What if everything you thought you knew about transformation was wrong? In this episode, Marcus Cauchi and Matt Gaskin cut through the nonsense and dive into the brutal truths about why most change programs flop—and what Lean really looks like when it’s done right.

💡 Key Takeaways: 🔹 Lean isn’t a methodology, it’s a mindset. It’s about learning, adjusting, and delivering value daily from the bottom up, not just implementing a new set of tools. 🔹 Go to Gemba! True leaders don’t make decisions from behind a desk, they go to where the work is happening. Want to understand inefficiencies? Get out there and see them for yourself. 🔹 Simplicity is hard. Lean sounds straightforward, reduce waste, increase value, but in reality, cutting through organisational complexity is an art form. 🔹 Selling isn’t about pushing, it’s about pulling. Lean organisations understand that the market should pull products through the value stream, not the other way around. Deadlines and durations are not the same thing. 🔹 The trap of traditional sales systems. Most sales processes are riddled with inefficiencies, so what are we actually prospecting for? The ideal customer isn’t just someone willing to buy but one who will return, expand, and refer. 🔹 Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation. When the task is simple, extrinsic rewards (like money) work. But when creativity and problem-solving are required, intrinsic motivation wins. The famous Candle Problem experiment proved this decades ago: when people were rewarded for solving it faster, they actually performed worse.

🚩 Red Flags in Transformation Programs: ❌ Consultants promising specific cost savings before they’ve even observed your processes? Run. ❌ Leaders who think transformation is about tools, not people? It will fail. ❌ Ignoring how change impacts individual contributors? Expect resistance and failure.

🛠 Lessons from Toyota: Toyota is hard on the process, not the people, a critical distinction. Sustainable improvement happens when organisations hire problem solvers, not just people who follow orders.

🔥 If revenue wasn’t your primary measure of success, how would you define whether your transformation is working?

📲 Tune in now and rethink everything you know about Lean, sales, and leadership. Connect with Matt Gaskin on LinkedIn for more.

Selling your business is the biggest deal you’ll ever close, but are you set up to get the best possible outcome? In this episode, Rob Goddard, business acquisitions and sales expert, shares how to maximise valuation, avoid costly mistakes, and negotiate like a pro.

But that’s not all. The principles of selling a business apply to every high-stakes deal. Whether you’re an entrepreneur planning an exit or a salesperson looking to sharpen your skills, this episode is packed with insights you can use immediately.

What You’ll Learn:

✅ How to increase your business’s value before selling ✅ Common pitfalls that leave money on the table ✅ The negotiation tactics that get better outcomes ✅ Why understanding buyers is key in any deal ✅ What top salespeople can learn from exit strategies

Who Should Listen? 🔹 Business owners thinking about selling 🔹 Sales leaders and professionals who want to sharpen deal-making skills 🔹 Entrepreneurs looking to build a business with exit potential

Next Steps:

📌 Connect with Rob on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/robgoddard/ 📌 Want to improve your sales strategy? https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcuscauchi/

🚀 Don’t miss this one, press play now!

Summary: This episode offers more than a sales leadership lesson—it’s a blueprint for transformation. Rebecca and Marcus challenge outdated thinking about leadership, relationships, and what it means to truly succeed in sales. Packed with insight and wisdom, it’s a wake-up call for anyone ready to lead with purpose and intention.

Rebecca Gebhardt’s Leaderboard to Leadership doesn’t pull any punches: promoting your top salesperson doesn’t make them a leader. Leadership isn’t just the next step up from closing deals—it’s a completely different game, and most people aren't prepared to play it. Without the right training and mindset, you're not offering them a promotion—you’re setting them up to fail.

This episode goes deeper than your standard sales talk. Rebecca and Marcus cut right to the core: real relationships. Not the transactional kind that evaporate once the contract is signed, but the ones built on trust and understanding—the relationships that last. Their message is crystal clear: if you don’t understand what your customer actually needs, you’ve already lost them.

Marcus brings the heat with AI, but not in the way you’d expect. Forget about AI as a flashy tool; Marcus shows how it can be a brutal mirror, reflecting your blind spots and challenging your assumptions. It’s not about the tech—it’s about seeing yourself clearly and growing from it.

Then there’s Marcus’s golden rule: "sell hot, not cold." If you’re wasting your time on cold calls and hard pitches, you're missing the point. Warm leads—relationships you’ve already nurtured—are the real opportunities. This isn’t just about closing the next deal; it’s about creating something that scales and sustains success.

Rebecca hits on the mindset leaders need to succeed: “abundant, bold, curious.” Leadership isn’t about resting on your past wins. It’s about staying hungry, constantly learning, and pushing even when you think you’ve arrived. It’s this mindset that gets you to the top—and keeps you there.

But Marcus takes a step back to show the big picture: Sales alone won’t cut it. To win, you need every part of your business—procurement, customer success, finance, operations, the Board, all of it—aligned around what the customer actually wants to accomplish. Silos are where good people are sent to die, too often chasing the wrong metrics for the sake of numbers. That’s how you burn relationships and your reputation.

The reality? Chasing numbers isn’t leadership. Building relationships is. Metrics might feel good in the short term, but if they come at the expense of trust, you’ve already lost the long game.

Leaderboard to Leadership (out 20th Sept 2024) isn’t a roadmap—perhaps it’s your antidote to mediocrity. It’s a guide to transforming potential into performance, not by accident, but by intention. Rebecca doesn’t hand you shortcuts; she gives you the tools to build leaders who can thrive—not just survive. Stop floundering and start leading with purpose.

If you’re tired of promoting your top sellers only to watch them stagnate, it’s time to change the narrative. With the ALLY Method™, I’ll show you how the difference between stagnation and transformation is the story you tell yourself. Together, we’ll rewrite that story and turn potential into performance—deliberately, not by accident.

Let’s have a conversation. Contact me, marcus@laughs-last.com, today, and I’ll show you how coaching and training can elevate your team. If you’re ready to break silos, lead with intention, to build something lasting, the bright path is right here. Let’s walk it together.