Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS): How To Build An Unstoppable Business| Ep 99 | JoBen & Amanda Barkey

JoBen Barkey 00:00

And I realized that I had grown, I had grown the company successfully. But I had I had begun to multiply instead of duplicate. And so the multiplication was by reputation. by hard work, blood, blood, sweat, and tears. As she mentioned, duplication is when you have processes and systems in place, and every one everywhere is doing the exact same thing. And so the core of what made us successful was no longer happening in some of the areas that were a little bit further away from, from my from my reach.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:34

So good morning, and welcome to another episode of Better Business better life. Today, I am joined again by Amanda Barkey who as you know, is one of the fellow iOS implementers. But this time she’s actually enjoyed by her husband, Jo Ben as well. And so Amanda and Joe Ben actually work in business together, they are an owner of the soccer shots franchise, as well as obviously, Amanda being an EOS implementer. So welcome to the show, guys.

Amanda Barkey  00:58

Thanks for having us. Yeah, it’s pleasure to be here.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  01:00

I’m really looking forward to chatting to both of you. So we heard a lot from Amanda, while the previous episodes about, you know, what you guys have been doing and what she has been doing, particularly as an EOS implementer. I’d love to hear a little bit of your side of the story, JoBen. So how did you get involved in the business that you’re in? Now? How did you get it to where it is? And of course, we should definitely talk about the fact that you’ve won the rock star, the year franchise award and what that actually meant?

JoBen Barkey 01:23

That’d be awesome. How did I get started? I think I think most entrepreneurs, if they’re honest with themselves, they were always an entrepreneur. So it’s just a matter of discovering that about myself. I grew up in South America. And so I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to pursue, to pursue that side of myself. And so when I went to university, I had no idea I got a BA in psychology, I should have taken business courses. But I I just I always looked at people who owned businesses. And I thought that’s so cool. I have no idea how to do that. I wish someone would tell me. And I had a friend that went in, that bought a franchise bought into a franchise system. And he called me he was like, You should do this. It’s a perfect fit for you. And I said no. So it took about three years and and then we’re flying to my parents house. And I said to Amanda, I’m like me and my friend is going to be they’re the one that keeps talking to me about starting a business. I need to have a really good reason why I’m going to say no. And Amanda, in a moment of clarity said why would why? Like, why would we go into that conversation with prepared ammunition for why we’re going to say no, why not just have an open mind and consider it. And so that we had that conversation towards the end of probably the middle of December. And by December 31, I was on the phone with the franchise owner. And I was I was entered into a verbal agreement to purchase two franchises. I said verbal handshake over the phone. I’ll commit to two franchises right now. And this is back in the days of the wild wild west. He said done deal. And that was the start of our adventure.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  03:04

Oh, fantastic. I do have a question for you though, because it’s one that I always find really fascinating because of course, EOS is actually a franchise as well. And so we are all franchise owners or licensees. Why did you choose a franchise versus starting a business from scratch?

JoBen Barkey  03:19

That’s a great question. I’ve definitely had some frustrations over the years connected to the fact that I am a franchisee I think what attracted me the most in the early days is that it was a very early entry into a franchise system. And so I was put into a group of like minded people that were innovative, that were trying to create something and fortunately, our franchisors were of the mindset that together we could create something better than what they would create on their own. And so they, they, they had the idea, they had the framework and they let us work together to help build that out. So we had a ton of committees in the early days there were only about 17 of us and for those first five years or so, and maybe live a short time that but the 17 of us we all just picked multiple committees to be on and we just like no we had some guys that had background in marketing so perfect fit some people had background in education. So great fit for ready curriculum for what we do. And so we just kind of picked picked committees that we thought we could help with. And so I feel like my attraction to the franchise’s system model and community was Oh like minded people building something together this sounds like fun and as a high visionary people person celebration The more the merrier type of a person it just was really attractive to me so I think it would be hard for me to enter into a really well established franchise system as a brand new franchisee because I would miss that that creative side of of building the business, but the collaboration coupled with being a very early entry into the system meant that I got to participate in that creative side of building a business and have the community right away. Also, I mentioned I took one business class in college, or university, I haven’t been in psychology, but I did take one business class. And in that class, I distinctly remember the professor, Professor grown, talking about the success rate and failure rate of businesses compared to franchise systems. And so I already knew in the back of my head, that the success rate was much, much, much higher it within a franchise system, and I think that community is a big part of it.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  05:36

Yeah, no, I completely agree. And it’s probably part of the reason that Amanda and I joined the EOS thing is because you’ve already got an established brand, you’ve already got a community, but you’re still running your own business, which is not like, you know, even though you’re given you’re given help from the franchise, you still actually have to run your own business. So tell us a little about that journey. Like, when did you buy the first two franchises

JoBen Barkey  05:54

2009, beginning of 2009, I bought I lived in Canada, and I bought them in Orange County, California. And so it took about six months to get out of everything I was doing in Canada and get down here and start start running the business. And my own threshold for what I thought was success was so low that, you know, day one, I’m like, we’re killing it. There’s 63 kids enrolled. And so I look back on those days, I still laugh about what I thought was arriving. And then where we are today. It’s it’s been so cool to see that. That. Yeah, well, yeah, well, well, this year, we’re gonna have 10,000 players in our program. And so to be to be stoked about 63 kids, and then to be looking at the number of 10,000. It’s just like, how did that how did that happen?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  06:43

And that’s a really good question. So how did that happen?

Amanda Barkey  06:46

A lot of blood, sweat and tears. Really, yeah, a really frustrating moments in the early years reinvesting in ourselves over and over again, making no money working way too many hours.

JoBen Barkey 07:05

I think, are tough.I think a lot of it started with just this really focused vision that I had, I did not want to create a job for myself, I wanted to create an organization. And so the process of creating an organization is not nearly as profitable as the process of creating a job. But I knew we wanted to have a big family wanted to have a lot of kids. And I told myself, I’m willing to miss those first. I said when Asher our firstborn, when he was five years old, I said I can put up with missing the fun events, when I’m the one that’s bummed out that I’m missing. But I want to be able to be there, when missing would mean that he was bummed out, I wasn’t there. And so I figured out four or five years old, that’s when he was he would be really noticing. I mean, this was all projecting, right. I had no idea I never had that turned five before. And so I was just projecting that by four or five. I figured they really want me around. And I said at that point, I want to be the dad that is attending the poorly scheduled 1pm school performance. Like I wanted to be the dad that was front row for all that stuff. And I was willing to miss the first years,

Amanda Barkey  08:13

I think we were willing to make a lot of sacrifices, knowing that that’s what we were trying to build we are we know that time is a currency, right? So for us, that’s very important to us. And it’s integral to who we are spending time with our kids and investing in them is invaluable. So to us in the beginning years, we were willing to sleep on floors and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in do what it takes to build something that we had this large grand vision for. And now 13 years later, we are there and it’s all paying off. So we’re super grateful.

JoBen Barkey  08:51

I do love that in the early years, our children thought that department store shopping carts were go karts, because we would wait till things closed. And then we, we had our own schedules. We rented our own schedule. So we would wait till things closed. And then we would go there, put the kids in the shopping cart and Amanda would get out of stopwatch. And I would I would push the kids in the cart, and then jump on the cart with them. And we would race across the car around trees and come back. And Amanda with time it would make up courses. And the kids thought we were racing go karts. And so it just for me it was just an array, and that was that two and three or one and two years old. It just was a affirmation and an encouragement for me that that we didn’t have to spend money on things for our kids, if we could if we could spend time. And so I was willing to not buy all the toys to not do all this stuff. We live 17 minutes away from Disney and we’ve never taken our kids. Now it’s almost like a badge of honor. But we just found so many other ways to have a great time with them without breaking the bank in a And we’re able to keep reinvesting keep purchasing more territories. And I mean, we were right, it took off, there’s 240 franchise locations now. And so it was a really good idea, a good business model. And you were providing something for your community that, if done well could really serve families and in a really convenient way, so that parents could have their kids participate in activities without having to pick them up from school, and then take them because we would partner with the schools and run it on site. And so it was a convenience. There’s a convenience factor to it. And then also my whole family, our whole background is in education. And so our curriculum has a strong education component to it. And our curriculum is rolled out in a very age appropriate way. And so I’m really proud of the fact that it that even though I was the black sheep growing up, everybody else went into education. And I was the one who I was way more into sports. And I was the entrepreneur, we’re always a little bit different at the party, I still found a way to incorporate education into what we do. And then with my background, having grown up in a third world country, the giving side of what we do the nonprofit side, I just had this understanding that’s not typical for someone who maybe would fit my profile of, of the economics of a thorough country and how to have a positive impact there. Because not every dollar you spend is positive when you when you go on some these communities. And so the example I like to use is you see the community group go down to a project, maybe they’ll take a t shirt, the two weekend for the kids, they’ll take a t shirt for all the kids, it makes for a great, like photo opportunity. But um, but that family that may be made and sold T shirts for three generations. Now they’re out of a business, because every child in the community just got a brand new tshirt for less than a year. And so just just thinking through things like that, how can we have a sustainable impact that doesn’t disrupt local entrepreneurs and local families? And how can we provide some that supports the community long term. And so I knew I wanted to do that I didn’t feel it as as a burden, or guilt or anything like that. I just was excited about an opportunity. And so I think for me, the biggest frustration in the delayed long time it takes to grow and really get to where you want to be was I just was like, Man, I just want to start helping these people. And so that was the lesson learned was how, how early you can actually start helping people, you don’t have to have a right to begin helping people. And so I was able to get a lot of fulfillment and feel a lot of reward from our business. Because of the projects we were doing that we were funding through the business. And so I pretty quickly was able to talk myself, well, they say that sometimes it’s really hard for an entrepreneur or founder to hand things over to other people. I had no problem doing that. I was I was it was very obvious that I was hiring people that were better than me very obvious very early. So I was like, oh, no, you that’s definitely you should definitely be doing that. Not me, please don’t run it by me. I don’t want to be in the loop at all. I just want to talk through ideas. And so I was because we’ve we focused on building an organization, I was able to build the job within that organization that I that I wanted my dream job, which was just coming up with 20 outlandish ideas every every year. And then I just had to fire I had to find the person who would help me identify which one of the 20 was the one we’re gonna go forward with. And which 19 Were just shiny objects that I was chasing, like a squirrel around the backyard. So I I really feel like the the just to touch on one thing that you said, I really feel like the what the franchise system allowed me is it gave me access to to a CFO that I would never have had access to, to ask questions give me access to a marketing professional because of our pool resources. The franchisor was able to hire way higher quality and caliber people than I could ever have hoped to hire in the early days. And so early on, I was able to get a lot of really, really high quality, feedback and advice. And so that was a huge benefit. That’s one of the reasons why I think we were able to build such a strong organization was because the early days of being in a franchise organization, I was able to get so much good advice.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  14:14

It’s awesome. So you obviously use EOS in your business? And how did you kind of come across that and how did that get into be integrated into your business?

JoBen Barkey 14:25

That’s a great question. I I I was introduced to EOS because I ran into the brick wall. I was pacing around I was we had multiple locations for our business we’d expanded to Florida. And so for those who don’t know Florida and California on opposite coasts, and so a five and a half hour flight between the two. And I just started to lose control of wherever I wasn’t act. And I realized that I had grown I had grown the company successfully, but I had I had begun to multiply instead of duplicate. And so the multiplication was by reputation by hard work, blood, blood, sweat and tears, as she mentioned, duplication is when you have processes and systems in place, and everyone everywhere is doing the exact same thing. And so the core of what made us successful was no longer happening in some of the areas that were a little bit further away from, from my, from my reach. And so I called my friend Tim. And I said, who is an iOS implementer? Now, he wasn’t at the time. him I’ve lost control of my business, like, don’t know what to do. And he said, Oh, well, he listened me for 30 minutes go through all the examples, right? I’m I’m a classic visionary. I had many, many examples and stories of how I lost control. And at the end of it, he said, Can I summarize what you said in just a sentence or two, and then provide you some feedback? And I said, Yes. And could you please follow me around for the rest of my life and summarize 30 minutes into two sides? And so he said, No, I can’t provide that. But he said, It sounds like you have, you have reached a point where you realize that you need to delegate responsibilities without abdicating your responsibility to see your company succeed, would that be accurate? And I was like, Yes. And he said, It sounds like you’re ready to read a book. It’s called traction. And so he sent me the book. And I, I went through I got through it, I read the entire book cover to cover twice in 11 days. And it was everything before it back then we didn’t have what the heck is the US we didn’t have the little like bite sized morsel to give you a little tease. It was like you’re eating you’re you’re feeding yourself the entire encyclopedia Britannica series in one book. And what the reason I just kept going and going is all these things that I had created parts of they were on spreadsheets, they were just, I mean, they were very low quality versions of what of what Gino had already perfected. I was like, Oh, this is so much better. Oh, this is exactly what I was trying to do. Oh, this is amazing, right. And so I just read through it. And then I went back to my team. And I already had a leadership team in place. I didn’t know to call them that at the time, but already had a leadership team in place. And so I went back and I said, Hey, this is what we’re going to do. It’s pretty intense. And so I’m going to take the next three, two to four months. And I’m going to dedicate 300 tracked hours to studying this operating system. And then we’re going to do it. And I didn’t really even know about implementers at the time. And so I thought my only real option was self implementing at the time. So I read the book. And then I discovered there were other books that supplemented help. And so I just started, I read every book. Within probably that year, I’d read every book that had been put out at that point. This is 2015 going into 2016. And then we rolled it out. And one of the greatest quotes I grabbed onto because it because I’m a feeler so people come in there, they give me all the reasons not working, why they feel they’re being pushed out. Like why they feel it’s wrong, all this stuff. Gino has this quote where he says when they come and tell you that it’s not working, what they’re telling you is that they’re not working. And so it gave me permission to feel to maybe not feel badly when they were telling me, you know, this doesn’t work. And this is uncomfortable, and I don’t like this and I’m already too busy. I may have accepted. I’m already too busy trying to do all the things you’ve asked me to do as a legit answer. Until I got to Geno’s quote there. And I’m like, but this this is a little bit of extra work up front. But it makes all of our lives so much easier, more structured, more organized. And as someone who is a high visionary, I’m not naturally structured. And so fitting my ideas and my energy into a structured system. I told them, This is going to make all of your lives better. Because right now, just as one example, right now, when I have a thought popped into my head, and I’m like, oh, have we taken care of that I’m gonna call you even though it’s not due for two weeks or months even. I’m gonna call you right now. Because I might forget, now you’re in the middle of a project, you’re deep in that project, you’re, you know, you’re at step five of eight, you’re very focused, and then the phone rings, and it’s your boss, so you’re going to answer it, but that pulls you out of that creative, really focused. Yeah, workflow that you’re in at that point. And now you’re in like, Answer Jovens disorganized line of questioning. And so now you’re a scattered as I am. And then you go back and now it’s 4:15 you have 45 minutes left, you actually don’t get anything done. And now the project, you have to re approach it the next day. I said, or we have structured check in points, we have measurables that let me know if things are on track. And then if I have questions, I look at that I look at our numbers. I go back and I look at our last meeting and I go and I’m like oh, that’s not due for two weeks. I’m not gonna bother them with that. And so I’m like this is going to free you guys from from constantly being free. I started by the boss. And so

Amanda Barkey  20:02

and I have to say, then you also have the issues list so you can get your idea, on the issues list, knowing that they will get addressed at the next level 10 meetings. Yeah. So it actually gives you as the leader freedom, it frees your mind from that burden of carrying that around.

JoBen Barkey 20:18

Yep. And we jumped right on traction tools, which is now bloom, and growth. And they had a great little feature where you could text issues to the issues, let’s platform all day, every day, just just sit there texting.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  20:32

I actually it is 90 io and they have an app and I do the same thing. I wake up at three o’clock in the morning. And I’ll actually kind of go, Oh, I’ve got to I got to put that in there. Just because I think this is a thing. We talk a lot about the issues as EOS, and people see that as being a negative. But in actual fact, it is a great holding place for all of that stuff to be there. And they don’t have to be negative things. They could be an opportunity. They could be it could be an issue, but they’re not always negative. Yeah. Okay, cool. So you you self implemented and have you always self implemented or did you eventually get some help with that?

Amanda Barkey  21:04

You’re looking at.

JoBen Barkey 21:06

So that was my that was my let’s get super honest moment. So about a year ago, I had always thought I was going to be an EOS implementer 2018 was the first conference I went to and I recruited 22 people to attend with me, he was still hasn’t given me free tickets to go to any of the conferences, even though I recruited so many people. But I just was I just loved it. I love that it solves so many things that I thought were going to take years for me to sort through to build out and then to install my own business, it was already all created. So so grateful. It got me out of some challenging situations, because I was able to lean on the system and blame blame the system, right. And so I always pictured myself doing it. And if you were a betting person, I would put money on me eventually doing it, I think I probably will. But I started to feel anxious just thinking about it. And I think the anxiety was was connected to man, I’ve been in a grind for 13 years, I’ve been grinding and building this, and just kind of just arriving, just arriving a business that is completely employee led that is profitable. That affords me opportunities to do things I want to do outside of the business, to spend time with people I want to spend with, you know, I was living the EOS life. And now I’m gonna go back to grinding again. And so I think that was starting to feel like like that reality check of job and you never stop and charge your batteries. And this is a 13 year build that requires some some battery recharge afterwards. And I’m certainly not done with the company. It just my my my responses have evolved to the point where I do have more flexibility now. And so I just was coming out of 2020 trying to be more honest with myself and and and I’m a yes person. And so trying to be better at at understanding when all the signs are actually saying no, don’t push with a yes. Because it’s not going to turn out well. And so I just turned them in. And I was like, what about you doing it? Like you know, you you understand this? You’ve we’ve talked EOS around the dinner, like the dining room table. Let’s be honest, around the breakfast table, the lunch table, laying in bed at night, tucking the kids in, we talked to our kids about to us like all this. It’s all in there. Why don’t you do it. And within 24 hours, Amanda was off doing it. So here’s my honest moment. As I’m sending her out the door, I said, Hey, babe. So we’ve been self implementing for eight years. And you’re about in about two days, you’re going to know more about implementing than I figured out in eight years. And you’re going to figure out that some things have been done incorrectly. So I said, don’t feel like I don’t want when you get there and you’re like, Oh no, Joe is doing it wrong. I know I’m doing it wrong. I know that I’m a very high scoring visionary. I have no skill set that correlates to an integrator. And so when a very high scoring visionary is in charge, and usually we quit 80% through every project, it’s like not the right person to do it. But when it’s me or nobody than me that I’m the right person. So I just said when you come back and you have all these things that we’re doing wrong, I’m not going to challenge that I already accept I know it, I accept it, I acknowledge it, come back as our implementer and fix it and so we actually we pay Amanda from our from the company that I am the CEO of we pay Amanda as our implementer to come in. And we have a very strong team very, very respectful team. And so there Amanda is not treated as like the CEOs wife. She’s the boss of a different company we brought in and and when we’re in that meeting, like I’m definitely not in charge. Definitely. And yeah, go ahead.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  24:56

No, I just said I’m really curious to know you know, what, were there anything So they weren’t doing quite right Amanda

JoBen Barkey 25:07

Also love, compassion, all that stuff, but and

Amanda Barkey  25:13

I have terrible respect and admiration for self implementers. Because look, they’re running their business and taking on this responsibility, this challenge to implement an entire operating system,

JoBen Barkey  25:25

I appreciate yourself up below. Now, I’ll tell her all the things I did wrong

Amanda Barkey  25:30

with boot camp, and you know, they slap the toolbox up on the on the whiteboard, and there are 20 tools in the toolbox. I think we were probably doing half of the tools. Maybe other half, I had heard of a quarter of them, a quarter of them I had never even heard of before. So we definitely weren’t doing it 100%. But you know, the goal is to get 80% strong or better. And, and we weren’t at 80%. But I think we were probably at about 60%. I don’t think we were too far off.

JoBen  Barkey 26:06

Even even some things we were doing, we weren’t doing correctly, like a great example would be the scorecard. I’m trying to just shout out a couple days ago. So the way I built our scorecards, and the way I encourage our team to build it was to think of their rocks, and then reverse engineer their rocks. And so you can do that. But that was all of our scorecards turned into rocks, like they were their buildings. And so it did help clarify a lot of stuff for our sales team, we have a lot of we’ve got a lot better at building out weekly to dues to build towards our rock. But tracking things like number of complaints in a week. That’s a really good thing to track. But it doesn’t belong. Rock. And so why would I do it? Yeah, right. It was a measurable that didn’t built was anything. So I just didn’t do it. And so I only just left Amanda did our annual planning our first to date annual planning, she ran better than the eight previous ones I ran. But she ran it. And and that was a moment where in the meeting, I’m pushing back. So I’m like, this isn’t built anything. And then there’s this look around the room. I was like we’ve been doing it wrong. Right. So there’s things like that a lot of undoing

Amanda Barkey  27:11

And trying to repeat. And that’s okay. It’s actually a lot of fun.

JoBen Barkey  27:17

I think one of the most important lessons from that is that most of us on the self implementing side, who then hired implementer, we feel like there’s redundancy or like, let’s just skip this part. But the problem is that within each section, there are things that we misinterpreted, did wrong or that have improved since we first read the book and first figured it out there have been you know, it’s you it’s an EOS is an organization that innovates. And so if I implemented something or figured something out in 2018, it’s it’s been improved since then. But I probably haven’t. And so all of the redundancy is worth it to grab the nuggets and to grab the the tweaks that then make the application so much more powerful. And so I encourage every self employed are out there, don’t skip through stuff, because you feel like it’s repeating you have to do every step right.

Amanda Barkey  28:02

And I think that what that afforded us also was a new perspective, being in a franchise system with franchise owners who are also running their businesses on EOS, quote, unquote, I think that we got into this habit, or this is this position where we were comparing ourselves to them, we were like, well, we’re all running on us. And we’re definitely running on EOS the best compared to the other soccer shots owners, right? We were like, We’re doing more, we’re running better. We’re running on EOS better than the rest of these guys. But we were comparing ourselves to other people, not to ourselves, you know. So then when we actually looked at what running on EOS actually looks like pure running pure, then we were able to take a big step back and take a real look in the mirror. And it was a reality check where we were like, Whoa, we are not actually running on Eos, to the extent that we think that we are and we need to really unravel some things, unlearn some things, re install them, and we’re running better than ever now. So yeah, now they have a professional EOS in house implementer, which,

Debra Chantry-Taylor  29:15

whoo. That’s fantastic. I look, I think we should say I mean, we applaud self implementers. Right, we would much rather you start doing something with EOS and not do anything at all. But there is definitely an element of working with somebody, I think, first of all, externally, who’s actually looking at from a different perspective as opposed to being in the business. But also, as you said that there are 20 tools in the toolbox and more the supplementary tools as well that we have for other things that happen in the business and and generally people who are self implementing have got the foundational tools pretty much down pat, but there’s a whole lot more that actually surrounds that and supports that.

Amanda Barkey  29:50

That’s exactly it. And I just have to say I’m completely out of operations. I’m sitting in the owners box so I’m not in the day to day and I think that that’s why I’m able to be the implementer for my own business is that I am really coming in as an outside perspective. And you know, the quarterly meetings, our annual planning meeting, those are the only meetings that I’m in, I’m not in level 10 meetings every week, I’m not in the day to day. So I really am a coach on the sidelines coming in and watching those key plays and, and coaching them along. So I don’t think that it is really a reasonable expectation or option for every business owner to be able to then do what we did and go to boot camp become an implementer. And then implement for your own business might not work for everyone. But in our case, it works. And yes, like you said, there are so many additional tools that self implementers aren’t even really privy to. And they will be implementing these foundational tools that will change their business immediately. But then there are so many more things that you can, that you can learn along the way that will just take you to another level. And we are constantly learning, we’re hungry to learn as implementers, we’re going to these QC E’s every quarter, we’re going to breakout sessions, and we’re learning new things from our colleagues and always honing our skills. So having that implementer in your back pocket is just key, I think to taking your business to another level,

JoBen Barkey  31:26

you touched on something that I actually say frequently, I say it’s, it’s just not possible to self generate our own outside perspective. And so we can go up to the 30,000 foot view, and look at our business, but we’re looking down at ourselves, it’s still not an outside perspective. And a lot of times the self implement, or the hired implementer coming in, which like Amanda touched on, although she does own soccer shots, she has not been involved in operations for quite a while. And so she’s able to come in with a very outside fresh perspective, know the personalities of the people know, know who’s in the room, but, but still give them feedback that from an outside perspective. And it’s invaluable to hear that it’s also really, really helpful. I have found through personal experience. And then any book that touches on it, when the boss, Owner, leader of the organization shows vulnerability and accountability in front of the people that answered it to him or her, it’s a lot easier to ask for that and to expect it from the people who answer to you. Now, if I never show any examples of being vulnerable to being wrong of asking for forgiveness, I mean, all this stuff is same as parenting, right? If I never show those examples, then how am I going to be able to really expect that from them on a consistent basis? And when I’m not around? And when I’m not looking like how can I expect that but if they’re seeing the me request that speak about it and model it through having to say oh my gosh, guys, I miss installed. scorecard, what are the easiest ones that we do like one of the most easiest, but the most tactile and tangible like one of those one of those ones that changes your business the next day, and I didn’t directly. And so when they see that, and they see me in the room like slumped in the corner, two days ago, when I realized after eight years that I had only been doing about 70% of the value of a scorecard. It’s good for them to see that. Because one of the things that we tell them all the time is hey, let’s let’s all be okay with making mistakes. It’s just we don’t want to sit in a rut that keeps repeating the same mistake over and over again. And so I want them to see me corrected and me make mistakes. And then me do course corrections after that, that don’t repeat the same mistake from before. And so I just think that when a self implementers honest with themselves, the biggest even the smartest appointments are out there, and I’m not claiming to be that person. But the smartest one out there can can install everything perfectly. Like I’m saying that that person probably exists. Yeah, but the self generate the outside perspective that’s needed.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  34:04

Yeah. And like Amanda said, we spend a lot of time on our own self to our own of our values as grow or die. And you know, we’re at our QC is on a quarterly basis, we meet with our local implementers on a regular basis, we’re always engaging with the community. We are training all the time to be the masters of EOS. And we’re seeing it through different companies. So it’s I always I love it. I love the fact that I get to with all these different businesses and I’m never there to give them the answers but I can share some of those experiences will ask the right questions to make sure they get to the right answer in the room.

JoBen Barkey 34:37

I love it. Yeah, it’s just having having someone so when I’m when I’m trying to figure out a scorecard, and I’m also defining it for people and I’m also like checking their scorecards, and I’m fixing their score. It’s just an I’m trying to run the business. I’m just the wrong person to do it. And so I believe there are supplement implementers out there that that can have a much easier run out of that. I did I said 300 attract hours before I really opened my mouth about it. Because I just knew myself I was like, I am so disorganized, I need what I did, I use the audible, so I listened to it. And then I had the book in front of me and I had a highlighter and a pad of paper. So my parents, like I said, all my family and educators so the as the more senses, you can engage in a learning experience, the higher the retention rate. So I was like, okay, touch the book, highlight it, listen to it, I was like trying everything to to, to figure out a way to do it myself. But it just has been so different having having a professional implementer come in. I will say, though, Perfection is the enemy of progress. And so if you’re at a point, if perfection is an outside implementer coming in, but your revenue is not there to support that yet, you still need to start today. Because if you’re not designing the business yourself, and you’re not designing your own life, then the business is designing your life for you and the business of control. And so us even at self implementer level is still creating structure that your employees will will appreciate. And it’s an IT if nothing else, us over and over again, is pushing you towards alignment over and over and over again. And once you figure out that alignment, can best be explained through a filter of core values, then you can start to actually have words you tangible words that you can use to explain why this isn’t working between an employee and an employer, or why an idea didn’t work, or why a certain customer base seems to never work very well for us, you can start to look at your values, and then make course corrections that singularly focus on the most profitable, the most aligned, the best opportunities for giving and for space giving, and the best opportunities for innovation within your industry. And I feel like our franchise has been an innovative franchise within our system of 240 franchises. And the reason is, because before most other people in the system, we were structured. And so once you get the processes in place, and I remember going to a breakout session in 2018, where they spoke about processes. And they said how many visionaries are in the room and I was like Mert front row. And he was like, Okay, you all think you hate processes, because they’re boring. And they’re restrictive. And it’s like a prison cell. But you’re wrong. They’re like, it is the key that unlocks the handcuffs, it is freedom. Because once you develop the process, you just hand the process to the people that execute it, and you don’t think about it ever again, if you don’t have an identified process, followed by all then you every time have to evaluate what everyone’s doing each individual person at each individual location. And you have to course correct each one of them the entire time they work for you. And every new person coming in, no matter how hard they try is going to do it a little bit differently because they weren’t trained by you. And so if you can create a process that trains them by you, without you having to be there. And it is the filter for how to do it over and over and over again correctly, you can just go and look at the process, look at how they’re doing it and easily find growth areas between what they’re doing, which is maybe a little bit off and not aligned, and what you’re asking for. And so once you get the processes in place, and it’s taken us time, it has honestly taken time, it was the it was the put this off and don’t look at it for a while project. And every year we’re like, okay, we need three processes this year, just three, let’s come up with three. And then we come up with one and then we document it and that there were like, Okay, let’s feel good about this one. This year, we do three, but but then learning to let people in charge of their own department create their own processes. And then we put that through the leadership team to review it. Like it just it was the key to freedom. And I think for years, I tried to get out of the business and kept getting pulled in every time there was employee turnover. But once we had processes in place, employee turnover didn’t matter anymore. When it came to my role in the company.

Amanda Barkey  39:05

Well, the quote is structure. What is that structure first? No structure, something creativity. Ah, I’m losing it.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  39:17

I don’t even think I know it. So that’s worse.

Amanda Barkey  39:19

Well, we’ll find it out. But yeah, structure is the thing that enables you to be creative and frees your creativity. Right. Yeah. So I think for a leader for a visionary especially you think, Oh, this is going to really hold me down and it’s going to limit it feels like but if he’s you, it frees you to be creative frees up your time and your mind

JoBen Barkey 39:42

And you can innovate. If you’re a creative, innovative person, and you have the core, you have the process, you can innovate off that process as an anchor and have a lot more structure to your innovation and you can you can you can identify things that are working and things that aren’t working a lot more quickly. When you haven’t listened for Doesn’t that does work and you’re trying to innovate the process a little bit. If you don’t have that, first, that core process of this is how we do it, then you’re just trying this and then trying that, and then trying that, and then trying that with no real organization, no structure to it. Very, very little accountability, no measurables. And so processes is what helps us to start become more and more creative. And I don’t want to give a man to all the credit, but on Oh, boys, I’m gonna process the process book. But this is the first year that we hired her 2022 and had a professional implementer. And this is, by far the biggest growth year we’ve ever had. We grew by 76.7%.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  40:40

That’s what I was gonna actually going to ask you. I wanted to know what the impact was. Because of course, 2022 was actually last year, they had been doing it for the full year in 2022.

JoBen Barkey  40:48

Is that what you’re saying? Yes, started right. Beginning? February. Excellent.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  40:51

So what was that growth rate?

JoBen Barkey 40:54

76.7%. Our previous best year ever was 28% growth, which is amazing.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  41:02

Yeah, yeah. But this is an established business that’s been going for years, because that’s the thing that I love about EOS is like, people think, Oh, well, we’ve been going for years, there’s not much more that we can do, you probably can’t improve the business do much more. And yet, after all these years, and using Eos, just by being a bit more IOs, pure 76.7%. That is fantastic. Well done, you take

JoBen Barkey 41:24

it also, anyone who’s thinking about, about growing, if you’re gonna have multiple locations, and you don’t have an operating system in place, you’re in big trouble, you don’t know yet, you’re in big trouble, because you’re gonna do, you’re gonna go to that other location, you’re going to spend a ton of time focusing on it, and you’re gonna get it just right, and then you’re gonna go back to the original one and be like, Oh, no, like, it started drifting the minute I walked over to that one. So then you gotta get this one back on course, again. And then you over there, you find out that what you said, or what you modeled, was misunderstood. And now you’re off course, and it’s over and over and over again. And the quickest way to build an organization that simply multiplies is to not have a structure in place. And so I know POS does it all the time, but structure first people suck in the structure, and you just duplicate that structure everywhere. You know exactly what you’re looking for, you know exactly who you’re looking for, to fill each role in the organization, because you’ve already done it once. That is the best way to grow. It’s the most profitable way to grow. And the least stressful and the most sleep at night is having that structure in place because I’m there wasn’t before us. I was up at two, three in the morning, all the time. I called I said excuse it, and I said is because well now it’s finally quiet. So I can focus. But there’s no reason to be up at three o’clock in the morning working on your business every day. There’s no reason that unless you unless you have a business, that’s not going to work. That’s that’s anyone who’s thinking about multiple locations, when you can’t touch it, you have to have something in place that’s organizing it for you. And then the scorecard is just how you stay on top of it.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  42:57

And Amanda’s looking at the book now it’s always the Process Book, which is by Payton and who’s the other author.

Amanda Barkey  43:04

Gonzales.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  43:05

That’s right, Lisa course. Yep. Now that is that’s the book that kind of changed process for me too. Because as a visionary, I was the same as like, actually, I’m not really fond of process. And and I think one of the quotes that I think Peyton actually said was around that actually, as entrepreneurs. In the beginning, we actually looked for something in a different way of doing something in order to create our business. That’s what entrepreneurs do, they look for that opportunity, they create a different way of doing it, and then they go out there, that actually is process. And so what you need to then take that kind of secret sauce and teach other people how to do it so that we can, as you said, duplicate but also, if you get this right, you actually truly are delegating rather than abdicating as well, because you’re saying, hey, I want you to do this work. And this is the process that we follow around here, versus abdicating which is pretty much Oh, well, you just do it. And I’m not gonna give you any time I’ll show you how to do it. Just get on with it. So it’s a really important book and that book is just phenomenal. I’ve really enjoyed reading it. Did we find the quote yet? Amanda?

Amanda Barkey  44:00

Found it but it’s gonna drive me nuts if I can’t get it exactly correct. I think it’s structure freeze creativity. That’s that’s what it comes down to. You need to be able to live in that space of freedom of freedom of your mind, freedom of your thoughts, freedom as an entrepreneur and Gino actually wrote the foreword. And he said, to enjoy freedom, we have to control ourselves. And I think that that’s that’s exactly what Jovan was touching on in the beginning of this podcast is is your business controlling you? Are you controlling your business? It’s all about that control the structure and the discipline. And when you instill those things in your business, it allows you to have the freedom to become a more creative person and it gives you freedom of time and it’s just changer.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  44:57

And you get to get back to do what you love, which is what I’ve always  I really enjoyed it. So you actually sort of you’re not doing the stuff that you hate day in, day out, hey, now I’m conscious of time. But I did want to ask you about the the rock side of the year franchise of war, because that was all about giving back, wasn’t it? So you want to explain to them a little bit about how you won that award and what this giving back thing is for you. I know you’ve touched on it before,

JoBen Barkey  45:18

I’d love that she tight tos. Before us core values were were and they were an abstract theory. For me, I didn’t really understand what, like, I know, I have values. And I know some of them are core. But I think the most of the examples I’ve seen of core values where you’re in some office, you go into the bathroom. And on the way to the bathroom, on the hallway, there’s, there’s a picture of an eagle and it says we soar to new heights, core value number one. And you remember every time you have to the bathroom other than that you never think about it. And that was really what I thought of core values, EOS, the structure of Eos getting to the going through the process of identifying core values and, and then learning how to apply them. For me. I had gone years trying to figure out like how do I attract the people that are passionate about what I’m passionate about. And learning to identify the core values of take what’s in my head, put it out on paper, and then incorporate it into not just not just the start of a annual meeting with all of our team, their Christmas party. It’s not, we don’t we don’t sit around and recite our core values. That’s not when we use it. We use it during our hiring, we use it during every promotion, every challenging conversation, we’re calling someone up to a little bit better performance. We’ll talk about values, we had a challenging situation with with an employee not too long ago, where something had happened, some mistakes have been made. And he actually thought that this conversation was him on the way out the door. And instead the conversation was an affirmation of hey, one of our core values is we own it. And we’re very proud of you. We’re you know, this, this could have been something that derailed your future with us. But you actually lived out a quarter value through a challenging experience. And we’re very grateful for that. Thank you. And it blew his mind. He couldn’t believe it. He said at the end he goes this is this is the opposite direction I thought this conversation was going to go. And I would say candidly, he is definitely in line for future opportunities with us and growth within the organization, because of that core value alignment. And so when it came to, to recruiting people to join our organization, and having the interview process, you know, one of our core values is, is help. First, we really want to be an organization that helps people. And so our interviews in thirds, the first third, it’s 20 minutes where I try to help them win interviews, I teach them what we’re looking for. I talked about the old days of interviews, and I try to help them. Then the second part I talk to them about what who we stand for so or what we stand for and what we are actually doing. So everyone on the outside sees a children’s soccer company that’s successful children’s soccer company training 10,000 children. But internally, our profits are used to sponsor hundreds of projects internationally. And all of our staff knows that I didn’t need us to tell our staff I didn’t tell her I was like, Oh, I don’t wanna brag. It’s so dumb. And so now we tell those stories. And in that middle third of the interview, I’m actually what this is the hint for anybody who sees this and then applies, I’m actually looking for an emotional response. I’m an emotional guy. And so I’ll tear up on some of these things. I’m not looking for anyone else to tear up, I’m just looking for an emotion. Are they grinning from ear to ear when I’m talking about the mother of four kids whose cancer treatments were able to pay for? Like is that does that evoke an emotion or a connection to something they’ve experienced? Or when we talk about the funerals of children that we that are connected to our academies that have been killed in civil war conflicts that we’ve been able to pay for? Does that does that impact them? Or at the end, when I say, hey, so I want to hear like, What What’s your connection to our company, our stories, what resonated? What are why? If their answer, I love Simon Sinek so it when I’m trying to think when I’ve asked them questions that they connect to, or why, if their answer is something like, Oh, I just really love soccer. And it’s so fun, like giving that to little kids. I’m like, Okay, you didn’t really hear me, right. And so one thing that I love to say to all of our I make a point of saying to all of our team internally is, these are our core values. That means that out of 20, great things we could be doing. We have four that we’ve identified as the first four in our list of 20 or 20 are awesome, amazing. And if your favorite four are, you know the last four on our list, it just means there’s a different company that you could be working at that’s going to let you live out your values every day. These four are ours. So we want to win invite you to come and work here. If you if you look at these values and say yes, identify with them. So actually, the last part of the interview process is just a value process. It’s like it’s an alignment interview. And at the end of it, so they’ve already been, you know, cheated a little bit they’ve already been evaluated, and are my directors have already said, Yes, this would make a great employee, by the time they get to me now, they don’t know that yet. By the time they get to me, we’ve already decided, yes, we want to move forward. So I tell them our story. And then I say, take 24 hours, take 48 hours and decide you have a job. But you decide, is this something that you want to do? And does this let you live out your passion to serve your community, and if if it is, you’re going to love working here, it’s never going to feel like work, you’re going to work with some of your best friends, and you’re gonna have so much fun. But if these values are not your values, and you have different ones that are equally strong and equally good, but just different, than it’s going to feel like work. And when there’s a little bit extra to do, or when a family needs to do go the extra mile to do something for their child to give them an exceptional experience remarkable experience is going to feel like a heck of a lot like work, and so don’t take the job. And so that’s kind of our process. So we have everybody internally who is rowing the same direction, we are a giving organization every time we get above six kids in a class. All of our coaches know that a portion of that then the profits were profitable around six, seven kids depends on the location. But every kid after that, a portion a percentage is going towards these projects. And so all of our team is excited. Every every time we get together every quarter we talked the highlight is is telling the stories of impact. This last just this last November, December this last quarter, we we finished we launched a school in Canberra and for 130 kids, they haven’t had any schooling in that area since 2017. The next thing they do they send me pictures of the kids celebrating write a song of the kids singing we’re going to school today we’re going to super cute song. And I see a big swimming in a dirty puddle of water with buckets beside it. And so I grew up in a third world country. So my first question is, is that also their drinking water? And they said yes, we have a lot of sanitation issues. We have a lot of illness and disease from waterborne, waterborne sickness. And I was like, Okay, next project. So we just completed right actually, the day before Christmas, that was the goal was Christmas day. But it was a dig for Christmas, he completed a project to run piping from an actual spring, miles and miles to this school and and add fresh water. And so we then we get videos of kids getting tap water for the first time in their life, and super rewarding. And then I get a message that says this is so cool. Nine villages are using this one tap of water. And I’m like, Oh no. So then that starts our next project, which is which our do well, by the for further. It’s only ones which is mostly farming community, which means that they’re having more access to water for farming, which means more food for the kids. And so that’s our artists have gone. And for since 2012, we really haven’t told people outside of our company what we do. Then our franchises were Kevin, who’s the president of soccer shots, franchising, he submitted us recommended us to FBR The Franchise Business Review, for this award, the giving back towards a franchise Rockstar. And so out of 300,000 franchises we were selected, it was pared down to 276 franchises for seven awards. And and then they picked us. And so now we actually have a little bit of a platform to talk about what we’ve never talked about before, which is the most important side of what we do. And I believe it is the core that attracts such great people to work for us. So if you’re going to take a company from training 63 kids to turning 10,000 kids a year, you need to have exceptional people working for you. And not just not just good at what they do. But exceptional people. And I have to

Amanda Barkey  53:55

Say you touched on it earlier. You know when we were talking about our growth rate over this past year, we’re 13 years in business. And we’re in business in an industry where there’s a high turnover rate. So coaches on average will stay about 66 to 18 months, maybe that’s about the average, nationally. Here in Orange County. We have four coaches this year that are celebrating 10 years with soccer shots, Orange County, so we are able to not only attract great people, people who are aligned with our core values and who are invested in our why who understand it internalize it want to be a part of it come alongside our family to accomplish these things. But they also stay we retain them for a very long time, much higher than any other soccer shots franchise across the country and in our industry.

JoBen Barkey 54:48

We also have we actually have people who haven’t worked for us since 2012 That still come to our company Christmas party. And so we just we just build relationships with people

Debra Chantry-Taylor  55:00

A family community.

JoBen Barkey 55:01

Yes, one of the things that we tell them during the interview, and then we repeat it, repeat it on the way out the door when they’re going, as we say, if you honor this relationship while we work together, and you honor on the way out the door, we will be in your corner for the rest of your life. And 2019 I got a phone call. And it was from a friend of mine named Phil Modi. And he called me up out of the blue. He’s like, Hi, this is Phil, I don’t know if you remember me. And I was like, Well, I’m only three Kenyans worked for me in my entire life. So I definitely remember who you are, Phil, and he just laughing said, Hey, you said that you would, you would always help me if I ever came to you. And I had a problem that you would help me if I if if I worked hard for you. And he said, if I worked hard for you, and and you know, we had a good relationship, you said you’d be there? I said, Yes, I did say that. And he said, Well, my brother and I have spent every dollar we have our sister was widowed. Recently, your husband passed away in a car accident. And then she was diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer. She’s in in Kenya, they sent her home from the hospital, we have no more money to pay for treatment. And they sent her home to die. But she has four kids, and we can’t let this happen. So I was like, oh, boy, well, I don’t really have savings to pay for cancer treatments. But I do want a business. And as you know, a business can’t get access to capital that an individual can’t. And so as we can’t wait to fundraise, we can’t wait. Like there’s no delay. It was our bus ride home from the hospital that she barely survived. And just intense pain. And, and so I said, We got to get on that bus tomorrow, like, let’s see what we can do. So it took it took six days, and we’re gonna secure all the funding we needed. We told them, like, get her on the bus, I’m going to start sending money right now, I want to point out an organization called boss revolution. It’s a company that does money transfers internationally, and the owner’s name is Shaya. And he has become a partner of mine, in the sense that there are there are countries where you can’t get money into because they are their conflict zones. And the challenge is the company that’s transferring the money. If the if the if the money is going to support a conflict, either side of the conflict, that money, that organization can lose a lot of opportunity. And they can be shut out of that country completely for sending money there. So Shi’a heard my story took a chance on me and Shi’a helps me get money into really challenging areas because he, he knows me, he trusts me. I’m so grateful for him, he’s helped us do so much. But one of the things that’s been really amazing, is then to hear our employees telling other people about what they do there. So I told my parents about this job, and they’re just so proud of me. And I’m like, so that is that’s an emotional thing for me to be creating employment for people that they’re actually bragging to their parents and their significant others and people who they care who people whose opinions they value. They’re telling them about where they work, and it’s here.

Amanda Barkey  57:54

And they know that we walk the talk. And so they see us living out our core values, they see us doing these things, for past employees for other people. And they know that and they can be secure in knowing that we will do that for them if that is the case one day. And I think that that really helps to create this trusting lasting relationship

JoBen Barkey 58:19

to two quick stories that are not on. So for so long, we’ve had to focus on third world countries because that our dollar goes so far there. And I you know, the well that we just added his $5,000 to add that well, right? Well, it’s it’s not an insignificant amount of money, but it’s also not an $80,000 Well, we’re digging in Orange County, it’s 5000. And so we can do so much more when we’re when we’re focusing on on these other locations. And so when we expanded to Hawaii, we really wanted to find something, something local there in the US that we that we could support and we found a program called Project Hawaii. And so starting next week, we took we met with them before we even purchased the franchise and we said hey, we want to become financial partners with you guys. There are 23,000 unsheltered homeless children living on the Big Island of Maui and Oahu. I had no idea. I had vacation in Hawaii before and I was a typical vacationer blind to blind to what’s going on outside of the glitter of the vacation areas. And and so being able to come alongside and financially support an organization like that, and we’re starting this month, we’re donating 7% of our of our profits to them every month. It’s just a check that gets cut from that from that business. It is a tangible representation of what’s in our heart, which is to be a helping giving organization and for our employees to coach and know that money generated by coaching these classes. If they do a great job, the classes grow. And when the classes grow, then that money goes to help kids on the island that don’t have access to food on the weekends. They don’t have access to school supplies. They get free summer camps to this organization called Project kawaii and so that’s been really rewarding to finally find something local. I did say to them got one of them.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  1:00:01

That’s okay, we were running out of time anyway. So I’m gonna have to probably cut you short there. But I can see the passion, I can see how much you’ve created. And I’m really thrilled by the work that you’re doing and what’s going on, you did still have three tips that you wanted to share to the listeners, I don’t know you’re gonna share them with me. So tell me what they aren’t.

Amanda Barkey  1:00:19

Run through them quickly. I know we’re running out of time. But

JoBen Barkey  1:00:22

Like, like, when we first started our giving projects, we had $41 in the bank account, you you don’t need to have a lot of cash available to start helping people. Absolutely,

Amanda Barkey  1:00:31

If there’s a need, you can fill it. Trust me, if you live in North America, if you live, if you don’t live in a third world country, you are blessed beyond measure and you have something to give. So we like to think of those things that you have to give as your time, your treasure and your talent. So those will be our three tips for today. So number one your time and that can look like a lot of different things. And and it does transfer from professional to personal also, we we think time is a currency. So like we said earlier, when we were building our organization, time was part of our vision time with our children, but time with each other also is really important to us. And he’s Friday in the United States of America. I know where you are at Saturday, but Friday for us is called Friday my day,

JoBen Barkey 1:01:25

I’ve been hashtagging it it’s not catching no one else is doing it. It’s officially our hashtag.

Amanda Barkey  1:01:31

So we we’ve designed our life. We we I know we’ve had Scott Rusnak on any talks about designing your life before someone designs it for you. We have been really intentional in designing our life along those same lines. And we block off Fridays as our day. So sometimes we go for a massage or we go out for lunch or we we do something fun together. But we block Friday off and this is fun for us. So you’re not encroaching on. Thank you for your time is important and you can’t get back time. Right? Once it’s gone. It’s gone. So time is our number one tip. And what would you have to say as far as time and giving

JoBen Barkey  1:02:12

Time sometimes time has looked a lot like me traveling, you know, 36 hours to Rwanda to run a training course for 36 athletic directors, teaching them how to incorporate character development in their lesson plans, that I wasn’t giving a gift financially that in that, in that in that in that day when I ran that that camp or that that training seminar, but I but I was donating a lot of time away from my family. That was actually a combination of all three, but it was a significant time away from the failure when sometimes time looks like knowing that you have a friend in need and showing up for them when no one else is that you can donate time helping someone move. No one likes doing it. No one likes moving. And so when you show up and help someone do something that they don’t like doing. Oh, man, the appreciation level is through the roof. So that’s an a good example. Time is short.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  1:03:03

Yep. Yeah. And about treasure than yours

Amanda Barkey  1:03:06

Second is treasure. So treasure, obviously, is your monetary investments or your donations. Sure. So you all have treasure, whether that’s the things that we’ve acquired the money that we have in the bank, but whatever you have, give freely. So every little bit counts. And we saw that in the early years of our donation projects. Our very first donation project like JoBen said we had $41 in our bank account, we were struggling. But we had a friend in Peru, a local Peruvian who JoBen grew up with that was essentially trying to do the same thing as we are doing here with our soccer shots business. Only he had 40 kids enrolled in his program and for flat soccer balls and a broke down motorcycle. So we knew even though we had little at the time, we have more than he had. So we just thought how can we start scraping things together and give him whatever we have, you know, so we started asking for donations from friends and family and colleagues. We got a lot of soccer balls donated and some money and every little bit counts. I can tell you that. So whatever you have to give them give that freely. And I’m telling you it comes back around whatever you believe in, if you believe in God, or the universe or whatever is at work for you, karma or whatever. That is so true. I’ve seen it happen time and time again, the more that we give, the more we get in return. So giving of your treasure is just so important and give

JoBen Barkey  1:04:41

2020 was it was a very challenging year for for many industries, but especially connected to youth sports that happen on campus at schools. So when parents were shut out of the school, we were shut out of school, and then when kids were shut out of the school, we were definitely shut out of the school. And so you What was my point on that? I do this sometimes I’m a high scoring visionary

Amanda Barkey  1:05:05

Giving when you don’t have anything Yeah, yes, yeah. So in 2020, we Yeah, so

JoBen Barkey 1:05:09

That was sorry that she helps me get back on track when the train goes off a little bit 20 was by far our biggest giving you by far that that organization that we had support until 12. In 2020, we actually build a soccer complex for them, we have the savings in place. And you know, when a pandemic or any type of thing like that not, it doesn’t have to be as big as a pandemic. But when a kind of crisis happens, that’s when the that’s when the giving is needed more, but will give a lot less. And so the need has gone up, and the help has gone down. And so the fastest way to undermine your core values, the fastest way to undermine any project you’re doing is to just not show up. And so for us, we said this, this is not, we can’t not show up today, we have to show up. And so we built the field, build all that just did it in faith, we’re like, this is the right thing to do. That the time is now we couldn’t wait, we had to do it. And then 2021 was was a shocking bounce back here. Let’s put it that way. Like we did not anticipate all the way through August was basically nothing and then it just exploded. And then 2022 was 78% of 76.7%. Above our best year, not above 2020,. Y

Debra Chantry-Taylor  1:06:27

Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

JoBen  Barkey 1:06:31

Time and treasure

Debra Chantry-Taylor  1:06:32

Okay.

JoBen Barkey 1:06:32

And the talent. Yeah, so

Amanda Barkey  1:06:33

The third one is your talent. You know, JoBen has given up his talent as far as his business expertise, and being able to train people with what he’s learned in our industry with training and education and soccer. So he’s been able to go overseas and give us that talent. And, and it’s just something that we all have, you know, our unique ability that Dan Sullivan term that we teach in EOS. And if you really step back, and think about how you can use your unique ability, that gift that you’ve been given to make the world a better place and impact your community, that is a thing that we think is really valuable and important.

JoBen Barkey 1:07:19

We all have unique abilities. And I love the phrase because it’s perfect, the curse of knowledge. We all have these abilities that other people don’t have, or that other people need simply that other people need access to. And we devalue them because we know them already, or they because they’re super easy for us. And something is easy, simple makes sense. For us. It doesn’t mean mean, it makes sense for anyone else in our community. And so a lot of times we get trapped in that I have nothing to offer, because we don’t value what we do have to offer enough. And so if we can, if we can sit back, and we can just look for ways, if we here have a need. The key is to give yourself enough time you don’t pick a clarity, break, have that have that empty piece of paper and that pen and that tall cup of coffee, and just sit there and just brainstorm like how could what I do help. And for us, I think I think the the aha moment for me personally, and this is my practical application of these three things was that soccer or football depending on where you’re from, is for many communities, it is the pathway out of cyclical generational oppression and poverty. And and that’s why you see so many kids trying to become professional football players, soccer players in third world countries, it is seen as the pathway out and they all have examples on TV of people who made it. The truth is, is that that path goes two directions. And so just as it can take people from deep out of out of poverty out of out of really isolated communities in the quote unquote, middle of nowhere, you can get access into those communities. And so we’re able to sponsor, for example, we sponsored projects in Ethiopia, where we were, we were teaching and training coaches to go out into really rural areas, and they would just set up a soccer field. And the kids will come out for a free soccer camp and then who follows mom, dad, neighborhood community, they all come out. And so then our coaches, the coaches that we had supported training, they would dismiss the the players, the children, and then they would talk to the parents about the importance of boiling water, so safe water practices, and then they would talk about HIV AIDS awareness. And they were doing that through a little free little children’s soccer camp. And so that was a big aha moment for me because I was doing the same thing. I was sitting here going like, well, what can I really offer I run like a little kid soccer program. But I had a I had a skill set to build a funnel into an academy. So if you have a competitive Academy starting at 9 ,10, 11, you’re 12 years old, which is where they typically start we work with two to eight year olds. And so if I can if I can build a A funnel that funnels kids into the sport. And I can teach other Academy directors how to do that. I don’t have to be better than them at soccer, I don’t have to be better than them at running a competitive program. I don’t have to be any of their teams in a tournament, I just come in and say, hey, that’s your area of expertise. Mine is I will teach you how to build a funnel. And it starts with repositioning yourself, as an educator and a mentor within your community. Are you willing to listen? And that’s how we’ve been able to invite change in a lot of communities, from Rwanda, to Ethiopia, to Kenya to Cameroon to Peru, and still looking for more projects.

Amanda Barkey  1:10:35

And just to tie that up with a nice little bow. One thing that we like to ask ourselves every day is not have I done enough, but what more can I do? So considering those three things, your time, treasure and talent, we all have something to give. So take a big step back. Look at the needs in your community locally, look at the needs in other communities overseas or internationally. And ask yourself not have I done enough, but what more can I do?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  1:11:03

And what can I do? You guys are an absolute inspiration. I really have learned such a lot from today’s talk and really inspired by what you’re doing. So congratulations on all you’ve achieved business wise, but thank you for all that you do for everything else as well. I should imagine some people listen to this body going, oh, I want to have a chat to these people wanted to find out more. How do they get in contact with you?

Amanda Barkey  1:11:23

There are a lot of ways to get in contact with us. We’re very active online on social media. So we have a family website called Barkey Family Super Seven or sorry, not website but a platform. So we’re on Instagram with our marquee family, super seven. I have my Amanda Barkey EOS, Instagram. And then additionally, we have our soccer shots. website. So you can just Google soccer shots, Orange County soccer shots. Oahu, Hawaii,

JoBen Barkey  1:11:52

But the easiest, quickest way to access this is just forwards Barkey Family Super Seven. That will all look good on Instagram. If people always reply to that there’s a there’s an auto response, but we that just tells them we’re going to get to them as soon as we can. But we do we do talk to everyone on there.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  1:12:10

Yeah, guys are amazing. I look thank you so much. I really, really appreciate it. Please go and enjoy the rest of your Friday my time. Yeah, I look forward to hopefully catching up with you guys in person very soon.

Amanda Barkey  1:12:23

Wonderful. Thank you.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  1:12:26

Thank you. Thanks.