Latest / King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights / Scale Smarter: Empower Your CEO with PEO Strategies for Growth

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Scale Smarter: Empower Your CEO with PEO Strategies for Growth · King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights

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  Live Ladies and gentlemen, you are once again welcome to The
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  Kingdom's Podcast and Diary of a CFO.
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  And Today, please make welcome with me a very, very, very
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  special, very important personality fighting out of
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  Atlanta, GA Susanna, the PEO to the CEO, Martinez.
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  How? Are you Susanna?
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  I am excellent that it's actually PEO for the CEO.
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  OK. PEO for the CEO designer.
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  The PEO for the CEO for. That introduction, I thought,
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  I'm going to go out and become a boxer.
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  Here, let's go, let's go. Wow.
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  So did you watch the UFC at all? No, I didn't.
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  Oh, so that that's the Bruce buffer introduction.
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  You know, I just stole his his style of introduction.
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  It's it's quite energetic, it. Is very energetic.
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  Yeah, exactly. And of course, you know,
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  everybody in life is a fighter. Let's, let's not deceive
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  ourselves. We all fight for something.
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  Absolutely, yeah. Who who, Who would you say you
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  fight for? You fight for the CE OS.
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  I fight for the CE OS. I'm their advocate.
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  You bet. OK, so.
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  Actually CEO's and CFO's as well.
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  So, oh, he's like a so I'm actually both, you know, I run a
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  fractional CFO service and of course I'm the CEO of the
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  company, so. So I would fight for people like
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  you. Oh wow, wow, wow.
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  That's. Cool, that's cool.
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  Fight to maximise your benefits without overpaying in PEO.
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  Whoa, I love that. I love that.
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  I love that. We're going to make we're going
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  to make a highlight reel with that.
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  And of course he's just going to go viral.
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  Whoa. You know, I'd say you, you're
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  very much welcome. And this is something that I
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  always say the risk of being cliche or sounded like a broken
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  record. Gratitude is good attitude.
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  And of course, when a person shares their time with you, they
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  share their life with you because the SI unit for
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  measuring life is time. But having a highly resourceful
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  person, highly experienced person, highly educated,
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  enlightened person like yourself, you know, come on the
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  show. But today I, I don't take it for
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  granted. I show, you know, appreciation
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  for it. And of course, words are
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  actually inadequate to express how grateful I am to, to have
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  you on the show today. God bless you.
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  And of course, from me to you, it's it's love and respect and
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  to you. So thank you.
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  Thank you. Same to you.
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  Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, yeah.
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  You're welcome. You're welcome.
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  You're welcome. Right, So this is the kingdom's
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  forecast. You know, where trailblazing
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  leaders, strategies, and thinkers impact mindset and
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  methods behind transformational success.
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  So today's guest is a dynamic problem solver in the world of
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  business operations. She's a founder and president of
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  PEO for the CEOA company, helping businesses skill
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  efficiently while slashing costs and simplifying HR.
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  So with over a decade of experience in payroll,
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  compliance, benefits, and risk management, she's the secret
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  weapon behind countless founders who want to focus on growth, not
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  admin cares. So she's sharp, strategic, and
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  committed to empowering CE OS to lead smarter, not harder.
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  Susanna Martinez, welcome to the show.
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  Thank you, thank you, thank you for that introduction.
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  Let's set the stage. You know what is APO?
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  Because I'm quite curious. Yeah, that's that's probably the
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  best place to start. So APEO, it stands for
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  professional employer organisation model and basically
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  what it does is it pulls several thousands of Co employees into a
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  large group to get buying power and economies of scale when it
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  comes to insurance like health insurance, workers comp
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  insurance and retirement services.
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  At the same time it helps companies scale their businesses
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  by helping them with the back end HR infrastructure.
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  So it's basically outsourced businesses are outsourcing their
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  HR infrastructure, their administrative functions, it's
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  systems and technologies all consolidated in one single
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  source solution when it comes to payroll, benefits, HR, workers
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  comp, retirement services, all in one system.
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  So it just helps the CF OS and CE OS and their whole HR team to
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  just operate more efficiently. Wow.
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  So this actually sounds like a game changer, especially for
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  SMEs, you know, small and medium skilled enterprises and of
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  course, especially the meat market companies, right?
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  You are a founder yourself. And probably something I forgot
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  to to tell you on our pre introduction call is the fact
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  that I'm actually a published author as well.
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  And I, my first book is titled Master in the arts of
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  Entrepreneurship. So a lot of the things that I
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  talk about and the philosophies of business that I express, you
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  know, we're actually embedded in that book.
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  I'd urge you to buy it, you know.
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  Yeah, let me, let me do a quick cheap plug.
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  Right. Somebody from your neck of the
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  woods, Morgan Anderson. She's a top tax debt resolution
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  expert, you know, in the United States.
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  She's ACEO of Golden Lion Tax Solutions.
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  She conferred upon me the title of a modern day business
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  philosopher and I haven't run in with that title ever since.
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  You know, for founders, we we go through an evolution, right?
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  A journey. But you have been able to build
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  a fast growing consulting firm that's rooted in helping others,
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  right? And it's something I often say
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  my business is to help you mind your business.
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  My business is to help you grow so that I can grow, right?
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  And you are also in that same piece as to help.
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  The business to grow, yeah, absolutely.
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  The same mindset is to help businesses grow, be more
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  efficient, save, save on the bottom line.
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  Yeah, I love that you mentioned mindset because the philosophy
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  of The Kingdom's broadcast is growth mindset, leadership and
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  pieces, insights. And there's a reason why your
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  episode is going to be on both The Kingdom's broadcast and
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  Diary of a CFO. Of course, you're not just a
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  finance person. You're not just a person who is
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  obsessed with the business size side of things and the financial
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  numbers. You're person that I, I would
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  say you're well balanced, you know, individual, well balanced,
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  professional, well balanced leader as well.
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  But you take leadership very seriously and you take a growth
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  mindset very seriously. Absolutely, yeah.
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  There's a reason why I'm connecting with you today
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  because you know, I'm that's I would I say 7 leader who is
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  making the sacrifice to congregate the top of the crop
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  across the globe when it comes to growth mindset, leadership
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  and business insights. You know, to a one stop shop
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  platform, 1/3 leadership platform where you can learn.
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  I tell people there's two goals. I have only two goals for
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  establishing this broadcast. Number one goal is to educate
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  and number two goal is to inspire.
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  Once I do those two things, I think my job is done right and I
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  don't do those two things just on my own.
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  I actually, I'm an opportunist, right?
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  I take the opportunity to have fun, stick, you know, team mind.
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  You you outsource to the professionals.
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  The the fantastic minds, you know, from across the world to
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  come on the platform to help me people like Susanna, the PEO for
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  the CEO and CFO's. But he does, you know, I have,
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  you know, people like you come on board and do justice to to
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  these topics. And that's why I'm always
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  overwhelmed for gratitude when I have, you know, persons like
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  like yourself on on the show. But what would you say has
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  packed your journey into HR, payroll and operational strategy
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  and what keeps you going even till today?
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  Oh, that's, that's kind of a loaded question.
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  So I started in the industry, gosh, over 2 decades.
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  So I've been working with small businesses nationally for many
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  years as an employee of a lot of publicly large traded PEO
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  companies. And about four years ago I went
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  off on my own. So I'm basically an independent,
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  basically a PEO matchmaker for the CE OS and CFOs.
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  I don't work for the PEO company.
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  I'm not, I'm going to be the clients advocate versus working
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  for an actual PEO company. And I, I would say because I
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  just founded my consulting firm about four years ago, I had to
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  put into practise. Four years ago, yeah.
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  There are four years between two World Cups, you know, in soccer.
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  So it's not just. Well, I had to have a different
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  mindset of being AW2 employee versus having your own
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  consulting firm. And I basically put into
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  practise myself. What I was always telling
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  businesses to do from the onset is I learned to outsource to the
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  professionals myself. For example, technology,
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  bookkeeping, outsource to the professionals, outsource to the
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  best of the talent versus trying to do everything yourself.
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  Have a good CPA. You know, yeah, you might have
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  to pay more, but it's going to be more value for you and help
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  help help you grow your business.
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  Yeah, I've said this in on the podcast before that there's a
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  reason why professionals are professionals.
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  There's a reason why a person went to school for, you know, a
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  number of years to come a specialist to something.
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  There's a reason why a person you know, works with
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  professional firms, right in other to become a specialist or
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  something, and you think on your mind that they don't deserve,
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  you know, to earn consulting wage.
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  You must be joking. You know, the joke is actually
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  on you. But I think like being a
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  professional actually helps you appreciate professionals more.
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  I, you know, I finally think about my time, you know, in the
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  beak for accounting firms. PWCKPMGI even had, you know, a
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  brief stint, you know, one of the UK top 10 firms as it's
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  Blake Rothenberg. And you think about what you do
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  with this firms. You think about the time you
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  invested, you know, the specialisation you're able to
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  acquire. People cannot just get it.
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  This experience is the best teacher, and there's a reason
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  why experience is the best teacher.
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  Absolutely. You've learned, I'm sure.
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  I used to work a lot with many Cpas and a lot of them came from
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  the Big Fours, and they learned a lot of working for the Big
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  Fours before they went off and opened up their own independent
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  consulting agency. And you know, that's working
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  with the BIG4 firms, you know, basically gives you a lot of but
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  I say competence, right, in terms of specialisation, in
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  terms of working with cross functional teams, in terms of
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  building relationships, you know, client management,
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  relationship management, in terms of even your whole
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  leadership, leading yourself, leading your teams or the
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  technical competence of the global acumen.
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  And of course, the business acumen very, very important, you
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  know, aspects of running a consultancy practise which does
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  not come to you by way of wishful thinking, right?
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  So it's always essential to achieve efficiencies in business
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  and that's something that you emphasise on and I very, very
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  much appreciate. Of course, you know, Speaking of
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  efficiencies, you always talk about the heating cost savers,
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  right, that most businesses are missed out on.
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  And you, you're somebody that has been able to help businesses
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  save, you know, between 20 to 40% on benefits while improving
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  their offerings. And that's, that's massive.
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  So what's the most overlooked opportunity for CEOs when it
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  comes to cost efficiency? Well, oftentimes it's, you know,
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  businesses just keep on going status quo.
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  It's just easier to renew as is status quo and they don't have
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  time to do the due diligence. And that's really where my firm
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  comes in. We do the due diligence for you.
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  We do all the analysis, gathering all the proposals from
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  the different PEO companies, from the insurance carriers,
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  trying to make sure that your employees are going to get the
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  same or similar benefits than what they currently have today
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  and hopefully help reduce the bottom line as far as the total
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  overall premiums. And often times what I end up
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  finding is if you've been with the PEO for 3 / 3 years and you
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  haven't done due diligence, there's some savings there on
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  the administrative side that we can find for you.
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  Because sometimes the print the, the PEO company will just
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  increase their administrative fees slightly every year.
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  And it's just, it's just easier to renew as is.
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  And you just don't realise after three to five years how much
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  you're really paying. And that's really where we come
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  in and just do our full analysis, help you find savings
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  on health insurance, workers comp insurance, the full
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  administrative fees and the overall package.
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  So. Yeah, 20 to 40% is pretty
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  significant and those are typically the average numbers
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  when we're looking at everything as a whole.
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  You know that that's, that's massive.
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  That is massive, 20 to 40%. If somebody does that for me, my
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  current company, I think I'll be praying for them every day.
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  You know, I'll prepare for that every.
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  Day the US, our, our Healthcare is just rising every year double
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  digits increases. So it's just constantly trying
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  to look at different creative strategies to save money on
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  costs on healthcare. But Speaking of creative
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  strategies and saving money, a lot of multinationals and global
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  institutions have actually been adopting methods like
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  outsourcing that is cross-border outsourcing.
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  So I'd like to know what your thoughts on that is and also the
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  use of freelancers to perform tasks that are not, or would I
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  say high risk? Yeah.
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  So I'm not sure if this is what you're talking you're talking
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  about, but what I typically see because I'm mostly working with
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  businesses that are headquartered in the US and they
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  have domestic employees here, US wise based.
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  But oftentimes they're hiring talent in other countries and
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  they don't want to go set up entities in those other
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  countries. Let's say they only have like
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  two or three employees in, you know, UK or Egypt, whatever
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  country it may be. I don't want to set up entities
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  because it's very costly. So there's another model kind of
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  similar to the PEO model. It's called the EOR model
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  employer of record model where you can actually outsource to
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  the ER model and not have to open up an entity in those
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  countries and then outsource to the EOR company and they can
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  help pay your employees, make sure you're compliant with all
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  the laws in those particular countries until you grow.
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  I mean, once you start to get to be, you know, 20 employees per
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  country, then it probably makes sense for you to open up your
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  own entity there and set up shop.
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  But often times, you know, in companies are just trying to get
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  the talent wherever they can, and sometimes it's spread out
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  between multiple countries. OK.
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  So how about the use of say contractors for example, for
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  like ad hoc projects. So there are companies,
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  especially tech companies that have one off projects, right,
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  that you don't need to employ a full time employee for.
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  So how do you help them save costs in terms of the and I
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  think the location matters a lot in terms of saving costs.
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  So you need to weigh the location and to the quality of
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  the talent pool. In our.
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  Country, I think a lot of people are going to locations like
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  India, Bangladesh, Pakistan in order to employ, to employ what
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  I say, talent from those places. What's what's the framework
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  around that? Well, if you're going to hire a
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  true contractor and, and they're true, not going to be an
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  employee and you're not, you're going to avoid paying taxes.
• 18:25
  You know, if you come into a grey line and every country is
• 18:28
  going to be a little bit different, but it does depend on
• 18:31
  the tasks that is involved, how long they're working for you.
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  So you really want to determine, meet with the professional first
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  to determine is this truly a contractor or is it an employee
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  where I have to pay taxes within that country.
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  But oftentimes no matter where you're paying people and no
• 18:48
  matter if it's a contractor or an employee, you still have to
• 18:53
  pay them. And if there's cost to do the
• 18:55
  money movement and you know whether you're wiring the money
• 19:01
  using other type of apps like wise and most companies want.
• 19:06
  To use wise. Yeah.
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  So similar PayPal or however you're using to pay these
• 19:11
  international contractors, there's a feat, there's a cost
• 19:15
  to doing that. Yeah, and people have been
• 19:17
  annoying lately. They've increased their fees.
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  Yeah, they've increased the fees and it just, and then sometimes
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  it just delays the the in person, the contractor getting
• 19:26
  their money. And so that can be disruptive
• 19:30
  there. So in an EOR model, it makes
• 19:33
  direct deposit really easy to do, to be able to do an AC-8 of
• 19:39
  the company's business account and then do direct deposit into
• 19:43
  the person, the contractor or the employee.
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  Very easy. You know, people want to get
• 19:50
  paid. If they're not going to get
• 19:51
  paid, they're not going to stay loyalty.
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  They're going to move on to another project.
• 19:55
  Whoa, no finance, no romance is the order of the day in the
• 20:01
  current global business ecosystem.
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  But when you talk about compliance I always tell people
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  that the cost of compliance is always less than the cost of non
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  compliance. Absolutely.
• 20:15
  You, you get somebody come in and to do a fine and tap to pay
• 20:19
  penalties. You know, I'm, I'm dealing just
• 20:22
  here in the US, the IRS comes knocking on your door, having to
• 20:25
  pay IRS penalties depart. We have the Department of
• 20:27
  Labour, they come knocking on your door.
• 20:29
  There's going to be some additional penalties there.
• 20:32
  We got different local and state entities that can also penalise
• 20:36
  you as well. And I imagine internationally
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  it's, it's the same. Every country is going to be
• 20:41
  different and there's going to be penalties if you're not, you
• 20:44
  know, abiding their laws and paying their taxes and being
• 20:47
  compliant with the people that you're hiring in their
• 20:49
  countries. Oh wow.
• 20:51
  So how do you help the CEOs not to lose their minds when it
• 20:55
  comes to the regulatory compliance issue?
• 20:59
  Well, helping them outsource whether they're all their
• 21:01
  domestic employees here in the US to the PEO model and any of
• 21:06
  their international people to the EOR model, which is the
• 21:09
  employer of record model. And the employer of record is
• 21:12
  actually taking on liability, liability of risk and compliant
• 21:17
  to make sure that everything is compliant in each country in the
• 21:21
  PEO model here domestically in the US, it's a what we call a Co
• 21:26
  employment. So it's a shared risk
• 21:28
  compliance. So both companies are named on
• 21:31
  any type of lawsuit, but at least you have a partner with
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  you that's going to help ensure they're going to help you dot
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  your IS cross your T's when it comes to compliance per state.
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  And often times, you know, what we see is employers will have
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  employees in certain States and then all of a sudden they'll
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  start hiring in different states.
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  That happened during COVID. They just started hiring
• 21:53
  wherever they found the talent. And you know, having to deal
• 21:56
  with different multiple states here in the US can be very
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  cumbersome. So you might be a very small
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  technology and only have 151015 employees, but every employee
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  might be in a different state and then maybe a few
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  internationally. Why take the risk of, you know,
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  being out of compliance fines and just why, you know, why
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  don't you just pay to outsource it to the professionals?
• 22:21
  Let them handle it. And that way you can focus on
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  what it is that you do, selling widgets, making widgets, what
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  you really want into business for.
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  Nobody ever goes into business because they want to handle
• 22:33
  their employees and making sure they're compliant in different
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  States and countries. I mean, nobody ever goes in,
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  nobody ever goes into business for that, right?
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  It's it's just a way too much headache.
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  And yeah, as a young CEO myself, the.
• 22:48
  Professionals. I, I, I know I don't always want
• 22:51
  any extra burden. It's a lot.
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  I think a lot of people want to be CE OS, a lot of people want
• 22:59
  to become CF OS. But I talk about this heavy lies
• 23:04
  the head that there's a crown. Heavy lies the head that wears a
• 23:09
  crown comes with a lot of responsibilities, you know, and
• 23:13
  a lot of risks. Yeah.
• 23:14
  The higher the risk, the higher the reward.
• 23:17
  But do you have the capacity to get the risk?
• 23:22
  Do you have the capacity to handle the responsibilities?
• 23:27
  Right. So it, it sounds really fancy,
• 23:30
  you know, to to be known as AC, to be known as ACFO.
• 23:35
  And I know, I know the burden that comes with it.
• 23:40
  And it's it's actually not funny.
• 23:42
  And I always say that I am the most authentic person walking
• 23:46
  the surface of the Earth, right? I'm sorry, Susanna, I know
• 23:50
  you're authentic, but I'm still, I'm still the world leader right
• 23:53
  now. I could beg to differ.
• 23:55
  Yeah, you can disagree, but it doesn't, it doesn't change what
• 23:59
  is on my books. You know, you notice that.
• 24:01
  And yeah, this is me being real. I joined the the the session for
• 24:06
  this podcast 5 minutes late. Exactly 5 minutes late.
• 24:10
  And trust me, I had to push myself, right, to make this
• 24:17
  episode work out today. And he would notice when I said
• 24:20
  there's a lot of goes on behind the scenes, right?
• 24:24
  People don't see the pains behind the canes, right?
• 24:28
  I was literally at the verge of postponing today's session.
• 24:32
  But I'm, I'm grateful I did not postpone it, right?
• 24:37
  There's been a lot, you know, going on behind the scenes in
• 24:40
  terms of the company structure, the company infrastructure, you
• 24:44
  know, talent recruitment, everything.
• 24:48
  And the CEO has to be on top of everything.
• 24:53
  Yeah, they have to do everything.
• 24:54
  Be the janitor and I'll pay the bills.
• 24:57
  Pay payroll. I'm telling you, be the janitor.
• 25:01
  God bless you for that. You know, it's, it's a lot, but
• 25:04
  I always pride myself in being being a 7th leader, right?
• 25:07
  And I tell the people that work with me.
• 25:09
  I tell that I work for you. You don't work for me, I work
• 25:12
  for you right? So please help me to help you.
• 25:17
  Yeah. OK.
• 25:20
  So you know, if you don't help CEO, right, everyone has to put
• 25:24
  in the work, right? Everybody has to put in their
• 25:26
  weight, right? And that actually is a great way
• 25:31
  to segue to the next question that I'm gonna ask you.
• 25:36
  And it is on growth without burnout.
• 25:39
  So like how do you help the CEO's win without getting burnt
• 25:44
  out? Because we often talk about
• 25:45
  skilling in revenue, but not enough about skilling in
• 25:49
  infrastructure. How does your see a team rather
• 25:53
  support that side of business and help CE OS to avoid burnout?
• 25:59
  Well, you know, here in the US, there's companies that are known
• 26:02
  as Unicorn companies. These companies are heavily
• 26:06
  funded with venture capital or private equity money or just
• 26:09
  personal money. But those businesses that are
• 26:12
  heavily funded know that they want to grow and they want to
• 26:16
  scale quickly. So majority of those companies
• 26:20
  are outsourcing already to the PEO model because they believe
• 26:25
  in the concept, they believe in outsourcing to the professionals
• 26:30
  to help them grow and scale. So if you're a company, you
• 26:34
  know, you typically or you're always looking at those Unicorn
• 26:37
  companies, like what are they doing different that I could be,
• 26:40
  you know, taken into some best practises as well.
• 26:43
  And that's, that's one of them. That's, that's definitely one
• 26:46
  that they do. They outsource to the
• 26:47
  professionals when it comes to HR benefits, payroll, and
• 26:51
  they're outsourcing to the top PEO companies.
• 26:54
  So you should take a look at the model if you're not currently
• 26:57
  doing so today. Absolutely.
• 26:59
  You know, it's always good to have, have professionals take
• 27:03
  off burdens from your chest. And yeah, that's, that's
• 27:07
  something we we actually do right here as well, right.
• 27:10
  Being professionals ourselves, we, we very much appreciate the
• 27:12
  work and the competence and specialisation of professionals
• 27:19
  that has to be taken very seriously.
• 27:21
  And I think for the CE OS, for the entrepreneurs, for the
• 27:25
  founders watching us today, if you do not take anything home
• 27:29
  from this episode, at least at least take that home.
• 27:33
  You know, at the very least take that home.
• 27:37
  You know, let's talk about the future of work and of course,
• 27:39
  the rise of smart partnerships. You know, what trends do you see
• 27:44
  in the future of HR and operational strategy?
• 27:47
  And how can CE OS prepare for that shift today?
• 27:53
  Well, I think the trend is, is often times when you're in
• 27:56
  startup mode, you don't have the revenue to be able to hire
• 28:00
  people internally and you can't afford to hire the the
• 28:05
  professionals internally until you've really grown into
• 28:07
  revenue. So what we're seeing is a lot of
• 28:10
  companies are outsourcing to the PEO model and then at some point
• 28:14
  when they get a certain revenue, a certain size of a number of
• 28:17
  employees bringing in some internal HR people.
• 28:21
  But they might not have to have such a large HR team if they're
• 28:25
  still using the PEO model at some point.
• 28:28
  Sometimes they might outgrow that model if they're able to
• 28:31
  afford to hire in the professionals in house and to be
• 28:35
  able to hire in a lot of the what we call the HRIS systems,
• 28:40
  the human resource information systems like an Oracle platform.
• 28:45
  You know, people in the accounting software probably
• 28:47
  recognise that software, those softwares can get pretty
• 28:50
  expensive. So at some point point, you
• 28:53
  know, your business might be able to afford to bring all that
• 28:57
  internally, but as you're growing and scaling, you know,
• 29:02
  why not use some professionals to outsource and help you grow
• 29:06
  and scale? I think that that's absolutely
• 29:10
  resourceful, absolutely resourceful.
• 29:12
  You know, we've been talking more from the business insight
• 29:16
  perspectives right today, but I'd love for you to give you a
• 29:20
  quick two cents on what the growth mindset means to you and
• 29:25
  what's style of leadership is what I say most appropriate for
• 29:30
  business success, right, The growth mindset for success and
• 29:34
  of course, the leadership style for success.
• 29:36
  I think the growth, the growth mindset to me as as a person
• 29:40
  that's always going to continue to be learning, no matter where
• 29:43
  you are in your life's journey or in your professional journey
• 29:47
  or whatever title that you might have in your work, we could
• 29:50
  always be learning. I mean, even the top
• 29:53
  professional athletes are always practising their skills.
• 29:57
  They're always willing to learn new skills and practises.
• 30:00
  So I think if we have the mindset of, you know, what can I
• 30:03
  learn today or if we're going to, you know, go to a seminar or
• 30:06
  whatever it is, we can always learn something else from
• 30:09
  somebody else or something else. And just keep keep an open mind
• 30:13
  no matter you know where you are professionally, what title you
• 30:16
  may have. Thank you very much for that
• 30:19
  one, and Many thanks to the Riverside at D10.
• 30:22
  When you're D10, it gives you the option of removing fluff,
• 30:25
  and I'm sure it's just going to like identify it very easily and
• 30:29
  remove the fluff from the conversation.
• 30:35
  OK, back to the conversation. You were talking about what the
• 30:38
  group mindset actually means to you, but in terms of business
• 30:44
  philosophy, right? For me, I always say that a win
• 30:48
  win perspective is the best philosophy for continued and
• 30:53
  sustained business success and collaborative leadership is the
• 30:58
  best type of leadership from my perspective.
• 31:01
  Yeah. What would you like to add to
• 31:03
  that in terms of what's modern day business leaders need to add
• 31:09
  to their arsenal in order to achieve success?
• 31:16
  Always be learning, always be humble, always keep an open
• 31:19
  mindset. You know, you could always learn
• 31:22
  for somebody else. So when you're talking about the
• 31:24
  win, win the mindset. There's always an opportunity to
• 31:27
  give back to others. Givers gain.
• 31:29
  You know, the more you give, the more you get.
• 31:32
  It's you. Reap what you sow.
• 31:35
  But some people are not even sewing, so how can they?
• 31:39
  They're not even sewing exactly. They're reaping nothing.
• 31:42
  Yeah. This reminds me of a past guest
• 31:46
  that said while we are playing chess, others are playing
• 31:48
  checkers and I was like some people are not even not at the
• 31:52
  board at all. Some people are playing nothing.
• 31:54
  Yeah, exactly. Wow, It's, it's, it's been a
• 32:00
  really, really great, haven't you?
• 32:03
  Aren't they? Because I definitely have a
• 32:06
  positive bias towards you because you are ACEO and of
• 32:12
  course your friends are CF OS. So why?
• 32:15
  Why hate when you can't collaborate?
• 32:18
  And that would lead me when. You can collaborate.
• 32:21
  I like. That, yeah, you can keep that.
• 32:23
  You steal it. Steal it, I give you.
• 32:25
  Hate when you can collaborate? There you go.
• 32:28
  Tell me why you know you've got a reason.
• 32:30
  Why? And you know, that's a good
• 32:31
  point because oftentimes I like to can collaborate with friendly
• 32:36
  competitors as well. There's always things that you
• 32:38
  can learn from one another. Absolutely.
• 32:40
  Versus being so cutthroat, why hate when there's opportunity to
• 32:44
  collaborate? Perhaps they might specialise in
• 32:47
  something else where, you know, there can be some synergies
• 32:51
  between friendly competitors. Absolutely.
• 32:54
  You know, and the the sky is big enough for the stars to shine.
• 32:59
  Absolutely. There's plenty of business too,
• 33:01
  to go around for everybody. Absolutely.
• 33:04
  You know, when you have a star mentality, it enables you not to
• 33:06
  be a gatekeeper. Because we're in the age of
• 33:10
  artificial intelligence, anybody can know anything.
• 33:12
  Anybody can gain, you know, superior competitive advantage
• 33:17
  by way of enhanced research. AI aciduates research.
• 33:22
  And for me, I've always been a good researcher.
• 33:24
  When I was in university, I had an A in my research course.
• 33:27
  So now adopting AI with my research today, it's just
• 33:33
  putting me on catalyst mode. And guess what, guess what, I'm
• 33:37
  AI, of course, my initials are at the AI, actually at the.
• 33:42
  So AI is my name. I guess my parents knew, they
• 33:46
  understood the assignment and like this one is going to be an
• 33:49
  AI enthusiast in the future. Let's give him a name that you
• 33:52
  know, will structure aim for the future.
• 33:55
  You know, my parents saw the future.
• 33:56
  Thank you very much. Love and respect to you guys.
• 34:01
  Oh, OK, so we're going to end with a quick firebound
• 34:05
  questions. 5 questions for you. Are you ready to rumble?
• 34:09
  Let's rumble in the jungle. OK, let's go, let's go.
• 34:14
  So number one, number one is one thing you wish more
• 34:19
  entrepreneurs understood about growth.
• 34:24
  The value of outsourcing to the professionals, I think I've
• 34:27
  pretty much talked a lot about that.
• 34:29
  But so many, especially the old timers, they want to do
• 34:33
  everything and they want to control everything and do
• 34:35
  everything themselves. Well, you're, you're going to be
• 34:37
  spread too then and you're not going to be able to grow your
• 34:40
  business efficiently if you're going to try to be everything to
• 34:43
  everybody. A Jack of all trades and a
• 34:46
  master of none. Of none, I'll tell you the.
• 34:49
  Joke that one of my God, rest his soul, he's late now.
• 34:54
  He was my lecturer when I was taking the courses to become a
• 34:58
  chartered accountant, right? He said something and yeah, he
• 35:02
  he was a Class 1 strategy, right?
• 35:04
  And he was like, there's this guy who is a founder and his
• 35:11
  title in the company is vice chairman.
• 35:17
  And his employees were like, excuse me, Sir, why did you give
• 35:22
  yourself vice chairman? Right.
• 35:24
  We've been working with you for a couple of years and we've
• 35:28
  never met the chairman who is the chairman of the company.
• 35:31
  And guess, guess what the guy said.
• 35:33
  Why? I said God is the chairman.
• 35:35
  I'm the vice chairman. There you go there.
• 35:39
  You go. And that's why I could do all of
• 35:41
  these two crimes. That strengthens me.
• 35:44
  Because he's God is the chairman.
• 35:46
  There you go. Like that's a good, that's a
• 35:48
  good enough practise to have, yeah.
• 35:51
  So you can steal that for your company now just, you know,
• 35:55
  change your designation to vice chairman, you know.
• 35:58
  Vice Chairman. God will be the chairman, you
• 36:00
  know. Yeah, absolutely.
• 36:04
  So #2 is what's the best piece of advice you've ever received
• 36:07
  in business? What was the best advice I've
• 36:12
  ever received? Make sure your books are clean.
• 36:14
  Make sure your books are clean because it's going to be easier
• 36:18
  for you to get financing, easier for you to get loans easier
• 36:22
  easily. You're going to be more taken
• 36:24
  seriously when you have your books in order and clean.
• 36:28
  And as as ACPA you would you would value that.
• 36:32
  Absolutely. The I remember the headaches I
• 36:34
  had to go through, you know, having to audit entities with
• 36:38
  that. Were a.
• 36:39
  Mess that were a. Mess and kept their books in a
• 36:42
  shoe box. It's, it's, it's never a nice
• 36:45
  thing. It just makes you unhappy.
• 36:48
  You wake up and you don't feel like getting out of the bed.
• 36:52
  Yeah. Whoa, OK #3I.
• 36:56
  Would say, say too, that it's really difficult for businesses
• 37:00
  to you want to not pay as much in taxes.
• 37:03
  You want to do everything legally to not pay as much
• 37:06
  taxes. But at the same time you want to
• 37:08
  show that you're making revenue so that way you can go out and
• 37:11
  get loans and there's always that fine balance.
• 37:14
  You know to really both. You don't want to pay undue
• 37:19
  taxes, but yet you want to make sure that you look very sound.
• 37:23
  Except for events versus tax evasion.
• 37:28
  So or go the tax avoidance route, not the tax evasion
• 37:32
  route. Totally.
• 37:35
  OK. So if you could automate one CEO
• 37:38
  headache forever, what would that be?
• 37:41
  Oh gosh if I can automate one CE OS headache forever, what would
• 37:44
  that be? Not have so many PE OS sales
• 37:47
  reps calling them every single day, all day long and messaging
• 37:50
  them on on LinkedIn and emailing non-stop.
• 37:54
  They're bombarded. I would just say tell them to
• 37:58
  come to me, to go through me, to work with you.
• 38:01
  Let me follow all the salespeople.
• 38:06
  Whoa, No, no, I just remembered, you know, the moment I decided,
• 38:15
  OK, I'm going to take entrepreneurship seriously and I
• 38:17
  switched my LinkedIn profile as CEO of my company, the rate at
• 38:25
  which I was getting these sales Peaches, the sales is reaching
• 38:29
  out to me. It's it's it's annoying.
• 38:32
  Yeah, it's pretty annoying, yeah.
• 38:34
  And I'm happy my my phone is permanently on.
• 38:39
  Do not stop, even though there are a lot of people close to me
• 38:43
  that don't like that fact. But yeah, unfortunately it has
• 38:48
  to be. And I'm glad you're bringing
• 38:49
  this up because a lot of calls are not are not important and
• 38:57
  it's important to actually evaluate what is urgent and what
• 39:01
  is important for you to divide your attention to.
• 39:05
  So one minds achieved that changed how you lead in
• 39:09
  business. And how I lead as in business,
• 39:15
  well, leading by example. And so this is kind of my first
• 39:19
  time being able to hire employees or consultants and,
• 39:22
  you know, other professionals that work with me as a team,
• 39:25
  really trying to lead by example and helping educate them where
• 39:31
  it's, it's, you know, it's that balance of really trying.
• 39:34
  Sometimes you get frustrated because just, you know, people
• 39:38
  have different backgrounds, don't come to the table with the
• 39:40
  same type of skill sets as I do with the many years of
• 39:44
  experience that I've had in the industry.
• 39:47
  And it could be very difficult for somebody coming in new to
• 39:49
  learn the industry. So being patient with the people
• 39:53
  that are on my team. Very important to say patience
• 39:57
  is a virtue. Patience is a virtue for a
• 39:59
  reason. And I think the last one on my
• 40:01
  list is in one sentence. What does smart leadership mean
• 40:05
  to you? Smart leadership outsource
• 40:09
  outsource to professionals. Smart they, they say there's,
• 40:13
  there's been nothing smarter than that.
• 40:15
  You know, there's been nothing smarter than that.
• 40:18
  And of course, Speaking of being smart, I would advise our
• 40:22
  audience to do the smart thing by going to peofortheceo.com and
• 40:31
  engage with the content that you have there and find ways to to
• 40:35
  do the smart thing. Smart leadership outsource to
• 40:39
  the relevant professionals that can handle business for you.
• 40:43
  Their business is to help you mind your business, right?
• 40:46
  And the name Susanna and Susanna, they're quite would I
• 40:50
  say oftentimes mistaken, but I don't want to mistake your name.
• 40:54
  So Susanna, right? It's a very big thank you from
• 40:57
  me to you. And I'd love for you to advise
• 41:01
  my audience, right, to do the smart thing by putting their
• 41:06
  weight behind the show, right? We've we've had a really big
• 41:11
  wins lately. I'm grateful guys, but I'm an
• 41:14
  Oliver Twist. I keep asking for more so.
• 41:17
  I would encourage the smart thing to do is hit the like
• 41:21
  button and subscribe and share to the audience.
• 41:25
  Oh fantastic. Fantastic.
• 41:28
  And of course, Susanna, your clarity, your energy and
• 41:31
  strategic mind have actually just turned HR from headache to
• 41:37
  hell. Yes, right.
• 41:38
  So thank you very much for dropping your actionable gems
• 41:42
  today. And of course, if you're a
• 41:44
  business owner or leader listening or watching, you are
• 41:48
  ready to skill without stress. Visit peofortheceo.com and of
• 41:55
  course, I am the CEO of SEO for podcasts.
• 41:59
  This is my Stan store today guys.
• 42:02
  So go look up the show notes from me to you.
• 42:04
  It's a very, very big thank you and of course, love and respect
• 42:07
  to you to the audience. I appreciate you guys.
• 42:10
  We are now global top 5% on listen notes today we crossed
• 42:14
  the threshold on YouTube of 15,000 YouTube subscribers.
• 42:18
  We have crossed the threshold of 10,000 subscribers on 10,000
• 42:24
  downloads and Dreams are on Spotify, so I'm I'm.
• 42:27
  Congratulations. Thank you very much for.
• 42:30
  That thank. You because before you go, do
• 42:32
  you want to leave a shout out for anyone before you leave?
• 42:37
  No, just want to say thank you for having me.
• 42:39
  It's been a pleasure. Feel free to follow me as well
• 42:42
  on LinkedIn at PEO for the CEO Susanna Martinez here.
• 42:46
  Fighting to maximise your benefits without overpaying and
• 42:50
  PEO fees. I just love the line PEO for the
• 42:54
  CEO, nothing sweeter. And of course guys, till I come
• 42:57
  your way again, keep winning and of course, God bless you guys.