• S03E05 - Hiring and Diversity with Executive Director of People - Ari Gerber (and How to Properly Cook Steak)
    May 28 2021
    Description  This week Ari has all the vision, James has all the passion, Garret has the “squeakiest wheel”, Darin is fully vaccinated, and Tyler wants to learn. All of that and the group discusses hiring and embracing diversity. Show Notes  00:00:00 - Pre Show Christmas music - “Carol of the Bells” Reverse searing steaks Oil, Butter, Rosemary and Thermapen Smoking meat 00:04:10 - Show Start Week 4 with Ari 00:04:20 - Follow-Ups  Lucy Update It’s Lucy’s 18th birthday...and she’s still kickin’ Question from Garret: Is there a correlation between a lack of clear vision articulated through the teams and teams hesitant to make decisions? Hearing “no” may create some timidness Maybe after so many no’s they stop trying to get yes 1000 no’s for every yes (but can’t just be a blind no) How do we keep teams aligned with what’s most important for the company “I don’t know if Garret knows what Follow-Ups are” 00:20:21- The Headlines Darin Product L10™ - 4.25 (Darin scored it a 3) Without the V/I on product team - felt a little “at the effect of” Tried to IDS™ an issue that’s about James Made a decision not to release (people didn’t know) Strategic Product Team On track to completing a sprint Got a plan to get back into order speed release Started as not really a plan Bringing more intentionality to development Getting away from a shotgun “scatter shot” approach to UAT Personal Second Covid-19 Shot this week Important to pass that message out No side effects Bathroom remodel coming next week Tyler Planning (or at least some version of planning) Most non-standard 1 off process At risk client stuff continues Garret LT L10™ trumped by planning this week Unconventional planning but got through it all Identified 8 Rocks Detailed to the degree required for team handoffs Stand alone IDS™ session for retail L10™ L10™ cut short due to some buy-in concerns and not having V/I available for the discussion 3PL L10™ scored a 4.0 IDS identified a lack of 3PL references for 3PL prospects Ari Vacation Ari mode is setting in Even had my coffee delivered this morning Quarterly planning was a 5.0 score Ari used all the shapes and emojis during planning 8 Rocks is a little terrifying Got to be with team leads all of Wednesday rescoring functional assignments Garret also got to start and end each day with me...which he loved Sales Integrator Carter is playing “Hiring Ari” this week taking over the employee search James - Takes the easy road out 2 weeks in a row 00:37:03 - Topic 2 (1) - Ari part 4 - Hiring   What does hiring look like for us Especially in this high growth pivot The next 90 days could be pivotal How do we not become a great place for only “middle aged white tech guys” The company James and Darin want to be at is diverse in race, gender, sexuality, background, etc… How do we not become Basecamp? Ari dives into how we hire Relaunched job descriptions Launched a careers website page Tells the story of who we are and our people The interview process Screening Team Interview “Reverse Interview” Reveal who we are to a potential employee CEO and Core Values Starts with really bad jokes then 3 simple questions How do we continue to keep our culture as we scale? How are we set up to attract people we want? How do we hire more diversity? Blind screening - remove all personal identifiable data prior to an in person interview DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) Statement Diving into the desire for diversity (age, race, gender, sexuality) and creating the best reality What reactions do we get when explaining how we run our company and ourselves in interviews? Pinpoint (not a sponsor of the show) as our backend hiring tool (runs our process) What lessons can we take from Basecamp Not a company I ever want to be Question from Ari: How do you as leaders of the company lean into creating diversity? “If you don’t want to discuss tough topics at work, it implies you’re okay with the world around you” Question from James: How much do you all feel you are being drug along in this vs have your own passion for it? The small things matter Seemingly small micro-aggressions add up “One small thing, makes the next thing slightly more acceptable” The small things we can do can create a ton of space for others “StarTrek has shown us the way. 01:34:54- Questions and Long Answers  None this week since Garret did them in follow ups 01:35:03 - End of Show  We love external validation, so share 01:36:20 -  After Show - Darin found an iOS shortcut to set wallpapers on your devices The Credits Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes Show Notes by Garret Richardson Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott
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    1 hr and 42 mins
  • S03E04 - Career Planning with Executive Director of People and Investor Relations - Ari Gerber (and being hard to work with)
    May 13 2021
    Description  This week Ari brings the passion, Tyler loves the passion, Darin used to be Tyler’s manager, Garret doesn’t integrate, and James is hard to work with. All of that and Ari discusses Career Planning at Infoplus. Show Notes  00:00:00 - Pre Show Power tools: “It’s nice to have the right tool for the job” Festool! Is James hard to work with? 00:04:15 - Show Start Week 3 with Ari 00:04:35 - Follow-Ups  Listener Becca - Darin, thank you for normalizing mental health. “If I took pills for my thyroid I would talk about that, so if I take pills for my brain I’m going to talk about that”. Listener Becca - James, you told Darin you lost trust in him. Is that out of anger and is it still true? …”I know exactly who Darin is and I trust him completely” Listener Becca - Where does everyone feel they stand with the 15CoCL? Not mentioned as often as it was in season 1. Listener Becca - You never provided a link to Support Engineer Jackson’s music Boom - Now We Have! Listener Becca - Lucy update? Comforting news - Lucy’s cries are that of confusion and not pain 00:21:33- The Headlines Darin Strategic Team Live with Support in Hubspot Kicked off new sprint  Create the sales machine monitoring system Dashboards and metrics in Hubspot Clean up a few things with Hubspot Put together a proposed plan for the Order Speed changes One on One with Tyler Identified a potential GWC™ issue as scrum master Managed not to speak about the fact I used to be Tyler’s manager ...but Darin’s talking about it Virtual podcast bro hug between Tyler and Darin Tyler Product L10™ - scored a 4.4 Assigned a series of ToDo’s to get the scorecard back to a good place T2 Support is stretched thin One on Ones complete Got into a lot of important topics that helped a lot of employees Continued to push the Same Page meetings Garret Completed 5 of 6 1 on 1’s Ranged from: Just want some clarity on a few things 90% employees sharing To a PrinciplesYou joint assessment Opened my eyes to several ways Ari and I can work better together LT L10™ - scored below a 4 so no need to report Issues Career Planning ToDo not done and how we can get it back on track 3PL and Retail Team L10’s™ - both scored a 4 3PL dove into good issues around sales process Retail dove into lead quality issues IDS™ on V/I dynamic not working within Infoplus Garret’s not a great integrator (not a quad 1 thing for Garret) Real time follow up:  Why is there a negative connotation to identifying what’s not your Quad 1 “I think it comes from the struggle to let go” Could it be fear around financial stability / health? Ari  Getting ready for “super fancy official” launch into funding Taking my first vacation (disconnected from work) in over a year Hiking and forest hot tubs Taking on planning Monday / Tuesday for the leadership team How to lean into Rocks only planning Being a “one person” department - what is this trying to teach me “Behaviors that got me here, don’t serve me at the levels I’m at and to grow” James (collective jaws hit floor) has no headlines 00:55:03 - Topic 2 (1) - Ari part 3 - Career Planning We developed a version one, but Ari has taken it to version 2.   Ari what do we mean by career planning? 18 month Executive 24 month employee How do we continue to make our employees lean into that Zone of Genius? How do we continue to reward them? 24 Month employee 12 months to master what you are currently doing (get to all 5’s on your FA) 12 months to execute a career plan to move to the next level ⅔’s are classes dictated by the path / ⅓ are electives you get to chose Completion = New Seat, New Title, Pay Increase 18 Month executive We will always hire executives Employees can apply but no dedicated / ensured path VP and Director Teams will = Visionary / Integrator teams over a functional area or department Executive Director = Visionary and Integrator in a single person Tyler - “I love the passion here” A couple of employees have an old version of a career plan or moved titles recently, how do we handle these in the new career plan launch? “This is stupid I don’t have a career plan, I don’t need a career plan, this is the best career plan meeting I’ve ever had” 01:12:41- Questions and Long Answers  Listener Brandy (to everyone) - Do you feel the podcast has helped you in any way? Darin - “rubber duck debugging” Have given us an entirely different mindset - not trying to solve problems, just sharing and talking   Tyler - “very strange” Employees quoting our podcast on how to solve a problem Garret - “this would be your turn to answer” Takes the place of the “fireside” chats Ari - “I know Tim doesn’t like to be on podcasts” Helped the co-founder (plus “post founder”) dynamic Yes...Tyler and I made up the concept of...
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    1 hr and 20 mins
  • S03E03 - D&E’s™ - What Are They and How We Do Them (and Ari is Back this Week))
    May 6 2021
    Description This week James feels vindicated, Darin steps in for Tyler, Garret talks Vaccines, Tyler joins in late, and Ari has tiny pockets. All of that and special guest Ari Gerber discusses D&E’s with the guys.  Show Notes  00:00:00 - Pre Show Ari’s back Connection vs Relationship Vaccine updates 00:02:07 - Show Start No Tyler has us unable to find a path to Follow Ups 00:02:46 - Follow-Ups  Ari’s tiny pant pockets Ari’s podcast gold moment - “claw hands” UN mandate needed for larger pant pockets Ari brought “cupcakes” to work Lucy(?) update - apparently I’ve spelled it incorrectly all this time Luci headed for an annual checkup 00:07:27- The Headlines Darin Strategic Sprint Release 1 for 2 on releases so far in 2021 Support migration to Hubspot is released Not without some hurdles in the lead up A day late, but done “If you drag a wagon over the same dirt path the rut gets deeper” Taking a couple days off Darin attempts Tyler’s headlines Product L10™ - “I don’t like that we judge a week by L10™ score so refuse to score it” Whole scorecards a joke Product team is lacking a vision (or vision alignment) Real time follow up: If not the most important meeting, then what do we score Score may determine if it’s reported Garret LT L10™ - scored a 4.4 (Garret did leave early) Issues V/I relationship isn’t working currently Best meeting in all of 2021 with James this week Retail and 3PL Sales L10’s™ - scored 4.8 and 4.0 At Risk Customer process Got product enhancements narrowed down ( presenting to James next) Ari -  “I don’t have the most important meeting of the week so won’t report that score”. Been a week of Sand Investor conversations continue to progress First investor call with a female Hiring - screening and interviewing in Support 1 on 1’s coming next week “Managers get to shut up and listen” (in a great way) PrinciplesYou (new psychological analysis for Ari) James and Darin have already taken and compared the assessment Tyler showed up (questions why we’re still on headlines) Tyler and Darin debate who’s responsible for the score of an L10™ Tyler Same page setup with Tactical Team Leader Mo Missing the mark on vision has led to non decisions Meeting with Garret created lens of priorities If everything’s important, they’ll all fail “The power of no” All fueled by a preceding meeting with James Vision, Vision, Vision James (1 to 5 headlines) Seriously only 2 headlines Wednesday boarding meeting was either the best, or worst meeting ever Finally past just “kicking the can down the road” Feeling almost vindicated (see this was the issue all along) Haven’t held up his end of the D&E process with Tyler and Garret Garret gives him an out Entire situation devolves into a terrible car racing metaphor 00:45:14 - Topic 2 (1) - Ari is back discussing D&E’s™ D&E™ Deep Dive with Executive Director of People - Ari Three parts of a D&E™ Incredible overview on executing a great D&E™ Pre-work Issue Resolution Identifying issues Realtime follow up - Ari, Where do these issues come from in a D&E™? Biggest change this year in the process… Every issue must be resolved Q&A from the guys What underlying themes or issues did you see that came out of D&E’s™? Understanding of Core Value meanings Were there specific Core Values that came up more often? Doing what it takes Positivity and Optimism Delegate and Elevate (D&E’s™) seems literal. Did you find functional assignments to actually delegate or abandon Oh there weren’t a whole lot of cases of Delegating and Elevating in these meetings. Is a different name for the meeting,  more fitting now. What was the biggest change vs this previous D&E’s What’s the difference between team lead and manager? What do you see as the biggest improvement prior to the next round of D&Es Clarity between scrum master and team lead Where did Garret go? 01:33:00- Questions and Long Answers  Carry over to next week 01:33:05 - End of Show  01:33:28 -  After Show - How weird does doing this podcast feel? The Credits Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes Show Notes by Garret Richardson Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott
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    1 hr and 36 mins
  • S03E02 - The Only Female on a Leadership Team (a Q&A with special guest “Facilitator” Ari)
    Apr 29 2021
    Description This week James apologizes, Darin discovers laptop computers, Garret tries to do less work, and Tyler “uses James as an excuse”. All of that and special guest Ari Gerber discusses being the only female on a leadership team.  Show Notes  00:00:00 - Pre Show “Boiled eggs” in all the forms Executive Director of People and Investor Relations “Facilitator” ARI upgrades her Apple technology Oh...and she’s on this week's episode 00:03:00 - Show Start 00:03:17 - Follow-Ups  Update on spreading Jelly with a spoon Garret’s personal experience Scoopability vs spreadability and smash factor  3 Real time follow ups Why not PB&J on toast? Darin finds spoons for jelly a “left handed” experience He may have been using his left hand White bread vs wheat or multigrain bread (so many factors here) Ari may believe that toast and bread are the same thing Darin  Luci the Dog update...Still kicking Wife’s core values are still a mystery James wins the aldermanic election (failed to mention “unopposed”) It still counts James still playing his gold plated CEO violin Top 5% for James - Ari in her pure Quad 1 00:17:57- The Headlines Darin Strategic Team finishing the support migration to Hubspot May not be terrible at managing things after all Product releasing (currently not happening) Great conversation with Tyler about short term path “Failed releases” (question the quotes) Follow the existing rules (documented or not) Non work related Obsessed with Obsidian (note taking app) Finally remembered that my computer is a laptop Tyler Product L10™ - scored a 4.4 Started with a Todo not done  “Solved after playing my violin” Support tickets not being solved within SLA’s Support migration project carries on …”because of James” Client at risk project Top priority for the company Expected a lot of negative Zoom calls Short Term / Long Term plans for support and engineering Session with James on the Engineering vision “All the things” have me a little behind Garret LT L10™ - scored a 4.0 Issues Todo not done Marketing All the walls around budget and plan Retail and 3PL Sales L10’s™ - scored 4.0 and 3.6 D&E’s almost done Ari’s D&E was terrible (more from her on that) Customer at risk project So far great calls Clean approach and sticking to the agenda Organized all the feedback now onto deciding our approach Ari - Yes she’s a full participant this week “I don’t have L10’s™ so no headlines there” D&E’s™ Happy to not have the same meeting all day every day after 3 weeks Glad to see it working No employees scored below a 12 (out of 15) Mine was terrible Realized that Ari and Garret IDS’ing™ about me doesn’t work Root - Garret doesn’t have the ‘W’ or ‘C’ for managing this seat Career planning finally got delegated Finally got over the hump here Renegotiated the timeline with the entire company Ari may have just tried to throw in a teaser for next week’s episode Investor / Funding Update All fascinating - no conversation has been the same James (as always, only 1) I’m so excited to get into Garret not wanting to be your manager  Seems a lot like engineering’s solution of “I’ll just do less work” My one big headline... pause for a sidebar around EO Forum retreat It’s proper background to the 1 big headline Now too the headline “I wanted to come back and apologize for being a miserable ____ the last 8 weeks” Feeling of tearing down others instead of building us all up together Wasn’t the failures that had me angry I was scared in a way I’ve never been scared before Choice of fear or anger...I chose anger Who not How led me to some clarity Focusing on anything but the number one thing I need to focus on is wrong for the company Back to the headline “I am sorry” Second Thing (or 1.2) - The thing that needs to be done is clear Take the emotional side and put it away when it comes to people issues Don’t be heartless Realtime followup Are you now clear on, I just need to find the 8, 10, 12 areas of the company to find the “who” for? Podcast gold moment Failing younger (or earlier) has less ramifications than failing older (or later) When do you want to learn the hard lessons 00:55:55 - Topic 2 (1) - Ari is in town (like actually in Chester, IL with James) 3 to 4 part series What’s it like to be the only female (young relatively speaking) on the leadership team D&E’s™ Career Planning Hiring How do we avoid becoming a company of “30 year old white guys” This week - moderated by James - An interview of Ari (Q&A - a must listen) How are you feeling, what’s on your mind? “I would love to not be the only female of the leadership team” What was it like to be “just” facilitator Ari, and how has that changed moving into a full participant in that L10? ...
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    1 hr and 28 mins
  • S03E01 - Discussing Rocks for the Upcoming Quarter (and quarters into a concept of 3’s)
    Apr 22 2021
    Description This week Tyler is stuck in Q1, Darin keeps having meetings without James, Garret forgets to record and James plays a questionable tiny violin. All of that and the guys discuss the Rocks and Projects planned for “Quarter 2”.  Show Notes  00:00:00 - Pre Show Pretty light...thanks to Garret not recording for the first 15 minutes James has been a miserable ______ the last few weeks Darin keeps having meetings (that James is supposed to be in) without James “Fat” cats don’t catch mice 00:02:46 - Show Start - James is back 00:03:10 - Follow-Ups  Darin follow up on natural vs “hydrogenated” peanut butter OMG! Natural is better Draws a parallel between genetic “MRNA” engineering and organic foods Serious debate - knives vs spoons for peanut butter and jelly spread factor Darin - Follow up on Luci the Dog Darin - Did you get your wife to do her Core Values? Short answer - nope Follow up - “Garret you’re a terrible COO” - how is the sitting on that going? “Shiva” is going well, got about 20 days left  00:13:38- The Headlines Darin Moving support and service into Hubspot Quad 3’ing my way through managing the project Interesting view from the “user” side of a SaaS technology as he’s diving into it Good lesson on expanding your sphere of product offerings Running into pink errors - “ooohhh, that’s never a good experience” Properly rolled back the speed epic code Do we roll out the code written, or find a different path forward Next up Strategic product enhancements to curb potential churn Tyler Product L10™ - Score 4.2 Checked off 8 issues D&E™ week continues Done with all of them and wrapping up ToDo’s “Holy ____ there’s 30 of them” Pushing Support and KB to Hubspot project across the line Struggling to carve out time to put some clarity around engineering and support path forward Garret Missed the LT L10™ James / Tyler - How’d it go Oh, super productive when Garret’s not there D&E™ Day complete 4 of 6 carry over to following week Retail / 3PL L10’s™ Both got into Lead Gen numbers and team not supporting that effort 1 man show Continuing candid conversations with James Fear even wanting to work with me James “let me play my violin” - 1 headline with several bullet points Probably the best week I’ve had in the past 10 weeks “Being a CEO is the worst job you can have” Success is shared, failure stops with you Only so many hours a day and very few levers to pull “It’s always the darkest before it goes completely black” When things are going good, it’s easy to ignore some things People issues - we have people in wrong seats Garret Darin? James?? Waiting too long to make people decision Not driving things by trusted numbers All that said - my successes Q1 Rocks Company Reorg (teams really buying in) People processes Q2 Rocks - super excited to turn the last 10 weeks into some good Can we lean into “not sticking to the exact drumbeat of EOS™” Tri-quarters?  Dynamite drop in by a dog, a cat, and a 7 year old 00:41:56 - Topic 2 (1) - Rocks for Q2 (2nd Tri-Quarter) Nothing set in stone Sales integrator Carter excited about customer facing improvements to onboarding Sandler Masters for sales team Career planning in the people process Gotta be a level 5 in current FAs before worrying about what’s next 18 month executive 30 month employee Enterprise services Better with our customers and better support KB Content - impacts so many parts of our company 702 articles to write (how can we turn that into sand) How do we get to an article a day Next version of financial and budget models May need them sooner than a rock offers Strategic product - talking to customers about small but impactful feature enhancements Company clarity breaks may be the difference between 90 day rocks Take 30 days, let the dust settle, then decide what the next 90 days looks like We’ve officially defined quarters as things of 3 Anxious to see where a customer facing project management tool like Asana can take the onboarding experience Tyler loves the idea of a clarity break between two quarters ...and hopes to get there soon as he’s still stuck in Q1 Sales “leave behind” assets “God no, sales is not capable of making that happen” James has all the creative juices around technology driven tools here When we do get around to planning, would love to actually get together and do planning together “I suggest Hawaii” 01:04:40 - Questions and Long Answers  None this week 01:04:46 - End of Show  01:05:03 -  After Show - Next weeks Apple Show What do we think they will release/announce The Credits Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes Show Notes by Garret Richardson Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • S03E00 - Discussing the Quarter 1 Rocks and Projects (and yet another 800 pound mammal)
    Apr 15 2021
    Description This week Tyler and Garret discuss their wives’ core values, Darin discovers natural peanut butter, and James wins an election in his hometown (he’s not here to talk about it). All of that and the guys discuss the Rocks and Projects from quarter 1.  Show Notes  00:00:00 - Pre Show How Darin’s “emphamis” 3D Printer came about 00:02:25 - Show Start - Brought to you by Darin Without James this week 00:03:01 - Follow-Ups  Personal Values (of our wives) Tyler’s wife Love - “hard to find self worth without it” Joy Garret’s wife Loyalty - “staying loyal to the priorities in her life” Self Discipline Darin’s guess at his wife’s Compassion / Caring - “she throws herself 200% into things” Accomplishment - “if she has a list of 4 things, 4 things get done” “This week I’ll promise, to think about trying, to get her to do it” Listener Jackson feedback - “Darin you might be the coolest guy I’ve ever met” This comes after a week of Darin beating himself up in an episode  00:12:36 - The Headlines Darin Strategic Product Release Failure - Follow Up Insecurity in application server failures Time to roll back instead of patch and push forward “Get the ducks lined up a little straighter here and roll this forward” Planning Meeting around Roll Back plan Started checked out, got called out, shifted back into the meeting Redeploy code that's safe and built that we already know Personal Note Luci the dog is not doing well and it’s got me down Not working out and walking consistently Tyler  Product L10™ - Score of 4.0 Follow up IDS™ on Strategic Release Product process is not up to “snuff” People aren’t following the process we do have D&E™ Day with all direct reports Multiple hard meetings with great conflict 2 of 7 meetings carry over to next week Main takeaway - People that manage others, need more 1 on 1 time with me Garret LT L10™ - easily the worst meeting I’ve ever been a part of Churn not taken seriously enough James got angry I got angry at James We now have 3 - 800 pound mammals in the company Sales - Getting lighter (elephant) Performance Release - At least rolled back (gorilla) Churn - 14% in last 6 months (whale) Cue the “tiny violin” - All the things are all the most important things James (as shared by Darin) Formally elected as Alderman in his home town of Chester 00:35:49 - Topic 2 (1) - Q1 Rocks (and unofficial rocks) - Moderated by Darin How did we do, what got done, what didn’t Garret and Tyler go back and forth on their rocks as Darin keeps score Finance Project - Budget / Financial Model Got it across the line, can actually see how we’re doing against projections Finance Rock - Own accounts payables internally (remove all that we can from Corp Services) Real-time scorecard from Darin “Fair to say this is 200% complete” Knowledge Base move to Hubspot Everything done but “forgot” the ladder to hang the banner 80% complete People Projects Launch new D&E™ Process 100% complete Launch Careers Page and hiring portal 100% and first ever “WOW” moment for James around a Rock “Even behind the scenes here is dynamite” Honorable Mentions (not taken as rocks but still completed) Launch with SaasWorks - proactive customer outreach Infoplus Training Program version 1 Two 100% completions Implement Sandler Selling System Foundations 75% Score (penalty for Sales results) Support move to Hubspot - much more than just migrating from one system to another In its second, hopefully last sprint Give it a 50% Formalize Subject Matter Expert onboarding process Customer facing Asana, new “kick-off” presentation with QWILR Scores a 75% Find and hire an AWS partner Narrowed down to 3 or 4 partners all above our unofficial budget Put on hold - due to budget Scores a 60% (bonus for getting on the same page with James) Retail and 3PL Lead Generation separation Scores a 75% due to miss on Google Ads Launch the new Website 100% complete Final Rankings Facilitator Ari wins Double R Darrin gets second Tyler and Garret bring up the rear Strategic Team - Performance project We hung the banner...upside down….caught on fire...tried to re-hang a burning banner 01:02:20 - Questions and Long Answers  On a level of 1-5, how much did you miss James in this episode (1, not at all - 5, completely missed him) Darin - 1 Garret - 3 Tyler - 3 01:03:17 - End of Show  Don’t miss the “amazing” Garret Richardson official show notes If you feel inspired, share this show with a friend 01:04:10 -  After Show - Natural Peanut Butter Hydrogenated Oil vs Natural Peanut Oil The Credits Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes Show Notes by Garret Richardson Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • S02E12 - Discussing another 800 pound mammal in the room (and it’s not sales this time)
    Apr 8 2021
    Description  This week Tyler confirms he has a beard, Garret goes through the worst exercise of his career, Darin hangs up on James, and James struggles with two aspects around leadership. All of that and the guys discuss a failed code release in a strategic product. Show Notes 00:00:00 - Pre Show Harmonizing and weird energy Darin hangs up on James 00:02:21 - Show Start Tyler is back! Scaling...or not scaling 00:02:39 - Follow-Ups (James saves the day) Tyler does have a beard Garret - no new update for Sandler Sales (with an update on Sandler Sales) Main Sandler Foundations training complete Continue on the mentorship and coaching calls Follow up from Listener Becca:  Did Garret miss the week in 2nd grade we learned about bodies... (worth hearing the entier question verbatim)  Just completely caught off guard by his daughter’s question Did anyone share the personal core values sheet with their wives? Short answer...No But most of us will for next week's episode Shenanigans that James doesn’t feel joy James gets external joy Darin is internal joy...including food (when in his belly) Listener Brandy  Completely agree with James on quad 4 or 5 when calling people James defines the 5th “quad”  Garret and Darin, did either of you understand a single number James mentioned about espressos? 00:13:59 - The Headlines Darin Strategic Product Release Release night when “OK” Thursday Friday went terrible (errors coming from everywhere) Firefighting mode of emergency releases Back to stable as of this episode “Not needless to say, I have worn this poorly” A week of emotional turmoil and self reflection Now questioning personal core value choices Darin shares very real emotions around fractured relationship with James James “It’s ok if we fail together. It’s not ok if we fail individually.” James recalls advice from Darin Struggling as a leader with two big headlines “I’ve been angry and at the effect of” What is the right mix between delegating and holding on to things? Real time follow up from Darin How do you score yourselves for meetings with numbers like 9 and 6? Tyler (cue mumbling transition) What a week to return to People sharing their small wins has been important during a rough week Product Team L10™ - scored a 3.4 2 ToDo not done issues to IDS Darin and Tyler rated the meeting as a 4 (even with IDS™ focused around “them”) D&E™ Time Came back from vacation...immediately picked up 6 prescriptions for the family Garret LT L10™ - scored 3.17 Tough IDS™ around FUD in sales 3PL Sales L10™ - scored a 3.5 Exploring should we shift this meeting away from late Monday afternoons Retail Sales L10™ - scored a 4.2 IDS around quality of leads for calls 2 Adhoc D&E™ meetings both went great Had the worst experience of my professional career 00:44:17 - Topic 2 (1) - Another 800 pound mammal to discuss (Order Speed Release Failure) Where we are now No one is using the new code we’ve written Errors are still popping up Question we ask is “how can we roll this back if needed?” Never crossed our mind that can’t simply “roll” this one back What does Darin see here? Insufficient testing We assumed automated test coverage was sufficient and complete Manual testing can never be as broad a net as automated testing Development and production environments are different Too much of “just a Darin thing” owned in a vacuum “I’m a careless bumbling idiot” Real time follow up - Darin, for a guy who doesn’t get joy from buying things, you sure spend a lot of money on puppy dogs. “Processes, processes, processes” We have a process but we didn’t follow it The one we have is nowhere near where it should be Engineering doesn’t understand the power that we have and the responsibility Question in Tyler’s head, “do we really want to change”? Quick to blame people, things, etc… Any trust the company had left in engineering has been completely lost Maybe even trust in ourselves “This is an opportunity to learn” puts James into a pure rage “If this was 1692 in Japan and I had a samurai sword, I’d cut everyone in half” Path forward isn’t to regain trust in engineering Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice...can’t get fooled again “Fool me 19 times you lose the company” “Can’t do the audit, and also be the bookkeeper” 01:02:44 - Questions and Long Answers  N/A This Week 01:02:44 - End of Show  Follow @onlywaytofail on Instagram to see Tyler’s “newly” bearded face 01:08:50 -  After Show - Darin’s dog has a GPS collar Direct parallel -  Doggy GPS and current release issues The Credits Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes Show Notes by Garret Richardson Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • S02E11 - Discussing the 800 Pound Gorilla (and how Quad 1’s are better than Quad 3’s)
    Apr 1 2021
    Description  This week Tyler is in Tennessee, Garret discovers his Quad 1, James gets to be a bulldozer, and Darin sends an all company email (almost). All of that and the guys discuss an 8 week slide in sales. Show Notes  00:00:00 - Pre Show Morning routines mess with Netflix habits at night Using “daylight savings” to your advantage 00:01:57 - Show Start Making things awkward trying to move forward without a Tyler to cue Follow-Ups 00:04:18 - Follow-Ups (James saves the day) Garret - Sandler Update Cookbook for Success What do you want and need What money do I need to make to achieve it How does that look at a daily activity level Prospecting Cookbook Prospecting Worksheets Realtime follow-up from “literal” Darin “Net New Conversations means?” 00:08:53 - The Headlines Darin Reached the end of the Q1 Epic in Strategic Product Darin sent “Level 10 Overview Email” to the entire company (in a special Darin kind of way) Fill in project Helping support team move into Hubspot as new support system The Tyler and James monkey has landed with “DIM” Level 10 disaster of a planning meeting (recovered with a second planning) Kicked off successfully Darin tells a Story (just like C-3PO) Darin vs James on “fear of the unknown” Depends on your definition of what’s “hard” Garret LT L10™ - Scored a 4.2 Single issues discussed and not solved FUD around sales Sales lost its fun James is a couch and Garret’s “cute” when he’s angry Retail and 3PL Sales L10™ - both scored a 4 Put everything in the light Pressure of sales has everyone down Acknowledge the failure and take the opportunity to create value within it Garret gives the team a “Braveheart like” speech “Once you put light on things, they lose their power” Put the gorilla in the light James Midwest Tech Connection Conversation with 30+ Venture capital firms Used some commitments during a “rough” call (it ended early) EO Mentor meeting Communication styles (good, bad) Who not How book recommendation Quad 1 work in Hubspot Bulldozer style cleanup Now slowly building back up Hubspot health Dashboard Darin was “very mean” to James Worst meeting James has had Garret takes proper credit for the failure Tyler’s not here, so its his fault Darin (round 2) Product team L10™ was “OK” (without both James and Tyler 00:41:09 - Topic 2 (1) - 800 pound elephant (Sales stopped 8 weeks ago) Sales fell flat on its face from a 30 story building Took weeks to come to light Question 1 from Darin What Broke? Garret’s answer: The sales oversight machine (broke or...didn’t exist) Step 1 put out the fire (manual and effort) Step 2 build the machine James’ answer:  Missed contracts for 1 week Missed contracts for 2 weeks Started some conversations Missed contracts for 3 weeks This is bad Started digging in week 4 Week 5 comes Contracts signed is a great “trailing” indicator to track Plenty of vanity KPIs Leads is great leading indicator So if you have the beginning and the end (what’s tracking all the middle steps) TL;DR: Leads were coming in, the machine in the middle stopped, nothing was coming out the other end Half million dollar (mess) up “Can’t change that. We’ve done bought this. How do we get a half million dollars of value?” James learned 3 things Need the sales oversight machine He let sales get too far away from him This is a quad 3 for Garret (sales management) Question 2 from Darin If we haven’t had the machine, how have we avoided this historically? Question 3 from Darin How much of this is my fault for being removed from the leadership team? Garret discovers his Quad 1 (with a little help from James and a sales slump) 01:08:03 - Questions and Long Answers  N/A This Week 01:08:04 - End of Show  “God those show note are good and the email is maybe the best part” 01:08:50 -  After Show - James’ Espresso WARNING - It goes full coffee nerd The Credits Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes Show Notes by Garret Richardson Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott
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    1 hr and 15 mins