Winning Teams

 

Today’s Guest on the Winning Teams Podcast is Carl Gould, Founder of 7 Stage Advisors, Best Selling Author, Top-Rated Speaker and Business Growth Expert.

For over 20 years, Carl Gould has been a coach and mentor for entrepreneurs globally.  He is the Founder of 7 Stage Advisors. He is the author of “The 7 Stages of Small Business Success”, he has also co-authored “Blueprint for Success” with Stephen R. Covey and Ken Blanchard.   He is a sought-after speaker and adviser to influential organizations around the world and is recognized as an authority on closing the gap between where companies are now and where they ultimately wish to end up.

Hailing from New Jersey, Carl’s first two businesses were in the construction industry. By the age of 40, he had built three multi-million dollar businesses, two construction companies which he later sold, and his current business, 7 Stage Advisors.

7 Stage Advisors address the needs of small to mid-market firms in a variety of ways. They help companies discover where they need to place their efforts for maximum impact. They coach, mentor and train companies how to sustain growth over an extended period of time.

In this interview, we discuss the 7 stage method, which is a growth graph that shows the clearest trajectory for getting to the next level and what can trip you up.  Carl outlines the 7 stages below:

Stage 1 The Strategic Planning Stage

Stage 2 The Specialty Stage

Stage 3  The Synergy Stage

Stage 4  The Systems Stage

Stage 5  The Sustainability Stage

Stage 6  The Saleability Stage (M&A Exit IPO / Strategic Alliance stage)

Stage 7  The Succession Stage (when a legacy business is born)

He discusses the typical time frame of the 7 stages, which is approximately 18-24 months to get to Stage 4, and tends to take up to 3 years to get to Stage 7.

Lots of business owners get frustrated because they are doing the right things at the wrong time.  Carl outlines the two biggest violations he believes many leaders make in their business:

* People try to automate their lead generation and sales systems too early.  For example, inbound lead generation, email marketing campaigns and Facebook ads are great, but people think they can automate their digital lead generations which will lead to closing sales, but this is not the case.  There’s a side of the business that is EFFECTIVE and there’s a side of the business that is EFFICIENT.

* Sales and Marketing is the “Effective” side of the business which means you have to be a master of the close, know exactly who you’re selling to, what you’re selling, and how frequently you’re selling and that needs to be nailed down and locked in before you try to automate.

You try to implement systems too early in the business.  So you must go through stages 1, 2 and 3 to become the expert first.  Then you move on to stage 4 to perfect the system.  This is the “Efficient” side of the business. Carl uses the “standard day protocol” system used by commercial airlines as an example here.

We go on to talk about;

* The mechanics of building a platform so that you’re recognised as an authority within your niche.

* An easy way to dominate a niche is to create it.

 

Today’s Guest on the Winning Teams Podcast is Josh Patrick, from Vermont.  Josh is a serial entrepreneur who spends most of his time thinking and writing about how to create great and sustainable businesses. His mission is to help private business owners create a better life.  His book, “Sustainable” is a fable about creating an economically and personally sustainable business.

At age 7 Josh was selling candy bars to kids on the street corner.  By 26 he was running his own business and managed to grow it into a successful business employing 90 staff.  Josh tells us how he made every business mistake along the way, having absolutely no business training whatsoever.  “Sustainable” is a culmination of lessons he’s learnt from himself and clients he’s coached over the years, so instead of writing a “how to” book, he decided to write it as a parable.

In this interview Josh talks about his lead character, John Aardvark, a man who, from the outside looks like he’s got a very successful business but when you look inside the business you find out that he is burnt out and stuck.  The reason John is burnt out and stuck is because he really has not learned how to do the five things of sustainability that we talk about in the book which are;

have a clear set of values for your business and yourself

the owner becomes operationally irrelevant when they are not in the day to day operation of the business

the business has a recurring revenue stream or sales process

the employees know what they need to do for excellence and customers know what they are going to get on a predictable basis and

the business is making enough money so that the four areas of profit are covered which is lifestyle from the owner, an emergency fund for the business, capital to grow the business and enough cash to fund a retirement plan for the owner of the business because this particular business will not get John to retirement by itself.

It’s a lot of information but this is what is essentially covered in the book and its done through the story of John and his consultant Erin, John’s poorly behaved son, and his MBA graduate daughter, who really doesn’t know anything.  Luckily for John he has a really good operations manager who he has hired from another company and she effectively becomes the saviour.  It’s a fascinating read and there’s lots of lessons in there.

He goes on to talk about values, and specifically clarifying statements in the business. Without clarifying statements no one really knows what you’re talking about.  These clarifying statements become a tool for you to evaluate whether the people you have working in your company are the right fit.  It’s about having the right people in your company and if you focus your business down to the people where you have complimentary values, business becomes easy.  Too often there’s a values mismatch between employers and employees, or customers and companies, and when you have that mismatch you’re working a lot harder then you need to in order to make your company work right.

We talk about the reality of being operationally irrelevant and how that impacts emotionally.  There’s a way to be a control freak but not be involved in every decision.

 

Today’s Guest on the Winning Teams Podcast is Paula Clarke, Director of Clarke Griffin Associates.  Paula is a Potentialist, Motivational Speaker, Management Coach, Communications Consultant, and Master NLP Practitioner.

Clarke Griffin Associates is a leading training, development, coaching and facilitation organisation.  Paula’s strong background in business has positioned her to partner with some of Ireland’s leading organisations in developing, empowering and enabling their people to deliver on challenging business goals and targets.

Paula’s goal is to create positive change.  Paula’s style is high energy, high impact with strong linkage to individual responsibility in the context of delivering organisational and team goals.

In this interview Paula talks about her transition from corporate life to running her own business.  She explains how she amalgamated all her experience and knowledge from years of working with, coaching and training clients and then packaged this into something enjoyable, interactive and fun while helping people see that there are other more positive ways of doing things.  And, sometimes getting it wrong is where the learning curve can be.  She takes those learnings and crafts them into creative ways of connecting with people.

She goes on to discuss how every day is an opportunity to learn more, and how pausing and reflecting on a daily basis is key to implementing positive change.

We also discuss some practical tools required to make these changes and how to rewire your brain on a conscious and unconscious level. Organisations don’t change …. People Do!

Paula also explains how emotional intelligence (EI) is the foundation for a host of critical skills, it impacts everything you do.  Emotional Intelligence blends thinking and feelings to help you make better decisions.  Emotional Intelligence is the difference that makes the difference.  Emotions are data and once you get to the “why” of that and get off auto pilot and start consciously choosing you will make better decisions.  Nurturing Emotional Intelligence skills is key to high performance and creates happy people, teams and organisations.

She goes on to talk about;

Getting to the DNA of what makes you succeed

What you can do to help your team continuously better themselves

How to exercise emotional intelligence

Tapping into the desire to change

How to deal with people resistant to change

Using your inner dialogue to connect with others

Self-management and self-regulation

Social intelligence and its role within an organisation

Paula finishes off by talking about her passion for making positive change and how she measures it through performance, posture, accountability, hunger for knowledge, empathy, vulnerability and of course results, to name but a few.

One book that had a significant impact on Paula’s life is Victor Frankels book “Man’s search for meaning”, a poignant book chronicling his experiences as an Auschwitz concentration camp inmate during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positively about, and then immersively imagining that outcome.

 

Today’s Guest on the Winning Teams Podcast is Jeff McManus, Director of Landscape Services at the University of Mississippi, and author of “Growing Weeders into Leaders”.  Jeff grows plants and he also grows people.

Like humans, plants need many things in order to grow and survive.  Plants need to be nurtured, they need to be watered, they need air, and space, and time to flourish.  Jeff realised that if he started growing people the way he grew plants, he would have a much better and more productive staff and so he began to implement this methodology with his staff and saw positive results in a short space of time. It all comes down to two things, cultivating and growing!

Jeff’s book “Growing Weeders into Leaders” is about succeeding in life and empowering people to think beyond their limitations.

In this interview Jeff talks about his leap from landscaping to leadership! How he believes everyone has a purpose in life and how best to harness people to reach their true purpose in life both personally and professionally.  He talks about the importance of taking ownership of what you are doing and tying that purpose into everyday tasks.

We also discuss how taking ownership of what you are doing develops a sense of self awareness and in turn strengthens core beliefs and increases motivation.

He talks about the importance of developing your own corporate creed within an organisation and planting the seeds of leadership and teamwork.

He goes on to talk about;

* Sustaining motivation through communication

* Aligning strategy with culture and how culture will always trump strategy

* You grow what you sow – and the importance of proactively and consistently planning seeds of positivity, resilience, communication, leadership and teamwork

* We discuss ways to get your staff thinking on a higher level and the importance of investing in people

* Jeff also explains how great leaders learn how to serve and help others, and the importance of a leader who has self-awareness and is willing to learn and grow.

Jeff talks us through his four step GROW leadership plan and mind-set

G – Greatness

R – Resilience

O – Opportunities

W – Wisdom

One books that had a significant impact on Jeff’s life is “The One Thing” by Gary Kelly.   When you want the absolute best chance to succeed at anything you want, your approach should always be the same. Go small.

“Going small” is ignoring all the things you could do and doing what you should do. It’s recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most. It’s a tighter way to connect what you do with what you want. It’s realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.

Daily habits and rituals;  Jeff likes to exercise first thing every morning, then he takes time to read something spiritual.  Once a week, he will stop for half an hour and light a candle and use this quiet time to reflect and refocus.

If you want to find out more information about Jeff and his programs, you can connect with him on http://www.jeffmcmanus.com.  You can find Jeff’s book “Growing Weeders into Leaders” on

 

Today’s Guest on the Winning Teams Podcast is Lisa Bloom, founder of Story Coach and bestselling author of “Cinderella and the Coach – the Power of Storytelling for Coaching Success.”

Lisa works with organizations developing Transformational Story Leaders, creative yet resilient cultures, and leading powerful change processes with the power of storytelling. She works with entrepreneurs and business owners to help them find confidence, attract ideal clients and find their success story. And she trains coaches to use storytelling as a powerful approach to impact their clients and grow their business.

We always remember the story, other details fade away but the story always remains. A captivating story is at the core of every successful business and every successful person. Lisa weaves some of the most wonderful wisdom tales and personal stories with guidelines to create a transformational Story Coaching business.   This highly innovative and creative approach is a proven method to develop coaching expertise and attract ideal clients; creating life-changing, lasting results for the coach and the client.

In this interview Lisa starts out by telling us how we, as coaches can stand out and make our business the one that our ideal client chooses.  She talks about the strategies required to become that chosen coach and how to achieve this through the art of storytelling.

She tells us how storytelling is one of the most powerful tools in business and the power of corporate storytelling and how the story we portray as an organisation, as a team and as an individual has a huge impact.

Lisa also discusses the benefits of storytelling during change within an organisation and how to translate this change in a positive context to implement confident and affirmative change.

She goes on to talk about how to find that pivotal moment in your story so we can craft our story from there.  She talks about the importance of knowing who we are telling our story to and what are they looking for, and how to connect with your client through your story.

So what do you do to stand out?  Well, according to Lisa, here are five ways to impress your clients through storytelling:

* Know your client

* Know what they want – and what they want to “fix” in their organisation

* Know your offer – not coaching, but the transformation that your coaching will give them.

* Know your story – what gives you the credibility and gives them the confidence that you are the right person to work with.

* Know how to tell your story – so your client is attracted to YOU, in fact, fascinated by your story and ready to sign up!

Lisa’s book is a must read for coaches and entrepreneurs!

Two books that had a significant impact on Lisa’s life is “essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown.  And the other is “Loving What Is” by Byron Katie.

Daily habits and rituals;  Lisa does a daily morning energy routine by Donna Eden and finds it a great way to bring her day into focus, this is always followed by a 30 minute dog walk, which she uses as time to reflect and meditate.

If you want to find out more information about Lisa and her programs, you can connect with Lisa on http://www.story-coach.com.

 

Today’s Guest on the Winning Teams Podcast is Stefan Verra, who is without a doubt the most in-demand body-language expert in Europe.

In Stefan’s talks and stage shows, he entertains and amazes tens of thousands of audience members every year, from Europe to the United States to China. He always analyses body language signals together, in context, rather than breaking everything down into individual oversimplified elements. He is a lecturer at leading Universities as well as a successful author and respected TV personality.

In this interview Stefan starts out by dispelling the myths around body language, what we should ignore and what we should look out for.  Body language is the first information we get from the person approaching us.  It determines how we see this person, is he/she friendly or is seen as an enemy?  We make this assumption within a matter of milliseconds.

We also discuss what body language signals business people should be aware of and what we should be proactively doing in terms of our own body language.  How your body language displays whether you are a good person to negotiate with, whether you are confident and whether or not you can be trusted, we don’t wait until someone speaks to us, we have to know it quicker.  He talks about how body language is a form of muscle training, the more you train those muscles that make you appear more confident and likeable, the better you come across in negotiations.

Stefan gives us some top tips on positive body language like:

* Smile more – it signals two things; (1) you are not dangerous and (2) you are not stressed.

* Use your eyebrows. If you’re greeting someone, raise your eyebrows during negotiations and in business life.

* The importance of body language during a presentation and how moving from an asymmetrical position to a symmetrical position can give you more power.

* How you should be carrying yourself for a powerful first impression.

* How to use your eyes, mouth and hands to engage in good conversation.

* Discover important hints from other people’s body language and learn to adjust yours accordingly.

We talk about the rules of body language in leadership and coaching and what to look out for from your audience.  Find out how engaged your audience are by looking at these two body parts!  We discuss the importance of eye contact and how he can train people to change their body language without looking unnatural.  By the way beware of anyone looking at their watch!

Daily habits and rituals; Stefan tours approximately 160 days a year.  When he’s travelling he uses noise-cancelling headphones to relax and enjoy the silence.  When he’s at home, he does sports every day.

If you want to find out more information about Stefan’s body language courses and events, please go to his YouTube channel or website www.stefanverra.com. 

You can connect with Stefan on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Click HERE to listen!

 

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Today’s Guest on the Winning Teams Podcast is John Mitchell, founder of Think It, Be It, a Human Performance Company … for High Achievers. 

John started out as a CPA in Austin, Texas and by the age of 30 he became a successful entrepreneur in a range of industries. By 2013 he sold his reverse mortgage company to the largest national player in the space.  At the age of 50 John read Napoleon Hills book, “Think and Grow Rich”, which really had quite a significant impact on him and on his future success.  His passion today is sharing his surprisingly simple “success formula” with others via his company “Think it Be It”.  John also teaches his “success” methodology at University of Texas in Austin as a faculty member of the McCombs School of Business.

In this interview John talks about the pivotal moment in his life at the age of 50 where he felt he was not as successful as he thought he should be at this time in his life and how the book “Think and Grow Rich” had such an impact on him. However he simply could not find a practical way to apply the concepts from this hugely successful book, which prompted him to create a practical way to apply these principles from the book and implement them into his business.

He also talks about;

* how to achieve what you envision on a daily basis by using his simple techniques

* How practicing this technique for only 12 minutes a day allowed him to operate at a higher level on a daily basis

* How he became laser focused only on what moved the needle in his business

* How the big things come down to control of self and how to feed your ideal you to yourself everyday

* The two key scientific discoveries – and the results

John goes into detail about his six part “Think It Be It” program which includes:

(1) a customised daily visualization

(2) goalsetting and the “why” behind each goal, plus the three key behaviours to achieve these goals

(3) His weekly personal growth program

(4) The 10 lessons on being an entrepreneur you don’t learn in school

(5) your thinking tablet and

(6) Daily and weekly to do system.

We talk about how you can sustain this mind-set and gain complete control over yourself and your business and how real leadership starts with leadership of self because when you operate at a higher level you’re going to be a lot more successful.  He also talks about how he believes his system is more beneficial than meditation and how you can apply this into your daily life.

It’s safe to say we know the book that’s made a significant influence on Johns life, however the other book is “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. This book along with “How to Grow Rich” are the two core books he uses in his class at the University of Texas. Both still relevant and written a long time ago!

Daily habits and rituals; John likes to start his day by reading his daily visualisations and he ends each day preparing the next day’s schedule.  He’s on the treadmill at 5:30 every day watching the evening news and makes it a point to grow personally each and every day.

John is giving away a free gift to our listeners today.  He is offering anyone who emails him the Top Three Things an Entrepreneur Absolutely Positively Must Know to make over $1 million a year.    You can email

 

Today’s Guest on Winning Teams is Barbara A. Trautlein, Ph.D., Principal and Founder, Change Catalysts, LLC. 

Barbara A. Trautlein, PhD is author of the best-selling book  Change Intelligence:  Use the Power of CQ to Lead Change that Sticks, principal and founder of Change Catalysts, and originator of the CQ System for Developing Change Intelligent Leaders and Organizations. For over 25 years, Barbara has coached executives, trained leaders at all levels, certified change agents, and facilitated mission-critical change management initiatives – achieving bottom-line business and powerful leadership results for clients.

In this interview we talk in depth about the change quotient, and why we still have such a high failure rate of change within our organisations despite all the tools and methodology for implementing and managing change.

Barbara explains the difference between your Emotional Intelligence Quotient and your Change Intelligence Quotient and compares the two.  We talk about the main pitfalls we incur in Change Management and the 3 key things we need for change to be successful as well as the importance of your heart set, mind set and skill set as a change leader.

She also talks about;

* How to bridge the gap for effective change

* How leadership is the critical success factor for effective change, and examines whether we are really recognising everything that needs to change in the system to enable people to engage consistently?

* How change intelligence plays out within an organisation

* How to stay focused and not get “change fatigue”.

* Breaking down barriers to change and recognising blind spots

* What makes change stick and what makes it fail?

Barbara outlines techniques for equipping the leader to stay with the change to the very end and how to maintain that momentum.

We discuss the role of the leader in the process and the three stages of change, which are;

* The Ending

* The neutral zone

* The New Beginning

Resistance to change is normal, we discuss effective tools for overcoming resistance.

So, if you’re looking to make changes within your organisation, learn how to lead that change from the Head, Heart and Hand!

One book that made a huge impact on Barbara’s life is “Man’s Search for Meaning”, written by Viktor Frankl in 1946 chronicling his experiences as an Auschwitz concentration camp inmate during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positively about, and then immersively imagining that outcome.

Daily habits and rituals; Barbara likes to start and end each day with 15 minutes of quiet time for reflection.

Barbara is giving away two free sample chapters of her book which you can download at www.changecatalysts.com.  You can connect with Barbara on LinkedIn or Twitter.

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Thanks to Jodey Smith, my podcasting technical genius, who does all the bits I don’t

like –the editing, the uploading etc. He is a gem and can be contacted at 

 

Today’s Return Guest on Winning Teams is John Rossman, author of The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World’s Most Disruptive Company.

This is the second of 2 interviews with John Rossman, a former executive at Amazon.com where he launched the 3rd party selling platform and ran the merchant service business.

In this final interview, John talks about;

* Why being able to challenge your colleagues is critical – and it is not personal!

* How Amazon became an operationally excellent masterpiece

* The strong operational mindset – but don’t take it personally

* The importance of the external “bar-raiser” during the interview process

* Why Amazon like to hire military personnel

* Diving deep into the 5 Whys and how this fixes the root cause of issues

* Using internal tools for external customers

* How a balanced portfolio of your beliefs and principles will avoid arrogance and decay within an organisation.

We discuss Jeff Bezos’s fascination with society’s ever shortening attention span and his belief that frugality drives innovation.  And how nailing desk legs to doors is a symbol of this frugality mentality! You have to hear this!

He discusses why it’s critical in Amazon to be able to give others feedback and not take it personally and how Amazon builds trust within the organisation. How Thinking big is about having a big vision and the daily progress required to get there.  The business of getting to the right result and demanding excellence out of others and understanding and respecting decision making.

This interview is a goldmine of information for anyone in a leadership role. It is full of effective techniques from Amazon that you can implement in your business.  These are not principles that were set out at the beginning, they are principles that have evolved as the business progressed.  Find out how Amazon maintained their entrepreneurial approach because of these leadership principles and dedication to metrics.

See how you can get your team making decisions with the same set of decision making values as Amazon.

Buy the book, it’s a great read and full of great content.

John is giving away a free sample chapter of his book and a poster with the visuals of the 14 Amazon Leadership Principles and you can download at johnrossman.com/winning.

Click here to listen.

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Thanks to Jodey Smith, my podcasting technical genius, who does all the bits I don’t

like –the editing, the uploading etc. He is a gem and can be contacted at JodeySmith.com.

Are you ready to be a great leader?

10 Key Traits of Top Business Leaders

 

These 10 Key Traits of Top Business Leaders can set you on your journey to lasting success!

Click HERE to download.

 

Today’s guest on Winning Teams is John Rossman, author of The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World’s Most Disruptive Company.

This is the first of 2 interviews with John, the second one will be published next week.

In The Amazon Way, Rossman introduces readers to the unique corporate culture of the world’s largest internet retailer, with a focus on the 14 leadership principles that have guided and shaped its decisions and its distinctive leadership culture.

An Amazon insider, John was responsible for launching the third party selling business which today represents over 50% of all Amazon business.  John is a renowned expert on digital disruption and helping his clients build and execute new business models.

John Rossman is a Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting in Seattle, Washington.

In this  first interview, John provides fascinating insights into a number of the 14 principles that have made Amazon into what it is today, and they include:

* The importance of good metrics and SLA’s

* Obsessing over the Customer

* Taking ownership of your own dependencies, a principle that helps Amazon leaders hold each other accountable

This interview is packed with fascinating insights into what makes Amazon stand out – not the least of which is how John had to go through 23 interviews before he was hired, so this book is perfect for anybody who wants to prepare for an interview at Amazon!

Every organization has “values” and “mission statements.” Most companies even post these on the walls and post them on their website. The difference is Amazon’s obsessive adherence to their principles which is, in effect, the DNA of the organisation.

Listening to John Rossman is a fascinating insight into one of the worlds most successful organisations, and he delivers a ton of great messages to all who lead and manage people.

The book that John says had a huge impact on his career is Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive.

His daily routine is based on the “early to bed, early to rise” principle where he gets up every day at 4.30am to complete his workout which he says is foundational to his day.

John is giving away a free sample chapter of his book and a poster with the visuals of the 14 Amazon Leadership Principles and you can download at www.johnrossman.com/winning.

You can connect with John at www.johnrossman.com

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Thanks to Jodey Smith, my podcasting technical genius, who does all the bits I don’t

like –the editing, the uploading etc. He is a gem and can be contacted at JodeySmith.com.

Are you ready to be a great leader?

10 Key Traits of Top Business Leaders

 

These 10 Key Traits of Top Business Leaders can set you on your journey to lasting success!

Click HERE to download.