The Scalability Code

From Retail to Technology: Mastering the Entrepreneurial Mindset with Harlan Geiser

• Matt Haney • Season 1 • Episode 13

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In this episode of The Scalability Code, host Matt Haney dives deep into an insightful conversation with Harlan Geiser, a seasoned EOS implementer and visionary entrepreneur. Harlan shares his journey from the retail and tech industry to becoming a pivotal figure in business coaching. They discuss the importance of having a strong integrator in a company, the critical role of core values, and the significance of a well-managed scorecard. Tune in to learn about real-world entrepreneurial experiences, the nuances of successful business scaling, and practical advice on building a cohesive, goal-oriented team. 

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction
00:54 Harlan's Early Business Ventures
03:58 Transition to Technology
04:45 Building a B2B Electronics Business
09:31 Journey with EOS and Scaling Up
15:52 Balancing Client Load and Family Obligations
16:50 Navigating Scorecard Changes
19:50 The Importance of Red Scorecards
24:08 Visionaries vs. Integrators
33:16 The Role of Core Values
36:26 Closing Thoughts 

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Welcome to The Scalability Code, the podcast that helps you get out of the sh*t show and start growing your business. A few times each month, you'll hear stories and commentary from visionary entrepreneurs, EOS implementers, and fractional COOs about how they've taken businesses to Level 10. And now for your host, Matt Haney.

Matt Haney:

All right. All right. Welcome to the Scalability Code. I'm your host, Matt Haney. Today we've got Harlan Geyser. Harlan, is an EOS implementer, an all around good human, and somebody that, uh, I think will benefit from, from getting some wisdom from. So, Harlan, thanks for joining us today.

Harlan Geiser:

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

Matt Haney:

You got it, man. All right. Tell me, uh, where are you from? What's your background? Let's do the whole deal. We gotta get to know each other, even though we kind of know each other a little bit already. Give our, uh, listeners and viewers a little backstory about yourself.

Harlan Geiser:

Sure. Happy to do that. Uh, I'm a central Illinois person. Uh, been here most of my life. Uh, to high school here, went to college here. Uh, uh, started businesses, ran businesses, started more businesses, ran more businesses for about 40 years here.

Matt Haney:

You don't look old enough to have done it for 40 years. Harlan.

Harlan Geiser:

well, thank you. that was the right thing to say, but uh,

Matt Haney:

Flattery gets you everywhere. So hold on. You gotta back up and assume I know where Central Illinois is and I, I have a general understanding of where you're located, but give us some landmarks for those of us that don't know Central Illinois intimately.

Harlan Geiser:

sure. it's Bloomington, Illinois. That's where Illinois State University is, and also Illinois Wesleyan University, but it's about two hours south of the Chicago Loop.

Matt Haney:

Okay.

Harlan Geiser:

about two hours and 20 minutes north and a little bit east of the St. Louis Airport.

Matt Haney:

Yep.

Harlan Geiser:

It's about two hours and 15 minutes west of Indianapolis.

Matt Haney:

wow. Okay, so you got a lot of air, Point choices.

Harlan Geiser:

it's, well, it's kind of in be, you know, it's just kind of in the middle of the state, and far enough away from all the major cities really, you know, but not too far. You can get to'em. Yeah.

Matt Haney:

That's awesome. So where do you fly out of? Which airport do you pick? You got a lot of options there.

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah, So when I can I fly out of Bloomington, uh, the, of course the choices are limited. Uh, and then I typically will, will go to midway in Chicago.

Matt Haney:

yeah. You're Southwest guy?

Harlan Geiser:

Uh, I'll pick up my, I'm picking up my son who's flying in from Austin on Wednesday. He and his family, and I'm

Matt Haney:

he live down here?

Harlan Geiser:

O'Hare. He lives in Austin.

Matt Haney:

Oh, that's where I live.

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah. Yeah, He is just, just south of the airport, about 20 minutes or so.

Matt Haney:

In Butta, Kyle somewhere.

Harlan Geiser:

he actually in the city of Austin.

Matt Haney:

Oh, that's great. That's awesome. Well, okay, so you mentioned you've run businesses in and out of them for 40 years, which I love. Tell us about some of those businesses, um, from a high level or feel free to get into the, into the weeds, but I always think it's interesting. In our, in our careers now, being able to see so many different businesses and for me, the similarities of so many. So gimme some backstory on some of the businesses you've been involved in for, for the last few decades.

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah. Okay. So maybe even before the first business.

Matt Haney:

Sure.

Harlan Geiser:

Uh, uh, looking back on it, I didn't realize it at the time, but I was born to do this.

Matt Haney:

That's awesome.

Harlan Geiser:

Okay. It, it wasn't something I made a decision on. I didn't decide to be an entrepreneur. It just, happened and I actually didn't even know that I was being one. At the time

Matt Haney:

Yeah, well there wasn't a thing. You owned a business. You ran a business.

Harlan Geiser:

yeah, it was just a deal. So Like yeah. So the, the first one was, uh, a buddy of mine called and he said, Hey, Harlan, there's the, the business I'm in, uh, there's an opportunity, uh, one of the guys just left, uh, could lead to ownership opportunity. are you interested? And so I said, yeah, sure. So boom.

Matt Haney:

not? Well, what, what business was that?

Harlan Geiser:

So I was in the clothing business in the seventies.

Matt Haney:

And like reselling like a in men's boutiques or men's clothing stores.

Harlan Geiser:

we had a little men's and women's, small specialty shop. Yeah. Nice clothing and with the malls and everything and the changes that were going on in the industry, uh, did love the clothing business, but it looked to me like there's gonna be more of an opportunity going forward in technology.

Matt Haney:

That's

Harlan Geiser:

is really before the PCs were on the market.

Matt Haney:

That's awesome.

Harlan Geiser:

radio Shack had, uh, TRS 80 and maybe something else, but there wasn't anything else. There weren't any IBMs or apples or anything like that much back then. So I decided to, to do that. So I shifted And ended up in the technology business.

Matt Haney:

And what did that look like at the time? Were you distributing, were you doing services? Like what kind of business was

Harlan Geiser:

Well, I, there again, I went from retail to retail. I went from retail clothing to retail, technology. And once again, it happened because of someone that? I knew that just called me and said, Hey, Harlan, I hear you wanting to get into technology. This may not be the opportunity you want for a long period of time, but at least this will get you in the industry.

Matt Haney:

Right.

Harlan Geiser:

And so I took it, uh, ended up staying there for a while, and then, and opened some locations for them. And,

Matt Haney:

As an operator or were you part of the ownership group?

Harlan Geiser:

no, I was just, I was just working there. I was an operator and, um, ran into financial trouble, which in the, in the, Eighties, and early nineties, that was very

Matt Haney:

thing. Yeah, very much so.

Harlan Geiser:

And so. um. I ended up buying the assets at one of the locations, which was in Bloomington, which is where I still am.

Matt Haney:

And what brand was that under when you took it over?

Harlan Geiser:

It was an Incomp franchise.

Matt Haney:

Okay.

Harlan Geiser:

Okay. But when I. took it over, I was an independent.

Matt Haney:

So you didn't have to keep their brand, you didn't have to keep their, any of their nonsense.

Harlan Geiser:

No, I, I bought the assets.

Matt Haney:

yeah. You'd have an, you'd have an ex existing retail storefront that people associated with electronics.

Harlan Geiser:

Well, well, what I left out was that in that process and having a retail background, I was able to convince the owner that he needed to get outta retail. I said, I don't know how computers are gonna be sold for sure, but the businesses that were selling stuff. Two, they're not gonna come in stores and buy it. They're, you're, it is gonna be like copiers and typewriters. You're gonna go, you're gonna be calling on them. We need an outbound sales force. And so That's what we did. We, we transformed that whole business and even moved out of a retail space into a business location and that sort of thing. And then opened other locations in central Illinois.

Matt Haney:

Very cool. And who were your main customers? Were you doing B2B, B2B sales

Harlan Geiser:

It. Well, yeah, of course in retail there was, there was you know, it's, it's, it is hard to, uh, believe. But, so I was in Decatur, Illinois at that time, and Archer Daniels Midland is there a DM, they're one of the largest food

Matt Haney:

Oh, okay.

Harlan Geiser:

the world. and I, they would come in the store and buy PCs one at a time.

Matt Haney:

Very cool. And they were a big business. Huge, huge outfit. I wonder what percentage of computers are bought in retail now versus direct to consumer deliver to a doorstep.

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah. I I have no

Matt Haney:

I bet it's 80 20, right? 80% of'em are direct to consumer.

Harlan Geiser:

Oh, yeah. Compared to a store. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Matt Haney:

But then you think of like, like big businesses that have, you know, 20 to 50 employees, they're still having stuff shipped to them. They're not going to some retail store to get it. They may have an outsourced IT firm that's helping them implement, but not going to any retail. That's interesting. You saw that, that opportunity and pivoted out of retail and into B2B instead of continuing to chase that retail storefront life.

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah. Right, right. Well, I, but I'd had it, I'd, I'd had retail in my background, so it gave me a little different insight. Plus, unlike most everyone else in the industry at that time, I was not a techie.

Matt Haney:

Yeah. You're a, services guy.

Harlan Geiser:

well, Yeah. I'm an entrepreneur. I, it is. I didn't really, in a lot of ways, didn't really much care what the product was. I just wanted to be flowing with the current,

Matt Haney:

That's so funny. I send myself saying that a lot in my business and over the years, all the clients I've worked with, like it's, everyone thinks their business is unique, but like you just said, it's the widget is the widget. Whether it's a computer or a service company or a hardware, whatever, it's, it's, there's a lot of commonality. You know, there's the four or five major pillars or tenets of a business exist no matter what industry you're in.

Harlan Geiser:

Right,

Matt Haney:

All right, so you went to, um, you went to, went from retail electronics to B2B electronics. You were in that through the nineties, and where

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah,

Matt Haney:

you after that?

Harlan Geiser:

well, I stayed, I stayed with that business till I sold it to employees in, uh, 2015.

Matt Haney:

Wow, that's awesome.

Harlan Geiser:

but along the way I was involved in other things. I. started a software company and did some real estate things at a real estate company. seems like maybe A, few other things in there. Somewhere along the line of Yeah. And, you know, shiny objects that gotta chase all of those,

Matt Haney:

You, entrepreneurs. Yes. So that led you to EOS in some way, shape, or form. tell me about your sort of entry into it, how long ago? Who introduced you, sort of the whole story.

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah. So, uh, what happened was that when I was running my own business. I used two platforms. One was Vern Harnish's, scaling Up, which at that time was mastering the Rockefeller Habits. The scaling Up stuff hadn't even come out yet. I just implemented that from the book. He didn't even have, or anything you could hire at that time. He just read the book, di figure it out the best you could. And actually it worked out great. It, it was wonderful. Uh, and then I got involved with, uh, Jack Stack and the Great Game of Business and it turned out it was an open book. We became an open book management company, which was wonderful. and, uh, that was, that was a wonderful experience. And, and when I sold the company in, uh, 2015, I thought perhaps I was retiring. I didn't really know, but so I, I. kind of gave retirement a try, uh, and I. did pretty well with it for about 10 weeks.

Matt Haney:

Who, who was the, did you push yourself over the edge or did your loving wife tell you to get the hell out of the

Harlan Geiser:

Well, uh. And we've been married for 53 years, so I suppose she could kick me out whenever she wants. But, it was really just, I, I think I needed a break and I woke up one morning, I said, I can't do this anymore. This, this is driving me crazy. and the person that I. had sold the business to, the main one. Uh, employee, um, said, Hey, if you ever want an office or a place to go, just call me and we'll put you in a little office in the back of the building and you can do whatever you want back there, give you a computer. And so I called her up and said, Hey, Yeah. I'm gonna take you up on your office. So, uh, did that. Uh, I am is a tertiary market. There's 186,000 people in the county that I live in now. There's a couple million people. In central Illinois, all of it. So it's not tiny, tiny, but know people, right? So, and I was fairly involved in the community, on several boards and things like that, chairman of a couple. So, uh, just started calling me and said, Hey, you're not doing anything. We'll pay you to come take a look at our business. And I thought, well. Yeah, I thought, well, I don't, I, I'm not really sure what, what I'm gonna do, you know,

Matt Haney:

What a compliment. Someone, someone thought enough of you to have, have you come, you know, peel back the layers of the onion and look, that's a, that's a good compliment.

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah. But you know, we're also in a small market, so I mean, there aren't a whole lot of companies out there offering those services. right. And this is, even though It was only 10 years ago. the, the, the coaching thing was not as ubiquitous as it is today. It's almost like anybody that's anybody has a coach, Right. Back then, it wasn't so much, and actually even back then, very few people even knew about EOS. That was, it was a pretty well kept secret. That was, it was a tiny, tiny, tiny company, Gino and a handful bands, you know,

Matt Haney:

Yep,

Harlan Geiser:

about all it

Matt Haney:

that's exactly right. And, and that's kind of, and you know, if I remember it started in your kind of up in your neck of the woods, right?

Harlan Geiser:

Detroit Uhhuh. yeah, Yeah. yeah. And also, uh, strong connection with Vern Harnish. Uh, uh, Gino was in, uh, eo, which was, uh, Vern's organization, and he was one of the founding members of the Detroit,

Matt Haney:

Yep, that's exactly right. That's fantastic. So that was 10 years ago and you started and, and have built it up and sort of what was your, I mean, how many clients do you work with currently? How many was it at a bigger point? Like sort of what's your.

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah.

Matt Haney:

your sweet spot?

Harlan Geiser:

So unlike the rest of my life, which is I made things happen and I had goals and I had objectives, and I wanted all this to happen, in this particular case. I really didn't have a plan. so after a few months of talking with the, a few people who had asked me to be involved with them, I thought, boy, this is gonna get old for them and maybe even for me, uh, you don't want to, you know, you can only pick Harlan's brain so much. I'm gonna need some kind of a platform.

Matt Haney:

Right,

Harlan Geiser:

So I thought, well, I'll use mastering the Rockefeller habits'cause it worked for me. Okay. open book management. I didn't feel like I wanted to go down that path because it's a very nichey

Matt Haney:

Yeah.

Harlan Geiser:

thing and you only, you have to have a real certain mentality to want to do that. And it's not for everybody.

Matt Haney:

Yeah,

Harlan Geiser:

It's awesome, but it's not for everybody. And I didn't think the market was big enough in Central Illinois for that. And I didn't want to travel. So, I decided to leave that one alone. Uh, but I'm, but I'm a big fan of an advocate of, uh, Jack Stacks organization. It's great. Uh, anyway, so, uh, I implement, I started the Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and started implementing that in the companies that I had. and boy, I'll tell you what, it was a lot of work.

Matt Haney:

Because there wasn't a program or a recipe

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah. Yeah. That and, and it's actually built for, a larger company. Okay. I was interested in working with, with entrepreneurial

Matt Haney:

companies. Yeah,

Harlan Geiser:

companies, a lot of'em, under a hundred employees. and you know, it's just like kind of buying. You know, buying a Cadillac when you could, you know, jump in a Prius and get wherever you want to go. Right, And, and just do fine in a Prius. right.

Matt Haney:

Well, not to mention it's just the accessibility, approachability of it. It's not as overwhelming. And I think that's one of my favorite things about using the system is that, you know, you can make it do as much as you need it to, but you can also make it as simple and as, as, um, you know, unintimidating as possible. Alright, so you got started and how many folks are you working with now? Or how many of you been with like, what's the.

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah, I have 16 clients now,

Matt Haney:

Oh, that's great. And you've had those over, I mean, I'm sure you've been growing those over time and, and at some point, you know, did you realize that was the number that was good for you or is it organically got there or,

Harlan Geiser:

yeah. I, I kind of had to put a, a cap on it for, for

Matt Haney:

yeah. Yeah. Right

Harlan Geiser:

Uh,

Matt Haney:

amount of hours in the day

Harlan Geiser:

there are. Yeah, there's younger EOS implementers that have 20 or 25 clients and, and it, it's very workable and doable at that size. But for me, with the family obligations and other things that I. have, uh, 16 seems to, uh, work out pretty well. Uh, once again, though, I didn't necessarily try to build it. It's all been word of mouth, kind of that kind of stuff. It's not been,

Matt Haney:

Well, let's talk about some. So at this point I've, I've got some questions I wanna run through with you, um, that pertain to your wisdom and experience, and I always tell folks it's easiest if you think about some of your recent sessions or recent clients or things as we start to tell some of these stories because. think it helps frame, and, and if you, when you tell the story about one of these, it would be helpful if you give some backstory on their industry. I don't need to know revenues, I don't need to know, but just more like, Hey, this client was, you know, in this space that about this many people, and these are some of the things we've saw.

Harlan Geiser:

Mm-hmm.

Matt Haney:

um, some of the, the challenges that we see in the fractional space when we're a fractional integrator or fractional, COO is, The changing of the scorecard, it's always one of the things for me that becomes. A little challenging because I don't want to be the one that's moving the goalposts constantly, but I also don't want to be the one, that's not moving them either. So give me some of your opinions, thoughts, or experience on changing a scorecard, um, and sort of how often you and see that with clients. And just a little backstory, anybody where you've had positive changes or you've seen something in a scorecard session over session and you, you know, kind of get them to that, that next point.

Harlan Geiser:

Right. Okay. So as you indicated, a scorecard is not something you want to just change willy-nilly or whenever you just kind of feel like it. Uh, on the other hand, whenever your business changes or something changes. If it's of any proportion or maybe you have a new opportunity or whatever, you, you, you're gonna have to change your accountability chart, and you're gonna have to change your scorecard accordingly, because those are tools that are, that are meant to des to serve you. What people miss about the scorecard though, is it's really about what is the result that you want and what are the activities that you should be doing on a weekly basis. That are going to deliver that result. So instead of getting really emotional about something that's on the scorecard, you get incredibly practical about this is where we're going. This is our one year plan, this is our three year picture, this is our 10 year target. And if we're gonna get there, what are the things that we need to be doing this quarter, which are rocks to get us there? What are the things that we need to be doing? This week, what are the activities we need to be doing this week that'll put us where we want to go when we're achieving those results. And so those things do change sometimes. Okay. And the, the, the wisest and smartest and best performing companies are the ones that are thinking about that all the time. They are actually pulling their score, count out multiple times a week, checking and seeing where they are on the various. Five to 15 items that are on the scorecard, and adjusting their, uh, calendars accordingly.

Matt Haney:

Right. How often do you see, an, an all green? I say all green because the softwares that I use, they, they,

Harlan Geiser:

Mm-hmm.

Matt Haney:

it's if it's green, if it's off track, it's red. How often are you seeing all green scorecards?

Harlan Geiser:

Uh, not very often.

Matt Haney:

Yeah. Would you say that 80% of them are green? I, I'm just trying to get

Harlan Geiser:

Oh, you know, I think, I think most of, most of my clients are probably 50 to 75% green, because if you're all green, that begs the question of. Well, what are you putting like slam dunk activities on here? I mean, what are we doing here? Okay. I mean, this gotta be a, this gotta be a stretch. Okay. We're not, we're not, we don't want, like, uh, like Alex Retag says in, in, uh, profit works, you know, we don't want the rubber band to snap, but we wanna put tension on it

Matt Haney:

that's

Harlan Geiser:

it can work for us, right. We don't wanna break it, but we want it to work for us. So

Matt Haney:

that's exactly right. And I feel like I tell folks that they, they, um, and particularly leadership team members. Um, you know, and, and down the stream, down to some of the department levels, understandably, people want to be on track, right? That's their way of feeling comfortable in the business. It's their way of getting positive affirmation. That they're being successful. And I agree. It's like we should celebrate things being green. But to your point, we should also push the needle a little bit. that's why I asked you earlier, I'm going to encourage your scorecard to be off because that means we're doing something different and we're trying and we're measuring and we're checking the results of what we're doing. So in all Green Scorecard, to me, sometimes it's a fail, right? Like you're not, and and to tell someone who's punching in their metrics and getting a green output that they're failing. is a hard thing to say. So we, you know, we, we find ourselves saying it in a little different way, which is, I think we need to readjust this measurement. Is it something we're tracking? Are we gonna do something with the change that produces, if it turns red, what are we gonna do? Um, the goal for the scorecard for me is to, is to create change, positive change. So I love that you said 50 per 50 to 60% of your clients are seeing a red scorecard.'cause that means they're dynamic and they're measuring something, but it does take a certain sense of maturity and. In business and maturity as an individual to be comfortable with seeing the red numbers.

Harlan Geiser:

Absolutely. So, so that ties into a couple things. Uh, one of them is, you know, if you have a corporate or a bureaucratic mindset, it won't allow you to do that. You have to have an entrepreneurial. Frame of mind, which allows you to do that. And if you're quote unquote, you think you've, you failed or you lost, uh, as long as you're winning or learning, you're doing well.

Matt Haney:

Right.

Harlan Geiser:

Okay? So whatever that is, I mean, you just look back over your life and you, you'll see that many times in the most adversity. what came out of that was the best things because of the lessons that you learned. And then you applied those and boom, it's like, you know, for, for years everybody says you don't make your real money on the, on the straightaway. You make it on the curve, right?

Matt Haney:

Yeah, that's so true.

Harlan Geiser:

So yeah. Let's, let's let, let's go there and let's apply that to the scorecard. And let's just keep working that thing. And the other thing is too, though, you do have to build, uh, for those of you in the crowd who might be Patrick Lencioni fans, uh, you do have to be working that trust pyramid. The, the, you know, you have to have a healthy. Uh, environment with vulnerability based trust where people are open and honest, and we're not shooting the messenger here, we're not lashing anybody out because they didn't make their number. On the other hand, we're fixing it. You know, we, you know, we might be red this week or next week or whatever. Now, scorecards shouldn't be blips. We're looking for trends here, Right, So. You know, we're looking for three or four or five weeks and it's going the wrong direction. We need to fix that.

Matt Haney:

right. right. Well said. Well, you clued on something earlier and I'm, I would be remiss if I didn't take a full swing at that softball, which is. Around people, um, and bringing people in. So I, one of my favorite things just to, to kind of glean out of, uh, implementers is that you get to see companies, um, before, during, and after specific types, employees, like, right? I think about your session room and how often you have somebody coming into the, into the business that's new to the leadership team. Give me, give me some, uh, so you know, what, what's some of your hardest things about. Um, working with, uh, with people, like what is the heart like? Are, are you managing people? Gimme an example of some things that you see that are most challenging for entrepreneurial teams or visionaries to, to, you know, struggle with when it comes to people.

Harlan Geiser:

Okay. So I've got a whole bunch of answers for that. Okay. But I think the most fun one is actually, maybe not exactly answering the question you ask,

Matt Haney:

love it. All right.

Harlan Geiser:

but it's visionaries thinking that they're integrators. So the founder, the head of the company, the Harlan, so to speak, where I'm just a hopeless visionary. Leader, not a manager.

Matt Haney:

right.

Harlan Geiser:

Okay. And I think I can run my company.

Matt Haney:

Yeah.

Harlan Geiser:

Okay. And I've done it for like 10, 15 years, you know? And looking back on that, after I finally got an integrator or a operating officer in there that actually knew and loved to do that work, which I didn't like, Right,

Matt Haney:

right.

Harlan Geiser:

Like to, to see the difference in the results. I mean, we really started making money when that, when I got outta that chair.

Matt Haney:

When you, yeah, so, so are you encouraging of your, I mean, again, you work in small to midsize companies under a hundred employees.

Harlan Geiser:

well I save, I, yeah, I say many of'em are. I, I do have some that are over 300 employees as well, but yes, go

Matt Haney:

so are you finding them having integrators in some capacity or is there a promotion by tenure or by default into that seat and, you know, how are, how have you seen the impact of a, of a integrator, true integrator, um, in, in those, some of those businesses?

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah. what happens is that. In the beginning, the founder of the company did everything. They washed the dishes, they cleaned the toilets, they purchased, they sold, they did whatever they do. So then gradually over time, a lot of these jobs go out to other people

Matt Haney:

Right.

Harlan Geiser:

enough to get rid of. Right, And then some sacred cows. Come along and they're not quite as anxious to get rid of those. For some it might be they, they decide they want to stay in selling. Uh, they decide they want to be, they want to have full control over the marketing. but in a lot of cases they think that they're for some reason the only person in the world that could run that company. and unfortunately when they're running the company. They're taking themselves away from the things that they really do the best, that only they could do, which is that visionary culture leadership

Matt Haney:

Yeah. And, and growth and focused on forward and yeah, no, I see it, I see it so often. Harlan is, is, and, and by the way, I think we're all guilty, uh, to a certain extent that, uh, letting go of the vine is, is a very hard thing to do. Um, and it's something that takes time and patience and reassurance. And that's the beauty of coming in with a fractional is that, uh, a lot of times when people don't understand what they need, don't know what they need, but they need something else. You know, we're a natural transition to come in and help them figure that out. and the fractional integrator visionary relationship is one that's truly unique because I'm hired to come in and say what needs to be said in a respectful, kind, and courteous way. Not necessarily what the visionary wants to hear. They're, I always say, if, if you have the answers, you don't need me to help you figure them out. You've got them. Go do it. But if you need a challenge and someone to see it from an opposite angle, then potentially bring in a fractional and see. What it's like to date somebody without the long-term commitment and a and, and me as a fractional trying to sell you on the fact that I'm here long term. It's quite the opposite. My job is to replace myself in some capacity once we find that right person. So I think a, allowing a visionary to get out of the integrator seat and showing them what it's like to have someone that they can trust to run it is a truly, um, you know, unlock. It's a huge opportunity.

Harlan Geiser:

Yep, exactly.

Matt Haney:

So that's fun. let's see, what else can we talk about? so most of your clients have integrators or is someone in the seat?

Harlan Geiser:

Well, so that, that the way you phrased that was perfect. yes. almost all of them now do have integrators, um, but some of those integrators are just sitting in the seat. The visionary is still pulling all the strings and the integrator's almost functioning as a, maybe an operating head of operations or, uh, a high powered executive secretary.

Matt Haney:

Yeah, administrative right. So what do you do in those scenarios when you see a client that's, you know, struggling in the fact that their integrator is, is, you know, they put a name in that seat because Harlan told'em too when they were doing the accountability chart and they believe that they need that person, but they're truly not the right person in the right seat because of one reason. How do you approach that?

Harlan Geiser:

Well, I have a lot of advantages because I'm old. I've been through, I've been through all this stuff, Right, I've, I'm really, truly, my heart is to help.

Matt Haney:

right,

Harlan Geiser:

Okay. And the way I can help is to make sure that I share the truth.

Matt Haney:

right,

Harlan Geiser:

Once again, all of Patrick Lencioni, it needs to be the kind truth, and I can say it with a smile on my face and I can pretty much get away with murder. Like you, I don't, I don't, live there. I don't, I'm not a

Matt Haney:

I don't, I don't, and I'm not gonna sit here. Yeah. And by the way, I'm, Mike has said, lead with your heart and, and be good to the business and the people. And sometimes, most times that means saying something that's uncomfortable.

Harlan Geiser:

So, and then the other thing, the other way to do that is, uh, you know, I'm not just making this up. I'm thinking about you in this deal. Wouldn't you rather be? And I just paint that picture for'em and they always go, oh yeah, Yeah,'cause the stuff they love to do, they know what that is, but they haven't thought about it enough.

Matt Haney:

Yeah, we, uh,

Harlan Geiser:

a clarity break, figure it

Matt Haney:

exactly. You and I have a, uh, a, a friend in common, uh, a client in common. And, um, I told, I told this particular guy at one point, I said, I think you need to get out of the office. I think you need to close that door and walk out and go play golf. Go be in the community. Let let this. Let this business do what it's doing. You've got the right leadership team. Go be the visionary. Trust the process. Trust but verify, check in and just go be the visionary and see what happens. And you know what, Harlan, they go out, they take a minute, and all of a sudden they come back and they're their best self in their seat because they've got that clarity. They're not focused on things that someone else has handled. And by the way, the scorecard on all those. Things are in line. Okay, go, go be the visionary. So, um, I think it's, it's good to get the, to, to show that person what they should be doing or what they can be doing. And I use the accountability chart a whole lot when it comes to like, having those conversations because in the platform it's an, it's an easy button to push. It's always a good segment, it's a good visual. It's got the core responsibilities there. And if I can say to you, you're living in this seat. Not this seat, then we can see the difference in responsibilities and it becomes really clear what, um, what they should be doing. And it's a nice tool to reference.

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah, exactly.

Matt Haney:

well, what else? Any other things, uh, that you want to touch base on? Anything that you, you think is that the, the listeners would enjoy, uh, from your 40 plus years of experience and 53 years of marriage?

Harlan Geiser:

Yeah, well, the marriage thing's still

Matt Haney:

It's a whole different deal, man. I'm working on 19 years myself and to think about another 33 years, it's like, woo,

Harlan Geiser:

well, you you, you've probably got the toughest years behind you. Yeah,

Matt Haney:

made it this far. I got these, these, kids in this family that keep me on my toes. And so

Harlan Geiser:

awesome.

Matt Haney:

any, any closing thoughts you got?

Harlan Geiser:

uh, your core values really matter.

Matt Haney:

Yeah.

Harlan Geiser:

It's the first thing on the VTO for a reason.

Matt Haney:

Right. Well, while you've teed that up, I'm gonna ask you this. How often are you referencing those? referencing the core values in terms of, as a, as a tool for the entire company?

Harlan Geiser:

Well, I'm, I I encourage my clients to be doing something active with the VTO every, or with the core values every day. That should be conversational. You should be tying behaviors to. Core values all the time. Whenever you're complimenting somebody, I say, Hey, this is the one place where, I mean, it's not that you don't ever say something negative and tie it to a core value'cause you do. But boy, I don't let somebody do something awesome that fits perfectly in with one of your core values. Don't ever waste that. Always make a deal of that. Always. So it's every day. But certainly the EOS system is set up for the annual meetings, the quarterly meetings at the, at the leadership team level, the all company meetings on a quarterly basis. The, uh, departmental meetings. The core values should be brought up there. And then of course, it's, it's built into the quarterly conversations where, so, you know, your people should be, they should be living into these core values. This isn't something we just memorize. There's nothing wrong with memorizing. There's nothing wrong with putting it on the wall. All of that stuff's good, but it's insufficient. You've gotta live it.

Matt Haney:

I, I have to tell you, I'm cheating. I'm literally in the background while we're having this recording. Um, and I'm messaging one of my clients who's having a challenge with one of his employees on the leadership team. Literally this morning I had a call with him, uh, and he said, I want to have a conversation with him. What do you recommend? I immediately said, frame the conversation in terms of you not him. I'm looking at this, I'm not doing this for you, I'm not helping you, by the way, knowing that that's not necessarily the case. It's just a, a diffusing way to have a conversation with someone. So when you said that, I said regarding so-and-so, uh, I'd suggest looking back at the core values today, during your one-on-one, I think it'll help you have, help you have additional conversation points, and it's a, it's a non alarming way to reference summit conversations like, Hey. Here's a core value that I think we're struggling with, blah, and it's a disarming way to have a conversation like our quarterly check-in. So thank you for, for bringing up core values and that nugget, because it certainly helped me remind him. To use those, but it also signals me that I need to be referencing those as I'm facilitating our, our meetings. I need to be using core values more spur conversations and, and facilitate change and make sure that people are, are living by them on a daily basis. So, thank you Harlan, for, for bringing up the, the core values as something that we should be referencing on a, on a daily, if not weekly basis, with each one of the people in the business.

Harlan Geiser:

Certainly.

Matt Haney:

This has been awesome having you, Harlan. I really, really appreciate it. And um, obviously if you, if you know of any clients in central Illinois looking for fractional integrators, I'm your guy and if I come across any opportunities for businesses in your area that are looking to grow, I'll certainly connect them with the man himself.

Harlan Geiser:

Okay. Very good. Well, thank you. Thank you,

Matt Haney:

thanks for joining us today on the scalability code and we'll talk to you soon sir.

Harlan Geiser:

Very good. Thank you.

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