Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

Do you ever feel fear or anxiety over the unknown future ahead? How can you navigate through something when you don’t know what you don’t know? And more importantly, how can you scale if you’re not sure where you are in your growth stage? Today’s guest has some answers.   Marissa Levin has been an entrepreneur for over 25 years and is a globally-recognized growth strategist. In 1995, she launched her first business and grew it to $13 million in revenue. Her current venture, Successful Culture, is a leadership consulting organization that helps CEOs master the three most critical aspects of business growth: leadership development, strategy formulation and execution, and organizational culture assessment and improvement.   Building your first company can often feel like building a plane while you’re flying it. Every day, you’re just hoping you’re making the right decision to move forward. However, an advisory board can be the most compelling and effective strategic tool that leadership can use to get to their next level of growth. Why reinvent the wheel when you can leverage the knowledge of those before you?   When Marissa built her first company, one of the first things she began to do was ask for help and to find people who could teach her what she needed to learn. She knew she was flying blind. So many times, entrepreneurs are in the “I don’t know what I don't know” quadrant and are unable to prepare for pivots and upcoming disasters that a more seasoned entrepreneur can see miles away.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Successfulculture.com Marissa on LinkedIn Built to Scale: How Top Companies Create Breakthrough Growth through Exceptional Advisory Boards, by Marissa Levin   Resources: Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and 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.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

In this Getting Real Episode, Bill sits down with Shawn Hill, a software entrepreneur that makes it easy for companies to track customer growth and their own reputation. You’ll learn about his journey, some of his struggles, and how he got his big break in this week’s show!   Shawn is the Community Marketing Director for NiceJob. He’s passionate about engaging with small businesses through social media, videos, and podcasts to help them develop their reputation marketing and ensure their success with the NiceJob platform. He often writes about marketing channels for small businesses and how to create fan cultures.   Reputation marketing is all about taking the parts of your reputation that you can control, making it better, and amplifying it to your audience. It’s about owning your uniqueness and using it as a strength, even if certain customers are put off by it.   One of Shawn’s biggest struggles right now is the push and pull between manual processes and automation. There has to be a balance between the two, but it’s sometimes unclear how much their customers want to be involved vs. having a set-it-and-forget-it approach.   Videos have taken over when it comes to product information and how-tos, but in the review space, it hasn’t. Shawn has noticed that not many people watch reviews. They’d rather read 10 text reviews on Amazon instead. Shawn believes the product reviews aren’t always that engaging. People are tuning in more for the personalities themselves these days than for the product.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Get.nicejob.com Shawn on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and 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.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

If you believe you have to burn yourself out or overextend yourself to ‘have it all’, then this episode is for you. Today’s guest believes yes, you can have it all, but it has to start with an intentional and thoughtful plan or else it will not be sustainable.    Jack Daly is a leading Sales Speaker and Trainer and has spent over 30 years of his career helping sales and executives succeed. In 2022, Jack released his 10th book, Jack Daly’s Life By Design, that shares with the world his special recipe for life well lived.   Jack is just a few weeks away from turning 73, but he learned a long time ago how to live, and design, an intentional life. Jack not only has built six companies from scratch and sold a few of them, but he’s also flown a jet fighter plane with zero training, shark dived in Africa, completed 15 ironmans (even when he didn’t know how to swim), and ran a marathon in all 50 states and 7 continents. None of these high achievements came by accident.    It’s not about building a successful business OR having a successful life. It’s about building a successful AND having an exceptional life. You can do both! For many entrepreneurs, we started our businesses to have an exceptional life, but we get lost in the weeds of the business along the way.    As strange as it might sound, Jack’s epiphany to an intentional life started at the age of 13. After taking a job at a country club, Jack realized there was a vastly different life people were living than what he and his working-class peers were living. How was someone able to have a luxury car, have a big house, and play golf whenever they wanted? Didn’t they have to work? Jack had to dig deeper.     Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Jackdalysales.com Jack on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and 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.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

The sales process can be frustrating for any startup founder trying to find their mark. Even more seasoned companies struggle with closing more deals. This week’s guest understands that if you truly want to scale, you have to adopt a sales mindset, a process, and your language.   Jason Forrest became established as a top 1% sales professional in his career and has gone on to train others in the field. Throughout his career, he’s found that the common sales techniques being taught out there puts limitations on others. As a result of Jason’s hands-on sales experience, his coaching and consulting work has led sales teams to increase their effectiveness and drive more profit.   To create a powerful sales team, you must work on changing bad habits or bad behaviors. Most of us have “default” programming where, for whatever reason, we believe what we believe. This is our truth and how we show up and interact in the world. What we think to be true will inevitably drive our emotions, and our emotions drive our motivations, which then drive our results. It’s a cascading effect.   If you boil it down, Jason is not just a sales coach, he’s a behavioral change expert. If you’re having a hard time changing the behavior, you have to dive deep into what’s the feeling that’s connected to that behavior. Do you have resistance to wanting to change that behavior? When you connect feelings, emotions, with the task, you can motivate yourself out of a place of “stuckness.”   As a top 1% sales professional, Jason was not satisfied with the resources out there to help bring his sales teams up to speed. Did you know $164 billion is spent on sales training resources? And only 30% of it is effective? Jason created his company to help change bad sales behavior into something that effectively closes deals while still being authentic.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Fpg.com Maryandjasonforrest.com Jason on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and 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.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

In this Getting Real episode, we hear from a custom home builder on the ups and downs of his entrepreneurial journey.   Tim Winter got his start as a builder at a young age while working with his father on home renovation projects. By the time he was 28 years old, he started his own venture and formed the company he has today, Paradigm Homes. He builds custom homes and redesigns older homes to fit the homeowner’s specific needs.   Tim started his business in 2007 and the crash happened shortly after. The biggest lesson he learned was not only to be consistent but to be flexible when you gather new information. This advice still rings true today with the uncertainties the pandemic has given to the housing market.   Tim has been working a lot on the culture of the business. They hired a scaling-up executive coach and that’s really elevated the business and helped them focus on hiring for core values instead of personality. Tim is proud to have a good team around him, and even though he is the CEO, he feels very fortunate he’s part of a good team of people that he can work with.   Tim believes he got his big break around 2016 when he got a back injury. He was forced to slow down for six weeks and he had to take a hard look at how the business could keep going while he was out of commission. He learned a lot of valuable lessons during that really tough time.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Paradigmhomes.com Tim on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and 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.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

We go deep into an entrepreneur’s unconventional path in this week’s episode of Getting Real. After an industry change, this business owner saw some interesting parallels that made him realize that people are really the cornerstone to your company’s success.   Michael Solomon has three businesses today, one in artist management, freelance software talent management, and compensation negotiation services. He is also the author of the book, Game Changer, which dives into how to get the most out of the talent economy.   Right out of school, Michael found himself touring with Bruce Springsteen. That was the first insight into seeing what 10xers can do with their networking ability and star power. After that experience, Michael would later go on to found his own artist management company, which is still going strong 26 years later.   In the early 2000s, the music industry got crushed by file-sharing websites. Seeing the writing on the wall, Michael knew he had to pivot. He noticed the next new rockstars were really going to be in technology and software.   After going from the entertainment industry to the software industry, Michael noticed some similarities. Although he wasn’t dealing with as many divas within the software space, his developers still wanted the same things his rockstars did; to not be treated like a cog in the machine.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech 10xmanagement.com Michael on Twitter Michael’s Game Changer book Weareallmusic.org Kristenanncarrfund.org Musiciansoncall.org/what-we-do   Resources: Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and 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.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

In this Getting Real episode, we learn from an entrepreneur who purchases and scales wellness companies. We find out how he got into this line of work and some painful lessons he’s had to learn along the way. Mike Giannulis is the Founder of Sanetris, an international health and wellness company that is on track to eight figures in annual revenue. Originally a high school dropout, Mike has worked his way into living the American Dream. One of Mike’s superpowers is looking for people who possess skill sets he doesn’t have, cultivating them into thinking bigger, and setting them to work in an important aspect of the business. Mike always knew he was entrepreneurial. He got his start as a poem writer when he was a kid and, when he turned 18, he purchased a “get rich quick” real estate course because he knew he wanted to work for himself. And although he failed in that venture, it was just the building blocks to what he does now. His self-drive and hustle have found him in some weird business ventures, like purchasing 500 pregnant goats and having them repoed by the government. Mike really got his lucky break when he started writing ad copy for a friend of his. She ended up making him a partner later on, but his desire to “make it” was so great that it cost him his health. At his heaviest, Mike was over 500 lbs. He ended up losing over 250 lbs. on the reality show, Extreme Makeover and has since kept the pounds off! That is one of the reasons why Mike is so passionate about the wellness industry he’s currently in and serves because he’s found a new purpose.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Michaelgiannulis.com Mike on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and 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.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

Don’t you wish you had an easier time with your workflow and bringing new team members up to speed? Have you ever taken a look at your systems and processes and known that they could be optimized more effectively? Today’s guest shares how to streamline this in an easy way where it doesn’t overwhelm you! Chris Ronzio is the founder & CEO of Trainual, an online training resource manual for your company to help train employees, contractors, and more. He was also named EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2021 and is the author of the new book, The Business Playbook. Chris takes his Business Playbook to a different level. Everyone wants to jump right into SOPs and their special business processes, but employees need more context than just a recipe book. People need to know why this business operates the way it does. If you want people to grow with you, you can’t just be teaching them the nuts and bolts of the business. You have to teach them the heart and soul of the business. If you were just a random person off of the street, a business playbook needs to show them why they should care about what you do and whom you serve. Chris wrote his book with the DIY perspective that a bootstrapped entrepreneur might have. He wanted new Founders to be able to take this book and incorporate it right away within their business ecosystem so that they can scale and grow quickly without all the startup pains entrepreneurs commonly have.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Chrisronzio.com Chris on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and 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.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

Today’s topic focuses on curiosity! How it impacts the world around us today, how to cultivate it, and how more of it within your team helps your business scale and grow! Dr. Alison Horstmeyer is a Talent Development Consultant, Executive Coach, and Humanistic Thought Leader. Her research focuses on curiosity and associated mental, emotional, and motivational attributes. Dr. Alison is considered to be one of the pioneering practitioners in workplace curiosity. Dr. Alison has been called in to launch new things or disrupt them. Through her work, she became fascinated with why people had so much anxiety, complacency, and stress around the work that they do. She noticed this pattern across so many diverse international teams that she decided to go back to school for it. She wanted to answer, can we be curious and anxious at the same time? As Dr. Alison studied different disciplines, she realized curiosity and anxiety are closely related. However, depending on the person, they can use the fear of the unknown as a powerful weapon to solve new challenges, or completely spiral out of control. There’s been a growing need for organizations to fully understand what curiosity is and how they can use it to help their employees create more innovative solutions, but curiosity is so much more than that. Curiosity is the bridge that helps teams collaborate, communicate, and create.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Uscthirdspace.com Dr. Alison on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and 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.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

Welcome to another Getting Real episode, where Bill digs into the ups and downs of an entrepreneur’s journey. Today’s guest dives into the world of online business and what he had to do differently to stand out. Jaryd Krause used to work 60-plus hours a week as a plumber. He would often make enough money to leave to go travel, and when he ran out, he’d be right back in that cycle. He wanted to create something more sustainable, and so he tried his hand at buying his first online business. Jaryd is grateful he got into the plumbing business. He uses the analogy all the time that if you don’t fix the leaks in your financial life, acquiring a business is only going to worsen your situation. Respectively, with determining where to invest within your business, faulty business plumping only heightens your financial problem. Starting a business is so hard and there are so many online courses out there trying to sell you on that dream. Jaryd understands this. He tried to start an online business on the side as a plumber and kept failing. He realized he was approaching the problem wrong. Instead of trying to start a business, why not buy an already profitable business. Jaryd ended up buying three businesses before he was able to replace his full-time income. Today, Jaryd helps people find the right business for them and helps them through the due diligence process so that they end up acquiring the right online business.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Buyingonlinebusinesses.com Jaryd on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and 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. Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies. We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).