Why Most CEOs Don't Have a Strategy, They Have a Plan, and It's Costing Them Growth with Shannon Susko

0:00Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation, JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by high level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today, we'll be breaking down why most CEOs don't have a strategy they have a plan and is costing them growth. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought to Shannon, LB, Susco, and the EO Fire Studios. Shannon is a two-time exited CEO, author, and founder of Metronomics, whose system built from growing and exponentially selling two companies now helps over 3,000 CEOs worldwide grow through leveraging this value-building system. And today we talk about going from strategy to system, execution to sticks, building an A-player team, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Shannon and our sponsors. Fire Nation, Meet Hotworks, the number one would take fitness franchise with 850 plus locations. They pioneered virtual workouts inside Infrared Sonas, with recurring membership revenue, a low-labor high-tech model, and a proven franchise system. Entrepreneurs gained a scalable business built for growth. Visit hotworks.net slash franchising to learn more.

1:02Stop duct-taping your business together. High-level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Shannon, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. The number one thing is that everyone feels they have to choose between growing their business and life. And I truly believe that you can grow a great business, have a lot of fun, but also have a great life. It's probably the number one thing that I was looking for growing my first business, my second business, and today with all the 3000 CEOs we support today, that is a big deal. But we want more people to know about that.

2:03Well, that's why we're talking about why most CEOs don't have a strategy. They have a plan and it's causing them growth. So I want to talk about going from strategy to system because like we just kind of chatted about most CEOs, they have a strategy on paper. But how the heck does a person turn that strategy into a system that doesn't just sit there, but actually drives growth? Well, interestingly enough, the most misunderstood word is strategy. And everyone thinks their plan is the strategy. But a plan normally gets written, it gets put on a wall, it sits in a drawer. And you know, really what the company is looking for is a system. We need a system to actually align the strategy and the execution and not doing it like you're the CEO, you're the entrepreneur, you're hauling it all the way all by yourself. We want this system to run without you. And when we think about turning strategy into a system, we need to make it visible.

3:07We need to make it owned. We need it validated regularly on a cadence. And when we have this thing that got created in my first company, which is a three year highly achievable goal, and we map out 12 quarters. And then we break down the cash forecast into 36 months. And we talk about it day, week, month, quarter. This is what allows that system to get really ingrained and run without you. And so when we just look at a strategy once a year, and we write the plan down once a year, it's really not going to grow the validation you need, the confidence you need to actually make the adjustments every day, week, month, quarter. And that's been my experience in growing my first company, my second company. But this was the thing that really unlocked the growth in my first company. Well, that moves us into talking about execution that sticks,

4:08because there's just this huge gap between what teams say they're going to do and what actually gets done. I mean, people will promise you the world, and then they'll deliver you a blade of grass. So how the heck do we fix this issue? The one thing that I definitely have learned, and I've learned over and over and over again, is that teams don't fail to execute because they're lazy, because they don't want to get it done. They actually fail because the plan is so fuzzy and invisible. The gap isn't the effort. It's getting the clarity and visibility required, so that priorities are really clear. They are owned by one person, and everyone can see them. And so when we look at building this out, we're looking at the long-term, everyone knows Jim Collins, big, hairy, adacious goal. Oh, yeah. 10 to 30 years old out there, and we have one.

5:09And we had one too, and then we mapped our annual plan. Everyone's got one. Everyone's got an annual plan. But the thing that really brought the clarity was putting in that three-year holiday-chefable goal, which was that stepping stone in between your annual plan, and you know, your big North Star, and making it believable and real and clear. That's, you know, clarity is one of my favorite words, clear. But the one of the greatest things is having it owned, not by the CEO, all the monkeys on your back, but it by the team. Everyone could see what they could contribute and do it together as a team, as I talked about in that rhythm of day, week, month, quarter. Let's talk about building A-Player teams, because if we were really to get down to brass tax, Shannon, growth is going to depends on people in the right seats. So in your experience, how do leaders consistently build A-Player teams

6:10that can actually scale? One of the things that haunted me in building my first company, you know, and don't get this wrong, I absolutely believe this, but my coach would say to me constantly, you gotta get the right people and the right seats doing the right things, Jim Collins to the max, right? And the big thing was is for most organizations, everyone says people, people, people, people, and I agree with that. But what I was really looking for, and I kept asking my coach for, was looking for that system for the people problem. Like A-Player is when we talk about, you know, your A-Player that's going to run out in front of you, that you cheer on and you coach and you say, go a little left, go a little right, yay, great job, you're loving that. They ooze the core values, they exceed your expectations, and they're attracted to being measured. God, a love, and A-Player team. But everyone's like, oh, you know, it's really hard,

7:10it's really hard. Of course it is, there's people involved. And so one of the things that really helped me being, you know, one of those people that can get sweet one on one in just getting the right people on your team, designing it and putting the right people in those roles, is look, you know, the biggest thing, it's one of the systems in metronomics, is building a repeatable human system. And that sounds so unhuman by saying it. But when there's a scorecard for every seat, there is clarity of expectations and A-Players are absolutely attracted to that. There's also the opportunity to actually have those 90 day coaching reviews with ease, because they go, you know, they're like bookends, hand-in-hand and A-Players want to be coached, they want to grow, and they want to understand how they're going to be measured. The big thing is, is that when we don't, when we have just one non-A-Player, just one non-A-Player on your leadership team,

8:10it makes growth very hard, and I'm going to say it actually stops you from creating a momentum you want. The more A-Players you have on your team, the more you can build that repeatable human system that includes a hiring system, a coach-keep-grow system, as well as create your bench, because A-Players attract A-Players, and it's that system, we need that system for people. And that gets rid of the people problem, and I can say that, you know, having run the system for over 30 years. Do you have a hiring tactic that you recommend for somebody that's trying to find if somebody who's applying is the right choice, like the right person for that team, is getting them in the right seat? Is there any tactic that you've learned that you've applied that you teach so you can share here? I would love to talk about that, and you know, I just briefly touched on it. We recommend every organization create a hiring system. And the hiring system, you know,

9:10it can be, you know, more of the little bit per company, but it starts with having a scorecard for that functional role that you're hiring for, and then it has a step-by-step. You're going to spend, depending on the role, you could spend up to eight to ten hours interviewing that candidate. And most people go, what? We're going to spend that long. We're a huge believer in the top-grading methodology, where you screen for an A-player up front, and you can figure out whether they're an A-player or not within about 30 minutes. From there, if they pass, you know, that screening interview, they're going into a longer interview, up to three hours, and it starts from the candidate graduating high school. And a lot of people go, what high school? I go, yes, the things of who you were in high school, those themes play out over time. So, you know, three-hour interview, super important to spend the time with the candidate. And then from there, you're going into technical assessments,

10:12and you're working with your team, as well, with very well-thought-out questions for that scorecard, for that functional role, in order to hire. The system, the hiring system itself, is never changes. For the role, it might get longer or shorter. When we think of mishires, when we mishire, like if you don't run a system, you're probably at best getting 25% success rate in choosing the right candidate for your organization. And with a hiring system, and following, you know, we're a huge fan of top-grading. Because, you know, it's bringing that eight and a half to nine or to 10 times, you're getting an A-player through this process. All the companies that, you know, I work with, I coach, are running a hiring system, based upon the top-grading, format, principles, well-researched, well-done. And this actually saves you so much time.

11:12Because a cost of the mishire is probably the most misunderstood thing out there. Fire Nation, we're gonna talk about the operating system for growth, cash-driven decisions, going from insight to accountability, and more, when we get back from thinking hours, sponsors. Fire Nation, you know I'm passionate about freedom. And as entrepreneurs, we spend a lot of time creating freedom in our businesses. But what about creating more freedom in our lives? We all define freedom in our own way. And for many, freedom might come with having a plan B. Essentially, more options for where you could live, invest, and protect what you've built, without being completely tied to any one country, government, or system. That's exactly what Michele Thorpe and the team at X-MAC Money help freedom-minded families and investors do. Michele has lived as an X-pat for over 25 years, so he's not just talking to talk, he's lived this first hand. Today, he uses that experience in his network around the world to help others create their own international plan B. That might include second-resences and citizenships, international real estate,

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14:13The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 days to something execution, roadmap and more. Stop piecing tools together, start building momentum, visit highlevelfire.com, and start building your something today. Shannon, we're back, and I want to talk about the operating system for growth, because you use metronomics to connect strategy, people, execution and cash. So how does that system work, not in the fake world, in the real world? You know, when I was building my first company, the biggest challenge was, yes, we were crazy learners. We, you know, I talked about Jim Collins earlier. We definitely learned from Jim and Pat Lenzioni and Brad Smirte, and, you know, I can go on and on. Michael Porter, and they all had great pieces that were really important for our organization, and we read about them, and, you know, we did that piece, and we did that piece, but nothing connected them into one operating system.

15:16That was probably the greatest gift out of my first company, is that we created metronomics. It came as, you know, we just wanted that one operating system that could connect, you know, the heart edge to the soft edge. And the heart edge being, what everyone knows is strategy, execution and cash. That's critical, and everybody wants to talk about that all the time. But everyone kept saying people, and you heard me earlier say, my coach was like, get the right people in the right seats, do the right thing, all that good stuff. I believe in it, but there was so much more. The human system we just talked about is one of the pieces. The cohesive system is another piece. The cultural system is the third piece of the soft edge systems. And we just wanted one system that connected. And we know that the team is connected to the team result. And the team result is based upon the strategy, execution plan, and your ability to have cash resources to execute.

16:16So when we think about that, we built this call-pound-grow system. We know it's metronomics, and putting that together, not just one off, playing a little human whack-a-mole. That's how I felt, I was exhausted, running around with all that on my shoulders, was a way to actually quarter of a quarter, actually start turning on these soft edge systems and these hard edge systems. And everybody knows strategy, execution, and cash, no problem. But not know how over, how do you pull together, you know, the team system that you need in order to balance it out. And this one connected system, it connects to your three-year highly-chivalgol. It's the thing, when you got out, you're very first three-year highly-chivalgol. You don't do it by yourself. You do it with your team. And your team is the one that goes, oh, we just put down where we want to end up three years from now.

17:19And we've got, you know, the dollars, and we've got the plan on those strategy. But we also need that quarter over quarter growth of your team. So the cohesiveness needs to grow, the clarity of expectations, the ownership, the accountability. Is one of those things that if we can't see and connect those, you're just not, you know, I kicked off and you asked me the great question at the beginning, is, you know, what's something you believe becoming successful that most people disagree with? Well, this is the thing that unlocked it all. By having the clarity of these connected systems, allows us to build a growth company, have so much fun doing it with a great team, but also have a great life. I want to move into cash-driven decisions. So how can CEOs use cash flow and financial signals to make faster and better business decisions? Because at the end of the day, the companies that are making faster decisions,

18:20especially when those are better business decisions, those are the ones that are thriving. So tell us more. My first company, you know, I always say, on the second day, we raised a lot of venture capital into this business. We had a lot of cash. So everyone's like, oh, you have a lot of cash. You don't have to worry about cash. The key thing was, and we know this, you know, contributing, operating cash, you know, into the bank account is the oxygen of your business. Forecasting cash first, and then, you know, working your way up the profit and loss statement going all the way up to the things that, you know, team members control, we call them widgets, the non-fiscal things that flow through your company. Those are the things that we have to make assumptions about and generate our revenue and our expenses. And, you know, up to that point, it was, you know, we're doing all that. And then we'd see the profit,

19:20but there was no cash going into the bank account. And so, by taking a step back and forecasting cash first, you actually say how much money you want at the end of the month, at the end of the second week, at the end of the day. And a lot of people look at me like, what, we're going to forecast cash right down to a daily basis. We're going to have a 36-month rolling cash forecast that will update, you know, monthly in the beginning and then go to weekly. This is a thing that changed everything and for me as a leader. And it is your foundation of being, you know, in the critical path of growth. So, if you're listening in and you're thinking about, oh, cash, you know, we just, we're profitable, we're good. One of the very first companies I coached said, yeah, Shannon, we're so great, come work with us. We are so profitable, so profitable. And I said, how much cash do you have in the bank? They go, we're into our line, you know, into our line of credit, a million dollars.

20:22And in that one year by focusing on forecasting cash first, the growth was off the chart, but the turnaround on having that cash in the bank and creating the confidence for growth, you need cash to grow. So, when we see a cash, you know, 36 months out, decisions get faster. You can see the consequences before you have to make the call. It is so critical. And that kind of moves us into going from insight to accountability because ideas feel to grow companies like sometimes. So, what role does accountability play in turning insight, those ideas into actual execution? Most teams already know what to do, right? And they see it, they wrote the plan down. You know, a lot of the struggle is in the how to pull it all together. And the accountability can turn your insight, you know, into the growth you're looking for.

21:22But the thing that really got me and where this whole system came from, and I love this question, is that when I was that young, you know, late 20's CEO, and I felt all the monkeys were absolutely on my back. And my biggest weakness, my biggest weakness, was popularity over accountability. And I was going to let people off the hook for sure, if I met with them one-on-one, I was going to let them off the hook. This system builds behavioral team accountability. Like if you think about playing soccer, you think about playing soccer and everyone's on the field, and they're passing the ball around, and someone is, you know, either consistently not showing up, consistently not delivering or what they said they do, consistently, you know, not working well together, you know, it's pretty rough on a field. People call it out, right? Then and there, they give you that feedback.

22:22You know, maybe a little director than most people want. But building team accountability is by when we have that visibility of where we're going, and we understand the how, and we have the ownership, then it's everyone showing up. Just like, you know, the daily huddle, we think about, you know, the quick huddles that a soccer team might have on the field before the next play, before the next free kick, before, you know, they're actually going to defend a free kick. They all have a little huddle. They have a huddle, they have a game plan, they have a quarter over quarter plan, they have a half over half in soccer, right? So what we're trying to build is people standing up and say, I own this, like I own the striker position, I own the goalie position on behalf of the team, and the team's going to hold each other accountable to, you know, that scorecard they own, that clarity of expectations. The biggest thing around, you know, accountability for me as a CEO, I didn't want to be the chief nag.

23:23I should never be the chief nag. If that we create that visibility we're looking for and we create that communication system from a daily huddle to a weekly, to a monthly, to one-on-ones, like from the, you know, leader to their team member, the feedback loop becomes very strong. And the accountability, the team accountability actually grows and turns, you know, this whole thing into making better, faster decisions together. Accountability is not pressure. It's the visibility plus cadence. And the team sees who owns what? And the rhythm of it all will keep everyone really honest to owning what they said they would do. Fire Nation, a lot of power there. And Shannon, tip of the hat to your soccer analogies during this World Cup summer for sure. And, you know, for any crazy soccer fans, they're like, wait a second, there's no quarters in soccer. Well, there are. They're called hydration breaks. It's a new thing. They are. At 25 minutes. They happen every single game at 70th minute.

24:23I mean, they're in. Soccer's turned into four quarters. Love it or hate it. It's just a reality. I love it. Shannon, if you could tell Fire Nation one thing that you want them to take away from everything that we talked about today, and then how we can connect with you in your business, what would those two things be? Biggest thing I want people to walk away with is that there is a system that connects every part of your business. Strategy, execution and your team. Into one operating system. And everyone else hands you a piece. We connect them all. We take you through, coach you through the how to get what you want, the business and life. To find out more and all the information, like everything we do, is wide open from our books, from the content on our site. Lots of great info there is metronomics.com. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with S-L-B-S and J-L-D today.

25:24So just keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Shannon in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up and Shannon, thank you for sharing your truth knowledge and value with Fire Nation today for that we salute you. And we will catch you on the flip side. Hey Fire Nation, huge thank you to our sponsors and Shannon for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world. If yes, we are now accepting applications for eofire. So to learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com.soshguest. And we'll catch you there or we'll catch you on the flip side. Fire Nation Meet Hot Works. The number one boutique fitness franchise with 850 plus locations. They pioneered virtual workouts inside infrared saunas with recurring membership revenue, low labor, high tech model, and a proven franchise system, entrepreneurs gain a scalable business built for growth. Visit hotworks.net slash franchising to learn more. Stop duct taping your business together. High level runs your website, your funnels,

26:24email, automation scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30 day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com.