Latest / MountainWest Capital Network: Welcome to the Winners' Circle / Building a Business From Scratch | Frameworks for Scaling a Business with Derrick Porter

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Building a Business From Scratch | Frameworks for Scaling a Business with Derrick Porter · MountainWest Capital Network: Welcome to the Winners' Circle

0:03
Speaker 1: The principles this what we do matters, but how we
0:07
Speaker 1: do it matters even more. Take time to be inspired
0:12
Speaker 1: every single day, and that could be by looking at
0:14
Speaker 1: a sunset, listening to a song, watching a movie, meditating,
0:17
Speaker 1: talking to a friend, serving someone. But it's typically not
0:20
Speaker 1: sitting in your office sharing at the computer. You dig deep,
0:24
Speaker 1: you know where your convictions lie, you exhibit faith, trust, hope,
0:29
Speaker 1: and you walk forward.
0:34
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Mountain West Capital Network podcast, your
0:38
Speaker 2: Gateway to the Winner Circle. I'm Sherry, the executive director
0:41
Speaker 2: Mountain West Capital Network.
0:43
Speaker 3: And I'm Jason, President of the Mountain West Capital Network
0:45
Speaker 3: and managing director at Protivity. Every episode, we sit down
0:49
Speaker 3: with Utah's most visionary business leaders to uncover the ideas, risks,
0:54
Speaker 3: and wins behind the state's fastest growing companies.
0:57
Speaker 2: Mountain West Capital Network is best known for the Utia
1:00
Speaker 2: to one hundred, our flagship event that recognizes the state's
1:03
Speaker 2: fastest growing businesses. But behind every number is a story,
1:07
Speaker 2: and that's what this podcast is all about.
1:10
Speaker 3: You're not just tuning in to hear what's happened, You're
1:12
Speaker 3: stepping inside the winner Circle to understand how it happened Today.
1:17
Speaker 2: We are sitting down with Derek Porter, who currently serves
1:20
Speaker 2: as the executive chair for Clean Simple Eats and was
1:23
Speaker 2: the former CEO of Beauty Industry Group. He also serves
1:28
Speaker 2: as the executive producer, principal writer and presenter of Music
1:32
Speaker 2: and The Spoken Word, the world's longest running weekly network broadcast.
1:37
Speaker 3: Derek's experience with Beauty Industry Group led to them becoming
1:41
Speaker 3: the world's largest hair extension company. Under his leadership, they
1:45
Speaker 3: also globally expanded and partnered with leading private equity firms
1:49
Speaker 3: including Gauge Capital, Huntsman, Gay Global Capital, and L Catterton.
1:54
Speaker 2: His current work at Clean Simple Eats has guided the
1:57
Speaker 2: company's continued growth and mission to promote health the balanced living.
2:02
Speaker 2: On top of his achievements with these companies, he's been
2:04
Speaker 2: recognized for a number of awards and the entrepreneurial scope.
2:08
Speaker 2: He serves on the board of World Trade Center Utah
2:10
Speaker 2: and is taught entrepreneurship as an adjunct faculty member.
2:14
Speaker 4: Derek, Welcome to the Winter Circle.
2:16
Speaker 1: Thank you so good to be here with you both.
2:18
Speaker 2: It's nice to see you again. We had you at
2:22
Speaker 2: a Mountain West Capital Network business forum I Think hosted
2:25
Speaker 2: by was diversified back then. Now there I am a
2:30
Speaker 2: so I walked into that having no real idea what
2:35
Speaker 2: you were going to talk about that day, and you
2:36
Speaker 2: blew my mind. I still remember it that day. You
2:39
Speaker 2: are a busy guy.
2:41
Speaker 1: Well you're kind and offering more praise than is warranted,
2:44
Speaker 1: I'm sure. But I have been a longtime fan of
2:46
Speaker 1: Mountain West Capitol Network and everything that you do, and
2:49
Speaker 1: have watched and seen the good results and the good fruits,
2:53
Speaker 1: the good efforts that have come over many decades here
2:55
Speaker 1: in Utah, and you've really become a staple here in
2:59
Speaker 1: this region.
3:00
Speaker 2: Well, thank you. We sure appreciate that. That day you
3:04
Speaker 2: were there to talk about beauty Industry Group, and today
3:06
Speaker 2: you've added I remember walking out of there thinking, oh,
3:10
Speaker 2: he's just getting started. There's a lot coming down the
3:15
Speaker 2: pike for you. And sure enough, there has been so since.
3:18
Speaker 2: You've worked across so many different brands, and we're going
3:20
Speaker 2: to actually talk about a lot of those. I'm sure
3:22
Speaker 2: you'll touch on them. But how do you usually explain
3:27
Speaker 2: what Derek Porter does to somebody that's meeting you for
3:32
Speaker 2: the very first time.
3:34
Speaker 1: Well, when that happens, the answer is usually just towards
3:37
Speaker 1: It's complicated, right, And that's been the history of my
3:41
Speaker 1: life really has just been complicated. But I have found myself,
3:45
Speaker 1: through various collisions of human beings over the years, having
3:50
Speaker 1: opportunity to be involved in things that are really engaging
3:53
Speaker 1: and that have an opportunity to create impact. And I've
3:57
Speaker 1: you know, run towards those. And my resume, if you will,
4:02
Speaker 1: is not terribly long, but I've done a few things
4:05
Speaker 1: for a long time, and entrepreneurship has certainly been one
4:09
Speaker 1: of those. And as I've thought about that over time,
4:13
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful for all that I've learned and experience
4:16
Speaker 1: through entrepreneurship because it has led to so many other
4:20
Speaker 1: opportunities that are out there.
4:22
Speaker 5: And so when someone says, what do you do?
4:24
Speaker 1: I will first say it's complicated and then try to explain, Well,
4:28
Speaker 1: I sit on a couple of boards today, I have
4:31
Speaker 1: opportunity to do some consulting work. I have the opportunity
4:35
Speaker 1: to serve with music in the Spoken Word, which is
4:38
Speaker 1: the world's longest running continuous network radio and television broadcast
4:42
Speaker 1: in the world. It has not missed a single Sunday
4:44
Speaker 1: since July fifteenth of nineteen twenty nine airing in sixty
4:48
Speaker 1: plus countries to about twelve point two million people each week.
4:51
Speaker 1: And that is the bulk of where my focus in
4:55
Speaker 1: my time is set today and has been for the
4:58
Speaker 1: last two years, will be for about the next eight years.
5:02
Speaker 1: Is what I have been planning on ten years total
5:05
Speaker 1: to be spent there. And then that brings great joy
5:08
Speaker 1: and satisfaction along with that, of course at the time
5:11
Speaker 1: with my five sons, my daughter, my wife, our family,
5:15
Speaker 1: and then of course having the opportunity to stay involved
5:18
Speaker 1: in business in areas that are focusing on developing products,
5:22
Speaker 1: developing people, developing companies that can go out and do
5:26
Speaker 1: great things.
5:28
Speaker 2: Well, like you practice that that was really good? Yeah,
5:31
Speaker 2: pretty good, pretty good.
5:33
Speaker 3: Maybe just for the listeners that maybe they may not
5:38
Speaker 3: know you or familiar with all of these things that
5:41
Speaker 3: you've been involved in, maybe just help us understand kind
5:43
Speaker 3: of how the journey started. You know, how did you
5:46
Speaker 3: get connected with beauty industry group? Maybe clean simple leads,
5:49
Speaker 3: I mean, what's the connection there?
5:52
Speaker 5: Sure?
5:53
Speaker 1: Well, as a young man, I had decided I would
5:56
Speaker 1: never go to college, and I did not want to
5:59
Speaker 1: go to college. Nobody, no porter had ever gone to
6:02
Speaker 1: college and graduated. That is, I think we had a
6:05
Speaker 1: few starts and stops in the family tree, but nobody
6:08
Speaker 1: had ever gone and I'm talking even like an associate's degree.
6:12
Speaker 1: And so in my family growing up, it was just
6:15
Speaker 1: never talked about. I never had a single conversation with
6:17
Speaker 1: my parents about going to school or not. We had
6:20
Speaker 1: a lot of conversations about how to start a business
6:23
Speaker 1: and entrepreneurship. And as a young young boy, I was
6:27
Speaker 1: out there, you know, with I had a huffy bicycle,
6:30
Speaker 1: which was not the kind you were proud to ride
6:32
Speaker 1: around the neighborhood with, you know, but it was a
6:34
Speaker 1: huffy bike. I had a red rider wagon that I
6:37
Speaker 1: tied to the back of my bike, and I had
6:40
Speaker 1: my cans of spray paint and my little stencils, and
6:43
Speaker 1: I'd go paint the curbs, you know, and knock doors
6:45
Speaker 1: all summer long. But I learned you could actually make
6:48
Speaker 1: pretty good money doing that, maybe even as much as
6:50
Speaker 1: about fifty dollars an hour, because if you could just
6:53
Speaker 1: get ten done, five bucks a curb. And I had
6:55
Speaker 1: a little you know, pitch that I give people, and
6:57
Speaker 1: I did that in my summers. And it started out
6:59
Speaker 1: doing that. I served a mission for the church in
7:02
Speaker 1: Tennessee in Nashville, and about a month before I came home,
7:06
Speaker 1: my dad wrote me a letter. There was no email
7:08
Speaker 1: back then still, and he wrote me a letter and said,
7:09
Speaker 1: you know, Derek, I've got this idea if you.
7:12
Speaker 5: Wanted to start a business.
7:13
Speaker 1: When you got home.
7:14
Speaker 5: He said, I have ten thousand.
7:16
Speaker 1: Square feet of extra warehouse space. You can have it
7:18
Speaker 1: as long as you'll pay me for it. So there
7:20
Speaker 1: was no free rent.
7:21
Speaker 2: You might have it as long as you pay me.
7:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a nice proposition.
7:25
Speaker 4: It sounds very familiar with my dad. This isn't exactly
7:29
Speaker 4: how this we got a connection.
7:31
Speaker 1: So he said, you can have it if you pay
7:32
Speaker 1: for it. But there's this new thing starting to come
7:35
Speaker 1: out called public warehousing, third party logistics, ship ship and
7:39
Speaker 1: pickpack and ship, And so I went out and started
7:43
Speaker 1: this business with him. He was an entrepreneur and had
7:45
Speaker 1: another business that was running. And this company was called
7:48
Speaker 1: Porter Brown Distribution, and it was it was a tough business.
7:54
Speaker 1: We would go out and convince people that we could
7:57
Speaker 1: warehouse their goods and distribute them for them cheaper than
8:01
Speaker 1: they could and we could still make money doing that.
8:04
Speaker 1: But this was really pre technology. There wasn't great technology
8:08
Speaker 1: out there. It was run through Excel, but nevertheless, we
8:11
Speaker 1: worked hard on that and after about a year we
8:14
Speaker 1: landed overstock dot com Wow, and that put us on
8:16
Speaker 1: the map. Landing over Stock in this area. They were
8:19
Speaker 1: larger than Amazon. It was a big, big company and
8:22
Speaker 1: they're still doing impressive things, but back then at the scale,
8:27
Speaker 1: they were impressive. So we landed over Stock. That then
8:30
Speaker 1: gave us opportunity to expand, and we opened facilities in
8:33
Speaker 1: Colorado and in Texas, and that business grew and grew.
8:36
Speaker 1: But the problem was you had to be opened three
8:38
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty four days a year, twenty four hours
8:40
Speaker 1: a day. We only took off the day after Thanksgiving
8:44
Speaker 1: Black Friday.
8:45
Speaker 5: It was the only day we were closed.
8:47
Speaker 1: It's just the way it worked. With all the logistics.
8:50
Speaker 1: The margins weren't very good. There was a ton of capex,
8:54
Speaker 1: and it was just super stressful. And one day this
8:57
Speaker 1: little teeny company came and said, would you warehouse are
9:00
Speaker 1: hair extensions? And I thought to myself, what in the
9:02
Speaker 1: world is a hair extension? I had never heard of this,
9:05
Speaker 1: most people hadn't in two thousand and six, and so
9:09
Speaker 1: I had to kind of figure this out, and I
9:11
Speaker 1: started and the answer was yes, and we started doing this.
9:13
Speaker 1: It was a husband and wife that had this idea.
9:16
Speaker 1: The name of the company was Donna Bella Milan, and
9:19
Speaker 1: so we warehoused their product and I started watching and
9:21
Speaker 1: I just thought, that is a fantastic business and it's
9:23
Speaker 1: way better than my business. One conversation led to another,
9:27
Speaker 1: and this husband and wife, Logan and Christy Woolley, were
9:30
Speaker 1: kind enough to let me come into their business as
9:32
Speaker 1: a very small equity partner. I left Porter Brown Distribution.
9:36
Speaker 1: My dad continued to run that for four or five years.
9:38
Speaker 1: He then sold that business and I started out. My
9:41
Speaker 1: mother in law thought I was crazy. She questioned me
9:44
Speaker 1: multiple times in public to say, You've built a nice business,
9:47
Speaker 1: Why are you leaving this? Does this even make sense?
9:50
Speaker 1: But it just did. It just flat up made sense inside.
9:54
Speaker 1: It didn't make sense on paper, but inside, as my
9:57
Speaker 1: wife and I talked about this together and spent considerable
10:00
Speaker 1: time discussing it, it just made sense.
10:02
Speaker 5: We went forward. That was Laido six.
10:05
Speaker 1: The first official day was two thousand and seven, and
10:08
Speaker 1: I remember showing up to our little office that we
10:10
Speaker 1: had just put together, and the phone didn't ring all day,
10:13
Speaker 1: and I went home that night and I told my wife,
10:15
Speaker 1: I said, I don't know what we are thinking. The
10:17
Speaker 1: phone didn't ring once. I don't know how we're going
10:19
Speaker 1: to how we're going to make this happen. I went
10:22
Speaker 1: back the next day to Logan. It was really his business,
10:25
Speaker 1: and I said, well, what do you want me to do?
10:28
Speaker 1: And he said, just grow the business. From that day
10:31
Speaker 1: forward to for the next twenty years, that was our
10:34
Speaker 1: goal was to grow the business, and so we worked
10:37
Speaker 1: hard on that and within time built a nice business
10:40
Speaker 1: that had facilities and operations in China, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Australia, Germany, England, Toronto, Miami,
10:49
Speaker 1: New York, San Diego, Los Angeles, Tucson, and Salt Lake
10:54
Speaker 1: City was our global headquarters. We had the opportunity of
10:58
Speaker 1: building that business nicely, sold it three different times, actually
11:01
Speaker 1: four different times to three different people, Gauging Capital, Huntsman,
11:04
Speaker 1: Gay Global Capital, and el Catterton. And then after that
11:09
Speaker 1: had and I'll try to wrap up quickly here there's
11:11
Speaker 1: a very long answer to your short question.
11:13
Speaker 5: But after that just found.
11:15
Speaker 1: Myself having opportunities to sit on some boards and turn
11:19
Speaker 1: a little bit from player into coach and having an
11:22
Speaker 1: opportunity to say okay. Business at the end of the
11:25
Speaker 1: day is nothing more than a set of activities repeated
11:27
Speaker 1: over and over again. So even though these are different businesses,
11:31
Speaker 1: the activities are similar and what can we do to
11:34
Speaker 1: fine tune those activities? And he or she or they
11:37
Speaker 1: that the company that does those the best can win
11:39
Speaker 1: And so had opportunity to do that with several businesses
11:43
Speaker 1: over the years, and then a true story in December
11:47
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty three, my wife and I just said
11:49
Speaker 1: it's time to be done. It's been twenty years. There
11:52
Speaker 1: is a better CEO out there that can do far
11:54
Speaker 1: more than me, who can have desire and passion to
11:57
Speaker 1: take this to the next level them.
12:00
Speaker 5: So I shared that with the board.
12:02
Speaker 1: By February, the board hadn't done anything, but I really
12:05
Speaker 1: felt that it was time to be done there, and
12:09
Speaker 1: so I said, we're going to make an announcement. And
12:12
Speaker 1: it was on a Tuesday that we just said a
12:14
Speaker 1: random date, and I'm going to announce that I'm going
12:16
Speaker 1: to stay as a CEO until we find a new
12:18
Speaker 1: one and then I'll stay on the board. So we
12:20
Speaker 1: made that announce some one on Tuesday. On Friday of
12:22
Speaker 1: that week, it received an invitation to come in and
12:25
Speaker 1: meet with Bishop then Bishop Gerald Kose, the presiding bishop
12:29
Speaker 1: for the Church of Jesus Christ of Laturday Saints. I thought,
12:32
Speaker 1: what in the world would he want? I mean, I
12:36
Speaker 1: just couldn't figure it out. Nevertheless, went in and he
12:40
Speaker 1: had only a brief moment, but he said, I had
12:42
Speaker 1: been asked to ask you if you would consider replacing
12:45
Speaker 1: Lloyd Nowell on music in the spoken word, and Lloyd
12:49
Speaker 1: Newell had been there for thirty four years in that role.
12:52
Speaker 1: And I said, well, who's asking? First off, yeah, and
12:57
Speaker 1: he said President Nelson, who was then the president of
12:59
Speaker 1: the church, is asking. I said, is this a job
13:02
Speaker 1: or a calling? And calling meaning like how much money
13:06
Speaker 1: do you make doing this?
13:07
Speaker 2: Right?
13:08
Speaker 1: It's a calling?
13:08
Speaker 5: I said, Okay.
13:10
Speaker 1: My mind was made up a long time ago that
13:12
Speaker 1: if that circumstance came together, which I never knew it
13:15
Speaker 1: would have in this capacity, I'd never thought of this
13:17
Speaker 1: once in my life that I would say yes. So
13:19
Speaker 1: I did enjoy three days of just wondering what the
13:22
Speaker 1: future would behold. But nevertheless, on that Friday is when
13:26
Speaker 1: that invitation was made. And I've now done that for
13:29
Speaker 1: the last two years as the majority of the time,
13:32
Speaker 1: more majority of the way that I spend my days.
13:34
Speaker 4: That's so that's full time.
13:36
Speaker 1: That's I mean, they never said like, here's how much
13:39
Speaker 1: time it should be or not. But it takes a
13:41
Speaker 1: good bit of time, you know, So I don't clock
13:44
Speaker 1: my hours or anything, but it's it's the it's the
13:47
Speaker 1: vast majority.
13:48
Speaker 4: Of what I do. H for sure. That's great.
13:51
Speaker 5: Yeah, so really long answer, and again I apologize, but
13:53
Speaker 5: that's answer. That's a little bit of the journey along
13:55
Speaker 5: the way.
13:55
Speaker 4: I appreciate that.
13:57
Speaker 2: So you're you came from an entrepreneurial family. Sounds like,
14:00
Speaker 2: so that's the kind of the mindset. And then I
14:02
Speaker 2: like what you said earlier and you're like, I ran
14:06
Speaker 2: to opportunities. Yeah, I ran to them. I think that's
14:11
Speaker 2: that's an amazing visual. Number One, But also I think
14:14
Speaker 2: that a lot of times we hear in these conversations
14:18
Speaker 2: that we have, we hear a lot of oh, there's pivots,
14:23
Speaker 2: and there's this, and there's that, but really it's taking
14:25
Speaker 2: the action. You got to be in the arena. So
14:28
Speaker 2: we hear that all the time, but you're just in it.
14:32
Speaker 2: And I think it's interesting too, the different industries they're
14:37
Speaker 2: not the same. Like you've got packing and shipping, which
14:42
Speaker 2: led to beauty And was it always Beauty Industry Group?
14:47
Speaker 5: Well, le did it?
14:47
Speaker 1: No, I didn't become Beauty Instry Group till twenty twelve.
14:49
Speaker 1: It started out as one business, and then we started
14:52
Speaker 1: a few more that were competitors to the main business,
14:54
Speaker 1: but in different in different you know, segments of the industry.
14:58
Speaker 1: And then we bought a few competitors and put them together,
15:00
Speaker 1: and then it became Beauty Industry Group.
15:02
Speaker 2: Okay, then now you're in Clean Simple Eats, yeah, which
15:08
Speaker 2: is a fantastic company, and the health you know realm.
15:13
Speaker 2: I guess did how did you connect with them?
15:16
Speaker 1: We had met over the years and just probably through
15:20
Speaker 1: through some of the organizational you know, activities that you
15:24
Speaker 1: all have sponsored and done, and so we're friends. And
15:27
Speaker 1: then they came late last year and said, we're looking
15:32
Speaker 1: for a chairman of the board and we know that
15:34
Speaker 1: you know nothing about protein. I think they could visually
15:37
Speaker 1: see that through my massive tent spent on weightlifting, but
15:42
Speaker 1: we'd be We wondered if you'd consider this, and so
15:45
Speaker 1: the answer was yes, it felt right. It felt good,
15:47
Speaker 1: and so we moved forward on that. And I and
15:49
Speaker 1: I need to add, by the way, I said I'd
15:51
Speaker 1: never go to school. I got married. My wife is amazing,
15:57
Speaker 1: Becky Brady Porter. Two weeks after we got married, I
16:00
Speaker 1: learned that if you marry into that family.
16:02
Speaker 5: You go to school.
16:03
Speaker 1: And I told her, I was like, this feels like
16:05
Speaker 1: bait and switch, Like you had like a year to
16:08
Speaker 1: tell me this before. So nevertheless, I was registered to
16:11
Speaker 1: go to Weaver State University. I spent nine years at
16:14
Speaker 1: Weber State to get my bachelor's degree in technical sales.
16:18
Speaker 1: I should be a doctor, but I spent nine years,
16:22
Speaker 1: and towards the end of that ninth year, I thought
16:25
Speaker 1: to myself that this education is actually changing me. And
16:32
Speaker 1: so I then went to BYU and did a little
16:34
Speaker 1: bit that was a little bit more rigorous for what
16:36
Speaker 1: I need to do. I then went and got an
16:37
Speaker 1: MBA from the Ohio State University, then went and did
16:40
Speaker 1: some continuing education out of HBS and a few other
16:44
Speaker 1: places along the way, and completely changed my mind shift.
16:48
Speaker 1: And we talk a lot with my kids today about
16:50
Speaker 1: education in school and business and things. But it became
16:54
Speaker 1: incredibly important in the trajectory and in the things that
16:58
Speaker 1: I was doing, and I would have never been able
17:01
Speaker 1: to have in my own way had my mind opened
17:04
Speaker 1: to a way of learning without that education. And so
17:08
Speaker 1: I did go and do it. My wife got me
17:10
Speaker 1: through the first nine years, and then I muscled through
17:12
Speaker 1: the last two years to get that MBA on my own.
17:14
Speaker 2: Wow. Potentially, No, that's good. That's I mean, we talk
17:21
Speaker 2: in my family, we all always talked about education, but
17:24
Speaker 2: never entrepreneurship.
17:26
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's I'm glad you actually you added those
17:31
Speaker 3: details because I think it is important to you know,
17:34
Speaker 3: I think that the education part is very important, I think, and.
17:37
Speaker 4: I appreciate you saying that.
17:39
Speaker 3: So you mentioned, you know, fine tune activities just briefly,
17:44
Speaker 3: and also principles.
17:46
Speaker 4: You mentioned the word principles.
17:49
Speaker 3: What what do you think are you know, when you
17:51
Speaker 3: think about the businesses you've been associated with, and you
17:54
Speaker 3: think about how much growth they've experienced over the years,
17:58
Speaker 3: what are the principles being behind that? You know, what
18:01
Speaker 3: have you seen in your experience, maybe through education or
18:05
Speaker 3: or just your experience working with these these these great
18:09
Speaker 3: businesses that have been recognized.
18:11
Speaker 4: I think both have been recognized by the Mountain.
18:14
Speaker 3: Weized capital network over the years, what what's behind it? Like,
18:18
Speaker 3: what's behind what's impacting growth?
18:21
Speaker 1: Well, my feeling has always been that it starts and
18:24
Speaker 1: ends with people, and as you focus on people, everything
18:30
Speaker 1: else can come together. And as you think about a
18:33
Speaker 1: value chain, you know, from manufacturing to distribution, to consumption
18:39
Speaker 1: to repeat purchase behaviors, things like this. It's it's easy
18:42
Speaker 1: to see that, but there's an intangible value chain that
18:46
Speaker 1: often isn't talked about. And the intangible value chain starts
18:50
Speaker 1: with the leadership actions at the very top. Can you
18:54
Speaker 1: be the kind of leader that people want to follow?
18:58
Speaker 1: What does that look like? How do you treat people?
19:00
Speaker 1: How do you respond when things are difficult? What do
19:03
Speaker 1: you focus on? How do you respond also when mistakes
19:07
Speaker 1: are made? What are those leadership actions?
19:09
Speaker 2: There?
19:10
Speaker 1: The right kind of leadership actions lead to increased employee
19:14
Speaker 1: or team member commitment. During my time at Big, we
19:19
Speaker 1: didn't refer to people as employees. They were members of
19:21
Speaker 1: a team. I would never We did not want to
19:25
Speaker 1: hear the words this is my boss or you work
19:28
Speaker 1: for me. It was we work together, we're co workers,
19:32
Speaker 1: we're in this together. When we created org charts, it
19:34
Speaker 1: wasn't at the top and then down, which is the
19:36
Speaker 1: traditional way. It was the CEO and the center and
19:39
Speaker 1: then the functions built around it. So there was this
19:42
Speaker 1: mindset of how do we treat people? So the right
19:46
Speaker 1: leadership actions can then lead to increasing employee or team
19:51
Speaker 1: member commitment, and as that commitment increases, that flows through
19:56
Speaker 1: to the customer having a better experience because the employees
20:00
Speaker 1: the team members are happier, they're pleased to be there.
20:02
Speaker 1: We've all been to great organizations when you can see that.
20:06
Speaker 1: I mean, just think about the difference between a Chick
20:08
Speaker 1: fil a drive through and a McDonald's drive through, very respectfully, right,
20:12
Speaker 1: there is a difference with the way they're going to
20:15
Speaker 1: greet you and the way they're going to leave you
20:16
Speaker 1: My pleasure or you know, things like this that have
20:18
Speaker 1: been ingrained into the culture. You can see the same
20:20
Speaker 1: thing at in and out, you know, versus others and
20:24
Speaker 1: so as. That then leads to increasing customer satisfaction. That
20:28
Speaker 1: then leads to real value being created.
20:31
Speaker 5: But it starts at the at the top.
20:32
Speaker 1: With those leadership actions being the kind of leader that
20:35
Speaker 1: people will choose to follow, creating teams that people actually
20:39
Speaker 1: want to be on, Like yeah, this is a fun place,
20:42
Speaker 1: This is a fun team, This is the kind of
20:43
Speaker 1: place I want to be, and then creating a vision
20:46
Speaker 1: that people actually find inspiring and being able to articulate
20:51
Speaker 1: that and say here's where we're going, and not only
20:53
Speaker 1: here's where we're going, but here's why, and here's how,
20:57
Speaker 1: and here's your role in it. And your role is
20:59
Speaker 1: no less important than mine. We cannot do this without you,
21:03
Speaker 1: and you have a huge role to play. We all
21:06
Speaker 1: have different spheres, but in your sphere that you're asked
21:10
Speaker 1: to be in here it is as critically important as
21:12
Speaker 1: his mind. And I think that intangible value chain helps
21:16
Speaker 1: true value to be created, regardless of institution, regardless of
21:23
Speaker 1: what your product is or how you go to market.
21:27
Speaker 1: I think that is a true principle that is lasting
21:30
Speaker 1: and has been proven time and time again.
21:32
Speaker 4: I love that.
21:33
Speaker 3: Thank you.
21:36
Speaker 2: You know, with all the different companies that you've been
21:40
Speaker 2: involved in, have there been I cannot help ask this question.
21:45
Speaker 2: I just have to ask it because you make it
21:47
Speaker 2: sound so easy. Oh, I started this, and then I
21:49
Speaker 2: went to here, and I went to here, and then
21:52
Speaker 2: and I said yes, and I ran to that, But like,
21:54
Speaker 2: what like, have there been just days where you're just
21:58
Speaker 2: in it and you're thinking what am I doing right now?
22:02
Speaker 2: Because these are some pretty great leaps, And you know,
22:08
Speaker 2: what did those days look like for you and your wife?
22:13
Speaker 2: Because it sounds like she's highly involved in the decisions
22:15
Speaker 2: that you make and the choices in the directions that
22:17
Speaker 2: you go, Like, what do those days look like? And
22:21
Speaker 2: what advice would you give to those that are listening.
22:25
Speaker 2: We have a lot of listeners that are young, just
22:27
Speaker 2: getting started. But what I don't know, just yeah, I
22:30
Speaker 2: want to do with that.
22:31
Speaker 1: It has been a hard, uphill climb from day one
22:36
Speaker 1: and it still is today. Okay, I mean that is
22:40
Speaker 1: the plain, simple truth. Now, you do get euphoric moments
22:44
Speaker 1: when you have been climbing them out and you look
22:47
Speaker 1: down and you say, oh, I actually did make a
22:49
Speaker 1: lot of progress. And I remember nights and evenings often
22:52
Speaker 1: when everyone else had left and I was the only
22:55
Speaker 1: one in the building and just feeling an overwhelming sense
22:58
Speaker 1: of gratitude for what had been accomplish.
23:00
Speaker 5: But truly from those earliest, earliest days.
23:03
Speaker 1: Of trying to start this, where I was in company
23:04
Speaker 1: and saying I have no customers, I have no marketing material.
23:07
Speaker 5: I mean, my only play was.
23:08
Speaker 1: I went to the Yellow Pages, back then, the yellow
23:11
Speaker 1: and I took out the largest giggle just ad.
23:16
Speaker 3: We get some confused listeners right now, yellow Pages, I
23:19
Speaker 3: don't get it.
23:20
Speaker 5: It was the Yellow Pages.
23:21
Speaker 1: And my strategy was, if I just take out the
23:23
Speaker 1: biggest AD, I will look like I'm the biggest player
23:26
Speaker 1: in Salt Lake. Because back then what would happen is
23:28
Speaker 1: these brands that needed localized distribution. And Utah was a
23:32
Speaker 1: great market because we've been the crossroads of the West
23:35
Speaker 1: and we're connected to these eleven kind of inner mountain
23:37
Speaker 1: regional states with I seventy and fifteen and I eighty,
23:41
Speaker 1: and it's a good hub. They would just fly in,
23:45
Speaker 1: they'd open the Yellow Pages, and then they'd figure out
23:48
Speaker 1: who they.
23:48
Speaker 5: Were going to call. So I took out the biggest AD.
23:49
Speaker 1: It was seven hundred and fifty dollars, and I remember
23:52
Speaker 1: thinking this is going to sink me. I could not
23:55
Speaker 1: afford truly the seven hundred and fifty dollars. And every
23:58
Speaker 1: morning I would wake up and I had a pit
24:00
Speaker 1: in my stomach of saying, what am I going to
24:03
Speaker 1: do today? How am I going to go find a customer?
24:08
Speaker 1: And I mean it was a slog. My first ten
24:11
Speaker 1: years of being married, I was gone a thousand nights
24:13
Speaker 1: on the road. We stopped counting after a thousand nights.
24:15
Speaker 2: Wow.
24:16
Speaker 1: Literally that's a true number. Because the businesses we were
24:20
Speaker 1: focused on weren't just you know, local businesses. These were
24:24
Speaker 1: regional and national and eventually international businesses, and so you
24:28
Speaker 1: had to travel, and so it was gone a lot
24:31
Speaker 1: of the time, and there was many times where you'd
24:33
Speaker 1: say to yourself, what am I doing?
24:35
Speaker 5: And is this working?
24:36
Speaker 1: But through careful counseling with Beck in each instance, we said,
24:41
Speaker 1: we're going to give it a year, and this is
24:43
Speaker 1: what success looks like. And I think the principle is
24:45
Speaker 1: can you pre define success? When we pre define it,
24:49
Speaker 1: then we have something to work to and when we
24:51
Speaker 1: get there, then we have something to gauge against.
24:53
Speaker 5: But when we don't pre define the.
24:55
Speaker 1: Success, we can often look back and say, well, am
24:58
Speaker 1: I winning?
24:58
Speaker 5: Am I not? Should I keep push?
25:00
Speaker 1: Should I not? And there was one hundred other things
25:02
Speaker 1: we started and tried along the way that flat out
25:05
Speaker 1: didn't work. We were convinced, especially that the beauty company
25:08
Speaker 1: would not work. We just knew it wouldn't. So every
25:11
Speaker 1: dollar that I did manage to get would go into
25:13
Speaker 1: other things. We imported dog bowls from India, from Chennai,
25:18
Speaker 1: India and sold them to Dollar General. We had this
25:21
Speaker 1: crazy idea of taking pictures of the Savior of Jesus
25:24
Speaker 1: Christ and putting your kid in with it painted and
25:27
Speaker 1: they could be in the picture together like the painting.
25:29
Speaker 1: And we had it come out of China and it
25:31
Speaker 1: worked until it didn't, and there was some offended parents
25:33
Speaker 1: saying my kid does not.
25:34
Speaker 5: Look like that. It was really, really bad, but we
25:37
Speaker 5: tried that. We imported scooters.
25:40
Speaker 1: We did I sold used cars nights and weekends for
25:43
Speaker 1: the first two and a half years after jumping in
25:45
Speaker 1: in the hair business because it didn't make enough money.
25:48
Speaker 1: So I'd fly to Vegas, I would buy it. We'd
25:51
Speaker 1: go to Mannheim Auto Auction, I'd buy the cars at
25:54
Speaker 1: the auction, drive them up, put them on for sale
25:57
Speaker 1: on KSL dot com. And that's what we had to
26:00
Speaker 1: do during that time. And so as I think, and
26:04
Speaker 1: it's the same thing today, I'm not kidding you. Every
26:07
Speaker 1: week I'm responsible for writing a four hundred word message
26:11
Speaker 1: that has to go through five layers of reviews and
26:13
Speaker 1: approvals that has then sent out across the world, not
26:17
Speaker 1: only to the Christian world, but to the Muslim world,
26:20
Speaker 1: the Jewish world, to the Agnostic world. I mean, anybody
26:22
Speaker 1: who's listening. And every Monday morning I sit there and
26:25
Speaker 1: I think to myself, how in the world am I
26:27
Speaker 1: going to find four hundred words to talk about that
26:31
Speaker 1: people will actually find interesting.
26:33
Speaker 5: I don't know.
26:35
Speaker 1: But you dig deep, you know where your convictions lie.
26:39
Speaker 1: You exhibit faith, trust, hope, and you walk forward. And
26:43
Speaker 1: as you continue to do that in life, the right
26:46
Speaker 1: breaks come. And you know, we think of like Adam
26:49
Speaker 1: Smith theory of the invisible hand. You call it what
26:53
Speaker 1: you want it, but there is an invisible hand that
26:56
Speaker 1: can help guide you through that if you're willing to
26:58
Speaker 1: listen to the whispers. I remember Oprah Winfrey came to
27:00
Speaker 1: Utah a decade ago and spoke, and she was one
27:02
Speaker 1: of the most dynamic, fantastic speakers I've heard in my life,
27:05
Speaker 1: and she said, I've never made a mistake when I
27:08
Speaker 1: didn't first hear a whisper warning me not to. And
27:12
Speaker 1: so I think our role is, can you listen to
27:13
Speaker 1: the whispers accordingly? If you're listening to those and then
27:17
Speaker 1: reacting in time, then you can pivot, and you may
27:22
Speaker 1: pivot a bunch, and that's a wonderful thing to do.
27:25
Speaker 1: And there was actually a lot of pivoting and a
27:27
Speaker 1: lot of second guessing in each of these career choices
27:31
Speaker 1: over time. But that true north was there, and we
27:34
Speaker 1: kept marching towards it on the things that mattered most.
27:36
Speaker 1: We knew what to success looked like, and we kept
27:39
Speaker 1: walking towards it. So to those that are sitting there
27:42
Speaker 1: to your point and saying, how do I do that?
27:45
Speaker 5: I think that.
27:47
Speaker 1: I remember during COVID feeling, I was watching Friends, like,
27:50
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, we just watched every Harry Potter movie
27:53
Speaker 1: in the world. It was amazing. We watched every Lord
27:55
Speaker 1: of the Rings and it was incredible. And I thought
27:57
Speaker 1: to myself, I'm working eighteen to twenty hours a day.
28:00
Speaker 1: Every salon in the world just closed down. I'm responsible
28:02
Speaker 1: for thousands of people who could lose their jobs, and
28:05
Speaker 1: we might lose our entire business here. And it was
28:08
Speaker 1: an incredibly tough time. Adrenaline gets you through that. But
28:11
Speaker 1: after about a year and a half, I remember thinking
28:13
Speaker 1: to myself, I wonder if I am feeling depression. I
28:19
Speaker 1: hadn't been prone to that really, but I was feeling
28:22
Speaker 1: just this cloud of gray, this heaviness. I couldn't quite
28:25
Speaker 1: see the sun. I was feeling these anxieties I was
28:28
Speaker 1: in front of. I mean, I had my home set
28:30
Speaker 1: up there right with like literally four monitors, your cell phone.
28:34
Speaker 1: I think I was so overly stimulated with the things
28:37
Speaker 1: coming at me, and I thought to myself for weeks,
28:41
Speaker 1: how do I get out of this?
28:41
Speaker 5: This is awful?
28:42
Speaker 1: Talking to Beck, my wife, and others, and then it
28:45
Speaker 1: finally dawned on me. I hadn't been inspired in a
28:50
Speaker 1: really long time. And I don't mean like spiritual inspiration,
28:55
Speaker 1: because I've personally have always sought for that in my life,
28:59
Speaker 1: but I just meant plain old being inspired. I thought
29:03
Speaker 1: to myself, well, what are the things that inspire me?
29:06
Speaker 1: And I realized I had stopped doing all of those
29:08
Speaker 1: because everything had become so focused and so heavy on
29:11
Speaker 1: the task. Right, So I went and got on the
29:14
Speaker 1: mountain bike and started hitting those trails. I watched movies
29:18
Speaker 1: that my kids tease me for watching, like like Rudy
29:21
Speaker 1: and you know, and others that just yeah, and how
29:24
Speaker 1: can you not?
29:25
Speaker 2: Right?
29:26
Speaker 1: How can you not? And so I threw myself into
29:29
Speaker 1: that and then same with these relationships that mattered so
29:31
Speaker 1: much to me, I said, I'm going to double down
29:33
Speaker 1: on those within a period of weeks, just by getting outside,
29:39
Speaker 1: by by taking time to focus on these what might
29:45
Speaker 1: seem like ancillary items and things, completely helped change that
29:50
Speaker 1: mindset and that inspiration came and gave that boost. And
29:55
Speaker 1: so to any who are listening who say, how do
29:57
Speaker 1: I do that when I'm just not sure, it's working
29:59
Speaker 1: to take time to be inspired every single day, and
30:02
Speaker 1: that could be by looking at a sunset, listening to
30:04
Speaker 1: a song, watching a movie, meditating, talking to a friend,
30:08
Speaker 1: serving someone. But it's typically not sitting in your office
30:11
Speaker 1: staring at the computer. It's typically getting outside, letting that
30:15
Speaker 1: work within you, and then that invisible hand guiding and
30:18
Speaker 1: taking you to places that you might not have been
30:21
Speaker 1: able to go otherwise.
30:23
Speaker 2: I love that so much. Thank you for sharing that.
30:26
Speaker 2: I just think people look at the big picture and go, well, yeah,
30:29
Speaker 2: I want to do that, but they have no idea
30:32
Speaker 2: what went in to get to where you are now
30:35
Speaker 2: and the things that inspired you to get there. I
30:38
Speaker 2: just so thank you.
30:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great, great response, you know, as it relates
30:42
Speaker 3: to beauty industry, group. Obviously you've scaled quite.
30:47
Speaker 4: Significantly over the years.
30:49
Speaker 3: Maybe you can just highlight your role in that, what's
30:53
Speaker 3: been key to that and overall the success that you've experienced.
30:57
Speaker 3: Obviously you've had some struggles, and I think you did
31:01
Speaker 3: a great job of reiterating you know that this hasn't
31:04
Speaker 3: been easy. There's been a lot of work and effort
31:08
Speaker 3: to get to this point. But maybe for the listeners,
31:11
Speaker 3: highlight the story of the scale. And I went on
31:14
Speaker 3: the website and it's amazing the different brands and.
31:17
Speaker 4: I mean, and how global you are, and it's really
31:21
Speaker 4: a tremendous story. So highlight that for us well.
31:25
Speaker 1: I think the secret to scale is building a process
31:29
Speaker 1: that can be repeated over and over and over again,
31:33
Speaker 1: and that can be multiplied by a total addressable market
31:38
Speaker 1: that has potential. And when I first started in professional beauty,
31:46
Speaker 1: it was a very small tam. It continued to grow
31:48
Speaker 1: and build over time as awareness increased. And so if
31:52
Speaker 1: I did anything right, it would have just simply been
31:55
Speaker 1: hiring the right people and constantly looking for people that
31:59
Speaker 1: were far better than I, far smarter than I, far
32:02
Speaker 1: more articulate than I, and far more specialized than I,
32:08
Speaker 1: and then I simply tried. Every week I typically would
32:14
Speaker 1: have a one on one with my direct reports. The
32:18
Speaker 1: only reason that was there was for me to say,
32:20
Speaker 1: what can I do to make your job easier? That's it,
32:23
Speaker 1: And then they would say, well, here's what I'm working on,
32:25
Speaker 1: here's what I need. And a lot of times there
32:28
Speaker 1: was things I could do to help make it simpler.
32:30
Speaker 1: Sometimes we may needed to problem solve something together and.
32:34
Speaker 5: Think it through.
32:34
Speaker 1: Sometimes I couldn't do anything except listen. But I think
32:38
Speaker 1: when you're looking to scale, you know, starting at the
32:42
Speaker 1: very very beginning, I think there's two business school frameworks
32:45
Speaker 1: that are incredibly important, even before the people come to
32:48
Speaker 1: think about one. It's called Porter's five Forces. No relation
32:51
Speaker 1: to me, but it's a Harvard Business School professor named
32:54
Speaker 1: Michael Porter, and he talks about the five forces on
32:57
Speaker 1: an industry. And so if you're thinking about, well, I
32:59
Speaker 1: want to get into the bottled water industry, because there's
33:03
Speaker 1: one here in front of me, you then talk about
33:06
Speaker 1: the forces, the constraints, the pressures that come from the consumers,
33:11
Speaker 1: from the manufacturers, from the market, and it can be helpful.
33:16
Speaker 1: A framework properly used takes the guesswork out of what
33:21
Speaker 1: you're doing, and that's why you apply a framework. Charlie
33:23
Speaker 1: Munger Berkshire Hathwire. Hathaway had maybe one hundred frameworks that
33:29
Speaker 1: he just used over and over and over throughout the decades.
33:32
Speaker 1: Takes the guesswork out. So this Portersfy Forces is incredibly
33:35
Speaker 1: helpful to say, is this the type of industry that
33:38
Speaker 1: can support scale? Then when you answer that and check
33:42
Speaker 1: that box. There was a business school professor at the
33:46
Speaker 1: Ohias State University. He's now at the University of Utah
33:48
Speaker 1: named Jay Barney. He teaches strategy and his textbook, at
33:53
Speaker 1: least about as of a decade ago, is the number
33:55
Speaker 1: ones telling strategy textbook in the world. More colleges described
34:00
Speaker 1: to that and taught from that text book globally than
34:02
Speaker 1: anyone else. And he's do you know this person? Do
34:05
Speaker 1: you know j Barney? Or no?
34:07
Speaker 2: He's just pointing to me because I'm a U grad.
34:09
Speaker 5: Okay, well there you go.
34:10
Speaker 1: Well he's there at the you Ohio State Loss and
34:13
Speaker 1: she's always kind of like, hey, got to work that
34:16
Speaker 1: in you hear that?
34:16
Speaker 4: Right?
34:17
Speaker 1: Well, he's up there a fantastic job. And he developed
34:21
Speaker 1: a framework called vr io. And so again if it
34:25
Speaker 1: was on this water bottle here, and this was my product.
34:27
Speaker 1: Now you'd say, well, how valuable is this, how rare
34:34
Speaker 1: is this different than valuable? How rare is it? How
34:38
Speaker 1: easy to imitate is this? How imitable is this? And
34:42
Speaker 1: then finally, which is the one that organizations mix up
34:44
Speaker 1: the most? Do I have the right organizational setup to
34:48
Speaker 1: exploit this product that is so valuable.
34:51
Speaker 5: Rare and imitable.
34:52
Speaker 1: So as you're looking say, first industry, then product, Yes
34:56
Speaker 1: it's valuable, yes it's rare, No it's it's difficult to imitate,
35:02
Speaker 1: or yes it's difficult to imitate. Then it's all about
35:06
Speaker 1: the people. And then as you scale, you is just
35:09
Speaker 1: simply hire the right people at the right place at
35:12
Speaker 1: the right time, and your job is to let them
35:16
Speaker 1: be able.
35:17
Speaker 5: To break free.
35:18
Speaker 1: It's to break those barriers down and at big that's
35:20
Speaker 1: what we sought to do. And so from about two
35:23
Speaker 1: thousand and seven to twenty twelve was just plain old difficult.
35:26
Speaker 5: It was just hard.
35:28
Speaker 1: You know, you think about building a skyscraper, right, and
35:30
Speaker 1: when you're building a skyscraper, so much of the time,
35:34
Speaker 1: years in fact, if it's a big one, is spent
35:37
Speaker 1: below the surface.
35:39
Speaker 5: They got the.
35:39
Speaker 1: Fence around the perimeter. You can't even see in what's happening.
35:42
Speaker 1: But they are digging deep. There's a ton of architectural plans.
35:45
Speaker 1: They're then digging deep. They're laying concrete, They're laying all
35:49
Speaker 1: the rebar and the stuff to build a structure. But
35:52
Speaker 1: when that foundation finally becomes firm and set, you're then
35:55
Speaker 1: able to go vertical. And the vertical part actually goes
35:59
Speaker 1: pretty quick. And here we are in this amazing part
36:02
Speaker 1: of the Silicon Slopes, essentially right and seeing so many
36:06
Speaker 1: people around us that have done this and been able
36:08
Speaker 1: to take advantage of this. Getting those right people into
36:11
Speaker 1: help this skyscraper go vertical can allow for that to
36:15
Speaker 1: go at a supercharged rate. And so for us, the
36:19
Speaker 1: subterranean work was like seven to twenty twelve, twenty twelve
36:23
Speaker 1: to twenty sixteen, we started going vertical, twenty sixteen to eighteen,
36:26
Speaker 1: all the glass went on. Eighteen to twenty one, we
36:30
Speaker 1: add an antenna and claimed ourself as the tallest hair
36:34
Speaker 1: extension building in the world twenty one to twenty four.
36:37
Speaker 1: That continue to build and grow and so forth, but
36:41
Speaker 1: so much of that inertia. Again using a different metaphor
36:43
Speaker 1: to get a rocket off the ground comes before there's
36:46
Speaker 1: even lyftoff, and you have to recognize that and yet
36:49
Speaker 1: make sure that you're not just spinning wheels, but there
36:51
Speaker 1: actually is traction that's happening. So those frameworks I think
36:55
Speaker 1: porters five forces vrio, the right organizational people, getting them
36:59
Speaker 1: a me and setting that up so they can really succeed.
37:02
Speaker 5: One thing that I did in probably twenty.
37:06
Speaker 1: Fifteen, I went and sat down with every major Utah
37:10
Speaker 1: CEO that I could find that would let me in
37:12
Speaker 1: the door, and I interviewed him. Jeremy andres At Trager
37:15
Speaker 1: was incredibly kind to me to sit for a long
37:17
Speaker 1: time if his learnings from Skull Candy and what was
37:20
Speaker 1: beginning to happen, you know, in the next parts of
37:22
Speaker 1: his career, and many others. And I took every single
37:26
Speaker 1: thing that they had and then the ones that felt
37:28
Speaker 1: true to me and relevant and put them together into
37:32
Speaker 1: one document that I hung on my wall, and that's
37:35
Speaker 1: what I would hand out, by the way, to every
37:37
Speaker 1: single new hire that came in, so they weren't saying, well,
37:40
Speaker 1: I wonder what Derek thinks about this, and how do
37:42
Speaker 1: I think, Here's how I think, Here's what I think,
37:46
Speaker 1: and it will help you know. It was essentially a
37:49
Speaker 1: series of one hundred Charliemonger type frameworks that was collected
37:52
Speaker 1: from all these Uta CEOs.
37:54
Speaker 2: That's a treasure.
37:55
Speaker 5: It is a treasure.
37:56
Speaker 1: If you would share that with me, I'm happy to. Yeah,
37:58
Speaker 1: I mean there's yeah, there's nothing in it for me
38:01
Speaker 1: other than it's what came from all.
38:02
Speaker 5: These Utah CBOs.
38:04
Speaker 1: There's two or three that I've added in on my
38:05
Speaker 1: own that I learned over time. But it helped point
38:08
Speaker 1: that the right way and again that intangible value chain.
38:13
Speaker 1: Taking those people, just having them in that right seat
38:16
Speaker 1: and then breaking them free worked and we got to
38:19
Speaker 1: work together at Big for years and years and years
38:21
Speaker 1: and it became a very successful business.
38:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's great.
38:26
Speaker 2: So you've mentioned several times and I believe this too.
38:30
Speaker 2: Utah's special. The people here are special. But like the
38:34
Speaker 2: successes that you've experienced, how much do you feel as
38:39
Speaker 2: attributed to the fact that you are here in Utah
38:41
Speaker 2: and people are so willing to share their knowledge and
38:45
Speaker 2: their experiences and talk a little bit about that Utah
38:49
Speaker 2: spirit or Utah way if you can.
38:51
Speaker 1: Well, it is a real thing and people see it,
38:54
Speaker 1: you know, I have opportunity and have for several years now,
38:57
Speaker 1: to sit on the executive board of the World Center,
39:00
Speaker 1: and so we see people coming in from across the globe,
39:03
Speaker 1: and it is rare when someone doesn't make a comment.
39:08
Speaker 1: The people here are so nice. People here really value community.
39:16
Speaker 1: The way that they go about their business is unlike
39:18
Speaker 1: anything I've seen before. I mean, you hear it over
39:21
Speaker 1: and over and over again. And we have this really great,
39:24
Speaker 1: incredible culture that has been built here, and it's been
39:28
Speaker 1: one of problem solving from the very very beginning. Just
39:32
Speaker 1: last night, I'm finishing a long, long book on Porter Rockwell.
39:37
Speaker 1: Here's this guy that I think is amazing, you know,
39:41
Speaker 1: but he never fit the mold in anything. He was
39:45
Speaker 1: a bodyguard to the first prophet, Joseph Smith, then to
39:48
Speaker 1: bring him young. He was a gunsling and saloon going rough, tough,
39:51
Speaker 1: shoot him up, cowboy, and I kind of identify with
39:55
Speaker 1: that in a way, you know, honestly. But as I've
39:58
Speaker 1: read about Porter Rockwell and everyone else that was here
40:01
Speaker 1: from the beginning, there was no choice but to problem solve.
40:05
Speaker 1: An extermination order had been given by Governor LIBERN W.
40:07
Speaker 1: Boggs in Missouri, causing people to have to flee the
40:12
Speaker 1: minute they got here. There was opposition from all sides,
40:15
Speaker 1: and it's continued.
40:16
Speaker 5: Through to today.
40:18
Speaker 1: And as people can learn how to solve problems, how
40:21
Speaker 1: to have an optimistic problem solving attitude, how to have
40:25
Speaker 1: the right mindset to look forward to the future that
40:30
Speaker 1: allows for you to overcome anything. And if there's something
40:32
Speaker 1: that Utons know how to do, it's to do that.
40:36
Speaker 1: And there's a number of reasons that that happens. And
40:38
Speaker 1: so as I think about, we have benefited greatly from
40:43
Speaker 1: the laws that are here, the tax code that is here,
40:48
Speaker 1: the infrastructure that is here, the kind of people that
40:51
Speaker 1: are here, and what they're learning from schools.
40:54
Speaker 5: I mean, I remember bringing in.
40:57
Speaker 1: A gay man from Paris, France as my COO, and
41:03
Speaker 1: he had worked at Laoreal, he had been at all
41:05
Speaker 1: these amazing places and he said, there's no way I
41:07
Speaker 1: can move to Salt Lake City of Utah. This will
41:09
Speaker 1: never work with me and my lifestyle. And I said,
41:11
Speaker 1: his name is Philippe. Philippe, come to Utah and come
41:16
Speaker 1: check this place out.
41:18
Speaker 5: Well he did.
41:19
Speaker 1: He's now been here for five or six years. He
41:21
Speaker 1: and his partner. They live in the avenue's downtown and
41:23
Speaker 1: have had a most wonderful and splendid experience. Nothing to
41:29
Speaker 1: do with the Church of JESU Christ, Clatterty Saints and
41:30
Speaker 1: everything to do with it. It's just been the community
41:32
Speaker 1: for them. It hasn't been about religion or identity. It's
41:36
Speaker 1: been about community. And so many of the people recognize that.
41:40
Speaker 1: And as we brought in a lot of executives from
41:42
Speaker 1: out of town to come here as well, they have
41:44
Speaker 1: fallen in love with who we are, what we represent.
41:47
Speaker 1: And there's no prouder place on the planet than I
41:50
Speaker 1: would call home than Salt Lake City, Utah, on the
41:52
Speaker 1: Wassatch Front, and even the whole state. Because if there's
41:56
Speaker 1: any principle that I subscribe to, and I think Utah
41:58
Speaker 1: does this the very best. This is why two thousand
42:01
Speaker 1: and two Olympics were off the chart. This is why
42:03
Speaker 1: twenty thirty four is going to be off the chart.
42:05
Speaker 1: This is why anything.
42:06
Speaker 5: This is why the Utah Jazz when they play it
42:08
Speaker 5: is so loud.
42:09
Speaker 2: This is why when it's.
42:13
Speaker 5: Amazing look at BYU. I mean, we have so many
42:17
Speaker 5: of these things that people get into it. Here's why.
42:19
Speaker 1: The principle is this what we do matters. But how
42:24
Speaker 1: we do it matters even more.
42:27
Speaker 5: That's it.
42:29
Speaker 1: Utah has figured out the how what we do matters,
42:32
Speaker 1: how we go through our education, how we support people,
42:35
Speaker 1: how we solve problems.
42:37
Speaker 5: How we face adversity.
42:39
Speaker 1: What we do matters, that's all. It all matters. But
42:41
Speaker 1: how we do it that is the clear distinction between
42:46
Speaker 1: the best and the rest. And I think that's what
42:48
Speaker 1: Utah has figured out how to do. And we've had
42:50
Speaker 1: a series in years and decades and generations now of
42:54
Speaker 1: amazing people showing us the how I love that.
42:58
Speaker 3: You know, obviously the music, the spoken word is taking
43:02
Speaker 3: the bulk of your time now lately last couple of years,
43:05
Speaker 3: what's been the highlight for you? And what's been you know,
43:08
Speaker 3: something that you didn't expect, but you've you know, some
43:11
Speaker 3: lessons learned.
43:13
Speaker 4: Well.
43:13
Speaker 1: That is a truly global broadcast and I've spent time
43:18
Speaker 1: in maybe a dozen countries. I just returned from Africa
43:20
Speaker 1: earlier earlier this year, where I was in South Africa
43:24
Speaker 1: and then Zimbabwe, then Kenya, than Ghana, then Nigeria.
43:27
Speaker 5: Over a three week period.
43:30
Speaker 1: The broadcast is listened to every week by Bye, you
43:34
Speaker 1: name it, you name it. Less than one percent are
43:38
Speaker 1: members of the Church of Jesus Christ wattery Saints who
43:40
Speaker 1: listen globally. Every week, we have a couple thousand people
43:44
Speaker 1: in a life studio audience where this is, you know, presented.
43:48
Speaker 1: Maybe fifty percent are members of the church, fifty percent
43:51
Speaker 1: or not. Most are from out of the state and
43:55
Speaker 1: many many are from out of the country, and so
43:58
Speaker 1: being able to see just how important this world economy is.
44:05
Speaker 1: And when I say economy, I mean the way we
44:08
Speaker 1: work together the people of the world, how much we
44:10
Speaker 1: all depend upon each other, and how we matter. Every
44:14
Speaker 1: single week I am meeting people across the globe and
44:17
Speaker 1: I'm hearing their stories of what the adversity is and
44:21
Speaker 1: where they've come from and how they got here and
44:24
Speaker 1: what they're feeling, and there's just this is a broad statement,
44:30
Speaker 1: but I believe it is true that there's just good
44:33
Speaker 1: in everyone.
44:35
Speaker 5: Some may be pushing more.
44:37
Speaker 1: Of that forward and others are still learning that, but
44:40
Speaker 1: you can see that good. And so one of the
44:42
Speaker 1: things that I just have enjoyed so much is seeing
44:44
Speaker 1: the beauty of the diversity of this world and how
44:48
Speaker 1: we can all learn. When I left Africa, I told
44:50
Speaker 1: myself I need to learn how to have more joy
44:53
Speaker 1: these people that had so little in many instances that
44:57
Speaker 1: of these places that I was, some that were fairly
45:00
Speaker 1: remote so full of joy. And you learn that joy
45:06
Speaker 1: has less to do with our things, our possessions. People
45:10
Speaker 1: think that rich people own things, but things actually own
45:15
Speaker 1: rich people, right, because everything you own takes a little
45:19
Speaker 1: piece of you away. You think about it, you worry
45:22
Speaker 1: over it, you ensure it, you have to check up
45:24
Speaker 1: on it. You tell your kids, don't put your feet
45:27
Speaker 1: on the seat. This is you know, like you're always constantly.
45:30
Speaker 2: Worrying about this.
45:31
Speaker 1: So true, true, But sometimes those that have the least
45:35
Speaker 1: really have the most because they recognize what matters most,
45:39
Speaker 1: and what matters most is people. It's people, and so
45:42
Speaker 1: I just I love getting to see that and to
45:44
Speaker 1: have that and to experience that.
45:46
Speaker 5: It's been just amazing. I've learned so much from it.
45:51
Speaker 4: That's great.
45:52
Speaker 2: Could twenty one year old you have looked at the
45:57
Speaker 2: future and seeing where you are today.
46:01
Speaker 5: Never I mean, I mean, I think I was a
46:05
Speaker 5: wreck in a way.
46:06
Speaker 1: I mean I was trying to do good things and
46:08
Speaker 1: be good, you know, do what have you. But I
46:11
Speaker 1: remember very clearly my goals of what they were, and
46:14
Speaker 1: Beck and I.
46:15
Speaker 5: We talked about these.
46:17
Speaker 1: When we met, which was a little after that age,
46:21
Speaker 1: and everything that I had ever hoped for or dreamt
46:24
Speaker 1: for became greater. And I don't know if that will
46:30
Speaker 1: be everyone's experience now and here in mortality or not,
46:34
Speaker 1: but what I feel is to a deep sense of
46:39
Speaker 1: humility for being able to have learned along the way.
46:43
Speaker 1: And the responsibility I feel now is to say, Okay,
46:45
Speaker 1: I've learned something. Am I going to let it change me?
46:50
Speaker 1: I once asked President Russell and Nelson, the president of
46:54
Speaker 1: the church, a question about an investment. It's stupid out
46:59
Speaker 1: of everything I could have asked, I asked about an investment.
47:01
Speaker 2: Okay, right, and uh, well, I mean.
47:05
Speaker 1: I mean, but there's well I have you Yeah, that's
47:08
Speaker 1: kind of what happened. And I said, by the way,
47:10
Speaker 1: what do you think about this? And I asked him
47:12
Speaker 1: my question, and it was.
47:13
Speaker 5: A big question for me.
47:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, And he said, Derek, all that matters is who
47:19
Speaker 1: you're going to be ten years from now. If this
47:23
Speaker 1: decision that you're trying to make is going to help
47:26
Speaker 1: you become a better husband, a better father, a better
47:31
Speaker 1: member of the community, do it If it's not, though,
47:34
Speaker 1: And it's going to be a distraction. Don't do it.
47:38
Speaker 5: Pull it away.
47:40
Speaker 1: And as I think about my last twenty plus years
47:44
Speaker 1: and hopefully many more decades to come, That's what I'm
47:48
Speaker 1: asking myself. That was four and a half years ago
47:50
Speaker 1: when I asked him that question, And I think to myself,
47:54
Speaker 1: have I become enough of who I need to be?
47:57
Speaker 1: AM I changing? I have six children, five and a girl.
48:01
Speaker 1: I was gone a ton when they were little, little little?
48:05
Speaker 1: Am I being the kind of dat I need to be?
48:08
Speaker 1: AM I being the kind of employer I need to be.
48:09
Speaker 1: AM I being the kind of executive chair that I
48:12
Speaker 1: need to be. AM I changing?
48:14
Speaker 5: AM I growing?
48:16
Speaker 1: And I think that's the hope of all the hearts
48:19
Speaker 1: across the world, is just to simply become more. All
48:23
Speaker 1: year we've been celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
48:26
Speaker 1: of America, and that line in the Declaration of Independence
48:31
Speaker 1: is emblazoned in my mind of the founding fathers essentially saying,
48:36
Speaker 1: we know this isn't perfect. We know that there's a
48:39
Speaker 1: gap between the ideal and the real, and there always
48:42
Speaker 1: will be. But our hope is that everything we're setting
48:45
Speaker 1: up and working towards and for can enable a more
48:49
Speaker 1: perfect union. And I think it's the same in our businesses,
48:54
Speaker 1: it's the same in our personal lives. It's the same
48:56
Speaker 1: in our marriages. Can I be working on a more
49:00
Speaker 1: perfect union with beck in the way that I'm treating her,
49:04
Speaker 1: the things that I'm focusing on with her, the things
49:06
Speaker 1: that I'm thinking about, the sacrifice that I'm trying to do.
49:09
Speaker 1: Can I work towards making it more perfect? And the
49:13
Speaker 1: truest joys in life come from looking outside of our
49:18
Speaker 1: own little bubbles, which are important, but looking outside of
49:23
Speaker 1: those to others. That allows for this joy to dwell
49:27
Speaker 1: in our hearts and it increases and it magnifies over time.
49:33
Speaker 1: And that's been my hope. Am I becoming more perfect?
49:35
Speaker 1: I'll never be perfect here and I am eons away
49:39
Speaker 1: from it. I have so many challenges and things that
49:42
Speaker 1: I need to improve upon and work on and do better.
49:45
Speaker 1: But can I become just a little bit more? And
49:47
Speaker 1: that's the walk of life. It's the great invitation of
49:50
Speaker 1: life that's given to all people. But it takes some
49:54
Speaker 1: courage to say I'm going to embark upon that and
49:56
Speaker 1: I'm going to just try flat out I'm going to
49:58
Speaker 1: do everything I can with it.
50:03
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know, I don't know.
50:05
Speaker 2: I don't know what else to say.
50:08
Speaker 4: Sure looked at me.
50:09
Speaker 3: I'm like I look back, I'm like, uh, what could
50:12
Speaker 3: you say after that?
50:13
Speaker 4: That was fantastic?
50:14
Speaker 3: And I just I just appreciate all your insights today,
50:17
Speaker 3: I think not only from a business perspective, but also
50:21
Speaker 3: just from my being a good person perspective and doing
50:25
Speaker 3: some good things and some principles of how to be
50:30
Speaker 3: successful wherever we're at in life.
50:33
Speaker 4: So thank you, thank you.
50:35
Speaker 2: And I love that everyone's a work in progress. We're
50:39
Speaker 2: all we can all do better, be better. But I
50:43
Speaker 2: have this we started where we started today, where you
50:46
Speaker 2: said I ran to these opportunities. I just think, you know,
50:51
Speaker 2: people that are listening today, should you know, take a
50:55
Speaker 2: good look at their lives and businesses and their homes
50:59
Speaker 2: and what they've about going. And I picked up a book.
51:02
Speaker 2: I don't even remember who the author is right now,
51:05
Speaker 2: but it's the year of Yes. I need to open
51:09
Speaker 2: that book. I start saying, yes, do a few things well.
51:15
Speaker 3: And I think the takeaway from this as well, as
51:19
Speaker 3: you know, there's a lot of effort and a lot
51:21
Speaker 3: of hard work and you know a lot of blood,
51:24
Speaker 3: sweat and tears, and you know this is not just
51:27
Speaker 3: just show up and a great thing has been given
51:29
Speaker 3: to you.
51:30
Speaker 4: I mean you've had to work.
51:31
Speaker 3: And that's from as you mentioned, from early childhood when
51:36
Speaker 3: you're you know, and it's just funny how I can visualize,
51:39
Speaker 3: because I was one of those that was, you know,
51:41
Speaker 3: told like my dad would give me, you know, like
51:43
Speaker 3: the the things you had to go sell. You know,
51:46
Speaker 3: there's like those those books, sell those books.
51:50
Speaker 4: I can't even remember what.
51:51
Speaker 3: I think it was just for like school and he's like, go,
51:54
Speaker 3: you got to go door to door.
51:55
Speaker 4: I'm like why. It's like, well this we have to
51:57
Speaker 4: earn some money for our school.
52:00
Speaker 3: And I'm like okay, and so I'm knocking doors similar
52:02
Speaker 3: to that, and you know, but those principles were the
52:07
Speaker 3: foundation for me and how to work hard and to
52:10
Speaker 3: do things that are difficult at times. And I appreciate
52:14
Speaker 3: that those insights.
52:15
Speaker 4: So thank you.
52:16
Speaker 2: You're welcome, Derek, thank you for joining us today. You're
52:19
Speaker 2: a busy, busy man and we are just honored to
52:22
Speaker 2: have you. Your hard work with these companies as inspiring.
52:28
Speaker 2: I was inspired years ago and still today, and it
52:31
Speaker 2: shows that you can do anything if you set your
52:33
Speaker 2: mind to it. We are proud to highlight your work
52:36
Speaker 2: and your story here at Mountain West Capital Network.
52:39
Speaker 3: And for our listeners, how can they connect with you?
52:42
Speaker 1: Well, I am on LinkedIn and I don't check it
52:46
Speaker 1: as much as I used to, but they're all welcome
52:49
Speaker 1: to join us on Sunday mornings as well, because I
52:51
Speaker 1: am there every single Sunday with a three minute, four
52:53
Speaker 1: hundred word, six paragraph universal message.
52:56
Speaker 5: You know on television radio.
52:58
Speaker 4: You do agree with yoh, and thank you for that service.
53:01
Speaker 2: On that thank you absolutely, and to everyone listening, thank
53:04
Speaker 2: you for joining us. A special thanks to the launch
53:08
Speaker 2: Pod team, Johnny and Christine for producing our show, Zachary
53:11
Speaker 2: Reid for his vision as producer, Katie Brown as our
53:15
Speaker 2: operation specialist, and for keeping us in line and on track,
53:18
Speaker 2: Garrett Lawson Kevin Jessup for serving as our MWCN podcast.
53:23
Speaker 3: Chairs, and don't forget to leave a five star review
53:26
Speaker 3: and subscribe to stay updated on Utah's fastest growing companies
53:30
Speaker 3: and the leaders shaping our business future. There is nothing
53:33
Speaker 3: we appreciate more than hearing from our listeners, rate, review,
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Speaker 3: and share.
53:38
Speaker 4: Welcome to the winner circle