Latest / Unstoppable Success Podcast / The Art of Building Successful Startups with Tanis George

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The Art of Building Successful Startups with Tanis George · Unstoppable Success Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight, influential leaders and their game-changing insights.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jacqueline Stuminger, CEO and founder of LeapToyer Success.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's LeapTeerSuccess.com.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: We help entrepreneurs, leaders, and CEOs grow their business, become unstoppable high achievers in their careers and life, gaining that 1% edge.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: We believe every professional has the power within them to leap to their greatest success that not only will impact their life, but the lives of the people they touch.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: So stick around to the end of the show and we will share with you how you can be our next guest.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: So stick around for those 15 to 20 minutes and let's be unstoppable.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everybody, and welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast, where we hear from influential leaders and their game-changing insights.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jaclyn Strominger, your host, and today I want to welcome our amazing guest, Tannis.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my God, who you guys have, she has done some amazing kick-ass things.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So let me just give you a little bit of background on Tannis.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: She is a serial tech entrepreneur and a leading advisor to startup founders on entrepreneurship and build it, building a successful co-founder partnership.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And over the course of her career, which has spanned over 20 years, she has co-founded, scaled, and successfully exited multiple data-driven businesses.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Her most recent venture, Trulio, which she co-founded in 2011, I hope I said that right, with her long-term business partner.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And she has done amazing work.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And following a record-breaking Series D, she stepped down from the board to focus on her co-founder advisory work, and she remains, does remain a minority shareholder in Trulio.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Some things that I just really want to put out, because then we're going to ask a bunch of questions.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: She is, Tannis, is an author of the Co-Founders Handbook.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's listed in USA Today's top 10 business books to scale your business.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: She's the co-founder, she's the founder of the Co-Founders Hub, a platform dedicated to providing entrepreneurs with the necessary tools to uh to establish, nurture, and successfully exit business partnerships.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: She has she advises fast-growing startups and leading venture capitalists, focusing her work on how co-founders can function in an open, productive, and symbiotic way to ensure continued and long-term business success.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when she's not doing all those great things and she takes time to mentor students at a private school she founded, which is so awesome, Live Learn Launch Academy, which focuses on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and life skills.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: So oh my God, so many great things.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my God.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So Tim's I have so so many great things.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: You were talking beforehand, but tell me a little bit about your journey into entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And how you know, tell us a little bit, take us through your journey.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I was um, you know, I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um I my parents were my dad was a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman for a big portion of his life back in the day when that was a thing.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, when I was growing up, my dad really, he would often share those sort of sales, um sales ideas and sales tactics that he used to teach his guys that uh were in his sales force.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I grew up very much learning like success principles because he would, you know, he had he would read books by Ogmandino and and Napoleon Hill, and he'd read all those books and then he'd share those insights with me growing up.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I really grew up with uh a mentality of uh, you know, life is a numbers game.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: That was kind of what my dad would say.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Just keep working the numbers, hun, and you'll get it.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Was that sort of was was sort of drilled into me.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: So um, and then if it wasn't in entrepreneurship, uh my dad was in sales.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, his the uh his last portion of his career, he sold yellow page advertising.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so again, you know, definitely into the sales space.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so my dad would just share those things with us.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I think, and and I was the first person to graduate high school in my family, both my siblings and my um parents.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody sort of left school and became entrepreneurs.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so, and no one ever really talked about like like post-secondary education.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: It just wasn't something anybody thought about.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I never it was never really ingrained in me.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I think just growing up in the back of my mind, it was always presumed that I was going to probably start a business and whatever that looked like.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I definitely think the nurture side of growing up was a big component in my ability to look at entrepreneurship from an early age.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that is really amazing and remarkable because you know, our you know, we always talk, obviously, how the influences that make us who we are and and and where we come from.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's I love that it's like you just never even thought about it.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Just I'm just gonna become an entrepreneur.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna do it because that's that's what we do, right?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we do, that's what that's what it is.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so we never did that.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so my first business, I started right, I did start right out of high school was my uh with my best friend in high school.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: He and I um started our first business uh not too long just after graduating, and and that sort of began my career in in building startups and building tech companies, even though you know neither he or I were technical background.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't have a technical background.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we're one of those unique entrepreneurs that had to, you know, who came up with the ideas, but we had to find those tech um outside of outside of ourselves.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so yeah, it was uh it was challenging, but it just goes to tell a lot of people who think, oh, well, I have this idea for a tech company, but I'm not technical, you know, it's doable, it's not easy, right?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right, but it's doable for sure.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So a couple questions.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: First, first, first, I want to ask you about so you did not go to university.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: No, okay.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so And I was a C minus, which is a very uh probably good.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: I was a C minus student.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was at school to be basically socialize, and and uh yeah, I just never saw the point of academics in the same way.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: I just thought it was quite silly.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: So right, and and we talked a little bit about your school, which I just think is just brilliant, because it's not we're getting, you know, getting rid of the fluffy things that you don't really need in your day-to-day, but actually doing more things practical, which is really great.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um let me ask you.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you leave high school and you're like, I'm gonna start a business.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: How did you come up with the idea?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, actually, it was Steven, my my um my co-founder.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: He uh he was in this you know in the States.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, we're Canadian, so he's in the States and had to get um his credit report, was basically what it came down to starting to build a life down in the States and needed to get a cell phone, and had to get his credit report and discovered that it was available in an online format in the US, but not in Canada.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: In Canada, we still had the old antiquated mail-in-a-form system in order to get access to your credit file.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was like, oh, this is available in the US.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't we do this up in Canada?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where the idea came from.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And he approached me and said, Hey, you know, I we didn't, I didn't even know what a credit report was.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, what's a credit report?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: We're like 19 years old just out of school.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't even know what a credit report is.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Yeah, it's like a report card for adults.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, okay.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, they can do it in the states.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let's just do it up here.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: We were totally naive, had no understanding of the regulatory legislative environment, had no idea about how to, you know, do a back-end, you know, technical website, any of that kind of stuff, but we saw the need and it was like there's gotta be a way to do it up here.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that was for that was the first business that we did.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we started it, um, and three years later we were able to have uh uh we were acquired and exited.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that is fantastic.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I love this idea that I mean, obviously, you started this business, you had a business partner, and so how many employees did you have at this company?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so all of our our first three businesses.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: So what ended up happening is over the course of 10 years, we built and exited three three tech companies, all very similar um in the sense that in a similar in the same industry, typically in the credit or identity space.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, but what we did really, really well was you know, taking an idea and bringing it to fruition.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: So uh in those businesses, the most employees we had was five, five or six um employees, and we always sold just sort of just once the business was up and going and we had maybe a year under our belt, that was when we went for the acquisition.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: We just were not um as excited about scaling companies and uh and and we just knew where the niche was and we knew where the buyer was.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was kind of our our MO to do that um until we started Truly You.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: That was when we made a conscious decision to actually scale the company ourselves and grow it beyond what it was.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: So in both of the in both small and scaling, you know, whether you got five employees or you have a hundred or two thousand, what do you think that you did to help bring those people on and help them get behind what you were doing?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, I think one thing that we did really well was helped people to really understand the mission early on and the vision of the company.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we were able to articulate and communicate what we're trying to achieve.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think when you have a team that falls on board of mission, not just in milestones and hitting KPIs and doing all that, it's when they really grasp onto mission and what you're trying to achieve that buy-in becomes so much better with employees and and and your team.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I think, you know, we were exceptionally good at casting that vision, even if the mission was to build a company and exit, you know, and get it into the hands of a company who could then scale it and grow it.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: That too was sort of could be a mission as well.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that was um, I think that's what we do well when I reflect back on on how we built our team and what made people stay, why would people leave?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it would be, oh, I, you know, I think sometimes it might be they just fell out of mission and fell out of the vision of the company and and didn't want to move forward.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: But um, we were very fortunate to have people who who really saw what we were trying to achieve and wanted to stick with it.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that I think I am a firm believer in obviously that whole vision mission.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's so important to create that and have that with whether you're a five-person company, you know, 50 person or a hundred-person company, it's just so important.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you're thinking, you know, of the things that you've done, you know, and then how do you think, you know, if there's you know, looking at the scaling Trulia, right?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: How do you feel that that evolved over time with your mission?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and how often were you, as I like to say, MMA, like measure, monitoring, and adjusting that?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, we always brought our team into our goals.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think as founders, you have a choice.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: You can keep um the state of your business behind the curtain, um, and or you can bring people along for the ride.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think we what we did well was we were able to balance what needed to be behind the curtain.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, what you didn't need to, you know, uh strap your employees with the some of the concerns and struggles that you have, but at the same time, let them know hey, this is a key time in the business.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, these are this is a key customer that we need to kind of bring on board.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think that a lot of that was really like an important piece of it.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I think um, you know, adjusting with the stages of your company as you're going through, uh, being honest and transparent, uh, where what is important within the company, and then at the same time, just encouraging and helping people to see what's coming around the pipeline as well, keeping people excited.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say a carrot, but at the same time just saying, hey, if we succeed here, this is what's around the bed, and just keeping the team informed of what what's coming around.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think that was another really important piece to keeping people sticking through because that entrepreneurship journey, especially your early employees, they're along for the ride just as much as you are.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that ride is not always, you know, smooth, uh, you know, nice grassy hills that you know with the sun shining.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's very volatile.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, you know, it understanding that they can't just your team can't always hear the struggles and they can't always just be told, hey, everything's gonna be great.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: So balancing that's really important.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's that, I mean, it is a roller coaster and there's twists and turns, and there's, you know, it is, it's catching the ride and catching that and keeping it going.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, I love this.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so, how do you think that that actually just helped with the culture and the um, for lack of a better word, morale, you know, of the company?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, you know, I'm a big proponent.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: So in the co-founder partnership, one of the the sort of the key pillars of a successful partnership is, in my opinion, the the transparency, vulnerability, and authenticity.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Those three things are really, really important because those three things are what builds a foundation of trust.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I think in many ways you can always transfer that over to your team as well.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Your team has to trust you as founders.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're their leader, you're the person who's taking this company, you know, on this ride, and they need to trust you.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so again, there is this we we were never up on any kind of pedestal.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: We never put ourselves separate.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we were in the bullpen with everybody, we were engaged.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: We really enjoyed, we understood that, you know, we're trading our life, our everyday life for this business and what we're trying to achieve here.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was really important that, you know, we enjoyed working with the people that we worked with.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: So there was this level of trust and transparency that took place.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's where it built trust.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Our team trusted us.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a really key important piece for founders to establish with their team.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what you just said, I think is so really it's it's it's so really important, you know, the trust factor building that.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the one thing that you said, you know, you said you're in the bullpen with them, you're in the trenches and you're not sort of like on this pedestal.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's something that um that I see, you know, if you were to to me wave that magic wand and you can create great leaders, great leaders are in there, you know, the CEOs and people that they're they're doing the work with the people because they want to see that that rise.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you had a magic wand and you could change like and give like one massive advice to leaders today that you think would be um to you know change the trajectory of of leadership, what would have been?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think today what I'm seeing a lot is um leaders sort of relegating culture and and how the business is going to be built um to the team.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh founders need to regain that responsibility and the trust in themselves to say, this is this is what my company is going to be about, and sort of holding on to that um to that responsibility of being the leaders and and not um you know passing, letting their team decide.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think there's a fine line between um I think there's a point where leaders need to retain control of the culture of the business, where they need to um um be the sole decision maker, letting the responsibility fall on them.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then over time you can, you know, pass on.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: But culture is something that I think founders need to retain for for as long as they can.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and that means deciding, you know, what is the culture within your business, um, you know, really making the choices about where your business will go and just really holding on, trusting in yourself and and being willing to die on that sword.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's an important piece for leaders.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: So when when you're thinking about that culture, you know, what do you think are the, you know, I I think of what I consider the what they call the achievement, what I call the achievement code, which is really your what you know, your key values, the things that you requ that you um look for in employees, not that you want to have everybody the same personality because you don't, but there's certain qualities and values that I think that as a leader you have to decide today, you know, if you're leading a company, what are those values?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um and what do you so thinking about that, you know, is that something that you would agree?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and how do you bring out help your the co-founders and the people that you're working with, even in the hub, figure out what those values are?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's I mean, ultimately having a true understanding of yourself as an entrepreneur is really key.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think not enough people really sit down and do that introspective introspective work to discover who they are as an entrepreneur, what influences will shape the decisions that they make.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, where are they getting outside um influence?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's a big key piece as well.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but really deciding because I think one of the things that I often say to founders is your business is actually an extension of you.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna follow you forever.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna always have this business sitting there on your resume.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's always, it's truly 100% an extension of you, almost like a child, right?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to see things through that lens.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how you build your business will be how people see you.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: So when you look at it in that frame, your business, how you conduct, um, how you conduct business, how you structure the processes within your business, you know, if it's regimented, and maybe you're a regimented person, that might be what you are.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so the structure within your business is going to be rigid because that's how you learn, that's how you communicate, that's how you take in information, but just really understanding that how your business is being built is a reflection of you.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want your business to be reflected in a certain way, you have to adapt to that in some ways.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so your values need to be understood because that will be reflected.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, and if you want it to be a place where innovation um, you know, it grows, then you need to look at yourself and go, are you the innovator?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you need to bring again a partner who's the innovator then?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, so it's really understanding yourself as an entrepreneur so that you you in doing that, you see that bird's eye picture of what you're about and you'll be able to see what your business is going to be and you can adapt and change that as your business needs it.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no my God, that's that is brilliant.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's so true because it is.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I would almost say, you know, would you also say that it's whether you're the entrepreneur, but if you take that same frame, would you does it, does that also lie within a company and somebody who's leading a team?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, 100%.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, again, we always look at these sort of personality tests and we look at these things um, sometimes thinking they're gimmicky.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: They're not.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: They're actually really important.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: It tells a story about how somebody's going to lead.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: It tells how somebody looks at the world.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, it's really important.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm one of the things that I put all my the co-founders that I usually advise, I put it them through a whole series of tests to find out like what's your conflict style, what's your learning style, what are your values, what's what level of optimism and pessimism do you have?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I've come across people who are just off the charts optimistic.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that doesn't necessarily bode well in a business because you know, you have to be able to see any red flags.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you have to act on those.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: You can't just, oh, it's gonna be fine in the end, right?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have the other side where you have people who are so pessimistic in their mind, they have to have every single duck in a row in order to make them step forward in order to ensure they do it right.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not practical as well.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a whole series of real deep thought that you have to look in at yourself.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Who are your influence?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Who's gonna make decisions?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so again, same thing.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: I talk to co founders and find out oh, you know, one of them goes home and talks to their spouse, and their spouse is just telling them in the background, oh, You got to do this, you got to do that.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: And they come to the office the next day and they're actually making a decision based on somebody else's recommendation, not their own.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's all these things or just background experiences, the baggage you bring into a business that you might make you might be less risk oriented if you failed in a previous business, but that's not necessarily what you need to do.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to understand all this stuff about you in order to really move forward and make make decisions effectively.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, that is, oh my god, it's a good and I I'm a big huge fan of assessments.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Huge fan of them.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Huge fan of them.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's so true.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's very, you know, what you just said is is helping people understand again who they really are, that truly does matter.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that whether it's whether you're the CEO or you're a leader of a team, you need to know who you are and then decide how you know what what are those values and are the people that you want to bring in.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the other side of it as well is if you are in a partnership or if you have, you know, a C-suite executive in your on your team, you really need to put those, your personnel, you know, your assessment of yourself and your things alongside these folks because that's where conflict can arise.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not understanding, you know, I'll give an example.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: For me, I am very high-level strategy.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: I am the person who takes a look at every possible scenario and I can kind of map that out.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: But when it comes to execution and sort of drilling down into that one single piece, I don't flourish in that space.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I needed to, and this was a reflection I learned after when people started to come to me and say, How have you and Stephen built four companies together over 25 years and you're still friends?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and I had to really think about that because I knew that was a that's rare, that's very neat to be in that situation.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that was one of the key pieces that I came out of is that I was able to, you know, come in on that high-level strategy.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, what about this?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: What about that?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: What if we did this?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: What if we dad did that?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: And Steven was able to come in afterwards when we sort of made a decision and to kind of keep me at bay, go, okay, we made this decision, let's stick with this until the next, the, you know, the next piece get has to be made.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so we worked really, really well in that way.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so um so I think that's an important piece as well.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's all in great and dandy to find out what you can about yourself.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: But now you have to look at how is how can you make that maximize that with your partner or with your with your team?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, that's that is that is great.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: So so today you've got a lot of great things happening.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: You, you know, you've got the hub, you've got the school.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are the biggest things that you're focusing on right now?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, one of the key pieces that we're focused on right now is really helping uh venture capital companies, angel investors, and such do the diligence due diligence necessary to ensure that the co-founder teams that they're bringing on board are in are healthy and in a good space and making sure that those co-founders have talked about the important pieces, that they're aligned on mission, that they're aligned on uh the vision of the company and the execution plan.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, right now we are really putting together a very deep, in-depth uh certification process that allows founders to do all the work necessary ahead of time before possibly before they go and raise money.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: But additionally, um while they're in a partnership to make sure that they truly have had the conversations that are necessary, that all those expectations they have of one another have been communicated.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: They're not just there's not all these assumptions.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's where that's where it all breaks down when a founder says, I thought you were going to.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we're not mind readers.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: And those I thought you were going to can be really, really big and damaging to a company.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then when people fail to meet expectations, trust is broken down, and then we lose the foundation of the partnership.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, right now, that's our key piece is to help founders really build a strong foundation within their partnership.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that eventually uh if they choose to raise money or if they're or if even just if they were building a business, uh, they're building it on a really strong foundation.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely, absolutely love that.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Tannis, I so love connecting with you.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I could techn uh talk to you all day long.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Where can people people find you and connect with you?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so my course spot right now is just on LinkedIn.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: So you can find Tannis George, J-O R G E.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you can find me there.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: I do a lot of stuff as well.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um on my website, tannisgeorge.com.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you are looking to uh you need any advising or consulting, I do do that as well there.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then the co-founders hub, we're in the middle of relaunching the site.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so that'll be up and running um shortly.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's always gonna stop, but it's coming and such.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, those would be the three key paces.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, the book is available at any location in every format audiobook, ebook, paperback, hard copy, the co-founders handbook.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh really, it's the starting point.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: It walks bounders through the entire every stage from whether or not you should even have a co-founder to what to look for, and then what to do when you're in a partnership.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: How do you ensure it's strong?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then finally, how do you exit with grace so that uh you don't you know burn that bridge, but at the end build uh an incredible relationship with someone right through to the very end.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, that is fantastic.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so listeners, if you are in the space of co-find co-founding a business or you have a co-founder, you have a partner, even if it's a partner in your in your company, go grab it, go grab the book, read it, yes, and share your insights.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and please connect with Tannis George on LinkedIn, go to her website and all those things.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Tannis, thank you so much for being a guest on the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess if you are listening and you have a great leadership story or business that you would like to share, please just go to leapchearsuccess.com and click on podcast and apply to be a guest.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you guys so much for listening and thank you so much for being a guest.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jacqueline Stromager and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight, Influential Leaders and Their Game Changing Insights podcast.
• 28:32
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• 28:41
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• 28:47
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• 28:59
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• 29:12
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• 29:48
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• 30:01
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