2397 - The Role of Trust and Accountability in Successful EOS Implementation with Jason Quint

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0:46Visit podverified.com if you'd like to be featured as a future guest. I'm Josh Elledge. Let's get into it. With us right now, it's Jason Quint. Jason, you are a professional EOS implementer. You are found on the web at theeosguy.com. Love the brand. Jason, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, great to be here. Thanks for the invite. Yes, absolutely. So you are just, you're at my neck of the woods, probably a couple towns away from me here in Central Florida. Jason, you know, before we get going, talking about your superpowers, the work that you do, who you work with, that sort of thing. You always love hearing what high level leaders do either for fun or kind of into when they're not at work.

1:33And I understand that you're you're a competent musician. Yeah. Yeah. At least I pretend to be right. Yeah, no. So I play the trumpet. I've played my almost pretty much my entire life. and once you get out of school the opportunities are kind of limited but luckily for me I know some people and Rollins College has a their their school of music's not quite big enough to have a full band so they they allow sort of folks like me to participate so yeah so I do that and if if I'd actually practice and I'd actually like tried a little bit I probably could have been a professional musician but I never practiced enough for that so.

2:11Did you do you perform then for audiences have you performed as part of the ensembles so we saw we at rollins college um since we're both local uh uh we i don't know if you um gosh what did we see we saw um the uh hand handles messiah uh performed in the in the chapel there that uh really really really cool so uh but i know rollins has quite a uh quite a schedule of performances there so well that's great that you get that you still get that outlet uh um do you are there any um contemporary non-classical pieces that you know how to play or maybe you've like played for kids or whatever oh yeah like well like so i've i've done brass quintets and we've been hired out like for christmas at the ritz carlton and stuff like that we played weddings um churches have hired me to play and stuff so like you know there's done i've done taps so like military funerals and stuff you can get out there and they've got buglers who play taps for the, you know, during the ceremonies have done that.

3:13So yeah. So there's lots of different opportunities to, to play. How many times do you think you've played taps in your life? Oh, geez. I mean, a lot. Yeah. I mean, yeah, a lot. There's like a kid in the Navy. What's that? 50 times, 50 times at least. Yeah, yeah. It's a popular one. When I was in the Navy, I had a friend who was a musician, and that was his job in the Navy. And yeah, couldn't even, lost count hundreds of times ago, but the number of times he had to play taps. So, well, Jason, when you're not playing taps and not playing the bugle, tell me about your work with EOS. And a lot of folks may be familiar with EOS.

3:58So I obviously, you know, kind of love your specialty or, you know, maybe the aspect of, you know, EOS implementation that you're most passionate about. But, you know, start with just giving us an overview. Yeah. So EOS, so I'm a business coach first and foremost. and I'm different than most business coaches because most business coaches tend to apply their background, their experience and hope, right? Hope that they can take something from their past and apply it to your business. And when you're dealing with like a super small business, that's only doing, you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars.

4:32It's very easy to seem like this mystical wizard who can come in there and just wave a wand and solve the problems. But when you start dealing with larger businesses, like we deal with, you actually need to have a little bit more than just some razzle dazzle, right? And that's where the benefit of what we do is, you know, it's while I do have my background, my history, all that sort of stuff, and I do bring that to bear in a session, what we're actually doing is teaching a proven system. And that's the big difference. And that's, I think, the thing that differentiates us from other folks is where this is not just something I dreamed up in my mom's basement last night.

5:04This is a proven system that 33 ,000 companies have been professionally implemented with. There's a book that some people may be familiar with called Traction. I mean, they've sold almost, I think the collection of libraries like 3.7 million books. That's a lot. That's a lot of books. It only takes like 20 ,000 to be on New York Times bestseller number one. So they sold 3.7 million of these books. So it's out there, right? And we've held 300 ,000, give or take, full day sessions with clients. And because of that book, there's I mean, there's probably a half a million companies that are trying to do it on their own with mixed success.

5:41It's it's very, very difficult to do on your own because it's so hard to see the label from inside the jar. So that's why people a lot of times people will try it on their own because like, oh, this is a simple system. There are simple tools, but don't confuse that with being easy. And so they run into a wall, they hit a ceiling and they just can't go any further. And so then they reach out to something like me to say, hey, like I'm super frustrated in my business. We're not making enough profit. My people are not doing what I want them to do. I'm not in control of the business. I've tried everything and nothing seems to work.

6:12And that's when they realize like, hey, we need to do something different than what we've been doing to get a different result. And I know, Jason, one thing that you talk about frequently on your social media is just, you know, people in positions kind of wearing too many hats. I mean, when that happens, especially if you're a growing company. I mean, it's just necessary for a small season. But, you know, ultimately, you know, there's a few things I'm pretty good at. And then most things I'm competent at. And then there's some things that I just absolutely do not enjoy doing. But, you know, unfortunately, I think a lot of us are like, well, it's tough.

6:52You got to do it anyway. And that doesn't have to be that way. Mixed results. Yeah, it doesn't have to be that way. That's the good part, right? We've got this process we call delegate and elevate, right? We want to simplify the business. We want to have, so it depends on what your goal is, right? If your goal is I'm the linchpin here, everything has to go through me. I'm the bottleneck. I don't want to be. I want to be able to take a vacation, right? And not feel like this business is going to fall apart without me. You got to figure out like the things that you are great at and you enjoy doing, keep them, right?

7:22But the things you hate doing that you're not very good at, well, that's obvious. get rid of it. And then there's this bucket where it's like, well, there's things that I enjoy doing, but I'm not very good at. And then there's things that I'm not very good at, but I enjoyed the other way around. So it's things that I'm good at, but don't enjoy. So you got to figure out and bring people in and delegate those things that are not truly your highest and best use. If you think about how many, if you're the owner of a business doing 10, 15,$20 million, what's your hourly rate? And are you doing$10 an hour work when you should be doing$150 an hour work?

7:56So we got to figure out, you know, and remove from your plate the things that you're not truly adding value, or you could be adding value in other ways, like opportunity costs, where because I'm doing this low value thing, I'm not doing the thing I really truly should be doing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, in the world, Jason, of EOS, if someone were to say, well, you know, there's quite a few implementers out there. What do you specifically bring to the table that they might not find in a, you know, in a typical EOS implementer? Yeah. So there is almost 900 of us around the world. And I do mean world. Everybody's got their own style.

8:35Everybody's got their own background, their own industries, their own experience. And that's really some of the difference. So my background, I spent 20, 25 years of my life in corporate America. I was a CFO and COO for a division of Bed Bath & Beyond. They bought two businesses that added up to$65 million. And we, as a team, ran it to$175 million organically. And while that sounds amazing and wonderful, I will tell you on the inside, it was a hot mess. We were running and gunning, flying by the seat of our pants. I wish we had process. I wish we had those systems. And so I've got a CFO background.

9:08I've got a heavy analytics background, IT background, just in terms of the actual work I did. And then I've also owned small businesses. I started out, I cut my teeth when I was 10 years old, cleaning my family business's office. Right. And then I learned every position in there. And eventually I saw them go bankrupt because they got swept up in the outsourcing to, you know, to India. So I have, you know, we've as an entrepreneur, I left corporate America, bought a business, started for others. You know, some of the businesses went from zero to two million dollars in the first year. Right. Some of the businesses cratered because of covid and we had to bring it back up.

9:43And some of the businesses just absolutely failed and we fell flat on our face. And so as an entrepreneur, I've got big company experience. I've got small business experience. I've got failure experience and I've got the battle scars and I do mean scars to show for it. So it's it's it's this is a high trust position going in, working with the company to implement this system because it's somebody's like it's their baby. It's their child. They grew this business from nothing to something. And, you know, they're putting a lot of trust in you in terms of this system to to to take them to the next level.

10:18And so they want to know that, yeah, I've sat in that seat. I have felt that pain, you know, and there is a different way. And I was able to experience that. And that's why I'm, that's why I'm an EOS implementer now is because all that heartache, all that struggle, all that pain I suffered through, you don't have to do it. There's a way to make it easier. And when I implemented EOS in my own business, like it was like, wow, like this is just such a different experience than what I was doing. Like I was constantly banging my head against the wall, you know, and with EOS, it gave me a way to do it, a system, a process that works and simple, you know, where it's not just, oh, the flavor of the month and a fad.

10:57If you try, you can actually stick with this. And it's not crazy. Yeah. No, Jason, and I think you brought up a great point earlier that I want to highlight is there's something to be said for understanding everything academically. And then I think the next best step would be, listen, I've done this with clients for years and years and years. And so I've lived vicariously through their experience. And I do have an appreciation for the fact that, no, listen, I don't know that you want to see how many wounds are covered. My body is covered. But I think a lot of us who have been in business for quite some time, you know, kind of have this knowing glance, we'll kind of give each other like, yeah, I've been there, done that.

11:42And that wisdom is such a powerful teacher. And I think Jason too, maybe that gives you, um, you know, a sense of empathy as well for, listen, it is easy to get caught in this trap and they're done that my friend. And so, um, you know, share, um, you know, with, you know, kind of that, um, you know, the role of a facilitator, uh, you know, and kind of, uh, you know, again, you want to be a, in some ways a dispassionate coach, you know, just completely driven by data and processes. And at the same time, we're dealing with people, particularly for talking about people issues and leadership issues and culture issues.

12:24Take us down the kind of the soft path for a moment. Sure. So, you know, a lot of people will bundle us into the bucket of a consultant, right and a consultant in my mind is somebody who comes in and and oh i've done this and this and that i'm so smart and you pay me a bunch of money and i'm gonna tell you exactly what to do so we are coaches teachers facilitators and so there is very often you know sessions where people are crying you know people are having knocked down drag them out really passionate arguments even fights to some point in time i mean there are stories in the community of actual physical fights breaking out that just the emotions get that high because and it's literally because sometimes you got a family business and there's all these dynamics all those things going in there and it's like how do you how are we able to kind of step back be that person on the outside and that's where the power is actually is is coming from the outside right i'm not i don't have any skin in the game i'm not in the politics i'm not in the drama of your business i can be this dispassionate outside observer calling balls and strikes, you know, willing to enter the danger, challenge the sacred cow that, you know, other people perhaps aren't, right?

13:39Who is going to hold the boss accountable, right? It's a very rare unicorn type employee that's willing to say, hey, boss, you were doing it totally wrong. And maybe we need to do that, right? Which is not going to happen. And so I am able to sit in that unique position of I can hold them accountable. They give me permission. We sort of start that way. Right. It's like, hey, you know, we're going to get some uncomfortable things here in this session. Are you guys OK with me pushing hard to get a better result? And you get the permission. And then when you start doing it, then it's like, well, you know, gosh, I kind of told him to do it.

14:10And, you know, and then once the emotion sort of subsides, it's like, well, yeah, we actually got to a better place. We got to a better outcome. And everybody everybody thinks that a well-functioning company, like if you think of it like that perfect company in your mind that in in the in the leadership team meeting that everything is just like hunky-dory and everybody just gets along and there's this like you know oh yeah everybody's just like in this agreement from the instant and the outset that couldn't be farther from the truth right the the most well-functioning companies in the leadership team meeting have the most rigorous emotional like you know debates arguments about what the path is but the difference is when you have a healthy company right you've got you know people you like people you there's open honest trust vulnerability all those things that make a healthy company is you can have a knock down drag amount argument about a particular issue but it doesn't destroy the relationship and at the end of the day everybody knows their role everybody knows their position the the visionary the boss made the decision about what we're doing.

15:15I had my piece. I got to say my opinion. It was taken into account. I'll win some, I'll lose some. But now the decision has been made. We got to get all on board and execute this to the best of our ability. And that's where the rubber meets the road. Because if you can't do that, if you can't commit to doing that in that business, then you probably need to find another job. And that is the hard conversation that sometimes a lot of people just aren't willing and a half. Jason, I know EOS to be, for those who are qualified to be a very generous early engagement process. And I really appreciate that as a, you know, kind of a fellow go-giver, you know, it's just such an enjoyable way of doing business.

15:59Do you mind sharing what early engagement, like if someone said, well, hey, Jason, let's chat. What does that typically look like over the first couple of calls that you have with them? Yeah, sure. So we have, I mean, honestly, we move at the speed of our prospective client, right? Some people know about EOS and they're ready to do it. And we just jump right in. And we offer to anybody who's willing, really, is a 90-minute workshop for their leadership team where we walk through, here's everything that EOS does, all the foundational tools, right? We help them understand that EOS helps them align their vision and get everybody on board with the goals of where they're going.

16:39At Workshop basically walks through, here's how you get traction in the business. Here's how you can actually, anybody can set a goal, right? But very few people actually accomplish goals repeatedly, reliably, over and over again, right? Even the broken clock is right twice a day. But how do we build a system in your business that you can achieve 80 % of the goals you make every year, right? And then finally, it's how do you get that business to be healthy? right and that's where we sort of discuss in that in that 90 minute workshop um and then obviously you know i'll have as many phone calls as we need to to get to the point where hey i feel comfortable enough with number one because there's three decisions have to be made right number one you got to decide if eos is right for you and and while i i think it's a great tool there are others out there and we encourage people to look at everything because at the end of the day our our creed is that you've got to pick one system and run it don't try to piecemeal it don't try to like do this and that every time i believe me and every time i tried to do it in my business i crashed and burned it was not as good and so i have i have been there and i've done that i've tried it um so it's it's you know you got to figure out number one is efo is eos right for you number two you got to figure out is jason the guy do you like the smell of jason's cologne do you like the way he facilitates do you like the way he talks you know i i make jokes i use analogies all that sort of stuff.

17:59Part of that 90 minute workshop is allowing that leadership team to say, do I like Jason? Do I trust Jason? Are we willing to open the kimono to Jason and let him in here and let him teach us this stuff? Right. And then the third thing is, which is actually kind of crazy. I don't know many companies that do this, but we don't have any contracts. So on average, our process takes about two years for a company to fully graduate. And I mean, you never master it, but you get good enough where you can do it on your own and graduate from the program. Some people do it faster. Some people do it slower.

18:32But on average, it takes two years. And so we will work with people on full day sessions over about 10 to 12 over two years to make it happen. But we have no contract. We have no long term agreement, no letter of intent, none of that stuff. You can fire me at any time. Further, we don't charge in advance. And so we may be on our 15th session and you might say, Jason, you are off your game today. We didn't find a ton of value, don't pay me. In the first session, the first full day session, eight hours, we'll teach you all the good stuff. If you didn't think it was value, if you didn't think it was for you, then don't pay me.

19:05That's our guarantee. And most of the people out there, like online marketing people or these people, those people you're going to buy a service from, pay me$10 ,000, pay me$25 ,000 upfront. And then we've got satisfaction guaranteed. If you do all these things which nobody can do, right? You got to make 300 phone calls a day. Who's doing that, right? And you got to fight for your money back. Here, you don't pay us in advance, and you only pay after value. So it's just a tremendous no-brainer, really, if you're interested in moving your business forward. I really appreciate that. Well, obviously, very important question is, who's kind of at the stage where it's probably pretty important that you have this conversation?

19:51Like, what are those indicators that they might know? Not just behaviorally what might be going on, but, you know, also legitimately size of company, revenue, that sort of thing. Sure. So EOS will work for any size company, right? From a solopreneur up to a$3 billion company with 10 ,000 employees. That's much more difficult to do, but it will work. But we focus our marketing and our target market on companies that have more than 10 employees. because 80%, 85 % of the issues that happen and the problems that happen in a company are because of people. And so if you're going to make the investment to have a professional implementer come in and do it, and you only have two or three employees, you're just not going to get as much bang for the buck.

20:32Now, we'll do it if you want to do it, right? And some people, they want to do it, and there's been plenty of people who have started, I'm starting this business, I had a US in my prior business, I know it works, I want to do it, and it's important to them. Okay, great, we'll do it, right? But I focus and I target on companies that have more than 10 employees because there's enough meat there. There's enough value there that the juice is worth the squeeze. All right. TheEOSGuide.com is a website that when somebody goes, Jason, to visit your implementer page there, which it redirects to, what would you recommend?

21:12What are next steps? So they can watch some videos. They can watch a video of me kind of talking a little bit about myself. There's a button, though. The big button is book a consultation, complimentary phone call. We'll get on the phone. We'll talk about your specific situation and see if we might be able to help. Excellent. The EOSguy.com, Jason Quinn. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

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