Podcast Transcript
Erick (00:03):
All right.
Dan (00:05):
What up?
Erick (00:07):
How's it going today, Dan?
Dan (00:09):
Great. How's it going, Eric?
Erick (00:11):
Good. Good. We just had Father's Day, how was yours? That's right.
Dan (00:20):
It was great. It was good. Very, very fatherly.
Erick (00:24):
Cool, cool. Yeah.
Dan (00:28):
Yeah.
Erick (00:28):
Awesome, man.
Dan (00:29):
Okay, cue intro music.
Erick (00:33):
All right. That was a great intro. I know. So today we wanted to kind of touch on core values, like company core values. And I will say on this particular topic, I think you're probably going to have a lot more to add just because you've run teams of, I mean, how many people, like 80? 80 people, 50 people, something like that. 40,
Dan (01:06):
Yeah.
Erick (01:08):
Yeah. And with that mean, well, let's start off with this. What does it mean to have core values in your company?
Dan (01:20):
Well, so you got to think with any movement that a person's a part of, and I say movement because core values will illustrate the movement. There's different reasons that someone's going to come work for you.
(01:41):
The most basic is money, and you can bring someone because of money. But eventually, because we spend most of our life at work, we spend more time in our jobs, we spend with our families, we spend more than we spend on any hobbies with our friends. So most people want to be doing something that's to some degree, meaningful. And that is not just a one dimensional thing. Now, if, obviously there's gradient scales to these things, if you say, I'll give you a million dollars to go and shovel shit, most people are going to shovel the shit for a million dollars. But as you reduce monetary compensation, you have to increase with other things. And there aren't a lot of jobs that the average person can go out and get and make a million dollars. So in terms of that, a person that's feeling like they're part of something and there is something known in the future, most of that comes from the leadership and the messaging of whatever the company is that they're working for, obviously, and feeling like they're contributing to that. So the way that the communication happens is through things like core values, which are, what does it mean? What are the non-negotiables of who we are and why are we this way? And if a person, let's say you're working for a meat packing plant and there's an animal rights person isn't going to go work there because the core values inherently aren't going to line up with that person's personal core values, which is I want to protect and preserve animals from getting killed for food.
Erick (03:51):
So that's a good point.
(03:57):
And I wanted to touch on one thing that you actually mentioned right at the beginning before I forget, which is you were talking, you mentioned that for a lot of people going into a business and starting in a company as an employee, the main thing that they're after is money. But that also means that that same person is likely to chase the next pay big paycheck. If they're making 20 bucks an hour at one landscaping company, but someone else offers them 25, if their value really is, I just want to make money, then that's what they're going to do. They're going to hop from one company to the next, just chasing the next big paycheck.
Dan (04:47):
A hundred percent. And I've experienced that lots of times, and I'm glad you brought that angle because a lot of this, and even talking about broader things just in life comes down to goals. And when you're recruiting and hiring people, if you want to retain that person, well, first of all, you know, have the core values, but then you should also have a mission or purpose of the company. And you can have a time factor there. But one of the things that's missed by a lot of people is understanding what the person's goals are that you're bringing in. I'm going to recruit this person. What specifically do you have going on in your life? What are your goals? What's your one year plan, five year, 10 plan, 10 year plan? What do you hope to achieve by working with us? These are hiring questions that are going to give you obviously an insight into whether or not you have meshing or blending with your existing team, but also whether that person's goals are going to be able to into your goals.
(05:58):
And another big reason for having this sort of roadmap, I always called it a roadmap, is a person coming in needs to understand and be able to see and have reality on whether they can achieve their goals through the vehicle that you provide. And you'll never know that, and they'll never know that unless you're communicating where you're taking them and where the opportunity is, is going to take them, which would inherently be in a mission statement and core values. If you don't have that, then exactly what you said is going to happen. The only thing they'll have to measure it against is, well, I kind of like the people I'm working with, which only goes so far. My job is, okay, maybe you're a coffee shop and you love the person you hire, just loves making cups of coffee as a barista. But after a while, most people aren't really looking for no growth.
(07:05):
They're looking for some degree of expansion, and how can I move into the future via this opportunity? So having that really articulated is super, super important. And specifically in landscaping, I would say the most successful companies that we've come across, and you can attest to this, they don't sub everything out. They retain the people. And so how do they do that? Where are they going? What are they doing? And those companies grow, they grow, and it's the chicken of the egg. Are they growing because they're saying they want to grow, which is retaining good people for them, or are they growing because they're retaining good people? I think I said that in reverse. You get the point that I'm making.
Erick (08:01):
Yeah, I, I'm totally tracking. And what's interesting, and this is something I was actually thinking about the other day, when it comes to core values, there are people who get into doing their own business as a means to just make more money. If I'm totally honest with you, I would say 10 years ago when I started in business, that was kind of the idea for me. It was, yeah, I just want to make some more money. But the funny thing about that is couldn't my core values kind of making more money just ended up being like, I guess what I'm trying to say is the owner's core values will be reflected in the company. In other words, if all you want to do as a business owner is make more money what your people are going to feel. And that's why early on when I tried hiring people, I didn't have a lot of success. It was just like, I want to make more money. I want you to make me more money. And that was kind of it. And people would come and within a few months they were gone.
Dan (09:20):
Well, we have the same idea about you. I want to make more money. I'm going to make more money. And by working for you, I want you to make me more money. It's a similar thing.
Erick (09:30):
Totally. And at the end of the day, if that's just a money game for everyone, then it's going to come down to which employer can pay the most to their employees, and you're just competing on that ground. And today in our company, we have our own core values, some of which I was just telling you the other day about. I was going to say honesty and integrity, things like that, helping people, lifting people up. Because at the end of the day, we do want to look out for our people. We do want them to shine, we want them to strive. We want them to create enough wealth for themselves and for their families. And the same thing applies to the companies we work with, the landscapers we work with. We want to be honest with them. We'll never sell a landscaping company a marketing package if we know that it's not going to work for them. Exactly. And that's where I think we've got this growing team, and I think people see that. They see these are some honest dudes who are working really hard to deliver a really great service, and they're not ripping people off. Where unfortunately in this industry, people have been ripped off and it can leave a bad taste in their mouth.
Dan (11:09):
Well, yeah, we've had experience with that. Totally. Not to be pessimistic, but there's that in virtually every industry. We are in somewhat of a shortcut society. I mean, there's a lot of instant gratification. How can we get this result if the person is looking for money? And by the way, we live in an economic society, there's nothing wrong with wanting to make money. As a matter of fact, I think that if more people held themself to a higher standard and set larger goals, they would make more money. And I think more people should be focused on making a better living for themself. I really do. What gets missed is the hard work part. I can't tell you how many people I've interviewed who are, they're just looking for the shortcut. They're looking for the, well, I want want to figure out a way to get this result of a tremendously high income with as a little work as possible.
(12:13):
That's becomes a funky idea because money is given in exchange of value. And if you're trying to deliver a low degree of value for a high degree of money, that ends up leaning toward being a criminal, it's like a ripoff right, of the person. And that's not something anyone ever wants to get to. But this, before I forget, I just want to reference one thing, which is one of the best public speak speeches I've ever seen was from Mike Rowe, who is the host of Dirty Jobs. Oh, yeah. I think he executive produced it also. I think that he was personally behind creating that show. And it's a good example because nobody wants to do those things. Interviewing these people who are doing just the most disgusting things that people never want to think about doing. And then he's going to go spend a day doing that job with these people and interviewing them and really understanding how difficult it is and what they have to deal with every day.
(13:29):
But he said something really profound. I saw him at one of the Grant Cardone Growth conferences. There was, I don't know, 10,000 people there or something, but he had an amazing speech. But there's a philosophical angle to all this, which is doing things that make you happy. And then you have this, well, I want to make a lot of money. Why? Well, because then I'll be able to get the things that I want. Well, why? Well, because then I won't have to struggle with these other things. Well, why? Well, because then usually it comes down to then I'll like my life, or I'll be happy, or something like that. It all kind of comes down to that. And one of the things that Grant Cardone has sort of said that I think people can grind their gears on, and that Mike Row also sort of said, the way he put it was great.
(14:18):
He said, I don't think that you should go try and just do what you love, because that's not how it's gone in my life. What has happened in my life is I found an opportunity and I found a way to be really, really good at it. And then I found a way to love it. And that's something that is really real to me, because in my previous career in the insurance space, which was wonderful, I didn't go into insurance saying, I want to be an insurance salesman. I love insurance. This is what I'm passionate about. I was passionate about doing the right thing for people and helping people with a highly valuable product that does exchange that level, and that could make me an income. And what pulled me along was the principles of the company and and the income potential. Those were the two things.
(15:21):
And obviously the people I was interviewing with and what I believed, the sort of cloth they were cut from was similar to mine. And that's sort of how it went, was I found an opportunity that I was convinced was going to help me reach my goals. And then I found a way to be really good at it. And then I found a way to love it. And most people, when they become very competent at something and they put their time, energy, and effort into something, you start to doing that thing, you start to have more of an affinity for that thing. And that's what ended up happening for me. And I have several examples of that in different areas of my life where I didn't really say I want to go do that thing. First was I found myself in a situation where I could do that thing.
(16:13):
And for various reasons, I decided to move forward, and then I ended up becoming competent and really falling in love with whatever it was that I was doing. So that's an interesting thing. But again, bringing it full circle back, you know, have to be able to identify as an individual, obviously, what are you trying to do where, what's the direction you're taking your life and why? And the more you ask yourself the question, why, you know, can do this as an exercise and write it down, well, what's the significance of me wanting to do this thing?
(16:51):
But if you have that sort of mapped out as an individual when interviewing for a company, you're going to want to make sure that that company is going to have a big enough goal or vision that your goals can be accomplished through that company's goals. And that's one of the things from the company perspective, bringing on employees and retaining employees up and understanding if your job is $40,000 a year that you're offering the person and their goal, their two year plan is to be making a million dollars a year, that conversation needs to be had. Well, maybe you can have an increase by next year if you hit your metrics, but if you hit your goals, if you really perform, but a million dollars is a little over what the pay structure is for this particular role, whatever. So if you have it identified clearly, then it'll just be wonderful. And you want to pull in or attract people that are going to believe in you and their capacity to achieve their goals through being connected to you.
Erick (18:10):
Yeah. Anyway. No, that totally makes sense. And you got me thinking the guy who comes along and he does want to make a million dollars a year, the, there's nothing wrong with that, obviously has a business owner you can think with, this is an ambitious dude. Absolutely. And how could he get to a million dollars a year, and what would that mean for my company to be able to pay somebody a million dollars a year and you know, could let 'em know it's going to take a lot of work to get there, but eventually you're probably going to run this company and you're probably going to be producing 50 million a year for this company. And if you believe that you can make that happen and you actually put in the work and make that happen, then absolutely a million dollars a year is absolutely real. But you know, also have to look at the guy if he is a total nut job.
Dan (19:21):
Well, yeah, a person who's got big goals. Yeah, I mean, there are people who, I call it the American Idol syndrome. I mean, you have these people who go audition vocally and they sound like a dying cat or something. It's like, you want to win a national singing competition. There's not that many of those people out there, though.
Erick (19:42):
Yeah, it's a small, as
Dan (19:43):
An employer, you want those guys, you want those guys. If you want to have a company where you're complacent and you don't have to work hard, you're not going to really attract that top talent hard. And that was one of the challenges for me, full transparency, when I got to a size with the previous career in the agency where it was, yeah, 75, 85 folks, the leader has to put out there, this is our game, are the next battles that we're going to go fight. And what can happen is you can kind of win the war, the win, the battle that you've been putting out there,
(20:44):
And then go like, well, we've kind of look at us, we're great. And that lasts for a very short time. Immediately go, what's next? And there is an inherent responsibility as a business owner to put to continually, and that's why thinking big is important. If we talk to an owner who's going, nah, I just kind of want to stay small, most of those guys that don't have the big aspirations or don't understand this as a necessary fact are not going to be able to find great people because they don't really have that. And maybe they can find someone who's like, I just want X hours for the rest of my life, and I just want to make 40 grand, and if I can just make 40 grand, 50 grand or whatever, I'll never, that's all I want. I mean, I just don't think that's a lot of people out there that are like that.
(21:42):
So it is an inherent responsibility to paint a vision and have a mission and have core values and core principles that a person can come in and grab onto and go, these are the reasons why I'm here. Money is, it's temporary, not something, again, I'm just a philosophic person, philosophical person, but when we die, no one's going to be putting on our tombstone or talking about at our funeral, he made $150,000 a year. No, no one's going to remember shit. Don't, they're not going to remember what kind of bank account you or how much money you had in your bank account or what kind of car you drove. They're going to remember how you impacted them and how you make them feel and all those things. And so what the person stood for. So anyway, it's important. It's to do that. And I've put lots and lots of work into that.
(22:58):
And there's sometimes where I'm just not looking at it, and I don't, during those times where things tend to slip a little bit culturally, also, you just have to be honest about it as a person. I always gave this sort of example about leadership. People are like, I want to be the owner. I want to go. And it's the hardest role. It is the hardest. And unless you're in that role in a large organization, it's kind of hard to have reality on it. But I put it this way, in an analogy, if you're standing in a crowd of people, the crowd of people can be illustrated by all the people who are at the main level of a company, like an average employee level. As you promote up, let's say someone becomes a supervisor or a trainer or something like that. First step, that person's standing on a chair. So the visibility in this massive crowd of people, now, the whole immediate people around that person can see them. So what everything they do is going to be visible, very visible to that group of people that are directly around them.
(24:25):
You become a senior manager, now you're standing on top of a ladder, and now a much larger group of people can see you and can see what you do and is relying on your actions to be an example. And then go, this analogy goes all the way to, you know, have a person that's running an organization who is at the very top, and everyone can see every move that you make, pick your nose, you scratch your ass, everything you, you're eating a bag of Doritos, you know, have a shot of whiskey in the middle, stressed. All of those aspects are going to be visible or potentially visible to your organization. And again, you have to walk the walk and talk the talk. Yeah. If you don't, then you're immediately going to have people not respect you, not want to listen to you roll their eyes when you give 'em direction. It's really your responsibility to be the hardest working person in your organization and set the pace for the organization. In my previous life, they used to say, the speed of the leader is the speed of the team. You got a slow leader, a lazy leader, the team's not going to go very fast. So anyway, I'm on a soapbox, but
Erick (25:57):
That's all right. I was also going to mention, you made me think of something, but I'm totally drawing a blank now.
Dan (26:10):
What did I say I
Erick (26:11):
Was going to talk about too, when it comes to core values, that is also something that doesn't just mean within your company and your team, but also how you interact with your clients and potential clients.
Dan (26:28):
Absolutely. Good point.
Erick (26:29):
And having a core value of, I want to say maybe it's like Papa John's or some Italian place, or no, no, no, maybe it's a olive garden that where they advertise when you're here, your family, something like that, right?
Dan (26:53):
No, what company is that?
Erick (26:54):
It might be Olive Garden. I don't know. I don't know. It's a restaurant or a pizza place, something like that.
Dan (26:58):
Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
Erick (27:00):
That concept by itself, when you actually really break it down and look at it, you try to create a family of your employees, and you try to create a family of your customers. And in doing so, that kicks out anybody who isn't going to align with that. And as a, let's just say hypothetically, you're a landscaper and you use that same motto, and that's one of your core values. Well, you get a customer who comes along and they suck, and they're treating your team like crap. And what do you do with that? Well, they're not aligning with your core values. They're not really being part of the A, B, C, landscaping family. And so what do you do? You let 'em go, and that keeps your people happy and stress free, and you create these core values, which I remembered the second thing I was going to say now.
(28:07):
Yes. Which is an error that I see a lot of people have made because there's, there's going to be people who, three people maybe who listen to this podcast and they're going to think, yeah, everybody just wants money. All they ever want, nobody's going to join my team on the basis of your family here, whatever. But the problem and the mistake that I see people make is they advertise with, Hey, that's what they advertise, and that's what they get. They get the person, they advertise that they're willing to pay good money, and they get the person who is looking to make good money. Whereas you advertise something else, looking for a very social, hardworking, high integrity person for this position, people will see that ad. And if they're not very social, and if they're not very high integrity or honest, they're going to go, well, that's not me. And I'm not even going to bother applying because I know that they're just going to, I'm get shot down.
Dan (29:25):
Yeah.
Erick (29:26):
Oh
Dan (29:26):
Yeah. I mean, you could even put funny sense of humor. Yeah, fun work environment, those things. There are people who are, as long as I can stay at the same pay scale, I want a better environment. When I hired my EA back in the day, she was like, I need a good environment. I need a kind environment. I want to really feel valued. I want to feel like I'm making an impact. Because money's the reason people come. I mean, look, if we didn't have to have jobs to make money and pay rent and buy food, a lot of people wouldn't have jobs. A lot of people don't have jobs that can afford and not have jobs, I suppose. So money is going to be the reason they come, but it's not going to be the reason they stay.
Erick (30:14):
Sure.
Dan (30:15):
Because you're always going to be competing with then that same money for a different experience. Yeah. So anyway.
Erick (30:27):
No, you're totally right. And I think when you make that hire with a person who does match your core values, someone maybe energetic, someone who takes pride in their work, things like that, when you make that hire, realize that person is the common denominator of the seven people they spend the most time with. You've probably heard that saying before for sure. Or something like that. You are the average of the seven people you spend the most time with. Yeah. Well that automatically, just by getting that one person, you've opened up a pool of potential hires, you know, find the person that you're your dream employee because he's outgoing, he takes pride in his work, et cetera, et cetera. You find that guy who matches your core values and he's going to have friends or family who also meet those core values.
Dan (31:32):
Exactly.
Erick (31:33):
And you can start tell 'em like, Hey, are you happy here? Yeah. Yeah, I'm happy. Oh, awesome. Do you know anybody who, who's also high energy takes pride in their work? And chances are they will have one or two people that they know and they'll be like, yeah, my brother's actually looking for a job. Oh, yeah,
Dan (31:58):
That's a great point. Yeah. Yeah, it's super good point. I mean, we used to recruit organically all the time, and it would be an indicator of how well you're doing in leadership also is like, are people saying to their friends and family, you got to come work with me over here.
Erick (32:18):
Right?
Dan (32:18):
That's a good metric. As a business owner, you should be thinking about what sets you apart from everyone else. Yeah. What really sets you apart? If I'm a landscape designer, why are you a better designer to work for than the other guy? Why is the person going to have a better experience working for you? Be more proud of working for you. It doesn't have to just be paying more the core principles and the mission of where the company's going. I mean, that's the direction, that's the map. It's the stable datum, the stable reference point for why you do everything that you do and what sets you apart from everything, from everyone else. You should work for us because of blah. And you might need to make an adjustment mean a lot of times it's like, well, I can't retain good people. Well, what's their experience working for you?
Erick (33:19):
Right. Yeah. I was just about to mention find out why do people work with you currently and why are people leaving? And you might find somebody, one of the three people who listens to this podcast might be saying, I've actually kept my team around. They've been with me for years, and I don't know why. I just assumed that it was cause I paid them all. But ask 'em. And they go, oh man, it's all friends here, man. We're in it together and it's a team. And you go, oh, that's interesting. And from that you go, okay, well now I guess I can see where my core values are. And I never really looked at it until now, but I've created an environment of friends working together and building something together. And that's to be what my guys like. So we'll just put it down in writing. And when we hire new people, that's what we tell 'em. That's who we are.
Dan (34:32):
And I would also say there's a lot to effective leadership. There's a lot to this. If it's easy, everybody would do it. And everyone would have big successful deck, a million dollar per year companies, and not everyone does because they get things, they might not look at something the right way or they might overlook something. Your people, in order to have those conversations, have to be comfortable talking to you, which means, or can do an anonymous survey. You could make an anonymous where you survey your people, you could bring in an outside person to do it, but really, ideally they're going to communicate to you.
(35:22):
And that all comes down to treating others the way you'd be want to be treated. And having the environment. And I would recommend anyone who has core principles, it should affect the environment. You should have things that have to do with a and affects the day-to-day, but you got to educate yourself. Read the leadership books. I'll plug a couple of them. The Five Levels of Leadership by John Maxwell is a wonderful book. So there's a lot of Maxwell. I mean, Maxwell has written so many books on leadership. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is another great book. One of the best books that I've read on leadership is by Jocko Willink called The Dichotomy of Leadership. And that's a ridiculously good book, mean, the examples he gives are so wonderful. And then most of the stuff that Simon Sinek says, he's good for sure is good.
(36:33):
I mean, all of his YouTube content start with why as a great book. But you know, want to have these perspectives and you want to educate yourself and understand those things. And that in and of itself takes checking the ego at the door. One thing I earned learned early on was if I made a mistake in front of my team and I just owned it and said, oh my God, I fat fingered that, or I totally jacked this up, sorry guys. They respected more the honesty of me saying, I messed up than me avoiding that or trying to cover it up or having an ego problem because it's real. But you have to ride that line. And on the educational front you'll kind of learn that the dichotomy of leadership is just really illustrates that point. But your people are going to be all different.
(37:40):
Understanding your people is really, really important because people are going to have different goals and different purposes and they're going to respond to different things. I had an individual that, one of my problems that I had was I would poll a lot. I would say, what do you guys think? I'd get all the senior guys in a room and go, do you guys think we should do this or should we do this? And some people really love that type of stuff. They love the collaborative. I want to be in an environment where I can collaborate and where I'm heard and my ideas. And some people lose respect for you real quick when you do that. Well, this person never really decides anything. He just defaults and asks other people. So just as an example, those are some of the things that you're liable to run into and reading books about it really can help holding people accountable and demanding production. Some people will hate, but they'll have a lot of respect for you for doing it.
(38:44):
And other people just want to be, I'm the type of person where I'm look to tell me what you want and what your expectations are. That's totally fine, but then send me off and have me do it. And if I'm not performing to the expectation, then speak into me what you want to see. Hey, man, you're great. I like reinforcement. I know you can do this. You've done it before. You're one of our top producers or you're look at what your numbers were, what can I help you with that will get you back to those numbers? Because you're a beast, man. I know you're a beast. Instead of, you suck, you suck, you suck. That really n never really works in my opinion, but yeah,
Erick (39:32):
You, you're totally right. I wanted to touch on one of the things that you had just mentioned regarding some people didn't really like that you were doing these polls and surveys and they felt that it made you indecisive or whatever, while others really loved that, I think goes back to the core values and your personal core values. You have this concept of I have a team of people and together we create this company. Some of those people on your team, were looking a little more for you. Just tell me what to do. Yeah.
Dan (40:16):
Coach the particular person. If this is ever seen, I don't want to put someone on
Erick (40:23):
Sure.
Dan (40:24):
Display, but they were more of a sports person, more of I want a coach, I want someone who's going to be hard on me. I want someone who's going to drive me. I don't want someone who's going to sugarcoat it and be polite. I want someone to be, get your ass in the game. You're playing a shitty quarter next quarter, next half of the game, you better pick it up or else. And that person had all through school, been through, had tough coaching and wanted that mentorship, coaching type of, man, can't you just drive me? You give me can't. You can't my ass, can't you? And I'm more of like, Hey, let's all, so Mr. Softy, let's get together. Let's feel good about this. Let's flesh it out. I enjoy camaraderie and meetings. I enjoy communicating about goals and where we're going. And someone would say, well, why don't we do it this way? And I would go, well, that's a really good point. Why don't we do it that way? And then another person would be like, well, but I think the first way is better, but why is it better? And let's flesh this. Let's really figure out what the best way is. That's my jam. But that person just, I didn't have enough of the tough love type of thing going on. Sure.
Erick (41:47):
At least for first I could
Dan (41:48):
Have,
Erick (41:50):
Sorry,
Dan (41:51):
I just was saying I could have done that. I didn't put my finger on that. And that comes from just really a lack of, well, anyway, you need to understand what your person's goals are, what their perspective is of where they're going. And then again, it's your duty as a business owner who's going to have people that are going to propel the company forward to provide a big enough opportunity for everyone's goals to go inside. Everyone's goals have to fit inside the vision that you're producing. And if the vision is we want 10 more lawns this year, the person's like, if you got an player, they're going to be like, I can get you 10 more lawns next week. What do you mean? We want slow and conservative growth. We'll never have more than two trucks. I'm sounding whatever. Look, if that's what you want, and it truly isn't mapped that out, then more power to you for knowing what you want. But don't expect to get a person who's going to come in and make a huge impact because that person needs to feel like they can make a big impact. And if a big impact to you is one more lawn, it's not enough.
Erick (43:19):
Right. No, that's a great point. That's a very good point. Yeah. I'm just noticing right now I'm looking at the time where we're cutting it close to the end here. Okay. Now, I think as far as I'm concerned, I think I've said my part on core values. Was there anything else that you felt our audience should know before we wrap up?
Dan (43:51):
No. I mean, think just you have to take full responsibility for your business in the direction of your business. And it's hard. I mean, don't the days, also, one mistake that I made that was really, if I could go back and really just change this would be allowing people to see my fatigue.
Erick (44:23):
No, that was the mistake, is allowing people to see Yes. Yeah. Yes. Oh man.
Dan (44:28):
And what I, we would say, complain upward. If you want to complain about something, and that was a core principle, you don't spread negativity amongst the sales floor, amongst the other people. You complain upward, you go to your immediate superior or higher, and you express your grievance there. When you're at the top, you're dealing with everyone's garbage. And I was good at people feeling like they could come to me because people were constantly come coming to me. I mean, that just as an indicator of being good there. It was like nonstop, Hey man, I just wanted to give you feedback on this. Or, Hey, I have a question about this, or hey this or hey that. And sometimes it was negative feedback, and so you have to be able to deal with that and keep your shit together in those conversations. But if you are like me and you want the real relationships, you want to be close with the people you work with and lean on the people you work with, you don't will lose respect if people see you. And it sucks. It just is. I would want to lean on someone and go like, man, I'm just fricking over it today.
(46:01):
As soon as you do that unbecoming of leader and knocks you down a peg, even if it's someone you work closely with every day, I would say again, if you have a business partner, I know you and I will do that with each other. Sure. I don't think is necessarily harmful, but I think mainly you or I wouldn't go to one of the salespeople and be like, man, I'm just having the worst whatever. Yeah.
Erick (46:35):
Oh, totally.
Dan (46:36):
It would be really, really off color to do that. So
Erick (46:43):
Anyway. Yeah. I mean, it makes the entire company look weak at that point. Makes the leadership look weak. It makes the company look weak. Exactly. From an employee perspective, they see the owner of the company is struggling, having a hard time not doing well. It looks like a sinking ship
Dan (47:03):
A hundred percent.
Erick (47:04):
And it looks like it's time to start finding the next opportunity.
Dan (47:09):
You said it better than I did the sinking ship thing. It undermines everything we're talking about. Right? It's like this big vision. We have all these core principles. We have this mission statement where we have this roadmap of where we're going, and then the guy at the helm is totally exhausted and fatigued and is like, I don't know what to do about this. It's like it undermines every part of it.
Erick (47:35):
Yeah. So that's awesome.
Dan (47:39):
The last piece, the last sentence is
Erick (47:42):
Last sentence.
Dan (47:42):
You have to take full responsibility and ownership of what's going on. And again, people don't want to do that with personnel. If things aren't going well, it's your fault. If you own it, it's your fault. If it's your company, it's your fault. And people don't like that. They want to be able to blame the employee or blame the bad client or blame the whatever. But what you have to realize is that if it's your fault, it's something that is under your control to change. If everything, it's the employee, this bad employee's fault or this bad customer's fault, then you make yourself a victim of that person or of that situation. And by making it their fault, it takes responsibility or cause off of you. And it's not a way to be. If people see you blaming something else and not taking ownership, it's like, well, the guy, you hire a guy, he destroys a job and costs you $50,000, you hired him.
Erick (48:50):
How could you
Dan (48:51):
Have avoided bringing that person on? What not, what question did you not ask him? What did you not look at all that? Anyway,
Erick (48:59):
It could be a tough pill to swallow for sure. But yeah, if you can own that, then you're a lot further along than most. But I'm going to say one last thing before we close out, because this is something that you have done every episode, and I think it's my turn. If anybody watching this would like more information or help with their company, they can visit landscape marketing seo.com. Dan, I know you are available to talk to and help people personally on a one-on-one basis. We do have a team of people that work with us, but I know you like to make yourself available for anybody who's looking for help in scaling, expanding marketing, et cetera. Absolutely. So visit us at our website. You can call us there. You can ask for Dan. You can even ask for me. I'll make myself available.
Dan (49:57):
Thank yourself available. Eric,
Erick (49:59):
I, I'm available. I, I'm doing a lot of marketing stuff, but you know what? I'm available.
Dan (50:04):
We want to help the market and if there's something that we can do to help, if anyone says, I just want to ask, bounce a couple questions off these guys, we're not going to put you on the time clock. We want to help and we love motivated people who want to grow their business where we want those connections and we want to be able to literally, we want to have a massive impact on this whole industry. So that's going to happen by one-on-one conversation. Yeah. Awesome. All right. Thanks.
Erick (50:37):
Well cue outro music.
Dan (50:39):
Outro. Thanks for watching.
Erick (50:43):
All right. See ya.
