Growing Places
Growing Places
EOS Implementation Powered by Will Powell
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Join us for another episode of Growing Place, your home for everything economic development in the Sioux Metro. Visit us at https://siouxmetro.com/. In this episode, Economic Development Specialist Chris Fields sit down to talk the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) implementation and his growth in 2025.
If you'd like to talk about implementing EOS in your organization reach out to Will via email at william.powell@eosworldwide.com
Will's Hidden Gem: Zebra King Donuts
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SPEAKER_01Welcome back to Growing Places, your one-stop shop for all things economic development in the Sioux Falls metropolitan area. My name is Chris Fields, your host this afternoon, and I'm here with Will Powell from EOS Entrepreneurial Operating Systems. Will, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_02Chris, thanks so much, buddy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, why don't you uh for those that missed your podcast episode last year, why don't you kind of give a brief rundown of who you are, what you do, what EOS is, and all the things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh well, so I am a professional EOS implementer. As you said, EOS stands for the entrepreneurial operating system. And so I work with owners and lead leadership teams to help them get better at three things. One, vision, two, traction, three, healthy. So I help them implement a set of tools that helps them get everyone on the same page with the vision, where they're going over the long term, how they plan to get there. Traction just means instilling accountability and discipline throughout the organization. So no matter where you go, you see people executing on that vision. And healthy just means becoming a more healthy, open and honest, functional leadership team that actually enjoys spending time together. Because as we know, all too often leadership teams don't. And so we find that as goes that leadership team, so goes the rest of the organization. And so I work with uh privately held companies, I work with nonprofits, and again, help them to achieve everything that they want from their organization.
SPEAKER_01Nice. Uh yeah, so you said you you work with for-profit, nonprofit um EOS's original kind of bread and butter was the for-profit industry, right? But you guys have been able to tailor the program a little bit to organizations like Sioux Falls or Sioux Metro Growth Alliance. We're a 501c6, so um run a very tight budget, and it is a little different than the for-profit industry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, you know, to your point, the majority of my clients are in the for-profit uh space, but EOS applies to any industry, profit or nonprofit. It's really industry agnostic. Um basically, you know, I help leaders and owners achieve everything they want in the organization. And so a nonprofit still needs to act as a business in a lot of different ways. They still need a vision for where they're going over the long term. What's our 10-year, what's our three-year, one-year plans. And then how do we achieve that plan? Well, we have to make sure that we're in the right type of meeting pulse with our leaders each and every week, everyone on the same page with the most important things in the business. We have to make sure our processes are all systemized and the most important things in the organization are being done the right in the best way every time. We have to make sure that we have the right people in the right seats and the accountability chart, which we've done a lot of work on together. Um, but as you know, in the nonprofit world, uh, you know, where these organizations have great missions and they um have large aspirations to a lot to do a lot of great things. Well, if they don't have those right people in the right seats and have absolute clarity as to who's responsible for what, those great missions can kind of fall by the wayside because there's no accountability to get those things done really well. So it's been really an absolute pleasure working with you guys and I work with another nonprofit and uh implementing EOS and seeing you guys and my other team just accomplish great things through the system.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it's been awesome. We've we've been with you now for a little over a year. I think we made the decision to do EOS with you late 24, early 25. And I think we had our our first uh not quarterly, but the first session February 25, maybe something like that. So um looking back, it it's been a year with us, and I know you've only been an implementer for what a couple years now?
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, full time, about two years. Two years? Yeah, I got licensed three years ago.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So in this past year, since since uh hopping on with SMGA, what are your biggest successes either with SMGA or just with with you in general, your business, and how that's going?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so starting with SMGA and the work that we've been doing together, you know, similarly to many of the other organizations that I start with uh implementing the EOS and the EOS process, um, you guys had a vision for the organization, you know, but I think yours, Tyler's, Josh's, Bryce's, you all your all vision was slightly different, right? And so us getting together over those first couple days and really fine-tuning and locking in and getting alignment around that vision was so powerful so that you guys can, as a group, start to work towards achieving that vision every 90 days. And so um just seeing you guys aligned, running your weekly L10s, gaining traction, solving issues that were potentially holding the organization back a year ago. Like you guys are dialed in like a well-owed machine. And from my standpoint, it seems like you guys are optimized and helping your communities and working with your partners on a level that you weren't doing a year ago, which for me is the ultimate success.
SPEAKER_01Nice. That's good. That really the uh the only thing holding our organization back is Bryce's L10 ratings. He won't he won't rate him any anything higher than an 8.5.
SPEAKER_02Um Bryce. Bryce Bryce's uh he keeps me humble in our sessions. He you he's not afraid to give pushback on some of the EOS tools and the the reasoning behind things, but he sees the light and he is amazing at what he does. And so um it's been fun to to you know bicker back and forth with him, and um, it's been fun to see him actually become a believer in the EOS process.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Bryce, Bryce is great. Um what trends or shifts have you noticed across our organization or other organizations you've worked with this year, maybe trends that are changing from a couple of years ago or trends that are staying the same?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um, in regards to trends, uh it's it's hard to say. I I mean I would say it's it's still difficult to find awesome people to work in organizations. Um, I see that across the companies that I work with. It's just hard to find great people. And so that really hasn't changed. It's not a new development. I think it's been that case for many years in the South Dakota market, considering it's one of the lowest employment rates, unemployment rates in the United States.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're steadily under about 2% unemployment up here. Yeah, it's incredible.
SPEAKER_02It is crazy. Um, and so finding, attracting, and and managing awesome people is is always an issue that has to be addressed. Um, but my clients, I think, would would support me in that via the EOS process, they've it's helped them to identify what makes a great person within their unique organization, right? We determine that through core values. If if you're looking to hire someone and and they don't fit your core values, well then we don't hire them. It's that simple. And same thing for a person that's in the organization, if they're not consistently exhibiting those core values, whether that be integrity, whether that be even punctuality, right? They're showing up late. Um, if if they're not culturally aligned with what the organization stands for, then we have to make a change. And so finding, attracting, managing great people is always an issue. But um I think my clients have seen has seen have seen tremendous success in implementing the EOS tools with the accountability chart, with the people analyzer, and helping to make that process a little easier.
SPEAKER_01I think that's one of the things I like the most about EOS and uh you know lying out these goals and what you want your organization to look like. Setting those uh three to five core traits of your organization, ours are integrity, growth-oriented, and servant leadership. And so we know now exactly what we're looking for when we're hiring somebody. If they don't fit that mold, see uh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, it makes me happy that you are able to recite those so beautifully. I was gonna I was about to hound you if you couldn't. No, I um I got it. You got it, get it down. Yeah, because you know, core values have kind of gotten a bad rap over the years just because I think companies make them and they're aspirational, they don't necessarily actually represent the culture. And so people are like, core values, like whatever. But with EOS, we believe you should hire, fire, reward, recognize, review all from those core values. It's how you become intentional with your culture. If you're not intentional about what you want your your culture to look like and how you want your people to operate, well, there's a culture that's happening, whether you like it or not. And so if you're not intentional with it, those other characteristics that aren't as great are going to start to uh build up and become the culture that you don't want. So, yeah, it's it's been fun. And I love your core values because not only do they apply to each one of the members of your team, but also they apply to how you approach the communities that you work with and the partners that you guys bring on, in that you guys are growth-oriented, you're all about servant leadership, and so you take these core values and you apply them to how you work with your communities, and your communities feel it, and they're able to actually say, yeah, they they really do believe in serve servant leadership. Yeah, they really are growth-oriented, they want us to grow, they want to make an impact. They are they do exhibit integrity regularly because they're honest, they do what they say, they show up when they need to show up, and again, that's because you guys have been intentional about it, and it's just it's so cool to see see everything you guys are accomplishing as a byproduct.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, it's been uh it's been great over the last year. We we just had our annual quarterly whatever you want to call it, last Tuesday. And so kind of going back to uh some of your successes over the past year, you and I had a conversation on Tuesday that when you first started with Sue Metro Growth Alliance last year, and I hope you're I was sharing this, but when when you started with us, you had like two or three clients, and now you're can you explain where you are now?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, of course, Chris. Um, yeah, so uh January of 2025, so a little over a year ago, I was at one client, and I had was uh a year into it full time. I was really struggling financially. I was second guessing my decision to go all in on EOS, leaving my awesome full-time job as vice president of RCM construction here in town.
SPEAKER_01That's scary.
SPEAKER_02It was scary, and I was doing all the work and um I just I wasn't seeing the results, but um I kept my faith and I remained persistent and I kept knocking on the door and doing the small things. And um, over the course of the year I went from one to twelve clients. And um again, it was a byproduct of just continuing to put myself out there, continuing, continuing to do awesome work with my clients. And um, yeah, it's the business is taking off, man. And it's just it's such a blessing to be working with so many awesome teams and again helping them to excel at an even higher level than they already were.
SPEAKER_01That's so wonderful to hear. I'm I'm so grateful that that you're part of this and that I get to be a part of your journey too. This is this has been great. Um thinking about uh the past year again, and without naming names, I know there's client confidentiality that we have to uh adhere to, but can you think of one or two like major breakthroughs this year from a few of your clients? Like what really stood out to you uh what what was the aha moment?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh a few things. Uh one of the biggest success stories I have is with a client in the construction industry. They very successful company doing nearly $20 million a year in work. Um they've been around for 15 years, uh great team. Um and prior to EOS, they just didn't have any real organizational structure. They weren't meeting as a leadership team, they didn't have an accountability chart, they weren't tracking uh metrics on a scorecard, so they were kind of just uh growing and and finding success, but without intention. And so on that first session, we you know we spent two to four hours going through that accountability chart. Well, we identified in that process that uh their safety manager actually didn't want to be in safety, and fortunately they had another seat in the sales department as the owner was really holding on to that to everything sales and never had any support in the sales department. Well, we shifted the safety director over to uh uh the sales department, and they went from bidding about two million dollars a month in work to five million dollars a month in work, just from making a small shift on the accountability chart, shifting over personnel from safety to sales, they were able to scale the amount of work they were bidding significantly.
SPEAKER_01That's wild. Right people and right seats.
SPEAKER_02You know it, Chris. Right people, right seats. And so, yeah, that was you know one success story that absolutely stands out, and I'm so proud of that team, and and they are just executing on a level that is really cool to see. Um, but then you know the the smaller wins just come down to again. I typically work with organizations who are already successful. You know, they're doing five, ten, twenty. Uh I've got a client that's doing $150 million a year in work. Um and they're successful, but they just need to fine-tune the operations. They need an operating system to uh, again, run better meetings, to set up processes, to paint the vision, and when we do those things, like success is inevitable. And so I think I said this on the pot on the previous podcast, but I help owners and leadership teams take a leap. And that leap can either be from subpar to good, or from good to great, or from great to excellent. You know, I I meet clients where they're at, and I'm gonna help fine-tune their their operations and help them just make a little bit further of a jump.
SPEAKER_01That's great. Uh let's move on to EOS tools. There's a lot of tools that we have in the two b tool belt, so to speak. The the VTO, uh, the level 10 meetings, um you know, within the VTO, there's the one year, the three-year, the ten-year plan. For for your clients, the the ones that you specifically work work with, what what which of these tools seem to make the biggest difference and impact?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's tough to you know, only shout out a couple of the tools because they're all impactful. And that and that is the the beauty of EOS is that it's it's the culmination of all the tools, of all the six key components that really make it work. But with that said, I would say, yeah, first and foremost, the VTO. Um, as I mentioned previously, owners and leaders often have visions in their head of where they want the organization to go, but they're not all 100% on the same page with that vision. And so once we come together in those first couple days and we map out the BHEG, the big, hairy, audacious goal, the 10-year target, where are we taking this thing over the long term? It's really eye-opening when we get that aligned. And then we work backwards from there with the three-year picture. So, what does the organization need to look like three short years from now to be on track to achieving that long-term target? Then we work backwards from there to the one-year plan. So, what do we need to achieve over the next 12 months to hit the three-year picture, to get to the 10-year target? Then we break it down even further to quarterly rocks. What are the 90-day priorities that we have to hit this quarter to accomplish the one year, to be on track for the three-year, et cetera? Again, on the VTO, also we have those core values I already talked about, the core focus, which is, you know, it's been called a million things in the history of business from vision statement to mission statement. Uh, Stephen Covey calls it voice, but we call it your your core focus because it comes from your core. It's the sweet spot, it's what you love to do and what you're best at. And so we lock that in, then we lock in the marketing strategy on top of all those. So many times when we do that exercise, it's the first time these organizations have actually mapped out a vision. And it's not this 80-page document that we filled out, right? It's only two pages, front and back, eight answering eight questions to align the team. And what happens is when you align that team, then the magic starts really manifesting. Because what I like to say, Chris, is if you and I are on the same team and we're in a boat and we're rowing from point A to point B, if you and I are just rowing a little bit off in either direction, we can be working really damn hard and not going really anywhere. Again, that's when we when we paint those that vision and all get on the same page, we're all rolling in the same direction, working towards that common goal, and that's when we start to achieve some incredible things as a team. So VTO is number one. Uh the second one would absolutely be the accountability chart. Um, you know, what happens on in in many organizations that I work with is that you have an owner who founded the company five, 10, 20 years ago. They came from another larger company, they started this one, and they hire a couple people couple people, they find success, then they hire 10 people, and then next thing they know, they've got 50 employees and they've never been a CEO before. And so when I come in and help give them the tools to structure the organization, to lead the organization, the the companies just tend to grow at an exponential rate because we're able to remove all of those seats, or sorry, we were able to delegate and elevate what that owner was holding on to to a competent leadership team. So again, many in my teams, you have an owner who's in the visionary seat, also in the integrator seat, also in the sales seat. Maybe he's also he or she's also running operations. So when we can clearly map out the structure of the organization, and then we can show that owner, hey, you're holding on to this, or hey, we can let go of this, and and Sally from HR can step up and and run the operations, for example. Um it just becomes really powerful, and then that owner is building extensions of himself so that they can do more faster and better. And so the accountability chart absolutely is one of my favorite tools, just creates ultimate accountability so there's no gray area as to who is responsible for what and working to accomplish that common vision.
SPEAKER_01Great. How many of your clients have completely gutted their 10-year plan after 12 months?
SPEAKER_02Um, I mean, I wouldn't say gutted. You guys were the first one to really completely change that up. Um But there's certainly been some smaller adjustments. Some you know went from having a a revenue number to um you know changing it to uh a certain amount of jobs they wanted to execute well, or having another nonprofit that's less about the amount of money they're bringing in and more about the amount of of of uh clients and people that they're impacting, right? So uh again, that's what's great about EOS is it's customized to your organization uniquely. And I'm not here to tell you guys what you need to set as your 10-year target or your three-year picture. I'm just there to facilitate the wisdom in the room so that you guys can agree on that common answer and then go and execute.
SPEAKER_01Very nice. Let's move on um to challenges. When when you're in a growth mode, a growth phase personally, professionally, uh the best growth comes when you acknowledge and embrace the challenges that you've gone through. Explain either professionally or personally, it doesn't matter what challenges in this past year that you've faced that have made you stronger and and allowed you to grow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Um well I would say just in regards to building my EOS practice, right? I I took a leap of faith in leaving, you know, a very comfortable job where I was finding a lot of success to go and pursue something that was on my heart, which was again implementing EOS for teams and helping them accomplish great things. And so That was the biggest challenge for me is that you know, I I have the accolades, I I have the knowledge, and I was putting myself out there time and time again, but yet the people I thought would have communication or have conversations with me about EOS, the owners I thought would sign up to embark on the journey with me right away, they didn't. Yeah. Right. And so uh, you know, I'm like, wow, am I a failure? What am I doing wrong? Um, I started second guessing my my value. And, you know, by the grace of God, I'm I'm lucky to have had a father who um taught me that you know faith is number one above all things, and when God puts something on your heart, he puts it there for a reason, and you have to remain persistent even when the fruits aren't being shown to you. And so again, just continuing to put myself out there, continuing to make the phone calls, continue to have the difficult conversations, that was the hardest thing I had to overcome because I was second guessing myself. Um I, you know, was struggling financially and and second guessing if this was the right decision for me, but I kept the faith, I remained persistent, and on the other side of that persistence is is the the thing I was dreaming about when I started the EOS journey. It's it's this life where I get to do work that I'm incredibly passionate passionate about. I get to work with teams that are becoming like friends and family to me. I I'm getting compensated appropriately for the work. And I have time to pursue other passions in my life that are really important to me. So um that was the biggest challenge I had to overcome, and um it has absolutely made me stronger. It's absolutely made me more humble. Um, but I'm hungry and ever hungrier than everybody to keep growing this thing. So I'm really happy where I'm at.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I like I like to see you succeeding. It's it's gotta be um pretty trying and and probably a pretty tough decision to go from you know having a very prominent, you know, eight to five job or whatever, comfortable job to to just jumping off the ledge and and hoping that parachute opens, you know. There's there's other there's another company that that we work with that he started the same way. You know, he had a very comfortable nine to five, six-figure income and all the things, and started his own deal, and everybody thought he was crazy, but it really really turned out great. It's it's fun to hear those stories.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes, and that would be my advice for anyone listening to this podcast is if something is on your heart, whether it be to start a new venture, profit or not from non-for-profit, to move to another city, to engage in a to start a relationship, like those nudges and those pulls aren't coming from nowhere. They are coming from from sorry to get spiritual on this podcast, but they're literally coming from God. And because God knows what what we desire for our lives. And so when you get that nudge and you get that pull, it's on us to have the courage to take that leap and to have that faith in a time when the results aren't guaranteed, in a time when it is very uncertain. But if you can stay in the tension, if you can keep the faith, everything that you desire is on the other side of that of that leap of faith. And so that's my that's my uh piece of advice for anyone listening to this podcast today.
SPEAKER_01No, that's good stuff, man. I I appreciate your vulnerabil vulnerability. Um moving on. So you work with you said you're with 12 organizations now, that's 48 or whatever the math is, quarterlies per year. So you gotta space them out in time management and getting schedules to align and everything. So what are some of the surprising lessons that you've learned from work going from two to twelve organizations or one to twelve organizations? What has surprised you? What are some surprising lessons that you've learned over the past year?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's a great question. Um well, first off, it would be, you know, working with you, and I also work with the USD Foundation, my other nonprofit, or sorry, the USD uh Foundation and Alumni Association. Um that would be one of the first places is the the value that EOS can provide nonprofits and the growth that they can experience, the clarity that they can experience through implementing EOS has been awesome to see and experience. And so I look forward in the future to working with more nonprofits. And it's awesome because like you guys, like USD, they're missions that I truly care about. And so being able to provide value and and help the teams get aligned and execute uh in a more disciplined fashion, like that's what sets my heart on fire. And so that's been one of the coolest things that I've seen just over the last year is working with you guys and and and the other nonprofit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I appreciate that. How do you measure success with your clients uh uh this past year? What how do you know that okay, uh this this company I was successful with and this is what we did to make and make them successful? What are what are some of those successes from the past 12 months?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So I mean there's several things that you can look at. Obviously, you can look at revenue or profitability, you can look at retention of employees or or the bringing on of new employees. If we're establishing a culture where people want to stay and want to help you contribute, want to help contribute to helping that team achieve their vision, like that's really powerful. Um secondly, health. It's really easy for leadership teams to become dysfunctional when people don't say the hard things, when um you know they're bickering and then resentment builds, and then dysfunction comes down the line, and then big fires arise. Um so one, let's just say healthy. So the teams that I've worked with have just become more healthy, they're having open and honest conversations, and that's my job in the session room is to pull that those hard conversations out of the team members so that we make sure that they have them. Because if they're holding on to something at the end of the day, then I'm not doing my job and they're not helping to progress the organization forward. So um other things would be, you know, as we set the one-year plan, did my teams hit their annual goals, those three to seven goals?
SPEAKER_01Very simplistically, right? Yeah. If you're hitting your one-year goals, then sounds like success to me.
SPEAKER_02100%. 100%. Are they hitting their rocks each quarter? The most important things that that they deem most important that help lead to them accomplishing their one year goals. So it's it's really easy to see um to be able to track progress and in the teams uh finding success in EOS. And unfortunately for me, all my teams have have are crushing it and finding a large amount of success with it.
SPEAKER_01That's good. That's that's one of the kind of things that's that's really interesting to me about EOS is the simplicity of it, but yet the complexity of all of it. Like you have these simple tools, like you said, two-pager VOS. VTO? VTO, yeah, sorry, VTO. But yet, you know, it it took us hours upon hours to build our our VTO. And so just you know, the the simplicity of of the program, but also all the complexities that go into it is is just very intriguing to me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. You know, I always tell people that I'm not teaching rocket science. No, I'm not teaching rocket science. All I'm doing is is teaching teams to implement a set of tools that have been around for the last hundred years, going to be around for the next thousand. And if these teams can implement these tools and and live them and execute on them, then they are truly going to achieve everything that they want from their organization. And so there's power in simplicity, right? Less is more. Everyone's heard the acronym Keep It Simple, Stupid, KISS. Yes, right? In in business, things get complex really easily. Um sometimes owners and leaders make things more difficult than they need to be. And so we just want to strip all that complexity away, make things as simple as possible so people know what they're responsible for, how you know how they measure success for their particular role, where we're going as an organization. And once we get all aligned on those things, well, the magic tends to happen for itself.
SPEAKER_01Amen. That's great. Is there any do you have any examples and maybe you don't, of this past year of uh one of your clients uh using EOS to implement uh a huge decision that they had to make?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Uh many, many decisions, but the one that sticks out to me would be a client who had a leadership team of four people, and they had a project manager who was who was leading the construction side for them, who had been with them for 10 plus years. Uh, but through the EOS process, through using the people analyzer and the accountability chart, they discovered that this project manager was not only the wrong person, but he also was in the wrong seat. And so through the process, um, they actually had to fire this project manager that had been with them for 10 plus years and was on the leadership team because he was a cancer to the organization. He was empowering his the his people underneath him to really not be great employees, to not contribute to the team. And so the owners still had a lot of hesitancy in letting this guy go, but the leadership team agreed that in order for the organization to progress forward, he had to go. They made that difficult decision, and they are ten times better off now because of it.
SPEAKER_01That's that's both uh, you know, it's it's real because somebody's losing their job, but it it's also like that's growth, right? That's awesome. Um, just a couple more questions before we we head out of here. What are you most proud of this year, 2025-2026?
SPEAKER_02What am I most proud of? I am most proud of first off all the teams I'm working with. Like they are the reason I do this work, and seeing them succeed is my number one goal in my career. And so I am just most proud of my teams and them actually diving deep into EOS and believing in it wholeheartedly, and them producing significant results as a byproduct. Like, that's why I signed up for this. I wanted to make the lives of leaders and organizations easier so that they weren't always taking their work home with them, so they weren't working 80 hours a week because we know that there's so much more to life than work. And so, yeah, working with 12 teams and seeing them improve the business and actually as a byproduct improving their personal lives, like there's absolutely nothing better than that on a personal level. It would be in accordance with what I just said. It's just I'm living out my dream, man. Um I wake up excited to go to work. I I love everyone that I'm working with, I love helping, um, and I love impact. Like you guys are about impact, I'm about impact. How can I influence and improve the lives of the people around me? And that's what I do every day.
SPEAKER_01Every day.
SPEAKER_02And it's like I'm just so blessed, man. So I'd say those are the things I'm most proud of.
SPEAKER_01That's so cool. Um, what what are you looking forward to this next year? Have you set some goals for yourself? I I can't imagine you could bring on too many more clients all at the same time, but I'm sure you've got a few that are getting ready to graduate.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, you know, it's funny. Um, we, you know, the EOS journey, we teach our clients that after two years, you should have all the tools that you can graduate from the process. However, many teams like to keep me on as an implementer because they don't want to facilitate their quarterly manuals. Right. And they need that extra little piece of accountability. So um I've got a couple teams that could have graduated actually this first quarter and they said, no, Will, we're gonna keep you on for five more years.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh I think there's a just sorry to interrupt, but I think there is a lot of value there in having a third-party outside entity like yourself come in and r kind of run the show, implement everything, and be able to tell them, you know, hey, let's get back on track here or take a look and let's talk about this a little bit more.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I'm a coach, I'm not a consultant. We have to get really clear on that. So I'm not coming into the room and saying, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this, because what does that do? That makes clients reliant upon me for information. That's not what we want. We want to give our clients the tools and then get the heck out of their way because you know a hell of a lot more about economic development than I ever will, right? Uh yes, I'm a coach. I'm there to help you teach you these tools and get the heck out of your way. And sometimes, like a great sports team or a great athlete, you can't see yourself playing the game. And so that's my job is to help look down on the organization, help give you feedback, and help push you so that you can achieve things that maybe you didn't even think were possible, and just keep I have no skin in the game in regards to the things that go on in the room, but I'm there as a a I'm there as a third party to help facilitate the wisdom, to help pull out the things that people are holding on to on to so that there's no resentment building, right? So being that third party is really valuable, particularly in those quarterly sessions, so you guys can game plan. And then also the owner doesn't have to worry about managing that, managing that session, leading the team, facilitating the conversation. So yeah, um clients tend to stick with me once they once they start the process, which is pretty cool. And to get back to your initial questioning and onboarding potentially 12 more clients, um, you know, the max capacity for an EOS implementer is I mean, there are some implementers with 30 clients out there, but they're working every single day of the year. Um I my sweet spot would be about 20. And so I've got capacity for about eight more clients. And um yeah, I my one year plan is to get to 20. So that's that's where I plan on going over the course of the next 10 months.
SPEAKER_01Good deal. That's awesome. And that was a good your sports analogy is a good segue. Uh nor normally at the end of the podcast, we we talk about what our hidden gyms are across the Sioux Falls metropolitan area. Uh, but we went through that last year. And so sticking with your sports theme there, are you filling out any March Madness brackets this year?
SPEAKER_02You know, Chris, I haven't filled one out for about 10 years.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02People are pretty surprised when they speak with me because most of my friends and most of my clients know more about pro sports and college sports than I do right now.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh for whatever reason, once I got done playing uh at the University of South Dakota and then playing professionally overseas, um, I just don't watch as much sports anymore. So was it I mean I I I love I still love sports, and particularly when we have gatherings with friends and family, I I I love watching it. But consistently, I would feel like uh your wife would crush me in the March Mad Madness tournament break. Probably, yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I I don't know about that, but yeah. No, that's great. All right, well, let's let's go ahead and and maybe you you remember your hidden gym from last year, but we can go ahead and do the hidden gym. Uh we like to stay at out of Sioux Falls in one of the Sioux Metro communities. Um so what pick uh people have given parks, restaurants. Uh we had somebody give a view as a hidden gym, but what's one of your other hidden gyms in the Sioux Metro footprint?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Well, I believe last year I said the state parks. Um what's the one in Garretson called? Palisades. Palisades is my favorite state park in the area. I love it. My girlfriend and I go out there about once a month, so I love that. Um so what else?
SPEAKER_01Shout out to Garretsen.
SPEAKER_02Shout out to Garretsen. I know that you work with them directly, so um, that's pretty cool. Um, other hidden gems. What would be your hidden gem? You give me one of yours.
SPEAKER_01My one of my hidden gyms. Let's see. Stay in north of I-90. There are a lot of hidden gems in Dell Rapids. The the quartzite rock quarries they have out there. Our bus tour in 2020, it was either 24, I think it was 2024. We went um and toured the the rock quarries. The bus actually was able to drive down inside one of the quarries, and so you're looking up and there's hundreds of feet of rock rock just sitting above your head. That was that was really cool. And um, yeah, I just I think there's a lot going on in in Dell Rapids right now. So yeah, it's it's a a great community. They've got an awesome main street. They've they've instituted a Main Street revitalization program over the last couple years, and uh it's been a huge success. If you have any time to go to Dell Rapids, I would go make a drive down their main street and pop in some of the shops. They have a really good coffee shop out there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I need to get out there because I have uh quite a few friends that live in Dells, and I I haven't had the chance to go out there recently, so I'll add that to the top of my list.
SPEAKER_01Add it to your list, yeah. Great community. Awesome.
SPEAKER_02The other one, the other hidden gem I experienced last year at one of your events in Alcester. What's the donut shop in Elcester called?
SPEAKER_01Oh, s you think in Centerville? Is it Centerville? Okay. Zebra, Zebra Donut. Zebra donuts, yeah. That is it.
SPEAKER_02Yes, there's my hidden gem because those donuts are fire.
SPEAKER_01They are fire. They are they are a seasonal company, so they're only open a certain amount of the months of the year, but man, when yes, they that is that is a lot of people's hidden gem in the Siumetro. That place is so good. Yeah, they do a great job. They do.
SPEAKER_02So not not great for my my abs, but um great for the taste buds.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Well, Will, I really appreciate your time this afternoon, and uh, we've got our annual meeting coming up later today, so we'll see you here in a few hours at the annual meeting. Appreciate your time. Thanks.