Why Operational Excellence Drives Business Success with Brandon Carter

Welcome to the B2B Growth Blueprint podcast, where we talk with entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders at B2B services, tech, and SaaS companies to learn the systems and processes they've used to create success for their business. We'll also learn from marketing and sales experts to provide insights to help you grow your business. I'm your host, Mark Osborne, and the podcast is brought to you by Modern Revenue strategies and their 10x ROI B2B growth guarantee. Schedule a free diagnostic call to learn the fastest path to double your B2B revenues in just 90 days. Hello and welcome to another episode of the B2B Growth Blueprint Podcast. I'm your host, Mark Osborne, and today I'm very excited to welcome my guest, Brandon Carter. Now I'm going to read Brandon's bio to make sure I get this All right. He's the owner and CEO of Backbone Solutions. He's a visionary leader and expert EOS, or Entrepreneurial Operating System, integrator. We're going to talk a little bit about his role there. He's dedicated to helping businesses achieve operational excellence, team alignment, and scalable growth. As the CEO of Backbone Solutions, Brandon specializes in bridging the gap between strategy and execution. Ensuring that companies stay focused on their goals while building a foundation for long-term success. He's renowned for his leadership and accountability coaching. He excels in fostering high-performing teams, driving collaboration, and creating the systems that deliver measurable outcomes. His ability to develop clear processes and implement frameworks empowers organizations to overcome challenges, prioritize effectively, and align their teams for seamless operations. So through his expertise in the visionary-integrator relationship, Brandon helps leaders focus on their strengths while ensuring accountability at every level of the organization. His passion for driving impact and empowering teams has made him a key force in helping organizations transform their operations, achieve alignment, and turn ambitious visions into reality. So Brandon, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Mark. I appreciate the introduction.

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm really excited to continue the dialogue that you and I have been having, but why don't you give our audience a little bit of a background? How did you get to where you are today and sort of the genesis of Backbone Solutions?

Yeah, I've been an operator for a very long time. I was with UPS for 24 years. That's one of the companies that I had worked with. And then after that, I went into other forms of logistics management and realizing that most problems resolve around people and processes, and we, we can identify what those are. by asking the right questions and continue to ask questions until we get to the root cause. From there, putting together a plan inside of processes. And again, it's, it's, it can be very simple that there's a people or process issue or a little bit of both. But what I determined was there was a, there was a high-level need in the entrepreneurial world for, for an in-depth analysis and help with processes and people. Many times a founder will be able to create a business, have a great vision, a great idea. They can create a product that is, is much, much needed. They just, they struggle getting the traction that they need across the line. They'll get people on their team. The team is not cohesive. They struggle with the right people, and mostly because they can't give them a good process to follow. So I can help with those things. When I, when I created Backbone Solution, it was kind of a side Passion of, I think there's a need for help, but I was, you know, I still had a, a job that I was doing. And as that grew into more of a need, and I grew it better, I'm able to help people on a, on a bigger scale real easy. So some of the things that we do too is, is accountability coaching.

Mm-hmm.

So a, a person, you know, it'll be a goal session where we're really setting up what does a person want to try to get accomplished? And then I track them as a manager would, as someone that's on their team. to hit the goals and the results that they're looking for. As you mentioned, I am very, very proficient in EOS. I'm not an implementer, which is what many people associate with EOS, which is the, the coach or consultant that comes in and teaches them about EOS. I'm an integrator. I work in the business with someone on specifically of how to run EOS in the business. So having the ability to run that and coach a team through it If they're— if they've self-implemented, if they've had an implementer, I create many more touchpoints in order to make sure that that creates success for them and they truly get the traction that they're looking for so they get the most out of it.

That's awesome. So you hit on so many great points there, and you talked about sort of translating a vision into, you know, sort of the processes that people can follow in order to, you know, sort of have success. And I've seen the exact same thing that you talk about, and I'm sure our audience has too, where you've got really passionate Passionate, capable, enthusiastic, and energetic people, but they're not all— they're all going in different directions because that visionary, that leader, hasn't sort of enunciated the processes on how to funnel all of the activities in the right direction so that everyone's going in the same direction. So, that role of that integrator is so vital to translating that vision into processes so that then all the efforts of these people can go in the right direction. The other thing, and I'm curious to get your thoughts on this, one of the things that we see a lot is when you've got kind of passionate, even skilled and experienced people sort of brought into an organization and sort of said, make it work, and they don't really have sort of a process, it can devolve sometimes into finger-pointing because it's, well, Brandon let us down, or Marc let us down because we were hoping that Marc was going to generate this many leads or this much revenue for us. And he didn't. Whereas, once there's a process in place, it becomes, well, the process let us down. How do we work together to improve the process instead of sort of finger-pointing at each other? I'm curious, how often do you see sort of that dynamic at play in companies that you work with? And how have you seen that sort of resolve?

Yeah, very good question. And I think when it comes down to the right people in the right seats, we can hire a rockstar killer person at a role. And if they come into chaos, they leave quickly. They don't want to mess with this. So many times the person— look, and every, every, every time someone leaves a company, it's going to go back to, we hired the wrong person. Or we don't— we are not ready for that person. And so it's important to make sure that we are prepared for a solid candidate to come in, and we have clean processes, direct, clear vision, a healthy culture where it's cohesive and everybody shares the vision, or you're gonna lose very talented people. They're just gonna see right through it, and they're gonna bounce. The other side of it is, You know, you got to make sure you have the toxic people out of there. Same reason you'll lose the people. So, and if you have— you, you're like, I do know that we have a solid process. You have to be very transparent with yourself to say it is a clean process. We are— we know we're ready. We know we'd have a great culture. We want to protect it. And you'd hire someone. Then if you, if you've hired the wrong person, you're going to be able to see it quickly. They're going to be— it's important to make sure that there's a good onboarding plan. a good roadmap of what's expected, clear measurables, clear leading indicators of what success looks like. And there's the touchpoints that are necessary for success to be measured. You should be able to see that quickly. We talk about in, in the industry, we talk about, um, slow to hire, quick to fire. And that is, is really critical because when we don't do that, we end up holding on to someone too long. Our opportunity cost goes out the window. Like, we lose a lot of ability We might damage the reputation and the morale of the rest of the team. And just overall, it creates a toxic environment. So we must remove those people. And then we have to be very mindful about how we assess the person when they're coming in. I use a personality and cognition assessment.

Okay.

That is very, very helpful in team dynamics as well as hiring the right candidate. And, you know, we have ability to grade a resume against the criteria. So we can really do a good job of, of attracting the right candidate and then bringing them into a healthy environment rather than putting someone that's really great into a toxic environment, or vice versa, putting someone toxic into a great environment. So it's very, very— those are, again, those are touchpoints that are pain points, I would say, that are common in many, many, many businesses. They have the wrong person in the right seat. They have the right person in the wrong seat. They don't know, they don't know what they're expecting of someone when they come in. So the person comes in day 1 and they're like, figure it out. And, and that if, if, if that person has any level of talent, um, they're gonna bounce pretty quick.

That's so interesting. Well, and we see this, 2 of the things that you talked about, we see manifest so often. Uh, the first is this idea of, you know, if they're not coming into good systems, you know, talented people will leave. And, you know, so often we see companies that you know, sort of rise to a certain level of, you know, based on kind of the CEO outselling because they know the product and they know the marketplace. And then they're like, well, if we just hired a sales manager, I'd double my revenue. So they go hire someone that is a successful sales manager, but there's no process in place. There's no systems. There's no support materials or collateral. There's no process for, you know, kind of generating leads for that person to work on. And so they get in and They very often don't work out either because they aren't able to achieve the goals that the company is hoping they're going to, or the person themselves sort of self-selects to get out of the situation because there's nothing there for them to sort of be successful against. And then, the other thing that we see too is, and I want to dig into this a little more with you, you talked about sort of the right personality for the role. And very often, we see companies when they have this vision in their mind of like, you know, a lone wolf sales hunter that's out there like hunting deals and finding deals. And, you know, they really value their freedom and, you know, the sort of flexibility to do whatever they want. But at the core, sales is fundamentally a process.

Right.

It's a change management process of helping people, you know, make a decision and evaluate alternatives and along the way, making sure that your alternative looks in its best possible light. And so, the most successful salespeople are actually those that thrive in process and systems rather than those that are really out there hunting. And it's sort of a lack of knowledge about what the actual discipline of sales is that a lot of CEOs and other folks have in their mind. But I'm curious, how do you go about sort of helping companies make sure that they're attracting the right talent that's suited to the role? Rather than sort of a misalignment based on some imagination of what they think the right person looks like?

Several different ways. You're right. And the one thing that we typically, we will tend to do as people when we're looking for someone, as we look at their experience and we say, oh, this person has sales experience. Sure. It's not a— it is a small predictor for success. But is that person the right fit for sales or for operations or whatever? Someone might have been— have had a very long or a decent amount of time with a company, and— but they, they could be really poorly performing. Like, what were their metrics? What was— what is it about it that drove them to success? And how is success measured in that role?

Mm-hmm.

So it's important to understand that it's not just about experience. Sometimes we look at someone and says, Oh, they have all this experience, but they're really not a good fit for it, and they really were not good at it. It's better to find someone that has a transferable skill that is, that is, is the right personality and, and cognition for the role in order to be, to be a better predictor for the success. So again, matching up the personality to the job role and making sure that there's clearly defined objectives as well as the metrics that are gonna be tracked, the key performance indicators, is the foundational piece. The other thing that we see happen is people have— people hold on to someone too long. They— and I'm gonna say this is very common. A founder has started a business, they need help, they get their spouse, they get their child, they get their uncle, to help them, and that person is not effective for the position that they're in, and it's, it's costing them efficiency, it's costing them time, it's costing them money. So making that decision and identifying that I'm better off long run if I replace that person, it's gonna be hard, hard for the relationship. But one thing that I, what I, I try to, I see a lot, and I try to encourage people on is, is Don't find a job for your friend. Find a friend at the job. So people will do that. They'll be like, I got this person that needs to, to have a job. I got a family member. I got this kid that's graduating college. What can I have him do?

Right.

As opposed to, I have this role that I need filled and he is, or she is a great fit for it. And that's just, it's a common misnomer. You know, aligned part of what they do. And I think that when you call it out and be transparent about it and say that this is going to be unhealthy for you for a period of time, and they're probably just not a good fit for that role, encourage them to move to something else. Because when you try to make them fit, it's going to be a battle long term.

Yeah, so interesting. Well, and you raised another great point, which is that idea of sort of transferable skills. And thinking about the skills that are right for the role. And so often in marketing and sales, especially where we spend a lot of our time, someone's like, I want someone that's done this exact thing before. Like, they've taken a cybersecurity firm from this stage to this stage, and I want them to come in. And we tell the joke sometimes of you want them to tell you how they won the lottery. They got lucky and they picked 7 numbers randomly oftentimes, but sometimes we mistake sort of luck or a rising tide. They were in the right place at the right time at the right company that was riding the crest of a wave that had more to do with it than the actual skills that they deployed in the process. And usually, when you hire someone based on like a Rolodex because they've worked in an industry, That Rolodex runs out and then they're out of people to call. Whereas if they have a process and systems that they can use for growth and scale, that applies across any industry and those transferable skills, which I think is so interesting that you called that out as well.

So, you're talking about skills which are critically important to understand when you're developing or when you're interviewing A candidate. It's not experience. Experiences— I've worked in this industry in cybersecurity, and I've done this exact thing. Experience is not— experience is helpful, but it typically does not mean that they were successful in it. What were the skills that they had? You know, strategic planning, people management, people leadership. Those are the transferable skills that you're looking for.

Right.

The role could be drastically different than looking for someone that has exact experience with the exact widget. And when you're looking for someone that may be a technician or specializing in it, you're taking their, their skill, which might have a long learning curve, like they have years of experience. Let's say an automotive technician.

Sure.

And that, that's not something you could take someone that is, is good with planning and stuff like that and teach them all of the things about that specific, uh, trade Or skill set, right? But when it's about people and process skills, you say, as long as they're committed, they're coachable, and they're aware, you're going to be able to take that person and plant them into something and say, okay, the learning curve for our widget, our process, is going to be very shortened because it's simplified, it's easy, and they're going to be a person that is committed and, and is capable of learning, not necessarily needing to be taught. There's a difference between learning and being taught. I'm capable of learning and I'm committed to it. You're gonna be like, okay, this person can pick up on my process very quickly and then potentially even improve it because they have the mindset to do that. So when we look at transferable, that's a skill set. I have the ability to follow processes, to identify inefficiencies in them, and you're looking for those, those types of things. Not specifically experience. Experience in, in the job field is, okay, I've worked well with teams and people. Some of the things I have— analytic problem solving. I'm looking at my list of soft skills. I'm effective at communication. I have efficient time management. I have a high emotional awareness. I have a mindset of continuous improvement. I'm innovative thinking. I'm strategic at building relationships. Those are skills that, that did anything in there. Did I talk about cybersecurity?

Right.

The ability to program, you know, a software of some type.

Right.

Or, or, you know, when you're talking about specific things about sales, you have, I know how to use this CRM, or I know how to do this. All of those things can be learned very quickly, but building relationships, strategic planning, those are the things that you're looking for in a candidate Because they can— that those are the skills that are necessary, not specifically about, I, I worked with this widget and I know how to use this specifically.

So interesting and such a great sort of distinction between experience versus skills and the skills really being what sort of drives success. But so often people are, you know, sort of their heads turned by all this experience that someone has. But it's such a great distinction and a Great way of sort of separating those 2 things out. Yeah, go ahead.

One nugget. Yeah, one nugget that I would say and one of the probably the things that I would challenge that most, if everybody, if your audience was to stop and think and self-reflect and evaluate on their current training and onboarding and hiring process, many people when they go to an interview process, they sell the person on the job.

Yeah.

And the person's just getting told like, here's what you're gonna do. This is what it's all about. This is what it is. Instead of really identifying, is this person a good fit? I've got the golden egg here. They've got to buy it from me. I don't want to sell it to them. So it's important that we, we ask questions and get to know the person. And when you're doing that, you're really digging deep, layers deep into the soft skills that are important. So someone's like, I have done this at this job. Tell me more about that.

Right.

How did— tell me about some challenges that happen inside of that process. What would you do differently? Tell me about how you worked with, uh, with your team, and what were the challenges within the team environment? Is many times the person that's doing the interview is going to ask a really a yes or no question. Have you done this before? Yes or no? And they don't get deeper into high-gain questions that really stimulate the conversation and get that person to say, this is how that will help your business. Have you, have you studied anything about what we do? Yes.

Yeah.

Okay. Can you tell me what you think would be, what skill sets you would bring in order to help us benefit and grow from that based on the description that we're looking for? Share with me what you believe you would be able to bring to the table. It was a good example of a question where it's not like, can you do this or can you do that? You know, this is specifically about drawing them from them, how they can, you know, I have this golden egg. Do you want it? Tell me, tell me how you deserve it, you know?

Yeah. So interesting. So interesting. So I'm, I'm gonna switch gears a little bit. So we've been talking about, you know, sort of finding the right people in, in the right seats and, you know, how to separate those skills from experience. I know you also do a lot of work, uh, helping companies with accountability. And I know EOS has a strong framework of a meeting cadence and accountability metrics and scorecarding. Talk to us a little bit about how you help bring accountability into organizations because I know that can be really transformative for companies to move beyond, well, we hope we do this versus we're committing to do this and then what happens. Talk to us about that.

Yeah. And inside of goal planning, this is a great month to talk about it, right? We're into the year. People are like, oh, what am I going to get done next year? And they set goals. And many times, prevents people from hitting the goals is consistency and accountability to those. So if I have a goal and I create a plan that's going to get me there, and the plan is really sound, and it has— it's going to have milestones that need to be hit.

Yeah.

Stepping stones along the way. There's going to be key deliverables that need to be done inside those. So where I see that there's a an opportunity, a gap, something inside the entrepreneurs and just in business in general is that I set this mark that's way out here. I want to run a marathon.

Perfect.

What's step 1? When are you going to do that? Like, I need to start with this. And when am I going to do that? And am I accountable to it? If we think about in coaching specifically, As a coach, I identify what is the target that someone's trying to get to? What are the stepping stones that are on that? And then I get commitments every time, you know, my meetings and say, Mark, this sounds like a great plan. I'm excited for you. I love your idea about where you're going. You've consulted someone about the strategy. We have what the target is. What are you going to do next week? And then you're going to list out what I'm going to do. And then I'm going to be able to get on with you next week and say, hey, remember last week you said you needed to get this done? How are you tracking on it? I, I, I was able to complete it. Okay, perfect. What needs to happen next week? And then we continue to track towards the target. Every time there's someone that's going to come in and say, yep, I did not get that done. Okay, so what was the obstacle that happened? I didn't time block on my calendar. I didn't— I, I allowed this distraction to happen. I forgot to plan for. I was going to be on vacation and out of town, and I overcommitted. So we're going to be realistic about the commitments and then make sure that we're accountable to those results. Kind of like you say, I want to go work out every day at 5:00 AM. When you have someone standing there outside your door knocking on you going, hey, are you ready to go? You're going to be like, yep, I got to do it because I told them I was going to do it. I made this commitment. I raised my right hand and said, I'm going to do it. So a lot of times that's where a founder, a visionary struggles because no one's holding them accountable. They know what they need to do. But if you're self-motivated and you need to do it yourself, like you're gonna get up at 5 AM and it's cold outside and you're like, I don't wanna do it. That person knowing what your goals are that you've committed to is like on your shoulder saying, you told me you're gonna do it. Let's do it. So it's very, very, very effective.

Yeah, I can totally see how that can be effective. Instead of an angel and a devil, you've just got an angel on that shoulder reminding you to do it and can see how effective that is. So this has been such a great conversation, and we could talk all day about these topics, but I got to be mindful of your time. But before I let you go, give us sort of the pitch. What's it like to work with Backbone Solutions? Like, who are the right-fit sort of customers for you, and what are the real sort of, you know, transformations that you deliver for those customers?

Yeah, I, I have several different options, uh, and one thing would be a, a solopreneur, someone that is just not, not maybe getting ready to hire their critical first hire. They want to onboard the right assistant or whatever. They make sure they have the right tools in place prior to it. Um, so anybody that's a small business owner that is needing help getting to the next level. I also work with teams. I have a team that I came in as a fractional COO, came in and said, okay, let's make sure we have defined processes. And then now I'm working with 5 different leaders in different departments on a weekly basis. And I'm able to be a fractional COO, the leader of those people, because I know what the visionary's plan is.

Yeah.

And I'm able to make sure that we're tracking along with that. I recap the meetings. I have accountability to those things. There's commitment to the results, and we can navigate, uh, that path well. So from a, a, you know, a, a fractional standpoint where I can work with a whole entire team or just one-on-one, I have both of those abilities to do that.

Awesome. So how can folks get in touch with you? For someone that's hearing, they're like, man, we could really use that role within our organization to bring that accountability, to help simplify our processes, What's the best way to get in touch, Brandon?

Yeah, the best way to get in touch with me would be to email me at brandon@backbonesolutions-llc.com.

Okay.

And that is the best way. I do have a website. There's content on there that shows what I do a little bit and my core values. But the best way is brandon@backbonesolutions-llc.com.

Awesome. Well, Brandon, thank you so much for taking the time to share your insights with us today. I know our audience got a lot out of it.

All right, I appreciate it, Mark. Thank you.

Thank you, Brandon. Thank you for joining this episode of the B2B Growth Blueprint podcast. We hope you've gained insights to grow your business. If you enjoyed this discussion, please rate, comment, like on your favorite platform, and share to others who will find it useful. Do you know a CEO, founder, or leader at an early stage B2B services, tech, or SaaS company who would like to be a guest and share their story, send us a note. Let's schedule a conversation.