Hey, welcome everyone to another episode of Fire Your Boss. I’m your host Jim Batu. This is my co-host Kevin. Say hi, Kevin.

Hello everyone.

Outstanding. Hey, super excited this morning, guys. It’s been an amazing morning already. It’s the sun is shining

here in central Indiana and uh got a good friend Josh Howser with us. Josh and I have literally been in each

other’s orbits for like I don’t know 13 14 years seen each other kids hung out with each

other’s kids and been in business but just never connected on the business side of things until the last uh six or eight months or whatever it’s been now.

But um he and I hit it off right away. I love his attitude. I love his outlook on life. I love his outlook on business.

His story is amazing. A crazy story. Um and we’re also neighbors in the

neighborhood, too. So, I you know, uh it’s just crazy how close we’ve been without being close. But

I saw you at the drinking party. So, maybe at the pool a couple times, but uh Yeah.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears. I’m not sure if I’m appearing for you or you’re appearing for me or a

little bit of both. Uh, but Josh is uh been a college athlete, basketball.

He has been up and down corporate America at the highest levels of corporate America. He is from the great

city of Monaceel, Indiana. He has launched his own company through EOS Worldwide.

He is his wife is still married to him.

So, shout out to her, Amanda, because they have eight children. I think six girls and two boys.

He nailed it. Yeah, God’s funny.

Like, literally, this guy has wisdom flowing through his brains that all of us can learn from on the personal side, and the business side. And he’s got a

podcast called Lucky 13 because he and his co-hosts have 13 kids together. So crazy people, I guess, attract crazy people.

Yes, they do.

And so, welcome Josh Hower. Josh, welcome to the podcast, man. So excited to connect with you. And uh, man, I

think we have to, especially in your case, just go back to the basics, the fundamentals, how to tie your shoes, right? This is a basketball.

And tell us your story. Yeah, it’s first of all, thanks for the great intro and let’s not forget that you pay for wisdom, right? And you either pay for it

by leaning into others and getting that info or you can pay for it like I did, which is just stumbling, bumbling, and fumbling and trying not to do it again, right?

Um so uh um hopefully that your listeners get a chance to listen to the two of you share some ideas so they can uh just pay for it with a little time,

right? The third the three currencies, time, money, and uh and knowledge. And uh if you don’t have one, use the other two. So yeah, uh born and raised in

Monaceel. I’m sure Kevin familiar with Monaceel. Born in Indiana. It’s the best part of American. It’s right within your reach. It’s Indiana Beach. No. Maybe.

No. No.

Never Connorville. So that’s like it’s Monaceel but in the opposite side of the state.

Yeah. Well, both of us are pretty excited about indoor plumbing now. So So my wife my wife was a Purdue grad and

so shout out to her. I know that Jim’s loving that. And I’m pretty sure she did she did spend some time on that lake. And so

two lakes up there and it’s just a hop skipping away from West Lafayette, Indiana. So I love it. Love it. And it’s funny that you say that. My family’s

from Lafayette. My uh elder generations from Lafayette. So you live by Aries. I grew up at Aries, but I grew up at the original one. You’re at the fufu over there at 96. It’s too dressy for me.

Like I’m used to Aries where it’s shoes, no shirt. You’re fine. Bicycles hanging from the ceiling.

Absolutely. Absolutely. No, but grew up in Monaceel. Uh, as Jim said, shot a basketball well enough to get my education paid for in a little school

called St. Joseph’s about halfway between here in Chicago. I’m an orphan now as that school closed. Met that little barracuda you mentioned earlier,

my wife there. And uh, thought I was going to teach and coach the rest of my life. Just call it what it is. It’s in my blood. That’s what I was born to do.

Um, but as you mentioned, we had a reproduction issue and we didn’t have cable. So, every time we made eye contact, we had another kid. And I don’t know if you know much about the teaching

coaching uh uh income status wasn’t wasn’t cutting it. So I actually stumbled into entrepreneurship running

the tassling crews in the summertime and was making more money running the tassling crews than I was teaching. And I was like okay wait a minute you mean I

can go to work for myself take on the risk but by taking on the risk I can get paid more. Let me apply this mathematics degree someplace else and see what I can

do. And so yeah, jumped in, built a hotel, health club and conference center in Monosel. It was a Best Western. Uh we didn’t have a name brand hotel and and

grew out pretty quick. And then stumbled into this little company called Farmers Insurance Group. We are Farmers Bum bum bum bum. And uh they encouraged me to

start a scratch district, start from nothing in Indianapolis. Um and start uh building and training agencies across the city of Indiana. I think we are 1.3%

market share at that point. Um and so I did that for the next 10 years. My wife believed it enough that she let me drive from Monaceel to Allisonville in 86th

every day uh because she thought it was such a good idea. So a year and a half later, I talked her into moving to Westfield, which is where Jim and I are at now. Um but yeah, and from there

built it um had an opportunity to sell it back to the company. Uh take whatever windfall that is and decide what I wanted to do when I grew up. Uh went to

corporate America, great company downtown, One America. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that company. just great little big company if you will and

served it uh as you know chief agency officer at the highest of levels there.

Um traveling 12 days a a month in hotel rooms with eight kids at home. I don’t know if you guys can put the math together, but that wasn’t where I’m

eating steak and traveling, you know, first class and my wife’s having chicken nuggets and getting one kid out of one side of the van and pushing another kid out of the other side of the van. So, we decided it was time for me to come home.

Not to mention, I I discovered what narcissism was during that time. got really good at it for about three or four years. That was really important.

You should have just asked me. Um and so had to get squared up. Had to go through some work of uh as my as my father used

to say, you know, get enough Vaseline and crowbar to re my remove my head from my rectum. Um so when it popped out, there was some fresh air again. Started

got rid of the stinking thinking and uh moved into u helping a buddy start a company which was a RA, an investment

firm. My very first day there was an EOS focus day. So tie all that all the way back in. And I’m sitting in this focus

day going where was this when I was running my other companies. And second, how do I do what he’s doing? Um and so

um installed that with the company for the next two years, three years. We went from 300 million to about 2 billion in assets during that time. I could see the

power and the growth of it. Got to meet Gino Wickman who wrote traction. Uh spent some time with him. uh went through his 10 disciplines course which

is about becoming peaceful as an entrepreneur. Really really powerful stuff that we went through. It was essentially a form of therapy for me um

and unlocking and just decided it was time to as u if you ever watched Steve Harvey jump if you ever watched that video if you haven’t watched that video

go watch Steve Harvey jump standing on that cliff pack your parachute make the jump. Um, and yeah, didn’t open right away, but it

eventually opened and now I sit today working with companies all over the country, different walks of life, and uh, helping them find the peace and

happiness that their company can bring to them uh, by just installing some operating systems. I don’t know if that’s I tried to do it in a minute and a half. Hopefully, I hit the number.

That was strong. That was strong to quite strong. Um, yeah, that was great. It’s Josh, that’s an awesome story and and I definitely

can see all the the path that you took to get here. And you know, I don’t know that most of any of our listeners know, but I mean, as I

told you before we started, I got the same bug. You know, I was I was looking for my next thing and started talking to some recruiters and one of them said,

“You should talk to someone at EOS.” And I was like, “What’s EOS?” I had already started I had already started a cookie business

as a side hustle when I was working for General Electric. It was just like so I was in corporate as well and I was like I want to start something on my own and

I want to go through the process of doing it. I’m a processoriented person.

I’m a detailed person. I’m not I’m not a sales and marketing person. So um I’m an ops guy and so I I wanted to start this

cookie business and it it wasn’t a cookie business to start with but it became a cookie business. Anyway, the point is like when I was looking for my

next thing, I was talking to this to this person and she said, “You need to just talk to somebody at EOS.” And I scarcity mindset coming from a small

town. I’m like, “Why would they want another person like to come in and take business away from them if I started becoming an imple?”

And they’re like, “Oh, no, no, no. You don’t understand.” And by the time I started talking to one implementer to the next, it was like the most abundant mindset people I’ve

ever talked to in my life. And it’s a huge. So, um, I’d love for you to tell the audience about what EOS is, just so people know what the term means.

Sure. I love it. Most times when I meet people, I’m glad you said EOS because somebody will say, “Tell me about EOS.” Like, you know, I don’t I don’t know. I I took penicellin for that. I don’t have

that anymore. Um but uh no EOS in in the in the shortest of hands if I could if I can make it as easy as possible is just helping businesses get what they want.

The best exercise I do for people say close your eyes. If you had all 100 people or 15 people in your organization, close your eyes and point north. And most people have no idea what

north is, especially you’re in a four-walled room, which is where most people work. EOS is simply just getting human energy all pointing the same direction and getting business owners to

find out that there are rules, tools, and disciplines that they can use to set standards so that their business can run for them and they can have peace on both sides of the fence. That’s the simplest

form. So what it is is essentially um evergreen time timeless like there’s nothing in EOS that none of us don’t

know. I mean what Gino’s mastery was is he took everything that we should know.

He took what CVy’s leadership skills were or Patrick Lucion’s uh how to run healthy companies, five dysfunctions of a team thoughts or good to great with

Jim Collins. He took a series of ideas and then I I do believe that Dan Sullivan from Strategic Coach had a really good influence on helping him as

he built his family business. He learned all those things and when he went to EO EO, he took those ideas and found out that Entrepreneur Organization Detroit,

every other company was going through the same thing. And so, how do I help companies figure out a way that there’s a process to which you can run your business that if you just follow that process? Look, it’s not cookie cutter.

Not trying to knock any cookie cutters here, but uh it’s it’s a process that if you follow, you can customize and integrate to fit your style of business

that you want to run. And it just gives that peace of mind of wake up in the morning know you got all the right people in the right seats and I got all the right processes uh to run the

company place to talk about issues data that tells me how I’m doing a vision that everybody buys into and a meeting cadence that everybody follows to keep

us on track. That’s the the simplest form of shorthand if you will.

So to prevent people from calling it EOS why don’t you share what the acronym is?

So EOS is entrepreneur operating system.

which think about small all of us um if you’ve joined in the entrepreneur journey right the stumble bumble fumble of the entre entrepreneur journey which

is where risk is associated what class did we take on how to run our company most of it is we’ll go to little we’ll go to sessions we’ll go to three-day

workshops we’ll read online we’ll do we’ll read all the books but there’s never one system that you put in place that just says follow this on the regular and it will start to unlock

things for you to think about and put you in the right position and so that’s what that’s built on um And uh you know it’s grown to uh 800 of me around the

world. I was just with a group from Australia and England last week which is kind of cool. Um so we’re worldwide now.

So and probably going to continue to grow.

Yeah. And just just for the audience uh that doesn’t know about EOS, this is based on a book called Traction. And absolutely

I refer this book. I think I’ve given away five or six copies to friends that that were interested in it after I started talking about it. But if you if

you have a business or you’re thinking about starting a business, a small business, I mean, I think it’s one of the best books you could read on just how to think about say a blueprint of

getting your hands around maybe the most important aspects of a business. And if you can do if you can do the things that

are in the book traction, you will you will improve your business, you’ll be on the right track. And and uh it’s just an amazing book. It’s simple. I think the

way I look at what Gino did was he kind of took a lot of awesome ideas from a lot of people and he curated the best

things into a system. And that system is something you can take and just go through it. And so I’m a I’m a I want

you to explain what an implement is because I know that’s language that not everybody understands.

Um, and I’m an integrator. So I’m a I’m a fractional integrator on the side. So maybe you could talk about that too. But what is an impletor and an integrator and what you know what you do?

Yeah. So the short hand is EO EOS was built on the process that you could self-implement or you could have a quote unquote coach uh teacher facilitator

come in and help implement the process for you. It’s just depending on what your time frame is, how fast you want to absorb, right? I mean it’s a shamwow of

information and some people have the capacity to grab that shamwow and ring it out. Some people can only soak up a little bit at a time. It’s really built

so you can take it either way. So as an implementer what I do is I I plug in directly with companies and when I say directly not a consultant I got to be cautious as I say this but we stay out

of that consultant mind frame which is if I step on toes not I’m not trying to that uh people consultants like people with you know deep pockets who are slow

learners. I want to be the complete opposite. I want to be in a company for about two years and get the heck out.

meaning I’ve dumped the wisdom now we’re we’re using it see do teach um uh doctor mentality and get them into that process

where now they’re teaching at the next level and now it’s integrated throughout the whole company think Rosetta Stone of business from new newest of hires to the

founder all speaking the same language understand uh going the same direction um that that would be the shorthand version as an implementer the reality is

is that I work with leadership teams I I help them vision traction healthy healthy First things first is are we in a place where we all are facing the same

direction. We know where we want to be 3 years from now, one year from now, and 90 days from now. Traction means we have a plan of how we’re going to do that being prioritized. One of my favorite

quotes is, “Show me your calendar and I’ll show you your priorities.” And so we spend a lot of time, show me what your calendar looks like, and I’ll know if you’re actually working on the

business or in the business. And what we find is most leadership teams are spending 85 to 90% in and not much time on. And because of that, they’re in that

wheel spinning and not really setting out pathways of where they’re going. The analogy I use is mountain valley flower that they get on top of the mountain,

they see the flower that they want to go to, but to get there, you got to go into the valley. And when you get in the valley, it’s dark and it’s lonely. And they get in there and they get lost from

each other and they wander around and then they never actually get to the flower they chased. What we want to do is make sure we’ve carved out a pathway through that valley that’s clear and

that we don’t lose people on the way. We have checkpoints to make sure we’re on the right path. That makes sense. And then last is that healthy part that I

think a lot of companies meet miss you can grow. Lots of companies can scale and make money and hire and fire and all those fun things. But to do it in a

healthy way, right? Culture is not a strategy. Um culture is the strategy. Um how do you how do you install that inside of your organization? What is it?

Culture is not a bunch of people getting along. Culture is a bunch of people telling each other the truth. How do you create a an operating system that allows

truth, you know, open and honest just to be a natural contingency of what you’re doing in there? So, as an implement, that’s the other side that I go in and

I’m I’m listening for all three things because that triangle is what’s going to build that organization and I can usually narrow down what’s going on

inside the room without telling them because I believe the answers in every room. My job is to facilitate, teach, and coach them to find that answer, pull

that out, put it on the forefront, prioritize it, and then put a plan to it. So that’s the shorthand.

Thank you. That’s uh you know I think from the book four disciplines I think I remember used the term whirlwind uh and and so so many people that have had

their own business um and grown it to any sort of level with one or two people or more. I mean even by yourself you’re

wearing every hat you have so many things to do and the whirlwind of the day can take over. And so it does become

and plus people love to do what they’re comfortable doing. And of course we’re we’re not all the the master of all here. So um we all kind of have our

unique abilities. Um again mine is I like operations. I like finance. I don’t love sales and marketing kind of things.

And so I kind of put those off. I I don’t want to go do them. So it is easier for people to like get into the

whirlwind of the day can kind of knock you off course. It gets hard to focus.

These are just natural things I think for people that have been in in business on their own.

Even when you work for a company, it can happen to you. You have a plan for the day and all of a sudden something knocks you knocks you out of it. When you think about vision, traction, healthy, those

three things you just said, the companies you’ve worked with, what would you say is the most common one they struggle with?

Yeah. Well, it’s funny. I wish there was a common. Um I I I almost want to put it in order of first of all getting everybody to buy into the same vision is the key component. That’s why we have a

focus day, vision building one, vision building two. Those are the first three days of the entrepreneur operating system journey is let’s have a focus day

and get everybody focused on the right things. We talk about the five leadership principles. Simplify, delegate, predict, systemize, and structure. And we build everything

around those five words. And we don’t say blah blah blah blah will do. That’s how we simplify or um you know structure is more important. We put we build seats for a company before we build people.

It’s some it’s flipping the mindset of the reality of of an entrepreneur is you’re always working to the future. We’re just using today to organize it.

And so most people use today to try to get to the future. The reality is I’m just organizing today because the future’s already said I’ve already spoken into cons into existence. So

getting the vision and there’s an order to our operations. Getting that vision in place is critical. While we’re doing that, we’re starting to place in um some

traction components, what we call an L10 meeting, a weekly cadence to running your meeting. um some simple tools, delegate and elevator, people analyzer,

tools to use when you get stuck so that we don’t circle and cycle or whirlwind if you talk as as you said that we actually pull out a tool that creates

thinking that gets the story answer quicker. And then as that’s going on, you’re feeling out. I call it the 55 387 in the room. 55% body language, 38%

tonation, 7% words. I’m feeling that out in the room on healthy. I’m feeling that out on burnout. I’m feeling that out on is there two leaders in the room that

just aren’t aligned and I obsess on alignment. I obsess on clarity. Are they obsessing on that? How do I get them to align? Because just like the book talks

about just getting everybody rowing in the same direction. Um it’s easy to get the track. We all want to go to Tortuga.

Jack Sparrow said there’s lots of rum there. We all want to row as fast as we can, but if we’re rowing at different cadences and different pace and taking breaks at the wrong time, we’re just

going to zigzag and circle. How do you get everybody in the boat healthy? That no one person is more important than everybody else, but we all understand our roles and responsibilities to get

there. And so, yeah, the order there is an order. I’m I’m a math major, so there is a PEMDOS. Please excuse my dear aunt Sally if you remember that from math.

You know, you got to do parentheses before exponents. We definitely got to get that vision and traction in place, but you’re listening for that healthy.

That healthy is threaded through everything. And so, you’re you’re looking for that. And as I work with teams, usually by the end of year one,

all healthy has been flushed out and put to the top. Vision is clear. Now it’s time to get traction with that next level because they see it, they start to

do it. But it’s the teaching component to the next level that really starts to take EOS to the next level to that depth that it’s needed. Watching that happens where the fun kicks in.

So what are some of the revelations that people have had? I mean, I am a big one for client testimonials because that’s

what that’s the gas that keeps me going, you know, is helping families and making an impact in people’s lives. So, you don’t have to name names or whatever,

but is there one in particular that just like, okay, this is where they were before, this is

where they were after, and this is, you know, Yeah, I’ll give you I’ll give you one scenario. Family-owned business, third generation. I work with I work with a

lot of third generations. I work with a lot of merger companies. You know, two companies coming together that one speaks they both speak Spanish, but they’re different dialects, if you will.

And so, the way they’re running the business, there’s not one that they all agree on.

Um, I think of I think of two things that this company talk talked about for from day one.

They built their company around people instead of building around process. And good people with a bad process look like bad people. And so, they took the time

on the systemizing structure. Ops guy, you’ll love this. And built the ops and structure to run the company. And then they went out and find the people that

would follow that and run that and then not only follow and run it but enhance it. The second part that they had to dig into hard was getting right people in

the right seat. That is a real thing where right people in the right seat are just they get it want it have the capacity. It’s a unique ability that

fires and the seat fits them and they fit your values man. I hang out with them and they’re good at their job. They had a lot of right people wrong seat

which means they had a lot of really good people. Forgive my language. They just sucked at what they did. they’re just not very good. But they wanted to hang on to him because they just liked him so much and they didn’t realize they

were doing the company and themselves a disservice as well as that person who’s waking up every day feeling guilt that I’m not pulling my weight. They’re just keeping me around cuz we go to church together.

Put them in a different seat or do you have to turn them?

You have to you have to start unless there’s a seat. First of all, you don’t build a seat just for a person, right? So if the seat doesn’t exist of their unique ability, so I see that a

lot where that person has a unique ability, but the company’s not ready for that yet. You got to do what’s for the greater good of the company. And often

times is have that tour duty. Hey, over the next 30 days, I’m going to help you transition to your next phase of life. And it’s not going to be here.

Um, but what we’re going to do is we’re going to stay in touch. We’re going to keep you on our bench. And when the opportunity opens up that unique ability fits, we already know you’re the kind of person we want. But we have an

opportunity that fits your skill set, we’d love to open that door back up for you. You get the wrong people wrong seat, which is pretty easy. They’re just not a good person. They’re not very good

at their job. The rule we have on that is for every day that you know you have a wrong person wrong seat that you don’t act on it, you’ve got a future hour of

pain. I can’t tell you how many companies I’ll walk into and we go over that, they’ve got somebody in the company who’s been there for 120 days.

And when they finally pull the trigger on that person because they don’t fit their values, they’re not good at their job, they they got like three or four weeks of just, “Oh my god, I had no idea that was going on.” Unpacking.

The one that people I think fail, I’m glad you asked this question the most is when you get the wrong person right seat.

They don’t fit your values. Like we live on core values and you got to live those values. That’s what we hire, fire, and reward on. So if integrity is one of your values, you can see three times where they’re not living them.

But they’re in the right seat. Meaning I’m going to use sales. This is the easiest one where they’re the top salesperson, but when they walk in the room, the temperature drops. You’re

like, everybody feels that. I call those folks the frozen turds in the punch bowl because they’re keeping the punch cold,

but as that as that ice starts to thaw, what’s happening to the punch? And nobody will drink from your punch bowl anymore. And that one um to that point

of that company once they realized they had two frozen turds in the punch bowl that they just didn’t fit the values but they were killing it in sales or they

were killing it in their job but nobody wanted to work with them and it just was dragging down everybody else. They had to what take one step back to get rid of

that and all of a sudden they shot forward. They went from a $24 million company to a $39 million company in two years.

Essentially just tightening up their processes, getting all the right people in the right seats. And they had to make a leadership change, too, which is real.

You know, leading people, you know, managing human energy is a different game than being an individual contributor.

And often times we overpromote and get an individual contributor and leading people when the reality is they should have been back in that individual contributor state. Yeah, you explaining

that just hit me in the heart because not necessarily in my current situation, but I mean through my career and stuff

like that. Wrong person, right seat kind of thing. It’s just

man, I just I don’t know. I had a visceral feeling because I’m like, oo, I remember that. I remember having to deal

with that. I remember, you know, having to top sales guy walks in crazy and everybody else was in great

burn down my home because I passed them up for promotion because I kind of realized this person was really good at what they did. Their game face was good.

I was torn between two candidates, an internal candidate that was really good at running a

location. This is for like a district leader position when I was getting promoted to regional director. And then there was somebody from the outside, not at our company, resume, and I was torn.

I’m like, this person has a really good resume, but has no experience. This person’s already proven beyond a shadow

of a doubt um that they can run a effective location, but doesn’t have a ton of experience,

you know, multi-sight and all that stuff. And I was confused. I was like, I don’t know what to do. I went to my coach and my mentor. What do I do? He

said, “If you’re like at a tie, do a writing sample.

Pose a question and have them respond to you in writing.” It was crazy. Josh and Kevin, it was it was really crazy. The one guy from the

outside, I mean, it was boom. The other person, it looked like a sixth grader responded.

I mean, it was bad. Like, could not. You’re about to put your name on them.

your put your name on their shirt misspel like it was it was crazy and so I chose you know the person from the

outside and eventually that person showed their colors because I guess they had been telling people that they were already had the promotion and so now

that they didn’t get the promotion they started talking trash about me behind my back which eventually ended up exposing

that me getting rid of the person and then this cloud lifted that I didn’t even know existed because the numbers looked great for this store,

you know. So, that hit me in the heart, man.

It’s funny that you said that and I Kevin, I want to hear your thoughts on this, but that pre that interview process, which is it’s part of the EOS

systems, if you will, but we don’t we don’t come in and say, “Run this is your interview process.” We ask, “What is your interview process to make sure that you’re getting the right people in the right seat?”

I love that you said we we put them through a test. I had them do a writing sample. I’ve I’ve had companies say, um, uh, let’s say, Kevin, I need you to be

pleasantly persistent because we’re in a sales organization. What I’m going to do after our first interview is I’m going to ask you, hey, let’s set a meeting for next week. Um, you know, look for an

email from me. And then I’m not going to send you an email. I’m going to see if you actually follow up and say, hey, we still meeting next week. I’m not going to respond to that one. I’m going to

make you go at least two emails deep. I want to see what your tone is with me.

How you follow up with me to set that next meeting because how you do anything is how you do everything. And so I want to see that. I got another company that takes them out to lunch.

That’s so good.

Tells the major D, bring them the wrong food. I want to see how they act.

They’re going to be in a customer service facing. So bringing the wrong food no matter. And they’re always like, “Bring me a cheeseburger and fries so I can take it back to the office. Somebody will eat it when I get there.” Um, but

they want to see, do they not say anything and just eat it? Well, do we want that person who just takes it as they get it? And that means they’re going to take every complaint just I’ll

just make an exception. I’ll just make an exception. Are they Do they argue with the matra? Do they talk about the major D when they leave or do they actually work on I’m not sure if this is

what I ordered. I just want to make sure we’re on the same page and they actually come to a conclusion. What a great test just to see what that person looks like.

When I hear that writing test, you know, go back and send me an email of what we talked about today. Make it three bullet points concise. I want to hear what you

what that sounds like because that’s how they’re going to communicate to your client. That’s how they’re going to wear your brand, right?

So test that before they ever get in the door. It’s a no one gets in, no one gets out philosophy. Yeah, it’s so good. That’s great, Jim. That’s a great story.

That that was a great like thing for your guy to tell you to do.

Yeah, it it was I never would have thought of it, but that’s why we have mentors, you know, and it just exposed a whole level

of deceit and fear-based management within that organization that I didn’t even

know existed. And once she was gone, it that store went to the next. I took her assistant manager that she was kind of

bullying and I promoted her to store manager and the store just was rocking. It’s amazing.

Yeah. Josh, the reason the reason I asked you that question a few minutes ago about like vision, traction, healthy? Uh which which one of

those do you typically see companies struggle with the most? Because you you said, “Hey, you know, these two are going, this one’s not going well.” Um, I

was going to guess that it might be the healthy part would be would be the one that people struggle with the most because culture, people, the different

personalities, everybody’s, you know, Gary Vee, you know, if anybody knows Gary Vee, they’re always, you know, he’s always saying like, “Hey, what Susie wanted when she was 27 isn’t what she

wants at 32. She’s having a family now.” You know, people change, too. So, not only does your organization, it’s just it’s an organism, right? your your your

organization is constantly shapeshifting because it’s full of different people with different priorities that change over time. They might have been one way

a year ago and different now. So I know even me as a manager and a leader in my past life it was just like it’s a tough

job to do to do well and to find people like ourselves that want to do it well because it’s easy to say oh the natural

thing for me as an employee as an individual contributor is I did a good job at that so I’m getting promoted now to manage people and that’s a huge

responsibility that I think a lot of people do well but a lot of people don’t do the responsibility the way it should

be done. And I was reading books in my spare time. I was constantly trying to figure out how to be the best manager and the best leader and how to create a

culture. And it’s just not something that just is natural for everyone. So I just wondered if if healthy was one that you saw was maybe the bigger tougher one

cuz we can lay out a vision and we can start having L10s which is a great way to run a meeting. It’s part of the EOS

system. Um, but healthy and culture that’s that’s a you nailed it, Kevin. To your point, vision and traction are very logical.

There’s a logical component to it.

There’s there’s an agreement that’s made. Healthy is an emotion. What do we know about emotion? It’s transferred through stories and pictures and

everybody’s story and everybody picture is different and changes just like you described. And so in an organization, that’s why I say that’s the thread. You

got to thread that healthy through all the time. Um, and as a people leader, go look at the NFL, go look at the NBA. How

many coaches are going to get fired by the end of the year being a people leader? It’s just the reality that it’s a lonely position and you got to work on

it. When the culture is is we call it LMA, leadership management equals accountability. When everybody’s in that LMA seat and helping hold each other

accountable, LMA up and LMA down, then all of a sudden as a people leader, you’re really just keeping everybody focused on the direction and less

pushing at that point. Um, you’re more torchbearer, if you will. Um, but uh it is a that is a real thing. Healthy

reality, if you read Patrick Lencion’s five dysfunctions of team, the opening paragraph says not finance, not strategy, not uh product, it is teamwork that’s the ultimate differencemaker.

That is the healthy part. What I always tell everybody, go watch the dream team, the redeemed team on Netflix. Just go watch that and you’ll see the difference

between when the Olympic USA team had lost what, two Olympics in a row. Got a bronze, lost in the Panama games. I mean, with the best basketball players

in the world and they brought in Mike Shasheeski and Kobe Bryant and it just said, “Okay, this is what we’re doing from now on. This is what leadership

looks like. This is how we’re going to act.” And everybody essentially got in line and agreed, but it wasn’t forced.

It wasn’t command and control. It was discovered. And when they discovered it together, it’s pretty powerful. Nice. I love it. I love it.

Talk to me a little bit because you got that integrator blood in you. Oh, sorry, Jim. Yeah. No, you’re good. Going back. Yeah.

Entrepreneur and some of some of the story that I know about you. They’ve been it’s not been smooth sailing the whole time.

And having eight kids, I mean, duh, right? And eight and a half as you told me before, right? But like

how do you as an entrepreneur because this was tough for me and I didn’t really have

that large a family. We started a family right after I jumped into entrepreneurial side of things and started my own

business which was a challenge all of its own because we had a different learning curve and all that stuff. So how do you keep your saw sharp? How do

you spin all of the plates, which is sporting events, and you’ve got D1 athlete kids, and you’ve got kids still

in like elementary school, and you’ve got a wife that is pretty freaking awesome. She’s a badass, but she’s still

your wife and needs support and attention and all that stuff. What do you do to keep all those plates spinning

and to keep the personal life healthy and still, you know, stay married, right?

Yeah. I will say for the first 45 to 48 years of my life, it was just head down and move through. And to be honest, that sounds like a great way to get through

life. But I found myself, if I can visually, I was coming home every night and just sitting in recovery mode. I wasn’t recharging, right? Even weekends,

as you know, having kids, weekends weren’t recharging. Those were recovery weekends because you’re just following your kids to whatever event. And so you

had to start putting that intentional time on your calendar. I said it earlier. Show me your calendar. I’ll show your priorities. Show me where you’re working on you on your intentional time. Show me where you’re

having the one-on- ones. Um show me where you know that you’re not busy.

Forgive me if I again busy is the new broke. Show me that you’re not being busy and going broke. Show me that you’re productive and working with

purpose. Um, and so really that’s where 10 disciplines really kicked in for me was Shine with Gino Wickman’s follow-up book after he sold EOS. He wrote Shine.

Um, and I went through that whole course and then spent uh better part of 18 months with him and a group of going through a mastermind and it really

helped me unlock the intentionality of what is the perfect work week, how many days do I want to work? I I started this

year knowing I wanted 135 days off. um you know the 104 weekends that we get, the 11 to 13 national holidays, and then

schedule times off. But on those days, am I planning what those days are?

There’s this concept of gold, silver, bronze. I don’t know if you’re familiar with um a bronze day is you’re not working, but you’re doing all the honeydew list. You’re mowing the yard.

You’re, you know, painting the fence, fixing the light bulb. It’s not it’s not a day off. Does that make sense to everybody? And most people’s, and this was my life for the majority of 45

to 48 years, were bronze days, and that was complete recovery. Silver days are doing things that you planned on your

days off that are like fun. They’re things you do with your family. You have a trip planned. It’s a think about vacation. That should be a constant set of silver days.

And so, yeah, you might be physically tired, but emotionally you’ve got your bank recharged. And then a gold day is just taking 24 hours off the grid to

yourself. No business books, no no uh phone, no nothing. Just go 24 hours and find out how are you doing? You got

about 100 file folders open up in your head. Can you get that shut down to the three or four that matter in 24 hours and then come back just absolutely you

got to get rid of them. And so I started taking the intentionality with that. I started working off of rather than 10 folders only working off one folder.

Started saying that 36 hours is my perfect work week. Anything less than that I feel unfulfilled. anything more than that. I feel like I’ve done too much. Um, and it was 48 when I started.

I’ve got it down to 36 now. And just taking some intentionality with those times. And then having talks, finding those people that you can sit down with

and have the real conversations about what’s going on in their life and your life. Um, I we were talking Kevin essentially that’s what an integrator is

doing inside the organizations. What I’m talking about doing as an entrepreneur. Yeah.

Can you create harmony in your life? Can you remove the obstacles and barriers that are keeping you from where you’re going? And so when you can do that as a

as a leader, then you can start to help other people do that. That’s what an integrator’s true uh joy and passion is, is waking up every day saying, “I’m

going to get the obstacles and excuses out of your way. I’m going to give you all the tools and resources for you to go be successful. And I want you to not come to work tomorrow. I want you to

come to purpose.” Because I know if you come to purpose, you’re going to go home excited and your family’s going to get the best of you. If you come to work, you’re going to go home exhausted and

your family’s going to need only part of you. I need you to be recharging on both ends of the spectrum.

Yeah. And obviously, if you’re living that or at least in the same, you know, ballpark and living that life, it’s a lot easier to stand up, I’m sure, in

front of a group of people and talk with passion and talk with conviction. It’s like, I got some crap figured out. Let me teach you.

If I would have done that seven years ago, that would have been complete imposter syndrome. That’s all it would have been. It’s hard to sell it’s hard to sell the dream if you’re living the nightmare.

Absolutely. Yeah. I I I have a quote written on my board um when I was going through this. The mind is a the mind’s like a bad neighborhood. Don’t go there

alone. And so I spent the better part of two or three years when I needed to have those moments. I would not go there alone. I had to bring a a partner, a

therapist, somebody in with me to get this all unpacked because for me to live at peace, I had to be able to work with me. I had to be able to look in a mirror

and look at that guy and say, “You’re being authentic and you’re being real and you’re the best version of yourself for everybody else in the world.” And

that as an as a entrepreneur and then as an EOS implement, man, if you’re not, they sniff right through that. I mean,

it’s it’s so clear that this is there’s they’re selling a product. They’re pushing they’re pushing a process.

They’re not in here as believers. You know want to know the most amazing thing Josh and you Kevin and for all our

audience is I only know the Josh that’s the new and improved Josh. Wow.

I don’t have any mental baggage or any mental picture or any experiences with the old Josh. So when you came into my

life and hopefully you got the new and improved Jim Batu that cheerleads the cheerleader, right? Um I don’t know any other person.

I only know this person. So when you take time to self-develop and reflect and get better.

Yeah, maybe there’s some damage from the past.

Maybe there’s some right dead soldiers or whatever, but moving forward, you’re the new and improved man. That’s that’s

like I don’t even know that person. Like my kids don’t know me as an introvert.

They don’t know me. When I was back at college, probably dropping like cuss words like they were, you know?

I mean, they don’t know. Nobody knows.

If I said tell people I’m an introvert, they’re like, “You’re crazy. You’re extrovert.” I’m like, I play one on TV, you know, and and that’s it’s improved

with my self-development and my self-esteem getting better because I don’t think my introversion was a

character. It wasn’t a I don’t know. It wasn’t a natural part of me. It was just because I was insecure.

So, I wasn’t, you know, would just sit there and be a fly on the wall kind of thing. And so I’m just encouraging you and you Kevin too. Like all I know you

is awesome dudes that are impactful to me and my life and I try to pay it forward by lifting up the lifters

because I know everybody needs somebody in their life to cheerlead them as well especially if you’re out charging. But

that’s a testament to the audience to when you do self-development you never go back and the impact you can have from this moment forward is huge.

20 20 seconds of courage, five minutes awkward. And I promise it’ll be less than five minutes. I teach that in in the room when I see conflict. Curiosity cures all conflict. So I’ll be like 20 seconds to courage, 5 minutes awkward.

And then I’ll ask a really deep question. I’m going to flip that for a second. Most of us have 80% of our life, 80% of our identity is based off our

past. The flip I made was 80% of my identity was going to be based off the person I wanted to become. And I was going to use the 20% of my past. The

past is a place of reference, not of residence. So, I was going to reference that past. I was going to be thankful for that guy in college who cussed too

much or that narcissist in 2017 or I was going to be thankful for that because I learned that’s not what I wanted to be with my future. So, rather than sit and

regret, I appreciate it, but I re had to recognize it didn’t identify who I was.

And so, once you realize that your future self is actually who we’re working to, I ended up writing my eulogy. It was one of the best things I ever did. And I hand it to my closest

friends and said, “I never want you to read this.” And they were like, “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” I was like, “You’re you’re you’re going to die, Josh. I’ve I’ve I’ve seen your dad.

Your genetics aren’t good. You’re you’re you’re on your way down right now. I appreciate that. Thank you.” Uh but um the reality is I wanted them to that’s

the words I want you to say whether you had this paper in front of you or not.

And so if you wouldn’t say these words, I need you to bring an extra pair of shoes to our lunch and put one in my butt and then uh and then I’ll go back

and I’ll fix it and then come back because I want you to be able to say this about me. And so what is it? The history would be kind to you if you wrote it. I just decided I wanted to

write history. And so I didn’t want somebody else to write it. I wanted to write it and have the world tell me if I’m on track or not on track, using the

EOS term, if you will, Kevin. Yeah. Um you know how you know how awesome it is when somebody tells you you’re off track. That’s a gift, dude. you’re off track, you’ve drifted.

Let’s get you back on track. And it’s usually spiritual or biblical or who you’re hanging out with or the stinking thinking or you’re not taking, you know, clarity breaks. It’s all the things that

we know we need to do from a discipline side.

How’s this journey been for you so far with uh with becoming an impleer, Josh, as far as like I know if I could just

the reason I say this some some context would be I thought about doing this as well and I think like I’ve mentioned more than once

already on this episode sales and marketing aren’t aren’t really something that gets me excited, right? That’s I’m an ops person by nature and so

as Jim said, I’m a little bit of an introvert as well, Jim. like he knows like if you if you connect me to somebody, I’ll go have you know sit down and have a conversation with them. I’m

not I love doing that and meeting people, but I’m also um not likely to to go into a group of people and just introduce myself. It’s just not

something that I do. So, I just say this because when I talked to some other implementers before about becoming a

coach like this, cuz I wanted to help businesses as well, like you are, and they’re like, “Well, yeah, you got to you got to build your network. You got

to have a network. You got to start getting out there, meeting people, and doing business development.” At the time, I didn’t even know what business

development meant. And so, and then I came from a small town and moved here and didn’t have a network. So, when I first started thinking about this, if

anyone else out there is thinking about this, you know, I just didn’t have a network. I didn’t even know what business development meant. I didn’t have that skill set. And thinking about

waking up every day and having to go meet new people, knock on doors, and get told no was something I wasn’t used to

and didn’t get excited about. And it actually kept me from from really having the confidence to to think about doing what you’re doing. And so, um, I just

wanted to know how that went for you, but you seem to be way out now out out front with that personality. So, Jim can tell you, I sit games by myself.

I’m very quiet outside of the room. I how I pictured is I love that you call the sales and marketing part. That’s my least favorite. You know, that’s the

things you have to do to do the things you want to do, if that makes sense to you. And so, um, I have found that I’m a give to live person. I’d rather give away knowledge,

give away time, give away energy rather than ask somebody for business. And so my model has been very giving first, you

know, help first mentality and let that either attract people or find people that help attract to me. I I I struggled

just like uh what you talked about the the going out and knocking on doors, uh the you know, cold calls and all that.

That’s just not who I am. And I I don’t do it for that. I wish I did it for the money. I think I’d probably make more money if I did it for the money. I do it for the purpose. I don’t want to work

anymore. I want a purpose. And so the name of my company is reach, teach, eliminate. And so the model that I followed is right off the name of my

company. If I can help one person, if I can reach one person where they’re at every day and teach one person one thing they could do differently to help them

get to the path they want to go to. And in most cases, it’s the elimination, not the adding on. What I found is is that

most people think that growing is adding new things on. And as you get older, you realize it’s letting things go. It’s removing all those things that you

aren’t. It’s when Michelangelo carved David, right? And and the Pope asked, “How did you carve David out of that marble?” He said, “I didn’t carve David

out of the marble. I just removed everything that wasn’t.” The older I get, I see people doing things that they’re not. And that’s why the

eliminate word came in comes in because you know 70% of our problems come from what we say yes to. Teaching people that no is a great answer and it’s a complete

sentence is fantastic. And to your point Kevin getting a no from somebody is a fantastic answer for me because that

means I’m not a good fit for them uh and they’re not a good fit for me and I get freedom from the nos now rather than

dwell on it and oh my gosh what if they say no and go through all the they say no to me. No, they’re saying no to the person that was in front of them today.

Let’s go work on the person I want to be tomorrow. If that makes sense to you.

So, yeah, the journey is rewarding. I I guess everybody would tell you that hunting part is the hard part. Yeah.

I don’t live for the hunt. That’s just not what I’m interested in. I live for the room. You know, today I get a when we’re done here, I’m going to go speak to 19 middle manager leaders from across

the country for the next two days. And I can’t be more jacked. I’ll come home and won’t go to bed tonight. Not I won’t come home tired. I’ll come home jacked

up because a bunch of, you know, 20 and 30 year olds are the first time maybe in their life learning what it is to be a learn a leader manager. And it’s not

going to be me telling them. It’s going to be me asking them and them saying those things out loud and watching that discovery happen in the room. Like watching somebody discover that a square

plus b²= c² and it actually applies someplace. Like that’s a gift. So I can’t wait for it. I love it. You’re just flowing, man.

It’s flow Yeah. I use the word float. like you’re hovering above. Some people call it the zone, but I love it. Yeah.

As we begin to wrap up, Josh, like what I’ve gotten from this, because I’ve, you know, I went into a a guy’s office, we

hit it off right away because I was super intimidated. He was the president of a hundred million dollar company and it was a referral setup. And then um the

good news is Kevin, he had a guitar and an amplifier in the corner and he had some Purdue swag on his bookshelf in his office.

A good start.

And Oh yeah. So like 30 minutes later, we’re talking like it’s like we had known each other our whole lives. Yeah.

And on the table that I was sitting at, he was like, “Dude, have you read that book?” And it was traction. I was like, “No, never heard of it.” He’s like,

“Take it with you.” And so I know enough to be dangerous, but I think as have I told both of you,

I never really understood how it would be implemented in my business, you know, in the financial

side of things working with 1099. And so I didn’t really ever implement the processes.

But even during this discussion, lot of shop talk, a lot of acronyms,

a lot of phrases and flows. And so even for me, it was hard to keep up and I kind of have a basic understanding of

the process in the program. What would be just like one painoint question or

one little nugget that if somebody’s listening if they’re a small business owner, large business owner

that you go in to go like I it sounds pretty cool, but I’m not sure if this is for me, if this program would even be

make sense for me. What would be one question for either of you or both of you that you would ask or maybe there’s

one pain point that people experience that you’re like okay if you’re experiencing this we should probably have a conversation.

So I’ll give you two real quick. Kevin EOS purity the question is are you getting everything you want out of your business? That’s the question that we

ask. That’s the EOS purity question. The question I default to is did you build a job or did you build a company? And what I find with most entrepreneurs, they

built a job. Um, and that’s they report to their job every day and they haven’t built a company that’s working in tandem with what they want out of their life.

They built a job that’s actually define their life, if that makes sense. Their identity is their work and it’s uh and rather than it’s just an outsource of

who they are. So that’s the the question I go to on the regular. And if you would like to have a company and a life because they can run a balance in parallel, I’d love to show you some simple ways.

And I promise you, I’m not gonna say I’m just gonna show you what you can do with it and I’ll help you guide what your next best step is. Yeah.

Yeah. I would that’s awesome. Awesome answer, Josh. And I would wouldn’t expect any less from from you. So, uh, for me, I

I am I do love everything about EOS because like I spent 23 years in more

corporate environments first. So these were, you know, larger organizations, 5,000 to 400,000 employee companies,

20 plus years. And so you just learn about all of these things around

business in an environment like that. So when I was not in that environment anymore and I picked up traction and I

read it, I was kind of at first I was surprised actually my first and I was reading it and I was like how can you have a business and not do these things?

Because because again I started my small side hustle cookie business and I didn’t have to have all of these things that a

big business has but I I grew up in big businesses. I didn’t realize you couldn’t have these things and still exist. like how can you have a

million-dollar company and not have the things that come with within traction the book? And so that was my first like

like I couldn’t believe it and I thought I can help people with this too because I love this stuff. It’s what I love doing because I’m a process guy. So, I

think anybody that’s interested in just running a good business, however big it is, you should check out the book Traction,

just give it a read or a listen, and I guarantee there’s going to be some things you pull out of that, even if you

don’t feel the whole book is for you, 100%.

You’re going to get good stuff out of there. Jim, I’m I’m sure you know, you even read one chapter of that book on any of the six core components of it.

you’re going to be like, I can take one piece of that and improve my business right now. I don’t need to do the whole system. But if you do the whole system and you’re big enough and you want to

scale, the whole system is going to help you do that.

No, I read it and I’m going to my commitment is to reread it because God keeps putting people in my life that are surrounded by this thing. Maybe he’s

just like, “How many hints do you need, bro? I don’t know. But I’m going to reread it

and uh and I will let you I’ll text you the email has landed to both of you when I’ve reread it for my accountability. There you go.

Every coach needs a coach. Um so I know that they can find you. We’re going to have on the landing page.

This is going to be on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, and we have a landing page.

It’s going to have all your contact information, Josh. But I know it’s joshua.houser ausworldwide.com.

Is there a website that you want to send people to?

Yeah, I’m I’m I’m done driving and drive everything through EOS because I want to stay pure. My website has about my speaking and all those other things and I I really feel like I want to meet

people on the EOS front. So, that’s probably the easiest way um is just to go through the EOS email. That’s great.

Um so, the last thing is we have a sponsor, Josh, and so we are sponsored by the Hayes Group, which is a marketing firm.

Absolutely. and we met uh through an introduction of a friend. He’s on his own marketing firm for 20 plus years.

Awesome guy. And then somehow magically we started talking about music. He’s a drummer. I play guitar. And he’s one of

the founding members of our our RiseFest, our music festival. But the Hayes Group uh hazegroup marketing.com

is uh Kevin and I are both really tight with this company. they helped us in big ways in our business, but but also maybe

that would be a good um introduction for me to make for you, Josh, because he’s definitely in our inner circles and just an awesome dude. Great human being.

Um I’ve heard nothing but positive things about that group.

Super wise and just knowledgeable about just about life, man. I I would rather have a beer or talk business or

whatever. that that that line is very blurred with Adam and I. We’re just really good friends. I’m thankful for him and I’m thankful for Andy, his kind

of right-hand person. Andy, she has been so patient with me because I am not great at sales either. And I’m not great

at marketing. And I I’m going to pick your brain cuz on the give to live thing because I’ve been thinking that and

saying that about my business and actually telling people without that cool phrase. So I’m going to pick your brain on that. But um so hazegrouparketing.com

if you’re at any point you need to figure out how

to get people to a site to drive sales to be more effective with your

marketing. Just hit them up. You won’t regret it.

Man, what a world we live in where it’s who, not how. Too many people trying to figure out how to do it. You got a who sitting right here. Just call that who.

Get it taken care of. I mean, you know, it’s like I suck at marketing. I’m if

I’m going to figure out marketing if it kills me. Well, I almost died. Okay.

Like I’m not that is not my strength zone. It will not be I’m not good at sales and I’ve been in own business as a kind of a soloreneur.

I’ve got like 50 licensed people, but I mean we’ve made a living for the last 24 years full-time in this business and I suck at sales, right? It’s just I love

the give to live thing and I think most of the people I’m attracting to my life right now are kind of like the same.

They have that same We should probably create a group. Yeah, I love it.

Give to live. And I don’t know what the purpose of the group is going to be, but I think we need to get Eagles together

who are out there killing it and dragging it home to the cave and get those folks together. If it’s just like

playing pinball and having a beer just so they can hang out with like people and not think about business or talk, great something. But there’s a nugget

there. I’m planting that. I’m sewing that seed into both of your minds.

But thanks again for tuning in to another episode of Fire Your Boss, guys.

Um, that was such a great conversation, Josh. That was such a great conversation, Kevin. like you guys

definitely have a common language and you could just see the joy in your faces as you were like throwing nuggets

around. It’s like you guys are such dweebs. I love it.

Um but that’s what you want, right? We don’t call them dweebs. That’s right. Tattoos.

You want those folks in your corner helping you implement and and just being joyful about it, right? I mean, there’s

consultants like you talked about, but there’s people you can tell that Kevin, Josh, they have genuine joy for what they do. They get jacked up about it.

They light up when they start talking about a subject. That’s who I want at my company to help me implement this thing or um what all the different terms are.

But again, guys, love it. Appreciate you. Have an amazing week. Thanks for tuning in to Fire Your Boss.

And you guys have an amazing uh uh day. Good luck in Josh. What a pleasure. Thank you.

Heat.