Every year at the Two-Brain Summit, I grab 10 minutes with John Briggs of Incite Tax.
He says something truly profound in every conversation. In 2018, he told me about Mike Michalowicz’s then-upcoming book, “Clockwork.”
This week, Briggs is on Two-Brain Radio to talk about his own upcoming book, “Profit First for Microgyms.” It will be out in January 2020. In our interview, he talks about the mindset you need before you can become more profitable, the actual numbers you should be applying to your business and how to leave a legacy in the world. You can preorder John’s book here.
“Profit First for Microgyms” is a niche adaptation of Michalowicz”s game-changing book “Profit First.” Mike is also the author of “The Pumpkin Plan,” and both are recommended reads in our Incubator program.
Michalowicz’s “Queen Bee Role”—or QBR—made a huge difference in my life in 2019.
First, I worked really hard to identify my most important role in Two-Brain Business. I actually needed some help. In the end, I had to ask other people a question: “Where do I make the biggest contribution to our success?” Because we have over 60 staff members spread around the world, I had trouble identifying the one role on which I should focus.
But the answer was probably obvious to you: My QBR is creating content—looking at data, thinking about it and then telling stories about what we know in the “Help First” ethos.
The next step was to get me into that role more often.
Working With a Mentor
When I visited my mentor, Todd Herman, in New York City in October, we rebuilt the organizational structure of Two-Brain Business. We identified a few key hires to make and identified a few people on the team who no longer aligned with our values or vision. The overall goal was to get me into my QBR more often—and help others get into their QBRs, too.
Over the next few months, we made some big hires and had some hard conversations with friends who no longer fit the company’s mission.
If you’ve been following these love letters, you’ve seen the effect: better focus, more help and more options. Here are our podcast (Apple and Stitcher), our YouTube channel and our blog.
We’ve spent over $20,000 per month building better downloads that we give away for free (here’s the library—help yourself).
I love the stuff we’re creating now. And I love Two-Brain more than ever: It’s the company that I want to build again.
Michalowicz will be the host of our fourth Tinker Mastermind workshop this year. He’ll join Chris Voss, Linda Kaplan Thaler and Todd Herman as our quarterly leaders in the program, with Jeff Smith, Josh Price and me as the leaders of the mastermind.
The key lesson of “Clockwork” was the Queen Bee Role. And I didn’t get it at first.
But now I know Michalowicz could write an entire book about it.
Other Articles in This Series
Best Lessons of 2019: The Alter Ego Effect
Best Lessons of 2019: The Power of Nice
Best Lessons of 2019: Never Split the Difference
