Latest / Unstoppable Success Podcast / Building Trust in the Corporate Environment: Lessons from Paul Shrater

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Building Trust in the Corporate Environment: Lessons from Paul Shrater · Unstoppable Success Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight, influential leaders and their game-changing insights.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jacqueline Stomager, CEO and founder of Leap to Your Success.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's LeapToyoursuccess.com.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: We help entrepreneurs, leaders, and CEOs grow their business, become unstoppable high achievers in their careers and life, gaining that 1% edge.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: We believe every professional has the power within them to leap to their greatest success that not only will impact their life, but the lives of the people they touch.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: So stick around to the end of the show, and we will share with you how you can be our next guest.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: So stick around for those 15 to 20 minutes and let's be unstoppable.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight Podcast.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I am your host, Jacqueline Strominger, and I am so excited to have with us today Paul Schrader.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this podcast is all about great leadership and helping people gain amazing insights and how and game-changing ways that they can be better leaders.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: And Paul has had an amazing background.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: So he is an entrepreneur.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: He actually runs a whole host of different companies, actually, a dozen different companies, different brands.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: And things that I find truly fascinating that I'm sure listeners, you're going to want to know about.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: He has done some amazing product launches with some key people where they've actually had to staff up and bring in large numbers of people at a given time and manage that whole process.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: So you know that he is, he knows how to be a great leader.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So without further ado, let me welcome to the show Paul.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome, Paul.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being here.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um thank you.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so obviously we were talking beforehand about um people leadership and and you know, right off the back, the first thing that's coming to my mind was all of your experience because you've worked with across across different brands and different types of companies.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think has been the hardest thing about leading companies that are so different faceted and multifaceted?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's a good question.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I actually think it's the people.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously you're already talking about that and sort of hinted at that, and making sure that people are in the right position.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because you can have people who are nice people, they can be really smart, uh, but they're just not right for that particular role.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you get frustrated, they get frustrated.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's about finding where their personality, where they're smarts, where their way of thinking matches the role, you know, in the in the right way.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and so that um being able to move people spot that and move people into a slot because they're like nice people and they're smart, and you're like, this doesn't make sense.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't they do this one thing?
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's just because their brain doesn't work for whatever that particular role requires, but they could flourish, you know, in a different position in the company.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So try to sort of find people in the right, you know, and get them in the right spot.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, also identifying people who have good critical thinking skills um is extremely rare and and difficult.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then when you find them really um sort of recognizing that that is a rare skill set and therefore they should be in a position that utilizes that and is more of a leadership role or where they can kind of take charge and run with things and know how to make the right decisions, how to evaluate those decisions, when to ask for help, when not to ask for help.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh and then you know, the other thing is recognizing the importance of the corporate culture and the vibe, if you will, you know, that that it can take one person who I I I historically have called a rebel rouser, um, who can literally make the whole feeling of of everybody from from somebody working in a warehouse to executives um be affected and not want to come to work every day, kind of thing.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So um you can try and work with folks like that, but from the 20 years I've been doing it, I found that you just have to get rid of those people.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: They're just they're the the way in which they view the world and with the negativity and all that is is not helpful for that that corporate culture.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and luckily learned those lessons in the early years and have had you know a really good team without any of that for many, many years now.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I I I love there's a lot of things that I just want to unpack right there, but but I've got a couple questions, but I want to ask, you know, what do you do to help find those people that are critical thinkers?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I want to ask you some a whole bunch of other questions because I'm just like your vibe attracts your tribe, which you said in so much, and and they and the negative, like negative people bring negativity down.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: But again, like how do you find the right critical thinkers?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a good question.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Ironically, one area where I've happened to found some star employees are people who have been um daycare teachers, kindergarten teachers, preschool teachers, like that.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: The skill sets that you have to have in those roles.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta work hard, you gotta deal with chaos, you gotta multitask, you gotta deal with people and personalities and parents and thing, you know.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's actually a great place um to have somebody who can come in and be like a project manager or take a leadership role um in something.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a weird one that you might not have think of, but the the other one is I ask people a question and um see how they go about thinking about it.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everybody I I hate interview questions like that.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Usually I just talk to people and try and get a sense of who they are and then can kind of tell a lot about a person just from talking about random stuff, not not the typical, like what do you see yourself in five years?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, none of none of the typical interview things, but I found one that that tended to be very telling.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it is if you make a product for 90 cents and you sell it for a dollar thirty and it costs you 50 cents to ship it, how much money did you make?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is you just lost 10 cents.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I and I tell people, use a calculator, write it down, I'll say it again.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And do you know nine out of 10 people?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would say maybe even more than nine out of ten, even highly educated college people, college graduates, cannot do that simple question.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's horrible.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you ask the question, and I'm thinking to myself, okay, well, you didn't make any money, but I didn't tell you how much you lost.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you made nothing.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh, right?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: You're in the red.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that, I mean, and and not that it's you know that you need every employee to understand profitability and all that, but to understand how they go about like figuring that out.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, you start here, this is a cost, this is you know, just to it's like a quick little problem solving thing that a lot of people get really stumped on.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so I anyway, I found that just an interesting quick test.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because nine out of ten people can't figure that out, even with a calculator and even with repeating it three times.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Count on your finger, right?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Versus some people do it in their head in a split second, and you're like, okay, your brain can problem solve very quickly.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And on the fly like that, that usually is an indicator that they've got some of those kind of critical thinking skills and problem solving skills.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's so funny because when you're asking the when like to me, the first thing I thought was like, why the hell in God's name would you ever do it?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: You're not making any money.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, right?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um can't make it up in volume, right?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: No, that is you cannot make it up in volume.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that's actually a really great question.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: I I it's I find it really difficult or interesting to see like what people, you know, um use to find those people, right?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because what you shared also is that you know, there could be that one person that brings a team down.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, the culture of a company, you know, it really matters like the values that you bring in.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that question does help determine a lot with people too.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, even like with where they stand with with their own money too.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they need to know that stuff, right?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and by the way, there's really smart people who have problems with basic math.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for whatever reason, they're just good in other subjects and they struggle with basic math, but yet they're still smart.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Generally, though, even people like that will be able to figure that out once they take a moment and a breather and they pen and paper or calculator or whatever, they can figure it out because they've got the ability to tackle problems.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: They may not have been able to do it in their head on the fly because their brain just wasn't programmed that way in math.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, I don't, you know, begrudge somebody for not being good at you know basic math because um unless their role is one that requires that.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right, unless you're an accountant.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: But it does actually bode to two things, like we, you know, where if the person does need a calculator but doesn't have one, then they say, Oh, you know, yes, I'd love a calculator.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Can we just read two read like it's asking the question?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because then that also determines are they open to asking questions if they need help.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and by the way, they all should also realize that I guarantee they have a cell phone on them.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I guarantee that has a free calculator app already in the cell phone, uh, you know, that they may have used.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really true.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: So you you've said a couple of things that I also thought were that really were really, really critical.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, corporate culture and getting somebody out of there that's that's that's you know, a big negativity in there.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, uh as a leader and you know, with you know, running companies um and bringing people in even on the fly, even for short periods of time, like you know, you shared you you did this great launch.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um how do you how do you as a leader handle personalities in you know, with like going from you know small amount of people then having to expand a lot of people and then shrinking back down?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's a lot of um personalities that you interview.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the the um you know the good thing in and some of it has some some bad with it too, is everything we tend to run on allowing people to completely run their own domain.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't even know what's going on with a lot of stuff, you know, in the company.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because people are are given that ability to almost be their own entrepreneur within their own environment.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it takes a while to build that trust with each other, you know, on that.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: But but once that's there, then you know that's great for people and also for their job satisfaction to feel that they're not having a boss who's like breathing over their neck and always being like, what do you where's where are you at with this, this, and this, and having meetings and show me reports.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, just do your thing.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I trust you know what you're doing.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're looking out for you know what's right for the company and the right decisions and all that.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Go do it.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: If if you need my help for something, come to me.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: But generally they're running their own departments and running their own things.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So in that case, really they're the ones hiring those people, not me.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and but they tend to have developed the same sensibility of how to structure.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we we still in most cases have the military hierarchy within companies.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you've got your vice president and your um, you know, manager and your leader, you know, like your team leader.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've got that kind of you know military um hierarchy that when you're gonna bring on so many people so fast, that is the best methodology.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: But you also have to build that into your structure.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna bring 200 people on, you can't have 200 people packing boxes and one, you know, your your normal operations manager trying to manage 200 people, it doesn't work.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So when we were structuring having 200 people come on for you know two weeks or whatever for a project, we actually had to build in, okay, we're gonna need team leaders and how many people, you know, we we need a floor manager, we need you know, a shift manager, we need some, you know, uh team leads or department areas, like, okay, we need a lead for the box packers, we need the lead for the people processing the shipping labels, we need a lead person who's a runner, you know, who you know leads the team of haulers that haul stuff back and forth.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and so you might even need more than one of those, you know, team leaders for different, you know, and then you need somebody who's in charge of those team leaders.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so we built a quick hierarchy and paid more attention to making sure we had the right, you know, team leaders in those spaces than we did the people actually like picking boxes or printing labels and so it became you know, we empower those people where they can even get rid of somebody off their team if they find that that person's not cutting it.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: So now they actually feel like they've got the role and the power and the authority and and connectivity to the task to be their own leader of their own team.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so it doesn't have to be one person who's trying to look at everybody who won't be able to assess who's got issues and who doesn't.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because it'd invariably, if you're bringing on 200 people to kind of pack boxes and all you know, boxes around a warehouse and print shipping labels, you're not gonna get 200 rock stars.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're gonna have um people with issues.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and so being able to spot that on day one, talk to the agency people, make a change, um, is critical.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: So um to be able to spot that, it's gotta be down into smaller teams and empowering those team leaders to be able to call those shots.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love what you just said, and there's some a couple of a couple of key questions I want to ask, and I don't want to kind of forget them.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: So um something that you said that um you know, one is I want to talk about training, and then two, which is trust, and then obviously and team building, I mean and and creating those smaller teams.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: So going to the trust part, because that's actually the huge, huge thing.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is a part that as a leader, it's it's um it can make or break a company in a lot of ways, you know.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: You you have to right, you cannot run you can't have five different companies or five thousand employees if you don't trust people, but in order to they have to trust you too, right?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: And they right.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: So is there something that you have done, you know, in your career that helped you be able to be a better builder of trust, both you know, obviously going both ways.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um in fact I just had this conversation with somebody yesterday.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um I um well, one is I say what I'm thinking and I don't have a different conversation in my head than what I'm saying out loud.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I can spot that on people's faces.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: If their brain is thinking something else and and they're saying something different because they're trying to couch what they're saying, no, just say it.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and so it's being transparent and and honest with whatever it is, good or bad.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and and so that kind of transparency, just human being to human being, is what um engenders trust, you know, people.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the the big thing in life that I found, and it's not just business, it's interpersonal, it's anything, is constantly when you're talking to somebody, trying to understand where they're coming from and what they're hearing and what they're looking for.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: So even now, as I'm talking to you, my brain is wondering who's your audience, what are they looking for?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: How can I add value to your audience?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm adding value to your audience, that's adding value to you.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, I'm not just gonna sit and hype people up like a lot of you know talking heads do on stages and stuff and say motivational, you know, platitudes, but try to figure out what is tactical that people can take with them and implement.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's under and on the fly with every interaction all day long with everybody, always putting yourself in that other person's shoes as to what do they care about and what what motivates them.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, it's not the same with all employees.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: They don't think like you do.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's another mistake that I think a lot of you know, managers, leaders, whatever make is they assume everybody else sees the world through their eyes the way they see the world.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not true.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes people do not want a promotion.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: They enjoy not having the stress, they enjoy going home and watching TV every night, they enjoy the role they're in.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've had people turn down promotions because of that.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Mind-boggling to me.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: I can't fathom that.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: But now that I know that about them, I can adjust, you know, how I interact with them.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's you know, other leaders who you just want, they're just looking for respect.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're looking for recognition that that you respect them for who they are.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not about money, and it's not about status or title or or whatever.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that you show them that that you know a respect factor kind of thing.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to but so everybody's got a different you know, reason for being, but understanding that, and other people it's all about the money, or other people it's all about, you know, this or a combination thereof, right?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Or where or what their what their office is and what it look you know, where it is and what it furniture it has in it, and you know, um, so you have to understand what motivates each person and it's different and it's not your worldview.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that to me, just from life, you know, interactions with anybody in any situation is always trying to figure out what they are looking for.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're pitching a reporter, you know, for your business, they don't they don't care about the attributes and price and and all the great features and why you're better than your competitors.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody cares.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: That is shocking to a business owner because that's what they're into and what they're passionate about, and they figure that's what they want to get out there.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's what people are gonna need to know to buy it.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, the reporter, the journalist, is interested in what are people gonna click on?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: What are people gonna read?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: What are they gonna get into?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: What are they gonna like about it?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not features about a product.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you might say it's something like, um, you know, okay, I'm just gonna grab this pen, you know, right here.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, although this is not Wolf of Wall Street, sell me this pen or anything.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: But but it would be like but similarly, it it's like, you know, I'm not gonna sit and talk about the attributes of the pen, but I might tell you, you know, the story of how this pen, you know, saved the day yesterday.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean like you you emotionally connect with the person, you you give them entertainment value, you know, you and that comes from my background was in film and TV as a producer and writer and and you know, in storytelling and modern day social media marketing is really proving out the concept of storytelling and sharing, you know, sharing something with somebody.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's also ego, by the way.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you want to share something that somebody else um finds entertaining, interesting, funny, you know, whatever, um, that makes you look good.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's the old days before social media when you would have a favorite little band and you would tell people and play something or show them this little band you found, and it made you look good because you make them discover that band.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: The moment that big band was popular, you didn't share it anymore because everybody knew about it doesn't make you look good anymore.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's what social media is.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's the same, the same dynamic in how you're thinking about you know what motivates other people, what are they gonna get out of you know that?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and you need to give them a reason to care.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I used to like again from a marketing perspective, I'm saying if you're gonna do a post, it has to be shareworthy.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: You have to make it interesting enough that you actually think people are gonna click and share and add it to their feed.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: If it's not, nobody cares.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're not emotionally connected to your content.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to challenge yourself to figure out how.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Can I be entertaining with what I'm doing talking about a brand?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: It might be me taking this pen and flinging it across the room and seeing if I can get it into a bucket or whatever.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm selling pens, but I've just created entertainment value for somebody to because they're gonna watch and see if I can land the pen in the bucket, you know.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Again, dumb off the cuff idea, but but yeah.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: No, but that's you know, it's it's it's really quite you know, it's really true.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like the stor this that story connection, but I but what you were saying, really knowing what your people like and want is so important because as a leader, number one, I look at things where you have to know the story that's gonna create an emotional connection between you and the people that are in your whole life, right?
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: And they have to get behind that.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: But you also, as a leader, you have to sort of know the stories of the key people that you're leading.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna know everybody in your uh, you know, if you got 5,000 people in your company, but you need to know the key people, right?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: That are in your that you're leading, and then those leaders need to know those people, and so on and so forth.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you don't, as you said, you could you could you could offer that promotion and you know you're gonna like, you know, as you said, why not?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: But if you know that the person what their values are and where they want to go, it makes it a lot easier too, and it does, it creates a lot more of um a cohesive.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and if they know that you know that about them too, and that then you're behaving in a way that respects where they're coming from, you now have trust with that person.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like they know you're not gonna put them in a situation that's uncomfortable that they're not interested in.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so that it's it's really about getting outside of yourself and looking at what motivates everybody else around you.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and not doing that as a one-off exercise, but building that as who you are as a person, and it's hard to do, and yeah, but I think one can train themselves to be thinking of others, you know, on a regular basis.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's any interaction, you know, like you're ordering something at a fast food counter, you know, what's that person's life like?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: What is their day like?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: What interactions do they have with angry, upset people?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can just be nice for a moment, like that can actually make their day.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you wouldn't you wouldn't even know that or think about it until you realize the other kind of interactions they probably have all day long.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or even a dental hygienist.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to be there.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody hates going to the dentist, and they know that and they're miserable, which is why they there's some statistic that dentists have the highest suicide rate of any you know job or whatever.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: But um but I might go to the dentist myself, but I actually like it, but I'm weird.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're the one in the thousand already.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm that weird one.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: But but it's understanding that and then recognizing if you can have a pleasant conversation with somebody like that, then that's that's almost unique for them too.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and you can add value to their day.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and again, it's not this conscious effort to try to go around and and make everybody this you know happy person, but it's really just constantly understanding whether it's employees, customers, audiences, you know, out there, um, what or a podcast, you know, guest and host, you know, what are they looking for from me?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of value can I add to you, which is really adding value to your audience, which is what adds value to you?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it's and then all it's so important.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: So let me ask a question because I think this is for me one of the biggest things that you know it's kind of caught me up as a curiosity is that this is not necessarily always ingrained in everybody.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: So do you you know, have a training program or do you work with your team or key team members to go through different programs to help we've tried different kinds of trainings over the years, even broad-based stuff to train people on what a business does and how it works and how it makes money and what all the departments do, and you know, um, because a lot of people who do a business role may have never been classically trained in business and don't even understand how things work.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not in the end, I don't know that that, you know, we we've experimented with sort of different trainings.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of the training is just from somebody else or on the fly, um uh from the deep end.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, so it's also hard on a smaller company to have formal training and have you know a lot of that built out.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and by the time you've written the training, it's already changed, you know.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, there's so much nimbleness in what we do and everything that it's very hard to build like formalized, you know, training.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it's more sort of on the fly um kind of stuff.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: But but one of the things in that you started with is not everybody may have the ability to do what I was saying in terms of understanding the other people around them.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: They may not even be people person, you know, people people, uh, maybe process-oriented people um that are running a business and they have difficulty with those kind of interactions, they're not comfortable with it.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: The trick is also to recognize that you are not good at everything.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're the CEO or you're running something, you're not good at everything.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to build the team around you, especially in the areas that you are not good at or that you aren't going to be focused on.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: That may be accounting, or that may be management of people.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you may be great at business development or technology or um, you know, some or marketing, you know, some aspect of your business that you're focused on.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes uh leaders will delude themselves that that's what their business is because that's what they know and what they're good at, and and forget or or lack the placement of importance on those other aspects.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: They figure, oh, marketing's important, operations is easy.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then all of a sudden they turn around and find out operations is not as easy and they've got problems.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, what they should do is get somebody who can is good at leading operations so that way they can not think that it can just kind of operate automatically with them kind of giving it, you know, very little attention.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's understanding kind of how to fill the gaps of your own um lack of either skills or lack of time that you have, you know, and where where are you going to be spending your time as a leader?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it's very true.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: We need to know what our strengths and weaknesses are and what our what our taught, you know, where also yeah, where we need to spend our time.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Paul, I can talk to you for hours and hours because I think it's like it's crazy.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like so much great wisdom and insight.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: So if you could give leaders one key like major insight that was like a huge lesson for you, what would it be?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's multiple lessons, and I gotta pick one.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you had to pick one.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: What's one that maybe had more of an impact than you maybe even thought that it would?
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um one that I would say, and it may not be obvious or comfortable for everybody is networking.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I was always heads down, just doing the grind, you know, working on the operations of the business, working on online marketing and thing, you know, like doing all these different things, and never went out and met other people.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And and and then one day, but I forget, I don't know what triggered it, but um got involved in like a local university's entrepreneurial center.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then there was a local um like leadership forum and a CEO's club.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: And my university had a C-suite um group that meets up every couple of months for a dinner in town.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: And like, so I just started doing like all of these different networking events.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, a lot of times there's people who yeah, they you know, sounds like you can do business, but then nothing happens and you kind of get discouraged, you know, and and it happens again and again and again.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, you know, like doing that for six months, like somebody six months ago, you know, reaches out.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I remember you do, you know, fulfillment for other brands.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: A buddy of mine's got a um, you know, issues with his fulfillment company.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let me connect him to you.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Or hey, I remember Paul, you were talking about your contract packaging facility and food beauty supplements, you know, that might a little commercial.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, they've got a product that they want to develop.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Can you talk to them about, you know, so people from six months ago, a year ago, two years ago, friends of friends, you know, like they remember these conversations.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: And and and many times I've also helped them just, you know, I it wasn't something I could do directly, but I met them and like, oh, I know a guy to connect you with.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I would just connect two people together.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: It helped them in their business.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I didn't even know like whatever happened with that.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then that made me stick in their mind as somebody important who helped them in what they did.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so when they came across something, I was the you know, able to be pulled from their memory to be able to send somebody to me.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: So there's this weird sort of karmic, you know, type effect I I found in just connecting people out there and and um and oftentimes not expecting anything in return, um, just knowing that you never know.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you do that with others, other people might do that with you and and you never know who it is.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't sit there and going, oh, is this you?
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna help me?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like no, you just sort of do it, you know, and connect people.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I found that you just do that enough times and it's almost statistical that that it comes back to you.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um so definitely I found networking has led to a majority of our customers.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: That is absolutely amazing.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I can there's a lot of reasons why I could tell you that.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that is so important.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: So you have a lot of great businesses and you've got a lot of good stuff that that's happening.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: So what would you like to share with the audiences about you, how they can connect with you and your businesses?
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, you can connect with me on LinkedIn, um, Paul Schrader, S-H-R-A-T-E-R, uh, paulschrader.com.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: I just put together recently to kind of list all the stuff I've doing and all that.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I said the most value that might be useful for other business owners or or people in business that are watching it that we can help with is a lot of our service-oriented companies that can help other brands, and obviously it's customers for me too, um, is you know, third-party logistics fulfillment, you know, for other brands.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: We do food, beauty, uh, supplements, apparel, toys, all kinds of stuff.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we're somewhat unique in that space in that we started with our own e-commerce business, and therefore, inadvertently we fell into doing this for other people and ended up treating the brands as if they're still our own.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's not like shove it in a box and ship it out.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're more engaged in knowing all about the brand and everything about their products and the teams that work and pack and pick and pack their stuff, like know the brand.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're not walking around with a computer on their wrist and picking it in a beeps if it's the wrong thing.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like they actually know that, which is really helpful, especially for startup brands, growing brands, celebrity brands.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of high, very high-profile celebrities who need that kind of support of somebody looking out for them.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we do the customer service out to the public.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: We help with package design for like the last mile delivery package if we if they want to get into like custom boxes and insert cards and different things that can make the box, you know, the experience interesting.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we have our contract packaging facility, which is unique in the country.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's a scaling facility.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we can take somebody from a$2,500 minimum order up to a million pieces or more.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's food, beauty, supplements, personal care, liquids, powders, particulates, packets, stick packs, bottles, jars, cans, bags, kosher certified, organic certified.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: We can do OTC for topicals.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we have a TikTok marketing agency, which is fairly new, um, working with a lot of talent on live selling, um, and then also working with brands on helping them with their live selling and with their um, we have our own live selling studio now in my warehouse, um, helping them if they want to set up their own studio uh and um doing the shoppable videos and also helping them with the affiliate marketing, which is embedded within TikTok's platform.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: I can talk all day on the the merits of TikTok and and why.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, and just a quick stat um in China, more than 30% of all e-commerce is now live selling.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's only five years old, um, the concept of live selling there.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why TikTok is really pioneering that in the US and pushing that hard, because they see that in the next year, uh well, Gary Vaynerchuk, if you listen to him, says that 2025 is the year of live selling.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I totally agree.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen it.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, if you look at TikTok Shop, which is their e-commerce you know side of things, which is trying to be on a path to go head to head with Amazon.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: In the last year, the first six months of 2024, they did a billion dollars in sales.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: The second six months in 2024, they did$8 billion in sales.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: They did$9 billion in the US last year.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that is on a rapid rise of popularity.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they're they're really helping um brands, they're helping talent, you know, they're the executives within the TikTok environment, compared to a lot of other platforms, are actually putting teams behind you and traffic packages, you know, to help you know your brand and you know, bringing you other help on things like they're really trying to engage and get support.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I know with all the you know political issues and things around TikTok from an economic standpoint and what it is poised to do within the US and already is doing with the economy here with a lot of brands that are in the US and a lot of talent that's in the US, um, it can be a great, um, a great thing.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the only value propositions right now that a brand has to get attention.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um coming out of COVID, um, that caused brick and mortar stores to dump all of their advertising revenue into their online stores, which jacked up the rates on Facebook and Instagram, the cost per thousand impressions.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, Apple allows you to opt out of your data, you know, on apps and things.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: So the cost per acquisition skyrocketed.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: It went from say$10 to acquire a customer to$40 to acquire a customer.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you've got a$40 product that you were trying to sell with some ads on Facebook, you're in trouble.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we saw a lot of brands go bankrupt, can't pay their bills.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if there's a really bad under, whatever you want to call it, um, secret economy disaster happening within small brands in e-commerce over the last two years.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, right now, TikTok is their only out.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's their only saving grace to be able to create content, have the algorithm virally get it out there, get customers to come in at a value buy that they can't afford anymore.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't afford Facebook and Instagram ads, Google ads became expensive years ago.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's no more value propositions to get your customers.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's more important than people think in that regard, at least right now.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, every few years that value proposition changes to whatever the latest thing is where you can get you know eyeballs on stuff.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um so um, you know, we can see what the next thing is and how long TikTok has to be that leader and and value proposition for marketers.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: But um yeah, that was another tidbit for um business owners to analyze.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's so Paul.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: I so appreciate it.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, love hearing all this.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: I love what you said about leadership and about networking.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: I am a firm believer in networking.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, I have a whole separate networking company.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um so if you are listening as a listener, I want you guys to go connect with Paul on LinkedIn, go to his site, find out all the things that he's doing.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: He is a wealth of information and great knowledge.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not on TikTok, you probably want to connect with Paul to get with him.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um I would really, you know, I'm sure he would appreciate that.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I know he has a wealth of information that you could provide.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you guys for listening.
• 39:15
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• 39:22
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• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: I am your host, Jaclyn Strominger, and we want you to be unstoppable.
• 39:35
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• 39:44
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• 41:12
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