In this episode of Executive Connect, Melissa Aarskaug sits down with business coach Warren Coughlin to talk about what actually keeps entrepreneurs stuck. Warren breaks down the three biggest issues he sees in struggling companies, why “fine” is often a dangerous place to stay, and how leaders can stop reacting to everything and start building a business that runs with more clarity, discipline, and purpose. He also shares why values have to show up in systems, why shiny new ideas are not always the answer, and how entrepreneurs can grow without burning themselves out or losing who they are in the process.

This episode is for founders, operators, and leaders who want more control, better execution, and success that still feels like their own. Press play before “fine” quietly becomes your ceiling.

Chapters:
(0:17) Why entrepreneurs really get stuck
(2:34) The three blockers to growth
(4:12) Why fine is dangerous
(7:01) Planning is a skill
(9:44) Discipline is doing what matters
(15:19) Why good ideas still fail
(20:38) The plan is always the boss
(24:25) Leading with values that are real
(30:40) What entrepreneurs truly want
(33:26) Serving people and building well

Warren

(0:00) And so one of the things is if there are skills you don’t know, then go and talk to people who have those skills to teach you, right? (0:09) Whether it’s someone like me or whether it’s you read books, but like go and learn the skills. (0:13) Don’t think that it’s just a matter of, you know, passion is going to get you there.

Melissa

(0:17) Running a business or just riding a tornado in a suit, if you’re constantly reacting instead of leading or stuck wondering what’s next, today’s guest gets it. (0:30) Warren Collin is a seasoned business coach who helps entrepreneurs cut through the chaos, ditch the burnout and actually enjoy their success. (0:39) On this episode of the Executive Connect podcast, we’re breaking down how to get control, scale with sanity, and lead with purpose.

(0:50) No jargon, no fluff, just real actionable wisdom. (0:55) Let’s go. (0:56) Welcome, Warren.

Warren

(0:58) Thanks for having me. (0:59) I’ve been looking forward to it.

Melissa

(1:01) Now, entrepreneurs come to you when things start spinning out of control or when they hit that, oh no, what’s next phase in their life. (1:11) What’s the common thread you’re seeing and really what drew you to help leaders get unstuck and thrive?

Warren

(1:19) Wow, those are two interesting questions. (1:22) I’ll take the second one first. (1:23) The second part of that, it’s actually a long story I’ll make short, but basically, I’ve done a lot of things.

(1:29) I’m a recovering lawyer, I’m a serial entrepreneur, a college professor, actor, theater director, but I did all of those things because when I was born, I was supposed to die. (1:38) I had zero chance of survival and lived. (1:41) I was always trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do with this unexpected gift.

(1:46) Entrepreneurship is where it’s saying to me. (1:47) I actually believe entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful forces for positive social change. (1:52) I wanted to help entrepreneurs succeed.

(1:54) That’s how I got into it. (1:56) The first part of the question was how they find me or how do they?

Melissa

(2:00) Yeah, definitely. (2:02) Why do they come to you when they’re out of … (2:04) Usually, people would want to plan ahead and get a coach and figure it out.

(2:10) They’re seeing you when things are out of control, they’re stuck, they can’t figure it out. (2:16) What’s the common thread that you’re seeing with entrepreneurs and them coming to you when they’ve just given up hopes of all things?

Warren

(2:25) Sometimes it’s given up hope and sometimes they have hope, but they don’t know how to realize the hope. (2:30) Both of them have the same common denominators. (2:34) I’d say there’s actually three.

(2:35) I use a little triangle. (2:36) There’s three things that get in the way. (2:38) One is I call foggy figures.

(2:39) They actually don’t know the story of the business that’s being told to them through their numbers. (2:44) They don’t know how to make good decisions. (2:46) The second is there’s a trust trap.

(2:48) They know that they want to extract themselves from the day to day, but they can’t trust their teams. (2:53) Then the third is they’re playing whack-a-mole all the time. (2:56) They’re trying to do 23 priorities at once.

(2:58) They’re always in reactive mode and they wonder why things aren’t changing even though they’re working really hard. (3:03) That’s just because they’re … (3:04) I call that priority paralysis.

(3:06) They just don’t have clarity on what is the most important thing to do right now. (3:10) What I do is basically address each of those things. (3:13) It’s sort of like if you use a sports team as an analogy, you can’t win if you don’t know how to keep score.

(3:18) You can’t win if you don’t have a winning team and you can’t win if you don’t have a winning game plan. (3:22) What I do is help them understand their numbers, build a high performance team or culture, and then build the strategic planning system that allows them to always focus on the priorities. (3:31) Once those three things are in place, everything else sort of cascades from there.

Melissa

(3:38) I love it. (3:39) Plans are so important. (3:40) If you’re leaving your home from Toronto and coming to visit us in Texas, you got to have a plan on how you’re going to get here.

(3:49) Are you flying? (3:50) Are you driving? (3:51) I’m shocked sometimes.

(3:52) I hear a lot of people that don’t have plans. (3:55) They just kind of jump into things and hope for the best, but I think there’s something so true about that, Warren, getting a plan so you know what you’re going so you can measure what success is as you go through your journey. (4:09) I love this.

(4:10) I love, love, love this. (4:12) You talk a lot about the danger of fine. (4:16) I love this because I always ask my kids, how was your day at school?

(4:21) They say, oh, fine. (4:24) Why is this state so deceiving? (4:28) I guess, really, how can leaders recognize when they’ve unconsciously hit those breaks?

Warren

(4:37) Yeah, it’s sort of like you can feel that it’s not where you want it to be yet. (4:42) And there’s actually some really interesting research about entrepreneurs. (4:46) People think entrepreneurs are risk takers, but they’re not.

(4:49) They’re actually optimists. (4:51) They don’t consider the risk inherent in their business because they can’t imagine it not working, right? (4:57) And so then they get to a place, so then they start and they go, oh, this is going to be great.

(5:01) And then it winds up being super hard. (5:03) And it’s like, holy crap, this is harder than I thought it was going to be. (5:06) And then they get to a place where it’s finally like, oh, it’s okay.

(5:09) It’s fine. (5:11) So I’m just going to stop here because this is harder than I thought it was going to be. (5:16) And so then what happens, you’re sort of actually in a state of settling rather than thriving, right?

(5:22) Because you’ve come up to this sort of barrier and it’s like, okay, I don’t want to take any more risk. (5:28) But the thing is, when you learn how to handle those three main things that I talked about, and then the associated skills that flow from there, all of a sudden it opens again. (5:38) And the next stage becomes exciting instead of scary because you can see, oh, this is where I’m going.

(5:43) So I’ve had a bunch of clients like that. (5:45) Just in the last couple of weeks, we’ve had conversations where it’s like, oh, so this is what I can do next. (5:50) Yeah.

(5:51) So we’re going to penetrate these new markets. (5:52) We’re going to introduce these new service lines. (5:54) We’re going to bring in this high-performing senior manager that’s going to allow me to take things off my plate.

(6:00) And as soon as you start seeing those possibilities, then there’s something beyond fine. (6:06) Then it becomes sort of there’s fulfillment, which is better than fine.

Melissa

(6:10) Yeah. (6:11) And it’s kind of like reframing where things are a bit to keep moving forward. (6:19) I feel like, I think a lot of times doing like going into the doctor to get a health check, how am I doing?

(6:25) How’s my health? (6:26) How’s my blood work? (6:27) I think sometimes we have to, like, I forget who says it, maybe you know Warren, the power of the pause, just pausing, assessing like, are we making it from Canada to the US?

(6:39) Have we got there? (6:40) How far do we have to go? (6:42) Have we enjoyed the journey?

(6:44) Or has it been kind of very difficult to get there? (6:47) So I don’t know. (6:48) I feel like there’s, it’s kind of a mindset too, right?

(6:52) I love that you said that with entrepreneurs, they don’t see, they just see the win at the end. (6:58) They see the success at the end.

Warren

(7:01) Yeah. (7:02) Yeah. (7:02) And then I like what you said, the power of the pause, and that’s really the planning process.

(7:07) When you take every 90 days and just sort of stop and go, okay, where have we been? (7:12) We said we were going to get here. (7:13) Did we get there?

(7:14) And the thing about planning, what’s so interesting, I’ll take a little diversion for a second. (7:19) Planning, people sometimes don’t want to do planning, especially in times like these, because it feels so uncertain. (7:25) So when people think that way, I use the metaphor of poker.

(7:29) People think poker is a game of chance. (7:31) It’s not. (7:32) It’s a game of skill in which chance is an element.

(7:36) And that’s like business. (7:37) So a pro poker player could lose to a rookie in a hand, but they’ll always win the game, because ultimately it’s a game of skill. (7:46) And business is the same.

(7:47) It’s a game of skill in which chance and probabilities and unknowns are an element. (7:53) And so when you understand that, then planning works. (7:55) So you might, your plan in a given 90-day period may not work out exactly as you thought, but when you take the lesson and then replan and then take the lesson and replan, it’s a discipline that’s a skill set that can only have you succeed in the long run.

(8:12) So in any given quarter, it could be frustrating, but every single client I’ve had that has actually implemented the planning process has outperformed their competitors and their prior performance before doing that. (8:24) When you look at it, and so like last year, the average profit increase was $420,000, and the average revenue increase was about $2.3 million. (8:33) And that’s just after putting in this system of planning, where as to your point, you pause, you look at what you did, what worked, what didn’t, recalibrate, put in the next plan, execute it, analyze it again, take the pause.

(8:48) And if you do that as like a cadence, then you can’t help but having great results in the long run.

Melissa

(8:53) Ready to lead smarter and invest wiser? (8:57) On the Executive Connect podcast, we unpack executive strategies for wealth and influence. (9:04) Hit the subscribe button now.

(9:06) Don’t just watch, act. (9:09) Yeah. (9:10) And business can be messy and unpredictable and one shiny thing to the next shiny thing.

(9:17) And I love that you said that word, because I think there’s so much in that word. (9:22) And I’d love to unplug the word discipline that there’s just so much in that word. (9:28) So I guess the question is, how can entrepreneurs treat their businesses less like guessing, we’re just guessing, and more like a skill that they’ve mastered as it relates to discipline?

Warren

(9:44) So that’s an interesting question. (9:46) So a lot of it is by, I’m going to sound self promotional, but gaining, you know, you can learn by yourself or you can learn by people who’ve gone before you. (9:57) Right.

(9:58) And so one of the things is if there are skills you don’t know, then go and talk to people who have those skills to teach you. (10:06) Right. (10:06) Whether it’s someone like me or whether it’s you read books, but like go and learn the skills.

(10:11) Don’t think that it’s just a matter of, you know, passion is going to get you there. (10:15) There’s a lot of people in my business who’s frankly peddled that nonsense that as long as you just have passion, everything is going to work. (10:21) It’s not true.

(10:22) If you just have passion, you’re not going to be Olympic athlete. (10:25) Like you need to develop the skills necessary to succeed. (10:29) And then discipline is kind of an interesting word because people think it means, you know, always having to grind it out.

(10:37) And I just think discipline is really nothing more than doing what matters most in the moment. (10:42) And if you can make that decision based on what you want out of life, you know, like it isn’t about making money, you know, yes, that’s a that’s a measure of success, but you’re in the business. (10:54) Most people go into business because they had some passion.

(10:56) They wanted to do something. (10:57) They wanted to achieve something. (10:59) Right.

(10:59) So it’s like, oh, well, how can I achieve more of that? (11:02) Well, I can achieve more of that if I learn how to do that better. (11:05) If the thing that’s blocking me is I don’t know what my books are telling me, we’ll go and learn them.

(11:10) Right. (11:10) If it’s what’s blocking me is I don’t know how to sell. (11:13) We’ll go talk to a sales coach.

(11:14) Right. (11:15) And develop your sales skills. (11:17) So every one of the things that is potentially blocking you is just it’s just a skill.

(11:22) Now, you don’t have to learn it all yourself. (11:24) Sometimes it’s acquiring someone who who knows it. (11:27) Right.

(11:27) So it’s hire a sales manager if you suck at sales. (11:31) Right. (11:31) And then then you’ll have that skill set within your business.

(11:35) So discipline doesn’t mean, you know, being chained to your desk and grinding it out and going, oh, you know, it’s it’s really just saying, well, what do I want? (11:46) What are the things that are going to get me there? (11:47) And won’t it be fun to actually do that?

(11:50) Bring that into the business somehow. (11:51) And when you can actually actually the more you can translate that notion of discipline into the skill set that’s fun. (12:00) Then it’s actually freeing.

(12:02) Right. (12:03) Like you and I were joking before before we got on the call, I’m a mountain biker, even though I’m an old guy, but I love mountain biking. (12:08) But I like I take lessons because there’s trails that I could not go on six months ago that now I can because I learned the skills.

(12:18) And so now that opens up a whole world of opportunity to me that wasn’t available six months ago. (12:24) Right. (12:25) And so it’s the same in business.

(12:26) It’s like, oh, all I have to do is that thing. (12:31) Yeah. (12:31) Then all of a sudden, wow, I can and the results that I was talking about with some of the clients, sometimes it’s just it’s funny.

(12:38) I was at a client. (12:38) A client had an event last night and he was talking to everybody. (12:42) There was this big sort of industry event and he stood up and he said, my business coach told me this thing years ago.

(12:47) And it was that some of our greatest gifts come in ugly wrapping paper. (12:50) And that’s one of the things I talk to clients. (12:53) So the struggles you’ve had in the past are actually a gift you just have to unpack and say, oh, I stumbled here.

(13:02) Why did I stumble there? (13:04) Because there’s a thing I didn’t know. (13:06) Oh, well, that’s a gift.

(13:08) So how do I go about learning that? (13:10) Because that’s going to take me to take me to the next stage. (13:13) So that was it was a long answer to a short question.

(13:15) But I just think when people hear discipline, I always know they get this. (13:18) You can almost feel people’s backs going up and, you know, because entrepreneurs like freedom, right? (13:24) Like I’m one of them, too.

(13:25) I’m an old actor and theater director. (13:27) I don’t like being constrained. (13:29) But the thing is, when you when you when you think of it just in terms of skill development, you actually become free, not constrained.

Melissa

(13:37) Yeah, and discipline is starting to become one of my very favorite words, because all the things we want in our life, no matter what bucket they’re in, require discipline, whether it’s our health or our wealth or whatever we’re going after, it requires, like you were saying, discipline and I and executing, you know, discipline every day consistently. (14:01) Yes, is what equals success, right? (14:04) So doing, practicing, riding the trails and then trying a little bit harder, and then trying a little bit harder.

(14:12) Eventually, it’s just easy to ride the trail and what you used to like go slower. (14:15) Now you’re just blazing through the trail because you’re comfortable your knowledge and your, your trust in yourself and your abilities has grown so much higher that you know, you’re able to do it now.

Warren

(14:29) Yeah. (14:30) Yeah. (14:30) And it’s really exciting.

(14:31) I had a client just last week, she’s now put a second tier of management in place. (14:36) And what’s so it’s so great to see she’s actually teaching them skills that five years ago she didn’t have. (14:45) You know, and it’s it’s so cool to see that, you know, now being transferred to the next generation, and it’s allowing the business to just kind of really expand.

Melissa

(14:54) They say the best way to learn is to teach, right?

Warren

(14:57) It’s true.

Melissa

(14:59) Let’s talk a little bit about something else that you said. (15:02) I forget who said this. (15:03) I think it was Jim Rohn.

(15:04) You know, you can go to all these seminars and be motivated. (15:07) But then when you come home without a plan, you’re a motivated idiot. (15:11) So now you’re amped up, but you’ve got no plan.

(15:14) So that amped up motivation only lasts for so long. (15:19) So let’s talk about back to the entrepreneurs, every founder has ideas, big ones, small ones. (15:26) But I know you say good ideas that can’t be executed is actually a bad idea.

(15:32) That kind of hits a little bit hard. (15:34) So can you walk us through that mindset and how to avoid, you know, I don’t know, falling in love with fluff and shiny things.

Warren

(15:44) And it’s not always fluff and shiny things.

Melissa

(15:46) Sometimes their money rebels is on a mission to help professionals just like you get their money working harder for you. (15:54) Their clients free up an average of $35,000 their very first year without having to work extra hours to show you how they’ve put together a powerful training called cashflow secrets. (16:06) And the listeners of the executive connect podcast can get it completely free.

(16:11) Just visit money ripples.com forward slash secrets and enter the promo code EXEC.

Warren

(16:18) There’s real substance there. (16:19) But the point of that statement that you know, a good idea that can’t be executed is a bad idea. (16:24) You have to look at what resources are available to you.

(16:27) You know, if you want to do something that’s going to take 100 hours, and you only have 20, you’re not going to do it. (16:33) If it costs $500,000, and all you have is $200,000, you’re not going to do it. (16:39) Right?

(16:39) So it’s a great idea, but it may not be a great idea right now. (16:43) Right? (16:44) Or you have to stop back and step back and go, okay, so what are the resources that I have available?

(16:50) Or how can I redeploy my resources, right? (16:52) Any plan that doesn’t have an allocation of resources is going to fail. (16:59) Right?

(16:59) And you only have three categories of resources. (17:02) You have time, team and money. (17:03) That’s it.

(17:05) And so when you’re sitting down to do a plan, you can have a goal and say, I want to do this great thing. (17:09) I’m going to penetrate 23 states in the next six months. (17:13) How many salespeople do you have?

(17:15) Two. (17:16) Hey, you’re not. (17:18) You’re just not going to hit, conquer 23 states in the next six months with two salespeople.

(17:24) So then you go, okay, so what am I going to do? (17:27) I’m either going to do this more slowly, or I’m going to allocate resources. (17:31) So I’ve had two different clients have very similar results, but over different timeframes because of resource availability.

(17:38) Right? (17:38) So one of them, he had sold a prior business. (17:40) So he came in, he had $50 million or something.

(17:43) So he, he sort of like threw cash at it. (17:46) He hired 23 salespeople and just boom, exploded. (17:51) Right?

(17:51) Somebody else didn’t have that kind of capital. (17:54) So it took three or four years, right? (17:57) To build until there was some capital there that you could kind of expand.

(18:01) So that’s what I mean, like a good idea that can’t be executed as a bad, like there’s another way of doing it. (18:05) So the second person, his plan was very different from the first person’s plan. (18:10) They both had similar outcomes, but a way different path how to get there.

(18:16) And that’s where you got, that’s that you have to think through and say, okay, the other thing that entrepreneurs do that you alluded to is, is the shiny object syndrome. (18:24) And you hear this all the time. (18:25) What’s your side hustle?

(18:26) I’m going to do a business. (18:27) I’m going to get another side hustle. (18:28) Really?

(18:29) I know there’s exceptions to every rule, but generally if you want to grow a business, grow that business. (18:36) Don’t do six businesses at a time. (18:38) Right?

(18:39) People think, people point to like Richard Branson, look Virgin, he’s got like 10 businesses. (18:43) Yeah. (18:44) But if you look at his history, he did one at a time, right?

(18:48) He did one, got it successful. (18:49) Then he got another one and then he made it successful. (18:52) And then now he can buy something and put a team in place so he can do two or three at once because he allocates the responsibilities to other people with resources.

(19:00) But when he was starting, it was one thing at a time. (19:04) And that’s the hard thing for a lot of entrepreneurs is to learn to say no to yourself, right? (19:10) I’ve got another great idea.

(19:11) I’ve got another great idea. (19:12) Ideas are like trains, right? (19:14) There’s another one coming by every five minutes.

(19:16) Pick the one that’s going to take you to the next station and then board it.

Melissa

(19:22) Yeah. (19:23) I love it. (19:25) It’s funny.

(19:26) I think about strategic planning or goals, however you want to call it. (19:31) I’ve always set goals personally, professionally. (19:37) I look at them regularly.

(19:39) I know some people that look at their goals once a year, twice a year and see what they’ve checked off. (19:46) But let’s talk about professional, practical planning and what that looks like and how you help teams get out of the reactive mode and into actually executing. (20:00) I work in tech and highly regulated industries and I feel like we’re always reacting, reacting, reacting.

(20:07) Okay. (20:07) We need this. (20:08) This customer needs that.

(20:09) We’re reacting. (20:10) Okay. (20:10) Well, our plan said this, and now we’re pausing the plan to move to the shiny thing.

(20:16) So let’s talk about maybe the how to get businesses to focus on execution when all these shiny things are coming. (20:31) New AI, ChatGPT5 is here, so let’s pivot. (20:34) So how do you focus on that?

Warren

(20:38) Okay. (20:38) So there’s two parts to that question. (20:39) So the first part is how do you actually create a plan?

(20:42) In real short, I’m just going to distill it down. (20:45) There’s way more to it than this, but essentially the first thing you have to do is do what’s called a SWOT analysis, which is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. (20:52) All that means that’s a fancy way of just saying, look at your business and say what’s working, what’s not working.

(20:57) Right. (20:58) And then prioritize. (21:00) You’re going to come up with like a hundred things.

(21:03) I actually have a tool now that I actually use for people that just asks them 350 questions and automatically populates a SWOT analysis so they don’t have to think about it. (21:11) But from there you kind of go, okay, there’s maybe four themes of stuff that are out there. (21:16) I’m going to pick one theme, pick two or three priorities on it, and then just fix them.

(21:21) Right. (21:21) And then you plan out over 90 days. (21:24) So because there’s a difference, and this is what you alluded to this, there’s a difference between goal setting and planning.

(21:29) Having a goal is not a plan. (21:31) Right. (21:31) That’s just, that’s the end point.

(21:33) The plan is step-by-step how I’m going to get there and over what period of time. (21:37) So there’s a difference between due dates, D-U-E, and due dates, D-O. (21:44) Right.

(21:44) So the due date is when it’s finished, but the due date is when am I going to do the work. (21:49) What most people do is they just have a due date, D-U-E, and they don’t plan out when the work is going to get done. (21:55) So as that end date gets near, they’re all of a sudden going, ah, how do I get there?

(21:59) Right. (21:59) And so you have to plan out when the work gets done. (22:02) Now I said there’s two parts.

(22:03) The second part that you alluded to is what if something comes up. (22:06) And things always come up. (22:08) And the thing to remember, every sports coach, every military commander will tell you that what happens on the field of battle never perfectly reflects what you had on the plan.

(22:16) But they will also tell you that without the plan, they would have their butts kicked. (22:19) So what does that mean? (22:20) The plan is a framework for decision making.

(22:23) So when something new comes up, you have to proactively say, is this thing more important to achieving our goal than the things that are on the plan? (22:33) Both important and more urgent. (22:36) If so, then we change the plan.

(22:39) If not, then sorry, that thing is going to wait, and we stick to the plan. (22:44) So it means you never get sort of randomly bumped off by events. (22:49) You proactively make a decision.

(22:51) Every time there’s a new opportunity, or a new threat, or something that emerges, you sit down and say, is handling this more important and more urgent than the thing that’s on the plan? (23:01) If so, we rewrite the plan. (23:04) Right.

(23:05) And so the plan is always the boss. (23:08) And if you just, if the one takeaway from this conversation is, the plan is always the boss. (23:13) If you’re not doing what’s on the plan, you’re failing.

(23:17) That doesn’t mean the plan is written in stone. (23:20) You’re allowed to change the plan as long as you’re proactively doing it with a view to the strategy. (23:25) And that’s a discipline, right, of holding yourself to a decision making that says, oh, but I really want to do that thing.

(23:33) Yeah, I get that, that you want to. (23:35) But is it more important? (23:36) Is it going to take you to the goal?

(23:38) Well, no, but I really want, I get that. (23:41) So that thing you really want, we’ll do that next quarter. (23:44) So you’re going to be able to do it, just not now.

Melissa

(23:50) Yeah, I love it. (23:50) I think there’s so much there. (23:52) I think a lot of times it’s holding to the plan.

(23:56) I would agree. (23:57) I’ve seen so many different businesses turn into the cheesecake factory when they were doing so, so good as In-N-Out with hamburgers and french fries. (24:07) They’ve moved to the cheesecake factory model.

(24:10) And now their whole teams are just disjointed trying to figure out who’s the biggest customer that we got a service today. (24:19) So I agree. (24:19) I think it needs a tick and tie back to a plan.

(24:22) And so I want to pivot a little bit. (24:25) One of the things I really liked in getting to know you is leading without losing yourself is something that I find is not always common with entrepreneurs. (24:38) And I know you help leaders grow their businesses without compromising their values, which I believe is rare.

(24:47) How do you keep ethics, impact, performance, all working together as businesses are growing and scaling?

Warren

(24:56) By being very, very explicit about it. (25:00) Every client I work with have value statements and they’re not just motherhood, you know, terms that are plastered on the wall. (25:10) There are values that have behaviors associated with them.

(25:14) And in every weekly meeting, there are conversations about whether we are living those values. (25:20) And when you do that, I’ll tell you, you attract better quality people. (25:25) The people are more inspired.

(25:27) They hold each other to a higher level of accountability once you’ve got this sort of tracking in. (25:33) And it actually predetermines your ethical outcomes. (25:36) Like if you say we are about excellence and somebody wants to just run something through the system faster, you go, well, no, because we’re about excellence.

(25:47) Right. (25:48) And then it inspires your systems. (25:51) I’ll just tell you one quick story.

(25:52) I had a client that they’re a construction company and their values were two of them were safety and productivity. (26:00) And safety was their number one value and authentically held. (26:03) They had an employee killed on a job site by a neighboring contractor, young guy.

(26:08) And it was horribly tragic. (26:09) And so like safety was number one. (26:13) But guess what happens?

(26:16) Productivity was what they were incentivized on. (26:19) That’s what they were bonused on. (26:21) Project managers got bonuses on hitting productivity targets.

(26:25) So on February here in Toronto, on a winter’s day on an outdoor construction site. (26:32) What are you going to do? (26:34) Safety says slow it down.

(26:36) Right. (26:37) Productivity says hit your targets. (26:39) So even for a company that was authentically committed to safety as their number one value, we realize their incentive system was at odds with it.

(26:50) So this is where I say, like for the clients I work, values are not just kumbaya stuff that sits on the wall. (26:55) Like you get down into your systems, into your payment structures, into your performance management systems, into your operational systems, into your communication structures, into your technology choices. (27:07) Everything has to be considered by reference to the values.

(27:11) And when you look at it that way, that’s how it becomes really authentically lit. (27:14) You just don’t sing the song about it. (27:16) You actually really drive it into your operations.

(27:19) And when I’ll tell you, when people see that, when the team sees that you’re investing in people, in processes and technologies to align with the values, they’re like, oh, this is real. (27:33) This isn’t just bull. (27:35) And then when they see that you’re authentic about it, they get committed to it.

(27:38) And those that aren’t committed to it, off they go somewhere else.

Melissa

(27:42) This episode is brought to you by Summit Ventures. (27:47) If you’re an accredited investor, Summit gives you access to one of the greatest tax advantage opportunities, direct ownership in oil and gas. (27:59) Their projects deliver what they call the triple play, cashflow, equity growth and powerful tax benefits.

(28:07) And here’s the best part. (28:08) These investments qualify for 1031 exchanges. (28:13) That means you can roll gains from real estate into energy while deferring capital gains.

(28:20) To learn more and get a free white paper, oil and gas demystified, just visit www.summitven.com forward slash executive connect. (28:34) And I love that you just said that. (28:36) That’s so great, because I have seen, in my experience, organizations that say that these are our values, and then they don’t hold true to those values.

(28:48) And people’s commitment changes when safety is our value, but we’re telling all the people to work when it’s snowing and they could slip and things could, you know, affect them. (29:01) Because I do absolutely agree with that. (29:03) I think the one time that you let it slip and tell them to work when they should it and it’s snowing is when people question are these values legit?

(29:14) Are they just pretty coloring, you know, pictures that we put on a wall in a building and talk about. (29:21) So I love that you said it’s total commitment to it.

Warren

(29:24) And what’s it what I find interesting, there’s this whole, you know, mythology out there that business people just want to make money and they’re greedy and selfish and all that kind of crap. (29:32) I’ve got entrepreneurs, every client I have, they, I wish, I wish sometimes their employees could listen to the conversations I have with them. (29:41) Because they care about their people.

(29:45) You know, like, it isn’t about increasing the bottom line. (29:49) Like, I’ve got clients, they want their employees to be able to buy a house, they want they, when they see a safety thing, they get angry, not because they’re going to have an insurance claim, they get angry because they’re like, I want you to go home to your kids. (30:03) You know, and I, that, what I’ve always observed is that when people are aligned with their values, like we’re all in this game to make our lives better, right?

(30:12) And at the end of the day, when you are aligned with your own values, you’re just happier. (30:18) You know, like, when there’s a dissonance between what you do and what you believe is right and true, you’re gonna, there’s a dissonance that creates misery in you. (30:27) But when you’re aligned with it, whether it’s $10,000 more or $10,000 less this month, it doesn’t really matter that much, right?

(30:35) You’re just, you’re gonna feel more fulfillment.

Melissa

(30:40) Yeah, I agree. (30:41) I think, I’m curious, so the, what wins matter most to the entrepreneurs that you coach today?

Warren

(30:50) So there’s no one answer to that. (30:52) It varies. (30:53) You know, like, some people, it is, money is the that they drive towards.

(30:58) For some, it’s freedom. (30:59) You know, like, I don’t have to be into the day to day. (31:02) For some, it’s, like the client I just mentioned who is now teaching other people, for her, like, the seeing these young employees she had blossoming into leaders is just so rewarding to her that that’s what jazzes her.

(31:16) I’ve had some who are about sort of environmental impacts or social impacts that they’re having. (31:22) You know, so it really depends on the entrepreneur. (31:24) But most of them, for most of them, the profit thing is important, but it isn’t, when you drill right under it, that’s not what it is.

(31:36) And when you really go, you want to go really deep into it, out of everything I just said about all those different things, what people are really after is a feeling. (31:44) If you actually write your goals down and then say, imagine I have succeeded those goals, how do I feel? (31:51) Whatever the answer to that question is, is your true goal.

(31:54) I want to feel security. (31:56) I want to feel recognition. (31:58) I want to feel powerful.

(32:00) I want to feel successful. (32:01) I want to feel generous. (32:02) I want to feel joy.

(32:04) Whatever those things are, those are your real goals. (32:07) And so then if you construct your business around how do I realize those things, then it becomes fun. (32:15) And that’s where the value stuff comes in.

(32:17) And there’s no, sometimes when people hear that, I don’t lead with that all the time, because it sounds very Kumbaya, and people are like, oh, your means not making a lot of money. (32:25) My clients make a lot of money, but that’s not what it’s about. (32:30) That old saying, you don’t succeed for what you get, you succeed for what you become.

Melissa

(32:35) Yeah, I agree. (32:36) And I think our gifts aren’t necessarily always ours, they’re ours to share with the world. (32:42) Some of the best, I mean, you alluded to it at the beginning, you’ve lived your life in a way because you weren’t sure that you were going to live the next day.

(32:51) And so I love that you said that, because I think there’s so much truth to that. (32:56) I know we often say, when I retire, or when I have more time, or when the kids leave the house, or all these what ifs, but really it’s impact, right? (33:07) We all want to be seen, heard, and using our gifts to do good for the world and make money in the process.

(33:15) So I love, I think that’s such a really good point. (33:19) Any final thoughts or anything that you want to leave with our listeners that we didn’t touch on today?

Warren

(33:26) Well, probably a lot. (33:27) I would just say, you know, live true to your values, to yourself, and you will attract great people. (33:34) And, you know, as long as, the last thing you said, I just really, I believe that the more we serve, it’s one of the paradoxes of love, right?

(33:42) The more we fulfill others, the more we are filled. (33:46) And if you run your business from trying to serve your team, serve your customers, serve your community, you’re going to reap the rewards from that, when you authentically do it for those reasons. (33:58) And so you just, you marry that intention with just the true skills of being a skilled entrepreneur, and you can help but kind of love what you do.

Melissa

(34:08) Yeah. (34:09) And I think people can tell when you’re being phony, right? (34:14) Like people can tell when you actually care about them.

(34:19) And when you ask them how their day is going, and before they can even tell you, you move on to what you really want. (34:25) People know what’s authentic and that if you care or you don’t care just how you’re showing up and, you know, just be authentic. (34:35) And like you said, do good and the good will continue to follow you.

(34:40) It doesn’t mean that we’re not going to have our bumps and get our bruises along the way. (34:45) I find some of my most successful entrepreneur friends were the ones that had a major something happen to them. (34:54) And they turned that struggle into a strength and then gave it back to the world to learn from.

(35:01) And so it’s amazing. (35:04) I look at all these businesses that, you know, started like cookie companies, like there’s hundreds of thousands of cookie companies. (35:13) And I just happened to like one because it’s called Melissa and I’m Melissa.

(35:18) And the reason her business was so successful was because she was just making cookies for the neighborhood kids, right? (35:25) Like she wasn’t starting a business, right. (35:27) And, but she was coloring the cookies.

(35:30) And so, you know, there’s so many of these businesses I think of people that started out of just doing kind things like making cookies for other kids. (35:41) There was no real business plan, no real strategy. (35:44) So I love it.

(35:46) So tell our listeners how they can best connect with you and find you, Warren.

Warren

(35:54) So my website is just my name. (35:56) It’s warrencoglin.com. (35:58) And I’m also on LinkedIn, just under the same name, Warren Coghlan.

(36:02) And those are the two best places to reach me. (36:04) You can reach me by email if you want. (36:06) And on my website, there’s actually I’ve got a ton of free resources and things that people can access to figure out how to make their businesses better.

(36:13) And then if there’s anything I can do personally to help you, I’m always, I’m always up for a call.

Melissa

(36:18) I love it. (36:19) Thank you so much for sharing your time and your knowledge with our listeners. (36:24) That’s the Executive Connect podcast.