Escape Rooms and Strategy w/ Christian Jennings | Ep. 149

In this episode of the Biz/Dev podcast David and Gary talk to Christian Jennings- a self proclaimed “Visionary” and Chaos manager- they discuss how her company Unbound Consulting can drive not only your company's vision but your strategy to operational success.

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David Baxter has been designing, building, and advising startups and businesses for over ten years. His passion, knowledge, and brutal honesty have helped dozens of companies get their start.

In Biz/Dev, David and award-winning Creative Director Gary Voigt talk about current events and how they affect the world of startups, entrepreneurship, software development, and culture.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Gary: You guys can save us. We saved the world from Dracula

[00:00:02] David: That's right. So we murdered him. It was great.

[00:00:08] David: Hi everyone. Welcome to the biz dev podcast, the podcast about developing your business. I'm David Baxter joined per usual by Gary Voigt. Hello, Mr. Gary. What's

[00:00:17] Gary: Hey, what's up? It was, uh, fun visiting you and seeing you in person, but yeah, now we're back stretched apart in

[00:00:25] David: back far away.

We just had our leadership. Retreat at my wife tells me not to call it a retreat because it makes it sound like we went to some fancy place when

[00:00:33] Gary: It's just a meeting.

[00:00:34] David: days of meetings. But it was very fun to see. But we did. We did go do an escape room, which was very cool. We say we killed Dracula. I think by the end of it.

[00:00:43] Gary: yeah. 

You guys can save us. We saved the world from Dracula 

[00:00:47] David: That's right. So we murdered him. It was great. That laughing you

[00:00:51] Gary: you murder the undead?

[00:00:52] David: well, apparently you can with a cross that's got VD on it. That, that laugh you hear in the background is Christian Jennings, who is our guest today. Christian is the founder and CEO of Unbound Consulting. Welcome, Christian. Thanks for joining us.

[00:01:08] Christian: Thanks so much.

[00:01:09] David: So tell me, give me the 30, 000 foot view of Unbound.

[00:01:15] Christian: All right. So unbound consulting is the easiest way to put it is we fill the void that undermines most entrepreneurial organizations. So you have a lot of consulting agencies are really great at developing strategies and providing their clients with strategies. And then those strategies sit as a really nice paperweight for a really long time and nothing ever happens with it. There's a combination that happens with our organization where we pair every client with both a business strategist and what we call it integrator or like a fractional COO. And our job is to not only help figure out that strategic path forward, what is our plan? How do we move to the next level? But then our team actually goes and executes it. So we're not just COOs from the perspective of like day to day operational management. We're in there making sure the right systems processes. People are all in place. So a company could actually scale and reach their goals.

[00:02:09] David: So when does a company start looking for someone like you? What if the pain point they feel,

[00:02:18] Christian: I was actually sharing this with Gary earlier. I would say that. Sorry, all visionaries out there, but the first two years of your entrepreneur career, you have not felt enough pain or road rash to call me in because you're not truly ready for change. Usually it is companies that are in a few different locations, spots in their transition. They're hitting year three, they're growing, and now they're realizing, Oh, I We never actually put any kind of systems or processes in place and we don't know how to scale appropriately. So they're smart enough, self aware enough to call me in early before issues happen. another is they've become stagnant or they're actually, I've had a lot of clients say somehow we're like gaining more clients or gaining more subscribers, but yet we're not even paying ourself.

There's a problem. There's a gap there that's happening. How can we help fix the gap? So we may be, they call us the chaos tamers or the paratroopers that might come in and actually help Figure out what the issues are and fix them short term So that we can move to long term or there are a lot of companies that are in around like that five to seven year Timeframe where they're looking, they know they need to grow, they're ready to scale, but they also know they don't have what they need yet to do it, and they need a partner to help put that in place. So most often we're pulled in them. My favorite personally is when we're called in the middle of chaos for our clients and we're there to solve problems. But I love those visionary self-awareness enough to know that they just are gonna need help no matter what, to get to that next level.

[00:03:38] David: so what if you're hypothetically almost a 12-year-old company and you have all of those issues? I'm

[00:03:44] Gary: Yeah, hypothetically with

[00:03:46] David: Hypothetically, let's say there was a company that was around 12 years old. I certainly resonate with a lot of that. Um, one of the things we had our leadership conference about conference.

Now it's a conference.

[00:04:01] Gary: That's

[00:04:02] David: four people, 

[00:04:03] Christian: now 

[00:04:03] Gary: Seminar next

[00:04:05] David: seminar where we were in our particular thing was to focus on project management, which was we realized we didn't have. Those processes you're talking about in place. Now, obviously we had some, but what we were struggling was it wasn't consistent.

And so we came up with, and I think we have a really good plan. I'm very excited about it that we're gonna put it over in place over time, but that was something that we were really struggling with. So I is it because you're not capable of doing that, that we need to bring in an outsider or maybe another quite way to ask this is when do you not need,

[00:04:42] Christian: You don't need me when you're ready for just someone who can manage your day to day operations. So there are a lot of fractionals out there, right? And there, there are a couple of well known organizations that provide the fractional CEO, fractional integrator type of support, but those are more day to day operational management people.

The system's the process, the right people, all of that's in place. They're just there to support it. So once we get to that point, my team. I will not, but my team will continue to stay on and support your day to day, if you must, but our goal is really to, for you to outgrow us, like our goal is to put companies in such a good spot that now they're ready just to go higher if they don't already have them, that day to day operations manager, or we've set them up so that day to day operations manager can finally breathe and, Get back to just running the business. So there I've worked with clients at the 10 year marker at the 20 year marker. And even at the 30 year marker, there are just different stages of growth. That for some reason, something happens or there's a gap there, there's stagnation that's occurring and they just need someone to help them get over the hump. And that's how you know when to call us in, because we're going to help you get over the hump. Not only helping to identify why you are not getting over that hump or why you're stagnant or why you're failing, but. We're going to go actually do all the things that we said need to be done to make sure you move through it instead of leaving up to your team that more than likely is overworked and too far in the weeds to do it.

Hence the reason why they need us to actually execute. It's not that they're incapable. It's that balance that every organization is always looking for that never seems no matter how big or how long you've been a business ever fully balances out for, long periods of time.

[00:06:26] David: I certainly. Sympathize, sympathize, one of those words. With. You come up with a great idea. Your team comes up with great idea. It's definitely the solution. And then Monday comes around and it's business as usual. We have had guys in our team in the past say, you guys have a lot of ideas that you don't ever do.

And while 1st, that hurts and it's very personal and I'm very, I'm distraught, despondent for a while, but then I realized the right. Because we do have a lot of ideas and they are good and they would help whatever problem area we're looking at, we get stuck in the day to day. It's just so easy to get stuck.

In our case, it's where's this project? Oh, that project went sideways. How do we fix that? Let's all hands on decks, fix that project. Rarely do we ever have a time to sit around and navel gaze and go, now we're going to solve our problems because the problems are just there. They're, And I would imagine that's very common.

Maybe my company's just on fire all the time and there's this raging dumpster fire, but I get the feeling it's more of a common situation. 

[00:07:33] Gary: I had one thing earlier, you said chaos manager or paratroopers, which kind of makes me believe that like, it's almost like a discipline that you have to instill into the company in order to make them follow. I know you're integrating this in, but it seems like it's also something since they have to adopt it to make it successful.

You almost have to force them to do it

[00:07:53] Christian: Force is maybe not the term I would choose only

[00:07:56] Gary: strongly 

[00:07:57] Christian: terribly strongly suggest. Yes. Yes. I think I actually have a sweatshirt that says something like that to that effect, at least, but yeah. It's so funny. I have a a business partner who has referred me into a couple of clients.

And I love it when my clients tell me like the secret feedback that he will give them as caveats. And a newer client that he brought me in on and introduced me to, he said, but I'm going to warn you, she could be a little bit pushy. She's I wouldn't have asked you to find me this person if I didn't need someone a little bit pushy. So at the end of the day, it's still going to be up to the leadership team and to the CEO. To pull the trigger, but yeah, it's our job to come in and not only go, okay, you guys are, you're drowning. You're spiraling. Let us pull you back up. Let's go back to 30, 000 feet. First, let's identify the real issues.

There are symptoms. There are symptoms of issues, but those aren't the issues. What are our core issues? That we need to focus on and how do we address those. And so we're first pulling them out of the weeds with us and then aligning leadership teams on that because all day long, we could tell you the best thing to do.

But if we can't align your leadership on that's what we need to do. And this is why and it's a priority today for these reasons. It'll never go anywhere because we can execute the work all day, but you guys are just going to cancel meetings on us or find reasons not to implement all the work we put into place.

So there is a lot of pulling the leadership teams along with us. And it's because of everything that David just said, right? It is so easy. Think about your to do list all day, every day, the things you need to be doing to work on the business, but it's so easy to be short sighted because of things that are lingering, the things that make you panic, things that make you think you can't log off at night, or the things that need to be done today. So the best working in the business, working on the business items, it just keeps getting pushed down and further down on the to do list, or it's moved to the next day, and the next day, and the next week, and the next month, and it never gets done if you don't have someone there helping to remind you of the importance and going, you know what, I see how you're busy, so either I'm going to remove this from your plate so you can go do it, or I'm going to go do it for you, and your job is to look at it, say, yep, that's right, yep, that's wrong, Move forward, right?

So how can we work? We're trying to also just provide partially a service that's helping to fill that bridge and fill that gap because you guys are normal. This is every company I've ever worked with ever. It doesn't matter size, how many years in business, it's just an ongoing struggle. 

[00:10:26] David: It has to come from the top down. Have you ever been in a situation? And of course, I know the answer to this is yes. Maybe a better way to ask it is, what did you do in the situation when you did your job?

You said, here is all the magical things you should do. And top down just says, nah, I'm not going to do that. Or it may be gosh, I'm asking myself force out. What do you do? You fire a client? Do you recognize that really early that this? leader, founder, whatever. The top person is a jerk or is not going to, this isn't their idea.

They're not going to play ball. Do you just stop the engagement early and go, you know what? We can do great work here, but you're not going to do it. I'm out. Or you're just like, we're going to roll the dice.

[00:11:08] Christian: No, it is. So yeah, I can identify the problem children early on. That's pretty simple. But part of what we're doing in the beginning is making sure that our clients are actually ready for change. And I do believe that when they bring us in, they're bringing us in because they're, they know they need it and they're ready for it.

Big changes have to happen. I've had a lot of heart hearts about that. A lot of the changes that, where we get stagnant is, has nothing to do with the Being misaligned to it. Like day one, our first workshop, we do a workshop before we ever go into just execution. And part of that workshop is alignment around these things. Not only do we see it, but we need the leadership to see it with us and understand it. So they'll agree to it. The struggle becomes when suddenly they're afraid to pull the trigger after sometimes a few weeks worth of work, sometimes three or four months worth of work. Now they're afraid because they're held back by what will my team. Think how will my team react? They're not going to react well. Now there's fear of losing employees. Now there's fear of this, and this, we will never bring anything to an organization. That's not the best and right thing for the organization. So I've never I work with a lot of visionaries. So ego obviously gets in the way.

I'm a visionary myself. I know ego gets in the way, but they're not, their ego doesn't get in the way, in the sense of them wanting to fight against me more often than not ego gets in the way of realizing. That they don't have the right team in place to actually move it forward. All of their fear sits with how it's going to impact their team and to lose a team member, to realize a team member, two team members, or a couple of managers are not actually the right people feels like a failure to them. And when they start feeling like they're failing someone versus just clearly seeing as, making a business decision, this is what it needs to be. That's where the hesitation comes in. So we work hard with them and we coach them through. And the last resort is to fire a client. And the only reason I've ever fired a client is because as visionaries, we all have to sometimes experience road rash. If we don't ever experience that road rash, we only continue to do The thing that we've been doing is never going to move us forward. So that is the last resort. And it's only because my hope is that. Then through that process, experience the road rash and understand what they'll have to do next time.

But again, that's happened once. That was the last resort and it's because at the end of the day, it's. I got to do what's best for them and I'm also never going to allow a client to waste their money because. They want to keep thinking about it for a few months.

[00:13:42] David: Sure. All right. So now I want to get a little more practical. So tell me about Unbound. How big are you? Is it you and 20 different people? Is it just you? Where are you at?

[00:13:53] Christian: So right now we have from a full time perspective, there are three of us. It's myself, my integrator and a business partner. And then from there we have multiple partners in different fractional roles that we bring into play when we need to. And we have a few more integrators in the waiting that I can't wait to hire.

But, practicalities. So where we are is we have the 3 of us that are really leading the day to day. And we're utilizing those partners, like fractional HR, fractional CFOs when we need to underneath the umbrella of our agreements for our clients, because it's what is the client need? How do we solve for that problem? Bring in the resources we need. So we've worked really hard to build that network as well.

[00:14:36] David: So those are all, so your doers are contractors. Is that generally 

[00:14:42] Christian: No, not not all of them. No.

Like my integrator also serves as an integrator to our

clients. She is the lead integrator. Yeah.

So there's a mix and as we grow, that's more of what we'll. Want to look like, but I too, and then, as you said earlier on, I'm in your number two of this and in closing on your number two so yeah, we bring them in first as contractors and then those that are amazing and love the ride, stay on and become full time.

[00:15:09] David: What we, man, we used to do a lot of that. Yeah, we used to do a lot of contractors. And then if you were great, and we use you, we would bring you on. We found in our neck of the woods, your custom development that contractors didn't fit it. Ultimately with our company, because they would often have a lone wolf mentality where they were used to, they were the only one you hire a contractor to do your development work there.

It that's all there is and so they have to figure it out. And so the idea of them saying to have the humility to say, I don't know what the answer to this is. Let me go ask a teammate. 

foreign to them and that became very hard for our culture, which is very team based. And so we have slowly, but surely removed all people who were contracts.

Now, we still work with contractors. Don't get me wrong when we are have overflow. We have a pool of contracts. We love and we go grab, but the idea of hiring them. Would be harder now because we've been burned. It's just a very different mentality and not a bad one. Just different.

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[00:16:50] David: It's funny. So, Gary was originally, I've known Gary for almost 20 years and Gary, what, 6 years ago ish Finally, the years don't matter, but it was several years ago. He left his full time job to become a contractor for his design. And which was great for me because he'd done a little side giggies in here and there for me over the years, but he was, he had a job.

So he'd become the contractor and I immediately just glom on, it's just, you're my designer now, come you're now, and I'm pretty safe in saying I was his biggest client from day one. We just kept him busy.

[00:17:29] Gary: Most frequent active client for sure.

[00:17:32] David: And what we came probably a year or so into that, it sounds very similar what you're talking about. I said to him, I said, I'm going to hire you. Tell me how much money you need. And I will, the more money it is, the longer it's going to take me to get there. Obviously we were not a big company at the time.

We're still not a big company but just tell me how much money you want. And when I get that much money, you're coming with me. And that's how that works. So I totally understand that. Like I was trying to get him in here for years and it just didn't work out. And then finally, what has been three years now?

Is

[00:18:06] Gary: Yeah. Three and a half

[00:18:08] David: years. So yeah, I totally feel that. You said something, I'm changing gears again. You said something really interesting to me. You're the visionary. You have an integrator. then you have a business partner, but your business partners are not your integrator, which is interesting to me.

I would think that. Let me back up business partner implies that you and this person started the business to get.

[00:18:32] Christian: We did not. We did not start. I started the company myself. But it's one of those where there's very much alignment there and there's value from both sides. So how can we, instead of continuing to be separate, how can we utilize each other's strengths to grow? But no, two business owners, two co founders often, There is two things that happen.

Either you actually have that natural, perfect visionary integrator duo that just come together, or you have two visionaries that come together. Two visionaries come together. Amazing. Because that's where the biggest ideas, the most macro strategic thinking, the most outside of the box, uncover every opportunity moments happen,

but that's not how, but never get done.

Exactly. So there is a, there is a. One person should be designated visionary. That doesn't mean you don't have multiple visionaries on your team. One person is the visionary to the company. And then there's room for an owner's box. For another visionary partnership to be present to help the company grow and build. But if they're another visionary, you really don't want me and another visionary leading my company. Then I'm doing a disservice to my company. Clients that I had to have, I got to practice what I preach. And so I had to have the right vision or integrator in place. And my partner even knows if it comes down to her, him, it's her all day, every day, she's what's going to help me move my company forward. We'll find a way to like part amicably. And I have no fear of him hearing that because it's conversations that I've had to have over and over again, too, because I know what will move the company forward.

[00:20:07] David: so just for the audience sake visionary integrators and. EOS thing traction is the name of the book. There's another one called get a grip. I think it's the fictional version of traction, which is some people like one of the other traction is like the textbook. Here's what it is. And get a grip is like a big fable of how a company that put use EOS in there.

So some people like I had friends who have done EOS in the company. They've never read traction because it was. Boring and they read get a grip. It's really interesting how some people glom on one or the other. 

[00:20:39] Christian: And there's also, 

[00:20:40] David: set up.

[00:20:41] Christian: yeah, and there's also a book that is referenced frequently in traction and rocket fuel called the benefits of a power or how to make the noise go away the benefits of a powerful second command. It's something that's, it's not just in the thing, although integrator might be. I don't know if it's coined or

not as their terminology.

Yeah, I don't think it's trademarked, that's the terminology they use. But what we're talking about is a second command. And I choose the term integrator over just saying COO, because from my perspective and how I see people leaving companies, there is a big difference between the two often.

[00:21:13] David: What would you say is the number 1 thing that's different between a COO and an integrator?

[00:21:20] Christian: So I think an integrator, there are multiple types of integrators. I actually make a really good integrator for the right company. Someone that needs another visionary and that type of partner to help a company grow from the beginning. That. An integrator is someone that drinks the company Kool Aid almost as much, if not more than the CEO, because at the end of the day, they're the one that's going to be accountable to leading the full team to taking that vision and knowing exactly what to do.

How do I lead a team there? How do I build a culture to make it happen? What are the steps that we have to do to reach that goal? And When I think of people just talking about the COO, I think most people just think, Oh, the person accountable to the PNL and yeah, they manage people and yeah, they build some processes, but an integrator is in the thick of it because they believe in the mission and the values of the organization, and they will not stop at anything like they feel like it is their job, just as much as the CEOs to move the company forward.

It's just a different mindset.

[00:22:16] David: It's really interesting to hear someone who is so laser focused on these EOS kind of terms, because I didn't know even traction was a thing until my company was five plus years old. With that lens at the very beginning, I think I would just see my company very different. Clearly I learned, I didn't know at the time, I'm the visionary. I'm the guy with the ideas, even though I don't have 20 ideas a day, which is the classic rocket fuel definition. I have one a month, but whatever.

And, But integrator that I almost think that's the more valuable of the two. In the company, the visionary is the dreamer, but boy, and there's a lot of those. I need integrator visionaries all the time, every founder, pie in the sky, whatever. I'm going to make the best thing in the whole planet, but to find someone that can actually make it happen, man, that's magic sauce right there.

That's a rare bird.

[00:23:08] Christian: To find the right person, and here's the difference. As visionaries, we are, we like, there are a lot of people who are founders, but a founder does not equate to a visionary. 10 percent of the population. Is representative of the visionary population. Great. But guess what? Only 4 percent is 8 percent if you mix a couple, but my favorite. Only 4 percent of the population is this what I believe to be the ideal integrator. And so if you look at it that way, even traction mentions this, like for every one visionary. Or for every two visionaries, there's only one integrator. So it's all about finding that

[00:23:42] David: Yeah. Go fight that 

[00:23:43] Christian: someone else does. Go fight that person. So they are the most valuable because they are what drives the company forward. And you've seen my vision without execution is just hallucination. Now, the reverse of that is execution without vision is just a recipe for. Throwing a company down the tubes and it going nowhere because vision is absolutely necessary. But that execution part, if you get that right integrator, this is someone who is 30, like I'm a 50, 000 foot micro strategic thinker. That is my gift. I see things. No one else could see. Guess what? My taxes, 90 percent of the population has a higher level of detail than I do 90%. And I am a successful COO. So don't tell anyone. Oh, whoops. We just said but the truth is in every scenario, I've always found an execution partner. My integrator actually was. My execution, my I don't even want to call her just execution because she's analytical and strategic too. But my partner, my detail partner, she was my, she happened to be my detail partner at when I worked for Bill Harper. Not the first couple of years, but at the very moment in time where I needed that person is when we identified her skillset and brought her into that role and it was game changer. So that is if you could find that person that can see your vision, understand your vision. Understand the organization top down and the skill and strength they bring to the table is not only can they clearly see your vision when most of your employees cannot, they don't clearly see it.

They nod their head and they all agree. Yay. It sounds fun. But most of them don't actually see that vision. So if you could find that person that can see it clearly, and then their skill set is to create a strategic path forward where they're going to tell you not only here are the key steps we have to take, but here are those key steps. Here's the order and here's exactly how we're going to do it. And then they go make it happen. It like to find that person is what creates a successful companies. That's why the terminologies are so important. That's why the nuances between a day to day operations person versus integrator important to me.

And I don't even know if EOS has given them these levels of definition. I've just drawn the line in the sand at this point.

[00:25:44] David: I want to round this off because I know we're running low on time. One of the things I love to focus on is what we call the slog, which is that first, my official definition of a slog is the moment you open your company to when anyone cares. And that can be weeks, months, years. There's no set time.

So are you still in your slog? Do you have your own gravity or are you still just beating it down the doors and hoping someone's going to answer them? Where are you at in that world?

[00:26:16] Christian: I'm not beating down the doors because I, because I understand what my strength is and my skills are, I go and focus on the things that matter most. And that's building relationships with people within the entrepreneur organizations, entrepreneur community, not just in. North Carolina, but across states across the nation so that they can hear and see that, that all of us know that there is a gap and some of them can't fill that gap for 1 reason or another.

And then they realize there's a service like this where they can. So once people hear about it, they're interested in learning more about it. And then luckily. My integrator gives me the room and space to go spend time just talking to people and building those relationships so they can understand it.

Because once they get it. And it's, it's not a push through. So we're not like some. Nationally known, like every time you have a business problem, they're like, whoo, go to unbound consulting. But at least we've gotten through the slog enough that we've made a reputation enough that when there is a problem, I'll have someone text me and say, Ooh this person was asking for, a fractional integrator.

Of course I gave them your name. I'm like, great. Thanks so much. This other person already did as well. So it's gotten at least to the point where multiple people I've worked with know who I am, know what we offer and know we keep our promises to our clients and through the execution piece of it.

So they continue to refer us.

[00:27:34] David: Very cool. So you guys are, would you say 100 percent referral based at this point? Do you have a marketing arm that offshoots any of that? Like where are you guys at? Yeah,

[00:27:47] Christian: Hello. My name is CJ. Before I went operations, I was chief strategy. for marketing execution. I come from a branding background. I come from a digital marketing background. No, right now it's me. Is that ideal? No, absolutely not. But at the moment, it's me because there's still I'm never not building relationships because really what happens through the reason why we've gotten through the SOG is because our mission being to help 500 entrepreneurs in five years. There's an entrepreneur that five years ago I helped. I didn't even know why I was meeting them. I was told they needed some advice. I had coffee with them a year later, they become a client or a year later, they refer a client to me. And so it's all about investing time and equity into the space, into the community not just locally, but. As much nationally as possible, it's because I know eventually it will get back.

[00:28:40] David: I call that the long game. Absolutely. Yeah, I tried to, to mentor and do all this stuff. One, I just love doing it. But two, I know that long term, one of these hundred kids I'm talking to, I said, kids, they're adults, but they're kids to me. I'm old. I'm not as old as Gary, but I'm old. 

[00:29:00] Gary: Nice.

[00:29:01] David: You're welcome.

The idea is maybe one of these hundred kids that I'm talking to are going to call me in five years because they need something. And that is the hope, right? That's the hope. But even if they don't, hopefully my advice is useful. It's at least as worth what they pay for it, at the very least.

[00:29:19] Christian: The thing is I worked for Bill Harper for four and a half years. Why did I work with Bill Harper for four and a half years? You can publish this because he knows not because I love working for the man, but he's brilliant. And what he gave to me, what he offered to me were two things, a, the opportunity to be myself, to be a visionary within his company and take it and own it and help lead it the way I wanted to in the way I was supposed to.

The other was he was brilliant. So I had something to learn from. And so every it's been almost two years since I worked for the man and every step of the way there's never, if there's an opportunity for someone to say, do you know someone like this or can you refer someone like this? His name is the first out of my mouth because that's a relationship that I built, got tattooed and branded for the man, to prove loyalty at some point. But what he brought in for me, what he did for me was give me that last missing piece, that piece that I felt like I didn't yet have before I could step out on my own and the opportunity to just go in and utilize my skillset within his organization before I stepped out. And so forever, I'll be grateful for that.

[00:30:22] David: so just as a recap, Bill Harper was one of our guests a while back. He was one of our more popular guests. I should say,

[00:30:30] Gary: Yeah. It blew us away.

[00:30:31] David: stuff. He's amazing. I, the brilliant part of him is a hundred percent true. I follow his stuff now because he's, it's just good stuff. If you need marketing stuff, he's really good at it.

Anyway, take it away, Gary.

[00:30:41] Gary: Since you are in this position, helping other small businesses and entrepreneurs, you're perfect to answer this. And I think you've even looked at this and prepared. So I am looking forward to hearing your answers for our final three questions or our final question. What are your top three pieces of advice for any entrepreneur, new business or startup?

[00:30:59] Christian: Yes David, as I was telling Gary before you joined, I knew this was the final question. So I brought it to my integrator because I'm a smart girl

to make sure that we were giving the right advice. So my top 3, it's actually even linear if you think about it. So number one top 3. Top piece of advice for any business owner is as the visionary of an organization, the best thing you could do is become self aware and learn how to not only be self aware, but lean into your strengths and stop fighting against your weaknesses. And by that, notoriously visionaries. We like to control every aspect of our organization to the point that we become meddlers or harmful to our company.

Even. And admitting that we're not strong. And one aspect is really hard for us, but again, to the detriment of our organization, so become self aware and lean into straight and higher, really stupidly smart people to. compliments. That your weaknesses by that being their skillset. The best thing I ever did was to say the words out loud that I know 90 percent of the population has a higher level of detail than me.

That was hardest thing for me to admit because I'm like no, I'm detailed. No, I'm not to be able to just give in and lean into my strengths and hire the right people to compliment. My strengths and weaknesses with their skillset is the smartest thing you can do. So doing that and being willing to let go of the vine early on, let go of that control. Cause the longer you maintain the control, the harder it is to let go. So hire the right, right people early on and give them the time and space to do their job. My second tip still going in that same train of thought is right people, right seats. It truly is the team you put in place will make or break your organization. One. So really focusing on getting the right people in the right seats and understanding them as individuals. So you also understand how to both motivate them and keep them the good ones. And that could be everything from utilizing what streets they have to help you map out an ideal pattern. So you could then go hire more of those to also, as you start to understand how they're motivated, how can you use that to advantage?

So for example, a really good sales person. I might challenge them. I might tell them they can't do something. I'm doing it to make them mad because I know if I tell them they can't do something, the very thing they're going to do is they're going to go do it. But if I tell one of my worker bees that what's most important to them is doing their job well, that they can't do something, now I've destroyed them and now they've lost confidence.

So there are different ways to motivate too, right? So figure out what the ideal is, higher to the ideal, motivate by that, by the pattern. The other is going to be when we think about right people, right seats. There are a few key roles that if you could get it right early on, the rest will be easy. So that is finding that perfect second command. That is truly thinking about what type of second command you need for your organization and taking the time to find that person and build that relationship with that person. So you, so that you have that person that's going to help you move the company forward. And The other would be someone in that lead sales role.

So many companies are hiring people because they think they have a Rolodex. Stop hiring for the Rolodex. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how many relationships they've built. If their Rolodex is happy with the services they're getting in the current company, they're not likely to move over.

And what happens is the Rolodex runs out. Hire people who are hunters, who are driven to hit goals. Don't hire your salesperson for a Rolodex or list of connections they have that could maybe possibly one day. Be your client. And leadership mix, the right people, right seats, integrator, right?

Salesperson leadership mix. You can't have a leadership team. That's all gas. No break. You also can't have a leadership team. That's all break. No gas. There has to be a balance so that you have a good balance of risk takers and people who are going to say, hold on, wait a minute. Let us get the detail. Let us make sure we understand consequences and let's work together to get the right path. And then, like, where can you get those two pieces just right? That's going to allow you to do my third tip, which is designate time to work on the business. Not in it, not in the weeds, not thinking about how to move this one project forward, but on the business. That means, leadership weekly meetings. So that the full leadership team is coming together and solving problems on behalf of the company. We're looking at our goals, seeing how we're measuring to those goals. It means taking time to have clarity breaks. Literally go stare at your shoes with a pen and a piece of paper, put all the electronics down, and just think.

Just think. It's hard, but just do it. And, other than that, I think it's, Time blocking for me. I had to tell myself 30 percent of my time is going to be working on the business no matter what. And then I time block out not that doesn't work for everyone, but find a way to determine how much time you need to spend on your business to move it forward.

Not in it on it.

[00:36:02] Gary: So if anybody wants to learn more about unbound or yourself, what are the best places to reach out? 

[00:36:07] Christian: Yeah, best place to go is our website, unboundconsulting. com. There's a contact form there. My contact information is there. Someone will reach out within 24 hours, but I think there's a lot of information on the site itself to kind of help people understand what we do and how we help.

[00:36:21] OUTRO: Hi, I'm Christy Pronto, Content Marketing Director here at BigPixel. Thank you for listening to this episode of the BizDev Podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Shoot us an email, hello at thebigpixel. net. The BizDev Podcast is produced and presented by BigPixel. See you next week. Until