Help Your Clients Solve Their "Unknown Unknowns" - Sheon Karol

Branch Out - A Podcast from Connection Builders

Because of the ever-changing, consistently increasing level of complexity that exists in our modern business environment today, as an entrepreneur or a business owner, it’s often hard to foresee the ‘unknown unknowns’ that could ultimately cause the demise of your business altogether. Today’s guest is Sheon Karol, a partner at Paladin, a middle-market advisory firm. Sheon authored an article for Entrepreneur Magazine stating that as a business owner, in light of the current climate, it’s really important to find advisors and professional service providers that have a broad set of experiences and a broader understanding, rather than niche providers that are targeted in one specific technical area. Sheon proposes that an advisor with a broad range of expertise, knowledge, and understanding will be able to better help you to identify these ‘unknown unknowns’ that you don’t know about or even think about because you didn’t know they existed. Today we unpack this. To find out what ‘unknown unknowns’ you may be overlooking, how to hire the right adviser to help you identify these, or how to develop the right skillsets to become a broad-based professional to better serve your clients, tune in today!
Key Points From This Episode:

• Why Sheon makes the argument that it’s important to find advisors and service providers with a broader understanding, rather than a niche understanding.
• Insight into what Sheon means by ‘unknown unknowns’.
• Why professionals push clients towards a solution that may not be in their best interests.
• What business owners should be looking for in professionals when hiring.
• The two ways that advisors tend to steer companies incorrectly.
• The importance of a financial incentive to the advisor to do what is best for the client.
• How a professional can display to their clients that they are a broad-based advisor.
• How the professional can get ahead of the client in terms of what is important to the client.
• How to ask the right questions to get your clients to think about the unknown unknowns.
• How to develop the right skillsets to become a broad-based adviser.
• The importance of having humility.

Articles from Sheon:

• What Greek Mythology, Bill Gates and Blockbuster Can Teach Entrepreneurs About Turning Unknowns into Opportunities
• Safeguarding Entrepreneurial Success with the “Early Signs of Change” Predictive Analysis

Sheon Karol on LinkedIn
Sheon Karol Email
Paladin
Alex Drost LinkedIn
Branch Out Podcast LinkedIn
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