What if you only did magical things?

Over the last few months, I’ve been working 1 on 1 with half a dozen CEOs on offshore, no code, and systems.

These companies are doing 3 - 40mn per year and encompass a cross-section of industries - manufacturing, tech, home services, etc.

I’m having a ton of fun - and working with some really cool folks.

As I work across more and more industries, I’m finding lots of commonalities.

These businesses’ challenges aren’t all the same, but they rhyme.

I often find myself calling on only a handful of techniques over and over (across industries) to get these business owners some quick wins.

One of my favorite techniques is what I call the “enabler” model or the “Gordon Ramsey Model”.

The problem is as follows (this is the business owner talking)

At this point, I’m zoned out - I’ve heard this a hundred times, and it is almost always wrong. 

Allow me to give two examples that illustrate why:

A) When one fighter pilot deploys to a warzone, they deploy with dozens of “Enablers”

The enablers are guys who do things like maintain the weapon systems, provide operational support, and review intelligence. While certainly not easy, it is a hell of a lot easier to hire & train an enabler than it is to hire and train a fighter pilot.

B) When Gordon Ramsey runs a busy restaurant, he has a dozen prep cooks, sous chefs, and dishwashers to support his output.

Everything that isn’t magical is done by someone other than Gordon.

You’ll rarely (if ever) see him wash a pot, slice an onion, or boil a bowl of pasta. While certainly not easy, it is a hell of a lot easier to hire & train a prep cook than it is to hire and train another Gordon Ramsey.

Let’s apply this idea to an imaginary plumbing company CEO - who is stuck at $3,500,000 in revenue - because he can’t find enough plumbers.

While it’s true you can’t clone plumbers - or hire them globally, you can increase their efficiency.

My experience suggests there is a huge percentage of this tech’s day is occupied by “non-plumbing” tasks.

Things such as customer communication, ordering materials, and expense reports.

How much additional output could you get if you took all of this off of their plate?

While you will never use global talent to change a water heater - you WILL use it for everything else.

This same logic applies to:

• Executives and managers

• High-performance sales personnel

• Customer Service

• … and just about every hard to fill role in your company

One other sneaky benefit here.

You can “overpay” your hard-to-fill employees (plumbers, technicians, etc), and maintain the same blended cost of labor if you take your other company tasks and use global talent.

If you can pay 20% above market for plumbers, and find those savings in your customer support function - your plumber shortage will rapidly disappear!

Hope this is useful.

Jon

P.S. I currently have a full boat of coaching engagements, but if you want to get added to the waitlist or start a convo, drop me an email.