Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

Krystal Hulsey is the Marketing Coordinator at BALI Construction in Walnut Creek, CA. Today, Bill and Krystal discuss listening skills and how it can impact business performance when these skills are used correctly. Bill and Krystal will be going back and forth showcasing key examples of how to do these listening exercises. Krystal is a visual person, which means her ability to listen and retain information doesn’t always stick. She remembers best when she can physically see what’s in front of her. She often worries about verbal communications and not being able to remember the conversation for later. Now, visual learners shouldn’t beat themselves up. Many of us learn through visual stimulation. In fact, visuals are another form of language. There is also such a thing as physical forms of language too, like communicating through body language. In business, we deal a lot more with verbal language. According to the book, Three Laws of Performance, the actions people take in the world are directly matched to how the world seems to them. However, the way the world seems to people can be altered through the use of language. So, the language that leaders use can shape our view of the future. People often worry about what they have to say next. Bill believes that if you’re actively listening to the other person, then the conversation will naturally come. For example, Krystal worries that she’s too forgetful towards what her fiance says to her, and this causes a disconnect between each other. Bill showcases an exercise that she (and you!) can do to help improve, and retain, the words other people say to you. Interview Links: Bali-construction.com Threelawsofperformance.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Joe Apfelbaum is the CEO of Ajax Union, a Digital Marketing Agency located in Brooklyn, New York. Ajax Union provides companies with expert Lead Generation, Ecommerce, and Digital Awareness Campaigns. He’s the perfect guest for this week’s topic about keeping the passion and fire alive in your business. How does Joe set his goals and intentions? What keeps him inspired? Joe started Ajax Union about seven years ago, but he’s been on a personal development journey for the last three years. When Ajax Union was created, all Joe wanted was to be financially free, but once he started generating a sufficient income, he knew there was something more to life than just money. When he finally discovered that there was a better and more meaningful way to live his life, that’s when things began to change for him. Yes, everything happens for a reason, but Joe (and you), are personally able to choose the reason! Joe is creates his own purpose in this world and when that creation is aligned with his own values something magical begins to happen. Joe is very conscious about how he ends and begins the day. But what happens when he wakes up uninspired? He goes through his routine to help him keep himself in check, to help him remind himself why he does what he does. That’s the importance of knowing your strengths, your values, your why, and how that ties into your BHAG. Interview Links: Joeapfelbaum.com Ajaxunion.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Don Smith is the owner and founder of Elite Electronics, a company that takes traditional car mechanics to an entirely new level. Don is the perfect guest for today’s show, because what he is doing in his own industry is completely unique! Don’s business did not happen overnight. He created his company ten years ago, and has been slowly building the company you see today. In this podcast we'll unpack this to a deeper level. What is Don great at? Despite being so wildly different, how does Don fit in into his industry? And how has this uniqueness gotten him into trouble? You definitely don’t want to miss out on this conversation with Don. We look at these questions both from a personal and professional level. Find out more by listening to the podcast! Interview Links: Elite-dfw.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Elliot Luchansky is the CEO and Board Member of InsynQ, LLC., the industry’s leading cloud hosting provider that offers an extensive range of over 600 software solutions running on multiple data centers. On this week’s episode, Bill and Elliot discuss how to engage and help your team on a personal level, how leaders can have a balanced life, and the one-page personal planner. This conversation is being recorded live on video, which you can see on YouTube! So, let’s dive right into the one page personal planner. This is a really useful thing to do during Christmas and New Years, as things begin to wind down. Bill recommends you first use it personally and then share it with your spouse and then bring it to those who you work with. How does Bill like to use this? To begin this exercise, it’s useful to reflect on the last year. Usually, our thoughts revolve around a very narrow range, but by performing this exercise, we are able to look at things from a wider perspective. What has this past year been like for you? Flip through the calendar and consider those big, and small, events. Bill likes to pick a time range between 10-25 years of where he sees himself in the future. Younger team members might be better off picking a 10 year plan, and exploring 25 year plans as they get more comfortable with where they’d like to go in the future. For example, what will Elliot’s family look like in the next 10 years? How old will he and his spouse be? You want to really create a rich picture of your future. Interview Links: Insynq.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Mike Birdsall is the Co-founder of Birdsall Interactive, FanConneX, and DateBox Club. Mike and his wife, Maureen, are a husband/wife team who have been working together in business for the last 23 years, and married for the last 30 years. On this week’s episode Bill talks to Mike his business purpose, his life purpose, and how those two come together. When Mike’s sons were growing older and getting ready for college, Mike and his wife knew they were soon going to be empty-nesters. This notion of being completely alone in the house, scared both Mike and Maureen, so they started finding creative ways to re-date each other and to work on their relationship, since their children were no longer going to be the main focus. These creative dates allowed Mike and Maureen to reconnect with each other like they used to, back before they had kids. That’s how DateBox Club came to be, which is a subscription service where every month a super creative date night is delivered in the mail to their customers. The three goals of the service is for couples to interact, engage, and communicate. Mike’s service allows for him to find new and novel ways to engage his customers on a regular basis, and this keeps the business interesting. It isn’t always easy to find new ways to engage your customer, but Mike takes these challenges in stride. Mike is excited to get up in the morning because he realizes that DateBox Club is a wanted/needed service for couples who want to have creative ways to connect. An added plus to that, is that he can try out new things with his wife too! Interview Links: Dateboxclub.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Brad Giles is the Founder of Evolution Partners, and a certified Gazelles coach. Originally from Australia, Brad is a strategic advisor and coach to CEOs and executive teams across Australia and Asia. On this week’s show, we explore how to develop a powerful brand promise through the use of the Attribute Map. How has Brad applied the Attribute Map tool while working one-on-one with clients? Brad first used the tool while working on strategy development with a contracting company in Australia. As he used it he saw how closely this tool aligned with brand promise. Brad found out that his client and his client’s competitors, were all having the same problem: they were failing to deliver the finished work on time. In order to solve this and reduce their customer’s frustrations, Brad helped them map out their key service attributes in order to find ways to improve their reputation in the market. There’s nothing more frustrating than hiring a company who doesn’t deliver on time. With that in mind, they created the brand promise to be 'on time, the first time, every time.' By making this promise, it substantially changed the way this business operated and they were able to achieve their promise! The reason why Brad was able to get this company to do something none of their competitors were able to achieve was not only due to the use of the Attribute Map, but also setting clear, concise, and measurable goals. There’s nothing worse than having a one-page ‘bubble wrap’ business plan, which contains no depth and is filled with fluff. Interview Links: Evolutionpartners.com.au Brad's Vlog More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Darius Mirshahzadeh is the CEO of The Money Source Inc. and the Founder of Endeavor America Loan Services. Darius has worked directly with Scaling Up principles and has seen quick growth within a short period of time at his two companies. On this interview, Darius shares the things he’s learned from when he first started out in 2013. What was it like learning these Scaling Up principles for the first time? When Darius was going through the “Birthing of Giants” program, he did feel a little overwhelmed by how much material there was to cover, but he was excited because at the time he was looking for a model that helped with high growth. At the time, there weren’t a lot of resources out there that were teaching these growth methods. What does Darius’s business look like now since he first learned about these principles in 2013? When Darius became the CEO of The Money Source Inc., it was the first time Darius had the chance to effectively apply what he learned, as he knew this company could scale aggressively. Since it was a brand new company, Darius was able to implement the core values, the BHAG, etc., on day one. This set the foundation for the company’s aggressive growth soon after. Interview Links: Themoneysource.com Eeawholesale.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Paul Akers is the Founder and CEO of FastCap and is an expert in the field of lean manufacturing and lean thinking. He has written several books on the subject, including 2 Second Lean, Lean Health, and Lean Travel. So, how can we optimize ‘lean,’ in a simple and easy way? This week’s episode dives right into the inner workings of how to leverage ‘lean’ without headaches. Paul has seen ‘lean’ work in the U.S., Japan, and now Kazakhstan. So, what is ‘lean,’ exactly? Simple! ‘Lean’ is one thing — the elimination of waste. Every basic task in our life is a process. What ‘lean’ does is analyze how long it takes you to complete a process, and see if it can optimize it more effectively. You don’t have to make massive improvements from between the time you start and end a process. The improvements with the use of ‘lean,’ are often very tiny, but end up becoming incredibly effective over time. The main goal is to do higher quality work with less time. ‘Lean’ does not just apply to manufacturing. It applies to all aspects of our life. The moment you are able to apply it beyond your professional life, everything changes. Bill has applied some lean principles into his personal life, and now looks forward to his daily tasks. There will always be pitfalls, so turn yourself into a world-class problem solver! Interview Links: PaulAkers.net More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Tanya Chernova is an accomplished and passionate professional speaker, coach, and author. Tanya, originally from Russia, has traveled all over the world to help her clients get to the next level in their business. Today, she currently resides in Toronto, Canada, where she was awarded Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada, in 2013. Today Tanya and I discuss how to overcome limiting beliefs and become a better leader. The brain processes the goals that you set from two different places -- the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind, the logical mind, only operates between 1-5% of the day. The unconscious mind, which holds our habits, patterns, and emotions, dictates about 95-99% of our day. Our conscious mind is the one that logically sets our goals, and our subconscious mind helps us go after those goals; it is the goal-getter. However, if you have a limiting belief, your subconscious mind could work against you, and sabotage you, to the point where you feel like you’re procrastinating on your goal. The way we even say our goals can be a trigger for self-sabotage. We used to think self-sabotage, self-doubt, and procrastination were an act, but they’re actually based on your childhood experiences. These young experiences can drastically change how you and your subconscious views the world. So, how can we change our tendencies to sabotage ourselves? By consciously using language to help us reframe our mindset in a way that builds strength. When you’ve set a goal, focus on the journey and the growth it gives you, more than the actual completion of the goal. Interview Links: Courageous Living Website Free gift from Tanya UnderMind by Tanya Chernova and Joana Andros Tanya on LinkedIn More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Gil Bonwitt is the CEO of Gazelles Social Initiatives. It is projected that Gazelles Social Initiative will impact over 500 social sector organizations by the year 2020, through the use of best practices from the Scaling Up book. Gil and I will be discussing the various ways you can scale up in the social sector, on this week’s episode. Let’s begin this topic by talking about cash flow in the social sectors. As many of these social companies are not for-profit companies, money is often not their main focus. Since social companies are so mission-based, they often forget the importance of cash flow. The way social sectors increase their cash flow is very different compared to a for-profit organization. When social companies begin to scale up, that’s when they begin to see the constraints of their insufficient cash flow. By this point, it is often too late to make enough capital for their mission and their operations start to break. Gil and his team try to remind social entrepreneurs that it’s really about cash flow and sustainability. You can’t call up a donor and ask them for $10,000 on the spot or else you will not meet payroll. It simply doesn’t work that way! So, how does Gil help social sectors with their cash flow? Gazelles has multiple tools that Gil and his team use to determine gross margins, cash balance, receivables, and more. Gil shares an example of when he really used these tools to their full potential at his children’s school, who were having serious cash flow problems during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. How did the school take to the use of these new tools? Despite a financial crisis happening, the school board was resistant at first. When you first begin to use these new tools, it’s not only a learning process, but it becomes a change in culture, too. You’re bound to get some resistance, even when everyone is calling for a change in the system. Interview Links: Gil on LinkedIn More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Shelby Scarbrough began her career in The White House Office of Presidential Advance, and as a Protocol Officer at the U.S. Department of State. Today, Shelby is an entrepreneur, angel investor, speaker and more. For this week’s topic, Shelby and I discussed how we can improve relationships and build rapport. Let’s get right into the heart of the matter. It all boils down to dignity and respect, when it comes to building rapport. And no matter what you’re doing, those two things are the only things people want. If you’re the giver, or the receiver, keep those two things in mind, and things will begin, and end, smoothly. Shelby’s boss, who was President Ronald Reagan, treated everybody with dignity and respect. Based on his actions, this taught Shelby, at an early point in her career, why these two principles were so important. President Reagan’s team even treated others the same way the President did, because they were all representatives of his administration. When Shelby left the White House, she took her skills and applied them to the business sector. On the outside, Shelby’s work makes people’s lives easier, but when you take a closer look, her work is really to take away all the ‘noise’ of the business, and to help facilitate distraction-free communication. There are certain protocols that need to be addressed for each company. The more outspoken a CEO is about these protocols, the less intimidating it will be for a new person to join a company and figure out the company culture as they go. For example, Shelby lives in California, which means she’s able to dress much more casually at business meetings. She’s about to host a speech in Washington next week, so what does that mean for her wardrobe? In order to fit in, and be seen as an expert, she will need to dress up to Washington’s standards. People often assume that when they’re entering into a new environment, that those people need to adapt to them. This is false. When you enter into a new culture, office, etc, you should be the one adapting to their ways. Though, there is balance between being yourself, and being respectful of other people’s customs. Interview Links: ShelbyScabrough.com Practical Protocol Shelby Scarbrough on Tedx More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Kevin Lawrence is a strategic advisor and coach to CEOs and executive teams all over the globe. Today, Kevin and I talk about keeping it together as a leader and ways not to meltdown as you try to grow your company. How do leaders keep themselves together while under the enormous pressure of running a company? In his 20 years of experience, Kevin is always fascinated by how some people can do it and have fantastic personal lives, while others are just miserable throughout their entire leadership journey. When Kevin dug further into this, there are some very famous people like Kurt Cobain and Elvis, who at the peak of their careers, had it all and then somewhere along the line, they imploded in their success. This same sort of timeline applies to successful executives, too. After working with a number of very high-performing individuals, Kevin dubbed this imploding timeline as the ‘The Dark Secret of The Boardroom.’ We all have our own Elvises and Kurt Cobains inside of us. So, Kevin’s job is to help executives find their high-performing sweet spot without all the darkness associated with it. Kevin hosted a private 2-day event with Jim Collins, the guru of business leadership and 'keeping it together.' Jim says that when we are under massive amounts of stress, we pay a 30% tax with our health. Although Jim hasn’t written about this yet, he calls this the ‘Stress and Drudgery Tax’. Steve Jobs even admitted to Jim that when he went back to Apple and still continued his work with Pixar, he paid more than that 30% tax on his health. Steve Jobs believed that those were the days where the seeds of his cancer were planted. High-performing individuals deeply care about their work, but often that’s exactly what leads to their downfall. In the mental health world, experts say that we’re only one or two life events away from a notable mental health issue. This is why when executives are going through major life-changing events, they should seek help either from a coach or therapist. Interview Links: Coach Kevin The Working Mind Summary More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

John Mullins is an award-winning teacher, author and scholar. John is an Associate Professor of Management Practice in Marketing and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School and is recognized as a thought leader in entrepreneurship. On this episode, John and I discuss customer-funded businesses and some of the novel ways business owners can fund their businesses. To begin the interview John and I discussed his most recent book, The Customer-Funded Business. the idea for this book began while writing a chapter in his first book, Getting to Plan B, about Costco's innovative business model. John knew there were a lot of interesting funding models like Costco's out there that worked, but for most entrepreneurs it seemed as though their go-to method to acquire funding was to simply find a VC. There are other ways! John discusses 5 different models so you can fund a business without using venture capital, family money, a bank, or an angel investor. The first way is to be a matchmaker, where you just bring buyers and sellers together, but you never have your hands on the product itself. The second is the pay-in-advance model, which is what Costco currently does. The third way is a subscription model, like Netflix and the Wall Street journal, which many consumers are already familiar with. The fourth is a scarcity model, which is what the clothing company Zara uses with its customers by only having a limited amount of each style. When it's gone, it's gone. The fifth and final model is the service-to-product model like Bill Gates and Paul Allen did with Microsoft. When they first started out, they were designing custom programs for specific tasks. A lot of the code was the same, so they made it into a standard product that was scalable and affordable. Of these five, which one is the best for you? It varies based on the product you're selling. In order to successfully execute any one of these business models, you have to be really customer-focused. Before you even attempt to pitch your product to a VC, you have to pitch your product to the actual customer first. What most people don't think about is that the customer can also be your VC as well. Interview Links: John Mullins The Customer-Funded Business by John Mullins Getting to Plan B – John Mullins and Randy Komisar John on London Business School More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Robert Sher is the Founding Principal of CEO to CEO, a regular columnist for Forbes and CFO Magazine, and the author of two books, The Feel of the Deal and Mighty Midsized Companies. On this week's episode, Rob and I discuss growth and leadership. To start off, Rob shares a story about his client who recently had been promoted to CEO and had a big problem to solve that he just couldn't get his head wrapped around. Rob’s client had a management team, but he had to push them on every little thing, and then later chase them down because they would only compete the task halfway. It was exhausting and frustrating and he knew that playing babysitter was not the most effective way to spend his time. This company just seemed really, really, really hard to run. The company had pretty strict firing policies. In fact, the three top leaders had been there since 1985. The one thing Rob saw right off the bat was that the CEO's team needed help in leadership training and communication, as did the CEO. Since the CEO was more introverted, he preferred to hide away and work on his own things, but this created an imbalance in leadership. So, what did Rob do? He came in and introduced an operating plan. It's a one page plan that lists the goals of the company. Rob gave this plan, slightly customized depending on the department, to the six managers reporting to the CEO. When they incorporated the plan, it was completely new to the team. Every month the team would use this plan to gauge how they were doing in terms of achieving their goal. So, how did Rob help the CEO and his managers with leadership? Well, the introduction of this plan made managers feel like they were finally driving in the same car, giving them a clear vision of where they needed to direct their team. Within a year, profits jumped from break even to 3.5% profit despite having the same volume in sales. The manager leading the sales team had been there for a long time, but as this was his first job leading a sales team, he had no real sales experience and had no mentor to help him grow further as a leader. So, Rob and the CEO brought in a more experienced VP of sales (without firing anybody) and it skyrocketed the business. Sometimes if you really want to grow, you need to bring in extra and more experienced leadership. Interview Links: Ceotoceo.biz The Feel of the Deal by Robert Sher Mighty Midsized Companies by Robert Sher More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Ted Sarvata is a fellow Gazelles coach who is focused on reigniting your purpose to restore your sanity! He and I will be diving into purpose, how you find it, how you use it in a company setting, and so much more on this week's episode. How do you discover your own personal purpose? Business owners tend to downplay their purpose in terms of why they started their business, but the reality is they shouldn't. The team buys into the owner's vision and the company's purpose, so the 'why' needs to be prominent in the company culture. Why does purpose even matter? Isn't that a bit 'woo-woo'? For those who might think so, I share a story with the audience on why taking your team through the journey of discovering their purpose is so powerful. Purpose becomes the core motivator for your team and this is one of the reasons why it's so crucial for the team to discover it. As you begin the conversation, it is best to first ask people what they do and why they do what they do? You keep peeling back that layer until it starts to 'click' for them as to what their purpose might be in life and within the company. So, once you've discovered purpose, what's next? Well, now that you have this knowledge, what does it mean to you? Ted shares an example of how one of his clients used this new-found discovery of purpose and how they incorporated their purpose within their long-term company goals. People often get scared about choosing the wrong type of purpose, but the beauty of purpose is that it can and will change! You do not need to climb a mountain to discover yourself and your meaning. Purpose comes from you, which means there's no such thing as having a wrong purpose. Interview Links: Ted Sarvata Start With Why – Simon Sinek TED Talk More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Joanna Bloor is a veteran in the media space and has worked in leadership roles with companies like CBS Interactive, Pandora, and OpenTable. Joanna is the CEO and Founder of Amplify Lab and has over 20 years of experience in digital media, broadcast television, and radio. In this episode, Joanna and I dive into what you actually want to be known for in your professional career and how to properly articulate that to your peers and clients. Joanna has spent a year talking with other women on how they can represent themselves as the experts and get C-suite leadership positions, which are usually very male-dominated. A big question that comes up is how do you figure out what you really want to be known for? As Joanna was trying to figure out how to answer this particular question, she found that it was actually quite difficult to really articulate that message for yourself. Another point that she discovered was that once you've figured out what you want to be known for, the actual process of explaining that to others is also incredibly difficult. If you look at examples of successful executives, the story of who they are and why they do what they do is deeply connected and tied into the company's brand as well. This means that companies need to focus on their executive’s story just as much as they focus on their brand's story. There is a lot of anxiety around getting your message wrong and there's quite a bit of challenge towards defining yourself down to just one particular thing. However, when you define the type of audience you want to connect with and the types of conversations you want to have with them, the process of 'what you're known for' becomes a lot easier. Another point you should consider is that it's really okay for your message to change and grow over time. Perhaps it's best to phrase the question as: What do you want to be known for in this phase of life? This will help you narrow down your options based on what you want to achieve -right now-. When you've found your message, Joanna encourages her clients to talk to 5 people who 'already love you', and talk to them about that message. Call them back 48 hours later and ask those same 5 people what they remembered about the conversation and see if they remembered any 'sticky' words that resonated with them. Just remember, words change and your definitions change, but the only thing that remains consistent is you. You have to be genuine about the message you put out there and you have to be genuine about the journey you're taking right now. When you have that in place, then defining what you're doing right now becomes a whole lot easier. Interview Links: Joanna Bloor’s Website More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Dave Kashen is on a mission to help people love their work life by eliminating ineffective meetings. Did you know there are over 3 billion meetings a year in the United States, and over half of them suck? This is why Dave co-founded Worklife Inc., a tech startup that helps maximize team productivity without the meeting! Meetings are a fabric of our working lives and they help with collaboration. That being said, when groups of people get together, it seems meetings become an ineffective experience and nothing substantial is achieved. So, why is that? Well, Dave set out to find the elements that make up an effective meeting, and then simplify the process further by implementing software to optimize it. Dave found several contributing factors to how a successful meeting occurs, breaking down the process in three stages: before the meeting, during the meeting, and after the meeting. One of the factors to a successful meeting was to create an agenda before the meeting takes place. This makes a huge difference because it serves as a clear road map for those who are attending the meeting. An agenda allows your staff to prepare for the meeting. It also opens up a collaborative conversation before the meeting occurs, as staff brain-storm for an ideal solution. Further, it clarifies to the team who needs to and doesn’t need to attend the meeting. On your agenda, it's important to have a list of topics as well as what you want the ideal outcome to be. This will help direct your staff towards a goal as oppose to just spit-balling it. During the meeting, one of the biggest problems is that each staff member ends up leaving the meeting with differing opinions on what the solution is to their problem or what the company's next big action step is. So, to solve this, it is key to come to a shared agreement between everyone present on what the solution or next action step will be for the company before the meeting is over. This means everyone will be leaving with a clear goal in mind. After the meeting, communication goes out to the relevant staff members who can help execute the plan and then it's just a matter of accountability. The good news is, Dave's software makes this entire process incredibly efficient and effective. This software allows staff to collaborate and to come up with creative solutions in real-time before the scheduled meeting begins. When they attend the meeting, they already have several solutions to draw from and all they have to do is optimize the solution and create action steps before leaving the meeting. Interview Links: www.worklife.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Nick Nanton is a four-time Emmy Award Winning Director, Producer, and Filmmaker. A master storyteller, Nick is recognized as one of the top thought-leaders in the business world, and is the author of StorySelling. Nick and I dive right into the art of storytelling and how to tell your story in a compelling and engaging way. A friend once told Nick that he has a unique skillset, as he is able to create media on a budget that looks like it came out of Hollywood; and that he should get out of the music industry and join the business world instead. Nick took his friend's advice and now ten years later, here he is today. So, how do you create your own personal story? First of all, most people take their own journey for granted. Why talk about that? It's boring. That couldn't be farther from the truth. If you tell your story well, it will position you as the only person in the world who can possibly solve your ideal clients' problems. Your story has to make sense or at least connect well with what you're currently doing. When it does, it builds trust. When it doesn't, it just seems weird and awkward. However, when you've told your story a thousand times, you might feel like everyone has heard it. Often, this is not the case. You need to keep re-telling your story as if it's the first time you've ever told it and it needs to keep making sense. When you tell a compelling story, the listener's brain acts differently and it begins to build a bond of trust with the storyteller. A good story means you have body chemistry on your side. It also means you're able to transport your listener into another atmosphere and make them feel like they were a part of your journey. How does all of this tie into running an effective business? It all comes down to trust. In order for somebody to give you their hard earned money, they need to be able to trust you. The more personal hooks you add into a conversation, the more likely the listener will feel like they have a lot of things in common with you. By telling a story, you're relating a piece of your life to others and this makes them feel more comfortable around you. Interview Links: www.nicknanton.com www.celebritybrandingagency.com StorySelling by Nick Nanton More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

A Certified Gazelles Coach with quite a rich background, Jim Jubelirer helps leaders improve their business performance and personal satisfaction. He also speaks to a wide variety of audiences about leadership and business excellence. On this episode, Jim and I expand upon a topic the show has covered in the past and that's people! People seem to be the biggest challenge and resource for entrepreneurs and other business professionals. So, how can we get the right people on the bus? Through the use of Topgrading methods. Jim expands on how you can apply Topgrading with software tools and how you can effectively use the assessments Topgrading provides to gain a different perspective. Jim also provides key tips on how to hire effectively. Topgrading tells us that only one in four people turn out to be a top performer, which means around 75% of people you hire don't move the needle in terms of culture and performance. Poor performance is one of the top complaints among growth companies. Companies are quite poor at hiring talent. In fact, after growing the company for nearly three years, one bad hire nearly destroyed an entrepreneur's entire business. One person! The cost of a bad hire is enormous. If it's a frontline worker, it can be as much as 4x their salary if you get it wrong. But what if it's a C-suite or an executive? It can be as much as 15x their salary. So, what if Jim told you that you could hire A-players and go through the hiring process much more effectively without even reading their resume? Well, it's true. You can stop reading resumes! You can now cast a wide net to attract a variety of different and high-quality talent. The biggest concern for entrepreneurs is that they don't want to sort through all the resumes after that net has been cast, but through the use of software like Hireology, you can now find the right candidate in much less time. There is a lot of testing and measuring to get it right in the beginning. But once you have it dialed in, it can give you a lot of power to assessing talent and saving you from those costly hiring mistakes. You can apply this method to any industry as well. What kind of assessment tools can a hiring manager or entrepreneur use that goes beyond their own personal opinion about that prospect? Jim wants you to be aware that this is a multi-step process, there isn't just 'one thing' you need to focus on. Jim personally likes to use the Caliper Profile assessment test, but there are others like DiSC and Predictive Index. The reality is we're just not good interviewers and the mistakes can be costly, so we need to put extra measures in place to ensure we get it right the very first time. Interview Links: www.jubelirerresultsgroup.com www.topgrading.com www.hiremojo.com www.hireology.com www.calipercorp.com www.predictiveindex.com www.discprofile.com www.strengthsfinder.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits). Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Michael Synk is the owner and execution coach for In-Synk. He is also a Senior Certified Gazelles Coach with over 14 years of coaching experience. Michael and I talk today about brand promises, how to improve on them, and offer two client case studies to boot. Let's dive right in. Michael has been coaching Uniform Masters for the last year and a half. Unfortunately, it was only until two months ago that he and his client began to see brand promise. It has taken them quite some time to figure out the market and their core strengths. The company itself has been around for seven years and their operations have been great, but they've just been a little too shy in telling their company story. Although some time has passed, quite a bit of things have improved in the last year and a half. When Michael kept highlighting the company's key strengths, that's when he was able to see brand promise shine through. This is often a very different approach compared to the norm. Normally to achieve brand promise, you first look into the customer data and the first-hand customer experience. However, Michael began by digging into the customer experience from an operations point of view. He found some interesting points and discovered that competitors were having a difficult time keeping up with the quality of service Uniform Masters offered. Once equipped with this data, he took it to a marketing firm to help spin it in a customer friendly way. The second company Michael is working with is a food co-op startup. They are currently in their second year and are working with 16 farmers. The farmers focus on raising grass-fed meat and the co-op handles the processing and the sale of that meat. The client was a bit self-absorbed in their message, which was that their customers bought from them because they wanted to support local farmers. Michael wanted to put this to the test and so he asked 10 of their best customers about why they chose to buy from this co-op. The results? They were completely different than what the client originally thought, but you'll have to listen to the interview to discover what that is! Don't miss this portion of the interview as it is filled with great insights on how to leverage a company's strengths and advertise them to the market. Interview Links: www.uniform-masters.com/ www.in-synk.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Caryn Kopp is an award-winning CEO, best-selling author, and self-proclaimed Chief Door Opener at her company, Kopp Consulting. Did you hear that 40-second audio recording at the beginning of the show? What is wrong with that message? Well, for today's podcast episode, Caryn will shed some light as to how to never be that kind of sales opener. People are missing several components when they're trying to get into the right door. Most of the time, people are lacking one or more of these five key pillars. To give a quick overview, the five pillars are: The right target/sales message, the right answers for objections, the right door opener doing the work, which also includes the right door opening mindset, then the right execution followed by the right workflow by that right person. It boils down to hiring talent and using their strengths effectively for the position that needs to be filled. Although it may sound easy, this is a big blind spot for companies. If you hire a closer to be a door opener, this will often lead to disaster and you will find yourself having trouble scaling. Very few people are able to be both an opener and a closer at the same time. So, after you have the right people in place, how can you get into these doors? It takes a bit of digging. The biggest mistake companies often make is looking at their current A-list clients and asking them what they did right, but what you should focus on instead is why did your very best clients originally want to speak to you in the first place? Dig at this why and then see if there are parallels based off what your different clients are saying. When you get this feedback, you can take it to the market and attract new customers that otherwise wouldn't have known or even realized you offer x service. It's not always obvious to your customer what you offer, so being able to highlight specific things that your A-list clients loved about you is a great door opener. Interview Links: www.koppconsultingusa.com/ Biz Dev Done Right by Caryn Kopp More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

David Hassell is a serial entrepreneur and founder of 15Five, a SaaS company focused on helping managers and CEOs get effective insights from their people. Having managers and high-level executives become more aware of certain aspects of their company, allows them to proactively address issues before they become problems, acknowledge successes, discover great ideas, and support their team's growth and development. When David was a young entrepreneur, he raised some capital to build his business, but shortly after, the dotcom crash happened and his capital quickly dried up. This forced him to reinvent his company during a market crisis. He could no longer offer competitive salary to his talent, so he got creative with the hiring process. Instead of finding emerging talent from amazing universities, he looked for the diamonds in the rough that perhaps had gaps in their resume or were only high-school graduates. As his company grew, his talent was given much more responsibility and autonomy than they ever had before. This allowed them to excel and grow, exponentially, within the company. Resumes don't always reflect how your talent will react in a real work scenario. What might look like a B or C team on paper, would actually become an A team in reality, just by the way the team engaged and communicated with one another. Fantastic A teams on paper don't always work well, or become difficult, when engaging with other talent, as they're used to being the lone wolf that hogs all the attention. What did companies do differently where they were able to accomplish their goals and objectives years down the line vs. the ones that couldn't? The thing David kept coming back to was that it all boiled down to the team. You obviously need clarity and clear objectives, but does the team have a good culture? Is there high engagement? What are the dynamics that create these things? These questions are how David got to where he is today, and it is what led him to create his company, 15Five. Interview Links: www.15five.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Kevin Daum is an award-winning and bestselling author of 5 books. He is a marketer, speaker, and columnist for Inc.com and Smart Business Magazine. On this episode, Kevin and I dive into one of his books, ROAR! Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle. What does ROAR mean and how is it useful? Kevin says the idea behind ROAR came from seeing so much noise in the marketing space and how advertisements and other marketing pieces would all just fall so flat. Everybody has a story to tell and most people simply do not care. However, with ROAR, Kevin addresses two of the above issues. The first one speaks to how you can tell your story in a compelling way. You may have fantastic ideas for the world, but the reality is the world is not about you. Boasting about how great you are will rarely generate good results. However, telling a great story has to start with empathy. What is the pain that you're solving? There are three core emotional motivators people will buy on: logic, greed, and fear. The most powerful of those three is fear. The weakest is logic. A perfect example of this is our current presidential election. How are the candidates selling? They are selling fear. To achieve massive growth, it's not about the customers you currently have; it's about the ideal customers that you want. When you've found the optimal customer that you're looking for, what is their pain that you have yet to address? If you're able to communicate that pain to them on the level of empathy, that becomes a magnet to them. Once you've gotten your ideal customer to realize they have a pain point and they have connected to it emotionally, the next step is to address that pain point objectively. What is the solution? When you present it objectively, it starts a conversation. Do not try to sell the solution at this point in the process, all the customer needs to realize is that there is a solution for their problem and that you have the answers to it. What does this mean for the end-goal sale? When the customer becomes aware that there is a solution, the sell becomes an easier conversation to handle. By trying to convince them off the bat that they need your service, and only your service, their guard is up and they are unlikely to pursue you further. Interview Links: www.kevindaum.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Keith Upkes has a financial CFO background and is a business growth coach for The Upkes Group as well as for Gazelles International Coaches. In this episode, Keith and I talk about creating an effective dashboard, as this is something many clients and companies struggle with. Keith believes dashboards are important for three specific reasons. Number one, it helps get raw data into the right hands. Clients often do not know their numbers and this is because they do not have the right data in front of them. Number two, it quickly summaries data that clients need. When clients have data in front of them, many of them don't know how to make sense of it, but dashboards help simplify this process significantly. Number three, it helps get the most relevant metrics into the clients' hands quickly after each accounting period. The client is able to quickly see what is relevant in their industry based on data collected by dashboards and give the relevant data to their leadership team. How can teams make dashboards effective? You are able to track metrics that are not only specific to your industry, but your company in real-time. For instance, when your company has goals and objectives they're looking to achieve, dashboards help make sure your company is on the right track with those goals. Also, when you may have different priories to target based on your industry, dashboards are able to effectively separate those goals for you and your team. With this in mind, it's important to note that your dashboards have to change over time. A mistake clients often make is that they set their dashboards to their goals, rely on it, but forget to update their goals after each quarter. This means that the dashboards and the data they produce could get thrown off course and that's how data and information discrepancies happen in your company. What are Keith's thoughts on keeping score on a handwritten white board vs. using technology such as a dashboard, to do the same thing? Keith doesn't particularly care how you measure your results, as long as you're making an active effort to measure them and you are using it to make a difference in your company. Some companies prefer using the old-fashioned whiteboard because it fits in with their company culture and business. Tech companies, for example, would prefer using dashboards’ services because the culture is much more tech inclined. Interview Links: The Upkes Group's Website More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Brian Scudamore is the Founder and CEO of 1-800-Got-Junk? and has been running the company since 1989. Since then, he has started several companies like Shack Shine, You Move Me, and Wow 1 Day Painting. Today, Brian and I discuss the process of how he comes up with big vision ideas and how he's able to get his team to execute them. After growing his company to a million dollars in 1997, Brian found himself depressed and comparing himself to other extremely successful people around him. He was a high school and university dropout and didn’t have a lot of money at the time. So he decided to stop the negative thinking and thought about what his company would’ve achieved without him. What could the future feel and act like? Right then and there, Brian took out a piece of paper and started to write down his visions and his dreams for the company he had built. Brian calls this process the 'painted picture', because a picture says a thousand words and he put a thousand words on paper to create the vision for his company. The painted picture process is incredibly simple. It starts with the person being in an inspirational place. Then they just have to take out a piece of paper and write very specific and intentional language. Brian didn't write, 'I hope to be' or 'I want to be', he wrote, 'I will be'. He gave himself incredibly specific goals, in this particular case, a five year goal to achieve his big vision. After writing out the big idea, he added color to the picture. What would we feel like as a company, what would the culture be like? How would the brand be presented to the world? What is your top-line revenue? How many people are on your team? How would your people describe the culture of your company when talking to a family member? What is the press saying about your business? Be as specific as possible: what would your local paper say about your company? What would your favorite magazine say? What do your people love about your vision and where the company is headed? How would a customer describe their experience with you? What would they say to their best friend? What accomplishment are you most proud of? What accomplishment are your people most proud of? What do you do better than anyone else on the planet? Describe your office environment and culture in detail. Describe your service area. Who are your customers and how do they feel? When he was finished, he was surprised by the results. As he re-read what he wrote down, Brian realized what he wrote was absolutely possible, so he shared it with his team. As the staff read his vision for the future, some became excited and 100% on board, but others decided it was best to leave as that did not match their ideal environment. When companies are often facing big shifts like this, they can experience huge turnovers by the team. While this is good in the long-run, it can be be difficult keeping up with demand on short staff and sometimes painful in the short-run. Brian believes it's best to come up with a vision about where you're going and then recruit the who - the people that will help figure out how to get there. However, the one thing a painted picture will not do or even tries to do, is say how to get there. The reason for this is that the CEO doesn't always know best. His team will sometimes have a better execution plan than he will. It also prevents the CEO or founder from getting cold feet when he realizes the 'real' work involved. It can be scary to plan accordingly, especially if you don't even have the current team in place for it. Interview Links:Painted Picture Visualizationwww.o2ebrands.com 1-800 Got Junk WebsiteGood to Great by Jim Collins Brian on LinkedIn Twitter - @brianscudamore Facebook - facebook.com/bscudamore Instagram - brianscudamore More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ

Daniel Marcos is the CEO and co-founder of Gazelles Growth Institute as well as a certified coach of Gazelles International Coaches. Daniel has coached individuals all over the world and works with a wide range of businesses from the million-billion dollar range. Today, Daniel and I focus on the 4 key stages of growth in a business. Let's dive in. After being an entrepreneur for the last 16 years, Daniel has realized that the decisions you have to take in each growth stage are completely different and this is where CEOs seem to face the most trouble. CEOs often want to execute the same decision for each stage and they often encounter a substantial amount of pain points with this method along the way. If you want to grow your company, the first bottleneck is you, the leader. Companies need to evolve the leader from an entrepreneur to a CEO and turn their startup into a well-run organization. Daniel defines each stage by the quantity of employees on payroll instead of the amount of sales that are generated. His reasoning for this, he says, is that as the company gets larger, people find it more and more difficult to communicate throughout the organization. The first stage is a startup and everyone is wearing different hats in the company. The most important part during this stage is product development and understanding what it is you are selling and to whom you're selling the product to. Stage two is the small business. The company size ranges between 6-15 employees. The entrepreneur now has to be a leader. Once a leader, he/she has to do two very important things to keep this status – learn how to give directions to your team and delegate tasks. Daniel believes stage two is the hardest stage for the entrepreneur, because both your clients and employees expect more of you. Stage three means you're a leader of leaders. You have between 16-250 employees and now the most critical role is you building up team leaders. You have to develop talent and teach people how to lead others. The problem during stage three is communication, because communication gets broken as the chain of command goes further down. It's almost like you're playing the Telephone Game. At the end of the day, you have to respect the position of your leaders. As an entrepreneur, you get so used to fixing everything, but at this stage you need to give up some control and trust in the people you've trained. You have to begin to shine the spotlight on them instead of you. This is why most CEOs are stuck at stage three and are not able to move on to stage four. To get to stage four, you have to be humble and really let go. Your role is to have a great first layer of executives. If you have a great sales manager, for example, you will never have a sales problem. Though, as Daniel points out, we secretly don't want a great sales manager, because then we know we won't be needed anymore. What does stage four look like? The operation runs flawlessly without you. You leave for vacation and everything is absolutely fine when you come back. The entrepreneur, turned leader, turned leader of leaders - is now an innovator, change catalyst, and chief of culture in the organization. Your duty is to design a culture that's respected all through the organization and to change what's currently not working within the company. Interview Links: Growth Institute Website More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

David Rendall is a professional speaker, stand-up comedian, author of The Freak Factor, and he spends his free time competing in Ironman triathlons and ultramarathons. The Freak Factor discusses the concept of unleashing your inner freak and discovering your unique potential. It dives into the fact that your strangeness and weird quirks are the key to your success. Today, Dave shares his story on how he got into 'The Freak Factor' line of work. When he was growing up, he was constantly in trouble and was told by teachers to sit still and stay put. Dave believed for a good number of years that he was a problem, a loser, and that if he didn't 'control himself' he would remain so. It wasn't until age 30 that he realized he was actually getting rewarded for what seemed to be these 'awful' qualities both his teachers and parents frowned upon. He was getting rewarded for speaking out, taking control of the situation, and going against the grain. One day while he was listening to an audio book and reflecting back on his life, he realized his biggest weakness growing up was also a strength. Every single one of his weaknesses seemed to be strengths and this did not just apply to Dave personally, but to others as well. So, how do you leverage your freak factor? Dave says once yourecognize that your weaknesses are strengths, you can begin to see some of the positives that come with it. The first step is to be aware of your 'flaws' and the second step is to accept them. Be aware that this is who you are and to recognize the positives and negatives that come with that. The third step is to improve and strengthen your flaws. How do you capitalize on the positive sides of your weaknesses? Dave believes that, in the process of trying to fix our weaknesses, we also end up damaging our strengths. Instead of holding it in, we should find ways to let it out and maximize the benefits of our flaws. Interview Links: David Rendall's Website The Freak Factor by David Rendall More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Rich Manders, co-founder of iAutomation and FreeScale Coaching, is a serial entrepreneur who has sold two businesses and has overseen seven acquisitions. Rich has a deep understanding on how to optimize and grow combining enterprises and has worked with many thought leaders on business management, personal development, and negotiation. In 1998, Rich was having problems finding and keeping talented employees for the business he was starting. Someone recommended that Rich look into a Topgrading workshop and, after a brief course on the subject, found that this system was undoubtedly the best way to hire new employees. Rich attributes Topgrading to making his business millions of dollars because it took the chaos out of hiring talent. Due to the technical nature of the company, it took roughly two years of employee training to be brought up to full speed. This had huge costs for Rich. Not only did it take two years to test out talent, but it also cost Rich $250,000 in salary, training, and benefits before the company even knew if that one employee was a right fit for them. High stakes to say the least. Rich says during the first two years of the company, he had made five bad misfires. Rich found that by using the Topgrading system, the people he ended up hiring were 2-3 times more productive than previous hires. The next step for Rich was to send his managers through the topgrading workshop to also improve employee productivity. The hiring process is not fast or easy. It takes time to vet the right hires and find the right talent. Rich says it takes one full day to two full days to get through the Topgrading process. The biggest push back Rich received was that hiring managers didn't have time to take a full day just to hire one person. Rich's counterpoint was clear, if it's costing the company $250,000 alone to fully train an employee, then taking the necessary day or two to vet the person fully is in the best interest of the company. Do it right the first time. When Rich started the Topgrading process, he already had 20 people on staff and 5-10 million in revenue. By properly vetting new hires who were brought on board, they were able to increase their staff to 160 and generate 80 million in sales revenue by the time Rich left the business in 2013. The Topgrading system really skyrocketed their business. Interview Links: Topgrading Website Who by Geoff Smart iAutomation Website More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Greg Crabtree is a speaker, author, entrepreneur, and financial expert. In 2011, Greg published his first book, Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! where he shares his core principles on how to turn your business into a wealth building machine. Today, Greg and I discuss the labor efficiency ratio (LER) and what it means to your business. Greg grew up on a chicken farm in Alabama and quickly realized that raising chickens was not something he was destined to do. At the age of 14, his mother took him to a CPA to have the family's taxes filed and he discovered a passion for finances. If you were to get run over by a bus today, what would it take for your family to continue your business? Who could accurately replace you? Greg says there are two types of laborer categories: direct labor and management labor. Based on the role you play in your business and what category you fall in, you will have to find a person that matches your category type in order to successfully carry on the business. By practicing this methodology, it helps you find a clearer picture of what your role is within the company. So instead of working on the business, you're working more effectively in the business. Greg shares a quick example of applying this methodology in real time. One of his clients had $600,000 in revenue and 25% of that was profit split between two owners. However, their main issue was that they were having cash flow problems. Greg understands that if you're having cash flow problems at 25% profit, then there must be something fundamentally wrong with the business. It turns out that the owners were only making 4% in profit instead. Greg then worked with the owners on how they could increase their contribution margin and increase their numbers by $140,000. For this particular business, they had the right people, but they were just not getting the right kind of accountability out of them. After Greg gave them a new set of goals to strive for, which they hit flawlessly, the two owners ended up making 19% profit in their first year. Greg believes, it first starts with holding the management team accountable and to define clearly what they must strive for in order to earn their wages or bonuses. The work Greg provides is often above and beyond what you would usually receive from a typical tax accountant. Greg really strives to help optimize your business by using simple formulas and data to create effective and money-saving processes. Interview Links: SimpleNumbers Website Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! by Greg Crabtree More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Nick Scott is a certified Gazelles executive coach and management consultant. He specializes in strategic planning, accountability, technology management, and executive team development. When Nick first began his career as consultant, he looked towards the Lean approach to help his clients succeed. He believes to improve any organization, it first has to start from the top and that's one of the reasons why his career path lead him to coach clients as well. Nick's position allows him to really dig deep in a company and help improve it by figuring out the main pain point . Is this a process problem, cash flow problem, or a people problem? When the problem has been spotted, then it's time to bring focus to the leadership team and solve it. Any process-improvement project has to have strong support from the top of the organization or it is destined to fail. The leadership and top management team has to understand why this project is important. When looking to improve a certain process within the company, a big mistake is to give orders from the top down. To achieve the best results and improvements, leaders must lead by example. Another mistake companies often make is when they try to copy a method that has worked for company A and apply it to their company. Companies are very diverse and copy/pasting a method into the current mold simply doesn't work effectively. Nick recommends the book 2 Second Lean by Paul A. Akers as a way to study more of the Lean Manufacturing methodology. He too mentions what Nick has spoken about today – if you don't have support from the top, it will be very difficult to achieve a Lean process throughout the company. Set realistic time frames and break the process-improvement project up in pieces or else you and your team are doomed to fail. Nick recommends to start with a pilot project and then take that next step. The team needs to understand that this is an ongoing investment within the organization and each step they invest in, they build the value of the organization. In so many companies and situations, the current process and way of doing things is just accepted as is. This sometimes creates additional problems and instead of trying to find the root cause, companies put a temporary band-aid over the situation. It fixes the problem, however it doesn't address the underlying issue and this delays the company's processes even further; costing them money, time, and other resources. Remember, there's always a better way to improve a process and that this requires a long-term investment plan. Interview Links: Traverse Tech Website Nick on LinkedIn The E-myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber 2 Second Lean by Paul A. Akers Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It....And Why the Rest Don't, is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed, where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, and I’m a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right, so that they can Scale Up successfully, and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits). Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Jeff Redmon is a senior Gazelle coach and the founder of Redmon Law Chartered. He has over 25 years of experience and has served as a trusted advisor to fellow business owners. Jeff also runs the Inner Circle of the St. Croix Valley in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. In today's show, Jeff and I discuss the power of Jeff's 1+1+1=19 formula and what a difference it can make in a company. Jeff has created what he calls the 1+1+1=19 workshop. Obviously, Jeff's workshop does not follow the traditional math rules we've all learned in school, so how does the 1+1+1=19 formula work? To break it down simply when you're looking at a straightforward profit/loss statement, you're often looking at four lines – sales, cost of the goods sold, overhead, and then the bottom line. Based on the concept Jeff is using in his workshop, if you increase your top line by 1%, then you cut your cost of goods/services by 1% and cut your overhead by 1%; you can then increase your net income by 19%. That's how the 1+1+1=19 formula works. What many people can see is that pursuing 1% changes in the company are actually worthwhile and can lead to huge profit gains. Jeff has taught this formula to over 100 business owners and they have all seen great benefits when they make just 1% adjustments to their company. He has seen between 7% to 80% improvement just by business owners working on his formula, so it's not always a flat 19%. Keep in mind that by increasing the net income by 19%, you also increase the value of your company long-term. So the 1+1+1=19 formula is not just for short-term cash, but it can also be applied to a long-term company selling strategy. In Jeff's workshop, he and other business owner attendees brain storm on how they can increase the top line revenue by 1%. Once they've finished the exercise, they then think for various solutions on how they can save money for their company. Jeff had one client who brought in 10 million dollars in annual revenue and through this exercise was able to save $400,000 from their bottom line. Although these strategies may sound simple, they can often be overlooked as we plan big marketing and growth initiative strategies to increase business sales. We often forget to apply these simple methods like looking within the company to save money when we're constantly trying to think big and grow bigger. Jeff believes that working on this formula with your leadership team is important, if not crucial. You will see better results in a group setting than if you were to sit down and try to find creative solutions by yourself. Once you've completed these exercises and notice where you can make additional changes to save money, increase the top line and cut costs, do not suffer from analysis paralysis. Just pick 1-3 things that will make an impact and take action. Interview Links: Redmon Law Website Jeff on LinkedIn More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Jabez LeBret is a NBC Chicago Business Columnist, author, speaker, and Chief Marketing Officer of GNGF. Jabez is considered a leading authority on monetizing social media and often speaks at industry conferences on this subject. In today's episode, I discuss with Jabez on how to work with millennials. I know many clients who are having challenges with keeping the millennial generation engaged, so hopefully we can demystify and solve some of those issues for you today. There are four core fundamentals that really help millennials succeed at work. Not only do you get them to work more effectively, but it changes the whole work environment for them too. These four tactics are actually good for any employee, no matter what their age. With that being said, these fundamentals are specifically targeted to get that everyday millennial employee to the next level. As a millennial himself, Jabez really stumbled into this space by accident. He was doing leadership presentations at companies that needed to know how to lead the younger generation. He kept getting asked, "How do I manage you?" He also runs a company where his entire team is made of millennials. So for him, it was a no-brainer to create a program around how to manage and engage millennials in the work force. The millennial generation is different compared to other generations because they saw the creation of search on the internet. They grew up with Google and they were the reason social media was created. Cellphones were very prevalent for them too. The technological advances play a huge role in the millennial workplace. Another unique aspect about millennials is that they had helicopter parents. Unlike older generations where both parents were working and the children took care of themselves, millennials had parents that were hyper involved with their lives. Parents made sure they were participating in all the necessary activities. Through that process, millennials grew up thinking their opinions matter. Millennials are also referred to as 'The Trophy Generation' - They got a trophy for just showing up. Millennials were rewarded for participating and if participation was the only thing that mattered, if it was never about 'winning', then they will take criticism or feedback badly. At the end of the day, millennials want purpose. They are a purpose-driven generation and that's how you keep them engaged. Companies are having a hard time delivering this to them because they don't know their own values or even their mission. The goal of a manager working with millennials is to bake the purpose of everything into the process, why these tasks are important in the grand scheme of things and how it helps the end-mission of the company. Millennials also grew up in team environments. Despite this, people say millennials aren't loyal. This is not true at all. In fact, management has not given them reasons to be loyal. What's important to understand as a leader is that you need to have mechanisms in place that allow millennials to share their opinions and let them know they're contributing to a greater good. If they don't feel like they're contributing to the overall process, they're not going to be motivated. Interview Links: Jabez's Website Jabez on LinkedIn Chelsea Krost's Website Good to Great by James C. Collins More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Andy Bailey is the head of Petra Coach and Align software. His specialties include implementation of Rockefeller Habits and other business processes that drive results in any business setting. Andy’s passion is to assist business owners and entrepreneurs in building the foundation allowing them and their teams the ability to achieve their goals. In today’s episode, I discuss with Andy how to utilize Align for the purpose of alignment between the employees and business. Tune in to hear how Align can help organizations achieve their priorities. The number one question most people have is “how do I know if my employees’ priorities align with the organization?” Align is a business project planning tool that allows working on your business instead of in your business. It is important for leaders to know what is going on throughout the entire company. The person in the front line needs to understand what they are doing everyday aligns with their enterprise's priorities, and when these two things match up, people will understand their role and make better decisions that align with their organization. To ensure focus and alignment remain throughout the company, the business needs to have two crucial meetings, one which is called the daily huddle; no longer than 15 minutes max. These are based on small groups of staff members throughout the company and broken apart by function and departmental needs. This ensures all the team members are on the same page, and issues are identified and dealt with immediately. These huddles need to be in conjunction with the Core Weekly Priority meeting. There needs to be an owner and a metric to priorities; you can’t cheat when you are using Align. You have to pick a due date; the system won’t let you choose a priority without a KPI and a definition. Some of the key stumbling blocks; number one it’s easier for companies that are just starting out to use Align from the beginning, but it is harder for already established organizations to understand the importance needed because some see it as just another tool that they will have to implement. The Pure Task Management Tool is under-appreciated mainly because businesses don’t have the knowledge necessary to utilize it. Most companies use emails as a task management tool, which is a horrible idea. This tool creates a project with due dates and instructions, assigns it to someone or a team, manages the re-distribution, and completions through trigger notification as well as dashboards. It is incredibly powerful and underutilized. The KPI becomes the task and as you check them off it shows progress on your priority. The EMPS and Feed Box feature complement each other; one way to measure Employee Morale is by using a scoring methodology. It’s a single survey sent out monthly or quarterly where the staff members answer one question; score it a 0-10, and comment. This is assigned to a person that gathers the suggestions and information and will display it on the dashboard. The person in charge will monitor the score; whether it went up or down and give feedback on a report. There are some exciting new features in the pipeline. Align is going through a code re-write which will allow iterating faster in the future. There is also a big reveal around the multi-language design. Align can be used with a company of one to thousands. You can leverage the software to get focused and work on the necessary items and track goals. Interview Links: Petra Coaching Align’s Website More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20

Mike Michalowicz is the author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, The Pumpkin Plan, Profit First and Surge, and the founder of Profit First Professionals, an organization designed to support accountants and other financial professionals differentiating themselves in the market. Mike is an entrepreneur at heart and loves sharing his knowledge and experience with the masses. In today’s episode, Mike and I chat about his new book Surge and how to leverage the market for consumer demand. “How do you time the market?” - The question that prompted two-year of research for his new book Surge. Mike discovered that there is no magic bullet, but there is a way to improve the odds of success dramatically. Mike wrote Surge from his own business experience achieving atypically fast growth from applying and refining the methods outlined in his book. His newest company is still in the learning phase, and Mike plans to write addendums to Surge throughout the process. Tune in to hear more about how Mike used Surge to drive his own businesses to success. What is Surge? Surge is a five-step process for identifying trends in the marketplace. While most entrepreneurs look at market trends and try to hit while the market is hot, this process positions a business in front of the momentum of the market to capture it. With a different set of metrics, a proactive entrepreneur can use gain new perspective on the market and “catch the surge” to a profitable growing business. What does the acronym SURGE mean? Surge is not about prediction, it is about early measurement. • Separate: Separate a small test community; Choose a core group and within that group, choose a very particular niche. • Unify: In this core group, identify the movement they are making and unify around it. • Rally: Ask “What is that one service or product offering that rallies the group to you as a solution?” • Gather: Gather intelligence! As you move along with the market, constantly evaluate what’s working and amplify and expand that, then ditch what isn’t working. • Expand: Take the model that is working for your core group and start delivering that offering consistently and to an expanded group. When a business “catches the Surge” marketing starts taking care of itself. Instead of promoting, there is a movement in the market with people asking for referrals or seeking the company out aggressively. Instead of arguing about trends, try them and measure them. Maybe you’ll be the next person to “catch the Surge! Interview Links: www.mikemichalowicz.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Sean Evans is the founder of STEP Consulting in Toronto. He is a Certified Gazelles International Coach, a Certified Topgrading Coach, and holds an MBA from London Business School in the United Kingdom. Sean helps companies get out of the weeds and assists them to focus more on building their businesses. What is Topgrading? Topgrading is a methodology created by Bradford Smart. It is the standard of hiring, coaching, and retaining top talent. You want to fill every position within your company with ‘A’ players. Companies need to know what a candidate is about, so they need to dive deep into their history. What's the process in recruiting talent? The number one thing a company wants to do is create a specific job description; this is a typical hiring problem in most companies. There are four areas of a job scorecard: describing the company with excitement, creating a job mission, accurate accountability that can be measured, and a list of key competencies. The best way to find the best people is to recruit from your networks. What can managers do on their own to find the best candidates for the job? You need to read Topgrading: How to Hire, Coach and Keep A Players by Brad & Geoff Smart and Who: The A Method of Hiring by Geoff and Randy Street. What is a higher level step in the hiring practices? Companies shouldn’t rely on behavioral-based interviews, which is a hypothetical situational analysis. Businesses should rely on evidence-based interviewing. Topgrading is hiring based on the fact that someone's past behavior is going to be highly indicative of their future conduct. What is TORC? TORC stands for Threat of a Reference Check. Companies should not rely on the references the candidate provides. You need to pick out a manager on their resume, ask them if it would be ok to speak to that manager and if they say yes, great. If they say no, then that is a red flag. The candidate will know that you are going to be fact checking everything they are saying about that position. They have to tell the truth because you are going to check on it. Interview Links: Topgrading: How to Hire, Coach and Keep A Players by Brad & Geoff Smart Who: The A Method of Hiring by Geoff and Randy Street http://www.topgrading.com http://stepconsulting.ca More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Q20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.com

Robert (Bob) Bloom is the authority on customer centric growth. He is the author of The Inside Advantage and The New Experts. Bob was the US Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide. He got his start as an entrepreneur, took his company national and then sold it. Bob has developed strategies for companies like BMW, L’Oreal, Nestlé, and even helped to launch Southwest Airlines, T-Mobile, Juicy Juice, and many others. In today’s episode, Bob and I talk about strategy and finding your own inside advantage. There is a secret that so many business leaders are missing. Most people start with a strategy, but it is one that is in their minds and may not be contemporary at the moment. Secondly, the most important thing that a strategy has to have is consensus internally; with all of your staff, whether you have three people or hundreds. If everybody doesn’t agree that you are going in the right direction, it doesn’t matter because you will never get there. The other thing that is absolutely critical is differentiation. In this day and time, if you don’t differentiate your brand, your company, or your services, you will not make it. The competition out there is mushy; everybody is doing the same thing. There are 4 steps in the Growth Discovery Process Who is your core customer? You must start with the first element. Customers are human beings; you can't talk to a statistic. You must talk to this human being and understand his/her company or personal needs from that standpoint. When you do that, you understand your ‘Who’. Get inside that person’s head and heart. Look at your customer as if that person was right in the room with you. What does your core customer want, need and desire? You want to look inside your business. What does your core customer want, need, and desire? You have a WHO and WHAT. What do you do inside your business? What is the uncommon offering that your business will own and leverage? How is the persuasive strategy that will convince your core customer to buy your uncommon offering versus all competitive offerings? You need to persuade or convince your customer that you are really going to do what you say you are going to do. You need to develop an approach to convince your customer to buy from you and not your competitor. Own it! Is the series of imaginative acts that will celebrate your uncommon offering and make it well known to your core customer. You want your brand or company to stand for it! You have to own what you say you are going to own. OWN YOUR WHAT!!! It has to be yours and yours alone in 15 words or less. Simple! Consistent, Committed and Clear. Check out the podcast to find out more in-depth about how Bob took these strategies into the big businesses mentioned in the introduction. Interview Links: http://www.bobbloom.biz https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-bloom-578b9822 More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).Mentioned in this episode:Busy is Broken bookOur new book, Busy is Broken, coming this September. Sign up for the release at busyisbroken.comQ20 Diagnostic OfferStuck? Q20 Growth Diagnostic will give you a fresh perspective and it's free. ScalingCoach.com/Q20