Reset The Bar Ep 551

In this episode, the host of the podcast reflects on his experiences in business, emphasizing the importance of culture and execution over mere strategy. He recounts a partnership in his gym business that taught him the significance of setting high standards and the impact of leadership on team performance. Highlighting the story of a gym owner who fired late employees before a meeting, he illustrates the necessity of accountability. Similarly, he shares an anecdote from his first job at Smoothie King, where a manager named Vince lowered the bar for performance, contrasting with the owner's expectations. The host concludes by stressing that in business, like in sports, alignment, effort, and consistency are crucial for success. He advocates for the value of 'soft skills' such as leadership and coaching, asserting that a culture of excellence and adherence to basics differentiates winning teams from losing ones, even with similar strategies.

• Team success is attributed to effort, consistency, and alignment towards a common goal.
• The rules of the game are consistent across players, indicating a level playing field.
• The analogy of business as a game is used to imply strategy and competition.
• The speaker's personal journey to build a billion-dollar portfolio is shared to impart lessons.

"And it was like everyone showed up to practice. Everyone tried their hardest. It was the effort and the consistency and the alignment of the team that accomplished the goal."

This quote demonstrates the importance of collective effort and alignment in achieving team goals, emphasizing the significance of each member's contribution.

• The wealthiest people view business through the lens of a game, suggesting a strategic and competitive approach.
• The speaker aims to document and share lessons learned from their business experiences.
• There's an invitation to the audience to apply these lessons to grow their businesses and consider future partnerships.

"The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game."

This quote reflects the mindset of successful individuals who approach business strategically, likening it to a competitive game where skill and strategy are key.

• The speaker shares an experience from a gym launch business and a partnership offer based on their ability to fill gyms to capacity.
• A partnership formed with a gym owner who had a successful operation, which later turned out to be a poor decision.
• The focus is on the lessons learned from this experience, not the failure itself.

"It ended up being a horrible partnership. But that's not the point of the video. The point is what I learned."

The quote emphasizes learning from experiences, particularly from a failed partnership, highlighting that the value lies in the lessons rather than the outcome.

• A meeting was called to address lackadaisical staff behavior at a new gym location.
• The meeting was strategically planned at a location inconvenient for some, setting up a test of commitment.
• The gym owner locked out latecomers and fired them, setting a precedent for punctuality and responsibility.

"And so he tells his system, he says, go outside and tell him they're all fired. And he says this before he starts the meeting."

This quote illustrates a decisive and unorthodox approach to setting high standards and expectations for team members, using shock value to enforce punctuality and commitment.

• The gym owner's actions were intended to reset the bar for staff performance.
• The message conveyed was clear: commitments like punctuality and task completion are non-negotiable.
• Witnessing this event left a strong impression on the speaker, highlighting the importance of setting clear expectations.

"So what he did was he reset the bar of, this is how we perform. When we say we're going to be somewhere, we're going to be somewhere at that time."

This quote captures the essence of the gym owner's message about accountability and performance standards, emphasizing the seriousness of commitments in a professional setting.

• Emphasizes the importance of following up with leads in business.
• Speaker A shares a personal anecdote to illustrate a lesson in business practices.

And what I have figured, and I'm going to tell you one more story, and I'm going to tell you the moral of both of them.

This quote introduces the intention to share a story with a valuable lesson or moral that is relevant to business practices, specifically regarding the follow-up with leads.

• Speaker A recounts their first job experience, working as a blender tender at Smoother King.
• They were trained by the owner, Dave, who taught them the importance of maintaining the store.
• Speaker A learns about workplace norms and expectations from the manager, which contradicted the owner's instructions.

So pause on that for a second. Now, when I had my first job, actually, I think it was my first. It was my first job, I was a blender tender at smoother king, all right?

This quote introduces Speaker A's first job experience, setting the scene for a lesson learned during their time as a blender tender at Smoother King.

And between people walking in, you were supposed to mop the floor, clean the counters, just clean it, just make it look good, restock the shelves.

This quote details the tasks Speaker A was expected to perform at their job, highlighting the owner's emphasis on store maintenance and presentation.

• A discrepancy between the owner's instructions and the manager's practices is highlighted.
• Speaker A is introduced to a new cultural norm by the manager, which contradicts the owner's expectations.

And the manager was like, what are you doing? I was worried I was in trouble. So I was like, am I not supposed to restock the shelves? Like, I thought I was supposed to do that right now because there's no one here. And he was like, oh, yeah, you don't need to worry about that. He's like, we don't do any of that stuff.

The quote illustrates the moment Speaker A is corrected by the manager, Vince, revealing a conflict between what they were trained to do and what the manager enforces as the norm.

• Speaker A questions whether listeners have a 'Vince' in their own businesses who may be undermining the company.
• The 'Vince' character represents employees or managers who do not follow the business owner's vision and potentially harm the business.

So I said, so do you in your business have events? Are you the Vince in your business? Do you have someone in your business that's the Vince that's secretly destroying your business?

This quote prompts listeners to reflect on their own business practices and consider if there are individuals who are not aligned with the company's goals, similar to the manager Vince in the story.

• Speaker A compares two different management styles without explicitly detailing the first style.
• They suggest that one style is definitely wrong, presumably the one exemplified by Vince, without endorsing the other.

So think about the difference between both of those styles of management. I'm not saying the first is right or the second is wrong, whatever. The second one is definitely wrong.

The quote indicates Speaker A's judgment on the second management style, which they believe is incorrect, while remaining neutral about the first style.

• Speaker A believes that successful businesses require both intellectual strategies and emotional intelligence.
• They have shifted their views to appreciate the balance between 'smarts' (strategy, acquisition, monetization, pricing structures) and 'hearts' (company culture, employee engagement).

But when you look at that, what it was setting the tone and the reason that my views on business have dramatically shifted is that I have always had a tendency to lean towards strategy, acquisition, monetization, pricing structures, and all of that stuff is important. But I think within a business, there are two components to it. You've got the smarts and you've got the hearts, and you have to have both.

This quote encapsulates Speaker A's evolved perspective on what constitutes a well-rounded approach to business, emphasizing the need for both strategic acumen and a nurturing company culture.

• Speaker A highlights that the podcast's growth relies on word of mouth, not on ads or sponsorships.
• They encourage listeners to share the podcast in the same way it was shared with them.

Real quick, guys, if you can think about how you found this podcast, somebody probably tweeted it, told you about it, shared it on Instagram or something like that. The only way this grows is through word of mouth. And so I don't run ads. I don't do sponsorships. I don't sell anything. My only ask is that you continue to pay it forward to whoever showed you or however you found out about this podcast, that you do the exact same thing.

Speaker A's quote requests listeners to actively participate in the organic growth of the podcast by sharing it with others, reinforcing the importance of personal recommendations over traditional advertising methods.

• The speaker emphasizes that business strategy is fundamentally simple, but execution is where challenges arise.
• Execution problems emerge once you begin to scale, such as hiring employees.
• The speaker criticizes the belief that employees can't perform as well as the entrepreneur, calling it a limiting belief.
• The focus has shifted from hard skills to soft skills, such as coaching and developing company leaders.
• The speaker reflects on the excessive time spent on tweaking minor business elements without significant impact.
• The core issue in business is often not strategy or intelligence, but rather the emotional and relational aspects.

"And I think that most people overestimate the importance of smarts, myself included. And I think that there's a lot to do with the hearts."

This quote highlights the speaker's belief that emotional intelligence and passion are more critical to business success than just being smart.

"As soon as you hire first employees, you're like, no, employees can't do what I can do. It's like, well, that's a horrible belief. You should probably change that before you try and move forward."

The speaker underscores that doubting employees' capabilities is a detrimental mindset that can hinder business growth.

"It's so much more about coaching and developing the leaders of the company."

Here, the speaker stresses the importance of nurturing leadership and interpersonal skills within the organization for success.

"The people are not doing what you want them to do because they don't understand why they need to do it and why it's important, right?"

The speaker points out that employees may fail to perform well if they don't grasp the significance of their tasks, emphasizing the need for effective communication and understanding.

• The speaker discusses the negative impact of poor interpersonal relationships on business outcomes.
• Addressing behavioral issues and improving team dynamics can be more beneficial than devising new strategies.
• The realization of the importance of soft skills and team cohesion has been a significant breakthrough in the speaker's career.

"And you've got people who don't want to talk to each other because they don't like each other because one guy's really annoying."

This quote illustrates how personal conflicts within a team can disrupt business operations and should be addressed.

"It would better serve you to fix that problem than to try and come up with some new strategy, right?"

The speaker suggests that resolving interpersonal issues is more effective for business success than constantly changing strategies.

• The speaker contrasts the mindsets and outcomes of a championship team versus a losing team.
• A championship team exhibits alignment, concerted effort, and a strong work ethic.
• The speaker implies that a similar mentality is necessary for business success.

"And those two stories should illustrate the difference between having a championship mentality and having a loser mentality and what might be going on in your business."

This quote compares the winning attitude in sports to the mindset required for business success, highlighting the importance of a unified and dedicated team.

"And on the flip side, you had a winning team. And it was like everyone showed up to practice, everyone t."

The incomplete quote implies that commitment and team unity are hallmarks of a successful team, which can be translated into a business context.

• Execution is critical in differentiating businesses with similar strategies.
• The talent pool and strategies are often visible and accessible to competitors.
• Effective execution requires consistent effort and team alignment.

"The difference between the two is going to be your ability to execute and have people execute on your behalf."

This quote emphasizes the importance of not just having a strategy, but the ability to effectively execute that strategy through a team.

• Successful businesses focus on fundamentals, similar to championship sports teams.
• Advanced businesses never neglect the basic principles.
• Consistent application of basic strategies is key to outperforming competitors.

"Advanced people never don't do the basics."

This quote illustrates the principle that successful individuals and businesses consistently adhere to fundamental practices, regardless of their level of advancement.

• CEOs should act like championship team coaches, focusing on fundamentals.
• Leaders should set a tone of excellence and reinforce it within the company culture.
• Tolerance for nothing but excellence leads to better business outcomes.

"Their job is to be intolerant of anything but excellence and to reinforce that in the culture so that it's consistently executed across the company."

The quote underscores the responsibility of leaders to cultivate a culture of excellence and ensure that high standards are met consistently throughout the organization.

• Soft skills and character traits are becoming increasingly important in business leadership.
• Attributes like interpersonal dynamics and self-awareness can be more valuable than specific technical skills.
• A focus on character traits can lead to better team dynamics and business success.

"I'm looking way more for character traits now."

This quote highlights the shift in the speaker's perspective towards valuing character traits and soft skills over technical expertise in their role as a CEO and company owner.

• Having individuals like Vince, who discourage necessary work, can sabotage a business.
• Leaders must ensure there are no detrimental influences within their teams.
• The story serves as a cautionary tale about the impact of negative team members on business processes.

"Make sure you don't have any vinces in your business."

The quote is a direct piece of advice warning about the potential harm that individuals who do not support fundamental business practices can cause to an organization's success.