Ray Kakuda, COO of Fullstaq Marketer, joined Cameron Herold's COO Alliance on his CEO's referral and has been a member for over three years. He credits the group with 10x return on investment, deep connections with other second-in-command leaders, and transformative in-person events that strengthened his relationships and understanding of company culture.
Chapters
Well, the way I ended up joining the COO alliance was my CEO was actually being coached by Cameron Herold and he recommended me to reach out to Cameron and join his CEO Alliance. That was three years ago. So I've been a member of the COO alliance for over three years. It's my third year actually. You know, the reason why I keep coming back and just renewing my membership with the COO alliance is two things. The amount of value that Cameron and the team are able to provide me and the other members is it's indescribable. There's so much value from the live speakers, the monthly events that they hold just through the tactics and strategies that I've been able to apply. Literally the amount of value I've been able to get on ROI basis has literally been 10x, simply 10x. It's been amazing. And the networking number two has been amazing. I've been able to connect with other second in command people in different industries, different companies, but we've been able to collaborate and share different ideas and just things that they're using that they're getting success from. And that in itself is amazing. One of the key things that I got from the CEO alliance was culture. And I think that's a lot of thing. That's one thing I see other companies struggling with. There's other companies that have a great product, right? They have great marketing, they have great customer support, they have great sales, and that's all, that's all well and fine, but if they're missing the cultural piece, that's the stickiness, that's the glue that holds everything together. And that's the first thing that I got when I joined the CEO alliance was really understanding the cultural piece and taking the tactics and strategies around building a culture and implementing that in my company has just really been instrumental in our team bonding our team. Right now, I would say it's growing. We're in a scale phase. But because of the cultural piece that I've been able to implement from the ideas and the different people inside of the CEO alliance into my company, I can say it's had a. Just had a great effect and impact on our company's results. Yeah, the virtual events are great. They're easy to attend because they're on zoom, right? So I love the virtual events because what it does is it just gives me the freedom and flexibility to log in, attend, see my other members, right? See the other members there that I've been able to connect with. It's great because they move, they Move us into small breakouts, they bring us back into the main room. You know, they have guest speakers. It's so convenient to have that value add every month. Now, on the flip side, the live events, which is, I, I believe, more of a commitment to attend, but the live events, I don't think you can actually put a price tag on these. Now, it does cost. There's a price tag, 2 of 10. But the value that I've gotten and received from the live events, it's tough to put a price tag on that because I've built relationships with other members here that I cannot like. It's hard to put in words like I can not only on a professional basis, I know I can reach out to them. And if I need help, if I'm struggling in an area, let's say I have an open position, I need to, you know, does anyone have any contacts or, you know, other people that might be interested or might be a good fit, things like that. But on the personal level, I've built really strong friendships and I would have never met any of these guys or any of these other people if it wasn't for the live events. So live events to me are key there. You can get the value from the CEO alliance by just attending only a virtual or just attending the lives, they're complementary to each other. You know, if you're, if you're like thinking about attending a live event, but you just, you're not sure, you know, maybe, maybe there's something holding you back. I remember for me, yeah, there was a cost to attend a live event. You know, not only that, there's a time commitment, because the time commitment would have, would take me out of my company, right? And I would have to commit it to that live event. So there is a commitment level. But for me, once I attended my first live event, that's where I realized that that's the missing piece to this whole thing of my being second in command. You see, the key to really growing a successful company, there's a synergy between the second in command and the CEO, right? And for me, the CEO is the visionary and I'm the second in command and I'm the integrator. And maybe you're in a similar situation. That relationship is key. And what I got from attending the live event was being able to build that relationship with the CEO and also take these tactics and strategies that from the live speakers and use that to build a really solid foundation in our company. I just, that was, that was the, that was the missing piece for me. So if you're on the fence of about making the commitment to attend a live event with the CEO Alliance, I would say do it. Do it because you won't be disappointed. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. In fact, again, now, personally, I can tell you, like the, the, the live events that I've attended, when I left, I got probably 10x the value of what I invested to attend. It's just been amazing, an amazing experience. So I've attended, I've attended a number of different live events. I've attended personal development courses. I've attended sales and marketing events. I've attended events where there's literally like, you know, 5,000 people in an auditorium. And then I had. Then I've attended, like, events like the CEO alliance where maybe there's, you know, there's, I don't know, like 50, 75 people in a room. This is different. The COO alliance events are unique. And I'll tell you why, really. First, it's because the level of leadership that's in that room, everyone is on the same level. Everyone comes with different strengths and weaknesses. And that's the key to what makes this event so unique, is that I'm able to leverage my weaknesses against other people's strengths and take that knowledge and experience and apply it in my life and in my company. And I haven't been able to get that from any of these other events that I've attended. This event is unique. And top of that, Cameron Herold is the master at networking, right? He is the connector out there. I call him a connector. Right? The quality and level of leaders that he's been bringing in to be live speakers. I have never seen this in any other event, especially in an intimate setting like this. It is just the best ever. Cameron, I just want to say I'm extremely grateful to be part of your COO alliance organization. The value I've been able to get from just being part of this, the CEO alliance, it's hard to put in words. I've been able to take a lot of the ideas and implement it in our company and see it actually grow, see it make an impact. But more importantly, Cameron, I just want to say I'm extremely grateful for you as a leader and someone I can call as a friend, and that I've been able to connect with you in my life because I believe what you're doing is truly making an impact in the world. It's like throwing a pebble into a still pond and watching the ripples spread out across the pond. That's what you're doing, Cameron. You are that pebble that's being thrown into the pond. And what you're producing and what you're creating is a ripple effect across the globe through the second in Command members. And I just want to say thank you.
