Podcasts about leap and others don

Bob Carrothers has 29 years of experience, he facilitates peer-to-peer boards of CEOs and executives, creating environments conducive to skill enhancement, informed decision-making and superior results. Bob is certified as an Emergenetics advisor and Predictive Index practitioner, equipping him with a profound understanding of human behaviour and cognition.    Questions · So, we always like to ask our guests, in your own words, could you share a little bit about your journey? How you got from where you were to where you are today? · What would you say maybe if you could pick three overarching tenets or competencies that you believe CEOs need to practice or embrace in order to really achieve the three areas that just mentioned. · What are some of the key things that make an organization successful? · Now, Bob, can you also share with our audience, what's the one online resource, tool, website or application that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? · Now, can you also share with our listeners maybe one or two books that you have read, it could be a book that you read a very long time ago, or even one that you've read recently, but it had a great impact on you, whether it be personally or professionally. · Bob, can you share with our audience what's the one thing that's going on in your life right now that you are really excited about, either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people. · Where can listeners find you online? · Now, before we wrap our episodes up, Bob, we always like to ask our guests, do you have a quote or saying that during times of adversity or challenge, you'll tend to revert to this quote if for any reason you get derailed or you get off track, the quote kind of helps to get you back on track. Do you have one of those?   Highlights Bob's Journey Me: So, we always like to ask our guests, in your own words, could you share a little bit about your journey? How you got from where you were to where you are today?   Bob shared that it's been a very interesting journey. He started out as an entrepreneur; he had companies involved in the meat trading business. So, they bought and sold animal parts, lungs, livers, kidneys, everything that was most people would consider waste from an animal, and then they would resell them to people we knew wanted them, mostly to pet food companies, that's where the tonnage went. And then others to went to Mexico. Others went into sausage making, Chorizo making on the West Coast. They just find a buyer and go do it. And they'd go into a packing house and buy their entire production of lungs or livers or whatever, and then resell it into the pet food canning business. So, it's been an interesting ride.  In 1996 he got out of that business. He sold it to his management team, and they took it over, and they're still running it. And then after that, he started another company that failed miserably. He lost a ton of money. He was crushed, and it was hard and then he looked around, and he'd been a Vistage member, and he loved it. And he knew that with all the ups and downs he's had in his life, he could help people from making mistakes and doing what he did and living that life. So, he reached out to his past business chair, and he hired him, and that was in 1996, so he's been doing this ever since, September of 1996, so it's been quite a ride.   Overarching Tenets or Competencies CEO's Need to Embrace to Unlock Their Potential, Enhance Performance and Achieve Their Goals Me: Now, you focus on empowering CEOs to unlock their full potential, enhance their performance and achieve their goals. Based on your many years of experience, Bob in this space, working, I'm sure with CEOs and entrepreneurs across different industries, what would you say maybe if you could pick three overarching tenets or competencies that you believe CEOs need to practice or embrace in order to really achieve the three areas that I just mentioned.   Bob shared that he thinks they need to establish a great culture in their company and mind it. Nurture it and protect it, because culture trumps everything, nothing else matters. Your people won't be happy, you won't keep people, you will make your customers angry, your suppliers angry, and you'll do a really bad job because your employees won't care. And so, that's the first thing he would say, is build a strong culture.  The second thing is to hire correctly, be slow to hire and fast to make them available to industry. So, that's really important. If the employee can't do the job they were hired to do, they need to move on and then hire the right people. Put a lot of effort in your hiring process. And the other one would be, watch the money. You've got to keep track of your cash flow, you got to predict what the cash is going to be down the road. Bigger companies have CFOs to do that, and then they'll report to the CEO. Smaller ones, often the CEO will do it themselves. But you have to do it, because if you run out of cash, you're out of business. It's just really simple, if you can't make payroll, then you're gone.   Key Things for an Organization Success Me: So, Bob, in working with these different organizations, right? We're trying to establish what are some of the key things that make an organization successful? And so, the customer experience is critical in all businesses regardless of whether or not you have a face-to-face type of interaction or you're just digital and people are communicating with you solely through the internet. But leadership is very important for a business, whether you're a solopreneur or you're a fortune 500 company, regardless of the size, it's driven by the leader in the organization. As it relates to customer experience, if you were to maybe give us an example of a use case, a good use case, example that you've observed over the years in working with these CEOs, what do you think are some of the key things that make them be able to have a successful customer experience, one in which their customers are their brand advocates, their evangelists, their word of mouth advertisers. If that company decided not to advertise for the next two, three years, they would still be doing great business because their customers view them as fans. What would you say are key things in that?   Bob shared that there's one company that comes to mind, and that CEO was brilliant, and the culture in the company was extremely strong. He would walk around his plant every day, and he knew everybody's name and met family members, and he'd walk up to him and just say, “Hey, Charlie, how you doing? How's the family? How's your wife? I heard your son Robbie is sick.” He would do that, and the employees felt that they were cared for.  He never stopped setting goals, he never stopped doing things that would make the work fun. He was trying to reduce shrinkage one day, and it kept bugging him, it was going on for months, and he decided he'd just do a little contest, and he went out and bought an old junker car and a whole bunch of sledgehammers, and every day the group, the employees reduced the amount of shrinkage, they could go out and beat up on the car. And it was just amazing how much fun they were having and how just beating a car, they hit their goal for sure, and it cost the CEO, like, what $500 to do that.  He had other contests like dunk the CFO, where he had one of those dunking tubs. Certain goals were reached, that was out in the parking lot. He saw him with his customers. One of their Vistage speakers impacted him so much that he invited his customers from around the country to come to his plant, see the plant, and hear this speaker present, and because it made such an impact on him, he wanted his customers to be better too, so he thought this speaker could really help him.  What else did he do? Whenever he'd walk up to somebody and they promised to do something for him, he recorded it on his phone, so he'd pull it out and before he saw them, pull up their name and say, “Hey, how are you coming on that project we talked about?” And the accountability went through the roof. Just little things like that, simple things. But he had one goal, that if the company reached so much in revenue sales, he knew that if it did, they'd make extra money, if it was over and above the regular goal, it was big….hairy….audacious goal, and he said, “If you guys hit this, I will take the entire company to Las Vegas.” Because he knew if they increased the revenue that much, the profits would go up enough to pay for the trip and then some. And he was legendary with his employees. Just things like that that are special.   Me: I think one of the things I took away from what you said just now that it's not the big things, it's like always the little things, the minor details, and they go very far away with another human being, because it shows them that you value them, you appreciate them, and they're just not there to milk, to get more money, money, money. But you value them as a person, and you recognize the fact that your success is just as important as their success.   Bob agreed, that's exactly right. That's what it takes to build a great company, is the culture you create. You want people waiting in line to go to work for you.   Me: I know right, that's awesome.   App, Website or Tool that Bob Absolutely Can't Live Without in His Business When asked about an online resource that he cannot live without, Bob shared that he hates it, but he can't live without it, it's called email. Buries him, but it's the communication is so fast, and we can send documents back and forth, and he doesn't think anybody could live without email now. We all curse it, but it's there.    Me: Agreed, because in the absence of email, we have to go back to posting a letter to your customer or to your friend or family member, and we all know the Postal Service takes forever for you to get that response. So, yeah, email is amazing.   Bob shared that he remembers those days and they'd send off a contract and wait and wait and wait to get it back, just because of the mail, or an invoice. It just was crazy. And then came fax machines, and they were huge. He bought one once and his accountant, and said, “Why do you want that thing? Nobody else has them.” And he said they will, even though they will. And that became huge, and then email took over for that.   Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Bob When asked about books that have had a great impact, Bob shared that Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't was a book that had an effect on him. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant is another one. Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People.   Me: I'm actually looking at the book right now. It's sitting right in front of me.   Bob shared that that's one of the major ones. And another one he wrote was How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. So, there's several.    What Bob is Really Excited About Now! When asked about something that he's really excited about, Bob shared that he's always excited about cheering, he sees so much, and he loves what he does. As far as he's not in any training right now, but Vistage offers trainings all the time, and he also does stuff outside of Vistage. But right now, he's getting ready to go on a holiday in a sprinter van, it's an RV, and that's kind of got his attention. Plus, he's got two Vistage meetings next week.   Me: So, those are your things that you're working on that you're really excited about. Fantastic.   Where can listeners find Bob online? LinkedIn - Bob Carrothers Website – www.vistage.com   Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Bob Uses When asked about quotes that he tends to revert to, Bob shared he does, he's a big fan of Albert Einstein, and he had a quote that was, “The same level of thinking that caused a problem is not going to fix the problem.” That's not exact, but that's what it means. And that's so true. Another one is, “Everybody's a genius. But if you want to teach a fish to fly, they're going to fail and feel they're a loser from then on.” And some people just can't get it. And sometimes when things go wrong, you got to look at the people involved, or the thinking involved and reapproach it with a different level.   Me: Okay, so that second quote is more to say, maybe you need to take a few steps backward just to move forward, just to reevaluate and do it again.   Bob agreed. Reevaluate if it's an employee and they just can't get it. Maybe they're just not set up for it, and it's better to find another position for them, or another area of responsibility, or perhaps they're just not right for your company, like you got to have the right people on the bus as Jim Collins say.    Me: True. If you have the wrong people on the bus, it makes the journey that much harder.   Bob agreed, they got to be in the right seats.   Me: Well, thank you so much Bob for jumping on our podcast today and sharing all of these awesome insights as it relates to Vistage and your journey and just what are some of the key things that makes a leader successful and makes an organization successful as they navigate their customer experience through the journey of their customers lifetime. So, I think your conversation today was extremely insightful, and I just wanted to extend our deepest gratitude to you for taking time to share with us today.   Bob shared that he's really enjoyed this. Yanique ask great questions and make him think so, thank you.   Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest  Links • Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't by Jim Collins • Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim •    How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie •    How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners  Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.” The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

Neil Leyland is a Chief Contact Center Strategist at InterVision, and he is an exceptional PMP and six Sigma black belt certified senior-level program leader and a proven problem-solver. A highly motivated achiever with a career history in sales and operations management for international multi-unit retail operations.  Possessing excellent interpersonal, presentation, written and verbal communication skills, which are used to solve problems, consult on technology projects and develop long-term collaborative relationships.  Questions · Could you share with our listeners a little bit about your journey, how you got from where you were to where you are today. · Could you tell our listeners a little bit about InterVision, what they do and what your role at InterVision is? · When you say holistic approach using AI and machine learning, can you explain to us what that means? Is it that robots are going to replace human beings? Or are you looking more from a support side, just tell us how it is that you actually see it working? · Could you share with our listeners, what's the one online resource, tool, website or application that you absolutely can't live without in your business? · Could you also share with our listeners maybe one or two books that you've read that have had a great impact on you, it could be a book that you read a very long time ago, or even one that you've read recently that has impacted you either professionally or personally. · Can you also share with our listeners what's the one thing that's going on in your life right now that you are really excited about, either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people. · Where can listeners find you online? · Now, before we wrap our episodes up, Neil, we always like to ask our guests, do you have a quote or a saying that during times of adversity or challenge, you will tend to revert to this quote if for any reason you get derailed or you get off track, the quote kind of helps to get you back on track. Do you have one of those? Highlights Neil's Journey Me: Neil, could you share with our listeners a little bit about your journey, how you got from where you were to where you are today.   Neil stated that you can probably tell, he's not from the US, although he's based there now. Finishing up from university, he went straight into working for enterprise, Rent a Car, did probably 20 or so years with them. Worked from the main counter at a rental office all the way through to leading an area. Then he moved countries during that time and started working more on the technology side and being far more strategic as opposed to tactical.   Then settled in St. Louis, got married, had kids, and then moved through several different companies, picking up good and bad practices along the way, and he's ended up at just coming up to 12 months now with InterVision.   About InterVision Me: Now, could you tell our listeners a little bit about InterVision, what they do and what your role at InterVision is?   Neil shared InterVision is an AWS premier tier partner. They specialize in transforming contact centers to their flagship product, Connective CX, powered by Amazon Connect. They also integrate AI to deliver seamless omnichannel engagements. They address common pain points for call centers, like reducing call volume and the costs associated, they do this through improve engaging efficiency and also enhance customer satisfaction. They can be found at www.intervision.com.  His role within InterVision, he would say is a Contact Center Evangelist. So, he works with clients and look at problems that they face, and then help them find what is either the best operational or technological solution to best satisfy customers' needs or solve problems that the companies have been satisfying those needs, so tying together his history working in retail, as well as time and technology, and sort of blending the two, to give what people consider to be a best in class solution for them.   Understanding the Approach in AI and Machine Learning in the Contact Centre Me: So, you are in the contact center space, and your strategy is to ensure that you have a holistic approach using AI and machine learning, two very popular words that are being used very frequently in the CX space. When you say holistic approach using AI and machine learning, can you explain to us what that means? Is it that robots are going to replace human beings? Or are you looking more from a support side, just tell us how it is that you actually see it working?   Neil stated that he thinks it's actually good to approach it from a journey perspective, if you will. So, if you think about somebody that has a transaction, whether that be online or in person, and then they need some level of support. So, they come through to a contact center, and at that point, contact centers have really embraced AI and machine learning to help customers come through and get a better level of experience. So, whether that be at the starting point when they answer the phone, you can have chatbots either on the website or on the IVR that are able to answer and interact with customers and provide them with quick hit answers and potentially resolve problems for them quickly and efficiently. Now that's one use of AI.  People say, well, is that going to replace people?  He doesn't think it does, because it solves the simple problems AI and ML doesn't have the ability to solve.  So, when people do get to an agent or somebody on the phone, or whether a chat or send an email and get a reply, the agents are able to spend that little bit more time to solve a problem, so it elevates the customer experience even though it's not necessarily AI based.  When you think about that side though, you get AI does weave its way in there and provide agents with the ability to serve customers or call us better. So, you get crazy things like, there are AI tools out there now that will listen to the conversation, will understand the context of it, understand the ask and serve up knowledge or information to the agent real time, so they can better solve the problem.  So, it will literally know this customer sounds like they have a question about x, here's the most common answers to x, is this the right thing to say and serve that up to the agent. So, the agents might not have any real experience of the problem, but they've got a proven history of other people being able to solve that question, or a very similar question, quickly and efficiently, and they can copy it. And then that really helps agents appear to be more efficient, more friendly, and for everybody that's listening, and everyone's been put on hold. No one likes to be put on hold, or “I don't know the answer to that, let me transfer you”, that can go away, which is really, really profound and gives a perception of quality well and above the norm.  And then the other side of it that's kind of cool, is you can have sentiment monitoring. So, if somebody's listening to this call, the AI or ML in the background will be monitoring it, and they can flag calls to supervisors or to other people to say, “Hey, Neil's really happy with this call. Neil's unhappy with this call. We might need some help. Somebody may need to join this call because Neil's struggling with it.”  So, it basically not only gives the ability to empower people and have them answer questions well, but it gives them monitoring so that people can actually get involved and engaged and help customers that have got problems and prevent issues, if that makes sense.   Me: Yes, it absolutely does. I attended a conference, I think it was the first and second of May, hosted by a company called CX Outsourcers Mindshare. They brought together, I believe, close to 80 persons from all over the world, from all different continents, that were in the contact center space. And my role at the event was, I sat on a podcast panel with a podcaster from Brazil and one from South Africa talking about the influence of podcasting on customer experience and the impact that it will have in the contact center space.  One of the things that I found fascinating at the conference, and this was predominantly I believe in, I know in the Caribbean for sure, and definitely in Africa, and you can let me know what your feedback is based on your exposure and experience that hiring, in terms of recruitment was a big issue that they were facing in the contact centers and trying to integrate AI and more importantly, as it relates to recruitment, ensuring that as they go forward and AI is more integrated into the whole process of solving customers problems, having AI do the more simplistic activities and tasks, and then having the agents do more complex tasks. Is that a trend that you've seen happening? Or is there anything else that you'd like to add to that conversation?    Neil shared that it definitely is. It's causing an upskilling, or an appearance of upskilling of people that answer the phone or answer the chats. Because when he started in the contact center space, companies would train an agent for 4, 6, 8 weeks, maybe even more to make sure that they have the skill set and the knowledge to be able to answer not just 80%. Neil shared that Yanique is absolutely correct that AI and machine learning is having a profound impact on the agents and upskilling, because the ability for machines to take away the simpler tasks means that agents can do things that are more interesting and rewarding for one. So, that makes the job more fun, that's an important component.   The other side is, years ago, as companies brought people on board, they'd spend weeks and weeks training them, and nowadays that's just not necessary, because most companies have invested, or are looking to invest in a single pain so all of the information is shared to them, and when that's augmented by machine learning to provide sensible text or answers or knowledge that's appropriate, agents appear to be more knowledgeable with less training, faster and that gives a great different for companies that are embracing it. It's a great differentiate. It really helps the agents feel valued, enjoy the job, and therefore more likely to be retained and that skill level is retained.  So, generally, companies that companies that retain the skill gets better over time, and it also the other piece is, he thinks it helps companies attract people, because the job is more fun and more rewarding. So, the benefits not only in the people that work there, it's about getting the better talent in the front door as well.   App, Website or Tool that Neil Absolutely Can't Live Without in His Business When asked about online resources that he can't live without in his business, Neil shared that for him personally, and this is going to sound a little bit old school, he absolutely loves using YouTube, and he will go visit YouTube looking for how to build a presentation, looking for information, ways to do things, learnings, classes, he finds a great value with day to day, he's looking at YouTube and watching videos on lots and lots of topics continually, because he thinks it's a quick and easy way to learn how to do something new or refine what he's doing based on somebody else's best practices, whether that be consultants that have classes on how to do PowerPoint presentations, or even people that do public speaking regularly and share tips and trades on how they do it. So, he uses YouTube a lot, and slowly but surely, he thinks that's starting to be replaced a little bit by TikTok, because he likes 60 second bites as opposed to 20-minute videos.   Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Neil  When asked about books that have had an impact, Neil shared that books that he really enjoyed and got a lot out of is a book called Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't by Jim Collins, it's an older book now, but it's been around for a good few years that definitely influenced his working life, because the ideology is all in the title. So, how can you be better, and how can you differentiate yourself or the company you work for, and make a difference, and then elevate to go from being a good company to a great company or a good employee to a great employee. So, that's one of the books that definitely influenced his career. And he really enjoyed the fact that it had case studies in there that you were able to look at, read and understand, and then it gives you that a little bit more of a practical application when there's case studies that you can look at.   What Neil is Really Excited About Now! When asked about something that he's excited about, Neil shared that he's been with InterVision approximately 12 months, and in that time, they've had a tremendous amount of growth.  They are working a significant amount with Amazon, on Amazon Connect in the contact center space, and watching how that's changing the contact center space is really, really incredible. And with that, they have releases on a weekly or biweekly basis, and you see new technologies and new items come out, and it's actually an interesting challenge making sure that his team is not only at the cutting edge of technology, but what's new and modern today is, for want of a better description, a month old in a month's time.  And making sure that his team are kept current and up to date with all of these technology changes, specifically around AI and ML, that's really an interesting challenge, because the solutions of a year ago aren't solutions for today, and he finds that both interesting challenge from a business perspective, but it's also rewarding because you get the opportunity to have people do training classes and learnings to make sure that they're at the top of their skill game to be able to deliver the best in class products that they like to offer.   Where can listeners find Neil online? LinkedIn – Neil Leyland Website – www.intervision.com   Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Neil Uses Me: Now, before we wrap our episodes up, Neil, we always like to ask our guests, do you have a quote or a saying that during times of adversity or challenge, you will tend to revert to this quote if for any reason you get derailed or you get off track, the quote kind of helps to get you back on track. Do you have one of those?    When asked about a quote or saying that he tends to revert to, Neil shared that it's not quite that, but there's a phrase that he often thinks about in challenges when he's working with his colleagues, or they're looking at a project and how to move forward, and it's directly related to customer service and it's, “The tolerance of poor behaviour is worse than the behaviour itself.”   Me: That's such a powerful statement.   Neil shared that he loves it because it's applicable everywhere. In your personal life, you can choose not to go to the gym, or you can go to the gym. In work, you can watch people do things and managers do things or accept things and that they shouldn't and as soon as a behaviour becomes ingrained, it's far more challenging to remove it.  Me: Yeah, agreed. Thank you so much for sharing. So, we just want to extend our deepest gratitude to you, Neil, for hopping on our podcast today, sharing about InterVision, about your journey, as well as what you're doing at InterVision, the impact of AI and machine learning, the opportunity that workers have in the centers as agents to upskill their competencies and behaviours so that they can better serve customers and solve problems quicker. It was really a rewarding and engaging conversation, and I want to just extend our deepest gratitude to you. So, thank you so much.    Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Links •    Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't by Jim Collins   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners  Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.” The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

EPISODE 330: Do you feel stuck in your construction business's day-to-day operations? Do you dream of taking it to the next level but are unsure how? These experts might teach you a thing or two. Join us in this week's panel discussion (and our first in-person episode) featuring Alex Gregg, Michael Moore, and Alex Thompson.  These accomplished construction business owners share their pivotal shift from running a busy business in a firefighter mode to leveraging key talents in their teams and eventually putting on their CEO hats.  Today, we discuss how to transition from an operator mindset to a CEO mindset, the importance of habits and routines, how to foster a culture of accountability and growth, the value of letting go, and more. Are you ready to transform yourself and grow your business? Let's dive in!   Key Takeaways: Introduction (00:00) Meet the panel of experts (04:55) Key shifts from thinking as an operator to CEO (06:31) Importance of habits and routines (13:08) The right-to-left thinking mindset (18:22) Creating a culture of accountability (19:46) How to ensure you're continuously evolving as a CEO (34:11) The value of letting go for growth (37:42) How successful CEOs look at mistakes (46:29) Resources for construction CEOs (47:55)   Additional Resources: - Download your FREE strategic planning guide HERE - Schedule your FREE business evaluation call with our team HERE - Join the FREE Get Out of Your Construction Business Masterclass HERE Books Mentioned: Traction: Get a Grip On Your Business Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones 10x Is Easier Than 2x The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It Organizational Physics: The Science of Growing a Business Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't Think and Grow Rich The Gap and The Gain: The High Achiever's Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More, & Change the Way You Lead Forever Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life -- The Construction Leading Edge Podcast helps construction business owners maximize their revenue, eliminate chaos, systematize their work, and win back their time. Follow us on your favorite podcasting platform so you never miss an episode!  

Episode Highlights With NathanWhat a flywheel is and the correct understanding of the termHow flywheels exist in physics and how the concept is helpful in business as wellThe story of how building a well with a flywheel in Africa changed how he thought about businessHow a flywheel business system can help you have better resultsImportance of disconnecting effort and impact and getting leverage How to apply flywheels at the small business level to get better resultsAn example flywheel for content creationWhat an avatar is and how writing to a single person can be very helpful in businessHow flywheels apply to personal life as well, especially in health and fitnessExamples of byproducts of flywheels and how to make them beneficial Resources We MentionConvertKitGood to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't by Jim CollinsCreator Flywheels – The Operating System for Your BusinessSoaring Child: Thriving with ADHDHere is a place where you will learn how to address your child's ADHD symptoms...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

In this episode, Kris sits down with Rob Rubicco, the entrepreneurial founder of Anna and Jack's Treehouse, a childcare business with a unique blend of corporate experience and a family feel. Rob shares the incredible journey of he and his wife Christina, starting with Anna's Treehouse in a basement and scaling it to multiple locations. With his background in management consulting for renowned companies like Disney and Coca-Cola, Rob brings a corporate approach to customer experience in the childcare industry. Rob talks about the selling points that set Anna and Jack's Treehouse apart, including their amazing programs, wonderful teachers, and even their homemade fresh pasta sauce. Rob emphasizes the importance of traditional values as a leader and the significance of setting clear expectations for teachers. He also shares his journey with the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and how it has helped him scale his business with clarity and efficiency.   Key Takeaways: [6:37] The daycare that started it all, called Anna's Treehouse, that started in a basement, then Jack's Treehouse, and how it evolved into a commercial space. [11:01] Before getting into childcare, Rob was a management consultant, helping companies like Disney and Coca-Cola find ways to enhance their overall customer experience. [13:53] Taking care of the children of first responders during the pandemic. [17:19] We need less stigma around men in childcare and in leadership roles around childcare. [18:11] Fun fact: Rob is actually a trained chef, and even studied at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan and appeared on the Food Network. [22:34] If their great programs and wonderful teachers don't do the trick of enrollment, the fresh pasta sauce may just be the next best-selling point. [24:17] Some of the great selling points at Anna and Jack's Treehouse that set them apart and give them that family feel. [29:33] Getting back to his traditional values as a leader. [30:29] The importance of setting expectations and communicating them clearly to teachers. [31:50] How Rob got into his EOS journey. [34:56] The structure of what EOS brings allows you to scale much more quickly and more pain-free with more clarity. [48:19] Using Trainual to systemize and build out their training platforms.   Quotes: “Every time we've grown and expanded, other than the Norwalk location, it's been because of demand.” — Rob [9:19] “When I first joined Treehouse, I came from the boardroom to the classroom, really. And I had to adjust my way of thinking from every perspective you could possibly imagine.” — Rob [15:45] “Whether it's a parent or a teacher, I just want to get to know them and understand what their aspirations are, what they're into, and not for any other reason than just to be a human.” — Rob [30:00] “The best sign of a super successful entrepreneur is somebody who is a fast implementer, from what we teach.” — Kris   Sponsored By: ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI) Use the code CCSC5 to claim a free course!   Mentioned in This Episode: Kris Murray The Child Care Success Company The Child Care Success Academy The Child Care Success Summit Grow Your Center Childcare Education Institute: use code CDARenewal22 to get $100 off your renewal Anna and Jack's Treehouse The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It, by Michael E. Gerber Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… And Others Don't, by Jim Collins The Finisher's Journal: High Performance Planner Rob Rubicco  

Jeremy Straub is the Founder and CEO of Coastal Wealth, a financial services firm that helps clients financially prepare for different stages of life. With over two decades of experience in executive roles in Fortune 500 companies, Jeremy is regarded as a thought leader in the financial services industry. Under Jeremy's leadership, Coastal Wealth has worked with over 100,000 clients with over $15 billion in assets serviced. In addition to his work at Coastal Wealth, Jeremy owns nine different businesses across five industries that employ over 1,500 people and generate over $100 million in revenue annually.Jeremy joins me today to discuss how financial advisors can diversify their businesses and expand to other markets and industries. He outlines the industries he's involved with and how he balances his time between them. He offers advice on what to consider when forming joint ventures. Jeremy also underscores why individuals need to know themselves as financial advisors and highlights how having a condensed work week can help employees and the company.“Finding opportunities that might be in line with or compliment your existing business is a better way to decide for new business ventures.” - Jeremy StraubThis week on The Model FA Podcast:Jeremy's background and his road to starting his own venture The many businesses and industries Jeremy's involved in How Jeremy manages his time and expertise between different markets  The value of finding the right talent and putting them into the right roles The fundamentals of diversifying and seeking new business ventures Mergers and acquisitions in the financial services industry Transitioning from financial advisor to business owner The 90-day sprint and 4-day work week methodologyResources Mentioned:Book: Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't by Jim Collins Book: Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman Book: The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington Book: Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George LeonardOur Favorite Quotes:“If you're reliant on your financial planning practice and invest in a business you know nothing about, you're in a precarious position. Expand your base first before venturing out into industries that you don't have experience in.” - David Decelle “When you're trying to enter new ventures, don't worry about how you're going to do it but who's going to help you do it.” - David DeCelle “Don't reinvent the wheel, but figure out how to make it go faster.” - Jeremy StraubAbout the Model FA PodcastThe Model FA podcast is a show for fiduciary financial advisors. In each episode, our host David DeCelle sits down with industry experts, strategic thinkers, and advisors to explore what it takes  to build a successful practice — and have an abundant life in the process. We believe in continuous learning, tactical advice, and strategies that work — no “gotchas” or BS. Join us to hear stories from successful financial advisors, get actionable ideas from experts, and re-discover your drive to build the practice of your dreams.

Bronco Mendenhall has coached football for the past 34 years. The former head coach of Brigham Young University's football team, he surprised the football world when he stepped down as head coach of the University of Virginia team last year. Recently he has started co-hosting a podcast, HeadCoachU. At BYU, Bronco led the Cougars to win 99 games in eleven years—the second-most wins in school history—along with eleven consecutive bowl invitations. He has served in the Church as a Primary and Sunday School teacher, a Sunday School president and ward mission leader, Young Mens advisor, high councilor, and in a bishopric. He and his wife Holly have three sons and live in Montana. Highlights 01:20 Introduction to Bronco Mendenhall and his background 03:20 Bronco talks about what it's like to finally have a fall where he isn't coaching football. 07:00 Having courage and faith to step down as head coach of the University of Virginia. How Bronco knew it was time to step down. 11:45 Is it really true that fear and faith can't exist at the same time? 14:00 We all have so much going on everyday. Does your calendar reflect your priorities? It doesn't matter so much how much time you spend on something but that it's scheduled everyday. 16:30 Taking a pause from a successful career. Sometimes a pause accelerates the journey or outcome. Listen to the spirit to know if you should keep stepping or if it's time to pause. 20:45 Different times or days to take a pause. Sunday could be a good day to take a pause as a family. Other ideas could be family dinner and in the morning before everyone leaves. 22:45 Starting out coaching at the University of Virginia. It was more than just coaching football, it was building character. 27:00 What did your father teach you about leadership? 32:00 Advice that Bronco has for elders quorum presidents about creating an atmosphere of motivation and development. Apart from the lesson, there has to be a connection of true love and true caring that is undeniable. 38:15 If we can engage 5 to 15% to a new cultural movement it will spread to everyone else 38:30 How Bronco would do tryouts and recruiting for his Virginia team and how it applies to the church and activities. The activities need to be really well thought of in terms of the intent. You can learn a lot about people and the state of their heart through these activities. 42:40 Significant emotional experiences facilitate long term memory. What if we disrupt the normal lesson on Sunday to create an experience? 49:00 How do you begin to develop personal relationships with people when you become a new leader? 52:15 An open door policy is not good enough. Don't make people come to you. Be there with them. Make it effortless for them to talk to you. 56:40 Advice for doing one on ones with people. Bronco explains what carefrontation is. 1:01:50 Why Bronco started reading. As a leader he had to continually learn new things to help those he led. 1:05:30 A few books that Bronco would recommend to a new leader 1:10:00 Bronco's podcast, HeadCoachU 1:16:30 How being a leader and coach has made Bronco into a better disciple of Jesus Christ Links HeadCoachU podcast Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box, by the Arbinger Institute Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't, by Jim Collins Read the TRANSCRIPT of this podcast Watch the video on YouTube Get 14-day access to the Core Leader Library The Leading Saints Podcast has ranked in the top 20 Christianity podcasts in iTunes, gets over 500,000 listens each month, and has over 10 million total downloads as part of nonprofit Leading Saints' mission to help latter-day saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org. Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey,

Bronco Mendenhall has coached football for the past 34 years. The former head coach of Brigham Young University's football team, he surprised the football world when he stepped down as head coach of the University of Virginia team last year. Recently he has started co-hosting a podcast, HeadCoachU. At BYU, Bronco led the Cougars to win 99 games in eleven years—the second-most wins in school history—along with eleven consecutive bowl invitations. He has served in the Church as a Primary and Sunday School teacher, a Sunday School president and ward mission leader, Young Mens advisor, high councilor, and in a bishopric. He and his wife Holly have three sons and live in Montana. Highlights 01:20 Introduction to Bronco Mendenhall and his background 03:20 Bronco talks about what it's like to finally have a fall where he isn't coaching football. 07:00 Having courage and faith to step down as head coach of the University of Virginia. How Bronco knew it was time to step down. 11:45 Is it really true that fear and faith can't exist at the same time? 14:00 We all have so much going on everyday. Does your calendar reflect your priorities? It doesn't matter so much how much time you spend on something but that it's scheduled everyday. 16:30 Taking a pause from a successful career. Sometimes a pause accelerates the journey or outcome. Listen to the spirit to know if you should keep stepping or if it's time to pause. 20:45 Different times or days to take a pause. Sunday could be a good day to take a pause as a family. Other ideas could be family dinner and in the morning before everyone leaves. 22:45 Starting out coaching at the University of Virginia. It was more than just coaching football, it was building character. 27:00 What did your father teach you about leadership? 32:00 Advice that Bronco has for elders quorum presidents about creating an atmosphere of motivation and development. Apart from the lesson, there has to be a connection of true love and true caring that is undeniable. 38:15 If we can engage 5 to 15% to a new cultural movement it will spread to everyone else 38:30 How Bronco would do tryouts and recruiting for his Virginia team and how it applies to the church and activities. The activities need to be really well thought of in terms of the intent. You can learn a lot about people and the state of their heart through these activities. 42:40 Significant emotional experiences facilitate long term memory. What if we disrupt the normal lesson on Sunday to create an experience? 49:00 How do you begin to develop personal relationships with people when you become a new leader? 52:15 An open door policy is not good enough. Don't make people come to you. Be there with them. Make it effortless for them to talk to you. 56:40 Advice for doing one on ones with people. Bronco explains what carefrontation is. 1:01:50 Why Bronco started reading. As a leader he had to continually learn new things to help those he led. 1:05:30 A few books that Bronco would recommend to a new leader 1:10:00 Bronco's podcast, HeadCoachU 1:16:30 How being a leader and coach has made Bronco into a better disciple of Jesus Christ Links HeadCoachU podcast Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box, by the Arbinger Institute Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't, by Jim Collins TRANSCRIPT coming soon Listen on YouTube Get 14-day access to the Core Leader Library The Leading Saints Podcast has ranked in the top 20 Christianity podcasts in iTunes, gets over 500,000 listens each month, and has over 10 million total downloads as part of nonprofit Leading Saints' mission to help latter-day saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org. Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox,

What do you do when you hire the wrong person into your company?   One of the most difficult aspects of owning and running a business is human resources—people, and hiring them. As business owners, we spend a lot of time, money, resources, sweat, intellectual equity, and energy trying to hire the right people: we articulate and write the perfect job description and go through hours of countless interviews. So, when we realize that an employee isn't a good fit for the role, it becomes a difficult challenge for us to approach.   In this episode, I discuss the steps to take when you've hired the wrong person. I explain why cultural fit is non-negotiable in your organization and outline passive and proactive approaches to identifying poor cultural fit. I describe the signs that tell you've hired the right person for the wrong role and how you can fix the issue. I also highlight how you can mitigate legal action following the termination of an employee due to poor fit or performance and underscore the importance of leading with empathy and grace.   “Cultural fit is non-negotiable. Positive corporate culture enhances productivity through collaboration and creates engagement. A poor cultural fit can demoralize the team and cause burnout.” - Justin Goodbread   This week on the Financially Simple Experience:   Leadership and providing a pathway to success for employees Why cultural fit is non-negotiable when hiring employees The tell-tale signs of an employee with a poor cultural fit Passive and proactive approaches to identifying cultural anomalies in your company Addressing workplace toxicity and the importance of creating safe reporting mechanisms Avoiding the “Me” monster and the importance of valuing growth over ego Leading with empathy and how to deal with low-performing employees What to do when you've hired the right person into the wrong role Mitigating legal action and lawsuits from firing an employee with a poor fit   Resources Mentioned:   Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't by Jim Collins Book: The Dream Manager: Achieve Results Beyond Your Dreams by Helping Your Employees Fulfill Theirs by Matthew Kelly   Our Favorite Quotes:   “As leaders, we need to ensure that we've done our very best for our employees—those whom we've hired into our companies to excel and succeed.” - Justin Goodbread “Identify and address the problems of a cultural fit before they can make major problems; if you allow them to fester, your company's productivity and profitability can dive.” - Justin Goodbread “Lead with empathy and be transparent. However, we need to always be ready to make hard decisions and let people go.” - Justin Goodbread   About The Financially Simple Podcast If you are looking for a podcast that speaks directly to the challenges and puzzles of running a business, you've come to the right place. The Financially Simple podcast was built for you. With over 400 episodes and counting, our host Justin Goodbread covers a broad range of topics, from starting a small business, to prepping it for sale, to growing your personal wealth. Justin's combination of analytical skills, tough love, and a healthy dose of experience delivers practical ideas that will benefit business builders at every stage of their business journey.  If you have questions, or comments for Justin, submit those at: https://financiallysimple.com/ask-justin/ Connect with Justin: Financially Simple newsletter Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Subscribe Here: Apple Podcast Spotify Google Podcast iHeart Radio Stitcher Let us know your thoughts about the show - please leave a review on iTunes to help others discover the podcast.   Financially Simple is a division of WealthSource Partners, LLC (“WSP”), which offers investment advisory and financial planning services. All investing involves risk of loss, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results and nothing in this podcast should be construed as a guarantee of any specific outcome or profit. All market indices discussed are unmanaged, do not incur management fees, costs and expenses, and cannot be invested into directly. Business planning services offered by WealthSource Business Advisors, LLC (“WBA”).   This podcast is distributed for informational purposes only. The content of this podcast represents the views and opinions of Justin Goodbread and/or the podcast's guests and do not necessarily represent the views and/or opinions of WBA, WSP or their affiliates or representatives. Statements made in this podcast are subject to change without notice. Neither WBA, WSP or their representatives, the podcast's hosts or its guests have an obligation to provide revised statements in the event of changed circumstances. Statements made in the podcast are not to be construed as legal or accounting advice or as personalized advice of any nature. Listeners should conduct their own review of any statements made or strategies discussed and exercise judgment or consult with their own professional advisor to see how the information contained in this podcast may apply to their own circumstances.

Did you know that only about one-third of businesses will survive a decade or longer?  The good news: there are a few tactics any entrepreneur can use to grow their company, take their revenue to the next level, and ensure their business survives.  The bad news? Fear—and analysis paralysis—holds many company leaders back from doing so. In this episode, 40 Strategy founder and CEO Carl J. Cox outlines the three ways that entrepreneurs can move past that fear and scale their company, no matter the outside circumstances.  Tune in for more on those three strategies, the power of elimination when setting goals, how to plan and execute strategic “sprints,” and the specific ROI you should be aiming for when you begin a new strategic initiative.  Here's a Glimpse of What You'll Learn:  The percentage of businesses that fail in the first year, first 5 years, and first 10 years of existence The 3 ways an entrepreneur can shift past fear and take their business to the next level Why focusing on fewer ideas — not more — actually creates more momentum  The power of a 10-week strategic plan, and why this timeline works so well for business owners looking to grow and scale The component that could be the most important to include in a strategic plan (which most entrepreneurs and business owners miss) A crucial leadership lesson from the book “Good to Great”, and how it can help you hold your team accountable when it comes to executing your strategic plan The ROI numbers you should be shooting for when thinking about key strategies Why “starting” (and planning) is the most important part of the CAPTAIN strategy How to increase your “luck” as a successful business Resources Mentioned in This Episode:  “The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals” by Chris McChesney “The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months” by Brian P. Morgan “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't” by Jim Collins “Start.: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters” by Jon Acuff 40 Strategy Contact 40 Strategy Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn

Jeremy Straub is the Founder and CEO of Coastal Wealth, a financial services firm that helps clients financially prepare for different stages of life. With over two decades of experience in executive roles in Fortune 500 companies, Jeremy is regarded as a thought leader in the financial services industry. Under Jeremy's leadership, Coastal Wealth has worked with over 100,000 clients with over $15 billion in assets serviced. In addition to his work at Coastal Wealth, Jeremy owns nine different businesses across five industries that employ over 1,500 people and generate over $100 million in revenue annually.   Jeremy joins me today to discuss how financial advisors can diversify their businesses and expand to other markets and industries. He outlines the industries he's involved with and how he balances his time between them. He offers advice on what to consider when forming joint ventures. Jeremy also underscores why individuals need to know themselves as financial advisors and highlights how having a condensed work week can help employees and the company.   “Finding opportunities that might be in line with or compliment your existing business is a better way to decide for new business ventures.” - Jeremy Straub   This week on The Model FA Podcast:   Jeremy's background and his road to starting his own venture The many businesses and industries Jeremy's involved in How Jeremy manages his time and expertise between different markets  The value of finding the right talent and putting them into the right roles The fundamentals of diversifying and seeking new business ventures Mergers and acquisitions in the financial services industry Transitioning from financial advisor to business owner The 90-day sprint and 4-day work week methodology   Resources Mentioned:   Book: Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't by Jim Collins Book: Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman Book: The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington Book: Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard   Our Favorite Quotes:   “If you're reliant on your financial planning practice and invest in a business you know nothing about, you're in a precarious position. Expand your base first before venturing out into industries that you don't have experience in.” - David Decelle “When you're trying to enter new ventures, don't worry about how you're going to do it but who's going to help you do it.” - David DeCelle “Don't reinvent the wheel, but figure out how to make it go faster.” - Jeremy Straub   Connect with Jeremy Straub:   Coastal Wealth Podcast: Upreneur Coastal Wealth on LinkedIn Coastal Wealth on Facebook Coastal Wealth on Twitter Jeremy Straub on LinkedIn   About the Model FA Podcast   The Model FA podcast is a show for fiduciary financial advisors. In each episode, our host David DeCelle sits down with industry experts, strategic thinkers, and advisors to explore what it takes  to build a successful practice — and have an abundant life in the process. We believe in continuous learning, tactical advice, and strategies that work — no “gotchas” or BS. Join us to hear stories from successful financial advisors, get actionable ideas from experts, and re-discover your drive to build the practice of your dreams.    Did you like this conversation? Then leave us a rating and a review in whatever podcast player you use. We would love your feedback, and your ratings help us reach more advisors with ideas for growing their practices, attracting great clients, and achieving a better quality of life. While you are there, feel free to share your ideas about future podcast guests or topics you'd love to see covered.    Our Team: President of Model FA, David DeCelle   If you like this podcast, you will love our community! Join the Model FA Community on Facebook to connect with like-minded advisors and share the day-to-day challenges and wins of running a growing financial services firm.

Santhi Ramesh is the CMO of The Hershey Company. A senior global marketing executive, Santhi's career spans several years and across powerful brands such as Colgate-Palmolive, McCain Foods, and Walmart. She completed her Master of Business Administration degree at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from the University of Madras. A staunch advocate for women, Santhi is also a proud member of Chief, an organization for women leaders. Santhi joins us today to discuss what it takes to launch a global campaign to uplift women. She shares her background and explains how her father inspired her to have a career in marketing. She outlines her strategies for leading and championing a global team. Santhi also provides her insights on reaching out and marketing to women globally and describes why Hershey's “Her for She” campaign is close to her heart. “It's all about creating a sisterhood. We need to be in it together and support each other. We can all rise together.” - Santhi Ramesh If you're looking to take your business to the next level, join the Entreprenista League today at entreprenista.com/join. We can't wait to welcome you, support you, and be part of your business journey! This week's takeaways from Entreprenista: Santhi's role after business school and the key lessons she learned while working at Walmart Key lessons she learned while working at Walmart The 20-Foot Rule and the power of packaging Situational leadership and her thought process on championing a global team Her advice on collaborating on projects virtually Creative problem-solving skills and brainstorming techniques for success The “Her for She” campaign and what it's like to launch a global movement Santhi's tactics for reaching out and marketing to women globally Why the “Her for She” Campaign is important to Santhi Santhi's efforts in uplifting women The importance of loving what you do and Santhi's advice on balancing work and life Resources Mentioned: Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't by Jim Collins Book: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell Book: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy Our Favorite Quotes: “Look at what the shopper wants. We often look at what the consumer wants but overlook the dynamics in a retail environment that drives a purchase.” - Santhi Ramesh “Empower teams to unleash their creativity.” - Santhi Ramesh “Going through the life of a woman: understanding that experience and solving the problems she has is most important in serving her needs and maximizing the potential for you as a business owner.” - Santhi Ramesh Connect with Santhi Ramesh: The Hershey Company The Hershey Company on LinkedIn The Hershey Company on Instagram The Hershey Company on Facebook The Hershey Company on Twitter The Hershey Company on YouTube Santhi Ramesh on LinkedIn If you're looking to take your business to the next level: Join our Entreprenista League community of women founders! You'll have access to a private community of like-minded Entreprenistas who are making an impact in business every day, special discounts on business products and solutions, exclusive content, private events, the opportunity to have your story featured on our website and social channels, and MORE! Whether you're looking to scale your existing business and want to make the right connections, or you're thinking about finally taking the leap to launch your business, we're here to give you access to a community of women who will celebrate your every step, and with whom you can share the candid reality of building a business from scratch. Join the Entreprenista League today at entreprenista.com/join. We can't wait to welcome you, support you, and be part of your business journey! Introducing… Startups in Stilettos Podcast Have you recently started a business? Are you considering taking the leap to start? Do you find yourself alone and overwhelmed in the whirlwind of early challenges in your entreprenista journey? Then our newest podcast – brought to you by the Entreprenista Network – is for you.

Santhi Ramesh is the CMO of The Hershey Company. A senior global marketing executive, Santhi's career spans several years and across powerful brands such as Colgate-Palmolive, McCain Foods, and Walmart. She completed her Master of Business Administration degree at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from the University of Madras. A staunch advocate for women, Santhi is also a proud member of Chief, an organization for women leaders. Santhi joins us today to discuss what it takes to launch a global campaign to uplift women. She shares her background and explains how her father inspired her to have a career in marketing. She outlines her strategies for leading and championing a global team. Santhi also provides her insights on reaching out and marketing to women globally and describes why Hershey's “Her for She” campaign is close to her heart. “It's all about creating a sisterhood. We need to be in it together and support each other. We can all rise together.” - Santhi Ramesh If you're looking to take your business to the next level, join the Entreprenista League today at entreprenista.com/join. We can't wait to welcome you, support you, and be part of your business journey! This week's takeaways from Entreprenista: Santhi's role after business school and the key lessons she learned while working at WalmartKey lessons she learned while working at WalmartThe 20-Foot Rule and the power of packagingSituational leadership and her thought process on championing a global teamHer advice on collaborating on projects virtuallyCreative problem-solving skills and brainstorming techniques for successThe “Her for She” campaign and what it's like to launch a global movementSanthi's tactics for reaching out and marketing to women globallyWhy the “Her for She” Campaign is important to SanthiSanthi's efforts in uplifting womenThe importance of loving what you do and Santhi's advice on balancing work and life Resources Mentioned: Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't by Jim CollinsBook: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm GladwellBook: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy Our Favorite Quotes: “Look at what the shopper wants. We often look at what the consumer wants but overlook the dynamics in a retail environment that drives a purchase.” - Santhi Ramesh“Empower teams to unleash their creativity.” - Santhi Ramesh“Going through the life of a woman: understanding that experience and solving the problems she has is most important in serving her needs and maximizing the potential for you as a business owner.” - Santhi Ramesh Connect with Santhi Ramesh: The Hershey CompanyThe Hershey Company on LinkedInThe Hershey Company on InstagramThe Hershey Company on FacebookThe Hershey Company on TwitterThe Hershey Company on YouTubeSanthi Ramesh on LinkedIn If you're looking to take your business to the next level: Join our Entreprenista League community of women founders! You'll have access to a private community of like-minded Entreprenistas who are making an impact in business every day, special discounts on business products and solutions, exclusive content, private events, the opportunity to have your story featured on our website and social channels, and MORE! Whether you're looking to scale your existing business and want to make the right connections, or you're thinking about finally taking the leap to launch your business, we're here to give you access to a community of women who will celebrate your every step,

Steve Ferrante is the Founder and CEO of Pinnacle Performance Training. Steve helps elite auto shops sharpen their sales and customer service skills through consistent education. He's now recognized as a leading sales and customer service trainer in the tire and automotive service industry and has been the contributing “Selling Smart” columnist for Tire Review magazine since 2010.  In this episode… Your business is carried on the shoulders of your employees. How can you develop a team culture that provides a service-first experience for customers?  It boils down to employee training and development. It's just like a workout —  if you don't make it a routine, you won't see any lasting change. Employee education has to be consistent rather than sitting them down for a one-time, five-hour training event. The energy you invest into the people you hire will spill out on the sales floor and into consumers. Instead of just getting sales, you'll be building customers.  In this episode of the Gain Traction Podcast, Neal Maier sits down with Steve to discuss how he helps businesses revolutionize their work culture. Steve talks about why company culture is crucial for success, the strategies he teaches, and how customers will feel the difference. Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn:  Steve Ferrante describes his path to becoming a leading sales and customer service trainer in the automotive industry How does Steve transform businesses into service-first organizations? Common pitfalls in employee training and development Why workplace culture is crucial for any successful business The difference between getting sales and building customers How to stand out among competitors: customer experience Why people don't mind paying for a better experience Advice for analyzing recorded customer calls — and what to do with your findings Steve shares the best piece of advice he ever received: always try to improve Resources mentioned in this episode: Steve Ferrante on LinkedIn  Steve's email: steve@pinnacleperformancetraining.biz Pinnacle Performance Training  Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap And Others Don't by Jim Collins Neal Maier on LinkedIn Tread Partners Jody DeVere on the Gain Traction Podcast Marc Pons on the Gain Traction Podcast Sponsor for this episode... This episode is brought to you by Tread Partners.  At Tread Partners, we provide digital marketing for multi-location tire dealers and auto repair shops.  By using our strategy, branding, and marketing services, we help shops sell more tires and put more cars in bays.   We've helped companies like Action Gator Tire, Colony Tire and Service, and Ulmer's Auto Care Center bring extreme growth in paid leads, ROI, and searches.  So, what are you waiting for? Visit www.treadpartners.com or email info@treadpartners.com to learn more. 

Donald (Donnie) Hampton, Jr. is the Chief Executive Officer of Pace Industries, LLC, an integrated company based in Detroit. With facilities across the United States, Pace Industries provides quality die casting, manufacturing, and engineering solutions worldwide. He has more than two decades of leadership experience for reputable companies like Honeywell International, Hayes Lemmerz International, Rea Magnet Wire, and Faurecia. Before launching his executive career, Donnie graduated from Tiffin University with a degree in Accounting and entered the U.S. Navy. Later, he earned his Master's in Business and Finance.  In this episode… How can CEOs impact workplace culture? What steps can you take to attract A Players to your business? How can you become the right boss for your employees? These may seem like daunting questions, but Donnie Hampton is here to answer all of them and more. From Navy veteran to CEO, Donnie Hampton has climbed the executive ladder for over 20 years. He knows what it takes to strengthen your leadership and positively impact your company. But the journey to effective leadership hasn't been without its challenges. On this exciting episode of the Talent Wins podcast, host Chris Mursau talks with the CEO of Pace Industries, Donnie Hampton, about all things leadership. Donnie shares stories about his personal inspirations and mentors, how to attract and maintain A Players within your company, his values and commitments to his team, and much more. You won't want to miss this episode of the Talent Wins podcast with special guest Donnie Hampton! Resources Mentioned in this episode Chris Mursau on LinkedIn  Topgrading on LinkedIn Topgrading Donnie Hampton on LinkedIn Pace Industries Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… And Others Don't by Jim Collins Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck on Amazon

Ryan Hawk shares how to transition from individual contributor to team leader.—YOU'LL LEARN — 1) Why top performers often struggle as new managers. 2) What most managers fail to prepare for. 3) Powerful ways to build your team's trust. Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep534 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT RYAN — Ryan Hawk is a keynote speaker, author, advisor, and the host of The Learning Leader Show, a podcast with millions of listeners in more than 150 countries. He is the author of Welcome To Management: How To Grow From Top Performer To Excellent Leader (McGraw-Hill, January 28, 2020).A lifelong student of leadership, he rose to roles as a professional quarterback and VP of Sales at a multibillion-dollar company. Currently, as head of Brixey & Meyer's leadership advisory practice, Ryan speaks regularly at Fortune 500 companies, works with teams and players in the NFL, NBA, and NCAA, and facilitates “Leadership Circles” that offers structured guidance and collaborative feedback to new and experienced leaders.• Ryan's book: Welcome to Management: How to Grow From Top Performer to Excellent Leader• Ryan's podcast: TheLearningLeaderShow.com• Ryan's website: LearningLeader.com• Article: “Want To Cold Email Your Heroes? Read This…”• Tool: 25 Getting to Know You Questions— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins• Book: Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant• Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't by Jim Collins• Book: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant• Book: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni• Book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni• Book: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough• Personality: Ryan Caldbeck• Personality: Seth Godin— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Fender Play. Learn to play an instrument from a legendary brand in music. Visit fender.com/podcast with the promo code AWESOME a free trial and 50% off.• Autonomous. Get your ridiculously customizable, ergonomic office chair at a ridiculously good price at autonomous.ai See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan Hawk shares how to transition from individual contributor to team leader.   You'll Learn: 1) Why top performers often struggle as new managers 2) What most managers fail to prepare for 3) Powerful ways to build your team’s trust   About Ryan: Ryan Hawk is a keynote speaker, author, advisor, and the host of The Learning Leader Show, a podcast with millions of listeners in more than 150 countries. He is the author of Welcome To Management: How To Grow From Top Performer To Excellent Leader (McGraw-Hill, January 28, 2020). A lifelong student of leadership, he rose to roles as a professional quarterback and VP of Sales at a multibillion-dollar company. Currently, as head of Brixey & Meyer’s leadership advisory practice, Ryan speaks regularly at Fortune 500 companies, works with teams and players in the NFL, NBA, and NCAA, and facilitates “Leadership Circles” that offers structured guidance and collaborative feedback to new and experienced leaders. Ryan’s book: Welcome to Management: How to Grow From Top Performer to Excellent Leader Ryan’s podcast: TheLearningLeaderShow.com Ryan’s website: LearningLeader.com Article: “Want To Cold Email Your Heroes? Read This…” Tool: 25 Getting to Know You Questions   Resources mentioned in the show: Book: Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins Book: Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant Book: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins Book: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant Book: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni Book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni Book: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough Personality: Ryan Caldbeck Personality: Seth Godin   Thank you, Sponsors! Fender Play. Learn to play an instrument from a legendary brand in music. Visit fender.com/podcast with the promo code AWESOME a free trial and 50% off. Autonomous. Get your ridiculously customizable, ergonomic office chair at a ridiculously good price at autonomous.ai   View transcript, show notes, and links at http://AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep534

Michael Patterson NHA, OTR/L, CEASMichael Patterson is the CEO of US Cannabis Pharmaceutical Research and Development LLC (US Cannabis), a privately-held developmental consulting firm which was established in 2014 with the mission of moving society forward through legalized cannabis.  US Cannabis develops the legal cannabis/hemp/cbd markets globally across all platforms (education, cultivation, production, dispensing, research and development, management operations and compliance, and physician services).  US Cannabis currently works with national, state, and local governments, sovereign nations, and public/private companies in all aspects of the cannabis/hemp/CBD industry throughout the United States and Internationally. Mr. Patterson is an internationally recognized speaker, subject matter expert in the global cannabis/hemp/cbd industry, and published author. Michael is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Akers Bioscience, a NASDAQ listed biotechnology company, Editorial Board Member for AJEM-American Journal of Endocannabinoid Medicine (the world's first peer-reviewed printed scientific journal dedicated to the study of endocannabinoid science and medicine). Mr. Patterson is also a board member for the Medical Cannabis Society, Tourette's Syndrome Awareness Foundation, cannabis/CBD industry writer for Florida MD Magazine, Orlando Medical News, and licensed Occupational Therapist and Nursing Home Administrator in 4 states. Episode Notes 00:28 Why I got so much out of this conversation 2:37 How Michael answers the question: "What do you do?" 9:50 International trade 10:30 How Michael got into cannabis 20:00 State of the US Hemp/cannabis market 22:00 Cultivators storing for Spring and related issues 23:00 Specialty formulations 25:00 Starting into hemp fiber and non-extraction options 27:00 How to learn from others 29:00 Finding new markets for hemp and CBD 30:00 Consumer perception about what quality means 31:00 Why someone may buy your CBD product / Marketing 34:00 What you should really be selling / Branding 35:00 Netscape example and lessons to today's cannabis market 36:00 MedMen 37:00 Echoes of history and applications to cannabis / prohibition / alcohol 39:00 Thinking about future uses of hemp. Example, hemp concrete 44:00 International. What should we know? 47:50 Using technology and overseas expansion 50:00 The benefits of attending international conferences 51:30 The art vs science of hemp 55:00 Perception of Michael's circle of friends and family once he decided to join the cannabis industry 57:00 Networking on LinkedIn 58:00 When and how to get involved in hemp / cannabis 1:00:00 How to propose value to your clients 1:01:00 Michael's important suggestion to gain knowledge in the hemp industry 1:02:00 The importance of understanding cannabis laws 1:04:00 How long it took Michael to transition into cannabis 1:05:00 Recommended resources: Gary Vee Vaynurchuck (Gary Vee on YouTube, NSFW) Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't 1:07:00 Michael's call to action 1:08:08 Jim Carrey 1:10:00 Michael Patterson on LinkedIn About Spectrum Labs At Spectrum Labs, we source local hemp and extract high-quality Full Spectrum Hemp extracts that even our families can use.   Spectrum Labs can manufacture these full-spectrum hemp extracts: *Crude *Distillate *Isolate   *Tinctures *Vapes *Gummies *Lotions *Candies *Custom formulations   To learn more about Spectrum Labs, visit www.TheSpectrumLabs.com or contact us at (828) 229-7952  Asheville, NC   --- ***If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes. It takes less than a minute, and it really makes a difference in helping Apple recommend the show to new listeners. I also love reading the reviews!

Scott Jeffrey Miller talks shares powerful stories and principles for becoming the most effective leader you can be.   You'll Learn: Why making time for one-on-ones is truly worth it Three foundational principles for listening well How to flourish as a leader by practicing the Law of Harvest   About Scott: Scott J. Miller is Executive Vice President of Business Development and Chief Marketing Officer for FranklinCovey. Scott has been with the company for 20 years, and previously served as Vice President of Business Development and Marketing. His role as EVP and Chief Marketing Officer caps 12 years on the front line, working with thousands of client facilitators across many markets and countries. Scott’s Book: “Management Mess to Leadership Success: 30 Challenges to Become the Leader You Would Follow”  Scott’s Company: FranklinCovey Scott’s Website: ManagementMess.com Scott’s LinkedIn: Scott Jeffrey Miller Twitter: @ScottMillerFC Resources mentioned in the show: Study: Dr. Deborah Tannen on Interruption in Conversation Survey: Gallup on quitting Video: “The Law of the Harvest” Book: “Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter” by Liz Wiseman Book: “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t” by Jim Collins Book: “The Four Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals” by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling Thank You Sponsor! The Simple Habit meditation app can help your mind listen better. The first 50 listeners to sign up at SimpleHabit.com/Awesome get 30% off premium subscriptions.   View transcript, show notes, and links at http://AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep464

Kenneth Burke is the marketing director for text request a B2B text messaging software company in Chattanooga. He runs a boutique marketing agency where he helps many companies of all sizes with their marketing and content strategies. And he's been awarded for work in psychology research and sales.    Questions   Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey On the website textrequest.com, and it says text messaging for small businesses, start texting with your current business number and you can reach four times more people and get more leads and increase revenue. Could you explain to us how that really works? In the 3 to 4 years that you said your startup has been in operation, can you tell us some of the industries that predominantly tend to use your service? What are some everyday solutions that you believe can help to improve customer experience in small business? As a consumer yourself, what’s one thing you look for when you shop with a business, what’s your number one thing you’re looking for a business to have? What’s the one online resource, tool, websites or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your own business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? We have a lot of listeners who are business owners and managers who feel they have great products and services but somehow, they lack the constantly motivated human capital. If you were sitting across the table from that person, what’s one piece of advice that you would give them to have a successful business. What is the one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – either something that you’re working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find you online? What’s one quote or saying that during times of adversity or challenge you revert to this quote to kind of help you to keep centered and to focus on your path or goal?   Highlights Kenneth was asked to share his journey and he started by stating that Text Request is a startup. It's about four years old now, three and a half and he got into it because one of his good friends was one of the people who helped to start it. So, Kenneth was at a sales position somewhere else, he was looking to get out of it, just wanting something new and different. And his friend was super excited about this idea and the concept and starting things off and he thought you know what, I want to be a part of that. So, that's how he got here from his previous job. Before that, he has a degree in psychology with a focus on experimental research. And that's how he got here, and he has done some consulting on the side as well.   Kenneth explained how “Text Request” basically works as he stated that it starts with a basic concept that these days most people are thinking consumers, most people don't answer their phone calls and don't reply to e-mails like they used to. So, depending on what industry you're in and then even within what company rates for phone calls are anywhere from 5% are answered to up to 20%. Twenty percent is definitely the high bar there. And then according to “Constant Contact” the average e-mail open rate is only about 18%, that's not even including responses or click through’s conversion. So, there's clearly room for engagement there and what we found is that most people in their studies and stats to back this up, most people want to text with a business.   So, what we do at “Text Request”, we give people a platform or a dashboard where they can text back and forth with customers really easily. But the reason it's so successful or why it works so well is because people actually read their text, so 99% of texts are read, the response rate is about 90 seconds on average, so the reach rates four times that or maybe five times that of e-mail and then you're actually going to get engagement and get responses because it's what people want these days. Yanique stated that it's interesting the way it’s explained because most businesses are also on Social Media. Social Media also has a platform for texting, so Facebook as Facebook Messenger. Instagram has Instagram messaging where you can directly message the business or the person depending on the type of business they are. So, why would they choose this platform versus those platforms that there's already interface of what the business is about, the products and services they have to offer, maybe even read feedback from other people who've interfaced with that particular product or service. Kenneth stated that in general mobile messaging, any message you get from any platform is huge these days, it's just what people prefer. Facebook Messenger is kind of its own thing; a lot of people use it and it works really well. Text messaging is the basic communications tool and it works really well or meshes. It can work with your Instagram, it can work with your Google business listing and your search ads. And with your website or anywhere else online where you can control phone number. So, that's a big part of it, from the consumer side, they can go to your website search for you online and if they're on a phone they can just click and send you a text pretty quickly. And all of it comes to the same place which is easy for a business to manage. And then a lot of times too a business they're the ones trying to initiate the conversations. So, for them there might be a few dozen or might be several thousand customers or members or volunteers whoever it is that they're trying to keep up with and communicate with and text which is one place to do that's really nice as opposed to going to all of your individual apps to message someone.   When asked about the industry that predominantly tend to use his service, Kenneth stated that there are a bunch of them. Everyone texts for 100 reasons, so, every business can find a way to text. Staffing is a big one, so staffing agencies have hundreds if not a few thousand employees on their roster so to speak that they're communicating with and trying to fill positions with clients and things like that. So, texting everyone is a lot easier or sending one message to everyone even is a lot easier than individually calling each person on the list and leaving a voicemail etc. Home service companies is another big one, so you think of maid services, cleaning or plumbing, electricians, companies like that - they are always needing to check that the person is going to be home or at their business for them to come by and make sure the doors are unlocked and even that quick scheduling of an appointment. A lot of times it is easier for them because a consumer a lot of times can't answer phone calls during the day while they're at work but they can send a quick text so that ends up working out really well.   Yanique stated that is sounds like it’s predominantly more service-based businesses rather than product-based business to which Kenneth agreed. Yanique also shared that in Jamaica where she lives, 74% which was the last statistic of GDP comes from service-based businesses. So, a lot of organizations are not necessarily into new products or manufacturing per say but more the core of their business has to do with providing a service to the consumer. Would you say where you are in the in the part of the United States that you are that maybe most of the businesses are also in that same realm or would you say it's the opposite? Kenneth stated that it's hard to say. He doesn’t know the stats on it. The people he comes into contact with professionally day to day, week to week - most of them provide some sort of service. They might be accountants or a home service industry or something. Their particular area does have a lot of industry manufacturing but most of the small businesses around here are service based. Kenneth stated a few of the basics a business owner can utilize as everyday solutions to improve their customer experience, a fast and accurate website. Most people are going online to find out who you are, information what are your business hours, what are your reviews. So, making sure that it’s easy for them to find and that all the information is up to date is really important, particularly if you have specific business hours, there’s a lot of times with holidays or things change where there is something inaccurate on your listing and that turns away business. So that's a big one that a lot of people particularly they work with a marketing agency for their listing that they just overlook. Another one he thinks is just talking to your customers. It's simple, it's even obvious. A lot of times businesses and business owners particularly entrepreneurs, they get started and you have this idea of here's who might our customer is and here's what exactly it is that they need. But then you get into it and you find out that people aren’t flocking to my service or my new product as much as we thought they would. Our marketing must be wrong or something or these people must just be dumb but it's usually that there's just the disconnect between what you're providing and what your customers actually want and so, in their experience, having conversations day in and day out with dozens, hundreds, thousands of people helps you to really internalize what they're trying to accomplish and the way they want to go about it. And then you build those relationships and once you have those relationships you begin to empathize with them, you begin to think the same way that they think. And from there the service you offer, the customer service you offer, specific services and the entire experience starts to really come together.   Kenneth stated that for him, it’s what's going to be easiest usually. There's always so much going on, there's always going to be someone who has a cheaper option, there’s always going to be someone who has a better option. So, for him it's just what's the quick solution I know he’s not going to regret. Yanique reiterated that as a consumer, he’s looking for something that requires him to exert as little energy as possible but something that won't cost him too much in terms of that it's quick but it's also efficient. Yanique also mentioned that over the years in interviewing different people in different industries across the world for this podcast, she really has found that most consumers nowadays are seeking an effortless experience, they're looking for that organization that can take the effort out of the experience. Because there are so many other competing activities that you have to do on a daily basis. Take the effort out but at the same time ensure that they are achieving the goal that you've set in terms of achieving. So, whether it's buying a shoe or getting your carpet cleaned at home or getting a room painted or getting your website with a web developer, it's efficient. But you have to exert as little energy as possible because this person is just so able to meet your needs in such a very easy and effortless way. Kenneth agreed and stated that it's the people who make it effortless are the companies who make it effortless are the ones that stand out. Kenneth stated that for the online resource or app that he couldn’t live without in his business, it's hard to say because he uses so many. It's kind of like if one was gone, there would be another one to take its place. He stated that their content management system is the biggest one, so WordPress for a while they just switch to Umbraco. For them that's the biggest thing because they’re always adding pages and changing copy and adding sections to our website and customer profiles, case studies and all these things. So just for him to just be able to jump in and make those changes 18 times a day is really helpful. Aside from that he would say probably the Mozbar Chrome extension. So, that basically it's a browser extension for Chrome where you can click on it while viewing any other website and see what it's domain authority is, how it kind of its backlink profile and some other search engine optimization key metrics which for a lot of what he does is crucial.   Kenneth shared that it's always hard to pick books because there always so many and whenever you read one thing it tends to build on something else you’ve read. Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich for him was huge. It was it was kind of the first book on entrepreneurship run anything related to life and work that didn't involve just being in a corporate office all day, that he read which for him at the time he read it was really impactful for framing how he wanted to go about his day to day. The book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Rest by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang was really big for him. In America in particular we have this mindset of like “Oh, you have to hustle, hustle 24/7” if you’re going to give anything, it's kind of, he calls it the “Gary V approach” and so this book is a scientific very well documented account of how the most successful people in history or at least some of them have prioritized rest over the grind. So, some people who are included in it are like Thomas Jefferson and Bill Gates and it talks about whenever you focus on rest and not just like vegging out in front of a TV or getting a lot of sleep although sleep is important, but rest as in doing other activities that stimulate different parts of your brain. So, even in college this was common, people would say, “Every 45 minutes you study, make sure that you spend 15 minutes doing something active.” It's kind of that back and forth of activity switching without trying to multitask. So, that was big and it kind of put some thoughts he had been having and some things he’d experienced before in one book that had all the references, all the resources, all the studies and the big names in it. So, I recommend that to everyone. And then the book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson. For listeners they don't know, Erickson is the same one who did the research that Malcolm Gladwell ended up coining into the 10,000 hours. He loves the book because it's like a 30-year history of everything this man's done and everyone else in his field has done in just a few hundred pages. But he loves the concept in it that the brain really never stops growing, that it's incredibly elastic and that counter to the current believed your brain is done developing by the time you’re 25. You can keep pushing and keep growing and keep improving in different areas. You can't really teach an old dog new tricks.   Kenneth stated that the one thing he would say is you can often do more with a few people who are really invested than with a lot of people who aren't. Jim Collins particularly in his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… And Others Don’t talks a lot about the concept of getting the right people on the bus. You need to get the right people on your team and you need to get the wrong people off of your team before you really start driving it. So, if you're in a position where you already have a great product, great service, you kind of have the customer experience over the product market fit. Tie it up and the problem is personality, sometimes you might not need to keep that person but on the other hand there's always more you can do as a leader. So, you need to evaluate how are you compensating them, are you giving them the intangibles that any reasonable person would want such as autonomy to do their job well, trust, listening to their ideas and actually acting on them and trying to encourage engagement as opposed to just saying, “Well, you don't know anything. So, we're gonna pass on you.” There's two sides, you can always be a better leader, you can always do more but at the end of the day you can't make somebody want to get up and help your business grow. Yanique agreed with that point and stated that it's something that we speak about a lot in their customer service workshops, leadership workshops that attitude is something that comes from within and you can bring in the greatest trainers, the most expensive consultants, the best of the best that the world could ever provide. But at the end of the day if that person is just not wanting to do what you want them to do then you aren't going to get much further.   Kenneth shared that right now they have a pretty small team and they're really tight knit which is convenient if nothing else. But also, practical and great and all those things. As a startup they just a few months ago hit the milestone of a Million Dollars in annual recurring revenue. And so that's very exciting by itself. But they also have what he thinks is a really good plan in place to at least double that in the next 12 months. So, that's exciting, he’s more intrinsically motivated but that helps him wake up in the morning.   Kenneth shared listeners can find him at – Facebook – www.facebook.com/textrequest Twitter – www.twitter.com/text_request Twitter – www.twitter.com/BurkeWriter Instagram – @text.request Instagram - @kennethburkewriter   Kenneth shared a quote from William Faulkner, he was actually joking with one of his writing buddies and wrote in a letter and said, “I only write when I'm inspired. Fortunately, I'm inspired every morning at 9 am.” Kenneth loves that because a lot of times he finds that the discipline or the habit is more important than motivation or whatever challenge is going on. If you wake up every day and you say, “Okay, I'm up, here’s what I'm going to do towards my work, my goal, my passion.” It becomes a lot easier to just do the work but to see results over time.      Links Mastering Customer Experience and Increasing Your Revenue Online Course The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Rest by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… And Others Don’t by Jim Collins    

Tom Bottoms earned his bachelor’s degree in Plant Sciences from the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and in 2013, he received his Ph.D. in Horticulture and Agronomy from the University of California. He currently works as an employee of a large farming operation based in Northern California with the intention of eventually accumulating his own farm land and building his own operation. Tom joins me today to share what inspired him to work in the agriculture industry and what motivated him to continue his education in agriculture. He shares why he decided to pivot his career from agriculture academia to work in the private sector, his experience while working with the African Leadership Partners in Swaziland, Africa and the challenges he has faced and overcome while helping a small farm operation significantly grow during his missionary operation in Africa. He also explains the importance of networking and building relationships within the farming industry to help you achieve your goals as a professional, the importance of self-awareness and professional development, and tips on how to get started in farming.   “You’ve got to continue to develop yourself - to put yourself in a situation where you’re learning about the industry.” - Tom Bottoms   This Week on the Future of Agriculture Podcast: Tom’s experience as a missionary in Africa. How he helped the African farm operation become successful. How he balances his personal life while advancing his career. The importance of networking with others in the industry and how it has impacted his career. The farming operation he is currently working with. Why he believes setting firm, inflexible deadlines on certain goals is dangerous. The importance of focusing on improving processes more than the financial opportunities available when you are just starting out in farming. The importance of building trust within your farm operation. How to get started in farming. Assets that young professionals can offer to established farming operations.   Resources Mentioned: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t book by Jim Collins Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Harper Business Essentials) book by Jim Collins Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business book by Gino Wickman   Tom Bottom’s Tips for Getting Started in Farming: Try to keep your day job as long as you can while you are trying to get started. Ask yourself what you are doing now to make it possible. Read and understand how basic farming operations work. Question everything.   Connect with Tom Bottoms: Email: Tommy@TVFarming.com     We Are a Part of a Bigger Family!    The Future of Agriculture Podcast is now part of the Farm and Rural Ag Network. Listen to more ag-related podcasts by subscribing on iTunes or on the Farm and Rural Ag Network Website today.      Share the Ag-Love!    Thanks for joining us on the Future of Agriculture Podcast – your spot for valuable information, content, and interviews with industry leaders throughout the agricultural space! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes and leave your honest feedback. Don’t forget to share it with your friends on your favorite social media spots!    Learn more about AgGrad by visiting:  Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website AgGrad on Twitter  AgGrad on Facebook  AgGrad on LinkedIn  AgGrad on Instagram 

I had the chance this week to talk with Denise King, Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Cleveland State Community College. She talks about the need these days to supplement the perspective of an educator with analytical and data tools that help explain the environment we’re working in, and come up with solutions to the challenges we’re dealing with. This was our first attempt at a remote interview, where we weren't both sitting in the same room, and I appreciate Denise's great attitude as we tried something new with technology! Resources mentioned on today's episode: Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success, Bailey, Jaggars and Jenkins Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t, Jim Collins Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, Collins, Hansen The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People, Chapman, White All will be Will: 30 Days With a Great Spiritual Teacher, Julian of Norwich To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

Stephanie Calahan is the Business Vision Catalyst who is known for the fast transformation that she facilitates with her clients through working at the intersection of heart and head. She works with busy, purpose-driven entrepreneurs to own their brilliance, leverage their business and get their message out with power, ease and joy so they can make a powerfully positive difference in the world, exponentially up their level profits, shift their mindsets towards possibility and take a no-excuses approach to boldly creating a highly successful and meaningful business built around who they are. With her unique combination of right brained and left brained thinking, intuitive incite, passion, results based coaching, powerful questioning and strategic systemizing magic. In record time, her clients dance with joy as their visions become reality in their business. After risking personal health and happiness as a high achieving executive and former jet-lagged consultant in corporate America, Stephanie vowed not only to create a life of real freedom for herself and her family but also to teach fellow entrepreneurs how to do the same. Questions Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey How do you feel about customer service as a business owner on a global level and do you think there’s room for improvement?  What are some everyday solutions that you believe can help improve customer experience? How do you stay motivated everyday? What are some important considerations for an entrepreneur or an online business owner would need to take into account in order to be successful? What is one online resource, website, tool or app you cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? If you were sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but lack the consistently motivated human capital, what advice would you give that person to have a successful business? What is one thing that is going on in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are either working on to develop yourself or your people? Where can our listeners find you online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity? Highlights Stephanie started by stating that she worked a little over a decade consulting for Fortune Fifty/ Fortune One Hundred clients and leading a team of 250 to 300 people. She stated that there was a lot of activity and stress involved with that world of work. When she started working there, she thought she was going to retire from where she started as she was a true blue employee that really believed in the work that she was doing and was going to continue that until her retirement. Into her experience with that career, the company went from a privately held LLC to a publicly traded company, and when they made that shift in corporate organization, there was a drastic shift in the corporate culture, there was a drastic shift in the treatment of their clients, there was a drastic shift in the treatment of their employees and that no longer matched who she was. The company moved from being people-focused to being bottom-line focused. A lot of the things they did in support of their clients as well as a lot of things that they had done culturally in support of their own associates were disappearing. She was being asked a lot of times to do different things on many occasions that was right on her ethical borders so much so that there were days late into that experience where she was getting physically ill at work because the people that Stephanie reported to were just asking her to do things that were not right for a myriad of reasons, they weren’t illegal but they were just not right. Fortunately, her husband who is very supportive had a conversation and they decided that it was time for her to walk away, it took her about 2 years to be brave enough to talk to her husband but she was nervous because that meant she was walking away from a high 6 figure income and they decided that it was the absolute right choice and she did that and decided to start Calahan Solutions rather than getting another job. When she went to decide what she was going to do within Calahan Solutions, she looked at the work that she did that she wanted to bring with her, the parts of that corporate experience she wanted to bring with her that were positive, the things that she enjoyed doing, the things that she was good at doing. She looked at her peer reviews and reviews from the leadership team that she reported to and looked at the things she did really well and just combined all of that into a business. Her business has morphed and changed quite a bit over the years because one of the things that she didn’t let go of was over working, she was a workaholic and almost worked herself to death. In 2009 she was told she would not see 2010 because she was so ill and so in the course of getting well, she had to rethink her business and that rethinking of her business and how she wanted to deliver services allowed her to become fully her and not hold back because there was this workaholic part of her and there was a part of her that thinks that people are not interested in that aspect of her and so she blocked a lot of who she was too. While that health experience was a scary one, she was actually really grateful because it brought her to where she is today. It has also allowed her to recognize that life is really short and if it’s going to be short, if we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow, then she needs to be the best she can be everyday and so it has given her motivation to really go for those things in her business that are important rather than letting fear hold her back. Stephanie shared that Customer Service/Client Service is one of the most integral parts of what she does. The work that she does, all the way from the conversations that she is having now, the blog post that she writes, the interactions that she has with her clients, the interactions that she has with her prospects are all about service. The work that she does is transformational and if people don’t feel well cared for, they can’t take part in that transformation in a really significant way and then the work that they do is the same thing. The more you can think about the experiences that you are providing whether it is through the conversations that you are having, whether it is through the on-boarding processes that you have when you have new clients but even if you have products that you sell in a store, products that you sell online, think all the way through that experience to make sure that it’s something that’s going to be really positive and enjoyable for the people that are doing business with you. Stephanie shared that one solution she thinks can apply to a lot of people listening is to think through the experience your customers are having when they are interacting with you online and that can be a lot of different things. Stephanie shared an experience that she had (a bad customer experience), that she also wrote a blog post about it. She stated that there was someone she was following online that she really respected and she decided to purchase a product online from this person, she made the purchase on a Friday night and all of a sudden she got 7 different receipts for that same purchase and the purchase was not a low price purchase. Her credit card got impacted by over US $4,000.00 from that one purchase because it wasn’t a US $4,000.00 purchase; it was 7 different purchases of the exact same product. She then franticly started making phone calls to the company trying to get a hold of anybody because that wasn’t her intent to spend that amount of money and she didn’t want to buy 7 versions of the digital product. After 4 hours of calling different numbers, she eventually got someone who had absolutely nothing to do with her purchase, she told the person that she needed their help to escalate the problem, she needed the money to be put back on her card immediately. With all said and done, everything got resolved but it was 4 hours of her time in panic, stress and also unnecessary because if when they had put the product up on their shopping cart they had ensured someone to test it and actually pretend to make a purchase, they would have seen what happens from the customers’ perspective. Stephanie Calahan further stated just because you have stuff set up correctly in the first place for product A doesn’t mean that product B is going to be set up correctly. Test every single one of them, look at the landing pages you’re going to have, look at the thank you pages you’re going to have, look at the emails going out, look at the impact it has on a credit card and what the credit card receipts have because the more smooth you can make that process, the happier a customer you are going to have. Stephanie advised in her own business - she has a few family members that are not that technically inclined that she would ask to run through the process for her and she will refund it right away. Just for them to go through it and let her know if there is anything confusing or if the process was clunky in any way and give her that feedback. She stated that there are a lot of big corporations; the amazons of the world who have teams of people that they call usability testing but smaller businesses don’t have teams of people to do usability testing but you can do something really simple like that which doesn’t take a lot of time that can really save your reputation and relationships by investing in time to do that. In reference to the question of recommendations that Stephanie has for a company that has a physical storefront with items for sale (brick and mortar). The solution she suggests is to be present. In our world of ever changing attention spans where we could have an iPad going, the cash register going, our phone ringing and someone at the counter, just pay attention. Whoever you are interacting with whether it’s on the phone or at the counter, give them your full attention for the time frame that you’re having an interaction with them and let them know they are important to you because they are, they are your customers. Give them the respect that they deserve as they are doing an exchange with you, whether it’s asking a question or making a purchase. Some people look at customer service only from the perspective as people that are giving you money and that they become the customer when they have made a purchase from you. However, the truth is they are your customer the minute they’re in your sphere of influence because the conversations and relationships that you build with people even before they have made a purchase influence how they feel about you. After asking Stephanie Calahan how she stays motivated everyday - she believes in having a big Why? Simon Sinek has a TED talk video on YouTube Start With Why. It’s about getting that piece that’s deep inside of you that you tap into that allows you to do all the things that you absolutely adore about your business and to also do the things that you are less excited about. She stated that her “Why” ties back to her personal experiences. She mentioned that in 2009 she was really ill almost lost her life and the reason she is here today is because a really good friend introduced her to a holistic health coach that helped her figure out the complex mess that she was in and helped her so that she could be here today. She realized that after she got well and learned more about his business, that there is no way she would have found him if she hadn’t been personally introduced to him by a friend and there are so many different world changers that are out there and he would not consider himself a world changer but he changed her world because she’s here today because of the work she did with him. She stated that there are so many world changers like him that are so amazing like him but people don’t know they exist. So her “Why” is to help change the world in a very positive way by helping those world changers get found and be aligned with clients and do what they do best. Stephanie stated one of the most important things that entrepreneurs and businesses should take in account is to build a business that is in alignment with who you really are. There are a lot of people that build businesses based off of what one guru or another says and it’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and it doesn’t work and then they’re always pushing rather than letting the beauty of life and the beauty of their ideal clients find them and just flow. She shared that the first thing she would suggest a business owner do is look at what they have going on in their life right now and identify those spots that are really feeling off and get honest about it and adjust. The more you can build a business aligned around who you are then the more comfortable you are and not comfortable in a bad way as she is a believer in stepping out of your comfort zone, “comfortable” meaning it matches who you are from an energy level, from a spiritual level, from a business strategy level and from a learning and personality values level. The more your business is in alignment with who you are and the less you’re pushing, the more energy you have to be focused on somebody else namely your customers or your clients. When you have a business model that is always making you stressed, you don’t have the mental capacity to be thinking of other people in the same way as you do when you are truly joyous about the work you do. Stephanie also stated that one of her programs is called “Money, Mindset and Magnetism”, the clients that align and sign up to be a part of that program are typically having challenges with their sales in one way or another and what she finds is the case with every single private client that comes into that program is that initially they are more focused on themselves, they are not selfish people but they are more focused on themselves than on the people that they are meant to serve, so their sales conversations just implode. They don’t work as well as they could and there’s so many things when we are solid within who we are and our mindset is clean and confident then we are in a different mental space to be able to truly think about the person on the other side of the counter, on the other side of the phone, over Skype, over Google Hangout, whichever way you connect with your ideal customer or client that it allows you to think from their perspective and get much more creative with how you can make their experience a positive one. When customers | clients | patients have a more positive experience, they’re more likely to continue to want to work with you. When asked what is the one app, website, resource or tool that she absolutely cannot live without in her business - Stephanie shared that she adores Infusionsoft (https://www.infusionsoft.com) which is an all in one marketing tool that allows you to make your customer experience very personalized and build relationships with the people you are interacting with rather than it being transaction based. There are different components and there is one component called “Customer Relationship Management Section” and that’s where you can gather all kinds of information about your clients and customers and give yourself good information in order to interact with them. If you do online sales or brick and mortar sales then this tool will allow you to identify who signed up for what giveaway you have, who purchases a product and it allows you to have a more intelligent conversation with them. If you are in a business where it is more one on one interaction, it allows you to note the important things you learned about those people that you are working with. She calls it her memory in a box, she can go back to that person’s record anytime and know what they talked about, what they are interested in and it helps her refresh her memory so that she can treat the people that she is working with, with great respect and honor. She further stated it is more than a CRM as there is also an Auto Responder portion where you can do newsletters, you can do automated communication based off of the types of interactions the customers and clients are having with you or your site. There’s a Shopping Cart portion, there’s a number of different elements that can be used to allow you to know what your customer is interested in and then be able to serve them with that. Stephanie mentioned that the tool – Infusionsoft (https://www.infusionsoft.com) was built specifically for small businesses and they have customers that are in service coaching industries but they have people that run all kinds of different brick and mortar stores whether it’s retail stores and they have customers all over the globe doing all different types of businesses but it specifically for the small business. Stephanie mentioned that she has been doing business with them (Infusionsoft) for a number of years and like a lot of businesses, they have some growing pains, at one point they were getting customers so fast that their customer service wasn’t so good for a while but they addressed that. They recognized where their growing pains were starting to cause them problems and they made adjustments. So Stephanie suggests as another tip - as your business grows, the way that you interact with your customers will need to change and so be open for that and look at those spots where maybe things are falling through the cracks that didn’t use to fall through the cracks and those are customer improvement opportunities too. Stephanie shared that when she thinks about Customer Service, one book that is really fantastic is “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t” by Jim Collins. You can be a good company and make a lot of money or you can be a great company that makes a lot of money and makes an impact too. In Jim’s book, he did a study of a number of different organizations just understanding why were some companies merely really good and others great and what did the great ones have in common? And one of those things that all the great ones have in common was really good customer service. Stephanie mentioned that when she framed her business, she had to decide if she wanted to be mass numbers or did she want to be high touch and by high touch, she means how well did she know the people she was working with and how involved did she get with them in relation to the work they are doing together. Stephanie Calahan decided that high touch was really where she wanted to sit in that coaching space and so she has a unique rule that she wants to be able to love her customers unconditionally in order to work with them because when you can accept your customers and clients unconditionally in the coaching space, then you have the ability to really help empower them to make fantastic changes in the direction they want to go in their business so customer service is one of the ways that she is able to do that. She also stated that another great book is “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions” by Guy Kawasaki which is about relationships and talking about how you engage with your community, with your tribe, and with your audience. She also mentioned “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini which is a different form of engagement but understanding how the words that you use impact the people you are working with so to make sure that you’re conscious about that and how you interact with people. Yanique asked Stephanie…..we have a lot of listeners who are business owners and managers who feel they have great products and services but they lack the constantly motivated Human Capital.  If you were sitting across the table from that person, what’s the one piece of advice that you would give them to have a successful business? Stephanie Calahan shared that one advice that she would give is if you are lacking the human capital, systemize. There are so many different technologies out there that allow you to be fantastic at what you do. She then gave an example, when she first started her business; she was going back and forth in email with people anytime she wanted to schedule anything and she could have a lot of people going back and forth with at any given point trying to schedule a conversation on the phone or face to face and sometimes she dropped the ball because she would miss an email or her phone wouldn’t sync to her computer. That is a relationship gap when you don’t reply when you should and so one way that she automated that piece of it was to set up an online availability calendar that syncs with her calendar that is outlining when she’s available for different types of conversations. Let’s say she meets someone on a Facebook group and goes back and forth on messenger. Now, if she wants to schedule a conversation, she can say go to this URL and pick any time that works for you, you can trust that any time that’s on that calendar that shows available that she is also available and it eliminates that back and forth, it eliminates that unproductive time and allows her to have more time for the important things of the conversation and there is a lot of different things you can do within your business to automate different administrative functions and different operational functions so that you are freeing up more time to do the things that you really love to do. When you talk about those businesses that don’t have a lot of human capital, there are some things where people interaction is critical and there are some things like scheduling a meeting that is really administrative and the technology is there that makes it so easy and so streamlined that it is a happier customer experience than the aggravation of all the back and forth. So it ultimately ends up being a better customer experience by automating that piece and frees you up to have more time to be able to do those pieces that are more important face to face or voice to voice. One thing that is going on in Stephanie’s life right now that she is working on to develop herself and her people – she stated that the thing she has been working on for the last couple of months that she is the most excited about is something that came from a love of wanting to combine the concerns of people who are Podcast hosts, Radio Show hosts and the concerns of people that are guest on these shows. She is writing a book right now that is called “Guest Appearance Gold: Sky Rocket Your Reach, Grow Your Influence and Attract Great Clients by Leveraging Your Guest Appearances and Expert Interviews” and she was hearing from hosts that they have all of these guests on their shows and they don’t do anything to help promote the show, they just come on and do their thing and then they get off and that’s a frustration from the hosts perspective. She was also hearing from the guest expert side of going on these shows that it isn’t really doing a whole lot for their business and that’s largely because there’s this whole piece in the middle that’s missing that wasn’t being leveraged by the guest experts and so she has written that book and it started out as a simple check list and after 60 pages, she said it’s not really a simple check list anymore because she was giving a lot of why’s behind different things that people could do and so her intention when the book is done is to give it away because she would like more people to be able to really get the biggest return on investment and in this case it is a time investment that will benefit hosts of shows as well as benefit the people that are experts on those shows. Stephanie stated that what is interesting about when you go on shows; it’s a two way customer service experience because the host is the customer of the guest but the guest is also the customer of the host, when you’re really working together then you can get amazing exposure for the conversation you had together which benefits everybody. Stephanie says that listeners can find her on: Stephanie Calahan Website Stephanie Calahan Twitter Stephanie Calahan Instagram Stephanie Calahan Facebook Stephanie Calahan LinkedIn Stephanie Calahan Youtube Stephanie Calahan Google+ In reference to one quote or saying that Stephanie has that she reverts to during times of adversity and challenge. Stephanie stated that she has many as she has been collecting quotes since Elementary School but the one that comes to mind is by Alan Cohen “It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” Links  “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t” by Jim Collins “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions” by Guy Kawasaki “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini Infusionsoft Stephanie Calahan Website Stephanie Calahan Twitter Stephanie Calahan Instagram Stephanie Calahan Facebook Stephanie Calahan LinkedIn Stephanie Calahan Youtube Stephanie Calahan Google+ Simon Sinek TED talk Youtube Video  

Episode 3-Improving Performance Using Lessons-Learned Systems with Bill Brown, Founder and Product Manager of Secutor Solutions Overview: Bill Brown is the Founder and Product Manager at Secutor Solutions. In this episode we discuss how and why managers need improved leadership skills to empower teams, and the use of lessons-learned systems for improving organizational performance. Bill’s Biography: Bill was commissioned in the Marine Corps after graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1993. He spent 7 years in the Marine Corps as a platoon commander and intelligence officer before entering the civilian world in 2000. Since that time he has worked primarily as a program and product manager in the software development discipline. Bill has had the opportunity to work in a variety of industries, including Knowledge Management, Insurance, Healthcare, Aerospace and Defense. Working across these industries as both an employee and consultant with over 14 companies has allowed him to observe and interact with many leadership teams and operate within a variety of business processes. Through this experience he has had the opportunity to lead amazing teams that built, launched and supported 5 different products. Bill is currently the founder and product manager at Secutor Solutions whose specialty is engaging technology with their Lessons Learned Database to bridge the gap between the areas of project management, operations management and knowledge management to drive higher rates of business success and greater organizational resilience. Show Notes: It can be fun to envision the optimal solution and create the path to implementation. This requires picking the right team, the right platform and developing the right sequence of events and executing on the vision to achieve it in an efficient manner. The real fun comes in when the plan has to change to accommodate the external drivers that necessitate change. The world and business is very complex and planning is key towards developing repeatable processes and consistent results, but the value is in planning, not necessarily the plan. The plan will need to change because as Bill says, “No plan survives first contact with implementation.” Therefore leaders need to be prepared to adapt and be flexible and adjust operations as they execute on their plan. Inflexible leaders and managers will likely experience problems. Engagement and Integration are important and technology solutions have to be integrated into workflow to make them a normal part of work. Engagement means creating a value in the system that draws people in and engages them to use the system. A lot of application sit on the shelf and collect dust because people don’t feel connected to them. Workers have to feel connected with a system in order to use it effectively. You can make the use of applications more fun if you try. Integration is about taking the core knowledge we capture with a system and infusing it into widespread tools that are already in use, like email and project planning tools. Information has to be recorded, fed-forward and integrated into planning processes to help improve organizational learning. If this is done well, leaders, teams and workers can capture, collect and use information to help mitigate business and other risks by learning from the lessons others have already experienced in the past. A lot of managers who get promoted up into high-level management positions lack leadership skills. There is a lot more to leadership than being a “taskmaster.” Leading, Teaching, Coaching and Counseling are some of the big leadership skills necessary for managers to advance and become better leaders who can really lead their teams to greatness. It is a fundamental failure to simply come up with arbitrary goals without thinking through them. Stretch goals are important, but a dose of reality must be injected to find out what is actually possible. Micro-managing can be detrimental to performance. From an organizational resilience perspective managers have to be trained to think more broadly to be great leaders. Managers and leaders can’t have a zero defect mentality because workers and organizations have to make mistakes and learn. However, there are ways to find a path for workers so they can fail and learn along the way without having a major negative impact on the organization. Managers have to train and coach team members rather than jumping in and doing things themselves. Otherwise team members won’t learn as effectively and this may inhibit organizational performance. Managers need to be more than taskmasters or clock-watchers. They can’t just watch the output. They have to be more involved in the process and have to be more involved with their teams. They have to use the mantra “Lead, Teach, Coach and Counsel” to actually manager their people in a more comprehensive manner. Corporate leaders have to recognize the importance of these skills. Sign up for our Newsletter here, or go to: www.v-speedsafety.com/email-subscription Time-Stamped Show Notes: • 0:34-Randy introduces Bill Brown and describes who he is, including reading his formal biography. • 2:30- Randy asks Bill, “Okay, we’ve heard your formal bio, but tell us what makes you tick, what motivates you, what inspires you, or generally why you do what you do?” • 4:00-Randy quotes Eisenhower, “Plans are nothing, planning is everything.” Randy and Bill get into a discussion on plans, how planning can create a thought process towards achieving a goal and that plans must be flexible. Bill describes the need to adapt. • 5:55-Bill states, “No plan survives first contact with implementation.” Because so many factors arise, especially on long-term projects and leaders must be adaptable. Don’t fall in love with your plan because it is going to change. • 6:34-Randy asks Bill what got him interested in his current work. • 7:25 Randy asks Bill about his current company or role and Bill describes the foundations of Secutor Solutions and how his company evolved into creating a Lessons-Learned database to help organizations continually improve. • 8:15-Randy asks Bill about some of the projects he’s currently working on right now and Bill describes taking the Lessons-Learned concept to the next level by leveraging solutions and incorporating them into people’s workflow. • 11:26-Randy describes Crew Resource Management training and the benefits. • 12:42-Randy asks Bill, “What was the biggest moment in your career where you had an “aha moment” about leadership, organizational resilience, reliability, safety, or a similar area?” • 14:10-Randy describes how many industries struggle with developing and using a solid debriefing process after work is completed and capturing those lessons in lessons-learned systems. This creates fractured learning. • 15:00-Randy asks Bill, “What area in leadership, organizational development, or industry do you think needs disruption and why?” • 16:13-Bill describes the important skills needed by managers as they advance in their careers and these are, “Leading, Teaching, Coaching and Counseling.” • 19:08-Randy describes how managers need to take the sometimes counter-intuitive step of releasing a bit of control to the experts on their teams. Team members must be empowered in order to accomplish organizational goals effectively and efficiently. • 21:07-Randy asks Bill, “If you could be granted one wish for leadership or organizational change/development what would it be?” • 24:18-Randy mentions the challenge of major transformational change as compared to shorter-term project implementation. Resources: Book Recommendation: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… And Others Don’t by Jim Collins. Contact: Email: billbrown@secutorsolutions.com Web: http://www.secutorsolutions.com

Gary was a gentleman who I hired through the organization called Vital Factors. He was my mentor and coach on operations and scaling for about a year and a half as I was growing my dental marketing consulting business. He was the one who came in and really showed me how to get fact-based management style. People love Gary’s stories and I’ll tell you, any business that grows beyond the one-person operator, even though I could argue that even if you are a one-person operator, you need to know these numbers. You need to know how to focus on what’s really important. And that’s why we call it Vital Factors! Please remember to share this episode with those who could benefit from it! Selected Links from the Episode: 20:21 – Vital Factors: The Secret to Transforming Your Business- And Your Life by Lee Froschheiser21:47 – Finding Your Way: A Guide to Discovering God’s Best for Your Life by Gary LaFerla39:58 – Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins Show Notes:00:00 – 00:18 Teaser03:00 – 01:10 Introduction04:32 – 03:30 Vital Factors06:12 – 07:23 Story about Larry10:05 – 14:20 Personal and business dreams14:20 – 26:38 Maturity, discipline and the Vital Factors29:20 – 32:29 Talking about Kathryn Leigh from Vital Factors Book35:11 – 33:11 Delegate and focus your time35:53 – 51:15 Vital Factors53:57 – 57:56  The benefits of the Vital Factor team process/business examples01:00:38 – 1:03:25  Goals and controls and coaching your team for success01:06:07 – 01:04:27 Steve Campbell success01:07:09 – 01:08:06  Coaching your team01:10:48 – 01:13:46  Closing story01:13:46 – 01:15:25  MarineD3 Sponsor01:15:25 – 01:16:28  Dormant Forces Sponsor People Mentioned:02:12 – Michael Gerber03:28 – Los Angeles Times03:29 – New York Times12:24 – Kirk Douglas12:25 – Dean Martin12:26 – Tony Curtis12:32 – Deborah Reynolds12:52 – Rock Hudson13:19 – Ludwig20:56 – TNT22:59 – Cort Furniture23:01 – Hawthorne Caterpillar23:03 – Cold Stone Creamery23:08 – Los Angeles Clippers23:12 – WebEx23:45 – Vilfredo Pareto54:16 – Doug Ducey54:22 – Procter and Gamble01:04:32 – Ed O’Keefe

Today on the BiggerPockets Podcast we’re excited to bring you another fantastic interview by one of the most successful real estate authors in America.Jay Papasan is best known to this audience as the co-author of The Millionaire Real Estate Investor (co-written with Gary Keller) which has been our top-recommended real estate book here from BiggerPockets Podcast guests. He also co-authored The Millionaire Real Estate Agent and collaborated on the best selling book FLIP and HOLD. Most recently, Jay is the co-author of The One Thing, which Brandon recently featured as the number one book on his list of the business books that changed his life in 2014.Jay is also a savvy real estate investor, and he shares his incredible story and strategy with us today!In This Episode We Cover:How Jay got started writing real estate booksWhy real estate agents don’t invest themselvesHow to adopt an investor mindsetThe habits real estate investors holdHow to do the math when looking at propertiesInsight into The Millionaire Real Estate InvestorClever methods for finding dealsWhat you should know about “The Domino Effect“And SO much more!Links from the Show:BiggerPockets T-shirtBiggerPockets Tools for AnalysisBiggerPockets Podcast Show 105 with Ophelia NicholsonBiggerPocket’s The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money DownBooks Mentioned in this ShowThe Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary KellerThe Millionaire Real Estate Agent: It’s Not About the Money…It’s About Being the Best You Can Be! by Gary KellerThe Book on Flipping Houses by Mr. J ScottThe ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary KellerGood to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim CollinsThe Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. StanleyThe Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich by David BachBody for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength by Bill PhillipsGo For the Goal by Mia HammRich Habits – The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals by Thomas C. CorleyRich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. KiyosakiThe 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy FerrissThe Lean Startup by Eric RiesThe Richest Man in Babylon by George S. ClasonRich Dad’s CASHFLOW Quadrant by Robert T. KiyosakiManaging Oneself by Peter Ferdinand DruckerTweetable Topics:“Start looking at the world as an opportunity.” (Tweet This!)“Every house is a surprise.” (Tweet This!)“I’d always rather miss 5 or 6 good ones rather than buy one bad one.” (Tweet This!)“I’d rather have fewer roofs to manage but have more net worth and cash flow over time.” (Tweet This!)“Achievers have a clear sense of priority.” (Tweet This!)“Action is how you make progress in life.” (Tweet This!)“If I just teach him one thing, where do I begin that has the most impactful way for me to line up my life?” (Tweet This!)“You figure out what your focus should be and act that way all the time.” (Tweet This!)“The best way to learn something is to teach it.” (Tweet This!)Connect with JayJay’s Website