The One Hour Leader: Build a Self-Directed Million Dollar Team

Well, Happy New Year. It's officially a week in. How you doing? Welcome to the Leadership is Feminine podcast. I'm Kris Plachy and I'm excited for this episode because I'm going to talk about the One Hour Leader.

The One Hour Leader is a relatively new, how shall I say, offer, I guess, that I'm going to be putting in the world. We've already started registration. We already have quite a few women already registered, which I'm super excited about. And I wanted to do a high level overview of the One Hour Leader so that you get a sense of what we're doing, why it exists on the planet, what it's for, and why you should do it or why you shouldn't. And that's what matters.

But if you're not going to work with me, I still want to talk to you about the principles, what I believe to be true, that regardless of what's going on in your business, as it relates to your team, everything that you're facing, as it relates to people and team can be solved through the formula and the framework that I teach in the One Hour Leader.

So let's, let's back up a step. What is the one hour leader and why does it even exist? Well, one of the things that I have been really trying to figure out after years of working with successful leaders, entrepreneurs, founders, is how to set you up with that initial first sprint that I know you have to take if you want to resolve some of that immediate crisis, challenge, triage in your business that always presents - I am actually going to go out and use that word - it always presents to female founders and even male founders - but I don't work with them as much - to female founders once they've hit seven-figure thresholds.

Now it may not be at the first million. It may be at the first third million, three million. It might be when you hit five million, but it's definitely going to hit you somewhere in that little window. What is that, that I'm talking about? What I'm talking about is who got you here isn't getting you there and you know it. So It's not that they're bad people, it's not that you had some, even some major falling out, although sometimes that happens, it's that you can tell that you're different, the business is different, the client might be different, the customer is different, the product is different, and somehow there's people on the team and they didn't keep up.

Or the last batch that you hired, the last couple that you brought on, they're not working out the way that they used to work out. Now they're not working out. So what, what are we talking about? It is inevitable for it to happen.

I want to first sort of validate that for you. I want to clarify for you that if that's happening, you're not alone. But I also, as a leader in this space and someone who's constantly thinking about leadership much more so than I think is normal, and honestly way more so that you don't have to, I know that I can do a better job. I keep asking this of myself. I can do a better job helping you figure out how to get through that period, that sprint, that you have to go through faster, more concisely, with less effort.

As I was putting this idea together, I was doing a lot of brainstorming, like obsessively, because I wanted so much to get the point across quickly to you that I can't even tell you how many times- I've tried so many different ways to what to call this. Because what I want you to know is if you, if you are running a million dollar business, I will help you create the million dollar team. And I know that most businesses get to a million dollars. Get to two million dollars, get to three, and then they realize they don't have a million dollar team and that becomes the next kind of gauntlet you have to go through.

The first gauntlet is proving that your business model works. It's making sure that people will buy what you're selling and that they will keep buying it. It's not just a one off, right? You really have built a sustainable business, but you don't have the elements and the people in the team that will elevate the business. Right? That's who this is for.

So the One Hour Header is specifically, and only, for million dollar business owners. It is specifically and currently only for female founders of million dollar businesses.

Now, having said that, then I'm like, "Okay, so how do I do this in a way that you're going to get it done?" Because I've offered How to CEO. I've offered the Lead for Women program. I've done so many different ways to teach you. And the common refrain is, "This is all so great. This is so great. Oh my God. This is so good. I'm just, I'm behind. I don't have time. I need to catch up. And then I can keep working with you." Right?

Or, "I just so, I'm overwhelmed," because they come to a call when they can and then life takes over. You hang up, you get off the zoom, you go into your life. And then, oh, by the way, nothing got done. And so I'm done with that. I'm done with letting you use my work against yourself.

So now what we're going to do is we're going to do it together. So the One Hour Leader is an eight week program. I hate the word program, but listen, let's call it what it is. It's eight weeks. You and me and other million dollar business founders, we're going to meet once a week and I will spend about 15 minutes explaining to you what we're going to do, and why we do it, and what it will address on the team and in the business. And then we're going to do it live. Boom. Done.

I don't want you hanging up and saying, "Okay, maybe I'll work on this later. I'll put it together in a little bit. Think about it. I'll take it to my team and have them give me their thoughts." None of that. We're not doing any of that. We're going to do it together. You, me and other women. That's it.

And I want you to understand. That even if maybe you've been listening to me for a long time, maybe I don't know if you, you get the sense if you're brand new, I simplify things and I've been accused of simplifying things. I've actually had people say "You simplify things" like it's a bad thing. And I say, no, you just overcomplicate them, right? When you work with me, I simplify all the drama that's in your brain about your team. We're gonna fix it. We're just gonna resolve it because it's all fixable if you're willing. So the One Hour Leader is really how I want to teach you how to build a self directed team for your million dollar business that you can lead in one hour a week.

Now, that doesn't mean you're going to only talk to them once a week. It means that we're going to only do the stuff that I think you really don't like about being a founder, that leading part, that dealing with the people part, we're only going to do that for an hour a week once we get all the systems in place, once we build the framework. Now, you still interact with people, you still lead your company, you still have ideas, you still- all those things still happen. But the stuff that I know that's eating you up; performance issues, mistakes, people not doing what you asked them to do, people not meeting your expectations, people being late, people still working for you who shouldn't. All that we can handle in an hour a week. But you have to have my framework to do that.

So what is this elusive framework? I'm going to tell you what it is. And I think you're going to get angry. I said this, I did a complimentary first sort of session. It's still out. If you go to thevisionary.com and then you click on the One Hour Leader, you can go and watch that video if you want. It's still available to check out. So if you haven't done it, you should, because it's there. It'll give you great insight. Just go to thevisionary.com, click on the One Hour Leader. You can watch an hour long presentation that I've created. And I actually did some coaching and discussing with other million dollar business owners. So it'll probably be really helpful for you.

What I said is that, I think once you hear what my framework is, it's gonna make you mad . And I think you're gonna think that because you're gonna think it's too easy. But here's what I wanna say, and I talked a little bit about this in that call, in that webinar. Everything really that we wanna achieve has a level of simplicity to it. It's the drama in our brain that makes it hard, right?

So, things that I've just recently been deciding I'm gonna do that I haven't done in a long time, like lose weight. Losing weight is really not hard, but there's a lot of drama about losing weight and there's expertise that we need in order to lose weight sometimes, especially as a 54 year old menopausal, post-hysterectomy woman, right?

Like, I have a unique body and my body has different needs. But what I had to do was find an expert, which I did. She and I had one phone call, one hour. She told me exactly what I needed to do. And I have been doing it since I talked with her at the beginning of November, right? And I've lost 15 pounds once I followed her direction, even though it was everything I knew I could do. There was just something about the way she put it in a framework, which, by the way, her name is Dr Rachel Fadino. She's amazing. Giving her my shout out.

But once I have her framework, I just followed it. And I keep following it and it's working. And that's all I needed. I'm very smart. I'm very capable, but that has been hard for me.

Leading people, creating a team, designing the team that will help you achieve the revenue goals that you have, or the vision goal that you have, or the reach goal that you have, or the time off goals that you have for yourself, that's easy for me. So let me make that easy for you. That's how I feel about it.

I think once you hear what the steps are, what the actual work is, the framework, I don't think you're going to be like, "Oh, I never heard that before". I think you're going to be like, "Really? Want it to be different." But it's not, but we're going to do it together. And we're just going to make it easy. And we're going to make it fun. And we're going to listen to each other, because there's going to be other women who are going to be like you.

So just like the One Hour Leader is how to build a self directed team that can deliver on the million dollar dream, right? You need to be a self directed woman who wants to build the million dollar dream. The only people who can come into this program are women who are ready to go to work to invest that hour and go all in. No overbooking yourself. No, "Oh, I'm sorry. I can't make it." No making excuses. No. None of it. Just show up. Eight weeks. Do it or not. But just make a choice.

Because I think that's part of the problem. Because people problems, like managing a business, leading a business, coming up with, like- I always think the hardest part about a business is generating revenue. But some of you do that, like, in your sleep. Like, it's not a problem. But dealing with the people part. Ugh, right? You're like, "I quit." Never quit, figuratively or literally, a business because the people are hard. Because first of all, we can resolve that. And second of all, people are hard wherever you go.

So how about we just get better at that part and then you don't have to have that be always a problem. People in your family, people on the street, people you live next to, people who you pay money to, people who pay you money. Just help make that simpler.

So what is the One Hour Leader? Well, it's basically the framework. If you think about this. I like to think that we're building an ecosystem. Your business is an ecosystem. It's not an org chart. Okay. And an ecosystem, we have to think about it much more organically, right? We have to think about, okay, so if we want this ecosystem to thrive, it needs good soil. It needs rich nutrient soil. It needs good oxygen. It needs water. It needs light. It needs, right? Like, just to use that metaphor.

I find that that's why, you know, Leadership is Feminine. That's the model that I teach. That's the philosophy I bring to what I do. And it's an organizational flow that I teach. It's much more in tuned with how we think as women and how we connect as women and how we want to build environments around ourselves. So it's a much more apropos way to think than an org chart. But I know what you find in the world when you think about team is you're just finding lots of stuff that's been written by a bunch of dudes.

So, but the flow is generally the same. We have to be very clear about the promise of the business. Why does this business exist? And I can assure you that if you've been running your business for more than five years, the reason that your business exists today is likely different than the original motivation you had. And we need to make sure that's clear. Because if you want to hire aligned co-creators in your organization, you have to have a very clear promise. Where are we going? Right?

A lot of times, if you think about how hiring works, people are like, "Hey, I have a really cool car. Do you want to get in it?" And because of the way that we've all worked in the world, we all just apply for jobs. "That's a cool car. I'll get in that car". That's kind of what it feels like, instead of like, "Hey, I'm going to take this really cool car over here. And this is what we're going to do when we get there. Would you like to be a part of that?"

So the very first part of this work together is us getting clear about that. And it's not your vision and it's not your mission. It's different. Because it has to be so much more of you, so that your business can stop being you.

And then we have to design the co-creating model that supports that. And that is the people that are in it. We have to look at, what are the resources this promise needs to be fulfilled? And how do we put those into functional responsibilities with accountability to production and performance? And also, agreements to behavior and how we align and work together. So we have to look at our agreements. We have to look at accountability. We have to look at ownership. We have to look at how do we find these self directed people.

Entrepreneurs, you guys, you cannot keep hiring people that need a ton of direction. You don't have that capacity. And most of my clients that I work with now are really at that next level where they're developing managers to lead their companies. That's a whole other ask of you, love. But if you haven't figured this part out first, it gets really hard to hire managers if you haven't built the framework of how to lead in your company, if it's all just been by your seat of your pants. So we have to do an audit of what's going on.

And then we have to decide who we keeping, who we not keeping and why. And yes, we're going to do that. And yes, we're going to get you ready. And you're going to have the conversations if you need to have them. It doesn't work unless you do. I'm full of metaphors today. If you want a beautiful rosebush, mama, guess what you have to do? That rosebush needs to look like ass before it will bloom again. And you know that. You have to pull that thing down.

We have to really, really be honest. It's like- I wrote an article about this last week, right? Like in order to clean, I know you, we all have that closet, right? We all have that closet in our lives that we just, whoa, we just want to rip the closet. We hate it. I just went through this. I hated my closet. The only way to know what to do is you got to take everything out of the closet and then it doesn't go back in unless you're like, "I'm so happy I own this. I'm so happy this is a part of my life. I can't wait to wear this again." It doesn't go back in the closet. And I want you to be able to have that kind of objectivity with your business and your team.

You have to, if you want to move out of whatever it is that you're in. Then we have to decide how we're going to redesign it, rebuild it, and then attract the best people, the best co working team. We have to be able to tell people the truth. We have to be able to give people feedback.

So the framework is very, very linear. It's your promise. It's the design, which is how we deliver. It's the resources. It's the follow through and measures. It's the conversations and feedback. It's the reoffers and the redesigns of roles. And it's then the follow through and the feedback, and the follow through and the feedback, and the follow through and the feedback.

But your decision making is what we're going to sharpen, and we're going to stop being lost in the fray of day to day that doesn't allow you to make some very critical decisions. And secondly, if you're like a lot of my clients, you might either be playing the only strategy role. You're the only strategist in your business. And so you constantly question and doubt yourself because you don't know. So that's going to get resolved, because you're going to come to a call with me and I'm going to help you make those decisions. Cause that's what I do.

Or you've hired top heavy and you have too many strategists in your business and not enough tacticians, you have too many brains, not enough hands. And you're overwhelmed and you don't know what is the right strategy. Either way, we're going to fix that. But if you have people who aren't performing, people are coming to late, people who are just letting you down, people who've all of a sudden have all sorts of life drama and you're trying to figure out what to do with it. You have someone who quit, you can't replace them. Someone who quit, you don't want to replace them. A position you haven't been able to fill. A position you're not sure if you even need or you know you need something, but you don't know what it is. If you have an employee who's worked with you since you opened the doors and all of a sudden they're off the rails and you don't know what to do about it.

Any of that is resolved with what I've just explained to you. And we're going to do it every week and you're going to be done. And then once you're done, you can decide. Because I work with clients for a year at a time. So if you decide, "Okay, after this eight weeks, yes, this is amazing. Now I want to come every week and I want to work on this and I want to work on this and I want to work on this." Let's do it.

But what I know is you have to do this first. You have to answer these questions. Where is my business going? Who does it need to take with it? How do I know who those people are? How do I tell the people I'm keeping and how do I let the other ones go? And how do I keep an ongoing high level, high expectation for both performance and behavior so that I am leading a business that delivers on the promise that it has in the world.

And until you have that locked up, you will chase this. You will accommodate. You will feel guilty. You will tolerate people's poor performance. You will avoid people because they're difficult to talk to, and you don't want to deal with it. You'll stay confused. You'll stay undecided on things. And you'll be like, at least the last three women who just registered for the One Hour Leader, all three said, it's me. It's like the Taylor Swift song. "It's me. Hi. I'm the problem. It's me." They know they're the bottleneck. Let's just solve that. That's what we're going to do.

So the one hour leader starts at the end of January 2024. If you're listening to this two years from now, and the current offer is all available on the website. You could join the waitlist, I think, right now. I don't know if we've opened it up yet by the time you'll be listening to this.

And if you ever have questions, you just go to [email protected] to get them answered. And you can also find me on the Instagram and on LinkedIn. If you want to ask me any questions, you can do that there too. All right.

So go to thevisionary.ceo and then click on One Hour Leader and you are three quarters of the way there. All right. Talk to you next week.