Turning Around a Struggling Business with EOS

0:00It's all in the people component. It's you. The thing that has been standing out to me lately is that a lot of times we talk about just the three strike rule and just having those conversations and it feels like a lot of times we wait until it's inevitable before we have the first strike conversation. Welcome to Real Talk with EOS Implementers, the podcast where we share real stories from entrepreneurs who've made the leap to become EOS Implementers.

0:31I'm your host Marco Donnell, visionary at EOS Worldwide, expert EOS Implementer and best-selling author. Each episode, we'll explore how EOS changed their lives, helping them do what they love, with people they love, making a huge difference, being compensated appropriately with time for other passions. Let's dive in. Hey Johnson, how you doing? I'm doing great. How are you doing Mark? I'm doing fantastically well and so thank you for jumping on my LinkedIn live and this is just a spot where we can really just bring out just the fantastic experience of the EOS Implementer community, share some stories on our entrepreneurial journeys and hopefully add some value based on the conversation.

1:20Wherever it may go. I love it. Yeah. So let's just jump into it and why don't you give us your entrepreneurial story, how to get here. It's not the one minute and 30 seconds or minute or whatever it is, EOS story, it's however you want to tell that story and it's relative completeness. Yeah. So my journey has been an interesting one that was really more entrepreneurial where I found myself consistently in positions where I was supporting leadership, I was part of leadership teams and eventually I wound up at the security company here in Nashville and I was part of the leadership team there and the two owners had merged their businesses a couple years before.

2:12I always tell people they got married without doing their premarital counseling. They just were not aligned on things at all and the business was not doing well, we were bleeding money and they were on the verge of dissolving the partnership and I had come from another company where they hired all of us to start a new division and I was running operations for that company. When I joined and eventually ended up running as the HR leader for the organization, I didn't have the background with either of their companies, I didn't have really a dog in the hut.

2:48And so I had a trusted relationship with them and they asked me to facilitate some conversations to see if their partnership was salvageable which was not awkward at all as their employee that they could just fire. No, it's like easy. Yeah, but I was like, you know, that's a therapist, I've been in therapy for years like we can do this. Fortunately, I had heard about US at a conference and it really struck me as, man, if we could just agree on the vision, if we just agree on what we're here to do, we could use that as a filter for everything else.

3:28And so I said, I think this is what we should do and honestly, I think it was to indulge me that they agreed to do it. And I signed up for base camp at the time because if we were going to do it, I wanted to do it right. And they were not, they were not in a place where they were going to pay for an implementer because this was like an experiment. But we did it within a year, we'd had a million dollar swing back into the black four years later, largest locally owned commercial security integration firm in Nashville.

4:00And they were able to exit in 2022, which they merged their companies at 60 so that they could have something they could exit because both of them had these companies that were just very founder and dependent, right? And so I had left after about four years, kept working within as their coach and I went into a consulting role where I was working with companies that install high-end home automation, home theaters, home AV stuff and specifically helping them build profitable service departments.

4:36And in a consulting role, you're telling people exactly what to do, right? Like, here's what you need to do. And then watching them not execute it very well, thinking, man, if they were running on EOS, they would be executing better. And so around the time COVID hit, a lot of my job was going on site and sort of embedding with the leadership team, coaching them, getting the new systems online and all of that shut down. And so all of a sudden, they've got me with not a lot to do.

5:11And I said, hey, I'm doing this EOS coaching thing still with the company that I left. We could offer this to our clients. I think they would get a ton of value out of it. We could do it virtually. And so we did, and pretty quickly, had five of our clients where I was doing EOS with them. That was the point where I had known that this is something that I wanted on my radar, that I was really interested in doing. It didn't know quite how to get there.

5:46And it was like it was scripted for me to go this route. And I remember getting to this point where I was like, okay, I'm doing this. I'm like, I think I'm okay at it, but I really need to level up. And I logged into Basecamp to look at when the next bootcamp was going to be. And that's when I saw the franchise announcement. I was like, this is signed from above. That this is what I'm like put on Earth to do. And like, as soon as I got the agreement, signed it, signed up for the first bootcamp offered, and the rest was history.

6:23And that's how I got here. That's amazing. That's a great story, very organic and natural. So what about EOS sort of drew you in? What about the tools, the system, the process, where the client experiences was like, I just need to do this? You know, I came from like early in my career working in Apple, specifically Apple retail. And one of the things that I think Apple retail does really, really well, or did really well was culture. There aren't a lot of retail stores that have the kind of retention that Apple has that don't feel like you're working retail.

7:08People like truly build careers doing it. And I was part of a team that would help open new Apple stores. And when we would do that, we would go on site and spend two weeks with all the new employees. And about a day out of that two weeks was talking about Apple products. And the rest of it was about culture, right? So I always had this passion for creating like a great workplace, a great culture that's driven by values. And I think that's the thing that drew me to EOS initially, right?

7:46Really the VTO, just the clarity around that, the simplicity, the leaders had tried a couple other systems and nothing had stuck. And when I was reading them, I was like, huh, I don't think I'd get this. Like it was just a little too much for me. I'm not, I got my degree in philosophy. Like I'm not, I don't have this like super high MBA level business acumen. And so what I loved about EOS is that it was just simple. Anybody could understand it. Anybody could execute it and use the tools.

8:25And then it was really seeing the results, seeing how it could work, seeing the power in just committing to these things. And seeing that like while it's simple, it's not easy, right? How hard it is to really master the tools, get really good at them, get committed to them, get to that place where it comes naturally for you to think through the tools. And so I think it was a combination of the I see EOS is the best way to build a great workplace.

9:02And I just have a huge passion for that. And the best way to just get shit done, which I also have a passion for, it reminds those two things really well. Yeah, right, right. Yes, so I'm curious about using EOS to build great workplaces and culture. Obviously we wrote the people book recently. And from your perspective, you kind of take the experience with Apple to say, okay, this is a very distinct, right? I mean, you go into an Apple store no matter where you are in the world.

9:39And it's kind of the same, right? Like it's the same type of people, it's the same type of processes. How do you integrate those two when you're working with a client? Are you and implementers, you know, obviously we are not consultants, we're not advisors or gurus in any way. We teach a simple set of tools to help get a result. And we still have backgrounds in the way we have things that we have. And where we kind of want to push people to go to because we know.

10:08Yeah, and you like it. How do you kind of take that Apple experience and where how does it come out working with a client using tools? I think the biggest area where it comes out is in those quarterly sessions when we're reviewing the DTO. And when we do that first question around core values. And I always think like, we've kind of, you know, we're going to spend about an hour on this. And then I, like I spend so much time on the core values part.

10:36Because I just every single time I'm challenging them. Okay, so what are you doing to make these part of the culture and the language of your organization? To make this what you live and breathe? One of my favorite things to do is just put them on the spot and say, I want to hear an example for each of these core values of someone outside of this room where they lived that core value in the last two weeks. And inevitably they'll say, man, this person, like they're always living this core value.

11:11I say, oh, great. So that should be easy for you to give me a specific example. Because I think one of the big mistakes that I see is when people, and this is a thing that I learned at Apple, people get a lot of general positive feedback. You're doing a great job, right? Hey, you're doing awesome. And then they get a lot of specific negative feedback. Here's the thing you messed up. And when you couple those, you're really not giving any substance on the positive side. And you're just sort of chipping away on the negative side. And so really challenging them to get just as specific with their positive feedback as they are with their negative feedback and tying that stuff to the core values.

11:59Every time you're about to tell someone good job, just stop and say, why am I saying this? What did I see or hear that's leading me to say this? And so it just pushes them to start being really, really intentional in looking for those things. Because when everything's going well, everyone's going well. And you're not and you're not seeing that stuff when things are going poorly, everything stands out. And so that's probably one of the biggest things that I took from that background at Apple, which is honing in on that positive specific feedback and specifically tying that to your core values to affirm the behaviors that you want to see.

12:51Yeah, no, that's great. And I think obviously our brains are just hardwired toward the negative. And yeah, it does take some time to slow down, be intentional to give specific positive feedback. Love that. So what is so building these cultures, working with clients, there's really, really great to hear. And then you think about what are those moments in the session room where you're like, it's like, I don't call, but I have galked. And it is like straight and long.

13:29It's just totally luck for me that that occurred. I'm like, yeah, I can see coming back to do this again. But what's that moment in time for you as an implementer, you're like, oh, I can't believe I get to do this. I think if I had to try to boil that down into a thing, it's breakthroughs. It's when they they have those breakthrough moments and that can look a lot of different ways. Sometimes it's a breakthrough in hearing each other for the first time. And they've just been talking past each other, doing what we, you know, we talked about violent agreement, right? But they don't even realize it. Or when somebody finally speaks up for the first time and says how they're really feeling at a session yesterday. And it's been a journey with this client and some partnership issues and really challenging stuff. And the session yesterday, they weren't just firing on all cylinders. They had a lot of healthy conflict, which I love. They were listening to hear each other. They did great on their rocks last quarter and didn't rest on their laurels.

14:50They were like, we can do better. Some of these were not good enough. Some of these weren't the right things. We did them, but they were more like something we wanted to do, but not like a priority. And so they just like cut the list, cut the list, cut the list. And at the end of the day, I think the most meaningful thing is the owner was just sharing during the conclude. She was just sharing with some tears. I feel like I have a team that has my back. And that kind of stuff, like getting to be a part of that journey and having a, you know, going from sort of two business partners, being the whole leadership team to having a team, like a full team, where things are being delegated and people are taking ownership and challenging the vision, making it better.

15:46I'm just getting to be a part of that is everything for me. Yeah. It means so much. Couldn't agree more of those aha moments, those breakthroughs. Just get up the popcorn. Sometimes issues. Yes. Yeah. The tissues were willing. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's great. So the antithesis of that. What is your absolute least favorite thing about being an implementer? You know, I think the biggest challenge is just that it's not really scalable. Yeah. I think about you individually.

16:25The individually. Yeah. Yeah. So like I'm always thinking about how do I extend my impact? Because that's what I really want to do. When I look at my VTO, the first one I did when I went through bootcamp, it was a revenue-based one. And about two years ago, I was like, I'm just going to hit it. Yeah. It's not going to be hard. It's going to just take time, but I'll hit it. But what am I going to do to really stretch my impact and expand my impact?

17:00And so that I think probably the biggest challenge. Yeah. But I still like I just I love it. And so me it's continuing EOS and then looking for those other opportunities that EOS creates where I can speak, where I can share ideas, where I can use like the massive amount of experience I gained from seeing all of these different teams and the issues they deal with and how they deal with them and utilize that to grow my own content one day. And so that's the hard part, but also the thing that I think is going to be a big part of my future. Yeah. Yeah. And that's something that many implementers have struggled with over the years myself included, which was when I went to bootcamp, I actually had no intention on becoming an implementer at all. I thought bootcamp, you know, my Colby 2, 2, 10, 3, I just signed up and went. Yeah. So you know, it was to become an implementer, really. And on my VTO and bootcamp, which was in Geno's office at the time, was to have 300 EOS implementers out the world doing work. Yeah. And of course, I had no idea nor intention to to become visionary, in which case, my VTO that I completed in bootcamp

18:29was fulfilled is crazy as it was at the time. I smiled. Yeah. And just totally you never know how these things work. But along my journey is I was working with clients and I was always trying to tinker and start something new. And when I decided to join the coaching team was really me kind of giving up on the ability to scale EOS practice. And I tried all sorts of things and I said, well, this is not going to work because you generate so much cash for yourself and so much current cash flow that if you take the alternative size business, it would be a much, much larger business.

19:14And then if you add the layer of freedom on top of that plus the cash flow, I mean, you probably would need a 30 to 40 million dollar business to equal the cash flow that you generate by yourself with the system. Right. So I started to kind of realize that. But then I was like, you know, it's really a mental thing for me then that I just always need to be mentally engaged and stimulated and testing and trying new things. And so coaching, I kind of was able to do that coaching other implementers, which was course a lot of fun. So that was sort of my full circle journey of, yeah, I want to do something someday to expand my impact. And I had the, you know, good fortune.

20:00Yeah, but do that through the entire community. Well, and that's exciting to hear because I'm, it's all be a sprint coach for the next Tampa boot camp. And that's how I'm doing that. And that's a big part of it. Yeah, it was that how do I expand my impacts? Like I feel especially from that coaching other implementers perspective, yeah, I would just not be here without a handful of implementers that really poured into me whether they were part of the coaching team or not. Yeah. And just feel like so much gratitude for that and wanting to share that and encourage. And so yeah, I'm really excited about having that as part of the scaling and I love that framework around. I just got to always be doing, you know, testing new things, trying new things. And scaling doesn't have to look like building a big, huge thing. There are lots of ways, especially now to expand your impact.

21:04Right. With video content, with writing, with talks. And so that's what I think about more than anything. And I see EOS is just like a great compliment to that. And the thing that gives me the confidence that I've seen this stuff. Right. And I've seen the, you know, that's great. So good to kind of dig in a little bit here with, you know, talking about culture, talking about the impact that you want to have. When you're in those session rooms, what is the favorite tool that you're like, you know, it's coming into the session, you're like, oh, I can't wait to teach this thing because I just know the impact that it's going to have and you're super passionate about.

21:58You have like a particular tool that you're anxious to teach. For me, the people analyzer, it's just so simple, but provides such a massive amount of clarity. And you can see it, and I sort of test it out, especially early in the journey, because I want them to feel what it feels like to forget about using it. And so a person, they're discussing an issue with a person during IDS. And I just let them go for a little while. And I like, and they're going around and they're sort of like this thing and this thing and there, there's no clarity. And I just say, have you guys run them through the people analyzer? It's like, oh, I forgot about that.

22:52Everyone take two pipe minutes, run them through this, put it up on the board. And oh, this is where the issue is. It's crystal clear. Yeah. So simple and so powerful, like most things, like I'm in strategic coach and some of the tools that you know, we get from strategic coach. I'm like, God, this is so obvious. And yet I'll do it without having the tool. Right, right. Just having a framework for thinking. Yes. Yeah. So the people analyzer continues to be the thing that I just, I just love coming back to it because you know, part of that building a great culture is getting those people that are not the right fit into an organization where they are.

23:49Right. Yeah. And that not being a moral judgment on that person, that just simply being a, hey, this is not the right fit and this is the impact it's having on us. And we need to, we, it's not fair to them to keep them around. Right. Because they're not happy. The people around them aren't happy. And so when, when we're able to use that tool for a client to really get clarity and take action, that is just perfection for me. Yeah. Clouds, part, angel, sand. Yes.

24:26Yeah. For sure. And you get the second, uh-huh, off the same tool. Two, right, first. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Raise a lot. Yeah. That's great. And you know, it's funny because when you're talking about finding the company that that person does fit with, we try to be pretty clear about this in the people book. And I hope that it came through is that really what we're doing is we're breaking down the walls of a company. And we're saying, okay, everyone on this planet is put here for a unique purpose. They have unique talents. They have, they're the only one like them that ever was and ever will be. They don't need to and shouldn't spend it with others that aren't on the same mission as they are that don't have the same core values. They don't believe what they believe.

25:22Be free to with that with no remorse with no guilt with total joy to say, now you get to find a place that is a true fit match for who you are. So you can live into your full potential. You know, that's why we wrote it the way we wrote it to say leaving a company is not a bad thing. Getting fired is probably not a bad thing. I mean, you hope you just leave and not have to ever get fired. But and I hope anyone who picks up that book or anyone's inside of an U.S. company, they're taking that kind of delegate elevate core values. The people analyze their tools and they're saying, I'm me, you know, company of one, I'm aligning myself with this business, but I'm not really if it's not working right. I need to paycheck, but I can go somewhere else and that company will celebrate it and probably help me find my next spot as opposed to, you know, having this sort of weird contentious exit and making it a thing when a thing to be avoided and be fearful of. I mean, that's why we wrote dare to build intentional culture because so many people are afraid of it, but it should be celebrated not, you know, turned away. Yeah, it's scary. And when you

26:43listen to the news or the you're reading the standard sort of media stuff and the narratives around like people just don't want to work anymore. Then it's just it creates this fear that the right people aren't out there. That you can't have these great people. I remember I was talking to an owner of a client and he was just talking about where he had struggled with some of the people on his leadership team and he's like, because at the end of the day, like, I can do it better than them. Like, I can do it faster and better. And I just said, why did you hire people worse than you at those things? Why would you do that? Why did you hire people better than you at those things?

27:39And without the least bit of arrogance, he said I didn't think I could hire people beyond. Like, I didn't think that that was possible. Existing the whole thing that had prompted this conversation was having, he had found a couple people that were better than him and seeing just how good those people were and the impact that they could make. Oh, wait, it's almost like maybe they believe they don't deserve to have that, right? Like, I don't deserve have these people that are better than me at this thing working for me. And that's such a freeing belief when you when you get it, when you have that breakthrough that there are people out there who their unique ability and what they're the best at and their purpose on earth is to be in this position that isn't owning the business. Because they don't have any interest in owning the business. And what they need is an entrepreneur that has built something where they can go live into their best self. When you just shift into thinking that way and you don't buy into the hype that nobody wants to work anymore, like so much as possible. Oh, for sure. So I'm just going

28:58to switch gears a little bit. I think all of that is just so powerful and I hope more and more or companies that are running on EOS who mentioned strategic coach. It's funny. I told Dan Sullivan probably in 2015 that my goal is to refer more people to strategic coach than Joe Polish. That was just like, I want that. Yeah, like I just want to beat Joe Polish, referring people to strategic coach. Any laughter, he's like, you know, it's probably never going to happen. So and when I was head coach, I'm like, you know, Dan, I'm still on a mission to beat Joe Polish.

29:37And I should probably tell Joe that I'm competing with him without knowing. I was like, I'm going to send every implementer to strategic coach. And there's like 300 implementers now that are in strategic coach. We're still not going to be able to polish. But I mean, you got EOS, you have strategic coach. Those mindsets of abundance versus scarcity are just so rare and so important that you're not going to feel that there's no one out there. Now there's some real math there that there's not enough humans being born. But we'll figure that out too.

30:17Great companies hiring those great people, right? So there's plenty of people for your company that's being intentional with your culture and that's doing the right thing because there will always be a lot of companies that aren't. Yeah, right? And the scale in your favor and you know, you're doing well for your people, you're doing well for yourself. That's just great. Okay, so speaking of people being put on the surface to do specific things, I think that every implementer is designed, purpose-built, who serve a particular type of client. Now, first our broad target market is a abundance-minded, growth-oriented company who wants to open on us, yet they're frustrated, they're willing to get some help. Who is your ideal client, where you're just like, man, if I can get all my clients to be like this, that's all I would ever want to do. It wouldn't even feel like work, not that it does now, probably sometimes.

31:29Who is your people? Who is like the thing? So this was a breakthrough for me last year when I read 10x is easier than 2x. In my session room here and I went to the whiteboard behind me and I just listed all of my clients based on what mindset I had observed from them and really trying to be open-handed that, you know, I'm a believer in the ability to grow and change, but just truly, which ones set a goal that they want and they're going to figure out how to get there versus which ones look at what they've been capable of in the past and then do the math to figure out what they're capable of in the future, right? Like that was just the filter. And I realized that when I looked at the clients that were operating out of that 10x mindset, those were the ones that at the end of the session, I could do another session. Like it was truly energizing.

32:29And the ones that really had just, you know, were not really like we want to grow, you know, with inflation, but we're happy. We just want to stabilize and EOS can do incredible things to help somebody stabilize and become more profitable. But I just found that for me, those clients that either already had the 10x mindset or were open to that are who I need to work with. Because otherwise, I find myself pushing them towards something they don't want.

33:06And that's not my role, right? And I have to be really careful about that because I'm sitting here thinking, well, if you, I mean, if you think about it this way, you can do this and you can do that's like not what they want. And so I have started filtering for that in my process to just if they've not, if they're not familiar with the idea, I just talk to them about it a little bit. And does that resonate with you? How's that idea make you feel? And some people are like, I'm not really interested in that. And there's nothing wrong with that. And then some people and I haven't thought about it that way, but I love that. Like, let's go and this journey together.

33:46And I actually had Matt Yankee from Strategic Coach Sin 10x is easier than 2x to all of my visionaries. And I did it last year just ahead of the annual planning season and the transformation in some of them that had been just stuck in that 2x thinking and had never been introduced to this different way of thinking. The like how those annual planning sessions went, I had one team that their 10-year target when we started was to have six months of cash reserve and be growing at 10% year over year. And every quarter when we went over that was like, yeah, that's fine.

34:30But then the organization for a couple of years was just sort of stagnant. And so I share that book and an annual planning work going over that. I said, does that, does this excite you at all? I know, of course it doesn't. What would excite you? And the owner talked about how, you know, I've never really, I don't really think in terms of the how much revenue we have. I'm not trying to do that. That doesn't move the needle for me. What's really important to me is building something where we can share what we've built with the people that helped us build it.

35:09What if you set a target around like the amount of profit that you can share? She's like, I could get behind that. I said, 10 years from now. What's what's the number you be really excited to be able to share? She said, 100,000 up. That's a why not a million? And she just sat there in silence for probably 30 seconds and shared, I don't think I deserve that. And there's this like profound irony there. Part of that is like deserving the ability to build this company that can do this great thing.

35:48But also, I don't deserve to give away a million dollars. Like it was, it was everything about her is coming from a place of generosity. Yeah, share. And I had everybody just take a break and take 10 minutes. My office is on the same level as like the top of the parking deck here. And I said, I want you guys to just go outside and walk around and just imagine that you're there. You've you've achieved it and just embody that feel that feeling. And you know, I have to talk to each other, please leave your phones here. I'll come get you. And I went out after about 10 minutes and they at all sort of gathered at one place and they were just sort of talking. And when they came back in, there was just this palpable excitement in the air. And that like being open to that massive shift because they are now going to like they're going to have to grow to a much bigger revenue company to achieve that. But everybody in the organization is rallying around this thing.

36:58They've got more engagement than they've ever had. People are looking for ways to automate to be more efficient because the fewer people they have to add on. And so it's just this beautiful thing. And that was like for me, it was just this really powerful moment of understanding how powerful those mindset shifts are. Yeah. Right. And getting to be a part of that. And so it's not for everybody. But the people that are open to it. Like those that's those are the sessions, those are the clients that like truly bring knee joy. Yeah. And the good news is like if you run into clients for not 10 extinkers, you can say, hey, there's a member of this implement your community who love the 10 10% catch balance kind of like let's just hone this thing in, which is just amazing to to have. Cool. So my my next question for you is when you're working with your client. And I asked this question to everyone because I'm trying to get a scent of where we stand today as a snapshot in time. So the answer is probably not going to be timeless, but it might be. And it's really two levels. A macroeconomic view and a micro view at the same time. So what are the top three issues that your clients are

38:27putting up on your issues less? What are they struggling with? What are you dealing with now? I would say people, people and people. Like, what's that? Because there's finding people, right? Like that's a huge challenge. It's a different balance now between the employer and the employee and that just sort of the power dynamic. And the labor force has has a little more power, I think, than what business owners have been used to. And the clients that I love are the ones that don't mind that. They're just figuring out how to adjust to it, right? And so there's finding those great people. And then there's, especially for these ones that are growing, it's handling those really, really, really hard right person-wrong-seat issues, where the seat has just outgrown the person. And there will be to execute well. And they have not done a great job of being open and honest about that with the person early on.

39:41They've let it get to the point where it's irrecoverable, or it's impacting the relationship that they have with the person, all to avoid a hard-to-art situation, right? Which in hindsight is always like, why should we do it? But then it's like, well, because we're chicken. Yeah, I didn't want to hurt their feelings. Well, you don't want to, you don't want to destroy their life, you don't want to hurt their feelings. Yeah, yeah. So I think those two things, and you know, it's the recency bias, you start to see it, and then it's like, man, seeing this a lot with my client, they're having these sort of specific things, and they're just having to make these pretty monumental shifts. And so those are the two, I think that the two big things. And honestly, as like a theme across the board, I hear the, you know, the concerns about the economy, but it's all sort of foggy, right? Even when they're talking. It doesn't really make the issues real. Yeah, it's just, I don't know, like, should we be concerned? And, you know, aside, at the end of the day, so many of the issues, when we get down to them, just come back to

41:09people. Yeah. And they're ability to, most likely. Yes. Yes. Man, that statistic is just more and more true. Yeah. Single day. Yeah. That's what. Yeah. And it's really funny. You know, I've had a lot of conversations with Geno. And about, you know, he's more sessions than pretty much anyone else. And he's like, you know, Mark, it's the exact same issues as just keep coming up. I mean, there is not an issue that I have not seen at this point. Like it just doesn't exist. Yeah. Yeah.

41:45You know, the solves and the solves are generally the same. Yeah. That's great. So I appreciate that. We're going to do a little bit of time travel. Just think about your younger self. If you could go back in time and visit your younger self, two things. How old would you be when you're visiting yourself? And what would you say? I think I would go back to probably like seventh grade. And I would just tell myself to be myself. I think there was somewhere around then middle school where I got the message that me wasn't what people wanted. And so I just started to put on the masks.

42:41Right. And then like high school, my brother's 15 months older than me and super popular. He and I could not be more different when it comes to like, he's a good old country boy. And I'm like, these are computer hands. And you know, he was in FFA, Future Farmers of America. So I was in FFA. We were in the summer of his summer job, Holland Hay. I was Holland Hay. And that was just not me. And it took me so long to even start to explore the real me and like become comfortable with who I am.

43:23And I still to this day. And like, I had this realization. I was probably two months ago when I was on a call with my coach. And I'm working on this talk. And he said, give me the elevator pitch for it. Just off the cuff. And I did it. And what was good about that? What was bad? And I was like, well, on the plus side, I'm really good at bullshitting. And he pointed out to me, yeah, you've got a voice. Your voice changed. And it struck me like, oh, that voice happens sometimes when I'm teaching in a session.

44:12Yeah. That voice happens sometimes when I'm going over the agenda at the side of the day. Like I go into this mode. And then I've started just doing sort of this grounding, breathing practice before sessions. And just reminding myself to just show up as my authentic self. And if I, you know, something comes up in the morning and I'm a little frazzled before the session, people show up extra early, I catch myself. And it's always going over the agenda. And I self now using the voice. I'm like, quit that. They don't want the fake you.

44:55Most of the time when I'm connecting with them, I'm just talking to them. That's who they hired. And so just like falling in love with myself, I think is the advice I would have given to myself and to really you who I am authentically and not have to be somebody else. Yeah. That's what I wish I would have known then. Yeah. Yeah. It's probably true for most of us out of gas. Yeah. So the implementers we tend to read a lot. We tend to be learners. The most implementers, we have this data at one point. It was something like 70% or so, had a learner in a top five in strengths finder profile. Okay. Yeah. I'm going out of the lamp and just assume that you're in the learner profile as well. So with the last book that you've read.

45:58Okay. I am a reader. I am a fiction reader more than a nonfiction reader though. So I'll put probably about 50 to 60 fiction books a year. And so the last one was Blood Tests by Jonathan Callerman. I love a great mindless thriller type book. I couldn't even tell you what Blood Tests was about because I read it more than two weeks ago. And to me, it's like watching a show or a movie except people judge you less if you're reading. Right. Well, the engine of show, like, oh, I just read all day. Wow. You're really smart. Yeah. Yeah. That's the one I read most recently.

46:49And then I'm reading Three Body Problem, which was like a new Netflix series but based on some books. But the last nonfiction book I read was Unreasonable Hospitality, which Will Godera, it's about sort of the journey of the restaurant 11 Madison Park in New York. Have you read that one? No, I saw a few bits and pieces of like of what the book is about but I haven't read it. I could not put it down like it was like most fiction books are for me where I was 2 a.m. still like just reading away. Yeah, still fascinating, so well written. The stories, the lessons, like all of it, just fantastic. Loved it. Nice. Nice. So what is your favorite book of all time?

47:42I was traction, right? I think my favorite book of all time is probably crucial conversations. That one, I would say as much as any book I've read, changed the trajectory of my life, put me on the path to where I am today, you know, crucial conversations. It's all about having conversations where the stakes are high, emotions are charged, and opinions varying. We have those all the time. And they talk about how people, there's the spectrum where dialogue is in the middle and there's, you know, you go to silence or violence. Yeah. And I am a silence person. And that was sort of celebrated, right? Like, oh, you keep your cool, right? Things get tense. You keep you keep your cool. And I sort of valued that about myself. And when I read that book and realized, oh, this is silence is not better. Silence is also not dialogue.

49:02And silence is also not getting you to the result that you want. That was such a shift for me in being able to start to enter the danger. Do that with courage. I read it while we were implementing at that company. And there were so many times before I read it where, and frankly, if we had been using an implementer, it would have made a huge difference, where I didn't enter the danger. Right? And I let, yeah, I let false harmony prevail. And my dad recommended it to me. He's a marriage and family therapist. And I read it, recommended it to the owners. They read it, sent me to go get certified to train it. And we took our entire company through two days, like 16 people at a time, two day, crucial conversations training. That's great. Cheating them how to have these conversations in a productive way.

50:03And like, I go back to that book all the time, those tools, and just that framework on like the stories that we tell that inform our emotions that drive our action and just getting back to, okay, what, what did you actually, like, what are the facts here? What's a different assumption? What's a different story you could tell, which changes the emotion you're feeling, which can lead to a better action. That stuff just, it worked on a just constantly playing in my head in sessions in my regular life, dramatically shifted how I approach the world.

50:49That's great. You were the first one to recommend that one. I love it. Yeah, great. Well, Justin, it's been great getting to know you a little bit better. And hopefully the conversation was super valuable for those who were watching live, or those who will review this later. So I appreciate it. Any final parting thoughts that you'd want to just like give to current clients or future ones, any parting last words. It's all in the people component. The thing that has been standing out to me lately is that a lot of times we talk about just the three strike rule and just having those conversations.

51:38And it feels like a lot of times we wait until it's inevitable before we have the first strike conversation. We've let it get all the way to that point where it's impacting our relationship with the person. We've lost trust. And now the three strikes are a formality, not a real opportunity to improve. And there's no belief that the person can improve. And if we can just shift our mindset to, hey, that first conversation is a gift. Hey, at the first side of the trains coming off the rails, hey, we want to course correct because I want you to be successful here. And I believe he's successful here. And I want to make sure like there, there is so much love for people in having those tough conversations early rather than waiting till you say this is the first thing. And I want we're going to see if we can fix it and we'll check back in. But you don't believe it. You don't believe anything is going to change because it's too late. You've waited.

52:48You've let it go too far. It will just have the courage and the love for their people to have those conversations sooner. Man, that could change the game. Awesome. Well, thank you again. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to Real Talk with EOS implementers. If today's episode inspired you or gave you a new perspective, share it with someone who might need to hear it. Want to learn more about becoming an EOS implementer and living your EOS life?

53:22Visit EOSWorldWide.com. Until next time, do what you love, with people you love, and make a huge difference in the world.