Leveraging Leadership

Fitness, Finance, and Leadership: A Blueprint for Effective Chief of Staff Roles

• Jessa Estenzo • Season 1 • Episode 249

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Jared Stein shares his unconventional path from running CrossFit and Orange Theory gyms to becoming a Chief of Staff at a virtual investment firm. He talks about managing operations, streamlining team roles, and implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). Jared also discusses how his firm helps clients with a deep financial “X-ray” to spot hidden overlaps in their investment portfolios.


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Who Am I?

If we haven’t met before - Hi👋 I’m Emily, Chief of Staff turned Executive Leadership Coach. After a thrilling ride up the corporate ladder, I’m focusing on what I love - working with people to realize their professional and personal goals. Through my videos here on this channel, books, podcast guest spots, and newsletter, I share new ideas and practical and tactical tools to help you be more productive and build the career and life you want.


Time Stamps:

00:36 Jared's Unconventional Path to Chief of Staff

02:38 Challenges and Transitions During COVID

04:02 The Chief of Staff Opportunity

07:13 Interview Process and Personal Milestones

08:29 Joining Poterack Capital

15:46 Virtual Operations and Team Dynamics

18:12 Client Onboarding and Financial X-Ray

20:22 Understanding the Client Process

24:41 Implementing Organizational Discipline

26:45 Advice for Aspiring Chiefs of Staff

32:56 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Our guest today is Jared Stein. Jared, how are you?

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

I am very well. How are you?

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

I'm doing great. Thank you. Thank you for being on the show. Really appreciate you stopping by.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

No, the pleasure's not mine. Thanks for having me.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

So you have a unconventional path to chief of staff on paper, which I love because there's no, like, conventional path anyway. But I was trying to think of a quippy title and it's like barbells to boardroom or something to do with fitness to boardroom. But, um, you've been involved in CrossFit and orange theory, so can you just start us out with like your, your backstory up into the point where you. We're presented with the chief of staff role opportunity.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah, happy to. Uh, and barbells. The boardroom's a good one. Um, but, uh, I started my career on Wall Street. Um, I was ambitious growing up in the Northeast, and I really wanted to get on a trading floor and. got there and I started out in Hong Kong and got my way back to New York City on an institutional trading desk. It was a wild five years. Um, when I got off that, uh, you know, that spinning gerbil wheel, um, went over to the National Basketball Association where I did a year in corporate finance. From there, went to business school, didn't know what I wanted to do next, and while I was in business school, um, my. Future business partner and I were doing CrossFit and he was moving neighborhoods in, in New York City, when you move neighborhoods you have to your gym and you know, it's uh, one of those geographical desir abilities. And, uh, he gives me a call one day and wants to meet for a coffee, says there's no CrossFit gym in his new neighborhood. And I wanted to open one up with him if I wanted to open one up with him. Uh, I said no. At first he convinced me otherwise. And, um, within four months we had a gym open and like membership was full. and as I tell people in the fitness world, there are two types of gym owners. There are guys who think they know how to run a gym, and then there's gym guys who think they know how to run a business. And fortunately for the both of us, uh, we were a really good hybrid of both. And, um, the success of our first gym led us to open it up. Six more gyms across New York City and we were on a really fast trajectory, um, right up until COVID happened and, and during COVID, New York City shut down. Um, and the gyms were pretty much the last to open and unfortunately we had a scale operation down. Considerably, uh, down to two gyms. And, um, that's when I made the decision to, um, move out to Texas and work with, uh, orange Theory Group. Um, I was helping them with their Austin Regional office, uh, when I got promoted out to Arizona. So within nine months, they, you know, I had just moved from New York and they bring me down to Texas and then from Texas, they shipped me out to Arizona and I fell in love with Arizona. Um, and was running, uh, the state for, for that group for a few months before my mentor left. And I had a new opportunity to do special projects, um, at Savannah, which is a wellness resort just north of, uh, Scottsdale. And I was there for about three years. Um. that I was doing a lot of everything, uh, from building budgets to running some operational teams, to being the CEO's right hand. And I realized I was starting to get capped out where my growth potential was limited with the firm and I wasn't on learning or growing. That's when my best friend shoots me a LinkedIn message with a job description for chief of staff. He said, I think you're gonna be perfect for it. Um, I know the recruiter lemme put you guys in touch. And from there, uh, I was, you know, brought on to Potter Rock Capital and um,

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Okay.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

here for a couple for a couple weeks and it's been great.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Okay. That was beautiful and, and you did a good job of describing this, but just to emphasize, you weren't like a personal trainer. You were running regions of gyms and all facets of the organization, finance, operations, marketing, all the different pieces. So can you just touch a little bit more on that?'cause I think it leads into what you need to have as a chief of staff, but like how that operation was set up.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah. Uh, great point and, uh, distinction. So when. I was in business school, I was, I was teaching spin classes and rowing classes and CrossFit classes. when you open your own CrossFit gym, you are the guy who's gonna teach the classes.'cause you gotta manage your payroll. Um, but on top of teaching the classes, I was also the janitor. I was also the marketer, I was the bookkeeper. Um, I was the general manager. I was the customer relations person. And on a. In a small business, it's doable for one person to kind of wear all those hats as you're, you know, building your business. Um, as the business started to scale, my business partner came to me and he said, your coaching load is too much. You're spending too many hours teaching the classes. Um, need to step out'cause we need to start growing this business. And so I. Put together a really, uh, comprehensive training program for all of our coaches. As we were bringing on more gyms, we needed more staff. Um, so I got them trained up so that they could replace me, so I needed to get them to a certain level. Um, so I leveraged them up and I got to step out and I was still running operations. So. But at this point, I wasn't cleaning the floors per se. Right? So, yes, I was, uh, doing everything from our accounting and finance and, you know, fp and a projections to handling customer service issues that, that are escalated to all of our billing, to all of our marketing, um, and thinking of creative ways to keep the business thriving and, um, keeping our margins at a. Probably above healthy rate for

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

and that's why we were successful.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

I think it's a prime example of working in the business and then working on the business and lifting out.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

It was the first time, uh, I had heard that and I was, you know, really grateful that my business partner at the time was smart enough to not only recognize it, but um, you know, came to me in a really approachable way and, and kind of. Show me the light. Right. And, you know, he was, I would say my first mentor, he

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Mm-hmm.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

you know, we're of the same age, but he had way more entrepreneurial experience than I did at that point. Um, I just had corporate experience and,

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

you know, he was showing me problems in the business that I was trying to solve when I should have been trying to solve those problems from a different angle. Um, and it was a, it was a really interesting growing moment for me, you know, as an entrepreneur and a person.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

And so you've brought us to the point where you, your friend shot you the job description for chief of staff, and then you had like a really interesting. Recruiting and, um, con just conversations and interviews and all these things throughout a, a very interesting time in your personal life as well. The timing was a little bit, was a little bit odd. Um, so just take us through like how that interview process went. I.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

So the first interview was with the recruiter, and, uh, him and I hit it off like right off the bat. And, you know, on a personal level, I just, I really like him. I think he really likes me. We got along really well and we got to dive into some of my experience. And the way he phrased it was like jack of all trades. And I, you know, and the way I think about it is, businesses have problems that may vary by. but they don't really vary by kind. And so I'm solving a problem for a hotel or a gym, it's the same operational problem, right? We have a process issue, we have a a people issue, we have a capital issue. Um, and all those things can be solved if we think through it. And I kind of walked him through some, you know, different examples of different scenarios and different problem, know, solving techniques that I've deployed kind of across a, a weird career. Um, and he put me in front of the CEO and we had a really great first conversation that snowballed into a second one with that. Talked about kind of his succession, succession plan, how he wanted to grow his business and how he needed to step out, um, as being the kind of owner operator. Um. You know, he kind of quoted the E-Myth, uh, really interesting book. I, you know, I was fortunate to read a few years ago, he was the baker, but he was running the business and what he wanted to do was bake the pies. And he thought this would be like a fun way to, you know, do that. And now he found himself like managing all these different things and not being able to bake the pies. And I said, well, I can do all that. Why don't you go bake the pies, you know, grow the business, do the things you're great at, getting in front of the people and bringing in the capital. And let me handle the operational cadence and the drumbeat for the company. And that conversation led to like, how am I gonna do that? And, uh, I've been using the entrepreneurial operating system for, by the last five years in, in various capacities. And I explained to him how I'd implement it, how I'd roll it out through the team, and how, how it really, how the cadence of it the business in a, in a really positive way.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

And then, uh, there was like some email exchanges and one of which I believe was on your wedding day. So dedication or obsession, I don't know, but like that, that happened on that day.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah. So he, um, it was really funny, you know, he sends me an email, uh, and the subject was, don't open this until Monday. you know, of course, me being the, I. Type of person I am, I, I roll over and the first thing I see is this. And, on, on my wedding day. And in it is the comp package that we had discussed.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Oh.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

So he had asked me in a previous conversation, he is like, what's it gonna take? And I laid it out for him verbatim. I was really specific on, uh, base and on incentives and growth trajectories and, and how we measure those things on a quarterly basis and how we would track them and how it aligns with his vision, uh, and. gave it to me. You know, he said something that was really, uh, I, I, I thought it was really prophetic, was, uh, he's like, when I was a kid, I have, he's like, I have a brother, and my mom would give one of us the knife and the other one the pie, and the one who cuts the slice gets to pick second. And so he's like, I'm not gonna, you know, my, my first offer is my best and only. And, you know, he said this after the fact.'cause you know, I see this and I'm with the best friend who was the one who put me in touch

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Ah.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

And so I, you know, I show him my, my phone and I say, is this an offer letter? I, I don't, I don't know. And he's like, uh, this is what you asked for, isn't it? I'm like, specifically to the word. And uh, whatcha gonna do? And I'm like, well, I don't get married for another six hours, so I'm gonna respond to him and say. Great. Um, and so I responded to him and I told him, you know, uh, yeah, let's talk on Tuesday, but this all looks good on, you know, on principle, uh, verbally committing and yes, and you know, I was doing a lot of verbal verbally committing that day. Um, and I, you know, my. wife was, you know, getting ready and, know, um, you know, with her friends. And I sent her a screenshot and I was like, I think this is an offer letter. And you know, she's like, uh, whatcha gonna do? And I'm like, uh, I think I gotta take it. You know? Um, you know, he made, it's interesting in life. Like I never, you ask for things and seldom do you just get them. And I was a little taken aback and it was a. Uh, you know, a token of respect that I, you know, I, I currently have for my principal. And, um, I think I'll always have, because of the way he went about addressing, you know, issue and, you know, something that we had openly and honestly discussed. he was like, yeah, this is what I need. You can give it to me. And this, this is what you asked for, so, Go deliver on it.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

I love that. Yeah.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

yeah. Yeah. So that, now the responsibility's on me.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah. But I think that shows like if, if you're in that pos, if you're in your principal's position and you wanna show like you're my guy. You are my guy. I want you on this team. Boom. Here we go. Like that's just such a good foot to start on. It's just, it sets the tone.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

It absolutely do, did. And I was like, excited for our conversation. And you know, prior to that con, prior to that email, he had said, okay, like last step, I need you to fly out here. Uh, he was currently living in North Carolina at the time. He is like, we gotta meet, we gotta do this in person. I said, yeah, it makes sense. Um. was like, well look, I'm getting married on Saturday. I can't fly out this weekend, so I guess we gotta push it. he was like, okay, um, no problem. And so he had sent me a week prior to, you know, meeting him in person, uh,'cause we are a virtual firm because he sent me what I wanted. We, like, we didn't have to do it, we didn't have to discuss it. This. And so then we talked on, you know, that following Tuesday when I got back from my wedding. And you know, he's like, you're my guy. If you're gonna verbally accept, let's do this now. Um, I still wanna meet you in person. Let's still go out and, and, and hang out. Make sure that we're all on the right foot, but essentially, you know, the job's yours if you want it, and let's have some fun in Charlotte and watch the Kentucky Derby. And I was like,

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Wow.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

let's, let's do that. And now I met him in person. He was everything he lived up to. And you know, he's a, he's a great man. He is, you know, he's. He's someone I really, truly respect from not just building his business, but fantastic personality. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and tells you what he's thinking, and there's no ambiguity. And as someone who serving him as his chief of staff, uh, that's, that's the world I wanna live in. Right. If I'm, you know, directionally right or wrong, like I, I kind of want to know. I don't want, I don't want to, you know, dance around it.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

I think as chief of staff you have to at a baseline respect your principal. Don't always have to agree. You can be very different personalities. It's cool if you get along personally, but like you have to have a baseline of respect'cause you're giving everything to this person. So it sounds like you had that right away. So, okay. You've, you kind of teed us up here. Uh, tell us about the company and about the principal and kind of how your role is, is set up there.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah. So we're an RIA, so a registered investment firm. Um, we are fee for advice and. A little different than your regular wealth manager who, in this world is considered a, a broker dealer, right? So with a traditional broker dealer, they call you, they, you know, you pick up a phone, they say, Emily, I, I got this really great stock I wanna sell you. Can you buy a hundred shares? And they're getting 2 cents a share. And so there's still a fiduciary responsibility to them, and to you, they're getting paid for that transaction. Conversely, in our firm, we don't get paid on a transaction fee, right? So we get a, a yearly fee based on the assets that we manage for you. And our advice is just strictly in your best interest. Right? So. It's behooves us obviously to give you the best possible advice and get the best possible returns for you because we want you to keep your money with us and we want to be a good steward of, of that trust. And our firm is completely virtual, um, which makes us a little unique in the space. So typically, your financial advisor is your Edward Jones, who's in your town Square on Main Street, and he's, you can walk into the office and have a conversation with us. a national firm. We have, we have clients that span from Alaska down to the Florida Keys, and, um, we have three advisors now. Um, a communications person, uh, obviously a whole compliance team and a, you know, back office that we're, you know, uh, making sure everything's on the up and up. but it's all virtual. So, you know, we spend a lot of time on, you know, slack huddles and zooms coordinating calendars over time zones. So we have employees in Charlotte, Illinois. California, Arizona, Wyoming, and Colorado, and our back office teams in, out of New Jersey. So, uh, as a chief of staff, I'm. Starting my day on East Coast hours. So I, I'm at my laptop every morning at 5:00 AM and if I have to talk to compliance, who's, you know, I want, I want them to be, I want me to be their first call in the morning if something's going on. So I wanna be available for them when they get to their desk at 8:00 AM and our, our client specialist who's in California, if she needs something at 6:00 PM her time or currently my time, um, I'm available for him. The beauty of working in a virtual offices, I, I get that flexibility. I get to spend more time with my wife and more time with my dog, and it's a, it's a great lifestyle and I, I love what I do and I love the firm I work for. And, um, I couldn't ask for a better team right now.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

And you had mentioned your principal wanted to go back to baking the pies, which I think is out selling and talking to people and, um, you know, telling people how the, how the firm can help them. And are you in charge of everything else? Is that kind of your, your scope of responsibilities?

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Pretty much, and, you know, when I came on there was a bunch of initiatives he was in charge of or trying to roll out through the firm. Um, obviously growth being top of mind, um, you know, we've outsourced a lot of that and I, I don't believe he had the time or to serve his clients as the best he could while managing outside vendors. Um, while dealing with, you know, compliance issues and our client specialists and working on our, client communication and doing all the things that, that make the firm really special. Um, and I didn't realize how special the firm was until they put me through the initiation process of how to become a client. what separates PCA from your regular, you know, wealth advisory is. That, that first initial conversation, um, obviously it's a get to know you because it's virtual and you, you, you know, you can't shake someone's hand in, in person. But, once we go through that process and some trust is built, we, we do an x-ray essentially of your financial status. So you may have a 401k with an employer, an IRA that you started when you were. You know, in between jobs or whatever, you have some estate money left over from a grandparent that passed down some. And all these are kind of separate and segregated funds. we at PCA do is we take an x-ray of that and as someone who personally thought I had a really good handle on personal finances, they did an x-ray and showed me things that. I hadn't even contemplated that I was owning, let's say Apple, for instance, in 18 different funds. And he said to me, he's like, if you wanna own Apple, just own Apple and now you don't have to pay every time the ETF or the managed fund turns over. I was like, oh. He's like, it's not a ton of money right now, but it's a ton of money over time. If you want to keep owning, you know this group of investments. And completely shocked me. Took, you know, and I was like, wow, we've just spent an hour. You spent an hour with an employee. I'm not a customer. I'm not a client. Breaking down all the, doing the x-ray and then showing me how to tax, you know, put together a really good tax strategy for the long term. Now I'm 38. I'm not looking to retire for another 30 years. He's like, but now's the time to start, you know, building that base and, you know, thinking about these things. And he's like, you know, with our, our current book, uh, they're, they're older and they, they are looking, they're on the verge of retirement or are retiring, and they want to make sure that their tax plan is, you know, as advantageous to them as possible while giving them the. Lifestyle that they choose. And he is like, this is our process. And that really took me back. And I was like, wow, okay. So with every new client, we're spending at least 90 minutes before we even start a, a project fee, right? Where we can actually plan out what we think is best. And I was like, I. I understand that I need to go run the company while you go take your time digest this information and break it down in a really simple, digestible way our clients who may not have financial literacy that, you know, your typical, you know, advisor would. that's part of his charm. It's, it's part of the firm's charm. Um, all our advisors spend time like that and, um. was eye-opening to me. And I'm like, oh, okay, so I am gonna handle the back office. I'm gonna be the CFO, I'm gonna manage our remote CMO or our outsource CMO. I am gonna work on client language and proofread everything. if there's a compliance issue, I'm the first line of attack. I need to see it first because you actually don't have time to look at any of these things if we're gonna go grow the business. Um, so while I understood that fundamentally. When we, you know, kicked off after that initial assessment that he did for me, I'm like, oh, this is very crystal clear now. Now I understand.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

You experienced it.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

I experienced it firsthand.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

I love that. Yeah. I love one that he took the time with you.'cause that's time out of his day to actually go through your finances.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

The x-ray report. Um, how did you, how did you like detangle all of the stuff that he was doing saying, let me, let me take that on. Now I'm ready to take that piece. Okay. Lemme get the team ready. Lemme get the processes ready. I'm assuming, just tell us a little bit about how that rolled out.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Uh, so my first step was I had every team member kind of write me their job description from their point of view. I wanted to understand what they were doing on a day-to-day basis. I digested that and you know, then had a one-on-one with my principal and I said, this is what Emily's doing on a day-to-day basis, that she thinks this is her job. And he was like, I don't want her doing that. And I said, uh, then I don't want her doing that. Right? And I was like, well, let me, let's see where I can take some of this off her plate and she can focus on what we believe her job description is. I did this through for the whole team. and so that clarified some things for me. Then I took a second step of reaching out to all of our vendors, for better lack of a better word, I said to our, you know, marketing agency said, okay, I'm your new point of contact. Let's, we're gonna start fresh. You're gonna explain this to me like on day one'cause I am day one. And we're gonna go through your deliverables as per the contract. And we're gonna explain our, how we're doing on them, um, when I can expect them, what the timeline is, what, what's blocking, like, what's blocking you from accomplishing it, where I can unblock you. And that was, uh, earth shattering with our, you know, our first vendor, our first marketing agency.'cause they were like, we could execute this. Tomorrow or the next day. But I haven't gotten a response. And I was like, oh, it's buried in the inbox. Lemme take a look. And she just needed proofreading. And I was like, I got it, you know? No problem. And then I started going through our CRM and I was like, oh, we, you know, I get some background information. I was like, oh, we moved CRMs last year and no one.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Oh.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

an audit. We didn't clean this up. And so I get on the phone with our CRM company and that those guys were excellent. And they're like, okay, here's how you export it. Here's how you're gonna sort this data. Um, gonna flag all these missing things and here's the template and we're gonna, you're gonna upload it. And so then I think about that as a project. I'm like, well, who, where's the. The truth source, right? How am I gonna clean this up? And, you know, through the L 10 process, through EOS, you know, I talked to our different teams and I said, okay, where's the source of truth? We, we get to the, the bottom of that. Um, and then I delegated, you know, essentially client blocks. And I said, okay, you're responsible for cleaning this up and this is the source of truth and we're gonna always refer to this as the source of truth. And then we get those uploads. Um, and then same thing with our back office. Um. Things were a little, the waves were a little rough, and not that they're not great, they are, it was just they were getting blocked by little miscommunication. They didn't know who to go to for certain things, and I said, okay, no problem. You, you'll send it to me. I'll figure out where it goes. We'll solve this problem together and let's not get caught up in, I didn't get a response. You know, for me that's not a great answer. I was like, if you're not getting a response, I will get the response. So why don't you give it to me if I don't know the answer. I'll get you the answer today and we will, you know, untie this knot and we'll be okay.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

That's awesome. Yeah, I, I mean, I love a lot of what you said, but the very first thing is I had people write their job description in their own words. Like, tell me what you think you do, and then you. Compared notes with, uh, with your boss. That's, that's a cool tactic, I think. Um, and I love that you're just like, give it to me, like, I'm gonna enable this. I'm gonna make this happen. I'm gonna remove this block from you. Uh, was that well received? Was that pretty smooth? Like, oh my gosh. Like, thank you, Jared. Like, we've been waiting for this, like we get stuck on this every time. Or was it like, we've, we've been doing it this way. Who, who are you, you're trying to change things. What was kind of the, the reaction like.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

So I would say 99% really smooth and welcomed. Um, I think my principal did a really good job of setting it up,

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Ah.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

when I came in, what the expectations were for the team and how the workflow was gonna go. Um, and you know, I had said, we're gonna roll out a os and there were, there were mixed feelings, you know, we had a, our client specialist was, had it rolled out in a prior company. It didn't go well, but she was kind of a believer in the system. I have my principal who was really excited about it, but didn't. Know how I was gonna execute. Um, we had some advisors that looked at me like, what is this man? Like, I need to be on the phone talking to clients. And I'm

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

I, I was like, put me, you're trusting me once, I promise I'll never have to ask for you again. And you know, then some other teammates were like, oh, I've been looking for some structure for so long. I've been with this team for 17 years. just need some organization.'cause I'm the, the company junk drawer. And I was like. Okay, well let's, let's just untangle all that just piece by piece and we'll, we'll learn. I can't pro, I can't solve your problems overnight. Um, but I can solve them over the course of the year and we'll, we'll get there.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

That's awesome. That's awesome. What, um, if you're talking to chief of staff, aspiring or current, what advice would you give them? Like lessons learned or just this worked really well for me. What advice would you give them? I.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

I think it starts with organization. Uh, if you're not organized and you're not disciplined. This isn't gonna be for you. and mostly because you, you're serving a principal who is bringing you on because they need the organizational discipline it's too much for them to be organized and disciplined and go execute at the same time. And you can have one it, some people can do both, and it's great. And you know, it depends on the person, but for me it's, know, say what you're gonna do. Do what you're gonna say, and that's your legacy. And if you put that all together, it's, it, it's not difficult if you're organized. Um, and I would, that would be my first, first piece of advice.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Say what you're gonna do, do what you say, and that's your legacy. That's a golden quote. I feel like also Jared, like you just exude that. You're just like, Hey, I'm here. Let's get this done. Let's be positive. Let's work through the problem. Let's not sugarcoat things, but like, let's get to it and let's make it happen. We'll figure it out. I.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

of the, yeah, one of the core tenets of EOS is, you know, if you're open and honest and you, you want, you're gonna. Five for the greater good. gonna have healthy debate and healthy debate's fine. And that's, that's what drives the business forward. But it, you, you have to be open and honest about it. You can't, you know, be quiet and, you know, go kick rocks afterwards. You have to be mission aligned. Um, and so when you know your level setting with, uh, a teammate or your principal, and this was what was really successful in my career, you know, in the, in the fitness industry, was me and my business partner were always aligned. We always wanted the gyms to succeed. We wanted people to get healthier. We wanted people to get fitter. We wanted to, you know, the old CrossFit tagline was, we cured type two diabetes. And, you know, our marketing strategy was to to market to people who needed that kind of help. And we were really passionate about that and we, we really wanted that. So whenever we had a tactical disagreement on how we were gonna approach that, we, we were honest with each other, but we both knew. You know, in our hearts that we were pushing for the, the same goal, like we wanted the same outcome, we were tactically maybe a little different. and makes it a little easier to swallow when you're not getting your way. So, like, I would, he, you know, if he overruled me, I'm like, you're, let's do it. You know, I, I, if you're sold that this is the way we're gonna, you know, move forward. That's the action plan. And I was a thousand percent behind it. Um, so I think when you put that formula together. I think you're, you're gonna succeed as a company.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

I also like the, what you told one of your colleagues where it's like. I'm gonna ask you to trust me once, then I won't have to ask again because I'm gonna prove it to you. I think if you have that foundation of, oh, all right, he's for us, he's for the company, he wants us to be successful. You like, you have automatic buy-in from that. And even if it's like, uh, I'm not quite, I don't quite agree with that tactic or path, but I know he's doing it for the right reason. I know he's trying to get us to a good point. Like that's, that means the world of people.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Well, you have to fill the trust cup up before you take any withdrawals. Right. And, you know, so, you know, you do have to win stack and you have to win stack early. And for some people it, it's, it could be challenging and I, I, no one, you know, goes through life without facing some challenges, but you do have to overcome them quickly. And, um, I worked with a really great, um, general manager at Savannah who, you know, he had this line. He said, you know, mess up. Fess up, move on. And he's like, he's like, if you screw up, just say it. And we just, we just go forward. you know, with that, in the back of my mind, it's like always kind of like a record playing. like, okay, like you're gonna, you're gonna screw up. It's okay. Just say it quickly so we can, you know, fix whatever it is. And, and go on. Like, I know that, you know, I trust that you're doing what's what you thought is in the best interest of the firm. It didn't work out. That's okay.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Let's fix it and we're gonna be fine.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. And just like with that attitude, I like even just hearing you say that, I'm like, I would tell you a mistake I made Jared, because you would be fine with it. You'd be like, what? You learn, like let's move forward, make sure it doesn't happen again. All those things. But so many people are just like, let, like, who's to blame? Let's point fingers at that person, make them feel really bad about it, and then, then we'll be okay. It's like, uh, you know, there's different ways to.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

and I, I, I think, you know, growing up in, you know, playing, you know, sports my whole life, you know, up until, you know, through college, you know, if baseball, like if goes through your legs, that happens, you know? People make errors and

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

forgive that, right? He's not taking you outta the game, but if you throw to the wrong base, you, you're gonna get set down. So if you make a mental mistake like we got, we gotta come and talk about it, right? Um, so errors happen, so you have to be able to like forgive and forget those like kind of quickly because it it, that's just gonna happen. The ball's gonna go through your legs every once in a while. What we really gotta limit, and, you know, championship teams don't throw to the wrong base. And so my role is that we limit those. mistakes. Um, I, I can't prevent errors from happening. The ball's gonna get hit and it's gonna hit a rock and it's gonna go through your legs, and that happens. Um, but what we can prevent is like through good processes and through, you know, good operational standards, um, we can prevent you throwing to the wrong base.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

I think that distinction you made is really important. And I also remember I was, listen, I was watching like a behind the scenes on NFL quarterbacks and it was like Mahomes or Kirk Cousins or someone was saying the mental piece that differentiates a good to a great quarterback is next play mentality. How fast can you flush a bad play?'cause it's like if you throw an interception. You cannot let that get into your head for the rest of the game or else you're gonna lose. You have to have a way or a mechanism to flush that. And like maybe after the game you look at the film and like dissect what happened there. But

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

like, that's mental fortitude and that's just an approach you have to have. Yeah.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Right, and especially at that level, right? They all can throw the ball 70 yards, right? They, they all can make all the passes, but what separates the good from the grade is like how they move on and how they manage themselves, you know, through the play calling.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Yeah. Beautiful. Oh my gosh. Jared, I could talk to you for hours and about fitness regimes and routines and everything like that, but anything else you wanna let people know about, um, chief of Staff, about coming to chief of staff role from a different background about how you run things at the firm, that's worked well. Anything else you wanna throw out there for folks?

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

Like I said, organizational discipline. Um, over communicate. Uh, someone will tell you when you've communicated too much and, uh, you, keep piling through, right? Every day is a new adventure, and if you have a really great attitude and you're hungry to jump outta bed and go solve those problems, you're gonna have a really, you know, long and great career.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

And for folks who are listening, who or who know someone, um, who does your firm help and how, how is the best way to connect with you?

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

So we help everybody. Um, you can find us at uh, potter act.net, um, or email me directly at jared@atpotteract.net. Um, but yeah, anyone who's looking to access the markets in any capacity, um, we'll have a conversation and see if, you know we're a right fit for you or you're right fit for us. Um, again, that, that smartphone analysis, that x-ray that I did, uh, it's a zero cost. We don't charge anybody for that. That is, it's a really interesting exercise. Um. recommend it to all my friends, my family. Um, just to sit down and take a look at your portfolio and, uh, kind of what your goals are for the future.

emily-sander_1_06-12-2025_130251:

It's a good inventory tool I feel like, just so you know what you're dealing with. So we'll have all that information in the show notes, but Jared, thank you once again.

jared-stein_1_06-12-2025_130251:

And thank you for having me, Emily.