Speaker 1 00:00:05 Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt in required, where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100% inbound in your industry over the next 6 to 8 months, with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years, and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to up my influence. Com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Also, don't forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to up my influence. Com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you. With us right now, it's Joel Kauffman. Joel, you are the CEO of GTM flow. Your website is GTM is and Mary Flow. Com well, Joel, it's great to have you.

Speaker 2 00:01:19 Josh, it's wonderful to be here. Thank you.

Speaker 1 00:01:21 Yeah. Well give us an overview of the work that you do, how you help teams and just the impact that you have in the world.

Speaker 2 00:01:28 Well, that's probably longer than 15 minutes, but I'll try to keep it's the same.

Speaker 1 00:01:32 Maybe not all of the impact you have in the world, but at least pertinent to GTM flow and our conversation. How's that?

Speaker 2 00:01:38 Sounds great. So look, I am a revenue catalyst. I work with CEOs and their leadership teams, sales teams, marketing teams, sometimes even product teams because I'm in the world of technology and in healthcare, and what I do is help them operate as a team with focus, with clarity, with, momentum and ambition, with purpose and with a mindset of continuous learning. Because the world is always changing. And if you can't lead using those five levers, which, by the way, I've created into an asset for your listeners at GTM, follow up my influence so they can go get it.

Speaker 2 00:02:21 But those are five levers that every leader needs to pull. So I use my 25 years of building brands, categories, companies as a CMO and CRO, and my 30 years concurrently of really optimizing how do you lead effectively. And I make it very practical. So when my clients work with me in the team performance amplifier, we do a diagnostic of their team and match it up with their goals and their progress. We then coach the leader and the team specifically on the areas where the team is not firing on all cylinders and every team. And you know this, Josh, you've been an entrepreneur for years. Every team always has room for improvement. But just as when the Yankees lost Derek Jeter or A-Rod, the Yankees didn't become a useless function, a useless team. It's the same for your teams. They have to have integrity and momentum and purpose even as people change and we as leaders have to be continuously facilitating that. That is what I do. And the impact is pretty profound. People see fairly significant increases in both efficiency, i.e. they're not spending as much.

Speaker 2 00:03:40 And the results they're driving more pipeline, they're driving more sales, they're creating more shareholder value. And that's the name of the game.

Speaker 1 00:03:49 Yeah. so take me through, if you wouldn't mind. what do you see working or what trends you see In leadership, you know, and kind of team, you know, kind of operational leadership, you know, kind of what's, what's going on culture wise. you know, we're again, well into the second half of 2024 here, kind of approaching close to the end of the year. what's going on? What like what trends, what's what's being what's hot, what's being talked about or maybe kind of addressed from a, you know, an accelerating issue that, that, that you seem to be seeing more of. Anything come to mind?

Speaker 2 00:04:31 Oh, there's a plenty. But I think the important thing is to know your your employees, your team are people living in this fairly, isolating, divisive and anxiety ridden time. And we can't lead as if the world isn't happening, as if we're not in the midst of an election and we're not in the midst of different military situations.

Speaker 2 00:04:56 We are. And your people are. And they may have personal reactions at stake. But certainly we don't want to talk politics at work. We also so while we have anxious people who are emotionally volatile. Number two is we're overwhelmingly hybrid or remote. So our best ways of understanding if somebody is presenting their best is because we see them and we interact with them, and we can feel their energy that's gone. We're on zoom. So what I'm seeing really great leaders do is slowing down, taking a breath for themselves, focusing on leveling themselves emotionally from whatever's going on in the company, in the world, on the team, and really tuning in to where their people are and getting everybody, if you will, level before we dig into the crisis of the day or the opportunity of the day. And it doesn't take long, sometimes you have to appreciate something someone accomplished or recognize that you're really glad somebody showed up. and that you offer your own vulnerability. I'm really having a tough time today because of XYZ.

Speaker 2 00:06:10 I may not be my best self, but I'm really going to try. So by being deliberately more human, we actually make it safe for people to be themselves. And that ends up bringing their best self even over this horrible modality we have of where staring at screens.

Speaker 1 00:06:31 Yeah. You you know, and just kind of going through some of your content, which again kind of in your thought leadership, you know, there's quite a few things here. You have a pretty valuable blog. Do you mind maybe sharing like for example, like what's the curveball method, which I know you talk about.

Speaker 2 00:06:50 So, so I'm a baseball mom, but I can't really hit. I'm also a generational cancer survivor with ten cancers in my family, including my own. In 2023. Wow. So cancer is the. And I'm fine now. So just so people aren't worried. I do have a book coming out, but that's not the purpose of our our call. We can cover that at the end. The cancer is a curveball.

Speaker 2 00:07:17 It is unexpected. It throws you off balance. And my experiences since I was 13 with cancer framed how I lead. So the curveball method is about the curveballs that come at you as a team and helping you as the leader and your team develop and practice and approach your approach. What are you focused on? Do you see the curveball? Do you know what you want to do? What are your strengths? What's your mindset? Are you coming in looking to play? Are you looking to play it safe? You're looking to play it all out. I always prefer let's play it all out. What are your resources? So now you're at the plate and you have a moment to choose. Not the pitch, but how you swing and curve balls the higher up you go in an organization. Or if you are an entrepreneur and you're leading it, count on continuous curveballs. So invest in having an approach, because when you have an approach to a curve ball, you can actually turn a curve ball into a home run.

Speaker 2 00:08:18 Not every time, but I'll tie this together. I had a very distinctive approach to my cancer, fabulous medical care and a mindset of confidence. I knew what I needed and what to ask for, and I set tripwires that just released little increments of happiness all along the way. And I had the most amazing thing. Josh. It was one of the happiest years of my life. I have never felt so loved, so connected, so supported, and I'm a super independent, hard charging, confident woman. But it was so amazing to be held and to be supported and loved. Just because I exist.

Speaker 4 00:09:03 Now,

Speaker 1 00:09:05 In in your work with clients, I'm sure you've seen some really great transformations. Anything come to mind? Maybe a client that you worked with over this past year and, they were coming in and really struggling with something. And what I'm curious about is, like, what you discovered that may have not been immediately visible to them, because I know, I mean, that's one of the greatest things.

Speaker 1 00:09:28 You know, the greatest aspects of hiring a consultant is a consultant can see what we're not able to see because we're too in it or we're part of the problem.

Speaker 2 00:09:37 Well, usually it's a little of both. but I had a client who had to do something that's hard as a leader, which is he was coming into a team, the team pre-existed. He didn't get to build it. They're not his people. The person he replaced was deposed. And here he comes. And he's younger than most of the people on the team. He's not from the same country, so he's got a different accent. and I started working with him and he said, I've never even done this job. He's super smart. He's super committed to learning, and to getting great results. And he cares about people. And so one of the first things we had to do is figure out who's on or off the team, because the first thing that happened to him is he takes on this team and a couple people give their notice.

Speaker 2 00:10:25 They're going with the old guy, the other guy, and he's like, okay, how do I stabilize this? And so together, we created an approach for his first off site or on site, as it were. He brought everybody together except the people who couldn't travel from Europe. And, he had an approach to how are we going to lay out what this team is going to be about, and how was he using his own style and his own personality? How is he going to ask for their commitment And ask them to let him know if that wasn't something they could give. Because when you're running your team, you need to know who you have on the field. And so he found a lot of confidence in having a way to set that up, ask those questions, have those dialogues. And ultimately he actually invited me to join. And I had side sessions with people where we could together say, this is what we're seeing. And it led to restructuring the team. He didn't lose any more people.

Speaker 2 00:11:32 And he was able to get people into roles that better suited their aspirations and their their skill set. And the result is his team is running at about twice the efficiency and delivering the same volume of opportunities, again at half the cost. That that's a big win.

Speaker 1 00:11:56 Indeed. Yeah. if you're looking into your crystal ball, what should leaders be mindful of in 2025, do you think? And you may not have like a perfectly crystal crystal ball. But if you were to start thinking about listen, here's what I recommend for all leaders to be a little bit more cognizant of when we're talking about people or operations or, you know, success in the year ahead.

Speaker 2 00:12:21 I will say, I don't think our world is going to get less noisy. Yeah, right. There is going to be more and more competition for attention, and your teams will get distracted by that. So my recommendation to every leader is you cannot under communicate. You must communicate with clarity what's important, why it matters, and how we're doing over and over.

Speaker 2 00:12:53 You do it in zooms. You do it live. You do it in slack or teams. You do it in writing, you do it over and over because people need that, that beacon, that light of I know what's important and I know why it matters. And that helps filter out the noise, because all kinds of things pop up all the time, and we want to overcommunicate. And when you're over communicating, realize you're talking to people, not computers. So take a breath and try to check what does this person need right now so that I'm not just a broadcasting machine, but I'm actually in relationship because, you know, when a team is in relationship with their coach and it's a positive relationship, that team does magical, incredible, unprecedented things because they are led. Well.

Speaker 4 00:13:54 Yeah.

Speaker 1 00:13:55 your website is GTM follow. Com. to our friend that's listening. You had mentioned that you had some resources earlier. You had a resource that you were sharing as well. To our friend that's listening.

Speaker 1 00:14:09 Where should they go from here? If they love to see if there's some alignment here, you know, maybe you can solve some problems that that they may or may not be aware of exactly where it's, you know, the challenge might be organizationally.

Speaker 2 00:14:25 Absolutely. So the resource is that GTM flow up my influence because we're on up my influence. And that resource will share the five growth levers leaders need to pull every day. And we've already talked about them. So it's a reminder of what we've talked about and ways to do it. I'm very pragmatic. I don't want to be esoteric. I want to give you a do this right. Try that. If people want to work with me, there's opportunities through that to connect with me at GTM flow to connect with me. I am more than happy to share the team performance assessment with your listeners. They can take it with their team and do get a high level, report on this is where your team is thriving, and this is where your team needs help if they want the recommendations and how to deal with that.

Speaker 2 00:15:19 Well, that's a paid engagement, as you can imagine, but I'm happy to give them the insight. Wow.

Speaker 1 00:15:26 Well, that would be valuable. Like to get that report card and, and something that sometimes, again, can be challenging to do from within. Right. It's easy to taint the data when it's when it's us.

Speaker 2 00:15:39 It is. And you know, there's an interesting thing when my clients deploy the team performance assessment because it's confidential and it's quick. This is a five minute thing. There's 23 questions. It doesn't take people very long, but they like having been asked and then they like that you share the result. And the results, even if you don't work with me you can figure out how to take action on those results. Because the worst thing is you're your boss. You do a 360, you do a culture amp, some sort of culture study and all this data comes out and nothing happens. Like, that's worse than not asking in the first place. So what I say to people is we if we do this assessment, commit to doing one thing with the data.

Speaker 2 00:16:28 Just one.

Speaker 1 00:16:31 Now again GTM flow.com. Well I know do you mind sharing you. You tease that you have a you do have a book coming out and it sounds like it's. Yeah. Do you, do you want to you know, again I don't know when that's coming out or what you're planning. Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:16:45 So so the first time you see cancer, it's disorienting. It's, confusing. But what's really interesting is the second time it isn't because you know what to expect and what to do. So the first time you see a curveball, you have no idea what you're looking at, and then you figure out, oh, I've seen that curveball. I kind of know how it's going to move. So my book Crushing the Cancer Curveball A playbook for the newly diagnosed Their families and Friends, is just that. This is what the newly diagnosed should know. Whether you're in the prevention, you're in diagnosis, you're in treatment, you're in surgery or you're in recovery. There's no medical advice because I'm not a doctor, and I don't think people who aren't doctors should give medical advice.

Speaker 2 00:17:35 In addition, just breast cancer, which is my family's specialty. there's 120 varieties of breast cancer. So even if I gave you. Well, this is what worked for me. Yeah, without your pathology, who knows what that would work for you. So you know what? See an oncologist. But how you live through cancer and what cancer gives you in a instant prioritization of what matters in your life. Wow. Which, by the way, you don't need to wait for cancer to do that, right? Like do it anyway. So you read the book and the book is positive. It's not positive because cancer is positive. It's not. It sucks. But look, the death rate from cancer has gone down by a third in the last, you know, 20 years. If you have a diagnosis of cancer, it is highly probable you're going to live through it. And even if it's terminal, you're going to have time. How do you want to live? Yeah. And what crushing the cancer curve ball gives, promotes thoughts and has, as you would imagine, it's me Josh specific suggestions of how do you want to live? I'll give you an example.

Speaker 2 00:18:52 There's a whole chapter on the what can I do? Because, you know, one out of two people will be diagnosed with cancer. I guarantee all of your listeners know somebody. And the first thing people say is, oh my God, that's awful. What can I do? Well, as the patient, I really can't be in the business of coordinating all of you like that. That's too much. But I do need help. So chapter 19 of the book gives you a whole list of things you can do. You can offer, right? You can offer if you're not nearby. Can I send a DoorDash meal for your family? Can I do that for you if you're nearby and they have young children? Because the fastest growing group of cancer patients are young people below the age of 50. So if they have children, you know, want to want to rock their world, say, hey, can I take your kids for the weekend for a playdate? What a gift. Yeah.

Speaker 1 00:19:45 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 00:19:46 Oh, yeah. That is a real, real world life upgrade right there. listen, it's been a great conversation. Joel. Joel Kaufman, CEO, SEO GTM flow your website GTM flow. Com do you have a title for the book?

Speaker 2 00:20:00 Crushing the Cancer Curveball and it'll be available on Amazon on January 28th.

Speaker 1 00:20:05 Congratulations, Joel Kaufman. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for listening to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit up my influence. Com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt in or email required, where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100% inbound in your industry over the next 6 to 8 months, with no spam, no ads, and no sales.

Speaker 1 00:21:14 What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to up my influence comm and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning. That's right, seven days a week you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed. I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes every single day. Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur movement.