WEBVTT
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Growing places.
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Help make it all happen.
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Welcome back to Growing Places, your one-stop shop for all things economic development in the Sioux Falls metropolitan area.
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My name is Chris Fields, your host this afternoon, and I'm here with Will Powell from EOS Entrepreneurial Operating Systems.
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Will, welcome to the show.
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Chris, thanks so much, buddy.
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Yeah, why don't you uh for those that missed your podcast episode last year, why don't you kind of give a brief rundown of who you are, what you do, what EOS is, and all the things.
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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Uh well, so I am a professional EOS implementer.
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As you said, EOS stands for the entrepreneurial operating system.
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And so I work with owners and lead leadership teams to help them get better at three things.
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One, vision, two, traction, three, healthy.
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So I help them implement a set of tools that helps them get everyone on the same page with the vision, where they're going over the long term, how they plan to get there.
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Traction just means instilling accountability and discipline throughout the organization.
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So no matter where you go, you see people executing on that vision.
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And healthy just means becoming a more healthy, open and honest, functional leadership team that actually enjoys spending time together.
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Because as we know, all too often leadership teams don't.
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And so we find that as goes that leadership team, so goes the rest of the organization.
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And so I work with uh privately held companies, I work with nonprofits, and again, help them to achieve everything that they want from their organization.
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Nice.
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Uh yeah, so you said you you work with for-profit, nonprofit um EOS's original kind of bread and butter was the for-profit industry, right?
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But you guys have been able to tailor the program a little bit to organizations like Sioux Falls or Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.
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We're a 501c6, so um run a very tight budget, and it is a little different than the for-profit industry.
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Yeah, yeah, you know, to your point, the majority of my clients are in the for-profit uh space, but EOS applies to any industry, profit or nonprofit.
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It's really industry agnostic.
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Um basically, you know, I help leaders and owners achieve everything they want in the organization.
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And so a nonprofit still needs to act as a business in a lot of different ways.
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They still need a vision for where they're going over the long term.
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What's our 10-year, what's our three-year, one-year plans.
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And then how do we achieve that plan?
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Well, we have to make sure that we're in the right type of meeting pulse with our leaders each and every week, everyone on the same page with the most important things in the business.
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We have to make sure our processes are all systemized and the most important things in the organization are being done the right in the best way every time.
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We have to make sure that we have the right people in the right seats and the accountability chart, which we've done a lot of work on together.
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Um, but as you know, in the nonprofit world, uh, you know, where these organizations have great missions and they um have large aspirations to a lot to do a lot of great things.
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Well, if they don't have those right people in the right seats and have absolute clarity as to who's responsible for what, those great missions can kind of fall by the wayside because there's no accountability to get those things done really well.
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So it's been really an absolute pleasure working with you guys and I work with another nonprofit and uh implementing EOS and seeing you guys and my other team just accomplish great things through the system.
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Yeah, it's it's been awesome.
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We've we've been with you now for a little over a year.
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I think we made the decision to do EOS with you late 24, early 25.
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And I think we had our our first uh not quarterly, but the first session February 25, maybe something like that.
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So um looking back, it it's been a year with us, and I know you've only been an implementer for what a couple years now?
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Uh yeah, full time, about two years.
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Two years?
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Yeah, I got licensed three years ago.
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Okay.
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So in this past year, since since uh hopping on with SMGA, what are your biggest successes either with SMGA or just with with you in general, your business, and how that's going?
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Yeah, so starting with SMGA and the work that we've been doing together, you know, similarly to many of the other organizations that I start with uh implementing the EOS and the EOS process, um, you guys had a vision for the organization, you know, but I think yours, Tyler's, Josh's, Bryce's, you all your all vision was slightly different, right?
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And so us getting together over those first couple days and really fine-tuning and locking in and getting alignment around that vision was so powerful so that you guys can, as a group, start to work towards achieving that vision every 90 days.
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And so um just seeing you guys aligned, running your weekly L10s, gaining traction, solving issues that were potentially holding the organization back a year ago.
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Like you guys are dialed in like a well-owed machine.
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And from my standpoint, it seems like you guys are optimized and helping your communities and working with your partners on a level that you weren't doing a year ago, which for me is the ultimate success.
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Nice.
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That's good.
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That really the uh the only thing holding our organization back is Bryce's L10 ratings.
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He won't he won't rate him any anything higher than an 8.5.
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Um Bryce.
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Bryce Bryce's uh he keeps me humble in our sessions.
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He you he's not afraid to give pushback on some of the EOS tools and the the reasoning behind things, but he sees the light and he is amazing at what he does.
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And so um it's been fun to to you know bicker back and forth with him, and um, it's been fun to see him actually become a believer in the EOS process.
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Yeah, Bryce, Bryce is great.
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Um what trends or shifts have you noticed across our organization or other organizations you've worked with this year, maybe trends that are changing from a couple of years ago or trends that are staying the same?
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Yeah, um, in regards to trends, uh it's it's hard to say.
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I I mean I would say it's it's still difficult to find awesome people to work in organizations.
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Um, I see that across the companies that I work with.
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It's just hard to find great people.
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And so that really hasn't changed.
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It's not a new development.
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I think it's been that case for many years in the South Dakota market, considering it's one of the lowest employment rates, unemployment rates in the United States.
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Yeah, we're steadily under about 2% unemployment up here.
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Yeah, it's incredible.
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It is crazy.
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Um, and so finding, attracting, and and managing awesome people is is always an issue that has to be addressed.
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Um, but my clients, I think, would would support me in that via the EOS process, they've it's helped them to identify what makes a great person within their unique organization, right?
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We determine that through core values.
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If if you're looking to hire someone and and they don't fit your core values, well then we don't hire them.
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It's that simple.
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And same thing for a person that's in the organization, if they're not consistently exhibiting those core values, whether that be integrity, whether that be even punctuality, right?
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They're showing up late.
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Um, if if they're not culturally aligned with what the organization stands for, then we have to make a change.
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And so finding, attracting, managing great people is always an issue.
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But um I think my clients have seen has seen have seen tremendous success in implementing the EOS tools with the accountability chart, with the people analyzer, and helping to make that process a little easier.
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I think that's one of the things I like the most about EOS and uh you know lying out these goals and what you want your organization to look like.
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Setting those uh three to five core traits of your organization, ours are integrity, growth-oriented, and servant leadership.
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And so we know now exactly what we're looking for when we're hiring somebody.
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If they don't fit that mold, see uh yeah, yeah.
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Well, it makes me happy that you are able to recite those so beautifully.
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I was gonna I was about to hound you if you couldn't.
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No, I um I got it.
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You got it, get it down.
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Yeah, because you know, core values have kind of gotten a bad rap over the years just because I think companies make them and they're aspirational, they don't necessarily actually represent the culture.
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And so people are like, core values, like whatever.
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But with EOS, we believe you should hire, fire, reward, recognize, review all from those core values.
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It's how you become intentional with your culture.
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If you're not intentional about what you want your your culture to look like and how you want your people to operate, well, there's a culture that's happening, whether you like it or not.
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And so if you're not intentional with it, those other characteristics that aren't as great are going to start to uh build up and become the culture that you don't want.
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So, yeah, it's it's been fun.
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And I love your core values because not only do they apply to each one of the members of your team, but also they apply to how you approach the communities that you work with and the partners that you guys bring on, in that you guys are growth-oriented, you're all about servant leadership, and so you take these core values and you apply them to how you work with your communities, and your communities feel it, and they're able to actually say, yeah, they they really do believe in serve servant leadership.
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Yeah, they really are growth-oriented, they want us to grow, they want to make an impact.
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They are they do exhibit integrity regularly because they're honest, they do what they say, they show up when they need to show up, and again, that's because you guys have been intentional about it, and it's just it's so cool to see see everything you guys are accomplishing as a byproduct.
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Yeah, I appreciate that.
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Yeah, it's been uh it's been great over the last year.
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We we just had our annual quarterly whatever you want to call it, last Tuesday.
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And so kind of going back to uh some of your successes over the past year, you and I had a conversation on Tuesday that when you first started with Sue Metro Growth Alliance last year, and I hope you're I was sharing this, but when when you started with us, you had like two or three clients, and now you're can you explain where you are now?
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Yeah, yeah, of course, Chris.
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Um, yeah, so uh January of 2025, so a little over a year ago, I was at one client, and I had was uh a year into it full time.
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I was really struggling financially.
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I was second guessing my decision to go all in on EOS, leaving my awesome full-time job as vice president of RCM construction here in town.
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That's scary.
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It was scary, and I was doing all the work and um I just I wasn't seeing the results, but um I kept my faith and I remained persistent and I kept knocking on the door and doing the small things.
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And um, over the course of the year I went from one to twelve clients.
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And um again, it was a byproduct of just continuing to put myself out there, continuing, continuing to do awesome work with my clients.
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And um, yeah, it's the business is taking off, man.
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And it's just it's such a blessing to be working with so many awesome teams and again helping them to excel at an even higher level than they already were.
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That's so wonderful to hear.
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I'm I'm so grateful that that you're part of this and that I get to be a part of your journey too.
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This is this has been great.
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Um thinking about uh the past year again, and without naming names, I know there's client confidentiality that we have to uh adhere to, but can you think of one or two like major breakthroughs this year from a few of your clients?
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Like what really stood out to you uh what what was the aha moment?
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Yeah.
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Uh a few things.
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Uh one of the biggest success stories I have is with a client in the construction industry.
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They very successful company doing nearly$20 million a year in work.
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Um they've been around for 15 years, uh great team.
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Um and prior to EOS, they just didn't have any real organizational structure.
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They weren't meeting as a leadership team, they didn't have an accountability chart, they weren't tracking uh metrics on a scorecard, so they were kind of just uh growing and and finding success, but without intention.
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And so on that first session, we you know we spent two to four hours going through that accountability chart.
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Well, we identified in that process that uh their safety manager actually didn't want to be in safety, and fortunately they had another seat in the sales department as the owner was really holding on to that to everything sales and never had any support in the sales department.
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Well, we shifted the safety director over to uh uh the sales department, and they went from bidding about two million dollars a month in work to five million dollars a month in work, just from making a small shift on the accountability chart, shifting over personnel from safety to sales, they were able to scale the amount of work they were bidding significantly.
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That's wild.
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Right people and right seats.
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You know it, Chris.
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Right people, right seats.
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And so, yeah, that was you know one success story that absolutely stands out, and I'm so proud of that team, and and they are just executing on a level that is really cool to see.
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Um, but then you know the the smaller wins just come down to again.
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I typically work with organizations who are already successful.
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You know, they're doing five, ten, twenty.
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Uh I've got a client that's doing$150 million a year in work.
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Um and they're successful, but they just need to fine-tune the operations.
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They need an operating system to uh, again, run better meetings, to set up processes, to paint the vision, and when we do those things, like success is inevitable.
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And so I think I said this on the pot on the previous podcast, but I help owners and leadership teams take a leap.
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And that leap can either be from subpar to good, or from good to great, or from great to excellent.
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You know, I I meet clients where they're at, and I'm gonna help fine-tune their their operations and help them just make a little bit further of a jump.
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That's great.
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Uh let's move on to EOS tools.
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There's a lot of tools that we have in the two b tool belt, so to speak.
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The the VTO, uh, the level 10 meetings, um you know, within the VTO, there's the one year, the three-year, the ten-year plan.
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For for your clients, the the ones that you specifically work work with, what what which of these tools seem to make the biggest difference and impact?
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Yeah, it's tough to you know, only shout out a couple of the tools because they're all impactful.
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And that and that is the the beauty of EOS is that it's it's the culmination of all the tools, of all the six key components that really make it work.
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But with that said, I would say, yeah, first and foremost, the VTO.
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Um, as I mentioned previously, owners and leaders often have visions in their head of where they want the organization to go, but they're not all 100% on the same page with that vision.
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And so once we come together in those first couple days and we map out the BHEG, the big, hairy, audacious goal, the 10-year target, where are we taking this thing over the long term?
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It's really eye-opening when we get that aligned.
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And then we work backwards from there with the three-year picture.
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So, what does the organization need to look like three short years from now to be on track to achieving that long-term target?
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Then we work backwards from there to the one-year plan.
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So, what do we need to achieve over the next 12 months to hit the three-year picture, to get to the 10-year target?
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Then we break it down even further to quarterly rocks.
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What are the 90-day priorities that we have to hit this quarter to accomplish the one year, to be on track for the three-year, et cetera?
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Again, on the VTO, also we have those core values I already talked about, the core focus, which is, you know, it's been called a million things in the history of business from vision statement to mission statement.
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Uh, Stephen Covey calls it voice, but we call it your your core focus because it comes from your core.
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It's the sweet spot, it's what you love to do and what you're best at.
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And so we lock that in, then we lock in the marketing strategy on top of all those.
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So many times when we do that exercise, it's the first time these organizations have actually mapped out a vision.
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And it's not this 80-page document that we filled out, right?
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It's only two pages, front and back, eight answering eight questions to align the team.
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And what happens is when you align that team, then the magic starts really manifesting.
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Because what I like to say, Chris, is if you and I are on the same team and we're in a boat and we're rowing from point A to point B, if you and I are just rowing a little bit off in either direction, we can be working really damn hard and not going really anywhere.
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Again, that's when we when we paint those that vision and all get on the same page, we're all rolling in the same direction, working towards that common goal, and that's when we start to achieve some incredible things as a team.
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So VTO is number one.
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Uh the second one would absolutely be the accountability chart.
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Um, you know, what happens on in in many organizations that I work with is that you have an owner who founded the company five, 10, 20 years ago.
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They came from another larger company, they started this one, and they hire a couple people couple people, they find success, then they hire 10 people, and then next thing they know, they've got 50 employees and they've never been a CEO before.
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And so when I come in and help give them the tools to structure the organization, to lead the organization, the the companies just tend to grow at an exponential rate because we're able to remove all of those seats, or sorry, we were able to delegate and elevate what that owner was holding on to to a competent leadership team.
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So again, many in my teams, you have an owner who's in the visionary seat, also in the integrator seat, also in the sales seat.
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Maybe he's also he or she's also running operations.
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So when we can clearly map out the structure of the organization, and then we can show that owner, hey, you're holding on to this, or hey, we can let go of this, and and Sally from HR can step up and and run the operations, for example.
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Um it just becomes really powerful, and then that owner is building extensions of himself so that they can do more faster and better.
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And so the accountability chart absolutely is one of my favorite tools, just creates ultimate accountability so there's no gray area as to who is responsible for what and working to accomplish that common vision.
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Great.
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How many of your clients have completely gutted their 10-year plan after 12 months?
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Um, I mean, I wouldn't say gutted.
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You guys were the first one to really completely change that up.
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Um But there's certainly been some smaller adjustments.
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Some you know went from having a a revenue number to um you know changing it to uh a certain amount of jobs they wanted to execute well, or having another nonprofit that's less about the amount of money they're bringing in and more about the amount of of of uh clients and people that they're impacting, right?
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So uh again, that's what's great about EOS is it's customized to your organization uniquely.
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And I'm not here to tell you guys what you need to set as your 10-year target or your three-year picture.
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I'm just there to facilitate the wisdom in the room so that you guys can agree on that common answer and then go and execute.
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Very nice.
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Let's move on um to challenges.
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When when you're in a growth mode, a growth phase personally, professionally, uh the best growth comes when you acknowledge and embrace the challenges that you've gone through.
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Explain either professionally or personally, it doesn't matter what challenges in this past year that you've faced that have made you stronger and and allowed you to grow.
00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:38.079
Yeah, absolutely.
00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:44.640
Um well I would say just in regards to building my EOS practice, right?
00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:58.880
I I took a leap of faith in leaving, you know, a very comfortable job where I was finding a lot of success to go and pursue something that was on my heart, which was again implementing EOS for teams and helping them accomplish great things.
00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:19.119
And so That was the biggest challenge for me is that you know, I I have the accolades, I I have the knowledge, and I was putting myself out there time and time again, but yet the people I thought would have communication or have conversations with me about EOS, the owners I thought would sign up to embark on the journey with me right away, they didn't.
00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:19.599
Yeah.
00:22:19.759 --> 00:22:20.160
Right.
00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:23.599
And so uh, you know, I'm like, wow, am I a failure?
00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:24.720
What am I doing wrong?
00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:27.920
Um, I started second guessing my my value.
00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:47.920
And, you know, by the grace of God, I'm I'm lucky to have had a father who um taught me that you know faith is number one above all things, and when God puts something on your heart, he puts it there for a reason, and you have to remain persistent even when the fruits aren't being shown to you.
00:22:48.319 --> 00:23:02.319
And so again, just continuing to put myself out there, continuing to make the phone calls, continue to have the difficult conversations, that was the hardest thing I had to overcome because I was second guessing myself.
00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:19.920
Um I, you know, was struggling financially and and second guessing if this was the right decision for me, but I kept the faith, I remained persistent, and on the other side of that persistence is is the the thing I was dreaming about when I started the EOS journey.
00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:27.200
It's it's this life where I get to do work that I'm incredibly passionate passionate about.
00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:31.759
I get to work with teams that are becoming like friends and family to me.
00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:34.799
I I'm getting compensated appropriately for the work.
00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:39.519
And I have time to pursue other passions in my life that are really important to me.
00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:46.240
So um that was the biggest challenge I had to overcome, and um it has absolutely made me stronger.
00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:48.480
It's absolutely made me more humble.
00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:52.720
Um, but I'm hungry and ever hungrier than everybody to keep growing this thing.
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:54.640
So I'm really happy where I'm at.
00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:56.880
Yeah, I like I like to see you succeeding.
00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:21.119
It's it's gotta be um pretty trying and and probably a pretty tough decision to go from you know having a very prominent, you know, eight to five job or whatever, comfortable job to to just jumping off the ledge and and hoping that parachute opens, you know.
00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:28.160
There's there's other there's another company that that we work with that he started the same way.
00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:43.119
You know, he had a very comfortable nine to five, six-figure income and all the things, and started his own deal, and everybody thought he was crazy, but it really really turned out great.
00:24:43.200 --> 00:24:44.720
It's it's fun to hear those stories.
00:24:45.039 --> 00:25:11.200
Yes, yes, and that would be my advice for anyone listening to this podcast is if something is on your heart, whether it be to start a new venture, profit or not from non-for-profit, to move to another city, to engage in a to start a relationship, like those nudges and those pulls aren't coming from nowhere.
00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:18.559
They are coming from from sorry to get spiritual on this podcast, but they're literally coming from God.
00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:23.519
And because God knows what what we desire for our lives.
00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:37.440
And so when you get that nudge and you get that pull, it's on us to have the courage to take that leap and to have that faith in a time when the results aren't guaranteed, in a time when it is very uncertain.
00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:46.880
But if you can stay in the tension, if you can keep the faith, everything that you desire is on the other side of that of that leap of faith.
00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:52.640
And so that's my that's my uh piece of advice for anyone listening to this podcast today.
00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:54.160
No, that's good stuff, man.
00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:57.440
I I appreciate your vulnerabil vulnerability.
00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:00.400
Um moving on.
00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:10.240
So you work with you said you're with 12 organizations now, that's 48 or whatever the math is, quarterlies per year.
00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:17.839
So you gotta space them out in time management and getting schedules to align and everything.
00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:27.920
So what are some of the surprising lessons that you've learned from work going from two to twelve organizations or one to twelve organizations?
00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:29.359
What has surprised you?
00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:32.880
What are some surprising lessons that you've learned over the past year?
00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:35.279
Yeah, it's a great question.
00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:48.640
Um well, first off, it would be, you know, working with you, and I also work with the USD Foundation, my other nonprofit, or sorry, the USD uh Foundation and Alumni Association.
00:26:49.039 --> 00:27:03.440
Um that would be one of the first places is the the value that EOS can provide nonprofits and the growth that they can experience, the clarity that they can experience through implementing EOS has been awesome to see and experience.
00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:08.160
And so I look forward in the future to working with more nonprofits.
00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:14.240
And it's awesome because like you guys, like USD, they're missions that I truly care about.
00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:24.559
And so being able to provide value and and help the teams get aligned and execute uh in a more disciplined fashion, like that's what sets my heart on fire.
00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:32.240
And so that's been one of the coolest things that I've seen just over the last year is working with you guys and and and the other nonprofit.
00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:33.599
Yeah, I appreciate that.
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:39.680
How do you measure success with your clients uh uh this past year?
00:27:39.839 --> 00:27:51.920
What how do you know that okay, uh this this company I was successful with and this is what we did to make and make them successful?
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:54.799
What are what are some of those successes from the past 12 months?
00:27:55.359 --> 00:27:56.000
Yeah.
00:27:56.319 --> 00:27:58.720
So I mean there's several things that you can look at.
00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:07.200
Obviously, you can look at revenue or profitability, you can look at retention of employees or or the bringing on of new employees.
00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:16.880
If we're establishing a culture where people want to stay and want to help you contribute, want to help contribute to helping that team achieve their vision, like that's really powerful.
00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:19.119
Um secondly, health.
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:33.839
It's really easy for leadership teams to become dysfunctional when people don't say the hard things, when um you know they're bickering and then resentment builds, and then dysfunction comes down the line, and then big fires arise.
00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:36.240
Um so one, let's just say healthy.
00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:49.759
So the teams that I've worked with have just become more healthy, they're having open and honest conversations, and that's my job in the session room is to pull that those hard conversations out of the team members so that we make sure that they have them.
00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:57.279
Because if they're holding on to something at the end of the day, then I'm not doing my job and they're not helping to progress the organization forward.
00:28:57.599 --> 00:29:05.359
So um other things would be, you know, as we set the one-year plan, did my teams hit their annual goals, those three to seven goals?
00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:06.720
Very simplistically, right?
00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:07.279
Yeah.
00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:11.599
If you're hitting your one-year goals, then sounds like success to me.
00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:12.400
100%.
00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:13.200
100%.
00:29:13.519 --> 00:29:15.279
Are they hitting their rocks each quarter?
00:29:15.359 --> 00:29:21.599
The most important things that that they deem most important that help lead to them accomplishing their one year goals.
00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:29.680
So it's it's really easy to see um to be able to track progress and in the teams uh finding success in EOS.
00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:36.319
And unfortunately for me, all my teams have have are crushing it and finding a large amount of success with it.
00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:36.960
That's good.
00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:48.640
That's that's one of the kind of things that's that's really interesting to me about EOS is the simplicity of it, but yet the complexity of all of it.
00:29:48.799 --> 00:29:54.640
Like you have these simple tools, like you said, two-pager VOS.
00:29:55.359 --> 00:29:55.839
VTO?
00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:57.759
VTO, yeah, sorry, VTO.
00:29:58.880 --> 00:30:05.839
But yet, you know, it it took us hours upon hours to build our our VTO.
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:15.759
And so just you know, the the simplicity of of the program, but also all the complexities that go into it is is just very intriguing to me.
00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:17.279
Yeah, yeah.
00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:22.640
You know, I always tell people that I'm not teaching rocket science.
00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:25.599
No, I'm not teaching rocket science.
00:30:25.759 --> 00:30:33.599
All I'm doing is is teaching teams to implement a set of tools that have been around for the last hundred years, going to be around for the next thousand.
00:30:33.839 --> 00:30:44.480
And if these teams can implement these tools and and live them and execute on them, then they are truly going to achieve everything that they want from their organization.
00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:47.680
And so there's power in simplicity, right?
00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:49.039
Less is more.
00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:52.720
Everyone's heard the acronym Keep It Simple, Stupid, KISS.
00:30:53.039 --> 00:30:53.759
Yes, right?
00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:57.279
In in business, things get complex really easily.
00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:01.519
Um sometimes owners and leaders make things more difficult than they need to be.
00:31:01.599 --> 00:31:14.400
And so we just want to strip all that complexity away, make things as simple as possible so people know what they're responsible for, how you know how they measure success for their particular role, where we're going as an organization.
00:31:14.559 --> 00:31:19.119
And once we get all aligned on those things, well, the magic tends to happen for itself.
00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:19.839
Amen.
00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:21.200
That's great.
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:38.960
Is there any do you have any examples and maybe you don't, of this past year of uh one of your clients uh using EOS to implement uh a huge decision that they had to make?
00:31:39.839 --> 00:31:40.480
Yes.
00:31:40.640 --> 00:32:00.799
Uh many, many decisions, but the one that sticks out to me would be a client who had a leadership team of four people, and they had a project manager who was who was leading the construction side for them, who had been with them for 10 plus years.
00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:15.519
Uh, but through the EOS process, through using the people analyzer and the accountability chart, they discovered that this project manager was not only the wrong person, but he also was in the wrong seat.
00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:27.680
And so through the process, um, they actually had to fire this project manager that had been with them for 10 plus years and was on the leadership team because he was a cancer to the organization.
00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:36.799
He was empowering his the his people underneath him to really not be great employees, to not contribute to the team.
00:32:37.039 --> 00:32:46.160
And so the owners still had a lot of hesitancy in letting this guy go, but the leadership team agreed that in order for the organization to progress forward, he had to go.
00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:50.960
They made that difficult decision, and they are ten times better off now because of it.
00:32:51.839 --> 00:33:02.720
That's that's both uh, you know, it's it's real because somebody's losing their job, but it it's also like that's growth, right?
00:33:03.119 --> 00:33:03.920
That's awesome.
00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:08.079
Um, just a couple more questions before we we head out of here.
00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:14.720
What are you most proud of this year, 2025-2026?
00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:18.000
What am I most proud of?
00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:28.640
I am most proud of first off all the teams I'm working with.
00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:36.079
Like they are the reason I do this work, and seeing them succeed is my number one goal in my career.
00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:49.599
And so I am just most proud of my teams and them actually diving deep into EOS and believing in it wholeheartedly, and them producing significant results as a byproduct.
00:33:49.680 --> 00:33:51.599
Like, that's why I signed up for this.
00:33:51.759 --> 00:34:02.400
I wanted to make the lives of leaders and organizations easier so that they weren't always taking their work home with them, so they weren't working 80 hours a week because we know that there's so much more to life than work.
00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:15.519
And so, yeah, working with 12 teams and seeing them improve the business and actually as a byproduct improving their personal lives, like there's absolutely nothing better than that on a personal level.
00:34:15.679 --> 00:34:18.079
It would be in accordance with what I just said.
00:34:18.239 --> 00:34:21.039
It's just I'm living out my dream, man.
00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:24.719
Um I wake up excited to go to work.
00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:31.519
I I love everyone that I'm working with, I love helping, um, and I love impact.
00:34:31.599 --> 00:34:34.639
Like you guys are about impact, I'm about impact.
00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:38.960
How can I influence and improve the lives of the people around me?
00:34:39.039 --> 00:34:41.039
And that's what I do every day.
00:34:41.280 --> 00:34:41.840
Every day.
00:34:42.239 --> 00:34:44.400
And it's like I'm just so blessed, man.
00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:47.199
So I'd say those are the things I'm most proud of.
00:34:47.440 --> 00:34:48.400
That's so cool.
00:34:48.639 --> 00:34:52.000
Um, what what are you looking forward to this next year?
00:34:52.159 --> 00:34:54.239
Have you set some goals for yourself?
00:34:54.320 --> 00:35:02.960
I I can't imagine you could bring on too many more clients all at the same time, but I'm sure you've got a few that are getting ready to graduate.
00:35:03.440 --> 00:35:06.079
Yeah, well, you know, it's funny.
00:35:06.320 --> 00:35:17.280
Um, we, you know, the EOS journey, we teach our clients that after two years, you should have all the tools that you can graduate from the process.
00:35:17.599 --> 00:35:24.559
However, many teams like to keep me on as an implementer because they don't want to facilitate their quarterly manuals.
00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:24.719
Right.
00:35:24.960 --> 00:35:27.360
And they need that extra little piece of accountability.
00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:35.039
So um I've got a couple teams that could have graduated actually this first quarter and they said, no, Will, we're gonna keep you on for five more years.
00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:35.440
Yeah.
00:35:35.599 --> 00:36:01.599
Uh I think there's a just sorry to interrupt, but I think there is a lot of value there in having a third-party outside entity like yourself come in and r kind of run the show, implement everything, and be able to tell them, you know, hey, let's get back on track here or take a look and let's talk about this a little bit more.
00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:02.400
Mm-hmm.
00:36:02.639 --> 00:36:06.639
Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I'm a coach, I'm not a consultant.
00:36:06.800 --> 00:36:08.079
We have to get really clear on that.
00:36:08.239 --> 00:36:13.840
So I'm not coming into the room and saying, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this, because what does that do?
00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:16.639
That makes clients reliant upon me for information.
00:36:16.800 --> 00:36:17.840
That's not what we want.
00:36:18.079 --> 00:36:27.119
We want to give our clients the tools and then get the heck out of their way because you know a hell of a lot more about economic development than I ever will, right?
00:36:27.440 --> 00:36:28.880
Uh yes, I'm a coach.
00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:33.119
I'm there to help you teach you these tools and get the heck out of your way.
00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:39.760
And sometimes, like a great sports team or a great athlete, you can't see yourself playing the game.
00:36:39.920 --> 00:37:08.559
And so that's my job is to help look down on the organization, help give you feedback, and help push you so that you can achieve things that maybe you didn't even think were possible, and just keep I have no skin in the game in regards to the things that go on in the room, but I'm there as a a I'm there as a third party to help facilitate the wisdom, to help pull out the things that people are holding on to on to so that there's no resentment building, right?
00:37:08.719 --> 00:37:14.880
So being that third party is really valuable, particularly in those quarterly sessions, so you guys can game plan.
00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:21.280
And then also the owner doesn't have to worry about managing that, managing that session, leading the team, facilitating the conversation.
00:37:21.519 --> 00:37:28.800
So yeah, um clients tend to stick with me once they once they start the process, which is pretty cool.
00:37:28.960 --> 00:37:44.480
And to get back to your initial questioning and onboarding potentially 12 more clients, um, you know, the max capacity for an EOS implementer is I mean, there are some implementers with 30 clients out there, but they're working every single day of the year.
00:37:44.719 --> 00:37:47.920
Um I my sweet spot would be about 20.
00:37:48.079 --> 00:37:51.519
And so I've got capacity for about eight more clients.
00:37:51.920 --> 00:37:56.400
And um yeah, I my one year plan is to get to 20.
00:37:56.639 --> 00:37:59.840
So that's that's where I plan on going over the course of the next 10 months.
00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:00.639
Good deal.
00:38:00.719 --> 00:38:01.360
That's awesome.
00:38:01.599 --> 00:38:04.719
And that was a good your sports analogy is a good segue.
00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:13.679
Uh nor normally at the end of the podcast, we we talk about what our hidden gyms are across the Sioux Falls metropolitan area.
00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:15.840
Uh, but we went through that last year.
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:23.039
And so sticking with your sports theme there, are you filling out any March Madness brackets this year?
00:38:24.159 --> 00:38:28.480
You know, Chris, I haven't filled one out for about 10 years.
00:38:28.719 --> 00:38:29.039
Really?
00:38:29.280 --> 00:38:29.760
Yeah.
00:38:30.079 --> 00:38:30.239
Yeah.
00:38:30.559 --> 00:38:41.679
People are pretty surprised when they speak with me because most of my friends and most of my clients know more about pro sports and college sports than I do right now.
00:38:41.840 --> 00:38:42.159
Oh, yeah.
00:38:42.320 --> 00:38:51.039
Uh for whatever reason, once I got done playing uh at the University of South Dakota and then playing professionally overseas, um, I just don't watch as much sports anymore.
00:38:51.199 --> 00:39:00.079
So was it I mean I I I love I still love sports, and particularly when we have gatherings with friends and family, I I I love watching it.
00:39:00.159 --> 00:39:06.639
But consistently, I would feel like uh your wife would crush me in the March Mad Madness tournament break.
00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:08.000
Probably, yes.
00:39:08.239 --> 00:39:08.480
Yeah.
00:39:08.639 --> 00:39:10.960
I I don't know about that, but yeah.
00:39:11.280 --> 00:39:12.239
No, that's great.
00:39:12.400 --> 00:39:19.519
All right, well, let's let's go ahead and and maybe you you remember your hidden gym from last year, but we can go ahead and do the hidden gym.
00:39:19.679 --> 00:39:25.920
Uh we like to stay at out of Sioux Falls in one of the Sioux Metro communities.
00:39:26.719 --> 00:39:32.800
Um so what pick uh people have given parks, restaurants.
00:39:33.280 --> 00:39:44.159
Uh we had somebody give a view as a hidden gym, but what's one of your other hidden gyms in the Sioux Metro footprint?
00:39:44.480 --> 00:39:45.119
Yes.
00:39:45.599 --> 00:39:48.960
Well, I believe last year I said the state parks.
00:39:49.440 --> 00:39:53.440
Um what's the one in Garretson called?
00:39:53.679 --> 00:39:54.159
Palisades.
00:39:54.480 --> 00:39:57.840
Palisades is my favorite state park in the area.
00:39:58.079 --> 00:39:58.480
I love it.
00:39:58.559 --> 00:40:02.559
My girlfriend and I go out there about once a month, so I love that.
00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:03.679
Um so what else?
00:40:04.079 --> 00:40:04.880
Shout out to Garretsen.
00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:06.079
Shout out to Garretsen.
00:40:06.320 --> 00:40:10.239
I know that you work with them directly, so um, that's pretty cool.
00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:12.079
Um, other hidden gems.
00:40:12.159 --> 00:40:13.039
What would be your hidden gem?
00:40:13.440 --> 00:40:14.320
You give me one of yours.
00:40:14.639 --> 00:40:16.559
My one of my hidden gyms.
00:40:16.800 --> 00:40:17.679
Let's see.
00:40:18.960 --> 00:40:21.679
Stay in north of I-90.
00:40:22.239 --> 00:40:26.239
There are a lot of hidden gems in Dell Rapids.
00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:31.119
The the quartzite rock quarries they have out there.
00:40:31.519 --> 00:40:37.039
Our bus tour in 2020, it was either 24, I think it was 2024.
00:40:37.519 --> 00:40:41.440
We went um and toured the the rock quarries.
00:40:41.679 --> 00:40:52.159
The bus actually was able to drive down inside one of the quarries, and so you're looking up and there's hundreds of feet of rock rock just sitting above your head.
00:40:52.239 --> 00:40:54.079
That was that was really cool.
00:40:54.239 --> 00:40:58.719
And um, yeah, I just I think there's a lot going on in in Dell Rapids right now.
00:40:58.880 --> 00:41:02.000
So yeah, it's it's a a great community.
00:41:02.159 --> 00:41:04.239
They've got an awesome main street.
00:41:04.480 --> 00:41:12.400
They've they've instituted a Main Street revitalization program over the last couple years, and uh it's been a huge success.
00:41:12.559 --> 00:41:20.800
If you have any time to go to Dell Rapids, I would go make a drive down their main street and pop in some of the shops.
00:41:20.880 --> 00:41:23.199
They have a really good coffee shop out there.
00:41:23.760 --> 00:41:32.159
Yeah, I need to get out there because I have uh quite a few friends that live in Dells, and I I haven't had the chance to go out there recently, so I'll add that to the top of my list.
00:41:32.480 --> 00:41:33.519
Add it to your list, yeah.
00:41:33.679 --> 00:41:34.400
Great community.
00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:34.960
Awesome.
00:41:35.360 --> 00:41:41.199
The other one, the other hidden gem I experienced last year at one of your events in Alcester.
00:41:41.599 --> 00:41:44.079
What's the donut shop in Elcester called?
00:41:44.400 --> 00:41:46.320
Oh, s you think in Centerville?
00:41:46.639 --> 00:41:47.360
Is it Centerville?
00:41:47.440 --> 00:41:47.519
Okay.
00:41:47.920 --> 00:41:48.880
Zebra, Zebra Donut.
00:41:49.119 --> 00:41:50.079
Zebra donuts, yeah.
00:41:50.239 --> 00:41:50.800
That is it.
00:41:51.039 --> 00:41:55.039
Yes, there's my hidden gem because those donuts are fire.
00:41:55.280 --> 00:41:56.000
They are fire.
00:41:56.239 --> 00:42:07.760
They are they are a seasonal company, so they're only open a certain amount of the months of the year, but man, when yes, they that is that is a lot of people's hidden gem in the Siumetro.
00:42:07.840 --> 00:42:09.119
That place is so good.
00:42:09.440 --> 00:42:10.800
Yeah, they do a great job.
00:42:11.039 --> 00:42:11.519
They do.
00:42:11.679 --> 00:42:17.119
So not not great for my my abs, but um great for the taste buds.
00:42:17.440 --> 00:42:17.920
Awesome.
00:42:18.159 --> 00:42:31.039
Well, Will, I really appreciate your time this afternoon, and uh, we've got our annual meeting coming up later today, so we'll see you here in a few hours at the annual meeting.
00:42:31.280 --> 00:42:32.480
Appreciate your time.
00:42:34.480 --> 00:42:35.280
Thanks.
00:00:04.719 --> 00:00:05.599
Growing places.
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Help make it all happen.
00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:29.039
Welcome back to Growing Places, your one-stop shop for all things economic development in the Sioux Falls metropolitan area.
00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:39.359
My name is Chris Fields, your host this afternoon, and I'm here with Will Powell from EOS Entrepreneurial Operating Systems.
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Will, welcome to the show.
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Chris, thanks so much, buddy.
00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:56.240
Yeah, why don't you uh for those that missed your podcast episode last year, why don't you kind of give a brief rundown of who you are, what you do, what EOS is, and all the things.
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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Uh well, so I am a professional EOS implementer.
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As you said, EOS stands for the entrepreneurial operating system.
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And so I work with owners and lead leadership teams to help them get better at three things.
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One, vision, two, traction, three, healthy.
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So I help them implement a set of tools that helps them get everyone on the same page with the vision, where they're going over the long term, how they plan to get there.
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Traction just means instilling accountability and discipline throughout the organization.
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So no matter where you go, you see people executing on that vision.
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And healthy just means becoming a more healthy, open and honest, functional leadership team that actually enjoys spending time together.
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Because as we know, all too often leadership teams don't.
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And so we find that as goes that leadership team, so goes the rest of the organization.
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And so I work with uh privately held companies, I work with nonprofits, and again, help them to achieve everything that they want from their organization.
00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:02.319
Nice.
00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:12.639
Uh yeah, so you said you you work with for-profit, nonprofit um EOS's original kind of bread and butter was the for-profit industry, right?
00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:21.439
But you guys have been able to tailor the program a little bit to organizations like Sioux Falls or Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.
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We're a 501c6, so um run a very tight budget, and it is a little different than the for-profit industry.
00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:41.120
Yeah, yeah, you know, to your point, the majority of my clients are in the for-profit uh space, but EOS applies to any industry, profit or nonprofit.
00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:42.879
It's really industry agnostic.
00:02:43.039 --> 00:02:48.719
Um basically, you know, I help leaders and owners achieve everything they want in the organization.
00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:53.599
And so a nonprofit still needs to act as a business in a lot of different ways.
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They still need a vision for where they're going over the long term.
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What's our 10-year, what's our three-year, one-year plans.
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And then how do we achieve that plan?
00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:08.719
Well, we have to make sure that we're in the right type of meeting pulse with our leaders each and every week, everyone on the same page with the most important things in the business.
00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:16.879
We have to make sure our processes are all systemized and the most important things in the organization are being done the right in the best way every time.
00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:24.719
We have to make sure that we have the right people in the right seats and the accountability chart, which we've done a lot of work on together.
00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:35.520
Um, but as you know, in the nonprofit world, uh, you know, where these organizations have great missions and they um have large aspirations to a lot to do a lot of great things.
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Well, if they don't have those right people in the right seats and have absolute clarity as to who's responsible for what, those great missions can kind of fall by the wayside because there's no accountability to get those things done really well.
00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:58.639
So it's been really an absolute pleasure working with you guys and I work with another nonprofit and uh implementing EOS and seeing you guys and my other team just accomplish great things through the system.
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Yeah, it's it's been awesome.
00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:03.919
We've we've been with you now for a little over a year.
00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:10.719
I think we made the decision to do EOS with you late 24, early 25.
00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:18.560
And I think we had our our first uh not quarterly, but the first session February 25, maybe something like that.
00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:26.319
So um looking back, it it's been a year with us, and I know you've only been an implementer for what a couple years now?
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Uh yeah, full time, about two years.
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Two years?
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Yeah, I got licensed three years ago.
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Okay.
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So in this past year, since since uh hopping on with SMGA, what are your biggest successes either with SMGA or just with with you in general, your business, and how that's going?
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Yeah, so starting with SMGA and the work that we've been doing together, you know, similarly to many of the other organizations that I start with uh implementing the EOS and the EOS process, um, you guys had a vision for the organization, you know, but I think yours, Tyler's, Josh's, Bryce's, you all your all vision was slightly different, right?
00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:26.000
And so us getting together over those first couple days and really fine-tuning and locking in and getting alignment around that vision was so powerful so that you guys can, as a group, start to work towards achieving that vision every 90 days.
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And so um just seeing you guys aligned, running your weekly L10s, gaining traction, solving issues that were potentially holding the organization back a year ago.
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Like you guys are dialed in like a well-owed machine.
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And from my standpoint, it seems like you guys are optimized and helping your communities and working with your partners on a level that you weren't doing a year ago, which for me is the ultimate success.
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Nice.
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That's good.
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That really the uh the only thing holding our organization back is Bryce's L10 ratings.
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He won't he won't rate him any anything higher than an 8.5.
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Um Bryce.
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Bryce Bryce's uh he keeps me humble in our sessions.
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He you he's not afraid to give pushback on some of the EOS tools and the the reasoning behind things, but he sees the light and he is amazing at what he does.
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And so um it's been fun to to you know bicker back and forth with him, and um, it's been fun to see him actually become a believer in the EOS process.
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Yeah, Bryce, Bryce is great.
00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:48.480
Um what trends or shifts have you noticed across our organization or other organizations you've worked with this year, maybe trends that are changing from a couple of years ago or trends that are staying the same?
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Yeah, um, in regards to trends, uh it's it's hard to say.
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I I mean I would say it's it's still difficult to find awesome people to work in organizations.
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Um, I see that across the companies that I work with.
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It's just hard to find great people.
00:07:05.680 --> 00:07:07.279
And so that really hasn't changed.
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It's not a new development.
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I think it's been that case for many years in the South Dakota market, considering it's one of the lowest employment rates, unemployment rates in the United States.
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Yeah, we're steadily under about 2% unemployment up here.
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Yeah, it's incredible.
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It is crazy.
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Um, and so finding, attracting, and and managing awesome people is is always an issue that has to be addressed.
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Um, but my clients, I think, would would support me in that via the EOS process, they've it's helped them to identify what makes a great person within their unique organization, right?
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We determine that through core values.
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If if you're looking to hire someone and and they don't fit your core values, well then we don't hire them.
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It's that simple.
00:07:51.759 --> 00:08:00.800
And same thing for a person that's in the organization, if they're not consistently exhibiting those core values, whether that be integrity, whether that be even punctuality, right?
00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:02.160
They're showing up late.
00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:08.240
Um, if if they're not culturally aligned with what the organization stands for, then we have to make a change.
00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:12.240
And so finding, attracting, managing great people is always an issue.
00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:23.199
But um I think my clients have seen has seen have seen tremendous success in implementing the EOS tools with the accountability chart, with the people analyzer, and helping to make that process a little easier.
00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:33.440
I think that's one of the things I like the most about EOS and uh you know lying out these goals and what you want your organization to look like.
00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:45.600
Setting those uh three to five core traits of your organization, ours are integrity, growth-oriented, and servant leadership.
00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:50.480
And so we know now exactly what we're looking for when we're hiring somebody.
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If they don't fit that mold, see uh yeah, yeah.
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Well, it makes me happy that you are able to recite those so beautifully.
00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:02.559
I was gonna I was about to hound you if you couldn't.
00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:05.039
No, I um I got it.
00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:06.559
You got it, get it down.
00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:18.080
Yeah, because you know, core values have kind of gotten a bad rap over the years just because I think companies make them and they're aspirational, they don't necessarily actually represent the culture.
00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:20.399
And so people are like, core values, like whatever.
00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:27.759
But with EOS, we believe you should hire, fire, reward, recognize, review all from those core values.
00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:30.320
It's how you become intentional with your culture.
00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:38.559
If you're not intentional about what you want your your culture to look like and how you want your people to operate, well, there's a culture that's happening, whether you like it or not.
00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:46.799
And so if you're not intentional with it, those other characteristics that aren't as great are going to start to uh build up and become the culture that you don't want.
00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:48.480
So, yeah, it's it's been fun.
00:09:48.559 --> 00:10:17.279
And I love your core values because not only do they apply to each one of the members of your team, but also they apply to how you approach the communities that you work with and the partners that you guys bring on, in that you guys are growth-oriented, you're all about servant leadership, and so you take these core values and you apply them to how you work with your communities, and your communities feel it, and they're able to actually say, yeah, they they really do believe in serve servant leadership.
00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:21.360
Yeah, they really are growth-oriented, they want us to grow, they want to make an impact.
00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:36.799
They are they do exhibit integrity regularly because they're honest, they do what they say, they show up when they need to show up, and again, that's because you guys have been intentional about it, and it's just it's so cool to see see everything you guys are accomplishing as a byproduct.
00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:38.159
Yeah, I appreciate that.
00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:41.679
Yeah, it's been uh it's been great over the last year.
00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:48.960
We we just had our annual quarterly whatever you want to call it, last Tuesday.
00:10:49.120 --> 00:11:12.399
And so kind of going back to uh some of your successes over the past year, you and I had a conversation on Tuesday that when you first started with Sue Metro Growth Alliance last year, and I hope you're I was sharing this, but when when you started with us, you had like two or three clients, and now you're can you explain where you are now?
00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:14.720
Yeah, yeah, of course, Chris.
00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:25.440
Um, yeah, so uh January of 2025, so a little over a year ago, I was at one client, and I had was uh a year into it full time.
00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:27.759
I was really struggling financially.
00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:36.480
I was second guessing my decision to go all in on EOS, leaving my awesome full-time job as vice president of RCM construction here in town.
00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:37.279
That's scary.
00:11:37.759 --> 00:11:48.879
It was scary, and I was doing all the work and um I just I wasn't seeing the results, but um I kept my faith and I remained persistent and I kept knocking on the door and doing the small things.
00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:53.200
And um, over the course of the year I went from one to twelve clients.
00:11:53.600 --> 00:12:01.919
And um again, it was a byproduct of just continuing to put myself out there, continuing, continuing to do awesome work with my clients.
00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:05.120
And um, yeah, it's the business is taking off, man.
00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:12.960
And it's just it's such a blessing to be working with so many awesome teams and again helping them to excel at an even higher level than they already were.
00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:14.639
That's so wonderful to hear.
00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:18.799
I'm I'm so grateful that that you're part of this and that I get to be a part of your journey too.
00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:20.480
This is this has been great.
00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:39.600
Um thinking about uh the past year again, and without naming names, I know there's client confidentiality that we have to uh adhere to, but can you think of one or two like major breakthroughs this year from a few of your clients?
00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:44.639
Like what really stood out to you uh what what was the aha moment?
00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:46.720
Yeah.
00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:48.240
Uh a few things.
00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:54.559
Uh one of the biggest success stories I have is with a client in the construction industry.
00:12:55.039 --> 00:13:00.159
They very successful company doing nearly$20 million a year in work.
00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:03.919
Um they've been around for 15 years, uh great team.
00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:10.480
Um and prior to EOS, they just didn't have any real organizational structure.
00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:23.279
They weren't meeting as a leadership team, they didn't have an accountability chart, they weren't tracking uh metrics on a scorecard, so they were kind of just uh growing and and finding success, but without intention.
00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:28.879
And so on that first session, we you know we spent two to four hours going through that accountability chart.
00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:46.960
Well, we identified in that process that uh their safety manager actually didn't want to be in safety, and fortunately they had another seat in the sales department as the owner was really holding on to that to everything sales and never had any support in the sales department.
00:13:47.200 --> 00:14:09.840
Well, we shifted the safety director over to uh uh the sales department, and they went from bidding about two million dollars a month in work to five million dollars a month in work, just from making a small shift on the accountability chart, shifting over personnel from safety to sales, they were able to scale the amount of work they were bidding significantly.
00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:10.799
That's wild.
00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:12.320
Right people and right seats.
00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:13.279
You know it, Chris.
00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:14.720
Right people, right seats.
00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:25.759
And so, yeah, that was you know one success story that absolutely stands out, and I'm so proud of that team, and and they are just executing on a level that is really cool to see.
00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:30.960
Um, but then you know the the smaller wins just come down to again.
00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:33.919
I typically work with organizations who are already successful.
00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:35.759
You know, they're doing five, ten, twenty.
00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:40.000
Uh I've got a client that's doing$150 million a year in work.
00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:44.879
Um and they're successful, but they just need to fine-tune the operations.
00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:56.080
They need an operating system to uh, again, run better meetings, to set up processes, to paint the vision, and when we do those things, like success is inevitable.
00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:02.799
And so I think I said this on the pot on the previous podcast, but I help owners and leadership teams take a leap.
00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:12.000
And that leap can either be from subpar to good, or from good to great, or from great to excellent.
00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:20.159
You know, I I meet clients where they're at, and I'm gonna help fine-tune their their operations and help them just make a little bit further of a jump.
00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:21.519
That's great.
00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:26.559
Uh let's move on to EOS tools.
00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:31.440
There's a lot of tools that we have in the two b tool belt, so to speak.
00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:42.480
The the VTO, uh, the level 10 meetings, um you know, within the VTO, there's the one year, the three-year, the ten-year plan.
00:15:43.919 --> 00:15:54.320
For for your clients, the the ones that you specifically work work with, what what which of these tools seem to make the biggest difference and impact?
00:15:55.440 --> 00:16:01.519
Yeah, it's tough to you know, only shout out a couple of the tools because they're all impactful.
00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:12.320
And that and that is the the beauty of EOS is that it's it's the culmination of all the tools, of all the six key components that really make it work.
00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:17.200
But with that said, I would say, yeah, first and foremost, the VTO.
00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:28.720
Um, as I mentioned previously, owners and leaders often have visions in their head of where they want the organization to go, but they're not all 100% on the same page with that vision.
00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:38.399
And so once we come together in those first couple days and we map out the BHEG, the big, hairy, audacious goal, the 10-year target, where are we taking this thing over the long term?
00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:41.120
It's really eye-opening when we get that aligned.
00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:44.399
And then we work backwards from there with the three-year picture.
00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:50.879
So, what does the organization need to look like three short years from now to be on track to achieving that long-term target?
00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:53.519
Then we work backwards from there to the one-year plan.
00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:59.120
So, what do we need to achieve over the next 12 months to hit the three-year picture, to get to the 10-year target?
00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:02.320
Then we break it down even further to quarterly rocks.
00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:09.359
What are the 90-day priorities that we have to hit this quarter to accomplish the one year, to be on track for the three-year, et cetera?
00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:20.559
Again, on the VTO, also we have those core values I already talked about, the core focus, which is, you know, it's been called a million things in the history of business from vision statement to mission statement.
00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:25.359
Uh, Stephen Covey calls it voice, but we call it your your core focus because it comes from your core.
00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:29.039
It's the sweet spot, it's what you love to do and what you're best at.
00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:33.680
And so we lock that in, then we lock in the marketing strategy on top of all those.
00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:42.000
So many times when we do that exercise, it's the first time these organizations have actually mapped out a vision.
00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:46.240
And it's not this 80-page document that we filled out, right?
00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:51.519
It's only two pages, front and back, eight answering eight questions to align the team.
00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:58.079
And what happens is when you align that team, then the magic starts really manifesting.
00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:13.599
Because what I like to say, Chris, is if you and I are on the same team and we're in a boat and we're rowing from point A to point B, if you and I are just rowing a little bit off in either direction, we can be working really damn hard and not going really anywhere.
00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:24.480
Again, that's when we when we paint those that vision and all get on the same page, we're all rolling in the same direction, working towards that common goal, and that's when we start to achieve some incredible things as a team.
00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:26.799
So VTO is number one.
00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:30.559
Uh the second one would absolutely be the accountability chart.
00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:41.519
Um, you know, what happens on in in many organizations that I work with is that you have an owner who founded the company five, 10, 20 years ago.
00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:55.200
They came from another larger company, they started this one, and they hire a couple people couple people, they find success, then they hire 10 people, and then next thing they know, they've got 50 employees and they've never been a CEO before.
00:18:55.440 --> 00:19:17.680
And so when I come in and help give them the tools to structure the organization, to lead the organization, the the companies just tend to grow at an exponential rate because we're able to remove all of those seats, or sorry, we were able to delegate and elevate what that owner was holding on to to a competent leadership team.
00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:24.960
So again, many in my teams, you have an owner who's in the visionary seat, also in the integrator seat, also in the sales seat.
00:19:25.119 --> 00:19:27.599
Maybe he's also he or she's also running operations.
00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:41.359
So when we can clearly map out the structure of the organization, and then we can show that owner, hey, you're holding on to this, or hey, we can let go of this, and and Sally from HR can step up and and run the operations, for example.
00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:49.759
Um it just becomes really powerful, and then that owner is building extensions of himself so that they can do more faster and better.
00:19:50.000 --> 00:20:02.319
And so the accountability chart absolutely is one of my favorite tools, just creates ultimate accountability so there's no gray area as to who is responsible for what and working to accomplish that common vision.
00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:03.279
Great.
00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:09.759
How many of your clients have completely gutted their 10-year plan after 12 months?
00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:14.240
Um, I mean, I wouldn't say gutted.
00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:19.759
You guys were the first one to really completely change that up.
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:23.039
Um But there's certainly been some smaller adjustments.
00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:45.119
Some you know went from having a a revenue number to um you know changing it to uh a certain amount of jobs they wanted to execute well, or having another nonprofit that's less about the amount of money they're bringing in and more about the amount of of of uh clients and people that they're impacting, right?
00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:51.039
So uh again, that's what's great about EOS is it's customized to your organization uniquely.
00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:56.880
And I'm not here to tell you guys what you need to set as your 10-year target or your three-year picture.
00:20:57.039 --> 00:21:02.880
I'm just there to facilitate the wisdom in the room so that you guys can agree on that common answer and then go and execute.
00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:04.079
Very nice.
00:21:04.880 --> 00:21:09.039
Let's move on um to challenges.
00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:23.759
When when you're in a growth mode, a growth phase personally, professionally, uh the best growth comes when you acknowledge and embrace the challenges that you've gone through.
00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:35.680
Explain either professionally or personally, it doesn't matter what challenges in this past year that you've faced that have made you stronger and and allowed you to grow.
00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:38.079
Yeah, absolutely.
00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:44.640
Um well I would say just in regards to building my EOS practice, right?
00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:58.880
I I took a leap of faith in leaving, you know, a very comfortable job where I was finding a lot of success to go and pursue something that was on my heart, which was again implementing EOS for teams and helping them accomplish great things.
00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:19.119
And so That was the biggest challenge for me is that you know, I I have the accolades, I I have the knowledge, and I was putting myself out there time and time again, but yet the people I thought would have communication or have conversations with me about EOS, the owners I thought would sign up to embark on the journey with me right away, they didn't.
00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:19.599
Yeah.
00:22:19.759 --> 00:22:20.160
Right.
00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:23.599
And so uh, you know, I'm like, wow, am I a failure?
00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:24.720
What am I doing wrong?
00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:27.920
Um, I started second guessing my my value.
00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:47.920
And, you know, by the grace of God, I'm I'm lucky to have had a father who um taught me that you know faith is number one above all things, and when God puts something on your heart, he puts it there for a reason, and you have to remain persistent even when the fruits aren't being shown to you.
00:22:48.319 --> 00:23:02.319
And so again, just continuing to put myself out there, continuing to make the phone calls, continue to have the difficult conversations, that was the hardest thing I had to overcome because I was second guessing myself.
00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:19.920
Um I, you know, was struggling financially and and second guessing if this was the right decision for me, but I kept the faith, I remained persistent, and on the other side of that persistence is is the the thing I was dreaming about when I started the EOS journey.
00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:27.200
It's it's this life where I get to do work that I'm incredibly passionate passionate about.
00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:31.759
I get to work with teams that are becoming like friends and family to me.
00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:34.799
I I'm getting compensated appropriately for the work.
00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:39.519
And I have time to pursue other passions in my life that are really important to me.
00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:46.240
So um that was the biggest challenge I had to overcome, and um it has absolutely made me stronger.
00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:48.480
It's absolutely made me more humble.
00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:52.720
Um, but I'm hungry and ever hungrier than everybody to keep growing this thing.
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:54.640
So I'm really happy where I'm at.
00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:56.880
Yeah, I like I like to see you succeeding.
00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:21.119
It's it's gotta be um pretty trying and and probably a pretty tough decision to go from you know having a very prominent, you know, eight to five job or whatever, comfortable job to to just jumping off the ledge and and hoping that parachute opens, you know.
00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:28.160
There's there's other there's another company that that we work with that he started the same way.
00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:43.119
You know, he had a very comfortable nine to five, six-figure income and all the things, and started his own deal, and everybody thought he was crazy, but it really really turned out great.
00:24:43.200 --> 00:24:44.720
It's it's fun to hear those stories.
00:24:45.039 --> 00:25:11.200
Yes, yes, and that would be my advice for anyone listening to this podcast is if something is on your heart, whether it be to start a new venture, profit or not from non-for-profit, to move to another city, to engage in a to start a relationship, like those nudges and those pulls aren't coming from nowhere.
00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:18.559
They are coming from from sorry to get spiritual on this podcast, but they're literally coming from God.
00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:23.519
And because God knows what what we desire for our lives.
00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:37.440
And so when you get that nudge and you get that pull, it's on us to have the courage to take that leap and to have that faith in a time when the results aren't guaranteed, in a time when it is very uncertain.
00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:46.880
But if you can stay in the tension, if you can keep the faith, everything that you desire is on the other side of that of that leap of faith.
00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:52.640
And so that's my that's my uh piece of advice for anyone listening to this podcast today.
00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:54.160
No, that's good stuff, man.
00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:57.440
I I appreciate your vulnerabil vulnerability.
00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:00.400
Um moving on.
00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:10.240
So you work with you said you're with 12 organizations now, that's 48 or whatever the math is, quarterlies per year.
00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:17.839
So you gotta space them out in time management and getting schedules to align and everything.
00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:27.920
So what are some of the surprising lessons that you've learned from work going from two to twelve organizations or one to twelve organizations?
00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:29.359
What has surprised you?
00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:32.880
What are some surprising lessons that you've learned over the past year?
00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:35.279
Yeah, it's a great question.
00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:48.640
Um well, first off, it would be, you know, working with you, and I also work with the USD Foundation, my other nonprofit, or sorry, the USD uh Foundation and Alumni Association.
00:26:49.039 --> 00:27:03.440
Um that would be one of the first places is the the value that EOS can provide nonprofits and the growth that they can experience, the clarity that they can experience through implementing EOS has been awesome to see and experience.
00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:08.160
And so I look forward in the future to working with more nonprofits.
00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:14.240
And it's awesome because like you guys, like USD, they're missions that I truly care about.
00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:24.559
And so being able to provide value and and help the teams get aligned and execute uh in a more disciplined fashion, like that's what sets my heart on fire.
00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:32.240
And so that's been one of the coolest things that I've seen just over the last year is working with you guys and and and the other nonprofit.
00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:33.599
Yeah, I appreciate that.
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:39.680
How do you measure success with your clients uh uh this past year?
00:27:39.839 --> 00:27:51.920
What how do you know that okay, uh this this company I was successful with and this is what we did to make and make them successful?
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:54.799
What are what are some of those successes from the past 12 months?
00:27:55.359 --> 00:27:56.000
Yeah.
00:27:56.319 --> 00:27:58.720
So I mean there's several things that you can look at.
00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:07.200
Obviously, you can look at revenue or profitability, you can look at retention of employees or or the bringing on of new employees.
00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:16.880
If we're establishing a culture where people want to stay and want to help you contribute, want to help contribute to helping that team achieve their vision, like that's really powerful.
00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:19.119
Um secondly, health.
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:33.839
It's really easy for leadership teams to become dysfunctional when people don't say the hard things, when um you know they're bickering and then resentment builds, and then dysfunction comes down the line, and then big fires arise.
00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:36.240
Um so one, let's just say healthy.
00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:49.759
So the teams that I've worked with have just become more healthy, they're having open and honest conversations, and that's my job in the session room is to pull that those hard conversations out of the team members so that we make sure that they have them.
00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:57.279
Because if they're holding on to something at the end of the day, then I'm not doing my job and they're not helping to progress the organization forward.
00:28:57.599 --> 00:29:05.359
So um other things would be, you know, as we set the one-year plan, did my teams hit their annual goals, those three to seven goals?
00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:06.720
Very simplistically, right?
00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:07.279
Yeah.
00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:11.599
If you're hitting your one-year goals, then sounds like success to me.
00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:12.400
100%.
00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:13.200
100%.
00:29:13.519 --> 00:29:15.279
Are they hitting their rocks each quarter?
00:29:15.359 --> 00:29:21.599
The most important things that that they deem most important that help lead to them accomplishing their one year goals.
00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:29.680
So it's it's really easy to see um to be able to track progress and in the teams uh finding success in EOS.
00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:36.319
And unfortunately for me, all my teams have have are crushing it and finding a large amount of success with it.
00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:36.960
That's good.
00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:48.640
That's that's one of the kind of things that's that's really interesting to me about EOS is the simplicity of it, but yet the complexity of all of it.
00:29:48.799 --> 00:29:54.640
Like you have these simple tools, like you said, two-pager VOS.
00:29:55.359 --> 00:29:55.839
VTO?
00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:57.759
VTO, yeah, sorry, VTO.
00:29:58.880 --> 00:30:05.839
But yet, you know, it it took us hours upon hours to build our our VTO.
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:15.759
And so just you know, the the simplicity of of the program, but also all the complexities that go into it is is just very intriguing to me.
00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:17.279
Yeah, yeah.
00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:22.640
You know, I always tell people that I'm not teaching rocket science.
00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:25.599
No, I'm not teaching rocket science.
00:30:25.759 --> 00:30:33.599
All I'm doing is is teaching teams to implement a set of tools that have been around for the last hundred years, going to be around for the next thousand.
00:30:33.839 --> 00:30:44.480
And if these teams can implement these tools and and live them and execute on them, then they are truly going to achieve everything that they want from their organization.
00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:47.680
And so there's power in simplicity, right?
00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:49.039
Less is more.
00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:52.720
Everyone's heard the acronym Keep It Simple, Stupid, KISS.
00:30:53.039 --> 00:30:53.759
Yes, right?
00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:57.279
In in business, things get complex really easily.
00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:01.519
Um sometimes owners and leaders make things more difficult than they need to be.
00:31:01.599 --> 00:31:14.400
And so we just want to strip all that complexity away, make things as simple as possible so people know what they're responsible for, how you know how they measure success for their particular role, where we're going as an organization.
00:31:14.559 --> 00:31:19.119
And once we get all aligned on those things, well, the magic tends to happen for itself.
00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:19.839
Amen.
00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:21.200
That's great.
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:38.960
Is there any do you have any examples and maybe you don't, of this past year of uh one of your clients uh using EOS to implement uh a huge decision that they had to make?
00:31:39.839 --> 00:31:40.480
Yes.
00:31:40.640 --> 00:32:00.799
Uh many, many decisions, but the one that sticks out to me would be a client who had a leadership team of four people, and they had a project manager who was who was leading the construction side for them, who had been with them for 10 plus years.
00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:15.519
Uh, but through the EOS process, through using the people analyzer and the accountability chart, they discovered that this project manager was not only the wrong person, but he also was in the wrong seat.
00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:27.680
And so through the process, um, they actually had to fire this project manager that had been with them for 10 plus years and was on the leadership team because he was a cancer to the organization.
00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:36.799
He was empowering his the his people underneath him to really not be great employees, to not contribute to the team.
00:32:37.039 --> 00:32:46.160
And so the owners still had a lot of hesitancy in letting this guy go, but the leadership team agreed that in order for the organization to progress forward, he had to go.
00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:50.960
They made that difficult decision, and they are ten times better off now because of it.
00:32:51.839 --> 00:33:02.720
That's that's both uh, you know, it's it's real because somebody's losing their job, but it it's also like that's growth, right?
00:33:03.119 --> 00:33:03.920
That's awesome.
00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:08.079
Um, just a couple more questions before we we head out of here.
00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:14.720
What are you most proud of this year, 2025-2026?
00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:18.000
What am I most proud of?
00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:28.640
I am most proud of first off all the teams I'm working with.
00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:36.079
Like they are the reason I do this work, and seeing them succeed is my number one goal in my career.
00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:49.599
And so I am just most proud of my teams and them actually diving deep into EOS and believing in it wholeheartedly, and them producing significant results as a byproduct.
00:33:49.680 --> 00:33:51.599
Like, that's why I signed up for this.
00:33:51.759 --> 00:34:02.400
I wanted to make the lives of leaders and organizations easier so that they weren't always taking their work home with them, so they weren't working 80 hours a week because we know that there's so much more to life than work.
00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:15.519
And so, yeah, working with 12 teams and seeing them improve the business and actually as a byproduct improving their personal lives, like there's absolutely nothing better than that on a personal level.
00:34:15.679 --> 00:34:18.079
It would be in accordance with what I just said.
00:34:18.239 --> 00:34:21.039
It's just I'm living out my dream, man.
00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:24.719
Um I wake up excited to go to work.
00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:31.519
I I love everyone that I'm working with, I love helping, um, and I love impact.
00:34:31.599 --> 00:34:34.639
Like you guys are about impact, I'm about impact.
00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:38.960
How can I influence and improve the lives of the people around me?
00:34:39.039 --> 00:34:41.039
And that's what I do every day.
00:34:41.280 --> 00:34:41.840
Every day.
00:34:42.239 --> 00:34:44.400
And it's like I'm just so blessed, man.
00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:47.199
So I'd say those are the things I'm most proud of.
00:34:47.440 --> 00:34:48.400
That's so cool.
00:34:48.639 --> 00:34:52.000
Um, what what are you looking forward to this next year?
00:34:52.159 --> 00:34:54.239
Have you set some goals for yourself?
00:34:54.320 --> 00:35:02.960
I I can't imagine you could bring on too many more clients all at the same time, but I'm sure you've got a few that are getting ready to graduate.
00:35:03.440 --> 00:35:06.079
Yeah, well, you know, it's funny.
00:35:06.320 --> 00:35:17.280
Um, we, you know, the EOS journey, we teach our clients that after two years, you should have all the tools that you can graduate from the process.
00:35:17.599 --> 00:35:24.559
However, many teams like to keep me on as an implementer because they don't want to facilitate their quarterly manuals.
00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:24.719
Right.
00:35:24.960 --> 00:35:27.360
And they need that extra little piece of accountability.
00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:35.039
So um I've got a couple teams that could have graduated actually this first quarter and they said, no, Will, we're gonna keep you on for five more years.
00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:35.440
Yeah.
00:35:35.599 --> 00:36:01.599
Uh I think there's a just sorry to interrupt, but I think there is a lot of value there in having a third-party outside entity like yourself come in and r kind of run the show, implement everything, and be able to tell them, you know, hey, let's get back on track here or take a look and let's talk about this a little bit more.
00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:02.400
Mm-hmm.
00:36:02.639 --> 00:36:06.639
Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I'm a coach, I'm not a consultant.
00:36:06.800 --> 00:36:08.079
We have to get really clear on that.
00:36:08.239 --> 00:36:13.840
So I'm not coming into the room and saying, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this, because what does that do?
00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:16.639
That makes clients reliant upon me for information.
00:36:16.800 --> 00:36:17.840
That's not what we want.
00:36:18.079 --> 00:36:27.119
We want to give our clients the tools and then get the heck out of their way because you know a hell of a lot more about economic development than I ever will, right?
00:36:27.440 --> 00:36:28.880
Uh yes, I'm a coach.
00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:33.119
I'm there to help you teach you these tools and get the heck out of your way.
00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:39.760
And sometimes, like a great sports team or a great athlete, you can't see yourself playing the game.
00:36:39.920 --> 00:37:08.559
And so that's my job is to help look down on the organization, help give you feedback, and help push you so that you can achieve things that maybe you didn't even think were possible, and just keep I have no skin in the game in regards to the things that go on in the room, but I'm there as a a I'm there as a third party to help facilitate the wisdom, to help pull out the things that people are holding on to on to so that there's no resentment building, right?
00:37:08.719 --> 00:37:14.880
So being that third party is really valuable, particularly in those quarterly sessions, so you guys can game plan.
00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:21.280
And then also the owner doesn't have to worry about managing that, managing that session, leading the team, facilitating the conversation.
00:37:21.519 --> 00:37:28.800
So yeah, um clients tend to stick with me once they once they start the process, which is pretty cool.
00:37:28.960 --> 00:37:44.480
And to get back to your initial questioning and onboarding potentially 12 more clients, um, you know, the max capacity for an EOS implementer is I mean, there are some implementers with 30 clients out there, but they're working every single day of the year.
00:37:44.719 --> 00:37:47.920
Um I my sweet spot would be about 20.
00:37:48.079 --> 00:37:51.519
And so I've got capacity for about eight more clients.
00:37:51.920 --> 00:37:56.400
And um yeah, I my one year plan is to get to 20.
00:37:56.639 --> 00:37:59.840
So that's that's where I plan on going over the course of the next 10 months.
00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:00.639
Good deal.
00:38:00.719 --> 00:38:01.360
That's awesome.
00:38:01.599 --> 00:38:04.719
And that was a good your sports analogy is a good segue.
00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:13.679
Uh nor normally at the end of the podcast, we we talk about what our hidden gyms are across the Sioux Falls metropolitan area.
00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:15.840
Uh, but we went through that last year.
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:23.039
And so sticking with your sports theme there, are you filling out any March Madness brackets this year?
00:38:24.159 --> 00:38:28.480
You know, Chris, I haven't filled one out for about 10 years.
00:38:28.719 --> 00:38:29.039
Really?
00:38:29.280 --> 00:38:29.760
Yeah.
00:38:30.079 --> 00:38:30.239
Yeah.
00:38:30.559 --> 00:38:41.679
People are pretty surprised when they speak with me because most of my friends and most of my clients know more about pro sports and college sports than I do right now.
00:38:41.840 --> 00:38:42.159
Oh, yeah.
00:38:42.320 --> 00:38:51.039
Uh for whatever reason, once I got done playing uh at the University of South Dakota and then playing professionally overseas, um, I just don't watch as much sports anymore.
00:38:51.199 --> 00:39:00.079
So was it I mean I I I love I still love sports, and particularly when we have gatherings with friends and family, I I I love watching it.
00:39:00.159 --> 00:39:06.639
But consistently, I would feel like uh your wife would crush me in the March Mad Madness tournament break.
00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:08.000
Probably, yes.
00:39:08.239 --> 00:39:08.480
Yeah.
00:39:08.639 --> 00:39:10.960
I I don't know about that, but yeah.
00:39:11.280 --> 00:39:12.239
No, that's great.
00:39:12.400 --> 00:39:19.519
All right, well, let's let's go ahead and and maybe you you remember your hidden gym from last year, but we can go ahead and do the hidden gym.
00:39:19.679 --> 00:39:25.920
Uh we like to stay at out of Sioux Falls in one of the Sioux Metro communities.
00:39:26.719 --> 00:39:32.800
Um so what pick uh people have given parks, restaurants.
00:39:33.280 --> 00:39:44.159
Uh we had somebody give a view as a hidden gym, but what's one of your other hidden gyms in the Sioux Metro footprint?
00:39:44.480 --> 00:39:45.119
Yes.
00:39:45.599 --> 00:39:48.960
Well, I believe last year I said the state parks.
00:39:49.440 --> 00:39:53.440
Um what's the one in Garretson called?
00:39:53.679 --> 00:39:54.159
Palisades.
00:39:54.480 --> 00:39:57.840
Palisades is my favorite state park in the area.
00:39:58.079 --> 00:39:58.480
I love it.
00:39:58.559 --> 00:40:02.559
My girlfriend and I go out there about once a month, so I love that.
00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:03.679
Um so what else?
00:40:04.079 --> 00:40:04.880
Shout out to Garretsen.
00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:06.079
Shout out to Garretsen.
00:40:06.320 --> 00:40:10.239
I know that you work with them directly, so um, that's pretty cool.
00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:12.079
Um, other hidden gems.
00:40:12.159 --> 00:40:13.039
What would be your hidden gem?
00:40:13.440 --> 00:40:14.320
You give me one of yours.
00:40:14.639 --> 00:40:16.559
My one of my hidden gyms.
00:40:16.800 --> 00:40:17.679
Let's see.
00:40:18.960 --> 00:40:21.679
Stay in north of I-90.
00:40:22.239 --> 00:40:26.239
There are a lot of hidden gems in Dell Rapids.
00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:31.119
The the quartzite rock quarries they have out there.
00:40:31.519 --> 00:40:37.039
Our bus tour in 2020, it was either 24, I think it was 2024.
00:40:37.519 --> 00:40:41.440
We went um and toured the the rock quarries.
00:40:41.679 --> 00:40:52.159
The bus actually was able to drive down inside one of the quarries, and so you're looking up and there's hundreds of feet of rock rock just sitting above your head.
00:40:52.239 --> 00:40:54.079
That was that was really cool.
00:40:54.239 --> 00:40:58.719
And um, yeah, I just I think there's a lot going on in in Dell Rapids right now.
00:40:58.880 --> 00:41:02.000
So yeah, it's it's a a great community.
00:41:02.159 --> 00:41:04.239
They've got an awesome main street.
00:41:04.480 --> 00:41:12.400
They've they've instituted a Main Street revitalization program over the last couple years, and uh it's been a huge success.
00:41:12.559 --> 00:41:20.800
If you have any time to go to Dell Rapids, I would go make a drive down their main street and pop in some of the shops.
00:41:20.880 --> 00:41:23.199
They have a really good coffee shop out there.
00:41:23.760 --> 00:41:32.159
Yeah, I need to get out there because I have uh quite a few friends that live in Dells, and I I haven't had the chance to go out there recently, so I'll add that to the top of my list.
00:41:32.480 --> 00:41:33.519
Add it to your list, yeah.
00:41:33.679 --> 00:41:34.400
Great community.
00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:34.960
Awesome.
00:41:35.360 --> 00:41:41.199
The other one, the other hidden gem I experienced last year at one of your events in Alcester.
00:41:41.599 --> 00:41:44.079
What's the donut shop in Elcester called?
00:41:44.400 --> 00:41:46.320
Oh, s you think in Centerville?
00:41:46.639 --> 00:41:47.360
Is it Centerville?
00:41:47.440 --> 00:41:47.519
Okay.
00:41:47.920 --> 00:41:48.880
Zebra, Zebra Donut.
00:41:49.119 --> 00:41:50.079
Zebra donuts, yeah.
00:41:50.239 --> 00:41:50.800
That is it.
00:41:51.039 --> 00:41:55.039
Yes, there's my hidden gem because those donuts are fire.
00:41:55.280 --> 00:41:56.000
They are fire.
00:41:56.239 --> 00:42:07.760
They are they are a seasonal company, so they're only open a certain amount of the months of the year, but man, when yes, they that is that is a lot of people's hidden gem in the Siumetro.
00:42:07.840 --> 00:42:09.119
That place is so good.
00:42:09.440 --> 00:42:10.800
Yeah, they do a great job.
00:42:11.039 --> 00:42:11.519
They do.
00:42:11.679 --> 00:42:17.119
So not not great for my my abs, but um great for the taste buds.
00:42:17.440 --> 00:42:17.920
Awesome.
00:42:18.159 --> 00:42:31.039
Well, Will, I really appreciate your time this afternoon, and uh, we've got our annual meeting coming up later today, so we'll see you here in a few hours at the annual meeting.
00:42:31.280 --> 00:42:32.480
Appreciate your time.
00:42:34.480 --> 00:42:35.280
Thanks.
