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Welcome to Unpacked Podcasts

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with your host leadership consultant

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, ron Harvey of Global Core Strategies

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and Consulting . Ron's delighted to

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have you join us as he unpacks and

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shares his leadership experience , designed

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to help you in your leadership

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journey . Ron believes that leadership

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is the fundamental driver towards making

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a difference . So now to find

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out more of what it means to unpack

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leadership , here's your host , ron

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Harvey .

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Good morning . This is Ron Harvey . I'm the vice president

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and the chief operating officer Global Core Strategies

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and Consulting . My wife and I own a leadership

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development firm and we're based out of Columbia , South

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Carolina , and so our whole organization

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is around developing a winning culture

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to help the leaders really get better at being

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leaders and taking care of the people that they're responsible

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for and responsible to . Everything

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about what we do is around relationships that leaders have

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with the people that direct a report to them or

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that they are actually dependent on to really

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take care of their organization . So we talk about relationships

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a lot between leaders and their workforce , and

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how do we create that environment that people want to

1:01

work with a leader that's in charge of the organization

1:03

? So we spend all our time around that through coaching

1:05

and training and development , strategic planning

1:08

and retreats . You know all the things that it takes

1:10

to get there , and so we spend a lot of time in that space

1:12

. But what I do every single

1:14

Monday I release a podcast , and that podcast

1:17

is what the leader globally , from around the country

1:19

, around the world , from all different locations . Today

1:21

I'm excited because I haven't . Jeff has probably the closest

1:24

that I've had someone to me near where I live at

1:26

. That's on our podcast . So he's right up the road

1:28

from me , around the corner , but I'm excited

1:30

that Jeff Maine is joining us and

1:33

he's right around the corner from where I am now . So

1:35

, jeff , I would love for you to just introduce yourself , tell

1:37

people who you are and what you want us to know about

1:39

you from a business or professional standpoint .

1:42

Yeah . So I appreciate your answers for

1:44

having me on your show today and looking forward

1:46

to you know , sharing the message of

1:48

what you're sharing . You know those are super

1:50

, super important topics of getting your employees

1:53

to be a part of your vision and where you're

1:55

going and having that buy in and

1:57

enjoying themselves when they come to work every

1:59

day , right ? So I am

2:01

in the payments business . You know

2:03

one of those businesses that a lot of business owners don't

2:05

want to talk about , but it's such a

2:07

necessity to your business . So

2:10

we do all electronic payments , anything outside

2:12

of cash , from being able to handle point

2:14

of sale systems or websites to take credit

2:16

cards , or just a simple credit card machine

2:18

sitting on a counter or somebody being able

2:20

to take credit cards out in the mobile field or electronic

2:23

checks same thing . But we help business

2:25

owners get paid and there's not

2:27

much clarity in our industry . So when

2:30

we form pay proudly . This is the

2:32

fourth company I've owned in this space

2:34

and our big vision from

2:36

coming out of the gate was to bring clarity

2:39

to the payments industry and we wrote

2:41

that out . That's the first part of our mission , because

2:43

it just doesn't exist

2:45

today and business owners don't understand

2:48

how to take credit cards , why they

2:50

pay , what they pay and what's going

2:52

on with their fees and just all this

2:54

stuff and how to handle disputes and

2:57

all this different stuff . And we wanted to be a company

2:59

that we're not going to grow to be the biggest company

3:01

in America , but we wanted to be a company

3:03

that knew our clients and

3:05

our clients knew us and we held

3:07

their hands and we took care of them better than what

3:10

they've ever experienced with anybody else . And

3:12

the second part of our mission was giving back to our community

3:14

. We believe in that . We want our business

3:16

owners to pay proudly and we're building

3:19

a company around a charitable donations

3:21

, and so we take a percentage of all of

3:23

our income and we put it

3:25

into our charity bank account and monthly

3:27

we give that money back , based on

3:30

charitable organizations that

3:32

are important to our business owners . We let

3:34

them pick where we're giving

3:36

our money , because without them

3:38

we wouldn't be giving any money . So

3:41

we want them to get the credit for that and we

3:43

post all that . We're real big on that . We're

3:45

rolling into our 12 days of Christmas

3:47

right now that we're going to give to 12

3:49

different organizations this month , and

3:51

it's always a lot of fun . It's a great time of the

3:53

year to be given back and we just appreciate

3:55

our clients .

3:57

Yes , yes , and so if you're listening and you're watching

3:59

, you know what Jeff just unpacked is . The corporate

4:01

social responsibility is . So

4:03

if you get to be a successful business in your community

4:05

and I talk about that a lot is , how do you

4:07

make sure that there's some corporate and social responsibility

4:10

that you have within the communities , that you will work , play

4:12

and worship and raise your families , and

4:14

so it's really really great to hear you , jeff , talk about

4:16

that , because we'll dive into some of those things of how

4:19

we got there . I wasn't always there . I do

4:21

a much better job of it , but when I first started my business , I

4:23

had to mature to where I am now when it comes to

4:25

that corporate social responsibility . So

4:27

for everyone that's watching and you're listening , what Jeff

4:29

and I talk about today , we'll guarantee we'll talk about

4:31

leadership . We guarantee that we'll unpack

4:33

some things that will hopefully be helpful and useful for

4:36

you as you navigate this journey

4:38

that you're on called leadership and taking care of

4:40

your organization and taking care of your communities

4:42

and the people that are counting on you to get it

4:44

right . Not sure what the questions are going

4:46

. To be quite honest , you know we do unpack around , harvey

4:48

, oh , even what Jeff may respond with . What

4:51

we will promise is it will be transparent . We'll talk

4:53

about these things and hopefully add something

4:55

that you don't find in a Harvard review or

4:57

in some business school or MBA program about

4:59

things that help us be effective . So

5:01

we're going to talk leadership , but we're going to tie everything around

5:04

it , so it's going to be a wrap around

5:06

conversation . So , jeff , when you

5:08

think about the fact that you've started several

5:10

businesses , you believe in giving back

5:12

. When you think about starting several businesses

5:14

, I know that there'd be some challenges . There'd

5:17

be some challenges as an entrepreneur just getting started .

5:20

Challenges of starting businesses evolve . You

5:23

know , obviously in the beginning

5:25

, when I was starting businesses

5:27

, I had great advice from my father when

5:29

I was graduating from college and he basically

5:31

looked at me and said hey , you don't

5:33

have all these responsibilities

5:36

that life's going to bring you . He said right

5:38

now you can come back and live at my

5:40

house . I can help you and

5:43

I know you've always wanted to own your own business . He

5:45

said right now is the best time in the world to go start

5:47

it . He said I wish my dad would have told me that . And

5:49

he said but now I'm in this corporate role

5:51

and I'm providing for my family

5:54

and I don't have the ability to take that

5:56

risk of starting that business

5:58

. And I think that's what a lot of entrepreneurs are faced with

6:01

, right , they've got great ideas and they're

6:03

able to start a business . But it's the

6:05

risk of starting a business and not being able

6:07

to make money and going how many months

6:09

before you have income and trying to pay the bills

6:11

and to do all these things and as you're more

6:14

successful in business , you

6:16

know starting new businesses those challenges

6:19

change because now it's not about the

6:21

income of cash as much as it's about

6:23

hiring the right people , because you're

6:25

growing at a different rate than

6:28

what you grew at when you first started

6:30

a business . So your challenges

6:32

are always going to be there

6:34

. They're just different challenges

6:36

that you're faced with and how you're going to overcome

6:39

those challenges and how you're going to grow

6:41

that business . And whatever aspect . You know

6:43

you can organically grow a business . You

6:45

can grow a business with a lot of money . You're still

6:47

going to have challenges , so they're just different

6:50

.

6:50

And totally agree . They're different challenges

6:52

. What's the mindset for

6:55

someone to overcome Because when I think

6:57

of challenges I begin to shift

6:59

. That word , even for me , is my challenges

7:01

. I look at opportunities for me to

7:03

get better . What's the mindset for

7:06

people that are in leadership role or that

7:08

are running organizations or just trying

7:10

to navigate ? How important is mindset

7:12

to leaders making sure that they can be

7:14

effective and productive long term ? Yeah , I think

7:16

it's huge , right .

7:18

I mean , you've got to believe in what you're

7:20

doing . Nobody's ever going to care about a

7:22

business like an owner cares about a business

7:24

, right ? And you have to realize that

7:26

and really believe in your product and set

7:28

out something that I've grown a lot and I'm sure

7:30

we're going to go into this today on our cause

7:32

. We're unpacking . This is it's

7:34

around having a true mission , a

7:37

true vision of where

7:39

am I going , how am I going to get there , and

7:41

having value sets of when we

7:44

get there and when we're getting there , how are we making

7:46

our decision ? And having that planned

7:48

out and thinking every decision

7:50

through that is this my mission

7:53

. Is this taking me to the vision

7:55

that I had and where I want to get to , and

7:57

does it stay within my set of values

7:59

? Everything we do here , we do that

8:01

way .

8:02

Yeah , I love that you're putting it out , so you're listening

8:04

and you're watching and you're paying attention to it . If you're on

8:06

this journey and you're currently listening

8:08

to say how do I do it , core

8:10

values will drive everything . When things

8:12

get tough , absolutely . When your back is

8:14

against the wall or you're looking at trying to hire the

8:17

right person or you know the cash flow is not what you

8:19

wish it would be , your core values will keep

8:21

you grounded and keep you within integrity

8:23

of yourself . So that's

8:25

how we leverage it . How do you leverage core values ? You

8:27

know , or what would you share with the audience ?

8:30

Yeah . So if I could turn my camera over

8:32

to my wall , I've got a big piece of paper

8:34

over here on my wall in my office and it's

8:36

got our big core values . We've got five

8:38

core values that we have in our business

8:40

and it's something that we look at every

8:42

day . That's how we make decisions and we have

8:44

meetings quarterly with our entire

8:47

team because those can change

8:49

, and so we sit down with a team and

8:51

we have a vision day and we have

8:53

values and we talk about vision

8:55

and we go through it . I read what our vision

8:57

was , where we're going , how we're getting there , and

9:00

we talk about our core values and are we following our

9:02

core values ? One of our core values is just fun

9:04

is for us . We want to have fun at work

9:06

, right , but it's simple things

9:08

like that that if you add that

9:10

, you have that , it changes everything

9:13

and our clients feel that right

9:15

, you know it's not just for

9:17

your staff . Your clients see it and

9:19

feel it and they don't even know what

9:22

it is . But people are like man , that

9:24

must be a fun place to work . Well

9:26

, yeah , because we talk about it all the time . We

9:28

want to make sure it's a fun place to work .

9:30

Yeah , your clients will experience it . They will feel it

9:32

, whatever is happening . You know , when you think about it

9:34

. You've ever walked into a room and it felt like the energy

9:36

was sucked out of it for some reason . That's

9:39

not real feeling . Or if you walked in and you thought , man

9:41

, this is a lot of energy in this room and you start changing

9:44

and you're that , like your clients , really

9:46

feel the energy that's within your organization

9:48

. So you want to practice it , you want to understand

9:51

it , you want to be intentional about creating the energy that you want

9:53

the company to have . And I know people

9:55

get in trouble here , chasing

9:58

money as an entrepreneur

10:00

or chasing a promotion

10:02

, and I want you to get promoted . I think pay raises

10:04

are important . I think that's like money is

10:06

important , but if it's the thing that is the

10:08

highest priority , can you get in trouble ?

10:11

Just backing up . You know we

10:13

all learn with experience , right , and I

10:15

can sit here today and tell you that when we started

10:17

our first business in the summer of 1999

10:20

, and the payments business and that's

10:22

when I graduated college , so I'll show you my

10:24

age right now , where I'm at I

10:27

absolutely did not have

10:29

a clear mission . I did not have a value

10:31

set on the wall , I did not have a

10:34

clear vision story written

10:36

out . I was just swinging

10:39

at the fences right Just out there , I was

10:41

hungry and I was swinging and

10:43

trying to make it work . So I've evolved

10:46

as a business owner and evolved

10:48

as what you know , true is important

10:50

, right , and I think there's days , right

10:52

, that we do chase money and we chase

10:54

that dream . But we also have to realize

10:57

and we made some big steps in the

10:59

last couple years of our business of saying

11:01

, hey , we could take this really big

11:03

and go , you know , outside of our

11:05

area and be on airplanes and hotel

11:07

rooms and doing that , or

11:09

we can keep it where I can be

11:11

a part of my family , which is a very , very

11:14

important value to me and

11:16

of my family , is that I'm at those

11:18

events that I don't miss , when my

11:20

girls are dancing at Nutcracker , or when my son

11:23

was playing high school football or , you

11:25

know , at tournaments of whatever they

11:27

are , I wanted to be there

11:29

. That was important . So as we were laying

11:31

out ours , we took the money aside

11:33

and said , hey , how do we build our business to support

11:36

our family but yet still give us

11:38

the freedom of being able to not

11:40

miss events in life

11:42

that you can't get back ? And

11:44

so we take that very dearly

11:47

. And , hey , I love to work as much as anybody

11:49

. I love coming to my office , I love to be

11:51

driving , I love to be into it . But

11:54

you've got to have that balance and different

11:56

people have different motives and I fully

11:58

understand that . But for me

12:00

, there was other things in my life that are more

12:02

important than this .

12:05

Yeah , I think we evolve . I love the language that you're

12:07

using . You know you unpack . It is that we evolve , you

12:09

know . So when you're swinging at defenses and you're chasing your

12:12

degrees and your education and where you're

12:14

going to follow what you're known for , you know

12:16

then you get to this place of okay , once you

12:18

achieve that , what's really important ? And so

12:20

I'll tell you business owners and leaders out there that

12:22

you should always evolve . You're

12:24

doing it for changes over the course of your

12:26

life , depending on where you are in life , you

12:28

know . So , pay attention to when it changes . Don't

12:30

try to be something that you used to be when you were 21

12:33

or when you were 16 , you know

12:35

, at some stage it does shift and make sure

12:37

that you pay attention to that . So , when you

12:39

think about a team and you're looking at leadership

12:41

, what's the most important role

12:43

do you think someone that's running the organization

12:46

? Now you're hiring people . You have a team

12:48

people looking . What's the most important role

12:50

do you think leaders of organizations

12:52

play for the people that that are looking up to

12:54

them and reporting to them ?

12:56

The most important role that I think I can play

12:59

is communication with my team . They

13:01

want to be heard , they want to feel

13:03

like they're a part of the team and I give a lot of

13:05

credit to hiring you know , I went a

13:07

lot of years and was successful without a business

13:09

coach and we'll bring it back to what you're

13:11

doing today . And I hired one about three or four years

13:14

ago probably the best decision I've ever

13:16

made because they slowed me down and

13:18

said you need to look at these different aspects

13:20

of what you're doing . And one of those

13:22

was as simple as just a weekly check-in

13:25

with my boys just sitting down and saying

13:27

, hey , how are you feeling , what are you seeing , and

13:29

letting them know what I'm feeling , what I'm

13:31

seeing , and it's a 10 , 15

13:34

minute conversation , but we do that weekly

13:36

and it's just that level of communication

13:38

. Then , when we get to those annual reviews or bi-annual

13:41

reviews that we do , we've pretty

13:43

much already had most of that conversation has been

13:45

had because we're having it weekly

13:48

. So I pretty much mean , if something

13:50

big like pops up on that , I'm going to ask the

13:52

question of I've been meeting with you weekly

13:54

. Why have you not brought this up to me ? If

13:57

this is an issue , and so I

13:59

think communication is one of the biggest keys

14:01

that entrepreneurs say don't do

14:03

enough of .

14:05

Absolutely yeah . Communication across the country

14:07

, regardless

14:09

of industry , we don't do well at all

14:12

.

14:12

We can bring it to marriage , right ? Yeah , you think

14:14

about it , every aspect of life .

14:16

Yeah , I love you say that

14:18

if I do it . Well , here's the things

14:20

that come out of that . The benefit of that there are

14:22

no real surprises and no one's getting

14:24

blindsided . That's right .

14:26

Yeah , and I think that's the next step to that

14:28

is that employees actually

14:30

know their job role , and I say that a

14:32

lot of employees don't know what their job role is

14:34

.

14:35

So whose responsibility is ?

14:36

that .

14:37

So they fill out the application , they see the job

14:39

description and then they come in and they all of a sudden

14:41

you hire them . Who's responsible for them

14:43

, knowing their job role ?

14:44

Yeah , so how we handle that is obviously everybody

14:47

comes in with a job role that's written

14:49

and they see it , they know it . But that's something

14:51

that evolves as well because things change

14:53

, right , and so that's something that we

14:55

meet with quarterly and we go back through

14:58

with every employee and managers go through that with

15:00

their you know who's reporting up

15:02

, right , and then we go through that . Right , we

15:04

read that , we look at that and we rewrite

15:06

it sometimes , because having clarity

15:08

changes everybody

15:11

. You know , when they come in and they have that clarity

15:13

around . All . Right , this is my role , this is what

15:15

I'm doing . It makes them enjoy their job

15:17

, yeah , and but I think there's just not a lot

15:19

of that today . People don't take the time

15:22

to invest back and

15:24

give that clarity .

15:25

Yeah . So I love that you continue and , if you're

15:28

listening , jeff has said

15:30

multiple times they're checking in quarterly

15:32

, they're having these conversations , they're bringing

15:34

everybody to the table and the reality

15:37

is that the more informed people are , the

15:39

more engaged people are , and so

15:42

, quarterly . You know , oftentimes

15:44

when I work with leaders , they struggle . As a

15:46

mentor , I really have to talk to them every quarter . Well

15:49

, if you want to have an impact that you want

15:51

, I would advise it , but you don't have to do it

15:53

. There are consequences for not doing it and there

15:55

are benefits for doing it . So I don't give you

15:57

make it so concrete like you have to do it . I say here

15:59

are the benefits If you choose to

16:01

do this . Here's what the benefits are . Versus

16:03

not letting me be prepared and let

16:05

me be informed or where , then it's

16:07

probably going to take us longer to get anything done

16:09

that we want to get done , and I think that's super important

16:11

. Keep us informed .

16:13

Yeah , I think you find you know that entrepreneurs

16:16

don't want to spend the time

16:18

to do that stuff . I'm one of

16:20

them , you know , didn't see the benefit until

16:22

I was pushed and pushed

16:25

to say , hey , spend the time

16:27

, you will see the benefits . And I think

16:29

you just have to push yourself to go do that stuff

16:32

because obviously you know a true entrepreneur

16:34

wants to go sell , they want to go out to talk to people

16:36

, they want to . You know , they totally

16:38

different mindset . I'm with you . That's what

16:40

fills my bucket as well . But

16:43

when my employees are communicated

16:45

with at the right level , it changes

16:47

everything .

16:49

Wow . So can you share , Jeff ? I mean

16:51

, unpack a little bit . I'm sure you've had your

16:53

fair share of things not going as planned

16:55

or expected . You may have put the plan together and

16:57

look real good on paper .

16:59

Yeah , and then it will tie the ampere , can you ? Share

17:01

a plan .

17:01

Yeah , it didn't go as you planned it . And

17:03

how did you recover ?

17:05

Yeah , I think you know we've had multiple businesses

17:08

that we've gotten into and thought a

17:10

year into this what are we thinking ? You

17:12

know what are we doing ? And we found ways

17:15

to kind of claw through that . I was in a business

17:17

partnership that was tough and

17:19

it didn't go like we thought

17:21

it was going to go and we went through a very

17:23

, very hard time of what

17:26

are we going to do . You know , partnerships are super easy

17:28

to get involved in and super hard to get out

17:30

of and we really really

17:32

struggled , to both of us , of how to handle

17:34

it and went for a while where we stopped communicating

17:37

because it was that bad . But when

17:39

we started back talking we

17:42

were able to figure out how to handle

17:44

it and today we still we talk weekly

17:46

. We figured it out but we both

17:48

knew that it wasn't

17:50

in any of either of our interests to continue

17:53

down the path that we were on . But we were not going to

17:55

get there until the two of us could be

17:57

two adults in the room and sit down

17:59

and talk and talk through why

18:01

we felt the way we felt . But it's so

18:03

key in business that you're going to go through

18:05

your hard times . You're going to buy

18:08

into this big marketing package that you think is going

18:10

to change everything . Right , it's going to . This

18:12

is it ? This is the golden nugget , you

18:15

know , and you spend all this money and

18:17

nothing happens and you're like , oh well

18:19

, that didn't go like I thought . But I think you

18:21

just have to realize that stuff and a lot of the way

18:23

we're finding a lot of that moving forward

18:25

is by clearly

18:28

having a vision around everything

18:30

we do . You know , when we hire an employee

18:32

, we know what the

18:34

outcome of that employee needs to be and

18:37

we've talked about it , we've written it and

18:39

we go back and we look at that . You

18:41

know , is this employee producing what we need him to produce

18:44

? Did it take off the customer service off

18:46

of this other person ? Did it check the

18:48

boxes that we needed it to check ? When

18:50

we signed on for marketing , we set very

18:52

clear expectations with

18:54

these marketing companies that say , hey , if

18:56

we can't hit these metrics

18:58

, this isn't worth it . And

19:01

we'll put them on the line of saying , how

19:04

long do we need to give you to

19:06

hit these metrics ? And

19:08

they'll say six months and

19:11

we'll say , okay , we agree

19:13

with six months , but it's six months

19:15

in one day we're gonna get on the phone and we're gonna talk

19:17

, and if we have not hit

19:19

these metrics , the contract is over

19:22

. We're done . So it's very clear

19:24

from the beginning on everybody's part

19:26

on what has to happen . We

19:28

hire new salespeople . It's very clear what

19:31

the expectation of them is . Here's

19:33

what you're gonna do week one . Here's what you're gonna do week

19:36

two . Here's where we expect you week 16

19:38

. We expect this type of

19:40

production and if you're not gonna hit it

19:42

, we're having weekly meetings with you every

19:44

week . You've gotta tell us why we're

19:46

not saying , if you don't hit it , that we're gonna fire you

19:48

. Yes , we're saying this is

19:51

our expectation , but we've learned all

19:53

of that through failure .

19:55

So you're watching and you're listening , and what Jeff is talking about

19:57

is there is a responsibility for leaders

19:59

to manage expectations , which means it has

20:01

to be clear , it has to be communicated consistently

20:04

, often early , total transparency

20:06

, and here's one that we want this . So , leaders , if

20:09

you're out there , if you're not clear , concise

20:11

and consistent , and then it's hard to

20:13

manage expectations , and if you're not communicating

20:15

that often with people , early with people

20:17

, and when a red flag goes up , don't wait six

20:19

, four months before you address the red flag . Address

20:22

it when it first shows up , because it only

20:24

gets worse . Or you know what Jeff

20:26

said , you stop talking to each other , you walk away

20:28

from each other . It becomes very intense and I

20:30

think there are opportunities where you probably need to get

20:32

yourself together and walk away and say we'll agree

20:34

to come back in a month and talk about it . But let's decompress

20:36

for a while , let's get our emotions out of it , let's

20:39

go back to our business decision , because it's easy

20:41

to get into relationships . It is difficult

20:43

to get out .

20:44

Yeah , but in that same instance , if we

20:46

would have had written up from the beginning

20:48

together of saying , hey , if we don't hit these

20:51

milestones , here's how we're gonna get out of this .

20:53

Yes .

20:54

Yeah , we already had a plan , we already

20:56

have talked about this . This is what we're doing

20:58

, and so I think it's super

21:00

important to always plan for those

21:03

events in hopes that they're not gonna

21:05

happen . But I think , if everybody's

21:07

on the same page in the beginning , of saying

21:09

, because that's when you're all getting along , man you're hugging

21:11

, these are the big and plan when you're feeling good

21:13

, man , we're feeling this is gonna be amazing

21:15

, we're gonna be printing money and

21:18

no time man , we're ready , so those

21:20

are the times to have those conversations

21:22

. How would you handle this ?

21:25

Yeah , the best time to make a plan is when

21:27

you're feeling good , because once your back is against

21:29

the wall and you're stressing , there's some loss associated

21:31

with it . When you're feeling good , you're gonna brace that

21:33

loss a lot better . When you're already struggling

21:36

, it's hard to embrace loss . So don't wait until

21:38

you get that place where there's this fear of I'm gonna

21:40

lose everything and Jeff's gonna gain everything . It's probably

21:42

not gonna be a fair policy at that point . It's gonna be

21:44

. I'm just trying not to lose everything I think I'm

21:46

entitled to . When you're winning , you don't have

21:48

an entitlement mentality . When you're losing , you do , and

21:51

you got to be really mindful of that because once I

21:53

start losing , oh , let me hold on to what I have , let

21:55

me not let it go . And I'm not giving Jeff everything and he

21:57

wants everything and he's been selfish and he's being greedy

22:00

, or whatever you wanna call it . That's that fear

22:02

mentality . When you're winning , you don't have a fear mentality

22:04

.

22:05

That's so true .

22:06

Yeah . So I want you to think about losing

22:08

. When you're feeling good , that's when you run your best

22:10

plays , that's when you play your best offense , that's when you're

22:13

moving the ball down the field . The minute

22:15

that your back is against the wall , you start playing defensive

22:17

. So , jeff , when you think about the

22:19

thing that you're most proud of and

22:22

being in the role that you're currently in , what

22:24

makes you happy every day ? Because sometimes leaders

22:26

don't recognize what they're happy about .

22:29

Yeah , I mean absolutely . Without a doubt

22:31

, I'm most proud of my family , of

22:33

my ability to be a good dad and that my

22:35

kids trust me and call

22:37

me on issues and that they believe

22:40

in who I am and they give

22:42

me the validity of that I'm doing making

22:44

good decisions right . I've got a son

22:47

that's a freshman in college and he calls

22:49

me probably three or four times a week of just asking

22:51

me questions , and so that makes me

22:53

feel good that he has that level

22:55

of trust and that relationship

22:58

. That shows me that

23:00

I've been a good dad . That's number one to

23:02

me is that I'm checking that box .

23:05

That is huge . Leaders listening to this . This

23:07

is the entrepreneur that started several businesses that

23:09

I'm sure he can hang his hat on anything he

23:11

wants to in his life . He said what I'm most

23:13

proud of is that I'm a good

23:16

dad . I'm a good family guy . They

23:18

trust me , they call me , I'm still in , so

23:20

don't get so caught up in thinking that , yeah , the

23:22

business is important , but what he's most proud of is

23:25

the relationships he has with the people

23:27

that call him dad . How

23:30

do they balance it ? How do they do it ? What's

23:32

important to them it's not the

23:34

money , it's not the business . Usually , what's important

23:37

are the things that we really care about , which is

23:39

for most entrepreneurs or business leaders or people

23:41

in corporate America . They really do care about their family

23:43

. So , leaders , if you're young and you're coming up , I

23:45

want you to realize what's most important to you . Still

23:47

do a good job , but pay attention to what's really

23:50

important to you .

23:51

Yeah , I was reading a book the other day and a quote that

23:53

really stuck to me is it said we are our worst

23:55

around those that love us the most

23:57

. Yes , wow , yes

24:00

, yes , I don't want to be that

24:02

right , don't want to be that , but

24:05

it's true . And so

24:07

I mean , obviously , if you drive hard and success

24:09

has been important to me it's a driver for

24:11

me . I love success , I love entrepreneurship

24:14

, I love on my own business , but I've

24:16

definitely , over time

24:18

, decided that my wife and my

24:20

children are more important than any of

24:22

this , and I would give it all up today

24:25

if I had to .

24:27

Yeah , awesome , awesome . I want to do rapid fire with

24:29

you . I want to just have a good time , and so let's see

24:31

how your response to the rapid fire question is All right

24:33

, I'm ready . Awesome , we're in South Carolina

24:35

. So is it the mountains or

24:38

the beach ? If you had a family vacation , what would you

24:40

prefer ?

24:41

Yeah , so I'm a beach guy . I love

24:43

the mountains , don't get me wrong , but I like action

24:45

Awesome .

24:46

So airplanes or car rides

24:49

?

24:50

Ooh , that's a tough one . I love a good car ride

24:52

because I do a lot of just thinking when I'm driving

24:55

. Okay , now I've got a passion of flying

24:57

. I've got my private pilot's license . It's

24:59

something that I'm gonna continue

25:01

to do , and I tell my wife all the time

25:04

when the kids are gone , I'm gonna buy us

25:06

this little plane and we're just gonna fly around

25:08

, because it's something that when you're in a

25:10

plane and you're flying the plane , that's

25:12

all you're thinking about . Right , it's all

25:14

about what's going on in those instruments and

25:16

what's ahead of you and then listening for

25:18

your , and so it takes all the chaos

25:21

of what's going on in your everyday

25:23

world and it's all gone . Nothing else matters

25:25

at that time . So I really enjoy getting

25:28

in the pilot's seat and going up and

25:30

doing some flying .

25:32

So I might have to say , flying . Awesome

25:34

, awesome . So we just finished , you know . Thanks , giving

25:36

everybody the knowledge for wonderful food . Is

25:39

it going to be pound cake or banana

25:41

pudding ?

25:42

Ooh , I might go banana pudding all day

25:44

on that one Love me some good

25:46

banana pudding .

25:47

Yeah , we're just out . Yeah , banana pudding will

25:50

make a meal you

25:52

could have . I don't know , banana pudding is

25:54

on the menu , Someone's gonna have some banana pudding

25:56

. Yeah , awesome . So

25:59

if you had all the money in the world

26:01

and you could donate to a charity

26:04

organization nonprofit what

26:06

organization and why ?

26:08

Yeah , if I had all the money in the world , I'm

26:10

gonna fund all of them . Right , I'm gonna

26:12

fund them . I actually wrote a TED

26:15

Talk last year . I was asked to do a TED Talk

26:17

and it was all about the giving . They

26:19

asked me because of our giving and what we do in our business

26:22

, and my whole entire TED Talk

26:24

was about if

26:26

every business would do what we do

26:28

, it would fund all

26:31

organizations which , and all

26:33

that money would roll back into our economy

26:35

and our businesses would not lose a dollar , and

26:37

so that was the whole conversation . I did not do

26:39

that Ted talk because it

26:42

happened to be on the last night of my high

26:44

school senior son's last

26:46

football game that he was ever going to play

26:48

in , which was not

26:50

even a decision for me on which one I was going to be

26:52

at . Yeah

26:55

, I was going to be there when he took that helmet pads

26:57

off for the last time , but it was a lot

27:00

about those organizations . If today

27:02

I have written that if something

27:04

were to happen to my family , there's

27:07

two organizations that I want my assets

27:09

split between , one being our church

27:11

that we go to . You know we love

27:13

our church , we love our church family , and

27:16

so I would take half the money to our church

27:18

and the other one would be to our

27:20

school that all of our kids attend

27:23

or have attended Mason's not there anymore

27:25

, but our K through 12 , milton had

27:27

Christian Academy . It's a private school here

27:29

in Bluffton leading kids to Christ

27:31

and I would take the other half and I would give it to

27:33

the school . And because I think it's such

27:35

an important time in these kids life

27:38

that if we can have them graduate

27:40

from school with that foundation , it's

27:43

going to change our future and

27:45

I think the future is so important with these

27:47

kids today and what's going on

27:49

in schools and what's going on in America

27:52

and politics , and so I

27:54

believe in that foundation

27:57

tremendously and

27:59

I can see the fruits of that with

28:01

my son being a freshman in college and the decisions

28:03

he's making , and that's what I would

28:05

give money to that school to bring other

28:08

children that don't have the ability

28:10

to be there to get them in that

28:12

school .

28:13

Yeah , yeah , so important that how do you give back

28:15

and so good seeds , if you will , and

28:18

so that you can see the harvest that you want to see later

28:20

on , is so important . So

28:22

, jeff , you've successful your companies , don't ? Well , you're in

28:24

your family , in your community , in your church , regardless

28:26

whether you're in corporate America or entrepreneur or

28:29

running a church . How important

28:31

is that ? That the leader actually has a succession

28:33

plan for the organization .

28:36

It's something that none of us want to spend time

28:38

on , right , me included , you know . It's just

28:40

something we don't want to spend time on . It's

28:42

so important to what's going to happen with

28:44

the business and where it's going and

28:46

who's left behind to pick up those pieces

28:48

. And obviously , if I'm not here

28:51

, I'm in a better place and I'm okay

28:53

. But my family is still here and

28:55

they need to know what I wanted

28:58

to happen and where it's at . And it's

29:00

something that we're evolving . We're working

29:02

on that on a , you know , annual

29:04

basis of saying , hey , let's make it better

29:06

, let's you know . And so I think

29:08

that's a constant work in progress , that you need

29:11

to put time on your calendar annually

29:13

to look at that and update it and change

29:15

it , and I know it's a big

29:17

push .

29:18

It's a big push and I think at least organizations

29:20

very fragile . I think at least families

29:23

very , very fragile and disoriented

29:25

and sometimes , you know , break up families

29:27

. So if you're an entrepreneur and you have all

29:29

these assets and these resources and things in your

29:31

organization and you're the CEO , you really

29:34

need to ensure that your family knows their role

29:36

, because the business doesn't belong to the

29:38

family and you can have a lot

29:40

of problems if it's a company and

29:42

, depending on how it is aligned or structured

29:44

, that it may not go to your family

29:46

, it may be someone else in the company or the partnership

29:48

and they don't have an equitable

29:50

piece in that . So please , please , please , do

29:53

the research , understand what kind of partnerships

29:55

and agreements are in place and who's running the

29:57

company today and something was to not go as

29:59

planned . You have some accident . Also , we

30:01

got to deal with these issues . Try to make

30:03

those decisions , why you're in your right frame of mind

30:05

and you're healthy and you can talk them through . It's

30:08

very uncomfortable because nobody wants to think

30:10

about the rainy day , but it's going to rain someday

30:12

, oh , yeah , yeah

30:15

, so , so please spend time planning

30:17

. Wow , it's not raining . So what

30:19

does ? You ? Got all the proper resources and

30:21

equipment , that you have , an umbrella that you built with

30:24

. Everything falls upon the leaf and everybody can still be dry

30:26

.

30:27

Yeah , it's good advice . Yeah , we

30:29

all need it .

30:30

Yeah , it's been phenomenal , it's been great . So

30:33

what are three things that happen in organizations

30:36

or business owners that's taking place that says

30:38

they should make a call to you ?

30:39

Yeah , business owners today don't realize

30:42

you know this is something that's out of sight , out

30:44

of mind , and I want to bring this back

30:46

to the front of business owners minds of saying

30:48

have a conversation about your

30:50

rates and fees , have a conversation

30:52

about how you're processing

30:54

payments and is there other

30:57

ways you can process ? And

30:59

have conversations with professionals about

31:02

do I have to pay the

31:04

fees or can I pass the fees on

31:06

to my customers for credit cards ? Those

31:08

are huge topics and you know a lot

31:10

of business owners go to their local banks and set

31:12

up for payments and local banks are fantastic

31:15

. They do a lot of things very , very well

31:17

. They do not handle

31:19

payment processing very , very well because

31:21

it's not their business . Their businesses

31:23

loans , bank accounts and debit

31:25

cards and all of that , you know . Talk

31:27

to a professional , talk to somebody who knows the

31:30

business . We've got a 100%

31:32

free consultive . You know approach

31:35

. You come to us , we talked to you

31:37

, we give you a proposal and you can

31:39

take that proposal back to your current vendor

31:41

. We can't stop you and we could

31:43

save you money with just a free 1015

31:46

minute conversation . You could also talk

31:48

to us about hand on your payments if you so wish

31:50

. I believe that we have a lot of benefits

31:52

doing business with us that other

31:54

similar you know businesses

31:56

do not have . So we would love

31:59

to talk about those benefits with you and

32:01

what we bring to the table . But bring

32:03

those statements out . In today's time , everything's

32:05

getting more expensive . This is something

32:08

you need to look at . It's a huge line

32:10

item on your balance sheet . Look

32:12

at it and talk to somebody

32:14

because it could be a simple you know , we talked

32:16

to a business recently and they process a lot of credit

32:19

cards , right , but we saved him a half million

32:21

dollars a year in credit card fees and

32:24

we saved a ton of money . But it's

32:26

real money because they hadn't

32:28

looked at it forever . But typically

32:30

we say businesses $500

32:33

, $2000 , $3000 a month in

32:35

processing fees . So it's significant and

32:38

there's all kinds of new technology

32:40

today and new ways to process and you

32:42

need to be talking to people who are up

32:44

to the times on that stuff and following the technology

32:47

and following the rules , and you know

32:49

, following Mastercard and Visa , what they're doing

32:52

and how they're doing it , and so I encourage anybody

32:54

to take a look at our website payprobablycom

32:56

P A Y P R O U D L Y

32:58

dot com , or shoot me an email

33:00

. it's J main J M A

33:02

I N E , just like the state at

33:05

payprobablycom , and I would love to have

33:07

a conversation with you and just point

33:09

you down the right path . It could be just as simple

33:12

, as you just aren't taking credit

33:14

cards the right way . It could

33:16

be that your accounts not set up . It's a simple

33:18

conversation .

33:20

Yes , and I will tell you , if you listen , in your pen , and

33:22

every dime counts in the business , and the

33:24

more you become successful , the more it's costing you , and

33:26

so you want to be more disciplined while

33:28

you're not pulling in the major revenue

33:31

, because once you pull in the major revenue

33:33

, you begin to overlook it because , oh , it's

33:35

only this , is only this , because you're looking at how much is

33:37

at the top line , but your bottom line

33:39

changes if you pay attention to this , really , really quick

33:41

. So it's not how much you make , is how much you

33:43

retain , and the more money keeping the company

33:46

. the more you get to pay your staff , the more

33:48

you keep the best personnel . The better resources

33:50

you get , the better equipment . So you want to find a

33:52

way to save money to reinvest back into all

33:54

of your resources to include your people . So

33:56

please sit down and make sure that you don't

33:58

have money dripping out the bottom of your organization

34:01

because you're just not paying attention to the holes

34:03

that's within that bucket . So you want to talk

34:05

to someone that sees it , that knows it as well that it

34:07

, and let them do that work for you and

34:09

you do what you do well , and let Jeff and his company

34:12

help you see what they do well for

34:14

you . And that's what we wanted to do . I've never met

34:16

a company leaders . I've never met a

34:18

leader or company that has all

34:20

the answers for everything that happens in their organization

34:22

. Nobody's that good . You want

34:24

to have good partnerships , good relationships , good

34:26

advocates , good champions , people that care about your

34:29

business being successful and showing you ways

34:31

to do it that's cost effective . So

34:33

, jeff , I think it's phenomenal . You gave your website

34:35

. You told people how to reach out to you . What would

34:37

you like to leave with leaders that are listening ? What are

34:39

three things you say here are three takeaways I think

34:42

everybody should pay attention to in leadership

34:44

or within an organization .

34:46

Yeah , I mean , if you're talking organization

34:48

, I would go back through our podcast and

34:50

vision , mission , values , right , and that's

34:52

where I would start . I'd have a vision , I'd have a mission

34:54

for my business and I'd set core values and

34:56

I'd operate my business by that . That's

34:58

the three things that I think all

35:01

entrepreneurs the ones that don't have it or lacking

35:03

it and it changes , it'll change your world

35:05

.

35:06

Yes , yes please make sure that you put those . Those are

35:08

super important . It's like building a house . They

35:10

do have a blueprint . I absolutely tell you

35:12

to have a blueprint . So , thank you , you know you've been phenomenal

35:15

for everyone that's listening Ron Harvey again

35:17

the vice president , chief operating officer of global

35:19

core strategies and consulting everything

35:22

, leadership and helping you be more effective at

35:24

taking care of the people that you're responsible to and

35:26

responsible for . We want you to have a winning

35:28

team in a winning culture , and we think they go hand

35:30

in hand . We release a podcast every Monday

35:32

. So , jeff , thank you for joining us . It's been phenomenal

35:35

. We will let you know

35:37

when this is released and we're happy to have

35:39

you join us and also be a guest on our

35:41

show . So , thank you all for joining us and it's

35:43

been exciting .

36:06

We're happy to be here , because people always

36:08

matter .