Can You Scale AND Have It All?

Scaling without sacrificing your health or relationships

00:00Bill Gallagher: Have you ever had a week when you're completely slammed, but somehow nothing actually moved? Is this one of those weeks? That's not really a time problem. It's a busyness habit problem. My new book, Busy Is Broken, Do Less, Scale More, is all about growing by doing less, not more. Read or listen to a sample chapter over at busyisbroken.com. That's busyisbroken.com. It's also on Amazon and other booksellers.

00:56Bill Gallagher: What if I told you there was another way, maybe a better way, a better way to scale your business without sacrificing your health, your family, or your sanity? Not talking about a pipe dream. This is a proven repeatable thing. And the leaders that have embraced it, they're not just successful, they're thriving and they've got a great business and a great life. I want to talk to you now, share some examples, talk to you now about how to grow a business, to build a business and a life. Have both, have it all. A life you love, a business you love, fulfill your ambition. That's what I'm talking about today.

A tech CEO building $200M while staying balanced

01:31Bill Gallagher: So share a story with you about a tech company, a CEO that I've been working with for a few years. The company will very shortly be worth $200 million. And he's gone through a lot of phases to get to this point. He's got a growing business, but he's also got a life, right? So he's got a team that's all over the place. They're going through all kinds of challenges in the marketplace, in funding, in customers, in competition, like that kind of thing. Changes in government economic policies, impacts in trends. We've gone through some phases in getting to this point. But through all of this, the guy's got a strong team, and he's got time for his relationship, his family, time for fitness. He's even got some time for fun in there. And you could see it on him on the regular, like the balance of him and his life. You can see it affecting his thinking, the creativity, his approach to solving problems. It doesn't mean that it's been all easy in any of those domains, family, fitness, friends, business, money, like all challenges all the time. But all of those things actually work together. So yes, there have been some team members that haven't worked out or team members who worked for a while and then had to be replaced, replacements who came in and didn't turn out to be right. All of those are the kinds of things that we expect to see as we grow a business. But having touch points, having time for all of those things actually enhances them all collectively, doesn't take away from them. So this idea of scaling without suffering is a practical, achievable goal for all of us, for you and me.

Create a BHAG rooted in purpose and impact

03:17Bill Gallagher: So here's the recipe. Like here are the things to do. Four big things. The first thing is let's be up to something. So let's create a BHAG, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, something like truly transformational, 10X, 100X, ten years or more out. We don't know how we're going to get there exactly, but we have an idea of a particular accomplishment that we want rooted in the purpose of the impact of the business. So what does your business do that makes the world a better place? Let's create some BHAG, Big Hairy Audacious Goal, Jim Collins term, related to that long way out of the future that requires a breakthrough. It's big, hairy, audacious. It's a big deal. It lights people up. It excites people. It's never been done before, this particular thing, your version of it. Right? And then let's work back from there on a variety of things around strategy. Let's create a rich vision for what the company looks like three to five years out of the future. Let's figure out what customers you work with. So the first bit is all about the basics of strategy. Not that it never changes, of course it changes, but we want to create a rich, clear, effective strategy that's largely working that does something worth doing in the world. And that actually attracts people, attracts customers, backers, funders, partners, customer, like everybody. Everybody's attracted to this big, new, interesting thing that you're going to do in the world. Right? And you maybe are likely already doing it, already working on something like this. Right? We want to bring clarity to it though, so that you can communicate it effectively and people want to be a part of it or want to help you. They want you to win.

Build a values-based culture with coaching

04:56Bill Gallagher: Then we go to work on the people. Let's build a culture for our people rooted in values, where the core values are alive and real, where there are touch points, where the team holds those values up collectively together. Let's establish clear accountability for core functions and process in the company. Let's implement a peer and superior subordinate coaching. Let's create a culture of coaching that helps rise people up. Leaders coach leaders who coach leaders and so on. And we've got now a rich sort of people side of the equation against the core strategy of what we want to do.

05:34Bill Gallagher: Then at the same time, roughly, we go to work on the execution. Let's implement a framework of priorities, metrics, meetings, the kinds of things that get the company moving, keep it on track, get the people all working together well, coordinate things that execute on plans that follow through with it. So whether it's priorities or OKRs or rocks, or doesn't really matter what nomenclature, what terminology you use. Let's create dashboards and things like that of a few metrics. Let's look at these dashboards and metrics on a regular basis in well organized meetings, daily huddles, weekly meetings, quarterly plans get updated and redo the priorities and so on. So that's the execution framework. So we get the strategy dialed in. We start to upgrade the people practices. Then we work on the execution.

Make time for the life you have been neglecting

06:22Bill Gallagher: And then number four, get a life, right? You need to give some time back to the things you used to love that you've been neglecting, right? Give some time back in a concerted, committed, dedicated way. Make time for whatever it is for you. I like to surf and sail and ski and do things like that. Make some time for that. Program it in. Don't do it whenever there's anything left because there's nothing left. Figure out what kind of time you want with your family and when that occurs. I know when I want time with my kids, with my grandchild, with like all of those, like figure out what that is for you. When is date night? How much time for romance? How much time for friends? When do you go dancing? What are the things that you love to do that like giving them gives you back, right? All of those things together help restore yourself, give you perspective, give you ideas, place to go think about and integrate things, not just 24/7 in the office, heads down, like all the time at your desk, in meetings. Like get out, get out with customers, right? Get out into your life, go out with a forum mates and other kinds of people and spend some time doing things. So get a life. Number four, get the strategy dialed in and articulated clearly, upgrade all the people practices, the culture side of the business, the roles, that kind of thing. Implement a culture that includes coaching, then put in all the execution basics and then give some time back to you, your family, your life, your fitness, your health, all the rest of the things that make you awesome.

07:55Bill Gallagher: Most business owners that we work with, and that we know in the world and that we are, work way too hard, but still feel stuck.

08:04Bill Gallagher: Our focus, our passion, my passion is helping you build out that strong team, build the structures in place so that you could scale with ease and grow your business, but without suffering, without sacrificing your life in the process. And I think that actually makes the whole business a whole lot better.

08:26Bill Gallagher: So be like my tech CEO. Grow your company to $200 million plus, get a great exit, have a great life in the process. Don't sacrifice those years in the hopes of then taking a vacation someday. Do all that now, and it'll make a difference. You can actually do it.

The CEO a thousand times bigger does not work a thousand times harder

08:40Bill Gallagher: Remember this: the CEO of a company a thousand times bigger than yours, a thousand times bigger than yours, doesn't work a thousand more hours, doesn't work a thousand times harder, has the same 24 hours in a day that you do, has the same family and personal and health concerns that you do. They're just human beings. They might be smarter, right? They might be more driven in some ways, but I'll promise you this: they can't do it a thousand times more effort. And you can't build your team or company a thousand times bigger by working a thousand times harder. You've got to change the approach. It's not even like it's cliché to say don't work harder, work smarter. Yes, that is what we're talking about. But it's not just smarter, because maybe you're like, oh, I'm not that smart, so I'm going to work hard.

09:33Bill Gallagher: It's different. It's a different approach. It's suited to a different size. You have to keep evolving the way that you work. And it really does come down to those basic principles. At the end of the day, you could be running a $10 million company, you could be running a $100 million company, a billion, like whatever. You're going to do it by leading leaders who work with other people. You've got to learn to shift your approach. So what do they need? Right? They need a clear picture of where we're going and what it looks like and what makes us different. And you need to build an environment of people. We need to execute consistently.

What do you need to redesign first

10:08Bill Gallagher: Maybe you're not that kind of person, so you have on your team somebody who is a great executor. But you have to help implement and reinforce and support those execution habits. You've got to reinforce and execute and empower the people. And you've got to stop leading the way that you are doing now or maybe have always done. You've got to shift out of that.

10:50Bill Gallagher: So start to imagine and reinvent a new approach. Those are the four things to attend to. What is it that you need to work on first, and how are you going to start to change your approach? What would you need to do to say, to commit yourself, to redesign it? Do you need to find a coach out there somewhere in the world? There's a lot of people like me who will help you get there, right? Who's going to be for you? Who's going to help you get your team and yourself through that process? That's a good question.

11:02Bill Gallagher: So I suggest you go look at it. Think about what it is that you would do that would start to alter this. You were really having it all and fulfilling, not sacrificing your business ambition or the quality of your life, but having fully realized ambition for your business and the growth and the impact in the world, as well as having a really fantastic life that you love and are proud of. We're interested in you having both of those things. So what is it for you? What is it for you to take on? I hope that's helpful. I hope it gets you started thinking about something, and you can begin to think and modify that this week. If we could help you, let us know. We'll be in touch. Until next time, keep scaling.

11:40Bill Gallagher: Thanks for listening today. One last thing: if anything in this episode hit home, my book digs into it further. Busy Is Broken: Do Less, Scale More. It's all about how to stop drowning in work and build a business and a team that scales without you. Available right now with content samples at busyisbroken.com. Go grab it. Be less busy.