May 6, 2025 • 36 mins
The discussion centers on the profound insights shared by Derek Fredrickson, a seasoned Chief Operating Officer with extensive experience in operational strategy, particularly within the entrepreneurial domain. Fredrickson articulates the pivotal concept of 'doing less better,' which advocates for the necessity of letting go of tasks that do not significantly contribute to business growth. He underscores the common challenge faced by entrepreneurs, who often find themselves ensnared in daily operational minutiae, thereby detracting from their visionary capacities. The conversation delves into the transformative power of a robust operational framework, which not only alleviates the burdens of routine tasks but also empowers leaders to regain their focus on strategic objectives. By fostering a supportive team environment and establishing clear accountability structures, entrepreneurs can liberate themselves from the constraints of day-to-day management and redirect their energies towards innovation and expansion, ultimately enhancing both personal fulfillment and organizational performance.
Takeaways:
- The podcast emphasizes the significance of developing a robust operational strategy to alleviate the overwhelm often experienced by entrepreneurs.
- Derek Fredrickson illustrates the importance of letting go of control to enhance productivity and focus on the broader vision of the business.
- Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their current business environment and consider whether it aligns with their future aspirations and goals.
- The discussion highlights that successful entrepreneurs typically require a reliable team to manage day-to-day operations, enabling them to concentrate on strategic growth.
- The episode conveys that investing in the right support, such as a fractional COO or OBM, is crucial for scaling a business effectively.
- A key takeaway is the notion that doing less can lead to better outcomes, provided that the focus is placed on high-impact activities that drive growth.
Links referenced in this episode:
- thecoosolution.com
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekfredrickson/
Mentioned in this episode:
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Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight - Welcome
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Episode Transcript
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(00:56):
Hello everybody and welcome toanother episode of Unstoppable Leadership
Spotlight podcast.
I am your host, Jacqueline Strominger.
And you know, my goal is tohelp and give every single leader
insights and game changingknowledge that will help them become
better leaders today and tomorrow.
(01:19):
So today we have an amazingguest, Derek Fredrickson.
And let me just give you alittle bit about Derek.
So Derek has over 16 years ofexperience as the Chief Operating
Officer at Boldheart and othersix and seven figure businesses.
He has witnessed firsthand howtransformative a robust operational
(01:43):
strategy can be forentrepreneurs who are ready to scale
but feel overwhelmed.
As we all know, running abusiness often means getting bogged
down with day to day tasks andbecoming a bottleneck and losing
sight of that vision thatsparked the company in the first
place.
And that's where Derek comes in.
And so what you are going toget listeners today listening to
(02:06):
Derek and game changinginsights about the key thing is how
to do less better.
I love that line.
So Derek, welcome to, to theUnstoppable Leadership Spotlight
podcast.
So glad to have you here.
Thank you, Jaclyn.
I'm happy to be here andlooking excited, looking forward
and excited for ourconversation today.
(02:26):
Yeah, so am I.
So okay.
Like I was so excited.
First of all, listeners, I'mreally excited because Derek's actually
in Paris, France and I get togo there.
So I'm hoping that we actuallyare going to actually maybe meet
in person.
So I always love that.
There you go.
Who would have thought, Imean, Paris, you know, like a lot
of people love to come to Paris.
It's a beautiful city.
So yeah, I hope we can makethat connection in person.
(02:47):
That would be fantastic.
Yeah.
So tell me Derek, you know, Iwas looking at what you have done
and your experience and even,you know, right before we were talking
about some of the key things,you know, again that, that do lesson,
you know, to do better and youknow, we were talking about letting
go.
(03:07):
So walk me through how youcame to this.
Almost like aha moment of thatdo less better.
Yeah, well, thank you.
I'll, I'll share just a littlebit of a story.
So I started out working withmy wife in her coaching business
back in 2008 and I didn't evenknow anything about the business.
(03:33):
I didn't know that much aboutthe marketing, the online world,
entrepreneurial coaching, thatsort of a thing.
But what I realized is that Icould add value into the business
in different ways in terms ofstructure, in terms of organization,
helping with team, developinga more systematic way of what we
were doing.
And what I realized is thatwhen you can build this foundation
(03:54):
of a business and having areally solid structure of accountability,
the right people and the rightseats, a team that you can rely on
to do really, really goodwork, but focus not just on what
we're doing, but also on howwe're doing it so we can build it
to scale, so we can leverageit, so we can expand.
And that was a game changerfor me.
(04:15):
And I realized that once westarted to get real momentum and
traction, what happened isthat my wife, who's the kind of visionary
entrepreneur of the, of thecompany, it freed her up to focus
on the bigger vision.
And as entrepreneurs, asvisionary leaders, as CEOs, founders,
our goal is to focus on thebigger vision, because that's the
(04:37):
essence of being the visionary.
They have the idea, they seethe future, they see the big picture.
And oftentimes they get stuckbecause then at times they have to
come back and be like, okay,let's implement it, let's make it
happen, right?
Let's put the project into place.
And oftentimes they get stuckinto the day to day of the weeds
of the implementation andmanaging the team and managing the
task, and they get kind ofpulled into that, which pulls them
(04:59):
out of having the eye to thevision and the bigger picture.
And so this idea of letting goand doing less better, it's not about
being lazy, right?
It's doing less of the stuffthat doesn't actually move the needle
and focusing more on thebigger picture.
And so when you can rely on ateam and a structure and a process
in place so that they knowwhat we're doing and how we're doing
(05:21):
it and when we're doing it byand why we're doing it, it gives
the founder, the leader, a lotof confidence and faith that they
can go out and come up withthe big idea and focus on the bigger
picture.
Because they have thestructure, they have the system,
they have the team in place tomake it happen.
I often say that visionaryleaders, our job is to make it up.
We have the idea, I'm going tomake it up.
(05:42):
This is going to be fantastic.
It's a passion, it's a mission.
I want to make an impact.
Great.
You make it up.
People like me that are wiredas CEOs, we make it real.
We're like, I'm going to makeit happen for you because I can see
from A to Z all the thingsthat need to happen.
And then with the team and theprocess, we make it recur so it runs
like a world machine.
We don't have to reinvent the wheel.
We can scale, we can build, wecan expand at a higher pace.
(06:06):
Rather than the founder andthe leader having to be involved
in doing everything all the time.
So they get their time back,they get their freedom back, they
get their confidence back.
But also, like, energetically,they feel more excited, they feel
more motivated, becausethey're tapping into the essence
of what got them started intheir business in the first place,
but with the trust, knowingthat things are working without them
(06:26):
having to be involved.
So that's the do less better,or in some cases, I say less doing
more thinking.
Right, right.
You know, and as you weretalking, the things that were coming
into my, my mind were, youknow, so many times we start the
business or an entrepreneurwill start a business, and that part
(06:49):
of the brain doesn't.
Is very different than theorganizational structured brain.
Like they're two different sides.
Right.
And so it's almost like you'rebringing in the left brain to the
right brain.
That's exactly what it is.
It's exactly what it is.
There are assessments thatpeople can take that affirm exactly
what you're saying, thatentrepreneurs are wired in a certain
(07:10):
way, they have strengths in acertain way.
Their zone of genius isaligned in a different way from people
that are operating in a moresystematic, in a more organized,
organized way.
And you need a combination of both.
It's a little bit.
Because in the beginning, youknow, most entrepreneurs, they have
to do everything right,because we're bootstrapping stuff.
I'm doing the marketing, I'mdoing the sales, I'm doing the operations.
(07:31):
I might even be doing the bookkeeping.
I'm building my website.
Right.
But then they quickly realizeI'm not actually really good at bookkeeping.
I'm not really good atactually building out a website and
it's maybe costing you moneybecause there could be somebody that
could do it better and itfrees you.
Like, I actually just hatethat stuff anyway.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And.
But they oftentimes, in myexperience, what happens is that
(07:52):
there's a bit of guilt.
There's a bit of like, I.
But I should know how to dothese things.
It's my business.
I should know how to build aWordPress website.
I should know how to manage my email.
I should know how to do my bookkeeping.
Not necessarily.
So.
So they hit that ceiling,which is like, okay, so I know I
can't do anything anymore.
I need to hire, I need to geta team.
(08:14):
I need to leverage theirbrilliance, which is different than
my brilliance and their skillset and strengths, which are different
than mine.
And when they get those peopleon, place the right people in the
right seats and they're clearon what they need to do, it allows
the visionary entrepreneur tothink differently and align themselves
more with their strengths asopposed to trying to do everything
on themselves.
(08:34):
But in the beginning, there's,there's a little bit of guilt.
There's a little bit like, Ishould know how to do this.
You actually, you don't.
That's, you know, in the.
Let go of control, like giveyourself permission that you should
not actually be the one toknow everything.
Because.
Because you can't scale abusiness where it all depends on
you knowing and doingeverything by yourself.
It depends on the team.
It depends on the structureand the process and the organization.
(08:55):
And there are people that arewired for that.
There are people that love that.
They love being that kind ofsecond in command.
You make it up, I make it real.
And with the process and thepeople who make it recur, they're
like, okay, I see that.
That's the way that I need to scale.
So they let go of thatcontrol, but with trust, knowing
that it's going to give themthe solution that they want, really,
and, and often what they need.
So there's a couple ofquestions that come to mind.
(09:17):
And so I'm going to.
The first one is, and I, and Ihope this comes a.
Kind of comes out more.
Also as a tip is how.
How does a entre know orwhat's the sign that it's time to
(09:38):
bring in the CEO or like, youknow, what is that point that said,
where, you know, is it afinancial part?
Because sometimes I think thatyou can't actually hit the numbers
that you want to get becauseyou're so bogged down exactly in
the task.
So what's that, what is thattimeline, you know, like, when do
(10:01):
you know?
Like, yeah, it's like thetipping point, right?
Yeah, it's.
It happens in two ways.
Practical and energetic.
Practical because they arenoticing that their time is being
spent on all of theseactivities that they know intellectually
(10:22):
that they shouldn't be doing.
Right.
And so they're having to spend.
I've had such a busy day, youknow, I had to manage my email, I
had to do this in themarketing and I didn't have a chance
to actually do development ofthe business or I haven't had a chance
to think about the big ideathat I want to implement.
And so they See, like the timejust kind of floating away.
And so they're coming to therealization that like, I need more
(10:44):
of my time back.
That's actually the biggestcommodity that most entrepreneurs
need to really get in controlof is their time.
But energetically, what'shappening is they feel resentful.
They feel resentful thatthey've built this business that
they have in some casescreated a job where it's like, I'm
just doing stuff.
I'm just, you know, I'm doingthis, I'm doing the marketing, I'm
(11:04):
doing the customer service anddoing the operations.
And they feel energeticallythat it's, it's draining.
Right?
It's not the thing thatthey're jumping out of bed to do
again tomorrow morning.
They're, they're kind of like,I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not excited about
my business anymore.
It feels like work, it feelslike struggle, it feels like effort.
So there's that energy.
And what ends up happening islike energy is everything.
(11:24):
And so they end up taking moretime to do the things that they think
they should be doing asopposed to relax and let go of that
control to get somebody elseto help do them, do that for them.
So there's the practical, theenergetic, but it also depends on
where you are in yourbusiness, right?
If, if you have a multiple sixfigure or multiple seven figure,
(11:45):
and you know that you have bigdreams and big goals and big objectives
and you know that you can't doit on your own anymore, like what
got you here is not going toget you there.
Like, you can't scale complexity.
And if you built a businessthat feels complex, that feels like
there's a lot of putting outfires and like whack a mole and I
go to the next day, you can'tscale that.
(12:07):
So bringing something in,bringing someone in that can provide
that structure, that can provide.
And it's not about giving upcontrol of your business.
It's, you know, sometimes Isay we help run your business for
you.
It's not like we're coming inlike I'm taking control of your entire
business.
No, we are giving you controlback to your business for you to
do the things that you aremeant to be doing, because that's
(12:28):
the thing that's actuallygoing to scale.
It's not getting into the dayto day and managing the team and
did you check this?
And what about that?
And you know, it drains theirenergy because they're not usually
wired like that.
They're wired for the bigger vision.
So it's, it's energetic and,and practical at the same time, but
we all struggle with it.
We all, you know, it's.
There's no such thing asentrepreneurship nirvana.
(12:49):
Right.
There's always, like, the next level.
We have to, we have to overcome.
Yeah, no, and it's, it's very true.
You know, it is, it's, it's,it's, you know, when I look at it
and I look at some of thepeople that, that I talk to and the
people that I coach, you know, it's.
There is this fine line of, ofknowing when you.
(13:13):
Knowing that you cannot doanything all on your own.
And it's like.
And, you know, and I alwayshave to remind people, you know,
even, you know, think aboutgreat athletes.
Like, great athletes have, youknow, coaches.
They're.
They're not getting there ontheir own.
Yes.
It's their bodies that.
Getting their, you know,physically doing stuff.
(13:36):
Yeah.
But they don't do it on your own.
It's.
We never do anything on our own.
And so we have to embrace that part.
So I love this.
I love, you know, getting tothink about doing your business and,
you know, doing the thingsthat you want to do in your business
and doing less of the thingsthat are not your.
(14:00):
Your superpower.
Yeah, superpower brilliancezone of genius gift.
Exactly.
That's.
Exactly.
And it doesn't have to be, oh,do I have to bring in somebody to
run my business for you?
No, not necessarily.
It could be hiring a va.
It could be hiring somebody todo your social media.
It could be hiring somebodythat can manage your calendar and
your email.
It's the classic I'll pay youx, but I get 3x back because I get
(14:25):
my time back.
And that doesn't discount thevalue of what a VA or an obm, like
an online business manager ora COO provides, or even an accountant.
We always have to invest insomething in some way, but it's the
investment in that gives youthe time back and the time back.
You can go take a nap.
Right.
You can go on vacation.
(14:45):
You know, you can.
Which we do, of course.
But at the same time, you canreinvest that time into exponential
growth activities thatactually is going to really move
the needle for the company.
So it's, you know, hire a VAfor 20 bucks an hour for five hours
a week to help get some stuffoff your plate.
You get that time back, youcan reinvest that five hours a week.
And I can guarantee you can.
(15:06):
Should contribute to thebottom line.
A lot more than $20 an hourthat you're spending now.
But it's a mindset shift.
Some people are like, youknow, but I need to make the money
to spend the money.
Yeah, to an extent.
But making the money first tothen spend the money isn't how you're
going to scale, especially ifyou have a big vision and a big why
that is like, they're like,I'm waiting for you.
Like, let's get here, let'smake it faster.
(15:28):
We got to put the things inplace that are going to make that
accelerate that even more.
Right.
Sometimes you actually have tospend the money first to make the
money second.
Exactly.
And it's exactly getting tothat point.
And you know, and I thinkthat's a really good point.
And I, and I really want tostress that, you know, to listeners
because, because whetheryou're talking about a team or you're
(15:50):
talking about your business,there's an investment that you need
to take in and you have toinvest, whether it's investing in
your people.
Yeah.
You might not get the most outof your people until you actually
in them to help them, youknow, to get the, the best out of
them.
And it's the same thing with,you know, the financial part of it
(16:12):
in your business.
Right.
So, yeah.
So tell me a little bit about,you know, because you, you've had,
you, you work with your wife,which I have lots of questions about
that in lots of different waysbecause I'm like, I don't know, how
do you, is that okay?
Like, how did you, you know,how did that work?
Yeah, yeah.
(16:32):
But you, you had, what broughtyou to the point where you knew in
from your business experiencethat you were wired as the coo.
Yeah.
Great question.
To be honest.
In the beginning, I didn't,we, we made the decision to work
together more for personal reasons.
(16:54):
You know, I started out onWall Street, I was working in finance.
You know, I had a good salary,great tick the corporate box.
But as I saw my wife and herbusiness growing and succeeding and
the impact that she was makingwith her clients and the really great
work that she was doing, itbrought up for me, is this the right
(17:15):
path that I want to be on?
Business growing?
Yes.
And, and then I, I justdecided, you know, that my, my professional
track on doing corporate was,was not meant for me.
I, I really appreciated thefulfillment that she was getting
(17:36):
in the work that she was doing.
And so we had this crazy idea,what if I were to go part time and
work with her in her business?
At the time, she had, I think,nine, nine VAs.
And she, you know, wasgrowing, it was scaling.
It was wonderful.
But there was like, I can helpwith the team.
I can help make projects happen.
That's what my background was.
Um, and then once we realized,like in the beginning, like you said,
(17:57):
you know, it.
It was, it was not as easy aswe had thought.
You know, we never actuallyobviously worked together.
There were things we didn'tknow about our.
How we're wired and our strengths.
And obviously there's thehusband and wife dynamic, which could
be a bit tricky.
We figured it out.
I know it's not for everybody.
I've mentioned this in thepast, and some people are like, I
can never work with my partner.
I can never work with myhusband or my spouse.
Yeah, I get it.
And, and, and we had apersonal goal to be able to have
(18:20):
that freedom and thatflexibility using and leveraging
the business in order to do that.
And so when I stepped in, Irealized how things work.
It's my, my.
It's the way that my brain is wired.
It's.
I could figure things out.
I'm like a problem solver.
I'm fact finding.
I'm getting through, like,what's the plan?
What's the process?
And when I realized that whenyou have a plan, you have a process
and you can make things happenon the back end, it allows the business
(18:44):
to scale and allows thevisionary to.
To be able to go and do more.
More speaking, morenetworking, more relationships, more
sales, more marketing that isaligned with them.
And then what I realized isthat, you know, we've scaled the
business.
It's been at multiple sevenfigures for 18 years.
And then people were liketapping me on the shoulder and saying,
(19:05):
I need a Derek.
I need somebody to do for mybusiness what you've done for your
wife's business.
And I said, great.
And I started to do thatfractionally for a few clients here
and there.
But I realized then I couldn'tscale that because it was all dependent
upon me.
So last year I launched theCOO solution, and I've been cultivating
a team and a framework of howwe provide COO and OBM online business
(19:26):
manager services toentrepreneurial clients that are
multiple six figures to highmultiple seven figures.
And it's a bit interestingbecause now I've kind of stepped
out from being the COO to nowbeing more of the CEO.
I actually just hired one ofmy COOs to be my COO for my business.
So I'm kind of like walkingthe Talk.
It's like I'm kind of gettingout there and doing it.
(19:48):
But that made me realize thatespecially for visionaries, especially
for entrepreneurial leadersthat know that they need and want
the support, oftentimes youcan hire more people to do things,
but at a certain level, youneed somebody to really be that strategic,
trusted partner, thatconfidant like that, that second
in command that can makethings happen with you.
(20:08):
And that's been a real gamechanger in the work that we do with
our clients.
And also for me to see thatcascade in the work that we're doing.
That'S, that's so, so here's.
How do you like being the CEO?
It's interesting.
I, I just did a team.
I do a once a month.
Our team is about 15, 15, 20people now.
And I do a once a month team,get together where we connect and
(20:32):
we talk about what's working,what's going well.
Here are the updates andeverything else.
And I said to them verytransparently, I have to catch myself
because I can get into theweeds very easily.
Right?
I'm, I'm, I have the COO mindset.
It's, it's been what I've beendoing for 18 years.
And so I'm like, what's theprocess for this and what's the structure
for this?
And like, we're building theplane as we fly it to put in the
(20:53):
systems and everything else.
And I'm also having to trustand let go and rely on my team.
Okay, marketing team, takecare of this.
Operations team, take care of this.
Because I know that for what Iwant to do and where I want to go
with my vision, I need to let go.
So it's like, I'm not justsaying that I'm doing that as well
because we all have big initiatives.
I just launched a podcast andwriting a book.
I want to do more speaking andgetting out there and everything
(21:15):
else.
And I know I can't do thosetypes of things on my own without,
without having the rightstructure and the right team in place
to support me.
So it's, it's, it's, it's interesting.
I catch myself saying, okay,CEO hat, Derek, not, not, not COO
hat.
Stop, stop getting into the weeds.
Let, let, let the process in place.
Let the team do their thing.
But it's been exciting for sure.
(21:37):
So, so who then are your, youknow, your dream key clients?
Great question.
Dream clients are women entrepreneurs.
And, and it's interesting.
I, I don't, I don't, I don'tMarket to women specifically.
(21:59):
I don't, I don't have amessage that specifically speaks
to, to women business ownersor female entrepreneurs, but I can
just say, having worked withmy wife for 17 years and bold heart,
our company and our team areall women.
All of my clients are women,all of my team are women.
And I don't know what it is.
I remember there was a whilewhere I was cultivating my team and
(22:19):
speaking to a lot of peoplethat are really great cosos that
are men.
And you know, I'm a man.
There's men listening.
You know, I get it.
But what I realized is thatwhen working with women entrepreneurs
things are different in somerespect and there is an empathy of
how we do what we do, which isvery important versus that's the
(22:42):
deadline.
Everything's black and white.
It's very linear.
We have to go in this direction.
It doesn't always work like that.
Things can deviate based on anumber of different things.
Intuition, divineintervention, insights.
And, and, and, and myexperience in, in working with women
clients is that that's veryimportant and we have to honor that,
we have to respect that and wehave to kind of cultivate in that
(23:05):
work that we do.
So there's that element.
But also, you know, coaches,consultants, you know, online, I
say like online Transformers,like industry transformers, those
that are really there to makean impact.
And, and the byproduct is thefinancial right.
It's not all about the income.
I know people say that all thetime, but for me it's a big motivator
(23:28):
because I love to be able tosee when we work with our clients
that they get their time back,they get their freedom back, they
get their mojo back, they gettheir excitement back, their confidence
and everything else.
And the byproduct is like ourP and l is up 50%.
Look at that.
You know, like that's a greatoutput of us doing really good work
in that way.
You know what, Having thatmojo and getting that excitement
(23:50):
back.
It just makes me think about,you know, when you, when you're aligned
the right way and when you seecompanies where the people that,
and I and the partners andbecause I, I, there's two words,
I, I feel like that need toget removed from companies and those
that's employees and managers,they leaders and partners.
(24:12):
That's just.
Yeah, I love that brain thatwhen you have leaders who actually
lead and you've got partnerswho feel like they're a partner and
they've caught the vision andthey're, they've got that there's
that energy that's within theentire company and organization.
Yeah.
It's not, you know, the bottomline does go up and you haven't hired
(24:34):
more people.
You're doing.
And.
And it kind of goes back towhat we just said in the beginning,
actually.
You're actually doing.
You're doing more.
Yeah, everybody's.
Everybody gets to do more, andthey're feeling really great.
And the people who need to bethinking are thinking, and the people
that need, you know, thepeople that are.
(24:56):
Are working.
Are working.
Yeah.
And it's all.
It all goes together.
Yeah.
I use the, like, I use theanalogy of a bus where the leader,
the.
The entrepreneur is.
Is.
Is driving the bus.
Right.
They're the driver.
They know where they're going.
But in the bus, you've gotyour team, and there are different
seats on the bus, and our jobis to make sure we've got the right
(25:18):
people in the right seats.
Sometimes it's the right seat,but it's the wrong person.
Right.
Sometimes it's the rightperson, but they're in the wrong
seat.
When you get right people inright seats that get on board of
the bus business, where it'sgoing, the vision, the why, they
feel excited, they feel empowered.
And so what ends up happeningis that they elevate and expand what
(25:41):
they're doing, which can thencontribute to things being done more
efficiently, more effective.
Team members love to feel empowered.
They love to be like, so just,you know, not just doers, you know,
not just ones that dot theeyes and cross the T's.
We want people with.
With that mindset, with thatway of thinking, but they want to
get on board with the vision.
They want to feel like, youknow, a rising tide lifts all boats.
(26:02):
And so when they get on boardwith the vision and they're excited
and empowered.
Yeah.
At the end of the day, theymay just be doing your bookkeeping,
but they feel excited becausethey get the bigger vision, they
get the bigger purpose, theyget the bigger why.
And then they can contributeto that in different ways.
When they feel empowered andfeel excited and feel the line, and
that comes from the leaderoftentimes kind of sharing, this
is the vision.
(26:22):
This is where we're going.
This is what I'm thinking.
This is what I've got planned.
And they're like, fantastic.
I love to hear the vision.
I love to see where we'regoing, because I feel excited.
I feel like I can be a part of that.
Tell me what my role is.
Tell me what responsibilitiesare, and Then they can jump in and
make it happen.
Yeah.
You know, and it's, it's,it's, it's, it's.
If you can help craft thatfrom everybody, from the person who
(26:45):
is cleaning to all the way up.
Right, yeah.
Because they all feel likethey're part of the team to help
that, you know, they're partof the tide that's lifting the boat.
Exactly.
They're all part of it andthey feel that and create that.
(27:05):
So it's great.
So, working with women.
So is there womenentrepreneurs, is there a, a business
or an industry that you likein the entrepreneurial space more
or that you align more with as well?
It's a great question.
I mean, traditionally it'sbeen coaching, just because that's
(27:28):
the background that we've beenin in terms of business coaching.
The clients we work with noware usually service based providers.
They're a coach, they're aconsultant, they might be an interior
designer, they might be afinancial planner.
You know, they're really goodat what they do, but they know they
need help.
And that doesn't make that abad thing.
It's like they know they need support.
Right.
They kind of realize that Ican't do anything on my own.
(27:50):
I'm really not good atcustomer service.
I don't really know all thethings that I need to know about
marketing and funnels andlaunches and ads and social media.
You know, I need to bring inthe right, the right support.
But we have clients now thatwe work with in, in the travel industry,
we have clients that work within public works, which is very interesting,
you know, because at the endof the day, at least in my opinion,
(28:13):
in my experience, businessesare the same.
Marketing is marketing, salesis sales, operations is operations,
finance is finance.
Right.
I know people may look at itin different ways, but I always say,
like, marketing drives sales,sales drives operations, which is
what you deliver, what youprovide, what your services.
And then finance is the outputof doing really good marketing, really
(28:34):
good sales and really goodoperations and having the team aligned
with that.
So sometimes when we speak toa potential client, they'll say like,
are you familiar with my industry?
And, and is there somebodythat knows my market?
And I'll, I'll confidentlysay, and it's not out of, out of
ego, I'll be no, but ithonestly doesn't really matter because
at the end of the day, whatyou need is an air traffic controller
(28:54):
to take care of your businessfor you and make sure that marketing
is doing what marketing shouldbe doing.
And sales is doing what salesshould be doing and operations and
finance, etc.
But I've been doing businesscoaching for 17 years and a lot of
online marketing.
So that's kind of where Ihave, I have a, I'm a marketer first
hat, if you will.
So that's, that's usuallywhere we gravitate to.
(29:16):
Right.
Well, that's fantastic.
You know, dark.
I could talk to you forever,you know, there's so much great stuff
here.
So tell us, like, what is the,you know, you know, I shared in the
beginning, you know, we talkedabout, you know, the one big thing
is, you know, letting go of,you know, of what you're doing, you
know, and doing less to do better.
(29:39):
Is there one thing that youfeel like that will help somebody
do that?
Like, what's like one insightor tip?
That's a great question.
I would say if they'relistening to this, take a moment
and, and reflect on where youare today and where you want to be
(30:00):
in 12 months from now.
And is your currentenvironment, including your team
and including your mindsetposition to get you to where you
want to go.
And if so, great, fantastic.
And if there's a part of youthat's thinking, I don't really know.
I'm not really sure if I havethose elements in place.
Maybe I'm asking myself,should I be thinking about getting
(30:20):
a CEO or an obm?
Great question.
But being able to ask yourselfthat question and be present to what
the answer is.
And the answer might be, Iknow I need help.
I know I can't do it on my own.
I know in the beginning I goteverything done because it was just
me.
But what got me here, like Isaid, is not going to get you there.
And if they are looking for apath to get them there, that's going
(30:44):
to be aligned with who theyreally are and their strengths, with
the trust of the team that canmake that happen.
That's where they're like,okay, let me reach out for support.
Let me see what is the rightdirection to go.
And it might be, again, like Isaid, starting with a va, an obm,
getting some structure, someteam in place that can help you get
there, but you need to bepresent to yourself and asking the
(31:05):
question and then being readyfor the answer and, and knowing that
we all need help, we all need,you know, different levels of resources
and support to make that happen.
Yeah, right.
And knowing, and I would haveto say, and, and know that it's okay
to ask for help.
Totally.
Exactly.
It's exactly that.
Like you said, you know,people, successful people look above,
(31:26):
right?
And they say, how did they do it?
And I can guarantee you thepath to that success wasn't well.
They did everything on their own.
Right.
They relied on team, theyrelied on experts, they relied on
coaches, they relied onmentors, they relied on programs,
they relied on lots ofdifferent things.
Right.
We're all students of, youknow, professional and personal development
in one way or another,especially as an entrepreneur.
(31:47):
It's like the fastest paththrough personal development is being
an entrepreneur because itbrings up all your stuff.
Right.
It needs to be addressed.
Right.
And so part of that is justbecoming real to the fact that I
know I may not be able to doit all on my own and I'm going to
ask for help because that'sgoing to get me to my goal.
Right.
Well that's, that's great.
So Derek, how can people findyou and connect with you?
(32:09):
Sure.
So yeah, they can go to.
It's the coosolution.com again.
It's the coosolution dot comand interestingly on the website
I do offer a free quiz whichbasically answers or asks the question
that you were just sayingbefore, which is, is now the right
(32:29):
time to consider bringing on a fractional.
Right, fractional.
This is not full time.
This is, you know, very parttime to give you the support a fractional
COO or obm.
Right.
Depending upon where you arein the size of your business, size
of your team, etc.
And it gives a prettyreflective assessment of where you
are, where you want to be andlooking at what are the things that
(32:51):
need to be in place.
With marketing, sales, oper,finance, we get tactics based like
it gives you some reallyinsightful awareness of the things
that need to be in place.
And you might say great, I'm,I'm good.
But others are like wow, thisis, there's a lot of gaps in there.
Like I didn't know that mymarketing could be this much better.
So I need to figure out how Ican get some COO or OBM level support.
So that's a quiz.
That's a free, free resourceat the website.
(33:13):
Yeah.
Oh well that's fantastic.
Okay, so listeners, I'm goingto give you something to do.
Go to the co solution.com andtake the assessment because I would
bet you it's going to give yousome insight.
I'm going to go there too andtake it myself because I want to
see, you know, what it is allabout because I should do that beforehand
but go to the CEO solution andtake the assessment and then obviously
(33:36):
connect with Derek.
He is a wealth of informationand listeners.
If you have loved this andhave gotten any nuggets from this,
please do me two things.
One is hit subscribe and theother thing is share this episode
and share the unstoppableleadership spotlight with your friends
and colleagues and give us agreat review.
(33:56):
That's actually three things.
Thank you so much for listening.
I am Jacqueline Strominger,your host.
And Derek, thank you so muchfor being an amazing guest.
Oh, thank you Jacqueline.
I really enjoyed it.
Thank you for having me.
My pleasure.
Hello everybody and welcome toanother episode of Unstoppable Leadership
Spotlight podcast.
I am your host, Jacqueline Strominger.
And you know, my goal is tohelp and give every single leader
insights and game changingknowledge that will help them become
better leaders today and tomorrow.
(01:19):
So today we have an amazingguest, Derek Fredrickson.
And let me just give you alittle bit about Derek.
So Derek has over 16 years ofexperience as the Chief Operating
Officer at Boldheart and othersix and seven figure businesses.
He has witnessed firsthand howtransformative a robust operational
(01:43):
strategy can be forentrepreneurs who are ready to scale
but feel overwhelmed.
As we all know, running abusiness often means getting bogged
down with day to day tasks andbecoming a bottleneck and losing
sight of that vision thatsparked the company in the first
place.
And that's where Derek comes in.
And so what you are going toget listeners today listening to
(02:06):
Derek and game changinginsights about the key thing is how
to do less better.
I love that line.
So Derek, welcome to, to theUnstoppable Leadership Spotlight
podcast.
So glad to have you here.
Thank you, Jaclyn.
I'm happy to be here andlooking excited, looking forward
and excited for ourconversation today.
(02:26):
Yeah, so am I.
So okay.
Like I was so excited.
First of all, listeners, I'mreally excited because Derek's actually
in Paris, France and I get togo there.
So I'm hoping that we actuallyare going to actually maybe meet
in person.
So I always love that.
There you go.
Who would have thought, Imean, Paris, you know, like a lot
of people love to come to Paris.
It's a beautiful city.
So yeah, I hope we can makethat connection in person.
(02:47):
That would be fantastic.
Yeah.
So tell me Derek, you know, Iwas looking at what you have done
and your experience and even,you know, right before we were talking
about some of the key things,you know, again that, that do lesson,
you know, to do better and youknow, we were talking about letting
go.
(03:07):
So walk me through how youcame to this.
Almost like aha moment of thatdo less better.
Yeah, well, thank you.
I'll, I'll share just a littlebit of a story.
So I started out working withmy wife in her coaching business
back in 2008 and I didn't evenknow anything about the business.
(03:33):
I didn't know that much aboutthe marketing, the online world,
entrepreneurial coaching, thatsort of a thing.
But what I realized is that Icould add value into the business
in different ways in terms ofstructure, in terms of organization,
helping with team, developinga more systematic way of what we
were doing.
And what I realized is thatwhen you can build this foundation
(03:54):
of a business and having areally solid structure of accountability,
the right people and the rightseats, a team that you can rely on
to do really, really goodwork, but focus not just on what
we're doing, but also on howwe're doing it so we can build it
to scale, so we can leverageit, so we can expand.
And that was a game changerfor me.
(04:15):
And I realized that once westarted to get real momentum and
traction, what happened isthat my wife, who's the kind of visionary
entrepreneur of the, of thecompany, it freed her up to focus
on the bigger vision.
And as entrepreneurs, asvisionary leaders, as CEOs, founders,
our goal is to focus on thebigger vision, because that's the
(04:37):
essence of being the visionary.
They have the idea, they seethe future, they see the big picture.
And oftentimes they get stuckbecause then at times they have to
come back and be like, okay,let's implement it, let's make it
happen, right?
Let's put the project into place.
And oftentimes they get stuckinto the day to day of the weeds
of the implementation andmanaging the team and managing the
task, and they get kind ofpulled into that, which pulls them
(04:59):
out of having the eye to thevision and the bigger picture.
And so this idea of letting goand doing less better, it's not about
being lazy, right?
It's doing less of the stuffthat doesn't actually move the needle
and focusing more on thebigger picture.
And so when you can rely on ateam and a structure and a process
in place so that they knowwhat we're doing and how we're doing
(05:21):
it and when we're doing it byand why we're doing it, it gives
the founder, the leader, a lotof confidence and faith that they
can go out and come up withthe big idea and focus on the bigger
picture.
Because they have thestructure, they have the system,
they have the team in place tomake it happen.
I often say that visionaryleaders, our job is to make it up.
We have the idea, I'm going tomake it up.
(05:42):
This is going to be fantastic.
It's a passion, it's a mission.
I want to make an impact.
Great.
You make it up.
People like me that are wiredas CEOs, we make it real.
We're like, I'm going to makeit happen for you because I can see
from A to Z all the thingsthat need to happen.
And then with the team and theprocess, we make it recur so it runs
like a world machine.
We don't have to reinvent the wheel.
We can scale, we can build, wecan expand at a higher pace.
(06:06):
Rather than the founder andthe leader having to be involved
in doing everything all the time.
So they get their time back,they get their freedom back, they
get their confidence back.
But also, like, energetically,they feel more excited, they feel
more motivated, becausethey're tapping into the essence
of what got them started intheir business in the first place,
but with the trust, knowingthat things are working without them
(06:26):
having to be involved.
So that's the do less better,or in some cases, I say less doing
more thinking.
Right, right.
You know, and as you weretalking, the things that were coming
into my, my mind were, youknow, so many times we start the
business or an entrepreneurwill start a business, and that part
(06:49):
of the brain doesn't.
Is very different than theorganizational structured brain.
Like they're two different sides.
Right.
And so it's almost like you'rebringing in the left brain to the
right brain.
That's exactly what it is.
It's exactly what it is.
There are assessments thatpeople can take that affirm exactly
what you're saying, thatentrepreneurs are wired in a certain
(07:10):
way, they have strengths in acertain way.
Their zone of genius isaligned in a different way from people
that are operating in a moresystematic, in a more organized,
organized way.
And you need a combination of both.
It's a little bit.
Because in the beginning, youknow, most entrepreneurs, they have
to do everything right,because we're bootstrapping stuff.
I'm doing the marketing, I'mdoing the sales, I'm doing the operations.
(07:31):
I might even be doing the bookkeeping.
I'm building my website.
Right.
But then they quickly realizeI'm not actually really good at bookkeeping.
I'm not really good atactually building out a website and
it's maybe costing you moneybecause there could be somebody that
could do it better and itfrees you.
Like, I actually just hatethat stuff anyway.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And.
But they oftentimes, in myexperience, what happens is that
(07:52):
there's a bit of guilt.
There's a bit of like, I.
But I should know how to dothese things.
It's my business.
I should know how to build aWordPress website.
I should know how to manage my email.
I should know how to do my bookkeeping.
Not necessarily.
So.
So they hit that ceiling,which is like, okay, so I know I
can't do anything anymore.
I need to hire, I need to geta team.
(08:14):
I need to leverage theirbrilliance, which is different than
my brilliance and their skillset and strengths, which are different
than mine.
And when they get those peopleon, place the right people in the
right seats and they're clearon what they need to do, it allows
the visionary entrepreneur tothink differently and align themselves
more with their strengths asopposed to trying to do everything
on themselves.
(08:34):
But in the beginning, there's,there's a little bit of guilt.
There's a little bit like, Ishould know how to do this.
You actually, you don't.
That's, you know, in the.
Let go of control, like giveyourself permission that you should
not actually be the one toknow everything.
Because.
Because you can't scale abusiness where it all depends on
you knowing and doingeverything by yourself.
It depends on the team.
It depends on the structureand the process and the organization.
(08:55):
And there are people that arewired for that.
There are people that love that.
They love being that kind ofsecond in command.
You make it up, I make it real.
And with the process and thepeople who make it recur, they're
like, okay, I see that.
That's the way that I need to scale.
So they let go of thatcontrol, but with trust, knowing
that it's going to give themthe solution that they want, really,
and, and often what they need.
So there's a couple ofquestions that come to mind.
(09:17):
And so I'm going to.
The first one is, and I, and Ihope this comes a.
Kind of comes out more.
Also as a tip is how.
How does a entre know orwhat's the sign that it's time to
(09:38):
bring in the CEO or like, youknow, what is that point that said,
where, you know, is it afinancial part?
Because sometimes I think thatyou can't actually hit the numbers
that you want to get becauseyou're so bogged down exactly in
the task.
So what's that, what is thattimeline, you know, like, when do
(10:01):
you know?
Like, yeah, it's like thetipping point, right?
Yeah, it's.
It happens in two ways.
Practical and energetic.
Practical because they arenoticing that their time is being
spent on all of theseactivities that they know intellectually
(10:22):
that they shouldn't be doing.
Right.
And so they're having to spend.
I've had such a busy day, youknow, I had to manage my email, I
had to do this in themarketing and I didn't have a chance
to actually do development ofthe business or I haven't had a chance
to think about the big ideathat I want to implement.
And so they See, like the timejust kind of floating away.
And so they're coming to therealization that like, I need more
(10:44):
of my time back.
That's actually the biggestcommodity that most entrepreneurs
need to really get in controlof is their time.
But energetically, what'shappening is they feel resentful.
They feel resentful thatthey've built this business that
they have in some casescreated a job where it's like, I'm
just doing stuff.
I'm just, you know, I'm doingthis, I'm doing the marketing, I'm
(11:04):
doing the customer service anddoing the operations.
And they feel energeticallythat it's, it's draining.
Right?
It's not the thing thatthey're jumping out of bed to do
again tomorrow morning.
They're, they're kind of like,I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not excited about
my business anymore.
It feels like work, it feelslike struggle, it feels like effort.
So there's that energy.
And what ends up happening islike energy is everything.
(11:24):
And so they end up taking moretime to do the things that they think
they should be doing asopposed to relax and let go of that
control to get somebody elseto help do them, do that for them.
So there's the practical, theenergetic, but it also depends on
where you are in yourbusiness, right?
If, if you have a multiple sixfigure or multiple seven figure,
(11:45):
and you know that you have bigdreams and big goals and big objectives
and you know that you can't doit on your own anymore, like what
got you here is not going toget you there.
Like, you can't scale complexity.
And if you built a businessthat feels complex, that feels like
there's a lot of putting outfires and like whack a mole and I
go to the next day, you can'tscale that.
(12:07):
So bringing something in,bringing someone in that can provide
that structure, that can provide.
And it's not about giving upcontrol of your business.
It's, you know, sometimes Isay we help run your business for
you.
It's not like we're coming inlike I'm taking control of your entire
business.
No, we are giving you controlback to your business for you to
do the things that you aremeant to be doing, because that's
(12:28):
the thing that's actuallygoing to scale.
It's not getting into the dayto day and managing the team and
did you check this?
And what about that?
And you know, it drains theirenergy because they're not usually
wired like that.
They're wired for the bigger vision.
So it's, it's energetic and,and practical at the same time, but
we all struggle with it.
We all, you know, it's.
There's no such thing asentrepreneurship nirvana.
(12:49):
Right.
There's always, like, the next level.
We have to, we have to overcome.
Yeah, no, and it's, it's very true.
You know, it is, it's, it's,it's, you know, when I look at it
and I look at some of thepeople that, that I talk to and the
people that I coach, you know, it's.
There is this fine line of, ofknowing when you.
(13:13):
Knowing that you cannot doanything all on your own.
And it's like.
And, you know, and I alwayshave to remind people, you know,
even, you know, think aboutgreat athletes.
Like, great athletes have, youknow, coaches.
They're.
They're not getting there ontheir own.
Yes.
It's their bodies that.
Getting their, you know,physically doing stuff.
(13:36):
Yeah.
But they don't do it on your own.
It's.
We never do anything on our own.
And so we have to embrace that part.
So I love this.
I love, you know, getting tothink about doing your business and,
you know, doing the thingsthat you want to do in your business
and doing less of the thingsthat are not your.
(14:00):
Your superpower.
Yeah, superpower brilliancezone of genius gift.
Exactly.
That's.
Exactly.
And it doesn't have to be, oh,do I have to bring in somebody to
run my business for you?
No, not necessarily.
It could be hiring a va.
It could be hiring somebody todo your social media.
It could be hiring somebodythat can manage your calendar and
your email.
It's the classic I'll pay youx, but I get 3x back because I get
(14:25):
my time back.
And that doesn't discount thevalue of what a VA or an obm, like
an online business manager ora COO provides, or even an accountant.
We always have to invest insomething in some way, but it's the
investment in that gives youthe time back and the time back.
You can go take a nap.
Right.
You can go on vacation.
(14:45):
You know, you can.
Which we do, of course.
But at the same time, you canreinvest that time into exponential
growth activities thatactually is going to really move
the needle for the company.
So it's, you know, hire a VAfor 20 bucks an hour for five hours
a week to help get some stuffoff your plate.
You get that time back, youcan reinvest that five hours a week.
And I can guarantee you can.
(15:06):
Should contribute to thebottom line.
A lot more than $20 an hourthat you're spending now.
But it's a mindset shift.
Some people are like, youknow, but I need to make the money
to spend the money.
Yeah, to an extent.
But making the money first tothen spend the money isn't how you're
going to scale, especially ifyou have a big vision and a big why
that is like, they're like,I'm waiting for you.
Like, let's get here, let'smake it faster.
(15:28):
We got to put the things inplace that are going to make that
accelerate that even more.
Right.
Sometimes you actually have tospend the money first to make the
money second.
Exactly.
And it's exactly getting tothat point.
And you know, and I thinkthat's a really good point.
And I, and I really want tostress that, you know, to listeners
because, because whetheryou're talking about a team or you're
(15:50):
talking about your business,there's an investment that you need
to take in and you have toinvest, whether it's investing in
your people.
Yeah.
You might not get the most outof your people until you actually
in them to help them, youknow, to get the, the best out of
them.
And it's the same thing with,you know, the financial part of it
(16:12):
in your business.
Right.
So, yeah.
So tell me a little bit about,you know, because you, you've had,
you, you work with your wife,which I have lots of questions about
that in lots of different waysbecause I'm like, I don't know, how
do you, is that okay?
Like, how did you, you know,how did that work?
Yeah, yeah.
(16:32):
But you, you had, what broughtyou to the point where you knew in
from your business experiencethat you were wired as the coo.
Yeah.
Great question.
To be honest.
In the beginning, I didn't,we, we made the decision to work
together more for personal reasons.
(16:54):
You know, I started out onWall Street, I was working in finance.
You know, I had a good salary,great tick the corporate box.
But as I saw my wife and herbusiness growing and succeeding and
the impact that she was makingwith her clients and the really great
work that she was doing, itbrought up for me, is this the right
(17:15):
path that I want to be on?
Business growing?
Yes.
And, and then I, I justdecided, you know, that my, my professional
track on doing corporate was,was not meant for me.
I, I really appreciated thefulfillment that she was getting
(17:36):
in the work that she was doing.
And so we had this crazy idea,what if I were to go part time and
work with her in her business?
At the time, she had, I think,nine, nine VAs.
And she, you know, wasgrowing, it was scaling.
It was wonderful.
But there was like, I can helpwith the team.
I can help make projects happen.
That's what my background was.
Um, and then once we realized,like in the beginning, like you said,
(17:57):
you know, it.
It was, it was not as easy aswe had thought.
You know, we never actuallyobviously worked together.
There were things we didn'tknow about our.
How we're wired and our strengths.
And obviously there's thehusband and wife dynamic, which could
be a bit tricky.
We figured it out.
I know it's not for everybody.
I've mentioned this in thepast, and some people are like, I
can never work with my partner.
I can never work with myhusband or my spouse.
Yeah, I get it.
And, and, and we had apersonal goal to be able to have
(18:20):
that freedom and thatflexibility using and leveraging
the business in order to do that.
And so when I stepped in, Irealized how things work.
It's my, my.
It's the way that my brain is wired.
It's.
I could figure things out.
I'm like a problem solver.
I'm fact finding.
I'm getting through, like,what's the plan?
What's the process?
And when I realized that whenyou have a plan, you have a process
and you can make things happenon the back end, it allows the business
(18:44):
to scale and allows thevisionary to.
To be able to go and do more.
More speaking, morenetworking, more relationships, more
sales, more marketing that isaligned with them.
And then what I realized isthat, you know, we've scaled the
business.
It's been at multiple sevenfigures for 18 years.
And then people were liketapping me on the shoulder and saying,
(19:05):
I need a Derek.
I need somebody to do for mybusiness what you've done for your
wife's business.
And I said, great.
And I started to do thatfractionally for a few clients here
and there.
But I realized then I couldn'tscale that because it was all dependent
upon me.
So last year I launched theCOO solution, and I've been cultivating
a team and a framework of howwe provide COO and OBM online business
(19:26):
manager services toentrepreneurial clients that are
multiple six figures to highmultiple seven figures.
And it's a bit interestingbecause now I've kind of stepped
out from being the COO to nowbeing more of the CEO.
I actually just hired one ofmy COOs to be my COO for my business.
So I'm kind of like walkingthe Talk.
It's like I'm kind of gettingout there and doing it.
(19:48):
But that made me realize thatespecially for visionaries, especially
for entrepreneurial leadersthat know that they need and want
the support, oftentimes youcan hire more people to do things,
but at a certain level, youneed somebody to really be that strategic,
trusted partner, thatconfidant like that, that second
in command that can makethings happen with you.
(20:08):
And that's been a real gamechanger in the work that we do with
our clients.
And also for me to see thatcascade in the work that we're doing.
That'S, that's so, so here's.
How do you like being the CEO?
It's interesting.
I, I just did a team.
I do a once a month.
Our team is about 15, 15, 20people now.
And I do a once a month team,get together where we connect and
(20:32):
we talk about what's working,what's going well.
Here are the updates andeverything else.
And I said to them verytransparently, I have to catch myself
because I can get into theweeds very easily.
Right?
I'm, I'm, I have the COO mindset.
It's, it's been what I've beendoing for 18 years.
And so I'm like, what's theprocess for this and what's the structure
for this?
And like, we're building theplane as we fly it to put in the
(20:53):
systems and everything else.
And I'm also having to trustand let go and rely on my team.
Okay, marketing team, takecare of this.
Operations team, take care of this.
Because I know that for what Iwant to do and where I want to go
with my vision, I need to let go.
So it's like, I'm not justsaying that I'm doing that as well
because we all have big initiatives.
I just launched a podcast andwriting a book.
I want to do more speaking andgetting out there and everything
(21:15):
else.
And I know I can't do thosetypes of things on my own without,
without having the rightstructure and the right team in place
to support me.
So it's, it's, it's, it's interesting.
I catch myself saying, okay,CEO hat, Derek, not, not, not COO
hat.
Stop, stop getting into the weeds.
Let, let, let the process in place.
Let the team do their thing.
But it's been exciting for sure.
(21:37):
So, so who then are your, youknow, your dream key clients?
Great question.
Dream clients are women entrepreneurs.
And, and it's interesting.
I, I don't, I don't, I don'tMarket to women specifically.
(21:59):
I don't, I don't have amessage that specifically speaks
to, to women business ownersor female entrepreneurs, but I can
just say, having worked withmy wife for 17 years and bold heart,
our company and our team areall women.
All of my clients are women,all of my team are women.
And I don't know what it is.
I remember there was a whilewhere I was cultivating my team and
(22:19):
speaking to a lot of peoplethat are really great cosos that
are men.
And you know, I'm a man.
There's men listening.
You know, I get it.
But what I realized is thatwhen working with women entrepreneurs
things are different in somerespect and there is an empathy of
how we do what we do, which isvery important versus that's the
(22:42):
deadline.
Everything's black and white.
It's very linear.
We have to go in this direction.
It doesn't always work like that.
Things can deviate based on anumber of different things.
Intuition, divineintervention, insights.
And, and, and, and myexperience in, in working with women
clients is that that's veryimportant and we have to honor that,
we have to respect that and wehave to kind of cultivate in that
(23:05):
work that we do.
So there's that element.
But also, you know, coaches,consultants, you know, online, I
say like online Transformers,like industry transformers, those
that are really there to makean impact.
And, and the byproduct is thefinancial right.
It's not all about the income.
I know people say that all thetime, but for me it's a big motivator
(23:28):
because I love to be able tosee when we work with our clients
that they get their time back,they get their freedom back, they
get their mojo back, they gettheir excitement back, their confidence
and everything else.
And the byproduct is like ourP and l is up 50%.
Look at that.
You know, like that's a greatoutput of us doing really good work
in that way.
You know what, Having thatmojo and getting that excitement
(23:50):
back.
It just makes me think about,you know, when you, when you're aligned
the right way and when you seecompanies where the people that,
and I and the partners andbecause I, I, there's two words,
I, I feel like that need toget removed from companies and those
that's employees and managers,they leaders and partners.
(24:12):
That's just.
Yeah, I love that brain thatwhen you have leaders who actually
lead and you've got partnerswho feel like they're a partner and
they've caught the vision andthey're, they've got that there's
that energy that's within theentire company and organization.
Yeah.
It's not, you know, the bottomline does go up and you haven't hired
(24:34):
more people.
You're doing.
And.
And it kind of goes back towhat we just said in the beginning,
actually.
You're actually doing.
You're doing more.
Yeah, everybody's.
Everybody gets to do more, andthey're feeling really great.
And the people who need to bethinking are thinking, and the people
that need, you know, thepeople that are.
(24:56):
Are working.
Are working.
Yeah.
And it's all.
It all goes together.
Yeah.
I use the, like, I use theanalogy of a bus where the leader,
the.
The entrepreneur is.
Is.
Is driving the bus.
Right.
They're the driver.
They know where they're going.
But in the bus, you've gotyour team, and there are different
seats on the bus, and our jobis to make sure we've got the right
(25:18):
people in the right seats.
Sometimes it's the right seat,but it's the wrong person.
Right.
Sometimes it's the rightperson, but they're in the wrong
seat.
When you get right people inright seats that get on board of
the bus business, where it'sgoing, the vision, the why, they
feel excited, they feel empowered.
And so what ends up happeningis that they elevate and expand what
(25:41):
they're doing, which can thencontribute to things being done more
efficiently, more effective.
Team members love to feel empowered.
They love to be like, so just,you know, not just doers, you know,
not just ones that dot theeyes and cross the T's.
We want people with.
With that mindset, with thatway of thinking, but they want to
get on board with the vision.
They want to feel like, youknow, a rising tide lifts all boats.
(26:02):
And so when they get on boardwith the vision and they're excited
and empowered.
Yeah.
At the end of the day, theymay just be doing your bookkeeping,
but they feel excited becausethey get the bigger vision, they
get the bigger purpose, theyget the bigger why.
And then they can contributeto that in different ways.
When they feel empowered andfeel excited and feel the line, and
that comes from the leaderoftentimes kind of sharing, this
is the vision.
(26:22):
This is where we're going.
This is what I'm thinking.
This is what I've got planned.
And they're like, fantastic.
I love to hear the vision.
I love to see where we'regoing, because I feel excited.
I feel like I can be a part of that.
Tell me what my role is.
Tell me what responsibilitiesare, and Then they can jump in and
make it happen.
Yeah.
You know, and it's, it's,it's, it's, it's.
If you can help craft thatfrom everybody, from the person who
(26:45):
is cleaning to all the way up.
Right, yeah.
Because they all feel likethey're part of the team to help
that, you know, they're partof the tide that's lifting the boat.
Exactly.
They're all part of it andthey feel that and create that.
(27:05):
So it's great.
So, working with women.
So is there womenentrepreneurs, is there a, a business
or an industry that you likein the entrepreneurial space more
or that you align more with as well?
It's a great question.
I mean, traditionally it'sbeen coaching, just because that's
(27:28):
the background that we've beenin in terms of business coaching.
The clients we work with noware usually service based providers.
They're a coach, they're aconsultant, they might be an interior
designer, they might be afinancial planner.
You know, they're really goodat what they do, but they know they
need help.
And that doesn't make that abad thing.
It's like they know they need support.
Right.
They kind of realize that Ican't do anything on my own.
(27:50):
I'm really not good atcustomer service.
I don't really know all thethings that I need to know about
marketing and funnels andlaunches and ads and social media.
You know, I need to bring inthe right, the right support.
But we have clients now thatwe work with in, in the travel industry,
we have clients that work within public works, which is very interesting,
you know, because at the endof the day, at least in my opinion,
(28:13):
in my experience, businessesare the same.
Marketing is marketing, salesis sales, operations is operations,
finance is finance.
Right.
I know people may look at itin different ways, but I always say,
like, marketing drives sales,sales drives operations, which is
what you deliver, what youprovide, what your services.
And then finance is the outputof doing really good marketing, really
(28:34):
good sales and really goodoperations and having the team aligned
with that.
So sometimes when we speak toa potential client, they'll say like,
are you familiar with my industry?
And, and is there somebodythat knows my market?
And I'll, I'll confidentlysay, and it's not out of, out of
ego, I'll be no, but ithonestly doesn't really matter because
at the end of the day, whatyou need is an air traffic controller
(28:54):
to take care of your businessfor you and make sure that marketing
is doing what marketing shouldbe doing.
And sales is doing what salesshould be doing and operations and
finance, etc.
But I've been doing businesscoaching for 17 years and a lot of
online marketing.
So that's kind of where Ihave, I have a, I'm a marketer first
hat, if you will.
So that's, that's usuallywhere we gravitate to.
(29:16):
Right.
Well, that's fantastic.
You know, dark.
I could talk to you forever,you know, there's so much great stuff
here.
So tell us, like, what is the,you know, you know, I shared in the
beginning, you know, we talkedabout, you know, the one big thing
is, you know, letting go of,you know, of what you're doing, you
know, and doing less to do better.
(29:39):
Is there one thing that youfeel like that will help somebody
do that?
Like, what's like one insightor tip?
That's a great question.
I would say if they'relistening to this, take a moment
and, and reflect on where youare today and where you want to be
(30:00):
in 12 months from now.
And is your currentenvironment, including your team
and including your mindsetposition to get you to where you
want to go.
And if so, great, fantastic.
And if there's a part of youthat's thinking, I don't really know.
I'm not really sure if I havethose elements in place.
Maybe I'm asking myself,should I be thinking about getting
(30:20):
a CEO or an obm?
Great question.
But being able to ask yourselfthat question and be present to what
the answer is.
And the answer might be, Iknow I need help.
I know I can't do it on my own.
I know in the beginning I goteverything done because it was just
me.
But what got me here, like Isaid, is not going to get you there.
And if they are looking for apath to get them there, that's going
(30:44):
to be aligned with who theyreally are and their strengths, with
the trust of the team that canmake that happen.
That's where they're like,okay, let me reach out for support.
Let me see what is the rightdirection to go.
And it might be, again, like Isaid, starting with a va, an obm,
getting some structure, someteam in place that can help you get
there, but you need to bepresent to yourself and asking the
(31:05):
question and then being readyfor the answer and, and knowing that
we all need help, we all need,you know, different levels of resources
and support to make that happen.
Yeah, right.
And knowing, and I would haveto say, and, and know that it's okay
to ask for help.
Totally.
Exactly.
It's exactly that.
Like you said, you know,people, successful people look above,
(31:26):
right?
And they say, how did they do it?
And I can guarantee you thepath to that success wasn't well.
They did everything on their own.
Right.
They relied on team, theyrelied on experts, they relied on
coaches, they relied onmentors, they relied on programs,
they relied on lots ofdifferent things.
Right.
We're all students of, youknow, professional and personal development
in one way or another,especially as an entrepreneur.
(31:47):
It's like the fastest paththrough personal development is being
an entrepreneur because itbrings up all your stuff.
Right.
It needs to be addressed.
Right.
And so part of that is justbecoming real to the fact that I
know I may not be able to doit all on my own and I'm going to
ask for help because that'sgoing to get me to my goal.
Right.
Well that's, that's great.
So Derek, how can people findyou and connect with you?
(32:09):
Sure.
So yeah, they can go to.
It's the coosolution.com again.
It's the coosolution dot comand interestingly on the website
I do offer a free quiz whichbasically answers or asks the question
that you were just sayingbefore, which is, is now the right
(32:29):
time to consider bringing on a fractional.
Right, fractional.
This is not full time.
This is, you know, very parttime to give you the support a fractional
COO or obm.
Right.
Depending upon where you arein the size of your business, size
of your team, etc.
And it gives a prettyreflective assessment of where you
are, where you want to be andlooking at what are the things that
(32:51):
need to be in place.
With marketing, sales, oper,finance, we get tactics based like
it gives you some reallyinsightful awareness of the things
that need to be in place.
And you might say great, I'm,I'm good.
But others are like wow, thisis, there's a lot of gaps in there.
Like I didn't know that mymarketing could be this much better.
So I need to figure out how Ican get some COO or OBM level support.
So that's a quiz.
That's a free, free resourceat the website.
(33:13):
Yeah.
Oh well that's fantastic.
Okay, so listeners, I'm goingto give you something to do.
Go to the co solution.com andtake the assessment because I would
bet you it's going to give yousome insight.
I'm going to go there too andtake it myself because I want to
see, you know, what it is allabout because I should do that beforehand
but go to the CEO solution andtake the assessment and then obviously
(33:36):
connect with Derek.
He is a wealth of informationand listeners.
If you have loved this andhave gotten any nuggets from this,
please do me two things.
One is hit subscribe and theother thing is share this episode
and share the unstoppableleadership spotlight with your friends
and colleagues and give us agreat review.
(33:56):
That's actually three things.
Thank you so much for listening.
I am Jacqueline Strominger,your host.
And Derek, thank you so muchfor being an amazing guest.
Oh, thank you Jacqueline.
I really enjoyed it.
Thank you for having me.
My pleasure.
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