Raising the Flipping Bar with Derek Marlin

Building a Championship Business Team

April 25, 2024 Derek Marlin Season 3 Episode 10
Building a Championship Business Team
Raising the Flipping Bar with Derek Marlin
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Raising the Flipping Bar with Derek Marlin
Building a Championship Business Team
Apr 25, 2024 Season 3 Episode 10
Derek Marlin

Hear how a former professional sports insider's secrets for building championship teams in business will change the way you lead your team. The unexpected lessons from sports legends and billionaires will revolutionize your leadership style – and the results will stun you. Dive into this episode and discover the game-changing strategies that will transform your business. Are you ready to lead like never before? Join the conversation and revolutionize your leadership style.

In this episode, you will be able to:
1. Mastering the art of building championship teams in business.
2. Unveiling effective real estate investing strategies for success.
3. Leveraging lessons from sports to enhance business leadership.
4. Embracing the importance of vision in driving impactful leadership.
5. Cultivating a business growth mindset for sustainable success.

Let me know one change you'll make to construct a more championship caliber crew! And while we're on analogies between sports and business, share your favorite leadership lesson that the world of athletics has taught you. 


Learn more about Elevation’s Partnership Flip program: https://elevationinvest.com/partnership-flip/

Connect with Derek Marlin and ELEVATION Investment Properties!
Derek on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/derekmarlin
ELEVATION’s website: https://elevationinvest.com/
ELEVATION on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/elevationinvestmentproperties
ELEVATION on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevationinvest/
ELEVATION on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevationinvestmentproperties

Subscribe to the “Raising the Flipping Bar” on your favorite podcast player!
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3ByYmxv
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3WbUCeQ

Watch “Raising the Flipping Bar” on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@elevationinvestmentpropert4817

Love the show? Here are two ways you can help!

Share this episode with a friend or family member.
Rate the show on your podcast app or on my podcast website: ​​https://www.fixandflip.show/reviews/

Show Notes Transcript

Hear how a former professional sports insider's secrets for building championship teams in business will change the way you lead your team. The unexpected lessons from sports legends and billionaires will revolutionize your leadership style – and the results will stun you. Dive into this episode and discover the game-changing strategies that will transform your business. Are you ready to lead like never before? Join the conversation and revolutionize your leadership style.

In this episode, you will be able to:
1. Mastering the art of building championship teams in business.
2. Unveiling effective real estate investing strategies for success.
3. Leveraging lessons from sports to enhance business leadership.
4. Embracing the importance of vision in driving impactful leadership.
5. Cultivating a business growth mindset for sustainable success.

Let me know one change you'll make to construct a more championship caliber crew! And while we're on analogies between sports and business, share your favorite leadership lesson that the world of athletics has taught you. 


Learn more about Elevation’s Partnership Flip program: https://elevationinvest.com/partnership-flip/

Connect with Derek Marlin and ELEVATION Investment Properties!
Derek on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/derekmarlin
ELEVATION’s website: https://elevationinvest.com/
ELEVATION on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/elevationinvestmentproperties
ELEVATION on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevationinvest/
ELEVATION on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevationinvestmentproperties

Subscribe to the “Raising the Flipping Bar” on your favorite podcast player!
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3ByYmxv
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3WbUCeQ

Watch “Raising the Flipping Bar” on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@elevationinvestmentpropert4817

Love the show? Here are two ways you can help!

Share this episode with a friend or family member.
Rate the show on your podcast app or on my podcast website: ​​https://www.fixandflip.show/reviews/

00:00:00
            

I think that's going to make a big difference. Mm hmm. The tags dealing. When we tag people, like, they get notified and then they share it or like it. Yeah.        

00:00:09
            

Kind of continues, but, yeah, who knows? Yeah. All right. Okay, we're good to go. Whenever.        

00:00:17
            

Okay, cool. So it's 1030. Okay. Yeah. Well, this will be a little bit shorter.        

00:00:21
            

You want to grab the door? Yeah.        

00:00:25
            

Vibrates. Oh, yeah. Thanks. You don't hear it on the feet. I'm off, everybody.        

00:00:29
            

Welcome back to another episode of raising the flipping bar. I'm your host, Derek Marlin, and I'm super excited for today's episode. Now that I hear myself say that. I say that every episode, but this time it's going to be awesome. And the reason why is because it's going to combine, really, two of my main passions in life, one for my former life, which was professional sports and obviously real estate investing today.        

00:00:52
            

So today's episode is about building a championship team, both in business. And we're gonna talk a lot about some different sports analogies. And to me, where, again, my mind goes from growing up in athletics is sports. So I'm a byproduct and a child of the nineties. So between the nineties and two thousands, you think of Michael Jordan.        

00:01:12
            

That is a person who obviously won six different championships, and that was an amazing championship team where everybody had their own inner workings and different moving pieces and parts to create that championship team. I also think about UCLA basketball and coach John Wooden that won more national championships than anybody in the history of college sports, especially in such a short time period, including undefeated seasons. And then we're going to tap into kind of my love and affinity for the Denver Broncos. We're recording this in 2024, so we're still in a sad quarterback purgatory. Peace out, Russ.        

00:01:46
            

Thanks for mediocre play. Hopefully we get a better quarterback later. That's time for another episode. But we're going to talk about the late nineties, the John Elway and Terrell Davis years of back to back Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998. So to me, those are super important ways to talk about how do we build a championship team?        

00:02:05
            

And that team is also needed to win in business. So let's dive into today's episode. With that being said, I would love for you guys to engage and comment, whether it's you telling me that you think I'm crazy and there's better championship teams around, but please do comment dm us. Let us know. Get a, you know, be a part of the conversation, if you will.        

00:02:25
            

So really, to kind of set the stage is that I started my professional overall career far away from real estate investing. I was able to get my mba in sports management at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and I wanted to work in professional sports. So I was blessed enough to get a job with the Denver Broncos in 2002. And where my mind goes with this is I spent seven seasons with the team. That's kind of the way that you say it, because you're so ingrained in what's going on from a sports perspective.        

00:02:55
            

So, from 2002 to 2008, I was with the Broncos. And there's two people that obviously stood out to me as major, major leaders, and they built a championship organization in a championship team. And the first one was Mister Bolin. I was not close enough to him to call him Mister B. That's what everybody who knew him and loved him called him.        

00:03:16
            

Rest in peace, Mister Bolan. He obviously passed away and has since sold the Broncos off to the Walton Penner family. But what I loved really seeing with Mister Bolin was his forward thinking vision. And I remember this like it was yesterday, where the Broncos practice facility is at a part of town in metro Denver called Dove Valley. It's in the south metro part of Centennial.        

00:03:38
            

And there was this really cool deck that came out, and he, of course, had, obviously, a badass office. He owns a professional sports franchise, but he would just sit out there and he would just stand with his hands crossed, and he would just gaze out among all of the players and the coaches. And I just always remember that because he was thinking, and I use this term in a lot of our episodes, you know, from a 30,000 foot view and perspective. And so one of the takeaways for me is we'll get into how do you build up that team, and what does our current team look like today? But you gotta have the vision with you being the leader on whatever level that you are.        

00:04:15
            

And so Mister Bolan, what a, again, kind of stand in an elevated position, have his great office and his beautiful deck overlooking the Rockies and the Broncos practice facility. But he could kind of keep his eyes on what was going on, but there was no way Mister Bolan could know what was the offense doing, what was the defense doing, trying to coach up special teams. He needed people in key roles, and I think that is a huge takeaway. The other thing where I was able to engage with Mister Bolin on more of a one on one level is I was at a, I essentially did corporate sponsorships for the Broncos. So whenever you walked into a stadium and you saw Coca Cola or you saw Budweiser or you saw Comcast.        

00:04:54
            

I sold all the signage, the advertisements, the use of the marks and the logos, coming up with creative ways to help businesses grow their business using the Denver Broncos assets. And so I was in the marketing department and my vp at the time of marketing, he said, hey, I want you to come with me on a meeting with Mister Bay. And I was super excited and I was also freaking out because I'm like, this is the owner of the damn team and I'm just some MBA who's like two years into his career and trying to progress. Ironically, my end goal is to be a president of the Broncos, but it shows you that goals change. And I just want to now be president of my own organization.        

00:05:28
            

But we were in a meeting with Mister B and we were renegotiating a big deal with one of our largest corporate sponsors, Comcast. And you're essentially trying to lock up that client for as long as you can for as much money as you can, obviously providing as much value to the client. So they make it an easy business decision for them. But we are really freaking out because at that point in the economy, it was 2003. We're only tears off 911.        

00:05:55
            

The Broncos won Super Bowls. Now five years ago, brand new stadium, they've got bills to pay and we're trying to get Comcast to the biggest sponsorship. So Mister Bolin again just sits back in his chair and he's got his arms crossed and he's listening and he's listening and he was very, very intent. He let us talk. And again, we're trying to impress our boss and he's like, how much money are we talking about here?        

00:06:18
            

And we're like, it's about 500 grand per year. And he goes, I'll keep this clean. Just get the effin deal done. And we both were like, okay, let's just get the deal done. And I thought, wow, this is a lot of money.        

00:06:30
            

How does this not show up higher on his radar? Well, it's all about perspective. So he gave us and empowered us to do our job to the best of our ability. Well, meanwhile, behind the scenes, he was the chairman of the NFL broadcast committee and he is negotiating a multi billion dollar television deal that's going to set up every single owner through essentially the rest of history to increase the value of all of the NFL franchises because the tv entities are paying teams hundreds of millions of dollars every year. So he's focused on hundred million dollar and billion dollar problems.        

00:07:05
            

And we're worried about $500,000 problems. So it's all about perspective. So he just wanted to kind of get on with his day. He probably was happy. We were hopefully doing our job.        

00:07:14
            

But building a championship team is all about trusting who you're working with. And I think the other thing to me is then he entrusted coach Mike Shanahan. So he built a championship team through having great leaders. And I was really fortunate to have a little bit of experience in crossover with the football side of the operation. And seeing coach Shanahan from afar, he had to orchestrate and have the right team on the field from a player personnel standpoint.        

00:07:42
            

So you had to manage great talent, but also egos from the John Elways, the Terrell Davises, the Ed McCaffreys, the Neil Smiths of the world. But he had a coaching staff as well. And so they called him the mastermind for a specific reason. And it's because obviously he was one of the smartest football minds out there. But what I really appreciated from coach Shanahan was he put key people in the right positions, both from a coaching perspective and a player personnel's perspective, to win and to lead.        

00:08:13
            

And the other thing that he did is he cultivated talent we now know in 2024. I'm kind of a quasi fan of the 49 ers, being a diehard NFL fan because his son, Kyle Shanahan is now the head coach and has been for a number of years of the 49 ers. And so the other cool thing is it's all about developing talent. And so within your organization, you always have to be trying to bring in the best a players at any position that you've got and trying to develop them and give them as much Runway for success as humanly possible. So the cool thing about the NFL is they call it the NFL coaching tree.        

00:08:50
            

And so it's essentially people that have come up under your organization and what are they doing now? Well, right now, Mike Shanahan has five NFL head coaches that are running organizations across the NFL, and there's only 32 of these jobs available in the entire world. I don't even know how many assistant coaches are, again, under coach Shanahan's tree, in addition to his son. And these are people that are succeeding at a high level and they're pretty young as well. So to me, and that, you know, as an aside and being a Broncos fan, damn Chiefs.        

00:09:20
            

The 49 ers would have definitely won more Super Bowls. Again, another great organization. I'm a little jealous, as you can tell. But again, building that championship organization and having that championship mindset is getting the right people and really letting them run with their jobs. Perfect.        

00:09:37
            

You knew what I was coming up for, didn't you? You know, when I'm getting thirsty. I know this is a phenomenal episode. I'm like, all in on it. It's funny because I was like, I need something.        

00:09:50
            

I need like a better hook. I need. There's good episodes, but I'm like, I need something that people are going to. What's making me different? I was like, oh, let's do this.        

00:09:57
            

Let's do leadership and team building. Starting with the stories and then relating it back is this is. This is what's going to separate. This is why people are going to, like, listen every week, like, you're going to bring people in with the guests, but they're going to come back every week to hear what you have to say. Yeah.        

00:10:15
            

So, yeah, no, I'm excited. This is great. This is a phenomenal episode. Thank you. Keep going.        

00:10:21
            

Thank you. Okay, so I want to transition a little bit from creating a championship organization on the sports side of things. And let's talk about how do we become champions in business? And so I was kind of going over my notes, and there were three different people and companies that stood out to me. The first one is Berkshire Hathaway.        

00:10:43
            

So you have, in my opinion, two of the smartest investors of our time in Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger, in a beautiful partnership, especially with Mister Munger passing away. Rest in peace. But they are two of the top investment mines across all different spectrums of overall investing. They've got real estate assets. I mean, obviously, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services is a very large brokerage that they acquired.        

00:11:08
            

This company started in the late 1960s in its kind of current format, and they're a holding company. So they own the majority shares, if not all of a bunch of companies that you probably know and consume on a daily basis. So whether it's Elevation insurance, whether it's Coca Cola, whether it's having a massive stock position in Apple, Berkshire Home Services, like we mentioned, these guys have become multi, multi, multi billionaires because they are winning in business and they are empowering their staff. And again, there is no way that these guys could lead that many organizations. And the other great thing is they are creating so much value.        

00:11:49
            

And that value, if I kind of lean back on my experience and time in the fixed income world, world or more on the Wall street side of things, it's about creating value, which not only is a company mission for elevation, but the value of Berkshire Hathaway stock when we're filming this episode was over $608,000 for one share. That's the way to create value. So, coming up with a championship mindset and enabling and empowering your people, that can translate across the board. And those guys obviously figured out, how do you own a much bigger piece of something that is far larger than they could ever do on their own? The second one is, I'm kind of a student of history, and so I want to kind of bring you back to really, the ogs, if you will, of business success.        

00:12:40
            

And it's the Rockefeller family and the Flagler family. So in the early. Well, let me backtrack a little bit. In the mid 18 hundreds. So it's the 1860s.        

00:12:51
            

Rockefeller, who was an incredibly successful businessman and investor, actually still needed a partner. So sometimes, again, you cannot do this all on your own. So they founded what is now Standard Oil or what was Standard Oil in 1910. And so those actually me backtrack. I'm messing the dates up on that.        

00:13:12
            

Okay, so we've got Berkshire Hathaway. I want to talk about another great business entity and essentially business partnership, which is Standard Oil. So that is the Rockefeller family and the Flagler family. And the thing that I love about this, essentially, that it was a partnership, is the championship mindset was developed from an early, early age, in the mid 18 hundreds. So dating back to the 1860s, they essentially created the oil industry, and they partnered up together over the next 50 years to create Standard Oil.        

00:13:47
            

And that became so successful, it was essentially called a monopoly, and the government forced them to break up. If you translate present day value of what their investments would be, they would be by far some of the richest people in the world, even though their families and generations still are. But again, when you're forced to break up because the government thinks you're too profitable, and then today they've created properties, or today, I should say, they have created companies such as Mobile, Elevation, Amoco, and Elevation. So those are two people that we need to learn a lot, in my opinion, about building championship organizations and business structures from days gone by. Those guys are the titans of industry, and we can learn a lot from them.        

00:14:32
            

Let's kind of talk about the other end of the spectrum, and that is some people that are doing some amazing things today, not only just because I'm a shareholder, but I admire what Facebook has done as a company. You've got Mark Zuckerberg as the founder, but he could only take the company so far in his own vision and his own years. And so over the course of 14 different years, Sheryl Sandberg, who essentially became the COO, was able to take that company to new heights. She has since obviously, stepped down and retired as of 2022. But you have, what I love is the great and beautiful visionary role and integrator role, or some people kind of look at it as CEO and COO as a way to help grow your company.        

00:15:15
            

They are a really, really powerful duo, or they were a powerful duo. And I also love the difference in perspective of a male versus a female, too. I think that's really, really important. As a person who has my wife as a business partner and two young daughters, it's really important for me to help promote women in business and also women in real estate. Couple quick examples of different partnerships, different companies, and different combinations that led people to success.        

00:15:45
            

So I'm sure you're thinking, okay, great, you've got me all pumped up, because we've talked about the broncos and we've talked about sports. We've talked about people that are billionaires. Well, how the hell do I use it in today's environment? So let's go into how are we currently structuring elevation as a team? And I'll talk about our journey in evolution as a company, because I think there's some things that you can learn both on the positive and the negative of how we have created, created, and kind of curated our company today.        

00:16:15
            

Okay, cool. Yeah, that should be good. So, in talking about how elevation has grown over the last seven years, I started as an independent and really essentially family run business. It was myself and my dad. We had gotten out of the stock and bond trading market and gone into real estate full time.        

00:16:34
            

And it was really where I cut my teeth. Starting in 2015, did a lot of great business there. But there's also some positives and negatives about, you know, running and owning a family business. And so, learned a ton there. My dad, since essentially retired and my folks moved out of state, so I was doing things on my own.        

00:16:51
            

We had another episode with, you know, the home buying guys in Dallas, Texas, and they had a great point where it's like you can only do so much by yourself or you can only do so much as a two person team. So we went through the next two years with primarily me running every aspect of the business. And then I hired Alex, our first project manager, and he helped us run the day to day aspect of the fix and flips from a construction side. So we kind of evolved to what was our next level of growth. That was great.        

00:17:22
            

We went through that for a couple of years, but again, I maxed out on time. I maxed out on kind of, you know, brain power of how much I could handle at once. And again, you can only do so much. So our next evolution is we brought on, kept our project manager to help run the day to day aspects of the construction for the flips. And then we brought on two different sales executives.        

00:17:42
            

So those people helped find properties, they helped make sure and keep the deals going, and then they helped sell properties on the back end. So obviously, the key to any successful real estate business is lead generation. So we had two folks that did a great job for us over the next couple years, and really it helped catapult us to where we are right now. And the foundation of what we've got with elevation as a company in 2024 is really much like a home. We had to build that foundation between two person family business, solo business, a couple of employees to our current structure right now, which is we have a Rockstar senior project manager, Travis, who helps us run our flips.        

00:18:26
            

He helps us run our client flips, whether we're consulting, he runs partnership flips. He also gets involved to make sure that our wholesale properties are budgeted appropriately, to make sure we're cranking out good rehab numbers. Then we have Adam on the sales side and a sales manager was a big kind of philosophical shift that I made because again, I'm kind of running out of time. So we were able to go out and find somebody that is very talented in running a team and helping build a team. And that enabled us to transition over to moving folks and having real estate licenses at Elevation.        

00:19:01
            

And so now we have a brokerage team of nine different brokers that report up to our sales manager and just give me so much more bandwidth. And you've heard me talk about it in different episodes of working on the business versus being in the weeds or working in the business all the time. So we're really starting to crank to make sure and grow the investment side of the business. Still do our flips, add more wholesales to the mix, but then also do traditional listings as well because we have this division. From there we are really on independent third party professionals and executives rather than having everything in house.        

00:19:38
            

So we're just crossed the seven figure mark as far as revenue and we're trying to take this thing to new heights. So I have a fractional CFO who helps me run all the finances and the numbers and make sure that we're on track to grow the way that we need to grow. I've got a strategic business coach. You've seen him, Doug. He's been on episodes with us before, so it's helping from a strategy perspective.        

00:20:01
            

We've got bookkeeping. We've got a great bookkeeper who helps keep kind of track of day to day records. That was probably honestly one of the biggest hires that we made. And I know you're thinking, you know, hey, I don't want to spend another couple hundred dollars a month that is worth every penny. As a good bookkeeper, we also have great legal guidance and legal advice.        

00:20:22
            

So over time, we might get big enough to where some of these positions become in house, but it, again, helps give you that flexibility to kind of ebb and flow based on the trajectory of your business to, again, kind of build that championship team. And so I want to kind of really dive into two more aspects for this episode, and it's all about perpetual self information and self learning. Again, I've got a decent educational background. I know tons of people in this business that haven't even attended college and are running phenomenal businesses. I know people that have PhD.        

00:20:55
            

So there's kind of everywhere in between. But something I'm a big proponent of is still reading and still growing and learning. I know my teenagers get pissed off because I'm telling them, you still have to read. Even when you're done with high school or hopefully done with college, you've got to read. And so one of the things that I want to point out is this book right here.        

00:21:13
            

It's called buy back your time, and it's written by a super, super bright guy. His name is Dan Martell. And the thing, you know, again, tons of chapters in this book, I would highly recommend you go out and read it. But what I want to talk about is two different aspects of this team and, excuse me, two different aspects of this book. And I think the biggest one for me is the first one is called the 1080 ten rule.        

00:21:37
            

And what that is, is that enables you, as a leader, to be involved in the first 10% of a project or maybe a division or aspect of your business. Give it guidance, give it framework, give your team enough information to run with it on their own, but then they have to execute on the middle. But the middle is 80%. If you're involved in all these different aspects of the business, you are micromanaging, in my opinion. You're going to run out of time.        

00:22:03
            

You're going to be short with your staff, and your employees get out of the middle, or the 80% jump back into the last 10%. So it's the 1080 ten rule. And to me, that is critical. Piggybacking on that is he's got another cool concept in this book, and it's all about the levels of entrepreneurship, and it's thinking from a trader mentality, which I really like coming from the bond world. So the first level is essentially being an employee, and that is trading your time for money.        

00:22:35
            

Even though you did that as a w two employee. Many people are like, great. I own my own business, and that's fantastic. But if you're trading your own time for money, one of the other guys that I love is Alex Hormozi. He broke down this great quote, and he said, if you got 150 days off a year, you had steady income, you had vacation and dental, wouldn't this be a great business to own?        

00:22:54
            

He's like, yeah, that's a w two employee, so don't downplay that from time to time. But many times that first level is trading time for money. Then you jump up to level two, which is being truly classified as an entrepreneur, and that is trading your money to gain back your time. Or Dan Martell, buy back your time. I kind of feel like that's where we're at right now.        

00:23:15
            

We've got a nice kind of smaller staff we're trying to add smartly and strategically, but I'm essentially trying to leverage my staff to be even better than I am at their independent roles and essentially buy back my time to focus on growing the business and having other aspects. Kind of the way to ascend that is to get to what he calls the empire building stage. And I like this because I think a lot of people hear the word empire and they think of Scrooge McDuck doing backstrokes in all of their coins and swimming in their money and being at the top of the Empire State Building. Or maybe that's the John D. Rockefeller kind of analogy.        

00:23:54
            

But to me, the cool thing about the empire building phase is it is essentially trading your money for other money. So it's all about leverage. It's about investing in systems for your business. It's about investing in employees for your business. It's about being, in my world, an LP or a limited partner, investing in other people's real estate deals.        

00:24:16
            

So if there's somebody out there that's just a badass operator and running self storage, effectively or multifamily, effectively or senior living, I want them to run that and then I'll earn a return on my money. So to me, it's all about leveraging your money for other money. So that's a huge takeaway when it comes to Dan Martell.        

00:24:35
            

Take a drink. Okay. And I want you to say, I'm gonna include links to these. Oh, yeah. Okay.        

00:24:41
            

Okay. And we'll do Amazon affiliate links. Like whenever I might be like $0.50, but like, hey, why not? Sure. Yeah.        

00:24:51
            

Okay, cool. You're talking about it and giving him free publicity anyways. Might as well get some cash back on it. Yeah, no, I love it. Okay, cool.        

00:24:58
            

So links. So just make sure you say, like, I'm gonna include links to these in the show notes so you can pick it up. These are my favorite. Okay, cool. Thank you.        

00:25:07
            

Okay. Links to show notes. And then. Okay.        

00:25:13
            

We're also around the 23 minutes mark. Okay. Yeah, this is perfect. Probably have about seven or eight more minutes and I'll be done. Okay, let me see.        

00:25:24
            

So the great thing about all these resources, we will absolutely have links in the show notes. So definitely use those links, buy these books, jump into these programs, and just grab this education and put it to as most effective use as possible as you can. Let's talk about this book, traction by Gino Wickman. As you can see, I'm thumbing through here. The cool thing about this is I've.        

00:25:48
            

This is obviously nerd alert. I've read this book four times. I've done it three times in person. I still am old school and like to write notes in it. And then I've done it once on audible.        

00:25:57
            

But I love this because it's a way to help run your business. And it's called the entrepreneurial operating system, or EOS. And it really helps people run, in my opinion, up to about a 50 person organization, up to about a $20 million worth of revenue before you might need a little bit of a different operating system. But what I love about this is it goes back to that first example of Facebook earlier in the episode of the CEO or the visionary trying to set the vision and the course for the business. And then you've got the COO, or in this book, he refers to it as an integrator.        

00:26:31
            

And that's a person that helps execute on your plans. A lot of times, people that have big visions that are very creative, they think of all these great ideas, but they suck at implementing them. I'm really trying to be kind of that hybrid where I can do both, but I am personally looking for that integrator, and it's a role that we're trying to fill here at the company very, very soon because I need somebody to help me execute my plan and execute the vision. So definitely the visionary and the integrator role are key ways to help run your business. The other thing is it's all about running your goals on a quarterly basis.        

00:27:06
            

So the other takeaway from traction is they call them quarterly rocks. And I'm like, well, why don't we just call it a quarterly goal? And they give the analogy in the book, and it's been actually taught at multiple different business strategy seminars, is if you've got, let's actually equate it to our world in real estate investing. You've got your orange Home depot bucket, and I set a bunch of materials to the side, and I've got large rocks, I've got small rocks, I've got pebbles, and I've got sand and I've got water. If I tell you to fill that up and maximize your bucket and you pour in the water first and then the sand and then some other little rocks, those big rocks, which really should be your big goals that you're trying to accomplish, they're not going to fit in the bucket and they're going to stick out.        

00:27:48
            

But if you strategically think, okay, what are my big rocks? Or what are my big goals? And I do those first every day, every week, and every quarter I put those in the bucket first. Then I put my small stuff in. Then you dump the sand and the sediment and you can fill up an entire bucket.        

00:28:05
            

And it seems really silly, but it's a huge difference in the way that you should be thinking about your business. So those are two big takeaways from two books that I love. And really, again, think of how do you build your championship team from a staffing perspective and also from a business strategy perspective. So as we kind of wrap up on today's episode, I want to really kind of tie this together in a nice bow. And it's all about being akin and really being in tuned with smart people around you.        

00:28:38
            

So whether it's consuming the right content, whether it's reading the right books, it's always making sure that you're on the lookout for top talent. That is absolutely critical. Even when I first started our company, and it was me and Alex, and we were essentially our project manager renting one room in the office of my business consultant at the time, I wanted to run that company like a Fortune 500 company of two dudes. And so I'm sure he was probably like, why are we sitting in a staff meeting, running what they call level ten or l ten staff meetings with two people? And it's because you want to set a course for the future.        

00:29:12
            

I also personally think that it helps you legitimize yourself and make it so that you've got employees that want to work with you and want to work for you. So I think that's a huge takeaway. The analogy I always give is also be willing to give up some of that ownership or some of that control from time to time. And I heard a great analogy from somebody the other day, which is you might want to own 75% of a watermelon versus 100% of a grape. So kind of a simplistic analogy or simplistic way to think about it.        

00:29:45
            

But sometimes I'd rather much, you know, own maybe a little bit smaller piece of something significantly larger. And that's why we're trying to put together these relationships and partnerships with other folks than having our control of every single thing just in our own little hands. So, again, get these couple books, get traction by Gino Wickman, get buy back your time by Dan Martell, and. And definitely just use this as a way to help build your championship team. And I'm really confident that hopefully you'll get a lot out of this episode and take your business to the next level.        

00:30:17
            

So, again, comment, connect with us, engage with us. I really hope this is an episode that we get a lot of feedback, because I'm curious to hear what people think, what you're reading, you know, what you're learning. But thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch you guys on the flip side. Thanks. Thank you.        

00:30:34
            

Really good, Derek.