“Asking for help is not saying that you’re not able to do something necessarily, but sometimes other things need your focus more.”
Leading & Lagging Indicators: A Simple Goal-Setting Fix
Most goal-setting advice tells you to define the destination. What it skips is the part that actually matters: figuring out what to control along the way. That’s the difference between leading vs. lagging indicators, and it’s the framework fractional COO and EOS integrator Benjamin Speich uses to help CEOs and managers actually reach their goals.
What Are Leading and Lagging Indicators?
A lagging indicator is the result — sales closed, weight lost, revenue earned. It tells you what already happened, but you can’t act on it directly. A leading indicator is the action that drives that result: the calls you made, the workouts you completed, the networking events you attended.
When Speich started his own consulting business, he didn’t set a goal to “get more clients.” He set a goal to attend one networking event. That was it. The lagging indicator — new business — followed from consistently hitting the leading one.
Why Small Steps Beat Big Plans
Speich’s advice cuts against the instinct to map out every step from one to ten. Instead, he suggests defining the end goal and the very next action, then reassessing once you get there. Step three often changes once step one is done anyway, so planning too far ahead wastes energy you could spend acting.
This mindset also removes the pressure of a single bad week. One off week isn’t a pattern — it’s one data point. The question isn’t “why did I fail,” it’s “what’s the next leading indicator I can hit this week.”
Asking for Help Is a Leading Indicator Too
Speich, a self-described introvert who built a global career leading mergers and acquisitions, points out that asking for help isn’t a sign you can’t do something. It’s a way of redirecting your attention to where it’s needed most — which is itself a form of leading-indicator thinking: an action you take today to protect tomorrow’s outcome.
Whether you’re building a business, chasing a promotion, or trying to stick to a habit, the leading vs. lagging indicators framework offers a way to stop waiting for motivation and start measuring what you can actually control.
To hear Benjamin Speich’s full conversation with Dr. Jim Price, including how he applies this framework with the teams he coaches, listen to the full episode: https://tinyurl.com/Progress-and-Purpose-Podcast
Episode Highlights:
03:15 Meet Benjamin Speich: From Curiosity to Career Growth
06:23 Why Asking for Help Isn’t a Weakness
07:45 Overcoming Introversion in a Global Career
13:08 From Remote Repair Tech to VP of Global M&A
16:42 Building a Fractional COO Business From Scratch
20:30 The First-Step Method for Reaching Any Goal
22:00 Leading vs. Lagging Indicators Explained
25:01 Why One Bad Week Doesn’t Break Your Progress
27:00 Takeaway
Resources:
📖 The Adventures of Harold from the Hood Book Series:
🚙A Trip to the Park: https://bit.ly/40Lvv6h
🤝🏽Friends Like Different Things: https://bit.ly/4ocAQxq
🍟 Fun Time Lunch Time: https://bit.ly/4odUCJ1
😤 When I Feel So Annoyed: https://bit.ly/4l6WSPt
Meet Benjamin:
Benjamin Speich is a fractional COO and EOS® integrator with more than 15 years of experience helping founders turn vision into structure, accountability, and consistent execution. Starting his career in the Air Force and later moving into the private sector, Benjamin worked his way up from a remote service repair role to Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions at a global company, leading operations, managing $500M+ budgets, and building high-performing teams worldwide.
As founder of Speich Consulting, he partners with creative and education-focused businesses to streamline operations, clarify priorities, and design systems that run smoothly without constant founder oversight. An introvert turned global operator and coach, Benjamin is known for his curiosity-driven problem-solving, practical approach to goal setting, and his belief that asking for help is a strategic strength, not a weakness.
Quotes:
02:56 “So a lot of those things happen, and we don’t always understand why they happen, but we know that we can get through those obstacles in our lives and make them opportunities for growth and progress in terms of how we structure things.” —Jim Price
05:51 “If you’re not asking for help, you’re probably not going to make much progress. So being accountable for your own purpose and progress means not being afraid to ask for help.” —Jim Price
06:30 “Asking for help is not saying that you’re not able to do something necessarily, but sometimes other things need your focus more.” —Benjamin Speich
09:46 “Other people are dealing with these things too, and if I have found … little tricks of the trade, this is the time to share in. Be that role model.” —Benjamin Speich
17:35 “Learning is a lifelong thing, so you’ll probably still learn all the way as you go.” —Jim Price
19:54 “There’s not any progress without action.” —Jim Price
21:30 “Lagging is something that happened. Leading is something that you can actually go and do and change that is showing that you’re moving towards that thing.” —Benjamin Speich
23:25 “Just define the goal that you’re trying to get to and the first step towards that goal, and then take it. And then when you get there, just keep doing the same thing.” —Benjamin Speich
24:32 “That’s what goal setting is about: you make a small step, take that goal, you meet that step, and then you keep going up those steps till you reach the goal.” —Jim Price
27:34 “I have never turned down a calendar invite to get on the phone and chat with people. I think in every conversation, you can take something away from, and either share it or talk about it, or repurpose that into some nugget of learning for other people as well.” —Benjamin Speich
transcript:
Benjamin Speich: Asking for help is not saying that you’re not able to do something necessarily. But sometimes, other things need your focus more. And the help is to say, hey, for me to go do that, I need you to do this. It’s not that I couldn’t do that. It’s not that I’m not capable of doing the thing, but I need to put my attention somewhere else. And so there’s different styles of help. And I think that’s an interesting way that I’ve had to look at career and things like that as well is to say it’s not that I couldn’t, but I do need help so I can give this other thing the attention it deserves. And if I do that, then this thing over here isn’t going to get the attention it deserves.
Dr. Jim Price: Hello, I’m Dr. Jim Price, and welcome to The Purpose and Progress Podcast. This is the place where we explore how purpose can guide our actions, and how growth can become a part of our everyday lives. On the show, I talk with amazing guests, from educators and creators to everyday people with extraordinary stories about the challenges they face, the lessons they’ve learned, and how to keep moving forward. My goal is to share conversations that inspire you to live intentionally, embrace growth, and take meaningful steps to your own purpose. Let’s get started.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Purpose of Progress podcast show. I’m your host, Dr. Jim Price, and we share inspirational stories from interesting people from across different sectors to share their story, to share their journey with us. I always say, see the success of how things go, and sometimes, they don’t know the backstory, and this is a part of that journey of expressing that, and also connecting with understanding knowledge positively forward. So today is no different. We have a spectacular guest. He is a Fractional COO and EOS integrator with more than 15 years of experience helping founders turn vision into structure, accountability, and consistent execution. He has led global operations, managed 500 million plus budgets, built teams from the ground up, and guided creative, educational-focused business through growth, restructuring and reinvention. Today, we’re happy to have Benjamin Speich as our guest on our show today. How are you doing, Benjamin?
Benjamin Speich: I’m doing great. I’m doing great. It’s sunny outside, and it’s sometimes all you can hope for.
Dr. Jim Price: Yeah. Even here, we just literally had a tornado in our area like two days ago. The tornado had touched down. The weather’s a bit warm. But then it rains a lot, and then the tornado hits the Forest Park area of where we live in Massachusetts. It was very detrimental. A lot of things happen and stuff, stuff and stuff. But I’ve been praying for all the folks. I’d always be saying that I prayed for all the situations like that. So a lot of those things happen, and we don’t always understand why they happen. But we know that we can get through those obstacles in our lives and make them opportunities for growth and progress in terms of how we structure things.
Benjamin Speich: Absolutely. It puts a lot in perspective when things like that happen.
Dr. Jim Price: So from the beginning in terms of your own personal journey, what started and influenced your personal journey in terms of moving toward where you’re at now.
Benjamin Speich: Yeah. I guess the journey of curiosity, I’ll say. And I think that’s been an earmark of what I’ve done over the years. And it started a long time ago. I always remember even in high school when you took your first resume writing class as a senior or whatever it was, and I had to ask, what is that called when you click on the thing and you just see what happens? What’s the word for that? And I still haven’t found the right one. But there is something around being curious and being confident enough in your ability to adapt, or even humble enough to raise your hand when something is going wrong and you need help. But I talk to people all the time. And when I coach, I’ve coached them and things like that to say, please try some things before you come to me. I will always absolutely answer the phone and help, but I need a little bit of effort on your part. And so I think that’s where I started. I came into the Air Force. Left the Air Force, and then came into the private side, and got into just an operations role and customer support kind of thing. Everything was like, well, why do we do it this way? Can we do it better? What if we did it like this? And it kept happening where, hey, if you want to do that, if you want to take that on, here’s a promotion. Here’s the next step. And it just kept happening over, and over, and over again until you’re like a global vice president of a company, and then moving on from there. But that’s how it really started. Just that curiosity with, I think, humility of the ability to say, hey, I messed up. What do I do now?
Dr. Jim Price: I think that’s wonderful. I think a lot of people do face those challenges being afraid to ask for help when they don’t know about something. I know even when I was in middle school, if I was sitting in the class, I didn’t want to raise my hand and be like, I don’t know. Because other people probably look at me and have those feelings. And also touch about being accountable for things like, if you’re not asking for help, you’re probably not going to make much progress. So being accountable for your own purpose and progress in terms of not being afraid to ask for help, not being afraid to reach out for help was what everyone needs help at some point in life. I’ve had plenty of times in my life where I’ve had to get help and assistance with certain things and stuff like that. But I think sometimes, people have a hard time getting over all that hurdle because they want to have that feeling of independence, and not have to rely on anybody, and feel like they know everything.
Benjamin Speich: Absolutely. I think we were talking about this last week with somebody where asking for help is not saying that you’re not able to do something necessarily. But sometimes, other things need your focus more. And the help is to say, hey, for me to go do that, I need you to do this. It’s not that I couldn’t do that. It’s not that I’m not capable of doing the thing, but I need to put my attention somewhere else. And so there’s different styles of help. And I think that’s an interesting way that I’ve had to look at career and things like that is to say, it’s not that I couldn’t, but I do need help so I can give this other thing the attention it deserves. And if I do that, then this thing over here isn’t going to get the attention it deserves. And that’s when you can bring somebody in instead of just trying to do all of it, and then you’re not giving either thing the attention either thing deserves.
Dr. Jim Price: Exactly. And that’s what happens sometimes. Some people just procrastinate too, and they don’t really push for it. They may complain about not having changes in their lives, but make no absolute action towards changing anything. It happens in a lot of people’s lives too. That’s interesting. When you were going through your journey, what obstacles did you feel you faced through your journey? Some obstacles that you faced.
Benjamin Speich: I’m an introvert. And I talk about being an introvert. And of course, now there’s these ambiverts and in these other things that have come out that have said, well, you can have these people who shift and morph in between the two things. But early in my career, I was very introverted. And yet, I’m traveling all over the world, having to coach and talk to a lot of people, and doing trade shows. You’re out on the floor, just walk up to people and start talking. And it’s one where I learned to be able to turn it on and off sort of thing. There’s that sense of being on all day, and then going home or going back to the hotel and just laying in your bed for three hours before you have to go turn it on again at dinner. And what the interesting thing that I took from that is actually speaking about it, saying it out loud. I remember the exact scenario I was in where I was onboarding a new company that we had purchased. We’re doing a merger, and I was in charge of the merger and acquisition part. And I was there at their facility and introduced them to the rest of the company globally. And somewhere in that conversation, I said something like that. Whereas, hey, I’m an introvert by nature, and blah blah blah.
And then it wasn’t until like the next day, one of the engineers came in and said, hey Ben, can you come over here and let’s talk? And he was like, I am hugely introverted, but I want to be a manager. How have you become a VP merger and acquisitions at this global company when you state you’re an introvert? And so it wasn’t until he said that that it kind of clicked. Like, hey, other people are dealing with these things too. And if I have found a way to overcome them or to handle them in certain ways, and you have these little tricks of the trade kind of stuff that this is the time to share in. Be that role model. Or be that person that people look up to without really realizing I was that person. I was just out there talking. So yes, being an introvert in the world we are in, I think, was an interesting time. And now it’s shifted with, we have the ability to be behind a camera and things like that, and I can just close the video off and talk to it, and you don’t see it. So now, there’s other tricks to do. But for me, that was a big one of realizing, hey, I can get up in front of people. I can do these things, and no one’s really going to know unless you say it. But the fact that I can say it means other people now, I can help them in their journey as well and give back kind of things.
Dr. Jim Price: That’s so wonderful. This is what the show is about. Sometimes, people can be introverted and not know how to engage, react and stand up in circumstances where they may have to speak out, and they end up saying nothing, being more reclusive engagement with others and stuff. That’s a testimony in itself that you’re able to have full training for everything. We’re talking now, it’s usually like the most outgoing, bubbling points. When we’re talking about our dialog and stuff even before we start the show, I would never have ever thought that. Your words are definitely inspiring and motivational. I always say that we never know who’s watching, who’s influencing and impacting to move toward that positive aspect of themselves, understand themselves personally, and trying to overcome hurdles such as that. And for sure, I know I was never always a Greek front line speaker now. You never know.
Benjamin Speich: You never know. You never know what’s going to happen. It’s always been one of those where, again, I think it leans into the other side of being curious about what happens if you do it. And I’ve been able to do that, which I think helps with the speaking pieces and the being in front of people is the massive anxiety, the knots and all of that are there. And then there’s that little voice going, what if you just tried it? What if you just see what happens? I enjoy doing those things. I think I’ve come to learn to put your body through enough of it. You start to learn certain things and how to handle that. And then, yeah, the ability to just push through sometimes.
Dr. Jim Price: That’s so amazing. I know anybody will definitely be able to connect with that positive message of overcoming obstacles. That’s a big obstacle.
Benjamin Speich: Yeah, it’s a huge one.
Dr. Jim Price: Speaking in front of people, and all of a sudden, you have to speak in front of a lot of people. That’s the big variation of changes. If you were to feel in terms of achievements and things like that, what kind of achievements do you feel like you hold most dear to you in terms of all the things that you might have done, or maybe even a few things that you might have done?
Benjamin Speich: Oh, man, achievements are tough. I don’t know if I would say it’s an obstacle. But I will say that self promotion is one of those that’s very tough for me to do. And talking about achievements and things like that, but I did work my way up through a company. I was literally a remote service repair guide when I started. And then 14 years later, I left as VP of merger and acquisitions, and just chipped away at doing that. I traveled the world and got to experience a lot of things. Coming from a small town Wisconsin to being globally, like savvy in like, how to do that? There’s lots of people like this in Wisconsin. There’s people I still know who have never left Wisconsin. It’s one of those small town kinds of places, and it was one where I started. And the military, of course, got me a taste of it. But there’s a big world out there. Let’s go see the things. Let’s be in a place where nobody speaks English. And you have to go to the ATM and try to sell that to the bar that I’m not failing on my check. I’m trying to go get money somehow. So there’s all these different things. I will say that, I feel like that is an achievement to be able to go and do that, or at least overcome a lot of those things.
And then recently, as you know, two years ago I started my own company. So I did what I was doing and realized that there’s been a couple times where I was really good at working myself out of a job. And then looking back on the career, you’re like, all I’ve been doing is making the thing work without me needing to make it work and great. And then some people don’t think that’s a pat on the back. Some people are like, I love that I come off vacation and everything’s on fire because it’s like that’s how much they need me. And I’m like, I hate that. I love when it just works and I’m not around so I can go do the next thing and move forward. And so when I started my business, that was kind of my thing with Fractional COO is, my goal is to not work at your company for a long time. My goal is for you to not need my service. That’s an interesting, I think, concept for people to get a hold of. But stepping out on your own is a very very risky thing. It’s a lot more common now. I think with the new generation and technology we do have, but it was a lot for me to say that I’m going to do this. My family and everybody being on board was amazing. So that was, to me, felt like a really big accomplishment. Even recently, family is a big part of what I do and who I am. My wife recently switched jobs to something that she absolutely loves doing. And everything that I do is partly for my family, of course, to be able to do what they want to do. And so she was able to take this amazing job that she absolutely loves. We’re both just like, everything also is going on in the world. At least these are some little sparks of light that we have and some joy that we have. So that was a really big thing that happened recently.
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Dr. Jim Price: Wow! Congratulations. I always say people only will see the success, all the victories and everything like that, but they don’t know the backstory to how people get that. You have an amazing story behind everything. I’m sure you’re still learning. It is a lifelong thing, so you probably still learn all the way as you go. Even at the point of success and stuff, you’re adding on to your legacy and everything like that. That’s what life is about. You add them to your legacy. I would say, how do you want people to remember you? And it’s time to make others know how you want to be remembered. It’s so important that people positively influence and impact other people’s lives. And you’re a person that’s definitely doing that, Benjamin.
Benjamin Speich: Awesome. It’s a good time. I do try to do as much as I can, and I think it’s one of those that isn’t done enough. I always try to figure out how to do it in the right way. I still haven’t probably figured out how to do it in the right way, but try to voice the things that I believe in, and have that be you know positive stuff. And right now, with everything that’s going on in the world, my front yard is rainbow flags and all of those things. I’m in Texas. I’m in Austin. You know that’s great. But I’m still in Texas, and I look like me. And so as much as I can, I’m out there wearing rainbow hats and all of the stuff, saying, we need to be part of this community. We are all here. Traveling globally is one of those where it’s like borders are just arbitrary things. We’re humans all over the place. Why would you not want this culture just everywhere? It’s amazing. It’s one of those that I feel like I try to, almost need to, required to, I have the privilege to speak about, and so I try. That’s my next real big thing that I’ve been carrying with me is, how do I do that? How do I voice that in the right way, and make sure that my kids are going to say, hey, that’s great that my dad’s out there doing this, and saying these things. They are going to, hopefully, grow up to be awesome humans as well. And so yeah, that’s my next kind of big. I don’t want to say it’s like an accomplishment or an achievement, but that’s something for myself that I am trying to continue to work on.
Dr. Jim Price: Personal growth, right? If you don’t keep pushing forward, there’s no progress without action and stuff like that. A lot of times, that’s what we try to have people understand. You got to put action behind your ideas of growth. Even if you have the idea, you have to plant the seed at some point. And when you can’t play with the seed, then you’re able to watch that seed grow into something beautiful, as well as nurture it in a positive and correct way. A lot of those things kind of correlate in a lot of aspects of trying to understand that everybody is on their own path, on their own journey, and how you proceed or how you make progress is all about what action you take. So those are all fabulous. I would also want to know if you were to give advice for our viewers and audience to maybe reach their goals and aspirations if they want to do things in your line of the industry. But just in general, to meet their goals and stuff like that. Would you probably give the advice for the audience?
Benjamin Speich: Yeah. This is more in the wheelhouse of what I do for my job. A lot of it is around goals and how to get there. And one of the big things that I’ve even had to really talk about recently is being able to measure some level of action to your point. Like, okay, what did you do this week to move it towards your goal, and to understand what are those things that you need to be measuring? So there’s the whole concept of leading and lagging indicators. Is something lagging? Is something that happened? Leading is something that you can actually go and do, and change that is showing that you’re moving towards that thing. And so when I was starting my business, for example I was thinking like, okay, how do I go and talk about my business? How do I get leads? How do I get sales? The number of sales I got is the lagging indicator. What am I doing to get those sales is the leading indicator. And so for me, it was, well, I’m going to start going to networking events. And so my goal was simply to go to the networking event, step one. All first, let’s just get you there.
It goes back to the old thing of going to the gym. Step one is just to go to the gym. Don’t even lift weights, just go to the gym every day. What’s the first piece that you need to do? And once you’re there and you establish that, I go, okay, here’s the ones that people are going to. And I’m getting a list of just like, what are all the different networking events in Austin that I can be attending? Then the next step, okay, now that I’m going to these, what do I want to get from them? What does a successful attendance of a networking event mean? And sharing your business card, getting someone’s business card, booking the meeting in the next step. So you don’t have to do it all at once is the big thing that I talk about. I’m sure somebody else has said it better. But I say, it’s really just identifying the first next step because there’s going to be a lot of steps here. We can define step one and two all the way through step 10. And if we know what step 10 is, there really is no reason to define 5, 6, 7 and 8 because step 3 may change after the first step. Step 2 may change after the first.
So just define the goal that you’re trying to get to, and the first step towards that goal, and then take it. And then when you get there, just keep doing the same thing. Okay, now that we’re here, what have we learned? What’s the next one? And then you just keep moving along. And something happens, I think, when you can really break it down into just the simplest form. That there’s stress that’s gone. You’re not sitting there contemplating at night like, what happens after that? And then after that? You don’t need to think about that right now. You need to think about the next thing. That’s just the next thing. And so I do a lot of that coaching and teaching, and creating those pieces when I work with companies. And then not only with the CEOs, but all of the individual managers in there to go, okay, let’s look at your role and job. What are those things? What’s success in your job?And then, what are all these indicators that we can outline and point to? How do we baby step towards them? So that’s a big part of what I’ve been teaching lately.
Dr. Jim Price: That’s excellent. That’s what goal setting is about. You make a small step, take that goal, you meet that step, and then you keep going up those steps till you reach the goal. Some people make it more complicated for their lives. But at the same time, there is a lot of other things that happen. You got life responsibilities, bills, all these kinds of things that happen in life. So how people can go about setting up those steps for those goals that they make it more difficult of what it really is.
Benjamin Speich: And life, life is going to happen. I say that to everybody when I meet with teams on a weekly basis, and I go, okay, how does this week look? How does last week look? And last week was not so good. And they go, what do we got to do? I’m like, nothing. You’re going to have a bad week, and that’s totally fine. One week is not a pattern. Maybe it’s two weeks, maybe it’s three weeks. But let’s see what happens this week, and then we’ll look at it the week after. So if you have a bad week, that’s fine. It’s the same as, again, I do enjoy going to the gym and working out, those sort of things. And as people talk about cheat days and stuff like that, it’s not a cheat day, it’s just another day. And if you’re going to have a day where that’s going to happen, you understand, okay, that’s going to happen that day. We’re going to go to a birthday party and pig out, have cake and all this stuff. But don’t go to one every day. Most of the days are not birthday parties, and it’s fine to have that one and go do that. But you can have that off week, and then go, okay, I had an off week. How do I get back on track? What are the basic things I need to do in those steps? So absolutely, I think, there’s a lot to be said in there, and that’s probably a whole show in itself around goal setting. But lately, that’s been a lot of the mantra I’ve had.
Dr. Jim Price: Yeah. So many nuggets of great ideas of how to meet your goals and progress through that positive action. So many gems that you put in today’s interview, and I’m so happy about all that. I know the audience is definitely gonna love all the gems that you make with The Purpose and Progress podcast. How could our audience connect with you?
Benjamin Speich: My website is just speichconsulting.com. I’m very active on LinkedIn, of course, in doing those things. I’ve kind of taken a little bit of a break off the TikTok and that stuff, but I do want to get back in there. I co-founded another business recently, and so I’ve been head down in that, and so pick and choose where I put things out. But yeah, finding me online is . There’s not a lot of them out there. It’s a unique enough name that you can find. And then, yeah, just reaching out. I love talking to people. I have never turned down a calendar invite to get on the phone and chat with people. I just think that every conversation, you can take something away from, either share, or talk about it, or repurpose that into some nugget of learning for other people as well. I absolutely enjoy talking to as many people as I can.
Dr. Jim Price: Thank you so much, Benjamin. It’s definitely an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. And as always, we always want to push motivational, inspirational messages about positive progress, taking steps, actions, just like we talk about, and overcoming obstacles too. That’s a part of that process too. So once again, the audience, please follow and like the channel. And once again, this is The Purpose and Progress podcast show. I’m your host, Dr. Price. I always like to close out and say, stay prayed up, and stay blessed. And we’ll see you next time. Thank you.
Thank you for joining me on this episode of The Purpose in Progress Podcast. I hope today’s conversation gave you insight, inspiration, or a fresh perspective to help you move forward with purpose. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little encouragement. You can also support the podcast through the donation link in the show notes. Every contribution helps us keep sharing stories that uplift and inspire. Remember, your purpose is waiting, and progress never stops. I’ll see you next time.