Weekly Impact by Lay of The Land

Jim Haviland [00:00:03]:
Alright. Alright. Good morning. It is June 17th. This is lay of the land. We can review or something like that. We haven't really named it yet. And I'm Jim Haviland.

Kris Snyder [00:00:11]:
I'm Kris Snyder.

Jim Haviland [00:00:12]:
And we're Kris, we're looking back at the last week. We've got, first of all, let's cut cover off on the podcast, lay of the land number 1 70. That's quite an accomplishment. A 100%. And I love the fact that this is 1 where we're looking back, you know, we we've been definitely doing it long enough that he's got some, you know, people that have had successes since the first time we talked to them.

Kris Snyder [00:00:31]:
Yeah. This was the second time he's done a kind of a a second round with somebody. Gerald Hetrick was the first 1, and Matt now was the second 1 coming back from episode number 14 to episode 170.

Jim Haviland [00:00:43]:
Yeah. Which is pretty great. And I think the, the thing I like about that, and it and it really relates to exactly to what Matt, Buder Shapiro was talking about. You know, he's in Vitalize now. He's loving Vitalize. He's CMO of the is now 200 person organization or something like or 300. 300. Yes.

Jim Haviland [00:00:58]:
3 100. Yeah. Great big organization. Lots of lots of rounds of funding. But, you know, so much of what he talks about is his mission to help other people realize that they can go do this and that there's and it takes a community and that he is represented. You know, he's he's out there doing the things he need to do, but very much like what I found in, when I was down in the Triangle, North Carolina, you know, where they're very intentionally we're trying to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem, but it takes time and people have to see it. They have to see that it works. And it so it took a generation and a half before it really started to pick up.

Jim Haviland [00:01:30]:
But Yeah. He's trying to push that forward by just making it really clear that you

Kris Snyder [00:01:34]:
can go do this. Yeah. And then, well, we love the way back machine. Right? So to be able to, I think, is that 3 year time period and hearing Matt talk about coming from New York intentionally trying to build the company here in Cleveland, and what was that experience like having raised money in New York, having raised money on in the West Coast, and then raising money here in Cleveland for his start up, and and saying, hey. It's taken a village of people and access and all that. Fast forward to his episode 170, and now he's he's discussing his role in that. Right. You know, 1 of my my favorite books by Adam Grant, give and take, he actually talks about not wanting to be a taker.

Kris Snyder [00:02:08]:
Right? Wanting to feel that he has the opportunity to give back, and he goes through some of the investments he's part of and

Jim Haviland [00:02:13]:
the boards he's of all the ways he was supported and helped out and gives a lot of credit to the local community for helping him out and all the people he had to, you know, that he leaned on to help make things happen, including North Coast Ventures. We didn't we didn't actually put Todd up, but Todd was also, in the show at some point or another. And now he's, so Medpilot was a great experience. Vitalize has been a great experience. He's been, you know, created some great careers in there. He's got this mission to show everybody that that they can go do it in Cleveland, and there's a there's

Kris Snyder [00:02:43]:
enough here.

Jim Haviland [00:02:43]:
Yeah. Yeah. We're calling for more early stage venture, and that comes from making it showing everybody that it happens.

Kris Snyder [00:02:48]:
Yep. I loved I think Jeffrey was baiting him to say what his next thing was beyond that highlight of the episode, which I appreciate, Jeffrey. That's awesome. But, you know, if you're if you're having fun and you're learning, I mean, he's at a series c company and now raised a couple $100, 000, 000 still building and learning.

Jim Haviland [00:03:02]:
Yeah.

Kris Snyder [00:03:02]:
I I love the fact that we're conscious enough that it's not time yet for the exit. Go figure out the learning there before you go back to do it again. He's got he's got time on his side. Right? And a lot of us, we don't see that when we're when we're in those building stages and we're getting sets of experiences because we, you know, we still romanticize about the art of the start.

Jim Haviland [00:03:20]:
Well, it's so interesting too that he's looking into, you know, politics. He seems to be on his agenda, be a bit supporter of, Mayor Bibb. And of course, you know, there's a lot to be done with local politics. You know, you can fill up a lot of problems locally, but it's interesting, you know, people are, you know, often say they want, biz politicians who are business people because they know how to how to solve problems, but, man, that is it's the opposite. Running a business is the opposite of running it running running a government. So, I'll leave it with that. So the last week, we, I had the great opportunity to attend the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Now a regional event here for, eastern set central eastern eastern central.

Jim Haviland [00:04:02]:
Sorry, guys. I don't remember. But it was great to meet Kris, and I was there in your place, you won back in 2013. So it was, and I ran into, another alum, Aaron Grossman, who was on, pod number 41. He won in 2015. And then while we're there, I bumped into Dallas, Hockinson and, Kris Day from Felix. They you know, Dallas was on, pod 86, and they won. They won the the the the region.

Jim Haviland [00:04:30]:
So, Kristy, it was a great experience for you. Yeah?

Kris Snyder [00:04:32]:
Yeah. No. And I also did a I was a judge for 3 years, just stopped out a couple years ago. If you have if you're not aware of the program, what the program really breaks down is there's categories and sizes and stages of companies. Right? And they're trying to highlight the hard work of company building and show that, you know, entrepreneurs in their journey and kinda give them reward, award for it. And once you win in your region, you have the opportunity to go on to nationally, and that's in Palm Springs every November. That gym is is an incredible event. I mean, they bring so much talent.

Kris Snyder [00:05:04]:
You get to meet people from all over, the country, right, competing that. And then if you win nationally, you go on to compete globally. But there is an ecosystem that is really strong that E and Y has continued to try to put together and obviously it's all kind of the usual suspects, bankers and accountants and all that that come together, right, and talk about building entrepreneurial organizations.

Jim Haviland [00:05:26]:
Yeah. I mean, it it and it's but it it's enlightened self interest. You know, why we, of course, would like to have these people become clients, but, you know, building relationships, hey, man. That's the right way to do it anyway.

Kris Snyder [00:05:35]:
Yeah. No. For sure. And and they they they they also throw a great party, by the way, if you ever get an opportunity to participate.

Jim Haviland [00:05:42]:
It it was fun. You know? And here's so couple of great callouts from the event. I mean, the winners were all shocked that they won. I don't know what that that's about. That's that's, you know, they kinda give you enough enough forewarning, but, but that all of them were like, you know, I just can't believe it. I have this amazing team. I've had all the support. I mean, very much like, what Matt talked about in the pod.

Jim Haviland [00:06:05]:
But, you know, what's really interesting was the the number of people that really had started from very modest beginnings like, you know, making granola in my kitchen, mixing paint in my garage, you know, and, you know, so they really were builders from the very from the very beginning. It's like, I have a dream, get out of my way, you know, I'm gonna go do it, which is great to see, and great to see them to have a chance to stand from an audience that applauds them, you know, vociferously.

Kris Snyder [00:06:32]:
Yeah. I you know, the 3 years I judged here recently, I wouldn't have won. Like, when I went in 2013 looking back, it was like and most of us that were judges that had won before were like, the competition has just I mean, it's been incredible. The things that people are building, the path that they're building it in, the, you know, the velocity that they've been you know, done building these companies, it's really incredible to see how far it's come. And I think we're getting better and better. We're doing more or less forever. Right? Like, the the ability to do that.

Jim Haviland [00:07:00]:
Yeah. 1 person wasn't there. KVK was not there, but his business was.

Kris Snyder [00:07:04]:
Yeah. No. Coach, obviously, coached KVK and Keyfactor years ago.

Jim Haviland [00:07:09]:
Yeah.

Kris Snyder [00:07:10]:
And then they, you know, they got sold to well, they sold the sold the company well to Insight Partners. Right?

Jim Haviland [00:07:15]:
Great transition for everybody. Good for him. Yep. He deserved it.

Kris Snyder [00:07:18]:
And that company's obviously continue to do really well.

Jim Haviland [00:07:20]:
Doing doing very well, and, the CEO they put in place, won. But he's himself said, I don't know if I'm an entrepreneur, dude.

Kris Snyder [00:07:28]:
I'm an operator. A hell of an operator.

Jim Haviland [00:07:30]:
That's right. Yeah. It's a it's a good business and and, but, I I was in I was thanking, KVK for that. Alright. So let's move on to number 3. We both had sessions last week and and and, folks, we have something you know, Kristy, you named this impact moments we'd like to look for, in sessions. And do you wanna explain that a little bit?

Kris Snyder [00:07:46]:
Yeah. Let let me even take a step back. So both Jim and I do, coaching, right, for organizations, entrepreneurial companies that are still in that kind of building scaling moments. And in that coaching, I I coach to the the entrepreneurial operating system EOS. Mhmm. And Jim's powered by 90 Coach, so very similar in business operating system. And we work with those leadership teams kinda helping to transition those organizations Absolutely. From wherever stage they're at.

Kris Snyder [00:08:11]:
Often, it's kinda that second stage sustainable. They just got our survival.

Jim Haviland [00:08:14]:
We have the path. We can see the future. It's already laid out.

Kris Snyder [00:08:17]:
And there's just disciplines and tools, right, that we're we're coaching those leadership teams, to and through. So part of that is we do session days, and there often could be full full days when you take the leadership team out of the kind of out there in the business moments to work on the business and sometimes there can be half days. It just depends on being able to meet the company where they're at. And during that work, right, during those those quarterly, times together once you get past implementation, we look for these things that we call impact moments. Yeah. They're, you know, it's a little bit of a mixture of and clarity. Right? When we've been grinding it out, working on a problem set, and all of a sudden the problem set becomes clear.

Jim Haviland [00:08:53]:
Yeah. When I was was working with, medical schools, I know that the thing I was looking for was those eureka moments is what they called it. Right? Yeah. Like like, when, like, the the teaching really strikes and you're like, oh my god. I really get this now. You know? All everything's wired up inside my head, and I get it.

Kris Snyder [00:09:08]:
Yeah. And and, you know, the reason you wanna call them out and call it up is because the fact you don't wanna walk by it. Right? Like, it is it there's there's learning still there. We wanna, like, just go ahead and recognize it. If you can name it, name it. Right? So Understand. Think important things have names. But if we can name it, name it so we don't walk by it because it's the impact.

Jim Haviland [00:09:27]:
So everyone and and I we'll offer this for free. Everyone should have impact moments. The moments they're looking for in their the time they're working with their teams. Like, wait a minute, guys. Let's let's call this out. Let that's a brilliant thing. Let's make sure we capture this, and give it a freaking name because it matters.

Kris Snyder [00:09:43]:
And because if it's a problem set and you're grinding it through working on it again and again, you can't you just keeps coming back to it. Right? It's just saying It's haunting you in the back a little bit, and then once you get there, you're like, oh, that's it. Now I know what it is. Right? Now I gotta do something about it. The recognition of it isn't the end. Right? The recognition is the beginning. Yeah. Now I know what it is, and I think that's the important part.

Jim Haviland [00:10:03]:
So you work with Journey Wealth, TJ Glied, in the from pod number 144, was in that session. How'd that go?

Kris Snyder [00:10:11]:
It was it was a great session. We've probably got, post implementation. We're about 4 quarters in. They've done an annual. And the interesting part here is you've got 4 partners. There's 2 businesses, FSM Wealth, which is a business that they're acquiring. It's kind of a secessionary situation. It's professional golf wealth management business.

Kris Snyder [00:10:29]:
Yeah. And then they've been building Journey Wealth, which is really entrepreneur focused business.

Jim Haviland [00:10:32]:
I've talked to TJ about the the about the the professional golfer 1. He's like, we never mentioned the names of clients.

Kris Snyder [00:10:38]:
No. No. They don't think so. There's lots of smiles. I just watched the US Open yesterday, and I was like, I wonder which 1 of these are clients.

Jim Haviland [00:10:43]:
He says our guys.

Kris Snyder [00:10:44]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Jim Haviland [00:10:45]:
Yeah. That's all he says.

Kris Snyder [00:10:46]:
Anyways, but, you know, this this partnership and and is 1 of the hardest things to do. Having coached accounting firms, law firms, whatever, you got a partnership involved because you got more than 1 owner. Yeah. Yeah. And you've gotta you gotta find the path, you know, to to be aligned. And the kind of that the impact moment, I think, really for me and hopefully for them too was when we realized that, you know, we don't have the end aligned. Right? And every business will have an end, Jim.

Jim Haviland [00:11:12]:
Right? 100%. It just does.

Kris Snyder [00:11:14]:
And so if you're, you know, Simon Sinek fan in the infinite game, you talk about, you know, you run out of the will or the resource to play the game. But any of those situations, there's a transition of the business. Right? And and that's, you know, if you begin with the end in mind and you have partners that can align on what's that end look like for all of us. And the end isn't the end of the business. The end of the business is is probably hopefully infinite. But your role and your ownership in it and and figuring and knowing where my time has come, It's time for me to step out, exit left, right, and have unlocked capital.

Jim Haviland [00:11:45]:
Yeah.

Kris Snyder [00:11:45]:
Because often as entrepreneurs, over 90% of our wealth is locked in our business.

Jim Haviland [00:11:49]:
Yeah. There's the small cap, illiquid. Illiquid.

Kris Snyder [00:11:53]:
And I get some distributions here, but I gotta keep putting in because I'm building and I'm building and I'm building. And what's great about it is they're amazing at doing it for their clients.

Jim Haviland [00:12:00]:
Right. Right.

Kris Snyder [00:12:01]:
Right. Right. Because you can only see it for everyone else. Yeah. And I think in the partnership, they're they're finding their way, and they've had plenty of did. Right. Yeah. They've had plenty of conversations, but you gotta get to that point where it's really aligned.

Kris Snyder [00:12:11]:
Yeah. So we like to say focus, align, and thrive, and I think journey's getting that team's getting so much closer and really getting themselves aligned and and how to really get to the thriving part of the business.

Jim Haviland [00:12:20]:
And it's such an important part of the of the process. You know, we we we when we start sessions, we ask what people's expectations are, and it's like you can't you can't get your expectations met unless you're really aware of your expectations. And that's that's at the most atomatized layer, but but it's on the big scales too. I mean, it's you know, the more you can be really clear about what's what success looks like to you, the more likely you can get there, and you can have partners that get there as well. Alright. So in my session this last week, was NCS Credit, Mary Cowan. She was in at pod 156. Great business.

Jim Haviland [00:12:52]:
I love these guys. They they they have a they have a great cause, Kris. This is, they they believe that people should get paid for the work that they do.

Kris Snyder [00:13:04]:
How novel.

Jim Haviland [00:13:05]:
Yeah. Well, but, you know, that's what they do. But for them, we we really leaned into this, the the thing I know you you use this as well at various times. They've they're maturing as a team. So, we talked about, having, you know, key topics, something that we're gonna unpack before we get to get to setting rocks for for the quarter. And, with key topics, it's like you you gotta learn to, you know, time box and understand something and and just unpack it, and they're really kinda struggling with feelings and other stuff. So I taught them my my discipline, that I call facts, feelings, preferences, and opinions. Those are 4 different things.

Jim Haviland [00:13:42]:
Facts are either measurable or, attributable. Feelings are none of the above, but they don't you know, they just have to own the fact that you really just have a feeling about this. Preferences are feelings that, that has an awareness that there's other feelings in the room. So, you know, a feeling, oh, apples are the best are the best fruit. A preference would be, I prefer apples. I know other people like pears. Right? Right. And then opinions are the accumulation of all that stuff.

Jim Haviland [00:14:07]:
So as if you're gonna make a professional opinion as an engineer or as a as journalist or as a doctor, as a scientist, you know, taking these facts, you know, that I'm gonna I'm gonna attribute or point out and, can you know, kinda squelching my feelings and understanding my preferences, I think this is true. Right? And that's an opinion. It's not an opinion until then. You know, we're so used to people saying, oh, my opinion is this. It's like, that's a feeling, dude. Yeah. That's That's not an opinion. You don't have know anything about that.

Jim Haviland [00:14:35]:
You have no right to have an opinion. So helping them, you know, and they and they called it out at the end. It's like, oh my god. We're gonna use that every day because they really struggle with the difference between someone saying this is something I know to be true versus this is something that I it kinda feels true. And, you know, and with all my teams, Kris, I I always lean in. Show me the math, man. You know? Because everyone you know? That's what that's how we know we get back to facts. Where's your math on this? Where's your data on this? Because without that, you'd with you don't without your data or facts, you don't have an opinion.

Jim Haviland [00:15:08]:
You have a feeling.

Kris Snyder [00:15:09]:
Yeah. So Well, you know, look. The struggle is real. We just don't really have to struggle that much. Right? And I think that's what coaching comes down to is figuring out, again, things we we can see for others and coming through that process and getting people to a better place. And those are just frameworks. Right? What you just described was a great framework for them to be able to embrace and come back through the other side.

Jim Haviland [00:15:29]:
Alright. Well, Kris, I think that's what we've got for this week. We're a little over time. Thanks, everybody. We'll be back next week with more, reflections on the week and here's lay of the land we can review. Thanks guys. Thanks, Kris.