Business Rocket Fuel

In 2016, EOS founder, Gino Wickman wrote the book Rocket Fuel. Gino is an extraordinary entrepreneur and teacher. He has personally delivered 1,900 full-day training sessions to more than 135 companies. Yet, he learned through these experiences that there was one key ingredient between the average companies and the companies who grew at an exponential rate. It was what he called Rocket Fuel.

A company has Rocket Fuel when it has two key leaders, a Visionary and an Integrator. 

The Visionary person has the following characteristics; solve big company challenges, generates lots of ideas, great leaders, optimistic, and creates the vision. While the Integrator, identifies the problems, makes the best ideas work, are excellent managers, realistic, and they execute the vision.

In my personal experience, working in seven different organizations that grew from 2x-7x, this was true, every single time. Looking back, I have played both roles, the Visionary and the Integrator. Less than 15% of executives, lead in strategy and execution. Most individuals naturally fall into the Visionary or Integrator role.

If your current organization does not appear to be moving in the right direction, it is often because they don’t have these current roles operating effectively. Other times, it is because the Rocket Fuel, applied for a certain stage of the companies' growth, but due to a multitude of factors, it may need to be changed for the next stage of growth. In some cases, the two leaders may no longer share the same vision and friction occurs. An organization that does recognize this problem and solve it, may cause stagnation and frustration for everyone. 

Approximately, half of my business is turnarounds. I am recommended by the banks and private equity firms, to identify the source of the problem and help resolve it. There are always multiple challenges in these scenarios, however, a common problem is the lack of Rocket Fuel. As a Gallup Certified Coach, the Clifton Strengths assessment survey, combined with internal interviews, can help surface the leadership challenge that an organization struggles with. Solving this problem is a key strategy to getting the company back on track.

Introducing 40 Strategy’s Rocket Fuel

In my first 3 years, 40 Strategy exceeded every goal and expectation. We tripled in size and I started to hire talent to support our marketing and accounting efforts. However, there was still a gap. I was playing both the Visionary and Integrator role. As we completed multiple assets in 2023, Lost at CEO book, a new website, this blog, speaking engagements, weekly podcast as a host and now more commonly a guest, a new outbound marketing strategy, and a strategy course, my ability to serve my clients and deliver these strategies, was limiting my client availability. When your client availability is limited, we tend to hold back on sales because, “we can’t take on any more clients.” However, I recognized this is a huge problem for the long-term, because I have seen it with my clients. If you don’t continue to prime the pump, your sales pipeline will ultimately dry up, despite our wonderful referral clients.

Over the past year, Tonya Smith, PMP, https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyasmith1023/  joined our team as a contractor, as she was working on her doctorate in management. As she continued to learn about our company’s client deliverables and marketing efforts, she has taken over more responsibilities, which has freed up my time for client work. A short while ago, Tonya completed her doctorate studies, and she is now Dr. Tonya Smith!

Last week, I finally had the epiphany…Tonya is my Integrator! She is the Rocket Fuel that I am missing that is holding 40 Strategy back to reaching the next level to reach our long-term goals. After completing her doctorate, she has more availability. This past week, we agreed in principle that Tonya, will be a full-time employee and Director of Operations. Tonya, this is my public welcome and official thank you for joining our team! This role will start in January, to launch our 5th year in business.