Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

In this Getting Real series, Bill sits down with Mike Birdsall to learn more about his entrepreneurial journey. Mike is the co-founder of DateBox Club, a monthly date night subscription box. Prior to DateBox Club, Mike launched Birdsall Interactive, a web design firm, and FanConneX, an in-venue sports fan experience. Mike has been an entrepreneur all of his life, but how did he get from his start to here? Let’s find out. Mike and his wife started his most recent business in business 2015 when they had become empty nesters. In the beginning, the journey was tough. They were putting their heart and soul into it and weren’t sure if the payoff was there yet. They were struggling in this business for four years. The bank accounts were just slowly being drained. One of the challenges within the business was that they’d come up with a new date night idea, get the samples, and realize that they were awful. This meant they were forced to pivot into a new idea almost immediately as they had to get something out to their clients within a week. Mike calculated that they walked 9 miles around their table during “launch week.” What was it like working with a spouse? Bill did it and there were a lot of challenges that they had to overcome as a team. Mike had to learn how to stick to his lane and let his wife run in hers. Both of them are pretty alpha and driven people, so it was important to set clear boundaries in the very beginning of the relationship.   Interview Links: Dateboxclub.com 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 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).  

Are you working on the right things as a leader? When leaders struggle with influence, direction, and having everyone work together as a team, the key component that might be missing is trust. Today’s guest has more on how you can build this vital skill. David Horsager, MA, CSP, CPAE, is the CEO of TrustEdge Leadership Institute, national bestselling author of The Trust Edge, inventor of the Enterprise Trust Index, and director of one of the nation’s foremost trust studies: The Trust Outlook. David has developed an eight-pillar framework to help build trust quickly. David started his entrepreneurial journey from humble beginnings and rented out a $350 windowless apartment with no bathroom or kitchen, and black mold growing alongside the walls. When you have a dream, nothing will stop you. People say that you need someone to like you in order for them to trust you. That’s not true. There’s a ton of people you might not like, but you still trust them to get the job done. Have a leadership problem? No, you don’t. You have a trust problem. People might think you have a communication issue or a sales pipeline issue… nope! It goes back to trust. David conducted a study asking if people lead with trust first and withdraw when it’s been broken or lead with skepticism first and then build trust over time. Americans answered this question 50/50. That’s what leaders are working with. What’s true overall is it’s hard to gain trust and accountability if people feel like you don’t care about them at all.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Sweetprocess.com Davidhorsager.com Trustedleaderbook.com/scalingup   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  

Where do we find the time for all the meetings we have to do within the company? Daily meetings, quarterly meetings, off-site meetings, annual meetings, etc. It just feels like our agendas get filled up quickly with meetings and meetings, and we have very little time for real work. Bill was working with a company that had over 1,000 people working there and there was a common complaint leadership had: We don’t have time for all of these meetings. This is actually true for smaller companies too. Everyone struggles to find time for meetings. If you don’t get proactive in designing the ideal cadence and rhythm of the meeting, then you’ll never find the right time for it. Find out what’s the ideal time for your daily meetings, book it in, and honor it no matter what. At first this will be hard and you might have to move things around, but you’ll quickly see the habit building as everyone comes to expect 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.  

We have three coach panelists on the show to discuss how to create value for customers, stand out from the crowd and be unique, and some of their favorite books this year. Our guest panelists also share some really clever pivoting examples. A bit about our expert coaches: Karie Kaufmann has successfully coached over 1,000 businesses and high-performance executives to achieve greater levels of growth. Judy Guido is a returning panel guest and has overseen at least 100 successful mergers and acquisitions throughout her career, and finally, Wade Wyant is a 20-plus-year entrepreneur, YPO member, and scaling up coach. Verne Harnish recently released a list of the top five business books in 2020. The coaches discuss what they liked about these five books: Humanocracy by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini, Fanocracy by David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott, Leadership Is Language by L. David Marquet, No Rules Rules by Erin Meyer and Reed Hastings, and Breath by James Nestor. Judy really liked “Good people don’t leave because of the company, they leave because of the people.” Don’t de-skill jobs, instead upskill people. Karie says one of the best questions you can ask is, “How can we get better at this?” As a leader, you don’t have to have all the answers. Rely on your team! Wade agrees. When you change your thinking around people and what they’re capable of, the bureaucracy layer doesn’t need to be as necessary. Bill’s biggest takeaway from the Humanocracy book is, if you’re going to empower people, you need to lead more with questions. Stop telling people what to do, and being the last one to speak. Judy explains why she hates the term, “best practices.” You’re creating a line in the sand for your staff and it stifles innovation and creativity. Twenty percent of people in an organization didn’t feel like their opinion mattered and 40% felt like they were never encouraged to innovate.   Interview Links: Karie: Kariekaufmann.com Judy: Guidoassoc.com Wade: Redwagonadvisors.com   Books: Humanocracy, by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini Fanocracy, by David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott Leadership Is Language, by L. David Marquet No Rules Rules, by Erin Meyer and Reed Hastings Breath, by James Nestor   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 struggling with getting around to your one-on-ones with your team? Do you find that they’re not particularly effective or a good use of your time? Or the simple fact that you don’t want to tag on another meeting to your already swamped day? Bill was working with a SaaS company and they were having a lot of confusion in their one-on-ones. The solution? They refined their process down to a one-page job scorecard to help things run smoothly. Another client of Bill’s got their one-on-ones down to 15 minutes! Just by the use of this simple one-page scorecard, each team member was getting a feedback session every two weeks and it immensely improved the direction and flow of the business. Interested? Bill has this one-page scorecard ready to download in the resources below!   Resources: Scalingcoach.com/job-scorecard-worksheet/   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.  

Do you have trouble focusing? Don’t worry, this is a common problem many people have! When we’re being thrown so many things on the news, on social media, in our businesses, it’s hard to keep present on the important things. Here are some solutions to help manage these pain points and keep you focused! Erik Qualman is a five-time #1 Bestselling Author and Keynote Speaker and has been voted the 2nd Most Likeable Author in the World behind Harry Potter’s J.K. Rowling. Erik is out with a new book, The Focus Project: The Not So Simple Art of Doing Less Book, which dives into how to keep your mind on one track. Bill needs focus more than ever. With the dog barking in the background and the constant pings and dings on his phone, it’s a surprise how anyone in this digital age can get good work done with so many distractions coming at us. When you look at Warren Buffet’s calendar, it’s almost completely blank and that’s intentional. He needs space to think. Bill Gates took a page from Warren’s book, but prior to this, he was under the impression that a good CEO just crams their day with as many things as possible. The truth is, it’s a balance and this is the hardest thing for CEOs to achieve. You need “blank space” but you also need to “get things done.” It might sound insane, but you want to block out a chunk of your calendar for “emergencies and interruptions.” For Bill, it used to be an hour-and-a-half window in the afternoon. He’s aware that emergencies don’t always happen at 2 p.m. on the dot, every day, but at least you still have space to handle it when bad things do occur and you can shift your calendar around.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Sweetprocess.com Equalman.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

Are you having trouble with team performance? Do you feel like your team is just disinterested? As leaders, we always want to get the most out of our people, but how can we do this without running a dictatorship? If you want people to be passionate about their work and strive for new heights, the first question you have to ask yourself is, “What’s in it for them?” Talk to your people about their hopes, dreams, and desires. Each person would have a different answer, and as a leader, it’s important to dig deep and find out who is motivated by what. Who wants to buy their first house or go on that dream vacation? Who wants to go back to school? If you can connect what they’re working on today with what they want in life, you’ll see a shift in your team’s excitement and output.   Resources: Scalingcoach.com/oppp-worksheet 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 we’re talking about culture! How do you maintain culture when you’re working from home? Today’s guest knows how to navigate this delicate space and has some answers for you! It’s not as difficult as you think it might be! Brett Putter is an expert in company culture development who is consulted by companies and leaders worldwide to help design, develop, and build high-performing cultures. He is the CEO of CultureGene, a culture leadership software and services platform. Brett is also the author of his second book, Own Your Culture, a blueprint to building strong, functional post-pandemic company culture.  Brett was running an executive search firm and a common theme he found in his high-level executives was that they had a very deep and strong understanding on the value of culture. It was the key difference between having a high retention rate vs. losing ¾ of your leadership team.   A common problem with creating values is that it ends up just being words that people forget or don’t know how to live by. You want to teach your people what it looks like on an organizational level to live and work within your company values.  A good leader has a keen eye on seeing when their staff is acting within the company values, and if they’re not, quickly reacting to correct bad behavior. Other members of your team are watching you, so it’s important that you lead by example.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Sweetprocess.com Culturegene.ai Brett 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   TWEETABLES:   “It’s not just lip service, it’s not just a tick box exercise. You really got to work on your culture as an asset in the business.”   “A leader is good at spotting that you’re not living the values, and taking action to solve that.”   “Great leaders make their culture more visible, tangible, and conscious. They’re talking about it and evaluating their decisions based on it.”   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).  

Do you feel like your team is running in opposite directions? This might be because they just have too many priorities on their plates. This is actually a common problem! Bill was working with a company that made some recent acquisitions and they had a lot to do for the quarter. In the beginning, it was hard to focus on 3–5 top company goals for those 90 days when they had over 50 things they had to tackle. If you can’t narrow your list down to a couple of things, try having a laser focus on one main theme that you can get your whole team on. Pick something that’s important to the company and create a battle cry from that theme. For example, the rallying cry of the Apollo 13 mission was, “Failure is not an option.”   Resources: Scalingcoach.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Quarterly-Theme-Creation-Worksheet.pdf   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.  

When it comes to scaling up, some Founders have dreams of selling their business but aren’t sure how to go about it. Are you confused and not sure where you should even begin? Well, today’s guest has sold four companies and knows a little bit about the art of selling your business for a high value! John Warrillow kicked off a revolution in 2011 when he released his bestselling book, Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You, a process that helps business owners reframe how they think about the business. John is out with a new book, The Art of Selling Your Business, where he discusses why it’s not luck that certain businesses sell high, and breaks down the “how,” in this week’s episode! John interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs to better understand their exits and what made them sell their business for multiples more than the “industry standard.” What he learned is that these entrepreneurs have a certain dance that they play that helps their buyers feel comfortable and secure. John noticed that the happiest people who sold all had pull factors vs. push factors. They were excited about the “next thing” and they were selling because they were ready to move on. The pull factor guys were selling because of external stresses, pandemic, employees, government red tape, etc. This is the key to help you not live in regret after you’ve sold. Before you start the process of even thinking about selling, what’s your “freedom point” when it comes to living out your life with enough cash? When your business hits a critical financial point, even if you’re still enjoying the business, take some time to consider whether it makes sense to hold it or to sell it. The promise for entrepreneurship is freedom, but the reality of that doesn’t always exist. Many times, owning a business can become less free than being an employee of a business. The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make is getting lured into a proprietary deal, which is where the potential buyer learns that they’re the only person at the table. Interview Links: Sponsored by: Sweetprocess.com Builttosell.com John 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