from a very wealthy

family, but their mental health wasn't a thing until, you know, really recently. And so she didn't

have the resources she needed. And it was just like, you know, you're out on your own. And if

you're going to do drugs, you're not part of the family kind of a thing. And I think if she would

have had the money and the resources to do things differently, I do believe she would have

made different choices. So, I want everybody to have a truck ton of money in their back pocket

so they can make great choices for them for their kids for their village. I think that just solves a

ton of problems. But I don't want you to give up your time and your freedom to make that

money.

Ross Williams: 33:22

Yeah. 100%. So time location, freedom. Yeah, be with your family, be with your spouse, be with

your loved ones, be with your friends, just and just do the things you enjoy, take a nap or sit on

the beach, read a book. That's what I do. So, so awesome. So, if we As we wrap up the show

today, if you were to give one piece of advice to all the entrepreneurs and business owners out

there, what would it be?

Lani Dickinson: 33:50

Oh, my gosh. You should have told me about that ahead of time. Let's see, one piece of advice.

So, I would say, it's really two for me, Ross, okay. I'll take to get really clear on what it is you

want. You could ask somebody, you know, what do you want, and they'll give you a list of 100

things they don't want. But that's not how our brain works. When we get really clear, and we can

see what does the marble on the countertop look like, suddenly, that's what the kitchen looks

like. So, get clear, I call it if not this, then what get really clear on what you do want in every

aspect of your life. And then just start asking yourself, Is this shit I'm doing every day? Is it

moving me towards that goal? If the answer is yes, keep doing it. If it's no stop doing it, period,

end of story. And part of what allows you to be able to do that is the second piece, which is get a

number two and let them start doing the doing.

Ross Williams: 34:53

Relinquish the control. Yeah. So you know, it's funny you say that, because it sounds so simple

just to get clarity on what you really do want. And if what you're doing is not getting you there do

something different. And I always say, sometimes the simplest or the easiest things to do, are

the hardest to discover. Yeah. So them discovering that clarity on what they want. And realizing

and determining if what they're doing is taking them closer that goal is what's most important.

Lani Dickinson: 35:23

Well, this the the story or the metaphor I like to use is that of a taxi driver in the brain is an

amazing thing. If you say this is where we're going, and this is what it looks like. It will weed out

a bunch of choices. Like if you say I'm gonna go back to college, suddenly, you're looking at

laptops, because you need to go back to college, right? The story I like to frame it up is if you

get it in, I'm dating myself, because I'm going to say taxi, you can't doesn't really work with an

Uber because you've put your destination in. But if you get in a taxi, and you're in the backseat,

and the driver says, Where do you want to go? I don't know. And the driver says, What do you

want to go to work? Oh, God, no, not work. When you want to go to the mall? God no, not the

mall? Well, do you want to go to Ross's house? Oh, no, we're not Ross's house. Well, where do

you want to go? That's what we're doing to our brain when we don't say this is where I'm going.

And in the case of our life, time and energy is running out on what we actually want. Often, it's

beliefs that get in the way we don't think it's possible. But if we don't spend the time to get clear

on where we're really going, the brain doesn't realize which choices it should be saying yes to

and what it should be filtering out. So clarity seems easy. But like you said, it's the hardest thing

to discover. Yeah, you gotta get real quiet. And the people we're talking about are so busy doing

the doing, there's no quiet to figure out which beach we live in on. And what does the kitchen

remodel look like?

Ross Williams: 36:53

Yeah, exactly. I love it. So I'm so looking forward to seeing your next journey. Helping all these

business owners build a life where they can have time freedom and geographical freedom and

be, what did you call it? Stinking rich?

Lani Dickinson: 37:09

Well, there's absolutely inappropriate words I can say but yeah, stinking rich.

Ross Williams: 37:16

Well, that is amazing. I really thank you for taking the time today to share all this information and

your story with us. It's been just a pleasure having you on the show today.

Lani Dickinson: 37:25

Thanks so much for having me. I felt like we were just hanging out. I forgot that we were in front

of mics and cameras.

Ross Williams: 37:30

Me too. So, thank you. It was great being here