Grazora Life

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Discover strategies, tools, and inspiration designed for business owners who want to build freedom into their business and life.

  1. 1d ago

    Stop Asking What a Hire Will Cost. Ask This Instead.

    A business owner was spending $500 a month on AdWords and pulling $20,000 a month in gross profit from it. A 40-to-1 return. They're swamped. They can't deliver fast enough. And yet they can't bring themselves to hire more help, because every time they do the math it comes out the same way: "If I pay someone $80K, that's $80K out of my pocket." Wrong math. Wrong question. In this episode of Grazora Life, Jason McKenzie and Brett Adams unpack the one mindset shift that unlocks the owners who are stuck inside their own businesses, the hiring math most owners never learn to run, and why the metrics you track decide everything about how your business grows. You'll learn: → Why Jason's rule of thumb is 6-to-1 on ad spend (and why 3-to-1 is too thin to run a real business on) → The difference between return on revenue and return on gross profit (and why the second one is the only one that matters) → Why the owner who looks at a hire as a cost will never make the hire → Jason's reframe: don't ask what the person will cost you, ask what they can earn you → The guy who worked for free until he made the company $4 million (he actually made them $8M and got paid $2M) → Why your next key hire needs you to interview 30 to 40 people, not three → The Patch Adams moment: when the problem is all you can see, you can't find the answer → Why most entrepreneurs run on feel and gut, and why that stops working at a certain size → The sales script discipline problem: winging it reinforces bad habits even when it works → Why so many entrepreneurs resist building the very systems that would set them free → The friend who assumed exercise would just happen and spent his 50s unfit while his wife thrived → Golden handcuffs vs. the cage you built yourself vs. the golden cage of a "successful" business → The husband and wife who both hated sweeping and dishes (and spent ten years each doing the one the other wanted) → The Facebook follower-count metric trap and why engagement replaced it → The $5M business valued at $500K because the owner never built the metrics or systems → Why the best franchise operators track only five metrics → If the metric doesn't help you make a decision, what's the point of tracking it? Jason walks through the client conversation that turned a stuck owner into one who can finally see a path out of their own business. Brett shares the running-total-in-your-head trap and why most owners never make the jump to real metrics even when they've been in business for years. If you have been using the wrong math to decide whether to hire, this is the episode that gives you the right question to ask instead. CHAPTERS 00:00 The client, the $500 AdWords spend, and the $20K/month profit 00:26 What return on ad spend actually means 01:30 Why 6-to-1 is Jason's rule and 3-to-1 is too thin 02:00 Return on revenue vs. return on gross profit 02:44 Why 40-to-1 is almost unheard of 05:25 Why AI is not coming for this business any time soon 07:00 Swamped but can't hire: the owner's math problem 08:04 The real issue is the mindset of the owner 08:39 Looking at the pain, not the gain 09:38 The guy who worked for free until he made them $4 million 12:39 Why your next key hire needs 30 to 40 interviews 13:18 Golden handcuffs: too much to leave, not enough to live 13:51 The breakthrough moment 15:22 The Patch Adams reframe: look past the problem to see the answer 16:14 Why starting on gut works, and why it eventually stops 16:50 Decisions should come from empirical data, not feelings 18:20 The sales script discipline problem 19:03 The friend who assumed exercise would just happen 20:41 Why entrepreneurs resist building the systems that would set them free 20:57 The golden cage of a "successful" business 22:32 The husband and wife who both hated the chore the other was doing 23:08 What metrics actually do (they communicate truth) 24:07 The follower-count trap and the move to engagement 25:07 The $5M business valued at $500K

  2. Oct 23

    If AI Saves You 20 Hours a Week, Where Did Those Hours Go?

    A guy was giving a presentation this spring on all the ways AI was transforming his business. His wife interrupted him later. "You just told me AI saved you 15 hours here, 20 hours there, another 30 on this. Why are you still working until 9pm every night?" He had no answer. In this episode of Grazora Life, Jason McKenzie and Brett Adams unpack the AI question most business owners aren't asking themselves: if the tool is saving you so much time, where did the time go? And why so much of what owners "automate" with AI doesn't actually move the business forward. You'll learn: → Why Jason told a group of entrepreneurs that one of his businesses would be dead in 2 to 3 years without a major pivot, and why they tried to talk him out of it instead of helping him strategize → Why your friends and peers will often protect their own comfort by dismissing your concerns about yours → Why "destructive innovation" is only destructive if you're the one being disrupted (for everyone else it's just faster, cheaper, better) → The Soviet-era thermostat story: what happens when nobody is allowed to decide what's best for themselves → The 1 to 3 million dollar comfort trap and why most owners stop pushing right when the real growth would start → Why masterminds matter: being around people who are further along changes what you think is possible → Jason's own catch: realizing he was about to use AI to compare two documents when a built-in compare tool would do it in 15 seconds, with fewer errors → The "saved 15 hours, saved 20 hours, saved 30 hours, still working till 9pm" story → Why humans chase the dopamine hit of a new tool instead of the actual business outcome → The AI steamroller: early adopters, late adopters, and the ones who get flattened for refusing to move → The Bitcoin parallel: the earliest adopters get the biggest reward, and the reward curve flattens fast → Why private equity is quietly buying non-AI businesses to bolt the tools on and extract the gap → Chasing the Rabbit: why most "improvements" are just keeping up, not breaking away → Why creative destruction is the engine of entrepreneurship, and why that is still a good thing Jason walks through the moment in his own week when he caught himself reaching for AI to do a job a simple word processor tool could do faster and cleaner. Brett pushes back on the "AI is a monster" framing and asks what a healthy adoption curve actually looks like for a small business owner who is neither at the bleeding edge nor refusing to move. If you have been telling yourself that AI is saving you serious time but your week doesn't feel any lighter, this is the episode that makes you look at where those hours actually went. CHAPTERS 00:00 The business Jason thinks will be dead in 2 to 3 years 01:36 Why the group tried to talk him out of it 02:05 The 1800s farm-implement company that dwindled to nothing 04:01 Why this is really a capitalism vs. socialism question 05:25 The Soviet-era thermostat nobody could find 07:11 The wax candles sci-fi parable 07:54 "Destructive innovation" is only destructive if you're the target 08:43 The comfort trap in the $1 to $3M range 09:49 Why specialists change the math once you can afford them 11:30 Why masterminds matter when your peers protect their comfort 13:37 The paint colors example of AI misuse 15:04 Automate what should be automated, not everything 15:37 Why pre-AI software is still the right tool for a lot of jobs 16:56 The wife who asked "where did the 20 hours go?" 18:15 Dopamine hits vs. business outcomes 20:12 The meld tool story: 3 months vs. 15 minutes 21:36 The AI adoption curve: early adopters, late adopters, and the steamroller 22:35 The Bitcoin parallel for reward curves 23:54 Private equity buying non-AI companies to bolt the tools on 25:56 Chasing the Rabbit: improving to keep up vs. improving to break away 27:06 Creative destruction and why entrepreneurship is still the answer

  3. Oct 16

    Why Revenue Is the Most Misleading Number in Business

    Episode 48: Why Revenue Is the Most Misleading Number in Business A $10 million business kept $20,000. Jason knows the type. Some run paid traffic hard enough that nearly every dollar coming in the front door goes right out the back on ads. They put the "we hit a million" trophy on the shelf and ignore what actually landed in the bank. In this episode of Grazora Life, Jason McKenzie and Brett Adams unpack why revenue is the number owners obsess over and shouldn't, which numbers actually tell you if your business is working, and why so many owners worry about risks they don't yet have while ignoring the ones they do. You'll learn: → Brett's thought experiment: a W2 job is actually the most niched-down business there is (one task, one person) → The painter metaphor: why you un-niche the moment you start a business → Channel-risk and customer-concentration risk are second and third order risks (first you need something to be at risk) → Why complacency is the Achilles heel of established small businesses → Kmart's financials grew five to seven percent year over year right up until they went bankrupt → The retail chain that closed its most profitable store because gross revenue was too low (and later went out of business) → The $10 million company that kept $20,000 (and why some owners happily do it for the trophy) → Contribution margin and gross profit: the numbers that actually drive decisions → The service business doing six figures at $200 a ticket vs. the roofer bidding $40,000 jobs → Why a $1M business trying to install an ERP platform is reaching for a risk it doesn't yet have → The two-week rule Jason uses on his kids and on his own business ideas Jason walks through the small retail chain he worked for as a teenager, where management closed the most profitable store because gross revenue was too low, then went out of business a few years later. Brett breaks down why contribution margin is the number he builds performance incentives and bonuses around. If you have been using revenue as your primary measure of whether your business is working, this episode is going to make you look again at what the real numbers are telling you. CHAPTERS 00:00 The W2 thought experiment: one task, one person 01:27 The owners trying to do everything for everyone 03:40 The painter hat problem: un-niching when you start 06:01 The decade-old business that relied on one channel 07:43 Channel risk and customer concentration 08:49 Why complacency is the real Achilles heel 09:38 Pivoting too early vs. too late 10:25 The funeral industry thought experiment 12:34 Kmart grew 5 to 7 percent right up until bankruptcy 13:41 The retail chain that closed its most profitable store 16:22 Why Jason dismisses revenue as a meaningful number 17:14 The $10M company that kept $20,000 18:17 Service business at $200 vs. roofer at $40K 19:33 Contribution margin and gross profit 20:11 The ratio that tells you if you are actually moving 22:14 Why a $1M business can't afford an ERP platform 23:04 Shiny object syndrome and squirrel syndrome 25:52 The two-week rule for shiny objects 28:39 Teaser: next week on culture fit outside the company

  4. Oct 9

    The One Word That's Killing Your Business

    There's a word Jason refuses to use with his team. Not because it's a bad word. Because the word itself quietly triggers fight-or-flight in almost everyone who hears it, and nothing new gets built after that. The word is "change." In this episode of Grazora Life, Jason McKenzie and Brett Adams unpack the one-word swap that transforms how a team responds to new ideas, why most small businesses stay a service when they could become a movement, and why "I'm not enough" is a lie almost every business owner tells themselves without realizing it. You'll learn: → The children's book Frindle: how a kid talked his classmates into calling pens "frindles," and how someone turned it into a wealth-building movement → The seven elements of Primal Branding that every movement shares (and that any small business can borrow from) → Why "I can't find good employees" is almost always a brand problem, not a talent problem → The pull-vs-push distinction: when culture does the attracting for you, you stop having to fight every day → Why owners view growth as a bigger mountain to climb (and the mindset that makes the mountain smaller) → The teenager with no obligations who drank her life away at the bowling alley and was angry she hadn't achieved more → Why plateaus are fine, but staying on them too long is where businesses quietly die → The "I'm not enough" lie almost every owner carries, and why accepting it (instead of fighting it) is the way through → Jason's language swap that changes how a whole team shows up: never say "change," say "innovate" instead → Why the body resists change but welcomes innovation, and how that one word unlocks team buy-in → The brush-your-teeth-with-the-wrong-hand test that proves your body is programmed in ways you've never noticed → Choosing the way a leader chooses: the paraplegic reframe for playing the hand you're dealt Jason walks through the moment he realized that the word "change" was quietly sabotaging every improvement he wanted to make with his team, and how swapping it for "innovate" shifted the whole culture. Brett shares the teenage memory of the bowling alley woman that still shapes how he thinks about wasted potential, then closes on why we're not competing against anyone else's list, only against our own circumstances. If you have been trying to force your team to accept "change" and watching them quietly resist every time, this episode gives you one word that fixes it. CHAPTERS 00:00 The book Frindle: a kid turns a pen into a movement 01:27 Primal Branding: the seven elements of a movement 02:26 Business as a service vs. business as a movement 03:55 Why "I can't find good help" is a brand problem 05:28 The sinking ship feeling when there's no culture 05:48 Pull vs. push: when culture attracts the right people 05:55 The limiting belief that makes you sabotage your own success 06:53 Doom scrolling and the dopamine trap 07:37 The bowling alley woman who drank her life away 09:13 Why owners don't want to grow (growing feels scary) 09:43 Stalling out, plateaus, and when to move 10:33 Back to Frindle: when a movement gets legs 11:37 The fight business vs. the culture business 13:09 Imposter syndrome and "I'm not enough" 14:37 Why "change" has such a negative connotation 14:49 Why Jason loves the word "innovate" 15:33 People don't love change, but they love innovations 16:19 Scared of missing out on things we aren't even happy with 17:07 The boiled egg story: how programming works 18:27 Prove you're programmed: shoes, toothbrush, brush test 19:34 Normalizing new patterns through repetition 20:21 "This is hard" vs. "this is just life" 21:01 Why teenagers have real angst (and few pillars) 23:54 Choosing the way a leader chooses 24:04 The paraplegic reframe 24:55 The political science professor and which presidents we remember 26:15 Call it vision: raise the standard 26:27 Compete against your own circumstances, not someone else's list

  5. Oct 2

    How to Hire Your First Employee Without Blowing Up Your Company

    A business owner brought in a partner despite a few red flags. Twenty years of history. He'll be fine. They just finalized the lawsuit. Neither of them is doing well. In this episode of Grazora Life, Jason McKenzie and Brett Adams unpack the mistakes that quietly blow up a business the moment the first hire (or partner) walks in the door. Why most owners can't articulate who their company is as a distinct entity. Why "I am the business" is the belief that guarantees your first hire fails. And what to do instead, starting from wherever you are today. You'll learn: → The Mr. Pounder metaphor: why owners fire themselves from the one job they're actually good at → Why your business needs to have a personality as clear as a real person's (and why "Donald Trump" is the useful test) → The 30-year veteran who told Jason "I can teach you a lot about this job" in the interview (and what that told Jason) → The three-interview process Jason uses now: the mask usually drops when the food hits the table → How a manager keeping one poisonous employee cost Jason a great one → Why culture fit is not just personality (the "good communicator who dried up" story) → The construction uniform example: how a core value translates into observable, teachable behaviors → The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde problem: what happens when one employee doesn't match the brand → Why documenting discrete behaviors protects you against wrongful termination claims → Baby steps for your very first hire: part-time, least expensive, expect mistakes → Why "if you want it done right, do it yourself" is true only until you learn the actual skill of hiring → Jason pushes back on standard advice: your first hire doesn't have to be an admin (the teenage roofer story) → The Profit First multiplier: your employee should generate 2.5x to 4x their wage in value → The "Bob's Company at a Party" exercise: the easiest way to start defining who your business is → Why the business only grows and changes as the business owner grows and changes Jason walks through the interview stories that shaped his current hiring process, including the moment he had to tell a great candidate at dinner that the culture fit wasn't there. Brett breaks down the "employees are expensive and take three of them to do what I can do" belief, why it's true at first, and what it takes to move past it. They close on the "Bob's Company at a Party" exercise, a simple prompt that helps any owner start defining the character of their business, one refinement pass at a time. If you have been putting off your first hire because it feels too heavy to figure out, this is the episode that gives you a starting point. CHAPTERS 00:09 The clarity problem 01:11 Mr. Pounder and the hats 01:55 Firing yourself from the one thing you're good at 02:26 You are not the business 02:41 The Donald Trump test 03:26 The lawsuit that ended a partnership 05:45 "I can teach you a lot about this job" 07:07 The three-interview process 09:20 How one bad culture fit cost Jason a great employee 11:03 Culture fit is not just personality 12:20 Translating values into discrete behaviors 14:28 The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde problem 16:08 Documenting for wrongful termination protection 17:30 Baby steps for your first hire 19:00 Why "employees are expensive" is true at first 19:54 The standard "admin first" advice 20:29 Jason's pushback: the teenage roofer story 22:48 The Profit First multiplier 24:59 The Bob's Company at a Party exercise 26:00 Refining, pausing, coming back

  6. Sep 25

    Money Loves Speed (But Only the Right Kind)

    Episode 45: Money Loves Speed (But Only the Right Kind) A small business owner was trying to onboard with a new vendor. The sales reps at the vendor were so eager to close the deal that they started sharing local leads and inside information before the ink was dry. The bureaucracy took a month anyway. Deals slipped through the cracks. Money left the table on both sides. In this episode of Grazora Life, Jason McKenzie and Brett Adams unpack the Joe Vitali principle that money loves speed, why it's true, and where the counterweight matters. Because sometimes slow is strategic (hiring the right person, weeding out the wrong client), and sometimes it's just bureaucracy costing you deals you already closed. You'll learn: → The family-owned vendor that lost deals because their internal process took a month → Jason's devil's advocate: the caller who wanted a website in 36 hours and would pay any price (and why Jason said no) → Why some slow processes are deliberately slow to weed out bad-fit customers or hires → The high-pressure window salesman who insisted both spouses be at the meeting so they couldn't back out → Russell Brunson's bowling night: why pain drives immediate purchases and why the pain fades fast → Why the price of money is either hope or pain (and every purchase decision traces back to one of them) → Why a "rush service fee" is one of the most useful things a small business can add to its pricing → Jason's compression: how a half-day sales cycle became a 15-minute one, and then became something the whole team can execute without him → Why effectiveness beats efficiency (and why so many owners sacrifice one for the other and get neither) → The laminated proposal problem: why a plain email in the room beats a beautiful printout three days later → Perfect is the enemy of good enough: how the Pareto principle applies to almost every small business decision → Why constraints (car budgets, niching down) make decisions faster and better Jason walks through the moment he realized his half-day sales process was costing him deals, and how he compressed it to 15 minutes then took himself out of it entirely. Brett contrasts that against the strategic slowness of a good hiring process and the filter that a "we don't take rush jobs" position provides. They land on effectiveness vs. efficiency as the distinction that matters most for a small business owner trying to decide when to speed up and when to hold steady. If you have been telling yourself you need to work faster, this is the episode that asks the sharper question first. CHAPTERS 00:00 The vendor that took a month to onboard 03:11 The company whose owners won't prioritize the business 04:34 Money loves speed (Joe Vitali) 04:49 The 36-hour website caller Jason turned down 06:26 Deliberately inefficient hiring 09:37 The window salesman and the "both spouses" trick 10:53 Russell Brunson's bowling night 11:59 Hope vs. pain: the two triggers behind every purchase 13:44 Rush service fees as a filter and a revenue source 14:22 Half a day to 15 minutes 16:00 From Jason-dependent to team-executable 17:15 Effectiveness vs. efficiency 18:35 Hire slow, fire fast 20:16 Perfect is the enemy of good enough (Pareto) 23:25 The laminated proposal problem 26:15 Constraints that speed decisions 26:57 Niching down: the riches are in the niches

  7. Sep 18

    Why 'Being Reasonable' Is Killing Your Business

    When Jason was 16, he told a financial advisor at Wells Fargo his goal was to be a millionaire by 30. The advisor ran a spreadsheet, showed him the math, and told him the goal was unreasonable. Pick something realistic. That's when Jason first realized: some people's job in your life is to crush your goals down to the size of theirs. In this episode of Grazora Life, Jason McKenzie and Brett Adams unpack George Bernard Shaw's line that "all progress depends on the unreasonable man." Brett shares the Jesse B. Rittenhouse poem that has stayed with him for years, "My Wage," and the money-line inside it: "I bargained with life for a penny, and life would pay no more." Life is a fair employer. You get exactly what you ask for. And most people ask for far too little. You'll learn: → Why Jason's daughter set summer goals so unreasonable most adults couldn't hit them, and what she learned by trying → The dream crushers who make it their job to run the numbers on why your goals are impossible → The framer who was too scared to leave a low-paying trade for years, then retired only because of a side hustle he almost never started → Why the difficulty of accomplishing your goal scales directly with how unreasonable that goal is → The Pandora's box effect: once you've been unreasonable, you can't go back to being an employee (and employers know it) → The training-employees paradox: what if you don't train them and they stay? → Jason's employee who wanted to quit to start a business, and what happened when Jason coached them through it instead of blocking them → Grant Cardone's $10,000 deposit story: willing to spend $20,000 on an attorney to prove a point (and why that mindset matters) → Jason's office door trick: the four papers he sees every time he walks in that keep his big goal in front of him → Why "should" triggers defensiveness (in yourself as much as in others) and how one word swap fixes it → The "I wonder how many days" phrase that quietly rewires how the mind handles a stuck problem → Why replacing fear with curiosity is one of the highest-leverage moves in your life and business → The investor on national TV who envied the life of the founder he was investing in, and refused to invest so he wouldn't ruin it → Why money is a lonely companion if you destroyed your health and relationships to get it Brett shares the poem he still carries in his head from years ago. Jason walks through the coaching move he uses when an employee announces they want to quit to start something of their own. They close on the counterweight to the whole "be unreasonable" argument: be careful what you sacrifice on the altar of the goal, because you may not want the version of you that arrives at the top. If you have been quietly setting goals just small enough that you already know how to hit them, this is the episode that stops that story. CHAPTERS 00:10 The George Bernard Shaw quote 00:44 Jason's daughter and her unreasonable summer goals 02:23 The Wells Fargo advisor who crushed Jason's millionaire goal 04:31 "My Wage" by Jesse B. Rittenhouse 05:18 The framer who almost never retired 07:30 Why difficulty scales with unreasonableness 08:29 Pandora's box: once you've been unreasonable, you can't go back 09:30 The training-employees paradox 11:16 Coaching an employee to start their own business 13:39 Grant Cardone's $10,000 deposit story 15:32 What is your unreasonable goal? 16:17 The office door trick 20:04 Should vs. could: the one word swap that changes everything 21:17 "I wonder how many days" 22:40 Fear vs. curiosity 25:10 The investor who envied the founder's life 25:54 The counterweight: what you sacrifice on the altar of the goal 26:26 The journey of constant self-discovery

  8. Sep 11

    You're Not a Business Owner. You're a Frustrated Artist

    A dozen solopreneurs each making $100,000 a year does not add up to a $1.2 million business.That is the observation Jason keeps running into with owners who think they've scaled but really just have a pile of independent operators sitting next to each other. If a factory owner walks away, the factory keeps producing. If a solopreneur walks away, everything stops.In this episode of Grazora Life, Jason McKenzie and Brett Adams unpack the artist-vs-factory frame that changes how you see your own business. Why most solopreneurs are actually frustrated artists in denial. And why the sharper question is not "do you want to grow" but "do you want to make money or do you want to be right?"You'll learn:→ The core distinction between an artist (creates for the act of creation) and a factory (produces what others want)→ The Think and Grow Rich painter who built a factory around his own style and stayed involved in only 10% of the work→ How the old masters actually worked: students did the rough work, the master added the magic→ The home builder analogy: craftsman vs. production. Both are valid. Only one lets you walk away.→ The IT company where five guys pooled money but operated independently, and what happened when one of them left→ The insurance agents who share an office but each run their own book (why that isn't a real business)→ The one-cell organism metaphor: twenty single cells sitting together is not one bigger organism→ Drucker on complexity: the more complex the organism, the more systems it needs to sustain itself→ The engineer who wanted to build a freeway bridge over a ditch (when a conversation would do)→ Why the CPA who audits $150 million funds says even highly successful people fall into the same limiting-belief traps→ The Cashflow Quadrant test: a real business is what you can walk away from and it keeps increasing in value→ Why "power comes from distinctions" (and what that means for you as an owner)→ Why you'll be a frustrated artist AND frustrate everyone around you if you try to run a factory with an artist's mindsetBrett shares the coaching moment where a founder realized the S-quadrant vs. B-quadrant distinction was the reason they'd been stuck. Jason walks through the "do you want to make money or do you want to be right" question and why so many owners refuse to change their beliefs even when there are working examples in front of them.If you've been telling yourself you have a business but you can't take two weeks off without it collapsing, this is the episode that reframes what you're actually running.CHAPTERS00:00 Artist vs. factory: the core distinction01:38 The Think and Grow Rich painter and his factory02:28 How the old masters actually worked03:20 The homebuilder analogy: craftsman vs. production04:49 Do you want to make money or do you want to be right?05:55 The IT company that pooled money but operated independently07:31 The insurance agents in the shared office09:08 The one-cell organism metaphor09:49 Different mindsets, different structures10:13 A dozen $100K owners is not a $1.2M business11:43 Drucker on complexity and systems13:30 The engineer who overbuilds when a conversation would do14:17 The CPA who audits $150M funds14:52 The standards that keep you from overbuilding18:20 The Grazora mission: a million owners out of the cage19:25 Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant: S vs. B20:59 Power comes from distinctions21:23 The 6th-grade vocabulary lesson that stuck22:41 Why science explainers matter24:13 The wrap: artist or factory, and how to decide

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Discover strategies, tools, and inspiration designed for business owners who want to build freedom into their business and life.

Information

  • Creator
    Grazora
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    50
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Grazora
  • Show Website
    Grazora Life