The Strategy for Growing Profitable Revenue as a Leader with Jose Palomino

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Growing profitable revenue is never easy. Having a strategy that can help you achieve it is a powerful tool.

In this episode, Jose shares the strategies he used for growing their profitable revenue.

Jose Palomino is the Founder & CEO of Value Prop Interactive, a company helping B2B companies owners grow profitable revenue.

They work on their clients' strategy and planning. They help their clients figure out what they need, and what they need to do next. Its core strategy is anchored on its clients' value proposition, as the company name implies.

How does Value Prop work at an organizational and leadership level?

In every organization, if you sell something to a market, you have to know first who your market is. Everyone says they know this, but many people don't really know it.

Jose says you have to know what value you're creating for your customers and what it's worth to them. And then how do you set yourself apart as being a unique offer of that value? There are competitors who are doing something similar or close enough in the minds or the eyes of the consumer. So you really have to understand what it is you do best, and what problem(s) you solve.

That's what Value Prop helps organizations think through.

Now, if you're in a leadership position, and if you're building out your career and you want to get into it a little deeper, you have to ask yourself what do you want to be known for, especially to the market.

You can be very intentional as you design your career, and it starts with the same thing organizations do with their people, asking them what their strengths are.

There are people who might be good at something and they don't perceive it as a strength at all. They get stuck in roles that they have an aptitude but no affection for. That's why it's important that you know what your strengths are and what you want to be known for.

It all starts with you and understanding what you do best. When people do what they're naturally talented to do, they excel.

This is something that you can do right away and get a deep understanding of before you get into the next piece, which is all about solving the best problems for your audience.

How should a leader think about who their audience really is?

In leadership, whether somebody is running a task force in a large company or leading a startup of 10 developers, you have two dimensions to keep in mind always. One is your Northstar, where you're going and the other is your foundation, your feet on the ground.

The Northstar is always what you're trying to accomplish not for yourself, but what you're trying to do for your team or organization. Great leaders always use the collective "we" language very well. They create a sense of "we're in this boat together" to be able to reach a goal.

The Northstar is the mission people all agree to do and the grounding has to be on how to empower and enable them.

Jose explains the concept of putting the right people in the right positions.

As a leader, you have to be a good communicator, Jose says. If you have people who are good at something, and you ask them to do that, they're going to be more enthusiastic about it and they're going to be better at it. You're not forcing a square peg into a round hole.

His mentor once told him to never ask a bear to be a ballerina. And this happens all the time. People are not even thinking about their North Star, their mission. They're only thinking about their job and why can't Larry be more like Mary. It's because they're different. And people haven't done a good enough job putting them in positions to be successful.

Sometimes that position to be successful is not within you. Especially in small teams, you have to be able to say that not because they failed morally or ethically, but because they just may not be what is needed for success.

Now, if you share that vision clearly enough, a lot more often than not, those people who are square pegs and round holes self-select out.

So be clear about your value, your audience, and your strengths. If you don't fit in the environment you're in, move to another place that's a better fit. Not everybody's a perfect fit.

How should a leader help people balance their jobs with what they want to be known for?

First, good leaders need to have some sense of organization.

One of the biggest complaints if you've ever done exit interviews, is that oftentimes it's not because they think their boss was evil but they'll say something like they can't get out of their own way.

So organization brings peace and so as a leader, you have a responsibility to create some organization. A sense of organization creates security.

Second, good leaders should be good at communication. Being able to set expectations, being able to let people know, and not be afraid to have hard conversations. There's an adage that a pastor at a church once said which is say what you mean, mean what you say but don't say it mean.

It frames so many meetings. If you start off with you need transparency, you have to say what you mean. If you need honesty, you need to mean what you say but there's no need for you to say it mean. You're just trying to figure this out.

A good leader also has to give people hope and encouragement. Jose believes good leaders know how to be natural encouragers.

These are the things that can be done to be able to balance people's jobs and what they want to be known for. But you have to attack it with intention. You have to be mindful of these things and do them on purpose. Otherwise, you may miss it, even as well-intentioned as you are.

There are problems inside the organization that exists across these three areas: organization, communication, and encouragement.

Each of these could be viewed as a problem in and of itself but if you become known for solving these kinds of problems, then the opportunities will be there. And that would be a huge demonstration and you could be known as someone who brings tremendous organization.

Sometimes people have jobs where they just have to do what they have to do. And that's okay. Do it with integrity and do your best anyway, because you might learn something new. But there may be opportunities to carve out where you want to be. Do that intentionally because life's too short and too long at the same time. Do that on purpose and you'll see some really great results.

What advice would Jose give his younger self?

He would tell his younger self to pay more attention to the people.

It always comes down to what people want to do and what they're willing to do. Getting people on the same page in the same direction as you will make you unstoppable.

Where can people find out more about Jose or connect with him?

If you want to talk to Jose, you can go to josepalomino.com. If you want to learn about the work that Value Prop does as a company, you could go to valueprop.com.