Leveraging the Power of EOS for Revolutionize Your Kitchen Remodeling Business with the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) – Expert Advice from Certified EOS Authority, Lyn Askin

Hey guys, it’s Mike Goldstein here again with Crushing It with Kitchen remodeling podcast. And today, we are so lucky to have this one of the foremost experts in the ability to take your company and figure out how to systematize it, how to implement EOS so that you can become more profitable, more efficient, your team can communicate better. We’re gonna do all of that with Lyn Askin and we’re gonna do it in just a few moments. But before we do that, just want to remind you for those of you who are on youtube, for those of you who are seeing this stream on Facebook, like this podcast, share it. If you find value in it, we really appreciate that. Hit that bell on youtube. All right, we will be talking with Lyn just after this.  So we’re gonna bring him with us Lynn and we’re gonna talk to him and find out all about implementing EOS. I hope you’re excited. I show you, hey, Lynn, how the heck are you, Mike? I’m great. How are you? I’m doing fantastic. So, Lyn, I am so excited to have you on the podcast and we, we actually, we talked this up last week in last week’s podcast. We’re talking about how, you know, we’re gonna bring you on, we’re gonna talk to you and we’re gonna learn a little bit about implementing EOS and, and the ability to become more profitable, more systematized, just have the team be able to collaborate better. But, you know, before we get into all that and, you know, because I know who you are and I know a little bit about you, but if you could tell the audience and who are you, what is Lynn asking who are you? And how did you get involved in E Os? Uh Very cool. Um Well, my name’s Lynn Askin. I’m, I’m a lifelong entrepreneur. And digital marketer. Um I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life. I think I had a paper route when I was nine, uh launched one of the first online auctions in 0003 built an e-commerce store in 97 that we ran for 25 years. Um, but over the last, I guess, over the last 25 years, I, I’ve run a digital marketing agency that it’s similar to you. I’ve, I’ve, I’ve helped other businesses grow online. Um, but like, like anyone else and like most businesses, we have the same challenges and, and problems that other people had. Um, it’s kind of a lack of vision in our company about who we were and who we served. You know, we, we were a little bit to everyone. Um, we had some people on our team who maybe had one ft in the door and one ft out weren’t really fully committed to, to our mission because it wasn’t super clear and, uh, there was kind of a lack of accountability, um, across the board. We, we had people on our team who, who we liked very much but maybe weren’t getting the job done and, and maybe this guy up here wasn’t all holding a very good at holding everybody accountable. But, you know, despite all of that, we were still really successful. Um, but in 20 yeah, I, I guess that’s a pretty good story. Uh, but in, in 2020, uh, I actually collapsed in my yard. I, I suffered a massive pulmonary embolism. Um, and as I, I laid there kind of fighting for my life. Um, all I could think about was, what kind of mess did I leave my wife and son, you know, in my business, what, what, what were they going to have to go clean up for me? As I, as I laid there dying and, and I realized that my wife was going to have to go down to my office. She was going to have to fire all of our team. She was going to have to lose all of our clients and she was gonna have to lock the door behind me. And that would have been my legacy, Mike. That would have been, you know what they remembered me by and, and had I died that day, my business would have died with me. And so thank God I survived that. I mean, that I, I, that day I was given another chance and I, I don’t know exactly why yet, but, but I was, but I knew some things needed to change in my own business. Um And that’s when I found the US, that’s when I started to build systems and processes. Um I found E Os and over the last 2.5 years, we, we’ve had a remarkable transformation in our business. We, we three Xed our, our gross revenue, we seven Xed our profit and we grew from uh from 17 employees to 27. More importantly than that, um I was able to remove myself from the day to day operations of my business. Um You know, the, the days are long gone where I’m actually fulfilling the products and services that we deliver to our clients. Um I’m in, I’m the visionary now and I handle the big relationships and I, I lead the, the team culture and vision. But what I’ve done really is I built an asset for not only for my family but for my team and for my clients, um you know, they need us to be successful and we need to be around for them to be successful. That transformation for me, Mike was, was life changing and that’s why I’ve become really, really passionate about E OS and helping others uh transform their businesses the way that I transformed mine. That’s, that’s awesome. You know, and, and one of the things you, you know, you mentioned, which is so critical, I think to, to me in my business too is how, you know, you’re setting yourself, not just setting yourself up, but you’re setting up your team members and your people in your business that you can take care of them. So that profit, something happens to us as owners, you know, we, we employ, you know, dozens and dozens of people and, you know, we don’t want anything that we want them to be able to continue to flourish and getting in these processes in place. I think, you know, really does that. But, you know, with, with that in mind, let, let me ask you kind of looking at E OS like, how does E Os really help, say, you know, a home service, a kitchen remodeling company or a cabinet company prioritize its goals, ensure that, you know, everybody in the organization is aligned towards, you know, achieving the same thing. Well, he, he can help, you know, many companies, whether it’s, it’s Kitching modeling or, or home services or, or whatever. Um you know, works really well with companies, the employees employees by but, but it helps them by providing a framework, a framework for goal setting and execution and team. The first step of that really is to, to, to help you establish your vision as a company, you know, identify your core values, identify your purpose, identify your long term goals and then really help you break down your long term goals into smaller measurable objectives in E OS. We call those rocks and the rocks are really a, a 90 day priority that you guys have determined for you and your company. And then we assign those rocks to individuals on your team. We, we help your team progress towards those goals. We track those goals and we review them regularly um to assure that that you sort of have alignment in your company. Uh and throughout the organization, E OS really emphasizes the importance of regular communications and accountability. So this means things like weekly meetings where you guys review your progress, um You make sure that any issues or obstacles are addressed. Uh We, we, we encourage um open and honest communication between you and your team members, which really helps build trust and ensures that everybody’s working towards the same goals. That’s great. And when you talk about communication, I I imagine that E OS helps not just internally but also in terms of communicating with, you know, with the clients and with, with outside vendors and all of that too. I mean, how, how does that come into play? Well, and again, really, this is about, I guess this is really about being open and honest and accountable, right? It, it when you guys determine who you are by setting your clear vision and then you set goals and build a plan on how to get there, you’re also going to determine who it is that you work best with. So you’re going to set your to your core target. Now you’re gonna know exactly who the people are that you guys wanna work with. You’re gonna know what kind of companies you wanna work with. You’re gonna know the kind of people you wanna work with and you’re gonna wanna work with people that match your core values. And so once you do that and you guys are clearly aligned about who you are and where you’re going, it’s easy to communicate that message to not only your team but also to your clients that, that makes a lot of sense. Um You know, one of the things that I like to do when I, when I talk to people in my business is, you know, strategy or, you know, theory is all great, but I like to kind of bring in examples and, and specifically, like, you know, how this might help, you know, if we’re talking about, you know, S E O, you know, how we’re going to leverage S E O to build and, and have examples of someone who has used it to jump in the rakings to increase their revenue, whatnot. Can, can you think of an example of, of maybe a cab in a company or, or, or someone in construction or something where, you know, where they’ve used E OS um to really reduce cost to increase profitability and, and how it’s actually helped them do that. Well, I don’t have any specific examples of my own clients in, in those industries, but I, I can share, I can share with you a couple of things. One, I’ll share, I, I, I think I shared with you mine, we three our gross revenue, we seven our net profit and we grew from uh 903 people to 27. Um We did that really, really quickly and, and how we did that and how we would do that for you know, the anybody listening would, we would sit down and we would clarify your priorities. Number one, we use the framework of E OS to set clear priorities and goals. So you guys can focus on your most pro most important projects and initiatives. Honestly, this helps you reduce costs by avoiding waste and time on, on low resource or I don’t know, maybe low priority tasks or projects that don’t really align with your goals. Um Number two, we help you by improving your efficiency. We, what we really do in E OS is we emphasize the importance of creating clear processes and systems for getting the work done that you guys need to get done, getting the right work done the right way every time. So when we streamline your process, we we eliminate unnecessary steps. And when you guys eliminate unnecessary steps in remodeling, you’re reducing costs and improving your efficiency. And of course, you know, one of the biggest things we do is we help align your team because when everybody on your team is working towards the same goals and the same priorities, you guys are gonna reduce things like misunderstandings and mistakes that lead to increased costs. So when you provide clear expectations to your team and you clearly define their roles and responsibilities, what you’re doing really is you’re ensuring that everyone is aligned towards achieving your company vision and everyone knows clearly what their roles and responsibilities are. When you do those things, you’re gonna improve your customer satisfaction. So imagine using E OS to create a culture of accountability, a culture of transparency. You guys are improving your customer satisfaction and loyalty because you’re, you’re, you’re clearly communicating uh your vision. You guys are executing on that vision on a daily basis. And this is going to improve your customer retention. It’s going to improve your referral, uh your referral pipeline. It’s gonna ref uh improve your repeat business and that of course is gonna help your profitability in the long haul. So when we get all those things aligned, when we get your vision aligned, we get your people aligned. We’re using data and scorecards to actually have cool measurables and we’re measuring your actual progress. We’re gonna start shaking out issues in your company. We’re gonna give you a track to help you solve issues on a regular basis. We’re gonna make sure you guys have your systems and processes organized and then we’re gonna bring that vision all the way down to the ground and get traction. We’re gonna do that by, by putting you guys in like this 90 day world where you’re every 90 days, you’re working like heck you’re on your key priorities. 210 days from now, you come up for air, see how you did make sure you guys are still aligned, make sure everybody’s on the same track and then you’re gonna reset your priorities and do it again. So you know, imagine that in your company? Imagine if you had the all of those pieces working together, how that could work for you. So, while that’s not a very specific example other than my own, um I think you all can imagine what that would look like in your company and, and I has had to like reduce things to its simplistic form or, or as I’ve been told, I, I redneck ideas. Uh I don’t know if that’s a real thing, but what it sounds to me like what you’re talking about is really just setting priorities and making sure that everybody is kind of in line with those priorities. Um And I know part of, you know, E OS is obviously having, you know, having the meeting, having weekly meetings, having monthly meetings, whatnot and you have something, something called this, what is it a um a 2250, a 210 point meeting or what, what is that called? The level 210 meeting? Level 235. Yeah. So tell me what, what exactly is that? How does that work? Well, the, the often we have inefficiencies in, in our business. Um And so E OS really encourages regular meetings and this is a place where team members can identify, discuss and solve obstacles that are preventing you guys from, from working more efficiently. Um This can include issues with your processes, your system, your communication, your clients, all of those things. And so in our regular level 2000 meetings, um there’s a session called the I DS, which is identified, discuss and solve. And so this is one of the things that helps companies grow quickly is because you guys have a weekly meeting to discuss those obstacles that are preventing you from working more efficiently. That, that, that makes sense. And certainly, I think as you’re doing that and, you know, as you’re kind of coming together, it, it’s gonna allow you to, you know, to, to take care of what’s really most necessary and kind of, you know, kill off the uh the pieces that are stopping you from achieving those results. Um So uh let me kind of taking this a step further is like, how does E OS help a company identify and address the specific inefficiencies, the specific bottlenecks its operations? Like what, like how, how do you use it to really identify that beyond just kind of in general having a meeting and talking about like what uh is there special? Is there tools of the processes, is their strategy to really dial in that type of or where those bottlenecks are? Well, squashing in efficiencies is a, is a, is a entire process and the US has a bunch of different tools to help you do that. And one of them, the first thing I talked about was, was that level 903 meeting, this is where we have the regular meetings, you know, we get in, we discuss those obstacles that you guys are having and, and the problems that you’re facing. Um one of the other tools that we use is, is basically creating a process map. Um And the first, I guess the first step in really streamlining any process is kind of kind of mapping it out, mapping out the particular steps from that pro in that process from start to finish. This is gonna help you identify, you know, issues, redundancies, unnecessary steps in that process that can be eliminated. And then one of the other things that we help you do as a company is establish your clear roles and responsibilities. So the tool that we use to do that is we basically help you create your accountability chart. The accountability charts is gonna help you uh establish clear roles and responsibilities for every team member. The other thing that we do there is we help you clarify the expectations for each team member on who’s responsible for what in each step of your process. So one of the things that this does is it, it really reduces confusion and improves the accountability throughout your entire company. Top to bottom. Go ahead. So, so as you’re talking about this, I’m, you know, I’m thinking, you know, a lot of, a lot of people have, you know, the smaller teams, you know, maybe you get like, you know, you have the president, you get someone who does some sales, you got a bunch of guys in production um showing a lot of people with leadership skills, how do you determine like who is gonna be responsible, what role or, or you know, where that, how you divvy up or you create that leadership team that you’re talking about? Well, I think when the, the uh accountability chart exercise that we do with our clients really is about creating uh your leadership team. Um Every company uh you know, probably in this existence of man has three core functions, sales and marketing is where you guys go out and you sell the product. You, you offer the product for sale, right? You, you, you create products and services, that’s your sales and marketing department. Uh The next product obviously is, is operations. This is where you guys are out uh fulfilling those products and services that you sold. And then, and then, you know, you have uh a finance department where you guys manage the incoming outgoing money in your company. Maybe it’s maybe it’s acquisitions, maybe it’s payroll, maybe it’s, you know, just uh accounts receivable accounts payable. And that’s the typical kind of organization. Now, most organizations then have somebody that’s the integrator that makes all of the things happen in your company. This is the person that’s holding the team together, that’s holding people accountable, that’s making things work. And then in a lot of companies on top of that is your visionary. This is the kind of the 290,290 ft 230,000 ft view person, you know, this is the person that, you know, the one that brings 20 ideas to every meeting. So like, ok, we can do this, we can do this, we can do this but, but they’re not so great at having those tough conversations, right? Not so good with going down into the team and being tough on people necessarily. So maybe that’s maybe that’s the, the uh the integrators role. And so each company is really different. You might, you might break your sales and marketing into two different departments. It, it and it kind of depends on your leadership team. But what you want to really do here is you want to create the structure that you need for six months or 12 months down the road. So you’re gonna build this accountability chart, you’re gonna put the roles and responsibilities in it and then, and only then do you try and fit the right people in those seats? So when it comes, when it comes to talk to people in E US, we’re really talking about the right people in the right seats now, the right people are people that fit your core values. You know, those are people you like to be around, those are people that believe the same things you believe they’re the people that live the core values of the company on a day to day basis. Most of the time, not everybody lives, the core values every single day, all the time. You’re talking about most of the time is this person, the right person in your company now, the right seat person, that’s the person that can get the job done, that’s the person who’s good at their job. They’re just constantly excelling and they’re just doing that when you compare the right person, which is the person who lives your core values and put them in the right seat and give them an opportunity to be successful in a job that they love and they can, they, they both uh want it, they get it and they have capacity to do it. Then you have 100% strong in the people component of the OS. So two things come to mind, you’re talking about putting this team together. Um Number one is, you know, one of the things that the pandemic taught us is we don’t always have to be in the same place at the same time and that we can, we can go out, we hire the best people in the world to do the job that we, we need them to do. So, is it difficult to have put a leadership team together where maybe someone’s going to be in another state or even another country? That’s number one? And then number two is, do you always want to make sure that everybody who sits on this leadership team is actually a, an employee or is it be or is it better or is it even um acceptable to have outside of an implementer, maybe a third party similar to like, you know, what a board of directors would do when they bring people in from all different industries. And instead of the board to advise the company, I our leadership team, about 50% of the, our leadership team is not in the US. And so I, you know, COVID, COVID changed the world in, in so many ways, you know, we, we do almost everything over Zoom now. Um And people just didn’t need to come into the office anymore. We just got accustomed to, to handling our business remotely. And so, um we don’t have a big office anymore. We don’t have that overhead expense anymore, but we have a team of, you know, 20 plus people. Uh Our leadership team right now is five, but we have a leadership team that, that is located all over the country. A couple of us are here in Lafayette, Louisiana. We have team members on our leadership team over in Pakistan and other parts of the world. And so, you know what you said earlier was get the right people wherever they are and then put them in the right seat for, for sure. And what about, you know, bringing somebody, bringing someone to the leadership team who maybe isn’t an employee but is an advisor that is it important that the people who are on the leadership team are actually taking part in the day to day activities of the business in, in E OS, at least in E OS, people on the leadership team are responsible for leadership management, accountability. And so they typically will have a role in the company where they’re leading, they’re managing and they’re holding people below them accountable. Now, can an outside person do that? I imagine that’s true. But I believe you’re probably more efficient. If someone is really, really inside of your company lives your core values, first and foremost, and then believes in your plan and your vision and your mission. So, uh you know, whatever that means to each of you, uh Obviously, I think it’s important that this person is the right person in the right seat if they are great, you know, but I, I, in my estimation, I would believe that would be somebody that was in the business working on it on a day to day basis. Sure. Now, just to take this a step further in terms of someone from the outside world. Um One of the things Linda you do is you are, you are an outside influencer of E OS. Um So for somebody who’s listened to this and they’re kind of on the fence, you know, maybe I, you know, maybe I want to do E Os, maybe I don’t. Uh what are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen people make, who try to do it all on their own without the help of someone who can help them navigate E OS kind of from the Get Go E OS is, is a, is a system and it, and it can be difficult to follow if you don’t understand the reason you’re doing the things, you know, um, a lot of us do things because, you know, we’ve been told that’s what we do, but until you understand why you’re doing it, I, I think that makes it more complicated. We, we actually tried to self implement E OS in our company and, and kind of failed at it. We, we had, we weren’t really following the system, but the truth is we got better anyway, you know, we, we used pieces of the system and got better. It wasn’t until we hired the outside, you know, us implementer to come in and, and really guide us and really lead us and have my team hear some of these things from an outside party. You know, you, you know, as a, as a kid, you, you hear something from your parents. It’s like, oh, but you hear it from somebody outside and you’re like, oh yeah, that’s real. You know, it’s a little bit like that in a lot of ways. They, until the kid is 903 and they come back and said, you know, that thing you told me you were right. You were right. Yeah. It’s amazing how much smarter my parents got the older I got. So my, my favorite son I ever saw was driving in Boston on the, on the old expressway and there was this giant sign the Boston Globe said is read the Boston Globe. You’ll feel so smart, you’ll think you’re 16 again. I love that. I’ll never forget that. I love it. But um it just kind of getting back to, to E OS and implementation and setting it up. Um What are, what are some of the like kind of the, the key things that you wanna make sure if you do self implement, that you need to make sure that you follow one of the pitfalls when you are self implementing, that you have to avoid. Well, I think I, I think some of the pitfalls of self implementing are, are just simply not following the system as designed, you know. Um We, I’ll give you an example, we had our own little version of the E OS me of the E OS level 10 meeting. You know, we didn’t really follow it the way that it was that it was designed and as a system, um you know, the design is kind of perfect and we decided that it, you know, we were smarter, you know, uh what E Os gives you is really a framework for continuous improvement. This is, and if you follow E Os, what you’ll end up with is you’re gonna have an environment where your team members are really encouraged to speak up, to suggest ideas, to suggest ways to improve the processes and systems in your company. Um And when you do that, you know, what you’re really doing is you’re ensuring that your organization is always looking for ways to improve. So this gives you a framework for that continuous improvement. So if, yeah, I I was asked the other day, if, if I could only implement like one or two of the tools in E OS, that’s really difficult because you gotta make sure you start with the vision component. You know, you need your entire team to buy in. You need your entire team knowing where you guys are headed to over the next 10 years with a plan on how to get there and you need everybody paddle in the right direction. That’s one of the one of the keys to, to uh to E OS and, and to success in general, I think, um when you have team members that don’t really know where they are today and they certainly don’t know where they’re going tomorrow. You know, they will look to, they will look elsewhere for, for opportunity. But when they believe in your plan and when they believe in where you guys are headed, um and you believe that they, you can get them to believe that they actually have a career here and you can build that for them, you can have lifelong employees. And so, uh you know, pitfalls of self implementation are just not following the system like anything else. Um, you know, Michael Jordan has a coach, uh, Tiger Woods has a coach and whether or not they’re better at golf or basketball than those two gentlemen, respectively, they each count on somebody to help guide them and, and tell them where they are, you know, can make improvements and I think that’s probably a good representation of any US implementer. That, that makes a ton of sense. Um, so for those people who are thinking about A US and they’re not really sure if it’s right, what would be the kind of the, the one thing that you would look at, if, if someone says, what do I need to see in my company? Know that I’m ready to implement the US or, you know, is there, is there a size requirement? Is there a team require? Is there, is there something that you, you know that where the, the, the bell is claimed? He said, you know what, I’m ready? I, I think, uh you know, the guidelines of E OS are really 10 to 250 employees. Um Can you implement it with less than 10? We did, you know, I think we were at maybe 10 employees when we really, really started to get into E OS. Um I, you know, there, there is some financial requirements so you have to be a decent size company. It’s, it’s, it’s uh you know, to pay an outside professional to come in and help you that, you know, there is some expense involved but, you know, I’ve worked with companies, you know, doing as little as 35,000 a month in and month of recurring revenue and, and help those companies grow. And so if you, if you’re ready to, to really dial your business in, you know, start with the end in mind, have constant improvement, get the right people in the right seeds, build a company that you can, you know, build an asset. Have a, have the ability at some point to take yourself out of the day to day. It’s definitely something to look at. Uh, E Os is definitely something you should be looking at. And one of the things you can do, I mean, if you want, we can jump on a call and, and, and have a quick chat, um, just to, just to determine if this is sort of a good fit, but, but E Os starts with something called a 90 minute meeting and you have a 90 minute meeting with, with a professional Us implementer where we walk you through the entire system, start to finish. And then at the end you decide if this is a good fit for you and if it’s not, it’s not a problem, but you can certainly learn a lot about E Os by going through that 90 minute meeting. Um, certainly would recommend everybody read the Book Traction by Gino Wickman. Uh I think that’s the foundation of, of how to implement E OS. But there, there are other books that I think are more suited for the visionary uh books, like get a grip. That’s kind of the fable of E Os. Um Those are also great ways to start. This has been, this has been fantastic. I mean, this is, there’s a lot of great information that you’re sharing with us and I’m sure that my listeners have taken a ton ton out of this. Get a lot of value and I mean, you’ve just dropped some incredible knowledge bombs on us today. So let me ask you as you talked about, you are an E OS implementer. If somebody want to get a, get a hold of you, they want to find out a little bit more about E Os. How would they go about that? What would they do? Um I am, I am super easy to find. Um My name is Lynn Askin. It’s very, it’s pretty unique. Uh If you type Lynn Askin in Google, you’ll probably fall upon my linkedin or one of my other many online profiles. Um You can go to E OS worldwide dot com slash Lynn dash Askin. You can email me at Lynn dot askin at E OS worldwide dot com. There’s lots of ways that you can find me. That’s fantastic. Well, I wanna thank you for coming on the show. I mean, this, this was really informative, I think for the audience I’d say I actually pulled a lot out of this. Um, you know, we actually have not implemented the OS M I company and, and we’re absolutely looking into it and, you know, that’s how you and I start talking. So I, I think that a lot of people are gonna be in a similar situation um, for those of you who have, you know, who are thinking about it. I mean, Lynn is absolutely one of the best resources out there. So reach out to him, you know, see what he can do for you. Um But you know, with that said, you know, we’re coming up on the 30 minute mark. So I wanna thank everybody for listening today uh to the Crush Kitchen Marlin Podcast. If you found value in this, you know, please share this, please like the um you know, but, but for the rest of that I would say is, you know, thanks for listening. Uh We are gonna be back next week with a fantastic interview with a uh gentleman uh by the name of Josh Wheeler. And Josh is gonna be talking to us all about how to create Facebook audiences and how to really target that exact audience that you want for the kitchen, remodeling space for the cabinetry space. Um So for Lyn Askin for Mike Goldstein, I wanna thank everybody for listening. This was crushing with the Kitchen Remodeling Podcast. Look forward to seeing you next week. Bye-bye. Thanks Mike.

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