1605 – Success Leaves Clues with Jess Stewart

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0:58with us right now it's jess stewart jess you are the uh you're a strategic business guide you're found on the web at jess-stewart.com jess thank you for joining us thank you for having me glad to be here and you're based in texas and tell me what you do as a strategic business guide yep so i'm based out of fort worth and love love the city of fort worth but i'm a strategic business guide. And what I do is I help leadership teams and companies scale and execute on strategy. So what I have identified is that us visionaries, me being one of them, really struggle with articulating our vision down to our team, to the ability for us to actually execute and scale.

1:39And so being that I've been there and I've sat in every seat of my own company before I sold it, it was really, really hard until I discovered how to do it. And that's when life became bliss for me. and I lived the last four years of my career making more money professionally and personally than I ever had and it was by implementing a program that you know similar to what I do today so I summarize it with this Josh is that I struggled I succeeded now I want to be significant in other people's lives and I do it through working with leadership teams and organizations where I rope in with them and help them execute on and scale.

2:14So what is the what's the disconnect then that you're talking about? So like if the leader has the vision and it's, you know, it's not being disseminated within the organization, why is that the case? You know, it's, it's unintentional most of the time. Right. And, and I was one of them. So I'll throw myself out there as that example, but what I would do is I would go by myself and I would build this vision of where I wanted to take the organization by myself. And then I would bring it back to my team and be like, here's what we need to do. And I would pound the, you know, the battle rhythm drum, and then nothing would happen.

2:49And we might execute for the next, you know, 30 days, 60 days, but nobody really knew how to move the puzzle pieces to get that vision to reality. And so what I identified was the gap was, is that you build the vision as a team. So you have to build your, you know, your, your leadership team, your people as a visionary, bring them in and share that vision and say, how do we do this? Right. Because in our head as visionaries, man, we're so good at looking at this big giant mountain and saying, Hey, we're here. And I see the finish line there, but we're really bad at describing that all the steps, um, to get there.

3:30And that's why we have a leadership team, right? We hire for those weaknesses, um, to come in and help us put that vision to reality. Yeah. And what does that typically look like when you're looking with, like say someone's listening to us, you know, they've never worked with a consultant in that fashion. What does that end up looking like? It's, it's, it's intense and it's fun, but I rope in with the team. So I literally meet with the team in all day sessions and we break the company apart and find out everything that we kind of do have. And then we put, and then identify where our gaps are, what we don't have.

4:05And then we put together a customized approach. So I meet the client where they're at. And what I've done is gone out and grabbed, I believe that success leaves clues. Those on top of the mountain didn't fall there. So let's go figure out best business practices that really, really work. And then I go study that and I bring it back and say, man, if I had only known this when I was running my company or I actually did this and it was really, really great. I bring it back to the leadership team and we customize that individualized program for the organization. So after we've spent a couple of days together kind of architecting that, we then set out on the journey.

4:44And I come back and run quarterly sessions with my leadership teams in all day sessions where we are never taking our eye off the annual plan. We're constantly looking at what our three year plan is. But my job is to kind of hold the guardrails up for the leadership team in accountability and just driving forward. Like what's moving the needle? What aren't we looking for? What hairy squiggly things under the rock that we need to plop on the table and talk about? It's my job to help the team scale. And that's what we do. We produce results. Yeah. What are some of the things that you've observed maybe just on the front end or during the process where you could tell the leaders are a little bit uncomfortable?

5:30Like, what are some of those points where like, you know, they know they're doing the important work, but they're like, is there anything that you've observed? Oh, yeah, right. First one's apprehension. And that's just, you know, that apprehension just, it's not even because of a lack of confidence, right? Because that confidence is instilled in us as visionaries. But it is a lack of confidence when we don't have that leadership team backing us saying, hey, yeah, we can do that. We can achieve it, right? So that comes number one is lack of leadership team builds apprehension. Two is what are you shooting for?

6:03Like, what's your target? Do you have your vision really, really, really crystallized? Because a lot of times us visionaries don't and it's okay, right? But until you get that vision crystallized, nobody knows what to chase. That North Star is just kind of gone and you've got people going left, you've got people going right and you've just got dysfunction. So that also leads to apprehension and lack of confidence. And so it's just about kind of bringing everything together and understanding the visionary's true vision of the organization and then structuring that in a very structured journey that leads to execution every single time yeah relentless repeatability yeah and just we we didn't really go too much into your background but do you mind sharing a little bit about your success because you had a you had a very successful exit i did i did and it what happened and where i came from and what happened and what should have happened are two different things but um i'm from a ranching background family still runs and operates the ranch today um i grew up in in rugged mountains and i was raised by a marine corps dad and i left the ranch at 18 and went on my way um through college ended up graduating college and ended up um starting a medical billing company out of my house i knew nothing of health care i mean everything in my world is deeply rooted in agriculture.

7:29And I started a medical billing company out of my house. And, and like I said, knew nothing, but what I did figure out that I was really good at solving problems. So I started this with the intent of just really kind of making money and raising kids at home. And, um, Josh, it just grew in massive popularity, hockey stick growth. It wasn't pretty. It was, it was as unsexy as unsexy can be. And it was just disastrous at times. But what we had put together was a structure and architecture of a foundation for these physicians to bring in transparency and cohesiveness in a very disparate world. And what that did is it was a massive differentiator for me.

8:12Didn't realize it at the time, but as I soon moved out of my house and into my first office, and then that office into a national expansion into Denver. And then from Denver internationally, you know, what I realized is those problems that we were solving were real. And we were putting ourselves in a very opportunistic position or what I call a blue ocean. And so we were able to host practice management software and EMR when the electronic record came out and it just hockey stick growth dust. And so after, you know, 11 years of hitting my head, and literally about dying 20 times of just doing things wrong, I actually had somebody like me walk into my life and change my life.

9:00And it was really just a reflection time for me to, you know, he kind of held up a mirror and said, here's what you're like as a leader. And so I, Josh, I kind of just basically got my shit together as a leader. And I started running this organization in this structured type journey that I do today. And, um, so the next four years were bliss. Um, like I said, more money professionally and personally than I ever had. And so when my largest client approached me and said, they want to buy me, I was like, I'm not ready. Um, and so when the, when the third letter of intent came in for a multiple over 20x um i i just said hey yeah gotta go and 60 days later we had an acquisition um that's a pretty good multiple by the way i would say 20 yes and so this this this hospital system was uh was backed by apollo and uh my my company is the revenue cycle management engine, I guess, for LifePoint Health today and still is.

10:04So I'm very proud. I'm very honored with what happened. But I'll tell you what, had I not met somebody like me, I don't think I would have had kind of that success story because it was just clunky until then. And so anyway, I sold. We moved to Texas, bought a beautiful ranch here. I bring my execs out here to my, to the ranch. And, uh, I realized not having something to do as a serial entrepreneur was incredibly dangerous. And so, um, I kind of got talked back into going into coaching. And so I did, I started studying the art of business. You know, a lot of visionaries and leaders just don't have that time and shouldn't, right.

10:41It's just almost sometimes impossible. And so I started studying it for the first time in my life. And I was like, oh my gosh, man, had I just known, had I just known. And so I did. I started my programs called Advance It and how to advance and scale in an organization. So I came back as a strategic business guide and worked with leadership teams. Best and most fulfilling thing I've ever done in my life. Yeah. And what's your vision for the future of this operation now? So great question. I work with a very limited amount of clients in what I call the full service So the climb, and that's where I work with leadership teams because I really rope in with them.

11:20So that's a very exclusive bunch of clients. And then I started what I call masterminds. And that allows me to kind of be able to work with the ascending leader, Josh, that's not necessarily on one of my leadership teams, because I just still have a passion for really helping people get through some of their leadership roadblocks and headwinds. so my mastermind programs are two hours a month on zoom with me where I lead content and you're with other ascending leaders all over the United States and then we're working on building some courses we're kind of just wrestling with that right now as to what that looks like but doing some self-paced courses that some of my leaders might be able to take so my vision for this is to be around for the long run and really work with clients that want to grow and achieve.

12:12And that's, that's what's fulfilling to me. I mean, if you want to scale and you want to take your company to that next 10 X level, um, I'm your huckleberry for it. And it's just, it's, it's the best thing I've ever done. So I plan on, I plan on living in this space here for a long time. Sure. Your website is just dash stuart.com. What would you recommend someone do now that they've heard our conversation, what's next for them? Yeah. So under the contact link or accept invitation, there's, you know, I truly believe what I do is an invitation to change your life. And so contact us for, you know, inside of there, there's a contact form and there's a dropdown menu of what you might be interested in, but reach out to my operations admin, Faith and I, and let us know how we can help and we'll be in touch with you.

13:01So that's the, that's the best way. There's also a link tree on there that has all my social media and LinkedIn, where you can find a bunch of information on me too. Yeah. Your website again, just dash stewart.com and just stewart. It's been a pleasure having you on the program. Congratulations on the exit. Congratulations on the great work that you're doing today. Thank you, Josh. Glad to be here.

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