Unpacking Visionary and Integrator Dynamics

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1. 0:00
   Wes Mathews

   This is the unfiltered truth about entrepreneurship. Raw, no BS, no sugarcoating. Welcome to Entrepreneur Intel. I'm your host, Wes Mathews. Each episode, we'll learn from experienced founders and uncover the top 5 percent learnings that led to their success in all things personal, family, and business.

   This show is sponsored by Stealth Consulting, delivering clear marketing strategies, ROI, and no surprises.

   I am super excited to, uh, introduce my guest today, so part of what I love here is, uh, I'm a, I'm a big, uh, visionary. I love EOS. I've been very vocal about that. But, uh, today's guest is an integrator that helps companies implement the EOS system to run more efficiently.

   Now she's worked with several companies to bring their teams up to speed with EOS. Uh, she actually runs her own firm serving as a fractional COO. Welcome Lisa McCurdy.

2. 1:00
   Lisa McCurdy

   Hi, thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure. I'm so excited to talk about the visionary and integrator relationship and what that looks like, especially cause not a lot of people understand that and sometimes people hear that.

   It's like, what does that even mean? What does that look like? So I'm so excited to dive into that with you today.

3. Wes Mathews

   Yeah, no, it's awesome. It's one of my favorite topics because it took me a long time and I'm still learning, but when I read the book Traction, I talk about EOS a lot, but when I read the book Traction, I'm reading it and I'm like, who's this dude, Gino, and why is he in my brain?

   Because everything he's describing as a visionary, I'm like, oh, I'm not mentally ill. I'm just a visionary. And then I started looking at it. I felt the same way,

4. Lisa McCurdy

   but from the flip side, from the integrator seat, I was like, this is the language. That I've been missing my whole life. I was like, what I'm doing is actually like real.

   Cause I used to think I was crazy. I was in my own head. I'm like, I'm the only one that thinks this way. A

5. Wes Mathews

   little bit,

6. Lisa McCurdy

   but

7. 2:00
   Wes Mathews

   what's funny is, you know, and then I learned about the integrator, right. Which is all the stuff I look at. I'm like, I hate that. I hate that. I hate that. So I was like, Oh man. So then I had a business partner at the time and I'm like, Man, he's really the integrator.

   I'm the visionary and we just got to like embrace what these things are. So I'm super excited because it took me a while and that little, that book to teach me like, okay, this is what it is. And this is what the EOS process looks like because. A big part of what it teaches, it's in order to run a successful entrepreneur organization, you have to have a leader visionary in that company, which is typically the entrepreneur that starts it.

   But you need a good number two, which is like Steve Jobs. You never really hear much about Wozniak or like McDonald's, like Ray Kroc and the other guy, right? What is it? It's like the,

8. Lisa McCurdy

   I'm the other guy. Hi, that's me. So the other

9. Wes Mathews

   guy's like almost, I mean probably argumentatively and you'll share this like probably more important, right in keeping that visionary in check.

   So how did you discover like you're a fractional COO? So like how did you even discover that's what you are and that's what

10. 3:00
    Lisa McCurdy

    you are? Oh man, that is such a fun story. So I have been, um. As many entrepreneurs, I've gone through multiple different careers. And, um, when I was working in e commerce, I was working for a home goods company and it was a brother and sister visionary pair.

    I didn't know they were visionaries at the time. I just knew that they were my bosses. It was them. And then me. And then we had a team under us and they were the visionaries that were kind of like the Baskin Robbins flavor of the month type thing bringing a new idea every month trying to change something constantly And so we had been having talks about how we can't keep changing stuff and right after I have this talk with them The brother comes to me, he puts a book on my desk and he's like, we need to do this.

    And the book was Traction. I remember inside rolling my eyes because I was like, we have just talked about this. Like, how can you bring one more thing after we just talked about, we can't keep doing new stuff. And so I remember taking the book home and reading it and just falling in love because I felt like for the first time I had To explain what I did in a real, intangible, easy to communicate way.

    And it also gave me the space and freedom to understand the owners in the visionary seat. And it gave me the language and the tools to separate the two so that they could stay in the visionary seat. And I could stay in the integrator seat and make sure the stuff gets done. And so from there, it was, uh, awesome about, I was there about four and a half years, we tripled the business.

    And I came in, it was about 17 million. When I left, we're over 50 million. And towards the end of my tenure there, um, after we had gone through all this growth, I remember going to them. I was like, Hey, so what's next? I want to grow more. I want to do more. And I remember the brother looking at the sister and he's like, I shouldn't tell her this.

    And I'm like, Oh God, am I getting fired? Like, what's going on? Like, why are you, why are you having this like traumatic pause? And he looks at me and he's like, Lisa, What you did here is amazing. You need to do this for other people. And so they were actually the ones that helped me launch out. They were my first client.

    They helped get me my next clients. And it's kind of just been a snowball effect ever since.

11. Wes Mathews

    That's a really cool story because It's funny though, because like, yeah, a visionary typically for them to be like, hey, we're, we're good. Right. Like, usually it's the other way around. Usually it's you on the operator side saying, dude, slow your, you know, slow down a bit.

    Right. It's really cool that you were able to segue, not to mention like, If you were full time there as an employee and now you're on your own with your first client, some momentum, and they helped you get your next client. What, I'm curious around like, number one, the brother and sister, I love the Baskin Robbins flavor of the month, right?

    But like brother and sister visionary sounds like a complete nightmare to me, but

12. Lisa McCurdy

    it was a lot. It's a lot. How did, how did

13. Wes Mathews

    he come about like, what, what got him to stop in his tracks and be like, I see this, I believe in it, I need to make a change because that's a big step.

14. Lisa McCurdy

    I think the biggest thing that I see, um, most visionaries, they come to a point where they realize they're a chaos monkey and they're causing more chaos than good.

    And I think it takes a very humble person. and a person that's really open to being better, not only for themselves, but they want their company to be better. And that is what I loved about my, the owners of the company. They were both really big on making sure they were doing the right thing. And they were both very self aware and they realized, Hey, I'm being a chaos monkey.

    And there were times when I had to be like, okay. You wanted this done. Let me do it. Stop meddling. And it's really, again, it's getting into your seat, the visionary being in the visionary seat, the integrator being in the integrator seat to make sure that the stuff happens as it needs to happen. And so had he not been as self aware, I don't think he would have even asked the questions.

    But because he was so self aware, he's like, I know I'm doing something and I need to try to fix it. And he was in EO. Um, and so in EO, people were talking about this book traction. And so he's like, maybe I should read this book. Maybe, maybe it is me. Maybe I am the problem. And so having that self awareness and that humble attitude to realize that maybe There is something that he was doing wrong, I think was key in that whole situation, even starting.

15. 8:00
    Wes Mathews

    That's funny. Cause I, in your terms, I'm a recovering chaos monkey. Like I still struggle. I do my best, but I was also in EO. And what was interesting to me, like my perspective was I joined this entrepreneur organization. I see all these other visionaries and all they're talking about is like their vacations and how, They're doing this and that.

    I'm like, do any of you people work? This is crazy. Like, I feel like I'm working whenever, and they're like, dude, like just read traction or like learn about EOS. And that was like the common denominator. So that's kind of a cool story that he learned that out of EO, which is always confusing with EOS because EO.

16. Lisa McCurdy

    Because they're not related. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

17. Wes Mathews

    Uh, so that's cool. So like, so you come in this entrepreneurial journey, but well, there's this thing with EOS, E okay, now I'm confusing myself. EOS, when I read the book, it says you're either a visionary or you're either an integrator. And I was like, I'm team visionary.

    I, I, I respect operators. But then there's like a unicorn thing. I forget what they call it. But then there's these people out there that have a little bit of both. I knew right away for me, I'm like, I am not an ops guy. But for you, when you saw that, like, what, did that resonate with you at all?

18. Lisa McCurdy

    So it's really interesting.

    I always knew I had visionary tendencies. But because of the negative stereotypes that I see around visionary, I never wanted to embrace it. However, the further I've gone in my career, the more I've realized I am that 5 percent that does have the visionary and the integrator tendencies. To give a little context for the audience, for those of you that know Culture Index, I'm an architect, so I am a visionary profile, but I'm one of the few profiles that can actually go in, dive in deep, and build out as an integrator can.

    So, it's fun because I can get excited with the visionary, and I can go up into la land with them, and I can expand on their ideas with them, but I also am really good at putting the brakes on with them, and be like, hey, our bandwidth this quarter is two new initiatives. What is the most important thing out of all of this?

    And really sitting them down and having a hard conversations and making sure that we're doing what's best for the business. Because the last thing we want is to have 20 new initiatives when we have bandwidth for two, because that just hurts the team.

19. Wes Mathews

    Yeah. And to me, like, that's got to be the hardest thing.

    Right. Cause I am a visionary. And when somebody approaches you or like an operator, like pick, pick one or two. And I'm like, I got 10 conversation is like, you don't know, or you don't have the vision. Like I do. We've got to take care of these things. Right. Like there's always pushback or like.

20. Lisa McCurdy

    There is give and take, but one of the things that I've started doing with my visionaries, because I can see that frustration is I will create.

    A year long plan with them where we add in quarterly initiatives where I will focus on the things they want to focus on so they know at our annual planning that I am hearing them and we are going to be tackling that in the year. But it's just going to take time. So we create those timelines. And then I found it brings a lot of, I guess, comfort to the visionaries because they do feel heard.

    Because one piece of feedback I did get very early on was that I was a dream killer because I said, no, too much. And I was like, I never want to be a dream killer. I want to be a dream builder. And so, uh, giving visionaries this. Space to feel heard, whether that is through collecting those ideas in the long-term issues and putting priority to them at the right time as the business has bandwidth, or creating an annual plan like I do, where we prioritize over the year where we have those.

    priority items by quarter being executed. There needs to be some sort of outlet so the visionary feels heard. I think that's the biggest win I've found. And because I can also understand it because I do have the visionary tendencies because you want to be heard and you don't want someone to be like, no, you can't only do two things when you have 10.

    Like, okay, let's figure out, how do we get those 10 in this year?

21. 12:00
    Wes Mathews

    Yeah, that's a good point. And I think for me, like, I'm listening to you. I'm, I have a little PTSD in some certain scenarios, but like my one integrator, not the one I have now in my last company, we sold, I'd be like, mom's mom and dad are home early.

    Kind of a deal like parties, like hide everything. Right. Uh, but no, it's interesting you say that because I think like I've always clung to EOS, right. And I'm curious if you like follow that model or go down a different path, because I think the book traction from my perspective or how I interpreted it, it's.

    I think as a visionary, like I was told the other week that I constantly move a goalpost. So like, if I have an expectation, it always moves higher and higher and higher, and it's like impossible to achieve with anybody. I thought that was really good feedback. And I think for one, as a COO, like you have to be comfortable with the visionary to give that feedback because most people are terrified of the visionary in my experience.

    Um, so like constantly moving a goalpost. But I think in my defense, my reaction is like, I need to see traction and like when I hear, or I don't see data, or I don't see traction, then I start to like, work things up in my head and kind of freak out. But I like your point of. You know, how do you lay that out?

    Have you found EOS is the best model or how do you lay that out? So that visionaries bought into what you're serving?

22. Lisa McCurdy

    With everything out in the landscape, I found that EOS has the simplest terminology, and I like that because if you could break it down so that you could explain it to your kids. You know, anybody's going to be able to get it and understand it.

    And so I do enjoy EOS to your point. And what you were talking about of like constantly feeling like you want to see the improvement part of me wonders, is there a measurable we could put to that? Can we have that on a scorecard that we're looking at weekly so that you do see the traction and the movement there?

    Um, or is it like a bigger initiative? Like, I don't even know, but like my first thought is I was like, why aren't we looking at this weekly? Why isn't there a measurable? Like, that's always my first thought, put data behind it. Um, Because then you would see that. And so I, I just wonder like, what is, what were you trying to see improvement on?

    Just my integrator brain, I should lay out

23. Wes Mathews

    on the couch right now

24. Lisa McCurdy

    and tell

25. Wes Mathews

    you. Yeah. You know, I think it's funny as we're talking, like, I think a lot of that stemmed from like, we were, 100 percent solidified on our VTO. So as much as I preach out like the VTO is so important, I don't think ours was really buttoned up or like I didn't give it that final stamp of approval.

    So like, I totally see that moving the goalposts because we didn't have all the objectives down in writing. So I think as a visionary, that's probably one of the hardest things is to take everything in here. And put it down on that because once you do that, you can't change it until next quarter. Like that's the

26. Lisa McCurdy

    deal.

    Yeah, exactly. Because otherwise it's not fair to the team, right? Because you do keep moving the goalposts and then no one can ever win. And then the team is defeated. I always like to do it in such a way that the team feels like they're winning. Because who doesn't want to win, right?

27. Wes Mathews

    Yeah, no, that's good.

    Yeah, because like I could, I could totally like, I'll, I can make rash decisions really quick. Like we were talking earlier about moving cars. I

28. Lisa McCurdy

    think all visionaries can, yeah, yeah.

29. Wes Mathews

    Like, you know, if I decided to like change a car or swap it, like I could probably have it here by 430, where some people might take a year to do, analyze, you know, fuel economy and this, like, no, like when something comes in my brain, I'm like, I'm just going to get it done.

    So how do you navigate, right? So like we're in 2024, 2025, the landscape's changed. My background is digital marketing, visionary entrepreneurs. There's a lot of stuff changing. Uh, you got the economic, uh, just what's going on. We got a lot of hurricanes, all this stuff's happening. What do you see that's different moving forward into 2025, if there is anything?

    AI is a big thing. Like, what are companies doing to prepare for the next one to three years?

30. 16:00
    Lisa McCurdy

    Yeah, the biggest thing that my teams have actually been doing for almost three years is AI adoption. Um, last year was a lot of research and this year has been a lot of implementation. One of the teams I worked with, literally one of their core tenants of their business is that AI needs to touch every single process.

    So that they're constantly integrating everything. Um, but the, the thing that we are trying to balance in that is not losing the human element. Because AI is great. ChatGPT is amazing. You could do almost everything with it. But remembering That we're still people dealing with people, um, is a big thing.

    One of my clients right now is in professional services. Um, they do like, um, virtual receptionist, virtual assistant kind of stuff. And it's so easy and we could save a ton of money if we decided to just go the AI route, because you could have, um, machines answering calls, no problem. But what's the quality?

    And so really constantly balancing out, like, what are our costs if we do take this advantage? And so one of the things you'll always hear me say is, I was like, hey, what does data say? Like, what is that showing us? Like, what is the feedback going to be? Because if an AI is going to help us advance, great, let's use it.

    But if it's going to hurt us, why? Like, let's ask that question. Let's not forget we are humans dealing with humans because I am sure you have all been trying to get through to customer service and you have this dumb recording that keeps going in a loop and you're just like, give me a human, um, or give me someone in the U S like, that's another thing I hear a lot of times.

    And so it's just remembering, like, it's not all about profit at the end of the day. It's about people.

31. 18:00
    Wes Mathews

    No, Somebody the other day, somebody on my team were kind of messing around with this AI tool, and it was for like a home service company, and you call it, and it's for, it was HVAC. And he's like, try to stump it, like act like you want a new furnace, but like be you exactly you.

    And I'm like, all right, you know, talking to this thing, right. I was blown away in a meter of like one to 10 being the best one being crappy. It was like an eight, five. Yeah. Literally she was trying to pin me down to close me on an appointment. And I went out on a rant. Like I said, Hey, I think I need to get a new AC.

    And she's answering all the questions. I said, I think I want to go to Taco Bell on Thursday instead. And like, I don't even know why I called you. And she's like, sir, like, I'd be happy to get an appointment with you. We do have availability on Tuesday. A tech's going to be in your area. Would you like to confirm, like, It like blew my mind.

    And I'm like, to me, we're in like the 1 percent of 1 percent era of what this stuff can do. And I think that's the one question I get a lot. And there's a lot of visionaries and, or integrators and, or leadership teams that are like, this is like, how do you even begin? Like what's the first step? You know, what's, what's your perspective or your idea of how do you even?

32. Lisa McCurdy

    Sure. I could actually share what we did with our teams. Um, Last year, as I mentioned, was a research year for us. And so every department director and manager had a rock, um, where they went out to research, what are the AI applications that they can use within their department? And so that was like the first phase is figure out, okay, what are the different applications we could even use?

    And then the second phase was a vetting phase. They went through and they're like, okay, of all of these tools, what makes sense for us to use. And so then we narrowed it down and then there were like a top three usually. And then from there, we looked at to ease of implementation. And we created a list. We started with the easiest to the most complex.

    And then this year we've started doing those implementations. So it's helped us having that phase. Maybe people don't have as much time. I do realize like next year's around the corner, so they might not have all this time to research. But you know, we still have a quarter left, right? Maybe you can have a rock for the quarter.

    And we could break it into three phases. Research month one. vetting month two and then creating a list for implementation month three and like what you need resources. So you could do it a lot faster, but that's how we did it. And we've seen a lot of success that way. You are

33. Wes Mathews

    such an integrator. I love it because as I'm talking to you, I'm like, let's get this done all of it this quarter.

    But how you broke it down, I think is super important. And that was the lesson we learned early on was. Biting off way more than we could chew, right? So I wrote that down, research, vet, create, implement, and like taking time. Like you guys spent a year, right? But I think doing things the right way. And I think you need a really smart and good integrator to help set healthy rocks, because

34. Lisa McCurdy

    as

35. 21:00
    Wes Mathews

    a visionary, I'm like, let's get it all done.

36. Lisa McCurdy

    Yeah, of course. That usually does

37. Wes Mathews

    a lot more harm than

38. Lisa McCurdy

    good. It will, and I will give a caveat, this client is very tech heavy because they use a lot of software and a lot of pieces talk with other pieces, so we could very easily break something. So we needed to be very careful, plus our CTO would have probably killed us if we were like, tomorrow!

39. Wes Mathews

    Yeah. No, that's interesting. So, you know, talking about like, you know, mentioned like cultural index, you know, you as an operator, like how important is that stuff for a company, right? There's a lot of stuff out there. I've done some behavioral analysis. I've done a Colby. I'm a 5294 if you couldn't have guessed.

    Um, but like, how important is that to come in or an organization to understand who you are and like what the team is like? What does that mean to you?

40. 22:00
    Lisa McCurdy

    Uh, everything. Most of the time when I come into Teams and I hear there's dysfunction, it's because we have the wrong people in the wrong seats. And in terms of like EOS, what I mean is like a right person is a culture fit.

    They bleed your core values, they're amazing, and then right seat means that they have all of the natural innate abilities to do that job well. And a lot of times you'll see people that are right culture fits That have been with the company forever, that the visionary loves and that everyone loves, but they're in the wrong seat.

    And it takes someone like me, because I can be a little bit of a chaos monkey. I'm not going to lie to come in and. stir things up a little bit and be like, Hey, there's, there's an issue here. And so a lot of times when I start seeing that, rather than just being like, you're bad, um, I'll be like, Hey, why don't we do this assessment?

    Why don't we learn more about ourselves? Because not only is it taking, uh, like let's explore and let's ask curious questions approach, but it's helping people to better understand themselves. And what I found is through, Implementing things like Culture Index, Colby, Working Genius, Myers Briggs, you name it.

    A lot of times people will see, Oh, maybe not in the right seat. And they'll start raising their hand. If you have a healthy culture, being like, you know, I love this company. I want to work here, but maybe I'm not the right person for this. And one of the things I love is that I'm able to foster those healthy environments, so people do feel like they can say, maybe I'm, I should be over here, or ask those questions.

    And then there's always that one person that just pitches a fit and is like, this is ridiculous! Throws tables and leaves. Um, but usually if you have the right people in the room already, They're going to just be like, Oh, number one, I so appreciate that you care enough about me to help me learn and grow.

    Number two, thank you for seeing my value and helping me go into a seat where I'm going to just thrive. Who doesn't want that? Who doesn't want a company that's going to support them and grow them and like put them somewhere where they're going to be valued. Like it's a no brainer. You just have to make sure you're approaching it.

    Again, people first, care first and then. You're going to get the change you want.

41. Wes Mathews

    I love it. I have a client. Uh, they actually have something called, it's called the Acumax index. It's really interesting. So when we onboarded them as a client, he was like, I want you to take it. So he sent me an email and it says like, we're going to ask you a couple of questions first, right?

    And I start clicking all these buttons and answer these questions. So there was only like 10 questions or something. And I'm like getting ready for like the actual survey. It was like, thank you. We're done. And I'm like, Oh, well that was kind of, you know, whatever. I'm like, this is going to be like, I'm like, I'm really excited to see what feedback they're going to give.

    Yeah, I met him. He started reading off the sheet and I couldn't believe how dead on it was. And I said, when I took the survey, I thought it was like the warmup for the actual survey, but he actually discovered everything. And I think that stuff is so important. And cause I think that's the challenge, right?

    So here, here's my dilemma as a visionary. So we're, we're VI working together. I fall in love with everybody I meet. Most

42. Lisa McCurdy

    missionaries love everyone. Yeah.

43. Wes Mathews

    I interview or talk to anybody like, yeah, everybody shows up. They're going to bring 100%. Like they're, they're interviewing, right? Like, yeah. Yeah. So what happens is I get head over heels.

    I'm like, this person is going to be great. This and that. Everybody around me is like, No, like, what are you doing? Like, so years ago I had to completely eliminate myself out of the position. I think what was smart though, the integrator said, you can have a park. So I'm like, well, this is my company and I want to have a safe, and I said, let me, so what I do now is if I'm involved, like I'll have a quick half hour meeting and then I'll throw them through our process, gives me the outlet to like have the conversation, get excited.

    But I know once I put it through the process, I'm out, uh, which is awesome. So,

44. Lisa McCurdy

    do you know, it's really funny hearing you say that I'm reminded of, um, Patrick Lencioni. He was at EOS conference, I think a couple of years ago. I don't know if you were there and saw him speak, but for those of you that aren't familiar, Patrick Lencioni did like the five dysfunctions of a team working genius, he's hilarious and amazing.

    He runs the table group. He has a great podcast for anyone interested in like some great leadership podcasts, check him out. Um, They should be giving me some money for that. Shoot. Um, anyway. So what he said one time, um, was because he would fall in love with everyone, he would start taking people to lunch and he would get there early and he would ask the server to mess up their order because he wanted to see how they reacted in the real life situation because it's so easy to See the best of a person, but you don't get to see how they react under pressure.

    And so I've always taken that philosophy and anytime we're, I'm coming into a company that doesn't have a hiring process, I was like, okay, how can we insert that little Patrick Linceoni real life situation? Um, and so that's just a little tidbit that I always love, which helps my visionaries that love everyone, maybe not love everyone.

45. Wes Mathews

    Right. That's funny you say that because that's actually where this came from and where I finally let myself out because I had read that book and I made a pretty significant executive hire many, many years ago and we used to do quarterly off sites at like a craft beer place, right? This was like his third day on the job, right?

    This is like visionary, integrator, like I'm totally bought into the concept. I made another challenge there when I'll get into and get your feedback on. But, um, they came around and they're like, Hey, what would you like to drink? You know, she's overwhelmed. There's like 50 people here and everybody's like, I want this and this and that.

    And he's like, I would like a, like super bougie, like a whiskey drink, like an apricot spritzer, whatever it was. And she's like, um, yeah, we're craft beer. Like she was super nice. She's like, we don't have that. I'm sorry.

46. Lisa McCurdy

    Sorry.

47. Wes Mathews

    He like pounded the table. It was like, what kind of fricking establishment is? And I was like, as soon as I literally put my head down and I was like, Oh, I did it again.

    Like I did it again. And I knew from that point and I just, the five dysfunctions or Lencioni, I remember that. I'm like such a genius thing. Um, what I'm going to bring to your, to your point was, I had asked what I, hiring a COO is not cheap. I don't care if you're fractional or I don't care if you're full-time.

    Yeah. It's scary for a visionary because Yeah. You're taking away profit. Yep. That typically would go in your pocket or growth of the company. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. To pay somebody in order to help you scale.

48. Lisa McCurdy

    Yes. At

49. Wes Mathews

    least that's what is, is in my mind.

50. Lisa McCurdy

    That is the perfect way to describe that. So what

51. Wes Mathews

    I did, right?

    I tried to get creative. I'm like, well, this guy's aspirational. I can get him for a lot cheaper. So I, I hired cheaper thinking. I would get a better outcome based on how did that

52. Lisa McCurdy

    go?

53. Wes Mathews

    Three times it did not go well Like not at all. He was one outing on the table first of all I

54. Lisa McCurdy

    want to commend you for even admitting that it didn't go well because one of The things that I run into a lot is sticker shock as a person being like, oh well Shoot, I could hire someone for half that.

    And most of the time they go away and sometimes they come back with their tail between their legs because they had a bad experience. And what is great about me is at this point, I've helped more than 25 companies on board with EOS. I have worked in multiple industries across the gamut. And what I have learned is All companies have very similar issues.

    And if we can just get in and put A system in place which helps you grow and scale in a sustainable way like EOS. It can solve a good 80 percent of your issues and going with someone that's tried and true and that's done it time and time and time again, that has a huge stable of resources and an arsenal of people that they could reach out to because they have all the connections, you save yourself money in the long run.

    Because when I say within the next year, this is what it's going to look like. It's not, I hope it's after working with 25 companies in the next year, this is what it's going to look like because I have seen this,

55. Wes Mathews

    I've seen this movie, right?

56. 31:00
    Lisa McCurdy

    And that is a lot of times. Um, what happens, I had one client. Uh, when she was interviewing me, she kept asking me all these scenario questions and I was like, well, I've had several businesses go through that and this is what we've done in the past.

    However, these are some things we could also try. She's like, wow, you've really seen the movie, haven't you? And I was like, yeah, I've seen the movie. I, and I could tell you which street not to go down. I can tell you where the killer is going to jump out and I can try to stop you whether or not you want to listen to me.

    That's going to be your choice because sometimes visionaries are very passionate about things. And then they come back and they're like, you were right. It's like, hmm, yeah.

57. Wes Mathews

    What I love doing is like getting an integrator and getting a team to like go down this path and then like they kind of team up to then like push this angle on a visionary and then the visionary brings a wildly different perspective.

    That's how I win. They're like, We never thought of

58. 32:00
    Lisa McCurdy

    that. But that's why we need visionaries. And that's why I think it is a yin and yang. It's a perfect marriage having both people because integrators innately, we get really good at getting into the details. And one of the things I constantly coach myself on and I coach others, and I have a coach that I work with as well, who reminds me all the time, pull my head up.

    I need to make sure I'm pulling my head up and I'm looking down the field, because that's what visionaries do every day of their life. They're not only looking down the field, they're looking at the next town, the next country around the world. They're looking at it from so many different directions. And if you have a healthy same page with your integrator, You could have those conversations in your same page where you're exploring it and you're bringing these ideas.

    And as long as you're truly respecting and hearing each other, then the integrator be like, that's amazing. We haven't talked about that. Let's drop that as an issue. Let's bring that to the leadership team. Let's talk about how we need to look at this perspective and then kind of take it in the direction it needs to go.

    But it's all about hearing each other. Being that yin to the yang and, and working cooperatively together.

59. Wes Mathews

    So I'm in this stuff, right? Like I'm, I'm in it more than most. And I just wrote something down because I haven't done a same page with my integrator in way too long.

60. Lisa McCurdy

    Oh no, weekly, weekly. I am a strong proponent of weekly, because if you are going to hire someone and trust them to run your business, you need to be a lockstep with that person.

    And I want to make sure as I'm running your business that I'm in lockstep with you. And so, um, Most of my clients right now, we've gotten them down, the, the visionaries down to just being in the visionary seat and they're in two meetings a week. They're in our same page and in the executive L10 and in our same page, I'm making sure I'm in lockstep with them.

    And then in our exec L10, we're executing all the things we're talking about. So I highly recommend it. Yes. Get in the same page with your integrator at least every other week, if not every week.

61. Wes Mathews

    Yeah, no, I think what we do is we like, we talk enough, but like, It's kind of like, we need to sit down and have that specific meeting.

    Like we definitely are

62. Lisa McCurdy

    capturing ideas and planning stuff out. Yeah. Yep. So you brought up,

63. Wes Mathews

    I was going to ask, you kind of already answered it, but if you have more like, yeah, how do you keep your iron or your sword sharpened? Right. How do you, like you said, you have a coach and you're doing some coaching.

64. 35:00
    Lisa McCurdy

    I work with a coach. Um, I meet with my coach every other week and she's constantly pushing me. So that I'm becoming a better version of myself and what's really awesome. And, and I don't know if you've experienced this as you've worked with coaches, but a lot of times as you're learning a tool with your coach, It ultimately ends up that someone in your sphere or that's like part of your team is ends up going through something similar and you're like, Hey, I have a resource that I could share with you.

    So it's always super timely for me, which I love. I don't know if that's just like God bringing stuff around full circle for me to, you know, Make sure I know that I'm on the right path, but that is, is how I do it. And then of course there's also tons of other resources for female executives. There's a great organization called FIM, which is like a female integrator mastermind group, um, which is opened up to like all female executives.

    So that's really cool. And then I also, I'm a big B Corp person. I love people, profit, and also the planet. Like that's important to me. Um, and so there are a couple of B Corp groups. I, I participate in just, it's really important to make sure for me that I'm surrounding myself with people that are looking ahead and out towards, as opposed to just like keeping their head down and doing their work.

    So

65. 36:00
    Wes Mathews

    right now I'm in this world of like, for whatever reason, I mean, you're going to laugh at this. I attract like psychotic, crazy visionaries. That's good. It's good. I love it because that's kind of me. Like what happens is there's just so much going on and I think it's hard to be. It's kind of lonely to be an entrepreneur visionary.

    Like everybody's like, Oh, you have it all. But the reality is that sometimes it's lonely because not a lot of people understand where you're at. Yeah. So what happens is when I talk to other visionary entrepreneurs, it really helps me more than it helps them. But. Typically I'll give them a blank VTO and say, what do you really, really want?

    Because all of these problems that you're talking about can be answered if you just put in writing what you want. Yeah. The other thing I've been using a lot is the, uh, impact filter from strategic coach. That is great because you know, a simple to do or try to delegate something might be as simple as, Hey, I would like some more water.

    Right. But the reality is a visionary might mean. I want you to walk up a hill and grabbing the pale and it's gotta be 32 degrees and I want it on my

66. Lisa McCurdy

    desk. Yes, yes. I love that you said the impact

67. Wes Mathews

    filter. The impact, it basically forces you to say, Hey, here's the project, but here's what success looks like.

    Here's the best outcome, the worst outcome. And that document for me as a visionary has been really fun and it's really hard. It can

68. Lisa McCurdy

    be tedious, yes, but for those people that aren't familiar with the impact filter, it basically forces the person relaying the task to describe what the success criteria are and be like, okay, these are the six success criterias.

    This is not what success looks like. This is what it would look like if it was done excellently. And For visionaries that are starting with EOS, I find that to be so helpful because it forces them to tell you. So, going back in time to my first implementation, or, integration, I should say, of EOS, um, our visionaries struggled with goal success alignment because they would tell us one thing.

    We would all race towards that. We would talk about it all quarter long. We would give our updates all quarter long. Everyone's saying, yes, this is great. All quarter long, get to the end. Visionary looks at what's presented and it's like,

69. Wes Mathews

    this being the goalpost, right?

70. Lisa McCurdy

    Yeah, and we're like, what do you mean?

    We've talked about this all quarter. We've given you updates all quarter. You've said we're on track all quarter. How is this not what you wanted? And using the impact filter solved that problem. So now a lot of times I actually have that kind of embedded when I'm doing, uh, our, our rock milestones and building them out.

    I make people do it. Now they'll know they don't have to do it, but yeah, it really helps them think Like what does success look like to make sure again, we're all on the same page. Cause that's how EOS works. And that's how we gain traction. Right. We're all on the same page, rowing in the same direction.

71. Wes Mathews

    Yeah. I literally go back to that. It's been, I'm in that season where like, it's just been so helpful for people. Like I like to offer something of value and it's like such a, I mean, it's such a simple document that like can completely change your life. Yeah. Well, Lisa, super, it's super fun talking to you.

    You, you, you know, you're What it is to be the VI relationship. We could probably talk for a lot longer, but how can people get in contact with you? What's the best way if they have any questions? Yeah.

72. Lisa McCurdy

    So if you are looking to engage with a fractional COO and integrator, I'd love to chat with you. You can check out my website.

    It's www. cbltm. com. That stands for consulting by Lisa T. McCurdy. I'm very creative with my names, as you can tell. Um, and so again, that's just www. cbltm. com.

73. Wes Mathews

    Well, Lisa, thanks so much. Super fun talking to you. Uh, it was great talking

74. 40:00
    Lisa McCurdy

    with you. Thank you so much for having me. Bye.

75. Wes Mathews

    This has been another episode of Entrepreneur Intel. Thank you for joining us. For show notes or other episodes, please visit us at entrepreneurintel.com. Until next time.