Well, hey there, and welcome back to the podcast. Today, I have a special guest with us, Kelly Roach, and I'm really excited to have her. She's a business growth strategist, best selling author, and top podcaster who helps business owners around the world achieve rapid, sustainable growth in record time. Kelly, can you tell us a little bit more about you and let us know what lights you up about your business?

 

Yeah. Absolutely. Well, I'm a wife and mom first, and I'm also the CEO of 2 companies. I have my coaching and consulting company, and then I'm also a cofounder of a company called Give Her Courage, which is a personal development and retail company for for curls and kids, to instill courage and confidence in the women of our future. But for me, what lights me up the most in my business is helping people to get tangible results that impact their family. I'm a huge person on Family First, and so my goal is, you know, create as many millionaires as possible doing what they love, Creating a business that serves their family, that allows them to live at their highest potential, and to do it in a way that allows them to protect their quality of life and put first what matters in their life.

 

I love that. I absolutely love that. I think that that's key for for all of us, not just to build this business that we become a slave to, but a business that actually lights us up, one that we look forward to every day and that fuels the life that we wanna live. So I love that. Okay. So today, we're gonna chat a little bit about team building. And so I'm curious. Can you tell us a little bit about how you started, when you started building your team, and then give us some advice.

 

Yeah. Absolutely. For sure. So my team building journey really started when I was 21 years old, and I joined a Fortune 500 firm and Very quickly got into a sales role, was, you know, blowing it out of the water, you know, really had a lot of success as a salesperson, and my manager came to me and said, you know, What you can do as 1 person could never, you know, touch what you could do if you focus your energy that You're putting into going and getting a sale, you know, into teaching other people how to sell. And I was kinda like, I'm like this 21 year old kid. I'm like, I wanna make money. I wanna get promoted. I wanna kinda, like, do my that he's like, no trust me, trust me.

 

And, you know, so I quickly moved into sales management. And over the course of 10 years, I built a team of a 100 people, and and I went from managing 1 person to managing 17 different business units around the country. And, you know, I really just fell in love with helping people believe in themselves and to become really, really confident at sharing their message, with the world, with whoever they're speaking to about, you know, how they could impact their business. And, you know, getting people really fired up and excited about, you know, having a successful career. And so I did all of that in, you know, my corporate world in one setting, and then, you know, when I got to the point where I started to think about having a family and what I wanted my future to look like and what mattered most to me, I kinda realized like, okay. You know, I don't wanna be on planes, trains, and buses around the country all the time by myself and working 68 hours a week and, you know, doing all the things that come with being in a high level executive role, which I was at that point. And so in 2012, I started my business and really decided that I wanted to dedicate, you know, my focus, my life, whatever, to helping small business owners succeed. 95% of businesses still fail.

 

The main reason why they fail is lack of cash flow. The reason why there's a lack of cash flow is really, you know, Business owners don't have a management and sales background. Right? So, you know, first, you have to learn to sell, and then you have to be able to build a team to sell in order to build a sustainable business. And so, You know, what I found was that there's a whole lot of people out there teaching about marketing and sales and how to do lead generation and all of that, and we do that too, but there's very few, if any, resources out there that are helping entrepreneurs learn how to transition from being, like, the producer in their business to really truly becoming a leader so that they can take a step back, have time for things that really matter to them, take care of themselves, have hobbies, you know, have passion projects, do philanthropy, all of that. And so A couple years back, I became just really fascinated and passionate about helping the entrepreneurial community in general learn, You know what the value of focusing on building a team even was because a lot of entrepreneurs are, like, not into it at all because they don't See the value. They've only had the pain of hiring the wrong person or spending the money in the wrong place and not getting their return. So really sharing the value, getting people excited about what's possible, and then giving them really explicit, structure for how how they can build a winning team and how they can make the transition from being the super employee to the CEO in their businesses.

 

I love that. So I assume that's when you started writing your book.

 

Yeah. Well, actually, I started my mastermind called Legacy Leaders back, I guess, 3 years ago. And, you know, so that whole program is dedicated to helping people learn how to become extraordinary leaders, hire the right People understand how to train them and coach them effectively and develop them into really becoming drivers and ambassadors of the business and the brand. And, you know, then, I guess, maybe a year, a year and a half ago was when I decided that I really wanted to niche into that space because there just was no support. There was no resources, and that's when I decided to write a book, you know, more just as like a resource to the entrepreneurial community because I was just like, wow. Like, I cannot believe that this knowledge, like, never was disseminated from the corporate world over into the entrepreneurial Unity. It's really fascinating.

 

It is really fascinating. So I know one of the things that I hear and one of the things I've experienced myself is this idea of, Okay. I want to bring on support, but that sometimes takes more time than just doing it yourself. So I know that you have these 6 steps that you outlined to build an unstoppable dream team even if you have no time. Do you mind sharing those with us?

 

Definitely. Well yeah. I mean, it's it's very, it it's it's, like, not intuitive. Right? Because when you bring someone on, it is more work before it's less. That is more expense before it's a return. But the the thing that I always like to, you know, tell people that they need to consider and think about when they're thinking Building a team is, you know, just like any investment in life. Like, let's say that you wanna run a marathon. Like, you have to do all the training and all the months of work to get your body to a place where you can run a marathon before you can run a marathon.

 

Or, you know, if you're saving for retirement, you spend, you know, 40 or 50 years saving before you're like, okay. Now I can withdraw that money out of retirement. Right? So I think as entrepreneurs in a social media instant gratification world, like, It's very difficult to put your energy and focus on things that are longer range and longer term because you are trying to be profitable now. You are trying to grow right now, and, you know, building a team is is very similar to that. It's it's an investment for your future. It's like if you know that you don't wanna have to be working as hard tomorrow as you are today, then you have to sacrifice today in order to create that tomorrow. And, you know, that's a difficult concept, but it it really is the truth. And the thing is is, like, it is more work at the beginning, but I think that what Happens to most people is they kinda go through the boomerang effect of, like, they don't understand how to onboard and coach, teach, train, and manage, and hold people accountable the right way.

 

And so what happens is they do put in all this work and time and money to get someone up and running, but it hasn't been done on, like, a strong foundation. So then what happens is the person quits or you have to fire them or the relationship has to be, like, you know, disseminated or whatever. And then it is a loss because you never made it to the point of getting to where it actually is a return because it didn't last for long enough or it wasn't the right person in the 1st place to get there. And so the 6 steps are really about helping people to understand, Dan, and I cover these in really good detail in the book. I definitely recommend every entrepreneur get a copy. You know, you getting past the point of investment and into return is like that that is the battle. Like, that like, you're taking the field and you're running the ball, and, like, you have to run the ball and get it down to the end zone where you're never gonna get a touchdown. And for most people, they never get the ball down the field, and so they never get that touchdown.

 

A touchdown is when you have an employee that's bringing in at least 4 times what they cost you every single month in new revenue and profits. So this employees is actually building this snowball of often in revenue that's coming into your business every month, and then they're helping teach and coach and train other people within the company to do the same. So it's this whole domino effect of, like, each 1 teach 1. Right? And, you know, it's it's possible and it's doable, but you you do need to understand the steps. And I don't know if we'll get through all 6 of them today, but I would say the first step the first step is you have to put bumpers on the bowling lane if you want your people to be successful. So that means that if you're gonna hire someone and you want them to bring a great return on investment for your business, You need to make sure, first of all, you get everything out of your head and documented in systems. Mhmm. Because they need a road map to follow.

 

They need systems that are documented that they can follow the bread crumbs on, and there has to be processes and organized ways that things are done every single time in your business. Most business owners have so much up in their head that it's almost impossible for someone to come in and help them because There's so much, like, navigating to do to even figure out, like, how this thing is gonna be done. Right? So that's number 1. Number 2 Is as you're constructing a job description, making sure that the way that you're constructing a role is actually gonna be profitable for you. And that might sound like that's like an obvious thing. But in the vast majority of instances, you know, we are so cited to get someone on board that can relieve us of tactical to dos that we're just basically pushing all this busy work off onto them, you know, and then What happens is we have that little moment of relief, and then we're like, I'm paying this person all this money. They're not really doing anything. They're not generating sales.

 

They're not making me money. They're costing me all this money, and I'm taking all this time to manage them. And so, of course, you start to get frustrated. Right? So, you know, I always say that, you know, building a profitable team starts with having job descriptions and roles and responsibilities crafted in such a way that that person is actually going to generate income for your company. Otherwise, 2 months in, you are gonna be frustrated, and you are gonna wanna kick them to the curb because you're like, I could do this better faster myself. I didn't have to spend time coaching you. I didn't have to go over your work. I didn't have to pay you all this money to do it.

 

Right? And so The these are all those little things before you even get someone in the door in the interview process that are complete game changers in what's gonna happen when you do hire because having these things laid out is gonna determine, first of all, the type of person that you attract. Most people are gonna run screaming when they see, oh, I need to generate 3 leads a day, or I need to generate 3 referrals a week, or I need to make outbound phone calls, or whatever the case. That's all the more reason why you want to talk about that from day 1 and build that into the very first conversation, because it's gonna weed out all the people that don't have that entrepreneurial spirit. It doesn't matter what role you're hiring for. I don't care if you're hiring for an admin person, a customer service rep, a a bookkeeper. You need someone with an entrepreneurial spirit. Otherwise, you're gonna get a couple months in, and you're gonna realize, like, this Person does not have what it takes to run this race next to me, and it's not gonna be a fit. That makes sense? I know I just talked for, like, forever,

 

No. That's great.

 

So much little there's so many little nuances in detail, but those 3 things that I just said right there, like, those are things that if anyone listening even just makes those Couple changes. The next time you go to hire, you're gonna see a completely different completely different type of person and a completely different situation once you get them on board.

 

Okay. So that brings us through up until the hiring process. So then you bring them on board. And If all that foundation is laid, then you're saying that that's gonna, of course, start everything off on the right foot. But then oftentimes, that's also where the biggest challenges come into play because all of a sudden you're managing this person, and you started this business to do what you love. But now you're managing other people, and you're working on your business instead of in your business, and I'm sure there's a lot there that you can

 

Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I think the big thing is is You have to be mentally and physically prepared to invest very heavily in those 1st 90 days when you hire someone to make this a good investment for you. And the thing I really wanna emphasize is you have to look at it like putting your money to work for you. So if you are gonna put a dollar into paying someone, you wanna get $4 back out. Mhmm. And what you do in those 1st 90 days with this Person is gonna determine, are you going to get a dollar back? Are you gonna get 50¢ back? Are you gonna get $4 back? Right? And so really mentally preparing yourself and saying, I'm gonna make this Short term sacrifice to really give my best to this person, to teach them everything that they need to know, to be an advocate for our brand, to truly understand the whys behind everything that they're doing to not just create this, like, tactical to do, like Taskmaster, but to actually teach them the core values of the company in a way that's focused on generating profits. And As small business owners, we can't afford to be hiring people that are not focused on generating profits for the business.

 

I find a lot of business owners are scared to even have that conversation or to say that, and yet then you bring people on and it's not a fit every single time because they don't have that money making mentality. So we need to, like, kinda get over it with all of that. We need to be willing to talk about it up front. It needs to be a huge part of the onboarding process. Right? How do we generate leads? How do we close clients? What's every step of the process? And what are the opportunities that this person has in their role every single day to contribute to that? Right? So I think laying out that 90 day plan and really being in control of driving, what they're learning when and why to make sure that, again, they're not completing tactical tasks on the surface, but they're they're understanding the meaning behind every single thing that they're doing and ties back to the success or failure of the company so that you train them to think independently and to make good decisions on behalf of the company. And that is a huge disconnect that the vast majority of people that are hiring staff for their company, They're they're teaching people to do surface level tasks, and there's no training of the brain on the why and the what and the how and the connection to the profits, and therefore, people are making massive mistakes. They're doing things wrong. They're they're not understanding the whys.

 

They're not making the connection, and then the business owner is frustrated and, like, what is this person doing? This makes no sense at all. They're costing me so much money. They're making all these mistakes. But the reason why is when someone doesn't understand the why behind it and the connection to the outcome and the impact that it makes, You they don't understand how to make the decision the way that you would, and therefore, they're making decisions based on their old frame of reference, which has nothing to do with getting you to your goals. Does that make sense?

 

Oh, absolutely. And it it feels like this is something that not only helps you with your profit and increasing profit in your business, also the longevity of that employee.

 

Oh my gosh. Absolutely. And that's exact the longevity is everything. Right? Because if you look at High performance organizations, big or small. The tenure of the staff has a direct correlation with year over year growth rates. If you're constantly starting and stopping and starting and stopping, it's it's very obvious to discern that you are never going to get momentum and be able to scale if you're constantly starting over with new people that don't have the time and the tenure to be able to make decisions at the speed and with the quality that you need in order to gain leverage and grow. So exact you hit the nail on the head when you said that because that's everything. And, you know, we operate what we do in one day as entrepreneurs is what normal people do in, like, a month.

 

Oh, no kidding.

 

What right? So what happens is we bring people in and we expect them to, like, pace with us, but we're not filling in the gaps on how to pace with us. And that's where the friction comes in, and that's where the dissolution of the relationship typically stems from. We have to teach them how to pace with us. We have to teach them why we pace the way that we do and how to think and how to act and how to make decisions. And, you know, even just someone listening this conversation today, Like, you don't need to have, like, all the tactical skills of being a good manager to make immediate shifts in the way that you're thinking about people in your business to start seeing profitable growth. So, like, what I always tell my legacy leaders is, it's a lifelong journey to become an extraordinary leader. It's not something that happens overnight. It happens through experience and intention.

 

But, like, someone can take just the things we talked about today, start applying them tomorrow, and you'll see Your employees respond differently to you and act differently and make decisions differently, which will impact your bottom line, and same thing if you were or are in the hiring process of bringing someone new in right now.

 

I love that. Okay. So I know there's a lot more to this conversation. And as you said, you covered it all in your book, Bigger Than You, so everyone go check that book out. I'll drop a link in the show notes. But as we wrap up here, any just last words that you'd wanna share?

 

Yeah. I mean, I think the most important thing is for entrepreneurs to understand that building a team is what grows your business. You don't grow your business and then hope to build a team. And I think there's such confusion around that, and that's why so many people struggle because we, as humans, only have a certain capacity. So we hit a ceiling because there is a ceiling. However, you can create exponential growth through other people you but you just can't wait and hope that You'll always have the bandwidth or the money or the time to do that. You make the investment first. You work the investment, and then the investment brings you a return.

 

That makes so much sense. And I know for myself, early on, I thought about this business I wanted to create, and it wasn't really until I was well into it that I realized my vision was much bigger and really really was gonna be, including this bigger team. So Yeah.

 

Very exciting. Well,

 

thank you so much for joining me today.

 

Thank you so much for having me, and I hope it was a helpful conversation for everybody out there listening.

 

Awesome. Until next time.