Episode 22 – Monica McCracken with MMC Consulting, Inc.

Jordan Smith  

Hey everybody, welcome to the iProvmade podcast where we help you run a successful practice. I’m Jordan Smith. And as always, I’m joined by my co host, founder and founder of this podcast, RJ Martino, what’s up, RJ?

RJ Martino  

I think you got to start saying co founders because that nothing amazing and this podcast is amazing. Nothing amazing happens by by yourself, you know, it always takes a team and I got a great team around me. So I appreciate the intro though.

Jordan Smith  

Well see what see why he’s a master of this. That’s a great segue into our guest today, which is Monica McCracken from MMC consulting who talks about, you know, as a business owner, you can’t do all of these things on your own.

RJ Martino  

And also, you’ve got to, you’ve got to want to make the change, you know, she and her team come in and solve complex business problems. On a, I mean, on a variety of levels. I mean, she has one of the most unique backgrounds, being a former CPA and now a business consultant. Those two things often you think don’t really connect very well. But she looks at problems, both from a financial perspective, but also as a business leader perspective, and help solve these complex problems.

Jordan Smith  

Absolutely. I’m excited to bring all of the listeners out there Monica’s knowledge and expertise, whatever contact Information link below, you guys are in for a treat Monica, and her group works for all the way from fortune 100 companies all the way to small and medium sized businesses. And she talks about how they do that as a group. So if you’re listening to this and say, Well, this is great, but they work with huge organizations. Stay tuned, because at the end of this, she talks about how they make these things work for smaller organizations too. So without further ado, Monica McCracken with MMC consulting. Hey, everybody, welcome to the iProvmade podcast where we help you run a successful healthcare practice. I’m Jordan Smith, as always, I’m joined by my co host, founder of AI prob as well as numerous other businesses RJ Martino, what’s up, RJ?

RJ Martino  

Hey, Jordan, how are you?

Jordan Smith  

I’m doing good. I am very excited about our guest today. As as we have talked to lots of different folks in the healthcare space, whether their doctor, you know, one of the things that we always hear about are, are finding really good consultants and advisors, people who have been down the tough road before, or have helped folks navigate certain problems. So they’ve you know, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel whenever you run into a specific issue. So today, I’m very excited about our guest, Monica McCracken with MMC consulting. Hey, Monica.

Monica McCracken  

Hello, thank you for having me.

RJ Martino  

Well, we’re really excited you’re here, we like to talk about the way we think about building a profitable practice. And we kind of talked about a seven step framework. And often people come to us and tell us about some problem they tell us about, we call it a symptom, because a lot of times the The problem is a lot deeper the symptom or things like I need new sales, you know, I can’t figure out how to sell this thing. My people aren’t, keep making mistakes. And those are really often symptoms to deeper problems. So our second step is making sure that we’re talking to someone who’s willing to take complete accountability for that problem. Because inevitably, everybody wants to act like a three year old, I’ve got small children myself, and they just kick and scream until they get their way. But as you know, it takes some personal accountability. We, as leaders have to say, Okay, I’m so sick and tired of being sick and tired that I’m going to do something to change this. And if they don’t, it’s just hard to really see real change happen in an organization, if they don’t take complete accountability. And then we triage the problem and kind of check to make sure that they’ve got you know, we we say business plan, but they’ve got a vision for what success looks like that they’ve got a vision for what the future looks like, and that they can communicate that and often a lot of our job on a normal eight to five is helping them communicate what their vision in their head is. Because it’s only then can you build a strategy. And so people like us, we the next step, after we figure out what the vision is, we help build a strategy usually it’s a sales and marketing strategy, to to execute that vision. And then we lay out tactics. And so that is kind of our our next step is after the strategy, we lay out the tactics. And then we teach them how to track their progress. You know how to have their weekly meetings, how to make sure to hold people accountable, using things like our scorecard and things like that. And we always say the last step is engaging your team. You need to work all that stuff out in your head before you actually engage your team and sometimes talking to people about how that last step works is hard because we say, Yeah, all that other stuff, we’ve got very straight. Like, we’ve got steps and procedurally how to build a strategy. So I’m talking a whole lot. But I say all that because that engaging your team, I think is hard to talk about for most of our but I think this is where Monica, you and your team kind of thrive. Monica, talk a little bit, you know, if you were talking to a room of strangers, talk about your, your, your organization and kind of ttsl for what you guys do on a normal basis.

Monica McCracken  

Absolutely. So our firm is similar to yours. in many regards. However, we’re typically not brought in to help build a practice, we’re usually brought in when a business’s at a pain point to if you look at your your steps in your process, when you get to the point of taking responsibility or acknowledging that there’s a problem. Typically, we’re called when the problem is so painful that they can’t deny it. And they say, okay, we’re gonna face failure. Let’s call, let’s call MMC. So we’re typically the, I would say, the first line of defense against failure. So coming in triaging, and solutioning. with clients, but similar to your process, they have to be to a point where they know there’s a problem, and they want to fix it. And then whether they have a vision for how to get there or where they want to be, we can help them iron that out.

RJ Martino  

Gotcha. So if you think about your most successful clients, you know, the ones that have really succeeded, can you describe kind of what their life was before you guys started working and what it looks like now I kind of want the listeners to understand a situation, or a story where you could describe kind of what the life was like before you guys then came in, maybe help solve a problem and what it looks like now?

Monica McCracken  

Absolutely. So I think that all all really great leaders, in my opinion, are living on the frontier and pushing up against the risk of failure at every moment. Right? If they’re truly trying to progress, they’re going to push up against the risk of failure very frequently. prior to having a relationship with a firm like MMC, many of those companies are leaders, when they would get to a point on an initiative and endeavor a project where they thought that that oh, shit moment, oh, shit, we’re not going to be successful. Might they get that feeling in their gut of I don’t, I don’t see a way out of this. I don’t see the path from where we are to success. Previous, if they don’t have a firm like ours, that they have as a first line of defense against that type of failure, they would start solutioning for okay, how do we take this fall? How do we fall and have it hurt the least versus if they have a relationship and the trust established with a firm like MMC, they can give us a call and we can come in and partner with them to say okay, do we have to do we have to Brace for impact? Or is there another way out? What are the potential formulas to getting success? Is success the same as what you thought it was? When you started this endeavor? Can we shift it and get you a piece of that success still. So depending on their deadlines, their objectives, their costs, their constraints for resources, and such, we can help them really take a step back and come up with a path to success from where they’re at.

Jordan Smith  

I love that I like that kind of failure is built into any kind of entrepreneurship model, any type of business, it’s going to happen if it doesn’t happen. You’re not trying enough things to grow. Right,

Monica McCracken  

Right. Getting on the frontier. If you’re not ever you’re never failing or never risking failure, you’re really not pushing hard enough.

Jordan Smith  

Yeah. So I love this idea of bringing in a group like you guys to kind of evaluate things and then making sure that failure soft we we talk about it all the time. For those listeners out there that have kids. You know, we say when you take the training wheels off the off the bike, you got to let them wobble and you got to let your business wobble and your people wobble a little bit too. You can’t just get in there and save them or, or your business will never learn to you know, ride down the street on that bike. So I love that analogy. You mentioned something important to you, which is helping them redefine or re evaluate what success looks like. I think that’s important. You know so many of our lives. centers out there that are provider own practices, they’re almost accidental entrepreneurs, they were really good doctors. And now all of a sudden they have a practice. And they’re trying to navigate that, you know, talk, talk to those folks out there, and just go in a little bit more depth about kind of some ways that you and your firm kind of what your methodology is to talking with those folks. And, and helping them whether you’re a new practice or an established one, how you guys are helping them navigate through that.

Monica McCracken  

Navigate through, navigate, forgive me navigate through which part of the challenge?

Jordan Smith  

Just reevaluating what success looks like, you know, we were even talking on this call, right, before we started about how hard it is to own a business, you know, and, and you know, where you think you’re gonna be, and where you actually end up sometimes are two different paths, you know?

Monica McCracken  

Absolutely. So, you know, I think that taking a step back, and looking at what are the attributes of success? Why are those attributes desirable? And are they truly the objective? Or are they symptoms of your objective that you’re getting distracted by, for example, oftentimes, a company will have a goal of a revenue number, or a sales of a new customer number. And they don’t if you take a step back and say, okay, why do we want 500 new customers this year? What does that mean to us? It doesn’t mean that we can invest in our people, what is what’s underneath that? And when you, when you peel back the onion a little bit, you can really say, okay, is that what we’re trying to drive? And if we’re trying to drive an opportunity to develop our people more, and getting those in? Is there another way that we can drive that opportunity? Right, could we could we focus on quality, instead of volume? But really digging deeper as to what are we trying to achieve?

RJ Martino  

Yeah, well, and so that’s interesting, you know, so many times, the busiest doctor in the practice is the one that’s trying to grow. And they think we need more patients, we need more patients. And you dig into exactly what you’re talking about. Which is why, why why? And you figure out that it’s because they need to make more money, but they don’t have any more room in their book at all. They can’t take on, but they think that’s the solution. When there are there are other higher margin products that they’ve never tried really pushing they just signed up for. And so, you know, there’s 100 ways to skin the cat. And often we just are so we have so much tunnel focuses as as leaders and business owners. I think it’s interesting when you sell in the way that you do that you’ve got to have a unique perspective and the way that you’re looking at problems. Tell us what were you doing before you founded the company that kind of led you to the start of your company?

Monica McCracken  

So I started my career as a CPA. I became a CPA, not because it was in my nature. But because I grew up in a family and was the first a family of working class people and was a first generation college student had to really pick between being a nurse and being a CPA of what are the options of four year degrees that have a guaranteed return of income. So I think I went into a when going into that field, I got to be on the inside of businesses, and see their financials and see their problems. But my gifts really lied in helping people and feeling my way through things. So that’s where my services that started out at purely financial really evolved into more management consulting. Because that soft side, I feel like that’s, that’s the key to making money, right? Connecting it all together, realizing the change in the vernacular, doesn’t really change the substance.

RJ Martino  

Wow. And your original vision for your company. What was the original thought behind it? And did it change?

Monica McCracken  

Yes, absolutely. Um, so my original vision was to create a company that professionals could provide services to companies and help them grow, help them get where they needed to be. But Originally, I was I was focused on providing a new format for professional service providers in being able to have a nice hybrid of their own practice as a professional service provider, but still being an employee of a firm where they could rely on the stability, the workflow and such, but still be respected as, as a practitioner. And that has evolved into being a little more being more focused on what do we what do we want to be as a leadership team? So it’s, I think it’s part of the evolution.

RJ Martino  

Well, it’s a large practice with a with a number of highly trained, if you go to their website, you guys will be able to see highly trained consultants, employees, tell us the size of your firm. Now, how many people are you servicing?

Monica McCracken  

We are so our team is about 25 people, we do about $5 million a year in service fee revenue. And that can vary depend the number of customers can vary depending on the volume of each need. We serve companies from fortune 500 to $10 million practices. Yeah. So it’s quite a variety.

Jordan Smith  

That is, yeah, that’s, that’s quite a mix. And I know that you’ve got a lot of experience on solving a lot of different issues, specifically working a lot with leadership teams. So tell us a little bit about kind of how involved and I know it’s gonna differ depending on what size you’re working with. But in your experience, how kind of involved are the most successful organizations, leaders or leadership team and a process like you would help implement? You know, is do you require everybody that that the organization considers on the leadership team? And on all these conversations? Is it mainly kind of the C suite? Is it tell me kind of what that looks like? So if there’s somebody out there listening, that’s like, you know, we do need a consultant, I need somebody to come in here. And, and not only helped me figure out if my goals are achievable, but figure out why those are the goals that we should be looking at, who should they get involved in that process?

Monica McCracken  

So I would say it really does depend on the company. Um, some people will, will ask me, How do you serve a fortune 500 company, and a $10 million nonprofit. And I look at it as just like humans, Every company has leaders and frontline employees, and they all have to put their pants on one leg at a time. So even if they’re in an ecosystem of a company, they still have a team that’s functioning like a small business. So therefore, who needs to be involved in the issues? And who needs to be involved in an engagement, I would say, has to be the decision makers that can influence and give the authority to to make the change and can can set the tone for the team that will be required to embrace whatever we’re trying to drive for them.

Jordan Smith  

Yeah, that’s a great point, there’s that there’s a difference between letting go of the vine and being an absentee owner. Right.

Monica McCracken  

Right, right. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it’s, it doesn’t take it, they don’t need to be spending 10 hours a week with our team when we’re executing, but two hours a week, right? Two hours a week and truly supporting it, and that being vested in it. So it’s, it’s not about the quantity of their involvement, the quantity of hours or investing in it. It’s more the quality and the sincerity that they support the effort, and how they show that through the rest of their work.

Jordan Smith  

Very cool. So speaking and digging into that a little bit more. I know, you and I have talked about core values on separate personal conversations and how important those are. What do you look for, as far as you know, you mentioned everybody from fortune 100 companies, I mean, some retailers that I guarantee somebody is has, has walked in those doors in the past couple of weeks for listeners out there, without naming names, Target, but all the way down. You know, all the way down to like you said this kind of privately owned kind of mid size organizations. So besides looking at kind of revenue and what makes sense financially, obviously, how do you determine if you guys can help somebody? What does that discovery process look like? And what should listeners be the paying attention to if they’re trying to find a consultant? That’s a good fit for?

Monica McCracken 

Absolutely. So starting with what we look for in a potential customer is can we understand what they’re trying to achieve? If I can’t truly understand what they’re trying to achieve, there’s no way I can drive for them. So if I can, if I can really embrace their vision, understand why they want to achieve it, what’s it going to do for their business? what the cost is of it not happening for them? If I can’t get my head around them and see their vision, there’s no way we can be successful for them. So that’s the first piece of of accepting a customer. The second piece is, are they solution oriented? Do they want a solution? It seems crazy that someone would hire a consultant for a problem but not want a solution. However, there are people that are happy with just trying, they are they’re satisfied by the churn, not necessarily the solution. So one thing that I look for in customers before taking them on is, do they know what what they’re trying to achieve? Truly, or at least attributes of what they’re trying to achieve? So that I can help them get there? And do they want to actually get there?

Jordan Smith  

Yeah, that’s those are good points. And RJ mentioned it and kind of the way that we we look at in the way we think about running a successful organization, the way that we tell people is, alright, identifying the symptoms, but realizing those symptoms are typically an issue of underlying, larger problem within the organization. So do you find that most people are coming to you with symptom related issues? And you’re stressing that information out of them? Or do you find that most people actually know what their core problem is, they just don’t have a plan for it.

Monica McCracken  

I would say most people know, on some level, what their core issue is, when, when they when it comes out of their mouth or my mouth. They know they know it’s true. I think that’s the cool thing about the truth is, when you hear it when you hear it or see it, you know it like okay, there’s no selling it’s Yep, that’s it. And sometimes people want to fix the symptoms, but they don’t want to fix the problem. And that’s what I’m talking about of being solution oriented. And sometimes it’s not possible to fix the problem. And there are practice, there are some exceptions, where you’re, where it is reasonable to address the symptom and not the problem. But if we, whenever we’re in that situation, we are very overt about that fact, and communicating a long term vision for what the underlying issue will be resolved.

RJ Martino  

Love, I’m stealing, I love it so much. Well, just the statement of sometimes people want to treat the symptom, and they don’t want to fix, they don’t want the solution. They want to treat the symptom. And we’re God is business owners, there’s just so many problems that, you know, fixing a symptom, that’s all I want to do. It’s easier than you know, asking Monica to dig into, you know, my my financials and figure out where the real problem is, because the real problem is the fact that I’m only working two hours a week, you know, and that’s this. So, it is so interesting, you know, from your background, I just find it fascinating, because when you hear someone’s a CPA, you think of the traditional bean counter, you think of the person traditionally that looks through this, this, this tunnel, and you know, they don’t see the fact that selling is not just a price thing it is, you know, there’s so much more to so it’s so interesting, the way your brain works with being an accounting, an accountant background, but I know a lot of our listeners are might struggle right now figuring out tangibly, how do you deliver your service? Like what does it actually look like? And so, talk to us about how you actually implement like, procedurally, how do you implement into an organization like a collared $10 million privately owned practice? Is it is there a product that you know, gets delivered at the end? Is it a meeting every week? Is it a meeting once a quarter talk about just execution?

Monica McCracken  

So one of our guiding principles of execution is transparency. So we start out with that alignment on the front end, when figuring out what the what the clients trying to achieve? What is success and what is what is success for them and what is success for our engagement. So what are the concrete deliverables? What are the risks to the business that we need to be mindful of are there related sub deliverables relating to the risks? So we identify the the deliverables, the risks, the deadlines, the timeline for execution? And I think one way that we really differentiate is we’re completely transparent on how we’re going to execute. So we come up with a plan. And typically, it’s done with an assessment of the front end of the of the, the, the problem, and how to get to the solution, we provide a recommended path or two, a couple options at times, for customers, they can then execute on their own, or oftentimes hire us to execute. But either way, we’re completely transparent. So we have a from there, we have a transparency, we have a tool that we use a web based tool that provides complete transparency to our customers about our daily action items on their work. So they can learn and grow their organizational capacity for internal solutioning in the future by seeing, okay, this is this is what they’re doing. We it’s not magic that happens behind a wall. We’re partnering with business owners, practitioners, to get them where they need to be, and let it be a learning opportunity for them. Yeah, so long the way. Sorry.

Jordan Smith  

No, it’s just fixed. Like that’s a, that’s a great way to look at it. And especially for our listeners, it should make perfect sense, right? Think about how you treat your patients, you wouldn’t write a prescription before doing some diagnostic tests and seeing them in person and talking to them. And so, you know, why would you Why would you expect somebody to come in after a 30 minute conversation and deliver the answer to all your business doesn’t work like that the same way people don’t work like that?

RJ Martino  

Well, and I think this audience is unique, because, you know, they, and I’m picking on him, but they know how they’re built they want walk in, tell me what product you’re selling? How much does it cost? Okay, I’ll buy it and deliver it to me on Monday, and your best consultants, your best providers, they’re not delivered in that manner. And so stop expecting it to be delivered in that manner. You know, the other thing that stuck out to me that you said that I really like to is, what is a successful solution look like? And what does our successful execution look like? Because they’re not one in the same, you know, some of these problems are so difficult and won’t be fixed. But that doesn’t mean that the relationship or you know, Monica and her team are unsuccessful at what they do, or how they do it. So, you know, separating the solution from the from what you do is something that, you know, Jordan, I really need to think through too, and make sure that we’re separating those two, because the problem sometimes can’t be solved. Knowing our audience, the other thing that keeps coming into their mind is this is great, but what does it cost what you know, and that’s what they they want to know. So can you talk about some typical pricing models for the industry or how you guys do it, whatever comfort level you feel comfortable sharing.

Monica McCracken  

I’m, I believe in transparency. So typically, we, for a small business, depending on the issue, we start with an assessment. And an assessment is an opportunity for a customer to get to know us. And for us to get to know them. We like to we price assessments at us a bite that’s small enough for them to to absorb the costs relating to it, but large enough for us to see if we can get a return on investment for them. So, for example, our assessments can start from a small business, maybe two to $4,000. For an assessment, a large company, it can be $50,000 for an assessment, but to attend million dollar business $2,000 to come up with an assessment, and it’s ours. Keep in mind our assessments have a deliverable in them. Typically, before we are even engaged for an assessment, we identify, hey, this is what our assessed assessment would include. And whenever possible, we have our one of our assessment deliverables be a plan for solutioning. So from there, the client has something. Yeah, they have something that they can leave from there and take it and do what they wished with it. We strive to have some some sort of plan in there. Oftentimes, they will engage us to execute on the plan, but they could take that plan and execute themselves as well. From there, they can see based on the assessment We gather enough information to find out what the return is on the engagement, what the potential is for return for their business. And then they can better evaluate, does it make sense to engage a firm to get this done five times faster than we could on our own. So if it’s going to give them $10 million in revenue, well, gee, getting it done in three months versus two years. It’s one paying right? Five $500,000. Well, that makes sense. Now, it needs to be managed along the way, right. And that’s where our transparency of how we’re executing what we’re doing regularly, so clients can go, they can go in and look and see exactly what we’re working on as part of this plan and where we’re at, which gives a again, it’s it builds their organizational capacity for knowing how to solution in the future on their own as well.

RJ Martino  

So just to recap what I heard, there is a assessment fee. But in that assessment fee, you guys are kind of laying out a game plan for how you would go about solving this thing.

Monica McCracken  

Correct. Whenever possible we will have

RJ Martino  

You’re almost writing a solution for them in that assessment. And then they can say, Monica, love you but I’m going to do this myself. Right? And that’s acceptable for you moving forward to, or, you know, is it not every small business, there’s not enough hours in the day, my team’s already packed full of stuff to do, adding this on their plate would be very difficult. Let’s engage your team to help us execute this plan. And who better executed than the person that wrote the plan? So very good. And you know, if our listeners are listening and questioning whether that’s a good approach, you know, why? Why can’t they just, why can’t they just package all this up and give me a price before, you know, tell me what they’re thinking? It’s because it’s just not that easy to, you know, doing consulting for so long, I can tell you that a $4,000 investment for a small business, we all know is not going to break the bank. But the amount of value that would be presented in that game plan is so worth $4,000, because we’re not solving, these are not small problems that you’re usually dealing with, you know, you’re talking seven, eight figure problems that you guys are solving. So, you know, I would urge you that this is the best way to get solid, solid advice and planning, strategic thinking that should cost you, you know, six figures, you’re getting it for just on the assessment side. So very nice. Well, that that excites me. And I think if I’m if I’m talking to any of our listeners, that should excite them to just knowing that there’s an outlet like that for someone to help solve some of these problems.

Monica McCracken  

Absolutely. I try to think from the perspective of a small business owner myself, of what what does it take, and what would it take? What would it take for me as my as my coach would say, to get a hell yes. Right. And he or she, maybe she says, heck, yes. But it’s, but this needs to be of incremental value. So we, I like to maintain that in my services and services, everyone in our firm.

Jordan Smith  

Well, I love that concept. You know, it wouldn’t make any sense to build a building before you hired an architect to come in and figure out what how the thing needs to be laid out. And that’s exactly what you’re doing is you are you’re providing an architecture for success before you figure out even how to start those, you know, even before you figure out where to lay the foundation.

Monica McCracken  

Well, what’s an interview?

RJ Martino  

Yeah, that’s a great example, Jordan, because our listeners and just knowing because they’re personal friends of mine, they just want to hire the bricklayer. That’s it. Like, I don’t I haven’t thought through anything. I just need the bricklayer show up on Monday. Can can they start on Monday? And you’re like, no, stop thinking that way. The idea of let’s take it to an architect first. And let’s spec this thing out is just a great concept. And you’re getting the architect in Monica’s service delivery structure. So very neat. I think our listeners will be excited about that, you know, for us, whenever we do engage someone we go back to kind of tracking progress and tracking outcomes. He talked just a little bit about technology, but and maybe that’s the answer but you know, how do you or how would your practices track business progress and outcomes, maybe not managing you even but just in general, how do practices track progress and outcomes, when, when when they’re engaged with you guys.

Monica McCracken  

So for for our particular engagements, we define that at the beginning. What will progress look like on this deliverable with the detailed plan that we come up with, in our assessment, and even the assessment itself has a detailed plan and scope with deliverables. So, progress for our engagements is tracked in our transparent web tool that clients, they also approve our invoices in the same tool. So they can go in and see what’s what, what’s the progress has been made each week, depending on their, on their preferences, they can get daily updates, weekly updates, in automated reports from our system, we also do have a piece of our business, my partner could speak to you at some point that does business intelligence, and helps companies with their analytics and internal metrics. So that is a space where we will serve customers in an engagement of itself and helping them develop it, but it can be, it can vastly range from one business to the next what that looks like.

Jordan Smith  

No, I mean, that, that’s great. And that makes a lot of sense. And kind of laying out, here’s what success looks like, you know, as early as possible is is a big key, you know, because you’re not going to get from point A to point Z, you know, in a couple months, especially with the issues that a lot of these folks are bringing you. So I think being transparent about that, and, and laying the rules up front are very important. So big believers in that concept. So I love that.

RJ Martino  

Well against, I think it’s great. Usually, our audience, they have to think about actively managing someone, you know, they hire the bricklayer, he shows up. And then he says he’s done and they haven’t been spot checking it along the way. So it’s very good that you guys build that into the plan. That is there are times that are appropriate for checking the progress. And you’ll see a milestone one here milestone two, there. And it varies. You’re saying sometimes, sometimes it might be an actual deliverable. And sometimes, it might just be something different, depending on the project.

Monica McCracken  

Yeah, we try. We try even if the deliverable is squishy, we try to define some sort of substantive benchmark. I think it’s also important to note that nothing goes in a straight line, we plan a straight line, but there has to be agility. And that’s why we use it. That’s why we have a transparent tool where there because there will be decision points where things will have to shift. But keeping the client in the loop as to okay, we’re at this point. This is how the the decks are going to shift, depending on which way we go. And getting them into that process and being able to see it ahead of time and navigate. Oftentimes, our clients will ask us to implement our process for them and to train their people on how to execute that management style on their internal efforts. Mm hmm.

Jordan Smith  

No, I love that. And that speaks, that’s a testament to the type of work that you guys are doing to, you know, when they come back and ask you to look at, look at more parts of the business. So I know there’s lots of listeners out there right now that’s like, Alright, guys, I’m convinced I need to bring in a consultant, whether it’s Monica’s team and at MMC consulting or somebody else that they’ve been talking to, but we talked about how important it is to get buy in from everybody that is going to be involved in that decision making process. Right? So whether it’s a administrator, or a, you know, somebody that’s on the leadership team, but not the owner, or the owner that’s trying to figure out how do I sell this to my team, you know, kind of kind of talk about just some different ways that you guys have found to get buy in from the entire team. You know, usually the conversation starts with one or two people, but you need everybody rowing in the same direction. So how do you make sure that that you guys come in and you’re not, you know, it’s not seen as you replacing anybody? Or you’re in here because so and so didn’t do a good job at doing their part? How do you get buy in from the entire team from the organizations you work with?

Monica McCracken  

That’s a really awesome question. And so important, I think that technicians like to really overlook the importance of humans wanting the effort to succeed. If if all the stakeholders aren’t bought in, it limits I would say 95 plus percent of the return on the investment. So, we, we actually use pro site change management to as part of our human engagement function, it’s fascinating even the most technical business efforts or consulting engagements require humans to embrace it. So getting that in of okay, what’s, what’s the value here? disarming each person spending time with them one on one, and really listening to where they’re at. And figuring it’s a learning experience for us about their culture and their needs. Because every person has a different data point on the current state of a given business. So it’s, as much as we would all love there to be, okay, let’s have a mass gathering and get everyone bought in. That’s not how humans work. So oftentimes, it’s our consultants meeting one on one with, with each individual stakeholder, that’s also a big piece of an assessment is getting that buy in in that, so maybe to have the stakeholder to have the 10 stakeholders are bought in when they engage us for an assessment. During the assessment, we spend one on one time with the other eight, as well as the original two. And they get the experience of working with us there, they, they can determine if they feel heard, if they feel that we can really accomplish what they’re looking for. So the the assessment level of the engagement serves for getting that buy in and seeing is the buy in going to be there? Because if the people don’t want it, it’s gonna be really hard to be successful.

Jordan Smith  

I love that. That’s great. You guys are almost a business psychologist at that point.

Monica McCracken  

You know, I think that’s the I think that is the greatest money making opportunity in business is figuring out how to how to get everybody aligned. We and it’s not it’s not a hard, it’s not a clear defined science. It’s It’s messy. But it’s that effort of, of relentless dedication to getting the humans all bought in.

RJ Martino  

What’s funny is, you know, we asked some of these questions, and we’re always searching for a silver bullet. We’re searching for like a technique, a trick that does it and you ask something like, buy how to get buy in? And my hope is you say, oh, well, here’s the here’s the trick.

Jordan Smith  

You’ll get it. But there’s not.

RJ Martino  

There’s never I mean, the answer of there isn’t a trick to but let it you got to talk individually to stakeholders is just the answer we all know. But for some reason, we keep searching for that trick. It takes, you know, Monica, who deserves to get paid $1,000 an hour, charging me $1,000 an hour to just settle on Oh, yeah, okay. There’s no trick, I got to lead my people like they’re humans, because they are.

Monica McCracken  

Right, just listen to each of them. authentically, show up, be present and listen to them individually. And it’s hard.

RJ Martino  

I love the the truth behind it, though. Well, so we’ve gotten to our last, you know, we call it the final round, where we like to ask some questions, particularly taking your consulting hat off sometimes and just kind of be authentic with us. And, you know, I we always say that the end result of a great practice is getting predictable results, having repeatable processes, and trying to figure out how to make this thing run without us there. And so I’m going to ask you kind of some questions that maybe you’ve got a recipe for success that you like to share, or, you know, some ingredients that make the end result actually happen. And the first one I always like to lead off with is if there were kind of a magic reset button, as it relates to starting your practice your business, what systems would you go back and put into place sooner, you know, often, practices think I’ll do this later, every business owner like I want a great CRM, but I’ll do it later. And that’s one of the things I always think back is I wish we would have done it. What immediately day one, but if there was a magic reset button, what processes or software systems or whatever, what would you have implemented sooner?

Monica McCracken  

Yeah, I would say standardization of everything that isn’t one of your key differentiators or value drivers. So as simple as that sounds You don’t want people reinventing the wheel on the non value items, whether that’s, you know, administrative and whatnot. Um, it doesn’t to me, I think that CRM, all the different technology tools are great. And depending on the scale of a business, they may be appropriate. But really a process, whether that’s a checklist, or a CRM, in my mind, it’s just it’s a checklist, right? Whether it’s a complicated CRM, or it’s a piece of paper, I think having keeping it simple, as much as possible, and really focusing on where do we want to, to not where do we want to be more innovative and continuously improving, versus having a standard process?

Jordan Smith  

Yeah, I know that we’re on your speakers, I know that we’re in your earbuds, I know that we’re in your car, wherever you’re listening to this. And I know you listened to that, but I want to make sure that you heard that, which which ties into everything else that we’ve talked about, which is there is no progress without a process. So I love this idea of putting together processes, so that if somebody, you know, the most dangerous thing and a lot of organizations is, is that tribal knowledge that is walled off within one individual’s head, you know, especially these days where nothing’s guaranteed, you know? Yeah, though, and

Monica McCracken  

And humans aren’t shelf stable. Yeah. evolved in their head. Right? Like you give somebody if they stop using the the process that was established, it will, it starts to, it starts to evolve.

RJ Martino  

Well, and think about what that means to a patient. It means a different experience, depending on which person is delivering that. And, you know, you think, how in the world, could we get this terrible review online? Well, it’s because someone delivered a different service than you expect. So very interesting. And as you’re blown and go, and you just think, oh, yeah, I don’t even know the process yet. So once we get a little bigger, I’ll be, you know, my, I always say, two weeks from now, I feel like I’m the, I’ll be the most open guy, I’ll be available. I’ll have all the time. Just give me two weeks to get caught up. And you’ll never get there. Never. And so you’re right. It is something that has to be deep in your soul. And you got to demand it day one, because you never get free enough to write a process out.

Monica McCracken  

And at the beginning, it can start out as a notebook with checklists. Mm hmm.

RJ Martino  

Yeah, well, and well, you’re right. And I think often know, it, it’s gonna look like, you know, old school, Microsoft technical documentations, you know, and so you get overwhelmed, and you think I don’t have time to do that. And you’re right. It doesn’t have to be that complex. It can just be a piece of paper with a checklist. Very nice. Interesting. I love it.

Monica McCracken  

A huge tool to reduce risk and to have consistent quality.

RJ Martino  

Yeah, and I think consistent quality rings true to our audience, they they hear it and they say, okay, you know, nurse Nancy does it this way, intake? You know, as soon as someone walks in the door, what are the things that that have to happen? Smile? Oh, that’s on the checklist? Yes. Because that’s part of the service that you know, that the delivery of that service and as a patient, that’s the thing that I see.

Monica McCracken  

Absolutely.

RJ Martino  

Okay, so what is one strategy that if business owners and their team could consistently apply every day, would compound into big wins for them from your perspective?

Monica McCracken  

I believe that intention and setting an intention from everybody in a business or any organization, setting an intention every day of what is the most important, what are the three most important things that you can do for your role or your business that day, and setting that intention, taking the time to set that intention? And not just letting the pressures of the world squeeze out what it will from you? 

Jordan Smith  

Hmm.

RJ Martino  

I feel like I needed to hear that today. Well, we’re in the midst of COVID right now. And there are so many days where I’m like I, you know, today, I’m stuck at home, I can’t go out and visit with customers, which is something I love to do. I can’t go out and visit with potential new customers, which is something I love to do. And then the feedback I get from my team is is you know, the most important thing that you did this month was to call and check on me for no other reason and that’s stuff that I just don’t even think is that important. Important. But when you said that first thing in my mind that triggers I just need to call and check in on the team. See how they’re doing.

Monica McCracken  

Take a step back.

RJ Martino  

Yeah. And and if you wouldn’t have said, start your day with being intentional about what is the most important stuff. Right? Great, great feedback.

Monica McCracken  

No, I will often pretend that I can only do three things that day, right? I can only accomplish three things today. What what what are they going to be?

Jordan Smith  

I love I think that’s a great mindset to kind of end on all the listeners, whether it’s the beginning of the day, end of the day, try that tomorrow, if there’s only three things you can do. And that’s it. What are those three things going to be? And how, you know? How are those going to move your organization forward in the way in which you want them to move forward whether it’s a phone call to employees, whether it’s building the process but yeah, you know, I love this I mean Monica with with MMC consulting, I want to thank you and I, I, I hope all the listeners are, are taking notes on this stuff. We’re gonna have some show notes and some links in here, as well as Monica’s contact information for MMC consulting if you guys want to reach out to her, but Monica, kind of a closing word, tell folks how to get in touch with you. If they want more information either about you and the success that you’ve had, or, or the or MMC consulting, which you’re a founder managing partner of how can they get more information about you guys,

Monica McCracken  

They can go to our website, mmcmsp.com, they can also reach out to me on LinkedIn and Monica McCracken, and I’d be happy to have a virtual coffee. I can’t I can’t guarantee I can do it next week. But anyone who’s interested in connecting, we will make we will make time at some point.

Jordan Smith  

I would the first conversation reaching out doesn’t cost anything.

Monica McCracken  

No, not at all. 

Jordan Smith  

And yeah, if they think they can help you, though, they’ll keep the conversations going. If not, I know she’ll point you in the right direction. So

Monica McCracken  

Thank you. Absolutely.

RJ Martino  

Monica, this has been a pleasure. We need you to pour all this into a book. So that you can we can just get more of it. Or at the very least if you can’t commit to writing a book for me, we’d love to have you again. On another time.

Monica McCracken  

Anytime. 

RJ Martino  

Love it, guys. Thanks so much for your time, and we’ll catch up with you soon. 

Jordan Smith  

All right, Monica. Thanks, Monica. RJ Monica McCracken, what are your thoughts?

RJ Martino  

She’s so good. You know, I think it helps whenever you don’t have to train people to think the way you think them. Think about things that they just, I mean, I think our thought process aligns so much with ours. And, you know, if I’m an audience member, one of the things that I hear loud and clear is just setting good expectations with your team members, with your vendors, with your personal friends, and even your, your spouse, you know, it’s like, setting expectations with people is just a great thing. And she talks about how their organization is very intentional, intentional, about setting good expectations, when, with what you’re going to hear from me, you know, with what the end result is going to be. And that’s super valuable. And I mean, if nothing else, it I heard it loud and clear.

Jordan Smith  

We are also making sure that I mean, like you said, half the battle is just getting on the same page as far as what success metrics look like, and what failure looks like. And again, I teased it in the beginning but for those of you guys that that made it through this, which I hope is all of you, you know the pricing model. There’s no reason not to hire her company to come in and do an evaluation with the way that they run that initial assessment. So I would encourage all of you guys check out our website, mmcmsp.com. And even Monica specifically, I mean, she she gave out her personal email in McCracken, M-C-C-R-A-C-K-E-N, @mmcmsp.com we’ll put all those links in the show notes. As always, like, subscribe, comment, love to hear feedback from you guys. I’d love to know who who we might need to talk to who might be a good guest on here or just other topics or other other types of people that you want to hear from we’re we’re doing this for you guys. So like, subscribe, comment, especially if we earned it. This is another one that we’re going to be putting up on YouTube. So check out our YouTube channel too like and comment on that as well. RJ as always, this was a blast looking forward to talking to the next thought leader.

RJ Martino  

Yes, love it. Thanks, Jordan. All right.

Jordan Smith  

Thanks, everybody.