September 4, 2025 • 37 mins
Scaling beyond seven figures can feel like you’re carrying the weight of every decision, every handoff, and every bottleneck yourself. When communication breaks down or execution falls apart, chaos creeps in. In this episode, I sit down with Rebecca Kallaus, Vision Architect and founder of Business Done Better, the go-to operations partner for agencies, coaches, and creators scaling from six to eight figures.
Rebecca shares the Agency Scaling Systems she created — a framework that moves founders out of reaction mode and into clarity, structure, and sustainable growth. You’ll discover how to eliminate broken handoffs, diagnose bottlenecks, and build operational strength equal to companies far older than yours.
If you’ve ever wondered how to free your time, stabilize your team, and keep scaling without burning out, this episode gives you the blueprint.
Books Mentioned
- Billion Dollar Bullseye by Jonathan Cronstedt (J. Cron)
- Letting Go by Dr. David Hawkins
To learn more about Rebecca’s work, visit businessdonebetter.co. You’ll find ways to connect directly and explore how her team can support the operational side of your business.
Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence.
- Free 30-Minute Discovery Call:
Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success.
- Special Offer:
Get your FREE copy of Catalytic Leadership: 12 Keys to Becoming an Intentional Leader Who Makes a Difference.
Connect with Dr. William Attaway:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. William Attaway (00:00):
I'm so excited today to have Rebecca
Caloose on the podcast.
Rebecca Sonnen-Caloose is avision architect and the founder
of Business Done Better, thego-to operations partner for
coaches, creators, agencies andsmall businesses scaling from
six to eight figures.
With over a decade in businessdevelopment and operations,
(00:23):
she's helped companies fromsolopreneurs to $20 million plus
restructure their systems,align their teams and regain
control.
She's the creator of the 5Engine Operating System and a
longtime strategic partner ofHigh Level, having directly
shaped platform features tobetter serve founder-led
(00:46):
businesses.
Known for simplifying withoutdumbing down, rebecca helps
visionary founders get out ofreaction mode and scale with
structure, sanity andsustainability.
Rebecca, I'm so glad you'rehere.
Thanks for being on the show.
Rebecca Kallaus (01:04):
Absolutely my pleasure.
Yeah, super excited to be here.
Intro (01:10):
Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed
to help leaders intentionallygrow and thrive.
Dr. William Attaway (01:17):
Here is your host author and leadership
and executive coach, dr WilliamAttaway executive coach, dr
William Attaway, I would love tostart with you sharing a little
bit of your story with ourlisteners, particularly around
your journey and yourdevelopment as a leader.
How did you get started?
Rebecca Kallaus (01:38):
Yeah, so you could say, like my journey from
different angles of things youspecifically asked from a
leadership perspective that onehas an interesting twist to me
because, um, I actually I wasalways a huge introvert.
I mean, I'm still definitely anintrovert.
I think I've had a lot ofpeople tell me to my face that
I'm lying because I think thatI'm so active extrovert and I'm
(01:59):
like you have no idea, um, andyou know I do, I do, speaking on
stage, you know, on all sortsof things, and be like, oh wow,
you're such a natural speakerand a natural leader and I'm
like cool, that's a learnedskill.
So in grade school I wasactually the shyest person in my
entire elementary school.
So that's that's where thingscame from, where, like all my
(02:23):
report cards as a child was wethink Rebecca's paying attention
but we can't really tellbecause we can't hear anything
that she says Literally everyreport card every year.
So my development there wasdefinitely a long journey and I
think it stemmed from me justlearning how to find my voice,
and that came from so manydifferent layers and so many
different experiences.
(02:43):
Find my voice and that came fromso many different layers and so
many different experiences, butI just I had so much that I
wanted to say and so much that Iwanted to be in the world doing
, and so I think it just thatkind of just naturally evolved
where I'm the kind of personthat if somebody is doing an
amazing job, like I, can take abackseat to something.
But whenever something is beingdone in a way that I'm like,
(03:04):
Ooh, like that could beoptimized over here, where we're
missing a huge opportunity todo this, Um, where you know
that's going to be a win, win,win across the board, Then it's
it's like a compulsion for me toto improve that.
So that's kind of theessentially the origin of my
company business done betterwhere.
Done better doesn't mean thatthat I or we know better.
It means that if better can bedone, then we do that.
(03:26):
So that's kind of just thephilosophy that carries
throughout everything.
I would say but yeah, so like Iguess that's the best way I can
answer that.
Dr. William Attaway (03:38):
Yeah, no, that's great.
You know.
I think you keyed in on acouple of things that are really
important.
First, so often I encounterpeople who are introverts, who
say, oh, that's a limitation,that's a, that's a box that I'm
trapped in and that's going toprevent me from doing things
like speaking.
You know, like being out frontand I think your story is a
(04:01):
fantastic illustration that thatis not true.
You know that you can stepbeyond that.
I too would fall in thatintrovert thing.
In fact, if you look at myMyers-Briggs, if this is
extrovert and this is introvert,I'm over here, you know, like
I'm all the way on that side,and the reality is that does not
limit us right.
(04:22):
It's just part of how we'rewired, where we draw our energy
from, and if we craft our livesand our rhythms in the right way
, we can do that in a way thatleverages our strengths but
still enables us to do thethings we need to do to grow our
businesses.
So I love that you brought thatout.
Rebecca Kallaus (04:40):
Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, to even add one morething onto that, where just this
is just my thought processalong those lines, is that being
an introvert?
I I wouldn't even say that I, Itolerate it.
I hate being on camera, um,like anything.
When my my team, anytime thatthey need me to record content,
it's the most painful thing.
Um, I'm lucky my team loves me,because I definitely drive them
(05:02):
crazy.
They're like did you record thething?
I'm like no, because I avoid it, as the worst thing on my task
list by far is anything justlike just, you know recording
content or stuff like that.
You know I can read off of ateleprompter, but like to work,
I don't like talking intodevices.
That's really what it is.
Um, cause it just.
(05:23):
But.
So that's two part thing.
One, um, uh, like that's why Idon't like the, the recording
content, cause I'm talking to adevice, cause I'm not talking to
a person.
And two, that's also the like.
My thought process for how I doany speaking stuff and how I do
step into a leadership role isbecause my desire for positively
(05:45):
impacting others, my desire toconnect with people and move
things forward in the world,that so greatly exceeds how much
I hate being on camera andrecording content and speaking
into a device and that's a highbar.
I really don't like thosethings, but I love people that
much more.
Dr. William Attaway (06:06):
I love that , and that's a great example of
how your why and your core candrive you even beyond the areas
where you're not comfortable.
Growth and comfort don'tcoexist.
You get to pick one, you knowno, and I love that you have
taken that choice.
Rebecca Kallaus (06:22):
My favorite vocab word is hormesis.
Do you know what hormesis means?
Dr. William Attaway (06:26):
I do not Bring it.
Rebecca Kallaus (06:29):
So hormesis, essentially, is the sweet spot
of where a negative stimulus isconstructive.
If you have too much of it, youshut down.
If you have too little of it,you don't grow.
So hormesis is that sweet spotin the middle.
Dr. William Attaway (06:45):
Oh, that's so good.
I love that, and it got my mindracing now.
That's so fantastic.
I love that concept.
Rebecca Kallaus (06:52):
I heard that word for the first time on a
podcast with Wim Hof and, oh mygosh, Tom Billiard.
Dr. William Attaway (07:01):
Oh, that's so good.
I'm definitely keeping that one.
Thank you.
Rebecca Kallaus (07:04):
Yes, I love that.
Dr. William Attaway (07:06):
So when we met, we met at a conference not
long ago and one of the thingsthat we were talking about that
you shared was something thatyou are the creator of this the
five engine operating system.
That's core of a lot of whatyou do in your business for
companies.
Would you share thatfive-engine operating system at
(07:26):
a high level?
I'd love for our listeners tohear that and to see the
structure and the framework ofit.
Rebecca Kallaus (07:34):
Yeah, absolutely.
So the origin of that is I haveabout a decade of background in
business development andoperations and you know I've
worked with a handful ofdifferent operating systems and
I was just like I was reallydeep diving into operating
systems and I was like I don'tknow of an operating system
that's really scalable fromsolopreneur to enterprise and
industry agnostic and I was likethat's silly, like there should
(07:58):
be one, why is there not?
And so I just kind of like tooka step back and I was like,
okay, well, there's anopportunity here.
No-transcript able to do that.
(08:36):
And I'm still, to this day, theonly executive on my team.
Like I carry a lot of heavylifting on my shoulders, I'm
still.
I still have more pieces to putinto place.
I kind of grew my companybackwards from how you should
start a business Hindsight'salways 20-20.
But that was something thatthere are certain things that
allowed us to do that well,where we have the operational
(08:58):
structure and strength of moreso than most companies in year
five, six, seven plus after onlytwo years.
And it was because of justcertain things that we had
started to do internally.
And so when I was kind ofthinking about all this, I kind
of took things that we werealready doing and then built
them out a lot further andrealized it was really a
(09:18):
full-scale operating system.
So I call it the five-engineoperating system, because no
matter what size company or whatindustry, you always have five
engines for your company.
You have revenue, brand, clientsuccess, operations and
leadership.
And I say that in a particularorder, because you start a
(09:39):
company with revenue.
If you don't have revenuechannels coming in, you just
have a nice hobby.
So I did my business backwardsbecause operations was my
strength, so I skipped the firsttwo.
The second one is brand.
You have to do brand next,because then that takes your
revenue channels and then thebrand is what creates it from a
(10:01):
sustainable perspective, and soyou have to get that into place
as soon as possible.
Then you always have to makesure that you're taking care of
your clients properly.
Okay, so you know on some levelyou have to start sort of with
that.
That ties into like, obviously,what are you doing for revenue?
But once you have the first twoengines handled, then you want
to dig into and make sure you'rereally delivering the best
(10:22):
thing possible for your clients.
Operations is really how youscale.
A company cannot scale withoutoperations.
That's why our specialty on theoperations side is working with
seven-figure virtual companies,because that's something that,
once you hit seven figuresoperations becomes your number
one pain point.
And then leadership isessentially the essence that
ties everything together.
So leadership is always youknow that's that's the top topic
(10:44):
of of our conversation todaybut, um, you know, leadership is
it's really the the life forcethat keeps a company together.
It's what, it's where yourvision lives, it's where your
comp, your culture lives.
Um, there's so many things thatare that are wrapped up into
into leadership.
So there's there's so much moreto it, to it.
(11:04):
But that's kind of it in anutshell, and, yeah, I could
definitely go down a wholerabbit hole there.
Dr. William Attaway (11:10):
Well, I love the framework and the
simplicity of it.
I mean, you've taken somethingthat is pretty complex and
you've made it accessible, and Ithink that's the mark of a
teacher, somebody who's giftedat communication.
Where do you see most of yourclients or people that you're
talking to?
Where do you see them reallybreaking down in that framework?
(11:32):
Is there one place more thananother or is it kind of equal
across the board?
Rebecca Kallaus (11:36):
I mean before we start working with them, or
yeah, before, yeah, absolutelybefore yeah.
So well, because we don't helpwith, you know, with the front
end side of the business.
We only help with the back endpiece.
So the last client, success andoperations, and a little bit on
the leadership side, but that'ssomething that the breakdown is
(11:57):
.
It's not always consistent.
I'd say that the certainconsistencies are, however, our
communication and delegation.
There's a lot of times wherethings fall through the cracks
of where, you know, thevisionary has an idea and then
they want to, they want theexecution team to go and do a
thing, and they're like hey, dothe thing.
(12:18):
And then execution team takesthat ball and then they start to
do a thing and thenleadership's like that wasn't
what I was trying to say andexecution was like well, you
didn't give us all the info, andthen and then like or there's
no QA, and then it gets turnedover to the client and the
client's like that's not what I.
You know we're missing this,there's errors and things are
broken over here.
(12:38):
So there's there's all thesedifferent holes in that
execution thread.
So that's a part of theoperating system, is?
I just call it the five phasebuild cycle.
Maybe I'll come up with abetter theme in the future.
I'm not that creative withnaming things.
It's literally five phases ofexecution.
So anytime you're executingsomething, you're building
(12:59):
something, you run through fivephases.
You have ideation, architect,execute, test, optimize.
Now a lot of people go through.
You know somewhat of thatframework, but the key piece is
that there's a baton handoffbetween each phase.
So at the ideation phase youhave a concept brief.
(13:20):
So whoever is doing theideation ideation comes from
nothing, so it's usually thevisionary or someone on the
executive team, or at least amanager, someone where nothing
was told to them like it's theorigin of where.
That came from nothing intoidea.
So then they download that intowhat's called a concept brief.
That is kind of a quick andeasy extraction of that vision
(13:43):
and then that's what's passed onto whoever's doing the
architecting.
So architecting is done usuallyby a project manager or whoever
it is.
That's like going to create thedetails, the blueprint of what
needs to be done.
Okay, so we call that batonphase there a build plan.
Okay, so under architect youfill out a build plan.
Depending on the scope of theproject or task.
(14:05):
It could be something thattakes an hour, could be a couple
of weeks, but just along thesame concept of measure twice
cut once you want to make surethat you have all the details
really outlined in that buildplan, and then that's what's
given over to the execution team.
So they have everything thatthey need.
They have all the constraints,they have all the cautionaries,
they have all the parameters,they have the what's, the
(14:26):
definition of success, what'sthe outcome that we're shooting
for?
How do we know when the thingis done?
What does that look like?
What are all the pieces thatare involved?
Who are all the people that are, that are they're executing on
this project?
What are all the differentphases, the different tasks
underneath this, the mini tasksassigned to this, and then, once
(14:48):
they're done, execution seemslike we did the thing, we did
everything you asked for.
Then that gets passed on totesting, where there's a QA
process.
So if you did everything rightfrom the start, then great, your
QA could be really simple andthat might be the end of the
cycle.
But if QA turns up anything,then it goes to an optimization
phase right away, or it could bedown the road where you think
(15:08):
you did everything right andthen you know a year later, on
that same project, you're like,oh, you know what we really
could optimize this over here,great.
You don't need to do a wholebuild plan all over again.
In the optimization phase youbasically do a mini build.
It's just.
It's the same concept but juston a smaller scale.
And then that gets passed backto execution once that's the
optimization plan is done.
And then you keep going one,two, three, four, five, three,
(15:30):
four, five, until it ends atfour of testing.
Qa says good to go.
Dr. William Attaway (15:40):
And now you have everything locked down.
That's phenomenal.
And I say that I mean I workwith a lot of different,
particularly in the agency space, but even beyond, a lot of
founders and leaders who reallystruggle with what you just
described.
They really struggle in theoperational side of this.
They're phenomenal at thebeginning, but there comes a
point where you have grownbeyond.
You know one person at thecenter of the spotter web, so to
(16:01):
speak where everything connectsto them.
What you're describing issomething that is that will help
them to develop a healthy andsustainable pace over time that
will scale.
Is that something that you seea lot of your clients doing?
As they begin to implement whatyou're helping them with, do
they begin to see oh well, I'vegot freedom and I've got growth?
Rebecca Kallaus (16:23):
Yes.
So I'm going to just I'm goingto kind of answer that in a
slightly different perspectiveor another angle of the
operating system is so we havethe five engines as a founder,
the goal is to have somebodyleading you.
As a founder, you runleadership.
That is your job.
You are responsible for theculture, for the vision, for the
essence of everything.
(16:44):
So until you're big enough tohire a CEO in place of you, then
you're in charge of that engine.
Yes, but then you want to getan engine lead for the other
four as soon as possible, wantto get an engine lead for the
other four as soon as possible.
So that way, if you as a team,you have a five person team, but
(17:05):
you have each person leads anengine, you can operate more
efficiently and effectively thansomebody with a 20 person team
who's out of balance from anengine perspective.
So, just to use us as anexample, that's how I built my
company.
Wrong was and that was kind ofthe, you know, one of the origin
pieces of this.
I knew we were weak on thefront end sales and marketing
side, but it was something that,when I saw it from an engine
perspective, I was like oh, wehave four seats on brand engine,
(17:28):
but we don't have an engine.
Not for lack of trying, I wentthrough four rounds.
I finally have a greatmarketing manager, but it took a
few.
I went every single type offractional CMO, a company
in-house and the shoot.
And then now we have anotherin-house that she's the right
fit.
So we went through a wholething but by the time we didn't
have an engine lead there and wehad no seats on the revenue
(17:49):
engine.
We had no one on the sales leadgen, nothing.
So I brought on two lead genguys, so they were the first
seat on the sales and or sorry,our revenue engine and or seat
on the sales and or sorry, ourrevenue engine.
And.
But it's like you want to makesure that your seats are
balanced in order to actuallymove the needle forward, because
that's the other thing is thateach engine has five drivers
that drive the success of thatengine.
So there's five different subcomponents for each engine and
(18:12):
then that engine lead isresponsible for assessing all
five drivers every quarter.
So you do a health check theengine lead does in their engine
every quarter of hey, how do westack up?
Where are our priorities?
So that's something that rollsinto what we call the rolling
priority system, which replaces,if you're familiar with, okrs
(18:33):
so OKRs are objective and keyresults.
Okrs so OKRs are objective andkey results.
That was a red flag.
We had me, my director of opsand our ops manager, who all
have plenty of ops background,and all three of us we had to
have a whole meeting to makesure that we're on the same page
of what really is an OKR andhow do we explain this to the
team.
And it was like that's a redflag flag, because then you
(18:58):
expect your non-operation teamto understand what in the world
you're actually talking about.
Like there's, there's so manydifferent, you know layers of
that, and they're just seeinganyone who's not an operator.
They're just seeing sideways.
They're like your creativeteam's, like huh, what so?
So we trans.
So okay, ours are out.
So now we have the rollingpriority system which ties into
(19:19):
the five drivers inside the fiveengines and then it's really
clear.
Not only is it clear to eachengine lead what the priorities
are, but it's something thatwe're able to articulate that to
the whole team.
So now we have visibility andbuy-in throughout our whole team
, not just the operations teammembers, where everybody knows
what are the highest prioritiesthat we should be working on
(19:41):
right now.
So if somebody has morebandwidth in their schedule,
like, okay, cool, here's what Ican take the initiative on and
really start cooking, because Iknow what the priorities are
well, before it gets to now.
Dr. William Attaway (19:54):
That's solid.
I think that's good.
As you implement this, as youwork with your clients and this
begins to be implemented, canyou share a story or two of how
they have seen incrediblesuccess from this, how it's made
such a big difference in theircompanies?
Rebecca Kallaus (20:11):
Yeah, I would say even just so, just the
awareness of it.
It's amazing how just theawareness of seeing it from that
perspective has a bigdifference.
So you know, that's somethingthat we for our operations
program we have.
We always run people through a15 point assessment tool before
we work with them in our program, the regular program or custom
(20:34):
operations work either one andthat's something that we've had
people literally say just fromthe assessment tool that that
alone brought so much moreclarity that that was just that
alone was helpful to them and sothen when it's like, when
you're able to actually seethose things, you're able to see
a diagnostic of what's going on.
It's because otherwise you'rejust kind of when people who
(20:55):
aren't operators or they'restruggling with operations, then
it's something that if youcan't see what's happening, then
you can't do anything about it.
But once you can see it and youhave a framework for it, then
you have a roadmap on how to fixit and now the whole world
opens up.
So we have, we have teammembers like I'd say it's
(21:16):
amazing how many companies Italk to that they don't have
core values.
And even if they do, they'relike oh yeah, I'd think that our
core values would be this iswhat some I've heard say and I'm
like are they in writing?
Does your team know what theyare?
Because if not, that does notcount.
(21:38):
So literally, just that youknow, I'd say, all the core
value work I do personally withall of our clients and because I
just find that fun, becausethat's something that like, I
just talked to somebody justyesterday and it was just like
such an aha moment becausethere's somebody who came from
the corporate world yesterdayand it was just like such an aha
moment because there's somebodywho came from the corporate
(21:59):
world and and so he came fromlike corporate, where core
values were just like a nicething on a wall, and he was like
I don't need to do core values,Like no one cares about those,
so why bother?
And I was like no, I got yourcore values or your North star
for your entire company.
It's how you make decisions, howyou know should you go left or
should you go right, is based ondoes it match your core values?
(22:22):
Should you hire or keep a teammember or a client, or should
you add this aspect of yourbusiness?
What should your terms andservice terms and conditions
look like?
How do you handle any situation?
All of those things go back toyour core values and it's like
if you don't have those inwriting, then what are you doing
(22:43):
?
You're driving blind.
You're driving without adashboard, without a you know in
your car you don't drive with.
You know all your everything onyour dash covered up.
No, you have all the differentmetrics that show you the stash
report in all these differentareas, Like why are you doing
that in your business withoutthat?
Dr. William Attaway (23:01):
That's so good.
You know.
I think having you comealongside is something that is
incredibly beneficial for yourclients, and I know a lot of the
folks who are listening are ata point where they feel like,
operationally, they're at a loss, they're not sure, they don't
know what to do next.
It's very difficult to see thewhole picture when you're in the
(23:24):
frame, and that's where havinga trusted advisor who comes
alongside you, who brings theexpertise and the knowledge base
of helping so many other peoplewith similar things, can come
alongside and help you gofarther faster, can help you
find those shortcuts and say,hey, you know, I know you've
seen this not work rightsomewhere else, but let me tell
(23:44):
you why it's so important youneed these values.
Let me tell you why and who canhelp you shortcut the process
and avoid driving into a ditchthat they would otherwise be
right into, driving into a ditchthat they would otherwise be
right into.
I know this is something that isresonating because I hear the
ops challenges all the time.
I hear people talk about this.
(24:05):
They don't know what to do next, and I think having a
conversation with you is aphenomenal next step we're going
to talk about that in just aminute how people can do that.
Before we get there, I want todive into a couple of questions
that we ask all of our guestshere.
One of those is this you knowyour team, your clients, need
you to lead at a higher leveltoday than they did a year or
(24:29):
two ago, and that same thing isgoing to be true a year, two,
five years from now.
So how do you, rebecca, how doyou level up, how do you stay on
top of your game and developthe new leadership skills that
your team and your clients aregonna need you to have in the
days to come?
Rebecca Kallaus (24:48):
Yeah, no, I love this question.
So a handful of different ways.
So one first thing that comesto mind is so my team keeps me
on my toes, for sure.
I'm constantly putting certainthings in front of my team so
that they can level up, and then, when they level up, that keeps
me sharp.
So every single Wednesday we doa 30-minute training with the
whole team.
(25:09):
So it could be on technicalthings, it could be on mindset,
communication, health, mind,body, spirit, and we would cover
a whole gamut of things.
Also, require every single teammember to lead at least one
past one.
It's totally optional.
And yeah, and so that'ssomething that.
That it's just.
We've had some incredibletrainings come out of that Um,
especially from from my, myproject manager, who she's she's
(25:31):
been with me for two and a halfyears and it's just well, she's
, she's just, she's incredible.
Um, but that's something thatjust just seeing them, that's a
reflection to me that it's likeI always need to be multiple
steps ahead of them and I'mconstant there.
That needle keeps moving.
So I'm like, oh, I, I gottamake sure my needle's moving too
.
Um, so that's one um.
(25:53):
Having the right people aroundyou in a formal and informal
perspective, both.
That's something that I'vealways done on a personal level
is just.
The people that I have aroundme are always I don't know what
small talk is.
I'm not very good at small talk.
It's I don't know how to do it.
I'm not good at it.
I get super awkward and clammedup, but when it comes to deep,
(26:16):
vulnerable, transparentconversations that really move
the needle forward of who youare as a human, I have as many
of those around me all the timemy best friend, close friends,
family, unofficial professionalmentors, I guess you could say
People who are in their 60s thathave been doing things years,
(26:38):
um, and then on a formalperspective.
So I'm really excited.
I'm just about to start workingwith you.
We just we just confirmed thatthat's going to be moving
forward.
Um, uh, as soon as I saw youspeak, I was like, oh my gosh, I
would just, I would be honoredto have you as a mentor.
Um, cause it's just when youfind somebody who's really a
quality human and who has aclarity in things that are more
(27:01):
advanced than where you are in,whatever that thing is, those
are the people that you want tohave around you.
So, just to have as many ofthose things from every single
perspective as possible.
So I'm always looking forpeople, tools, trainings,
frameworks, because it's alwaysan endless journey to level up
as a leader.
Dr. William Attaway (27:23):
Well, and I commend you for the teachable
spirit that you have, Rebecca,and I think this is key to
success, and I talk about thison the show a lot.
You know it's very easy to slideinto maintenance mode when it
comes to learning and think Iknow enough, I've got this, and
you just begin to operate out ofrote memory.
And that is not what the bestleaders do.
(27:45):
The best leaders I knowapproach every day with that
teachable spirit and say youknow what I can learn from
anybody and I can learn from anysituation.
What am I going to learn today?
I want to be the most teachableperson in every environment I
go into today and that's what Isee in you and I'm excited about
working together.
I think it's going to be greatand the reason that I said yes
(28:07):
to that is because you have that.
That's a non-negotiable for me,for somebody that I'm going to
work with.
You know, I think that iscritical.
I think that is critical andfor our listeners, this is a
(28:33):
choice you can make.
You get to decide every day ifyou are going to be the most
teachable person in the roomsyou're in.
Rebecca Kallaus (28:37):
You get to decide if you're going to have
that teachable spirit, and I'mgoing to challenge you to make
that decision.
Rebecca, you are in thatcontinual learning mode and I'm
curious is there a book that hasmade a big difference in your
journey that you would recommendto the leaders who are
listening?
I have a couple.
Before I answer that, though, Ijust want to tie off on one
other thing on the previoustopic, though, where that's
something that we always havethe learning and to really dig
(28:59):
into challenges and really yourblind spots and anything that's
a blocker.
But when things are really busythat you might not have the
opportunity for a course, a bookor whatever the thing is, but
there's always an opportunityfor each moment, Anything that
(29:20):
comes up.
That's a friction point.
To then take that opportunityof okay, what am I missing in
this one moment that can helpfacilitate a breakthrough for
myself, for somebody on my team,for a client, for whatever that
is.
So it is, there's always amoment for some sort of
continued learning, even if it'sthose small micro opportunities
.
Dr. William Attaway (29:39):
I love that .
Yeah, well said.
Rebecca Kallaus (29:42):
So and then on the book, on the book aspect
there's, there's a couple ofthings that come to mind On the
on the business side, I'd say my, my favorite book is Billion
Dollar Bullseye by JonathanKronstadt, j Kron.
So that, I would say, is the asfar as any like one book that
encompasses, at least foranybody who's looking to scale
their business.
(30:02):
They have aggressive goals fortheir business.
I think it's really the mostall encompassing book of just
all sorts of differentcomponents of business.
And then um for, uh, on thepersonal side of just not
business side, my favoriteauthor is Dr David Hawkins.
So I'm not even going to say aspecific book of Dr David
(30:24):
Hawkins, but um, I'd say I'd saywhatever, whatever calls to
somebody, um is letting go askind of his like starter book.
It's anything but elementary,but um, hands down my favorite
author.
Dr. William Attaway (30:38):
I'm not familiar with him now.
I have to go check him out.
Thank you for that.
Yes, absolutely.
You know, rebecca, it's easysometimes for us to look at a
leader like you and just see thehighlight reel.
You know, just see, oh mygoodness, what success, what
incredible influence and impactRebecca is having.
I bet she doesn't struggle likeI struggle.
(30:59):
I bet she doesn't really haveany problems in her business,
and we know that that's not true.
We know that there are alwayschallenges behind the scenes,
there are always things that youwould love to solve, and so, in
that spirit, I'm going to askyou this If I had the ability to
snap my fingers and solve oneproblem in your business right
now, what would you want thatproblem to be?
Rebecca Kallaus (31:22):
definitely the front end of business, the sales
and marketing side, notsomething that I love,
everything the the backside ofbusiness.
Uh, you know, most of the timefounders are trying to get, get
out of their business, like notbe in their business.
For me, I love being in mybusiness, that's my fun zone, um
, but it's the, it's, it's the,the inbound piece, the um.
You know, the sales andmarketing side Cause for me, I'm
(31:44):
.
I'm the kind of person where Iwant.
I like when, when people tellme what you want and I can go
build the thing, I can, youbring a problem to me and I'll
figure out how to fix it.
But to go out and connect withother people and to sell them on
things, that's not, you know,it's.
It's like you could do that insuch in a way that is full of
(32:07):
integrity and is absolutely insomebody's best interest.
Uh you know that's, that's,that's what that should be, but
I guess I don't know.
I'm sure I have some sort ofblind spot blocker somewhere
there where to me it's likethere's just an aspect of
manipulation, um, at least likecause.
I encounter so many people inthe sales and marketing realm,
that is a thing, and it's likethat's.
(32:28):
I have such an aversion toreceiving that and I never in a
million years ever want to bereceived by that, as that, by
somebody else, and so I thinkfrom that, that creates a
disconnect for me with sales andmarketing and I'm just like,
can everyone just come to me andjust tell me what you want
fixed?
Just bring me all your problems.
Wouldn't that be great?
Dr. William Attaway (32:48):
Dump it all on the table.
Rebecca Kallaus (32:49):
Everybody comes to you, oh yeah, I'd help it.
Like, don't bother making itpretty, I don't need to just
dump it all on the table.
I'll figure out how to fix allof it, I can do that.
But to go out in the sales andmarketing side so we're
definitely actively looking foras a business I've really kind
of put some thought into itrecently that I want to.
I want to bring somebody intoour business on the biz debt
(33:11):
like business developmentrepresentative, someone who's
just going to be out there andlike like really bringing
bringing that piece in on thefront end.
Dr. William Attaway (33:19):
So yeah, Well, I appreciate the
transparency and really thegenerosity today in sharing so
openly about what it is thatyou're doing and even the
challenges and struggles thatyou've had throughout.
You know, I think to say youknow you kind of built it
backwards, you know, and nowyou're trying to go back.
That is refreshing to hearsomebody talk about that.
(33:41):
I know you are making atremendous difference in your
clients' businesses and in theirlives and reducing their stress
level and increasing theirimpact and their revenue, and I
know a lot of the peoplelistening need exactly what you
are doing.
They need somebody to come inwith fresh eyes to assess,
(34:02):
evaluate and help them see whatthey can't see, so that they can
get to the other side of theproblem season that they're in
right now.
If somebody's ready for that,how do they get in touch with
you?
Rebecca Kallaus (34:16):
Yeah, so I would go go to our website,
business done betterco, co.
So there's no M on the endbusiness done betterco and you
can fill out a contact formthere and that'll that'll make
sure that it gets to me in theright way.
And just you know, any anythingthat you're dealing with back
end of business, whether it'soperations, crm system,
(34:36):
fulfillment, team related, youknow, whatever those issues are
just you know, fill out thatform and I'll make sure that I
personally get back to anybodythat fills out that form.
So that's going to be thesustainable place to always be
able to reach me and my company.
But yeah, I think I just kindof want to just take the
opportunity to just remindpeople that anytime you are
(34:58):
struggling with anything in yourbusiness and life in general I
mean I think the business sideespecially there's a million
people who've had those exactsame problems.
It is more fixable than youthink.
I was talking to somebodyyesterday and we were doing an
assessment, uh, operationsassessment and and you know I
have them rate certain things aszero through 10.
(35:19):
And and a lot of things he wasreading is like a, like a three,
and he was just having justlike a, like a, he was totally
shutting down.
He was like, well, and he wasjust having just like a, like a,
he was totally shutting down.
He was like, well, that doesn'tlook good.
Well, that's that's.
This is really ugly.
And he was just, he was like,just just having such like a
block of I'm bringing this mess.
Is this really fixable?
(35:39):
You know, he'd been doing hisbusiness for eight years and and
and he was, like you know, hadhad total stagnation for the
last couple years, and he was,like you know, had total
stagnation for the last coupleyears.
And he was like, you know, isthis ever really going to move
forward?
You know, we've kind of been inthe same place for so long, like
, is this able to actually befixed?
And I was like every singlething that we're covering on
this assessment, not only can itbe fixed, but we can fix all of
(36:02):
it.
We have the answers foreverything.
I wouldn't have you ratingthings as a as a fail score if
it wasn't something that I couldgive you a solution for.
So I have we always run throughthat just to just to see where
the priorities really lie.
But you know, it was just likedon't, don't, don't be too hard
(36:23):
on yourself.
This is all fixable.
There are solutions.
Anything operationally radicaltransparency is one of our core
values as a company.
And so that's something thatshows up in so many different
aspects of us as individuals acompany, how we do business, et
cetera.
But that's something that,operationally, if we're not the
(36:46):
right fit you know I have agreat network I'll refer you to
somebody else who is a betterfit at the very least Put
somebody on the right direction.
But most things from anoperational perspective, we
absolutely can support.
Dr. William Attaway (36:57):
We'll have that link in the show notes and
I want to strongly encourage ifthis is a pain point for you and
I know many of you, it is takeaction right.
Fill out the form, get theconversation started.
I've often regretted not takingaction.
I've rarely regretted steppingin and doing it.
(37:18):
So I'm going to challenge eachone of you listen to the show,
contact Rebecca.
She can help Rebecca.
Thank you for your time.
Rebecca Kallaus (37:27):
Thank you so much.
Absolutely a pleasure beinghere.
I'm so excited today to have Rebecca
Caloose on the podcast.
Rebecca Sonnen-Caloose is avision architect and the founder
of Business Done Better, thego-to operations partner for
coaches, creators, agencies andsmall businesses scaling from
six to eight figures.
With over a decade in businessdevelopment and operations,
(00:23):
she's helped companies fromsolopreneurs to $20 million plus
restructure their systems,align their teams and regain
control.
She's the creator of the 5Engine Operating System and a
longtime strategic partner ofHigh Level, having directly
shaped platform features tobetter serve founder-led
(00:46):
businesses.
Known for simplifying withoutdumbing down, rebecca helps
visionary founders get out ofreaction mode and scale with
structure, sanity andsustainability.
Rebecca, I'm so glad you'rehere.
Thanks for being on the show.
Rebecca Kallaus (01:04):
Absolutely my pleasure.
Yeah, super excited to be here.
Intro (01:10):
Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed
to help leaders intentionallygrow and thrive.
Dr. William Attaway (01:17):
Here is your host author and leadership
and executive coach, dr WilliamAttaway executive coach, dr
William Attaway, I would love tostart with you sharing a little
bit of your story with ourlisteners, particularly around
your journey and yourdevelopment as a leader.
How did you get started?
Rebecca Kallaus (01:38):
Yeah, so you could say, like my journey from
different angles of things youspecifically asked from a
leadership perspective that onehas an interesting twist to me
because, um, I actually I wasalways a huge introvert.
I mean, I'm still definitely anintrovert.
I think I've had a lot ofpeople tell me to my face that
I'm lying because I think thatI'm so active extrovert and I'm
(01:59):
like you have no idea, um, andyou know I do, I do, speaking on
stage, you know, on all sortsof things, and be like, oh wow,
you're such a natural speakerand a natural leader and I'm
like cool, that's a learnedskill.
So in grade school I wasactually the shyest person in my
entire elementary school.
So that's that's where thingscame from, where, like all my
(02:23):
report cards as a child was wethink Rebecca's paying attention
but we can't really tellbecause we can't hear anything
that she says Literally everyreport card every year.
So my development there wasdefinitely a long journey and I
think it stemmed from me justlearning how to find my voice,
and that came from so manydifferent layers and so many
different experiences.
(02:43):
Find my voice and that came fromso many different layers and so
many different experiences, butI just I had so much that I
wanted to say and so much that Iwanted to be in the world doing
, and so I think it just thatkind of just naturally evolved
where I'm the kind of personthat if somebody is doing an
amazing job, like I, can take abackseat to something.
But whenever something is beingdone in a way that I'm like,
(03:04):
Ooh, like that could beoptimized over here, where we're
missing a huge opportunity todo this, Um, where you know
that's going to be a win, win,win across the board, Then it's
it's like a compulsion for me toto improve that.
So that's kind of theessentially the origin of my
company business done betterwhere.
Done better doesn't mean thatthat I or we know better.
It means that if better can bedone, then we do that.
(03:26):
So that's kind of just thephilosophy that carries
throughout everything.
I would say but yeah, so like Iguess that's the best way I can
answer that.
Dr. William Attaway (03:38):
Yeah, no, that's great.
You know.
I think you keyed in on acouple of things that are really
important.
First, so often I encounterpeople who are introverts, who
say, oh, that's a limitation,that's a, that's a box that I'm
trapped in and that's going toprevent me from doing things
like speaking.
You know, like being out frontand I think your story is a
(04:01):
fantastic illustration that thatis not true.
You know that you can stepbeyond that.
I too would fall in thatintrovert thing.
In fact, if you look at myMyers-Briggs, if this is
extrovert and this is introvert,I'm over here, you know, like
I'm all the way on that side,and the reality is that does not
limit us right.
(04:22):
It's just part of how we'rewired, where we draw our energy
from, and if we craft our livesand our rhythms in the right way
, we can do that in a way thatleverages our strengths but
still enables us to do thethings we need to do to grow our
businesses.
So I love that you brought thatout.
Rebecca Kallaus (04:40):
Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah, to even add one morething onto that, where just this
is just my thought processalong those lines, is that being
an introvert?
I I wouldn't even say that I, Itolerate it.
I hate being on camera, um,like anything.
When my my team, anytime thatthey need me to record content,
it's the most painful thing.
Um, I'm lucky my team loves me,because I definitely drive them
(05:02):
crazy.
They're like did you record thething?
I'm like no, because I avoid it, as the worst thing on my task
list by far is anything justlike just, you know recording
content or stuff like that.
You know I can read off of ateleprompter, but like to work,
I don't like talking intodevices.
That's really what it is.
Um, cause it just.
(05:23):
But.
So that's two part thing.
One, um, uh, like that's why Idon't like the, the recording
content, cause I'm talking to adevice, cause I'm not talking to
a person.
And two, that's also the like.
My thought process for how I doany speaking stuff and how I do
step into a leadership role isbecause my desire for positively
(05:45):
impacting others, my desire toconnect with people and move
things forward in the world,that so greatly exceeds how much
I hate being on camera andrecording content and speaking
into a device and that's a highbar.
I really don't like thosethings, but I love people that
much more.
Dr. William Attaway (06:06):
I love that , and that's a great example of
how your why and your core candrive you even beyond the areas
where you're not comfortable.
Growth and comfort don'tcoexist.
You get to pick one, you knowno, and I love that you have
taken that choice.
Rebecca Kallaus (06:22):
My favorite vocab word is hormesis.
Do you know what hormesis means?
Dr. William Attaway (06:26):
I do not Bring it.
Rebecca Kallaus (06:29):
So hormesis, essentially, is the sweet spot
of where a negative stimulus isconstructive.
If you have too much of it, youshut down.
If you have too little of it,you don't grow.
So hormesis is that sweet spotin the middle.
Dr. William Attaway (06:45):
Oh, that's so good.
I love that, and it got my mindracing now.
That's so fantastic.
I love that concept.
Rebecca Kallaus (06:52):
I heard that word for the first time on a
podcast with Wim Hof and, oh mygosh, Tom Billiard.
Dr. William Attaway (07:01):
Oh, that's so good.
I'm definitely keeping that one.
Thank you.
Rebecca Kallaus (07:04):
Yes, I love that.
Dr. William Attaway (07:06):
So when we met, we met at a conference not
long ago and one of the thingsthat we were talking about that
you shared was something thatyou are the creator of this the
five engine operating system.
That's core of a lot of whatyou do in your business for
companies.
Would you share thatfive-engine operating system at
(07:26):
a high level?
I'd love for our listeners tohear that and to see the
structure and the framework ofit.
Rebecca Kallaus (07:34):
Yeah, absolutely.
So the origin of that is I haveabout a decade of background in
business development andoperations and you know I've
worked with a handful ofdifferent operating systems and
I was just like I was reallydeep diving into operating
systems and I was like I don'tknow of an operating system
that's really scalable fromsolopreneur to enterprise and
industry agnostic and I was likethat's silly, like there should
(07:58):
be one, why is there not?
And so I just kind of like tooka step back and I was like,
okay, well, there's anopportunity here.
No-transcript able to do that.
(08:36):
And I'm still, to this day, theonly executive on my team.
Like I carry a lot of heavylifting on my shoulders, I'm
still.
I still have more pieces to putinto place.
I kind of grew my companybackwards from how you should
start a business Hindsight'salways 20-20.
But that was something thatthere are certain things that
allowed us to do that well,where we have the operational
(08:58):
structure and strength of moreso than most companies in year
five, six, seven plus after onlytwo years.
And it was because of justcertain things that we had
started to do internally.
And so when I was kind ofthinking about all this, I kind
of took things that we werealready doing and then built
them out a lot further andrealized it was really a
(09:18):
full-scale operating system.
So I call it the five-engineoperating system, because no
matter what size company or whatindustry, you always have five
engines for your company.
You have revenue, brand, clientsuccess, operations and
leadership.
And I say that in a particularorder, because you start a
(09:39):
company with revenue.
If you don't have revenuechannels coming in, you just
have a nice hobby.
So I did my business backwardsbecause operations was my
strength, so I skipped the firsttwo.
The second one is brand.
You have to do brand next,because then that takes your
revenue channels and then thebrand is what creates it from a
(10:01):
sustainable perspective, and soyou have to get that into place
as soon as possible.
Then you always have to makesure that you're taking care of
your clients properly.
Okay, so you know on some levelyou have to start sort of with
that.
That ties into like, obviously,what are you doing for revenue?
But once you have the first twoengines handled, then you want
to dig into and make sure you'rereally delivering the best
(10:22):
thing possible for your clients.
Operations is really how youscale.
A company cannot scale withoutoperations.
That's why our specialty on theoperations side is working with
seven-figure virtual companies,because that's something that,
once you hit seven figuresoperations becomes your number
one pain point.
And then leadership isessentially the essence that
ties everything together.
So leadership is always youknow that's that's the top topic
(10:44):
of of our conversation todaybut, um, you know, leadership is
it's really the the life forcethat keeps a company together.
It's what, it's where yourvision lives, it's where your
comp, your culture lives.
Um, there's so many things thatare that are wrapped up into
into leadership.
So there's there's so much moreto it, to it.
(11:04):
But that's kind of it in anutshell, and, yeah, I could
definitely go down a wholerabbit hole there.
Dr. William Attaway (11:10):
Well, I love the framework and the
simplicity of it.
I mean, you've taken somethingthat is pretty complex and
you've made it accessible, and Ithink that's the mark of a
teacher, somebody who's giftedat communication.
Where do you see most of yourclients or people that you're
talking to?
Where do you see them reallybreaking down in that framework?
(11:32):
Is there one place more thananother or is it kind of equal
across the board?
Rebecca Kallaus (11:36):
I mean before we start working with them, or
yeah, before, yeah, absolutelybefore yeah.
So well, because we don't helpwith, you know, with the front
end side of the business.
We only help with the back endpiece.
So the last client, success andoperations, and a little bit on
the leadership side, but that'ssomething that the breakdown is
(11:57):
.
It's not always consistent.
I'd say that the certainconsistencies are, however, our
communication and delegation.
There's a lot of times wherethings fall through the cracks
of where, you know, thevisionary has an idea and then
they want to, they want theexecution team to go and do a
thing, and they're like hey, dothe thing.
(12:18):
And then execution team takesthat ball and then they start to
do a thing and thenleadership's like that wasn't
what I was trying to say andexecution was like well, you
didn't give us all the info, andthen and then like or there's
no QA, and then it gets turnedover to the client and the
client's like that's not what I.
You know we're missing this,there's errors and things are
broken over here.
(12:38):
So there's there's all thesedifferent holes in that
execution thread.
So that's a part of theoperating system, is?
I just call it the five phasebuild cycle.
Maybe I'll come up with abetter theme in the future.
I'm not that creative withnaming things.
It's literally five phases ofexecution.
So anytime you're executingsomething, you're building
(12:59):
something, you run through fivephases.
You have ideation, architect,execute, test, optimize.
Now a lot of people go through.
You know somewhat of thatframework, but the key piece is
that there's a baton handoffbetween each phase.
So at the ideation phase youhave a concept brief.
(13:20):
So whoever is doing theideation ideation comes from
nothing, so it's usually thevisionary or someone on the
executive team, or at least amanager, someone where nothing
was told to them like it's theorigin of where.
That came from nothing intoidea.
So then they download that intowhat's called a concept brief.
That is kind of a quick andeasy extraction of that vision
(13:43):
and then that's what's passed onto whoever's doing the
architecting.
So architecting is done usuallyby a project manager or whoever
it is.
That's like going to create thedetails, the blueprint of what
needs to be done.
Okay, so we call that batonphase there a build plan.
Okay, so under architect youfill out a build plan.
Depending on the scope of theproject or task.
(14:05):
It could be something thattakes an hour, could be a couple
of weeks, but just along thesame concept of measure twice
cut once you want to make surethat you have all the details
really outlined in that buildplan, and then that's what's
given over to the execution team.
So they have everything thatthey need.
They have all the constraints,they have all the cautionaries,
they have all the parameters,they have the what's, the
(14:26):
definition of success, what'sthe outcome that we're shooting
for?
How do we know when the thingis done?
What does that look like?
What are all the pieces thatare involved?
Who are all the people that are, that are they're executing on
this project?
What are all the differentphases, the different tasks
underneath this, the mini tasksassigned to this, and then, once
(14:48):
they're done, execution seemslike we did the thing, we did
everything you asked for.
Then that gets passed on totesting, where there's a QA
process.
So if you did everything rightfrom the start, then great, your
QA could be really simple andthat might be the end of the
cycle.
But if QA turns up anything,then it goes to an optimization
phase right away, or it could bedown the road where you think
(15:08):
you did everything right andthen you know a year later, on
that same project, you're like,oh, you know what we really
could optimize this over here,great.
You don't need to do a wholebuild plan all over again.
In the optimization phase youbasically do a mini build.
It's just.
It's the same concept but juston a smaller scale.
And then that gets passed backto execution once that's the
optimization plan is done.
And then you keep going one,two, three, four, five, three,
(15:30):
four, five, until it ends atfour of testing.
Qa says good to go.
Dr. William Attaway (15:40):
And now you have everything locked down.
That's phenomenal.
And I say that I mean I workwith a lot of different,
particularly in the agency space, but even beyond, a lot of
founders and leaders who reallystruggle with what you just
described.
They really struggle in theoperational side of this.
They're phenomenal at thebeginning, but there comes a
point where you have grownbeyond.
You know one person at thecenter of the spotter web, so to
(16:01):
speak where everything connectsto them.
What you're describing issomething that is that will help
them to develop a healthy andsustainable pace over time that
will scale.
Is that something that you seea lot of your clients doing?
As they begin to implement whatyou're helping them with, do
they begin to see oh well, I'vegot freedom and I've got growth?
Rebecca Kallaus (16:23):
Yes.
So I'm going to just I'm goingto kind of answer that in a
slightly different perspectiveor another angle of the
operating system is so we havethe five engines as a founder,
the goal is to have somebodyleading you.
As a founder, you runleadership.
That is your job.
You are responsible for theculture, for the vision, for the
essence of everything.
(16:44):
So until you're big enough tohire a CEO in place of you, then
you're in charge of that engine.
Yes, but then you want to getan engine lead for the other
four as soon as possible, wantto get an engine lead for the
other four as soon as possible.
So that way, if you as a team,you have a five person team, but
(17:05):
you have each person leads anengine, you can operate more
efficiently and effectively thansomebody with a 20 person team
who's out of balance from anengine perspective.
So, just to use us as anexample, that's how I built my
company.
Wrong was and that was kind ofthe, you know, one of the origin
pieces of this.
I knew we were weak on thefront end sales and marketing
side, but it was something that,when I saw it from an engine
perspective, I was like oh, wehave four seats on brand engine,
(17:28):
but we don't have an engine.
Not for lack of trying, I wentthrough four rounds.
I finally have a greatmarketing manager, but it took a
few.
I went every single type offractional CMO, a company
in-house and the shoot.
And then now we have anotherin-house that she's the right
fit.
So we went through a wholething but by the time we didn't
have an engine lead there and wehad no seats on the revenue
(17:49):
engine.
We had no one on the sales leadgen, nothing.
So I brought on two lead genguys, so they were the first
seat on the sales and or sorry,our revenue engine and or seat
on the sales and or sorry, ourrevenue engine.
And.
But it's like you want to makesure that your seats are
balanced in order to actuallymove the needle forward, because
that's the other thing is thateach engine has five drivers
that drive the success of thatengine.
So there's five different subcomponents for each engine and
(18:12):
then that engine lead isresponsible for assessing all
five drivers every quarter.
So you do a health check theengine lead does in their engine
every quarter of hey, how do westack up?
Where are our priorities?
So that's something that rollsinto what we call the rolling
priority system, which replaces,if you're familiar with, okrs
(18:33):
so OKRs are objective and keyresults.
Okrs so OKRs are objective andkey results.
That was a red flag.
We had me, my director of opsand our ops manager, who all
have plenty of ops background,and all three of us we had to
have a whole meeting to makesure that we're on the same page
of what really is an OKR andhow do we explain this to the
team.
And it was like that's a redflag flag, because then you
(18:58):
expect your non-operation teamto understand what in the world
you're actually talking about.
Like there's, there's so manydifferent, you know layers of
that, and they're just seeinganyone who's not an operator.
They're just seeing sideways.
They're like your creativeteam's, like huh, what so?
So we trans.
So okay, ours are out.
So now we have the rollingpriority system which ties into
(19:19):
the five drivers inside the fiveengines and then it's really
clear.
Not only is it clear to eachengine lead what the priorities
are, but it's something thatwe're able to articulate that to
the whole team.
So now we have visibility andbuy-in throughout our whole team
, not just the operations teammembers, where everybody knows
what are the highest prioritiesthat we should be working on
(19:41):
right now.
So if somebody has morebandwidth in their schedule,
like, okay, cool, here's what Ican take the initiative on and
really start cooking, because Iknow what the priorities are
well, before it gets to now.
Dr. William Attaway (19:54):
That's solid.
I think that's good.
As you implement this, as youwork with your clients and this
begins to be implemented, canyou share a story or two of how
they have seen incrediblesuccess from this, how it's made
such a big difference in theircompanies?
Rebecca Kallaus (20:11):
Yeah, I would say even just so, just the
awareness of it.
It's amazing how just theawareness of seeing it from that
perspective has a bigdifference.
So you know, that's somethingthat we for our operations
program we have.
We always run people through a15 point assessment tool before
we work with them in our program, the regular program or custom
(20:34):
operations work either one andthat's something that we've had
people literally say just fromthe assessment tool that that
alone brought so much moreclarity that that was just that
alone was helpful to them and sothen when it's like, when
you're able to actually seethose things, you're able to see
a diagnostic of what's going on.
It's because otherwise you'rejust kind of when people who
(20:55):
aren't operators or they'restruggling with operations, then
it's something that if youcan't see what's happening, then
you can't do anything about it.
But once you can see it and youhave a framework for it, then
you have a roadmap on how to fixit and now the whole world
opens up.
So we have, we have teammembers like I'd say it's
(21:16):
amazing how many companies Italk to that they don't have
core values.
And even if they do, they'relike oh yeah, I'd think that our
core values would be this iswhat some I've heard say and I'm
like are they in writing?
Does your team know what theyare?
Because if not, that does notcount.
(21:38):
So literally, just that youknow, I'd say, all the core
value work I do personally withall of our clients and because I
just find that fun, becausethat's something that like, I
just talked to somebody justyesterday and it was just like
such an aha moment becausethere's somebody who came from
the corporate world yesterdayand it was just like such an aha
moment because there's somebodywho came from the corporate
(21:59):
world and and so he came fromlike corporate, where core
values were just like a nicething on a wall, and he was like
I don't need to do core values,Like no one cares about those,
so why bother?
And I was like no, I got yourcore values or your North star
for your entire company.
It's how you make decisions, howyou know should you go left or
should you go right, is based ondoes it match your core values?
(22:22):
Should you hire or keep a teammember or a client, or should
you add this aspect of yourbusiness?
What should your terms andservice terms and conditions
look like?
How do you handle any situation?
All of those things go back toyour core values and it's like
if you don't have those inwriting, then what are you doing
(22:43):
?
You're driving blind.
You're driving without adashboard, without a you know in
your car you don't drive with.
You know all your everything onyour dash covered up.
No, you have all the differentmetrics that show you the stash
report in all these differentareas, Like why are you doing
that in your business withoutthat?
Dr. William Attaway (23:01):
That's so good.
You know.
I think having you comealongside is something that is
incredibly beneficial for yourclients, and I know a lot of the
folks who are listening are ata point where they feel like,
operationally, they're at a loss, they're not sure, they don't
know what to do next.
It's very difficult to see thewhole picture when you're in the
(23:24):
frame, and that's where havinga trusted advisor who comes
alongside you, who brings theexpertise and the knowledge base
of helping so many other peoplewith similar things, can come
alongside and help you gofarther faster, can help you
find those shortcuts and say,hey, you know, I know you've
seen this not work rightsomewhere else, but let me tell
(23:44):
you why it's so important youneed these values.
Let me tell you why and who canhelp you shortcut the process
and avoid driving into a ditchthat they would otherwise be
right into, driving into a ditchthat they would otherwise be
right into.
I know this is something that isresonating because I hear the
ops challenges all the time.
I hear people talk about this.
(24:05):
They don't know what to do next, and I think having a
conversation with you is aphenomenal next step we're going
to talk about that in just aminute how people can do that.
Before we get there, I want todive into a couple of questions
that we ask all of our guestshere.
One of those is this you knowyour team, your clients, need
you to lead at a higher leveltoday than they did a year or
(24:29):
two ago, and that same thing isgoing to be true a year, two,
five years from now.
So how do you, rebecca, how doyou level up, how do you stay on
top of your game and developthe new leadership skills that
your team and your clients aregonna need you to have in the
days to come?
Rebecca Kallaus (24:48):
Yeah, no, I love this question.
So a handful of different ways.
So one first thing that comesto mind is so my team keeps me
on my toes, for sure.
I'm constantly putting certainthings in front of my team so
that they can level up, and then, when they level up, that keeps
me sharp.
So every single Wednesday we doa 30-minute training with the
whole team.
(25:09):
So it could be on technicalthings, it could be on mindset,
communication, health, mind,body, spirit, and we would cover
a whole gamut of things.
Also, require every single teammember to lead at least one
past one.
It's totally optional.
And yeah, and so that'ssomething that.
That it's just.
We've had some incredibletrainings come out of that Um,
especially from from my, myproject manager, who she's she's
(25:31):
been with me for two and a halfyears and it's just well, she's
, she's just, she's incredible.
Um, but that's something thatjust just seeing them, that's a
reflection to me that it's likeI always need to be multiple
steps ahead of them and I'mconstant there.
That needle keeps moving.
So I'm like, oh, I, I gottamake sure my needle's moving too
.
Um, so that's one um.
(25:53):
Having the right people aroundyou in a formal and informal
perspective, both.
That's something that I'vealways done on a personal level
is just.
The people that I have aroundme are always I don't know what
small talk is.
I'm not very good at small talk.
It's I don't know how to do it.
I'm not good at it.
I get super awkward and clammedup, but when it comes to deep,
(26:16):
vulnerable, transparentconversations that really move
the needle forward of who youare as a human, I have as many
of those around me all the timemy best friend, close friends,
family, unofficial professionalmentors, I guess you could say
People who are in their 60s thathave been doing things years,
(26:38):
um, and then on a formalperspective.
So I'm really excited.
I'm just about to start workingwith you.
We just we just confirmed thatthat's going to be moving
forward.
Um, uh, as soon as I saw youspeak, I was like, oh my gosh, I
would just, I would be honoredto have you as a mentor.
Um, cause it's just when youfind somebody who's really a
quality human and who has aclarity in things that are more
(27:01):
advanced than where you are in,whatever that thing is, those
are the people that you want tohave around you.
So, just to have as many ofthose things from every single
perspective as possible.
So I'm always looking forpeople, tools, trainings,
frameworks, because it's alwaysan endless journey to level up
as a leader.
Dr. William Attaway (27:23):
Well, and I commend you for the teachable
spirit that you have, Rebecca,and I think this is key to
success, and I talk about thison the show a lot.
You know it's very easy to slideinto maintenance mode when it
comes to learning and think Iknow enough, I've got this, and
you just begin to operate out ofrote memory.
And that is not what the bestleaders do.
(27:45):
The best leaders I knowapproach every day with that
teachable spirit and say youknow what I can learn from
anybody and I can learn from anysituation.
What am I going to learn today?
I want to be the most teachableperson in every environment I
go into today and that's what Isee in you and I'm excited about
working together.
I think it's going to be greatand the reason that I said yes
(28:07):
to that is because you have that.
That's a non-negotiable for me,for somebody that I'm going to
work with.
You know, I think that iscritical.
I think that is critical andfor our listeners, this is a
(28:33):
choice you can make.
You get to decide every day ifyou are going to be the most
teachable person in the roomsyou're in.
Rebecca Kallaus (28:37):
You get to decide if you're going to have
that teachable spirit, and I'mgoing to challenge you to make
that decision.
Rebecca, you are in thatcontinual learning mode and I'm
curious is there a book that hasmade a big difference in your
journey that you would recommendto the leaders who are
listening?
I have a couple.
Before I answer that, though, Ijust want to tie off on one
other thing on the previoustopic, though, where that's
something that we always havethe learning and to really dig
(28:59):
into challenges and really yourblind spots and anything that's
a blocker.
But when things are really busythat you might not have the
opportunity for a course, a bookor whatever the thing is, but
there's always an opportunityfor each moment, Anything that
(29:20):
comes up.
That's a friction point.
To then take that opportunityof okay, what am I missing in
this one moment that can helpfacilitate a breakthrough for
myself, for somebody on my team,for a client, for whatever that
is.
So it is, there's always amoment for some sort of
continued learning, even if it'sthose small micro opportunities
.
Dr. William Attaway (29:39):
I love that .
Yeah, well said.
Rebecca Kallaus (29:42):
So and then on the book, on the book aspect
there's, there's a couple ofthings that come to mind On the
on the business side, I'd say my, my favorite book is Billion
Dollar Bullseye by JonathanKronstadt, j Kron.
So that, I would say, is the asfar as any like one book that
encompasses, at least foranybody who's looking to scale
their business.
(30:02):
They have aggressive goals fortheir business.
I think it's really the mostall encompassing book of just
all sorts of differentcomponents of business.
And then um for, uh, on thepersonal side of just not
business side, my favoriteauthor is Dr David Hawkins.
So I'm not even going to say aspecific book of Dr David
(30:24):
Hawkins, but um, I'd say I'd saywhatever, whatever calls to
somebody, um is letting go askind of his like starter book.
It's anything but elementary,but um, hands down my favorite
author.
Dr. William Attaway (30:38):
I'm not familiar with him now.
I have to go check him out.
Thank you for that.
Yes, absolutely.
You know, rebecca, it's easysometimes for us to look at a
leader like you and just see thehighlight reel.
You know, just see, oh mygoodness, what success, what
incredible influence and impactRebecca is having.
I bet she doesn't struggle likeI struggle.
(30:59):
I bet she doesn't really haveany problems in her business,
and we know that that's not true.
We know that there are alwayschallenges behind the scenes,
there are always things that youwould love to solve, and so, in
that spirit, I'm going to askyou this If I had the ability to
snap my fingers and solve oneproblem in your business right
now, what would you want thatproblem to be?
Rebecca Kallaus (31:22):
definitely the front end of business, the sales
and marketing side, notsomething that I love,
everything the the backside ofbusiness.
Uh, you know, most of the timefounders are trying to get, get
out of their business, like notbe in their business.
For me, I love being in mybusiness, that's my fun zone, um
, but it's the, it's, it's the,the inbound piece, the um.
You know, the sales andmarketing side Cause for me, I'm
(31:44):
.
I'm the kind of person where Iwant.
I like when, when people tellme what you want and I can go
build the thing, I can, youbring a problem to me and I'll
figure out how to fix it.
But to go out and connect withother people and to sell them on
things, that's not, you know,it's.
It's like you could do that insuch in a way that is full of
(32:07):
integrity and is absolutely insomebody's best interest.
Uh you know that's, that's,that's what that should be, but
I guess I don't know.
I'm sure I have some sort ofblind spot blocker somewhere
there where to me it's likethere's just an aspect of
manipulation, um, at least likecause.
I encounter so many people inthe sales and marketing realm,
that is a thing, and it's likethat's.
(32:28):
I have such an aversion toreceiving that and I never in a
million years ever want to bereceived by that, as that, by
somebody else, and so I thinkfrom that, that creates a
disconnect for me with sales andmarketing and I'm just like,
can everyone just come to me andjust tell me what you want
fixed?
Just bring me all your problems.
Wouldn't that be great?
Dr. William Attaway (32:48):
Dump it all on the table.
Rebecca Kallaus (32:49):
Everybody comes to you, oh yeah, I'd help it.
Like, don't bother making itpretty, I don't need to just
dump it all on the table.
I'll figure out how to fix allof it, I can do that.
But to go out in the sales andmarketing side so we're
definitely actively looking foras a business I've really kind
of put some thought into itrecently that I want to.
I want to bring somebody intoour business on the biz debt
(33:11):
like business developmentrepresentative, someone who's
just going to be out there andlike like really bringing
bringing that piece in on thefront end.
Dr. William Attaway (33:19):
So yeah, Well, I appreciate the
transparency and really thegenerosity today in sharing so
openly about what it is thatyou're doing and even the
challenges and struggles thatyou've had throughout.
You know, I think to say youknow you kind of built it
backwards, you know, and nowyou're trying to go back.
That is refreshing to hearsomebody talk about that.
(33:41):
I know you are making atremendous difference in your
clients' businesses and in theirlives and reducing their stress
level and increasing theirimpact and their revenue, and I
know a lot of the peoplelistening need exactly what you
are doing.
They need somebody to come inwith fresh eyes to assess,
(34:02):
evaluate and help them see whatthey can't see, so that they can
get to the other side of theproblem season that they're in
right now.
If somebody's ready for that,how do they get in touch with
you?
Rebecca Kallaus (34:16):
Yeah, so I would go go to our website,
business done betterco, co.
So there's no M on the endbusiness done betterco and you
can fill out a contact formthere and that'll that'll make
sure that it gets to me in theright way.
And just you know, any anythingthat you're dealing with back
end of business, whether it'soperations, crm system,
(34:36):
fulfillment, team related, youknow, whatever those issues are
just you know, fill out thatform and I'll make sure that I
personally get back to anybodythat fills out that form.
So that's going to be thesustainable place to always be
able to reach me and my company.
But yeah, I think I just kindof want to just take the
opportunity to just remindpeople that anytime you are
(34:58):
struggling with anything in yourbusiness and life in general I
mean I think the business sideespecially there's a million
people who've had those exactsame problems.
It is more fixable than youthink.
I was talking to somebodyyesterday and we were doing an
assessment, uh, operationsassessment and and you know I
have them rate certain things aszero through 10.
(35:19):
And and a lot of things he wasreading is like a, like a three,
and he was just having justlike a, like a, he was totally
shutting down.
He was like, well, and he wasjust having just like a, like a,
he was totally shutting down.
He was like, well, that doesn'tlook good.
Well, that's that's.
This is really ugly.
And he was just, he was like,just just having such like a
block of I'm bringing this mess.
Is this really fixable?
(35:39):
You know, he'd been doing hisbusiness for eight years and and
and he was, like you know, hadhad total stagnation for the
last couple years, and he was,like you know, had total
stagnation for the last coupleyears.
And he was like, you know, isthis ever really going to move
forward?
You know, we've kind of been inthe same place for so long, like
, is this able to actually befixed?
And I was like every singlething that we're covering on
this assessment, not only can itbe fixed, but we can fix all of
(36:02):
it.
We have the answers foreverything.
I wouldn't have you ratingthings as a as a fail score if
it wasn't something that I couldgive you a solution for.
So I have we always run throughthat just to just to see where
the priorities really lie.
But you know, it was just likedon't, don't, don't be too hard
(36:23):
on yourself.
This is all fixable.
There are solutions.
Anything operationally radicaltransparency is one of our core
values as a company.
And so that's something thatshows up in so many different
aspects of us as individuals acompany, how we do business, et
cetera.
But that's something that,operationally, if we're not the
(36:46):
right fit you know I have agreat network I'll refer you to
somebody else who is a betterfit at the very least Put
somebody on the right direction.
But most things from anoperational perspective, we
absolutely can support.
Dr. William Attaway (36:57):
We'll have that link in the show notes and
I want to strongly encourage ifthis is a pain point for you and
I know many of you, it is takeaction right.
Fill out the form, get theconversation started.
I've often regretted not takingaction.
I've rarely regretted steppingin and doing it.
(37:18):
So I'm going to challenge eachone of you listen to the show,
contact Rebecca.
She can help Rebecca.
Thank you for your time.
Rebecca Kallaus (37:27):
Thank you so much.
Absolutely a pleasure beinghere.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.