The Inner Chief

www.chiefmaker.com.au/92

Today we dive into High Performance Teams, Part 10. This is the final episode in the people pillar and so far we have discussed the right people, the right role, the right strategic development plans for them and the right coaching and one-to-ones.

So now you've got the right people on the bus, got them all sitting in the right seats, you're developing them all in the right way over their entire career, looking to develop them and make them into the best people they can be.

See more at www.chiefmaker.com.au/91

This week we are joined by Roland Frasier, CEO, War Room Mastermindand the Principal/Founder at Traffic & Conversion Summit, DigitalMarketer, Praxio, Rival Media, Plattr.

He is the co-founder and/or principal of multiple Inc. Magazine fastest growing companies (e-commerce, e-learning and SaaS). Serial entrepreneur who founded, scaled or sold almost two dozen different businesses ranging from consumer products to industrial machine manufacturing companies with adjusted sales ranging from $3 million to $337 million.

Through War Room Roland advises over 100 major companies on digitally centric customer acquisition, activation, referral, retention, revenue and growth strategies and plan implementation.

He is a guru in the art of the deal and one of the most humble and generous chiefs you'll ever meet.

Books and Resources Recommended

Nothing Down by Robert Allan

The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley

Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins

The works of Milton H Erickson

Measure What Matters by John Doerr

High Output Management by Andy Grove

The 4 Disciplines of Execution

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QUOTES AND KEY POINTS BY ROLAND FRASIER

When I read Robert Allen's book on real estate, it was just amazing to me that you could buy real estate with no money down, and the first time that you do that, I always, when I talk about buying companies with no money down, so the impact for me was to ultimately I took those principles and so what if I just did that with companies, and it turns out you can.

The Denis Waitley (Psychology of Winning) one for me was that I had never really, no one had before that exposed me to the thought of setting goals. And, so the biggest thing that I got out of Dennis's thing was that the people who set goals achieve them and people who don't, don't typically. That you have to have some thing that you're working towards or you're just kind of floating, and then he talked in that about visualisation and how athletes who he trained, and he sort of trained Olympic athletes and astronauts and all these amazing people and actually did studies where they would visualise themselves on the bench pushing the weight up and that, that enabled them in their minds to go and actually lift the weights that they hadn't lifted before.

Roy H. Williams, who I just recently was exposed to, he's called the wizard of ads in Austin. And, he says that for ads, you have to take the mind first to the place that the body will then go. So, in your advertisements, you need to take people in their minds to the place that you want their fingers on the keyboard or their bodies or their dollars to go in the future, because if you don't paint that story and take them there, then they don't ever go. So, that was the big thing I think from Dennis. And, then Tony did a fantastic job of synthesising the work of Milton Erickson, and Richard Bandler, and John Grinder from neuro linguistic programming and hypnosis into a, especially in unlimited power into a very digestible, understandable, nonscientific layman's kind of approach or laypersons approach to that science of NLP.

"Everything that you want to accomplish can be accomplished with mentoring, modelling and masterminding"

HOW TO BUY FOR NO MONEY DOWN - AN EXAMPLE

And, it was a gentleman who was interested in buying an eCommerce, not an eCommerce, it was actually a wholesale, I'm trying to think of how to do it without giving it away. It was a wholesale concrete business and this was the manufacturer of this kind of cool type of concrete. And, so my friend was interested in acquiring that company but didn't have the money to do it. It was doing about two and a half, $3,000,000 a year. It was profitable at about a 150 to $200,000 a year profit.

So, in the neighbourhood of eight to 10% profit. And, he didn't have any money or know anything other than he'd been talking to the owner and the owner was interested in selling, and he was interested in buying, and the owner was only selling through print ads in magazines. So, like old school, old school, right? Print ads in magazines had never, and was selling direct to customers. So, had never sold directly to wholesalers and had never sold online. So, it was really kind of an interesting opportunity and had had inquiries before, but it was like, nah, I don't know how all that internet stuff works and I don't want to hassle with other people who are reselling. So, I just want to sell to the customers, and he said, "But I'm thinking I've got this other thing that I want to do. I've invented something else that I'm really interested in", now so one of the biggest, coolest things is when you find someone who's already in their mind, sold their business, like they're done, even if it's a good business, a truly creative entrepreneur frequently is tired of the business they're in, and looking to the next business that they can be in. So, that's a really positive sign.

And, I said, "Well, the first thing that I always like to ask people, what are you going to do with the money?", and, he's like, why? And, he's like, "He's gonna tell me it's none of my business", I said, "No, it's actually a 100% about your business because if you can figure out what he or she is going to do with the money, then you'll find out exactly how much they actually need right now". And, he's like, okay. So, he went and asked him and the guy said, "Well, it's going to cost me about $200,000 to do the mouldings for this new thing that I've invented". I was like, great. I said, "And what are you going to do with the rest of the money?". He said, "I'll have it for working capital or investments or whatever", and I said, "Great". I said, "So, you should be able to buy that company for $200,000 down", and he said, "Okay, well how?", I said, "Because that's all the guy needs to do that. And, if you can find out what the deal is on the mouldings that he needs for this invention that he's got and you can get him those without you having to come out of pocket $200,000, you can buy that business for no money down".

So, the thing that I always look for is what are they going to do with the money and then how much is it going to actually cost to do the next thing that they want to do. And, if they just want to have money for investments, chances are really good they'll carry back. So, they will finance the acquisition for you. So, great. So, now he's down to $200,000. And I said "Okay, so you need $200,000 to do this", I said, "He probably doesn't need $200,000 right now to do that". I said, "Ask him what is the process with the people that he's talking about doing the mouldings", and it turned out that he only needed like about 80 grand. I was like, great, you only need $80,000 now, because the way that you pay for the mouldings is this, and the business is actually making money. So, let's let the business pay for everything except the actual cash dollars that he needs right now today. And, he was like, great. So, we went back and talked to the guy and the guy was like, yeah, okay, I could do that.

And, it's like, so you know that the money's going to come, so you transfer the business to me, I will assign you the money that the business is making until you get that $200,000 that you need and I'll secure the rest of the business with the stock and the business that I'm buying. Fantastic. Well, what we knew was that if we could get a small deferral period, then my friend could go out and go to all of the wholesalers who had already inquired about making wholesale purchases for the company and do deals with them to raise the $80,000 that he needed to put down. So, all they needed to do was have a period of time where he could do that. So, we negotiated a 60 day period where he would get to do that during the due diligence period for looking at the company. Right? And, so then he was able to raise the money, cut the deal to get advanced purchase orders from the people who were the wholesalers who had already asked and inquired, and then he went out and he did the deal with no money down. So, and that's a very abbreviated process of that, right?

It's just being creative enough to find out what do they actually want, what are they going to do the money with and what are all of the pieces that are available to you right now to generate the money without having to come out of pocket? And, to me it's a game, right? I just don't, like when I have the money to buy a business, I don't want to pay anything down for it because I want the business to pay for itself. That's a fun game to play, right?

ON BEING CREATIVE IN YOUR BUSINESS DEALS

So, if a business deal, a marketing problem, a business problem comes to me, I'm thinking about everything that I know that I've encountered before in every situation that is not business, as much as I am business. And then it's somehow identifying not being constrained, I guess, to a formula that let's say, I'll use business acquisitions as an example because I think it's a good one, is the way you buy businesses, you pay money for it. I don't accept that, right? I don't accept that as a fact of how you buy businesses.

And, so if somebody says, well, you buy a business, then you pay money for it or you trade something for it, and the way that you get money as you get money from a bank or you get money from an investment banker or you get a loan. None of that right is completely acceptable to me. And, so if you go through, the Toyota's system of the 'five why's' of if you want to get to the root of any problem in manufacturing, the machine failed. Why did the machine fail? The machine failed because the ball bearings failed. Why did the ball bearings fail? Because, they were not properly oiled and maintained. Why were they not properly hold and maintains? Because, there's no system for doing that. And, if you keep asking those questions, usually within five times of asking it deep, you get to an answer that is the true answer. And, so I like to do that with buying a business, I'll call it the 'five buys', so I can buy it for cash. Great, what if I can't buy it for cash? Oh, well then you're going to get a loan. What if I can't get a loan? Well, then you're going to need to find another way, right? And, you go through all of that and at the end, if you do that exercise with pretty much any problem that you're trying to solve, and instead of accepting the traditional ways or the ways that you could do it easily, think about what if I didn't have that? What if that wasn't possible? And, then it just really makes you think about all of the other things that you could do and you come up with a creative solution that can get you buying houses, or companies, or solving huge problems that you might not have otherwise been able to because it was too easy to do that. It's too easy to say, well, I need money to buy a business. Okay, well I can't get it, therefore I can't buy the business. No, what if you couldn't buy businesses for money? Right. Does that make sense?

Somebody explained to me the other day, a medical doctor who was trying to explain how a stroke affects people, and he said, "Look, a stroke is pathways to the brain, and imagine that you always go down the interstates and you, let's say that you now you can't go down the interstate and you have to take the side streets. Could you get to that place by doing that?", and the answer is yes. And I was like, okay, well now what if I said you can't, you can go that side street way but you can't take any of the main streets on the side streets that you're used to, and that's what happens in a stroke situation with thought, that our thoughts are not allowed to go down the main way and they're not allowed to go down the side streets, but they start down the side streets and several of the main side streets that they know are missing. And, now what are you going to do? And, that's why it's so hard to form speech or things like that when you go through something like that. And, I think that if you can simulate that a bit by removing all of the normal, easy, well travelled roads to solve a problem that you're trying to solve, then you're forcing yourself to be truly creative in how can I get to the end result? And, it might be harder, but it might be that in fact the main roads in that situation like bank financing is a perfect example, isn't available, that it's not an option because you don't have the assets, or the wherewithal or whatever to make that happen, or the business doesn't have the fundamentals or you don't want to personally guarantee it because you don't want to risk your own capital. And, so I like the creativity of challenging yourself to remove the easy ways to do things, and think about how can I accomplish this a different way?

ON THE WAR ROOM MASTERMIND

It's eight years old now and we have 165 people in it. We had limited it to 100 for several years and just in 2018 decided that we were going to expand it, but it's a collection of people who are, you have to be doing a minimum of a million dollars a year to be in it, but really the average is probably between five and 85 and 60 million. We have several people that are in the hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, and two members now that are over a billion dollars. Which is really cool because in that group, the goal I think of a group like that is that you have people who have been where you want to be, or are where you want to be and can reach a hand down and pull you up and tell you the things that you need, the things that are different. The things that won't work, that are working now. That kind of stuff, and so I think that's really valuable all along the spectrum of revenue. And, then the people who are at the higher levels get to see the agility of the people who are, and the scrappiness of the people who are at the lower levels so that they can say, well we shouldn't take two years to bring this thing to market.

We should be able to do, so it's a really cool mix of people who have really big companies and people who have smaller companies, but all of them are taking action and doing things and sharing in a very open, giving, vulnerable, atmosphere and everyone's goal is to double their business each year that they're in the programme. And, you end up making really great friends and that leads to all these ridiculously good contacts. So, it's very exciting for me. I have a really unique perspective because I was a member for three years before I became a partner in digital marketer. I've bought into the business with Ryan and Perry. I did that with also no money down, by the way. So, hopefully they're not listening to this, because, you know? But, that perspective of being in there three years and seeing the tremendous value of the relationships that I had, but also seeing as a customer, the things that I thought were limitations of it was really helpful.

So, when I became a partner and ultimately that became a business unit that I'm running, to responsible for anyway. I don't really run anything, but I was able to bring that in and say, here's some changes we should make that I think we can serve people better, and every year it changes. It's always evolving. And, so we're in our eighth year of evolution and probably still 20 years away from the perfection that we seek, if we ever can achieve that, but we learn more, I mean, I can literally say that I would pay to be in there if I didn't get to be in there because I run it. I would pay to be in there because I did pay to be in there and I did experience the growth and I did see the magic of that group. And, there aren't many, there's no group that's like that, but there are several, like the genius network from a networking standpoint, and meeting a different group of people is fantastic. And, so I belong to about five or six different groups because they radically expand my network, and the money that I pay to be in them is dwarfed constantly by the deal flow, and the learnings that I get from the folks that I would not have otherwise encountered.

See more at www.chiefmaker.com.au/91

This week we are joined by Roland Frasier, CEO, War Room Mastermindand the Principal/Founder at Traffic & Conversion Summit, DigitalMarketer, Praxio, Rival Media, Plattr.

He is the co-founder and/or principal of multiple Inc. Magazine fastest growing companies (e-commerce, e-learning and SaaS). Serial entrepreneur who founded, scaled or sold almost two dozen different businesses ranging from consumer products to industrial machine manufacturing companies.

This is episode 9 on our 25 part series on High Performing Teams. The first 5 episodes were about your MISSION which includes your vision, purpose, strategy, values and goals of your team. And then for the last three weeks we've been talking all about your PEOPLE.

We have already covered getting the right people on the bus, putting them in the right role, and then getting a strategic development plan together for that individual.

Today we talk all about the coaching and one-to-ones. We'll cover four important steps in coaching:

1. Understanding what motivates your people
2. Understanding their psychology in greater depth
3. Get into a regular coaching rhythm (see Ep 33 and 88 on Strategic Development Plans)
4. Coach each person in their own right and maintaining growth mindset

See more at www.chiefmaker.com.au/90

This is episode 9 on our 25 part series on High Performing Teams. The first 5 episodes were about your MISSION which includes your vision, purpose, strategy, values and goals of your team. And then for the last three weeks we've been talking all about your PEOPLE.

See more at www.chiefmaker.com.au/90

See more at www.chiefmaker.com.au/89

This week you and I are joined by Jonathan Rubinsztein, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Managing Director of Infomedia.

Infomedia (ASX:IFM) is a leading global provider of SaaS solutions to the parts and service sector of the automotive industry. Founded in 1987, Infomedia supplies online parts selling systems, sophisticated service selling systems, a range of publications, as well as data analysis and information research for automotive and lubricant industries.

Previously, Jonathan was the CEO and founding Shareholder at UXC Red Rock Consulting, the largest Oracle Consulting business in ANZ with 8 offices and 600 staff.

He also served as a founding Director of RockSolid SQL is on the Advisory board of the Missionvale charity based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and on the Board at Humanitix, the first not-to-profit ticketing platform that redistributes profits from booking fees to fund domestic violence shelters, meals to homeless, and indigenous education

He has been a guest lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School and a regular participant at TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences. And was awarded the IT Professional of the Year 2013 (AIIA award NSW).

See more at www.chiefmaker.com.au/89

This week you and I are joined by Jonathan Rubinsztein, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Managing Director of Infomedia.

Infomedia (ASX:IFM) is a leading global provider of SaaS solutions to the parts and service sector of the automotive industry. Founded in 1987, Infomedia supplies online parts selling systems, sophisticated service selling systems, a range of publications, as well as data analysis and information research for automotive and lubricant industries.

For more information go to www.chiefmaker.com.au/88 In this episode we are going to continue our focus on the People pillar of High Performance Teams. In particular, building strategic development plans for each of your team members.

One of my great mentors, all through his books, obviously never met the man, was basketball coaching legend, John Wooden. He said, "I worry that business leaders are more interested in material gain than they are in having the patience to build up a strong organisation, and a strong organisation starts with caring for their people."

When I refer to strategic development plans, I mean now that you've got the right people in the right role, you need to strategically develop them so they can be their absolute best.

To do that, you must have to genuinely, authentically care about each and every one of them. Remember, Napoleon said, "Leaders are dealers in hope." So often we get caught up with the business commercials and the targets and the things we've got to do, and we forget that the greatest legacy we can potentially leave on the planet is the growth of the people in our team. Don't shortcut on this. It's a simple process but pays big dividends in performance, trust and legacy.

When I was working at the Queensland Reds, Super Rugby team as high performance coach in 2015 every single player in every single position had a development plan which outlined the physical, technical and tactical capabilities the needed to be successful in their role. The coaching staff worked tirelessly to improve their skills throughout the year to build those new capabilities.

What are the skills, education and experience that each of your people need to perform their job to the absolute limit of their potential? Not just what they should be capable of, but what's the potential for them?

Remember, if you get all of your team all growing every single week, every single month, improving in their own skills the entire team performance is going to grow.

What's more than that, if you're facing some internal resistance it might be because people are stalled in their development. They've got a fixed rather than a growth mindset. One of the best ways to shift a fixed mindset is to pour add some new skill and knowledge into the minds of your people which starts to broaden their mind and perspective. This brings new thoughts and ideas to a problem or a particular piece of their work, and the whole game changes.

Leaders are dealers in hope and key role of all leaders is coaching. All coaches develop their people and they do it with a clear strategy. This is not HR's job. HR will support you with the things they need to do, but developing your people, working out the plan is your job. It's also not the people that report to you. It's not their job either. You've employed them. You've brought them in to do a great job, now develop them. Make them amazing. Really invest the time, the effort, the energy into developing them.

A strategic development plan has only a few steps. The first thing is, you need to understand their personal dreams and goals. What are they here for? What do they want in life and in their career? This won't be their only job in their career. They'll be here for a while working for the company, and eventually they'll move on. Don't bracket them and think, "I've just got to get the ounce of sweat over them over the next few years, and then we're done." No, think about what you can do for that person for their entire life and career.

Start with learning what their big dreams and goals are, then clarify what the current role is meant to do. What it would look like if they were absolutely knocking it out of the park? What is expected of them every single day?

This is being crystal clear about that role, which we covered in the last episode.

Then do a gap analysis on where they are now, compared to where they need to be on skills, education and experience.

Then plan how they're going to accumulate those new capabilities and regularly check in on them. That's it.

When you think about it, when we go back through the last three episodes, where you got the right person in the right role. That was absolutely vital because now everybody knows or is doing something that makes sense for them, that plays to their strengths, that's work they value, and now you're improving their performance every single week. Well, as soon as you've got those three things lined up, they are going to fly.

Chief, this might not seem like a lot, but whenever I walk into a team that wants to become high performing, this is one of the first things I look for. I look for how much they're developing their people. If there's no plan to develop each of their people, I know this is one of the very first things we need to do.

You don't have to invest a lot of money. You can create all sorts of ways and means of sharing information, podcasting, doing group book reviews in your team. You can cut corners on this develop or save money on this development at every opportunity.

So, Chief, that process again. Start with dreams and goals, then go with role definition, what is required of them. Then, do the gap analysis on their skills from where they are now to what is required to perform the job to their utmost ability. Then, work out the skills, the experience, and the knowledge, and the education you're going to give them over the next 12 months. And then, execute and get that done so every single week they're improving and growing as an individual.

If you think for a minute about maybe someone in your career who's really taken you under their wing and given you the right development and gone the extra mile, you never forget that person. That someone becomes special in your heart. We often talk about them as being mentors. Imagine the difference you can make in the world if you do this for everyone in your team. In fact, imagine if you didn't. Imagine for a minute you didn't have any development plans for any of the people in your team. What would that be doing to your performance? How much would you be leaving on the table? It's just a fantastic opportunity to get quick wins.

Spend some time and get a strategic development plan for each of your people.

That sums it up for this week. As always, remember to stay epic.

For more information go to www.chiefmaker.com.au/88

In this episode we are going to continue our focus on the People pillar of High Performance Teams. In particular, building strategic development plans for each of your team members.

Part 7 of our series on building High Performance Teams continues to look at the second pillar - People. And in this case The Right Role for your people. Once you've formed the right group of people, which we covered in Ep 86, now its about taking a step back and analysing if you have the right role for each of those people. A role that will bring out their best and get the job done for the team. The best people can crash and burn in the wrong role and a low performer can start thriving in a role that plays to their strengths and focuses on work that they value. Remember, an individual can outgrow a role and when that happens every day they turn up can feel like a step back. It can be soul destroying and in situations like that it's a significant move if you can help them feel appreciated for their real potential. And sometimes a role can be too big or the wrong shape for someone. E.g. If they've been in an operational line management role which plays to their technical expertise and they've shifted into an internal support role which is all about influencing it can be a huge leap. Particularly if they have to lead transformation on a topic or through a process that is new to them. Of course, every role has suck factor. And mostly people understand that and can handle it to a certain point. As the leader it's your job to make sure that the suck factor doesn't get too much or get them down. Here are three steps to optimising the roles of your people: 1. Start with a blank canvas and considering the targets and challenge the organisation needs of you draw up the roles that you need to do the job (without the people's names). 2. Once you've worked out the roles and tasks that need doing add in your people to each of the roles. 3. Be creative about how you can make that role more interesting and challenging in a way that brings out their very best. Consider their strengths, their goals and the kind of work that they value. Remember, a basketball coach would never put a 7-foot tall centre at point-guard and netball coach wouldn't put a wing-defence at goal attack. They'd be doomed to failure. Think like a coach. How can you make the lives of your people better through role adjustment alone. Now you've got the right people, get creative and smart so that they're also in the right roles. Once you've done that, you'll find an immediate boost to performance and energy across the team. For more info check out www.chiefmaker.com.au/87