eCommerce Evolution

Hosted ByBrett Curry

eCommerce Evolution is hosted by Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce. Tune in for fresh interviews with the merchants, vendors, and experts shaping the eCommerce industry. We take an in-depth look at what's new and what's next in eCommerce.

eCommerce Evolution | 316: Scale with Stability by Hiring World-Class Talent & Operating with Mentors

eCommerce Evolution Podcast
eCommerce Evolution Podcast
eCommerce Evolution | 316: Scale with Stability by Hiring World-Class Talent & Operating with Mentors
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I had fellow agency owner JC Hite join me on the pod to discuss some really important topics. Namely, is it possible to scale with stability – which for JC means scaling your business while prioritizing, family, faith and personal relationships.

Here’s a look at what we discussed:

Key Takeaways

  • The “Video of Awesomeness” Hiring Hack – JC’s simple 15-minute interview addition that reveals more about candidates than traditional methods, including real examples of applicants who wrote songs about his company
  • Overseas Talent Strategy Mistake Most Make – Why the “how cheap can I hire” mindset kills results, and JC’s approach to paying international talent competitively to get world-class team members
  • The 5 Love Languages for Workplace Retention – How applying Gary Chapman’s principles in business dramatically improves team satisfaction and reduces turnover (especially crucial for the next generation workforce)
  • Building a “Bench” Like Sports Teams – JC’s systematic approach to always having pre-approved candidates ready, eliminating the panic of unexpected departures and empowering leaders to make tough decisions
  • Mentorship Through Fear, Not Ego – How JC built relationships with icons like John Maxwell, Damon John, and Dr. Gary Chapman by being honest about his fears and willing to invest in proximity to wisdom

Sponsored by OMG Commerce – go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!

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or if you just want to travel to New York,

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Well, hello and welcome to another edition
of the E-Commerce Evolution podcast.

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I’m your host, Brett
Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce,

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and today I am delighted to
welcome to the show Mr. JC Hite.

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He’s the co-founder and
CEO of Hite International.

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You’ll hear more about that in a moment.

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He’s all about scaling with stability.

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You’ll also hear what that means
and why that’s so exciting.

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And I first heard JC and
his lovely wife, Karen,

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speak at my partner and friends event,

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Tom Shipley deal Con,
and so just hit it off.

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Similar values, similar faith,

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similar approach to business
I think in a lot of ways.

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And so we’re like dude and
also Midwest guys. And so hey,

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let’s hit you on the pod. So
with that JC Hite, welcome man,

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and how’s it going?

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Oh man, it’s going great.
I’m excited to be here.

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Hopefully we can add some good value
over the next 30 minutes, so I’m.

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Excited. Let’s deliver some value. Yeah,

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so want to get into a variety of topics.

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I know one of your specialties
is recruiting and hiring talent,

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retaining that talent. And one thing we
see, whether it’s in the agency space,

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which I’m in on a day-to-day basis,
or we help e-commerce brands,

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if you don’t have top talent, and yes,

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we know that AI is disrupting and
getting the right tools and the right

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approaches, that’s all good,

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but without the right people and without
the ability to attract and retain

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top talent, you’re going
to be a step behind.

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And so I’m excited to talk about that.

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I’m excited to talk about mentorship and
you’ve actually formed friendships with

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some real leaders in the leadership space.

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I’m excited to unpack that story
here about your event. Also,

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you and your wife work together
and you genuinely appear to

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each other and you appear to
working together most of the time.

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And so I think we’ll throw a few nuggets
in there too for those that may end up

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working with their spouse as well.
So we’re going to be fun times,

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but first of all,

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what is Hite International and what
do you guys do to get a little context

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here?

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Yeah,

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I mean our big focus as you said there
in the beginning is how do we help people

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scale with stability?
And what we mean by that,

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obviously we want to scale
the business, we want to grow,

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but what I have found is
business could be one of the most

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destroying things in the world.
It can be the most stressful.

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You throw your finances off, you
take big risks, you can fail hard,

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but it can also be one of the
most freeing things in the world.

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I never miss a ball game. I got to
coach my kid. I can give to the church,

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I can help, I can serve, I can
invest time in my marriage,

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and it can also be the greatest thing.

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And so when we talk about
scaling with stability,

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it’s really about having a business that
can allow you to have a really great

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deep marriage,

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to be very involved in the church and
your relationship with Jesus and as well

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as serve and help and
raise amazing children.

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And so these three principles,

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and so we do that really focused on
three areas, Hyatt International,

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we have an advertising firm,

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and we got about 80 employees
in our advertising firm.

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And then we have our education side,
which we have events and a mastermind,

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and then we have our investment
wing, which I’m really excited about.

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We started investing in companies that
are on that same mission of growth and

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how do we get more involved in
the details of helping them scale?

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I love that man.

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And you and I are a hundred percent
aligned on that scale with stability

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framework.

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It’s one of those things where why
would you do this if the most important

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things in your life fall by the wayside?

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And so I think the idea for everybody
is how do you get your business to align

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with your personal mission and to
help fuel healthy families in a

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healthy relationships and things like
that rather than destroying those.

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And so love that approach.
That’s awesome. And Yemen,

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just excited to dive in.

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Now you are just coming off the
heels of a really big event.

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Can you tell people about.

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Scale.

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With stability, what that was, where
that was, and kind of how that went down?

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Stupidest thing we’ve ever done,
but it worked out really well.

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So I’m always really honest with ideas.

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Sometimes it’s just you take jobs.
And so we wanted, on this framework,

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we wanted to do an event, and so
we did Skill with Stability Summit,

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and then we had the crazy
idea, we have a university,

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Harding University in Arkansas
that we’re very passionate about.

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So one day I told my wife, what if we
had the event here? And she was like,

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why in Arkansas? It’s in
Arkansas. It’s 45 minutes from,

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there’s not a Marriott here.
There’s not wide. I was like, well,

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let’s think about it. They already
have av, they have all the rooms,

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they have space, they
have food, they have all,

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and then we’re bringing
people to our alma mater.

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We’re bringing in celebrities
here. Could this be something that,

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and it worked really well. We had
750 people. It was a brand new event.

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That’s crazy, man, from logo to
you name it, and seven 50 people.

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We had Daymond John came down.

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We ended up inviting three college
students and pitched Damon and I.

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That was super cool.

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Many shark Tank. By the way, did
either of you invest in these pitches?

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Well, we did not invest
in anything on that one.

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They got an award for the best pitch,
and so we actually got all three of,

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makes a lot sense, the money sense.

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So it took the pressure off of
the table there. We actually were,

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the premise of the pitch
was that as entrepreneurs,

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we all have millions of ideas.

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So which ideas do we jump on and which
ideas do we shelf? That’s brilliant.

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Brilliant. And that’s based on timing.
It’s based on who you’ve got around you.

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It’s based on money, it’s
based on a lot of factors.

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And so the calling was for these
students to pitch the idea that

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should be the thing that they
take off the shelf and jump into.

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And then which one had the
best. Anyway, it was fun.

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We had Willie and Corey Robertson there.

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They talked a lot about
marriage and faith and raising

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children and how you’re in the
middle of this huge jump and just

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everyone’s pulling you and everyone’s
wanting you and wants access,

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and how do you raise really healthy,

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God-fearing amazing
children in that cycle?

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And so I feel like they’ve
done really well, which.

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Is really the hardest thing. And you
and I have talked about this a lot.

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I mentioned it on the show as well.
I’ve got wife and I have eight kids.

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There’s really nothing
harder than raising a family.

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There’s nothing more rewarding and
there’s nothing more important.

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And so getting that right in the
midst of businesses is awesome.

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And you have a limited
business, we can fail and start.

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Over again. Totally,
totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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I guess technically you could just
have another child and do it over,

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but probably not the best approach.

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And Karen and I, anyway, we got two,

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you’ve got eight, so

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it’s fun. So yeah, we had Dr. Gary
Chapman came to the event as well,

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and Dr. White and who wrote
the book Appreciation at Work,

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which we can talk about here in a minute
as we talk about team. But it was good.

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It was fun. Super fun.

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That’s amazing. And yeah, I
know you mentioned John Maxwell,

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one of the all time greats as far
as leadership goes. And so yeah,

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Harding University in Arkansas
attracting some big, big names,

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attracting 750 people,

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which if anybody has done an
event or tried to do an event,

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they know that is a monumental lift.

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And we do events a couple of times a year,

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but they’re for just business
owners and smaller events. But dude,

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it’s still a lot of work.
It’s a massive, massive lift.

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And so kudos to you guys for doing that.

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I want to talk about attracting
and retaining talent.

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And I want to kind of frame it this way.

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I was listening to one of my favorite
podcasts on the drive in today called

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Founders Podcast, and the
host was reading the original

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Jeff Bezos shareholder letter.

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And one thing that Jeff
Bezos talked about then,

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but he is talked about ever since,

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is our success hinges

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on our ability to continuously raise
the bar in terms of who we hire.

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And so they’ve got this idea
called the Bar Raiser program.

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And I’m not going to get this exactly
right, but it’s something like, Hey,

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with each new hire,

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we’re going to ask how will
this person inspire us or

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how will we admire this person?
If we bring them on board,

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how will they raise the
bar in their department and

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collectively? And then
there’s a third component,

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there’s always a third component,
but it’s kind of along those lines.

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It’s not how do we just hire the next
person who fills a role but makes me

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look good, not quite as
smart as me type of thing.

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How do we raise the bar with those hires?

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Now that’s difficult to do and it’s
difficult to do if you’re a small business

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because sometimes the best talent
comes with a really high price tag,

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but not always. That’s
not always the case.

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And so I’ll kind of make this a broad
question first and we’ll dig into some

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details,

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but how do you approach
hiring and hiring the right

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talent? And I don’t know if you want
to start with any kind of frameworks or

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philosophies around that
before we get into the tactics.

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So a few things that we do. So number one,

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I’ll mention something on the interview
process that I have found works stupid

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good for us,

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and I stole it from
Mindvalley forever ago.

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I don’t know if they still do this.
And then two, let’s chat about

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where and how I recruit from a standpoint.

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Then we can talk about the team
itself and how do we retain them.

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So we require every single person that
applies for high, they do one interview,

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15 minutes,

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and by the end of that interview we
asked for what’s called a video of

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awesomeness. And on that
video, it’s very simple.

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I say, Hey Brett, you going
to do a video of awesomeness?

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I want three things that make us awesome
and three things that make you awesome.

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And that’s it. And they’re going to
ask questions. They’re like, okay,

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how long should it be? I don’t
know, when is it due? I dunno, well,

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can I use friends? I don’t know. Just
the video, three things. That’s it.

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And I have learned, Brett, you
can learn so much by this video.

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So some examples I have some people
they’ll take two, three weeks,

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but I mean it’s like perfect.
Well,

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there’s certain positions
that that’s really,

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00:11:43,770 –> 00:11:47,460
and then they have people that just
take out their phone and film it.

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They give me exactly what they, but
no more, no less. But it’s done.

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Immediately.

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I.

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See people with their personality and
some roles, you want that some roles,

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00:11:55,300 –> 00:11:58,150
you want that person. Yeah, that’s
right. And you see their personality.

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You see, most people aren’t
comfortable filming videos. Well,

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welcome to the life of working at
Hite. We never know what we’re doing.

215
00:12:07,060 –> 00:12:09,850
JC is always telling
us to go do crazy junk,

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00:12:09,850 –> 00:12:12,910
like start a event in the middle
of Arkansas. There’s no roadmap.

217
00:12:13,240 –> 00:12:17,440
So there’s no rules, there’s no
boundaries, there’s no anything. Hey,

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00:12:17,440 –> 00:12:21,670
can I get friends to help?
Sure, any job you have at Hite,

219
00:12:21,670 –> 00:12:24,640
you can go have as many
people help you. So I.

220
00:12:25,150 –> 00:12:29,200
Learn, this is kind of like if you
look at personality tests, right?

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So we used to do it called
Culture index. We love it.

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We also use Patrick Lencioni’s
widget, the Working Genius.

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There’s some tools like that.

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They do it in some ways this cuts through
all of that and just allows you to

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see it. Their working
genius shows up their disc,

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whatever. You’re going to see it on
display on this project. That’s really.

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00:12:50,890 –> 00:12:52,510
Really, and I can show you some videos,

228
00:12:53,170 –> 00:12:57,190
but we have so many of
these crazy creative videos.

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And what’s interesting though
is you start making it where

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first off, people wanting a job are
not going to take the time to do it.

231
00:13:06,340 –> 00:13:09,430
It’s just it’s too much, right?
They’ll show up for another interview.

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But those that really want,

233
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then I’m actually hearing what
do they actually know about us?

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00:13:15,160 –> 00:13:18,010
What made them want to apply
are the things that they think.

235
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Are your website’s awesome?
You were really friendly on.

236
00:13:20,740 –> 00:13:21,550
The.

237
00:13:21,550 –> 00:13:22,420
Surface level stuff.

238
00:13:22,660 –> 00:13:25,660
All that type of stuff.
And so that’s my one tip.

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00:13:25,690 –> 00:13:29,260
I think it’s the easiest from a
time standpoint for me as the CEO,

240
00:13:29,260 –> 00:13:31,630
because I like to be involved
in a lot of our hires.

241
00:13:32,470 –> 00:13:35,740
It is the easiest way for me to get
to know without a 30 minute meeting.

242
00:13:35,740 –> 00:13:37,690
I can watch a video in
two minutes and learn.

243
00:13:37,690 –> 00:13:40,960
I could see probably did they use Brent?

244
00:13:40,960 –> 00:13:45,340
I have probably six people that
have written songs about hype.

245
00:13:45,910 –> 00:13:50,470
I’m talking about full on banjo songs

246
00:13:50,800 –> 00:13:53,230
edited, and I’m like, dude, this is the
coolest thing ever. Amazing. Anyway,

247
00:13:54,550 –> 00:13:59,110
that’s a big one. Big one for me.
The second thing, I’ll say this,

248
00:14:00,460 –> 00:14:03,190
obviously a lot of people are
going overseas for talent,

249
00:14:03,280 –> 00:14:08,260
but I think one thing we
do way wrong there is that

250
00:14:08,500 –> 00:14:10,300
when for some reason in the us,

251
00:14:10,300 –> 00:14:14,230
our mindset is here’s my budget.
What’s the best person I can do?

252
00:14:14,380 –> 00:14:17,980
I can afford 6,000. Who’s
the best I can find?

253
00:14:18,250 –> 00:14:21,040
But yet when we go to latam, it’s like,

254
00:14:21,640 –> 00:14:24,220
did you know you can hire someone
in the Philippines for seven 50?

255
00:14:24,580 –> 00:14:28,030
Did you know that you can hire someone
in Nicaragua for 2000? Like, dude,

256
00:14:28,690 –> 00:14:32,950
I’d have to pay six grand in the US in
Nicaragua, I would only have to pay two.

257
00:14:34,630 –> 00:14:38,110
That’s the wrong mindset. So one
of our big secrets is going, okay,

258
00:14:38,950 –> 00:14:43,510
I would’ve to pay someone 5,000 in
us. Who could I find for 5,000 in you?

259
00:14:43,510 –> 00:14:44,343
Get out.

260
00:14:44,730 –> 00:14:48,250
Yeah, yeah. It would just be
the best of the best there.

261
00:14:48,520 –> 00:14:52,490
I mean, holy cow. So if you’re willing
to pay this Now, this has gotten

262
00:14:54,240 –> 00:14:58,070
more competitive in the
last couple of years,

263
00:14:58,340 –> 00:15:02,960
but I really encourage companies
to go find the top layer.

264
00:15:02,960 –> 00:15:07,880
So for example, yes, you can find
someone in the Philippines for 600 bucks,

265
00:15:09,770 –> 00:15:13,910
but you can also find someone with an MBA
that’s worked for Verizon for 10 years

266
00:15:14,150 –> 00:15:16,910
and then a bank for five
years and pay ’em 2000.

267
00:15:17,240 –> 00:15:20,300
And that lift is undeniably better.

268
00:15:21,770 –> 00:15:24,860
Clearly going to be a bar
raiser in your department,

269
00:15:24,860 –> 00:15:28,490
whereas the 600 a month person is going
to save you some money on your p and l

270
00:15:28,490 –> 00:15:31,790
potentially, but you may
get what you pay for there.

271
00:15:31,880 –> 00:15:36,200
But for some reason, our mindset when
we recruit overseas is always different.

272
00:15:36,200 –> 00:15:38,120
It’s always
How do I save money?

273
00:15:38,350 –> 00:15:40,790
The lowest is the reason why
I’m going is to save money.

274
00:15:40,790 –> 00:15:42,530
And if you go with that intention,

275
00:15:42,950 –> 00:15:45,890
then just naturally you’re going to
be thinking, how cheap can I pay? And

276
00:15:48,560 –> 00:15:52,610
we don’t pay perfect. We went through
some really bad seasons there.

277
00:15:52,610 –> 00:15:56,810
We made a couple of bad acquisitions
and it was really, really tough for us.

278
00:15:56,810 –> 00:15:59,810
And so that’s where it comes
to my next point of view.

279
00:16:00,020 –> 00:16:04,850
Ron Kaufman wrote the book
Levels of Service and it’s

280
00:16:04,850 –> 00:16:08,390
all about how do we uplift our service
and serve our team as the best way

281
00:16:08,390 –> 00:16:09,223
possible.

282
00:16:09,560 –> 00:16:13,490
I built Hite with the intention that
every single one of those team members are

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00:16:13,490 –> 00:16:15,050
going to pay for my kid’s college.

284
00:16:16,400 –> 00:16:21,110
This company will bring every
dream I have and my job as CEOs to

285
00:16:21,110 –> 00:16:24,350
serve them. We had at
our event, Dr. Chapman,

286
00:16:24,350 –> 00:16:26,150
along with Dr. White as I mentioned,

287
00:16:26,150 –> 00:16:29,060
and they together wrote the
book Appreciation at Work,

288
00:16:29,420 –> 00:16:33,170
which is the five level languages for
the workplace. So it’s the same once.

289
00:16:33,170 –> 00:16:34,003
Right? Interesting.

290
00:16:34,010 –> 00:16:36,590
Works of affirmation, quality, time,
access, service, tangible gifts,

291
00:16:36,590 –> 00:16:40,790
physical touch, but we don’t think
about that. So often the workplace,

292
00:16:40,880 –> 00:16:45,770
this next generation is
much more into appreciation

293
00:16:45,830 –> 00:16:46,970
versus rewards.

294
00:16:48,110 –> 00:16:50,870
So they want quality time with people.

295
00:16:50,870 –> 00:16:53,870
They’re really interested
in words of affirmation.

296
00:16:54,320 –> 00:16:57,830
And so just like I do with
my wife, how do I figure out,

297
00:16:58,040 –> 00:17:00,710
especially my team around me,
what is their love language?

298
00:17:00,920 –> 00:17:04,640
How do I connect with them?
And it’s incredibly different.

299
00:17:04,910 –> 00:17:07,400
Some of my people, man,
they just want money.

300
00:17:07,490 –> 00:17:10,880
I mean tangible gifts is what
it’s about if you pay ’em.

301
00:17:11,060 –> 00:17:12,590
And nothing wrong with that at all.

302
00:17:12,770 –> 00:17:14,990
I used to have a personal
assistant, I love her to death,

303
00:17:15,050 –> 00:17:18,350
I love her to death,

304
00:17:18,950 –> 00:17:22,130
but her appreciation at work,

305
00:17:22,130 –> 00:17:26,990
her love language was words of
affirmation. And that is not, I mean,

306
00:17:27,680 –> 00:17:31,580
I do really well with my wife and my
kids, but outside of that, I’m the most,

307
00:17:32,930 –> 00:17:35,420
I’m just not very lovey word wise.

308
00:17:35,810 –> 00:17:36,643
With your words.

309
00:17:37,370 –> 00:17:41,120
And it was a problem because I would
go a week without talking to her just

310
00:17:41,120 –> 00:17:44,840
because I was busy and she got the work
done. She was so efficiently, so gc,

311
00:17:44,840 –> 00:17:48,380
are you mad at me? No. What
happened? Did I miss something?

312
00:17:48,770 –> 00:17:50,490
Did I say something? Did I
say that I was mad at you?

313
00:17:51,660 –> 00:17:53,790
No, but you haven’t like no,

314
00:17:53,790 –> 00:17:55,920
because you’re crushing it and you don’t
need me to tell you what to do right

315
00:17:55,920 –> 00:18:00,450
now. Words of affirmation,
she wanted to just be told.

316
00:18:00,450 –> 00:18:02,160
And so I think, okay,

317
00:18:02,760 –> 00:18:07,470
how do I find the right talent where and
what if my strategy around finding the

318
00:18:07,470 –> 00:18:09,600
right talent, and then once I get them,

319
00:18:09,600 –> 00:18:13,740
how am I loving on them as
much as humanly possible world,

320
00:18:14,130 –> 00:18:17,910
this next generation, they’ll quit
and they don’t need another job.

321
00:18:18,180 –> 00:18:20,340
They’ll quit and they’ll go
move back with their family.

322
00:18:20,520 –> 00:18:23,220
They’ll quit because they got
30,000 in the bank and shoot,

323
00:18:23,280 –> 00:18:25,890
I can go live in the Philippines
for six months without much money.

324
00:18:27,210 –> 00:18:29,400
And so they think differently.
And so we got to be prepared.

325
00:18:29,610 –> 00:18:32,610
How do we build the
relationship with them?

326
00:18:33,360 –> 00:18:36,450
Yeah, it’s so good, man. And it’s
one of those things where yes,

327
00:18:36,450 –> 00:18:40,710
you got to pay people competitively and
you have to have a job and a role that’s

328
00:18:40,710 –> 00:18:42,930
structured well that gives
someone a chance to succeed.

329
00:18:42,930 –> 00:18:46,680
But people really need that appreciation
and those extra things and they need to

330
00:18:46,680 –> 00:18:50,220
be seen and loved. We’ll
use the word loved,

331
00:18:50,220 –> 00:18:53,310
even though it’s maybe not a word
you use in business a whole lot,

332
00:18:53,310 –> 00:18:57,300
but I love that. And we’re big fans, big
believers in the Five Love languages.

333
00:18:57,900 –> 00:18:59,100
It’s true at work as well.

334
00:18:59,520 –> 00:19:02,460
It’s going to be the work version
of those things that work.

335
00:19:02,460 –> 00:19:06,120
And so how do you see that and
recognize that in your team,

336
00:19:06,120 –> 00:19:08,550
and then how do you
show them appreciation?

337
00:19:08,550 –> 00:19:12,060
How do you lead them in the way they
want to be led or to see appreciation?

338
00:19:12,310 –> 00:19:12,720
That’s.

339
00:19:12,720 –> 00:19:16,320
Right. That’s great, man. And I always
think about it, a good coach, man.

340
00:19:16,320 –> 00:19:19,020
I think about coaches I had because
I love playing sports growing up.

341
00:19:19,050 –> 00:19:23,430
And who were the coaches that they were
fine. I learned and they pushed me.

342
00:19:23,430 –> 00:19:26,790
And some were just
hardcore and that was fine,

343
00:19:26,790 –> 00:19:28,590
but who are the coaches that I love?

344
00:19:28,920 –> 00:19:30,870
The coaches that I would run
through a brick wall for?

345
00:19:31,230 –> 00:19:33,090
And I think we have the
same thing with bosses.

346
00:19:33,450 –> 00:19:35,670
Who are the bosses that I’ll
show up for? I like the job,

347
00:19:35,670 –> 00:19:36,510
I’m going to do the right thing,

348
00:19:36,510 –> 00:19:40,170
but who are the bosses that I
would run through a brick wall for?

349
00:19:40,590 –> 00:19:41,550
It’s not just about pay.

350
00:19:41,550 –> 00:19:46,410
It’s about those intangibles of how am I
getting appreciation and receiving love

351
00:19:46,410 –> 00:19:47,790
from this boss?

352
00:19:48,360 –> 00:19:48,840
That’s right.

353
00:19:48,840 –> 00:19:52,410
Really, really great. Hey,
what are some of the other,

354
00:19:52,410 –> 00:19:54,570
but before we talk about
retention, some of those things,

355
00:19:54,570 –> 00:19:56,550
I want to talk about
this overseas recruiting.

356
00:19:56,640 –> 00:19:59,730
I think that that’s just becoming more
and more common in every business that I

357
00:19:59,730 –> 00:20:02,580
know from the agency space
to the e-commerce space
and everything in between.

358
00:20:03,150 –> 00:20:05,100
What are some of the other
mistakes that people make there?

359
00:20:05,130 –> 00:20:09,390
So I love that you pointed out our
default is how do we go to the cheapest

360
00:20:09,390 –> 00:20:13,710
rather than how can we pay more than
anybody else and just get an unbelievable

361
00:20:13,710 –> 00:20:14,543
team member.

362
00:20:14,640 –> 00:20:16,680
What are the mistakes do people make
when they’re hiring internationally?

363
00:20:17,430 –> 00:20:19,740
Well, I think a couple of things here.

364
00:20:19,740 –> 00:20:22,020
I think the mindset around
it is very different.

365
00:20:22,260 –> 00:20:26,160
Most in our culture and even
the digital marketing world,

366
00:20:26,520 –> 00:20:30,210
we call almost anyone that’s
outsourced a VA in some way shape.

367
00:20:30,930 –> 00:20:34,710
We have our team in the US and
we got 10 or 15 VAs in Nawa,

368
00:20:35,040 –> 00:20:39,990
and it’s like we just have a
mindset problem around what team

369
00:20:39,990 –> 00:20:41,430
looks like. This is the team.

370
00:20:41,880 –> 00:20:45,390
And so I have an issue with that.

371
00:20:45,690 –> 00:20:50,680
I think one of the things that we just
have a huge opportunity for is that

372
00:20:51,160 –> 00:20:54,850
Nick and i’s three and a half
hour flight from Dallas, Honduras,

373
00:20:54,850 –> 00:20:56,590
all these things beforehand.

374
00:20:57,040 –> 00:21:01,270
So a lot of things are shifting to
latam from the Philippines and Asia,

375
00:21:01,270 –> 00:21:04,390
things like this, which creates
an opportunity to visit the team,

376
00:21:04,690 –> 00:21:07,390
be a part of them. So again,

377
00:21:07,750 –> 00:21:10,870
just like these love languages,
physical touch trainer for gifts,

378
00:21:10,870 –> 00:21:15,340
acts of service, quality time, four of
those can be done in person quality time,

379
00:21:15,940 –> 00:21:20,020
being present, being able to touch
someone. Hey, here’s what it is.

380
00:21:20,230 –> 00:21:22,150
The affirmation of course can be online,

381
00:21:22,150 –> 00:21:26,290
but there’s very different when they
feel the body language around it, So much

382
00:21:26,290 –> 00:21:28,450
can be done in person.

383
00:21:30,110 –> 00:21:34,330
So I think that’s a huge
opportunity. And again,

384
00:21:34,660 –> 00:21:38,320
us we’re really like,
what does comp look like?

385
00:21:39,220 –> 00:21:40,720
The world is getting flatter and flatter.

386
00:21:43,300 –> 00:21:46,540
I feel like there was 10 years ago we
were talking about the world is flat,

387
00:21:46,630 –> 00:21:51,130
it was opening up the doors, but it wasn’t
like it was still very unlevel wise.

388
00:21:51,130 –> 00:21:55,600
That is starting to gradually
equate more and more over time.

389
00:21:55,630 –> 00:21:59,920
Yep. Yep. Love that. Well, let’s talk,
let’s shift gears. Talk about retention.

390
00:21:59,920 –> 00:22:03,580
And this is one of those things that if
you’ve been in business for any length

391
00:22:03,580 –> 00:22:07,660
of time, you’ve had a key team
member leave and it’s painful.

392
00:22:07,660 –> 00:22:10,540
And we’ve all had experiences
where someone turns in
their resignation and we’re

393
00:22:10,540 –> 00:22:14,800
like, oh, I’ve got a fake. I’m
sad here. This is so terrible.

394
00:22:15,400 –> 00:22:18,250
But then there’s some people that they
leave and you’re just gutted, right?

395
00:22:18,400 –> 00:22:19,233
Oh my goodness.

396
00:22:20,740 –> 00:22:24,850
We had someone on our team who
I mentored him and trained him,

397
00:22:24,850 –> 00:22:29,170
and I invested so much time
in him. And then when he left,

398
00:22:29,440 –> 00:22:31,330
it was almost like a gut
punch. I was also proud of him.

399
00:22:31,420 –> 00:22:33,820
He was going to pursue something
bigger, which was just tough.

400
00:22:33,910 –> 00:22:36,700
Some people are really tough when
it’s really tough when they leave.

401
00:22:36,700 –> 00:22:41,410
So how do you think about retention
strategically and also tactically.

402
00:22:43,090 –> 00:22:45,220
Have you ever read of the
book, the Dream Manager, Brett.

403
00:22:45,790 –> 00:22:47,530
The Dream Manager? I have not.

404
00:22:48,070 –> 00:22:52,870
I love it. It’s a little fable about
a company that scaled and grew and

405
00:22:54,190 –> 00:22:58,390
they were a cleaning company, clean
toilets for a living. In that book,

406
00:22:58,390 –> 00:23:02,200
it talks about how they
finally realized that

407
00:23:03,310 –> 00:23:07,180
they were a stepping stone elsewhere.
There’s certain roles in their company.

408
00:23:07,600 –> 00:23:12,400
I think I struggled
especially earlier where

409
00:23:12,640 –> 00:23:16,480
it was like an ego Hite was the savior
for everyone. You couldn’t leave.

410
00:23:16,600 –> 00:23:20,320
Why would you leave? You are
going to be served your best,

411
00:23:20,320 –> 00:23:22,660
we’re going to be able to pay you,
we’re going to be all these things.

412
00:23:23,080 –> 00:23:26,860
And I think finally I got where
that’s not the case for most people.

413
00:23:27,190 –> 00:23:31,510
And so I try to segment and go, okay,
what is my retention rate on leaders,

414
00:23:31,600 –> 00:23:36,040
managers, these types of individuals
and then everyone else at Hite?

415
00:23:36,040 –> 00:23:38,470
We don’t get a lot of
leadership roles that open up.

416
00:23:40,540 –> 00:23:41,770
We just don’t turn over,

417
00:23:41,770 –> 00:23:46,760
which means I actually need to expect
there’s a big group of people that

418
00:23:46,760 –> 00:23:50,870
will move because there’s no spots for
leadership unless I’m trying to scale

419
00:23:50,870 –> 00:23:54,260
Hite. I am in growth mode, which
quite frankly right now, high digital,

420
00:23:54,260 –> 00:23:57,530
we’re not because I don’t know where
the world of digital marketing is going.

421
00:23:57,530 –> 00:24:02,300
And so how do we treat our company
more as a, I like sports teams.

422
00:24:02,300 –> 00:24:06,770
I think they do two things really well.
Number one, they don’t get affected.

423
00:24:06,770 –> 00:24:09,230
Well, I mean they do, but people
move. That’s just part of.

424
00:24:09,230 –> 00:24:12,110
It. People move, people get
traded, people contracts.

425
00:24:12,560 –> 00:24:15,770
Don negotiate that. But another move
really well is they’re always recruiting.

426
00:24:16,340 –> 00:24:18,890
They always have this bench.

427
00:24:19,280 –> 00:24:22,730
And so one of the things that we’ve
really tried to do from an HR standpoint,

428
00:24:22,970 –> 00:24:26,150
even if I don’t have a, let’s
say a Google Ads person,

429
00:24:26,690 –> 00:24:31,670
I have a bench waiting now. It even
changes the framework to my leaders.

430
00:24:32,600 –> 00:24:35,270
I mean, you’ve done this
and I got a B player,

431
00:24:35,270 –> 00:24:39,770
and it’s like they’re not super good,
but do I want to go recruit and find No.

432
00:24:39,950 –> 00:24:42,080
My leaders are going, I have a B player,

433
00:24:42,650 –> 00:24:47,540
and we got Sarah on the bench.
Sarah’s got right?

434
00:24:47,750 –> 00:24:51,410
So what our HR team is
for all of our core roles,

435
00:24:51,560 –> 00:24:55,040
we try to have someone on the bench
somewhere and we’ll literally just like

436
00:24:55,040 –> 00:24:57,890
sales. We’ll call ’em up every
month and go, Hey, Brett, hey,

437
00:24:57,950 –> 00:24:59,270
we don’t have the role just quite yet.

438
00:24:59,480 –> 00:25:01,340
My thinking is maybe the
next two to three months.

439
00:25:01,340 –> 00:25:05,540
But you still wanted to join Hite if an
opportunity came up, right? Yeah. Okay,

440
00:25:05,540 –> 00:25:08,390
cool. And so that’s the conversation.

441
00:25:08,390 –> 00:25:11,360
We have two or three of them that are
already approved, already have the videos.

442
00:25:11,780 –> 00:25:12,613
We’re just waiting.

443
00:25:12,920 –> 00:25:17,270
And that brings so much security
to our company. And so again,

444
00:25:19,460 –> 00:25:24,080
I think we have as owners just
a huge God complex that we are

445
00:25:25,760 –> 00:25:29,870
the lifeblood of our team. And once we
get over that, we just realized like,

446
00:25:29,870 –> 00:25:30,110
dude,

447
00:25:30,110 –> 00:25:35,090
I have had so many people that I
hated to leave and one of two things

448
00:25:35,090 –> 00:25:36,260
are not true either. One,

449
00:25:36,260 –> 00:25:39,830
I didn’t truly care about them because
they ended up with a way better job or a

450
00:25:39,830 –> 00:25:41,690
way better opportunity or whatever.

451
00:25:42,920 –> 00:25:45,770
So either one or two things
are not true either. One,

452
00:25:47,240 –> 00:25:49,760
I didn’t care about them
quite as much as I thought,

453
00:25:49,760 –> 00:25:51,450
or two as you thought you did. Exactly.

454
00:25:51,550 –> 00:25:54,890
And so I think we got to
loosen up there a little bit.

455
00:25:55,130 –> 00:25:58,400
If your deal is retention, I think
that goes back to appreciation at work.

456
00:25:58,700 –> 00:26:00,290
I think at the end of the day,

457
00:26:00,500 –> 00:26:05,240
nonprofits are your greatest example of
people that have a lot higher retention

458
00:26:05,990 –> 00:26:09,830
than most for-profit companies yet
they normally don’t pay that much.

459
00:26:10,040 –> 00:26:11,600
They focus on what they’re good at.

460
00:26:11,810 –> 00:26:14,360
And so there’s been seasons
where we’re like, guys,

461
00:26:14,420 –> 00:26:16,670
we’re really struggling with,
we are going to love on you.

462
00:26:16,670 –> 00:26:19,160
We’re going to be able
to serve you. I mean,

463
00:26:19,160 –> 00:26:21,110
I’ve got two people right now at Hite.

464
00:26:21,170 –> 00:26:24,380
One just had cancer treatment,

465
00:26:24,530 –> 00:26:27,890
another one’s got a daughter with
cancer. Both of them are fully out.

466
00:26:27,890 –> 00:26:29,900
We’re paying them. We have no rush back.

467
00:26:29,900 –> 00:26:33,230
We’re taking care. We want to be an
organization that serves our people in the

468
00:26:33,230 –> 00:26:34,063
greatest way possible.

469
00:26:34,160 –> 00:26:34,850
Same here for sure.

470
00:26:34,850 –> 00:26:37,730
And that’s where we can win. It doesn’t
matter where you’re at or who you are,

471
00:26:39,710 –> 00:26:40,543
that’s possible.

472
00:26:40,760 –> 00:26:42,890
That’s so great, man. And
it’s a really important thing.

473
00:26:43,080 –> 00:26:47,160
And one of the things I reminded myself
very early on in business is if you look

474
00:26:47,160 –> 00:26:48,510
at the best companies,

475
00:26:49,290 –> 00:26:52,740
the Googles and Facebooks and
other Mag seven companies,

476
00:26:53,220 –> 00:26:57,150
they attract really great people.
But with attracting great people,

477
00:26:57,150 –> 00:26:59,250
a lot of times they want to
move on to something else.

478
00:26:59,250 –> 00:27:01,560
They want to go build their own company,
they want to go do their own thing,

479
00:27:01,560 –> 00:27:05,220
something like that. And so if you
are constantly attracting talent,

480
00:27:05,220 –> 00:27:09,720
they will move on. And I
heard my pastor said long ago,

481
00:27:09,720 –> 00:27:12,240
and I shared this from
the early days of O mg,

482
00:27:12,630 –> 00:27:15,360
we’re going to bless people when they
come and bless people when they go and

483
00:27:15,360 –> 00:27:18,600
maybe we’ll give people a hard
time. And that’s what we did.

484
00:27:18,600 –> 00:27:22,470
We did a cake you dead test type thing
just as a joke. But it’s always like,

485
00:27:22,470 –> 00:27:24,570
we’re going to bless ’em when they come.
We’re going to bless ’em when they go.

486
00:27:24,570 –> 00:27:27,450
We’re going to talk good
about them even when they go.

487
00:27:27,750 –> 00:27:29,790
I think that’s one of
those things that’s common.

488
00:27:29,790 –> 00:27:32,090
Like this person left and we’re
going to bash ’em internally. No,

489
00:27:33,510 –> 00:27:34,860
not going to put up with that. And so.

490
00:27:35,190 –> 00:27:37,710
We had had a team member, and
we’ve done this many times.

491
00:27:37,740 –> 00:27:40,170
We have a team member that was here
for two years and he was like, man,

492
00:27:40,170 –> 00:27:41,700
I just don’t. And we were honest with him,

493
00:27:42,780 –> 00:27:45,030
I don’t know that you would
get a promotion if we had it.

494
00:27:45,030 –> 00:27:47,010
You’re good and I love you to death.

495
00:27:47,850 –> 00:27:52,050
And we had a real conversation and then
we hired a recruiting firm to help him

496
00:27:52,050 –> 00:27:56,730
find a new job. And he stayed
with Hyatt another three months,

497
00:27:56,730 –> 00:28:00,210
90 days or so until the recruiting
firm got him something. That’s amazing.

498
00:28:02,490 –> 00:28:06,810
But it also I think loosens
the conversation and ideally,

499
00:28:06,810 –> 00:28:07,860
and we’re not perfect at this,

500
00:28:07,860 –> 00:28:10,710
but how do we create a culture
where people are just really honest?

501
00:28:10,980 –> 00:28:14,340
And I would much rather a team member
tell me, dude, I don’t see my future.

502
00:28:14,340 –> 00:28:18,050
Cool. Let’s plan it. I will
help you find a job. If I know.

503
00:28:18,100 –> 00:28:20,130
Let’s help you find a place where
you are fulfilled. Yeah, weeks.

504
00:28:20,140 –> 00:28:22,230
It’s going to be better for you, better
for us weeks notice in our world,

505
00:28:22,230 –> 00:28:24,780
especially account managers
and leaders. Man, that’s tough.

506
00:28:24,780 –> 00:28:27,540
And it’s tough when you’re a smaller
business with a smaller team,

507
00:28:27,540 –> 00:28:31,830
it’s even worse. And so open,

508
00:28:31,830 –> 00:28:34,350
honest communication can
be really, really great.

509
00:28:35,010 –> 00:28:39,690
That’s great, man. I love it. Well,
let’s transition to our final topic here.

510
00:28:39,690 –> 00:28:44,370
Let’s talk mentorship. And
you’ve had the privilege.

511
00:28:44,370 –> 00:28:48,300
I know it’s been by design and by effort
and by just getting out there and doing

512
00:28:48,310 –> 00:28:52,350
stuff. But you are friends and
have mentors that are really

513
00:28:52,350 –> 00:28:55,170
world-class leaders like John Maxwell,

514
00:28:55,170 –> 00:28:59,040
like the Robertsons from Duck
Dynasty, like Damon John,

515
00:28:59,700 –> 00:29:03,600
and we’ll throw our mutual friend,
Vinny Fisher in there as well.

516
00:29:06,000 –> 00:29:10,920
First of all, how do you view
mentorship and why is that so important?

517
00:29:10,920 –> 00:29:14,550
And then I want to talk about how
you meet these world-class mentors.

518
00:29:15,690 –> 00:29:18,030
I am scared to death of business.

519
00:29:18,060 –> 00:29:23,040
I have seen so many of
my friends sacrifice it

520
00:29:23,040 –> 00:29:26,640
all to get to the top.
And I mean great people,

521
00:29:26,640 –> 00:29:31,050
good people that just
somewhere one mistake,

522
00:29:31,110 –> 00:29:35,520
one bad night, one whatever,
successful business.

523
00:29:35,520 –> 00:29:38,310
And then overnight something
happened and it wasn’t, and

524
00:29:40,170 –> 00:29:43,090
my mentorship is just
straight out of fear.

525
00:29:43,360 –> 00:29:47,860
I look at some of these men and women
that John’s been married to Margaret

526
00:29:47,860 –> 00:29:50,830
forever, and Dr. Chapman,
we were texting just a few.

527
00:29:51,520 –> 00:29:53,680
Dude, how old is John
Maxwell? Do you know?

528
00:29:53,680 –> 00:29:56,950
Or are you allowed to say he’s
got to be 70 or something?

529
00:29:56,950 –> 00:29:57,460
Eight.

530
00:29:57,460 –> 00:29:57,940
Yeah, if.

531
00:29:57,940 –> 00:29:58,773
I remember right.

532
00:29:59,440 –> 00:30:03,550
Hearing about the global leadership
summit’s still articulate sharp as attack,

533
00:30:03,670 –> 00:30:04,900
just killing the game.

534
00:30:05,050 –> 00:30:07,750
We were just talking yesterday about
him coming to scale with stability next

535
00:30:07,750 –> 00:30:12,430
year. And this guy, Dr.
Chapman impresses me more.

536
00:30:12,430 –> 00:30:15,340
Dr. Chapman’s 87, he.

537
00:30:15,700 –> 00:30:17,500
No way, he’s sharp. I didn’t know that.

538
00:30:17,740 –> 00:30:19,480
He’s sharp. I mean,

539
00:30:19,810 –> 00:30:24,160
we had him just as event the
other day and we did a q and a.

540
00:30:24,160 –> 00:30:28,690
So the audience is asking random
questions, it not, and he’s joking,

541
00:30:28,690 –> 00:30:33,070
spitting back, no time. He
knows this stuff. And so for me,

542
00:30:33,070 –> 00:30:33,903
I am,

543
00:30:34,300 –> 00:30:39,130
I’m a big believer that wisdom just

544
00:30:39,130 –> 00:30:42,040
transcends generations.
Obviously as Christians,

545
00:30:42,100 –> 00:30:46,000
we believe in this thing called the
Bible, and it’s absolute truth. It’s.

546
00:30:46,000 –> 00:30:46,833
An ancient book.

547
00:30:48,100 –> 00:30:49,270
They struggled with their marriage.

548
00:30:49,270 –> 00:30:51,910
And so I love this and
it’s been such a blessing.

549
00:30:51,910 –> 00:30:54,070
I remember I had a season where

550
00:30:55,900 –> 00:30:59,410
I had to get rid of a couple
of partnerships and that
caused a couple of other

551
00:30:59,410 –> 00:31:04,120
partnerships. It was just a big
drama. And I called up John,

552
00:31:04,120 –> 00:31:05,740
actually his right hand, Mark Cole,

553
00:31:06,550 –> 00:31:10,810
and we were chatting and he’s
the CEO of all of Maxwell now.

554
00:31:11,170 –> 00:31:15,700
And I was like, dude, I
just feel like a failure.

555
00:31:15,940 –> 00:31:18,580
I let these partners down. I broke
up and that’s creating drama.

556
00:31:18,580 –> 00:31:22,420
And then I feel stressed and just
everything I feel like has been affected.

557
00:31:23,560 –> 00:31:26,230
And I was like, how does John
prevent this stuff from happening?

558
00:31:26,230 –> 00:31:29,500
And he just chuckled. He is like, John’s
going through a huge breakup right now,

559
00:31:29,500 –> 00:31:30,333
right now.

560
00:31:30,490 –> 00:31:34,960
And the leader on leadership
in the world had a bad,

561
00:31:36,040 –> 00:31:39,400
it didn’t work and it was a
drama and it was a problem,

562
00:31:39,400 –> 00:31:42,610
and there was legal involved and
all this. He’s welcome to it.

563
00:31:42,610 –> 00:31:45,850
And so I have spent a lot of money,

564
00:31:45,940 –> 00:31:50,650
time and energy connecting and
being with around some of what

565
00:31:50,650 –> 00:31:55,270
I have seen be some of the
most successful folks out

566
00:31:55,270 –> 00:31:59,290
there. And some have failed with it
and overcome, some haven’t. Right?

567
00:31:59,290 –> 00:32:01,540
So John will Roberton, Dr. Chapman,

568
00:32:03,280 –> 00:32:07,660
Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank,
and the list goes on. Jesse Itzler,

569
00:32:08,380 –> 00:32:09,100
got a couple of.

570
00:32:09,100 –> 00:32:12,640
Dude, love that guy. Yeah, met
Jesse, he’s the don’t know,

571
00:32:12,640 –> 00:32:15,580
he’s the author of Living With a
Seal, which is a phenomenal book.

572
00:32:16,240 –> 00:32:19,480
And Jesse just wants to
live a legendary life.

573
00:32:19,480 –> 00:32:24,370
And I love his big calendar that he plans
on and stuff. And so it’s really cool.

574
00:32:24,370 –> 00:32:27,160
And yeah, I love the way you
framed it. So first of all,

575
00:32:27,430 –> 00:32:32,200
mentorship and getting wisdom from
people that have gone where you

576
00:32:32,200 –> 00:32:35,290
want to go, been where you are right now.

577
00:32:35,680 –> 00:32:39,040
It’s really hard to put a value on
that. It’s so incredibly valuable.

578
00:32:39,260 –> 00:32:42,860
But you mentioned a couple of things.
You said one, you paid for it, two,

579
00:32:42,890 –> 00:32:47,150
you worked for it, and you
built those relationships.

580
00:32:47,510 –> 00:32:51,890
You’re not just going to wake up one
morning and John Maxwell call you unless

581
00:32:52,100 –> 00:32:54,440
you’re doing something earth
shattering or whatever.

582
00:32:54,830 –> 00:32:57,710
Sometimes you got to pay to be in the
right room. Sometimes you got to pay to be

583
00:32:57,710 –> 00:32:59,540
around people and you
form these friendships.

584
00:32:59,600 –> 00:33:03,320
I can think about relationships that I’ve
built over the years that started with

585
00:33:03,320 –> 00:33:08,210
a paid relationship like my buddy now
we’re really good friends. Ezra Firestone,

586
00:33:09,440 –> 00:33:13,130
we’ve done lots of business together
and I call him up when there are things

587
00:33:13,130 –> 00:33:14,390
going on in business or whatever,

588
00:33:14,960 –> 00:33:18,020
but that began with a paid
business type relationship.

589
00:33:18,380 –> 00:33:22,610
I met my wife and I go to Life church.
So Craig Rochelle is the senior pastor,

590
00:33:22,610 –> 00:33:25,370
one of the best leaders I think right now,

591
00:33:25,370 –> 00:33:26,810
the Craig Rochelle Leadership podcast.

592
00:33:26,810 –> 00:33:30,050
So he flew into Springfield
and my local pastor said, Hey,

593
00:33:30,050 –> 00:33:33,230
will you and Brittany go pick
Craig up from the airport?

594
00:33:33,620 –> 00:33:38,390
So we did got to meet him and Amy, his
wife, and then also Bobby Grunwald,

595
00:33:38,390 –> 00:33:40,940
who’s the founder of YouVersion Bible app.

596
00:33:40,970 –> 00:33:41,803
Yeah.

597
00:33:41,840 –> 00:33:42,260
The Bible app.

598
00:33:42,260 –> 00:33:45,830
For those that don’t know it is
the most downloaded Bible resource,

599
00:33:45,830 –> 00:33:49,520
almost a billion downloads. It’s a
free app, a church put this together.

600
00:33:49,850 –> 00:33:53,330
But Bobby’s a business savant
and he’s built businesses.

601
00:33:53,540 –> 00:33:56,510
He’s been in life church for
like, I dunno, 26, 27 years. But

602
00:33:58,340 –> 00:34:01,010
we took Craig to church. He
got mobbed like a rockstar.

603
00:34:01,280 –> 00:34:02,330
And so Bobby’s just hanging out.

604
00:34:02,330 –> 00:34:05,270
So I started talking to Bobby and I start
telling him about some m and a deals

605
00:34:05,270 –> 00:34:08,480
that I’m working on. And so then a week
later, Bobby calls me, he’s like, Hey,

606
00:34:08,960 –> 00:34:10,310
how’s the m and a stuff going?

607
00:34:10,310 –> 00:34:12,650
So he’s like mentoring me
and coaching me a little bit,

608
00:34:12,650 –> 00:34:13,550
which is just super cool.

609
00:34:13,550 –> 00:34:16,040
So I think you’ve got to be
able to do all those things.

610
00:34:16,280 –> 00:34:20,090
How can I get out there? How can I
be the one to form a relationship?

611
00:34:20,090 –> 00:34:23,210
I did a partnership with
Russell Brunson back in 2009.

612
00:34:23,300 –> 00:34:27,080
I saw him in the lobby of an event and
came up and just start talking to him.

613
00:34:27,380 –> 00:34:29,000
You got to be willing to talk.
You got to be willing to pay,

614
00:34:29,120 –> 00:34:31,610
got to be willing to put yourself
out there. But man, I’m telling you,

615
00:34:31,760 –> 00:34:36,500
those relationships are more
valuable than almost anything else in

616
00:34:36,500 –> 00:34:37,333
business. It’s huge.

617
00:34:37,820 –> 00:34:38,030
I mean,

618
00:34:38,030 –> 00:34:42,560
I feel confident I can call any one of
those folks and they would make sure my

619
00:34:42,560 –> 00:34:44,610
wife and I were not homeless. And so

620
00:34:47,210 –> 00:34:50,900
big secret, that’s why I do events.
Events are not really profitable,

621
00:34:50,900 –> 00:34:54,230
but events fund some of those
relationships in a big way.

622
00:34:55,970 –> 00:34:58,880
Most of those guys are less. If
you’ve got a really good mentor,

623
00:34:58,880 –> 00:35:02,090
I find they never tell you what to do.
First off, I rarely get told what to do,

624
00:35:03,320 –> 00:35:03,830
but there’s, they.

625
00:35:03,830 –> 00:35:06,200
Help you process things.
Yeah, that’s right. Stories.

626
00:35:06,710 –> 00:35:10,670
But I think so many of us of
entrepreneurs think we’re special.

627
00:35:11,000 –> 00:35:14,600
And what I mean by that is that
we’ve got special problems or man,

628
00:35:14,600 –> 00:35:18,770
no one else has these relationship
issues and no one else is running a $4

629
00:35:18,770 –> 00:35:20,630
million company and can’t
figure out how to do payroll.

630
00:35:20,900 –> 00:35:23,780
And no one else has struggled
with turnover and no one,

631
00:35:24,290 –> 00:35:26,630
we feel we’re special in a negative way.

632
00:35:27,020 –> 00:35:29,990
And the reality is once
you talk to these folks,

633
00:35:30,650 –> 00:35:33,710
everyone’s got the same stink issues.
Everyone’s struggling with fire,

634
00:35:36,650 –> 00:35:37,650
everyone is,

635
00:35:38,790 –> 00:35:43,260
and the encouragement there is to give
you a little bit of peace in the ability

636
00:35:43,260 –> 00:35:44,940
to go, okay, it’s a normal problem,

637
00:35:45,120 –> 00:35:48,930
so how do we fix it versus wallowing
it in it compounding in a negative way.

638
00:35:49,740 –> 00:35:53,790
Yeah, it’s so good. Yeah,
we noticed that in early 24.

639
00:35:54,270 –> 00:35:57,090
We had just grown headcount massively.

640
00:35:57,390 –> 00:36:00,900
E-comm was scaling and we were scaling
we through two rounds of layoffs.

641
00:36:00,900 –> 00:36:03,930
And so it’s been remarkable though, as
I’ve shared that with other leaders.

642
00:36:04,320 –> 00:36:07,650
They’re like, me too, man. And
this is what happened. We did it.

643
00:36:07,650 –> 00:36:08,670
This is what happened afterwards.

644
00:36:08,670 –> 00:36:10,560
This is what the mistakes we
learned while we were doing it.

645
00:36:10,560 –> 00:36:13,890
And so one of the worst times in
my life as far as business goes,

646
00:36:13,950 –> 00:36:17,610
but every business goes
through something like that.

647
00:36:17,610 –> 00:36:21,480
And the cool thing is those that are
mature and who’ve done it before generally

648
00:36:21,480 –> 00:36:25,410
want to help you not crush
in and give you some tips.

649
00:36:25,410 –> 00:36:29,250
We’ll just help you walk through it.
So dude, this has been fantastic.

650
00:36:29,250 –> 00:36:31,500
We’re kind of coming up against time
here. What do I want to do though?

651
00:36:31,830 –> 00:36:35,220
Let’s talk about your events. You’re
going to do scale with stability part two,

652
00:36:35,220 –> 00:36:39,780
I believe, next year. So any plug you
want to give for that would be awesome.

653
00:36:39,780 –> 00:36:43,140
And then you also have
an event for agencies.

654
00:36:43,140 –> 00:36:46,920
And so would love to hear kind of who
that’s for, what type of agencies,

655
00:36:46,920 –> 00:36:49,320
what that looks like. And so
it’s, tell us more about that.

656
00:36:49,470 –> 00:36:52,890
Yeah, the Commitment Summit is
in Cancun. That is kind mean.

657
00:36:52,890 –> 00:36:57,270
It’s a VIP type event all
inclusive. We got Mike Mitz coming,

658
00:36:57,270 –> 00:37:01,440
several others. We have had
John Maxwell there, Damon, John,

659
00:37:01,560 –> 00:37:05,340
Jesse came, all those guys.
Nowadays it’s turned into,

660
00:37:06,300 –> 00:37:11,040
it’s anywhere from two to 10
million agencies coming together.

661
00:37:11,190 –> 00:37:14,280
We got speakers in the morning and
then everything else is like hot seats

662
00:37:14,610 –> 00:37:17,940
working together in the
pool, collaborating.

663
00:37:18,330 –> 00:37:21,450
And a lot of people ring their families.
It’s fun. Four nights, three days.

664
00:37:21,450 –> 00:37:26,040
The commitment summit.com scale of
stability summit is just more holistic.

665
00:37:26,040 –> 00:37:30,540
It’s all about helping
businesses scale with stability.

666
00:37:30,870 –> 00:37:35,250
And it’s a faith-based conference as well.

667
00:37:35,250 –> 00:37:39,330
And we are scaling it. So right now
we’ll have our location in April,

668
00:37:39,360 –> 00:37:41,100
which is in Arkansas.
It’s kind of in the south,

669
00:37:41,100 –> 00:37:45,630
but we are actually debating Brett
having another one, either Missouri,

670
00:37:46,260 –> 00:37:49,090
Nashville or potentially up. Let’s go.

671
00:37:49,150 –> 00:37:50,820
And so as you’re talking
about your church,

672
00:37:50,820 –> 00:37:53,250
I’m like literally someone
just the other day was like,

673
00:37:53,520 –> 00:37:57,960
have you considered having scale stability
Summit at one of Greg’s churches?

674
00:37:58,890 –> 00:38:02,520
Love church location. I think it’s pretty
smart. They’d probably up for that.

675
00:38:02,550 –> 00:38:06,570
So that’s amazing, man. Love what
you’re doing, keep up the good work.

676
00:38:06,570 –> 00:38:10,560
You guys are building an amazing
business, profitable, scaling,

677
00:38:10,560 –> 00:38:12,240
growing and all that, but you’re
also doing it the right way,

678
00:38:12,270 –> 00:38:14,190
sticking with your mission,
taking care of your family,

679
00:38:14,490 –> 00:38:17,160
good relationship with your wife.
So love what you’re doing, man.

680
00:38:17,190 –> 00:38:21,570
Thanks for delivering value here and
looking forward to connecting with you in

681
00:38:21,570 –> 00:38:22,403
person soon.

682
00:38:22,710 –> 00:38:23,543
Yeah brother.

683
00:38:24,120 –> 00:38:27,660
Alright, man. Thank you so much. And
thank you for tuning in as always.

684
00:38:27,660 –> 00:38:31,350
We’d love to hear from you. What would
you like to hear more of on the podcast,

685
00:38:31,350 –> 00:38:34,680
have you not done? So we’d also
love that review on iTunes,

686
00:38:35,050 –> 00:38:38,620
helps other people find the show.
And with that, until next time,

687
00:38:38,740 –> 00:38:39,650
thank you for listening.