Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

A BHAG — a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal — can play to your strengths. It’s not meant to be reasonable in any way; instead, it’s designed to inspire you to transform into something interesting.   A BHAG also isn’t meant to be a financial goal. No one really cares that you want to be a billion-dollar company. But you can accomplish a compelling BHAG if you can translate that financial goal into someth...

Nothing easy is ever handed out for free, but the challenge of working for what you want most is always worth the reward.   After playing for the Dallas Cowboys, Indianapolis Colts, and Denver Broncos, Chris Gronkowski ventured out to build a product with the aim to alleviate the challenges athletes experience with the standard protein shakers. Owner and inventor of the Ice Shaker, Chris has joine...

Who doesn’t want to know the secrets of how to be happier? In business and life, everyone is faced with opportunities to find and enjoy greater happiness every single day. But where and how can you start?   Scott White is the happiest guy you will ever meet. After spending fifteen years on Wall Street, he took a chance and became an entrepreneur and business builder. Today he is Chairman and CEO o...

The purpose of your company is the why or the what. There is something that you care deeply about that is motivating you to keep working toward your goal.  At that motivational center you’ll find decision and action arise in the brain.    What are you proud of?  That is where you will find the why of your work. Consider a person that matters a great deal to you – what you would tell them about the...

When we become a master of something, it naturally flows through us. We feel powerful and effective. Flow state happens in peak moments of mastery, and these two are greatly interconnected.   The beginning of mastery is to give up the idea of ever finishing. Bill is still deeply at work in the areas of his life that he is mastering. When we say we are done with something, we want to put it behind...

Good sales pitches aren’t about what you have to offer. An effective sales pitch is all about what you have to offer that the other guys don’t have. When you can identify that selling point, you’re headed in the right direction to close the deal.   April Dunford is an executive consultant, speaker, and author who helps technology companies make complicated products easy for customers to understand...

If you insist on hanging onto your business for too long, you are keeping it weak. If you insist on hanging onto your team too tightly, you are keeping them weak.   Too many leaders hire helpers and then micromanage them, or stay at their jobs for too long each day and week. They don’t vacation often enough and they don’t retire soon enough. Great leaders pass the baton firmly to their team. It’s...

Do you know how to do the kind of planning that makes a real difference? Most of us spend more time working on the less important things that happen in between planning and then push off the planning that really matters for a future day that never comes. This results in sloppy actions and random results.   Bill recommends scheduling out annual, quarterly, weekly, and even daily planning. Every sch...

Everything is a negotiation. From the boardroom to the lunchroom, finding common ground is critical to getting what you want.   Keld Jensen has more than 30 years of experience in international management, negotiation, and communication from his post as managing director of a listed Scandinavian company. He is the founder and former CEO of Centre for Negotiation, a consulting and training organiza...

Your slides aren’t working in your favor. The key to selling is the stories that you tell, and your pitch needs stories that engage people so that you can connect in ways that close the deals.   Nir Zavaro is an entrepreneur, author, and speaker. He regularly tours the world, on a mission to help as many people as possible become better storytellers. Using his experience, storytelling fundamentals...

Too many companies struggle to scale because they are stuck reinventing things that just don’t need to be reinvented.  The companies that succeed are the ones that focus and refine systems in a disciplined way that makes them better than they have ever been before.    JC Hite is the visionary Founder and CEO of Hite Digital, the fastest growing digital agency in the US. With a deep-rooted passion...

A brief summary of this episode Mentioned in this episode: Busy Is Broken Have you ever had a week where 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 about growing by doing less, not more. Read or listen to a sample chapter, over at busy...

The playbook for navigating the transition from manager to leader has only become more difficult in recent years. Today’s guest understands the challenges leaders face and what it takes to be an effective leader in today’s workplace.   Adam Bryant is the senior managing director of The ExCo Group, a leadership development and executive mentoring firm. He is a respected and noted expert on executiv...

When people are really upset, there is a simple way to turn things around and bring them back into the game. Deeper listening is the key to understanding what is going on behind the complaint.   The complaint itself is rarely the problem. More often it’s the personal value that they care deeply about that has been attacked or triggered. When a leader can identify the value that is behind the upset...

Great leaders tend to be optimistic and positive, but that can come at a very real cost. When you don’t think about or listen to what could go wrong, you’re setting yourself up for guaranteed failure. There is value in giving a voice to the negative possibilities.   Bill once made a $2 million mistake by not considering what could go wrong. He quickly learned to balance his naturally positive appr...

For most of us, when looking to hear “yes,” what gets in the way is us. Our thoughts and feelings get in the way of our ability to effectively communicate with other people. When we’re stuck inside our heads, we worry that we may be too much of something, or don’t have enough skills in a particular area, and we dread hearing “no.”   All of these things are happening internally, and they all keep u...

Many start-up companies scale up by leveraging venture capital, but what are venture capitalists looking for in the companies that they choose to invest in? Even if you aren’t interested in securing funding, this episode highlights the differentiators that will set your company apart at every stage of scaling up.   Kate McAndrew is a co-founder and General Partner at Baukunst. In addition, she is...

When you can determine what your clients, donors, or sponsors want, you can persuade them to help you get what you need.   Lori Zoss Kraska, MBA, CFRE is Growth Owl, LLC’s Founder and CEO. She possesses over 22 years of expertise in revenue generation management, corporate sponsorship support, corporate cause marketing, fundraising, corporate social responsibility, nonprofit consulting, executive...

There is one simple secret to helping your team get unstuck. Powerful listening is the key to showing your team that you are interested in where they’re coming from, who they are, and what they need to do to level up.   The best way to get stuck people re-engaged is to listen to what they are saying to you. Listening leaders don’t leap into solving problems. Great leaders have engaged teams and ca...

You want things and you need things, but Bill knows that there is a much easier way to get what you want than employing trickery, manipulating, or coercing. When you look for ways to hear yes, simply listen for what other people want.   When you listen for and think about what other people want, your proposals will go effortlessly because you will naturally be able to offer them what they are look...

Build the fort! Ideas that seemed simple when you were a kid may seem insurmountable as an adult, but scaling up and building out your dreams really doesn’t have to be that hard.   Dubbed “The Startup Whisperer” by startup community enthusiasts, Christopher Heivly is a life-long entrepreneur and multifaceted investor who spent forty years working as, for, and with entrepreneurs. Prior to becoming...

Do you ever wish people were more inspired by you? Bill has a simple formula for leaders who want to light others up. When you share the vision of your company the right way, it is guaranteed to get other people excited about it too.   The formula is simple. First, talk about the problem area that you deal with in the world. Then, share what the predictable future will look like without change. Fi...

People don’t need managers, they need great coaching. No one really likes being managed — they like being led and supported by effective coaching.   Often people want to work out their own problems with the support of their leaders. Rarely do they want to hand over their problems and expect the leader to create the solution. When people come in with a problem, they should come out with a project....

Stop trying to create a perfect plan. Bill doesn’t believe clients who tell them that they’ve thought of everything. There is no way to create a perfect plan, so just stop trying.   Things are going to happen tomorrow that you can’t even comprehend today. The act of planning is the most valuable tool, not the plan itself. A simple plan created today and acted on consistently in the future will mak...

The hiring process continues to be more complicated than ever before, but finding the right fit for your position doesn’t have to be a long and cumbersome process. You just have to be willing to put the work in to find the top performers.   Dr. Brad Smart is widely regarded as a world expert on hiring and is a renowned consultant to many leading companies and SMBs. He is the creator of Topgrading...