164: What is EOS and How Does it Lead to Operational Excellence? Lynda Martin Explains

Transcript

Where there is no vision, the people will perish. Hi, I’m Alicia Butler Pierre. And that’s an African proverb you just heard. It rings true in so many ways, especially in business.

Think about it. How can your company grow if your team, customers and overall ecosystem aren’t even aware of the direction in which to grow? And if left unchecked for too long, they’ll eventually become either robotic, aimlessly performing tasks, or they’ll leave.

It’s impossible to build a culture of operational excellence in an environment like this. If this sounds like your company, or one that you know of, then you’re in luck. We’re about to hear from a passionate entrepreneur who believes that ultimately good wins. If leaders have a carefully crafted vision and access to the right people, processes and tools, it’s time to start steering our ships in the right direction.

This is season 13, episode 164. Let’s start the show. Welcome to Business Infrastructure, the podcast about carrying back office blues of fast growing businesses. If you’re a business owner or operator looking for practical tips and solutions to scaling your business in a sustainable manner, you’re in the right place. Now, here’s your hostess, Alicia Butler Pierre. Have you ever wished you had a mentor that could provide advice on how to improve your customer experience and scale your business?

Well, HubSpot’s got you covered. Its new podcast, the Shakeup, is a show about business builders who dare to be different. Alexis Gay and Brianne Kimmel dive into the stories behind the most disruptive companies in business, examining the decisions and investments made by leaders who are building for the future by challenging the status quo.

What I love about this show is that they don’t just talk the talk, but they walk the walk too.

Not only do Alexis and Brianne interview successful founders and innovators, but they have firsthand experience through their own backgrounds as business leaders and investors, sprinkled with a little comedy to really keep things interesting, listen, learn and grow with the HubSpot podcast [email protected] podcastnetwork having a tough time trying to explain ideas over a video conference? Try the Think Smart Whiteboard. It’s the fastest whiteboard software in the world and allows you to upload flowcharts and write on them while your colleagues are watching remotely.

Call us today for a free demo. The number is 1-866-584-6804 or visit us online at getmytablet.com now that’s smart. Think Smart. We are well into season 13 where we’re focusing on operational excellence. And joining me today, also in Atlanta, Georgia, is someone I’ve known for about 15 years, Lynda Martin . She’s the founder and CEO of Goodwin Growth Works.

She’s also a professional EOS implementer, and she helps entrepreneurs live their ideal life. What’s an EOS implementer? Well, you’re about to find out. In fact, Lynda will share with us how she implemented the EOS to support one of her clients in increasing their sales by 32% for two years in a row. I bet that got your attention, didn’t it, Lynda? This is a long overdue conversation, and I’m so happy we can make this happen. How are you?

I’m doing great, Alicia, and it is so much fun to connect and be able to be in this kind of conversation with you, because what you do to help companies get on track just aligns so much with what I love to do.

That’s why I’ve always considered you a kindred spirit. And I know there’s some. Some religious things that we’ve talked about in the past as well, you know, and some spiritual things. So I’ve just always felt a very strong connection to you, Lynda. And, you know, I was thinking about it, like, well, how long ago did we actually meet and where did we meet?

it was Power Core.

Yeah, Power Core. And, wow. It’s hard to believe that that was probably about, again, 15 years ago. And your company, Goodwin GrowthWorks, is 18 years old, right?

Yes, it is.

Wow. Oh, my gosh.

I haven’t thought about that

Now, before you started your company, you already had a successful track record in business coaching and consulting and HR leadership type things. I’ve always wondered this about you. And so this is actually the perfect forum in which to ask you, how did your background in human resources and religious studies lead you to ultimately helping entrepreneurs live their ideal life?

Well, it probably starts before that.

Okay.

On the week I graduated from high school, my great aunt fired my dad from the family business And the home we lived in was owned by the family business.

Interesting.

That was devastating on so many levels throughout the family. The ripple effect was amazing. And it started me asking questions. I’d grown up in this family full of people who had their own businesses. We had a sense of pride and focus on this is part of who we are.

And all of a sudden, it wasn’t. And fast forward 15 years later. I had had a number of my own businesses with partners, and I was in a position. We had a great restaurant in midtown. We had Stained Glass business. Wow. And it Was a. Our common bond was that we were kind of co religionists, I guess you would say.

We ran these companies together and we also owned an apartment building in Grant park where and two houses and a church.

I began to realize that we were going separate ways. There were some changes in the way that they were actually quite honestly the way they were thinking about women, that they didn’t think women should have authority.

It was a big change in the way that we had all worked together and believed. And you’ve seen this happen in many denominations where there is a kind of a resurgence of an old way of doing things and the people who were kind of going forward with a new way of doing things. There’s a split.

Yeah.

And so it was so odd. It took me years to realize this, but I kind of repeated my dad’s pattern except that this time I was in the lead. I said I can’t do this. So I took the time with my husband to figure out how we were going to get out of there with at least some shred of something. But we pretty much left everything behind and had to start over. So the part of my life that you are familiar with came after that experience.

I was about to start my own business in data management when I realized that my marriage wasn’t going to survive this trauma either. And I had been just doing some temporary work and the temporary staffing agency offered me a position in their marketing department. And it’s a great. Staffing is a great place to work.

If you are in hr. It’s sort of like being in an emergency room. Doctors will tell you if they work in an emergency room they get more experience and training in a wide diversity of problems to solve and skills to use. And staffing is like that. You’re just one quarter, your focus is light industrial. The next quarter your focus is office automation.

The next quarter your focus is how to do long term staffing and help employees get up to speed quickly in client companies and working with client companies to reskill and reorganize how they’re taking people in so you can make the most of productivity.

So that’s what I did for the next 10 years while I went back to school and got a master’s in human resources development. At some point I found that I was also a big one for applying technology to problems and got recruited to a technology company that I had been helping and found myself back in a small business.

Full circle.

And quite honestly the corporation I worked for was just a small business that had gotten really big it was still privately held. It was owned by kind of a dictator. It was. It was. I like to say it was painfully entrepreneurial.

And so when, you know, it’s one thing to change direction quickly when you have 20 people reporting to you, when you have 1500 people reporting to you, it causes a lot of traffic jams. And so they didn’t have. You’ll love this. They didn’t have common accounting practices across the. Across the company until they were at 350 million.

Whoa. You know, it’s amazing how companies can become that large without any standardization or documentation, for that matter, in place. Wow.

Exactly. And so these experiences I’m telling you about have a certain element of pain in them, as you can imagine. And that is the beginnings of my inspiration. My grade school friend was telling me the other day I had, you know, as a leader, you want to be constantly learning more about yourself and how you come across and what your strengths and weaknesses are.

And I had had this big, amazing. Aha. And I shared it with my girlfriend from first grade, and she’s like, Lynda, you have always thought that the most important thing to do was save the world. I was like, oh. Oh, that was a revelation to me. She was like, it’s good to have friends like that to keep you honest.

And you may as well think big, Lynda. Why not?

So in the mid-90s, when I had the opportunity to start consulting with small businesses, it just seemed, like you said, a full circle and a chance to repair the world in small ways, one business at a time and prevent anyone from having to live through what I had lived through with my parents, with my partners, and with that little company that got so big.

Wow. What a story. All this time, I’ve never known that about you. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that beautiful office space that you had for. For so many years when I first met you, that sat, like, in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia. Can you tell us just a little bit about it? Because I just think that the history of it is just so fascinating. And. And does that somehow tie into your family and what you were sharing with us? I know. It was. It was in your family for seven generations, right?

That particular home. Yeah. so it was called Goodwin. The Solomon Goodwin homestead. And so that’s where the name of my company comes from, because it’s where I founded my company, and I liked the concept of good wins, and. Yeah. The same great aunt who fired my father and kind of messed up my sisters and my college paths and all that gave us that property at a certain point.

Ah.

And it was in the heart of Brookhaven on Peachtree Road. And yes, it was beautiful, tucked back in the woods, and it was a wonderful retreat space and a wonderful place to be. Unfortunately, the cost of maintaining it had. The taxes tripled in the 10 years that we had it, and they were on track to triple again because of all the growth in the area.

And we tried all different kinds of ways to mitigate that, but between the upkeep of a house that old and the land and everything. Yeah, we just. It was, I’m going to work tonight till I’m 90, 70 hours a week to support this place or we’ll sell it and it’ll help support me.

Yeah.

And my sisters and our children and, you know, so that’s what we did. But it was, it was a heartbreaking decision.

Oh, I’m sure, I’m sure. So. So knowing that you started your, your consulting company, the one you have now for 18 years, the past 18 years, Goodwin Growth Works. At what point, Lynda, did you start to incorporate EOS into, or was it always a part of it? I’m not sure how old it is, and I definitely want you to tell us what EOS actually is. But before we even get there, at what point did you start to bring in that framework into your consulting?

Somewhere around 2012. I’m always looking for new resources for better ways to do things. And one of the most difficult things I find for privately held businesses that are growing rapidly is how to do business planning. Because business planning, writing a business plan can be stodgy. It can feel confining, it can feel like a lot of work for nothing. And what entrepreneurs need is something that guides them through the year and the day.

You know, that that’s the kind of business planning they need. So I was always looking for a better business plan. And when I found, through a coaching association I was part of, I found this two page business plan that I thought was just wonderful.

And so I used it in 2012 for all my clients and the results were great. So over the, over the holiday, the, the new year holiday, I started to dig in deeper and like, actually read the book and stuff. And I was like, wow, this guy’s put together the system I’ve been sort of doing, but he has tested it in 100 companies.

He’s made it streamlined. I love it. And then I’m going to just look at their website and then I found out, wow, you can get trained in this, you can do this. And so then in 2013, I went through what we call boot camp and got on track to be certified as a professional EOS implementer.

So the million dollar question, what exactly is EOS?

So EOS stands for the entrepreneurial operating system. It is designed to get the owners and founders of privately held companies everything they wanted when they founded the business. The time, the freedom, the impact. And we do that by implementing. It’s a simple system of practical tools that really focus on three things within the business. Vision, traction, and healthy.

So vision, where are you going? How are you going to get there? And traction, how do you hold each other accountable? And to be disciplined about implementation, which can be a challenge in an entrepreneurial company.

And in a family owned company, you know, I always say, honey, you missed your sales goals. Well, how do you have that conversation and stay healthy, have open, honest communication that is focused on moving the company forward? And again, with family, when you start businesses with family and friends, that can get dicey.

Yeah.

Then once we get the leadership team, and part of this work is developing a leadership team, that really begins to take some of the weight off the founder. As long as the founder is in control of everything, the company is hitting a ceiling, they’re stymied from growth, and it can be really frustrating.

Once leaders are brought in who can really take on and own different aspects of the business, then the company is freed up to grow. And once you get the leadership team on the same page, then the rest of the organization follows.

We always hear, as entrepreneurs, we always hear you have to work on your business and not in your business. But what’s not always clear is how exactly do you do that? And it sounds like through EOS, that’s what you are able to help these founders actually not just see, but be able to actually develop a plan to achieve it.

That’s exactly right, Alicia. It’s so I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but entrepreneurs can be kind of all over the place. No.

Really?

eah. And if you give them too strict and complicated a path to follow, they just won’t. Yeah, they’ve got too much on their mind. They got too many ideas, they got too many things to do. And that is really the genius of what Gina Wickman created.

It is simple, practical tools. And any one of those tools will help a company move forward. But when you put the whole thing together and then use the process that we have developed to implement the tools, because if you do them in a certain order, we have discovered it Works better, then that’s how you get the maximum value out of implementing the system. And really that’s where you get things like 32% sales growth in a year without killing the leaders.

Does EOS stress the importance of operations? Because it sounds like a good bit of it is around the leadership. But once you start to get that leadership team in place, does the focus, I don’t want to say does it shift? But at a certain point, does operations and processes start to become a part of that conversation?

Not until 10 o’ clock on the first morning of the first meeting. In fact, operations is in so many entrepreneurial companies, it is often either sales or operations. That is the tail wagging the dog. So part of what we do that first morning, we work on who is accountable for what.

One of the challenges a fast growing entrepreneurial organization faces is that the way they got successful is that everybody kind of did everything and pitched in. Then there comes a point where that no longer works. People start tripping over each other. People start doing the same work twice. The people below them are getting conflicting direction. And so what we discovered is that the first thing you’ve got to tackle is really how the company is operating.

Yeah.

Who’s accountable for what? What kinds of meetings are the leadership team? What kind of communication is the leadership team having? How are they solving issues that come up day to day? And how are they tackling the bigger projects that need to happen in order for some of the chaos to diminish, the thing that always gets put aside?

Well, we don’t have time to document the processes. We’re just going to keep doing it. We’re answering the same question 20 times a week. But we don’t have time to stop and teach everyone that. We begin right off the bat identifying some of those. And we don’t actually start working on the vision part. Core values, what’s the 10 year target? What’s the 3 year picture? We don’t even start working on that for the first month.

Is it more of a stopping the bleeding first before you get to the vision? Is that a way of describing it? Yeah, in a sense.

I mean, keep in mind, Alicia, that these are good companies. They’re running well, but usually at the expense of the leaders. They’re what a mentor of mine used to call. They’re throwing their bodies at it. They’re working 60, 70, 80 hours. They haven’t taken a day off in a month or a year or the worst case I ever saw, three years.

They’re all working really hard, trying really Hard they’ve got, they’re selling well, but they know they could do better and they’re up against the ceiling and sometimes they’ve made a big sale and now quality is suffering.

Wow. You know, it sounds like they, you are helping them achieve that breakthrough to the next level to kind of stop the madness. Because that’s madness when you’re just, you’re working, working, working, working, working, grinding and grinding and grinding.

But to have a breakthrough where things can flow a lot more seamlessly, you know, in terms of work and information, that’s awesome, Lynda. You know, and I’m sure in 18 years, I know you must have a ton of success stories, but especially in the years since you’ve been implementing EOS to achieve this operational excellence, because really, to me, that’s what it sounds like you’re talking about. Let’s take a quick break to hear more from our sponsor. And when we come back, I would love if you can share some of those success stories with us and kind of walk us through the EOS process if you can.

Great.

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And that’s what’s so interesting about this work, is at the end of the day, a lot of us that fall under this operations management space, we’re all kind of saying and doing the same things. We just may call it different things, I think. And so for those who are listening to this show for the first time, business infrastructure is also an operations type system that helps you link your people, your processes and your tools and technologies to ensure that growth happens in a profitable and sustainable way.

Lynda, from knowing you all these years, I’ve personally heard the success stories from you and I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing with us some of Those success stories. And as you do that, if we could talk about the people, you know, that leadership team that you talked about assembling. I know EOS in and of itself is a process. And as you alluded to earlier, you all have found that if it’s executed in a certain order, the process yields even greater results.

And then you know, also those tools that you started referencing, how they’re, they’re very practical and simple. So take it away. And as you’re describing this, I know you have this beautiful PowerPoint that you normally would share with your clients or even potential clients. So when we do the video version of this interview, we’ll make sure that we have that visual in place as well so that people can really be able to follow along with your story. Go for it. All right, the floor is yours.

Well, I think first and foremost, business is all about people. And when we asked our clients what made you bring EOs in, what was the problem you were trying to solve? They said, people don’t do what I want them to do. That was the number one. And so as a consultant, the temptation is always to go in and like you said, work on the business, not in the business.

And understanding that if you get the vision clear, if you know where you’re going, a whole lot of tangles and issues get solved. But the fact is, if you don’t have some tools to hold that, then it’ll just turn into a pretty binder sitting on your desk.

Amen to that.

We’ve all been there.

Yes.

You find it a year later and you go, oh, yeah, I was gonna do that. So we spend the whole first day. Well, even before we get to the first day, we do a 90 minute meeting that is really a little workshop that walks through the model and the process and that is free. And it gives people a chance to understand who their leadership team really is. We help them sort through that. And you need someone from operations in that meeting as well as from sales and finance, as well as the overall leader in that meeting.

There are four specific tools that we are working with. One is called the accountability chart. And as I was alluding to earlier, it’s a way to help people figure out who’s accountable for what in an environment where everybody is really gung ho about just pitching in and picking up the ball. So I’ve been working with leadership team.

We just had our six month meeting and they said, we now feel so much relief. We know what our lanes as leaders are and we are already communicating that to the people. Who call us because what was happening out in the field, this is a restaurant franchise. What was happening out in the field is every time there was a problem, there would be texts and emails and phone calls to every person on the leadership team.

Oh my gosh.

So multiply that a few times.

Yeah.

And over the period. So in that first meeting, we identified who’s going to be accountable for what and then they communicated that out through the organization and it took a minute, but six months later they’re just like, we cannot believe how much extra.

It’s not like they have extra time, but how much time they have gotten back and energy from implementing that one tool, the accountability chart. And by the way, every tool that I’m referring to, you can download for free. It’s one of the reasons I joined the EOS community is because we give a lot away. And you can download these free tools from my website, which we will give you, but it’s goodwingrowth.com and just click on the EOS tab and it’ll walk you through where to find all the tools and the free first chapters of the book, any books I mentioned.

So the second tool is setting rocks or priorities for the next quarter. These are the things that get squeezed out by the day to day busy activity, but if you could get them done, it would improve your life so much in the life of those around you. And then we put in a meeting Pulse, a regular meeting. Everyone groans when I tell them they’ve got to meet every week.

But again, this same team that I was just talking about said those weekly meetings have taken away so many interruptions because now we think, well, I’m going to talk to them and I’m going to sit down with them. So if it’s an emergency, we still call, of course, but we’re not just picking up the phone or emailing each other constantly. Hey, did you think about this? What about that? Did you know about this? It all comes together in that meeting.

And then there is an issue solving track, we call it, that’s specifically designed to solve problems quickly and in a focused way. And it changes how people think about meetings because they become highly productive. And then the final tool we implement on that first day is scorecard and that is five to 15 numbers that predict success.

Ah, kind of like KPIs, like key performance indicators or kind of. 

I mean they, yes, certainly they’re in the genre of KPIs and dashboards and all that.

Okay.

But the problem with most modern organizations is that they have too much data Too many spreadsheets, too many. Just too much information, and it can be overwhelming. So in addition to a monthly financial review, we encourage this weekly scorecard that predicts and tracks the activities that will get them to their quarterly goals, to their annual goals, and help them fulfill the responsibilities of the role they’re in. The sales guy has to make.

We know that if the sales team generates 15 warm leads a day, records show we’ll be on track. So did they do that? Did they make the phone calls Operationally, you know what. What was the error rate? What was the rework rate? How many things got out the door? Those kinds of things. We like to say it takes an hour to six months to get a scorecard. You really.

Now that’s a range.

We break up our implementation. The first three meetings where we’re really setting the foundation are 30 days apart. Because now, once we’ve introduced these four tools, we send them back. Do it. Call me if you run into problems. I’ll check in with you. And then a month later, we get together and say, how did it work? Where’d you run into problems? Because they will.

Then we start working on vision. That is a term we use for eight specific questions that are covered on a tool we call the Vision Traction Organizer. And that’s where we’re doing strategic planning as well as culture setting. Like, what are your core values?

What’s your core focus? Where do you really want to be in 10 years? What’s your big, hairy, audacious goal? So we get through about the first three of those questions in that first day, and then again 30 days later, I mean, the second day, then 30 days later, we come back together again.

By now, they’re starting to master those initial tools, and they’ve had time to really percolate on, what are my core values? What are we building here? What is our culture? What are our strategic goals? And we finish it up and kind of put a bow on it. And from there, every quarter, for the rest of their business lives, we want the leadership team to meet all day, go away from the office, meet all day, review what the strategic plan is, look at how everything worked this quarter, and determine what’s next for next quarter. And one of the key components that they need to be strengthening is process.

What are the key business processes? Not just operational processes, but all the key business processes. Have we documented them and are they being followed by all? So over the course of usually two years, all of that gets really honed. And then we set Them free, they graduate, and we set them free and hope they will continue. And we provide support for that as well.

Wow. That is awesome, Lynda. And I note the same restaurant franchise that you were kind of. Were you kind of walking us through the process that you took them through. Is that the same company that was able to achieve an average of increase in sales by 32% for two years?

No, I’ve only been with them for six months.

Oh, wow. In six months, they achieved that?

Yeah.

Wow.

Now, the sales group, that was actually a legal firm.

Okay.

And that was over the course of two years, every year. Yep. And part of what kind of popped the cork, you know, where’s the bottleneck of the bottle? It’s at the top. Right. So if the founding attorney is controlling everything, a lot of stuff doesn’t get done as the organization grows. So they went from 350,000 to six and a half million over the course of six years. Wow.

Wow.

And it was all because they were able to get a leadership team up and running. There was somebody in charge of operations. This was a very transactional law practice. There was somebody in charge of sales and marketing. There was somebody in charge of legal compliance. And none of those people were the founder.

Using the tools that I’ve just described, I mean, that’s basically what we did. We have 20 total tools. But the five that I just gave you, the Vision, Traction Organizer, the Accountability Chart, Rocks, the Meeting Pulse, and Scorecard, Those are the five tools that give EOS 85% of its power.

Wow.

And all available on that website, goodwingrowth.com.

Click on that EOS tab.

Yes.

Right. Okay. Speaking of these tools and the fact that people who are listening right now can actually go and download this directly from your website. Other resources. I know there are. There’s several books, for example.

It’s a trick question, you know.

I know. Right. So. So actually, if we could start with the books, Lynda, because. Is it five of them?

There are five books

Okay. The founder or the creator of. Of EOS wrote these five different books. Do you recommend reading them in a certain order? And first, if you could. If you could say what each of those books, you know, each of those books are and what they kind of, you know, generally cover, and do you recommend reading them in a certain order?

Sure. So Traction is the grandfather book. That was the book that he documented. Everything we’ve been talking about is documented in there in very, I think, very clear language. It is a kind of thick, kind of dry business book. So it’s great for people who like to read business books. And you can also just, if you’re working on, let’s say you’re working on the accountability chart, you can quickly turn to that section and be walked through some of the high points.

The second book that came out was called Get a Grip and that’s really in the lines of a business fable. So it’s a story of an EOS implementation and then the model is recapped at the back. The third book is called Rocket Fuel. And this really came to answer a need that we were seeing.

We in our model identify two people at the top of the organization. We have found that the best organizations have a visionary and an integrator. The visionary is the One that has 20 ideas a day and at least one a week is really, really good. And that person will often chase all 20 of them and drive everyone around her.

Yes.

But the visionary is also the person who has the big relationships, who holds the culture, who sets the culture. It’s often the dream of this person that is really the fuel for the organization. The integrator is the one who’s looking at the P and L, who’s looking at the workloads, who’s trying to sort out who’s doing what and making sure the day to day is working really well and that the sales and marketing, operations and finance and administration are smoothly integrated.

So the book Rocket Fuel helps people sort out the relationship of the visionary and integrator. If you get those puzzle pieces put together, well, the company takes off. Hence the name Rocket Fuel.

So that’s really designed for the two people at the top of the organization. And then the last two books, the how to be a Great Boss is designed for anybody who has a direct report within the organization to help them understand how EOS helps them and how to implement EOS in their role. And then what the heck is EOS?

Is for anyone who’s in an organization that’s running on EOS and wonders what the heck the Secret Squirrel Society is doing once a quarter when they leave?

Yeah, the Secret Squirrel Society.

That is actually what one of my clients, one of my clients people said. So what did the Secret Squirrel Society decide this time? Now in terms of the order you read it in? For most people, I would say read what the heck is EOD? First it gives a very down to earth, easy to digest overview of how it works in real life day to day.

And then depending on your role, go to either Rocket Fuel or How to be a Great boss. I think everybody should read how to be a Great Boss. Anybody that has a direct report. And then for people who are high fact finders and really love to dig into it all, retraction. And then one more resource that we haven’t really talked about is that there is an EOS blog.

And you can also connect to that through my, my website, through that, that tab. And the blog is full of, you know, insights and wisdom. So we have a professional community. We have a community of professional implementers that is 400 strong.

Wow.

And we get together and they’re all over the world, and we get together once a quarter in various parts of the world and talk about how things are working and what we’re seeing. So while the tools are very simple and practical, there are a lot of nuances to implementing them. And I’ve worked with. Well, I’ve worked with over 150 companies as a business consultant and I’ve implemented EOs in 35 of them. So I’ve seen some stuff and I can help people get unstuck.

Yeah. This is amazing, Lynda. And, you know, I’ve heard about. Because of, you know, because I’m in the space that I work in, I’ve certainly heard of vos. I think I know I first heard of it from you. And then over the years, I would say, really, over the past three to four years, I hear about the book Traction a lot. So this is just another reminder that I need to go ahead and purchase a copy.

So when you mentioned setting rocks, I was like, I’ve heard that term. I don’t remember exactly what’s meant by. But I’ve definitely heard that. And whenever I hear people talking about their rocks versus the sand, is that also part of the rocks and then filling it up with sand? Yeah. So I’ve heard some of my clients talk about this and I’m like, wait, what? Huh? They’re like, get the book. Get the book, Alicia. And I’m like, okay, okay, I will.

You can also, the whole rocks, gravel, sand thing really comes from Stephen Covey. And now I know you don’t like to say Google, but you can.

No, I do, I do.

But, yeah, you can really Google Stephen Covey rocks.

Okay.

And see some animated and some. There’s. There’s a couple of funny videos. There’s a. There’s a lot of good stuff out there about the concept of rocks.

Okay.

We’ve done this a little different, is talk about them in terms of 90 day increments. Because what we discovered was that People can hold a strategic idea for about 90 days and then it just gets swamped by the day to day business.

That’s interesting. Knowing that that’s on average the threshold. And it makes sense. It makes a lot of sense. So. And that’s, I’m assuming that’s why you make, make it a point to check in, you know, like you said, once a quarter. Once every 90 days.

Right.

Keep them back on track. Yeah, that’s. That’s awesome. Now I know there’s also a video that I saw on your website where you describe what EOS is and we’ll make sure that we have a copy of that video as well in our resources page of the show notes. And one other thing that I did want to ask you about this free organizational checkup that I noticed on your website as well, is that still active?

Absolutely.

Okay, Absolutely. All right.

So everybody, it’s a great way to kind of self diagnose and they, they actually will give you the results, will actually give you some guidance.

Oh, so it’s a self guided. Oh, oh, okay, perfect, perfect.

I use it. So I will have the leadership team take it before we have our first full day meeting. And then at various times throughout the engagement, the leadership team will take it. And then at a certain point we have the whole company take it and we use that to guide annual goal setting.

Well, I knew this would be phenomenal and didn’t it go by fast?

It did. You know, Alicia, I’m so excited about this one recent success for my company that just sold.

Okay. Yes.

please mention that I Had a client that They’re in the software as a service space, had a very aggressive goal to sell. Not all my clients want to do that, so I’m really focused on whatever it is my client’s dream is. But they were purchased and they got their asking price and then some and the terms that they wanted.

And one of the things. Oh, and even better, the organization they were purchased by, their core values align because we walked them through a questionnaire about how to determine that and so what the organization said was, we knew you had the stuff to go further. And we made a better offer because we hadn’t seen a company with 37 people with this level of understanding of process and management.

Wow.

Your meetings are time driven, meaningful, they stay on track and you handle negative issues constructively.

Now that’s a testimonial and that’s from the buyer. Wow, that’s saying a lot. And congratulations to you as well for guiding them. To that point.

Thank you. And I do want to just put in a plug for you that when we get to the level of documenting processes, that is not something that I am particularly strong at. So I love to bring in. And that’s true of many of the things that we identify. I love to bring in qualified professionals who can help my clients get to where they need to go. And your process documentation skills are amazing.

Oh, thank you. Thank you, Lynda. I appreciate that. So we definitely know the website is goodwingrowth.com g o o d w I n growth.com. what’s the best way, though, for people to connect with you?

I’m old school. Just call me. I mean, you can email me through my website. It’s better. And find me on LinkedIn and all that. But just call me if you have a question. If you’re frustrated because people aren’t doing what you want them to do, call me. We’ll talk.

Okay. What’s your number? Or should they just go to the website to get your number?

I’ll give them the number.

Okay.

It’s 404-697-5212.

And do you work with companies internationally?

I do. Or. Well, I’m willing to, but oftentimes if someone comes to me that they’re from a particular country, I’ll see if I can find them. One of my colleagues.

okay. And the reason I ask is, you know, in case there’s someone else in another country listening right now and they really want to get in touch with you, you know, the country code. Here is one. So it’d be 140-4697-5212. Lynda, I’m going to attempt to summarize some of this amazing information that you shared with us.

First of all, thank you so much for giving us context into how you eventually started your own consulting firm, Goodwin GrowthWorks. All the years that I’ve known you, I, I can’t say that I ever knew the story about the week that you graduated from high school, your, your aunt firing your dad, and how it just kind of had this, this ripple effect. And eventually you did start some other businesses.

You had these co founders. And when it became clear that you all had different ideas about leadership, especially women in leadership and the direction of. Of these organizations, you ultimately decided to part ways and sounds like you never looked back.

Eventually, in 2012, you started integrating EOS into the delivery of your consulting services. I’m so glad you talked about just how important operations and operational excellence is to the entrepreneurial operating system. And you Talked about the three main areas that you all look at.

That being vision, where are you going and how are you going to get there? Traction, how do you hold each other accountable? And third, healthy having that open communication and dialogue about how exactly are you going to take the company forward.

I really appreciate the fact that you mentioned we always again, hear about the importance of the working on your business and not in the business, but how do you do that? So I really appreciate you talking about the importance of developing a leadership team who can actually take on and own certain aspects of the business. I think sometimes it’s very easy for us to go and hire those other technicians or operators in the business, but what we really need oftentimes is that leadership, building out that actual leadership team so that everybody isn’t depending on you every day to make decisions.

The fact that you mentioned how the path can’t be complicated in terms of helping entrepreneurs get to achieving that vision that you help them identify. And that’s the beauty of eos, is that all of these tools that you all have access to are all very practical as well as simple. And thank you for, you know, I’m going to try to wrap this portion up because there’s so much more that I want to say. But I also thought it was interesting when you said that the bottleneck of a company starts at the top.

So if you do stand that bottle up, sure enough, that bottleneck is literally at the top of the bottle. So that is a very, very interesting way of looking at it. And lastly, you know, thank you for kind of walking us through what a typical process or engagement look, an EOS implementer, the fact that it all starts with that 90 minute meeting where you walk them through the model, the process itself, the different types of people that need to be in the room and contributing to the conversation, the different tools that you shared with us, the accountability chart, the setting rocks or priorities, the meeting pulse.

Is that the same as the issue solving track or they work together? They work together. Okay. And then what I really like is that scorecard. So I definitely want to take a look at that tool and then eventually sending them back into the wild and checking in with them.

I like that. Yes, setting them free.

They’re butterflies now and you’ve set them free. And the fact that here’s what I really appreciate probably more than anything, this is not an overnight thing and that’s what’s important for people to realize. Yes, it is doable, yes, it is achievable, but it’s not going to happen. In 30 or 60 days. So listen to everything that Lynda has said.

I implore you to download this particular episode, go back and listen, take copious notes, and make sure you reach out to her again. The website is goodwingrowth.com. click on the EOS tab if you want to take a look at all of these tools that Lynda shared with us today. Also, I know. I know this for a fact. When you go to the website, you’ll also see all of the books that Lynda mentioned.

You can also get access to those books through her website as well. She was kind enough to share her phone number with us. Again, that’s area. That’s country code one, Ariel. Area code 404-697-5212. Lynda, I knew this would be amazing, and you did not disappoint at all. Thank you so much.

It has been great fun, Alicia, I always love interchanging with your good, strong mind.

Thank you so much. And everybody, if you’re still listening, hopefully you’re still hanging on with us. Make sure you check out BusinessInfrastructure TV, because that’s where we’re gonna have links to Lynda’s website, as well as the books, the tools, and all of the other great information that she shared with us.

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This entrepreneurial journey is a marathon and not a sprint. Until the next time, thank you for listening to Business Infrastructure, the podcast about curing back office blues with Alicia Butler Pierre. If you like what you’ve heard, do us a favor and subscribe. Leave a rating and review, and more importantly, share with your colleagues, colleagues and team members who could benefit from the information. Join us next week for another episode of Business Infrastructure with Alicia Butler Pierre.