Latest / Glovisor Podcast / 10X Your Business Starts With You | The Gene Early 10X Model [Ep 75]
Transcript
- Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: What does it really take to build a company that changes an entire industry? Welcome to the Glovisor Podcast, where we explore business growth, communication, and personal development through real conversations with people that make an impact. Our guest is a PhD in leadership and organizational development strategic advisor and executive coach who has spent more than four decades helping leaders and organizations unlock their potential. He has worked across Europe, Hawaii, Silicon Valley. With global organizations focused on transforming leadership and culture. Glovisor welcomes Dr. Gene Early. Gene: Yeah, hi. It's great to be here. Thank you, Joe. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: pleasure. All right, Gene. So let's start off. What specific problem do you solve and who do you help? Gene: I have two kind of primary types of clients. I have entrepreneurs and senior executives. And the kinds of issues that I work with are really what I call transformational issues. In other words, these are people who are open, who are saying yes to growth for themselves and for the companies that they lead. And so the the challenge is how do we create exponential growth? And that's the that's kinda like the target area that we're looking for. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: now, is there a specific industry that you service? Gene: multiple industries. I mean, I co-founded Genomic Health, which is kind of in the molecular diagnostics industry where we we actually were the the front-running and kind of leading edge provider for molecular diagnostic test of breast cancer, the first genomic breast cancer test. My role was was organizational development and and human resources, so it was on the people side of things. So That that kind of that side of tech, also the other side of tech, like for example, cybersecurity and things like that. also I would say that I work with education. So I've got a background in 10 years, in fact, as Vice Chancellor of Operations at University of Nations in Hawaii. and I work with nonprofits, a variety of nonprofits, doing Lots of things around health issues. So for example, worked with Genetic Alliance to kind of help them move from 600 patient advocacy organizations to they extended their reach to over 10,000. So I mean it's things like that. and then also universities. I like working with people who are into the educational side of things. and then The the entrepreneurial side of things is that's that's an open field. Whoever's ready to go for something big. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: Well, those are impressive projects. So now, what made you select that path? Gene: you know how it is, it's it's kinda like paths select you, right? and I think that the kind of the I I like to think in terms of defining moments. And I would say that my defining moment without question was I was twelve years old and my dad died and suddenly my whole world felt like, you know, cracked into a million pieces and I felt like I was in a dark kind of emotional, spiritual black hole. and so I s I would say unconsciously, I chose to to become whole. And so I think the work that I do is all around wholeness. It's it's individual wholeness as leaders who are responsible for organizations becoming whole. And you know, we know organizations have their all set of dysfunctions, and so how do we address that in order to bring integration into them? And That has been a just a real joy for me. because it combines my own personal growth journey with the growth journey of the of the consulting work I've done and now the coaching work I'm doing. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: I see that you have different organizations that you've helped, but is there an ideal organization that you more than enjoy working with? Gene: that's a great question. a type maybe of organization. So for example, I'm coaching the CEO of 100 Coaches Agency, which is Marshall Goldsmith's legacy group. And what it's a character it's characteristic of what I really love, which is he is a he is a entrepreneur's entrepreneur, a serial entrepreneur. he worked with Marshall and came up with the concept, if you will, of this agency to be a talent matching market between ex elite coaches and Fortune 50, Fortune hundred CEOs. And being able to coach him and be be instrumental in catalyzing transformation beyond ourselves is that to me is that's where it's at. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: I guess we're always looking for these extreme cases and looking back. Gene: yeah. Yeah yeah. All my cases, by the way, are not extreme. I have some I have some great ordinary cases. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: Right. But you know, looking back, you've had so much history. can you share a client case study that really shows the transformation that your work creates? Gene: Sure. I mean, one of my favorite ones is even to today is founder CEO of cybersecurity tech company. Ten years ahead of his ten years ahead of the the curve, so to speak. He definitely was ahead of the curve. Very successful. COVID hit, kind of knocked his co his company for a loop. it recovered. When I came into his picture. he was already on the recovery trail, but h his comment was, you know, the company is stalemated, and the only thing I can determine is that I'm the cause. So what do we do? And that was a that was one question. The second question was, you know, who am I and why am I here? Right. And so I would say my coaching really has to do with this kind of interface between the individual leader and the organization. Because that that the the premise I operate on is if you look at the organization, that is an expression of you as CEO. And if something's working in the company, it's because of you. If something's not, it's because of you. Not not as a direct thing, but because of how you're leading, the presence you bring, the nonverbal behaviors. I mean CEOs and senior leaders are always they're always under the microscope. So everybody's watching them. And there's this kind of cascading influence. Anyway, in we were able to and I can go into more detail if you're interested, but we were able in ten months to move them from twenty three million to sixty nine million in revenue. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: That's pretty impressive. if someone decided that they wanted to work with you today, what would be the step-by-step process that you would put them through? Gene: Well, I mean, one of the premises that I operate on is I mean, if you we make a contact, we have a chemistry call, for example, and just say, you know, does this fit for you, does it fit for me, and should we go forward? So I'm assuming that is a yes. one of the things that I would say is that they will ask me, Okay, well, where do we start? And my answer is we start where you are today. What's front of mind today? And that's the way we'll start every session. The premise there is that what's front of mind for you is is occupying your attention, your energy, your concerns, the things that are are really going to potentially distract you from what you most need to do. Because it's interconnected. We will get to that. But let me hear what it is that's concerning you today. And that, you know, that's the whole raft of things, right? So in his case, what was concerning him was we're not growing. You know, how come we're not growing? You know, he's and his conclusion was, because I'm not growing. And one of the, I think one of the really classic, this is totally classic, one of the breakthrough issues for him was that he he was on his second marriage and his wife, I think was, as so many women are, super intuitive and really understood his sweet spot. And she said to him, Listen, you told me this story, and I think it's true that you are a soul catcher. In other words, the way or a people whisperer, another way she said it. And that's why you have been so successful. But what's happening is that That's not happening now. And he his response to that was like it was tr he knew it was true, but he didn't accept it when we started. And by the time we finished, he totally accepted it. He knew that was his sweet spot. He knew that's what he had to do. He knew he had to step out of the CEO role into the chairman of the board role. He knew he had to recruit a COO into a CEO role. and he and his distinction was he said, my job is to make our new CEO the very best CEO he can ever be. And he did. I mean he's still doing it, but I mean it was in that time period. That's what we did. And so we we did that. We we combined his personal journey of kind of insight, revelation, awareness, and his professional journey of running his company and transitioning it because the the transition was a really important piece of that of that time period. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: I like the way that you say that you you start off with a chemistry call. So I like Gene: Yeah, right. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: that, which is so true. You want to see if there's chemistry between the two of you to see if you can move forward. And Gene: Yeah. Yeah. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: and it has a lot to do with what you're talking about, which is, you know, the majority has to do with your personal side, not the business side. Sometimes the personal the business is a lot of of the reflection of your personal side, which Gene: it is. I totally get that. Yes. Yeah. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: Yeah, so which is great. I I love that perspective. Now, typically are are you one of those coaches who says, okay, we're just gonna find that one reason, we're gonna solve it and we're gonna move on. Call me when you're you need something else, or are you sort of on the sidelines, always keeping an eye and working with people long term? Gene: I tend to work with people long term. and what what I've discovered, and in fact, I don't know, not not every coach does this, but my sessions typically are two hours long. And the reason for that is that I discovered this thing that if we start where they are and they download what's going on, what the issues are that and and those issues could be business issues or they could be personal issues, be their kids, they could be You know, their nonprofit support, their philanthropy, it doesn't matter. I mean, whatever is front of mind for the day. Okay. We start we start with that. and it takes a while to actually get that stuff out. But what I would say is that it's very instructive as a metaphor for the rest of the call. And oftentimes the transformation part comes the last half hour of two hours. You know, and if you if I haven't gotten all the way through the personal stuff of what's important to that person, and listening to it and then being able to feed it back, then we we miss a beat. And so I don't want to miss a beat. So that's why I two hours. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: you work with them long term and do does your role change? is there ever an opportunity where your role starts to change to work within the the team themselves? Maybe you join the bus and have one of those seats. Gene: I have done that. I I mean it's not the norm, but I've done that a a number of times where in and a couple of times I became board member, a couple of times I come in and and in the consultant role kind of almost I mean not a full time employee, but like one, or y in terms of input, for sure. And I mean one of the things that that really fascinates me and I love is is culture. You know, and genomic health, I it was one of these breakthrough moments for me. It was like I always been a consultant working from the outside in. And as as a co-founder, I got to actually work from the ground up. And so actually be responsible for the organizational vision for culture and creating creating the infrastructure to support the the culture. and it was it became a world class culture. So I mean, to me it was like such a such a wonderful experience and, you know, exceptional gifts that my friend and and kind of the CEO, visionary founder gave me. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: I don't know how you have more time than the rest of us, because you're a co-founder, you're a coach, you're able to do all these different roles. I want that secret. But you Gene: Over time, over time. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: know, being a co-founder, how has that shaped your coaching moving forward? Gene: I I think profoundly so. one of the things I wanted to do and I I didn't know how I was gonna do it, was I wanted to be inside the organization. And so that was the the first inside role I had was at the university. and then I went and did my PhD in Oxford and then I said, Okay, where are we gonna go now? And our son was in graduate school, so we we could go anywhere in the world we wanted to go. And we just felt let's go, let's go to the Bay Area. And that's how I ended up being consulting there. And then I was consulting with with my f what became my friend, who said, he said, Listen, you love culture. I've been semi-successful, but not really the way I want to be. You would be great. Let's do it together. So, you know, five of us got together and and created that. Well, being inside and understanding, as you asked the question, being inside and understanding. the demands from the ground up is just, I mean, it's invaluable. It's invaluable. And it definitely has shaped my understanding of the kinds of issues, organizational issues, because organizations have a life of their own, right? And being a consultant, you have a a dissociated perspective on it. But being, you know, a co-founder in the way I was You're full on in the middle of it, right? And fully associated. And that that's just that just makes the reality of what you're in encountering so much more profound. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: Now looking forward, is there any project that you're looking forward to starting? Gene: Well again, well, the project I'm working on right now is is really the synthesis of work I've done for four plus decades. And that's what I call the 10x model. and I g that can I mean that language I met in Silicon Valley, you know, because we had venture capital funders in our company. And of course they talked about 10x. And for them, 10x is quantitative. It's like, okay, we're gonna fund 10 startups, and maybe one, maybe two will be successful. And so they've got to produce a 10x return financially. for me, because I'm a people person, I'm much more interested in the interface between the internal 10x and the external 10x. All right. And so recognizing that leadership begins on the inside, and because I'm fascinated with leadership, it's like if you 10x your internal world. you will 10x your external world, right? You and by that, and 10x for me is symbolic of exponential growth. Right. So you're gonna grow. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean a literal 10 times. So for example, the cybersecurity client I had, that was three times. But I mean for me it's the 10x outcome. Because I mean, you know, 23 to 69, that's very significant. significant for him. And and actually when we finished, he had prospects of doubling it again. just because it was all we had we had got him to that place and he was set up to to increase the the breadth and depth of the work he was doing. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: this 10X in has a lot to do with leadership within. What is one quick win that we can get from Gene of how we can start on our journey of 10X in our lives? Gene: if somebody asked me that question, as you're doing, I would say Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: Yeah. Gene: Review your past and find three to five examples where you exceeded your expectations and are proud of the outcome. That is what I would call a 10x outcome. and then I would say, okay, think about what was characteristic of that. You know, what's the pattern that what's the pattern that goes with it? Because I'm very, very pattern-oriented in my work, looking for the structure that determines the outcome. So there is an internal structure. That would generate those outcomes that exceeded your expectations. Let's find out what they are, right? So ask yourself that question. You know, what was characteristic that allowed me to exceed my expectations? Right. And then you ask the question, okay, where where am I now? That's a 1x. And how what would I have to, what would I have to change in the way I'm thinking about where I am now to 10x it? In other words, to create exponential growth with in this context, the context of where what we're now 1x. The other thing I would say is that just as part of the model that I've created, is that once you've accomplished a 10x outcome, you need to integrate it internally and externally. But once it's integrated, it becomes 1x again. And that's the basis on exponential growth, right? Because your 10x becomes 1x, you integrate, and you 10x that. then you've compounded the growth for your company, for yourself, for your circumstances. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: when you say tenx externally, is that the expectation within the business? Gene: yeah. I mean, again, symbolic, symbolic. So in other words, 10x represents being able to get outside your comfort zone, being willing to enter the unknown, being willing to to be emotionally resilient, being able to access resources that you have never thought about or maybe never acted on, and being willing to take strategic risks. You put those five components together and you have a 10x mindset. And so what that then does is it gives you a way to assess, you know, is this an incremental income, is this an incremental process that I'm engaged in, or is this going to be an exponential process? And let's choose let's go, you know, and not everything's exponential. You know, there are a lot of things that need to be 1x, right? Because that's that's the stability of your life. But There are plenty of things you can you can choose to Tinex so Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: you've had a lot of experience working with so many different individuals. Is there a common theme that keeps popping up over and over that you wish you could probably just write a book on just that one subject? Gene: The book I'm I I I'm contemplating is is around two concepts. One is is structure determines outcome and s structuring or restructuring is what equips people to generate 10x outcomes. And so the whole concept, for example, is your internal world, your internal states are structures, right? So when you're confident. that's a structure. Whereas if you're insecure, that's a structure. Insecurity will produce certain kinds of outcomes, confidence will produce other kinds of outcomes, right? So that's that's one example. Relationships are another. So for example, with genomic health, because I had a relationship with our CEO when he was the president of his for his former company, that relationship became the structure that it that led to the invitation. For me to co-found that led to me being able to to catalyze a world class culture, which I didn't even know there was a possibility of doing. And yet, you know, when it happened, I was a I I would it drew out of me resources I didn't know I had. so yeah, I mean that's that's that's a way to think about where where in your life Are you are you? And are you opportun opportunistic when the opportunity presents itself? Are you creating your own opportunities that maybe other people wouldn't think about or that you get challenged with? Because you know, oftentimes, you know, when you have a vision and you think, this would be amazing. I think I'm gonna do it, and and people start, you know, negating it, you have to you have to be strong and say, Hey, no, I'm this is this is important enough to me that I'm going to follow through on it. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: I would imagine that you may come across many people who just say, I I don't know. I I just don't know. Now, within your model, how do you extract that? How do you help them identify it? Gene: I hear that a lot. You're exactly right. I hear it a lot. And I say you do know. And then but I say it in a and that was very casual. But I say they say, You do know. And then I hold the space and they say, No, I don't you do. Just ask yourself. Because what I what my concept there is embodied knowing that they consciously don't know, but If they will hold the space with me, they will get that answer. And so that becomes how do you find how do you get a 10x vision? Right? Which means outside your comfort zone, into the unknown and all that kind of stuff. How do you get that kind of vision? Well, you've got to draw it out of your unconscious, your embodied knowing. Because most people, you know, if it's conscious, well, there's some people who who can can do it consciously, but if it's conscious, it tends to be linear and not exponential. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: how do you deliver your 10x model? Gene: No, no, that's a good question. Wha what are you thinking when you ask that question? Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: Well, sometimes certain coaches start off with a manual that they send it off to their client Gene: Mm-hmm. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: to have to have them to record it. And some just say, No, we're gonna talk this through. Gene: It's much more the second it's much more talking through. It's like I want to engage people, right? I I love relationship. I really I I'm just curious about people and I find it I find the work fascinating. You know, it's like somebody say, are you gonna retire? No. What are you talking about? Retire. No. So so no, I love the work and and I think one of the things that I've I've come to believe is that energetic presence is the most powerful intervention that a coach can have. That if you're if you're energetic, you're you're passionate, and you know heart do you know heart math? Are you familiar with that? Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: Mm-hmm. Yes. Gene: Okay. So heart math, what they've done is the research that they can actually measure the energetic presence of a person, right? Up many feet away. and We and intuitively even people that don't know heart math will know they can walk in a room and they can feel what's going on in that room. I mean, if they'll start to pay attention to it. So that becomes a reference. You can feel this, right? Okay, so the fact that you felt it, now take it back to yourself and apply to self. And what does apply to self means that what I see out there is what I'm doing in here. And so if I can recognize energy in the room, I'm gonna recognize that myself, right? And go, okay. Now think about leveraging that for the good of your business, whatever that is. I mean, if you're a CEO, if you're mom, a dad, if you're a friend. the way in which you show up influences the context in which you show up. And so I would just say, let's talk about how you're gonna show up. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: That is a good point. It it does make a total difference the way that you show up somewhere. High energy, low energy, and do you match the room's energy Gene: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: or do you change the energy in the room altogether? Gene: sometimes you ha i is it's really a a good strategy to match the energy, but as long as you know what you're doing. If you match the energy and then lead to a higher level energy is the ideal place to be. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: Absolutely. what is the single most important takeaway that you want listeners to remember from this conversation? Gene: You are an extraordinary individual and there is untapped potential within you that is waiting to be released. And I mean, and if you were to be interested in the 10x model, that's one of many ways in which to release that energy and that extraordinary capacity you have. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: Yeah, that's a great takeaway. Now, where can people connect with you and continue this conversation and find out more about all of your work? Gene: Yeah, well I'm I'm on LinkedIn and I'm on Facebook and on X. I don't use I don't do much on X. my email is gene.early at gmail dot com. some people will listen to this and say, that was a nice podcast and kind of just pass on. Other people may listen to it and go, you know what, that's really talking to me. I have s I have potential inside of me. I and that's exactly right. And we all do. And I you know, for me I think one of the compelling motivations for me is is to keep seeking out that 10x possibility with in myself. and you know, I you kind of alluded to this question, but I would just say that the model itself is designed to Help people discover their what I call their essential self, which is the foundation of the model. It's like, this is who you are, right? There's no negation, there's no fear, there's no judgment, there's nothing like that in your essential self. It's the purest aspect of who you are. But what we all do is we make decisions about ourselves, other people in the world, and those become self-limiting. And so we constrain ourselves and when we start to take those constraints away, you know, growth through pruning is one way that I say it. when we take the constraints away, we start to really flourish at a level that that we never knew was possible. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: Gene, that's great. I thank you so much for joining us today and sharing so much information. But what's Gene: Thank you. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: interesting for me is that I think you're an amazing blend between that business coach and personal coach in having that great balance between those two. And I think that's what makes you so successful. And I really appreciate your time. Gene: No. I really appreciate your hosting me. This has really been great. Thank you. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR.com: You're welcome. Thanks everyone for listening. If this episode inspired you, make sure you share it. And don't forget to follow the Glovisor Podcast for more conversations that make an impact. Till the next time. Gene: Amen.