This YouTube video (testimonials compiled by Cameron Herold) collects several Chief Operating Officers describing the value of the COO Alliance. Speakers report reduced isolation, rapid peer connection (often within an hour), practical problem-solving in small-group discussions, cross-company idea transfer (small-scale tools applied at larger scale), and improved understanding of their CEOs and teams.
Chapters
My business partner CEO, he's got a lot of resources out there for him as the true entrepreneur, as the one taking all the risks. There's so many different masterminds from him to choose from to be a member of. And what was missing is as second in command, there was no real, no family, no tribe, no group to really be a part of and network with. And what Cameron has built the COO alliance is just absolutely remarkable.
Truly with the COO alliance, I think what's been exciting is being around other chief operating officers or second in commands and kind of seeing how they work with their CEOs and owners and getting to see that dynamic and hear some of the similarities and some of the challenges we face together, coming up with solutions and hearing success stories that help us kind of work together.
A lot of the experiences that I have in our business, I again have felt really isolated or thought that when I came here being on the smaller side that I wasn't going to identify with what the larger companies were having. I almost felt like I didn't want to share what we were experiencing because it wouldn't mean anything to the other people here. And one thing that I've learned is the tools and things that we've been doing on a smaller scale can be used on a larger scale. So I've been able to help others, but they've also been able to help me see things in a different light from the position that they're in in their business. And so I feel like it's going to help elevate our company that much more to really learn from what they've already experienced and look at things a little bit differently than what we're already seeing.
I immediately, within the first hour, I was already speaking with other COOs and we got to immediately dive into pain points, things that we were experiencing. Hey, how have you handled this? So came done a phenomenal job at connecting groups and individuals.
It's made me appreciate the group that I'm with and the people that I'm dealing with that are COO's as well. We have a lot of the same issues and the same problems and we're able to learn and grow and be able to gain an understanding that we're not the only COO that has these problems or these issues.
The second day into the program, it's like everybody's connected and we've bonded because we're all going through the same stuff. We all experience the same highs, the same lows.
And so what this has done is this has allowed me to have an understanding of my boss and the people that we deal with.
I all of a sudden had this group of people that really got it. I could explain in probably 10 words what might take me 2000 words to explain to someone else about what was going on, because immediately they got it. And when I went back to the company, I also went back methodologies or ways to implement things that I knew they would get.
A lot of times you go to a conference and there's one speaker or maybe two, and you're really just getting that little bit of feedback. And what's been nice about this COO alliance is really Cameron kind of just starts a topic, but then you're getting to hear a bunch of different perspectives, and you hear a bunch of people come to the table and bring ideas, and it really diversifies the answers, but also gives you many different perspectives to look at and analyze which ones fit with my organization, which ones maybe don't. We're getting into the issues that are facing each of us in our own businesses and really learning from the experiences of the others.
It's not just Cameron up on some big fancy stage giving everybody his lessons that he's learned. It's more just about the people. So we get together in small groups. We'll share what we've experienced over the years.
For every entrepreneur out there, there's likely a number two that needs the same support. So I think there's a ton of pot for the alliance, and I'm excited to be in on the ground floor and trying to help build kind of what it looks like.
As it grows, we're able to take the foundation points that he's provided us and work with each other to determine what's going to fit our company the best and what our role and how to work with our CEO in the best way possible.
