In this solo presentation, Cameron Herold—founder of the COO Alliance, author of The Second in Command, and host of its podcast— outlines why hiring a Chief Operating Officer (COO) is a strategic advantage for CEOs and entrepreneurs. He enumerates six core benefits: (1) freeing the CEO to focus on their unique, high‑impact abilities; (2) allowing the COO to develop and mentor the CEO’s direct reports, building skills, confidence, and internal connections; (3) providing a seasoned mentor for the CEO, illustrated by Herold’s own experience as Brian’s second‑in‑command at 1‑800‑GOT‑JUNK, where he guided franchise scaling; (4) enabling organizational pivots or new directions through the COO’s expertise that the existing team may lack; (5) leveraging the COO’s partner and intellectual‑property relationships to generate significant gross‑margin upside—often delivering a return on compensation many‑fold; and (6) granting the CEO personal freedom and ensuring the business can thrive without their constant presence. The talk emphasizes that a high‑performing COO not only amplifies growth but also creates a more profitable, sustainable enterprise.
Chapters
Some of the key benefits of hiring a COO, and I'm always asked, why should I hire a COO? I'm Cameron Herold. I'm the founder of the COO Alliance and author of the book called The Second in Command and the host of The Second in Command podcast. Some of the benefits of hiring a COO, number one is it's going to free up your time so that you can work inside of your unique ability. You can work on areas that you're really good at, stuff that you really love to do, and things that maybe no one else inside the organization can do or even should do. So it allows you to work inside of that space and to get rid of all the stuff that drain you of time and drain you Another key benefit of hiring a second in command is there's someone there who can develop your people for you. They can grow the skills and grow the confidence and grow the connections of all of the direct reports that maybe you don't have the actual time to work on. Another reason you could have that second in command is they might become more of a mentor for you. When I walked into 1-800-GOT-JUNK as Brian's second in command, I was able to show him all of the things that needed to happen so that we could scale up a franchise organization. He really wasn't aware. He'd never built a franchise company before. So I came in as a bit of a mentor in that area of franchising in those early days. Maybe you have a second in command who comes in to change the organization or pivot the organization or take it in a different direction than the skills and the current team actually have. Another reason you could have that second in command is they could actually have partner relationships or deep IP relationships that they can bring inside of your company. Maybe they act a little bit more like that MVP kind of a role. And then another key indicator of, of What benefit you're going to get from that second in command is they come in with some unique abilities and some skills that your team does not have, and they can get a much higher ROI than you're actually paying them. So let's say you're paying someone $300,000 a year, but they come in with some skill sets and some abilities and some connections, and they can start generating $1 or $2 million in gross margin. Well, that well offsets what you're going to be paying them as well. Lastly, the key benefit of having that second in command is it frees you up. To have a life that you're going to enjoy. And as an entrepreneur, you may be going to masterminds on your own, getting coaching on your own, but you need to actually get your COO into a group like the COO Alliance so that you grow their skills and confidence so that your business can actually succeed without you. And that's one of the biggest benefits of having one is your business will succeed without you, which builds a much more profitable business for you in the long run.
