Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

In this week’s Getting Real episode, we have Neel Parekh, who is the founder of MaidThis Franchise, which helps homeowners and short-term rental hosts with their cleanings. We’ll learn why he quit his corporate job to start his own business and some of the biggest challenges he’s faced thus far. Neel had the idea of his business slightly over seven years ago. He wanted his business to be fully remote so that he could travel and see more of the world. Fast-forward to today, he has generated millions in revenue while having a fully remote team and wants to help other people achieve the same. Prior to starting his business, Neel worked in venture capital and private investing. However, he always had a travel bug in him and he wanted to create something that could fit more into his lifestyle. He also wanted to find a way to support his parents, or have them work with him on this business, remotely. These were his big two “whys” for starting the business. MaidThis now covers all of Greater Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and at the end of 2020, they launched their first branch location in Denver, Colorado. Neel is now focused on growing the franchise model out and getting branch owners to provide the same high-level quality he has been doing in California.   Interview Links: Maidthis.com Neel on LinkedIn Sponsored by: Eonetwork.org   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.)

With over 25 years of human resources and talent management experience at organizations, this week’s guest shares some of the people-centric activities you need to focus on to achieve high growth. Andrew Bartlow leads Series B Consulting, a firm that helps companies build their people strategy and accelerate their growth. He is also the Founder of People Leader Accelerator, which is a development program for startup HR leaders, and the co-author of Scaling for Success. Andrew used to be a bit self-conscious when it came to telling people he worked in HR. He found out that not a lot of people knew exactly what that meant and that it had a negative connotation around it. HR goes beyond employee relations and payroll. Andrew would often tell people he was in management consulting because that’s how the best companies approach it. What inspired Andrew to write his book? Well, everyone has a book inside of them, but Andrew saw a huge gap in the market in the startup ecospace. There are a lot of companies that are seeing a lot of success in spite of themselves. Andrew wanted to help them optimize their HR work so that it would not become a case of just dumb luck. CEOs and Founders are often hesitant to share their top-level plans down to the organization. In an environment where startups are often resource-starved in the beginning, it can be hard for leadership to make the commitment and stick to it in an uncertain future, but everyone needs a vision before they begin to do deep work.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Sweetprocess.com Seriesbconsulting.com Andrew on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube  

Have you been struggling to grow your business? You’d love to double your revenue, but you can’t seem to figure out what’s moving, or not moving the needle? Bill and his wife ran a business together a few years back and he found himself in the same situation. They’d go up some months, and then down some other months. All they wanted to do was double their business, yet they were stuck! Back to the drawing board, Bill and his wife came up with a couple of things that ended up making a huge difference. The first one was the BHAG and the second was the vivid vision. Through their BHAG, they were able to see a 10X future for themselves. By going through this mental exercise, they could see some bigger picture strategies they could be doing today, instead of being “in the weeds” trying to 2X. These perspective shifts were game-changing and allowed them to grow quicker than they had anticipated!   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. 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 business growth book by Verne Harnish and our team of coaches. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading coach. We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash, and the 5th Decision about what kind of leader you want to be. Our purpose is helping you Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success.  

Your personal brand is everything and you can use your personality, your voice, to enhance your business brand and get more out of life. Today’s guest showcases why and how PR is the way to go to hit the next step in your business! Victoria Kennedy is the CEO of Victorious PR, a media agency that helps Entrepreneurs, Real Estate Brokerages, Mortgage Companies, and Solar Businesses get featured in industry-specific publications, local press, podcasts, and top publications to be seen as Industry Leaders in their fields. Growing up, Victoria wanted to be an opera singer and she even had a number one hit single in Europe! Victoria was heavily pitching editors and TV producers to get her music out there, and that’s where she discovered she had a PR talent. Unfortunately, Victoria’s European visa did not renew and she had to find another way to make a living back home in the U.S. Victoria had dedicated her whole life to singing; she didn’t have any other skills. She was dirt poor and realized that she could go all-in in her business. She took a course, and within the first month, she made her money back. When the pandemic happened. Victoria’s real estate marketing business took a big hit, so she had to pivot. She knew that her clients needed her more than ever, so she went to the largest real estate magazine in the world, and in 60 days she became their brand ambassador, a contributor, and was asked to speak at their event. PR opens so many doors for you if you know how to do it correctly!   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Sweetprocess.com Victoriouspr.com Victoriakennedyofficial.com Victoria on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube  

Today in Scaling Up Insights, we have returning panelist Daniel Marcos, and a new panelist, Max Kozlovsky, a business consultant with more than 20 years of experience working with Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 Companies. In a recent article by Marc Benioff, he recommends using an off-site ranch to conduct culture-building activities for his Salesforce office. Daniel loves the idea and actually conducts a lot of his quarterly planning sessions in Mexico. Getting “out” really gets the creative juices flowing. Daniel doesn’t have an office space anymore, but it’ll be great to have a little meeting room space where he and his team could meet once a week or so if needed. Max himself bought a house to specifically use for team training. It’s incredibly convenient to have. Both Max and Daniel have noticed that real estate is becoming such a booming commodity, with Daniel unable to see any houses for sale in San Antonio, Texas, and some of Max’s friends in Austin, Texas were bidding 10% over asking price and still not getting their dream home. Elon Musk on SNL! Bill thought it was quite awkward to watch, but he thought it was endearing that Elon owned his awkwardness. Daniel agrees it was awkward, but you know, by the way that man thinks, it makes sense that he’s a little more “out of the normal” than the rest of us. Max poses the question, who is normal, really? There’s a lot of power in admitting that you’re not normal. By leaning into your weirdness, you are able to dive deeper into your own superpower. Daniel loves that. Take your biggest weakness and turn it into a trait. That’s the best way to succeed.   Interview Links: Max: LinkedIn Daniel: Danielmarcos.co   Resources: What Salesforce’s Work Culture Needs The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni Adam Grant’s TED Talk Scaling Up CEO Boot Camp “The Most Persuasive Word in the Dictionary” Atlassian’s “Team Anywhere” Policy Speech of the Year? Tyler Perry’s Oscar

Do you have a hard time controlling your anger? Do you just let your thoughts stew in your head and then blow up at people? Ouch! There’s a solution for this. Bill was working with an accomplished CEO, but gosh, did he have a temper! He was easily triggered, too. The problem was that he was seeing a level of incompetence among his people and it was frustrating him, and forcing him to refocus on the immediate fire. However, Bill had him walk around on the floor and really get to know his people. Approach the problem from a more side-to-side approach than a top-down approach. When he began doing that, he developed a lot of compassion and understanding for what his team was REALLY going through, and he was able to show up and support them much better because of it.   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. 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 business growth book by Verne Harnish and our team of coaches. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading coach. We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash, and the 5th Decision about what kind of leader you want to be. Our purpose is helping you Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success.  

Welcome to another Getting Real episode where we deep dive into entrepreneurs’ journeys and discover all the good, the bad, and lucky breaks they’ve received throughout their uncommon career! Today’s guest is Leigh-Anne Acquisto, the founder of Liquorish Ink, a brand behavior business that creates innovative ideas and brand stories. Leigh-Anne started her career in corporate as a brand strategist and after seven years, she decided it was time to start her own business that specializes specifically in strategy. Strategy is one of the fundamental aspects of growing a brand, and Leigh-Anne is passionate about thinking big-picture and long-term to see that vision come to life. Leigh-Anne believes her luckiest break so far in the industry has been getting word-of-mouth clients to fill her pipeline. It’s been a challenge for Leigh-Anne because she doesn’t have business partners, so everything that she does to move the needle can really break or make the business. In fact, some of the challenges Leigh-Anne faced this year did not necessarily happen in the business, but externally. Her clients were faced with big uncertainties as COVID-19 and the pandemic hit, and Leigh-Anne had to carefully navigate those waters and not overextend herself and the company.   Interview Links: Liquorishink.co.za Leigh-Anne on LinkedIn Sponsored by: Eonetwork.org   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube

Interested in buying a business and you’d like to know what goes on behind the scenes? Any good investor or buyer will first conduct their due diligence and verify the business does what it says it does. This week’s guest talks all about it!    Elliott Holland is the Founder of Guardian Due Diligence and he helps entrepreneurs select businesses, underwrites them, and then performs due diligence checks to make sure entrepreneurs aren't getting taken advantage of by sellers or brokers.     Elliott usually sees deals anywhere from $1-5 million dollars in purchase price and they usually take about 3-6 months to close. However, if you’re doing the due diligence process correctly, it can take over a year to find the right business and deal for you.    You’d be surprised by how many people are willing to lie about their business and fudge the numbers. Buyers, if you’re paying for 6-8x cash flow, a lot of sellers will lie. Elliott shares some of his first-hand experiences as to why certain deals just don’t go through.    Little clues about the sellers can give you all sorts of information about their character, and the type of business they’re operating. If the person doesn’t quite ‘fit the bill’ when it comes to the industry they’re operating in, it should be looked at a little more closely. There’s always an opportunity to commit fraud.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Sweetprocess.com Guardianduediligence.com Elliott on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube

Are you missing key company targets? Do you find your performance declining in some way? Are you not sure what might be the cause of it? Bill has the perfect resource for you! Bill was working with a manufacturing company and after moving to a new facility, they were having some pretty mysterious productivity problems. Production was falling off, they were behind on their targets and unable to catch up, and more. Not being able to see the problem right away, Bill asked the team to order eight (8!) whiteboards. They then sat down and spent 45 minutes on what each of the metrics might be for each department. This gave the entire team a clear vision and it set the expectation of what everyone needed to be striving for, each and every day. If you’re unclear what some of your departmental goals are, try this method! Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. 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 business growth book by Verne Harnish and our team of coaches. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading coach. We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash, and the 5th Decision about what kind of leader you want to be. Our purpose is helping you Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success.  

Bill gets to dive deep with another entrepreneur who is in the marketing world. She shares her challenges, biggest mistakes, and some of the amazing things she’s grateful for since starting her business four years ago! How did Angela come up with her company name? Well after working in a very fast-paced agency, she realized that everyone on the team was overwhelmed and stressed out. Whenever there was a new client in the pipeline, the team that had the least amount of work would get them, but everyone was relatively busy and maxed out. When Angela decided to start her company, she wanted to do something slightly different. She wanted to provide a high-quality experience for her clients with people who were overwhelmed. This is why she named her company 11outof11 — because they are better than a standard 10-out-of-10 score. Angela wanted to set her business up differently compared to what she experienced in the agency world. She has about 55 subcontractors and works with them on an on-need basis, and has about nine core team members that work with her clients directly.   Interview Links: 11outof11.com Angela-pointon.com Angela on LinkedIn Sponsored by: Eonetwork.org   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube