Rocky Road Remedies Podcast

Welcome to episode 34 and this one goes out to the entire cannabis community. The coach is in and I think we should listen to her.

smoke down the best in cannabis and it is down the rocky road and i know just what you want to blow it goes through everything that it’s impossible when it’s time for the product to start the show you gotta walk down that rocky road

Welcome everybody to episode 34 of the Rocky Road Aurora podcast and we’re in a treat today because we got a coach in the house and her name is Dawn Abbott of Abbott Coaching and we’re so excited. Dawn, how are you?

I’m well. Thanks. Thanks. I’m honored to be here.

we’re so excited for you to be here. So it’s a little bit of a different angle we’re taking this time but I still would love as we usually do to you know kind of start with your story and I think that would paint up a really nice you know infrastructure for you know how it relates to the cannabis you know industry.

You bet. Yeah. So I started my first business when I was 21 with my husband. That was a long time ago. I’ll tell you the year was 1991. Now you can do the math and everybody knows that I’m old. So that business is called Fun Productions.

It was in the amusement rental industry. So we do large scale events, college, high school, and company picnics and things like that. And through running that business, which I still own, I just no longer operate, I made every mistake you could possibly make in business.

And then some that nobody’s ever heard of, right? Like I did not know what I was doing and went through a lot of headaches and hassles running a business and sacrificing my life to it. There came a certain point in complete exhaustion and burnout where I thought I’m going to throw up the white flag and I’m going to quit and go get a job and knew that I couldn’t actually leave the business without leaving my husband.

He would suck me back in. It would be one weekend. And next thing I knew it would be all back in and I didn’t want to tear up my family. So I read everything you could read, took a lot of classes, joined mastermind groups, things like that, and did make a lot of changes in the business that made sense, systems and processes and things like that.

And we did get a little bit more freedom. What I will say is that I was still so involved from a place of control, fear, and ego. I needed to make every decision and be involved in everything and so created a lot of hassles for everyone else, right?

Because I was in the way. And so fast forward to 2013 when we had 18 and 21 year old sons, we had three businesses at that point because that’s what entrepreneurs do, right? When you see an opportunity or a shiny thing and just start another business.

And I found out I was pregnant and that was not at all the plan, right? We’re just going to empty nest and potentially sell a business, you know, or two, that kind of thing. And so what happened is three months after our daughter was born, I lost my husband in an accident while we were on vacation.

He passed away. And what took place after that is I didn’t care if the business burned down, right? I didn’t have the capacity with a newborn and two kids going to college the next month without a business partner or co -parent.

And I ended up finding out in going back to the business that the team just really picked up the ball and ran with it and carried on kind of without a hitch. And the reason I share that is not so much for sympathy, but just from this standpoint of how important it is to have a healthy team and culture.

So it’s not just being smart in business, but it’s also being healthy and having that kind of culture in a team because had they not come around me, who knows what would have happened to the business, right?

Because they were all on their own, you know, whirlwind of what’s going to happen next. And so I just, you know, went on this kind of long journey to find out who I was and figure out what I really wanted in life and what my strengths were and things like that.

And really discovered that what I loved was coaching and facilitating. And so the plan was to sell the business. And my oldest son came along after graduating and getting out into the real world, and he wanted to take over the business or buy the business from me.

And so I had just read the book Traction by Gina Wickman, which spells out EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system. And I thought that that was the right tool, right? And so we implemented that from 2017 to 2019 and saw wild success.

We had a 30% gross revenue increase and a 300% net increase and had more fun than we’d ever had, right? Everyone was in the right seat doing what they loved with people they loved and took everybody to Mexico, you know, like that’s how great it was.

And so I knew he was set up for success and also knew exactly what I wanted to do next. I wanted to be able to do the same thing for other entrepreneurs, other people to be able to give them that freedom and get them off the treadmill and put them in the driver’s seat of their companies and make sure that they had a life because what I know is that it can be over like that.

And so I’m really passionate about making sure business owners don’t sacrifice themselves to their business, but that they run it efficiently and well. And so that it can be the vehicle to give them the life they want.

That’s so, that’s so incredible. And were you implementing any of those, um, uh, procedures or, and I just, one word that always comes to me is like SOP, but like, um, so some of that, you already started implementing that at some point, I assume for your team to be healthy and, um, or was it, or did you not really, you didn’t know, but you just, you made this healthy team that they were able to step up, you know, in the time when it counted most.

Yeah, I think partially both, right, that there was certainly, yeah, there was certainly a lot of things we started, you know, let’s, like you said, let’s create SOPs, right? And let’s have some actual policies and procedures and things like that.

And I think what comes naturally and really what is one of my strengths and what I love is the people part. And so that was not necessarily a process, so to speak, but I, you know, I look back on this 30 plus years in business and, you know, have a lot of people that I still am in touch with that have worked for us over the years and that means something to me.

So I think that part is just kind of part of my DNA. But for EOS, we work on three things. We work on vision, making sure it’s crystal clear and everyone knows exactly who you are, where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.

And traction, like you said, that setting up the processes and procedures and systems that create a disciplined and accountable organization. And then the third is healthy. And that is about making a cohesive, healthy team because if we’re honest, most teams are not that, you know, and I certainly didn’t have any of that perfected.

But when we implemented, it was about making sure those three things were Josh, my sons, right? Making sure the vision for the future was his and these systems were his systems and this healthy team was his team and not because that’s a real downfall of, you know, handing off the businesses.

Everybody leaves because they didn’t want to work for him. They wanted to work for, you know, those kinds of things. And, you know, if he came in and changed everything, it could have been to his detriment.

And so that’s why we kind of did that, even though we were partially there.

Yeah, it’s just so interesting because, you know, I’m just, I never could exist in corporate because the minute I didn’t like somebody in the office, I wasn’t there to be in the office, I was, you know, there to do, like, run events for a casino or something like that.

And I would just go right into the GM’s office and complain to me and I just wouldn’t deal with it. But like, when I do events, you know, you’re kind of paid to and everything’s a one off. So even if somebody pisses you off, you can bite your tongue.

But, you know, I don’t know if like three months, like I can only imagine. And so I can see the power of this and like, and just so I’m clear. So like an SOP would be a part of the EOS. Yeah.

So one of the, so the US system is, is literally an operating system for small businesses. So businesses that have 10 to 200 employees kind of thing that, and so it’s people who’ve already gotten a little bit of success under their belts.

But they feel like they’re in chaos. They’re hitting the ceiling. They don’t know why. Things are just not working. What used to work doesn’t work at this level of business anymore. You know, you’re not having enough profit.

You people aren’t listening. All those complaints that I hear over and over, right? And so it really looks at all facets of the business. And so when you talk about an SOP, that’s one of about 25, 30 different tools.

It’s core processes is what we call it. And so it’s, it’s really getting, you know, high level documentation of your processes and making sure that they’re followed by all is really the most important part of a process.

It’s not writing it down in a notebook. It’s making sure that this works the way it’s supposed to. And having measurables around, is this working? And that anybody with any part of the process at all, any step of it, knows exactly how to do that and is empowered to do it, you know, the correct way.

And so yes, that’s one of, like I said, I think there’s legitimately 38 tools or something like that.

And then when you go into a business and you coach them, are you using all 38 every time? Or are you kind of like a little from column A to column B?

It’s a journey, so it’s a process, a proven process, the way we implement EOS. So we start with kind of the five foundational tools and we go out with a bang. Like we start with a fire hose of putting things into place day one.

Before we even cast vision, we start setting up habits because all of it, being a disciplined and accountable organization is just building that muscle, right? This is the way we do things and we’re gonna measure this and we’re gonna create an accountability chart and a scorecard and, you know, right off the bat and a meeting pulse.

So this is the way we do meetings and this is the way our meetings are so that they’re functional and efficient meetings and not just discussing problems for an hour thinking you’ve got something accomplished and then discussing them again two months later.

So we- We’ve been there? Let’s have a meeting, we have a meeting. Yeah, right. And so we set up all that from day one and then slowly but surely over an average of about two years of the implementation process, we bring in every one of those tools that are needed as they’re needed, right?

So some people need this, you know, need something for cashflow drivers because they need to drive cashflow right now. So we’re gonna do that before we do, you know, leading managing and holding people accountable is another big tool or another part of the training.

And so it’s just, it’s really what do you need? Cause there’s a tool for everything until it’s all working.

Yeah, and then then you’re then well, you made this well, just really quick, because it’s on my mind. I got a chance to sit on a board for it was like the YPP young professional board of Casa, somebody, an organization I care very deeply.

Yeah, so amazing. And I remember, like we were running the board, like the way you officially would do it. And like, I was like, nominated as president. So like, I had like, learn all these things. But like, we would get so much more done by just having like, okay, emotional, but like, let’s close this out, you know, what is our boom?

Yeah. And it’s, and it’s so weird, because I think, you know, a lot of these, you know, people and especially like in the in the cannabis industry, which is why I want to, you know, to talk to you and I said, you know, and you said small business 10 to 200 employees, yes, pretty much every single dispensary and grow and myth in Colorado.

And, you know, I think a lot of them, you know, opened because their heart was in cannabis, and they’ve been working on the black market forever. So now it can be legal. But they never had an opportunity to at least just try, you know, a basic corporate, you know, procedure, sure, you know, that can help, you know, and, and so I just I wonder, like, how do you when people can be so far removed from like, especially the cannabis industry, very far removed from a corporate structure, you know, like, how do you kind of come in and tell these people because you’re making like ego is very, you know, strong.

Sure.

sure. I would say a couple of things. First of all, small business is entirely different than corporate, right? And that’s what works about EOS is the last thing a small business needs is the complexity of the corporate world.

Cause it’s their cruise ship, right? And so they have one person doing one, the one person cuts the carrots, right? And a small business, one person is wearing all the hats and has to do all the things.

And so the first part of that answer is that one of the number one goals is simplify, is not make things more complex. It’s take away that complexity and simplify as much as we can. We get, you know, to simplify and process anything that you can so that you’re freed up to be creative and passionate about what you do, right?

Like let’s get rid of this businessy stuff that drags you down and pulls you under. And most small business owners, to answer the second part of your question, most small businesses got into their business for the same reason most cannabis owners did.

Because they love, they love this, right? They let, they’re passionate about this or they were doing it for somebody else and think and thought, I love what I do. I want to do this for myself, or, you know, and then what they find is they get into business and realize, shit, owning a business requires me to run a business, not do what I love to do.

And that’s where I come in. Because one of the things that I learned early on in my company is that I wasn’t necessarily passionate about events. You know, that was my husband’s jam. Like he loved that.

But what I became passionate about is like, how can we make this better and be more efficient? And I love that part of the world is making a business more efficient. But most business owners don’t. They don’t love doing business.

And that’s where they feel like they’re spending 80% of their time and they’re drowning.

You know, well, that’s like a quote I think you told me and then I took from your website and I’m going to like completely butcher this quote, but like it’s basically, you know, a lot of them were trying to just make enough money to take care of themselves and their families.

And that’s what was happening. And then, and they were no longer able to dream. So they finally, like they accomplished their dream, right? And this is my perception of it. It’s like, you accomplished your dream, but you realized you hit the ceiling of like, of just vision of like, just, okay, we just got to survive.

We got to survive, you know, instead of being like, well, what was the dream originally? Let’s get you there. And, and I think that’s what’s so exciting about what you’re talking about, because I think that’s like what something every single one of these, you know, dispensaries and, and cannabis, you know, was hit so hard with this medical market, the whole overflow in Oklahoma.

And we’ve, we’ve talked about it on this, you know, you know, podcast a lot, but what I wanted to talk to you about is, you know, some ways of trying to fix that. Yeah. You know.

Yeah, absolutely. So the idea of the quote you’re talking about, the dream is we get into business like just wanting to like replace our income. Like if I could just make enough to eat, I’d be happy.

And we forget to dream what might be the next part. And then all of a sudden we’re there and now we have some steady, repeatable income. Oh, wow. Now I like, not only am I feeding my family, but look, I have a little extra and I’ve not seen my family in days.

So what was this all for? Because they’re in the ditch seeing and solving. And so part of the process is to like, let’s get on a ladder and then climb a little bit of a mountain and get some altitude and get, look at your business from a new level and work on it.

So that you’re not seeing and solving and tackling things as they come. And now you can dream. You can’t, okay, so what’s your 10 year goal from here? Like, let’s get real about this and know where you’re going because you don’t start out a lot of times.

I mean, I’ve run into business owners, certainly have, you know, they know where they want to be in 10 years, which is amazing. I’m envious, right? That’s really cool. But most people are, you know, are afraid to dream out any further.

Yeah. And, and that’s what I want to help them do is what do you want out of this in the long run? And then what would you, so that was the quote part. And then you asked me something about the cannabis industry.

Yeah. Yeah. I think one of the things that I love and one of part of why I do what I do is because I love people who are passionate about what they do. And especially like creatives and things like that.

I love working with creatives because it’s not me. Like I’m in the efficiency. I love the processes and systems and making it all work. But what I love is, is being able to work with a company and see them get to do more of what they do in the world than they could have done if they didn’t have, you know, these headaches and hassles are running this business, right?

And if it’s a do good company that wants to do more good or they, you know, or they want to put more flowers in the world or what, you know, like whatever they want to do, it lights me up and, and fills my, my buckets to know that if I can get some of this stuff solved, they can sell more cannabis.

They can do what they love. They can grow new strains. They can create new things that help people. They can, you know, and then the other thing that I know is, is like you said, that the cannabis industry has just gotten their butts kicked, right?

Kind of like the events industry in the last two years. So I can totally relate to, to of no control of your own. You just got shut down or you just got your income just got cut in half. And, and, and it wasn’t your mistake, right?

And so I feel for them, right? Like I have a heart for that. And I, I can’t imagine, you know, and I, I’ve tried to study a whole bunch so that I could help this industry is, is understanding all of the laws and all of the things that’s constantly changing.

And you brought it up earlier, the gray areas of, of what they’re dealing with is not, you know, like they can’t put their money in a bank for goodness sakes, just the complexity that that creates. And so I really want to dig in and understand how EOS can help with all those things that are outside of the norm of businesses, you know, that, that make their business a different level of hard in some aspects.

Well, and I think, you know, seeing it firsthand, you know, I think sometimes you get so caught up in the compliance and keeping all this stuff going and making all these, you know, phone calls and talking to the MED and, and making sure that the inspector and everything is, you know, everybody, everybody comes in as either badged or gets checked in, you know, in the, in the book and gets a little, you know, visitor badge, you know, whether in a grow or in a, you know, dispensary.

And, you know, if you can free them of that mental bandwidth, then, you know, they can actually do, you know, start experimenting with more genetics, starts, you know, loosening themselves up.

And that’s exactly it. Systemic systemizing those things. Yeah, right. Those those things that are predictable. We systemize the predictable so that you have more bandwidth.

Yeah.

to color outside the line.

Well, and then a more clear -cut path for the employees too. I mean, I interviewed a HR person, it’s a very fun episode with Heather. And she would be going into dispensaries where the bartenders are like, are we going to get paid this week?

And it’s such a cash flow, heavy business. It’s just nuts to get away from that black market mentality, I think, from some of these people and get in to surrender to these processes, the US, and really get that.

But it’s just the scratching and cline just trying to survive. It’s like that. I think I said it before, it’s the mice in Christopher Walken’s famous speech from the movie with Tom Hanks.

I am terrible at remembering movies. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is not my strong suit. Like, people do quotes, and I’m always like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Have you not seen XYZ movie?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I’ve seen that. I’ve totally seen that. I just don’t retain quotes. I don’t know. It’s not gonna be.

Well, yeah, well, well, essentially just the scratching and clawing. And with that, I feel like I feel like me in my life, I’ve had to just personally make big mistakes in order to grow from them and make sure I never make them again, and then face the consequences of those.

And, you know, like, I think like in the industry, you know, I’ve been like blackballed like three or four times, but then now like, you know, back to being first to call again, right? And like, and so I just I just wonder, like, how much of and you said about, you know, you’re here today because of all the mistakes you said that you made and how you learned from them.

Yep. And I just wonder, like, how much of the parts of the process is that important? Or is it, you know, EOS is kind of there to kind of save you from even making those mistakes in the first place, right?

I think that, gosh, that’s a good point. There’s this fine line, right? Like, sometimes you just have to make the mistakes. You don’t want, you know, I’m a mom, right? So you don’t want your kids, if they could only just learn from my mistakes, right?

Their life would be a lot easier for gosh sakes, but they just end up having to make some mistakes, right? And so I think there’s a couple of things when we do this work with a company is that there is this resistance to don’t make me corporate.

Don’t take away my, I want to be small and scrappy and independent and I don’t want to do things the way, you know, corporate America does them. And that’s why I, what I do is coaching, right? I have these tools.

I’m going to teach you all these tools. I’m going to teach you the way they work, but you, it’s your business. I’m not going to come in as a consultant, as a Bob, right? That’s like, let’s streamline everything and slash jobs.

And you know, like, yes, yes, exactly. Well, I’m just a dumb girl with a marker and a great set of tools, right? That has lived a lot of experience in the business world. And so I can share my experiences.

This is what happened when I did X. This is what happened when I did Y, right? And you do, you do whatever you want with that. And, and I just have all the right questions. I have some tools and a bunch of questions to make sure that people are running businesses.

The way they want and a bunch of those mistakes are built right into the process. Like I have never once had a company set rocks, which are like their 90 day priorities. Like when everything’s important, nothing’s important.

So we want to get crystal clear on what everyone’s working on this quarter. Like if we could just get these three things done, oh my God, that would be amazing, right? So don’t write 20 things on your list.

Just write those three, right? So we start with something as simple as that and nobody ever does it right. And I can’t stop them. I’m not going to tell them, nope, take this, this, and this off your list.

It’s their business. It’s not mine. They get to make all the choices here, but they’re going to come back next quarter and they’re going to say, oh boy, did we learn a lot from that. What we realize is we don’t have the bandwidth to do all of those things or what we thought was important really wasn’t important.

And then they get really good at it. So, so some of those mistakes are built right in or like cooked right into the process, right? We’re going to let you make some mistakes so you learn it really well, but we’re not going to let the mistakes be so drastic that you’re not going to be able to pay payroll next week.

We got to, we got to prevent those things from happening right off the bat. So, yeah.

Yeah, so yeah, even within the process they have to, I mean, you have to know like, you have to know the why, I always believe, you have to know the why something works, and then you can, you know, make the change, and sometimes the mistake is the only thing that shows you.

Yeah, yeah. Billy Joel.

right? That’s again showing my age, but sometimes the only things that you can truly own are your mistakes. Oh yeah, yeah, it’s true, but I am and they become such a… I have such high ownership of mistakes in my life.

If only they could fill the bank.

Yeah, yeah. So I’m really I saw some of the other services that you you offer on your website. Yeah, and some of the workshops that you do. And I’m just curious, before we get into those, and maybe those do would go into it, I’m going to ask, but like, like off the bat, what do you think would be some of the differences that you would take to approach like a dispensary who has to manage so many different, you know, vendors, so many different expectations, marketing techniques, employees, sales, and all that versus like a wholesale, you know, grow who has one product, or they might have multiple SKUs, but they have one thing they’re doing good, and they’re trying to get out to as many dispensaries as possible.

Because it’s just like, I just seen in the grow, and I’ve seen some bad, some gross, gross, and, and, and I’ve seen some ones that are just absolutely, you know, gorgeous, like in the course, like famous for how beautiful their, their grow is.

And, and but that that process is going to be completely different than, you know, and then definitely completely different employees completely different, you know, actual items and what they’re responsible for.

Yeah, yeah.

Absolutely. And well, and every client, every entrepreneur organization is a snowflake. So like, everyone is different. And so first, we define all of that for them. And I think, you know, in my goal here to today is to make sure that the business owners can walk away with something tangible.

And so when we set vision, that who you are, where you’re going, how you’re going to get their idea, it’s, you know, we define all of those things, or what do you, who are you truly with your core values, right?

And getting really crystal clear on that. Because it’s not about words on the wall. It’s not about, you know, honesty, or whatever that you write. Sorry, I rolled my eyes. Of course, honesty is important.

But really, it’s like, no, I want a bunch of liars working for me. Of course, honesty is important. But really, are you gonna, are you gonna turn down a great employee, you know, because they they fudge their resume and said that they work somewhere along a month longer than that, you know, that’s not really honest, right?

But but so the whole idea of core values, right is, is you need to use these to define exactly what it looks like, to be aligned here. And so it’s not words, it’s a behavior, like describing your core value as behavior.

Like one of my core values is help first. What that means is that I show up and ask questions and or answer questions and, and give tools for free, all day every day, they’re downloadable, right? Like, I walk in the first meeting and give you a free book, right?

It’s like, help first to me means that we go in to help without any expectation of return, right? And so if that’s one of your core values, you can now tell all of your employees, this is what it looks like to behave that way.

And when you did this, it wasn’t exactly aligned. But when Ben did this, this was spot on, this is what I need to see more of, right? And you tell all of your employees that up front. And so then it doesn’t matter if your grow is ugly or gorgeous.

Right? You be you. Just make sure you get people who want to be you with you. Right? Like want to be that too. And so that’s a really important piece. And then with the rest of the vision traction organizer, which is one of the tools, you know, we determine your core focus, who do you want to sell to?

Who’s your ideal target? Where do they, where do they live? How much money do they make? Where, why do they need you? Your core focus of what you can do better than anyone else on the planet and what you’re super passionate about.

Because nobody else can be exactly those two things like you can. And so it doesn’t really, like I said, it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter that the dispensary has so many more intricacies, right? We’re going to set systems up for those.

But it’s, it’s getting clear on who you are and where you’re going, what your who your clients are, how you’re going to get there, why you do what you do. Because it makes all the difference. And I can tell you from experience, right?

Why we had that healthy team is because we had people who loved what they did and loved who they did it with because there was alignment. And it’s so much easier. Like you want to fight those things like, that’s stupid corporate, you know, core values, whatever, right?

But all of a sudden, when you have 20 people that work for you that love working here, because they don’t feel like it’s rubbing them wrong. Every time they leave, they they’re all in, they’re all in and they want to do whatever they can to help you grow.

They want to see where you’re going to. And when you tell them that, right, when you get clear on it, and then you share it like crazy, you know, you repel the wrong people and you attract the right ones.

That’s.

I mean, that’s so, that’s so inspiring and because I mean, it is, I mean, it comes down to the people, but it’s like the people you want to do this with. Yeah, you spend a lot of time at work.

Yeah, yeah, don’t spend it with people that rep you wrong, right? Yeah, it doesn’t mean you’re wrong or they’re wrong It just means you’re not good. You’re not in the right place

Well, so have you had to work with before? Like, is there a good example or, um, or again, this is just one of the tools, but like, so, so any, like, like has, and you know, more than anybody, you know, with, with, uh, you know, years of, you know, experience in the hospitality business, but like, it’s also like one of the, like the highest turnover rates and, um, you know, you see it with, you know, bud talk, uh, bartenders, you know, you see it with like servers and, but like, I’ve especially seen it with, um, the, the bartenders and, um, the one thing that was really nice about that HR episode is she was really talking about like that reward system, you know, and it doesn’t need to be like a stupid, you know, glass or like, you know, a huge priced item, you know, prize, or like sometimes it’s just, you know, saying like, thank you at the right time and, uh, and, and so employee retention is so important.

But what about in this time period right now where, I mean, even, you know, jobs that are $75 ,000 a year are still having trouble, you know, finding these, these great people, let alone ones to come in and be, you know, bud tenders and managers at dispensaries.

Yeah. And I think part of that why people are not taking those $75 ,000 a year jobs or quitting their corporate jobs is because they’re looking at exactly that. What I just said, they don’t want to go into work where they don’t fit.

They want to know that they matter and that they’re making a difference in the company, in the world, and that people recognize them. And that’s one of the most beautiful assets that small businesses have is they have the ability to be one -on -one with all of their people, right?

And to know them and they’re not numbers. And so I think there’s a huge opportunity to just tweak a few things and make it a little different and make this a place where people love to come to work and don’t want to leave, even though they could get a higher paying job.

And I’ve seen it, I mean, I’ll tell you in Fun Productions, my business, right? That the turnover will always be a thing. It’s always been a thing. We have a bunch of people from high school and college work for us that this isn’t going to be their forever job.

But while they’re there, they learn a whole bunch of stuff. And I have people that have gone on to start engineering companies that they’ve sold for millions of dollars that worked for me in high school.

But they still talk to me and tell me what they learned here, right? And one of the biggest examples is during this pandemic when we had to lay off a team of 22 people, everyone, myself included, we went from almost four million in revenue to zero in a day.

And so there was no way to keep anyone. And right now, as we’re coming back and it’s coming back strong, that tap has been turned back on. We’re super busy. Of the eight, nine people that are currently working, six of them were employees in 2019.

So tell me that core values and being aligned doesn’t work. Because these are not super high paid positions. Some of these guys are driving trucks and setting up equipment. And they had other jobs. They weren’t sitting around waiting for us to open back up.

And I had to have these conversations of, look, don’t leave a good job because I don’t know what’s going to happen. We could get shut down again tomorrow. So I need help, but I don’t want to mess with your livelihood and have you laid off again, right?

And they came back. And what does that say? It’s because they liked what they did because we made sure to hire slowly and make sure are you sure you’re aligned with this? And this is exactly what you’re going to be doing.

And this is what it looks like. And why don’t you try it on for a couple of days before you start full -time? And those kinds of things are really cool and can change for hiring bud tenders a whole, like there’s a ton of people that have left fun productions to go like, I can make the same amount and I don’t have to lift heavy stuff.

I’m going to go do that. We lost a ton of people. But they had no idea what they were getting into. And so if you’re just hiring warm bodies and throwing them in there and then not caring really who they are and what they care about and what debates them the most.

But if you can just tweak a couple of things, you find all of that stuff out. And now you just made them love you and you love them.

Yeah, I mean, I didn’t even think about that, you know, starting even from a like a retention point of view. But you know, just from the point of view of just having that better screening process in the beginning, and then making sure both sides, you know, are happy.

I mean, I don’t know how that’s, you know, because like, I mean, I can absolutely see like how it works in the events world. But I’m curious to see like how trying it on for a few days works from a, you know, Department of Labor perspective, like coming on with HR, like, I mean, is that is that an option to businesses?

Can you do that in a business? Like, because I could see that working in the dispensary. It’s like, Oh, man, this guy doesn’t know anything, just makes up things to the you know, yeah, we’re like, Oh, he totally is on there.

They’ve totally wrong. Yeah.

I don’t want to get in any kind of board of labor trouble because I don’t know the exact laws, but I know there’s all kinds of things with internships. And, you know, we can create a gig, right? Like we pay you for a gig and there’s no expectation of future employment and there’s no expectation if we’re going to train you during this time or whatever.

You’re gonna, you know, I think that there’s a lot of ways that you can be completely legal and above board and let people see what you do, even if it’s just a tour, right? Watching people or even if it’s, you sit down and one of the things that we did is interview our employees about why they like working here.

And we share that at the like second interview process or part of the orientation processes. Here, watch this video of why people work here, why they like it. And they say things like, because my schedule is never the same and it’s all over the board.

And sometimes I work overnight and sometimes I, you know, work in the morning and I have Tuesday’s off and not the weekends. Well, somebody that wants the weekends off is going to hear that and go, yeah, this isn’t the right place for me.

Right? Like it’s just something as simple as that. Yeah. Let’s simplify them and, you know, systemize it. So it’s a video. You don’t have to talk to everyone. Every single person that applies, you know, there’s all these ways that frees your bandwidth and makes it better and easier.

You know, do you go as far as to like, help with like POS systems and, and all that? Because I mean, I know like metrics is absolutely great and drives everybody. Yeah, that’s in this industry. And a lot of those employee relationships are one and one or lost there, you know, and dealt with and, and the trackability of a lot of this stuff is so terrible in these POS systems are dispensaries have to use.

Right. I mean, what EOS uses is a scorecard, which is entirely different than getting into the weeds with metrics. But from a high level, we create scorecards for the company, and then we create them for the departments, and then we create them for individuals.

So individuals have a measurable, at least one, to five, that I’m responsible for this. And as long as I hit X number of sales or X number of whatever, it means I’m doing my job well. And I don’t need a pat on the back every single day.

I don’t need a review once a month to know that I’m doing my job, because they’ve told me what’s important. Here’s the measurables that you have to stick with. And now I’m being measured on that. And as long as I’m hitting my goals, I’m solid.

I’m a rock star here. Right. So I know that that’s a little different, but then I don’t want to ignore the question with my own answer. But I end up bringing in or suggesting or introducing companies to lots of other professionals, because we’re so high level.

We’re looking at the operating system of the business, how it operates in each of these. But invariably we get into understanding that, okay, marketing is the most important thing for this company right now.

I’m not going to do your marketing for you. I’m not the right person. I don’t, you know, but there’s amazing professionals that I know and have vetted and have had huge success, seen huge success with other companies.

I’m going to introduce you to them. You can do what you want with that. Right. Or a fractional CFO to come in and really like how can we tear apart your finances and put them back together correctly so that your cash flowing positively.

That’s not me, but it’s going to become very obvious to all of us when we start becoming transparent and strengthening your business that all these little problems are going to bubble up and it’s going to be like, you know what, this is because I don’t have good financials or I’m not getting the story I need or the data that I need from my financials.

And so let’s find somebody to help you with that. Yeah. Yeah. And so I’m in terms of POS systems and, you know, there’s got to be somebody right soon that that has some type of way to help this industry.

Well, and I feel like now, you know, I made this big move back to Colorado. You know, I find myself in a position of, you know, with my different clients, you know, to put on more hats than, you know, that I need.

And you know, but I have done that hard truth of like, this is what I’m good at. This is what I can do. And this is what, you know, the best at and this is what I have to offer. And there’s no reason, you know, to put on these other things.

And, you know, I think for like the first time, I’m like, we’re hiring like a photographer for another one of my clients, because it’s like, okay, then on top of everything you do, now you need to be the one taking these beautiful pictures and figuring out how to make them look good.

On top of like coming up with a good social media, you know, campaign. It’s, and I think it’s the same for you right now. It’s like, yeah, no, this, no, I’m, I know what my hats. Yep.

No more coming on. And so many business, most business owners do that, right? Especially when they’re starting out, right? Like I’ll be everything to everyone. No, I’m not going to choose a niche. No, I’m not going to choose my ideal client.

I want all of them. I want anything and everyone. Cause I’ve got to feed myself, right? Like I got to make a living here. And then you realize, oh my gosh, you don’t need them all. And you don’t want them all.

And you can’t wear all the hats. You got to decide, right? Like you got to decide who’s your ideal client. Because you don’t need them all again. You don’t need them all. And you don’t want them all to hit your goals.

Promise, promise. And all of a sudden when you release that, you know, fun productions, key example, we used to do pay for play, cart, you know, festivals that didn’t give us any money until we showed up and hope that we sold tickets.

We used to do backyard birthday parties. We used to do, we did anything and everything until we realized, wait, this is what we’re good at. And this is what we can be better than other people at. And this is what we’re not and don’t want to do.

It’s not my passion. So you got to decide that. What are you passionate about and what can you do better than anyone else? And as long as that has an economic engine, just do that really well. And so yeah, with, I mean, I think that’s a key for business owners as well as yeah, EOS knows, we know what works, we know our tools and we know that we can’t be the expert at running every piece of their business by any means.

There’s way too many things that are in the weeds that I’m not gonna be the best person at all, right? Like, you know, but what I’m gonna help you determine is what are your needs? What are the things that are causing you the biggest headaches and dig, dig, dig deep into what the root cause of all of these issues.

And, you know, like we say, there’s an average business has 136 issues that they’re dealing with in any given time. All of these cannabis dispensaries and grows and they’re dealing with 136 issues. They’re juggling plates, right?

And really what we found out is if you dig in, it’s a problem in one of six areas and we get strong in each of those six key areas and all of a sudden a lot of these issues fall away because if we just get strong in the people component or the vision component or the data component or the issues component, you know, we’re gonna determine that this is where all is lying.

If we just fix this with this tool, now 10 of those problems are gone like that.

Because they are individual problems, but a lot of times a problem can cause another problem. Oh, 100 percent. Yeah. So you almost get, like, really clustered.

Yep. Exactly. Yeah. If you have a people problem, like when you think you have a people problem, you think, do I just keep firing people? Or maybe at some point I need to dig in and realize maybe I have a training issue or I have a process issue.

I’m not giving the proper process. I’m telling them to figure it out. And so it’s not getting done consistently the way I want it. Or maybe I have a problem with how I’m hiring in my interview process.

And that’s what we do, is really dig in to why do you have a people problem? And what truly is the people problem? And when you fix this one thing, you go, oh, look, we don’t have people showing up late anymore.

And we’ve lost some of these problems with our metrics because now we’ve given these people an exact system of the way they tag or the way they code or the way they sell or where they track that information or whatever.

And now it’s not a big of a problem because we solved a little process or a little training or whatever.

It’s so weird how simple some of this sounds, but like how, you know, just not that complicated, like the implementation of it, but just like, just how hard it must be, you know, to get them into a part of like truly making these changes.

Yeah. You know, because it’s like, it’s like, all right, like, here’s the five agreements, you know, now your life is going to be the most beautiful thing forever. But, but it’s, I mean, it has to be, I’m sure part of it’s like the habit and repetition and being held accountable, like to you, rather than just you telling them a bunch of free information and say, okay, you gotta go do it.

Right.

Well, one of the starting process is that when I say hire slowly, fire quickly, we drink our own Kool -Aid, right? The first thing I do with any client is a 90 -minute training and a whole process of going back and forth, asking me questions, me asking them questions, looking at some of their problems and what could help.

They walk away, 100% of people that I’ve done 90 -minute meetings for are, that was some of the best use of my time and I’m not going to go with you, but we’ve already solved two or three things from this free meeting, right?

And so 50% of the people that have this meeting end up implementing and 50% just take a few nuggets that make some valuable changes in their life and business. And so through that process, I’m vetting them too, because I don’t want, I can’t want this more than you, right?

There’s some heavy lifting. You have to do some work. I don’t do it for you. I don’t come in with any silver bullets or magic wands. I just have simple tools that like, to your point, it seems so simple.

Yep. A bunch of it is like you, you read the book traction and you go, well, duh, no wonder this works. Yeah. Well, why don’t I do it? Well, cause it’s, it’s simple, but it’s not easy, right? There’s some work involved and so I have to make sure before I work with you that you’re ready to be open and honest and you’re ready to take, you know, celebrate and take responsibility for the success you have created.

Cause you did that good for you. Most businesses don’t get to the point where these businesses are and they also have to be ready to take responsibility for that ball of duct tape and twine that they have in the corner.

All of those issues that they just keep pushing over there in the corner cause they don’t know how or don’t want to deal with or don’t have the time energy to deal with them. We got to be ready to rip that open.

We’re going to look at all those things and, and, and fix them. Um, so yes, it is to, to, to answer your question. It is simple and it’s not easy and a lot of it’s duh, but yet you have to want it. You for it to work, you have to be ready to do the work and ready to be honest and ready to get your ego out of the way.

Um, and if you’re not, I’ve gotten to a point where I can see that pretty well and I don’t work with everyone just like them. I don’t need all the clients. I don’t want them all to hit my goals either.

you don’t want to alleviate stress but then also gobble up more stress and I’m sure like more clients can be more more needy or yeah yeah there’s I mean not even needy but just

Yeah, there’s clients that, you know, they want things to change, but they don’t want to change anything, right? They want it to get better, but they don’t want to change, or they think that they know all the answers, and they got it all figured out, and okay, well, if that keeps working for you, then, you know, why am I here, right?

You know, and that’s so fun for anyone.

Yeah, no. And I think like I can see like a lot of these. The master growers and you know, the people making the concentrate have been making it. Some of them for 30 years now, right? And they’re just so stuck in their ways, you know, that they can never even listen to, you know, anybody and yeah, who needs who needs that?

Yeah. But it’s almost like you’re like a psychologist for businesses in a business minds, you know,

Yeah, there’s there’s certainly some of that. Sometimes I just, you know, I just have calls in between sessions with my clients. And sometimes it’s just, they just need to vent. But I say my role is a teacher facilitator coach, right?

So I teach you a bunch of tools and teach you a bunch of processes, right? And then I facilitate the best answers from the team, right? So I work with a leadership team, I don’t just work with an owner.

And so all the answers are in those people’s heads that are sitting there. They’re not in mine. I just have all the way to facilitate them, the questions that need to be answered. And then just like a coach in sporting events, right?

I’m not out there playing basketball with you, right? I’m just on the sideline seeing things that you can’t see because you’re in the game at all the game. Yeah, you can’t see what you’re missing, or where you need to shore up weaknesses, or what muscle you need to work this week, you know?

And so yeah, that’s my role. And sometimes some psychology drains into that.

Yeah, I love it once. I wanted to, we went a lot into EOS. How important are some of these other parts that I saw from, you know, the website. So like I saw disk advisor, the five behaviors, P, X, T, select, and mainly those fours.

So, those are not part of the US process or the entrepreneurial system in any way. And I actually was doing those things before I even became a professional US implementer. So how that kind of took place was, I also have a team building company, you know, and I mentioned three different companies at one point.

So clients wanted, you know, something more in depth for their team building. And that’s how I discovered in myself what I was really passionate about was being able to do those things. And so, while some DISC clients become EOS clients and vice versa, it’s really part of that process or those items are just things that people need that maybe they don’t need EOS, but they just want to understand different personalities.

So, they do a DISC workshop and they take assessments online and they get to understand and know their people better and understand how to work more efficiently with different personality styles. Five behaviors of cohesive team is same thing.

It’s just building cohesion and pieces of five behaviors are part of the US model, but I go in a little more in depth with somebody that just wants to focus there. So, there’s assessments for that and workshops and things like that.

And then the PXT is just a great selection tool. It’s a hiring assessment that people we can put in bud tender and really hone in on exactly the personality and the traits and behavioral qualities of someone that’s very successful in that position.

And so, then you give all of those people this assessment and they are then able to determine if it’s going to be a good fit behaviorally. So, they’re just kind of outside of EOS tools. Yeah, the PXT is pretty cool.

That sounds powerful. Yeah, it is. I started using it in fun productions probably, I don’t know, 15 years ago and ignored it several times and hired them anyway and realized, oh, this is exactly why it didn’t work.

It told me right here why it wasn’t going to work. And so, now I truly believe in it. So, then I got licensed and certified to be able to give that assessment and train people on it.

so great. So it’s interesting we’re recording down in Pink Puff Pass and the Colorado Cannabis Tours so it looks like we have a tour coming in but I would love to continue to talk to you. I think this is so great and I mean I think you gave a lot of free information.

I hope so.

I hope so that people, yeah, if they decide who you are and where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. If you don’t do anything else, just sit down and spend some time on that. But I am happy to do those free 90 minute meetings for anyone interested if they want to know more.

I bring them a free book, some cookies, and nothing is required of them.

So how do they how do they get in touch with you any any small?

Um, so it’s abbotcoach .com, A -B -B -O -T -T, coach .com, um, or, um, yeah, my email is donn at abbotcoach .com. And like I said, we can, we can set up a free, how I start anything and everything with EOS is a, is a free 90 minute meeting, um, where there’s no, nothing asked, um, you know, and then, um, if they’re interested in any of those other things, check them out on that website a little bit more, but, um, I’m happy to answer questions.

Okay, I love it. Thank you so much

Thank you, it was great to be here. I appreciated this conversation.

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