New and Improved – New Name is Growth Think Tank
Growth Think Tank is the new name. Welcome to the podcast. For five years this show has been called, Leaders in the Trenches. The change to Growth Think Tank is to represent significant changes happening. Tune in to this episode to see what is different and what is the same. Growth Think Tank is here to help you grow your company and grow as a leader.
Don't miss an episode. Subscribe to Growth Think Tank.
Growth Think Tank: The Transcript
Share the LOVE and TWEET about this episode.
Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.
[00:00]
Let’s talk about the word growth. When you think about growing your company, do you think about the revenues? Do you think about profits? Maybe its profit margin, it’s, or maybe it’s having a new product that you have out there, new service or some fancy clients that will give you great logos so that you can build a foundation of the business for the new direction you’re going. Growth can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. I studied growth. I have more interviews with the fastest growing companies than anyone in the world and if anyone has more than me than I would relinquish that title to you. But I’ve talked to over 400 executives and leaders of the INC 5,000 these companies are the fastest growing privately held companies and I’ve been doing this for years, but I’ve decided to make some changes. If you’re listening to this episode right now and you know it as leaders in the trenches, then great.
[00:49]
If you’ve never listened before and you know it’s as a new name, GROWTH THINK TANK, then we’re happy to have you. But for all of those people that have been loyal listeners and subscribers, not much is changing, but yet everything is changing. I’m so excited. I can’t wipe the smile off my face. We’re going to be focused on how do you grow as a leader, how that impacts the growth of the company. How do you grow the people, how that really translates into the bottom line growth that you want so bad in the business. We’re going to talk about growth in new ways. We’re going to talk about leadership and culture. We’re going to dive deep into this. In fact, one of the things that’s changing that I want to let you know about is I am no longer going to be interviewing other authors, speakers, and really some of my friends out in the marketplace, and it kind of, I’m gonna miss that part of the business.
[01:38]
But what I’ve decided to focus on and really go back to the very beginning about leaders in the trenches, people that are on the front lines and growing their businesses, I’m going to focus on the people that are growing really fast in their companies. And so all of the interviews, everything I do going forward in this podcast is going to be focused on the Inc 500 so if you’re five oh one sorry I can’t interview anymore because I want to have some standards about who I’m bringing on board. Everyone goes through a pre-interview call with me and we have to find the right idea for the audience for you. And so when we go through this level of filtering and scrutiny to create great content, I’m doing it with you in mind. If you want to grow your company and you want to grow as a leader and you want to grow your people, this is the podcast.
[02:27]
So welcome to GROWTH THINK TANK. It’s something I’ve been working on behind the scenes for months now. I’m so excited to bring you today’s episode, but I’m even more excited to bring you all the amazing interviews I’ve had was with leaders of the fastest growing companies. I’ve had companies that are growing at, you know, 5000% over three year period, ten thousand fifty thousand percent it is an astronomical half fast. Some of these companies are growing. I’m about to come out of my shoes. I’m so excited to tell you about all of the goodness inside this new podcast. Well, if you’ve been here before, the leaders in the trenches, we’re going to have some of the same great interviews, but what I have decided is to give you a little bit of a different format. So we’re going to be bringing some new elements into those interviews and I’m going to be doing that with a different kind of style and different kind of production level, if you will.
[03:19]
I’m really excited about, you know, upping the notch here and playing at a higher level, but I’m also a little bit scared, but I know that means I’m going in the right direction. Why are we going to talk about growth is because I am fascinated, but you’re probably fascinated too about what does it take to grow? What specific strategies could you borrow from others or steal, if you will, so that you could actually put them inside your meetings, put them inside your one on one conversations or maybe it’s just a strategy to grow the business. I can tell you there are some common principles that I’ve outlined for you and I’m going to put it in a worksheet. That worksheet is going to go through the 12 core principles of fast growth companies. Now I’ve already done like 25 interviews in the last four weeks and so those are being ready right now to launch out to you over the next, you know, a period of time.
[04:09]
But I wanted to give you something specifically for you as a leader. If you want to grow fast, you can download this right now. Those worksheets go through those 12 principles of fast growth. Are you have to do is go to genehammett.com/Worksheet or if you go to the podcast growth, think tank.com you’ll be able to find it. I’m going to give you an example of one of the interviews that is coming up. And actually this is coming up the very next episode I talked to Ben Wright and he is the founder and CEO of velocity global number four on the list. They grew at some astronomical rate. I don’t have the percentage in front of me, but it’s like, yeah, 39000% over three years and you may think that’s impossible, but they went from a few hundred thousand that first year would he just had an idea and in three years they were at 49 million and they’ve continued that growth since then.
[04:59]
How do they do it? Well, one of the core principles is they only hire tens. So I talked to Ben about his hiring process and will, why is it that he only has hired at this highest level? And you could probably learn from this conversation. Hopefully, you’re excited about learning what that process is. I’m not going to give it away, but that’s one of the core principles in the worksheet. So if you want to get that worksheet, just go to genehammett.com/Worksheet. Now, this podcast is something that has been burning inside of me because I’m really excited to share with you what it takes to grow and I can tell you point blank. It’s not just the strategy, it’s not just about, you know, execute on A and B. A lot of the growth comes from how these leaders think and how they evolve over time.
[05:47]
So as we walk through this journey together with these leaders, we’re going to be looking at some of the defining moments of their leadership because that’s one of the things I do as a coach when I’m working with founders and their leadership team is to help them find that alignment so that they work together and all market marching the same direction and be all in toward that. But I also helped them through the defining moments as a company. We all have them. Some of them are small, some of them are big. As you know, if you follow my background, my defining moment is I lost everything. I had been building a business for nine years that I was really excited to do from the very beginning. I took it from zero to 5 million in about three years and that was phenomenal growth. It would’ve put me on the Inc 500 had I actually applied, but I didn’t apply.
[06:34]
I was too busy. I had too many problems. I had too many things going on that I was trying to escalate to the next level, but I look back at that period and realize that once I got to a place I got complacent, I got trapped by my success and that’s the reason I wrote a book called the trap of success. I’m not telling you to go buy the book, but inside the book, I share with you some of the things I can look back on because I lost everything nine and a half years ago. I say that with a smile now because it was one of the best things that ever happened to me in my life because it transformed me because that defining moment was very difficult. I’ve had a very tough time after losing my business, losing my savings, my income, my house, my level of confidence, but I really struggled to find humanity in myself and where I was going to fit in this world and since then I’ve rebuilt myself to really guide others and be that guide as a coach and I do that, you know, day in and day out with my clients and I create a podcast like this so I can share some of those stories with you and I can share the stories of others as well.
[07:39]
Now I’m going to be writing about these things in Inc magazine so you probably know that is right there, but that column is really something I enjoy doing. We’re doing six articles a month. We may increase that a little bit as we increased the volume of the podcast, but really excited to continue that as we push forward all about this podcast. Is really about how you can grow as a leader. How you evolve as you catch up to the pace of growth that the company has. You have to continue to evolve. One thing that leaders say to me over and over is you either evolve or you die. That doesn’t mean just your strategy and looking for the disruption. That means in how you think. You’ve got to evolve in the leadership that you bring to your team so that they are taking more responsibility of taking ownership.
[08:25]
They’re taking the ideas that are generated and they are executing on them in such a way that there’s full alignment and there’s buy-in. Now, there’s so much inside of that worksheet that really kind of highlights a lot of the conversations we had in the first 25 or so interviews. But I will be updating that over time. So no matter when you get that, we’ll keep that list growing and really, updating it. So just go to genehammett.com/worksheet. I am really excited to have this new podcast you called GROWTH THINK TANK. Hopefully, you’re excited to join me on this journey. Hopefully, you won’t leave me because you felt like I you like the old format better because sometimes change is necessary and I’ve been thinking about this for a while and now is the time. Now’s the time to step up and really record interviews with the best, most powerful leaders I can get access to.
[09:16]
And you may not have heard the names of the companies or even the names of the leaders, but they will be people that inspire you because they inspire me and I’m going to be pulling the story out of it to share with you weekend and week out. So I’m going to wrap this up with you with these words. You must continue to evolve as a leader if you want to have a fast-growing company. And that means you must work on yourself as hard as you work on the company. And I smile when I say this. I’m so excited that you’re along for the journey with me. So no longer is this leaders in the trenches. It is now GROWTH THINK TANK. So if you can think of anyone that wants to grow their business and become a modern leader of today, then make sure you refer them to this podcast because this is the one and only place to do this.
[10:04]
Now, as I wrap this up, I’m going to be mentioning I am going to be hosting some events throughout the year. These events will be in different locations, different kind of experiences that you won’t get anywhere else. It is only for leaders of fast-growing companies. If you think you apply, then make sure you reach out to me at GeneHammett.com If you are curious about what these things are, then make sure you reach out. I can share some information with you. We can even get on a call and get to know each other. But we’re gonna be doing these events, very intimate but very adventure-based and pushing your leadership to the next level. If that’s something that interests you, make sure you contact me. Again, lead with courage. And I’ll see in the next episode where Ben Wright shares his tips for hiring only tens. And that’s really exciting because we give you very specifically what you can do to hire the best people and keep them and keep that level of a standard so that your company grows, people feel aligned and people really work together. So we’ve gone on too long, but I’m just so excited. So I wrapped this up by saying thank you for being here and thank you for being a part of this audience, this tribe of growth minded leaders. And I’ll see us in.
Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.
Resources
A QUICK FAVOR
And lastly, please leave a rating and review for the Leaders in the Trenches on iTunes (or Stitcher) – it will help us in many ways, but it also inspires us to keep doing what we are doing here. Thank you in advance!
If you want more from us check out more interviews:
Transformational Leadership
Productivity Tips
Best Selling Author Interviews
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | https://www.youtube.com/user/leadersinthetrenches
