Valuetainment - January 30, 2026


"Enemy Within The Ranks" - Former Levi’s Exec EXPOSES Corporate ROT That KILLS Companies


Episode Stats

Length

12 minutes

Words per Minute

209.59467

Word Count

2,601

Sentence Count

4

Misogynist Sentences

8


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Brad I would like to start off with this story first and Rob if you want to pull up this tweet
00:00:05.380 Jennifer Say so I see this tweet from Tom Tom puts it up I take a look at it and I said I think we
00:00:14.460 need to read this on the podcast on Business Wednesday and let's process it together and
00:00:18.500 let's see how the audience also reacts to this so Jennifer Say says when I became the CMO of Levi's
00:00:24.240 at about two months in I had some mid-level know-it-all come into my office tell me everyone
00:00:29.400 hated me I was steering the ship into oblivion she told me everyone knew I was doing a terrible job
00:00:35.540 the brand had been in decline for over 10 years when I had done in my first two months says no one
00:00:42.680 could go on trips this is what she said say no one could go on trips anymore unless they had a roll
00:00:47.880 at the photo shoot or event no more boondoggles so this is like we're just going to hang out and
00:00:52.800 nothing happens no drinking at events or concerts we were hosting we were there to work not party
00:00:58.740 says marketing needs say marketing needed to feature factual actual product in the ads say
00:01:06.820 we needed to move away from dark and moody and into the realm of fun because people have fun in
00:01:13.240 jeans awful right she wanted me to know she said she was trying to help she put her feet on my desk
00:01:19.800 while saying this needless to say this was not a person who was very good at her job and I wasn't
00:01:25.440 doing mine to be liked so I didn't care if everybody hated me I was trying to turn a business
00:01:30.240 around that had been fallen flailing I took the responsibility seriously six years later we had a
00:01:35.700 very successful IPO two years after that I became the brand president these people complaining about a
00:01:41.700 new leadership are lame they always do it they want it how it was even if how it was wasn't working
00:01:49.300 and it was even lamer it's lamer that variety writes about it she's talking about Barry wise so
00:01:54.060 Brad has this ever happened to you where you're in a leadership situation you come and you're trying
00:01:58.520 to change things around and somebody sits there and tells you Brad you have no clue what you're doing
00:02:02.900 this is not the right way to do it your team doesn't like you you got to change you got to listen
00:02:07.120 to me Brad I know what's good for you how do you handle it if this has ever happened to you before
00:02:11.000 well I mean it has happened most definitely uh the way I handled it was to just ultimately get
00:02:18.820 rid of the individual because that's a clear indication that you've got an enemy within the
00:02:22.580 ranks especially if they're putting their feet on the desk like that's just straight disrespect
00:02:27.020 and again I think if you have confidence in in where you're going you know you just keep
00:02:32.580 pressing forward distractions are inevitable but I just eliminate the noise immediately immediately
00:02:39.700 so you're not even giving this person a second chance if if they were the one that knew everything
00:02:44.620 they'd be in the seat I'm in okay fair enough Tom where are you at with this well I agree with that
00:02:49.280 and more uh I love the fact that Jennifer say went out to say this and to encourage people that are
00:02:54.700 coming into a business to turn it around and the fact that the business was flailing and not doing
00:02:59.760 well means people weren't doing their jobs and then this person puts their feet up on my desk to tell me
00:03:05.200 about this and to completely assure any modicum of respect for what my role is there that's three
00:03:12.000 strikes you don't leave my office with a job I would just say respectfully this place hasn't been
00:03:17.400 working you were part of it I love the fact you're putting your feet up on my desk you're trying to tell me
00:03:21.940 how to do it I'm going to save several steps here you are an at-will employee in this country and guess
00:03:28.400 what I am relieving you of the terrible obligation to get up and be to work on time it stops here I'm
00:03:35.400 serious I would conduct a smooth elegant departure discussion at that moment Jennifer say coming out
00:03:43.120 and talking about this this is bold you know and and Jennifer Jennifer's a liberal she's a self-identified
00:03:48.800 liberal but she's a leader talking about doing the right things of leader you don't have to agree
00:03:53.520 politically of people on people to do the right thing and to drive your organization it I think
00:03:58.980 conservative values help I think adherence to capitalism helps but you don't have to be all
00:04:05.140 that look at what she did I love this and I applaud it by the way you know what she did she started a
00:04:10.540 brand called xxxy okay which they run married husband four kids used to be a great gymnast herself
00:04:17.720 in the past champion broke her leg some very difficult videos of when you watch it how she injured
00:04:23.240 herself her dream was to go be a gymnast going to the olympics but you know you know what this
00:04:27.560 reminds me of Tom here's what it reminds me of it reminds me of a few different stories and and
00:04:32.660 that's why I was you know when when you are building a business the other day a guy sends me a minute and
00:04:38.400 he says hey my boss is telling me if you think you can do it better go do it better but you would do in
00:04:46.460 a better position at the job that you have right now and if you stick around here long enough
00:04:51.400 eventually you may have he's been with the company for 10 years no equity no profit sharing
00:04:55.220 no L tip nothing and he's kind of upset and he says what do you think do you think I should go
00:05:00.400 start something or stay here I said let me tell you how the market works the market is brutal the
00:05:06.440 market will tell you who is right and who is wrong if you want to be right go prove it but maybe he's
00:05:13.300 right maybe you're right but someone's going to be right and someone's going to be wrong years ago
00:05:18.480 when I was becoming a broker this is I'll give you the exact month it's December of 03
00:05:23.060 I become a broker and one of my guys that uh you know was one of my best guys he has a choice to
00:05:30.940 stay with me or he has a choice to go work with somebody else that was the exchange when he become
00:05:35.680 a broker his name is James good-looking South African guy prospect him and his wife at Universal
00:05:41.180 Studios while they were making out in the elevator non-stop they're kissing and I'm with my girl at the
00:05:46.420 time I'm like they're kissing for 30 seconds where it's getting a little bit uncomfortable you know
00:05:50.100 Brad when somebody does that in front you're like can you kiss for a second maybe three seconds
00:05:54.500 30 seconds macking right I said are you guys okay I said what's up with you in an elevator we just got
00:06:02.000 married tonight I said you guys just got what are you doing at Universal Studios well we just you know
00:06:06.220 we kind of did it we didn't tell the family I said okay I recruit the guys a future a commodity broker
00:06:10.740 he comes in I'm a greenie getting into the insurance space and he says to me when I got promoted
00:06:15.920 Patrick let's face it we both know her and I are going to be way more successful than you in this
00:06:22.140 business we helped you become a broker but there's no way we want to work with you we're going to go
00:06:27.800 work with this other lady named Jamie and I said uh okay listen it's your choice I can't do nothing
00:06:33.500 about it Tom this is uh uh December of 03 how old am I I'm 25 years old I'm looking at this guy
00:06:41.700 telling myself this mother you know I'm just going off of my mind I said okay but there's a part of me
00:06:48.520 in my mind guess what it's saying saying maybe he's right right what if he's right what if this is
00:06:55.420 going to happen and then guess what happened three years later in the market you know it was it was not
00:06:58.860 even a conversation I don't know where he's at I think he's in Vegas right now sweetheart of a guy
00:07:02.240 love the guy was a great guy to hang out around but Jennifer had to go and prove the fact that I'm
00:07:07.320 the right leader for this company if she didn't the other person is right so good for Jennifer for doing
00:07:12.020 that sometimes as a leader you have to make tough decisions even though your team may not support it
00:07:17.480 in the short term but midterm long term you may you're going to earn a lot of moral authority and
00:07:22.800 respect if you end up proving your philosophies right that's exactly what she did and I'm proud of
00:07:28.960 this story I wanted to share with them Brad do you want to add anything to it I want to know what
00:07:32.640 happened what'd she do is the person fired oh she fired him right off the bat perfect yeah she fired
00:07:37.800 him right off the bat and uh obviously she wasn't there longer now you know she ended up became
00:07:42.600 president of Levi's yeah that's pretty big now um questioned like to slightly play devil's advocate
00:07:47.580 where's the line between giving feedback and being I know I know there's disrespectful things in there
00:07:52.680 but um you know you're not saying that you're like just straight up against feedback and um you know
00:07:56.440 pointing out blind spots right let me give you an example because you're you're a national security
00:08:00.560 guy with politics right Trump gets in first term everybody tells him listen this isn't New York
00:08:07.580 remember when he first got in yeah this ain't New York let us this ain't real estate here's how we do
00:08:12.840 things and he's sitting there saying you're part of the problem you are the establishment you want me
00:08:18.440 to listen to you you're out of your flipping mind and that's the fight right with the people that are
00:08:23.800 part of the country club mentality that this is what we do and I got the car don't ruin our lives
00:08:29.460 because we get to take advantage of all this other said no no no no no I'm here we're changing the
00:08:33.860 rules and obviously there was a massive disruption so but be respectful right if somebody wants to give
00:08:38.560 an idea to us you give me ideas all the time we sit down we have conversations if you're respectful
00:08:43.060 they'll entertain it putting your feet up and saying nobody likes you and all this other stuff yeah you
00:08:47.860 better be right about what you're talking about folks uh once a year we host an event um called
00:08:53.640 the sales leadership summit that event is coming up in the next two months it'll be in South Florida
00:09:00.840 at Trump Doral and it's for those of you that run a business because sales is king most people
00:09:07.000 don't understand the power of developing sales leaders that develop sales people this video will
00:09:13.120 break down what's happening at SLS and hopefully those of you guys that are doing a million plus
00:09:16.960 you'll get a chance to get a ticket for yourself go ahead Rob play the clip so many years ago I
00:09:21.280 realized the size of your income your net worth your lifestyle is a pure reflection of the size of
00:09:26.060 problems you solve so for me going back 20 some years ago I was a good salesperson I learned how to
00:09:31.980 sell I knew if I ran three four appointments a day I could sell two four six maybe eight insurance
00:09:37.100 policies on a given day then I asked myself how do I sell 50 in a day how do I sell 100 in a day
00:09:42.520 there's no way I can do it by myself I have to solve a big problem and go from being a
00:09:46.840 salesperson to being a sales leader by the way it is very different being a salesperson than being
00:09:52.620 a sales leader that's a massive problem to try to solve what happened later on I went from selling
00:09:57.820 two to three policies a day personally to eventually we sold one million insurance policies with our
00:10:04.380 company and we sold that company for 250 million dollars three years ago licensing 60,000 insurance
00:10:09.760 agents we solved a massive problem got paid massively let me bring it back to you in America
00:10:16.800 today according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics we have 13.4 million sales people in America that go
00:10:22.040 out selling every day working for commission we have 132,000 VP of sales according to LinkedIn and we
00:10:27.920 have roughly 8,000 chief sales officers in America now when it comes down to putting the hat on of being
00:10:33.820 a sales leader it's a very different accountability tough conversations challenging transferring your
00:10:39.540 knowledge on how to get referrals how to follow up on leads how to properly follow up where you don't
00:10:44.600 offend the person the script you use when you DM versus when you email which is when you make a phone
00:10:49.040 call how to give better presentations the types of phone calls to make the types of contests to run
00:10:53.640 how to hold them accountable and drive them and not upset them and they still want to come how do you
00:10:58.120 this year competition all of this are things companies that solve big problems that become
00:11:04.180 multi-billion dollar companies do so once a year I host a conference called a sales leadership summit
00:11:11.000 this happens once a year to attend this you need to do a minimum of a million dollars a year and have
00:11:16.660 five sales people that report to you if you want to join us at this year's sales leadership summit
00:11:22.200 that happens in the March we'll go through a 200 page manual together on how to go through a through
00:11:27.780 z of being a great sales leader click on a link below fill out the information one of our
00:11:32.960 representatives from the david consulting will reach out to you and tell you more about the sales
00:11:36.680 leadership summit rob what is the uh website to go to this do we have it in the link we do it's in
00:11:42.400 the description it's also in a pin to the chat can you click on a link just to see what it looks like
00:11:47.340 so everybody sees it so go if that's you click on a link we'll spend two days together at trump
00:11:52.100 Doral and we go through a through z and it's a great place to network with other performers that are also
00:11:56.960 doing well there you have it so what's the website call rob sls.betdavidconsulting.com beautiful all
00:12:03.920 right fantastic if you enjoy this video you want to watch more videos like this click here and if
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