Welcome back to CardCast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Core Customers

Do you know who your core customer really is?

Most companies think they do. Many are wrong. Early on, it’s common to take any customer who will buy. Revenue feels sacred. But over time, this creates a portfolio full of customers who are hard to please, expensive to serve, and misaligned with what the business does best.

Not all customers are worth the same effort. Teams often pour disproportionate energy into the least happy customers, trying to rescue the 2’s and 3’s. At best, they become 4’s. Meanwhile, the 5’s, the customers you already know how to serve well, are neglected.

Those are the ones who can become 6’s and 7’s: repeat buyers, referrers, and advocates who grow your business with far less friction.

A core customer is not a company. It’s a person. Someone who is profitable to serve and enjoyable to work with. They understand your value, are willing to pay your premium, come back again and again, and happily recommend you to others.

This often leads to an uncomfortable conclusion: some customers should be let go. Many businesses discover that 10–20% of their customers actually cost money once all effort is accounted for.

Sunsetting those relationships, gracefully, frees up time, energy, and people to focus on the customers that matter most. Do the work to define your core customer. Then double down. The shift is challenging, but the payoff is immediate and lasting.

Key-Card points:

• Not all customers are worth equal effort

• A core customer is a person, not a company

• Let go of non-core customers

• Doubling down on the right customer will lead to faster growth

Links & Resources

• Core Customer

• Veverka.ca

Connect with Milan

• Veverka.ca

• LinkedIn

Connect with Ged

• Crystalyzer.com

• LinkedIn

CardCast is produced by Lovemore Media.

Welcome back to CardCast! Today, we’re going to be talking about The 1-3-1 Principle

Do you ever feel like your day disappears into answering questions, making small decisions, and unblocking things your team should be able to handle?

When you’re the one everyone relies on for answers, being “helpful” can quietly turn into becoming the bottleneck.

The 1-3-1 Principle is a simple but powerful leadership tool that changes how problems are brought forward. Instead of arriving with a question alone, people come with:

• 1 clearly defined problem

• 3 solutions they’ve already thought through

• 1 recommendation they believe is best.

The focus shifts from asking for answers to demonstrating judgment and ownership.

Shifting from “builder of the thing” to “builder of the team” creates leverage, improves decision quality, and frees leaders to work on what truly requires their perspective.

The 1-3-1 Principle is about developing people who can think, decide, and act with confidence, so leaders can step out of the weeds and into the work of leading.

Key-Card points:

• Being the answer creates a bottleneck

• Asking “What do you recommend?” builds ownership.

• Leaders evaluate judgment, not just solutions.

• Teams grow more confident and proactive.

Links & Resources

• The 1-3-1 Principle

• Veverka.ca

Connect with Milan

• Veverka.ca

• LinkedIn

Connect with Ged

• Crystalyzer.com

• LinkedIn

CardCast is produced by Lovemore Media.

Welcome back to Cardcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Where Did All The Money Go?

Are you growing year after year yet still wondering, “Where did all the money go?”

Many founder-led companies celebrate revenue wins while their bank balance quietly tells a much harder truth. Without clear visibility into the financial mechanics of the business, success can feel like running faster just to stay in the same place, or worse, slipping backward.

It becomes especially problematic when founders operate reactively: looking at financial results only after they’ve already happened. At that point, the numbers are no longer guidance; they’re a report card. And a painful one. Revenue may suggest progress, but if no cash is left in the bank, the model isn’t working the way you think it is.

The encouraging news is this: once you surface the real financial signals and put a cash-focused system in place, the mystery evaporates quickly. You begin to see which decisions generate return… and which quietly drain resources month after month.

A profitable business isn’t just one that sells well; it’s one where the CEO can confidently say the effort, investment, and risk are creating wealth, not eroding it.

Key-Card points:

• Strong revenue doesn’t guarantee cash

• Labor inefficiencies and delayed performance decisions quietly erode profit

• Growth consumes cash before it returns

• Annual accounting is too late

• Healthy businesses produce wealth and sustain the CEO

Links & Resources

• Where Did All The Money Go?

• Veverka.ca

Connect with Milan

• Veverka.ca

• LinkedIn

Connect with Ged

• Crystalyzer.com

• LinkedIn

CardCast is produced by Lovemore Media.

Welcome back to Cardcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about To Plan Or Not To Plan.

That’s the question… again. There’s a popular take floating around that planning is a waste of time because things always change, especially in early-stage companies.

Sure, no plan survives first contact with reality. But to jump from that to “planning is useless” is a leap over a very important distinction.

Plans rarely come true exactly as written. They aren’t meant to. The real value is in the planning: imagining where you want to go, working backward from that future to today, and making deliberate decisions based on that direction.

As Greg Crabtree put it: “He who aims at nothing hits it with amazing accuracy.”

Good planning assumes change. It gives you a baseline so that when new information inevitably shows up, and it most certainly will, you can adjust early instead of scrambling at the end.

Strategy, planning, and plans are not interchangeable. Strategy defines how you’ll win. Planning is the process of turning that into a path. And the plan is simply today’s best guess at that path.

Be stubborn about the goal. Be flexible about the details. Because without a plan, the plane flies you, and that’s not a strategy.

Key-Card points:

• Plans will change, planning is what matters

• Start with the future goal and work backward

• Strategy = how you win. Planning = mapping the path

• Be stubborn about the goal, flexible about the plan

Links & Resources

• To Plan Or Not To Plan

• Veverka.ca

Connect with Milan

• Veverka.ca

• LinkedIn

Connect with Ged

• Crystalyzer.com

• LinkedIn

CardCast is produced by Lovemore Media.

Welcome back to Cardcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Reviews, Ratings, & Feedback.

When I talk to leaders and teams about “reviews,” I know exactly what comes to mind. Traditional performance reviews are dreaded, confusing, often tied only to raises, and frankly, mostly useless.

They take a ton of energy and produce almost nothing helpful. So I make it clear from the beginning: we are not doing performance reviews, we are doing coaching reviews.

I always pair coaching reviews with consistent one-on-one leadership. Feedback works best when it happens frequently and close to the moment it matters. I love the way color ratings make expectations visible: red means something is not working and we need a real conversation, green means good, and super green deserves recognition.

The most powerful rating is yellow, or as I explain it now, good for now. It signals that things are working today, and that we still need to talk to make sure they continue to work as the business grows. There is no element of surprise, no fear, just clarity and collaboration.

And when we do this right, the team feels supported, coaching becomes simple, and reviews take minutes instead of hours. The goal is not to avoid difficult conversations but to create a structure that makes them easier and more constructive.

Coaching reviews are a right of every team member and one of the easiest ways to build alignment, improvement, and momentum. So I ask leaders: how are you giving feedback, and what opportunities are you creating for your team to help you grow, too?

Key-Card points:

• Are traditional performance reviews ineffective?

• How scorecards create clear expectations for each role.

• The ideal review cadence for real improvement

• Eliminating surprise through frequent coaching

Links & Resources

• Reviews, Ratings, & Feedback

• Veverka.ca

Connect with Milan

• Veverka.ca

• LinkedIn

Connect with Ged

• Crystalyzer.com

• LinkedIn

CardCast is produced by Lovemore Media.

Welcome back to Cardcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about The Good News About Good News.

When I start a meeting, I always begin with good news, and I insist my clients do the same. Starting with positivity sets the tone for the rest of the conversation. Whether it’s personal or professional, it invites people to bring their energy, humanity, and optimism into the room. A meeting that begins on a high note naturally continues with more openness, creativity, and engagement.

The bad news? Not everyone embraces it right away. I’ve heard every version of “I don’t have any good news” or “it’s hard to come up with something every day.” But that’s exactly the point! It forces you to look for the good, even when it’s not obvious.

Over time, this trains your brain to think creatively instead of reactively, and that shift is where real performance begins.

What I love most about good news is how it strengthens relationships. You learn what matters to your teammates, what they’re proud of, what they care about, what’s happening in their lives. That builds empathy and trust, two ingredients you can’t fake.

I’ve seen teams transform from reserved and disconnected to open, cohesive, and genuinely supportive, all because they began to share a bit more of themselves each time they met.

And here’s the deeper magic: good news is one of the best ways to live your Core Values. When someone recognizes a colleague for acting on a value, it reinforces that those words on the wall actually mean something.

So if you’re still wondering how to start your meetings, here’s my advice: start with good news. Every time. It’s the simplest leadership tool with the biggest return.

Key-Card points:

• Starting with good news lifts the energy in the room

• The point isn’t perfection, it’s building the habit

• These moments reveal character, values, and shared humanity

• Good news reinforces culture and values

Links & Resources

• The Good News About Good News

• Veverka.ca

Connect with Milan

• Veverka.ca

• LinkedIn

Connect with Ged

• Crystalyzer.com

• LinkedIn

CardCast is produced by Lovemore Media.

Welcome back to Cardcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Function Scorecards

What is the purpose of Function Scorecards?

A scorecard is meant to define the outcomes of a function, not to evaluate an individual’s personal performance. The key is understanding that the scorecard describes what a function within the organization is accountable for, not what one person does.

This distinction helps prevent confusion and ensures that accountability is distributed correctly across the organization.

Function Scorecards are one of the most powerful tools in the Metronomics system. I’ve been called a Scorecard Stickler—fair. I’ll take it. Because once you have clear scorecards, everything changes: hiring becomes easier, accountability sharper, and growth more intentional.

Here’s the golden rule: build scorecards around functions, not people. It’s tempting to design them around whoever currently holds the role, but that limits your perspective. Step back from what you have and define what you need. Start with the mission, identify the competencies, and finally, add the metrics.

Every function in your organization should have its own scorecard, including yours as CEO. Whether you’re hiring, restructuring, or conducting reviews, you’ll always know what “good” looks like and how to measure it.

Key-Card points:

• Even experts need structure

• Scorecards are foundational

• Scorecards should evolve

• The focus is on the needs of the business

Links & Resources

• Function Scorecards

• Veverka.ca

Connect with Milan

• Veverka.ca

• LinkedIn

Connect with Ged

• Crystalyzer.com

• LinkedIn

CardCast is produced by Lovemore Media.

Welcome back to Cardcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Why do A-Players Leave?

When an A-player leaves, it’s rarely sudden. You feel the loss not just in performance, but in the quiet energy shift that follows, the meetings that drag, the spark that’s missing.

These departures hurt because they’re almost always preventable. Most of the time, people don’t leave for better pay or titles; they leave because something in the environment made it impossible for them to keep giving their best.

A-players thrive on vision and truth.

They want to feel part of something meaningful and forward-moving. When leaders change direction too often, overpromise, or fail to back words with action, trust breaks down.

The same thing happens when excellence isn’t protected. A-players draw energy from others who bring the same drive, but nothing demotivates faster than watching “sacred cows” coast by on tenure or politics. When accountability fades, so does ambition.

Finally, there’s disempowerment: the quiet undermining of autonomy. Promises of authority and resources give way to micromanagement or disappearing support.

High performers don’t stay where they can’t make an impact. Retaining them isn’t complicated: be clear, be fair, and mean what you say. Give them vision, trust, and a team that matches their pace, and they’ll not only stay—they’ll elevate everyone around them.

Key-Card points:

• Losing A-players hurts because it’s almost always preventable

• A-players leave when expectations and reality stop aligning

• Lack of vision erodes excitement and trust

• A-players leaving is often a reflection of leadership’s inaction or avoidance

Links & Resources

• Why Do A-Players Leave?

• Veverka.ca

Connect with Milan

• Veverka.ca

• LinkedIn

Connect with Ged

• Crystalyzer.com

• LinkedIn

CardCast is produced by Lovemore Media.