Unlocking Team Potential: The GiANT Journey at Rocket Clicks

Join Anthony Karls and Matt Hacker as they discuss the 'Giant' leadership training program at Rocket Clicks. Learn how this initiative helps improve team communication, culture, and ultimately drive revenue for local entrepreneurs. Matt shares his journey in marketing and leadership, emphasizing the importance of a unified language within teams.

00:00 Introduction to Revenue Roadmap
00:12 Meet Matt Hawker: SEO Expert and Leadership Coach
00:32 Leadership Culture at RocketClicks
00:44 Understanding the Giant Program
01:02 Matt's Journey in Marketing and Leadership
03:38 The Importance of a Common Language in Teams
05:22 The Five Voices Assessment
08:54 Implementing Giant at RocketClicks
10:55 The Impact of Giant on Team Dynamics
13:12 Why Leadership Training Matters for Small Businesses
17:37 Signs of Effective Communication and Culture
20:02 Leadership's Role in Giant's Success
22:02 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Transcript

Anthony Karls: 0:03

All right, here we go. Welcome. Welcome. So this is revenue roadmap where we talk about sales and marketing for local entrepreneurs. I'm Anthony Carl's president of rocket clicks today. I am with Matt Hawker and he's got the coolest last name in the world. And he does, he does SEO here. He's also someone that helps us leadership because his name is actually spelled hacker. And like, if you want SEO. Well, if you need a hacker on your team. So, but this is Matt, Matt Hawker. Um, so thank you for being here with us today. Um, all right. So today we are going to be talking about something we do here at RocketClicks. And it's all about leadership culture. How do we get the team to work better together? How do we communicate better? So it's a program that, uh, the program where we talk about is called Giant. Um, so Matt's gonna be talking to us a little bit about that. Um, we're gonna talk about why it's important to drive revenue, just like we do in every episode. Um, and we're going to. help identify whether or not this is being done in your organization. So, or if it's not, what issues you can look for. So before we do that, Matt, so tell us a little bit of your history as it pertains to you got in getting into marketing and kind of your, your journey as a leadership coach.

Matt Hacker: 1:15

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Um, into marketing. Okay. So first to go back to my last name, it is Hawker. I know there's a lot of people that were super, super disappointed when I got hired, when they found out that my last name, in fact, was not hacker. Uh, I believe one of them even said that I should resign just immediately because it, I, it said, I lied and I didn't, it, it, it is a crazy weird last name, but It's a good conversation starter. Uh, from a marketing standpoint, um, I've been, I've been in various forms of marketing for a lot of years. Um, I started off kind of like on the data and analytics side, and then I got into, um, some, some account management and then I got into SEO and I kind of realized like there was, it all kind of blends together and it all blends together within marketing and I realized I'm a talker as you can probably tell. I love talking to people. Um, and I, I love helping businesses and companies reach their goals, which kind of dabs into marketing and dabs into leadership a little bit. Um, I'm very good about taking, taking a goal, working through that goal. This is what you need to do from a marketing standpoint to get that done. So I love doing that. So I got into marketing a little bit more, um, which then kind of led into leadership. So, uh, on the leadership side of things. Not only have I a leader here at Rocket Clicks since I, since I've been here, I also, um, have my, my wife and I are also health coaches and we have helped and managed over 650 people, um, uh, changed their life, changed their health, and we've led them, led them through that. So I've done a lot of training or centered around that. Um, a lot of, a lot of leadership is helping people understand what's within themselves when they don't even know what's within themselves. Um, sometimes helping them to, to get confidence, gain the confidence that they can do the thing that they don't think they can do. Uh, so that's kind of where that came from on the health side. Transition that same thing kind of goes into business. A lot of people don't know what they can do until they try it. Sometimes they need a little boost and, uh, that's what I love to do, help people out,

Anthony Karls: 3:22

It's awesome. That, uh, that speaks really well to, uh, something Joe Rogan always says, the hardest thing you do is the hardest thing you do. So that's.

Matt Hacker: 3:31

right?

Anthony Karls: 3:31

Same thing to think about. Um, all right. So let's dig in a little bit here on our topic. So what super high level, like what is giant? What do we do here at RocketFlix? What's giant? Why does it, why does it, why does it work for us? What's been your, what's been your experience?

Matt Hacker: 3:48

Yeah,

Anthony Karls: 3:49

Yeah.

Matt Hacker: 3:50

of giant is like a, a, leadership training program and basically what it is, which sounds very official, but it's, it's actually pretty, it's super simple. Um, giant really helps, helps businesses and individuals within that business. Come to a common, uh, create a common language within the organization itself when it comes to things like communications, when it comes to things like team relationships, when it comes to things like team alignment, the best thing that you can have within your organization is everybody speaking the same language, right? If, if Billy over in marketing speaks one way, And Tommy over in IT speaks another way, and Susie Q over in sales speaks another way, and they all speak different, different lingo, different language on, on, they have different, uh, expectations on the way that, uh, they can and they can't talk to people. They have, they have different, uh, expectations on, um, what everybody should and shouldn't do as part of, as part of a team. You're not going to have a very strong team. So what Giant does is it takes all of those things kind of focused on relationships, communication, team alignment, creating a common knowledge, and it is applied throughout the entire organization. So everybody's on the same page and that's exactly what we have, what we have done and what we're still doing here at RocketFlix.

Anthony Karls: 5:10

So you, you talked a little bit about the common language. So like, let's talk about how, how that manifests. So, um, talk a little bit about how that manifests in giant voices. Like, what does that, what does it look like? Cause that's a core component.

Matt Hacker: 5:24

Yeah, so within giant, there's one of the, one of the first things that you do is you kind of, you take an assessment and it's called the five voices assessment. And basically, um, it, there's other, there's other types of trainings out there too, where colors and all of these different things. And at the end of the day, Everybody is, everybody is made up of all five giant voices. We are, uh, we just have natural tendencies that lean towards one or two or three, more of more specific, uh, voices of the five in total. And what giant does is, is through that voice assessment, it says, okay, people who are, Typically this voice, um, this is what their natural tendencies are. This is where their natural strengths are when it comes to communication and in relationships and team alignment. This is what their, their weaknesses are generally. And these are some things that, that typically people who have this type of voice can improve on when it comes to creating a more, uh, cohesive team, working on a more cohesive team. So it's really, it's really good about helping people understand why they are the way they are. And how they can help, how they can help themselves and help their team communicate with other people who might not be the same. And that's okay.

Anthony Karls: 6:39

Nice. So, so basically it creates a. It gives everybody an understanding of like how people may or may not come to a conversation. So basically you take the voice assessment, you learn about your voice. You also learn about other people's voices, what their natural tendencies are, what their likes, what their dislikes are. Like for me, it's speaking from like a creative pioneer perspective. When I'm speaking with a nurturer, typically that's my, that, that would be my, my frenemy or my My enemy voice, um,

Matt Hacker: 7:08

Mm

Anthony Karls: 7:09

where we both see the world very differently because they want, they want relational harmony. I'm looking for progress and moving forward. I'm not thinking a lot about relational harmony. So often there's friction there. So knowing that it's really powerful. So then when I enter a conversation with someone who's first voice nurture, I know. Okay, if, if I'm not communicating about how this impacts the people, I'm probably not going to be heard. And they're going to think that I'm a jerk.

Matt Hacker: 7:35

hmm. Absolutely. And one of the big things too, I mean, there's, uh, there's a mindset element to giant that I absolutely love too, and, you know, There are some people and this is kind of where some of my, my previous coaching comes into play too. There are some people where it's super easy for them to, to dream. And in order to, in order for people to dream, they have to be like future thinking. That's, that's easier for some people than what it is for other people. So we have, you have future thinking individuals and you have present thinking individuals. So, you know, each, each, each voice type. Is tied to in, in through giant, you will learn that each voice type is either a present thinking voice or a future thinking voice. And how powerful is it to go into a conversation knowing that, that, that Joe is a future thinking voice and maybe you're a present thinking voice, right? So you have to help Joe understand the things that he needs to know to like. Okay, joe, this is present, right? Um, or, or vice versa. So that's, that's one of the things that I love about it too. It's that it helps you, it helps you be able to communicate with other people who are similar to you, but it also helps you communicate with other people who might be completely opposite of you. But in order to have a cohesive team at an organization, you need to be able to communicate with each other.

Anthony Karls: 8:52

Nice. So how does this manifest? So we take the assessment, then what do we, what else, what else comes with a giant platform? Like, how do we roll through this? Cause this is a.

Matt Hacker: 9:01

Yeah.

Anthony Karls: 9:01

Pretty intensive, long process. It doesn't like can't turn it on and just have fixed. There is no easy button. We'll talk a little bit about like what the, what the looks, what it looks like after the assessment.

Matt Hacker: 9:13

Yeah. So, uh, we have, we have weekly meetings that we go through, uh, here at rocket clicks where they are, they're video led meetings, but they're also very, very, um, uh, uh, in person, I should say, um, meaning that it, it takes people to communicate within the meetings. You're not just sitting there and watching a video. Um, there's, there's, you're going to have people, you're going to have input from people, your expectations that people are going to speak up. So for some people, that's going to be difficult because they don't like to speak and communicate within meetings. Um, But it's, there's, I would say that our trainings go about four to five months per session. And then after that time, there's a whole slew of different resources that giant has available to you to continue. If there's something specific that you want to get better at for yourself, uh, there's a whole bunch of different videos, uh, that you have access to within the giant platform, which is super nice. So our employees can go through, through our session that, that we lead. then if there's, if there's more, um, that they want to, uh, kind of wrote, if there's a more giant road, they want to go down, there's, there's more videos for them to watch. Um, so it takes it at the core fundamental and then, you know, there's an advanced section of, of giant too. That's a little bit more advanced for maybe your leadership team and other leaders within your organization, um, that, that they can continue to take. But everybody. should start at the five voices assessment, um, which is kind of the baseline for what, what giant's all about.

Anthony Karls: 10:40

Yeah. So I know here at Rocket Clicks, we, all our team members go through the five voices assessment, then they all go through a workshop, which takes, I think most of them take about four to five months, all transforming team communication, it's weekly meeting. And so can you talk a little bit about how the teams change over the course of that four to five months?

Matt Hacker: 11:02

Oh, absolutely. That's the coolest part, man. Like when I, when, when, when we first start a session, everybody's typically a little. hesitant, I would say, because this new thing like learning how to communicate, learning how to work better as a team, they don't really know the expectations. And it sometimes it's just hard for people just to like go with the flow. But as, as, as, as we meet every week, the growth that you see within people is just It's amazing. Um, before you know it, like people will start to speak up more in our, in our giant meetings. Well, then that translates into people speaking up more in other business meetings that you have. Um, you know, you, you might start to hear a little bit less, less gossip. Around the workplace, because instead of people, you know, Hey, did you hear, did you hear about what, what bill said to me the other day, like they'll just, if they have a problem with bill, like through giant, they'll just, they'll just go talk to bill and say, Hey, you know what, I didn't. I just wanted to talk to you about this. This is something that I recognize. And what that translates into me is that it gives your team an abundance of confidence to lead themselves in conversations that to giant. They would have just kind of pushed to the side or ask somebody else to help them with, or, or worse, just like forgotten about it. Right. And just that, that's when like problems begin to fester. Um, so really I've seen a lot of, a lot of confidence come out in our team, uh, with their ability to, to communicate with, within meetings, communicate with themselves, to work through problems and issues, um, and to really just kind of raise their hand for themselves when, when they need to and otherwise they, they probably wouldn't have.

Anthony Karls: 12:46

Yeah. Um, so after that, you mentioned there's another program, so that's called 100X Leader, uh, that we also take our team through, uh, our leadership team, and then our NextUp team, um, we've been taking them through that, uh, which has also been super beneficial. So,

Matt Hacker: 13:02

Absolutely.

Anthony Karls: 13:03

talk a little bit about, so why is this, because on this podcast, we talk about why this, why there are topics are important to driving revenue. So like the small business owner, maybe a finite amount of time, how adding one more thing to my plate and my team's plate overall, why should I consider doing this? Cause this seems like I might just be wasting time. So talk to me about that.

Matt Hacker: 13:29

that's a great question. Um, why shouldn't you care about your people? Right? That, that's the question that I ask. So, um, when you're a small business, One of the most important things to your business is your team because it's a small team, right? Your small business probably have a smaller team You need that team to be as cohesive as possible You need that team to operate as one unit to the best of their ability, right? When you have 500 people and somebody isn't pulling their weight or there or somebody is is detracting from the team It's probably a little less noticeable, right? But if you have 20 people, 50 people. Like if one person detracts from the overall team. You're going to notice it. And so leading your team through this to help them understand and to get on the same page from a communication standpoint is, is vital, right? Think about if, if somebody in sales had their own way to solve problems and marketing had their own way and I. T. Had their own way. Um, and you know, let's say you have 10 people, right? So 30 percent of your company is operating a different way from, from everybody else. That's, that's an issue, right? Like that's going to, you're not going to operate as a business as efficiently and effectively as you could. If everybody was on the same page. So getting people even, especially in a small team, it's vitally important that everybody is on the same page when it comes to communication and, and operating as a unit with, with shared, with, with a shared language.

Anthony Karls: 15:06

Yeah. So like, I know what we've seen specifically is the, um, The amount of like negative or wasted. Energy in communication has gone down, which in turn turns into productive, productive time energy as output. So that one 45 minute meeting a week has really changed our overall dynamics in the culture. Cause we're starting from a place of relationship, trust, then we get to alignment. We can actually see real capacity. We can actually execute and that that's that flywheel. And that's one of the things we'll talk about in future session. Um, the communication code is moving. In a way healthier way. Cause you're starting at the right point. Cause you're, you're actually inviting conversation and communication and you're solving the right issues, not the,

Matt Hacker: 15:56

Yeah.

Anthony Karls: 15:57

the ones that, well, well, you, you're a jerk and you just want me to do X, Y, and Z because that's just how you are. Well, you don't really care about how this makes me feel and all this other stuff. We just get into these circular conversations that are not super productive.

Matt Hacker: 16:14

Yeah. And it has a huge impact on culture, right? Like it's. Especially if you're a small business. If you have one person that's, that's what I would call like toxic or maybe isn't toxic might be a strong word, but who isn't on the same page as everybody else, it's going to have a detrimental effect on your, your culture overall. Right? So making sure that everybody operates, uh, from a communication standpoint with, with a shared, with a shared knowledge and, and, you know, Shared vision, especially if you're a small team, that's only going to bolster your culture. Um, and the stronger culture that you have when you're a small business, the more money you're going to make, because people are going to enjoy coming to work. People, people are going to enjoy the people that they work with, right? They're going to, they're going to then reflect on the people that the clientele that you have as a business, right? You're not only helping your team communicate better with themselves. going through giant, you're also helping your team communicate better with your clients, right? And you know, the stronger your relationships are with your clients, the more referrals you're going to get, which is going to have a direct influence on your revenue. So it's a, it's a huge thing, especially if you're a small business to make sure that everybody's on the same page. It's

Anthony Karls: 17:26

So how do I know? So I'm a local entrepreneur. How do I know if like this is an issue for me? Like, what does this look like in practice? I don't know. I have an issue. I don't know if it's going well. What's that look like?

Matt Hacker: 17:38

kind of, I'm going to kind of give the same answers for both of those in terms of how do you know it's going well and how do you know it's not going well. So if you see that you're. It's pretty easy sometimes to see if your, if your team's communication is improving or not, right? Like, how are people showing up in meetings? If people are being more vocal in meetings, if people are being more open and honest with each other, Then you know that giant's probably doing its thing. It's probably working, but if you don't see those things happening, you know that you have a problem. Right? Same thing goes for culture. If you have, if you can see, like, if you can see that when, when people have problems or issues that they need to work through and talk through with other, with other individuals at your organization. If those conversations are actually happening and you're getting the output from those and you're, you're, you can see that, um, if, if, if your team is leading themselves through those conversations, instead of you having to lead them through those conversations, then, you know, the giant is working. If that's not happening, then, you know, you, you, you still have a problem. So, um. Those are two of the biggest things for me. Um, also just listening, right? Like you can learn a lot just by listening to what people are saying. And if people, if, if, if everybody's starting to use the same, the same language, when it's, when they're referring to different elements or different parts of your business, as it pertains to, to meetings and communication, and you start to hear different, different verbiage from giant being dropped in meetings, then you know that it's having an impact and that, you know, that then you know that, you know, it's doing what it's supposed to do. If you don't, if you don't hear those things, um, you probably still have an issue, right? One of the parts, one of the things of giant there's a lot of like self reflection, uh, that, that I've gathered from giant. And if, you know, if you're having a one on ones with, with individuals and you ask them about those, those reflection moments, and they don't really have like much of an answer for you, then I would question how, how. Attentive. They really are during giant and like, you know, with any leadership things, sometimes it, not everybody takes it seriously. Right. Um, that's when I think there's kind of a, a moment where it's like, okay. Um, they either need to, you know, Get on the boat or get off the boat. And, um, this, this is important enough that you need everybody to be on the boat for it to work effectively.

Anthony Karls: 19:59

Just on the, on the one, one more point on that. Cause um, when we were first trained on it, one of the biggest things that we were trained on is if the highest level leader isn't willing to drink the Kool Aid, it's probably going to waste, be a waste of your time. This isn't something to, to bring in the organization, delegate down. And just forget about, uh, leaders need to be very involved. They need to drink the Kool Aid. They need to function from this perspective. If they're not having the same opportunities to

Matt Hacker: 20:40

Yeah,

Anthony Karls: 20:40

and grow and see themselves, like see the, see the mirror, like where's the broccoli teeth. It won't work. Cause well,

Matt Hacker: 20:50

a really good saying that I have, um, that I use quite a bit and it's inspect what you expect, right? So what you expect for your team, I expect you to do this giant leadership training. I mean, so looking in a mirror, right? Like inspect within yourself. Am I, am I doing what I'm expecting my team to do? And if I'm not, why? So if you're having problems within your team, maybe the first place to start is with yourself and especially, you know, if you're a leader within an organization, um, you're 100, you 100 percent need to be you. Need to be doing this with your team, um, for, for you to, to lead them through this, because a lot of giant is not something that comes naturally for people, right? I'm, I'm a, I'm a, my, my, my, my number one voice in giant is connector, right? Connecting with people, speaking, talking. I can, I can do this all day long, right? But not a lot of people can, so they're going to need help through that. Going back to what I said earlier, like they're going to have to borrow your confidence in them to get through this, uh, for them to, until they can get it within themselves and they will. Throughout the process of giant, like they will get this confidence within themselves, but it starts, it has to start with you as their leader.

Anthony Karls: 22:03

thanks Matt. Appreciate you being willing to hang out with us for a little bit.

Matt Hacker: 22:07

you.

Anthony Karls: 22:08

Thank you.

Matt Hacker: 22:09

Absolutely. Thank you.