Latest / Scrappy but Successful [Consultant's Personalities When No One's Watching] / 46. Blind Spots, Business Therapy, and the Art of Scrappy Leadership with Sean McColl

Transcript

46. Blind Spots, Business Therapy, and the Art of Scrappy Leadership with Sean McColl · Scrappy but Successful [Consultant's Personalities When No One's Watching]

• 0:03
  What's happening, everybody? Welcome to Scrappy With Successful, the show where I sit down with
• 0:07
  your favorite consultants and we find out if they're successful today because they're sophisticated or
• 0:12
  because they're a little bit scrappy. I'm your host, Jack Tompkins, CEO of Pineapple Consulting
• 0:16
  Firm and Pineapple Analyst AI, always helping small businesses become more data driven. Fun fact
• 0:21
  of the day, this one is both selfish and for our Charleston-based guest, the pineapple
• 0:25
  is the symbol of Charleston. It's the symbol of hospitality, it's on gateposts, it's like
• 0:30
  they got a whole pineapple fountain, it's everywhere. The roots trace back to colonial era
• 0:34
  where ship captains would hang a pineapple on the door as a signal that they
• 0:39
  were home, and also visitors were welcome. These days, visitors are very welcome if you've
• 0:43
  got a pineapple upside down in the door. But that's neither he nor there. Today
• 0:48
  I'm joined by my friend Sean McCall. He's the founder of Trusted Business Advisors, again
• 0:52
  in Charleston, South Carolina. After 20 plus years of top-performing sales leadership, he went independent.
• 0:57
  As an outside advisor. So it works with owners, successors, key leaders, bring in objectivity
• 1:01
  insiders can't generate on their own. So he helps find the build the blind spots
• 1:06
  and build sustainable growth. So Sean, super excited to have you on, man. we've known
• 1:11
  each other for a while now. We know that you're successful today. The question we
• 1:15
  have for you, do you think you fall more on the sophisticated side, more on
• 1:20
  the scrappy side?
• 1:21
  that that's a great question. And as much as I'd like to think of myself
• 1:24
  as being sophisticated, I think there's definitely some scrappiness there because in in any type
• 1:28
  of entrepreneurial environment or you know most environments of business, there is there's definitely an
• 1:32
  element of scrappiness that you need to to get ahead and be successful.
• 1:36
  gotta be. I love it. So a a foot in both worlds is the initial
• 1:40
  is the initial take. Okay. take us back to the beginning. Where where'd you grow
• 1:44
  up? Did you have entrepreneurs in the family?
• 1:47
  Yeah, so I grew up in in the Northeast, mostly outside of Boston, suburb of
• 1:51
  Boston, and then I went down to Washington, DC for college, to American University for
• 1:56
  undergrad. And I like to say I went down to college and had so much
• 2:01
  fun. I stayed for about 30 years, and then eight years ago we relocated down
• 2:06
  here to Charleston, South Carolina, and it is a wonderful place to live, to raise
• 2:11
  kids and just to exist.
• 2:13
  Nice. Yeah, it's I I've got both those covered as well. I'm from I'm from
• 2:16
  Connecticut and then obviously in in Charlotte here, but Charleston is just I and you're
• 2:20
  on one of the islands, right? Out just outside of Charleston. Okay, very nice. Any
• 2:24
  entrepreneurs
• 2:25
  Yep, I'm on Daniel Island. And
• 2:29
  in the family growing up?
• 2:31
  Yeah, so my my father was was a scientist and then my mother became entrepreneurial
• 2:33
  when we went my sister and I got to high school and and started a
• 2:37
  business and built it up, which is always especially helpful when you have two kids
• 2:41
  going to college followed by a third one as well. So there was an an
• 2:45
  element of entrepreneurial listen in my family. So I got to see a little bit
• 2:49
  of that as well.
• 2:51
  No. Okay. And what was the business that your mom was doing?
• 2:55
  She was doing family placement. So when people would have a baby, and this is
• 2:58
  long before the internet, and or would need some help for you know an ailing
• 3:02
  relative, she would place people. And one of the things that she did, she was
• 3:06
  very intuitive. And so she got very good at at reading people and figuring out
• 3:09
  who would be a good fit for what family. And it's something that's very personal.
• 3:13
  If you're hiring someone to come into your house you know, and to take care
• 3:17
  of your kids, or you know, an ill relative or someone who may have just
• 3:20
  had you know broken a leg and needed some help, she got good at at
• 3:24
  doing that, pairing people and also seeing through and figuring out, you know, if someone
• 3:28
  was good, if there was something that wasn't showing up. You know, again, the background
• 3:32
  records we didn't have the internet, things weren't as easily accessed then as they are
• 3:35
  today. So she kinda good got good at reading between the lines and and was
• 3:39
  really she's really good at reading people. And I think that's probably something I I
• 3:43
  got from her.
• 3:44
  Okay. Could you ever like lie about doing homework or something like that and she
• 3:47
  would see right through it?
• 3:49
  We we used to joke that she we thought she was psychic 'cause sometimes she
• 3:52
  would just ask questions like, Where did that come from? It was like so spot
• 3:56
  on. It was scary.
• 3:57
  I could see that being I don't need eyes in the back of my head.
• 4:00
  I can see through walls.
• 4:01
  Yeah, right. It was a little she didn't say that, but yeah, we kinda figured
• 4:05
  that out.
• 4:06
  That's awesome. Okay. And does that entrepreneurialness does that go to you? Like do you
• 4:09
  run a lemonade stand as a kid or selling candy at school or anything?
• 4:13
  I think this is where the scrappiness came in. you know,
• 4:15
  Yeah quasi.
• 4:16
  I I had, you know, if you call them businesses, you I was cutting lawns
• 4:19
  and you know, I wasn't incorporated, I wasn't, you know, insured or anything like that.
• 4:22
  But when you know you're eleven, twelve, thirteen years old, you know, just managing, you
• 4:26
  know, making sure you're doing a good job. I was always taught by my parents
• 4:29
  to do a good job at something. And, you know, when did people need you
• 4:32
  and making yourself available? And then even, you know, this is again dating myself, but
• 4:36
  even babysitting, my sister who is my one who's closest to me is a year
• 4:39
  younger than I am. And so when we would babysit, A lot of times people
• 4:43
  like the fact because this is before cell phones and texting. It was like trying
• 4:46
  to call people and you had to leave messages and they wanted to know if
• 4:49
  someone was available on Saturday night. And if one of us couldn't do it, the
• 4:53
  other one usually could. So we became sort of the top of people's call lists
• 4:56
  because they, you can do one call and they get two people who could potentially
• 5:00
  babysit for them on Saturday night. They didn't have to wait for someone else to
• 5:03
  leave a message or you know, a lot of times people didn't even have answering
• 5:06
  machines. It sounds really ancient, but it it was the case. And so they could
• 5:10
  get an answer right there and You know, some people i it it goes into
• 5:13
  to kind of knowing now that I think about it, it goes into knowing your
• 5:16
  clients. some people, you know, wanted a girl, some people wanted a boy, because if
• 5:20
  they had young boys, sometimes it was nice to have a boy babysit, or if
• 5:23
  they had young girls, maybe they wanted a a girl to babysit, or in some
• 5:27
  cases they knew you and like, we don't care which one, we love you both.
• 5:30
  Just you know, which which one of you is available Saturday night at seven when
• 5:33
  we come by so my husband and I can go out to dinner and and
• 5:37
  so we we
• 5:38
  Nice.
• 5:39
  yeah.
• 5:40
  Okay. So you got you're hustling a little bit, a couple of we'll call businesses,
• 5:43
  a couple of businesses going on. what's the first like actual job? Like a restaurant,
• 5:47
  a retail, what's a W two job? Okay.
• 5:50
  was a restaurant. Yeah. It was a Michael's Italian restaurant. And the first day there,
• 5:53
  and I actually actually wrote a college essay about this. And you know, I mean
• 5:56
  I got into all the schools I applied to, so you know, I guess I
• 6:00
  must have done something right. But you know, I I turned it into a lesson.
• 6:03
  I was out there, I got a job as a dishwasher, which is not, you
• 6:06
  know, always the most glamorous job, and you know, went out there and go out
• 6:10
  back, scrub the Garbage can. So you can imagine an Italian restaurant with the garbage
• 6:13
  cans outside look like and it wasn't pretty. And I, you know, I did it.
• 6:17
  And I came in and the cook who was in charge looked at me and
• 6:20
  he said, When you when you bathe at home, do you wash behind your ears?
• 6:23
  I was like, Yeah. He's like, Well, get back out there and we'll finish washing
• 6:27
  those garbage cans.
• 6:28
  Yeah.
• 6:30
  And so it was a life lesson. It was, you know, here's some guy and
• 6:33
  you know, you weren't weren't just mowing a neighbor's lawn and was kind of looking
• 6:36
  out for you might gently tell you, you know, you kind of missed an edge
• 6:39
  over there, good dad. This is the real world. And so I was 14 years
• 6:42
  old and that was sort of my introduction to the real world. And then you
• 6:46
  know, got a couple other jobs from there. And part of it was like, hey,
• 6:49
  what can you do? I'm like, I'll I'll do this, you know, I can wash
• 6:52
  dishes, I can be a server, you know, waiter, I can do that. And then
• 6:55
  just kind of figuring it out. And then, you know, the lesson was providing the
• 6:58
  services that people need. And so I guess that definitely falls into the scrappy part.
• 7:02
  Yeah. But I love it. It's hey, what do you need done? I can do
• 7:05
  it. I got two hands and hard work and I'll I'll get it done and
• 7:08
  I'll I'll
• 7:09
  I'll figure out a way to get it done.
• 7:10
  Exactly. That is scrappy through and through. I like it. How are the grades in
• 7:14
  high school when you're when you're getting yelled at by chefs?
• 7:17
  Yeah. Next question please. They were they were they were fine. They were good enough.
• 7:24
  Okay. Okay. And you got into colleges and all the ones that you applied to.
• 7:25
  So all right. What was the major in college?
• 7:26
  I got into colleges, yeah. I I had a major I've never seen anywhere else.
• 7:31
  It I joke that it sounds like a major and undecided, but it was called
• 7:36
  Interdisciplinary Studies. Called
• 7:38
  Yeah.
• 7:39
  it's Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics, and Government. So instead of one expertise like biology or
• 7:42
  accounting, you had a working knowledge of four different fields. which is pretty cool, except
• 7:46
  for when you're in college and everywhere you go, everyone's like, What's your major? You're
• 7:50
  like, You got a minute? Let me explain it to you. And You know, and
• 7:54
  until I until I was literally at graduation looking at my you know my degree,
• 7:58
  I was like wasn't sure exactly what it was gonna say, but it's we called
• 8:02
  it CLEG, but again, it was communications, legal institutions, economics, and government, and it was
• 8:05
  really fascinating. And and go to school in in Washington, DC. you had access to
• 8:09
  a lot of really cool resources and internships. And so, you know, I'd started out
• 8:13
  as a business major, decided to switch to a you broad-based liberal arts major and
• 8:17
  then eventually went back to to business school and got a master's degree in management.
• 8:21
  And I did that at the University
• 8:23
  Okay.
• 8:24
  of Maryland.
• 8:24
  Okay. I it it does sound like you got a Bachelor of Arts in stuff.
• 8:28
  Great.
• 8:29
  Yeah, undecided almost.
• 8:32
  that's great. Okay. all right, so then take me to actually you know what now
• 8:37
  we're gonna stay we're gonna stay here for a bit. any garage sales as a
• 8:43
  kid that you were buying from or doing selling during?
• 8:47
  I wasn't doing a lot of buying and selling. I mean certainly we'd have them
• 8:50
  from time to time and so you so you learn that and you gives you
• 8:53
  some insight into it. you know, my mother, one of the other things was she
• 8:56
  had a passion for pottery. And so we had a kiln in our house and
• 8:59
  a wheel and she used to make pottery. And sometimes the family would go to
• 9:03
  these fairs and she would sell her her pottery just as sort of like a
• 9:06
  high little hobby. And so we need we'd help her with that. And you know,
• 9:09
  it was the setup and the cleanup and everything afterwards. But it was kind of
• 9:12
  cool to see that. And you know the idea of you know the trend this
• 9:16
  is long before credit cards and was you know everything was a cash basis and
• 9:19
  you know maybe someone would write you check or something like that. But it's it's
• 9:22
  cool to see her do that. And you know my dad' help, he'd built the
• 9:25
  kiln for her and he'd actually built the first Potter's wheel she had. So
• 9:29
  Okay. This is a family of people just getting stuff done.
• 9:32
  Yes.
• 9:34
  Very cool. Any any bartering? Like are are you a salesman through and through as
• 9:38
  a kid? Like are you bartering with friends at all?
• 9:41
  not so much as a kid. I mean it was, you know, I we trade
• 9:44
  baseball cards and things like that occasionally, but not it wasn't a business. although my
• 9:48
  my first job out of school was was definitely sales and there was a lot
• 9:52
  of lessons that came from that.
• 9:54
  Okay, well that's let's that's a perfect transition. Let's go there. What what is that
• 9:57
  first job?
• 9:58
  So I sold some pagers, otherwise known as beepers. And this is before the prevalence
• 10:02
  of cell phones. And you know, beepers, for those who are listening who may not
• 10:06
  be familiar with them, are like cell phones that you can't really answer the phone
• 10:10
  and you can't send a message back. But you know, they get originally it was
• 10:14
  a beep, then it was like code, then they had alphanumeric where you could get
• 10:18
  text messages. And this is it was like texting one way before texting was a
• 10:22
  thing. And so I was in Washington, DC, because I'd gone to school there. And
• 10:26
  they gave me a job and they had all the surrounding Maryland and Virginia territories
• 10:30
  have been open had been given away, but they said we'll give you DC. And
• 10:34
  the reason they were so generous with that was that nobody wanted DC. Because Washington,
• 10:38
  Yeah.
• 10:39
  DC, at this time it was right in the height of the crack epidemic, and
• 10:42
  Oof.
• 10:43
  so it was it was a very dangerous place at the time. And so I
• 10:47
  I had to learn. again, this goes into scrappy. But by the time I left,
• 10:51
  I turned that territory into the most successful territory in the company.
• 10:55
  Whoa. How so? You're just at like are you are you're selling on the crackheads?
• 10:58
  What what's the correlation? What are we doing?
• 11:00
  No, no, we want we definitely want some of the crackheads. And there was a
• 11:03
  way there were ways that we did it because they would use a weight, they
• 11:06
  would get like three thousand pages a month. And so we there was a company
• 11:10
  put a limit on how many you could get. It was like you know, 250,
• 11:13
  because the average person doesn't need anywhere near 250 pages. If you're getting more than
• 11:17
  250. probably doing something you shouldn't. And so they avoided that. But you just had
• 11:20
  to learn how to go into areas that were not good areas and how to
• 11:24
  blend in or and you know if you stuck stuck if you stuck out as
• 11:27
  I did in a lot of those parts of town, you just had to have
• 11:30
  a carry yourself a certain way. And it also helped that they all thought I
• 11:34
  was a cop. Because I couldn't figure
• 11:36
  Ha ha ha.
• 11:37
  out why a guy in a suit driving an old Buick with a dent in
• 11:39
  the side would be in that area of town. So I just put on my
• 11:42
  aviator sunglasses and just decided to own that image. And I think that's the reason
• 11:45
  I made it out there alive.
• 11:47
  That's funny. That's I I was having this conversation the other day of like company
• 11:50
  brands. Often people say like, I'm gonna do this for my brand,
• 11:54
  Yeah,
• 11:55
  but brand is what other people think of your company. And so you're like, all
• 11:59
  right, they already think this, let me lean into it.
• 12:02
  there there were times they'd mumble something about it, blanking cop as I was walking
• 12:05
  by. I was like, They think I'm a cop. I'm like, I'm gonna let them
• 12:08
  think that, you know, and I I had my briefcase, I wore a sports jacket,
• 12:11
  I had a big pager on my belt, you know, which was the the biggest
• 12:14
  one. So it looked like I had something else there. And I'm like, okay,
• 12:17
  Yep.
• 12:18
  I'm just gonna go with that. And you know, I just just owned it and
• 12:20
  went with it. And you know, one of the lessons that came out of that,
• 12:23
  I was like, if I can do this and walk in these places, you know.
• 12:26
  said nothing's gonna intimidate me. You go into a boardroom after that, what's the worst
• 12:29
  that's gonna happen? They kick you out and ask you to leave. At least you
• 12:32
  don't have to worry about getting shot, you know.
• 12:34
  Right.
• 12:36
  So it gave me a sense of a sense of confidence that I carried forward
• 12:39
  for.
• 12:40
  That's awesome. Okay. So then you're you're leading or that's the top division. Do you
• 12:44
  get promoted from that? Do you move on to a new job?
• 12:48
  Yeah, I went to another company because they offered me a chance to get into
• 12:51
  sales management. So I was I don't know, not quite twenty four years old, it
• 12:54
  was a chance to to sell, but also to to be in sales management. And
• 12:57
  so it was it was a good experience, you know, doing that and learning a
• 13:00
  little bit more. And so it was kind of a natural progression, you know, selling
• 13:04
  but also, you know, managing people at a relatively young age as well.
• 13:07
  Did you have to manage people that were older than you?
• 13:10
  They're all older than me.
• 13:12
  How's that dynamic? New hot young kid coming in, maybe, maybe not a cop, and
• 13:17
  running the show?
• 13:19
  Yeah, yeah, no, they they they knew I wasn't and that that wasn't as much
• 13:22
  the issue. But there there were definitely challenges there because it was actually I was
• 13:25
  managing the cellular or the the the paging, but there was someone else managing their
• 13:29
  cellular. So these people were selling both pagers, beepers and cell phones. And so we
• 13:32
  were trying to to do both. And so I had to learn how to co
• 13:36
  manage people with with someone else, which is always challenging and there were a lot
• 13:39
  of lessons that came out of that as well.
• 13:42
  G I gimme give me some. That's I always like managing people that were older
• 13:45
  than me was one of my like nightmares in the corporate world. And I I
• 13:49
  don't I didn't ever really have to do it. I kind of maybe had a
• 13:53
  little bit of co management, but I mean a lot of a lot of people
• 13:57
  these days they're super smart and they're they're in that position. Like give me give
• 14:00
  me some lessons learned there.
• 14:02
  Yeah, I think you you the the work has to be there. You have to
• 14:05
  show them that you're you're working alongside them, that you know what you're talking about,
• 14:09
  and that ultimately you can help them. So that that was part of it. you
• 14:12
  know, they I came in, they were already working for another sales manager on the
• 14:16
  other side. So I had to, you know, get part of their time to convince
• 14:19
  them that you know that it was important to sell them the pagers as well
• 14:23
  as the cell phone. So yeah, a couple of factors at play. One, that you're
• 14:26
  trying to get them to understand, you know, the opportunity, the business opportunity for them
• 14:30
  to make more money. second of all, you know, help them close sales. And you
• 14:33
  know, demonstrate your confidence so they feel comfortable with working with you or bringing you
• 14:37
  in to help with closing a situation or a sale situation.
• 14:40
  Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. very logical. Makes a whole lot of sense. Okay. any any of
• 14:46
  those times when sales are sales are thin and it's a it's a little bit
• 14:52
  of a downtime, like what's what's the Sean twenty five year old ramen noodle dinner
• 14:58
  equivalent?
• 14:59
  Yeah, there there were definitely some some lean times and it it's tough because you're
• 15:02
  trying to, you know, trying to make the money. You don't, you know, if something
• 15:06
  happens to your car, you don't necessarily have a nest egg. You're living more paycheck
• 15:09
  to paycheck. And so it's it's nice to have, you know, something you can do
• 15:13
  or someone you can, you know, whether it's your parents, I think my my first
• 15:16
  you know, job I had to borrow money from my parents to get my car
• 15:20
  fixed. And fortunately, you know, they were able to lend it to me and I
• 15:23
  paid them back, but you know, not everyone has that. And you know, it's you
• 15:27
  know, planning ahead. It's tough when you're first starting out. to be scrappy and you
• 15:30
  know it's good if you can to keep things lean, keep your, you know, rent,
• 15:34
  get roommates. You know, I always had roommates until I bought my first car or
• 15:37
  first house rather. and you know have a have a plan. So put some money
• 15:41
  away as soon as you can. Don't spend all your money just 'cause you have
• 15:44
  it, don't spend it all. Put some of it away because sooner rather than later
• 15:48
  you're gonna need that money and it's nice to have it.
• 15:51
  Yeah. I you've got kids now. What what age is the oldest?
• 15:55
  So my daughter's a rising senior in high school, and my son is a rising
• 15:58
  sophomore in high school.
• 16:00
  Okay. Are you instilling those lessons of, you know, save first and go sell and
• 16:05
  stuff like that?
• 16:07
  You know, I I think it's harder nowadays for kids because when we had it,
• 16:10
  you know, we didn't have everything in your face, Instagram, just constantly people, you know,
• 16:14
  posting things, you know, posing in front of a Lamborghini or a jet that's not
• 16:18
  theirs and just 'cause they snapped a picture quickly before the guy kicked them off
• 16:22
  the tarmac. And so it it's tough when kids see that. And and I think
• 16:26
  it's not just kids, adults see that as well. We see that with adults. And
• 16:30
  it gets into being grounded. I think you've got to be grounded. You've got to
• 16:34
  really know what your values are. You've got to be true to your values. it's
• 16:37
  okay when you've worked hard and had some success to go out and celebrate and
• 16:41
  you know have a nice dinner or, you know buy nice piece of piece of
• 16:45
  clothing or whatever it is or you know something bigger later on. But it it's
• 16:49
  really tough. And that that's a challenge that we struggle with is instilling those those
• 16:53
  values in our kids and having them you know understand that this is, you know,
• 16:57
  just 'cause you see something, there's a lot behind it. You know, everything you see
• 17:01
  on Facebook or Instagram isn't always as it appears. And that's not just true for
• 17:05
  kids. You see, you know, you see adults doing it too. And so just, you
• 17:08
  know, keeping that perspective and you know, they say, you know, You they say having
• 17:12
  the pers you know, having this perspective is important. So don't don't envy other people
• 17:16
  because they might not have not might not have
• 17:19
  Right.
• 17:20
  exactly what you think they have.
• 17:21
  Right, right, exactly. Either of them look like they're gonna be sales professionals?
• 17:26
  Absolutely.
• 17:27
  Really? Okay. Did they have lemonade stands?
• 17:33
  they they've done different things. So, you know, both you know their their mother and
• 17:37
  I are both have sales backgrounds, so they've got if there's
• 17:40
  Okay.
• 17:41
  such a thing and I think having them see and we've you know together we
• 17:44
  we we had a couple businesses that we'd started and ran. And so they were
• 17:48
  exposed to entrepreneurship at an early age. And so they got to see some of
• 17:52
  these things. And so they grew up being very aware of Zoom Zoom meetings and
• 17:56
  and seeing how those work and seeing, you know, us you know presenting to groups
• 18:00
  of people or large groups of people and and speaking. So I think they're very
• 18:04
  comfortable in that regard. And I think, you know, maybe it's just the generation now
• 18:08
  that grew up with iPhones and posting and sending things. So I think a lot
• 18:12
  of people, you know, younger people are very comfortable in front of a camera.
• 18:16
  Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. So take me to the start of your
• 18:20
  own business. where you how'd you how did you start your own business? Give me
• 18:24
  the story of the start.
• 18:26
  Sure. So yeah, I I ended up working for ATT and then doing sales and
• 18:31
  again selling long distance, which I have to explain sometimes to people.
• 18:35
  Yeah.
• 18:36
  We used to, you know, businesses used to pay for long distance, so we would
• 18:39
  sell the long distance to them. did that, you know, went to their headquarters, got
• 18:43
  some good experience there. And Left telecommunications met up with a guy who was looking
• 18:47
  to partner with someone in a small marketing company in the promotional product space. So
• 18:51
  promotional products, think anything you're gonna put your name and logo on, whether it's some
• 18:55
  inexpensive pen, some apparel all the way on up to you know super high end,
• 18:59
  you know, something that's a couple hundred dollars you give to a a good client
• 19:03
  or someone as an award. So we did that and we took it from a
• 19:07
  you know tiny little company to a little bit bigger company and then we turned
• 19:11
  around and sold it to an even bigger company, and then that company's now a
• 19:15
  two hundred million dollar company. And so I'm quick to point out I have I
• 19:19
  claim no credit for that company get to two hundred million. I do take some
• 19:23
  credit for us getting from the tiny little company to a little bit bigger company
• 19:27
  because I ran the sales and marketing for the company. And you know, with a
• 19:31
  company that size you do a little bit of everything and so I was led
• 19:35
  the way with with sales and also you know developed and managed the sales team.
• 19:39
  And you know, that led to you know a background in in in sales and
• 19:43
  marketing and then eventually you know helping develop people, helping them with their careers, finding
• 19:47
  hiring training, you know, getting those people and discovering that you're gonna get far further
• 19:51
  if you have people working with you. who are competent that you help and that
• 19:55
  they grow and you can all grow together versus trying to do everything yourself. And
• 19:59
  you know, I see that today with a lot of entrepreneurs where they get to
• 20:03
  a certain level and you know the biggest impediment to their growth is themselves because
• 20:07
  they're used to doing everything. And it's hard to let go because some of those
• 20:11
  same characteristics that made you successful, the attention to details, getting involved in everything, not
• 20:15
  letting anything fall through the cracks, is now a limitation because they can only do
• 20:19
  so much because there's only so many hours in a day. And so I mentioned,
• 20:24
  you know, with with my wife, we had a couple of companies that we'd grown,
• 20:28
  large sales organizations were essentially selling for another company. And you know, she'd been up
• 20:32
  front more the evangelist, and I was kind of behind the scenes helping you know
• 20:36
  with stuff that needed to be taken care of, but also working with the leadership
• 20:40
  team and developing leaders. And it was from that that I went out about four
• 20:44
  years ago and started my own company. So after having a background in sales marketing
• 20:48
  and helping develop and grow sales teams, now I do it for other companies.
• 20:52
  Perfect. Okay. How's the so you mentioned something there. How do you how do you
• 20:56
  help coach and help especially from a sales perspective, the owner to kind of get
• 21:00
  out of their own way? 'Cause oftentimes they're the blocker, right? So how do you
• 21:04
  how
• 21:05
  Yep.
• 21:06
  do you kind of coach around that?
• 21:07
  Yeah. And and that that's tough because again, it's something they've worked very hard to
• 21:10
  get to a certain point typically. And so getting them to let go. And so,
• 21:14
  you know, it starts with having conversations and we'll we'll talk and you know, one
• 21:17
  of the first things we'll go through is, you know, what is their strategy? What
• 21:21
  are they looking to do? What are their goals? You know, what are their mission?
• 21:25
  What are their values? and then invariably we'll talk, you know, about people. And you
• 21:28
  know, we'll if there's an issue, if there's a challenge with someone, we'll talk through
• 21:32
  that. And most of the time when I'm talking to them, they they know they
• 21:36
  have a sense, they you know what's going on. And sometimes they just need someone
• 21:39
  they can bounce off, bounce it off of. And you know, it's tough when you're
• 21:43
  when you're the owner, or especially if you're a sole entrepreneur, you don't have people
• 21:47
  you can talk to. If you don't have a partner, you can't necessarily talk to
• 21:50
  one employee about another employee, you know, unless it's something where you know. of the
• 21:54
  employees works the other one, you're saying, okay, we need to talk about developing this
• 21:58
  person. But you know, if they're having an issue. And so they need someone they
• 22:01
  can talk to confidentially. You know, when they talk to me, it's in a vault,
• 22:05
  and someone they can bounce it off of. And I tend to ask a lot
• 22:09
  of questions. So I say, I don't have all the answers, but I do know
• 22:12
  a couple of good questions I can ask. And
• 22:15
  There you go.
• 22:16
  so typically when we're having a conversation, I start asking questions. I'll repeat back to
• 22:18
  them what they've said and then Yes, okay, if I'm understanding this correctly, if this
• 22:22
  has happened, this has happened, you've talked to this person, you've said this, you've asked
• 22:26
  them this, it's causing a problem, the team is starting to come back and look
• 22:30
  at you. Why isn't something being done about this? I understand that correctly. And they
• 22:34
  kind of nod their heads and say, Yeah, I know what I need to do.
• 22:38
  And so, you know, some
• 22:40
  Ha ha ha.
• 22:41
  and sometimes you know it's something, you know, it could be more drastic. Sometimes it's
• 22:43
  just okay, this person's got these strengths, he's got these, you know, areas of limitation.
• 22:47
  So let's give them more of what they're strong at and let's get someone else
• 22:50
  to fill in those areas with her. you know, this person had limitations and that
• 22:54
  person loves doing those things and they're really good at it. And so that that's
• 22:58
  an important lesson, I think, which is finding people and putting their strengths in. If
• 23:01
  you have someone who's a good performer, but they're falling short in one area, you
• 23:05
  can try and teach them to do that. Or if you have someone else who
• 23:09
  can do it who enjoys it, they're gonna do a better job in most cases.
• 23:12
  They're gonna be happier. The person you remove that responsibility from is going to be
• 23:16
  happier and they're going to be able to focus more on their area of specialty
• 23:20
  where they can shine and they have expertise. And so it's a constant juggling act.
• 23:23
  And then, you know, unf unfortunately, sometimes you get to a point where someone was
• 23:27
  great at a certain level, but they can't get to the next level. And then,
• 23:30
  you know, you try and find a spot for them in the organization. Or if
• 23:34
  that's not happening, then you have to have another conversation with them. And it's all
• 23:38
  part of the growth and challenges. But again, having someone you can talk at talk
• 23:41
  to about it helps. And Jack, you know this from your background, it can be
• 23:45
  very lonely as an entrepreneur. And you probably see this a lot of people you
• 23:49
  talk to. And so having someone they can you know confide in, have discussions, bounce
• 23:52
  ideas off of, brainstorm with is it is invaluable.
• 23:55
  Did your original ideal client, your ICP, has that evolved over the four years? Would
• 23:59
  w do you think you nailed it on the first try?
• 24:03
  No, absolutely not. Exactly. Absolutely not. Yeah, yeah, you have to you know you have
• 24:06
  to sense what the marketplace needs and you have to be willing to to do
• 24:09
  that. And then you know eventually you can get to the point where you become
• 24:13
  very specialized, perhaps, and you can, you know, you can say, okay, I'm only working
• 24:16
  with companies in this in this area. And it sounds counterintuitive, but what you find
• 24:20
  is and I remember someone telling me this when I was first starting out, and
• 24:23
  I couldn't quite grasp it, but then it started to make sense. You know, when
• 24:27
  you're first starting out, sometimes you have to take whatever you can get. This is
• 24:30
  true in a lot of things and just you know take the jobs. But as
• 24:34
  you start To become more specialized, there can be times that it makes sense, and
• 24:37
  then you become known as an expert in that industry, and then you know the
• 24:41
  business starts coming to you, and you say, Well, does it make sense for me
• 24:44
  to go and do this? In his case, he was doing a lot of speaking.
• 24:47
  He's like, Well, if I have to go and prepare a speech, you know, start
• 24:51
  from scratch every single time, that's going to take a lot of time, versus something
• 24:54
  that he could tailor and he knew the audience. you know, with with what I'm
• 24:58
  doing, it's a little more industry agnostic. There's a couple of schools of thought. One
• 25:01
  is that it's good to know an industry and it is, but there's also times
• 25:05
  it's helpful to have that outside perspective. So you can sometimes see those hidden obstacles
• 25:08
  that the people who've been in the business for a while haven't. They say, well,
• 25:12
  this is the way you've always done it, this is the way the industry's always
• 25:15
  done. Okay. That may have been true ten years ago, five years ago, three years
• 25:19
  ago. I mean, with AI, you know, things change a lot faster than that. And
• 25:22
  you know, come in and asking the question, genuinely asking the question, well, what would
• 25:25
  it look like? Or what would happen if you did that? Or could you do
• 25:29
  this? Like, well, we never thought about it. Well, let's talk through it. And then
• 25:32
  maybe it's something that makes a lot of sense. Worst case, they say, no, we've
• 25:36
  tried that, it didn't work, or you know, here's why that would be a problem.
• 25:39
  And the problem would be worse than the cure. And you say, okay, let's move
• 25:43
  on to the next thing. But having that outside perspective, seeing those blind spots that
• 25:46
  people who've been there for a while can't do it. And that's true of a
• 25:50
  lot of things, just having that outside perspective.
• 25:52
  Yeah. Yeah. I I'm definitely in the same boat there. Just even even to your
• 25:56
  example earlier of just kind of reciting what you just said back to yourself, essentially.
• 26:01
  Like, yeah, all right, now I see it. There's a lot of value in that.
• 26:06
  did you ever have any clients kinda early on, you're like, this'll be you know,
• 26:10
  this will be this'll be easy money kind of thing. It's a short project, whatever
• 26:15
  it is, and then it's becoming the huge scope creep and lost your money.
• 26:20
  I wouldn't say lost me money, but there are definitely times that you end up
• 26:23
  doing more work than you thought you were gonna do.
• 26:26
  Yeah. Okay.
• 26:27
  And you know, if you think about it when you're starting out, there are worse
• 26:31
  things because you're getting experience, you're learning, you're getting perspective, you're hopefully creating a a
• 26:35
  great raving fan who appreciates that you want above and beyond. And you're wiser for
• 26:40
  it, and you know next time to define your scope a lot more cleanly, carefully,
• 26:44
  and then also sticking to it and saying, hey, listen, we can definitely help you
• 26:48
  with this. It's outside the scope of what we originally talked about. But if something's
• 26:53
  of interest to you and you think this would be worthwhile, I'd be happy to
• 26:57
  write up you know an additional proposal for that for that additional part. And we
• 27:01
  can talk through it. And you know, you're not saying no, you don't want to
• 27:06
  say no, you want the business, but you need to be fairly compensated for that.
• 27:10
  And that's the key is start to know and realize and appreciate your own worth.
• 27:15
  Yeah. that's so tough. did you have any so this is interesting because you're you're
• 27:20
  coaching on the stuff that you've done in a career. So did you have did
• 27:25
  you have any like fake it till you make it moments when on your own
• 27:30
  business?
• 27:31
  you know, that that's an interesting expression and I've I've thought about this before. There
• 27:34
  there's something to be said for it, which is you know, to carry yourself a
• 27:38
  certain way, and you know, you need to walk into meetings a certain way, and
• 27:41
  you know, you need to believe in yourself, but you also don't want to be
• 27:45
  disingenuous because people are gonna figure out pretty quickly if if you you know what
• 27:49
  you're talking about or if you're full of it. And that that's not a good
• 27:52
  thing either. but You don't necessarily need to go in and tell them all the
• 27:56
  reasons you're not qualified. You know, if you in fact you are qualified, maybe you're
• 27:59
  not perfectly qualified, but chances are no one is. And so if you've got you
• 28:03
  know ample qualifications, if you believe you can actually help them, just focus on that.
• 28:07
  Have the confidence. I'm gonna go and help them do all these things. If they
• 28:10
  ask you for something else, you can say, Hey, I've never done that before, but
• 28:14
  we could help you with that. Or in a lot of cases, it's bringing someone
• 28:17
  in. Hey, you know what? That's not my area of expertise, but I do have
• 28:21
  someone I know who I could bring in, and we could do that. You can
• 28:25
  either refer that to them. You can bring it in under yourself and you start
• 28:28
  to expand. And then you have more and more things, more and more offerings that
• 28:32
  you could do. So if someone needs help with accounting, I'm not an accountant. I
• 28:36
  understand numbers, but in some cases, you know, I look at it and say, okay,
• 28:39
  why aren't you getting these numbers or why don't you have these reports readily available?
• 28:43
  Like, well, you know, I asked my accountant for it a couple times, and you
• 28:46
  know, that's fine, but That accountant the right person, you know, maybe when you're at
• 28:50
  200,000, that bookkeeper was the right person, but you're at two million, that might not
• 28:54
  be the right person anymore. In some cases, the person is like, I've been telling
• 28:57
  you I need help. This is way over my level of of comfort and you
• 29:01
  know and understanding and knowledge. And they realize that. And bringing someone in, maybe that
• 29:04
  person can oversee the person who was doing the books originally. but you're solving the
• 29:08
  problem by identifying and bringing in a good accountant or a graphic artist or you
• 29:12
  know, helping them find you know the right person help with sales.
• 29:15
  Are you familiar with the who not how principle?
• 29:17
  I am.
• 29:18
  I feel like you're a big fan of that.
• 29:21
  Yeah, I that that's one of the things. I mean, you you know, you and
• 29:24
  I both talk to a lot of people. I mean, that's a big part of
• 29:27
  our job is talking to people and understanding things. And so, you know, I I
• 29:30
  tell people, I said, look, you can go on the internet and Google account and
• 29:33
  you'll find a million of them. And you might get someone really good, you might
• 29:36
  get someone really bad, you might get someone in between. You know, if you need
• 29:39
  me to, I can introduce you to a couple people who you're really who are
• 29:42
  really good. And I had one case, you know, the client we you know we
• 29:45
  talked about, he agreed you need a new accountant. I said I've got two people
• 29:48
  I think would be a good fit. I introduced them to both of them. He
• 29:51
  had conversations with them. He came back, he said, I think they'd both be a
• 29:54
  great fit. I said, Yeah, I agree. He said, So which one do I pick?
• 29:57
  I said, Okay, well let's talk through it. I said, I think you would go
• 30:00
  right you you know, it would be the good choice in either case, but let's
• 30:03
  talk about what your you know your goals are for the business, what you're looking
• 30:06
  to do. And we kind of talked about that. We determined that one of had
• 30:09
  more of a background along that way. And so that's the one he ended up
• 30:12
  going with. But that's an example of something where, you know, finding the who, not
• 30:15
  how. I'm not going to come in and say, let me take over your accounting.
• 30:18
  That would not work well. But saying I can give you someone good or I
• 30:21
  can introduce you to someone. You know, if someone needs, you know, hey, this is
• 30:24
  something you probably need to talk to a lawyer about. I'm not going to give
• 30:27
  them legal advice and we can talk about it. I may say this is something
• 30:30
  that could potentially be a problem. This is probably worth paying a professional to to
• 30:33
  to look at or to guide you or advise you on. Okay. Do you have
• 30:36
  a lawyer? No. Okay, well, or do you have a lawyer that handles this? Okay.
• 30:40
  know someone who's at a trust and a state lawyer might not be the right
• 30:43
  person to handle for compliance. And you know, just like doctors, lawyers also, they're constantly
• 30:46
  referring people back and forth. You know, you go to your primary physician, they say,
• 30:49
  okay, I'm gonna send you a specialist. You need to see a neurologist, you need
• 30:52
  to see an orthopedic surgeon, you need to see a podiatrist. You know, they're doing
• 30:55
  that all the time. And so we need to do the same thing is say,
• 30:58
  okay, here's what we can help you with on a high level, here's some things
• 31:01
  we can help you with, but I think we need to bring in a specialist
• 31:04
  for this and then have people you can you know trusted referrals that you can
• 31:07
  feel comfortable recommending to the person to make the introduction. And we add
• 31:10
  Okay.
• 31:11
  to it that way.
• 31:12
  Okay. Okay. So tell me tell me a little bit just we've got we've got
• 31:15
  a lightning round scrappy verse sophisticated coming up in a second here, but
• 31:19
  Right.
• 31:21
  before we get into that, tell me a little bit like what what makes your
• 31:25
  business awesome today? Like give me give me the outstanding thing, maybe maybe a client
• 31:29
  review or or the thing that you're most happy about today.
• 31:32
  Yeah. I I mean I I love what I do. It's it's never the same
• 31:36
  thing twice. And you're helping people find solutions to to to big problems. And that
• 31:40
  that really gets me up in the morning, it gets me going. I find it's
• 31:44
  interesting to have to ask your clients to describe you, or how would your clients
• 31:49
  describe you as the question. So client was having an event, he invited me to
• 31:53
  it, I was there, he introduced me to someone, said that you know that we
• 31:57
  work together, and I'm always, you know. I'm always conscious of keeping my clients confidentiality
• 32:02
  topmost, you know, at the top of my mind. And so, you know, in this
• 32:06
  case he was saying, Hey, this is Sean, you know, he's been working with me.
• 32:10
  And the woman said, what do you do? So I looked at him and I
• 32:14
  said, What do I do? He goes, Sean's kind of like a business therapist.
• 32:19
  Yeah.
• 32:21
  And so she looked at me and she goes, So what do you what what
• 32:24
  does that mean? And I leaned into it and I said, I help business owners
• 32:28
  sleep better at night. And she's like, you need to talk to our CEO. I
• 32:31
  was like, great, introduce me. And so we had the conversation. So I you know,
• 32:35
  I'll do that if I'm with a client sometime and someone asks me, I'll say,
• 32:38
  you know, ask the client, what what do they say I am? And it it
• 32:42
  it's it's very telling, but it's also interesting and it can open up the conversation
• 32:46
  as I as I saw in that case.
• 32:48
  That's awesome. how do you this is a tough thing with consultants and I'm I'm
• 32:52
  sure you get this too, when when expenses get tight, people look like look at
• 32:56
  the consultant line item and they say, do we really need it? How
• 33:00
  Yeah.
• 33:01
  do you how do you continuously prove value?
• 33:04
  And that well, that's something I think about, you know, every time I'm meeting with
• 33:07
  them. I'm like, you know, if you you have the mindset, like I've got to
• 33:11
  justify myself, not so much in saying here's why, but demonstrating value and helping them,
• 33:15
  you know, solve a problem. If we solve a problem, if it's a big problem,
• 33:19
  if it's a half million or a million dollar problem. You know, are they gonna
• 33:22
  quibble about some little, you know, monthly fee that they're paying me or not so
• 33:26
  little? And you know, the answer is probably not. And so, you know, it's incumbent
• 33:30
  upon us to continue to add value, even if they're not gonna come out and
• 33:34
  say that, you know, think about things or what are things we can bring? Here's
• 33:37
  some things. Hey, have you ever thought about this? You know, being proactive, looking out
• 33:41
  for their business, being a guardian, say, hey, you know, here's one of the things
• 33:45
  I was thinking about your business, I read this article, I'm concerned about this, or
• 33:49
  this is something we need to look at or address, or hey, here's I think
• 33:53
  so. great opportunity or what about doing this or hey would would introduction to someone
• 33:56
  like this be helpful because we talked about that and this is someone who could
• 34:00
  help with that. So if you're constantly thinking how can I do the right thing
• 34:04
  for my client? How can I help them? And you know helping them see okay
• 34:08
  you know what are we looking to do here? We're looking to grow revenue by
• 34:11
  this much. Okay all of a sudden if it's a huge amount your fee is
• 34:15
  only a tiny fraction of that and it seems like a pretty good investment on
• 34:19
  their part.
• 34:20
  Just putting some math to it. Just this
• 34:21
  Yeah.
• 34:22
  is what you put in, this is what you got out. Are you happy or
• 34:26
  not? All right, let's hit you with some scrappy verse sophisticated. take
• 34:30
  Let's do it.
• 34:31
  me inside the office. how many monitors you got on the desk?
• 34:36
  I've got one and I've got another one that I haven't plugged in yet, but
• 34:37
  I'm I'm thinking of making the switch to two to two monitors.
• 34:39
  All right. Already scrappy off the bat. I love it. what's the most unique thing
• 34:45
  in your office? Look like you got a decent amount of stuff back there. Anything
• 34:51
  really unique? Anything sentimental?
• 34:53
  yeah, there's I've got we had a dog who die a couple of years ago
• 34:56
  and so I've got a little memorial to my dog the dog cremated so the
• 35:00
  ashes along with a picture of dog and a paw print of the dog and
• 35:04
  some plaster. So that's that's pretty unique.
• 35:06
  Nice. Yeah, I like that. That's a that's a that's a nice mem memorabilia to
• 35:11
  to be surrounded with too.
• 35:13
  Little more informal.
• 35:14
  Yeah. Any business cards currently on the desk?
• 35:20
  not on the desk, got a couple on the floor though.
• 35:25
  Okay. any for your phone, any cracks or screen issues currently on it?
• 35:33
  I've got a I've got a case and I've got a screen cover. So there
• 35:35
  might be a crack, but it's on the screen cover and I just would need
• 35:38
  to if it bothered me enough, I'd pull the plastic off and just put another
• 35:40
  one on and I'm sure I've got a back up one around here. So no
• 35:43
  cracks on the
• 35:44
  Okay.
• 35:45
  screen.
• 35:46
  All right. All right. Not bad. Any ridiculous office lighting going on? We got a
• 35:49
  a lamp on a bar stool in the corner that's making it work, kind of
• 35:54
  thing.
• 35:55
  I've got I've got four different sets of lights in my office. So I've got
• 36:00
  Well.
• 36:02
  you know I've got a lamp on my desk, I've got a lamp on a
• 36:05
  table. Got a little chandelier above me and then I've got the recessed lights as
• 36:08
  well. And I I had a electrician come in and put a dimmer on those
• 36:12
  so I don't have to automatically flip on the lights and have to be super
• 36:15
  bright in the morning if I don't want it or late in the evening if
• 36:19
  I'm working so I can adjust the mood. So I guess having four different lights
• 36:22
  slash lamps in my office and I guess that would count as that.
• 36:26
  I that seems pretty classy to me. I don't know. viewer confidently said, we can
• 36:33
  totally do this, we can absolutely do it, but you've never actually done it.
• 36:40
  Maybe.
• 36:42
  Good answer, good answer. I plead the fifth, your honor.
• 36:45
  No, I I think in in all seriousness, you don't want you don't wanna take
• 36:48
  on something you can't do, but I think it gets that's the the essence of
• 36:51
  scrappiness is like, let's figure out a way, let's figure out how to get it
• 36:55
  done. And you know, if if it was something I thought I absolutely couldn't do,
• 36:58
  you know, if they say, Hey, can you re-revamp our whole accounting system? No, I
• 37:02
  can't. I can refer you to something. But other things saying, Yeah, I think we
• 37:05
  could do this working together, you know, having talked to you, you know, typically things
• 37:09
  like that come after we've had conversations, you have an assessment or you've had a
• 37:12
  chance to assess the situation, get a good feel for it, and talking to the
• 37:15
  client and what they can do, what the capacity is that they have and what
• 37:19
  needs to be added. And you know, if you sense that there's a good working
• 37:22
  relationship there and they're they're gonna put the effort in and, you know, together you
• 37:26
  say, Okay, you know, we're to put two smart people together, I think we can
• 37:29
  get this done and then you know you figure out how to get it done.
• 37:33
  Okay. Okay. I know you work with a decent amount of family businesses in the
• 37:37
  in the transition time period from generations or or to key people or something like
• 37:41
  that. But have you personally, have you ever gotten a review from a family member
• 37:45
  or worked with a family member?
• 37:47
  family member of mine.
• 37:48
  Yeah.
• 37:50
  I I did advise my sister's a doctor and she one of the things she
• 37:53
  does is a volunteer is she runs a free clinic, free health clinic. And she
• 37:57
  was faced with a situation where Yeah, it's a lot of work. I mean, medicine's
• 38:01
  a lot of work, and you know, you're talking about something volunteering, and it's a
• 38:05
  volunteer based organization which always has its own challenges, and there's couple of things, and
• 38:08
  you know, there are funding issues and a board and someone who'd been doing it
• 38:12
  for a while and they were very tired and they wanted to shut something down,
• 38:16
  and you know, she really wanted she was committed to keeping it going. And so
• 38:20
  it was Similar to if you think about a corporate situation with either a takeover
• 38:23
  or a layoff, but the difference is this wasn't being driven by greed or by
• 38:27
  a company looking to make money. This was driven by someone who was very altruistic,
• 38:31
  my sister, who really felt the need and the importance of keeping this clinic open.
• 38:35
  I mean, she'd have her kids, her kids are are grown, but she's had them
• 38:39
  come in and help, you know, not the medical part, but just signing people in.
• 38:42
  And it's providing, you know, medical services to to people who are underserved, don't have
• 38:46
  medical insurance, on the fringes of society. And it was very important what she was
• 38:50
  doing. And so we kind of talked through it. Okay, what needs to be done
• 38:54
  here to get the board of the umbrella organization to understand that just because this
• 38:57
  person's going, they've been running and they're saying it's time to shut it down, you
• 39:01
  know, it's probably because he is tired and you're willing to step up and keep
• 39:05
  it going. And so we kind of talked through it. And you know, my background
• 39:09
  and and you know, sort of corporate background and strategy, I think, gave me some
• 39:12
  perspective. And so we were able to, you know, talk through it and gave her
• 39:16
  some ideas. And she went and talked to all the board members individually and you
• 39:20
  know, explained what she wanted to do. And again, you know. coming at it for
• 39:24
  what I think is, you know, a very noble reason. And and they ultimately decided
• 39:28
  to allow her to keep it going. And she she stepped up and she's already
• 39:31
  got a very busy plate, full plate, very busy schedule, but you know, took on
• 39:35
  some additional thing. And there's all, you know, countless people who are now being served
• 39:39
  by a clinic that, you know, these are people who don't necessarily have transportation, who
• 39:43
  couldn't go across town to another clinic and they would just have to do without.
• 39:46
  So you know, that that's an example of working with with a family. And I
• 39:50
  was I was thrilled to be able to play whatever part I I helped with
• 39:54
  in that.
• 39:55
  Man, my my how many emails are unread question is gonna be pretty lame after
• 39:59
  that. That's awesome, man, though. That's pretty cool. yeah, that being able to work with
• 40:04
  family like that's it's really cool. as we sort of land the plane here, what
• 40:09
  does the next 12 months look like for you? What are you excited for?
• 40:14
  Yeah. I'm I'm excited about a couple of projects that we're doing with some clients.
• 40:17
  you know, I've got a client we just did a big project for, and then
• 40:20
  now we're doing something else that's gonna be even bigger in scope and you know
• 40:24
  it's great. I've you know, I work most with companies that are growing or looking
• 40:27
  to grow and you know, finding that. you know, I did have a situation where
• 40:31
  I was asked by someone to come in and take over a company and take
• 40:34
  over you know, help with someone who was was kind of running the company. And
• 40:37
  this was a situation where it was, you know, how are we gonna make payroll
• 40:41
  this week? And I'll tell you, those are not as fun as like, okay, how
• 40:44
  are we gonna grow the company by 20 or 30 or 50% this year? Those
• 40:48
  Right.
• 40:49
  those I much prefer those situations versus the you know trying to get by. And
• 40:52
  so I I'm excited. just had another, you know, someone else come in and new
• 40:56
  client and I'm I'm really looking forward to working with them and what they do.
• 40:59
  And it's an area I'm familiar with and you know it just kind of it
• 41:03
  gets you jazz and reminds you of why we all got into you know Became
• 41:06
  entrepreneurs and when you work with other people, how you can help them and just
• 41:10
  seeing the changes. So when you see someone or when they come back to you
• 41:13
  and say, Hey, you know, after a call, you know, you gave me this as
• 41:17
  a to-do item, or this is one of the things an action item I had,
• 41:20
  and here's what I did, and here's where we are. It's really for me, it's
• 41:24
  very gratifying because they're they're taking you know the advice you gave them, they're doing
• 41:27
  it, they're realizing the value, and they're seeing the rewards of it. And I think
• 41:31
  that's fantastic. So I'm looking forward to doing that, helping even more people in the
• 41:34
  year ahead.
• 41:35
  It's it's so fun talking with you. You're clearly you're like from the second or
• 41:38
  the first minute that we met or whatever, clearly a guy just genuinely wants to
• 41:42
  help and gets so much satisfaction from doing it. So I I always enjoy talking
• 41:46
  with Sean. A hundred percent scrappy, by the way. I mean, this is great. I
• 41:50
  love
• 41:51
  Okay.
• 41:52
  it.
• 41:53
  Maybe the sophistication is wishful thinking on my part, but I thank you. I appreciate
• 41:57
  that, Jack.
• 41:58
  what do you want to promote? Anything you want the folks out there to know?
• 42:02
  Yeah, I mean, I'm always happy to have a conversation. That's where it all starts
• 42:05
  with. you know, typically when someone comes to me, it's not we have one conversation,
• 42:08
  we start working together. It's a series of conversations. And, you know, people ask, what
• 42:11
  size do you work with? And, you know, just like I'm sure it was the
• 42:15
  case with you, as as I was coming up to the ranks, I had so
• 42:18
  many people help me. And there's so many times someone agreed to, you know, take
• 42:21
  time to have a cup of coffee with me or wherever. And you know, whatever
• 42:24
  it was. And you know, sometimes I was just like, wow, this, you know, this
• 42:28
  person at this level is taking time to, you know, meet with me. It made
• 42:31
  me feel very special. And it's not to say that it suggests that I'm at
• 42:34
  some high level, but you know, to the extent that my experience would be helpful
• 42:37
  to people, if someone asked me, Hey, would you mind talking to this guy or
• 42:41
  having a cup of coffee with her, I'm always happy to do that. And if
• 42:44
  someone, you know, has a question they want to reach out to me, I'm happy
• 42:47
  to jump on a Zoom call or email me or contact me via LinkedIn or
• 42:50
  whatever. And you know, if I can be helpful, great, because that that's what it
• 42:54
  all comes down to. If we're all helping each other and building and lifting each
• 42:57
  other up, we're we're all gonna be more successful and and that's that's the important
• 43:00
  thing.
• 43:01
  There go. Everybody give him a follow on LinkedIn. reach out, especially if you're in
• 43:04
  the Charleston area. I bet there's a nice couple, two, three good coffee places there
• 43:08
  to meet up with Sean and he'll let you know.
• 43:11
  At least that.
• 43:12
  He'll let you know if he can genuinely help you out. Buddy, thank you so
• 43:16
  much for coming on. I appreciate it. And everybody out there, stay data driven.
• 43:20
  Great to be here.