Valuetainment - Episode 315 - 15 Mistakes I Made As A CEO

00:00:01.000 30 seconds, one time for the underdog, ignition sequence start, let me see you put em up, reach

00:00:09.240 the sky, turn the stars up above, cause it's one time for the underdog, one time for the

00:00:16.240 underdog.

00:00:17.320 I'm Patrick Bedevi, host of Value Team, and today I'm going to share with you 15 mistakes

00:00:20.560 I made as a CEO.

00:00:22.260 Let me get into point number one, not understanding the pendulum of decision making process.

00:00:26.900 Let me explain to you what I mean by this.

00:00:28.020 When you're first getting started, you have to touch 100% of your decisions because you're

00:00:34.220 the only employee.

00:00:35.280 You don't have a lot of other people.

00:00:36.420 Maybe you may have five employees.

00:00:38.460 Maybe that 100% of decisions goes to 90% of decisions, 80% of decisions, 70% of decisions.

00:00:44.800 The goal is to eventually get to 10% of the decisions for you to make.

00:00:49.060 So why 10%?

00:00:50.100 Because you have built the right amount of leaders and they're taking responsibility for

00:00:53.980 90% of the decisions and you run the 5% to 10% mark.

00:00:57.340 Now why is that?

00:00:58.660 Some people like to know and make decisions for everything where you're not really building

00:01:02.640 leaders and sometimes your leaders don't like that because you're not showing enough trust

00:01:06.100 into them and knowing that they can do it and that's one of the mistakes you can make

00:01:09.840 too early on.

00:01:11.060 But also sometimes it's people just let go of all the decisions too early.

00:01:15.020 I don't need to be part of anything.

00:01:16.180 You make the decisions.

00:01:16.920 You make the decisions.

00:01:17.600 You make the decisions.

00:01:18.200 I made this mistake multiple times.

00:01:21.280 Some had to do with contracting.

00:01:22.700 Some had to do with verbiage.

00:01:23.760 Some had to do with negotiations.

00:01:25.400 Some had to do with relationship with vendors, with carriers, with partners, with technology

00:01:29.400 vendors.

00:01:29.820 I had a technology company that was upset because somebody prior to us was communicating

00:01:34.220 with them and there was a miscommunication.

00:01:36.060 But the point is whatever that 10% is for you, your goal is to get there.

00:01:40.200 When you do get there, never release all the decisions out.

00:01:43.680 Know what you have to be a part of and still touch the main decisions to be made.

00:01:47.600 Number two, just focusing on the positives.

00:01:50.540 Let me explain to you what I mean by this.

00:01:51.960 You don't want to talk negatives with your executive team or your leadership.

00:01:54.920 It's always positive, positive.

00:01:56.340 No, no, we're not going to focus on this positive, positive, positive, positive because it's

00:01:59.780 positive thinking because we have to stay positive.

00:02:02.560 Wrong.

00:02:03.480 Positive thinking may be good for somebody that's in sales or somebody that's an independent

00:02:08.420 contract or real estate agent selling.

00:02:10.000 As a CEO, a big part of your job as a CEO is to take the negatives off of other people

00:02:16.920 and you have to bring up the negatives.

00:02:19.420 You have to talk about the crisis.

00:02:21.200 You have to talk about the problems.

00:02:22.580 Not everything can be positive all the time because first of all, it's not real.

00:02:26.700 It's fake.

00:02:27.760 And your people kind of see a level of fear and insecurity in you in not wanting to talk

00:02:32.680 about the problems that's out there.

00:02:34.180 Everyone knows the problem exists.

00:02:36.320 Everybody.

00:02:37.260 Your folks working with you are not fools.

00:02:38.840 They know it exists.

00:02:39.960 You got to bring it up and talk to them.

00:02:41.500 And you have no idea how many times when you bring up the negative, the crisis, the issue

00:02:46.620 to talk to them about, they have so much respect for you because they say, wow, he's not afraid.

00:02:50.780 She's not afraid.

00:02:51.560 We like following him in the way he's leading us right now.

00:02:54.120 Number three, hiring people you like.

00:02:56.440 So many times people only hire people they like.

00:02:59.020 It'll not only cost you a lot of money.

00:03:01.040 Normally it's a friend or relative that you hire because you like them.

00:03:03.900 It'll end up hurting you with the relationship, costing you money, confusing your peers.

00:03:09.880 Some of your peers may sit there that are working with your employees and may say, you know

00:03:12.740 what, this guy favors people, ends up hurting you.

00:03:15.060 So don't just hire people you like.

00:03:16.580 Hire the people that you're really looking for for whatever the position is.

00:03:18.840 Number four, don't compromise the non-negotiable.

00:03:21.520 Let me explain to you what this is.

00:03:22.540 When you're dating and you're looking for somebody, you're going to have a few things that you

00:03:28.400 are not willing to compromise, that no matter what it is, even if I like everything, I'm

00:03:32.920 not willing to compromise the following three things.

00:03:35.020 That's where I was at.

00:03:35.720 I'm not compromising these three things.

00:03:37.780 So I may date somebody and I like them.

00:03:39.680 We have a lot of connection together.

00:03:41.680 But if there was a few things, I am not compromising it.

00:03:44.200 Everybody has that.

00:03:45.080 In the world of business, I had a meeting earlier on and I sat there and I said, I just want

00:03:49.860 you to know this, I am very good in my decisions.

00:03:53.580 Hey, Pat, we're doing this.

00:03:54.520 Check.

00:03:55.180 Can we do this with 401k matching?

00:03:56.940 Check.

00:03:57.320 Can we do this with health insurance?

00:03:58.660 Check.

00:03:59.260 Can we do this with health?

00:04:00.420 Check.

00:04:00.700 Can we do benefits program with this?

00:04:02.000 Explain it to me.

00:04:02.920 Can we do this with check, check, check?

00:04:04.620 Can we do this?

00:04:05.520 Nope.

00:04:06.140 This is where I draw the line because this is part of my non-negotiable.

00:04:09.360 Whoa, Patrick's pretty serious about this.

00:04:11.180 Everything else, you just got to inform me.

00:04:12.360 I may negotiate and say I'm going to come and have a call with them because I think I can negotiate

00:04:17.200 a little bit more on this.

00:04:18.080 I think they're winning right now.

00:04:18.920 We got to get to the 50-50 part.

00:04:20.840 But everything else that's part of the non-negotiable, I am not negotiating.

00:04:24.980 This is where I draw the line.

00:04:26.260 We're not going past this.

00:04:27.180 Do not compromise your non-negotiable.

00:04:29.640 Stick to that.

00:04:30.040 It could be a cultural thing.

00:04:31.520 It could be the standards you have, expectations you have.

00:04:34.080 Don't compromise it because if you do it once, everybody else says, well, you did it with

00:04:38.320 Mary, you did it with Johnny, you did it with Billy.

00:04:40.820 How come you're not doing it with me?

00:04:41.820 And then you have to explain yourself to everybody.

00:04:43.840 Then you lose your leadership influence that you have.

00:04:47.620 And everybody's like, yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, but.

00:04:50.000 And that's going to hurt you and keep you up at night.

00:04:52.540 So, do not compromise.

00:04:54.140 You're non-negotiable.

00:04:55.460 You know exactly what those things are.

00:04:56.900 Don't compromise.

00:04:57.600 Next, second-guessing yourself.

00:04:59.220 I second-guess myself multiple times in my career.

00:05:02.280 But here's the key.

00:05:02.940 If you look at the sentence how I end it, it says, second-guessing yourself in areas you're

00:05:06.780 an expert in.

00:05:07.840 What does this mean?

00:05:09.220 Look, there's areas that I'm not an expert in what I do second-guess myself.

00:05:13.860 So, if I'm second-guessing myself in areas I don't know a lot about, I bring a pool of

00:05:19.100 people so we can make a decision together.

00:05:21.100 And I'll bring three to five people and say, what do you think about this?

00:05:23.580 What do you think about this?

00:05:24.340 And sometimes people that are disagreeing, so I can kind of get the balancing on who's

00:05:28.160 making the decision, right?

00:05:29.100 But there are areas you are an expert in.

00:05:32.380 There are areas that no one knows more than you.

00:05:35.080 Do not second-guess yourself in those specific areas.

00:05:38.780 I am in my fifth year as a CO, I believe, fourth year as a CO, and at this point it was like

00:05:43.840 2013, 2014.

00:05:45.840 And we're going through an interesting time, challenging time, and a couple guys that work

00:05:50.900 with me, they made me second-guess myself.

00:05:53.420 And I was constantly second-guessing for about an 18-month period.

00:05:56.760 That 18-month period, we grew, but we weren't growing at 100% or 75% rate.

00:06:01.640 We were growing like 15%, 20%.

00:06:03.320 I said, no more second-guessing.

00:06:05.720 This is who PBD is in these areas.

00:06:07.640 I know what I'm doing.

00:06:08.760 I know what I'm an expert in.

00:06:09.800 I'm going to lead this way.

00:06:10.820 I'm not negotiating.

00:06:12.480 This is what my expertise is.

00:06:13.800 All the other areas, if you want to get feedback, sure, I'll get other people's feedback, but

00:06:17.520 not in the areas that I, that you are an expert in.

00:06:20.520 Do not second-guess yourself in areas you're an expert in.

00:06:23.680 And nobody who's a real CEO that's got 50 employees, 20 employees, 30 employees, you didn't get

00:06:29.800 to that point by pure luck without being an expert in an area.

00:06:33.020 You are an expert in an area.

00:06:35.100 Trust your expertise.

00:06:36.500 Next, speed of decision-making process.

00:06:38.420 Look, there are some decisions you've got to make and move on.

00:06:41.740 And there are some decisions that take a little longer down.

00:06:44.660 There was a decision I had to make that affected every department.

00:06:50.080 And what I noticed all of a sudden was, as I was not fully ready for the decision, in

00:06:54.560 my mind, I was 90% there, but I wasn't 100%.

00:06:57.320 It was a very big decision.

00:06:59.300 All of a sudden, I noticed every department was kind of not moving swiftly because everybody

00:07:05.140 was waiting on me.

00:07:05.860 This lasted three weeks.

00:07:07.360 I had a meeting one day.

00:07:08.400 I said, listen, I just want to let you guys know, here's my decision.

00:07:10.460 This is what I'm doing.

00:07:11.100 I'm not going back.

00:07:12.160 Here's what we're doing moving forward.

00:07:13.220 We're going with this.

00:07:14.100 This is a decision.

00:07:15.140 We should have seen the look on everybody's face.

00:07:17.600 Relieved, everybody said, Patrick, thank you so much for finally making this decision.

00:07:22.480 We know it was tough, but we're glad you made this decision because everybody can now

00:07:26.160 move on.

00:07:27.200 So a lot of times, you are hanging on to a decision thinking it only affects you, where

00:07:33.040 in reality, it's affecting so many different departments.

00:07:35.680 They're just waiting on you to make a decision.

00:07:38.440 So either no decision, yes decision, what is it?

00:07:42.120 We're not doing it, but make sure you make a decision depending on what some of these

00:07:46.180 things are.

00:07:46.560 And the timeline can hurt everybody in that organization.

00:07:49.100 Next, taking your eye off the money.

00:07:51.500 Early on in my career, you're probably year two or year three.

00:07:54.020 We're going, going, going, going.

00:07:55.180 I'm hiring.

00:07:55.740 I'm hiring.

00:07:56.260 I'm getting technology, investment, office, marketing, big event, conference, all these

00:08:01.680 things.

00:08:01.940 I'm the market.

00:08:02.500 I'm trying to get everything going with the company.

00:08:04.020 Then one day I come in and my director of finance comes up and says, hey, I just want

00:08:08.740 to show you the checking account where we're at.

00:08:10.180 And she brings up that this was 2011, late 2011, early 2012.

00:08:14.580 She brings a business checking account. 0.99

00:08:16.080 I said, really?

00:08:17.360 She said, yes.

00:08:18.040 I just, I think you should, you need to know this.

00:08:20.260 And I looked at her.

00:08:21.620 She looked a little concerned.

00:08:22.600 I said, wow, we ought to be concerned.

00:08:25.040 The account is very low.

00:08:26.780 I had no idea the account was that low.

00:08:29.120 I sat there and I said, what do we need to do about this right now?

00:08:32.080 Step back, made a list, everything we had to do, cut the few things that we had to cut,

00:08:37.120 go out there and, you know, drive sales.

00:08:38.900 Every time you don't pay attention to money, it's normally because you're not paying attention

00:08:41.440 to sales.

00:08:42.380 I wouldn't have looked at everything, every behavior that I had to do to drive revenues

00:08:45.440 back up.

00:08:46.020 Boom, boom, boom, boom.

00:08:46.580 Three, six months, we're back at it.

00:08:48.180 We forexed the amount of savings we had on the account and we were good to go and we were

00:08:51.500 solid.

00:08:51.780 Now, from there on, everything with data, with dollars, with numbers, I am paying attention

00:08:56.620 to the money because we have to.

00:08:58.320 If you don't, nobody cares more about the money in a company than you as a CEO.

00:09:03.600 You've got to pay attention to the money because no one cares about the money more than you.

00:09:06.800 Not the CFO, CMO, CO, nobody.

00:09:08.640 They're good at what they're doing, but nobody cares more about the money than the CEO of

00:09:12.280 the company.

00:09:12.780 Next, having an outside counsel outside of your board, meaning when you build a business,

00:09:19.280 and let's just get an investor, you have a board, right?

00:09:21.760 This board is giving you advice on what to do and here's what we do with this and you

00:09:25.520 have to go through the governance and all this stuff and do you want to do with this,

00:09:28.380 do you want to do with that, what do you feel about this, and they're all giving you feedback.

00:09:31.940 And sometimes as you're dealing with board, the board wants you to take feedback.

00:09:36.740 It's a very weird dynamic.

00:09:38.180 Let me explain to you.

00:09:38.820 It's almost like a relationship where whoever is the leader of the relationship, somebody

00:09:44.280 always leads a relationship.

00:09:45.440 Sometimes it's a man, sometimes it's a woman, but somebody always leads a relationship and 0.67

00:09:49.200 the dynamics vary depending on whatever the relationship is.

00:09:52.400 Say you are the person that's the leader of that relationship.

00:09:55.140 If you get to a point where maybe you're second guessing a little too much, you're putting

00:10:00.160 concern on everybody else.

00:10:02.060 People don't mind you asking feedback, but a little too much makes them feel like you don't

00:10:06.040 know if you're leading the organization in the right direction as well.

00:10:08.100 So as you're dealing with board, ask questions, take feedback, but you got to have an outside

00:10:13.660 board outside of that, that you are getting counsel on some of the stuff you're processing

00:10:18.220 and you go into the board prepared.

00:10:21.140 A Vistage is a great organization to be a part of.

00:10:23.160 It's all over the world.

00:10:24.200 You pay $1,200, $1,500 a month to sit with another eight other C executives, CEOs, CMO,

00:10:30.000 CEOs, and somebody who's the chairman of the board.

00:10:32.620 You come into the Vistage group.

00:10:34.120 They're all over the world.

00:10:35.340 You'll come in and say, here's what I'm ranking with my personal life.

00:10:38.100 My marriage, my finances, my health, and there's one crisis that I want to talk to you guys

00:10:42.200 and process together.

00:10:43.360 Then you take the lead and everybody gives you feedback.

00:10:45.240 I'm trying to raise money.

00:10:46.020 We're about to lose money.

00:10:47.180 So Vistage, YPO, EO, there's a lot of them out there depending on what size of the organization

00:10:50.780 you are.

00:10:51.560 But you typically, my recommendation is to get a board outside of your existing board that

00:10:55.700 you are reporting all the numbers to.

00:10:57.240 Have enough of a position where you are willing to take, but at the same time, you've got

00:11:02.120 to be assertive so they know you're leading as well.

00:11:04.600 Number nine, favoring people.

00:11:06.260 Number nine is favoring people.

00:11:07.500 Favoring people is very similar to hiring people you like.

00:11:10.200 You'll have a team.

00:11:11.260 You'll have people you work with.

00:11:12.340 You'll have certain people that you favor.

00:11:14.340 The moment favoritism takes place in an organization, you lose trust with a lot of other people.

00:11:21.520 Let me give you an idea.

00:11:22.420 I immediately had an environment where I realized, look, I had somebody that I liked and I wouldn't

00:11:29.540 fire this person, wouldn't let her go.

00:11:31.220 I moved her in five different departments and everybody started saying, Pat, we know you

00:11:35.180 favor her. 0.97

00:11:35.640 We know you like her.

00:11:36.420 It's just not working out.

00:11:38.160 Finally, I had to sit down and course direct them into a career.

00:11:43.900 They told me what timeline they have.

00:11:45.800 They finally chose a career that they were excited about.

00:11:47.860 I said, are you excited about this?

00:11:48.800 No.

00:11:49.280 Maybe you ought to consider doing this.

00:11:50.520 She got excited and she chose to leave and we made a decision realizing, I'm not going

00:11:55.500 to be doing that anymore.

00:11:56.260 This was in 2012, 2013 and we moved on.

00:11:59.120 What's the moral of the story here with you?

00:12:01.620 Once I made that adjustment, I made it very clear.

00:12:04.760 Even people that I have a relationship with or a friendship with or an association with

00:12:10.020 in the company, it was very simple.

00:12:12.340 If they were out of line, it was very clear that, listen, I don't favor the decision that

00:12:15.920 was made.

00:12:16.640 If even family was out of line, I don't favor the decision that was made.

00:12:19.640 Now, you have to be respectful, diplomatic, all of that. 0.98

00:12:22.480 This is not being a jerk about it. 0.74

00:12:24.320 But people then started realizing you don't favor people. 0.90

00:12:27.520 Trust goes up because you're going to treat people fairly.

00:12:30.700 Not equally because some of you guys are more important than others, but at least you're

00:12:33.920 going to be fair.

00:12:34.580 Favoring people, you're going to lose a lot of trust in your organization.

00:12:36.860 Number 10, knowing who to take counsel from and who not to.

00:12:40.500 Very critical.

00:12:41.280 Let me explain.

00:12:41.820 Everybody's going to give you advice.

00:12:45.940 Everybody.

00:12:46.740 So, for example, we started going through a phase which was like, so, we want to do a

00:12:52.620 meeting and you guys give your advice on how we can make the company better.

00:12:56.020 Because this is out of an article we read.

00:12:58.080 It's so nice because it's great when everybody gives feedback.

00:13:01.420 Give us your feedback on what you think.

00:13:03.640 So, all of a sudden, this feedback, I think we're doing this wrong.

00:13:07.280 I think we're doing that wrong.

00:13:08.840 I think we're doing this wrong.

00:13:10.020 And then all of a sudden, I'm sitting there saying, terrible idea.

00:13:13.640 Who are you to tell us we're doing these things wrong?

00:13:15.840 And then I realize, credibility is what's predicated based on your advice being heard.

00:13:22.320 You can put a lot of advice you want.

00:13:24.020 By the way, again, what I'm saying, a lot of people are not going to agree with.

00:13:27.560 Because if you go read Huffington Post, if you go read Fortune Magazine or Money Magazine

00:13:31.860 written by these journalists, they say things like, you have to be willing to want to hear

00:13:36.580 everybody wrong if you want to build a big organization.

00:13:39.880 Because you could be taking advice from somebody that's never made more than $45,000 a year,

00:13:44.100 telling you how you're doing 10 different things wrong.

00:13:46.560 And then you're sitting there saying, what am I doing this here for?

00:13:49.040 This makes no sense to me.

00:13:50.480 You can't lose your core.

00:13:52.320 So, I started looking.

00:13:53.760 Who is giving the advice?

00:13:55.560 What is the credibility?

00:13:57.140 What is the expertise?

00:13:58.420 What is the background?

00:13:59.320 How long have you been here to know the culture, to know what we stand for, to know the history of it?

00:14:03.960 But then I'm willing to take counsel from you.

00:14:05.980 There's a lot of consultants when you start a business, when you become a CEO.

00:14:09.760 You pay me $20,000, I'll be able to fix your problems for you.

00:14:12.580 Ma'am, if you're so good at solving my problems for me, you would never be a consultant.

00:14:16.320 You'd go run a company and be a CEO, if you're such an expert.

00:14:18.940 Why did you become a consultant in the first place?

00:14:20.720 You know, a lot of times people become consultants because they couldn't make you in the world of business.

00:14:24.180 Running a business is not easy.

00:14:26.600 All of these coaches, I'm a life coach.

00:14:29.560 I'm doing all this other stuff.

00:14:30.760 If you're so incredible at being a life coach, why don't you go build a company and have a couple hundred employees and sell it for a couple billion dollars?

00:14:38.160 But that's not what I like to do.

00:14:39.360 No, because you know it's hard.

00:14:41.420 There's a big difference between talking about all these cultural articles, 19 points for people to love each other and have autonomy and all these other things.

00:14:49.480 Nice, great, sweet, looks very good in a utopian world where unicorns fly.

00:14:54.540 When you're running a business, it's a completely different ballgame.

00:14:56.640 You have to understand who to take advice from and who not to take advice from based on where they're at.

00:15:01.560 Again, not a lot of people are going to agree with this, but I'm giving you those mistakes I made and you can do whatever you want to do with it.

00:15:06.880 Number 11, not studying data.

00:15:08.640 So you're running, you're gunning.

00:15:10.120 Now, some people are studying way too much data and they forget about the emotional side of human side.

00:15:14.160 There's human side.

00:15:14.840 You cannot ever lose the human touch.

00:15:16.660 Ever.

00:15:17.320 You cannot ever have that conversation.

00:15:18.640 I was having a conference call earlier this morning and on this conference call, I'm talking to one of our executives and he sounded defeated.

00:15:28.700 And I'm going through it with them and he reported numbers for their office on what they were doing and it was the worst ever.

00:15:35.820 So rather than taking the approach of just going data, data, data, data, data, well, you didn't do this and you didn't do this and you didn't do that.

00:15:41.920 I took a completely different approach.

00:15:43.080 I said, listen, I want you to understand something here.

00:15:45.060 I said, you know, I can give you 10 different things.

00:15:48.760 I can give you five different things.

00:15:50.420 But here's what I can tell you.

00:15:51.520 You got an office with about 60 people that work there, right?

00:15:54.160 He said, yes.

00:15:55.380 I said, sometimes when you have something you face where it's a loss, right?

00:16:02.240 And you get defeated, you lose.

00:16:04.660 That defeated energy is felt by everybody.

00:16:08.080 And you don't even know it.

00:16:09.280 It's felt by your support, your customer service, your sales, your organizational people, your processors, everybody.

00:16:15.720 You just got to pick yourself up.

00:16:17.820 I said, listen, how many times have I told you how much I respect you for your character, your values, who you are as a human being, as a father?

00:16:24.840 This is a guy that never drank in his life.

00:16:26.760 He's disciplined, church going, so kind to his wife, incredible kids.

00:16:31.380 Every time I'm around his kids, I'm like, I wish my kids had more friends like their kids because their kids are incredible kids.

00:16:38.500 Literally, I love this guy's kids.

00:16:40.820 And I told him who he is as a human being.

00:16:42.680 I said, listen, you lost.

00:16:44.080 I got it.

00:16:45.020 You ain't defeated, though.

00:16:46.220 And you got to change that attitude.

00:16:47.680 Go take a cold shower.

00:16:49.020 Make a list of 20 things that makes you special as a human being.

00:16:52.460 Remind yourself who you are and then go do that to everybody around you because if you are defeated, your people aren't you drained.

00:16:58.680 They need to hear from you.

00:16:59.900 He says, thank you so much for the counselor.

00:17:01.280 I called him afterwards.

00:17:02.040 We had a funny conversation.

00:17:02.900 I said, did you take a cold shower already?

00:17:04.240 Ha, ha, ha.

00:17:04.640 Not yet.

00:17:05.040 Anyways, we took care of that and moved on.

00:17:07.240 Here's the point, though.

00:17:08.000 Going back to this.

00:17:09.720 Not studying data.

00:17:10.820 Set that emotional side aside.

00:17:12.620 Now go to the other side.

00:17:13.940 So many times people don't look at their data.

00:17:15.660 They look at their trends.

00:17:16.460 They don't measure month to month.

00:17:17.460 Sometimes people say, well, study data, predictive analytics, and people say, I have no idea what you're talking about.

00:17:22.560 What do you mean by predictive analytics?

00:17:23.880 What do you mean by data?

00:17:24.620 I don't understand what you're saying.

00:17:26.320 Really, I don't even know where to start.

00:17:28.200 You got to look at your numbers and measure all of them, specific to data, but you got to study your numbers.

00:17:33.000 All of it.

00:17:33.680 Measure everything to everything, season to season, quarter to quarter, month to month, week to week, day to day.

00:17:40.100 You will learn so much about the trends of your business.

00:17:42.860 Number 12, avoid hiring resume builders.

00:17:45.880 Mistake I made.

00:17:47.100 So this whole idea of, well, you know what?

00:17:50.020 Why don't we hire people and train them here and develop them here and do this and do this and do that and we build them up.

00:17:55.340 Home office support, not sales.

00:17:56.760 Sales you got to build sometimes.

00:17:58.320 Sales, I want greenies.

00:17:59.360 I'm not really looking for a guy that's been in sales for 20 years because sometimes they come in and they know everything, can't teach them everything.

00:18:05.340 I'm talking home office support, right?

00:18:07.620 So you hire resume builders.

00:18:09.300 And so what you don't know about these 24-year-olds who are coming here because they only want to work here for two years, get a couple raises.

00:18:14.760 Then use that raise and go shopping to other companies saying, this company pays me this much.

00:18:19.400 Are you willing to pay me 80?

00:18:20.360 If you do, I'll leave.

00:18:21.400 And then boom, they leave you.

00:18:22.840 All that time into them, they left.

00:18:24.620 Or they threaten you.

00:18:25.900 They're offering me this.

00:18:26.680 What are you going to give me?

00:18:27.700 And then you are in a position where you're like, oh my gosh, this is kind of like, what is this situation I'm in?

00:18:32.540 And it's kind of tough and you're kind of annoyed and you're not, but you do, you don't.

00:18:36.240 Are they a lynchman?

00:18:37.160 Are they not a lynchman?

00:18:37.980 So here's what I recommend you do.

00:18:40.400 Many times you can't afford it when you're a new company.

00:18:42.680 I fully get it.

00:18:43.520 Believe me, I hired, you know, people that I had to just bring on board to help me out on many different areas that we're not experts in.

00:18:49.440 The goal is to get to a point where you don't just hire resume builders.

00:18:52.700 Depending on the kind of culture you want to build.

00:18:54.860 You hire people that are already done that to two, three other companies, okay?

00:18:59.220 They're coming to you because they want to stay.

00:19:01.520 And they're at a number in the market where that's their value.

00:19:03.660 It's not going to be a 50% spike anymore.

00:19:06.300 They want to come to you and they want to work with you.

00:19:07.600 Perfect.

00:19:08.300 Now bring all the value that you learned to me.

00:19:10.500 Rather than getting maybe a 24-year-old, you're getting a 36-year-old career, wife, kids, husband, settle down.

00:19:15.740 They kind of need to get their part going.

00:19:16.960 They need a little bit more stability than just risk to go all over the place.

00:19:19.800 So avoid hiring resume builders.

00:19:22.440 Avoid hiring resume builders.

00:19:24.040 Next, a comp plan that doesn't produce the results you want.

00:19:29.080 What do I mean by this?

00:19:30.420 So many times, I look at a company.

00:19:33.340 They'll come down.

00:19:33.940 A CEO will come here with their executive team or I'll do a call with them or something like that.

00:19:38.360 They say, Pat, here's where I'm at.

00:19:40.140 What do I do to drive my organization?

00:19:41.800 I'll say, listen, show me your comp.

00:19:43.580 I say, what do you mean?

00:19:44.500 Show me all the executives you have and show me their comp plan.

00:19:47.100 And then show me your salespeople you have and show me their comp plan.

00:19:49.160 Show me your support team you have and show me their comp plan.

00:19:51.200 I don't get what you're talking about.

00:19:52.780 How do you pay them?

00:19:54.300 Well, I just paid them like this.

00:19:55.460 Well, that's the problem. 0.99

00:19:56.820 Your comp plan sucks. 0.98

00:19:57.840 How do you want me to pay them? 0.99

00:19:59.960 You've got to readjust.

00:20:01.180 I have probably, and I'm not kidding with you, I've probably changed my comp plan probably

00:20:05.780 a hundred times.

00:20:06.740 I've changed my comp plan.

00:20:08.100 A hundred times.

00:20:08.940 You know why?

00:20:09.600 Every time I was trying to find what produces the emotion and the results I want.

00:20:16.100 Sometimes your comp plan could be the reason that some people are, you know, cutting the

00:20:21.300 line and breaking the rules and sometimes breaking the laws because it's affected by your comp plan.

00:20:25.320 You've got to have a comp plan that produces exactly what you want from your employees,

00:20:29.600 your staff, your support, your exec, and your salespeople.

00:20:32.320 Number 14, experienced talent equals money.

00:20:34.960 Don't be cheap if you want to get the right kind of talent.

00:20:36.980 Maybe you get somebody that's cheap, but their talents are also cheap.

00:20:40.340 If you want to get some legitimate, quality, talented people that come with value to you,

00:20:46.660 not you have to train them everything, sometimes you've got to cut that check.

00:20:49.620 But by the way, normally when you're hiring people, a lot of times people hire for now.

00:20:54.020 They hire for a month from now.

00:20:55.460 They hire for two months from now.

00:20:57.080 When it gets to a point where you really want to build an empire, you are hiring for

00:21:00.060 a year from now.

00:21:00.940 You are hiring for 18 months from now.

00:21:02.920 You're not hiring just for a month.

00:21:04.860 You know, we go through a lot of times with our businesses, different businesses that

00:21:07.820 we have, and sometimes we need this person today, and then we need that person today,

00:21:10.600 and we need this person today.

00:21:11.660 It's crisis, crisis, crisis hiring.

00:21:14.020 You're not hiring for 12 months.

00:21:15.500 You've got to hire 6, 12, 18 months.

00:21:18.720 Similar to when you get a lease, you don't get an office space for what you need today.

00:21:22.480 You get an office space for what you need 12 months from now, 18 months from now.

00:21:26.260 That's what you do.

00:21:26.960 We've got a big office space here.

00:21:28.580 Nearly 30,000 square feet, and guess what?

00:21:30.900 We're not trying to get the next door space.

00:21:32.440 We're negotiating to get another 15, 20,000 square feet because we grew.

00:21:35.600 Now, we've been here for about 18 months, so we did that properly, but we all of a sudden

00:21:39.680 outgo.

00:21:40.220 We need to get more space.

00:21:41.140 So the same as goes with space, the same goes with talent.

00:21:44.160 And last but not least, micromanaging late.

00:21:46.400 Let me explain.

00:21:48.220 So you'll read these books, articles.

00:21:50.700 They'll make you feel guilty about micromanaging.

00:21:52.520 Don't micromanage.

00:21:53.260 A real leader doesn't need to micromanage.

00:21:54.800 A real leader doesn't need to do this and all this other stuff.

00:21:56.800 So typically, this is what people do.

00:21:57.980 I just want you to know, I'm not the type of person that micromanages.

00:22:01.260 I leave you alone.

00:22:02.200 Yeah, but six months later, after they break so many different things, then you start micromanaging.

00:22:06.040 So this person's not used to you being that way.

00:22:09.420 Rather, you micromanage upfront, and you let go later, and you trust them to make the right

00:22:15.380 decisions because you micromanage them early on.

00:22:18.260 And if you don't micromanage, if you don't hold people accountable, don't expect to get

00:22:22.920 people hitting deadlines, hitting the numbers you want, the results you want.

00:22:25.360 Thanks, everybody, for listening.

00:22:27.020 And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so.

00:22:31.620 Give us a five-star.

00:22:33.080 Write a review if you haven't already.

00:22:34.520 And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me on Snapchat,

00:22:38.600 Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.

00:22:40.560 Just search my name, PatrickVidDavid.

00:22:42.460 And I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.

00:22:47.460 With that being said, have a great day today.

00:22:49.200 Take care, everybody.

00:22:49.900 Bye-bye.

00:22:50.160 Bye-bye.

00:22:51.420 Thank you.

00:22:51.600 Bye-bye.

00:22:52.960 Bye-bye.

00:22:53.560 Bye-bye.

00:22:54.560 Bye-bye.

00:22:57.780 Bye-bye.

00:22:58.260 Bye-bye.

00:23:07.460 Bye-bye.

00:23:10.420 Bye-bye.

00:23:16.100 Bye-bye.

00:23:18.860 Bye-bye.

Valuetainment - June 07, 2019

Episode 315 - 15 Mistakes I Made As A CEO

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