Ep204 Cary Matthews - Breaking Free from Operational Chaos: The Hidden Framework Behind Sustainable Business Growth

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Cary Matthews
there has to be a reason why people choose to work with you

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Cary Matthews
over somebody else.

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Cary Matthews
you need to understand

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Cary Matthews
who are you trying to attract?

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Cary Matthews
And how do you capitalize or what makes you different so you can go reach your goals?

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Mike O'Neill
welcome to Get Unstuck and On Target, the weekly podcast that offers senior leaders insights and strategies to not only lead with competence and vision,

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Mike O'Neill
but also to achieve groundbreaking results.

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Mike O'Neill
I'm your host, Mick O'Neill. I coach top level executives on the power of ethical leadership to forge teams to be as united as they are effective

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Mike O'Neill
in each episode.

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Mike O'Neill
Join me for insightful conversations with leaders just like you, providing practical advice to help you get unstuck and propel you and your company forward.

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Mike O'Neill
Let's get started.

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Mike O'Neill
Welcome to Get Unstuck and On Target. Today we're joined by Kerry Matthews, a seasoned strategist and operations leader whose experience spans fortune 50 companies and thriving small businesses. Kerry offers a masterclass in aligning operational excellence with a compelling organizational ethos, making him a trusted resource for leaders who want to turn vision into action. As an executive coach working with senior leaders, I see every day how clarity, discipline and adaptability are non-negotiables for sustainable success.

00:01:31:22 - 00:02:00:12
Mike O'Neill
In this episode, Kerry and I dive into practical strategies that help leaders break through bottlenecks, scale with intention, and build businesses that truly thrive. This isn't just theory. It's actionable insight for leaders who demand results. So if you're ready to elevate your leadership and achieve a lasting impact. Grab your pen, get comfortable, and let's rethink what's possible. Let's get unstuck and on target.

00:02:00:12 - 00:02:28:24
Mike O'Neill
Joining me today is Kerry Matthews, a seasoned strategist and operations leader with a passion for empowering small businesses. Kerry's Academic Foundation in Electrical Engineering and Business Administration from Auburn University, combined with early career experience in fortune 500 companies, has equipped him with invaluable tools and insights. These skills now fuel his work as a certified strategy coach and a fractional CEO.

00:02:29:01 - 00:02:58:19
Mike O'Neill
Through his leadership at Opal productivity Group, Kerry has made it his mission to help businesses get unstuck by crafting actionable strategies that turn visions into reality. By leveraging proven methodologies like system and soul, he has become a trusted resource for small business owners, aiming to overcome operational bottlenecks and achieve sustainable growth. Welcome, Kerry.

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Cary Matthews
Good morning Mike. Thanks for having me.

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Mike O'Neill
Well, it's good to have you as well. Kerry, you and I have had the opportunity to know each other and we both have worked with a, a client together. But I've never had an opportunity to have a conversation about your specific approach to how you go about supporting businesses. I guess I have to start by saying war Eagle, War Eagle.

00:03:22:04 - 00:03:34:05
Mike O'Neill
But I also know that the kind of work that you do, you have worked in fortune 500 companies, but you choose to work with smaller companies. Why?

00:03:34:07 - 00:03:53:22
Cary Matthews
You know, I started out with, in a fortunate fortune 50 company. I worked for a couple of those, for the first about ten, years of my career. During that time, I had the experience of bringing on, some outside people to work with us and do some projects and really like the culture and the impact that they had.

00:03:53:24 - 00:04:14:05
Cary Matthews
And some friends of mine joined Datacom many, many years ago back in the.com boom. But I decided to join them and I fell in love with small business. You're you can pivot, you can be responsive. When you're there, you have an impact that you can't see that that you can have in a large company like that. And I just loved it.

00:04:14:05 - 00:04:27:01
Cary Matthews
And I think the small businesses, they're the lifeblood of our communities. In aggregate, small businesses hire more people than us, than large companies do. So the impact and the reach of small businesses is huge.

00:04:27:03 - 00:04:52:15
Mike O'Neill
Well, Carrie, we share a similar background. I work for a large company, but I choose to work with smaller companies, in large part for the reasons that you just kind of mentioned. Your focus and working with companies is primarily operational and more importantly, help them kind of understand the mechanics of running the business. Can we kind of tease out a little bit about those roles?

00:04:52:15 - 00:05:09:17
Mike O'Neill
And I may be mischaracterizing you. I introduce you as someone who can help with your operational methodology and also someone that if they choose, they might choose to use you as a fractional CEO. Is that a correct characterization?

00:05:09:19 - 00:05:34:03
Cary Matthews
It is. And I started this business, about eight years ago, focusing purely on the fractional operations piece. That's where my expertise was. I had been the CEO for small businesses for about 15 years, and decided to take that to a larger audience and help small businesses that didn't have the same, opportunities that I had for growth and learning and, expertise.

00:05:34:05 - 00:06:06:05
Cary Matthews
As I did that, more and more, I found that the areas that I enjoyed the most and the like, I had the best impact, with my clients was really working on the strategy piece, whether that strategy development or execution, that's where I enjoy. So I tend to I've narrowed my focus to, to doing that. And then having worked with multiple clients and different operating systems, been exposed to a lot of different ways that people do the strategic planning and, development and system.

00:06:06:05 - 00:06:25:09
Cary Matthews
And so really resonated with me because it, it does the systems and the processes, but also really focuses on the people and the culture. And it's rare to find something that can do both of those. And I like doing doing that piece of it because it's really all encompassing. People don't go to small business because it's their only option.

00:06:25:09 - 00:06:45:11
Cary Matthews
They do it because they want to be in a small business, small business, especially small business founders. It's a tough job. It can be a lonely job. And if I can be a resource to help them reach their goals, whatever those goals are, personal or professional, that's what really makes me happy. So I really focus on that element of it.

00:06:45:13 - 00:07:06:05
Cary Matthews
I am probably doing more of the system in small coaching now than I am doing the fractional work, but what I found is I have to meet my clients where they are. They're coming to me because they have a challenge and they don't necessarily know what the solution to that challenge is. And sometimes we have some things we need to fix versus an operation standpoint just to get beyond the clutter.

00:07:06:11 - 00:07:19:18
Cary Matthews
So we can then have the bandwidth and the clarity to go build and execute a strategic plan. So, sometimes my clients are a mix of both rational SEO and strategic planning. Sometimes they're one or the other.

00:07:19:20 - 00:07:50:05
Mike O'Neill
It makes a lot of sense. I like to go back to small business. Over these years that I've been hosting this podcast, I have found that people misunderstand the term small business. They think of just mom and pop. Small business, as defined by the Small Business Administration, means that these businesses are much larger. When you describe a small business kind of help quantify that, what constitutes how big can you get and still be small?

00:07:50:05 - 00:07:51:18
Mike O'Neill
I guess that's the question.

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Cary Matthews
Yeah. So I'll answer that a couple of ways. So I like to focus on the clients that have somewhere between 10 to 250 employees. Revenue is not as important to me as, as that count, but usually that's somewhere in the couple of million dollars plus, in terms of top line revenue. And that's where I tend to do my narrow my focus to.

00:08:14:23 - 00:08:46:21
Cary Matthews
They're all privately held. I'm industry agnostic because most small businesses have the same issues. There is a lot of question what is a small business versus a large business versus a mid-sized business? And I remember in my business group many years ago, we talked about that. And there's sort of the idea that you have a lot of resources focus on small business that is, you know, below, say, 25 or $30 million, and the large businesses are $100 million plus in revenue.

00:08:46:23 - 00:09:04:20
Cary Matthews
Then you have that no man's land where you're either a large small business or a small, large business. And that's probably the area that is, the type of client that is probably struggling the most for their own definition, their own, specialized resources, because they are kind of bridging that gap here.

00:09:04:21 - 00:09:43:22
Mike O'Neill
You, like me, enjoy working with company founders. There's something about in their DNA. They went and started a business. And when that business succeeds, and for that matter, even thrives, it presents a whole new set of, of kind of issues. Speak a little bit. You choose to work with organizations. And I thought it was interesting. You quantified it more by employee count in revenue, but managing an organization with 50 compared to 100 employees compared to 200.

00:09:43:24 - 00:09:49:08
Mike O'Neill
It's not a linear progression in terms of complexity, is it?

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Cary Matthews
It's not. I mean, just think about if you had, five people and you drew them, you know, you put five, five dots on a in a circle, and if you drew all the lines connecting them, and then you doubled that to ten and drew all the lines, connect them. That's that's the different paths, the communication that you could have.

00:10:06:21 - 00:10:40:14
Cary Matthews
And it doesn't just double, it increases exponentially the larger you get. And that's why you have to take a look at the structure and the process and the communications to make sure people know what their role is, who they, who they're impacting. I use the analogy quite frequently of, a knowledge, factory or assembly line because you're somebody you as an individual or as a department or a group are getting some inputs, whether it is physical or intellectual.

00:10:40:16 - 00:10:57:20
Cary Matthews
You're doing something with those and then moving them on. So you have inputs and outputs so that that's true with knowledge and data as well as, you know, physical things and understanding what that looks like and what those impacts are is really critical.

00:10:57:22 - 00:11:28:21
Mike O'Neill
You know, you mentioned that you were looking for kind of a an approach, a framework that they kind of embraced. And it's in our conversation in preparation for this episode that I was really introduced to System and Soul. And when you think about it, now that I know the context, it makes sense. But if you would help us better understand those two elements of system and so.

00:11:28:23 - 00:12:04:01
Cary Matthews
Certainly the system part is probably easy, I think most people are familiar with that. It is the tools and it's the structure and it's the process that, that that you use to run your business. And it's not just the process of developing your strategic plan, it's the processes of actually running your business. Right. You have all those different processes that you follow, you document, and a lot of people and mail my profession operations is very guilty of focusing on documentation and process and software, all those things to make it run.

00:12:04:03 - 00:12:35:05
Cary Matthews
But you know what? It takes people to run it. There is there is a culture that's either intentional or unintentional that you have developed in your business. There are values that you need to live by and use to make decisions. And all of those things are much more softer skills. That's the that's the the soul side of the business is that developing people, developing culture, building that, those values that really resonated with me when I found system.

00:12:35:05 - 00:12:53:06
Mike O'Neill
And so let's go through each in turn. I know that there are a lot of system methodologies out there. What is it about the system? And so methodology from a system standpoint that appeals to you?

00:12:53:08 - 00:13:19:21
Cary Matthews
Okay. First of all, it's very understandable. The language is not complex. And we use terms that are going to be very familiar to you. It's it was developed by some guys who, I think highly I've known for many years and they've been serial entrepreneurs and they've seen first hand what works in their businesses, and they've used some of the other operating systems.

00:13:19:21 - 00:13:45:08
Cary Matthews
And and they said, you know, let's cut away the stuff. That doesn't make sense. Let's amplifier what, and let's fill in the gaps. And that really resonated with me when, when I first started talking with them about what their process looked like, they didn't tell me why they built it. I told them what I was looking for, and what I saw as being the need in the industry is what they built.

00:13:45:10 - 00:13:54:19
Cary Matthews
And that's why it resonated with me. So I love that, very being, very sound on the systems, but not ignoring the other side of the business.

00:13:54:21 - 00:14:16:08
Mike O'Neill
So let's talk about the other side. I'm a little bit intrigued by the term soul. Yeah, because it it connotes a lot of different things. When you went to these folks and said, this is what I'm looking for, and it checked the boxes from a system standpoint, what boxes did it check from a soul standpoint?

00:14:16:10 - 00:14:37:23
Cary Matthews
So when I started my career as a fractional CEO, I, you know, kind of created my own way of doing strategic planning. And I had the concept of company DNA. That's who we are. What makes us different, what are our values? All of those things. To me, that is the most important thing that you have to define first before you do anything else.

00:14:38:00 - 00:15:02:19
Cary Matthews
If you want to build a sustainable culture and attract people to come work with you and for you, and to identify the clients that are there that need to buy from you, yeah, because you have competitors. You know what? What makes you stand apart. And that really is important to me, understanding what makes us different. And then the whole values conversation we, we use in system.

00:15:02:19 - 00:15:25:14
Cary Matthews
And so we, we call it the culture equation. So yes, we have values. And most companies when I work with them they have value stated already. I challenge them to rethink those values. How can we make them unique? I tell everybody, if you say our values are honesty, integrity and customer first I'm going to ask you, well, who doesn't have those?

00:15:25:16 - 00:15:54:24
Cary Matthews
To me, that's a low bar of entry. Let's, let's, let's refine those. Let's make them unique to us. Let's really hone in on what makes us unique. What are our values. And then you have, you know, culture. And I tell people that if you don't understand culture, think about it this way. If you were to read a glass door review about your business from one of your current or previous employees, what would you hope that it said?

00:15:55:01 - 00:16:19:01
Cary Matthews
And that is that is the culture you're trying to create. Well, something has to bridge the values and culture, and that's the organizational habits. Those are the things that we do together, and those can be whatever resonates with you. It could be something like, we have a monthly social. It could be that we, do, you know, once a year we do a habitat for humanity build.

00:16:19:03 - 00:16:42:06
Cary Matthews
Yeah. It could be very external, activity focused. It could be something more of day to day. Like, we always ask each other hard questions, or we embrace feedback or we celebrate wins. Whatever those things you do together, collectively as a team, that helps reinforce those values, that's what builds a culture. It it takes all three of those things to have a healthy organization.

00:16:42:06 - 00:16:46:10
Cary Matthews
And for you to be intentional, to work on maintaining those things.

00:16:46:12 - 00:16:50:07
Mike O'Neill
Did you call those habits organizational habits?

00:16:50:13 - 00:16:58:00
Cary Matthews
So values are values plus organizational habits equals culture.

00:16:58:02 - 00:17:10:18
Mike O'Neill
All of those three when you're working with a clients, what of those three do you find that the the organization might struggle with most?

00:17:10:20 - 00:17:37:21
Cary Matthews
I will say there's really two things. They they usually are pretty clear on what culture they want, when they we may help refine it and, you know, pick better words that are more descriptive of or more definitive. Sometimes they struggle to identify the cultural, the, the organizational habits because they do, almost automatic and get them to identify that those things are part of what makes them who they are, is a little bit eye opening.

00:17:38:02 - 00:18:06:12
Cary Matthews
And sometimes people are pretty ingrained. We love our values. Okay. But let's really dig in. Are they really the values? Are they aspirational? Do they really exist in the organization? Are they unintentional? Have they outlived their prime? You know, has as the organization grown and changed so much that you need to relook at those? So getting people to kind of break out and look at their business with fresh eyes on those two elements can be a challenge.

00:18:06:14 - 00:18:24:01
Mike O'Neill
You know, you have brought the term, differentiation on at least two occasions thus far in this conversation. Is that something that you just naturally look at, or is that something that system wants or encourages you to help your clients focus on in this?

00:18:24:01 - 00:18:55:04
Cary Matthews
Been part of what I've done since I started, helping to other clients. You every business has competitors and. There has to be a reason why somebody is going to buy from you, rather than that your competitor down the street. If you're an employee and you're you're bringing all, team members, there has to be a reason why people choose to work with you over somebody else.

00:18:55:06 - 00:19:11:00
Cary Matthews
Those are very important to me. And those are. We spend a lot of time on that in the system. It's all process because you need to understand who are you trying to attract? And how do you capitalize or what makes you different so you can go reach your goals?

00:19:14:24 - 00:19:41:24
Mike O'Neill
This is very interesting. Curious, as I'm thinking about your target audience for your practice, you choose to work with a certain size organization, and that's a pretty broad, sweet spot to even broader. When you say that the kinds of things that you're talking about are not dependent on any given industry. For those who are listening, let's assume that these are business owners or business leaders.

00:19:42:01 - 00:19:49:07
Mike O'Neill
What might be the kinds of problems that they're dealing with that might would warrant reaching out to you?

00:19:49:09 - 00:19:53:06
Cary Matthews
So let's take that from, from the business owners perspective.

00:19:53:08 - 00:19:54:24
Mike O'Neill
Okay.

00:19:55:01 - 00:20:16:16
Cary Matthews
And I love my business owners. My founders, they're they're visionaries. They're willing to take risks. They have a lot of them. I just have a magnetic personality. They attract people to what they want to do. But they're not always the best, most disciplined, executed, in the day to day. That's not how they're built, how they're wired.

00:20:16:16 - 00:20:35:21
Cary Matthews
Now, they have to do that at the beginning because the team is small and it requires them doing both. But at some point they will get tired of that. And when you start seeing the fact that I don't, I'm spending too much time away from my family and not able to enjoy the business that I built them to in the weeds.

00:20:35:23 - 00:20:55:13
Cary Matthews
They also, funny enough, they they tend to shy away from the word accountability. They don't like holding people accountable or don't know how to hold people accountable. So when I start hearing issues like that, to me those are like, okay, we have some challenges here. We're going through the stages of growth, and we need to go from a small entrepreneur role.

00:20:55:13 - 00:21:18:04
Cary Matthews
Everybody knows that. Everybody's doing it to a professionally managed firm, and there are phases you have to go through for that, and that's where I like to step in and help give some clarity. Okay. How can we take whatever chaos you're feeling right now, whatever symptoms you're feeling, identify what's causing those things and those find a way to work ourselves out of those here.

00:21:18:04 - 00:21:22:09
Mike O'Neill
Do you prefer to work with growing companies?

00:21:22:11 - 00:21:49:05
Cary Matthews
I think most companies are growing. I mean, it's rare that you have a company that is that, you know, we're done growing. We're you know, we're here, but there are companies that are lifestyle businesses. They're not looking to aggressively grow 20% year over year. That's not who they want to be. And I'm happy to work with those. And what I usually find if you have a client that's more more of a lifestyle, they're probably looking for a future exit and they want to prepare for that.

00:21:49:05 - 00:22:21:14
Cary Matthews
They want to maximize that value and that potential and and what what is one of the key things you need to do there is to make the business not dependent upon the owner. And if we put a strong leadership team in place with a process for managing and running the business and doing the day to day, you can show that the company is not highly dependent upon that individual, and that's going to increase their likelihood of a future transaction and help, increase the valuations.

00:22:21:16 - 00:22:55:00
Mike O'Neill
I have brought on to this podcast, some experts on exit strategy and it usually reduced to a sentence is, is you put the right team in place to prepare. I've recently I've worked with a business owner who is preparing to sell the business, but didn't know how to prepare himself to exit. And in our work together, I came to a kind of renewed appreciation of how challenging that can be for a business founder in particular.

00:22:55:02 - 00:23:14:02
Mike O'Neill
And if even if they have good discipline processes, that care is introduced and they've got a clear understanding of who they are and the customers are going after and they're growing, letting go can be a challenge in itself. And you've encountered that.

00:23:14:04 - 00:23:36:11
Cary Matthews
100%. You think about somebody who's who took the risk and founded a business so much of their life and who they are, their identity and what they do is wrapped up in that business, especially if your name is on the business. Right. That's it's so hard to and I'm not going to use the word walk away. You're not trying to walk away.

00:23:36:13 - 00:23:55:19
Cary Matthews
You're trying to build something that's going to outlive, and it will create a legacy for you. So yeah, I think you have to look at it in, in that lives. Like what can I do to make sure that this thing that I've created is living, breathing thing that I've created? It's you want to continue without my constant nurturing?

00:23:55:21 - 00:24:24:04
Cary Matthews
You know, as long as there's still bear in the business, they can be that visionary, that can be that regarded by people looking at the the where are we going to go? They don't have to be there in the day to day. And just to, you know, follow up to the first part of your question, when I have a founder that is looking for an exit down the road, I start challenging them immediately to say, what are you going to do when you walk, when you when you hand the keys to the building over to somebody else, what are you going to do?

00:24:24:06 - 00:24:24:20
Mike O'Neill
Yeah.

00:24:24:22 - 00:24:33:18
Cary Matthews
Because you've had purpose. You've had a sense of something. You need to know what that's going to look like beforehand. Otherwise you're going to be lost.

00:24:33:20 - 00:24:59:21
Mike O'Neill
Yes. Well said. You know, when I introduce you is in part being a fractional CEO. I made maybe a wrong assumption, but it could be that it would seem to be that an organization might bring in a fractional CEO because something's not working. You know, at the same time, there's a flip of that, and that is it could be it is working that there's a limited bandwidth.

00:24:59:23 - 00:25:18:10
Mike O'Neill
Yeah. And so as we go back to the decision maker who might, would say, I want to reach out to Carrie and learn a little bit more. What is it about Carrie? What is about system and soul that differentiates you from the other folks doing similar work?

00:25:18:12 - 00:25:39:20
Cary Matthews
Well, I think the fact that I've got the ability to be a a fractional resource as well as a business coach and system and so I can I again, I can go back to meeting them where they are and I can do what I need to do. I have a lot of flexibility to use the tools, how I want to use them to help them reach their goals.

00:25:39:22 - 00:25:56:03
Mike O'Neill
And keeping the theme of this podcast, inevitably you are working with clients who, either individually or organizationally, found themselves stuck. Yeah. And you think of a situation where you helped them get unstuck.

00:25:56:05 - 00:26:22:02
Cary Matthews
I can and you know, I'll answer that two ways, I think is fairly people understand a little bit more about business coaching and strategic planning and how I play into that. And the values I bring there. And, you know, we worked with some common clients, might, asking hard questions, not being afraid to challenge, not being afraid to shepherd the group through difficult conversations.

00:26:22:04 - 00:26:46:22
Cary Matthews
I love doing that. And, that to me is, one of the things that is brings me a lot of joy to be able to help a team coalesce around ideas and challenge each other. To answer the other question, you know, in another way, using fractional SEO work, I had a long time client and friend, very successful business.

00:26:46:24 - 00:27:11:10
Cary Matthews
But they had some challenges. They needed to change their marketing. They needed to redo some of their digital assets. They needed to, automate some billing processes. They needed to automate some, reporting and some tools that their, their team was using. And they didn't have anybody to run point on those things. So we were just having a conversation.

00:27:11:10 - 00:27:33:10
Cary Matthews
We're having breakfast one day, and he was talking about those things. I said, well, I'm happy to help you. You know, so I'm not a marketing expert, but I helped him identify what the marketing needs were. Then I helped him find the the potential vendors that could potentially help us, the different marketing firms. And then I ran I was the project manager for helping lead those marketing efforts.

00:27:33:10 - 00:27:57:09
Cary Matthews
And I continued to do that today, working hand-in-hand with a long term marketing firm, that we've been running a digital, marketing program that's been expanding over the years for quite a while now. And then, went through two different software, definitions, like, what do they need to replace the outdated manual, analog methods that they're using today?

00:27:57:09 - 00:28:14:12
Cary Matthews
How can we shorten the, the time frame to bill and to collect money and remit payments and do reports? I did two efforts to define the scope of those projects. Again, find the vendors that act. This is project manager for implementation of those things.

00:28:14:14 - 00:28:46:18
Mike O'Neill
Here. I don't know if I've said this to you offline, but you made reference to that. You know, we shared, mutual client as an example. And here's what struck me. Your focus and my focus are very different. When an organization opens themselves to outside folks coming in, sometimes they can get mixed messages. What I found so comforting is that when issues arose, they might ask my opinion.

00:28:46:20 - 00:29:16:07
Mike O'Neill
They might ask your opinion independently. But more often than not, we are offering the same guidance. And that's unusual. But here's what that did for me, Carrie. It says, I know that Carrie is serving the client with the same degree of desire as I am, what's best for the client. But what also I found with you, Carrie, is that you don't sugarcoat you.

00:29:16:09 - 00:29:45:16
Mike O'Neill
You speak plainly in a way that's easy to understand. And so I can see why you have been drawn to system and Soul, because some of these concepts, particularly on the soul side, are a little bit hard to pin down. It might feel a little squishy, and I don't think anybody would accuse you of being squishy, or touchy feely per se, but, I just see how what you're doing and how you're doing it, how that kind of comes together.

00:29:45:18 - 00:30:01:12
Mike O'Neill
You've been doing this for some time now, right? If you were to look out into the future, what do you feel are kind of the biggest challenges that small business leaders are going to be facing in the coming next few years?

00:30:01:14 - 00:30:25:09
Cary Matthews
And the landscape has really changed. If I go back to when I started the business in 2017 versus now, we've lived through a pandemic. We lived through, remote hybrid work. We lived through the challenges of finding good people. We've seen interest rates rising, all those things. It just made the business environment tough. The competition is stronger.

00:30:25:09 - 00:30:57:02
Cary Matthews
The, the the cushion that you may have had in the past may not be there anymore. The risk of making, bad decisions, is probably, more prevalent than it was in the past. So I think those you're going to see those things continue finding and keeping good people, keeping them engaged. And I think making sure that they're, they're there for the right reasons.

00:30:57:04 - 00:31:28:22
Cary Matthews
And that's something we talk about in system. And so. System is all about strategy execution. Right. It starts with a vision and understanding who you are and why you exist is the most important thing. And I have to get my clients to be able to articulate and define that first and foremost. Because having a purpose and having people that believe in that purpose is huge.

00:31:28:24 - 00:31:52:10
Cary Matthews
So helping clients do that is really important. Then we take the, the strategic plan, which helps them. It turns that vision into execution. So having the right people, having that vision, that is huge. If I can solve one problem with my clients, is be able to articulate who they are, why they exist, and where they're going.

00:31:52:12 - 00:31:55:16
Cary Matthews
They're going to be in a better place.

00:31:55:18 - 00:32:18:12
Mike O'Neill
You know, you create a bridge in my mind that I didn't have at the beginning of this conversation. And that is it's one thing to have a plan. It could be entirely different thing to build, to execute on that plan. Oh, yes. And what I hear is if the foundation is established correctly, you've got a clear idea of where you want to go.

00:32:18:14 - 00:32:35:18
Mike O'Neill
Everything that you're doing from that point forward is not only aligned, but it's intended to go and accomplish those things in a way that people can step back and attribute their continuous success to the discipline that you're introducing.

00:32:35:20 - 00:32:58:19
Cary Matthews
Right? I mean, we start off when I when I first worked with the client on system, and so I start off teaching them tools that we're going to use to execute this plan that they're going to create. So we learn the tools first day one we learn tools and we start practicing using them. Then we the on day two and three we build out our strategic plan.

00:32:58:21 - 00:33:23:01
Cary Matthews
And then we have a cadence of talking about working on the business, not in the business for 60 to 90 minutes a week. And we make sure that we're talking about what we're working on, that we're moving towards our goals. We're using all these things that we built as filters to make good business decisions, that we're looking, at the, the different things and the different departments and how they're working.

00:33:23:03 - 00:33:47:07
Cary Matthews
And you've heard it said many times, what gets, measured, gets managed. Well, let's make sure we're measuring the right things that everybody knows how they're being measured. Add that clarity and all those tools together will help you sustain a vision. Because the in a strategic plan, the worst thing is to create a strategic plan. And it gets dusty sitting on a shelf or it's not shared with your team.

00:33:47:09 - 00:33:56:14
Cary Matthews
We have to have one that's living, dynamic breathing. It's understood. And it's used as a tool to build the business.

00:33:56:16 - 00:34:16:12
Mike O'Neill
You know, Kerry, as we wrap up, I would like to ask you if you could share one actionable insight that is what might be one step that small business leaders can take today that begins kind of aligning their systems with their vision for long term success.

00:34:16:14 - 00:34:38:21
Cary Matthews
You know, it's funny, I just did a series, for, LinkedIn. Top ten tips for making 2025 your Best Year ever. And, I'm going to I want to borrow from that because this is not fresh on my mind. The number one thing you can do is to have a plan, because if you don't have a destination, any road will get you there.

00:34:38:23 - 00:34:56:23
Cary Matthews
You know, there's the, I've heard this example. I don't know if it's, if it's apocryphal or if it's true, but, professor standing in front of a college, you know, lecture hall gave every student a ping pong ball and told them to throw it, and they did, and the balls went everywhere. That building met each other.

00:34:56:23 - 00:35:17:24
Cary Matthews
Tournament the walls that made him. Then he gave her by another ping pong ball, a drew a target. The front of the room, he said, hit the target. And they all do the target. You know the ball towards the target. Now. Some of them hit it, some got close, some of them, you know, whatever. But the idea is if you have a destination, you have a vision, you have a plan, you have a goal.

00:35:18:01 - 00:35:33:13
Cary Matthews
You can get people aligned working towards it. And if you don't have the basics and you've not able not able to articulate to your team what's in your head, I would start with try to figure that out today.

00:35:33:15 - 00:36:12:12
Mike O'Neill
Excellent. Before we close, I have a question for our listeners to reflect on. And that is, is your leadership empowering your team and your business to thrive, or are you caught in the same cycles without breakthrough progress? True leadership begins with clarity and purpose, and it grows through intention and thrives on resilience and adaptability. Folks know I'm an executive coach, and my role is to guide leaders in cultivating the clarity, the confidence and the strategy needed to inspire their teams and achieve meaningful, lasting results.

00:36:12:14 - 00:36:43:13
Mike O'Neill
At Bench Builders, we specialize in helping leaders unlock their full potential and create impact through actionable insights and proven strategies. So if you're ready to elevate your leadership, visit bench-builders.com. And what's more, how we can perhaps help you on that journey. Carrie, thank you again for sharing all this invaluable expertise for the listeners who want to learn more about your work or to connect with you, what's the best way for them to reach out?

00:36:43:15 - 00:37:04:10
Cary Matthews
They're certainly welcome to, visit my website. It's Opal. PGT comm stands for Opal partners Group. And you can find me on the web there. And there's a contact form they can fill out, or they can certainly, reach out to me at info at Opal, PGT comm, or call me at (678) 845-6141.

00:37:04:12 - 00:37:25:07
Mike O'Neill
Excellent. We will include that information in the show notes. And I also want to finally, give a big thank you to all the subscribers for tuning in. And I hope that today's conversation about System and Soar will provide you with actionable strategies to help you get unstuck and on target.

00:37:26:15 - 00:37:30:15
Mike O'Neill
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Get Unstuck and on Target.

00:37:30:17 - 00:37:51:05
Mike O'Neill
I hope you gain insights to help you lead with competence and drive your organization forward. Remember it, Bench builders. We're committed to your success, your leadership excellence, and your strategic growth. If you've enjoyed our conversation today, please leave a review rate and subscribe to keep up with our latest episode.

00:37:51:14 - 00:37:55:14
Mike O'Neill
This show really grows when listeners like you share it with others.

00:37:55:13 - 00:37:59:01
Mike O'Neill
Who do you know? Who needs to hear what we talked about today?

00:37:59:10 - 00:38:06:15
Mike O'Neill
Until next time, I encourage you to stay. Focus on the target and continue to break new ground on your leadership path.