Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

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).

Robert Sher is the Founding Principal of CEO to CEO, a regular columnist for Forbes and CFO Magazine, and the author of two books, The Feel of the Deal and Mighty Midsized Companies. On this week's episode, Rob and I discuss growth and leadership. To start off, Rob shares a story about his client who recently had been promoted to CEO and had a big problem to solve that he just couldn't get his head wrapped around. Rob’s client had a management team, but he had to push them on every little thing, and then later chase them down because they would only compete the task halfway. It was exhausting and frustrating and he knew that playing babysitter was not the most effective way to spend his time. This company just seemed really, really, really hard to run. The company had pretty strict firing policies. In fact, the three top leaders had been there since 1985. The one thing Rob saw right off the bat was that the CEO's team needed help in leadership training and communication, as did the CEO. Since the CEO was more introverted, he preferred to hide away and work on his own things, but this created an imbalance in leadership. So, what did Rob do? He came in and introduced an operating plan. It's a one page plan that lists the goals of the company. Rob gave this plan, slightly customized depending on the department, to the six managers reporting to the CEO. When they incorporated the plan, it was completely new to the team. Every month the team would use this plan to gauge how they were doing in terms of achieving their goal. So, how did Rob help the CEO and his managers with leadership? Well, the introduction of this plan made managers feel like they were finally driving in the same car, giving them a clear vision of where they needed to direct their team. Within a year, profits jumped from break even to 3.5% profit despite having the same volume in sales. The manager leading the sales team had been there for a long time, but as this was his first job leading a sales team, he had no real sales experience and had no mentor to help him grow further as a leader. So, Rob and the CEO brought in a more experienced VP of sales (without firing anybody) and it skyrocketed the business. Sometimes if you really want to grow, you need to bring in extra and more experienced leadership.   Interview Links: Ceotoceo.biz The Feel of the Deal by Robert Sher Mighty Midsized Companies by Robert Sher 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).

Ted Sarvata is a fellow Gazelles coach who is focused on reigniting your purpose to restore your sanity! He and I will be diving into purpose, how you find it, how you use it in a company setting, and so much more on this week's episode. How do you discover your own personal purpose? Business owners tend to downplay their purpose in terms of why they started their business, but the reality is they shouldn't. The team buys into the owner's vision and the company's purpose, so the 'why' needs to be prominent in the company culture. Why does purpose even matter? Isn't that a bit 'woo-woo'? For those who might think so, I share a story with the audience on why taking your team through the journey of discovering their purpose is so powerful. Purpose becomes the core motivator for your team and this is one of the reasons why it's so crucial for the team to discover it. As you begin the conversation, it is best to first ask people what they do and why they do what they do? You keep peeling back that layer until it starts to 'click' for them as to what their purpose might be in life and within the company. So, once you've discovered purpose, what's next? Well, now that you have this knowledge, what does it mean to you? Ted shares an example of how one of his clients used this new-found discovery of purpose and how they incorporated their purpose within their long-term company goals. People often get scared about choosing the wrong type of purpose, but the beauty of purpose is that it can and will change! You do not need to climb a mountain to discover yourself and your meaning. Purpose comes from you, which means there's no such thing as having a wrong purpose.   Interview Links: Ted Sarvata Start With Why – Simon Sinek TED Talk 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).

Joanna Bloor is a veteran in the media space and has worked in leadership roles with companies like CBS Interactive, Pandora, and OpenTable. Joanna is the CEO and Founder of Amplify Lab and has over 20 years of experience in digital media, broadcast television, and radio. In this episode, Joanna and I dive into what you actually want to be known for in your professional career and how to properly articulate that to your peers and clients. Joanna has spent a year talking with other women on how they can represent themselves as the experts and get C-suite leadership positions, which are usually very male-dominated. A big question that comes up is how do you figure out what you really want to be known for? As Joanna was trying to figure out how to answer this particular question, she found that it was actually quite difficult to really articulate that message for yourself. Another point that she discovered was that once you've figured out what you want to be known for, the actual process of explaining that to others is also incredibly difficult. If you look at examples of successful executives, the story of who they are and why they do what they do is deeply connected and tied into the company's brand as well. This means that companies need to focus on their executive’s story just as much as they focus on their brand's story. There is a lot of anxiety around getting your message wrong and there's quite a bit of challenge towards defining yourself down to just one particular thing. However, when you define the type of audience you want to connect with and the types of conversations you want to have with them, the process of 'what you're known for' becomes a lot easier. Another point you should consider is that it's really okay for your message to change and grow over time. Perhaps it's best to phrase the question as: What do you want to be known for in this phase of life? This will help you narrow down your options based on what you want to achieve -right now-. When you've found your message, Joanna encourages her clients to talk to 5 people who 'already love you', and talk to them about that message. Call them back 48 hours later and ask those same 5 people what they remembered about the conversation and see if they remembered any 'sticky' words that resonated with them. Just remember, words change and your definitions change, but the only thing that remains consistent is you. You have to be genuine about the message you put out there and you have to be genuine about the journey you're taking right now. When you have that in place, then defining what you're doing right now becomes a whole lot easier.   Interview Links: Joanna Bloor’s Website 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).