April 8, 2025 • 27 mins
Executing a strategy without data is like chopping down trees without ever stopping to sharpen your axe. In this episode, Path for Growth coach Matt Aiken addresses the five common blockers that keep leaders from becoming data-driven. He also shares actions you can take today to overcome each one. Make sure to check back next week for an episode where Matt will dive deeper into next steps for making sense of the data you’ve collected!
Information isn’t the gap between failure and success—action is. Path for Growth’s 1-on-1 coaching helps you create a plan and execute on what matters most for your business. Apply today at pathforgrowth.com/coaching.
Episode Recap:
- If strategy is our axe, then data is the whetstone for sharpening it
- There are 5 common blockers that keep leaders from building a data-driven business
- 1. “I know my numbers.”
- 2. “I don’t know what data to look at.”
- 3. “I don’t have good data.”
- 4. “Collecting data takes more effort than it’s worth”
- 5. “We’ve tried this in the past and it didn’t stick.”
If you’re ready to move beyond just gathering information and start executing on what truly matters, Path for Growth’s 1-on-1 coaching can help. Apply now at pathforgrowth.com/coaching.
Resources:
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Try Path for Growth 1on1 Coaching Free for 14 Days
Download the Free Reading Guide
Join us for our 2025 Experience – Long Game Leadership
Listen to “Grow Your Business with Better Data”
Connect with our Founder Alex Judd on LinkedIn and Instagram
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alex Judd (00:00):
What's true? Well, if you're doing something
(00:02):
worthwhile, you're going toexperience resistance. And
that's why it's so helpful toask the question, ma'am, what
are the blockers I could expect?And then what are some of the
remedies? Because success leavesclues for overcoming those
blockers.
One of our coaches that workswith business owners around the
country, Matt Aiken, is deeplypassionate about this topic of
being a data driven business andits principles that he's really
(00:25):
applied to the business that heowns and runs as well. And so he
wanted to spend some time onthis episode really articulating
what are the blockers that aregoing to keep you from engaging
with this and then how can youand your team proactively
overcome those blockers in a waythat would make you a more data
driven and therefore moreintentional business. Here's
(00:47):
Matt.
Matt Aiken (00:50):
All right, let's consider a story about a young
lumberjack who challenges anolder lumberjack to a
competition. The olderlumberjack accepts. The
challenge is simple. Who canchop down the most trees in a
single day? Let's consider ouryoung lumberjack, right?
Strong, hungry, ready to make aname for himself. He sets out.
(01:15):
He gets after it, right? He hestarts knocking over tree after
tree after tree. Chop, chop,chop, timber.
And every few trees, he looksover and he sees the old man
sitting and resting. He thinksto himself, man, there's no way.
There's no way I'm gonna losethis this battle. And they get
(01:37):
to the end of the day and andthey start to tally the trees.
And it turns out the oldlumberjack has felled twice the
number of trees as the youngerlumberjack.
And the young man says, but how?I never sat down. I never
rested. I never stopped. How didyou fell more trees than me?
(02:00):
And the old man looks at him andsays, that's your mistake. I
wasn't resting. I was sharpeningmy axe. Man, so many business
owners are the young lumberjackin this story and we've got
drive. We're ready to to tackle,our business with intensity.
We've got the stamina to justgo, go, go, But so many of us
(02:26):
fail to sharpen our axe. Now ifstrategy in this analogy is our
axe. Right? Strategy is our axe,Then data is the whetstone we
can use to sharpen our strategy.So we're we're in a three part
series on on data and andknowing your numbers.
(02:48):
Last week, we talked about whyit's so important for you to be
looking at your numbers now. Notwaiting, let let's get after it
now. Next week, we'll talk abouthow you can get started with
your numbers. But today, I Iwanted to share some of my
experiences as a coach here atPath for Growth, talking about
(03:08):
some of the biggest blockers toknowing your numbers. In all my
time coaching, I've spent somany conversations where leaders
say, you know, Matt, I really,really wanna get into data.
I'd really love to build a KPIdashboard, but there's always a
but. And they insert somereason, some blocker they're
(03:31):
facing or some excuse. Theyrange from legitimate to lazy.
But over and over and overagain, there's always some
hurdle or some speed bumps thatsee leaders have to get through
to get from where they are, notlooking at their data and just
executing all day to get towhere they want to be, looking
(03:51):
at their data, sharpening theirstrategy. So today, we're gonna
look at five of the most commonblockers I've seen great leaders
have to overcome to becomeexperts and data leaders in
their organizations.
Let's go ahead and dive in withour first blocker. The first
blocker, Matt. But here's thedeal. I know my numbers. If I've
(04:16):
heard it once, I've heard it athousand times.
But, Matt, I know my numbers. Idon't need to go through all of
this rigmarole to build adashboard and start looking at
Greg. I know I'm tuned in to mybusiness. And here's what I'd
say. There's a big differencebetween napkin math and real
math.
Oh, that might have taken youback. That might get a little
(04:38):
offended by that, it's true. Wetell the napkin story in
entrepreneurial mythology allthe time. Well, we were sitting
at the diner one day and I justpulled out a napkin. I started
driving on it.
Napkin math will get yousomewhere, but I'm not sure it's
gonna get you where you want tobe. Let's take Uber as an
example. Back in the early twothousand tens, leadership of
(05:00):
Uber was all in on scaling,scaling at all costs. Why? Well,
they they had convincedthemselves of a very simple
equation.
If x number of drivers canproduce y revenue, then 10 x
drivers should bring in 10 yrevenue. Seems like a very
(05:24):
simple assumption, but did thatcome to fruition? No, it didn't.
They encountered increasedscaling costs. They they hit
hurdles as it relates tocompliance.
They failed to hire the driversthat would produce as well as
their early drivers. They had asimple equation which turned out
(05:47):
to be simplistic. Right? You seethe difference. Simple, not
complicated or simplistic.
Right? Overly simple, notactually taking into account all
of the impacts. And so here'shere's what I've seen leaders
overcome with this objection. Iknow my numbers. They've
(06:08):
overcome it through humility.
Right? You have to be humbleenough to only claim what you
know to be true, not what youfeel should be true. We've got
to treat assumptions asassumptions. And so here's a
couple of actions that I've seenleaders take in order to
(06:28):
overcome this blocker. One, theyvalidate their assumptions with
real data.
They go and look in themarketplace. They go and look at
data that they've got. They theygo and figure out what is real
and true. Does it support what Ithink that I know? Or or said a
better way, does it prove mewrong and my assumptions wrong?
(06:51):
The second thing they do is theylook at unit metrics and
economics, not total marketsize. Right? We saw this with
WeWork. If we just capture asmall slice of the office
market, Then our valuation willbe through the roof. If we do
this, then this will happen.
(07:12):
Well, the reality is is thatthat just didn't work out for
WeWork as well. Right? They werelooking at this market size, not
looking at their unit economics.And here here's the last thing.
You've gotta consider hiddenvariables.
We've gotta go and, if we'vecalled this a mystery of data is
something we use to reveal themystery, we need to really
(07:32):
figure out what's hidden fromus. What's what are their
culture challenges? Are therecompetition challenges? Are
there changing trends? We can'tjust pretend to know our
numbers.
We have to actually know ournumbers. Peter Drucker says
this, the most dangerous thing abusiness the most dangerous
thing in business is theillusion that everything is
(07:52):
fine. Right? And so here's thechallenge. Right?
If you wanna overcome thisblocker, here's the challenge.
Ask your team what would makeour math or our assumptions
totally wrong? What would proveme wrong? Ask that of your team
and listen and figure out, hey,do I actually know my numbers or
do I just think I know mynumbers? Alright.
(09:56):
Let's let's dive into the secondblocker. And this one's this
one's a legitimate blocker. Idon't know what data to look at.
Matt, where where do I start? II don't even know what I don't
know.
And think this is actually agreat blocker and one that we
shouldn't just breeze throughbecause there's there's three
possibilities, right? There'sthree options ahead of us. We
(10:18):
can not look at anything. We canlook at what we have or we can
ask the question, what do wewant to know? And so, so many
great leaders that they have,especially in our community,
right?
They adopt Stephen Covey'sapproach. We've got to start
with the end in mind. If you'reat this blocker, start with the
(10:41):
end in mind. Ask yourself, whatdata do we really want to look
at? What do others look at?
Do we have that data? Can weeasily maybe take a look and
answer the question? If thisdata is true or if we have
access to the data, this willhelp us understand if we're on
the journey towards what ourvision, what we want. I recently
(11:05):
was was dealing with thisblocker in my business. I I own
a board game publishing company.
We make board games and I wasrecently looking at signing a
new two player game. Two playerthe two player market is is
historically tough. I knew that.We've released a two player game
in the past and it'schallenging. But we got really
excited.
We were looking at it. We'relike, man, we should do this.
(11:25):
Right? And so what do we do? Weran out and we said, man, let's
go look at all the data that wehave on two player games.
Oh, we popped on Amazon ConnectFour. Millions of copies. Right?
Checkers. Oh, man, there's somany great two player games out
there and there seems to be ahuge addressable market.
You see, what were we doing? Wewere talking ourselves into it,
(11:48):
but then we took we took adifferent approach. We we said,
okay, like, well, let's startwith the end in mind. What would
it take to grab enough of themarket to make it worth it to
us? And we started looking atthe data of what would it take?
How does that compare to ourcurrent performance? And we
realized the answer to thatquestion was it would take too
much. And so again, we've got tostart with the end in mind. Man,
(12:12):
if you're on this step, taketime to think. So many leaders
fail to take time to think.
Not just around the data. Don'tthink in terms of data. Think in
terms of, well, what am I tryingto accomplish and what data
would help me understand if I'mmaking progress towards that
desired state? Here's thechallenge, right? If you're in
(12:34):
this spot, if this is you andblocker number two is what
you're currently overcoming,here's what I do.
Go to your team or even just askthis of yourself. If your team
shared a data point with you,they just shared something. They
said, hey, leader, I've been inour data and I saw this. What
(12:55):
when they told you that wouldcause you to throw a party like,
oh, my gosh, I didn't even know.I had no idea that we were
performing so well in this areaor, oh man, I didn't know we
were on track for this kind ofsuccess.
Right? And then ask yourself theother thing. What data, if
someone came to you andpresented it to you, would
(13:15):
change everything around yourteam's focus? Right? That starts
to tell us, okay, we alreadyknow the metrics that matter.
If we knew them, it would changethe way we're going about
business or would it cause us tocelebrate? Ask the question,
what if they shared with mewould change everything else?
Right. Let's get into to blockernumber three. Blocker number
(13:36):
three is so common.
Every leader goes through this.But, Matt, I don't have good
data. I don't trust it. I haveno belief that even if we got
the data that it would bevaluable. And again, that might
be a legitimate blocker.
It's a good thing for us topause and say, okay, well, what
(13:57):
do we need to do about thatobjection? Because great data is
better than good data and gooddata is better than no data, but
bad data is way worse than nodata. And so we've got to make
sure do we at least have gooddata? And so we're going to
we're going to spend time reallydiving into that. Like great
(14:19):
leaders ask the question, whatdo we want to focus on?
And then they need to ask thequestion, is this reliable? Why?
Because you can create a dataculture, but if you don't have
buy in, if you don't have belieffrom yourself or from your
leaders, then this is just gonnabe a flame that ignites and then
(14:41):
and then goes out. And so okay.Hey.
Like, what do we need to do?Well, we need to get buy in. How
do we get buy in? Well, we startby proving that what we have
could be valuable. And so acouple of easy ways to start
doing this.
Take the the data that you haveand start saying, what does this
(15:03):
look like year over year? Okay.Maybe you don't have this
tracked a year ago. Maybe youjust have, you know, what you've
pulled in the last couple ofweeks and just say, okay, well,
is this reliable enough to drawnot a conclusion, but to to draw
a point on a map that's taken uswhere we need to go? You might
(15:24):
also have a bit of a data nerdon your team.
And so lean on them and say, goto them and say, okay, hey, I'm
interested in this number. Iwant you to go and prove to me
that this number is right. Ihave a background in IT audit.
So what I would do is I'd travelaround the country and I would
say, okay, so and so person, yousay that you had a million
(15:46):
dollars in revenue. And I wouldgo to them and I'd say, okay,
prove to me that all of therevenue you've earned made it
into the system and that youmade it into the system
accurately.
And and we did that. Andconsistently, we'd find times
that there wasn't good data, butthen we'd also find times where
there was. And the the timesthat we could find good data
were when people understood theprocess of how data gets into
(16:09):
and through their system andthey can prove it. And there's a
ton of information on how to getstarted on this on YouTube. Go
ahead and Google it.
Okay? And so, like, I I don'thave good data. Great. What do
we need? We need to get buy in.
And the way we often get buy inis to prove that our data is
good. Take that next step. Don'tlet that block you from forward
(16:31):
progress. And so here would bemy encouragement. If you're in
this stage, here's the challengeI have for you.
Pick one piece of data that youwant. Right? Think about start
with the end of mind, block ortwo. Hopefully, we're we're over
block or two and we know alittle bit what we want. And
say, if I want this data, whatwould cause me to trust this
(16:55):
number?
K. And then once you have that,now that I trust the number,
what would cause my team to getbought in? Right? And I just
didn't say approach this withinsane levels of curiosity.
Alright.
Block blocker number four. Twomore to go. It would take more
effort to collect and review thedata than to execute on it.
(17:16):
Right. This is our younglumberjack.
But, Matt, I just want to go,go, go. You heard Alex tell the
story of starting this podcastand just going like, yeah, I'm
just going to record. Let's go.Let's record And not asking the
question, well, what is our aim?How will we measure success?
Proverbs says this. Proverbsfour twenty six, ponder the path
(17:40):
of your feet, then all your wayswill be sure. Right? Who is
Proverbs written to? The simple,the young, and to those who are
already wise.
And so just think about ouryoung example, our young
lumberjack. He is the audience,the who, the the people that
(18:01):
Proverbs is written to. And andwhat does Solomon say? Ponder
the path of your feet. Listen.
(19:11):
I I'm not saying that you needto overcomplicate this. I get
it. We need to go make sales. Weneed to execute. Time is money.
But we also need to make surethat we're spending time
pondering the path of our feet,sharpening our axe. And so
here's what I encourage you todo. Don't overcomplicate it.
Make it easy. Follow theprinciples.
(19:33):
Simplicity scales andconsistency compounds. We've got
to spend time going, hey, it'sworth it. Right now, we've said
we might not know our data verywell. We've overcome the blocker
of I don't know what data tolook at. Now we're saying, hey,
I've got a little bit moreconfidence that I've got at
(19:55):
least good data and not baddata.
And so what do we do? We westart executing on that. We take
a first step to collect it andreview it. And and so he here's
the challenge. Right?
Here's a very simple action youcan take to to start making
progress in this direction. Thenext time you have a leadership
team meeting, take ten minutesand open it by saying, hey,
(20:19):
y'all. I wanna see what we haveavailable to us, and I'd like
for us to start pulling itforward. I want everyone right
now to take ten minutes and Iwant you to bring me one fact
backed by data that we haveaccess to that you believe is
valuable for this leadershipteam to know. Right?
Just ask people, hey, tenminutes. Yeah. The leadership
team meeting is already anexpensive meeting. Totally. I
(20:41):
get that.
You got your your your keyleaders here and you've carved
out that time. Build this intoyour ideas of saying, hey, I I
think we've we need to bespending time sharpening the
axe. Let's all right now taketen minutes. Pull me one fact
based on data that we have.Alright.
Let's wrap up. Blocker numberfive. And let me tell you, this
(21:02):
this is probably of all thesethe most emotionally charged one
that that I've experienced withmy with my leaders I've worked
with. Here's the blocker. We'vetried this in the past and it
didn't take us anywhere.
How many of you that's that'syou. Right? I've done this. My
team, we've put time, energy,effort, resources behind trying
(21:23):
to solve the data problem,become a data driven culture and
it just didn't stick. It justdidn't stick.
But but here's the here's thelie that so many leaders believe
as it relates to this blocker.They believe the most important
step is the first step. And thereality is that's not true. Yes,
(21:45):
a journey of a thousand milesbegins with a single step.
Absolutely.
But the journey to complete athousand miles, what's the most
important step a man can take?It's the next step. You see
building a culture of data isn'tabout getting it done right
once. It's about showing upconsistently. I'd love to kind
(22:05):
of take us into, Lord of theRings.
Like one of the most powerfulmoments in Lord of the Rings
occurs when Frodo and Sam,they're in Mordor, they're
almost to Mount Doom, right?They're almost at the end of
their quest and they'reexhausted. They've encountered
so many trials and failures.They're burdened by the weight
(22:26):
of the ring. They're dehydrated.
They're starving. They're barelyable to move. Broda's completely
overwhelmed and that there'sthis moment I can't take another
step. But Sam, right? Seeing theimportance of the mission, he
refuses to let Frodo stop.
He says, come on, Frodo. I can'tcarry the ring for you, but I
(22:48):
can carry you. Listen, maybeyour first attempts at data
didn't work. I get it. Maybeyour team is feeling overwhelmed
by the complexity of trying topull together what you guys need
to know.
Maybe everyone is just Again,they're committed to this idea
that it's easier to execute thanto stop and analyze. But the
(23:12):
truth is that the hardest partof this data journey you're
going to go on is that it'sgoing to be hardest right before
the breakthrough. And so whatwould it look like for for
leaders in this community, forus, for you, to be the kind of
leader that gets us to thatbreakthrough moment. See, like
(23:32):
like Frodo, leaders don't needto do this alone. You don't have
to be you don't have to be theone who is committed to this
process getting to the finishline.
You need to be the one who leadsthe team to the finish line.
Your commitment and yourexecution to get the people over
(23:52):
the finish line is what mattersmost. And so here's what we
want. We want leaders that trustthat are bought into reviewing
and refining their numbers evenwhen it feels tiring, and before
it leads to success. So herehere you go.
Reviewing your numbers doesn'thave to be perfect. Here's what
I've seen my leaders adopt thementality that the belief that
(24:14):
they held intrinsically that gotthem over this blocker. They
committed to reviewing numbersand saying that we don't have to
be perfect at this. We just haveto be consistent. And so here's
the challenge I would encourageyou.
Here's the question I'd like foryou to answer. Ask how can I
lean on my team as we commit tothis path? And then ask the
(24:39):
opposite. How can my team leanon me as we commit to this path?
Again, Proverbs four twenty six,ponder the path of your feet,
then all your ways will be sure.
That's what we wanna do. Wewanna ponder. We wanna take time
like the old lumberjack tosharpen our axe. And we don't
wanna let any of these blockersstand in our way. Okay.
(25:03):
So again, what are the blockers?Let's go through them again. We
don't wanna get stopped by Iknow my numbers. We don't wanna
get blocked by I don't know whatdata to look at. We don't wanna
get stuck saying, but I don'teven have good data and throw up
our hands and walk away.
We don't wanna buy into the liethat it takes more effort to
collect and review data than toexecute. And most of all, we
(25:23):
don't wanna let our pastfailures prevent us from future
success. Y'all, I I really hopethat this has been helpful. We,
again, are in a three partseries and so you can expect
next week. Like if you're you'rehere right now, you're like,
man, I'm I'm ready to overcomethese blockers.
We started to ask ourselves acouple of questions. But how
about we take a next step and Ijust give you a guide of how I
(25:46):
help leaders take that next steponce they get through these
blockers? We're gonna have a howto guide next week on how to
start looking at your numbersright now. Y'all, you know this.
We're rooting for you.
We're praying for you. Let's go.Let's go. Let's go.
Alex Judd (26:01):
Well, there you have it. Thanks so much for joining
us for this episode. If you wantany of the information or
resources that we mentioned,that's all in the show notes.
Hey, before you go, could I askyou for one quick favor? Could
you subscribe, rate, and reviewthis podcast episode?
Your feedback is what helps ourteam engage in a sequence of
(26:22):
never ending improvement. Wewanna amplify what's valuable to
you and obviously reduce or evenremove the things that aren't.
Also, you leaving a positivereview is what helps us connect
with, build trust with, andserve other leaders around the
country. So thanks in advancefor helping us out on that
front. Are you a leader thatwants to grow your business in a
(26:42):
healthy way, serve peopleexceptionally well, and glorify
God in the process?
Go to pathforgrowth.com to getmore information about our
community of impact drivenleaders and schedule a call with
our team. Hey, thank you so muchto the Path for Growth team,
Kyle Cummings and the crew atPodCircle, and the remarkable
(27:02):
leaders that are activelyengaged in the Path for Growth
community. Y'all are the peoplethat make this podcast possible.
Y'all know this. We're rootingfor you.
We're praying for you. We wannasee you win. Remember, my
strength is not for me. Yourstrength is not for you. Our
strength is for service.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
What's true? Well, if you're doing something
(00:02):
worthwhile, you're going toexperience resistance. And
that's why it's so helpful toask the question, ma'am, what
are the blockers I could expect?And then what are some of the
remedies? Because success leavesclues for overcoming those
blockers.
One of our coaches that workswith business owners around the
country, Matt Aiken, is deeplypassionate about this topic of
being a data driven business andits principles that he's really
(00:25):
applied to the business that heowns and runs as well. And so he
wanted to spend some time onthis episode really articulating
what are the blockers that aregoing to keep you from engaging
with this and then how can youand your team proactively
overcome those blockers in a waythat would make you a more data
driven and therefore moreintentional business. Here's
(00:47):
Matt.
Matt Aiken (00:50):
All right, let's consider a story about a young
lumberjack who challenges anolder lumberjack to a
competition. The olderlumberjack accepts. The
challenge is simple. Who canchop down the most trees in a
single day? Let's consider ouryoung lumberjack, right?
Strong, hungry, ready to make aname for himself. He sets out.
(01:15):
He gets after it, right? He hestarts knocking over tree after
tree after tree. Chop, chop,chop, timber.
And every few trees, he looksover and he sees the old man
sitting and resting. He thinksto himself, man, there's no way.
There's no way I'm gonna losethis this battle. And they get
(01:37):
to the end of the day and andthey start to tally the trees.
And it turns out the oldlumberjack has felled twice the
number of trees as the youngerlumberjack.
And the young man says, but how?I never sat down. I never
rested. I never stopped. How didyou fell more trees than me?
(02:00):
And the old man looks at him andsays, that's your mistake. I
wasn't resting. I was sharpeningmy axe. Man, so many business
owners are the young lumberjackin this story and we've got
drive. We're ready to to tackle,our business with intensity.
We've got the stamina to justgo, go, go, But so many of us
(02:26):
fail to sharpen our axe. Now ifstrategy in this analogy is our
axe. Right? Strategy is our axe,Then data is the whetstone we
can use to sharpen our strategy.So we're we're in a three part
series on on data and andknowing your numbers.
(02:48):
Last week, we talked about whyit's so important for you to be
looking at your numbers now. Notwaiting, let let's get after it
now. Next week, we'll talk abouthow you can get started with
your numbers. But today, I Iwanted to share some of my
experiences as a coach here atPath for Growth, talking about
(03:08):
some of the biggest blockers toknowing your numbers. In all my
time coaching, I've spent somany conversations where leaders
say, you know, Matt, I really,really wanna get into data.
I'd really love to build a KPIdashboard, but there's always a
but. And they insert somereason, some blocker they're
(03:31):
facing or some excuse. Theyrange from legitimate to lazy.
But over and over and overagain, there's always some
hurdle or some speed bumps thatsee leaders have to get through
to get from where they are, notlooking at their data and just
executing all day to get towhere they want to be, looking
(03:51):
at their data, sharpening theirstrategy. So today, we're gonna
look at five of the most commonblockers I've seen great leaders
have to overcome to becomeexperts and data leaders in
their organizations.
Let's go ahead and dive in withour first blocker. The first
blocker, Matt. But here's thedeal. I know my numbers. If I've
(04:16):
heard it once, I've heard it athousand times.
But, Matt, I know my numbers. Idon't need to go through all of
this rigmarole to build adashboard and start looking at
Greg. I know I'm tuned in to mybusiness. And here's what I'd
say. There's a big differencebetween napkin math and real
math.
Oh, that might have taken youback. That might get a little
(04:38):
offended by that, it's true. Wetell the napkin story in
entrepreneurial mythology allthe time. Well, we were sitting
at the diner one day and I justpulled out a napkin. I started
driving on it.
Napkin math will get yousomewhere, but I'm not sure it's
gonna get you where you want tobe. Let's take Uber as an
example. Back in the early twothousand tens, leadership of
(05:00):
Uber was all in on scaling,scaling at all costs. Why? Well,
they they had convincedthemselves of a very simple
equation.
If x number of drivers canproduce y revenue, then 10 x
drivers should bring in 10 yrevenue. Seems like a very
(05:24):
simple assumption, but did thatcome to fruition? No, it didn't.
They encountered increasedscaling costs. They they hit
hurdles as it relates tocompliance.
They failed to hire the driversthat would produce as well as
their early drivers. They had asimple equation which turned out
(05:47):
to be simplistic. Right? You seethe difference. Simple, not
complicated or simplistic.
Right? Overly simple, notactually taking into account all
of the impacts. And so here'shere's what I've seen leaders
overcome with this objection. Iknow my numbers. They've
(06:08):
overcome it through humility.
Right? You have to be humbleenough to only claim what you
know to be true, not what youfeel should be true. We've got
to treat assumptions asassumptions. And so here's a
couple of actions that I've seenleaders take in order to
(06:28):
overcome this blocker. One, theyvalidate their assumptions with
real data.
They go and look in themarketplace. They go and look at
data that they've got. They theygo and figure out what is real
and true. Does it support what Ithink that I know? Or or said a
better way, does it prove mewrong and my assumptions wrong?
(06:51):
The second thing they do is theylook at unit metrics and
economics, not total marketsize. Right? We saw this with
WeWork. If we just capture asmall slice of the office
market, Then our valuation willbe through the roof. If we do
this, then this will happen.
(07:12):
Well, the reality is is thatthat just didn't work out for
WeWork as well. Right? They werelooking at this market size, not
looking at their unit economics.And here here's the last thing.
You've gotta consider hiddenvariables.
We've gotta go and, if we'vecalled this a mystery of data is
something we use to reveal themystery, we need to really
(07:32):
figure out what's hidden fromus. What's what are their
culture challenges? Are therecompetition challenges? Are
there changing trends? We can'tjust pretend to know our
numbers.
We have to actually know ournumbers. Peter Drucker says
this, the most dangerous thing abusiness the most dangerous
thing in business is theillusion that everything is
(07:52):
fine. Right? And so here's thechallenge. Right?
If you wanna overcome thisblocker, here's the challenge.
Ask your team what would makeour math or our assumptions
totally wrong? What would proveme wrong? Ask that of your team
and listen and figure out, hey,do I actually know my numbers or
do I just think I know mynumbers? Alright.
(09:56):
Let's let's dive into the secondblocker. And this one's this
one's a legitimate blocker. Idon't know what data to look at.
Matt, where where do I start? II don't even know what I don't
know.
And think this is actually agreat blocker and one that we
shouldn't just breeze throughbecause there's there's three
possibilities, right? There'sthree options ahead of us. We
(10:18):
can not look at anything. We canlook at what we have or we can
ask the question, what do wewant to know? And so, so many
great leaders that they have,especially in our community,
right?
They adopt Stephen Covey'sapproach. We've got to start
with the end in mind. If you'reat this blocker, start with the
(10:41):
end in mind. Ask yourself, whatdata do we really want to look
at? What do others look at?
Do we have that data? Can weeasily maybe take a look and
answer the question? If thisdata is true or if we have
access to the data, this willhelp us understand if we're on
the journey towards what ourvision, what we want. I recently
(11:05):
was was dealing with thisblocker in my business. I I own
a board game publishing company.
We make board games and I wasrecently looking at signing a
new two player game. Two playerthe two player market is is
historically tough. I knew that.We've released a two player game
in the past and it'schallenging. But we got really
excited.
We were looking at it. We'relike, man, we should do this.
(11:25):
Right? And so what do we do? Weran out and we said, man, let's
go look at all the data that wehave on two player games.
Oh, we popped on Amazon ConnectFour. Millions of copies. Right?
Checkers. Oh, man, there's somany great two player games out
there and there seems to be ahuge addressable market.
You see, what were we doing? Wewere talking ourselves into it,
(11:48):
but then we took we took adifferent approach. We we said,
okay, like, well, let's startwith the end in mind. What would
it take to grab enough of themarket to make it worth it to
us? And we started looking atthe data of what would it take?
How does that compare to ourcurrent performance? And we
realized the answer to thatquestion was it would take too
much. And so again, we've got tostart with the end in mind. Man,
(12:12):
if you're on this step, taketime to think. So many leaders
fail to take time to think.
Not just around the data. Don'tthink in terms of data. Think in
terms of, well, what am I tryingto accomplish and what data
would help me understand if I'mmaking progress towards that
desired state? Here's thechallenge, right? If you're in
(12:34):
this spot, if this is you andblocker number two is what
you're currently overcoming,here's what I do.
Go to your team or even just askthis of yourself. If your team
shared a data point with you,they just shared something. They
said, hey, leader, I've been inour data and I saw this. What
(12:55):
when they told you that wouldcause you to throw a party like,
oh, my gosh, I didn't even know.I had no idea that we were
performing so well in this areaor, oh man, I didn't know we
were on track for this kind ofsuccess.
Right? And then ask yourself theother thing. What data, if
someone came to you andpresented it to you, would
(13:15):
change everything around yourteam's focus? Right? That starts
to tell us, okay, we alreadyknow the metrics that matter.
If we knew them, it would changethe way we're going about
business or would it cause us tocelebrate? Ask the question,
what if they shared with mewould change everything else?
Right. Let's get into to blockernumber three. Blocker number
(13:36):
three is so common.
Every leader goes through this.But, Matt, I don't have good
data. I don't trust it. I haveno belief that even if we got
the data that it would bevaluable. And again, that might
be a legitimate blocker.
It's a good thing for us topause and say, okay, well, what
(13:57):
do we need to do about thatobjection? Because great data is
better than good data and gooddata is better than no data, but
bad data is way worse than nodata. And so we've got to make
sure do we at least have gooddata? And so we're going to
we're going to spend time reallydiving into that. Like great
(14:19):
leaders ask the question, whatdo we want to focus on?
And then they need to ask thequestion, is this reliable? Why?
Because you can create a dataculture, but if you don't have
buy in, if you don't have belieffrom yourself or from your
leaders, then this is just gonnabe a flame that ignites and then
(14:41):
and then goes out. And so okay.Hey.
Like, what do we need to do?Well, we need to get buy in. How
do we get buy in? Well, we startby proving that what we have
could be valuable. And so acouple of easy ways to start
doing this.
Take the the data that you haveand start saying, what does this
(15:03):
look like year over year? Okay.Maybe you don't have this
tracked a year ago. Maybe youjust have, you know, what you've
pulled in the last couple ofweeks and just say, okay, well,
is this reliable enough to drawnot a conclusion, but to to draw
a point on a map that's taken uswhere we need to go? You might
(15:24):
also have a bit of a data nerdon your team.
And so lean on them and say, goto them and say, okay, hey, I'm
interested in this number. Iwant you to go and prove to me
that this number is right. Ihave a background in IT audit.
So what I would do is I'd travelaround the country and I would
say, okay, so and so person, yousay that you had a million
(15:46):
dollars in revenue. And I wouldgo to them and I'd say, okay,
prove to me that all of therevenue you've earned made it
into the system and that youmade it into the system
accurately.
And and we did that. Andconsistently, we'd find times
that there wasn't good data, butthen we'd also find times where
there was. And the the timesthat we could find good data
were when people understood theprocess of how data gets into
(16:09):
and through their system andthey can prove it. And there's a
ton of information on how to getstarted on this on YouTube. Go
ahead and Google it.
Okay? And so, like, I I don'thave good data. Great. What do
we need? We need to get buy in.
And the way we often get buy inis to prove that our data is
good. Take that next step. Don'tlet that block you from forward
(16:31):
progress. And so here would bemy encouragement. If you're in
this stage, here's the challengeI have for you.
Pick one piece of data that youwant. Right? Think about start
with the end of mind, block ortwo. Hopefully, we're we're over
block or two and we know alittle bit what we want. And
say, if I want this data, whatwould cause me to trust this
(16:55):
number?
K. And then once you have that,now that I trust the number,
what would cause my team to getbought in? Right? And I just
didn't say approach this withinsane levels of curiosity.
Alright.
Block blocker number four. Twomore to go. It would take more
effort to collect and review thedata than to execute on it.
(17:16):
Right. This is our younglumberjack.
But, Matt, I just want to go,go, go. You heard Alex tell the
story of starting this podcastand just going like, yeah, I'm
just going to record. Let's go.Let's record And not asking the
question, well, what is our aim?How will we measure success?
Proverbs says this. Proverbsfour twenty six, ponder the path
(17:40):
of your feet, then all your wayswill be sure. Right? Who is
Proverbs written to? The simple,the young, and to those who are
already wise.
And so just think about ouryoung example, our young
lumberjack. He is the audience,the who, the the people that
(18:01):
Proverbs is written to. And andwhat does Solomon say? Ponder
the path of your feet. Listen.
(19:11):
I I'm not saying that you needto overcomplicate this. I get
it. We need to go make sales. Weneed to execute. Time is money.
But we also need to make surethat we're spending time
pondering the path of our feet,sharpening our axe. And so
here's what I encourage you todo. Don't overcomplicate it.
Make it easy. Follow theprinciples.
(19:33):
Simplicity scales andconsistency compounds. We've got
to spend time going, hey, it'sworth it. Right now, we've said
we might not know our data verywell. We've overcome the blocker
of I don't know what data tolook at. Now we're saying, hey,
I've got a little bit moreconfidence that I've got at
(19:55):
least good data and not baddata.
And so what do we do? We westart executing on that. We take
a first step to collect it andreview it. And and so he here's
the challenge. Right?
Here's a very simple action youcan take to to start making
progress in this direction. Thenext time you have a leadership
team meeting, take ten minutesand open it by saying, hey,
(20:19):
y'all. I wanna see what we haveavailable to us, and I'd like
for us to start pulling itforward. I want everyone right
now to take ten minutes and Iwant you to bring me one fact
backed by data that we haveaccess to that you believe is
valuable for this leadershipteam to know. Right?
Just ask people, hey, tenminutes. Yeah. The leadership
team meeting is already anexpensive meeting. Totally. I
(20:41):
get that.
You got your your your keyleaders here and you've carved
out that time. Build this intoyour ideas of saying, hey, I I
think we've we need to bespending time sharpening the
axe. Let's all right now taketen minutes. Pull me one fact
based on data that we have.Alright.
Let's wrap up. Blocker numberfive. And let me tell you, this
(21:02):
this is probably of all thesethe most emotionally charged one
that that I've experienced withmy with my leaders I've worked
with. Here's the blocker. We'vetried this in the past and it
didn't take us anywhere.
How many of you that's that'syou. Right? I've done this. My
team, we've put time, energy,effort, resources behind trying
(21:23):
to solve the data problem,become a data driven culture and
it just didn't stick. It justdidn't stick.
But but here's the here's thelie that so many leaders believe
as it relates to this blocker.They believe the most important
step is the first step. And thereality is that's not true. Yes,
(21:45):
a journey of a thousand milesbegins with a single step.
Absolutely.
But the journey to complete athousand miles, what's the most
important step a man can take?It's the next step. You see
building a culture of data isn'tabout getting it done right
once. It's about showing upconsistently. I'd love to kind
(22:05):
of take us into, Lord of theRings.
Like one of the most powerfulmoments in Lord of the Rings
occurs when Frodo and Sam,they're in Mordor, they're
almost to Mount Doom, right?They're almost at the end of
their quest and they'reexhausted. They've encountered
so many trials and failures.They're burdened by the weight
(22:26):
of the ring. They're dehydrated.
They're starving. They're barelyable to move. Broda's completely
overwhelmed and that there'sthis moment I can't take another
step. But Sam, right? Seeing theimportance of the mission, he
refuses to let Frodo stop.
He says, come on, Frodo. I can'tcarry the ring for you, but I
(22:48):
can carry you. Listen, maybeyour first attempts at data
didn't work. I get it. Maybeyour team is feeling overwhelmed
by the complexity of trying topull together what you guys need
to know.
Maybe everyone is just Again,they're committed to this idea
that it's easier to execute thanto stop and analyze. But the
(23:12):
truth is that the hardest partof this data journey you're
going to go on is that it'sgoing to be hardest right before
the breakthrough. And so whatwould it look like for for
leaders in this community, forus, for you, to be the kind of
leader that gets us to thatbreakthrough moment. See, like
(23:32):
like Frodo, leaders don't needto do this alone. You don't have
to be you don't have to be theone who is committed to this
process getting to the finishline.
You need to be the one who leadsthe team to the finish line.
Your commitment and yourexecution to get the people over
(23:52):
the finish line is what mattersmost. And so here's what we
want. We want leaders that trustthat are bought into reviewing
and refining their numbers evenwhen it feels tiring, and before
it leads to success. So herehere you go.
Reviewing your numbers doesn'thave to be perfect. Here's what
I've seen my leaders adopt thementality that the belief that
(24:14):
they held intrinsically that gotthem over this blocker. They
committed to reviewing numbersand saying that we don't have to
be perfect at this. We just haveto be consistent. And so here's
the challenge I would encourageyou.
Here's the question I'd like foryou to answer. Ask how can I
lean on my team as we commit tothis path? And then ask the
(24:39):
opposite. How can my team leanon me as we commit to this path?
Again, Proverbs four twenty six,ponder the path of your feet,
then all your ways will be sure.
That's what we wanna do. Wewanna ponder. We wanna take time
like the old lumberjack tosharpen our axe. And we don't
wanna let any of these blockersstand in our way. Okay.
(25:03):
So again, what are the blockers?Let's go through them again. We
don't wanna get stopped by Iknow my numbers. We don't wanna
get blocked by I don't know whatdata to look at. We don't wanna
get stuck saying, but I don'teven have good data and throw up
our hands and walk away.
We don't wanna buy into the liethat it takes more effort to
collect and review data than toexecute. And most of all, we
(25:23):
don't wanna let our pastfailures prevent us from future
success. Y'all, I I really hopethat this has been helpful. We,
again, are in a three partseries and so you can expect
next week. Like if you're you'rehere right now, you're like,
man, I'm I'm ready to overcomethese blockers.
We started to ask ourselves acouple of questions. But how
about we take a next step and Ijust give you a guide of how I
(25:46):
help leaders take that next steponce they get through these
blockers? We're gonna have a howto guide next week on how to
start looking at your numbersright now. Y'all, you know this.
We're rooting for you.
We're praying for you. Let's go.Let's go. Let's go.
Alex Judd (26:01):
Well, there you have it. Thanks so much for joining
us for this episode. If you wantany of the information or
resources that we mentioned,that's all in the show notes.
Hey, before you go, could I askyou for one quick favor? Could
you subscribe, rate, and reviewthis podcast episode?
Your feedback is what helps ourteam engage in a sequence of
(26:22):
never ending improvement. Wewanna amplify what's valuable to
you and obviously reduce or evenremove the things that aren't.
Also, you leaving a positivereview is what helps us connect
with, build trust with, andserve other leaders around the
country. So thanks in advancefor helping us out on that
front. Are you a leader thatwants to grow your business in a
(26:42):
healthy way, serve peopleexceptionally well, and glorify
God in the process?
Go to pathforgrowth.com to getmore information about our
community of impact drivenleaders and schedule a call with
our team. Hey, thank you so muchto the Path for Growth team,
Kyle Cummings and the crew atPodCircle, and the remarkable
(27:02):
leaders that are activelyengaged in the Path for Growth
community. Y'all are the peoplethat make this podcast possible.
Y'all know this. We're rootingfor you.
We're praying for you. We wannasee you win. Remember, my
strength is not for me. Yourstrength is not for you. Our
strength is for service.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
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