The FractionX Podcast
Leadership is Hard. We're here to help.
The FractionX Podcast
What the heck is a Mastermind?
One of the best investments you can make in your leadership to commit to a mastermind. Of all the resources available to leaders, a mastermind is truly unique because it combines relationships and content that you just can't get anywhere else. Today Matt and Drew highlight the FractionX way of leading a mastermind.
all right, matthew maddie wayne. Do you okay with people calling you maddie wayne or is that? Is that more of like a reluctant nickname that you've?
Speaker 1:you've embraced no I'll embrace it. My sisters called me that growing up. I got lots of sisters, so it feels like endearment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so. All right, you heard it here, maddie wayne, it is so, at the risk of this sounding like being a podcast commercial, right, we've had some people ask us what is exactly you do, what's fraction next to you.
Speaker 2:What is you know? What do you offer? And that's a great question. We've been doing these podcasts for a while now several months and just kind of um, talking about topics that we care about. Leadership talks, we, we you know really a podcast that we needed, yeah, and and want and still need to some extent. But we have some things going on in the business that we don't let people know about and then we want to just take an episode and talk about the why behind it.
Speaker 2:Of course we have, you know, our work on it calendar that you created, which I love because you'll hear us say all the time like you got to get, you got to get out of working in it to work on it. We did this ourselves a few months ago. We went away for a few days and worked on our business and man those a day and a half, two days, three days so valuable for your organization and for your personal leadership. That's exactly right To clarify, define success, all that kind of stuff. And so we have a year-long process that we work with companies. You come in and we'll do. Actually, why don't you talk about that for a second?
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I mean so people have asked. I talked to somebody last night. I about that for a second. Well, yeah, I mean so people have asked. I talked to somebody last night.
Speaker 2:I was like hey, I like your leadership podcast.
Speaker 1:What are you guys doing? It's like funny you should ask. And um, yeah, so that that product, in particular the work on that calendar, is basically a guided year of fractional executives to come around owner operators and say, look it, it's almost impossible for you to work on your business by yourself. It's just you need you need collaboration and some chemistry to work with some people. Right, and it's difficult. You could go to a cabin in the woods by yourself and come away with some great stuff, but we're going to run you through some exercises.
Speaker 1:So really, that work on it calendar, that year of executive coaching, starts with a two day offsite where we're going to grab perspective. We're going to get like a really good overview of the business. We're going to define what success looks like for that year. We're going to get like a really good overview of the business. We're going to define what success looks like for that year. We're going to chop up your results goals into process goals and give you a plan of action to take back to your team to achieve what you want to achieve in that year. And then really, you know so many people go and define, you know vision and mission and goals and then you know, 60 days later the whirlwind sucks them in the vortex of business.
Speaker 2:We've experienced that personally. We've done these offsites and come up with great things and then six months down the road, we're like well, what do we talk about that offsite again? Because the gravitational pull of working in it pulls you back into the day to day and you forget. So, yeah, that's right. No, it's exactly right.
Speaker 1:So really what? After the creation and collaboration of of that perspective retreat, it's the accountability to say we are actually going to continue to calendar work on it dates. And so the following quarter is going to be an entire day reviewing all the decisions that we made, how our process goals stacking up to the results that we wanted. And then again we're going to we're going to jump in with your lead team once a month. We're not going to spend a whole day that month. We're going to carve out two hours that are dedicated to this perspective, this work on it time, and then what we like to do is also create some dashboards for leaders so they can track this data. Everything they say is important to their success. So they know, am I on path to have a great year? So that's the primary product, is this work on it. You know, one year of coaching, but not everybody is ready to start at that Like, hey, let me commit for a whole year to this, right, right.
Speaker 1:And you know, and I've heard this phrase it's like when the leader gets better, everybody gets better, and so part of the podcast is like man, let's give you these like little vitamins. You know, like a little shot of vitamin C is going to help me this week do something different in my organization. So there's a ongoing investment that we're making through the podcast, but I think really one of the one of the best tools you can also get in addition to that is we offer mastermind groups and I think we want to talk about what, what the value of those mastermind groups would be.
Speaker 2:So I'm really no, I'm really excited about we got one coming up in June, end of June, here and we'll post all that kind of stuff. And you know we're pretty bad at like the self-promotion stuff. We like to talk about leadership stuff, but I think when it comes to promoting our product, you know it's like it's always difficult to do, but I am super excited about this. We've got a great mastermind coming up and you know, I think for me, everything you just said is is great. But you know, I've spent the last 20 some years listening to all the podcasts, reading all the books, I mean just taking in all the information conferences. Oh god, I've been to all the conference. You know it's like do all that kind of stuff and they're great, like I love that stuff.
Speaker 2:But, hands down, the, the environment that I've learned the most in is getting around a table with other people that are in a similar place than I am and learning from them, having conversation with them. You know, because it let us get a lot, of, a lot of these conferences and books are very aspirational, right, and but what I needed in leadership was some practical stuff. Like, all right, walk me through how you do this. Like, how do you apply this to your business? How do you run this day-to-day or whatever? Yeah, so that was a great, but the byproduct of it was I built relationships with people that I'm friends with to this day that I can text, I can call and I can do all those things.
Speaker 2:And so for you and I yeah, we give out a lot of content with the podcast, but where we feel like the bread and butter is is getting these leaders around a table together and really kind of dissecting where they're at Right, but also helping these leaders realize that they're not alone. They don't have to lead alone. You don't have to lead without a team. You might not be able to hire a C-suite fully right now, but if you're an owner-operator and you're like man, I'm just out here winging it, you don't have to. We want to come alongside you and help with that. That's really good.
Speaker 1:So talk from your perspective. Why? Why a mastermind? What is the value of that? Just kind of riff on on that. Yeah, let me start micro and then maybe go macro.
Speaker 1:So the one we're offering in June I'm really excited about is I've talked to a lot of my clients who are they're in one of two camps. Um, you know, we're, we're man. This has been an incredible year Like I've. I've overshot what I thought I was going to do, right? So they've hit some goals they didn't think they were going to hit already and so now they've got a second half of the year.
Speaker 1:It's like, well, hey, we need to redefine success. Great problem, that's a great problem to have. And so is your team built for the success you're experiencing? Right? Do you have the right metrics in place to really quantify what a success looks like for the back half of the year? So we want to help speak into those leaders' lives who their year's going great and they want to make a real clear definition of what success looks like. On the second half, the other camp is holy crap, this year has not gone anywhere according to plan and all the goals I set up in December for January for this year we're not anywhere close, right. So, rather than you know, getting up and looking in the mirror every day going I'm such a failure, it's like, well, no, we have a second half of the year to go. Let's redefine success. Let's put some process goals in place that we are in control over, so that the last half of this year can be successful and build some momentum for 2025.
Speaker 2:Right, and what if there's just some simple things that you're not seeing or you're not? You know, you don't have the perspective that some of these other people that are doing it like I love the idea that there could be someone in a mastermind whose year is going great and others who's not so great, that could collaborate and help would be like hey man, you should try this, this and that, and you know, it could be a few simple tweaks that really change the trajectory of your of your year.
Speaker 1:Well, it's exposure and networking to someone who's doing something different than you, and so, really, you know what happens in these masterminds is there's, there's content, you know there's stuff that we're going to go through and some exercises we're going to go through, but almost, you know, 10 out of 10 times people say the connection and networking is the value. It's like hey, can you hurry up the content? I really want to get to this table discussion. I want to see what my peers are doing in this situation. So, really, it's like the time to connect with other leaders, other owner operators who are, you know, either in a similar industry or a similar phase of their business, to to just say how'd you do it? Yeah, oh, I'm doing this. Oh, that's a great idea. Have you tried this? Yeah, and you know, and leaders don't make time in their schedules for this. This is a work on at practice, and so we're going to put this together for people to have those types of connections.
Speaker 2:Well, it's funny, as you're saying that, even the masterminds I went to you're exactly right. It was like could you, could you just skip the keynote, yeah and cause? My first question to every mastermind I've ever been invited to has been who else is going to be there? Like, cause, I just want to. I want to learn from people. I want, oh, so learn from people. I want, oh, so that's cool, like I want to go learn from them, right, and so you're exactly right and we will offer content. I'm not saying you're just going to show up, you know, but I think you're exactly right.
Speaker 2:The value is who's in the room, yeah, and where you're learning from. So talk a little bit about if someone's going to come to one of our masterminds. So the one we're doing in june is kind of a. It's a mid-year micro, micro mastermind. A lot of Ms there, but that's what we're about. So this is a three-week mastermind, kind of refresh reset. For the rest of the year Most masterminds will go a month to six weeks, a little bit longer, but this is kind of just a short one. This summer, what can someone?
Speaker 1:expect in a mastermind experience. Yeah, we're going to package each time we meet under a certain headline and so the first week it's that vision and strategy piece. So there's a lot of organizations, owner operators, that are like you said earlier, they're just kind of winging it and they may, you know, at some point have written down a mission statement, but they they never look at it, they're not like using it as a decision-making filter. They haven't decided values that help shape the behaviors of their team and how they operate. So it's like we're going to spend a session really promoting the value of vision. Right, like in that vision creates strategy for how you are successful. And people miss that step because maybe they're a good electrician and they're just like well, I started a company and we help people with their electricity and their outlets and stuff. It's like, well, that's great, you've got a core product. We really need to go above that and before that and create your vision for what does the success in the future look like for your company?
Speaker 2:Right and allow yourself to be open to questions from the group, Like I'm, you know. Imagine it'd be one of those things where you know someone could state their vision and their strategy but then open up for questions where it's like, okay, unpack for us, how is your operations and your systems reflecting that vision strategy and the kind of the results you're seeing? How does it reflect? And so I think it goes deeper than just here's the vision strategy. Now let's go, let's kind of poke holes into it. Because the thing that I know is true like I can walk into someone else's business and I hope this doesn't sound arrogant, but it's just true.
Speaker 2:I can walk into someone else's business and I hope this doesn't sound arrogant, but it's just true. Yep, I can walk into someone else's business and I can look and be like, oh man, you absolutely should be doing this, saying this, whatever, Like I can go in there and just see it. Clearly, I can't do that for myself. It's crazy. Like I have to almost like have an out of body whiteboard experience. You, you're so attached to it. You need someone else to kind of poke holes.
Speaker 1:It's like a helpful adversary, like someone who's not afraid to say hey, that doesn't really line up with what you just said, and I'm saying that because I want you to get better at it, not from a place that I'm trying to tear you down, but like hey, there's some inconsistencies in what you're saying.
Speaker 2:I'm going to help you like see this I leaders that are helping you work on your business to help you see it from six, seven, eight different angles that you would never see from. And then you're going to be able to do it for them. That's right, because you're going to be able to see things in theirs that they can't see. That's the beauty of these.
Speaker 1:So the next, next session, when we get together, we're going to focus on sales and marketing. Like you know, there's just no identity of the brand and you know, one thing I think is super helpful is helping teams work on their elevator pitch, like and we've talked about that before but you speak into the sales and marketing thing because that's definitely more your area of expertise.
Speaker 2:Well, I just love storytelling and I think that's one thing that a lot of companies miss is they don't know how to tell the story of the problem they solve for their, their customer.
Speaker 2:We did an episode on this a while back and you go back and listen if you missed it, but it's.
Speaker 2:It's just that idea of most brands position themselves as the hero, right and so and it's it's hard, because you believe deeply in your product or your service and so you want to get it out there, you want to talk about how great you are, but I think most companies being able to drill down on okay, what is like you said, that elevator pitch which is broken up into three parts problem solution, success here's the problem I solve, here's a solution we bring, and actually it actually makes marketing and sales fun again.
Speaker 2:Because if you're like me, I don't like going out there and being like, hey, look at me, you're making it about other people. So now it helps you get over the hurdle of talking about your product or service. If you're one of those types of owner operators who are like man, I don't love the sales market, I just want to do the work, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to have to push myself out there or whatever. This is a way of doing it that gets you excited about talking about your business to other people, and so that's a that's a big part of this.
Speaker 1:This mastermind is walk through the storytelling piece, and then the third week of this mid-year mastermind is going to be focused on what does it look like to get that core identity as a founding leader? You know an owner operator, and so we're going to talk some of those things that we've talked about in previous episodes, about what's it like to be addicted to success. What are you running from, what are you running towards? Working on some self-awareness things that are going to really help you thrive as a leader, not just as the business owner, but as the human that runs that business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a differentiator of our masterminds is that I think that we care about the person, the leader that's there, more than we care about their business. Obviously we care about their business More than we care about their business. Obviously we care about their business. But at the end of the day and we've said this before if someone's business is successful but they're losing everything else and they're losing their soul in the process and their family and all the other things they care about, and they're miserable or they have high anxiety, depression, loneliness, that's not a win for us.
Speaker 2:So we're going to dedicate good time to a group of people around the table who are saying, hey, um, there's more to life than just building a great business. That can be part of it. For sure, we don't want to shy away from building a successful business at all. But you know a lot of a lot of companies when they talk culture, it's about organizational culture and all that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, your organizational culture is going to reflect the culture of the leader absolutely. So if you don't, you don't get your personal culture right.
Speaker 2:Like what do you care about, what do you value? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Your unhealth as a leader will be the unhealth of your organization.
Speaker 2:It's going to take shape after you and there's a lot of unhealthy leaders that have great organizational culture, on paper, aspirational, but because that's not who they are, it's not reflecting in the call, it's not the actual experience of the people working in the. You know. So if you want to, if you want a culture of people who are that aren't dealing with anxiety but also are, you know, have clear goals and are successful and care, you know, value driven, whatever it is, you have to model that first, and so we spend significant time in our masterminds, and this is not. We don't lead out with this day one right, we work towards this when there's relationship around the table, but then it's like all right, let's talk about what are some of your goals, what do you, what are some things you want to do, and then let other people speak into it and be like well, man, then you should consider this. You should consider that Like that feels the decisions you're making feel in opposition to what you say you value.
Speaker 1:And ultimately I think we said this before, but I'll kind of make sure that we put an exclamation point on this the content is super important. The connection is even more valuable. I can remember a very specific mastermind we went to and the former CEO of Home Depot was there. Like this is a chance to listen from Frank Blake, the guy that really had a pretty significant turnaround in a really really healthy season of one of the biggest, you know, home improvement stores chains in the entire country right, massive, massive, massive revenue. But the thing I remember from that mastermind is the conversations afterwards, you know, grabbing a cocktail or going to dinner hey, how'd you do this? And yeah, frank was fantastic and he's a really brilliant leader. But what I remember from that mastermind was the relationships and the connections that were beyond the content.
Speaker 2:It's all the stuff you can't get in a podcast or a Ted talk. Yeah, like the Frank thing was great. I remember that. I remember what he talked about. It was so good, it was cool being in the room with him, um, but I could have heard a podcast on that and, you know, got the same the same content. So, just to echo what you're saying, I absolutely agree. It's like these are the stuff that you can only get relationally in conversation. You can't get anywhere else.
Speaker 1:Well, I always say this working on your business is an investment and it has massive return, but you have to be willing to make the sacrifice to make that investment. It's an investment of your time, of your resources, and you have to turn off working in your business for a period of time to do that, but I promise you this is one of the best investments you can make in your company and yourself. That's great.