Kevin Hudson is the Founder & President at Keylan Management Group, which helps small and medium-sized businesses improve their selling and leadership effectiveness. He is also the founder and president of Integrator for Companies Running on EOS® Entrepreneurial Operating System which provides fractional integrator services for companies running on Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)®️ to help increase organization, clarity, structure, and accountability within their business.
In this episode, Kevin gives us a deep dive into EOS, how to use it for your business effectively and why it can be so helpful.
In this episode, Kevin also discusses:
- How EOS helps Kevin run 2 businesses 1:47
- The importance of accountability 6:15
- Kevin’s history with EOS 7:58
- What makes EOS so transformational 6:16
- The right size business for EOS and how to know when to implement 21:50
- What Kevin likes to see on his clients scorecards 31:39
- How Kevin keeps his money mindset strong and keeps himself motivated 35:41
Connect with Kevin:
Website | https://www.hudsonintegrators.com/
Website | https://keylangroup.com/
LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-hudson-b6697827/
Connect with Danielle:
Website | https://www.kickstartaccountinginc.net/
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/kickstartaccountinginc/
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/kickstartaccounting
Twitter | https://twitter.com/KickstartAcct
Things Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Book your FREE Discovery call: https://kickstartaccountinginc.com/book-a-call/
Test your Financial Health: https://kickstartaccountinginc.com/checkmyfinancialhealth/
Learn how to pay yourself as a CEO – https://www.kickstartaccountinginc.com/getpaid
Full Episode Transcripts:
Intro 0:00
Welcome to entrepreneur money stories, the podcast for women entrepreneurs who want to dig into their money stories so they can break free from limiting beliefs around money once and for all. Hosted by Daniel Hayden, owner of kickstart accounting, Inc. This podcast is a series of real conversations about money mindset with valuable and action packed takeaways for the entrepreneur who's building their abundant empire. Danielle is a reformed corporate CFO who's on a mission to help real freakin female entrepreneurs understand their numbers and gain the confidence to create sustainable profits. And now here's your host, Danielle Hayden.
Kevin 0:40
Kevin Hudson, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated from Baldwin Wallace in 1992. Working in business for the last 30 years, and spent most of my career in sales, sales, leadership, operational leadership. And then for the last 10 years, I started my own business really part time as a full time sales executive at another company, and really went full time with it really about five years ago. And now I'm here. So now I have two businesses, one around fractional sales management and another one around EOS integrator and look forward to maybe doing this conversation getting a little bit more into both of those or or either one of those. Sure,
Danielle 1:33
yeah. Well, let's talk about, you know, I think a lot of business owners have a hard time running one business. So I think I'd be doing a disservice by not asking how the heck do you run two businesses?
Kevin 1:47
Well, EOS really allowed me to do that. I mean, the first business that I started 10 years ago, Keelin management group, was really around fraction sales management. I used to sell the executive team years ago at a company, I had a business owner who said, Hey, I'm going to start a company, I need to hire someone, can you help me manage them?” And as a sales executive for another company full time at the time, I said, Sure, I had a passion towards managing salespeople, helping salespeople just become more successful. So for me, I was doing it on the side, I would meet with this person once a week for an hour, and really just doing the things that you would think a successful sales leader would do around just making sure that did he feel comfortable with his messaging, his value proposition, his competitors, you know, in terms of what were his sales goals? Did he understand that clarity as to what metrics were important for him to kind of like, how many appointments did he need? How many proposals that he need? You know, we'll be seeing the right people, networking, right, all the things that you would think a sales manager would do, I would be doing that with him on a part time basis, an hour a week, so you know, over breakfast or lunch or after work. And after doing that with that one person. Over the course of a year, he became more successful when he was doing so then I just started managing other salespeople for various owners, where I would just spend like an hour, hour and a half a week with them, really outside of working hours to help them grow. And over five years, I just did this with probably six different owners working with maybe one or two of their sales reps. And it was going well were like, wow, I didn't even realize that there was there was this need of small business owners who had one to three sales reps, but cannot justify the cost of hiring a full time sales manager full time but they but they really desire to have someone with some successful sales leadership background to come in on a fractional basis to help coach mentor, provide some clarity, structure organization and the holder reps accountable. So he or she, the owner, could do other things in the business, you know, so it was six years doing this part time. You know, five years ago, I was approached by an owner who said you should do this full time. Or there are tons. There's tons of small business owners like me who would absolutely do that. And it was right there on a whim that I said, and I did it in 2017. I was just literally I was a VP of Sales and Operations for a 40 employee company. And within four months later, I started my fracking and sales management business, key land management group. And so I utilized EOS with that business. So to get to your question, like how did I start two businesses? So it was just me one person, one fractional sales management client. So eventually I hired a sales I hired an integrator, someone to just have weekly calls with me to create rocks, kind of ELS terminology to great rocks. I had a scorecard. And, you know, I didn't have a full scale. It was an implementation, but I was really taking components of it. Because I wanted, I wanted to ask myself on a weekly basis, hey, even though you're doing the coaching, have you met with new business owners? How are you marketing? How many proposals are you doing? Like, how are you building your business? And those were things that was helpful for me, because, you know, over the course of the year, that first year, you know, I was able to secure 20 clients, someday, and I had to get more consultants to help. But I look back on that gear. And if I, if I had not had the EOS framework in place, I wouldn't have done, I wouldn't have got 20 clients, for sure. And it really allowed me to be intentional.
Danielle 5:53
Do you think it's the accountability piece? Because I hear you saying the same thing. You know, with the now the sales coaching, you're also providing the coaching, but I hear a theme of accountability through that, in which you're able to hold sales, sales team members accountable. And then you then took that experience and found someone to hold you accountable?
Kevin 6:14
Yeah, that's great. That's a great question. Great insight. I think it's a couple of things. I think accountability is kind of the secret sauce, but also in the midst of someone holding me accountable. Early in my business. It also forced me to be clear, to set meaningful goals that were smart, that I can quantify and back into, and allows me just to manage my time. So it was accountability, it was someone that was forcing me to be clear. So I think overall, what that did for me early on in my business, just being one person forced me to have clarity, and where I wanted to go clarity as to how I was going to get there. It provided some organization and structure for me to do that. And the scorecard and the level 10 meetings provide the potentiality. So I think when you know anything that we do in life, especially in business, when there's clarity, when they're structuring the organization around that, when there's accountability around that, and then you add in potentiality, like you mix all that in together, and you really can gain traction. I mean, that's really that that helps to gain traction. And then that allowed me to build enough consultants and build enough business, to where then most of the business that comes into my fracking sales management business, I didn't have to do myself. And it allowed me to still have a base of clients providing coaching for but then I can work more on the business versus so much in the business because I have other people doing invoicing and administrative work and recruiting and coaching clients, and allow me to start a second company, which is my ELS business.
Danielle 7:58
So where did you find EOS? We've done a few episodes now. So the audience, if you have not listened to those episodes, press pause, go back and listen to those episodes so that you have a little bit of familiarity. But yeah, maybe share with us, where did you find it? And what made you, you know, create a whole business around it?
Kevin 8:17
That's a great question. So really, it all started in 2015. So I left when I was a salesman, and VP of Operations at a smaller company in Solon, Ohio. When I started there, the owner at the time, he had a president who was overseeing sales and operations. Well, that President transitioned out of the business. So the owner, he split up the role, and he brought in the VP of sales and the VP ops. So he brought in myself as the VP of sales. And then he brought in someone else as a VP, VP operations, that person just so happened to also be a certified EOS implementer. So that person when they started in 2015, they implemented ELS. So I was on the seat, I was on the leadership team. So for a year, I sat in the seat of a VP of sales where I had to be part of a level 10 meetings, and be held accountable to sales metrics, but also participate in the VTL and some of the other components of Eos and because he was a certified EOS implementer. Like he did it the right way, and made sure that everything within Eos, so I was able to experience it from a seat holder, right as someone being on the accountability chart. And then after a year, then he left because he had other engagements in other businesses that he was involved in, then I took over in terms of being a part of the integrator seat and just keeping the level 10 meetings, you know, the quarterly meetings just keeping that going. So I did that for another year. And I saw how transformational it was to the business. Like there were issues that we were talking about that we had not been talking about before. Eos, we were solving issues at a higher clip that we had not been solving. We had clarity into the metrics that were necessary to hit certain goals that we did not have as clear before Eos. We had clarity on the accountability chart: who does what? What would be responsible for. And we have a regular cadence of executives meeting to talk and to review and work on the business, which we really weren't doing before ELS. So I saw the transformation of sticking to that and what it did to us over the long run. So at the time, I still had my fractional sales management business. So as I was providing fractional sales management services to clients, I started to dab into helping clients who were self implementing ELS, I started to dab into helping them run their level of temi. And so I did that for a couple years. And I saw the impact that it was having on my fraction of sales management clients, like, Hey, you're helping us with sales coaching. But wow, like you're helping us with these level 10 meetings. And I wasn't certified at the time, I was just someone who was very familiar with ELS from sitting on the seat. I knew I knew how they went. So there's about three or four fractional sales management clients that were just helping run their level two meetings. And then last year and 2021 els acquired rocket fuel rocket fuel is a book for visionaries and integrators. And written by Mark winners and Gina Whitman, Gina Whitman, who's the founder of traction and EOS. So ELS they acquired rocket fuel and, and and rocket fuel University. And then from that ELS started to certify integrators throughout the country. There's two roles within EOS EOS implementers, who are responsible for really implementing the concepts of ELS with businesses who need that help and support and, and, and running annuals and quarterly ease and all of that, but but really, they are they're just to implement, and they really leave it up to the companies to find their own way to run level two meetings and to keep it going, you know, day to day. So that's really their role.
Danielle 12:22
It basically,
Kevin 12:22
exactly that's so there's always been this for 20 years, that's been DLs implementers, one of the things that and there was a sort of there was a certification process, you had to get certified to do that, then DLs started to certify integrators. And because the EOS implementers, kind of the ones who show up, they help you to do it, but then they leave and go away, and you have to then figure out how to do it. And what was happening is that there are a lot of companies who were doing that, but then they were sustaining and keeping up with the EOS components throughout the quarter. Right, because someone got busy or right. You know, it's just, you know, a lot of small businesses, you know, the owners or people in our team that ran a lot of hats, and they just don't, you know, it was just hard keeping up with all of the components, week to week, day to day level 10 meetings, running those meetings, the right way IDs, rocks and scorecard and measurables, there was just too much. So a lot of times the US wasn't sustaining itself from an implementation perspective, you know, along the way. So the integrator which is outlined in the book rocket fuel is a way for either to a it can be like a CEO or head of ops, someone who is running the company. And they're also taking over the reins as integrator where their head of operations to p&l, they're holding everyone accountable. And they are also doing it the EOS way. And they're certified to do that. Because those are the people who keep EOS sustainable over the long run. And also our fractional integrators, such as myself, and those fraction integrators are where we don't work directly for these companies. But we come in in a fraction sense for those smaller companies who don't have a COO, right, they don't have a head of ops, but the owner, he or she is in a visionary seat, and they need someone to come in. And to kind of take the lead when it comes to EOS holding everyone accountable. And keeping level 10 meetings on track holding people accountable to rocks and scorecard, measurables and the people analyzer, and just making sure everything is in place. So there is a huge need for that. So last year, I wouldn't got certified and when I got certified and now I can. Now that I'm on the Eos directory, I'm on the left side, I'm on the official part of the EOS organization, that business has just exponentially grown. Because there are so many business owners who are self implementing, and they just don't have the bandwidth or the desire or the capacity to do it. themselves weekly. So I started the second company called Hudson consulting services, where, you know, I hire integrators to fracture integrators who have to go get trained to have to go get certified. So then we can go out and help those companies be successful over the long run. And it's been, it's been the business going very well.
Danielle 15:20
Well, as somebody who is a true visionary. We tried to self implement first. And I think, you know, this is very common for business owners to get really excited about a new concept. They hear about the transformation, they really buy into it. But we have a hard time in the details and the follow through. And so we would get really excited, set the quarterly rocks and then and then fade into the abyss this quarter and the year
Unknown Speaker 15:48
went on. Sure, absolutely. Yeah.
Danielle 15:51
That accountability in itself is transformational. But maybe you could talk a little bit more about, yeah, there's so many aspects of Eos. And what do you think about these components that make it so transformational for businesses, right, because we hear all these concepts and systems, and 1,000,001 things that we can implement in our business? So I want to kind of take away some of the fluff, and what is it about these components that make it so transformational?
Kevin 16:19
That's a great question. So let me start with the components. And I'll try to be very succinct and to the point. So when you look at all the components, Eos, and I'll name pretty much all of them. So number one, you think about the accountability chart? Well, what that does is the implementation of that, it allows businesses to understand who's accountable for the various functions within the organization. And when you have that clarity, then you can hold them accountable to that. And you can get more traction, because now you know, who's responsible for sales? Who's responsible for marketing? Who's gonna answer for operations? Who's responsible for finance, or HR, etc. So a lot of companies have org charts, which are more title driven, who reports to whom the accountability chart makes a real clear as to who's, you know, who's accountable? What are the measurables? What does success look like? So that's one component. Another component is the people analyzer. And the people analyzer is just a tool, where companies, they rate their they rate their employees, based on core values, and based on do they get it, they want it, they have the capacity. So on the core values, you right, your employees plus plus minus or minus, and that allows you to make sure that everyone is behaving in a way that aligns with their culture, right? And then they get the GW See, which are the good at one capacity is to make sure that companies do they have the right people in the right seat, the people that they have that are leading up different functions of the organization? Do they get it? Do they want it? Do they have the capacity, so when a company is using the people to analyze, it allows them to always be continuing toward this path of making sure they have the right people in the right seat, doing the right things and doing the right things effectively. Right. So that's a bit of another component, the VTL, the vision, traction organizer, all of that is really around getting clear on the vision. Where does the company see themselves 135 10 years from now? And not only that, then to quantify that, like, what are the measurables to be there in three years, and how those measurables align itself to the one year goal. And so the VTL is an opportunity for our business to say, hey, we know where we want to be in the next 135 10 years. Now, we have created measurables, as to how well we think that it looks like to get there. And now we have a cadence in place to actually align ourselves and be accountable to the things we need to do to get there. So that's the traction that gives the level 10 meetings is just a set meeting on a weekly or bi weekly basis, where the company then is able to then review those goals and objectives and those in those rocks and talk through issues and those metrics to make sure Hey, are we on track? Are we accountable? Are we doing the things that we need to do to get to where we want to be? So that's the value of that. There's also something called quarterly conversations within ELS, which is where you're doing a quarterly informal review with each direct report around their core values around their rocks, and around or GW seeing. So there's this consistent cadence developing and training and in helping direct reports to get to a place where not only are they walking in the core values that you've set for the company, but they're also a yes for GE WC to get at one capacity. So that's the value of the core D conversations of that. So you know, those are the main components. Obviously the raw acts are a huge component of ELS because it allows team members to say, Hey, I know where I want to be at the end of the year. And it may take me 10 things I need to do to actually complete that goal. The Roxas, it just allows people to live in a 90 day world like, hey, I need to focus on what two, three or four things I need to accomplish this quarter. And it makes it less overwhelming. Sometimes people have a huge goal, and there may be 15 things they need to do to actually achieve that goal. And sometimes looking at those 15 can be overwhelming. So you just get lost in the minutia. Like what do I work on first? So rocks allow people to say, hey, like, let's just take, let's just focus on the next 90 days, let's kind of shrink what we're looking at. So that really helps me obviously the scorecard metrics is helpful, because it allows people to measure what success looks like.
You know, so I'll I mean, all those are, these are all components, even the processes, the core processes, a lot of small businesses, and business in general have not documented their core processes within the organization as to, you know, what does success look like? How do we do something? What is the checklist? What is the standard operating procedure, because it allows for the continuity of that process. So as people potentially come and go within an organization, having core processes documented, it helps with onboarding, but it also helps with the continuity of those processes to document this is how we do things. So you know, those are just some of the main components of Eos. And the reason why, and those are some of the reasons why you can gain traction. By implementing each component of Eos. There's an element of it that really adds to the traction and the transformation that business achieved by doing that.
Danielle 21:48
So we talked a little bit before we pressed the record about, you know, what size business is EOS the right fit for? And what tools can you start to implement your I EOS for years before I fully I mean it this this, this took me a long time to really fully embrace AI that I had read about it stolen and implement that self implemented, finally, partnered with you. But first of all, what's the right size business for this? And then before you are even ready to implement? What are some things that we could be doing right now in order to get ready?
Unknown Speaker 22:27
Yeah, I mean, the right size, I mean, typically, you know, ELS is typically for companies that tend to be it can be for really for any size, but predominantly, it's more so for those companies that are, you know, can be up to 250 employees, or companies that hit till about 10 million in sales. You know, there are different operating systems, you have Eos, and you have scale up, scale up tends to be even if you Google EOS versus scale up. And there's a side by side comparison on so many Google sites as to when one would a company implement scale up when they implement EOS scale up is a bit more complex, it's more of a complex system for companies that are typically 10 million in revenue went up. EOS is a more simplified version for companies that are smaller, but it can be as low as one employee. It can be for companies with 150 employees. But it typically tends to be more of a small, small or midsize businesses. That typically is the demographic of a company, you can be as small as one, as I mentioned before, just because it's less about the number of employees and more about the discipline. Any business owner, if you're an entrepreneur with five employees, you know, you're thinking about the same thing as the owner with 100 employees. Right. And some of those main things are things like, Do I have a vision as to where I want to be 135 10 years from now? Do I have clarity as to how to get there? Do I have the right structure and organization in place to do that? Do I have the right metrics in my business to grow? Do I have the right people in the right seat? Right? I mean, we're thinking about the same things. Now. 100 employee companies, do they have more complexity because of employees and HR compliance? Sure. But in general, the infrastructure, we're thinking about the same thing. So the same way that a company would 50 employees can use EOS to scale his business. Because of that structure in place. It's the same components that an employee company can use. So it's really more so about the principles and the systems versus the number of employee size, and some things that someone can do to get started. The first thing that I have someone do they say, Hey, what do I get started? If I want to even think about doing that? I was first. How is the owner? I would have he or she retracted? Because traction is like the book that actually talks about EOS at least, it is more of an Akkad I agree. So when, when, when employed, when you want to roll it out to employees and departmentally within the organization, that's why EOS doesn't recommend them. retraction, they recommend them re What the heck is EOS? Because EOS is an employee version of Eos is less academic. So, but a business owner, you know, off, you know, traction is good books when the readers really understand the mechanics of that. Not that a business owner can read, they can read blog tags els, but traction is a good book for them to read. Another good book for them to read is get a grip, get a grip is a book that they can read because it chronicles the process of implementing ELS, right? So it's kind of you know, so that that helps for them to envision themselves like, well, I can see maybe how that would potentially work. In my business. I think those two books traction and get a grip are two places to start. And then they have they have employees of the Republic of Eos, I will start there. And then then the next thing I will have them do is that I will have an owner for me, they can contact an EOS implementer and have someone provide like this 90 minute overview. So when you get started with Eos, and even if you go to the ELS website, it all says, you know, please contact us for a 90 minute constant consultation. And that is a free 90 minute overview by an EOS implementer. Typically in your area, who just says, Hey, let us help you provide an overview of what this looks like and how to go about potentially implementing this. So that's one area that they can just start there to kind of learn about it. But if they want to just self implement, and not necessarily use it implemented, like not all companies who implement ELS hire implementers, because of the cost, you know, some companies, you know, it's not, it's not inexpensive to hire an iOS implementer.
Kevin 26:55
So I'm not gonna say their fees on the air, but some small businesses, you know, from their perspective, they may not have that level of cash flow to do that. So they say they want to self implement and say, Kevin, where do we start? I've got five employees, I got 20 employees, I got 50. Like, what do I start with? For now? I've read the book. What do I do now? The first thing I would have them do is to complete the VTL even at five employees, because you think about what Kevin was one of ETL well, its core values. What five employee companies have core values, right? Yeah, absolutely. Right. There's there's core focus, which is really around their niche. And what does that they automate every five employee business to employee business have that 10 year target, three year target one year goals, quarterly rocks and issues like I was start the VTL is a great place. It is not the VTL is not in an overly complex way. I mean, it's something that it makes sense. So I will start there, because it really gives them the framework like okay, like that's like the building, the building block of Eos is completing the VTL because everything else you do flows from there. And then and then after that, they might not need to do accountability chart, they might not. Because maybe that owner sits in all the seats. Right?
Danielle 28:18
Which happens right when I sat in a lot of the seats and and a lot of other business owners who I know who implemented, they sat into many of the seats, however, just brainstorming that starts to help you think where you want your business to go. So
Kevin 28:34
I love it. You're so right, exactly. That's it. It helps you to brainstorm out wow, where I need to go where I need help. So I will say first read the book, do a VTOL. And I will say this higher, higher and a fraction. If for some reason they say I don't want to, I can't afford to hire an iOS implementer. I got five employees, I'm only doing $100,000 in revenue. And I just can't you know if for some reason that doesn't work. I mean, we always like to push people there. But if they don't want to do that, then it's not like ELS doesn't force people to hire implemented. I mean that people can still implement aos, but I would say at minimum, hire a fraction integrator, because their fraction integrator obviously comes really at a fraction of the cost. But it allows them to have someone else to help usher them through ELS helps them make sense of okay, you've read it yourself implementing that now let us help you establish a rhythm of level 10 meetings, to start to hold you accountable and to help you continue to create clarity and organization, that structure within your business. And because you know, trying to sell implements and then trying to have five employee companies do it themselves. What would typically end up happening, they won't stay consistent. They'll Miss meetings. And because of the tyranny of the urgent, right they'll it's another thing that they need to get through. And it's just the next thing you know, like in a month, maybe they've had one or two meetings and it just starts to phase out. Right? So hiring someone just to keep that rhythm is so important to build out team and build out the initiative. So I would just start right there, retraction read, get a grip, work on a VTOL and have someone come in to help you usher the rest of the way.
Danielle 30:34
Now, let's talk about a scorecard. Because obviously, as an accountant, the scorecard is my favorite piece. I think this is also something you can self implement, right? So if you don't want to hire somebody right now, you can create your own scorecard and monitor your own metrics. Hey, podcast lovers, I hope you're enjoying another amazing episode of entrepreneur money stories, I had to interrupt to tell you about an exciting new tool we recently launched. If you've been wanting to learn how to start managing your business finances, but don't know where to start, then visit Kickstarter counting inc.com/bootcamp to receive our new five day video bootcamp series, you will receive a video each day that will take you from accounting overwhelm to money powerhouse. So you're ready to go to Kickstarter, counting inc.com/boot camp. All right. So the episode
yeah, there's some of your favorite items that you like to see on your clients scorecards. Just just some?
Kevin 31:46
A couple. Yeah. Yeah. So I would say revenue is always a good one. Because obviously, it ties back to the VTL. Right. So when you think of a scorecard, you think of the VTL. You think of the one year goals, you think of the company rocks, you think of individual rocks and goals. So you think about it, we want to be $2 million in sales or $1 million in revenue. So having a revenue goal is a good scorecard, because a scorecard should tell you how you're doing good or bad. That's why in some scorecards, and in some systems that people use, for example, if $100,000 a month, that's the goal for revenue to get to $1.2 million. And one month, you had 91,000. Well, that number is red, because it tells you you're off track. So yeah, revenue was a good number, from a sales perspective, sometimes number of proposals, number of new prospect appointments, because from a sales perspective that, you know, it helps to say, Hey, do we have the right activity to even get us to the new business? So those can be good customer retention is a good number for scorecard. You know, if you have if you have a goal, many business owners says, hey, you know, part of our revenue is retention on our existing business. Well, what's what's that retention number that you want to maintain, to keep that recurring revenue? So customer retention is a good number for that it can be number of new hires, on a on a score on a scorecard, if you have a personnel goal.
Danielle 33:22
That's a big one for business owners right now. Hiring is tough. Oh,
Kevin 33:26
absolutely. I can be one. Yeah. net net profit can be one, right. And the reason being, because net net profit is often on the VTL. Right, so those are just, I really like when I'm working with a client to say, let's look at the VTL. And let's look at your one year goal. And then on the VTL, it all starts about what are your measurables? What does that look like? And let's start to measure those things. Right, and put those on a scorecard. So those, those are some of the some of the areas and typically when it comes to scorecard are also like that, you know, you look at different lanes on our accountability chart, and let's say someone is over sales and marketing, someone has over ops, which can includes fine, you know, HR admin, and then someone's over finance, which could be you know, p&l management, etc. So all of a sudden now, I like to ask the people in the accountability chart, are there metrics that you'd like to measure in your particular lane of accountability chart that tells you how you're doing in your area? So those are some other good questions to ask yourself when you're trying to think about a scorecard. Sometimes it's marketing is inbound leads, right, you know, for lead generation. Yep. So those those are just some good areas to think about this think about at a company level, holistically revenue, profit, and then you think about accountability chart, because ultimately, you want the scorecard to reveal to you These are the key areas within our business that tells us how we're doing from a revenue perspective, from a profit perspective, operationally, customer wise finance, you know, if we were on an island, and we only had seven to 10 metrics that can tell us how we're doing in our business, what else seven to 10 things that if you only if once a week, you only can get one piece of paper once a week, and that will tell you how you're doing, how your business is doing. What do you want on that piece of paper that will tell you how your business is doing? That's a great way to look.
Danielle 35:40
I love that. Yeah, yeah. As a fellow business owner, right, you're in the trenches with us? What are some of the things that you use to keep your money mindset strong to keep your mindset strong? I don't like to ask, stay motivated, because I don't think we necessarily are going to wake up every day feeling motivated. However, what are some of these, those things that you do for you in your business,
Kevin 36:03
kind of stay motivated?
Danielle 36:05
Yeah, stay motivated, keep yourself accountable. Keep your money mindset strong.
Kevin 36:10
A couple of things, I would say, just stay motivated. Meditation. That's one thing that I do every morning just to stay motivated. Number two, is to be intentional about spending time and then hobbies that I love to do. I love to play golf. So I make sure I incorporate that when I could do I love to read something staying motivated, that helps. Also having a coach, you know, having someone who can ask me questions about my business, oftentimes, we who are in positions of leadership, we're constantly pouring out to others. And oftentimes, we're not as intent about having people pour into us. So that's a way to stay motivated, because it helps prevent burnout, and also it keeps our minds fresh. So that's the way to stay motivated. Having goals is the way to stay motivated. You know, that's the way to stay motivated towards finance, are you hitting those goals, you know, so reading is a way that I stay motivated. Those are some things having mentors, that's in my business that is maybe farther along, that helps me stay motivated, like I have a mentor who runs another fractional business, not in the sales, but they run another fractional business. And they have 100 consultants, and their year is successful. So that person has been a mentor and is very motivating to talk to somebody who went from one consultant to 100. And then I have mentors in the ELS space, people who have been doing this for a long time, they're very successful, they have built a significant business, and just say, wow, how did you do that. So those are ways to keep people around me who are kind of smarter than me in certain areas. It helps me to keep reaching that there's another level to this. So those are the some of the things that come to mind that I do that keeps me motivated mentally, spiritually, emotionally, financially. It all keeps me motivated, and I have a therapist that I see. And that therapist helps to keep me emotionally healthy. And I think the more emotionally healthy we can be, the better we can be for our employees, our direct reports for our clients, for our business for ourselves and our family. So all those things play a role into helping me, you know, stay motivated.
Danielle 38:38
Thank you for sharing that. I appreciate that. Is there anything that we didn't cover today? Or any questions that you wish I would have asked?
Kevin 38:46
No, I think the questions that you're I think what's good for someone who will watch this podcast would be the takeaways and outcomes. And I will hope that they will walk away from this podcast because this is, hey, wow, I didn't know. I mean, really, anybody can implement ELS like whether it's one employee or two employees, or 100 that you know what, like, I'm not too big or too small to do this that is less about that is more about an operating system is more about a system that creates a level of potentiality in my business to grow. So I hope that they will walk away like hey, I can I can I can do that. I hope they also walk away like hey, you know what, I can take some simple steps. I can read the book. And I can work to fill out a VTOL and I can have someone assist me with level 10 meetings to make sure that I stay consistent, and that's an option. There are many business owners that are not even aware that that's an option. Right? I mean, the term integrator is not commonly known and in the small business world, there are small business owners that I meet that never even knew that there was this thing We call the integrators, somebody who can come in and help them keep this going. So, you know, there are some companies that say, Well, I thought it was just iOS implementers. Like, I didn't know that there were other resources within Eos, who can help keep this thing alive and going for me, you know, I hope people walk away really motivated to say, hey, maybe this is something that I can do, I hope they're motivated by the transformation that these principles can have in their business, that that they don't have to wing it that that they can actually be very specific and intentional around how to go from one level to the next level in their business. And that I hope they walk away with it. There's hope, sometimes small business owners, they're so busy in the day to day like, I'm working 6070 hours a week, I've got one other person to help me I just don't see how I can ever get beyond this. It's almost like classic E Myth, right? The book E Myth? Like it really, really Chronicles? Like, how can I really create a business that really is a business, not a lifestyle business, like it's really something that I can potentially scale grow, maybe even sail pass law to legacy generation, that there is a framework, there is an organizational structure in Eos, that can allow me over 135 year period to work less in the business, but on the biz, like there's hope there's hope to doing that. So I hope that everyone walks away with just a bit more education around EOS and some of the components and the importance of the components from the accountability chart, so that people can analyze some of the things that we talked about. So no, I think that it's, I think your questions really are great questions to just give people a bit more of an overview of ELS and how it could pertain to their business. I love
Danielle 41:52
that you keep on saying operating system, because I want to remind everybody that this is really what this is, is an operating system, it's a way to operate your business. And, again, there's so many different strategies out there. This is the one that's always called to me. And that's why we put so much time of the podcast to pour into this topic. And having you here that really want to share this with people, it really helps me create clarity in my business, really helps me understand how to operate my business, I actually spent most of my career in midsize businesses. So I didn't understand how to take those concepts to entrepreneurship. And this gave that framework to be able to so a lot of I hear that from our clients, like I came from corporate, I don't know how to do all these other functions on the business. And this gives you a framework for this function. So yeah,
Kevin 42:46
I would say the last thing before I go is that, you know, what's surprising is that meeting owners from aos, that is not really just about numbers and growing your business to some revenue mark. But like ELS has been just as impactful on employee development as it has been on revenue. Because when you think about the people analyzer, like when you talk to most businesses, and if you say, right now walk me through the process that you have in place to consistently evaluate whether you have the right people in the right seat. And also walk me through the process that you have in place where there's a consistent cadence of training and developing, identify and help employees not only live your core values, but also be more effective and successful in the seat that they're in. Walk me through what you have in place today? That most of our businesses will not have anything in place? Right? They don't, they don't have that. So you say, Well, what is working ELS help them with that what do people analyzer is a great tool. And then also the quarterly conversations around me with employees on a quarterly basis to review their rocks, to review the core values and to review the PwC part. Ultimately, what those things do over time, is that you build a stronger organization of your people, where you've got more people that are leaning into your core values, they are more effective in a job because you have helped them over time get it, you've maybe created some some things within their role where they really want it and they're passionate about it. And you've and you've helped them have the capacity. And when you have an employee who is walking in your core values, and they're clear on their role, and they want to be in their role and they have the capacity to do it intellectually. They're competent. I mean, that's how you scale your business. So EOS is an operating system. But what people tend to forget is that wow, this is a great system to really help me to develop the leaders around me but also to help my leaders develop the direct reports that's really under them. That's kind of a hidden secret and a hidden gem. That it's, it's while I've heard more and more people say, the transformation that I've seen over the last year or two has been just as much into our people than it has been on our numbers. And there's a correlation there. Right, you know, while striving towards our numbers, we've also developed to be a great place to work, you know, where people are growing into developing. And so I say that to say
Danielle 45:40
as well. That's how you stay in business and stay absolutely, right.
Kevin 45:45
Absolutely. And the more people that have the right people in the right seat, the more the business can operate without you, as a visionary needs to be in the middle of it every day. Because you have the right people in the right seat, doing the right things, and doing the right things effectively. And now the business can scale and grow without you being in it day to day, which is where all of us are trying to get as entrepreneurs.
Danielle 46:11
Well, Kevin, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. Where can the audience stay in touch with you and find out more about you and the wonderful services that you're providing?
Kevin 46:22
Yes, Kevin Hudson, me, they can send me an email at Kevin ke vi n at Keelin group.com. That's ke y la en group.com. So they can send me an email there. They can, they can call me or text me at 216-410-3024. They can also visit my websites like two websites. One is Kealing group.com. That's ke y la en group.com. Or they can visit my ELS company website, which is Hudson integrators.com. That's Hudson, Hu de sol integrators.com. So those are the two sites where they can find we'll link
Danielle 47:06
it all up. I'll link it all in the show notes too. So it's available for anyone to click on. I know I listen to podcasts while I'm walking, running, driving. So we'll show notes. Kevin, thanks for being here.
Kevin 47:19
Thank you so much. Thank you. Take care
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
