I attended the Front Runner Alumni Reunion at Infusionsoft in Gilbert, Arizona. The keynote speaker was Clate Mask who is one of the co-founders of Infusionsoft and the co-author of Conquer the Chaos: How to Grow a SUCCESSFUL Small Business without Going Crazy. He talked about the growing pains of a small business and getting caught up in the daily details of doing what you can to make money. While that is a good goal for a small business, sometimes that activity is so distracting that business owners don’t sit back to strategize about how to build a company.

The two main themes he talked about were mindset strategies to achieving a balance and systems strategies to control speed. I am joining a book club with other business owners to discuss this book and see what strategies we can implement to grow our businesses. Clate said in his keynote, to achieve the right mindset, business owners need to invest in emotional capital, disciplined optimism, and entrepreneurial independence. In order not to become consumed, the three systems strategies are to centralize, follow-up, and automate. He also mentioned it’s important to read business books and he goes over techniques of speed reading in Conquer the Chaos since most entrepreneurs think they are too busy to read a book.