From 24/7 Chaos to Successful Exit | Investor Perspectives With Brett Striker

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Hello, everyone.

We are your co hosts for today's interview.

I am Chris Walton.

And I'm Anne Mazinga.

And today we are turning our attention to a topic that is on the mind of many entrepreneurs out there.

I know it's on ours, isn't it, Ann?

And that is how do you prepare your business for an exit?

And to help us answer that question, we have invited an expert who has actually lived through that process and now works to help other entrepreneurs through it as well.

Please join us in welcoming Brett Stryker to today's podcast.

Brett is a longtime friend of omnitalk, was formerly the founder of Maddy and May's Popcorn, a business that he exited successfully, and he is now a professional EOS implementer.

Brett, thank you for joining us and welcome to omnitalk.

Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

Been a longtime fan of yours and really excited to be part of this show.

Well, Brett, we're so excited to have you.

As Chris mentioned, you've been with us since the very, very beginning.

But for those who might be meeting you for the very first time, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and about your journey from startup founder to now EOS implementer?

Yeah, absolutely.

So, yeah, former founder, CEO for Mattie Mae's Popcorn.

It's a was consumer packaged good brand that I started from the ground up.

And, you know, it was an incredible ride, but also really challenging.

So started off with a great product, had a ton of passion in building the company.

Before long, we took off.

We were in over 10,000 stores in the US sold in retail stores and online.

And yeah, so there were a lot of hard times, a lot of fun times, but learned a lot along the way.

So as we were growing fast, eventually Sold the company to a larger competitor.

And.

And, you know, I was.

I was wearing every hat in the business, so, running sales, managing production, leading people, and really just trying to hold it all together while trying to build this company.

And what I didn't realize then was that, you know, many of those challenges that I was facing were typical of many other businesses, which I didn't realize at the time.

So, you know, they weren't only people issues, but they were structural issues, you know, had trying to figure out what, you know, clarity on who owned what.

And so anyways, there's a lot more to that, which I'm sure we'll get into.

But yeah, it was.

It was a fun ride and interesting journey.

All right, so let's go into that a little bit.

I'm not going to let you off the hook here, Brett.

I want to get to things right off the bat.

So.

So let's go into what you just said a little bit more.

I want to know what were.

What were some of the problem areas that you and other founders that you work with?

What are those problem areas that you typically enc encounter as you're trying to either scale your business and.

Or exit your business, too?

You know, there's a lot of people issues in business, and what I realized is that it wasn't only people issues.

It was structural issues and getting clarity and alignment and people focused on the right things and the right roles.

And so, you know, many of the common issues that I see in businesses of all size, it doesn't even need to be a startup business, is that, you know, there's a lack of focus, there's a lack of accountability, there's difficulty of letting go and delegating.

And so whether you're a founder, a business leader, you know, we're built.

We're great at building things from nothing.

And what I found is that the habits that got me there weren't necessarily going to get me to that next level as I was trying to scale my business.

And so, like I said, I thought it was just me and my size business, but I see it, you know, of all size businesses.

And so, you know, you know, as we grow as a company, priorities start multiplying, roles get fuzzy, leaders end up spending all their time putting out fires just like I was.

And instead of building the next phase of growth, and in retail especially, you know, it might mean chasing every new channel or partnership, but if you don't have that clear strategy or you're running operations on gut instincts rather than on data, it can be really challenging.

So what I found running my business and now working with many other business leaders, is that what we need most, especially in the early stages, but definitely as we're scaling is structure.

So with eos, we start with an accountability chart.

Define who owns what and getting metrics in place.

And once we start getting all of that going, that's when things really start to click, become more self sufficient and the business doesn't need to run you.

You can actually run the business, which took me a long time to realize.

So Brett, explain that a little bit more.

I mean, what, what is eos?

What does it mean?

What does it stand for?

And why is it so important for business owners to really embark on this process?

Yeah, so eos, first of all, it stands for the entrepreneurial operating system.

It's based on the book Traction written by Gino Wickman.

So a lot of people get confused.

Is it Traction or is it eos?

EOS is an operating system based on the book Traction.

So it's a simple, practical framework.

There's many tools that have been around for 100 years, they'll be around for a thousand more.

But really what we do at EOS is we help teams and leaders to get better at three things that we call vision, traction and healthy.

So vision is first getting starting with the leadership team, getting them 100% aligned on, you know, where are they going as an organization and clearly define priorities on how we're going to get there.

And then traction is that execution.

It's that discipline and accountability really that every leadership team is looking for.

And then healthy is, is creating healthy functionality, fun loving, cohesive leadership teams.

Because, you know, team health and trust is the ultimate competitive advantage.

They're both so powerful, but they're both so rare.

And so from there, as goes the leadership team, so goes the rest of the organization.

So eventually you get to a point where everyone in the entire organization is crystal clear on that vision.

They know where they're going as an organization.

They know their role in helping us to get there.

They're executing on that, on that vision with discipline and accountability day in and day out, week in and week out, and then all as a more healthy, functional, cohesive organization where everybody is really rowing in the same direction.

So that in a nutshell, is really what EOS is.

All right, so Brett, let's, let's, let's get to brass tacks.

Let's get to brass tacks.

So I'm curious, like, how does someone, if, if, if someone's buying into what you're Saying, and I know from talking to you that I found it really interesting myself.

So like, if someone's buying into it, what happens from here?

Like what's the first step if you want to, you know, embark on this kind of entrepreneurial operating system?

Like how does it actually work?

Yeah.

So really the first step is just, is, is learning more about it.

So in my, when I was building my company, I heard about EOS for years.

I read the book Traction, took those tools and self implemented it for a handful of years.

But as I was growing and as I was part of more CEO and business owner peer groups, people kept saying talk to an implementer.

What I later learned is that it's difficult to run a business, facilitate meetings, get people to speak openly and honestly to you, and then just recognizing that oftentimes you do need some help.

So once you've read Traction or you're, you know, hitting different ceilings, whether it's individually or organizationally or even departmentally, and you're making hires or people are leaving, there can be a whole bunch of different ceilings.

Then the first step is really just having a conversation.

The way that works is I meet with my clients, no charge for about an hour, hour and a half, talk through EOs, get their leadership team to understand what it's all about.

Because at the end of the day it's getting going to be a leadership team thing that everybody's be going to be committed to.

And so if that sounds like it's something that they're interested in, the next step is called the focus day.

Focus day is a full day session.

It's out of the office as every EOS session is.

And the goal there is we want to get you guys working in the business rather than in the business because we spend so much time in the business.

So we get out of the office, meet for a full day, no electronics, and again just focusing on the business, business and so getting out of the weeds.

And we start with building the accountability chart.

And that's really the first step on the very first day.

And we're going to try to figure out what the right and best structure is for the organization.

And I like to tell my clients, you know, I'm going to have you guys think about as if you guys were the board of advisors, if you were rebuilding this team, what does it look like if we forget how things have been done in the past or people that are in certain seats today, then we can really focus on building structure first, people second.

So when we build that accountability chart, oftentimes we start realizing that a lot of people, a lot of the leaders oftentimes are we have two people doing the same thing.

And so when you realize that if we have two people accountable, then nobody's accountable.

So we start by figuring out that structure the right functions or seats, and then we figure out what those roles or responsibilities are for that, for each person on there, getting really crystal clear on that.

And then so from there on the focus day, we start coming up with a scorecard, you know, KPIs weekly based action based leading indicator type numbers.

We figure out, we what, we set what are called rocks, which are just 90 day business priorities.

So we've got our vision, we're trying to figure out where we're trying to go, let's figure out what's most important, come up with three to seven priorities for the organization, not 23, because if everything's important, then nothing's important.

So we come up with three to seven rocks for the leadership team, three to seven rocks for each person on that leadership team.

So that first, that's the first step is a focus day.

And the way it goes from there is that, you know, we only move forward if the, if the company and the team is finding value.

So I don't charge for the sessions unless at the end of the day they find it valuable, then they pay me.

And if they don't find it value, we stop the process, no questions asked.

So as a business owner who was doing eos, that was really nice for me because I realized that if I wasn't truly finding value, I could stop at any time.

So just keeps me, keeps me as an implementer, providing a ton of value, keeps me on my toes, always trying to improve.

And so that's where we start.

Well, Brett, I ask you this because you were a, a former founder.

You know how tight the budgets can be, both from a time perspective and from a monetary perspective.

As an entrepreneur who's exploring this, the first, the first session is free.

But what, what should I expect that I'm investing in here?

Like, what are the things that I should expect to get out of this process?

And why is it worth that investment, would you say from, from your perspective as a, as a business owner and entrepreneur?

Yeah.

So I think that the best thing that you can expect to get out of this process is clear vision, organizational health, with everybody sitting in the right seats, doing what they love to do, what they're doing best, and executing on that vision with discipline and accountability.

And a lot of us business leaders, whether it's Entrepreneurs or executives, we have a lot of things on our plate.

So EOS just really helps us to figure out what's most important, delegate the rest, and figure out who's best to delegate that stuff to.

So the best thing you can expect with EOS when you show up is you just need to be open, honest, and committed.

And you can't half implement accountability, is what I like to say.

So if you're serious about change, you have to lean in.

You have to trust the process.

You have to give your leadership team permission to lead.

And so the founders and the leaders who get the most out of EOS are the ones that recognize that the same instincts that got us there are the same blind spots eventually show up as we scale our business.

So eos, it's simple, but it's not easy.

It's a simple framework, simple tools, but it's not easy.

It takes commitment, discipline, and accountability and making difficult people decisions.

But if you implement eos, you can expect to truly get everything that you want out of your business.

Run a better business, live a better life.

And again, really, it set me up to be able to exit my business just because everything was much more clear and accounted for.

So that makes sense, like clarity and roles, clarity and mission for the business and kind of what the next step step is.

Are there other things that you've seen clients that you've worked with get out of it?

Like, are there other, you know, like success stories that they've seen?

Like, what have they been able to do for their business?

Are they growing volume of sales?

Are they able to expand into new markets?

Like what, what are some things that people might expect to see once they have that kind of foundational leadership, clarity and alignment for the business.

Yeah.

So it's really all over the board.

I have friends that were telling me to do EOS for my business that some of them doubled in revenue the first year alone.

I have clients that have seen 50 to 100% growth in that first year.

My company, we had about 50% growth in the first year alone.

But one of the biggest outcomes that really isn't measurable is just the, the alignment with the team, the openness and the honesty that starts permeating throughout the organization where everybody feels heard, everybody is on the same page, everybody's crystal clear on their priorities.

And as a business owner, for a long time, I thought that people truly understood my vision.

I thought that I'd clearly communicated to them, and that was not the case.

And so what EOS brought was, you know, everybody started Realizing their role in helping us to achieve that larger picture.

So, you know, there's.

There's big revenue improvements that you can expect, but you can also expect just healthier teams.

The business becomes easier to run.

And a huge reason why I was able to sell my business truly was eos.

It set me up really well for a sale because not only was my plan on paper with one year plan, three year plan, 10 years, but we also were clear on what all the issues were.

So not only we're showing all the good stuff, but I was able to talk to potential buyers about, hey, here's what we.

Where we want to go, here's how we're going to get there, but here's the open, honest truth about what is going to hold us back.

And so it just created that clear communication with the buyer also.

So I have one friend, just as a quick story, Ann, was he implemented EOS in his business, went to Salesforce, and Salesforce looked at the EOS model and something we call vto and looked at his VTO and said, wow, to see this in your plan.

He says it was one of the big reasons why Salesforce ended up investing in his business.

And so see it time and time again.

But, yeah, it's a powerful system.

So, Brett, when I hear you talk like that, you know, one of the things that comes to mind for me is I remember Mark Cuban saying something a while back.

He said, you know, there's a difference between a business and a hobby.

And sometimes founders can get into something almost as a hobby or treat it as such.

But then I think the thing I take away from listening to you or what you just said is that there's actually a calmness that potentially comes when you get your business running like an actual business, and you yourself can potentially step out of it.

And it's more about the role at the end of the day that needs to get played versus being so endemic to a business's success.

How do you think of that dichotomy, the hobby versus a business idea and everything I just said there?

Yeah, it's a great question, Chris.

You know, I think a lot of us start businesses because we have a great idea and it's something that we love to do or we think it sounds fun.

When I was running my business and started my business, I loved creating the business, but I didn't realize that what I didn't like was operating the business.

I'm a visionary.

I love creating things.

And within the first five years, things were really growing fast.

I was having A lot of fun with it.

But suddenly we reached a scale where before I knew it, I was really involved in operations.

And it took a lot out of me.

And so one of the things that EOS helped me to realize was that, you know what?

The business can actually be fun again.

And whether you're an entrepreneur or founder or just an executive, we have a whole bunch of issues that we're working on on any given day.

We found that there's about 136 issues going on at any given time and any given day.

So as leaders, we got a ton of things we got to work through.

And so what we typically do is we know we've got a ton of issues and sometimes we'll write them down, sometimes we'll track them, but rarely do we ever really focus on what are the most important issues that we need to solve this week.

And so if we're not focused on what are the most important priorities to solve this week and have a process and a set of tools to help us do that, we end up kicking the most important issues down the road.

We end up keeping our business together with duct tape and twine, and eventually it explodes.

And so, you know, for me, it was this constant feeling of being overwhelmed, knowing I had a ton of things to do and just not getting everything done.

And so that was part of, you know, the hobby versus the business.

And what I realized is that, okay, to turn this into a real business, I need a framework for prioritizing solving issues, and not just solving issues, but solving the most important, most challenging issues first and then coming back and dealing with the less important issues.

And so part of the reason that my business went from a hobby to an actual business was I suddenly had a structure with my team every week where we were clear on what was most important.

We were holding each other accountable to getting that those done and solving the most important issues first.

Once we started doing that and I realized that everybody was involved in that, and then I could take this huge sigh of relief and go from working on the business 247 to leaving at 5 and not having to work on the weekends.

And it was.

I didn't believe it could happen, but it really did.

Yeah, that's a great point.

That's a really good nugget too, to make sure everyone hears a business.

A business at the end of the day is not really a business if it requires a single individual, a single individual, or, you know, if I think about it, even multiple specific individuals to be a part of the business, because then it's not a going concern if any of those individuals or people leave.

So it's really important.

It's a really important thing to keep in mind as we have this discussion as you're trying to build any business for those listening out there.

So.

All right.

The one question I still have for you, though, is, having been through this process yourself, is there anything you look back on that you wish you had done differently?

Your listeners may be rolling their eyes and saying, oh, of course he'd say this, but it's really the truth is that I wish I had started it sooner.

Traction sat on my bookshelf for, like, two years.

My friends would say, just read the book.

Traction finally did that.

And I was like, oh, this makes a ton of sense.

But I held off on bringing on an implementer for a long time because it's a commitment.

You know, as an owner, I wasn't thrilled about being accountable to my team.

I wasn't thrilled about process.

I always felt like process was stifling.

But what I realized was that having a process actually gave me more time back, gave me more time to focus on building the business and doing the things that I'd love to do.

So luckily, I had some investors that really stayed on me and saying, hey, we're only going to put more money in if you really bring on an implementer.

And so when I did that, and I had a third party come in and facilitate our meetings and call out people that were holding back and calling out those elephants in the rooms and gave me and my team the ability to focus on the strategy and working on the business, I truly wish it was something that I had done sooner.

So that's my answer for you, Chris.

Got it.

Got it, man.

Well, wow.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate your candor throughout this entire interview, Brett.

You've been really open and honest with us, and so it's really great to hear your perspective.

And overall, I think our listeners are going to find this a very useful conversation, and it's no doubt something that our listeners, particularly those in the startup space, or if they're entrepreneurs themselves, are likely definitely going through.

So hearing it firsthand from you, both as a founder and now as an implementer, trying to help people on the other side of it, it's gotta be incredibly valuable.

I know it is for.

For Ann and for myself, so.

So I imagine we're gonna have a lot of people wanting to reach out to you for a whole host of reasons here, Brett.

So be, first of all, be on the lookout for those inquiries.

But, but for those that are interested, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you should they want to pick your brain?

So they can connect with me on LinkedIn Brett Stryker.

They can email me Brett Strikermail.com and Brett Strykerosworldwide.com as well.

So I'm always available.

I'd love to answer any questions.

Even if they read the book Traction, have some questions.

At the end of the day, there really is a better way and companies of all sizes, I've seen it now, is that there is an answer to.

I like to say we have the cure for business cancer.

We can really help and you don't have to be stuck in the business and worrying all the time.

There is a structure for it.

So even if your listeners want to call the vent, I'm happy to do that, but I'd love to talk with anybody that has any questions.

Well, thanks again, Brett.

Today's podcast was produced by Ella Sirjord.

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And as always, on behalf of all of us here at omnitalk, be careful out there.