helping small business achieve their desired future state

thoughts on

closing the gap

Future State is dedicated to providing emboldening insight on optimizing small businesses for sustainable growth. Our focus is on organizational alignment between targets and functions - closing the gap between present reality and vision, between current and future state.

The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic.
— Peter Drucker

Facilitating Your Mission & Vision to Build a Communicative Culture

Most business owners have a grand vision. That vision is something that drives them every day to be better business owners, parents, and leaders in their community. What happens when "grand visionaries" aren't able to fully put their dreams on paper to have a process to follow? They call Chad Glasscock of Future State COO.

He helps business owners develop a real-time plan and process to follow, something that's repeatable and easy for their teams to implement in order to grow, expand, scale, and drive revenue. You'll learn a lot listening to Chad's expertise about what business owners should do to drive growth and develop a foolproof process.

Brought to you by Portfolio Pulse, The Money Podcast for Medical Professionals & Entrepreneurs, hosted by Steven Huskey.

listen to the interview


Transcript of the Interview

Steven Huskey  00:02 Hello and welcome to Portfolio Pulse, the go-to podcast for medical professionals and entrepreneurs hoping to learn more about achieving financial wellness, accumulating wealth and building the life they deserve. And every episode we either interview a purpose-driven leader or medical professional that is not only building a business but giving back to the community as well, where we present a subject and finance that's relevant today.

Our guest is Chad Glasscock. He is a business management geek at heart who uses his passion for solving dynamically complex business problems to help entrepreneurs and small businesses build agile and effective systems and processes, enabling them to achieve sustainable growth, profitable scale, and their desired future state. As the founder of Future State Fractional COO, Chad uses proven growth strategies, smart business tools, expert support and direct accountability to help clients transform their operations to increase profits, decrease stress, and help them lead the way they're meant to lead from conceptualization to implementation. Chad's there every step of the way.

Pleasure to have you on man.

Chad Glasscock 01:07 Thanks a lot, Steve. Happy to be here.

Steven Huskey  01:09 That's a great bio that tells a lot about what you do to help others.

Chad Glasscock 01:12 Thanks, trying to pack a lot into that, you know.

Steven Huskey  01:15 Yeah, man. So what can you tell us about yourself and your background? And a little bit about Future State?

Chad Glasscock 01:20 Yeah, you know, I guess the best place to start with me is I have about close to three decades of operational leadership experience, and I've always been very passionate about small business, probably started learning the value of local small businesses at a young age.

My father was big on this - he always shopping at local sporting goods, and hardware stores, keeping the money in the community, that type of thing. So I guess it just kind of stuck with me because I've progressed in my career. And I, throughout my career, spent a lot of time in the service industry. And today, although what I do is industry agnostic, I really like to focus on service-based businesses, specifically helping them optimize for growth or sustainable growth. More importantly, I've always been a systems or process nerd, and I love creating and optimizing efficiency, through systems thinking or organization, structure, and problem-solving. So I combine all that my passion for small business success and servant leadership with 25 plus years of doing this stuff, leading me down this path that I'm on now as a fractional COO.

Steven Huskey  02:34 So you're more of the operations, the nitty gritty, the granular type of person who helps create these systems for business owners like myself. I'm a vision guy - I'm not really great at putting that stuff down on paper, I need work from somebody like you to help me put it together. Is that the type of value-add for these big idea business owners?

Chad Glasscock 02:51 Yeah, that's pretty much it on the head. I would say it's less granular, that we stay relatively high level. It’s more about putting these high-level systems in that'll help you operationalize your strategy. So that's really the ultimate goal, right? It's all how to improve processes, so you're more efficient, and therefore more sustainable.

Steven Huskey  03:18 So you're industry agnostic, which means you could work with basically anybody. How do you integrate yourself into so many different verticals, to be really well versed? And to help them with their processes?

Chad Glasscock 03:27 Well, like I said, it’s high level in the fact that it's kind of business 101. You need a system to run things. What Future State COO does is try to provide a comprehensive approach to help small business owners and entrepreneurs optimize their business. And like I said, operational strategies. We do that by building a custom, strategic operational leadership system. And what does that mean? Well, it helps them to be able to clarify their vision and stay focused on where they're trying to go. It helps them operationalize strategies, and achieve goals. It makes them better at organizational learning and development. Continuous improvement helps them increase their capacity to manage change.

So it's a comprehensive approach to helping small business owners and entrepreneurs clarify what their vision is, and figure out how to actually put it into action.

Steven Huskey  04:32 That is a that's a lot of packed into one service for your clients. I recall, that when I was in high school, my dad was vice president of some manufacturing plants around the country. And so he made me sit through two weeks of kaizen training with lean operations, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement stuff, so I've always kind of carried that with me and it's funny how that stuff that you learn in high school still sticks with you and try to be lean about things whenever you're in all operations.

EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE YOUR VISION

Chad Glasscock 05:00 Yeah. And I like that you brought up lean - that's kind of the concept. I think everyone needs to clarify and document their vision, right? Not just for me, well, a for their own sake, you know, because especially if you're visionary, it's really easy to pivot and chase shiny things. So getting really clear on your vision is beneficial to you. But it also helps you communicate it to your teams, and if you can't communicate it, it's tough to execute on. So, vision is where I like to start.

Steven Huskey  05:31 That's exactly right, that is my number one definition for what a good leader is: someone who can communicate very effectively. And so communication is key, if you can't pass on that culture, or pass on that mission, or whatever's in your mind, and you'd want your team to integrate that and run with it, and you're not communicating that effectively, there's gonna be some frustration, right. So I think a COO coming in and helping to get people on the same page, and getting them all running the same system is invaluable.

Chad Glasscock 06:02 Absolutely. And, you know, that's what it's all about, getting everybody on the same page. That's the system aspect - bringing everybody together while having a cadence of the rhythm of the business. So everyone is able to get clear on expectations, and then you're measuring and reporting on progress. And there's always that effective, open, and honest communication.

The biggest key to all of that is, once you put the system and these pieces in place, that open and honest communication leads to better problem-solving. So you're not necessarily problem-solving, you're preventing problems at that point. Once you get better at that, and you start putting that into place, you have this open and honest, effective leadership communication. You go from solving problems to preventing them.

Steven Huskey  06:45 Or you think being proactive, not reactive. Yeah.

Chad Glasscock 06:49 It just gives you a forum, and like I said, that rhythm and that opportunity for communication. And, you know, part of the system is that weekly cadence that preventing and problem solving is just the biggest part of it.

Steven Huskey  07:01 Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, I know, you've probably seen a lot of achievements and a lot of challenges. And in your time in business, you've been doing this 25 years or so, what are some of the biggest mistakes that you've made along the way or learned from others’ mistakes that they have committed?

Chad Glasscock 07:17 Honestly, it's making time to work on your business, especially if you're an entrepreneur. You wear a lot of hats, from startup to maturity - you're doing a lot of roles. To help clarify, your vision helps with that because you can delegate some of those hats a little better. But honestly, making time to work on your business. Medical practices, in particular - treating a practice like a business first is key. Because you're in the medical industry, you're typically in it for other reasons, right? You want to help people heal, but most businesses have a higher purpose, too, right? Treating it like a business, and making sure again, going back to the clear vision and goals, so you can communicate and execute that.

On top of that, besides the vision, is making sure you're structurally and culturally in alignment. And what I mean is you have a plan or you have a vision to get there. But you've got to make sure you're building the right team and putting the right resources in place in order to accomplish that vision. Because, again, if you're not properly structured, or operationally efficient, then you're likely not profitable. And therefore, you don't have a sustainable business. And you're not going to be doing what you really want to do for a long time. And then, like we've talked about, having a system to operationalize that, it's one thing to have goals and put them up on a wall. But if you don't have a way to break that down into chunks, and makes some intuitive progress towards it, it's really difficult to achieve that vision or mission.

Steven Huskey  08:48 I definitely understand what you're talking about. I mean, being an advisory business for the first year, for the first three to five years are just straight hell with trying to get as many people to talk to you as you can, and finding the clientele I'd like to work with and the niche markets, and then the ad spend and like everything you do to grow a business. And it can be hard to work on the business if you’re head down and staying focused on those particular key items to grow. So for someone like me, or someone who's been in the business for five years never really done this exercise. I've done it personally. But those who are in my situation may not. What does the first meeting look like when they need to do some goal planning? What's something you would say like, Hey, do X, Y, and Z, or have this meeting with your team? What would that look like?

MAKE A BHAG: A Big, hairy, audacious goal

Chad Glasscock 09:31 I know we use vision a lot, but like clarifying that vision first. Maybe it's your mission, it's your purpose - you have to get really clear on that. And maybe it's clear in your head, but putting it on paper again so you can communicate it. Even starting with stuff like core values and guiding principles - who are you? Why are you here? What's your why? Getting real clear on target as well.

That's a tricky one for some. Some people think you’d want to cast a large net, but niching down, just figuring out who you know who your real demographic is. So that's what I mean by building a vision, just getting clear about who you are and who your customers are. And obviously, what are your products or services, and then you can start making goals. And, and from a goal standpoint, once you've done that work, it's really look way into the future as far as you like. Decide: what's my BHAG? My big, hairy, audacious goal? And then work backwards. How do you get there? You can't ever knock a goal out in one swoop. So it's always about working backwards for me and breaking it down: Okay if that's 10 years, where do I have to be in three? Where do I need to be in one year? What do I have to be doing this quarter to get there? What do I need to do this week to make that happen?

Steven Huskey  10:44 That's a really good point. And I don't think anybody who’s never done that exercise realizes how helpful it is. Just look at people in a year ahead planning meeting, or a year in review. We did this at the beginning of the year, my business partner and I talked about our SWOT analysis, where we see ourselves in three years, where we see ourselves in seven, and then 10 years. Having that lined up is super important for any business owner. And I think that if you have trouble talking about that, or they can't actually put words down on paper, having somebody like you to try to kind of facilitate this, there are conversations and thought processes that are extremely important for their business.

Chad Glasscock 11:25 Yeah, yeah, real key point facilitation. Sometimes this stuff is tough to do for yourself. I mean, you hear the whole “cobblers’ kids wear no shoes.” I'm really good at helping other people do this. But I'd be honest with you, it's really tough to do it for myself. So you know, just that facilitation, and I wouldn't call it mediation, but somebody's got to keep moving the process forward. It’s always helpful, especially if you're flying solo, or if you have a small team, and it's just difficult to assign that to someone who has a lot of hats on, too.

Steven Huskey  12:01 I know you're helping small business owners create a vision and a lean strategy, you're clarifying your future state, tell me more about what future state means?

Chad Glasscock 12:10 Well, Future State is, you know, what is your desire? You know, whether it's a BHAG, where are you trying to get to? What's your vision? What's your mission? Right now, whatever you're doing now, is your current state, right? And in all of this stuff, whether it's a goal or just a new strategy, or a new product or service, it's all change management. And so, that term kind of comes out of that project management, the change management thought process, wherever you're trying to get to, what's the future state, what are we building. And so that's what I try to help people figure out and not necessarily figure out [for them]. They typically know where they want to go, I just try to help them build the roadmap to get there.

Steven Huskey  12:52 All right, so I was looking for that word roadmap. So you create basically a blueprint, they can follow and check off these things as they get closer to the end result. So for me, like, I love lists and checking things off, because it's a feeling of instant gratification, you worked hard on getting that stuff done. And let's say I accomplished something, and it wasn't on the list, I'll go back and add it to the list just so I can check that thing off.

Chad Glasscock 13:14 For me, personally, I don't necessarily make everyone else check off the list, but I'm a list guy, sometimes to a fault. But you're right. I love the tangible aspect of checking it off and marking it done saying I can move on. But that is the concept, right? You know, but one thing I haven't really touched on is this test is it has to remain agile, right? When you have this long-term vision, you're not assuming your feet to the ground right there and saying I'm that's the direction. It's gonna change your the world is gonna change around you, pandemics, etc. You know, you've got to pivot. And so what I like to you know, and this will break down the goals, that's one reason I say break it down and get work backward, so that you can remain agile, if you're focused on the 90 days versus what am I going to get done in 10 years, you have the ability to be flexible and change what those priorities are, and add things to your list and take things off your list. And so it's all about prioritization. And especially if you have a long list of things to do, you can't do it all, right? You need to prioritize and put the most important stuff at the top, and that's that agile piece.

Steven Huskey  14:16 That's when our first conversation began, we talked about the 12-week year, and that being such a really good bite-size way to take care of all of your big goals and you feel more accomplished. It's hard to figure out like, what's that law that you will take all the amount of time you have to complete a project. If you're keeping give yourself one hour to do it, you'll do it in an hour. If you give yourself two weeks to do it. You'll take the whole two weeks to do it.

Chad Glasscock 14:36 Absolutely. Yeah. On a personal level. I'm a big fan of time blocking. Yeah. And you know, frankly, that's the only way I can manage all these lists. I like to wait.

Steven Huskey  14:46 I have a book from a local guy here. His name's Luke Severs, he created a book called time blocking. Oh, so good.

Chad Glasscock 14:53 I’ll have to check that out.

Steven Huskey  14:54 I'll put it in the liner notes. Hope Luke's okay with that.

Chad Glasscock 15:00 Right. And it's also from the traction book or EOS world, it's the 90-day world, it's the same stuff, right? Just break it down, you can’t focus on doing 10 years all at once, right? I mean, we can't all focus on doing a week at once we got to focus on today. And then, like you said, give yourself an hour block even further. You know, it's up to each his own, how far you take that some of us are a little more rigid and structured. But you don't have to be that's the great thing about agile too, you know, allows you that flexibility.

Steven Huskey  15:36 That flexibility is key. And, you know, I learned a lot from reading and I know a lot of us do. We talked about the 12 week year and time blocking, what was the the one book that really impacted the way you think about business and the way you help your business owner clients?

Chad Glasscock 15:53 Man, it's good to narrow down to one thing, because I think you’ve read my bio at the top. I'm a Business Management guy. So I've read several but and this is also maybe too easy to answer. But Good to Great made a big impact on me, Jim Collins, good. But honestly, my takeaway from that book was, that these are great theories. And yes, these are some great case studies. But how did people put this into practice? Like, everybody loves that book, everybody this is reading goes, Oh, my gosh, this is what I needed, but nobody has ever put it in practice.

So the reason I think this is one of my pinch point books, or, you know, keystone moments is because it's kind of launched what I'm doing now is it made me start figuring out how to make good to great happen, versus just saying, oh, yeah, that's great that those companies are able to do that. It goes back to what we talked about core values, vision, all that stuff. You know, that's all a lot of that is, you know, Jim Collins, and I'm sorry, I forget the co authors today. But you know, that's what they talk about, like how to put that stuff in place, or that you should have it in place, not how to put it in place. So that was a big book for me, because it kind of set me down this path. And if you're a small business out there trying to figure out how to do this, build your own vision, and you need to just, you're a DIY kind of guy, the book Traction. Do, you know, Wakeman, and ELS is the entrepreneur operating system. As a great DIY book. Those two books right there, I think made a big impact on me, and how I operate today.

Steven Huskey  17:35 It's a great one, Traction. The one I'm reading right now, a current client has recommended to me. It's called a Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy by Patrick Bet-David. He came up with, he created an FMO, for insurance agencies and things like that. But he's done super well. He's in his 40s, and he's just been crushing it. He came from, I think it was Iran. He's an immigrant. And just like the way you see your next five moves away, Elon Musk has been so successful, he sees 10 moves ahead. And that's kind of like, you know, five moves ahead versus just one or two jobs. So that's a good beginning.

Chad Glasscock 18:14 You need to establish a vision and looking at…

Steven Huskey  18:16 you have to keep coming back to that. That's like, the main thing for this message of the podcast is like, create a message, go get a mood board, put things together, create the vision, have it displayed in your office, repeat it in your business meetings, make sure everybody you know knows it, put on the back of a T shirt, like whatever it is you got to do.

Chad Glasscock 18:34 I love what you just said, it's not a one-time thing, right? You don't just do it once, tell everybody and move on. You have to constantly be communicating and talking about it and focusing on it.

Steven Huskey  18:44 Yeah, it should be like just like your elevator pitch. I'm sure you could do that in your sleep. But that's what it is. People ask you what you do.

Chad Glasscock 18:50 Just repeat the vision. Right?

Steven Huskey  18:53 Here's a line of business you're in and you're helping people do something, right. So let's talk about what you've learned about money. Since we're in a money podcast, gotta go back to what what is what about planning has worked for you, I'm gonna show you how businesses plan and things like that. But specifically, what have you learned about money? And what about planning has worked for you?

Chad Glasscock 19:18 I think the first thing I learned about money from my dad, I had already mentioned he was a banker, he can be a very conservative commercial lending banker and always said spend less than you make, I mean, I can't tell you how many times I heard that from him. And work hard. Those are the two things he said to me all the time. So it's pretty simple, right? Unless you make but honestly that that kind of led me to you know, well, that kind of

When I got older it was more about, ‘Alright, manage your debt to income ratio.’ What is this debt to income ratio? But really what that led me down the path just kind of understanding or having a better understanding how to leverage debt. It doesn't mean don't have debt. It just means, you can't actually have that you just have to manage it, and use it as a tool to grow and scale, you know, without overextending yourself. So, I mean, I'm not the guy that be giving a whole lot of money advice, but those are a couple of things that I've taken with me. And they've worked out. But the other thing is planning, you mentioned it, I mean, we've been talking about it. Planning, finances are no different, right? You gotta have a mission, you gotta have a vision for that, set your goals, break them down into smaller steps, so that they're attainable. You know, so you can realize your financial vision and goals, just as much, you know, the same way you try to do your business goals. That's my big. I mean, obviously, I'm a planning guy. That's what we're talking about. Vision. But it's the same thing. You take it down to your finances.

Steven Huskey  20:46 Yeah, exactly. And I think that people get so busy, like you said, head down in the business, they don't take a breath, they don't look up to plan. And so I had the same issue with some of my clients that I've been talking with for a while is like, Oh, they will push it off, you know, I'll make sure that I get to it eventually. But then they create something reactionary, something happens, and they need help right away. It's tough to think about being proactive, you know, you see it as you see it off, as maybe going off the path for a while. So you know, meditate, and then come back onto the passage and go back to work. I know, for me, it does, too. I have to force myself to take two full days sometimes and just like, catch up, make the calls I need to, and write the emails I need to so I know, I can help business owners or you running a lot of employees, and they're doing a lot of sales and whatever business line they ran, I could see that being tough.

But what would you say to somebody who's who's on the fence about getting a facilitator like you to come in and just help them get more accurate at their goal?

BUILD A STRATEGIC PLAN

Chad Glasscock 21:48 We're talking about how critical planning is, and I think a lot of people shy away from planning, especially if you're more of a visionary type. And you just like to move fast. Because you just kind of assume I need to build this 20 page business plan document. And that's just not true, right? I mean, and you know, it's also not true that you have to lock yourself in a conference room for a week at a time to do this stuff. It can be done very efficiently. And where you come up with a two page doc that tells you everything you need to know about your company, and communicate. So that's something I obviously can help people do. That's a big part of what I do - breaking it down and making it digestible. And again, staying agile, right? And not just cutting, or creating a small block of time in your week to be working on your business, and have someone help you guide guide you through that. And then the rest of the time, head down, focus on whatever else you want to write. That's what I'm bringing to the table is just helping you focus that time block every week to build the company that you want.

Steven Huskey  22:55 That time blocking again, man. So theme. Yeah. So what is your purpose? This is my last tip. My last question for you. What is your purpose and lasting legacy like to leave in your community, Chad?

Chad Glasscock 23:07 I'm a big believer in servant leadership, and that doesn't just mean as a boss, like just in life. You know, I think church success only comes from helping others succeed. So you know, whether that's as a fraction CFO, as a father, or husband, or as, you know, a youth volunteer, Coach, all of those things to me is just servant leadership. It's how I help my community succeed. I love to help other people around me succeed. And if I could do that, I think I'll be successful. That's my goal.

Steven Huskey  23:39 Well, you and I still have to get a run in some time, right!

Chad Glasscock 23:42 I don't know if I can keep up with you.

Steven Huskey  23:44 I haven't run in about a month, so we probably can all right next to each other. Well, man, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. I'm sure some business owners are gonna learn a lot from you, especially with all these books we talked about. I'm gonna put some of those in the liner notes. Where can we find you specifically?

Chad Glasscock 23:58 At futurestatecoo.com is the easiest way to get a hold of me. And you're gonna have to send me a list of the books. I know there's at least two there that you mentioned today that I want to check out.

Steven Huskey  24:12 Absolutely. Hey man, thank you so much for joining us today and we'll talk with you soon. Thank you.

Chad Glasscock 24:17 Enjoyed it.




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