Unlocking Business Success with EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System)

Is your business running efficiently, or are you constantly battling misalignment, lack of accountability, and stalled growth? In this episode of Breaching the Boardroom, host Ashley Sebastian sits down with Barry Barrett, a seasoned entrepreneur and EOS Implementer, to explore how the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) can transform the way businesses operate.

Barry shares his journey from the Marine Corps to scaling a multi-million-dollar business and how he discovered that most companies don’t just struggle with sales—they struggle with structure. He explains how EOS provides clarity, alignment, and accountability, ensuring that leadership teams and employees are rowing in the same direction.

Key Takeaways:

✅ What EOS is and why businesses need it
✅ How defining vision and traction goals prevents misalignment
✅ The importance of having the right people in the right seats
✅ Why most meetings fail—and how to fix them
✅ How EOS helps businesses scale sustainably

Whether you're a business leader looking to streamline operations, boost productivity, or create a self-sustaining company, this episode is packed with valuable insights.

🔗 Connect with Barry Barrett:
📍 EOS Worldwide: eosworldwide.com/Barry-Barrett
📍 Email: Barry.Barrett@eosworldwide.com
📍 LinkedIn: Barry Barrett
📍 Podcast: Business on Purpose

🎧 Subscribe to Breaching the Boardroom for more expert insights on leadership, technology, and business growth.

P.S. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a fellow business leader who could benefit from EOS! 🚀

🌟 Who Are We?

NetGain Technologies is a leading managed IT and security service provider with over 40 years of experience helping small to mid-sized businesses succeed. 💻✨ Specializing in IT management, cybersecurity, and strategic consulting, we empower businesses in healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and beyond to turn technology into a competitive advantage. 🚀

🌐 Website: www.netgainit.com
💼 LinkedIn: NetGain Technologies
📅 Meet with Us: Schedule a Meeting

Meet Your Hosts

• Ashley Sebastian, NetGain Technologies
• David Mauro, NetGain Technologies

Transcript

Ashley Sebastian (00:01)

Hi everyone and welcome to Breaching the Boardroom podcast. Today we are talking about a system that has transformed how businesses operate, the entrepreneurial operating system or EOS. At NetGain Technologies, we use EOS to stay focused, aligned and accountable and we've seen the difference it makes in driving real results. I'm joined by Barry Barrett.

a seasoned entrepreneur and EOS implementer. Barry's journey started in the Marine Corps and after transitioning into business, he helped scale his family's automotive repair shop to $1 million in annual sales within just four years. He's also built and led a successful sales training company where he discovered that many businesses struggled with more than just sales. They needed a clear operating system to keep everything on track.

Barry Barrett EOS (00:45)

sales training company where he discovered that many businesses struggled with more than just sales. They needed a clear operating system to everything on track.

Ashley Sebastian (00:56)

Today, Barry helps leadership teams implement EOS to create structure, clarity, and growth in their organizations. In this episode, we're going to discuss why so many businesses struggle with accountability and how EOS can change that and what it takes to build a business that truly runs itself.

Barry Barrett EOS (00:56)

Today, Barry helped leadership teams implement EOS to create structure, clarity, and growth in their organizations. In this episode, we're going to discuss why so many businesses struggle with accountability and how EOS can change that, and what it takes to build a business that truly helps them.

Ashley Sebastian (01:15)

If you're a business leader looking for a proven way to take your organization to the next level, you won't want to miss this conversation. Barry, welcome to the show.

Barry Barrett EOS (01:24)

Hey, how are you?

Ashley Sebastian (01:25)

I'm great, thank you. So for those unfamiliar, can you briefly explain what EOS is and why it's important?

Barry Barrett EOS (01:32)

Yeah. EOS is the entrepreneur operating system and what it does and why it's important. gets people with what we call vision, traction and healthy vision. Is everybody on your leadership team rowing in the right direction, where you are, where you're going, how to get there. Once you have that vision set traction, timeless principles, tools, disciplines, and accountability to execute on the vision and then healthy working together as a cohesive leadership team.

having fun, getting things done, because rarely do we see leaders do that. And then from there goes the leadership team, goes the rest of your organization, and that is what we do.

Ashley Sebastian (02:13)

Why is it crucial for businesses to define their vision and traction goals? That's a big thing in EOS, kind of like a first step.

Barry Barrett EOS (02:24)

Yeah. Alignments huge. And, know, I was in the Marine Corps and, and, and we call it, and I listened to a couple of episodes that you had before and you had a former Marine on there, which was kind of cool to listen to. I loved it. Great podcast, by the way. The biggest thing is, is, is in the Marines, we've caught commander's intent. And so when you have commander's intent, it would be the general or somebody higher or whatever, and they are looking to do something and they intend on something. Rarely do we see people.

good at getting what's out of their head on paper on purpose so that the rest of the organization can go and achieve what is in their head. And so when you don't have that done, you're going to have misalignment. You're going to have frustrations. You're going to have all the chaos that goes with that. And then you're going to hit the ceiling, what we call it at a certain point. Usually people, you know, only 4 % of businesses ever do over a million dollars a year in revenue. Were you aware of that?

Yeah, 4%. And then, so the rest of them are hitting the ceiling somewhere below a million dollars. A million dollars isn't what it used to be, they say, right? I mean, I'll take it, but less than a million dollars, you don't get to pay people because you got taxes coming out straight off the top, right? Like Uncle Sam's going to grab his portion, right? And then you've got all kinds of other expenses.

You've got overhead, you've got, and then people are the biggest expense that most businesses will ever face. So a million dollars just spreads out. And then all of a sudden you're behind on your dreams and your bills as a leader. And there you are. So you have no plan. You have, you have a plan in your head, but if you don't get it out on paper, on purpose, in a proven system, you're to have a really hard time scaling that business. And I would say given that only 4 % of people do it, it's, it's almost impossible that ours are way against you.

Ashley Sebastian (04:24)

Will you provide an example of what EOS would define as successful goal setting?

Barry Barrett EOS (04:33)

Yeah, successful

goal setting. would do smart, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time bound, right? And so people say smart. That's old. That's been out there for a long time. I personally added a layer to that because of the coaching that I got, which is specific, tangible, difficult, self-referenced. And I love the last one self-referenced because so many people are paying attention to

other people, right? And then so they end up trying to achieve someone else's goal instead of their own. And so that is what it means to have an EOS specific goal. But I love the extra step to that. And I try to encourage my teams to stop paying attention to other people because you're not trying to become them. That's their dream. How about we pay attention to our dream, make it self referenced.

I don't mind if someone looks at other people to see what may be possible, but not to set their goal against what other people might see, right? So that's what we say is a goal and how we set it. And I think of goals and so it's very EOS has very exact language. We do a 10 year target, which would be a goal, but we call it a target. We do a three year picture.

So the picture is a different goal, right? And then we do a one year goal and then we call them rocks, which are quarterly goals, but we call them rocks. So we have very specific language so that when we talk, we know exactly what is meant by that without having to explain it to everybody. It becomes your own language. And so that's how we set it and forget it, but we don't, I we achieve it.

Ashley Sebastian (06:07)

you

It does. We were talking to one of our partners and it just it slipped. One of our Q1 rocks is this and they're like, my gosh, do you run on EOS? We run on EOS. So it really is like a special lingo.

Barry Barrett EOS (06:39)

Ha ha ha.

I had two

clients in the same industry, their security, and one was trying to purchase a piece of the other's business. So they went to their office, saw their core values. And I'm like, I tell people, you know, it's like doctor-patient privilege. no, I don't care what you say in this room. No one else knows you've been working with me no matter what. And she looked at the other leader and said, Hey, you got core values.

guys run on the EOS. said, yeah. And they said, who's your implementer? They said, Barry. And they're like, yeah, Barry's our implementer too. And so they're quote competitors, right. And so EOS, but it's not like I'm, not in their industry. can't give them advice and I'm not, you know, it doesn't matter what business you're in, right.

Ashley Sebastian (07:27)

Mm-hmm.

We had a pretty long list of core values before we implemented EOS and we've narrowed it down to four now that we really, really do focus on at NetGain there. People first, above and beyond, continuous improvement and extreme ownership.

Barry Barrett EOS (07:36)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. You know, I'm like, go ahead, go ahead. It sounds put you on the spot. Go ahead. What are they?

I love it. So you got a little Jaco in there. So you understood when I said commander's intent. Yeah. Do you, do you listen to a lot of Jaco?

Ashley Sebastian (07:56)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Nope. No, no. Okay. All right.

Barry Barrett EOS (08:03)

Extreme ownership is a book. Did you read it? Oh, you better read that book. You're to have it as core value yet.

So Jocko Wilnick is a former Navy SEAL. He's got a podcast, got a great podcast in a company that's leadership. But yeah, extreme ownership. It's good.

Ashley Sebastian (08:13)

Okay.

Yeah, I will definitely check that one out. Can you talk a little bit about what it means to have the right person in the right seat?

Barry Barrett EOS (08:22)

Yes, ma'am.

Yeah, it's twofold. So right person means they share your core values. And so you listed your four, we have five. And so I'll take your four, right? So there's, there's, if you, if you share somebody's core values, there's a plus meaning that most of the time they are sharing that core value and living it. No one's perfect. There's a minus, which means most of the time they are not. And there's a plus minus means 50, 50, sometimes yes, sometimes no. And then

You do a people analyzer and there's a line, there's a bar, and then your job is if you're ever below the bar, we have a very specific process called a strike meeting process, right? And so we analyze quarter by quarter, everybody in the company and they share core values. They don't, if they don't, then we give them a 30 day action plan to come above the bar. And so that's right people, which is the most important thing to start with.

And then there's right seat, meaning they get want and have the capacity to do their job. Well, get it means that unique ability, you know, I said a God given talent. Uh, you didn't do anything, you know, you start out a job, you're a six or seven out of 10 already, just cause you get it. And then you want it, that deep burning desire to succeed every day. Right. I call it the insatiable desire to succeed. Like you can't satiate that you want to come to work. You want to win, you want to do your job. You love it.

And then the capacity is the spiritual, mental, physical, time, tools, resources to do your job well, the training to do your job well. And so that's the last one. Like you can, you can train that if you have the luxury to bring people's capacity up, that can be a no in the beginning, but the other two must be a yes. We must get it. We must want it.

Cause if you don't get it and you're a three out of 10, when you show up, you're only going to become maybe a six out of 10. So we want you to become a 10 out of 10 and we're going to support you in that. But if you can't or won't, it doesn't matter if you can't or won't, you just won't. Right? You look, we can find you a place, another place to be. Now the, the caution is this is in our culture in America, we, we hire based on skill and then we end up firing because of

Ashley Sebastian (10:40)

Mm-hmm.

Barry Barrett EOS (10:55)

moral failures. always say showing up late is a moral failure, not a skill set failure. We treat it like it's a skill set. Hey, if you just do this, like you could be on time. Well, you're having the wrong conversation. that's chronic, being chronically late. Some people are going to be late. Like you're going to be late sometimes. Something's going to happen. But if you're chronically late, that's a moral failure.

Ashley Sebastian (11:04)

Mm-hmm.

Barry Barrett EOS (11:23)

And so we take a different approach. We hire based on core values and fire if you end up not being able to do your job well. Cause most people in like, if you go to out to eat or go to any place, like they're not very good at their job. Would you agree or disagree? Most people. Yeah. So you might as well just hire really awesome people and they will become good at their job guaranteed. Almost guaranteed. Right. It's rare. It's good.

Ashley Sebastian (11:40)

Right, no, agreed.

Love that. Love that. Yeah.

So once a week, our teams, we get together as a team and have a very structured meeting where we check in about our metrics, we check in on goals, we have issues where we idea, we solve the issues. Those meetings are called level 10 meetings and that's an EOS term.

Barry Barrett EOS (12:15)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ashley Sebastian (12:18)

What

common mistakes do companies make in their meetings? How can they be?

Barry Barrett EOS (12:21)

they're big. The biggest common

mistake of all time. It's undefeated is you're really discussing symptom of deeper root issues. And then you discuss, discuss, discuss, and then nothing gets solved. Yeah. And then there's no solve. And you're like, well, I guess we'll talk about that again next week. All right. See you later. And so, you know, we want to really, if you, I say it this way, you know, if you,

Ashley Sebastian (12:26)

Mm.

and then there's no solve.

Yep. Yeah.

Barry Barrett EOS (12:52)

IDS is identify, discuss and solve. There's an issue solving track over my left shoulder. There's an EOS leadership team manual. And in there is 30 some odd tools. And one of them is called the issue solving track. And so you go down and you use the issue solving track. When you get to IDS, you identify, you discuss and you solved. And then the second mistake they'll make is they are making decisions based on feelings.

and facts don't care about your feelings and it's math, not magic. And the old saying is where there's data available, let's go with the data. When there's opinions, well, let's just go with mine. And so they don't take, they don't make decisions based on data. They make the decision based on the feelings and opinions of basically the leaders and feelings and opinions will lie to you fast, early and often, because if they didn't,

you we would, say it this way, we wouldn't have a divorce rate of 50%. because there's, they, don't make, you know, we, we, we fall in love with our feelings and we don't do it on basic data. And most people will show you their true colors via data. And if you're blind to that, because you like them, you like that person, right? This is where you're talking about firing people or hiring people that like ability.

will blind you, but the data with that person will not. Right? So that's the second most important, the big one. The third one is they have no real agenda. They just get into a room with no structure. They have no objectives. They have no agenda. And then they're basically just IDSing if they are, they're just, well, they're just discussing the whims of the visionary. And then

Ashley Sebastian (14:46)

Mm-hmm.

Barry Barrett EOS (14:47)

When really the visionary is probably the problem. That's organizational whiplash. So there's a lot there I could unpack, but yeah.

Ashley Sebastian (14:55)

Yeah.

Can you share a memorable success story where EOS made a big difference in a company?

Barry Barrett EOS (15:05)

I'll give you one and I can give you a bunch, but I'll give you one from last week. I started with a company about a year ago. They're getting ready to do their first annual planning session, which happens to be two days, right? And the visionary calls me and he's like, it's like almost a year later. And in the beginning it was bumpy. It was really rough, right? And he calls me and he says, man, you got a minute.

I'm like, yeah, I got a minute. And he's like, man, this stuff works. Had my first really awesome conversation with another leader and it went really well. And that seems small, but it's huge. I mean, you're talking about a $300 million company and this guy was excited about the conversation that he had, the real raw conversation. And that's the biggest win.

that you can have is to actually have a relationship that is meaningful, honest, without a lot of false harmony, where we make a change. And that's when you become even bigger, stronger, and faster. And I can tell you about the company that went from 800 million to 1.1 billion in a year and a half to like, now, before I go there,

Like that's actually a really super outlier company. Uh, we do 200, uh, you know, 10 to 250 employees most of the time. You know, I, I, uh, I just achieved expert implementer last year and I tell people, so I have started to get companies that are more complex and I do two things that I'm pretty known for in our community. It's complex companies and companies that need to have really, really hard conversations.

Ashley Sebastian (16:45)

Nice.

Barry Barrett EOS (17:00)

Because I tell them, I'm like, Hey, there's no rounds coming down range. I'm not really afraid to talk in this room. Right. So that's just my personality as an implementer in there. So there's a couple of things right there. I can talk about, you know, the company that, that, you know, last year, a success was, you know, with their industry, the, economy, made them take a bit of a hit. And because of EOS, they were able to.

Ashley Sebastian (17:07)

Mm-hmm.

Barry Barrett EOS (17:30)

to really not only keep it together, but keep profit higher, even though revenue dropped. You know, I tell people, this isn't all up into the right once you have EOS. Like trouble still comes, but the way you handle that trouble is the way it changes. So if you think you're going to hire me or another implementer like me, and it's just, you're stepping over cash on the way to your desk and

everything's kumbaya like that's a that's that's not the standard. The standard is yes, most of time it's going to go up into the right but when it doesn't that's when us really works is when you're tested.

Ashley Sebastian (18:10)

You mentioned things being rocky at first with that company. I know there's growing pains and you know, with change comes a little bit of pain. Have you experienced that in companies implementing EOS often where there's, guess, employee pushback and it's maybe difficult to adopt the system? Yeah.

Barry Barrett EOS (18:15)

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's always employee

pushback. There's always leadership pushback. It's always ownership pushback. this kind of, that's that kind of planet, right? Change is the hardest thing that you ever do. Most people aren't going to do it. know, Henry Ford said thinking is probably the hardest thing you'll ever do. That's why so few people engage in it, right? It's Henry Ford. If you're upset about that, just see him. But yeah, you're always going to get pushback. That's what I am, right?

You know, there's an old saying that's iron sharpen, iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another. Well, I'm certainly that hard edge that you're going to rub up against and we're going to sharpen. You're going to sharpen me. I'm going to sharpen you. And that's this, that's what we do. And you know, one of our core values is step into the danger, right? It is, it's actually do the right thing, which means step into the danger. misspoke. Do the right thing is the core value step into the danger.

You know, what if, what if my mother was watching, right? No amount of, no amount of money is worth betraying trust. And trust is like the air you breathe when it's present. No one notices when it's gone, everybody notices. Here's what I tell my son. He's 20. I said, if, if, if you never tell me something that I don't like to hear, I can't trust you.

Ashley Sebastian (19:48)

Mm-hmm.

Interesting.

Barry Barrett EOS (20:02)

Yeah,

let that sit. It's true. If you're in a relationship with somebody, a real relationship, they never tell you anything that doesn't rub you the wrong way, it's true that you can't trust that person. So feedback must be specific. It must be respectful, and it must be truthful. It's just that most people see the truth as disrespect, and that's a problem. It's a problem with them, not you.

Ashley Sebastian (20:04)

Mm-hmm.

Barry Barrett EOS (20:31)

You were talking about IDS identifying the root cause. Uh, one of the things that I illustrate and I learned this from a, from a really, uh, he's a former, uh, army ranger and like operator. so he said, Barry, if I pour rubbing alcohol in your arm and there's no cut, how are you going to feel? I'm like, yeah, it feel cool. You know, he said, if there's a cut.

I was like, yeah, man, it'll sting. said, so when someone introduces an issue and it stings, there's probably something there. And so we're going to identify the root cause. We're going to clean the wound. We're going to sew it up. We're going to make sure it heals. And that's how you identify, discuss, and solve. Make it go away forever. And you can't do that with false harmony. Right? Somebody's got to tell you that your baby's ugly.

so you can make it pretty, right? That's good.

Ashley Sebastian (21:32)

Yeah, yeah,

that's hard to do sometimes to tell somebody that their baby's ugly, needs to be done.

Barry Barrett EOS (21:35)

It's always hard to do. Yeah. It's always

difficult. That's what I tell people. It's always difficult. One of the things that I was training somebody to do the other day is, telling someone not to do something that is uniquely human is impossible. So telling someone to tell a leader or their boss and say, don't get nervous. Just say it.

get scared, just say it. I'm like, that's an impossible task. So they're never going to be able to do it. So what I do is I say, okay, feel the fear, feel the nervousness and decide you're just going to tell them the truth. Cause telling people the truth, my wife said it probably the best one day. She said, it's not, it's not the truth that hurts. It's what someone did for you to have to tell the truth that hurts. And so tell the truth.

Ashley Sebastian (22:31)

Mm-hmm.

Barry Barrett EOS (22:35)

And once you start telling the truth, like you're free. You're healed from yourself. But you must, to facilitate, right? I facilitate people. I have them enter into an agreement. I say, will you enter into an agreement with all of us together that we can be 100 % open and honest with you?

Ashley Sebastian (22:42)

Agreed.

Barry Barrett EOS (23:01)

And so they have to verbalize that agreement. I'm going to enter into that agreement with you. And that's what makes it simpler. Not easy, but simple.

Ashley Sebastian (23:10)

I think at the beginning of our quarterly planning sessions and our annual planning sessions, we always state just that. We're having an open and honest session to assess where we are today. Yeah, absolutely.

Barry Barrett EOS (23:21)

Yeah. Give me to give you two words to add to it. That will help you out. It's open.

It's honest. It's transparent and it's vulnerable. And vulnerable is not you telling someone vulnerable is like you saying it out loud, what you struggle with. All right. So I like open, honest, transparent and vulnerable.

Ashley Sebastian (23:32)

Okay.

Yeah.

If you're struggling to have an honest conversation, say with your manager or a colleague where you're having to call their baby ugly, something that our team practices, and we will say, this is our safe space. So I'm going to say what I need to say. And it doesn't hurt as much, I guess.

Barry Barrett EOS (23:54)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah,

so there's a good technique. There's a couple of them. I always ask people, hey, are you open to feedback? I'll ask him straight up. Hey, you open to feedback? They say no. Sometimes they do. Let's move on. Yeah, yeah, are you over to feed? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, the positive type of the or the or the or the perceived negative, right? That's the question. It's like, you know.

Ashley Sebastian (24:12)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, we've asked that in the hiring process here at NECAIN is like, are you open to feedback? How do you handle feedback?

Yeah.

Barry Barrett EOS (24:34)

Quarterly conversations must be specific, positive and truthful, right? I need to be able to have a positive conversation with you sometimes. Yeah, I love that. And then labeling people as emotion is a good way to do it and go, Hey, this is going to seem like that I'm picking on you. Is that okay? And then they'll go, yeah. And then you just tell them and it's not near as as, as harsh as they thought it was going to be. Right. It's good technique. I like yours. Yeah.

Ashley Sebastian (25:00)

Yeah. For business leaders considering EOS, what is the first step they should take?

Barry Barrett EOS (25:10)

Yeah, the first step in the process is the 90 minute meeting. And so the 90 minute meeting, what it does is it's not built to close you, right? It's not built to like, all right, here's my pitch and I'm going to close you and try to get you to be a client. What it does, the first step is we come in as implementers and then we take you through a 90 minute presentation that introduces you to the five

tools that you can start to implement in your business tomorrow, whether you use us or not. And then we give you step by step processes to do that. So step number one is the 90 minute meeting with an implementer. Step number two, if you decide to use that implementer is to have a focus day. And then we take you through our proven process. 30 days later, you'll get a vision day building one. 30 days after that, you'll get a vision day building two.

And then we meet with each company quarterly, once a year doing an annual session planning that is two days. And then we do about two years together. And then after that two years, companies are, the ability to graduate from the implementer, never graduating from EOS. And it's up to you what you want to do, not me. And what I love about us is we don't do any contracts, no letters of engagement. Like if you don't...

you want to stop working with us, you just stop working with us. We're good.

Ashley Sebastian (26:43)

How long does the process usually take to get the whole company running on EOS? Do they section it out in different departments and roll it out that way?

Barry Barrett EOS (26:49)

So.

Yeah, the way to roll it out is we decide on Vision Day Building 2 after 60 days of working together, what each company is going to roll out. And so every company is different and we encourage one level down first, get them introduced and then rolling it out.

It really does depend on the size of your company. If you're a 10 person company, it's pretty simple. We could probably get you completely rolled out as far as everybody being a level 10 meeting, everybody having a number, everybody having a rock, all those things, the basic, I call it the drive to five, the five EOS foundational tools. That's what I'm, that's what I'm trying. 80, if I can get people to do that, 80 % of the difficulty of running on EOS is mastering the five.

EOS foundational tools. And so that's what I'll just leave it at that. if I can get the whole company, 10 people, I can get them there in probably nine months using the tools at least, right? I've got a company that is 1100 employees. Like we're on our fourth year and we're still driving. They got 1100 employees and it's worldwide. It's a big boat and we got to turn it slowly because you can...

EOS can easily disrupt your business if you don't know what you're doing. This is why people will hire someone like me. And I'm like, the bigger your business, the more experience that someone needs to have taking you through it. And so that's the deal. You know, if you've got a smaller business and a pretty straightforward business, like, you know, we had an automotive repair business and plumbing or heating and air, blue collar, and it's pretty small.

You're going to be fine with it with an implementer with less experience, like, and you should, if you have a lower revenue, you need to, that's why there's different types of implementers, right? There's, there's people with, with no to low experience. There's people with medium experience and there's people with super high experience. Yeah. I personally have done almost 600 sessions at this point. I've been this, it'll be, it'll be my sixth year in August. And so, you know, last year I did 127 sessions.

And so, you know, it's just, it's, it's what I do. I love it.

Ashley Sebastian (29:21)

Do you follow up with these companies? That has to be satisfying for you to know how many companies that you've helped grow. That's awesome.

Barry Barrett EOS (29:28)

Yeah, they become friends of mine.

People like us do things like this. so everybody I work with, I just become friends with them because we're just like-minded and we have a little bit of, I think it's like sometimes it's like that, especially boys and I grew up in Kentucky down here, down South. And in second, third grade, you get into a fight with somebody and then they became your best friend.

Ashley Sebastian (29:34)

Yeah.

Barry Barrett EOS (29:57)

Well, I think it's like that with some of my entrepreneurs, right? Like in the beginning, like I'm going to fight you and I tell them I'm going to do that. Like I'm going to fight you for the greater good and for what you said you wanted and because I love you. And then we're going to become friends and like a great friend. I'm going to tell you the truth and you're to tell me the truth because truth be known that my clients helped me grow. You know, I just got feedback from one of my most respected clients and you know, he gave me some great feedback.

Ashley Sebastian (29:57)

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Barry Barrett EOS (30:26)

And I was like, man, thank you for that. And it changes the way you interact with somebody. It changes who you are. And it's good, right? Some of the people that I'm from said, Barry, you've changed. It's a bad thing. said, well, you didn't think I worked this hard to stay the same, do you? I ain't trying to do that. And so it goes both ways. You write on each other's wall. It's good stuff.

Ashley Sebastian (30:55)

What's one thing that leaders can do today to create better structure in their business?

Barry Barrett EOS (31:05)

this is the number one. So we do structure first, people second. So it's always right to take a big step back, remove all the people from your accountability chart. Pretend like you're starting a company that is just like yours and you don't have any people there. You take a big step back, you look at it and you go, okay, without people, what is the best structure?

to get what I want from this business in six to 12 months. And I'm a board of directors. I'm just going to say, okay, what's the structure first? And I'm going to lay it all out what the structure would be like. My scientific wild guess, right? Swag it with the knowledge that I have. know, HOKMA means skill with applied knowledge. So I think HOKMA's power, not...

knowledge, right? So you got to have skill and you got to apply that knowledge. Well, you take a big step back, look at the structure and then put the roles in like we do. You guys do, right? You run on EOS and then put the people in there that right people share your core values, right seat. You'll spit out a better company. The problem is you're going to have some people leaving and some of them you're going to like them.

Ashley Sebastian (32:05)

Hmm.

Barry Barrett EOS (32:31)

But you're going to realize that they're not right seat. And you don't have a seat for them. That's why this is not for the weak at heart.

Ashley Sebastian (32:41)

I have a question of, you, to get the right person in the right seat, there's like a weekly metric or number that they're accountable for. How do you set those metrics?

Barry Barrett EOS (32:51)

Mm hmm. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah.

So, so those metrics are set by, they're called leading and lagging indicators, right? So we have a tool called getting what you want. And so if someone's struggling with setting measurables for their people, I take them through the process of getting what they want. And then I map out the easiest ways to map out the process and then start counting the steps in the process.

Like what's the most important, how many of these do we need to do to do how many of these? Right. And then every step in the process can, have its own separate measurable. And then once we have all the measurables in that process, what I'm going to do is take out the most important that literally drives it. Right. And so it's going to become the, the one, two or three measurables for the individual. It's going to become the five to 15 for the department. It's going to become the five to 15 for the company.

Ashley Sebastian (33:23)

Mm-hmm.

Is there a certain amount of weeks or a certain time period where if those metrics were off track, it would be the time to have that conversation with your employee of something isn't quite working?

Barry Barrett EOS (34:00)

Yeah. So one of the leaders that I worked with in the past, you're from Lexington. You're familiar with the white Greer Maggard? Yeah. Well, Dr. White who owns that owns a company that I worked with. And he said that missing measurables without doing something about it is monitoring neglect. So.

Ashley Sebastian (34:05)

Mm hmm. yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Barry Barrett EOS (34:22)

One week of that number being off track, we might drop it down.

Ashley Sebastian (34:26)

Mm-hmm.

Barry Barrett EOS (34:28)

Two weeks? I'm like, you might want to drop it down. The third week of being offline, all of a sudden I'm telling you, I think we're monitoring neglect here. We're dropping that down. Cause something's wrong.

Ashley Sebastian (34:41)

And

when you say dropping it down, that means dropping it to an issue that you can then talk about, discuss, solve.

Barry Barrett EOS (34:44)

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, cause it can be

confusing. had one guy get confused. thought we needed to lower the goal. I'm like, no, we're not lowering the goal here. You're monitoring neglect. We're dropping it down to the issues list so that we can make it one, two, three. So we can go ahead and solve it. Make it go over way forever. Cause one of the things is, is people don't, you know, one of the things people get confused about is like, well, how do we know what's the top three issues? I'm like,

Ashley Sebastian (34:55)

Yeah, no, that's not what that is.

Barry Barrett EOS (35:18)

If you look at the level 10 meeting and the agenda, the first thing we do is check in with a segue, which is personal best, professional best, because the most important thing in a business is not things, it's people. And so I need to know what's going on in my leaders lives that is personal and professional that they're winning at. So we start with a positive. Sometimes what happens is somebody checks in and

They got some family stuff going on and they're like, Hey, I don't have a lot of personal bests going on. got some stuff at home. Now in that case, I don't drop it down to the issues list. just, Hey, we're going to, it's supposed to be five minutes. As you know, man, I'll take 20, 25. I'll take the whole meeting, trying to love on that person, you know, cause that's the right thing to do.

Ashley Sebastian (36:13)

So we do spend a little bit longer than five minutes on our professional and personal best in our team meeting. But I think it's a valuable time to get to know, if your colleague's not performing super well this week, maybe it's because they didn't have a professional or a personal best from last week. Something might be going on.

Barry Barrett EOS (36:23)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, man.

We're human becoming, not human beings. Right? Yeah. And so we love all people. Now I can't get off track every week. Cause like if I got a team full of people who are just like, have something crazy going on every week at home, I'm like, Hey man, what do we, what, what do we, what's going on? Because like, it's hard to be one type. You cannot be one type of person at home and one type of person at work.

Ashley Sebastian (36:36)

Yeah, yeah, love that.

Barry Barrett EOS (36:59)

Now don't care how many guys say they can separate it and all that, and that's bull, but I don't mind going a little longer there, but if you really double down on the next two scorecard and rocks, that only, if you do it properly, that only takes about 30 seconds. Like you'll bank some time right there. Cause there's no discussing. If it's off track, you drop it down to the issues list and you move on, but everybody wants to explain something there. And all that is, is insecurity.

Like you're feeling insecure about something, drop it down and let's just talk about it when it's appropriate. You know, I don't, I'm not one these people just remove emotions, but I'm like control them. You can control them. And so if you're, so we get the, so I was into, so you got scorecard and rocks. If you drop those down, then like it's hard pressed to tell me that those aren't the top three issues on your issues list because

Ashley Sebastian (37:36)

Mm-hmm.

Barry Barrett EOS (37:58)

If you're missing numbers and you're not building the most important things to build a better company, that's the most important. And then you go to people headlines with the good and the bad. Well, that's some of the most important, right? If you look at that first 25 minutes getting to do's done, know, promises are, like I said, promises are like crime. I didn't say this one. Promises are like crime. Babies in the theater, they must be carried out at once.

Ashley Sebastian (38:18)

Mm-hmm.

Barry Barrett EOS (38:26)

So if you've got to do's, you got seven days to do them. So this is the accountability, right? You made a promise. You said you would do it in seven days, done or not done. This is where people try, well, not done, but, no, not the but, cut the but. We're going to drop it down again, because obviously something's going on. So nine out of 10 to do's should get to done.

Ashley Sebastian (38:53)

Yeah, it feels good to check off those to-do's and it does. It feels really good and it's like, it's for the team. It's for the better of the team, even if it's not something that might directly apply to exactly what I do in my day to day, but the to-do was for the team and not just for me.

Barry Barrett EOS (38:55)

Doesn't it? Yeah.

greater good.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And we said it was the most important thing to do. Doesn't matter. It's all our boat, right? Yeah. Extreme ownership.

Ashley Sebastian (39:16)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yep, exactly.

Barry Barrett EOS (39:24)

So yeah, so

that's how you build that issues list, make sure it's on track, it's accountability, right?

Ashley Sebastian (39:31)

How do you choose the top three issues?

Barry Barrett EOS (39:34)

I always tell people be selfish. Like I'm going to get my issue done. so, so well, number one rocks and scorecards. I'm like, Hey man, those are top. But if I got an issue on that issue list, I can guarantee we're going to talk about it. I'm selfish. That's how I choose.

Ashley Sebastian (39:50)

If it's important, it's important. Gotta get it done. I'm gonna ask you a bonus. Bonus, what's your go-to productivity tip?

Barry Barrett EOS (39:59)

my productivity tip is to delegate and elevate. Like I don't really do anything that don't, that is not my job. I tell people, I got one role in my company. I talk to people and if I'm not talking to people, we're losing money. I delegate everything else. Do if you're an owner of a business or a leader, do not do $20 an hour work. Delegate and elevate and then do what you do so well that you're undeniable and people pay you a premium for it. And then you can pay for anything you want to do. I don't mow my own yard.

Ashley Sebastian (40:12)

Mm-hmm.

Barry Barrett EOS (40:29)

I don't do any of that stuff.

Ashley Sebastian (40:32)

Yeah, I love it. Before we wrap up, Barry, this has been an insightful conversation about EOS and how it can help businesses create clarity, accountability, growth, sustainable growth. So I really appreciate you sharing your expertise and experiences with us today. For those who want to learn more, where can they find you and connect with you?

Barry Barrett EOS (40:33)

Is that good?

You bet.

Yeah, you bet. My microsite, I go to eosworldwide.com backslash Barry-Barrett, or you just go to eosworldwide.com type in Barry Barrett, you'll find me. And then if you want to email me, it's Barry.Barrett at eosworldwide.com. And then you can find me on any of the social media, the social media I call it, cause I don't really get on there much, but at

and just Google Barry Barrett or go to Instagram business with purpose is our is our business name. So those are the different places that you can find. It's pretty easy. If you Googled my name, you're to see me on a lot of podcasts like this and I have my own podcast called business on purpose. So a lot of plugs here if you ever want to listen to it. And then, you know, if anybody wants to reach out, they can and it's a help first. I'm not going to.

Ashley Sebastian (41:47)

awesome.

Barry Barrett EOS (41:53)

with no weird expectations that you hire me or pay me or anything like that. I'm always just going to help you and every other implementer will too. So yeah, I love it. Thank you for allowing me to be on here and you have a wonderful podcast.

Ashley Sebastian (42:03)

Yeah, yeah.

Thanks so much. I will say when I reached out to Barry, he was very quick to accept the invitation onto the podcast. So thank you for that. Right. And to our listeners, we appreciate you tuning in. If you found today's conversation helpful, be sure to subscribe to Breaching the Boardroom and stay tuned for more discussions with industry leaders and experts like Barry.

Barry Barrett EOS (42:13)

Yeah, delegate and elevate, right?

Ashley Sebastian (42:33)

If you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover next, feel free to reach out. Thank you so much for listening and we will see you next time.

Barry Barrett EOS (42:43)

Thank you.