December 28, 2025 • 29 mins
Todd Westra is a leadership alignment expert, founder of the Growth and Scaling Podcast, and creator of the Growth Readiness Framework. Renowned for guiding CEOs, COOs, and CFOs to align strategy and execution, Todd helps mid-sized organizations unlock smarter, sustainable growth. With a deep understanding of leadership dynamics and operational challenges, Todd partners with firms at inflection points, unraveling misalignment and cultivating clarity. His process-driven approach empowers teams, clarifies decision-making, and transforms companies from stagnation to forward momentum enabling leaders and their organizations to reach ambitious new milestones.
In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Todd Westra joins Robert Plank to uncover the crucial role of leadership alignment in business growth and scaling. Todd shares actionable insights from his journey as a founder, consultant, and podcast host, illustrating how divergent leadership visions can quietly stall progress even in successful, well-funded teams. He describes his signature alignment exercises and deep-dive assessments, revealing how honest conversations, data-driven strategies, and a willingness to detach from old patterns can create breakthrough results. Through lively discussion and memorable stories, Todd demonstrates how to move a company from launch mode through realignment, toward true operational excellence. Listeners will learn why self-awareness, role clarity, and robust feedback loops are essential for building sustainable growth, strong exits, and lasting team harmony.
Quotes:
"Most growth is stifled not because they have a bad idea, not because they don't have market fit, but because the leadership is not aligned on which path they're going down."
"If you want to be market leaders, if you want a strong exit, you've got to align, and then it works out better for everybody."
"No success can compensate for failure in the home."
Resources:
Connect with Todd Westra on LinkedIn
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Robert Plank (00:01):
What if your company's biggest growth
roadblock is not your product,but it is your leadership team?
Well, Todd Westra is herebecause he helps CEOs, coos and
CFOs align strategy andexecution to scale smarter. He
is the host of the growth andscaling podcast, and he is the
(00:23):
creator of the growth readinessframework. And Mr. Todd Westra
has helped hundreds of execsprep for 100 million plus
growth. And we're here to talkabout it. It's the marketer of
the day podcast with Robertplank. We're brought to you by D
FY podcast.com where you canfocus on high level interviews
while we handle the rest. Andwhat we are handling today is to
(00:47):
talk to some of these companiesthat they think they're ready to
scale, but perhaps they aren't,and you need help from Mr. Todd
and his scaling help and to getto growth readiness and just to
talk about it, the problems andthe solutions that are in front
of us. So, Mr. Todd, fellowpodcaster, how the heck are you?
Todd Westra (01:06):
I am so good, and it's a pleasure to be on the
market of the day podcast,
Robert Plank (01:11):
yeah, and it's like, I don't know if you come
across this, but do you ever seelike a name on your calendar,
and you're like, that name likefits in with who, who I see have
already and I was like, do Ialready know him? Did I already
have him as a podcast? Because,like, just that the name Todd
Wester, I did a double take. Iwas like, it just, it feels like
a name that, like, matches myother podcast guest names for
(01:34):
some reason.
Todd Westra (01:35):
Oh, well, thank you. I mean, it's definitely not
a common name. It's from areally small part of North
Holland, and it wasn't part ofthe Netherlands, but it was
like, literally, a Netherlandnation in and of itself. And so
the name is very, not veryuncommon, even in Holland. And
so once you hear it, once youreally don't ever meet very many
(01:56):
more,
Robert Plank (01:57):
well, that's good domain name availability for
you, right?
Todd Westra (02:00):
It works out really well.
Robert Plank (02:05):
So, well, very nice, and so, as far as us
knowing about what Mr. ToddWester is all about, what is the
solution you provide? Who do youhelp?
Todd Westra (02:15):
Yeah, so honestly, you know, keeping it a little
bit aligned with marketing. Youknow, I since covid, one of my
businesses, my primary business,at the time, got completely
wiped out and and I didn't knowwhat to do next. I was doing a
lot of like leadershipconsulting with Google and
Google teams and executive teamsout there. And within a week, I
(02:38):
lost an entire year's worth ofcontracts, and I didn't know
what to do, so I started a showcalled the growth and scaling
podcast at the time, is calledthe leadership and business
podcast, but it evolved and andwhat I learned was I interviewed
a huge chunk of business leadersat 250 interviews in 13 weeks,
And it was phenomenal. I didn'tknow how good that would be for
(03:03):
me, and I really feel selfish,because it felt like a very self
serving therapy session, whereevery day I was talking with
multiple business owners,talking about the key decisions
they made for growth and thebiggest challenge they faced in
trying to grow and scale theirbusiness. And I was like, there
are some things here. There aresome things going on and and it
(03:26):
was really interesting, becauseI have always been a pretty
private entrepreneur, meaning Igrew and scaled my own
companies, but I didn't reallypay a lot of attention to what
other people were doing, becauseit didn't matter. I just was
focused on my business, mygrowth, my company, my team, my
clients, right? And so as Istarted interviewing other
people, I discovered that thereare things that are consistent
(03:49):
and there are challenges thatare consistent with people's
inability to grow theirbusiness. And I say, I talked to
a lot of people that have, thathave launched businesses, and I
say, look, it's easy to well,it's not easy to launch, but
it's easier to launch with ateam because the entire team is
really dedicated to let's golaunch. We're going to make some
(04:12):
money. We're going to make thisthing work. It's going to be so
exciting, and everyone's kind ofon the same page. But then once
they've launched, you get oneguy who's like, Dude, we're
gonna go raise a bunch of moneyand we're gonna buy all our
competitors. We're gonna be themarket leader, blah, blah, blah,
blah. And then you get anotherguy who's like, Hey, we're gonna
go sell the business. We'regonna we're gonna three years
tops, we're gonna flip thisthing, and we're all gonna be
(04:33):
millionaires. Then the nextguy's like, you know what, this
is fantastic. I love thisbusiness. It's a great
lifestyle. I want my kids towork here, and I think until the
day I die, I'm going to do thisbusiness. And they're all
business partners, and all threeof those personalities look at
each other and they're like,Dude, we're awesome. Look at us.
And in their heads, they're allgoing different directions. And
(04:55):
every single one of thosescenarios that I just mentioned
are three different growthstrategies. And so to get going,
what I learned from hundreds ofinterviews now has been that
most growth is stifled notbecause they have a bad idea,
not because they don't havemarket fit, but because the
leadership is not aligned onwhich path they're going down.
(05:18):
And so they're literally allthree secretly going different
directions, limiting theirgrowth. And a lot of companies
get stuck with 5 million or lessin revenue, making great money,
but not becoming market leaders,not exiting at the price they
want to, and not realizing thatthat length of growth they were
hoping to achieve.
Robert Plank (05:39):
Man, that's huge, and you're quite the podcaster,
the storyteller. And I candefinitely see how there's that
honeymoon phase at first where,like, there's these three
diverging paths. And of course,it's great at first, but then
when the the s hits the fan andactually have to get to a goal,
you have to get somewhere ifthey're all pulling it apart,
(05:59):
then you stay stuck where you'reat, and it's like, Man, I can, I
can only imagine, I mean, you'regiving me flashbacks to, like,
this moment and that moment. AndI can only imagine if someone is
saying, like, Well, hey, that'swhy I'm stuck, or that's why
that business kind of didn't gothat way, or there was this
lying or duplicity or aconflict, or it just didn't work
out because of the, just thelack of and like that word
(06:22):
alignment, man, that's such achat GPT output, and it's such a
thing that sometimes women saythat to me, sometimes about
alignment, like, what does thatmean? But the way that you put
it, from my simple man brain,I'm like, okay, alignment now it
actually has a meaning for me.And so when you jump in and
there's this lack of alignment,so to speak, in the kind of
(06:45):
secret secretly, even you saidgoing in different directions,
like, how do you begin to tacklethat problem?
Todd Westra (06:51):
Oh my gosh, for me, it's fun. For them, it's
uncomfortable. And so weactually have an alignment
exercise that we bring ourclients through that literally
our first four or five weeks ofour engagement is literally
determining how to have theawkward conversation, because we
(07:11):
interview their core leadershipteam and we identify
individually, what theirintentions are, what they see as
The growth strategy, what theysee as an exit strategy, what
they see as limiters of theirgrowth right now, and what they
would do to enhance, you know,execute on the vision they see
(07:33):
and And inevitably, during thosefew weeks we we do an in depth,
deep dive into their industry,who are the market leaders, who
are their biggest threecompetitors, and why are they
growing better than they are?You know, what lessons could
they learn? Why are they why arethese three people on different
paths? And when we do that, andthen we sit down in a room with
(07:56):
all four of us, or sometimesfive or six, but usually there's
three or four of them, and thenourself, we go in and facilitate
this awkward conversation of andwe don't point fingers, but
we're like, Okay, guys, here'swhat's happening outside, here's
what's happening inside. Andthen we take each of those
things, and we need to convergeand and get the crap out of this
(08:20):
stuck position we're in, andthen it gets really awkward. And
typically, the majorityshareholder of the company has a
very strong opinion. Andinevitably, when they all come
out of this conversation wherethere might be tears and there
might be some hurt feelings, butalign on where they're going, it
is exciting. It is thrilling. Itis like, super awkward to super
(08:46):
align and just ready for growthlike it literally changes the
trajectory of a lot of thesecompanies that are stuck in that
at three to sometimes up to 10million. They're just stuck.
They just are going all over theplace. And nothing wrong with
that. But if you want to bemarket leaders, if you want a
strong exit, you got to align,and then it works out better for
(09:08):
everybody.
Robert Plank (09:10):
It almost sounded at first like a police
interrogation, like if twopeople, if they're in the same
room, you're like, Well, can youget to the truth? But you
separate them, and you kind ofhave the this kind of less small
like you had, the smaller inscope conversation you kind of
and then re merge forward of thetruth.
Todd Westra (09:30):
They feel safe because they don't feel like
they are worried about hurtingthat person's feelings. Because
we keep it all confidential andand when we keep it
confidential, it it, it.Truthfully, most founders are
very passionate. They're veryexcited. But the reality is is
oftentimes founders are thehardest ones to adapt to. Hey,
(09:52):
we really got this thing I'vebeen focusing on, but look at
what's happening over here.We're actually way more
profitable on this thing. I'mnot even thinking about, and
they don't even recognize itbecause their heart is here, but
the business is already evolvingover here, and they don't even
see it. And so when they see it,and they can say, Oh, crap, I
(10:13):
didn't realize we had 20% moremargin there than we do here.
Maybe we should go over there,you know? And it turns into a
really fun conversation,
Robert Plank (10:22):
and it seems like a different kind of alignment,
like I'm telling you, like Iused up until three minutes ago
when I heard that word, I wouldshut down. I would hate it. But
like, the picture that you painthere, there's, like, the logic
in the emotion. And sometimes,if, yeah, the logics over here,
the emotions over here, and yousay, Well, hey, I'm kind of
ignoring or I'm ignorant of whatwe should be doing or what could
(10:45):
be growing us. What makes moneyand I'm doing over here, what's
fun? It's like a recipe forsabotage. And it's like, well,
if you kind of re configured allthat, and you said, Well, hey,
let's get on the same page andsay, yeah, hey, that if we grew
this, then we could have thatkind of emotional, fun
satisfaction, and you wouldn'thave to be living in two worlds.
(11:05):
So I'm really curious aboutabout, like, what this looks
like, right? Because here we aretalking in, like, abstract
theory. But then, as we've beensaying, podcasting stories the
adventure, that's what it's allabout. And so as far as, like,
some of these companies thatyou, like, sat down with and
help. Do you have a cool storyin that department to share?
Todd Westra (11:24):
Yeah, I'll tell you one I'm experiencing right now
as we speak. You know, it's,it's an interesting one, because
it's a, it's a businessincubator and and they've been
around for about two years justgoing on. Man, almost two years.
They have a $10 million fund.They've got an amazing array of,
(11:44):
I think, just about 200companies that are in launching
in this business incubator.They've got a, probably about a
200,000 square foot buildingthat they purchased, and have
office space. It's a co workingenvironment. They have trainers
coming in all this really,really, really cool operation.
(12:09):
Now imagine for a second theleadership team. There is a very
experienced, very well exitedentrepreneur at the head, and he
is inspired. He is inspiring. Heis passionate about small
business, small business growth.He's an adjunct professor at the
university nearby, and teachesfor free entrepreneurship like a
(12:33):
more visionary man You can'timagine, right? But inside of
the inner workings of thisorganization, there's some
misalignment. There are somepeople who are who are doing
things in a way that aren'taligned with his vision, and
it's causing a little bit offriction. And so I was recently
brought in, just a few weeksago, to come in and help realign
(12:57):
leadership team, the focus, themission, the drive of this, of
this operation. How profitabledo we want this fund to be? How
many more funds do we want toraise money for? Are we only
seed, or are we doing a littlebit of follow up, you know,
follow on investing and all thelittle things right that that
could be part of thisenvironment that typically cause
(13:19):
these types of operations tofail, we are now experiencing a
whole new set of inspiration andrevelation on where we can take
this, this, this for funproject, and turn it into
something that will impactmultiple, hundreds of small
businesses and their ability togrow and scale and launch. And
(13:41):
so it's interesting, becausehere's an environment with
launch all around the fund is inlaunch mode, the the the co
working space is in launch mode,but they've launched, and now
it's this realignment stage, andI share this, hopefully without
offending anybody. But it's beenmagical to see that, just like
(14:06):
any other business, a year ortwo down the path, the pathway,
it's like everybody's aligned inthe launch. It's now launched.
It's now kind of operating, andyet, now the misalignment starts
to appear. Well, I want to dothis. Well, I think it should do
this. Well, I think it should dothis and and now we're in this,
(14:26):
this beautiful, I truly thinkit's beautiful alignment stage
where everyone's like, Oh, thatprobably is the better path we
should go, oh, that does makesense. Oh, our investors would
like this level of transparency.Maybe we should change our
reporting process. Oh, you know,and it is kind of now evolving
(14:46):
to the point where we have 250mentors in the waiting who want
to help these small businesses.We've got founders who are not
they're missing each other.They're not wanting to bug them
because they're worried. Aboutbugging them. We're setting
expectations, we're settingroles, we're setting
responsibilities. And it's justa beautiful thing, like
(15:07):
honestly, it's it's a very funexample of what's happening
right now in this operation, andhow we're seeing that growth
affect not only the incubatorand the fund, but also every
business in the incubator is nowwatching this process of
evolution from launch into,let's grow this thing.
Robert Plank (15:28):
Very nice. It almost feels like long term
dating or marriage, wherethere's the but, like, with
multiple people involved, right?With like, the different ages,
and then with the like, well,and there's always like, when
you have like, you know, likepartners or people on your team,
there's always that kind ofpsyching yourself out of like,
so I want someone more like me,or someone who's more on the
extreme, and you're saying like,well, what's more important is
(15:49):
to have that common goal thatyou're all working towards. That
way you can get that all figuredout. And then that way, when as
your company grows, you know whois not a fit and who is a fit,
who to reject, and who toattract? And it becomes like a,
like a feedback cycle, similarto you had your your podcast
here, you figured out thecommonalities, the kind of Think
(16:10):
and Grow Rich, like, what areall the things that totally were
in common that worked, and thenthat became the company, and
then that became how youattract, you more people. And
it's, it's wonderful andbeautiful to think about, as far
as the people involved. But I'msure that it's not all easy,
right? I'm sure there's allkinds of drama and hiccups,
super sharing some of that.Where does it go wrong?
Todd Westra (16:32):
Super awkward, super emotional. You do find
that that most successfulfounders are the ones who can
detach and remove their emotionfrom what's logically happening,
and those that cannot standthat, and they're very
emotionally driven, they end upgetting stuck, or they fail. And
(16:55):
it's it's having the rightreporting mechanisms to see what
is logically working versus whatyou hope is working. And so
those two things need tocollide. And I think that most
small businesses, especially,there's a lot of love for the
founder because they're soenergized, they're so motivated,
(17:16):
they're so exciting and and youjust want to believe that their
passion is telling you the rightthing, but when it comes right
down to it, when the reportingis looked at and the stats are,
you know, if you have stats tolook at, you see, actually, this
path is working way better thanour initial launch trajectory.
Let's, let's maybe change gearsa little bit and see what
(17:39):
happens when we lean into thatinstead of this, and that is
perfect pivot, in my mind,
Robert Plank (17:46):
very nice. So better reporting and that idea
of detaching, it's not sayingdon't have emotions, but perhaps
there is, at the moment, toomuch emotions and not enough
data. And when you detach, thatyou can kind of, there's blind
spots, right? You you can seewhat the the actions can take
and what success really lookslike. And so this is a
(18:06):
fascinating conversation, but Ihave to admit, I know almost
nothing about startups andincubators and that whole world,
but you're the expert here. Soin this conversation we're
having, what's the missingquestion? What should I be
asking you? I just don't knowwhat to ask you.
Todd Westra (18:22):
You know, I would say probably the thing to ask
is, oftentimes people inlaunching business mode feel
like they need to bring in thatone guy. They need to bring in
that, that one person who'sgoing to make all the
difference. While that ispartially true, it's almost more
important to understand thateven bringing in the right
(18:45):
person, if there's not clarityon what you want them to do and
how you want them to plug in, itnever works out, and so they end
up feeling frustrated. You know,in the past year, I've probably
talked to 200 differentfractional leaders, mostly
fractional CMOS, because I lovemarketing, and I network with a
(19:06):
lot of marketers, but alsofractional CFOs, they come to me
and they're like, Todd, Ah, Iunderstand what you're talking
about, because I went in to takethis contract with this company,
and I spend the first threemonths trying to figure out what
They actually want me to do, youknow, and so, so alignment is
the key foundation. Once that'sin play, you can bring someone
(19:28):
in who has a really unique giftand special need, you know,
special talent, and you knowexactly how to plug them in, and
they know how to be plugged in,and they're feeling like the
world is, is there opportunity?Now, instead of okay, this guy's
telling me this, this guy'stelling me that I don't know
which thing to do, and they getparalyzed, right? So, so that's
(19:49):
the question is, like, it's notas much about who you don't
hire, it's who you don't fire,and it's not having clarity on
what to. Do with the people thatI think I need. That's it. And
it seems like
Robert Plank (20:05):
setting expectations is huge as CDs as
it is. And you wonder, well, isthis going to limit me? It was
just setting a bunch of rules,and you're saying, No, it's the
opposite, because if there's notenough of that documented
written down, then you have thepulling apart, and then the
parental assistance. And so Ican see how it makes it makes
sense from a guy like you, fromthe outside looking in, because
(20:28):
you seen this, you eat, breatheand sleep this stuff. But if
someone says, Hey, I'm one ofthese struggling startups
companies, and I need Mr. Todd'swisdom, because he sees problems
even I don't see. How doessomeone know if they're a good
fit to reach out to you? And ifthey are, where do
Unknown (20:45):
they go? The easiest way is, we have a free
assessment on our website calledgrowth readiness. Literally, is
growth readiness.com? Are yougrowth ready? I tease people a
lot because I'm a part of a lotof mastermind groups, and I'm
like, Okay, let's just pretendtoday you had all the funding
you needed to do that magicalshift in your company. Are you
(21:07):
ready for that funding? Like ifI gave it all to you today,
let's say it's $10 million let'ssay it's $50 million let's say
let's say it's $100,000 if Igave it to you today, would you
really know how to deploy it?And so we look at it in 12
growth signals, and we allowpeople to take a free assessment
at growth readiness.com, toidentify where they stand in
(21:32):
these 12 areas of growthreadiness. And they're very
common sensical, but they'revery telling, because what I
found is that of the I honestlyhave only had about 70 different
leaders take the assessment sofar. It's fairly young. But the
trends that I'm seeing is this,when people honestly answer
(21:54):
these responses, they understandthat there's maybe three or four
growth readiness signals thatthey're super strong. They're
gifted in these areas. Theyunderstand finance, or they
understand marketing, or theyunderstand their client avatar,
but they're horrible at the atthree others, and then they can
kind of muscle their way throughfive or six others and between
(22:15):
the 12 things, if you reallyunderstand the three or four
that you're weakest at, that'swhere you need to hire. That's
where you need to build aposition for someone to come in
and handle those things thatyou've just been ignoring.
Because it's easy to ignore thestuff you're not good at and
dive into the stuff you're goodat, which is good. You should do
that, but plug someone in, putthem in the right spot, and make
(22:38):
sure that you're at least awareof where you stand on these 12
growth readiness signals, andwhen you do that's when you know
when to engage with us, becausewe come and build the alignment.
We help build the strategy withyour team. We align the team
along with the leadership'sgoals, and then we deploy a vast
(22:59):
network of fractionals who knowhow to plug in to the
environment that we just spentsix months understanding. And so
it's a really, really beautifulthing.
Robert Plank (23:08):
Yeah, it sounds like this seems very powerful,
and it's like you've been,you've been asking the hard
questions, even, as you say,when you jump into a company and
you know, you get anunderstanding. It's like you ask
these questions to figure outthe weaknesses, to figure out
what the change should be, andwho to hire, and you know how to
beef it up. And so it's it canhave this, this path forward, if
(23:31):
we have the help of someone likeyou, and the place to go is
growth readiness.com. Growthreadiness transforms midsize
firms from a complacent driftingto powerful ascension through
their proven three step journey,which is alignment, engagement
and partnership. You can gothere. You can take that
assessment. You can book that 15minute alignment call and get
(23:55):
some of the mess clean up, getsome of these problems figured
out, and they're your executionpartner with these growth
values, grounded, resilient,observance, wisdom, tenacious
and harmonious. They engineeryour ascent with precision,
ensuring every step ismeasurable and aligned with your
vision, so you can go there andget educated and take the test
(24:19):
and book that call and go onthat next step. And so that's
growth readiness.com and myunderstanding is that there's,
there's other resources too,right? There's a podcast.
Unknown (24:28):
There is a podcast growth and scaling.com Yeah,
growth and scaling.com and it'sthe growth and scaling podcast
with Todd Wester. You can findit everywhere. Podcasts are
played, and we have over 500interviews with CEOs talking
about their growth journey.It's, it's phenomenal. I re
listen to them often because Iforget the stories after I
(24:51):
record them, I'm like, that wasawesome. That was a cool
company. I really love theirjourney, and it's so fun. So
enjoy.
Robert Plank (24:58):
It's great education. Conversation and
networking and then to revisit.And one thing I want to fit in
here, just even for my ownpersonal memorization, is with
this podcasting you have thisHolly lands mic, and maybe we
can do do an unofficial productplacement here. Can you tell us
about that Holly land mic?Because it just you explained to
me before the show. It sounds soamazing.
Todd Westra (25:18):
Yeah, it honestly is super cool. As a podcaster, I
have my own studio. I have myown cool mics and all the other
stuff. But when I'm when I'm outand about, like, today, I
literally, I can plug in thisHolly land mic. I've got two
mics that just attach to mylapel. They're super long
(25:40):
distance. They're like, I think380 feet, or something like
that. I can go away from my frommy connector to my laptop, and
then I can have a guest Put on amic, and it picks up, it goes. I
actually use it all the time onmy phone. I have a plugin that
fits on the bottom of my phone,and I can then go around and
(26:00):
open up my Riverside app, whichis the second favorite tool, and
boom, it just it goes, I canrecord the audio. Sounds
perfect. I love Holly land. Ilove Riverside. These are
fantastic tools if you're ifyou're getting into podcasting,
Robert Plank (26:16):
because I know that as a podcaster, for years,
I've been afraid of like,hosting a show mobile, right?
Yeah, the dream of, like, youknow, you go, you're sitting in
your car, you drive to a park,you go to a co working space, go
to a friend's house, and, like,have your your phone in a
tripod, and you're saying, withthe Riverside app, it's like,
(26:36):
we, we can do it now.
Todd Westra (26:38):
It is literally the coolest thing ever i i have
found I can send a link to myRiverside studio to a guest or a
friend or even someone standingthere with me, and they can have
their phone open. I can have myphone open, and we literally get
the two camera angles. We getthe two audio feeds. And then
once the interview is done,Riverside uses AI to, like,
(27:02):
automatically edit a good chunkof the interview, and then all
you're doing is adding overlaysand maybe some, you know, text
and stuff like that on it. Ifyou're pulling out shorts and
stuff like that from theinterview, it's, it's
phenomenal. I absolutely lovethe combo of hollyland and
Riverside and, you know, I wishI get I had time to tell you all
(27:25):
my affiliate links, but I won't,but maybe I'll send them to you
Robert, like him in the shownotes.
Robert Plank (27:30):
Yeah, we'll take him in the show notes, and then
also they can go to your podcastand see your links in those show
notes. But like, yeah, you're,you're, you're inspiring me a
little bit because, like, youknow, I'm, like most podcasters,
I'm at a desk, but like, thedream of, like sitting at a or
something, oh, I mean, I'mexcited
Todd Westra (27:49):
now I am in a studio, but it's not my studio.
I just happen to be at this coworking space that has a studio,
and I didn't have time to getall their cameras and lights and
stuff set up, but it's goodenough for my, my Riverside and
Holly land, and it's working.
Robert Plank (28:05):
Well, I think we got, might have to have you
back, and I don't want to go toofar over time, but, like, real
quick. So like, these co workingspaces, like, can you get, like,
a day pass? Or is therepossible, like, find something
in your town and just go andhave a set for a podcast?
Unknown (28:19):
Did this? This studio. It's in Provo Utah. It's, it is.
It's a mission. It's, it's,honestly, it's a mission from
the founder of this place, likeI was saying, he's a very, very
passionate man, very, veryloving, very he's made his
money. He doesn't need any more.He's just kind of out there to
help other people. And so thisspace has room for, like, 250
(28:44):
entrepreneurs. They have a fundto help with seed funding. They
have a podcast studio. They'vegot everything. It's called
iHub. And the iHub of Utah,Innovation Hub Utah, I think
it's just ihub.org It's it's avery, very cool, cool
organization. And, yeah, nicecameras, nice lighting, nice
(29:08):
everything. I just happened toplug in my laptop today because
I didn't have time to to finagleall the other stuff. But it's
really cool in here.
Robert Plank (29:16):
Well, very awesome. Well, we're living in
the future. And so if you wantto drink some of that Todd
Westra Kool Aid, and grow yourcompany and have this better
outcome. Reach out their phonenumber is 844871, grow. 844871,
grow. The podcast is the growthand scaling podcast. Where we
(29:39):
really want you to go is growthreadiness.com. Go ahead. Do it
right now. And before I let yougo, Mr. Todd, it's time for the
finale, The scary part of thepodcast where I tried to stump
you, I tried to put you on thespot by asking about a fun or
interesting quote or lesson thathas served you. So what comes to
mind as far as a fun orinteresting quote or lesson?
Todd Westra (30:00):
Percent, no success can compensate for failure in
the home. That's one of myfavorite quotes I love to live
by. And if you're a dad, ahusband, partner who who cares
about the other people in yourlife, no startup, no business
growth, no strategy cancompensate for failing to be
(30:22):
there for those people thattruly love you, and so I live
and die by that I have sevenkids. I've got a beautiful wife.
We've we've had ups and downsfinancially, but I've never
failed to be there for my kidsnow they're adulting, and I've
got some out of the house and afew left at home, and I just,
(30:44):
I'm a huge advocate. No matterwhat you're trying to do with
your business and your life, ifyou're sacrificing your family
to do it, I think it's the wrongmove. So Right? That's it.
Robert Plank (30:55):
I agree completely. That's powerful,
that's helpful. And the thingabout that is we go to growth
readiness.com. We've beenspeaking with Mr. Todd Westra,
podcasting expert, growth andscaling expert, it's been such
an education speaking to you.Thanks for being here.
Todd Westra (31:10):
Thank you. Appreciate it heck.
What if your company's biggest growth
roadblock is not your product,but it is your leadership team?
Well, Todd Westra is herebecause he helps CEOs, coos and
CFOs align strategy andexecution to scale smarter. He
is the host of the growth andscaling podcast, and he is the
(00:23):
creator of the growth readinessframework. And Mr. Todd Westra
has helped hundreds of execsprep for 100 million plus
growth. And we're here to talkabout it. It's the marketer of
the day podcast with Robertplank. We're brought to you by D
FY podcast.com where you canfocus on high level interviews
while we handle the rest. Andwhat we are handling today is to
(00:47):
talk to some of these companiesthat they think they're ready to
scale, but perhaps they aren't,and you need help from Mr. Todd
and his scaling help and to getto growth readiness and just to
talk about it, the problems andthe solutions that are in front
of us. So, Mr. Todd, fellowpodcaster, how the heck are you?
Todd Westra (01:06):
I am so good, and it's a pleasure to be on the
market of the day podcast,
Robert Plank (01:11):
yeah, and it's like, I don't know if you come
across this, but do you ever seelike a name on your calendar,
and you're like, that name likefits in with who, who I see have
already and I was like, do Ialready know him? Did I already
have him as a podcast? Because,like, just that the name Todd
Wester, I did a double take. Iwas like, it just, it feels like
a name that, like, matches myother podcast guest names for
(01:34):
some reason.
Todd Westra (01:35):
Oh, well, thank you. I mean, it's definitely not
a common name. It's from areally small part of North
Holland, and it wasn't part ofthe Netherlands, but it was
like, literally, a Netherlandnation in and of itself. And so
the name is very, not veryuncommon, even in Holland. And
so once you hear it, once youreally don't ever meet very many
(01:56):
more,
Robert Plank (01:57):
well, that's good domain name availability for
you, right?
Todd Westra (02:00):
It works out really well.
Robert Plank (02:05):
So, well, very nice, and so, as far as us
knowing about what Mr. ToddWester is all about, what is the
solution you provide? Who do youhelp?
Todd Westra (02:15):
Yeah, so honestly, you know, keeping it a little
bit aligned with marketing. Youknow, I since covid, one of my
businesses, my primary business,at the time, got completely
wiped out and and I didn't knowwhat to do next. I was doing a
lot of like leadershipconsulting with Google and
Google teams and executive teamsout there. And within a week, I
(02:38):
lost an entire year's worth ofcontracts, and I didn't know
what to do, so I started a showcalled the growth and scaling
podcast at the time, is calledthe leadership and business
podcast, but it evolved and andwhat I learned was I interviewed
a huge chunk of business leadersat 250 interviews in 13 weeks,
And it was phenomenal. I didn'tknow how good that would be for
(03:03):
me, and I really feel selfish,because it felt like a very self
serving therapy session, whereevery day I was talking with
multiple business owners,talking about the key decisions
they made for growth and thebiggest challenge they faced in
trying to grow and scale theirbusiness. And I was like, there
are some things here. There aresome things going on and and it
(03:26):
was really interesting, becauseI have always been a pretty
private entrepreneur, meaning Igrew and scaled my own
companies, but I didn't reallypay a lot of attention to what
other people were doing, becauseit didn't matter. I just was
focused on my business, mygrowth, my company, my team, my
clients, right? And so as Istarted interviewing other
people, I discovered that thereare things that are consistent
(03:49):
and there are challenges thatare consistent with people's
inability to grow theirbusiness. And I say, I talked to
a lot of people that have, thathave launched businesses, and I
say, look, it's easy to well,it's not easy to launch, but
it's easier to launch with ateam because the entire team is
really dedicated to let's golaunch. We're going to make some
(04:12):
money. We're going to make thisthing work. It's going to be so
exciting, and everyone's kind ofon the same page. But then once
they've launched, you get oneguy who's like, Dude, we're
gonna go raise a bunch of moneyand we're gonna buy all our
competitors. We're gonna be themarket leader, blah, blah, blah,
blah. And then you get anotherguy who's like, Hey, we're gonna
go sell the business. We'regonna we're gonna three years
tops, we're gonna flip thisthing, and we're all gonna be
(04:33):
millionaires. Then the nextguy's like, you know what, this
is fantastic. I love thisbusiness. It's a great
lifestyle. I want my kids towork here, and I think until the
day I die, I'm going to do thisbusiness. And they're all
business partners, and all threeof those personalities look at
each other and they're like,Dude, we're awesome. Look at us.
And in their heads, they're allgoing different directions. And
(04:55):
every single one of thosescenarios that I just mentioned
are three different growthstrategies. And so to get going,
what I learned from hundreds ofinterviews now has been that
most growth is stifled notbecause they have a bad idea,
not because they don't havemarket fit, but because the
leadership is not aligned onwhich path they're going down.
(05:18):
And so they're literally allthree secretly going different
directions, limiting theirgrowth. And a lot of companies
get stuck with 5 million or lessin revenue, making great money,
but not becoming market leaders,not exiting at the price they
want to, and not realizing thatthat length of growth they were
hoping to achieve.
Robert Plank (05:39):
Man, that's huge, and you're quite the podcaster,
the storyteller. And I candefinitely see how there's that
honeymoon phase at first where,like, there's these three
diverging paths. And of course,it's great at first, but then
when the the s hits the fan andactually have to get to a goal,
you have to get somewhere ifthey're all pulling it apart,
(05:59):
then you stay stuck where you'reat, and it's like, Man, I can, I
can only imagine, I mean, you'regiving me flashbacks to, like,
this moment and that moment. AndI can only imagine if someone is
saying, like, Well, hey, that'swhy I'm stuck, or that's why
that business kind of didn't gothat way, or there was this
lying or duplicity or aconflict, or it just didn't work
out because of the, just thelack of and like that word
(06:22):
alignment, man, that's such achat GPT output, and it's such a
thing that sometimes women saythat to me, sometimes about
alignment, like, what does thatmean? But the way that you put
it, from my simple man brain,I'm like, okay, alignment now it
actually has a meaning for me.And so when you jump in and
there's this lack of alignment,so to speak, in the kind of
(06:45):
secret secretly, even you saidgoing in different directions,
like, how do you begin to tacklethat problem?
Todd Westra (06:51):
Oh my gosh, for me, it's fun. For them, it's
uncomfortable. And so weactually have an alignment
exercise that we bring ourclients through that literally
our first four or five weeks ofour engagement is literally
determining how to have theawkward conversation, because we
(07:11):
interview their core leadershipteam and we identify
individually, what theirintentions are, what they see as
The growth strategy, what theysee as an exit strategy, what
they see as limiters of theirgrowth right now, and what they
would do to enhance, you know,execute on the vision they see
(07:33):
and And inevitably, during thosefew weeks we we do an in depth,
deep dive into their industry,who are the market leaders, who
are their biggest threecompetitors, and why are they
growing better than they are?You know, what lessons could
they learn? Why are they why arethese three people on different
paths? And when we do that, andthen we sit down in a room with
(07:56):
all four of us, or sometimesfive or six, but usually there's
three or four of them, and thenourself, we go in and facilitate
this awkward conversation of andwe don't point fingers, but
we're like, Okay, guys, here'swhat's happening outside, here's
what's happening inside. Andthen we take each of those
things, and we need to convergeand and get the crap out of this
(08:20):
stuck position we're in, andthen it gets really awkward. And
typically, the majorityshareholder of the company has a
very strong opinion. Andinevitably, when they all come
out of this conversation wherethere might be tears and there
might be some hurt feelings, butalign on where they're going, it
is exciting. It is thrilling. Itis like, super awkward to super
(08:46):
align and just ready for growthlike it literally changes the
trajectory of a lot of thesecompanies that are stuck in that
at three to sometimes up to 10million. They're just stuck.
They just are going all over theplace. And nothing wrong with
that. But if you want to bemarket leaders, if you want a
strong exit, you got to align,and then it works out better for
(09:08):
everybody.
Robert Plank (09:10):
It almost sounded at first like a police
interrogation, like if twopeople, if they're in the same
room, you're like, Well, can youget to the truth? But you
separate them, and you kind ofhave the this kind of less small
like you had, the smaller inscope conversation you kind of
and then re merge forward of thetruth.
Todd Westra (09:30):
They feel safe because they don't feel like
they are worried about hurtingthat person's feelings. Because
we keep it all confidential andand when we keep it
confidential, it it, it.Truthfully, most founders are
very passionate. They're veryexcited. But the reality is is
oftentimes founders are thehardest ones to adapt to. Hey,
(09:52):
we really got this thing I'vebeen focusing on, but look at
what's happening over here.We're actually way more
profitable on this thing. I'mnot even thinking about, and
they don't even recognize itbecause their heart is here, but
the business is already evolvingover here, and they don't even
see it. And so when they see it,and they can say, Oh, crap, I
(10:13):
didn't realize we had 20% moremargin there than we do here.
Maybe we should go over there,you know? And it turns into a
really fun conversation,
Robert Plank (10:22):
and it seems like a different kind of alignment,
like I'm telling you, like Iused up until three minutes ago
when I heard that word, I wouldshut down. I would hate it. But
like, the picture that you painthere, there's, like, the logic
in the emotion. And sometimes,if, yeah, the logics over here,
the emotions over here, and yousay, Well, hey, I'm kind of
ignoring or I'm ignorant of whatwe should be doing or what could
(10:45):
be growing us. What makes moneyand I'm doing over here, what's
fun? It's like a recipe forsabotage. And it's like, well,
if you kind of re configured allthat, and you said, Well, hey,
let's get on the same page andsay, yeah, hey, that if we grew
this, then we could have thatkind of emotional, fun
satisfaction, and you wouldn'thave to be living in two worlds.
(11:05):
So I'm really curious aboutabout, like, what this looks
like, right? Because here we aretalking in, like, abstract
theory. But then, as we've beensaying, podcasting stories the
adventure, that's what it's allabout. And so as far as, like,
some of these companies thatyou, like, sat down with and
help. Do you have a cool storyin that department to share?
Todd Westra (11:24):
Yeah, I'll tell you one I'm experiencing right now
as we speak. You know, it's,it's an interesting one, because
it's a, it's a businessincubator and and they've been
around for about two years justgoing on. Man, almost two years.
They have a $10 million fund.They've got an amazing array of,
(11:44):
I think, just about 200companies that are in launching
in this business incubator.They've got a, probably about a
200,000 square foot buildingthat they purchased, and have
office space. It's a co workingenvironment. They have trainers
coming in all this really,really, really cool operation.
(12:09):
Now imagine for a second theleadership team. There is a very
experienced, very well exitedentrepreneur at the head, and he
is inspired. He is inspiring. Heis passionate about small
business, small business growth.He's an adjunct professor at the
university nearby, and teachesfor free entrepreneurship like a
(12:33):
more visionary man You can'timagine, right? But inside of
the inner workings of thisorganization, there's some
misalignment. There are somepeople who are who are doing
things in a way that aren'taligned with his vision, and
it's causing a little bit offriction. And so I was recently
brought in, just a few weeksago, to come in and help realign
(12:57):
leadership team, the focus, themission, the drive of this, of
this operation. How profitabledo we want this fund to be? How
many more funds do we want toraise money for? Are we only
seed, or are we doing a littlebit of follow up, you know,
follow on investing and all thelittle things right that that
could be part of thisenvironment that typically cause
(13:19):
these types of operations tofail, we are now experiencing a
whole new set of inspiration andrevelation on where we can take
this, this, this for funproject, and turn it into
something that will impactmultiple, hundreds of small
businesses and their ability togrow and scale and launch. And
(13:41):
so it's interesting, becausehere's an environment with
launch all around the fund is inlaunch mode, the the the co
working space is in launch mode,but they've launched, and now
it's this realignment stage, andI share this, hopefully without
offending anybody. But it's beenmagical to see that, just like
(14:06):
any other business, a year ortwo down the path, the pathway,
it's like everybody's aligned inthe launch. It's now launched.
It's now kind of operating, andyet, now the misalignment starts
to appear. Well, I want to dothis. Well, I think it should do
this. Well, I think it should dothis and and now we're in this,
(14:26):
this beautiful, I truly thinkit's beautiful alignment stage
where everyone's like, Oh, thatprobably is the better path we
should go, oh, that does makesense. Oh, our investors would
like this level of transparency.Maybe we should change our
reporting process. Oh, you know,and it is kind of now evolving
(14:46):
to the point where we have 250mentors in the waiting who want
to help these small businesses.We've got founders who are not
they're missing each other.They're not wanting to bug them
because they're worried. Aboutbugging them. We're setting
expectations, we're settingroles, we're setting
responsibilities. And it's justa beautiful thing, like
(15:07):
honestly, it's it's a very funexample of what's happening
right now in this operation, andhow we're seeing that growth
affect not only the incubatorand the fund, but also every
business in the incubator is nowwatching this process of
evolution from launch into,let's grow this thing.
Robert Plank (15:28):
Very nice. It almost feels like long term
dating or marriage, wherethere's the but, like, with
multiple people involved, right?With like, the different ages,
and then with the like, well,and there's always like, when
you have like, you know, likepartners or people on your team,
there's always that kind ofpsyching yourself out of like,
so I want someone more like me,or someone who's more on the
extreme, and you're saying like,well, what's more important is
(15:49):
to have that common goal thatyou're all working towards. That
way you can get that all figuredout. And then that way, when as
your company grows, you know whois not a fit and who is a fit,
who to reject, and who toattract? And it becomes like a,
like a feedback cycle, similarto you had your your podcast
here, you figured out thecommonalities, the kind of Think
(16:10):
and Grow Rich, like, what areall the things that totally were
in common that worked, and thenthat became the company, and
then that became how youattract, you more people. And
it's, it's wonderful andbeautiful to think about, as far
as the people involved. But I'msure that it's not all easy,
right? I'm sure there's allkinds of drama and hiccups,
super sharing some of that.Where does it go wrong?
Todd Westra (16:32):
Super awkward, super emotional. You do find
that that most successfulfounders are the ones who can
detach and remove their emotionfrom what's logically happening,
and those that cannot standthat, and they're very
emotionally driven, they end upgetting stuck, or they fail. And
(16:55):
it's it's having the rightreporting mechanisms to see what
is logically working versus whatyou hope is working. And so
those two things need tocollide. And I think that most
small businesses, especially,there's a lot of love for the
founder because they're soenergized, they're so motivated,
(17:16):
they're so exciting and and youjust want to believe that their
passion is telling you the rightthing, but when it comes right
down to it, when the reportingis looked at and the stats are,
you know, if you have stats tolook at, you see, actually, this
path is working way better thanour initial launch trajectory.
Let's, let's maybe change gearsa little bit and see what
(17:39):
happens when we lean into thatinstead of this, and that is
perfect pivot, in my mind,
Robert Plank (17:46):
very nice. So better reporting and that idea
of detaching, it's not sayingdon't have emotions, but perhaps
there is, at the moment, toomuch emotions and not enough
data. And when you detach, thatyou can kind of, there's blind
spots, right? You you can seewhat the the actions can take
and what success really lookslike. And so this is a
(18:06):
fascinating conversation, but Ihave to admit, I know almost
nothing about startups andincubators and that whole world,
but you're the expert here. Soin this conversation we're
having, what's the missingquestion? What should I be
asking you? I just don't knowwhat to ask you.
Todd Westra (18:22):
You know, I would say probably the thing to ask
is, oftentimes people inlaunching business mode feel
like they need to bring in thatone guy. They need to bring in
that, that one person who'sgoing to make all the
difference. While that ispartially true, it's almost more
important to understand thateven bringing in the right
(18:45):
person, if there's not clarityon what you want them to do and
how you want them to plug in, itnever works out, and so they end
up feeling frustrated. You know,in the past year, I've probably
talked to 200 differentfractional leaders, mostly
fractional CMOS, because I lovemarketing, and I network with a
(19:06):
lot of marketers, but alsofractional CFOs, they come to me
and they're like, Todd, Ah, Iunderstand what you're talking
about, because I went in to takethis contract with this company,
and I spend the first threemonths trying to figure out what
They actually want me to do, youknow, and so, so alignment is
the key foundation. Once that'sin play, you can bring someone
(19:28):
in who has a really unique giftand special need, you know,
special talent, and you knowexactly how to plug them in, and
they know how to be plugged in,and they're feeling like the
world is, is there opportunity?Now, instead of okay, this guy's
telling me this, this guy'stelling me that I don't know
which thing to do, and they getparalyzed, right? So, so that's
(19:49):
the question is, like, it's notas much about who you don't
hire, it's who you don't fire,and it's not having clarity on
what to. Do with the people thatI think I need. That's it. And
it seems like
Robert Plank (20:05):
setting expectations is huge as CDs as
it is. And you wonder, well, isthis going to limit me? It was
just setting a bunch of rules,and you're saying, No, it's the
opposite, because if there's notenough of that documented
written down, then you have thepulling apart, and then the
parental assistance. And so Ican see how it makes it makes
sense from a guy like you, fromthe outside looking in, because
(20:28):
you seen this, you eat, breatheand sleep this stuff. But if
someone says, Hey, I'm one ofthese struggling startups
companies, and I need Mr. Todd'swisdom, because he sees problems
even I don't see. How doessomeone know if they're a good
fit to reach out to you? And ifthey are, where do
Unknown (20:45):
they go? The easiest way is, we have a free
assessment on our website calledgrowth readiness. Literally, is
growth readiness.com? Are yougrowth ready? I tease people a
lot because I'm a part of a lotof mastermind groups, and I'm
like, Okay, let's just pretendtoday you had all the funding
you needed to do that magicalshift in your company. Are you
(21:07):
ready for that funding? Like ifI gave it all to you today,
let's say it's $10 million let'ssay it's $50 million let's say
let's say it's $100,000 if Igave it to you today, would you
really know how to deploy it?And so we look at it in 12
growth signals, and we allowpeople to take a free assessment
at growth readiness.com, toidentify where they stand in
(21:32):
these 12 areas of growthreadiness. And they're very
common sensical, but they'revery telling, because what I
found is that of the I honestlyhave only had about 70 different
leaders take the assessment sofar. It's fairly young. But the
trends that I'm seeing is this,when people honestly answer
(21:54):
these responses, they understandthat there's maybe three or four
growth readiness signals thatthey're super strong. They're
gifted in these areas. Theyunderstand finance, or they
understand marketing, or theyunderstand their client avatar,
but they're horrible at the atthree others, and then they can
kind of muscle their way throughfive or six others and between
(22:15):
the 12 things, if you reallyunderstand the three or four
that you're weakest at, that'swhere you need to hire. That's
where you need to build aposition for someone to come in
and handle those things thatyou've just been ignoring.
Because it's easy to ignore thestuff you're not good at and
dive into the stuff you're goodat, which is good. You should do
that, but plug someone in, putthem in the right spot, and make
(22:38):
sure that you're at least awareof where you stand on these 12
growth readiness signals, andwhen you do that's when you know
when to engage with us, becausewe come and build the alignment.
We help build the strategy withyour team. We align the team
along with the leadership'sgoals, and then we deploy a vast
(22:59):
network of fractionals who knowhow to plug in to the
environment that we just spentsix months understanding. And so
it's a really, really beautifulthing.
Robert Plank (23:08):
Yeah, it sounds like this seems very powerful,
and it's like you've been,you've been asking the hard
questions, even, as you say,when you jump into a company and
you know, you get anunderstanding. It's like you ask
these questions to figure outthe weaknesses, to figure out
what the change should be, andwho to hire, and you know how to
beef it up. And so it's it canhave this, this path forward, if
(23:31):
we have the help of someone likeyou, and the place to go is
growth readiness.com. Growthreadiness transforms midsize
firms from a complacent driftingto powerful ascension through
their proven three step journey,which is alignment, engagement
and partnership. You can gothere. You can take that
assessment. You can book that 15minute alignment call and get
(23:55):
some of the mess clean up, getsome of these problems figured
out, and they're your executionpartner with these growth
values, grounded, resilient,observance, wisdom, tenacious
and harmonious. They engineeryour ascent with precision,
ensuring every step ismeasurable and aligned with your
vision, so you can go there andget educated and take the test
(24:19):
and book that call and go onthat next step. And so that's
growth readiness.com and myunderstanding is that there's,
there's other resources too,right? There's a podcast.
Unknown (24:28):
There is a podcast growth and scaling.com Yeah,
growth and scaling.com and it'sthe growth and scaling podcast
with Todd Wester. You can findit everywhere. Podcasts are
played, and we have over 500interviews with CEOs talking
about their growth journey.It's, it's phenomenal. I re
listen to them often because Iforget the stories after I
(24:51):
record them, I'm like, that wasawesome. That was a cool
company. I really love theirjourney, and it's so fun. So
enjoy.
Robert Plank (24:58):
It's great education. Conversation and
networking and then to revisit.And one thing I want to fit in
here, just even for my ownpersonal memorization, is with
this podcasting you have thisHolly lands mic, and maybe we
can do do an unofficial productplacement here. Can you tell us
about that Holly land mic?Because it just you explained to
me before the show. It sounds soamazing.
Todd Westra (25:18):
Yeah, it honestly is super cool. As a podcaster, I
have my own studio. I have myown cool mics and all the other
stuff. But when I'm when I'm outand about, like, today, I
literally, I can plug in thisHolly land mic. I've got two
mics that just attach to mylapel. They're super long
(25:40):
distance. They're like, I think380 feet, or something like
that. I can go away from my frommy connector to my laptop, and
then I can have a guest Put on amic, and it picks up, it goes. I
actually use it all the time onmy phone. I have a plugin that
fits on the bottom of my phone,and I can then go around and
(26:00):
open up my Riverside app, whichis the second favorite tool, and
boom, it just it goes, I canrecord the audio. Sounds
perfect. I love Holly land. Ilove Riverside. These are
fantastic tools if you're ifyou're getting into podcasting,
Robert Plank (26:16):
because I know that as a podcaster, for years,
I've been afraid of like,hosting a show mobile, right?
Yeah, the dream of, like, youknow, you go, you're sitting in
your car, you drive to a park,you go to a co working space, go
to a friend's house, and, like,have your your phone in a
tripod, and you're saying, withthe Riverside app, it's like,
(26:36):
we, we can do it now.
Todd Westra (26:38):
It is literally the coolest thing ever i i have
found I can send a link to myRiverside studio to a guest or a
friend or even someone standingthere with me, and they can have
their phone open. I can have myphone open, and we literally get
the two camera angles. We getthe two audio feeds. And then
once the interview is done,Riverside uses AI to, like,
(27:02):
automatically edit a good chunkof the interview, and then all
you're doing is adding overlaysand maybe some, you know, text
and stuff like that on it. Ifyou're pulling out shorts and
stuff like that from theinterview, it's, it's
phenomenal. I absolutely lovethe combo of hollyland and
Riverside and, you know, I wishI get I had time to tell you all
(27:25):
my affiliate links, but I won't,but maybe I'll send them to you
Robert, like him in the shownotes.
Robert Plank (27:30):
Yeah, we'll take him in the show notes, and then
also they can go to your podcastand see your links in those show
notes. But like, yeah, you're,you're, you're inspiring me a
little bit because, like, youknow, I'm, like most podcasters,
I'm at a desk, but like, thedream of, like sitting at a or
something, oh, I mean, I'mexcited
Todd Westra (27:49):
now I am in a studio, but it's not my studio.
I just happen to be at this coworking space that has a studio,
and I didn't have time to getall their cameras and lights and
stuff set up, but it's goodenough for my, my Riverside and
Holly land, and it's working.
Robert Plank (28:05):
Well, I think we got, might have to have you
back, and I don't want to go toofar over time, but, like, real
quick. So like, these co workingspaces, like, can you get, like,
a day pass? Or is therepossible, like, find something
in your town and just go andhave a set for a podcast?
Unknown (28:19):
Did this? This studio. It's in Provo Utah. It's, it is.
It's a mission. It's, it's,honestly, it's a mission from
the founder of this place, likeI was saying, he's a very, very
passionate man, very, veryloving, very he's made his
money. He doesn't need any more.He's just kind of out there to
help other people. And so thisspace has room for, like, 250
(28:44):
entrepreneurs. They have a fundto help with seed funding. They
have a podcast studio. They'vegot everything. It's called
iHub. And the iHub of Utah,Innovation Hub Utah, I think
it's just ihub.org It's it's avery, very cool, cool
organization. And, yeah, nicecameras, nice lighting, nice
(29:08):
everything. I just happened toplug in my laptop today because
I didn't have time to to finagleall the other stuff. But it's
really cool in here.
Robert Plank (29:16):
Well, very awesome. Well, we're living in
the future. And so if you wantto drink some of that Todd
Westra Kool Aid, and grow yourcompany and have this better
outcome. Reach out their phonenumber is 844871, grow. 844871,
grow. The podcast is the growthand scaling podcast. Where we
(29:39):
really want you to go is growthreadiness.com. Go ahead. Do it
right now. And before I let yougo, Mr. Todd, it's time for the
finale, The scary part of thepodcast where I tried to stump
you, I tried to put you on thespot by asking about a fun or
interesting quote or lesson thathas served you. So what comes to
mind as far as a fun orinteresting quote or lesson?
Todd Westra (30:00):
Percent, no success can compensate for failure in
the home. That's one of myfavorite quotes I love to live
by. And if you're a dad, ahusband, partner who who cares
about the other people in yourlife, no startup, no business
growth, no strategy cancompensate for failing to be
(30:22):
there for those people thattruly love you, and so I live
and die by that I have sevenkids. I've got a beautiful wife.
We've we've had ups and downsfinancially, but I've never
failed to be there for my kidsnow they're adulting, and I've
got some out of the house and afew left at home, and I just,
(30:44):
I'm a huge advocate. No matterwhat you're trying to do with
your business and your life, ifyou're sacrificing your family
to do it, I think it's the wrongmove. So Right? That's it.
Robert Plank (30:55):
I agree completely. That's powerful,
that's helpful. And the thingabout that is we go to growth
readiness.com. We've beenspeaking with Mr. Todd Westra,
podcasting expert, growth andscaling expert, it's been such
an education speaking to you.Thanks for being here.
Todd Westra (31:10):
Thank you. Appreciate it heck.
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