We just wrapped up our first year of podcasting and we had some phenomenal guests who shared a treasure trove of insights and stories.
After compiling the numbers, here’s a list of our top podcasts along with some key insights from each one.
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The Top Podcasts
1. From 2 to 4,500 Employees: How A 29-Year-Old Entrepreneur Built The Startup All Startups Need
Guest: Bryce Maddock, co-founder of TaskUs
What a great story! Bryce Maddock and his childhood friend Jaspar Weir started TaskUs on a shoestring and built it into an international powerhouse serving many of the country’s leading high-tech companies including Uber, Groupon, HotelTonight and Tinder.
Today, this extraordinary 29-year old entrepreneur leads a company with 4,500 employees and $50 million in revenue.
Key Podcast Insights:
It takes more than just metrics to build a fast-growth, highly efficient company.
In the call center business, “It used to be metrics, metrics, metrics,” said Bryce. But over time, he discovered it led to extremely high staff turnover. Today, he said, “We like to lead with who are you as a person? Do you live our core values?” Of course, TaskUs is not running a charity so they do hold their staff accountable, too. The difference is, “We want to build a personal connection that really is based on core values first,” said Bryce.
Don’t be a know it all, be a learn it all.
When asked what advice he has for entrepreneurs and CEOs, Bryce said, “I just have one piece of advice which is very simple. It is be continuously learning.“ Interestingly, he said, “Don’t assume that the people you learn from have to be older and more experienced than you are.” He said there are teachers all around you so, “Just keep asking questions and keep trying to improve yourself every day.”
In mid-2015, TaskUs raised $15 million from private equity to continue its explosive growth. This episode covers many of the things Bryce and Jaspar are doing to Make Big Happen!
2. The Difference Between a Good Salesperson and a Great One
Guest: Jack Daly, professional sales coach, speaker and expert in corporate culture
Jack is a high-energy entrepreneur who shared some excellent insights on how to be a great salesperson. And we all know the importance of having a crack sales team, particularly when the economy is limping along and sales growth is hard to come by.
Check this out. With meticulous care, Jack has planned, tracked, and compared key metrics of his travel, health and personal aspirations to control performance and hold himself accountable. In his “Year in Review” and “Yearly Goals” documents Jack recounts all these metrics. Click here for some info that will blow you away.
Key Podcast Insights:
The best sales people have G-R-I-T.
Jack says, “Fifty percent or more of success at sales has nothing to do with product, price, service, strategies or tactics. Half of success has to do with getting up in the morning and saying God bless the competition, I’m going to kick their butt.”
With talk like that, it’s no surprise Jack was a Captain in the Army.
The key to motivating sales people is to not worry about motivating them.
Okay, this is a bit misleading. Too often sales managers try to come up with motivational talk or gimmicky contests to get their team motivated. Jack says the best way to motivate sales people is to hire ones who are already motivated. “There’s no bag of sprinkle dust that we’re going to spread on somebody and say poof, you’re motivated.” This highlights what we’ve heard throughout the year from many of our podcasts guests—it’s critical to hire the very best people possible and not settle for “good enough.”
3. How to Make Price Irrelevant Through Radical Customer Service
Guest: John DiJulius, best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker
John started his first business, John Robert’s Spa, 23 years ago. Today, it is consistently recognized as one of the top 20 salons in America. Along the way, John began studying the greatest customer service companies such as Ritz Carlton, Disney, and Nordstrom to discover their secret to embedding a service culture throughout multiple locations. In his research he stumbled upon the formula, codified it, and now spreads this radical customer service revolution message throughout the world.
Key Podcast Insights:
If you know two or more things about anyone’s “FORD,” you will own the relationship.
We’re not talking about the car here. FORD stand for Family, Occupation, Recreation, and Dream. For every one of your relationships, your team should be “trained to get your client’s FORD, document it in the CRM system, and use it to build genuine relationships,” said John. This is not about stalking or being an interrogator. Rather, “When you get your employees focused on hearing the FORD, and engaging with that information in conversation, it extends the service from a commodity to making something that is price irrelevant and a company or a person I can’t live without,” said John. Strive to work in one FORD piece of information in every client interaction.
Your customer-facing employees should have empathy and compassion for “a day in the life” of your customers.
Usually, your customer-facing employees are at a different stage of life or different economic status than your customers. As a result, it may be hard for your staff to empathize or have compassion for your customers. But in order to deliver genuine service, John said, “The answer isn’t changing who we hire, rather, it’s to train staff in a day in the life of their customers so the staff will understand the pressures clients are under. By doing this, your staff will want to be the hero for, be present with, and be the best part of their customer’s day.”
4. A Storied CEO and E-Commerce Pioneer Shares a Lifetime of Lessons
Guest: Chuck Davis, Leading CEO, e-commerce pioneer and former international president of YPO
Chuck Davis has pretty much seen it all. From his early days at blue chip companies to his time running internet pioneers such as Fandango, Shopzilla, and now, Swagbucks, Chuck has a lifetime of lessons and stories. Add to that his time as international president of YPO and you know he’s been at the forefront of best practices for leading companies all over the world. And he shared many of them on this episode.
Key Podcast Insights:
Avoid the bleeding edge of technology but “be in the neighborhood.”
Rather than be a first-mover on the technology side, Chuck said, “What I try and do, and I try to do this as a consumer also, not just as a CEO, is to be in the neighborhood of new technology and start learning it to figure out is this something we should be preparing for.” Along with this, Chuck is very focused on walking in the shoes of his potential customers. “We try and look at the technology and figure out how will the consumer use it and then should we be in that neighborhood or not. If so, we jump in fully.”
Don’t settle for good; reach for great when hiring.
The quickest route to building a great company is to fill it will great team members. Look at your company’s last five hires. Were they good or great? Were they an upgrade from your average team member or an upgrade from the person they replaced? Chuck said, “How one hires dictates your company’s performance.” Is your hiring heading in the right direction?
5. How Transparency in Communication Makes You a Better Leader
Guest: Sheldon Harris, successful entrepreneur, CEO coach, former president of $500 million company
Sheldon’s varied career from CEO of multiple companies to president of Cold Stone Creamery to mentor, advisor, and academic instructor has taught him how to build and grow entrepreneurial companies. And one of the most important lessons he learned is how to lead with integrity—the subject of this episode.
Key Podcast Insights:
You can gain the trust and confidence of your team by practicing “integrity in communication.”
Integrity in communication means, “I will never say anything about you that I haven’t said to you.” From a leadership perspective, the concept is, “You are never going to be wondering or guessing what I think. I won’t be talking about you behind your back. If your name is coming out of my mouth, you’re going to be in front of me.”
Tell the truth and also be willing to receive the truth without getting defensive or shooting the messenger.
If you surround yourself with yes men and women, your business will suffer. “I always say in developing leaders, learn to be a good truth teller, but be an equally good truth receiver. If you are thrown off by receiving the truth, you just aren’t going to be hearing the truth anymore.” Yes, you’re smart and talented but always be open to feedback from your colleagues. They have good ideas, too.
6. The 5 Things Every CEO Should Focus On
Guest: Rich Balot, Chairman and Co-CEO of a $750 million company
Rich founded his first company at age 14, and by age 16, it was the largest of its kind in Eastern North Carolina. That was just the beginning. Sensing an opportunity in the wireless phone business, he opened a phone store and today, presides over one of the largest Verizon Wireless franchises in the country.
Key Podcast Insights:
Your company will only be as big as your vision.
After a near death experience in his company, Rich started “to plan the future instead of letting the future just happen,” set a BHAG to reach $1 billion in revenue in 10 years (at $750 million now), and implemented a strategic planning process. It’s amazing how some simple strategic actions in your business can make a world of difference. If you haven’t set a big goal for your company and a strategic plan that will get you there, do it now.
Spend more time with your key relationships—they can make or break your company.
A key relationship is any person/company that can put you out of business or can help you significantly grow your business. Rich has approximately 30 key relationships (unusually large) and he stays in frequent contact with them. Do you know who your key relationships are? When was the last time you proactively did something to improve the relationship? Would those people feel like you treat them as a key relationship?
7. Use the Annual Planning Meeting to Drive Extraordinary Results
Guest: Mark Moses, Founding partner of CEO Coaching International, successful entrepreneur
Mark has built and run multiple multi-million dollar companies throughout his entrepreneurial career and coupled with his coaching, has seen just about every possible issue that confronts entrepreneurs and CEOs. And one of the keys to Make Big Happen is to plan for it—in the form of an annual planning meeting. Mark has facilitated more than 200 of them and this episode goes in-depth on how to run one.
Key Podcast Insights:
Systematically close the gap between your current company and your desired company by asking the “Three Provocative Questions.”
Mark sets the stage for the questions by telling the team to envision they were starting a new company that would compete with the company they have today.
Then he asks them to answer these three questions.
- What would you stop doing that you’re doing now?
- What would you start doing that you aren’t doing now?
- What would your new company do to try to put your current company out of business?
Often times the new company they describe is better than the one they have. This is a great exercise to help you let go of your existing legacy business and envision what you would do differently if you could start all over. And frequently you can adopt much of it while keeping what does work in your current business.
Ask each attendee to assess how they can improve their performance.
Mark said, “Everybody struggles with their own demons and their own effectiveness as a leader or in the way they manage their time. So, I like asking these two questions. What should I start doing to get the most out of my own performance? What should I stop doing and when?”
Your company will only be as successful as the people in it. By using the annual planning meeting as an opportunity to help your senior team improve their personal effectiveness, you’ll raise the odds that you achieve your aggressive business plan goals.
8. Key Strategies an Entrepreneurial Boston Firm Used to Achieve Massive Growth and a Huge Exit
Guest: Don Schiavone, COO of Grasshopper, the entrepreneur’s phone system
Don is a highly successful business executive who was instrumental in building Grasshopper and guiding it through its recent sale to publically traded Citrix. He has a 20-year track record of helping businesses of all sizes scale their operational processes.
Key Podcast Insights:
Actively nurture a high-growth culture.
We all know the “right” culture is critical to being a successful company. At Grasshopper, they purposely nurtured a “high-growth” culture. To refine the culture, the leadership asked employees, “What do you think our culture is?” Next, the leaders asked employees to, “Give us a story that demonstrates someone in the company living that culture.” From there, they developed four cultural values that correlated to a high-growth successful company.
Create incentives that align with the company’s purpose and reinforces its culture.
Don’t just pay a bonus based on hitting a certain metric. Take the time to figure out what incentives would reinforce the high-growth culture you’re trying to develop. For example, Grasshopper is “policy light.” They see that as an incentive for employees because it allows them to work differently, think differently, and be treated as smart adults who don’t need detailed company policies to follow.
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Thank you for making this a great first year for the On Your Mark, Get Set, Grow! podcast.
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