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Business, Bourbon & Cigars
7 Simple Steps to Turn Accountability Into Your Secret Growth Weapon
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You know, most leaders, they say they want growth, but the moment you introduce accountability, that's when you start hearing all the excuses. Here's the truth. Growth isn't hard. What's hard is honesty. I don't think most leaders fear failure. I feel like they fear people seeing them fail. So they build comfortable cultures that are full of check ins and dashboards, polite compliments, and it all looks polished and productive. But it's not progress and it's motion. Without movement and accountability, it shouldn't be or be perceived even as a punishment. It's really about performance. It's the system that turns ambition into execution, promises into proof and teams into leaders. But it's also the mirror that most leaders avoid because it reflects what's real, not what's rehearsed. So if you look into that mirror, are you leading a business that's built on results or one that's built on rehearsals? The reality is the wrong culture, it protects egos and the right culture protects results. In this episode, I'm going to show you exactly how to build an accountability system that accelerates growth, sharpens performance and gives you back your time and your freedom. By the end, you're going to know how to make accountability stick, whether it's in your team, your meetings, in your culture, without killing creativity or autonomy. I am Scott Joseph, the host of Business Bourbon and Cigars and the founder of Me Plus Ultra. Through building multiple companies and working with elite entrepreneurs inside of our Mastermind group, I've learned one truth never fails. And that is accountability is the ultimate growth multiplier. The companies that scale fast and sustain success and keep the founder free are the ones where everyone knows what they own or what they owe and who's counting on them. Here's how I'd like to kind of break this down. First, I'm going to tell you about a time where I had to face some uncomfortable truths about my own leadership. You know, and then I'm going to walk you through seven battle tested moves to make accountability your competitive advantage. These are not theories. These are systems that work in the real world. They're for high performing leaders who are done babysitting mediocrity for years. When I was involved in the day to day at J and L Marketing, I was convinced that success came because of our sales team. You know, I built a company that way. It was definitely a sales first culture. And we dominated in those first 15 to 20 years, grew fast every year, year after year, earned a reputation for delivering huge ROI for our clients. But over Time I started noticing something that eventually that growth, it really started plateauing. And I used to think, man, I gotta grind hard, double down on what we've done in the past. Clients weren't staying as long, right? I still felt like we were winning, but it just felt like we were pushing harder and harder for smaller gains. And that's when our president is now our CEO. And my partner, Jamil Zabane, came to me with a new direction. And, you know, he wanted to shift the focus from sales to client support and marketing strategy. And the work we did with deep Data, he said, scott, if we don't fix the back end, we're just going to keep selling the same problem over and over. And he was trying to convince me that by investing more in what truly made us unique, this is what was going to help us increase retention and start growing that top and bottom line. And I got to tell you, I didn't like hearing it. It felt like he was saying that the system that I built wasn't working. And at that moment, my ego, that's when it kicked in hard. But here's where accountability changed everything. I realized the problem wasn't the business model. The problem was me. I was resisting the truth because it meant admitting that my old ways had limits. So I did what most leaders don't do. I got out of my own way. I held myself accountable. First, I told Jam, I remember, I said, you know what? You're right. I'll back you and I'll stay accountable to the same standards that we expect from everybody else. And you know what happened? Over the next 36 months, the business grew over 300%. Client retention hit record highs. You know, our margins expanded, and I went from being the bottleneck to a guy that started to elevate and delegate. That shift wasn't magic. It was accountability. I had to face the mirror that I'd been avoiding. You can't demand accountability from others while protecting yourself from it. That moment taught me something every elite leader eventually learns. You're never going to have a culture of accountability until accountability starts at the top. So let's talk about what an accountability operating system looks like. I've broken it down. It's seven moves that build growth that you can measure, you know, and the bottom line is accountability. It's not a spreadsheet. It's not a slogan. It's an operating system for results. And here's how you actually install it in your business so your business can start running without your constant supervision. Get out of the babysitting role. First thing you got to do is replace check ins with commitments. Most meetings know the therapy sessions for busy people end that now. Before the meeting ends, everyone says one sentence out loud. Here's what I'm doing. I'm going to get it done by this date and time and this is how you'll know it's done. And that last part, how you'll know it's done. That's the secret. Because accountability dies in assumptions. When everyone defines proof the same way, results stop being negotiable. Accountability. It doesn't fail from a lack of effort. It fails from a lack of definition. How you'll know it's done is what turns talk into traction. So no one leaves until every promise is public. Because accountability without visibility is nothing more than theater. If your team can't say their commitments out loud, it's not a team. It's a support group. Have you ever felt stuck trying to solve your toughest business challenges? Maybe you're juggling too many priorities. You're struggling to scale or you're trying to grow without clarity. It's frustrating to work hard and to feel like nothing is moving the needle. The Business Bourbon and Cigars workbook gives you access to the same tools, frameworks and processes that Me plus Ultra members use at our retreats to tackle real business challenges. You're going to learn how to use use SMACK mastermind style collaboration techniques and structured problem solving methods to identify critical obstacles, create actionable plans and drive smarter growth. Even if you're not attending the retreat, this workbook lets you experience the same high level thinking and frameworks that top entrepreneurs use to accelerate results. Download your free copy today at me+rainra.com workbook and start applying the exact strategies that help businesses scale smarter, solve complex challenges, and make faster, more informed decisions. The second thing I want you to do is I want you to make a scoreboard hurt in a good way. Stop tracking comfort metrics like calls and clicks or impressions. Track what actually makes or breaks your day, your week, your month, your quarter. If it doesn't make someone sweat a little, it's not the right metric. Now I'll give you an example. Instead of number of demos, book track contracts signed. Instead of site traffic, track qualified leads closed. And we post this every Monday morning, right? It's for everyone to see. Public pressure drives private excellence. The third step I want you to do is tie every number to a name. If a KPI doesn't have an owner, it's an orphan and orphans never thrive. So no more. You know the marketing team or the sales team owns that. Put one name next to every metric. For example, you know Amanda owns lead flow, 300 qualified per month. And now Amanda knows the score. The team knows who's on the hook. You replace confusion with clarity. The fourth thing I want you to do is add a 10 minute truth loop to every meeting. And I want you to start every meeting with one question. What's stuck? You're going to learn more in 10 minutes than any status report could tell you. And here's the rule. No one gets to say, well, we're waiting on John over there to get us this. Or if you're waiting on someone, you call that person right then, right in front of everyone. Leaders who avoid hard conversations, they build soft companies, get comfortable with radical candor. Be willing to piss people off and still care about them personally does not mean it's clear. By the way, this goes in reverse too. You need to receive this type of feedback better too. Fifth thing, enforce the 24 hour rule. When something breaks, you know, a deal collapses, a project slips, a client complains. The owner has 24 hours to send three things. First, the truth, what really happened. And then the lesson, right, here's what we learned. And then the third thing, communicate the change. This is what we're doing differently now so it doesn't happen again. And that's how you turn failure into forward momentum. No spin, no politics, just progress. Number six, flip accountability from top down to peer to peer. The most powerful accountability, it never comes from the boss, it comes from your peers. So create accountability pairs two leaders. Maybe they meet every Friday for 15 minutes. They're going to review goals, exchange feedback, call each other's bluff. No titles, no politics, just truth. When peers hold each other to higher standards, the culture starts to upgrade itself. You don't have to push people anymore. They start pulling each other up. 7. Finally, show receipts in public, not private. Every two weeks, you run a quick, you know, before, after Delta review. What I mean by that is, you know, our follow up time went from 38 hours to six. That's why revenue jumped 14%. It's simple, visible and addictive. Because once people see progress publicly, momentum, it starts to become contagious. When you stack these seven moves, you don't just create accountability, you create autonomy. With traction. Your people stop performing for approval and start performing for pride. Accountability, it isn't about control. It's about creating a business that thinks for itself. Most leaders think accountability limits freedom, but it's really the opposite. When accountability is built right you don't have to micromanage, you don't have to babysit because your business starts managing itself. And if you want to see exactly how to build this kind of system, one that transforms talk into traction, I have something for you. It's free. No obligation to do anything. I want you to download the Business Bourbon and Cigars Leadership Retreat workbook. It's the one. We just did it at business bourbon cigars 10. It's free. It's the same framework we use inside me plus ultra masterminds. This is the framework that helps elite entrepreneurs turn challenges into measurable results. Inside this thing, you're going to get the smack system that's S M A C, C C. It's the same process that turns goals into commitments and commitments into momentum. This is the tool that leaders use to install accountability that actually scales. So grab it now. And do me a favor. Don't just read it, use it. Because accountability isn't a mindset, it's a movement. And leaders who embrace it, they don't just grow their companies, they grow themselves. The wrong culture hides behind effort, but the right culture measures it. You need to choose which one you're leading. Cheers, everyone.