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One Leg Up 6-27-24 : Get-Looped Goes Golfing With Small Biz Owners This August · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:02
Here's your host, Alex Darren. Well, this will make Alex san Philippo,
0:08
the man behind Pommatch, very happy, as this is my very first
0:12
follow up interview to someone I connected with on Popmatch not too long ago.
0:16
Chris Lautenschlager joins me again from Get Loup. Thanks for joining me, Chris,
0:21
it's a pleasure to be here. Alex. You're you know, you're
0:24
a great host, and I'm happy to be able to support you and your
0:28
audience. Well, so we're talking about small business once again. You know,
0:31
I see these different companies putting on small business Weeks and small business months.
0:36
But how has your progress been in helping businesses have one leg up as
0:40
a small business? How's your progress since we last talked. So, you
0:44
know, one of the things that we wanted to discuss is the fact that
0:47
I'm having a small business uh celebration, golf outing and charity event, and
0:53
there's a there's a number of reasons why I'm I'm supporting that and I'm sponsoring
0:58
this. Just to get the actually, since we're talking about sponsoring it is
1:03
you can find out about it at www dot get hyphenlooped dot com. It's
1:08
at Glen Flora Country Club, which is a private club established in nineteen hundred.
1:14
It's a beautiful course. It's because it's private, it's rarely available to
1:19
the public. So this is an opportunity. I'm only being able to offer
1:23
this because of a friendship with a person who's a member, a good friend
1:27
of mine. And it's on August Monday, August twelfth. So the purpose
1:33
of this is a couplefold Alex. One is to have fun. Okay,
1:41
I've been talking with a lot of small business people and I talked I'm a
1:45
chatty guy, and if you if I walk into your store, the likelihood
1:49
is is I'm going to strike up a conversation and we're going to talk about,
1:53
you know, a number of different things, including how are things going?
1:57
And it's it's hard right now. People are finding that their customers are
2:04
pulling back. Another actually a restaurant that I frequented quite a bit and really
2:10
really liked. My girlfriend and I were going for a walk recently and as
2:15
we walked by, we noticed that they closed, which broke my heart.
2:20
It's kind of like there's another restaurants are really struggling, so and talking to
2:29
small business owners, I'm hearing that it's hard. So what I'm doing is
2:35
twofold. One is to have some fun again. You know, I'm creating
2:39
this event to bring small business owners together and to celebrate their business and to
2:47
give them an opportunity to have some fun. And you know, this is
2:52
going to not just be a golf event, but they'll be contests, they'll
2:54
be raffles, they'll be prizes, there'll be a big uh pig roast dinner.
3:01
It's going to be outside on the patio. It's going to be really
3:06
a lot of fun. We're really looking forward to it. Uh. The
3:09
other though, is to allow small business owners to be able to network and
3:16
talk with each other. You know, there's one of the challenges of being
3:23
the owner, the person, the one responsible for all the decisions, is
3:30
you don't often have a lot of opportunity to talk with other people. You
3:37
know, it's difficult, particularly in challenging times or when you have difficult situations
3:43
going on. Who do you talk with? Do you talk with your you
3:46
know, your your partner, your spouse potentially yes, but I know a
3:51
lot of a lot of owners don't necessarily have that relationship or want to have
3:58
that conversation. When when they go home, often there's no one at work
4:02
that they can talk with about this. So having the opportunity to talk with
4:06
other business owners that are going through similar situations, similar experiences, and we
4:15
create a format in which you know, I'm the EMC, so I try
4:18
to keep it light and have fun, but I also try to make it
4:23
informative. So we'll identify a topic that people want to have a conversation about.
4:30
You know, two of the topics that are really relevant today are employee
4:36
retention, identification and retention, hiring and retention, and the other is surviving
4:43
the increased cost tsunami that people are experiencing. So giving people a chance to
4:51
network talk about certain topics that are at the forefront of their mind that they
4:56
don't have a chance to have a conversation with others about very often is another
5:01
reason for this event. So having fun UH, being able to network and
5:08
have conversation and and and insight from other business owners. And then the last
5:13
one is to provide a charity opportunity. I have a friend, he's a
5:17
small business owner. He's one of the sponsors of the golf event Deerfieldsychlorry.
5:23
They're in UH they're in Deerfield on Waukegan Road. Great, great, great,
5:29
family oriented second generation bicycle store. Uh. They uh sponsor a charity.
5:38
It's called Holy Spokes, and Holy Spokes provides refurbished bicycles and new helmets
5:44
to underprivileged kids that are in Waukegan, Illinois, North Chicago, Illinois,
5:49
an area that doesn't have all of the uh, all of the wealth that's
5:57
generally associated with the North Shore chicag So we provide an opportunity for young people
6:02
to be able to get access to bicycles, get access to helmets, and
6:06
again to have some of the some of the things that so many of us
6:12
often take for granted when we're younger or have our own kids. I will
6:16
put the link to Holy Spokes in the in the description below on the podcast.
6:20
So that's that's great to know about. You know, small business owners,
6:27
I'd be like love to give back. I feel like you guys give
6:30
back the most of you know. I don't want to put down corporations,
6:33
but it's true small business owners reach out more. Wouldn't you say absolutely?
6:38
You know in one of the speeches that I that I that I give to
6:42
associations or to different audiences. I talk about the fact that I, you
6:49
know, grew up and in a small business household, so I know what
6:55
that environment is like, of how everyone in your family is all in on
7:00
supporting the business. And then when my father passed unexpectedly, I essentially made
7:08
the choice of going and working for large corporations. You know, I followed
7:15
the pathway that is suggested by society of going to the best schools, getting
7:19
the best degree, going to the biggest jobs, trying to get the most
7:25
impressive job and make the most money working for corporation. And I found that
7:30
incredibly unsatisfying. And it really started when I came to the realization that corporations
7:40
don't love you. They don't love me, they don't love you, they
7:43
don't love their employees and what they're designed for. And again I'm not saying
7:50
it's bad. In fact, I'm a capitalist. I believe in capitalism.
7:55
But corporations are designed to support their shareholders, and shareholders are there number one
8:00
focus shareholders and management. Management seems to put a priority over their own jobs
8:07
above their employees. Often it's a it's a selfish thing, but it's a
8:11
reality. So corporations don't seem to have the level of care and consideration that
8:20
for their team, for their employees that small business owners do. You know,
8:26
most small business owners that I know are some of the most generous,
8:30
kind hearted, respectful individuals that are out there, and they care for their
8:35
their team, for their employees, for their customers as if their family.
8:41
They're not just another number. They're not just another cog in the machine.
8:46
They're deeply focused on. They're not just a customer. They're like part of
8:50
the family, as you say, They're more than just a customer, right,
8:54
very much so. And that's one of the reasons why I'm such an
8:58
advocate and suggesting strongly to young people that they consider small businesses as a viable
9:07
and preferred alternative to being employed. All right, now, let's say you
9:15
mentioned a while ago about the economy, right, and I just feel like,
9:18
right now, everybody's looking at this Dow Jones, we're looking at the
9:20
sock market. Oh, that looks pretty good. But when you come down
9:24
to it, it's on the ground level folks that are running their businesses that
9:28
are hurting the most right now. Right So, who cares what Wall Street's
9:31
doing, It's it's how you're impacting the wallet of those on the ground.
9:35
You know, if you understand how the stocks work and and and actually how
9:39
macroeconomics work. When stocks go up, stocks are primarily owned by by financial
9:46
institutions, you know, pension funds, and many will argue that those support
9:54
union workers and those on pensions, but and small time investors. But the
10:00
reality is is that the majority of stocks are owned by wealthy, wealthy individuals,
10:05
and so when stocks go up but GDP goes down, that's a massive
10:11
transfer of wealth from those that are working to those that have assets. And
10:16
that's what's been going on ever since two thousand and eight. There's been a
10:20
massive transfer of wealth to the extraordinarily wealthy, and the regular middle class is
10:28
virtually nonexistent. Now it's been wiped out, and those that are struggling on
10:33
trying to support their business are doing exactly that because GDP is contracting. You
10:41
know, I have a friend he owns a couple of coffee shops, and
10:45
as he put it, sales have finally returned to pre pandemic levels twenty nineteen
10:52
levels, and it took a number of years, but costs are at twenty
10:58
twenty four levels, which are almost double what they were before. So he's
11:03
looking to close one of his coffee shops. They're putting in more and more
11:09
hours because they can't afford to hire outside people anymore. So he's feeling super
11:16
super pressured as margins are getting crushed. And this is a common theme throughout
11:22
the economy. You know, I'm not going to get into politics, but
11:26
I am going to acknowledge that this concept that everything is honky dory in the
11:35
economy is just playing false unless you're part of the investor class, all right,
11:43
And yeah, I mean I was going to post as around the time,
11:46
a little before the debate, and I feel like this is such a
11:48
crucial conversation that won't be heard on the debate. I don't think it will
11:50
be anyway, because they're gonna have focus about anything else. But the hell
11:54
of the small business should be a debate topic, shouldn't it. I believe
11:58
so. You know, almost fifty percent of the population is employed by small
12:03
businesses, and it's a huge portion of our economy. Uh. There used
12:09
to be a time in which people commonly said that small businesses are the backbone
12:13
of this economy. I still believe that they just don't have the voice at
12:22
the table. They don't have a seat at the table. They don't have
12:24
the ability to be able to promote their agenda as well as a large,
12:30
multi international sovereign corporation. You know, I wonder about this golf out and
12:41
so you're gonna you have a lot of small businesses in your time at get
12:43
Looped. Are they going to be there as well? I mean, is
12:46
at the core of those who man we plan on having one hundred different golf
12:50
We plan on having one hundred golfers there, so that'll be you know,
12:52
how many businesses will be there is to be determined because groups are coming together
12:58
from companies, but we plan on having one hundred, one hundred you know,
13:05
slots for small business owners to come and join us. And that's going
13:09
to be such a break from everything right to just as as you mentioned earlier,
13:15
are you insinuing though that they don't get much social time unless they're on
13:18
the golf course, Like basically those kind of moments are where they get the
13:20
social time. Everything else is so busy because of what's going to be going
13:24
on the last five years to try and keep their business going very much so,
13:28
Alex, you know, I've I've had personally had a lot of professional
13:33
success and working on golf courses, and you know, people are like,
13:37
why do you why do you play golf? It takes so much time.
13:41
It's you know, frustrating, and this and that, and there's a number
13:45
of reasons, but the number one reason is the time I get to have
13:50
four uninterrupted hours of time with people that I want to talk with, usually
13:58
friends, often business prospects of you know, I don't have to just sit
14:05
across from a desk and have my twenty minute sales pitch or my our PowerPoint
14:11
presentation. I actually get to have a conversation, a conversation, a dialogue,
14:18
a Q and A in which we're actually discussing and hearing each other.
14:24
That's so valuable, not only in regards to the creation and building of relationships,
14:31
but of building business. As I was saying, there seems to be
14:37
the you know, people's guards come down, people are less defensive. People
14:46
like being outside in the sun and in the fresh air and in the greenery.
14:52
It's some of the most beautiful places I've been to in the world,
14:56
have been on golf courses, just literally stunning. And to be able to
15:01
have that private time. That uninterrupted time and a healthy, beautiful environment seems
15:09
to be really conducive to the building of relationships, friendships and partnerships in business.
15:16
Chris Loamslagers as we're talking to I'm so glad we're having this conversation because
15:18
I gotta ask you this. We're on the golf course in the corporate world
15:22
and is a very different than than in the role you're in now. So
15:26
I was in sales and I found that some of my most successful experiences in
15:35
sales was on golf courses. I found that it allowed me to differentiate myself
15:39
from my competitors. It allowed me to be able to build a relationship with
15:46
my clients. So even in a corporate environment, you know, most people,
15:54
most people don't do things that are out of the ordinary in a corporate
15:58
environment, I had to fight to go and prove that my time on a
16:04
golf course was actually not just a boondoggle that I could actually generate sales it
16:10
was. It was not something that was initially approved or or or considered to
16:15
be prudent. So the nature of being in a corporation is conformity, you
16:26
know. They I'm sure there are certain departments or environments in which they tried
16:32
to encourage creativity. But I've found that the people that are survive in a
16:38
corporate environment the longest are the ones that speak up the least, that create
16:45
the least amount of friction, that are go along kind of people and are
16:56
really not very innovative at all. So I know that with you know,
17:02
actually even like look at some of the larger companies now, you know,
17:07
Google, Apple, These are corporations that used to be renowned for their innovation
17:12
and there in their uh, their creative culture. But I have to say,
17:21
the people that I talk with at Google, now it's just another job.
17:26
It's sure they pay well, sure there's benefits, but those benefits are
17:30
available in a lot of tech companies. Now it's really nothing special. It's
17:37
another job. It's kind of like working. It's kind of like the financial
17:41
how the financial sector used to be in the eighties is how tech is in
17:45
today's world. You know, there's some prestige and and and glamour associated with
17:51
it, But coming from someone who worked for some of the largest financial firms,
17:57
most prestigious financial firms during the eighties and nineties, I'm going to be
18:02
fair here. It's not all negative. It's not all negative. Okay.
18:07
What I will say about those organizations and Google and Apple is that because they
18:12
pay a premium and because there is some some lingering panash associated with their with
18:22
their brand, they do get really bright people working there. One of the
18:27
things that I did like in regards to working for a larger organization is that
18:33
it was a broader level of diversity because it came outside of just the local
18:38
area. It was literally I was traveling internationally. I was I was working
18:42
internationally, so I got exposure to a lot of different cultures and some really
18:48
super bright people. Okay, that was truly the benefit. But in regards
18:55
to you know, a lot of people go to work for these larger organizations
19:00
hoping that it provides a greater level of stability, and it just doesn't.
19:07
If anything, I know small businesses that will do. The business owner will
19:12
sacrifice his own his own salary, his own benefits, his own perks to
19:22
keep that business alive, to keep those people in his organization. And I
19:26
don't know anyone in management in the corporate environment that will put anyone above or
19:33
beyond his own paycheck, his or her own paycheck, right, And that's
19:37
the difference. Now, I feel like you've written about all these experiences get
19:41
looped, right, So you've written this book about it, and we last
19:44
talked about the introduction of the book. Tell us how that's been going.
19:47
Did you end up on a book tour it all since your last talked,
19:48
or how you've been pushing this book. The book came out a couple of
19:52
years ago, and the book was actually my foray into this space. It
19:57
was kind kind of qualifying the thoughts that I had in regard to this because
20:04
the pandemic had come out and I saw how it was damaging, destroying small
20:11
businesses, and I just felt it was so wrong. And I was pretty
20:15
vocal about it to the people that I was talking about, and my girlfriend
20:22
encouraged me to write down my thoughts. She was like, you know,
20:25
we were spending a lot of time at home, obviously, and she's an
20:30
entrepreneur, she owns her own businesses and she works hard, and she's like,
20:34
why don't you, you know, talk about this right about this,
20:40
because you know, she thought that she thought that there was merit behind many
20:44
of the discussions, many of the ideas that I was talking about in regards
20:47
to how important small businesses are to the fabric of our communities. So that's
20:52
how the Prosperity Loop was created. Was that was about two years ago.
21:00
And now really where my focus is is on doing events, on being a
21:06
professional speaker, on speaking to either companies private companies, small private companies.
21:11
And a lot of people have the misnomer that when they hear small, they
21:15
think of like ten and under. You know, small in definition is five
21:19
hundred employees and other and under. It's really the aspect of private ownership of
21:26
a company. Being private is the big differentiator. It allows them to be
21:30
able to make choices and create environments that are not in conformity or being forced
21:37
by shareholders. And by giving speeches in regards to the importance of small businesses
21:48
or the importance of values within a small business environment, that's allowed me to
21:52
be able to broaden my message and I think have a really positive impact on
21:57
those that I come in contact with. The golf audience is just something that
22:02
I love to play golf, and I thought it would be fun. So
22:03
sure, let's put this together and see how it goes. And I love
22:07
the year putting your heart and soul into it. Now I got to ask
22:10
you this, as you mentioned contact, are you working with any New Yorkers
22:12
because I see we have a last checked as two two point three million small
22:18
businesses probably growing since that. I mean, it feels like New York itself
22:22
doesn't really cater to or recognize or honor the small businesses that make up a
22:30
lot of its economy. Isn't that a shame? It is? You know,
22:33
I lived in New York City in Manhattan for twenty two years, and
22:37
so I know Manhattan really well. You know they Again, most people think
22:42
of Manhattan and all those skyscrapers as being home to large public organizations, and
22:48
it used to be most of them are moving out of the state now in
22:52
the city because of the challenges associated with living there. But most of those
22:59
skyscrapers, most of those buildings lining all those streets, are everything from all
23:04
those retail businesses that are on that are on the main floor that are street
23:10
facing to within them. If you go into any building and look at the
23:14
at the tenant roster, those are mostly small private businesses. So it's really
23:23
eye opening when you start to become cognizant of just how impactful and how prominent
23:30
small businesses are small private businesses are throughout areas, even even as as metropolitan
23:38
as New York City. All right, well, I'm being a small business
23:42
impact on you know, their impact on what's going to happen to them.
23:48
When in Chicago over there the Bears might actually leave the heart of the city.
23:52
Isn't going to hurt small businesses? And don't sports help the vitalization of
23:56
small businesses? I feel like it does. So I'm a sports fan,
24:03
but I'm also a capitalist, and I'm gonna I'm going to argue with you,
24:07
Alex that giving tax right offs to extraordinarily wealthy private business owners that just
24:15
happen to own sports franchises that are worth a lot of money is not the
24:19
best use of the public's funds. So you know, Yankee Stadium costs a
24:25
billion dollars. I thought the Steinbrunners were doing pretty well before they received a
24:29
billion dollars in taxpayer funding. Stevie Cohen owns the New York Mets. He
24:36
seems to be doing pretty well on his own. I don't think we need
24:38
to support him in any way, shape or form. So I'm gonna slightly
24:44
disagree with you on that, Alex. I love sports. The Bears are
24:48
fine team. I think they're going to be they they drafted well, they're
24:52
going to do well. I think they're struggling in regards to Chris, I
24:56
gotta ask you this though, When you know the government doesn't really help out
25:02
the small business, isn't that then so important that you and I and others
25:06
look out for each other. I think that's what America is the end of
25:08
the day, We're all looking out for each other, right, So that's
25:11
that's why this golf out and is so important. It helps you guys look
25:15
out for each other. Yes, on the golf course, but the principle
25:17
is the same. I think community is one of the greatest contributions that small
25:23
businesses provide. Is the you know, the connection that we have to our
25:29
neighbors. When I walk into certain stores, when I walk into certain restaurants,
25:33
they know who we are, they like who we are, and vice
25:40
versa. I think that connection that their kids go to schools in the neighborhood
25:45
that we live in, that we see them in the neighborhood is important.
25:51
So yes, I believe the community is one of the greatest contributing factors that
25:56
small businesses bring to the table. And that's why I've loved connecting with you,
26:03
because you're you're looking out for a lot of different folks across the country,
26:06
not just in Chicago, right am, I right on that. I
26:10
just I it's this is a national message that it's in all of our interests
26:15
to support to support our local businesses. You know, when I buy a
26:21
book, I buy a book from my local bookstore. I don't buy from
26:26
big box stores. When I go to a hardware store, I go to
26:30
the locally owned hardware store. I don't go to a big box store in
26:34
which the employees don't feel like they're being treated well and they don't treat their
26:38
customers well. I those large corporations don't really seem to have the interests of
26:48
the customer really at heart, and they don't they don't have the worker interests
26:52
either, because you know, these guys there are certain sectors trying to unionize
26:56
in the corporation. They're striking downizations. I mean, it just goes to
27:02
show you how self involved in not really caring about even their own people they
27:07
are when they strike down a union attempt. I'm sure you're following that as
27:11
well. Yes, and really it's just a matter of continuing to highlight and
27:19
vocalize the fact that there's these discrepancies, these imbalances that we as consumers have
27:30
the ability to influence. Our dollars matter, our economic choices matter. Subsequently,
27:37
be conscious of where you spend your money, because there's karma, there's
27:42
economic kmma, so to speak. The more that you support those that care
27:47
for you, the better are all of our lives will be Love that And
27:52
one thing about the restaurants. One of my local restaurants that I've used since
27:56
I moved to Queen's actually now only opens onto Tuesday through Sunday. They've cut
28:00
out Mondays and that's I'm hoping to get back to Mondays. But that's sort
28:04
of a sign. Do you find small business you talk to are having to
28:07
cut hours in such a Jurassic way like that, they're they're strapped and they're
28:14
either they're they're I don't know of a lot of small businesses right now that
28:19
are that are really hitting it out of the park. They're struggling. So
28:26
it's it's it's a difficult time for for those that don't have political connections anyways.
28:33
With that, Alex, I'm gonna need to close this down. I
28:37
so appreciated our conversation and I look forward to having you come and joining the
28:44
golf outing. That would be great. We'll fall up on that off air,
28:47
but Chris, thank you so much for joining us. Get looped Chris
28:49
Lavenslager follow them on LinkedIn. Thank you all right, Hang, I want to say