Aligning Mission and Strategy: A Nonprofit’s Journey | Scott Wollaston and Sarah Bridges

Today's episode was sponsored by Birthing of Giants.

I think prior to eos, we had a great mission statement, but we weren't always turning back to that mission statement and saying like, this is actually why we're doing this. This isn't just a random thing that we put on our website. Now Scott comes to me with ideas in his visionary mind and I'm able to say, hey, how is this impacting our mission statement? Is it making us move forward in that area or is it really even doing it at all? You know, it's. I think it's two sided there. So I think the biggest, biggest thing for us is that we can hire based off of it, we can fire based off of it. We also make every decision moving the organization forward or backwards based off of it.

Everybody. Welcome to another season of the Rocket Fuel podcast where visionary and integrator duos from entrepreneurial companies share a behind the scenes look at their relationship. These amazing leaders blend their unique skills to create rocketfuel. I'm your host, Mark C. Winters, co author of rocketfuel and an expert EOS implementer. Today I'm thrilled to be talking to Scott Wollaston and Sarah Bridges of NC Fusion, an organization dedicated to creating intentional experiences through sports that positively impact people for life. Scott is the CEO and founder of NC Fusion. He also co founded the Institute for Young Sports Leaders and owns Triad Sports Management. Sarah acts as the Chief Experience Officer in her role as integrator and has worked with Scott well before they brought EOS into the nonprofit. In this episode, we explore how EOS works in a nonprofit organization and the unique way it influences Scott and Sarah's roles as visionary and integrator. We'll talk about the importance of Same page and Level 10 meetings in communicating their mission. We're beginning the show with Scott's story of how EOS and Traction were introduced to him. And while building the business's strategic plan, he explains how easy it was to take the first step in the EOS process. Here we go.

I would say that it was an easy thing to do, a 90 minute meeting. It was an easy thing to recognize our need for an operating system. It was a harder thing to be able to get my leadership team on board. From a financial perspective, just being honest, we're nonprofit and we knew that this would be a significant investment in. In something that, you know, we hadn't made this level of investment in something like this before. So it was, I would call it a bit of a risk, but we knew we needed something.

So so just to kind of set some context for the audience, you know, what's the size of your organization, you know, either number of employees, number of people, however you think about that.

So staff wise we have about 110 employees for about a little over 40 are full time, which is about 60, 70 are part time. So we're sports organizations. So coaches make up predominant, you know, portion of that, of that staffing, but they're part time, so they work in the evenings because they're with kiddos on the fields in the weekends. So our leadership team is five people. Scott, obviously leading is the visionary, I'm the integrator and we've got three others that are operations and finance and admin and we're a stellar group. But yeah, that happened a little bit organically just because of eos.

Let's kind of back up to the decision making process. So a big investment to implement eos. Nonprofit organization. How did that actual decision making process happen? How did it play out? And in your mind what was, how did you rationalize the ROI for an investment like that in an organization like yours, a nonprofit organization? Curious about that.

With any opportunity like this, you look for references and you try to find others that have had similar backgrounds and similar maybe success stories from utilizing eos. And so we, we did speak to several, again, the people that recommended EOS to us were all organizations that in some way shape and form were formally operating on eos. So that was very helpful. All of them had incredible things to say. What I would say was the final nail in the coffin was we have an amazing implementer. Josh Quasny is hands down one of the best people that we have ever worked with. And regardless of EOs, just an incredible human being who cares a ton about our organization and us as people. And so I would just say that getting to know him, it was one of those things that it's worth taking a chance on somebody like that. And so in terms of buy in, you know, probably the, a similar story to many, you know, you have your early adopters, I'm more optimistic and glass half full all the time. So I'm like, let's go, let's do this. Even though I didn't really understand where I would say Sarah and George, our finance person, not so much. And you know, how's this exactly going to play out? And you know, what is this, you know, a full day every quarter and you know, all of those, those questions. But man, there's full on buy in now not just from the leadership team, but now, two and a half years later, I would say we're seeing the, the fruits of our labor all the way down through our staff to, you know, almost every single full time staff member now, which we knew would take time, but yeah, it was, it took time, but we bought in.

Yeah, very cool. So that's a nice, nice setup for my next question. Sarah, what does that mean to be the no girl?

Yeah, I mean, Scott sits in his visionary seat beautifully. He has got a mind for what's ahead. He's always thinking about new things. And I am the logistical, logical, let's be realistic. Does this work now? Is this a. Not yet. You know, I just, I'm all about the operation side and so he comes with these brilliant ideas and thoughts and all those things, but unfortunately I can't say yes to all those things. So I have to say no a lot. Doesn't mean like no forever. It just means no, we can't do that. How can we make that happen? Is this right now? Is this me for, for three years from now? Is this 20 years from now? You know, those kinds of things. So I, I take that as it is part of my role. Right. He gets to, to get excited about creative thinking and let me dream up these big ideas and concepts of what could be. And I get to be the one that says, you know what, that's awesome, but maybe not yet or no, that's not awesome. And so I don't think it sounds terrible to call myself the new girl, but I do. We do jokingly say I have to say no nine times before I say yes once. So that's our, that's our ratio.

So, Scott, I'm going to go way out here and hazard a guess that you love being told no.

I love it. Gosh, yes, yes. It's in my recovering people pleaser MO for sure.

So, so, so, so in all seriousness, what, what's it like? How does that feel? How, how did it feel different when you kind of first started using this structure versus maybe how you've evolved or grown or whatever word you want to use to how you think about it now?

I would say two things. One is that if you look at the crystallizer assessment, so shockingly, even though I'm the visionary, my score from an integrator perspective is actually pretty high. And I think there's some value in that because I operated the club, the organization for a long time. We didn't really, I was serving in both seats and unknowingly, this was pre eos. So I already have like an organizational operational type bent and mindset. So I, I understand. So I don't, I wouldn't say that, that I get upset about that except that I do think some ideas are, are really good. It will move us forward. But every time that, you know, every time that we've moved forward with something where I out kick the punt coverage, it was very obvious that we should have said no and we should have PA hit pit, hit the pause button. And so I appre it now. I think it it for from an organizational perspective the trust in that we each have for one another helps us not to go off the deep end. It helps us to stay mission driven. It helps us to make sure we're doing the things that we need to be doing while also allowing me to keep my eyes out for opportunities and things that we could be doing in the future. And probably I would say I sort of guide more of our three year picture and our, you know, and where we're headed and the rest of our team I would say is more one year to 90 days. And that's just how it's worked out. And I'm really thankful for that because I think I spend or I have spent in the past too much time in that operation space and even though I may have been good at it, I don't think that I love doing it. And so I think that's a recipe for burnout according to the delegate and elevate tool. Right.

So yeah, and it's real common for visionaries like the experience that you described where you've done so many of these things, you can do them, you had to, to survive. So you see like, well I can do that but you know, it's just, just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should. Right?

That's right. Yep.

You mentioned mission. So your website says that you're mission minded. So, so what does that mean and how does that play out in your organization? Sarah, Maybe you could talk to that.

Yeah, I think the decisions we make are based on our mission statement. That is like the easiest way to answer that question. You know, I think prior to eos we had great, we had a great mission statement but we weren't always turning back to that mission statement and saying like this is actually why we're doing this. This isn't just a random thing that we put on our website now, you know, Scott comes to me with ideas in his visionary mind and I'm able to say, hey, does that, how is this impacting our mission statement? Is it step making us move forward in that area or is it really even doing it at all? You know, it's, I think it's two sided there. So I think the biggest, biggest thing for us is that we can hire based off of it, we can fire based off of it. We also make every decision moving the organization forward or backwards based off of it. So I think that's the big thing for me as an integrator.

So Scott, where'd the mission come from?

Well, I mean, we're in the youth sports business and I think that it's a unique space to be in because a lot of people participate in youth sports and there are a lot of what I would call macro factors that affect what we do or at least change or create the perception of what we do. When you hear about youth sports, most of the media talks about crazy parents and they talk about high cost to play and traveling all over the world and all that craziness. And I think that we've really had to sort of not redefine but truly define what are we going to be about as an organization regardless of all those macro things going on. And really, like Sarah said, we kind of had a decent mission statement in place, but through eos we were able to really get our quit, our core statement right on track to really say this is, this is what we do truly to create intentional experiences through sport, to positively impact people for life. Because a lot of, a lot of people do sport and it'll have some impact in some way. Like anyone can say I played youth basketball is great, had a good coach or you know, or had this terrible experience. And like it automatically sports creates an experience. But our biggest thing was the word intentional. And so is that something that we're going to do that's intentional to create that experience? And I think that's whether you're talking about your staff, that's whether you're talking about your programming, that's whether you're talking about your development opportunities, that's whether you're talking about the events that you run. Whatever it is, we are trying to be super intentional about everything we do. So that for me is the differentiator between really what other sports organizations do and what we feel that we do directly.

100%. Yeah. I'm a huge believer in youth sports and it has been one actually a foundational thing in my family. Three boys, I was blessed and fortunate enough to be able to coach them through their careers until they got to high school where the school kind of took them away from me, you know, so 20 plus years, them and their friends or other kids in the community and, and whatever. And so I'm a big, big believer. You know. I have a question for you though, that, that kind of, kind of leads me to just my own personal curiosity. In Texas, you know, we run into a dynamic we call daddy ball. Do you have that in North Carolina?

Yeah. I mean I, I will say that I think that the cult, the, the environment of different sports is, is, is different. So youth soccer, while you know, people complain that our men's national team isn't good enough, obviously our women's national team has been excellent for a long time. The fact is, is that despite that, our youth system in soccer is very, very organized, possibly the most organized in the world, even though other countries at the international stage are better. Right. So we're fort soccer space that quote, daddy ball doesn't happen as much. Does it happen? Yes, it does, but some of the, some of the governing bodies and things have put parameters around it to make it more difficult and thus has a little, there's a little more control versus what you kind of see in baseball and basketball and lacrosse where like really somebody could just be like, I'm forming my own team and we're gonna go play in that tournament and that tournament and that kind of happens. And so I think it is a bit unique in soccer as, as compared to other sports, but it certainly occurs. And what I have found, and I have just been around all the different sports, I have a nephew who plays baseball and he's experienced that daddy ball environment. My brother in law and sister in law experienced it as parents and for all the things they loved about maybe like the daddy ball in terms of like flexibility and the, the relationships that came together with all that, there was no consistency and it all breaks down when one or two people get really upset and there's no infrastructure and there's no consistency. And so, you know, I do think that that exists, Mark, but let's say we don't see it quite as much in youth soccer as perhaps other sports.

Yeah, so I love your intentionality. Right. To make the experience impactful in a positive way on, on these kids lives and their family's lives. And so I think that's what it's all about is, you know, having having that greater good in mind rather than just, you know, I want to make sure that my kid gets to play or you know, gets to be the star or you know, whatever that some people's individual agendas can lead to. So. All right, sure. Love all that. So, another note, I have just kind of points out that, you know, y' all are doing this with the. With the organization kind of all day, but then there's practices, there's games. I mean, it's like, when does this stop? It. It feels like it just must be going on all the time. How do you deal with that? How do you find there's the balance. Word. How do you. How do you make all this stuff work together and. And have a. Have a life?

It's complicated, if we're honest. It's just complicated. I think for each portion of our organization, there are different roles and responsibilities, right? And they all occur at different times. So we've got some staff or operational staff or admin staff that can work as close to a 9 to 5 job as possible. And then you've got your coaching directors and your coaching staff that hit the fields in the afternoons and the evenings, and they run into the weekends. I think it's a lot of just what every organization needs is a high level of communication and just honesty about where you're at. But managing the different hours can be complicated as long as. But if you're open and honest about it, then guess what? People know when you're going to be on the clock and when you're off. So I think my relationship in my own house is probably the most complicated of anyone. I am on the admin side, obviously, but my husband's a coach and a director, so if he's on the fields in the evenings, I'm in the office during the days. So I think I have a unique perspective of seeing both sides. I can be a little bit more sensitive to that. But there is a balance. And we just have to honor people when they're like, hey, I need a break. I need a break. And just know that they're being truthful about that and that there is space for breaks to happen. I think summer is unique. Obviously, seasons are. There are high peaks in certain seasons. Fall is a huge one. Spring is a huge one. Summer and winter slow down a little, not a ton. We still run camps and have things going on indoor leagues. But, yeah, it's just being respectful and honoring the balance of it all and knowing, like, if I'm going to share that I need a break or Scott's going to need a break, or anyone in their. Their varying roles need a break. We need to recognize it and allow it to happen.

So Sarah and your family. So we run into this, you know, different roles in an organization. Sometimes it's actually the Visionary integrator duo. In this case, it's, you know, you and your husband kind of different roles in the organization are associated with it. So do you compartmentalize so that, you know, there's a time where we don't talk about that, or that's not a thing, or does it just all kind of run together? How do you handle it?

Yeah, that's a great question. I definitely compartmentalize. It's the only way I think I can function if I'm able to say it. The hardest part, I would say, is that we work from home a lot of the times, and so it's a little bit more difficult to compartmentalize because you never leave your. Your office if you work from home a lot. Right. So. But for me, yeah, my husband's name is Patrick. Patrick knows that I'm probably not going to talk about work at all at the end of the day. And he just. Yeah, he's supportive of that because I need a break from work and he's just kind of getting started coming home from. From the fields. And I think if we're honest, yeah, he's compartmentalizing as well. We're in two separate spaces, but also interconnected. So if we wanted to talk about work all the time, we'd probably drown if we didn't compartmentalize. So it's probably the most difficult part of the dynamic, if I'm honest. Just given that they are similar spaces and we're dealing with similar problems and having to bounce solutions off of each other during work hours, I should say. But we would only talk about work if we didn't choose to compartmentalize and live in that space.

So I appreciate that. And I gotta believe in your world, everybody must have some kind of a shared passion for the sport. Right? I mean, that's. Or they wouldn't be there. Does that show up in your core values? Where does that show up in terms of how you think about who's the right person for your organization?

That's probably the heartbeat of what a lot of us got into the youth sports to begin with. Right. We were athletes as kids. It's what kind of is the. Is the drum that keeps us going. We want kids to experience what we experienced. We loved either the sport or what I think Scott said it before. The coach that they had. It's all ingrained in what all of. We're competitors. There's all of that in us. And that is what brings us to the organization to begin with or esports organization to begin with. So that's an easy answer. I think we don't even really ask, hey, do you love this sport or do you love. Because they do. They wouldn't be in the job if they didn't. Right. So they wouldn't be pursuing the role. So it's, I think it's just a natural, organic part of, of what we're doing in this world. So in this organization our core values are not focused on sports, they're focused on the human side. But we know that it just naturally happens because people aren't coaching and dealing with all the madness of coaching and esports if they didn't love it and really, really care about it and have a passion for it. So that's just a natural part of it.

Love that. Scott, anything you'd add to that?

Yeah, just one. I mean one of our, our core values is believe in the mission. We felt it was important enough to say that we're doing sport maybe a bit differently than others because this is what we value. Because you could go to another organization that values winning over everything or they value something else, you know. So we wanted to be very, very clear through our core values. And what, what are, what are we, what are the type of people we want? And so yeah, I think, you know, the whole idea of right people, right seats, I mean from a right people perspective, I feel like we've, we've really moved in the direction that we feel like if not everybody, the majority of people are the right people. And that changes a bit over time and people sort of self select out and other things. But people know what we stand for within our organization and I think that's really strong. And we reward based on that. We, we, we recognize people based on that. And so that constant hearing that being rewarded for it, recognized for it is, is really, it just keeps the flag will go and people want that.

Yeah, love that. Love that. Today's episode is sponsored by birthing of giants visionaries. You've built a great company using eos. So what's next? Are you happy to stay small or do you want to go big? Join other successful visionaries for a week long business owner boot camp that leverages EOS and other gross principles such as capital, market readiness and revenue amplification. Add millions to your company's value by studying the roadmaps of successful post exit entrepreneurs. Head over to birthingofgiants.comeos and schedule a call with a board member right now. All right, so on your website you use the word kaizen. So for our audience, what, what does kaizen mean. And how does that play out in your world?

Yeah, so kaizen is the. From Chinese Art of War. The idea of continuous improvement. And I think, you know, we strive to be what we would. Behind the scenes, we'd call. We'd strive to be a model sports club. We want to be the model. The thing is that I don't know who the model is right now. So it's not like something else where you're like, oh, that's who we want to be. We actually think that we're sort of creating that and we're being pioneers in that. And so if you want that, then really you have to be in a state of continuous improvement. And I'd say humility is important. We have to admit that no matter how big we get, how awesome we are, the accolades, the people, whatever it might be, we have to keep improving. I mean, we've said it for a long time that we'll have competitors in this space, but at the end of the day, we've got to stay focused on what we're doing and keep doing it better and better and better, admitting when we've done wrong and improving it. And so I feel like if we're asking that of the players on the field. Right. It's a perfect analogy. Most of our staff can really relate to sports analogies. And so we want to. Regardless of whether our teams win on the field or get the championship or the trophy or whatever it might be, our idea is we have to just continuously improve. So if every player is focused on that, every team is focused on that, we're going to see. We're going to see successes because of that.

So, Sarah, maybe you could expand on that a little bit. And operationally, so when you think about core processes, you think about things like that. What's an example of something where you've actually moved down the path of continuous improvement, maybe in a difficult way? So where, you know, Scott used the. If we make a mistake, you know, we. We gotta call it what it is and, you know, confront it and then deal with it to make it better. Something come to mind that would be a good example.

I mean, as he was talking, I was like, that's why we got into eos, is because we knew that we needed to get better operationally. And that was the. Just such an easy platform to be like, yeah, this is gonna catapult the whole organization forward from a. Just, hey, this is how we can get better. Let's just do that. And so I would say core processes have been Just diving into that and really getting things written down and creating those operational procedures that is not fun work for most people in the sports world. Let's just own that. That is they'd rather be on the fields and playing with kids and sitting in and making coaching plans. But diving into that operational procedures, whether it's a manual or it's just, hey, these are key core processes in our organization. Hiring, registration processes, communication, all of that. That has been time consuming and challenging just getting it written down because it we are inventing the wheel. There is no wheel that we can go out and find that someone's doing it already. So I think that's been probably one of the biggest challenges I think for. Because it's taken a lot of time. We're what, two and a half years in at this point and we're still, it's still part of our someone's rock. Every quarter is hey, right, let's get these processes in a place that's accessible to everyone in our organization, not just, you know, these core group of people.

Okay, so you, you reminded me of another thought. So when I think about nonprofit organizations, you know, people will ask, you know, can it, can it work? Does it, does it work in a non profit? And usually the response I'll give them is it's all about, you know, two things. One is commitment, you got to really wanna. And the second piece is accountability. And so in your organization I'm going to guess that you have some people that are pure volunteers. Is that true? And some people that they may not be 100% volunteers but they kind of are because they're doing it for maybe less than market or it's part time or whatever and they want to contribute and they're aligned and all those things. But those are sometimes challenging situations to try to create accountability. And we always talk about the integrator is really has to be our shining light, our shining example of great accountability. They really have to be the best in the organization. So Sarah, talk to me about that. How are you creating accountability in the organization and what's the key to making it work well and what's still tough? What's a real challenge to create accountability in your team?

Yeah, I would say the biggest game changer for us is L10s getting everyone in an L10 that is the easiest and quickest way to create accountability. Because showing up every week and saying I'm either on track or I'm off track or I haven't done my to dos man, that is like owning it each week So I would say if your organization does not have everyone in their L10s, they need to be, because that's the easiest and quickest way to make that happen. I will say that the struggle for us would be those part time and volunteers. You know, how do you get them on the same page? And that I think does go back to real clear processes. Every volunteer can't be in an L10. They have their own jobs, they've got, you know, all these other things in their lives. They're just showing up each, you know, Monday to practice or whatever. But if our communication is really clear, our process is really clear, it's really easy to make that handoff and say, oh, yeah, I can do this. I can show up at this piece of paper and do what I need to do. You know, if we don't have a clear system in place and they're going to be renegade and they're not going to know what's going on. There's a team that's set up right in that L10 to really help in those spaces with volunteers and part time coaches. And so if your core staff, your full timers are really ingrained in what we're doing, they're really, each week saying, yeah, I'm in, I'm on track, I've got this going. Oh, here's my to do. Here's what's happening. Here are the cascading messages from other teams that I need to know about. You know, if we're really clear in those spaces, it's naturally gonna to work out in the, in the other areas as well. So. And honestly, I have seen in our, in our space, in our organization, people are enjoying the accountability. Gosh, it creates just some real. It's encouraging to each other to be like, yeah, you're on. This is great. It's fun to be able to say you're on track. I mean, that's a beautiful thing, right? So I think it's hard to be open and honest with your team and be like, man, I just, it's three weeks in a row where I'm just off track. Oh, goodness. Then the team can say, all right, you're off track. Let's, let's make it an issue and how can we help, right? And so it just creates this better collaborative effort in general. And that's awesome. That's the fun part of it.

And it's kind of a form of a game, right? And you talked about your competitors and you want it, you want to do well, right, Scott, Anything else you would Add that you see maybe that Sarah's doing that's, that's having that impact of creating more accountability in the organization.

I do think it's really key. We are fortunate to have gone over the course of the last 20 years of my time here, we've gone from what I would say is a very active, engaged board that is like, you know, they're outlining soccer fields on the weekend and they're coaching teams because we didn't have a coach. And they're, you know, the ultimate team manager. Mom being involved, you know, all of those things too. Now having a governing board and the governing board, they have full trust and faith in our leadership team, myself and Sarah and our others, that they allow us to make the decisions and run the operations of the club and really just speak wisdom into us and make sure that we're continuing to deliver on what we say we're going to deliver on. So I highly just say for any nonprofit that's looking to utilize eos, that, that board, if it's a real involved board, and unlike the day to day, I can see struggle happening because there needs to be a clear delineation between it. So that would be like my main comment about being a nonprofit and operating on EOS in terms of Sarah and having accountability. I think the other piece that maybe, I don't know that we run this exactly like EOS is intended. But after we do our leadership team quarterly, we a couple days later have our quarterly meeting for all of our other departments at the same time in the same place. And she kind of helps facilitate that for consistency reasons. Right. And what I have found that that's, I think we just recently had our third. Is that right, Sarah? Of those. So 3/4, if I think back to 2, the second time we did that, to listen to the new rocks that were formed from each of the groups, each of the teams, if you will, to see how aligned those rocks were with our rocks in terms of like moving the organ. I didn't feel like any rock was like, where the heck are they going with that? You know, there was like, there was real alignment, which created accountability, which created, you know, to talk about vision, to traction. I mean, these are the people that are literally on the field with the kids. And I always say in our organization, even though I just, I just shared with you our core statement. That core statement, like we can talk about facilities and, and all this cool stuff we're doing and everything, but the bottom line is if, if kids and families don't have an amazing experience with their coach on the field, all that stuff doesn't matter. Right. And so that's, that's when I first like what I would say, like, okay, now we're getting true traction down through the organization was those moments. So I think the quarterly, especially the way we've done it, has created an incredible level of accountability.

Love that, Love that. Okay, so one, one more question that I think is unique to the two of you. So you've known each other, worked together, sounds like about 11 years, have that, right? So talk to me how you think that has changed the journey that you've gone on in developing this visionary integrator relationship versus someone who maybe is just, you know, they're new to each other. So what, what is all that time, all that experience that you had together, coming into this, how has that impacted you?

It makes me saying no a lot easier.

Okay, what makes it easier?

Yeah, so I would say we've just built trust over time, right. We've been in similar seats, we've walked through similar experiences. We've always, we've always been in the same organization the last 11 years, right? He's been the leader. I've been this, this person that he's mentored and he believed in me to do things that I didn't think I was ready to do. And he's like, go for it, you got it. Like, just make it happen. And I'm like, okay, this is gonna be, you know, and when someone trusts you like that, there's just, that's, that's a natural progression for us, is that I'm naturally gonna return that back to him. Right. So I think for us, we've always been real open and honest probably from the get go. And Scott creates that space of being able to say things that need to be said versus, you know, I don't have this fear, retribution if I share, hey, this is actually how I'm feeling and this is not a good idea or this is not the direction that I think we should be going. And that comes with time, truthfully, and hard conversations and hard experiences. And I would say 11 years. There's a lot of this on the journey, right? Whether it was our organization or personally walking through different things. So I think with time it just naturally happens if you're willing to let it happen. And Scott's led really well in that space to always be respect my opinion, that's not in the, in the sports world. Being a female in a male dominated space, he's taken a huge risk. If I'm being honest Allowing a female to step in and lead a lot of men, because that's, we have a lot of men in the organization. And I think that's challenged us both, if I'm being honest, but allowed us to have a dynamic relationship that I would say a lot of organizations don't have. And I know we're very lucky because of it. But I credit to him just being willing to be honest and take some risks where, where they have had over the time over the last several years. So it's good.

What's key to you, Scott, in maintaining, you know, trust is one of those things where it takes a long, long time to build it up and we can screw it up like that. Right. And so, so what do y' all do intentionally to kind of protect and continue to build that, that foundation of trust that you've built over all this time?

Yeah, I think from a practical perspective, a same page meeting every week is super helpful, you know, especially for someone like me who is just constantly having new ideas and all these things pop up. Like, I could see it being incredibly exhausting for someone like Sarah to just like constantly hear all like, we're going that way now, we're going this way, and they're doing that. And that would be exhausting. I, I, I'm sure. So the same page meeting really allows like this sort of holding tank to, for, like, for me. And sometimes she doesn't know this, but sometimes I actually delete things from this. By the time we get to it, she doesn't believe it because there's like 49 things on a one week in one week. But, but I mean, really, that is sort of like an opportunity to like, level set every single week on what's going on. And it's an opportunity to again, if there are things that we're, you know, starting to feel or there's a rub or something, just talk about it. And you know, we both respect each other enough to know that like, even if we say something that's hard to hear, which we both have to each other, it's all in love, if you will. I mean, really, it's, it's, it's true because we care about each other and about the organization and we have to be that way. Otherwise if we sweep it under the rug, sweep it under the rug, sweeping under the rug, it'll get worse and worse and worse. And we're telling everybody else that that's okay as well. And I think that we, we've taken extreme responsibility for how we interact and how we operate to be the, the example for the rest of the organization. If, if the rest of organizations saw us operating any differently, I wouldn't blame them for gossiping and you know, and acting in a way that wasn't in line with our values. And so I just, you know, we work together really well again to that delegate elevate tool. I mean really where Sarah's. The spaces that she is great at and loves doing. She is spending a lot of her time there and I, as opposed to even three years ago, I'm spending a significant amount of my time in that love and great at and that's an awesome place to be. And that's rare. And I don't take it for granted if we didn't have our situation, a visionary integrator and even if we didn't have the situation of the rest of our leadership team, when you put us all together, every single one of the working genius is covered. And so that's again, that's rare.

Right.

And so we have a great team that, that makes it so enjoyable because we're all doing the majority, spending the majority of our time doing the things we love and we're best at and that's really thankful for that. And EOS has helped maybe not like create that necessarily, but it certainly has enlightened us to really focus more on that, make sure that we're doing more and make sure that we're doing that downward through our organization to help those people. Because we have found over the last two and a half years, not to go on a tangent, but the number of times we have found that we actually had the right person, they're just in the wrong seat is we just thought they were a jerk and they were, they just actually were doing the wrong things that don't make them happy. Right. And like, and when we got them in the right place, all of a sudden it's like, he's a really nice guy, you know, it's like amazing how that changed. And so that just that I think again back to just our, the way that we interact with. We want to be the example for others to do the same. We don't take that for granted.

Super cool. Sarah, you look like you were going to add something.

Yeah, I was just, I was thinking we've been in two meetings in the last week where we referenced our same page meeting or we've referenced our how if we're not leading well at the top, if we're not holding ourselves to a different standard, a higher standard, then we can't expect that of other people. Right. So I think our relationship, our dynamic is so vital to the health of the organization and we take that very seriously. It's a weighty responsibility and I think that's what is so valuable. Right. If we're going to treat that in this way, everyone else will too, or we hope they will. Right. But you can't expect it if you're not doing it yourself.

Love how serious you are about that. We say a lot, you know, as the leadership team goes, so goes the rest of the organization. Well, as the visionary integrator goes, so goes the leadership team. So, so I, I love that you're taking it, taking it that serious. So that's probably a good note for us to wrap this one up on before we close though. If folks want to find out more about your organization, want to find out more about either one of you or get in touch, what's the best place for them to do that?

Go to our website, www.ncfusion.org. we're both on LinkedIn as well and our website is also. Or our organization is also on LinkedIn. So check us out either of those places.

And we'd love for people to subscribe to our podcast at NC Fusions. Right now it's just our parents, but, but we're hoping that more Listen, that's.

How all good podcasts start.

And they love it. And they love it. But we, we do, we do enjoy talking about the trials and tribulations of youth sports on the podcast and also enjoy sharing some really cool stories of the impact of sport on people's lives.

Very cool. Sounds like a great one. Well, thanks again. I've really enjoyed our chat and I know you've given some great value to the folks that are listening. So, you know, we try to help each other and sharing stories, sharing experiences helps us all hopefully get there a little bit quicker and with a little bit less pain. We don't all have to make all the same mistakes. Right. We can learn and get better. So I know you've helped some folks. So thanks for that. To our listeners, thanks for listening. If this has been something good or helpful for you, love it. If you'd leave a review. That's how other people find out about us and that's how we can help more people. Wow. What a great conversation with Scott and Sarah. So grateful to both of them for sharing some of their experiences. Hopefully make us all a little bit better. And so now let's go to the rocket fuel toolbox and kind of tie some of this stuff back to the tools. So a couple different things jumped out for me on this one. Number one, you heard them talk about the crystallizer assessments and just getting clear. And you know, if you go to our website, if you haven't, go to rocketfueluniversity.com and take that crystallizer assessment. It's going to give you a score for your indicator as being a visionary and your indicator as being an integrator. So it's how you're naturally wired. It's not a pass fail. So it's not necessarily whether you are one or aren't, but if you will be really honest and answer it truthfully. Being truthful with yourself on how much you enjoy doing these various things, it's going to help you see and it's going to help you see. You know what, there's some things maybe I can do, but I just don't love them. And what you'll find is if someone scores high on the visionary things or scores high on the integrator things, that's a pretty good indicator that that's going to be easier for them to do those things than somebody who scores lower. Again, not pass fail, not whether you can or can't, but it helps you get a really good picture of kind of where you show up relative to the, the core roles that we typically see in each of those seats. So that was one. And you heard Scott talk about how, you know, it led him to see that he needed to put some of these things down. And there's a tool related to it called delegate and Elevate that looks at how competent you are in certain areas versus how much really joy you get from certain, certain things. And so do you it are you really great at it? Those are the kinds of things we want you doing. Those are energizing for you and what a great place to be for in your visionary integrator duo where you're really focused on those things that you love and you're great at and those things that you're not so good at that you don't enjoy. Those are the things that we need to delegate. Being sure that we delegate them to someone who actually gwcs those things. And a big aha for many of you, I know it was for me, is that some of this stuff that you hate, there's somebody out there that loves it. And if you hang on to it, you're not doing them any favors. You're not doing yourself any favors. So we need to let those go, Let people take those things over that truly do Love those things and are great at them. It's going to make everything spin faster. So delegate and elevate was another one. You also heard a lot of discussion about core values and core focus as those both on the vto. But one of the interesting things was one of their core values was that somebody is focused on their mission and believes in their mission, you know, which ties that into, into core focus. So interesting alignment there and kind of how that shows up for them. But they repeatedly talked about how they use core values in all of their people conversations, hiring, firing, reviewing, rewarding. Recognizing that just comes up again and again and again. They're always tying it back. So. So that was a great use of a tool. And then finally when I asked the question about accountability, boom, she went right to the level 10. Sarah talked about how the level 10 and getting everyone in the organization in a weekly level 10 for them was super powerful in creating that accountability, bringing it to the next level. And in their world, it's kind of like a game. You know, you want to win, you want to get your to do's done, you want to be making progress, you want to be on track and ultimately done on your rocks. You want your scorecard metrics to be on track. So that really comes to life. That's the way their culture works, that's the way they're wired. They're intentional about that. So another tool in your toolbox to help you do the same, get the same kind of results. So go sign up for RocketFuelUniversity.com if you haven't already. Free resources for you there. Become a part of our community of visionaries and integrators. Take the assessment, learn more tools, and take the next step in your journey to mastery. So that's it for this episode and until next time, go Rocket. Thanks so much for joining me today. I really hope you were inspired by our guests. If you're interested to discover how your current visionary integrator relationship compares to the relationship you'd like, I invite you to go visit rocketfueluniversity.com and take our free crystallizer assessment. You'll get both your visionary and integrator indicator scores and that's going to help you figure out your next step. You cannot build a great business on multiple operating systems. You must choose one. EOS1 is the simple to use software exclusively from the makers of EOS. By bringing everything EOS into one place, EOS1 allows you to run better meetings, access the foundational tools faster, and build a More Accountable Team. One Vision One System One Team. Start your 30 day free trial of EOS One today at eos1.com.