How to Fire Yourself As a CEO (Step by Step)

Summary

Special Ops Podcast: How to Fire Yourself As a CEO (Step by Step) Hosts: Emma Rainville & Travis Gomez
Release Date: November 19, 2024

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Introduction

In the insightful episode titled "How to Fire Yourself As a CEO (Step by Step)," Emma Rainville and Travis Gomez delve into a critical yet often overlooked aspect of business growth: the necessity for founders to step back from daily operations. Hosted by the seasoned entrepreneurs behind Shockwave Solutions, this episode provides actionable strategies to help CEOs transition from being the operational backbone of their companies to strategic leaders who drive vision and growth.

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The Bottleneck Problem

[00:57 - 02:32]

Travis Gomez opens the discussion by highlighting a common struggle among scaling businesses: the founder becomes a bottleneck. Emma emphasizes that while entrepreneurs wear multiple hats in the early stages, this multitasking can hinder growth.

Travis Gomez [01:15]: "Everything goes to you. Everything is a has all be all with you. You're overwhelmed and exhausted."

This bottleneck arises when the CEO handles everything from marketing decisions to product development, leaving little room for delegation or team empowerment.

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Building Trust and Delegation

[02:32 - 04:19]

To overcome the bottleneck, Travis underscores the importance of building trust with the team. He advises CEOs to start assigning specific projects to team members, allowing them to demonstrate their capabilities.

Travis Gomez [02:32]: "If you, the founder, can trust yourself enough to hire, you need to trust your people enough to take things on."

Emma concurs, noting that without proper delegation, the business remains stagnant despite increased manpower.

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Establishing a Strong Operations Team

[04:19 - 05:13]

A significant barrier to scaling is the lack of a robust operations team. Travis points out that many CEOs falter by continuously hiring more staff without establishing effective processes.

Travis Gomez [04:20]: "They keep throwing bodies at it because they don't have processes."

The solution? Hire a competent Chief Operating Officer (COO) with proven operational expertise to streamline processes and manage day-to-day activities.

Travis Gomez [05:07]: "Hire a real COO, a strong one, and one that's appropriate for your business size."

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Transitioning to Strategic Leadership

[05:13 - 08:55]

Once a COO is in place, the CEO must transition to a strategic leadership role. Travis shares a personal story illustrating this shift, where he and a colleague divided responsibilities based on their strengths—one focusing on vision, the other on execution.

Travis Gomez [06:16]: "We each are living in our zone of genius."

This strategic realignment allows the CEO to focus on long-term goals and vision, while the COO handles operational efficiency.

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Communicating Vision Effectively

[08:55 - 12:46]

Effective communication of the company's vision is paramount. Emma and Travis discuss the evolution of their approach, where the COO now plays a key role in relaying the vision to the team, fostering alignment and motivation.

Travis Gomez [10:44]: "They are usually storytellers on top of that."

This method ensures that the entire team is invested in the company's mission, enhancing collaboration and productivity.

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Case Studies: Real-World Applications

[12:03 - 16:46]

The hosts share compelling client stories to illustrate the transformative impact of firing oneself as a CEO. One notable example involved a company recovering from a leadership crisis and legal challenges. By implementing a strong COO and revitalizing team dynamics, the company experienced a dramatic turnaround within weeks.

Travis Gomez [13:26]: "In three weeks, it was like magic. It was unbelievable."

Another story recounts how small, actionable ideas from day-to-day operations, like increasing the hole size on a Tabasco bottle, led to significant sales boosts, underscoring the value of empowering team members.

Emma Rainville [14:51]: "It was so easy to execute and implement. Game changing."

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Tools and Resources Offered

[09:14 - 09:40]

Emma and Travis highlight their "Visionary Vault," a free resource center available at specialopspodcast.com. This vault includes tools, resources, and guides, such as a step-by-step entrepreneur's guide on how to fire yourself as a CEO and facilitate a smooth transition into a strategic role.

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Conclusion

In wrapping up the episode, Emma encourages listeners to access the Visionary Vault for valuable resources that can aid in their journey of transitioning from operational CEO to strategic leader.

Emma Rainville [16:54]: "If you got any value out of this, go ahead and go to specialopspodcast.com, click like and subscribe, and access our visionary vault."

Emma and Travis reiterate the importance of taking actionable steps to liberate oneself from daily operations, thereby unlocking the true potential of the business and achieving sustainable growth.

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Key Takeaways:

• Identify and Address the Bottleneck: Recognize when your involvement is hindering business growth.
• Build Trust with Your Team: Start delegating tasks to empower your team members.
• Hire a Competent COO: Establish a strong operations team to manage daily activities and processes.
• Shift to Strategic Leadership: Focus on long-term vision and growth, leaving operational tasks to your team.
• Effective Communication: Ensure the company's vision is clearly and passionately communicated across all levels.
• Leverage Resources: Utilize available tools and guides to facilitate your transition and sustain growth.

For entrepreneurs aiming to scale their businesses effectively, "How to Fire Yourself As a CEO (Step by Step)" offers invaluable insights and practical steps to foster a thriving, autonomous organization.

Transcript

[A]

All right, welcome back to another episode of Special Ops where we give real actionable insights to entrepreneurs. Today, we're talking about why you should fire yourself as a CEO. Did I get that right? Fire yourself as a CEO. Hang on here, we'll get into it. So we know that you've built an incredible business, but the truth is you actually might be the one who's holding it back. And if you are, it's time to fire yourself as the CEO. So stay with us. We're going to break down exactly what the steps are that you need to take to remove yourself from the day to day operations and finally scale your business. Don't forget to Visit [e-mail] where we have our visionary vault. It's a free resource center where you have access to all kinds of tools, resources and guides that we provide. So if you're ready to take action today, sign up for our free resource center and get our step by step guide entrepreneurs guide on how to fire yourself and achieve freedom and how to transition out of the CEO role and into the real CEO role that we're talking about today.

[B]

Right? And what is a real CEO do?

[A]

Somebody who sets vision for their company, doesn't run out of money and increases shareholder value for the shareholders, which is yourself. So, Emma, let's jump in because I feel like this is one of those struggles that founders who are scaling encounter almost every single time.

[B]

It isn't even scaling, right. It's even a maintenance. So you start your business right, you wear a bazillion hats, all of the hats. And so your job is to set the vision, big relationships, all that other stuff. But your job is also the operations and the day to day sales to delivery process of your business. And then what ends up happening is CEO means I do everything. I decide what split tests we run, I decide what marketing we do stops here. I decide what offers we pick, I decide the products I describe, decide the formulas. And then what happens is. And this is the first problem, and we've talked about this before, you become the founder, becomes the bottleneck to the business, right? Everything goes to you. Everything is a has all be all with you. You're overwhelmed and exhausted. You don't feel like your team can do anything. And you're at a place where your business cannot grow, cannot achieve because everything has to come directly to you. And we've told our own personal story in this where even though we were helping other people solve this problem in their businesses, in our business, I created that.

[A]

And the cobbler's kids have no shoes.

[B]

So true. And so the first step to correcting that. So I think what we should do is we go through the problem and then we go through this solution. So the first. The first step to founder bottleneck. And I've said this before on this podcast, if you, the founder, can trust yourself enough to hire, you need to trust your people enough to take things on. And the way that you create that, you're not just going to be able to say, okay, guys, you do everything now. It's just not going to work. Your brain doesn't work that way. If you've gotten to this place, your brain doesn't work that way. So you just start building trust with your people. Here's a project. Get this done by the state in this way. What resources do you need?

[A]

Cool.

[B]

Make sure it's all set. Check in with them periodically and let them build trust with you that they are capable of doing the job. Or let them show you that they're not, and then you replace them. Right, Right. The second thing is a lot of CEO entrepreneurs do not have a good operations team. They don't have a CEO and they don't have an operations team. Second. Second problem. And so they keep throwing bodies at it because they don't have processes. They keep throwing more and more and more labor. And what, what this creates is a cycle where people who still don't know how to do things still don't know how to do them. You're just frustrated that it's still not getting done. So then you hire another person and then another person. All you had to do in the first place was create a process, or better yet, hire a COO and an operations team to come in and run all this. You go make us more money to pay for these people, and they'll handle all the in between. Right.

[A]

Get it done. Yeah.

[B]

And the way that you build an operations team or you hire a CEO, a lot of people have no idea where to start with that.

[A]

Right. It seems overwhelming, probably.

[B]

I've been told that a hundred times. Or they're like, how do I find somebody? My. And. Well, my favorite. My favorite is my buddy from high school is super cool and he gets the business. What does he do in the business? Well, he writes some emails and he does this. And, you know, he hires some employees. You know, the employees that are creating the chaos because there are no processes that they should have been creating in the first place. So hire a real coo, a strong one, and one that's appropriate for your business. Size, but a strong one. Someone who has experience as an operator and who has a proven record.

[A]

Not some random bartender, attic, local bar.

[B]

Whomp, womp, womp. We've dealt with that, by the way. We've had, we've come in and the CEO met someone really awesome at a bar and she just was taken by her ability to problem solve, finding the forks, I don't know. And it was just so stupid. Anyway, so, so the, the next step to that is once you bring in your coo, get out of their way, let them do what they need to do on the delivery of your products and your business. And then the catalyst to all of this is shifting yourself to a strategic leadership role.

[A]

Right?

[B]

And when I say a strategic leadership role, I just did an in person weekend session with one of our clients and we went through, he has several businesses and we went through each business. He also informed me that we were going to be starting some new businesses as he does every time we meet. But this was our annual and we were going through things and he really, he broke down the bird's eye view, high level of what was going to get done, what he wanted to deliver. So he painted the target and while he sat there and painted the target, I sat there and painted the path. Here's the map, here's what we do to get here. And I asked him a lot of questions and he gave me a lot of feedback. I gave him a lot of pushback. I don't think that'll be profitable. Walk me through that. Some things we killed, some things we pivoted, some things we moved forward with. And at the end we had this path to success for each business and.

[A]

I resources to accomplish it, and resources.

[B]

I also told him the resources we were going to need. Here's how much money we need, here's how many bodies I need, here's how much time I need. We agreed on all of that. And as I'm building it, we'll reconnect every single month on each project, on each business. And I'll let him know what I'm struggling to do and he'll give me guidance on where to go. That's his job. And my job is to make sure that I plug all this in for him and I hire the people and I deploy the resources in a way that gets him to his end goal effectively and efficiently. And so we each are living in our zone of genius. And because of that, we'll probably increase the overall intake of revenue this year. I think it'll be close to 60x honestly, I really do. And he like, we have it, I think it'll be close to 60x. And I'm usually pretty right. You've worked with me for five years and I'm usually pretty accurate on this because it's all achievable, it's all attainable and he has the resources to throw at it. And they're great ideas and they're innovative and they are working right into what we're seeing in our time.

[A]

And it's orchestrated with.

[B]

And the reason he was able to sit down for weeks prior to us meeting and getting this ready is because he is in a strategic leadership role. He's leading us to an end result. And I am plugging in necessary things to get there along the way. And he has the space and time to do that because he allows me to plug the things in and we check in with each other and there is no micromanaging. There is no that needs to go through me. There is no I need to be CC on that. There is no I need to write every marketing email, I need to see every ad, I need to know about every dollar. There's a few KPIs that we review and we make sure that things are healthy, we make sure things are profitable. There are some SOPs that he gives feedback on, but he certainly doesn't paint that path.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And that is how you shift into a strategic leadership role by utilizing your CEO to plug things in for you.

[A]

I think one of the tools that we'll put in to our resource center is a process for hiring the CEO. CEO role. Because I think that's one of the things that is probably challenging for most entrepreneurs or most CEOs, most visionaries, is what to look for and how to make sure that they're, they're bringing somebody.

[B]

In who's finding the right, finding the right person because they need to speak your language and they need to buy. This is the other thing. They need to buy into your vision as much as you do.

[A]

Right.

[B]

If not more. They need to believe in it, if not more than you do. They don't have the equity. Right.

[A]

Right.

[B]

From that they have to believe in the impact or the mission or whatever it is. But yeah, so yeah, we sure can do that.

[A]

Did you want to dive into any of these things? You know some of the stories? Because we walked through different areas where we've had clients that have come in and they've been the bottleneck for the business.

[B]

Every, every, every client. That's why they pay us.

[A]

But it right but we also had clients, so. So in each of these situations, right. Where they haven't built a strong COO or ops team, they haven't brought in the people or developed them or cultivated them, they haven't been providing the direction or the vision for their company.

[B]

Well, they think they have. So they're going to argue with you there.

[A]

This is true. But being able to take all of those things and then be able to communicate that vision and because it's not just about having the vision, but it's also being able to relay it in a way, communicate it in a way.

[B]

Years ago I would have actually argued that it makes more sense to have the vision communicated from the COO to the team. I really strongly felt that.

[A]

And that's changed.

[B]

Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Because I bought into the vision because this person was passionate about it. They're usually storytellers on top of that, right?

[A]

Yeah, almost always.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so they will be able to relay it in a way that of excitement and give them just what it just. Oh God, there's just a beauty in it if you can get them to sit down long enough to do it. And then I do a follow up meeting. Now I don't ever do that meeting. I have the visionary inner, the visionary entrepreneur do that. He relays what the vision is, where we're gonna be in 10 years, five years, three years, one year. And what our one year is gonna look like, what we're committed to. And then he gets their commitment to. And then once he does that, we have follow up meetings departmentally on what it looks like for each department. And then once each departmental meeting is done, we come together as a team and we talk about what the communications look like from department to department and when check ins and milestones need to be had. And so that's where the magic happens, right? Like that's where the magic happens. And then visionary and integrator, CEO, CEO get to sit every week on these calls or every other week, depending on your business, and just start to see this painting come to life, basically.

[A]

Right. Which is more energizing for everybody as you see, as you work towards achieving those goals.

[B]

Anyway, we have a team, same team that I was talking about, they went through a pretty horrific change. There was a massive change in leadership and a pretty big lawsuit and a really tough, I would say two years. The lawsuit was very short. It was just at the end, but it was a really tough two years. And so because everything leading up to it, everybody that was there was extremely the only People that were left were extremely loyal. Extremely loyal, extremely bought into the vision. But everybody was so beaten up.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And no one felt like the company was going to ever do anything. It wasn't going to work. It wasn't going to be great because.

[A]

It hadn't made any success or traction.

[B]

Well, it had tons of success. And then there was a two, two year period of one looming person. I mean, one bad apple spoils the bunch. And that is very, very true. And it was a situation where it was a dark cloud all the time and no one was allowed to have a win because mostly nothing could win because there would be a complete shift of priority the second that you started to gain traction on anything. And if it did get to fruition, it was never presented as your task, your win or achievement. Yeah, it was presented as that. Leaders. And so fast forward, we worked with the business, but not in that business.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And so fast forward, that person left and we had to take over. And in three weeks, it was like magic. It was unbelievable. It was a lot of sorting things out and understanding where things were and just getting everybody aligned. And even like the calls from week one to week three, it went from everybody showing up on the call and just everybody being like. And now we get on these calls and we're like, what's up, everybody? How are you? I miss you. How are you doing? How was your week? It was so great. And it's like, okay, let's briefly and quickly go over what we got done. It's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. It used to be, well, I wasn't able to do this, but it wasn't my fault because it was so bad and it's just so great. And then it's, what are we working on this week? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. What do you want to be doing that you're not? I always ask that question, what do you want to be doing that you want? Because they can always make you money, man. Your people are just. They know what you're missing. And if you give them an open door to tell you, they will. What do you. Sometimes people say nothing. Sometimes people tell you golfing or boating, but mostly you'll get one or two nuggets out of every meeting. And so that just changed the dynamic. It just changed the dynamic massively.

[A]

Yeah, it just reminds. Can they tangent for a second? Because you're telling that. It reminds me of the Tabasco story. I love that story. Right.

[B]

So it's because you're fake Mexican.

[A]

But if you guys don't know the Tabasco story. There was, there's, I think their sales were stagnant. Right. And they were trying to figure out how do they increase their sales. And one of their, I don't know who the guy was. Is somebody like on the, on the line or something simply had this basic idea seemed so simple. Like, hey, what if we just make the hole a little bit bigger because then people will use more Tabasco, that people will buy it more. And I don't remember the stats on how much it increased their sales, but it was an incredible increase in sales. And that's coming from just somebody who's doing day to day jobs. It's a simple idea, but then it was so easy to execute and implement. And those are the types of things where it's like, oh yeah, we could totally do that. Game changing.

[B]

Absolutely. And they have ideas because they're working in the day to day of it. But this, this is what a CEO taking his job seriously into a strategic role.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And bringing in a COO allowed because it was an opportunity for them to go be in their zone of genius and for someone who knew what they were doing to come in. And it isn't even that I know what I'm doing. I just know how to be told what the goals are and I know how to get us there.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Like everywhere. Yeah. I can't do any of, I can't do any of this stuff. Right. Like that's all him. But I know how to go pull all the pieces in and make that happen and make it happen. And so. And he knew how to set the vision, but going and finding all the pieces. So he threw instead of labor and a bandaid because it was a quick insert. He took time to build an operations team and bring in a coo. Game changing.

[A]

Right. Right. We're wrapping up here. And so what I'd encourage you guys to do, if you got any value, thank God.

[B]

Right?

[A]

So if you got any value out of this, I'd encourage you guys to go ahead and go to specialopspodcast.com click like and subscribe on this video. But make sure you access our visionary vault where you have access to tons of resources and tools that we have for you guys, including how to fire yourself as a CEO. We look forward to catching you guys next time. Thank you so much for joining us. Goodbye.