Entrepreneur Intel

EI Intro Audio+Video 1.1: This is the unfiltered truth about entrepreneurship. Raw. No VS. No sugarcoating. Welcome to Entrepreneur Intel. I'm your host, Wes Matthews. Each episode, we'll learn from experienced founders and uncover the top 5 percent learnings that led to their success in all things personal, family, and business.

This show is sponsored by Stealth Consulting, delivering clear marketing strategies, ROI, and no surprises.

Wesley: I am super excited to introduce today's guest. Um, she's an entrepreneur who works with founders to let them live their best EOS life. She's been the right hand to dozens of visionaries to help them bring their visions to life, which is super important. Uh, she is the founder, visionary, and fractional integrator at Catalyst Integrators.

Welcome Jamie Muniz. How you doing?

Jamie: Hi! So good to be here.

Wesley: Well, thank you so much for coming on. I'm really excited that I've, I've never seen. Visionary plus fractional integrator. So I'm really curious around that. That's awesome. But I have to ask you a question. I ask everybody that I'm able to get on the podcast. Uh, your company has 12 headcount. You guys do about two and a half million in revenue.

You've been in this fractional world and entrepreneur for many years, but most recently five years as fractional. What's one of the most important lessons you've learned thus far?

Jamie: If I had to pick just one, um, I would say something kind of, it's broad and we could go way deeper on this if you want, is just understanding the power of, like, harnessing human energy in the right way, whether it's yours or your team or, you know, whoever you're working with. Um, it's just kind of knowing yourself, doing, like, the inner work, I think is, is important.

What's been most important for me to understand that like I needed to spend intentional time and focus and my own energy on, on doing that work.

Wesley: So there's a couple things in the intro that I want to pick apart. One, it's EOS. So we have a shared love for EOS and then, but I wanna really dive into like fractional COO. So like, do me a favor and set the stage. What is a fractional COO?

Jamie: So the work that we do at Catalyst is as fractional integrators. So when you say COO, right, that can imply a lot of different things in terms of the role. A lot of times, it's Heavy into like the operations piece of the business and, and sitting in that role with the EOS system, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, um, written about in the book Traction by Gina Wickman.

The integrator role is a very clear seat that plays a puzzle piece to the visionary. So that integrator role really helps take all of the ideas and the visions and goals and everything from the visionary and helps drive it down through the organization and And execute and actually bring those things to life.

So in the system, the seat itself is not typically full time. I mean, unless you're a giant organization, you're growing really rapidly, maybe like giant leadership team reporting to a board structure, right? Like then the, the integrator seat COO seat could be a full time role for us. In the smaller entrepreneurial companies we're working within, Integrator works fractionally really perfectly.

Wesley: So I think in 2014, the book he referred to Traction written by Gino Wickman. I was reading Traction. And I'm an entrepreneur. I think I just got my company to like over a million dollars of revenue and I'm reading it and I'm like, Oh my gosh, like I finally know the diagnosis of what's in my head. I'm, I'm a visionary.

So it did a really good job of laying out what a visionary is and what an integrator is and what Gino defined. And I realized like everything on the integrator, I'm like, I hate doing it. try to do it, but this is, this is why I'm probably the problem in my organization. And that was like a big revelation for me in my entrepreneurial journey.

Like what, what was your, like, I love the name Catalyst Integrators. Like that word catalyst means so much. And like, where, what was your aha moment where you're like, Hmm, this is, this is what I'm doing.

Jamie: Yeah, so I was an integrator in my full time career. I was always very good at helping a visionary, you know, bring their vision to life and all of that. Um, I also owned a boutique on the side. That was kind of like my side fun hustle was like, Oh, I've got that. But I never really identified as an entrepreneur.

Honestly, I was always like, well, I support and help entrepreneurs like I don't have the big vision. But then over here, it's like, well, but I do because I've got this business and this other thing I'm doing. And You know, working on dog rescue and like I'm visionary and in these other ways and so the birth of Catalyst really came from I transitioned into being a fractional integrator from my full time integrator career.

And so I had the experience. I could do the work, I could get in there, and, and stumbled across being fractional quite, like, by mistake. Honestly, I thought I was doing something illegal. I thought the EOS police, you know, were going to come and get me, because I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm like this charlatan that's kind of just like out here like part time in this integrator seat.

But really, my first few clients needed that. They, they only needed me a certain amount of time to come in and help. Helped get their vision out of their head and help, help lead their leadership teams. So I kind of stumbled into it by mistake a little bit and absolutely loved it. Um, very quickly I was fully booked out.

I had amazing clients, COVID hit. So this was like around COVID time and I had already been virtual. So I already knew how to like, work virtually, build culture through virtual teams, and that kind of stuff. And that just opened up the world to say, Hey, we've got to pivot. We've got to do some of this virtually.

And that really opened things up and brought new clients my way that I may not have had, um, before COVID because they were, you know, stuck in only in person type of environments. Um, so I went through a brand, a rebrand that, that I did about three years ago to Catalyst. Um, and that was born from the fact that I wanted to be able to help full time integrators make the leap that I made.

Like give them the ability to have community and, and culture and coaching and get clients. Because I don't know if you know this, but integrators tend to be kind of risk averse and not salespeople. So, um, that's kind of where Catalyst was born was like, how do I create this, this place where people can come and be part and have a community?

Like as fractionals, it tends to be quite lonely, right? Like, you know, because it's like, You're kind of doing your own thing. And if you're solo, you don't have like a home base to call home. Like you might have a peer group or whatever, or a coach or something, but like to have your real core team at home behind you to help provide resources and grow and tips and say, Hey, like this is what's going on.

Um, I mean, we were kind of ahead on this whole AI thing, but I would say by probably about a year, a year. With a lot of our, our team members and our clients, because we had been hearing things and then bringing in these resources way earlier than like the mass public of how people were using AI. So that's the real benefit.

I think

Wesley: No, it's really cool that, that you respond like that. Cause I I've set my fractional CMO company the same way where. It's a lonely world out there if you're a consultant, right? You can only take on, you know, four to six clients, but who do you water cooler talk with? Who do you bounce ideas like? So that's kind of the same thing that I'm creating here that that's that's really cool that you're doing that Um, what's what's interesting?

I wish I would have met you a couple months ago because I have this entrepreneurial friend He's a crazy visionary like me But we're whiteboarding all this stuff on the wall and it's all his problems, right? And there's this like massive things on there. He's like, can you help me do this, do this, do that.

And I'm like, I can only help you do one thing, which isn't on the wall, which is you need to hire an integrator. Because these problems that are all over the place, and I'm pointing at the wall like you can see because I'm a visionary,

Jamie: can see

Wesley: I'm like, the problem is, the, the, things don't go away. And unless you have an integrator or somebody that can like naturally solve these problems, Cause I think visionaries don't go, don't do a great job of articulating an outcome.

They're just like all over the place. So he hired an integrator and he, you know, kind of like, I'm not saying problem solved, but he's out of the lurch and problems are starting to go away. So what's for you, like, what's that relationship, right? You have in the entrepreneur operating system, you have a visionary and an integrator.

And at what point, like, does that visionary, like, how, how do you come in and be the savior or get them to, you know, get out of their own way or overcome?

Jamie: my gosh. So obviously a lot of trust is required, um, for any integrator to come in and, and be successful. And there's also, I think a readiness factor for the visionary. To be prepared for something like that, right? For, for being able to be able to communicate, be able to be clear and let go of things, and also want to build trust, want to let go of some things.

And not the type of let go that's like, drop it on somebody and run in the other direction where you're like, it's on you now, like later. It can't be that either. I mean, it has to be like, hey, I see. That I'm looking to the future of my business and I know that I'm going to be the bottleneck or I know that this is not my unique ability.

I know that my, my value and my skills and my gifts can be delivered in a different way. And it's not just on me to handle all of this stuff. So I think in order for any integrator to be successful, there's a readiness factor of the, the visionary, um, sitting in that seat that, that wants to, to bring someone on.

Now, typically. Visionary, like in my example, I was the visionary and the integrator at Catalyst, because it was just me who started. Like, at any given time, if you're a solo starting, you are also the integrator. Same with you, right? Like, you were the visionary and the integrator. You had to get all the things done.

But you create this, like, tangled web of spaghetti that's, like, needs to be untangled. Of, like, two, there's two seats in you. We need to pull these apart a little bit. And we can act as the bridge. To help do that, to help extract and pull some of that out. What do you like to do? What do you love doing? You know, I hired an integrator last year for, for me at Catalyst, and I got out of my integrator seat and we've both identified like our strengths and our weaknesses, and we can compliment each other and we can support one another in that way.

So it's really such an important role, um, to get the right person in. Also, what level of experience do they need to have? Is this somebody that you're hoping you just plop in and they just fix everything that hasn't been going well? Like, do you have realistic expectations of what this person can do?

Also aligned with the ability to pay somebody. In that seat, you know, if you're wanting this savior, who's built and grown a company just like yours for 20 years, and it's going to come in and just do it all for you, that's probably going to come at a bit of a price tag.

Wesley: Yep. So, so, are most of your clients, are they already familiar with EOS? So are they, are they in a position where they're like, I've read Traction, I get it, maybe they tried it their own way and now they're like, you know what, I'm tired of banging my head against the wall, I gotta, I need to do something?

Yep.

Jamie: Yes, those are the pains. So if we look at like, oh, what's the pain these people are in? It's like you're saying this, This friend that you had come over was like, I just need to get this out of my brain and on a whiteboard and I have all these ideas and I'm feeling held back and I'm feeling not considered or I just don't know who to give this to or my time is being spent on things that are not my best use of my time.

Um, you know, what we don't want to confuse this seat with is an assistant. Right? Because there's probably a chunk of things on that whiteboard that you were like, that could go to an assistant. You need help managing your calendar, your email, that kind of stuff. When you're ready for an integrator, you want a thought partner.

You want somebody ying to your yang. You want somebody that might poke holes and not just be a yes man and just do whatever you're telling them to do. You know, you want somebody to come in that can see the vision, see where you want to go, and, and believe in it and want to help you You execute that,

Wesley: No, I, I really, I really love that and appreciate that. You know, one thing I did in my company is I actually brought in, uh, a COO integrator almost first because I've been through the pain and experience of a prior company where I kind of dumped everything on a COO at, let's say the bottom of the ninth inning.

It was like, fix this, be my savior. And he's like, Whoa, like there's a lot of stuff to do. So in my company now I brought one in and somebody made a comment to me. They're like, Man, that's really expensive. Or like, how can you afford to do that? And I said, I know what it looks like on the other side. I can't afford not to do that.

And going back to that example with my buddy, that's exactly what came out of his mouth, right? He read traction and started to realize, Man, I just, I can't pay a, uh, integrator 250k or 400k and I'm like, have you heard of fractional? And he's like, never heard of it. And I go try it before you buy it. And I introduced him to somebody and he, and he's like, Hey, I talked to a fractional integrator and he said he'll work for me for two weeks for free to show value.

Should I do it? And I said, well, you're a crazy visionary. If you don't like him after two weeks. Don't hire him. Like he's going to show you value. Try before you buy. And they started working together and it was on a small little basis, right? But now it's ratcheted up and he's solving all the problems now.

So like, I, I love the fractional aspect of it because I think it's scary as a visionary, right? Like your, your. You're going to hire somebody for a large salary. And then what, what are the boundaries, right? Cause you said they're not your assistant, but most visionaries are powerful. They've been leading the company up to a certain point.

They've been it. How do you start to like unpack that as a visionary to say, okay, how do we make this work so it's successful for the organization?

Jamie: right? Right. I love that you suggested that to, to your friend, because that's, you know, figuring out how if fractional can work or not, you know, there's different things to consider, right? Is it try before you buy? Is it like, I don't even know what I don't know. And I need a professional person in here that's done this before and can come in and, and coach and advise me as well.

And, and also have the ability to let me know when I'm ready for a full time. Right. You know, there's, there's a really cool, it's called the integrator continuum, a company called Keystone search, um, put it together. And it's this really cool visual about like different integrators at different stages in their career almost, or different sizes of companies and what they need.

So it's like anywhere from like, I need somebody who's like people process, turn the lights on, turn the lights off here every single day. Like, if you're thinking like, I need this human here all the time, like that's clearly full time. Yeah. And that could be somebody that's a little bit more green. You could pay, you know, maybe around 100, 000 salary a year for this person who maybe has a little less experience, but you know what, right now you just really need somebody to get some momentum and get some stuff off your plate.

They're the right now, you know, and could maybe grow with you. Um, because if you're new and at that stage, like if you're smaller, you probably don't need the senior executive person who costs 250K because. You won't have enough work for that person to do for what they can deliver. And that person typically is used to managing a leadership team, you know, of executives.

And so now you're talking about different levels of leadership that need to be developed. And so I think it's just looking at what your needs are and what you're ready for to make the right, right. Um, decision and infractional. We can come in and help figure that out. Like that's part of our job is to come in and model it and show it.

And we've had several visionaries that are like, once we get in there and do that work, they're like, Oh shit. Well, Jane, who's on our team actually could be a great integrator. Awesome. Let's coach and mentor her up and give her that seat if she's a fit. But until somebody sees what it is, even an integrator might not raise their hand for it, if they're like, I don't really understand what this role is.

We come in and can show what that looks like and there's such value there.

Wesley: Well, there's that like tag team approach, right? Like the visionary and integrator, how they, you know, cohabitate. Work together. Like, where do you see from your experience? Like when it's never a really great time for anything, right? Like, when's the best time to have a baby? When's the best time to look for a fractional integrator?

Is it a certain amount of headcount? Is it revenue or like, you know, what's your experience there? Like, what do you see out there in the marketplace?

Jamie: My wish would be before it's an emergency, obviously. Um, it's kind of like you have this epiphany. Typically visionaries are like, they went to an EO group or a peer group or strategic coach, or they went somewhere and they had someone advise them That they're probably ready for this thing, right? Some trusted business person who's been there and done it before gives their wise wisdom of like, I think you need this.

And now, it's the shiny object that they want right now. I need this right now. So, it's like, important to go down the path of starting to think about what that looks like, what that feels like, so you're not in a lurch, and you're not making a stressed decision. And hiring the first integrator you talk to.

You want to be able to interview, talk to different people, talk to firms, talk to solos, talk to full time people. Like if you're wanting to get, get that, um, education on it, you, you're going to want some time to do your research on it. Um, we have resources on our website also on like, is fraction, like, do I need a fractional?

Like what's the difference between full time and fractional? I also never mind. At all, unpacking that with a visionary. Like, we'll hop on a call and like, okay, well what do you need? You know, like, is it this, is it that? I don't care if it's fractional or not. Like, that makes no difference to me. What matters is that as a visionary or entrepreneur, you get the help that you need to go down the right path for where you're at in your journey, because it's different than the next person I talk to and different than the next person.

Um, and, and kind of knowing where to go for that. To be resourced, right?

Wesley: Yeah, for me, like somebody asked me, they're like, well, how do you view a COO or an integrator? And I'm like, it's tough as a visionary, right? I think leading a company. You have employees, team members, even leadership teams. And a lot of people are like, yes, people. And a lot of people are terrified of the visionary.

And somebody told me once a trustee advisor. He's like, Hey Wes, he's like, you know, imagine a stereo, like when there's zero to 10 volume, he's like, when you think you're at like a three, you're at like a nine and people are kind of terrified of you and you've got to remember, like you pay their paycheck.

And I'm sitting there thinking the whole time, like, man, man, he's like, he's right. Um, so there's this dynamic around, you know, a COO, an integrator being that filter or that trustee advisor, where You know, one of my integrators, we would get into a room and debate. And our, our, our kind of commitment was the second we walk out of that door, we're in alignment.

Like, we don't sidetalk each other. Like mom and dad, the house is in order because When mom and dad fight in front of the kids, like that's not great. So for you guys are fractional, right? How, you know, can you talk about like, how do you blossom that trust and relationship? Cause it is fractional, right?

It's a different concept.

Jamie: Yeah, I think what you're talking about is so important, right? It's recognizing that a lot of times when you have full time staff, they're, they might be a little bit more afraid to say no or disagree or push back because they could get fired and lose their job or their income, right? So that's kind of, I think, like a natural human condition that's come about.

So, The integrator, the COO, should always have that level, I mean the whole team ideally would have that level of comfortability and know they're not just going to get fired. We want to get it to the whole team, but it starts with the COO, and it starts with that example of showing that like, we can, we can have opinions and talk about things, and it's not just the visionary's way.

and that people can push back. As fractionals, I think we have this beautiful ability to come in as this like, unbiased, third party perspective of person that cares, because we come in with care and we're not here to be everybody's best friend, but at the same time, like, we can integrate into the culture, we can be aligned, we can have fun, we can get some shit done.

We can, we can disagree or we can say, Hey, this is how I've seen it work really well in the past, or I have another client that does it this way. Right. So now you're getting kind of that crowdsource in, because as a fractional, we're able to pull that in and say, Hey, I was at a conference last week and talked to this and this and this person about this issue, and that can provide them value because they're getting somebody so externally focused.

That can bring things in and up level. So I think that that's really important.

Wesley: How do you, how do you and your team build trust with the leadership team or the employees coming in as a fractional, right? Because you said something earlier, I want to hit on, which is, oh man, the visionary went to strategic coach and has a new idea. This is only going to last a week. You know, how do you guys come in there as, Hey, we're part time, we're fractional, but we're here to, you know, build something and do something great.

Jamie: Yeah, I think we enter in at all levels of, I'll say, and seasons of, of culture and team health, right? So there's sometimes we come in and there's some broken trust or there's some communication issues or culture issues, or sometimes everything is just butterflies and rainbows. And like, it's just this really beautiful culture that we're coming into.

So we kind of. From the starter, trying to like assess what we're coming into and know that upfront also, um, to be clear. And with a lot of visionaries we talked to, we're not coming in as the axe dropper, we're not coming in. If, if the visionary is too afraid to like give feedback to the team and we're coming into it, well, now you're going to have you, you're going to LMA them.

You're going to, we're also not going to band aid that, right? So that's some of the front end work that may need to happen one on one with the visionary for that readiness factor. Because that's not like there's clarity around how we're entering in that needs to be, um, on the table with building trust within with joining any team.

I mean, whether you're full time, fractional, you're new, it doesn't matter. I think the ability to come in and spend time getting to know people and actually caring. And I get that we're here for, for business and that's important, but integrating the, the personal is important too. Who are you? Where do you live?

What do you give a shit about? Who's your family? Why do you have this business? You know, or why are you at this company? And really finding some of those common threads. I think there's so many strategies and ways that obviously you can, and that we do come in to build trust, but I would say that that's the most important one is, um, Aligning on the personal and knowing why people are there.

Like what's your why? Why are you here? Why are you doing what you do? Why is this important to you? Um the work that you're doing and I think sometimes people just don't care and I think sometimes that's You'll find out really quickly who's there And what they're motivated by and then other people that are just there to tick a box Um and and say I have a paycheck on friday, and I really don't care about this Um and figure out if that's the company that the visionary wants Um, I know that's a little bit of a tangent, but yeah, it's, it's building trust up front.

Um, the fact that we come in as unbiased third party people and we know what we're talking about. We know what we're doing. We've done it before. We are not people who are like, Oh, I read traction, so I'm going to come and like be your fractional integrator. Um, so. We've done the body of work. We've had the experience.

We've worked with companies that are integrating and going through the change management of, of a system like this, right? And building depth of leadership in an entrepreneurial company, um, is really important, um, to build trust up front and they, so that they know that we provide that.

Wesley: No, it's, it's, it's great because I feel like, you know, I'm a visionary and I feel like I can, I'm like a visionary whisperer. Like I can have conversations with visionaries and I kind of make a joke that I'm kind of the guy that, you know, there's a Vegas show, right. Where there's like 12 lions in a cage.

Yeah. There's a guy that can go in there and kind of direct them. Like I have that ability with visionaries cause I am one, but I feel like visionaries have the best intentions for like, you know, we really care about people, we care about the growth, but there's all that stuff that gets glazed over or that day to day that I'm like, Oh man, like I haven't talked to that person in three weeks or like, I don't even know what's going on.

And to me, that's where I feel, uh, an integrator. Can really balance like where that visionary is. Go, go, go working on all the big things you talk about, like people or process or technology, like all the fine details that all matter is typically what I glaze over. So is that, do you guys come in like, you know, again, you make a funny, a great analogy, like.

You guys are sitting in Retraction and you know, here you are. It's hey, we have experience. So, do you come in with a program like, this is the Catalyst program. However, we know that Visionary, because a Visionary has no shortage of like, issues and challenges. How do you guys, you know, throttle that?

Jamie: Yeah, that's a great point. And I love the visionary whisperer. I totally, we all can identify with that. And, and I think that's, Another piece that's so important is, is that visionary whisperer piece. Because it's like, because I've been on my visionary journey for the past couple of years and figuring out what I need to be resourced, what I need to build the team, what I need to build myself, the inner work, the peer groups, the coaches, like all of that.

Like I speak fluent visionary is one of the things that I usually say. Like, and I, and I have that ability and my team has that ability to coach that because Because we all understand and can speak visionary. We're not new to this concept. We're not new to the visionary DNA and we can understand and meet them where they're at. We can meet you where you're at and then go. So that goes, dovetails into the question you asked was like, so how do we prescribe? Like how, what do we, what do we have? I mean, yeah, of course we've got some standard stuff. We've got some things. We're not coming in one size fits all with one program that fits everybody.

It's meeting you where you're at and your unique situation and, and what you need and where you want to go. And we can look at your goals and, and help be that thought partner for you. We also coach and mentor integrators. So if you've already got one on the team and they're. Maybe trying to really own the seat or do an in depth EOS rollout.

Or you guys are kind of feeling like the tools aren't going, going great. Like you're not using them properly. The Visionary Integrator Duo is maybe not feeling great. We don't know if we're a fit or what's needed. We can come in and coach and mentor and support around the Visionary Integrator Duo as well.

Wesley: Yeah, I love that because I'll tell people like I'm, One of the best unlicensed therapists in the state of Michigan,

Jamie: Yes.

Wesley: you know, but I feel I should pay like a tax to Michigan for that. But you know, meeting visionaries where they're at, I think is really key to your point because I've yet to meet two visionaries that are the same.

I mean, it's, it's so drastically different. I mean, even in our, in our, in our business or like any business levels of revenue, people like everybody has different goals and EOS is a big model that really opened my eyes. It's called the VTO, the Vision Traction Organizer. Like, where do you want to be in three years?

Like visualize that, put down, put that down in writing. One EOS implementer I met early, early on, I'm like, I'll never, you will not get me to do a V, a VTO, the Vision Traction Organizer. She's like, I guarantee I will. I'll sit in a room with you until you do it. And she walked out of that room in five hours and said, you win.

And I could not do it, but how important is that? Right. So like, if you're familiar with the EOS. The visionaries like, we have to do EOS. Can, can EOS be successful at the visionaries leading it? Or does it have to be led by an integrator from your perspective?

Jamie: Well, I love the, I love the, um, the, the self awareness and the vulnerability there for, you're like, yeah, maybe the willingness could have been there a little bit more to try. It seemed like your goal was just to prove somebody wrong. So

Wesley: hard. I tried really

Jamie: that might actually be it. Um, so I think that there's always different options to take based on what you have time for, capacity for, budget for.

I think sometimes people have to make budget considerations in how they're deciding to scale their company. So like you mentioned, you're like, I went all in on an integrator first. I wasn't messing around. Like that's where I spent my dollars. Um, you know, doing a quick exercise, like very basic back of the napkin math.

You can very quickly say, well, if I hire this person and get this much of my time back, and I can create this much additional revenue with my time alone, because you're the founder, right. And, and probably the best salesperson on the team at that point. That'll pay for that person probably hand over fist.

So as long as you can cash flow that decision, right? Then then you're good there But if you need to kind of dip your toe in or start somewhere that that more suits where you're at in your journey Right, then there are people that self implement EOS. There are people that pick up traction and are like, you know what?

I'm just gonna read this and And highlight the shit out of it and kind of do the best I can because I, I'm not there yet and I can't afford to have a facilitator or a coach or, or hire an integrator yet. Right. And that's okay. That's when you tap all of your friends who are entrepreneurs and get their free advice as much as you can and, um, and, and do what you got to do.

But on the other side, like if you're at a place where you can hire an EOS implementer, that would be always, I would say like, Premier option package number one would always be like, go straight to the source, hire an EOS implementer. Get the support that you need. I mean, that's what we did when, when my visionary, my first visionary handed me traction and told me to figure it out.

I was the integrator. I Googled that shit and I was like, we need an implementer. So, you know, interviewed implementers and we had our implementer for four years. That allowed me to be a participant

Wesley: Yeah,

Jamie: in the sessions and not have to be the one thumbing through the book to figure it out. Like you're just, you can go further faster.

Rather than slower and figure it out and all of the bruises along the way. It just depends like what style you want to go with. Now, integrators are mandatory, I'll say, in the EOS system. Somebody sits in that seat, whether it's you as the visionary first, or you promote Jane or you hire somebody or a fractional or whatever, it doesn't matter.

You still need an integrator. Like that is. foundationally what you need. EOS implementers are optional, obviously, like you don't have to have one. Are they amazing and beneficial? And do we love all that we work with? Yes, they are wonderful. Those are kind of the options.

Wesley: Yeah. You hit on a really good point, which is like when you're not leading the day, like you can actually sit back and participate and not have all that going on while you're trying to facilitate and you can actually add, you know, the tremendous value to your, to your group and your team.

Jamie: Yeah.

Wesley: It's funny because as I reflect back, yeah, like I, I look at my life pre integrator.

Realizing I didn't have one, but then to your point, I was the one I was the worst integrator known to man causing all of my problems. And I think that's one of the coolest things about what you guys can bring to light or like really reading into EOS. It's, I think a visionary has to realize like. If you want to make a change or you're stuck with people, like with people, you know, you're treading water.

My thing was, I feel like I'm treading water and I'm not moving and, or you're stuck in revenue, it's probably your own problem as a visionary. And I would recommend, like, I love your prescribing. You know, take a look at a, at a fractional COO. So how do you like, you know, obviously it's pain associated with a visionary, but I'm really curious around how you make that first leap or it's, it's a big change.

It's, it's a huge change because the visionary now has to kind of take a step back. So I'm just really curious around like, what does day one look like with this new, Catalyst integrator.

Jamie: Oh my gosh, how do I make this sound like super fun? And oh my gosh, we're just doing fun things and solving all the issues. And you know, that's what I, I wish it was day one. Um, Honestly, like, most visionaries, when we first start with them, similar to where you were at in your journey, if you didn't have someone, you're kind of eager and ready and yearning for somebody that, like, is going to listen, consider, be your thought partner, help extract some stuff, like your friend that came and did the whiteboard thing.

Like, As a vision, you're like craving somebody that's going to help, like, just listen and get it out of you and like compartmentalize. So the compartmentalization part of, of the work we would do, I would say first, like, again, if I was like, Oh, day one with a brand new visionary, I'm getting to know you, knowing what you care about, all of those things.

We're going to start talking about like, well, what's keeping you up at night? What's, what's going on? Like. Ideally, we want to try to get some, some stuff moving that helps eliminate and like make you feel better like right away. So like, what are the things that are really worrisome to you or that are really bothering you?

Because that's where we want to start. Um, and then we can compartmentalize some stuff. Some of your ideas, we might do right now. Some later. Some we need money for first, or we need to hire for. Some, we might never do. I love that you shared it. Not gonna do it. We're gonna put it over here in the circular file.

So, like, we need to figure out and unpack some of that stuff, because a lot of the times I think visionaries just want to be, be heard, be acknowledged, be, be listened to and considered. And we also want to be careful to not like be the dream killer or the dream crusher. We're not here to just like say no to everything.

We're not, that's not our role. Um, and I think that gets confused sometimes. It's like, in order to be effective as an integrator, you need to be this weird middleman that cuts off the visionary from everybody else and like stay in your box, which is not the intention there. Like, that's not the purpose at all of the integrator's role is to like harmoniously integrate.

this vision and bring it all to life in the culture and then kind of own the day to day stuff in terms of, of leading the leadership team to get the work, the body of work done.

Wesley: Yeah, that's great. Cause I, as you're talking, I have this vision as a visionary. Like, you know, if you're like riding a horse, right? Like left, right, go forward. Whoa. You know, and I feel like visionaries can get so off track quickly and, you know, keep your eye on the prize. And I feel like that's what a good integrator, like kind of massages you back in the, you know, kind of repoints you directionally of, Hey, like here are the priorities.

Let me help you stay focused. Cause there's a million things going on for me. Like that's what really helps me. It's just somebody that's not a yes man that can kind of push back, debate, you know, I'm, I'm in a brand new office and this office is, it's pretty amazing from, from my perspective. But what was cool for me when I brought in my integrator, sometimes I have wacky ideas and I go fast.

You know, like if I wanted to buy a new car, God willing, like it would be here in five minutes. It might take somebody a year to like research a car. So when I saw the office, I was like, this fits into the vision. And I kind of looked at my integrator to see how he was going to react. Either he was going to say, you're crazy, but he was like, I see it.

Like, this is perfect. And I, just for me to get that validation, like, all right, I'm not crazy. Or somebody's, you know, so for me, I think that's huge. So I love what you guys are doing. I think it's such a necessary thing. Thing for a visionary. And if a visionary doesn't have or understand what a, what an integrator is or the benefit, I, whatever the fee is, I don't even think you could put a price tag on it in terms of what you as a visionary could turn around and add so much more value.

If, how do people get ahold of you? If they're a visionary, they want your help. What's the easiest way to get ahold of you and your firm to do that discovery call?

Jamie: Yeah. So, yeah. Number one, you can email me anytime, uh, Jamie Munoz at catalystintegrators. com. Um, well, we can hop on a call, we could chat, we could text, whatever is easiest. If you're buried in email, I totally get it. Um, our website has a lot of great tools and resources, videos, different things on it to, to start looking into those things.

Um, and that's probably where I would start is like, let's just have a What you might need and based on where you're at and we can say yes, no, right now, not now, later, somebody else. I mean, again, I'm similar to you, you know, very abundance mindset. And if we're not a fit or I don't, we don't have the best person on the team to suit your needs. I'll send you somebody to somebody else that I know that can do it. I mean, that's the whole thing and why I love the EOS community so much is the help first mindset and the ability to say like, if it's not for us. We'll send you somewhere else. We're not here to hard sell you on a fractional integrator if you don't need one.

Um, cause, cause that's the last thing I would want is to be, be sold on something that I don't need. Um,

Wesley: Well, if you're a visionary listening, I think there's three things for me. Like I absolutely think if you don't know what an integrator is, or at least have an exploratory conversation, cause I think it's so important, you'd definitely probably learn a lot, uh, contacting Cal what is your website address one more time for the listeners?

Jamie: catalystintegrators. com.

Wesley: Awesome. Well, Jamie, thank you so much for coming on. Super fun. Keep rocking, keep doing what you're doing. It's, it's really awesome. I appreciate it.

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