Latest / Reframe First / Paul Thompson, Fractional COO at The Proper Group | AI Scales Business. Humans Lead It.

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Paul Thompson, Fractional COO at The Proper Group | AI Scales Business. Humans Lead It. · Reframe First

• Oleksij Rak: And hey guys, welcome to another episode of Reframe First. ⁓ I'm Alexis, I'm the host here and let me welcome our today's Paul Thompson. Paul founder ⁓ of Elite Group and also fractional CEO at the Proper Group. Hi Paul, great having you here. Paul Thompson: Thank you. appreciate you being here. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, from what I read at the Patriot Group, you provide leadership as a service. It's a model embedded leadership that acts first, executes deeply, and ⁓ systems at last. So you're not consultants who jump in, consult, and jump out. You're rather like helping businesses ⁓ through the changes they're having. So could you tell us more like what you're doing there? What you do with the proper group and what's the mission of the group and what it is all about. Paul Thompson: Absolutely. So this new term recently in the last several years has come about called fractional. businesses have developed, wanted to grow and develop their C-suite, they've come to realize it's quite expensive. See they cost a lot and then the failure rate is actually relatively high. In turn, the proper was created for the purpose of bringing a C-suite to a business's fingertips. Essentially, I work in operations However, if I come into an organization and see that there's a human resources situation or a sales situation or a supply chain logistics situation, I can bring in other executives from the proper group, like I said, a C-suite at my fingertips to help organizations embed us as a member of their leadership team to help them grow. So we bring decades of leadership across the board, everyone in the collective. is a former executive, former director, former business owner, so you have experience at the top levels. I say it all the time that the proper group is a collective of alphas. And with us, you have every walk of business that you could potentially need and answers at your fingertips if given the chance. The way the collective came together is that our founder, Michael Betts, he had this vision of changing the way consultancy was done. Oleksij Rak: I see it all the time. The proper group is collective analysis. And by this, you have every one of the members to give their attention. And the answers are going be in the evidence. And in the evidence, you have your members to give their And in the you your have members to the evidence, you have evidence, members And evidence, you And have their And And in in the in the have to give Paul Thompson: And he thought that the way consultants simply come in, advise on all kinds of issues, do some deep diving and tell you, here's all of your issues. Here's a 500 slide page slide deck. I'll see you later. That's kind of a disservice. So rather than taking the consulting around, he decided to create what's called leadership as a service, which is kind of a new method, all of you doing things. So the intent is that we'll perform a diagnostic with your company. going to allow you to take and ask some questions that dive in on key areas over 32 questions to kind of get a temperature of where things stand. Over areas, we're going to be able to tell you what you're doing great. Some areas you're probably getting okay, and then every company we've tested so far has a couple areas that really could use some improvement. We then ask that not only the CEO, but then he passed this diagnostic tool onto his other team members, his executive team, if you will, and have them do the same thing. Because what the CEO sees may be different from the CTO, which may be different from the financial officer. Everyone sees the business a little bit different. So by getting additional data, which is kind of where the world is going today, we can really compile a good story of what the business truly needs to scale and grow or improve. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Paul Thompson: In my case, like I said, I try and really focus ⁓ a function in the operational arena. However, I can bring in someone if operations is not their forte, I'll have the ability to bring in someone who truly can make the difference. Now I came to the proper group after completing my own consultancy, which is Patriot Elite Consulting. a former military member, US Army retired chief warrant officer, ⁓ in 2012. And for the past decade or so, I've been trying to figure out what it is I could have done in the military to have been a better leader, a better than I am today. And so I've been working to develop a leadership system that builds from the bottom up versus the top down. So that's kind of where I am today. So when you see a leadership accelerator, for me, it's how do we build leaders from the bottom up so organizations have a way to grow their leadership organically versus taking in something from the outside. Oleksij Rak: Awesome. what kind of businesses do you work with at the proper group? Who are your clients? ⁓ Paul Thompson: Yeah, the proper group as a whole, we work with all businesses. So we have people that are able to function in anything. We have people that are in philanthropy. We have people that do nonprofits. We have people that focus primarily on manufacturing myself. I love manufacturing environments. So for us, it doesn't really matter what the business is. We have someone that has the capability of doing it. Now, me with my background, even though I enjoy working in the arena, Because I've been an adjunct professor teaching over the past 10 years, teaching operations management, I can bring textbook level operations and multiple case studies on how to do operations from soup to nuts from beginning to end. So for me, it doesn't really matter. However, I kind of prefer the manufacturing environment because it's more core to what operations was originally set for many years ago. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, but majority of your clients, do they From which industry do they come from? Paul Thompson: The industries that come from primarily manufacturing for now, but we also have several coming to us from a nonprofit standpoint. A lot of nonprofits that are needing fractional services because the fact that they can't afford to have a whole C-suite. So by hiring fractional, they can get the expertise, quick wins. We're in and out usually in 90 to 120 days. So with that, you're getting a rapid improvement, a rapid impact to your company and without the overhead. So yeah. Industry-wise, we're agnostic. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, like three or four months and you help the companies come through the change. And do you experience? ⁓ most of your clients are coming through right now? Why they call you? Besides C-Suite being expensive, at some point you ⁓ realize you the C-Suite because of what they come to you. Paul Thompson: Right. So a lot of the companies we work with are the small to medium size. So you're looking, you know, five to $50 million in revenue. companies, they're at a pivot point ⁓ their business of either they're going to keep status as it is and they're just going to be happy with where they are or they're wanting to change things and grow significantly. They want to scale in some way, or form. So when we ⁓ at these companies, we're trying to look for the ones that really want to truly scale. They want to make a difference. They want to grow and ⁓ That's primarily where come into play ⁓ the realms of challenges they're having. The advent of AI is creating this ⁓ of a black hole in a sense. There is two methodologies. Some people are embracing it and think it's the wave of the future and it's going to be the next greatest thing. But then there's also this mentality that AI is going to take my job. I've been doing financial forever. I do spreadsheets. That's what I do. But AI can do that too. So there's this fear. that an AI situation is going to come over in and take over their job. The one thing that AI cannot replace is humanity. And so that's where the leadership piece comes into play from my aspect because I don't care if you're embracing AI or you're against AI. If you're leading people, you're leading people and AI cannot do that. So how do we, if the company is embracing AI and they want to enjoy it, know, use it as something that's a force multiplier for them, how do we train, coach, mentor and develop their people to embrace the same thing? It starts with vision. Are the teams actually focusing on driving the vision of the company? Are they effective at driving the vision of the company? Do they truly fit that vision? Are they a cultural fit? So all of these things come together to be able to determine how we can coach and mentor and develop that team to drive the mission and vision through the use of helping them put the AI tools in place. In the proper group, we have several AI practitioners who are able to quickly and easily look the lay of the land, put in AI assistance, and then really scale companies quickly. but at the same time, not losing that humanity. At the end of the day, people lead people. And so we have to be able to understand that when we're using AI, we can't lose our humanity. We have to be able to keep training and developing and coaching people to embrace the tools, use them for what they are, not as a replacement for who we are. Oleksij Rak: Awesome, you already touched the point. I wanted to ask you, because all this channel is about the market trends, where it's going and so on. AI one of the biggest trends right now. You mentioned that there are two different groups of people. Some embrace AI, some are afraid of AI. Like how are you seeing that it's working with current business? Do they embrace AI actually? Paul Thompson: Again, it's a little bit of a mixed bag. Companies that are looking to rapidly scale, want to rapidly grow, see the advantages of AI and how quickly and easily you can put tools in place to automate what were very manual processes. For example, email tools or meeting minutes capturing or process workflow development. AI can do these things quickly and very easily versus taking many hours of engagements between human to human to make it happen. So they see the benefits there. The challenge is that it's growing at such a rapid rate that every day something new is coming out, something different is coming out. And so we're moving at a pace that's unheard of. How do we keep up with that pace? There's a lot of people out there, they're calling themselves now AI practitioners. That's what they focus on. That's their sole job now is how to implement and develop and install AI into your organization. not so much a practitioner. I'm more of how do I embrace the tools that you currently have? adjust it to a point where we can help you scale through AI if we need to, but then get your team on board so that they're willing to implement the vision, mission, goals, and objectives of the company to embrace that AI piece. So there has to be this leadership component that comes into play with the embracing of AI. And I see this consistently. I was just in a meeting last week with a gentleman. He does a video firm and he does videography and stuff like this. And he has one operator. who is absolutely against AI. And reason being is that, you know, he's been writing scripts and stuff for his entire life. So, you know, he's got decades of experience in writing scripts and so forth. can write a script in seconds, ⁓ it lacks the one thing that he brings, that's the humanity into what he brings. So how did this person that's wanting to scale and use AI in the company, but they're challenged with this one person who absolutely is, ⁓ Oleksij Rak: Yep. Paul Thompson: for their company, they got to have him because of his ability for writing scripts. How do you embrace and connect the two together? And what I advise is that take the time to break down the barriers. He currently has some kind of social impact problem with AI. It could be that he doesn't fully understand it, he doesn't desire it, or it's just a pure objection based on a personal bias. And so how do you get him to convey the thoughts so that way you can get him to understand where he comes from? This is that humanity piece we could coming into. I found that those who don't embrace AI typically have an issue when it comes to the differentiation between humanity and artificial intelligence. with that, if you can get them understand they're two completely separate topics. One, cannot bring in the humanity. ⁓ just But the human person can. So how do you leverage this person to say, look, Oleksij Rak: Okay. Okay. Paul Thompson: We understand you're the best of the best at writing your scripts, AI can write them quicker. How can you bring that humanity into these scripts, which makes your job a little bit easier? Maybe that's a way to do it. Get them to understand that there's a method to do it, but you're not going to lose your job. It's not going to replace you. It's going to enhance your capability to deliver faster, easier, cheaper, safer, with better quality because it can check things faster. It becomes a force multiplier. Oleksij Rak: Okay. Paul Thompson: So getting that human to understand that there's a difference between artificial and humanity is really coming to kind of a moment now across the US anyway, when it comes to AI. You're seeing it in social media, for example. People are starting to spot really quickly when an ⁓ post is done versus someone who sat and wrote it from a human aspect. And with that, they're starting to become AI versions of humanizers, where they can read the AI prompts ⁓ determine of whether it was written by an AI or was written by a true human. It can take and then rewrite your AI as more human style. However, even in times of trying to use these humanizers, it still lacks the ability of feeling, empathy, compassion, emotional intelligence. It's just not there. So even though ⁓ AI is expanding and doing great things, the humanity piece remains human. Oleksij Rak: Yes, people are afraid of their job security. as say, it's not like AI that will replace or that will take your job. It's another human who is using AI will do it. And there ⁓ like, even our companies, in my company, see that there is big resistance against usage of AI for some people. already embrace, some already like... use to the fullest advantage in professions. But some are still resistant because... Yeah, and... ⁓ Paul Thompson: Now I'm seeing similar trends in the collegiate world also. So students, especially in these young generations, they've lived their entire life behind a screen. So their interaction from human to human is vastly different than what it was for someone like me who grew up in the 80s. ⁓ different languages. ⁓ ability to use rapid text messaging and be able to convey a complete thought in just a few snippets ⁓ vastly different than what we would have to do ⁓ communicate. Oleksij Rak: Yes. Paul Thompson: So with that though, there's challenges that we're seeing. The students that are coming out of universities today haven't had the ability to work in environments where it's dynamic enough to have social engagement face to face, where they've had to resolve issues, deal with human conflict, understand someone from their point of view, develop some level of empathy and compassion to what they're going through and put those things into some form of action for a way to resolve problems. They're challenged with this. they're excellent at doing their individual contributor jobs. They'll get in and they'll perform wonderfully. They can do their job great because they're embracing all these digital tools that are out there. So ⁓ business then will say, look, this guy is great. ⁓ or she does a wonderful job of their job. I want to promote them to a manager. Okay, great. Let's promote them. They do wonderfully at first. They start to execute. They start to embrace the role. Don't quite know understand what they're doing just yet because they're ⁓ promoted, never been a manager before. Once we bring in the fact they've got additional people and the human element comes into play, one of their co one of their subordinates, the wife gets pregnant, he's spending more time at home, a parent is sick with dementia and a person has to take care of their sick mother or father. You name it, host of human things that come into play, a child has to know, sick child at home, you name it. When these things start to come into play, this younger generation struggles because they don't know how to convey the thought of the business that they still have to execute, the standards don't change, but from a human standpoint, I understand what you're going through. What can we do to make your job still functionable, but allow you to still take care of those human things that you need to do on the back end? There's always some kind of underlying human related problem whenever an issue arises someone who's not performing. And so with this junior generation, they struggle with that. And so that's kind of where I've came into with this epiphany I've had through and teaching for a decade and seeing the people kind of change as we're going through. Gone the days when people would sit across from one another and have a conversation. Students now will sit in a booth together and they'll text one another. It's uncanny. how do we get them to put the phones down and communicate? ⁓ Because it's to affect them greatly when it comes to their world in the business. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, especially since they graduated their universities and came to work like COVID times, post-COVID. They have not seen like work from office at all. So they didn't know how it is to come to office and socialize. At least we see it here also. ⁓ Paul Thompson: It's very much the same way here in the US. I used to work for a large company called Siemens, and in that I did building technology, and one of the companies that we worked with was Google. And Google, of course, has these wonderfully massive, beautiful buildings that are designed in such a way where a Googler never needs to leave. They've got their own food, they've got places to sleep, they've got massage parlors, they've got you name it, and, and, and. The places are made to the point where if you go to work, you really don't have to leave. But because of COVID, everyone went to working from home and now they're struggling to get people to come back into the office place because the people are like, I don't need to be there. I can do my same job. I work behind a computer. I can do the same job at home in an environment that I'm just as comfortable at or more comfortable at. So they're struggling to do this. Some companies are even putting forced mandates and you have to come to work if you want a job with us. You have to come to the office if you want to work with us, is creating a little bit of tension. The challenge there is, is again, they're failing to go into the realms of humanity and figure out why it is that these people feel compelled to stay at home versus going to the office. It's creating an even bigger divide in the social engagement we have with people. As we go into these remote roles and sitting behind a computer in a basement or a bedroom or whatever we're using for our office space, it creates this island that we live on in solitude. And so our social engagement, the only time it happens is through a screen like we're doing now, yes, it's good, but in person is always better. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, for sure. regards like with the AI, but there is like another side to AI is like about automation. So ⁓ are from like ⁓ manufacturing kit was always about automation. every single process like on the conveyor belt, you know, but like AI itself, like this generative AI and like these tools right now bring the fact that you can like automate almost anything. Like you can automate customer support, can automate sales cycles and you like with a small team, you can achieve much more than you could like with a larger because you do not have all this communication over overhead processes and stuff and stuff and stuff. So that like Yeah, you mentioned you're working mostly with manufacturing, but probably you're working with also other segments of businesses. This is, yeah, I assume because what we see, investors and founders are really pushing that. They want this efficiency. They don't really understand what, not understand what AI has to do about that, but they want like, ⁓ it's current market transit. ⁓ Paul Thompson: Yeah, all boxes have been- Oleksij Rak: needs to be automated, it needs to be efficient. And it also brings this resistance within the companies. How do you see it? Like businesses overcome that and... Paul Thompson: Yeah, so in the realms of embracing the speed or creating more velocity in a company, AI can absolutely do that wonderfully. And what it's going to do is create this pivot in workmanship, meaning that the workers that we have today in their certain roles will be different after the implementation of AI. For example, you may not have to have a customer service worker anymore. However, you will have to have a process control person. Oleksij Rak: Yes. you you Paul Thompson: to be able to make sure that AI is functioning properly. So it's this shift in of lower skilled positions is essentially where it's going. The lower skilled roles that, ⁓ example, a coder is reduced. ⁓ However, behind-scenes tester is absolutely needed. Someone needs to test these systems that are being put in place. So it's escalating the amount of intelligence or the knowledge that someone has to retain in order to put these systems into place. That just means that there's going to be this rift in society where we're going to have people that don't embrace the AI and struggle to find that next role because they're not taking the time to learn and develop themselves to become that next role. you know, having grown up from my age, I'm dating myself here, we grew up before the internet. So with us, our generation, we embrace technology because it's been pieces that come to us. We've seen the benefits every single time technology changes or updates. that there's massive implications, massive benefits. And if you don't embrace it, you fall behind. And it's a way for our generation, at least my generation, to see AI as a next greatest, latest and greatest tool. Think about going away from records, we went from records to CDs, we went from CDs to MP3 players, we went from MTV players to everything now is on your phone. My phone now has more technology than the first computer I owned. But it's an embracing of that technology that people have done. And again, it's just going to create this shift in can do what and what colleges are teaching and what trade schools are teaching. Certain things are never going to go away. We're still going to need problemlers, electricians, the trades. Well, these things will never go away. So a lot of these customer service roles will probably transition more into ⁓ kind of trades related activities. You're going to have to have someone that does electronics to keep these things running. It's just a matter of shifts. companies have the foreshadowing, the forethought to think about what roles are going to go away and what are we going to replace them with to be able to keep this new automated system in place? The velocity and the speed is going to increase. We have to put people in place to be to be handling that increase in speed that we're about to embrace. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, I absolutely agree. It's like industrial revolution, know, it doesn't mean that like something doesn't need to be produced, it does need to be produced, but you know, the roles are changing. Yeah, yeah, the skills are changing, the needed skills are changing, just need to adapt to that. besides AI, ⁓ and automation, ⁓ else do you think there is like trendy on the market? Paul Thompson: It's like the second industrial revolution. Oleksij Rak: and maybe what do you see that the rest of the market is not seeing? Paul Thompson: my side, ⁓ the leadership piece, ⁓ I spoke earlier. Companies are struggling to develop leaders. And they're struggling at the top to have leaders that are able to meet their culture. So as I've talked different customers, they're looking to, if they want to hire, for example, getting someone in their C-suite, it's a challenge to find someone that fits their culture. but they have people that are in their company already that fit the culture great. They just refuse to invest in them to turn them into what could become that C-suite. It seems as though they're trying to find an easy out versus a long-term investment to me. I've seen it in several different companies. I've seen it in investment firms. I've seen it in private equity. I've seen it, of course, in manufacturing. The medical field. So in the realms of the medical field, there has been... a couple instances I've seen where they're challenged with running the business. So with that though, these... As a doctor, for example, moves up within their organization, they end up becoming a director running a department or running the hospital for that matter. And they start doing more business functions than they do hospital functions or doctor functions. And with that, they struggle. So there's extreme cost overruns everywhere in the medical industry. There are lacks of efficiency. is misunderstandings of tax rules, tax laws. So all of these things that are coming in their own sub medical for us, could be greatly reduced if we were able to take this shift and move doctors out of those roles and put business people in those roles. So that way the doctors can focus on the doctor stuff. They can take care of the humans and fix the stuff that's broken with us. ⁓ business people can come in and fix the business and do the business side of things. That shift will be ⁓ within the US if it can take place. ⁓ Oleksij Rak: Do you have some clients that are already going through this kind of shift? Paul Thompson: I have been trying to work on a local hospital. There's a couple instances. a cost problem. How do they release, get the funds to be able to afford to make these changes? A can do both. They can run the business and they can do their doctor stuff still. But ⁓ you're two different things, you're not the best at any one of them. It's just what happens. So ⁓ it's trying get this communication out there that you have to understand the business and the services are... different things and you have to have expertise in each one. Oleksij Rak: That's what we have in software engineering. If you take the best engineer and make him manage the product, you just lose. You lose a great engineer until you're having a junior project manager. Paul Thompson: So in the book that I'm writing, there's a section I go into talk about right person in the right seat. It kind of falls into the EOS, I'm sure if you've heard something about this, Entrepreneurial Operating System, a book called Traction. In there, it spoke to finding the right person for the right seat. And that doesn't necessarily mean just their capabilities. It means their culture. It means what their drivers are. It means how they're motivated. What do they enjoy doing? Just because their degree says their one thing, it doesn't necessarily mean that person enjoys doing that. If we can find ways to move the right person to the right seat that maximizes their potential, then you have someone who really is going to help the company. So it's in the realms of these medical companies, if they were able to take time and look at the right person for the right seat, the right job and move people in such a way they can become more effective, their ability to perform increases, their personal attitude changes because they're doing something they enjoy versus just showing up and working every day. So again, the theme of this whole thing I'm talking about is the humanity piece. As we come more and more into technology, humanity is being pushed away. We need to re-emphasize. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe let's jump into different side of the discussion. You mentioned that the proper group jumps like... on boards a client when a client is facing some change, especially when they try to grow. When they go to the growth moment, when they want to scale. ⁓ is when they're lacking the skills, this is when they're lacking the C-suite level ⁓ and on. What is that usually at that point at your client's business? Paul Thompson: So class. Oleksij Rak: What is common there? So I'm trying to find some commonalities. Paul Thompson: Yeah. Common problems I see with companies that are scaling is that, for example, the CEO is involved in every decision. They have to be there and decide on everything going with the company. And because of that, they are facing extreme burnout. They're getting so tired. They show up to work and they're just done because they're involved in every single decision. It's twofold though. Some don't want to let go of the control. Others don't know what control to let go of. And so when we do our assessments, the goal is to find out what control are they willing to release? What control are they willing to invest in to change things? you can get a person, ⁓ business owner to release level of control, it frees up their time to focus on being the visionary that they are, being the one who on vision, mission, goals, objectives, strategy, long-term growth. gets them out of the weeds and allows their operators to execute and drive those mission, vision, goals and objectives to solutions and completion. So it's getting these business owners to understand they're at that point. It's a good problem to have. Your company has grown to a point. Now you need additional people to allow you to continue growing your company from a strategic standpoint, but allowing to operate to achieve your mission, vision, goals and objectives. And so when I ask questions, I ask the question quite often. Oleksij Rak: you Paul Thompson: How well does your leadership team execute your vision, mission, and goals and objectives? And that question alone, oftentimes just gets a CEO to stop and think, you know, that's a good question. I've never really thought about it. You know, how well are we executing what we're doing? And most cases, get a low answer, 10%, 20%, maybe 15%. So ⁓ problem is real. The is getting them to ⁓ understand they have that problem and then giving them solutions on how to do it. how to move forward with it, how to release some control, getting to understand, you know, what are their challenges and where do they not want to be anymore? So a CEO that's making operational decisions every single day, if you just ask them, what decision do you not want to do? They're gonna say, I don't want to be an operator anymore. And so how do we get somebody in there not to do it anymore? It's just a matter of getting them to admit that there is an issue, put their ego aside and let them focus on the growth of their business versus thinking they are the only one that knows how to do anything. That's the, it's a pivot within your company of when growth really starts to explode is when you're realizing as an owner that I've outgrown my company. My company has outgrown me, I should say. Oleksij Rak: ⁓ That's a good problem to have. And how do you help them there? So, like, pick up the troll, but at some point you, like, ⁓ somebody in. Paul Thompson: So for example, I'll just speak to a I guess we could talk operations. if a business owner ⁓ is producing widget, just go for the most use general terms ⁓ and there is point where their margins have reduced ⁓ because they've gotten a point of inefficiency and the only way they're making any changes is when the CEO comes in and makes those changes because they've been doing so long. This is when they're starting to realize that something needs to change. How do we drive out costs? And so they're going to start putting pressure on their leadership teams to, hey, drive out costs, drive out costs. What that's going to do though is create tensions in the organization. It takes a method of stepping back and first understanding the lay of your company. Where are the challenges currently happening? What is currently going on in the organization that's put you in this position? Typically, it's going to be some realm of modernization. that has accelerated things that you're unable to keep up with in your duplicating efforts. You're creating more inventory than necessary. Your processes are not fully optimized. So we have to first get them to understand here is the situation. We see it coming in from the outside. It's always good to have a fresh perspective. For example, you go and you're going to have your appendix removed. You see a doctor, you're like, okay, Mr. Doctor, this is what's to have to happen. You go get a second opinion, the other doctor is like, no, you just need to change your medications and increase your exercise and your problems are going to go away. It's always good to have a second set of eyes, a second opinion, because everyone views things slightly different. When you bring in someone from outside your organization, you're bringing in fresh eyes. You're bringing in someone with a ton of experience to look at. And because we've seen it, we've done it, we've heard it, we understand that there's issues that are underlying under the surface that you may not see. For example, a small tooling change can make a massive improvement in a manufacturing process. A relocation of a ⁓ con bond bin to a closer location in a manufacturing environment speeds up the operation. Only a few seconds, but when you're doing the same operation several hundred times a day, those seconds add up really quickly. So it's getting them to think a little bit differently in the realms of taking time to understand their problem and getting them admit they have a problem. Oleksij Rak: Awesome. I just sound from my perspective. I was just listening from my perspective and it resonates with me sometimes. Paul Thompson: know what I'm speaking about. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, also great. What is that you are building right now at proper group? ⁓ What's Is there a flow? Paul Thompson: So the group itself is scaling like crazy. So the original intent to the company was to start with 30 operators. That happened in about two months. We're sitting over 100 operators today. We just technically went live in January and we're looking to scale to 200 operators by the end of the year. And we've grown now, not just being national in the US, but we're looking for international expansion as well. We have some individuals in Europe now and a couple over in Asia. looking to expand even more globally in the realms of bringing leadership as a service. It's in ways that we never thought possible. And it's it in such an organic way. When you have a room full of alphas, you figure there would have been some conflict in what we're trying to accomplish. However, with the experience of what we're doing, we're all in a position in life where it's like, you know, we've done the nine to five, we've done the grind, we've worked 60 hours a week, we're not doing that anymore. We're going to find the easiest, cheapest, fastest, safest, ⁓ and most way to do things. and share that amongst the community. So we have this culture of helping one another that is unheard of anywhere I've been in the industry. humanity piece is paramount in what we do. If have a bad day, it's okay. Let me help you get through this. The proper group itself is creating the proper way to bring leadership to a business. So we different ⁓ opportunities. You by design elements. So for example, I'm in an element called operation by design. We have people by design, we have leadership by design, we have sales by design. So all of these by design are bringing the proper way to do these functions based on decades of experience and of individuals that have been there. Oleksij Rak: How do you manage all of that? Because if you're scaling like crazy, know, that's lot of customers you work with. Paul Thompson: So it's happening in such a way where, of course, we embrace technology. have AI tools that are helping us to do certain activities. And of course, we put a CRM in place and we do the right things that the business is supposed to do. But we have dedicated sales teams that do dedicated things for sales and bring in business. We have a dedicated marketing team that does all the marketing for us. Every operator in the team or in the collective is their own business. We partner with the proper group to be able to provide the back office activities so we can focus on being the operators we are. Earlier I spoke about the doctor doing doctor stuff. We're doing the same thing, but we're doing it from a business aspect. I'm an operations guy. I'm not a sales guy. don't do sales. So I've got a team that does sales for me and brings me business. They do sales stuff. That's what they like to do. And so by putting the right person in the right seat, all of us operating as our own individual business, we have the ability to share business in a way that's unheard of. It's a trend that's going to come that is really, we're kind of the tip of the spear. Oleksij Rak: Awesome. That's good. there is anything you could change in the way you operate, like the way a company works, like with the tip of your fingers, ⁓ would it be? Paul Thompson: The one thing I would change with an organization is get them to re-embrace their humanity. Driving the bottom line is the goal of any business. However, no business can do it without people. So how do we turn and maximize the potential of our people to embrace our culture and become the humans that we once were to drive companies? It used to be days that people would love to go to work. Now, often people, they hate it. There used to be days when, know, Sunday evening, you're getting ready for your next day of work. And now Sunday evenings, people are dreading it. A lot of people dread, go to bed at night on Sundays and they're stressed because they to go to work on Monday morning. They don't sleep well. So, you know, a case of the Mondays is heard. And it's because people are stressed when they come to work. They're not, work is a four letter word for a reason, unfortunately. If we could turn it around in a way where the environment is embraced by the people that are there. they'll enjoy it more. been books written about chasing your dream and chasing what makes you feel good. We can do the same thing from an individual contributor inside a business, putting them in a role that they enjoy, that they work well at, that they can become human in. Their work doesn't feel like work and they're going to enjoy it. They're going to give you actually more. Their output will increase. There studies that show that people that enjoy their job are about 30 % more efficient than those who don't. ⁓ Oleksij Rak: So. So. Paul Thompson: It's bringing back that human element of we're all people. How do we embrace humanity and show grace to one another and help each other to succeed? Oleksij Rak: do you think about the future? all this efficiency, automation, AI is not going away. So it's ⁓ to stay. Paul Thompson: No, it absolutely doesn't. And that's why I spoke earlier when I said that not going away, but what it's doing is it's shifting a person's role. Where are they today? How can we get to embrace this AI piece and maybe change their role in a way where they can see the benefits of what they're doing and embrace the tools to help them faster, easier, cheaper, safer, improve quality and do it at a better cost. ⁓ just... Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Yeah, but before people and businesses learn to do that, that's a lot of time that has to pass. I'll show you. Yeah, is. And before that, people will be stressed and it will cost a lot to the businesses because like... ⁓ Paul Thompson: It is a culture shifts within organizations. absolutely is. And it takes also with there needs to be a point of this is where compassion comes into play. There are people that are going to struggle with this and we have to have the compassion and the grace to get them to understand, hey, I understand you're struggling with this. What can I do to help you move forward? What is it that you're challenged with? And how can we come up with a solution that allows you to see the benefits by getting the people that are challenged with it or culturally struggling to explain their position? We have the ability to humanize it in a sense to understand, show our empathy for it, embrace it with compassion and make changes. And then through emotional intelligence, determine a way to make a win-win path for everybody. change is never easy within an organization. ⁓ it's a monumentous move, but it stems from the leadership team. If the leadership team is embracing a certain culture, teaching, training, and developing people within that culture, seeking people that embrace that culture, They're going to have ⁓ a system of itself in that culture to drive the business forward. And every business has a different culture. And some businesses may not be right for certain people. That's where people need to understand that, hey, this might not be a cultural fit for me. It's okay to say no and go somewhere else that you're more of a fit. Everyone has a little bit different way they operate. And again, this piece all comes down to how does we take our humanity, embrace AI and work together as the whole. You know, it's not one against the other. We have to work together with this. And it's just a matter of bringing the two together and showing the human side that AI is here to help you, not hinder you. Oleksij Rak: Awesome. Yeah, sounds great, but it's a challenge by itself. So I know it like ⁓ my organization. So it's a challenge, even though like you try to educate people, you try to like show the way and like ⁓ it and so on. Paul Thompson: you Oleksij Rak: People are still threat. Paul Thompson: If you're coming at it only from one side, that's the issue. They need to explain to you, what is their challenges? What are their problems? What is preventing them from embracing this? Where do they want to be in the organization that see this as a roadblock? By them to explain their side, you can gain an understanding of what you can do to change your approach and develop things together. So ⁓ when do corrective action for someone who screws up, ⁓ for We typically want to have them create their own solution. When we speak out loud what we're going to do, and then even more importantly, when we write down what we're going to do, the chances of actually doing that go up exponentially. So the same thing holds true when it comes to the embracing of AI. Get them to speak on what it is they're preventing them to do it. And then, OK, if I understand that you don't like the fact that AI moves quickly, what can we do to have you move just as quick? Oleksij Rak: So. Paul Thompson: and allowed them to think, what can they do? And their answer is going to be probably, can't. And then you're gonna say, okay, well, if you cannot, what tools do you need to be able to do that? So by asking these open-ended questions, you're gonna get them to start thinking a little bit differently on how they're doing things. Eventually, they're gonna come to this aha moment that you've already had, your leadership team has already had, to realize it's a tool. It's like changing a car tire. You can't kick a tire in a car tire with your foot and expect to change a tire. You need the tools to do the job. In the case of AI, it's a tool to do a job faster, easier, cheaper, safer. Just got to get them to realize. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Awesome. Well, was great. ⁓ like the whole conversation was great. Like, is there anything you would like to ⁓ on top of that? Like before we like wrap it up? Paul Thompson: Sure. Yeah, the last thing for me is that in the coming months I'll be publishing my first book. It's called From the Bottom Up. It's about creating a foundation for proper leadership. I used my 20 plus years in the military plus my decades of experience in the civilian world, my MBA experience, my teaching, coaching, mentoring experience, and even teaching at the university all culminating together. I had this epiphany of what it was in life that I could have done better, especially in the military. And it came to the point of understanding I did not know myself well enough. I did not know my team well enough. I did not understand the culture of what I was embraced well enough. I did not have a system to allow me to lead in a way that got things done effectively. I did not have empathy. I did not have compassion and I did not have emotional intelligence. So by taking all of these elements and putting them together in a complete system, I'm able to build the leader that I wish I was or that I wish I would have been back then. I then brought in elements from our challenges we were just talking about in terms of AI and the change of what it's doing in the realms of humanity. And I tie in today's leaders living behind screens and showing the challenges of what we currently face. And I wrap all of this together through a story of my own that has gone through my failures to show what these elements or these changes would have done if I was empathetic, if I had known my people, if I knew myself better. through my story of failures, I help a leader become a better leader. And that's ultimately my book from the bottom up is going to be about. Oleksij Rak: Well, sounds great. Good luck publishing the book. Paul Thompson: It'll come, it should be published hopefully by this summer. Oleksij Rak: Awesome. Send me a link. Paul Thompson: Absolutely, absolutely. Oleksij Rak: Awesome, great. This was really great having you here. Really appreciate your thoughts and being open about what doing right now. Thanks a lot for coming and best luck with reading the book. Paul Thompson: Absolutely. If any of your readers want to find me, I can be found at Paul Thompson MBA LinkedIn. ⁓ find me via the proper group as well at Paul Thompson. Oleksij Rak: We will put it in the YouTube video description. Awesome, awesome. Thanks, Paul Thompson: Absolutely. Oleksij Rak: Okay.