Joseph Jaffe: From Structure to Success: How EOS Helps Businesses Grow

They had

said that.

It actually

is not every. Day.

That I.

Meet. Him.

Maybe it.

Means we.

May be.

Okay.

in how we're all growing
in the same direction.

And, I just can't say enough good things

about the program and your operation, and.

And I can't say enough good things
about about the leadership team.

You know, Geno of the he's
he's run himself.

He's the founder of EOS.

He's run over 2000 sessions.

And he wrote an article
that really connected with me

and he said, in his, in his opinion,
and he has an opinion

because 2000 sessions,
that's a lot over 14,000 hours.

He said there is only one
determinant of success in a business.

Only one.

He said there isn't even a close second.

The difference between success
and the rest

or not, success is a strong leadership
team.

And and so in many respects,
that's what I do.

That's what we do.

We build strong leadership teams.

I'm, I'm reading another book
at the moment called I read I start

lots of books and and it's finished
them called who not Hal.

And in the book that actually talks about
Michael Jordan says, in the first six

years of, of his career
with the Chicago Bulls, they won nothing.

In fact, they got trounced year
in, year out by the Pistons.

And it wasn't until Scottie
Pippen joined.

And then thank goodness for coach
Phil Jackson,

that ultimately building
a team around him.

And he became part of a team
that they found success.

So it's been very interesting.

So I send the compliment back to you
as well, seeing how how you've evolved

as a leadership team, has just been,
you know, has been joyous to, to behold.

Excellent. Well, I appreciate it.

It's not, you know, operating a business
we all know is not for the faint of heart.

It's not something that is innate
in every single person.

And and so surrounding yourself
with the people that you need to,

to have a successful leadership team and
going through that process is it's work.

And, you know, the thing that I've,
I was always I came into this,

under the belief that you have to be
a masochist to be an entrepreneur.

You've got to love.

I mean, it helps if you love pain, right?

Like, because there's a lot of pain.

And if you love it, well,
then you're a masochist.

And what I've actually realized is that
is we've been sold.

We've been sold, a lie that being an
entrepreneur does not have to be painful.

You don't have to accept dysfunction.

You can absolutely move to a point.

Of course.

We call it vision traction
healthy. Whoops.

I like whack the mike.

They visioned, like, emphatically,

vision traction healthy,
which is clarity and alignment.

Discipline and accountability is traction
and healthy is,

you know, cohesiveness,
harmonious collaboration,

being a functional, open
and honest leadership team.

And so like anyone that that has accepted
this lot in life

that you in order to be successful
as an entrepreneur,

you got to just like go through,
you know, all these hoops and pain.

I would say that's just not true.

I was surprised at the, the difference

that going through
and implementing the EOS process

and we're only like halfway through,
we finished our first year,

so I, I can't wait to see where we are
at the end of the second year.

But it changed my capacity,

and my patience and tolerance and, and,

you know, just having the thought out
processes of what are we going to do next?

This is how we deal with this.

Wait,

I know I can deal with this on Friday,
so I don't need to panic over this.

Right? The second.

Just put it on that issues list
and and come back to it when,

you know,
I at time I read I read the other day

that in one of my other books
that I've started but not finished, it

says, you know, a lot of people think,
or refer to coaching as, therapy.

And there's a difference. Therapy is.

So what I read was
therapy is about recovery.

Coaching is about discovery.

So we always say 80% of the time
the answer is already in the room.

But what I've actually realized is,
and I think about you as well,

is that you end up
you start off with a bunch of people

and they're different personalities

and they're different capabilities,
and they're resonating

on different frequencies,
and they have different energy.

And what you're actually doing
is you're creating

some kind of harmonic harmonic resonance.

You're actually getting everyone to
resonate or to radiate at the same level.

And I know it sounds a little woowoo, but
the reality is some people are and it's

something we're still going to do,
which is a personality assessment.

Some people what oh,
what's called high fact finders.

Some people are high
quick starts I'm a high quick start.

I'm at screw it.

Let's do it. I'm a fire. Ready. Aim.

Others already aim. Fire.

Others want all the facts.

And one have all their ducks in a row
before making a decision. And.

And in order to actually move forward,
you have to get everyone aligned.

So some people are going to have to
come down,

other people are going to have to move up,

and you're going to have to meet
each other, you know, on the same level.

And so that's kind of the art

as opposed to the science,
which is the structure, the process.

And and,
and another like crazy learning for me

is I am like a bit of a mad scientist.

I look at the structure
and sometimes I start like,

you know, breaking out in hives.

I'm like, oh, it's going to restrict me.

It's going to constrict me.

And it's the exact opposite.

It actually frees you up because all the
confusion and the ambiguity and the,

you know, the the misunderstood,
all of that is just, you know, it's gone.

So you just get straight
to the issue at hand.

And that has been like
maybe my biggest surprise

that people that consider themselves
visionary type

actually thrive with structure
as opposed to the opposite.

Absolutely.

One of my biggest worries,
right, was people management

and how to help them
get the best out of themselves. And

that process with iOS was

so defined, I didn't have to worry about
when to have the meeting.

I only had to worry about what to say.

So it it helped to have the structure
to get the result.

Yeah.

I feel like almost it's inside baseball,
but just seeing

how everyone on the leadership
team has evolved,

that's the thing
has evolved, has found their voice, has.

You know, I like to think of a we say
a leadership team is a is a team of peers.

But I always think of the Avengers,
I think of a bunch of superheroes,

and each one has a different superpower.

And when you put them together,

there's nothing that they can't achieve
or no one that they can defeat.

Thanos is no match for the Avengers.

And so if you end up
with a team of the same,

you know, you could have nine
hulks on a team, right?

Or seven Captain America's.

You're not going to get to four
because the opposition,

the enemy competition will figure you out.

Right.

But it is the diversity of that team,

the perspectives of the team that create,

you know, it's an intangible quality
which you just can't emulate.

Yeah. No, I agree, I agree.

So we've we've talked
about how great it is.

Let's define it a little bit.

What does the iOS process look like
besides Joseph Jaffe.

Because that's the part
that I thought has been very cool.

We have peers that work
with different implementers.

The process is the process for iOS.

So how should somebody that's never
heard of iOS think about what is iOS?

Well, the the beginning,
is that when you go back to Gino's story,

he was one of the,
founding members, charter

members of EO, which is, entrepreneurs
organization in Detroit.

And, he kind of got bit by the, the bug.

He realized that he had a real knack
for for entrepreneurship.

He starts to talk to hundreds
of entrepreneurs

and just listening to them and their pains
and their challenges, and he ends up

writing down about 135 unique challenges
because everyone's like,

my business is unique,
is different to yours.

And then, you know, the way I describe it
is he has this a Beautiful Mind

moment or the very, almost psychedelic,
I suppose.

Allegedly.

And what happens is he realizes that

actually there are only about six
key components.

There are six buckets or clusters
and your ability

to deliver against them,
the other 131 just melt away.

And so those six key components
becomes the foundation of the iOS model,

which is vision,
people, data issues, process and traction

vision at the top, head

in the clouds, traction at the bottom,
anchoring feet on the ground.

Vision without traction is hallucination.

And so what he does is he cobbles together
a set of tools.

You know, they're simple,
they're profound.

They're there's no black box,
there's no magic one.

There's no silver bullet.

They've been around for 100 years.

They'll be around in a thousand years

time and creates
the entrepreneurial operating system.

So it is an operating system,
the set of tools

and disciplines
that allows leadership teams.

I mean, the way I look at it
now is building strong leadership teams.

And then we say
as the leadership team goes,

so does the rest of the organization.

So once the leadership team of Vision
Traction healthy,

we then cascade that
through the whole company.

And so that's really what it is.

It's an operating system.

Another way to think about
it is a machine, right.

Apple you know, PC.

So Mac, PC,
iOS that runs on an operating system.

What is an operating system?
It's a basic set.

It switches on, switches off, regulates
memory, regulates storage.

There's a fan, you know,
and then you download the software

and you customize
and you personalize, right.

Humans run on an operating system.

It keeps the blood flowing,
the oxygen flowing.

You know, we go to sleep,
we wake up, thank goodness,

one foot in front of the other.

And then, of course,
we customize and personalize.

We go to college, our life experiences,
same thing.

So it stands to reason that businesses
that are run by people who use machines,

well, it's the people in the machines
running an operating system.

Why wouldn't a company,
why wouldn't a business?

And so that's the way I look at it, which
is, as I said, there's no black box here.

You know, it's so simple.

You almost binder
there's a don't forget it.

But it's not a black binder.
It's it's an orange.

Everything is orange.

But but it's true.

And, and and I think the thing
that I've learned, by the way, every good

coach should be,
should have their own coach as well.

So if you think about it, it

the world
should be running on the ability to,

remember we did
this exercise called Johari window.

Johari window.

You know, what are the blind spots?

What are the things that we don't see
about ourselves, but others see?

How do we get out of our way
and that's the beauty of a coach.

They're not in the game.

They're on the sidelines.

They see things come.

Excuse me?

They see things that you might miss.

So they're cheering you on their part.
Cheerleader.

They're part drill sergeant.

They're kicking your butt
when you need it.

And they're they're willing you
to be the best version of yourself.

That's awesome.

Getting choked up, right?

I say that's awesome.

Like you couldn't
ask for better than that.

So when a business owner is thinking

about their frustrations and their pain,
what what are some triggers

that they should be noticing
to think about iOS?

It's a great question.

Geno spoke about the five frustrations,

which is control, as in the story

he tells was entrepreneurs would say like,
I felt like there was a bus

hurtling down the road at 60mph,
but I wasn't on the bus.

I was chasing the bus.

So are you controlling your business
or are you running your business,

or is your business running you?

The second is profit not enough?

The third,
the biggest one is people issues.

You got people, you got issues.

The fourth is this concept.

And I'll come back to it
of hitting the ceiling.

And the fifth is just nothing's working.

Just whatever you're doing,
nothing's working.

So hitting the ceiling,
it's the very first thing I taught you.

Right.

Which is it's, it's built on this
on a study

that was done that actually says
every business in the history of business.

So your business, your business,
every business has

is or will hit the ceiling multiple times.

And when you hit the ceiling
there are three things that happen.

It's not growing pains for a company.

You either stagnate and if you stagnate
it's a slow and steady decline.

Because if you stand still in this day
and age of AI, etc., you're falling back.

It's, it's the crash and burn.

People get frustrated, they get burnt out,
they're resigned, they get fired,

or you break through.

And when you break through
so that that period of turmoil

or conflict or frustration, it's,
you know, it's like, just get away.

Just like, just leave me alone.

I just need to get this done
or when we land this client,

when we implement this SAP software,

when we organize our cash flow,
everything's going to be okay.

And it never is.

So when you break through that period
of smooth sailing is evolution.

And when you encounter the chaos
that is revolution and it is it is normal.

Now, if you get rid, if you can identify
and spot that and feel that frustration,

that is a moment
to basically make a change.

But the other thing is
it's not always about, again, the pain

and the frustration.

And we we've come as far as we can.

It's just businesses
that want to level up.

And often entrepreneurs,
they start businesses

for for reasons other than.

Well, I wouldn't say reasons other,
but they're not actually

entrepreneurs or business men or women.

They are.

They've been handed a business from a
parent or a grandparent or or passed down.

I mean, you work with a lot of family run
businesses as well.

Or, you know, in my business,
in the marketing and advertising side,

these are people that were creatives
or media people or or suits,

client service people.

So they decide
to start their own smaller agency.

But they're not business people.

They're not entrepreneurs.
They have to learn that.

And so when we the ultimate humility is
when we know what we don't know.

And sometimes recognizing
that we don't know what we don't know.

But when people are arrogant
and full of hubris and,

and when they believe that they know
what they know, I don't know that

we can help them because they're unable
to get out of their way.

So I think it's that
sense of of frustration.

But it can also be the opposite,
which is the impatience,

the ambition, the the that the fight.

You know, when we when we developed
one of the exercises, what we call

your passion, your cause or your purpose,
we say that there are four types.

There's helping people, there's fixing.

It was broken and we fixed it.

There is building.

We want to build something better.

Mousetrap.

And then there is winning.

And winning can just mean we want to win.

We want to succeed.

Or a can mean when someone,
when someone loses is defeating the enemy.

Now the enemy could be a person,
the enemy could be the 800 pound

gorilla, or the enemy can just be status
quo or mediocrity.

And so like when you feel that sense,

you know, it's time to hopefully call in
someone from the outside.

And the last thing I'll say is, you know,
I'm a huge fan of hiring and and growing

from within, but we also have to recognize
when we need help from the outside

because, Peter Principle or I, people rise
to the level of their own incompetence.

It's just the way it is
that's part of hitting the ceiling.

Yeah, absolutely.

So we have owners all the time
that they do their thing really well.

They make a really amazing air
roasted coffee.

They are have a great process for,

creating metal pieces for aerospace.

They have they came up as techs themselves
and kind of grew

into a business, took over our business
from the past founder bought it from them.

Whatever

they it
doesn't mean that they have ever sat down

and thought about,
how do I run this company?

And, I was working with a client

that,
unfortunately made the same choice you did

with your second business
and, and closed it.

But before that,
they were trying to kind of fix

it themselves, and they only wanted
a certain level of help.

And I remember saying, so, did
you talk about this at your firm meeting?

And they're like, oh, we don't
we don't actually have firm meetings.

And when things grow organically,

they don't always lead
to operational practices.

So kind of what are the biggest fallacies
that you see

kind of out there that should, you know,
be a trigger for somebody to think,

hey, maybe I need somebody
to teach me XYZ.

Well, what what
what would be missing in their operations?

Well, I'll tell you when you talk
about that business, you know, today

I get fooled with emotion
because I know I don't think

I know that if I'd been running on iOS,

that business would still be in business
today, like I know it.

And so there's that frustration on my end,
which is like,

if only there was just, you know,
the vision was trapped in my,

I'll tell you, like, like that

business was the biggest business idea
ever came up with in my life.

And I've come up
with lots of ideas. Right.

It was about the whole essence of.

It was startups
was a matchmaker for startups and brands.

What if Kodak acquired Instagram?

Might have survived?

What if Marriott had incubated Airbnb?

What if blockbuster had bought Netflix?

So the whole essence of that is, is what?

What would happen

if we could reverse engineer
the startup from the brand backwards?

Because the big brand, the big companies.

I wrote a book called both Built to Suck,

which is I actually believe
that the large corporation is doomed

because there are two big, two
dysfunctional, two political, two siloed.

The only way when you get to a certain
size to grow is to buy the growth, right.

They're not growing organically.

So it has to be something where they buy.

It's artificial.

And so this I was looking at, I was like,
which companies are growing today?

Startups.

So what if we could actually
and recognizing

can you tell it like I'm saying this
because you can see how much I believed

in my idea and how much
so I've never told you this before,

but I do a lot of startup
mentoring and, at that, you know,

but I teach startups and I say
your success depends on four things.

Two, you can control. Two you cannot.

So what you can control is the idea

and the execution of that idea.

What you can't control is timing and luck.

Timing and luck.

So timing is about patience.

It's about the long game.

It's about, you know, and luck is,
you know, the more Gary player

it, the more I practice the luck I get.

Luck is what happens
when preparation meets opportunity.

So recognizing as well that by the way,
timing is never on your side.

As an entrepreneur, 99.99%
of all businesses from the

from the beginning of time have failed,
and chances are yours will too.

Unless you're able to get out of your way.

If you are in this.

First of all, all entrepreneurs

that start businesses are by definition,
control freaks.

You just saw.

I don't know anything about that.

Yeah, especially if you're the only one.

So as you know,
one of the tools is delegate

and elevate to your unique ability.

Get rid of the stuff that saps your energy

and focus on the stuff
that that feeds into your super power.

So if you're part of the
I alone can fix it,

you're just wasting time, precious time
that you don't have.

There's so many inefficiencies as well.

And look, you said it as well.

I've worked with clients
that didn't even have a leadership team.

So number one is start
the leadership team.

Number two is have a regular meeting.

Number three is make that meeting.

You know the rules right.

It's start at same time
same day every week

starts on time,
ends on time follows the same structure.

And there are only two excuses to miss
which is death

as in yours or being on vacation.

The L10 meeting, as it's called the level
ten meeting, is called that because

eventually our clients, you,

you know, you can testify to it
or writing it at ten.

Can you imagine if every week

you're having a meeting where you are,
what are we doing it?

We connect the circles so we connect with
each other personally and professionally.

We go over our scorecard, which is our
financial and business performance.

We go over our rocks,
which are our business priorities.

We connect with our customers
and our employees.

We make sure that our to do's are to done,
and then we spend a huge chunk of time

actually identifying issues at the root
cause, discussing them and solving them

so that they go away for ever,
for the greater good of the organization.

I mean, you can tell like I,
I don't this is

I learned this the other day, you know,
that I'm doing, I'm studying happiness.

Correct.

There is a difference
between a job, a career and a calling.

Life is so short,
and my belief is that on our deathbed,

they say, on your deathbed,
no one ever said I should.

I should have spent more time
in the office.

I disagree because these days
a lot of us work from home.

So, you know, but we should say,

I wish I'd spent more time in the office
because what we did made a difference.

What we did had meaning.

What we did was part of our calling.

So, all I would say is,
if you're an entrepreneur

and you're just doing it for the money
and nothing else, and like,

another thing.

I don't know if I told you this
the other day,

another little matrix I learned
is that two by two matrix.

Right?

There's this idea of passion and purpose.

High only high and low.

And then commitment low and high.

So when you have low passion or purpose

or low meaning and low commitment,
that is called drifting.

You're just drifting through life
when you have high passion

or purpose, but low commitment,
that's called dreaming.

When you have low passion or commitment,
but high commitment

that is called grinding.

That is where most of us find ourselves.

But if you have both the passion and the
purpose and the commitment that's living,

that is a meaningful existence,
why shouldn't we all get there?

I mean, we all should. It's rhetorical.

Yes, we should.

So I don't I don't even know
how this question resonates with you.

This is kind of a standard
question, though.

If you weren't doing this
for your career, if you could change paths

and do something completely different,
what would you be doing now?

I am where I'm meant to be right now.

I am in my happy place

because I'm working with small
and medium businesses and entrepreneurs.

I'm working.

I can make a real difference.

I mean, we we see our clients regularly,

you know, 82% of our clients
have their best year ever.

And once I hit it,
they hit it every year, right?

That's the goal.

But I, I have three prongs in my life
and they're all connected.

I have my talk show, which I can never.

It is my life force.

And now my studies, my happiness

studies
are actually part of the very clear.

So I'll say two things.

Number one
is this idea of running a better business

so you can live a better life.

The so you can live a better life.

I'm fascinated by because it's mental

health, it's employee engagement,
it's passion, it's purpose.

The two have to live hand in hand.

Otherwise you'll sell the business,
and then you'll be like, now what?

Now I'm empty.

Now what?

Right, I don't
I want to avoid that from happening.

I want to make sure that the journey
and the destination are in sync,

you know, and and and and Congress,
if you will.

So that's the focus
that that I'm trying to to work on now.

It's the run a better business
so you can live a better life.

That is the essence now.

So when I say where what I want to be,
I am where I need to be right now.

Because to me, you know, if I can,

my dent in the universe
is if I can, you know,

on one hand, save even one business
from going out of business. But

They had

said that.

It actually

is not every. Day.

That I.

Meet. Him.

Maybe it.

Means we.