Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

Do you have a lot of back-channel conversations? They’re basically watercooler chats that don’t seem to make sense for the bigger vision of the company. They are usually people within the company who are pulling vital team members aside to converse about an upcoming project, etc. because they don’t feel comfortable talking to the boss or leadership team about it. One of Bill’s CEOs has their team whispering in the shadows trying to figure out what was “the next thing” to get done. They were off to the side and not showing strong direction within the company. The problem? The CEO hated conflict and would do anything to avoid it. The fix? Bill took time to discuss cultural values, childhood upbringing, and why it was such a pain point for this CEO to bring up the tough conversations. With a little bit of self-awareness and reflection, the CEO recognized some of their blindspots and was able to make the necessary changes to the company. Conflict style discovery is a helpful exercise for any leader to help better manage the expectations their team might have of them. The tough and honest conversations are hard to do, but it will drastically reduce the side whispers within your company and you can finally get the whole team focused on pulling in the same direction.   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.

This week’s entrepreneur shares her story from corporate America to going her own way in the personal branding space. She shares some of her biggest mistakes, challenges, and more! Kait LeDonne is the Founder of Brandwise Media, a personal branding agency based in New York, which builds executive and author personal brands using content marketing strategies through social media. Kait is also the author of The Attraction Magnet and is regularly featured in national and international publications as a commentator on celebrity and corporate brands.   Kait’s superpower is the ability to authentically share her thoughts and herself online. She believes this was a key to discovering her natural strengths in personal branding and having her network reach out countless times to get their personal brand off the ground.   Kait started her business when she was 26 and she had to really overcome her feelings of imposter syndrome. After that hurdle, she was then faced with how to scale her business in a way that would be sustainable. It’s a fine dance she has to do every day in making sure each department has the resources they need.   Interview Links: Brandwisemedia.com Kait 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  

In this new episode of Scaling Up Insights, we have panelists, Ami Kassar, CEO of MultiFunding, and the author of The Growth Dilemma; Cheryl Biron, a Business Growth Coach in both Scaling Up and 3HAG methodologies; and Dominic Monkhouse, a Business Growth Architect. In December of 2020 alone, women accounted for 100% of the jobs lost. Women in the workforce are suffering and it doesn’t look like they’ll be returning to the job market anytime soon. Schools are too unpredictable and the people who can’t afford it are single moms. With so many women leaving the workforce, Bill is worried about the quality of perspectives and the impact it will have on innovation within companies. In addition to the male/female disparities, the pandemic has deeply impacted the lowest economic class a lot harder and those jobs haven’t come back yet. When it comes to coming back into work, people are getting emotional that they can finally shake hands with “strangers” and be in the same room with people. In Dominic’s experience, you get more of an impact when you’re in the same room with people, and he believes that’s probably true with most teams and most companies. Bill believes we’re headed for a hybrid model. Dominic is not so sure. Whenever he worked remotely for international teams, it was apparent he was a second-class citizen. If someone chose not to go to work and work from him, he believes they’d be missing these same benefits too.   Interview Links: Ami: Amikassar.com Cheryl: Lexagen.net Dominic: Monkhouseandcompany.com   Sponsored by: Sweetprocess.com   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  

Do you feel stuck in your business? You’re doing everything and doing nothing at the same time? And the little progress you do seem to make, ends up with more arguments and confusion in the end? Bill took over a company several years ago and the old leadership team was still there. No matter what Bill did, there would always be conflict within the leadership team. They couldn’t seem to get on the same page. Because Bill was a partner in this business, there was no way he could simply “just leave.” He had to make it work somehow. If your leadership is not aligned, you have to make some tough changes there. How do you get someone on the same page as you? Bill used a series of tools like defining a clear vision for the company, the brand’s promise, communication, building trust, and more to turn the ship around.   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.  

Today’s entrepreneur got his start in the entertainment industry and has experienced more than one lucky break in his career. He shares some of the best advice, and biggest mistakes, he’s made in his career in this week’s episode! Ryan Kugler is an entrepreneur and strategist with over 25 years of experience in building profitable businesses from conception within both Fortune-500 organizations as well as newly launched startups. He operates on a few key principles: “Be nice to everyone, always return phone calls, and stay in communication with everyone.” COVID-19 has been a big challenge to Ryan’s businesses. Ryan runs three companies simultaneously and his staff all work on each of them. Every day it’s something new for them. However, they were able to shift and pivot the businesses into new areas to help with the changing times. The second biggest challenge for Ryan is technology. It’s ever-changing and it’s so fast-paced that it’s difficult to keep up with. Ryan has a policy that if they’re trying to purchase something or sell something and it takes a long time for the third-party or client to approve, it’s a warning sign and they just walk away from the deal. If it’s hard during the courtship, you know it’ll get worse a lot later on.   Interview Links: Ryankugler.com Aplanb.com Ryan on Twitter 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  

We all understand the importance of working on ourselves and continuing our education, but how do we instill some of these principles into our children, too? Today’s guest has some answers. Jennifer Turliuk is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and career coach. She is the founder and CEO of Maker Kids, the first and largest makerspace for kids in the world. Jennifer offers career coaching services on topics including career exploration, the job search process, resumes, cover letters, interviewing, and negotiations. She has helped clients get into exclusive schools and incubator programs, and land jobs at places like Google, P&G, and Kelson. Jennifer found herself dissatisfied with the corporate job that she was working at early in her career. She decided to quit her job, fly down to Silicon Valley, and cold call investors, entrepreneurs, and more to help figure out what their “secret to life” was and how they found their true calling. Through her own life experiences, she found her call, and it was better education for children. Jennifer shares a story of one of the children in her class being motivated to push himself further. He decided to start a small audio repair business to save up enough money to purchase his own laptop computer. This child hated math, but when he saw the benefits of understanding it in his own business, he was motivated to keep on learning and teaching himself how to use it to his own benefit.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Sweetprocess.com Jenniferturliuk.com Makerkids.com Jennifer 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

Does it ever feel like your business doesn’t look like you think it should? It just doesn’t feel right? Do you think your team is mismatched? Does your gut just keep telling you something is off? If things don’t “feel” good in your business, that could be because there is a mismatch in your company values. You might have created an accidental culture within your company and it’s going off the rails. One of Bill’s clients had a profound mismatch on what the CEO’s version of the company looked like vs. what the reality of the company was. How does that happen? The CEO wanted to see his vision come true, but the culture he created was one of expediency and convenience, and there was no intention behind it. If you want your business to accurately reflect your vision and your values, and your purpose, you’ve got to build traditions and habits. Like trying to train a little child, you need to keep them accountable and guide them on what’s acceptable behavior vs. not.   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.  

Today’s entrepreneur talks about the career shift she had to undergo to take on her family business, something she never thought she’d take over. She always saw the charismatic side of her father, but never realized the in-depth, and rewarding, “behind the scenes” work that he did for the audio-visual industry. Taryn joined AV Images as CEO in 2018, the audio-visual production company her father founded in1985. Taryn spent most of her career in local government administration with the City of Dublin City Manager’s Office in California prior to joining the company. Prior to the pandemic, Taryn’s bread and butter was the tradeshow and conference space, helping her clients set up audiovisuals for their booths, events, and more. Now, they’ve had to make a pivot and are helping their clients navigate this online world much more effectively and to help them bring a high-quality virtual experience to their shows. Taryn has had a lot of lucky breaks since she came into the business. It came down to connecting with the right people at the right time and being able to rely on them to help the business push to new heights.   Interview Links: Gundersondirect.com Mike 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  

Building and maintaining teams in an operational setting is a critical pillar for many entrepreneurs, but if you make a mistake in this arena, it can cause harm. Today’s guest shares how you avoid these mistakes and execute with precision. Robert “Bo” Brabo is a retired U.S. Army Chief of HR Operations with the White House Communications Agency and was the Presidential Communications Officer for both Presidents Bush and Obama. Bo has served in several executive positions including most recently Vice President of Human Resources at the National Spine & Pain Centers and Founder of Hail Media Group. When it comes to the power of execution and those who do it well and don’t do it well, it comes down to the empowerment of your team. Before you get to the “execution” phase, there is a ton of training and testing that goes behind the day of the event. This process can’t be skipped. When you have the complicated task of making sure the President is safe, there are too many variables for one person to handle. This is where trusting the training process and empowering your team come into play. If you tried to micromanage everything, things would not be ready by the time the President came into town. These critical tasks also mean that you don’t get a “do-over” when something isn’t working. How do you get things to just run seamlessly? You check in with your team frequently and make sure they know they can call upon you when there’s an unexpected problem at hand that needs to get resolved quickly. It’s about trusting and verifying the process.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Sweetprocess.com Robertbrabo.com Bo 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 prone to getting distracted by the latest and greatest? Do you feel like you’ve just got too many projects on your plate, and you’re not sure which one has the priority? Two of Bill’s clients would always come to him with the latest book or idea that they learned and wanted to implement. They had a substantial business but they were continually being sidetracked, even within the business meetings they’d have with Bill. It was difficult to get them to focus! If you struggle with too many ideas and too much input, stop for a second and just ask this question: Which one of your quarterly priorities does this apply to? Use your quarterly goals and metrics as a hallmark to keep you focused on the tasks that truly matter. Keep asking this question as you go through the journey and it’ll help you bring yourself back in focus.   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.