The following is a summary of Episode 86 of our podcast, The Engineering Career Coach (TECC) Podcast. You can also listen to the show through the player below, the website, or by subscribing on iTunes.
Will Schnier, PE and Russell Yeager, PE talk about the concept of a flywheel, and how they have used this concept to build a leading engineering company.
Here’s a Flywheel example for how to create momentum to inbound leads:
- More meals with prospects – the more prospects you take out to lunch or have coffee with, the stronger your relationships are, the wider your network is, the more ability you’ll have to pick up on the market intelligence and figure out what’s happening out in the market.
- More activity in organizations – be active in professional organizations; the wider your network is, the more mentions your company name gets, and the more prominent your personal name becomes in the market.
- More leadership roles – be active in organizations by serving in leadership roles, thus producing greater volume of leads you will be exposed to.
- More referrals to other people – if you want a steady stream of referrals coming in, you have to create a steady stream of referrals going out. You have to help others to be successful and they will in turn help you to be successful.
- More relationships – the prospects, the organizations, the leadership roles, and the referrals all lead to more relationships.
Schnier and Yeager also discuss the importance of having the right people in place that will continue to push the flywheel in both directions, both internally and externally. The right people will push the culture to be innovative and push the business to grow. (More about this in the episode.)
About our guests:
Will Schnier, PE is the Chief Executive Officer of BIG RED DOG Engineering | Consulting. He was on our Civil Engineering Podcast episode 13 and will be our keynote speaker for the 2016 Engineering Career Summit in New Orleans. Will received his BSCE from Purdue University and co-founded BIG RED DOG Engineering and Consulting in 2009. Since starting the firm in 2009, BIG RED DOG has grown to over 100 team members and has garnered awards for being one of the 50 fastest growing companies in Texas and an ENR top 100 Design Firm in Texas and Louisiana.
Russell Yeager, PE is the Vice President in BRD’s San Antonio office. He is responsible for managing the existing and prospective clients, overseeing the performance of project design teams, steering the BRD brand marketing strategy, and spearheading community outreach and volunteer efforts.
Have you started spinning your engineering career flywheel yet?
Anthony Fasano, PE, author of Engineer Your Own Success, found success as an engineer at a very early age and now writes and podcasts to help other engineers do the same. Visit Anthony’s website at EngineeringCareerCoach.com to access all of the free engineering career resources he has created to help engineers succeed.