Peer Effect

It’s Spring of 2019. 

And Chelsey has just purchased a landscaping business. 

But after a few days on-site, not only does she realise that the numbers are negative. But that she and her attorneys had been misled by the previous owner. 

Chelsey was left with a big problem to solve. How can she turn this business around, and make it even better than what she had just purchased?

In this episode, Chelsey shares how she was able to 10x the business with the help of one person. 

We talk about 

• How her industry changes have helped her current business
• The importance of putting yourself out there and asking questions
• The realisation that all businesses, at their core, are the same

The story of Chelsey’s business transformation is humbling. Tune in to hear how the story evolves into her eventual exit!

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Today I'm talking about one of my favorite things I share with my clients, The 1-10-100 Triangle.

In 1992, George Laitz and Yuang Chung proposed the 1-10-100 Rule, which maintains that data entry errors cost exponentially more, the longer it takes to identify and correct them.

This coaching session is about how to apply this rule to your business to reduce wasted resources and wasted time. 

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Do you really need a co-founder?

Shaunak found out his answer to this question the hard way. 

After acquiring a co-founder based on a VCs recommendation, just 1 year later, Shaunak was in a break up at a pivotal moment in his business. 

In desperate need for help, he fell back on his network, hired a contractor and got the business back on its feet with their help. 

In this episode, Shaunak shares what he learned from this process and how he would go about it, if he had to do it again. 

We discuss,

• The importance of mission alignment in a hiring team
• Why having a co-founder is important… but not for everyone
• Things to look for in a co-founder and new hire

When asked do you really need a co-founder? Surprisingly, Shaunak’s answer is still yes, but he’d do it much differently today.

Tune in for insightful tips!

More from James:

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Something has been coming up quite a lot for my clients in recent coaching sessions. It's the idea of going faster versus getting there faster. 

For entrepreneurs, founders and CEOs, there's  this idea of "I need to work more" and "I need to just go faster."

But when you take a step back from that approach, is it actually the right one? 

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Your company is at the pivotal moment where you can either choose to stay small — or take risk and grow.

But, because of your co-founder's bad experiences, you get stuck in the decision process.

This is the moment that we come to with Jane. 

Instead of relying on conversation alone. She took action, and experimented with contractors to prove that they could do it. At the same time, they had just launched what would become their USP.

Eventually, she had him convinced.

Jane’s fundraising was equally experimental. As she shares how she focused on building a community of investors, rather than one dictating voice.

In this episode, we talk about

• What a tiny seed round is, and how it benefited them
• The insight filtering process she used to manage 22 investors
• How she manages the fears — post fundraising

Jane’s determination and small steps edged her toward 2x -ing her revenue. 

Tune in for more insights on managing her co-founder relationship and how she got there.

More from James:

Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com 

Today, I'm gonna talk about the most difficult conversation you can have, which is when you're letting someone go. 

On last week's episode, I spoke with Jeff J. Walker who, as a corporate employee had put up with quite a lot from the upper management at his company. 

One day, they surprised him with an exit conversation disguised as a a performance review conversation, leaving Jeff blindsided. Today I want to talk about a better way to have that conversation and most importantly, how to avoid it happening in the first place. 

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Jeff had the dream job.

But he needed to leave — ASAP. 

And in this week’s podcast, he shares 4 significant moments over an excruciatingly difficult time that forced him to make a decision to leave his job, leave the country and set up his own business. 

Now with a new company with over 40 employees, Jeff encounters situations where he could hold back and make a decision later. But, the stakes are much higher. 

We talk about

• How Jeff's learnings from his previous experience influenced his decisions
• Understanding vulnerability and support in business
• How he makes a decision today

Jeff’s story is a rollercoaster that, at times, is truly heart-wrenching — tune in to hear what he learned from talking through it on the podcast.

More from James:

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Today, I'm going to be talking about a situation that strikes fear into the heart of every business owner. This is one of the biggest and most dreaded what ifs, the stuff of nightmares, guaranteed to have you breaking out in a cold sweat. What if you lose your main customer? 

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What is your initial reaction when you lose your biggest client, which accounts for 90% of your income?

For James, it was anger. 

The uncertainty of it all — mixed with feelings of embarrassment and despair — left him unable to take action.

But the longer he left it, the more he realised that only he would be the one to save the situation. 

In this episode of the podcast, James reflects on the internal processes that left him unable to take action for 2 weeks, and how what he learned helped him when encountering a similar level of shock and uncertainty in the pandemic, 2 years after this event. 

James sees this as a catastrophe mindset, and has since learned to challenge this when it arises. 

In this episode, we talk about 

• How he handles uncertainty today
• The dangers of putting all the eggs in one basket
• The impact of your reactions on your team

James has clearly had a lot of time to reflect and learn from that day. And has since been able to scale his team, take on multiple clients and build strong relationships with them. 

Tune in as he shares how he would handle this situation today — and what his key learnings were.

More from James:

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Founders are faced with critical decisions on an almost daily basis, but perhaps the most critical of all is choosing a co-founder to accompany you on your journey.

If you end up the wrong co-pilot in the cockpit, you'll have trouble gaining altitude or worse still, you may never get your business off the ground. On the flip side, having the right co-founder opens the door to a myriad of business benefit. 

If your founding team has complimentary working styles and strengths, equal passion, shared vision and the right skillset, the sky is quite literally the limit.

More from James:

Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com