Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

Elliot Luchansky is the CEO and Board Member of InsynQ, LLC., the industry’s leading cloud hosting provider that offers an extensive range of over 600 software solutions running on multiple data centers. On this week’s episode, Bill and Elliot discuss how to engage and help your team on a personal level, how leaders can have a balanced life, and the one-page personal planner. This conversation is being recorded live on video, which you can see on YouTube! So, let’s dive right into the one page personal planner. This is a really useful thing to do during Christmas and New Years, as things begin to wind down. Bill recommends you first use it personally and then share it with your spouse and then bring it to those who you work with. How does Bill like to use this? To begin this exercise, it’s useful to reflect on the last year. Usually, our thoughts revolve around a very narrow range, but by performing this exercise, we are able to look at things from a wider perspective. What has this past year been like for you? Flip through the calendar and consider those big, and small, events. Bill likes to pick a time range between 10-25 years of where he sees himself in the future. Younger team members might be better off picking a 10 year plan, and exploring 25 year plans as they get more comfortable with where they’d like to go in the future. For example, what will Elliot’s family look like in the next 10 years? How old will he and his spouse be? You want to really create a rich picture of your future.   Interview Links: Insynq.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

Mike Birdsall is the Co-founder of Birdsall Interactive, FanConneX, and DateBox Club. Mike and his wife, Maureen, are a husband/wife team who have been working together in business for the last 23 years, and married for the last 30 years. On this week’s episode Bill talks to Mike his business purpose, his life purpose, and how those two come together. When Mike’s sons were growing older and getting ready for college, Mike and his wife knew they were soon going to be empty-nesters. This notion of being completely alone in the house, scared both Mike and Maureen, so they started finding creative ways to re-date each other and to work on their relationship, since their children were no longer going to be the main focus. These creative dates allowed Mike and Maureen to reconnect with each other like they used to, back before they had kids. That’s how DateBox Club came to be, which is a subscription service where every month a super creative date night is delivered in the mail to their customers. The three goals of the service is for couples to interact, engage, and communicate. Mike’s service allows for him to find new and novel ways to engage his customers on a regular basis, and this keeps the business interesting. It isn’t always easy to find new ways to engage your customer, but Mike takes these challenges in stride. Mike is excited to get up in the morning because he realizes that DateBox Club is a wanted/needed service for couples who want to have creative ways to connect. An added plus to that, is that he can try out new things with his wife too!   Interview Links: Dateboxclub.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up.   Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

Brad Giles is the Founder of Evolution Partners, and a certified Gazelles coach. Originally from Australia, Brad is a strategic advisor and coach to CEOs and executive teams across Australia and Asia. On this week’s show, we explore how to develop a powerful brand promise through the use of the Attribute Map. How has Brad applied the Attribute Map tool while working one-on-one with clients? Brad first used the tool while working on strategy development with a contracting company in Australia. As he used it he saw how closely this tool aligned with brand promise. Brad found out that his client and his client’s competitors, were all having the same problem: they were failing to deliver the finished work on time. In order to solve this and reduce their customer’s frustrations, Brad helped them map out their key service attributes in order to find ways to improve their reputation in the market. There’s nothing more frustrating than hiring a company who doesn’t deliver on time. With that in mind, they created the brand promise to be 'on time, the first time, every time.' By making this promise, it substantially changed the way this business operated and they were able to achieve their promise! The reason why Brad was able to get this company to do something none of their competitors were able to achieve was not only due to the use of the Attribute Map, but also setting clear, concise, and measurable goals. There’s nothing worse than having a one-page ‘bubble wrap’ business plan, which contains no depth and is filled with fluff. Interview Links: Evolutionpartners.com.au Brad's Vlog More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up.   Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

Darius Mirshahzadeh is the CEO of The Money Source Inc. and the Founder of Endeavor America Loan Services. Darius has worked directly with Scaling Up principles and has seen quick growth within a short period of time at his two companies. On this interview, Darius shares the things he’s learned from when he first started out in 2013. What was it like learning these Scaling Up principles for the first time? When Darius was going through the “Birthing of Giants” program, he did feel a little overwhelmed by how much material there was to cover, but he was excited because at the time he was looking for a model that helped with high growth. At the time, there weren’t a lot of resources out there that were teaching these growth methods. What does Darius’s business look like now since he first learned about these principles in 2013? When Darius became the CEO of The Money Source Inc., it was the first time Darius had the chance to effectively apply what he learned, as he knew this company could scale aggressively. Since it was a brand new company, Darius was able to implement the core values, the BHAG, etc., on day one. This set the foundation for the company’s aggressive growth soon after.   Interview Links: Themoneysource.com Eeawholesale.com More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

Paul Akers is the Founder and CEO of FastCap and is an expert in the field of lean manufacturing and lean thinking. He has written several books on the subject, including 2 Second Lean, Lean Health, and Lean Travel.  So, how can we optimize ‘lean,’ in a simple and easy way? This week’s episode dives right into the inner workings of how to leverage ‘lean’ without headaches. Paul has seen ‘lean’ work in the U.S., Japan, and now Kazakhstan. So, what is ‘lean,’ exactly? Simple! ‘Lean’ is one thing — the elimination of waste. Every basic task in our life is a process. What ‘lean’ does is analyze how long it takes you to complete a process, and see if it can optimize it more effectively. You don’t have to make massive improvements from between the time you start and end a process. The improvements with the use of ‘lean,’ are often very tiny, but end up becoming incredibly effective over time. The main goal is to do higher quality work with less time. ‘Lean’ does not just apply to manufacturing. It applies to all aspects of our life. The moment you are able to apply it beyond your professional life, everything changes.  Bill has applied some lean principles into his personal life, and now looks forward to his daily tasks. There will always be pitfalls, so turn yourself into a world-class problem solver!   Interview Links: PaulAkers.net More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

Tanya Chernova is an accomplished and passionate professional speaker, coach, and author. Tanya, originally from Russia, has traveled all over the world to help her clients get to the next level in their business. Today, she currently resides in Toronto, Canada, where she was awarded Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada, in 2013. Today Tanya and I discuss how to overcome limiting beliefs and become a better leader. The brain processes the goals that you set from two different places -- the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind, the logical mind, only operates between 1-5% of the day. The unconscious mind, which holds our habits, patterns, and emotions, dictates about 95-99% of our day. Our conscious mind is the one that logically sets our goals, and our subconscious mind helps us go after those goals; it is the goal-getter. However, if you have a limiting belief, your subconscious mind could work against you, and sabotage you, to the point where you feel like you’re procrastinating on your goal. The way we even say our goals can be a trigger for self-sabotage. We used to think self-sabotage, self-doubt, and procrastination were an act, but they’re actually based on your childhood experiences. These young experiences can drastically change how you and your subconscious views the world. So, how can we change our tendencies to sabotage ourselves? By consciously using language to help us reframe our mindset in a way that builds strength. When you’ve set a goal, focus on the journey and the growth it gives you, more than the actual completion of the goal.   Interview Links: Courageous Living Website Free gift from Tanya UnderMind by Tanya Chernova and Joana Andros Tanya on LinkedIn More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up.   Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

Gil Bonwitt is the CEO of Gazelles Social Initiatives. It is projected that Gazelles Social Initiative will impact over 500 social sector organizations by the year 2020, through the use of best practices from the Scaling Up book. Gil and I will be discussing the various ways you can scale up in the social sector, on this week’s episode. Let’s begin this topic by talking about cash flow in the social sectors. As many of these social companies are not for-profit companies, money is often not their main focus. Since social companies are so mission-based, they often forget the importance of cash flow. The way social sectors increase their cash flow is very different compared to a for-profit organization. When social companies begin to scale up, that’s when they begin to see the constraints of their insufficient cash flow. By this point, it is often too late to make enough capital for their mission and their operations start to break. Gil and his team try to remind social entrepreneurs that it’s really about cash flow and sustainability. You can’t call up a donor and ask them for $10,000 on the spot or else you will not meet payroll. It simply doesn’t work that way! So, how does Gil help social sectors with their cash flow? Gazelles has multiple tools that Gil and his team use to determine gross margins, cash balance, receivables, and more. Gil shares an example of when he really used these tools to their full potential at his children’s school, who were having serious cash flow problems during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. How did the school take to the use of these new tools? Despite a financial crisis happening, the school board was resistant at first. When you first begin to use these new tools, it’s not only a learning process, but it becomes a change in culture, too. You’re bound to get some resistance, even when everyone is calling for a change in the system.   Interview Links: Gil on LinkedIn More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

Shelby Scarbrough began her career in The White House Office of Presidential Advance, and as a Protocol Officer at the U.S. Department of State. Today, Shelby is an entrepreneur, angel investor, speaker and more. For this week’s topic, Shelby and I discussed how we can improve relationships and build rapport. Let’s get right into the heart of the matter. It all boils down to dignity and respect, when it comes to building rapport. And no matter what you’re doing, those two things are the only things people want. If you’re the giver, or the receiver, keep those two things in mind, and things will begin, and end, smoothly. Shelby’s boss, who was President Ronald Reagan, treated everybody with dignity and respect. Based on his actions, this taught Shelby, at an early point in her career, why these two principles were so important. President Reagan’s team even treated others the same way the President did, because they were all representatives of his administration. When Shelby left the White House, she took her skills and applied them to the business sector. On the outside, Shelby’s work makes people’s lives easier, but when you take a closer look, her work is really to take away all the ‘noise’ of the business, and to help facilitate distraction-free communication. There are certain protocols that need to be addressed for each company. The more outspoken a CEO is about these protocols, the less intimidating it will be for a new person to join a company and figure out the company culture as they go. For example, Shelby lives in California, which means she’s able to dress much more casually at business meetings. She’s about to host a speech in Washington next week, so what does that mean for her wardrobe? In order to fit in, and be seen as an expert, she will need to dress up to Washington’s standards. People often assume that when they’re entering into a new environment, that those people need to adapt to them. This is false. When you enter into a new culture, office, etc, you should be the one adapting to their ways. Though, there is balance between being yourself, and being respectful of other people’s customs.   Interview Links: ShelbyScabrough.com Practical Protocol Shelby Scarbrough on Tedx More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

Kevin Lawrence is a strategic advisor and coach to CEOs and executive teams all over the globe. Today, Kevin and I talk about keeping it together as a leader and ways not to meltdown as you try to grow your company. How do leaders keep themselves together while under the enormous pressure of running a company? In his 20 years of experience, Kevin is always fascinated by how some people can do it and have fantastic personal lives, while others are just miserable throughout their entire leadership journey.  When Kevin dug further into this, there are some very famous people like Kurt Cobain and Elvis, who at the peak of their careers, had it all and then somewhere along the line, they imploded in their success. This same sort of timeline applies to successful executives, too.  After working with a number of very high-performing individuals, Kevin dubbed this imploding timeline as the ‘The Dark Secret of The Boardroom.’ We all have our own Elvises and Kurt Cobains inside of us. So, Kevin’s job is to help executives find their high-performing sweet spot without all the darkness associated with it.  Kevin hosted a private 2-day event with Jim Collins, the guru of business leadership and 'keeping it together.' Jim says that when we are under massive amounts of stress, we pay a 30% tax with our health. Although Jim hasn’t written about this yet, he calls this the ‘Stress and Drudgery Tax’. Steve Jobs even admitted to Jim that when he went back to Apple and still continued his work with Pixar, he paid more than that 30% tax on his health. Steve Jobs believed that those were the days where the seeds of his cancer were planted. High-performing individuals deeply care about their work, but often that’s exactly what leads to their downfall. In the mental health world, experts say that we’re only one or two life events away from a notable mental health issue. This is why when executives are going through major life-changing events, they should seek help either from a coach or therapist. Interview Links: Coach Kevin The Working Mind Summary More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).

John Mullins is an award-winning teacher, author and scholar. John is an Associate Professor of Management Practice in Marketing and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School and is recognized as a thought leader in entrepreneurship. On this episode, John and I discuss customer-funded businesses and some of the novel ways business owners can fund their businesses. To begin the interview John and I discussed his most recent book, The Customer-Funded Business. the idea for this book began while writing a chapter in his first book, Getting to Plan B, about Costco's innovative business model. John knew there were a lot of interesting funding models like Costco's out there that worked, but for most entrepreneurs it seemed as though their go-to method to acquire funding was to simply find a VC. There are other ways! John discusses 5 different models so you can fund a business without using venture capital, family money, a bank, or an angel investor. The first way is to be a matchmaker, where you just bring buyers and sellers together, but you never have your hands on the product itself. The second is the pay-in-advance model, which is what Costco currently does.  The third way is a subscription model, like Netflix and the Wall Street journal, which many consumers are already familiar with. The fourth is a scarcity model, which is what the clothing company Zara uses with its customers by only having a limited amount of each style. When it's gone, it's gone. The fifth and final model is the service-to-product model like Bill Gates and Paul Allen did with Microsoft. When they first started out, they were designing custom programs for specific tasks. A lot of the code was the same, so they made it into a standard product that was scalable and affordable. Of these five, which one is the best for you? It varies based on the product you're selling. In order to successfully execute any one of these business models, you have to be really customer-focused. Before you even attempt to pitch your product to a VC, you have to pitch your product to the actual customer first. What most people don't think about is that the customer can also be your VC as well.     Interview Links: John Mullins The Customer-Funded Business by John Mullins Getting to Plan B – John Mullins and Randy Komisar John on London Business School More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com:  Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so then head over to iTunes and leave a review. It helps other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts. __ Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach. We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).