Dan Martell - December 31, 2018


How to Lead Your Startup Team Through Change

Topics
committing to the change
Hosted by
Dan Martell
Mentioned
Stephen Covey
How To Exchange Startup Equity For Services How To Deal With Too Many Leads in Your SaaS Business

Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

199.89

Word count

1,957

Sentence count

106

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I teach you how to lead change amongst your team, and how to make tough decisions, like pivots, price changes, or firing a ton of customers, to get the most out of your team.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 Hi, I'm Dan Martell, serial entrepreneur, investor and
00:00:02 creator of SaaS Academy and in this video I'm going to teach
00:00:05 you how to lead change amongst your team aka making tough
00:00:11 decisions, I mean we're talking pivots or price changes or
00:00:16 firing a ton of customers.
00:00:18 These are big changes.
00:00:20 Now be sure to stay at the end where I also share with you a
00:00:22 weekly sync format.
00:00:24 It's how I manage my teams today and have been for over a
00:00:27 a decade to get the most out of their productivity.
00:00:31 Specifically, once you've made your decision to change,
00:00:33 you're going to want to use this.
00:00:35 I'll teach you how to get that at the end.
00:00:49 So one of the big things that's going to come up when you
00:00:52 build your company as you're innovating, as you're pushing,
00:00:54 as you're growing to build this into a big,
00:00:57 meaningful entity is you're gonna have to disrupt yourself.
00:01:00 You're gonna have to change things.
00:01:02 You're gonna have to reevaluate the way you've done things
00:01:05 in the past to see if it's gonna serve you going forward.
00:01:07 And I gotta tell you, there are dozens of examples
00:01:10 in my own career building companies where this has come up.
00:01:13 Recently, just one of my coaching clients,
00:01:15 they were trying to go through a price change.
00:01:17 If you've ever thought about doubling, tripling,
00:01:21 quadrupling your prices and worrying that you're gonna
00:01:24 lose your customers, these are the kind of challenges that come
00:01:27 up that we need to kind of guide our teams through.
00:01:30 I know for me, I was building my company Clarity.
00:01:31 It was a marketplace for entrepreneurs to get advice
00:01:34 over the phone and before as a marketplace,
00:01:37 it was a utility, it was like a destination.
00:01:39 It was a software that people could use to kind of make
00:01:41 themselves available for creating a call list and that decision
00:01:45 to essentially shut down that part of the business and pivot
00:01:48 the whole thing into a marketplace was a tough one
00:01:50 because essentially, we had to get rid of 70%
00:01:54 of the seekers or people that thought they were experts 0.99
00:01:57 and make them seekers and we sent the email,
00:02:01 we timed it, we did all the things,
00:02:02 but it was still a big kick in the stomach
00:02:06 when it came to making the change.
00:02:07 It was a big, scary decision.
00:02:10 It turned out to be the best one.
00:02:11 We 4X our growth in the next three months
00:02:13 because of the clarity of focus on the product.
00:02:16 I even have one of my friends right now
00:02:17 struggling with essentially having to get rid
00:02:20 of 80% of their SKUs.
00:02:22 They sell a bunch of stuff that isn't profitable
00:02:25 but because they're worried about losing their customers,
00:02:27 they haven't made this decision.
00:02:29 It's been years and it continues to add complexity
00:02:31 into their operations and challenges.
00:02:34 These are the kind of challenges or frustrations
00:02:36 I'm gonna teach you how to overcome.
00:02:38 The change that needs to happen in your business.
00:02:41 It really comes down, for me, to these five key areas.
00:02:44 Number one, define the outcome.
00:02:47 Stephen Covey said it best, he says,
00:02:48 we need to begin with the end in mind.
00:02:50 For us to make big change in our business,
00:02:52 for us to disrupt ourself, when you look at companies
00:02:55 like Netflix and Apple, et cetera,
00:02:57 they're always asking themselves,
00:02:58 where is the market going and what are we doing today
00:03:01 that's just not gonna be relevant into the future?
00:03:03 Do we wanna wait for the market to push us to change
00:03:06 or are we gonna have enough courage today
00:03:08 to change it ourselves?
00:03:09 So knowing where we're going and getting your whole team
00:03:13 clear on that outcome, okay,
00:03:15 even if you're not excited about but the rest of the team
00:03:18 has hinted towards it, this is the decision we gotta make.
00:03:20 I think this will really be the most beneficial path.
00:03:23 Once you've gotten clear on the outcome,
00:03:25 you gotta define it, you gotta keep it as the true north star.
00:03:29 This is where people screw it up.
00:03:31 They start down the path but they forget why they're going
00:03:33 down there and then something might come up and you might
00:03:35 learn something new and then it gets,
00:03:37 the whole thing gets diverted.
00:03:38 You need to define the outcome.
00:03:40 As a business, where are you going?
00:03:41 Why is it important so that that being the outcome,
00:03:44 every decision is going to align with it.
00:03:46 So that's number one.
00:03:47 Number two is to sit down and discuss the challenges.
00:03:50 Your team has so much insights into their area of the business
00:03:55 that they could bring some knowledge and expertise around
00:03:58 what are the challenges going to be as you make this transition,
00:04:01 as you make this big change in your business.
00:04:04 And having them engage with that is how you're going to be able
00:04:07 to really fast track that or reduce the amount of missteps
00:04:11 you're going to have along that path.
00:04:12 So getting a clear list of challenges,
00:04:14 once you want to know where you're going,
00:04:16 clear list of things that you're going to have to overcome,
00:04:19 driven from the team, this is critical,
00:04:22 that it comes from the team,
00:04:23 is how you're going to build that action step
00:04:25 to move forward.
00:04:27 Number three, review the resources.
00:04:29 Once you know where you're going
00:04:30 and what things you need to overcome to get you there,
00:04:33 then you've got to ask yourselves,
00:04:34 what resources are we going to need
00:04:35 to make this change successful?
00:04:37 What capital are we going to need to reinvest?
00:04:40 Are we going to need some new software?
00:04:41 We're gonna need some new teammates.
00:04:43 Are people gonna need to be retrained?
00:04:46 There's so many things that I feel like founders or CEOs,
00:04:49 we just make decisions and we move on
00:04:50 and we don't ever ask ourselves,
00:04:52 to make this change, what are the resources
00:04:54 we're gonna require so that we don't find out
00:04:58 that we're understaffed, our teams maxed out,
00:05:01 or our customers are experiences suffering
00:05:04 because we didn't consider all the different challenges
00:05:09 that were gonna come up.
00:05:09 So understanding the resources, the funding, the capital.
00:05:12 The last thing you want to do is go down a path
00:05:14 and find out your cash flow is constrained
00:05:16 because you didn't realize how much money it was going to take
00:05:18 to invest in some new area of the business.
00:05:21 But understanding that, that's number three.
00:05:23 Review the challenges and the resources
00:05:25 required to get you there.
00:05:27 Number four, make it their mission.
00:05:30 So you have a team.
00:05:31 You're the founder, you're the CEO.
00:05:32 You're moving forward, you've set the outcome,
00:05:36 you've made the list, you look at the resources.
00:05:38 But now it's about making it the team's job
00:05:42 or sense of mission for them to carry it forward.
00:05:45 If you're the person always having to push and push and push,
00:05:49 it's just gonna be a never ending battle.
00:05:52 If you can make it the call to arms for your team
00:05:56 and said this is the vision we're going,
00:05:58 this is what needs to happen, if we do these things,
00:06:00 these great things will be unlocked for us
00:06:03 as an organization, as a team, right?
00:06:05 And you map their work to those outcomes,
00:06:07 That's how you can make it their mission.
00:06:10 That is the most critical part.
00:06:12 If you can't get buy-in from your team,
00:06:14 then you gotta take a step back and find out what's missing
00:06:17 because without their buy-in, you're gonna move forward
00:06:20 and you're gonna have people that sometimes,
00:06:22 not that they mean to, not that they're bad people,
00:06:24 but sabotage the progress.
00:06:26 They drag their feet.
00:06:27 They're not committed to it.
00:06:29 They're in meetings and they're bringing up
00:06:31 all these objections that you thought you've already
00:06:33 resolved in the past and they're still bringing them up.
00:06:35 So you gotta make sure that when the decision is made
00:06:37 and everything is clear and the resources are allocated
00:06:39 that you make it their mission to move forward
00:06:41 and get this change done.
00:06:42 Number five, commit to the change.
00:06:45 Once the decision's made, it's all about committing.
00:06:48 I think too many people are interested in change.
00:06:50 I think they're interested in outcomes,
00:06:52 but they're not freaking committed.
00:06:53 I'm talking about making a cadence on a weekly basis, okay?
00:06:58 And that's why the weekly sync is such a powerful training.
00:07:00 It's maybe it's a daily huddle.
00:07:02 Maybe it's a buy daily sit down with key folks in your team.
00:07:06 Maybe it's product or sales or marketing or whatever areas of
00:07:09 your business are gonna be most impacted by this change.
00:07:12 Making sure that as you start that process the frequency of
00:07:16 conversation is heightened so that you have that feedback loop
00:07:20 early so that you can resolve things to build that momentum
00:07:23 to make sure that people understand this is not an area
00:07:26 of interest for us.
00:07:27 We are committed to going through this change and we're
00:07:29 gonna make this, again, it could be cutting skews,
00:07:32 letting divisions of the business go.
00:07:34 it could be price changes, it could be raising capital,
00:07:38 it could be redesigning and pivoting the whole business.
00:07:41 But once it's a decision, you need to drive it forward
00:07:44 with a level of commitment that is maniacal so your team knows
00:07:48 that this is not something we're gonna pull back for.
00:07:50 We're going way, we're burning the bridges,
00:07:53 we're taking the beach ahead and we're gonna make this happen.
00:07:56 And that's the level of commitment that's required
00:07:57 to really drive change in your company.
00:08:00 So to really lead change in your organization
00:08:02 around these big decisions, you gotta focus on
00:08:04 these five key phases.
00:08:06 Number one, you have to define the outcome.
00:08:08 Begin with the end in mind.
00:08:09 Number two, discuss the challenges as a group openly.
00:08:13 What could go wrong?
00:08:14 Number three, review resources.
00:08:17 What capital, what team, what technology do we need to make
00:08:21 sure that we make this transition?
00:08:22 Four, make it their mission.
00:08:24 Make it so that the team adopts this call to arms,
00:08:28 this charge, this focus.
00:08:30 It's them that wants the change.
00:08:32 And number five, you need to commit to the change through
00:08:34 the frequency of conversation with different team members.
00:08:37 Higher frequency in the beginning to really build the momentum.
00:08:42 So as I mentioned at the beginning of this video,
00:08:43 I want to share an incredible resource to really help you not
00:08:46 only get your team performing but if you're making a change to
00:08:49 make sure you're measuring the right outcomes and that is
00:08:52 called the Weekly Sync.
00:08:53 You can click the link below to download your copy of the format
00:08:58 that I use every week.
00:08:59 we use this structure to go through as a team to make sure
00:09:02 everybody's on the same page,
00:09:04 everybody's driving forward the key metrics.
00:09:06 Be sure to check out the scorecard section
00:09:08 and the ROC review to really help you get clear
00:09:11 on what every person in the business is driving for.
00:09:15 And I also like the customer headlines.
00:09:16 That's just one of my favorite parts
00:09:17 where we actually open up the meeting
00:09:19 so people can kind of provide some customer wins
00:09:24 so that everybody else in the company are made aware.
00:09:26 So you can click the link below, download your copy.
00:09:28 If you like this video, smash that like button.
00:09:31 Be sure to subscribe to my channel.
00:09:32 If there's anybody that you care about that you think this
00:09:35 video could serve, feel free to share it with them.
00:09:37 And as per usual, I want to challenge you to live a bigger
00:09:39 life and a bigger business and I'll see you next Monday.
00:09:44 Ready?
00:09:45 Three, two, one.