1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,340 We got all these all-star athletes on our team, we're saying, 2 00:00:02,490 --> 00:00:04,530 why the heck are you always three steps behind me? 3 00:00:04,950 --> 00:00:08,820 Why are you always waiting for me to make the next decision or hand out the next 4 00:00:08,820 --> 00:00:10,530 task or come up with the next idea? 5 00:00:10,530 --> 00:00:15,120 We get so frustrated and what we realize is actually we haven't told them where 6 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:15,953 they're going. 7 00:00:28,830 --> 00:00:32,880 Well, hello and welcome to another edition of the E-Commerce Evolution podcast. 8 00:00:33,150 --> 00:00:36,330 I'm your host, Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce. 9 00:00:36,660 --> 00:00:40,050 And today we're talking about operations, 10 00:00:40,410 --> 00:00:43,950 operational constraints, operational bottlenecks, 11 00:00:44,310 --> 00:00:48,000 issues that you need to fix if you want to scale. 12 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,060 Because here's what I believe most agency owners like me, 13 00:00:51,450 --> 00:00:55,980 most brand owners like you, you're really good at product, 14 00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:59,850 you're really good at marketing or scale or growth, 15 00:01:00,330 --> 00:01:03,150 but operations, maybe that's a part of the business. 16 00:01:03,150 --> 00:01:06,600 You don't want to think about a whole lot, but I guarantee you, 17 00:01:06,750 --> 00:01:11,100 without operational systems, processes, the right people, 18 00:01:11,100 --> 00:01:12,150 all of that good stuff, 19 00:01:12,150 --> 00:01:16,890 you will hit a ceiling and we're going to bust through that ceiling on this 20 00:01:17,070 --> 00:01:21,240 episode today. So want to welcome to the show, Ms. Jonna Lee, 21 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:26,040 she's the founder of Spy Glass Ops. More on that in a second. 22 00:01:26,430 --> 00:01:28,680 Jonna, how's it going? And welcome to the show. 23 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:32,400 Thanks, Brett. I'm really excited to be here. It's going fantastic. 24 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:34,500 It's spring here in Salt Lake City. No complaints. 25 00:01:35,010 --> 00:01:36,750 Springtime in I love. 26 00:01:36,750 --> 00:01:37,210 I know. I'm ready for it. Love. 27 00:01:37,210 --> 00:01:38,043 Springtime. 28 00:01:38,460 --> 00:01:43,380 And so John and I got to hang out at an event recently hosted by one of my 29 00:01:43,380 --> 00:01:46,680 business partners, Tom Shipley, called Deal Con. 30 00:01:47,310 --> 00:01:52,290 Jonna was rocking the stage talking about how to form good integrations if 31 00:01:52,290 --> 00:01:56,520 you're doing m and a, but it was all around ops. And so your company, John, us, 32 00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:57,120 by Glass Ops, 33 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:01,950 you guys help with your transformational operations company, right? 34 00:02:01,950 --> 00:02:04,500 So you help with consulting, recruiting, coaching. 35 00:02:04,500 --> 00:02:09,000 You help seven and eight figure brands and businesses get 36 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,540 unstuck and scale from an operation standpoint. 37 00:02:13,050 --> 00:02:14,370 Can you talk a little more about that, 38 00:02:14,370 --> 00:02:15,960 a little more about your background there? 39 00:02:16,470 --> 00:02:21,180 Yeah, I think you covered it beautifully. So my background is as a COO, 40 00:02:21,270 --> 00:02:25,410 I was in that second in command operator position for multiple different 41 00:02:25,410 --> 00:02:28,890 successful startups, and that's where I really learned the tools of the trade. 42 00:02:29,190 --> 00:02:33,420 And then I had the opportunity to be an operations coach in this coaching 43 00:02:33,420 --> 00:02:35,400 program that had hundreds of startup owners in it. 44 00:02:35,580 --> 00:02:37,290 And that was really the big unlock for me, Brett, 45 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:41,520 because I had hundreds of businesses pulling back the kimono, so to speak, 46 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:44,610 and just showing me the reel of what's going on behind the scenes, 47 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:46,080 what's not working, what's breaking, 48 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:49,680 where are they struggling as they're scaling through 7, 8, 9 figures. 49 00:02:49,830 --> 00:02:53,730 And so I got to just compile all this data around what are the common patterns 50 00:02:53,730 --> 00:02:56,940 and themes that hold startup founders back from achieving, 51 00:02:56,940 --> 00:02:59,890 not just the revenue and the profit goals that they have for the business, 52 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:02,350 but also the lifestyle, the freedom goals, 53 00:03:02,350 --> 00:03:06,280 creating a version of their company that can actually run without them. And so 54 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:08,260 that is really what I became passionate about. 55 00:03:08,260 --> 00:03:12,400 And four years ago I started the company to help entrepreneurs go through that 56 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:16,000 critical stage of growth so that the company can start to become an asset, 57 00:03:16,030 --> 00:03:19,120 a machine that is going to run with or without them, 58 00:03:19,270 --> 00:03:23,140 and they're able to take that to a successful multi eight figure nine figure 59 00:03:23,140 --> 00:03:26,800 exit. They're able to take that to a lifestyle business that produces passive 60 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:27,610 cashflow, 61 00:03:27,610 --> 00:03:31,660 but ultimately it's around unlocking the founder so that they're able to achieve 62 00:03:31,660 --> 00:03:34,390 the best version of their business and the best version of their life. 63 00:03:35,260 --> 00:03:39,160 It's so great. And yeah, allowing the founder, the visionary, 64 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:41,710 you've got brilliant ideas. And again, you're a product person, 65 00:03:41,710 --> 00:03:46,300 a marketing person, salesperson, whatever. For me, I'm all about setting vision, 66 00:03:46,390 --> 00:03:48,280 forming partnerships. I like sales, 67 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:52,000 I like solving interesting marketing problems. I'm not an ops guy. 68 00:03:52,060 --> 00:03:56,560 I can respect a good system. I can spot a good system. 69 00:03:57,100 --> 00:03:59,140 I'm not going to sit down and design one, 70 00:03:59,140 --> 00:04:01,060 and at least I'm not going to do it and enjoy. 71 00:04:01,060 --> 00:04:01,893 Myself. 72 00:04:02,110 --> 00:04:06,040 And so I've had the privilege of working with two amazing COOs throughout the 73 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:10,360 journey of OMG commerce in our path to 74 00:04:10,780 --> 00:04:11,890 multiple seven figures. 75 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:17,830 So I see the value there and I'm really excited to unpack this and give some 76 00:04:17,890 --> 00:04:20,830 insights to our listeners, 77 00:04:21,430 --> 00:04:25,000 but would love to hear from you what are some of the 78 00:04:25,930 --> 00:04:28,240 mistakes, bottlenecks, 79 00:04:28,300 --> 00:04:33,010 issues that you see founders running into when it comes to ops? 80 00:04:33,340 --> 00:04:37,510 Oh my gosh, how long we got? Okay, 81 00:04:37,510 --> 00:04:39,550 so I would say that statistically, right? 82 00:04:39,550 --> 00:04:43,480 So we start all of our client relationships with a company-wide operational 83 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:43,720 audit. 84 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:47,320 So we've actually looked at the data and we've run these numbers and about 80 to 85 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:48,400 90% of the time, 86 00:04:48,700 --> 00:04:52,450 the key and critical bottlenecks holding startup founders back fall into one of 87 00:04:52,450 --> 00:04:56,080 four categories. The first category is strategic vision, 88 00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:59,830 meaning they don't actually know where they're trying to take the company or how 89 00:04:59,830 --> 00:05:01,600 exactly they're going to get to their revenue. 90 00:05:01,990 --> 00:05:02,960 Profit goals. We want to growth is. 91 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:06,250 Our vision exactly more better. 92 00:05:06,790 --> 00:05:08,080 That's hot strategy. 93 00:05:08,810 --> 00:05:11,800 Strategy doesn't offer your team a direction to run in, 94 00:05:12,580 --> 00:05:15,520 and it ultimately leaves the founder pretty directionless in terms of what 95 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:17,500 decisions to make and what to drive towards. 96 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:21,460 So a lack of strategic vision or what's an interesting one that we see, Brett, 97 00:05:21,670 --> 00:05:25,120 is that they'll have a strategic vision that is totally out of alignment with 98 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:26,080 their personal goals. 99 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:30,370 So my personal goal is that I want a lifestyle business that's going to run 100 00:05:30,370 --> 00:05:31,120 without me, 101 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:34,480 but the version of my company that I'm building is one where the product is 102 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:37,420 totally reliant on me. Nothing can move forward without me, 103 00:05:37,420 --> 00:05:39,640 and I want to double revenue in the next 12 months. 104 00:05:39,910 --> 00:05:42,310 It's like these things are at odds with each other. 105 00:05:42,310 --> 00:05:44,530 And so we often have to hold up the mirror and say, 106 00:05:44,740 --> 00:05:49,000 which do you want more? And then let's build a roadmap to get you to that and 107 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:52,510 let's adjust your business and your plan for growing your business. 108 00:05:52,660 --> 00:05:56,230 So it actually gets you to the goals that you have outside of just work and 109 00:05:56,230 --> 00:05:59,030 revenue. So that's a big one that we see fairly often. 110 00:05:59,990 --> 00:06:02,360 The second big one is a lack of an operator, 111 00:06:02,390 --> 00:06:03,920 which should not be a surprise to anyone. 112 00:06:04,430 --> 00:06:08,720 And this is why we layered in operations recruitment as one of our core offers 113 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:13,580 because either you've got somebody who's been in that role and is now no 114 00:06:13,580 --> 00:06:14,630 longer cutting it, 115 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:19,340 in which case we have to figure out can they grow and can the business afford 116 00:06:19,340 --> 00:06:23,450 the time that it's going to take for them to grow into the COO that you need, 117 00:06:23,900 --> 00:06:27,320 or you do not have that person. Maybe you think you do, right? 118 00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:29,660 Maybe it's your wife, maybe it's your best friend, 119 00:06:29,690 --> 00:06:33,170 maybe it's a actual COO that we hired off on LinkedIn, 120 00:06:33,380 --> 00:06:36,710 but are they actually the person that you need in the role? Yes or no? 121 00:06:36,710 --> 00:06:39,260 And we need to go out and find that person because like you said Brett, 122 00:06:39,590 --> 00:06:41,090 you can respect operations, 123 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:44,930 but you respect it enough to not touch it and to know the value of having 124 00:06:44,930 --> 00:06:48,080 someone who is an expert who can actually do the work. 125 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:52,610 And if the goal is getting that building, that machine, 126 00:06:52,610 --> 00:06:57,350 that machine that consistently produces results and spits off 127 00:06:57,350 --> 00:07:01,370 cash, you got to think about ops. And I really liked the way you laid that out. 128 00:07:01,370 --> 00:07:05,240 And I think it's one of those scenarios where we all do want more. 129 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:06,350 We all do want to grow, 130 00:07:06,710 --> 00:07:10,430 but what will get you there is not what got you here. 131 00:07:10,430 --> 00:07:13,790 What got you here won't get you there. The title of that famous book, 132 00:07:13,790 --> 00:07:18,230 and I think that's true both in terms of your systems or lack thereof, 133 00:07:18,470 --> 00:07:21,220 your processes, but also that operator, right? Yes, 134 00:07:21,470 --> 00:07:26,450 the COO or the operator that got you to 5 million or to 10 million 135 00:07:26,450 --> 00:07:30,740 is probably not the same operator that will get you to a hundred million. And 136 00:07:30,740 --> 00:07:33,620 maybe because people can grow and people can change and evolve, 137 00:07:33,620 --> 00:07:35,450 but generally speaking, 138 00:07:35,810 --> 00:07:39,860 you're going to have to either upgrade that person and upskill them 139 00:07:40,820 --> 00:07:45,410 or find someone who can grow you to 20 million, 50 million, 140 00:07:45,410 --> 00:07:49,310 a hundred million and that type of thing. So really great. 141 00:07:49,310 --> 00:07:53,150 So I love the way you identify that. So as you kind of lay that out, 142 00:07:54,200 --> 00:07:56,720 where do you see people in that, 143 00:07:56,780 --> 00:07:59,330 let's call it 10 to 50 million range? 144 00:07:59,660 --> 00:08:03,410 I know it's going to be different depending on the business category, 145 00:08:03,740 --> 00:08:07,040 brands that can still be a pretty lean team agencies, that's a pretty big team. 146 00:08:08,540 --> 00:08:11,450 What are some of the hurdles that they have to overcome? 147 00:08:11,930 --> 00:08:14,660 What are some of the systems they need to put in place or people they need to 148 00:08:14,660 --> 00:08:17,660 put into place to really become that operational machine? 149 00:08:18,230 --> 00:08:21,920 So this really comes down to a couple of core categories, 150 00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:25,880 and the big one that I see in that 10 to 50 million range is that it comes down 151 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:30,500 to leadership and not just can you as a CEO founder 152 00:08:30,710 --> 00:08:31,850 become a bigger, 153 00:08:31,850 --> 00:08:35,780 better version of yourself and the leader that your company needs next from you? 154 00:08:35,990 --> 00:08:40,070 Can you step fully out of our executive coach calls the three levels of 155 00:08:40,070 --> 00:08:43,520 entrepreneurship. The first level is producer where you're just showing up, 156 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:46,850 you're doing everything. Okay, we probably got out of that a while ago. 157 00:08:46,850 --> 00:08:50,270 We stepped out of that level. The next level is leader. Great. 158 00:08:50,420 --> 00:08:54,800 So now can we be a leader that is able to delegate tasks, 159 00:08:55,230 --> 00:08:59,190 action, align a team, drive them towards a vision, that's the leadership level. 160 00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:01,500 And then the third level is visionary. 161 00:09:01,710 --> 00:09:06,540 Can we actually hand off day-to-day leadership of our team to 162 00:09:06,540 --> 00:09:07,350 managers, 163 00:09:07,350 --> 00:09:11,340 to department heads to people who are not only able to manage tasks but actually 164 00:09:11,340 --> 00:09:15,540 make decisions on our behalf? And when we're able to create that, 165 00:09:15,810 --> 00:09:19,140 we get to step into the third level, which is visionary, 166 00:09:19,620 --> 00:09:20,910 where our role, 167 00:09:21,030 --> 00:09:25,710 our highest value work is to make decisions and set strategy 168 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:29,820 on behalf of our company and to have the vision, to hold the vision, 169 00:09:29,820 --> 00:09:31,650 to keep the team aligned around the vision, 170 00:09:31,860 --> 00:09:36,630 but to then to hand off the actualization and the execution of that vision to a 171 00:09:36,630 --> 00:09:38,280 team that we've put in place that we trust. 172 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:43,830 So hard to do, man, so hard. As someone who I do, 173 00:09:43,890 --> 00:09:48,390 I am a visionary, I'm not the integrator. And so I do setting the vision, 174 00:09:48,390 --> 00:09:49,380 casting the vision, 175 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:54,030 but giving up control the vision or delegating 176 00:09:54,030 --> 00:09:57,180 decision-making can be quite difficult. 177 00:09:58,080 --> 00:09:59,040 Before we get there though, 178 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:03,270 I do want to maybe step back for a second and talk about how do you 179 00:10:03,270 --> 00:10:04,230 clarify, 180 00:10:04,770 --> 00:10:07,350 and I've got some thoughts here on what we've done as an agency and some work 181 00:10:07,350 --> 00:10:08,850 we've done even recently internally. 182 00:10:09,300 --> 00:10:13,710 But you talk about the strategic vision and the strategic vision is not 183 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:17,340 more do it better, do it more. That's not it. That's not clear at all. 184 00:10:17,730 --> 00:10:21,150 How do you coach people or what advice do you give them to say, okay, 185 00:10:22,050 --> 00:10:23,640 it may be clear in your head, 186 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:25,860 but the way you're saying it is not clear to your team. 187 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:28,800 How do you coach people in making that vision clear? 188 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:32,850 Yeah, a hundred percent. So the first thing is that we have to clarify. Two, 189 00:10:32,850 --> 00:10:36,120 we have to answer two questions and how, 190 00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:41,490 what does success look like? What is the finish line for this business? 191 00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:45,900 What are the north star goals and metrics that we are going to drive towards? 192 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:48,780 So what looks like revenue, looks like profit, 193 00:10:48,780 --> 00:10:51,450 looks like a target valuation that you want to exit at. 194 00:10:51,450 --> 00:10:53,760 It's the finish line of the race that you are running. 195 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:57,660 If you don't have a finish line, how the heck are you going to run the race? 196 00:10:58,260 --> 00:11:01,470 And so what we often see challenges around the, what is that? 197 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:05,610 I talked to a dude at a mastermind who exited for 50 million million. 198 00:11:05,610 --> 00:11:09,810 So now I want to exit for 50 million. The challenge is that's the vision, 199 00:11:09,930 --> 00:11:11,640 50 million, that's the vision. I did it right? 200 00:11:11,970 --> 00:11:14,880 But the problem is is that 50 million means nothing. 201 00:11:15,330 --> 00:11:19,530 That is a totally arbitrary number. It's not attached to any deeper meaning. 202 00:11:19,530 --> 00:11:22,500 It's not attached to any quality of life you're trying to create. 203 00:11:22,680 --> 00:11:25,140 It is throwing a dart at a dartboard, picking a number and saying. 204 00:11:25,560 --> 00:11:25,950 That's not good or the value, 205 00:11:25,950 --> 00:11:30,150 value you're going to be generating and offering to the marketplace to be worth 206 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:31,830 50 million. It says nothing. 207 00:11:32,100 --> 00:11:32,933 A hundred percent. 208 00:11:33,030 --> 00:11:36,360 So we pick these arbitrary finish lines and then what happens? 209 00:11:36,390 --> 00:11:38,460 It gets hard to run the race. 210 00:11:38,610 --> 00:11:41,670 And so we end up just switching the finish line and picking a different race, 211 00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:45,150 and we end up just pivoting and pivoting and pivoting and creating all these 212 00:11:45,150 --> 00:11:48,780 different sets of goals because we don't actually have fundamental and intrinsic 213 00:11:48,780 --> 00:11:51,810 conviction or attachment to those goals, 214 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:57,040 or even we end up hitting those goals and then we feel nothing 215 00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:00,670 because it didn't mean anything to begin with. 216 00:12:01,630 --> 00:12:05,320 And so that's the existential crisis that we have to coach our clients through 217 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:08,140 where they're like, wow, I really wanted to get to seven figures. 218 00:12:08,140 --> 00:12:12,790 I really wanted to get to eight figures and now I'm here and I'm more trapped by 219 00:12:12,790 --> 00:12:15,730 my business than ever. I'm falling out of love with my business. 220 00:12:15,820 --> 00:12:17,140 I've never felt less free. 221 00:12:17,350 --> 00:12:20,590 I'm not doing any of the things that I wanted to do or that I thought I could do 222 00:12:20,590 --> 00:12:21,760 by the time I reached this, 223 00:12:21,910 --> 00:12:25,450 why the hell am I doing this and do I need you to just burn this thing down and 224 00:12:25,450 --> 00:12:28,570 walk away? So strategic vision again is like, 225 00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:32,410 let's define the what and let's define the what against what actually matters to 226 00:12:32,410 --> 00:12:36,310 you as a founder, as an individual, as a human, 227 00:12:36,310 --> 00:12:38,170 and not just as an entrepreneur. 228 00:12:38,500 --> 00:12:41,800 And then let's make sure that the target you're setting for your business is 229 00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:43,510 actually going to get you what you want. 230 00:12:44,170 --> 00:12:45,730 So that's the first part of strategic vision. 231 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:47,230 So good. 232 00:12:47,230 --> 00:12:50,980 I'll share a couple of insights from some work we've done recently here at OMG 233 00:12:50,980 --> 00:12:54,520 because I really believe that setting the mission and vision and things like 234 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:56,740 that, it really shows the team, 235 00:12:56,890 --> 00:13:00,190 this is who we are and how we're going to show up. 236 00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:02,770 And this is very clearly where we're going. 237 00:13:02,770 --> 00:13:07,540 And so I'm a big fan of statements and simple statements that carry meaning 238 00:13:07,540 --> 00:13:09,760 and that can help make decisions and help guide you. 239 00:13:10,090 --> 00:13:12,010 And so a couple that we've leaned into as an agency, 240 00:13:12,010 --> 00:13:14,710 and then I want to talk about the thing called the V two Mom. 241 00:13:14,710 --> 00:13:16,690 I'm curious if you've heard of that, talk about that in a second. 242 00:13:17,230 --> 00:13:20,110 But the first thing that we've leaned into here over the last couple of years is 243 00:13:20,470 --> 00:13:22,120 we want to be the most trusted, 244 00:13:22,300 --> 00:13:26,920 most loved digital marketing agency that feels like an in-house team. Now, 245 00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:29,830 that may seem a little bit like a strange statement, most trusted, 246 00:13:29,830 --> 00:13:31,450 most love that feels kind of mushy, 247 00:13:32,110 --> 00:13:36,850 but here's what I believe that is tied to that trust 248 00:13:36,850 --> 00:13:41,020 piece that ties back to competence in the agency world. 249 00:13:41,290 --> 00:13:45,520 People want agencies they can trust and that they trust your expertise and they 250 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:49,090 feel like, Hey, if I'm getting your feedback on something, I can count on it, 251 00:13:49,090 --> 00:13:51,280 I can believe it, I can take it to the bank, that type of thing. 252 00:13:51,670 --> 00:13:54,250 The most loved piece is when I figured I would get a lot of pushback on. 253 00:13:54,250 --> 00:13:57,790 But actually as I've showed this to PE firms that I know and others are like, 254 00:13:58,180 --> 00:14:01,060 dude, I actually kind of like it because, and we've heard this, 255 00:14:01,060 --> 00:14:03,490 we've heard this even from clients that are leaving OMG, they're like, 256 00:14:03,940 --> 00:14:08,080 we love you guys. We love your team, but we're leaving for this, that, 257 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:10,600 or the other. Our team is we sold or whatever, 258 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:14,020 but then also feels like an in-house team. 259 00:14:14,020 --> 00:14:18,850 And so it feels like an extension of the team. We've had people say to us, Hey, 260 00:14:18,850 --> 00:14:20,200 your team feels like my team. 261 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:23,920 And so we crafted that in such a way that that should guide. 262 00:14:24,370 --> 00:14:28,810 How are we going to respond to emails? How are we going to show up to meetings? 263 00:14:28,810 --> 00:14:31,960 How are we going to respond in Slack because of those things? 264 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:34,450 And so that's one of the statements. 265 00:14:34,510 --> 00:14:39,340 Curious how that strikes you Or anything that 266 00:14:39,340 --> 00:14:40,173 sparks there. 267 00:14:40,330 --> 00:14:41,260 I love that so much. 268 00:14:41,290 --> 00:14:45,670 It is a reminiscent of an exercise that we walk our clients through EOS calls it 269 00:14:45,670 --> 00:14:47,500 the three uniques. We call it the golden triad. 270 00:14:47,500 --> 00:14:52,280 And it is the three core characteristics that you from 271 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:56,120 your competitors, why would somebody choose to work with you? 272 00:14:56,330 --> 00:14:59,570 And the example I always give is think about McDonald's versus a five star 273 00:14:59,570 --> 00:15:04,160 Michelin restaurant, right? Here's the vision statement. I so often hear Brett, 274 00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:07,490 and especially in the agency space, oh my gosh, we want to be the best. 275 00:15:08,060 --> 00:15:11,030 We want to be the best agency for e-com brands, 276 00:15:12,260 --> 00:15:13,940 but what is the best? 277 00:15:14,300 --> 00:15:14,570 That. 278 00:15:14,570 --> 00:15:17,870 Means nothing to me. McDonald's is the best, 279 00:15:18,620 --> 00:15:23,600 but STO is a Michelin star restaurant. McDonald's is the best at 280 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:27,440 being fast, cheap and easy. Those are their three uniques. 281 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:32,480 A Michelin star restaurant is the best at being a luxury white glove experience, 282 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:33,440 farm to table, whatever. 283 00:15:33,980 --> 00:15:38,450 So what are the three uniques that guide your business, 284 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:43,310 that differentiate you from others? What I heard you say was loved, trusted, 285 00:15:43,490 --> 00:15:45,920 feels like an extension of your in-house team. Cool. 286 00:15:45,920 --> 00:15:49,580 What's amazing about that is that now we get to go through our entire client 287 00:15:49,580 --> 00:15:53,960 happiness journey and anything that does not directly drive 288 00:15:54,470 --> 00:15:58,640 love, trust, or seamless integration, we don't do it. 289 00:15:59,150 --> 00:15:59,960 We don't do it. 290 00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:04,250 We don't have to do it because it's not why clients choose to work with us. 291 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:09,440 And we get to become the best at those three things because we're not trying to 292 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:11,900 be the best at everything else. Everything. 293 00:16:13,820 --> 00:16:18,560 And that's where most agencies and brands get stuck is that we're too diluted in 294 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:21,350 who we serve in how we serve them uniquely well. 295 00:16:21,650 --> 00:16:26,000 We try and be everything for everyone and then we end up being nothing for no 296 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:26,570 one. 297 00:16:26,570 --> 00:16:31,400 Yeah, it's one of those things where you can do anything. You can be anybody. 298 00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:34,280 Your company can be anything, but it can't be. Everything can be everything. 299 00:16:35,210 --> 00:16:37,370 You've got to choose. You got to select. So I'm curious. 300 00:16:37,370 --> 00:16:38,600 We actually went through this process. 301 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:43,250 Actually our current COO is the one that turned me onto this called the V two 302 00:16:43,250 --> 00:16:46,490 mom vision, values, methods, 303 00:16:46,790 --> 00:16:48,350 obstacles and measures. 304 00:16:48,350 --> 00:16:52,820 So I think this was actually designed by Salesforce and marketing off there. 305 00:16:53,510 --> 00:16:55,940 It's really cool though. So set your vision. 306 00:16:55,940 --> 00:16:59,120 So this is where we're going clearly what we just talked about, your values, 307 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:02,360 so this is what we believe about ourselves and what we will or won't do to get 308 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:03,193 us there. 309 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:05,510 Then your methods are these are the things we're going to do in all these 310 00:17:05,510 --> 00:17:08,000 departments, high level obstacles, 311 00:17:08,090 --> 00:17:12,080 these things are standing in our way and then measures. These are clear targets 312 00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:14,150 that we're setting for ourselves in all these key areas. 313 00:17:14,150 --> 00:17:17,660 So it's been really great as we crafted that, shared that with the team, 314 00:17:17,660 --> 00:17:21,950 I think it's, I've already heard it sparked some interesting discussions, 315 00:17:21,950 --> 00:17:23,150 especially around the measures. 316 00:17:23,630 --> 00:17:27,680 We've got this 50% profitability target within each department and it's 317 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:30,020 triggering everybody to look at like, Hey, 318 00:17:30,890 --> 00:17:33,620 how is that going to impact the profitability of the department, right? 319 00:17:33,620 --> 00:17:35,210 Because I know we got this 50% target, 320 00:17:35,210 --> 00:17:39,980 so I don't know that the actual structure of the strategy really matters. 321 00:17:40,940 --> 00:17:44,450 It's way more about do you have it? Does it make sense? 322 00:17:44,450 --> 00:17:45,350 And is it guiding the team? 323 00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:50,310 Yes, a hundred percent. And that's such a key. That final piece is the point, 324 00:17:50,340 --> 00:17:51,840 right? Because what you just said, Brett, 325 00:17:52,230 --> 00:17:54,540 you've got this incredible vivid vision in your mind. 326 00:17:54,540 --> 00:17:58,410 You as the founder know exactly what that finishing line is exactly how you want 327 00:17:58,410 --> 00:17:59,243 to get there. 328 00:17:59,250 --> 00:18:03,900 But if you haven't shared it with your team in a way that they not only see it 329 00:18:03,900 --> 00:18:05,310 as clearly as you see it, 330 00:18:05,580 --> 00:18:09,810 but also understand how they can uniquely contribute towards it. 331 00:18:10,470 --> 00:18:10,620 What. 332 00:18:10,620 --> 00:18:15,300 You end up doing is disempowering your team to be proactive. Because now again, 333 00:18:15,360 --> 00:18:19,170 no all-star athlete can run a race if you don't tell them where the finish line 334 00:18:19,170 --> 00:18:23,310 is. And so we got all these all-star athletes on our team. We're saying, 335 00:18:23,460 --> 00:18:25,530 why the heck are you always three steps behind me? 336 00:18:25,890 --> 00:18:29,790 Why are you always waiting for me to make the next decision or hand out the next 337 00:18:29,790 --> 00:18:31,500 task or come up with the next idea? 338 00:18:31,500 --> 00:18:36,060 We get so frustrated and what we realize is actually we haven't told them where 339 00:18:36,060 --> 00:18:39,120 they're going. So how the heck could they help us get there? 340 00:18:39,150 --> 00:18:43,650 How could they walk alongside us as opposed to behind us if they have no idea 341 00:18:43,770 --> 00:18:46,980 what to be proactive and what to drive towards? So no, 342 00:18:46,980 --> 00:18:50,970 the framework really doesn't matter. EOS has a great one, V two, mom love it. 343 00:18:51,090 --> 00:18:53,190 We have our own right? We call it the navigational chart. 344 00:18:53,310 --> 00:18:57,420 It's less about whether it's the right framework and more around are you being 345 00:18:57,420 --> 00:18:58,800 consistent with it, 346 00:18:59,130 --> 00:19:03,930 and then are you repeating it and coming back to it constantly with your 347 00:19:03,930 --> 00:19:04,320 team? 348 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:08,160 It takes the average person seven to 12 times of hearing something before it 349 00:19:08,190 --> 00:19:12,750 actually sinks into their brain. So we say it once and then we're like, cool, 350 00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:15,690 did that. Everyone's got the vision. Everyone knows where we're going. 351 00:19:16,470 --> 00:19:19,470 Our job becomes to be the chief repeating officer. 352 00:19:20,220 --> 00:19:20,430 We. 353 00:19:20,430 --> 00:19:22,410 Say this again and again. 354 00:19:22,470 --> 00:19:26,820 We articulate the vision and the values and the goals and the metrics and all of 355 00:19:26,820 --> 00:19:29,310 these things again and again and again. And to us, 356 00:19:29,310 --> 00:19:33,090 we feel like crazy people because we've repeated ourselves a hundred times and 357 00:19:33,090 --> 00:19:35,760 how can they not get it? And when you feel that way, 358 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:40,200 I can promise you your team is only just starting to get it. 359 00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:41,220 Keep going. 360 00:19:41,220 --> 00:19:45,450 So good, so good. And I've heard that forever in the marketing world, 361 00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:48,780 just about the time you're sick of hearing an ad or hearing a message. 362 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:52,170 Only then is the market even beginning to pay attention, right? 363 00:19:52,170 --> 00:19:52,470 Totally. 364 00:19:52,470 --> 00:19:54,530 And it's sort of similar with internal communication as well. 365 00:19:54,870 --> 00:19:59,070 You got to repeat it and repeat it and repeat it before people even start to get 366 00:19:59,070 --> 00:20:01,050 it. And so Really great. Well, 367 00:20:01,050 --> 00:20:03,780 let's talk people for a minute because I'm a firm believer. 368 00:20:03,780 --> 00:20:07,260 This is true in the agency space, also true in the brand space. Any business, 369 00:20:07,500 --> 00:20:10,170 you're only as good as the people that you have on board. 370 00:20:10,170 --> 00:20:13,860 And I was listening to a podcast founders podcast that I love, 371 00:20:14,250 --> 00:20:17,580 and they were talking about Steve Jobs and maybe Elon Moss, maybe somebody else. 372 00:20:17,700 --> 00:20:22,020 They were talking about how they don't worry about overpaying for great talent 373 00:20:22,020 --> 00:20:25,890 because what they've found in certain industries may be a little bit different 374 00:20:25,890 --> 00:20:29,940 depending on your industry. But Steve Jobs said, Hey, the best talent, 375 00:20:30,420 --> 00:20:34,110 they may be two or more times, two or three times more expensive, 376 00:20:34,110 --> 00:20:38,160 but their work isn't two or three times better. It's 10 times better, 377 00:20:38,220 --> 00:20:41,610 a hundred times better, the output. And so I don't worry about that. 378 00:20:41,610 --> 00:20:45,690 I am getting the absolute best of my team now. Everybody's on their own journey. 379 00:20:46,050 --> 00:20:50,440 And so finding the right person for you isn't going to be what Steve Jobs was 380 00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:51,280 necessarily looking for, 381 00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:55,900 but how do you coach people on finding the right 382 00:20:55,900 --> 00:20:59,050 people when to identify that they need to hire, 383 00:20:59,230 --> 00:21:02,200 and then also would love to hear any hiring tips that you have. 384 00:21:02,290 --> 00:21:05,290 I think this is something that scaling businesses are often pretty bad at. 385 00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:07,480 Yeah, a hundred percent. Oh my gosh. 386 00:21:07,510 --> 00:21:12,010 So this pillar of team is probably where we do the 387 00:21:12,010 --> 00:21:14,890 most amount of work with our clients because again, 388 00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:18,940 it actually becomes the deal breaker systems, not the deal breaker strategy, 389 00:21:18,940 --> 00:21:19,773 not the deal breaker. 390 00:21:19,780 --> 00:21:24,760 Do you have the right people in the right roles executing the right things and 391 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:26,860 running in the right direction? Without that, 392 00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:31,420 your business will never be able to scale you without that. 393 00:21:31,540 --> 00:21:33,730 You will be that point of escalation. 394 00:21:33,910 --> 00:21:37,270 You'll become the system where every decision has to be yours, 395 00:21:37,270 --> 00:21:38,680 every idea has to be yours, 396 00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:43,540 every sign off and every right task needs your eyes on it and every 397 00:21:43,540 --> 00:21:44,373 quality assurance. 398 00:21:44,590 --> 00:21:48,460 If you are feeling stuck running the day-to-day of your business right now, 399 00:21:48,460 --> 00:21:53,200 I can almost guarantee you a root cause bottleneck is team. Now to be clear, 400 00:21:53,260 --> 00:21:55,600 that doesn't mean the solution is we have to go out, 401 00:21:56,050 --> 00:21:59,560 fire everyone and then just double all of our salaries and that will. 402 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:00,820 Fix the problem. Exactly. 403 00:22:02,260 --> 00:22:07,180 What we most often see is that clients will have incredible team members 404 00:22:07,420 --> 00:22:08,410 on the bus, 405 00:22:08,860 --> 00:22:12,790 but what we haven't done is created a player environment. 406 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:17,860 We have a players, But we haven't invited them to bring all 407 00:22:17,860 --> 00:22:19,810 that they are capable of to the table. 408 00:22:20,350 --> 00:22:24,040 We haven't given them a clear strategic vision that they can be proactive and 409 00:22:24,070 --> 00:22:26,080 innovative and creative and run towards. 410 00:22:26,470 --> 00:22:29,710 We haven't empowered them so that they feel confident in solving their own 411 00:22:29,710 --> 00:22:32,260 problems. They have the critical thinking skills to do it, 412 00:22:32,260 --> 00:22:35,440 and they know what they're authorized to make decisions around versus not. 413 00:22:35,890 --> 00:22:39,610 We haven't given them the right systems and technology so that they can be 414 00:22:39,610 --> 00:22:41,410 efficient and effective in their role. 415 00:22:41,410 --> 00:22:45,400 We're having them run around chasing down information, picking up dropped balls, 416 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:47,770 putting out fires that didn't need to exist to begin with. 417 00:22:47,980 --> 00:22:52,300 And so we're wasting all of their time playing defense and doing all this low 418 00:22:52,300 --> 00:22:54,700 value work instead of doing the really high value, 419 00:22:54,700 --> 00:22:57,100 high leverage things that you actually paid them for. 420 00:22:57,820 --> 00:23:02,770 So my number one pro tip around team is that before you go out and just get 421 00:23:02,770 --> 00:23:03,970 better people, 422 00:23:04,930 --> 00:23:07,780 make sure that you have created an environment where your current people are 423 00:23:07,780 --> 00:23:09,910 able to bring their best to the table. 424 00:23:10,120 --> 00:23:14,530 And what that fundamentally comes down to is us as leaders, us as the founder, 425 00:23:14,530 --> 00:23:18,340 and then the leaders that we put in place to again, manage that frontline team. 426 00:23:18,730 --> 00:23:23,290 Do our leaders know how to build and manage a players and manage a high 427 00:23:23,290 --> 00:23:24,370 performance team environment? 428 00:23:25,930 --> 00:23:29,350 Sometimes you don't have a players on your team, you're not ready for them. 429 00:23:29,740 --> 00:23:34,540 You've not done the work to make your company attractive for a players or 430 00:23:34,810 --> 00:23:36,550 where a players can shine. 431 00:23:36,550 --> 00:23:39,340 And I actually was thinking about football while you were laying that out. 432 00:23:39,370 --> 00:23:44,230 Honestly, I'm a chiefs football fan, longtime chiefs fan from Kansas City, 433 00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:49,430 and they've had several situations over recent years where 434 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:52,100 they'll have a wide receiver that'll leave and go somewhere else and they don't 435 00:23:52,100 --> 00:23:55,250 do very good and they come back and then they're on the chiefs. They're amazing. 436 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,150 And it's because you got Patrick Mahomes as your quarterback and you got Andy 437 00:23:59,150 --> 00:24:03,500 Reed who's helping call plays. You got a system that's a winning system, 438 00:24:03,500 --> 00:24:07,130 and so maybe a receiver that really sucks for another team. 439 00:24:07,490 --> 00:24:10,160 You put 'em in the chief's environment and they're going to shine because of all 440 00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:13,520 the things around them. And so I think that's one of the things we got to keep 441 00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:16,850 in mind. It's not the key is not just paying more for talent. 442 00:24:16,850 --> 00:24:20,360 That just means you're guaranteed to have more money going out the door. 443 00:24:20,630 --> 00:24:24,350 It could work. It's not just about hiring a talent, 444 00:24:24,410 --> 00:24:27,370 it's about having the system where they're going to shine and the environment 445 00:24:27,370 --> 00:24:30,050 where they're going to shine. So what are some of the things, 446 00:24:30,050 --> 00:24:34,760 some of the tips you lay out there for business 447 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:36,620 owners, founders to say, 448 00:24:36,950 --> 00:24:40,910 am I ready for A players and if not, what do I need to do to get ready? 449 00:24:41,540 --> 00:24:45,980 Yeah, great question. So I would offer a reframe, 450 00:24:45,980 --> 00:24:49,340 which is you probably already have a players. 451 00:24:49,610 --> 00:24:54,440 The question is what are you lacking that's inviting them or not to bring it to 452 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:55,160 the table? The. 453 00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:57,170 Top may be you, not the team in place. 454 00:24:57,200 --> 00:24:57,860 Correct. 455 00:24:57,860 --> 00:24:58,640 Correct. 456 00:24:58,640 --> 00:24:59,810 Yes. So right, 457 00:24:59,900 --> 00:25:04,850 there are four core HR processes that I think every team needs to have to 458 00:25:04,850 --> 00:25:07,760 be able to consistently attract and retain a player talent. 459 00:25:08,120 --> 00:25:12,230 You need your hiring process, your onboarding process, which is absolutely key. 460 00:25:12,290 --> 00:25:15,680 Do not skip onboarding. You need your high performance management. 461 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:19,760 So that's ongoing management and growth coaching for the people on your team. 462 00:25:20,090 --> 00:25:21,110 And then you need firing. 463 00:25:21,380 --> 00:25:26,000 How do we systematically either manage people up if there's underperformance 464 00:25:26,180 --> 00:25:29,210 or manage them out where we determine they're not the right fit and we get them 465 00:25:29,210 --> 00:25:32,690 off the bus? These things need to happen systematically. 466 00:25:33,050 --> 00:25:35,720 What I often see happen is they're happening organically. 467 00:25:36,380 --> 00:25:39,950 We're hiring by dropping a job description on Facebook and then hiring the first 468 00:25:39,950 --> 00:25:42,530 person that comes along because we needed this person three months ago and I 469 00:25:42,530 --> 00:25:44,960 really just need this person. And you seem smart and competent, 470 00:25:45,860 --> 00:25:46,940 not a proven system, 471 00:25:47,060 --> 00:25:50,270 not going to get you the A player. Most of the time onboarding, 472 00:25:50,270 --> 00:25:51,290 we skip entirely. 473 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:54,200 We just throw 'em in the deep end and we say they're an A player, 474 00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:55,700 they should learn how to swim. 475 00:25:56,420 --> 00:26:01,340 Truly a strong onboarding process will three x your average employee 476 00:26:01,340 --> 00:26:05,300 retention and increase your average employee productivity by 72%. 477 00:26:05,570 --> 00:26:08,750 And that has nothing to do with the caliber of people that you're hiring and 478 00:26:08,750 --> 00:26:09,380 onboarding. 479 00:26:09,380 --> 00:26:13,760 That just comes down to whether you are onboarding them effectively or not. 480 00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:18,140 Hiring, onboarding, growth, coaching, right? Managing. 481 00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:21,350 This is the area where we get to turn our B players into A players. 482 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:26,000 This is where we're creating an environment that invites them to be their best 483 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:29,510 or not. Are we tapping into their intrinsic motivators? 484 00:26:29,780 --> 00:26:33,680 Are we creating an environment of clearly defined accountability and radical 485 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:38,060 ownership? Are we paying our people fairly with scalable compensation plans? 486 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:43,040 Have we defined clear and exact roles so people know what is my job and what is 487 00:26:43,050 --> 00:26:45,150 not my job? There's a whole checklist, Brett, 488 00:26:45,150 --> 00:26:47,820 I could even send it to your group. I've got. 489 00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:48,713 That'd be amazing. 490 00:26:49,260 --> 00:26:53,640 Eight core pillars of what goes into a high performance, a playing environment. 491 00:26:53,850 --> 00:26:57,750 And I'm happy to share that with everyone because just by implementing those 492 00:26:57,750 --> 00:27:01,080 eight things within your existing business, your existing team, 493 00:27:01,140 --> 00:27:04,200 you don't even have to pay them any more than you're currently paying them. 494 00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:04,860 They. 495 00:27:04,860 --> 00:27:09,030 Promise you you will get a productivity increase of a minimum of two x because 496 00:27:09,030 --> 00:27:13,050 that's just how big of a deal it is when you start turning on a high performance 497 00:27:13,050 --> 00:27:13,883 environment. 498 00:27:14,490 --> 00:27:19,080 Yeah, it's so good. And I want to go back to something I said a minute ago, 499 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:20,490 just to clarify. 500 00:27:20,940 --> 00:27:25,470 The reason I shared the Steve Jobs of I don't care if I pay two or three x 501 00:27:25,980 --> 00:27:28,650 times for an employee, they're going to be 10 or a hundred times more valuable. 502 00:27:28,830 --> 00:27:29,700 That wasn't about salary, 503 00:27:30,990 --> 00:27:34,500 that was more about the right person can unlock things. 504 00:27:35,010 --> 00:27:39,960 But what I think is also really interesting about this environment right now is 505 00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:41,940 that there's a lot of A-players out there. 506 00:27:41,940 --> 00:27:44,250 There's a lot of great talent out there, 507 00:27:44,730 --> 00:27:48,750 and you can get them for a reasonable rate, like a good competitive salary. 508 00:27:48,750 --> 00:27:53,070 It's not the insanity that was kind of mid pandemic 509 00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:55,770 when everything was just off the rails. 510 00:27:56,010 --> 00:27:59,070 It's kind of more of a normal job market to a certain degree. 511 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:03,540 And so there is good talent out there that you can find. 512 00:28:03,540 --> 00:28:07,170 So would love to have that checklist. We'll put in the show notes, 513 00:28:07,170 --> 00:28:09,930 we'll share that with everybody, but I also like the way you laid that out. 514 00:28:09,930 --> 00:28:13,650 So hiring, onboarding, ongoing coaching, and then firing. 515 00:28:13,650 --> 00:28:16,500 It's got to be systematic. That's to follow up process. 516 00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:19,560 But I think what most people will do are like, Hey, you're good. 517 00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,040 So come on board and figure stuff out. Watch this person. Watch that person. 518 00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:23,873 You'll get it. 519 00:28:24,390 --> 00:28:24,810 Yes. 520 00:28:24,810 --> 00:28:27,780 Imagine if going back again, going back to a football example, 521 00:28:27,780 --> 00:28:31,110 imagine if that happened there. That doesn't happen. You bring on a player, 522 00:28:31,110 --> 00:28:32,850 you get 'em indoctrinated and what you do, 523 00:28:32,850 --> 00:28:35,490 they immediately go to their position coach, they go to all these practices, 524 00:28:35,490 --> 00:28:39,600 they're watching film, they're constantly being evaluated, everything, 525 00:28:39,660 --> 00:28:40,530 everything is thought of. 526 00:28:40,530 --> 00:28:44,190 And obviously we're not quite like a professional sports team, 527 00:28:44,190 --> 00:28:47,940 but we need to be more like one, right? If we want a performance-based culture, 528 00:28:48,270 --> 00:28:51,750 we could probably learn a lot from that structure. So. 529 00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:53,010 Yeah, I love that. I love that. 530 00:28:53,460 --> 00:28:57,510 I want to talk a little bit about hiring just because I think that's something 531 00:28:57,510 --> 00:28:58,080 that. 532 00:28:58,080 --> 00:28:58,490 It's a big one. 533 00:28:58,490 --> 00:29:01,680 Is intimidating to people. We screw it up so often. 534 00:29:01,740 --> 00:29:06,000 I can think about a couple of really bad mistakes that I've made as a business 535 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,910 owner when it comes to hiring, but what are some of the, yeah, yeah, 536 00:29:08,910 --> 00:29:12,630 I mean we all do, but what are some of the hiring tips, 537 00:29:12,930 --> 00:29:15,840 insights, processes you recommend? 538 00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,030 Should I go with a recruiter or no recruiter? 539 00:29:18,030 --> 00:29:20,190 How am I going to find the right talent? 540 00:29:20,820 --> 00:29:23,910 Yeah. Okay. So a couple of best practices when it comes to hiring, 541 00:29:24,180 --> 00:29:27,370 especially because for some positions or many positions, Brett, 542 00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:31,080 your clients are hiring remote team members, which is amazing. 543 00:29:31,110 --> 00:29:34,530 It means we get to tap into international job markets and all of these things. 544 00:29:34,770 --> 00:29:39,570 And also overwhelming because when we launch our average ops COO 545 00:29:39,570 --> 00:29:43,870 hiring funnel, we can get from 500 to a thousand applications. 546 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:46,090 So how do we whittle that down? 547 00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:50,830 I always say that a strong hiring funnel is like a magnet. 548 00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:53,860 What does a magnet do? A magnet attracts, 549 00:29:54,250 --> 00:29:57,910 it attracts your ideal candidate avatar, right? You're a marketer. 550 00:29:58,450 --> 00:30:01,120 If we wanted to build a marketing funnel, what will we start with? 551 00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:04,840 We would start with our ideal client avatar. Who is this person? 552 00:30:05,260 --> 00:30:07,840 What do they think about at night? What drives them? What motivates them? 553 00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:12,640 What do they want? Let's build that for our ideal candidate. 554 00:30:12,700 --> 00:30:14,890 I call the tool that we use for this, the job scorecard. 555 00:30:15,490 --> 00:30:17,980 We have to define success in the role, 556 00:30:18,340 --> 00:30:23,320 and then we build a hiring funnel that is messaged towards that person and 557 00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:27,850 is designed to be a magnet that will attract them through our process so that by 558 00:30:27,850 --> 00:30:29,950 the time they get to the end of our hiring process, 559 00:30:29,950 --> 00:30:32,860 we have COOs who have 20 years experience being like, 560 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:35,110 this was the most incredible hiring process I've ever gone. 561 00:30:35,110 --> 00:30:35,680 Through. Wow. 562 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:37,840 I'm so excited to work with your client. 563 00:30:38,020 --> 00:30:39,850 When do I get to have my next interview? 564 00:30:39,940 --> 00:30:42,070 Do you guys have any other job opportunities available? 565 00:30:42,610 --> 00:30:47,530 You want them to be so excited because you have built this just 566 00:30:47,530 --> 00:30:51,640 for them? What else does a magnet do? A magnet repels. 567 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:57,190 So this funnel should be so specific and so fine tuned 568 00:30:57,430 --> 00:31:01,900 that someone who is not your ideal candidate will self-select out. 569 00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:05,260 They literally will just stop. They'll stop going through the process. 570 00:31:05,590 --> 00:31:09,910 So while we may get 500 COO applications on our average job description, 571 00:31:10,150 --> 00:31:14,260 by the time our process is done and we're actually looking like we're looking at 572 00:31:14,260 --> 00:31:16,240 applications, we're looking at resumes, 573 00:31:16,510 --> 00:31:20,260 we're looking at the top 20 to 30 for that role because we have such a robust 574 00:31:20,260 --> 00:31:25,120 process that it will literally take out 95% of the candidates that apply because 575 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:26,290 they're not the right fit. 576 00:31:26,650 --> 00:31:30,730 And it would literally be a waste of me and my team's time to have any sort of 577 00:31:30,730 --> 00:31:34,390 conversation with them or to spend a minute looking at their resume. 578 00:31:34,750 --> 00:31:38,470 So if you're going for a remote job market where you're getting overwhelmed by 579 00:31:38,470 --> 00:31:41,740 just sheer volume, rely on the process, 580 00:31:41,860 --> 00:31:46,720 let the process kick out 95% of people so that you're only focused on the 581 00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:50,500 5%, that could really be that ideal candidate you're looking for. 582 00:31:51,490 --> 00:31:53,140 That's so good. That's so good. I love that. 583 00:31:53,140 --> 00:31:57,700 The job scorecard and really thinking about how am I going to position this 584 00:31:58,030 --> 00:32:02,260 so they get the job done so that it meets its objectives so that I'm attracting 585 00:32:02,260 --> 00:32:07,030 the right person, repelling the wrong person, really good. And again, 586 00:32:07,030 --> 00:32:10,780 I think a lot of us that listen to us are marketers. If you own a brand, 587 00:32:10,780 --> 00:32:12,070 you're probably good at marketing, 588 00:32:12,580 --> 00:32:15,940 but you don't really put your marketing hat on when you're crafting that job 589 00:32:15,940 --> 00:32:20,110 scorecard or looking at attracting talent, but you kind of should be, right? 590 00:32:20,530 --> 00:32:23,350 There's quite a few parallels there. It's the same thing, isn't it? It's the. 591 00:32:23,350 --> 00:32:26,950 Same. Humans be humans, and it's a marketing funnel. 592 00:32:26,950 --> 00:32:30,190 Your hiring funnel is a marketing funnel for your ideal candidate. 593 00:32:30,700 --> 00:32:32,470 Yeah, it's so good. So good. 594 00:32:33,070 --> 00:32:35,800 Any other specific tips you can give on the hiring process? 595 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:38,650 What should that look like? Should you outsource it? Should you do it? 596 00:32:39,650 --> 00:32:41,240 How many interviews should you have? 597 00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:44,540 And I know there's all kinds of conditional statements there, 598 00:32:44,540 --> 00:32:47,390 but any other tips on the hiring process that you'd recommend? 599 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:51,320 So we have a eight step hiring process. 600 00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:53,270 I can walk through it very quickly if you would like, 601 00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:56,630 but not to get too deep into the weeds. Essentially, 602 00:32:56,630 --> 00:33:00,050 our proven hiring process is we launched the job description on the front end. 603 00:33:00,350 --> 00:33:03,260 The job description will take them directly to a written application. 604 00:33:03,260 --> 00:33:07,280 So the application is going to take them off of whatever job forum they're on, 605 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:11,480 indeed or LinkedIn. We will drop JD into these huge, again, 606 00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:14,510 these huge ponds of candidates, hundreds of people. 607 00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:16,610 Thousands of people will see that job description, 608 00:33:16,790 --> 00:33:19,970 but only hundreds of them will click on the link and apply through our link. 609 00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:23,570 So that's a huge filtration system that kicks a lot of people out. 610 00:33:24,050 --> 00:33:27,140 Then we take 'em to the written application. The written application is quick. 611 00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:28,550 It's easy for them to fill out, 612 00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:31,730 but the written application takes 'em directly to a skill assessment. 613 00:33:32,090 --> 00:33:37,040 The skill assessment is where we generally see 80% of candidates plus stop the 614 00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:37,850 process. 615 00:33:37,850 --> 00:33:41,210 They literally just won't submit it because the skill assessment is hard. 616 00:33:41,540 --> 00:33:44,360 Back to marketing here, Brett. One thing we know about marketing funnels, 617 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:47,990 the greater the friction in the funnel, the higher the quality of lead, 618 00:33:48,230 --> 00:33:52,650 right? Yep. Same thing with hiring. So we make it hard. 619 00:33:53,270 --> 00:33:54,050 It shouldn't be. 620 00:33:54,050 --> 00:33:55,910 Hard to, what does that look like? I know sometimes, 621 00:33:56,270 --> 00:34:01,250 so it was one thing we do as an agency is we give them a fake project. 622 00:34:01,490 --> 00:34:04,670 Here's an made up client, and here's a bunch of scenarios. 623 00:34:04,730 --> 00:34:06,380 What are you going to do in those scenarios, right? Yes. 624 00:34:06,380 --> 00:34:09,890 How are you going to optimize this? And then we grade those answers. 625 00:34:09,890 --> 00:34:11,510 Is that what you're recommending here? 626 00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:16,070 Pretty much, yep. It's two to three. I call 'em crunchy questions that again, 627 00:34:16,190 --> 00:34:20,660 your A player ideal candidate will have no problem answering why? 628 00:34:20,930 --> 00:34:23,480 Because they've done this at three other companies already. 629 00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:26,750 This is as natural to them as breathing, and in fact, they fucking love it. 630 00:34:27,020 --> 00:34:27,853 Such a nerd. 631 00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:28,730 They. 632 00:34:28,730 --> 00:34:30,890 Get to the end of the skill assessment and they're like, oh my God, 633 00:34:30,890 --> 00:34:34,340 that was so fun. I cannot wait for this job. Most people, 634 00:34:34,430 --> 00:34:37,850 80% of people will say, this is hard. This is going to take too long. 635 00:34:37,850 --> 00:34:40,910 I don't know how to do this. I don't want to do this. And they will, again, 636 00:34:40,910 --> 00:34:42,050 self-select apps. 637 00:34:42,110 --> 00:34:42,943 Perfect. 638 00:34:42,980 --> 00:34:44,030 So that's the skill assessment. 639 00:34:44,180 --> 00:34:44,330 See you. 640 00:34:44,330 --> 00:34:48,140 Yep. It's a big one. From there'll then start interviews. 641 00:34:48,470 --> 00:34:51,230 So we'll do a culture interview, a skill interview, reference interviews, 642 00:34:51,410 --> 00:34:53,090 and then we'll finally close them on the job. 643 00:34:53,390 --> 00:34:57,170 That's amazing. That's amazing. Really, really helpful. 644 00:34:57,170 --> 00:35:00,920 So we've kind of set our vision, our strategic vision, 645 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:04,640 and kind of mapped that out. And we're now talking about hiring. 646 00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:09,620 And let's talk a little bit about what that environment looks like that allows a 647 00:35:09,620 --> 00:35:11,570 player to shine. I know you've touched on a handful of things, 648 00:35:11,990 --> 00:35:14,060 but if we want a performance-based culture, 649 00:35:14,420 --> 00:35:18,830 what are some things we need to have in place for that to be true? 650 00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:22,370 So I'm assuming you got the job scorecard for when you hire somebody, 651 00:35:23,300 --> 00:35:27,320 probably a scorecard ongoing where you can show someone how are you doing and 652 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:29,780 how can you do better type of thing. 653 00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:32,150 And again, it comes back to onboarding. 654 00:35:32,150 --> 00:35:34,040 So we take that same exact job scorecard, 655 00:35:34,190 --> 00:35:37,100 and then on the very first day of that new person starting their job, 656 00:35:37,380 --> 00:35:40,950 I still personally do a culture onboarding call, right? 657 00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:45,870 How important this call is in this culture onboarding call, we cover vision, 658 00:35:45,930 --> 00:35:47,580 mission, right? Your V two mom, 659 00:35:47,580 --> 00:35:50,250 this is when you would share that this is your vision, your mission, 660 00:35:50,250 --> 00:35:53,610 your core values. This is the team they're going to be working with. 661 00:35:53,820 --> 00:35:54,990 This is the lay of the land, 662 00:35:55,230 --> 00:35:58,260 and this is your performance and cultural expectations. 663 00:35:58,860 --> 00:36:02,250 So I'll say things like show up on time to meetings and be on camera. 664 00:36:03,540 --> 00:36:07,530 Do I have to say that most of clients would be like, no, they're a players. 665 00:36:07,530 --> 00:36:10,980 I shouldn't have to say that. Set expectations. 666 00:36:11,490 --> 00:36:15,660 This is client. Think of your team onboarding. Again, like client onboarding. 667 00:36:16,350 --> 00:36:18,360 We know how important it is. 668 00:36:18,810 --> 00:36:19,110 For. 669 00:36:19,110 --> 00:36:22,200 Successful client onboarding, to have an incredible experience, 670 00:36:22,410 --> 00:36:25,500 to set realistic expectations and to understand, 671 00:36:25,500 --> 00:36:28,350 especially in a service industry like agencies, Brett, 672 00:36:28,590 --> 00:36:32,340 what do they need to bring to the table in order to be successful in this 673 00:36:32,340 --> 00:36:36,450 partnership? That is exactly what you're doing on day one. Here's us, 674 00:36:37,350 --> 00:36:40,620 here's what success looks like in your role, job scorecard. 675 00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:45,060 And then the third and critical component to this conversation is a transfer of 676 00:36:45,060 --> 00:36:45,893 ownership. 677 00:36:45,900 --> 00:36:49,710 The single greatest characteristic of high performance teams is radical 678 00:36:49,710 --> 00:36:54,510 ownership. So here's your job scorecard. This is yours. Now. 679 00:36:55,590 --> 00:36:55,770 These. 680 00:36:55,770 --> 00:36:58,620 Are not my targets. These are your targets. 681 00:36:58,860 --> 00:37:02,790 These are not my challenges to solve my daily tasks to fix for you. 682 00:37:03,030 --> 00:37:06,840 These are your tasks, your challenges, your growth opportunity, 683 00:37:07,260 --> 00:37:08,190 your level up, 684 00:37:08,460 --> 00:37:11,970 and in fact that the next two weeks of training that we're about to launch into 685 00:37:11,970 --> 00:37:13,590 for you, that's yours as well. 686 00:37:14,010 --> 00:37:18,660 You are responsible for becoming the version of you for gaining the knowledge 687 00:37:18,660 --> 00:37:23,550 that you need to hit these targets and achieve success as measured by this 688 00:37:23,550 --> 00:37:24,810 job scorecard. Welcome to the. 689 00:37:25,050 --> 00:37:29,370 So good, so good. And some people would hate to hear that message, 690 00:37:29,730 --> 00:37:33,180 but the right people, it will light them up. They will love that. 691 00:37:33,510 --> 00:37:36,180 So even kind of you hint about some of those things, 692 00:37:36,180 --> 00:37:38,910 I would assume in the hiring process as well to kind of weed out the wrong 693 00:37:38,910 --> 00:37:39,743 people. 694 00:37:39,750 --> 00:37:42,600 Yeah. Again, the hiring process is built for that ideal candidate, 695 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:44,550 the person who should get lit up. 696 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:46,710 When we then deliver that message in onboarding, 697 00:37:46,980 --> 00:37:50,670 if by some reason somebody has snuck through the hiring process and pulled a 698 00:37:50,670 --> 00:37:51,503 fast one on me, 699 00:37:51,990 --> 00:37:55,740 the onboarding is also intense from the culture call. 700 00:37:56,220 --> 00:37:59,010 We launch 'em into what we call the 14 day bootcamp, and I tell 'em, 701 00:37:59,340 --> 00:38:02,130 the first 14 days on this rollout are going to be intense. Why? 702 00:38:02,460 --> 00:38:06,090 Because I want to stress test you because the person that I met in the 703 00:38:06,090 --> 00:38:08,640 interviews is not the person I'm hiring. 704 00:38:08,820 --> 00:38:13,650 That is a shiny blow up version of the person that I 705 00:38:13,650 --> 00:38:14,460 just hired. 706 00:38:14,460 --> 00:38:18,630 The person I actually hired is a person who's six months from now whose kid is 707 00:38:18,630 --> 00:38:21,300 sick and they left the stove on and the mailman is here, 708 00:38:21,390 --> 00:38:22,860 and there's a client fire exploding. 709 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,950 And how do they show up to the team meeting? That's the person I. 710 00:38:25,950 --> 00:38:26,783 Hired. 711 00:38:26,940 --> 00:38:28,890 I want to know who that person is, 712 00:38:28,890 --> 00:38:31,260 and I don't want to have to wait six months to figure it out. 713 00:38:31,860 --> 00:38:35,800 Tell me more about that. That is great because, well, 714 00:38:36,100 --> 00:38:40,840 we've made the mistake in the past of making the first two weeks 715 00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:42,100 month just so easy, 716 00:38:42,490 --> 00:38:44,740 and part of it's like we want to be a great place to work and we want to 717 00:38:45,220 --> 00:38:47,860 challenge people. We want to coach people. And sometimes we made it just way, 718 00:38:47,860 --> 00:38:51,760 way too easy, almost boring. That has since changed. 719 00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:55,900 But how do you stress test in those first two weeks? What does that look like? 720 00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:01,240 So I want to draw a difference between hard and disorganized. What does an A 721 00:39:01,240 --> 00:39:04,540 player want? An A player doesn't mind a high pressure environment. 722 00:39:05,470 --> 00:39:09,520 A player doesn't mind drinking out of a fire hose in terms of learning new 723 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:13,420 information. An A player doesn't mind throwing themselves into something, 724 00:39:13,420 --> 00:39:15,040 getting their hands dirty and figuring it out. 725 00:39:15,370 --> 00:39:17,500 What doesn't set people up for success though, 726 00:39:17,650 --> 00:39:19,420 is again kicking them into the deep end. 727 00:39:19,750 --> 00:39:24,520 So we're just throwing you into things with no structure, with no organization, 728 00:39:24,730 --> 00:39:27,430 with no guidance around what you should be looking at, 729 00:39:27,460 --> 00:39:30,070 what you should be focused on or what success looks like. 730 00:39:30,460 --> 00:39:34,570 So our responsibility as leadership is to develop that structure. 731 00:39:34,570 --> 00:39:36,550 So that's what we call the 14 day bootcamp, 732 00:39:36,820 --> 00:39:39,460 and it's that blow by blow of for the first 14 days, 733 00:39:39,670 --> 00:39:42,100 you're going to train on these things with these people. 734 00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:44,710 You're going to watch these meetings, shadow these client calls, 735 00:39:44,710 --> 00:39:49,540 read these books. We're going to give you all of the information that you need. 736 00:39:50,260 --> 00:39:52,720 We're going to front load it. And at the end of two weeks, 737 00:39:52,720 --> 00:39:55,600 the goal is that you are functional, not that you're exceptional, 738 00:39:55,690 --> 00:39:57,520 that you're functional in the role, 739 00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:01,510 and I'm going to download any and all information into your brain that you need 740 00:40:01,510 --> 00:40:04,720 in order to become functional. It will be hard, 741 00:40:05,290 --> 00:40:06,580 but we've got your back. 742 00:40:07,450 --> 00:40:10,900 Also included in that 14 day bootcamp is daily check-ins with their manager, 743 00:40:11,350 --> 00:40:15,820 end of week check-ins with me, a 14 day check-in around, where are you at? 744 00:40:15,850 --> 00:40:18,160 Where are you struggling, how are you feeling after your first two weeks? 745 00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:22,570 So there's structure to it, but that doesn't make it not hard. 746 00:40:22,780 --> 00:40:25,150 It just makes it hard with support. 747 00:40:25,810 --> 00:40:28,270 Yeah. Yeah, man, it's so good. 748 00:40:28,270 --> 00:40:31,030 So we are running out of time a bit, 749 00:40:31,030 --> 00:40:33,130 but I do want to talk about the final two things. 750 00:40:34,210 --> 00:40:38,500 How are we coaching someone and helping them really grow and reach peak 751 00:40:38,500 --> 00:40:41,410 performance? And then when do we fire people as well? 752 00:40:41,410 --> 00:40:42,730 So let's talk about both of those. 753 00:40:43,330 --> 00:40:46,480 What tips or insights can you share on the coaching and helping someone level 754 00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:47,313 up? 755 00:40:47,500 --> 00:40:51,520 So the first thing is if you want a high performance team, coach them. 756 00:40:51,940 --> 00:40:55,990 Every high performer has a coach. Michael Phelps has a coach, 757 00:40:56,140 --> 00:40:58,630 and I hear clients say a lot, if I'm hiring eight players, 758 00:40:58,810 --> 00:41:01,690 why should I have to manage them? Management is. 759 00:41:01,690 --> 00:41:03,070 Coaching the best. Want a coach? Yeah. 760 00:41:03,310 --> 00:41:05,110 Correct, correct. Right. 761 00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:09,580 And so I have not just coaching as in an end of quarter performance review. 762 00:41:09,790 --> 00:41:13,870 We do active growth coaching on a weekly or biweekly basis with our team 763 00:41:13,870 --> 00:41:17,620 members. So every week for new team members, every other week for veterans, 764 00:41:17,860 --> 00:41:21,520 they are sitting down with their direct manager. And what I am working on, 765 00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:23,380 again, included, I'll just send Brett, 766 00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:26,860 I have SOP and tools and templates for literally all of this. 767 00:41:26,860 --> 00:41:28,360 I'm just going to give it to your people. Does that work? 768 00:41:28,660 --> 00:41:29,500 Amazing. Amazing. 769 00:41:29,500 --> 00:41:30,730 Thank you so much. Yeah. 770 00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:34,520 So that includes in there a script and a one-on-one template for how I run these 771 00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:35,353 meetings. 772 00:41:35,420 --> 00:41:38,750 But essentially I am taking the last one to two weeks of their performance in 773 00:41:38,750 --> 00:41:42,320 the role, and we're using it as data. Where did you do well? 774 00:41:42,500 --> 00:41:44,120 Where could you have done better? 775 00:41:44,300 --> 00:41:46,310 What are you going to do differently moving forward? 776 00:41:46,310 --> 00:41:48,230 What are you struggling with? What's blocking you? 777 00:41:48,620 --> 00:41:52,850 I have a lot of clients who have a lot of fear around giving constructive 778 00:41:52,850 --> 00:41:55,910 feedback, But you're a coach. 779 00:41:56,450 --> 00:41:59,030 Constructive feedback is literally your job. 780 00:41:59,180 --> 00:42:01,970 What you're afraid of is demotivating someone. 781 00:42:02,270 --> 00:42:04,280 What you're afraid of is making them feel bad. 782 00:42:04,490 --> 00:42:07,520 But that must to do with the culture, not the feedback. 783 00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:12,650 If the culture says that you getting feedback means you've done something wrong, 784 00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:16,070 then yeah, I'm going to be afraid to give feedback or receive feedback. 785 00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:17,240 If instead, 786 00:42:17,450 --> 00:42:22,220 feedback is an act of service and coaching to help every single 787 00:42:22,220 --> 00:42:24,890 person on this team level up all the time. 788 00:42:25,550 --> 00:42:27,500 I have team members coming into those meetings being like, 789 00:42:27,650 --> 00:42:30,260 what could I do better? This is what I struggled with. 790 00:42:30,470 --> 00:42:33,260 How would you tackle this? I feel like I really botched this meeting. 791 00:42:33,410 --> 00:42:35,360 They're looking for it. They're leaning into. 792 00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:36,140 It. 793 00:42:36,140 --> 00:42:38,890 Because they recognize it for what it is Better, 794 00:42:38,890 --> 00:42:42,440 which is an active level of service, and they want to get better. So again, 795 00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:45,830 this is where we get into the less tangible side of team development, 796 00:42:45,860 --> 00:42:46,250 which is like, 797 00:42:46,250 --> 00:42:51,110 what's the culture that you've built around growth and feedback and failure? 798 00:42:51,590 --> 00:42:54,530 How does your team respond to failure? How do you respond to failure? 799 00:42:54,860 --> 00:42:56,960 If we can control the cultural context, 800 00:42:57,200 --> 00:43:02,000 then every single day my team is showing up, looking for an opportunity to grow. 801 00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:06,470 My job is to just hold up the mirror and say, Hey, here's your next gap. 802 00:43:06,710 --> 00:43:09,620 Here's your next opportunity. Grow this way. 803 00:43:11,180 --> 00:43:13,940 Yeah. Yeah. It's so good. Well, 804 00:43:13,940 --> 00:43:17,900 let's talk a little bit about the F word firing. 805 00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:22,880 So when is it time to fire and move on from somebody? 806 00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:25,160 What insights can you share with us there? 807 00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:29,180 Yeah, so if we've done all the rest of this stuff correctly, 808 00:43:29,510 --> 00:43:33,920 then firing becomes actually a pretty easy process. We've got a job scorecard. 809 00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:35,390 We gave it to them on day one. 810 00:43:35,660 --> 00:43:38,000 We transferred ownership over those targets to them. 811 00:43:38,240 --> 00:43:42,410 We aligned their goals with company goals. We've coached them every single week, 812 00:43:42,410 --> 00:43:46,160 and we've established a regular rhythm where if there's a gap in performance, 813 00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:49,490 we're immediately calling it out, offering feedback and trying to correct it. 814 00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:53,810 What then happens if that person is still not able to perform? 815 00:43:54,200 --> 00:43:55,550 We have an immediate conversation, 816 00:43:56,240 --> 00:44:00,620 and it's a very simple conversation that says, Hey, this is the job scorecard. 817 00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:03,970 We covered this on day one. This is your job score card. 818 00:44:04,190 --> 00:44:09,080 We covered that on day one, and you're performing down here. Help me understand, 819 00:44:09,710 --> 00:44:12,410 what do you need for you? Again, 820 00:44:12,410 --> 00:44:16,130 radical ownership stays with them for you to close this gap, 821 00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:20,210 and what do you need for me to be successful in that? So it's a growth coaching 822 00:44:20,210 --> 00:44:24,920 conversation to start where I call that the pep, the personal elevation plan. 823 00:44:25,820 --> 00:44:29,450 And that is, Hey, as soon as I see a gap, I'm going to call it out, 824 00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:34,320 and we're going to co-create a game plan for you to close that gap and take 825 00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:35,640 radical ownership for doing so. 826 00:44:36,180 --> 00:44:39,990 Then if I don't see that they've closed that gap, then we'll escalate to a pip. 827 00:44:40,380 --> 00:44:43,410 That's the last warning conversation of like, Hey, to be clear, 828 00:44:43,890 --> 00:44:48,810 you cannot have this job if you're not meeting the expectations outlined 829 00:44:48,810 --> 00:44:50,640 in the job scorecard. So again, 830 00:44:50,970 --> 00:44:54,810 help me understand why haven't I seen the change and what needs to change in 831 00:44:54,810 --> 00:44:59,220 order for you to be successful, because we both want you to be successful here. 832 00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:02,840 So the PIP, that's the personal improvement plan, right? Correct. 833 00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:05,280 This is where you got to improve here else. This is going to fit. 834 00:45:05,580 --> 00:45:06,540 And my guess is, John, 835 00:45:06,630 --> 00:45:09,960 if you are a company and you're leading someone through this process after the 836 00:45:09,960 --> 00:45:12,300 pip, some people are going to make it a lot. People are going to be like, yeah, 837 00:45:12,300 --> 00:45:14,340 this price isn't right. Correct. 838 00:45:14,340 --> 00:45:17,880 The firing is not going to be a surprise to anybody at that point. 839 00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:19,080 You go through that process, 840 00:45:19,380 --> 00:45:22,860 it's going to be a pretty natural next step for you and for the person you're 841 00:45:22,860 --> 00:45:23,610 firing. 842 00:45:23,610 --> 00:45:24,690 It's not a surprise. 843 00:45:24,690 --> 00:45:28,050 And what you'll actually see is people will just quit that phrase, 844 00:45:28,050 --> 00:45:32,070 manage up or manage out. Credit to Layla Hermo for teaching me that one. 845 00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:35,130 When you've done a great job of building a high performance, 846 00:45:35,130 --> 00:45:40,110 high pressure environment, people who don't like that, who don't want that, 847 00:45:40,290 --> 00:45:44,580 who don't want to be held accountable to constant growth and constant targets 848 00:45:44,850 --> 00:45:47,550 will leave. They'll literally just leave. 849 00:45:47,790 --> 00:45:50,730 Which is akay even better, right? Than having to f. 850 00:45:50,730 --> 00:45:52,530 Fire, which is best case scenario. Exactly. 851 00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:56,820 Exactly. This is so good, and one thing I'll share too, 852 00:45:56,820 --> 00:45:59,880 and we've had our ups and downs as an agency 853 00:46:01,380 --> 00:46:03,630 when it comes to ops and hiring and firing and things like that. 854 00:46:03,630 --> 00:46:05,220 But what I've also found too, 855 00:46:05,220 --> 00:46:08,910 because I think there's this fear that business owners have too, about firing. 856 00:46:09,570 --> 00:46:14,520 I can't think of a single time that we fired someone at OMG where 857 00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:18,060 I've had outrage from the team. Almost always it's like, yeah, 858 00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:21,060 I saw that coming, right? Or yeah, we got that. 859 00:46:21,240 --> 00:46:25,290 We did have to go through a couple of rounds of layoffs as an agency about 18 860 00:46:25,290 --> 00:46:27,450 months ago. That sucked, and that sucked bad. 861 00:46:27,870 --> 00:46:30,750 A lot of agencies and a lot of e-comm brands had to do that. 862 00:46:30,900 --> 00:46:33,990 So I did get pushback there. People were like, how could you let this person go? 863 00:46:33,990 --> 00:46:37,380 I'm like, I know. I know. It sucked. But the firing piece, 864 00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:42,390 I've never had anybody. How could you, I mean, maybe the person's getting fired, 865 00:46:42,390 --> 00:46:45,570 but everybody else was like, yep, yep. Saw that Maybe you're a little bit late. 866 00:46:45,780 --> 00:46:47,820 Do you want me to offer you a reframe so that even that person. 867 00:46:47,830 --> 00:46:48,570 Please, please. 868 00:46:48,570 --> 00:46:51,090 Is on board with it? And guys, this is, again, 869 00:46:51,090 --> 00:46:55,920 this is coming from me messing this up so many times because I really 870 00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:58,650 care about my team. I do. And so I don't want to fire them. 871 00:46:58,650 --> 00:47:01,200 I don't want to hurt them. Oh my God. Maybe they're going to get better. 872 00:47:01,350 --> 00:47:03,210 I'll give them just another month. Just another month, 873 00:47:03,420 --> 00:47:05,010 and then we all know where that ends. Anyway. 874 00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:05,993 Right? 875 00:47:06,180 --> 00:47:07,560 Here's the reframe. I will offer you, 876 00:47:08,280 --> 00:47:12,660 your job as a business owner is to create a vehicle for growth. Growth for you, 877 00:47:13,110 --> 00:47:15,150 growth for your clients, growth for your team. 878 00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:19,290 People deserve to be successful in their roles. 879 00:47:19,650 --> 00:47:23,250 They deserve to be able to grow with your business. 880 00:47:23,760 --> 00:47:27,870 And if they are in a role where they cannot be successful or where their pathway 881 00:47:27,870 --> 00:47:30,310 for growth had diverted from yours, 882 00:47:30,850 --> 00:47:35,770 then it is an absolute act of love and service to let them go 883 00:47:36,070 --> 00:47:40,750 and find the other opportunity where they will be successful that does get them 884 00:47:40,750 --> 00:47:42,400 to their goals. They deserve that. 885 00:47:42,910 --> 00:47:47,830 It is in fact selfish to let your own emotional 886 00:47:47,830 --> 00:47:50,650 discomfort at the conversation, 887 00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:54,040 keep them in a place where they cannot be successful. 888 00:47:54,760 --> 00:47:59,200 So when I show up to a firing conversation, that's the lens that I bring. 889 00:47:59,860 --> 00:48:00,400 And guess what? 890 00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:04,240 I still get coffee every month with half the people I've fired because they're 891 00:48:04,240 --> 00:48:07,240 so grateful and I'm so grateful, and we love each other so much, 892 00:48:07,240 --> 00:48:10,330 and they've found another job opportunity or started a business, 893 00:48:10,660 --> 00:48:13,570 and they've become these incredible next level versions of themselves. 894 00:48:13,750 --> 00:48:16,810 And all we did when we fired them was determine that, Hey, 895 00:48:16,810 --> 00:48:21,490 the next version of you can't be unlocked here. That's okay. 896 00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:24,450 That's so okay. But it's time for us to part ways. 897 00:48:24,910 --> 00:48:29,590 And understanding that people desperately want to be successful. 898 00:48:29,590 --> 00:48:30,040 They do. 899 00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:32,950 They know that they're not being successful with your company if they're in this 900 00:48:33,130 --> 00:48:33,730 position, especially if you've got. 901 00:48:33,730 --> 00:48:34,360 A job scorecard. 902 00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:36,360 Especially if you've going through this, measur them against that process, 903 00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:40,210 then they really know and they really know. Right? And one story that I heard, 904 00:48:40,210 --> 00:48:41,470 this was in the book, radical Candor, 905 00:48:41,470 --> 00:48:46,150 which is one of my favorites because I'm not naturally a candid person. 906 00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:47,680 So that book really helped me. 907 00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:50,710 But I love the story between Steve Jobs and Johnny. 908 00:48:50,710 --> 00:48:52,900 Ive and Steve would ask Johnny like, Hey, 909 00:48:52,900 --> 00:48:54,550 did you give this feedback to your teammate? 910 00:48:54,550 --> 00:48:56,920 Did you tell them this isn't good enough? And Johnny would be like, well, 911 00:48:56,920 --> 00:49:00,580 I don't want to hurt their feelings or whatever. And Steve would say, no, 912 00:49:00,580 --> 00:49:02,140 Johnny, you don't want to be nice. 913 00:49:02,140 --> 00:49:04,690 You're just vain and you want people to like you, right? 914 00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:08,560 It's like you've got to give people the feedback. And of course, 915 00:49:08,800 --> 00:49:13,600 we don't have to put on our Steve Jobs and show up just the way he 916 00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:17,470 did, not our personalities. But it's one of those things that say like, yeah, 917 00:49:17,470 --> 00:49:20,920 the frame you gave, it's actually not kindness. If you are, 918 00:49:21,580 --> 00:49:25,810 and maybe it's actually selfish if you're holding onto somebody when you need to 919 00:49:25,810 --> 00:49:29,980 let them go so they can go not be miserable somewhere and be successful 920 00:49:29,980 --> 00:49:30,813 somewhere. 921 00:49:30,940 --> 00:49:34,060 Or you're holding onto that piece of feedback that you're unwilling to tell them 922 00:49:34,360 --> 00:49:37,060 when it's actually just depriving them of the opportunity. 923 00:49:37,060 --> 00:49:37,480 To. 924 00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:39,580 Know what the gap is so they can do something about it. 925 00:49:40,030 --> 00:49:44,800 Yeah. Yeah. So good. We could keep going. You've got me fired up for operations. 926 00:49:44,800 --> 00:49:47,650 I'm not even operations guy. This is amazing, John, this, I can't believe it. 927 00:49:48,010 --> 00:49:52,990 So good. So definitely share with us the SOPs. I'll get that out. 928 00:49:52,990 --> 00:49:55,660 We'll put that in the show notes. Anybody can get that. But also, 929 00:49:55,720 --> 00:49:57,910 I'm confident there are people listening that are just like, 930 00:49:58,090 --> 00:50:01,750 I don't need the SOPs. I just want to work with Jonna and her team. 931 00:50:02,020 --> 00:50:05,320 So how can people connect with spyglass ops? What does that look like? 932 00:50:05,380 --> 00:50:08,680 Who are you right for? Talk to us about working with you. 933 00:50:09,100 --> 00:50:10,450 Yeah, beautiful. So guys, 934 00:50:10,450 --> 00:50:13,360 the best way to connect with me is actually on Instagram, 935 00:50:13,630 --> 00:50:16,180 and if you will add it into the show notes. 936 00:50:16,180 --> 00:50:18,970 But I'm just going to give you guys my entire resource vault. 937 00:50:19,210 --> 00:50:23,050 So DM me the code word vault, click on the link in the show notes, 938 00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:25,870 DM me on Instagram. It's the best way to get in touch. 939 00:50:25,870 --> 00:50:27,160 What Instagram handle. 940 00:50:27,740 --> 00:50:30,020 That is at the Jonna Lee. 941 00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:33,710 So J-H-A-N-A-L-I, Jonna Lee. 942 00:50:34,490 --> 00:50:37,040 Awesome. And so DM you the word vault. 943 00:50:37,430 --> 00:50:37,760 Correct. 944 00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:42,140 You'll get the whole thing there. The whole all the goods, man. Okay. 945 00:50:42,950 --> 00:50:47,000 That's amazing. Jonna, this has been fantastic. 946 00:50:47,240 --> 00:50:50,480 I can't wait to review this, share this with my team. Really, really good. 947 00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:54,680 I know this is going to create transformational change for people that listen 948 00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:58,910 and apply and especially those that get your details and or work with you guys, 949 00:50:58,910 --> 00:51:03,140 but you guys are really, you're geared to work with brands, work with agencies, 950 00:51:03,170 --> 00:51:05,960 work with just service-based companies. You can work with just about anybody, 951 00:51:05,960 --> 00:51:06,380 correct? 952 00:51:06,380 --> 00:51:09,620 Yeah. We work with online based startups, right? So eCom brands, 953 00:51:10,010 --> 00:51:13,250 given that you're running your business off technical systems, 954 00:51:13,250 --> 00:51:15,860 remote team building, that's the stuff we really specialize in. 955 00:51:16,610 --> 00:51:18,980 Awesome. Jonna Lee, 956 00:51:18,980 --> 00:51:23,750 ladies and gentlemen at the Jonna Lee on Instagram, connect with her there, 957 00:51:23,750 --> 00:51:26,630 DM her at the word vault and you'll get all the goods. 958 00:51:26,630 --> 00:51:30,710 Also put stuff in the show notes as well. So with that, Jonna, 959 00:51:30,770 --> 00:51:32,810 thank you so much. This was amazing. Thanks for bringing the energy. 960 00:51:32,810 --> 00:51:34,070 Thanks for bringing the insights. 961 00:51:34,220 --> 00:51:34,760 Thank you, Brett, it. 962 00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:36,080 Was fantastic. 963 00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:37,393 Appreciate it. 964 00:51:37,580 --> 00:51:41,450 Awesome. And thank you for tuning in as always. We'd love to hear from you. 965 00:51:41,690 --> 00:51:44,900 What would you like to hear more of on the show? If you've not done so, 966 00:51:45,260 --> 00:51:48,650 please leave us a review on iTunes and if you know somebody who's struggling 967 00:51:48,650 --> 00:51:53,510 with ops share, share with them this episode and with that, 968 00:51:53,510 --> 00:51:55,280 until next time, thank you for listening.