Find Brett on his website Culture Gene or email him at brett@culturegene.ai

Full transcription below (May contain typos...):
[00:00:00] Brett: [00:00:00] But you couldn't really take one. They can copy it because that would be copying somebody else's culture and that doesn't work like that. You can't copy another company's culture. Your culture is unique to you.  

Keerstyn: [00:00:11] Welcome to the podcast, Brett. I am really excited that you're here today. Can you just tell us a bit more about how you got involved in it work and then what you do now?

To really change the world that 

NA: [00:00:21] we live in today. 

Brett: [00:00:23] Yeah, sure. Thanks, Kristen. It's great to be involved. And thanks for having me. I prior to setting up culture, Jean, I ran an executive search firm for 16 years based out of London and I worked with high growth, early stage companies. And I was lucky enough about five years ago now to work with three companies almost in a row where the leaders had a very clear understanding of the culture of the company.

And so I was asked to find candidates that had specific skills, experiences, et cetera, et cetera. But also I was asked to find candidates [00:01:00] that matched the values of the company. And this was a much harder search to do, but the process and the interviews, and then the resulting impact that the hand the candidates had on the companies was like a wow moment for me.

There was just that much better, and that's where I started really digging deep into company culture. And a year later I started culture, Jean. I interviewed had to speak to 500 companies to interview just over 50 CEOs of high growth companies that had done a very good job of embedding their culture.

I've written two books on the subject now and yeah, we've got a software driven process that we run with companies to help them define embed and manage their culture. 

Keerstyn: [00:01:40] Yeah. So I guess one of my first questions would be where was like, what differentiates really good culture from like mediocre culture.

Obviously everyone can say that they have good culture and actually most companies do. But what does that almost defining line of? This is an amazing culture and companies are really thriving from it too. This is a [00:02:00] mediocre culture and they can obviously 

NA: [00:02:01] do better. 

Brett: [00:02:04] Okay. So there's only the only time.

A good or bad culture is a relevant question is in relation to me or you would, I enjoy working there or not, but within a company, there's no such thing as a good culture. There is only a functional or a dysfunctional culture, a strong or a weak culture. So a strong culture may not be the kind of company I would want to work in.

So for example, the mafia. Have a very strong culture and I wouldn't want to work in it. So it's not good for me, but it is still a very strong, functional culture. Scientology has a strong culture, but I wouldn't want to work in that environment either. So the way to look at culture is it strong and functional?

And what strong means is it's clearly defined it's everybody loves it. It's really embedded into the leadership team, the general [00:03:00] team, the functions and processes of the business and a functional culture means that the way we do things actually accelerates the business. Rather than decelerates the business.

So an example of a dysfunctional culture might be a company where there is a lot of politicking going on and the politics ends up slowing the company down because it's more about me, the individual versus the company. So you can have a strong, dysfunctional culture. Or a weak functional culture and a mix of those.

So my, from my experience that the stronger the culture, the more the leadership team and the CEO and work on it, focus on it. They embed it, they treat it like a business function and the weaker, dysfunctional cultures, the CEOs leave it to develop by default and don't rarely treat it respected in any way.

Keerstyn: [00:03:58] Yeah. That's [00:04:00] thank you for that differential or differentiation. I think that's really good to understand because oftentimes people say I want to be part of a great culture and that's obviously we can't just say you want to be part of a great culture. You need to look more in depth about it. So yeah, I guess what are some of those things that people should be looking for when they're looking for.

For jobs, like how did they see their own personal, like what they want in a culture and how do they define that? And how do they look for that in a company? Just like you have done with multiple 

NA: [00:04:31] companies in the past. 

Brett: [00:04:33] Yeah. So this actually isn't is is not an easy question to answer, really.

Especially if you're a candidate, because most candidates haven't actually gone through the process of really defining their values. They feel that this may be good or not. And frankly, most companies will have done some of the superficial stuff around the values and mission and vision, but they don't embed it.

But if I was interviewing for a position now I would be asking [00:05:00] these companies, tell me about. Your culture. And I would ask each individual, I interviewed with these questions in exactly the same way and look for consistency. So I'd say, describe your culture. Tell me why you work at this company. If you what's the one thing you could change, if you could change anything in this company and why.

Okay. All your values and mission and vision lived in the company. And the reality is the person you are, who's interviewing you. The person you're talking to will, will be honest in the most cases with you, because they don't want you to join the company. And then you realize they lied. So you can ask these questions.

Maybe not like pretty harmless questions, unless of course the company doesn't have a very strong culture and you can then dig a little bit deeper by asking each person  these questions. What I would do now particularly is I'd be asking, what are you [00:06:00] doing around transitioning to remote work or hybrid work?

What are your communication tools look like and how synchronous versus asynchronous is your communication? What does the documentation look like? What are your processes defined? I would be going into this sort of level of detail because if a company isn't transitioning to a hybrid or remote environment they will not have these in place.

Which means that it's much harder for me to do my job if I want to work remotely some of the time or all of the time. And so companies now that are building strong cultures for hybrid environments are the ones who are going to be able to attract the best talent. It used to be campuses and three food and et cetera, et cetera.

Now it's going to be your culture. Tell me how your is in getting enabled me to work. 

Keerstyn: [00:06:59] Ye...

Find Dick on his website!

Full transcription below (may contain typos...):
[00:00:00] Dick: [00:00:00] What got you here? Won't get you there. You need to recognize that every time that you're making a shift, a step up in level, that there are probably some things that you need to do a little bit differently. 

Keerstyn: [00:00:10] welcome to the podcast stick. I am so excited that you're here today with us. Do you want to give us a brief background of how you got involved in your work and then what you do now? 

Dick: [00:00:19] Sure. I've been with principal financial group in Des Moines, financial services for fortune 500 firm.

I've done training and development my entire career. And back in the late 1990s, I got asked to facilitate a coaching training class to teach coaching skills to other people. And then fast forward, about six or seven years, our company decided that we will offer internal coaching to people who are considered targeted talent.

And a few people got to start in on that coaching work and they decided the program was going so well that they said we should expand this and invite some more people to be coaches. And one of the people said we should invite Dick to do it because he's great at teaching these coaching skills.

And so a person came to me and [00:01:00] said, do you want to help with this? And I said, sure. And then after about two years of doing that, they decided they would send seven or eight of us to coaching training. And we've been doing coaching for individual leaders and also some individual contributors inside the company.

I think for, I think it's 14 years now, all in all. So it's just gotten farther along, more involved since that time. 

Keerstyn: [00:01:24] Awesome. So that's quite a different way of doing it. We've often had just business coaches that have been external and then they walk into a company, but you are internal, although you do some external as well.

Correct? That's correct. Yeah. Yeah. So that's really interesting. So what made the company just like start realizing that they did need coaching 

Dick: [00:01:42] within. What it really stemmed from was we knew that it's important to grow talent, talented leadership in the organization. And it had been proven for quite some time that men during help people quite a bit, but then also more recent research at that time.

It said, Hey, [00:02:00] coaching is getting to be more involved. It's a lot of people hiring executive coaches, leadership coaches. And so the company said, should we start on an investment in that way? And let's try it out and see how it goes. And so the first group of people that they invited to participate, I think it was only something like eight people all in all and people responded well to that.

And so they said we should probably offer this to more. So it's just become something that's been part of our leadership pipeline or there's I think at our peak, we had eight people doing internal coaching. Each of us taking between six and eight clients per year for an engagement of a three to six to nine months, depending on the individual and their need.

So that's kinda how it came to be. The company just realized this is a good investment. We can do it at a low cost, as long as we get the right people in here. And w if we can identify people who are willing to work with a coach. 

Keerstyn: [00:02:50] Absolutely. Absolutely. So what was that first? That it's really interesting when they first initially started that.

What was the first. Group of people where [00:03:00] they like the top leaders in the industry where they, the middle managers, 

Dick: [00:03:03] this was middle-management people really. So in a lot of companies that might be like assistant director or department director type role. So below a vice president or assistant vice president level, but everybody in a leadership position, we figured these are people who are still trying to emerge as leadership talent, trying to find their way along.

And so helping them get their feet under them a little bit more round out their leadership skills would be a helpful way to ensure that they're growing and being successful as they're doing it. And so gradually grow them into a larger leadership position. 

Keerstyn: [00:03:37] Yeah, absolutely. And what were some of those skills that you were teaching?

Obviously there's so many skills that coaches can teach you today. 

Dick: [00:03:44] That's an interesting part about our approach there too. There is some that all of us who were asked to come and do this training, where people who were had a training and development background in some ways. The performance and all of us had been in a leadership role in some way as well.

So starting with that training and [00:04:00] development background, I think we went into it with a mindset that we're going to try to problem solve and help fix a little bit, which is really the antithesis of coaching. We're going to be instructing But over time we figured out, it's really great to ask the questions and get them to discover their own answers.

And if we find out that they have a knowledge gap, a skill gap with our training and development background, we could offer ideas or we could offer to say, let's take off our coaching hat right now. Let's put our training hat or let's introduce a tool or a technique that you can try out with your people, with your team.

And so we wound up going that way. And the types of things that people would want help with might be how can I develop the talent that reports to me? How can I be a more strategic thinker? I got paid to be an executer. I got to my leadership role because I was good at completing projects and you're having an impact, but now I've got to lead people.

And how do I do that differently than what I've done? We've helped people with building their professional presence, helped them even figure out how do I deal with my. Boss or how do I prioritize my [00:05:00] work? So those are some of the problems, but all in all, what we really shifted to is how can we help you grow?

How can we help you become more effective as a leader in and build it based on your values, what you want to accomplish, fit with your personality type. So recognize where does your personality play as a strength for you and where does some aspect of your personality or your values possibly work against you?

So it's going to take you more. More mental energy more time, or you're going to have to be more deliberate about being disciplined and getting yourself to do it. For example, if I'm a, if I'm an executer, I love to execute. I want to get right down to the task right down to the project, but I've moved into a leadership role and now I've got to set and drive strategy for my team.

Then maybe I've got to figure out how do I make sure that I carve out that time? And do the necessary strategic planning. How do I carve out the time so that I tie people or get people connected to that connected to that strategy and then let them execute it s...

Find Kevin on his website!

Full transcription below (may contain typos...):
Kevin: [00:00:00] [00:00:00] So I think it's more effective to think about. Rather than being one or the other, that you have roles where in those roles you have management moves and leadership moves. There's typically any role where you have authority where you're specific, you're taking accountability for some piece of the organization.

Keerstyn: [00:00:25] Okay. Welcome to the podcast, Kevin. We are so excited to have you here today. Do you want to give us a brief intro of how you got involved in your work and what you do now?

Kevin: [00:00:35] Brief intro. Sure. I'll try to keep it brief. So I started my career in it and I met in my twenties, a venture capitalist. And heard what he did, helping businesses strategically. And I just really fell in love with that idea, really being flying it 50,000 feet with business owners and helping them design their business.

And. [00:01:00] Strategy. And so I began my lifelong push to get to be so that I could do that kind of work. And took me through lots of twists and turns. I started a business in 1994 to, to do it. And so I really. I really took that on as an opportunity to learn, to be a CEO my best. And so I studied in California with an organization called about entrepreneurship innovation and leadership and had coaches for nine years and just really studied on how to be a great CEO and just found that I.

Was less excited about it than I was about business. And so about 14 years ago, I left that business and started focusing on helping entrepreneurs. And so that's the brief answer. I was a brief [00:02:00] enough, 

Keerstyn: [00:02:00] that's brief enough. That works. So I guess what were some of those things that led you to want to become a CEO and then where were some of those?

I guess. Expectations that weren't met when you were in that position, but what did that mean when I 

was 

Kevin: [00:02:16] in the position with my company? Yes. Yeah. So what are some of the things? I think people who are entrepreneurs, there's a certain kind of personality type and. I, creative, visionary a little add, I think get bored easily, all these sorts of characteristics.

I think if you meet an entrepreneur, there's a certain kind of person. And I just found that I loved that kind of person and love being around them. And I couldn't say the same thing about mid-level it managers, I just. And, why do people like one kind of person over another? I don't know.

I just found [00:03:00] that the work that they were doing, the authenticity of entrepreneurs, the raw passion, the dedication to, in my experience, generally, entrepreneurs are really trying to solve some problem in the world. And I love that and I love the integrity of that and authenticity. And so for me, it was much more about designing my life and my work to be more satisfying.

And and so I think the thing that I discovered along the way was just people I want to hang out with and be of service to 

Keerstyn: [00:03:36] yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So now you're an EOS implementer. Do you want to explain EOS a bit and just give a brief background and understand what that. 

Kevin: [00:03:48] Yeah.

So I want to explain that in the context of how I got involved with EOS, because I have always been much more interested in fundamental distinctions ways of [00:04:00] thinking about, I was always curious, when you look at one leader compared to another, and one of them is more successful, it's  how did they think?

What did they what's going on in their mind? And I was always interested in the mental models. Great leaders had. And so how they think. And so that's why I went down the path that I did in terms of studying biology, especially in neurology philosophy and Linda linguistics, studying the fundamentals of human behavior and innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

And so in studying that, it became really potent for me and my business. And that's the kind of, that's the stuff that to this day makes the difference in. And the stuff that I love and what I found was a lot of people. When I would go and talk to them about the things that I'd learned, they'd say that's great, Kevin, those are great ideas, but right.

My hair's on fire. I got stuff to do. Tell me what to do tomorrow. And so what I found was people really struggling with the fundamental blocking and tackling of [00:05:00] business. And  that, that's what they really needed help with today. And then as soon as they put the fires out, then we can talk about being great.

But for now we've got to get things going. So EOS entrepreneurial operating system is a set of tools and practices to help people. Who are maybe great at the work that they do, but aren't great at business. Don't have the background, the training, the expertise to run a business, and EOS does a set of principles, tools, and tactics.

It says, just do these things and you'll run your business. Okay. 

Keerstyn: [00:05:31] Yeah. So I heard you say that you use science and philosophy and you studied all of those things, but clients were coming to you saying we need to fight these fires now.

Not necessarily. Yeah. In the future. How do you now fight those fires in the moment, but then also apply these higher level things of EOS in the 

Kevin: [00:05:51] process. Gotcha. Okay. I know that to be successful as a leader you have to know where you're going. And so I know that [00:06:00] from a sort of fundamental being human kind of perspective, where we are meaning machines we think about the future, what we want to accomplish, and we do that through language. And so the way this shows up in businesses, you have to have a vision for where you're going.

And the problem is people don't necessarily know what that means or how to do it. So with EOS, there's a very specific tool called the vision traction organizer that says just let's break this down for. So forget about these, talking about narrative and linguistics, all that. Thanks, Kevin.

That's really cool. And all, what is my core values? What am I? What's my core focus. What's my ten-year target. Break it down into very understandable set of questions that if you answer those questions, then you will have a vision and you will create an image of the future that will at a very fundamental level mobilize you and to create a future.

And so when I work with people, a lot of what I'm looking at [00:07:00] is if they're if they're trying to succeed in business, I'm going to pay attention to. W why it isn't working for them. And so they're going to look at it and say, it might be I'm I don't have finance, I can't hire a person, whatever.

And I'm going to look at what are they thinking are missing? And so if somebody does, isn't passio...

Find Tim on:
Linkedin
His website

Full transcription below (may contain typos...):
[00:00:00] Tim: [00:00:00] They don't know where to start, and that's where we come in and help them establish a baseline and then work Program through them where they can increase whatever the different problem or, morale to, to, bad attitudes to whatever's going on in their thing.

 Keerstyn: [00:00:13] Welcome to the podcast, Tim. We are so excited to have you here today. Do you want to give us a brief intro and what you do, how you got involved in your work and help, who you helped serve 

Tim: [00:00:24] now?

Not a problem. I would love to thanks for having me on today. A little bit about me. I've got a pretty diverse background. Currently I have three companies. I have a webinar and training company where it was a seminar company. It's I call it more webinar company nowadays for the pandemic on, on, but it is an online training. It is a full service training and development company. A lot of my coaching clients and stuff come out of that full service training company through the seminars and webinars that I do. That's where I get a lot of my clients. And through, through trainings and through dealing with my computer consultant company.

So all of that sort of [00:01:00] wrapped into one company. And then I have actually another couple of companies that don't fit anywhere close to that. I have a real estate company, small little boutique real estate company. And then I'm also having a construction company as well. Very diverse people don't think that the construction company and the online training company really good Robin, they always scratch their head when they hear that.

But that's just my three companies got a very diverse background. You name an industry I've pretty much been in it. And over the last 30 years from, I had a small corporate career, I've worked for myself for about 25 years now. And other than that I'd like to have fun and enjoy and walks on the beach and all that good stuff.

So anywhere I'm nowhere close to the beach. 

Keerstyn: [00:01:40] Absolutely. So I guess, could you tell us a bit more about that training and development company? What are some of the key things that you discussed during different webinars or seminars for that matter? What does the training, what kind of development are you specifically focusing on those types of things?

Tim: [00:01:57] Yeah, I do quite a bit. I do about 30 different [00:02:00] subjects actually. So it's all wrapped around. One of my companies is called blast seminars, it's business leadership and sales training. So it covers the full gamut of business from all the way into a management training management consulting marketing.

I go down through sales training. Go through all the leadership aspects we would get into personalities, the difficult people, all the, the seminars are out there in the world. We pretty much do all of them. Problem solving you name it. We we put a spin on it in our own way and take care of it.

Keerstyn: [00:02:32] Yeah, that's interesting. So during this weird COVID-19 time pandemic, how has your training shifted through that opposite? I've heard a lot of people are either having a really good experience or not necessarily great one. But what have you guys been doing to help. Move that forward and get people to the right 

Tim: [00:02:51] spots.

Technically we I've had a great time with it. I've enjoyed it. To the point where I've got small kids, I've got five-year-old twins and a boy and [00:03:00] girl. So I love it for him. Cause you know I try to schedule my thing where I'd be out on the road two, three days a week on the beginning of the week and maybe two, three days on the end of next week.

So I could spend a lot of time with them and then concentrate on some of my other companies as well. But you know that at this point, where I can just do my. My online trainings and here in my home studio and then walk back out and, lightsaber battle with my kid during a 10 minute break and eat lunch with them.

That's a, that's an awesome thing for me from that standpoint. And I'm just getting a lot done. I, I. I, it's a weird time and that we are we're at with all the pandemic, but for me, it's been awesome. I've been when going through the process of rebranding getting a lot of the stuff done that I did not have the time to do it.

Regrouping, getting organized. Getting a lot of the house projects done, of course, right through my wife or, and all this stuff that she wants me to do, but it's been a great time for business, and I loved it. I was in the process of ramping up more on the online stuff, when the pandemic came about.

So I had a lot of the equipment, a lot of the. My studio set up. [00:04:00] So it was just a natural transition to me to really throw me into it. There's still a lot of learning curves, a lot of stuff I learned in research every day, but I find it I'm finding it awesome right now. So yeah, I'm all about it. So  I'm doing, anywhere from three to four webinars online, full day webinars every week.

And it's, I'm staying really busy. 

Keerstyn: [00:04:19] Yeah. So those webinars, do you take people through a different topics in them? What are some of 

Tim: [00:04:25] those topics? Yeah, it just depends on the client that I'm doing. They go through a catalog or something for what they want to do. And we do from, mom and pop companies.

I do a lot of government training, a lot of military training, a lot of government entities all the way through, fortune 500 companies. You name it. It's not one distinct market. That we really concentrate on it from the training aspect. The consulting and stuff is a little bit, I can have a lot of ties into the construction industry and the national association of home builders and stuff.

So I get a lot of consulting in the construction industry, which ties into a lot of my coaching clients, a lot [00:05:00] of my marketing clients and but you'd be surprised a lot of the coaching clients come from a lot of my training seminars, which has government and Just regular, business, through HR managers and stuff like that, they have a need where they have a problem, problem employee that they want to do some correction on or put them through a course.

And that's where we do it. 

Keerstyn: [00:05:17] Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So to talk a bit more about the coaching aspect of that business, what are some of those problems and pains that the coaching people are coming to you with and then how do you get them to that? That better spot? What are, what does that look like?

Tim: [00:05:32] Yeah. If it's through one of my HR managers or something, usually it's a problem child it's a bad attitude or something they're having problems with our team. Maybe that team member or...

Find Monte on his website!

Full transcription below: (may contain typos)

[00:00:00] Monte: [00:00:00] That, that's a fabulous question because. Leaders of business needs to need to coach their team on how to work through mentally this aspect of it.

And when I say mentally it's getting people to share what's concerning them and too many times managers, business leaders, whatever they. They don't have time for that. We have to make time for what are your concerns right now? And how can I help you through that? That's a big piece of leadership. 

Keerstyn: [00:00:29] hi Monte. Welcome to the podcast.

We are so excited to have you here today to learn a bit more. Bit more about what you do and how you got involved in the work. Do you want us, or do you want to give us a little bit of a brief bio intro of how you got involved in your work and what you do 

Monte: [00:00:45] now? Sure. I'm a farm boy from Iowa, my dad and my brothers still farm corn soybeans and hogs.

And I actually went to Iowa state and studied agricultural business. And I spent 14 years in agricultural [00:01:00] industry in different positions from sales, training, sales management, marketing management lived in five, six places around the country. The downside of all that is I traveled most of my time.

So in 2004, I said that was enough. And because of my career path that I had in that organization, and some of my ambitions, I chose to be a, an executive leadership coach back in 2004. And so the last 16 years have been focused on helping CEOs and executives, teams bring clarity to how they lead and manage their organizations.

And  focus on helping them to think differently, act differently and create greater discipline in their organizations. So how about that as a start? That 

Keerstyn: [00:01:46] sounds great. So the first question I have for you are when your clients come to you, obviously they have a few problems. What are those problems that they're experiencing?

There may be more than one. Do you want to just explain a few of those [00:02:00] and those pain points that they're struggling with? 

Monte: [00:02:02] Sure. I've, I'll give a couple of examples of clients. I had one that I'll give a couple here. One is they approached me and said, do you help with customer service?

And I said, absolutely, of course. And so I sat down with the CEO and the executive team and dug a little bit deeper into what they were thinking around customer service. And it was actually. It's really much deeper than customer service. And  became about their culture. It became about do they have goal setting?

It came about that they've been stagnant in their growth. And so it was a number of things, but they saw it as a surface issue of customer service. And we found a number of ways that we're going to improve that another client They were getting ready to transition the company.

One gentlemen was going to retire as he was leading the company. And another gentleman was moving into that chair. And so they wanted a clear strategy. And so a lot of what I do is I help people create their strategy and [00:03:00] help them implement it. But the strategy encompasses their people side. It encompasses who we are, where we're going and how we will succeed.

Keerstyn: [00:03:10] Yeah, absolutely. So during this COVID-19 thing, what has, is Ben, some of those issues, I guess we could call them that they have experienced to transition to this new, normal, so to speak. And how have you successfully done that? 

Monte: [00:03:27] Think every business on the planet is in this place right now where they have to reevaluate their strategy.

And what I mean by that is, what are the products and services that we're offering? And who is the core customer, especially as we're coming out of this and opening up the world. We really have to be more specific on who do we want to be talking to? Who do we want to be interacting with?

And so that we are focused and who is the right audience that want our products or need our products at this point in time. So I'm [00:04:00] focusing every one of my clients and even prospects to, to really rethink what is our strategy of how we're going to win. Because that includes our services or products or core customer and how will we fulfill it?

Because we have to think differently on how we're fulfilling  our products and services. It may be more remotely. It may be more carefully. However, we need to look at that. So it's a really rethinking everything in this new world. 

Keerstyn: [00:04:27] Yeah, absolutely. And then in terms of that employee engagement side too, is what have you been doing in that realm to really engage those employees?

Get them on a new level of engagement too, because I'm sure that many of them are not used to working from home or being so technologically 

Monte: [00:04:45] involved. Yeah, that is an interesting thing. And every business is so different when it comes to the team. But what I'm focusing on again is what is the culture that we're choosing to create through this?

And when I say culture, we choose it [00:05:00] and then we have to change our behaviors to try to really implement it. Right now, communication is probably the biggest thing that every business needs to focus on. Not just communication of how should we be wearing the mask and how do we interact with other people, but communication on what we're doing as a company to ensure that we are sustainable longterm.

And that is communication is so powerful right now in some organizations that's the big challenge for them. And it really doesn't take that much. It just takes some thinking and some some consistency that, that needs to be done regarding communication. So I think that's a big one, but I also believe that.

A company needs to help the employees understand that we care about them during this time. And if a company isn't showing that we care about them and their safety and their health, we're making decisions based on that. That's good. And I impact engagement and let them share their [00:06:00] frustrations.

That doesn't mean their frustrations are wrong. And that doesn't mean they're right, but people need and want to be heard and then we can take their inputs and see how does that help us continue to grow in how we interact and communicate. So I think that's a big part of his listening, communication, communicating, and showing that we care, especially right now.

Yeah, 

Keerstyn: [00:06:24] absolutely. So that almost goes into coaching to coaching your team. Not necessarily you, you are coaching because you are a business coach, but also then helping your, the teams understand how to coach, what have you been doing in that realm? 

Monte: [00:06:39] That, that's a fabulous question because. Leaders of business needs to need to coach their team on how to work through mentally this aspect of it.

And when I say mentally it's getting people to share what's concerning them and too many ...

Find Rob on his website!

Full transcription below: (May contain typo's)

[00:00:00] Rob: [00:00:00] So we started looking at, okay, what's the, what are they really good at? What are their strengths? What are their, where else do we have and are structured where we have an opening where we could use their skills set better, their unique abilities 

Keerstyn: [00:00:15] welcome to the podcast, Rob Taylor, we are so excited to have you here today. Can you please give us just a brief  explanation of what you do, how you got involved in your work, that type of 

Rob: [00:00:24] thing.

Sure , I'm Rob Taylor of Taylor management systems. I'm their president, and we're an organization that as an EOS implementer, we help business owners and leaders of companies get what they want from their business. ,whether their dreams, their passions, or their lifelong life term goals, whatever that is passion is, we enable them to.

How the company a lot be aligned , and to achieve those goals, , we complete proven system with simple practical tools that give them their leadership team. Initially what we call vision, [00:01:00] traction and healthy vision, and that their harps on the same page with where they're all going and their plan to get there.

So they're aligned and we get them traction and that they're accountable and disciplined in achieving that vision together. And that they're healthy and therapy cohesive, functional team that actually likes to work together because a lot of times with strong leaders, they struggle to get along. , we worked with that leadership team and we push it down to the system.

So they see the vision being achieved with accountability and discipline with teams that are having fun working together. , that's the high level. , we do other things as well, management systems and coaching and development of leaders and managers. But we do most of that now through us.

That's the system that we see that helps. It's a proven process. It provides focus and alignment. It really helps them execute and achieve that vision better than anything I've ever seen. 

Keerstyn: [00:01:56] Yeah. So for our listeners, do you want to explain EOS? , [00:02:00] some people might not know exactly what that is 

 or all the parts of that are involved in 

Rob: [00:02:05] it. Yeah. As an EOS implementer, EOS is an entrepreneurial operating system. Check it out at eosworldwide.com. It's a, and again, it's an operating system that helps companies run their company. It's a proven process. It's simple practical tools. It works. It simply works.

It does provide that focus on alignment.  and so to answer your question, Keerstyn, it's a system operating system, which is a great way of, we know about operating systems that are software, if you're the founder of a business, you have this , you're a startup and you're starting to become, that next stage business and you're growing.

You find out that one person, two people, five. 10, the complexity increases dramatically. And the, that dream starts that you start to I'm the energy gets sucked out of that dream, just for dealing with people, issues [00:03:00] and problems and process issues and accountability. And it's a system that helps owners not only run the business, but get what they 

Keerstyn: [00:03:09] want.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So then why is your role in that U S implementation? 

Rob: [00:03:16] Sure, sure. The target markets are entrepreneurial businesses, teams that are open-minded their growth oriented. Maybe they're frustrated things aren't working, they want help.

So we're providing the answers to those issues, where. My role as an implementer, I used to be called a consultant. I've done a lot of consulting over the years to see,  what I felt was good advice. To  be listened to. I appreciate it, but not for me. We executed on not implemented quite right.

This is a system that I helped them implement that they use to run the [00:04:00] company, to help them grow and develop as leaders so that they're self sufficient. We're teaching them to fish to use that analogy. 

Keerstyn: [00:04:10] Interesting. Okay. So how long is this EOS process laid out us? I'm actually with 

Rob: [00:04:15] you? Yeah. my goal, depending on the company is two, two and a half years to have them be, if not sooner, to be self sufficient, I have clients that still want me to keep on with them and help them keep growing.

that they get to a certain point. They hit that ceiling. They want to keep growing. This EOS is designed to help them keep going and growing. But on average companies, two, two and a half years of, quarterly visits. Yeah. Getting them up and going. At some point they can kick off the training wheels if they are so inclined, which hopefully they are at some point and they can do it themselves.

Yeah, 

Keerstyn: [00:04:54] absolutely. Absolutely. So you've touched on this already, but what are some of those pain points that they're [00:05:00] experiencing and then how do you get them? Or what are some of those things that they feel after they work with 

you? 

Rob: [00:05:06] we're dealing with people, mostly we're dealing with, people who are growth oriented and leading and, they have ideas and so we're helping them get aligned or helping them.

Have a clear focus for what is that? Maybe 10 years down the road, somewhere between five in 20 years. What's the longterm goal that big, hairy, audacious goal to use a Jim Collins concept from good to great. And to be focused on that and to. address that plan, get it clear, make sure they are focused on it and make sure they're, by being focused on that, aligned on it, that filters out things that maybe they shouldn't be doing.

So the frustrations that we see up front, the, the people issues, accountability issues, communication issues, [00:06:00] we're driving them to be focused, which helps and time. Address those issues. And we talk about the six key components of a business, which is part of the answer to your question is by being strong, having a strong or I should say a great vision.

If you want to be a great company, to have a great vision, you have to also have great people. You have to have data to help, where you're at and be achieving your goals. You have to be great at solving problem solving. You have to be great at your processes being consistently followed by all.

And you have to have some kind of way of executing on your plans that helps address those issues. Yeah, 

Keerstyn: [00:06:41] absolutely. Do you want to go through those six key components? 

Rob: [00:06:45] yeah. So they're the first, which I mentioned vision is that. In that the aligned agreement, the focus on the longterm vision of the company, that's going to be, we're looking at the core values of [00:07:00] the company.

What are the principles by whi...

Where to find Rachel:

• Her website

Full transcription below (May contain typos):

[00:00:00] Rachel: [00:00:00] The last probably two or three weeks. I've noticed a lot of individuals reaching out to say, okay, This pandemic kicked me on my butt and I realized I didn't have as much of a handle on my business as I thought I did. So now they're looking for ways to make sure that what, whatever external factors, would help.  

Keerstyn: [00:00:27] Welcome to the podcast day, Rachel.

I'm really excited that you're here with us. Do you want to just give me a brief background of how you got involved in your work and then what you do now? 

Rachel: [00:00:36] Sure. So I have a non-traditional pathway to business coaching. I was an executive of a nonprofit for a good chunk of my career. And I was also a clinical therapist and we needed to turn that organization around and I hired an EOS implementer.

[00:01:00] So once we started working with the EOS implementer, what I noticed was I had a lot of skillset that really helped us in that leadership team. So it was just one of those things that it untapped. Some potential in me and I started to see myself outside of the box. I had put myself in and so long story short, a few years later, I decided to pursue EOS after I had implemented it.

And then was the integrator in my organization for a little over five years. 

Keerstyn: [00:01:36] Cool. That's really interesting. So what were some of those like pain points initially that you were feeling when you did implement it into your nonprofit organization? 

Rachel: [00:01:46] So the pain points was really getting the buy-in from my entire leadership team.

So having, you're implementing anything new, especially with the organization, that's been through a significant amount of change already. We had a lot of [00:02:00] turnover in leadership bringing on anything out, there was a lot of skeptic skepticism, and I had to work extra hard to get the buy-in from my leadership team.

And then you also had us talking a lot about raising the bar and that was a scary thought for individuals that, we weren't, we didn't really know what that meant. So all of a sudden there was like a job security along with that. So we had to really define what that meant. And in most cases, Raising the bar increasing our accountability.

And in most of the time, that's what everyone was looking for. The frustration and the lack of morale around the team came from. Inconsistent accountability. So it just took a lot of time. It took a lot of consistency on my part to make sure that I was sticking with it. [00:03:00] And that was tough because like I said, I had a lot of leaders around me that I respect and and they were not on board to begin with.

So I had to be really strong in my conviction with that. Yeah, absolutely. 

Keerstyn: [00:03:13] So how does that translate now with the teams that you're working with within organizations? What are some of those things that you can take away and then apply them to the organizations that you work with after? 

Rachel: [00:03:24] I think my biggest strength in working with them is I can almost feel exactly that apprehension.

So from that very beginning step when I'm just initially. Meeting with clients and the leadership team. I can feel the skepticism. I can feel the apprehension, the anxiety. And I really come from just that relatable source. Like I've been there, I've been in your seats. And so sometimes when you're really calling that out and acknowledging that, your changing the way that you're going to run your business, that is.

[00:04:00] That's not something you take lightly. I understand there's a lot of anxiety in the room and there's probably a lot of people that think I'm full of crap right now. So yeah, some of it out because I had those Frank conversations before, and I think that helps some of my clients, because.

When I'm giving examples, I'm not just giving examples about this perfect entrepreneur that I worked with. I'm giving examples from myself in the mistakes that I made when I was implementing EOS or I'm. Making sure that they understand. I was a leader of an organization that was not doing well.

We're not perfect. We all need a little bit of help. So I think that makes it a little bit more relatable. 

Keerstyn: [00:04:50] Yeah, absolutely. I could totally see that being more relatable and then people build your, their trust in you and realize that you've been there before and have walked through the mud, [00:05:00] so to speak.

Absolutely. So what are some of those things that obviously we've talked about the pains, what are some of those things that really get people like? This is actually working. We're excited about this now, and we really want to continue to pursue 

Rachel: [00:05:12] EOS. I think right off the bat, the way that people structure their meetings, for example.

So we use something called level 10 meetings, and it's a very specific agenda. It helps drive the accountability. It helps keep that vision at the forefront. And the reason why I think that's the best thing. Cause  it really helps you get traction right off the ground. And a lot of organizations and companies, they go through a really long strategic planning process.

And then you have a four or five, six page strategic plan that's sitting on somebody's desk, but how do you actually implement that? What is your day to day look like? So that everyone is driving that vision and there's accountable. So [00:06:00] that level 10 Meeting agenda. And another frustration for teams that I hear in one of my lines is, do you ever feel like you're meeting for the sake of meeting and then you're having another meeting for the sake of meeting and then and that happened.

Or just any,  you, and then you ended up talking about the same issue. There's lack of resolution. Nobody's taking that plan of attack. And there's such a frustration with employees because they feel like they spend most of their working time jumping from meeting to meeting and rarely are they solving.

And getting any traction, moving through the weeks. So that level 10 meeting and really showing how all of these moving pieces come together and how you can productively and efficiently spend the time with your team so that you're not constantly putting out fires throughout the week. And it saves a lot, through the week.

Yeah, 

Keerstyn: [00:06:59] absolutely. I've [00:07:00] heard one thing of people entrepreneurs said I'd rather not necessarily work on my business, like work in my business, but work on my business. And I think that you're stating that pretty well of working on the business and having it grow versus fighting every fire out every day.

I'm trying to just stay afloat for 

Rachel: [00:07:20] sure. And it's hard to pull people out because once you're in the weeds, And you're i...

Where to find Rebecca:

• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/rebeccaschabot
• Her website: https://www.blythetalent.com/
• Her other website: https://www.makeworkmorehuman.com/

Transcription below (May contain typos...):

[00:00:00] Rachel: [00:00:00] I've always viewed that our role in HR is really to try to balance that, that. We are there to take care of our employees and to understand their needs and to hear things from their perspective and to really advocate for them at times. And there are times where, you uncover in a situation that it's appropriate to advocate for the leader or for the organization.

And I think our job is to really enter those situations as best as possible. With a balanced view and to get, facts and information, and really hear from both parties and then understand in any given moment who really needs the advocacy and the support and who needs coaching and redirection.

And sometimes it's the employee, but sometimes it's the leader.  [00:01:00]

Matt: [00:01:19] Good morning, Rebecca. I'm so glad to have you on the show today and really looking forward to talking to you about your life experience and what you've come from and where you've been. And just for those of you who don't know Rebecca is an agent has been in HR for over 20 years here.

In the area, advising business leaders and coaches and developing people and helping senior leadership really create more positive environments and helping shape that kind of organizational culture and inclusion. And all of the things that we know are key kind of topics these days. And Rebecca's kind of come into a new path.

She's taken a new route in her life right now and has come on as a as a coach [00:02:00] in her life. And I just want to know a lot more about that. Rebecca, first of all, tell me a little bit about herself and your background. Where are you? Where are you from? And 

what's 

Rachel: [00:02:08] your deal. Yeah. Thanks Matt.

I appreciate you having me on today. So I am a Michigander born and raised and have lived all over the state of Michigan. So I love grand Rapids. It's been my home for almost 20 years. However, it's not where I was born. So I was an import into the region 20 years ago. Back when a time when there wasn't a lot of imports in the region, that's obviously changed over the last number of years.

And I grew up all over the state mid in Northern Michigan, small towns, primarily, and then went to college in Detroit and kicked off my career there and then moved to West Michigan, really to get closer to family. And I love the outdoors. So just a more green space over here, but from a professional standpoint as you said, I've spent a little over 20 years in HR [00:03:00] and really in the generalist side.

So for those of you don't know what any church on those days there. A role where people do all areas of HR, everything from, employee relations comp and benefits leadership development, training, really everything in HR. And that was my career. Just over time, it grew from a position of an individual contributor to certainly leading, a couple of individuals working for me and then gradually to leading a team and more of an organization.

And so that's what I've done and working in a variety of industries, so started in technology and started there for a number of years and then moved into manufacturing. And then more recently in the construction industry. So three hat industry 

Matt: [00:03:49] kinda ran the gamut of of industries here for this area, especially I find it interesting that we've talked to before.

HR and some of those things and the correlations between [00:04:00] really the HR side of people development and kind of the coaching type role of people development, because what I've seen and just knowing from what I know, which is very little, and I'd love to hear more about your opinion on it. There's the structure, HR has to have a lot of structure and you've got to make sure that these things are done and that the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted.

And. For the business coverage side and also for the employee. Tell me a little bit about the struggle just faced in the industry, in HR with keeping both of those. I want to keep, the person are really close, but I know I have to protect the organization. 

Rachel: [00:04:36] Yeah. Yeah. It's a classic tension in the function.

And I think that my I've always viewed that our role in HR is really to try to balance that, that. We are there to take care of our employees and to understand their needs and to hear things from their perspective and to really advocate for them at times. And there are times where, [00:05:00] you uncover in a situation that it's appropriate to advocate for the leader or for the organization.

And I think our job is to really enter those situations as best as possible. With a balanced view and to get, facts and information, and really hear from both parties and then understand in any given moment who really needs the advocacy and the support and who needs coaching and redirection.

And sometimes it's the employee, but sometimes it's the leader. 

Matt: [00:05:28] That's a tough balance. I I can't imagine it. And it just, since that it would be difficult for some people to really do that well. And so I'm just always impressed with with HR directors who have done that successfully.

As long as they have, yeah. Almost have to have that personality piece, but you have to have that structure and some of that critical thinking and some of those things, so kudos to you on that. So question for you, this is the most fun question I ever have. So obviously you're passionate about people.

What took you from this 20 plus [00:06:00] years of HR experience to walk out one day and be like, you know what, I'm gonna do my own thing. I'm going to, I'm going to go into coaching and tell me about that moment. Yeah. 

Rachel: [00:06:09] So great question.  Would say that, I've worked in large and small organizations.

And as I said earlier, all different kinds of industries, but the thing that I've found pretty universal about my experience and I feel really blessed and thankful to have experienced this in my career. I can honestly say that all the organizations I've worked for really believed that their people were their differentiator.

And as a result, believe that culture really mattered. And that, that was critical to attracting and retaining and developing the best talent. And so I, had the chance to operate within that in a corporate environment. But the reality is in traditional HR, what you often spend a lot of time doing is, firefighting, crisis management.

Policy, [00:07:00] a lot of the stuff that, as you said earlier, has to get done and is necessary and as part of structure and process, but ultimately is not the most enjoyable aspect of your job. And so when I thought about the days where I was excited to go to work, or the days where I would come home, really energized to talk with my husband about my day, It was really always a day where I had come a...

Where to find Tim:

• Tim@realretention.com
• www.realretention.com
• Conversational Management Certification coming in February

Transcription below (May contain typos...):

[00:00:00] Tim: [00:00:00] But if you really want your organization to flourish, you have to have better relationships. And if you are going to have better relationships, you have to have better conversations. And that's really what coaching focuses on. 

Matt: [00:00:14] Good morning. This is Matt Cunningham and I am with Tim Cosby today on our podcast. And I'm excited to have Tim here with us. Tim is the owner and founder of real retention and as a fantastic coach and author and a speaker and educator. So I've known Tim for quite some time now, and we've just become great friends, as well as just having the opportunity to do some work together.

And I'm excited this morning to have Tim join us. So Tim, welcome and thanks for yeah. 

Tim: [00:00:43] Hey, thanks Matt. Thanks for having me on appreciate it. Yeah, 

Matt: [00:00:47] absolutely. So one of the things I wanted to start out this morning with is I've known you for a little while now, and I know a little bit about where you came from in your past and career and things like that, but.

Tell the other people what got you into [00:01:00] coaching, what your career path was and how you got where you are today? 

Tim: [00:01:04] Yeah. Good question. I've always wanted to help people grow and so throughout my career, I've done some work for some nonprofits. I've been in higher education. I've worked with, teenagers work with college age students and.

All along the way, my focus has been really to help people flourish. So 10 years ago I started a coaching practice because I thought that coaching was really. Probably the most effective way to help people move from where they are to where they want to be. That was in 2010. And what happened through all of that is through that, just the experience of learning, how to coach and coaching people.

I've met people along the way and realize that this coaching approach that. I learned was [00:02:00] something that could easily be transferred to leaders in organizations and having worked for a number of organizations throughout my career. I realized that most of the leaders that I worked with really didn't know how to do this.

And so they, they were more focused on telling and kind of command and control and I'm the expert. And I'll just tell you what to do and that kind of a thing. And I never really felt that was very effective. So along the way, my co-founder and I, Mike McGreevy realized that this approach that we had learned in coaching of helping people to change without telling them what to do was really effective.

With managers, with parents, with teachers, with whoever, it doesn't really matter what you do. This approach was really helpful because it helps you to build better relationships with people. And [00:03:00] that way the people that are in your circle, the influence are more likely to stay around a lot longer. So in 2016, we started I started another company called real retention.

We first started out training people to coach. So we were training professional coaches along the way, which we still do. But we decided let's just focus specifically on organizations and specifically on helping managers. To develop a new way of relating and building relationships with employees so that they could keep their employees longer.

So we just said let's call it real retention. And we're just going to help companies retain their best people. So that was in 2016. And we're still doing that. It's 

Matt: [00:03:49] incredible. Thanks for sharing this story. First of all it's incredible to see that something as simplistic as having better relationships might actually help you keep your people.

[00:04:00] I think oftentimes people don't realize how important the value of a relationship is. So as you discovered that as you've gone through the last four years of this this process, what are some of the big aha moments you've had? 

Tim: [00:04:12] Yeah, good question. I think one of the biggest things that we realized along the way was that if you want your company to flourish and and grow, and he does if you don't, then I guess there's other things that we could talk about.

But if you really want your organization to flourish, you have to have better relationships. And if you are going to have better relationships, you have to have better conversations. And that's really what coaching focuses on. And so we developed a product called conversational management because we felt that at the end of the day, everything comes back to conversations.

And if we could help leaders, managers, whoever have better conversations with [00:05:00] people to build better relationships and build, trust that at the end of the day everybody was going to win. So that was a huge aha. In fact, what we realized is that what we're doing is really like an operating system.

For engagement in organizations. It's not another program and there's plenty of programs out there for management development and engagement and all those kinds of things. But I think what we're bringing to the table is something deeper than that. It's this operating system upon which every program operates out of.

And that was a really important aha moment. For us, because we realized that what we're doing is really core. Gotcha. 

Matt: [00:05:46] Incredible. So this operating system is really the foundation to moving forward and in that relationship structure, in that conversational structure. 

Tim: [00:05:54] Yeah. And I think, the whole thing of operating system, maybe 10 years ago didn't make as [00:06:00] much sense as it does now, I've got an iPhone sitting right here in front of me and every once in a while you get these notices that you have to update.

Date your operating system. And what I've realized is that I've got a lot of apps on my phone and on my laptop, I've got a lot of programs, but if I want all of those programs to work well together, I need a really good operating system. And apple and HP and all these other companies are doing there.

They're just creating better operating systems. So everything works better together. That's what we bring to the table. 

Matt: [00:06:36] Okay. Wow. Wow. And what kind of success have you seen? When you go into these companies and you're like, Hey, I got an operating system and you need to figure this out. And this is a pretty good thing.

Or, you tell me a little bit more about how that looks and what kind of success you've been. 

Tim: [00:06:50] Yeah back in 2016, of course, as things have changed quite a bit since 2016, I feel like it's a completely different [00:07:00] world. Isn't it? 

Matt: [00:07:01] Things changed quite a bit since since yesterday. So 2016 was a long time ago.

Tim: [00:07:07] Yeah. Wow. Maybe we can talk about that in a few minutes, but in 2016, what was happening was there were a...

Where to find Leslie:

• Her Website: www.coachwithleslie.com
• Her Event: https://www.eventbrite.com/x/uncover-your-brilliance-your-road-map-to-your-best-year-ever-in-2021-tickets-132094077943
• Her online course: https://ecademy.nspiredignite.com/courses/the-3-ps-to-mastering-difficult-conversations  
  • Now through the end of the year use the coupon code HappyHolidays10 to save 10% off

Transcription below (May contain typos...):

[00:00:00] Leslie: [00:00:00] And I really want to help people maximize their productivity and their focus and work in their area of strength, which I like to call their superpower because when we're working in our super power, it's amazing. And I know from personal experience, when I try to step out of that and do something that is not really a good fit for me, I get myself in trouble. 

Matt: [00:00:24] This week on the podcast, we're joined by Leslie . Leslie owns a coaching practice called coach with Leslie. She's, a dynamic speaker and trainer with over 30 years of experience, helping employers solve their trickiest people problems to delivers a message that focuses on helping groups, build trust, reduce conflict, and enhance workplace relationships.

I'm thrilled that today, that we're talking about her new program called uncover your brilliance, which is all about you and stepping into a place where you can find your super power. We're so glad to have you, Leslie.

Leslie, welcome it is good [00:01:00] to see you today. And I'm really excited to spend some time with you and talk through a little bit about who you are. And, so this is the managing the way podcast we are, you're with way point in, we are here today with.

 Leslie theater, Enzo. I always try to say that very clearly. Leslie was a, has been a friend of mine for quite some time now. And, I guess going on three or four years, I think, through the chamber of commerce and, support in Jackson, Michigan, and her parents moved her here when she was about four years old.

And now she lives in Wyoming, Michigan with her husband, known as Butch and, their adult daughter lives three miles away, which is really cool. They get to walk every day, which 

Leslie: [00:01:41] I think is awesome. Three 

Matt: [00:01:44] Oh three to okay. Three miles away. That's right. Three, three miles away. Three tenths of a mile away.

Oh, like right down the road. 

Leslie: [00:01:50] Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic. 

Matt: [00:01:53] and I know that you started your career, as a payroll clerk, this is fun, a fun fact. it looks like [00:02:00] your original job was located where the Amway grand Plaza is now, correct? 

Leslie: [00:02:04] Yes. Obviously they tore down the building to build the towers.

Matt: [00:02:09] Yeah, super cool. And then that kind of led you into HR and some different things and, moves just in that direction. So that's super cool. And I can't believe that. you've lived here a long time and it's really a, it's a great city. So tell me a little bit, I like to know just a little bit share with, with us a little bit about you and what got you where you are today and your career went into HR after that.

It looks like. And yeah. Share with me a little bit about your career path and how you got where you are now. 

Leslie: [00:02:39] Sure. So this will date me, but when I first, my first real job was as a payroll clerk for, F Randabel company, 10 texts corporation, and I typed. The payroll checks on a manual typewriter and to use the books, to look up the tax codes for payroll deductions.

And it was [00:03:00] well before computer and automated payroll. So it took me, most of the week to get probably a hundred checks prepared and tightened out for distribution. yeah. it's a whole different world working nowadays, especially like this was stuff of the future and the Jetsons, 

Matt: [00:03:18] That's what the Jetsons. Absolutely. 

Leslie: [00:03:20] Absolutely. Yeah. 

Matt: [00:03:23] Very cool. And so how long have you been doing what you're doing? 

Leslie: [00:03:25] I launched my own coaching practice in March. two weeks before the shutdown order came up box you're 

Matt: [00:03:34] like, that was the best decision of my life. 

Leslie: [00:03:36] It was the best decision of my life because it was a decision that had been planned.

to move forward and that they came and I just pulled the trigger. but I'd done a lot of work, for a long time, very similar work. it's just me right now. Okay. And working with leaders, Help them really be their best. So the name of my particular coaching program [00:04:00] is called uncover your brilliant.

And I really want to help people maximize their productivity and their focus and work in their area of strength, which I like to call their superpower because when we're working in our super power, it's amazing. And I know from personal experience, when I try to step out of that and do something that is not really a good fit for me, I get myself in trouble.

And I can tell you a couple of stories if you want, but I think most people can relate to that. If they've done any kind of professional development, any kind of assessment, I've worked with a number of different assessment tools over the years, U S use a couple in my practice to help people if they don't know what those are to hone in on them.

sure. Really maximize that because to me, that's what it's all about. If I can spend most of my day, 80% of my day. Working in my area of genius, I can serve so many other [00:05:00] people. This is true of anybody. And really move the ball forward as opposed to getting stuck, being anxious, being uncertain, telling myself all kinds of stories that are not true.

Yeah. 

Matt: [00:05:14] I think a lot of people can get caught up in that. so I'm curious about two things, really. one. I know your background as HR and you were there a long time. How do you go from this HR people development, people help side to your coaching practice or, you know what you're doing now?

First question. So I'll let you answer that one. And then I have a secondary question. 

Leslie: [00:05:37] it's really what I've always done, Matt. I've just done it for my employers in working with people. because if anybody listening to this podcast is in HR, that the call comes or the knock on the door comes and here's my issue.

Here's my problem. Help me solve it. And sometimes people just want to complain. Sometimes they don't want a solution. but more [00:06:00] often than not, people just are not sure what ...

Where you can find Heather:

• Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathermarquez/
• Her Website: https://actioncoach.com/

Full Transcription below (may contain typos...):

[00:00:00] Heather: [00:00:00] we took the team who was in a lot of conflict and strife. We identified some of the core values that the company had. the values that the team felt were very broken. And we did a 10 week study on those values where we. Talked about those values. And every week, everybody committed to taking particular actions in favor of living out those values more fully.

and that was about three years ago. And to this day they still, every week post one of the values posters in their office and they rotate it every week and that's continues to be a piece of their language [00:01:00] 

Keerstyn: [00:01:00] welcome Heather Marquez.  do you want to give us a brief bio or intro of how you got into work?

and then what you do now? 

Heather: [00:01:09] Sure. so I started my illustrious career as a 16 year old kid in retail, a cashier with a large retailer and, worked in retail for about 25 years, doing a variety of things, including. Leading teams running a $20 million business unit in the last 10 years, I was also in addition to running my store, I'm involved in all of the executive onboarding, all the continuing education for our executives and found that I really had a passion for that.

And so when I decided to make the break from retail, I broke off into creating my own company around leadership development. And then I layered in the business coaching side of things because leadership development is a passion, but it wasn't really utilizing all of my skills [00:02:00] around operations, things like that.

So now I. Work with leaders, business owners and their teams, and help them really maximize the potential of their teams while protecting the vision of their organization and making better decisions to move in the direction of that vision. Yeah, 

Keerstyn: [00:02:19] absolutely. Absolutely. So when your clients come to you, what are some of those things that they are struggling with in terms of whether it's the operation side or the leadership side?

What does that look like? 

Heather: [00:02:32] it really comes down to three categories, time team or money, pretty much everything can fall into one of those categories. And that's really where we spend a lot of our time on depending on where they're at with things in their business. Okay. 

Keerstyn: [00:02:48] Cool. And then what are some of those things that you bring them to?

Those almost like heaven spots, where they are thriving and not struggling anymore. What are some of those and how do you get them 

Heather: [00:02:58] there? [00:03:00] Yeah. one of the things that I love about what I get to do every day is I have a variety of certifications. And resources and tools that I use, to really customize solutions for the business owners I work with.

And although we really start by creating a strong foundation with getting really clear on their vision, where is it that they're going, what do they want out of their company? The ultimate goal is to work towards a commercial profitable enterprise that. Works without them. and so a lot of that is really just digging in and helping them get clear on, for example, we'll take the time aspect, where are they spending their time?

How are they utilizing it? And what are the things that are really requiring their skill versus others. And that tends to lead us quite a bit into the team side of it, because what I often find is there are business owners out there that love what they do, And they love the hands-on part, but the higher [00:04:00] level leading the organization, dealing with the operations isn't necessarily what they went to school for or what they were passionate about.

And so that's out of their comfort zone, first of all. So they tend to go back into the things they're comfortable with, but two, they haven't learned to delegate well enough and in an appropriate manner so that it empowers their team to take things off their plate so that they can really spend time working.

On the business versus in the business. And, at the end of the day, it's really about helping that business owner get back to the reason that they started their business to begin with and then have time for the hobbies that they've probably forgotten they even had. and in time for their family, I don't necessarily think that there's such a thing as the perfect balance.

Between work and life. I think we all have instances where something is required of us. In a manner that we have to spend more time on one versus the other, but it's a matter of having whole life balance. And [00:05:00] when I work with business owners, we really focus on getting them to a place where they can feel good about taking the weekend off and spending it with their family or being done in 40 hours a week.

Versus the belief that a lot of business owners hold of. If I'm not working 60 or 70 hours, then I must not be a good business owner. That's not what it's about. It's about. Tapping into your team and building a team that can help you so that you don't have to be working that. Yeah, 

Keerstyn: [00:05:28] absolutely. Absolutely.

so one thing that I want to jump into is can you talk a little bit more about those certifications and those different tools that you bring to the table in terms of helping these people build up solutions, to be able to have that 40 hour work week and of that 60 hour work week or. being able to spend time with their families.

What does that look 

Heather: [00:05:47] like for you? Yeah. part of it starts with an assessment of where they're at, and assessing their team. So I use a lot of assessments around discs, Mo disc motivators, [00:06:00] values, emotional intelligence, those kinds of things. And then we have a really cool tool called the performance gap indicator, where we can measure where an organization is on five.

Nonfinancial key performance indicators. And once we get a level base of where we things out, we can start to hammer out the vision. And part of that is addressing what pops up with the assessments. So if the vision is to have this high performing team, that's getting along and there's reduced conflict, then we go back to the assessments and we start educating the team on things like.

Communication and personality styles. What does that mean to work well together? And how do you communicate in a way that you're heard? it might be having a team that is transitioning from managers to leaders, and there's a lot of different leadership tools that I would use in that case. and one of the things that I do, that's really the most.

Fun I think is we start off doing a planning and strategy [00:07:00] session where we do just a big brain dump. And so I'm a certified mind map instructor and, that's a tool where you can use it for creativity planning, just doing a brain dump, thinking through things. When I'm giving a speech, I plan all of my speeches and workshops using a mind map.

And, that allows us to see everything in the owner's head and then to prioritize all of that and then start to break it...

Where to find Matt:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattley/
His Website: https://flipthescript.io
His Email: matt@flipthesccript.io

Full transcription below: (May contain typos...)

Matt: [00:00:00] [00:00:00] sure. so where companies might struggle with the psychological safety is that the feedback loops that kind of need to be built in, throughout the process, saying, Hey, we're. we're diverse. We can measure that it's a metric, it's a quantitative, but the qualitative piece of how do people feel about it, which is that next step into actual inclusion, which is the bedrock of starting any psychological safety.

 Keerstyn: [00:00:52] welcome to the podcast, Matt. We're really excited that you're here today to talk a little bit more about what you do and who you are.

Could you please give just like a brief [00:01:00] intro of what you're involved in these days and how you got involved with 

Matt: [00:01:04] it?

Sure. my name's Matt Lee, I've worked, for flip the script, coaching consulting actually own it. we're really focused on helping leaders in transition. it's gained confidence and clarity on what they're doing. so that's both through coaching and consulting. As the name says, organizations working on employee engagement, individuals working on that sense of purpose and alignment with that purpose.

Keerstyn: [00:01:32] Yeah. Interesting. So what are some of those pains that oftentimes your clients come to you with? are they really struggling in the employee engagement side or are they just at a loss for what is the problem? And they're just struggling to get over this weird issue that they don't really know what is 

Matt: [00:01:50] yeah.

So on the, organizational side, a lot of it is your. They're coming with the symptoms and they're trying to figure out how can we address these? And a lot [00:02:00] of those symptoms come up with either a high turnover rates. That's a pretty big one. and also just employee engagement. If they actually have those surveys, like the scores are low, we just don't understand.

Sometimes it's a. we just went through a catastrophic event, which could be a positive, catastrophic event, like a product launch went awesome. And now we're in the last two years, three times larger than we were before. We didn't know. We just kept promoting people from within and all of a sudden we're at this point where we've got people in roles that don't necessarily align, or we just had to, we purchased another company.

So it's a merger acquisition, or possibly because of. The market we've shrunk in size, and we're trying to figure out where people fit now because everyone's been wearing multiple hats. And so that's, those are a lot of the symptoms that are pretty common, or just you've been doing it for a long period of time.

And people are looking for either a fresh start or they've lost that sense of their why. so coming in and looking at. Yeah. What are the [00:03:00] PhETs than the forfeits that we normally look for are the fit of job? Is the individual aligned with the role that they're doing a fit of the manager at? Does the person managing, have a good sense of the skills needed to do that in general?

And for the specific person team fit team dynamics and then culture fit, has the organization potentially shifted or is the culture. Implicit and not explicit. And so we're missing some alignment. So that's on the organizational side. That's how it works. 

Keerstyn: [00:03:31] Yeah, absolutely. That's really interesting. I'm glad that you mentioned those four fits because I think that's a really vital thing that people don't realize that there could be a miscommunication or a problem between one of those fits and you might fit into one bubble, but you might not fit into another.

What are some of the things that, you kind of prescribe or, help with when it comes to that job fit? What. What are some of those things that you do to get them through that and to get them aligned back with their job and aligned [00:04:00] with their why? 

Matt: [00:04:02] Sure. one of the biggest ones that, and I think fairly easy is that finding a tool that has a good behavioral assessment match.

and so if you can get a good behavioral assessment, Job target. and the tool that I use most frequently is predictive index. Cause I think it's just a great framework for talent optimization. but there's others there out there. People use Enneagrams or Myers, Briggs. They can do some of that, work or your five voices.

but if you can make a fit between what the job, as a role needs. And then the individuals who were either in those roles or applying for those roles, that's one of your biggest indicators of job success. Like you can also go cognitive people do wonder like a predictive index also has a cognitive assessments.

It's very similar to wonder. but those are good for jobs success to start out that doesn't move beyond just the job. it doesn't help with the management or the team dynamics. So I really rely on the behavioral [00:05:00] assessment piece. And then when you talk about that why that becomes part of the.

talk the talk and walk the walk and then, make sure you're not walking in circles because I think that third piece is where organizations miss it on culture is figuring out what your culture is, make it explicit.  and then on the level of, culture, it's the, the walk, the, walk, the talk, the talk, walk the walk, and then make sure you're walking, not in circles.

And then the talk is making your culture explicit, not implicit. So make sure it's out there and people can find it and read about it. Then making sure that your management is actually living that out. That's walking the walk, and that needs to be something that's done consistently so that people can also see it.

And then having a make sure you're not walking in circles is what are the metrics and measurements. And one of the big ones is. The just employee engagement survey, and you can use a generic ones that come with, packages like predictive index has one, or else you can get very specific to your [00:06:00] specific cultural pillars and align and see what that looks like.

You can work with organizations. I think a fast mirror is one that you can create specific to your particular business engagement surveys. 

Keerstyn: [00:06:14] Yeah, absolutely. What should people be looking for in these engagement surveys? I feel like there's 1,000,001 things out there, and you can ask 1,000,001 questions about anything to your employees, but what are some of those specific, either questions or items or even concepts that we really should be asking to our employees?

Matt: [00:06:35] Yeah. And it'll boil back down to the forfeits. that's a good question of engagement of high feel. I understand the direction of the company that might speak to your fit with the culture with the organization. I feel that my voice is heard, or I feel that my position matters in the way the business carries things out.

I feel that I can [00:07:00] take, issues. To my manager to talk about them. And so looking kind of thinking of the forfeits, what are the temperate types of questions that...

Find Matt on:

• His website: https://epickindness.com/
• Email him at: matt@epickindness.com

Full transcription below (may contain typos...):
[00:00:00] Matt: [00:00:00] start with kindness, ask great questions through managing the conversational model. So have that skill based, have that soft skills skillset homed to, to the best that you can.

And finally use a product like Waypoint. So make sure that you are set time and goal and space for these people that you're managing and these team members that you're working with to genuinely find out how they're doing. 

Keerstyn: [00:00:24] This week on the podcast, we have Matt Cunningham. He is a business coach. who owns Epic kindness, but she, he is also joining forces with our team here at Waypoint. just start selling way point too. really being an influential person within our team. We're really excited that he's joining us. and so to get to know him better, we decided to do a podcast. 

not only does he talk about the benefits of simply just having conversations with your team? He also talks about leading with kindness. And talks about why it's so important as a leader, as a manager, as an [00:01:00] employee. And it was simply just a person. In general, we go through some of those ideas that you might have about leading with kindness and if it's genuinely valuable and if it's the way to go. And I believe it is after I hearing Matt talk a little bit more about it. so yeah, we'll jump right in and. get ready to learn about leading with kindness 

welcome to the podcast, Matt. I'm really excited that you're here with us today. some background for all of our listeners, Matt Cunningham. Has just joined us, and is working with us, as a Salway point. he is a business coach, who has been in the industry for about 20 years.

So has a lot of knowledge and background. and, yeah. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about yourself and how you got involved in your work and what you do now? 

Matt: [00:01:45] Sure. Sounds good. really for the past 20 years, I have spent time helping people be better communicators. I focused on management, management practices and how people generally just don't oftentimes don't know how to manage [00:02:00] people.

They get promoted and they have not had experience managing others. And there's some challenges that come with that and managing people in general has some challenges. So for the past 20 years, I've been a manager, I've been a leader, I've been a business owner and, I've taken a coaching approach as often as I could.

Which is basically seek to listen, find out what someone's trying to say before you try to understand and help them solve. A lot of managers do that really well. And a lot of people don't. So I, I started, gosh, I started about five years ago. I started a coaching business and I am a professional, executive coach and I help managers kind of work through some of those challenges with their people to help them retain them.

Not only that, but. Also too, to just help them in general, as they communicate and have more conversations and better conversations with their team. 

Keerstyn: [00:02:51] Interesting. So what were some of those pains that you saw in the workplace as a manager and as an employee? what were [00:03:00] some of those struggles that managers were going through and, yeah.

why do they need this? The 

Matt: [00:03:06] biggest pains I saw in general were. Managers, struggling to connect, right? You have a team you're working hard, everybody's doing their day to day, and there's a struggle to engage. There's a struggle to connect to. There's a struggle to help people feel connected to the team or to the company.

So what I, that's the biggest thing. And then inevitably managers are trying their best. They're working hard. They're going through all these experiences. they're getting promoted. They're in meetings and their team members are leaving. 

Keerstyn: [00:03:37] Yeah. And why are they leaving? 

Matt: [00:03:41] The number one challenge in the U S right now is employees feeling engaged.

They just don't feel engaged. They don't feel connected to the company. They don't feel connected to their leader or their direct hire their direct manager. And they struggled too. Everything is, looks better somewhere else. And oftentimes I think people don't realize [00:04:00] until they've laughed at the grass really was never greener.

Just looked a little bit better. And, yeah, they. They take off and they run into the same challenges because those connections are happening everywhere or those disconnections as it might be. Yeah, 

Keerstyn: [00:04:13] absolutely. What are some specific things that managers can do to start upping this engagement rate, start retaining their people more, making the grass actually greener versus having it look a certain way, but it not actually being true.

Matt: [00:04:30] I, the number one thing that managers can do is connect, get regularly scheduled, conversations with their team and keep those conversations. It is truly, a struggle for managers to do that because of the schedules because of the day-to-day work. And I know that people get sent to different events or conferences or trainings, and they learn how to communicate better and they learn some great [00:05:00] skills and that is extremely helpful, but they come back to work and the schedule takes back over and they may not be able to use those.

So the number one thing that people can do is just schedule regular touch basis, regular one-on-ones with their team. And find out how they're really doing. And I'd say the second thing that they can do is make sure that they're understanding what a, a great effective conversation looks like.

Managers oftentimes get so busy trying to solve that. They forget that it's just the person sitting next to them, just like them. And there's, you're dealing with the same challenges. And so understanding what good conversation and communication looks like is key. 

Keerstyn: [00:05:41] Yeah. And how do you actually have the effective communication?

I know that some people are like, Oh, I'll schedule the one-on-one, but then they go to, and they're like, what do we actually talk about? what are some good questions or good, scenarios that would, play out in these conversations? 

Matt: [00:05:58] That's great. That's a great question. [00:06:00] I, the biggest thing that you can possibly do is get yourself some questions lined up that are open-ended questions.

Start your questions with what or how. Make sure that you're really trying to engage and listen to the answers. but really to answer the question, just get a list half, have some things written down and prepare yourself for what that might look like and there's tools out there. It's one of the reasons I, I joined Waypoint.

Wait points tool on helping people connect and really keep their one-on-ones and setting goals and having a slotted time that you're going to meet with them. All t...

Find Tania on Linkedin here!

Full transcription below: (may contain typos)

[00:00:00] Tania: [00:00:00] So using the accountability chart, which is. Looks like an org chart, but functions so much differently because you're structuring around the most important functions of an organization first. So structure first and then defining what does the seat look like? how am I going to hold you accountable?

And then you put a name in the seat. So you've got somebody who has the skills, knowledge, and ability to do an incredible job with excellence and success. [00:01:00] 

Keerstyn: [00:01:00] welcome to the podcast, Tanya. I am really excited. You're here today. Can you just give us a brief, understanding and background of how you got involved in your work and then what you do now? 

Tania: [00:01:09] Sure. my background is, as a professional EOS implementer and how I got here, was growing up in an entrepreneurial family and I experienced firsthand the highs and the lows of business cycles.

So out of college, I worked in television and after a quick stint in front of the camera, I was drawn to the creativity. Behind the camera. And it led me to start my first business, which was a media production company and like any small business. I was really good at a craft or, producing a product or a service, but not necessarily had a lot of experience running a business.

And I grew the company to the [00:02:00] point of needing to hire a team to help me get it all done. And I was terrified of having a team be reliant on me for their livelihood. It does give me a ton of empathy for business leaders though. So that's good. and knowing about EOS back then would have likely produced different results.

Ultimately, I shut the company down and went to work for a regional insurance and risk management services firm. And I spent 15 minutes there. Or 15 minutes there. That's really funny. That's not very much experiences at

 so I spent 15 years there and was instrumental in helping it grow from 10 to over 30 million in revenue and leading marketing innovation and technology teams. It gave me a ton of intelligence and insights into the business side of everything. being an owner and becoming a [00:03:00] member of the leadership team and also the board of directors.

What was there that I actually discovered EOS and EOS stands for entrepreneurial operating system. As a member of the leadership team, I helped build the company's vision, help cascade it throughout. Every level of the organization to help get more traction, which really is discipline, accountability, and execution.

And I became an internal implementer of our EOS systems. Okay. And I had so much passion for the impact that it had on our company and our people. It led me to found growth spark. And for the last year and a half, I've been working full-time to help as many business leaders and their teams get more of what they want out of their 

business.

Keerstyn: [00:03:56] Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. I'm really glad that you went through all of that. [00:04:00] Cause that's an interesting take on it, especially that internal implementer. What were some of those things? Did you go through the training to become an implementer or was it just thrown at you or what did that transition look like?

Tania: [00:04:14] The transition. we had used an implementer out of Chicago, Todd smarts, and, he is a master he's Yoda when it comes to this stuff. And, he has a philosophy though that, Graduating EOS companies. So he can bring on more is how he runs his EOS practice. And as we graduated after about two or two and a half years, working with him. Somebody needed to lead our sessions. And so he did a great job at providing me with insights, and tools, techniques, that kind of thing, coached me before each of our sessions [00:05:00] and, between getting that coaching, running our sessions and mostly watching the impact in our company.

It was, all of those things that led me to say, I know that there are more companies out there that. Can use this, that need this, that wanted, that might not even know it exists. yeah, that's, it's a huge passion. I use the words a lot living in my zone of genius, which actually comes from Dan Sullivan's unique ability, concepts of, but, this is me living in my zone of genius when I can help other companies get more of.

What they want, which is often around people process or profit. not always, but, when they start to harness all that human capital energy and move it forward in alignment. And creating an [00:06:00] environment of accountability. It is game-changing and, that's really where I live. Like my best professional life is hearing those stories and watching the impact.

Keerstyn: [00:06:12] Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. I'm glad that you went through those three things to the people, the process, and then the profit too. What are some of those things that you do to help that people side, within the organizations that you work for? Obviously, I'm sure it's a ton because people are the number one, asset of businesses.

But what are some of those things, and tools and processes that you bring them through? 

Tania: [00:06:38] one of the biggest is making sure that a company is really clear on what it means to be the right person in the company, which means that they fit the core values and the culture and being in the right seat.

So using the accountability chart, which is. Looks [00:07:00] like an org chart, but functions so much differently because you're structuring around the most important functions of an organization first. So structure first and then defining what does the seat look like? how am I going to hold you accountable?

And then you put a name in the seat. So you've got somebody who has the skills, knowledge, and ability to do an incredible job with excellence and success. So right. People, right seat. That's huge. And there's more to it than that though. that's a bit of a foundation of EOS because when you break down any organization breaks down into six key components and obviously the people component is huge, right?

Because people are your biggest asset, usually your biggest pain in the ass too. So you need to get rid of some of the pain around that. So it also helps create TeamHealth. What we're [00:08:00] striving for is open, honest, cohesive teams. People that can raise their hand and say, I have a problem. We need to solve it.

And also the health piece. I'm a huge Patrick Lencioni fan. And, the reason I bring that up is in his five dysfunctions of a team trust is the foundation of everything and it leads to greater results. So if you can build more team health, you can build more trust and that's, it starts at the highest levels of the company and it cascades down and.

I think the third thing then beyond the people component, the right people, right seats and the team, trust and health. The third thing is creating better leaders and managers within the organization. that old adage of people don't leave companies. They leave managers. So how can we create a better.

[00:09:00] Relationship or environment. And, so helping companies do that as well. And I think that, when ...

1. Adapting the way you communicate to help your employees better understand what is expected but also to feel empowered to go do their work!

2. Continue to learn how to work together on a deeper level (and be more productive in the process).

3. Consistently invest in relationships that are meaningful to you and your team (because your company cannot survive without a solid team behind you!).

Feel free to check out how Waypoint integrates DISC by clicking this link here!

Full transcription below (may contain typos...):

[00:00:00] Mike: [00:00:00] I was not operating in my true strengths with, the natural style versus the adaptive style. So in my case, I was. Natural style higher D but my adaptive style was lower D because I felt I w had to reserve myself and be like, not be as like driving forceful.

Like I was trying to like, Be more reserved because I didn't want to disrupt too much. Like I didn't want to, I didn't want to offend the people I was working with. And that kind of, I think came from, having bad experiences being too forceful or too Hey, we're going to drive, we're going to do this.

We're going to go in this direction. So you're trying to curb that. And so just the whole notion of a natural versus an adaptive style for me was a good dose of self-awareness to say, Okay. W why do I feel like I have to act that way? and sometimes it's appropriate, but the, what goes along with that is saying, okay, you can't operate in that [00:01:00] forever. 

Keerstyn: [00:01:00] Let's speak on the podcast. We have Mike Sudek. He is not only the founder and CEO of Waypoint, but is also my boss and manager. I'm really excited to have him on today because he talks a bit more about disc. And why is a key aspect of Waypoint? he talks about how he. Make sure that, our employees, whether past or current. 

employees have fallen into those strengths that, he does not have and the ways that he has really embraced, Embrace. The disc scores that he has and make sure that he is playing in his strengths. So we'll jump right 

today in the podcast we have Mike student. He is not only our founder and CEO of Waypoint, which is a sponsor for this podcast, but is also the CEO of ECE group who has been, Creating great software teams for the past 20 years.

So thank you for joining us today, Mike. 

Mike: [00:01:58] Kiersten. It's a pleasure to be [00:02:00] interviewed by you and it's great to be on the show. 

Keerstyn: [00:02:04] Oh, I'm glad to hear that. so today we're basically going to be talking about disc and, disc profiling disc test, and why it's really important to have, your employees not only tested, but also yourself.

So you can learn a little bit more about yourself and the process, but also be able to, Make sure that your employees are working in their own strength. I've made a subset of questions that Mike hasn't seen yet, that we're going to run through 

Mike: [00:02:31] here. 

Keerstyn: [00:02:32] all So the first question I have for you, Mike, are what are your desk traits or your strengths rather?

Mike: [00:02:38] So I am, 80 out of a hundred on the D I am 99 out of a hundred on the I 39 S and 32. See, so I definitely skew D and I, I is obviously my strongest, so I'm a people person.

And, so it's interesting when you talk about, testing your team [00:03:00] and I feel You always think people are like you right now. You always think people are going to communicate the way you communicate. and my experience has been, as I've learned to manage people and manage more people and interacted with more people and worked with people that are, maybe my junior and then people that are my senior, you especially become more aware of strengths and, and how people communicate and their disc score.

And. For me, it seems like it's really like on learning. You're unlearning how you communicate because you gravitate towards your natural style and you naturally think that's going to be great for people. So you have to slow down and how you, like you communicate or interact and then say, okay, how is this person gonna hear this?

And me being very like, hi, I'm like quick to want it. I talk about different things. I want to just jump into ideas, move really fast. And for someone that's not like that, it can be very chaotic. And yeah, just like you said, like this question [00:04:00] was what's your disc score and for me.

it's high, but it's realizing that, just realizing that I'm that way is really eye-opening, the self-aware 

Keerstyn: [00:04:09] absolutely. my next question rolls into that, but it's were there any surprises that you found while getting your disc score back and if so were, what were they. 

Mike: [00:04:20] One of the things that they, they talk about, like an adaptive style, as opposed to a natural style.

And it, one of mine was, I was, I think, a higher, I was not operating in my true strengths with, the natural style versus the adaptive style. So in my case, I was. Natural style higher D but my adaptive style was lower D because I felt I w had to reserve myself and be like, not be as like driving forceful.

Like I was trying to like, Be more reserved because I didn't want to disrupt too much. Like I [00:05:00] didn't want to, I didn't want to offend the people I was working with. And that kind of, I think came from, having bad experiences being too forceful or too Hey, we're going to drive, we're going to do this.

We're going to go in this direction. So you're trying to curb that. And so just the whole notion of a natural versus an adaptive style for me was a good dose of self-awareness to say, Okay. W why do I feel like I have to act that way? and sometimes it's appropriate, but the, what goes along with that is saying, okay, you can't operate in that forever.

there's a detriment to acting outside of your natural style that, you just need to be cognizant of, and to say, Hey, you're going to get burned out, or you're going to be dissatisfied or. Whatever, if you're operating too much out of your natural style. 

Keerstyn: [00:05:50] Yeah, absolutely. So what were some of those things that got you back into your natural style in the workplace, or, just in general to get you back to where [00:06:00] your wheelhouse was?

Mike: [00:06:02] I think one of the biggest things is. And so one of the biggest things is surrounding yourself. People that compliment your styles. So you don't want to, I think it's natural to surround yourself with people that operate the same way you do, because there's a natural synergy. As much as I hate that word.

There's a natural synergy with people that, Just are, have the same disc profiles you right there. So you're going to gravitate towards them. You're going to tend to hire people like that. You're going to, you're going to hire, you're going to work with people like that. Your clients might start to look like that in some regard.

And but it's important to. surround yourself with people that have a compliments, a complimentary profile so t...

Where to find Connie:
Linkedin

Full transcription below (May contain typos):

Connie: [00:00:00] [00:00:00] so they may measure number of client, meetings and instead of a weekly goal, and somebody has to own that number.

It doesn't mean that's the person who has to go do 10 meetings. It could be a sales team of five people, but we're going to look into the eyes of that person when they're on the leadership team. When that number is at met each week. And have a discussion about what went sideways.  

Keerstyn: [00:00:43] welcome to the podcast, Connie. I am very excited to have you here today. Connie Schwann is with us and she, is an EOS implementer. do you want to give us a little bit of a better understanding of how you got involved in what you do now and then who you serve currently?

Connie: [00:00:59] about, [00:01:00] actually 13 years ago, I hired an EOS implementer at my last company. I was walking around my company. And my leadership team just kept rolling their eyes at me going, Oh, she'll go away at some point because I knew I wanted something, but I didn't know what I wanted. I, it, I felt unsettled.

we were successful that it wasn't like we were dying on the binary or anything, and we have great team. but something just didn't feel right. And I was invited, by a local business friend, to a workshop. there was a be presented by a gentleman named Mike Payton all about ELs. And I thought, okay, what's the, so I looked up POS found their website and was reading it going, Oh my gosh, this is what I'm looking for.

So I signed myself up and my CFO to go. unbeknownst to her, and this was a person who didn't like going to big meetings and would be so thrilled that I had signed her up. And I announced that on like Monday morning, Hey, guess what we're doing in three weeks? [00:02:00] No doubt. She was so excited. it was awesome.

yeah, that was our guests. But as like what happened? I had an opportunity to do something else that morning. I was requested to be someplace else. And so I sent her by herself, made her even more happy, but she came back from this meeting. So excited and lots of pages of notes. And she said, get this guy in here, you have to meet him.

Now I get what you're looking for. So we hired an implementer. it's about a two year process. And then I ran the company on EOS for another five years after that. And in that period of seven years, Peyton said to me, if you ever get tired of doing what you're doing, call me, I think you'd be a great implementer.

So seven years ago when I closed my company, I thought. What's the next, I decided that I would explore becoming an implementer. And I come from the time when Gino Wickman who wrote traction, which is what dos is based on hand selected everybody that went through his bootcamp. And, so I was [00:03:00] accepted into boutique.

Yep. and I've been doing this for almost seven years now and having a title in my life. 

Keerstyn: [00:03:04] Awesome. Awesome. What were some of those things when you were in your organization that you were looking for? What were some of those pain points that you were just like trying to get over and over, and I'm sure that a flavor of the month occasionally came in and you tried it and it didn't work.

What were, what did EOS solve for you that 

Connie: [00:03:23] you've been 

Keerstyn: [00:03:23] looking for so long? 

Connie: [00:03:25] we had never done anything like the star at our core values. and and that's one of the foundational, exercises in EOS, as we help companies implement it is to, and core values are discovered.

They're not something that you get five staff together and put it, lock them in a conference room with a bottle of water as Steven saltines and tell him to come up with the best. They come from the leadership at the top, because core values are it's. Your culture is who you are as a people. and interestingly, when we went through, but I didn't know that at the time I just felt unsettled.

it just didn't feel right. I felt [00:04:00] one of the things we talked with our clients about is this concept of hitting the ceiling. It doesn't feel good. You don't know what's wrong. As I say, it's not as though we were not doing it. Good work. And we were rolling and really liked us. And we like them and we liked each other, just felt, I kept walking around saying we have to do this something different, but I don't know what the difference is.

Yeah. Once I understood what the 16 components of a business is, I could see where we weren't necessarily super strong. So great example is we have a data component that we teach and what we teach that we help our clients identify the activities they do each week to get the results that they want.

And that's a measure of those every single week. we did what every one of my clients do. I would walk in and look at my marketing guy going, how are we doing? Even all of us were on it. Oh yeah. We're at [00:05:00] 110%, of ever here. And I go, Oh, okay. What does that tell you? Okay. As a CEO of a company, it was just as guilty of running on emotions and that hardcore data.

And there's just a million of those kinds of examples. that we did. And, and interestingly, when we discovered our core values, we had some people leave our company because once they understood what it meant to work with us, not for us, but with us, they knew they weren't that person.

Yeah. I see that happen all the time. And one of those people was on my leadership team. That's hard, 19 years. 

Keerstyn: [00:05:38] Yeah, that's really hard. And I'm sure a weird transition 

Connie: [00:05:41] to yes, it was. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. 

Keerstyn: [00:05:47] Interesting. I really liked what you said about people were just like flying on their emotions and not hard data.

What does, what do your clients feel after the, during that process of let's [00:06:00] get to the hard data, let's try and figure this out. Is it oftentimes. Like a five step hurdle process where they start it and then it's okay. And then they realized that we need to do dive deeper into it.

What are some of those things feeling during that and how do you help them get through that? 

Connie: [00:06:17] one of the things that I w we all do this, not just me, but one of the things I always tell every single client when I first meet with them, is that implementing EOS is a journey. And there's never going to be a day where you suddenly wake up and go, ah, We're running we're to ask you to do a lot of things that may sound really silly that a client may look that going, why does she want us to do this?

But it's that repetitiveness. And you get to a point where you clearly understand that we're running our company on EOS. and so when it comes to, the tool for measuring. Getting strong. The data component is all the scorecard and what we've been taught in [00:07:00] business, all our lives is to measure lagging numbers.

And you look at the end of the month, did we hit our sales fall? Did we have a profit, or whatever your measurables are. Okay. The problem with that is it's now the end of the month and what ca...

Where to find Dave:
- Linkedin
-His Website

Transcription below:
[00:00:00] Dave: [00:00:00] it's developing yourself and. And the idea that we can't grow, we can't expect others to grow. We can't expect our team to grow if we don't grow.  

Keerstyn: [00:00:36] welcome to the podcast  Dave, we are so excited to have you here. Do you want me to just give us a brief, background of how you got involved in your work and then what you do now?

Dave: [00:00:43] Sure. Yeah. so yeah. Thank you for having me. I, I've been in leadership roles for all of my adult life and, and it was probably about 10 years ago or so, where I really started turning a corner and getting more intentional about how to. Lead others [00:01:00] organizations and bring resources to them and got connected to John Maxwell and his leadership group and his team.

and, And so it just, it evolved from there to be able to really go to the next level of helping individuals and teams and organizations to find the success and the results that they're looking for and what I've found and what I've come to believe as you and I were talking before it re it really, my focus really is on the people side of things, of developing people, our greatest appreciable asset.

It doesn't matter what you sell. It doesn't matter what your organization's all about. Doesn't matter where you're located. It doesn't matter how many people you have. The one common denominator is that people are our greatest appreciable asset. And so I have found that to be the sweet spot of my leadership focus is to help individuals and teams and organizations to develop their people.

[00:02:00] Yeah, 

Keerstyn: [00:02:01] absolutely. So you said about 10 years ago, you became a little more intentional about your leadership. What were some of those things that really struck you when you started to be intentional? 

Dave: [00:02:13] Yeah. I, what I found was. a lot of people, I just stumbled into it. Like I said, I've always, you've been involved in leadership in some way, shape or form, but I really got involved with a lot of local businesses through chamber of commerce and what I was finding, it was just this common need that people had to learn and to grow about themselves.

And so I was really looking for. It just seemed that the door was just really opening up to be able to help people in that realm. My focus is, as I said, is not really on strategy. Like I, I'm not really like a business strategist. I'm not great at helping somebody along those lines, as much as it just comes down to the people thing.

I've spent my whole life developing and [00:03:00] working with people. And so that's really where the doors seemed to open up. Yeah. 

Keerstyn: [00:03:05] So what are some of those things that you do to help people get on the road to development? I'm sure at the very beginning, what does that look like? 

Dave: [00:03:14] when I, when people ask what I do, in the simplest terms, in three words, it's I speak a train and I coach I'm a speaker trainer and coach.

and so the. the model that I typically use in whatever venue that is or whatever, that, whatever the, the framework of where that speaking training or coaching may develop is I've always used like the baseball diamond analogy, which I really like is the idea like you start off first base is developing the leader within you.

it's developing yourself and. And the idea that we can't grow, we can't expect others to grow. We can't expect our team to grow if we don't grow. So it all begins with ourselves. It's discovery. we do a lot of [00:04:00] stuff with discs, personality profiles to help you figure out what are, where are your strengths?

How are you wired? And then w move that to second base, which is about developing your team. If you can develop yourself, I think you'll be better equipped to develop your team. And so the focus there is how do you take the vision that you have as a leader, as a business, to grow it from me to we, where more people they get it and they understand, and they want to.

They want to go where you're going and that's the team side of things. and when you can develop yourself and you can develop your team, then organizations and companies are really just a collection of teams. It's a team of teams. And so that's the third base is then helping organizations on a wider macro level to develop themselves that way.

and then what I say, th then the home run, of course, Baseball diamond isn't complete without home base. So the home run for [00:05:00] me and my perspective is to help individuals and teams and even organizations and even communities to move beyond success, to significance. And I think to me, that's what home run is when you are then using your gifts and your talents and your abilities and your experiences.

To make a difference beyond yourself. It's not, it goes beyond just making a dollar and it's about making a difference. And, and I think that's something that is, that I have found is just a common thread that I think is just inherently wired in all of us that we all have that want that desire somewhere deep, that we want to make a difference.

It's that legacy talk what's gonna. Outlast me after I'm gone. what difference have I really made? what imprint have I really made on the world? And, that's the, you asked, what's the, where do you start? yeah, that's where you start. I think that's the trajectory around those 

Keerstyn: [00:05:57] bases.

Yeah. Yeah, [00:06:00] absolutely. So you mentioned disk in there and I would assume that every part of that uses disc in some way. 

Dave: [00:06:07] Yeah, of course. Yeah. 

Keerstyn: [00:06:09] Do you want to explain this a little more for our listeners? 

Dave: [00:06:13] So yeah, just goes into the, basically it summarizes, everybody puts you into a predominant. We all have.

Different dope elements of our personality, that, how we react to things, how we make decisions, how we respond to pressure, how we deal with other people. And. And so the four parts of that personality go are important for us to understand, what am I a domineering kind of person?

And am I an inspiring kind of person? Am I a little bit more of a steady, I just kinda to keep things happy and moving along. Am I more of a compliant person where I. I like things to be done. And the focus is there. and the truth of the matter is that we are all a combination of all of those, but you [00:07:00] most likely have one or two that are the dominant side.

So it's important for us to understand that about ourselves. So that does come into play in. In base and first base is figuring out, how am I wired? you have to know how you are wired. You have to know yourself. If you want to grow yourself, if you want to grow other people all around you.

And so then the definitely then that moves toward the second base is not just how here's, how I'm wired, but now I've got to find out how are the people around me wired. And that becomes critical when it comes to. One of the number one problems that teams deal with is communi...

Where to find Joel?
Linkedin
His Website

Full Transcription below (may contain typo's...):
[00:00:00] Joel: [00:00:00] And so I kept going and there was a big trail sign that I came up on the back of and stole anybody parking lot with a trail sign. And I came to the other side of the sign and looked at it and the sign said, and a fuller Ridge. and at that point, when I saw that sign, I realized I'd gone all the way across for Ridge without even realizing it because I was expecting something so much scarier than actually was real.

And I, I remember dropping my pack and kicking a pine cone. I was pretty frustrated with myself and frustrated with the situation, but the, that whole idea of going to gemba and going to see for yourself, Played out a lot throughout that hike. 

Keerstyn: [00:00:46] welcome to the podcast, Joel. I'm really excited that you're here today. Can you just give us a brief intro and bio of who you are, what you do and how you got involved in your work? 

Joel: [00:00:55] Sure. My name is Joel Swanson and I am in Minneapolis.

[00:01:00] I am married, I've got three kids and I am a certified EOS implementer of doing I've been doing that for about six years and I got into it originally. when a client asked me to implement for them and I didn't know anything about EOS at the time. And so I did some learning and. Did an implementation and it didn't go very well, honestly, but I was really impressed with the system.

And so I decided that was the direction I wanted to go with my career. So I've been consulting for, and working with running small, mid sized businesses for my whole career and, with EOS. That's what I do now. And I love it. Awesome. 

Keerstyn: [00:01:40] That's really interesting that a client came to you just randomly and asked you to do that, regardless of if you knew.

I didn't think about it. I'm sure that you had an implementer type personality and that just really helped, boost their ideas of you and, felt comfortable doing that. That's really fast. 

Joel: [00:01:55] It was fun. And it was a compliment. Certainly they've 

Keerstyn: [00:01:59] been 

Joel: [00:01:59] a client for [00:02:00] about 10 years and a few different derivations.

So it was a pretty natural extension for me to do that. 

Keerstyn: [00:02:06] Awesome. That's really sweet. I love that.  So for listeners, obviously we, me and Joel had a conversation prior to this and we basically are going to be talking about a fight that he did from Mexico to Canada.

That was five months long. And basically how, he now incorporates leadership concepts with his stories from that. so Joel, do you want to just give us a brief. Background and, the why of why you wanted to do this. What made you do this? And then some of the things that have come out of it, because of that.

Joel: [00:02:35] Sure. So the, I hiked a trail called the Pacific crest trail in 2009, and this is a literal hiking trail that goes all the way from the Mexican border to the Canadian border, through Oregon, California, Oregon, and Washington. And. I had been an outdoors person my whole life, but I'd never done it. A lot of backpacking.

And then I [00:03:00] was probably 23 and somebody, I just heard of it and I went okay. And Googled it. And my eyes got really big and I'd heard of the Appalachian trail, which is another long distance hiking trail. The Appalachian trail is some long trail that's out East, somewhere. when I saw that the PCT went all the way from Mexico to Canada, that was something that really captured me.

And so I started looking into it and, had never done backpacking a lot of other outdoor things and camping and stuff, but I've never actually done backpacking. And so I started doing that and learning about that. And, probably seven years later, I guess it would have been, I. I quit my job and went and did that height.

And it took five months from Mexico to Canada. And whenever anybody hears about this, they always ask her a couple questions. And I'll just answer those quick, because these are the ones that you're. 

Keerstyn: [00:03:57] Thank 

Joel: [00:03:57] you. Yeah. So one, did I carry a [00:04:00] gun? No, guns are heavy. I was, I ever like I did. I said any wild animals.

Yes. but not in a dangerous sense. It wasn't like I got. I scared off grizzly bears or something like that. animals tend to want to stay away from you if you're in the wilderness rather than come to you. Did I go alone? Whether it's the next question everybody asks and the answer is sorta, I started, my dad actually was kinda my backpacking partner and he started with me.

And so we did the first two weeks together, and then he had a, I think it's called a job that he had to go back to. Yeah. And then beyond that, there was a couple of places where there was some things that were legitimately dangerous. And so there's a couple of guys and I, that said, we're going to stick together for this one or two week section.

But after that, other than that, no, I didn't explicitly stay with anybody. 

Keerstyn: [00:04:58] That's awesome. Thanks for [00:05:00] answering those because I probably would have asked about those. Absolutely. So what were some of those things that kind of resonated with you after the fact, when you think about leadership and this hike, obviously I'm sure it was the hardest thing.

You've. All I've ever done probably, or one of the hardest things that you've ever done. So what are some of those things that you first think of when you think of leadership, but also this hike and some comparisons between the 

Joel: [00:05:26] two? pretty much everything I learned comes from a story that makes me look bad.

so we'll just throw that out right out there. So the thing that amazed me even very early on in that journey was that so much of. The things I was experiencing and learning had direct ties back to business. And for me, I've learned a lot of things in business and most of them have common.

I won't say most I've learned a lot of things in business and many of them have come from my experience in business, [00:06:00] but some of the most important ones haven't come through actually being in business it's came through the experiences that I had hiking that I've really transformed. Who I am as a person.

So there's a few that I like to share, especially the first is really about a concept called goat, gemba and gemba. for those of you who may not know is a Japanese word, that means like a place where the value is created and it's part of lean manufacturing and the Toyota practical problem solving system.

The idea of saying, we're not going to solve this problem by sitting in a conference room, we're going to solve this problem by going and actually looking and seeing what's happening out there. And so go to wherever things manufactured, sit next to the rep who's on the ph...

Where can you find Mike?
Linkedin
His website

Full Transcription below (May contain typo's...):

[00:00:00] Mike: [00:00:00] There was, everything was urgent and important all the time or at least that's what it felt like.

 We had about seven family members involved, at the time through various points of that journey. So I had three, I had my father three uncles. I had my cousin, my brother, and then ultimately I didn't feel like that was enough. So we hired my wife, in the latter parts of it as if it wasn't complicated enough at that point.

And so there was a lot of blend in mixing of. you have ownership, you have leadership, you have employee, then you have family member. Like all those dynamics were just intermixed. And so you never knew where you were coming from and who you were talking to in the way, it was all intermixed.

And so that created a lot of confusion. In hindsight, when I look back at it, because there were certain assumptions that in our family business, Hey, your family, you're dedicated. You're [00:01:00] gonna, you're gonna be here all hours, day and night. And you're gonna make sure you're opening and closing.

there was like these assumptions that would go on among all of us. And then if certain family members didn't do that, it was like looked down upon, There was no intention of that, of that happening to look down upon it. But that's a feeling like an underlying current that was there.

Keerstyn: [00:01:48] welcome to the podcast, Mike. Kotsis. I am really excited to talk to you today about EOS and entrepreneurship and how you help your people grow. Can you just give us a brief background [00:02:00] of how you got involved in your work and then what you do now? 

Mike: [00:02:03] Sure absolutely first, thanks for having me here today.

Excited to be on the podcast and to connect with you and to share the message with, with others. Yeah, so a little bit of, background, for me, I won't go all the way back, but just before becoming an EOS implementer, I was running my family's business, Atlas wholesale food company in Detroit.

So ran it for seven years. my grandfather started, the company came over from Greece and. we're Greeks and what do you do? You get in the food business? and so we, had service specialty items to a Greek town and. family diners around Metro Detroit. And man, I learned about my family and a whole new way.

being a Greek and ethnic family that, there was a lot of screaming and shouting and, I had come from the corporate world before that, and it was just a culture shock. I was wondering like, what the heck did I get myself into? and, I quickly realized like, Hey, they're just, [00:03:00] everybody's excited.

Whether it's something meaningful or not, we would just get really excited. And I just found myself in this place that, that I just knew, we had to get some agreement of where we were going to take the company and how we were going to do that. I didn't know how we were going to do that or what we were going to do at the time.

It just knew we had to agree. And over time we were able to generate that agreement and be able to develop that plan of where we were going to go. And, made some key people changes around the team. And at that time I wish I knew about EOS. I didn't, but it would have helped us to do everything.

We went through so much faster and simpler than the way we did it on our own. But ultimately we grew the company during the last downturn in our economy. Seven two Oh nine timeframe. And, the best part about it was is that we had a team of accountable people in place. We were profitable, we were growing and, just realized at that time that everybody else is going through that same type of thing, whether [00:04:00] you're a family business or not.

And I just felt this calling within me to help others. And I. I didn't know how I was going to do it at the time or what I was going to do. I just started doing it through a Walsh college at the time, had peer groups for family business owners in Southeast Michigan. So this is in the Troy area and I started helping some other, friends and colleagues of mine to navigate through some of the challenges, similar to what I had gone through.

And that's when I had discovered EOS. And I, I realized that was the vehicle that, that I could use to help do instead of sitting down, talking about what we might do, which I felt like we were spending too much time doing, rather than actually doing it. UOS was a framework that, eliminated all that.

what are you going to do? How are you going to do it to actually just doing it and being with the team and helping the facilitate their vision and plan. And so this was a little over nine years ago that I, ultimately made the plunge and became an [00:05:00] EOS implementer and started my own business.

Yeah. 

Keerstyn: [00:05:03] That's a fascinating background, especially with the family business and the downturn of. The recession basically. And then how you guys got out of that and on a more positive note too, that's very impressive. And, definitely impactful. I'm sure. I think I, you definitely, I'm sure I have a million stories about, how you guys got through that and why EOS would have been a positive.

they that in for sure. For sure. What was some of those things that you struggled with your family business and specifically, was it like one or two things that you could, just talk about and maybe how you guys went through it and then how it would be applicable now with EOS? 

Mike: [00:05:43] Yeah, sure. There was, everything was urgent and important all the time or at least that's what it felt like.

 We had about seven family members involved, at the time through various points of that journey. So I had three, I had my father three uncles. I had my [00:06:00] cousin, my brother, and then ultimately I didn't feel like that was enough. So we hired my wife, in the latter parts of it as if it wasn't complicated enough at that point.

And so there was a lot of blend in mixing of. you have ownership, you have leadership, you have employee, then you have family member. Like all those dynamics were just intermixed. And so you never knew where you were coming from and who you were talking to in the way, it was all intermixed.

And so that created a lot of confusion. In hindsight, when I look back at it, because there were certain assumptions that in our family business, Hey, your family, you're dedicated. You're gonna, you're gonna be here all hours, day and night. And you're gonna make sure you're opening and closing.

there was like these assumptions that would go on among all of us. And then if certain family members didn't do that, it was like looked down upon, There was no intention of [00:07:00] that, of that happening to look down upon it. But that's a feeling like an underlying current that was there.

And so that made it more challenging. And, just a funny story, just to give you the example of the types of issues that we dealt with. Like we, in an old building on the East side of Detroit, near the city airport and. There, this building was right off of the freeway. It still is still there.

And my cousins runni...

You can find Justin on:
Linkedin
His website
His phone number: (574) 596-6957
His email: justin@justinmaust.com

Transcription below (May contain typos):

[00:00:00] Justin: [00:00:00] You have to own the personal disciplines. Of your personal life daily. if I'm not taking care of my personal self daily, then I can't possibly take care of my team. I'm going to be a little disheveled. I'm going to be a little disorganized. And so own it daily kind of encompasses, clarifying the win, executing the win, celebrating and evaluating your performance and your people and your numbers.

it's refusing to be offended. It's using the simple, direct, respectful communication. It's removing issues daily. All of the own it daily comes into one line called success, loves discipline. [00:01:00] 

Keerstyn: [00:01:10] Welcome to the podcast, Justin. I am really excited that you're here today. Do you want to just give us a brief intro of how you got involved in your work and then what you do now for your clients?

Justin: [00:01:20] Yeah. So I was, I've always been like a, an athlete and kind of, as I got out of college, I played a little college basketball, so I've always been a coach personality and just had, I think entrepreneurship in my genes. Cause when I was 23, I'm a, I retired early from college and so I went into Edward Jones.

They offered me an opportunity to pick it office anywhere in the country. And I kinda cut my teeth on really. Building relationships with high performing individuals that had a lot of wealth. And I just had a blast building relationships, but I'd rather have a case of gout than actually do portfolio reviews.

[00:02:00] And After I left Edward Jones, they had offered me a limited partnership. I went into my brother and I started a character and leadership youth mentoring program. And it just exploded. We went from, I think, five volunteers to, 300 coaches is going into public schools impacting. 3000 students a week and we were teaching five core values.

So I was the business guy of that nonprofit. My brother was the curriculum and the coach, the head coach leading the students and the coaches. And that's when I just realized, man, I had a passion to build team and about seven years in to launching that nonprofit called five star life. I just knew I had to get back into the marketplace.

And so I started my own leadership training company in 2012 called entree legacy group. So that's how I got here and what I do on a daily basis. I, any given day, I'm working with, 20 to 30 different. leadership teams and I'm helping them [00:03:00] implement, the entrepreneurial operating system.

I've been doing a lot of keynote speaking. I'm just passionate about teams and I'm passionate about growing 

Keerstyn: [00:03:07] things. Awesome. Yeah, that's a great background. That's really cool that you started that nonprofit and really found a passion for coaching people and helping. People and organizations grow.

Absolutely. Awesome. So yeah, one of the things that Justin does, that's really unique, he is he has the six practices for successful leaders. Do you want a quick run through what all seven are? and then we can dive deeper into them. 

Justin: [00:03:32] Yeah, so real quick, these seven practices of great leaders, it of came from I'm up.

I'm a really simple guy, Kiersten. And so for me to grab a hold of something, it had to be simple and it had to be repeatable and had to be actionable. so for me, the first three practices are what I would call. blocking and tackling, like it's just foundational practices, every single team and [00:04:00] every single individual needs to apply to their life or their business.

So the first one is clarify the win. Whatever you're doing, you have to clarify it. What do you want? And obviously when I'm working with EOS, we have the vision traction organizer, and there's really eight questions you have to answer. But at the end of the day, you got to clarify the win. What do you want?

And once you know what you want, the second practice is you have to execute, right? And the, when so many people are too busy doing. A hundred different things and they're going like quarter inch deep and they're not executing in the vein, in the activity. That's actually going to get them a result they're just busy and they don't know how to separate effective, active work from the, from the minutia.

And so executing that is huge. The third practices celebrate an event, how you weight the win. So how many teams are starving for. Their boss to recognize [00:05:00] them or their, the department had to recognize their performance. So you've got to celebrate those victories on the same side. On the other side, the coin though, celebrating and evaluating are two sides of that same coin.

If you're a leader that does not know how to evaluate or you don't like confrontation, or you're not willing to put the real numbers in front of people, you can't evaluate failure. And so for me, winning or losing, I want to be evaluating performance. So those are the first three practices. And the last, I think the last four, what I would call.

The emotional IQ practices or the momentum building practices. And this is where, you might have great goals, have great disciplines. Maybe you know how to look at the numbers and face reality, but you suck at dealing with people. And so these four 

Keerstyn: [00:05:52] practices 

Justin: [00:05:54] are what I call, the first, the fourth practices, USD, our communication uses.

[00:06:00] Simple direct, respectful communication. And then if you're willing to be super direct and very respectful, then you need to also practice five is refuse to be offended. So many cultures are toxic because people get offended in a wedge. It gets built or a brick wall gets built between you and them. And now you're dead to me and I'm not willing to run through a brick wall all for you because you've offended me and I have not gotten.

No for that offense and offense over time erodes the relationship and it creates apathy, bitterness, and people don't understand that offense is a toxic killer. It's the beginning of a toxic culture. The sixth practice is pretty simple. Remove the ripple, every company, every person we have issues, whether they're personal relational issues or whether [00:07:00] they're performance issues or whether they're process issues, but companies are ripe with issues.

Cause we're a bunch of people working together, And the best teams solve issues. And then lastly, Probably my favorite practice is just recognizing you have to own it daily. The turtle wins the race, the, in that little book, the childhood book, 

Keerstyn: [00:07:24] a 

Justin: [00:07:25] rabbit, because it's this methodical disciplined.

Daily grinding. You've just got to own it daily. And so I've made my line is success, love, discipline. And if you don't love discipline, you will never find the success that you really want. So that kind of wrapped up these seven practices of great leaders. 

Keerstyn: [00:07:51] Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad that you wal...

Find Sherry and Marcia on:
LinkedIn; Sherry and Marcia
Their Website

Transcription below (May contain typo's....):
Marcia: [00:00:00] I was just thinking about like the one on one coaching.

We do. We often hear that, one of the things that we do on those calls is we challenge their thinking. I think they appreciate getting a different perspective. Sometimes it's nice to have a perspective of somebody that's not involved in the necessary the day to day you're on the team.

But for a leader to be able to say, here's, what's going on and I don't know what I'm missing, help me understand what the other person may be thinking or why they would have done that. And, so Sherry and I like to just challenge their challenge or their thinking as we go.

And, They usually, solve their own problems at that point. 

Keerstyn: [00:00:36] welcome to the podcast, Sherry and Marcia. I am really excited to have you both here today to talk a little bit more about what you do, how you help your clients and how you continue to change the workforce.

Sherry: [00:00:46] Absolutely. thanks for having us first off. 

Keerstyn: [00:00:48] Yeah, for sure. 

Sherry: [00:00:51] So a little background on us, Marsha and I, met in 2001, we were both coming from different organizations and landed on the same sales team.

[00:01:00] We became fast friends and, Truly we're dubbed this dynamic duo, which we didn't really understand at the time we thought it was because we get results and, we move forward and do things well, within our territories. But what we found later in life is really, we have a lot of the same.

Strengths, but we certainly have some gaps. So my opportunities or areas that I need to improve on, Marsha's very strong in. So we just work well together because of that. and it's great to have that, the person next to you, then fast forward we worked at. Sales for 10 years together. And then I worked in business development in a different organizations and, then came back to work together in a startup company, honey, that truly helped us launch our own business lead to inspire, because we're able to sit down across the table and build out training for.

Individuals young leaders were coming to us asking questions. and I think we both vividly remember sitting in a conference [00:02:00] room one day and the light bulb went off for us. It was a successful training on how to have difficult conversations with a lot of young leaders and the room was packed and there was great conversation.

And when they all left the room Marsh and I looked at each other and we went, this was amazing. What if we did this every day? and so that was really the launch to lead to inspire four years ago. 

Keerstyn: [00:02:22] Awesome. That's sweet. I love how you guys do been in each other's lives for 10 years. You just connected off and on until this all happened and congrats on your four years too.

That's very exciting. Yeah, absolutely. So we actually have set up a four part podcast because we're celebrating you guys as four years of being in business. So the first thing that we're going to talk about is being intentional and being present. Do you want to just dive into that and, I guess give us the big picture and then we can dive in a little deeper.

Marcia: [00:02:56] Yeah. So I would say Sherry and I always have believed [00:03:00] that, we, and we've said this to each other, like work smarter, not harder, and really believe that we were pretty intentional with the way that we worked and. I think we really have found it when you start a business and there's two of you and you're responsible for all of it, although you're not great at all of it.

You've really got to get intentional about how you spend your time, the projects that you work on. the be present part for us was really important too, because, prior to starting our own business, we were, had always worked in the corporate world and. other people really drove our projects are, the things that we were working on.

And, you get to a point sometimes where you're like, I don't know if that's exactly how I want to spend every day and am I making the impact in the world that I want to? And so this be intentional, be present has been a mantra for us. it goes way beyond just, working smarter, not harder, but it's, really being intentional in all that we 

Keerstyn: [00:03:56] do.

Yeah, 

Sherry: [00:03:58] absolutely. That it's okay to say [00:04:00] no. I think that was a big issue for me, because we all want to be all things to all people. And so I'll just say yes to everything. And then at the end of the day, you dread having to go to that committee meeting or whatever it is. And I think when we gave ourselves the opportunity to say no to the things that we aren't passionate about, because there are 10 other people go out there who would probably love to be on that committee who really have a passion for it, let them serve their passion and focus it.

it's hard to say no the first time, but then when you realize how freeing it is, and that works in leadership every day, there's some things you can't say no to, but there are other things that truly you can, and it makes a big 

Keerstyn: [00:04:38] difference. Yeah. What are the biggest hurdles for your clients when they start.

Saying no, essentially. And being intentional about what their projects are, their passions are. what is the hardest hurdle that they get over? And then what are some of the outcomes that really, are positives after the fact, once they learn how to do it, 

Marcia: [00:04:58] I'd say it's a big [00:05:00] mindset shift to, to like Sherry said, give yourself permission to say no, and to really step back and evaluate.

the things that are, yeah, I know are being asked to be with it is to sit on a board or a committee or to take on a project if it's, it doesn't really align with who you are, your goals, your focus, then it is okay to say no, but I think to Sherry's point it. Until you give yourself that permission and until you really start to exercise at it, it's a mindset shift to believe that it's okay to say no.

And to really be intentional about the things that you're saying yes to. And, when you do that, you, everything that you're saying yes to has a lot more, you just get so much more out of it. 

Keerstyn: [00:05:43] Yeah. Absolutely. That's really important in my opinion. And it's hard to say no initially, and I've even found that, but, it's also really rewarding in the end and a positive transition for sure.

I'm personally, 

Marcia: [00:05:59] it's a [00:06:00] behavioral shift, right in anytime that we're trying to create a new habit or, change a behavior. There's work involved with it. So I think it is that, shifting of mindset and really practicing some of the, ways to be able to say no effectively. 

Keerstyn: [00:06:15] Yeah, absolutely.

And I, the thing that I think about too is it's figuring out what you're intentional about as well. So you c...

Find Robin on:
Linkedin
Her website

Full transcription below:

[00:00:00] Robin: [00:00:00] But if I'm not feeling like myself, I'm just not really on my game and feeling like my whole normal stuff. I'll take a look at my list of joys. And I'll see, gosh, I haven't moved in a week. I'm sitting at my desk eight hours a day, 12 hours a day and not doing anything. Of course, this is why I feel like this.

Keerstyn: [00:00:36] welcome to the podcast, Robin. I really excited that you're here today to talk a little bit more about what you do. Can you just give us a brief intro of how you got involved in your work and what you do now for your clients?

Robin: [00:00:49] Hi Kiersten. It's so much fun to be here. brief intro basically 

Keerstyn: [00:00:53] goes like 

Robin: [00:00:53] this. I'm one of those people who would just can't quite fit you're out what I want to be when I grow up. And no, I have changed [00:01:00] careers many times and totally loved each of my callings. And. I got to a point where I realized I've been coaching all along unofficially and several people pointed that out and said, you really ought to check this out.

And finally, the time came when I thought, okay, maybe I should listen to these folks. And I'm so glad that I did, because it really was, allows me to just do what was natural, but in a more constructive way, and just really reach people wherever they are and help them, figure out. What do they want?

let's just slow down a little bit and dream and let's throw some fun into the mix. I feel know the world is just a really demanding, really difficult place and we don't slow down often enough just to dream and have fun and play. So my focus is really joy and helping people live more joyfully while they're doing all this great stuff that they want to do.

Keerstyn: [00:01:55] Yeah, absolutely. What are some of those. Problems that your [00:02:00] clients come to you with that they, obviously they might be overworked or they might not be enjoying their career anymore, but what are some of those bigger issues they, end up having that you help them 

Robin: [00:02:11] navigate through? Yeah. you definitely named some big ones.

I work with a lot of people who are very driven. these are people who are all about accomplishing things and doing wonderful things that contribute to the wellbeing of so many others. But what is the common denominator with my clients as they pour into everyone else and do it.

Gladly, willingly, but they don't pour into themselves. they just really, they have a very active to do list and they are never on it, or if they are on their own to do list or at the very bottom. And so often they're, they're ignoring the fact that they have needs too. And that it's, it's their responsibility to meet their needs.

Also just feels good to meet their needs there. So about everybody else. [00:03:00] So a lot of people are burned out. a lot of people really are disconnected with the people that matter the most to them because they are so driven. I have a lot of parents in my network who are very involved in their kids' lives.

they're committed to doing all these things for their kids, but they don't even know them. Because they're so busy serving them. They don't slow down to connect with them. So that's a really common denominator. Yeah. Yeah. 

Keerstyn: [00:03:27] It sounds a lot like even a manager to employee relationship in terms 

Robin: [00:03:31] of 

Keerstyn: [00:03:32] you, you're serving them and you're helping them grow, but then the relationship aspect is just missing.

So that. that often makes so many issues down the road and, bigger problems than what we have believed for sure. 

Robin: [00:03:47] You're still like Kiersten. And think, employers, they do the best that they can, they go to school and they, they implement all these fantastic strategies and those are all well and good.

But what you said, I think really hits the nail on the head. [00:04:00] We want to be known. We want to be in relationship and, we want to feel like our contributions matter and that people get who we are and. I don't think that a lot of managers really appreciate the beauty and just knowing the people on their team on a personal level.

you don't have to hang out with them and yeah. Do life every day after work, but just to know what matters. So the people on your team and who are they as individuals outside of what they're contributing to your organization, those folks who feel known and who feel valued and who feel a sense of joy and happiness at work.

Those are the people who are going to stick with you for the long run. Those are the people who are not going to turn over or call in sick. Those are the people who are going to be productive and really excited to contribute. There's a lot of good. And knowing your team. Yeah, 

Keerstyn: [00:04:52] absolutely. What are some of those, Things that you help people get through.

So obviously they come to you with they're burnt out. They're [00:05:00] not investing in themselves. They're not building relationships with their people. What are some of the strategies that you walk them through in terms of getting back to those relationships and investing in yourself and having emotions are, deeper within 

Robin: [00:05:18] kind of thing.

it's such a good question. I think it really has to start with, does this person even understand what joy is? are we confusing, happiness and joy? Which so often is the case. they both make us feel so great. But happiness tends to be very short term and it goes away when the circumstances change.

And what I want to do is cultivate a sense of joy that is lasting, that can withstand whatever garbage life is going to bring, because it's going to happen, right? If you want perfection, you're going to have to wait until later we, this is a broken world and we need to know how to be resilient within this world that we live in.

And I really want my clients from the very beginning to know. What [00:06:00] joy is. And then what brings them joy on a personal level. Cool. And then this is so fascinating because everyone I talked to has such a different list, such a different bunch of answers, and I love the mystery of it. And.

Sometimes, my clients have no idea. They come to me, they are so committed to everybody else. And if I ask them what brings you joy, they cannot answer the question. And so that's what I'm there for, to really help coach them into a place of it's okay. To dream a little. and it's okay to think about yourself sometimes for the very first time, they tend to show up with guilt and it's so interesting because.

No guilt is the emotion that goes hand and hand with wrong. Doing. And there is nothing wrong with slowing things down and meeting your needs. There's nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to feel guilty about. So we do a lot of work around that, and then we really take a look at the different are...

Find Jim on:
His Website!

Transcription below (typos may occur...)
Jim: [00:00:00] [00:00:00] When I was 30 years old, there was a manager that we always said, he really thinks about what have you done lately? Cause it's almost like what you did 10 years ago really didn't matter, but what have you done lately? And the joke became he's actually, he's so forward focused.

It's he doesn't even care what you've done lately. What are you doing tomorrow? And that's the world we're living in. What are you doing tomorrow? What are you doing tomorrow? And What I believe is very effective is take a few minutes and look back before you go forward. Keerstyn: [00:00:58] 

welcome to the podcast, Jim. I am really [00:01:00] excited that you're here today to talk a little bit about what you do and who you are and how you help people in the past and the present. do you want to just give us a brief, intro of who you are, what you do and then what your mission 

Jim: [00:01:10] is?

Yes. Thank you. what I do today is I'd love to develop those who influence others. How I got here has been a long journey. I came out of college. First job was selling insurance right away. And so I was using what I like to call the people's skills right away. Being able to connect with, Prospects clients and be able to help them meet their goals and objectives.

And over the last 40 years, my business has evolved, but it's always been the same. It's been connecting with people and helping them get what they want. And so what I do today, the last 21 years, I've been introduced as a business coach and primarily working with. small, medium sized businesses that believe that they can get better.

And many [00:02:00] of my clients are looking for how do I transition the business to the people who have helped me build this business? So I get introduced, via succession planning, helping people be able to transition their business to others. 

Keerstyn: [00:02:15] Yeah, absolutely. That's really interesting, especially because that transition is oftentimes the younger people, those middle managers that are now meeting the rise up into the executive roles or those type of seats as C-suites spots, what are, what's some advice that you would give those people when they're in that transition phase?

Jim: [00:02:37] it's interesting, there's, when you take a look at the generations and then who is rising up to be leaders, first of all, I look at people in three different ways and they can be all three, but, there's leadership, leading people, there's managing a lot of people are introduced as managers and what they do is they manage processes and.

[00:03:00] Procedures and goals, but really at the end of the day, if you're a good manager, you're also a good leader. You're influencing others and encouraging them to grow, take on more. And then there are top performers. There are people, that are just really good at what they do. And you want to put them in that playground where they're able to do what they do, not necessarily managing other people, but what's interesting is.

Everybody in a small, medium sized business is leading. you show up with a, an attitude every day. You show up with positive or negative emotion, and we all lead by example, people pay attention. And so I just really like to approach it as everybody is in leadership. It's what kind of leadership are you providing?

but the managers, what's very interesting in my practice today and I've shared this with other business coaches, I'm in a network with some other people and I'm [00:04:00] calling it the missing generation because 2008, 2009, a lot of people who would be in those. Upper management positions, went to bigger companies and that's what the security was.

And I'm calling it the missing generation because it's like the upper fifties are transitioning to the 30, 35 year old, sometimes 38. And there's a missing generation, which is a great opportunity for a lot of young people and to work on their skills and leadership abilities. And, there's another generation coming up and I've talked to other people about is a lot of people in their twenties and early thirties that are actually providing, I like to call it leadership from within they're impacting and influencing the company just by their, what if we did this?

Have we ever thought about this? Just the passion that they have as [00:05:00] they approach their work. And so there are a lot of talented young people, when I'm coaching, the business owners are saying, are you paying attention to this person? 

Keerstyn: [00:05:09] Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. What is missing in those? I guess you call it the missing generation.

Is there something that's missing that, we could see in this younger generation that we could help them coach them to, 

Jim: [00:05:23] to stair-step real quick and jump over a couple of steps. Yeah. again, I have a practice, I'm not. Coach and a bunch of other coaches, I have a practice, but in my practice, there are a lot of people that have ended up in that. They're now 55 where they're now 50 years old and they were in their prime getting ready to step up.

And then 2008, 2009 came along. And what I'm saying is that there are a lot of people that are staying safe. In those roles, we've always done it this way. No, we tried that back 10 years ago. [00:06:00] there's a little bit of, what I like to call a fixed mindset. There's a book called mindset by Carol Dweck, which is a.

Awesome book for anybody to read. and it talks about the difference between growth and fixed mindsets. And there honestly, there are a lot of people that have that fixed mindset who have found themselves into management roles and they're being safe today. The world is changing fast and there are a lot of creative people, innovative people that your business is competing with.

and so I really try to encourage my clients that are in leadership and management roles to bring that out, get that innovation out, let them know that, it's OK to, strategically go into a new idea. the managers now can help them by asking them questions to develop their critical thinking skills, because there's a.

There's a little bit of a paradox. These people have all this talent, but they've grown up with Google. And 10 [00:07:00] years ago, Google is not a search engine. It's an answer engine. And There's a, one of the things in a lot of my projects, the business owners are saying, how help this youth help this talent develop critical thinking skills.

And so just get into that state of wonderment of what if, I wonder if, and, have the courage to keep moving forward, but that's a big part of the managers. You will influence how much of that you get out of people, or you will. stifle that type of creativity. And what's really interesting is if you don't connect with them, if you don't really know the people you're leading.

And if you're just more about what are we going to do today, and here's the process, boom. If there's a low connection, but there's a high challenge in what they're doing. People can get frustrated. And so it, for the people listening, if you just think about these four [00:08:00] quadrants, if you go from low connection to high connection on the horizontal and then the vertical, if you go to low challenge, high challenge, What...

Links to find Sara:

• Her Website!
• Linkedin

Transcription below (some typos might exist..):

[00:00:00] Sara: [00:00:00] any company that runs on EOS, uses it, meaning, we get really clear about what their core values are and the core values in any company that runs on EOS. Are all about what makes you a unique place to work. And it's when you hire and fire and review and reward and recognize your people according to your core values that builds that culture.

Yeah. My favorite core value that a family business had was that they are seriously silly. That was one of their core values. And it was absolutely true. They were very good at the work they do. And they took it very serious seriously, but they're also completely hilarious goofballs. and that came directly out of the founder of that family business.

There was a third generation or a second generation getting ready to run it. And that came directly out of the personality of the founder of that. And that's one of the things that I think is really amazing when family businesses use EOS is that core values conversation. Isn't some sort of [00:01:00] weird.

Corporate culture, yucky thing it's looking at, who are we? Who have we always been? Who will we always be? And that almost always points back to a founder and the kind of people that dug in to help found that business and the kind of values that person has passed down through generations. That's really fun. Keerstyn: [00:01:56] Welcome to the podcast, Sarah. I am so excited that you're here today.

Do [00:02:00] you want to give us a brief intro of how you got involved in your work and what you do now? 

Sara: [00:02:04] Sure. almost 20 years ago, I became a certified coach, back in the days when I would tell people I was a coach and they'd say, Do you coach tennis? what kind of coach are you? So it was very early on in those days.

The, reason I became a coaches because I wanted to have a huge, positive impact in the world. And once upon a time thought that way being a doctor or a teacher or something, and then realized working with business owners is the way that made the most sense for me, that over time turned into doing some work with coaching at target.

With leaders there and their headquarters, and then led to me working with the owners of family businesses. And from there, I became an EOS implementer and for five years have been doing that. And part of that work includes, teaching them. So back to the, being a teacher, I got to do that a little bit, but also coaching [00:03:00] them and facilitating really tough conversations that they have.

And I'm from that is from some new work I'm doing as well. Helping family businesses really understand the big picture of what it takes to have a strong family business, and bring in the advisors that they need. and that business is called the Sage pages. 

Keerstyn: [00:03:19] So it's cool. I guess one of the first questions I have is what makes a family business EOS implementer a bit different than just a EOS business implementer?

Sara: [00:03:31] I'd say, I probably going to say it's just two things. I really implement EOS purely. I don't do it differently than any other EOS implementer. I guess the two things that make me probably different is one. I just have a big passion for family business. So that's where I spend my time and energy and marketing and the world I know the most about.

And then I might also say I'm probably a little more strict about, some of the tools. Then [00:04:00] maybe another EOS implementer. I think there's people in the world who think, Oh, it's a family business. We can be okay with it. The entire leadership team being family members, whether or not they're actually skilled, to be in that role.

And I'm probably a little bit. Less okay. With that. Maybe I'm guessing because I really take it seriously that the leadership team should be absolutely the right people in the right seat.

but I think I might bring a little bit more strictness or. Or confidence or stories I'm making the argument that really is the right way to do it for your family business, even though it might hurt feelings. 

Keerstyn: [00:04:36] Yeah, absolutely. Do you want to tell one of those stories of why it's important to have different people in different seats instead of just your entire family on the top of the C suite?

Oh my 

Sara: [00:04:48] gosh. Do we have all day? Yeah, I'd love to here's one of them, it was a family business. dad was third generation, two sons, two fourth [00:05:00] generation sons. In the business, working in the business, one fourth generation son had no interest in a fourth generation daughter was not interested either.

the kind of running assumption was that one of those sons would run the business. meaning he would sit in that integrator seat, as we started working on  their org chart, which we call the accountability charts, it just became really obvious that this other key leader in the business who was not a relative, not a member of the family at all, was the person uniquely skilled to take that role. it ended up being a very deep conversation, with that family member.

Actually being really moved and crying in the session being touched that the family would trust him in this case, him, to run that, to run their business, that had their name on the door. And what also came out of, it was a huge sigh of relief for the next generation members. Who'd grown up their whole [00:06:00] lives.

wondering which one would run the business. And wondering if they were really capable or interested in doing it. So it was a really powerful the day we decided that, and that was now almost three years ago, that business is thriving and the family members are thriving in the positions where they ended up being.

And I will say actually only one of the sons stayed in the business. The other one realized it wasn't the right place for him, but they're all now in careers and in jobs that they're thriving in. And the non family member who's sitting in that key role is also thriving. So absolutely the right choice for them.

Keerstyn: [00:06:38] Yeah, absolutely. So what are some of those things that. Get these family members or just these businesses in general from like we're really struggling. We should talk to an EOS implementer. What are some of those pains that they're feeling? And you mentioned a few already, but on average would I buy?

Sara: [00:06:56] Yeah, I would say most of the ones that come to me [00:07:00] are, the owning generation or the generation that's leading it, which might be first or second or third generation. Coming to realize, Oh my goodness, this next generation of my family wants to come in here and we don't know where they fit. Where should they be?

what should their role be? That's almost always a way a family business, comes to me other times. It might be, Oh, we're just not growing anymore. Profits are struggling. Of course, many businesses profits are struggling right now. it might also be that they've become a flavor of the month business where.

The leadership is like, Oh, read this book and then they try something for a little while and then r...

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Brian walks us through what these all look like and how you can use reviews to have a successful team and culture. He also goes into depth about how to measure the success of these reviews, to know that you are not only benefiting yourself but transforming your team with numbers to prove.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Take a look at some resources that Greg mentioned:
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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Take a look at:

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

She discusses the 2 questions she asks leaders struggling to find solid ground, the ways that she helps them through changing their habits and lifestyles, and making sure that ROI is mutually happening!

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Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Check out more at Waypoint.

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Check out more at Waypoint.

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Check out the video version at Waypoint!

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Check out the video version at Waypoint!

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

-Mike started Work Cited right out of college, bringing together his friends to work for him, which started in his parents basement.

-They have learned they have gone through different stages over the course of hiring people

-"Culture and the people that have worked for us have allowed us to bridge gaps that other companies fall into. When you have the right people and you have the right culture, you can push to 125 percent and step over a gap. While you might not have all the systems and processes, you can get over it, and you can figure it out and make it better and faster, more efficient, as you move forward. We had trust.

-"It was right around 10 people, when we started to realize that, okay, we have to start doing something a little bit different. We can't just grow organically. We're going to bring in some new customers through small acquisition and see where that takes us, et cetera, et cetera. So I'd say it was right around 10, when all of a sudden you don't have the trust. All of a sudden now, you've left a company you've work at for however many years. Now you're going to work for Worksighted, and a bunch of young punks, you know? What do they know about what they're doing? We just didn't have the trust, and so that changed the dynamic, definitely, for the first time."

-"I think it's a humbling experience, when you realize that you've lived in this little microcosm. That's all you know, and so you think everything is great. You bring in people from outside, and all of a sudden you realize ... Like when somebody else shows up on the island, it's like, "Maybe I don't know everything." There was just a huge learning experience that happened at that time."

-If you're going to extend trust to these people to be on your team, then you need to take their input. You need to potentially adapt and change and realize you don't know it all. I definitely thought I knew it all. I'm not going to say I haven't fallen into that trap multiple times, and maybe that's just an entrepreneur trait. "I got this."

-We began to realize, as the years went by and we got bigger and bigger, that you need to coach people. You need to develop people. You need to work with people. Kind of to your point, we really had no process and structure around that. You have this, "Well, don't you just know how to do it?" That's the ultimate trap of the entrepreneur, is that you figure things out. You think that everyone else is going to operate that same way, or that they can do it as fast as you can. The growth and development of people through osmosis, that's like stage one in how companies train and develop people. Susie knows how to do that stuff because she worked alongside Sally for X number of years, and they got trained through osmosis. But that's not very process-driven. That's not very scalable.

-In manufacturing environments, I get asked all the time, "What can manufacturers do? I'm in manufacturing, and I'm fighting for quarters per hour to get employees and things like that." I say, "Build a brand. I don't care what you do. Build a brand, a really strong brand for your company that has a really clear message." I always use the phrase "let them wear the T-shirts." Young workers want to work for a brand that aligns, that says something to the world about who they are.

-[Work Cited Values]: I'm most comfortable dressed as a super hero. I'm a unique piece to the puzzle. I'm focused on today, but I dream about tomorrow. And I scoop my dog's poop. These values, they're values, but they're behaviors. They're things that can get me out of bed in the morning. They're the things that all of our employees exhibit, that help us understand whether or not you're a fit. But we just said it in everyday language. If you look at our values, they're followed up by statements that help with here's what we mean by this. Not just be ethical. Okay, that doesn't really filter anyone out of the dataset. But when you say things like you have to be someone who scoops your dog's poop, it's all about self-responsibility, but also responsibility for other piles of junk that you might find that might not be yours, right?

-We expect our managers to spend time with all their direct reports. They need to have one-on-ones, and they need to do it at a cadence that makes sense. Most weekly touchpoints, but at least biweekly. They have to have a cadence. They have to be communicating regularly.

-The younger workforce, they want to be coached. They want that one on one, personal interaction. They want the personal investment, the investment of time, to help them understand what's the vision

-The executive team, we have our scorecards we look at. It's just red, yellow, green. If it's green, we don't talk about it. If it's red or yellow, then we need to look at that. So that's where we start to see, do we have managers who aren't doing one-on-ones, or aren't spending time with employees? That stuff is super, super critical.

-These Managers need a toolbox in order to manager well.

-If you only talk to somebody once a year and they get off the rails, that's kind of stupid. We for a long time did the same thing. They get off the rails. They don't know it, and you need to bring them back. If you're touching base all the time, not only do you know the things they're working on, the things they're struggling with, and where they need help, and what their objectives are, and you know how to support them, but you're able to address things right away and talk about them right away. It equals a lot less problems.

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

-From an early age, Matt always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur. His dad is an entrepreneur. He ran radio stations, then bought a radio station that ended up not working out for him. But Matt always saw this passion around him.

-Received an accounting degree from Hope College

-He started selling product out of a car at Michigan State University. He was hoping to get into Meijer, a midwest  superstore, but was turned down several times.

-That product [bean bags] ended up turning into the number one selling product at Meijer, which is just awesome.

-Everything was working with the business, but they weren't making a lot of money. But they were able to invest everything back into the business and the business was growing. At that time, they saw this competitor  that was opening up stores in malls. So they did it. "Well, we know this industry better. We know the furniture landscape. We know housewares. We know all these things. Why don't we have our own concept?" Up to that point in time, everything is working. Why wouldn't a retail store work? So, they go gangbusters man. Because why would you just start with one when you can open three? So, they opened three stores.

-What ended up eventually happening was that they were focusing all of their time and effort and funds trying to build up these stores, but lost sight of the core. What happened was one day the bank came to Matt's business partner, George Julius and said, "George, we're thinking about calling the loan unless you sign on it." And he's like, "Well, I'm not going to sign on it." We got ourselves into this mess, we'll get ourselves out of it. Luckily, with time, they were able to convince them, "all right, don't shut us down." They know these stores are losing money. They know how to run this core business. So, They shut down the stores and refocused on the core business, so it was the first time they had ever really we lost money.

-They needed to create a vision statement, mission statement, core values, and start identifying these things. And so, they did what most companies do: have a small core group of leadership team at that time and round table it.

-They created a strategy of 140 pages, but what good was that? If you don't open it up after you create it will it really change culture?

-If you were to look at their one page strategic plan from 2012 to 2019, the one common thing there is simplicity. How can they make it simpler so they can communicate to everybody, not only theirselves but the rest of their team.

-Expect the best, screw the rest

-Comfort Research asked: How can someone submit an idea on how they are going to find a better way to do something?  And how do we make sure that we're not the suggestion box company, that we're not just that company with a little wooden box somewhere in the plant with the little slot on top and someone has the guts to come by and just dropped a suggestion in there? Nothing's ever done with it. It's simple: The Fab award. They will support them with time and money and other resources for the employee to make it happen. It's a $2,500 award. You get half up front because you won. The other half comes when you try to implement, and we're not talking about successful implementation, just how are you trying to find a better way. Did you try something? If it failed, fine. You tried!

-They focus on the three core values, every quarter we're able to go through all three of them and award an employee each month who shows this value.

-To be able to celebrate people like that, that warms my heart in a really big way.

-Culture and core values needs to start at the top.

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

-Professor at Calvin University

-PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Akron

-Co-founder and partner of Talent Asset Advisors

-Feedback hasn't changed for a long time. This is really true of a lot of things in management. A lot of what is done today in organizations has been done the same way for 50, 70 even 100 years in some cases. This notion of this annual performance evaluation, performance review, is one of those.

-A big changes that's happened in that is decoupling of the evaluation part, the rating part of performance, and then the feedback part, which is intended to be much more development and future-looking.

- Annual meetings are created to give a numerical rating, but at some point the employee goes into a flight, fight, or freeze mode, and cannot retain any information after that.

- There's some sort of evaluative component that needs to happen, and I'm a pretty big believer about candidness, creating a culture ... If you're going to have trust and have candid conversations that an employee always knows where they stand.

-The estimate right now is about 30% of the Fortune 500 have eliminated their rating process, and that's been over about the last five years that that's happened, so it's a pretty big increase, that's a pretty big trend.

-Rank and yank was the term, and very transparent. I mean, the idea was this candidness, let's you know exactly where you stand, and if you're in the top 20% GE's going to do everything to make your employee experience great, give you the opportunities because we really want to invest in you and we don't want to lose you. The middle 70% would be those employees that are doing their job, they're contributing, they're doing what we're asking them to do to and they're fine as well. And then that bottom 10% would be employees that re not contributing the way they need to the organization, and they'd be give a year notice saying, "You got to get out of that bottom 10% or you're not going to be around next year." It worked for GE for 20 years. GE became extremely successful under that, but what happened is a lot of those managers did great work and they went off. A lot of them became CEOs of other large corporations and they said, "We're going to do things the way we did things back at GE," and tried to impose it on their organizations. And one thing we know about management is best practices is kind of a misnomer. There aren't these things that we can really take from one organization, put it in another organization and expect it to work, because it depends. It depends on the strategy, the culture, the values, all sorts of things. Time and time again this rank and yank system that got implement at dozens of the largest organizations failed, failed miserably. Stirred the pot in terms of people's dissatisfaction with performance evaluation and feedback.

-We've tried for a really long time to train managers to be better feedback providers. There's almost no evidence that it works.

-The feedback sandwich...doesn't work. People are waiting and asking, "What's that critical middle piece that I'm waiting for?" And then again, as soon as they kind of hear it they disconnect and, "I don't really remember what was said at the first, and I didn't even hear what was said at the end, and I don't really know how to improve because I'm just upset about what you said about how poorly i'm doing."

-If we're equipping them to be better feedback seekers and receivers, there's an idea that they're controlling their work life a little bit more, which would create higher levels of autonomy as well.

-Look at the things that a manager does, it's around control, it's around delegation, it's around evaluating and being a judge, when we're saying really what we need them to be is better listeners, understand things and coach more.

-Most organizations think they do have an engaged workforce, and most organizations actually don't have an engaged workforce.

-Employee engagement is a leading indicator of a lot of bad things, of a lot of lagging indicators. Things like reduced revenue, reduced profitability, higher turnover, all lagging indicators. It's already happened. Employee engagement is one of the best leading indicators for us to get on top of it before those bad things happen.

-The only common factors around effective leadership is humility.

-For you to see great increases in the employee experience and employee engagement it's going to have to be trust and psychological safety becomes more and more part of the culture.

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.

Content is summarized from the interview:

-Last 35 or plus years of Denise's career has always involved learning, training, workshop, design, coaching. But at the end of the day, it's always been about learning.

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- Was Chief Learning Officer for a big financial services company. 

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-Six years ago, around the time I was turning 50, she decided that she wanted to create a space for people to learn and to learn how to learn 

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-She works with large teams within organizations. They may start with an executive team and then add layers and layers of people down through the organization, until they are able to achieve some shifts and culture and practices throughout the whole organization. They also work with smaller startup companies and even sometimes some solopreneurs that are part of  public programs. Anyone can show up and and learn in community kind of experiences.

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-It turns out that when a team finds themselves in the kitchen and creating a dish together, working together, whatever they're doing, there isn't really anything that they do back at work as a team that they can't replicate in the kitchen. They solve problems, they make decisions, they collaborate, they help, they support, they challenge, they give feedback. All the things that we do as part of our work can be replicated in an hour and a half, creating a dish together.

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-What Denise is noticing is that for many teams, things that used to work aren't working so well anymore. The world is getting more complex. Work is getting more complex, and teams are struggling. And it isn't necessarily that they're struggling because they're not competent, they're not smart, they're not good at what they do, or they don't like each other. Often, they're struggling because they don't have the tools to keep up with the complexity or the changes that they're facing and how work is getting done.

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-The majority of what people do is actually habit, including our thoughts. And if we think the same way we did yesterday, we're going to act the same way we did yesterday. At Thought Design, they create these really unique experiences to help people kind of zoom back out and go, "Oh." And then the design part is they get to redesign new ways of thinking, new ways of acting, new ways of working. And even understanding their work.

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-One of the things that our brains are paying the most attention to is certainty. And our brains are working every second of every day to assess how much certainty we have about our experience and how much we need. And so for all of us when we don't have the amount of certainty that we need, our brain takes us into a threat state, and it starts executing all this stuff to help take care of ourself and defend ourself. So what we are experiencing is this urgency. "I need a plan, I need more certainty." And when that happens, maybe some of the bad behaviors start to come out, right? So this is where the brain science can kind of be useful because when we know that, we can actually asses a situation and we can actually dampen some of that response by basically saying, "This is a moment in which this is what I'm certain about and this is what I'm not certain about." And ironically, naming the thing you're not certain about gives you some certainty.

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-Psychological safety is knowing that I can bring my voice, I can disagree, I can offer my ideas, I can really be myself. I can take risks, I can fail all of those things in there. I am not going to be hurt; that I can do that, that this is a place where that can be done. We do that for each other. So trust and psychological safety aren't exactly the same thing, but they're all meshed up together. You can't have psychological safety without trust and vice versa.

Managing the Way is sponsored by Waypoint HQ. Waypoint is a breath of fresh air. A solution that enables you to be the manager that people want to work for. It helps you in holding regular, focused, intentional employee one-on-ones that will result in valuable feedback and a forum for coaching your team.