Latest / Unstoppable Success Podcast / Elevate Your Business: A Conversation with Derek Fredrickson

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Elevate Your Business: A Conversation with Derek Fredrickson · 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 Stummer, CEO and founder of LeapToyour Success.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's LeapToyoursuccess.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% head.
• 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: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight Podcast.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Jacqueline Stromminger.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, my goal is to help and give every single leader insights and game-changing knowledge that will help them become better leaders today and tomorrow.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So today we have an amazing guest, Derek Fredericson.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And let me just give you a little bit about Derek.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: So Derek has over 16 years of experience as the chief operating officer at Bold Heart and other six and seven figure businesses.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: He has witnessed firsthand how transformative a robust operational strategy can be for entrepreneurs who are ready to scale but feel overwhelmed.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: As we all know, running a business often means getting bogged down with day-to-day tasks and becoming a bottleneck and losing sight of that vision that sparked the company in the first place.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where Derek comes in.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so what you are going to get listeners today, listening to Derek and game-changing insights about the key thing is how to do less better.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I love that line.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So Derek, welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: So glad to have you here.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jacqueline.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm happy to be here and looking excited, looking forward and excited for our conversation today.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so am I.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: So okay, like I was so excited.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, listeners, I'm really excited because Derek's actually in Paris, France, and I get to go there.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm hoping that we actually are going to actually maybe meet in person.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I always love that.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: Who would have thought?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Paris, you know, like a lot of people love to come to Paris.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful city.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I hope we can make that connection in person.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: That would be fantastic.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me, Derek, you know, I was looking at what you have done and your experience.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And even, you know, um right before we were talking about some of the key things, you know, again, that that do lesson, you know, to do better.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we were talking about letting go.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So walk me through how you came to this almost like aha moment of do that, do less better.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I I'll I'll I'll I'll share just a little bit of a story.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I um started out working with my wife in her coaching business back in 2008.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And um I didn't even know uh anything about the business.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that much about the marketing, the online world, entrepreneurial coaching, that sort of a thing.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but what I realized is that I could add value into the business in different ways in terms of structure, in terms of organization, helping with team, um, developing a more systematic way of what we were doing.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: And what I realized is that when you can build this foundation of a business and having a really solid structure of accountability, the right people and the right seats, a team that you can rely on to do really, really good work, but focus not just on what we're doing, but also on how we're doing it so we can build it to scale, so we can leverage it, so we can expand and grow.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: That was a game changer for me.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I realized that once we started to get real momentum and traction, what happened is that my wife, who's the kind of visionary entrepreneur of the company, it freed her up to focus on the bigger vision.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: And as entrepreneurs, as visionary leaders, as CEOs, founders, our goal is to focus on the bigger vision because that's the essence of being the visionary.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: They have the idea, they see the future, they see the big picture.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes they get stuck because then at times they have to come back and be like, okay, let's implement it.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let's make it happen, right?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Let's put the project into place.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes they get stuck into the day-to-day of the weeds of the implementation and managing the team and managing the task, and they get kind of pulled into that, which pulls them out of having the eye to the vision and the bigger picture.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so, this idea of letting go and doing less better, it's not about being lazy, right?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's doing less of the stuff that doesn't actually move the needle and focusing more on the bigger picture.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so when you can rely on a team and a structure and a process in place so that they know what we're doing and how we're doing it and when we're doing it by and why we're doing it, it gives the founder, the leader, a lot of confidence and and faith that they can go out and come up with the big idea and focus on the bigger picture because they have the structure, they have the system, they have the team in place to make it happen.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I often say that visionary leaders, our job is to make it up.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: We have the idea.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna make it up.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is gonna be fantastic.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's a passion, it's a mission, I want to make an impact.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: You make it up.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: People like me that are wired as COOs, we make it real.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: We're like, I'm gonna make it happen for you because I can see from A to Z all the things that need to happen.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then with the team and the process, we make it recur.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it runs like a world machine.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to reinvent the wheel.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: We can scale, we can build, we can expand at a higher pace rather than the founder and the leader having to be involved and doing everything all the time.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: So they get their time back, they get their freedom back, they get their confidence back, but also like energetically, they feel more excited, they feel more motivated because they're tapping into the essence of what got them started in their business in the first place, but with the trust knowing that things are working without them having to be involved.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the the do less better, or in some cases I say um less doing, more thinking.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and as you were talking, the things that were coming into my my mind were you know, so many times we start the business, or an entrepreneur will start a business, and that part of the brain doesn't is very different than the organizational structured brain.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're two different sides, right?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's almost like you're bringing in the left brain to the right brain.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what it is.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what it is.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: There are assessments that people can take that affirm exactly what you're saying, that entrepreneurs are wired in a certain way, they have strengths in a certain way, their zone of genius is aligned in a different way from people that are operating in a more systematic, in a more organization way.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you need a combination of both.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's um it's a little bit because in the beginning, you know, most entrepreneurs they have to do everything, right?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're bootstrapping stuff.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing the marketing, I'm doing the sales, I'm doing the operations.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not even doing the bookkeeping, I'm building my website, right?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: But then they quickly realize I'm not actually really good at bookkeeping, I'm not really good at actually building out a website, and it's maybe costing you money because there could be somebody that could do it better and it frees you.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I would be like, I actually just hate that stuff anyway.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: And but they oftentimes, in my experience, what happens is that there's a bit of guilt.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's a bit of like, I but I should know how to do these things.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's my business.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: I should know how to build a WordPress website, I should know how to manage my email, I should know how to do my bookkeeping.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Not necessarily so.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: So they hit that ceiling, which is like, okay, so I know I can't do anything anymore.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: I need to hire, I need to get a team, I need to leverage their brilliance, which is different than my brilliance, and their skill set and strengths, which are different than mine.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And when they get those people on place, the right people and the right seats and they're clear on what they need to do, it allows the visionary entrepreneur to think differently and align themselves more with their strengths as opposed to trying to do everything on themselves.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: But in the beginning, there's there's a little bit of guilt.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: There's a little bit like, I shouldn't know how to do this.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: You actually don't.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's you know, in the let go of control, like give yourself permission that you should not actually be the one to know everything because you can't scale a business where it all depends on you knowing and doing everything by yourself.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: It depends on the team, it depends on the structure and the process and the organization.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And there are people that are wired for that.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: There are people that love that, they love being that kind of second in command.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: You make it up, I make it real.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And with the process and the people who make it recur, they're like, okay, I see that that's the way that I need to scale.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: So they let go of that control, but with trust, knowing that it's going to give them the solution that they want, really, and and often what they need.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a couple of questions that come to mind.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna the first one is and I and then hopefully this kind of kind of comes out more also as a tip is how does an entrepreneur know, or what's the sign that it's the time to bring in the zero, or you know, what is that point that's uh where you know, is it a financial part?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes I think that you can't actually hit the numbers that you want to get because you're so bogged down exactly in the task.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So what's that what is that timeline?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like when do you know?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like yeah, it's like the tipping point, right?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's um it happens in two ways uh practical and energetic.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: Practical because they are noticing that their time is being spent on all of these activities that they know intellectually that they shouldn't be doing, right?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so they're having to spend, oh I've had such a busy day, and I have, you know, I had to manage my email, I had to do this in the marketing, and I didn't have a chance to actually do development of the business, or I haven't had a chance to think about the big idea that I want to implement.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so they see like the time just kind of floating away.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so they're coming to the realization that like I need more of my time back.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's actually the biggest commodity that most entrepreneurs need to really get in control of is their time.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: But energetically, what's happening is they feel resentful.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: They feel resentful that they've built this business that they have in some cases created a J O B where it's like, I'm just doing stuff.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just, you know, I'm doing this, I'm doing the marketing, I'm doing the customer service, I'm doing the operations, and they feel energetically that it's it's draining, right?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's not the thing that they're jumping out of bed to do again tomorrow morning.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're kind of like, I'm I'm I'm I'm not excited about my business anymore.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: It feels like work, it feels like struggle, it feels like effort.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: So there's that energy, and what ends up happening is like energy is everything.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so they end up taking more time to do the things that they think they should be doing, as opposed to relax and let go of that control to get somebody else to help do them, do that for them.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: So there's the practical, the energetic, but it also depends on where you are in your business, right?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: If if you have a multiple six-figure or a multiple seven figure, and you know that you have big dreams and big goals and big objectives, and you know that you can't do it on your own anymore.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like what got you here is not going to get you there.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like you can't scale complexity.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: And if you've built a business that feels complex, that feels like there's a lot of putting out fires and like whack-a-mole and like go to the next day, you can't scale that.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: So bringing something in, bringing someone in that can provide that structure, that can provide, and it's not about giving up control of your business.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's, you know, sometimes I say we help run your business for you.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like we're coming in, like, I'm taking control of your entire business.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: No, we are giving you control back to your business for you to do the things that you are meant to be doing because that's the thing that's actually going to scale.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's not getting into the day-to-day and managing the team.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: And did you check this?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And what about that?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it drains their energy because they're not usually wired like that.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: They're wired for the bigger vision.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: So um it's it's energetic and and practical at the same time.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: But we all struggle with it.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: We all, you know, it it's there's no such thing as entrepreneurship nirvana, right?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's always like the next level we have to we have to overcome.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: No, and it's it's very true.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it is.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's you know, when I look at it and I look at some of the people that that I talk to and the people that I coach, you know, it's there is this fine line of knowing when knowing that you cannot do anything all on your own.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, and you know, and I always have to remind people you know, even you know, think about great athletes.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like great athletes have you know coaches.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um they're they're not getting there on their own.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's their bodies getting there, you know, physically doing the stuff, yeah, but they don't do it on on your own.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's we never do anything on our own.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to embrace that part.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I love this.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love you know, getting to think about doing your business and you know, doing the things that you want to do in your business and doing less of the things that are not your um your superpower.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, superpower, brilliance, zone of genius, gift.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't have to be oh, do I have to bring in somebody to run my business for you?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, not necessarily.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: It could be hiring a VA.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: It could be hiring somebody to do your social media, it could be hiring somebody that can manage your calendar and your email.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's the it's the classic, like, I'll pay you X, but I get three X back because I get my time back.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that doesn't discount the value of what a VA or an OBM, like an online business manager or a COO provides, or even an accountant.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we always have to invest in something in some way, but it's the investment in that gives you the time back.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the time back, you can go take a nap, right?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: You can go on vacation, you know, you can, which we do, of course, but at the same time, you can reinvest that time into exponential growth activities that actually is going to really move the needle for the company.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it's, you know, hire a VA for 20 bucks an hour for five hours a week to help get some stuff off your plate, you get that time back, you can reinvest that five hours a week, and I can guarantee you can contribute to the bottom line a lot more than$20 an hour that you're spending out.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: But it's a mindset shift.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Some people are like, yeah, but I need to make the money to spend the money.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, to an extent.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: But making the money first to then spend the money isn't how you're going to scale, especially if you have a big vision and a big why that is like there, like I'm waiting for you.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like, let's get here, let's make it faster.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: We got to put the things in place that are gonna make that accelerate that even more.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you actually have to spend the money first to make the money second.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's getting to that point.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, and I think that's a really good point.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I really want to stress that, you know, to listeners because because whether you're talking talking about a team or you're talking about your business, there's an investment that you need to take in, and you have to invest in whether it's investing in your people, yeah, you might not get the most out of your people until you actually invest in them to help them, you know, to get the the best out of them.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the same thing with you know the financial part of it in your business, right?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so tell me a little bit about you know, because you you've had you you work with your wife.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I have lots of questions about that in lots of different ways.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm like, how do you how do you is that okay?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like how did you you know how did that work?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: But you you had what brought you to the point where you knew in from your business experience that you were wired as a COO?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, great question.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: To be honest, in the beginning, I didn't.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we we made the decision to work together more for personal reasons.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I started out on Wall Street, I was working in finance, you know, I had a good salary.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Ticked the corporate box.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: But uh as I saw my wife and her business growing and succeeding and the impact that she was making with her clients and the really great work that she was doing, um, it it brought up for me is this the right path that I want to be on?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Business growing.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then I I just decided uh, you know, that my my professional track on doing corporate was was not meant for me.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: I I I really uh appreciated the fulfillment that she was getting in the work that she was doing.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so we had this crazy idea.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: What if I were to go part-time and work with her in her business?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: At the time she had, I think, nine, nine VAs and she, you know, was growing, it was scaling, it was wonderful.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: But there was like, I can help with the team, I can help make projects happen.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's what my background was.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then once we realized, like in the beginning, like you said, you know, it was it was not as easy as we had thought.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we never actually obviously worked together.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: There were things we didn't know about our how we're wired and our strengths.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, there's the husband and wife dynamic, which could be a bit tricky.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: We figured it out.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's not for everybody.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: I've mentioned this in the past, and some people are like, I could never work with my partner, I can never work with my husband or my sponsor.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I get it.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: And and and we had a personal goal to be able to have that freedom and that flexibility using and leveraging the business in order to do that.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so when I stepped in, I realized how things work.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's my my it's the way that my brain is wired.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's I could figure things out.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm like a problem solver, I'm I'm fact-finding, I'm getting through like what's the plan, what's the process?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: And when I realized that when you have a plan, you have a process and you can make things happen on the back end, it allows the business to scale and allows the visionary to be able to go and do more, more speaking, more networking, more relationships, more sales, more marketing that is aligned with them.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then what I realized is that, you know, we've scaled the business.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's been at multiple seven figures for 18 years.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then people were like tapping me on the shoulder and saying, um, I can I need a Derek.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: I need somebody to do for my business what you've done for your wife's business.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Great.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I started to do that fractionally for a few clients here and there, but I realized then I couldn't scale that because it was all dependent upon me.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: So last year I launched the COO solution and I've been cultivating a team and a framework of how we provide COO and OBM, online business manager services to entrepreneurial clients that are multiple six figures to high multiple seven figures.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's a bit interesting because now I've kind of stepped out from being the COO to now being more of the CEO.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: I actually just hired one of my COOs to be my COO for my business.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm kind of like walking the talk.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I'm kind of getting out there and doing it.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: But that that made me realize that especially for visionaries, especially for entrepreneurial leaders that know that they need and want the support.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes you can hire more people to do things, but at a certain level, you need somebody to really be that strategic, trusted partner, that confidant, like that that second in command that can make things happen with you.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that's been a real game changer in the work that we do with our clients and also for me to see that cascade in the work that we're doing.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's so so here's how do you like being the CEO?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's interesting.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: I I just did a team, I do a once a month, our team is about 15, 15, 20 people now, and I do a once-a-month uh team get together where we connect and we talk about what's working, what's going well, here are the updates and everything else.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I said to them very transparently, I have to catch myself because I can get into the weeds very easily, right?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I have the COO mindset.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's been what I've been doing for 18 years.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm like, what's the process for this?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: And what's the structure for this?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: And like we're building the plane as we fly it to put in the systems and everything else.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm also having to trust and let go and rely on my team.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, marketing team, take care of this, operations team, take care of this, because I know that for what I want to do and where I want to go with my vision, I need to let go.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, I'm not just saying that I'm doing that as well because we all have big initiatives.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: I just launched a podcast and writing a book.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: I want to do more speaking and getting out there and everything else.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: And and I know I can't do those types of things on my own without having the right structure and the right team in place to support me.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's it's it's interesting.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: I catch myself saying, okay, CEO hat, Derek, not not not COO hat.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Stop getting into the weeds, let let the process in place, let the team do their thing.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's been exciting for sure.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So who then are your you know, your dream key clients?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Great question.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um dream clients are women entrepreneurs.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and it's interesting, I I don't I don't I don't market to women specifically.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't have A message that specifically speaks to women business owners or female entrepreneurs, but I can just say having worked with my wife for 17 years and Boldheart, our company, and our team are all women, all of my clients are women, all of my team are women.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know what it is.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: I remember there was a while where I was cultivating my team and speaking to a lot of people that are really great COOs that are men.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm, you know, I'm a man, and there's men listening.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I get it.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: But what I realized is that when working with women entrepreneurs, things are different in some respect.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: And there is an empathy of how we do what we do, which is very important, versus that's the deadline.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Everything's black and white, it's very linear, we have to go in this direction.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't always work like that.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Things can deviate based on a number of different things, uh, intuition, divine intervention, insights, and and and my experience in working with women clients is that that's very important.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: And we have to honor that, we have to respect that, and we have to kind of cultivate in that work that we do.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so there's that element, uh, but also uh, you know, coaches, consultants, you know, online, um, I say like online transformers, like industry transformers, those that are really there to make an impact.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and the byproduct is the financial, right?
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's not all about the income.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: I know people say that all the time, but for me, it's a big motivator because I love to be able to see when we work with our clients that they get their time back, they get their freedom back, they get their mojo back, they get their excitement back, their confidence and everything else.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the byproduct is like, ah, our PL is up 50%.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Look at that.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like that's a great output of us doing really good work in that way.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what you having that mojo and getting that excitement back, it just makes me think about, you know, when you when you're aligned the right way, and when you see companies where the people that and I and the partners, and because I I there's two words I I feel like that need to get removed from companies, and those that's employees and managers, they're leaders and partners.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's just yeah, I love that brain.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um that when you have leaders who actually lead, and you've got partners who feel like they're a partner and they've got the vision and they're they've got that there's that energy that's within the entire company and organization.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not you know, the bottom line does go up and you haven't hired more people.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're doing and and it kind of goes back to what we just said in the beginning.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, you're actually doing you're doing more.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, everybody's everybody gets to do more and they're feeling really great.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the people who need to be thinking are thinking, and the people that need you know, the people that are are working are working, yeah, and it's all it all goes together.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: I use the like I use the analogy of a bus um where the leader, the the entrepreneur is is is driving the bus, right?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: They're the driver, they know where they're going, but in the bus, you've got your team, and there are different seats on the bus.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: And our job is to make sure we've got the right people in the right seats.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's the right seat, but it's the wrong person, right?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's the right person, but they're in the wrong seat.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: When you get right people in right seats that get on board of the bus business, where it's going, the vision, the why, they feel excited, they feel empowered.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so what ends up happening is that they elevate and expand what they're doing, which can then contribute to things being done more efficiently and more effectively.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Team members love to feel empowered, they love to be like, so just, you know, not just doers, you know, not just ones that dot the I's and cross the T's.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: We want people uh with that mindset, with that way of thinking, but they want to get on board with the vision.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: They want to feel like, you know, a rising tide lifts all boats.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so when they get on board with the vision and they're excited and empowered, yeah, at the end of the day, they may just be doing your bookkeeping, but they feel excited because they get the bigger vision, they get the bigger purpose, they get the bigger why, and then they can contribute to that in different ways when they feel empowered and feel excited and feel the line.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that comes from the leader, oftentimes kind of sharing this is the vision, this is where we're going, this is what I'm thinking, this is what I've got planned.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, fantastic.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: I love to see your vision, I love to see where we're going because I feel excited.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I feel like I can be a part of that.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me what my role is, tell me what my responsibilities are, and then they can jump in and make it happen.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and it's it's it's it's it's if you can help craft that from everybody from the person who is um cleaning to all the way up, right?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because they all feel like they're part of the team to help that, you know, they're part of the tie that's lifting the boat.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: They're all a part of it, and they feel like so it's great.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you're working with women.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: So is there women entrepreneurs?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a a business or an industry that you like and the entrepreneurial space more or that you really align more with as well?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great question.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, traditionally it's been coaching, just because that's the background that we've been in in terms of business coaching.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the clients we work with now are usually service-based providers.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: They're a coach, they're a consultant, they might be an interior designer, they might be a financial planner.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they're really good at what they do, but they know they need help.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that doesn't make that a bad thing.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's like they know they need support, right?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: They kind of realize that I can't do anything on my own.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm really not good at customer service, or I don't really know all the things that I need to know about marketing and funnels and launches and ads and social media.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I need to bring in the right, the right support.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we have clients now that we work with in in the travel industry.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: We have clients that work with um in public works, uh, which is very interesting, you know, because at the end of the day, at least in my opinion, in my experience, businesses are the same.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: Marketing is marketing, sales is sales, operations is operations, finance is finance, right?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: I know people may look at it in different ways, but I always say, like, marketing drives sales.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: Sales drives operations, which is what you deliver, what you provide, what your service is, and then finance is the output of doing really good marketing, really good sales, and really good operations and having the team aligned with that.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes when we speak to a potential client, they'll say, like, are you are you familiar with my industry?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: And and and is there somebody that knows my market?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll I'll I'll confidently say, and it's not out of out of ego, I'll be like, no, but it honestly doesn't really matter because at the end of the day, what you need is an air traffic controller to take care of your business for you and make sure that marketing is doing what marketing should be doing and sales is doing what sales should be doing and operations and finance, et cetera.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I've been doing business coaching for 17 years and a lot of online marketing.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of where I've I I have a I have a I'm a marketer first hat, if you will.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's usually where we gravitate to.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's fantastic.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, Dark, I could talk to you forever.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, there's so much great stuff here.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so tell us like what is the, you know, you know, I shared in the beginning, you know, we talked about, you know, the one big thing is you know, letting go of uh you know of what you're doing, you know, and and doing less to do better.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is there one thing that you feel like that will help somebody do that?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like what's like one insight or tip?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great question.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um I would say if they're listening to this, uh take a moment and and reflect on where you are today and where you want to be in 12 months from now.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: And is your current environment including your team and including your mindset positioned to get you to where you want to go?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: And if so, great, fantastic.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: And if there's a part of you that's thinking, I don't really know, I'm not really sure if I have those elements in place.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'm asking myself, should I be thinking about getting a COO or an OBM?
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: Great question.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh, but being able to ask yourself that question and be present to what the answer is.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: And the answer might be, I know I need help.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: I know I can't do it on my own.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: I know in the beginning I got everything done because it was just me.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: But what got me here, like I said, is not going to get you there.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if they are looking for a path to get them there that's going to be aligned with who they really are and their strengths with the trust of the team that can make that happen, that's where they're like, okay, let me reach out for support.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Let me see what is the right direction to go.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it might be again, like I said, starting with the VA and OBM, getting some structure, some team in place that can help you get there.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you need to be present to yourself and asking the question and then being ready for the answer and knowing that we all need help.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: We all need, you know, different levels of resources and support to make that happen.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And know that, and I would have to say, and and know that it's okay to ask for help.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Totally.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's exactly that.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, you know, people, successful people look above, right?
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: And they say, how do they do it?
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I can guarantee you the path to that success wasn't, well, they did everything on their own, right?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: They relied on team, they relied on experts, they relied on coaches, they relied on mentors, they relied on programs, they relied on lots of different things, right?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: We're all students of you know professional and personal development in one way or another, especially as an entrepreneur.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's like the fastest path through personal development is being an entrepreneur because it brings up all your stuff, right?
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: Everything needs to be addressed, right?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so part of that is just becoming real to the fact that I know I may not be able to do it all on my own, and I'm going to ask for help because that's going to get me to my goal.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's that's great.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so Derek, how can people find you and connect with you?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, they can go to it's the coosolution.com.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh again, it's the coosolution.com.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: And and interestingly, on the website, I I do offer a free quiz, which is basically answers uh or asks the question that you were just saying before, which is is now the right time to consider bringing on a fractional, right?
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: Fractional.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is not full time, this is you know very part-time to give you the support, a fractional COO or OBM, right?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Depending upon where you are in the size of your business, size of your team, et cetera.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it gives uh a pretty reflective assessment of where you are, where you want to be, and and looking at what are the things that need to be in place with marketing, sales, operations, and finance.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: We get tactics based.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like it gives you some really insightful awareness of the things that need to be in place.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you might say, great, I'm I'm good.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: But others are like, wow, this is there's a lot of gaps in there.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I didn't know that my marketing could be this much better.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I need to figure out how I can get some COO or OBM level support.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a quiz, that's a free res uh free resource at the website.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, that's fantastic.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so listeners, I'm gonna give you something to do.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Go to the coo solution.com and take the assessment.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm I would bet you it's gonna give you some insight.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go there too and take it myself because I want to see you know what it is all about.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because I probably should have done that beforehand.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: But go to the COO solution and take the assessment and then obviously connect with Derek.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: He is a wealth of information.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: And listeners, if you have loved this and have gotten any nuggets from this, please do me two things.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: One is hit subscribe, and the other thing is share this episode and share the unstoppable leadership spotlight with your friends and colleagues and give us a great review.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually so thank you so much for listening.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: I am Jacqueline Strominger, your host, and Derek, thank you so much for being an amazing guest.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you, Jacqueline.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: I really enjoyed it.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: My pleasure.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jaclyn Strominger, and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight, Influential Leaders and Their Game Changing Insights podcast.
• 34:28
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• 34:38
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• 34:44
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• 34:56
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• 35:09
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• 35:13
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• 35:17
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• 35:24
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• 35:36
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• 35:45
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• 35:57
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