How We Built a Real Strategic Plan Starting From Bar Napkins and Happy Hours (Dave Hokanson PART TWO)

How We Built a Real Strategic Plan Starting From Bar Napkins and Happy Hours (Dave Hokanson PART TWO)

We've been doing strategic planning for a couple of decades now. And I'll be honest, for most of that time, I didn't even know that's what we were calling it. It was happy hours and bar napkins and whiteboards and somebody saying "can you email that photo out?" And somehow that turned into running a company. This episode is part two of my conversation with Dave Hokanson and Katie Brooks about how strategic planning has evolved at Lake Superior Consulting and now Manic Energy. We get into the real stuff: what it looked like when we were just guessing, what it cost us when we kept doing the same things and hoping for different results, and what we're actually doing differently now. Dave's been with LSC long enough to watch the whole evolution, and Katie's been deep in the communication and rollout side of it. This one is a ground-level look at what strategic planning actually feels like from inside a growing company. KEY THEMES + TAKEAWAYS Strategic planning started informally for us, complaints at happy hour turning into ideas turning into action, and it worked until the company got too big for that to scale. The difference between an ideal and an objective matters more than most people realize. If you can't measure whether you got there, it's probably an ideal, and chasing it will always feel like you're behind. "Measure backwards" is a concept from Dan Sullivan that I keep coming back to. Looking at how far you've come matters as much as where you're going. The value/effort matrix changed how we prioritize. Easy wins first, big bets when you're ready, and some things just live in the money pit forever. Asking "what should we stop doing?" was probably the most useful question we added to our planning process this year. People had answers. Real ones. Hope is not a strategy. I've said it a lot and I believe it more every year. The goal right now is to get our entire direction down to something as simple as "will it make the boat go faster?" so every person in our organization can use it to make decisions every single day. OUR FAVORITE QUOTES "Hope is not a strategy. Hope is not a good business plan." "What happens to a horizon as you approach it? It's still a horizon." "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." "I want somebody to get better and really good at strategic planning and delivering results, and then they should probably be doing my job." "We went from investing nothing to investing a lot of time, energy, and thought. And we're planning on it paying dividends." CHAPTER MARKERS 0:37 From bar napkins to business plans 7:33 When strategy was a secret 8:11 The publicly traded company education 15:18 Ideals vs. objectives and measuring backwards 18:51 The value/effort matrix 31:13 Defining the market, the customer, and the plan 40:56 Will it make the boat go faster? YOUR TURN What's one thing your team is spending real time and energy on that probably belongs in the money pit? And what would open up if you stopped doing it? LINKS & MENTIONS Lake Superior Consulting – https://www.lsconsulting.com/ [https://www.lsconsulting.com/]   🔥 If this episode sparked something for you, please follow the show, leave a review, or share it with a friend MB01YQZZIKYT4AJ

The Deal That Fell Apart and Came Back Together with Dave Hokanson (PART 1)

Twenty years of working alongside someone teaches you things you never expected to learn. This episode is one I've been wanting to do for a while. Dave Hokanson is my business partner, and we've been working together for almost two decades, but somehow there were still pieces of his story I'd never heard. So Katie Brooks and I sat down with him to dig into how he got here, from a kid fixing snowmobiles in his driveway to where we are today running LSC together. Dave's path wasn't a straight line. Mechanical drafting, a summer at Marvin Windows throwing two by fours at hurricane test windows, then back to school for industrial engineering right here in Duluth. He landed at LSC as employee number six after four rounds of interviews, and what followed was almost a decade in the field on massive pipeline projects, then nine years embedded with a client before coming back to LSC full time. We also got into the harder stuff. What it actually felt like buying this company together. The deal that fell apart on a Friday night and somehow turned into the deal that worked. What ownership means when you're young and don't fully understand what you signed up for. And what we're hoping this company looks like long after we're not the ones running it. KEY THEMES AND TAKEAWAYS Dave's early influences, his dad's work ethic, the family machine shop background, and how that shaped his approach to every job since The reality of being an embedded consultant for nine years and what that taught him about relationships and trust The story of our management buyout, including the moment the original deal fell through and how that turned into something better What it actually feels like to have skin in the game as an owner, even when you don't fully understand it yet Why employee ownership matters to both of us and what we're working toward for our team Why growing a company profitably is so much harder than just growing it OUR FAVORITE QUOTES "Read the user manual. Figure it out yourself." "There's no real way I can go manufacture that situation with integrity. It's got to come to you." "It doesn't matter how small it is, it's still a piece of the business and ownership in the business." "The energy we put into it is going to be relative to the benefit we get out of it." "I think it's really important to have perspective on what success looks like, because you can only say I just want to survive for so long before you need a vision and a plan." CHAPTER MARKERS 01:03 Dave's early years and the pull toward mechanical things 03:22 Marvin Windows and the hurricane test lab 05:27 Becoming employee number six at LSC 13:31 Nine years embedded and what it taught him about trust 24:29 The buyout, the Friday night call, and how it almost didn't happen 40:00 The Freeze and Nichols conversation and rethinking legacy 51:38 What's ahead for LSC and the people behind it YOUR TURN This week's reflection: think about someone you've worked alongside for years. Is there a piece of their story you've never asked about? What might you learn if you did? LINKS & MENTIONS Lake Superior Consulting – https://www.lsconsulting.com/ [https://www.lsconsulting.com/]   🔥 If this episode sparked something for you, please follow the show, leave a review, or share it with a friend MB01LWIBQH0ANYK

Operating in the Unknown: Business Lessons from the OR with Dr. Cyrus Press

What happens when the person who knows your hunting stories, your late-night bourbon debates, and your family inside and out also happens to be one of the sharpest business minds you know? You stop taking it for granted and start recording. This week, Katie and I sat down with Dr. Cyrus Press, my brother-in-law and one of the people I've learned the most from over the years. Cyrus is a practicing orthopedic surgeon specializing in shoulder and elbow disorders, 13 years deep in private practice in Northern Virginia. He flew the family up to Duluth for spring break, because apparently we've fully convinced him that this is the Saint Lucia of the North. What I didn't expect was how much this conversation would mirror everything we talk about on this show. Talent retention, partnership friction, building systems, figuring out your real why. He's living all of it, just in scrubs instead of a boardroom. KEY THEMES + TAKEAWAYS The private practice model in medicine is under real pressure, and the parallels to running any small business are striking Nobody trains doctors to run companies. Cyrus built his business instincts entirely on the fly, and that curiosity became a serious edge Pay gets people in the door. It doesn't keep them. People stay where they feel like they matter The "moving walkway" of career specialization: you don't plan to become a shoulder surgeon. You just keep making one good decision at a time AI is leveling the doctor-patient conversation, not replacing it. The more informed the patient, the better the outcome Partnership is one of the hardest things in business. You're never really rowing in perfect sync, but the ones who keep trying to are still winning The future belongs to robotics for precision and biologics for healing without cutting OUR FAVORITE QUOTES "Surgery is most of the time the last option. The goal is to make them better." "I have had zero business training. I've learned it all on the fly." "The only ship that doesn't float is a partnership." "When that synergy happens between a doctor and a patient, that's when the outcomes are the best." CHAPTER MARKERS 00:00 Welcome to the Chaos 03:17 Why Shoulders? 08:09 The Moving Walkway 17:12 Private Practice vs. The System 25:37 Running a Business Nobody Trained You For 36:59 The Meeting After the Meeting 49:21 Robots, Biology, and What's Next YOUR TURN Where in your career are you still on the moving walkway, trusting the path even when you can't see exactly where it's taking you? CONNECT WITH CYRUS Personal website: www.cyruspressmd.com [http://www.cyruspressmd.com] Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics bio: https://www.cfaortho.com/our-doctors/11/Cyrus_M._Press,_M.D [https://www.cfaortho.com/our-doctors/11/Cyrus_M._Press,_M.D]. Email: cpressmd@cfaortho.com [cpressmd@cfaortho.com] Links & Mentions: Lake Superior Consulting – https://www.lsconsulting.com/ [https://www.lsconsulting.com/]   🔥 If this episode sparked something for you, please follow the show, leave a review, or share it with a friend

How APEX Is Putting Northeast Minnesota on the Global Map w/ Rachel Johnson

What if the secret ingredient to growing an entire regional economy wasn't a policy or a tax incentive — but a person? A curious, quietly relentless human who just keeps showing up, connecting dots, and refusing to let northeast Minnesota be a flyover? That's the energy Rachel Johnson brings to her role as President and CEO of APEX — and this conversation left me genuinely fired up about what's possible right here in our backyard. Rachel's path is anything but linear. Raised on the North Shore by environmentalist teachers in a passive solar house, she went from shy kindergartner to transmission analyst, chamber membership director, real estate developer, pipeline crossing coordinator, and PR lead — before landing as the third CEO in APEX's 23-year history. The thread running through all of it? Pure curiosity, and a willingness to throw herself in before she has all the answers. What We Get Into: Why diversifying the regional economy means connecting industries most people never think to link — like helium mining and MRI machines How film production is actually manufacturing — and why that reframe changes everything about workforce, investment, and incentives What it's really like to walk into a state capitol hearing on behalf of businesses who don't have time to be there The trade mission to Switzerland and Germany — and the sustainable aviation fuel deal being built between a German company and a northeast Minnesota timber producer Why APEX is now linking arms with economic development orgs across the entire state to pitch Minnesota as one unified economy Favorite Quotes: "If you have concerns about something, get involved — so you can see what's actually going on, and put your purpose into making sure it gets done right." "Things are grown or they're mined. We just don't think about that when we pick up our iPhones." "We're not trying to recruit a thousand-person company. We have a history of being makers, builders, and good stewards of our land." Chapter Markers:  00:00 — The kid who barely talked becomes the connector  02:57 — Passive solar, pine trees, and a non-linear career  07:08 — Real estate, Enbridge, and the full circle of energy  16:46 — What APEX actually does  26:00 — Robots, film studios, and the industries nobody expects  36:45 — Inside a state capitol hearing  41:31 — Trade missions and linking arms statewide Your Turn: Where are you staying on the sidelines of something — because you don't feel ready, or it doesn't fit how you see yourself? What would it look like to just show up anyway? About Rachel Johnson & APEX Rachel Johnson is the President & CEO of APEX — the Area Partnership for Economic Expansion — a private sector-led economic development organization serving northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin.  Since 2003, APEX has impacted over 4,340 jobs in the region and contributed to over $24.5 million annually in state and local taxes. Rachel leads the charge on business attraction, regional advocacy, and connecting the people and industries that make the Northland grow. LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/apex-area-partnership-for-economic-expansion] Learn more at https://apexgetsbusiness.com/ Links & Mentions: Lake Superior Consulting – https://www.lsconsulting.com/ [https://www.lsconsulting.com/]   🔥 If this episode sparked something for you, please follow the show, leave a review, or share it with a friend MB01BPBLPC7FNES

Resilience, Not Dependency: A CEO-to-CEO Conversation on People, Culture, and Growth

What makes a company truly healthy, the balance sheet, the products, or the people inside it? I've been asking myself that question a lot lately, and this conversation cracked something open for me. I'll be honest, Derek and I barely knew each other before this. We'd bumped into each other a few times at holiday parties through my partner Anne Lang at Lake Superior Consulting. But one pre-show call turned into an hour and a half of, "wait, you deal with that too?" That's the kind of conversation that reminds you why expanding your circle outside your own industry matters. Derek is the CEO of CuraLinc, one of the largest Employee Assistance Programs in the United States, serving 22 million people across 200 countries with a team of 700 and a network of 90,000 mental health professionals. What makes them different isn't just scale. It's that when you call CuraLinc, a licensed clinical therapist answers the phone in nine seconds. We went deep on mental health, leadership, performance, empathy, and the thing no one really talks about: how much of the performance problems in your company might actually be yours. Key Themes + Takeaways Mental health lives on a spectrum. Life stressors build into mental health challenges which can evolve into diagnosable illness.  Answering the phone in nine seconds isn't just a metric, it's a philosophy. When 20% of your callers are in some form of crisis, you can't afford to route the "easy" calls first.  Resiliency, not dependency. One of the things Derek said that stayed with me: we're starting to create mental illness out of life stressors instead of building resiliency.  Low performance is almost never incompetence. When I hear that framed so cleanly, it's disarming.  The fish stinks from the head down. The challenges showing up in your organization are often reflections of you as a leader, your priorities, your behaviors, your blind spots.  Empathy for the individual, accountability to the collective. This is the real tension. Being too compassionate to one person can quietly hurt the entire team.  Stop chasing margins, start chasing value. Whether you're selling EAP services or energy consulting, the revenue you command should reflect the value you create, not your cost structure. Our Favorite Quotes "It's almost never incompetence. It's almost always misalignment." "Your job is to have empathy for the individual and manage the performance of the collective." "We're creating mental illness out of life stressors instead of resiliency." "When somebody starts to underperform, I'm maniacally myopic — I have my top five and that's all I'm working on." "The fish stinks from the head down. The challenges in your organization are often a reflection of you as a leader." Chapter Markers 00:00 — What Makes a Healthy Company? 07:10 — What CuraLinc Does (And Why Nine Seconds Changes Everything) 11:00 — Life Stressors, Resiliency, and Getting People the Right Care 18:28 — The Hulk Story: When Derek Got the Feedback He Needed 24:30 — How to Lead Through Performance Problems Without Losing the Human 36:00 — The Mirror Moment: When the Problem Is You 43:40 — Innovation, EBITDA, and Why Value Is Not Your Cost Structure Your Turn This week's reflection: Where are you addressing the symptom instead of the problem — with your team, in your business, or with yourself? Links & Mentions: Lake Superior Consulting – https://www.lsconsulting.com/ [https://www.lsconsulting.com/]   🔥 If this episode sparked something for you, please follow the show, leave a review, or share it with a friend MB01N2FPFSRRSCG