Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

David Rendall is a professional speaker, stand-up comedian, author of The Freak Factor, and he spends his free time competing in Ironman triathlons and ultramarathons. The Freak Factor discusses the concept of unleashing your inner freak and discovering your unique potential. It dives into the fact that your strangeness and weird quirks are the key to your success. Today, Dave shares his story on how he got into 'The Freak Factor' line of work. When he was growing up, he was constantly in trouble and was told by teachers to sit still and stay put. Dave believed for a good number of years that he was a problem, a loser, and that if he didn't 'control himself' he would remain so. It wasn't until age 30 that he realized he was actually getting rewarded for what seemed to be these 'awful' qualities both his teachers and parents frowned upon. He was getting rewarded for speaking out, taking control of the situation, and going against the grain. One day while he was listening to an audio book and reflecting back on his life, he realized his biggest weakness growing up was also a strength. Every single one of his weaknesses seemed to be strengths and this did not just apply to Dave personally, but to others as well. So, how do you leverage your freak factor? Dave says once yourecognize that your weaknesses are strengths, you can begin to see some of the positives that come with it. The first step is to be aware of your 'flaws' and the second step is to accept them. Be aware that this is who you are and to recognize the positives and negatives that come with that. The third step is to improve and strengthen your flaws. How do you capitalize on the positive sides of your weaknesses? Dave believes that, in the process of trying to fix our weaknesses, we also end up damaging our strengths. Instead of holding it in, we should find ways to let it out and maximize the benefits of our flaws.   Interview Links: David Rendall's Website The Freak Factor by David Rendall 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).

Rich Manders, co-founder of iAutomation and FreeScale Coaching, is a serial entrepreneur who has sold two businesses and has overseen seven acquisitions. Rich has a deep understanding on how to optimize and grow combining enterprises and has worked with many thought leaders on business management, personal development, and negotiation. In 1998, Rich was having problems finding and keeping talented employees for the business he was starting. Someone recommended that Rich look into a Topgrading workshop and, after a brief course on the subject, found that this system was undoubtedly the best way to hire new employees. Rich attributes Topgrading to making his business millions of dollars because it took the chaos out of hiring talent. Due to the technical nature of the company, it took roughly two years of employee training to be brought up to full speed. This had huge costs for Rich. Not only did it take two years to test out talent, but it also cost Rich $250,000 in salary, training, and benefits before the company even knew if that one employee was a right fit for them. High stakes to say the least. Rich says during the first two years of the company, he had made five bad misfires. Rich found that by using the Topgrading system, the people he ended up hiring were 2-3 times more productive than previous hires. The next step for Rich was to send his managers through the topgrading workshop to also improve employee productivity. The hiring process is not fast or easy. It takes time to vet the right hires and find the right talent. Rich says it takes one full day to two full days to get through the Topgrading process. The biggest push back Rich received was that hiring managers didn't have time to take a full day just to hire one person. Rich's counterpoint was clear, if it's costing the company $250,000 alone to fully train an employee, then taking the necessary day or two to vet the person fully is in the best interest of the company. Do it right the first time. When Rich started the Topgrading process, he already had 20 people on staff and 5-10 million in revenue. By properly vetting new hires who were brought on board, they were able to increase their staff to 160 and generate 80 million in sales revenue by the time Rich left the business in 2013. The Topgrading system really skyrocketed their business.   Interview Links: Topgrading Website Who by Geoff Smart iAutomation 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).

Greg Crabtree is a speaker, author, entrepreneur, and financial expert. In 2011, Greg published his first book, Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! where he shares his core principles on how to turn your business into a wealth building machine. Today, Greg and I discuss the labor efficiency ratio (LER) and what it means to your business. Greg grew up on a chicken farm in Alabama and quickly realized that raising chickens was not something he was destined to do. At the age of 14, his mother took him to a CPA to have the family's taxes filed and he discovered a passion for finances. If you were to get run over by a bus today, what would it take for your family to continue your business? Who could accurately replace you? Greg says there are two types of laborer categories: direct labor and management labor. Based on the role you play in your business and what category you fall in, you will have to find a person that matches your category type in order to successfully carry on the business. By practicing this methodology, it helps you find a clearer picture of what your role is within the company. So instead of working on the business, you're working more effectively in the business. Greg shares a quick example of applying this methodology in real time. One of his clients had $600,000 in revenue and 25% of that was profit split between two owners. However, their main issue was that they were having cash flow problems. Greg understands that if you're having cash flow problems at 25% profit, then there must be something fundamentally wrong with the business. It turns out that the owners were only making 4% in profit instead. Greg then worked with the owners on how they could increase their contribution margin and increase their numbers by $140,000. For this particular business, they had the right people, but they were just not getting the right kind of accountability out of them. After Greg gave them a new set of goals to strive for, which they hit flawlessly, the two owners ended up making 19% profit in their first year. Greg believes, it first starts with holding the management team accountable and to define clearly what they must strive for in order to earn their wages or bonuses. The work Greg provides is often above and beyond what you would usually receive from a typical tax accountant. Greg really strives to help optimize your business by using simple formulas and data to create effective and money-saving processes.   Interview Links: SimpleNumbers Website Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! by Greg Crabtree 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).

Nick Scott is a certified Gazelles executive coach and management consultant. He specializes in strategic planning, accountability, technology management, and executive team development. When Nick first began his career as consultant, he looked towards the Lean approach to help his clients succeed. He believes to improve any organization, it first has to start from the top and that's one of the reasons why his career path lead him to coach clients as well. Nick's position allows him to really dig deep in a company and help improve it by figuring out the main pain point . Is this a process problem, cash flow problem, or a people problem? When the problem has been spotted, then it's time to bring focus to the leadership team and solve it. Any process-improvement project has to have strong support from the top of the organization or it is destined to fail. The leadership and top management team has to understand why this project is important. When looking to improve a certain process within the company, a big mistake is to give orders from the top down. To achieve the best results and improvements, leaders must lead by example. Another mistake companies often make is when they try to copy a method that has worked for company A and apply it to their company. Companies are very diverse and copy/pasting a method into the current mold simply doesn't work effectively. Nick recommends the book 2 Second Lean by Paul A. Akers as a way to study more of the Lean Manufacturing methodology. He too mentions what Nick has spoken about today – if you don't have support from the top, it will be very difficult to achieve a Lean process throughout the company. Set realistic time frames and break the process-improvement project up in pieces or else you and your team are doomed to fail. Nick recommends to start with a pilot project and then take that next step. The team needs to understand that this is an ongoing investment within the organization and each step they invest in, they build the value of the organization. In so many companies and situations, the current process and way of doing things is just accepted as is. This sometimes creates additional problems and instead of trying to find the root cause, companies put a temporary band-aid over the situation. It fixes the problem, however it doesn't address the underlying issue and this delays the company's processes even further; costing them money, time, and other resources. Remember, there's always a better way to improve a process and that this requires a long-term investment plan.   Interview Links: Traverse Tech Website Nick on LinkedIn   The E-myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber 2 Second Lean by Paul A. Akers Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande   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: How a Few Companies Make It....And Why the Rest Don't, 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).

Jeff Redmon is a senior Gazelle coach and the founder of Redmon Law Chartered. He has over 25 years of experience and has served as a trusted advisor to fellow business owners. Jeff also runs the Inner Circle of the St. Croix Valley in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. In today's show, Jeff and I discuss the power of Jeff's 1+1+1=19 formula and what a difference it can make in a company. Jeff has created what he calls the 1+1+1=19 workshop. Obviously, Jeff's workshop does not follow the traditional math rules we've all learned in school, so how does the 1+1+1=19 formula work? To break it down simply when you're looking at a straightforward profit/loss statement, you're often looking at four lines – sales, cost of the goods sold, overhead, and then the bottom line. Based on the concept Jeff is using in his workshop, if you increase your top line by 1%, then you cut your cost of goods/services by 1% and cut your overhead by 1%; you can then increase your net income by 19%. That's how the 1+1+1=19 formula works. What many people can see is that pursuing 1% changes in the company are actually worthwhile and can lead to huge profit gains. Jeff has taught this formula to over 100 business owners and they have all seen great benefits when they make just 1% adjustments to their company. He has seen between 7% to 80% improvement just by business owners working on his formula, so it's not always a flat 19%. Keep in mind that by increasing the net income by 19%, you also increase the value of your company long-term. So the 1+1+1=19 formula is not just for short-term cash, but it can also be applied to a long-term company selling strategy. In Jeff's workshop, he and other business owner attendees brain storm on how they can increase the top line revenue by 1%. Once they've finished the exercise, they then think for various solutions on how they can save money for their company. Jeff had one client who brought in 10 million dollars in annual revenue and through this exercise was able to save $400,000 from their bottom line. Although these strategies may sound simple, they can often be overlooked as we plan big marketing and growth initiative strategies to increase business sales. We often forget to apply these simple methods like looking within the company to save money when we're constantly trying to think big and grow bigger. Jeff believes that working on this formula with your leadership team is important, if not crucial. You will see better results in a group setting than if you were to sit down and try to find creative solutions by yourself. Once you've completed these exercises and notice where you can make additional changes to save money, increase the top line and cut costs, do not suffer from analysis paralysis. Just pick 1-3 things that will make an impact and take action.   Interview Links: Redmon Law Website Jeff 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).

Jabez LeBret is a NBC Chicago Business Columnist, author, speaker, and Chief Marketing Officer of GNGF. Jabez is considered a leading authority on monetizing social media and often speaks at industry conferences on this subject. In today's episode, I discuss with Jabez on how to work with millennials. I know many clients who are having challenges with keeping the millennial generation engaged, so hopefully we can demystify and solve some of those issues for you today.  There are four core fundamentals that really help millennials succeed at work. Not only do you get them to work more effectively, but it changes the whole work environment for them too. These four tactics are actually good for any employee, no matter what their age. With that being said, these fundamentals are specifically targeted to get that everyday millennial employee to the next level. As a millennial himself, Jabez really stumbled into this space by accident. He was doing leadership presentations at companies that needed to know how to lead the younger generation. He kept getting asked, "How do I manage you?" He also runs a company where his entire team is made of millennials. So for him, it was a no-brainer to create a program around how to manage and engage millennials in the work force. The millennial generation is different compared to other generations because they saw the creation of search on the internet. They grew up with Google and they were the reason social media was created. Cellphones were very prevalent for them too. The technological advances play a huge role in the millennial workplace. Another unique aspect about millennials is that they had helicopter parents. Unlike older generations where both parents were working and the children took care of themselves, millennials had parents that were hyper involved with their lives. Parents made sure they were participating in all the necessary activities. Through that process, millennials grew up thinking their opinions matter. Millennials are also referred to as 'The Trophy Generation' - They got a trophy for just showing up. Millennials were rewarded for participating and if participation was the only thing that mattered, if it was never about 'winning', then they will take criticism or feedback badly.  At the end of the day, millennials want purpose. They are a purpose-driven generation and that's how you keep them engaged. Companies are having a hard time delivering this to them because they don't know their own values or even their mission. The goal of a manager working with millennials is to bake the purpose of everything into the process, why these tasks are important in the grand scheme of things and how it helps the end-mission of the company. Millennials also grew up in team environments. Despite this, people say millennials aren't loyal. This is not true at all. In fact, management has not given them reasons to be loyal. What's important to understand as a leader is that you need to have mechanisms in place that allow millennials to share their opinions and let them know they're contributing to a greater good. If they don't feel like they're contributing to the overall process, they're not going to be motivated.   Interview Links: Jabez's Website Jabez on LinkedIn Chelsea Krost's Website Good to Great by James C. Collins 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).

Andy Bailey is the head of Petra Coach and Align software. His specialties include implementation of Rockefeller Habits and other business processes that drive results in any business setting. Andy’s passion is to assist business owners and entrepreneurs in building the foundation allowing them and their teams the ability to achieve their goals. In today’s episode, I discuss with Andy how to utilize Align for the purpose of alignment between the employees and business. Tune in to hear how Align can help organizations achieve their priorities. The number one question most people have is “how do I know if my employees’ priorities align with the organization?” Align is a business project planning tool that allows working on your business instead of in your business. It is important for leaders to know what is going on throughout the entire company. The person in the front line needs to understand what they are doing everyday aligns with their enterprise's priorities, and when these two things match up, people will understand their role and make better decisions that align with their organization. To ensure focus and alignment remain throughout the company, the business needs to have two crucial meetings, one which is called the daily huddle; no longer than 15 minutes max. These are based on small groups of staff members throughout the company and broken apart by function and departmental needs. This ensures all the team members are on the same page, and issues are identified and dealt with immediately. These huddles need to be in conjunction with the Core Weekly Priority meeting. There needs to be an owner and a metric to priorities; you can’t cheat when you are using Align. You have to pick a due date; the system won’t let you choose a priority without a KPI and a definition. Some of the key stumbling blocks; number one it’s easier for companies that are just starting out to use Align from the beginning, but it is harder for already established organizations to understand the importance needed because some see it as just another tool that they will have to implement. The Pure Task Management Tool is under-appreciated mainly because businesses don’t have the knowledge necessary to utilize it. Most companies use emails as a task management tool, which is a horrible idea. This tool creates a project with due dates and instructions, assigns it to someone or a team, manages the re-distribution, and completions through trigger notification as well as dashboards. It is incredibly powerful and underutilized. The KPI becomes the task and as you check them off it shows progress on your priority. The EMPS and Feed Box feature complement each other; one way to measure Employee Morale is by using a scoring methodology. It’s a single survey sent out monthly or quarterly where the staff members answer one question; score it a 0-10, and comment. This is assigned to a person that gathers the suggestions and information and will display it on the dashboard. The person in charge will monitor the score; whether it went up or down and give feedback on a report. There are some exciting new features in the pipeline. Align is going through a code re-write which will allow iterating faster in the future. There is also a big reveal around the multi-language design. Align can be used with a company of one to thousands. You can leverage the software to get focused and work on the necessary items and track goals.   Interview Links: Petra Coaching Align’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).

Mike Michalowicz is the author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, The Pumpkin Plan, Profit First and Surge, and the founder of Profit First Professionals, an organization designed to support accountants and other financial professionals differentiating themselves in the market. Mike is an entrepreneur at heart and loves sharing his knowledge and experience with the masses. In today’s episode, Mike and I chat about his new book Surge and how to leverage the market for consumer demand. “How do you time the market?” - The question that prompted two-year of research for his new book Surge. Mike discovered that there is no magic bullet, but there is a way to improve the odds of success dramatically. Mike wrote Surge from his own business experience achieving atypically fast growth from applying and refining the methods outlined in his book. His newest company is still in the learning phase, and Mike plans to write addendums to Surge throughout the process. Tune in to hear more about how Mike used Surge to drive his own businesses to success.   What is Surge? Surge is a five-step process for identifying trends in the marketplace.  While most entrepreneurs look at market trends and try to hit while the market is hot, this process positions a business in front of the momentum of the market to capture it.  With a different set of metrics, a proactive entrepreneur can use gain new perspective on the market and “catch the surge” to a profitable growing business.   What does the acronym SURGE mean? Surge is not about prediction, it is about early measurement. • Separate: Separate a small test community; Choose a core group and within that group, choose a very particular niche. • Unify: In this core group, identify the movement they are making and unify around it. • Rally: Ask “What is that one service or product offering that rallies the group to you as a solution?” • Gather: Gather intelligence! As you move along with the market, constantly evaluate what’s working and amplify and expand that, then ditch what isn’t working. • Expand: Take the model that is working for your core group and start delivering that offering consistently and to an expanded group. When a business “catches the Surge” marketing starts taking care of itself.  Instead of promoting, there is a movement in the market with people asking for referrals or seeking the company out aggressively. Instead of arguing about trends, try them and measure them. Maybe you’ll be the next person to “catch the Surge! Interview Links: www.mikemichalowicz.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).

Sean Evans is the founder of STEP Consulting in Toronto. He is a Certified Gazelles International Coach, a Certified Topgrading Coach, and holds an MBA from London Business School in the United Kingdom. Sean helps companies get out of the weeds and assists them to focus more on building their businesses.   What is Topgrading? Topgrading is a methodology created by Bradford Smart. It is the standard of hiring, coaching, and retaining top talent. You want to fill every position within your company with ‘A’ players. Companies need to know what a candidate is about, so they need to dive deep into their history.   What's the process in recruiting talent? The number one thing a company wants to do is create a specific job description; this is a typical hiring problem in most companies. There are four areas of a job scorecard: describing the company with excitement, creating a job mission, accurate accountability that can be measured, and a list of key competencies. The best way to find the best people is to recruit from your networks.   What can managers do on their own to find the best candidates for the job? You need to read Topgrading: How to Hire, Coach and Keep A Players by Brad & Geoff Smart and Who: The A Method of Hiring by Geoff and Randy Street.   What is a higher level step in the hiring practices? Companies shouldn’t rely on behavioral-based interviews, which is a hypothetical situational analysis. Businesses should rely on evidence-based interviewing. Topgrading is hiring based on the fact that someone's past behavior is going to be highly indicative of their future conduct.   What is TORC? TORC stands for Threat of a Reference Check. Companies should not rely on the references the candidate provides. You need to pick out a manager on their resume, ask them if it would be ok to speak to that manager and if they say yes, great. If they say no, then that is a red flag. The candidate will know that you are going to be fact checking everything they are saying about that position. They have to tell the truth because you are going to check on it.     Interview Links:  Topgrading: How to Hire, Coach and Keep A Players by Brad & Geoff Smart Who: The A Method of Hiring by Geoff and Randy Street http://www.topgrading.com http://stepconsulting.ca   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 (Bob) Bloom is the authority on customer centric growth. He is the author of The Inside Advantage and The New Experts. Bob was the US 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 4 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: http://www.bobbloom.biz https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-bloom-578b9822 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).