Scale Faster with a Fractional COO: Operations Strategy with Bryan Baker

Description: Is your company ready to scale, or are you unknowingly the bottleneck holding it back? In this episode of Vision Pros Live, Bryan Baker, MBA, Fractional COO at Executives Now and 20-year startup operations veteran, shares why what got you to $1M won't get you to $20M, how founders unintentionally burn out their best people, and what it really means to build systems that let your company grow without you. If you're a founder, CEO, or entrepreneur ready to stop being the hero of every process, this episode is for you. Connect with Bryan Baker: 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-noble-baker/ 🌐 Company: Executives Now Vision Pros Live Resources: 🔥 Automate leads with AI 24/7: https://ai.firstclassbusiness.io/ 🎙️ Be a guest on VPL: https://visionproslive.com/ Timestamps: 0:00 - Welcome and intro: who is Bryan Baker? 1:00 - His vision: helping companies execute and scale as a fractional COO 2:30 - What got you to $2M won't get you to $20M, the founder bottleneck problem 4:00 - Why good people leave: founders burning out their teams 5:00 - Fractional COO vs. consultant: what's the real difference? 6:30 - KPIs for everyone: why only leaders seeing the scoreboard kills teams 7:00 - The basketball analogy: players need to know the score too 9:00 - Leadership's two responsibilities: clarity and removing obstacles 10:30 - Why founders get a "sick thrill" from being needed, and how to break it 11:00 - Bryan's why: 20 years in startups, every pitfall seen 12:00 - Work to live, not live to work: family and Utah outdoors 13:00 - Closing thoughts and how to connect with Bryan #FractionalCOO #VisionProsLive #BryanBaker #StartupGrowth #OperationsStrategy #ScalingBusiness #ExecutivesNow #BusinessSystems #Entrepreneurship

• 0:00Speaker 00

  All right. Welcome into Vision Pros Live with Jackson Callum. I'm your show host. We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building fantastic visions out there.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  Well, welcome. I'm not Jackson. I'm Sue and I'm sitting in for Jackson today. I'm excited to introduce to you Brian Baker. We just got acquainted. He's got some pretty cool things going on. Brian, I don't want to steal the show there, but with your intro, tell us a little bit about your family, where you are, all that.

• 0:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, very excited. Yeah, I got five kids, married 22 years. I was just saying that my two youngest are doing an elementary school play. And so that's, you know, fun weekend planned of seeing the play a few times. So very, very fun things happening right now.

• 0:54Speaker 01

  That's great. I hope they provide popcorn. You're going to need it with that many shows.

• 0:59Speaker 00

  Yes, for sure.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  Well, let's dive right in. I'm super curious. I know you're with executives now. Please tell us about your vision for your business.

• 1:08Speaker 00

  Yeah. So for me, I've been in executive operations for nearly 20 years. And every time I've done, I would say, you know, a year or two, I mean, so my first step, I spent about 11 years at one company. And that was, it was fantastic. And then I kind of moved in the next few, next few companies, it was like a couple of years, couple of years. And I would kind of look up after about, you know, a year or 18 months ago, I kind of fixed everything. Now what? Right? And I was, I love the people. I love the accountability and building teams. And I don't want to discount how much I love leadership and working with people and helping them improve.

• 1:49Speaker 00

  But I, but at my core, I'm a fixer. And so for me, my vision is to turn that high level strategy, execution, the, the stuff that I would love to be able to do all the time for the little companies. But I ended up only being able to do that about 20% of the time with a little company because. With the little company, you have to do a lot of the other stuff, right? There's, there's so many other little things that are going on. And so for me, my vision is just, is really very simple. I want to be able to help these companies be able to execute and to scale. And for me to be able to use what I do really well, I really am good at helping companies scale and scale quickly.

• 2:32Speaker 00

  And so I want to be able to help as many companies prepare themselves to be able to be ready to scale. When that time comes, whether the rocket ship's already in the air or it's about to take off. I want to be able to help as many of those companies as possible. And as a fractional, I can do that. If I'm working for one company at a time, that I really am not going to be able to, you know, check that box. So for me, it's just getting those companies ready to be able to scale and to scale well.

• 2:54Speaker 01

  That's cool. I love that analogy of the rocket ship. Like I'm picturing you as being the guy giving the final, you know, you're about to take off, folks. Let me just do a final run through. Make sure, oop, this is loose. We need to fix this immediately.

• 3:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:10Speaker 01

  That's incredible. Like you can, you know, first help them go faster, but also help them not blow up on their way.

• 3:17Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 3:18Speaker 01

  That's.

• 3:19Speaker 00

  We don't need challengers going on, so.

• 3:21Speaker 01

  Right, right. Yeah. Induce a whole new level of trauma, but that's, that's incredible. Well, let me ask you this. Where did your vision come from for this?

• 3:30Speaker 00

  Yeah. So I think I may have touched on just a little bit and the fact that, um, you know, it, it just was one of those situations where I just had to step back a little bit and realize that when I'm working with one company at a time,

• 3:46Speaker 00

  it's not really utilizing what I'm best at. And, um, and I had to kind of be reflective, um, and realize there's, there's a lot that goes on in helping a company build their processes and, and really set them up for success because, um, and I, and I'll, and I think everyone's heard this before, but what got you to a million or $2 million is not only not going to get you to 20 million, it's actually going to hold you back from getting to 20 million. And what's holding you back is the fact that many times the founders are the bottleneck. And they don't realize it, right? It's it's kind of, you have to kind of do an intervention like you would with an alcoholic, right? You have to, you have to help them realize they have a problem.

• 4:29Speaker 00

  And it's not that they don't have good people. I hear a lot of like founders saying, well, I just, I can't keep good, good people. Well, it's because you're burning your people out because they don't have the same vision you do and they don't want to work 70 hours a week like you do. And the reality is I, I can help them to overcome that challenge, give them their life back. Allow them to get back to the golf course occasionally and be able to have a life, right? But more importantly, building those systems is what's really going to help the system, is going to help the company grow. And so I had to sit back and realize, okay, if I continue to work for one company at a time, I, I can't help that one company and I can help do so exquisitely well. But if I help multiple companies be able to do that, that's going to be more fulfilling for me.

• 5:13Speaker 00

  And so that's why I was like, I've got to, I've got, I got to shift and go in that direction.

• 5:17Speaker 01

  I, I can see that. Um, I've got a follow-up question then. I, you know, sometimes when people are,

• 5:25Speaker 01

  like, are you consulting? Is it more like consulting? Are you more like coaching these executives and founders? What does that look like? Cause sometimes you in the org chart for a while.

• 5:35Speaker 00

  Great, great question. Um, because the, the reality is there are a lot of great integrators out there and, and, and some of them I know personally, and they do a great job and they, they don't do this. And I don't, I don't want to, I don't want to disparage all like integrators out there. But I, I don't just build a process and then say, good luck, right? Um, I, I want to make sure I, I want to roll up my sleeves, you know, get in the trenches, whatever metaphor you want to use. Um, and actually make sure that those accountability mechanisms are installed. And so, and that they're running well. So I go as far as to say, okay, I help the managers, directors, whatever your org chart looks like. And, um,

• 6:16Speaker 00

  And either coach them or actually help them by by making sure everybody who touches that process knows what their responsibility is, who they report to, when, super high clarity. I don't want there to be any ambiguity about what their responsibilities are. And then by doing that, I can then create great KPI dashboards. I can't tell you how many companies I've walked into where the only person looks at looks at the the KPIs are is leadership. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, stop right now. That's the first thing we have to fix is everybody who touches a process needs to know what they're, you know, how they contribute and what they're looking like on the scoreboard.

• 6:58Speaker 00

  Imagine a basketball game where the players don't know the score, only the coaches do. Right? Imagine how much demotivating that is for the team to never know what, you know, what score it is, you know, did I, you know, what's my score, what, you know, that kind of thing? And how am I contributing? So to bring it back, basically, I get, I make sure that that I am a full part of the team. Now, if there is a technical COO, I'm I'll be a consultant, you know, technically, but I really like to get in the trenches, make sure that they actually work. If I have to get in the field, I I'm happy to do that because I want to make sure everything's working and working well and that the scoreboard reflects that. And so when when people are looking at the KPIs, they're like, yeah, I'm proud of that because I helped contribute to that.

• 7:42Speaker 00

  And I'm now moving the needle and I can tell that I'm moving the needle as an individual contributor, as a supervisor, as a team lead, as a manager. Everybody gets more involved and more bought in when they know how they're able to contribute. So, yeah, I I'm not just consulting or coaching. There are a lot of great consultants and coaches, and I'm not disparaging that.

• 8:00Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 8:01Speaker 00

  But way beyond that.

• 8:02Speaker 01

  Okay. And then there are also guys who will come in and they're, you know, fractional, but it's more like fractured, right? Like, they're not, they're kind of loosely overseeing a bunch of different stuff and no, no power, no authority, no, you know, no real buy in on it.

• 8:16Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah. Think of me as a part time COO, you know, fractional, like you said, it can't have some negative connotations, but but the idea is essentially, yeah, just consider me a part time COO instead of your full time COO.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:32Speaker 00

  And I'm as much a part of the team, I'm going to be going to meetings and being involved just as if I were the full time.

• 8:38Speaker 01

  I love what you're saying with the KPIs and that it sounds like SOPs, you know, standard operating procedure, that that's a huge part of it. Cause I had a mentor who said, you know, if there's any ambiguity about who owns a task, if more than one person thinks they own that task, nobody owns the task.

• 8:56Speaker 00

  Nobody owns it. Yep.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. Do you run into that a lot where there's just kind of this?

• 9:01Speaker 00

  Yes. Yeah. Way too often. It's like, hey, can you guys take care of that? And it's like, okay, well, yeah, good luck with that. You know, a week from now, you're going to be looking at it going, why?

• 9:12Speaker 00

  Well, yeah, because nobody had, no, I mean, you're, obviously you're going to have some people who would take a little initiative and, and maybe they will, but, but those, those are the exceptions to the rule. You have to have, everyone has to have clarity. I say that, that the management, leadership has two responsibilities and that is you've got to provide clarity. You've got to make sure they know exactly what they're supposed to do and when, and there be no questions of that. The second part is to remove obstacles to the path of success. It's not about bossing people around and, and being the hero and, and being the one that everyone depends on for every little process. That's the problem that a lot of CEOs have is they get this like, almost like a sick thrill from everything depending on them.

• 9:53Speaker 00

  And, and it maybe it's a little bit of ego. We got to kind of check that ego a little bit, but it, it also helps them to like step back and say, no, no, no. My job as leadership, as C-suite is to remove obstacles to the path of their success and to make sure it's super clear what they're supposed to do. And then let people just go do it, you know, give them the freedom to do it. And then you hold them accountable the right way. When everybody knows what they're supposed to do, it's not a trip to the principal's office. They're actually excited to come and to share what they did that week, you know? So, yeah.

• 10:24Speaker 01

  I love your analogies. That's so good. I could tell, you know, parents of five.

• 10:30Speaker 00

  The principal's office, not once in my entire life because I saw my brother get in trouble with my mom one time for something and I was like, oh, I'm about to deal with that. I actually don't know what it's like, but.

• 10:40Speaker 01

  That's great. Well, you know, what do they say? It's, it's a brilliant, a very smart person who learns from their mistakes. It's a brilliant person who learns from others' mistakes.

• 10:49Speaker 00

  Very young, I learned that. I saw my brother get reamed and I'm like, uh-uh, not me.

• 10:54Speaker 01

  Danger. Well, let me ask you this then. What's your why driving you all this? You've had this long, successful career in corporate. You're, you know?

• 11:04Speaker 01

  You could probably be doing a bunch of other things.

• 11:06Speaker 00

  Yeah. So, so for me, obviously, like I, I, I live, some people like they live to work. I work to live, right? I, I, I play hard. I work hard. I, you know, I really enjoy the outdoors. That's why I moved back to Utah. You know, it's beautiful here. I love to hike. I love to get out in nature. I really love being with my family. I have a wonderful wife and children. And, you know, I'm very blessed in that respect. And so I, I work hard for them. But really, you know, on the professional side, my why is I, I, so many companies go through the pitfalls. I mean, I've literally spent almost 20 years exclusively in startups.

• 11:47Speaker 00

  And so I have seen, I, I, I think it's fair to say I've seen every pitfall a startup can possibly go through. And so whether it's a pre-revenue company all the way up to a 40 million late, late-stage startup, I've seen it all. And so I just want to help some of these founders just not deal with some of those things, right? Just let me deal with some of the lessons that I've learned. Take it off your plate. You could focus on scaling the company and growing and, and, you know, getting funding and getting the sales team, you know, because I don't do sales, right? I'm just operations. And so that, that's really for me is what it is. I, I just want to make sure that, you know, it's, it's kind of like you want to help your kids, you know, essentially avoid some of the dumb mistakes you made as a teenager, you know?

• 12:32Speaker 00

  I just want to help some of these CEOs not have to learn some of the lessons that I learned the hard way.

• 12:37Speaker 01

  That's awesome. I once heard somebody refer to coaching entrepreneurs, you know, the, the types of folks that you're working with as trying to herd lobotomized kittens.

• 12:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, it can be. It can be for sure.

• 12:54Speaker 01

  That's, that's incredible. I do hope you'll come back. This is going to be a fantastic series of interviews with you. There's so much, you know, we, we have, you hear from all different stages of founders and boy, they, they need that wisdom. And if they're wise enough to take the advice before they. Yeah, threw themselves off a cliff into a pit. That's the best way to do it.

• 13:21Speaker 00

  Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'm happy to come back. I, you know, it's funny because some people say like, hey, you're giving all your secrets away. I'm like, no, I'm not. No, I'm not. No, the reality is it's like, it's like we talked about earlier. It's the execution that is the key, right? So I could tell you all the principles all day long, but unless you know how to execute it's.

• 13:38Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 13:39Speaker 00

  I'm happy to come back, talk about these things. It's going to be great.

• 13:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. And it's so funny because, you know, a lot of time I've, as a ghostwriter for 20 years, I'm always like, you should have a book, you know, about your process and your stories and analogies, this type of thing. And people have been hesitant sometimes like, well, if I write it in a book, I don't, nobody's going to hire me.

• 14:01Speaker 00

  No, that's why I don't hire you.

• 14:02Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly. So, well, thank you. I appreciate you, you know, sharing your secrets. So, but I think this is going to be really valuable for people. Wonderful.

• 14:13Speaker 02

  Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.