Scaling Up Success Podcast

Reclaiming the Excitement in Your Business: A Conversation with Jeff McLarty

• Ryan Van Ornum • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Jeff McLarty’s journey from successful business owner to leadership coach highlights a common challenge many entrepreneurs face: losing the passion that once fueled their ventures. After growing his own company from a three-person team to 25 employees before eventually selling it, Jeff now dedicates himself to coaching others through similar transitions. His focus is on “technical founders”—those who built businesses around a specific skill but now find themselves consumed by management duties. When the joy fades and leadership starts to feel like a burden, Jeff steps in to help founders reconnect with their original purpose and build systems that support sustainable growth.

One of Jeff’s key insights compares an entrepreneur’s workload to a bucket overflowing with balls—many assign themselves 60–70 hours of tasks each week, then feel like failures for completing only 45. This unrealistic pressure creates a cycle of disappointment and burnout. Jeff encourages more thoughtful planning, treating personal appointments with the same respect as business ones. He also helps clients navigate the challenges of post-pandemic work, emphasizing the need for intentional, informal team interactions to maintain culture and connection. Whether you're transitioning into leadership or simply trying to rekindle your excitement, Jeff’s approach offers clarity and direction. Connect with Jeff through LinkedIn or at focalpointedmonton.com and rediscover why you started your business in the first place.

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Speaker 1:

What's up everybody. This is Ryan Van Ornum, with Scaling Up Success powered by Synergist. Today I have on Jeff McLarty of Focal Point Coaching. Jeff, how the heck are you today, sir? I'm doing great. How are you doing, Aaron man? It's been an amazing day and I'm just so excited to be able to have this conversation with you, because you have so many amazing little nuggets to be able to share with the masses and I can't wait to dive into it. So you ready to jump in? Yeah, I'm looking forward to the conversation. All right, let's do this thing. So first tell me a little bit about your business and what inspired you to go into that route.

Speaker 2:

You know, it was kind of a windy path, as we all end up as entrepreneurs, going from one thing to the next. But I was running a business. We grew it from three staff to 25 and sold that off and then it was a question of, okay, now what? And the thing I love about what I do now is working on businesses, like helping people get to that next level, that next potential, and that led me into leadership, coaching and doing business training and those types of things, and that's how I kind of stumbled in sideways to what I do now. I'm kind of trying to be the person I wish I would have had access to when I was first starting out and growing a business. And it's what I love doing Love talking to entrepreneurs. I love the energy that entrepreneurs bring to the table and they're always thinking about something. They've always got a plan, they're always trying to take it to the next level. So I just love working with folks like that.

Speaker 1:

I mean, we were just talking about that kind of that certain thing off camera, about like being able to change different models and sales things, and you know, I'm sure that you know just being able to have those conversations with people and guide them in the right direction. They're in good hands with you, jeff, so that's really cool man. So, um, so, once you went, how has your business evolved since the start? Like I'm sure you've had, you know, like some is there, is there certain, uh, clients that you are like this is my like, if I could chisel them out of stone, like this is the avatar that I want to work with. Who are those people and has that changed since the beginning?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think you always kind of adjust as you go along in business and you always have this envision, this avatar of a perfect client. But I think really business is business and it goes to all different stripes. But the people that I really feel like I connect with the most are the ones that I like to call them technical founders.

Speaker 2:

Most people that get into business get into business because they're really good at something or they really have a passion for it. And they start off with kind of it's usually themselves, maybe themselves or their wife, and they start growing. They get a couple of staff and pretty soon maybe they start out as an electrician or an engineer. Then they get to about 10 staff and they're not the one doing the drawings anymore, they're not the ones putting plugins together. They're running a company and that's not necessarily where their strengths are and that's where I love coming in and being able to provide the tools they need to take their business to the next level. So I guess that technical founder is really where I excel, because I get where they're coming from. They love doing what they're doing, but now they're running a business and they want to take it to the next level. So those are the people I really like to focus on.

Speaker 1:

That's super cool, man, and it's pretty cool to like. It's like, tag me in, tag me in, I can, I can take you to the next level. I can help you rewrite your job description. Let's go, let's do this, bro. You know I love that stuff. That's cool. So what are you most proud about when you're working with clients, like, is there like a certain level that you're like, yeah, yes, we got here, you know. Or is there like, do you just enjoy every piece of it? Is there, is there any setbacks along the way that that, like you know, that you kind of see with? Is there a threshold that has to get past? Go ahead.

Speaker 2:

Probably the biggest thing for me is I love giving people back the fun in their business.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes we grow businesses to the point where it's not fun anymore and I don't want to do this anymore.

Speaker 2:

I just I want it to stop being so painful and I love being able to work with people and get them over that hump to put in the systems or help make that change or mind shift that helps them go from being just trying to get through the day to being excited again to go to work like they were the day they first started that business, the reason they had that passion.

Speaker 2:

That's the thing I'm looking for and that happens at different levels and scales for everybody. Sometimes it's, you know, I just want to be able to make it to my kid's soccer game at seven o'clock, and maybe it's I want to double in growth. I want to see how big I can grow a company, but helping them remind them why they started a company in the first place and getting those tools in place to really be able to get that part back Cause, instead of it being a job, if you want a job, you can go work for somebody else, but if you want to build a business, you got to know why you're in it and you got to keep that passion going Right.

Speaker 1:

I love that, I totally love that. So like that kind of flows into the next piece of this is like that kind of flows into the next piece of this is like how do you, how do you what recommendations that that you have for people to help build or maintain a strong culture in business?

Speaker 2:

I think I spend a lot of time talking with my clients about what's realistic to accomplish in a day. One of the examples I really like to talk about is imagine everybody's carrying a bucket full of balls and if everything you had to do was a ball and you had to put it in a bucket, if you looked at your own bucket and it was already full, you wouldn't be taking more balls from people because you know it would fall out and you wouldn't be giving just handing balls out to your staff constantly, because that would also obviously not be good. And I think too many people don't have a good visualization of how much they have to do and they're a little unfair with themselves and what they plan out for the week. They'll get their to-do list and then they'll be oh, I'm Superman, I'm going to do all of these things and then every single week they feel like a failure because they didn't actually accomplish all of the things they wrote down. But when I've worked with people on that, I found when you actually take at the start of the week and write how much time you think everything's going to take.

Speaker 2:

When you add that up to what you've assigned yourself, most people are giving themselves 60 or 70 hours of work a week and then they're feeling like a failure when they only got 45 done. And I think that's one of the biggest things that I like to suggest to people is you need to work hard. It's business, it's hard, but it doesn't have to be impossible. And you have to set yourself up for success because you're going to feel a lot better when you get to the end of the week and you've accomplished everything on your list because it was realistic, as opposed to setting yourself up for failure and then feeling that letdown at the end of every week that you didn't get everything done, maintaining a good work-life balance.

Speaker 1:

on top of that, then, because there are so many people like you said that would may sacrifice going to their kid's soccer game at five o'clock at night or in the evening, as opposed to, you know, leveraging out those tasks to somebody else, you know, like that work-life balance is important, wouldn't you agree?

Speaker 2:

I would agree, and I think one of the biggest things I had to learn for myself and I think I occasionally forget, as we all do is the importance with your kids yourself, your gym, are just as important as the rest of the appointments you make in a day. If you don't keep your health up, you don't keep your family life up. It starts to become pretty hard to be motivated and successful at work. So I try to. When I put something in my schedule whether it's a personal commitment or a work commitment I try to treat them with the equal care, that I don't just cancel family things because somebody happened to want to have a meeting or whatever. I mean we all have to make adjustments, but I think it's important to give yourself that validation of personal things matter just as much as your business tasks do.

Speaker 1:

As well, oh, absolutely. You know there's been times where I missed, like certain school performances, or you can't get that stuff back when it's there. You know, your little, my little 10 year old daughter is only going to be in fifth grade once, hopefully.

Speaker 1:

Sorry, sorry, you know just the way you know, stupid dad joke stuff. So, but no, what? What unique challenges are you seeing with business today? Like I know, with technology is changing all facets of business. You know, I'm sure, that the culture is changing as well. Where do you see business changing right now?

Speaker 2:

Well, by the news this morning, I think business is going to change a lot for a lot of people, but I think, overall, the biggest, the biggest changes, I think, are people are readapting to a blended work environment, but being in the office as opposed to a whole bunch of work from home. I would like we're going back and forth. First nobody wanted to work from home, now everybody wants to work from home, and I'm finding a lot of challenges that people I'm working with are experiencing with these split groups in terms of people are have half their staff working remotely and the other half in the office, and how do you manage that as an integrated team? So I've had quite a few conversations about that. Just off the top of my head, that's one of the things that comes to mind.

Speaker 1:

Do you feel like the pandemic arose? I mean, we've always had, like you know, where you can have remote work in certain situations. Now, with the pandemic, live video was brought into work and now being able to, you know, but at what sacrifice for culture does remote work have on american workers? I think?

Speaker 2:

that's actually a good point, like the remote work. When you're on a Zoom call with somebody, you're expected to be working Like we're here for a reason, let's do the work, and you miss a lot of that. 10 minutes before the meeting where everybody visits and has that conversation. That only was supposed to take five minutes and I think if you're going to have a remote workforce you really have to create environments where you have that kind of conversation going on, whether it's you know, we're just going to have a half hour Zoom conversation, like we don't have an objective for this meeting and as much as that seems like it's a waste of time because it doesn't have an objective.

Speaker 2:

Those were a lot of the soft things get taken care of Like hey, how do you do that? How does this thing work? Can you give me a little advice on X? And if you don't provide those open opportunities for engagement, you lose a lot of that. And that's what you get in an in-person workplace. It's hard to recreate online, although there are great tools like Basecamp and other collaboration software that do allow for a little of that. But there is something to be said for that face-to-face conversation as well.

Speaker 1:

I always thought, like, how do you have a virtual water cooler? Yeah, that's a good question, cause that's where, like where it stimulates that kind of conversation of what you're talking about. Those soft, those soft skills right, like God, I hate working with that guy over in freaking accounting, you know, or something like that. Like that gets softened by being in the workplace with each other Because, like, you can't walk by Jim and accounting and be a jerk to him every single day without having to be like get a resolution to it. Like online you could just like hide your avatar and still continue to have these, you know, like like detrimental culture aspects to it. Would you kind of agree on that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think you can. I mean, zoom has gotten pretty good and there's a lot of engagement tools, but you miss a lot, like I could be sitting here with a broken leg and you wouldn't even know about it, right, and it's that kind of overall context that you miss when you only get this much of somebody's personality. And even I've learned to sit back further from my camera because I talk with my hands and then when you're right up here you feel like you're in somebody's face and it's hard to communicate with your hands, right, and it's all those little things that I think are hard to duplicate in the digital environment. But if you take good care to have those conversations, you can at least bring some of that back into the workplace where you're having that kind of communication.

Speaker 1:

And I think that starts with leadership from the business owner themselves. They have to want that, they have to see it, they have to engage in it and understand how to build from that. So, no, I totally agree with what you're saying on that. So thank you for your insight on that. What, what, what advice would you give to somebody that's just starting out on their entrepreneurial journey? Say that they're, you know, stepping away from corporate, or you know, just wanting to, to, to stop start on their own. They're, uh, you know, uh, uh, a journeyman, electrician, you know, like, maybe just a couple of different examples what, what advice would you give them?

Speaker 2:

I think just starting out with. A lot of people come out of corporate and they want to go into business because they don't want to work for somebody else, which I understand. But you have to have a passion in your belly for something and until you know what that is, until you know who you want to serve or the thing you want to create, I think it's pretty hard to build a cohesive business. But once you've got that passion, I think a lot of people get lost in the logistics of small business. There's 10,000 things to do and they all seem like they're urgent, but you really need to focus on what is actually moving the cart forward.

Speaker 2:

What's that one thing? Who are we trying to serve and how are we going to do it? And trying to sort what is important from what isn't important and, when possible, hire some help for everything else, because the ship does still need to get running. But what's the best use of your time and what's the best to have to hire somebody to help with? Because you can't be Superman, you can't do everything right.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And the other thing that I've kind of seen too is like man, somebody else's perspective can be invaluable, trying to do this thing on your own. Like I'm really an outgoing person but I suck at paperwork and operations, like I need that. I need that person so badly and if I did not have them I would not have a business in every one of my businesses. So, like I guess you know putting it out to the masses, trust others. You know you got to hire right, but trust others to be able to take um, fill in those roles and those, those skillsets that you may not be the strength set.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think you're a hundred percent strength at. I think you're 100% right. Recognizing what you're good at and what you're not good at is just as important. It's hard to admit to yourself, you know I'm not great at this, but if you can say that and bring somebody in to fill that gap, you can go a long, long way. You've done very well, obviously, for yourself, um play out to your strengths and getting other people to help with the areas that uh aren't your uh strength. I think that's a great lesson for a lot of people starting out in business is play to your strengths and uh minimize your weaknesses.

Speaker 1:

Definitely, definitely. Uh, so you know. With that being said, what's next? What's next for your business? Where, where do you see you going?

Speaker 2:

what's next? What's next for your business? Where? Where do you see you going? Um, my next step is I'm I've noticed there's a lot of smaller businesses that could really use my help, and I'm rolling out a group coaching program to allow me to help people in growing companies kind of under, kind of 10 team members grow out to or get the same kind of support that I'm able to offer, kind of one-on-one to a larger company. So that's really what I'm focusing on now is having a little more balanced offering to kind of fill the spectrum of where people are at with their businesses help them start smaller, help them grow, and then we can move into more directed training and one-on-one style of coaching. So that's really what my big push is right now. I'm hoping to be launching a group platform here in the next few days so excited about that.

Speaker 1:

That's, that's fantastic. Now, man, I wish I could. I could talk to you all day and be able to, you know, really dive into, you know, the minutia of everything that you got going on, but unfortunately, you know, these things go so quickly. You know, if you could summarize, like, like the journey that you're on, how, what would that be, what you know where, where, what, what would that encapsulation look like for you?

Speaker 2:

Journey I'm on, I think, is trying to. I really have a passion for wanting to help business owners and entrepreneurs, and the journey I'm on is finding the best ways to connect with them, whether that's through in-person conversations or how we connect with each other, because I think there's a lot of value to be had in having conversations around how to build businesses better, how to collaborate, how to see what the possibilities are. So that's really the journey I'm on is trying to connect with as many of those people that I can help as possible. And, yeah, I really appreciate the opportunity to visit with you today and I'd like to flip it around at some point and do an interview with you, because I'd love to ask you questions for half an hour and learn what you've learned along the way as well.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, I'm all about it, man. So you know, let's, let's, let's, let's. Give you a shout out, man. How can people get ahold of you if they're looking to, to grow their business? And they, they need you in their lives.

Speaker 2:

Well, the easiest way to reach out to me, either on LinkedIn or or through focalpointedmontoncom, comes to my uh, my website. It's probably the easiest way to find me. Um, or, hopefully can we put a link in the comments for the show?

Speaker 1:

I'm not sure, Absolutely. I got your back, my friend right down below, guys check them out. So thank you so much, jeff. I appreciate your time today. Once again, jeff McCarty, with Focal Point Coaching, he is the man. Go find him and make sure that your business grows with him. Enjoy your day, my friend. Take care, you as well, take care.

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