Latest / The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast / Every Founder Needs a Parking Lot with Chad Paris (stage 3) - Ep. 444

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Every Founder Needs a Parking Lot with Chad Paris (stage 3) - Ep. 444 · The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast

• 0:00
  Scott Ritzheimer: Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again
• 0:03
  to the Start, Scale, and Succeed podcast, the only podcast that
• 0:06
  grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a
• 0:09
  founder. I'm your host Scott Ritzheimer, and there's this
• 0:13
  huge challenge that founders face, particularly in level
• 0:16
  three when they're in that reluctant manager stage, and
• 0:20
  it's the point where you're just like wondering what's wrong with
• 0:23
  these people, and it's it's really hard because these people
• 0:26
  should be great people. You didn't hire slouches; you hired
• 0:29
  folks that you really believed in. But for some reason, it's
• 0:34
  just not quite working out the way that you wanted, and it
• 0:37
  leaves you trying to figure out where did this all go wrong, and
• 0:42
  then on the other hand, sometimes we'll get great people
• 0:45
  in, and we'll think everything is wonderful, and then that
• 0:48
  person leaves or changes roles, and then all of a sudden there's
• 0:51
  this whole you know calamity in their wake. At this stage, we
• 0:55
  find ourselves very dependent on people, but for some reason,
• 0:59
  just people isn't enough. And to hear here to help us explain
• 1:03
  what's going on here and how we can think about it properly is
• 1:06
  Chad Paris, who spent 10 years in the classroom before spending
• 1:10
  15 in executive sales leadership, hitting SVP and
• 1:14
  driving over 37 million in revenue growth across some
• 1:17
  demanding industries. But he kept seeing the same thing:
• 1:21
  great founders, solid products, real potential, but stalled out
• 1:25
  because the process underneath couldn't carry the weight. So he
• 1:29
  started Stonefly Consulting Group. Now he works with SMB
• 1:32
  founders and operators to find gaps in their sales process,
• 1:36
  their workflows, and their people systems, and help them
• 1:39
  fix those before those gaps cost real money. He also hosts the
• 1:43
  Process Over Pressure podcast, where founders get honest about
• 1:48
  what almost broke them and what finally moved the needle.
• 1:51
  Process over pressure every time. Chad, welcome to the show.
• 1:55
  Glad you're here. We've got quite the challenge for founders
• 2:00
  at this stage of figuring out what's the role of process and
• 2:03
  what's the role of bringing in great people, let's just start
• 2:06
  with what's wrong with this idea of hire great people and get out
• 2:09
  of their way.
• 2:11
  Chad Paris: Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me,
• 2:13
  and it's a pleasure to be here. Been looking forward to this
• 2:16
  conversation. You know, that's a that's a great question, and
• 2:19
  that's a really, really, really, it's it's a question that's not
• 2:23
  only great, but it's a question that's often missed. And I think
• 2:27
  you know when you think about being a owner, an entrepreneur,
• 2:31
  a business, someone that has built something from nothing,
• 2:34
  and they're scaling that business and they're starting to
• 2:36
  grow, and they get to a place where, okay, we're not this
• 2:40
  small mom and pop anymore. We're actually really growing, and
• 2:43
  need to hire good people, or have I had good people? There's
• 2:47
  a couple of things that happened, and and and I'll and
• 2:50
  I'll talk about talk about several of them, but I'm gonna
• 2:52
  I'm gonna talk about really kind of two that I see a lot. One is
• 2:58
  as being the the owner, the entrepreneur, like you just
• 3:00
  discovered or said, and they're they're getting ready to scale.
• 3:05
  Maybe they're ready to hire people, and there's this sense
• 3:09
  of loyalty. I started this from nothing. I've built this. These
• 3:12
  people have always been with me, and I'm very loyal to them. And
• 3:16
  while I'm all for loyalty, 100, as an owner that's scaling, you
• 3:20
  have to ask yourself. There's a difference in being loyal to
• 3:23
  your people and and putting someone in the right seat that
• 3:27
  can help drive your business to growth. While I'm not saying,
• 3:31
  hey, they're not loyal, never give them an opportunity. That's
• 3:34
  not what I'm saying. But you have to be very careful because
• 3:38
  there's this trap where you feel like you know I'm comfortable
• 3:40
  with this person, they've been there. They're loyal to me. I
• 3:43
  know I can put them in this position, but they're not right
• 3:46
  fit for the organization and the growth that you're trying to get
• 3:49
  to. And so, oftentimes, I see leaders where where they'll
• 3:52
  promote because of you know this person been with me and and
• 3:56
  they're loyal to me, and and those people are are are gung ho
• 4:01
  to do good for you, and they they say yes, I will do the job,
• 4:05
  and I'm excited about doing the job. But if you really got down
• 4:08
  to it, they're probably that's not my strong suit. That's not
• 4:11
  something I'm really good at. But I'm in this position now,
• 4:14
  and I'm going to do a really good job. And it ends up
• 4:16
  becoming this sense of misunderstanding or chaos or
• 4:22
  what, or processes broken, or whatever it is, and you live in
• 4:26
  this lull of time, and it happens a lot. It happens a lot,
• 4:30
  and and and that's that's number one that I see. And then the
• 4:33
  second is is that let's say you you you're getting ready to you
• 4:37
  know grow, or you're you're looking at your organization,
• 4:42
  and there's just a lack of the of a overall process. The and
• 4:46
  what I mean by that, and I'll make it simple, is because
• 4:49
  processes can mean a lot of things. What I'm talking about
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  is specifically where you have started this company. It's grown
• 4:57
  really fast. You've had a lot of people in these different
• 4:59
  positions. In different seats throughout your company, and
• 5:02
  oftentimes from where you started to where you are today,
• 5:06
  you don't even have the same message. You're not even the
• 5:08
  same company. People are out here selling on an idea of what
• 5:12
  you hired them to do versus what the real reality is is of what
• 5:16
  you do, and it gets misconnected. And so you go down
• 5:19
  this time where they're out selling this, and it's not even
• 5:22
  what we do. And so you get a lot of mixed message or or
• 5:27
  description of who you are as a company, and it loses that that
• 5:31
  that longevity and all the time that was spent building that
• 5:34
  company to what it was because you end up changing. You don't
• 5:37
  know you change, but you change on the philosophy and who you
• 5:39
  really are.
• 5:41
  Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, it's such an interesting challenge,
• 5:44
  and and I want to pick up on this thread because a lot of
• 5:47
  folks I don't think talk about it, but process does mean a lot
• 5:50
  of things to a lot of people, and I think we use the word a
• 5:55
  little flippantly because the process for a team of five
• 5:59
  versus a process for a team of 500, those are two very
• 6:04
  different things, and and I I don't think we tend to be
• 6:06
  careful enough with that. So I want to dive in in this realm
• 6:10
  that we're talking about here. What does process mean?
• 6:14
  Chad Paris: Yeah, and and and you're absolutely right. It's
• 6:17
  it's all about the dynamic of the team and the number of team
• 6:19
  and how big the team is right. When I when I I'm just going to
• 6:23
  do it down to the simplest of forms. When I think about a
• 6:26
  process, that is to me in in again we can go many many.
• 6:32
  There's many many levels of the process, but when you get down
• 6:35
  to the I guess the grassroots or what I would call the beginning
• 6:39
  level, and we can scale up in different processes throughout
• 6:42
  that is, is what is it that you do today, versus what it is that
• 6:48
  you did two years ago. When you look at that and you say, okay,
• 6:54
  this is what we started as, and this is what we are, because
• 6:56
  because you'll be able to easily tell that, right? Now take that
• 7:00
  and then dive into how do we go? Let's just use the marketing
• 7:05
  side of it or the sales side of it. We we can go about different
• 7:08
  ways because because it goes operationally, it goes
• 7:10
  leadership, it goes all of it. But we're going to try to for
• 7:14
  for explanation purposes. When I think about process, it's this.
• 7:18
  Okay, this is who we were when we started, and now our
• 7:21
  marketing and what we're talking about is totally different. Kind
• 7:25
  of elaborate on that. So the process in which we started to
• 7:29
  what we're actually selling today is not aligned. There,
• 7:32
  there is no, there is no direct feed. It's totally in snip
• 7:36
  somewhere in the middle. Something broken down. What I
• 7:39
  look at is is in that small of a of an example is is getting that
• 7:45
  link connected back together and how that works. How does the
• 7:48
  marketing team work with the operational teams that work with
• 7:51
  the sales team and how is our message fluid throughout that?
• 7:55
  That's what I mean, and that's a very small example trying to
• 7:58
  give you an illustration of what I mean by the process. That's
• 8:00
  the starting to the end, and how does that flow all together?
• 8:04
  Does it flow all together? Is it choppy? Is there some areas that
• 8:07
  are maybe this group's not bought in? They're not
• 8:09
  understanding that they're going their own path, and if that's
• 8:12
  happening, you've got a lot of different moving parts that are
• 8:14
  not working together.
• 8:16
  Scott Ritzheimer: It's fascinating because you can kind
• 8:19
  of get away without that for a while, right? You can, you can,
• 8:23
  you know, you can have a couple people, you can hire a couple
• 8:25
  great people, and then they all start running. What would you
• 8:27
  say to the person who's like, "We haven't needed that before.
• 8:30
  Why do we need that now?"
• 8:33
  Chad Paris: Yeah. So I'll try to answer it this way. I when you
• 8:36
  know when you when you had this conversation with an owner,
• 8:40
  business owner, not long ago, and one of the things that is is
• 8:45
  kind of was kind of eye opening for for this person, and and I'm
• 8:48
  going to use their name for, but I'll but I'll give you an
• 8:51
  example of the story or what happened. As you, as a business
• 8:55
  owner, start growing, and you're starting to, you know, man,
• 8:58
  thank goodness it's growing. We're developing. We're moving.
• 9:00
  We're we're expanding. We're making more money we ever made.
• 9:04
  What happens is is that one entrepreneur at that time, you
• 9:07
  know, he was he was able to handle it because there was only
• 9:09
  two or three or four or five. But we're growing, right? The
• 9:12
  first thing that happens is is they go and say, "We well, we're
• 9:15
  growing. We got to get more help. We got to get more help.
• 9:18
  Got to get more help." And so they start hiring people, and
• 9:21
  they say, "Well, I need a new sales leader. I'm going to hire
• 9:24
  senior director of sales. I'm going to hire that person." Man,
• 9:27
  they look at their resume. Look how good they are. I'm bringing
• 9:29
  that person in. Boom, man. We're we're growing. We need to get a
• 9:32
  marketing person. I'm going to get this marketing person. Look
• 9:33
  at what they've done at this company. And so they start
• 9:35
  putting these different caliber people. What's missed is, and
• 9:39
  this is exactly what was happening with this company is
• 9:42
  is that you didn't teach them the direction, you didn't teach
• 9:45
  them who you were, you didn't teach them what we're about. So
• 9:48
  you hired them based off of a resume, saying, "Man, they're
• 9:50
  really good." So what are they doing? I'm hiring them to run
• 9:54
  the show because they're talented. Look at what they've
• 9:56
  been able to do at the other company. They come in and they
• 9:58
  put their own philosophy of what. Worked for them, and this
• 10:01
  philosophy worked for. And so, before you know it, the entire
• 10:04
  philosophy has changed from what you started or who you really
• 10:07
  are. And so, that is an example of a of an eye opener for them
• 10:11
  to go, "Holy cow! What do you mean? I need this. This is what
• 10:15
  I mean. You need it. Like it can get broken that fast without you
• 10:18
  knowing it."
• 10:19
  Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, one of the things that I think is so
• 10:22
  poignant about this, especially at this stage, is well, there's
• 10:25
  two. One is that the founder is still so close that they they
• 10:28
  have to be in alignment with it, and founders don't necessarily
• 10:31
  do a good job at falling in line. You know, if it really
• 10:34
  doesn't come from you, the chances are you're not really
• 10:36
  going to follow through on it. And so, we'll just stick with
• 10:39
  this one for a second. One of the things I see founders do is
• 10:41
  like, you know, yes, we need a process, and by we they mean ye.
• 10:46
  You know, like everyone else needs a process, but if you're
• 10:49
  not really behind it, you're probably the biggest culprit for
• 10:52
  missing it. Do do you see that, and how do you help founders
• 10:55
  work through that tension?
• 10:57
  Chad Paris: Yeah, it's it's it's interesting. You know, a lot of
• 11:00
  the founders, a lot of you know people that have created
• 11:03
  something have a a very creative. I would say have the
• 11:09
  very creative gene. They have a they have a very high order of
• 11:12
  thinking, and they're very much constantly coming up with new
• 11:18
  ideas, or constantly thinking of man, that's a that's a good
• 11:21
  idea. That's a thought, or that's a thought. And so, what
• 11:24
  happens is, is all these thoughts start running their
• 11:26
  head. They're, you know, you've heard of the people in the
• 11:27
  middle of the night. They get up, they take their notebook,
• 11:29
  and they write things down because it's just flooding them.
• 11:31
  Right? Talk to any business owner; they'll tell you that
• 11:34
  they do that because it's all this stuff coming out. And so,
• 11:36
  what happens is, is they're starting creating all these
• 11:38
  ideas. And then, what what they do to their people that they
• 11:42
  don't realize they do is they may go in and say, "Hey, this is
• 11:45
  what we're going to do," and then oh, by an hour later, come
• 11:49
  back and say, "I want you to add this. I want you to add this. I
• 11:52
  want you to add this. What about this? What about this?" And so
• 11:55
  before you know it, where you started, like, man, it was a
• 11:58
  good idea, and can't understand why nothing ever gets completed.
• 12:01
  It's because you've given them about 86 other items along with
• 12:05
  that to do, and they're not able to ever accomplish anything. So
• 12:08
  I started this strategy a long time ago, and I love it for my
• 12:11
  founders and owners. And I call it the parking lot. And I create
• 12:15
  this sheet just so that they have a place to put what we call
• 12:18
  their ideas, their topics, their things, their thoughts, and it's
• 12:21
  called in the parking lot. I I look at the parking lot. I talk
• 12:24
  to them about the parking lot. I even teach their people how to
• 12:27
  look at the parking lot and talk about the parking lot. And it's
• 12:29
  a place for them to put their thoughts. Now, look, we're not
• 12:32
  going to get to that right now because we're working on the
• 12:34
  other four things. But it's in there, and we recognize it and
• 12:36
  we see it. Most founders don't have people saying, "Hey, I saw
• 12:40
  what you put in there. I acknowledge that it's there. I
• 12:43
  got you. We're going to get to that, but here's where we are
• 12:47
  right now. That's all they need is someone to say, "I heard you.
• 12:50
  I got it. It's down. Let's move on."
• 12:52
  Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah.
• 12:53
  Chad Paris: This is a this is a very easy tactic that I teach a
• 12:55
  lot of people how to do, and it makes life so much easier for
• 12:58
  the owner and founder. And then you see things getting
• 13:00
  accomplished rather than you just got this list that keeps
• 13:03
  growing. Because what do we do as people? We're doers. We want
• 13:05
  to get it fixed. Boss told me to come do it. I'm going to get it
• 13:07
  done. And then we got 75 things on our plate that never gets
• 13:11
  completed.
• 13:13
  Scott Ritzheimer: It's so true. It's so true. It happens all the
• 13:16
  time. It does. Yeah, Chad. There's a question that I ask my
• 13:20
  guests. I'm interested to see what you have to say. But it is
• 13:22
  this: what What is the biggest secret that you wish wasn't a
• 13:25
  secret at all? What's What's that one thing you wish every
• 13:28
  founder watching or listening today knew?
• 13:33
  Chad Paris: I think there's a. I think there. This is a. I guess
• 13:36
  kind of a secret, or or it may not be classified as secret, but
• 13:39
  maybe it's a stereotype or a feeling, so I just maybe I'm
• 13:43
  stretching a little bit here on this, but I want to make sure. I
• 13:45
  think it's important. There's this word that I think a lot of
• 13:50
  owners and founders do, and they go, "Am I norm? Is this normal?
• 13:53
  Am I normal? Is my company normal? Am I normal?" And I and
• 13:57
  I hate that word, but it's true. They do. They go, "Am I normal?"
• 14:00
  And and the fear is is that they don't ask for help, or they
• 14:04
  don't talk to someone to give them some advice or pour into
• 14:08
  them, because being a founder and owner is very lonely when
• 14:11
  you're at the top. You don't have a group of people around
• 14:13
  that you can go talk about, and the last thing you want to do as
• 14:16
  an owner or founder is maybe bring up something that you're
• 14:19
  not good at. People look at you and go. I thought they was the
• 14:21
  owner. They should know everything, right? I mean,
• 14:23
  you're the owner. You're the smartest person in the room. You
• 14:25
  should be. And there's this fear that they may not be doing it
• 14:28
  right, or they're not normal, or something's off. When the
• 14:31
  reality is, is they're very normal, and everybody else is
• 14:34
  going through that. And if they spent more time actually asking
• 14:37
  and talking to people and having people that they can have come
• 14:40
  in, whether it be a consultant or who it is that they can lean
• 14:42
  on and really give them an opportunity to bounce some ideas
• 14:46
  off, I think they would see the pressure peel off of them. And
• 14:50
  so I think it's I think it is a very much a secret that I wish
• 14:54
  was not a secret, but it is because people are just afraid
• 14:57
  to do it.
• 14:58
  Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, it's so true. It's so because the the
• 15:01
  journey that founders go through is so deeply personal, and and
• 15:06
  because of that, we can have a tendency to then kind of
• 15:09
  internalize that, make it individual. And the reality of
• 15:12
  it is, like we all share a very similar journey, different
• 15:15
  variables and different times and different strengths. And
• 15:17
  yeah, there's there are plenty of things that are unique, but I
• 15:21
  really love that you're drawing that out because it there's so
• 15:24
  much about this experience that really is shared, and yeah, it
• 15:29
  can't be said enough. I really love that, Chad. There are folks
• 15:34
  that want someone to be able to help them answer the question:
• 15:37
  Is this normal? And and and so, where can folks find more out
• 15:42
  about you? Where can they find the podcast, or what would be a
• 15:45
  next good step for someone who wanted to connect with you?
• 15:48
  Chad Paris: Yeah, thank you for asking that. And again, I want
• 15:51
  to thank you again for for allowing me to come on and have
• 15:53
  a have a conversation with you. I think it's important as us as
• 15:57
  as owners and leaders and founders, and we're going
• 15:59
  through our own journey, but if we can experience the the
• 16:03
  advantage that we get is we get to experience a lot of different
• 16:06
  companies and where they are because we're on the consultant
• 16:08
  side. And so what I when I started this, I've always wanted
• 16:11
  to take that piece and say my job is to help people grow, help
• 16:15
  them to be successful. That's the way I look at what I do. And
• 16:19
  so if you're if you're one of those people and you're just. I
• 16:21
  just need to have a conversation. Like I don't
• 16:23
  charge people to have a conversation. I think it's most
• 16:25
  ridiculous thing ever. So you can reach me. I'm easy to get a
• 16:28
  hold of. I'm Chad at StoneflyConsulting.com. My
• 16:32
  website is StoneflyConsulting.com. Also
• 16:34
  have my podcast where I do a lot of these. It's process over
• 16:37
  pressure. You can find it on YouTube channel. But yeah, I'm a
• 16:41
  lot like you. I want to. I want to help people, and I want to.
• 16:43
  You know, I'm a good bouncing soundboard. I'm a firm believer
• 16:46
  that if if I can help you and start sorting things out for you
• 16:49
  and making your life easier and being more, you know,
• 16:52
  understanding and how I can be more successful, then then
• 16:56
  you're gonna. I'm gonna be more value to you than than anything
• 16:59
  else.
• 17:00
  Scott Ritzheimer: So good, so good. We'll get all those in the
• 17:03
  show notes for you. Don't have to go chasing any of them down.
• 17:05
  We'll get the links and everything right there for you.
• 17:08
  Chad, thanks for being on today. It was really a privilege and
• 17:11
  honor having you here. Loved this conversation and enjoyed
• 17:14
  getting to spend some time together. Push record while
• 17:16
  we're at it. For those of you watching and listening, you know
• 17:19
  your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as
• 17:22
  much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait
• 17:26
  to see you next time. Take care. Hey everyone, Scott Ritzheimer
• 17:33
  here. Thank you so much for listening to the Start, Scale,
• 17:36
  and Succeed podcast. I hope this episode gave you exactly what
• 17:39
  you need for the level you're in right now, if you want to
• 17:43
  discover what level you're in, take our 10-question Founders
• 17:46
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• 17:50
  foundersquiz.com. It'll pinpoint exactly where you are and give
• 17:55
  you tailored tips to move forward and reach that next
• 17:58
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• 18:02
  out of today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, or
• 18:05
  review. It helps us reach more founders like you, and let's be
• 18:08
  honest, it means a ton to me, my team, and all our incredible
• 18:12
  guests. So keep starting, scaling, and succeeding, and
• 18:16
  I'll see you in the next episode.