Have you ever found yourself chasing shiny objects or the next great idea only to wind up falling short or never committing to implementation? I know I have and our guest today, Jeff Reynolds, shares with us how to go from revolution thinking to evolution thinking. Jeff is an author, marketing expert, and his work has been featured by Forbes, the Huffington Post, the Wall Street Journal and Good Morning America.
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ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Jeff Reynolds is an entrepreneur and advisor with over 20 years experience in marketing. He teaches established companies how to think and act more like startups, and also teaches startup founders how to grow into established companies. His focus is to guide companies so they can create meaningful, systematic marketing departments that meet goals through an aligned strategy. Jeff is passionate about mentoring Marketing Managers and providing them with the tools to build courage and lead their marketing teams to produce the best output. His first book on this exact subject, The Monster That Ate Marketing, is set to be published in early 2022. For the past six years, he’s been president of Reynolds + Myers (R+M), a marketing agency specializing in food and shelter companies, and now he’s excited to branch into the consulting space. Before that, Jeff founded several startups, including a venture-backed legal tech company, a Twitter-based flower delivery service, and an early ecommerce company. He has been a guest on The Really Really podcast and his work has been featured by Forbes, Huffington Post, Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, and The BBC, among others. Jeff loves to travel the world with wife and two kids, and regularly volunteers to teach and mentor aspiring entrepreneurs. He lives in Boise, Idaho with his family.
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TRANSCRIPTION:
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:00):
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week we help growth minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team. And as we open up today, the question is, have you ever found yourself chasing shiny objects? Or maybe you’ve found yourself chasing that next great idea only to wind up falling short or maybe never committing to implementation. And I don’t know about you, but I know I’ve fallen victim to that before. And if that’s you or you found yourself in that position, you’re going to love our interview today with Jeff Reynolds. And he shares with us how to go from revolution thinking to evolution thinking as you implement new ideas and vision into your company. Jeff is an author, a marketing expert, and his work has been featured by Forbes, the Huffington Post, the Wall Street Journal and Good Morning America, just to name a few. You’re going to love this interview. So let’s go ahead and jump right into my interview with Jeff Reynolds.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (01:02):
Thanks for having me, Tom. It’s really cool to be on talking with you. So yeah, I’m Jeff Reynolds. My day job is president of Reynolds+Meyers. We’re a marketing consultancy that specializes in working with food and shelter companies in the B2B space. That’s our primary audience. And in my part-time, I write and I teach and do all sorts of other things.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:28):
One of the reasons that I was really interested in having you on the show is you have this idea and topic you like to talk about on how to make a shift from revolution to evolution. And I’d love for you just to talk about that and how that pertains to marketing, people’s business, and just kind of start going down that direction. I think it was a really interesting topic.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (01:52):
Yeah. Well, I think for starters, I should say, I’m not opposed to the concept of revolution. There are times when organizations need revolution. But in the real world, I’m sure you’ve seen this, Tom, is that translates into shiny object syndrome.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (02:11):
Yes.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (02:12):
You see founders or operators start to chase magic bullets. So in our space, I’ve really learned that the way to affect organizational change is to break everything down into much smaller bites on a day to day basis or a weekly basis instead of sort of giving your team whiplash on the change. And so that’s really hard for a lot of leaders and a lot of entrepreneurs in particular because they come from a visionary mindset. They see the big picture. They have big dreams. And their team, a lot of times, isn’t ready for that.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (02:54):
So what we really try to do is slow that process down in people’s minds and see everything as a process, not just an event, and build systems and structures that give you that benefit over the long term so you see the change actually happen because otherwise, what happens … Analogous to this is the student loan debt crisis. A lot of the student loan debt isn’t held by people who completed college; it’s held by people who got through two years and then life changes. And that happens in business all the time. You have a big initiative and you get 30%, 50%, 70%, and then it’s abandoned. So the evolutionary process makes smaller goals to help solve that.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (03:39):
Interesting. So I’m curious about this concept, and I’m very much a person that I like methodical things and taking these big things and just breaking into really, really small pieces. Otherwise, I’ve found I just never do it. I just don’t get it done. And so there are lots of big things, by the way, that have not been broken in small pieces, which is part of why I selfishly was interested to hear what you had to say, to help us with our own business, try to figure this out. So what are some things that you’ve seen or helped with clients that you’ve helped along the way and maybe a little process or two for kind of a practical application?
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (04:23):
Sure. I mean, I think the number one step here, and of course there’s a ton of nuance, but the first thing is setting those priorities and being really clear on the priorities. And I’ll talk about that in one second. But it’s impossible to set priorities if you haven’t already established really the goal and the strategy to measure it against. So we can go back to that. Those are big topics that get a little bit muddy. But we use a tool when we’re prioritizing; that is the achievability impact matrix. And it’s an L chart, you’ve seen those, or a quadrant graph, with the two axes being achievability and impact.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (05:14):
And what we do is we break down everything into an initiative. So this is how we think about setting priorities. An initiative is oftentimes, for many people, especially from a marketing context, it might be who is the audience that I have? What do I want them to do? The idea, that gets kind of bundled into one initiative and then gets plotted on that chart. And then what we’re looking for, the way we do it, the upper right hand quadrant, which ends up being high impact, high achievability items. And we literally toss out everything else. At some point, you draw a little medium line and that becomes our focus.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (05:52):
And then, now we have our actual priority list. And I just think so often companies are skipping this step. They’re trying to make everything the priority. The word priority didn’t even exist until the 1960s. Or I shouldn’t say that. The word priorities, the idea of plural priorities. Something used to be either priority or not, just like it’s unique or not. And now we have this word priorities, which doesn’t even make sense because you can’t have multiple priorities by definition in the real world. So that’s just an example of a simple tool that we use. But the real key here is getting your mindset to the place where priorities become or priority.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (06:39):
Well, that’s so true. And I know we are definitely a culprit of having priorities and that in turn creates a lack of clarity and which one is the most important or what is the greatest priority that we actually need to be focused on? And so I like this achievability impact to help sort that all out. And as a team, it probably pretty quickly identifies what those top maybe two or three that might fit in and help you single out that one priority to go after.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (07:17):
Exactly. And it’s not to say it’s easy or obvious. At the end of the day, humans still have to arm wrestle it out or somehow debate it out to figure out priorities. It’s not always clear. I don’t want to make it sound that way. But the real thing is when we use achievability as a measurement, achievability is not simply being able to get something done, but it’s the ability to get something done that actually matches your strategy and goals. So you have to go through that process. And there’s a lot of people who do a lot of great work in there. So in the book, for example, I don’t dive really in depth into the goals and strategy because other people cover that so well. But that is a very real thing. Getting good at goals and strategy becomes the lens that you see your priorities through.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (08:02):
All right. So now let’s say I’m at that stage, the priority is clear, I know what direction I’m going. How do you then start to break this down to achieve this goal or the target that has been and set?
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (08:20):
Yeah. Well, every situation’s a little bit different. But in general, the idea is we’re looking for the single smallest unit of a step that we can take that moves us slightly towards the goal, directionally towards the goal. That can be a very small thing. I think this is a difference of my view versus other people. I’m literally talking about picking up the phone may be the first step. If it’s, oh, we want to close this account, we have a dream of Procter & Gamble becoming a client, well, the first step might be A, identifying who you could possibly talk to. A lot of people would say, well, that’s very tactical. But my argument is you have to start at the very tactical in order to ladder up to something that looks more like a strategic effort.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (09:12):
So that unit size is different for every organization and every team. So that example I just gave you might be a one person thing, a person working on something. Whereas other teams, with more resources, your capacity is different. So that might be a little more complex. Although, I mean, I work with multi-billion dollar publicly traded companies, and I use a lot of the same techniques with them that I use with much smaller independent companies because at the end of the day, it’s still humans and humans need that sense of momentum to get there.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (09:46):
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think of just comparing this to we’re just coming towards the tail end of the first quarter and it always seems to be a running joke each year, but the new year’s resolutions, it’s I’m going to get fit this year and sign up for gym memberships and this and that. And then here we are at the tail end of the quarter. How many are still going? I don’t know. But it’s what you’re saying. It sounds like you kind of take this whole fitness thing and you want to do it all in a week instead of stretching it out.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (10:23):
And the fitness is actually a great analogy because if you really think about it, that new year’s resolution by definition almost is a revolutionary act. I’ll speak for myself. I don’t imagine myself two pounds lighter. I imagine myself 25 pounds lighter. And then when I actually go to start doing the work, I don’t go from where I am today to 25 pounds lighter. I have to go down that thing. And so I need a system and the habits built up to do that. I mean, this gets into what I call capacity. And your capacity for a normal person, habits might be a big part of that, but in an organization, habits are simply culture. So building out the rest of your support system to help you actually get there is important too.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (11:18):
Ah, very interesting. And so maybe that leads to kind this next point here of making sure that the strategy and that the alignment of teams that are all working together, whether … I know your focus is marketing, but let’s talk a little bit about out how the strategy, team alignment, marketing are all kind of incongruent, I’d love for you to talk about that and how that improves what’s going on.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (11:49):
Yeah. I mean, so the way I think about it is I’m sure you’ve read Simon Sinek’s, Start with Why.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (11:58):
Yes.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (11:59):
And he has his golden circle and why is at the center and then it goes how and then it goes what. And I think the problem with that for me as thinking about in terms of organizational design, which is sort of the lens that I look through when I’m talking about this, in other words, so when I’m talking to a marketing leader, but it really works for any leader, I’m thinking, it’s not about how you do marketing or do human resources or do ops. It’s how you design an organization to do those things. That should be our focus. And so I break out this how into goal strategy underpinned by capacity, and capacity is simply talent, infrastructure and culture. That’s how that further breaks down.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (12:47):
And so when you’re talk about alignment, a huge problem is that people set goals or strategies to accomplish things, but then either don’t hire the right people to do that, don’t set up the right processes, don’t have the right tools, that’s infrastructure, or don’t do the very, very hard work of establishing a culture that can accomplish that goal. So when a big company, I keep using that as an example, it’s not the only example, but a monstrosity of a company says, “We’re going to be the innovation leader,” and they’ve never done that before, that’s a learned skill within an organization and a culture. And so you have to actually implement the right tools to make that happen. I hope that answered the question.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:35):
It does. Well, sure. Certainly. Yeah. And I think that culture piece, what is the kind of the fabric of that organization? I think about your description of a non-innovative large organization saying, “We’re going to be an innovation leader,” that’s going to maybe never happen or take 10 years before it would come to fruition. And the good news, I guess, for a lot of our clients and folks who will listen to this interview are small businesses or smaller enterprises, if they decide to do it, could actually make that happen if they put the effort into it much more quickly.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (14:14):
Yeah. And I think that’s a really key thing. I mean, as a small business owner, we have to recognize that our advantage is our agility and nimbleness, but it’s also the danger. So for a small business, what happens a lot of times is they don’t ever intentionally establish culture around a goal and they just sort of let it happen. Or they never think about processes or if they have the right people. They just hire the people they have or that are easily acceptable. And believe me, on this culture thing, I’m a convert. So for 20 some years, I’ve run companies, various companies, from technology to consulting ish stuff. And I’ll tell you, I never really believed in this idea of setting principles and defining the mission and all these things. I always thought that was sort of mushy and soft and just a waste of time. But now, I see it totally different. After I started implementing those, that became a framework that I could use to talk to my employees, to set our objectives, figure out those details. So all I’m trying to say is my message to small businesses is really around the agility. Yes, it’s a strength. But recognize the shadow of that strength. The shadow of that strength is that there’s another shiny object to chase.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (15:35):
Yeah. Well, and you started talking into this a little bit, I think, but you call it the marketing miracle, also known as the golden circle. So I don’t know. It sounded like you were going in that direction, but I’d love for you to talk about that.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (15:49):
Well, yeah, that’s what I was referencing. So the golden circle is what Simon Sinek calls his little circle of why, the why, how, what. And everybody gets really excited about it. And I actually do believe in the basic concept. But what I was struggling with as a leader was how to apply that into my organization, other than just thinking about why I exist. So we created the miracle. It’s a silly acronym. I won’t bore you. It’s a modern marketing circle basically. And all that does is it’s this goal strategies underpinned by capacity and surrounded by priorities. And all that really means is, do you have alignment and balance of these things and have you sufficiently defined these things in the correct manner? And so I think strategy is a great example of this because strategy is probably the most misused word in business.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (16:44):
There’s a lot of tactics and to-do lists masquerading as strategies out there. And a strategy is, my definition, and there’s various definitions, but I think they all get to the same thing, is a design plan of action to win. So implied in that is it’s designed, meaning you are proactive, it’s to win. It’s implied that you know what winning means. Let’s just take those two examples. And most companies really don’t have that really clear in the most operators or founders. They don’t really know what winning means other than more. I want more money, more customers, more leads, whatever. And we got to go a little bit bigger than that.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (17:33):
So is this something you help folks kind of sort through or figure out? How do you kind of help identify that?
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (17:40):
We do. And Kyle, who’s my VP of strategy at our company, he runs workshops that really force people to choose. Because usually, the problem is not that they don’t have an idea of what to do. The problem is they want to do it all and they don’t have the resources to do it all. And so essentially, the process is you start it with a wide funnel of ideas, your brainstorming, and you do it in each of these sections of different ways. So you establish, here’s some potential goals, here’s some potential strategies that could meet those goals. And then you do the capacity part.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (18:22):
And this is really why I keep coming back to this because most organizations realize there’s a giant gap. Like, oh, I say I want to do this thing. I say I want to do it in this manner. But everything else is a wish. I don’t have the people, the tools, all those different things to execute it. So that’s where the organization design comes in because then you’re down to getting into really the brass tax and sort of debating and frankly, having the courage to make decisions. Because I don’t know if you experienced this, but I think courage is probably the number one missing ingredient in modern entrepreneurship. Not that entrepreneurs aren’t courageous when they first take that first step. But once you get established and comfortable, it gets scary. And so that’s back to that evolution. That’s why evolution, if you can frame it in evolution, you can help make progress, but you have to ultimately have the courage to make a decision.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:23):
I completely agree. And especially taking, like you described, that evolution of just the first step in a new direction. It might be just a slightly different direction. And I’ve seen it in many entrepreneurs and myself, as I’ve run different business and lacking that courage to make a decision that I know needs to be made to change course because something different has to done, but we’re just comfortable doing what we’ve been doing because we know what to expect.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (19:58):
Yeah. And so if you can have a clear plan, sort of milestones of where you’re headed, knowing your first step … It’s not to say you can never abandon bad ideas or if things don’t work, that you should keep doing them. I’m not articulating that or saying that. I’m just trying to say that the most important thing is that you take a step. And so what tools can you put in place for yourself? What tricks of the trade to master your own psychology? Because for most business owners, the psychology game, I mean, that’s the actual game. It’s not really about the business you’re in for most of us. Some people are blessed with the ability to sort of separate their emotions from their business and all this. But most of us are not that fortunate and we have to get our minds right and have confidence in our decision making to move forward. So a lot of what I do is try to give people the tools to really get that confidence so that they can have the courage to do the things they already know they should be doing.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (21:07):
Yeah. Very, very well said. I love that. Well, this is a great transition point. That was a strong close, strong finish to transition to the next phase of the interview here. It’s where we ask every guest the same four questions before they go. And the first question is about a miss or two that maybe you’ve had in your career along the way and something you’ve learned from it.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (21:30):
Well, I’ve had so many, it’s hard to choose. And maybe that’s a lesson in itself, that misses are okay. But the one that came to mind was one of my early businesses. When I was 16 years old, I started a weekly advertiser, sort of a nickel ads. Do you remember those? Classified ad, newspaper print. This was in the ’90s. And I sold ads, did that successfully, and then threw 20,000 copies in the back of my 1968 Volkswagen Squareback and set out to figure out how to distribute these things. Well, it turns out, selling was easy compared to the distribution. I had no plan for distribution.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (22:14):
And so some of the people who worked with me started putting them in mailboxes. And then I got a call from the police at the US Postal Service, they have a police department, I can’t remember what they’re called, and said, “Yeah, you can’t do that unless you want to go to jail or pay a fine.” So a couple of lessons from that for me were one, understand the end game, understand where you’re going. And specifically, distribution matters. It doesn’t matter how many great ideas or how great a product you have. If you can’t get it to the people, then you’re losing.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (22:51):
Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And look, I’m in the franchising business. That is a method of distribution. So that’s music to my ears. I love that. Thank you. Well, let’s flip things on the other side and let’s talk a little bit about a make or two. You’ve had such a decorated career, I’d love to hear a few things that maybe stand out to you.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (23:09):
Yeah. I mean, it’s interesting. I don’t know about decorated career. It’s been a good run. But I think the first thing that came to my mind was I had an opportunity … I told you I grew up in the advertising or marketing consulting business, basically. And then I had an opportunity. I always had side hustles, before we had a term for side hustles, and one of those side hustles happened to take off. And this is why. I owned a company, I had a business partner, and the company that took off ended up getting into a startup accelerator in San Francisco called Y Combinator, which is where Airbnb and Dropbox and other companies came out of. So I was left with a choice. Do I keep doing what I love? I liked my current day job. Or do I chase this opportunity and go and do whatever it takes to do that?
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (24:02):
And so I guess you could say I figured the make was the sort of getting accepted into this very prestigious place. It’s harder to get into than Harvard kind of thing. It’s a fractional acceptance rate, a fractional of a percent. But I don’t actually think that was the success or the make of it. I think the make was the willingness to overcome the fear that I had about leaving a secure business that was doing well, with a business partner I liked and respected, with clients I loved and with a family to support, and saying you only live once. Let’s roll the dice and do this thing. And so I think that decision, with the support of my wife, was I feel like a pivotal thing because it showed how much power we all have to control our own lives and destiny. And to be fair, that business went well. We raised a few million bucks and did the whole startup thing. It’s still going. I didn’t really enjoy it so I sold my interest. So it wasn’t really a success for me, the business itself, but the process was definitely a make.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (25:11):
Hearing you describe that, it reminds me of that famous Yogi Berra quote of when you reach a fork in the road, take it. And I think a lot of what you’ve been talking about even on the interview is that courage, just to make a decision and not just sit kind of stuck in that middle. You’re at that fork, you got to go left or right, well, choose one. Don’t just sit there. Make that decision and go all in.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (25:36):
100%.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (25:37):
Well, let’s talk about the next question, which is a multiplier. This has become my favorite question we ask. And just, has there been a multiplier you’ve used in growing yourself, your businesses or anything else along the way?
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (25:48):
Well, I’ll say, I wish I had a better answer for myself, my personal self. Because I talked about that psychology stuff, which is pretty revealing about myself, which I’ve been less diligent on. But in terms of my business, I mean, the way I think about the biggest multiplier I have is to focus on hiring 10 X employees. And what I mean by that is somebody who is 10 times better than the average employee, almost no matter the price, is usually better for me than hiring a low wage employee that I have to train and hope that they get there.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (26:23):
Now, every business model’s different, and I understand all that, but that mindset for me changed everything because it gives me the business I want. I have people that are highly accountable and can take responsibility. Their additions are multipliers to my business instead of me having to sort of drag them along. And that frees me up to do the things I really want to do. And so that investment, because really, that’s usually what we’re talking about, is you have to pay more money. I mean, you’re always recruiting and you have to pay more money to get those people. You have to build a culture that works for those people. And that’s been my philosophy and it’s totally changed my business. And the result is that my latest business is my most successful business. But that’s because I learned all these tricks along the way.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (27:15):
I love that. That’s a great suggestion. That’s a great multiplier. Well, and the final question we like to ask every guest is what does success mean to you?
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (27:27):
Yeah. That’s a tough one. My answer is optionality. So having options. I remember in first grade when Mrs. Blair, my first grade teacher, said, “When you finish the test, you have an option to do either of these sheets, the pink sheet or the blue sheet.” And she explained what options were. And from that moment in first grade in Portland, Oregon at [inaudible 00:27:51] Elementary, that idea of options has really stuck with me. And I’ve really tried to build my life around options.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (28:00):
Oh, that’s beautiful. And the option to choose. Have those options.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (28:05):
I feel way more comfortable when I know I can go this way or this way and I’m really happy with either of those options. And I just want to share this because this was a friend of mine’s wisdom on that. I was talking about this concept with a friend and he said, he’s a business friend, and he said, “One thing as we get older than wiser, the options that we have to choose from are usually better because when we’re young, we are always afraid if I have option A or option B and B could be disastrous. Well, by the time we you advance in your career, you sort of automatically filter out the B option and now you have a better B. You don’t have terrible options, sort of destructive options.” And that really resonated with me. And I say that because it made me feel better. When I thought about that, I started thinking about, yeah, as an entrepreneur, I’ve made some progress in my life. And I think for small business people, it’s sometimes not clear that you’ve made that progress.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (29:02):
Yeah. I really like that. Yeah. Your option A and then your option B, option B keeps getting better.
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (29:09):
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And option B in the past could have been the road to ruin.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (29:18):
Yeah. Well, as we bring this to a close here, is there anything you were hoping to share or maybe get across that you haven’t had a chance yet to talk about?
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (29:26):
Well, my only comment would be, I would encourage people to think about how they’re designing their business. So not just thinking about what they’re doing on a day to day basis. But the Michael Gerber E Myth was a famous book that talked about this, about this concept. And so, yeah, and then the book I recently wrote, which is The Monster That Ate Marketing, and it’s really focused on marketing leaders, but really leaders everywhere who engage with marketing. And that’s really all that’s about, is thinking about being more intentional about how you’re organizing and designing your company to actually work for you instead of being a slave to your own company.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (30:12):
Great. Well, and tell us, how can someone find out a little bit more about what you’re doing or a place where can they find your book and get access to that?
Jeff Reynolds, Reynolds+Myers (30:20):
Yeah. So the book, I think it comes out in August, officially. It’ll be everywhere books are sold. But you could also sign up to be alerted or keep track of it at JeffReynolds.com. That’s me. Jeff Reynolds. And you’ll be able to download some early chapters and things like that there as well. So that’s probably the best way.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (30:49):
Jeff, thank you so much for a fantastic interview and for providing such valuable information. And now it’s time to go ahead and jump into our three key takeaways. So takeaway number one is when Jeff spoke about going from revolution thinking to evolution thinking. And he described that revolution thinking in the real world is really shiny object syndrome and chasing after these new ideas or chasing white rabbits down rabbit holes. And he said to really be aware of this and that it’s hard oftentimes for leaders and entrepreneurs because oftentimes, you have a big picture mindset.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (31:29):
Takeaway number two is when he said to view things as a process, not as an event. I thought that was a great takeaway. And to help do that, he described to set clear priorities and set goals to measure against it. And he said how at his company, they used the achievability impact matrix where you have high impact, high achievability is really the focus of that matrix that you’re looking for. And I thought that one other quick little nugget here was interesting, how he described that the word priorities with an S at the end was never really used into the 1960s. And I found that interesting to think that you can only have one priority and that a plural version of the word has only been in use in recent history here.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (32:26):
Take away number three is when he described the word strategy and how it’s one of the most misused words in business. And he said there are a lot of tactics and to-do lists that masquerade as strategy. And he defined the word strategy as a designed plan of action to win. A designed plan of action to win.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (32:48):
And now it’s time for today’s win-win. So today’s win-win couples in with this whole concept and idea of going from revolution thinking to evolution thinking as you design and build new things into your business, new products, new services, new offerings, new staff, new whatever you’re doing. And it really comes from the make that Jeff shared, where he talked about he had an opportunity to go into Silicon Valley, into a world famous startup incubator, and it’s very selective. And he described the make wasn’t actually getting selected to go into it. It was actually making a decision to go from a steady job with a steady income when he knew he had to take care of his family and making that jump and making that leap. And it did remind me of that famous Yogi Berra quote, which is when you reach a fork in the road, take it.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (33:46):
And I think that’s really what Jeff was saying here. Make that decision, don’t sit idle, and go for it. Whatever that decision is, go left or go right, but don’t just sit still. And I thought that was interesting. And he described his make was actually taking that opportunity to pursue a dream or a vision or an opportunity that he was really enthused about. And so as a closing thought is really just to think about how can you apply this in your own business, in your own life, in what you are doing, and using that as a tool to help you in making a better decision or the best decision for your vision and your future and where you’re going.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (34:32):
And so that’s the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at BigSkyFranchiseTeam.com. Thanks for tuning in and we look forward to having you back next week.