WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.480 What's up, Mosination? What you're about to listen to is a VIP fire side chat from 2 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:10.080 Grow with video live. There was a third day that was a secret unlock day 3 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:16.240 For people who chose to pay a lot of extra money to be a part of that extra day of VIP stuff 4 00:00:16.720 --> 00:00:24.400 And the final talk of that day was a fire side chat of Q&A between almost about 50 people and Layla and I and so the 5 00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:29.040 Curator read the questions that came from the audience and you will hear our responses 6 00:00:29.040 --> 00:00:33.920 It was mostly business owners at different stages, you know some making you know a few hundred thousand dollars 7 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:38.960 You're all the way up to you know $10 million your plus and so there's a big variety of topics and questions 8 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:44.080 That covered from how to sell more stuff to how to scale a team to how to hire the best assistant 9 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:47.040 And so I'm really excited to share some of the behind the scenes stuff with you 10 00:00:47.360 --> 00:00:52.720 They were gracious enough to share this very exclusive footage and you'll be able to hear the audio now 11 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:55.840 And by the way, this is part one of a two part series 12 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:59.200 So you'll be able to enjoy part two in the future. So tune in for that with it 13 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:03.200 Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers how to make more 14 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:08.320 Per customer and how to keep them longer and the many failures and lessons we have learned along the way. I hope you enjoy and subscribe 15 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:12.400 Let's welcome to the stage Alex and Layla Hermosi 16 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:20.480 So we did a pre-select the Q&A for you guys. So earlier this morning we had everybody go and write down their questions that they have for you 17 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:25.280 I know that you'd said that you would only agree to a Q&A if the questions weren't shitty so 18 00:01:26.320 --> 00:01:28.320 I did my best 19 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:33.760 So we'll go through some of the best questions I picked out the best in my opinion anyway 20 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:38.080 And then I have a couple questions for you guys too. So sounds good. Yeah 21 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:45.040 So the first question is if you were starting over today with the landscape today 22 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:52.400 What are some things that you would do differently than you did when you first started like areas you would focus on 23 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:57.360 I think honestly it doesn't it's not necessarily in like the mechanism in terms of like 24 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.720 What would I do differently? It's probably where would I go and so when we started 25 00:02:03.520 --> 00:02:07.840 Jim launch it was Facebook was blowing up and the opportunity was on Facebook and so 26 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:10.400 Nobody really was doing 27 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:14.880 You know we generation for gyms at that point in time and nobody was really advertising there. Nobody was really 28 00:02:15.600 --> 00:02:18.640 Creating a presence there and so I would go where I see the most opportunity 29 00:02:18.880 --> 00:02:21.840 So I think for people in this room. It's what platform is exploding right now 30 00:02:21.920 --> 00:02:26.080 And which one has the biggest gap that I can fill with my skill set and with my persona 31 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:31.200 So I would actually be looking at like that and we still look at that with like the companies we take an acquisition calm 32 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:33.520 We're constantly looking at like what platform 33 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:40.720 Is creating has a gap that they can fill right now essentially like based on whoever they're trying to attract whether their persona is 34 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:44.240 And where the most arbitrage is and so right now 35 00:02:44.640 --> 00:02:49.200 I wouldn't say that's necessarily Facebook for as many people as it was in 2015 36 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:54.720 I would say that's probably going to be more tick tock and I'm sure there's more that I don't know about that people in this room 37 00:02:54.720 --> 00:02:56.480 Do because I'm just not on the cutting edge of that 38 00:02:57.040 --> 00:03:01.200 But that's that's what I would be thinking with it's not necessarily like what would I do differently because I think 39 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:07.600 I mean the only thing besides thinking platform wise what I would do differently is just I think 40 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:13.440 In terms of more like if you're looking like zoom out level strategic is just probably trust myself more 41 00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:19.360 Because I think a lot of people when they're starting off they look to people like myself or Alex or Patrick 42 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:23.440 But David or Gary and they like listen and you almost listen blindly and 43 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:27.920 I think that I did that a lot and I was really really coachable which I prided myself on 44 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:32.800 But because of that actually made decisions that weren't necessarily best for me or the business because 45 00:03:33.200 --> 00:03:34.480 They're out of context 46 00:03:34.480 --> 00:03:40.880 Which is actually my big sphere when giving advice which is I can give advice only to the context in which I understand the business or the person 47 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:45.440 And so that's usually very little if somebody comes up to me at an event or somebody asked me a question on Instagram 48 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:54.160 And so I think that you always have to take everything that anyone says no matter how much of an expert they are with a grain of salt because oftentimes you are going to be 49 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:59.680 The one who knows the most about your business and you many of the times no more than you think you do 50 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:02.240 And so that's what I would say 51 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:05.040 I would be looking for 52 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:09.120 The highest leverage opportunity to monetize the skill set that I had 53 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:13.840 And so I think it depends on the person so it's like if we were to start over it would be a very different path 54 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:17.200 Like if we had all of our experiences knowledge etc 55 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:22.560 We would probably do a different path than somebody who doesn't necessarily have the skills that they can wrap and monetize and so 56 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:24.480 like the 57 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:30.240 The primary way to acquire skills is to get experiences and so most people are just trying to pick the right vote to get in 58 00:04:30.320 --> 00:04:32.640 Which is important the later you go 59 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:36.560 But in the beginning like you do need to start rowing just so you can get some time into the bar 60 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:41.120 And I think that a lot of people especially early wrong obsess over picking perfectly 61 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:46.480 When you don't have the context from which to make the judgment and so like the easiest example to 62 00:04:47.440 --> 00:04:51.840 Visualize this is like imagine you know Cindy Luhu wants to start losing weight 63 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:57.840 She goes to one guy and he says you need to cut out carbs another guy says you need to have a high carb diet 64 00:04:57.840 --> 00:05:01.440 Another guy says you need to skip breakfast another guy says you need to do you know calorie cutting whatever 65 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.640 And so the problem is she doesn't know who to listen to 66 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:12.400 And she will spend most of her life in paralysis trying to like pick which one of these things when I think the better approaches 67 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:16.560 I'm going to try to do one of them and see how it works 68 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:22.320 And then I will do another one of them and see how that works because by the time you have the perspective from which to make the correct judgment 69 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:24.720 You no longer need the thing you're getting 70 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:28.240 And so I think a lot of people are they have like the when then fallacy of thinking like 71 00:05:28.960 --> 00:05:33.360 Like once I have like XYZ then this will happen when it's reversed 72 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:35.440 Which is like you have to accumulate the failures 73 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:38.720 To learn the experience experience to 74 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:44.000 Improve your judgment so that you can then increase the leverage of the opportunity that you're pursuing 75 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:47.120 Yeah, so if I'm going back in time 76 00:05:47.840 --> 00:05:50.880 That's ultimately the thing is like what's the most expensive thing that I can sell 77 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:54.320 Which and then I would try and do that 78 00:05:55.280 --> 00:05:58.400 So this is my one of my favorite things to talk to you guys about 79 00:05:58.960 --> 00:06:02.320 Which is glass ceilings that you hit at certain revenue markers 80 00:06:03.200 --> 00:06:06.560 So I've talked to so many people at this event 81 00:06:07.200 --> 00:06:10.480 And it's very apparent when people are at glass ceilings 82 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:13.200 and so 83 00:06:13.200 --> 00:06:17.440 Experience has been that there is kind of a glass ceiling that you need to break through to get over a million 84 00:06:18.320 --> 00:06:21.360 One around three million depending on the business and then 10 million 85 00:06:22.080 --> 00:06:23.920 So starting with one million 86 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:28.880 What do you typically find because I know you guys have worked with so many different businesses 87 00:06:29.520 --> 00:06:37.360 What are the areas that people are most often struggling with and then what are the solutions to those problems to break them past that mile marker 88 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:41.680 I'll even break one down zero to 100k just because I think it's worth bringing up 89 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:48.160 So zero to 100k you have to sell something to someone the glass ceiling some hits is that they don't have a consistent way of doing that 90 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:51.680 So they sell stuff here and there they have inconsistent acquisition 91 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:55.360 But they have they just need to learn to sell something to someone on 92 00:06:55.680 --> 00:07:00.480 Ideally a particular channel the problem that happens a lot of times when people waffle around in the 100 93 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:05.920 200-500-ish range is they can't pick and so a lot of these people have 94 00:07:06.960 --> 00:07:09.680 Lots of things that they're pursuing. I was just talking to somebody in the hallway 95 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.640 And it was clear that they had three different distinct brands and businesses that they were trying to pursue at the same time 96 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:18.480 And it's virtually impossible to do that. It's hard to win a war on one front little on three 97 00:07:18.880 --> 00:07:22.640 And especially if you don't have the skills because if you're at the 100k 500k 98 00:07:22.960 --> 00:07:26.320 Million even like the skill set you may feel compared to your peers 99 00:07:26.320 --> 00:07:29.120 But you need to stop comparing yourself to those people because that's not going to be helpful for you 100 00:07:29.440 --> 00:07:32.240 And so like you're still like a baby in business and so 101 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:35.840 Stack the chips in your favor and just trying to attack one thing 102 00:07:36.320 --> 00:07:39.760 And so zero to six is selling something to someone is what you need to do 103 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:43.360 Selling something to someone consistently on one channel gets you to a million 104 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:48.080 Going from one to three million is usually than scaling that channel 105 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:51.120 So first is zero to one is you got to sell something to someone 106 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:57.360 One to you know 10k month to 100k month is is getting consistent and reliable 107 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:02.720 And then you know one to three is usually just scaling the acquisition channel that you're on at that point 108 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:05.280 Typically especially if it's a service-based business 109 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:09.880 Journal start to kick in right the the amount of people coming in and going out starts to you reach equal 110 00:08:09.880 --> 00:08:15.080 Abrams they get stuck there and I know that Layla will probably talk about the internal things that are happening at HD stage 111 00:08:15.080 --> 00:08:16.080 So you get two different colors on it 112 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:21.440 But at the you know two fifty three hundred thousand a month, which is typically when we take companies on we need to 113 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:24.720 Massively increase the lifetime grows proper for customer and those are 114 00:08:25.280 --> 00:08:30.240 Software skills. So it's like how can we take the customers that are worth two thousand dollars and make them worth ten thousand dollars 115 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:32.640 I can make them worth twenty five thousand dollars on average 116 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:38.560 And so people typically will make the mistakes they get to three million and then they'll what got them there is scaling their acquisition 117 00:08:38.560 --> 00:08:41.920 But their cost of acquisition starts going up and their margins begin to get compressed 118 00:08:41.920 --> 00:08:46.720 And so cash flow starts dropping and they don't know what to do because they have an even inflow and outflow 119 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:50.880 And they keep thinking the thing that got me here is I need to keep scaling more in acquisition 120 00:08:50.880 --> 00:08:54.000 But it's a leaky bucket and everything's drawing out and then they're like why am I doing this? 121 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:56.080 I'm never gonna grow past this point, which is a good observation 122 00:08:56.560 --> 00:09:00.000 And so it actually at that point you have to shift to the back of the house 123 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:05.520 Which is all of the operational infrastructure the customer success the customer journey activation points 124 00:09:05.520 --> 00:09:07.040 How can you decrease time to value? 125 00:09:07.040 --> 00:09:11.600 How can you make sure that we're we're segmenting our customers appropriately so that we can make a product sweep that is 126 00:09:11.920 --> 00:09:16.800 Appropriate to people's willingness to pay and then cutting out extraneous products because a lot of times at that point 127 00:09:17.040 --> 00:09:20.800 You start bolting all these little hodgepodge things on you've got sixteen things people can buy at the sales team 128 00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:26.400 Get confused the prospects even more confused your billing department's a mess and so we just try and massively simplify that because simple 129 00:09:26.400 --> 00:09:31.040 Scales fancy fails and so we try and get that really really clean really really simple 130 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:36.640 Have a beautiful customer journey that we can do and usually we can grow from three to ten million without even increasing acquisition 131 00:09:37.040 --> 00:09:39.040 Simply by improving the actual business itself 132 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:42.880 And then at that point once you take your LTV from 2k to 10k for example 133 00:09:43.280 --> 00:09:50.160 Now at that point we've earned the right to then go spend three times the money to acquire customers on new channels 134 00:09:50.160 --> 00:09:55.040 That we're going to be inefficient within the beginning and then learn how to you know scale and and do do profitably 135 00:09:55.600 --> 00:10:02.080 Awesome, so you you would suggest not being a web three enthusiast for extrader social media manager 136 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:05.520 Well, if you ask my hundred or mosey accounts 137 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:09.120 I use my name they would disagree with you, but yes, I agree 138 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:11.200 Awesome Leila 139 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:16.560 Yeah, I think actually going from zero to so I'll break it down from like zero to one million or even just getting started 140 00:10:16.560 --> 00:10:20.320 I think actually having more people is more of a liability at that point 141 00:10:20.640 --> 00:10:26.960 And a lot of people actually hire too soon and so like I could get on my pedestal to say you got to find a great Leila and operator and all the stuff 142 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:28.960 But I think actually at that point 143 00:10:30.400 --> 00:10:35.520 You have to I think when you're mirroring one million you can get to one million with vendors and with part-time people 144 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:38.560 I think that when you get to close to one million 145 00:10:38.640 --> 00:10:40.960 That's when you really have to start finding like a super solid 146 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:44.720 Number two is what I want to call it and I just think of it like your first follower 147 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:47.760 Which is like that person really believes in you and who's a jack of all trades 148 00:10:47.760 --> 00:10:54.560 You can just do whatever the fuck you need them to do and then typically that person plus a team of mediocre people 149 00:10:54.560 --> 00:10:59.360 Can get you to three million like legitimately like we three million. It's like what we talk to every week 150 00:10:59.760 --> 00:11:00.960 2030 businesses 151 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:06.800 It's who we work with you can get there with one really big superstar yourself and then like mediocre people 152 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:11.440 And they don't see mediocre because often you really love and cherish them, but you just don't know that they are yet 153 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:16.160 Perspective for just to make the judgment. Yeah, you don't have the perspective yet. You don't know what a plus talent looks like yet 154 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:22.080 Right and so then you know around three million is one if like when we take in a business and we're trying to get it from three to ten 155 00:11:22.400 --> 00:11:24.640 The first thing that we do is identify the biggest 156 00:11:24.880 --> 00:11:30.320 Areas of leverage in terms of leadership oftentimes like the founder or the the primary number two 157 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:34.560 Which is usually an operator? They're trying to fill gaps of leadership. So they're head of customer success 158 00:11:34.640 --> 00:11:36.160 They're head of sales they're head marketing 159 00:11:36.800 --> 00:11:41.280 And typically I try to outsource the things that they are worse that or they have the least amount of time for 160 00:11:41.760 --> 00:11:45.280 So a lot of times that's going to end up being coaching customer success and sales 161 00:11:45.680 --> 00:11:50.800 And then marketing usually keep really close to the founder all the way up until honestly like 20 or 30 million 162 00:11:50.880 --> 00:11:52.160 They're still pretty involved 163 00:11:52.160 --> 00:11:56.160 So to get from three to ten, it's a lot of bringing in that second level of leadership 164 00:11:56.400 --> 00:12:00.560 Like bringing in people who have a decent amount of experience because you're only at three million 165 00:12:00.560 --> 00:12:04.880 You're not going to be able to get people who are from freaking Google or Apple or anything like that right because you're only at three million 166 00:12:04.880 --> 00:12:09.760 Unless it's like a certain kind of opportunity that's very appealing and you've got investors and back to all those kinds of things 167 00:12:09.920 --> 00:12:11.920 Obviously tracking talents will still an issue 168 00:12:12.400 --> 00:12:15.440 But to get from three to ten it's really building out that second layer of leadership 169 00:12:15.760 --> 00:12:20.560 And then I think going from 10 to 30 is building out again another layer of leadership 170 00:12:20.640 --> 00:12:24.480 So you've got typically from three to 10 you have maybe two executives 171 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:30.800 Maybe three if you're heavy and then like medium level leadership and then to get from 10 to 30 172 00:12:31.280 --> 00:12:36.640 It's really building out a full suite of executives which is usually around five to six and then a full suite of maybe 10 173 00:12:37.040 --> 00:12:38.480 Director-level 174 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:45.600 Manor-level people and then all the layers below that and I think it's actually a lot more incremental improvement to go from 10 to 30 175 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:47.840 Then it is from any other piece 176 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:51.680 Because a lot of the time is just doing more of what's already working without breaking it 177 00:12:51.680 --> 00:12:55.840 And that's a lot easier said than done because it's actually really freaking hard not to break it 178 00:12:55.920 --> 00:12:59.280 Because you added so many people there's so much more that you have to do to communicate 179 00:12:59.520 --> 00:13:04.480 It's like at that point as CEO or founder your job becomes like chief communicating officer, right? 180 00:13:04.640 --> 00:13:07.760 You're essentially just figuring out I have to deliver this piece of news 181 00:13:07.920 --> 00:13:12.640 How do I deliver this 17 ways so everyone finds out in the way that needs to be delivered to them 182 00:13:13.040 --> 00:13:15.520 And so that's how I see scaling businesses 183 00:13:15.520 --> 00:13:20.240 I see what people are needed at each incremental spot because that's kind of what I do on a consistent basis 184 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:23.760 And Alex is focused on the external in one thing that I'll piggyback on that 185 00:13:23.920 --> 00:13:29.360 Layla that is point that layla makes that I just like to make an inclaim credit for is systems break when they triple 186 00:13:29.680 --> 00:13:34.080 And so the I think the one in like you know the 100k 187 00:13:34.160 --> 00:13:37.680 Million 310 30 like it's triplings that happened 188 00:13:37.920 --> 00:13:41.440 And so it's a great thing that I don't know and that's why I'm really excited about you know 189 00:13:41.520 --> 00:13:45.680 The stuff we do with that was just not calm because maybe when we have you know 30 or 50 that we've taken 190 00:13:45.920 --> 00:13:47.920 You know all the way to 30 or 50 million a year 191 00:13:48.560 --> 00:13:50.160 I'll be able to have a better answer on it 192 00:13:50.160 --> 00:13:57.760 But I don't know whether it's the operational infrastructure of the tripling of the amount of people and by that the layers of infrastructure 193 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:02.800 That is the the glass ceiling because you you get stuck when you maximize that infrastructure that you built out 194 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:07.840 And then you kind of waffle as you build the next layer of leadership and then all of a sudden the capacity blows up again 195 00:14:08.160 --> 00:14:12.240 So I don't know if it's the strategic things that I was talking about earlier in terms of what the focus is 196 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:15.040 Or the people side answers probably both 197 00:14:15.760 --> 00:14:20.720 Yeah, and I think that a lot of it's that typically when people gain a certain amount of success say you're at three 198 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:24.880 I see I've seen a million of three million ten million whatever and you're trying to scale 199 00:14:25.280 --> 00:14:26.880 You let that success get to your head 200 00:14:26.880 --> 00:14:32.240 And so you add complexity into your business without understanding that the complexity in your business is the volume 201 00:14:32.560 --> 00:14:34.080 Yeah, and so as you grow 202 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:39.840 Adding more leads more sales people more customer success more clients creates enough complexity on its own 203 00:14:39.920 --> 00:14:44.240 But most people get bored or feel feel some kind of urge to build something else 204 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:48.640 And so they add complexity on top of the already growing complexity and that's what usually stops them 205 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:50.240 And then it takes the business. Yeah 206 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:53.760 Thus the web 3 social media manager crypto 207 00:14:53.760 --> 00:14:56.560 Which everyone should I mean, there's just too much opportunity recommend all of it 208 00:14:56.880 --> 00:15:00.000 Yeah, I think it's good to almost just like write that stuff down 209 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:02.720 So like your brain feels acknowledged like okay 210 00:15:02.880 --> 00:15:06.240 I listened to the dumb thought that tried to detract me and now I'll like go 211 00:15:06.880 --> 00:15:08.560 Do their thing I'm supposed to do 212 00:15:08.560 --> 00:15:11.120 Yeah, I think that that's really really good insight and I 213 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:13.280 I also think that 214 00:15:13.280 --> 00:15:16.800 When it comes to those levels the systems break when they triple 215 00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:20.000 It's almost like you're reaching some sort of a capacity 216 00:15:20.640 --> 00:15:22.640 Right, and then it's just like you have to change things up 217 00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:30.400 What would you say was like of those levels was the most difficult part for you guys to break past building your own businesses 218 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:36.240 And and is it maybe now the level you're at now or do you feel like it's just you the boring work 219 00:15:36.800 --> 00:15:43.040 Someone asked me especially actually which was for me it was it was not growing the business 220 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:49.680 Myself, it was getting it was allowing not getting allowing other people to row the business 221 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:54.240 Because I like doing it and so in order for us to sell gym launch 222 00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:58.400 It was you know, I was used to if I wanted to go to the business 223 00:15:58.400 --> 00:16:03.680 Leyla does more of this Leyla overseas more Leyla hires more people Leyla leads more people Leyla teaches leadership 224 00:16:03.680 --> 00:16:09.440 Leyla trains the team Leyla embeds the culture and then in order to sell the business and make it sellable and really empower our 225 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:11.440 Our COO and CEO it was 226 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:16.320 Leyla trains one person on how to do all of those things and then doesn't do anything 227 00:16:16.880 --> 00:16:23.520 And it's so it's I've trained myself to be so good at doing such a large volume of work and making such an impact 228 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:26.720 And I had to train myself to step back and not do any of it 229 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:29.760 And that loss of control and that loss of 230 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:36.160 Feeling like I was honestly contributing and useful. Yeah, and useful and doing the thing that I was really good at 231 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:40.960 That was the hardest part for me because I like doing those things and having to 232 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.000 Give them to somebody else was a feeling that 233 00:16:44.880 --> 00:16:49.600 It was just weird, you know, to the point where you realize that you're not even the leader above leaders 234 00:16:49.920 --> 00:16:54.960 You are now the board right and the board is in the background and nobody even knows who they are anymore 235 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:58.240 That was the hardest part for me. So I think it was at the very end 236 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:02.640 Yeah, I would mirror that because I know that I'm thinking about it because you brought it up 237 00:17:03.040 --> 00:17:07.680 You know, we were stuck at 30 to 40 million for like three years and I couldn't figure it out 238 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:11.120 And I think I made a video on YouTube that was like my second big video that ended up hitting 239 00:17:11.360 --> 00:17:15.760 But it was like I had a conversation with a billionaire and he was like dude 240 00:17:16.080 --> 00:17:20.320 Because I was like, what do I need to do? It's like you have a faulty basis of assumptions 241 00:17:21.040 --> 00:17:23.040 I was like oh 242 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:27.280 Explain more and he's like you're asking what you need to do and you don't need to do anything 243 00:17:27.360 --> 00:17:28.880 He's like you need more drivers 244 00:17:29.040 --> 00:17:32.720 Like there's only so much of you that can get spread and you can't pass 245 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:35.520 You know 30 40-ish million a year because 246 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:41.520 You are the one whose soul is like pushing this whole thing is like you need more stallions 247 00:17:41.520 --> 00:17:46.400 You need people who are entrepreneurial who can and that's really when you start to get into the town of the more visionary role 248 00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:51.280 I think because you have to grow your vision to be bigger so that true a talent 249 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:56.640 Their dream for themselves can still fit within your vision because it's big enough for their dream to exist 250 00:17:57.120 --> 00:18:01.760 And so I think that was a really hard mindset shift for me because to the same degree that Layla said 251 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:05.360 Like as entrepreneurs a lot of us start because we want freedom, right? 252 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:08.480 But then as soon as we put our job and then start 253 00:18:09.120 --> 00:18:12.800 We have absolute control and you cannot have both freedom and control 254 00:18:13.840 --> 00:18:16.560 And so we love the control, but we want the freedom 255 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:23.280 And so I think entrepreneurship as a journey from like a spiritual standpoint is a consistent relinquishing of control each level 256 00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:32.720 And you know you give up the the the fulfillment and then you give up the selling and then you give up the marketing and then you give up the managing and then you give up the leadership 257 00:18:33.280 --> 00:18:40.480 You're not leading anymore and then at some point you give up even doing the vision because there's somebody else who's just as visionary or even more than you 258 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:44.480 And so at each of these things you're giving up control, but what you get back is freedom 259 00:18:45.360 --> 00:18:50.160 I think yeah, it's really giving up a sense of self-reported. Yeah, it's really hard 260 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:59.280 Talk about culture for a little bit throughout that process because obviously when you know you're everyone says your first 10 hires first dozen hires first 15 hires 261 00:18:59.840 --> 00:19:03.120 Is critical to culture, but then as you continue to grow 262 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:06.000 You start to feel like you're kind of like 263 00:19:06.800 --> 00:19:08.800 It's not up to you anymore, right? 264 00:19:09.120 --> 00:19:18.240 And like bold hires maintain the culture and then eventually you like you said you just get to the point where you're not even in the leadership side of things anymore. So when that happens 265 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:22.800 Um, you know, like what is how does culture evolve throughout that process? 266 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:25.920 I actually have kind of I guess 267 00:19:26.560 --> 00:19:31.440 I'm kind of stubborn about this, which is I think that if your company is not in the thousands 268 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:34.640 I don't know why the CEO would not have the final interview with every person 269 00:19:35.360 --> 00:19:38.800 And that's like I've learned my own in my own way and with my own observations 270 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:42.320 And studying some of the best entrepreneurs out there in the best companies 271 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:47.360 And not even studying the founders staying the CEOs the people that are hiring people that are leading the culture 272 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:54.000 Sometimes you mix up founders CEO. I think that in order to maintain the culture you want the one lever you have is who you bring in the company 273 00:19:54.560 --> 00:20:00.080 And so I think the nature of most companies in here is I don't think many people have thousands of employees 274 00:20:00.080 --> 00:20:05.360 I would say there's no reason why anyone wouldn't be hiring and be the one that's final interviewing every single person 275 00:20:05.760 --> 00:20:08.160 Because I think that that setting of expectations 276 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:10.640 Into what we accept and what we don't accept 277 00:20:11.600 --> 00:20:16.640 I think that's everything and I've seen it myself when I've done it and when I haven't done it and at one point in gym launch 278 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:20.080 You know, I got to a point where I was like man. This is taking all my time 279 00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:24.240 Like all my time is spent reading new employees doing final interviews 280 00:20:24.560 --> 00:20:29.440 You know setting expectations, you know, basically welcoming them to the team because that's what I like heard 281 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:35.280 I was supposed to do and things were going well and the moment that I delegated that it was like shit hit the fan and it's not because 282 00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:38.400 It wasn't because the people weren't good 283 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:41.680 Because they weren't good enough to be honest to be hiring on my behalf 284 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:47.120 But when things are growing so fast and changing so quickly there's no more potent source than yourself 285 00:20:48.080 --> 00:20:52.560 And so I actually do believe that one of the most important jobs of a founder 286 00:20:53.120 --> 00:20:56.720 Is to be that person who's the gatekeeper. It's like who's on the bus and who's off the bus 287 00:20:57.120 --> 00:21:00.960 And I do think that that is the number one lever you have in terms of controlling culture 288 00:21:01.120 --> 00:21:06.480 And that's something that we've agreed on with this business acquisition.com is like we're both going to interview and approve 289 00:21:06.560 --> 00:21:10.640 Anybody that comes on at any point in time no matter, you know, I mean the model that we built out 290 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:12.720 I don't think we'll have over 150 employees, but 291 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:18.880 Regardless, I mean, you're gonna have churn you're gonna go through people and such and we're both committed to making sure that we interview for those people 292 00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:25.680 And set the expectations and greet them and take the time to because I just don't think I think having this personal relationship 293 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:29.120 Is so much more advantageous than people realize and I think yes 294 00:21:29.120 --> 00:21:32.320 Your managers are going to learn and yes, they're going to be able to do a lot for you 295 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:35.680 And as you hire experienced people they're going to be able to do more and more for you 296 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:41.200 But you will not get the same loyalty from your team that you would if you did that 297 00:21:41.840 --> 00:21:46.480 And loyalty comes from caring about someone extending care for someone as a human 298 00:21:47.120 --> 00:21:51.520 And so there's no better way to show care for someone as a human than to greet them than to take your time 299 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:57.200 Right because there's nothing more valuable than the CEO's time so to give them your time like 300 00:21:57.840 --> 00:22:02.160 I just don't think there's any more that you could do to express that that person is that important for the company 301 00:22:03.120 --> 00:22:07.760 That's a really like you don't hear people say what you just said really ever 302 00:22:08.320 --> 00:22:10.000 So I 303 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:13.440 And then but in a good way, I think that's like really profound advice. So 304 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:21.040 What about firing what is that like are as a CEO the last line of defense in your guys's opinion on that side of the equation 305 00:22:21.040 --> 00:22:26.560 Or do you lead that to the their supervisor department head or whatever? Yeah, I mean that's tough. I think that 306 00:22:27.520 --> 00:22:31.120 If I have a close relationship with somebody in the company 307 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:33.920 Then I take it upon myself like even if you have a manager 308 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:38.000 But like if maybe I hope I recruited you you know what I mean like if I recruit you 309 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:39.920 I found you that kind of thing you came in through my network 310 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:41.760 I would fire the person 311 00:22:41.760 --> 00:22:46.160 Just because I feel really sure if I didn't and I might have the manager on the call right to to kind of you know 312 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:49.440 Just be sitting there um, which I don't know awkward not 313 00:22:49.760 --> 00:22:53.040 But I think in in a lot of instances if they've come in through like you know 314 00:22:53.280 --> 00:22:57.200 HR that hires them you do the final interview and you greet them and such but they're with that manager the whole time 315 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:02.960 I would say it's a manager's responsibility and mostly because when the managers don't have the responsibility of firing somebody 316 00:23:03.280 --> 00:23:07.600 They often do not put as much effort into deciding if they should stay or be fired 317 00:23:08.080 --> 00:23:14.320 So if you look at companies where HR is able to fire people on behalf which we have had it set up that way before and I've taken it away 318 00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:17.920 It has led to more firings and it has led to lazy management 319 00:23:18.320 --> 00:23:21.520 Because then people are like oh well, they're not working on just to fire them rather than like 320 00:23:21.840 --> 00:23:23.520 No, we need to put them on performance review 321 00:23:23.600 --> 00:23:25.760 We need to make sure that you're doing these things have you been training them? 322 00:23:25.760 --> 00:23:28.720 Have you been having one of ones and so I feel like it's a cop out almost 323 00:23:32.080 --> 00:23:38.000 Most nation real quick if you are a business owner that has a big old business and wants to get to a much bigger business 324 00:23:38.320 --> 00:23:41.440 Going to 50 hundred million dollars plus we would love to talk to you 325 00:23:41.760 --> 00:23:42.880 And if you like that 326 00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:49.520 We'd like to hear more about it go to acquisition.com you can plan anywhere on the page and talk to one of our team and see if we can help you get there 327 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:59.920 I'll just add my my two quick quick bits one is as you're scaling you values that you describe for the company become very very important 328 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:05.040 And I'm bringing these two points up because the two points that I'm going to make are the two things that I thought were complete 329 00:24:05.280 --> 00:24:12.640 horseshit as I scaled you know scaled up so I thought mission statements values was all just like management who do 330 00:24:13.360 --> 00:24:17.280 But I was proven wrong and so from a values perspective 331 00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:19.440 Who here has values? 332 00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:22.400 I'm going to have values but like for your company okay 333 00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:27.920 Who has more than three values on your like value thing? 334 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:32.560 Oh, so most of you have three values or less that you stick with 335 00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:36.640 Okay, interesting. Well, I'll tell you I didn't and so 336 00:24:37.360 --> 00:24:42.720 The the piece of advice I was going to give my values is that you want the three values to be the most non-negotiable things 337 00:24:42.800 --> 00:24:49.120 They're not aspirational. They are these are the three most you know biggest circles that we can say if we had 338 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:56.640 These three things if I describe the three values of a business you should get an idea of the vibe and the culture of that business and it should be 339 00:24:57.760 --> 00:25:01.520 Have a directional slant so I'll give you an example of like mercy versus justice 340 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:07.840 You want people to be able to read the values and say I think that this company would lean more towards justice or this company would lean more towards 341 00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:13.120 Mercy and so the idea is not to be inclusive. It's to be purposefully exclusive. We want to 342 00:25:13.760 --> 00:25:17.040 Shun people away. We want people to read the values but that's not my vibe 343 00:25:17.040 --> 00:25:21.200 And it's perfect because that way you get the right people on the bus the right people off the wrong people off the bus 344 00:25:21.760 --> 00:25:23.760 And those values discussions 345 00:25:23.760 --> 00:25:28.800 become the eternal pillars that you can always point to when you're letting someone go or you're 346 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:33.360 Giving someone an accolade or an award or say hey you completely embodied this value in this way 347 00:25:33.840 --> 00:25:40.960 And so when you scale the organization that becomes really important because as you're bringing people on those values become the thing that are you when you are not there 348 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:48.080 And so as your scaling decision making you can't physically make all the decisions that have to be made in a business as it scales 349 00:25:48.320 --> 00:25:50.320 And say the values are there in your stead 350 00:25:51.040 --> 00:25:56.720 That's number one number two is that this was a belief shift for me is that when I started I was a hundred percent 351 00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:01.280 I would say like if there's the heart and the head and math or in business in the words like the hard 352 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:06.000 The mathy side which would be like sales marketing very numbers driven 353 00:26:06.400 --> 00:26:10.080 I said that was pretty much the most important thing and yeah like culture and stuff is important 354 00:26:10.560 --> 00:26:15.760 But this was more important and I think as you know, we've grown companies you know over time 355 00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:22.720 It then became well culture and strategy are equally important and I think that where I sit now 356 00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:25.920 I see culture is strategy and 357 00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:32.800 It is the most important strategy because if you have the right culture you can have an inferior strategy and still beat anybody else 358 00:26:33.520 --> 00:26:36.960 And so I think what it does is culture gives you the ultimate padding for mistakes 359 00:26:37.760 --> 00:26:40.160 And I think that a lot of us need a lot of second chances in business 360 00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:42.160 And so why not load up on that? 361 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:44.160 So that's why I think culture is very important 362 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:46.000 awesome 363 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:48.000 That was really good 364 00:26:49.360 --> 00:26:51.360 You guys are really what a thought 365 00:26:51.680 --> 00:26:55.600 So I have two questions on key hires 366 00:26:56.640 --> 00:27:00.160 I think probably 90% of people in this room 367 00:27:01.120 --> 00:27:04.800 Are either looking to hire one of these two people 368 00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:09.280 So we'll talk about executive assistance or some sort of assistant 369 00:27:09.840 --> 00:27:16.640 And then a director of sales or someone who can replace them in the acquisition you know process right so 370 00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:19.200 talk about like 371 00:27:19.360 --> 00:27:23.840 Maybe the different stages obviously some people are at the stage where they're just looking to hire a virtual assistant 372 00:27:23.840 --> 00:27:28.240 Other people are looking to hire like their right hand right like the true 373 00:27:28.800 --> 00:27:30.320 expensive 374 00:27:30.320 --> 00:27:34.720 Like everything they need like everything you need them to do they do type of person 375 00:27:34.720 --> 00:27:37.280 So just kind of walk through the executive assistant process 376 00:27:38.080 --> 00:27:39.680 Processes and like where do you find this? 377 00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:43.600 Yeah, sorry like like how to how to hire a good person win to know when you need 378 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:45.920 To hire somebody 379 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:49.360 Yeah, I mean, I don't think that you can go wrong if you hire a good executive assistant 380 00:27:49.600 --> 00:27:56.640 So I'll say that because I think that an executive assistant is supposed to be one of the ultimate generalists on a in a company 381 00:27:56.720 --> 00:28:00.240 You know if you are the executive is CEO or to a COO 382 00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:03.200 You have to be a jack of all trades and so 383 00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:06.800 You know when people like I've had to justify and walk walk doors 384 00:28:06.800 --> 00:28:10.720 They're like I don't know what this person's gonna do and I'm like well, they know what they're gonna do 385 00:28:11.360 --> 00:28:15.840 And so I think if you're able to if you are are looking for somebody 386 00:28:16.080 --> 00:28:20.640 What you want to look for especially like people in this room if you don't know and you've never had an executive assistant before 387 00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:25.520 Is somebody who can tell you what they're gonna come and do and they can say here's how I'm gonna onboard myself 388 00:28:25.840 --> 00:28:29.680 Here's how I'm going to make this as easy as possible for you and here's all the things that I would do 389 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:31.600 So if I were interviewing that person 390 00:28:31.600 --> 00:28:36.640 Well, I would be doing if I were to interview for an executive assistant nowadays is I would say here's all the stuff on my plate 391 00:28:37.360 --> 00:28:39.040 What are you going to do? 392 00:28:39.040 --> 00:28:42.960 Because essentially what you what you're hiring for you're not hiring for somebody to complete activities 393 00:28:43.120 --> 00:28:45.120 You're hiring for somebody to solve problems for you 394 00:28:45.520 --> 00:28:48.560 And so I would be asking them like here's all the shit going on 395 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:51.840 Here's where I hate everything here's why I'm overwhelmed like what are you gonna do 396 00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:56.320 And it's like that for any role is you want to be asking them you know real life scenarios 397 00:28:56.320 --> 00:29:00.480 Which the only real life scenarios you have are the problems in front of your face right then right and so it's 398 00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:03.760 How are you gonna solve these and I I would listen to them 399 00:29:03.840 --> 00:29:07.360 And that's I think that's the best way that you can judge somebody in an interview is hear how they would 400 00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:11.280 Because here's the thing is like today actually actually before this we got here 401 00:29:11.600 --> 00:29:13.840 I was interviewing for a VP of ops for one of our companies 402 00:29:14.560 --> 00:29:19.120 And it's a brick and mortar chain that's scaling and I asked her I said 403 00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:24.720 You know the problem right like we're because I knew what the problem the business was so here's a way that you can spend it 404 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:27.040 I said we're at you know 405 00:29:27.040 --> 00:29:29.360 20 locations we've got 15 in the pipeline 406 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:31.680 What do you think our biggest constraints are right now 407 00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:37.200 And then what she said was literally exactly what the constraints were and that was how I knew that she was the right person 408 00:29:37.760 --> 00:29:39.360 So I might say to an executive assistant 409 00:29:39.360 --> 00:29:41.760 I might say here's where the business is at right now 410 00:29:41.760 --> 00:29:44.160 Here's what I'm doing every day. What do you think my constraints are 411 00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:48.240 And if that person has done what they've said they've done and they are experienced they've done it before 412 00:29:48.400 --> 00:29:50.480 They're going to be able to name exactly what you're feeling right now 413 00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:55.520 And I know that for me like I got really lucky with my executive assistant because I've been with her for five years 414 00:29:55.520 --> 00:29:57.680 And she was the first person I hired and 415 00:29:59.360 --> 00:30:01.360 Alex can tell you his take because he said a few 416 00:30:01.360 --> 00:30:04.160 Um you're on like your fifth nine nine 417 00:30:05.120 --> 00:30:06.400 um 418 00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:09.360 And you know I got on the phone with her and I said I'm just so overwhelmed and 419 00:30:09.760 --> 00:30:13.760 Yeah, I just don't even know where to start and she said well that's my problem like I can figure that out 420 00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:15.280 I will onboard myself 421 00:30:15.360 --> 00:30:19.120 I said what do I need to and she goes nothing I'll I am resourceful 422 00:30:19.120 --> 00:30:21.760 I will ask the team. I will find your logins. I will figure these things out 423 00:30:22.560 --> 00:30:24.720 And that's exactly what she did and then like within the first week 424 00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:27.520 There was actually a sign that blew up and she ended up like taking meetings for me 425 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:32.560 And was it overwhelming for her 100% I'm sure but like she had my back 426 00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:35.920 And so I think if you're looking for that person you just have to present them with 427 00:30:36.080 --> 00:30:40.160 Transparency like this is what I'm doing. This is what I'm facing asking them how they would handle it 428 00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:40.960 And then 429 00:30:41.040 --> 00:30:45.760 Present them with where you're at your business and asking them. What do you what do you believe my constraints are right now 430 00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:48.160 Because that's how you can really tell somebody's done before 431 00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:50.880 I'll give you quick hitters. Um, that was yeah 432 00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:00.080 Couple quick hitters one is uh the definition of help is giving someone attention back 433 00:31:00.080 --> 00:31:04.240 And so the point of this role is that they have to help you and so you should feel relieved by this person 434 00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:06.240 If you do not feel relieved by the person they're not doing their job 435 00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:12.560 So you should have attention back number one number two this person is one of if not the most valuable person the business because they give you 436 00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:18.960 The number one asset you have back, which is time and so if you think about how much your time is worth if someone can give you 437 00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:23.280 25% 50% 75% of your time back how valuable is that right? 438 00:31:23.280 --> 00:31:25.280 So I think you should think about it through that lens 439 00:31:25.280 --> 00:31:30.720 Number three is that this is from personal experience failing eight times and now having a ninth um and this one 440 00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:32.880 Melody your awesome. I love you. You're great 441 00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:35.040 This one is I 442 00:31:35.040 --> 00:31:37.040 We're in we finally got it. We got it 443 00:31:37.600 --> 00:31:44.320 Um, that you have to like your executive assistant and I don't think I had a genuine like like I didn't enjoy spending time 444 00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:47.360 Not the thing wrong with them. I just don't think I had like personal rapport with them 445 00:31:47.520 --> 00:31:52.480 Um, and I didn't realize how important that was because if I don't want to talk to somebody I won't talk to them 446 00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:57.920 Um, and so then they're like we haven't talked I haven't talked to Alex in five days and we're like 447 00:31:58.640 --> 00:32:01.040 It's probably not good for somebody who's supposed to be taking all this stuff up his plate 448 00:32:01.760 --> 00:32:04.720 Number four if I haven't said four already is 449 00:32:05.520 --> 00:32:10.640 The difference between the administrative assistant and executive assistant a lot of people will use the term executive assistant because they want to get paid more 450 00:32:11.200 --> 00:32:15.760 The difference is an administrative assistant, you know handles some email correspondence 451 00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:22.240 Scheduling a lot of that and little doodads, you know, maybe some personal stuff here and there right 452 00:32:22.800 --> 00:32:30.240 An executive assistant is somebody who is supposed to really function like an executive as in they can make executive decisions on your behalf 453 00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:33.440 And so think more chief of staff less, you know 454 00:32:33.840 --> 00:32:37.040 Person who doesn't speak knows that well who I'm paying really not a lot of money 455 00:32:37.360 --> 00:32:39.520 Not to say there's something wrong with an administrative assistant 456 00:32:39.520 --> 00:32:44.000 It's just understand what you're hiring for and so the administrative assistant's probably not going to give you tremendous amount of time back 457 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:46.320 And if you're like a creator or you're more founder for me 458 00:32:46.320 --> 00:32:51.760 I don't have tremendous amounts of tasks that I have to do every day the things that I do or take a long time 459 00:32:51.920 --> 00:32:56.640 And are really valuable and high leverage, but I don't have a lot of things that I check off 460 00:32:56.960 --> 00:33:01.680 Layla on the other hand has a lot of activities that she's doing on a regular basis far more than I am 461 00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:06.400 And so the type of executive assistant should match the type of activities that you're doing 462 00:33:06.800 --> 00:33:11.840 And so having somebody especially who has industry experience as well gives you a huge leg up 463 00:33:11.840 --> 00:33:13.680 So like Melanie already knew the space really well 464 00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:17.680 And so she knew the players she knew the the vibe she knows how events go and so there was a lot of 465 00:33:18.160 --> 00:33:23.120 Catching up I didn't have to do and so the idea is to try and find somebody who has bad who comes with batteries included 466 00:33:23.520 --> 00:33:29.520 Um, and so and has solutions already built into them because what we're doing is we're hiring a person to solve problem 467 00:33:29.840 --> 00:33:34.240 And I think a lot of people and I think one thing that layless that I just want to reinforce because it was really important 468 00:33:34.240 --> 00:33:37.280 Is that when you are interviewing people it doesn't matter what's an executive assistant or otherwise 469 00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:39.680 asking them 470 00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:42.080 To solve the problems that they're going to solve 471 00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:46.800 For the job because if you don't have problems for them to solve then you should probably figure that out before you hire somebody 472 00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:48.960 And clearly define what the problem is 473 00:33:49.280 --> 00:33:51.760 So clearly to find it and then ask them to solve it 474 00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:54.800 It's the easiest and most effective way of gauging 475 00:33:55.520 --> 00:34:00.080 What is this person's level of thinking what variables are they going to think through and what questions 476 00:34:00.080 --> 00:34:02.880 They're going to ask me I might give them an incomplete data set 477 00:34:02.880 --> 00:34:06.080 And then if they just start rambling off then I'm like well that would be a terrible thing 478 00:34:06.080 --> 00:34:09.600 Why don't you ask me more questions about it right? And so you can pull more from that 479 00:34:09.680 --> 00:34:12.080 So those are my quick hitters on executive systems 480 00:34:12.160 --> 00:34:15.440 Yeah, and just to have some tactical examples of like the difference like an 481 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:22.240 An executive assistant like I'll give two examples of projects that one each of them have is like one of them is leading the hiring of an executive role 482 00:34:22.800 --> 00:34:25.200 And she's doing the first interviewing of everybody 483 00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:29.120 And so I trust her enough to select like who is the right for this executive role 484 00:34:29.120 --> 00:34:31.280 Like a very high level role in the company. It's paid a lot of money 485 00:34:31.680 --> 00:34:36.720 And then one of our other executive assistants because there's two is leading like a very large real estate 486 00:34:37.680 --> 00:34:42.560 At purchase that we're doing right now with a partnership and she's led the whole thing and I just signed the documents 487 00:34:42.560 --> 00:34:45.920 And so like those are things that it's like executive assistant 488 00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:50.880 And so I think you know that just know what you're hiring for like Alex and I think it's just there's a very big difference 489 00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:53.520 So 490 00:34:53.520 --> 00:34:56.320 When you get to the point where in your business where you 491 00:34:57.520 --> 00:35:02.080 Are looking to duplicate yourself when it comes to the selling side of things right? 492 00:35:02.080 --> 00:35:07.520 So you're looking for someone who could maybe be an eventual sales manager build a team or a director of sales 493 00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:10.320 Blocked me through how you find that type of a person 494 00:35:11.920 --> 00:35:15.600 Well, I make a post on Instagram and say hey if you have lots of sales management experience let me know 495 00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:18.160 Uh build a personal brand sorry 496 00:35:19.360 --> 00:35:23.200 Um, I mean before that I mean we would we would post on the normal job forums 497 00:35:23.200 --> 00:35:26.560 And again, we would look for people who have a lot of experience and what I'll do is 498 00:35:27.600 --> 00:35:29.120 You 499 00:35:29.120 --> 00:35:35.200 You can try and get somebody to apply or you can actively recruit and so there are two different ways of doing it 500 00:35:35.200 --> 00:35:39.520 I would say that the higher up we go the more we tend to try and actively recruit people because the best people have jobs 501 00:35:40.320 --> 00:35:44.080 And that's something that's a lesson that we have learned um, and so you're like well, how do I go get somebody? 502 00:35:44.080 --> 00:35:46.720 It's the same way you get a customer you outbound you sending emails 503 00:35:46.720 --> 00:35:49.760 You say hey, you know, I'd love to talk to you. I've got this position. This is what we're looking at comp 504 00:35:50.160 --> 00:35:55.040 And then you start to get feedback also from the marketplace of like is my comp too high is my comp too low is this interesting etc 505 00:35:56.000 --> 00:35:59.120 And then from a what to look look for and label probably have way more 506 00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:04.240 Because she does much more of this than I do um, but in terms of what I look for in a sales manager 507 00:36:04.640 --> 00:36:07.120 Number one is that they've already won an Olympic gold 508 00:36:07.200 --> 00:36:11.280 So I don't want somebody who knows how to win an Olympic gold or says they know how to win an Olympic gold 509 00:36:11.360 --> 00:36:14.880 I want somebody who's already won multiple times and they just need to win it on my team 510 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:20.000 And so they've already built the thing multiple times ideally in a similar industry with a similar sales cycle 511 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.640 That's another mistake that I made earlier on if somebody was like really good at software sales with a you know a six month 512 00:36:25.680 --> 00:36:29.280 Sales cycle for you know enterprise SaaS they might be really good salespeople 513 00:36:29.280 --> 00:36:34.240 But that's a very different sale than let's say you know a high transactional you know weight loss sale 514 00:36:34.560 --> 00:36:38.320 Right, and so if you have a sales team that's just being in phones and closing you know 515 00:36:39.120 --> 00:36:42.880 One to 10k deals all day long. That's a transactional sale, right? 516 00:36:42.880 --> 00:36:48.240 And so you need somebody who has transactional experience and then the closer you can get to it in terms of where they be to be 517 00:36:48.640 --> 00:36:53.600 Was it some sort of like as close to the industries you possibly can and the sale type 518 00:36:54.400 --> 00:36:57.600 Those are like the experience pieces and then in terms of the personality piece 519 00:36:58.480 --> 00:37:00.240 Sales managers are operators 520 00:37:00.240 --> 00:37:02.480 And that's where I think a lot of people mess this up 521 00:37:02.480 --> 00:37:05.200 It's that they try and find a really good salesperson to be a sales manager 522 00:37:05.200 --> 00:37:07.920 And most really good salespeople are horrendous sales managers because 523 00:37:08.640 --> 00:37:10.720 Many salespeople not all but many salespeople are 524 00:37:11.440 --> 00:37:14.880 Very self- you know self-motivated self-ish at times 525 00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:19.040 And very like you know killer hunter and that's fine 526 00:37:19.120 --> 00:37:20.880 And that's required for the role a lot of times 527 00:37:20.880 --> 00:37:26.720 But the sales manager has to be truly a team player has to sacrifice their ego for the good of everybody else 528 00:37:27.120 --> 00:37:29.440 They have to be there to be the therapist they have to be there to 529 00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:34.400 Coach the team up they have to have enough proficiency to be able to coach 530 00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:38.000 And listen to you know listen to call recordings and give feedback or whatnot 531 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:41.600 But it's much more a leader and their responsibilities the culture of the team 532 00:37:42.080 --> 00:37:45.680 And the single greatest predictor of sale success on the team is the culture 533 00:37:46.080 --> 00:37:48.240 And so they are really the culture manager 534 00:37:48.800 --> 00:37:51.600 More than anything else because if you walk into a winning sales team 535 00:37:52.160 --> 00:37:53.280 You can feel it 536 00:37:53.280 --> 00:37:57.840 Is anyone here been on a winning like sports team like a really like you your team crushed it the whole year 537 00:37:58.480 --> 00:38:02.320 As I know same people with their hands up have you been on a really shitty team where you didn't do well 538 00:38:03.600 --> 00:38:08.640 Sometimes you're the same player, but on a winning team it just feels different 539 00:38:08.720 --> 00:38:13.520 Everyone brings their all everyone doesn't want to let their their the guy next to them down 540 00:38:13.600 --> 00:38:18.720 Everybody is dedicated to the ultimate vision of achieving W for whatever the W is and 541 00:38:19.680 --> 00:38:24.800 A good coach is much more akin to what a good sales manager is more than almost anything else 542 00:38:25.120 --> 00:38:29.520 And so they're really driving that performance and that's what really separates and builds world-class sales teams 543 00:38:30.400 --> 00:38:34.240 Yeah, really good. You have anything to add? I mean I could but yeah 544 00:38:36.480 --> 00:38:38.480 All right, so 545 00:38:38.480 --> 00:38:44.320 What skills at your guys's place in business? Are you currently most focused on honing? 546 00:38:45.520 --> 00:38:47.040 Thank you be more 547 00:38:47.040 --> 00:38:48.800 Yeah, go ahead wisdom and discernment 548 00:38:49.760 --> 00:38:53.120 Just making good. It's I mean, it's it's a lot of decision-making cases 549 00:38:53.520 --> 00:38:55.760 Yeah, patience self-control impulse control 550 00:38:56.560 --> 00:38:58.560 Those are the big ones because 551 00:38:58.560 --> 00:39:02.720 You know the because now it's like to build you know good to go from a hundred to a billion 552 00:39:03.280 --> 00:39:04.800 It's not something that happens overnight 553 00:39:04.880 --> 00:39:06.400 And so it's like 554 00:39:06.400 --> 00:39:11.760 Usually the assumptions that have to be true in order for this to happen and then we have to add time and we have to not change the variables 555 00:39:12.320 --> 00:39:14.560 and it's very contrary to our 556 00:39:15.280 --> 00:39:20.240 Character traits as entrepreneurs who want to break shit and move and and innovate and you know 557 00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:24.080 And you do have to innovate but usually a lot less than you think you do because once you do a product market fit 558 00:39:24.240 --> 00:39:26.240 There's not a lot of innovation happens at scale 559 00:39:26.720 --> 00:39:27.840 and so 560 00:39:27.840 --> 00:39:33.280 One is is the patience that lay leaders alluded to and the other is really just the wisdom because the part of 561 00:39:33.680 --> 00:39:36.400 How our business works is that we have to really 562 00:39:37.040 --> 00:39:41.760 We have to pick well because we get a lot of companies that come inbound because the you know 563 00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:45.920 The amount of growth that the portfolio companies experience is really high in acquisition.com 564 00:39:45.920 --> 00:39:51.440 And so a lot of people want you know to to to come in and for context. We accept 0.2% 565 00:39:52.160 --> 00:39:58.160 Of the deals to come in and it's hard because sometimes it's like we love the sector or we love the business model 566 00:39:58.960 --> 00:40:04.640 But we also have to love the entrepreneur and we can't just like them like we have to really like love working with this person 567 00:40:05.360 --> 00:40:11.600 It's very difficult because all of the you know like there's a lot of ways to make money and for every one of these deals 568 00:40:11.600 --> 00:40:16.160 We know we can make money but the question is like is it the highest and best use of our time 569 00:40:16.880 --> 00:40:22.880 Given the limited time that we have is this the horse that we want to take all the way and that we believe can go to a hundred and beyond and 570 00:40:23.040 --> 00:40:26.080 We're not going to take on companies that we don't think can get there specifically 571 00:40:26.640 --> 00:40:28.640 Specifically entrepreneurs that can get there 572 00:40:28.880 --> 00:40:32.000 And so we have to see like deep into an entrepreneur and think like 573 00:40:32.800 --> 00:40:36.720 I get how we're going to get this person to you know 10 or 30 like we can see that really easily 574 00:40:36.800 --> 00:40:40.480 But like are they the person that can withstand with stand that pressure 575 00:40:40.960 --> 00:40:47.280 And do you think that they are coachable and can they evolve enough in that period of time to sustain the growth that we know that we can wrap them with 576 00:40:48.080 --> 00:40:49.280 I think for me it's 577 00:40:50.160 --> 00:40:55.280 Quite different which is like in terms of team size and such like you know dim watch with the peak was like 120 578 00:40:55.760 --> 00:40:57.760 This team right now is like 10 579 00:40:57.840 --> 00:41:03.200 So like in terms of managing the team and running the team it that heart does not feel hard to me 580 00:41:03.760 --> 00:41:06.240 What is a challenge is there's probably two things which is one 581 00:41:06.960 --> 00:41:13.680 The people that we're bringing on in order to have people that can work with the businesses that we work with an acquisition calm 582 00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:18.720 They have to have already been there done that because would you if I get mad in this right you're in acquisition calm 583 00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:23.120 And I'm like hey, here's our sales you know expert and he's gonna train your sales manager 584 00:41:23.440 --> 00:41:26.800 Then you're like cool. What's his experience and it's like well, I taught him how I've done it 585 00:41:27.520 --> 00:41:32.080 Like he's my little intern. It's like do you really want him? No, it's like fuck off. So I think 586 00:41:33.280 --> 00:41:36.720 It's finding people who are already experts and then 587 00:41:37.440 --> 00:41:42.960 It's been interesting to learn how to I'm used to a team where it's like motivation raw raw like pump up 588 00:41:43.120 --> 00:41:46.480 It's a lot more of that involved and a lot more shaping and growing people because they're more green 589 00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:53.280 This team is basically just executives or executive level and so it's learning how to 590 00:41:54.400 --> 00:41:57.200 When everybody is better at what they do than you 591 00:41:57.840 --> 00:41:59.840 How do you manage and how do you grow those people? 592 00:42:01.040 --> 00:42:06.000 And so that has been a unique challenge for me to learn and also humbling to learn that 593 00:42:06.560 --> 00:42:11.440 And I've said this in different videos as a recent and as of last year, which is the basics still buy 594 00:42:12.400 --> 00:42:16.720 Which is like what a lot of people don't expect right you've got people that are 30 years in season paid it 595 00:42:16.720 --> 00:42:22.000 Should ton of money and like you still got to start off with a employee onboarding and like I skipped it for like two people 596 00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:23.680 I'm like I'm paying the price 597 00:42:23.760 --> 00:42:25.760 Which is crazy right because you're like you would think 598 00:42:26.320 --> 00:42:30.800 No, you can just never assume never assume that people know anything 599 00:42:31.040 --> 00:42:35.280 Um, and so that's been that's interesting for me to understand how to build a team that way 600 00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:40.240 And I would say second to that like more on a personal level is splitting my time 601 00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:46.160 Because I've always just been internal like I didn't start making content until about nine months ago 10 months ago 602 00:42:46.160 --> 00:42:53.520 Maybe now and so all of my focus was a hundred and ten percent just building the team building the culture running the business 603 00:42:53.840 --> 00:42:58.320 You know like driving the strategic initiatives and now it's doing that plus 604 00:42:59.200 --> 00:43:02.880 Learning to make content and learning to build a brand and learning to all do all these things 605 00:43:02.880 --> 00:43:06.880 And I think like a few months into it. I was just like oh my god. We need a team for this. I can't I don't know how to do this 606 00:43:07.360 --> 00:43:08.560 And so it's 607 00:43:08.560 --> 00:43:12.560 Being able to figure out where my attention is more important 608 00:43:12.960 --> 00:43:19.360 Is it internal right now or is it you know this long long long-term play of building this brand so that you know 609 00:43:19.360 --> 00:43:25.360 We can have a bigger impact than we've had the past and so that for me has been a personal struggle because I feel like 610 00:43:25.520 --> 00:43:27.120 I like to be a ten out of ten on everything I do 611 00:43:27.680 --> 00:43:30.000 And I feel like I'm not a ten out of ten on either right now 612 00:43:30.320 --> 00:43:34.320 And so it's it's a constant. It's a dichotomy. I have to manage 613 00:43:34.640 --> 00:43:37.920 And so I have to constantly remind myself that so I don't tell myself you know you fucking stop 614 00:43:38.720 --> 00:43:40.720 That's what it feels like to work with amazing people though 615 00:43:41.280 --> 00:43:45.120 So that's yeah makes you like pull yourself up by your bootstraps 616 00:43:47.120 --> 00:43:52.160 And that concludes part one of the Grow With Video Live VIP section fireside chat 617 00:43:52.720 --> 00:43:59.840 And stay tuned for part two the second half the conclusion of the saga of the VIP fireside chat with growth video