Chris Cooper's Blog, page 140

Why I Hate Committees

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

 

It’s a popular quote that’s usually misattributed. Business leaders use it to sell speeches and books about teamwork. And it’s usually right: you need a team to build a large, stable business.

 

But there’s a big difference between a group and a team. And there’s a huge difference between a team and a committee. Why does this matter outside of proper language? Because it’s always time to go fast.

 

A team is a group of individuals working in the same direction. Their work might overlap a little, but each has responsibility for doing one or two things. If each person does their thing, the whole project moves forward. That means every person is accountable individually.

 

A group is one unit. It’s a collection of people working on one thing at a time. That means consensus instead of accountability. It means that every opinion has to be weighed equally; it means tying the anchor of politics to your speedboat. People are attracted to groups because there’s no personal accountability: failure is spread across everyone. No one ever gets fired. The company slouches forward, an inch at a time.

 

A committee is a group without accountability or investment. They’re usually spending someone else’s money, and everyone has an agenda beyond moving the mission forward. The committee pulls the company in several directions at once. The dominant personality usually pulls everyone their way.

 

If you want to go fast, go alone. At least for a little while.

 

Entrepreneurs don’t struggle from lack of ideas; they struggle from too many ideas. They don’t always benefit from more opinions.

 

I’m a huge believer in mentorship, because I hate wasting time. I pay over $100,000 every year for excellent mentorship.

 

And none of my best mentors ever gave me a single good idea. Not one.

 

Instead, they helped me narrow my focus, and take the steps necessary to achieve one thing at a time. Then we moved on to the next one.

 

Of course, we talk through strategies and scenarios. We role-play conversations a lot. Sometimes my mentor plays Devil’s Advocate; sometimes she questions my decisions. But she never says “here’s a brand new business idea for you!” because she knows I already have too many. Good mentors remove paralysis.

 

Committees do the opposite. They induce paralysis. Everyone on the committee wants to be heard; everyone has their own ax to grind. And they’re usually on the committee because they’re a good person, and their ideas warrant consideration. So ideas are considered. Opinions are heard, because they’re valid. Debates are held because smart people disagree. Everyone wants the best; everyone is trying really hard. But they’re not pulling in the same direction.

 

Your business is not a democracy.

 

Before you can go far OR fast, you need a solid team.

 

That doesn’t mean your team has to share the same projects, or reach consensus, or agree all the time. It doesn’t even a team has to agree with YOU all the time. I love my team. They’re not scared to tell me when I’m wrong. But if I made up a committee for every decision, I wouldn’t be leading; I’d be hiding. I’d be trying to share the blame. So sometimes I sprint ahead a step or two, and then come back to tell the team what lies ahead.

 

Good leaders know that a good team will take them far; but that sometimes, it’s time to go fast. Sometimes you’re better off alone. Godspeed.

The post Why I Hate Committees appeared first on Two Brain.

Unlocking The Content Vault

You, my friend, are an expert.

 

Nobody knows it but you and me.

 

If others knew it, they’d sign up for your service. And what’s more, they’d be happy to do so, because they would know you; like you; and trust you. You would solve their greatest problem, improve their life, and let them worry about other things.

 

But they DON’T know it, because you don’t share your knowledge with anyone.

 

So they’ll sign up with your competition, even she’s not as good as you are. They see her more often; they read her blog posts; and they take action on her bad ideas. Save them!

 

Here’s how to get your expertise out of your head and into the hearts and minds of your clients.

 

Beginners (you’ve published fewer than 100 blog posts or videos)

You’re probably in the Founder Phase (take the Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief test here.)

Think about that chip you have on your shoulder. What’s the biggest falsehood you’d like to correct in your industry?

What did that competitor say that was flat-out wrong?

Set up your camera (your arm is all the equipment you need. Just press record.)

Limit yourself to two minutes. Tell the truth. Don’t slander anyone.

Now, let’s go to the other end of the spectrum: what’s the last question anyone asked about your service?

What’s the last headline you read in an industry magazine?

Turn the camera back on. Give people the REAL answer.

Now create a YouTube channel, and upload. Hit Publish.

Do it again tomorrow.

 

Intermediate – you’ve published between 100 and 500 pieces of content

Hopefully, you’re in Farmer Phase. That means your Media task is to make your Team famous.

Interview each staff member. Ask THEM the most common questions you hear in your field.

Give them a two-minute window to answer on camera.

Record, and upload.

Duplicate that content across two other channels. Cut the sound out of the video and publish it to a podcast (we use BuzzSprout to host TwoBrain Radio.)

Transcribe the podcast (BuzzSprout does it for under $4) and publish the transcription to your blog.

This strategy creates a high volume of media. Good.

You should also build 3-5 “Lighthouse” pieces. Have a professional give you a hand.

 

Advanced: You’ve published over 500 pieces of content

With such a large platform of credibility, you’re probably close to Tinker Phase (or at least building the authority to get there.) Your primary job in this phase is to make your clients famous, so interview them as you did your team in the previous section.

But you also need to publish your thoughts merely to get them out of your head.

You probably have so many ideas, concerns, and items on your checklist that you have a cognitive logjam.

You need to write, speak, or do something else creative just to get into Flow State. These thoughts might not be published publicly, but must be recorded just to get them out of your head. I write everything and “post” it to 750Words.com first. That way, it’s outside instead of inside, but not public. And I get to see streaks, scores, and even a bit of analysis.

(You can download my free “Flow State” guide here.)

Here’s what I do, as a Tinker myself:

Start with the chip: what did I read or watch yesterday that needs correction?

Luckily (for me,) there are many consultants in the fitness business who publish ideas without testing them, or without data to support the work, or without research into the field they claim to understand. I’m sure every corner of the service industry has people like this.

You don’t need to attack anyone; you can’t build a business by tearing another one down. But you CAN publish the truth. Focus on that.
Dig into my “Ideas” file. Every time I think of a problem, or make a new connection, or think of a better way to phrase a solution, I write the blog title on my phone. Yesterday I wrote five over the course of my workout.

I keep writing until I get at least 750 words; usually more, sometimes 5x that much.
Eat breakfast. Put kids on the school bus. Answer emails. Get back into Flow State if possible.
Work out. Primarily aerobic (I cycle a lot these days) to reduce stress and squeeze another few hours of focus out of my brain.
Nap. Almost every day, for 20 minutes. Then coffee, small carb intake, and work for 5 more hours.

Tinkers (like me) have to work on themselves as the entrepreneur more than they work on their business. So my workouts and naps and nutrition are all built around optimizing my time in Flow State. That’s where I’m most valuable. And what do I do in flow state? Create content. That’s a lot of my job now. But even if it’s not the foundation of your career, you have to publish. Do it by noon.

 

 

The post Unlocking The Content Vault appeared first on Two Brain.

Case Study: The Privateers

“I want my staff to make a great living, so I let them sell personal training in my space during off-hours.”

 

Craig owns a gym. His primary revenue stream is group training. He makes a little bit on supplement sales, but not much.

 

Craig has built a nice community of clients, and has two coaches who are passionate experts. He’d like to keep them on his staff for a long time, but can’t pay them enough because there simply aren’t enough group classes to coach. So he tells them to find some personal training clients, and to pay him a small percentage of their fees. He refers to himself as “the house”.

 

He’s also not making any money. Or any real money, anyway: on months when he doesn’t buy new equipment or t-shirt inventory, he takes home a thousand dollars or so.

 

Here are Craig’s problems:

He’s not actually creating the best possible opportunity for his coaches.

They don’t know how to get clients. They don’t know how to set their rates. They don’t know how to keep clients long-term. He’s already solved those problems. He has context and business knowledge they don’t. But he can’t afford to do these things for them in exchange for his “house” rate of 30%. So he lets them stub their toe on the “business side”. And they usually can’t figure it all out without him.
He’s actually losing money on the deal.

Out of his 30% share comes bank fees; insurance; rent; and his other fixed costs, which should be spread evenly across every hour the box is open.
Clients aren’t receiving the best possible service.

Instead of following his playbook and operating at his standard for excellence, his coaches are left to establish their own systems and delivery. Unfortunately, the client sees their sessions as part of Craig’s brand, so the trainers’ little glitches are blamed on Craig’s leadership.
Coaches can’t be held accountable for–well, anything. Despite the client’s brand confusion, Craig can’t tell the coaches not to discount their rates, or even to show up on time, because it’s “their business” under his roof. He can’t tell them not to have affairs with their clients–and if he tries to fire them, they’ll take “their” book of business with them. In effect, he’s held hostage to their performance.
Craig is missing opportunities to use his space for programs that will actually grow his business.
Finally, the largest problem is Craig’s mindset: he doesn’t sell group fitness. He sells fitness. Some people want to exercise in a group, and some don’t. His internal filters are stopping him from helping people.

All in all, Craig’s coaches are encouraged to act like privateers: to scavenge in waters owned by Craig, and to pillage anything they can while flying his flag.

 

It’s a lot like allowing a hot dog vendor to push his cart into your restaurant and start selling foot-longs.

 

When Craig began working through the Incubator, he had a moment of epiphany. He realized that, in his attempts to create great opportunities for his coaches, he was actually sabotaging himself and them. So he wanted to build a personal training program as part of his service offering.

 

Unfortunately, he’d promised his coaches a 70-30 split. He regretted this beginners’ error now, but worried that he couldn’t correct it. Here’s how we did:

 

First, we had Craig sit with each coach and ask about their Perfect Day. As we suspected, each coach said they loved coaching, and wanted to coach more.
Then Craig asked them what they needed to have a meaningful career. This included “How much will you need to earn?” but also “How often would you like to take courses and seminars?” and some more personal questions.
Next, Craig used our Career Roadmap tool to show the coach how many group classes, how many Personal Training clients, and how many specialty groups they had to coach to reach that goal. In his calculation, Craig used the 4/9 model for pay, but showed his coaches the dollar amount instead of the ratio.
Finally, he told them he working with a professional mentor, and paying for help that would benefit the coaches.

The coaches, of course, were excited! Here it was: a clear path to a career doing what they loved!

Both coaches immediately thanked Craig and said, “What do you need from me?”

Craig then explained that the 70/30 split on personal training revenue was actually doing them a disservice; that he could afford to send them more clients at the new rate; and that he would raise the Personal Training hourly rate as part of the solution. He also changed from selling packages to selling monthly PT sessions, so each coach had a more predictable income.

[Sidebar: here’s the math Craig used.

Since the trainers were left to establish their own rates for PT, both were undercharging, and one was significantly worse than the other.

Trainer 1 – $50 per hour, 70% split = $35 net.

Trainer 2 – $65 per hour, 70% split = $45.50 net.

When Craig moved the PT service back under his gym’s umbrella, he set the rate at $75 for all clients.

Trainer 1 – $75 per hour, 4/9 of gross =

Trainer 1 now made $33.33 per PT hour, but immediately saw net growth, because she got more clients. She also had the new opportunity to run a Kids’ program on the 4/9 model, and with 8 in the program, she’d earn $58.66 per hour for those sessions. Those were the numbers on her Career Roadmap, so she was thrilled to make the change.]

Trainer 2 had more clients than Trainer 1, and saw the move as a step backward. “Why would I keep doing the same work for less pay? Those are MY clients!”

Craig could have argued to make his case, but instead conceded that the first agreement was really his mistake. He referred to the Career Roadmap again, but agreed to allow Trainer 2 to keep 70% of personal training revenue from his current clients as long as they kept paying. If they didn’t sign up for the recurring PT membership, or took a break after their package ended, they were no longer part of the 70% agreement. Craig knew that, over time, every client would eventually be trained under the 4/9 model. Trainer 2 accepted this as reasonable.

 

The final change Craig had to make involved payment. Trainers were used to accepting large payments from their clients up-front. Craig switched to payment-upon-delivery: the client would still pay up front monthly, but the Trainer would be paid after each session was delivered. Craig explained the taxation benefits to the Trainers, as well as the intent: Trainers would no longer have to chase clients for payment, or to use up their packages. They would no longer have to feel guilty about cancelling sessions when sick or when they wanted to take a vacation, either.

 

Change is hard. But Craig did a great job of showing his Trainers that he cared about them; had their long-term goals in mind; and that he would actively work to help them, instead of leaving them to fend for themselves. And then he proved it: he went out and immediately got them clients. Now all three are happier than they were before.

 

Further reading for gym owners: Channel Conflict: Who “Owns” A Client? 

The post Case Study: The Privateers appeared first on Two Brain.

How To Measure (And Improve) Your Culture

Your culture is the sum of your 1:1 relationships.

Your gym culture is the sum of your 1:1 relationships with your clients.

Your staff culture is the sum of your 1:1 relationships with your staff.

Your “culture” is not how often your clients visit a bar together. It’s not how long they stick around after a workout, or even what they’ll wear to get bonus points in the Open. Your culture is relationships, and every relationship is 1:1.

You measure your culture by the LEG (Length of Engagement) of your clients. Great culture keeps clients longer.

 

In the Founder Phase, your culture is the sum of your relationships between yourself and your clients. You’re delivering your service yourself; if you build trust and empathy with your clients, you have a good culture.

 

A good relationship is a balance between friendship and objectivity. Your clients are not your friends, but your relationship must be friendly. You must stay professionally distant enough to charge money for your service; you must stay close enough to demonstrate your care. It’s not easy.

 

In the Farmer Phase, your culture is determined by your clients’ relationships with your team, and your team’s relationships with you.

 

Your team must understand your vision (we call this “The Owner’s Intent”.) They must also know that you care about their career and have a plan in place for them (we use the Career Roadmap exercise in TwoBrain.) They must see the horizon and know they can achieve their career goals on your platform.

 

Then your team must deliver 1:1 relationships with your clients the same way you would. This is the most challenging part of being a Farmer: handing over the responsibility for client relationships. Every staff person will have different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. For example, one might be incredible at creating workouts for clients; but might not have a strong sense of empathy. Or one might be creative but not quite organized enough. For this reason, we always build a safety net into the Farmer Phase: we add a Client Success Manager role for 2-4 hours per week.

 

In the Tinker Phase, your clients’ relationship should be with your brand. This means they have to align with your company’s values and vision. Now you have six relationships to manage:

Your client’s relationship with your staff

Your client’s relationship with your brand

Your staff’s relationship with their manager

Your staff’s relationship with your brand

Your relationship with your direct reports

Your relationship with your brand.

 

In the Tinker Phase, we tell entrepreneurs to build a managerial layer (usually a COO or General Manager; a CFO; and a CSO, or Sales Lead.) These should be the owner’s three direct reports. In turn, they translate the owner’s intent, vision and mission with staff. Good Tinkers should be removed from daily operations, but still available to staff who have unique situations. For example, the CEO shouldn’t be the one with the key to the supplies cabinet, but should still be available to listen to a staff member with concerns about their career.

 

The Tinker must clearly define their brand’s values. She must answer questions like:

“How does our service fulfill our goal?”

“What will we NOT do?”

“Who is our perfect client?”

“What is the perfect delivery of our service?”

“How far will we go to solve a customer’s complaint?”

She must also define the language and behavior used by the brand. For example, the Tinker must have:

Staff Playbooks

A Quality Control or Evaluation process

A Style Guide for brand media

It seems like the Tinker is too far removed from client interactions to influence company culture. But that’s not true: the Tinker’s role is to define and teach the company culture to their key staff, who reinforce the culture by tracking client and staff relationships.

 

At this level, companies must track LEG as a measure of their client-facing culture; and they must track length of employment as a measure of corporate culture. Many businesses make wild guesses about “employee culture”, adding pinball machines and free breakfast cereal. But they fail to measure the effect of their action on employee retention. That means they’re not taking their culture seriously; they’re just trying to be as cool as Google.

 

Like everything else in your business, culture is measurable. That means, no matter how poor your current culture, you can improve it. The key is to focus on one relationship at a time and measure your progress.

 

Maybe monthly pub crawls DO build a better culture in your business. It’s possible! But unless you’re tracking LEG, you’ll never know what’s actually helping your business.

 

The post How To Measure (And Improve) Your Culture appeared first on Two Brain.

Why Your Kid Should Open A Business

I’ve offered my kids each $10,000 to skip college.

 

I’m all for education (we actually fund it for some other kids) but I want them to wait. Before they go to college, I want them to run a business.

 

That’s not just a grey-haired dad wanting his kids to carry his legacy. It’s my strategy to give them as much education, experience and skill as possible in the least amount of time.

 

Here’s why I think more parents should give their kids the gift of entrepreneurship:

 

Your kid will get to work as hard as they want to.

The industrial education model doesn’t allow your child to work at their full potential. It tells them to check in at nine and punch out at five. But no one outside of the government actually does that anymore. You might as well be teaching them to hammer out horseshoes on a forge.

 

 

Your kid will learn to tie income to output, not hours.

The agro-industrial education system teaches attendance: show up at 8:45, make sure your teacher counts you on the list. Go home at 3:30. Follow the predetermined schedule. Pass the tests on the date they’re planned.

This model runs counter to the on-demand world we live in. It stifles innovation and hard work. Almost every career now requires brief periods of high intensity followed by slower periods of waiting or base-building. Kids need to know what to do during slower times, and how to work all-out when opportunities arise.

 

Your kid won’t have to rely on someone else’s judgment.

How many times have you questioned the judgment of your boss?

Has that made you happier, or less happy?

What if that boss makes a huge mistake? Could they hold your kid’s livelihood in their hands?

There are no layers of management anymore…and therefore no layers of protection.

 

Your kid will be anti-fragile.

The average college graduate will have 3-5 careers before they retire. That’s not 3-5 jobs; that’s 3-5 major pivots in their livelihood.

The knowledge gained in the average undergraduate program is obsolete within five years. That means your kid will be paying off their debt long after their education became useless.

University used to be a way for a person to “buy themselves a job.” But that’s no longer the case; kids now need to develop a broad skillset that will prepare them for any career, including entrepreneurship.

You can protect your kid, or you can make them strong. You won’t always be there to protect them…

Your kid will develop the skills they REALLY need.

What DO kids actually need to prepare them for life as an adult?

They need to understand–and not fear–money. Money is a tool. Governments, banks and credit card companies are experts with the tool. Most of us are not, and that’s why we work to pay them. But we can learn to make them work for us…if we’re not intimidated by complicated tax codes and fear of penalties.
They need to speak well in front of others. Whether they’re negotiating in person or leading a webinar for 10,000, our kids will always need to communicate well. Public speaking is frequently cut from school curriculum now, because it’s uncomfortable for some kids. But the only way to become comfortable with speaking up, speaking out and standing up for yourself is practice.
They need to learn how to sell. Maybe they’re selling themselves to an employer; or maybe they’re selling their product to a customer. Either way, the art of persuasion is one they must master. Our kids can be the masters of persuasion, or they can be its victim. Even if they never have to sell anything in their adult lives, they’ll know when they’re being sold.
They need to learn when to give up. The dogmatic approach to plowing through work for work’s sake is a mistake. Even entrepreneurs fall into the Mule Trap of thinking more work creates success. In the Idea Economy, not everything is going to work. Plans will fail; money will run out. Our kids need to learn when to let go of bad ideas as much as they need to know when to work hard on good ones.

 

Look, my kids probably won’t skip college, despite my bribe. But if they open a business before college, they’ll have experience. And that’s a powerful filter for everything they learn later.

Has your kid started a business? What did it teach them that they might not learn anywhere else?

 

 

The post Why Your Kid Should Open A Business appeared first on Two Brain.

The Content Marketing Plan You NEED

At TwoBrain, we publish every day.

But you don’t have to.

Content marketing (blog posts, podcasts and videos) are critical for establishing your authority in your niche. Marketing no longer means placing ads in newspapers: now it means educating, inspiring, and sharing stories. If you have a website, you have a media platform. And to survive in a digital world, you MUST use that platform.

Here’s how to use it best.

 

First, you need 4-6 “Lighthouse” pieces. These should be the primary content that establishes what you do, and why you do it. You’ll use these posts or videos for years, and most new clients will see them before signing up. That means they should be made by professional writers or producers; professionally edited; and formatted with high-quality imagery and layout.

 

To start, find the keywords that are most searched on Google for your business. You can use these guidelines, or have a pro do this for you.

Then compare the top keywords against the amount of competition for those same phrases. If “gym t-shirt supplier” is a top search but has a LOT of competition, you can look for opportunities with other keywords.

Build “lighthouse content” titled with the top five keyword opportunities you identify.

These lighthouse pieces should start with a well-written blog post or video. Since these will be on your site for a long time, they can be longer and cover each topic thoroughly. These should be the industry standard, go-to, final-answer pieces.

Include a few testimonials or stories, but these pieces aren’t testimonials themselves. They’re the best answers to the biggest questions in a category.

Have these built by a professional. Expect to pay $500-800 per piece, depending on image licensing and the price of your writer or videographer. TwoBrain Media links to some of the best talent in the world for the whole process: identifying the best keywords, and then producing the content. That’s who I use.

 

Then you need smaller “long tail” pieces.

Publish as often as you can. Try to answer the questions your future clients are asking.

Find the questions in Facebook groups or Reddit threads where your clients post them. Or think about the most common questions you’re asked at your first meeting, or the ones your family asks you at Thanksgiving.

Answer these most common questions TEN TIMES EACH, every year. We call this “the power of ten”. Enthusiastic writers and videographers frequently make the mistake of trying to produce something new every time. But no one is checking your back catalog of content, and different people respond to different media. Trust me: you’ll get tired of your content before your audience does.

You can answer one question with a blog post, and then answer the same question on YouTube, and again on your podcast, and then to your email list, and then on Facebook Live and Instagram. You can even start by creating the YouTube video, and then copying the transcription into a blog post. Different people will interact with each channel.

TwoBrain Media also has some blog templates (and even swipe files for videos, photos and emails) for clients of TwoBrainBusiness to use.

 

Finally, you need to tell stories. In the Founder phase, you need to tell your own story. In the Farmer phase, you need to tell your clients’ stories. In the Tinker phase, you need to tell your staff’s stories. But you should spend time every week making someone famous.

 

Here’s an example of the media we’d recommend for a personal training business:

Lighthouse pieces (4-5)

Content establishing the trainer as the local expert on weight loss or sports training (whatever their niche)

Title the content with the best results from a keyword opportunities report

Professionally produce video, and add text from the video onto the page below it, with specific calls to action (probably a free consultation).

Then, long-tail pieces:

Find the top ten questions asked by new clients or prospective members. Use intake interview sheets; poll seed clients; and search local Facebook groups.

Shoot video responses to the top ten questions (one each). Transcribe each video to create the outline of sample blog posts. Split each blog post into two, where possible.

Share blog posts on LinkedIn, Facebook…all media channels included in the media distribution plan.

Send the blog posts out as emails to a prospective clients list.

(If this is already a dizzying amount of work, just let TwoBrain Media handle it. No problem.)

Finally, client stories:

Put one client every week on some kind of podium. Create a “we’re so proud of you!” moment. While they’re basking, hold up your camera and say: “Tell me your story. Inspire someone else.”

Share the stories liberally on your social media. Repeat the top-producing ones every month.

 

Since I started publishing business advice on my first blog in 2009, I’ve written over 2000 blog posts. Our YouTube Channel has hundreds of videos. We have three straight years of podcast recordings on iTunes. But here’s the great news: you don’t have to. Do the basics really well; start with the Lighthouse pieces. Then fill in the blanks!

The post The Content Marketing Plan You NEED appeared first on Two Brain.

Competitive Collaboration: The Value of A Diverse Team

Kolbe testing, StrengthsFinder, and interviewing technique: what’s their real value?

 

Many of the professional mentors at TwoBrain use these tests in their own business. They want to put the right people in the right seats. Used well, they can certainly help. But they can also become a crutch: pigeonholing people can create excuses for lack of progress if you’re not careful.

 

For example, someone whose test identifies them as an “originator” might see an excuse to never complete anything. “Oh, you know me…I’m a great originator but horrible with checklists!” Of course, a good manager won’t allow them to use a designation as a crutch. And knowing your team’s strengths and weaknesses can help you identify missing links.

 

For example, the term “TwoBrain” refers to the right and left hemispheres of the brain, and how they work together. I tend toward right-brain thinking (creative, empathetic; I’m an idea machine, but slow to finish projects.) My COO, Mike Lee, is a left-brain thinker (analytical, systemic; he asks all the questions that I skip.) Together, the whole is far better than either of us alone would be.

 

And Kolbe testing, or StrengthsFinder: they can help you find opportunities for this kind of synergy.

 

Here are some pairings we recommend for maximum effect:

 

Founder Phase: hire someone who loves to do the stuff you hate. Usually, you’ll be replacing yourself in lower-value roles, so that means hiring someone who loves to clean, or can follow checklists well.

 

Farmer Phase: hire someone to manage operations. Most of the time, this is a left-brain, analytical thinker who loves building spreadsheets and checklists. They might need some training in the management of others, but they should replace you as overseer. This is usually the entrepreneur’s first management-level hire, so their role must be clearly defined, with regular evaluations planned and KPIs determined in advance. This will probably be a COO or General Manager, but if YOU love spreadsheets and checklists, hire a sales person instead.

 

Tinker Phase: build a team around complementary traits. You’ll need a COO (mostly a left-brain thinker), a CSO (mostly a gregarious empath) and a CFO (probably another spreadsheet fan.) Make sure your team is in balance.

 

Thief: you must hire an entrepreneur to replace you as CEO. Their skill must be in managing the complementary (and competing) personalities within their domain.

 

Now, these personalities aren’t always going to get along. It’s laughable to think they will.

 

Your COO and CSO see the world through different lenses. Their approach to solving the same problem could be massively different. But ultimately, if the team is well managed and progressive, these differences shouldn’t stop progress. Disagreements should be balanced (both sides should be heard) but ultimately the CEO must make decisions to keep the company moving forward.

 

John Ratey, Harvard Professor and author of “Spark!”, called this “competitive collaboration”. He used CrossFit as an example: “I want to climb the rope first, but I also want you to get to the top.”

 

A leader’s responsibility isn’t to reach consensus between different thinkers. Reaching for consensus usually leads to stalemate or paralysis. Leave that to the bureaucrats. Instead, give each side equal attention, and then make a clear decision. Get in front of all parties at the same time. Tell the team your decision, and the next steps each of them should take. Spare their feelings, but don’t sacrifice growth to do it. In other words, be tactful.

 

A real leader counts on diversity to move the business forward. He knows that everyone on the team wants what’s best for the business, even if their opinions on tactics differ. He defers to them when they’re right; kindly corrects them when they’re wrong; but ultimately keeps the team moving forward. These are skills that are trained in the Tinker phase of our mentorship program, but even Founders can be on the lookout for people with complementary traits.

 

The most important takeaway is this: you don’t need a clone. You don’t need to wish there were two of you. You need to find someone who complements your strengths.

The post Competitive Collaboration: The Value of A Diverse Team appeared first on Two Brain.

What Tinkers Are Building

In the Founder and Farmer phases of entrepreneurship, business owners build their business.

 

In the Tinker phase, the entrepreneur builds themselves.

 

As their business grows, the entrepreneur must evolve as a leader and thinker. Through Founder and Farmer phases, those steps to growth are well-worn and clear. We can clearly say “this is step one,” and “this is step two”; we know that A must come before B. But as the business grows, it becomes more complex. Variables multiply the challenges of ownership. And most of these variables involve interpersonal relationships.

 

The entrepreneur benefits from her success, but also recognizes that her job has changed. She’s no longer the one cutting the hair, writing the workouts, or making the donuts; now she’s managing the people doing those things. And that’s a completely different skillset.

 

The complexity of higher-level problems also requires a higher tolerance for stress; a greater ability to focus and take action. These are the tools Tinkers build.

 

Reaching the Tinker phase is a success. But it doesn’t mean that problems have all gone away; it means that problems have changed. That’s what our Tinker program addresses: the problems of the evolving entrepreneur.

 

One of the most common phrases I heard after last weekend’s Tinker meetup was “In the Incubator and Growth phases, I worked on my business. In Tinker, I’m working on myself.” Every entrepreneur needs to develop their leadership skills. Processes and tactics are enough in Founder and Farmer phases; but when you reach Tinker, there’s nowhere left to hide.

 

 

 

 

The post What Tinkers Are Building appeared first on Two Brain.

What “Failing Forward” Really Means

My staff has permission to make mistakes. But only new mistakes.

 

Making mistakes is part of good business. If you’re not failing at things, you’re not innovating.

 

But what’s unforgivable is making the same mistakes over and over again. No one has the time or resources for that.

 

Last week, I was on a call with a business owner who was great at embracing her mistakes. The problem was that she confused “making mistakes” with “winning”.

 

Her business is seven years old. But she’s still running the front counter. She’s still ordering the inventory. She’s still collecting staff timesheets and writing checks and cleaning on the weekends.She hasn’t had seven years of business experience; she’s had one year, repeated seven times.

 

“Falling forward” means making NEW mistakes, and never repeating the old ones, because you took the time to fix them.

 

Mistakes can have a ratcheting affect in your business. You push the big rock forward a tiny bit. Then it can roll all the way back…or you can jam a wedge beneath it. Those wedges are the systems you build on the lessons you learn.

 

For example, if a client asks for a refund on their purchase, and you don’t have a policy about refunds, then you have to give them a refund. Whoops! That’s an error. But it’s only a mistake if you don’t immediately write a refund policy. The policy is the wedge. And next time someone requests a refund, the wedge will stop the rock from rolling backward.

 

The reason our mentorship program is so powerful is because of the wedges. The combined experience of 500 entrepreneurs has created a massive ratchet effect. We mentor entrepreneurs to push the rock forward…and then say, “Here’s what you need to create to keep it from rolling backward.” Lever, wedge, lever, wedge. Click, click, click.

 

The great part about those wedges is that they’re not expensive…because we’ve already paid for them. Our mistakes sometimes run to the tens of thousands–but you don’t have to pay for them. I once paid $130,000 in salaries for one staff position with huge turnover. The turnover was caused by my lack of clarity and systems: it was simply impossible for anyone to be successful in the position. You don’t have to make the same mistakes. You can push off my wedge. You can fail forward.

 

In your own business, you can start forgiving yourself for making mistakes–but ONLY if you don’t repeat them. Stop beating yourself up, and start writing stuff down. During any crisis, your top question should be “How can I prevent this from happening again?” Then jam that wedge home in the future.

 

My staff playbook keeps getting thicker. It’s the sum of all of my policies and procedures. And it’s thick enough to stop a huge rock from rolling backward onto my toe.

 

 

The post What “Failing Forward” Really Means appeared first on Two Brain.

The Interview Method

One of the key steps to progress is getting things out of your head.

 

You need to write down every single task in your business, and how it should be performed. You need to group these tasks into roles, and build a staff playbook for them to use as a reference. You need to record rules, SOPs and gold standards. You won’t have the freedom to grow your business until you do.

 

That doesn’t mean it’s easy.

 

Our brains automatically fill in gaps. Our brains project knowledge onto other people. We think, “Why wouldn’t that guy empty the garbage can when he left last night? That’s common sense!”

 

But there’s no such thing as common sense. If you haven’t told them, they don’t know.

 

When I first got the “roles and tasks” assignment from my mentor, I spent a very painful weekend sitting at the coffee table, trying to imagine myself cleaning the floors, and recording every step I took. It was boring work, and the final product wasn’t perfect. But that weekend was a true turning point: my business stopped going downhill and started the long climb back to profitability.

 

Many of our clients in the Incubator struggle to see themselves from the outside. They can’t tell their receptionist how to answer the phone; they can’t explain their standard of “clean” well. So they bear the weight of unnecessary frustration. And usually, they misjudge their staff: “That guy is just lazy!” when really, the staff person doesn’t know what to do, or how.

 

If this is you, or if you’re just looking for a shortcut, have a staff member interview you.

 

Walk through all the tasks you perform in a given day. Start with this: “How do I open the clinic in the morning?”

The staff person should ask for minute details, like:

“Where do you park?”

“When you walk in the door, what’s the first thing you do?”

“Where do you put your coat?”

“What kind of music do you put on?”

“What’s your login to the computer system?”

And so forth, digging as deeply into the minute details as possible.

 

It’s important to get granular to avoid frustration and cost later on.

Two examples of problems that could easily have been avoided:

1. A staff member takes the best parking spot. Her boss thinks, “Why doesn’t she leave that spot for our clients?” The staff person walks through the door with a cheery “Good morning!” and her boss gives her a less-than-enthusiastic greeting, because he’s already mad at her. She doesn’t know why he’s “in a bad mood”, of course, but she steers clear of him for the rest of the day, because he gets this way sometimes…

2. A staff member loses access to company billing software and gets locked out. He has no idea how to reset his password, or how to reach a help desk. He has two options: call the boss on her vacation, or manually record transactions for the day. Knowing how much his boss needs time off (because of all those mood swings?) he chooses to carefully write down every client’s name and attendance, and the balance they owe.

Of the 10 appointments that day, two never pay their bill. That means the profit from three MORE clients goes to covering costs of service delivery. The clinic could have closed for half the day and made the same money!

 

By now, most readers will have a clear memory of one time when a staff person “didn’t think”, or “got careless”, or — call it what you want: they failed to read the owner’s mind. You have to get your business out of your head and onto paper, and the Interview method works.

 

 

The post The Interview Method appeared first on Two Brain.