Multiplying the Impact: Catalyst and Partnering With Gallup

Gallup Called to Coach Webcast Series -- Season 10, Episode 42.

Below are audio and video plus a transcript of the conversation, including time stamps.

So you've developed a strengths-, engagement-, or wellbeing-based idea into a solid product. Your dream is to partner with Gallup on it, but you don't know what to do next. Meet Catalyst, Gallup's new entrepreneurial partnership program, created for people just like you. Catalyst gives you a formal process to follow to determine the feasibility of a partnership with Gallup on your product. The recent Gallup-Cascade partnership is a great example of how such a partnership came together. Learn some entrepreneurial tips from Cascade creator Richard Sterry and some partnership process steps from Gallup Strategic Licensee Director Liz Uebele, so you can move your dreams closer to reality.

Our goal is to reach a billion people through CliftonStrengths, engagement, wellbeing. We want to touch lives and change lives. And Gallup recognizes that we can do that better and faster if we're working together.

Liz Uebele, 12:20

I think [building positive momentum] stemmed from looking at my own themes. I have Relator right near the top, which I use an awful lot. ... It's all about having those one-on-one conversations.

Richard Sterry, 11:25

Enter with a collaborative mindset. And if you start with that, then together you can go far.

Richard Sterry, 19:42

Jim Collison 0:00
I am Jim Collison, and this is Gallup's Called to Coach, recorded on October 12, 2022.

Jim Collison 0:18
Called to Coach is a resource for those who want to help others discover and use their strengths. We have Gallup experts and independent strengths coaches share tactics, insights and strategies to help coaches maximize the talent of individuals, teams and organizations around the world. If you're listening live, and we'd love to have you join us in our chat. If you don't see the chat, there's a link right above me there that'll take you to the chat room. Ask your questions live while we're doing the program. And if you're listening after the fact, maybe as a podcast, you can send us your questions: coaching@gallup.com. Don't forget to subscribe to Called to Coach on your favorite podcast app or right there on YouTube, so you never miss an episode. Liz Uebele is my guest today. Liz is a Strategic Licensee Director for Gallup. And Liz, welcome back. And I can say that because you were on Called to Coach as a college student, maybe the first crossover. Welcome to Called to Coach!

Liz Uebele 1:05
Yeah, I was. Hi, Jim. Thanks. It's great to be here with you.

Jim Collison 1:08
Great to have you. We'll introduce Richard here in just a second. Let's get to know you a little bit. Tell us a little bit about your role here at Gallup.

Liz Uebele 1:15
Yeah, so my day to day is really exciting. I have the pleasure of representing our Gallup strategic licensees. That's a group of 11 businesses globally who represent 26 countries who sell the GGSC more locally. So those are your community leaders. You might know them in Brazil, South Africa, Taiwan, Korea -- we have them all over, and they're a great group to work with. So every day I wake up thinking about how more people can get access to their CliftonStrengths. And I'm excited to be with you here today!

Catalyst, Entrepreneurs and Gallup

Jim Collison 1:44
A, truly a global mission. One of my favorite things of working with the global community is working with you in that and growing that. I think in the time I've been doing Called to Coach, and we've been growing that in 7 different languages, we've been adding those strategic partners to Called to Coach and getting that done. So thanks for your partnership in that and making that work. Let's talk a little bit about this, this program. We kind of hinted about it in the Certified Coaches newsletter. But talk a little bit about this program that we have coming up.

Liz Uebele 2:15
Yeah, so we had a brief little teaser in that certification letter there. But we are announcing a new program, and it's called Catalyst. And the purpose of that program is to reach more entrepreneurs, so that Gallup can partner with you and reach more people in the areas of strengths, wellbeing and engagement. So this is a new approach for Gallup. It's something we're giving a try. And we're excited to see what's out there. We are piloting it based off of Richard's experience with Cascade. So we have him here today to chat with us a bit about his experience and what he learned and what Gallup learned in general. But yeah, it's been fun. And I think Jim's going to show you this site now. It's been exciting to put that together.

Jim Collison 2:57
Yeah, as I'm bringing that site up, let me ask you this question, because we've had Scott Wright on before, as we've talked about licensing. And I think some coaches have probably seen that or been, participated. How is this a little bit different than that?

Liz Uebele 3:11
It's similar; it lives in the same world. So this is different in the way that Gallup is looking to maybe acquire a business, license your work that you're doing. We're looking primarily for ideas that are fully developed. We are open to hearing ideas that you think could just shake up the way we do business. But this is a formalized process for entrepreneurs to go through, so that there's a landing page. We have you categorized. We know where you're at in the process, and you're working with a Relationship Manager, someone like myself, who will take you through that process, and just making sure you're taken care of.

Liz Uebele 3:45
On this page that Jim's scrolling through here, you're gonna see our submission policies with some of our legal language. And then at the bottom is the, the form that you fill out that gets, gets you in contact with me, actually, or Scott Wright, like Jim mentioned, and we'll get you through that process. There is a form that you'll fill out in there that has some legal language that protects Gallup and yourself, just to make sure that we're all covered. And then we get to hear about your idea. We would ask that you don't tell anyone at Gallup about your idea until you've made it through this process, just to ensure that you're protecting yourself, and Gallup isn't already working on some ideas that we may already have going. So we do create a lot of content. And this is just a way that we make sure that we, it all ends up in the right place and that you're talking to the right people at Gallup.

Catalyst: Seeking Fully Formed Products

Jim Collison 4:33
Liz, it may be a little counterintuitive, because I get these email pitches from time to time where folks reach out to me with an idea and they say, "How does this sound?" And they're, you know, they're wanting some feedback from me. And we, we're really trying to say now, instead of doing that, we've got this submission form for you. Do that first before you have, if you think it's a great idea, and you've got a business built around it, and you're doing some stuff with it, not -- and I think this is where folks got a little confused too -- not just an idea, right, but something that's kind of flushed out and that has been, that has been proven out maybe in the marketplace already. Can you expand on that just a smidge, Liz?

Liz Uebele 5:11
Right. So Cascade was already a fully formed business when Gallup showed interest in working with Richard. We're looking for more projects that are fully formed. We can take them in earlier stages, but we're looking mostly for ideas that we think we could put into the marketplace, kind of plug in to the business that we're currently doing. So that could be work related to coaching, it could be content, it could be related to our engagement work. But those are kind of the areas that we're focused on. And for this first round, we are focused primarily in the United States. We will expand that here within the next 6 months or so.

Cascade: A Case Study for a Gallup-Entrepreneur Partnership

Jim Collison 5:47
I put the link to that form in the chat room; we'll have it down in the description down below, if you want to click on it down there. And then really, really important, because I deal with the community all the time; really, really important. on that webpage, you read the whole thing. So get all the way through it. There's a lot of great information in there. I know sometimes we tend to skim and just hope to get what we need out of it. But lots of great information. Read through that website as well, if you've got, if you got some ideas. Liz, let's, you had mentioned Richard a little bit already. And he's kind of famous in our community. Richard, you're probably more famous than, than me at this point. But welcome to Called to Coach! And Liz, why have we brought Richard in?

Liz Uebele 6:24
So I just thought that Richard would be our, our best case that we have so far, as someone who has kind of gone through a Catalyst-like program. We actually developed Catalyst hoping to improve that experience for entrepreneurs and to make Gallup easier to work with. And so I thought, having Richard on to talk about his experience would be helpful to anyone who may be considering going through this process themselves. So Richard, I was hoping you could tell us a little bit more about what Cascade is at a high level, and then we can get more into your experience.

Richard Sterry 6:57
Yeah, thank you, Liz and thank you, Jim. And it's great to be here to just talk about what's been happening. But just to tell you, what about Cascade, for those who have not yet heard of it, essentially, as a coach, if you want to create some workshop materials for a coaching session, then Cascade will just put all the CliftonStrengths information for individuals or teams in very easy, presentable formats, with lots of visualizations. And it just saves so much time as a coach and just helps to open up those coaching conversations during that workshop. So it's a real ally to work, which coaches can use when they're working with teams and individuals.

Liz Uebele 7:36
Great, thank you. And your role with Gallup and Cascade has shifted in the last few months. Could you tell us a little bit more about your role with the coaching community now and your role with Gallup?

Richard Sterry 7:46
Yeah, so previously, my role was sort of focused on Cascade and in the coaching community, whereas now I'm got a part-time role with Gallup, so very much involved with the Gallup teams. And the aim is to really help enhance the resources for coaches. The other part of my sort of role independently is to stay connected with the coaching community and just really get involved on a global basis to hear what the coaches are up to, where the needs are and then how we can help. And so my overall role is really the collaboration of bringing the coaching community and Gallup resources together, so that it enhances the strengths movement.

Liz Uebele 8:28
Super. We've had kind of a fast and furious launch of Cascade. What are you most looking forward to here? What, what are you looking forward to in our partnership? And what's coming with Cascade?

Richard Sterry 8:38
Yeah, so I'm a Maximizer, so I'm looking for the next level -- stepping things up and really sort of making the resources for coaches really practical, really helpful, and to really enhance what coaches have and what they need. And just make it easier for them, so they can spend most of their time on the actual coaching process, rather than all the admin behind the scenes.

Advice for Prospective Gallup Partners

Liz Uebele 9:04
And do you have any advice for any prospective entrepreneurs who may be looking to work with Gallup in the future?

Richard Sterry 9:11
I think really, be really clear about your mission, mission and purpose. What, what, what is the approach you've got? And why is it you're coming into this, these conversations and things? And with that, look for opportunities for collaboration and just see how what you can, what you've got to offer and what Gallup can do, the collaboration there can be for the greater good. And I think if you come in with that attitude and that, those aspects, that will really sort of pay dividends later on. And really the, the first thing is just have a chat with you guys. You're quite human behind the slip, behind the scenes and things, and just have that conversation. Fill out the form as you need to do for the requirements on the outset. But once you've done that, yep, have those conversations, and then just see where it can go.

Jim Collison 9:57
Richard with Cascade, you know, it always feels like it's been here. Like, it's just, it's always been here for the longest time. It, you know, it was launched with CliftonStrengths. But we know it was a process to get there. At what point did you know, like, I've got something here! Like, I've got something, this, I've got a product. I've got -- this thing, this thing can work. When did you know that?

Richard Sterry 10:19
That's a really good question! That goes right back to when I did my coaching calls back in 2015. And I just sort of put something together for my own coaching. And then I was in the London office at one of the alumni sessions, and I was just showing them, showing the other coaches, this is what I've done. And they just said, "You've got to get it out there." And I thought, yeah, OK, let's just see what happens. And amazingly, people started buying it. And it started gathering a bit of traction. And I just, that was the point when I realized, OK, something's happening here. And I think it was at one of the Summits -- 2017 Summit -- everybody was talking about Cascade, but I wasn't even there. Those conversations were happening. And I realized, OK, I need to speak to Legal team. We've got something going here. I was using the Gallup IP. We needed to find a way of going forward.

Building on Positive Momentum

Jim Collison 11:05
You had a group of individuals. You had some very strong customer sentiment about feel, very positive about a Cascade. Was that intentional? Did you build that? Did it just happen? Was it a combination of both? Were there, was there something going on there that allowed you to build just that positive momentum going forward?

Richard Sterry 11:25
I think, really, it stemmed from looking at my themes, my own themes. I have Relator right near the top, which I use an awful lot; Woo, for me is right, right down the bottom. So I've never tried to use that. It's all about having those one-on-one conversations, using my Individualization to really understand where somebody's coming from, really understand them, and gaining that traction, one person at a time. And that then spreads out to their friends, and their networks, and it just grew from there.

Jim Collison 11:51
Yeah, I see that all the time in our communities as we get folks very excited about CliftonStrengths, and they just want to go everywhere with it. Liz, you've done a lot of work in the, in the, in the global community of pulling partners together to be able to do this. So what, what kind of advice do you have, as you think about what's worked globally in that space, and then applying it to this new Catalyst program? What kind of advice do you have for folks maybe thinking about this?

Liz Uebele 12:18
I think that goes back to the mission of this program. And our goal is to reach a billion people through CliftonStrengths, engagement, wellbeing. We want to touch lives and change lives. And Gallup recognizes that we can do that better and faster if we're working together, crowdsourcing ideas, and learning what our community is wanting and needing. And so I just think reaching out and going through this process and staying patient in the beginning, that's probably the best advice I could give you. And, like Richard said, once, once you're through that initial process, we become really human and easy to work with, I find. And so we would love to hear your ideas. And we know there's a lot of great community -- or content that our community has created, and we're excited to hear it.

Cultivating Patience, Tenacity, Grit

Jim Collison 12:57
Let's, Richard, let me ask you this one question around patience. Because these -- any, anything like this kind of just takes a couple of iterations. What kind of advice would you give to entrepreneurs trying to pitch a deal, so to speak, whether it's with us or with anyone else? What did you learn through this about patience, about tenacity, grit, maybe all those words put in there?

Richard Sterry 13:19
I think you've described a lot of the words which I needed. It was that definitely patience, tenacity and grit, which was there, and I think, having some supporting coaches there. So when things are not going so well, they, they are there to help you and encourage you and support you. Keep going. It's worthwhile. And I must say with the Legal team, yes, for the Gallup negotiations that we've had with Cascade and things, it's just me here in the U.K., and it's a whole Gallup enterprise in the U.S. So it's, it felt a little bit like a David and Goliath situation. But certainly Adam, who I was dealing with on the Legal team, he was adopting a very pragmatic approach. And that was a very realistic approach. We're just trying to find a sensible way forward. Yes, we've got to cover some bases. Yes, you need to cover the certain areas and things; that's required and necessary. But where there's detail that doesn't need to be there, we're able to be more objective in that side of things, and I really appreciate Adams perspective when looking at those things.

What to Do When You're Ready to Partner With Gallup

Jim Collison 14:19
Yeah, that's, that is kind of nice in a setting where we have a bunch of different resources, and you've plugged into a lot of them and worked with them. And listen, I've enjoyed the last couple of months as we, as we've deployed Cascade and will continue to do that over the remainder of the year and into next year. And so we're excited for that. Liz, for folks just joining us or jumping in, let's recap the conversation a little bit. So I'm an entrepreneur. I've built a strengths-based product that I've been using. It's, of course, it's successful. Let's just assume it's been very, very successful, and now I think, Hey, I want to, I want to, I maybe want to partner with Gallup on this. What's the, what's the very next step they should do?

Liz Uebele 15:01
The very next step is filling out the form at the bottom of our website there. So that generates basically a contact between the Gallup team and yourself. And then we'll get you introduced to the, the initial paperwork that we'll need you to fill out, and then you're in the process. Then we'll get you in front of some Gallup stakeholders.

Jim Collison 15:18
So I've got this awesome product. I've gone to the website. I filled out the, I read the entire, the entire website first. It's a great website; you're gonna want to read it. You might even want to engage your legal counsel with it. And then you're going to fill out the form. Jamie asks a great question from the chat room. And he says, How long would I expect -- we'll, we'll feed Jamie Hunt's Significance a little bit -- how long should the process take? What happens after filling out the form?

Liz Uebele 15:48
Yeah, so we are still proving out this process here. But essentially, what we'll do is we'll take your idea to a group of Gallup stakeholders. And if they have interest in the idea, then we will pursue whatever paths that would be, whether it be licensing, acquisition, potentially even strategic investing. That could take anywhere from 4 months to a year, depending on the type of product that it is; it kind of spans the course of time. If we aren't quite ready for your idea, if it's not a good fit, we do store everything that you send to us and track that, so that in the case, in the future that we're hearing a need or someone says, "I remember we spoke about this at one point," we'll have your contact information. We can contact you at a later date, and you still have myself or another Relationship Manager as a point of contact that you can reach out, reach out to Gallup too and just, just know where you're at in the process.

Jim Collison 16:43
Liz, I'm writing a book. I want to license some content. I'm doing one of those kinds of things. Do I follow this process? Or do I just continue to contact us the way we've been doing it before?

Liz Uebele 16:56
Go ahead and fill out this form. It covers the same bases that you would if you reached out to just an individual at Gallup, and we'll get you connected to our publishing team.

Jim Collison 17:06
That's great. I think that's super clear. That's actually really, really nice for me -- one form as people ask me. If you, listen, if you send me, if you call me, I'm gonna say, "Whoa, whoa, wait! Don't tell me; go fill out the form." That's gonna be -- stop. Don't tell me. I'm gonna fill out the form. Richard, as we wrap this up -- and I'll wait for maybe one or two questions; maybe they'll come in the chat room -- any other advice that you'd give? This, you're fresh off going through this. Anything that we might have missed, or anything else that you want to say to give advice to someone maybe thinking about doing this?

Richard Sterry 17:37
I think if you've got an idea, you've got a product or you've got something that you're using currently as your coaching, practice at the moment, where you feel other coaches could benefit from it, just go for it. There's no harm in starting this process. So you can only stop it at any time if you, if you're not gonna take it any further. But just give it a go and see, see what happens.

Jim Collison 17:57
And Liz, we are kind of looking for live product that has been developed and being worked, as opposed to just generating -- Hey, you guys should write a book on, you know, I get those ideas all the time. More kind of product development than less -- is that correct?

Liz Uebele 18:13
Right. It's a bit different if you're already writing the book; that, that might move you a bit further down that path. If you've created a platform, and it's in beta, that, we'd still be interested in hearing that. So we're less focused on ideas that are still on a piece of paper and more focused on ideas that have a little bit of action behind them.

Jim Collison 18:33
Awesome. Awesome. We're looking for some stuff that's, that's kind of in process on that. Liz, any, any other final thoughts? I think we're good with questions. We'll kind of bring this in for a landing, but wrap it up for us.

Liz Uebele 18:44
Yeah, I would just like to thank Richard for being here today. All the work he's done with Cascade and pioneering new ways to work with Gallup, I really appreciate -- appreciative of all the legwork that you've done to get to this point. And we're excited to meet all the future entrepreneurs that we'll work with and excited to reach more people through this program. Thanks, Jim.

Jim Collison 19:03
Richard, I'll tag on to that, since we're, we're ganging up on you. I appreciate your partnership in this. You've been a perfect partner for us through this transition. It's, you know, like any, any work that you do, it's never always easy or simple, and, and sometimes can be just flat-out difficult. And you've been a champ and a great partner in that. So Richard, thank you for your partnership. And we have a long way to go. You're not going anywhere. So we've got some work to do to get this thing. But, Richard, I appreciate you, and I appreciate your partnership. And you've just been a great example of a partner to us. So thank you for all that you've done.

Richard Sterry 19:40
Thank you, Jim. And I'll just go back to what I was saying earlier about enter with a collaborative mindset. And if you start with that, then together you can go far.

Jim Collison 19:49
That's a great quote. Mark, make sure you grab that coat -- quote and put it in the show notes when we get done. Well, with that, we'll remind everyone to take full advantage of all the resources we do have available now in Gallup Access. Head out to gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. For coaching, master coaching or if you want to become a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach -- maybe you've heard about this before and you're like, I really need to do this certified, this certification program -- send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. Don't forget, we just released the information for the 2023 Gallup at Work Summit. Maybe you want to join us. Richard mentioned that a little bit earlier, and maybe you want to join us in 2023. Head out to gallupatwork.com. Prices and hotel links and those things have been released. Speakers will be coming as we go, but as of this recording, that information is out for you: gallupatwork.com. Join us in our Facebook groups: facebook.com/groups/calledtocoach. I appreciate you guys coming out and being a part of this. We're excited for this program, and we'll hear more about it, I'm sure. Liz, hopefully this will generate a bunch of connections for us. Thanks for coming out. Thanks for listening live. With that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.

Liz Uebele's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Individualization, Focus, Achiever, Relator and Discipline.

Richard Sterry's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Individualization, Learner, Relator, Maximizer and Harmony.

Gallup^®, CliftonStrengths^® and each of the 34 CliftonStrengths theme names are trademarks of Gallup. Copyright © 2000 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.