Rules Are for People Who Can't Follow Directions

This week Nick is in the hot seat, breaking down his first months as Senior Vice President and COO of Real Financial.

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Episode in a Glance:
In this episode of The Nick Hiter Show, I break down my first months as Senior Vice President and COO of Real Financial. I just got back from the desert, where we rolled out the entire new business model in front of more than half the field force at a two day training event, and I share what I saw up close: a president and CEO who wakes up, has a cup of coffee and goes to the office until bed, a building with people everywhere, and a master class in handling problems without losing it. We get into proximity and why being in that environment felt like a big league clubhouse, the Tim Corbin line that separates rules from standards, the six core values that are all number one, the three KPIs that decide whether Real Financial grows, and why anything that does not check all three boxes does not get considered. We talk about what chaos does for character when a church goes from a couple hundred people to thousands in months. Then it gets personal: the Lincoln quote about chopping off a limb to save the tree and what I had to change about the Hitstreak, why I now ask "why would I put you on?", learning to be a distribution channel instead of a doer, the leader who does not negotiate with himself, and my son Ethan, 17, owning his calendar, speaking on stage and staying home alone for the first time.

Key Points:
- Proximity matters. You get fed in environments like that, and you have to add enough value to stay in the room.
- Rules are for people who can't follow directions. Standards are for people who aspire to do special things.
- Six core values, all number one: do what's right, own it, tell the truth, become more valuable, think bigger and move faster, protect the house.
- There are only three things that grow the company. If an idea does not check all three boxes, it does not get considered.
- Standards determine the rules and the KPIs. First you need standards, then you can build rules.
- If everyone sells the exact same way, you rob the team of the next great idea.
- You cannot chop down the tree to save a limb. There is no business to serve the people if you kill it.
- Solving the problem, or getting it solved, is a valuable position. Be a distribution channel, not a doer.
- The less you touch, the more you get to speak and think. That is the trade off of leadership.
- When a young man owns his calendar and does not depend on anyone to map it out, that is freedom.

Chapters:
0:00 Vegas, Brad and rolling out the new Real Financial model
10:26 Rules vs standards: Tim Corbin and the six core values
15:41 The three KPIs and learning to think
19:53 Pivoting the content and thriving in chaos
27:07 Chop the limb, save the tree: the Hitstreak and life as the integrator
35:50 Ethan: standards at home

About Nick:
Nick Hiter is the host of The Nick Hiter Show and The Hitstreak, the founder of HitLab, and Senior Vice President and COO of Real Financial, where he sits between the field and corporate and turns the vision into execution.

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