Why the Best Time to Fix Your Business is When It's Not Broken

Leo Falkenstein on Implementing EOS Proactively

Most founders install a business operating system like EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) when their company is facing significant challenges. Leo Falkenstein, co-founder of Consume Media, took a different path. He initiated EOS implementation when his video production agency was performing well, driven by a gut feeling that his team could achieve even more predictable, scalable growth.

Falkenstein shares his 13-year journey, starting Consume Media from a college apartment, pivoting from entertainment projects to high-growth B2B technology clients, and growing the team to 13 full-time employees. His story provides a practical case study on adopting a structured operating framework proactively, focusing on vision, team buy-in, and a methodical rollout.

Key Insights from the Conversation

1. The Trigger: From Gut Feeling to Structured Vision Despite success, Falkenstein felt his team could achieve more. This feeling crystallized when exploring accountability frameworks. He realized that holding his team accountable required a clear, shared vision—something the company lacked formally, even after 13 years. Discovering EOS, particularly its emphasis on "Vision Shared By All," provided the missing piece. He recognized that defining where the company was going was the necessary first step before demanding higher accountability.

2. The Catalyst: Personal Life and Business Goals Converge While the initial idea for EOS stemmed from business intuition, a significant personal catalyst was the birth of Falkenstein's first child. This life event intensified his desire for more predictable systems within the business, enabling him to achieve better work-life integration ("make more, work less") without sacrificing growth. This highlights how personal founder goals often drive the adoption of scalable business structures.

3. The Rollout Strategy: Slow, Steady, and Team-Led Consume Media chose to self-implement EOS, leveraging their existing 90-minute Friday leadership meetings.

• Phased Introduction: Instead of a top-down mandate, Falkenstein introduced the concept, shared the book "Traction," and dedicated successive weekly meetings to exploring each EOS component (Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, Traction).

• Leadership Buy-In First: This methodical, chapter-by-chapter approach over roughly eight weeks allowed the leadership team to understand, practice, and gain buy-in before presenting it to the wider company.

• Leveraging Existing Tools: EOS was integrated into ClickUp, the project management tool the team already used daily. Falkenstein found free EOS templates for ClickUp, making adoption seamless by putting a new process into an existing system, reducing friction.

4. The Power of the "Issues" Component Falkenstein highlights the "Issues" component and the weekly Level 10 Meeting (L10) as perhaps the most impactful element of EOS. Creating a dedicated forum to identify, discuss, and solve problems weekly prevents issues from festering. The structured process assigns accountability for solutions ("To-Dos"), which are reviewed in the following meeting, creating a powerful cadence of resolution and progress.

5. Defining Roles: Visionary and Integrator Clarity EOS, particularly through the concepts in the book "Rocket Fuel," helped Falkenstein and his co-founder, Michael, clarify their natural roles. Falkenstein identified strongly with the Visionary role (big ideas, future focus), while Michael aligned with the Integrator (execution, operations). This clarity didn't necessarily change their day-to-day tasks immediately (they still wear multiple hats) but provided a framework for understanding their complementary strengths and potential friction points, improving their partnership dynamic.

6. Self-Implementing vs. Using an Implementer For Consume Media (at 13 people), self-implementing worked well. It allowed them to move slowly, ensure deep team understanding, and feel collective ownership ("Our fingerprints on everything"). Falkenstein notes this might be harder for larger companies. A key factor in their success was implementing EOS during a period of stability ("when things are going well"), making the team more receptive to change, rather than during a crisis.

7. Key Advice: Take it Slow and Trust the Process Falkenstein's primary advice for other founders considering EOS is to take it slow. Rushing the implementation risks overwhelming the team and hindering buy-in. A gradual, methodical approach allows people to understand the "why," practice the tools, and integrate the system organically. Getting team buy-in is paramount; without it, even the best system will falter.

Transcript for Search & Skimming

Below is the complete, searchable text of the interview. You can use the speaker tags to quickly search or skim the conversation for key insights on implementing EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) and creating a shared vision.

Randell Mauricio: Most founders only install an operating system when their business is on fire, but not Leo Falkenstein. He did it when things were actually going really well, all because of a gut feeling that his team could actually achieve more. In this episode, he gets candid about hitting pause on a new accountability framework because he realized his team had no shared vision to be accountable to. He shares how he got genuine team buy-in, the power of a slow and steady rollout, and how it brought powerful clarity to his relationship with his co-founder. It's an honest, honest look at what it really takes to lead change from within. This is freeing the founder.

Randell Mauricio: Full disclosure for the listeners and viewers of this content, you and I had connected what, two, three, four weeks ago, I can't remember. And what struck me as really interesting is that you were really familiar with an operating system called EOS. EOS stands for Entrepreneurial Operating System. And I just says, "Wow." That is not all too common because a lot of founders, certainly who I meet, recognize that lift, that effort of implementing an operating framework as daunting and overwhelming. And so that is something I'd love to get into. But before we dig into those details, why don't you just tell the viewers and listeners just who you are and a bit of the Consume Media origin story.

Leo Falkenstein: Yeah, absolutely. So as Randell said, Leo, co-founder, executive producer at Consume Media. And I started this business with my business partner who I'm still working with, and we have a great relationship that was 13 years ago, in April of 2012 is when we started the business. Out of essentially our college apartment. And it really started, you know, because YouTube had really started to grow and evolve and previous to YouTube, like, you know, video was like this giant thing. You needed $1,000,000 budgets and you needed put it on television. YouTube changed the game where essentially democratized video plus technologies and cameras and editing tools. And I'm like, this is fun. I want to be part of this new video world that's going to happen. Obviously, over the last 13 years, tremendous changes across the video space, but, it started as, um, myself, my business partner, Michael, we were students at the University of Georgia, and we just wanted to film the things that were in front of us, and we turned that into a pay for hire service, you know, a small video production company. So when we started. University of Georgia's in Athens, Georgia, vibrant music and entertainment scene, and we're in college, so music and entertainment sounds like a lot of fun. So we went after it. So started filming music videos and concert films and and sorority parties, recruiting videos for the fraternity and sororities, stand up comedy on Tuesdays, you know, like, so that's really where we started just filming a lot of live events. Um, we really became. Our bread and butter at the time was concert films. The only one I can think of. That's the only one I know. Realized we needed to make a little bit of money, got into corporate video marketing. And my favorite stat is that when we got into video marketing with businesses, I had one client that year that paid us more than the entire entertainment industry combined. And I was like, "Okay, I think, I think we need to put this entertainment stuff behind us. It's a lot of fun, but, uh, I think I know where we need to pivot it." And then over the last, I would say 10 to 11 years is really when we've grown as a company, uh, we're currently 13 full-time employees. Our primary audience is high growth B2B technology companies. Uh, we also work with, uh, some professional, professional services, businesses, insurance companies, a little bit of B2C, uh, but mostly in the B2B technology world. A little bit about us.

Randell Mauricio: I really get a kick out of everyone's origin stories because, you know, personally speaking, I, I'm a founder. I'm a fan of the founder persona. If you look at that personality, it's, it's a, it's an individual who dares to do something great. And how do you not support that? In this case, it was Leo and Michael. If I recall your, your co-founder's name. Perfect. And so did, did, did you grow up having an entrepreneurial flair or spirit? Were you aware that you were going to be an entrepreneur?

Leo Falkenstein: I think I was, um, my grandfather was CEO and founder of some businesses. My father started his own business. I always have never been very good at role following. I was like a bad kid, but you know, I kind of like to do things my own way. So I kind of always wanted to do my own. my own thing. And I remember telling my parents this when I'm like 19 years old. And they're like, "Leo, I love it, but get a real job first." And I'm like, "But I don't really want to, I want, I want to, I want to do it myself." And you know, there's pros and cons to that. Obviously, if you jump into something with pretty much no work experience. It's probably gonna take you a little bit longer, but it did, you know, our first five years were, were, we learned a lot, we weren't making a lot of money, but we learned a lot, but we always were able to work, you know, for ourselves. So there are pros, there are cons. Uh, I think I always did want to start my own business. And I'm happy to say that since I've graduated college, I've only started, I've only run my own business.

Randell Mauricio: And, you know, that, that, that, that ability to see beyond the now, I think, you know, many people would call that vision. And so kudos on you. I want to use this as a segue into the topic of our conversation, which is EOS. And so how would you, certainly I want to understand what your vision looks like now, but when you were getting started and when you started getting more and more serious, say 11 years ago, what did your vision look like then versus what it looks like now?

Leo Falkenstein: Yeah, you know, like when it was just me and Michael, I think the vision always was to just become a bigger, stronger, better agency. Um, you know, again, it was just two of us for a while, for a long time. And really when it's that small, I'll be honest. It was hard for us to think. And that was one of the things that was so appealing about EOS for us is like, even 13 years later, there were things that we hadn't fully defined and you realize when you read Traction, like it all starts with defining where you want to go, what that vision is. So to answer your question, like EOS was really one of those things that made us put on paper what this vision is and what we want to go where we want to go. But, you know, to answer your question, it really was. Hard for us to think about that. And we really thought more about just getting better every single day rather than setting, um, big lofty goals. And maybe that was something that could have held us back for a while. We don't have any regrets, but now that we have goals, a vision, I think we see ourselves marching more clearly towards that every day.

Randell Mauricio: So what was the linchpin? What was the trigger event that got you thinking this way, inevitably to a, towards a decision to actually implement EOS?

Leo Falkenstein: I hear everyone talking about EOS. I'm also a Vistage member, so I heard people talking about EOS there. I'm like, I gotta learn about this. And I just had some conversations, um, I actually had a conversation with Jeff at Collective 54, and one of my first major issues I brought to him was that felt like my team could be achieving more than they are. And he said, "Let's set expectations frameworks for your team." I'm like, "Expectations frameworks? Brilliant! Makes so much sense!" This many billable hours, this many non-billable hours, yada, yada, yada. So I started working that, I rolled it out, er, sorry, I put it all together. Putting all together. I'm so excited. And then I'm getting ready to roll it out to the team. I'm like, something doesn't feel right. Why did I put all this work in, but why does it not feel right to roll it out? And simultaneously I just open up Traction, the book, and the first chapter is about vision and how that gets people excited to work hard and grow. And I'm like, "That's why it doesn't feel right because I want my team to be accountable, but they don't know where we're going and why they should want to be accountable." And it just all kind of clicked at once. I'm like starting with vision is the best way to ultimately have an accountable team. And I kept on reading the book. I'm like, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. All of this. Okay, let's go for it." Had a meeting with my business partner said, "I want to do this." And I pretty much said like, there's low stakes here. If this doesn't work out. The worst thing that's going to happen is we're going to have six core values. That's literally the worst possible situation is that we have six core values and then we don't do anything with EOS, but it's really taken on across my, across my team. It's starting to get rolled out throughout the entire organization and going really well so far.

Randell Mauricio: This is an incredible story, and I'm intrigued by that gut feeling that you had, for a lack of better terms. What, what was your gut telling you? What, what, what was the apprehension?

Leo Falkenstein: It's just, again, like I wanted to say, "You need to bill this many hours and you need to do this and I need you to do this. I need you to do this." And for employee who sits, you know, who I hang out with a lot, who I talk with a lot, who were on the same page, it's a lot more reasonable than, you know, maybe one of my editors, perhaps, who, you know, is, you know, mostly just editing all day. And of course we talk, we hang out, but, you know, not involved in as much as like the day to day decision making, I would say so. You know, the thing about EOS is it says it very clearly. Vision shared by all. And we were missing that. It wasn't shared by all. It wasn't even fully defined and me asking someone to be accountable for something to essentially work harder than you are now, um, but not telling them why and where we're going. There was, it just didn't feel right. And again, I didn't know, I didn't know what it was until I started reading the book and then it just kind of just clicked.

Randell Mauricio: So what did you do? What was your first step into stepping back one? And then, uh, in order to take two steps forward, you obviously focused on the vision, but how did you? What was your approach? What was your strategy? How did you disseminate and communicate this to the team so that you had a much softer landing to get buy in and, as you had said, shared by all?

Leo Falkenstein: Exactly. So our process again, we're self implementing, which some people recommend against. Some people say it's fine, but we're self implementing. So it started me and my business partner. "Check out this book. Check out all this. Look at the website. I think this is good." He agreed. "Yes, I think this is good." So we already had a leadership meeting every Friday. That was 90 minutes. So I kind of gave my team a head up like, "Hey, like, we're going to take a slightly different agenda this week." And I sent, I bought everybody the book, Gino Traction, or everyone on my leadership team, the book Traction and, um, said read chapter one, essentially. And then they read it, they came out and like, "This is what we want to do. We want to implement EOS because yes, the company's growing, but I don't think we are growing at a. At a predictable and like a measure where we always know we are moving forward. We are solving issues willy-nilly. It's just like they fester." You know, there are just some things we're not doing that. We make us not. Ensure that we're growing each and every day, each and every week. So really what we did for like, I guess, eight weeks in a row was just focused on a chapter, chapter one vision, chapter two, I forget, but essentially went through each of them and just had a 90 minute session. Each week and just talked about, "Okay, you know, envision what are our core values? What is our core focus? What is this? What is that?" And essentially took it chunk by chunk. And I think that was a good approach for us because again, we weren't in a rush to roll it out. The business was doing well. People are happy. It's not like things are horrible and we need to fix things and we need to do it now. It's like generally things are going well. I think we could be doing better, but generally things are going well. Well, taking a slow approach, letting everyone ease into it since you're having practice L10 meetings, you know, for a while. And then ultimately after you get through everything, you're like, "Okay, we got this down, we're, we're doing this." So I think that answers your question of kind of how we rolled it out across the leadership team. And then we launched it with the full team at our, at our state of the company meeting, which was last two Fridays ago, I think last Friday. Wow. That was just a week ago. Um, and it already can feel the excitement. Uh, the department heads are rolling out, an L10 ish format across their one on one across their departmental meetings. Issues are being solved. So I think I just went on a tangent, but hopefully answered your question.

Randell Mauricio: Not at all. In fact, I would, I would be as brave, I would dare say that that was probably one of the most, uh, that is a top shelf example of how to roll out EOS, at least the concept of it. It sounds like you're still obviously implementing everything that I've heard, everything that I've read. Everything that I've watched says you got to get buy in first. And so tackling it tactically or tactfully with your leadership team before the greater audience I think is smart. I want to focus in a little bit on you and your partner, that initial conversation when you, when you brought it to the table and saying that you want to implement this, how was that received by him?

Leo Falkenstein: I think if I remember correctly, so I think I first mentioned to him, it to him in like July and then we didn't do anything with it till September. So again, we weren't in a rush to do it. We just thought it could, I thought it could be a good idea. So, you know, basically just had and showed him the website. I think is where we started and said, "Look, like, you know, these 6 things like, yada, yada, yada." And, um, I think I probably brought it up to him like once every couple of weeks, but I think I want to do this. I think we should do this. And then I don't, I don't remember if there was actually like a specific catalyst or something. That was just like, um, I think we just decided, "Okay, let's, let's go for it. This, from what we've read, this makes sense and will help. Let's go for it." I can tell you a catalyst for me personally; so September when we started rolling it out to the team, My first child was born October 3rd, you know, and ultimately I've, I was just working like crazy, you know, and, and that was fine. It like, you know, I spent plenty of time with my family, but also working like crazy. And I'm like, I'm going to grow this business. We need to have more predictable systems so that I can take off at 4:30 and spend some time with my family before he goes to bed. So that was a big catalyst for me personally. Life events. I'm like, the business is doing well, we can be doing better. And as they say in Collective 54, it make more work less, you know, that was, that was, that was, and it does doesn't necessarily mean I'm working less, but I'm working to get there. And there, yeah. are helping us work to get there.

Randell Mauricio: And I don't know if it was purposeful or intentional, or if you were even aware of how important that buy in was, maybe you were, but I think it's, it's important to talk about that because I can imagine that there are founders out there, perhaps one is listening to this conversation right now thinking, "Yeah, but isn't it as simple as assigning my integrator or my CEO or my COO to just. Implement it. There's a framework ready out of the box." Could you, could you just elaborate on why you felt it was important to get that buy in and take a very methodical eased in approach to, to getting that buy in?

Leo Falkenstein: Yes. I think that I have really good people on my team, especially the people who have been at my company for a while, who are leaders and I have really good people and they are motivated and they want to grow their careers, they don't want to be just told what to do. You know, they want to understand, they want to feel part of something, you know, um, not the, I think the book says genius with a thousand helpers approach. They don't want the gene. No one really wants to be the genius with a thousand helpers approach. They want to feel like they're part of growing something. And again, the people I'm speaking of have been with my company seven, eight years and me and my business partner have been with the company 13 years. So, like, there's a lot of experience in the room. These people who have started as individual contributors now manage teams. Um, and it just didn't, I guess in my head, like, what's the other option? The options be like, "Okay, we're doing this now. I just made our VTO. This is our goal, and we're doing this. Now do this L10 meeting." Like, it didn't really make any sense to do it that way. Like, you have to get practice, especially if you're self implementing, you have to get practice and slow into it. I'll tell you that my first meeting, people felt overwhelmed. I think they were excited, but they're like, "Whoa, this is a lot," you know, then and I don't think I think my leadership team doesn't feel that way. Now the, you know, other individuals who are just hearing about it for the first time are starting to feel it. But my leaders now have experience running it for five or six months or so. Um, or at least familiar and they've been familiar with it for five or six months. So now they can roll it out to their teams and lead their teams. Again, that's the, that's the idea, right? Is you work with leaders who lead other folks. So if. Example, I implement it, I lead my team, but they don't know how to lead it throughout bottleneck, you know, just stops, it slows down. So I guess that's my answer.

Randell Mauricio: Well, I appreciate your answer because the undercurrent that I'm personally picking up or that I appreciate is Leo, you're, you're a leader who focuses on people. And I can tell you that earlier in my career and my leadership journey, which I don't want to, I don't care to give too many details about because it's, I'm not proud of my leadership journey where I started. There's so much that we all learn just by trial by fire. And I can tell you that earlier in my leadership journey, I used to think that business people and clients were all equal in that we have to prioritize and certainly all of them are important, but I'm, I'm of the thinking now. And this is why your answer is resonating with me. I'm of the thinking now that actually of those three, the one thing you can really control is how you interact with, how you invest into your team so that they can grow and become the best versions of themselves that really is resonating with me. And that's what I personally pulled up from, from, from your answer, because yes, as you had said, you can. Roll out the system very mechanically. You can roll out a tool as a mechanical system that is, is, is access that is accessible by all, but are you really investing in your culture? So welcome any responses to that.

Leo Falkenstein: I agree. EOS is a collection of tools, but you got to have people to, to implement the tools and it's too much for one person to do. You know, it's, and if you got great people, that's why you hired them for them to help the vision. And that's where it comes back to is the vision, setting those goals, achievable goals and working collectively.

Randell Mauricio: So as a reminder for our listeners, the six components, the six pillars of a EOS or vision, people, data. Issues, process, and traction. If you look at that entire wheel of components, Leo, which one stands out to you as having been the most impactful?

Leo Falkenstein: I've mentioned vision a time and time again, so I would probably say vision, but give another talking point, let's, let's focus on issues. EOS. Oh, sorry.

Randell Mauricio: Sorry, I thought you were pausing. I didn't mean to interrupt you. Please carry on.

Leo Falkenstein: EOS basically says that every week you're going to have a meeting or a handful of meetings, different meetings, but your leadership team is going to have a meeting and you're going to bring issues to the table and you're going to solve them there. That. If there's one thing to take away from EOS, that's it. Have a forum to solve issues week in, week out. Just had our L10 meeting an hour ago, right before I started this call. And we solved three fantastic issues where everybody, all of our team was involved. It wasn't like there's two people going back and forth. These are departmental, or these are company-wide, uh, issues, and they've clearly caused at least one or multiple people, some stress, there is a solution to it now. Not always going to be an easy solution you can solve right then and there, right? But for us, there are three issues today. We've solved them all. Today, we now have new processes. Everyone is assigned a task to make sure that whatever your task is to resolve this issue is implemented by the next meeting, which for us is Fridays. And if you don't come to your next L10 meeting with the issue solved, people look at you and said, "We decided this was important and we decided you were going to solve this or do the, you decided that this was your task. Why did you not do the task?" could be uncomfortable. No one wants to feel uncomfortable. We decided as a team that you were going to do this by this day and it's important. So what happens? People do it, even if they do it right before the meeting, they do it and they come to the meeting and we're ready to move on to new issues.

Randell Mauricio: I can remember precisely a couple of years ago when I was in that very same position, because you're right. Leadership is not something that we're all, you know, we're trained in school, how to, how to become the best leader that you can be. And so there are times where it is uncomfortable to be able to hold somebody accountable and, and make sure that those actions are taken care of. And I, I recall implementing EOS and just really, truly. appreciating that it's not going to be me. That is the law. It's the system. And that's what I hear from you too, right? It's just, it takes a, it takes a load off of your shoulder.

Leo Falkenstein: Totally.

Randell Mauricio: So how about, um, the, the ability to clarify, uh, the ability to clarify, simplify and achieve your vision. I know we've talked about this, but, um, aside from the issues, you shared moments ago what your vision was in the early stages of your company, how it's obviously transforming because of EOS. What are the other ways that the system is helping you gain traction?

Leo Falkenstein: Well, I mean, I think that, um, the idea of rocks is really fantastic and key as well. The idea of rocks is that it's essentially quarterly goals. These rocks are, setting them to be done this quarter and they need to get done this quarter. Why? Because you've outlined these things as the things that are most important to your business. So if you, again, same sort of idea. If you get to the end of your quarter and you did not achieve your rock, that's uncomfortable, right? So you wanna make sure that you have done what you said you were gonna do, that we all collectively agreed upon is the most important thing that we can do for the business this quarter. You know, sometimes rocks don't couldn't again, and we're early, so I'm acting like I have all this experience. I don't, but like, you know, one of our is of our rocks is to sign a certain amount of retainers, right? You could work as hard as you want, and you could fall short of that goal. So that's not something like, but the idea is that you hit the goal and that it's measured and it's achievable. Another one is to, like, develop a new system to do a certain thing. Like, for example, uh, We're in the video business, and we're realizing that we needed a brand new system that we needed to try. We need to test out, um, thought leadership content because it's just such a big trend and historically, we could not provide it at scale at achieve at a reasonable price point that anyone would buy it because every time you open up the editing program, pretty much no matter what it takes, eight hours to edit. And if this is something that goes on social media once, they don't want to pay multiple thousand dollars for something that could go on social media once. So again, we identify it as something that's really important to the business to provide value in this area, but to be provided at a reasonable price point. And that's for us. We're right on track. We're going to go to market with this new product offering in um, you know, and you know, beginning of Q2, we're testing it out now and we built out all the steps. We built out the steps for ideating, coming up with the initial one, doing a test run, putting it all together, coming back for version two test run. And then ultimately we're going to end up packaging it and figuring out and then actually selling it to clients. So again, that was one rock that said by the end of Q1, we need to have a new product offering for thought leadership that people actually want to buy. And on track to achieve it.

Randell Mauricio: Amazing. I'm glad you brought up the concept of rocks because, uh, another common question that I'm asked is what is the best way to disseminate your rocks? Certainly the EOS Library and the EOS Framework has built-in tools and documents or PDFs that can inspire how you, you know, implement EOS and how you communicate as a leadership team. But what have you found to work? Are you using software? Are you using documents, something as simple as Google drive? What's giving you, what, what are the tools you're using?

Leo Falkenstein: So for everything, EOS related, we have a space built up in ClickUp, which is basically the, the app that runs our entire company. Um, and I essentially 1 day when we're getting ready for it. I just. Googled E. O. S. Click up templates and I found one and it was free and I plugged it in and, you know, you customize it. Then you continue to customize it over time. But we basically inside of our ClickUp have for the leadership team for each department where inside of each of those folders are. The, the meeting tasks, the issues, the rocks, the to-do's. We have a folder where it's just our VTO, which is Vision Traction Organizer. Um, so yes, ClickUp for us has just been fantastic. Like, uh, and I've talked.

Randell Mauricio: That's a brilliant answer.

Leo Falkenstein: People use EOS one, people use 90 and again, I haven't used it, so I can't say what's good, what's bad, whatever. But I can tell you this doesn't cost me anything extra and it seems to do everything I need it to do.

Randell Mauricio: That's brilliant because for, for a couple of reasons, I can think that, you know, Implementing EOS is, is also a change management experience. You have to manage that change. And we talked about that earlier. And so also to take EOS or this. new and integrate it into something that the team is already familiar with. That is brilliant. And I mean, a tool like ClickUp, I mean, it's, it's a wonderful tool. Like how easy is it now to take that rock and break it down into a project using a tool that your team's already used to using. I just think that's awesome. And sorry to, so I got so excited when I said, "Oh, that's brilliant." I didn't mean to cut you off.

Leo Falkenstein: No, no, didn't even think about what you just said is that we're putting a new process in an existing system. I can imagine it's a lot harder to do a new process in a new system. So, um, yeah, it's working. It's got everything that we need. Um, yeah. Rocks to multiple lists, you know, so if something is both a departmental rock and a, you know, leadership company rock, you just press the plus button, add it to the other rock and boom, it's, it's done. There it's like, you know, you're always updating the same stuff. So, you know, that's just one example, but it, it works perfectly for us.

Randell Mauricio: So this is amazing. I mean, you're.

Leo Falkenstein: I'm sorry, I was gonna say, I use the EOS resources all the time. I'm reading this. I'm like, "Oh, we could do this. We could do that." So I am very thankful for these companies for providing great software and great resources. I'm just using the resources and not the software.

Randell Mauricio: Yeah. Well, this is amazing, Leo, because you're, you're only a couple months in and it's clear that you've got momentum and obviously, uh, a wealth of wins already under the bag. So this is a lot to be, to celebrate. I want to, uh, ask about you and your partner, Michael, um, how has EOS changed, if at all, the way you two work together or perhaps the roles that you two play?

Leo Falkenstein: You know, I read Rocket Fuel, the book that kind of defines the visionary and the integrator. And I'm reading, this is probably two months ago, three months ago, I'm like, and I'm reading. First of all, we did the online test that says, "Are you the visionary audio integrator?" You know, it takes 20 minutes or whatever, and you get a score. And I clearly went on the visionary side and he clearly went on the integrator side. So that's where it started. I'm like, "You know, this makes sense." And then I read the book and I'm just reading the visionary chapter and I'm just like laughing because it's just like describing me and I'm reading the integrator chapter. I'm like, I'm just laughing because it's describing him. So I'm like, "Well, this makes sense." Um, but at the, at the same time, so I think that that clarity, like, I think, okay. I'll go ahead and do that. Um, okay. Um, okay. Okay. So, okay. Um, difference in personalities and how you want to achieve certain goals is that rocket fuel. So I think it definitely kind of put, again, we have a great relationship. I want to reiterate that, but of course, you know, 13 years, things that pop up. So, um, yeah. You know, I think that that's probably one of the. Positive things, not that it was ever bad, but 1 of the positive things and, know, right now on our accountability chart and EOS, like, you know, there's visionary integrator and then there's like, head of revenue, head of operations and head of finance. Sadly, we're the two of us still have all of those five seats, right? So, um, I think that obviously there are challenges with that. Um, but also it's just kind of where we are as a company, but we started sort of identify, you know, how can I get myself out of the head of revenue role? How can we get himself out of the head of operations role? Finance. That's. That's a different animal we haven't really identified yet, but um, you know, long story short, the book, out why it makes sense, and then just, you know, accept some of the things for what they are, and use each other to your strengths. Absolutely.

Randell Mauricio: Known each other for more than just 13 years. Because as you had mentioned, you were both in college, if I recall correctly. All that correctly, um, when this idea was hatched to partner and, uh, you know, the best CEO, pardon me, the best founder, integrator relationships, it really is a marriage. And so even though I totally respect and can appreciate what you're saying, where yes, both of you still own the key functions, if you will, but you know what, it's brought you clarity because you can't solve the problem if you don't have the clarity. And it may mean that for a year or the next two years. Leo might be in one or two roles or multiple roles. That's okay. At least you have a clear understanding of what the football field looks like. And then you can assign people as you go.

Leo Falkenstein: Okay.

Randell Mauricio: Self implement or not. I know you're still early, but what advice would you give founders out there? Listen to this story who are on the fence.

Leo Falkenstein: My company, again, 13 people. So I can imagine self implementing a 200 person company is a lot harder than implementing a, you know, a company my size, but I can tell you for a company, my size self implementing us the opportunity to, and I'm not saying this would have happened again. I don't have experience with an implementer, but it really gave us the opportunity to work slowly time, but still always be moving forward, but also really just feel like it has. Our fingerprints on everything, you know, it's just like, "We built that we built that we did this. We did that," obviously with the tools provided, but it's been again for our experience. It's been great. And you know, I can only speak to my experience. I've said 18 times, but, but my team's bought in. And if my team wasn't bought in, that's when I could be like, "Okay, like, this is falling on its face. You know, I need to get someone in here to like, you know, not. Yeah. You know, quote unquote, lay down the law, but really just, you know, make sure that we're doing it the right way that our team is bought in." Fact that we implemented because we talked to an implementer. We just like randomly met him at an event and just said, "Hey, like, we're doing we're self implementing." He's like, "Oh, well, you know, it's just like a 90 minute free session. So let me do you do a free 90 minute session." I guess. "Sure." And he, um, he at one point said, like, "The fact that you guys are trying to do this while things are going well at the company, like, that is just so healthy because..."

Randell Mauricio: Thanks.

Leo Falkenstein: Wasn't, you'd be having a lot harder time with this process.

Randell Mauricio: Like insurance. You don't wanna buy insurance when you need it.

Leo Falkenstein: Exactly.

Randell Mauricio: Possible.

Leo Falkenstein: Exactly.

Randell Mauricio: Well tell you what, in, in terms of a tip, what, looking back at your experience, I know it's only been a couple of months, but what's the best tip you can share? Another founder who. Unlike you may have maybe going through a rocky road right now.

Leo Falkenstein: I would say a tip that I would give would be just to trust the process, if, if you are going, if you want to implement EOS, just trust it and go with it. I mean, that's, I don't even know if that's a good tip, if I'm being totally honest, but I, us. We went in at a good time. We followed it. We took it slow. And maybe that's the real tip. Take it slow. Don't try to implement it overnight. You're just going to overwhelm people and then that'll upset people and then it won't go anywhere. Take it slow. Get buy in. And then keep going. There's my tip. How about that?

Randell Mauricio: It, your response made me think of your relationship with, uh, between you and Michael, who, as, as you had mentioned moments ago, you now have a new understanding in terms of clarity for who's, who's the visionary, who's the integrator. Um, so, so my, my follow up question is. How do you maintain a healthy relationship and understanding of who does what? Because if I recall your story correctly, you actually, you, Leo, brought the idea to the table. And so, as you've gotten clear on your quote unquote accountability chart, has that Giving you reason to pause or change your tenacity with how you're approaching EOS implementation, or are you sharing it, or are you strategically saying, "Hey, Michael, maybe this could be more you because you are the integrator." Speak to me about that dynamic.

Leo Falkenstein: Yeah, that's a really good question. And probably to be honest, I don't think we've gotten there yet. To the point of like, are my, are we quote unquote hand, like I say, I've been self implementing. We've been implementing as a team. I brought it. I ran the first meetings when I read the book and nobody else had, so I had more of a knowledge about it than everybody else. But then over time, everyone's read the book, but you know, just for whatever reasons for a while, it might've been just like a little bit further ahead than others, just because. read it multiple times at that point, but, um, you know, I think we're self implementing as a team. Um, I think, um, you know, right now I'm still quote unquote the facilitator of the meetings. Um, but, you know, he. Anyone, you know, our, our team's so bought in and so understands how the process works that, you know, if I'm out and Michael could totally do it. If Michael looked at me one day and said, "I want to be the facilitator of the man's mind," I'd be like, "Go for it, man. Like it's all you." Um, but yeah, I think really, now that I think about it, like, again, I, I brought the idea. I started as the implementer, um, we're implementing as a team. And I think that might be part of the real magic behind why we think, why I think it's working.

Randell Mauricio: Well, there's a lot to celebrate here, and I'm watching the time. So let me draw to a close. Let me say this, Leo. The best leaders that I've ever met are the ones who have the ability to look up, see the forest from the trees, but also are not afraid to roll their sleeves up and be in the trenches with the team. And my friend, I think you embody that. So let me tell you, I am so lucky to have spent this time with you. Thank you so much for being generous with your time.

Leo Falkenstein: Well, I appreciate it. Still got a lot to learn, a lot to learn, but, um, I think we're on our way.