Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

This show is a bit different from your regular episodes. Bill recently worked with incarcerated men on the subjects of business and life improvement and it deeply affected him as well as made a profound impact on him. This show is about connecting one-on-one with fellow human beings and how we can use that to be better leaders for our team.   Catherine Hoke is the Founder of Defy Ventures and Hustle 2.0, programs that are dedicated to providing inmates with the tools they need to develop a better future. Tom Williams is the Chair of the Pelican Bay Volunteer Alliance and works with Catherine one-on-one on these incarceration volunteer projects.   One of the important aspects of doing a volunteer program like this is to realize that these men have done horrible crimes, but these men are not their crimes. When you understand their story — being raised in poverty, poor family support systems — you understand that the journey they’ve undertaken can be very devastating and bleak.   One inmate had experienced a lifetime of abuse, starting at the age of a year and a half. However, what stood out to Bill was the man’s thoughtfulness and ability to care and feel regret. He is a human being after all and his life is not over. After ten years, he still has more time to serve, but there’s room for reform and growth in that time.   It’s important to note that the R in Rehabilitation was only added ten years ago. California state and the rest of the nation believed you locked up the ‘bad guys’ and threw away the key. It was only until recently did we realize that it is not an effective method to help these individuals get better.   Interview Links: Defyventures.org Hustle20.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  

Should you buy or build your company? It’s a question we hear a lot in the world of entrepreneurship and scaling up. Today’s show focuses on how you can use buying and then building as an acquisition growth strategy.   Walker Deibel is the co-founder of three startups and has also acquired seven companies, and exited two of them successfully. He is the author of Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game and will be providing some insight as to how you should approach acquisitions.   Walker Deibel believes entrepreneurship is a condition rather than a job or position. Most of the time entrepreneurs simply can’t keep a job because of the way they are wired. After his first startup failed, Walker decided to make the rounds and raise capital for 18 months on another business idea. It was there where he decided it was better for him to buy a business than to build one from scratch.   After lots of research, Walker decided to make a weird decision and purchase a book publishing company in 2008, a time where books were turning digital. It was a declining industry. But Walker saw something unique happening — self-publishing was going to explode, and it did! His business decision was a success.   The industry doesn’t necessarily matter when it comes to the company you’re buying. The point is you’re buying an already existing infrastructure of a company that you can then expand upon and build out from there. It could go into a completely different industry if you like if the basics and foundation are already there.   Interview Links: Buythenbuild.thinkific.com Walker 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’s show is a special episode where we feature a number of guests in a panel discussion on the Insights of the Week from Verne Harnish in the World of Scaling Up.   In this episode, we’ll be taking a look at employee policies around pay and compensation, what you can do to make a difference in retention of your talent as you scale up. We will also be taking a look at the importance of scaling up vs. startups and the different messaging opportunities available to companies. The panel will then examine a global 500 list of companies and see who is growing, and who is not.   Also on the show, we will dial into some of the training and educational opportunities that are available for yourself and your team at the World of Scaling Up. We will also take a deeper dive into the importance of female CEOs and females in leadership and their impact in an organization.   We will also draw some inspiration and examples by taking a look at the top sports teams in the world and the value their methodologies can bring into the business world.   Today’s panel line features your host Bill Gallagher, Judy Guido, Anita Cabell, and Doug Wick.   Judy Guido is the Chair of Guido and Associates and a member of Verne’s Advisory Board. She is also a member of the Green Industry Hall of Fame. Judy has an impressive career, having done a successful launch on the New York Stock Exchange with one company, accomplishing 104 mergers and acquisitions, four consolidations, and eight startups.   Anita Cabell is a British three-time Entrepreneur and has been a Business Coach since 2007. Many of her clients are members of the EO or YPO who need a wide range of help. Antia has a competitive coaching edge because she has a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design and more recently a Master’s in the Neuroscience of Leadership.   Dough Wick was a Certified E-myth Business Coach for ten years and has helped over 250 small-to-medium-sized businesses apply Michael Gerber’s principles. Dough is a successful business executive and has 42 years of experience in sales, marketing, leadership, finance, and more.   Interview Links: Judy: Guidoassoc.com Anita: Anita on LinkedIn Doug: Positioningsystems.com   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  

When you’ve achieved a certain level of success, what’s the point of it all? What are your plans at 80, 90, or even 100 years old? What keeps you going? Today’s episode is all about creating a conscious and fulfilling future.   John Anderson became the first-ever Scale Up coach back in 1999 and has worked closely with Verne Harnish throughout his career. John is the Founder of the Detroit chapter of EO and he has also recently authored his very first book, Replace Retirement: Living Your Legacy in the Exponential Age.   Peter Diamandis, a fellow friend and Entrepreneur to John, has a saying that you’re either going to be disrupted or you’re going to be a disruptor. John thought about the various industries that would be disrupted like the automotive industry, but couldn't exactly see how his industry would change all that much.   After further thinking, he realized that Peter was right. John could one day be disrupted through artificial intelligence and virtual reality. The way we coach today will change, so how can he be a disruptor in it? Well, at 61 years old, retirement is fast approaching, but John doesn’t believe that it’s for him, and he knows he isn’t the only one who thinks this way.   The concept of retirement that we have today is not sustainable based on the population pace we are on. Every day, 10,000 people turn 65 years old and that pace will continue for 20 years. This means that half of the world’s population will soon be over 50 years old. John believes it’s not healthy to finish work life by 65.   Throughout John’s career, he developed a success map, where he essentially takes content from the Rockefeller Habits and creates a one-page personal plan for his clients. However, as his clients grew older, they became less and less interested in success and more interested in creating a legacy. So, he switched his success map into a legacy map, where instead of the accumulation of wealth, it had a strong focus on what would you like to leave behind.   Interview Links: Theceoadvantage.com Replace Retirement: Living Your Legacy in the Exponential Age, by John Anderson A360.digital   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 want better results. We want to accomplish things yet we have limitations. But, what if we could shift it all and achieve new heights without these limitations? What if the limitations you have aren’t as real as you thought they were? Today’s guest has some insight.   Nick Egan is a performance coach and the author of the new book, Shift: The Art of Transforming Limitations. He is an award-winning leader and an Executive Coach for Level52. He also has a background in positive psychology and Tibetian Buddhist culture.   When it comes to our limitations, most of the time our view on the world has been filtered through our own story about it. Funny enough, not a lot of people realize this. Once you’re aware of this story, then the door opens and you can choose which story you’d like to follow. The problem is, you first have to get there.   Nick and his friend were once in Western Tibet and a flash rain caused a baby yak to get stuck in the deep and porous mud. Their taxi driver was adamant that it was impossible to save this yak. It was completely illogical to even try. However, to test it, Nick and his friend went out to save the yak. It took about an hour between him, his friend, and nomadic yak herders to save the baby… but they were able to do it.   The lesson here is that the taxi driver is correct in that between one or two people, no, you couldn’t save the yak, but with a team, you can. In coaching it is similar. There is a point where you just can’t do this on your own. So, who are the allies you’re going to call on to help you through your struggles and break out of your limitations?   Interview Links: Level52.ca Nick on LinkedIn Nickeganphd.com   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  

As your company gets bigger, business owners discover a tough problem — you become less and less in touch with what your employees are doing and you don’t know if you’re on track with your goals. And if you do regular quarterly meetings, another problem that arises is that your actions are not tightly aligned to your goals between the day-to-day. Today’s guest has some answers on how to become more involved and aware of where your company is going.   Doug Walner is the CEO of Align Technologies Corp, a growth management tool to help develop, track, and measure your progress. He has over 25 years of technology business management and his background includes human capital management, consumer production, aviation, and media.   When Doug was in the process of selling one of his companies, the diligence and amount of paperwork involved to show buyers and investors his company and his staff were on track with their goals were extensive and tedious. When Align came along, things really changed for so many entrepreneurs, especially when it came time to sell.   One of the amazing features about Align is that employees can now see what everyone in the business is in charge of doing, and how they’re doing. It creates transparency and accountability within the company. Due to its interface, buyers and investors can also quickly log into Align and see progress reports, priorities, and have historical data for the business in an instant.   It’s just good business to track as much as you can about the company. This opens you up for so much more when you’re ready to sell or get more financing. When businesses rely on the founder to ‘keep things going,’ it becomes very difficult for an investor to fund you when they cannot realistically see if your business is even scalable.   Interview Links: Aligntoday.com   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  

Business owners are always looking for ways to improve their company value. They might want to sell the company later down the road or even get more financing, and their company has to have the numbers to justify it. However, there are three big mistakes companies make when it comes to improving their company value, which today’s guest will dive into!   Jennifer Peek is a Value Advisor for Peek Advisory and is a CPA, CVA, venture investor, and so much more! She has worked with small businesses all the way up to billion-dollar companies on increasing their overall value and preparing them for their next business stage.   Jennifer worked for a public accounting firm for about five years; it was there where she saw her family-owned business clients really struggle with a transition. A lot of them were the 3rd or 4th generation in the business but were seeing problems when the 5th generation no longer wanted to be part of the family business.   Fast forward a few years later, Jennifer was working in Mergers and Acquisitions for a large company who was considering selling some of their smaller companies off to a competitor and buying up other smaller businesses in the region. It was here where Jennifer got hands-on and insider experience as to what companies look for before they buy and before they sell.   When it comes to common mistakes business owners make, reducing your taxes is the biggest one that comes to mind. It’s natural for business owners to want to pay less in taxes while they are starting their business. Because of this, they work diligently with their tax advisors to bring their liabilities down.   However, this can actually affect your company value if you’re looking for a successful exit. Jennifer worked with a client where his company evaluation was about half of what he was expecting, but through a little bit of work and tweaking, he was able to get his numbers where he needed to be for a successful exit within a year.   Interview Links: Peekadvisory.com Jennifer on LinkedIn   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  

Culture is who you are inside the company and brand is who you are out to the world. When the two are aligned, there’s a real power in your organization, but when they’re misaligned, that’s when the disconnect happens. Today’s show is all about how to get the two things in sync.   Denise Lee Yohn is a speaker, brand expert, and the author of What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest. Today, Denise will be talking about her latest book, Fusion: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World’s Greatest Companies on this week’s episode!   What’s the difference between brand image vs. brand identity? Your brand is not what you say it is, it is what you do and how you do it. A disconnect between your brand and your culture of any kind can lead you to not fulfilling your promises. If your internal message is disconnected from your external message, it’s going to create a problem down the line.   For example, Wells Fargo used to have a very wholesome brand image, but over the last few years, that image has been tarnished by bad internal practices. Employees felt pressured to fudge the numbers and open up fake accounts due to a misaligned company objective. However, when you’re aligned with how your organization thinks and acts on the inside, you’re creating a value between both your customers and your employees that is very difficult for competitors to undercut.   The truth is, customers are very skeptical and cynical. And in our modern age, it’s very easy to tell if what you’re saying on the outside is actually true for what your company believes on the inside. When you have an alignment in your company culture, you are able to recruit and retain people who believe in your cause.   Interview Links: Deniseleeyohn.com Denise on LinkedIn   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  

The main challenge for Bill and his clients is finding talented people. There is a big shortage of qualified people all over the world and on top of that, it’s difficult to retain good talent. This episode features a ‘best of’ episode from Jeff Hoffman, who is excellent at attracting and connecting with people!   Jeff Hoffman is a successful entrepreneur and the Founder of Priceline, UBid, and ColorJar. Jeff has worked alongside celebrities like Elton John, Britney Spears, and NSYNC. He knows a thing or two about what it takes to engage people and on today’s show, he shares his expertise in team-building practices that bring good people together!   One of the most important lessons Jeff learned about scaling up is the value of teams. As a founder, you are used to doing everything and anything in the beginning. The problem with this, though, is that if your company does well, you start to think you’re pretty good at all of this.   Once founders hit a later stage in their company, they find themselves overwhelmed. They are working harder than ever before and putting in more hours than they’ve ever done before, yet, despite this, they’ve stopped growing. The truth is, you’re never going to do anything massive or at scale by yourself.   Jeff was not smart enough to understand this in the beginning, but through his mistakes, he’s learned that the day you start taking some of your time to delegate your tasks and to find people that are smarter than you to run the company, is the day you can finally work less and be less stressed.   Jeff had to make an active effort to find talented people. Sending out an ad doesn’t work. The best people in your market aren’t looking for a job, so schedule the time to scout them. The second part of running a successful team is getting out of their way. Let the people who are smarter than you do their jobs!   Your real job as a founder is to build a workplace environment and culture that people love to go to, where the best people in the industry all want to work for you and never want to leave. Your job is to take care of the people who work for you. When you’ve achieved this, you never have to worry about the growth of your company.   Interview Links: Jeffhoffman.com Jeff on LinkedIn   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

Some of our best and most valuable business comes from a referral, but how do you cultivate it and, most importantly, repeat it? Today’s show is all about how to create scalable and repeatable referrals through systems.   Stacey Brown Randall is a three-time Entrepreneur, author of Generating Business Referrals Without Asking, and the host of the Roadmap to Grow Your Business podcast! Stacey has taught her ‘no-asking’ referral strategy to hundreds of clients and audiences all over the world.   When Stacey gave her notice to leave Corporate America to work with a husband & wife team, she did not realize she was four weeks pregnant at the time. After working with them for about 8-9 months, her client actually encouraged her to start her own business. And, she did it! But after five years, she was mentally exhausted and had to throw in the towel.   How can you apply a strong referral strategy in your business without being promotional and ‘gimmicky’? When Stacey goes into companies of all sizes, she actually has to undo a lot of old myths about networking and referrals. A lot of companies provide an incentivized referral program, but in a lot of cases, that just doesn’t work. When Stacey works with companies, she has them go through an exercise where they craft their own referral plan. In this, you identify who your referral sources are, you create a plan on how to build meaningful and memorable connections with your referral sources, and most importantly, you thank and acknowledge your customers for their referral!   Interview Links: Staceybrownrandall.com   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