The Scalability Code
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 on how you can get your business out of the shit show and into growth mode.
Hosted by Matt Haney, founder of Sinclair Ventures: Fractional COO & Leadership Coaching services that free you up to focus on what’s next.
The Scalability Code
Cracking the Vault: Bridging Banking and EOS for Leadership and Growth With Kevin Taylor
Let’s crack open the vault. On this episode of The Scalability Code, Matt Haney sits down with Kevin Taylor, a former commercial banker turned EOS Implementer. Kevin shares his journey from starting a bank during the 2008 financial crisis to helping businesses achieve operational excellence with the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).
Discover how Kevin’s decades of banking experience shaped his approach to business development, relationship-building, and leadership. Learn about the parallels between banking fundamentals and EOS tools, and hear real-world stories about overcoming challenges, building strong teams, and driving sustainable growth.
00:00 Introduction
00:20 Welcome
01:05 Background
06:02 The Power of Cold Drop-Ins
10:43 Working Genius
12:03 Where Community Banks Can Add Value
12:58 Parallels Between Banking and EOS Implementation
16:10 Making the Segue Into EOS
18:00 Challenges of the Restaurant Industry
19:38 Common Themes in Sessions
22:25 What is the Last Podcast You Listened to?
27:19 What EOS Tool did You Use in Your Last EOS Session?
32:18 EOS Scorecard
35:58 What is a Memorable Trip You Took With Your Family?
Connect with Kevin Taylor:
https://www.eosworldwide.com/kevin-taylor
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thekevinktaylor
"Traction" by Gino Wickman: https://a.co/d/i1ddcgm
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Let’s build your team and guide them to the next level.
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:Thanks for joining us again for another episode of the Scalability Code. Today I'm privileged to have another Texan in the room with us. This is Kevin Taylor from Dallas. Kevin, thanks for joining us today on the Scalability Code.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah, my pleasure. Happy to be here.
Matt Haney:Awesome. Well, we always start off with the same thing. everyone has a story. Everyone has gotten to this point for some reason, some way in some shape. So why don't you do us a favor and give us a little bit of backstory, your entrepreneurial journey as yourself, kind of how you got to be an implementer. And I do think it, it, as far back as you want to go, we've got time and I think it's interesting what ends up, do you tell me and forms the conversation moving forward. And so, yeah. So take it back as far as you want and give us a little backstory about.
Kevin Taylor:Sure. Yeah. So I spent the majority of my career as a commercial banker, so over 25 years in commercial banking. So when I say commercial banking, business banker, whatever you wanna call it. So most of my clients I worked with. We're owner managed businesses. I'm in the Dallas area, so most of those companies were in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and revenue size, it looked like anywhere between two to a hundred million in revenue is kind of center of the fairway for us. Worked with some over that, some with under that. And most recently I was a senior vice president, co-founder of a bank here in Dallas. And so we have started that bank almost 17 years ago. if you're doing the math, that was 2008
Matt Haney:Ah, great time to start a bank.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah, it was not a fun year for a lot of banks that are out there, but, thankfully we started the capital raise in 2007. Raised about$26 million in capital. We were able to close that capital raise before the bottom fell out. I got pretty lucky on that as, uh, as I had left a, a publicly traded bank, when we started that venture. And I had sold all my shares right before the bottom fell out, so sold at$60. Few months later is at$20 a share. And so that was pure luck. but it was a good time. I mean, people joke that 2008 was a terrible time to start a bank. It was actually a good time for us because we had a clean balance sheet. None of the problems from the past and, uh, were able to do a lot of the things that the other banks just weren't willing to do. They, they, Cut off the faucet for real estate loans, lines of credits, equipment financing you fill in the blank. And so it allowed us to be profitable inside that 24 month period. you know, it was about five years into that journey is when I was introduced, to the book Traction and it was from, uh, one of the OG implementers who has now retired. but he was an implementer back in 20 12, 20 13. Gave me a copy of the book Traction. It's a lot of the books that are sitting behind my, shoulder now. you're watching the video and, uh, I'll be first admitted, sit on my shelf for, for, for quite a while before I cracked it open. But once I opened it, read through chapter one, I was hooked. So the remaining of the book, gave a copy to our CEO who read it, loved it. And, uh, so we started implementing, the tools of EOS, uh, inside the bank And it, it had a lot to do with our, our growth, over the years and,$26 million capital raise. Were just over a billion in assets when I left, two years ago. And it, during that same time frame is when I also became part of the entrepreneurs organizations. EO Dallas was the sponsor of the EO Dallas and was a sponsor there for eight years. And it was during that time. I realized I had a lot more in common and I enjoyed hanging out with the entrepreneurs a lot more than a lot of my banking colleagues. And so after a decade of, you know, handing out the traction books, referring prospects, friends, clients to other EOS implementers, when it was, you know, time for me to make that entrepreneurial leap, I decided to become an EOS implementer. So
Matt Haney:That's
Kevin Taylor:I do today, and I love it.
Matt Haney:So kudos to you for starting a bank, period. Uh, I have a close friend down here, who started a bank and I've, I've watched, the challenges that he's had, but also the opportunities and the capital raises and the entrepreneurs and all this stuff. Jeff Wilkinson is his name. I dunno if you know Jeff, anyway, so, so let's rewind back. So first you, you helped start the bank. You, you co-ran the bank or, or were involved, but what was your day to day like during those 17 years and sort of what were you doing?
Kevin Taylor:Yeah, so, well it was 17 years ago, so I was with the bank for about 15 years. And, it started out, y you know, when you start with a de novo bank with no, relationship, it's a lot of knocking on doors and, um,
Matt Haney:business development.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah, it was business development in 2008, so you gotta picture this. In 2008, banking industry's collapsing. We are a brand new de Novo bank and we are operating out of a trailer in a parking lot because we don't have our location bills yet. So I'm knocking on doors telling business owners our story, how we're, we're a new bank, they're starting, and when they ask where the location is, it's that trailer that's in the parking lot. We can
Matt Haney:Yeah. It's where we're legit. I promise. I promise we're legit. Yeah.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. So it, it, you know, it, that was a hard sell, sometimes Yeah. With, with someone who's a, a Noname bank starting in 2008, operating outta a trailer in a parking lot,
Matt Haney:That's right. and, did you have, did you create your kind of target market and your ideal customer profile and were you guys building that just like you would a business? I mean, it is a business obviously, but like you were targeting a certain subset of, of potential clients, I'm guessing.
Kevin Taylor:Yes. and I had, The previous bank before we started the the new one, I had written the business development plan really just through trial and error on that. I was taught one way, which was, you know, the phone calls, getting through the gatekeeper, making the appointment, identifying a need. And that may work sometimes in the middle market, or, or upper middle market. Uh, but when you're calling on, you know, the two to a hundred million in revenue, you've got your business owner that's wearing so many different hats and, it's also real easy for them to get a phone call and just, you know, not answer, say, not available. And.
Matt Haney:Yeah.
Kevin Taylor:So what I had thought of is just, well, why don't we just, I'll just drop in cold on this, just a cold drop in. And, it took me a little bit of the, quite a few drop-ins to perfect my script in there. But I was calling on again, owner managed businesses, Dallas Fort Worth area, really close to where. Our bank location was so the, script I developed that we just duplicated, when we started our bank was just introducing myself as one of the neighbors that came in. And it's my job to meet the business owners in that area and I haven't had a chance to meet, you know, Mr. Haney or whoever it was. And so I knew that, you know, so I knew that questions they were gonna ask, who are you? So I had an, an answer to that. And once I got in front of the business owner. And was just genuinely curious and asking questions on that. They just opened up and, that was the process from starting from zero, no portfolio to start adding clients to the bank. And I really think, as you know, in that banking industry, every business owner out there has to have a bank account
Matt Haney:Yes, it's a
Kevin Taylor:So they're either gonna bank with you or someone else. And so it's all about, you know, what value can you deliver? Who am I talking to? What problems can I solve? What needs do they have? And um, yeah, if you can just figure that out and just be curious and ask questions, it will come.
Matt Haney:I'm gonna be curious and I'm gonna ask a couple questions. how many of those prospects, did you roll in on that had a true relationship with the banker? Meaning you go in there, they're like, oh no, bill Smith, I've banked with him for years. He and I have done a lot of work together. How many times would you hear that?
Kevin Taylor:Very few,
Matt Haney:That's my point. Nobody had a relationship. My dad was in commercial banking for 30 years. He worked in a bank in Wichita Falls where I grew up with north of Dallas. And he, he did what you did for 30 years and he said, it's surprising how many people who run legitimate businesses processing millions of dollars of deposits every year that could not name a name at the bank they used. So the fact that you could be relevant, top of mind, and curious, I'm sure won you some business.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah, and it was great because I would have fun with it too. And so every now and then, you know, I'd talk to someone, they're like, oh yeah, we've got a great bacon relationship. And I'd just, oh, great. Who, who? And I would ask, you know, so who would you contact? And they're like, uh, that's a good question. I don't know. And it would start, they would start thinking, well, maybe I don't have a great relationship.
Matt Haney:Yeah, that's funny. Maybe I don't know anybody, and I think the majority of those folks don't need anything. There's some businesses, obviously, that have banking needs that, and you, you know, you go who you go call'em when you need them, but in a perfect world, you'd be able to pull a name out of somebody that at least ask you if they could ever help you. But, I, I always used to still tell my clients today, just being better at business 1 0 1. Wins. You work a lot of time just being better at the basics of business. Answer the damn phone, return the damn email. Those things get you work. just being better at service. So, uh, I'm sure you saw that a lot.
Kevin Taylor:It's all about timing too. And, it's the consistency and the follow up and stuff too. But, I would rather someone tell me that, they didn't like me. That's why they would never. You know, have a bank account with me. Then I walk in, they're like, oh, I wish you would've called me last week. I just switched my, I'm like, oh my gosh. It's all about
Matt Haney:My dad used to do this. He would go to, uh, he would go to Sonic Drive-in and he would buy six Cherry Limeades.'cause if you know Sonic, you know, cherry Limeades and his job was two or three days a week. Nice job. His, his shtick was, he would go deliver Cherry Limeade to the person who was the gatekeeper and. My dad for years was known as the Cherry Limeade guy. and, and, but by the way you said it, it's first of mind. How do I need to be, you know, when they need me, they should know my name. When they don't need me, they're glad to see me. Um, and it's sad. I don't, I don't see, and I don't know. I welcome your feedback on this. I don't know how often that happens. It happens in the construction space that I've seen with some of my clients, but that hand-to-hand, gorilla marketing, I don't know. It is just not as popular as it used to be.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. And man, there's the cherry limeades on a hot Texas summer day, is great. But yeah, I, I don't see it a lot. And, and I would get that, you know, some of the, the responses I would get is like, you know, I can't remember the last time I've talked to my banker or who, whatever it was in that industry. And, and so there's a lot of low hanging fruit out there. but yeah, that was the first phase of our business development, was just the drop-ins. That was phase one.
Matt Haney:Absolutely. Were you responsible for your shepherding the relationship through the approval process, gathering documentation, learning and asking questions about the business?
Kevin Taylor:Yes, early on that was, it was everything but a as we grew and, you know, some of that stuff we'd have to delegate out. because ultimately, you know, highest and best use I know of my time and, and quite frankly, not one of my strengths is, the underwriting, the renewals, the exception report, all that stuff, is not in my zone of genius on there. I mean, my, we're talking about Lencioni's, working genius. I mean, I know my geniuses are innovation and galvanizing and so, but the tenacity enablement or my frustrations, and, that has a lot to do with the, you know, the, the renewals, the exception reports and everything else
Matt Haney:Yeah. Well, the reason I was asking is I'm, I'm bringing this towards your business as an implementer and, and what it takes to be an implementer. And I think being a generalist, to understand all the assets and facets of the business, I'm sure you got to see a lot of different things and, and businesses and challenges and underwriting would come back to you and say, Hey, Kevin, you know, there's this issue or that issue. Would you have to be the one that delivers that news? Or, as you guys got bigger, was, was your underwriting, handling those tough conversations?
Kevin Taylor:No, I was handling the tough conversations, uh, on that. And, and I do remember early, early on in my banking career, um, you know, de delivering that first no, uh, was, was tough.
Matt Haney:Yeah, it is.
Kevin Taylor:Because you don't, yeah, you don't wanna tell on someone. You can't do something. And so it was tough. But yeah, the more you do it, it just, it, it just becomes natural on it. But I think the reason, where I think community banks can add value on that, is that, the good thing about a, a lot of the larger banks is they can give you a credit decision pretty quick. it, it's a yes no, but it's, it's, it's central underwriting. I mean, it's, it feeds into the computer. It gives you Yes, no, if it's, yes, that's great. If it's no, it's like, I don't know why. but you know, a lot of community banks, at least how we worked, uh, at the time before a lot of the AI stuff came out or is coming out, it was, manually underwriting it. And so while I probably can't get you an answer in 30 minutes, When I do get you an answer, if it is, hey, unfortunately at this time can't move forward on this, I, I could give some clarity into the why behind it and like, here, here's how to fix that. And so, you know, that was the, you know, that's one of the advantages of, you know, working with a, with a true, you know, banker who understands the underwriting
Matt Haney:So it, it's interesting'cause it's, like you said, delivering that first no is tough. But I, I'm guessing, I'm guessing here, putting kind of the pieces together that a lot of what you saw in the banking world in terms of just deficiencies with businesses, you know, parallels into the work you're seeing with E os as an I. I mean, there's, there's, right, there's some overlap. There's probably a lot of synergies that says, yeah, there's core fundamental pieces that are missing from this business. We're not gonna be able to underwrite this because X, Y, and Z don't have it. Doesn't exist, doesn't look good, can't tell a story, don't have a measurable financials, look like they're a mess. You know, accounting systems are not existent. I mean, these are all things that. I know, I see as a fractional integrator every day, and I'm sure you see every single session you're in with some of your clients, maybe not as they grow, but certainly infant clients are struggling with, you know, just, just business 1 0 1, I'm guessing.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. And, and that's the good, and it is fun looking back, you know, connecting the dots is, is, you know, I feel like that 25 year career in that banking industry prepared me really well for what I do today. And like all the different businesses I've worked with, you know, I've got to peep behind the curtain
Matt Haney:hundreds.
Kevin Taylor:different companies in every single industry. And. Sit in loan committees and see and hear the decisions that are being made and why they're making those. And it's just set me up really well for what I do now. And I, and I love it because, you know, I'm, I'm the teacher coach, facilitator on it. I'm not having to do a ton of that heavy lifting. It's really you know, the visionaries and the integrators and the rest of the leadership team are doing I'll, I'll help coach'em through it and do it.
Matt Haney:I, I'm trying to think of a, of a, I'm trying to think of a better sort of setup for an implementer than someone who's been in staring in thousands of businesses, as a banker, because you tr I mean, I'm just like, I'm kind of, it's like ding, ding. All the dots are lining up. I mean, I don't know what better background you could have that, um, that would give you a, a, a perspective of just stories and challenges and issues and. You know, if it's out there, you've probably heard about it from a business owner who's in underwriting or you know, their business is, I mean, I've seen businesses fall apart right before lines of credit are issued, or you know, where they're trying to, you know this, they're trying to show you June's billings because Julys don't look so good, and they're just like all of the things that. That business owners do to try to get credit. Um, I'm sure it's given you a ton of perspective.
matt-haney_2_02-06-2025_192447:You are listening to the Scalability Code. I'm your host, Matt Haney, founder of Sinclair Ventures, and we help visionary entrepreneurs like you get out of the shit show and focus on growing your business. We offer fractional COO and leadership coaching services that free up that brain of yours to focus on what's next. Learn more about us at SinclairVentures. com. Now back to it.
Matt Haney:Okay, so let's fast forward to your implementer business. You obviously took your incredible business development skills that you've honed for years and years and, and cranked up a, an EOS implementer business. uh, how did that start? What, you know, you said you, you've, you used it, you used EOS in, in your bank, but how did you get the, what was the segue like to starting the, the implementer business?
Kevin Taylor:it was really just reaching out to a lot of the people that I've already had relationships with, through the bank side and, and what I really love, and now that I'm doing this, is it both in banking and now as an EOS implementer, I just, I love the game of business and I, I love. How it works. I, I like helping people get more of what they want from the business. Sometimes it's hard because you can, you know, what is, you know what they need and you know how to do it. It's just, it's like, how do I get them to see this? know, working with the same types of clients I did in the past, but, you know, helping them get more of what they want from their business by implementing EOS.
Matt Haney:So were you able to essentially go back to some of those relationships that you've had in Dallas for, for decades and say, Hey, this is what I'm doing now. I've, I've set up this business and was that a pretty good lead generation opportunity for you and how.
Kevin Taylor:You know, you would think it, it, it is. And there's a lot of them that are in the pipeline now that just haven't pulled the trigger on this. And so I'm thinking about my client base. Now, and, and, uh, I don't think there is one that, that I have now that was a current banking client.
Matt Haney:Oh, that's fantastic.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. That, so that's, that's, that's, that's, kind of good reflection.
Matt Haney:That's a great reflection. I would've assumed, based on all the connections you have with business owners and the relationships you established with them over the years, that it would be a natural to go back and be like, Hey, this is, you know, I've retired from this and here's my new path. And, but that's really cool that you're able to, to spin up the business that without sort of the, the springboard of the, of the bank. That's, that's fabulous.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. And, and, and, um, you know, I can think of, of a couple of them though that are companies that I called on that I did want to move over. to the bank I was with and, you know, I'm thinking about it now and I'm like, well, they're EOS clients of mine. which is, which is great.
Matt Haney:Yeah. That's awesome. Um, how long have you been a full-time implementer?
Kevin Taylor:Uh, right at two years now, now, and.
Matt Haney:great.
Kevin Taylor:And, and as soon as I got off, so outside, and I don't think we talked about this in the previous, so outside of banking and EOS implementation, you know, my wife and I also have a real estate portfolio. We dabbled in the restaurant business for a little bit. I say dabbled in there'cause, you know, we had opened up a restaurant. I always say my wife's passion is to bring joy to people through food. And she loved the food industry. We just realized about a year and a half into, probably about a year into that, that the restaurant business is a very, very hard business, to be a part of. And, and I actually have a client of mine that's in the restaurant industry and I've, I've worn up like, man, this is a tough industry. and they're seeing that firsthand.
Matt Haney:What was the concept? What did you guys create?
Kevin Taylor:so it was a very small franchise. It was a, uh, super food cafe. And so it was things like acai bowl, smoothies,
Matt Haney:Yeah, what under what brand?
Kevin Taylor:It was the, the brand name. It's, it's two wows. It was a Wow, wow. Hawaiian Lemonade was the brand and we were the first to bring that franchise, um, to Texas. Uh, they had a cool story, right? They started in the farmer's markets of Hawaii selling handcrafted lemonade since the name then, you know, that was successful. Moved in the brick and mortar. Uh, then they started doing the ossa ables smoothies, avocado toast, and yeah. And we fell in love with it. When, when my mom's side of the family's. From Hawaii, and so when we were over there, we, we ran across it before they started franchising, and when we found out they were franchising, we were the first to bring that to Texas.
Matt Haney:That's cool. Yeah, it's a, it's a hard, hard world to live managing people, razor thin margins, begging for volume, seasonality, location, all the stuff. Restaurants are a really, really tough, business. I don't have to tell you, you know, firsthand. I have a little background in, a couple as well. but no, that's, that's fantastic. okay. Couple questions. in your sessions, is there a reference, is there an analogy? Is there a common theme that you draw? To my experience with implementers, and I've been in session room with dozens of implementers over the years and. maybe not dozens, but lots of them, and I, I, there's a, there's a stick or a thing or a reference that people get to draw to. So be thinking of if you have it, if it, if the media comes to mind, tell me. But if not, I got a couple more questions for you. But I do want to come back to that because I think there's some themes that help entrepreneurs and management teams in session kind of conceptualize their business through stories and vision and things that you tell. So does anything come to mind?
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. The ones I see the hardest decisions to make is when they know they either have a wrong person, right seat, or right person, wrong seat, to make that tough decision, especially when it's someone that sits on the leadership team.
Matt Haney:Absolutely. Absolutely. I'll give you an example. I inherited a client through a local implementer to be named another, another time, and they, they caught me fire drill right before their, um, their quarterly came up and they said, Hey, we we're, we were with an implementer. We're doing it on our own. Now that's the immediate red flag. Either the implementer fired them or they fired the implementer, and we have 12 people on our leadership team. And I went, Ooh, what? They're like, yeah, we have 12 people in our quarterlies next week. Can you come sit in and help us? It's like, oh my God. So I sat in there and literally, Kevin, you, you hit it on the head. There were people in that room. There were five people from the sales organization in there. It's like, why do we have five people here? but it, it goes back to what you said, right People, wrong seat, wrong people, right seat, all the things. But man, um, leadership team dynamics are one of the hardest things. I don't have to tell you, you do it every day and have done it for two years, but it's just really challenging to let someone know they're not part, they short term, they're on, but long term we don't have a plan to, or we're rebuilding a leadership team. You're affecting big, big dynamics in the business.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah, I mean, it's, it's really tough on the leadership team. I think that's the hardest part is make that decision. But you, I, I've even seen it, you know, one level down. And, and they know, they, they know the decision they need to make. And especially if it's just a wrong person on there, they're sitting in the right seat. May, may, and you know, tell them it's like, you know, nothing will kill a good employee faster than you watching you tell tolerate a bad one. They're doing more damage than good here. And yeah, it's, but you know, I'm not gonna force their, they know the decision they need to make. They just have to make it.
Matt Haney:That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Um, okay, next I want you to pull out your phone. If you've got it somewhere close, go
Kevin Taylor:I do.
Matt Haney:you need to, I want you to flip it open and show me your last podcast that you listen to and you gotta show me. Don't make it up. It can be about gardening.
Kevin Taylor:Nope, it's, I can have it right. Here it is. This one. Shed and shine,
Matt Haney:Shed and shine. Oh, there you go. That's pretty great. And when was the last time you listened to something
Kevin Taylor:Oh, I listen to'em every day. I mean, this is, I don't know, an hour ago.
Matt Haney:All right, I'm gonna show you mine. This is, my first million, um, and it was with Scott Galloway. Have you listened to this one? Do you know Scott?
Kevin Taylor:I don't know. I don't, the name sounds
Matt Haney:he, he's on Instagram and he's a, he's a, professor Galloway is what he goes by. and I really, really suggest you listen to him. I think he's got a ton of perspective. the podcast you mentioned, you've got a real estate portfolio. My first job outta college was an analyst for a real estate firm, and we bought single family homes all over the state. And Scott Galloway will tell you that his best long-term investments are buying. Real estate in places billionaires wanna live. That's his thing. He's like, I, I've developed this shtick and I developed this theory and this principle that he's buying real estate where billionaires wanna live, take it or leave it or whatever. But, um, I think it's pretty interesting that you have real estate portfolio. I was in real estate investing for a while and then the last podcast I listened to this morning on my. While I was exercising, was a very respected investor talking about investing in real estate because he claims the markets are gonna be flat for the next 10 years in North America, and he's putting investments in Europe, but really he's, he's dumping a lot of his wealth into long-term holds for real estate.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah, and it's, uh, like. I could talk about podcasts all day long. I mean, one of, one of my favorite ones that I just got introduced to is called The Rundown. It's a 10 minute. Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's, it's, they're, they're only 10 minutes long. Yeah, it's only 10 minutes long and they give you the rundown of what happened yesterday, either in the markets or what's going on in the world. And I like it'cause it's like 10 minutes. My favorite though, probably my favorite one and I'm having withdrawal symptoms'cause they haven't had a new one come out in six days yet. Is, uh, Peter Diamantes, moonshots. Oh man. When they talk about. The, the, yeah, they, he has these episodes of, of WTF is going on in ai. And man, I can listen. Peter Diante's, moonshots is probably one of my favorites. Um, but yeah, I, there's, there's so many of'em that I love.
Matt Haney:run down, the last episode, one of the episodes they, um, they just, I just glanced at it when I followed it. One of them was about Palantir. Do you follow Palantir at all in sort of the growth?
Kevin Taylor:they're just talking about it.
Matt Haney:You need to listen. It's crazy. So one of my clients in Dallas shout out to my folks Ranger data. they're one of my EOS, uh, fractional integrator clients is a Palantir custom development shop. And they develop Palantir products for businesses that are using complex data to, analyze their business and give'em real time decisions. It's really freaking cool, Kevin, what Palantir's able to do. so anyway, I just, it's, it's interesting that, uh, you gave me two good podcasts. You're gonna go listen to my First Million, or Scott Galloway's got a good podcast that are really good to listen to, and, and I think Scott's very entertaining, and, and pragmatic. And he's, he talks about his losses. Kevin, how many times have you listened to a podcast and it talks about all the greatness? It's like I, as an operator and entrepreneurs want to commiserate. They wanna understand that it's challenging. Scott will tell you the, the falls, the flops that he's had and the lessons that he's learned from it and how his star refocus. And I just think that's really, that's really cool.
Kevin Taylor:yeah, someone who tells me that they've never lost money or if they've never failed it, I'm like, yeah, that's one. I'm not, I, I don't believe you. Uh, or you just haven't done this long enough on that, because that's not a true, I mean, I, I think about the lessons learned on. Especially going back in the real estate or not real estate, the restaurant industry. you know, I, I broke my rules in when o when looking at location number two because I didn't think they applied to me. This is my ego getting in the way, right? And, you know, my rule that I would tell someone a third party is don't open up location number two until number one is open and profitable. Well, our location nor number one, was not open. And it, of course, it wasn't profitable, and thank goodness this was during like the COVID years. the city of Dallas was dragging their fee on permitting because had we received our permit when we wanted it, I would've been another$400,000 in the hole renovating. A lease space. Thank goodness. Our, our first space we own, I mean, it's, it's a, it's a property we own that we're not a landlord on, but it would've been a, another 400,000 dumped into a lease space that we would've had to been like, well that was an expensive lesson. And
Matt Haney:Yeah, well you rules apply to you. That's what I always tell my clients and the visionaries is like, rules apply to you. alright, let's switch a little bit to EOS and give a couple more minutes on, on this stuff. What, what, uh, think back to your last session. what tool. Did you use in that session that was kind of, did it unlock any ahas or anything that was most impactful for that leadership team?
Kevin Taylor:So my last session was yesterday and, Yeah. yeah, so the tool that we, we, rolled out on that one, this was VB two, so, so it was the delegate and Elevate, and this group is so good. They, I mean,
Matt Haney:What
Kevin Taylor:they
Matt Haney:in?
Kevin Taylor:they are therapist.
Matt Haney:Okay,
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. but they're Such a great team. It's a leadership team of three, and, man, they're doing all the work. Um, I mean, VB two, we go in there and when we set rocks on, focus day, and I'm like, Hey, they're, they're due on VB two. We really only have 60 days to do it. Usually my teams are coming back with 50% or less of their rocks actually done. They came back with 88.6%
Matt Haney:get out. That's fabulous.
Kevin Taylor:and they said really good rocks too.
Matt Haney:it. Give me an example. Do you remember any of'em or what kind of, generally speaking what they were? I'm always fascinated at the various rocks that come out for different clients and. because sometimes when they're early in their EOS career, you know, journey, they're, they're setting kind of 1 0 1 fundamental reporting or accounting or just various types of, of rocks that are, but, but you, these, folks may have, uh, may have something that's a little more in depth.
Kevin Taylor:you know, one of'em, especially coming out of, um, you know, VB two is, you know, roll, rolling out EOS
Matt Haney:Yeah.
Kevin Taylor:know, doing the EOS rollout to. Yeah, because that's the thing is that is what I gotta remind the leadership team of is that, look, you guys have spent three full days learning this, you know, becoming a master of the foundational tools of EOS. I mean, yes. Now you know what an accountability chart is and what the rocks are and a level 10 meeting your scorecard and, you know, the, the five leadership abilities, all that stuff. And you've been talking about it for three full days, over a 60 day period. But you gotta remember when you start rolling the stuff out to the team, they, they don't know any of this stuff. And I, and I think one of the best books in the EOS library is the, what the heck is e os book? And, I admit that that's probably one of the last books I read inside the EOS library because I knew what it was. I'm like, I don't need to read this book, but I read it. I'm like, this is actually written really, really well. It's the, the high level version. it's got pictures, you know, but it's, it's, it's a good, it's a really good book, not just for all the employees, but I think it's for the leadership team as well. And so I gave'em all a copy of the, uh, what the heck is EOS encouraged them to, you know, give those out to their staff. And, also have them, their staff take the organizational checkup. it's a
Matt Haney:Absolutely. Yes, yes, yes. I was, um. On a podcast the other day with Beth Fahe. I don't know if you know Beth, Beth Fahe. And do you know Beth? She and and Marissa Smith are, are, uh, work drumming up a book around rollout around just exactly what you're seeing, which is like, how do we get these folks to. Roll this business out and make it stick. And that's a lot of what I do as a Al Integrator is help leadership teams reinforce the core principles of S and make sure that they're operating on a weekly basis. And it's really hard. I feel like at times we, you, I implementers. Send this beautiful Ferrari out into the world and hope that they can, you know, that the, the visionary and the leadership team can, can keep it on the road. and it's hard. I mean, it's really hard because we, I take it for granted because I've done it for years. It's so second nature to me. But you know, if you asked me to, uh, to go be a synchronized swimmer, I have no idea how to do it. You'd have to, you'd have to teach me and walk me through it. I don't even know. But EOS becomes so natural to me. I think just to your point, making sure that folks are understanding what EOS, the values of it. and just repetition, right? It's all about just getting in there. Even if it's not perfect, do it. Have the awkward moments where it's like, oh, man, are we really doing this the right way? Is it the wrong way? Who knows? You're doing it? Just, just improve incrementally every day.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. But back to your question on the tools. I mean, the one before that, so like on the quarterly, they ate cashflow drivers, and that was a fun one. To do and they man, That was such a good conversation because not only, you know, did they find some other ways to increase revenue? they really had some really great ideas on how to cut expenses.
Matt Haney:I love that.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. And so they, cashflow drivers, that was a really fun one, uh,
Matt Haney:I haven't done that one in forever. You've, you've, you've challenged me to go back and look at that and, and, give,'cause there are some co clients that I have that are struggling. one of'em is a retail business. They've got a self tanning salon and the business is great, but they need to really go back in and look at those. So I'm gonna flip that idea over to the implementer and ask them to potentially bring that up at the quarterlys coming up. that's awesome. One more thing. Scorecard. I always ask this question because scorecard is one of the most fascinating things to me. I have had many clients that brag about themselves having green. All the numbers are green. and I always tell them, A good scorecard is not all green. What do you mean? It's like, well, we need to push ourselves, right? We need to set goals, we need to be looking at things. How often are you seeing. scorecards change and how often during session are you, you know, provoking that conversation around, reassessing the scorecard or changing the, changing the targets.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. Um, it happens more than it doesn't happen. I would say that. And it, it's good because it, and there's a great book that's out now, the data book and, it really dives deep into the importance of having a really great scorecard and it should always be evolving on this. And a really good scorecard has a good, you know, mix of leading in lagging indicators in it. some industries it's maybe hard to have some of those leading indicators, but, you know, I challenge my teams. I'm like, Hey, let's, let's try to get a good combination of both leading and lagging indicators. On that scorecard, a good mix of those. and yeah, but it, it's, it should be either updating, um, one of the goals on the measurables or, adding or taking off a measurable, do we really need to see this on a weekly basis? So it's, it should
Matt Haney:Man. Have you inherited any scorecards that are like, you know, 27 lines long? Do you see that? Or are you, are you seeing them mainly pretty concise?
Kevin Taylor:have in, full transparency, these are the scorecards, for companies that are self implementing. And, so I always offer to take a look at it. And I, I looked at one that was, it had 43 items on it, and I'm like, well, no wonder. Like, why do you have so many things? Like, do you really need to know all of this stuff on a weekly basis? And then so we, we were going through it
Matt Haney:Yeah. What'd you end up getting down to? More or less. remember?
Kevin Taylor:well this was one self implement. And so, I, I gave them recommendations on that. I don't know, I don't know what they ended up going on this, this wasn't a, fully os client for me.
Matt Haney:Right. Yeah, man. Those, the more is, just more. And, um, I, I, my, what I love to do is kinda scroll back over, I, we use 90 point I a lot, I've had dozens of clients on it, and, and it, you go back and you just keep scrolling and I'm like, Hey. All these are green. Come on. Do we need, what do we, how is this helping us operate the business? And I'll push and I'll say, Hey, we really gotta dig deep. What is it? What is it? What, okay, well it's cash flow. Well, you know, it. And just kind of pushing that curiosity to help people understand that, you know, you can really do an effective scorecard with 10 or less. I'm a big believer of it. And yeah, you can measure that stuff and track it somewhere else. Uh, in your CRM or whatever, but let's try to keep it simple and, and really know that when something's off track, it's impacting the business.
Kevin Taylor:Well, and we gotta think about, you know, the whole purpose of the scorecard, right? I mean, that's one of the disciplines in the UN under the data component when we're looking at the EOS model and, you know, the purpose of the whole data when we're, when we're teaching it, it's to make. Decisions. And so are we using this data to help us make decisions If all of it's green? I mean, are we really challenging ourselves or do we need to adjust the goal? But you know, it's based on, you know, facts, figures, objective information instead of the feelings, emotions, and egos that often drive, you know, the decision making in entrepreneurial companies. And so it being all green, is that an ego thing? Do we, like, does that make us feel good?
Matt Haney:Yeah, sure. I don't know. either. That's awesome. Well, a couple more questions and I'll let you go. So, you're a family guy. I'm a family guy. You like to travel? I like to travel. and part of my commitment to live in my, my best EOS life. And you live in yours is traveling with family. So tell me, a memorable trip or an upcoming trip with your family
Kevin Taylor:So it's funny as we're recording this, my whole family's in Germany right now. so my wife is German. Her, all of her family lives there, and so. Uh, my wife and both kids, who are 14 and 15 are there in Germany. But our most memorable trip was earlier this year. we took a, family trip and it was with some other, great entrepreneur friends of ours, to the BVI. And we actually have a friend of ours that owns an island in the BVI. And so we're on her private island for a week and having our meals together, dinner. Got to know them really well and we're actually repeating that trip next year.
Matt Haney:How amazing and beautiful is that. That's so cool. Did you guys go sailing or do anything, you know, go out on the water? Obviously it's all in the water, so what would you, just a bunch of activities.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah, we did some activities on, uh, there and then, we took a boat over to the baths, uh, over in the BVI. And then, they actually have their own, you know, it's called aerial, aerial, BVI. They, they actually have their own little sailboats and stuff that we did, but, you know, played, you know, both my kids, played volleyball and so we had a lot of fun on volleyball tournaments and, um.
Matt Haney:That's awesome.
Kevin Taylor:We're, we're, we're there with entrepreneurs and so we're, uh, you know, the island owner, she walked us through an exercise of writing her own eulogy and to see our 14
Matt Haney:know what?
Kevin Taylor:kid actually do that, man.
Matt Haney:I just heard this, I don't know where I heard this. I just heard it recently. Um, it must be a thing. but how it impacts. The idea is to write your eulogy and use that to transform and change your life between now and then, right?
Kevin Taylor:It's through North Star.
Matt Haney:That's right. Writing what you want to be known for and executing against it.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah, it's the filter. It's the filter that all your decisions should be made from.
Matt Haney:That's so rad. Ah, you're the second, second time. I've heard that in the last week to 10 days. I'm gonna have to, uh, jump in,
Kevin Taylor:Well, think about it like through the EO world, right? You know, we're helping companies, you know, we where, you know, execute on their vision. That's the whole traction book, is bringing your vision down to the ground, executing on it with discipline and accountability. And so when you have a clear vision. And you know where you're going on that, either in the business or individual. It just makes those Yes. No decisions. So much easier.
Matt Haney:that's right.
Kevin Taylor:laser focused
Matt Haney:Is this part of my path or not? I love it.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah.
Matt Haney:cool, Kevin. so
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. So that was the most memorable trip. I mean, I, I don't know how we taught that. I mean, It was a lot of fun with just great people, and our kids getting to hear a lot of the stuff that I want to tell them, but not from me. They get to hear it from someone else, which
Matt Haney:That's so different. It hit so different. it wasn't until I got to be like a young man, probably in my early twenties that my dad was. Very wise. Turns out he's been wise my whole life, but I wasn't ready to hear it from him until I was in my early twenties. But all of a sudden, my buddy's dad, he was wise when I was 14. So to your point, it's different when you hear it from somebody that's not your parent. And then obviously as your kids get older, I have a 15-year-old as well. So as your kids get older, they become understanding of the fact that you're pretty smart guy.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. And well, yeah, ho hopefully they realize that eventually, and that's why I love doing these podcasts, right?'cause this will live on forever.
Matt Haney:That's right.
Kevin Taylor:hopefully they'll stumble
Matt Haney:That's exactly right. Listen up. You've got two girls, A boy and a girl. Okay. Yeah. That's awesome. Um, well, cool. Well, hey, I can't thank you enough, Kevin, for your time, and for joining us in the scalability code. It was awesome to chat with you and hear your story and, see the ways you're working with your clients and I really, appreciate your time and if, and, hopefully we can continue to stay in touch.
Kevin Taylor:Yeah. Matt, this was fun. Appreciate it.
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