Unlocking Business Potential with the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)

In “Episode Ten: Building Businesses Using the Entrepreneurial Operating System,” host Megan Comfort, Small Business Manager at Nevada State Bank, sits down with Shelley Woodrow, a third-generation entrepreneur and Certified Implementer of the Entrepreneurial Operating System® —a business framework designed to help organizations gain clarity, accountability, and traction. Woodrow shares her journey from launching her first business at 19 to leading media companies and ultimately discovering EOS as a transformative framework. She explains how EOS tools like the Accountability Chart and Vision Traction Organizer help leadership teams align, define roles, and execute long-term goals. Through real-world examples, she highlights the importance of culture, core values, and asking the right questions to drive meaningful change and sustainable growth.

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Chapters

• 0:06 Welcome Shelley Woodrow
• 1:08 One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato and More
• 2:27 What the Heck is the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)?
• 5:27 What Makes EOS Different?
• 6:57 How to Implement EOS
• 8:39 The Role of an EOS Implementer
• 10:57 Coaching Defensive Business Leaders
• 12:40 Be Prepared for Organizational Changes
• 15:03 Ground Rules for EOS
• 16:37 Organizing by Function, Not Titles
• 18:15 Mapping Out Your Accountability Chart
• 20:08 Committing to a United Front
• 21:07 One Vision, One Voice, One Team
• 22:37 The First 60 Days of EOS
• 25:05 Accounting for Every Last Thing
• 26:49 There's No Where to Hide
• 27:40 Understanding Consequences as a Team
• 30:35 Aligning and Harnessing Core Values
• 32:32 Hiring Talent That Share Your Company's Values
• 33:15 The Whole Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts
• 35:27 Can Values Be Coached?
• 37:18 Consistent Messaging From the Top Down
• 39:21 What Does Success Look Like with EOS
• 40:54 Focusing on the End Goal
• 42:13 Accelerating Growth Through Planning
• 43:24 Knowing When to Say No
• 44:58 Organize to Execute on a Vision
• 46:53 Closing

Transcript

Thank you and welcome to Through the Door: The Insider’s Perspective on Running a Business. I’m Megan Comfort, Small Business Manager at Nevada State Bank, and I am here with Shelly Woodrow. Did I say your last name right? You did. Woodrow, okay, great. She is a serial entrepreneur, actually third generation business owner. So, comes from a long line of family that have also been entrepreneurs and business owners. She's ran small companies and multi-million dollar companies as well, and then ultimately ended up learning the entrepreneurial operating system. It's called EOS, it's not the gym, but it's a similar acronym, and it's something that really helps business owners start off on the right foot and organize in such a way that helps improve the success rate of that company. So, I'm very excited to talk to her about that today and learn a little bit more about what she does and how she helps businesses. So, thank you. Thank you. For being here. I'm thrilled to be here with you, Miss Megan. Yes. So, we typically start these off always with like an origin story. I love to hear a little bit about your background from you and then how you ultimately arrived at your passion, which is helping other businesses form great strategies to succeed. Yeah, so I started, as you mentioned, as a 19-year-old. I actually opened One Potato Two in the fashion show mall, if you've ever heard of One Potato Two in the food court. I don't, but it sounds good. At 19, it was really good. We made baked potatoes and it was fabulous. So, that was my first entree into leading a business. And from there, I just have either ran or helped to run businesses throughout my entire career. I had a 27-year career in media and so did local media ad sales in Las Vegas, starting in radio back in 1991 and worked my way up through broadcast TV and then ultimately ran Cox Communications, the media side for a lot of years. And so, retired from media back in 2017 and knew all along I had this passion and love for helping leaders grow and develop such that they could replace themselves and the other thing that I was really passionate about was helping clients because if we could run great ad campaigns for them, it really helped their business. And so, I had that love of helping clients and I kept thinking, what am I gonna do after I retire? Because I've always wanted some sort of training company and I started actually looking at coaching franchises and somebody that I was introduced to was running their entrepreneurial company on EOS and he said, why did you do EOS? Have you ever thought about being an implementer? I'm like, well, what the heck is EOS? Yeah, so you hadn't heard of it before. No. Okay. No. What made you really align with that process? So, what I love about working with leaders is helping them really run great businesses. So, I thought, well, I could do a coaching company and do a customized training and create content and curriculum for training and that sort of thing. And when I met this entrepreneur, he needed help standing up a sales organization. And so, I went over there after I retired from Cox to do this project for him. It wasn't a forever thing. And they were running on EOS when I got there and they were working with an implementer. So, I got to use the EOS tools and disciplines to help them run this organization and stand up the sales machine. So, that being said, I thought, wow, this is the coolest framework. We started using these tools. I could see a difference in the business and then I saw what the implementer did. So, it started working. You really saw the value of-- Totally started working. And the focus and the prioritization and all of the discipline that comes with EOS was really attractive. And I thought, I don't have to go reinvent the wheel or customize content for clients that would be in my training company. I can stand up EOS and go do a plug and play sort of system that really helps entrepreneurs. And I had, by then, firsthand knowledge over that. And yeah, you lived it. So, you could really stand by the process.

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EOS was introduced to me, actually, through the first episode of Through the Door with Haim(...) because he mentioned that their company, MDL Group, went through EOS and how much that had really helped him and his partners organize, strategize, and prioritize all of the tasks and things that they wanted to do. And through the years working with business owners, I've seen them or talked to them about, there's no book on entrepreneurialism. There's no plan or process that I can follow, which is funny because just yesterday, I was mentioning that to a group of women business owners. I'm like, that's actually not true. There is a playbook. Now, there's many playbooks and you really have to find the one that works for you, but there are books on running a business and things that you need to think about and it is this infinite amount of information. So, what would you say is different about EOS? Walk us through kind of the starting process or some of the fundamentals that you talk about with business owners, which kind of clicks for them. So, you mentioned Traction. So, Traction is the how-to manual. So, if you want to run your business on EOS, we give it all away. Gina Wigman, who created EOS, wanted to create these tools in this simple system, this holistic framework, where he could just give it to entrepreneurial leadership teams. And so, because of that, there's now over 280,000 companies running on EOS worldwide. And the reason is because it works and what is cool about EOS tends to become a negative over time, is it's so simple. It's not easy necessarily, but it is simple. And so, the set of tools and disciplines that you learn through this process, either self-taught on your own or through EOS worldwide's website, or in working with an implementer, really helped to structure the business, systemize the business, help leaders predict where they're going in the business really well, simplify everything, and then it also teaches them how to delegate and let go of things as leaders that they shouldn't be doing or that they're not good at. And they can elevate above that if they can let go of some of those things.

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So, hopefully. All of that sounds great, but how does it work exactly? So, let's say I'm a business. I'm actually thinking about my husband's companies when I say that,(...) and maybe it's a smaller business, so not necessarily big, but knows that they want to get to the next level. What are some of the things that they could do or should be doing if they were interested in using some type of already set process? Great question. So, I would say starting point is they should read traction. Get a grip on your business. That's the starting point. That's the introduction to EOS. And it teaches them how to run on EOS. So, if they're good, they're small, they have this book, they have the tools and resources that they can download for free, they've got what they need. Now, as they grow and develop, and an entrepreneurial company all of a sudden turns into an organization, that's what happens. Entrepreneurs start a business. They're selling their products or services or both. And then all of a sudden, they've created extensions of themselves. Now, they're an organizational leader and they come to us typically as implementers at that time for help with running the business. Because as a subject matter expert, they know their products and services better than anybody. But now all of a sudden, they have a hundred people. And they're like, "Oh my gosh, I did not sign up for this." And so, that's when you bring in an implementer and that helps them through a two-year journey typically to systemize their business and run on EOS and get the coaching and facilitation help that a lot of them are looking for. So, that sounds really fun. And we were talking earlier about how many fun stories you probably have. Because being an implementer and working with a business owner, who typically, most business owners that I've met, very strong personalities,(...) their baby, right, of knowing and understanding a company. And they're really, more so, immediately wanting to see results out of you and how you can change the aspects of their company.

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What are some of the things that you kind of have to do at the beginning to ease the speed, I guess, that they see of success? Because it doesn't happen overnight. Just like they didn't get to where they are overnight. Yeah, yeah. So, some of the things that I do, number one is that I push them to go at a speed that they can handle. And every client goes at their own speed and their own pace as they implement EOS. So, in the first three sessions that I work with a company, we have a very specific set of objectives and agendas. And I teach them the system. And after 60 days, they're ready to roll out EOS, cascade it to their organization, if they choose to. So, part of my job is to ask tons of questions. I don't have their answers. I'm not a consultant. I'm a coach. So, I ask them lots of questions that cause a conversation. And what happens is they start to think about things in a way that, where the answers are in the tools,(...) usually they start to think about things differently in their business. And then they discuss, they debate, they decide, what do we do now that we have this additional context and color and tools and resources? How do we go forward from here? And so, you start to see really great conversations form about where are we going? What do we want? What are our challenges? What truly are our issues? What people issues do we have? Were they're not the right people or they're not in the right seats or both? And so, it really causes them. My job is to be the question, really. And start to get them to talk about what's working, what's not working and where they want to go and how they plan to get there. Is that successful most of the time, asking those questions? Like, do people tend to get defensive at all? Sometimes. And really, I find, I try to check myself sometimes when people question what I'm doing. And then I immediately go into this like defense mode on it. And then internally, I'm like, what are you doing, Megan? Like clearly,(...) they've hit a hot button and there's something going on in your mind where you're just not open to another idea.(...) So, how do you kind of break through that being a coach and making them, I don't know, kind of emerge into a different mindset, which is really hard to do? It's a great question. And really, what I have to do as a coach is enter the danger. So, if I sense something, I have to say something. If I feel something, if it feels like there's an elephant in the room or we're dealing with a sacred cow person or topic,

(...)

something feels off.(...) That's where usually a breakthrough is about to occur. And so, I have to read that. I have to interpret that, what's happening in the room, and then just ask a lot of questions. And so, sometimes in your example, if you were getting defensive, I would dig into that. Team, what do you see?

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I'm feeling like maybe there's a rub here. What's going on, Megan? And so, I would just ask you. And so, it causes some really great discussions and debates, and it starts to highlight, do we have the right people in this room?

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Do we have the right people? Are they all in the right seats? And then, what does that mean for our organization? Does that happen sometimes where you have leaders in a group? Because not everybody that is involved in the initial implementation of an organized system for businesses are owners. Sometimes they can just be very important leaders and key people that are involved in the company. Do you, does that happen quite often where you see sometimes a rotation of seats

(...)

or people moving into different spots because maybe they weren't being utilized in the best way? All the time, and it happens on day one. One of the first things we do about three hours into a client's journey is we take a big step back and we look at their structure. And we set the right and best structure that will take them into the future to find us the next six to 12 months. And so, the way we do it through this process is using a tool called the Accountability Chart in EOS, but it really helps leaders start to identify(...) what are the seats that we need? So if we were starting from today, what seats would we have on this bus? What are the five accountabilities, the big stuff that this seat owner will be ultimately accountable for? And we set that right and best structure before we put people's names back in those seats. So in day one, by the end of that day, we have a first draft of this Accountability Chart at the leadership team level. And we find a couple things happen during that day. A leader may not have a seat on the bus going forward. So we've got that issue to deal with. There might be-- Is that awkward? Oh yeah. Is that like-- Oh yeah. Where's, what's Bill gonna do? Yes. Yeah, it's very awkward. It's very scary.

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And these are the tough conversations that at the leadership team level really, should be happening as we enter this process. And so, you know, people will not have a seat possibly, or they will, there's two or more people that want the same seat, so we gotta figure that out. Or there's just an open seat that we put on our issues list and we know whether we have this person in the room today or not, this is a seat we want on this bus as we go forward. And we'll figure out when and how to prioritize and hire that.(...) So what are the ground rules? I'm thinking about when you have that many people that are probably typically passionate and experts in their own right,

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what are some of the things that maybe you say at the beginning to try to put down barriers, if you will, that they might have going into a conversation like that? Because to get something like that done in a day, that's really interesting. Mentally, those individuals have to have the right mindset going in. Yeah, first and foremost, we do a 90-minute meeting with the leadership team. So a leadership team really is the top three to seven people.(...) Sometimes there's more, but typically the top three to seven people at the helm of an organization that need to be in the room. And so we do the 90 to set a context around what EOS is, is it a right fit, does the team deem that EOS is right for them? That's the objective of the 90-minute meeting is to see if EOS is a fit. If it is, are we a right fit for each other? Because sometimes maybe they want a man.(...) Maybe they want a male implementer. Sometimes they just don't jive with my personality or whatever the case may be. So we wanna make sure we're a good fit for each other. And so if yes to EOS and yes, that we're right for each other, then we get into the room that first day and we start to begin the EOS journey. And that starts with a check-in and setting ground rules. So part of those ground rules say,(...) number one, when we work together,(...) once we get in the room and you establish your accountability chart, there's no titles. We don't use titles in EOS, we use functions. I love that. When we're working with the accountability chart, we take a structure first, people second approach. So we say, taking the people out of the equation,(...) what are the right and best seats that we should have on this bus as we go forward? Then we put people back into it once we define the accountabilities and the people that are a great match for being accountable for those things. Are those structures aligned with certain business functions, I would think? Sales, that's important. You need revenue coming in. And then operations. And then sometimes quality control. And then people, culture stuff. We teach that there's really three basic major functions to business, marketing and sales, operations, finance. We add a fourth, we call integrators. So the integrators, you're runner of the day to day, the glue that holds the whole business together. And then sometimes there's a visionary. So leader that likes to work on the business, usually likes to stay at 30,000 feet.

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Does not run the day to day. That work is better left to the integrator. And so we define those as the basic major functions for every business, but then we customize it for your unique needs as a business. So you mentioned some of the other functions. So marketing and sales might split into two instead of one. You might have IT or HR or legal or any other sort of finance extension as a major function, depending on the business. In your experience working with many businesses, what would you say are some of the main components where you're like, wow, you're either not paying attention to this element at all, which is very important. Or you have too much weight on one side of it, which is one of your bigger issues. Yeah, that conversation usually happens when we start working on the accountability chart, where we talk about, what's work to date? What's not working in your business? What do you want in terms of your leadership team, a set of seats? What are the important functions in this business? And so we just customize that. And then that starts the dialogue around, okay, well, once we've got the seats, then what are the five accountabilities within each seat? And that's where the teams really start to debate and discuss, well, wait a minute, that function belonged in ops for a long time. And now you want to move it to marketing? What?

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(Laughs) So it starts a robust, rich conversation that can take anywhere from three to five hours in the first day. Wow, there's probably a bar in there somewhere. I would say. There's a bar. We want to get that accountability chart to about 80% on day one. Then we want you to think about it and play with it. Use it in the business. I give the teams homework to complete that for the whole organization before they come back for their second day, which is vision building about 30 days after the first day. And so we want you to be able to change your mind(...) and to not roll it out until at least 60 days in until you all have signed off on that you're happy with these sets of tools, including the accountability chart. So lots of discussion happens in the first three sessions. Do you get consensus typically from everyone moving forward? Oftentimes I just think about some of the leadership conversations that I've been in and a conversation that I saw on a podcast with Jeff Bezos where he's like, not everyone has to agree,

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but if we make a decision as a team,(...) everyone needs to support it. Otherwise, if you're actively hoping that it's going to fail(...) and you're actively working against it or even just mentally and your energy is just, well, we have to do this because that's what everybody else wants, but I don't feel that it's going to work.

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You're contributing to it not being a success. So if we make this decision as a team, everyone has to be all in and 100% support the task or endeavor to ensure its success and hope that it is. Yeah, on day one, the first thing I do before we get into the accountability chart is we start the journey with a question for every leadership team. The question is simply this, are you willing to become your best as a leadership team? And then I describe what that means. And so part of what that means is being healthy and smart. Part of being healthy is being open and honest and vulnerable. We want you to share your dissenting view. We want diversity of thought and opinion. And if we can't get on the same page,(...) the expectation is that you commit, even if you don't feel like that it went your way. Once the team makes a decision that you got to be bought into that, if you're willing to become your best, and I'll lay that out for them. And then they continue to say yes to that question. Then it gives me the framework to say, remember when you said that you'll support. Because one of the qualifiers there is one vision, one voice, one team. So to become your best, you have to operate as if you have one vision for the company. You're on the same page about that. You're in agreement to every word of it. And you operate as one voice, as parents of the organization. You're not working mom against dad. You have to be aligned even if it didn't go your way. And then one team. So your people see you as a united front. Yeah. Super important. Yeah, you can go fast alone, but you can go further together. So that's a really good point. So you talked about the 30 day vision. So you do this structure and then you kind of put together, I guess a process of what the first 30 days would look like.(...) Do you structure this in a way where it's like small incremental improvements or is it more grand and long term?(...) It's really both.(...) So in the first 60 days, so we do three full day sessions with clients in the first 60 days. The first day, focus day, is about creating your customized tools. So we create all the tools that help you gain traction in the business. So these are the tools that you use throughout where if you execute on these well over time and continuously use the tools, you're gonna get 80% of the results that you're looking for just with the tools we teach on day one. Then we have you go use those tools in the business, try them on for size, work out all the kinks and bugs. You're gonna blow it. You're gonna screw it up in the first 30 days. And that's what we want because then we're gonna work all that out when you come back for Vision Building Day One. We spend time in review. So we're helping you work towards mastery of those tools, meaning you understand them, you're using them at the leadership team level.

(...)

Also simultaneously, we're answering the questions on the Vision Traction Organizer, creating your vision and plans. So we don't do any 30 to 50 page strategic plans in EOS. We answer eight questions together, having the leadership team discuss and debate and decide and agree. And we have mechanisms for there where we test and vet your answers through exercises over those first 60 days. So the goal being at the end of 60 days, you have your tools, you've mastered those, you have your vision and your plan set, and you're ready to take it to your organization. And that's where I'm pushing you at a speed that you can handle to roll it out. You mentioned Haim earlier. They've been at this since 2019. And it's because they've had changes at the leadership team level and a retirement and so on. And so as they go through those changes, they continue to revisit EOS and what tools can serve them as they make changes at the top. And so some clients stay well past two years because they just want that outside help. Yeah, I love that it focuses on accountability

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because a lot of companies sometimes lose sight of that and they really lose sight of who ultimately is accountable for something. A lot of assumptions are made. And naturally in communication, we can tell ourselves stories of what's going on and how things are without really even asking a question and understanding it, just a lot of assumption.

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Why is it important to focus on the accountability piece as a successful foundation for a company? Yeah, because that's where if you, there are a million ways to create a vision and a plan.

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There's a million books, talk about a lot of books. I mean, go try to decipher what you want from that set of selection of books out there. It's a lot. But the accountability piece is so specific in EOS. We assign an owner to everything, basically. So there's nowhere to hide in this process.

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If we set a plan, we create your tools. Every week we're checking in on everything important to you. Your scorecard measurables, your rocks, those priorities you set for 90 days, your people.

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We make sure whatever you said you were gonna do last week is done this week. We call it to done. 90% of those actions that you took last week called to-dos must fall off this week. So you're advancing your business every week within a 90-day world structure. And so that's why it's so powerful because you can get so much done when people know what they own and they can't hide if it's not getting done.(...) Do you see that that moves the needle more for people? Or do you see oftentimes helping organizations that there's either one person or maybe someone that's like, "I didn't get my to-dos done." And then another week, "I didn't get to that." Yeah, yes, there's nowhere to hide here. So you start to see people like you know who's gonna get their stuff done this week and who's not. And it really starts to highlight and beg the question, do we have the right person in the right seat? Is this the right person? If there's a struggle here week in and week out,(...) maybe the sales leader is not hitting their sales numbers or the team continues to trail in the wrong direction. We see that very quickly in the scorecard week in and week out. So there's nowhere to hide.

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I always ask my teams when something doesn't happen and it was supposed to, what should be the consequence? Yeah, great question. If you're not doing something and people are relying on you to get it done, what is the consequence then? And have them work through that. Often times what I've found is people are a lot harder on themselves. They could be something small and people would be like, "Get fired." I'm like, "What?"

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Okay, that's not the answer. But if you're letting someone down or you're letting the team down and we can't progress forward because you're not doing something, there has to be a consequence to the accountability piece. If you're the one being held accountable, what would that consequence be? Because that is sometimes the detriment of a lot of businesses, is the fact that there is no one really held accountable or ultimately the owner feels that the accountability is 100% on them, rather than understanding that it's shared or they don't necessarily know how to convey to those leaders or other folks that you own this, there's consequences and you're gonna be held accountable. How do you shape that with EOS? If an organization you've recognized, I don't know if this has happened, but wow, there's no accountability here. It's kind of just wild, wild west. No structure, no accountability. We have structure now, but the concept of accountability is missing. How do you approach that? Yeah, so I would throw this back as a question to the leadership team. So team,(...) what are the consequences when our team doesn't hit their weekly activity base to-dos or their numbers or their rocks, whatever it is we're discussing? What are the consequences?

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We don't have consequences. How's that working?

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(Laughs) What would it be like if you had some sort of consequence for these actions or inactions in a lot of cases, how would that change your business?(...) So we talk through that. And then how long is this an accountability issue or is it an issue with the person that we're describing? They're either in the wrong seats, meaning they don't know how or cannot do the things that you want them to be accountable for, or they're not a core values fit.(...) Like maybe they don't even fit who you are as a team, as a tribe, what you want from your unique culture. Maybe they don't exhibit your core values. They don't show those qualities and characteristics that you expect from a behavioral standpoint.(...) And so if that's the case, then you have tools to deal with people issues and people analyzer being one of those.

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Okay, so I like that you bring up core values and culture. So that's part of that process too, is where is your culture at today or what is your value set? And does that actually align organizationally with what you are wanting to accomplish? Yeah, and we use core values in EOS after we discover and define them, we test them, we vet them. Once you've landed on those, we describe core values as a way to bring your culture to life in the business. Meaning you use them actually to attract talent, to onboard, to train, to reward, to recognize, to fire people. Once you have those set and you describe to people through your core value speech, what you mean by each, they will turn people on and turn people off. So as an example, I have an all state insurance company as a client. One of their family core values for their agency is prompt and present.(...) And what they mean by that, they tell their candidates when they're interviewing and they tell their people week in and week out, you must be on time to work here. This is a hot button for us, you cannot be late. I mean, if there's one extenuating circumstance once in a while, that's fine. But if you are late, consistently, you won't make it there. And so in fairness to people upfront, they say, this is who we are, this is our thing. So you're either gonna like that and be comfortable with it or you're not. If you struggle with tardiness, this is not the place for you. They would not hire me, probably. I sometimes do tend to run, you know, fashionably late, I like to say, sometimes. Well, and it's just probably not a core value for you, right? I mean, my husband is very like, you need to be on time. And I'm like, but I don't know what to wear. And like, you know, my hair looks weird. I need to fix it or something.(...) Yeah, I have another client in the coconut business and one of their core values is trail maker. They virtually have no competition. And so if they hire people that come over and they want a specific job, a set of criteria, they want to do redundant work every day. They want to know exactly what they're doing. They would fail miserably in this company. And in fairness to the people, they have to tell them what they mean by trail maker because if you don't have that mindset(...) that they describe in their trail maker value, you won't make it here because you got to figure things out. There is no path. You have to just trust your instincts and go. And so for people that that's not natural with, they'd set them up to fail. I'm stealing that trail maker. Trail maker. I feel like a lot of small businesses need,

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I don't know how to explain it. People that just, they can critically think and analyze. I do something kind of similar. I make, I'm obsessed with Ted Lasso actually. I'm very sad that the show ended, but there's one episode in particular. I've mentioned it on another podcast where he talks about total football and everyone just, what does this situation require? Sometimes you might need to be a Megan. Sometimes people might need to be a Kennedy or a Haley. These are folks that work for my husband. But I love the idea of looking at every situation and trying to figure out what is required, what skill or personality trait do you kind of need to pull out to focus on getting that particular task done? Because with small teams, you have to wear many hats. And so it's really important that everyone have some understanding of what other people do and are able to just assess a situation and say, what does this business require today? Does it require me to organize things because it's a little messy and maybe I need to clean up and start fixing things so that we can become more efficient and faster? By just being prompted on your own to do something rather than being told and having a schedule.

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I find it sometimes difficult to do generationally. Meaning as more generations come in and as there's, it's funny I'm the old person now or I'm older, which is interesting because I used to be that young, annoying person that was always like, let me give you my opinion because you didn't ask for it but I'm just gonna give it to you anyway.

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And so I find it really interesting seeing people come in and they're like, no, I need process. I didn't know because that's not on my list. And I'm like, well, you have to think outside of that sometimes. Yeah.

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I love that you start with a value with a definition because if people actually have an understanding of what that means, they could see if it speaks to them and if it aligns. I'm assuming that they might have issues. Like when I think about trail maker and just like, you kind of have to make your own trail or figure your

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things out and just be a little bit more entrepreneurial. They might struggle with finding candidates. Do they focus on, we're gonna help you become that trail maker? Like if that's a value that speaks to you, then is there also like a process of, we're also gonna help you get there if you don't feel you're there today?

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Yes and no. The process is the core value speech. So once the values are defined, and we recommend three to seven. So you have your three to seven core values, they're defined. Then the leaders must, must, must share what they mean by these values. And so that's part one of what you're talking about. In fairness, if you just put trail maker up on the wall and don't explain it, and most importantly, all the leaders are not explaining it the same way, you confuse people. So you can set them up to win by sharing what are the values? What does that look like?

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How does the behavior look in the business?

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How do I demonstrate trail maker in this example? And so you share what that looks like with them and what you expect relative to that value. And then they've got a shot at being successful. And then some of it you can coach and teach, right? Once you've explained what you mean, maybe there's trainings, maybe there's coaching, maybe there's one-on-one work that needs to be done with the director report and a leader to help really draw out the essence of that core value. But it's got to be there innately to some degree if you're going to set them up to succeed. Yeah, finding someone that actually kind of already possesses those things. I would agree. Values sometimes can't always be taught. It just has to be something that you possess. I love that you bring up--(...) it has to be the same messaging regardless of what leader you ask. Because I feel that the bigger the organization,(...) a lot of times employees will even know they will have a question or a problem set, and they will ask three to five different folks how to solve for that. And they will get three to five different answers. And the bigger you become, the more prevalent it is.

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And then you almost try to figure out, who do I listen to or believe on how I should solve for this?

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How does that get fixed? When it already exists in a company today? Yeah, usually through the accountability chart. Because once that accountability chart work is done, it clarifies and crystallizes the roles for the whole business. So we start at the leadership team level on day one, but then it's cascaded once the leaders create the accountability chart for the whole team. And so in the world of accountability, we say, when two people are accountable, nobody's accountable. So you have to crystallize the accountability chart roles so everyone can look at that accountability chart. And they can look down the list, and they can see, OK,(...) here's who I go to for that now. I don't have to go to five people. This one person owns it, so I'm going to go to that person and get my answer or get help or training or whatever I need, because that's the person that owns it as you go forward. A lot of times we see the same or similar responsibilities or accountabilities sit in multiple places, and it just confuses people.

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Who do I go to for what? And then I always say jokingly,(...) you want one throat to choke if somebody needs to be accountable. Who is the one?

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That's what we want to get to. You got two hands. You need two hands around that now. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so we might need to cut that. I don't know. If we need to cut that, I'm not.(...) No, I'm joking.

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Wow, that's really interesting. So you've been doing this now for several years. Yeah, six, yeah. What success have you seen come out of companies going through this process, and even the transformational aspect of those leaders as well? Yeah, yeah. Well, it is not uncommon. So we set a 10-year target in this process. And so that's the one big thing that the leaders decide that's what they want, that they're not getting today. That's their long-term big goal. So that can be customized five to 30 years. But 10 years typically is what they like. So what's the one big thing? Once they know that, then we reverse engineer it to say, OK, where do we need to be then in three years? Numerically, what will keep us on track to hit that 10-year target in three from a revenue profit and measurable standpoint? What does the company look like three short years from now? So you get everybody aligned on that. And then you can start marching towards that end, creating that picture, that visualization of what you want to manifest at the end of three years, which makes one-year planning for 2025 really easy when you know, at the end of 27, we want to be here. So here's where we need to be at the end of 25. Here's where we need to be for the next 90 days. So it really starts to crystallize for people, where are we going? Oh, and then here's how we're going to get there. And here's where we need to be at the end of this next set of 90 days. And then by your end, and so on. Did that answer your question? Yes, it did. Actually, it answered a lot more than that, which is great. I love that you start with a 10-year outlook. A lot of business owners don't focus on that. They're so stuck in their day-to-day and just task completion and fires and issues.(...) And a lot of times, I see business owners where I ask them, what is your exit strategy? Or what's the plan? You're here in this company. Are you ultimately trying to sell this business?

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Is this a generational thing? Are you wanting, hopefully, family to come in and take it over? Is there employees that you're grooming to potentially take it over? I love asking that question to small businesses because they have not really thought about it. Or they've thought about it, but they put no action together to actually get there. And it makes them think about their company in a different way, rather than just, I'm growing. Whips, sales-- there's so many important things that you could focus on. But to just completely ignore the trajectory of, you're putting your blood, sweat, and tears into this. This is your baby. And you don't necessarily have a traditional retirement. That's not the way that this looks for you. You have to be thinking about that. So it sounds like EOS also solves for that type of situation, too. Yeah, and I see it, client in and client out. And I see it with their ability to pull forward the things that are on their three-year picture. A lot of times happen this year. So they just want them to happen in three years. And because they've clarified it, they're all on the same page, say, that's what they want to create, it happens sooner. Because I don't know, magic just happens. The stars lined up. They start working towards achieving those things. And they happen much, much faster. So a $9 million pipeline company, when we start working together, has $75 million in their 10-year target.(...) And this last year, they did 40 mil. And so they're just a couple years away from that, because now it's exponential growth. And so they will hit that before their 10 years. And that's really common. Most commonly, I see the things we want to get done in three years, we start to get done in a year. And so the trajectory speeds up. Yeah, the unification. They realize, wow, there's power in this togetherness, and us all in the same canoe moving in the same direction. Yeah. And then, and part of it, too, is really(...) getting disciplined about, what do we also say no to? When we know what we want to create, it's really a great mechanism to say, OK, if our focus is here,(...) will the thing we're considering here get us to there? If the answer is no,(...) maybe it's something we tackle next year, not this year. I love that you bring that up, because I have been trying to focus on that. Because I'm a fixer, like naturally. If somebody says they want to do something, I'm like, well, you've got to do this, and this, and this, and this. And here's how you get there.(...) And a lot of times with my husband, he's an idea guy. So he'll give ideas. And then I'm just in execution mode, now on like 20 things, that I'm like, wait a minute. I'll stop and be like, why are we trying to do so many things all at the same time? But he's like, well, I'm just giving you ideas. I wasn't saying do all of them. And I'm like, oh my goodness. He sounds like a visionary. Is he the visionary in the family? Well, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to do it all. So I'm realizing now that same exact thing. There is a no, and it's that question of, is this going to get us to where we're going? And understanding what does that look like? You don't always have to have the answer, per se, because I don't even think we understand where we really ultimately want to go other than very short incremental steps. But having that broader, bigger vision, I mean, you just gave me an idea. So I'm so thankful for that.

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So I have my last question for you, actually.

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But for a company that is maybe in a situation that's prime for using or actually structuring, getting a structure together,(...) what would that look like to a business owner? Because they don't always necessarily know that they need outside help for that. They just internally try to think, I need to figure this out. And it's just a thing that's on their list that never gets crossed off. Yeah.(...) And that is really--

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the most important thing, I think, that comes out of this question is the accountability chart, the answer is in that tool to your question. And that's why we do that in day one, where we kind of flip vision, planning, and execution on its head. We take a traction-first, vision-second approach, because it starts with the people in the organization. And so if we can get that right, starting with day one, and refining, and honing that, and getting all the right people in the right seats, that's how you create and execute on the vision. Because many people can create a vision. Not everybody can execute on it. And unfortunately for entrepreneurs, that's where their vision tends to go unrealized when there's weakness in the traction part of the business. So that's where to start is with the accountability chart. So it would probably be like a business that is in a good place necessarily, but not necessarily

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moving the needle forward with what it is that they're trying to accomplish long term. Yeah, they might want to go faster. Maybe they just feel stuck a little bit. They might be hitting the ceiling. They might feel stuck. They might feel frustrated. All of those are really common feelings.(...) And so this is where those tools can be really helpful to clarify all that, to crystallize it, and provide focus and accountability.

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Wow, your job sounds so fun. It's so fun. I love what I do. I would just love to be a fly on the wall. I'll just be like, I'm just-- Ignore me. You can come watch a session. Ignore me. I just want to see how it all plays out. This is real exciting.(...) I'd love to have you. Well, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Bergen. Thanks for having me. Thank you for tuning into Through the Door, the insider's perspective on running a business.

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