Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

Companies that are scaling well can be faced with hiring large numbers of people at once, but often don’t have the systems in place that train, teach, and keep that new talent in place for long. Allan Boyle is the founder of Saltwater Consulting, where he helps companies scale well. He gained his “special ops” training at Amazon, and has since focused on leading organizations through transformation, particularly leveraging cloud-based disruptive technologies. Allan focuses on working with technology companies, which isn’t everyone’s strength. But his product market fit angle can be applied to anyone. There is a good chance that you have a vision for the way you can change the world, but any real effort must include the ability to lead people. To really scale, you have to get good at developing leaders and leaders of leaders. Too often, scaling companies hire a lot of people quickly, but then fail to fully train their new hires. Typically on Day 1, the new hire is given their laptop and a general overview of the responsibilities, and on Day 2 the hiring manager goes out of town for two weeks, leaving the new hire alone and wondering what they are supposed to do next. With an effective launch plan, the hiring manager has a clear training schedule that can be reported back to HR after a few months. By doing this, a company can accurately determine how well a new hire has been onboarded. When scaling fast, Allan warns, don’t just focus on acquiring soft talent. Find the right people to help with hiring, and then focus on the new hires for their first three to four months for a more effective hiring process that will help to minimize turnovers. Allan offers his recommendations for developing a more effective onboarding process, creating an environment where new hires are properly trained, envisioning what the company will look like in the future, and then working toward making that a reality.   Interview Links: Allan Boyle Saltwater Consulting   Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube Recruiter.com Short List (use code scaleup) Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth. We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.

We all have the same 24 hours in the day, but leaders know how to use their time more effectively and generally find more happiness along the way.   Cassie Holmes is a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, where she is an award-winning teacher and researcher. Holmes’s work on the intersection of time and happiness has been widely published in lead academic journals and featured in such outlets as NPR, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and more. Happier Hour is her first book.   A few years ago Cassie found herself so exhausted and overwhelmed that she wondered if she would ever catch up with the pressures of life. She found herself wishing for more hours in her day, but quickly realized that increased discretionary time in her day does not always result in increased happiness.   It’s not about becoming time rich, it’s about making your time spent more rich. We can feel fulfilled and satisfied at the end of each day by investing our time more carefully. The perfect balance is found somewhere between having too much and too little to do. Being time-poor can have just as detrimental an effect on our happiness as not having enough to fill our days up. There was a time when Cassie thought that finding two hours of discretionary time in her day was a dream she would never be able to achieve. While scrolling on TikTok for two hours will never bring satisfaction, that same amount of time spent with children or on a passion project can be the most important hours that we spend in the day.   Cassie shares the research, examples, and cautionary tales that will push you to think about how you are living, and how you want to be remembered. Her message will inspire you to spend your hours well, because they add up to your days, your years, and ultimately, your life.   Interview Links: Cassie Holmes Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most   Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail.   Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.   We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.

When your team and your clients feel engaged and connected, great things happen. In this new episode of The Scaling Up Podcast, we have panelists Oklahoma Consultant and Woman of the Year Stacey Eads and Growth Institute Co-founder and CEO Daniel Marcos for a conversation about company culture.   One additional sentence in every email can free up a significant portion of the time that you spend sorting through your inbox. By simply stating whether an email request is a high priority or low priority, or offering a few options for people to reply with, you are clearly stating your request and making it easy for others to respond.   The newest trend in the workplace is “quiet quitting,” and it means different things for different people. Some people are looking for greater work/life balance, while others are quietly disengaging with their jobs as a preliminary move before quitting altogether. This is not a great move considering CEOs have just gotten comfortable with the idea of more remote work, but it’s not good for you or the company to exit in this way. Bill questions the leaders who are either intentionally or unintentionally driving employees away, and offers his advice for a more effective way to engage and retain top talent.   When you are doing good work and making a profit from it, everyone involved feels better about the company. Stacey highlights companies that have demonstrated an alignment of passion, purpose, and products, and Daniel addresses what it means to be engaged in the work that you are passionate about. No matter your position or your focus, the impact that your work has on your team, your clients, and the world at large matters.   Interview Links: Stacey Eads Daniel Marcos   Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail.   Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.   We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.  

Great experiences enhance your creativity, help you rest and recover, and restore your soul. Similarly, creating great experiences for the people that you work with, whether it be customers or employees, can be a powerful way to scale up.   Shane Mahoney has propelled luxury travel planning from a service to an art form. As the CEO and creative brain behind Lugos Travel, Shane puts together custom, luxury adventures, and meaningful experiences that are out-of-the-ordinary, thrilling, and a guaranteed delight to his clients.   So much travel now is planned by way of apps and websites, but when Shane learned about the opportunities available to him as a tour operator, he knew he had found the work he always wanted to do (even before he knew it existed).   Shane highlights what luxury travel looks like, how Lugos has pinpointed their travel destinations, and what their customers can expect from their experience. Their goal is to solve problems before their clients even know there is a problem at all.   Now operating in 17 countries, Lugo’s Travel is heavily focused on scaling up. They have identified ways to create a next-level, luxury experience for their customers. From professional photography to local, customized room gifts in upgraded hotel suites, they aim to delight and truly care for their customers.   The world is full of incredible offerings — what could you do for yourself or your team to enhance your efforts, your creativity, and your commitment to creating unbelievable experiences?   Interview Links: Shane Mahoney 360 Lugos Travel   Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail.   Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.   We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.  

What’s changed with hiring and recruiting? The short answer is everything. Today’s guest is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Recruiter.com, an on-demand recruiting platform providing flexible talent acquisition solutions that scale from startups to the Fortune 100, and he has great insights into the future of hiring.   Evan Sohn is a frequent contributor to CNBC and Yahoo! Finance and demonstrates expertise in a diverse set of industries, including Wi-Fi, Instant Messaging, data security, customer relationship management (CRM), and much more.   The state of hiring can be broken down into three parts: what was happening pre-pandemic, what is happening currently, and what the future of hiring looks like. Wage inflation means across the board, people are worth more than they were two years ago. Zoom interviews make it easy to connect with your potential new boss, and employees aren’t expected to stay at a job nearly as long as they once were. Every micro-change that has affected the job market over the last few years will never again return to the “normal” way it once was.   It’s predicted that in 2022, the U.S. will spend $50 billion more on hiring and retaining than was spent in 2019. More people are quitting as a result of the Great Resignation, but more people are getting hired as well. In many cases, the firing and hiring are simply a reflection of right-sizing teams.   So what metrics should HR and employees be held to? There needs to be more to the hiring process than just understanding compensation. Employees need to understand what they will be able to do at the end of the job, as well as what the career benefits are within the position.   If employees are willing to walk for a few more dollars, then something needs to change. Companies that have a unique culture, a clear advancement path, and a flexible environment are the companies that are going to be able to hire — and retain — the kind of employees that are going to stick around.   Interview Links: Evan Sohn   Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail.   Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.   We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.  

Shailee Basnet scaled Mt. Everest in 2008. She then led a historic “Seven Summits Women Team,” which became the world’s first group to scale the highest peak in each continent. She currently leads, “Female Leadership Academy” in Nepal to help train young female survivors of human trafficking.   Growing up with Mt. Everest in her backyard, Shailee saw climbing the mountain as her ticket to adventure. She took on climbing as a way to figure out what her body was capable of doing, and has since worked to lead teams across the 7 Summits.   It takes incredible self-awareness to recognize when something is missing from your life and then take the action to do something about it. As a nearly five-foot-tall woman who started her journey having never trekked before in her life, Shailee had to work extra hard and she earned every single ability that she needed to climb Everest.   Even when Shailee woke up paralyzed, she kept working toward her goals. She recognized that failure is just another emotion that has to be processed and worked through. She reflects on the presence of hospitality in the climbing industry and the differences between men and women in teamwork. As she says, “the clarity to stick together” as a team has been key to overcoming any challenge.   Just as each summit she conquered presented its own unique set of challenges, each challenge you face in your life has to be addressed and handled in its own way. For Shailee, it was a simple pair of mittens; for you, it could be something as simple as a sales call that can go completely awry if you don’t give it the full attention that it deserves. Every challenge you face requires your full attention and just may become your next great conquest.   Interview Links: Shailee Basnet   Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail.   Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.   We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.  

What are the core things you are forgetting in your scaling-up journey? Too often entrepreneurs get distracted by their passion projects and forget the essential principles of success.   Sean Castrina is the founder of The Weekend MBA, a serial entrepreneur, having started more than 20 companies over the last 20 years, and still seeks to launch a new venture annually.   He is the author of four bestselling business books including 8 Unbreakable Rules for Business Startup Success, The Greatest Entrepreneur in the World, Developing The Entrepreneur Within and World’s Greatest Business Plan.   Sean’s entrepreneurial journey began when his first dream job told him they were “going in a different direction.” As a result, he looked around for a need and founded a very unsexy car wash business that made $30,000 in the first year. He has since repeated his simple startup formula again and again for over 30 years and has no problem building companies that he doesn’t feel passionate about.   Entrepreneurs don’t have to be passionate about the business they start, they just have to be willing to be objective about the business opportunities that are presented to them.   A desire to be passionate about your business is the first mistake entrepreneurs make in what Sean calls the Bermuda Triangle of business-building. The second mistake is hiring friends and family, which often leads to mediocrity from the start, and the third problem is with the personality of the founder themselves. Unlike Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, most founders need to have a winning personality in order to win in their business objective.   Finding a problem and figuring out how to solve it — in a way that’s better than anyone else — is the key to startup success. Sean shares several examples of his startups that did something different that worked, from an onsite car wash service to handyman work and digital marketing.   If you know what to look for, you can always find an opportunity for a successful startup business. The right business proposition combined with the willingness to take risks and bet on the right people to work with just might be all it takes to achieve next-level success.   Interview Links: Sean Castrina 8 Unbreakable Rules for Business Startup Success   Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail.   Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.   We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.  

Today’s conversation is all about designing the future you! Who are you? Who are you going to be? What stories are you telling yourself today that are shaping your future success?   Founder and president of Transitions Institute, Inc., David Zelman has served as a corporate and business coach to millionaires, billionaires, royalty, and other top professionals who want to bridge the gap between professional accomplishment and personal satisfaction. His unique approach to fully expressing one’s humanity has empowered people to step beyond what is predictable and create truly extraordinary lives.   From near-illiterate high school dropout to college graduate to corporate consultant and business coach, David knows a thing or two about making successful transitions. When he realized he was headed down one dead end, he found the courage to pivot toward something better. Dying with your potential intact is not a good idea! The game isn’t to fulfill your potential, it’s leaning into it. That’s what the trajectory of designing a second life is all about.   We all have unlimited potential, the challenge is to figure out how to access it. What we dedicate our time and efforts to is what we are committed to. If you want to tap into your future potential, you have to be committed to it!   Too many people don’t understand the full nature of commitment. The internal conversations we have that excuse us from commitment become our reality, so we have to be very careful about what we tell ourselves. No matter what happens, commit now to being one of the finishers who doesn’t give up!   Interview Links: Transitions Institute David Zelman If I Can, You Can: Transformation Made Easy, by David Zelman, Ph.D.   Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail.   Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.   We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.  

Are you so certain of what you (think you) know that you’re missing out on the possibilities that only come with embracing the unknown? Taking risks and presenting yourself in powerful ways are both key concerns of effective leaders.   Victoria Labalme harnesses principles from Broadway, Hollywood & Television to help entrepreneurs, artists and leaders Risk Forward® and Rock The Room®. She’s a WSJ bestselling author, Performance Strategist & Hall of Fame Speaker.   Victoria found her most impactful stage as a coach to CEOs and leaders around the world. From her own experiences with 9/11, terminal cancer and the pandemic, she has learned as well as anyone the value of embracing the unknown and utilizing the performing arts to present your best self.   When you present yourself from within, you harness a current that is followed by your authentic self and the natural energy that you have. Victoria’s programs Risk Forward® and Rock The Room® are both about the authentic expression of one’s self, in leadership, in business, and in life.   Many leaders feel the pressure to always have a clear goal or vision that they are working toward, but don’t actually know what’s coming next. But Victoria argues that it’s in not knowing that our best work and creative innovations appear. When we are willing to lean into an authentic place, we’re opening ourselves up to the possibilities that can only come with the unknown.   Few experiences have created uncertainty like the pandemic and today’s economy. When leaders are willing to lean into the unknown, rather than hold tight to what they think they know, they come alive. Victoria shares four ways to risk forward and reminds us - “don’t let your goals get in the way of your vision.”   Interview Links: Victoria Lebalme Risk Forward   Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail.   Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.   We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.  

How and when are you going to sell your company? It’s the biggest sale you’ll ever make, and the one that too many business owners aren’t spending enough time preparing for. But the sale of your business needs your time and attention now in order to really pay off down the road.   Larry Snyder has successfully led businesses for over 40 years. He has been through all four stages of a business — starting one, building the foundation, growing the business, and exiting. He knows the value of being prepared for an exit from Day 1 and how to achieve that for optimal value.   Looking back to his own exits, Larry made several key proactive steps. First, he recognized that a successful exit doesn’t happen overnight. He also identified how to align all invested partners to optimize well before the exit date. Larry has seen firsthand what happens when companies don’t have a clearly-thought-out exit strategy in place. And without one, business owners are setting themselves up to receive a fraction of the sale price that their business is actually worth.   But how can a business owner know if they are on the right track for making a smooth exit? Start by taking a vacation! If you can’t take a two-week vacation without your company falling apart or you constantly having to check in on everyone, you’ve still got some work to do.   Create a clear picture of your exit. What does it look like when you leave the business, regardless if it’s five, ten or twenty years from now? What is your role in the company once you have made your sale? Larry shares several anecdotal experiences where it pays to begin with the end in mind. Most importantly, no matter how far you are from your exit, dedicate some time to structuring it each week, and ask the questions that lead to the insight that you need to be prepared for the optimal exit, whenever it may come.   Interview Links: Larry Snyder   Resources: 20,000 Scaleups Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail.   Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.   We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.