Lauren: You’re a high octane business owner. You got a team on paper. It looks like you’re rolling in success, but there’s a voice inside of you. Whisper screaming that isn’t sustainable, something feels, and I’m going to lose it.

Sound familiar. That’s where I come in.

my name is Lauren Goldstein and I’m the CEO at golden key partnership. I help top level executives like you avoid burning out and burning down as you’re scaling up. By harnessing your superpowers, finding and hiring your ideal team and then simplifying the heck out of your business operation. It’s my mission and the mission of this podcast to help you see operations in a whole new light to help you diagnose the real root cause of your company challenge.

And to bring your business back to a healthy flow and they call me the business doctor. 

welcome back. I’m Lauren here with Erin. We are about to wrap up this mini series for the business doctor podcast, and we are going to dive into the thing that we’ve been dancing around all episodes. Which is the CEO mindset. Mindset 

Erin: is huge, right? Like massive. You’re not going to hire the right people.

You’re going to look for unicorns. You’re going to chase revenue and not profit mindset, mindset, mindset, mindset, mindset. I mean, I feel like we’ve, this is a lot, we could probably do like a whole four episodes on just CEO mindset, but where do you start to see. Well, I guess from your perspective, let’s talk about the diagnosis.

The biz doctor is in the house when you’re face-to-face with a CEO, how do you know that? What they need is a mindset tweak more than anything. 

Lauren: Oh, I love this question. I love all your questions. Um, but this one specifically is I think the linchpin, because you can say you want a seven figure business, seven figure plus business, but.

It is all between your ears. And when I see, like, I would say the, the number one way, I see this presenting itself, the symptom in the business is when there’s a cognitive dissonance in action. So what I mean is the business owner says they want to grow past, you know, 2 million. Whatever the number is, but their actions are completely counter.

And most often, actually what I see is their actions are hurting the team because the teams on. board And this actually happens when you’ve got players because players run after the goal. Like that’s where they’re going, they’re on the field, they’re running and they’re like, get in or get out. And that’s great.

And it also will [00:03:30] expose when a CEO doesn’t have the right mindset. And I’ve, I’ve seen this with clients where. The business will grow and then it’ll shrink and then it’ll grow and it’ll shrink and they’re like, we can’t get past this level. And so then I go in there diagnosed, I’m like, is it operations?

Is it team? What is it? And if it’s the CEO, it’s because they know what they need to do, but they’re either afraid of letting go of control. Which is a big [00:04:00] one, or they’re not sure how to delegate or they’re not sure how to be a leader because I it’s scary. It’s scary when you’re like, you’ve created this baby, that’s yours.

And you’re like, okay, now I’m putting it in the hands of someone else. But if they screwed up, what if they don’t love it? Right. You know, what, if they drop it on its head and yes, those are all very real risks. However, when you have the right team, that’s doing it for the right reasons. Yeah. I didn’t see this in the, [00:04:30] in the previous episode.

But another thing that players do that worker bees don’t is they’re not in it for the money. So they actually save you money because they’re not doing it just for the paycheck. It’s not a time for money thing. Yes. They want to make good money and be paid for their value. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is there is a bigger reason why they’re doing it and it’s because they love their craft.

And so. If you are having that CEO mindset shift, where you’re struggling with like letting go and like not being the smartest person in the room and letting your ego keep you at a level that is hurting people. And I see this present itself as micromanagement. Like dragging your feet, procrastination. Um, sometimes like excuses and like, well, I didn’t do that because dah dah.

And so a lot of times that transition from operator to owner, from chief, everything officer to true CEO has to come from. Saying goodbye to your ego and having people that are smarter than you in the room, because that’s how businesses are built, because you don’t know everything. If you like, nobody knows everything.

That’s what unicorns don’t exist. You know what you’re good at. And you need to surround yourself with people that are really good at what they do so that they can elevate everyone. Yeah.

Erin: And I think what’s key to what you’re saying too, is like, you need to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are, and actually listen to what they’re saying.

Right? So what you and I were talking offline about this concept of a chief of staff and how they’re often a misunderstood role and that what you really need to do as a CEO, when you hire someone. And I’m saying the selfishly, because you have convinced me that I have made a good hire in my chief of staff.

For the very reason that you asked me this, you said, does she manage. She manages down. So she helps their client relations and she keeps, you know, our editors at the production company on task and all those things. But every once in a while, she calls me on my, you know, mind junk or when I’m getting off on a tangent or shiny objects.

And she calls me on that and it’s cause, but I make a point of listening to her when she does. I think that’s key, right? 

Lauren: Absolutely key. Absolutely. And that’s, that’s the beauty of having a high performing team is when you have those people that are operating at their best level, it requires everyone else to get to their best level.

It’s kind of, it’s kind of. Special forces. Like they, they have the bar so high, so the people who can’t cut it self-select out. And that’s the thing that I really work on in operations and team is setting the bar so high that. The people and operations that you’re working with. If it’s not up to standard, they either rise to the occasion and they’re like, I’m out.

And that’s why, you know, I recommend hiring slow and firing fast. And also as a CEO getting really, really clear on what you want because. If you don’t know what your want and you’re wobbly, then it’s gonna make the team wobbly. And you have a very high likelihood of losing really good people because you can’t get out of your own way.

And the beautiful thing about players versus worker bees worker bees will never say anything to rock the boat. It’s like, they’re more concerned about staying in the stable boat, whereas the player will say, listen, You told me to do this, I’m doing this, but you are. Bottle-necking the heck out of this process and frustrating me.

We need to figure out a way to move forward. And I operate in a win-win, you know, world. So what’s a win for the team. What’s a win for the CEO. What’s a win for the business. What’s a win for the customer. And if the CEO is. The bottleneck, like the bigger question sometimes becomes, can you be a CEO because not every business owner needs to be the CEO.

Sometimes you just need to do your craft and build the team around you that can build the business. 

Erin: Oh, have you ever been in a situation where that’s been the recommendation? Like where it’s just been like, listen, like you should be the chief sales officer or the. The chairman of the board, but not running the company.

How is that usually 

Lauren: received? It depends on the, it depends on the owner. It really, it really does. And I mean, sometimes honestly it’s like, maybe you just need to retire. Maybe you’ve done your time. Um, but like, it is the conversation because I think a lot of people, actually, this is one of my biggest pet peeves in larger organizations in corporate organizations, not with the organizations I work with because we don’t do this, but in larger  organizations that don’t know better, they promote based on time.

Instead of letting people opt into management or higher role, et cetera, and metrics. And so sometimes business owners think their natural progression is to CEO to that leadership role. And I, I see this with. Not everyone is cut out to be a leader just because you started your business does not mean you should be leading your business.

Like you have to like people, you have to be humble. You have to still be driven and committed, but there’s a lot of mundane things that are not always sexy that you’re going to be doing that if you really love what you’re doing and you’re succeeding at it in that area of your business. Sometimes it’s not a logical step for you to lead the business.

And so you need that co-founder co-CEO or somebody that’s going to be able to lead the business forward without creating this, this conflict or in congruency or auto neck that could happen. If you do step into that. For the 

Erin: last four episodes, we’ve been talking about the elements of business and, and these fun ways of thinking about your business, you know, in terms of their elemental value and also the analogy of elements.

But the one that I want you to talk about now is something that you just referred to, is this concept of the spirit of your business and the north star. The north star and the guiding principles. Tell us about that element because that’s the one that’s a little bit ineffable, right? It’s hard for us to capture.

It’s not, you know, wood or steel. How do we, how do we make sure we’re staying true to the spirit? The element of spirit in our business? 

Lauren: Yeah. So that the element of spirit is it’s like really, it comes down to. I know that sometimes saying like, why are you doing this is a big question. And so I almost think of it as again, if you could have it all your way, like, what is the impact that you’re having?

What is the way of being that you want to have in your business, in the world? And. And really being able to say, when all the elements are aligned, this is the outcome and difference that we’re making and where we’re going, because it comes down to like, we really want to have a bigger picture. Cause like you can, you can go to like work at Starbucks and make lattes all day, et cetera.

But at the end of the day, People want to be part of businesses that are making an impact. They want to be on teams that are making a big impact and that are having this bigger vision. And so as a leader, you want to be able to have that vision of how everything is coming together and,  and how. People aren’t just cogs, but it’s part of it.

It’s part of that bigger vision and making sure that you communicate that and also that you stay steadfast to that because if you don’t know where you’re going and you don’t know your why, then again, you start to create this resentment vibe of like, God, I’m just, I’m working so hard. You know, doing X or we’re not getting why.

And so by having this bigger connected energy, you’re able to say, okay, well, you know what, for the next 90 days, we do have to be in the trenches and we really have to, you know, do these things. But it’s because we have this bigger vision of impact of value of connection that the businesses going. 

Erin: So we’ve talked about your business as, you know, a body that we’re diagnosing.

We’ve talked about building endurance and looking at metrics other than revenue and staying committed. And we’ve, we’ve talked about hiring and not looking for unicorns and rather asking really good questions to help us identify who we really need to help fill the gaps and not hiring ourselves. And it all comes down to this conversation we’re having right now about the spirit of your business and the vision.

So we’ve been listening to your brilliance. Lauren, tell us now, because I know we need you in our lives. How do we work with you to start our diagnosis process? What’s our next step. If we’re ready to jump in we’ve we’ve identified that we have enough courage to say we need help. How can you help us? 

Lauren: Yes.

So because I am the business doctor, we start with a diagnostic deep dive. That’s our first step. It’s honestly, one of my very favorite things to do. The reason for that is it’s going to tell you so much about the current state of your business. Cause that’s the thing about getting where you want to  go.

You have to have a starting point and an end point. You can’t just say like, I want to get to Paris, but you could be in Kansas, you could be in the middle of the ocean. You’ve got to know where you are. So we’re going to figure out what those gaps are and people in process where, what the symptoms are pointing to is the underlying cause.

And then from that create, you know, Priority list a plan to really get you where you want to go. And I love this service because you honestly don’t have to come to it with anything except yourself. Like, yes, I would love for you to have like a little bit of data, but it’s not something where you have to prepare.

It’s something where a little bit like you do with me when we co-host, this is, I asked those really great questions to. Like pull that string and see where that string’s going. And just like those of you don’t know this, I was in the medical field before that is kind of where this started, but when we would do intake and asking those questions, like I’m asking [00:15:30] those questions to say, okay, well, this is the symptom that you’re seeing, but is that actually the true symptom?

What are the other symptoms? What is the underlying condition that we’re actually going to treat and then prevent from coming back? One of my clients, he’s so funny, he’s. Uh, I don’t even know so many different analogies of what we do, but one of them was he’s like, I feel like your MRI machines. So we come in and we see where the, the mass or the malignancy or whatever it is in our business is so that we can cut it out or treat it so that it doesn’t grow and metastasize.

And I think that’s very apropos of what the diagnostic deep dive is. 

Erin: Brilliant. And where can we find you? I know this is all in the intro and by the way, you can head to the show notes and you can, you know, there’s lots of different ways to find you, but tell us where you would like us to contact. 

Lauren: Yes. So the best place to contact me is on our website.

You can go to golden key partnership.com or if you want to just shoot us an email, you can reach us@helloatgoldenkeypartnership.com. I am a geriatric millennial, and even though we have a marketing team, It’s social media, not the best place to get me. Email is still the best place. 

Erin: Brilliant. Well, I have to say thank you for letting me take part in, you know, your first four podcast episodes.

I have learned so much about my business, just having you in my life and co-hosting this show with you. So I would like to just say, thank you. This has been amazing. You’re incredible and brilliant. And I can’t wait to see what happens with all of these businesses that you’re going to help diagnose, fix and grow.

Lauren: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, this has been a blast and I could talk about this for days, cause it’s, it’s so important. And I think, you know, when you have that really strong foundation in operations in team, like the sky really is the little. And it’s just, it’s so much more fun when you have the profitability and freedom in your business to not only do the big things, but heck take a vacation without worrying about if the business is going to burn down while you’re out of the office.

Lauren: Time for a checkup. The doctor will see you. Now, the business doctor is in the house to examine the elements of your business and make sure they’re all functioning properly. Let’s take 60 seconds to diagnose the who, what, when and how to tune up your business operations.

But how do we do that? The energy and element of how it’s mighty and it’s really where the rubber meets the road. How of your business is all about measurements? This is about perfecting the tiny details of everything that’s happening in your product or service delivery, your internal team, your external relations and the overall operations of your business.

When you work in your house. We’re refining and perfecting the way you build trust and flow every step of your process, they identify the eyes that you’ve dotting and the T’s the need crossing. And we consistently ask, how can this be done better and more effectively when we fixed our, how your business will scale and multiplied, even when you’re not.

so which part of your business needs, love and attention? You might be wondering that here are your next steps.

I did golden key partnership.com or the show notes below to schedule your diagnostic deep dive.

Lauren: Thanks for listening to the base doctor podcast. If you love the show, please share it with your colleagues or tag me on social media, especially LinkedIn and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast.