In this short monologue episode of Above the Business, host Bradley Hamner introduces the concept of “clear outcomes” as a simple yet powerful habit that acts as a “small hinge” capable of swinging big doors in business. He explains that before any meeting, call, or interaction, he asks participants to articulate what a successful result looks like for them. He walks through how he applies this practice across a variety of contexts – weekly partner syncs, one‑on‑one coaching sessions, team meetings at Blueprint OS, Zoom calls, speaking engagements, retreats, mastermind groups, and even brief Voxer/WhatsApp messages. Hamner describes concrete tactics such as allocating 60‑90 seconds for participants to write down their desired outcomes, using a timer, and framing the question (“What is a clear outcome for you on this call?”). He shares anecdotal evidence that this habit improves focus, alignment, and decision‑making, and it has become a foundational element of the broader “Performance Culture” framework he plans to detail in a future podcast (which will cover three components at four levels). The episode closes with a call to listeners to adopt clear outcomes for their own meetings, quarterly goals, and the 2024 business year, reinforcing the idea that a tiny habit can unlock major growth.
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What if you could step out of the day-to-day and see your business from a whole new perspective? Welcome to Above the Business, where we empower you to rise above the daily grind and embrace a higher way of business ownership. It's time to build your business by design. Hey everyone, so have you ever heard this quip, small hinge swings big doors? I've heard it in reference to business and a lot of things, but sometimes I'm like, what does that actually mean? Where do I— how do I actually apply that? Well, On today's short episode, I'm going to give you a specific thing that we have been doing over the last maybe 4 months or so that I can see us doing for a really long time to come. And it has truly been a small hinge that has swung some big doors, and it is called clear outcomes. Let's get into it. Now, at some point I'm going to do a podcast called A Performance Culture, and a performance culture is really made up of 3 things at 4 levels, but that's not what I'm going to talk about. This is kind of somewhat of a teaser, but the very first thing that I'm going to talk about, one of the first of the 3, is called clear outcomes. And the context is in the projects at an individual level and especially in all of your meetings. And this is where this has really been a game changer for me personally, and it's been a game changer for our entire business is to start all of the meetings. And this is even before wins, because I've started all of the meetings that I've had pretty much, um, for the last several years with, okay, what are the wins that we had from the past week, um, etc. So I've always started with wins and progress, and then we get into kind of the nature. Even my one-to-one coaching sessions, I will start with wins. Now I start with, what is a clear outcome for you? Before we get into it, of course, after we exchange some level of pleasantries, we'll get into it and I'll say, okay, what is a clear outcome of this call? So many of you know Mike and I are partners with Above the Business. And so even in our weekly syncs that we have, the very first thing that I say after we, again, you know, we're friends and we'll talk about, you know, just different things about the weekend, etc. But then once we get into and transition into business, after a few minutes, I'll say, what is a clear outcome for you on this call? And it may just be, he'll say, you know, I just need to have some updates on where we are with this, that, and the other. And I'll say, okay, great, I've got a handful of list of things that I want to make sure we talk about. And then we get into it. Same thing with our team at Blueprint OS. We'll start with what is a clear outcome. And sometimes, especially since a lot of the calls that we have are on pretty much all the calls that we have on Zoom, um, is I'll, um, uh, put maybe 90 seconds on the clock and allow people to actually write down, okay, what do I really want to get out of this call? When this call's over, what do we really hope to accomplish? This has also happened with a speaking engagement, and I sent a text message and said, what does success look like in that speaking engagement? In other words, in order for me to hit the bullseye of what it is that you're looking for, what are the clear outcomes comes for you. This also can be really helpful even in Voxer messages. If I'm sending to someone, I will say, hey, the clear outcome of me sending this Voxer message to you is to talk about this. And then I'll get into actually being able to talk about it. I know it seems small and subtle, but it really is truly a small hinge that has swung big doors. At events that we're having, I'm hosting a retreat for some of our Blueprint members coming up and we're going to Scottsdale. I'm really excited about— and our jam sessions. I will think about what's the clear outcome of this meeting. I'll think about what is the clear outcome of the entire Beat the Odds retreat itself? What is it I want people to be able to walk away with when they jump back on that flight, flying back home to their businesses and to their families? What's that clear outcome? And so even before I jump on calls, I was even in one of the coaching programs. I'm a part of. Yeah, could I— was I just going to jump on that call? Yeah, sure, I could have, and that's what I normally would do before. I will think about what is the clear outcome for me even jumping on this call. What do I really hope to try to get out of this? I was just on a mastermind, uh, earlier today at the time I'm recording this, and for— I mean, it was no more than 60 seconds. I thought, what do I actually hope to get out of this hour call? What is it that I feel like I'm stuck in in the business? And you know, what's question I would ask. That pausing for just a moment, and a lot of times it's 60 seconds to 2 or 3 minutes. Yes, it's helpful if I can give myself 10 or 15 minutes to talk, but let's be real, and a lot of times we don't have even that much time. So I cannot recommend enough that before you go into a meeting, or whenever, before you start the meeting, and then when you do start the meeting, whoever is participating in that, to be able to ask everyone to say What's a clear outcome for you? What do you hope to be able to accomplish? So I'm in another group, kind of a WhatsApp mastermind type group, basically. And in one of the exchanges, somebody said, hey, I'd like to connect with you. There's an opportunity for us to be able to partner. And so I booked in. She sent me her link. And so we've got a call in a couple of days. And so I sent her a WhatsApp message and said, what's a clear outcome for you? What does success look like for our 15-minute call? On Thursday? And she came back and said, you know, that's actually a really good question. Let me think about that. And she said, what success look like for you? And I said, well, it sounds like there could be some alignment within our companies and the potential for us to be able to partner on possibly some events and would love to see if there's a way for, for me to be able to serve your community, if there's a community to be served, and possibly find ways to integrate you in what you do with, with our community and see if there's a potential alignment there and there may not be. And so just that makes me to think, why, why am I actually doing the call? Is it just to network? And sometimes that's good, but having a clear outcome versus just kind of going through the motions has been huge. And again, clear outcomes is part one of the three things that make up a performance culture. I know I'm being intentionally vague here on like, hey, what are the other two? But I really want to put together for all of you in a very specific podcast that I'll call Performance Culture and walk you through what all the other things are. I think it would be incredibly helpful to you, and, uh, I'll share that with you here pretty soon. All right, everyone, hope that served you clear outcomes. So if you jumped on a call with me, uh, I would actually then ask you, hey, what's a clear outcome for you? What are you looking for? And by the way, even, uh, clear outcomes is really good for you to think about. What is a clear outcome for your business this quarter? What's a clear outcome for your business in 2024? What's a clear outcome for your business? What are you hoping to achieve? What does success specifically look like? All right. Small hinge swings a big door. Until next episode, lead well.
