Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Do Good Work is not a label but a way of living.
It is the constant and diligent effort to achieve a new level of excellence in one’s own life.
It is the hidden inner beauty behind the struggle to achieve excellence.
It is not perfect but imperfect.
It is the effort, discipline and focus that often goes unnoticed.
The goal of this podcast is to highlight that drive.
The guests I have on this show emulate this drive in their own special way. You’ll be able to apply new ideas into your own life by learning from them.
We will also have 1on1 episodes with me where we’ll dive into my own experiences with entrepreneurship and leadership.
Every episode is designed to provide you with ideas that you can apply and grow in excellence in all areas of your life, business and career.
Do Good Work,
Raul
INTRO
PODCAST
Hey, welcome back to the pod.
Today I'm joined by Jim Schleckser.
He's the founder and CEO of The
CEO Project, a renowned executive
coaching company specializing
in high-revenue entrepreneurs.
Jim offers the distinctive CEO coaching
program that combines peer group
discussion with personalized one-on-one
coaching sessions led by former CEOs.
He's also a longtime Inc.com
columnist and author and podcast host.
On the episode, we dive into how
to actually find your company's
constraint, identifying where speed
drops, any time cycle times build up,
or if you have customer complaints.
We also dive into his Five Hats framework
on the behaviors that you as the CEO
can take to not only identify but fix
the constraints, and also his take on
how culture and values are actually
part of your operating system, not just
in your people section in the company.
We also dive into Jim's read on AI,
and I find this incredibly valuable
because he's able to distill between
what's hype and the smoke and the fog
in the room because he's talking to
thousands of business owners, thousands
of CEOs themselves, and identifying
specifically where AI adds value and
where it is might just be a hype cycle.
And we're keeping it grounded, and
we're keeping it real now let's dive in
Raul: one of the things that struck
me is, I mean, you focus a lot o-
on the, the lazy CEO, and people
would think that's just delegation.
But I-- in my opinion, when you're
in that seat of what do I delegate?
What do I have to own myself?
And we'll talk about
abdication and delegation.
The key issue is the constraint before
I actually take action in delegating.
Where have you seen founders or
CEOs attack the wrong constraint,
and how do they identify that?
Jim: So, I mean, the first-- And
I've talked to thousands of CEOs,
which is sort of where the book came
from, and the first question is,
what is your point of constraint?
And I'm gonna say half decent CEOs, but
they don't know their point of constraint.
They don't know what's stopping
Raul: Hmm.
Jim: from getting where they'd like to be.
And then the second, if they know
it, how much time do you spend on
the point of constraint personally?
And many times the answer
is, "Well, not that much."
So people that are spending, you
know, 30% of their time at the
point of constraint, we're talking
12 hours a week, 15 hours a week.
It's not a ton of time.
They are actually probably
in the top quartile of CEO
performance because of that.
So
Raul: Really?
Jim: your point of constraint and
then actually applying time to it on a
regular basis makes you an extremely high
performer, and yet it's incredibly simple.
A lot of people don't do it.
And, and the beauty of it is, I
know that the most valuable thingâ¦
I'll give-- The example
I use is a garden hose.
If there's a
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: the garden hose, I could do
work anywhere on that hose and
not get the result I want, which
is water going through the hose.
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: is to find the kink and open it up.
Well, the same is true
in the business, right?
It's more complicated, but your job as
a CEO is find the kink and open it up.
So that's, that's the
gist of "The Lazy CEO."
And it turns out that since you now
know that everything else is lower value
work, can delegate, defer, don't do, and
get rid of it and shrink your hours to
something rational, you know, 55, 50, 60.
Not, not going to 20, but we shouldn't
be at 80 or 90 consistently either
Raul: Hmm.
One of the ways that I've done that
is just seeing in organizations is
I look at the KPI report all the
way from send front-end sales to
onboarding to upsell, cross-sell,
then to back and delivery, NPS score.
Like the-- Try to look at the full cycle.
That's just how the easy
way for for me to do it.
How do you suggest CEOs do it?
Is it similar to that, or is
there a more nuanced take?
Jim: way to think about it.
In manufacturing operations, when you're
looking for the point of constraint,
like amongst all the equipment you have,
look for where inventory accumulates.
So if there's a
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: in front of a particular machine,
odds are that's your point of constraint.
more of a, a services organization, you
wanna look for cycle time, speed, right?
So when things are getting kinda
stuck in one or two of your processes,
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: it's customer acquisition or it's
quoting or it's delivery or post-sale
service, whatever it is, if there's this
congestion and this slowness in that area,
probably you got a point of constraint.
I'd say another way to look at it is
where you're getting customer complaints.
So there's
Raul: å¯ã
Jim: wrong in your processes when your
customers are not getting their needs met,
and that can be a-- that over time can
become a very serious constraint as well.
But speed, congestion, customer sat,
those would be three things that
help point you to where it might sit
Raul: Helps it, helps it identify.
You might have come across
this more than once.
Where have you seen when
the CEO is the constraint?
What do you do then?
Jim: Yeah.
It's tough when the CEO is the
point of constraint, and thereâ¦
I've actually been writing a series
on sort of CEO traps, ways that
CEOs become the point of constraint.
and it's particularly tough when
you're the founder and you're
growing the business you get to a
size where you really need to change
your behavior as a CEO to run a
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: and more complex organization,
and they struggle to do so.
I'll give you an example.
I'll give you two examples.
One is I'm the decider.
I, I make all the decisions.
Everybody comes to me, and
they check in with me, and
that, then we make a decision.
Well, example I, I talk about
is, like, think about those
old switchboard operators.
They're usually women
in the day, but theyâ¦
Somebody call in, they go, "Mr.
Smith," and they plug it
in, the- connected to Mr.
Smith, then Mr.
Jones, and whatever.
Well, let's say that that woman
can handle phone calls an hour.
what happens when we
get 200, 300, 500, 800?
the CEO's
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: all the decisions, he's
that telephone switchboard
Raul: Yeah
Jim: trying to handle 800 connecting
pho- and it can't be done, and
so they become the point of
constraint 'cause decisions stop.
They g- like, to my point,
it gets constipated right
at that place, speed drops.
So there's a classic example.
A- another maybe one that, and
this is particularly for founders
when they get stuck in a role.
So all of us are great at
something: marketing, sales,
finance, engineering, whatever.
And really good at, and they
get ego gratification from it.
Like, I go home at night knowing I did a
great job 'cause I landed a sale, right?
And that was my whole life
up to the point I became CEO.
Well, and I'm gonna tell you,
the best job in the world to
sell out of is the CEO job.
You hand over that card, and
you're like, it's magic when
you're selling, I, I gotta say.
But the problem is, you're being the
salesperson, who's being the CEO?
The
Raul: Hmm.
Jim: nobody.
Nobody, and so you end up con- you
shrink your CEO time so small 'cause
you're spending time in a role, you
basically, you got a leaderless company.
So that is another classic trap,
and they've gotta say, "Iâ¦"
It's really hard, 'cause you
go, "I'm not gonna get my ego
gratification from selling anymore.
I'm gonna get it from being
a great CEO and growing the
business and growing my people."
It's, it's a veryâ¦
And some people can make that
mind shift change, and some
Raul: Yeah.
Jim: can't do it,
Raul: Well, these are both identity shifts
Jim: Huge.
Yeah, yeah.
And, but if, if you don't make the
shift, then the company stops growing.
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: of constraint
Raul: and I've seen, I've seen that.
It, it does sometimes end at the top.
I've seen that in, in several cases.
When, when we talk about the activities
that we can do, so we're looking at speed,
congestion and then customer satisfaction
is that where the five hats come in?
Like with now the actions, the
activities, and behaviors that
we can change to influence that
change, how do the five hats play a
role, and how do we leverage that?
Jim: So, the five hats are architect,
coach, engineer learner, and player.
Two of the hats are used to
find the kink, and three of the
hats are used to fix the kink.
This is bonus material.
It's not in the book.
so the two that are used to find the point
of constraint are learner or analyst,
where I'm analyzing data and spreadsheets
and looking at KPIs to your point, right?
That's an analyst model to try
to find the point of constraint.
The other way you can do it, and, and this
is for maybe more extroverted or kind of
twitchy leaders, to drop in as a player.
And
Raul: Hmm.
Jim: like way back when, Jack
Welch used to go on sales calls
'cause he grew up in sales,
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: He wanted the sale, but
that wasn't why he was going.
What he was thinking is,
we have the right offer?
Are we priced correctly?
Is this the right target customer?
Do I have the right team on this job?
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: to make it go faster?"
He's thinking all the sort of meta
of, "Is this a point of constraint
that I could bust open potentially?"
That's why he went on sales calls.
Raul: Interesting
Jim: is if you had a call center and you
went in the call center and you worked
there for four hours as a CEO, you'd come
out with five pages of ideas on how to
make it better, faster, cheaper, no doubt,
by going into player mode.
So dive in and do is one way to figure
it out, or just an, an analyst or, or
learner, like KPIs and spreadsheets and,
maybe a combination of the two sometimes.
So that's finding the con- the point of
constraint, finding the kink in the hose.
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: solution lies in only, really
only one of three areas the, the
design of the business, which is
Raul: Yeah
Jim: So I've architected the business.
This is how much recurring
revenue do I have?
What's my margin?
What's my pricing?
Who am I going after as a target?
What's my offer to them?
Am I fulfilling that offer?
All the design things.
And I tell people you, you probably
can't spend too much time on this
because a really well-designed business
is just way easier to run than a
Raul: Hmm.
Jim: business.
So think about just picking
on recurring revenue.
Raul: Yeah
Jim: got 80-- I got 90%
recurring revenue year over year.
I show up on January 1st,
I did 10 million last year.
I've got nine million in the box if I
just don't screw it up, but I justâ¦
Raul: Yeah.
Jim: I gotta go
Raul: Consistency
Jim: to continue growing, right?
Take another business, a, a contractor.
I did 10 million last year.
All my c- all my projects are complete.
I, I need to go find and
deliver $10 million just to
get back to even to last year.
That's just a way
Raul: Yeah
Jim: to run.
So that's design, right?
The next one is coach.
This is talent.
So the
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: the people, the quality
of the leadership, the quality
of your board, your advisors.
When you talk about CEO getting stuck, you
know, that sort of sits in this category.
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: there you've gotta
say, "Can I coach him up?
Do I need to shift the job?
Do I need to bring somebody else in?"
Those are the questions
you're asking around talent.
then finally, it's engineering,
which is processes and systems.
So there's a couple elements here.
There's the, the soft- software,
if you will, which is SOPs.
what we do when this happens.
Here'sâ¦
And these are all for
very defined situations.
then there's the which is all
of the technology that wraps
around the problem and the
Raul: To make it happen.
Jim: incl- including AI, including
email, including all that.
then the third, funny enough, people
don't think about it, but and mission
are really actually part of your system
that you use to run your business.
Raul: Oh, not just the culture
Jim: Well, culture is
derivative of, of values.
I mean, values should
Raul: Yeah
Jim: They, they kind of work together.
But
Raul: It's brilliant that you're
putting it under the system, 'cause
I agree with you from, from empirical
ex- like actual real life experience
Jim: Mm-hmm.
And, and why?
Because when, when we-- It's a defined
situation that we thought about, the
SOP should cover it or the IT should
cover it, 'cause we've thought about it.
What do we
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: we haven't reallyâ¦
It's new.
We've never thought of it.
We've never seen this scenario before.
How do we decide?
culture, values.
So it's for all the gray zone
stuff, you need values that tell
people how to make that decision.
You know, maybe that's
customer's always right or
Raul: Cool.
Yeah
Jim: no matter what, like
never give anything away.
I mean, depends on the
culture of the company.
You've been in company.
You've probably seen
companies like that, right?
We'll
Raul: Yeah
Jim: never gonna lose a penny, right?
Okay.
So those are the three.
And usually when you find a point of
constraint, many times it's either, it's
either the proc- process or the people.
So it's either the engineer hat
or the coach hat is generally
where you end up solving it.
Redesigning the business at the
architect level is kind of a
bigger chunk to move, if you will.
Raul: It's a huge shift, yeah
Jim: so those are forâ¦
Like, something's really
messed up if we gotta change
our fundamental business model
Raul: It's a few case studies.
I mean, have you been following
or seeing like Allbirds turn into
a data center company, like the
shoe company now into a dataâ¦
Like, I know that those are
some crazy architecture.
Like, so have you
analyzed things like that?
Or have you seen Midjourney
Jim: I, I
Raul: now doing like a health company?
Jim: but think about it just,
just on recurring revenue.
We went from a retail occasional
purchase, great, and there were
lots of them, so that's helpful.
But now we're in a model, Long- which
has got a long-term play based on
mar- and great market dynamics, like
availability versus number of buyers.
There's constrained data
availability, constrained
Raul: In real estate?
Jim: real estate.
Raul: Yeah
Jim: if they've got that, that's
an incredible asset that they
can leverage and improve the
quality of their business model.
And it's-- hadn't heard they'd
done that, but it's brilliant.
It's o- and I gotta say, gutsy as heck to
Raul: Yeah.
Jim: a move like that, right?
How do you go to your
Raul: Oh, man
Jim: "Ladies and gentlemen, we're
not gonna be doing shoes anymore"?
Like, whoa.
So yeah,
Raul: That's brilliant.
How do you do you normally see-- You said
architecture, like you mentioned it's one
of the most important to focus, but you
really can't be changing the ship like
every, like every quarter, every year.
Like how do you, how do youâ¦
What are the hats that are always
on for the CEO, and how do you
balance your time within those hats,
specifically the architecture as well?
'Cause you mentioned you can't
spend too much time on that.
Jim: I think you can tweak it,
but wholesale changes like the
one you described are few and
far between because they're just
Raul: Yeah, those are huge pivots.
Jim: whole change management thing,
and you're gonna upset everybody's
apple cart and, or move their cheese,
whatever way you want to describe it.
But w- we had a, we had
a client that did this.
He had sort of two
elements to his business.
He was selling into the
pharmaceutical space.
He did really high-end meeting
management, and they were
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: at this.
They had this idea of clairvoyant service.
Like, we figure out you need it
before you even know you need it.
And you
Raul: Oh, that's cool
Jim: "Oh man, we were
out late last night."
And they go, "Would you like
electrolytes and some aspirin?"
And they had them ready to go because
they knew everybody was going out
the night before, and they were
ready for it the next morning at the
meeting for, like, ideas like that.
And the other side, they did sort of
marketing consulting, helping people
launch new brands and so forth.
we analyzed it and, and he had
started in the travel management
business, this event business.
had turned that over to procurement,
and they took all the profit out of it.
They didn't value the sort of
extra special capability he had.
Okay.
He didn't value the extra special
capability he had, and they compressed
his price, so he's making no money side.
He was making all his money
in the consulting side.
Raul: Wow
Jim: he said, "You know what?
I'm shutting it down."
Hundreds of people in that side
of the business, and he said,
Raul: Wow
Jim: no longer in this business.
We're gone."
The client came back to him and said,
"Hey, hey, hey, we got this really
important, you know, client meeting.
We want you to run it," and da, da, da.
And they go, "Yeah, no."
do you mean no?"
He's like, "You wouldn't make us,
like, any, make any money on this.
We told you we were gonna exit if
you wouldn't let us make money.
We're exited.
Please find somebody else."
They, I
Raul: Dang
Jim: their brains leaked
out of their ears, you know?
They didn't know what to do with that one.
and come back, you know, five
years later, and he's got a
great m- marketing and strategic
consulting business making plenty
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: way less people, way better
business, lots of recurrence.
I mean, and that was,
that was a big shift.
Smaller shifts are
Raul: Power focus.
Okay
Jim: yeah, are like change your pricing.
Increase pricing 10% because
you don't have enough
Raul: Yeah.
Mm-hmm
Jim: or shift to a subscription-based
purchasing model for your, your services
instead of a one-time purchase, right?
Raul: Or go up the vertical
Jim: relatively minor changes
Raul: No, I like that.
It's good to see that 'cause I see a lot
of the, the clients that I work with,
we, we focus on architecture before we
focus on anything else 'cause there's some
issues that need to change beforehand.
They're minor, but again, those
minor, like, little impactful,
Jim: They did,
Raul: make the biggest impact really.
Yep.
So you put AI under engineering, correct?
Jim: Under systems.
Yeah
Raul: Excuse me, systems.
So with the systems from, and correct
me if I'm wrong, from what I've seen
online and from your podcast, right now
you're seeing AI as augmentation for
human work, like a, like the invoices,
the hundreds like repetitive human work.
Is that correct?
Jim: Those have been the most successful
business use cases that we've been seeing.
There are
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: other places it's being used, but not
fully taken humans out of the loop in most
Raul: No.
Jim: not quite yet.
So
Raul: Yeah
Jim: you need to put some eyes
on it or prompt it correctly or
design the workflows correctly.
So it makes humans capable of doing
two, three, five, 10 times more output.
Over
Raul: Yeah, it's an amplifier
Jim: toâ¦
It'll, it'll lead to some less
people per dollar of revenue.
But in the short term, it hasn't done
that dramatically because there's notâ¦
I mean, people think of s- I- every
technology goes through a hype cycle,
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: internet, it's
gonna change the planet.
Everybody's gonna bi- blockchain.
Oh my God, it's gonna, everything's
gonna be on the blockchain.
You know, it's gonnaâ¦
not so much.
NFTs, everything's gonna be NFTs.
We know
Raul: Okay, I remember that.
Jim: Yeah, exactly.
You- I've got some what is it?
What was it?
Gorilla Yacht Club NFTs
Raul: Oh, you still got you,
Jim: I'm
Raul: you collect them
Jim: go, I didn't go for that.
But, but but yeah, like Gary Vee
was all in on it, and I mean, it was
a whole thing, and yet is it now?
So I think AI's in a hype cycle at
the moment, and people are like, "It's
change the planet."
Yes, it will.
Not as much as you think it will,
like right now at the second.
And so that's why I talk
about business use cases.
I'm like, I'm all in on AI, but it's a
technology looking for a problem to solve.
We gotta find
Raul: Sometime, yep
Jim: we gotta find the quality problems
it can solve from a business point of
view that have good payback and they
make sense, and then deploy it there.
And that's where, the
areas I tend to talk about
Raul: Yeah, that's actually one of
the major motivators of why we got
connected, 'cause you're, you're got
your perspective and you're seeing
actually between the haze, and there's
a lot of different narratives in
the market 'cause they gotta IPO.
They gotta, they gotta, they
gotta sell to shareholders.
They gotta make theâ¦
They gotta make their own cheese.
Wh- have you seenâ¦
One of the th- the use cases, I, I
always tie back AI to a business case, so
something that it's going to execute or
help do, and it has to prove its own ROI.
It's not just an experiment, like
you said, looking for a problem.
Obviously, there's bigger infrastructure
to make it, to harness the, the machine.
Have you seen, and this is, this is
more interesting to me as well as,
like, your honest take, have you seen
companies create net new value, where
it's new value that they couldn't
do otherwise, but augmented with AI?
Obviously, it's not left by itself
'cause you still need humans in the loop.
But h- are you seeing that trend or
companies trying to attempt to create
net new, either in offerings or internal
operations or internal software?
Jim: To date, there's been very
little new, new that I've seen.
It's been a capability
we didn't have before.
So I'll give you a couple of examples,
like, quote and configurator processes,
that AI's great for that, and I can
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: shrink my human involvement.
I had an- another client that worked
with HVAC systems, and they would get
the prints of the building and count all
the smokes, the stacks, and the openings,
and based on that, build the quote.
Well, AI does that just great.
You don't need humans anymore for that.
Raul: Yeah
Jim: And, and that's kind of a new
capability, but not a new offering
with AI inside it, that there's less
Raul: Got it
Jim: I think, than Iâ¦
There's less of that around.
They're really taking existing processes
and improving them mostly, mostly
Raul: Yeah, I, I, I believe that as well.
And I think l-listening to
your thesis around the business
is already a good business.
You don't have to change, like you
mentioned, if I'm doing 10 million last
year and it's recurring nine million this
year, I have to find net new one million.
Like, if the business is a good
business, you don't have to dramatically
change the ship 'cause you have to
re-architecting at some point, correct?
Jim: Yeah, right.
And, you know, what's the from to?
You gotta be really clear about
what am I trying to get to
that I can't get any other way.
And AI, AI will probably do some things
that we can't do ourselves, but the, the
places I'm seeing real innovation is in,
and, and I'm not directly involved in the
space, but like drug development 'causeâ¦
And, and chemical development
because AI has the
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: of analyzing molecules and genetic
sequences way better than humans can.
But that's still hu- human augmentation.
I mean, okay, would it have taken
us 50 years to figure it out?
It figured it out in five days, awesome.
But it's not a new, it's not a new new,
it's a better version of an existing
Raul: Yeah.
The only perspective that I can add
is the client who's doing this with
with, with their clients is building
internal software, making it work for the
company, then going to market with that
new offer as, as an internal software.
But these are, again, same,
same fractional size, like 20,
20 to $50 million companies
Jim: Yeah, but, but okay,
but it's the same thing.
I could have hired a bunch of coders,
built that software, and went and sold it.
The fact that I used AI to build
the code is just human augmentation.
I just, I don't need
as many coders anymore.
Raul: No, I like the grounding to it
Jim: Yeah, who are really struggling
with this are professional services
firms that build by the hour, where
Raul: Oh, this is the, it's
changing pricing dramatically
Jim: I, I don'tâ¦
If I was a lawyer, I
don't know what I'd do.
You go look at y- it, it used to take,
you know, 25 hours to do that contract,
and now it takes me 25 minutes.
What do I charge my client for that?
I can't charge them 1,000
bucks an hour anymore.
I, but I can't live on Like, what do I do?
It's, they have a giant
problem on their hands,
Raul: Yeah, I actually, yeah, I
actually wrote about that, like,
that there's four new ways to price.
And even McKinsey and Bain, like just
last-- or actually it was yesterday,
it came out like customers are ch-
asking them to change how they bill.
Like 25% of their work
now is outcome-based.
So how do you change that?
That's gonna fundamentally
change the model
Jim: Yep
Raul: So if we're in the hype cycle
Jim: Yeah, yeah.
Jim's opinion.
I
Raul: And,
Jim: I, I think so
Raul: I think it's good to
have these, these perspective.
I had a guy who ran a
data center on the pod.
It's the only eco-friendly, job
profitable, nice data center in the US.
So he, he's also agreeing that there
is a hype to it, and it's good to have
your perspective because you're s-
you're cutting through the, essentially
the fog that everyone's in right now.
What are the best businesses to
build or to continue to build that
you're seeing today, five years
from now, that you're bullish on?
Jim: Well, the, the retro
answer is anything that abso-
requires human hands-on.
So diesel mechanic, electrician,
doctor, nurse, really good.
'Cause massage therapist, at
least for the moment, until
the robots get better, right?
I mean,
Raul: I don't know if
they've even worn aâ¦
Jim: you
Raul: You never know
Jim: you never know, right?
What if they were really good at
it and it was cheap, you know?
So anything with physical involvement
has got a relatively longer on
it, and we- we're now seeingâ¦
I mean, there was an article in
the journal a few we- weeks back
about kids that are foregoing
college, going to trade school.
So the old vo-tech that we used to
say, "Oh, those are for the dumb
kids that can't go to college.
They go become a plumber."
The smart kids are now going to
become plumbers, like, 'cause
that's gonna be around in 10 years.
So that's for sure one.
I think first mover advantage where you
really can, in any industry, where you
a- embrace AI and drop your operational
costs and increase your operational
efficiency before anybody else does.
You get that
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: mover advantage.
Allows you to gain some
interesting market share.
So I, I could apply it to any
business where there is leverage
due to AI if you go first.
and you can accumulate enough
of a position that you're pretty
safe for a while at least.
So that first mover or hands-on would
be my two it's the old joke, right?
Two guys are walking through the
woods and a bear comes out of the,
the woods, and one guy s- drops
down, pulls his sneakers out of his
backpack, and starts lacing them up.
And his buddy goes, "Hey, man, you're
not gonna be able to outrun the bear."
He goes, "I don't have to outrun the bear.
I just gotta outrun you."
Same thing's true for first mover.
Like,
Raul: Yeah
Jim: faster, you win.
So I think there's scope forâ¦
And we're seeing some companies
believing that, but still not quite
sure what to do to embrace it.
So I
Raul: Interesting
Jim: of trying to be an early mover
is sort of permeating at, at second.
But people are like, "Okay, I get it.
do I
Raul: do I do a
Jim: Theâ¦
And that's where they're struggling.
Yeah.
Raul: Is, is that a new
constraint or is that a, likeâ¦
It doesn't sound like it's a constraint.
It sounds like it's a new,
taking a new opportunity, right?
Jim: Well, interesting, and I talk
about n- this in the book, that
constraints and opportunities are
the same side of, of one coin.
So if I'm, I'm growing reasonably
well, but I've got this massive
opportunity in front of me, ability
to access it can be a constraint.
So yeah, opportunities can be constraints.
If I don't have the ability to go
after it, I see it, it's there, it's
real, and I can't get after it, then
there's a c- I gotta go fix something
in the business to get after it.
So it, it
Raul: That's brilliant
Jim: yeah
Raul: What's been the one interesting
thing that surprised you in the
last six months with, like, all
the CEOs that you're working with?
Like, either an insight
or just human behavior.
Like, what's, what's
actually surprised you?
Jim: I don't get
surprised by much anymore.
Well, I'll tell you what, I have, I've
had at least a couple of clients and,
and people I know, smart people, that
are like, "This is the end of the world.
The AI is controlling the information
feeds to politicians, therefore
controlling our government.
This is the beginning of
the end of everything."
I'm like, it is such doomsday talk.
I'm like,
Raul: Mm-hmm.
Jim: of AI.
I'm like, I don't think so.
But they're convinced that this
is, this is the beginning of the
end of the universe, basically.
AI's gonna take over everything.
Everybodyâ¦
They're gonna control your information
flows, my information flows.
They're gonna know everything about us.
You know, it's like entering
the Matrix effectively, right?
They'll give us exactly what we want,
and we'll be happy, and they're gonna
run everything until we're perceived
as a threat, which is, like I said,
there's been 10 movies about that.
But they're buying
Raul: It's not a non-zero chance, but
Jim: Uh, yeah,
Raul: but it's not, I'm not
saying it's a big chance, man, but
Jim: Yeah, I'm just surprised
that such intelligent people
are convinced, like convinced.
They didn't do what you did.
"Eh, there's a .0001%
probability that's the outcome," right?
No, they're like,
Raul: Yeah.
Jim: the outcome, 100%."
I'm like,
Raul: Oh, dang
Jim: Yeah, which is surprising to me that,
first of all, how can you be so certain?
And what's your data set that
says that's what's happening?
And that's been surprising and
disturbing, 'cause these are people
I, like, I respect their opinions.
And I'm like, wow, you, you
Raul: It's bleeding over.
Yeah, beliefs and blah, blah.
Oh, that's wild.
How are you keeping, like, if I, if I read
correctly, you've climbed Kilimanjaro.
You're also, like, a level two sommelier.
Like, for fun or is that like you
also tell CEOs, "Hey, you gotta do
something exciting, something different,
big challenge outside physical."
Is that a part of the role or
is that just personality trait?
Jim: well, I would say
that good CEOs are curious.
They're
Raul: Mm.
Jim: endlessly curious.
They wanna know, they wanna understand.
They generally have an intellectual
hobby of some sort where they've
gotta be thoughtful and learn things.
And like, if you work with your
brain, you just don't turn it off.
So y- it's gonna keep going.
I tell peop- Like, I stop thinking?
Like, when I'm asleep, and even
then not so much sometimes.
Raul: still dreaming.
Jim: at, at 2:00 in the morning,
I wake up and like, "Hmm."
So I, tellâ¦
I joke for me, and I'm maybe an extreme
example of this, but tell people my
gravestone's gonna say, "Easily bored."
So I
Raul: Dang
Jim: go from one thing
to the next to the next.
I love to learn.
I love to learn new stuff.
It's
Raul: No, I love it.
Jim, for our listeners out there,
where's the best place for people
to one, thank you for being on,
and also learn more about you?
Jim: Yeah, you can find me
on LinkedIn, Jim Schleckser.
I'm the only one out there.
Or you can go to theceoproject.com
and learn about what we
do with CEO peer groups
Raul: And on, I'll put those
links in the show notes.
Jim, thanks again for being on
Jim: Thanks, Raul.
Appreciate it.
Thank you for listening to the podcast.
If you'd like to get more of
these podcasts, please go ahead
and subscribe to wherever you're
watching or listening to the pod.
If you have any suggestions or questions
that you want me to answer on the
pod, or you have a guest that you want
me to interview, please go ahead and
email me all of your suggestions and
questions at podcast at do good work.
io that's podcast at do good work.
io.
If you'd like to give me public
feedback, you can go on Apple
Podcasts, and from there, you
can leave up to a 5 star review.
I would greatly appreciate that.
If you'd like more free resources where
you can get my best strategies to help you
increase your company's performance and
scale profitably, where you can get hand
picked articles to propel your growth, and
you can get trainings and discussions that
I give freely online, as well as low cost
resources, Such as my books and guides.
You can get all of that
by going to dogoodwork.
io forward slash resources 90 percent
of all these resources are not behind
any email opt ins you can get instant
access by going to dogoodwork.
io forward slash resources Now, if
you'd like to accelerate your progress
and shorten the gap between information
and action and start seeing results
in your business, let's work together
to increase your company's performance
and scale profitably and serve
more clients without the overwhelm.
You can request a free clarity call
to see how we can best support you to
reach your goals by going to DoGoodWork.
io forward slash apply.
Again, that's DoGoodWork.
io forward slash apply.
As always, it's an honor to be
a small part in your journey.
This is Raul Hernandez.
Do good work.