Leadership in business is essential yet often misunderstood. Leadership begins inside the leader; however most of the focus starts on the actions (external). Matt Miller is President and founder of School Spirit Vending. Matt talks about the culture of his company and how focusing on culture has shifted his impact. He shares the insights he has gained in building a very successful business that helps schools raise money for educational programs. Matt discusses with me about the speed of the leader and the importance of that in achieving goals.

In this episode we’ll cover:

• Why Matt is in the trenches most days
• Why Matt attends 2 networking events per year
• How a coach helps Matt see his blind spots
• Why the speed of a leader affects the speed of the group
• How Matt was able to positively shift his company’s culture
• How Matt’s business helps entrepreneurs to gain control

Target Audience: Matt works with aspiring business owners who have a desire to duplicate what he and his company do in the vending and school funding industry. His vending company serves a team of 40 different families and several thousand schools providing passive free fundraising for them.

Matt admits he is in the trenches most days. He spends a lot of time in the schools he serves working out a variety of different issues. With the help of a coach however, he has dedicated his focus to the last 6 months in identifying what his different strengths are. This has enabled him to work better with his team and to resolve challenges. This has been quite beneficial because he still prefers to be very hands on. In his work with the coach, he was asked to pinpoint where he is best paid and where he is most valued.

Matt believes in working with a coach so much now, that he has set a goal for himself to attend at least one or two networking events per year in order to get himself around other people who will push him. He feels having mentors and coaches around him who can call him on his bluffs and keep him accountable is necessary to his growth. A relationship with a coach gives the opportunity to be transparent in order to shift and transform. A coach also challenges his clients and it also takes the client being open to that challenge for true shifting to occur. Additionally, a coach helps him to see what his business CAN BE – not the way it currently is so a new vision is constantly on the escrow. A coach can look at his business as an outsider- which is something he himself can’t do because he is so wrapped up in it.

Matt finds there are so many people who want to be entrepreneurs but are afraid. His business aims to provide a step by step guideline for the entrepreneurial process with the goal of creating more income. This enables people with a system to take more control in their business and personal lives.

Practical and Actionable:

Put systems in areas where you may not be so strong in. Get to a point where you don’t have to focus on those areas and just do what you are good at. Lead the way you want to lead. The world’s got a certain idea of how things are ‘supposed to be’- constantly question those norms. Don’t be afraid to to put your personality into what you do. Don’t be afraid to march to the beat of your own drummer. People respect and are drawn to to purpose and passion.