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Here’s How to Take The Next Step. How Do I Get Out From Under the Day-to-Day and Work On My Business? That’s the most common question I hear from owner/operators. You’ve got people to sell or make what customers pay…

Management is getting work done through others. Here's How. Care about the output not the work. This is a subtle but powerful distinction. Here’s what I mean. When you get in your car for a trip to the grocery store,…

It's bigger than revenue growth. TL;DR - Progress means you get what you want FROM your company. But you must build the right foundation before you can be strategic. When I first started coaching I knew people hired me because…

What Makes a Sale? The first time this happened I was surprised. I was talking with a client and his team about tracking their lost/won ratio in sales. They were doing $5M a year in revenue and the owner (my…

Incentives are powerful - but hard to get right. “Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome” - Charlie Munger. If only business were that simple. The problem is we rarely want just one outcome. We need a…

Different Outputs from a Single Person. When I read about the distinction between a Visionary and an Integrator in the EOS literature my first thought was “Those are just different names for CEO and COO - concepts that have been…

Levers will. NOTE: You should use your CEO Time to think about this because Revenue Streams are a component of Strategy. Let’s Define Terms. “Make Money” means profit, not revenue. It’s best measured by an aspect of free cash flow…

Even though you think you can. I know it’s not a great idea to tell your audience that they’re wrong. But in my experience of working with hundreds of SMB owners it’s true. We aren’t really working on our companies…

How healthy are you? Don’t Check Your Gut! Did you do a gut check about how you’re feeling to answer that question? If yes, your answer is probably wrong - or at least short sighted. You may feel great but…

I'm Obsessed with systems - as if you couldn't tell. The colored blocks represent the major systems and with subsystems listed within them. Each system produces a number of outputs (results). Any successful company is producing relevant outputs in all…

They're All the Same - Except for the Differences. At the highest level every company needs to do the same things: Make something people want to buy. Find those people and sell to them. Support the making and the selling…

Plus a Special Announcement you won't want to miss. People confuse management and Leadership. They're not the same. This post is about why you need both but if you confuse them you might end up with neither. But first a…

NOT political - it's about marketing. Good marketers consider the problem to be "How can convince people to buy what we sell?". Great marketers take a different approach. This post was inspired by the most recent article by Cedric Chin.…

Your Maturity as a Manager is Shown in the Answer. Often when people hire me it's because they're frustrated with the repeated failure of an employee. They complain (or vent to say it more gently). That's rarely useful unless it…

Read this Before you Hire an Agency - or a Person. [Warning - this post will be nerdier than usual.]. The Output of Marketing is Leads. SOURCE: And leads are the input to your sales system. To systemize your production…

You Need Actionable Insights not a Number. TL; DR You absolutely should survey your employees because an anonymous survey will tell you things that you won't learn otherwise. The goal of course, is happy, engaged employees, who do good work…

Here's How to Fix it. Humans are great at making quick judgements. Discernment may be one of our superpowers as a species. We immediately come to conclusions about what's going on and what needs to happen next. We say people…

It's a Planning Tool not a Halloween Costume. This is an update of a blog post I did in 2019. Source. One of the two great tensions in life is between the short term and the long term. Another way…

What's up with all the letters? I've been working with a few clients recently who are hiring their first assistant. It's hard for some people and I get why. I imagine it's kind of like having a butler or a…

Take it. But Don't Follow It. Take My Advice. But don't follow it. I spent many years mentoring start up founders and I always warned them about mentor whiplash. That's when two mentors with similar credentials would give them opposite…

That's a weird way to say it. Here's why. If I'd asked, "WHAT are you working for?" I'd be inquiring about the results (the outputs) you intend to produce. If I'd asked, "When are you working?" I'd be inquiring about…