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Conversations for Leaders & Teams
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Conversations for Leaders & Teams
E87. Predictable Success: How Measuring What Matters Drives Business Momentum w/ Maritza Davila
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Growth strategist Maritza Davila shares powerful insights on using KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to achieve predictable business growth through systematic measurement and accountability.
• KPIs serve as "momentum metrics" that measure how well businesses are performing toward specific goals
• Nothing is predictable unless it's measurable - weekly tracking allows for timely course correction
• Both quantitative metrics (financial) and qualitative metrics (team satisfaction, culture) are important
• Common mistake: measuring only lagging indicators (revenue) instead of leading indicators (inputs)
• Having clear metrics creates accountability and clarity for team members
• Weekly reporting creates a cadence to culture - everyone knows what's expected
• The GROW methodology: Guide (vision/goals), Research (data collection), Optimize (improvement), Win (execution)
• For predictable growth, referrals must be part of a systematic strategy, not just passive word-of-mouth
• Owners must demonstrate accountability themselves to set the example for their teams
• Three-strike rule provides framework for addressing underperformance
For a free consultation with Maritza on growing your business predictably, visit www.businessclarity.co
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Until next time, keep doing great things!
Introduction to Growth Strategist Maritza Davila
Speaker 1Welcome to Conversations where today we are talking to Maritza Davila, a growth strategist and consultant who has over a decade experience in operations, sales and systems. She has a passion for helping business owners and their teams track KPIs to achieve their growth goals. Welcome to the show. How are you?
Speaker 2today? I'm doing. Well, how are you, dr Kelly? I'm doing great.
Speaker 1It's a Dr Kelly I'm doing great. It's a beautiful sunny day and interesting fun fact, we are in the same city.
Speaker 2Yes, who knew Small world Small?
Speaker 1world, small world. Well, I'm excited about this conversation around KPIs and I would love maybe just to jump in and start. You know most organizations, companies, they understand what KPIs are, but if somebody is tuning in and they're like, oh, another acronym, what is it? What does it mean? Why don't you explain a little bit about what a KPI actually is and why it's important for companies?
Speaker 2100%. So they're most commonly known as key performance indicators. So you know the one variable that shows how well you're performing in the company. But I have also seen KPIs used as an acronym for key purpose indicator, key process indicator. So it's just basically the one variable that you can use to determine. You know, if it's KPI for key performance, how well are you performing in the company as an employee? If it's key process indicator, it would be. You know. This is the one variable in the process that would make you know. This is the one variable in the process that would make you know it's going to make it or break it. Essentially, it's going to make it happen or not.
Speaker 2And then the key purpose indicator that I've heard as well is are we actually? There's companies like Tom's, like the shoes, that they will donate one pair of shoes, you know, for every shoe that they sell, and so that is an indicator of their purpose, right? Because they're trying to help people that are unfortunate you know, economically unfortunate, and so helping them in different countries and things like that. So there's different indicators, but it is measuring very specific things and I like to call them momentum metrics, because I think that there are metrics that measure how much momentum there is in the business, because I'm all about helping businesses grow predictably, so Predict, predictably that right there.
Speaker 1that word in itself is important. Right To be predict? Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2Yeah, a lot of people end up asking me when I say that, well, how do you make a business grow predictably? That's the you know. That's the next question, and I like to think, I like to tell them at that point well, nothing is predictable unless it's measurable. And so we both live in Florida, so we know when a hurricane is going to come. Right, they're measuring the heat of the waters, right, and the ocean that can be, and it's forecasted from you know at least a week or so ahead, and so they let us know, they predict what hour they're going, it's going to hit, you know in Florida, uh, what time, what category of you know hurricane it would be, and so, and why is that? That's because they're able to measure, um, you know the what's going on in the ocean that predicts when it'll hit. So it's the same thing with business and metrics.
Speaker 1And I remember I was in a class I can't remember the name of the book, but it basically said everything can be measured and we really have to understand that, that you know we may not be, you know we may be thinking surface level for our businesses, for our organizations, but there are other things that can be measured as well, that can help with that predictability. So I love that. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2That's what I like to. I think a lot of people will measure quantitative metrics. So anything that's financial, it's just easy to see. You know how much money the business has in the bank account. You know how many employees you have. These are just quantitative metrics, so they're just easier to see. But there are also qualitative metrics right where you can measure. You know how would now, knowing every employee that I have in this company, would I joyfully rehire them.
Speaker 2You know, like so that's a qualitative metric about your culture and your staff, right, and so the team that you have and any relationship I think you can measure right as an owner to to the employee, the employee, to the owner, right, because sometimes we have, you know you may think, as the owner, I'm doing a great, wonderful job, but maybe the staff has a different, a different opinion about that, right, because they may not see you know the time that you spend at night thinking about them or you're concerned about. You know if you never tell them right and I see that a lot where owners will think about things a lot more than they actually state them to their team, and teams can never do a great job or never really know if they're the same page unless there's clear communication and clear expectation, right? So I think that's why metrics are so important, because if you can tell your, even like an administrative assistant, you know, if you can tell them, in order for you to be doing a good job, I need all of my emails to be, you know, read and answered to by 10 am, and I need my schedule to be planned out a month ahead. These are, while it might not be your thinking of a metric, but it is a way for that employee to know I'm doing a good job or I'm not, because these are the exact clear expectations that they need from me, right? And so I just think that metrics bring a lot of clarity amongst teams so that they know whether or not they are doing a good job or not.
Speaker 2And the owner can you know? Then let them know, even with just positive recognition, that you know you're doing great, right? Absolutely.
Making Business Growth Predictable Through Metrics
Speaker 1Yes, so someone is is doing this weekly, so they have their. They they've decided and I'm sure that that's even another conversation Like how do you decide what to measure? Let's go there first how? How would an organization, how would a company, how would a business person decide what they should measure?
Speaker 2I think it's all correlated to what their goal is in the company, right? And so most of the companies that I work with, or really all of them, want to grow their business, but there might be different constraints in those businesses that don't allow them to grow, and so some companies have more of a cultural issue, right, with their, with their people, Um, and then other companies may just not have a marketing strategy, um, and you know, don't typically measure things. So I've noticed, even with companies that are doing, you know, multimillion dollars in revenue, they typically don't measure anything weekly. And that's it was surprising, very surprising to me, but but yes, it is like a common pattern in business owners they don't measure anything weekly. And so I think that's one of the things that I work with with business owners. That's well, what is the goal? Right, because if we are doing a marketing plan, let's say we want to affect the culture of the company and so we're going to host a company picnic, right? Well, what is the goal of that? Are we trying to improve our company culture? How do we know that company culture has been improved? Does that mean that employees spend time with each other out of work? Does that mean that there are more collaborative, in the sense that more people are working together on a specific product. Like, how do we measure, right, that the culture has improved? Right, it is a qualitative, somewhat metric, but there are, there could be things that you could see tactically of. Like this is exactly, you know, this has improved or not. But if we just do a company picnic, just to do a company picnic, and it's not attached to any kind of a goal, then you know you could say you did it, but did it really help you accomplish what you wanted?
Speaker 2And so one of the companies that I worked with she's in the interior design field and her goal was I want, you know, I want my business to get over 1.2 million revenue. And she told me you know, I've tried to do this for a few years and I haven't been able to. And so I said, okay, great, so how do you get your clients? You know how, how do you? How do you build them? Where do you build? You build.
Speaker 2And so we just got very granular on what are the things that we do that lead to this goal? Right, and I remember specifically her having to. I told her she had to reach out and try to make specific partners that would be referral partners for her business and she would have to meet with at least one of them a week and the whole team just had to bill 22 hours a week, I remember, and they had to sell in furniture and things like that, about $29,000 a week or something like that. No, I'm sorry, a week or something like that. No, I'm sorry, $22,500 a week.
Deciding What to Measure for Your Goals
Speaker 2And so for quarter two we implemented that this year and her quarter two goal for the furniture, for all the things that they sold, was about $290,000 that she had to sell to be on track for her 1.2 million goal, point two million goal, and she sold three hundred and ninety one thousand dollars. And so that there's such a correlation of having clarity with metrics of where am I in relation to my goal. And so if your goal is tied to the metric, that's, that's how you decide, right, what, what are the things that I should be measuring? Because you don't want too many measurements where you don't make any decisions on anything, right, and you just have analysis paralysis when you're looking at all these numbers. No, you want numbers that help you course correct week over week of am I really gonna get to my goal or not?
Speaker 1I think that that's a trap where people feel that they have to measure so many things and then, like you said, analysis, paralysis sets in and then they don't go anywhere. Right, but it sounds like from what you're sharing is that if this is something that is weekly, it's attached to that goal, there's going to be momentum. So you see, every week, this is what I need to do, this is the number I'm hitting, or whatever it is, and then you continue to move on from there.
Speaker 2Yeah, I like to say weekly measurements. Turn annual goals into progress. Yes, absolutely. Because there is a formula to progress and I would say it's just whatever your annual goal is, divide that by a weekly metric that you track and that will equal progress, because you will see, wow, I'm really not doing much, or you know I'm doing great and there's accountability in that, and I'm sure that that's one of the pieces that I'm sure that you help people with is having that accountability.
Speaker 1Would that be a correct statement?
Speaker 2A hundred percent. Yes, I think that every metric needs to have an owner, so one person that reports on it and you know they own it. So if they are responsible like in my prior example with the designer her other designer was responsible for the billable hours Great, Well, you know, we're going to ask you why. You know the billable hours was 10 and not, you know, 22, right, so it makes you feel responsible, there's a sense of ownership within your team, right, which I think every business owner would love when you have a team that takes ownership for their work and accountability. And if they, you know, miss the mark, they, you know, they say that was my fault and I'm going to work to correct that, and so that's one of the ways to improve the accountability is you have to give, they have to have a number that they own.
Speaker 1And ownership for sure. Well, what is the difference between annual targets and weekly KPIs? Because it sounds like this is important.
Speaker 2Yeah, annual, everyone in the beginning of January, january 1st, every business owner is very easy for them to tell me I want to hit you know, I don't know 5 million in revenue, or I want to hit 2 million, or you know that number is not as hard to find. However, most of them do not think about what does that mean weekly and how to customize it to their own business, and so I work with them on that. But it's very simple. All they have to do is let me know how many weeks do you typically work a year, because not everyone works 52 weeks, right, and so how many weeks do you typically work a year? And let's customize it. And then now let's divide that by what your annual goal is, and of course, there's going to be there's weekly and then monthly targets and then quarterly targets, right, because it's, let's say, one week.
Speaker 2You guys all went on vacation, or a lot of your employees went on vacation, you know. So obviously you're going to be low that week, but if you, if you are able to hit at least your monthly targets and you know, okay, we're still, we're still on track here, and so that's why I like to. It's a weekly thing, so that weekly. You can course correct if there's something that was wrong, or people went on vacation, you got sick, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 2But we still need to be sure that we are on track to hit our annual targets, because I know life happens, right, you know. So, as long as we're making it tactical enough where, every day, I know well, if I have a weekly target of I don't know 30 people I have to outreach to well, you know, then I know, okay, well, how many do I need to hit? How many do I have to do today? Right, and everyone is different. Maybe you're the type of person that is better to do it all one day, and maybe there's other people that prefer to just, you know, do a little bit each day. Whatever, as long as the target is hit, then it at least it shows you and the owner you are, you are hitting your metrics and you're performing well.
Speaker 1Yeah, and that takes commitment. And I think, even before that commitment, it takes a readiness for somebody to say I'm serious, this is the goal that I have, I want to hit it and I'm going to do whatever it takes in order to do that. And not everybody is there all the time.
Speaker 2A hundred percent, and you have to get your team on board right, because they have to be aware of what your goals are, because most owners don't communicate that, and so if everyone in the company knows this is our goal, there's some buy-in right Of well, and this is how you help the company hit that goal right. So you don't just think, well, I'm just you know, yeah, we're all doing it, we're all working together towards this goal, and so it really. It really helps to bring the whole team together so that they understand they're part of the bigger picture, even though maybe sometimes they may not feel like it. But we need everyone Right.
Speaker 1Yes, yes and yes, All right. So let's talk about some common mistakes. So what are?
Common Mistakes When Tracking Metrics
Speaker 2some common mistakes that teams make when tracking metrics and how can they avoid them. So, for example, a lagging indicator for a business would be revenue right, because that's the result, the output that you get but a leading indicator would be the input. What do you do to get that sale right? So, how many leads, whatever the marketing channel may be? Let's say you send direct mail. Let's say you have a mailing list. Let's say you do outreach and you just do cold outreach or warm outreach, whatever it is, whatever it is you do.
Speaker 2Most business owners I talk to don't have a specific marketing strategy, and so they are depending on word of mouth or referrals to grow their business. But word of mouth is not predictable, right, so you won't know how many. Predictability, yeah, you can measure it when you get it, but you really it depends on other people. However, I do like to tell people that doesn't mean you can't make referrals a strong part of your business, but you can have a. You have to have strategy for it. You can't just depend on someone. Oh, you did a great job, here's a person. No, you could send out, you know, a monthly email. Or you could send an incentive to your clients to say if you send me a referral, you'll get this, you know. But most people, most people don't do that Right. Most people even forget to ask for referrals. So it's like, as long as there's a plan behind it, then okay, let's let. We could work, we could make referrals a strategy. But it needs to be a strategy. It needs to be something that is a process, right, that you could say I send out this email, I offer this incentive, I get this many people a month and then that leads to this many sales and that sales leads to this many revenues.
Speaker 2So most people just measure the revenue, but they don't measure the inputs or the leading indicators that actually bring the results. And so we I, I tend to gear it a lot more to the inputs, because if we know what works, then over again, yeah, yeah, you know, growing then becomes predictable once we when, once we realize what is it that works, and so when we are just depending on the word of mouth of someone else, we don't know what caused them, you know. And if you don't, you know. So that's what I'm saying is, just as long as we can make, we can measure the inputs and we have way more control over the outputs and the results that our business actually makes if we are controlling the inputs.
Speaker 2And so I think most people do the opposite and they'll wait for the bookkeeper, the accountant I've seen them many times. Right, that's what they measure is when the bookkeeper or the accountant tells them you made this much but you didn't know, week over week, how am I doing? You know in the business and I think when they start to measure, they get a ton of clarity of where they are in the business as the owner and the team, so that they know we're doing well or not you know, and then if you need to course correct, that's the time to do it.
Speaker 1Yeah, not wait till the end of the year. Need to course correct?
Speaker 2that's the time to do it, and not wait till the end of the year, right when you're like, oh and then. And then you're disappointed because you're like I didn't hit my, you know my target, my goal, and now I'm going to have to think about another goal. Yeah, and so there's there. If you do it week over week, you have some time to to fix it. Well, we didn't do it. Should I adjust the goal? Or, you know, do I need to adjust my, my inputs and the work, the work ethic, you know?
Speaker 1sometimes it's just a mindset shift right that too. You gotta get what's between the ears, right that's very true, 100.
Speaker 2And. And focusing on the right things right. That's very true, a hundred percent. And and focusing on the right things right, because sometimes we don't measure what matters, and so let's measure what actually is going to impact the business and focus on that instead of, you know, all the other stuff that is involved with it, right?
Speaker 1And that's the thing you know with business owners, there's always something happening right. There's always fires to put out or whatnot, and it's like really, and I love that that's you know you work with businesses that have teams, because you do want people to have that accountability right and to be helping you to understand the vision of where you're going, the goals that you have, and then everybody to be on board, like you said earlier, because that is how things move along.
Speaker 2A hundred percent and talking to owners like you said, it's sometimes the mindset shift them. You can't steer a ship if you're busy bailing water and so, as the owner, you are the captain and you are the one casting the vision and telling people where we're going, and so sometimes that means, yes, maybe you are not the one that picks up the phone, and we have to now duplicate your voice and duplicate how you speak to customers, and that's a very hard thing for people to let go of because they want control Founders are 100% because it's their baby, right?
Speaker 2The business is a baby, it is their baby. They grew it from the ground up right, and so I understand that. But it becomes then it's more. It really matters the team that you have. And how do I pick the right people? How do I keep them accountable so that they do what I want them to do?
Speaker 2And so that's why metrics is such a big thing that I preach on I almost because you know most employees not everyone, but most employees want to do a good job. You know, I remember I was an employee, I wanted to do a good job, and so, but a lot of times owners are very ambiguous and confusing about clarifying to us what does a good job actually look like? That's right, and so if I could give them very specific things that I'm going to measure them on almost like a report card, then it just becomes a lot easier for us to decipher oh, this is what I need to do, right, so that the owner is content with my performance. And so I don't think most owners are not great at that, because they haven't. Most times they just founded a business. They know how to do their master at their craft. That's right, doesn't mean they're a master at people and how to motivate and how to keep people accountable.
Speaker 2So many times the case, right, and so I. I tend to talk to them about that, because owning a business has a lot to do with leadership and communication and keeping people accountable. And so when I come to them and they tell me well, I've had no real process or way of keeping people accountable, well, you know, I try to implement that so that they can see OK, well, this employee is actually doing really well and this one may be not so great, you know. So it it helps them. See me, what are. How can I affect my, the team and make them help me reach my goals?
Speaker 1So what does some of that accountability look like? Why don't you expand a little bit more on that?
Speaker 2Yeah, so you can come up with these metrics and do that. But if you don't review them and I like to say you should review them as often as, like, you check your weight, like once a week, that's what the fit you know, that's what the trainers say, right, once a week, so you don't get demotivated one day to another. So once a week and everyone reports on them in a weekly meeting, right, typically it'd be like a weekly leadership meeting. So there's a cadence to culture and so you know cadence, just how often something happens, how often it occurs. So if your team knows I need to report on this every week, then you know, okay, wow, the, you know the owner, and not just the owner, but everyone else is going to know whether or not I hit my number. Yeah, and so there's some motivation there.
Speaker 2Yeah, and so there, I, you know, there it's like peer pressure, you know, when you're like in high school or you know. So if everyone else hit their number and I didn't, well, what does that say about me, you know. So it helps to bring some accountability. And so I, I like to tell them, you know, have a weekly meeting with your leadership. If it's, you know, a bigger, it's a bigger company. And if it's just, you know, if you have a smaller staff than with your staff, and have them report everyone gets the number with your staff and have them report, everyone gets the number. Have them report on something that they have direct ownership of and they can control, and that way you will continue to see progress in the company. And so you could measure the metrics. But if no one reports on it, it's not going to do much. And if they continue to underperform and it doesn't become an issue that you have to resolve in the meeting, then nothing will happen. They'll just continue to underperform.
Speaker 2So I like to tell them there's like a three-strike rule. So if you can underperform for one or two weeks, the second week it would be a warning, because the first week maybe you got sick, maybe, you know you went on vacation or you know, whatever the case may be. But if it's two weeks in a row, now that's a warning right, we're not going to do anything. But everyone knows, like the second week, like this is well, let's see what happens next week, you know. And if it's the third week, then that is an issue that needs to be resolved within the company, because I need to understand why are you not able to perform on this metric? Are there other things that are taking up your time? Do you just not want to do it? Like what? What is it you know? And so that now becomes a discussion that we need to discuss in the meeting, and that's just. You know, that's a process and a system to help keep your staff and your team accountable.
Speaker 1Yeah, now you have a methodology that you use. I'd like you to maybe to mention just a high view. You know, not giving away the farm or anything, but why don't you go ahead and talk a little bit about the methodology that you have created?
Speaker 2Yeah, so the methodology is called the GROW methodology and it's an acronym, so it stands for Guide, research, optimize and win, and really it's kind of the phases that I take my clients through, and so in the very beginning, we are coming up with the things that will help guide the entire team, including the owner, on how we're going to do business. What's the goal right Like? What's the vision of what's the goal? What are the team members that I have on here? Who am I missing? Do I have the right team members right? So core values is another thing that I talked to about them in the beginning, because I want to understand what matters and the team needs to understand how am I supposed to behave while I'm trying to reach this goal Right, and so core values comes into that. So those are some of the things in the guides.
Speaker 2In the guide phase and then in the research phase is when we start to collect data, and so that's when we're going to collect metrics on the specific goal that we have in place and we come up with a plan on how, with the team, how we're going to reach that goal, and so the research phase is we're collecting data right, and so, because a lot of times we make as owners, we make decisions based off our gut, but not based off data, and so we need the data to back up our gut Maybe not always right, because I know some time you know but we do need some data, and so we need to balance it out.
Speaker 2And so we do that, and then, in the optimize phase, we are really looking at what has happened over the past quarter, what has worked, what hasn't worked, how effective was our plan and how can we improve it right, and then win is okay. Well, we've already improved this. We've made this the most optimal plan that it could be, right. It's the most effective, it's the best plan to fix our constraint and the one constraint we have in the business, and now we're just going to keep doing this and we're going to continue to win. So that's kind of the methodology that I have. There's a lot of different components into it, because I like to say I take a 360 holistic view of the business, because, you know, finances are one part of the thing.
Speaker 1People- are another part.
Speaker 2That's right, but they all work together. I heard someone say that women's brains are like a ball of yarn and so everything is connected. So you could talk about business, your marriage, your kids, your church, whatever it is, it's all connected, and I think that that is how it is with the methodology that I have with my clients, because you could be making so much money, but if you're really not happy with your team, that affects it.
Speaker 1Or if your team's not happy with you.
Speaker 2Right, that's another part, and so it's how do I make sure that we're all on the same page and I'm doing the best to my ability to be the best leader, right, and so you need feedback. Right, you need to get feedback from your team, and you could give them these metrics, but you also have a metric. So, as the owner, if you're not performing, I mean, what, like what can you expect from your staff? Right, so it's, you know, I and I, I, you know, I make it a part of the whole team, and so the owner really affects how the rest of the team does, and so I'd like to tell them you need, you need to perform Like you better, give yourself something that you're going to hit at least nine out of 10 times, because if not, then right, you have to be the example for the company, and so if you're not invested in this, I mean you can't expect your people to be.
Creating Accountability and Cultivating Growth Culture
Speaker 1That's right. Well, kpis, maritza, it's interesting. I love data and I believe you. You know when you're talking about. You know sometimes you can go with your gut and sometimes leaders do that, but to have data to back it up is solid, I mean, because the data doesn't lie. You know, if it's truth, it doesn't lie. So that's. This has been a fantastic conversation. I love talking about. You know how can businesses, you know, increase their performance, increase their revenue, whatever it is that their goal is, through doing these steps right, and it sounds like that you're able to, as a consultant, lead a company through what they need, taking that 360 holistic approach in order to help businesses. So I appreciate you so much. I would love to give you the last word here. So what say you?
Speaker 2Yeah well, I would love to any of your listeners. If they are unclear as to how can I grow my business predictably and they would like a free consultation, I'm happy to offer that to your listeners. They would just have to go to wwwbusinessclarityco and they can book a free call with me, and that's something I'd love to offer to them.
Speaker 1Excellent. Well, thank you so much for being here today and until next time. You keep doing great things and we'll see you soon. Thank you, dr Kelly. Stay tuned for the after show it does do something.
Speaker 1It is, it is and it's one of those things. Leaders get busy and they're not always focused on some of those areas that need to be focused on and bringing the team in to help with that, because leaders are not an island, you know. We need people around us who we can trust with these things. So no great information. That's awesome. Thank you around us who we can trust with these things.
Speaker 2So no gray information. That's awesome, thank you, and I mean. I like to say like, I mean, nothing big will ever happen without a team. Like every big, every, every, everything, not even companies. You know everything. You need a big team behind it in order to make big things happen. But I so, in my brain, the main problem that I solve is inefficiency, and it's funny that you said you know they're just, you know they're putting out all these fires, and I said, yes, and the reason that's their problem is because they're so distracted, because they have so many things to you know that can take their attention away. And so I think that my solution, or the way I solve with my methodology, is prioritization, because I'm like there's always going to be fires, there's no business that's perfect and has no problems, and so I tell them some fires are just like a fire in a trash can outside the building.
Speaker 2And you don't really have to pay attention to it yeah.
Speaker 2But there's other fires that will like burn down the building. So let's pay attention to those, you know. And so, yeah, I just think that they don't typically, as owners, like we don't focus on what really is like going to move the needle forward and really batter is like what are the results? Going to move the needle forward and really batter is like what are the results, you know, because, if not, we're just doing like things that take away our attention and don't really like admin work or emails. Emails are just everybody else's to-do list with you, you know, almost the time, and so I don't know, I try to get them a little bit focused on that, but it takes some time because you're going from being a doer to like being a leader.
Speaker 1So, and there's a difference- there there's a difference and I really appreciate you know how you have that and you talk about that weekly cadence and the weekly meetings and having that accountability, because all those things matter and they matter in such a way that if you want that needle to be moved, it's going to take some of those things and sometimes those are hard to get people on board. Change can be hard.
Speaker 2Change is difficult, but it's, you know, the only permanent thing in life, right? So life's always going to change. But yeah, and I think that for some of my clients there, if I'm not involved, like after the quarter or anything like that, a lot of times they go back to their old habits, yes, and so even like having an outsider come in and keep them accountable to whatever plan they decided really helps, because it's it's like as the owner, you don't have anyone to hold you accountable. So if you have an outsider, come in and say, well, you know what's going on, you know, like this, what happened the past month that I didn't see you. Uh, your metric was not hit, you know, and so it. I think it helps them to stay accountable. Sure does.
Speaker 1And that's you know, adding that to a contract, that aftercare, if you will, for the company or the team or whatever. Whoever you're working with is really important. Yeah, 100%, and I mean I've had that cadence of you know, this is just what we're doing and this is how we do it. This is why we do it, and when it's embedded and then it becomes the culture. So if it's culture, they're going to do it.
Speaker 2Right, and so that's why, like the cadence, cadence to me is culture how often something is looked at, how consistent are we with these things? But yes, there is a. There's like a transitional period between, okay, this is new information, we're going to apply this information. You know, it almost takes a few weeks. Sometimes where I've had clients there, they'll tell me well, you, you bring up a lot of good questions, but it takes them a little bit to accept it and say, okay, maybe I shouldn't do this and decide, okay, maybe I should try to delegate, but it's like an internal conflict within them.
Speaker 1Delegation can be very difficult for people.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah. And I think that a lot of times people abdicate instead of delegate and so like they just don't like doing it and it's like here, take it. But like they never like follow up, or they know, you, know they, there's no um like the accountability, right, they never, they're never told, like, what happens with it, or follow up with them or see. And so then at the end of the year or whatever it was they were taking care of, it's like oh, this didn't happen, or it didn't work well, or now we owe a bunch of money, or whatever the thing is, and it's like well, I mean, did you delegate? Did you delegate? Well, I think it sounds like that's right.
Speaker 1There's a difference.
Speaker 2That's right. There's a difference? Yeah, but there's so much to learn. I mean about leadership, motivating people with teams, and you know it's really hard to be a business owner and learn all these things from scratch and just have to get really good at them. So many different skill sets, so I understand that as well.