Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

Industries are being disrupted again and again with disruptors like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and more. You might want to be a disruptor yourself, or maybe even learn how to better manage disruptors and work alongside them. What frameworks can you apply to be more of a disruptor? Today’s guest has some answers!   Mike Maddock is the Founder of an internationally-recognized innovation consultancy firm, Maddock Douglas. The firm helps corporations invent and launch new products, services, and business models. Mike loves to solve problems with disruptive ideas and has launched more than six successful companies.   Mike is out with a new book, Plan D, which dives into what disruptors have in common. Time and time again, Mike noticed that so many entrepreneurs just seem to be lucky people. In chapter five, Mike explores this concept a bit more and it appears the secret to their success is that they have an abundant mindset.   So, how do you manufacture an abundant mindset? After interviewing dozens of people for the book, some entrepreneurs sit down every day and write a list of everything they’re grateful for, others have an achieving exercise where they email their close friends a list of tasks they’d like to achieve for the week and check in with each other at the end of the week. By seeing the progress they’ve all made together, it creates gratefulness.   Experiencing little moments of gratefulness is what these disruptions are using, often unconsciously, to propel themselves into unknown and scary territory. It’s physically impossible to be afraid and be grateful at the same time, and by working with an abundance mindset, these disruptors are always looking for opportunity in the chaos.   Interview Links: Mike-maddock.com Mike on LinkedIn Scaling Up Business Podcast Episode 81 with Mike Maddock   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   TWEETABLES:   “Entrepreneurs seem to be able to manufacture serendipity, which is to say, they’re lucky again and again.”   “It’s physically impossible for you to feel afraid and grateful at the same time.”   “I’ve never met an incredibly successful person who is not either chasing a ghost or being chased by one. The question is who’s got who.”   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).  

When scaling up a company, finding the right people is the hardest part. We love to work with people based on their strengths, and find ways to align this with the overall company culture. Today’s show focuses on the deep work necessary to develop a thriving values-based business. Brandon Miller is the co-founder and CEO of 34 Strong, an employee engagement firm that helps build great workplaces. Brandon and his team leverage the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool to help identify and maximize employee strengths. Brandon’s ultimate career choice as a young child was to become a teacher and a football coach. However, that changed at 22 years-old and he became a young pastor instead. He served 2,500 congregants at his church and was in an executive role, where he managed 28 staff members. He wanted to improve his workforce by building a strengths-based culture around it. When it comes to values, it’s important for leaders to be clear on what the core values for their organization are. Studies show that people have retention for no more than four values in their lives. Therefore, looking at a list of values and picking off all the ones you like might seem great in theory, but it rarely pans out in practice. People need to know what each value means and how it can be carried out in the team. Cultures are built, and they cannot be bought. Culture, at its core, starts with leadership. It has to be something where the leader can be an example. In order to create a successful culture, it has to pass the ‘Three M Test’. You’ve got to be able to Message it, it’s got to be a Model, and it has to be Mirrored back to you.   Interview Links: 34strong.com Brandon on LinkedIn Gallupstrengthscenter.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  

Today’s episode addresses two different areas in the world of cash as well as a novel and innovative business. We’ll be taking a dive into the employee/employer relationship and the stresses that lead to lead employee discomfort around the topic of cash.   Safwan Shah is the Founder and Ceo of PayActiv, an employer-sponsored financial wellness platform. With a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Safwan has a unique perspective about the finance industry. His company serves millions of employees worldwide and settles over $1B in timely EWA funds annually.   Safwan is originally from Pakistan and has been in Silicon Valley since the mid-90s, where he stumbled into becoming an entrepreneur. As an engineer, Safwan has had the opportunity to work in several NASA centers throughout his career.   PayActiv started after Safwan noticed a pattern among employers and employees. People work every day, yet they get paid after every two weeks, or after a month. Is there a reason why employees are giving a time loan to their employer? Yet, if you own a store or shop, you pay your vendors and even your landlord in advance, and your customers pay you almost immediately.   For employers, cash flow is often an issue. At a large company, around 50-70% of payroll consists of hourly workers. Before an employer can get up one morning and decide to pay their workers instantly, there is definitely some logistical challenges they must first think through.   What happens when an employee wants early pay or even an early bonus? Employers often get annoyed by these requests because of how time-consuming it is to fulfill. PayActiv helps employers eliminate these painful logistical challenges by creating a seamless way employees can ask for their pay (and receive it) without bothering anyone.   Interview Links: PayActiv.com Safwan 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

This is a very special episode, because our guest is sailing around Antarctica. And, because of where our guest is, the interview was conducted via satellite phone. What has taken place is an incredible and historic journey that we can't wait for you to be a part of. Randall Reeves is about to undertake two treacherous routes. The goal is to navigate both the American and Antarctic continents in one season. The Figure 8 Voyage will go through a circuit of the Southern Ocean and a transit of the Northwest Passage (forming a figure 8). No one has ever done this before! Randall has been alone at sea for 125 days, thus far. He's passing Tasmania, Australia and plans to be near New Zealand in about a week. Average wind speeds are around 25-35 miles per hour. He averages around 145 miles a day. Today is a nice day, but it isn't always like that! On the boat, Randall does not have any luxuries like pressured or hot water. He doesn't have heat, a microwave, or even a coffee maker. His journey is bare-bones. He sleeps in a sleeping bag at night and has 6 pairs of socks that he circles through. He is unable to wash them, because it gets so cold on the boat that they would never dry. This is Randall's second attempt. The last time he tried it, he experienced a lot of hardship and unexpected problems. He lost both of his self-steering systems in the course of a week and it set him back a couple of extra weeks. When he was near Madagascar, he got caught in a huge storm. It was 20-foot sea waves coming and crashing down all around him. Water ended up getting on his equipment and everything was dead. By that time, he was approaching winter and he had to stop. Randall has been planning for this project since 2013. It took him a couple of years of trial and error to find the right boat type that could navigate the waters. To get a taste of the Arctic, he also joined a boat crew to become familiar with the environment. Even now, with his journey underway, there's a high risk that the project might fail simply because the Arctic Northwest Passage might not open this year. Last summer only one boat with a crew of 35 was able to get through. But, he remains optimistic.   Interview Links: Figure8voyage.com   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Register now for our next workshop on Scaling Up! And hurry to get one of the limited $100 discounts for loyal podcast listeners (while supplies last). https://scalingcoach.com/scaling-business-growth-workshop/ Enter code “SUP” for scaling up podcast during checkout.  We’ll see you there! 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). Check out this episode!    

Ron Lovett is an author, entrepreneur, and a leader with a passion for change. He is the Founder of Connolly Owens, where he and his team build companies with a purpose. They teach companies how to create accountability so that their entire team is focused on the same company goals. Are you looking to get more engagement from your team and from your front-line staff? And, do we really need that much middle management support? Today’s show is all about developing a more agile and less ‘managed’ team that’s also engaged, happy, and empowered! Ron struggled throughout high school, but he was always finding ways to make a buck and hustle. At one point, he had three jobs and was selling marijuana on the side. He decided to go backpacking and when he came back he started his security business. Within four years of starting his business, he had 350 staff members doing security for an 85,000 person Rolling Stones concert. The security industry hasn’t changed much in terms of innovation, but after Ron hired his first Gazelle’s coach, it really turned around his company and sparked him to take some risks. Ron actually didn’t believe in the whole ‘culture’ thing. After reading the book, Nuts!: Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, by Kevin Freiberg, skeptical, he asked a Southwest employee one day if he liked his job. The employee said, “This is the best … company to work for on the planet.” It blew Ron away. He realized he had a lot of work to do to bring his company to the same standards. Ron decided to take some interesting HR practices to help get his front-line staff more aligned and empowered. However, Ron ran into another challenge: his corporate staff loved the company and their culture, but they hated their jobs (specifically, their tasks). So he found ways to outsource the tasks they hated to their front-line staff (who loved the extra work). It was messy at first, but eventually it ended up increasing everyone’s happiness levels.   Interview Links: Connollyowens.com Ron on LinkedIn   Resources: ScalingUpforBusinessGrowthWorkshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Register now for our next workshop on Scaling Up! And hurry to get one of the limited $100 discounts for loyal podcast listeners (while supplies last). https://scalingcoach.com/scaling-business-growth-workshop/ Enter code “SUP” for scaling up podcast during checkout.  We’ll see you there! ScalingUpSummits (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. ScalingUp 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).

Wendy Lieber is the Founder of ContentBacon, an inbound marketing service that helps clients tell their stories through digital content. Wendy approached Bill because she’s ready to scale her business by 10X. The company was founded in 2014 and it’s ready to make the next big jump. What strategies come to mind that would allow for Wendy to scale her business 10X? Wendy and her team have been focused on building their infrastructure and are in the process of customizing it to fit their needs. They are looking into automating some of their processes so that they can better leverage their team. The biggest challenge right now in this strategy is performance — the ability to deliver the agreed-upon work without the use of additional staff. Wendy has seen a growth of, on average, 40 percent a year and has had some huge wins from the marketing point of view. Wendy currently has 10 full-time employees and a pool of 30 freelancers/contractors. Wendy realizes that the team that got them to where they are today isn’t going to get them to their next BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). So, Wendy has had to invest more in her team. Bill recommends Wendy use a Scaling Up coach to help her detect blind spots that she’s not aware of. So far, Wendy has done a really good job structuring her company for successful 10X growth, but having someone hold your hand through the process can make a world of difference.   Interview Links: Contentbacon.com Wendy on LinkedIn Aligntoday.com Metronomegrowthsystems.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

Good storytelling is essential to both great leadership and great marketing. At the core of telling great stories, is the ability to be real and to go beyond the superficial level. You can accomplish this by having the courage to be vulnerable. Corey Blake is the Founder and CEO of Round Table Companies (RTC) and is also the publisher of Conscious Capitalism Press. Some of RTC’s clients include Microsoft, First United Bank, and Marketo. Corey has spent over 12 years helping business leaders use storytelling to transform themselves and their organizations. When Corey’s mother was diagnosed with depression and had also exhibited traits of bipolar disorder, Corey began to learn really quickly how to read a room and develop survival tactics to reduce the number of outbursts and to make his mother laugh. It was through this experience that he discovered (although unconsciously at the time) he liked being a performer and went to school for acting. After Corey got married, he decided to make a transition from acting to something a little more consistent, so he started his own company! Before RTC, Corey created two other storytelling companies for the film industry. He learned a lot of valuable lessons and did a lot right but in the end, he made some huge mistakes he could not recover from. As Corey worked with his clients at RTC, he and his team saw the kind of impact they were able to have on their clients when the client felt safe enough to be vulnerable in their story. They would often share things they hadn’t even told their spouses or, it was the first time they even expressed these vulnerabilities out loud to themselves. Flipping the script, when Corey was able to become vulnerable with his team (and vice versa) about trying to avoid making the same mistakes he made at his prior two companies, a deep and profound trust was developed. By having the courage to express vulnerability in the workforce, the team was able to grow in a meaningful way and had each other’s backs.   Interview Links: Roundtablecompanies.com Consciouscapitalism.org Corey 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

Today’s show is about hacking happiness, fulfillment, and connection for both yourself and your team. Our special guest has generated terrific business results by digging deep into something so simple, but complex: happiness. Mike Simonsen is the Co-founder and CEO of Altos Research, a company that analyzes real estate markets in real-time. Mike is also a Board Member for the San Francisco chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization. In 2001, Mike bought his own house in Silicon Valley. It was overpriced, the mortgage was ridiculous, and the NASDAQ was going crazy. Mike started building models based on the data he had about the U.S. real estate market to better help him understand what was going on. Realizing he had collected more data about this industry than even the financial institutions, he started his company in 2006 to help anyone with an interest in real estate. What exactly does it mean to ‘hack’ happiness? Mike noticed himself getting into a funk. He was feeling uninspired and just getting lazy in his business, and he wanted to get out of it… he wanted to feel inspired again. During his research, he discovered nine pillars that would help him feel connected and happy again. He tried it on himself and discovered something amazing — he had a really good year in 2018, both professionally and personally. In fact, It wasn’t just a ‘good’ year, it was actually the best year he’s ever had. What did he do? Well, first, he changed the way he tackles stress. Typically, when Mike gets stressed, he starts to avoid things. So when Mike noticed he was getting stressed, he decided to meditate, which immediately drops cortisol (stress) levels. After three months of meditation, there were positive changes in his physical tests. Second, he stopped putting goals down because he would routinely never complete them. Instead, he put measurements in place so he could track his progress and he also set a schedule for himself so he made sure he’d do that thing. This took an enormous amount of pressure off of him. Third, Mike wanted to boost up his serotonin and oxytocin (joy/happiness) levels, because it’s much more sustainable than dopamine (reward). He did this by recording his moments of joy. This gave him the opportunity to remember all the positives that have happened in his day. He would also journal his negative emotions down because it gave all this pent up energy an ‘out.’   Interview Links: http://bit.ly/hacking-happiness-mike-simonsen Altos Research Mike 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 secret to successfully scaling up is to focus on a few things, but be different, be unique, in your industry. So, how can you stand out from the crowd and be different? Today’s show is a rerun all the way back to Episode 1 and it dives into your unique talents and how you can discover what you bring to the table.   Robert (Bob) Bloom is the authority on customer-centric growth. He is the author of The Inside Advantage and The New Experts. Bob was the U.S. Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide. He got his start as an entrepreneur, took his company national, and then sold it. Bob has developed strategies for companies like BMW, L’Oreal, Nestlé, and even helped to launch Southwest Airlines, T-Mobile, Juicy Juice, and many others. In today’s episode, Bob and I talk about strategy and finding your own inside advantage.   There is a secret that so many business leaders are missing. Most people start with a strategy, but it is one that is in their minds and may not be contemporary at the moment. Secondly, the most important thing that a strategy has to have is consensus internally with all of your staff, whether you have three people or hundreds. If everybody doesn’t agree that you are going in the right direction, it doesn’t matter because you will never get there.   The other thing that is absolutely critical is differentiation. In this day and time, if you don’t differentiate your brand, your company, or your services, you will not make it. The competition out there is mushy; everybody is doing the same thing.   There are four steps in the Growth Discovery Process   Who is your core customer? You must start with the first element. Customers are human beings; you can't talk to a statistic. You must talk to this human being and understand his/her company or personal needs from that standpoint. When you do that, you understand your ‘Who.’ Get inside that person’s head and heart. Look at your customer as if that person was right in the room with you.   What does your core customer want, need and desire? You want to look inside your business. What does your core customer want, need, and desire? You have a WHO and WHAT. What do you do inside your business? What is the uncommon offering that your business will own and leverage?   ‘How’ is the persuasive strategy that will convince your core customer to buy your uncommon offering versus all competitive offerings. You need to persuade or convince your customer that you are really going to do what you say you are going to do. You need to develop an approach to convince your customer to buy from you and not your competitor.   ‘Own it!’ is the series of imaginative acts that will celebrate your uncommon offering and make it well known to your core customer. You want your brand or company to stand for it! You have to own what you say you are going to own. OWN YOUR WHAT! It has to be yours and yours alone in 15 words or less. Simple — Consistent, Committed and Clear!   Check out the podcast to find out more in-depth about how Bob took these strategies into the big businesses mentioned in the introduction.   Interview Links: Bobbloom.biz Robert on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshops: 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 we transition from the end of the year to the new year, we might imagine what’s next in our future and what kind of goals we should aspire to do. Verne Harnish joins us today to guide us through the goal-setting process!   As Verne is coming up to his 60th birthday, he is faced with the ‘what next?’ question. He attended a Tony Robbin’s seminar to help unblock himself from… himself! As Bill says, you’re never truly finished, so it’s important to continually grow and develop yourself until you die.   We want to be informed of the past, learn from it, make our peace from it, and then get ready to move on. As Verne sits and imagines the future, he has some changes of thought on the goal-setting process. We have some real cultural barriers when it comes to our accomplishments.   Every day, Verne is more and more convinced that you’re a danger to yourself if you think you can have three-year objectives. The whole idea of even knowing where you’ll be in 3, 5, or 10 years is very limiting.   This doesn’t mean Verne is against making your BHAG for the next 20 years, and taking steps for you to get there, but it just means that everything in between before you get there is a big guess at best, and it’s okay to learn and grow from that.   Interview Links: Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, by Kenneth O. Stanley and Joel Lehman   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshops: 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:   “The greatest lesson of history is we fail to learn from history.”   “The biggest constraint is between our ears.”   “You’re either winning or you’re learning.”   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).