Creating The Advisory Board – Shannon Wilburn
the advisory board
SUMMARY
There are a lot of ways to improve the business and oneself and one of the ways is creating the advisory board or surrounding yourself with people who have strengths in your weaknesses. They help a lot with the feedback that they are providing. They give a different perspective of the business.If you are lucky enough, you will not only get business advices but also life advices.On this episode, we have Shannon Wilburn. She’s the CEO and co-founder of Just Between Friends Franchise Inc. The brand is recognized as a Top 50 Franchise Opportunities for Women.Sharon talks about how she started the advisory board and how she was able to identify the right people for the job. She also shares how the advisory board works and how it affects not only her business but also her personal life.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
It is all right to not be good with everything.People have to look at their own skills and measure their own strengths to see what their great at.In improving your business, you need to be surrounded by people who have strengths that you do not have.Even though feedback is difficult to take in, it helps in honing people to become better business owners and leaders.It is more challenging to find people who would complement you if you are already successful.Being surrounded with the right people can help fight depression and loneliness.Sometimes, you would need someone to put you right back to reality and bring your focus back to the important things.Creating The Advisory Board – Shannon Wilburn
Luis CongdonOn today’s episode, we are going to talk about how to level up by creating the advisory board or mastermind around you so you can level up and do better in life and in business.
Kamala ChambersWe’re here with Shannon Wilburn, Co-founder of Just Between Friends, a company that’s been recognized as a Top 50 Franchise Opportunity for Women.
Luis CongdonAll right, Thriving Launchers, we are here with Shannon Wilburn to talk about forming the advisory board.Shannon, are you ready to launch?
Shannon Wilburn I am ready!
Luis Congdon
I love it!
Importance Of Having The Advisory Board
Luis CongdonOne of the things we’re talking about before this interview is how important it is to have the advisory board or to surround yourself with intelligent people. As somebody who’s running a business that’s thriving, a business that has a lot of people underneath, a lot of people running with you and doing stuff with you, one of the challenges is kind of the saying “It’s lonely at the top.”I’m curious.One, what made you realize that you wanted more people around you to advise you and two, how did you even find the right people?Because that can be the more successful you are, the more challenging it can be to find those people that compliment where you want to go and where you’re at.
Shannon Wilburn Right!
Look At Your Own Skills Before Creating The Advisory Board
Shannon Wilburn I’d like to start back in the wee years of my company. I run two companies in the past. One started in 1997. The other one started in 2004. I think it’s really smart for people to look at their own skills and measure their own strengths to see what they are good at.I’m sure that you’ve probably heard of the book Strenghtsfinder. That’s one of the many things to figure out where your strengths are.
The Advisory Board – Trap Entrepreneurs Must Avoid
Shannon Wilburn One of my advisors told me at one point “You have to give yourself permission to not be good at everything.” I think that’s a trap entrepreneurs fall into. They think that they have to be good at everything.
The Advisory Board Helps You Be With Smart People
Shannon Wilburn My degree in elementary education is that I wasn’t good at any business stuff. I did not know hardly anything about business. And so very early on the business, I realized I needed to surround myself with smart people.That’s just a lifelong endeavor and it looks different at different stages of your business.I started out with an executive team, just two people in my life that were already giving me advice for free. I asked them to attend meetings with me, and my co-founder. That’s how it started.
Forming The Advisory Board For Your Business
Shannon Wilburn I’ve had many opportunities in the past to surround myself with smart people but the most recent thing that I believe you’re asking about is how we formed an advisory board for Just Between Friends.There’s a gentleman in the franchising industry whose name is John Francis. That’s one of the many things that he likes to talk about. I ended at being on a panel with him at one point and he talked about the advisory board. I’d already been thinking I needed to put together a group of people who had strengths in areas where I did not.For me, what that meant was financial, development, and recruitment in the franchising space. I knew I needed someone good in technology and in strategy. Those were the four people that I was looking for.
The Advisory Board – Start With People In Your Sphere Of Influence
Shannon Wilburn I started with people that were already in my sphere of influence, on LinkedIn, people I’d met at conferences, people that I went to church with, just people that I’ve had in my past and said “Do you know anyone good?“ Someone that I could reach out to in regards to technology or whatever the need was.That’s how I did it and I would read their bios on LinkedIn and I then would reach out to them and interview them and tell them about my company and what our needs are and would they be interested in being an advisor to us.That’s how we started.
Kamala ChambersYou find the people that have the specialty, the strength wherever you may have the weakness, and then you reach out and start interviewing those people.
Shannon Wilburn Yes.
Kamala ChambersDo you pay the advisory board as a consultant or they become as pure coaches where you support them and they support you?
Shannon Wilburn It can work either way.We had done the free thing for fourteen years. While that’s great, I get lots of wonderful, fabulous, free advice because people love to give advice. I’m one of them.This particular one was going to be where they received a fee because it was going to be on a consistent basis.
Update The Advisory Board Before Your Meeting
Shannon Wilburn The set up with the advisory board in our company is that we have quarterly meetings and the quarterly meetings are two to three hours or not long. I’m in charge. My team is in charge of getting them updates a week prior.We don’t want to waste their time but we need them to come prepared so we have to get them updated on three months’ worth of what’s going on in our corporate team for the last three months. We write all that up and send them six to ten pages worth of information that they need to read before the meeting.Then, we put an agenda together and we talk about past business and getting them caught up on where we are. Let them ask questions on what we’ve put together and then we tackle the big things that I want to talk about because if you only have two or three hours, it doesn’t give you a lot of time.
Have Quarterly Meetings With The Advisory Board
Shannon Wilburn Those are the quarterly meetings but then what I worked out with each of my advisory board members is that I have the ability to call them anytime I want and I’m not paying for that.If something comes up between quarterly meetings, I can pick up the phone and say “Hey! Do you have thirty minutes?” or “Do you have an hour?”If it’s something where I really need timely advice and if I’m going through a challenge or something like that and I’m telling you what —
Allocate Funds For The Advisory Board
Shannon Wilburn In the last year, I wanted to do it for about two years and then it took me several months to decide that I was going to do it and actually find the money and the budget to be able to implement it. It probably took another six months to find the people that I wanted to find.It was definitely a process. If someone was thinking about it, I think it’s great to really start thinking about it and allocate funds towards that.
Luis CongdonHere’s one of my questions.I think it’s brilliant to surround yourself with people who can support you, educate you, listen to you, and be available to you. It’s critical in life.
Importance Of The Advisory Board
Luis CongdonThere was even a study done. It was something about ten years ago. It wasn’t huge so we can’t put a lot a stock in it but I found value in reading it. This is more on the psychology field because that’s where my original background is.They took a group of people who reported that they were depressed and they partnered them with neighbors. Somehow, they created this thing where the neighbors would check in with them and they would check in with their neighbors.
People Becoming Happier Having The Advisory Board
Luis CongdonThen, they took another group and they partnered them more with like a counselor and had them do regular counseling sessions. It was a 10-15-week study and at the end of it they found that the people who used their neighbors were happier.I think there’s something to that because by having these professional colleagues that you can reach out to when you need to and you can have this professional and yet a fluid relationship where you can also reach out to them and not just have these really strict boundaries and adherence to professionalism at all times.
Having Close Relationships With The Advisory Board
Luis CongdonBy creating that little thing that you did with the advisory board where you can reach out to them and that was something you could do, it develops a little bit more of intimate and closer.Would you say that that’s true?
Shannon Wilburn Luis, I could not agree more.I got to tell you I know that I was talking about my advisory board just a minute ago and that’s a group of four businessmen who would collectively have a vast franchising knowledge.But what I was missing because I’m a female in the franchising space which there is not many C- level executives in the franchising space, they’re just harder to find.
The Advisory Board Lets You – Expanding Your Network
Shannon Wilburn I found myself not only wanting camaraderie and knowledge with businessmen but really what the struggles are for businesswomen in particular.Couple of years ago, this is before I started the advisory board or kind of in tandem with the advisory board, I look at it completely differently though.
Having A Lifeline With The Advisory Group
Shannon Wilburn I have the advisory group called the advanced group. It is a group of women C-level executives in the franchising space. We started with three then we had nine the next year. We have a little get together once a year and then this next year, our event is happening in the end of November and it is fourteen people this year. It is composed of women, C-level executives.It’s not for me to send them updates on what Just Between Friends is doing and have them give me advice. It’s really “Hey! How’s your life going?” It’s because what you said at the very beginning of your podcast “It is lonely at the top.”
How The Advisory Groups Help With Depression
Shannon Wilburn I would 100% agree with what you had shared about it helping with things like depression or loneliness.I’m in a texting group with these women. It doesn’t even have to be about business. I t can be about kids or husband or “Hey! I’m looking for a marketing person. Do you know anyone?” or “Hey! I’m getting sued. What do I do?”They have been just a lifeline to me and I would think if you visited with them that they would say that they definitely value the relationships that have been made in that group.
Go Out And Start Forming The Advisory Board Now
Shannon Wilburn I really would suggest that if someone wants to do something like that, don’t wait. There’s no time. Go out and make it happen.
Kamala ChambersDon’t wait. I love that. It is so important.
Having That Connection With The Advisory Board
Kamala ChambersIt’s so easy to put these things off but this is what it’s about when you have the advisory board. It’s feeling that connection, feeling that sense like you are a part of something and you’re not just out there on your own trying to figure it out and feeling your way through the dark.Before we wrap up here, are there any last gems that you want to leave the Thriving Launchers with about having the advisory board?
Shannon Wilburn Sure! I think it would be probably be good for me to say that you don’t want to have an advisory board of all Yes people.
Having An Honest Feedback From The Advisory Board
Shannon Wilburn It would be great if all of them are on the team but sometimes you’ll get people who are an encourager and not that you want someone that’s going to hurt your feelings or anything.It’s really good to have honest feedback especially if you’re paying for it.I have a quick story.
Creating The Advisory Board – Know Where To Focus Your Time
Shannon Wilburn I’ve got someone on my executive team and I took about a month back in January of 2014. I had joined a boot camp and they were doing a quick one month challenge. If you get friends to join, if you attend the classes, if you eat right and post it on the Facebook page, someone’s going to win a two year lease on a brand new Mercedes and I was like “ Well, I would like to drive a Mercedes!”I was travelling and was visiting franchisees. I was in nine different cities in January of 2014. I was travelling two weeks out of the month but every time I was home I was at boot camp. Multiple times a day, I would invite friends. Sometimes I would have eight friends. Over the course of the month, I invited and fifty two people came with me three times and I won the Mercedes.My executive team member said “Wow Shannon! If you were to put that much focus on selling franchises, you would have sold ten franchises.”I was like “Oh my gosh! She’s right.” You need someone to spank you sometimes and bring you back to reality on where you focus your time.
The Advisory Board – People Who Can Speak To You Honestly
Shannon Wilburn I would say don’t just look for “yes” people when you’re looking for an advisory board member. Look for people who can speak into your life honestly and yet be kind.
Luis CongdonThat’s interesting.I was going to say “Do not enter a competition with Shannon. She’ll bring fifty two friends with her.”
Shannon Wilburn It helped that I had training in January so we had franchise centers that were in town. I was like “You want to come to boot camp for your time while you’re still here?”
Luis CongdonI see. You’re using the business to fund that Mercedes. That’s great!I worked with a sales coach for a while and I don’t remember exactly how he phrased the question so I’m going to butcher it a little bit.
The Advisory Board – The Most Valuable Person In Your Business
Luis CongdonHe asked about in a business setting, “Who is the most valuable person? Is it the person who agrees with you and the person that always challenges you or the person that brings new ideas to the table or the person that solves the problems?”I remember telling him I think it’s the person that brings new ideas to the table and can solve problems. He said no. It’s actually the person that can bring challenges up and challenge you and here’s why.It really reminds me of what you were saying there.
The Advisory Board – Someone Who Challenges You
Luis CongdonYou had somebody in your life who challenged you to look it all this energy you’d put into winning this Mercedes and this activity that you’re really into and challenge you to say that “Well, that energy, imagine if you brought that to work. Imagine if you brought that to the recruitment work. Imagine if you brought that to the team.” That’s a very challenging question to be asked. It stings a little bit I would think.
Shannon Wilburn Yes. It was hard to hear but I love feedback. I think it’s a breakfast of champions and even though feedbacks, many times are hard to hear, it makes us better business owners and leaders.
Feedback From The Advisory Board Makes Us Better Business Owners
Luis CongdonThat’s great!I want to end with that note Thriving Launchers. I want to encourage to find somebody in your life to sit down with at some point today or tomorrow. Try to do it this week but I want to challenge you to do it sooner than later. I really want to put the timeline. Do this today.
The Advisory Board – Somebody Who Can Support You
Luis CongdonGo out. Find somebody in your life that you think is really successful or has insight into what you’re up to or your goals and asked them “What do you think I can improve on?” “What do you think I’m doing that maybe that’s holding me back from getting my goals accomplished?” I’m sure they are going to give you a challenge in that response.I want to set you up to have those responses so that you can set the people up in your life to really support you and be the kind of support because you train people around you to teach you and be the kinds of people that you want in your life.Go ask some challenging questions and write us at Thriving Launch and let us know what kind of responses you get when creating the advisory board. Be challenged and until then, we’ll see you in the next episode and keep thriving you all.
