Scaling Up Business Podcast

We sometimes pick up some bad patterns and habits, and no matter how hard we try, we still fall back to old routines. This week’s guest shows you what you can do to break out of this vicious cycle and instead 3X your ability to achieve your goals! Eric Partaker is a Peak Performance Expert that helps CEOs and Entrepreneurs scale themselves and their companies, while also improving their well-being. Eric is a big believer in the power of threes, and shares why it doesn’t have to be a huge and complex routine to create new habits! Eric has a competitive spirit, but he had a massive wake-up call. One day he realized that all of this drive and ambition was really fueled by his insecurity, and it was impacting his health. He found himself having a heart attack on an airplane. He didn’t want to die, he had a five-year-old son to take care of, yet he would often spend 100 hours at work. Something just didn’t add up right. Eric shares how his three alarms are such a simple shift in mindset that anyone can incorporate

Oh no! Do you hate your job or feel like you’re trapped in your business? Don’t worry. It happens to all of us from time to time but there is a way to proactively tackle this dilemma Bill walks his clients through an eye-opening exercise called: FACE: Functional Accountability Chart Exercise. It forces the CEO to look at all the jobs an organization has and it’s critical importance. It turned out that the CEO actually didn’t ant most of the jobs that were listed in FACE despite his name being responsible for most of those roles. Are you someone who loves your business, but not all the ‘moving’ parts of the business? By going through FACE, you can quickly see what makes sense to outsource right away to get some of your energy back, and bring you to a more enjoyable work space. You can give all these roles away and make other people, who would be excellent for the role, more accountable in these different seats. This free up so much time and you’ll find a new love for your business once again.   Resources: Scal

This week’s entrepreneur talks about breaking out of the status quo and creating a company that goes against the grain from the other companies like it within the industry. Tatiana Soldatova has a passion for bringing great minds together on complex projects to push boundaries and innovate. She is the co-founder of Syllable Inc., an award-winning retail, corporate, and multi-unit residential design firm based in Toronto, Canada. When Tatiana was in design school, she knew she wanted to have her own practice, and she knew she wanted to do things slightly differently than the way it’s always been done. “Stay in your lane,” was often advice she’d receive from older designers in the industry and Tatiana wanted to create a more collaborative environment in her company. One of her biggest challenges is cash flow and putting a premium price on the type of work her company provides. Despite Tatiana’s extensive experience, she struggled at the beginning with undervaluing some of her offers and consulting bids. However

Marketing can be a big monster to tackle all at once. Everyone knows its importance, yet it seems no one really has enough time for it. Today’s guest shares how to get ahead of marketing so that you can lead it, direct it, and be intentional with it. Karen Tiber Leland is the Founder of Sterling Marketing Group, a branding and marketing strategy and implementation firm helping CEOs, executives, and Entrepreneurs develop strong personal, business, and thought leadership brands. One of the biggest breakdowns people have is, how do they make time for marketing when they have “real” business things to focus on? Believe it or not, even marketing firms struggle with this! They’re so busy helping other people’s marketing that they end up neglecting their own. Truth is, it’s hard to make time for your own thing. Everything going on in the background, the news, the pandemic, the economy; all these external things that you can’t control, it slows things down in your brain and they steal your focus. Don’t beat yourself

How many entrepreneurs, CEOs, and leaders feel stressed out that they can’t seem to work on the business? If you’re one of them, don’t worry, you’re not alone. With everything a leader has to manage, it can be hard to even find time to think! It doesn’t matter what size you are. Bill hears this same problem across all industries, company sizes, and revenues. If you just can’t find the time to work on the business, Bill knows how to help! One of Bill’s clients always seemed to be putting out fires within the business and had absolutely zero time to work with Bill after setting their quarterly goals and expectations. They couldn’t move the needle within the company. This is a big warning sign that the business is not sustainable. You have to be proactive with your meeting rhythms. It’s critical team members meet regularly to talk about their next steps. Set a recurring meeting time for the entire team and make sure no one double books or prioritizes something else over it. There will always be fires you’ll want

Today’s entrepreneur shares her love for movement, the outdoors, yoga, and the importance of living and leading a joyous life through connection with your body and mind. Brittany Phelps is the Founder of Prana Preneurs, a mentorship program for entrepreneurs passionate about creating conscious businesses. She works with her clients to help them feel good about the business they’re building and the wealth they’re receiving from it. Brittany fell in love with yoga and when the owner of her local yoga studio expressed interest in moving on or selling the business, Brittany jumped on the opportunity and decided to dive headfirst into the yoga business. With her yoga studio being so in-person, how has COVID-19 affected her business? Brittany had to close in the beginning, and they later opened with 30% capacity. She had to get smart and pivot. She now hosts classes online as well as outside. Brittany was lucky, she had no business debt, so she was able to do things a little smarter and pivot in a way that did not

New technologies are coming up everyday and it’s difficult to keep up. However, this actually has been true in our society for thousands of years. Our guest shares a couple of interesting history lessons about how our technology has developed over the years and why it makes sense that we’ve finally arrived -here-.    Guy Perelmuter is the Founder of GRIDS Capital, a deep tech venture capital firm focusing on artificial intelligence, robotics, life sciences, and technological infrastructure. His new book, Present Future, was recognized as the Best Science Book of 2020. Guy is a first-generation Brazilian, having had both of his parents migrate to Brazil to escape world war 2.    Things are changing really fast and we’re entering a new era of deep technology. Our society can now leverage 3d printing, robotics, machine learning, and self-driving vehicles are within our reality. In Guy’s book, Present Future, he provides context as to how our technology is both helping us, but also damaging the planet if we’re no

Do you have a lot of back-channel conversations? They’re basically watercooler chats that don’t seem to make sense for the bigger vision of the company. They are usually people within the company who are pulling vital team members aside to converse about an upcoming project, etc. because they don’t feel comfortable talking to the boss or leadership team about it. One of Bill’s CEOs has their team whispering in the shadows trying to figure out what was “the next thing” to get done. They were off to the side and not showing strong direction within the company. The problem? The CEO hated conflict and would do anything to avoid it. The fix? Bill took time to discuss cultural values, childhood upbringing, and why it was such a pain point for this CEO to bring up the tough conversations. With a little bit of self-awareness and reflection, the CEO recognized some of their blindspots and was able to make the necessary changes to the company. Conflict style discovery is a helpful exercise for any leader to help better

This week’s entrepreneur shares her story from corporate America to going her own way in the personal branding space. She shares some of her biggest mistakes, challenges, and more! Kait LeDonne is the Founder of Brandwise Media, a personal branding agency based in New York, which builds executive and author personal brands using content marketing strategies through social media. Kait is also the author of The Attraction Magnet and is regularly featured in national and international publications as a commentator on celebrity and corporate brands.   Kait’s superpower is the ability to authentically share her thoughts and herself online. She believes this was a key to discovering her natural strengths in personal branding and having her network reach out countless times to get their personal brand off the ground.   Kait started her business when she was 26 and she had to really overcome her feelings of imposter syndrome. After that hurdle, she was then faced with how to scale her business in a way that would be

In this new episode of Scaling Up Insights, we have panelists, Ami Kassar, CEO of MultiFunding, and the author of The Growth Dilemma; Cheryl Biron, a Business Growth Coach in both Scaling Up and 3HAG methodologies; and Dominic Monkhouse, a Business Growth Architect. In December of 2020 alone, women accounted for 100% of the jobs lost. Women in the workforce are suffering and it doesn’t look like they’ll be returning to the job market anytime soon. Schools are too unpredictable and the people who can’t afford it are single moms. With so many women leaving the workforce, Bill is worried about the quality of perspectives and the impact it will have on innovation within companies. In addition to the male/female disparities, the pandemic has deeply impacted the lowest economic class a lot harder and those jobs haven’t come back yet. When it comes to coming back into work, people are getting emotional that they can finally shake hands with “strangers” and be in the same room with people. In Dominic’s experience, yo

Do you feel stuck in your business? You’re doing everything and doing nothing at the same time? And the little progress you do seem to make, ends up with more arguments and confusion in the end? Bill took over a company several years ago and the old leadership team was still there. No matter what Bill did, there would always be conflict within the leadership team. They couldn’t seem to get on the same page. Because Bill was a partner in this business, there was no way he could simply “just leave.” He had to make it work somehow. If your leadership is not aligned, you have to make some tough changes there. How do you get someone on the same page as you? Bill used a series of tools like defining a clear vision for the company, the brand’s promise, communication, building trust, and more to turn the ship around.   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach du

Today’s entrepreneur got his start in the entertainment industry and has experienced more than one lucky break in his career. He shares some of the best advice, and biggest mistakes, he’s made in his career in this week’s episode! Ryan Kugler is an entrepreneur and strategist with over 25 years of experience in building profitable businesses from conception within both Fortune-500 organizations as well as newly launched startups. He operates on a few key principles: “Be nice to everyone, always return phone calls, and stay in communication with everyone.” COVID-19 has been a big challenge to Ryan’s businesses. Ryan runs three companies simultaneously and his staff all work on each of them. Every day it’s something new for them. However, they were able to shift and pivot the businesses into new areas to help with the changing times. The second biggest challenge for Ryan is technology. It’s ever-changing and it’s so fast-paced that it’s difficult to keep up with. Ryan has a policy that if they’re trying to purc

We all understand the importance of working on ourselves and continuing our education, but how do we instill some of these principles into our children, too? Today’s guest has some answers. Jennifer Turliuk is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and career coach. She is the founder and CEO of Maker Kids, the first and largest makerspace for kids in the world. Jennifer offers career coaching services on topics including career exploration, the job search process, resumes, cover letters, interviewing, and negotiations. She has helped clients get into exclusive schools and incubator programs, and land jobs at places like Google, P&G, and Kelson. Jennifer found herself dissatisfied with the corporate job that she was working at early in her career. She decided to quit her job, fly down to Silicon Valley, and cold call investors, entrepreneurs, and more to help figure out what their “secret to life” was and how they found their true calling. Through her own life experiences, she found her call, and it was better

Does it ever feel like your business doesn’t look like you think it should? It just doesn’t feel right? Do you think your team is mismatched? Does your gut just keep telling you something is off? If things don’t “feel” good in your business, that could be because there is a mismatch in your company values. You might have created an accidental culture within your company and it’s going off the rails. One of Bill’s clients had a profound mismatch on what the CEO’s version of the company looked like vs. what the reality of the company was. How does that happen? The CEO wanted to see his vision come true, but the culture he created was one of expediency and convenience, and there was no intention behind it. If you want your business to accurately reflect your vision and your values, and your purpose, you’ve got to build traditions and habits. Like trying to train a little child, you need to keep them accountable and guide them on what’s acceptable behavior vs. not.   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Work

Today’s entrepreneur talks about the career shift she had to undergo to take on her family business, something she never thought she’d take over. She always saw the charismatic side of her father, but never realized the in-depth, and rewarding, “behind the scenes” work that he did for the audio-visual industry. Taryn joined AV Images as CEO in 2018, the audio-visual production company her father founded in1985. Taryn spent most of her career in local government administration with the City of Dublin City Manager’s Office in California prior to joining the company. Prior to the pandemic, Taryn’s bread and butter was the tradeshow and conference space, helping her clients set up audiovisuals for their booths, events, and more. Now, they’ve had to make a pivot and are helping their clients navigate this online world much more effectively and to help them bring a high-quality virtual experience to their shows. Taryn has had a lot of lucky breaks since she came into the business. It came down to connecting with th

Building and maintaining teams in an operational setting is a critical pillar for many entrepreneurs, but if you make a mistake in this arena, it can cause harm. Today’s guest shares how you avoid these mistakes and execute with precision. Robert “Bo” Brabo is a retired U.S. Army Chief of HR Operations with the White House Communications Agency and was the Presidential Communications Officer for both Presidents Bush and Obama. Bo has served in several executive positions including most recently Vice President of Human Resources at the National Spine & Pain Centers and Founder of Hail Media Group. When it comes to the power of execution and those who do it well and don’t do it well, it comes down to the empowerment of your team. Before you get to the “execution” phase, there is a ton of training and testing that goes behind the day of the event. This process can’t be skipped. When you have the complicated task of making sure the President is safe, there are too many variables for one person to handle. This

Are you prone to getting distracted by the latest and greatest? Do you feel like you’ve just got too many projects on your plate, and you’re not sure which one has the priority? Two of Bill’s clients would always come to him with the latest book or idea that they learned and wanted to implement. They had a substantial business but they were continually being sidetracked, even within the business meetings they’d have with Bill. It was difficult to get them to focus! If you struggle with too many ideas and too much input, stop for a second and just ask this question: Which one of your quarterly priorities does this apply to? Use your quarterly goals and metrics as a hallmark to keep you focused on the tasks that truly matter. Keep asking this question as you go through the journey and it’ll help you bring yourself back in focus.   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallaghe

Have you played small in your business? Are you still playing small and hesitating on some core moves that you know will move the needle in your business a lot further? Today’s entrepreneur has some solutions for you! Mike Gunderson is the Founder of Gunderson Direct, Inc., a direct marketing agency that helps businesses drive new leads and close more sales through traditional offline channels, especially direct mail. He is also the Founder and CEO of Respond Fast, a voice technology company that helps offline marketers connect with customers through smart speakers. Mike was looking back in some of his old files back when he was a kid and he saw that he did have some entrepreneurial tendencies. He was the founder and president of his neighborhood clubhouse. It was in him at an early age to start something from scratch. Throughout Mike’s corporate career, he always maintained a bit of a freelancer career on the side. He thinks it’s important to have a side hustle of some kind or hobbies of some kind. He even e

Feel like you’ve thrown money at marketing and have no idea what the ROI was on it? How many times have you felt like you were spinning your wheels and like your marketing dollars weren’t going as far as they could? Today’s guest knows how to spend your marketing dollars wisely to get the results you’re looking for. Dan McGaw is an award-winning entrepreneur and speaker. He is also the Founder and CEO of McGaw.Io, an analytics and marketing technology consultancy firm. In 2015, Dan was selected to be a United States Ambassador of Entrepreneurship by the United States Department of State, where he had the privilege to advise the government, universities, and private corporations on how to build entrepreneur ecosystems. Dan has been an entrepreneur since he was 13 years old. He makes a good employee too, but not a lot of CEOs like him too much because he’s always trying to take their jobs or make the process better. Entrepreneurship is all Dan knows and he has worked with companies like Kissmetrics and CodeScho

Do you have a decent size team, but you still seem to be overworked and taking on a bigger load than necessary? Are you having trouble just letting go of the responsibilities? Don’t worry, this is a common problem entrepreneurs and CEOs have. We want to make sure things look right, and are running smoothly, and the truth is no one can truly do the work ‘just like you’. For example, Bill worked with a CEO who had a team of 75 people and she was exhausted. People got used to asking her for help and advice on every little problem and detail, and she would willingly give in and provide them the answers. This made her team dependent on her instead of finding autonomy within themselves. If you’re looking to scale, you need to make your people accountable! Bill uses a couple of tools to help people get clear on what their roles and responsibilities are in their position, and then it’s off to the races!   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by at