Karen Betancourt’s Post

This isn't your company's 5k. This is a full marathon, we're maybe even in Ultra Mode at the level of clients I work with directly. Although teams can do quick sprints to the finish line, the business as a whole isn't in sprint mode all of the time. I've been watching this coding guy make short videos about his time at companies like Activision and Blizzard etc. He said when he migrated over to Amazon, his boss was also from the previous company as well. The engineer told his boss - I feel like I'm not making progress here, it feels slow. The manager had to tell him, this is "NORMAL WORK", and that the last company wasn't normal. When you're just constantly reinventing the wheel, when you're employees are focused on growth constantly and just stressing about every day operations it may be time to sit down and take a breather and re-assess what TF you're doing with your life. (Your Employees are certainly already doing that, do you notice your HR Churn beginning to rise?) Sustainable business growth is rooted in scalable strategies that evolve over time. Just as the best runners are focused on the horizon, miles away, a robust growth strategy should be focused in the distance. Our Future Operations Planning is just as important as Day to Day Operational Execution of the vision, but neither can be skipped. Strategic investments in technology, human resources, and market expansion are essential, always with a vigilant eye on financial health and risk management. True growth transcends mere expansion; it involves scaling your operational capacity in a manner that's financially prudent and sustainable for the long haul. 🔄Share This Post With Others and 📌 Follow Cory Myres For Daily Insights. 👉 Join us on our journey to new heights with the Climb Higher Newsletter. Delivered Every Monday Morning. Subscribe now at https://lnkd.in/geF7eBXa! #SustainabileGrowth #OperationalCapacity #StrategicPlanning #CEO #Owner #Operator #FutureOperations #OperationalExcellence #Operations

This isn't your company's 5k. This is a full marathon, we're maybe even in Ultra Mode at the level of clients I work with directly. Although teams can do quick sprints to the finish line, the business as a whole isn't in sprint mode all of the time. I've been watching this coding guy make short videos about his time at companies like Activision and Blizzard etc. He said when he migrated over to Amazon, his boss was also from the previous company as well. The engineer told his boss - I feel like I'm not making progress here, it feels slow. The manager had to tell him, this is "NORMAL WORK", and that the last company wasn't normal. When you're just constantly reinventing the wheel, when you're employees are focused on growth constantly and just stressing about every day operations it may be time to sit down and take a breather and re-assess what TF you're doing with your life. (Your Employees are certainly already doing that, do you notice your HR Churn beginning to rise?) Sustainable business growth is rooted in scalable strategies that evolve over time. Just as the best runners are focused on the horizon, miles away, a robust growth strategy should be focused in the distance. Our Future Operations Planning is just as important as Day to Day Operational Execution of the vision, but neither can be skipped. Strategic investments in technology, human resources, and market expansion are essential, always with a vigilant eye on financial health and risk management. True growth transcends mere expansion; it involves scaling your operational capacity in a manner that's financially prudent and sustainable for the long haul. 🔄Share This Post With Others and 📌 Follow Cory Myres For Daily Insights. 👉 Join us on our journey to new heights with the Climb Higher Newsletter. Delivered Every Monday Morning. Subscribe now at https://lnkd.in/geF7eBXa! #SustainabileGrowth #OperationalCapacity #StrategicPlanning #CEO #Owner #Operator #FutureOperations #OperationalExcellence #Operations

𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐮𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮! 🎤 This is how I kicked off my speech to help my audience to have more trustworthy transitions and transformations. This week, I had the incredible opportunity to inspire product professionals and change-makers with my talk at the Product Operations Meetup Berlin (POPs Berlin) organized by Antonia Landi at Netlight. And let me tell you, it was a blast! 🔥 Hugging a stranger at a meetup can feel a bit awkward, isn't it? Establishing trust is paramount in any transition. I kicked things off with a bold challenge for the ~100 participants. I wanted the audience to experience that initial resistance firsthand. After all, isn't resistance a common theme in transitions? 💡 But here's the twist: Imagine if I had shared the benefits of a good hug—how it boosts your hormones, lowers stress levels, and enhances overall well-being — before asking them to embrace their neighbor. Suddenly, it would have been much easier, wouldn't it? 👏 The response was beyond my expectations! The majority of participants eagerly embraced the challenge, demonstrating a level of devotion that was truly inspiring. Thanks Lars Hartenstein for this brilliant idea of hugging. ✋ Many in the audience expressed their desire to drive positive change at work, yet they hit roadblocks. Sound familiar? 💼 Fear not! In my forthcoming posts, I'll share practical tips on cultivating a trustworthy culture for successful transitions. Additionally, I'll provide strategies for gaining stakeholder buy-in and overcoming resistance with more trust and less pushback. Stay tuned for these valuable insights! 📞 I'm just a call away, ready to be your partner in trustworthy transitions. Let's make magic happen together! ✨

Have you ever experienced the “drive-by CEO”? The CEO walks into the room, suggests a crazy wild idea, and then leaves without providing context? I do this all the time haha, so I know a thing or two about it. When this happens, most people either ignore the idea (bad move) or they frantically try to go and execute on a half-baked thought the CEO had (even worse). Instead, go back to the CEO or the executive and ask them: “you mentioned this idea in a meeting the other day - do you mind sharing more about what you were thinking? What was underneath that idea? Why did this come up for you?” Learn more, then ask about prioritization. “Here’s a list of all the things we’re working on. Is this a higher or lower priority than these things in your mind?” By the end, you’ll either have fodder for an amazing idea with the insight of the CEO, or you’ll realize this was not that important and should just be filed into the backlog. h/t Adam Fishman for sharing this during our Lightning Lesson. Watch our chat on building a culture of experimentation here: https://bit.ly/3xp2HFh.

Urgency in decision-making: Strategic necessity or risky shortcut? Ever felt the pressure to make snap decisions? Urgent calls can sometimes feel like they're propelling progress. But are they really? In a fast-paced tech environment, urgency is often misinterpreted as efficiency. Speedy decisions can compromise thorough analysis, resulting in overlooked details and potential pitfalls. However, promoting a culture of informed rather than impulsive decisions leads to sustainable growth and innovation. Next time you're faced with an urgent decision, ask yourself: Can a brief pause for thoughtful consideration transform this choice from reactive to proactive? Your team will thank you.

My mentor is a world-class CRO (with 2 huge exits). He's done annual planning for multi-billion dollar companies. Here's the #1 piece of advice he gave me when I was going through my first planning cycle: "Be careful not to STACK RISK. It’s great you are confident about the team and what’s coming in the product roadmap, but do not stack risk.” I was a bit confused. He explained: “Sure, the product roadmap may be exciting, awareness is increasing, and reps have another year of tenure, but assuming too many positive increases is a recipe for disaster.” What he meant was that when you look at the annual plan, it’s easy to justify your assumptions: - Win rate will go up 5% because of a new product feature & more tenured reps - Pipeline/SDR will go up 10% because of new tooling and a new leader - Ramp time will decrease 15% because of a big enablement hire - Deal size will go up 7% because of a new add on that’s sellable When you look at each one of these individually, the numbers look doable. But when you stack these micro-improvements together, you end up planning for a massive impact on productivity that won’t happen. Here's the takeaway: When you're doing planning... Be brutally honest about what has to go right/wrong to impact the business. Walk through the plan with peers or advisors to challenge your thinking. And never, ever assume EVERYTHING will go right. Don’t stack risk.

This is so true! You can’t improve everything all at once - be mindful and choose what will do the most good for the business wisely. In periods of transformation and growth - give yourself the benefit of letting certain things stay where they are while actively working to improve others. Departments and programs also don’t mature overnight or in the span of a year - maturity and scale are multi-year processes and not everything will be mature at the same pace. Focus and iterative progress - not perfection - drive success.

I challenge anyone to take their following test. 1. Look at the final revenue number in your operating model. 2. Change all of your key assumptions so you achieve them at 90% for the year. 3. Compare the new final revenue number to the original one. What do you get? Spoiler alert: it’s not 90%. It’s probably not even close.

Does this statement sound familiar:   ⏸ "When our founder says, 'paint this wall blue,' everyone knows not to go buy the paint and brushes just yet… Give it a few days." My client described this as the culture at their founder led organization.   Everyone knew… tomorrow, the vision may be different. Like many visionaries their founder was an idea factory. And many times, what sounds like a directive was really just their leader thinking out loud.   Maybe you are a founder and sense a similar predicament. Or you're on the team and struggle to know when to act, and when to wait.   ❓ Do you work with a visionary founder who changes their mind every day? Do you feel frustrated by the lack of clarity and direction in your company culture? Do you wish you could find momentum and end the start, stop, and re-do cycle?   ❓ Are you the visionary who wants to gain traction, get out of your own way, and help your team thrive?   ❗ If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re not alone. Many visionaries struggle to translate their big ideas into actionable plans, and it holds them and their teams back.   What if you could create a clear and consistent vision, a plan to execute it, and a way to measure your, and your team's progress?   ⁉ What if you could align your team, empower your people, and deliver results, every quarter?   That’s exactly what I help visionary founders and their teams do.   I specialize in helping visionary-led businesses implement a powerful system that transforms their chaos into clarity.   💡 Get unstuck and move forward with your projects 🙂 Make room for your team to thrive and grow 💯 Build a company that has lasting impact and profit   Sounds too good to be true, right?   Well, it's not. Using proven tools and frameworks, I can help. DM or book a meeting. I'd love to start a conversation.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀? 𝗔𝘁 𝗧𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄.𝗮𝗶, 𝘄𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻! Our brand promise to our customers is to deliver on their hard problems, like getting models into production and technology up and running. We achieve this by assembling high-performance squads that deliver results. But our success lies in our internal internal brand promise: doubling your value over two years.  This means we're on the hunt for top-tier talent who have the skills and align with our culture and values. We focus on solving our customers' technical challenges and are hyper-focused on developing our teams. We're committed to pushing everyone healthily and constructively, helping them enhance their skills and gain deeper insights into their career paths.  This is why meaning and purpose are so crucial to us. When you find purpose in your daily work and see the value you create for customers, you're driven to excel. We have a structured framework called Flojo that guides our squads, emphasising responsibility and execution. It’s our Mojo :).  This principle is at the core of our culture, guiding our decisions and creating value for our staff. We believe that putting our people first leads to better value creation because those who care genuinely make a difference.