Find Your Second In Command With Cameron Herold
Cameron Herold is host of the Second in Command podcast and bestselling author of The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs: Elevate Your SELF to Elevate Your BUSINESS, Meetings Suck: Turning One of the Most Loathed Elements of Business into One of the Most Valuable, and the new books Free PR: How to Get Chased By The Press Without Hiring a PR Firm and Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less (in its seventh printing).
Herold is the founder of COO Alliance, which helps COO’s become better leaders. He is the mastermind behind hundreds of companies' exponential growth and has built a dynamic consultancy, including his time as COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?. His current clients include a 'Big 4' wireless carrier and a monarchy.
Podcast Highlights
- Who is Cameron Herold?
Cameron’s first entrepreneurial memory was when he was seven years old. He was cold calling dry cleaners about how much they would pay for coat hangers. His parents raised Cameron and his siblings as entrepreneurs right from the beginning so there wasn’t really a time before then when he wasn’t doing his own thing.
- Why Second in Command?
Cameron started off his entrepreneurial career with College Pro Painters within a franchise which super charged his growth as an entrepreneur. He went on to work in three other companies where he was second in command and helped those companies grow. All that prepared him to take 1-800-GOT-JUNK from 14 employees to 3100 employees and that’s where he found the match between the CEO and the COO.
A lot of the time the entrepreneurs that start a business have all the vision in the world but don’t have the skills they need to grow their business, so it makes sense to bring someone in who has those skills.
The CEO in the early days of a business is the Chief Everything Officer, but that eventually evolves into the Chief Energizing Officer once the business gets going. When they transition in the later stage they can deliver on the why of the business but not necessarily the how, which is when the COO comes in.
- When should a CEO bring on the COO?
You need to completely trust the person as your COO on day one. If you don’t have the trust level built up, you need to keep interviewing and doing reference checks until you can trust them with the keys to your house and password to your bank account.
Try not to get wrapped up in the title, the COO could also be the VP of Operations or General Manager. You can find multiple people to shore up your weaknesses, the point is to find someone with skill sets that you don’t have.
The entrepreneur needs to know what has to happen and the COO needs to know how it has to happen. They are the executors of the business and need to be given free reign to accomplish the entrepreneurs vision.
- Playing out of position
The CEO and the COO work in tandem. Whatever the