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Close the Ownership Gap | The GrowthPro Edge · The GrowthPro Edge

• 0:00
  Speaker: Welcome to the Growth Pro Edge.
• 0:02
  Speaker: We're here to help scale your
• 0:04
  Speaker: business, build stronger teams
• 0:06
  Speaker: and sharpen your leadership
• 0:08
  Speaker: skills.
• 0:09
  Speaker: I'm your host Denise Killian
• 0:10
  Speaker: with the Growth Pro Group and
• 0:12
  Speaker: trainer Tainment.
• 0:14
  Speaker: Today we're going to be talking
• 0:16
  Speaker: about how to close the ownership
• 0:19
  Speaker: gap.
• 0:20
  Speaker: We've all been there.
• 0:21
  Speaker: Everybody has those moments when
• 0:23
  Speaker: something falls through the
• 0:24
  Speaker: cracks.
• 0:24
  Speaker: A lead doesn't get followed up
• 0:26
  Speaker: on or a customer request gets
• 0:28
  Speaker: lost.
• 0:29
  Speaker: Well, today we're going to talk
• 0:31
  Speaker: with Antoine Campbell, the
• 0:33
  Speaker: founder of C. E oh nine two nine
• 0:36
  Speaker: Business Solutions, to uncover
• 0:38
  Speaker: how clear accountability, smart
• 0:40
  Speaker: systems and CRM automations can
• 0:44
  Speaker: help your team take ownership
• 0:46
  Speaker: and keep your business moving
• 0:48
  Speaker: forward.
• 0:50
  Speaker: Antoine, welcome to the Growth Pro Edge.
• 0:53
  Speaker: We're thrilled to have you.
• 0:55
  Speaker: Thank you for having me on.
• 0:56
  Speaker: I really appreciate it.
• 0:58
  Speaker: Listen, I'm so excited to get
• 1:00
  Speaker: into this, because I think it's
• 1:01
  Speaker: a problem that so many
• 1:02
  Speaker: businesses face.
• 1:03
  Speaker: But before we do that, tell us a
• 1:05
  Speaker: little bit about yourself, who
• 1:07
  Speaker: you are and how you started your
• 1:08
  Speaker: company.
• 1:10
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 1:10
  Speaker: So my name is Antoine Campbell.
• 1:11
  Speaker: I'm from Washington, D.C. I started my company back in
• 1:15
  Speaker: twenty thirteen, where we specialize in helping
• 1:18
  Speaker: entrepreneurs grow and scale their business through
• 1:20
  Speaker: automation systems, website upgrades, lead generation, and
• 1:25
  Speaker: everything in between.
• 1:26
  Speaker: I've seen the need that most entrepreneurs struggle.
• 1:29
  Speaker: They have the idea to create and
• 1:30
  Speaker: start a business, but they don't
• 1:32
  Speaker: know the day to day on things
• 1:34
  Speaker: that they need to continue to
• 1:35
  Speaker: run their business at the
• 1:36
  Speaker: highest level.
• 1:37
  Speaker: As technology involved, my services became more needed.
• 1:40
  Speaker: And then in twenty twenty two, I
• 1:42
  Speaker: really kicked it up a notch to
• 1:43
  Speaker: start to take on a lot of more
• 1:45
  Speaker: clients.
• 1:45
  Speaker: So I work with clients in
• 1:47
  Speaker: different verticals funeral
• 1:49
  Speaker: homes, service based businesses,
• 1:50
  Speaker: plumbing companies, um,
• 1:52
  Speaker: electrical companies, real
• 1:54
  Speaker: estate investors, uh, authors,
• 1:57
  Speaker: uh, real estate coaches,
• 1:59
  Speaker: business coaches, all types of
• 2:00
  Speaker: people.
• 2:01
  Speaker: So, um, you know, we are like a
• 2:03
  Speaker: advisory firm, but we come in
• 2:05
  Speaker: and we advise and then we
• 2:06
  Speaker: implement the stuff that we
• 2:08
  Speaker: advise.
• 2:08
  Speaker: So we're more so on the
• 2:10
  Speaker: implementation side of the
• 2:11
  Speaker: thing.
• 2:12
  Speaker: We don't really teach or coach.
• 2:13
  Speaker: We just implement the things
• 2:14
  Speaker: that they're missing in their
• 2:15
  Speaker: business.
• 2:17
  Speaker: All right.
• 2:17
  Speaker: Well, let's talk about some of the things that businesses are
• 2:19
  Speaker: missing because ultimately businesses most likely losing
• 2:24
  Speaker: money or customers or momentum, not because someone is
• 2:27
  Speaker: necessarily doing a bad job.
• 2:30
  Speaker: But do you think it's because nobody clearly owns the next
• 2:33
  Speaker: step in the process?
• 2:35
  Speaker: Exactly.
• 2:36
  Speaker: So most times, most businesses, when a customer comes in, they
• 2:39
  Speaker: get buried inside the CRM and there's no one taking ownership
• 2:42
  Speaker: of once the person pay their money or pay an invoice that
• 2:45
  Speaker: their experience is as well as it could have been.
• 2:48
  Speaker: So the, the systems and the
• 2:50
  Speaker: tools that we help our clients
• 2:51
  Speaker: set up is that one person in the
• 2:54
  Speaker: company take ownership of a
• 2:55
  Speaker: customer's journey.
• 2:56
  Speaker: Um, whether it's now it's six
• 2:58
  Speaker: months from now, it's two years
• 2:59
  Speaker: from now.
• 3:00
  Speaker: They own that customer, and their experience with that whole
• 3:03
  Speaker: process is flawless and seamless, to the point that they
• 3:07
  Speaker: won't go to your competitors.
• 3:09
  Speaker: Now, why do you think that that ownership of the next step and
• 3:14
  Speaker: following all the way through.
• 3:16
  Speaker: Why do you think that that's
• 3:18
  Speaker: such an issue for so many
• 3:19
  Speaker: businesses?
• 3:22
  Speaker: I think a lot of operators, um, operate in the reactive space.
• 3:26
  Speaker: They're not very proactive.
• 3:28
  Speaker: Um, so they just put out fires
• 3:29
  Speaker: as they come their way versus
• 3:31
  Speaker: saying, hey, um, you know, I'm
• 3:33
  Speaker: one of the books I read a long
• 3:34
  Speaker: time ago was a book called
• 3:36
  Speaker: traction.
• 3:36
  Speaker: And it teaches this EOS system
• 3:38
  Speaker: where it gives you a key
• 3:40
  Speaker: responsibilities, um, in rocks
• 3:43
  Speaker: and a lot of ownership and
• 3:44
  Speaker: people that run businesses don't
• 3:46
  Speaker: give their employees these rocks
• 3:47
  Speaker: or these, uh, specific goals
• 3:49
  Speaker: that they're going to track and
• 3:50
  Speaker: monitor on a weekly, monthly and
• 3:53
  Speaker: quarterly basis.
• 3:54
  Speaker: And so they just always putting
• 3:55
  Speaker: out fires and never ahead of
• 3:57
  Speaker: things.
• 3:57
  Speaker: And then most owners don't meet
• 3:59
  Speaker: with their team, um, on a weekly
• 4:02
  Speaker: basis.
• 4:02
  Speaker: They only meet when things get bad.
• 4:04
  Speaker: So one of the things I teach my
• 4:05
  Speaker: clients is, hey, meet with your
• 4:07
  Speaker: team on Mondays to set the
• 4:09
  Speaker: expectations and then do a
• 4:11
  Speaker: checkout with me towards the end
• 4:12
  Speaker: of the week, Thursday, Friday to
• 4:14
  Speaker: see how the expectations held
• 4:15
  Speaker: through.
• 4:16
  Speaker: And then you're able to get
• 4:17
  Speaker: ahead of things default before
• 4:19
  Speaker: the following week comes along,
• 4:21
  Speaker: because you're able to see stuff
• 4:22
  Speaker: and put it out right then and
• 4:23
  Speaker: there before it becomes a big
• 4:25
  Speaker: issue.
• 4:26
  Speaker: You know, it's funny that you mention that I do a lot of
• 4:29
  Speaker: business coaching and work with a lot of different clients on
• 4:31
  Speaker: that kind of top tier level.
• 4:33
  Speaker: And we set our rocks every quarter, and we have weekly or
• 4:36
  Speaker: bi weekly meetings to go through, you know, our KPIs and
• 4:40
  Speaker: where are we at?
• 4:41
  Speaker: And, and talk about issues that maybe we can solve.
• 4:44
  Speaker: And so often what happens is
• 4:47
  Speaker: we'll sit and talk about an
• 4:48
  Speaker: issue, come up with a solution,
• 4:51
  Speaker: but it's not clear who's
• 4:53
  Speaker: supposed to do the things for
• 4:55
  Speaker: the solution.
• 4:56
  Speaker: Right.
• 4:57
  Speaker: And then they'll come back and be like, oh, I thought he was
• 5:01
  Speaker: going to do it.
• 5:01
  Speaker: I thought she was doing it.
• 5:02
  Speaker: Oh, wait.
• 5:03
  Speaker: No.
• 5:03
  Speaker: Right.
• 5:04
  Speaker: That that we can talk all day long and have the most perfect
• 5:07
  Speaker: product or the most perfect solution for an issue.
• 5:11
  Speaker: But if we're not clear on who is responsible for getting that to
• 5:15
  Speaker: the finish line, we're going to have the same problem in two
• 5:18
  Speaker: weeks or six months.
• 5:19
  Speaker: Exactly.
• 5:20
  Speaker: I agree.
• 5:22
  Speaker: So what do you think are some of
• 5:25
  Speaker: the ways in which owners can
• 5:27
  Speaker: help operators?
• 5:30
  Speaker: Business owners can help their employees feel ownership to take
• 5:35
  Speaker: the next steps.
• 5:37
  Speaker: It's an open door policy transparency.
• 5:40
  Speaker: So when you're planning out goals of your company, your
• 5:43
  Speaker: employees should feel a part of that versus running this weird
• 5:47
  Speaker: dictatorship style management.
• 5:48
  Speaker: It doesn't really work.
• 5:50
  Speaker: People want to feel a part of the the goals and they want to
• 5:53
  Speaker: be sold on it.
• 5:54
  Speaker: So a lot of the greater, bigger companies that I've studied over
• 5:56
  Speaker: the years, They are good at selling people on what the end
• 5:59
  Speaker: results may look like.
• 6:00
  Speaker: Of you doing whatever I'm asking you to do.
• 6:03
  Speaker: Um, and being very transparent about it.
• 6:05
  Speaker: And then if, uh, you hit them goals, you're being rewarded.
• 6:08
  Speaker: It might not even be
• 6:09
  Speaker: financially, it might just be
• 6:11
  Speaker: their knowledge.
• 6:12
  Speaker: You that puts you on the board.
• 6:13
  Speaker: Uh, that puts you on the website.
• 6:15
  Speaker: They get your employee spotlight, they send your family
• 6:17
  Speaker: out to dinner for two.
• 6:19
  Speaker: It could be anything to keep the morale up, because the worst
• 6:23
  Speaker: thing you want to do is get the employees to the state where
• 6:27
  Speaker: they're saying, hey, that's not my job, or I'm just going to do
• 6:30
  Speaker: my job and go home.
• 6:31
  Speaker: You want people to really buy
• 6:32
  Speaker: into the dream of what we're
• 6:34
  Speaker: building.
• 6:34
  Speaker: And I think that's what a lot of owners don't do a good job.
• 6:39
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:39
  Speaker: That that gap of, okay, we've got a process and there may be
• 6:44
  Speaker: ten people that touch that process from start to finish.
• 6:48
  Speaker: And even sometimes if you've done a good job of identifying
• 6:52
  Speaker: this person does this, this person does step B. Step C, We
• 6:56
  Speaker: don't do a good job on the handoff all the time.
• 6:59
  Speaker: Right.
• 6:59
  Speaker: Exactly.
• 7:00
  Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
• 7:02
  Speaker: What what things could owners
• 7:04
  Speaker: what questions could owners be
• 7:06
  Speaker: asking to help that handoff
• 7:09
  Speaker: slip?
• 7:10
  Speaker: I think we assume too much.
• 7:11
  Speaker: So the owners assume because
• 7:13
  Speaker: they're explaining to them that
• 7:14
  Speaker: they're not actually going to
• 7:15
  Speaker: get it.
• 7:16
  Speaker: We all digest information differently.
• 7:18
  Speaker: So I'm an email guy.
• 7:21
  Speaker: Another person may be a meeting guy.
• 7:23
  Speaker: He don't he don't really receive emails as great as a meeting.
• 7:26
  Speaker: Another person may just be just put it on my to do list and I
• 7:29
  Speaker: get it done.
• 7:30
  Speaker: So you have to figure out the style for your employees and
• 7:34
  Speaker: then take that style and translate it to getting them to,
• 7:37
  Speaker: um, do what you want.
• 7:38
  Speaker: So example, if there's a project
• 7:40
  Speaker: being assigned to employee A and
• 7:42
  Speaker: employee A is the email type of
• 7:44
  Speaker: person, then you should be very
• 7:46
  Speaker: detailed about the emails you
• 7:47
  Speaker: send them.
• 7:48
  Speaker: And then once you send them the email, then you meet with them
• 7:51
  Speaker: to get them to, uh, answer any clarifying questions they may
• 7:54
  Speaker: need about what's expected of that particular project or
• 7:58
  Speaker: ownership or role or whatever you assign to them.
• 8:00
  Speaker: And once they grasp that, then that's when you can set small
• 8:05
  Speaker: little milestones to check in to see how they're doing with it.
• 8:08
  Speaker: Don't just wait to, okay, it takes you two weeks to get it
• 8:11
  Speaker: done and then meet them at the end of two weeks, and it's not
• 8:13
  Speaker: the way you want.
• 8:14
  Speaker: Just peek your head in and say, hey, how's everything going?
• 8:16
  Speaker: Are there any questions you have with me?
• 8:18
  Speaker: Um, is there anything I can look at for you?
• 8:20
  Speaker: Um, because some people are
• 8:21
  Speaker: afraid to even talk to the boss
• 8:23
  Speaker: to say, hey, I'm struggling with
• 8:25
  Speaker: this.
• 8:26
  Speaker: So if can you sit down and show me exactly what you mean?
• 8:29
  Speaker: Because us as owners have a
• 8:31
  Speaker: clear picture of what we want,
• 8:32
  Speaker: but sometimes that clear picture
• 8:34
  Speaker: don't translate to our
• 8:35
  Speaker: employees.
• 8:35
  Speaker: So we have to get really good at working on that.
• 8:38
  Speaker: Well, and I think you nailed it when you said assume we assume,
• 8:42
  Speaker: you know, I was working with with a group before and it was a
• 8:48
  Speaker: customer facing business.
• 8:50
  Speaker: And there's an example of someone who came in their very,
• 8:54
  Speaker: very first day.
• 8:55
  Speaker: They were a teenager when it was their first day.
• 8:57
  Speaker: This was years ago.
• 8:58
  Speaker: And their response?
• 8:59
  Speaker: They were told, hey, mop the floor before we open.
• 9:03
  Speaker: Well, this kid had never mopped a day in their life and then had
• 9:06
  Speaker: no idea how to fix that contraption and figure it out.
• 9:10
  Speaker: But she was too afraid to ask someone for help or to have
• 9:14
  Speaker: somebody show her.
• 9:15
  Speaker: So she was going to figure it out.
• 9:17
  Speaker: And bless her heart, she flooded the restaurant and they couldn't
• 9:19
  Speaker: open that day.
• 9:21
  Speaker: And, and it's all based on assumptions, right?
• 9:25
  Speaker: When you say, hey, we need you to mop this floor.
• 9:28
  Speaker: You're assuming that they know where the equipment is, how to
• 9:31
  Speaker: use the thing, how to turn on the water spigot and turn it
• 9:34
  Speaker: off, how to write, how to dump the mop water out without
• 9:38
  Speaker: flooding the floor.
• 9:39
  Speaker: And those assumptions, you
• 9:41
  Speaker: think, who doesn't know how to
• 9:42
  Speaker: do that?
• 9:42
  Speaker: Well, guess what?
• 9:43
  Speaker: They might not.
• 9:44
  Speaker: So how do you avoid being specific?
• 9:47
  Speaker: Because you want to be clear and
• 9:48
  Speaker: specific without maybe being
• 9:51
  Speaker: condescending.
• 9:54
  Speaker: Um, sometimes illustration is your best friend.
• 9:57
  Speaker: So when I worked at McDonald's and I worked at Gaylord, um, it
• 10:01
  Speaker: was amazing how they could take a group of sixteen year olds and
• 10:03
  Speaker: run an entire restaurant.
• 10:05
  Speaker: And what I mean by that is they the same Big Mac you get in
• 10:09
  Speaker: Austin, Texas, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, similar because
• 10:12
  Speaker: there's a process.
• 10:13
  Speaker: And when you document the
• 10:14
  Speaker: process and then you record it,
• 10:16
  Speaker: such as maybe you do long videos
• 10:18
  Speaker: or you do have two guys and you
• 10:20
  Speaker: illustrate what you want to
• 10:22
  Speaker: accomplish.
• 10:23
  Speaker: Um, they're able to do the job a lot better.
• 10:26
  Speaker: Um, most people don't understand
• 10:27
  Speaker: that everything that the company
• 10:29
  Speaker: does is, is a repeatable
• 10:30
  Speaker: process.
• 10:31
  Speaker: It should be documented anyway.
• 10:33
  Speaker: Um, so no one does it their way or certain way and the
• 10:36
  Speaker: consistency is consistent all across the board.
• 10:39
  Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
• 10:41
  Speaker: And that consistency and
• 10:42
  Speaker: repeatability I think is so
• 10:44
  Speaker: clear and important for the
• 10:46
  Speaker: customers expectations that they
• 10:49
  Speaker: know they're going to get the
• 10:50
  Speaker: same level and quality when they
• 10:53
  Speaker: come in and when you don't have
• 10:55
  Speaker: those strong processes behind
• 10:57
  Speaker: it, it's really hard to
• 10:58
  Speaker: replicate and create
• 10:59
  Speaker: consistency.
• 11:00
  Speaker: Right.
• 11:02
  Speaker: Right.
• 11:02
  Speaker: So when we talk.
• 11:03
  Speaker: Oh I'm sorry.
• 11:04
  Speaker: Go ahead.
• 11:04
  Speaker: No, I was saying I agree.
• 11:06
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 11:06
  Speaker: So when we talk about processes certainly technology can make a
• 11:13
  Speaker: broken process faster.
• 11:15
  Speaker: Technology can help us figure out what that process maybe
• 11:19
  Speaker: ought to be.
• 11:20
  Speaker: What that checklist, that handoff checklist might be.
• 11:23
  Speaker: Or when a lead comes in, who's the next person to touch them
• 11:27
  Speaker: and how quickly should they be having that reach or that
• 11:31
  Speaker: conversation, etc.. But how do you know when a CRM or an
• 11:35
  Speaker: automation is actually solving a problem versus hiding it?
• 11:43
  Speaker: Oh, that's a good, tough one.
• 11:45
  Speaker: So the automation in the CRM
• 11:47
  Speaker: only do what you program it to
• 11:49
  Speaker: do.
• 11:50
  Speaker: So for example, if you set an
• 11:53
  Speaker: automation to just text
• 11:54
  Speaker: everyone's on their birthday,
• 11:56
  Speaker: right?
• 11:57
  Speaker: And then the CRM don't have a good logic.
• 11:59
  Speaker: What happens if you the CRM falls on February twenty ninth
• 12:03
  Speaker: and it's a leap year.
• 12:04
  Speaker: And if we get the text that customer.
• 12:06
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 12:06
  Speaker: So you have to have the critical
• 12:08
  Speaker: thinking skills to make sure
• 12:09
  Speaker: that the software understands
• 12:11
  Speaker: everything.
• 12:12
  Speaker: Because once again, you can't assume because the software, the
• 12:15
  Speaker: AI is smart.
• 12:16
  Speaker: That is going to figure it out on a critical thinking side.
• 12:19
  Speaker: So you have to blend that, that CRM, that software to make sure
• 12:23
  Speaker: that the critical thinking of it is down pat.
• 12:26
  Speaker: So before you build any funnel or any automation, think of what
• 12:29
  Speaker: process you wanted to take your customers to or your clients and
• 12:33
  Speaker: how would that reflect your business, whether it's holidays,
• 12:36
  Speaker: um, it's off business hours.
• 12:39
  Speaker: It's a chat widget, um, responding to your customers
• 12:42
  Speaker: from an AI standpoint, how do you program that?
• 12:44
  Speaker: It's a lot to consider when you're putting in technology
• 12:47
  Speaker: into your business.
• 12:48
  Speaker: And once you understand that, I think it'll benefit you.
• 12:52
  Speaker: Oh that's fantastic.
• 12:53
  Speaker: Now, where do you see AI making
• 12:56
  Speaker: the biggest impact on handoffs
• 12:58
  Speaker: and accountability?
• 13:01
  Speaker: I think AI making the biggest impact on handoff accountability
• 13:05
  Speaker: is double checking everything.
• 13:07
  Speaker: So for example, if you present a
• 13:09
  Speaker: project and you had to do a
• 13:10
  Speaker: twenty page PowerPoint, it can
• 13:12
  Speaker: go back through and read the
• 13:14
  Speaker: PowerPoint.
• 13:15
  Speaker: Um, you can give it, uh, an overview of what you're trying
• 13:18
  Speaker: to accomplish and then it can check behind you.
• 13:21
  Speaker: So it's a good proofreader.
• 13:22
  Speaker: It's a good, um, um, tool to
• 13:25
  Speaker: like, say, email this client for
• 13:27
  Speaker: me and make sure that you email
• 13:28
  Speaker: this client.
• 13:29
  Speaker: Or if you're struggling with a project, it can help you
• 13:32
  Speaker: brainstorm based off of how you pump your AI.
• 13:35
  Speaker: So prompting is really big
• 13:37
  Speaker: because if you, if the AI don't
• 13:39
  Speaker: understand your business or know
• 13:40
  Speaker: your business, then it's going
• 13:41
  Speaker: to struggle.
• 13:42
  Speaker: It's going to give you generic responses.
• 13:44
  Speaker: But if you give it a book of details about your business and
• 13:47
  Speaker: you upload it, you put all your meeting notes into it.
• 13:50
  Speaker: The AI can really become a
• 13:51
  Speaker: strategic consultant in your
• 13:52
  Speaker: business.
• 13:55
  Speaker: Uh, you know, what's, what's interesting about that?
• 13:57
  Speaker: And, and talking about that, one
• 13:58
  Speaker: of the groups that I'm working
• 14:00
  Speaker: with, they're creating an
• 14:01
  Speaker: incredible back end AI system
• 14:03
  Speaker: that has, um, all sorts of
• 14:05
  Speaker: operational stuff, the handbook
• 14:07
  Speaker: in it, you know, you can,
• 14:08
  Speaker: they've got an AI assistant that
• 14:10
  Speaker: you can ask a, you know,
• 14:12
  Speaker: employee can ask a question
• 14:13
  Speaker: about, hey, how do I do this
• 14:15
  Speaker: thing?
• 14:15
  Speaker: And it'll, you know, give them the answer.
• 14:17
  Speaker: All of this great stuff.
• 14:19
  Speaker: Uh, but one of the things that, that we were working on doing is
• 14:22
  Speaker: putting in, uh, we like to do personality tests because it's
• 14:26
  Speaker: really, I think, an important thing to understand.
• 14:28
  Speaker: We're all different.
• 14:29
  Speaker: We think differently, we respond differently.
• 14:31
  Speaker: Um, we engage differently.
• 14:34
  Speaker: And understanding that is a great way to better the
• 14:37
  Speaker: communication within employees and, and, and, and in your life.
• 14:42
  Speaker: And the AI was responding to
• 14:46
  Speaker: some of these and shooting out
• 14:47
  Speaker: the here's your, you know, you
• 14:49
  Speaker: took the personality test and
• 14:51
  Speaker: okay, here's, here's the type of
• 14:52
  Speaker: personality you are and spits
• 14:55
  Speaker: out all this information about
• 14:56
  Speaker: you.
• 14:57
  Speaker: And, um, it was real, direct and harsh.
• 15:01
  Speaker: And one of the employees was like, okay, the AI kind of hurt
• 15:05
  Speaker: my feelings, right?
• 15:08
  Speaker: It was a little too direct.
• 15:11
  Speaker: Uh, but it's, and it's that important, uh, thing of, yeah,
• 15:15
  Speaker: AI can do a lot of great things, but it's not necessarily unless
• 15:20
  Speaker: you do a really good job of refining and training it
• 15:23
  Speaker: certainly it's not going to respond in a way that everybody
• 15:28
  Speaker: might respond best to.
• 15:30
  Speaker: Is that exactly?
• 15:31
  Speaker: Because you got a program, the AI, to show empathy, situational
• 15:35
  Speaker: awareness, and you have to say, hey, we don't want to turn
• 15:38
  Speaker: people off or disrespect people, but let's break it down in ways
• 15:41
  Speaker: that is digestible, that it doesn't hurt anyone's feelings.
• 15:45
  Speaker: That's up to you to prompt and
• 15:47
  Speaker: know how to get the AI feedback
• 15:49
  Speaker: so it can respond properly to
• 15:51
  Speaker: these custom tests that you're
• 15:53
  Speaker: producing?
• 15:54
  Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
• 15:56
  Speaker: So, you know, AI, as we know, is an amazing tool.
• 15:58
  Speaker: I like to say that AI can help provide a process, but you need
• 16:03
  Speaker: humans for the soul, right?
• 16:05
  Speaker: Humans provide the soul and, um,
• 16:08
  Speaker: certainly not a replacement for
• 16:10
  Speaker: people, right?
• 16:12
  Speaker: We need both together.
• 16:13
  Speaker: But AI isn't an automatic fix.
• 16:16
  Speaker: And I think that there's a lot
• 16:17
  Speaker: of things that need to happen
• 16:20
  Speaker: before you can start
• 16:21
  Speaker: implementing AI.
• 16:22
  Speaker: So what are the things that you would suggest that business
• 16:24
  Speaker: owners should be looking at before they bring AI in?
• 16:31
  Speaker: Yeah, I think you, you need to
• 16:33
  Speaker: have like foundational, uh,
• 16:36
  Speaker: rules.
• 16:36
  Speaker: So like, who's your company?
• 16:38
  Speaker: What is your company identity?
• 16:40
  Speaker: Like who, what type of customers do you want to reach?
• 16:43
  Speaker: What's your customer avatar?
• 16:44
  Speaker: Um, uh, what do you see yourself in five, ten years?
• 16:48
  Speaker: Like give all of that stuff are well rounded, and don't let AI
• 16:53
  Speaker: help you come up with that.
• 16:55
  Speaker: So that way you can give it something from you so that when
• 16:58
  Speaker: you do decide to feed that into the AI, it can have an idea of
• 17:01
  Speaker: the direction that you want to go in your company.
• 17:04
  Speaker: So I think that's the best way to do it.
• 17:06
  Speaker: That's fantastic.
• 17:07
  Speaker: Okay.
• 17:08
  Speaker: So what's the one thing that
• 17:11
  Speaker: leaders maybe often blame
• 17:13
  Speaker: employees for?
• 17:15
  Speaker: That's actually maybe a process problem.
• 17:21
  Speaker: Um, I say, um, execution of, of, of the implementation projects
• 17:28
  Speaker: that they give them.
• 17:29
  Speaker: So leaders like, hey, man, you
• 17:32
  Speaker: didn't execute on what I
• 17:33
  Speaker: thought.
• 17:33
  Speaker: This is not the vision.
• 17:34
  Speaker: This is not the way I wanted to be written.
• 17:37
  Speaker: I didn't want you to talk to the clients about this and that and
• 17:40
  Speaker: the whole time.
• 17:41
  Speaker: That's just a process problem.
• 17:43
  Speaker: It's not, you know, an employee problem.
• 17:45
  Speaker: That's just a standardization of how things should get done.
• 17:49
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 17:50
  Speaker: So with your company, this is some of the genesis of your
• 17:54
  Speaker: company stems from things that you have seen in your life and
• 18:00
  Speaker: in your career as an employee.
• 18:02
  Speaker: And some of the things of, oh, this is bad.
• 18:05
  Speaker: This is a fix or this is great, how do I scale this?
• 18:09
  Speaker: Right.
• 18:10
  Speaker: So talk a little bit about the, the genesis of your company and
• 18:16
  Speaker: what you do when you come in and help people out.
• 18:20
  Speaker: Well, like I said, when I
• 18:22
  Speaker: started this company, it was for
• 18:24
  Speaker: a need to help other
• 18:25
  Speaker: entrepreneurs.
• 18:26
  Speaker: Um, as I worked in, in the hotel
• 18:28
  Speaker: industry and, you know, fast
• 18:30
  Speaker: food and, um, you know, other
• 18:32
  Speaker: different, smaller private
• 18:33
  Speaker: businesses, I was able to pay
• 18:35
  Speaker: attention to how they were
• 18:36
  Speaker: successful.
• 18:37
  Speaker: Like what makes this business work?
• 18:39
  Speaker: So when I started to consult with other companies, um, the
• 18:43
  Speaker: first thing I stepped back and say, okay, what is this company
• 18:46
  Speaker: to the marketplace?
• 18:47
  Speaker: Who is this five competition?
• 18:49
  Speaker: How do they fit in the marketplace?
• 18:51
  Speaker: How would they survive the next five ten years?
• 18:53
  Speaker: And what happens if something just drop out of the sky?
• 18:56
  Speaker: That could put you out of
• 18:57
  Speaker: business, such as AI or extra
• 18:59
  Speaker: employees or whatever the case
• 19:01
  Speaker: may be.
• 19:02
  Speaker: So as we got in great over the
• 19:04
  Speaker: years, we understand that the
• 19:05
  Speaker: company is built on four
• 19:07
  Speaker: pillars, um, marketing, sales,
• 19:10
  Speaker: customer service, and
• 19:11
  Speaker: fulfillment.
• 19:12
  Speaker: I think most people can't get all four, right.
• 19:15
  Speaker: So they struggle because they're
• 19:16
  Speaker: always in a season of one of
• 19:18
  Speaker: them struggling, whether it's,
• 19:19
  Speaker: it's, it's sales, you know, it's
• 19:21
  Speaker: customer service or fulfillment,
• 19:23
  Speaker: they can't get it all right at
• 19:24
  Speaker: one time.
• 19:25
  Speaker: So what we did was take a
• 19:26
  Speaker: blended approach to say, you
• 19:28
  Speaker: know what, we're going to come
• 19:30
  Speaker: in and implement some tools that
• 19:32
  Speaker: can take out a lot of the
• 19:33
  Speaker: repeatable processes.
• 19:35
  Speaker: We're going to streamline the sales to the point we know
• 19:37
  Speaker: exactly who they should be marketing to, who their customer
• 19:40
  Speaker: avatar is, and then we're going to help them with the
• 19:42
  Speaker: implementation of their systems and hire employees, especially a
• 19:46
  Speaker: lot of companies that benefit off of offshore employees.
• 19:49
  Speaker: So we have multiple companies
• 19:51
  Speaker: hire at least six thousand Vas
• 19:52
  Speaker: since twenty nineteen, virtual
• 19:54
  Speaker: assistants, primarily from the
• 19:55
  Speaker: Philippines, some of them from
• 19:57
  Speaker: South America, but mostly from
• 19:58
  Speaker: the Philippines.
• 19:59
  Speaker: And we, you know, are the ones to put the glue together to make
• 20:03
  Speaker: it all work.
• 20:04
  Speaker: So a lot of our clients, um, like I said, their, their
• 20:08
  Speaker: struggle with one thing.
• 20:09
  Speaker: And then whole time it's like playing whac-a-mole.
• 20:12
  Speaker: The next thing pop up.
• 20:13
  Speaker: So we just try to help them build a repeatable system that
• 20:16
  Speaker: allow them to, uh, take their business to the next level.
• 20:20
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 20:20
  Speaker: Excellent.
• 20:21
  Speaker: Alright, so if somebody were to say, gosh, I, I need to look at
• 20:25
  Speaker: my hand off procedures, right?
• 20:27
  Speaker: I need to maybe do an audit of that.
• 20:29
  Speaker: What are the questions that they should be asking and what should
• 20:34
  Speaker: they be looking for in the gaps in that ownership hand off?
• 20:39
  Speaker: The biggest thing is, um, from a business standpoint, your cash
• 20:42
  Speaker: conversion cycle, how long does it take when you put money out
• 20:45
  Speaker: there for your marketing or paying your employees to get
• 20:48
  Speaker: that money back.
• 20:50
  Speaker: Um. How long?
• 20:51
  Speaker: If you're invoicing people or if
• 20:52
  Speaker: people paying straight up like
• 20:54
  Speaker: cash.
• 20:54
  Speaker: How long does that money stay in your business?
• 20:57
  Speaker: And how quickly?
• 20:58
  Speaker: Uh, you are replacing customers who churn.
• 21:01
  Speaker: And then most importantly, um,
• 21:04
  Speaker: how quickly is the money in your
• 21:06
  Speaker: bank?
• 21:06
  Speaker: How, how long is the money in your bank account?
• 21:09
  Speaker: So most people, they're living even invoice to invoice, uh,
• 21:13
  Speaker: credit card back to credit card.
• 21:15
  Speaker: And just like how we say paycheck to paycheck.
• 21:16
  Speaker: It's the same concept for business owners, but once they
• 21:19
  Speaker: understand that one of the things I teach a lot of my
• 21:22
  Speaker: clients is when you acquire a customer through your direct ads
• 21:26
  Speaker: or referrals, that's great.
• 21:28
  Speaker: But let's look at the lifetime value of what that customer is
• 21:31
  Speaker: worth to you over two, three, four years and figure out a way
• 21:35
  Speaker: how to build a pipeline that can continue to sell and service
• 21:39
  Speaker: them in whatever you do.
• 21:41
  Speaker: That's fantastic.
• 21:42
  Speaker: Those type, those pipelines become really essential.
• 21:45
  Speaker: And for each business, you know,
• 21:47
  Speaker: some customers, it may be six
• 21:48
  Speaker: months, it may be it may be a
• 21:50
  Speaker: one year or an eighteen month or
• 21:52
  Speaker: others.
• 21:53
  Speaker: It could be forever if you take care of them.
• 21:56
  Speaker: Right.
• 21:57
  Speaker: Um, but knowing what that pipeline is can help you
• 22:02
  Speaker: determine where, like how many people you need to be targeting,
• 22:05
  Speaker: how many people, right?
• 22:06
  Speaker: How many new customers you have
• 22:07
  Speaker: to acquire each month in order
• 22:10
  Speaker: to keep that pipeline moving
• 22:11
  Speaker: forward.
• 22:14
  Speaker: Correct.
• 22:15
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 22:15
  Speaker: And I think a lot of, a lot of people struggle with making
• 22:20
  Speaker: that, either making that connection or figuring out what
• 22:22
  Speaker: it actually is.
• 22:24
  Speaker: Exactly.
• 22:24
  Speaker: And once you sit back and figure out, okay, who are my customers?
• 22:28
  Speaker: Um, and the biggest thing, like I tell people, if you're
• 22:31
  Speaker: struggling business, there's two ways to grow your business.
• 22:34
  Speaker: You get more customers or you could double your prices.
• 22:37
  Speaker: So look, look at your business
• 22:38
  Speaker: and figure out where you price
• 22:40
  Speaker: that and then figure out a way
• 22:42
  Speaker: to add some type of continuity
• 22:43
  Speaker: offer, meaning monthly recurring
• 22:45
  Speaker: revenue.
• 22:46
  Speaker: Um, so you won't be chasing customers every month.
• 22:48
  Speaker: You won't go through the cycle of, hey, the Facebook ads are
• 22:50
  Speaker: not working or hey, we're having a slow month.
• 22:52
  Speaker: Um, you can forecast that
• 22:54
  Speaker: because all businesses have
• 22:55
  Speaker: seasons.
• 22:55
  Speaker: And when you're able to identify what seasons kind of slow down
• 22:59
  Speaker: for you, you can plan and prepare for that.
• 23:01
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 23:02
  Speaker: That's right.
• 23:02
  Speaker: That's exactly right.
• 23:04
  Speaker: It's is getting, getting down
• 23:05
  Speaker: and dirty and looking at all of
• 23:07
  Speaker: those numbers that you have
• 23:08
  Speaker: access to.
• 23:09
  Speaker: But maybe you either are intimidated by not understanding
• 23:13
  Speaker: what they are, or maybe you just don't want to know.
• 23:16
  Speaker: Sometimes.
• 23:17
  Speaker: Exactly.
• 23:18
  Speaker: Sometimes it's dreadful.
• 23:19
  Speaker: People deal with anxiety.
• 23:20
  Speaker: And it's a real thing in entrepreneurship because
• 23:23
  Speaker: nothing's guaranteed and everything is not predictable.
• 23:26
  Speaker: We don't know where our next check comes from.
• 23:27
  Speaker: We don't know what next week look like.
• 23:29
  Speaker: Um, you know, you could wake up
• 23:31
  Speaker: tomorrow and have, you could
• 23:33
  Speaker: work four days straight and
• 23:34
  Speaker: don't mean that you're equally
• 23:35
  Speaker: going to get paid like an
• 23:36
  Speaker: employee.
• 23:36
  Speaker: So I think that's what a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with.
• 23:39
  Speaker: And if they become better at forecasting and talking and
• 23:42
  Speaker: predicting and selling and booking a calendar, Because the
• 23:46
  Speaker: one thing I learned over the years, a empty calendar is the
• 23:49
  Speaker: most deadliest thing you can have as an entrepreneur.
• 23:53
  Speaker: Yep, absolutely.
• 23:55
  Speaker: All right, Antoine, we're coming up towards the the end of our
• 23:59
  Speaker: time together, unfortunately.
• 24:00
  Speaker: But I do want to ask you here at
• 24:02
  Speaker: the Growth Pro Edge and the
• 24:04
  Speaker: Growth Pro Group, we are all
• 24:05
  Speaker: about growth.
• 24:07
  Speaker: So what do you do to grow yourself.
• 24:11
  Speaker: Oh man.
• 24:12
  Speaker: Um I'm not sure how religious your audience are, but uh, my
• 24:16
  Speaker: Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I, I go to church.
• 24:20
  Speaker: Um, I read a lot of mindset books.
• 24:21
  Speaker: I read a lot of John C Maxwell books.
• 24:24
  Speaker: Twenty one Laws of Leadership.
• 24:27
  Speaker: Uh, reading is everything.
• 24:29
  Speaker: And now, you know, you have apps
• 24:31
  Speaker: where you don't have to read an
• 24:32
  Speaker: entire book.
• 24:32
  Speaker: You there's an app called
• 24:33
  Speaker: headway where, uh, they
• 24:35
  Speaker: summarize the book using AI and
• 24:36
  Speaker: you could be done with a book in
• 24:37
  Speaker: twelve minutes.
• 24:38
  Speaker: That's how I learn.
• 24:39
  Speaker: I learn really fast.
• 24:40
  Speaker: So, so I just always pour into myself and I'm not afraid to
• 24:44
  Speaker: invest in myself.
• 24:45
  Speaker: I'm not afraid to not just hire
• 24:47
  Speaker: a coach, but, um, um, subject
• 24:51
  Speaker: matter experts.
• 24:52
  Speaker: That's what I like to work with.
• 24:53
  Speaker: Like, okay, if I'm struggling
• 24:54
  Speaker: with, uh, you know, Facebook
• 24:57
  Speaker: ads, let me go find someone
• 24:58
  Speaker: that's crushing and rocking
• 24:59
  Speaker: Facebook ads.
• 25:00
  Speaker: If I'm struggling with, um,
• 25:02
  Speaker: employee retention, let me go
• 25:04
  Speaker: find a former HR executive that
• 25:06
  Speaker: understands this employee
• 25:07
  Speaker: retention thing.
• 25:08
  Speaker: And that's the way I've been
• 25:09
  Speaker: doing it, you know, for a very
• 25:11
  Speaker: long time.
• 25:11
  Speaker: And it's worked really well for me.
• 25:13
  Speaker: Okay.
• 25:13
  Speaker: Being an intentional learner, I think is so essential.
• 25:16
  Speaker: Yes.
• 25:17
  Speaker: No matter, no matter what you do.
• 25:19
  Speaker: And I always say when you stop learning, you stop living.
• 25:21
  Speaker: So we gotta keep that moving forward.
• 25:25
  Speaker: I love that, that's excellent.
• 25:27
  Speaker: Antoine, how can people get in
• 25:28
  Speaker: touch with you and learn more
• 25:31
  Speaker: about what you do at ninety
• 25:32
  Speaker: nine?
• 25:33
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 25:33
  Speaker: So they can head over to the
• 25:34
  Speaker: website C e o nine twenty nine
• 25:37
  Speaker: dot com.
• 25:37
  Speaker: There's a bunch of goodies on there.
• 25:39
  Speaker: Um, you know, uh, fill out the
• 25:41
  Speaker: form and get in touch with us,
• 25:43
  Speaker: figure out how we can help you
• 25:44
  Speaker: Also revamping our YouTube
• 25:47
  Speaker: channel.
• 25:48
  Speaker: Uh, I believe if you just type
• 25:49
  Speaker: in Antoine Campbell, you can
• 25:50
  Speaker: find it.
• 25:51
  Speaker: And then my Instagram CEO.
• 25:53
  Speaker: Nine twenty nine.
• 25:54
  Speaker: Perfect.
• 25:55
  Speaker: Excellent.
• 25:56
  Speaker: Well, thank you so much for your time today and your insights.
• 26:01
  Speaker: And, uh, the, the ownership
• 26:04
  Speaker: issue is, is something that,
• 26:07
  Speaker: that is a hard obstacle to
• 26:09
  Speaker: overcome.
• 26:09
  Speaker: But once you figure out how to do that and recognize that
• 26:13
  Speaker: you're just because you own the business doesn't mean your
• 26:16
  Speaker: employees are taking that ownership as well.
• 26:19
  Speaker: So. Exactly, exactly.
• 26:21
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 26:22
  Speaker: Figuring that out, I think, is such an important tool for
• 26:25
  Speaker: businesses to look into.
• 26:26
  Speaker: So thank you for your expertise and insight in that.
• 26:29
  Speaker: And C E oh nine two nine.
• 26:32
  Speaker: Love it.
• 26:32
  Speaker: Thanks, Antoine.
• 26:34
  Speaker: Well, thank you for having me, I appreciate it.
• 26:36
  Speaker: Well, we hope today's
• 26:37
  Speaker: conversation has given you some
• 26:39
  Speaker: practical tools to help you
• 26:41
  Speaker: sharpen your edge and accelerate
• 26:43
  Speaker: your growth.
• 26:44
  Speaker: If you're ready to grow your
• 26:46
  Speaker: team, your business, or
• 26:47
  Speaker: yourself.
• 26:49
  Speaker: Contact us at the Growth Pro
• 26:50
  Speaker: group dot com and set up a free
• 26:52
  Speaker: growth call with one of our
• 26:54
  Speaker: coaches.
• 26:55
  Speaker: Once again, a special thanks to our sponsors in bed party center
• 27:00
  Speaker: software in a global Betson SIM, Knox, Schaefer and roller for
• 27:05
  Speaker: all that they do to help us bring you the Growth Pro edge.
• 27:10
  Speaker: And until next time, I'm Denise
• 27:12
  Speaker: Killian with the Growth Pro
• 27:13
  Speaker: Group.
• 27:14
  Speaker: Keep learning, keep growing and
• 27:17
  Speaker: keep striving for the
• 27:18
  Speaker: extraordinary.