I’ve always believed that a recommendation is worth more than any sales-pitch, which is why on this week’s episode, we’re shining a light on the life-changing lessons that clients have learned from their journey after joining ‘The Perfect Week’.
Enter Garett from ‘Rolling Monkey Handcrafted Ice Cream’ in Statesboro, Georgia.
Having come from a civil and lean engineering background, working for major players such as Mitsubishi and Toyota, Garett already had an understanding of the principles and strategies needed to run a Fortune 500 company.
However, as we all know, working in a large corporation is like bowling with the bumpers up to help keep the ball on track. Once the guard-rails come down and you’re on your own, it’s a whole new game.
In this episode, he shares some of the unique challenges he faced as a start-up, even with his corporate knowledge, and some of the ways he transformed his company culture to help him build one of Georgia’s most exciting new family businesses.
Hot Takes
Uncertainty = chaos
There’s always uncertainty once you decide to take the leap from employee to entrepreneur. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.
Garett noticed that he craved the organization and operational excellence that he reveled in when he worked at Toyota. The catch? These companies have spent millions on creating streamlined workflows. How can one man even hope to match these?
Well, it turns out, it’s possible.
Garett describes life before the ‘The Perfect Week’ program as being on a half-built bridge. Able to see the other side but unable to connect the dots to get traffic flowing again.
He also shares how he reviewed countless business development programs; however, what helped him pull the trigger on us was that we actually guaranteed that we would take him to a set point.
To help him finish the bridge he’d already started.
Mission. Vision. Core Values. What About Purpose?
It all sounds so easy. You create a vision of what you want; you build your mission to get there and throw in a few core values to keep you from heading down the wrong paths.
Well, it CAN be easy. But if you’re juggling all the elements of running the rest of your business, things start to feel messy.
Many business owners feel that the high-pressure and highly segmented working style of a start-up often leaves them feeling untethered and results in a loss of focus on maintaining company core values.
The lightbulb moment for Garett arrived once we helped him find ways to get grounded on his purpose, rather than just his mission.
Because I’ve learned that ‘purpose’ is the foundation for why the business exists. Full stop. From here, the mission flows smoothly.
‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’
For an ice cream business like Garett’s, you’d think that ingredients and flavor would be their biggest asset. Not true.
The most crucial element for company growth? It’s talent.
By getting extreme clarity on each of your team member’s unique abilities (and putting them in roles directly suited to those skills) is the fastest way to increase productivity.
For Garrett he found:
1. The staff were happier, felt more self-actualized and self-confident, resulting in a greater quality of output.
2. They felt more ownership over their jobs, meaning they felt more fulfilled. The result? Less staff turnover.
Giving people the tools, training and positions they need to get their jobs done will drastically improve your company processes.
Garett learned that it wasn’t just enough to make his staff happy, but it was important to keep them on-track with success measurement and reporting back processes to help them improve.
‘You’ve got to build the fire before you pour on the gasoline.’
There is a massive temptation for business owners to lean into marketing over processes, especially during periods of uncertainty.
And marketing is effective at increasing revenue – absolutely.
However, while revenue was important, the business world is littered with companies that put too much emphasis on the external instead of nurturing their internal processes.
But much like building a fire, if you throw gasoline on it before preparation, you’ll catch ablaze, but you’ll quickly burn out.
Getting internal processes perfected means longevity and ensures your company stays hot for years to come.
