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Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. Today’s guest is Aaron Trahan, founder of Performance Mindset and a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of leadership experience in both corporate and startup environments. By the age of 30, Aaron was leading $1 billion publicly traded company, a role that gave him deep insight into what drives growth and what derails it. Today, he works with leaders and organizations to to achieve sustainable, profitable growth by breaking the chaos cycle and creating systems of clarity, focus and accountability. Aaron’s mission is to help leaders get better at getting better and build businesses that scale the right way. Aaron, welcome to the show.

Aaron Trahan: Hi Trisha, thank you so much for having me excited for this conversation.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Me too. And for those of you who are not watching on video, you need to jump over to the YouTube channel because Aaron has this most beautiful Winnie in the background. And I’m not going to tell you what it is. So you guys just have to jump on and see.

Aaron Trahan: It’s it’s always good to have a cute, uh, cute, fluffy business partner, you know?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. All right, Aaron, tell us a little bit more about who you are.

Aaron Trahan: Yeah. You know, I am someone who really, from an early age, just gravitated towards this big, bold concept of continuous improvement. Um, I was kind of just a nerd of business books from a very early age. I started watching CNBC to just learn about what all this stuff means. Someone asked me is like, do you even know what showing up on that thing running across the bottom? And I just remember saying, not entirely, but I’m I’m learning, right? And so it just this concept of growth and continuous improvement. And before I even really knew what the concept of scaling really was about, that’s it was just kind of a gravitational pull for me, and not only on an individual level of just trying to understand how can I be a better leader, how can I lead teams more effectively, but also then how that translated to an organizational level and really just finding myself, um, you know, positively obsessed with what is it that allows Those leaders and organizations to find the next level to keep growing over a long time. But more importantly, what is it that prevents them from doing that? Why do leaders burn out once great high growth organizations, you know, either become a non growth organization or fail outright? And so, um, that was kind of the invisible journey that I was on that eventually led me to, um, you know, being a seasoned executive operator to now finding myself on the other side of the table, serving those leaders, operators and businesses of trying to avoid the same mistakes that I made, being able to access all the lessons and key insights without having to acquire the same scars that I had to acquire.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, I love that. Not that you have all the scars, but that you’re able to bring all of your expertise, your knowledge and experience to others that you serve. Now that’s amazing. All right. Names always have a meaning. And I want to dive into performance mindset which is your business. So talk to me one about the name of your business. And then let’s take a little deeper dive into the services that you provide.

Aaron Trahan: Sure. Yeah. It’s, uh, it’s probably one of the most frequently asked questions that I get is performance mindset kind of what? Tell me more about that. And, you know, kind of going back to the past 20 years that I’ve had in and around all sorts of businesses, of all sorts of shapes and sizes. You know, I think the great work that Carol Dweck did at Stanford University of really bringing the concept of a fixed mindset and a growth mindset to the mainstream, I think was was pretty valuable for all of us. But I think as I started to understand the nuances there, I started to realize that, you know, when we think about that in terms of the application to business, I just found a different story kind of playing out. In reality, nobody is going to admit to having a fixed mindset first and for all. And so every room that I was speaking to, every team I was a part of, whenever I would ask the question and really explain what a growth mindset is all about, every hand in the room is going to go up and say, yep, that’s me. I’ve got to fix our growth mindset. That’s what I’m all about. And so then I started back to that curiosity of what makes people grow, leaders evolve, and what prevents leadership growth. I started scratching my head of saying, well, if everyone has a growth mindset, why are we having these wild variabilities in performance and outcomes and results? And what I realized was there’s kind of a next level to it with a growth mindset, that thinking and believing that nothing’s fixed, you can develop and grow and build intelligence and capabilities.

Aaron Trahan: That’s great. But what I was starting to understand was thinking and believing can only take you so far. It’s missing a key ingredient and it’s the willing to take action. So when I kind of think about what shows up a lot in the business world, it’s much more nuanced than just fixed versus growth mindset. I think it’s really kind of a status quo mindset of people getting comfortable with where kind of they are, and things are good enough, so to speak. But then this other group has the performance mindset, which is just the bias to action to continuously improve. They’re not looking in the rear view mirror, kind of hanging their hat on what has already been achieved, or look at what we’ve done. It’s always asking the question how do we further improve? How do we continuously get better? Where can there be areas to take it up a notch? Where am I not operating either at an individual or an organizational level at anywhere close to our full potential? So for me, it really became this status quo mindset. Are we comfortable with where things are and we’re just kind of playing the status quo game. Then it becomes the the performance mindset. Are we willing to take the action and do what’s required to truly see better performance and better results? And so for me, that’s what that was kind of the narrative that I was seeing play out in the arena of business. It’s not as simple as fixed versus growth. It’s much more about status quo versus that bias for action to do what’s required to get better performance.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, so how do we get from status quo or just this growth mindset where we’re just sitting still to performance.

Aaron Trahan: Yeah, I think it it is all around first generating awareness, right. For for everything that I do, it all really starts there. And I love kind of the saying that says a weakness or a development area that you’re not aware of will never be strengthened. Right. And so much around that status quo thinking is really that belief that, you know, good enough is always going to, at some point lead to complacency. And when you’re complacent, you’re not going to be intentionally driving awareness around where the gaps are. And look for high performers. Gaps may not be underperformance. The gap we are really focused on is where you’re performing versus where, you know you can potentially be performing. So it’s kind of it’s a you versus you. It’s am I better tomorrow than I was yesterday? And do we understand and put the awareness on where the gaps are that if we took action to evolve, develop, build the capabilities will get us closer to that full potential that makes us 1% better every day. That drives the continuous improvement. And that’s not always a comfortable place to be in. Always looking for how to develop. What more can I do? What more am I capable of? It requires it just requires a different intention to build the awareness, to learn where to act, to generate a better outcome. And if you’re in the comfort zone of the status quo, that’s just going to be an area that is, you know, never going to be found in that zone.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So what are your thoughts around doing it alone versus surrounding yourself with the right people.

Aaron Trahan: Oh, I, um, I’m just a big believer that you can only go so far alone. Um, you know, I’ve I’ve been the beneficiary of having a lot of great mentors, a lot of great coaching. Um, whenever I realized that I personally needed to leave that one zone of comfort and status quo thinking into a performance mindset, I needed a third party. I needed a coach to help me see what I wasn’t seeing. I needed someone to not only help me identify that there are corners coming up, but then to be able to have, you know, develop some insights, um, to proactively maybe understand and see what’s around those corners. And yeah, I think if the only, only voice of accountability that you’re kind of listening to, uh, is that voice inside your own head, I, uh, I think it’s going to be tough to really tap into the full potential that I think is there for, uh, all leaders and organizations. So I’m a big believer, um, that with others is a accelerated path to ultimately getting you to your destination.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And by the way, you need to check who’s in your room, too, right? Because we want to surround ourselves, like Aaron and I, uh, have the same kind of very uplifting, above the line energy, and we wouldn’t want to hang around. I hope I don’t want to speak for you, but I don’t want to hang around with people who have negative energy. I want them to have more energy than me and more passion. Uh, yeah. So that I can strive to be there, I love that. So let’s take this from growth mindset to sustainable growth. So can we unpack why the how of growth matters more than the how fast?

Aaron Trahan: Yes, absolutely. And it’s such a great time period of the year to have this conversation, because I believe Inc. magazine just recently released their updated list of what’s referred to as the Inc. 5000, which is the 5000 fastest growing private companies in America. And as you can imagine, every small and medium sized business would love to be on this list. What better marketing for you to put on your website or in a promotional blast of saying we are an Inc. 5000 company? Now, what’s interesting about this to kind of start this part of the conversation is fast. Growth is good, but it should not be the only thing you’re optimizing for, because follow up studies from this great list of the fastest growing companies has found a troublesome kind of where are they now? Um, you know, story that’s unfolded. And what the data shows is that 68% of companies that make the Inc. 5000 list remember the fastest growing companies in America over the next 5 to 8 years, 68%. More than two thirds of these companies either fail outright or are no longer a growth company, and they’re a significantly smaller size. And I think that just really puts an exclamation point on sustainable growth, growth that you can continue to maintain and work to compound over a long period of time is always going to be a better option than just rapid expansion.

Aaron Trahan: Back to having great mentors and someone sharing wisdom with you. I had to learn this the hard way, so I’ve got very intimate, first hand experience of all the chaos that emerges when you grow too fast. So luckily, I had a mentor on my board who pulled me aside after a not so pleasant board meeting to remind me never grow faster than you and your team’s ability to manage it. And that was always a stark reminder for me. It’s that if growth starts to outpace your ability to execute your team’s ability to manage it, chaos starts to ensue. Um, look, the graveyard is full of companies that grew too quickly, were not able to implement the systems and the structure to be able to support it and maintain it. And unfortunately, far too many businesses die by a result of collapsing under the weight of their growing pains, not from competition. Um, and so I think it’s just an important reminder that growing the right way, your ability to make sure you can manage it, the ability to generate operating leverage, um, allowing the growth to compound over longer periods of time is always going to be far more important than trying to just increase the top line by all costs as fast as possible.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Yeah. That’s such a great point Aaron. And I know people are already wanting to connect with you to learn more or even just to pick your brain. If you let people do that maybe you do every once in a while. What is the best way for the listeners to connect with you? Aaron.

Aaron Trahan: Yeah, the two places I show up, most, uh, one’s going to be on LinkedIn. I would highly encourage anyone to connect, reach out. I’m always trying to share, um, the things that I’ve learned along the way and continue to learn. I’m pretty transparent with my community there of. Look, learn from my lesson. Avoid my scars. Uh, and then for a more in-depth review, my website would be the best place to go to really understand how I help executives and organizations. And that’s simply performance mindset coaching. Dot CEO uh, so those will be the two places that you’re going to be able to get access to me as quickly as possible.

Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. And if you’re trying to connect with Aaron on LinkedIn, you can find him at r r o t r a h a n. And it’s actually Aaron Trahan. Coaching is the handle for LinkedIn if you guys are looking for him there. Okay I heard you say chaos cycle. I think we probably have an idea of what it is you described, what it is. But if we find ourselves in that chaos cycle, how do we break free from it?

Aaron Trahan: Yeah, yeah. So I think it it really comes down to one important thing. And if I could back up for a second, I think for a lot of business owners, founders, leaders, you know, it almost kind of feels like chaos is just kind of part of the game, right? It’s just if you’re in a growing business, there’s going to be some chaos that comes along with that. And I think while that’s true, I think there’s there’s different flavors of chaos to look for sure. When an organization stretching and growing and we’re reaching new heights, there’s going to be that healthy chaos that comes with stretch. But what to look out for is when the chaos really starts to hold the organization back. When you start to feel like there’s bottlenecks everywhere, you’re playing whack a mole. Your days feel much more like a, um, a day long firefight than actually doing things that are productive, that can drive the business forward. So to more directly answer your question, it all comes down to prioritization. And here’s what I’ve seen in businesses that have been a part of businesses that I help and just businesses that I’m observing is there tends to be a chaos cycle that ensues when some of the negative flavor of chaos shows up. And by the way, I’m a firm believer that when you’re experiencing that chaos in the business, that’s nothing more than the business’s way of screaming out to you that it needs better structure and needs better systems.

Aaron Trahan: That’s that’s just think about that as the language at which your, your business is communicating to you. But where the cycle starts is really going to be around your ability to properly manage prioritizations or the inability that shows up as priority mismanagement. And here’s what I see so much Uch when priorities start to be mismanaged. That could be in the form of your team feeling like priorities or switching every single week, or everything’s a priority. You know, when a business has 20 different priorities. Whether your employees say it to you or not, what they are talking about is we don’t know what the hell to focus on, right? And so priority mismanagement will always drive the next stage of the cycle, which is fragmented. Organizational focus. Focus for any business in any industry is a superpower. Period. Full stop. So when you think about the priorities at which the top level of an organization’s driving down to the team, when that’s not clear, when there’s too many, when they’re constantly changing the focus, that superpower of your organization is never going to be in the right dosage, in the right spot. So it’s going to be fragmented. It’s everywhere. So what happens when priority mismanagement leads to a lack of organizational focus? Results suffer. You see it in weak execution. You’re missing expectations. You thought sales would be here. They come in way short. We’re scrambling to figure out why. And so what do leadership teams do after this third stage? Priorities.

Aaron Trahan: Priorities were mismanaged. There’s not enough focus in the right area. Results start to show up. Weaker than expected. We need new priorities. We need a new initiative. We we need a new growth strategy to kind of get things back on track. Which then takes us back to the very top of the cycle. And you’ve now created the vicious loop. Too many or constantly changing priorities, fragmenting focus even more on, on and on through the cycle. And so to stop the cycle, to get out of the chaos cycle really comes down to a business’s ability to prioritize. And I like to think about it in terms of a question. If I was to randomly show up to your team leadership or management manager meeting, and if I was to go into the room unannounced and secretly ask everyone the same question, what are the top 2 or 3 priorities for the business, and why are these the priorities for the business right now? What would happen? Would everybody say the same thing? Would everybody say something different? So to break the chaos cycle, you have to have that team saying something similar to each other, because when they’re saying things different about the downstream chaos that that creates in an organization, everybody thinks the priority is different, which means their focus is behind something and nothing may come back and align to what is truly most important for the organization.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes, yes and yes and yes. All of these things resonate with me so deeply. Erin, thank you for taking us down that path. So does this play into that business GPS system that you talk about? Yeah. So can we dive into that a little bit 100%.

Aaron Trahan: And that’s why as I kind of in my the seat that I sit in today, kind of helping leadership teams and organizations avoid the same mistakes that I unfortunately made. You know, the past decade for me has kind of been a reverse engineering of what were the what were the tools that I was lacking, what were the frameworks and the systems that if I would have used, I could have avoided the mistakes, missteps and failures that that showed up on on my path that I had to course correct on. And yeah, because prioritization that I found is so critically important. I kind of like to think of it in terms of a business GPS. So if we were to pull out our phones and pull out whatever your maps app of choice is Apple Maps, Google Maps, whatever it is, remember, these companies that built these apps have spent billions of dollars to make it useful for us consumers. But it requires us to enter a critical data point for it to work. We need a clear destination. And if we don’t have a clear destination, that billions of dollars poured into this app will never work for us. So I’m sitting here talking to you today from Austin, Texas, right. And look, if we were to just type in central Texas into Google Maps, it’ll give us a million different options to choose from. Even if you, you know, you went into Southwest Austin. Okay, we maybe have thousands now, right? But until you get a specific location or address, that’s the only way you’re going to get an optimized route to take you from where you currently are to where you want to end up.

Aaron Trahan: I take businesses through that. Same thing is, where do we want to be over not too far out in the future because then it starts to lose its teeth. Not too short in time because we need some ability to kind of think out and plan. So I found two years to kind of be the sweet spot. So where I love to start working with businesses is really getting their teams firm on what’s our two year destination, kind of call it the vision. Within the vision, where do we want to end up? And I, I serve as kind of the challenger in the room to say, bring it down to abstract to conceptual, being the best or world class like that we can operationalize around that. How do we quantify what that looks like? How do we plug in my address in Austin and not just Central Texas or the greater Austin area. And then from there, we just didn’t execute a very streamlined, working backwards experiment. If we get the team very, very focused and aligned on what our two year vision looks like, where we want to end up, then knowing where we need to be at 12 months, knowing where we need to be at six months, knowing what’s most important over the next three months starts to get very clear and very simple. And now the prioritization of what we’re going to prioritize and what we’re not has the necessary guardrails for us to easily determine priorities from priorities. But most importantly, it helps an organization say no way more often than they are today. And as.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh.

Aaron Trahan: So.

Trisha Stetzel: I know.

Aaron Trahan: You said.

Speaker4: Yeah, Go ahead.

Aaron Trahan: Yeah. Is Warren Buffett’s always said the difference between highly, highly successful people and average people is the highly successful people say no to virtually almost everything. And it’s because the priority scope is so defined. We know what we’re going to say yes to. That fits within that scope. Everything outside of it is a no or not yet.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. I love this. So you just took us on this beautiful journey. Aaron thank you so much for this amazing conversation. I’ve got one last ask. Tell me your favorite client story.

Aaron Trahan: Hmm. My favorite client story is the one that’s top of mind. Was the call that I was actually just on. Um, okay. This is this was a client that was in the physical therapy space and also did some longevity, uh, strength training of really helping people coming in for physical therapy and a part of the country where people are very active, um, and have a huge interest in staying active for longer. But as you can imagine, someone running a big physical therapy operation and another business, the challenge was I can’t get out of the business. I kind of feel like so much depends on me. I’m the bottleneck. I’m reactive and firefighting all day long. And, you know, I’m not sure I want to keep doing this. Right. It’s like I’m working harder. Only for poor results on the bottom line. And so taking this client in his business through these different types of tools, we were able to get very clear on where we wanted to be. We were able to get very clear on what matters most. And we were able to then start prioritizing what needs to come off his plate, what needs to go on to different plates, how do we streamline the organization? Where where are the areas that’s really holding the business back? Um, and as you can imagine, the work that we’ve been doing over the past couple years where literally the call that I was just on before this call, a lot of the conversation was talked about how great the team is doing, how he’s got a team of individuals now operating like owners.

Aaron Trahan: He’s able to be 95% strategic, 5% tactical. Two years ago, it was the exact opposite. He was 95% reactive, 5% strategic margins have expanded in the business top lines expanding in the business. And he’s putting in fewer hours than he ever thought was possible in a growing, optimized business. And so it was just one of those feel good calls of seeing seeing someone be able to create the business that they dreamed of, for it to perform the way that he envisioned it performing without him having to be the bottleneck in every single step of the way.

Trisha Stetzel: Mm, I love that. So something simple, if you’re in your business and you can’t take vacation because you’re so embedded in it, you need to talk to Aaron. I’m just saying.

Aaron Trahan: It’s it’s kind of, uh. It’s nothing more than helping build the bridge, right? I think every business kind of has three islands, right? Vision, strategy and execution. And so few times I’ve seen are those islands connected with a clear bridge? That’s all we did in this case is we took the vision of what he wanted. We created a strategy that would make that vision tangible and put in the mechanisms to drive day in, day out, week in, week out execution to generate week over week progress. And so his three islands now have very tight, very solid, very well built bridges connecting those three islands.

Speaker5: Wow. That’s beautiful.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you so much for this conversation today, I felt like I went on a journey and maybe even thought about vacation for a minute. We’re growth mindset. Oh no performance mindset. This was fantastic. Aaron, thank you so much for your time today.

Aaron Trahan: Yeah. Thank you for having me.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today, guys. So if you found this conversation with Aaron valuable, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran or a Houston business leader. Ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate, and review the show and helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business, your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. Today’s guest is Joshua Kornitsky, a fourth generation entrepreneur and professional eo’s implementer with more than 20 years of experience in technology, business strategy, and organizational growth. Joshua first experienced the power of EOS as a leader in 2015, when this system brought clarity and growth to his own company. Since then, he’s lived EOS as an owner, a leader, and now as a coach, helping leadership teams across the country align their vision, strengthen accountability, and execute with confidence. He also hosts a Business RadioX show. You guys Have to Listen to It, where he highlights business leaders making an impact in their communities. Joshua brings a unique perspective on how iOS transforms both companies and cultures. Joshua, welcome to the show.

Joshua Kornitsky: Thank you for having me, Trisha. It’s really great to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m so excited. I can tell when I’m doing people’s bios, they get a little uncomfortable. They’re like, really? She’s going to say all those great things about me. Yes, I am, because we don’t do it for ourselves very often.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s true, it’s true.

Trisha Stetzel: Very excited to have you on today. So, Joshua, tell us a little bit more about who you are.

Joshua Kornitsky: Wow. Well, thank you for the opportunity to talk about myself. I appreciate that. Um, as you said, a fourth generation entrepreneur, uh, I was born in the northeast. My parents, my grandparents both owned new car dealerships, and just through the evolution of what that business was like, I ended up in the car business. But we as a family are no longer involved. Uh, and to go back to the to the great great grandparents, that first generation of entrepreneurs, uh, they were immigrants coming here and did what they needed to do in order to get started. And in those days, pretty much everybody had to be an entrepreneur in one way or another. Um, I’m I’m somewhat amused and pleased to tell you that my great great grandmother, uh, was a bootlegger, um, making, I presume, bathtub gin, that I’m not a gin guy. But if I could figure out how to make bourbon well, at home, I might do that. Um, but I. I was born into the automotive industry, and I’m forever grateful for that because, um, it allowed me to see every aspect of of the good, the bad and the ugly of working with businesses, working with people And learning how to engage and interact. Because as the auto industry has in many regards, uh, created a negative impression of itself, not everybody is that way. And having grown up, uh, and being taught by my dad, who also had been in it since he was a teenager, I learned that there were two ways you could approach things. One was to to hit a customer over the head hard and make a bunch of money, but never see them again, or take good care of a customer. Make a fair profit, treat them well and you will see them over and over. And that was kind of my foundation in business was understanding that. And uh, when my dad passed, he was selling cars to the grandchildren of people that had bought cars from him initially. So it’s a proven process, right? It’s a strategy that works. Treat people well and they’ll come back to you. Yeah, absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. That is an amazing story. Thank you for sharing that and being a fourth generation entrepreneur is, um, I find few and far between. We don’t see as many people coming from that background, if you will, and I love the lessons that you’ve learned from that. So you’ve also worked across IT industries, software design, executive leadership. How does that play into where you’ve landed today? And being in a an owner or a coach in the EOS space?

Joshua Kornitsky: So thank you. That’s a great question. Um, the first thing that I’ll tell you is that that anything with technology, whatever I used to know has a limited applicability today, but the skills remain the same. And in the skills that I developed, because I, I was early in on technology when there weren’t very many people in able or capable or knowledgeable or more directly curious, uh, that that we’re able to step up and learn and help. So the biggest thing that I think technology brought into my life that carried forward to now is that curiosity, because I’ve learned over time that the best way that I can offer any type of guidance or structure through iOS or through any other engagement is to understand first what it is that the the individuals I’m dealing with are contending with. And, and it’s all too easy to be prescriptive and to walk in the door and say, well, here’s this system. Everybody needs to do what I say when I say, and it’ll all work out. Number one, you’re not going to succeed. Number two, they’re not going to succeed. And number three, if you try to use the same recipe, you can’t bake 17 different cakes. You’re only going to end up with one. And it’s probably not going to be a good one. My apologies. That’s my mom ringing through on bypass.

Trisha Stetzel: You know what? It’s all good. And listen, we’re all human here. And even before we started recording, we talked about, uh, how we both are caring for aging parents. And it happens. Right? It’s just part of what we do.

Joshua Kornitsky: It does? And, uh. Yep. It does. And I and I love her dearly. And I’ll check on her as soon as we’re done.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. This is what makes us human, Joshua. Fair enough. All right, so, Joshua, clearly you have a great IT background, leadership background. I’m very curious. I’d like to roll you back all the way to 2015 with your first experience with, um, iOS and the implementation of that. What was the biggest shift you noticed in 2015 that really grabbed your attention about this implementation?

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, so let me set the context a little. We I had been recruited to become chief technology officer for a B2B lead gen company. Me, and they were a successful company. They’d been in business at that point, probably eight, eight, nine years. Um, and they were growing, but they’d hit a ceiling and, and that’s what caused them to go out and look for help. And, and quite often that’s what brings entrepreneurs looking for a solution is, is what brings them to the book traction, which is what EOS is based on by Gino Wickman. And for us, um, they brought an implementer in or the CEO brought an implementer in. And we began the process and it’s quite normal. Um, I remember to this day it’s quite normal to think, oh, it’s the flavor of the month. You know, this month everyone’s going to wear blue shirts because it’ll change the way we are. Uh, but it turned out that the system really isn’t promising magic, and that’s what got my attention first. The second thing that got my attention was it doesn’t pretend to bring magic, the discipline and the accountability that I learned. And the biggest thing that changed for me was understanding that you you could have a highly accountable culture and still be at a place that people enjoyed working because the, the, the assumption is quite often that, that, oh, well, you know, you’re just bringing in more scrutiny, more depth of drilling down to understand every aspect of where every second of every day goes. And that’s not at all what it’s about. What it’s about is understanding that in an open culture where people aren’t afraid and they understand their job and they align to the core values that they’re actually able to to exceed their own expectations and provide an unbelievably, um, inspired level of, of work and service because they want to be there.

Joshua Kornitsky: And that to me, that spoke to me, that’s who I am. I’ve always been someone that’s been drawn to making sure that the work that I do matters to me. I’m a fan of Daniel Pink’s book drive. And in in drive, he talks about how intrinsic motivation is by far the most powerful form of motivation out there, and that’s what speaks to me. So what I found in iOS as chief technology officer was the ability to help the folks who worked with me do, uh, their jobs more effectively, to have clarity when they came into work to understand what the expectations of them were at both a micro and a macro level. And together we were able to set goals that made sense. That helped drive us forward. And I know it sounds like I’m reading off a cue card, but that’s really what what excited me about it. So much so that that I co-founded a software company with one of the principles of, of, uh, the company I was working for. And we started with us right out the gate. And it was only because we were both experienced in it that it made sense. Typically, it doesn’t really align with the startup. But, uh, while I did step away from that company, I believe they’re still running on us today. Wow.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s amazing. All right, so I want to take a deeper dive into iOS. There are likely people listening who have no idea what iOS is, and there may be some misconceptions about it. You tackled a few of those things as you were talking about your experience in the beginning. So let’s talk about iOS. Take a deeper dive and any misconceptions that you think people may have about it.

Speaker1: Sure.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’d be easy. The the very briefly, what iOS does more than anything else is three things. It gets everybody aligned around the vision of the founders of the organization. It instills discipline and accountability, Traction, as we call it, and it works to help the leadership team, which in an entrepreneurial business, which is who we typically work with. Often that that leadership team came together because different people with different skill sets organically either grew into the role or there was an identified need, and they brought somebody into the role, and they typically can have very disparate backgrounds and very disparate experiences. So while they’re capable of working together, they may not have healthy relationships as a leadership team. So that’s what we do is we we do that vision traction, then help them become healthy. And as the leadership team embraces it, so does the rest of the organization. And that’s really in a nutshell, what what EOS can do for a business and as it progresses and matures. And I had a quarterly planning session with one of my, um, I’m already graduated clients, meaning a client that went through the whole system, which takes about two years and they still bring me in to facilitate their quarterly and their annual planning. And we pushed hard as a group to see what we could do to continue to improve what’s already working. Because I’m not a believer in saying, you know, nobody on a scale of 1 to 10, nobody’s a ten that doesn’t speak to who I am. You can get to attend, but I’d like to believe that there’s an 11. I’d like to believe that we can continue to grow and excel, but it all starts with the work they do. So the only thing I really do is facilitate the brilliance in the room. I don’t bring the brilliance. I just bring a structure that that makes it.

Trisha Stetzel: And that’s what makes you a great coach. I love that, Joshua. It’s all about standing in the greatness of our clients, right? I think you and I share that same ideal. Um, if people are already interested in having a conversation with you. They want to learn more about iOS or the implementation, or just ask you some questions. What’s the best way for folks to connect with you?

Joshua Kornitsky: So I’ve got a long first name and a long last name, and I my my email address is at EOS worldwide. So what I did is I took my cell phone number (678) 414-7696, which you can call. But I put a I registered it as a URL. So dial that.com and it’ll bring you to the the website where you can get in touch with me. Uh because otherwise it’s Jay at EOS worldwide. Com and I joke that I have to get extra long business cards in order to fit that. So 6784147696.com we’ll get you to me.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. It says the guy who infamously comes from technology. What a great idea.

Joshua Kornitsky: I just want to make it simple. You know, the easier we make it for people to find us.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes, absolutely. Okay. For those of you who are going to go look up Joshua or find him on LinkedIn. His name is spelled j o s h u a last name k o r n I t s k y. It’s so much easier to go to his phone number. Com so.

Joshua Kornitsky: You can go.

Trisha Stetzel: Everything that you’re looking for. You guys know I’ll put that in the show notes so you can point and click. If you’re sitting at your computer please do not do that. If you are driving in your car, wait until you get home and then you can point and click and connect directly with Joshua. Okay. So back to this conversation. Listen, you’ve lived iOS as a leader and owner and implementer. You bring such a unique perspective to your clients because of that and because of your background. So I’d really love to hear tactically, um, how you really create this alignment. Right? You talk a lot about culture in the business and the leaders embracing what’s happening, and then everyone follows. So give me some like tactical ways that that’s happening as you’re implementing this tool with your clients.

Joshua Kornitsky: So the way that that we work with our clients and I say we because there are 850 US implementers around the world, uh, we all can determine where we help one another. I’m willing to travel. Others aren’t. Uh, I have clients that are fully virtual, and I mention that because the journey is the same, regardless of whether it’s virtual or in person. We start with a day called a focus day. Actually, back it up. We start with what’s what’s a 90 minute meeting, which is where the leadership team, uh, gets into a room with me or gets onto a zoom call with me and I give them a 10,000 foot overview. Because if you expect someone to be able to jump right into something transformational with no knowledge. You’re going to be disappointed. So we give that 10,000 foot overview where I take them through at a very high level. How EOS is is designed, what it helps with, where it enables them to, to find areas to improve. And what is, as I mentioned earlier, what’s really, really important is it as a system. And this is something we say internally. It’s intended to be handrails not handcuffs. So we we want to to take them through the leadership team, through the education process. If what they hear in the 90 minute meeting speaks to them. And I’m going to give you a 45 second overview, we explain to them the history of the US.

Joshua Kornitsky: I talked to them to understand who they are and what their goals are. And then at a very high level, I take them through the six key components of iOS, which, when Gino Wickman wrote the book traction, what he ultimately determined was that all business problems fall into six categories vision, having people aligned with where you’re going, people having the right people in the right seats, data using real hard data rather than aspirational accounting, as I call it. Um, and when you’ve got that first half down where you’ve got the right people in the right seats, you know where you’re going and you’re using real data issues pop up. Pretty common, pretty clear. So we teach our clients how to identify and resolve those issues and make them go away forever. Then the fifth key component is process. And that’s just simply having determining what the right and best way things need to happen and getting that documented and, uh, followed by everybody there. That’s really the magical key to if there’s any magic here. That’s where scalability lives in. In. Trisha. I know that you are a veteran. And thank you for for your service. But in the military, a little bit process driven. I presume that process is there because it works.

Speaker4: Uh huh.

Joshua Kornitsky: You know, and and while it may be occasionally, uh, redundant, the best way to make sure that airplane takes off every time, the best way to make sure that that boat doesn’t have an issue is to have a checklist and to make sure. So we work with them, but they control the pace. And then the the last piece we do is we teach them about traction. We teach them about setting what we call rocks, which is a metaphor for a goal. And we teach them about having an established meeting pulse. And that’s really the 90 minute meeting, and we take them through it once they find that, that, that it is the right path for them. Uh, we’ll set up a focus day and we spend eight hours together with the leadership team. During that eight hours, we teach them about hitting the ceiling and how to break through hitting the ceiling. And then we start with this remarkable document that that is free to anybody that wants it at EOS worldwide. Com or they can reach me and I’ll share it with them. It’s called the Vision Traction Organizer. It’s eight simple questions. What are your core values? What’s your core focus? What are you best at? What’s your ten year or long term target? What’s your marketing strategy? Meaning what do you say to people? Who are the people you want to talk to? And what is it you say to them? Then we set out a three year picture, a one year plan.

Joshua Kornitsky: We establish goals for the next 90 days, and then we keep a list of all of the other issues that are important, but that we’re not going to deal with now because there is a magic to getting those on paper. Because if you and I talk about something and we both agree that someone’s got to walk the dog, but neither one of us write that down, the dog’s going to be scratching at the door or we’re going to be cleaning up. Um, and and really, that’s iOS at the highest level in a nutshell. There’s, there’s other tools that we teach over those two years. But once we’ve gone through those first initial three days, which are spread apart because you got to have time to absorb it, you’ve got to have time to to understand it and try it on. Then I meet with my clients once a quarter and and do a two day annual planning every year. And it just leaves them all of the time in the world to understand that the business has to keep going, to operate their business, to succeed in their business, but with a different structure and a, in most cases, a completely different type of accountability. Um, that’s that’s it in the nutshell.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Yeah. That’s amazing. Now, I heard you say I know people are already interested. They’re like, oh, I need to talk to Joshua because this sounds right up my alley. But I heard you say earlier that this isn’t necessarily meant for Are startups. So what type of client or you know, at what stage of business does iOS make the most sense for? And who do you find are your I’ll call them your best clients or your ideal clients for iOS.

Joshua Kornitsky: In a perfect world, iOS is is designed and built for organizations between 10 and 250 employees. I personally have clients with less than ten I don’t currently, but in the past have had clients above 250. But that’s the sweet spot. And in the idea behind it is a startup has uh. And I’ve been part of two startups. A startup has one thing in common. They all have is is too many hats and not enough heads. And in that instance, I will tell you that iOS could stop that brilliance from shining by imposing a rule set on a on a business that’s simply not mature yet. Um. With regards to anything that’s already struggling. While yes, iOS would help, we don’t typically want to talk to folks who are struggling because adding additional work into what is already a stressful situation is really unlikely to benefit them, because they’re in they’re in the staying alive mode. Um, so who we typically work with are clients that their business is doing well and they just can’t seem to break through to get to that next level. And they find the book traction because they’ve tried everything. And if you think about the entrepreneurial mindset, these are folks who solve their own problems. So they’re not accustomed to reaching for help. And when they finally have that moment where they go, you know, I’m going to have to reach for somebody, that’s when we can help them. Because if they’re not ready, and I’ll use the analogy that I use when I talk to people. If my lovely wife tells me, hey, you should lose a little weight, I’ll nod and acknowledge her. If my doctor says you really should use lose a little bit of weight, I’m going to pay attention, but I’m probably going to just nod my head.

Joshua Kornitsky: But when I go to put on my jeans and they’re a little tight, oh, crap, looks like I need to lose a little weight. That’s where we do the most effective work, because if someone or a leadership team or a leader doesn’t feel like change is the only thing that’s going to make the difference, there’s not any amount of anything I can say that’s going to change their universe until they’re ready to embrace it. And that’s the hardest part, because in that entrepreneurial mindset, I know it, I have it. Part of you feels like you’ve done something wrong if you need help. Yeah. And and I have very, very healthy clients that I, that I met that were already very healthy. And you still have to help them understand that, that if they are theoretically at $10 million and their goal is to get to $30 million in five years, the skills you need at 10 million are very different than the skills you need at 30 million. The personnel you need, the things that the business will require, all of those things you don’t necessarily have that ability to scale today. You can certainly plan for it. Yeah. And that’s just part of the natural growth that comes with every business. You can’t rush that. Uh, there’s a famous old technology book called, uh, The Mythical Man Month. And in that book from the 1960s talking about data processing on cards, they say that you you must work to overcome the common management belief that you can accelerate the baby by hiring nine pregnant women and be pregnant for one month only. It doesn’t work that way. There isn’t a shortcut. But. But there are best practices, and that’s what we can help them with.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that, okay, so I shouldn’t tell anyone that their pants are too tight. They have to experience it themselves. That’s what I’m getting.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s the analogy. But but speaking as someone who occasionally has that challenge, you do know when it when it’s the case and you know it’s it’s time. Yeah. Either that or you got to buy new pants and that’s not going to help your business grow.

Speaker4: No, that’s definitely not going to help your business grow.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. So I our time has flown by. And Joshua, I’ve got one last question for you before we wrap up. So for those business owners that are listening who do feel stuck, or maybe they know that their pants are too tight, uh, and they feel out of alignment with their teams. What’s one simple step that they can take today or tomorrow to start moving closer to the clarity and accountability Ability that iOS will provide.

Joshua Kornitsky: So it’s funny that you use the word clarity, and there was no discussion on this, um, built in to iOS at the leadership team level and ultimately through the business is this concept of a clarity break. Take a piece of paper and a pen or a pad and a pen. Put your phone down, put your laptop on, do not disturb and and said, start with an hour once a week and just set that time aside and don’t focus on anything other than what does your business need. And and just think about what does your business need. And from there, I suspect very strongly that you’ll fill up that pad. The good news is you’re everything that’s great in your business. You’re responsible for. You made that everything that’s a little off kilter. Well, sorry you made that, too. But by starting to just create that list of the things that your business needs. The next thing that you can do is prioritize that list. And once you’ve prioritized that list, you can begin to take incremental steps, just little things. You know, it’s everyone wants to to move the mountain in a day, so to say. Um, all you’ve got to do is, is 1% better than the last time you did it. And you can make that impact over time. So stop. I have a I have two daughters. My youngest daughter and I talk often about the concept of you. The only way to solve a big problem is, is you eat the elephant and bites. The only way to solve your big business problems. You’re not likely to have a massive revelation or a lottery win that’s going to change everything tomorrow. Perfectionism is the enemy of progress. Just take an incremental step and and reach for help. There are people that really and truly have a help first mentality and and want to help.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, just like you Joshua. That’s why we connected, right? You you have said so many things that would come straight out of my mouth. And I love the idea of 1% better or eat that elephant one bite at a time because we can’t swallow it whole. That’s just the bottom line. Okay. Thank you so much for being with us today. I have learned so much about you. You guys, if you want to connect with Joshua on email, I know his name is very long, but it’s J dot at EOS worldwide comm or Joshua. Give us that website where we can 6784147696.com.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I’m old school so I’m happy to actually talk on the phone too. But that’s the number you can call. Or you, you, you can go to the website and it’ll direct you to how to find me.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that yeah. You guys, Joshua and I, we are very much alike. So get on the phone with Joshua, have a conversation, learn more about what he’s doing, and if you feel like it’s the right fit, then just say yes. Joshua, thank you so much for being with me today.

Joshua Kornitsky: Trisha. Thank you so much for having me. It was an absolute joy.

Speaker4: Awesome.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today, guys. If you found value in this conversation that I had with Joshua today, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston business leader ready to grow. And as always, please follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. Today’s guest, Todd Howard. Oh, and by the way, he’s a friend of mine. We’ll talk about that founder of Grow a Niche Business. Todd has spent his career as a product and go to market strategist, launching a wide range of businesses, each built on finding something unique. Now, through growing niche business, he helps entrepreneurs and leaders cut through the noise, define their niche, and build companies that stand out and succeed. Todd’s work is all about showing why Niching isn’t just smart strategy, it’s the future of business. Todd, welcome to the show.

Todd Howard: Thank you very much, Trisha. This is going to be fun.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m so excited to have you on today. So tell us a little bit more about Todd.

Todd Howard: Yeah. I, um, uh, the intro that you read was great. I have spent most of my career trying to figure out what makes a business unique. Um, I’ve owned a construction company. I started coworking before coworking existed. I don’t mean to claim that I’m the only one that did it, obviously. Um. Uh, I retooled, uh, a format for men’s groups to try and get that up and running. I’ve always done these kind of quirky businesses on the margins, and the the work that I’ve done has either been successful or not based on one thing. Could I figure out what made my service unique, and could I find the specific market that that worked for? And to the extent that I could figure that out, sort of solve that puzzle, the business went really well to the extent that I couldn’t. The business didn’t do well. And so that has steered me in the direction of helping clients figure that thing out. What is unique about you? How do we harness that and then let that direct us to the market you need to be working with? Because in my opinion, that’s most of the battle. So anyway, that’s what brings me to, uh, what I’m doing right now with growth niche.

Trisha Stetzel: I love it. Okay, I want to ask you a silly question. Okay. Some people say niche. Some people say niche. What is it?

Todd Howard: That is not a silly question. I get asked that so often. The short answer is both are appropriate. In English, niche is preferred. So the original word comes from is French, so it is niche. However, the word originally originated in the 1700s. Okay. Well, English speakers who use the word did not say niche because there wasn’t a globalization of language yet people didn’t in the US, didn’t know the way people pronounced it in, uh, France. So the earliest English dictionary says you pronounce it niche. And it wasn’t until decades later that they said you can also pronounce it niche. So if you want to be a purist, say niche. But if you want to say what? No. What has the English language revolved around is niche. So there’s not a wrong answer. Is the is the sum of all that?

Trisha Stetzel: I’m so glad because you said niche. I said niche. I’m from Texas, so I used to say niche all the time. And it sounds really Texan. Yeah.

Todd Howard: So I sometimes I say niche if I just am feeling fancy and I kind of want to, you know, it just naturally happens. Both are fine.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, good. Well, I feel better about that. Thank goodness I haven’t been saying it wrong. I can choose whichever one. Pecan. Pecans. Tomato. Tomato. We’ll move on. Perfect. All right. Um, one of the reasons why I asked you to come on the show is because I agree with you. It’s not just your opinion that that we struggle with finding who it is that we serve. Uh, and you take it even a step further, and we’ll talk about that in a few minutes. Why do you think so many businesses struggle to figure out who it is that they serve, or figure out their niche?

Todd Howard: It is really hard. It’s I think that it’s stumped most everyone, and collectively we’ve let ourselves in the wrong direction. Uh, people are the. To answer your question really specifically, the reason it’s hard is because people are looking in the wrong place, and so they’re never going to find it. People believe that a niche is a market, and the reason they believe that is because when they wander up to a group of people that are talking about their niche, they’re describing a market. Someone will say, I work with manufacturing companies that make $5 million or more. I work with teachers. And when you hear people name a market as their answer for what is their niche, you begin to believe, well, they’ve chosen a market. And so I need to choose a market. And so people go about looking for a market that in their mind already exists and is the right fit for them. They will never achieve niche status with their business by doing that. And the reason comes back to what a niche really is. So I’m going to pivot for just a minute and answer the next question I know you would ask. What is a niche? If we’re going about it the wrong way. It means that we think it’s something it’s not. So what is it? Is a word that translated means to nest. It is the act of finding a safe place for your business.

Todd Howard: Literally think of the way a bird builds a nest, and that will give you the starting point of how you need to think about a niche. Now, in business terms, building a nest, what we would say is you find a defensible position in a market, right? We’re going for safety. That’s the whole point. So the way that you find a safe place for your business is you find a defensible position in a market. So you can’t find a defensible position in a market simply by choosing that market, because someone else can choose that same market. For example, I know you work with veterans, and so if you were to say my niche is veterans, I work with veterans. I’m a I’m a coach, I do this, that and the other work with veterans. That doesn’t prevent me from coming along and saying, well, I work with veterans, I do this, that, and the other. I have a product for veterans. And now veterans are confused. Well, okay, I got two people now saying they’re right for me. The point is, choosing a market does not give you a defensible position in that market. That’s what makes this whole thing so difficult, is that people are trying to achieve a defensible position in a market by choosing a market. And when other people choose the same market, they go, huh? I’m left with nothing.

Trisha Stetzel: Hmm. All right. So I’d like to take this just a little bit deeper. So I, I serve veterans who serve veterans. What is it, then that I would ask myself, or how do I take this just a little bit deeper so that I actually find my or get closer to my niche versus just the market.

Todd Howard: Right. That’s the right next question. So if you’re trying to achieve a defensible position, then the first thing I do with my clients is I say, okay, let’s switch out the word niche for defensible position. We’re going to find our niche. But for right now, the target that you’re looking for is a defensible position in a market. You want to give a market a reason to choose you over everyone else so that you can say, ha ha, everybody else that serves veterans, I have a defensible position in this market. So what is that thing that gives you that? And the answer to that question is a unique approach. That’s how you find your niche. Once you develop a unique approach, you let your unique approach lead you to a market, and it will give you a defensible position once you get there. So let’s take the example of veterans. Let’s say that I were to analyze your business and my business. And I figured out and we put veterans aside, say, yeah, let’s let’s come to market at the end. And I said, Trisha, what are the things that you do? What are the unique abilities that you bring, the unique approach or the unique route that you take and working with someone, the unique experience that they have? How is it different from the competition? Once I understand that, then I say, everybody else is going this way. But Trisha kind of goes this way, and I understand your approach and how it’s different from everyone else.

Todd Howard: Once I understand that, or in my case with my clients, once I help you develop that, then I go, okay, now that we know your unique approach, who gets the biggest benefit from your unique approach? It might be veterans, but it might be somebody else. It might be a larger market that includes veterans and others as well. So when you go looking for the market, when you try and leapfrog over figuring out your own unique approach and just land on a market and grab it like it’s a land grab, you miss because anybody else could claim that market. But when you back up and go, okay, I’m willing to work with whomever gets the biggest benefit. Let me figure out my unique approach and get a real crystal clear idea of that. Once you have that, you go, huh? I’m perfect for them. My approach fits their situation perfectly. So what I need to do is I need to go talk to that market, explain my approach. And they’re going to go, oh my God. Everybody else I’ve been I’ve been changing the way I do business to to, you know, fit the frameworks that people are bringing me. You, Trisha, have the you have an approach that perfectly fits where I am and they’re going to choose you. That’s when you accomplish a niche, when you find your unique approach.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. So, uh, a few things that are bubbling up for me. One, we have land crabs here and you’re not allowed to get rid of them. So I’m just saying and they keep digging holes in my yard. Um, I’m kidding about that. Not really. Um, as people are going through this process with you, Todd, I know that there are some listeners right now saying, well, I don’t even know what my own unique approach is. Is that something that you help your clients with?

Todd Howard: That is exclusively what I do. I help people develop their unique approach. I built a framework that they I walk through with them and we develop their unique approach. Once we have their unique approach, at the end of the process, we choose their market and it’s exciting to watch the light bulb go on when they realize they’re perfect for a subset of market. Absolutely perfect. But they never knew it because they were so busy looking for the most profitable market. They weren’t looking at the unique approach they brought to the table.

Trisha Stetzel: So I’m also thinking about people who want to serve everyone because they’re so afraid that they’re going to lose business if they niche down right, if they really focus in this one area. So how do you help your clients get past that fear of what about everyone else? I serve everyone, anyone? Someone.

Todd Howard: Yeah. There’s a there’s a couple of of logical questions I ask on the front end, and then I show them how they’re ideally suited for a different market on the back end. The questions on the front end I asked them, how many clients do you think you need to be successful? And if you are an advisor or consultant? Most advisors and consultants that I’ve spoken with aim for 1 to 3 times their highest annual annual salary in corporate. Depending on their price point, they can accomplish that with 5 to 20 clients per year. So you do the math. You may say, well, I need a little more than that. That’s okay. The point is, you need a small number of clients. The way that you’re profitable is you need to stop wasting time talking to the wrong clients, looking through the pile to find the ones that will say yes. So if your goal is profitability and you want to lower the cost associated with sales and marketing, it benefits you to figure out your unique approach and talk to the subset of the market that’s already looking for you. Once people do that math in their head, they realize, I don’t want to chase everybody. That’s exhausting. That’s a highly competitive, expensive approach to trying to find the people that are right for me. Then as we work together and I take them through my process, they begin to discover I have a lot of really great stuff to bring to the table. I am a specialist in areas that I did not realize. And as they build their approach and they see it, they can hold it in their hand and just look at it for a minute. They realize, man, this is really good for them or them. And they lean into that subset of the market that’s perfect for them. Once they see their unique approach and once they understand how this works, I never have to convince somebody to ignore everyone else and go talk to them.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. All right. You guys know why I like Todd right. This is why we’re friends. Because yeah we’re on the same page here. So I know that there are listeners who already want to reach out and connect with you. Todd what is the best way for folks to do that?

Todd Howard: The best way is to go to grow a niche.com. And there’s only one button on my website. Schedule a call. Schedule a call with me. It’s a free call. Uh, one of the things that I am willing to do for everyone is if you feel like you have a niche, and most people do, this isn’t a new concept. People have tried to think about their ICP and lean that direction. I’m perfectly fine having a conversation. You can describe your niche to me, and I’ll tell you honestly whether or not I think you’re there. And if you’re not, I’ll help you see what you can do to make some adjustments. Some people have a pretty unique way of doing things, but they’ve never thought about the competition the way they should. Some people have spent a lot of time thinking about the competition, but they’ve not created a unique approach for a subset of the market. So people are missing the mark. You know, one way or the other. And in a 30 minute call, I’m happy to help. Just shine a light on it and say, here’s where you are close or far from your niche. And here’s what I would recommend as a next step if they want to work with me after that, great. But at the very least they can get off the call and go, got it? I see the missing piece that was preventing me from landing on the answer that I wanted.

Trisha Stetzel: Did you guys hear that? Todd’s willing to have a 30 minute conversation with you about where you’re at in this process? It’s amazing. So grow a niche. Business.com is where it’s grown.

Todd Howard: Business.com I am currently changing that because it’s too long even for me. So by the time this airs, it’s growing. Niche.com I got that domain. I’m tired of saying the long sentence. Perfect.

Trisha Stetzel: I thought that’s what you said. Yes. Okay.

Todd Howard: Schedule a call. We’ll talk about it, and I’ll help you see where you may be missing it.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, so we’ve tackled all of the logical listeners. We’ve told them what it is that they need to go do. Now, I’ve got some other, uh, shiny object listeners, and they need stories. So can you give a couple of examples of businesses that have really nailed their niche so the listeners can get a picture of what it looks like in practice?

Todd Howard: Yes. I’m going to give you, uh, I can give you a dozen. I’ll try and limit it to three, I promise. Your listeners have heard of these people too. The first one is Simon Sinek. Everyone’s heard of Simon Sinek. Simon Sinek is a fantastic case study on what it is to have a unique approach. Simon Sinek is a leadership and development coach. If you go to his website, you will see somewhere on that page the words leadership and development, because that’s what he does. That’s the industry that he has has grabbed Ahold of. However, Simon doesn’t spend any time telling you about the industry he serves. He spends 100% of the time telling you about the unique approach he takes to serve the industry. Simon Sinek says that in his opinion, the way that you move people is through inspiration. It’s not carrot, it’s not stick, it’s inspiration. If you want people to follow your company, buy your products, follow you within your organization, inspire them. He’s been very open about that. As a result, companies that believe that there’s something inspirational about what they do want to work with Simon. They walk right past every leadership and development coach on the planet. They’re willing to pay ten times the price to work with Simon, because Simon has developed a unique approach that figures out what’s inspirational about you, brings it into the forefront of your strategy, and uses it as the guiding light for your company.

Todd Howard: I’ll give you another example. Uh, not quite as popular, but pretty popular. Jocko Willink. Jocko is a Navy Seal commander turned business coach. He’s written children’s books. He’s got a long list of businesses. But originally, after the military, he was also a leadership and development coach. Which is interesting because on the surface, you wouldn’t think Simon Sinek and Jocko are in the same category, but they exactly are. Leadership development coach. Same story. Jocko doesn’t spend any time talking about the industry he serves. He spends 100% of the time talking about the unique approach he takes to serve that industry. Jocko believes that to be a good leader, you have to have battlefield awareness, and he’s very articulate with his idea. He can explain what happens in a, in a, in a commander’s mind in the field. What’s lacking in the in the business world? And there are certain people that will line up and pay ten times the going rate to work with Jocko, because they believe in his approach. They believe his approach uniquely fits them. And so as a result, Jocko has a niche market.

Todd Howard: People that fit his approach. Simon has a niche market, people that fit his approach. And so if I were to take us back in time 30 years ago and say, do you think it’s possible as many leadership and development coaches that have come out of the 70s and 80s. Do you think it’s possible that two people could think up a niche in leadership and development right now, in the 2000? You’d say forget it. There’s thousands of leadership and development coaches. How is that possible? All the markets are taken. Simon creates a unique approach. Jocko creates a unique approach to this day. They are known by their unique approach, more than they’re known by their product. And I can go on and on. Criss Angel. Fantastic. In the in the world of magic Dave Ramsey. His ability to take financial advisory and go right into the conversations needed between partners to talk about their personal finances, be honest with each other. The baby steps, all of that. That’s an approach. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And you realize this is what you need to do to build a niche. You have to develop your own unique approach. And when you do, your market is obvious and the sales will come.

Trisha Stetzel: So we only have so much time and I could just sit here and listen to your stories all day. I’m like, yes, yes, yes, of course this all makes sense, but instead of telling more stories, I’d like to circle back around Todd to the service that you provide. So very clear that you help people identify this niche and then you help them with something else. So I would love to talk about the full service that you offer, even beyond helping people identify their niche. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Todd Howard: Yeah. Thank you. The first step is to find your niche. You need to understand your unique approach, the market that you serve. That’s a huge aha moment. And in the big scheme of things. That’s step one in working with me. The next step, and it’s a critical step, is that we need to build a product that delivers your unique approach to that market. It’s not enough to take let’s take somebody who’s a business coach. You can’t be a generic business coach with generic templates and generic, um, arguments and logics and all logic and all of that, and walk up to veterans and say, hey, veterans, I’m perfect for you. I’m the I’m the business coach you should hire. They’re going to say why your product looks like everybody else. Your marketing is niched, but your product is not. Hasn’t been adjusted for me. So what we have to do, the second part of my service is that we’re going to take your unique approach, and we’re going to build a product. And what I mean when I say product, I literally mean a service. Step one we do this. Step two we do this. Step three we do this. Here’s the outcome of step three. Here’s how long step three takes. All of those details can be built out prior to working with a client, so that when you meet a client, instead of saying, hire me, I’m going to make you money. We’re going to, you know, you’re going to like me.

Todd Howard: Instead, you say to the client, let me tell you what I’m going to do. I have designed a service specifically for people in this situation, and here’s the service I’ve built. First, we do this for this reason. Second, we do this for this reason. And and so on. When you get done with explaining your product, the customer has the evidence they need to say you’re the right fit for me. You’re hired. And I’ve seen it happen over and over again. When I work with my clients, I say, okay, finding your niche, that was for you, building the product. That’s for them. So those are the two steps we take. We’re going to find your niche. Then we’re going to build a product specifically for them. And when you get up and talk about what you do, which, by the way, is exactly what Simon does when he says find your why, that’s actually the first step in his service. When you talk about what you do and how you do it, and you describe the steps, people go, I want to take that journey, you’re hired. So to sum it up, those are the two things I do. I will help you find your niche by helping you develop a unique approach. And then together we will build your product. So you know exactly what you bring to the table and can explain it to people who are looking for a service like yours.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that, and to be clear, for those of you out there who have been in your business for quite a long time and have a lot of products and services, Todd is really good at helping you hone in on what parts of those products and services that you already have that you can put together Other for putting your unique approach out there, right? For specifically for your niche so you don’t have to go build something brand new. Don’t let that scare you. If you have a lot of content, uh, Todd can help you put that together in such a way that it speaks to your niche.

Todd Howard: Yeah, that’s exactly right. As many of my clients as not work with me to hone what they have. It’s not a dump. Everything and rewrite. It’s a. You’ve got something. Can we hone it down? Make the adjustments. We need to find the ICP you’re looking for. We go through the same process. But yes, we can tweak what you have if what you have is already built around your unique approach.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. Okay, so we’re at the end of our time. Todd, I’ve got one last thing that I would love for you to leave the audience with, and it’s really just bringing everything back full circle. So you’ve built and studied niche businesses, you’ve learned your lessons. Now you teach those lessons or you help others get there faster than you did on your own. If you can leave our listeners with one piece of advice about why Niching matters in their business not just for today, but for the future of their business. What would it be?

Todd Howard: The days of the coach as a collaborator are over and it’s because of AI. I have heard lots of stories about AI. I’ve did a deep dive to understand all of this. There are a lot of coaches and advisors that are fundamentally setting themselves up as an advisor. They have templates and frameworks and formats and advice and industry knowledge, and they want to come alongside a business and say, let me be a partner with you to help you think through things. If you want a really big reality check that I did for myself as well, go to cloud AI or any other AI tool. I’m not affiliated with that, it’s just one that I found Sound and have a collaborative conversation with AI and see how good AI is at bringing frameworks and formulas and advice to the table. So if you have been banking on a successful coaching or advisory business based on the idea that I’m going to collaborate and be a best practices vehicle or vessel to my clients, please hear that AI will replace that. The way that you get out of that trap is you develop a unique approach that takes someone from point A to point B, and when you go to a client and say, I’m not here to collaborate with you, although we’ll collaborate, I’m not just going to be a voice in your ear. I’m going to take you to this destination. We are going to get here together, and here are the steps we’re going to take to get there. When you do that, AI becomes a tool, not a threat. So I highly recommend if you are in the services industry, fundamentally advising clients, get out of the collaboration space. Develop a unique approach where you can take someone to a destination. That’s how you survive the future. Um, as it relates to AI.

Trisha Stetzel: Love this. Todd, it’s been such a pleasure to have you on today. Thank you for coming on and sharing such wisdom with me and the folks who are listening today.

Todd Howard: You’re welcome. Thank you very much for this chance. It was fun.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. You guys, Todd Howard, grow a niche business and where you can find him is grow a niche. It’s d g o w a n I c h com. As of when you’re listening to this. And you can also find him on LinkedIn, which is probably where I found him in the first place. Oh no. We were referred to each other through someone we know, which was even better, right? Uh, so you guys reach out to Todd with your questions, and again, he has offered to do a 30 minute session with you guys free of charge. So take advantage of that. Todd, again, thank you so much for being with me.

Todd Howard: You’re welcome. Thank you. Trisha, this was fun.

Trisha Stetzel: This is all the time we have for today. If you found value in the conversation that I had with Todd today, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston business leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate, and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.