Latest / Tracks To Success / Kent Skornia

Transcript

Kent Skornia · Tracks To Success

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hi there, everybody.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Craig Cann.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: Right now on this edition of Tracks to Success.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: What does it take to build a successful business without losing the culture, values, and people that made the growth possible?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: This man founded Crilogy in 2009 with a vision that went far beyond managing money.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: He wanted to build a wealth management firm where clients felt at home, team members felt valued, and leadership development was an ongoing part of the business plan.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: The name Cryogy means the art of accomplishment, the energy, discipline, and commitment required to turn a vision into results.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: And today, he leads a fast-growing and industry-recognized organization built around dedication, abundance, leadership, and respect.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: A former college quarterback, he's drawing up winning plays for everyone around him.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: His name is Kent Scornia.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: His inspiring story of success starts now.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Tracks to Success, the podcast that introduces you to inspiring people with inspiring stories.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's your chance to hear from top leaders, entrepreneurs, visionaries, and change makers as they share how they found their way to the top and how their journey can help you find your own.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And now here's your host, former network broadcaster, C-suite executive, best-selling author, and keynote speaker, Craig Kahn.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Kent, it's great to have you.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, for those watching and listening, friendship goes pretty far back.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, great respect from me to you.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so honored to have you on Tracks to Success.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much, buddy.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Honor to be here, my friend.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's been our journey's been really fun over the last probably two decades from coming up on and excited to be here.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let's start at the beginning.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I got this question for you.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: I was thinking of which direction I might want to go.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's pretty easy, actually.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: What first attracted you to the financial services industry?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, was that something when you were a kid?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: You said, I love numbers, I love, you know, dealing with money, people, et cetera.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: How did it happen?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Not really.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: My my original goal, you know, I graduated with a history degree.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: I uh was just gonna be a high school history teacher and a high school football coach.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I joke, I still might, actually, Craig.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but no, I I had a job in right out of school.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: I worked for a technology company in 1999, and I was in sales for that organization, and I joked that we uh, you know, we tried to solve the Y2K issue, um, which we did, which basically means nothing happened, so it worked.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I actually made some good money, and I had a financial advisor at the time.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I called the only person I knew in the financial advisory world, and that was a guy named John MacArthur.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And he worked for a company called AG Edwards at the time.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: And um Johnny and I knew each other because we both were quarterbacks at the University of Missouri.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I would go into those meetings, just really, you know, dialed in on the portfolio management.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: I asked him a lot of questions, I asked him a lot of conversations.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: We had great conversations, and one day he looked at me and goes, Kent, you you should consider doing this.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that that weighed on me for a few months, and um just so happened I was at a party and met somebody who worked at a financial firm here in St.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Louis and they had a good training program.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: And a year later I was in the business, and that's how it all started.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's pretty interesting.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh all things tie somehow to football.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: We'll get back to that in just a minute.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: I want to ask you what your definition of wealth is.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I speak to clients a lot about this.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, there's there's different levels of finance in terms of you know financial security, and that's really what it comes down to.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the first one is you gotta be able to pay your bills.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Second one is you need to pay your bills and save some money.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then the third one is how do you create truly balance sheet wealth where you know you're starting to save for the future and you can eventually not work?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's the financial side, I think.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Most of the time when I'm speaking with clients, when they're looking at either selling their company or retiring, it's really about the choice to work.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And what do you do with that choice?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Is it to spend more time with your grandkids or kids or travel or you know, do some sort of charitable work?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but but wealth to me is really about that moment when you have the choice to do what you want to do with your time.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: And um that typically is the moment for most people who are like, okay, well, you know, it's not about accumulating more wealth, it's about about getting more time.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: And as you and I both know, as we age, time is precious, and time with family is precious, or time with whatever passion you have is precious.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that's really what wealth means to me.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a good answer.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I think health factors into that as well.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um able to have that ability to spend the money you work so hard for.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: You just mentioned the college quarterback, University of Missouri.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you transferred as well, but what did football teach you about competition, preparation, leadership that you're using now?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you founded a company and you're president of a company.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: What did football help you with?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: First and foremost, this is the greatest team sport of all time.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there is no um sport out there that everyone relies on everybody else.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's such on every single play.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: And as a quarterback, you can imagine you know, we need the offensive line, we need the running backs, and we need the wide receivers to be doing exactly what they're supposed to do at that moment, uh, so everybody else can actually achieve the play.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the team is the most important piece that is uh underestimated.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: And when I say that, it's not just about executing the play, it's building the relationship so that you trust your teammates.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that is done not on the field, it's done off the field, it's done in the locker rooms, it's done in the meeting rooms, it's done socially.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I've taken that, I've taken that more when I build out my team here at Crilogy.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: It is really about understanding, you know, what they where they come from, respect.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: We have four um values here in the in the organization: dedication, abundance, leadership, and respect.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Respect where they come from, respect how they come to work.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and football really taught me that, you know, that when you get on a football team with a hundred people from all parts of life, all over, it doesn't matter where they come from, how they got there, it's about what is their contribution to the team and can I trust them?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And can they trust me?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the way to build trust is through relationships and and getting to know one another.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, so that trust factor is really important.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the only way to do that is to build relationships with people.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's probably the most important piece.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the leadership side, you know, I joke to the quarterbacks.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: I just had lunch today with a quarterback who was um he's 13 years younger than me.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Did you even huddle back in the now?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they barely huddle.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: But when you stepped into the huddle when I played, you had to command the huddle.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: You are the leader by default, whether you wanted to or not.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes, you know, you might question yourself, but you better not question your tone.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the team needs to know that you are the guy who's gonna take them to where they need to be.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you may not be the guy who's gonna take the ball over the goal line, but you all you need to be the guy who keeps everybody aligned and organized to make sure you can execute.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that leadership factor there was really paramount in terms of how I built Crilogy.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm very fortunate in the sense that I got to experience college football at that level.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Going back to that John MacArthur person I mentioned earlier, I met John MacArthur, my first financial advisor, because we were quarterbacks at Mizzou together.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: We were roommates.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And he is now my partner and my chief investment officer.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: And he joined the firm just a couple years after I started it.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: And why is that?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, he's one of the hardest workers I've ever met.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: He's one of the smartest people I've ever met.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I trusted him 100% with all the money that we managed inside our firm.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: So all that stuff still goes back to that original team mentality.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: You transferred as you, as you um, you know, is part of your story.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: And did that experience help you with understanding the value of changing direction?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we we changed direction in money, we changed direction in life, we got pivots all over the place.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that that's a pretty monumental change to go, I'm leaving one school, I'm going to another school.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: How did that?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I think what it taught me most is that when you get to a difficult um fork in the road or decision to make in your life, there are there are amazing benefits to it, and there's going to be things you look back on and regret a little bit.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think there, you know, on that decision, I I look at that decision, and I knew going into it that there would be both sides of the equation there.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And the most difficult decisions have, you know, things you experience and you appreciate and things you regret.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you really, after you make the decision, you move on.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: I had an amazing experience uh at at uh SIU Carbondale.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: I got to lead the team for two years.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: I had great friends that I met there.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I just got off the phone with one of my really close friends there, our backup quarterback again, a gentleman named Marcus Capone, who is, if you if you Google him, he runs an organization called Vets, Veterans Experience Experienced Treatment Solutions, and he's finding solutions for veterans with PTSD.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Marcus and I just spent a half hour on the phone trying to figure out more ways for us to continue our foundation here at Crilogy to invest more into those experiences for vets.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: I would have never had that without that transfer.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's gonna be that that conversation today is one of the most inspiring conversations I'll have for a long time, just because Marcus is so inspirational.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: At what point did you say I have the belief it will take not just the knowledge, the belief to run a firm, to build a firm of my own, because that's what you've done successfully.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't I don't know if I ever sat there and said, I'm you know, I'm the guy, I'm gonna do this.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think it more started from I wanted a better experience for our clients.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the only way for me to build that experience was to do it on our own.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I took myself, a junior advisor, and my assistant, and us three set out on this journey to better build a better experience for our clients.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: That was that's the genesis of who we are, and it's the it's in the DNA of what we do in terms of all about that client experience.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: The second piece, though, is that I love to be around people who want to grow.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: And when you grow, whether you like it or not, you're going to grow.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: And once you start to grow a company, you need to figure out quickly how to scale it.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it it is a skill set that is completely different than financial advice.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I had to make decisions along the way that am I gonna be an advisor or are I gonna be an operator of an organization and get fulfillment through that avenue.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I chose, I love operating the organization, I love leading the organization.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's very challenging.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not as if I stepped out one day and says, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna build a$5 billion company.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: I I I stepped out one day saying I want to build a better experience for our clients, and it grew from there and I had to evolve as as the organization grew.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: Here's what's interesting you launched Crilogy in 2009, right?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: So if we go back to 2009, I know I remember it well, a time of enormous economic uncertainty.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that doesn't seem like the time, unless you're so committed to the fact that that everybody's struggling, everybody's stressed, everybody doesn't know which way they're going, and we can really deliver that client experience.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why did you believe that was the right time?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I could tell you I had the foresight to say this is the bottom.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we started it truly like Christmas of 08.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: The market bottomed out the second week of March of 09.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I could tell you I had that foresight.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: I did not.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: I was more passionate about the client experience that we wanted to deliver and felt like if we did that over a long period of time, we would have success.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: I was really fortunate, Craig, that I was young and naive, being 33 years old, wow, um, and thinking that I could do this.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we had Andrew, my wife and I, we had uh three kids under the age of six.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: She gave me massive support to build it.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And as it started to snowball, we made sacrifices and she made a lot of sacrifices, and we had a lot of support in order to get to where we are today.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: And there have been a lot of people inside crylogy who sacrificed a lot to get here.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, it was never really about trying to build something astronomical, it was really more about just that client experience.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: I remember very vividly when you started it and we had a conversation.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: You said, Craig, do you know what crilogy means?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, No.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: And you were very proud to tell me what it means.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: Tell everybody else what it means and why it's so important.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, part of that client experience that we talk about is I I just don't like vanilla financial advice where everybody gets the same portfolio.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: They tell you to put together a financial plan, they give you a financial plan, they don't really work the financial plan.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: They tell you to go get your taxes done, they tell you to go get your estate planning finished.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um so for us, it was more about getting things accomplished for our clients because we can always write something down on paper and tell our clients to go do it, but who's going to do it?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: The difference between what we do and how we approach it is we get things accomplished for our clients.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: That is who we are.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: So acrilogy, if you break the word down in Sanskrit, KRI means to do, to make, or to accomplish.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: L O G Y means the um the art and study of.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: So crilogy is the art of accomplishment.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: And in the end, it's about us getting things accomplished for our clients, no matter what the topic is.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: It might, you know, we have an old story around here that we had one of our elderly ladies who was a client of ours who, by the Social Security Office, thought she was deceased because she inadvertently clicked the wrong button on an application one time.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: And one of our advisors, Pat O'Brien, who's a senior partner here at Crilogy today, he went to the Social Security Office multiple times over the course of a year and actually got it changed.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: And they actually had a birthday party for her because they brought her back to life in the eyes of the Social Security Office.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: That is an example of something that we want to do for our clients on a daily basis.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: From premium golf headwear to standout apparel and accessories, Ahead has built its reputation on quality, creativity, fast delivery, and taking care of its customers.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: They've never been content to follow trends.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: They've built a brand by studying them.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: If you're looking for gear that helps you look your best on and off the golf course, visit aheadusap.com and don't forget to use the code TTS30.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's TTS30 to receive 30% off your personal order.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: Ahead, premium headwear, apparel, and accessories, and the official headwear of the Tracks to Success podcast.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: We're talking with Kent Scorney, a guest on Tracks to Success, founder and president of Crilogy.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: We now know what Crilogy means.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: Here's one for you.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: When did you realize maybe there was a moment, maybe there hasn't been, that this is bigger than me now, right?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: You have the vision.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we've built something with real momentum.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: You talked about scale.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: This is bigger than Ken Scornia.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: It came out of a moment of chaos, Craig.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um we were growing really rapidly, we were doing great work for our clients.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, our our team was stressed out.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Every decision was coming through my office, and I wasn't, you know, equipped to take care of that volume, that that that much decision making.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: And my team was also willing and able and competent to make the decisions.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we had to make a decision on how to actually operate the organization at scale.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we brought in a consultant that we worked with for two years to help our strategic planning group put together a true plan, three to five year strategic plan, and then daily operating rhythm meetings and quarterly meetings where we actually stuck to the plan.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Which is funny about that because once we started that work, it felt like I was back in college on the football schedule.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Every quarter you had this, every, you know, every year you did this, every summer you did that.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: And as long as you stuck to the plan, you're gonna get better and better every day.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but it really came out of chaos because we were growing so fast, things got chaotic.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: And if I didn't figure out how to give empower my team to make the decisions on the daily basis, we weren't gonna grow.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: We were going to stall.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Once we got that figured out, then we kept the momentum going.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's cool.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's really wild.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: Chaos is so big in how we handle adversity or stress and move it forward for positive uh growth.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: Can you think to building a competitive organization and creating a culture where people are actually in love with the idea of competing against each other, but they're really not competing against each other?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like everybody's trying to lift everybody else up.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's what you've built in there.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna talk a lot more about culture because it's such a big part of trilogy.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, can you build a competitive organization like that?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh absolutely.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: You just need the people who want to think the way we believe.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: You and I have these conversations about business all the time.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: My friends and I have conversations about business all the time.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: They are building great businesses, great companies.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're building a great company.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: You inspire me when you build when you and I get on the call.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: I should uh hopefully I inspire you when you and I talk, you know, just in terms of like, what are you doing?
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me what's happening.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you and I might go eight weeks, ten weeks, twelve weeks sometimes because we're really busy, and then we get on the call.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, tell me what's going on, tell me what's happening, right?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's the juice we get from one another.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think when people who want to grow and build great things, even though an advisor might take care of their own um book of business or clients, they want to be around other advisors who are sharing ideas and helping each other grow.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, it's a mindset.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: I will I will give an example about culture.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: So we do MA, you know, we'll buy a firm, we'll recruit advisors in, we do we have an amazing development program.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're one of the few firms in the industry with a development program as robust as ours in terms of creating new advisors in the industry.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: But when I sit with a potential acquisition, the first half hour is about our values and our rules of engagement and our culture.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: And my judgment of them is whether or not they're nodding their head or they're staring at me.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if they're nodding their head, I know they're cut from the same cloth I am, which means they're cut from the same cloth that everybody else in this organization is.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: And if that's the case, we can basically move on to the next piece because they want to be around people like that.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now, they may not have articulated the way we have, you know, with our purpose, um, but they see it and they feel it and they want to be around it.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: You get enough people doing that.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's competition, but it's healthy and it's fun and it's inspiring.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: I want to talk about people.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it's one of the things that I probably miss the most about what I used to do in being out at tournaments and in front of large groups and so forth.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm kind of running my own lane, but I get so much energy from standing in front of a team or a group or an organization and seeing them light up about things that can make them better.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I had that opportunity in front of your team, and I was thrilled to be a part of it.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I know what culture means to you.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: And some leaders, many probably, say, oh, our people are our greatest asset.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: But to you, it's kind of personal.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like developing people is such a big part of you as a leader.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Is that a fair statement?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think it goes back to that, you know, I wanted to be a coach, I wanted to develop talent from the very beginning.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it's sort of in my own DNA to to be a part of that.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think it there's nothing better.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: I just was texting someone last night late.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: He just they um a 33-year-old, you know, young man here who they had their second baby.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: And he he came to us, he was a a son of one of our clients.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: He interned with us, graduated college, and joined us right out of school.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: And we've watched him grow from you know, this knucklehead in high school to this amazing young man, married two kids, got a great book of business, has a CFP, has is there anything better?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think so.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, to me, that that's fulfillment, that is exciting to see.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you just want the best for those.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure I will ever lose that.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: I hope I don't.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think um that's what actually gives me juice in the organization.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's it's also an honor to be a part of it and to be in the position I am in because I do get to hear all and see all this development around me.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then the best part is you get to watch, you know, your second and third level leaders also turn into these coaches and development people.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, you know, you get that going.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it creates a meaningful organization.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, by the way, Craig, our our purpose here at Crilogy is to inspire two.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Serve and to enrich lives.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: We should be doing that with our teammates every single day, with our clients every single day, and everything we do in terms of what we touch here at Cryology should always follow that purpose.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it feels very worthwhile over time as you get to witness the things that people do.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: That makes me really proud to be a part of it.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so let's follow that up.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: What's the difference between teaching somebody to do a job or to bring somebody into the firm and then developing them into a leader?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we think about succession plans and stuff, somebody who can really climb the ladder.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: What's what's that difference?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if you go from uh Jim Collins' Good to Great book, you know, there's really five levels of leadership.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: That first level is you're just a doer, you're a capable teammate, you get tasks given to you, you do that job.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then at the top is you're a visionary and you need to set the strategic vision for the organization.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And somewhere in between there, you need to grow.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: So when I speak my leadership team often, we speak about those different levels.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, sometimes, you know, I just filled out a baseball card for the interns this year.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: They made everybody do a baseball card for the organization.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And they they leave tomorrow.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I waited to the last minute to fill mine out.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: And they asked me my title, and I wrote founder, CEO, and sometimes janitorial.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why I put that is because I walked through our cafe, and if there's a piece of trash on the ground or the the countertop needs to be clean, that's that's my job to do that that work.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it takes you need to go down and do task, but other times you need to be a visionary and a strategic leader.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you need to oscillate between those things.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, my job today is more on that, you know, upper level, but for my leaders, it's really difficult, and this is where mentorship and spending time together really comes in.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's really difficult to turn from a doer and as someone who does tasks and projects at a really high level to a person who helps somebody else get those things accomplished because you're mentoring, not managing.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: Think back to yourself at 33, or when you, I'm gonna use your term because you used it, you said knucklehead.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe that applies to you.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: What did you need most when you were a young advisor trying to build your career as you look back?
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: What did you lack?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Organization.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I lacked the ability to step back and and really create a long-term plan.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was more about, you know, you get you start to take care of a large group of clients, you really take care of those clients, more clients show up because you're doing a good job, um, and then you're reacting, you know, and you just want to continue to do an amazing job.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you're growing, so you feel like you're doing something positive, but it it gets to a moment where if you're not organized and you don't step back and actually put together a real strategic plan for yourself, uh, you feel disorganized and stressed out.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I don't know if you can be coached on that until you actually go through it because you really appreciate the strategic thought process after you've been through some chaos.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, I had a lot of mentors in my career.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: One of them would be a gentleman named Rusty Keeley.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: He runs Keeley Construction, you know, they're close to a billion dollar revenue firm here in St.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Louis, or you know, they're based in St.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Louis.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: But he told me one day, and I didn't listen to him, he said, you need to have a coach to help you with your strategic planning.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, we're too small for that.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I can't afford a$50,000 year coach.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: And um so I waited two years, and those two years were not great.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he was right, and I just didn't listen to him.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I needed to go through more chaos in order for me to, you know, there's there had to be a catalyst for me to get to a spot where I needed to think more strategically.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: In addition to hosting this podcast, Craig leads the Cannes Advisory Group, empowering companies and individuals to elevate communication and build brand awareness with bold ideas, lasting impact, and his signature brain shoe style.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: From company consulting and team workshops to one-on-one coaching and transformational virtual programs, Can Advisory guides people to communicate with greater clarity, confidence, and impact.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you're a leader looking to give your team a game-changing one-day experience or an individual who wants to become a speaker and presenter people remember, visit CanAdvisory.com.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when you connect, mention the Tracks to Success podcast to receive a special discount on Canadvisory Services.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's CanAdvisory.com.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, back to the interview.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: Talking with Ken Scornia, founder and president of Crilogy in St.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Louis, but growing as well now in Dallas.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, let's follow up what we just talked about here.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of uh listening to others, maybe taking your hand off the steering wheel, maybe delegating.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: Hardest lesson sometimes for a founder is letting go.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_02: Is that right?
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: And how hard has that been for you?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: I can't tell once I figured out that how to scale it, if I'm lazy or I'm just really good at delegating and letting go.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I have really, I would say, mastered the ability to make sure that I give the projects to the people who can affect those projects in the most positive way, who are the most who have the highest expertise.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason for that, Craig, though, is because I care mostly about making sure what's best for the organization and how do we continue to move forward for the organization and how do we hit our strategic goals.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: In order to do that, you have to have belief in the people that can work that you're working with.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I think, you know, for me, I have made the jump to, you know, delegation and mentorship and helping people lead.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, now it's though, it's it's more about how do I get them the resources they need to execute.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: And um, that's really my job.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm gonna praise on you a little bit and and uh allow you to talk about it, hopefully.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: You recently were in Minneapolis.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: I remember seeing it myself out there publicized, being recognized as a finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's big stuff.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: What was that like when you found out you were a finalist?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: What was it like to be in that room?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Humbling.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um I brought, you know, my my a couple of key executives and our wives who got up there.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: We had a table.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: It was really, really amazing.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's you know, I would say that it was humbling.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it was an honor of a lifetime.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think it it says a lot about what our team has built.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was the lucky one who got to you know stand up there and represent the organization.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's a it's a representation of you know just how much the team has accomplished over all these years.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um but you know what, Craig?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: There are some amazing organizations out there, and they're doing amazing things.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember sitting there watching the first um group get their award, and I looked at my wife, Andrew, and I said, uh, Ben, we're some pretty heady company here.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is uh there's some people doing some really amazing things.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: And again, you talked about competition earlier.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't, you know, I wasn't competitive, I was inspired.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it also stretches your limits in terms of like, you know, maybe we can be doing some things different and better.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and I also think that goes back to that those days of being an athlete.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Every athlete, and you know this, we just talked about it with your golf game, but every athlete is striving to get a little bit better every single day.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the only way for that to happen is you have to have some humility.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: You have to have some goals, you need to be driven, but you need to have humility.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I think being in Minneapolis that night, you know, was super inspiring, but also very humbling.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it I came back with more fire.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say, I I saw that quote from you that it lit a fire.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: So, what fire did it light?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think it lit the fire of, you know, there are times we oscillate as entrepreneurs between like day-to-day, quarterly grind, making sure you're taking care of your company, and then also that vision moment of like how where do we want to take this?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: And not take it to like, you know, we're going public or anything like that.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's more about where do we want to take the client experience?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: What are you know, there's only three things I can invest in in the organization.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's team, it's it's culture, and it's clients.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, where do we want to make those investments?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then how creative can we get to make those investments really pop?
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, for example, clients.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what other things can we be doing for our clients that are beyond you know, sort of the the vanilla um that they receive on a daily basis from other competitors?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: Or what can we do be doing for our team?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, you know, that's what inspired me.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: It really sort of um just got me in a mode of we need to be thinking bigger, different, more unique, um, and and and have a little bit different approach.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, a lot of times a big recognition like that seems like a finish line.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, people are awarded something at the end of a career, and for you, it seems hardly like that's the case, almost the beginning of something.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: Is that I got that right?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, it's very accurate.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that there are times in in in athletics and really in business.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I I said to my kids the other night, I said, people remember, hey, this is Kent's Corner, you play football at Mizzou or Carbardale.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: I only played there for like three years, and you know, I threw a lot of interceptions and like I got booed by the fans.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh, and I had some great moments there, but that's not who that that that hasn't defined me.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: I've done a lot more things in business with my team that I'm really proud of.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: But my point is this I got the scholarship to Mizzou, thought I made it, then you get to Mizzou and you're like, oh, we gotta go.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like, let's go, right?
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then you do your next thing in life and you're like, I did it.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then you like it, it lasts like five hours, and you're like, oh, well, let's get to work.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that experience was one of those similar moments where you appreciate it the moment, but you got more work to do.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that's I feel like there's more things coming down the pike that way, we as an organization are gonna feel that way as well.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's talk about that a little bit.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: The markets can be very, very volatile.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I tell people quite a bit when I'm working with leaders, top leaders, that um, what separates a great leader when everything's going great, no eyes are really on you.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: But when things are going bad, when things are a little stressful, eyes are on you to see how you relax relax or how you relate or how you recover, whatever it might be.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: So, what separates a great leader in that to provide leadership in volatile moments?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I don't know what separates leaders.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you how I judge myself.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: I judge myself on am I going to follow our purpose?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Am I going to follow our values?
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Am I going to follow our rules of engagement?
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then am I going to be the one standing up there and leading this organization, whether it's something great, something difficult.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, markets can be difficult, they can be challenging.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but in the end, you know, I need to lead by example.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I would tell um, you know, I would tell everybody if we're living by our our our purpose, our values, our rules of engagement, we're gonna be fine, you know.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: And in the end, we'll we take care of clients.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I my first few clients, you know, I started in 07, and I'm sorry, I started in 2002.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: And in 2001, there was a market meltdown.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was a dot-com crash.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: And my first few clients in the business, literally, here's what I told them, Craig.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: I said, last year you lost 30% of your portfolio and your advisor did not call you.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: If we lose 30% this year, I'll at least call you.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what they did?
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: They hired me.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, so you know, in the end, we we need to be taking care of clients.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, markets are gonna go up, they're gonna go down.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it'll be more dramatic than others.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but if we put together great plans, we should be okay.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now, you know, if if if if there are challenges in the business, I think that's a little bit different uh space.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: But my job is to be a steward of this organization and not to put us in any really risk, really risky spots that we actually have any sort of risk on the organization.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very conservative about that.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's the original entrepreneur in me, in terms of like, you know, don't take any shots below the waterline.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: Don't put yourself in a position to take any shots below the waterline.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, you know, we'll we'll adhere to that for a long time.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: Last little question here before we take a quick break, and that's the topic of communication.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've had the great fortune to work with some financial organizations and one-on-one with some advisors, some senior advisors, et cetera.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because they have to communicate with clients, they have to connect with people.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm a big three Cs guy.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: You got to connect first, then you can communicate, and then you convince.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: Whether convincing is everything's gonna be okay or you need to go a different path, whatever that might be, but you got to get people to lean in.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: So, communication to me is leadership.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: Leadership is communication.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't have it, there's confusion, there's chaos, there's conversation, and we don't need all that.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_02: So, what do great financial advisors put yourself back a few years over the people that you work with, understand well about communication, maybe things you teach that others might miss.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: How big is communication?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's paramount.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, half of half of our job is um psychological.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: Money is really stressful, it's really exciting.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: Even big money can be stressful.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: I can tell you the most stressful moment for folks or you know in their life is selling your company.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh, you built your life, you've got all this equity in the company, and you're getting ready to get get liquidity on that.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh that's a stressful moment because guess what?
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: You've been building your whole life to and then all of a sudden you sell this baby, and then you walk in Monday and you have nothing to do, and you look at your wife, or you look at your spouse, and they're they're like, now what are you gonna do?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, I don't know.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'll play golf, and then eight days later you're tired of golf.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, you go a different direction where you know, and you and I have lived through this deeply, Craig.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, you you got adult kids in college, you got sick parents, you're dealing with both of them, you got feet in two different boats, you got a career that's taken off, like all that stuff.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's stressful.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, getting back to the answer on communication.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: Advisors need to understand where people are and where they're operating from at that moment.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's why our one of our values is respect.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone walks into our organization with a story, something they're excited about, a whole list of things they're excited about, and a whole list of things they're stressed about.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's our advisor's job to understand that list because the plan that they put together should help create some sort of security for that list of anxieties.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it may not be everything, but it should at least help eliminate some of those anxieties or mitigate some of those anxieties.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um the communication piece is really for me more about understanding where people are and where they are in their in that point in their life, which means you have to ask questions.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: And the most difficult part for new advisors to ask difficult questions.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, where are you really right now, right, Mr.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: and Mrs.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: Klein?
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: How are you really feeling?
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you sort of gave me the classic answer, but I want to know what's really happening.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I think communication is having a little bit of courage, a lot of courage to ask the difficult questions.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: And not even difficult questions, the questions that you may not ask everybody.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: But if they're coming to you for financial advice, they're coming to you because they have goals, objectives, and concerns and worries.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: You can't answer all those things or accomplish those things without asking real courageous questions.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I'd actually answer it, put an extra C in there for you, Kurt.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Looking for a guest speaker for your next event or annual conference, Craig brings an inspiring and empowering message your audience won't soon forget.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Visit Craigcanspeak.com to learn more and hear what audiences are saying about the greens you experience making an impact at events across the country.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's Craigcanspeak.com.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when you connect, mention the Tracks to Success podcast to receive a special discount on your event with Craig.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, back to the show.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_02: Winding it down with Kent Scornia, the founder and president of Crilogy.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I think I've got a couple of tough ones before we head out of here.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I want you to talk to me about superpower.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you're a mentor, you try to find the the best in the people that work with you or for you.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know your own superpower?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: I know, you know, I I I really I'm not sure I can really pinpoint a superpower.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think um I think my superpower would be that I I love working in the parameters of the purpose of our organization and the values inside of organization.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: If you if we stay in those parameters, um you know, this organization's gonna be really, really great.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people spend a lot of money with consultants and they tell you what values and purpose the organization has.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then the CEO or the leadership team might get up there and actually might say something about, you know, like we should follow these rules of engagement or follow these values.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: For me, it's different.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: I I believe in them to my core.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: So preaching it is natural.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say my superpower is the absolute 1,000% belief in who we are as a culture inside this organization because I preach it relentlessly.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, when I was at LPJ as chief communications officer, people would say, What's your role?
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: What's your title?
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Very easy.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a passion promoter.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, What's that mean?
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_02: I go, I want to find the passion in the athletes, I want to find the passion for the organization, and my job is to show other people that I'm passionate about it.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_02: And if I can get some people to jump on board with me, all for the better.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: So and that snowballs, doesn't it?
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_02: It does snowball, or you try to make it snowball.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the best uh people um out there in communication, getting back to that, like we can all write great notes down, we can all put really cool things on paper and say, these are our core values, these are this, this is my resume.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: But if you can't bring it to life in front of an audience, be it one person, two people, two thousand, two hundred, whatever, then then you need to sit back and go, how can I be better at that?
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's one of the most important values somebody can bring.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: So and by the way, you do when you like when you talk about inspiring and passionate, like you you do bring that out.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: You can tell when you start to talk about it, you're like you start to get exciting.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that that's real.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you try to you try to be real.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_02: People need to see that authentic version of yourself.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_02: This podcast is called Tracks to Success.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's not this, it's not a straight line.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: It never is.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: There's detours, there's turns.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: You've talked about many of them with trilogy.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, how important are those?
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: Were those?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: Have those been for you in your journey, your track, and the companies.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: I would say no human being is perfect and no company is perfect.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: And when people say to me, Congratulations and everything you guys have built at trilogy, I say thank you very much.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: And if it's another entrepreneur, I say, congratulations to you too.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then I say, I know exactly what you're thinking right now.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, What?
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: I said, You're thinking of all the things that are wrong with your organization today, aren't you?
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: And he's and they say, Yes, it's exactly what happens.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: You can't get better unless you make mistakes.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: You can't, it's impossible.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't make a mistake and you're a perfect organization, um, you're just gonna stay flat.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's true of human beings.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, and so you know, one of the things that you need to have is you know resilience.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: And stress is hard and stress is difficult, but there's only a couple answers to stress, and that's action.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_01: Take action and go for it.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's your only answer to eliminate that stress.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: I've got two questions for you before we head out of here, and they're tied to the definition of success.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I want your opinion.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: Let's start with somebody who's an aspiring leader.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_02: Aspiring, climbing the ladder.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: What's the one thing you think that they can do to begin building a better version of themselves for success?
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you need to be able to do your job at a high level and you need to take care of your team first and foremost, and define team, the people who work under you, next to you, over you, around you, the people that you're working with on a daily basis, you need to make sure you build great relationships with your team.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then you need to be very confident in doing your work.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think those are sort of baseline requirements.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: You if you're if you're incapable of getting anything accomplished on your day-to-day job, no one's going to respect you.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: If you do a great job on your on your work and you're terrible at culture, no one won't work with you.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: So if you do those things together, I think that'll take care of most of it.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then the second thing I would also say is I think most people would be surprised, but sometimes I take a Monday morning from 8 a.m.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: to one o'clock, and I go to a coffee shop next to Washington University, and I've been doing that since day one.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I sit there and I just write and think and just keep an open book.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: And um it really helps me take a step away so that when I do come in, because Tuesdays are actually a really busy day for our Struggy 2 planning group, I come in there with a more um open mind, more patient.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um And you know, better ideas and and better mindset.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of times entrepreneurs and leaders start to work more and more and more, and they never take a step back and they end up stressed and they end up, you know, short fused, and it doesn't really add to it.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: I tell I say that to my team here take time.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's okay to take some time.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: So because if they're a leader, that means they're a natural worker and they want to do great things.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's not as if you have to tell them to work more, you actually have to tell them to work a little bit less and get more strategic in thought.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: I I buy into that big time.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_02: I've told my kids, I've told other people.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if I have a fault that I will fully admit, it's that when I was younger, climbing the ladder, so to speak, I was too worried about climbing the ladder.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I never sat back and celebrated the little successes along the way.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't celebrate myself.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: I just kept going and going and going.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_02: And it's exhausting after a while to feel like you're never achieving something.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: And some something you said earlier about, you know, selling a company in the stress or or the get out, if you will, brings me to legacy and success.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_02: And my final question for you when you do step aside, do you think about the legacy you would want to leave?
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying you're selling your company, that's not my question.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_02: The legacy that you want to leave behind, what would that be?
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_01: That my wife and kids love me.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean that that that's it.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: That if um you know, if there are business associates who are at my retirement party, they say can't had an impact on my life, you know, and and my team hopefully says that he had a major impact on my career.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not expecting to be the only impact.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_01: They're they they're gonna do amazing things.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_01: But just a small one would be nice.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a worthwhile endeavor.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, you know, clients who interact with Crilogy appreciate what we do and appreciate the work we do for them.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: And if we can do that, that seems like a really worthwhile living.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, this has been a real worthwhile conversation.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, totally appreciate it.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: We've uh we've been friends for quite some time, and I learned something every time I talk to you.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate all of it, and I know everybody that's paying attention to this appreciates it as well.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you're the best, my man.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you too.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_02: One last segment I call Getting Ahead, which is focused on you and your own tracks to success.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's brought to you by Ahead, the finest in headwear and the official headwear of the Tracks to Success podcast, available at AheadusaShop.com.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_02: For listeners of this show, Ahead is giving one of its biggest discounts ever.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: Visit AheadUSAShop.com now and use the code TTS30.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's TTS30 and receive not 20% off your purchase, but 30% ahead.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: They don't follow the trends.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: For more than 30 years, they've been setting them.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it's time for getting ahead.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: I hope you enjoyed the conversation with Kent Scornia.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_02: He built trilogy around an idea he calls the art of accomplishment, not the art of talking about what we're going to do, not the art of waiting for the perfect opportunity, but instead the art of getting things done.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_02: Kent's journey should remind us that accomplishment is not created by one significant big moment.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's built through energy, steady energy, consistent effort, and the willingness to keep moving forward, even when the results are not immediate.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_02: We often celebrate the extraordinary achievement that's easy, the successful business, the big promotion, the financial milestone, but we don't always recognize the ordinary actions that made it all possible, the smaller things that actually add up over time.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_02: So what are they?
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the early morning, the difficult conversation, the extra call, maybe the commitment you kept when nobody else was watching.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_02: So here's my question for you.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_02: Are you only interested in the accomplishment?
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: Or are you committed to the work that's required to create it?
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's the important thing because success is rarely built on one giant big leap.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's built through small promises kept consistently.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: The extraordinary results may get the attention, but it's the ordinary things done with purpose, discipline, and consistency that make those big results possible.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_02: So here's my advice: do the work, develop the people around you, and turn your daily effort into your own art of accomplishment.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_02: That is how you get ahead.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's not always the big things.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's those little things over time.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: If you pay attention to that, your tracks to success become a whole lot easier.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Craig Cann.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time, thanks for joining.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget to subscribe for more great interviews and Craig's insights on reaching your highest personal and professional summit.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to Tracks to Success on all the top podcast platforms.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: Watch it on the Craig Cannes YouTube channel, and visit CraigCanspeak.com to learn more about Craig as your next speaker.