Hot Takes: Only 5% Make It - Who Really Grows with the Business?

What if the two most important leadership lessons aren’t about strategy... but about how you show up in a room?

In this Hot Takes episode of Sessions with System & Soul, Benj Miller and McKenzie Reeves Decker unpack two game-changing insights from leaders who have actually built legendary companies.

🔥 Bill Campbell, the trusted coach behind Apple and Google, believed success starts with something most leaders overlook:

“Get your 1:1s and team meetings right, and everything else will follow.”
When relationships are strong, results follow. Simple. Powerful. Overlooked.

🔥 Then comes Leila Hormozi, powerhouse CEO of Acquisition.com, with a hard truth:

“Only 5% of your team will be ready for your company’s next chapter.”
So what do you do with that reality?
Avoid it? Hide it? Or lead with clarity, even when it's uncomfortable?

🎙️ Inside this episode:

Why most teams underperform and how to change that fast
What the top 5% of high-growth team members all have in common
How founders unknowingly stall their growth
How to lead people through change without losing trust
And why your systems should protect your culture, not just your KPIs

🎯 Plus: Grab two free tools mentioned in the episode:

 • The Weekly Sync Template
https://lnkd.in/ecMf9wbe

• The 5 Unspoken Conversations Guide
https://lnkd.in/dw5biR89

If you're scaling a business and want to keep your people aligned, empowered, and growing with you, this episode is a must.

Sessions is hosted by Benj Miller and McKenzie Decker

The best businesses aren’t just built on strategy, they’re built on soul.

📅 Join us LIVE every Friday on LinkedIn & YouTube

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Visit https://www.systemandsoul.com/261

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Sponsored by Fist Bump

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the Hot Takes Session
• 1:46 Bill Campbell’s Unexpected Management Priority
• 3:41 Why Every Meeting Should Start with a Check-in
• 6:16 Systems That Protect What Matters Most
• 8:46 Weekly Syncs and the ‘Healthy Fit’ Model
• 9:41 Leila Hormozi’s 3.0 Leadership Insight
• 12:21 The 5% Who Make It
• 15:31 Leveling Up or Leveling Out?
• 18:36 The Two Traits of High Performers
• 23:06 Recap: The Simple Practices That Shape Culture

Transcript

McKenzie: 0:37

Hey guys welcome back to Sessions with System and Soul. I'm Mackenzie. I'm here with Benj and we've got a special kind of episode. Today we're gonna share some hot takes. Hot takes are things that we've consumed week over week, podcast videos, books. We're all about the leadership content. We're all about the business books, and so we talk about these things all the time and we thought you would Benjefit from. Hearing some of what we are reading, what we're listening to, and maybe even forming a perspective on it for yourself. But we're showing up. I've got something to share with Benj. Benj is something to share with me. I have no idea what we're about to talk about, but we're gonna, we're gonna spend the next few minutes sharing some content and chatting through it. Benj. What in the world do you have for us today?

, Benj: 1:28

I've got a hot take that you probably won't think as much of a hot take, but I think some people will. I've been fascinated by this book that's written about this guy named Bill Campbell. And Bill Campbell was The silent CEO whisper ofSilicon Valley, as Silicon Valley was becoming a thing. So he worked, with Marissa, at Yahoo. Steve Jobs, him and Steve were very, this was like Steve Jobs coach, right? The co-founders of Google. And then, Eric Schmidt, the CEO, , Jeff Bezos, the who's who? Jack Dorsey. Sheryl Sandberg, whoever you've heard of in Silicon Valley. Bill was the wizard behind the curtain. And so I'm reading this book about him 'cause he was very, he liked, he did not want to be famous. He didn't think anything of himself. He was just a great kind of coach and thinking partner. But, so reading and then it got to like his management philosophy, right? And this is where it starts. what do you want to think about when we think about management philosophy and you're thinking about these companies out there, I'm thinking it's gonna go to something, or add vision or strategy, or recruiting alignment, whatever. Listen to this Bill had us pay close attention to running meetings. Get the one-on-one right. And get the staff meeting right. We are his top priorities and most important management principle. I was shocked to hear that. I wasn't shocked.'cause I feel like that's been great. Like we've been talking about that. If you can get, we've been saying your one-on-ones and your weekly but I understand why he's saying the staff, I think staff meeting, he's saying an all staff.

McKenzie: 3:08

Yeah.

Benj: 3:08

And he starts talking about how he kicks off his staff meetings. And this staff meeting's, his team meeting, or his leadership team meetings, he would always have you start with, he doesn't call it this, but a personal check-in a highlight from last week. And sometimes they would be extended and if you went on a trip, you had to give a trip report back to the team.

McKenzie: 3:30

Bring the slide deck, bring your photos.

Benj: 3:32

Yeah sometimes. Or tell the stories, let us in on what you just experienced so that we can learn and have a little bit of that experience too. And he said that, why that was so important. The, trip reports and that time in that check-in was because everything that came after that was built on that relational foundation. It was built in that sharing. So you're sharing your family, your memories, what matters to you, what you experienced. And it wasn't all highs. It'd be highs and lows, but that relational time at the beginning of the meeting greased the wheels to do whatever business that they were there to do. And then he talked about the one-on-one meetings. And, I love that. I think my experience, what I see is companies that do great one-to-one meetings. Do everything else well. Companies that are struggling to do a lot of things don't even have one-to-one meetings, and maybe they have like annual performance reviews or something like that. Something super sterile. We teach these, this idea of a quarterly healthy fit conversation and one-on-one meetings like that. To see somebody that, of that stature, put it that boldly, get that right. Because if you get that you're getting the feedback, you're getting the accountability to start doing all of the other things. I'm curious, does that surprise you? Like as much as it did me?

McKenzie: 4:52

Yeah. In one way it's when you said it, I thought of course, because this is the world we live in. But I think if I didn't experience this in the way that we do it with teams, with a weekly sync our healthy fit conversations. I would be surprised by that.'cause you would think it'd be a bigger idea. But it reminds me of when you said that, it made me think of, oh my gosh, what's his name? John Wooden. He is a basketball coach and he used to, there's a famous story about have his players practice putting their socks and shoes on.

Benj: 5:24

Yes. Yep. Learning how to tie their shoes, right?

McKenzie: 5:26

Yeah. And it's if you put your, if you don't put your socks on right, then your socks are wrinkled in your shoe. You're, as you're running around the court, you're gonna get blisters. You're gonna get blisters, and then you're gonna have to sit out, practice, and then you're gonna sit out games. And he just had this very microscopic view of we, we have to do the little things right. In order to do the big things well. And that's what that reminds me of. But I think that's

Benj: 5:51

so astute because look at this. He was a football coach for most of his career. And then just happened. I can't even remember how he got into the situation, but he was a football coach at heart.

McKenzie: 6:03

I think it's the principle of you gotta do the 1 on 1 to do the 2 0 1 to do the 3 0 1.. And I think it's hard to do. I will say what's fascinating, it's funny to me everyone who is watching, I've been trying to give Benj a hard time when we haven't been on camera, so I'm about to give you a hard time while we are on camera it's funny to me that, that you say that you brought this up about meetings 'cause I think sometimes when we're meeting, because you are so visionary and you come in with you're ready, you are so ready sometimes to just get to the important conversation of what do we need to hit today? Or what ideas can you and I brainstorm and so sometimes we have to. And I think we both get in that mode where we're oh, a huge list. We've got we got big stuff. we've got either, we're either excited or we're we've got to deal with this issue. And so to stop and be how was your weekend? Where did you go? it's that's hard to do sometimes, especially when you've got a lot going on. I think we all have a lot going on,

Benj: 7:01

So that's part of why I resonate so strongly with what we do is because I need systems to compensate for my innate behavior.

McKenzie: 7:11

Ah, wow.

Benj: 7:14

the structure, if I, if you said, are the relationships important to you? Yes. If I show up and go straight into the let's solve this and this and this, and I have no idea what you're dealing with, that's a fail in my mind. But that's what my nature would probably do.. So that's why what we do is so important is because we put some of these structures in place so that we can show up the way we want to. Or the way that we're wired to and make sure we're prioritizing the things that we need to be prioritizing.

McKenzie: 7:46

It's really profound to me that you're saying that because I think we're creating systems to protect the things that matter most. We're not just creating systems for the sake of systems.'Cause I know that you avoid that like the plague. Like we don't need to just create structures for the sake of structures. We're creating structures for the things that matter. And I think that's what's profound about what you're saying and how you. Perceive this kind of thing. But also when we think about doing the 1 on 1 and the basics, it's the 1 on 1 it's creating structures to the things that are gonna matter most. Not just everything. Anything we can think of.

Benj: 8:18

When people think about us creating systems, they think about business performance. But we also create systems to protect the soul. Anyway, so Smart Guy did a lot of good, made a lot of impact preaching what we're preaching. Start with those 1 on 1. Your 1 on 1 are everything. It starts there. What do you got today, Mackenzie?

McKenzie: 8:40

Before we get into what I've got you guys, if you struggle with some of this 1 on 1 stuff. We've got a few resources. We'll drop in the show notes. We've got one, guide for how to have your weekly sync meetings. So if you wanna check that out, that can be a great place to start with some of the basics of connecting first, hitting the right things, having the right conversations every week, and and just really protecting what matters most. So check that out in the show notes. We also have a guide for what we call the five unspoken conversations. And so this will, be a great way to again, look at all the key structures of your organization and really ask some questions around how we're managing it, how we're protecting what matters most. So check those things out, and. Yeah. So I wanna talk about one of my favorite people on the planet. I'm both scared of her and love her for who she is, scared of her because she is a powerful woman. And she is a. She says things with conviction in a way that, that I, I strive to do. But, she, so this is Leila Hormozi. If you don't know Leila Hormozi, she and her husband, Alex Hormozi are pretty well known in the sales and marketing space. But they've bought and sold several businesses and now they, they have a company called acquisition.com where they are, investing in and acquiring all kinds of businesses. And, running them based on what they've learned over the years of. Of running successful companies. So she has this awesome podcast build that I listen to all the time when I'm out walking and jogging. And, this one really stood out to me. And it's about every, Leila Hormozi quote that I could possibly share. He's the person who hears about this the most, but you haven't heard it from Leila So she's the CEO of acquisition.com. She's running this business and the context for this little clip that I wanna play you, she and, their company, they are in the hundreds of millions of dollar range at this point, and they're really moving from this it's like stage two to stage three. So they're moving from this very central founder led organization to having processes, having structure, having more maturity in how they run. So that they can continue to perform and can continue to pursue new opportunities. So she's confessionally describing this for herself 'cause she's been the center of gravity for this business and now they're moving into what she's calling a 3.0 stage, where they're really, she's really trying to create some maturity and structure around the business. So I'm gonna play this clip and then Benj, I have two questions for you around this.

Leila Hormozi "BUILD": 11:13

Oh, okay. 3.0 because we've had Version 1.0, we've had version 2.0, but now we're taking it to acquisition.com 3.0. And I said, I love that as a theme to talk to, and I actually really want to write that in the newsletter this week. And so after I was writing it, I was man, I think a lot more people need to hear this and we need to talk about it more because. The biggest thing that I realized when I was building my first business is I remember reading the stat that said that only 5% of people that are in year one of a company are gonna make it to year five when it's a fast growth company. And I remember reading that stat and being what? Holy crap. Does anyone know this? And rather than hold that knowledge to myself and be oh gosh, who's gonna be here? And by year five I was I'm gonna tell my whole company because I want them here. I love these people. They're amazing. But I also want them to know what we're up against, which is I also need to earn my right to be here by year five because I'm not evolving and I'm not changing how I operate and I'm not going to be able to see the company to success. And so if you're building a company right now, and maybe you're at the point where you got past initial product market fit, maybe you're past the point where you have one leadership team that you have two. Maybe you're past the point where you working harder is yielding any sort of result in your business. It doesn't really matter what phase you're at. I think it's really important that we all understand and message this to our teams.

McKenzie: 12:37

You wanna listen to the rest of the episode and now I'm just kidding. Okay. I have two questions based on what she said there. One, I wanna ask you what you think about this 5% idea. Like the idea that at any point as a business moves from one stage to another, there's a very small percentage of people who are you gonna be coming along for that journey. So that's my first question is what do you think of that? Do you agree with it? Why do you, if you do, why do you think that'd be true or not true? Then my second question for you is. What do you think about her talking to her team about this? So she said she had this knowledge. She heard this stat. It affected her in a way it solidified some thinking for her and then she went and had a meet let's, I'm assuming it's some kind of like. Meeting an all hands meeting where she's Hey, this is where we're headed. This is what it needs to look like. This is how we have to level up. I'm curious what you think about that leadership, and even if you do think it's a good idea, how could that be done? But let's start with the first question. We'll

Benj: 13:40

yeah. The stat is a little tricky because. Right now let's I don't know about internationally, but right now in the United States, the average employee tenure is only four years. So take out the fast growth piece and unless you have a phenomenal culture and upward mobility for people, the chances that you beat that five year timeline are small no matter what. So this is a case to invest in your culture.

McKenzie: 14:15

Yeah.

Benj: 14:15

The high growth creates upward mobility, which is one of the reasons that it's really important, but that stat does not surprise me at all. In fact, I think it's probably a little understated if you're in a high growth company. Yeah, I bet it's if, 5% make it Yeah, absolutely. Because, what you sign up for day one is not what's needed in. Year 3, 4, 5. And if you're not a continual improvement animal, then you're gonna be there, you're gonna show up, you're gonna do the nine to five and that's not what the company needs three years from now. Is that exact role?

McKenzie: 14:51

Yeah. Yeah. The, impetus to change is gonna be huge, whether it's high growth or. A more moderate acceleration of a company. It's gonna require some kind of bias to change bias to action, bias to leaning in rather than leaning out. From my perspective, just looking at our team, it's like I had the same reaction that she did thinking about where they started and where they're headed, and it's oh my gosh, if we're gonna get if we're gonna get to where we wanna go, we're all gonna have to level up. What does that look like? How do we, how do we, what are the 5% doing that? Get them to the next stage?

Benj: 15:31

Yeah. Yeah. And I've got a client right now who has had, a very great employee, great culture fit, great performer, and the company's now at a place where that role actually looks totally different. And it's not even like a Level Up, it's a totally different. And so that person who is. Zero demerits against them. Yeah. Is probably gonna get a new boss because, not because they're not doing their job, but there's a new job needed at a larger. Higher level, that just requires experience and it's not even something that you can level up. But I do think that one of the things that you see, Leila is obviously in this, but most founders are in this self-improvement game. They're in it personally. They're in it with their health and fitness. They're in it with their relationships. They're in it with their business. And that's probably the key differentiator I see between high performers and people that punch clocks is. People that wanna perform. So they're trying to get better. They're trying to figure out how they can use AI to enhance their work, to make, their work more fit, all these things. And then you've got the people that just, they're okay just doing their job. And those people are either gonna have to find a new job or be okay getting potentially their those are the people that AI is gonna take their job if they don't learn how to, adapt and grow and be what the company needs for them to be in the future, not what they needed in the past.

McKenzie: 17:02

Yeah,

Benj: 17:02

your second question is really interesting about asking do you talk about it with the team? I say absolutely. I think, giving people, telling people what it takes to win at your organization is super dignifying.

McKenzie: 17:14

Do you think there's, sorry, what? Really quick question to add to that. I, is there 'cause I would agree with you. I think it's phenomenal that she's Hey, let me go and reset the bar. But do you think, there's maybe a way that could be done that could create fear that is almost like ineffective or, create sideways energy in a business if that's not done super well? And then how would you do it?

Benj: 17:41

Absolutely. The first thing. It's really nuanced, the how would I do it, but I would have to take some time to think about it. But the first thing is to let them know I'm telling you because I want you here.

McKenzie: 17:53

Yeah.

Benj: 17:53

I'm not telling you because I want you to fail, or I'm about to pull some trigger on you. We ha everything's changed, especially right now. This is super relevant. She's talking about the evolution of her company from a size, but we're also in an, a market space right now where. There's so many shifts with technology happening. Energy, just everything's converging to where we, every company has to be different a year from now than we are right now. And people need to sign up for that. They can't be forced on 'em. So we're recruiting. It's more of a recruiting conversation. I want you to be here. I want you to bring your best and I need you to invest in yourself, not just need handheld to us, to tell you what you need to be better at. You need to look at your role, look at your skills, look at your weaknesses, and you need to make a plan. I'm glad to partner with you. Hey, let's talk about it. But you've gotta be the one. It can't be from me forced on you. It can't be organizational. It's like this is an individual. This is where the individuals show up to play the team game.

McKenzie: 18:59

Yeah, I think about just as we've, we've been in, we're all in the AI game right now of trying to figure out where's it going? Where can we use it in our business? Where can we use it to automate things? And that's everyone on our team. We literally spend time upskilling as a team, but we, but before we got to the point where it was a habit of ours to make that an expectation and work on it together, I had this realization this is the other side of what you're saying is as a leader, I realized I'm not dignifying my team if I don't tell them this is coming, this is required. We have to do this. If you don't do this, I'm not helping you in this job or any other job that you will ever have. And when that dawned on me, I can't sit on this. I will look back and feel like I didn't serve my team if I don't set the clear picture of the future for them so that they can move towards it in the right way.

Benj: 19:54

I'll give you a very tangible, what this looks like. So I tend to, I might have a information addiction, I don't know, but I tend to find lots of tools or tips or tricks, whatever. So I'm constantly sharing these with different teams. And a lot of times it's you share it and it's silence and I think to some people it's oh, I'd have to learn something new. I'd have to figure something new out. I'd have to tinker it. I'm just gave you a cheat code that if we figure this out, we unlock all this other stuff and it'll just be silence. And the other thing that happens is, i'll be the only one sharing, or there's two or three people sharing and there's 20 people not sharing. And I'm either not sharing or there's no, you're not learning anything new. And so you're maybe absorbing what I'm sharing with you, but you're not pulling in information, ideas, inspiration, that could help this business, help yourself, help each other. And so there's this information sharing game. you shared this podcast with me and it's rare you'd make me listen to a whole podcast episode, so it must be a good one, right? But little clips or tools or tricks and if you can create a sharing economy of these things, nothing makes me happier than when somebody on my team brings a new tool, or even better, brings a new tool and have already experimented with how we can use it and make us better. Or even taking something that I've shared and say, I'm gonna hunt this down and I'll bring you back whether we can use it or not. That makes me so happy.'cause a lot of times I don't know all the ins and outs at the lower level of their exact, job and. Whatever it is, technology or process or whatever. But in my mind, there's a connection here. It might be right, it might be wrong, but for somebody to go, man, I'm gonna take that and hunt it down. That's a good sign to me. And then people sharing, people commenting, on any of this, ideas, tips, tricks, quotes, any of it that, that creates the environment of Hey, we're all working to get better.

McKenzie: 21:54

Yeah it's like you've described two attributes of the 5%. It's the people who are, they're growth oriented. Like they're going to evolve and grow no matter what, because they wanna perform, they wanna improve. They have that, and like you said, it shows up everywhere in their life. So that when you talk to them about what they're trying to pursue, what they're reading, what they're listening to, conversations they have with their spouse or whatever it may be. They are, they have that kind of bias to growth and performance. And then you just described what I think is a curiosity. they have this attribute of pure curiosity. They're willing to explore, they're willing to consider new ways to do something. They can hold the way that something is done loosely enough that they could look into what you've, what you've described as a new tool or a new method, a new pathway.

Podcast: 22:50

Yeah.

McKenzie: 22:50

And so I think those two things. It's defined for me two attributes, of any teammate to consider as we are, for any stage of business at any season of business, but considering those people as we are trying to grow and who can come along for the ride.

Benj: 23:06

Yeah, so good. Nice little recap right there. We are going to focus on our one-to-one team meetings. Add in that relational time, make sure we're connecting and. Encourage our team to be working on self-improvement with a nice little nudge of, it's now a required. Skillset in any organization. So good job, fist Bump helps us put on this show. They're great partners, for us, editors, producers, get it all out, do all the things that we don't know how to do or don't wanna do, as well as coaching us along the way. So really appreciate them. If you're looking for somebody, reach out to them or reach out to us and we'll put you in touch. And until next week, we will see you back in the session room.

McKenzie: 23:52

Hey guys. Welcome back to Sessions with System and Soul. I'm Mackenzie. I'm here with Benj and we've got a special kind of episode. Today we're gonna share some hot takes. Hot takes are things that we've consumed week over week, podcast videos, books. We're all about the leadership content. We're all about the business books, and so we talk about these things all the time and we thought you would Benjefit from. Hearing some of what we are reading, what we're listening to, and maybe even forming a perspective on it for yourself. But we're showing up. I've got something to share with Benj. Benj is something to share with me. I have no idea what we're about to talk about, but we're gonna, we're gonna spend the next few minutes sharing some content and chatting through it. Benj. What in the world do you have for us today?

Benj: 24:42

I've got a hot take that, that you probably won't think as much of a hot take, but I think some people will. I've been fascinated by this book that's written about this guy named Bill Campbell. And Bill Campbell was The silent CEO whisper of the Silicon Valley, as the Silicon Valley was take becoming a thing. So the, he worked, with Marissa, at Yahoo. Steve Jobs, him and Steve were very, this was Steve Jobs coach, right? The co-founders of Google. And then, Eric Schmidt, the CEO, Bezos, the who's who? Jack Dorsey. Sheryl Sandberg, whoever you've heard of in Silicon Valley. Bill was the wizard behind the curtain. And so I'm reading this book about him 'cause he was very, he liked, he did not want to be famous. He didn't think anything of himself. He was just a great kind of coach and thinking partner. But, so I'm reading and then it got to his management philosophy, right? And this is where it starts. Okay. you could think about. What do you want to think about when we think about management philosophy and you're thinking about these companies out there, I'm thinking it's gonna go to something, or add vision or strategy, or recruiting alignment, whatever. Listen to this Bill had us pay close attention to running meetings. Get the one-on-one right. And get the staff meeting right. We are his top priorities and most important management principle. I was shocked to hear that. I wasn't shocked.'cause I feel like that's been great. Like we've been talking about that. If you can get, we've been saying your one-on-ones and your weekly sinks, but I understand why he's saying the staff, I think staff meeting, he's saying like an all staff.

McKenzie: 26:26

Yeah.

Benj: 26:26

But either way, And then what it goes into. And he starts talking about how he kicks off his staff meetings. And this staff meeting's, his team meeting, or his leadership team meetings, he would always have you start with, he doesn't call it this, but a personal check-in a highlight from last week. And sometimes they would be extended and if you went on a trip, you had to give a trip report back to the team.

McKenzie: 26:50

Bring the slide deck, bring your photos.

Benj: 26:53

Yeah sometimes. Or tell the stories, let us in on what you just experienced so that we can learn and have a little bit of that experience too. And he said that what, why that was so important. The, the trip reports and that time in that check-in was because everything that came after that was built on that relational foundation. It was built in that sharing. So you're sharing your family, your memories, what matters to you, what you experienced. And it wasn't all highs. It'd be highs and lows, but that relational time at the beginning of the meeting greased the wheels to do whatever business that they were there to do. And then he talked about the one-on-one meetings. And, I love that. I think my experience, what I see is companies that do great one-to-one meetings. Do everything else well. Companies that are struggling to do a lot of things don't even have one-to-one meetings, and maybe they have annual performance reviews or something like that. Something super sterile. We teach these, this idea of a quarterly healthy fit conversation and one-on-one meetings like that. I just, I was to see somebody that, of that stature, put it that boldly, get that right. Because if you get that you're getting the feedback, you're getting the accountability to start doing all of the other things. I'm curious, does that surprise you? Like as much as it did me?

McKenzie: 28:14

Yeah. In one way it's when you said it, I thought of course, because this is the world we live in. But I think if I didn't experience this in the way that we do it with teams with a weekly and. Our healthy fit conversations. I would be surprised by that.'cause you would think it'd be a bigger idea. But it reminds me of when you said that, it made me think of, oh my gosh, what's his name? John Wooden. He is a basketball coach and he used to, there's a, a famous story about have his players practice putting their socks and shoes on.

Benj: 28:46

Yes. Yep. Learning how to tie their shoes, right?

McKenzie: 28:48

Yeah. And it's if you put your, if you don't put your socks on right, then your socks are wrinkled in your shoe. You're, as you're running around the court, you're gonna get blisters. You're gonna get blisters, and then you're gonna have to sit out, practice, you're gonna sit out, practice, and then you're gonna sit out games. And he just had this very microscopic view of we, we have to do the little things right. In order to do the big things well. And that's what that reminds me of. But I think that's

Benj: 29:14

so astute because look at this.

McKenzie: 29:16

Is

Benj: 29:17

he's a football c he was a football coach for most of his career. And then just happened. I can't even remember how he got into the situation, but he was a football coach at heart.

McKenzie: 29:27

I think it's the principle of you gotta do the 1 on 1 to do the 2 0 1 to do the 3 0 1. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think it's hard to do. I will say what's fascinating, it's funny to me everyone who is watching, I've been trying to give Benj a hard time when we haven't been on camera, so I'm about to give you a hard time while we are on camera, but perfect. It's funny. It's funny to me that, that you say that you brought this up about meetings?'cause I think sometimes when we're meeting, because you are so visionary and you come in with you're ready, you are so ready sometimes to just get to the important conversation of what do we need to hit today? Or what ideas can you and I brainstorm and so sometimes we have to. And I think we both get in that mode where we're oh, we've got we've got a huge list. We've got we got big stuff. we've got either, we're either excited or we're we've got to deal with this issue. And so to stop and be how was your weekend? Where did you go? it's that's hard to do sometimes, especially when you've got a lot going on. I think we all have a lot going on, but

Benj: 30:30

So that's part of why I resonate so strongly with what we do is because I need systems to compensate for my innate behavior.

McKenzie: 30:40

Ah, wow.

Benj: 30:42

Like the structure, like if I, if you said, are the relationships important to you? Yes. If I show up and go straight into the let's solve this and this and this, and I have no idea what you're dealing with, that's a fail in my mind. But that's what my nature would probably do. Yeah. So that's why what we do is so important is because we put some of these structures in place so that we can show up the way we want to. Or the way that we're wired to and make sure we're prioritizing the things that we need to be prioritizing.

McKenzie: 31:15

That's, it's really profound to me that. That you're saying that because I think it's, so we're creating systems to protect the things that matter most. We're not just creating systems for the sake of systems.'cause I know that a hundred percent for you, you're avoid that like the plague. Like we don't need to just create structures for the sake of structures. We're creating structures for the things that matter. And I think that's what's profound about what you're saying and how you. Perceive this kind of thing. But also when we think about doing the and the basics, it's the 1 on 1 one, it's creating structures to the things that are gonna matter most. Not just everything. Anything we can think of.

Benj: 31:50

Yeah. When people think about us creating systems, they think about business performance. But we also create systems to protect the soul. Anyway, so Smart Guy did a lot of good, made a lot of impact preaching what we're preaching. Start with those 1 on 1 Your 1 on 1 are everything. It starts there. What do you got today, Mackenzie?

McKenzie: 32:12

Before we get into what I've got you guys, if you struggle with some of this 1 on 1 stuff. We've got a few resources. We'll drop in the show notes. We've got one, guide for how to have your weekly sync meetings. So if you wanna check that out, that can be a great place to start with some of the basics of connecting first, hitting the right things, having the right conversations every week, and just really protecting what matters most. So check that out in the show notes. We also have a guide for what we call the five unspoken conversations. And so this will, be a great way to again, look at all the key structures of your organization and really ask some questions around how we're managing it, how we're protecting what matters most. So check those things out, I wanna talk about one of my favorite people on the planet. I'm both scared of her and love her for who she is, scared of her because she is a powerful woman.. She says things with conviction in a way that, that , I strive to do. So this is Leila Hormozi. If you don't know Leila Hormozi, she and her husband, Alex Hormozi, are pretty well known in the sales and marketing space. But they've bought and sold several businesses and now , they have a company called acquisition.com where they are, investing in and acquiring all kinds of businesses. And, running them based on what they've learned over the years of. Of running successful companies. So she has this awesome podcast BUILD that I listen to all the time when I'm out walking and jogging. And, this one really stood out to me. Benj, it's about every, Leila Hormozi quote that I could possibly share. He's the person who hears about this the most, but you haven't heard it from Leila. So she's the CEO of acquisition.com. She's running this business and the context for this little clip that I wanna play you, she and, their company, they are in the hundreds of millions of dollar range at this point, and they're really moving from this it's like stage two to stage three. So they're moving from this very central founder led organization to having processes, having structure, having more maturity in how they run. So that they can continue to perform and can continue to pursue new opportunities. So she's confessionally describing this for herself 'cause she's been the center of gravity for this business and now they're moving into what she's calling a 3.0 stage, where they're really, she's really trying to create some maturity and structure around the business. So I'm gonna play this clip and then Benj, I have two questions for you around this.

Leila Hormozi "BUILD": 34:39

3.0 because we've had Version 1.0, we've had version 2.0, but now we're taking it to acquisition.com 3.0. And I said, I love that as a theme to talk to, and I actually really want to write that in the newsletter this week. And so after I was writing it, I was man, I think a lot more people need to hear this and we need to talk about it more because. The biggest thing that I realized when I was building my first business is I remember reading the stat that said that only 5% of people that are in year one of a company are gonna make it to year five when it's a fast growth company. And I remember reading that stat and being what? Holy crap. Does anyone know this? And rather than hold that knowledge to myself and be oh gosh, who's gonna be here? And by year five I was I'm gonna tell my whole company because I want them here. I love these people. They're amazing. But I also want them to know what we're up against, which is I also need to earn my right to be here by year five because I'm not evolving and I'm not changing how I operate and I'm not going to be able to see the company to success. And so if you're building a company right now, and maybe you're at the point where you got past initial product market fit, maybe you're past the point where you have one leadership team that you have two. Maybe you're past the point where you working harder is yielding any sort of result in your business. It doesn't really matter what phase you're at. I think it's really important that we all understand and message this to our teams.

McKenzie: 36:01

You wanna listen to the rest of the episode and now I'm just kidding. Okay. I have two questions based on what she said there. One, I wanna ask you what you think about this 5% idea. Like the idea that at any point as a business moves from one stage to another, there's a very small percentage of people who are you gonna be coming along for that journey. So that's my first question is what do you think of that? Do you agree with it? Why do you, if you do, why do you think that'd be true or not true? Then my second question for you is. What do you think about her talking to her team about this? So she said she had this knowledge. She heard this stat. It affected her in a way it solidified some thinking for her and then she went and had a meet let's, I'm assuming it's some kind of like. Meeting an all hands meeting where she's Hey, this is where we're headed. This is what it needs to look like. This is how we have to level up. I'm curious what you think about that leadership, and even if you do think it's a good idea, how could that be done? But let's start with the first question.

Benj: 37:04

Yeah. The stat is a little tricky because. Right now let's I don't know about internationally, but right now in the United States, the average employee tenure is only four years. So take out the fast growth piece and unless you have a phenomenal culture and upward mobility for people, the chances that you beat that five year timeline are small no matter what. So this is a case to invest in your culture. The high growth creates upward mobility, which is one of the reasons that it's really important, but that stat does not surprise me at all. In fact, I think it's probably a little understated if you're in a high growth company. I bet it's, if, 5% make it Yeah, absolutely. Because, what you sign up for day one is not what's needed in. Year 3, 4, 5. And if you're not a continual improvement animal, then you're gonna be there, you're gonna show up, you're gonna do the nine to five and that's not what the company needs three years from now. Is that exact role

McKenzie: 38:14

Yeah. The, impetus to change is gonna be huge, whether it's high growth a more moderate acceleration of a company. It's gonna require some kind of bias to change bias to action, bias to leaning in rather than leaning out. From my perspective, just looking at our team, it's I had the same reaction that she did thinking about where they started and where they're headed, and it's oh my gosh, if we're gonna get to where we wanna go, we're all gonna have to level up. What does that look like? How do we, , what is, what are the 5% doing that? Get them to the next stage?

Benj: 38:50

Yeah. And I've got a client right now who has had, a very great employee, great culture fit, great performer, and the company's now at a place where that role actually looks totally different. And it's not even a Level Up, it's like a totally different. And so that person who is. Zero demerits against them.. Is probably gonna get a new boss not because they're not doing their job, but there's a new job needed at a larger. Higher level, that just requires experience and it's not even something that you can level up. But I do think that one of the things that you see, Leila is obviously in this, but most founders are in this self-improvement game. They're in it personally. They're in it with their health and fitness. They're in it with their relationships. They're in it with their business. And that's probably the key differentiator I see between high performers and people that punch clocks is. People that wanna perform. So they're trying to get better. They're trying to figure out how they can use AI to enhance their work, to make, their work more fit, all these things. And then you've got the people that just, they're okay just doing their job. And those people are either gonna have to find a new job or be okay getting new bosses and new bosses and, potentially their those are the people that AI is gonna take their job if they don't learn how to, adapt and grow and be what the company needs for them to be in the future, not what they needed in the past. Your second question is really interesting about asking do you talk about it with the team? I say absolutely. I think, giving people, telling people what it takes to win at your organization is super dignifying.

McKenzie: 40:33

Really quick question to add to that.'Cause I would agree with you. I think it's phenomenal that she's Hey, let me go and reset the bar. But do you think, there's maybe a way that could be done that could create fear that is almost like ineffective or, create sideways energy in a business if that's not done super well? And then how would you do it?

Benj: 40:54

Absolutely. The first thing. It's really nuanced, the how would I do it, but I would have to take some time to think about it. But the first thing is to let them know I'm telling you because I want you here. I'm not telling you because I want you to fail, or I'm about to pull some trigger on you. Everything's changed, especially right now. This is super relevant. She's talking about the evolution of her company from a size, but we're also in a market space right now where. There's so many shifts with technology happening. Energy, just everything's converging to where , every company has to be different a year from now than we are right now. And people need to sign up for that. They can't be forced on 'em. So we're recruiting. It's more of a recruiting conversation. I want you to be here. I want you to bring your best and I need you to invest in yourself, not just need handheld to us, to tell you what you need to be better at. You need to look at your role, look at your skills, look at your weaknesses, and you need to make a plan. I'm glad to partner with you. Hey, let's talk about it. But you've gotta be the one. It can't be from me forced on you. It can't be organizational. It's this is an individual. This is where the individuals show up to play the team game.

McKenzie: 42:11

Yeah, I think about just as we've, we've been in, we're all in the AI game right now of trying to figure out where's it going? Where can we use it in our business? Where can we use it to automate things? And that's everyone on our team. We literally spend time upskilling as a team, but before we got to the point where it was a habit of ours to make that an expectation and work on it together, had this realization this is the other side of what you're saying is as a leader, I realized I'm not dignifying my team if I don't tell them this is coming, this is required. We have to do this. If you don't do this, I'm not helping you in this job or any other job that you will ever have. And when that dawned on me, I can't sit on this. I will look back and feel like I didn't serve my team if I don't set the clear picture of the future for them so that they can move towards it in the right way.

Benj: 43:05

I'll give you a very tangible, what this looks like. So I might have a information addiction, I don't know, but I tend to find lots of tools or tips or tricks, whatever. So I'm constantly sharing these with different teams. And a lot of times it's you share it and it's silence and I think to some people it's oh, I'd have to learn something new. I'd have to figure something new out. I'd have to tinker it. I'm like, I just gave you a cheat code that if we figure this out, we unlock all this other stuff and it'll just be silence. And the other thing that happens is, i'll be the only one sharing, or there's two or three people sharing and there's 20 people not sharing. And I'm like, you're either not sharing or there's no, you're not learning anything new. And so you're maybe absorbing what I'm sharing with you, but you're not pulling in information, ideas, inspiration, that could help this business, help yourself, help each other. And so there's this information sharing game. Like you shared this podcast with me and it's rare you'd make me listen to a whole podcast episode, so it must be a good one, right? But little clips or tools or tricks and if you can create a sharing economy of these things, nothing makes me happier than when somebody on my team brings a new tool, or even better, brings a new tool and have already experimented with how we can use it and make us better. Or even taking something that I've shared and say, I'm gonna hunt this down and I'll bring you back whether we can use it or not. That makes me so happy.'cause a lot of times I don't know all the ins and outs at the lower level of their exact, job and. Whatever it is, technology or process or whatever. But in my mind, there's a connection here. It might be right, it might be wrong, but for somebody to go, man, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take that and hunt it down. That's a good sign to me. And then people sharing, people commenting, on, on any of this, ideas, tips, tricks, quotes, any of it that, that creates the environment of Hey, we're all working to get better.

McKenzie: 45:06

Yeah it's like you've described two attributes of the 5%. It's the people who are, they're growth oriented. they're going to evolve and grow no matter what, because they wanna perform, they wanna improve. They have that, and like you said, it shows up everywhere in their life. So that when you talk to them about what they're trying to pursue, what they're reading, what they're listening to, conversations they have with their spouse or whatever it may be. They are, they have that kind of bias to growth and performance. And then you just described what I think is a curiosity. they have this attribute of pure curiosity. They're willing to explore, they're willing to consider new ways to do something. They can hold the way that something is done loosely enough that they could look into what you've, what you've described as a new tool or a new method, a new pathway. And so I think those two things. It's defined for me two, two attributes, of any teammate to consider as we are, for any stage of business at any season of business, but considering those people as we are trying to grow and who can come along for the ride.

Benj: 46:17

Yeah, so good. Nice little recap right there. We are going to focus on our one-to-one team meetings. Add in that relational time, make sure we're connecting and. Encourage our team to be working on self-improvement with a nice little nudge of, it's now a required. Skillset in any organization. So good job, Fist Bump helps us put on this show. They're great partners, for us, editors, producers, get it all out, do all the things that we don't know how to do or don't wanna do, as well as coaching us along the way. So really appreciate them. If you're looking for somebody, reach out to them or reach out to us and we'll put you in touch. And until next week, we will see you back in the session room.