Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Lessons - How to Build World-Changing Organizations That Actually Last | Anne Mahlum - Social Impact Innovator & Entrepreneur

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Lessons - How to Build World-Changing Organizations That Actually Last | Anne Mahlum - Social Impact Innovator & Entrepreneur · Success Story with Scott Clary

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  In this lessons episode, discover how non-profit discipline and corporate rigor scale mission-driven
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  organizations. Learn why playing to your strengths unlocks fundraising success,
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  how replicable systems, and clear decision boundaries and power teams,
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  and why focusing on high-impact leadership tasks drives sustainable growth.
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  And but you know, this is the thing that I've noticed about non-profits. I actually think that you're
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  you are not the normal nonprofit or or it's nonprofit or I don't think you're the normal
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  nonprofit founder or nonprofit executive because I obviously look at what you went on to build.
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  But for some reason non-profits don't usually operate that efficiently and they don't usually
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  they they try for change but they're the people that are attracted to them and work for them.
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  They're not the best operators in the business and I think that's a huge missed opportunity and I'm
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  curious why you were able to to build this so successfully and obviously just have a mind for
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  it and a brain for it but like what were the things that that you did in this in this particular
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  company that you see a lot of people lack in the nonprofit space?
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  Um yeah and so a few things like I love the saying play a game that you can win right like every
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  but every one of us so got you have certain skill sets and so do why and we have things that
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  we're not good at and whatever. I was really good at figuring out what am I really good at and
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  how does that serve the mission of this organization and then you ask the question well who's going to
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  care about these guys? Who cares if they're homeless or not? It's a really difficult issue
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  to get people to get behind right? There's a lot easier nonprofits and causes babies kids kids with
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  cancer animals you know why would you want to help a bunch of 1450 year old men who a lot of people
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  think screwed up their own life right like they're living in homeless shelters get a job get your
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  life together and so the way we raised money was I'm like I have to find the runners I need to
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  find people who understand what this sport has done for themselves and knowing how much they respect
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  themselves when they're out there at six in the morning running and you define the executives who
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  are runners because they have the money and so I found in roads we had this big article in runners
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  where all that's selling my favorite articles ever written about that on my feet and Larry Solomon
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  who was the CEO of Accenture read that article he lived in Philly shot me you know it's saying this
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  is really cool rooting for you and I'm like please say we can get coffee you know and Larry was my
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  meal ticket to all these executives and I'm like introduce me to the runners you're not running
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  the runners and then it just snowballed from there so I got I built events I created running
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  events and I created breakfasts and I would get you out running with our members which I'm like if
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  I can just get you to meet these guys Darren James Joe I mean so many of them you're gonna fall in
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  love with them it is the ultimate underdog story and there's nobody like Americans love underdog
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  stories we love rooting for the guy that we think doesn't have a chance and so I started to realize
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  all of these things in the story and figure out a way to capitalize on all them to raise money
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  for an organization. It's so simple but so smart I think a lot of like nonprofits if if you want to
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  give back and you're in that space and these are good examples to learn from because I do think
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  that sometimes people have a hard time scaling those types of organizations and attracting the
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  right talent and finding ways to raise money so I mean you just nailed it um what were some of the
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  what were some of the things that you actually took and you brought into solid core from a non-profit
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  environment. Yeah so the thing about scaling is you look at the ecosystem that works and then you
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  have to say how do I replicate the ecosystem so give you an example with the solid core studio and
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  the back of my feet running team so when when the chapters were forming with back on my feet when
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  we had one we had one group running right and then it's like okay how do we go to two the logistics
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  start to enter and it's like well let's have everybody meet together and it's like that's not
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  gonna work for very long because how do we get more homeless shelters to be a part of the program when
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  they're spread across the city and now we've got to pick people up at four like it's never gonna work
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  we actually need to replicate the shelter so we had teams so we would have call it six teams
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  and filly let's say you wanted to volunteer Scott you would get placed on a team and you would go
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  to that homeless shelter in the morning and then there'd be five other teams that would go to other
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  homeless shelters volunteers and we would all be running at the same time not together right so
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  like okay cool that can continue to replicate and then you would take that model into another city
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  and say okay we we need a local executive director and we need local staff and local funding
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  you're building systems all the time systems systems processes so for a solid core studio same thing
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  what do you need to make a solid core studio work you need a leader of the studio you need coaches
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  you need consistency and so like great place to ecosystem awesome what about the next one the next
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  one it was easy to do that when in DC when that was like everybody was there and then it was time
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  to go to another city well how are you gonna keep the brand consistent so it was very evident that
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  the training for the coaches had to stay corporate like we would send our people you know from corporate
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  down there get bought into the brand understand the ethos everything and that director of training
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  I spent a ton of time with her name was Joe Gomez and like we had to be on the same page about
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  this culture about how we do things what's rewarded why we say people's names in class and so
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  again it's this replicate replication of what makes this special and over just like over and over
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  again so everything that you learn to do in the nonprofit world that was like directly applicable
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  like building these systems processes keeping like understanding what has to be corporate versus
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  decisions that can be made on the ground I love it well let me give you another quick example
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  of that because it will help people it's got like for me I also if you're a founder right every six
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  months you have to be looking at how you're spending your time and if it's the same as it was six
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  months ago you're in trouble from a scaling perspective and so at when I first started talking I was
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  coaching all the time right because I had one studio that made sense well when I had five right a
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  coaching a class was costing me call it back then 60 70 bucks per coach if I'm gonna be coaching
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  20 classes a week I am telling my team that my value to this company is worth 60 bucks an hour
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  that can't be the job of a CEO so I started to figure out what's the best way for me to make
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  the most financial impact for the business based on my skill sets and that was negotiation with
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  the landlords right how do I get the best deal on this 10 year lease that I'm gonna sign how do I
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  get ten in improvement dollars and how do I get rent debatement because those were two things
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  that were gonna affect my cash flow a lot so I would meet in person with every landlord I would
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  make you like me I would get you to root for me I would explain why I need this rent debatement and
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  ask what's important to you for this deal and if I couldn't do the deal I would say listen those
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  economics don't work for me here's why but I would build relationships with anybody where the
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  financial impact to the company was massive that's the best use of my time and then it would just
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  continue to elevate so what was the what was the so yes a thousand percent in hindsight looking
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  back as 2020 that makes perfect sense now when you when you what was the thing that happened to you
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  in in your life that made you realize that you have to step out of like the day to day what was the
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  story that that forced you or the thing that was breaking or the shit hitting the fan moment or
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  the I can't scale anymore I'm working a hundred hours a week I think it was at back on my feet
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  when I was continuing to run with all the groups and so running you know and like those run
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  sequence at five thirty other morning and like I'm trying to be at all the social events and do
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  everything else and at some point I'm like I just can't do this do this all so I have to figure
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  out who what can I replicate and then go back to solid core the coaches I can replicate right if
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  I'm the only one that can coach a solid core class that's a problem I can't scale that I didn't
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  think that was true right I knew we could coach coaches and coach trainers right but like what
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  is the thing that Ann Malone can do that that nobody else can do and it is I'm very convincing and
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  I'm a great negotiator so I'm going to spend my time doing those things there really was not like a
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  a shit a shit hits the fan moment but there was moments when I was micromanaging right when I was
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  like trying to be involved in everything and then you get feedback from your staff on like how
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  much of a pain in the ass you are and it comes across that you don't trust them when really you
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  care so much and you want to be involved in everything but if you want to you can't have both you
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  can't want to be involved in everything and want to scale something really big so you have to do
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  your best to train people to talk about culture talk about decision making and another great tool I
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  learned from a back on my feet board member was this thing called yellow or sorry red yellow and
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  green and it's how they trained their staff at Accenture so they would create a things like if
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  you were a manager at a solid core studio Scott we would say here's your red yellow and green the
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  things in the red you you don't have authority to make decisions on right like you can't change
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  the pricing for the studio you can't do this and this and this here are the things that are in
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  the green that not just you have agency to do but like we need you to feel comfortable doing that
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  oh right you need to manage the schedule you need to drive the revenue here's your budget here's
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  your goals you need to be able to like manage this and not come to us at the end of the month and say like
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  well we didn't meet our numbers like that's not gonna fly so I found that it actually makes the
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  relationship between the manager and the one that they're managing a lot better when expectations
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  are clear you understand the sandbox you're playing and you understand the agency that you have
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  to make decisions and you understand why you can't make decisions not just because I said so but I
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  explain them to you like why we can't have different pricing at this studio versus studio four
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  blocks down the road thanks for tuning in if you found this valuable don't forget to hit that
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  check out the links in the description to watch the full episode see you in the next one