Out of the Hourglass

The Succession Planning Process a topic that our team has become quite passionate about over the last couple years through the recognition that your organization deserves a thoughtfully curated and carefully executed exit plan, when that time is to come.  Our Succession Process is a 3 Stage, 9 Step Program that was intentionally designed to help create a methodical plan for business owners who mig...

It’s been two months since we last connected with Brian Nolan and Kevin Nolan for our Business is Messy conversation - and it was due time to bring them back.  When we last connected with these two, it was Mid March and were just one week out from our Grand Summit Conference in San Diego Now - here we are at the end of May and it’s been an eventful time of highs and lows - fitting for the start to...

Today we welcome back NCG Coach Jim Bradley for  the final episode in this introductory Lean Podcast Series - this time, we’re discussing the culture factor.  Continuous improvement efforts that come with the LEAN concept, can only succeed when they become part of an organization’s culture, or  “the way we do things around here”. It’s one thing to want to implement a change, hold a kaizen event, h...

NCG is back for another sneak peek of Kevin Nolan’s soon to be released book, Organizational Muscle. If you are a routine listener of our podcast, you are familiar with Kevin. He is a Partner here at Nolan Consulting Group and CEO at Nolan Painting, a residential painting business he started over 40 years ago, back in 1979.  Similar to Kevin's previous podcast topic Recruiting and Hiring of talent...

Nolan Consulting Group’s Planning Tool, the Cascading Planning Cycle (CPC) is defined by a core  set of planning activities from annual, quarterly and monthly meetings that produce guiding documents for vision achievement at all levels in an organization. Within these guiding documents are planning activities that derive core themes, directives and intention. These are known as the Primary Aim, St...

As a Business Leader who has poured time and energy into building a business that has impacted the lives and careers of many, there will come a time when retirement is on the horizon. What happens to the business and its people when that time comes? We believe your organization deserves a thoughtfully curated and carefully executed exit plan. Nolan Consulting Group can walk you through the process...

We welcome back NCG Coach Jim Bradley for a continuation of our LEAN podcast series - this time, we’re talking about the elements of the Control Plan.  In our past episode we introduced the concept of lean thinking, reviewed  TIMWOODS, discussed Value added vs Non value added, reviewed DMAIC and discussed kaizen events - all of which are fundamental components nn making a lean transformation and a...

NCG Sr. Coach Andrew Amrhein joins us for a timely conversation bringing the focus back to the world of Sales. For those businesses impacted by seasonal change, the Spring ramp up for the busy season impacts not only the hiring needs for production, but Sales Reps and Managers move into high gear with more appointments and more customer relationships to manage.  We want to remind you to SLOW IT DO...

Earlier this year, we invited Kevin Nolan, Partner at Nolan Consulting Group and CEO at Nolan Painting to join us on the podcast to announce the upcoming release of his new book, Organization Muse in the Fall of 2023. In the sprint of sharing, Kevin gave us a sneak peek into one of the chapters of the book - Problems, Change & Continuous Improvement…. And now we are back to discuss another! Th...

For many of our listeners, Summit Members and sponsor partners who joined us in San Diego - it was an amazing few days of learning, sharing and engagement last month- you all came to this event ready to make the most of the experience! Brian and I thought it was important to take some time to debrief the program -  as a team we worked incredibly hard to bring this event to life and utilize the opp...

Colin Nolan, Sr Business Coach here at Nolan Consulting Group is ready to bring us all back into the mindset of planning…we are just about to wrap up Q1 of 2023 after all! As many of you are all familiar with, here at Nolan Consulting Group, we coach the structure of our planning model, the Cascading Planning Cycle(CPC). The cycle is a core set of planning activities from annual, quart and monthly...

Our LEAN Podcast Series here on Out of the Hourglass rolls on with NCG Business Coach, Jim Bradley.   Today - we are introducing the Kaizen Event! If Lean is a lens through which we focus on eliminating waste, increasing productivity and providing value add for an organization,  The Kaizen focuses on continuous improvement, the change for good.  Having facilitated many Kaizen events over his caree...

Brian Nolan and Kevin Nolan are back with a special edition of Business is Messy - we get a temperature read on the messes of the current business environment in tandem with a preview of the keynote theme of our upcoming Grand Summit Conference! The NCG Team and an epic crew of Summit Members are heading to San Diego next week for our 2023 Grand Summit Conference where the theme of Organizational...

NCG’s Managing partner, Brian Nolan joins today’s episode to discuss the importance of creating a welcoming experience and structure for those new employees joining your organization.  We’ve all had a first day at a new job somewhere… and let’s be honest, that first day stirs up with a mix of emotions - excitement, anxiousness, eagerness… maybe some confusion - should I really be joining this comp...

NCG’s own Director of Operations and Sr. Business Coach, Kathryn Freeman , takes over as episode host for a one on one conversation with Nicole Hanik , Chief Integration officer at Painters USA.  In this episode, Kathryn and Nicole dive into relationship dynamics at play between the Visionary and Integrator, a topic that we dove deep into here in 2022 and became the primary theme of several of our...

CEO & Founder of Trifit Business Development, a sales training and recruitment firm and  author of Hooked on Hopium , Overcome the Biggest Obstacle to Your Sales Success, Mike Shannon lives and breathes the psychology of selling.  With 35 + years of sales experience as a foundation, Mike’s passion now resonates in helping companies and individuals maximize their potential. He recently joined N...

We are back with NCG Business Coach, Jim Bradley for a continuation of the LEAN Podcast Series here at Out of the Hourglass. We kicked off the series back in the Fall of 2022 and today we’re keeping the discussion moving, taking a closer look at another process used within the LEAN Lens - DMAIC! Yes, that too is another acronym. In our last episode we worked the TIMWOODS process - one it used to h...

Our 2023 Season is kicking off with Kevin Nolan, Partner at Nolan Consulting Group and CEO of Nolan Painting for a sneak peek into one of the Chapters from Kevin’s new book, Organizational Muscle, releasing early Fall, 2023. Today we’re focusing on Problems… that lead to Change, that inspire the need for a culture of Continuous Improvement. By this point, we all recognize that Business, and life f...

Welcome to 2023! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are settling back into your routines with fresh perspective and optimism for the year ahead. The start of a new year is always an interesting time of transition, looking back at what was and looking ahead at potential opportunities. At Nolan Consulting Group, this means reviewing and resetting, looking at new Big Rocks to accompli...

NCG's Managing Partner, Brian Nolan, and Nolan Painting's Field Supervisor, Conal Mulreany, tackle the tricky topic of Giving Feedback, a critical part of any managerial role. This discussion is an excerpt from a recent workshop for field management focused on leadership behaviors. From navigating broken agreements to understanding how and when to give feedback, Brian and Conal highlight the impac...

On today's podcast, Molly welcomes back NCG Business Coach, Jim Bradley to continue the conversation on LEAN thinking and how to apply the concept to operational processes. LEAN is a concept that holds many tools in its toolbox that can be used to help us identify and overcome the barriers, problems, or interruptions to flow. You will quickly learn that FLOW plays a critical role in the LEAN conce...

Let it be known - Biz Dev is back! We all can feel the shift - the last couple of years of endless leads and months of work on the calendar are slowly starting to dissipate. While "The Sales Guys" may say "The fishing was good", it doesn't last forever. It is time to get in the mindset of developing relationships again and brush up on your skills...or risk getting left empty-handed! In today's pod...

On this week's episode of Out of the Hourglass, Kathryn Freeman, NCG Sr. Business Coach and Director of Operations welcomes a new guest: Nicole Hanik, Chief Integration Officer at Painters USA. In this compelling conversation, Kathryn and Nicole tackle the topic of Continuous Process Improvement and the need to incorporate technology. As the CIO of a 40 Million + Organization with 3 locations, Nic...

We're back with another highly requested Business is Messy Podcast Episode featuring NCG Partners and brothers Brian Nolan and Kevin Nolan. When we last heard from these two, it was mid-July, and there was growing uncertainty about the economy and potentially turbulent times ahead. Here we are 4 months later, and while uncertainty remains, there is clarity in having a plan A...and a plan B. Riding...

NCG's Managing Partner Brian Nolan, takes over the mic to host a critical conversation on Labor Laws and Employer Protection with David Walton, an experienced Labor and Employment attorney at Fisher Phillips in Philadelphia. The conversation dives into the complicated world of employer/employee relations and covers a variety of tips for dealing with employee challenges. Documentation, setting expe...