Last week, I was the Keynote Speaker the Saint Mary’s University 43^rd Annual Business School Dinner.  What a great honour this was!  The organizers of the event asked if I would speak about disruption in a marketplace and my experience disrupting marketplaces.  I saw this as a perfect way to help educate others through my personal trials and tribulations, so I jumped at the opportunity!

y experience of disrupting markets first started with being an innovator.  We were solving problems in markets with innovative solutions but not immediately disrupting these markets.  It was simple to us: we solved problems!  What I soon learned, was that we were actually doing a lot more than problem solving and innovating: we were disrupting!   

When you disrupt you take an innovative solution and marry it with some other key differentiating activities, to position the product and company in a very relevant place....

I work with many leadership teams, supporting and coaching the team to be clear and succinct on their company goals. In business, these goals can be classified as long term goals (10-30 years), near term goals (3HAG – The 3 Year Highly Achievable Goal) and short term goals (1 year and 90 days). When setting metrics around these goals, the biggest question and discussion we have is “should these goals be stretch or achievable?”  

I find this question (sometimes dilemma) interesting.  Before a plan is put into action, everyone is dreaming big and wants stretch goals. But once the plan is in play, they want very achievable goals.  Teams find themselves so far off their stretch goals that they becomes unmotivated and are requently replanning. This is a reactive behaviour and when you are in this state, it feels awful!

Where does this mindset come from?  We don’t want to set goals that we know we can easily...

As an athlete, I have had a lot of experience in physical training and growth. In order to be successful in any game or race, disciplined training is essential. Whether you are an Olympic runner, or a casual jogger, you are only going to get better and improve if you train. A big element of any training is creating the schedule or map with daily/weekly/monthly targets and goals. In business, this is what we call forecasting. We forecast goals as a way to track our companies progress. Makes sense, right?

What if you registered for a marathon, but only tracked the amount of days you ran, and not the distance or time? You would most likely not complete your marathon and end up injured and disappointed. Relating back to business, what if you made this same mistake by creating forecasting goals that didn’t align with your big end goal? 

As a CEO and leadership team coach, I see this all the time! I start working with companies that have...

It wasn’t until the success of my the first company, where I was a co-founder and CEO, did I realize that people regarded female founders and CEOs as different.  When I co-founded my second business I realized this was very special and naturally, leveraged it!  Now having founded my third tech company I can identify these three most important lessons I have learnt that have lead all three companies to success, regardless of what other people think.

FOCUS

Staying focused on the BHAG, 3HAG and 1HAG is key. Know where you are going! Make sure you know with clarity what your core values and core purpose are, know and believe in your 10-30 year goal, your 3 year Highly Achievable Goal, know where you want to be in 1 year and know where you need to be in 90 days.  I always had a 10-30 year goal for my companies, 1 year goal for my companies, a 90 day plan BUT what really brought this all together was being absolutely laser focused on the 3...

As a CEO/Leadership team coach, I work with many companies that have gross sales both above and below $10 Million. I call out the value of $10M here, as I often see a common issue with those falling below this value. In my experience, the majority of companies with a topline under $10M have a CEO that is also leading sales! I know that this is a common practice of a new and growing company due to small start-up teams and rapid growth, but why is it still so common in established companies that fall under the $10M mark? Are you a CEO in an established company that is guilty of this? If you are, it’s likely the key reason you can’t break a $10M topline. But whats your excuse and how can you correct it?

Excuses, excuses! I have heard and said them all myself. The biggest one, “HIRING A SALES LEAD IS HARD!”.  When a CEO is ready to make this leap to hire a sales leader, they are often in a state of desperation. This desperate state leads to...

Predicting. We all know this word and what it means, and is something we are doing everyday without ever really knowing it. Whether its telling someone what time you will arrive to pick them up, how your lunch might taste and make you feel, how many cups of coffee you will drink, what time you will actually get to sleep. These are little predictions we make to ourselves everyday.

In business, it seems no one ever wants to predict!  Most CEOs and leaders are comfortable setting a goal 10+ years away.  Why does no one want to predict where they will be in 3 years? Why is  the 3 year goal the least confident goal of all?  Some leadership teams will even set a goal 5 years away as a way to avoid setting a 3 year goal. But what is the real reason why?  The fear of being wrong!   When we predict something we have a chance of being wrong.  No one wants to be wrong – who does?  In order to be clear on where we want to be in 3 years time...

As a business coach (or any coach), having and using the right tools is essential for achieving wins. The most successful and effective coaches come to every client meeting prepared with stacks of Post-It notes, a handful of sharpies, and their laptop logged into Metronome Growth Systems. This online cloud based system is elevating the business coaching world by bringing reliable tech to the industry, filling a need that has been left neglected for far too long.  Coaches on the MGS platform have found that by incorporating this software into their Business Models, they are increasing the value and confidence of their services exponentially and their clients growth. We have asked our coach members to share their feedback on how to best work MGS into your coaching practice.

INCREASE VISIBILITY

Metronome Growth Systems Coach Dashboard allows coaches to understand how all of their client business’s are performing at a glance. It shows how each...

When it comes to strategy most are looking for the “Goose that Lays the Golden Eggs”!! All the time!!  Well the 3HAG is my goose that lays Golden Eggs every time for my own companies as well as my client’s companies.  A 3HAG is the strategic execution system that drives confidence in predicting the future growth of your company and then making it happen. 

 As many of you have heard, 3HAG is a concept that is gaining a lot of exposure these days! Those who have welcomed this method and used it in their  strategic planning and execution process have seen incrediblesuccessin their companies.  They found their Golden Goose.   

 CEO’s know that you need more than a 10-30 Year goal (BHAG). You also need a “golden stepping stone” that will align your companies path  in driving to the BHAG. This is...

Over 15 years ago – I was deep in chaos with a fast growing team and company.  Every day was like a week, every week like a month, and every month like a year. Time was flying and we had to make decision fast to keep up with the speed of growth and the market.  We were struggling – working way too many hours and the pile of things to get done and decisions to be made continued to get longer.  It was the unending uphill battle.

I was at a conference that Verne Harnish was MC’ing and he kept talking about “The Huddle”. I finally went up at a break and asked “What is The Huddle?”  Verne answered – “Easy! It’s a 15 minute (or less) daily meeting with your team that follows a standing agenda of ‘Good News, Metrics, Top priority for the day, Where are you stuck’. This is a concept that seems so simple, yet when used with consistency is GAME CHANGING! But, why does this daily “HUDDLE”...

I am with my 14 year old son, Cain, at the #PremiereProgram in Orlando, Florida – the largest global performing arts program dedicated to showcasing Actors, Models, Dancers and Singers to industry professionals who specialize in kids programming between the ages 5-20 year old.  The courage of these young people blow me away. Absolutely blow me away.

Cain is part of the 14 and Older group that is known as the 6000 Group.  This program kicked off today – with 6000 Group Coaches David, Mark and Shortstop. 

Coach David kicked off by asking the group of 14-20 year old aspiring Actors  – “Are you AWESOME?”  The response was nervous, tentative, not sure of themselves.  To this keen young crowd Coach David shared the 3 Steps of being AWESOME everyday:

STEP 1:  “You are AWESOME” – you are awesome because you have chosen to be here to get up in front of people and put yourself on the...