Self-Assessment is Your Secret Weapon Against CEO Disease with Fuquan Bilal

Standing at the helm of a thriving real estate enterprise with a 26-year legacy, Fuquan Bilal knows firsthand the pitfalls of leadership isolation and burnout. In this candid conversation, he reveals his journey from being a "one-man band" to building systematized operations that allow him to focus on high-value activities while maintaining work-life balance.

"No one can do it like you do it," Fuquan shares, pinpointing the perfectionist mindset that keeps many entrepreneurs trapped in micromanagement cycles. His breakthrough came when he learned to accept 80% perfection when delegating, implementing proper systems and training to transition to macro-management. Through regular "rhythm meetings" and structured check-ins, he maintains alignment without sacrificing team autonomy.

His approach to preventing "CEO Disease" starts at 4 AM daily, with a disciplined routine of journaling, reading, meditation, and exercise before business demands begin. This foundation, coupled with strategic time-blocking and regular self-assessment (now enhanced by AI tools), creates space for continuous growth and self-awareness. His recommendation to leverage personality assessments like Gallup's Clifton Strengths Report helps leaders understand their natural tendencies and build complementary teams.

Perhaps most compelling is his balanced approach to business success - building luxury spec homes while simultaneously developing affordable housing for low-income families, reflecting his own upbringing in a welfare-supported household. "A business can't be successful," he notes wisely. "People are successful, which makes the business have traction."

Whether you're struggling with delegation, time management, or finding purpose in your leadership role, Fuquan's practical wisdom offers actionable strategies for breaking free from founder syndrome and building a sustainable enterprise that serves both profit and purpose. Connect with him on social media or at https://www.nngcapitalfund.com to continue the conversation.

Sponsored by Nico Van de Venne CommV

Chapters

• 0:00 Leadership Challenges and Self-Assessment
• 3:43 Systems and Tools for Better Leadership
• 8:20 Time Management and Delegation Strategies
• 11:56 Self-Reflection and Personal Development
• 16:46 Real Estate Mission and Operational Efficiency
• 18:40 People-Focused Leadership and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Fuquan: 0:00

Just the daily ritual that I spoke about and looking at my day at the end of the day. Journaling really helps me a lot because that's where I get to talk to myself and see did I end up where I wanted to like the week? So I use a lot of AI tools now and I can prompt it with instructions to say this is the goal that I want to accomplish this week and, as I'm talking in my journal, it will give me an assessment to see where I left off back and was I the best version of myself every day.

Nico: 0:40

Things like that, just taking the self-assessment on a daily, weekly basis, let me invite you to sit back, drop your jaw, tongue and shoulders, take a deep, deep breath and, if you wish, close your eyes for a moment and feel the beat within In a few seconds. You just jumped from your head to your heart and felt the beat within opening up to receive even more value and fulfillment out of your business and life and today's episode. I'm your host, nico van de Venne, confidant to successful CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs who are striving to achieve everlasting fulfillment. Now, before we dive into today's episode, I have a small request. If you find value in our podcast episode, please take a moment and share this with somebody who you might think be finding value in it. Also, if you could leave a five-star review, it always helps the show move forward. So thank you in advance, listeners, for your support, your continuous support for this long ongoing podcast. But today I have a new guest and I welcome to the Everlasting Fulfillment Podcast, hukon Bilal. Thank you.

Nico: 1:51

Welcome to the show.

Fuquan: 1:52

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Nico: 1:55

I'm so happy you could make it. It's been a way. So my first question I have is let me start by asking you this first question is have you ever heard of CO disease or founder syndrome?

Fuquan: 2:09

No, I've never heard of that. Tell me about it.

Nico: 2:14

Well, we touched base a little bit on it.

Fuquan: 2:17

Yeah, yeah yeah, absolutely.

Nico: 2:19

So basically what most of the listeners already know, for a big part it's it's about. The first topic is always isolation as a leader at a high level.

Nico: 2:28

Yes, we end up being a little bit isolated in our environment. You know some control issues, some self-awareness issues. Sometimes you know some excel sheet management and stuff like that that goes on within our business and we're not also not always aware of what's going on around us, but especially what's going on within ourselves and the confrontations that we meet. Do you have any? If you know, I think you have a lot of experience in that because we chatted on yes in the past.

Fuquan: 2:57

So yeah, I mean it is uh. Every disease should have a cure, right?

Nico: 3:03

yes, still fine. It's trying to find a medicine.

Fuquan: 3:06

Man still finding it yeah, so it's, uh it. So every, all of us have different personalities, right? What I mean by that? Certain avatars, certain people are stronger than others. Um, so it just depends on what type of ceo you are if you have strong execution skills. I actually do this with all of my team members and myself.

Fuquan: 3:28

So Gallup, which is a site you can go to as a program, where you have EOS and you also have Scullin' Up, these are like entrepreneurial systems you can use. In Scullin' Up, I learned through Gallup the Clifton Strengths Report, where it kind of tells me my weaknesses, my strengths, and you have the Colby test. You have all the different tests that you can take personality traits to see where do you fit. And what I learned about myself is that I have strong execution skills, that it's like shoot first, ask questions later. The people are moving too slow or they're not following the process or whatever it is. So they're, they're the curado you know, learning how to delegate and have faith in your team members and people and even that you know you can pass that responsibility right, so yeah, well, it's good to hear that, that there is a certain system that you were able to touch on.

Nico: 4:24

I think it's very valuable if you you're able to. How did you reach to that point where you found this system? I threw masterminds.

Fuquan: 4:33

So through masterminds I believe it was for me because I've been in business for 26 years um, kind of transitioned from corporate to real estate in 99. And then it was just learn by doing right. And when I started to join Masterminds and get around other business people, I started to learn about the entrepreneur operating systems. There's a good book, eos, by Gina Wickman. Gina Wickman it talks about creating, meeting rhythms setting goals for the year, breaking them down into quarterly goals, having weekly reviews with your team to make sure everyone's on track, having a vision, traction, organizer, plan it out.

Fuquan: 5:13

So 10 years, where do you want your business to go? So just really building a system that you could put in place and then rhythms to keep everybody accountable right. So learning that part of business helped me get more systematic in creating standard operating procedures around that. But still it never moves as fast as we would want it to move as an owner. Right, we want it done tomorrow. We want to change on the spot, especially if you are a visionary. So finding a really good integrator, vice president or whatever you want to call it office manager, operations person to kind of run the play on what you're thinking and pushing back on you. If it's not realistic or we can't do it now, we got to do it later. Just having those checks and balances in place kind of keep you sane, if you will.

Nico: 6:03

Yeah, indeed. What's the point where you yourself you know you started 26 years ago. I can imagine a couple of years you were running the show on your own, or were you, you know, launched from day one?

Fuquan: 6:19

you said what's the show?

Nico: 6:22

Yeah, so you were running the show at the beginning as a solo Playing all the instruments. A one-man band? Yeah, exactly. So what's the point? Where you come just realizing that this is not the way to go? What triggered within you or what triggered around you to do that so?

Fuquan: 6:45

you get burnt out, you get tired, you get burnt out, you get tired, you get burnt out.

Fuquan: 6:49

You can only go for so long until you realize that there's a system that helps you become more efficient and more organized and you can do more with the system in the process Right, with the system in the process right. And then you learn, once you start to put those things in place, how to create automations around certain things or tasks, or have team members that you can count on to delegate those responsibilities to right. And you really just look at the value of your time right, should you be doing these tasks or should someone else be doing this task so you can focus on the bigger things? And when I started to really look at that and go, am I supposed to be doing this or is this an admin person that could be doing this? Right, I could use my time for bigger things that's when I really move the needle, generate revenue versus things that need to get done, but I can hire for that. So once I realized that, that's kind of when I made the transition, because it avoids burnout, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Nico: 7:56

So you talked about gaining time. That's what I understood from what you were saying. Correct, what's that value for you? Because a lot of people say, you know, time is money the most valuable currency.

Fuquan: 8:09

is time For sure.

Nico: 8:11

Yeah, how do you see that? What does it make the most valuable currency?

Fuquan: 8:22

Well for me. I have a routine that I go through every day. So I start at 4 am. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to get up at 3.30, but 4 am is generally where I start to have that journaling time, reading time, meditation, exercise, building that foundation before I run off and start doing business and checking emails and everything else. And just having that space and that time to recalibrate every day so I can be the best me is where I find the most value.

Fuquan: 8:49

And then really time blocking throughout your day uh, things that matters most must never be at mercy of things that matter least. I think that was vangolia, somebody who said that. So really structuring the rocks, uh the pebbles, and then the sand, you know in that order to make sure that you're you're focusing on priority. So that's kind of time management. All of us struggle with that. There was another exercise that I got from the Gallup scaling up program is there's a red green exercise where, where you take monitor your day you probably heard this before all the things you're doing and you're marking in green, yellow, red for things that you shouldn't be doing, things that you should be doing, and you look at it to see where you spent the most of your time and did you get the most value out of the day right? So you know, is the day running you or you're running the day right? Yeah?

Nico: 9:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's especially most important when you're looking at the day-to-day, because you're living today. A lot of people say you're living in the moment. That's also true. But to monitor and optimize what is more valuable, I call them ABC tasks. I've learned this from the va office that I work with with a, with my team. You know they've got these abc tasks. You kind of look into your day as an entrepreneur and looking at okay, what like? You say what really brings value? Where do I bring most value? Or what are things that other people like doing and I don't like them?

Fuquan: 10:25

Yeah, you know like a wonderful thing Delegates elevate, delegates elevate.

Nico: 10:30

Indeed, indeed. So yeah, and that's advantages, because you start to realize as well how much time you're losing on tasks that you're not an expert in. Somebody else can do it much more efficient, more efficient. So when you hit that point where delegation came up and so on, is there anything that happened around you that gave you yourself some issues of becoming the solo leader in your company?

Fuquan: 10:58

Yeah, I think the delegation part is tough for a lot of us because there's a trust level that goes with that right. If I transition as responsibility, is someone going to be able to have and hold it right? Are they going to be able to execute the way I do, right? No one can do it like you do it. I think, as an owner of a business, a lot of us suffer with that, wanting people to do things exactly the way we do it and execute the way we do it.

Fuquan: 11:23

So delegating becomes tough because it's like I might as well just do it myself, right. But learning how to build the right process and systems and training and then having that trust to transfer that responsibility gives you that freedom to focus on the higher level things. So I think those are some of the challenges that I went through, because in my perfectionist mindset it's never going to be as perfect as me. You know delegating things, but once you start believing in and you have the right training and systems in place, you can delegate those responsibilities and only look for 80% right. Never look for 100%. As long as things get done 80%, you're still moving the needle.

Nico: 12:04

Yeah, yeah yeah, it's very true, yeah, so you don't really hit into the micromanagement story then.

Fuquan: 12:10

Well, when you first bring people on, it's a micromanaged process and then it becomes macromanaged, so learning how to start off and transition into macromanaged. But the systems and the training you put in place should allow you, you know, after the first few weeks, to kind of pull back and let them do what you hired them for. So and then those rhythms that I talked about those same page meetings where you're just checking in with your team every 30 minutes once a week to make sure that they're still on track. The weekly rhythm meetings with your leadership team to make sure that the goals are still going in the same rhythm executing. You can have a map where you map out your whole quarter, which is 13 weeks, and you map out the goal for the quarter and then you say, okay, this is how we're going to get to the goal.

Fuquan: 12:53

By doing this each week and every week, you reach a leadership team. Are we on track? Are we off track With the team members they're managing? They can do let's call it the 15-5. They can answer five high-level questions that take some 15 minutes once a week and those questions should be what are your top items for the week? How did you make out with that, so you can see that those team members are in alignment with the goals for the quarter as well. Any challenges they have they can mention there, and it's just management tools and things that you can use to create traction.

Nico: 13:27

Yeah, indeed, Absolutely so. For you yourself. What has been the process that's gone on within yourself to avoid those two terms that I mentioned earlier, you know, the CEO disease and the founder syndrome? What have you yourself been doing except for using those systems and in placing people at the right place, and so on? What's been going on inside you for that?

Fuquan: 13:51

Well, it's a daily ritual that I spoke about and, you know, looking at my day, at the end of the day, it generally really helps me a lot because that's where I get to talk to myself and see, did I end up where I wanted to like the week?

Fuquan: 14:06

So I use a lot of AI tools now and I can prompt it with instructions to say this is the goal that I want to accomplish this week and, as I'm talking in my journal, it will give me an assessment to see where I left off back, um, and you know, did it, was that a best version of myself? Every day, you know things like that, just taking um, I guess, a self-assessment on a daily, weekly basis to kind of see if, if you know, I was the best version of myself for that day, that I speak to that person properly, that I would say the wrong thing to this person. You know, go into that mental, exercising your mind, playing the day from when you woke up to you know where you are now in the present moment. You know, at the end of the day, to kind of just take a self assessment. So those are some of the things and it's never perfect. Uh, you just try to put your best foot forward and go from there it's wonderful to to hear the point where you've come in all these years.

Nico: 15:02

There's not a lot of people that can reach that point where you come into the self-assessment. You know, like you're saying, picking up a journal and started writing. I like what you said about AI, how you use AI. I also use AI for some personal development. I just did it today. I had these seven prompts sent by somebody to me that really activates to a point where it gave me a complete curriculum of improvement parts that I saw as well. I didn't see them, you know. They were kind of blind spots for me and it's amazing how AI sometimes picks up from all your conversations and so on where the blind spots are. You know, it's like a little coach, a little rational coach. I would say that helps get you forward. So we've talked a lot about your history and the steps you've made to become a very good leader in my assumption, in the short while we know each other. Um, so what? What exactly is your business? What do you? What do you do day to day, and and what's the goal there?

Fuquan: 16:08

so it's real estate. For me it's been a 26-year journey, as I mentioned earlier, kind of jumped out the window and grew wings falling down, as they say. As I mentioned earlier, kind of jumped out the window and grew wings falling down, as they say. And we do a lot of real estate, primarily in New Jersey, the luxury spec homes we built from the ground up, and then the Southeast, primarily in Alabama and Georgia. We do a lot of affordable housing for low income families. I come from, you know, a low income area, single parent household, mom on welfare. So what gives me my fill of importance is going back to those communities and adding value by giving seniors who can't afford a rent bump, affordable place to live and whether it's Section 8 or some type of government assistant or resident providing that affordable, quality housing for them.

Nico: 16:54

So you're kind of balancing out things like youend real estate towards supporting the community and giving back.

Fuquan: 17:04

Yes, the underlying thing that we focus on is quality housing, whether it's luxury or affordable.

Nico: 17:11

Okay, and what's the 5.0? What's the most important thing that people can learn from you right now on real estate?

Fuquan: 17:21

Definitely operational efficiency is the place where I'm really at right now, right On a mission to create as much efficiency as possible through systems, through tools, through KPIs, constantly knowing the numbers because, like they say, if you don't know your numbers, you don't know your business. So constantly empower my team to tell the story behind the numbers and how we can get more efficient and drive the numbers right. So that's one thing I consider anyone that's really running a business is you know understanding the P&L balance sheet. If you can get it to the point where you can put your team member's name on a P&L and balance sheet, who's responsible for those expenses and the revenue? So you're going to have discussions around. That, I think, is very important.

Nico: 18:05

Yeah, yeah. It's a wonderful thing when you start looking at the numbers and know exactly where they're coming from and where they're going, especially when they're going, you know, let's see what the future can bring and what investments you can do in the long term. So what would be for you personally, a message for managers I don't know middle management or even high-level executives at this point that you really want to bring out there?

Fuquan: 18:33

I would say positive intelligence. I just I see you Alink link is an assessment that people can take, and when I, when we started the show, we talked about that. We talked about a lot right Self-assessment, understanding what your strengths are, whether it's execution, whether you're a relator, whether you're a conversationist, whatever they are understanding your strengths and then how well it plays with other team members, and just having that positive intelligence, whether it's emotional intelligence or whatever it is, and there's different assessments that you can take to kind of see who you are from answering questions like honestly, and then how, though, your personality or who you are blend with other people. Um, you know, that's that's kind of from a business perspective, because it's all people right, it's all people. It comes down to we, the people, whether it's your employees or whether you're the owner, you're the ones that are successful. A business can't be successful. The people can be successful, which makes the business have traction.

Nico: 19:33

So, you know, focus on the people part and, um, you know, having that positive intelligence is important okay, well, great, you know, uh, I really love what you're saying and and I hear what you've done.

Nico: 19:49

I I think it's amazing uh to really hear, I hear a lot of people who have gone in a completely different direction to, to be honest, and the thing is, of course, how can they realize that they're going in the wrong direction, as we would presume or take the perspective? Do you have anything that might trigger somebody in realizing that they're not taking the right path?

Fuquan: 20:13

Not being a good listener, right? If you think you know it all and you have all the answers, then you know you're definitely on the wrong path. I was actually having a conversation with someone earlier and saying even your children are great teachers, your employees are great teachers. And just being open to receiving information, making an assessment of it and see how you can apply it to what you're doing will, you know, make you better, right? So leadership is about being able to follow also. You know a leader can be a follower and you know I would say, um, more of a manager, become more of a manager yeah, yeah, it's funny how the word leadership, or leader and manager, can you know, mix up with each other.

Nico: 20:56

At the end of the day, it's kind of, you know, the master becomes the student or the student becomes the master. Which are all these wonderful twists and turns that we can use, uh, within, within that space. So where, where can people find you if they might need some advice on? You know they're talking the processes on real estate, but some advice on leadership, if need be, uh, where, where can people find you and what can be a trigger to contact?

Fuquan: 21:22

you. Yeah, they can reach me anywhere on Facebook, instagram at Fuquan Bilal. If you want to learn more about real estate, you can go to my website, nngcapitalfundcom and schedule a discovery call, okay great.

Nico: 21:36

Well, that's pretty straightforward and very easy to find, so I will put that in the show notes as well. Great. Thank you so much, foucault, for your time and then coming on the show. I think we've covered a lot of stuff in very short time. You're very focused on that clear information. I love that. It's clear that you're one of the top notch leaders at this point, because I've met other people that take a long time to express what they need to need to say or want to say. So thank you very much. I appreciate you having me on the show likewise. So, listeners, thank you very much again for listening to the podcast and remember to give that five-star review thingy and just click on the button and go back to the website and look at Foucault's website. Do all the stuff that you need to do to become more and stronger as a leader. Have a good one, everybody. Bye-bye.