Latest / The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast / The Fractional Chief of Staff: How Founders Turn Strategy Into Execution | Melissa Mosher

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The Fractional Chief of Staff: How Founders Turn Strategy Into Execution | Melissa Mosher · The Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast

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Founders make terrible project managers,
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You've got your day job and your regular business to deliver.
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Now you've got this strategic initiative on the side,
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who's gonna own it?
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The ability to identify the roadblock and tactfully
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Mm-hmm.
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tell them it's wrong in such a way
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Right.
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that they don't lose motivation.
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You're not trampling
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Mm-hmm.
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on their vision.
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And you're actually offering the secondary path.
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The best executives know how to approach a project versus a person.
0:27
They know how to address
0:28
Mm-hmm.
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the conditions rather than the character.
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And their
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Mm-hmm.
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ultimate super talent is getting us back aligned onto
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which shore are we rowing towards?
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Hei guys, we're back with another episode of the Relentless Pursuit
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of Winning Podcast. My name is Rick Meekins.
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I'm your host as usual, and in our studio we have Melissa Mosher,
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also known as Agent M How are you today,
1:04
ma'am?
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Living the dream, my guy, thank you for hosting this.
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I don't know whose dream it is,
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but I'm here for it and I'm excited for our episode.
1:12
All right, man, let's figure it out.
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Let's figure it out.
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Folks, if you haven't done it already,
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we would be honored if you would like,
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subscribe, hit the bell so you get updates every time we drop a new episode.
1:22
And without further ado, let's get to it.
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So tell our audience, who are you?
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What do you do? And why is it that you do what you do?
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I love this. What a great question.
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And I'm gonna answer it from truth today.
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I'm a podcast guest because you told me to be on the show.
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Thank you for that. In the same vein,
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That's right. Absolutely.
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I help people do the work they don't want to do.
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So my name is Melissa. I run Get Goalz an ops intelligence agency where
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we run fractional chief of staff programs,
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initiatives, and take care of all the work that you are ignoring and focusing
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on the stuff that brings you joy and coin.
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Backed by eighteen years in corporate,
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based outside of Seattle, Washington.
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I'm the most talkative introvert.
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You'll have a hard time booking.
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This is gonna be an excellent show.
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I I I so enjoy I so enjoy talking to and I talk a lot and and I've only been
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asking her for like a year to be on the show.
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You know, and somehow I persuaded her to do it.
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I I'm sure one hundred percent you're gonna enjoy the show.
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So let's get into a little bit more.
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You started off you were you were talking about what you do with Get Goalz
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terms of chief of staff. And I I think that that's one of those rules.
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I know that when I spoke to you about it,
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you said, No, Rick, you're stupid.
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You know, so perhaps for our audience,
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maybe you can help us understand a little bit better what a chief of staff is.
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And you've got a great memory,
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because what I said was you have other talents and this ain't it.
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no I'm just blessed.
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Ha ha ha ha.
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so the best way to start if you've not heard of a chief of staff or have worked with
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one is almost to start with what it isn't.
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And a lot of folks will say, it's like a COO and we come in and we do operations.
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Mm, sort of. What we actually do is focus on that strategic initiative that
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you need somebody to own. And who is the you?
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Oftentimes it's founders.
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Business advisors, strategist.
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Y'all are great at building the strategy and the plan,
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and you are absolutely terrible at executing it.
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Founders make terrible project managers,
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and project managers often can only focus on one initiative as at a time.
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When you're working with a chief of staff,
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particularly us here at Get Goalz you'll actually have a partner
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in ownership to take that initiative and run.
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What does that mean? I become the ankle biter.
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On behalf of your great idea. So if you've got you're wanting
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to build something new, you're wanting to grow something that
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you already have traction with,
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or you want to transform it, but you don't have a central person to give
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it to and run all the parts, go bother marketing,
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go bother sales, go bother ops.
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Chief of staff, We run the circuit on around cross-functional initiatives.
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things that You've got your day job and your regular business to deliver.
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Now you've got this strategic initiative on the side,
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who's gonna own it? Make sure it gets done.
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Mm.
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Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm. Now t you talk you talk when when I hear you talk,
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you talk about it almost from a corporate perspective,
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a larger organization with all kinds of departments and and stuff like that.
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But I I feel like there's opportunity to work with smaller companies
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or or fractionals in terms of doing that same level of work.
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What does that look like? How do we know when we need to my gosh,
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we need
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this is so good. And you touched on something that's really good to be able
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to t to hit on that. It is very corporate and and chief of staff can come
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in a couple of varieties. based outside of Seattle.
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A lot of our enterprise level chief of staff,
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they're finance, right? They're gonna be backed in strategic planning
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and being pulled into mergers and acquisitions.
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Part of that familiarity in enterprise is why I built Get Goalz because
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I don't believe
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That only Fortune 500 companies need strategic project leadership.
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So that brings us right out into the entrepreneur space where you may
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not have the five departments fully head,
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fully staffed and ahead for each department,
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but you do still have those five domains within your business.
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Yeah.
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And to be able to have that strategic partner going,
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hey, I can see your roadmap and I can see all the capacity of the resources,
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the people, the platforms.
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What is the priority? What are we knocking off and how do we keep it going in a way
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Mm.
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that it doesn't feel like you've put a roadblock in your project
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or your strategic initi initiative,
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but rather you're giving the car a driver.
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This is a Formula One car
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Yeah.
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that's gonna make us lots of money,
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it's gonna change our market. Who's driving it?
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This one.
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Mm.
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Mm. Mm-mm. It's it's interesting.
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I I love I love the way that, you know,
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you're not just talking about it like it's just something off in the cloud.
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You're thinking about it for or you're expressing it in a way that's tied
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to revenue. You know, and that sensitivity I think is is really important.
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You know, just understanding how the business runs,
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not just, hey, I want to get this cool thing done.
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Is that an accurate assessment?
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That's brilliantly accurate. And and what it boils down to is I'm
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the person that's gonna say, no,
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but why? No, we're not doing this.
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Exactly.
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Why
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do you want to do this? And it's not because I have a passion for being a bully.
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I might, but that doesn't apply in business.
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Yeah.
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we can talk about my retired gaming aspect for that.
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But most founders, entrepreneurs,
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business owners are surrounded by people telling them,
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you should do this.
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My initiative, my offer, my service is the most important thing that's going
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to change your business. What ends up happening is nobody sitting next
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Mm.
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to that founder or business owner saying,
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if everything is a priority, nothing's a priority.
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How can we
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Yeah.
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take what we have available, what you're looking for,
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both in your individual capacity and the capacity of your business,
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and then make progress, even if it's that next milestone?
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Let's get some user testing in.
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We may not launch till next year.
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But an idea around having not so much a slowdown and stop,
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but a slow down and let's attack this strategically in a way that
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you don't lose gusto for the project,
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you don't lose revenue from your day job or primary line of business,
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and you're not having to be the circus leader of half a dozen consultants.
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Mm, mm, mm. You know, it's it's I think I think one thing that goes through
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my mind at my mind as as I listen to you,
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is I wanna understand we the audience want to understand what makes
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you differ and it's probably an obvious question,
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but you know, I'm gonna ask anyway.
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how how does what you do differ than what a consultant would do?
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Because you're you're saying, you know,
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hey, you know what,
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you know, we have strategic initiative we're gonna build strategic initiatives,
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we're gonna come up with ideas,
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we're gonna tell you that the idea is probably not the best approach at the moment.
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T talk to me, dig into that a little bit.
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I
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love that. They're gonna the what I I use a a little bit of a story,
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if I may, is that consultants charge you $50,000 to $150,000 to play
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the posted note game. Here's what we should do,
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here's what's happening, and and it's a it's assessment,
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it's analytics, it's a report out,
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it's a recommendation, it's a plan and a path from that consultant as
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to what let's say the founder should do with the business.
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And every other consultant is saying the same thing.
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None of the consultants are getting involved in the business to look
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at the capacity of both the founder,
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Mm-hmm.
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the team, and the rest of the stuff on the roadmap,
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generally speaking, to where, you know what,
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I gave you the consulting recommendation,
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but looking at your roadmap, girl,
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you don't have time for me till next year.
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No consultant
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Mm.
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ever says that. They they they are looking at how they their solution
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or their recommendation or advice can make a difference in the business.
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Where I come in is I grab that plan or that recommendation and actually make
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it happen, right? McKinsey's not a potentially not attending your staff meetings
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at a tactical level. You're still having to run that initiative
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or execute that plan. And what we found is that most consultants like telling folks
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of founders what to do, but they have very little interaction with how it gets done.
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Mm, mm, that makes sense. You had me you had me shaking you in my boots
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for a moment.
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Yeah.
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I thought you were gonna say consultants grab your watch and tell you what time
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it is. That's that's that's what I thought you were gonna say.
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that was good. If I believed they could tell time,
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I would. But and it's great.
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~ You know what I mean you know what I mean
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Y you know what we need is we need a real world example.
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I mean it's it's like cool to,
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you know, talk theory, but you know,
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walk us through what it w
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Give us a give us a story.
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I got a great I got a great one.
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So imagine a founder that says,
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Hey, I've got a successful consulting practice.
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Yeah. And revenue's good. I've got a couple products and service.
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My PR circuit is going great. I'm on podcasts.
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I want to build an app. Cool. Now what?
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What happens next? Does he stop
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Mm-hmm.
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speaking and doing presentations?
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Does he throttle back on consulting?
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Does he add 10 more hours to his week and learn how to become
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you know, a product manager and developer,
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does he go shop for the team? Once a founder or or high agency professionals,
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I call them, decides that they want to build or grow something,
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it doesn't mean the rest of the day job and everything else goes away.
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So in the
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Yeah.
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example that I I showed met with a founder,
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avid networker, go to market expert for over 20 years,
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responsible for some amazing deals,
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amazing connections. And I got introduced
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Mm-hmm.
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to him because he's building his first app.
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Not like, that's cute, but actually this is really robust.
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It's kind of complicated. And there's nobody connecting the pieces between devs,
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sales, member onboarding, and the founder who has four hundred
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and seventy-nine features that they think needs to go into the first round
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of the app. So we were
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Course.
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introduced through referral. I said,
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hey, and someone in my network,
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and I said, Hey, who do you know that has an octopus of an app right
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now that they're trying to birth?
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and got referred to to said founder,
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building the app, but also making sure that the app doesn't take
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all of his consulting money, take all of his time,
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and knock over anything else that he's already doing in a way that
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he doesn't actually have to go hire six more executives.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I'd like to get a better understanding of like
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how how you're getting into this though.
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You know, because I mean you've I mean I I th I think about an app,
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I think about like you said, all of all of the components that go into that.
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You know, there's the there's the hands-on work,
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you know, there's the coordination work.
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I mean, what what are you doing?
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How do I I get it what it comes down to bottom line is how do I know that
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I'm gonna get the results that I'm looking for?
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You know, and and I know and I'm not saying from
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Mm-hmm.
12:08
a sales perspective, but I'm saying from a a product that's ready to
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go to market perspective. How how do I know I'm gonna get that from you?
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What are you gonna do? Make me feel good.
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Most of that's going to be helping you stand
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up the MVP, the very first prototype,
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so we can bang out all the messy details.
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So it's actually ready
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Mm-hmm.
12:26
for one of two things, going to market or getting
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Mm-hmm.
12:29
the professionals, right? And so in the example of the app,
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we're going through user testing,
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stress testing, all of the things.
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by the way, I'm a really good stress tester and stress inducer,
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There you are.
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if the timing is right.
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but being able to poke holes and stuff from a user perspective,
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the founder or the app builder is likely to have multiple blind spots during that
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build. And where I go back to what do you get value in?
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How are you selling it? How are we onboarding it?
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What are the first five touch points of the new user?
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What are the first three pains of a new user?
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What access and communications are we giving to them?
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And where it's valuable back to the founder is that.
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They're first not knocking over their day their day job,
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still can do consulting, still can do that.
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I'm really more of the translation layer.
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I take what the customer wants,
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what the founder thinks the customer wants,
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and what the dev team or marketing team or sales team is actually trying
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to execute on and be able to kind of marry those sandwiches together.
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and it's like, where
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Mm.
13:35
is the value? If you are not pulling your hair out because you don't know
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how to move a project.
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You're getting my value. Right?
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Mm, mm.
13:44
What do I need
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to do next in this app? What is it going to get funding?
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Is it getting more members? Is it getting our current user base spooled
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up a little bit faster, better,
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stronger? So the idea
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Mm-hmm.
13:57
around the value kind of, I know it's a terrible answer,
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kind of depends. How much of the work it takes to build something do you want
14:05
to do yourself?
14:07
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
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So you just fit in where where you're needed,
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essentially. You you just pick up the ball,
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say, hey, I can I can take this part.
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by the way, you suck at this, I'm gonna take this too,
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Yes, yes. Yep. Yeah, that's and that's a really good description.
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type situation. Cool,
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cool. What do you do?
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What what do you do in terms of now?
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Because I know you, I I get to ask this question.
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What do you do about the idea that sometimes
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stuff just isn't gonna work. I mean you can see the writing on the wall.
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How how do you manage that? How do you and and I'm I'm gonna use a term that
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may not be appropriate, but how do you tact tactfully help
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the founder or CEO come to you know really come to Jesus and understand that hey,
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you know, this is this isn't the best approach for right here,
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right now.
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This is one of the things that makes,
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I will say, myself and other squirrely operators that do some of the work that I do.
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This is what makes you different than an executive assistant or a COO,
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right? The ability to identify the roadblock and tactfully
15:13
Mm-hmm.
15:14
tell them it's wrong in such a way
15:16
Right.
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that they don't lose motivation.
15:19
You're not trampling
15:19
Mm-hmm.
15:20
on their vision.
15:21
And you're actually offering the secondary path.
15:23
And most project managers, and I'll also do,
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I use a lot of humor, right? So I'll say my humor is thought reversal,
15:30
behavior provocation whatever that's called.
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Like the one person said to me,
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They're like, You provoke a lot of action.
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I knew I do. but the idea around I'm not just gonna sit here and tell
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you how this project is going so well,
15:43
I'll actually
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Yeah.
15:45
say, I do not believe, and again,
15:47
using humor.
15:48
I do not believe you meant to put pickles on the ice cream.
15:51
However, good sir, we have a ice cream sundae full of pickles.
15:55
Do we want to embed a new brand or do we want to actually figure out
15:58
how do we recalibrate back to our original intent?
16:02
Right? So I'll
16:03
Yeah.
16:03
come back. What's the original idea and what's the best way to get to it?
16:07
using the app idea as an example,
16:09
visionary founders will often say,
16:12
you know, this could be enterprise and this will be huge and this will be big.
16:14
Absolutely,
16:15
Yeah.
16:15
probably not tomorrow.
16:17
Dialing it back, and as big as my personality is,
16:20
you know, that's freaking hard.
16:22
But we dial it back to go, what's the original intent?
16:25
And then who are the first 500 members?
16:27
Dial it back, redirect, and then apply the energy where it's most fitting.
16:33
And because I've spent 18 years in corporate boardrooms,
16:37
executive enterprise.
16:39
I've seen people say F you in a hundred different ways,
16:42
right? from deals and org changes and divestitures and all that.
16:47
Blah blah blah blah blah blah.
16:48
All of The best executives that I've worked with and the clients
16:52
and founders that I've met, they know how to approach a project versus a person.
16:57
They know how to address
16:57
Mm-hmm.
16:58
the conditions rather than the character.
17:00
And their
17:01
Mm-hmm.
17:02
ultimate super talent is getting us back aligned onto
17:06
You know, which shore are we rowing towards?
17:08
It doesn't matter if we got a motorboat or a sailboat,
17:11
if we're pointing to the sand,
17:12
we're not getting any.
17:14
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I'm I w I want you to I want you to I want
17:18
to look at this through a different window as well,
17:20
you know, since you know we're kind of poking the bear a little bit.
17:23
You you've worked with directly with founders of of very small companies with very,
17:28
very big ideas. You know what I'm saying?
17:31
And sometimes, myself included,
17:33
you know, we come to you with these ideas,
17:36
you know, and you tactfully and using humor,
17:41
you know, explain to us
17:43
why it's not gonna work. You know you know what I'm saying?
17:46
So the question
17:47
Yeah.
17:48
becomes how do you how do you help that because founders are often very,
17:53
you know, emotionally tied to their ideas,
17:55
how do you rebuild that founder so that,
17:57
you know, we're we're we're on track,
18:00
you know, we're moving forward.
18:01
We're not just completely deflated,
18:02
but you know, we we have we can truly see something that is gonna work,
18:07
you know, rise from the ashes of of what you've burned to the ground.
18:11
Ha ha ha.
18:11
She burned to the ground. Remind me to tell you
18:13
about my tattoo. no, but the idea,
18:16
so you've nailed it, right? So if I if I if I blend back the corporate experience,
18:20
which I love my corporate background,
18:22
and it depleted me of any and all humanity that this ginger might have had,
18:26
right? So
18:27
Yeah.
18:27
I want to first acknowledge that it is a shift coming from enterprise.
18:31
And if you're listening to this,
18:32
bringing in your first-time fractional practice,
18:35
you're consulting for the first time.
18:37
My guy, girls, and everyone in between,
18:39
I promise you, this is like going from Apple to Android.
18:42
so know that it's a different mindset because of what you said,
18:46
founders are emotionally invested in their idea,
18:51
and they are also emotionally committed to the future state that they're building
18:56
for. What they may
18:57
Mm-hmm.
18:58
not have is the path to get there.
19:00
And for me,
19:01
Mm-hmm.
19:01
another reason why I use humor because I can't actually tell a CEO
19:05
You're dim. You can't be this.
19:07
You're the CEO. You can do whatever you want,
19:09
my guy. but the idea around using humor for a thought reversal comes from
19:15
my background in video games, actually,
19:17
right? How do you lead people,
19:19
inspire people, and help indirectly coach people?
19:23
Right. If we think about some of our entertainers in the world,
19:27
my favorite mentors, speakers,
19:29
people who poke out hard things that aren't awesome.
19:33
Stand up and insult comics, right?
19:35
They are able to entertain you,
19:37
they are able to educate you, and they're able to have like a yeah,
19:41
but you know, you know, you know,
19:43
right? So founder comes to me and says,
19:45
This is a great idea. We should build a shoe shine and sandwich shop.
19:51
Let's go with that, right? We're gonna do shoe shine and he is committed to the T.
19:56
This is gonna be the best.
19:58
shoe and sandwich experience you ever had.
20:01
Now, forget this the only sandwich and shoe experience you're gonna have,
20:04
but you can have your sandwich,
20:06
get your shoes done, right? Where I think a chief of staff and
20:10
and and specifically a fractional rather than a consultant,
20:14
we see you as the person first and foremost,
20:18
until we can engineer better
20:19
Mm.
20:20
ones, better better people. But the idea around you are the person.
20:24
Your idea that you have brought to me
20:27
Is is like the little kid that brought home their their drawing from school,
20:32
right?
20:32
huh.
20:32
Are you gonna tell, and it's not that because it's like an immaturity level,
20:35
but it's a pride and awareness level.
20:38
Are you gonna tell
20:39
Right.
20:39
your nine-year-old that in no way under the realms of reality looks like a turtle?
20:44
Okay,
20:45
Yeah.
20:46
right? similar with the the founders because they get these great ideas
20:50
and the ideas are good. By the way,
20:52
we need all of your ideas. People like me,
20:54
I don't have them.
20:56
We can sell donuts to donkeys,
20:58
whatever it is, right? So we need the visionaries.
21:02
We need you to keep looking at that endpoint because you're the one at
21:06
the front of the ship telling us what direction we go.
21:09
Your chief of staff
21:09
Mm.
21:10
or your executive business manager or your executive project manager,
21:13
whatever it ends up being, they're there to say,
21:16
I see the destination. I'm gonna help build the best plan for not only
21:21
you to lead the troops to get there.
21:23
But for all the work and the troops to get there behind you.
21:26
Now, then it
21:27
Mm-hmm.
21:27
breaks out into like, okay, who are the specialists?
21:29
Like, if we have a people problem,
21:31
I am not your person. I am not your person,
21:33
Mm.
21:33
right?
21:34
But that chief of staff sitting next to you is gonna go,
21:37
you know what? The human capital load is high for my guy right now.
21:41
He's doing a lot of stuff himself.
21:43
I see a lot of, you know, struggling with culture things perhaps,
21:47
or trying to get people's buy-ins.
21:50
The chief of staff or your business manager sits next to you and helps you go,
21:52
you know what? Actually, let's get that out of the way.
21:55
The idea is great. Doesn't matter if if it's today or tomorrow,
21:59
but your people are gonna be a blocker.
22:01
So let's pull that out first. I'm not saying your idea
22:02
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
22:04
isn't isn't great. and then to answer it as secondly,
22:08
is we need that idea. I'm never telling you it's a terrible idea.
22:12
Well, no, maybe I am telling you it's terrible.
22:14
It's a terrible way to act on that idea,
22:17
or it's a difficult
22:18
Path to get there. I honestly
22:20
Mm-hmm.
22:21
believe every idea is worth exploring,
22:24
but not everyone
22:25
Mm-hmm.
22:25
is worth building tomorrow or knocking over your business.
22:28
Think
22:29
Mm.
22:29
about the straw, right? With all of our go-to-market insights
22:35
and methods and strategy, you're telling me somebody sat around and went,
22:39
you know what the world needs?
22:40
A way to drink without touching the cup.
22:42
Right?
22:43
Mm-hmm.
22:43
That was kind of weird in the world.
22:46
Or or the the h the Henry Ford.
22:48
If he'd asked people what they needed,
22:49
they'd say faster horses, right?
22:51
Mm-hmm.
22:52
It's not using using Mr. Ford there.
22:54
It's like, man, we do need faster horses,
22:57
but that's not the problem he's trying to solve.
22:58
He's trying to give us a different mode of transportation.
23:01
He might be crazier in a two dollar bill.
23:04
Fine. But if we can get it launched,
23:07
planned and launched in such a way that now he's little less crazy and and
23:12
has a lot more traction.
23:14
Mm-hmm.
23:14
We're able to then again save the capacity and wasted time of that founder.
23:20
I want you to be focused on your vision.
23:20
Mm, mm. Yeah.
23:22
I want you to have a clear path to get there.
23:24
And if you have a
23:25
really good chief of staff, they're gonna cheer you on as much as they tell
23:30
you you're doing it wrong.
23:32
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's gold.
23:34
That's gold. I I mean I could I could certainly see the value in that.
23:37
I wanna know something. You know,
23:40
you you talk about chief of staffs,
23:41
you know, in in a general sense,
23:43
you know, and and I think that's wonderfully humble of you.
23:45
I wanna know what makes you unique.
23:49
And you know, not not from like your brain,
23:51
but what what other people say about you,
23:53
you know, so that you know we can under we can understand because I mean it's
23:58
you know
23:58
Picking a chief of staff is is not like picking underwear,
24:00
it's like picking a bride, you d you know,
24:02
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
24:02
or or a groom or or whatever. And so th it
24:05
has there has to be a good fit.
24:06
And so I w I wanna understand from you what makes you unique,
24:09
what makes you special.
24:10
I would that's a great question.
24:12
The first one is I'm not scared of any of you.
24:14
I mean you gotta if you you can't a and I work with working line dogs on the side,
24:19
right? execs and dogs smell fear.
24:21
Okay. So you have to not be afraid of them.
24:24
you have to be able to show and demonstrate the actual respect you have
24:30
for them as a person and what they're trying to bring in the world,
24:33
right? It's not
24:34
Yeah.
24:34
about capabilities. like said
24:36
My dog can do everything, but if she bites me in the face every day,
24:39
I'm not gonna get a lot done. I'm going to wonder what I'm doing.
24:43
but being able to understand, do we have compatible work styles?
24:47
Are we able to communicate in a way that,
24:51
with my founders, we're gonna interrupt each other a lot.
24:54
We're gonna have 1700 tangents.
24:56
You're gonna go on four things that make no sense,
24:59
and I'm gonna look like this is great,
25:01
I hear you, and
25:03
Can we conversate together? Do we have shared values and working styles?
25:08
And then how do we approach conflict?
25:10
Right? We you and
25:11
Mm-hmm.
25:11
I working together, what happens when I don't agree?
25:14
You've got to ask those things right in the front of the engagement
25:18
or the relationship, or maybe it's even part of your networking,
25:21
right? We get into some pseudo-networking questions.
25:24
but being and then having an understanding of the world that they operate in.
25:29
A lot of folks will say, regardless of chief of staff or what have you.
25:32
They'll say, I work in every industry.
25:34
Yes, there are the functions that I do are prevalent in every,
25:38
just about every business. Every business has five domains.
25:41
I can make a mess of all of them,
25:43
right? But
25:43
Mm-hmm.
25:44
I'm going to operate differently supporting,
25:47
let's say, a cannabis producer with a $15 million business and his world,
25:54
Mm-hmm.
25:54
what he encounters, than I am over there in FinTech.
25:59
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
25:59
And
26:00
and and a founder that's that's built an investors app,
26:03
right? It's gonna be a different
26:04
And
26:05
world, it's gonna be different language,
26:06
it's gonna be different comportment.
26:08
By the way, if you're in a nonprofit,
26:09
I'm probably not your person. not because I don't believe in it,
26:11
Mm-hmm. Excuse me.
26:12
but because
26:13
my my energy, my approach, my fuel to get stuff done doesn't
26:18
Mm-hmm.
26:19
natively fit in the nonprofit,
26:23
let's slow down space as an example.
26:26
Yeah. Yeah.
26:28
I'm I I'm I'm not clear on what makes you different than or what makes
26:32
you unique or what what the most powerful assets you bring you know
26:37
to a fractional to a founder are gonna be.
26:40
because again, I mean it you know,
26:42
as as you described, I mean there's there's certain,
26:43
you know, matchmaking that that has to happen to be successful.
26:47
And so if we're you know, if if we're clear on that,
26:50
you know, it makes it easier to say,
26:51
Hey, you know what, you need you need to you need to bring in or or you're gonna
26:55
that's a good one. That and actually,
26:57
yeah, that's a good one. Because what's the one thing?
27:00
If you boiled it down to the three things,
27:03
the three if I was a a a product bottle and what are the three features?
27:07
Because of my background with working with executives,
27:10
I have an incredible level of sense making.
27:13
Right? So I can can I understand you?
27:16
Can I process you? Can I see what you're doing?
27:18
Yes. And then can I understand the sense of the world that you're in?
27:21
So cognitive sense making is one.
27:24
People systems. Ha I've studied people systems for 30 years,
27:28
both in corporate and gaming. And what do I mean by people systems?
27:31
An idea is a series of bits and bobs in your brain,
27:35
and then it goes through your brain,
27:37
out your mouth, into some other channel,
27:40
then it's dispersed into people systems.
27:43
How do we get it done? So make sense of it,
27:45
understand the people systems around it.
27:48
And then I'm actually highly technical.
27:51
back in the day, did
27:53
User testing, did Oculus rift testing,
27:55
Slack testing. I was a G Suite tester.
27:58
so the ability to have, let's say,
28:00
if a founder works in a technical environment,
28:02
I need to be
28:03
Mm-hmm.
28:03
able to understand, jump in, what is he talking about?
28:06
How's this thing supposed to work?
28:07
How are the users supposed to work?
28:09
What I find is so sense making,
28:11
people systems, and a high velocity tech background.
28:15
Who else has had a blade server in their living room?
28:17
Yeah, anyone? Okay, just
28:18
Yeah, really.
28:19
me.
28:20
being able to do those three specialties,
28:22
I won't come in and go, I'm the king of budgets,
28:24
'cause I'm not, right? That's your deal.
28:26
That's some finance peoples. and and I'm not gonna probably be the person that goes
28:31
and does biz dev and wants to be like a sales extension for you.
28:35
But if you need something complex boiled down into something simple that
28:40
we can execute on and it involves
28:42
Mm-hmm.
28:43
more than you as the individual,
28:45
I'm probably your person.
28:46
Yeah.
28:47
specifically in go to market product builds and MVP stand up.
28:51
And what I mean by that is you got a great idea.
28:54
Let's bang a version one together before we hire
28:57
Yeah.
28:58
the dev team.
28:59
Yeah, yeah. so I mean that said,
29:02
I mean is there a point at which you drop off or do people just continue working
29:07
with you until they're done?
29:10
Until they run out of money. No.
29:11
right?
29:12
there's a couple ways, and that's the funnest part about it.
29:15
So from the outside, it can look a little chaotic.
29:17
Inside for me, this is great because if I'm doing my job well
29:22
on a single initiative, we're hiring
29:24
Mm-hmm.
29:24
the next five experts once it's up in maintenance mode and needs to have,
29:28
you know, a department or a team own it.
29:31
I also
29:31
Mm-hmm.
29:32
can pause after the project.
29:35
I have yet to meet a founder that never had another idea again.
29:38
So I'm able to flex
29:39
Mm, a hundred percent.
29:41
into it, right? We've got this initiative.
29:44
I just finished up a two-year initiative with a client,
29:47
and now he's gonna go run that.
29:49
He's gonna go run that for the next year.
29:52
There's no reason
29:52
Yeah.
29:53
to pay me and be there for a year while he he's he's working with this
29:58
productization person, traction sales,
30:00
like we've built it enough. Go do the thing.
30:02
Yeah.
30:04
Right, and then in
30:04
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:05
a year, build, grow, transform.
30:07
If I can help, I'll ankle bite another thing.
30:12
Nice.
30:15
You know, one one thing, you know,
30:16
really related to that, one of the things that I really admire about you
30:21
is your b your ability to deconstruct an idea.
30:23
You know, so you know, we we got a business idea,
30:27
executive summary, you know, whatever it is.
30:29
And I'm I'm wondering if,
30:32
you know, do you have a process or is this just you know,
30:35
just natural instinct just looking at it?
30:37
Or how does how does that work in you?
30:40
this is good. It's a little bit of all of it.
30:42
so I will say, what kind of energetic spastic female do you have to be to
30:47
get ADD in the 90s? Right? Anyone?
30:49
Yeah. Right? So, and I say that because systems and process are my waking life.
30:55
It is how I interact with the world.
30:58
If this, then that, right? As a little kid,
31:00
Mm-hmm.
31:00
I would call them recipe cards.
31:02
What's the recipe card for that?
31:04
Okay, mom gets the grocery cart.
31:06
Goes down the aisles, gets the thing,
31:08
goes back to the thing, pays for it,
31:10
right? She doesn't bring up
31:11
Okay.
31:11
one item at a time, etc. So I started
31:13
Mm-hmm.
31:14
studying people at a very young age,
31:15
also playing video games.
31:16
Mm.
31:17
but I have then since built and reverse engineered a framework behind it.
31:21
And it lands
31:21
No more.
31:22
in three steps. The first thing I do is decode the thing.
31:25
Decode it. What are you trying to do?
31:28
What are you seeing? What do you have available to you?
31:32
Let's decode it. Then the second step is.
31:35
Let's design either the plan or the very next step or the first milestone.
31:39
Yeah.
31:40
But let's design based on what we've decoded,
31:42
let's design
31:43
Mm-hmm.
31:44
what this looks like and how it's gonna get done.
31:47
And then the third step
31:47
Mm-hmm.
31:48
is do the damn thing. Like let's do the thing,
31:50
Yeah, yeah.
31:50
right?
31:51
And where I can come in and be helpful is keeping you out of that recursive design
31:56
phase, right?
31:58
Most of
31:59
Yeah.
31:59
us problem solve in a similar fashion.
32:01
Decode, assess, we can call it a couple of other other things,
32:04
but we're intaking a bunch of it,
32:07
we're cognitive sense making, and then we go into design mode.
32:10
And
32:10
Mm-hmm.
32:11
present company included, strategists are great at design.
32:14
Design, design, design. This is great.
32:16
We're gonna go and do it this way.
32:18
How do we do the dang thing? We have to design
32:21
Yeah.
32:22
with due in mind. and and that's been
32:25
really kind of eye-opening to to s to simplify my native process of sense making
32:32
and project management. I worked with somebody that helped me reverse engineer it.
32:36
But to be able to like decode what's going on,
32:39
design either the plan or the next step.
32:42
And then depending on how much gas you want on the fire,
32:44
we do the next thing. Then we go
32:47
Mm.
32:48
back, we've got our MVP now let's decode what we've had,
32:51
what we've experienced and learned.
32:54
Let's design any revisions or edits and let's do the next version.
32:59
Mm, mm. That makes sense. That makes sense.
33:02
What how do you how do you very quickly guess evaluate a program
33:08
or evaluate an idea?
33:11
that's also great. There's I think that there's a lot of opportunity
33:14
for folks to get the validation step first.
33:17
So I say validate, enable, and own.
33:19
Validate. What are we actually looking at?
33:22
Is it possible? Is it a new a faster horse or a new car or a new vehicle?
33:27
Right? Let's Validate what we're actually looking to build and then what does
33:34
it take to enable it? If it takes
33:37
Four billion dollars in funding to enable this idea,
33:41
it doesn't necessarily mean that it's wrong,
33:44
but we're
33:45
Mm-hmm.
33:45
able to go. This is not a short-term project,
33:47
this is not a long-term project,
33:49
or you're perhaps focused on a mission that's gonna be five to seven years.
33:54
Let's get a strategist in here to figure it out.
33:55
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
33:56
~ but
33:58
but to be able to hone in on that enablement stage,
34:02
so it's validate, enable, and own.
34:04
Mm-hmm.
34:04
Take ownership, get it done. The enablement part,
34:07
a lot of times folks will say,
34:09
This is so great. We can make this happen tomorrow.
34:12
But maybe we've
34:13
Mm-hmm.
34:13
missed validation because it knocks over seven other systems in
34:18
the business right now. Yes, we can enable it.
34:20
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
34:21
We can make it happen, right? But we missed a step
34:24
by saying, okay, let's validate the impact,
34:27
the reach, the re you know, some of that scoping stuff.
34:30
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
34:31
Scoping
34:32
is more when we get to the tactical end.
34:33
Right, and and and what are the brass tacks of it,
34:36
but can we validate the idea and then what does it take to enable it?
34:39
What needs to exist in both the business and the market and then what needs
34:44
to exist with you, the idea holder.
34:46
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
34:46
I've met a lot of folks
34:48
have a great idea, they have no capacity to lead the idea.
34:53
Mm, yes, I've seen that. I'm I'm sometimes that guy.
34:56
What do you what do you do in these days?
34:58
And it's not for lack of brains.
34:59
Thank
35:01
you. what what are you doing these days in in artificial intelligence?
35:04
Making friends so I never have to leave my house.
35:06
That's it. Building an army. Building an army.
35:09
~ building an army,
35:10
Building an army.
35:12
yeah. So I I use it internally both with the business.
35:16
There's a lot of stuff. I'm an early adopter on a lot of tech.
35:19
again that validate piece that validate what does this enable me to?
35:23
But if I had to distill it down,
35:25
I have unlocked for myself such a layer of cognitive synthesis.
35:32
In being able to and I call them robots,
35:34
talk with robots, have robots test each other,
35:37
explore robots, all of this to get back to that design piece that we get stuck in.
35:43
I'm able to
35:44
Mm-hmm.
35:45
and I've got a few bots built,
35:46
it's like we're able to take an idea and accelerate the validation,
35:51
accelerate what val enablement means,
35:53
what are the resources that are needed.
35:56
it's like a high-speed calculator.
35:57
I'm going from the abacus to a high-speed calculator.
36:01
founder wants to do this. I think he really means that based on the robot that
36:06
I have built. Tell me where that matches and and where that goes.
36:10
And what's great about that and the use I do most of networking calls.
36:16
Networking
36:16
Really?
36:16
calls I've built bot to assess and analyze them.
36:19
I love it.
36:22
Tell tell us tell us more. How does that work?
36:24
What is it what is the output on that?
36:26
The output on that is very rarely in my experience do we use networking?
36:31
Do we have metrics and monitors like we do with our PL,
36:34
right? We don't put networking on PL.
36:36
We might put it under a biz dev,
36:37
or we might put it under associations,
36:40
or we might put it under EDU. Somebody else said that,
36:43
right? but what are we actually learning from each call?
36:47
Are we learning to
36:48
Right.
36:48
connect faster? Are we learning to make clearer asks?
36:52
You get out of
36:52
Mm.
36:53
a call, there's one of two options.
36:54
You either feel good or you don't,
36:56
right? that was a great
36:57
Mm.
36:57
call. Awesome. Now what? Right?
37:00
What was great about it? What lit you up?
37:02
What was like shared values? And I have bullet points that that it checks for,
37:07
right? Do you have shared markets?
37:09
Do you have shared networking styles?
37:11
Do you have shared network caliber?
37:13
Right? I can network all day long with some of my founders and never send them
37:17
a referral. They could send me a hundred,
37:19
Yeah.
37:20
right?
37:21
So how
37:21
Yeah.
37:21
do we calibrate assessing the rooms that we're in?
37:24
There was a LinkedIn post I did a couple days ago around what about
37:27
the room that I'm in? I went to this group networking thing,
37:30
right? And then I went, man, I'm getting out of this going,
37:33
I'm in the left field. I don't know how I got in that room or what anyone's talking
37:37
about. Well, I'm gonna leave that call feeling bad until I talk
37:41
to my networking bot, right? Networking bot goes,
37:44
actually, you're not feeling bad.
37:46
You're recognizing you're not in the right room.
37:48
You're trying to distill some kind of package that you can say.
37:53
but using AI to not produce the words but help you think has been a game
37:58
Mm-hmm.
37:59
changer. And I've got a few folks that I've been coaching that they're like,
38:02
I I had no idea I could do this.
38:04
And I'm able to assess things.
38:06
Like, why was this client call so terrible?
38:09
Why was he triggered so much? Right.
38:09
Mm. Mmm.
38:13
Mm. Good stuff. Good stuff.
38:14
What does he mean by
38:15
this? He said he's a what what one guy said,
38:18
it's like I do business development and revenue.
38:20
Awesome. Well I'm
38:22
Yeah.
38:22
on the call I'm gonna go, this is great.
38:24
Off the call I'm gonna go, What the hell does that mean to my world?
38:27
Yeah.
38:29
Right? So this this cognitive
38:31
synthesis.
38:33
wow. A AI is just is just so, you know,
38:36
it's it's interesting because,
38:37
you know, I use it my mainly for like,
38:39
you know, ideating, you I'm I'm working through things,
38:42
just thinking through things, you know,
38:43
expanding my ideas and that sort of thing.
38:45
but you're taking it to obviously another another level.
38:48
I think that's so cool. Tell us a little bit,
38:50
Yeah, and the something that's fun.
38:53
tell us a little bit more about Get Goalz.
38:56
Sweet, Get Goalz it's the get it done agency you didn't know existed
39:00
and you can't live without. Right.
39:01
Ha ha ha.
39:02
So
39:03
we'll work on either there's three ways you can work with us.
39:06
We can do an initiative strike where you've got an idea,
39:09
let's flesh it out, let's validate it,
39:11
let's see what it takes to enable it.
39:13
At the end of it, you get the plan and you can live long and prosper.
39:17
Go make it happen. ~
39:18
Mm.
39:18
if you we come out with that plan and you'd like a little help and coaching,
39:22
sweet. We'll come out together.
39:24
Accountability, almost like accountability,
39:26
I call it executive ops enablement,
39:28
right? So we'll enable you to execute on that plan.
39:31
And then
39:31
Mm-hmm.
39:31
the third tier is something I call take the wheel.
39:34
Just we got it. Just go make it happen.
39:37
Let me know. Because again, as a leader,
39:39
decisions and direction and budget,
39:42
right? Those are your those are your three triggers to be able to go,
39:45
hey, we gotta decide we need a direction shift.
39:47
depending on how much gas you wanna pour in the fire,
39:50
if it's a long-term
39:51
I wanna slow build this. I have one client we've been working together
39:54
for a year and a half on her practice.
39:56
She's not in a rush. Great. I'm not
39:57
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
39:59
gonna rush her, but I'm also gonna make sure she's still making progress.
40:03
So again, we don't get stuck in the design and iterate phase.
40:07
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's key. That's key.
40:09
Yeah, yeah. Making progress is key.
40:11
I have a I have a question for you.
40:14
I asked all of my guests. Are you ready for it?
40:17
I'm d no, but go.
40:19
So name of the name of the podcast,
40:20
of course, is the relentless pursuit of winning podcast.
40:23
And winning is typically something that we can define.
40:26
Hey, I want this thing, I want to pursue,
40:28
you know, whatever that's going to be.
40:29
The hard part sometimes is maintaining that relentless pursuit.
40:33
So what would you recommend to our audience in order to encourage them
40:37
to maintain that relentless pursuit?
40:40
If you can figure out how to get ADHD,
40:42
it'll help. If you can like pick you up some of that natural go juice,
40:46
right? ~ no, I'm just playing.
40:47
Ha ha ha.
40:49
but by the way, yes, open to talking to anyone that wants to manage dopamine
40:52
in a different way. how do we keep focused?
40:55
There's a quote from a book and and and it had to do around Nelson Nelson Mandela,
41:01
but it was written about him and he said,
41:03
Be relentless in your pursuit and flexible in your approach.
41:09
I am driven
41:09
Mm-hmm.
41:10
to make Get Goalz accessible,
41:13
make chief of staff accessible outside the Fortune 500 world.
41:17
I'm
41:18
Nice.
41:18
relentless. I believe that. Now my approach,
41:22
my energy, we might go 10 miles an hour,
41:24
we might go 50 miles an hour, but can I anchor in that thing that I'm driven to do?
41:30
That's where for me, if you get too far away from your vision and what you're trying
41:36
to achieve.
41:37
Now you're going into negotiations and doing a bunch of weird stuff with your
41:40
emotions and gingers don't have those,
41:43
so I can't be bothered with those,
41:45
right? But can you keep not so much eye on the prize,
41:48
but what are you trying to achieve?
41:51
What is the impact to the world that you are
41:54
Well.
41:55
looking to live and produce? And then be flexible in your approach.
42:00
Know that if this business didn't work,
42:02
the mission's not over.
42:04
just gonna build a different brand for it because it's my second business
42:07
so I say that going I still want to make enterprise services
42:11
and support accessible to the entrepreneur world my first business
42:15
was meeting management virtual event production did that this one is chief
42:20
of staff project management founder ops
42:22
Good stuff, good stuff. Excuse me.
42:25
And why? Because you guys have
42:27
all the great ideas, right? It's like,
42:28
why do I want to help, right? 'Cause some folks will say,
42:31
What is your why? Because there are so many incredible ideas,
42:35
businesses, markets, communities,
42:37
and networks out here. And
42:38
Mm-hmm.
42:38
it's not that they're terrible ideas,
42:41
is that a single person isn't designed to know deeply all five levels
42:46
of the business, how to map capacity,
42:49
how to train dopamine, and then using humor,
42:52
kick it in the ass to get it done.
42:55
Right, if I can do that
42:55
I research.
42:56
and and bring folks like you, which you've been a fan,
42:58
I am a continued fan for sure.
43:00
I love the ideas that you let me tell her wrong.
43:04
no, that we can refine. Because what you bring to the world,
43:09
the approachability, the sense making in terms of consulting,
43:12
making media approachable, making these interviews not be a complete stress case.
43:17
I want you to do that. I don't want you to have to wonder how to be
43:22
the best project manager in your business.
43:25
I like the sound of that. I absolutely like the sound of that.
43:28
And what is the best way for people to get in touch?
43:32
LinkedIn will be the best way.
43:34
We got a website. I'm not really on there much.
43:36
LinkedIn right now, and then we'll be having a couple of masterminds
43:40
and cohorts coming out later this year.
43:42
specifically one if you are ex-corporate and you want to shortchange,
43:47
shortcut this whole entrepreneur journey.
43:49
We're gonna have a high octane eight-week mastermind in Q4 this year where
43:54
we go through the five domains of business.
43:56
but hit me up on LinkedIn, that's the best place.
43:59
And also I will note
44:00
It's always me and you're LinkedIn.
44:01
So if you message me and get a big ass message,
44:04
it's me. No robots were harmed in that.
44:07
it's one of the few places and I don't judge with the folks that have
44:10
I have assistants that do other things.
44:12
but LinkedIn you will get authentically me.
44:15
Awesome, awesome. Good to know.
44:16
Good to know. this has been a great conversation.
44:19
Thank you so much for coming and showing up and giving us some some good juice.
44:23
I like this. Thanks for pulling me out of my hobble.
44:26
and and you know, recognizing that I will put marketing on the last bit
44:31
of of the business plan. And for me,
44:33
this has been all around network management,
44:35
relationship management. How do you manage,
44:38
monitor, and nurture the people that already know,
44:41
like, and love you? You show up on their podcast.
44:43
And repost this. Support Rick.
44:44
Amen. Amen. All
44:47
Keep busy.
44:48
right. All right. Thank you again.
44:50
And folks, thank you so much for watching and listening to another episode
44:53
of the Relentless Pursuit of Winning Podcast.
44:55
We'll catch you next time.