 Hey, good afternoon everybody, Tom Stewart here. I'm with Liz Trotter. Our guest today is Kirk Kempton. This is smart business moves Man, it's been a while. I am so good. You know what I feel like I've been on an airplane Every week for the last six months. Oh, wow and and Life is about to start slowing down a little bit for me. I can't wait To just like like spend more time with the people I love including Tom and Liz Vacations and going to the beach and other resort located. I mean that is that you're living the life, right? Well, I will admit to a cup there were two vacations in there. I feel like they're but But yeah, just there's I've been in a public speaking school Which required me to go once a month to New Jersey for quite a few months and then I Yeah, HBS So that was great and now and all that but but I mean there were a couple vacations And there was a bunch of like just little like conferences I was going to and consulting I was doing and it just really required being on an airplane a lot so now I feel like like so starting. I'm actually in Utah right now. I'm not even home I'm at Joel's office visiting doing a training for the person people, but um But starting next week, I will be home for like almost Minus one week. I'll be home for like six months. So I'm so thrilled Wow Is that the one week convention is that the one week? Yeah The one the one where you get on stage with other people and hopefully everybody like Is there is there is there a story there current that you could share Yes, I'd be happy to share this story. I think Liz Liz would want this. Yes, so at the last arc see I was asked to speak and I've prepared this talk got it all ready to rock and roll and I had the absolute best presenter present me Liz stage he goes out there. She's like good at that. She really is she brings the energy she rocks She's a pro. She does this like all the time You know what if she didn't do it all the time I believe she did in that moment because she gets up She kind of like nails like makes me sound like I'm worth a million bucks Everybody's gonna walk out of that room just full of knowledge. I feel so excited to get up there And then I think I might have taken her a little off guard. I probably hugged her something like this Thank you so much You pushed her When I was done hugging her I Shubbed her as hard as I could towards the stairs and I think she might have like bobbled one of the stairs on the way down a little bit Liz I'm so sorry. I actually I do that to my kids because I love them so much and sometimes I just forget Gosh, thanks, Kirk. You know, it was fine. I didn't mind. I only bobbled up one step Yeah, and I was not just the one step and that nothing nothing serious happened You didn't you didn't get hurt Liz. I know he didn't break any of my ribs unlike you She's showing me around, you know her home state We're done at some part with people smoking crack and the next thing I know Liz is laid over like fell off the sidewalk and The dress was over her head There's like some moaning. I mean it was it was it was a scary moment for me. I still have nightmares Tom, yeah, I can't believe that you are right here Lying out out in front of all of these people Tom. You're gonna be somebody's gonna strike you down. You better Like never go into public Anyway All right, guys, let's talk about the topic which is Before we do that, you know what today is Is it report day? It's Jolt's day. I love Jolt's day. All right, and I'm working off of one screen here. So I'm not sure I Can do this though. I am I am capable of doing this. I can't wait to find out what Jolt's day is I'm not on I don't get to follow you because I'm not on Facebook. So Oh, you're gonna love Jolt's day. So, okay This is a report every month that the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out and Jolt stands for job openings I should know this and labor turnover. Okay? okay, and The whole gist of this is and they're always like a month behind So the June numbers are the ones that they announced today and guess what the number of job openings has gone down By about six hundred thousand that's not a trivial amount Last month it was a peak at like eleven point three million job openings And there's only like six million people looking for jobs So we were like last month it was almost like two job openings for every person looking for a job Great news. There's now like one point eight job openings for everybody looking for a job Yes, that's what progress looks like I'm telling you that's actually great It is I agree and it's gonna get better next month, right? So it can't jump all in one month And if gas prices are any indicator too like they're following that same trend that you know, there's been really good improvement Yeah, well, it's a lot of good numbers are moving moving in our favor, you know It's just gonna take a little bit of time. I think a lot of room for optimism here You you go down to leisure and hospitality, which is kind of the closest thing You can find in their data that you know reflects may be a Demo from from the population that that that we hire and it was like one point four or five Million last month and it's like one point two. So that was a drop of like two hundred about about a quarter of a million Just off of hospitality and leisure. So that's even that's even more encouraging Those columns Are you sure it's not 1542 down to 1451? You're right. I lied Yeah, it's not me 1.5 to 1.4. Okay. Yeah But about 90 90,000 I guess Well, it's almost a sixth of all the jobs that opened up. I mean if you look at all the different sectors That's like that's got to be one of the better sectors for improvement I'm happy Yeah, well, we'll take that as progress. Yeah, absolutely Absolutely take that Alright, so that takes us to What's our topic this month? leadership That's right. Yeah. I'm actually really glad that we have you here as our to jump start the month on leadership Kurt I feel like you really like I'm serious. It's my serious face, right? I feel like you bring a A bit of leadership to everything you talk about. I always hear you Weaving that into all your communication, right? How how you're gonna do things better. You're gonna lead better so I think it's Great to have you leading this off Well, thank you The leadership leader. Well now I think we had a problem here But but actually Liz the reason you've always noticed that common thread that I bring up leadership is that fundamentally as business owners I Believe that when we start our business We try to create and and to a different extent with a different message in every person I believe that every person who started a business is trying to create a new Megaphone into the world to put it to put either a message or a feeling or some sort of Substantial change into the world now I Get it a lot of people start their businesses because they're hungry and they need to eat so So fair enough, that's fine But it doesn't take long once you get your business going to realize you're interacting whether it's through marketing or direct like customer relationships You're interacting with the world in a way that normies don't so when I refer to normies like normies are people who get up They get in their car. They punch in and they punch out and they they You know trade their time for money but as entrepreneurs, there's so many more plates that we're spinning that we're trying to keep from breaking and We have impact on the world and it's crazy because Once you start like serving your customer well enough you have to hire employees So then you have to actually start putting your impact out into the employee world so you start touching these little ripples like you touch your employee and you have them like Guided by a set of the values and principles that you follow then they go into the home of you know Your customers and they perpetuate that and if you don't instill those then then obviously You know other things can happen like their own values or lack thereof can can cause that ripple effect And it's sort of like I feel like entrepreneurship is the is the ongoing struggle and journey of perpetuating your message so much stronger than a normie will ever get a chance to experience and If you advocate the role as an entrepreneur and you just ignore the fact that you've got to do that What ends up happening is is that whatever? Your baseline default is Which some of us might not be very proud of especially when left to its own devices Is that baseline of what we put out in the world really isn't all that great or special? And I feel like in a place like this where we're talking people who are trying to better themselves In a place like this we're talking people who are ultimately trying to improve themselves trying to level up their business Trying to level up their employees trying to make themselves different and stand out from the competition And now all of a sudden it becomes good news your competitors baseline level is sort of like just left to its own devices But if you're in a place like this where you're trying to raise your baseline level where your employees are going to settle to Now all of a sudden you have this huge Opportunity to stand out from the competition, but you also have this this thing when you go to bed at night It's going I put good into the world and I do it far more powerfully than just one person getting up trying to be a good person Even has the resources to do Yeah, because you're sending out through your whole company. I know that was but if I didn't know better current I think you practice that Yeah, I've been rehearsing. I've been rehearsing for this all day. I I might think that you were in some type of a speaking course I'm inspired, you know, I Just had no idea feeling better about myself. I know okay, so Let's let's talk about the kind of I guess it's not a monkey in the room since we're all in three different rooms But what what about recession and leadership, right? I mean we we have to we have to talk about Recession with regards or leadership with regards to the recession monkey monkey in the room. Is that even a thing? elephant in the room, but How about the groundhog or the gazelle? Crazy they're like all jumping off the walls. It's much more destructive than elephants y'all. That's actually true I love that you rewrote I love that you rewrote an old saying to actually make it better. That's yeah much better monkey in the room I'm gonna write that down monkey in the room. Okay. That was the most liz thing I've heard all day No, I actually think that what you're saying is is super Dupre import like You know covet. I thought covet was gonna be the time to define who I was And and frankly I spent a lot of time sort of doing a lot of self-improvement stuff during covet because It felt like that was the the circle of influence that I could have the most power in But the one thing that during covet just kept and I'm curious about youtube during covet. I kept wondering Why is our economy not tanking? Like I kept thinking the whole time No one's working House prices are going through the roof They're giving out free money everywhere. I look What is going on this can't work and And it was working Like gas prices were fine. Everything was fine. Don't leave your house. Okay. Oh, can you leave your house? But wear a mask. Okay, some industries can work some industries can't restaurants are all closed down Who is they're starving out there, you know Excuse me, so I knew this was coming And here it is Yeah, what are you guys we are We knew there had to be there is no way that we can like print that much money And have there be no fallout That that's just not a thing but still um I don't know then you I don't you hit the word recession and it's just like, okay Huh now it's really here And it's kind of like still people feel like they need to make Like a bigger shift, you know, people are like, oh now it's here. Now it's real and I think it's a lot reactionary to just the word recession. It's like a lot of people can even Really have a clue what exactly that means, but it's bad Hey, so it's it's interesting though the like the the traditional economic definition for recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth negative gdp and We had that in q1 and q2 and there's still a lot of argument. Is this really a recession, you know, the Federal government is saying that it's not really a recession. They're pointing to the job numbers being so high Or being so low depending what you look at it, you know, there's Relatively no unemployment and typically, you know, recession is Is goes along with, you know, a lot of people losing their jobs and we're not really seeing that there's still 1.8 jobs out there for everybody looking for a job. So um You know, the stock market is Has been rocking over the last, you know, several, you know, last last week and a half. Anyway, today was another good day There's a lot of reasons to think that The economy really is is is is doing pretty good right now Yeah So I think there's a lot of optimism out there. You can slice it so many different ways But I think that the business owners that i'm talking to Are ultimately feeling negative effects of the inflation and the And the job market the way that minimum wage and living expenses are playing into like what it costs And I feel like, you know, to go to the term leadership I feel like when I talk about covid being a self-defining time just a personal defining time I feel like this moment is An opportunity for some major leadership defining times. Um, you know, uh Debbie sardone talks about the buffalo is charging into the cloud the storm versus away the cows running away. Um At the end of the day Like we know what we as leaders Want in the big scheme The way we're going to achieve it now is probably a little bit different Than the way we previously Envision, um It's going to take creativity and I feel like leaders not only have good ideas But they know how to get good ideas out of out of others And you know, this is this this show right here. This this live is frankly The people who come here are looking for ideas ways to get better They're they're gonna hone themselves their teams their companies and very smart talented people Who value their time and want to invest it in things that will be helpful to them and make smart business moves, right? That's true Absolutely But it is true But it is true and I do feel like the defining the defining time Really just comes down to the fact that are you going to Are you gonna put your head in the sand? I think at covid we learned that You you can put your head in the sand Because there are so many things that you just don't know what's gonna happen. Yeah, but but they say fortune favors the what? The bold the bold the people who are the curious the people who are gonna try new things fortune's gonna favor those who don't bury their head in the sand and covid was one set of obstacles How nice is it that we can go out and work now? Like there was a time when you couldn't do that. Yes. Yes I mean, there's so many nice things going on giving us opportunities to lead And we have this very familiar experience of what we learned through covid That I think is is just one more arrow in the quiver for for a recession But frankly The recession is where all of the great companies stand up and away from From the rest It's it's Traditionally, that's where it always happens So It's an opportunity, isn't it? I mean, you know what you described earlier in terms of You know taking the risk to be an entrepreneur and the people you're touching and the good and the value you're adding. I mean You know, it's easy to let the weight of the world beat you down sometimes but you can't lose sight of the fact of Of the good that you're doing and the opportunity you have and This is a time when your competitors a lot of times will start hanging their head You might see businesses going out of business, right? So Very very little money Very little money when someone's Disincentivized to run their business anymore and there's no more good help out there Well, they've got a customer list and a phone number and a website You know and other assets That might cost you very very little to take someone who's disenfranchised And and help them out of their situation Help them out right and help them out and help them get on to something that they would enjoy more and that is less stressful and Harder for them or easier for them to move forward with what they want to do Can you imagine can you imagine doubling your business? By like some sort of crazy little tiny payment plan with someone who's just tired I mean you could double your business and say I don't have the cash right now But here's what i'm thinking Every customer on your customer list that I do a job for I'll give you x number of dollars And it fits into your profit model, right and you go How cool is this I don't have to come out of pocket for any of it and I just doubled my business Yeah I've seen that happen. I've seen that happen more than once Yeah, and we saw it happen a lot during covid. So I'm wondering if I don't know what are your thoughts on this people Many business owners were really really scared When covid first hit and then as it progressed and it was it didn't get less scary for a really really long time Right people were living in this state of fear for so long I'm wondering if the people who Great worked through covet and continued to try and grow their businesses and stay put If they're just going to or I guess we right all three of us at least if we are just going to Okay, just another Blip in the road. It doesn't feel as big coming off of covet No, it's really not it's not as scary. It's not as scary Once you survive, but here's what it is. It's tiring And and I think that those people who are tired become very incentivized sellers. So You know one of the things that I think it's really interesting as we talk about like doubling or tripling your business by just this acquisition model you If you're in a position where you've done something great and you're In that mode where you're grinding and you're pushing your business forward and you've got systems in place Congratulations to you blessings to you. I hope you know how blessed you are. That's great But for that person Who's been hanging on and hanging on and hanging on it just doesn't want to keep doing this anymore Yeah, they didn't want to sell to you When the economy was fantastic They don't want to sell to you when it's really easy to hire employees for really low wages They're not interested. They have a money tree that just perpetually puts out money and When they're tired of tending to that tree Taking care of it and the tree maybe doesn't have as much fruit on it hanging as it was before That's where you find the incentivized people So I'm just speaking to those people who who have done the work ahead of time Who still have the strength in it to wear with all that are that are doing great things Like Merry Christmas. Here's your recession. You're very welcome. You know, yeah, comparing comparing this to covid is is you know Covid was an unprecedented event We really didn't know how that was going to turn out No, we we've had recessions in the past and we've gone through some and some have been worse than others But we know what's on the other side of a recession Well, and we know there is another side with covid Ah Yes And you know what you know what tom that that point Isn't it easier to lead when you know what the outcome is? Like everyone courage troops. We know what's beyond, you know, like, okay Okay, you know like because you've got the conviction in your voice to know That recessions come to an end Yeah Okay, so this one you guys won't be able to relate to as well But our women watchers will it's kind of like having a baby You know what if you are and bear with me here, ha ha ha pun intended All right So when you when you had children before lizz, I know what it's all about Oh, yes, Tom. You absolutely know Hardest hardest four nine months legals of my life. Go ahead. Let's say birthing a child. All right, so birthing a child if you had That that amount of pain regardless of how strong it is, you know, you don't be the coach and the breathe the holy You don't you think that's a walk in the park go ahead Go ahead finish a boy. I've also been a coach. So yeah, it's pretty darn easy actually If you want to talk about it So, but if you're going to have that level of pain, whatever However hard you think it is. Okay When you're going to get a baby at the end It doesn't really matter while you're in it, you know, you're at the end you're going to get a baby, right? So whether i'm in labor an hour four hours three days Whatever however long it is at the end. I'm getting a baby. It's doable. Totally doable people keep having babies All right, they're not they're not stopping having babies, but If i'm in this crazy amount of pain and I don't know what it is I'm scared. I'm panic. I want the er I I don't know that I'll make it through you hear people when they're in tons of pain. They're like I just want to die. I just want to die. You never hear a child first saying there's certainty itself Yeah, absolutely Because you know what you're getting at you know, there's an end but so same thing here with recession I actually tried I tried that after our third child rachel was in um Labor and she they couldn't get her the epidural until just it was a whole pain in the neck to get it to her, but um literally So anyway, um our third child was born and Rachel She just got worked And at the very end the baby's there. She's holding the baby I said hey hun you ready to get started on the neck because I was thinking here's the time to sort of plant the seed like No, I think i'm done like just if I could get her say it Then at that point we'd like sort of like be able to like kind of build off of that All right, and I'm like so I guess this is probably it. I'm like, I guess we're done She's like, I think I could do one more and I'm like, I haven't forgotten yet like you like They get easier as you have more curd it gets easier Well, that one was the hardest one for sure for her, but and luckily our fourth one actually was I'm not going to use the term walk in the park. No man's allowed to ever refer But I will say of all four that one was like The least inconvenient for her I'll put it that way and your wife would say that if that that one was much easier So you're safe saying that curd Yeah Yeah, so it it is very true that you can Everything is easier when you know What's on the other side and you have confidence that you are going to make it through everything's going to be it's just that confidence of Getting through and I'm sure you guys know this too. You both have had multiple children every birth and delivery. It's different so really Your second one the the first one you have no idea what you're to expect But you know, you're going to get through it Right similar to a reception. We don't know what we're going to deal with but we know we're going to get through it The second one you think oh, I got this piece of cake I've been through but that delivery is different than the first one But you still know still going to get through it still have no doubt and I'm sure Fourth child is the same different delivery, but you still know you're going to get through it Right. I've only gone through three. So I'm not sure about that fourth one, but I'm guessing I'll vouch for it And same thing with recession. Yes, many of us have been through at least one Right. Oh Yeah, I mean if you're an adult you've been through a couple like The Oh, yeah working to make your business through it But but you know, Liz one of the things that I think is important to consider too is that like It will probably require you to make decisions that you don't want to make And I think that's where the leadership part comes in is like, you know, we keep talking about it like Oh, just go buy another business and be gritty But it might also mean Like I got to let someone go or it might mean That you you have to make a budgetary decision that that really sucks You know, um But if you know like what's on the other side that confidence still plays into that And if you know that what you're doing is worth it, you know, you talk about if I know there's a baby at the end It's worth it, right? Yeah. Well if if the business that you're building Is truly an extension of who you are and piece of your your dna is being expanded Then Then what is this for if you can check in with yourself? What is this all for? Hopefully the answer that comes back Says, you know what I'm going to make a really painful decision right now But this decision doesn't define me this this this decision Is my is my capacity to learn from past experience Or if you haven't necessarily learned it yet and you have to learn it for the first time just Through whatever brutality may be It's an opportunity for that confidence To sharpen you now. I say brutality. I've had to let an employee go before that was was an amazing employee but financially Based on I was I'm thinking about the the 2000 like crash not 2000 was it 2011 2009? 910 I had to let a guy go that was A phenomenal person It was not his fault. He had a wife and three kids and I thought dude You don't deserve this But if I don't let you go You won't have a company to work for like we've got to do this It was really painful sucked so bad. I hated it so much in fact even when I look back on it like Like get the sick feeling in my stomach, but you know what when I came out of that meeting My company was was back in the black And um and actually I stayed it's funny I stayed in touch with him for like six months after that We were kind of constantly talking like how's it going? He ended up finding a great job Landed on his feet everything turned out great for his family In that moment though it just hurt like crazy And it was the best that my it was it was good for my business and I was able to draw a paycheck which was great for my family But that experience taught me so much about Like you can be the nice guy. It's fine But you need to fully understand through the confidence of being a business owner that if you don't Look at this from the long-term perspective No one else will do it for you Right You're it the buck stops with you. You've got it. You've got to be looking at things in a different way and This is sounds Kind of bad But a lot of people in our industry because the way we cash flow, right? And so there's always money coming into the bank all the time A lot of times we will see That people aren't thinking about their businesses at all. They're just Day to day day to day working in their businesses But during something like this people are going to have to actually think Think deeper about their business And you know when we started the discussion court you touched upon What is the motivation for an entrepreneur to start their business and You know, you said well, we all need to eat right the whole food and shelter thing But it's a lot more than that, you know people It's a scary time. You're talking about, you know, I'm afraid of the recession. I'm afraid of covid Starting a business be it, you know, you're buying a business as existing or starting one from scratch Is really scary too. Oh, yeah And you did it with a lot of motivation and vision of Grand things that that you could accomplish in ways that you could contribute much more than just the food and shelter And then the world when gets you and the way to the world beats you down Then, you know, you fall into to kind of the mentality that that that was was describing that Doesn't happen by accident. That doesn't happen overnight and You know, it sounds like this whole recession thing of the prospects of one is is just another opportunity To double down take a deep breath get back into the frame of mind of why you were doing this to begin with Make tough decisions be the leader that all your stakeholders need you to be the story that that you were sharing At court with having to to let somebody go That was for the bad, you know, the There's a ton of people other people that are depending upon a paycheck from that business. There were customers that Depending upon you. I mean, there's You know, it takes a lot of courage to to to make this thing work A lot of courage to be the leader that that that all the stakeholders need us to pay And you know that that moment that you make that hard decision it's funny how when you'll be in other situations that That are easier than that But on their own or hard they become easier It's those it's those decision-making muscles that you build up and and to be honest with you Probably and I hate to say it because I'm just remembering how terrible that day was But I hate to say it That was probably one of the best growing leader experiences of of my entrepreneurial life Um There are decisions that I think would have probably crippled me since then That I've been able to make in like a flash um Part of it is just knowing that everything works out, you know Good people in the in the situation I gave good people are going to land on their feet You just don't see a lot of good people homeless on the street begging for money And when I say that it's not to say that people on the street that are begging for money aren't good people They're probably not the kind of people that you have working for you in high high capacity They're you know, usually they're mentally ill addicted to drugs. So when you have this really good powerful person And you've got to let them go and and and I I know I'm making this decision to sound like it's always about employees or Like that, but so many different things But when you know That making a hard decision Always turns out great for everyone As long as you're doing it for the right reasons It it adds to your confidence But you don't believe that like if someone listening right now If someone listening right now has never been in this situation It's like well, I'm glad it worked out good for him But it won't be that way and and that's fine because you're gonna think that until you've been through that fire And you know that you know that when you get into the hole, how do you refine gold? Right heat and pressure and there's this whole painful process the gold has to go through In order to become pure and I and I think entrepreneurship is very much the same Is that when you have limited experiences? You will be limited in your abilities as an entrepreneur Adding your recession to your belt buckle or to your as another, you know Badge of honor that you're gonna wear when you come out It's gonna make It's gonna make you a better entrepreneur, but no one in the middle of it wants to hear that Especially if it's your first time around like But we need to think that way because If you're not thinking that way and I I'm speaking personally here When I find myself not thinking that way and getting into this Even as I begin to slide maybe into a doom and glue mindset Everything is harder It is That's true. It's true. It's less less um Guaranteed that I'll get out of it if I allow that mindset to shift Down so even even if you're thinking well, maybe not maybe not you can't let yourself think that way You have to think absolutely. I will make it through because that's where you're gonna have the best results Up there in that mindset Even if it doesn't work out That's still gonna get better than you would have gotten in the negative mindset So you got an option you got a So when you're faced with having to do the hard thing rather than it's really easy to slip into a guy's this sucks I really hate doing this Celebrate the idea that you have the opportunity to be the leader that everybody needs you to be and You know, it's an you're going to be doing a good thing Yeah, I'm gonna end up working out well for everyone like like kurt was saying right even his guy It worked out better for him. Yes He did he he he landed well on his feet one thing I want to point out too Is that as a leader? I have found the more I have gone into like business So now it's responsive it right and I and I don't have any other businesses. It's just responsive it And I have I have a dozen employees that work for me Every single one of those employees is better at their job than I was when I did their job And I feel like This is like one of those times when you need to reflect on that is As we go through this recession Your duty as a leader Is to to get people to their higher highest and best purpose For the good of your organization and so Where maybe previously you were using people at a high level of purpose and maybe a good purpose, right? Are they at their highest and best use of of who they are do they have ideas do they have Means of being able to Provide uh additional, you know even leadership below you in your business. The fact is is that scrappy people Oh, I'm thinking I'm reminded of uh You guys ever saw that Leonardo DiCaprio movie um catch me if you can you guys ever see catch me if you can Yes, yes So his dad is a little boy He had this story it always tell him he never even had to hardly finish it because Too nice fell into a bucket of milk Cream right and he says one one mouse uh Went in and he he felt overwhelmed when he drowned the other mouse He fought and fought till he turned that cream to cheese and he walked away, you know Um, I feel like that's another really cool thing Is it's not just personal that in these hard times that you can turn that cream into cheese and and walk away um You can do that for your team This is one of our beautiful opportunities as an entrepreneur and a leader is that If you change your mindset from My goal is to make as much money as I can And you move it from like that robotic approach To if I make these people The best they can possibly be from knowing me or being part of this organization They will make my organization better And they will bring the profits will come the profits will come Because you're going to be doing the right things for the right reason So anyway, I just think a recession is a big opportunity for that. Yes Absolutely. I I mean we hammer hard on any time. There's adversity. That's an opportunity in disguise, right? You've got to recognize. Oh, yeah, that's an opportunity even if I can't see it right now I know it's there. I've got to peel it away until I can see the opportunity in it All right, so we've been talking a lot about what what do you have to do? What's going to happen, etc? But i'm going to ask now a how question so When we are so we have to communicate this message to our people, right? We have to we have to show them our level of confidence. We have to prove to them that We are going to make it through and that our company is going to come out of this bigger better stronger And that we're doing all of the things And to get us there, right? We have to we have to pass that message on how how do we how do we do that? What are some of the things that we have to say how often do we have to talk about it? Let's let's dig into how just a little bit Oh, gosh I think there's so the cool thing is I believe And I'm actually curious if you guys have any thoughts on this too, but I believe that the best part of entrepreneurship is that there isn't a big thing There's a bunch of little things that add up It's the beauty of your DNA. It's like millions of tiny little billions of little things, right? so um What you're saying Liz like we can make a pretty nice long list and I think it'd be really cool because people could carry him out in different ways but um The first way I think you hit on is the mindset and then letting that mindset drive you You're gonna have to be intentional about this. You're probably going to do things differently than you've done in the past So it's going to require you to change your habits The first way I change you have it is I get a piece of paper down And I start writing down what I want to stop doing and what I want to start doing Or what habits I want to stop and what habits I want to start so um sharing in the winds Let's say you get a nice review on on google about the company Yeah, maybe it's to the recession. You probably Wouldn't say much. You say hey guys. You got a review. That's it, right? but Now maybe you want to stop that habit of just trivializing it And you want to have some sort of like really personalized way that megaphones it out to all the employees or At least elevates That good news. It's a tiny tiny thing. It's like yeah almost inconsequential But when somebody When somebody's wage Was able to rise this much but the cost of living has risen this much We've got to start figuring out how to Sort of like reimburse that that gap With the way inflation's working We're fighting like crazy to raise our prices and get them up to where rent requires it to be now But it's a process And so so reimbursing that gap might require Like pulling someone aside and just saying I need you to know that your name was in that review I am beaming right now Like it doesn't cost you any money and it's tiny But now add that to the fact that you are Spending 15 minutes a day talking to people about maybe transparent things things that you as a leader never shared before Maybe now you're gonna start talking about I used to spend this much money on marketing I can't spend that much on marketing anymore I need you to Put flyers in the 10 doors nearest the houses that you're cleaning right now We need you Right. We need you to do that. So we we were doing six. It's not enough anymore y'all. We need we need to do 10 now Right. We used to do a six pack You did 12 pack now We got it. We got to do it more. You know and it's gotta be us Yep So we talk a lot about this idea Matter-meaning measure and autonomy And I think that this is where matter-meaning measure and autonomy can really make a huge difference because it fills that gap Right. We can only get to here with money But especially right now there's all of this All of this movement and people are feeling like ah Where should I go? How do I you know, there's just so much uncertainty everywhere still And there are such as not going to make that a whole type of lot better for a lot of people But we can fill that gap With showing people how they matter to to us and to the company showing them the meaning that we're bringing And then right giving them that that measure of look before we did this Now we're doing this. This is amazing. Even if it's only this much We thought we were going to shrink look We're doing better right and then Right now how important is it for people to feel like they need autonomy? More so than any time in the past or the recent past anyway that I know about So Actually in the age of covid You know, you look at all the people who are working from home. Yeah, and you go Hey You can't work from home. Not when you're cleaning in houses but Here's some autonomy you know There is something to be said For that trust and that that autonomy like I really am glad you brought that up because that is I remember making a couple Changes that we made in our cleaning company Um that allowed people to like have dictation over their own raises and and um, how fast they would Onboard themselves into the company and go through the training and stuff and we had a certification process I'll tell you what that was the that autonomy that came along with it was Maybe the biggest attitude shift That I was able to and I and I did some crazy stuff We did like Customer parties like we would have parties for our customers that we'd invite them to it's like These big celebrations and stuff and we would do all sorts of crazy stuff But I'll tell you what giving them the autonomy over themselves Yeah was I just can't think of anything that we did that brought more attitude shift in a positive way than anything Yeah, that was it Yeah, autonomy is so huge such a Empowering thing for people And it seems like that's something that's going to be needed as we're working through the session People are going to Because while we are able to maybe keep our mindsets up and look at the opportunities and see what's coming down the pipe for us And be able to see okay. Yes this this this and use our confidence to build us up Our employees not as much It's a little bit harder for them. So anything that we can add and let them Take our confidence right use our confidence give them some more build them up That's a win for all of us you know the the autonomy Dimension of this, I guess it's so much easier to see now post-covid. I mean just the way Yeah Do you think that that need has always been there? Or do you think that's something that has evolved due to the unprecedented events we've been managing over the last few years I think that people have always needed a level of autonomy But they didn't get it necessarily at work They got it somewhere else because it wasn't even expected at work It wasn't yeah, it wasn't something that you would get from work It was kind of like, you know, you're you're not going to work expecting to get Ears of corn either it's not something you're looking for from work All right, so I think is that what do you think hurt? Yeah, I think I think it was always craved But never expected Um or or at least very little expected certainly in our industry You know one of the things that I did to level up my company Was that in my interview process I told people if you're coming here to be a laborer, you're going to be miserable Um, we're looking for customer service representatives who want to move into leadership That's who we're looking for and uh, if you just want to be told what to do every day And if you want to stand out in the hot sun and just wash windows and pressure wash buildings And like inhale chemicals You're gonna hate it because that's not what we do That's awesome And it just makes the chemical part down if I was you but just gosh, I don't know curry You're really like bumming me out. I really did want to just stand in the sun Yeah, well i'm phoenix arizona. Yeah Yeah So so one of the things I noticed though is that if we had an interview like that It evolved this really special way through the first part of them coming into the company Is that they're like, oh so I can be more I I I applied for this job thinking that's all I could be a laborer Yeah, and I happened upon this company that's going to make me read three books about customer service How to win friends and influence people delivering happiness and uh seven habits of highly affected people I'm gonna have to read these books and write reports and then I'll be able to be a manager in the company And I'll be able to like and all these opportunities for growth personally and within the company And these these ways uh, so I know people always craved it but When I when I say that people didn't expect it I think that in our industry People are like I'm gonna get used up here until they burn me out And then I'll just see what other opportunity I can do after that If you can if you can derail that line of thinking And get them into a place where they feel truly blessed and measured one of the things that tom was talking about earlier Is like you started your business With one thought in mind and you get in the trenches and you know at that point Mike Tyson said everyone has a good plan until they get punched in the face Like we all have we have a good plan that we get punched in the face We have a good plan until we start our own business you get into the business and you just automatically go back to primal like All right guys drive today, you know um One of the beautiful things I think that we that we can do here Is that get that fleeting thought that they didn't have time before? We bring it right to the forefront this look if if you're struggling Here's an opportunity for you to change Your mindset sit down and think about what can be different now. I've brought up ideas that don't cost any money Another idea that I I was thinking of that that people could do right now That would it be fun for them their employees good for their business Everyone's afraid of getting in front of the camera. I don't know why TikTok came along and all of a sudden I guess everyone's okay with it or whatever, but here's the thing You could be writing scripts 30 second 60 second scripts That explain why your business is different Then you can have a fun time riffing with a bunch of people who maybe don't have as much work as normal Turn a positive into a negative or a negative into a positive and go Let's record a video to put on facebook You know that video camera in your pocket All right. Yeah right here That is a better camera than Audrey Hepburn ever stood in front of Audrey Hepburn She had to deal with the garbage stuff now you here you are afraid to get in front of a camera You're carrying a Hollywood quality camera in your pocket And you have people who have thought of things and have ideas and you guys can riff things back and forth We're not asking for a masterpiece that you don't need to build lay miss rob All you have to do is just build a funny little something to share in your community groups Guess what? You're gonna have a great time. It's a good use of your time It's something you'll be able to use forever from now on once it's on video You can bring it out and repost it anytime you want And who knows those people who are not happy with their house dinner. It's about to go out of business anyway You just took this recession and you turned it into something That actually would be really fun and a 60 second video could take you a whole day to record Or you might get five or six of them done in a day but either way You got something new Well, it's good. I like it. We are we are approaching the top of the hour and I want to make sure that we get away We don't get away without making sure everybody know who Audrey Hepburn is Yeah, you're you know that all Kurt I'm a geezer I grew up watching I grew up watching her movies Okay Me too. All right pop up. Let's pop up some responsibility. Good job Tom Tell us a tell us a little bit about your your day job. What uh, what what what what you're you're into Well, we're all about building cool customer journeys So we talk about our software responses to sales funnel automation software But at the end of the day what we do is we make buying difficult things like home service easy So maid service, for example, someone calls you up and they're like, hey, how much would it be to clean my home? Oh, it's gonna Buckle up buttercup. Let's get into this and start figuring everything out How many cats do you have and um, you know, your kids leave boogers all over the light switches So there's a lot of stuff you got to figure out our whole thing is is that You can make this actually really Cool for you so that you're getting profitable pricing You can make it so that you're showing showcasing your company's value You can do it a systematized way And um, you can do it in a way that your customers actually enjoying themselves So we built the software it focuses on quoting follow-up and scheduling We we are not a CRM. So like maid central is a CRM like you would your schedules in there Our scheduler that we use actually connects to whatever schedule you're using assuming that it has like an a way to read it and And and I hate to say it because we're not connected directly to maid central, but um, but the thing is is that As you use the software even if you weren't connected directly to your CRM You can build your whole sales process in it And it it makes it so that when your customer goes through their focus isn't on How much to clean a toilet? It's more about do you want to be this happy? or this happy or this happy? and and that value anchor Is sort of what we use in our follow-up automation and in our our quote presentation So that so that when people are trying to get going with you the hurdle is lower But the clarity is a lot deeper so if Absolutely, it's 2022. You know if you're giving quotes over the phone working off of uh A spreadsheet, you know, how many square foot? Well, this is what we're, you know, wait your price is then um You have an opportunity to be creating a lot more value in your business if you have a professional tool You can get better pricing you can get More gross profit off every job you do if you've got a professional tool to do it So if you don't have one response a bit is is an awesome product and Definitely worth a look If they want to talk if they want to know more about what you do and how responsive it works Is the easiest thing to do to go to your website? Yep, you go to the website there's scheduling a free demo right there That's if you want to like get into it and like sort of explain what your current customer journey is And then um like talk about how that might Look and how it could possibly be improved automated and stuff like that for software There's a chat bubble down in the bottom right corner to that little blue circle There's someone there if you want to chat Maybe uh, maybe they won't be there after hours, but they get back to the next day um But one of the things people are most proud of when they when they talk to us is that Wow, your customer service is amazing if you read our reviews on google Like there's almost not a single review that doesn't bring up our people And it really just has to do with the fact that we're super jazzed to be part of Engineering your customer journey the best it can possibly be so we get pretty hands on with you We have a whole team trained specifically in helping you to sort of download your brain And and break it down into to what your journey is and then help you systematize how it actually will be implemented Well, and just a quick A quick comment, uh, because I know we do have to go tongue Um, but I talk to a lot of business owners that use or have used responsive it And this is a huge testimonial that i've never heard one Business owner have anything negative to say Never not one. Have you talked? No, I have not Never well, we did we did just get our first one star review on google if you guys want to go read it Um, for what? Well, you know how it is when you guys when you serve the public there's always going to be Someone's pretty pleased. I'm so shocked though to hear that because I've never He actually i'm kind of proud of it and here's why here's why I knew someday somehow this was going to happen. Someone's going to leave a negative review I didn't hope my heart could handle it like But I responded Actually me and three other people on the team were very careful to like respond properly and sort of like call out Where the balls did get dropped I can't wait to go read it We had a blast respond to it and I loved that I didn't die. That was my favorite part Is it like I got it? I lived He's okay And um, and there's enough five star reviews that the one star review didn't affect our score at all. So We got to end on that. No That curt did not die Having having having run a cleaning service. I'm sure this isn't the first experience you've had with somebody that was less than completely pleased and Yeah, you you you kind of you kind of knew that you would be able to handle it. So Yes, I guess that test a long time ago It hadn't happened in the hospital company yet. So that's why I was like, oh it's been like a decade and I just haven't had it. It's been a while since you've had had had that experience It's like riding a bicycle Yeah, yeah Thank you for for joining us today kicking off leadership mods. You're you're you're awesome. You you truly are you're uh We love all of our guests, but some More so than others and you are you I mean you're you're pro I look forward to seeing you in october super In Las Vegas not Las Vegas. We're in chicago this year, right? At issa We'll uh be back next wednesday five o'clock eastern smart business moves until then you guys take care. Bye. Bye