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Every single entrepreneur has one problem. They think they have multiple problems, but they have one problem, and it's a people problem.

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Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers, how to make more

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customers, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons we have learned along the way.

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I hope you enjoy and subscribe.

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All right, in this video what I want to talk about is I just finished our strategic meeting, and it was so apparent

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some of the new talent that we brought in, how much they were really driving growth in some of our companies.

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And I want to talk about this because I think it's the single hardest thing that entrepreneurs face.

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Like every single entrepreneur has one problem. They think they have multiple problems, but they have one problem,

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and it's a people problem. They don't know where to find good people, number one, number two,

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they don't know how to hire and recruit those people, number three, they don't know how to manage those

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people, number four, they don't know how to grow and cultivate the talent, right?

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And so that entire process embodies what really growing a business becomes after you get to,

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probably about 10 to 30 million a year is when when ops really start taking over, especially at 30,

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it's all about talent. And I think I've said this before, this is probably the biggest,

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it's been the biggest bottleneck for me crossing 30 to 100,

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is was really understanding that. I was understanding that it was all about the talent.

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It's actually not about you, and that can be really hard for your ego because you love being

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needed, and that's like an interpersonal need that we have from childhood or whatever it is,

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we didn't get hugged enough, but like that need is something that is outside of the business.

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The business doesn't require you. The business should be able to run on its own, and this is

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something that I shifted over time. That being said, it doesn't mean that you can't have the future,

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you can vision for the business, you know, baseless, just step down for the first time after 30 years

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or whatever, but the actual doing, the leading, all that stuff over time, the company becomes a

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company of companies, right? It becomes a conglomerate as you grow. And so what I want to talk about

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specifically today is how to find and know the difference between an A player and a B player,

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or really an A player in everyone else. And I can't really stress how unbelievably important this is,

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and the thing is is that we talk to entrepreneurs, they're always like, my team's awesome,

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and you talk to the same entrepreneur you're later, and they're like, my that team was horrible,

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this team's awesome, and that's because we're eternal optimists, right? That's just the reality of it.

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If you can't look at someone on your team and be like, I think this person's kind of weak,

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or I think this person could be better, then you really have Rose colored glasses on, right?

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And that's the hard part. And I honestly, this wasn't real for me until I actually saw

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teammates of mine growing divisions of our companies without me, doing it in ways that I had never

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thought of. Once that happened, it became real for me. And I think there's these different steps

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in your entrepreneurial journey. I mean, the first one was on, I remember the first person who did

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a sale for me, I cried. I remember I cried because I heard about on the phone, and they're like,

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yeah, I sold two people a day, and I had done every single sale for my business for like a year and

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a half. It was just no one could bring it in, right? And the answer is other people can bring it in,

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you're not special. But it wasn't real for me. And as soon as this girl did this, I was like, oh my

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God, like, I don't have to literally make the money. Someone else can do this, and I can actually

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start running the business. And so is a huge breakthrough. And there's obviously levels to this,

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right? And I think the level that I just recently had a breakthrough on was watching teammates

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actually grow the business without me, right? And it's really special. It's really awesome.

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So you're like, that's awesome for you, Alex. Why are you talking to me? Great question.

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A, players and B, players. So what I want to do is tell you a quick story because I think it's

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perfect for illustration. So we just recently promoted a brand manager, one of our companies.

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And she was given the task of like, hey, why don't you think about other revenue streams

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that we could possibly bring into the company? And so she said, I thought we should start in a

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parallel line because I'm getting lots of messages on social media about how we should have a

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parallel. And I think that'd be a good opportunity. And so her, her supervisor said, I think that's

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a good idea. Go for it, right? And so what she did was she emailed, you know, 20 different,

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you know, manufacturing companies for for a peril. She got samples from all of them. She tried

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them all on. She felt them. And she showed up to the strategic meeting and she was like, they were

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crap. She was like, I'm not sending that to my customers. She said those exact words. And I can't

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tell you what it felt like for me as an owner to hear that. She said, I'm not sending that to my

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customers. And it was because it showed so much ownership. And one of our core tenants is beer

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owned boss, which I'm switching to act like an owner. But that's exactly what she did. And

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to push it even further, she didn't just stop there and say, all of the stuff sucks because

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that would just be presenting a problem. Instead, she was like, but I did find some manufacturers

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that don't do manufacturing and fulfillment because some centers do both, which is much more

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convenient for me as a business. But she's like, but their stuff is legit. It's awesome.

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She's like, so I just need help figuring out how many pieces do you want to order as a baseline?

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I'll figure out the logistics to get to a third party fulfillment center so that we can do this

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a pair of lunch. And so we ended up coming up with a solution for it. And she felt great about it.

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We looked at different designs and with the great quality we were able to come up with a solution.

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But here's what I want to bring a break apart for you. Imagine a normal person, a bee level

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employee. Nothing wrong with them. There's lots of them, right? But they show up. They do their

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job. They go, right? They don't take ownership because what an alternative story of what would have

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happened is the director says, hey, why don't you look for new revenue opportunities? And that

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person may or may not have done it at level one, right? Level two, they actually do it. And they

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say, I think a pair. She says, okay, go check out a pair. Now, what that person probably would have

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done was look at the three companies from a Google search, maybe or maybe not even sample the product.

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Just look at the pricing and say, hey, I found an apparel company. We can print our logo on it.

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We can ship it out. That is what a bee player would have done. And honestly, unless you have an

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A supervisor, the A supervisor probably would have let it go. And I'll tell you the difference.

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Real quick, guys, you guys already know that I don't run any ads on this and I don't sell anything.

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And so the only ask that I can ever have are you guys that you help me spread the word so we

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can have more entrepreneurs, make more money, feed their families, make better products, and have

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better experiences for their employees and customers. And the only way we do that is if you can

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rate and review and share this podcast. So the single thing that I have to do is you can just leave

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a review, but take 10 seconds or one type of the thumb. It means the absolute will to me. And more

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importantly, it may change the world for someone else.

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The difference is with the A scenario, you have a high quality product that people buy,

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enjoy, and buy again. And that massively increases the LTV, the customer. And on top of that,

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that brand manager cares deeply about the customers and their experience. And she's going to be

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thinking, top of mind, how do I make this easier? How do I make this faster? How can I improve

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their experience? Right? Whereas the bee player, you already lost them, like, oh, they don't like

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the t-shirts. I mean, what do they expect? Right? I mean, like, they're a $30 t-shirts. I mean,

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they're not going to be, you know, XYZ. And so that difference is the game. And finding people

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who think like that A player compared to people who think like the bee player is the difference between

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companies that grow and companies that die, companies that barely compete and make it and companies

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that thrive. And none of what I just described was earth shattering. It was just a willingness to do

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more work and raising the bar. It was having a level of intolerance for anything but excellence.

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And it is my belief that within a company hierarchy, every person, the hire, the person who runs the

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division or the department or the company should always have the lowest amount of tolerance for

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anything but excellence, which means you should be intolerant of anything that is not amazing,

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right? And that trickles down. It gets diluted, right? At every level, it's diluted a little bit more,

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a little bit more, a little bit more. And if there comes a day where you see two people and you see

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a supervisor and you see someone underneath of that supervisor and the person underneath has a

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lower tolerance for anything but excellence than the supervisor, those roles should reverse.

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The person who cares the most should be the one in charge. And so if there comes a day where

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someone cares more about my customers and the experience and the business that we have than I do,

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they should rightfully run the company, not me. And sometimes entrepreneurs get to that point.

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They have a CEO and they elect them because they're like, I think that you're better equipped for

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this and I think that you care more deeply. And that's okay, and they happen, right? You know,

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Phil Knight doesn't run Nike anymore. But I mean, shoot, Jeff Bezos says, and you obviously

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stepped out for other reasons or whatnot. But the big picture here is having a level of intolerance

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for what an A versus a B looks like starts with us. And the thing is is whoever you hire,

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most people only hire people worse than them. And so if you're one level removed or two levels

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removed, dear God, imagine what's being hired on the front line, right? And so you have to carry

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this torch, you have to raise this bar, you have to set the standard so that A, players will be

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attracted to you and also so that you can have a team of A players and then the entire culture rises,

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right? If you've ever been on a winning team, on a championship team, you know the difference

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between the vibe, how people come to practice, how they play, the expectations of one another,

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right? The speed of response, the team or all of that, that's culture and that's only created

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through having the right players on the field, the right people on the bus and kicking off the

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wrong people. And I'll end with this quote from the head of people for Chick-fil-A, which is a

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company I admire a lot. She said, a lot of companies want to compete against us in the championship,

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but the reality is, they lost in the draft. And that one really resonated with me because,

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I mean, I'm paraphrasing here, that might not even be your title, but that was what she said in

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general. And that really struck me because so many of us are always trying to develop,

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are always trying to develop talent, I was trying to do all these things, management styles,

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et cetera. But some people just come with batteries included. There are some people who are just

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winners, right? And you just need to get out of their way. And I think that it's worth the extra

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five interviews. It's worth the extra 20 interviews to find the A player because once that person is

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in place, they will grow, right? They will grow whatever they touch. And this has been a deep lesson

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for me, which is what people are like. It's all about people. And it is. It's just boring and

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unsexy for most entrepreneurs because we love the promotion. We love the sales, we love the marketing,

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we love all that stuff, right? We love the product, but the people is what runs it. And I think that

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this has been a deep lesson for me. And I hope if you look at your team right now, you don't think,

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oh, they're all amazing, right? Because the reality is they're probably not, right? And every

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single entrepreneur says that. I can tell you right now, some people that are weak on our team,

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right? But you have to be honest about it and you have to think, not just what are they doing,

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but what would I be doing in their position? What initiative would I be taking that they're not

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taking? What questions would I be asking that they are not asking? And ideally, you want someone who's

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asking questions that you haven't thought of. And that's when you know you've got an A player.

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So anyways, this comes with time, it comes with experience, it comes with once you've seen

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an A player, you can never unsee them. And then you start to use that template to apply to other

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people, all right? And so, and then you repeat it over and over again. And I think that's why

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entrepreneurship takes time. Like you grow, you grow in levels, you grow in tolerance, you grow

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in interpersonal understanding, you grow in awareness of other people. And by as you grow in

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that awareness, so too will your selection of talent, so too will your recruitment of talent,

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your management and growth of those people. So anyways, hope that made sense, hope that was

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valuable for you. If you're a hiring people, only look for A players put in the extra time

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to get the A player because it will pay you dividends beyond your wildest dreams.

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And there was a Harvard study that showed that A player is worth five times more than new players.

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And with that, I'll catch you soon. Bye!