Cameron Herold is no stranger to the unique pressures of the C-Suite. Known widely as the “CEO Whisperer,” Herold draws from his own experience building $100 Million companies as well as his experience gleaned from coaching and mentoring CEOs to share practical, actionable advice to grow your company. Herold shares his insights around the world, speaking at events in 28 countries on 6 continents, as well as in 5 published works. He also founded the COO Alliance, a vetted peer group to support and develop the “second in command.”
Herold sat down with us to share the highlights from some of his books, starting with the classic Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less. “I think the big idea is that you can systemize rapid growth,” Herold shares, “I wanted to give you the systems to put in place in any company to do that.” When asked which system is the key to leveraging this growth, Herold is adamant, “Culture.”
“I think the media has done a real disservice telling us that culture is about the free perks. Culture is alignment with vision, having A-Players in the organization, giving them proper skill development and having the right meeting rhythms in place to support them.”
In Meetings Suck Herold addressed an issue that plagues companies of every size with a thought-provoking statement, “Maybe meetings don’t suck, maybe you just suck at running meetings.”
“The real principle of Meetings Suck is giving you the system to start running highly effective meetings that people actually want to show up to, that really do help scale the company. Some of the basic principles are:
- Every meeting has to start with a clear purpose.
- Every meeting can have a maximum of three outcomes.
- Every meeting has to have an agenda.
- Every meeting has to start exactly on time.
- Every meeting has to stop 5 minutes prior to the scheduled ending time.
Everyone is accountable to make sure that the meetings are highly effective. I want the most junior employees to call out the fact that we’re not staying on agenda or call out the fact that we’re not letting other people speak. The same as core values, I want everyone to be responsible for them.”
Finally, in Herold’s newest book Free PR, he advises companies on how to land coverage without being taken advantage of by PR firms. “The reality is that most PR companies are extracting $5-6,000 minimum per month. You can do it in-house and have a much bigger impact.”
From his published works to the COO Alliance, Herold focuses on a core concept, “We’re training the wrong person on how to run the company. You need to put the tools into the hands of the people actually building the business.”
Herold compares the growth of a business to the building of the house, “The homeowner knows what the home needs to look like. The contractor creates the blueprints. The homeowner signs off on the blueprints, the contractor signs off on what needs to be done to complete the blueprints. When you get in sync, you can hand the plan and the vision to the employees so they can build the house.
The systems Herold outlines in his books, from the growth process of Double Double to the meeting rhythms of Meetings Suck are designed to work in tandem to create a system where the CEO or Entrepreneur can “have their big ideas” in a environment prepared to execute them efficiently under the guidance of the COO.
“And that is the underlying concept of the Vivid Vision: When everyone can see what the CEO can see, they will figure out a way to make that dream for the future come true.”- Cameron Herold, Vivid Vision