Trevor Shirk
MEMBER NAME
Trevor Shirk
West Point ‘08
COMPANY
Terrayn Dispensary Marketing
INDUSTRY
Retail Geo Marketing
Trevor Shirk, CEO Terrayn (middle) with fellow Cohort Members
THE CHALLENGE
Trevor Shirk grew up in a small town of western Pennsylvania surrounded by coal miners, steelworkers, and a deep appreciation for hard work. An ‘08 graduate of West Point, he spent eight years on a route clearance platoon, only to launch out of the military in 2016 and right into a business startup minefield.
When Trevor launched his first business in retail cannabis dispensary marketing, it was able to make sales and building revenue almost out of the gate. Selling wasn’t a problem—scaling was.
“In the military, you are assigned a team. While you don’t get to choose who you work with, you have shared experiences, shared leadership, shared training.
Leadership in the business world is different—yes, it comes with more options as far as who you get to work with, but you have to build that shared mindset and experience from scratch. Building that takes time and attention.”
THE JOURNEY TO tHE 0.01%
According to Trevor Shirk
FIRST, GET ALL DOWN.
I had all these visions of what we could become in my head. Using the One Page Business Plan (OPBP) forced me to get all that on paper in a format that my entire team could rally around.
Our OPBP became our company’s living document—we called it their “war map.” We use it on a weekly basis to ensure we are moving in the right direction. I can jump into that document and know exactly what my team is working on for the week.
THEN, GET THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN.
We made a lot of bad hires in the beginning. The people you hire could be making—or costing—you money within days of hiring. That’s why being clear on who and what and why is so important.
Building a hiring process through the A-Player Hiring Toolkit has made us confident that we can get the talent we need to establish our most successful end-state. Using tools like the Job Scorecard, we were able to look forward to 2021 and determine what hires we needed, what skills and experiences we needed those hires to have, as well as the budget for those hires.
We have the systems and processes in place to basically flip a switch and know we’d have another A-Player on the team, contributing to our revenue, growth, and potential within 90-days of hire. It’s incredible.
FINALLY, GET OVER YOURSELF.
It’s easy to lean into your ego and think, I got this, I can do it on my own. But the reality is, you can’t. Eventually, you will break.
To steer the ship without running into real trouble, you need a focal point and a plan. And to execute that plan, you must have the ability to hire a team to achieve those goals. Your team can either be a pain in your butt or your greatest asset.
As a leader, you need to be able to acknowledge real action—and call BS on "activity" that spins the wheels, but doesn't move the company forward. This goes for your team as much as it does for you.
With the OPBP and A-Player Hiring Toolkit in place, that’s exactly what we’re doing. We have a stellar team that is clearing the route together for the future of our business.
Live Event, July 2019, Watkins Ranch
WHY I JOINED THE COHORT
I had very specific challenges that were between me and going to the next level. I was so grateful that my company had reached a survival benchmark, but there was so much I didn’t know about the next phase of growth. Bill was very clear that he had been there, done that, and would help me solve my particular problems.
Usually one way or another, every entrepreneur is going to learn these things, but I could see a faster pathway through. And that made joining The Lion’s Pride a really easy decision for me.
Watch Trevor Shirk's full interview with Bill Watkins.
“The price is high in a ‘you-need-to-show-up-and-do-the-work’ kind of way. It’s not for everybody. But if you’ll do the work, you have the expertise, resources, and team around you to achieve what you once thought impossible.
Having access to TLP allowed me to see what I need to do and put legs on actually doing it.”
“There is no luck with business success. It’s just hard work, paying off at the right time.”
