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[EO Chicago] Delegate, Elevate, Transform: Unlocking EOS® With Kevin Hundal

Kevin Hundal

Kevin HundalKevin Hundal is a Certified EOS Implementer® with a rich background in entrepreneurship spanning over 20 years. He has built, scaled, and pivoted multiple companies, encountering unique challenges in areas such as people management, process optimization, cash flow, and leadership. Since 2009, Kevin has been employing the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS®) in his various ventures, gaining critical insights into the advantages and challenges of running a business with and without EOS®.

Beyond his business acumen, Kevin has a talent for energizing teams and fostering a culture of collaboration. He specializes in breaking through operational ceilings by creating a unified team environment where each member can contribute in a meaningful way. With experience mentoring over 60 companies to achieve the $1 million mark and boasting an average client growth rate exceeding 15% year-over-year, Kevin focuses on instilling a blend of vision, traction, and health within businesses, irrespective of their size or industry.


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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • Kevin Hundal shares why he joined EO and how he became a Certified EOS Implementer®
  • The value of having an accountability chart
  • How Kevin implemented EOS® in his manufacturing business
  • The benefits of bringing in a Certified EOS Implementer®
  • What are the six key components of EOS®?
  • The process of implementing the EOS® model
  • How Kevin helps multigenerational businesses
  • Resolving internal issues in family-run businesses
  • How to turn friction points into breakthroughs
  • Kevin talks about how he navigated an 18-partner organization

In this episode…

Are you tired of seeing wasted potential in your organization? Ever wonder how to unlock the true capabilities of your team members while accelerating business growth? If so, this episode is your key to transformation.

Implementing the concept of playing to your strengths in a business setting requires a systematic approach. According to leading EOS® expert Kevin Hundal, strategically aligning team members with roles tailored to their strengths and passions not only fuels individual performance but also acts as a catalyst for organizational success.

In this episode of the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Certified EOS Implementer® Kevin Hundal to discuss how you can delegate, elevate, and transform your organization using the EOS® system. They explore effective ways to manage human energy, how to identify tasks that should be outsourced or automated, and why focusing on your team’s unique abilities can lead to rapid growth. Tune in to learn practical strategies for maximizing your organization’s potential.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sponsor for this episode…

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Episode Transcript

Intro  0:03  

Welcome to the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast where we feature top founders and entrepreneurs and their journey. Now let’s get started with the show.

Jeremy Weisz  0:13  

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, founder of inspiredinsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today is no different. I’ve Kevin Hundal. And we’re gonna go through Kevin exactly what you do. He’s run successful businesses. He does EOS implementation for businesses. And so we’re gonna get deep into that. And before I formally introduce you, Kevin, I like to always point out other episodes, people should check out of the podcast and since we’re gonna be talking all things EOS, I think people can check out the interview I did with Gino Wickman. It was really good. He wrote Traction. That was really good episode. Mark Winters, who authored Rocket Fuel, who co authored that with Gino Wickman. That’s a good episode. Also, Kevin has been the EOS or in the EO sphere for a long time, over almost over 15 years. And so we’ve had some awesome EO people on Ethan King, Co founder of Zeus Closet, Robert Hartline, founder of Call Proof. And also just a big thank you to Tom Ranas, who we would not be on this call, maybe we would, because we’ve actually met in different circles, but he really introduced us to make sure that this happened and you shared your your expertise on here. So we’ll talk about that too. But before I formally introduce Kevin, this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect their dream 100 relationships and partnerships, and how do we do that? We actually help you run your podcasts are an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast, we do the strategy, the accountability and the full execution. So Kevin, we kind of call ourselves the magic elves that are running in the background and make it look easy for the host in the company. You know, for me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. And I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships. And I found no better way over the past decade to profile the people and companies I most admire on this planet and share what they’re working on. And I started actually Kevin speak like a YPO EO event. Kevin and and then Tom introduced us I’m like, done deal. He’s amazing, you know, so if you can have him speak to your group, ask him, you know, he just deliver so much value. So without further ado, Kevin handles an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience building scaling, pivoting multiple companies. And since 2009, Kevin has been using EOS in his various companies, which has given him really valuable insights and about the benefits of running a business in the US. And the challenges of running one without EOS. And Kevin helps his clients achieve their goals by fostering a culture of collaboration and growth, and ultimately creating kind of a unified team where each team member can contribute in a meaningful way. And he’s going to dig deeper into that, and helping the break through ceilings and increased collaboration. So Kevin, thanks for joining me.

Kevin Hundal  3:04  

Yeah, Jeremy, I appreciate it. And thank you for having me. You know, number one is always have been inspired by podcasts and folks running podcasts when I came across your business. Like you mentioned, we’ve met several times, but didn’t really know what you did until Tom introduced us. And I jumped in and saw the site. And I was really inspired by that gift of allowing people to tell their stories. So thank you for having me on here today. I really appreciate that from my heart. I’ll kind of go back to my journey and kind of how I gotten to where I am today. Naturally common playground for both of us is EO which is Entrepreneurs Organization of Chicago. And I actually joined that organization in 2007. Through the program called accelerator, which accelerator is essentially the feeder program that allows you to get the tools you need and the network and the connections, you need to scale your business to a million dollars to join EO. So that’s kind of where my journey with EOS started in 2009. I remember joining the organization, I was blown away by the intelligence by the open mindedness of people, and the willingness to help one another. And, you know, I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out my business. I was about five years into my manufacturing distribution company Atrend and at that time, and not knowing what to do, right? Cash flow was a problem. You know, it felt like we were being choked, because there’s no oxygen because of that profitability was an issue. And it was just chaotic. And I’m saying this to an Eo member, and they go, Hey, have you heard of Gino Wickman before? I’m like, No, I know who’s Gino Wickman? They’re like, Oh, he’s an EO member in Detroit. And he wrote this book called Traction, dude, I think you should read it and he handed me the book. A friend of mine at that time I read the book, I ate it up. I just fell in love with it. And really, that was the evolution of what has brought me to where I’m at today and really allowed me to kind of scale my business and grow my business which is also a family business, the manufacturing distribution company, and get really healthy and what we were trying to do. And due to that I became a EOS implementer. Right. So there’s this whole journey of how that came to light. But really, it’s EO that gave me that gift, which, which is, you know, as you and I have intersecting paths here, as I think back on it, that’s where it all started for me.

Jeremy Weisz  5:21  

Talk about, you know, we can kind of talk about this parallel journey, your EOS journey and your entrepreneur journey. Talk a little bit about you implementing EOS into your manufacturing business. And we can, you know, walk through some of the challenges you had of the implementing and some of the high points too.

Kevin Hundal  5:21  

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, what it would seem to be always was, is that we were having to work so hard to get the results that we needed in our business. So it’s like, we’re working 10 times harder than we needed. I felt that and I knew it. And you had concepts, right? It’s kind of like, you go to an EO venue to hear some speakers speak. And you come back with all these tools, and you throw them on the table in your team be like, Okay, what is all this about now? Like, what’s the next flavor of the month Kevin’s gonna bring after an event, you probably know some of those feelings, right? We hear these great stories from these inspirational people. And I kept doing that. But what kept happening is we bring something in, it wouldn’t stick, it would die off, and then I’d go to another yoga and I’d bring something else it wouldn’t stick and it would die off. And EO, when I read, sorry, EOS. When I read the book Traction, it was like, wow, this is a system. Like this is what I’ve needed, like an operating system on my computer, we need a system to run and manage our business. And at that time, as I mentioned, you know, my brothers who now run the company, were in the company with me, and it was just defragmented. Right, we were doing so much and not getting the results that we needed in EOS and reading traction really brought three things to life for me, which, you know, we call vision, traction and healthy vision. Number one, we were able to get all the human energy driving in the same direction, which we never did, right, the vision was in my head. And in the other folks on leadership teams had they had their own eyes on the vision, it looked different than mine and theirs and we had to get connected. To really get on the same page, I kind of use the analogy of like, if you’re on a canoe, there’s one canoe going left, there’s one going round, the other one’s like tipped over and like screaming for help. That was kind of us because we didn’t have a clear vision. But reading Traction allowed us to get our vision on paper in a simplified way, which then allowed us to gain traction, right, and traction was all about actually setting up priorities and goals, setting disciplines and accountability to ensure that we would execute on those goals and then celebrating the successes that we had. So we were able to bring Traction in and then healthy, which was really about getting a culture that’s collaborative, that people love to come to the office, and they enjoy the work that we we do together. And I you know, I’ll bring you all three of those together allowed us to implement the system of EOS. And in that journey. You know, in EOS we call it the accountability chart, which you can consider as the org chart on steroids, right. It’s an accountability chart that’s internal for an organization, we’re all wearing multiple hats, and one of the first things that we’re able to do as we brought the system into the business is get really clear on our accountability chart. And who was responsible for what right as you can imagine, business is hard enough, yet alone family businesses even actually present more dynamics of, you know, the emotion and the relationship factor that comes in, but piercing through who was responsible, providing getting each of us in our unique ability was just a gift for everyone. Because we could actually take a sigh of relief and say, while I’m doing the things I love to do, I’m great at and now I can maximise on it. And so we self implemented EOS in our business we bought in an implementer in 2015 that helped us and what I recognize there was it’s hard to be in a system and see the system clearly right EOS talks about this concept of we’re in the system, we’re very emotional and bound by our businesses, it’s hard to see it. Now you bring an outside person in that helps you kind of clarify things. And that was really the start of our journey, which allowed me to essentially now exit the business and really solely focus on my us practice.

Jeremy Weisz  9:18  

What were some of the challenges you faced, self implementing? Obviously, eventually, you brought in someone in 2015. I love to hear about some challenges, but also what made you decide to bring someone else in? Right, because you’ve probably been self implementing for a while.

Kevin Hundal  9:34  

Yeah, we were self implementing for about five and a half, six years. And it’s just like, you know, I liken it to being on the front stage of the opera, right, like you’re on the front stage in front of the curtain. We just see the front stage and what’s going on, but we don’t know all the stuff that’s going on behind the stage simultaneously at the same time and, you know, getting into the books and understanding and we’re able to get I would say about 35 or 40% Strong in the six key components of EOS, and you would read blogs and talk to others, and it was like, alright, well, you can be 35 or 40% strong, but you really get 80% or 100% strong. In the six key components you need a professional who has actually the toolbox behind the curtain to open up that for you in our struggles with it was is number one, you know, we only we self taught the tools to ourselves. So we only knew what we knew from reading the books and reading blogs. So number one is we never knew the depth of what the tool can give us. Number two was its accountability, right? Things get busy, meetings get cancelled, things get changed. And it’s no different than having a trainer with the gym. Right? You got to show up on time you got to do the reps, you got to be there.

Jeremy Weisz  10:47  

There’s nothing like external accountability.

Kevin Hundal  10:49  

Yeah, so the external accountability with a implementer coming in, I think it changes change the mindset, right? The minute we had to write a check to get somebody to hold us accountable. It’s like, alright, we got to show up now. So I think those are two big things for us. Right. It just allowed the onus to get removed off of me and be a contributor in the system as opposed to the person trying to run it coach and facilitator for my team.

Jeremy Weisz  11:15  

Yeah, I want you to talk a little about the six key components. I do want to give a shout out to Rafi Arbel who’s also an EO, of Market JD. You talk about accountability. I was like, wanting to work out yesterday, and I’m like, I think I’m gonna fall off the wagon. So I called Rafi I’m like, you want to work out with me? He’s like, sure. I probably he doesn’t know like this, but I probably wouldn’t have worked on like, I just need you there. Plus it was fun to do with someone else but so you helped hold hold me accountable to working out yesterday but Market JD for helps lawyer so.

Kevin Hundal  11:52  

You guys hit the gym together? What was the workout? Exactly?

Jeremy Weisz  11:56  

We just did a you know, like a circuit training of five different exercises and sweat a little bit and talk business a little bit. So it was great,

Kevin Hundal  12:05  

Rafi. He’s a great guy. And as I’ve gotten to know him actually much more the last six months than anytime he was in the UI. I don’t even know how long he’s been there last six months, we’ve crossed pads quite a bit and really insightful and fun, fun, fun person.
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