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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

0:25

leadership , here's your host , ron

0:27

Harvey .

0:28

Good afternoon . This is Ron Harvey , the

0:30

Vice President , chief Operating Officer of Global

0:32

Core Strategies and Consulting Leadership

0:34

firm based out of Columbia , south Carolina . Our

0:37

entire company is built around the design

0:39

to assist executive leaders

0:41

, people that are running organizations , entrepreneurs

0:43

about creating the winning culture . How

0:45

do we help our leaders to create an environment

0:48

that people want to work for the company , have

0:50

fun working for their company and tell other people

0:52

they should work for their company ? We work

0:54

extremely hard to help you create the culture

0:56

that helps you keep the best talent , best products

0:58

, best service , best customers . Culture

1:01

matters and that's what we spend all of our time . So

1:03

I'm super excited that we get to do that . But today

1:05

I want to pivot a little bit . But today

1:08

our podcast is really all about leadership and

1:10

I get to invite guests from around the globe , from

1:12

all industries , from all walks of life

1:15

, from all different backgrounds that take

1:17

the risk with me to really do what we call unpack

1:19

with Ron Harvey , where I don't

1:21

know what I'm going to ask , they don't know how they're

1:23

going to answer , but we're going to be really transparent

1:25

. It's going to be about leadership . Our ultimate

1:27

goal is to add value to you on your journey

1:30

so you can learn from us , grow

1:32

from us , don't make some of the mistakes we made

1:34

and be better than us . That's our goal

1:36

. We want to help you be

1:38

able to be successful in your role of leadership . So

1:41

I'm super excited to have Chuck Levoe with

1:43

us and , chuck , thank you for saying yes , I'm

1:45

excited to have you this afternoon . So

1:48

welcome to the set of Unpacked with Ron Harvey

1:50

.

1:51

Well , thanks , ron . I appreciate

1:53

you letting me come on .

1:55

Awesome , it's an honor and thank you for saying yes . Can

1:57

you take a moment just to introduce yourself and your

1:59

company so everybody knows who you are

2:01

, what you do ? So that way

2:03

, if they ever need your services , they can start listening

2:05

to that now . So can you introduce yourself and your company , course

2:07

?

2:08

Okay , so my name is Chuck Levoe . I'm the Chief Strategist

2:11

. I prefer that title instead of CEO

2:13

. Chief Strategist for Interact

2:16

is the name of the company Interact Business

2:18

Solutions Group . We basically

2:21

I guess I had to point a phrase we solve

2:23

problems , right . So as a consultancy

2:26

, we positioned ourselves to where

2:28

we wanted to be able to help customers or

2:30

help businesses , small businesses solve

2:32

any type of problems that they have , whether

2:34

it be operational , whether it be marketing

2:37

, SEO , AI

2:40

, IT , sales

2:42

, right . People go in there and roll

2:44

up their sleeves because every

2:46

business out there has got a problem , but

2:48

nine times out of 10 , what

2:51

they think is the problem is just not the

2:53

problem at all . It's a symptom of the real problem

2:55

.

2:55

Yes , yes , yes , thank

2:58

you for what you're doing in your organization and the

3:00

title that you appreciate and how you've seen your

3:02

organization . So I noticed really quick , chuck

3:04

, as we go into the line , look at pictures , and pictures tell a

3:06

lot of words of people .

3:08

You have a flag behind you .

3:10

It helps us unpack that the flag behind you most

3:12

times means military service . Can you share or

3:14

would you share ?

3:14

Yeah , so I started

3:16

my path right after high school . Unlike a lot

3:18

of kids that were raised by single parents , I'd have

3:21

the money to go to college . I

3:23

came from a military family , so that was my

3:25

option going to the military . And

3:28

so I went into the US Signal

3:30

Corps , in the US Army . And

3:33

it was funny story because when I went to get

3:35

recruited and I took the ASVAP test , I

3:37

scored about as high as you can get on it , right . I

3:40

don't know how , but I did . And

3:42

the recruiter he said listen , you can be all you

3:44

can be . You can be anything you want to be , right

3:46

. He's like frothing at the mouth , right . And

3:49

I said okay . I said well , when it's

3:51

cold I want to be warm , and

3:53

when it's wet .

3:54

I want to be dry .

3:55

And he goes , we'll go into communications . So

3:57

it was a very good time

4:00

and communications at that point . This is

4:02

circa 1982 . As

4:04

right after the vestiture happened and they

4:06

broke up the bell systems , right , the phone

4:08

systems , you could get long distance

4:11

down . I said , hey , telecom , that

4:13

looks like maybe I could get a job after I get out

4:15

of the military . And that's

4:17

what I did . I did my time in military

4:19

and then I got out and started work for the phone company

4:21

Awesome . Well , thank you for your service

4:23

.

4:24

And you're exactly right , the military helps a lot

4:26

of people get their feet up underneath them , coming

4:28

in and getting education and training , and transition

4:30

out to double turn into a skill set that

4:33

you can actually use . So thank you for

4:35

your service and what you've done . I really , really

4:37

appreciate it . So , leadership

4:39

you're running a business solutions organization and

4:41

you've been in business and you're making a difference

4:43

in solving problems . Why

4:45

is it important for leaders to understand their

4:48

role ? You even have a title that you appreciate

4:50

. You think leadership . Why

4:52

is it important for leaders to clearly define

4:55

what their role is in the organization ?

4:57

You know , I think that the main thing is you're rolling

4:59

. The company should be based around your talents . Right

5:02

, and my talents are . I'm a strategist

5:04

, I've always been a strategist , I've been a problem

5:06

solver my entire life and

5:09

that's why that title kind

5:11

of resonated with me , especially

5:13

when it comes to small businesses , and I

5:16

don't have anything against it . But for

5:18

me , when it's very small business

5:20

, I've got two people in the company and he's calling

5:22

himself the CEO , right

5:24

. Nothing wrong with that , right . It's

5:26

just that's not me . I mop the floors

5:29

, I clean the windows , I clean the windows , I

5:31

clean anything that needs to be done

5:33

in the company right . And my main

5:35

purpose to be the chief strategist . And you know what ? As

5:37

a chief strategist , that still means I can be the CEO

5:40

, I can still be a president , I can

5:42

still run operations

5:44

or whatever . But chief strategists

5:46

just kind of seem to resonate with me .

5:49

And Chuck , to be transparent , I think all of us who are first

5:51

started company , we're the strategists , we're

5:53

the janitor , we're the person that making

5:55

copies and we're taking out trash , and you

5:57

know we're going to do it all I mean . So

5:59

you come into this role of entrepreneurship or

6:01

the run , a leadership , even in major companies . Sometimes

6:03

, if you're humble , you're doing more

6:05

than just a role . You're actually in because

6:08

people want to see you roll up your sleeves . People

6:10

want to see that you don't mind getting next to the team

6:12

and oftentimes helping get some of the heavy

6:14

lifting or work done . You can't do it all the

6:16

time , so you got to be really clear . You

6:18

know what can you do , Because sometimes as a CEO

6:20

, I've done it , I've got that in the way of our team

6:22

because I'm so excited about doing

6:24

it , Like can you go sit down somewhere ? Like get

6:26

out of my way , Right ? Yeah

6:28

, I think that's important .

6:31

You got to let your people do what they do , but

6:33

the three words that kills any business

6:35

is not my job . Right , you

6:38

have that kind of philosophy

6:41

or mentality within your organization

6:43

. You got to cut it out real quick . Every

6:45

job belongs to everyone .

6:46

Chuck ? How do you build that ? You know , let's unpack that for

6:49

a second , because you're absolutely right . Where

6:51

a customer don't want to care about who does

6:53

it and what their job is , the customer cares about results

6:56

. How do you help a company make sure

6:58

that nobody gets beyond themselves

7:00

and say not my job . How ? Do you create that and

7:02

make sure it's intentional .

7:04

Well , I think that you value people as

7:06

people instead of as a

7:08

position in your company . I work

7:10

with philosophy that I owe my

7:13

people . They're not lucky to

7:16

have a job , I'm lucky to have

7:18

them working for me . Okay , and

7:20

if you have the right inclusivity

7:23

to where everyone is aware

7:25

of what everyone else is doing and it's

7:27

a team effort instead of siloed

7:30

effort , then your team's

7:32

gonna be a lot more productive and creative

7:34

and people need to know their specific

7:37

roles that they are responsible

7:39

for . But people

7:41

also need to know they have to step up if

7:43

there's an issue and something else needs

7:45

to be done .

7:47

Yeah , I love that . You said , chuck , that they're

7:49

not lucky to have a job . I'm lucky

7:52

to have them . Where did you get that

7:54

mindset or that mentality from ? Because

7:56

I've heard people say they're lucky to have a job

7:58

. I would say we just do it . I've heard that in

8:00

the organization .

8:01

Yeah when I was in telecom after I got

8:03

out of the military , I worked with a lot of great

8:05

leaders . I worked my way up to vice president

8:08

of one of the phone companies and

8:10

from higher up it was always oh

8:13

, you know , our people , you know , just fire

8:15

them , or they're not doing a good job . Firing them

8:17

. And I always took

8:19

the position to where , if I ever had

8:21

to let someone go it was because I

8:23

felt them right . I felt

8:25

either training them or

8:27

helping them understand what my expectations

8:30

were right . But

8:32

it wasn't until I really started working

8:35

for myself , right

8:37

, and you know , when you first start you're kind of

8:39

by yourself . So when I first started , I started as a

8:41

consultant , just in the telecom industry

8:43

, and I was doing everything and

8:45

I could only there's only so many hours in

8:48

the day , right , so I could only

8:50

make so much money . But by bringing on

8:52

more people that participate

8:54

in that , the sharing of

8:56

work , it allowed me to even

8:58

make more money . And at that point I was just like

9:01

they're the ones that make me money , they're

9:03

the ones that are making this company grow . It's

9:05

not necessarily me , listen , I owe them

9:07

. They don't necessarily owe me . They will get a

9:09

job anywhere , but I can't find great people

9:12

anywhere .

9:13

Yeah , it's so true . So if you're listening

9:15

to your entrepreneur , don't get caught up in

9:17

thinking that even if you're good , you're

9:19

never as good as you can be by yourself . Like

9:22

you're going to need somebody around you to

9:24

help you get better than what you really can do on

9:26

your own , and then you want to properly reward

9:29

them , you want to properly compensate them , you want to respect

9:31

them , you want to empower them , you want to develop

9:33

them . So when you have a really really good team like

9:35

do really really good things for them then if they're really

9:37

really good , especially if they're helping your company grow

9:39

you ought to take care of them .

9:42

If you're the smartest person in the room , you're in the wrong

9:44

room .

9:45

Yeah , you're in trouble . Yeah

9:47

, yeah , I tell you , we're the smartest person in the room

9:49

. We're in trouble . Yeah

9:52

, I hope somebody hears a little smarter than me . Yeah

9:55

, so when you think about your role as the

9:57

chief strategist officer from corporate

9:59

America , how

10:01

did you have to have a mindset shift about

10:03

how you show up ? Because when you're working

10:06

for someone , you've got to guarantee check versus

10:08

working for yourself . When people are counting on you to

10:10

get their check , they're the different mindset

10:12

. What is it ?

10:14

I was lucky because I don't know if I was lucky

10:16

or cursed and when I was in telecom

10:19

there was a lot of times when I had people working

10:21

for me , but the best

10:23

role that I ever had was just as a

10:25

single contributor , a vice

10:27

president level single contributor . All

10:30

I had to worry about was profitability for the company

10:32

. That was my job worry about

10:34

profitability , make sure it was as profitable

10:37

as it can be . So I was

10:39

at that point , had to be self-motivated

10:42

, because about 50% of my compensation

10:44

was based on profitability of the company

10:46

and targets that were set . So

10:50

I had to be very motivated . I

10:52

just can't sit around and draw my paycheck . I

10:55

don't want to say that . It's a different mentality

10:58

, as what to ? I hear things today about people

11:00

being they just show up for work

11:02

and they don't really work . They just collect their paycheck

11:04

, and that never occurred to

11:06

me . That was never part

11:09

of my way of doing things

11:11

. I always wanted to succeed and do better and get

11:13

more raises and make more money

11:15

and be more successful . So when

11:17

I started with my own company

11:19

, it was a little difficult at first

11:21

, right , Because one of the first

11:24

gigs that I got was

11:26

a state agency that felt

11:28

that they had been overcharged on

11:30

their telecom bills and they

11:32

felt they were overpaying as well . So

11:35

we went in and we looked at

11:37

three years' worth of their telecom invoices

11:39

for a whole state right , the entire

11:41

state With all their telecom

11:44

bills . We found about $5 million

11:46

that they'd been overcharged and we got that

11:48

back for them and then we

11:50

renegotiated their contracts for them and

11:53

saved them about $3 million a year

11:55

in telecom . Now this

11:57

is where I get to the how do you stay motivated

11:59

? Yes , 100% of what

12:01

we were paid was contingency based

12:03

.

12:04

If we didn't find anything .

12:06

we didn't get anything and that project

12:08

took two years , took us two years to get

12:10

any money . So you

12:13

have to learn to stay motivated

12:15

and to keep chugging up

12:17

, especially , like I said , when I first started the company . The

12:20

majority of the stuff I did was contingency based

12:22

because I was just starting out , even though I had 20

12:24

years experience in telecom . I was

12:26

just starting out as a consultant and

12:30

stay motivated if . I want to eat .

12:32

How do you help someone that is in that

12:34

process and it may be two years

12:36

or it may be two months or whatever that time frame

12:38

is ? What did you actually do

12:41

to stay motivated , to continue to

12:43

show up what this company and do the

12:45

work and I'm sure it was a lot of work over two years

12:47

how do you manage to help

12:49

the person that's in that role that may be getting

12:51

ready to take the same journey you took ? How did you do

12:53

it ?

12:54

Well , I think that it's just like athletics

12:58

right , you have to have a will to succeed

13:00

. You have to be competitive , right

13:02

? That's just something that I don't know if we're

13:04

born with or something that we teach ourselves

13:06

. It's a drive . I know a lot

13:08

of business owners that check out on their

13:10

business . Right , they get it up and running

13:13

, and that was their whole goal is to be able to hire

13:15

the right people and check out on the business . And

13:17

then what happens is three or four years

13:19

down the road , it's not nearly

13:21

as profitable or doing nearly as well . I

13:24

think the best thing to do is to stay

13:26

engaged , at least at some level , and

13:28

to be enthusiastic about

13:30

the business that you have . Right , you have to set

13:32

your sight on the long-term goal and

13:35

know that that's what it is the long-term goal

13:37

. There isn't any quick money and being an entrepreneur

13:40

, right ?

13:41

Unless you're just one of these lucky guys that developed the

13:43

math itself for $100

13:46

billion to Google or something

13:48

, yeah , yeah , well , which leads

13:50

us to other place , when we were talking in the

13:52

green room and what we're gonna talk about and

13:54

how we're gonna get to certain things , and what I told

13:56

Chuck is that I'm not sure where to show it , but it will , and

13:59

we just have the conversation . So when you think

14:01

about Google and you think about getting lucky

14:03

, okay , ai , let's just

14:05

go there , it's all over the place

14:07

. You're on one side of the fit for

14:09

the other , like you're so excited

14:12

about it or you're nervous because you

14:14

don't know enough about it and you're concerned about it taking

14:16

over everything . Who you are , what you do I

14:18

hear both sides of the conversation so

14:20

I know you spent some time in there , chuck . Let's

14:22

talk a little bit about AI . What would you share

14:25

with the leaders that are in that space ? Because

14:27

you saw a problem ? Ai can be a problem

14:29

or it can be an advantage . Help

14:31

us understand . What do we need to be penetrating

14:33

to ?

14:34

So let's contain it to what's called generative

14:36

AI , right ? So that's

14:39

the big buzz out there CHAD GPT right

14:41

? Chad GPT stands for generative

14:44

pretrained transformer , is what it

14:46

stands for , and all that means is that

14:48

they've taken this neural network of

14:50

computers and fed

14:54

it information multiple times , multiple

14:56

ways , so that it can generate an understanding

14:58

, to be able to generate text that has

15:00

not been written before . So

15:03

that's generate . Okay , so it's two things

15:05

. One problem is that

15:07

you're gonna have to adapt , right , businesses

15:10

are gonna have to adapt and use

15:12

AI , otherwise it's kind of

15:14

like the internet , right ?

15:17

Oh , I'm not gonna get a website .

15:18

Well , you better get a website and then years later

15:20

then on the website they're going out of business . I

15:22

look at it kind of like back in the 80s , when

15:25

computers first came out , right , you know , computers

15:27

started popping up in businesses . And

15:30

what happened , right , when they popped up in the business

15:32

, what did you do ? I don't know

15:34

how to use this . What does it do

15:36

? I have no idea . Is it just sitting over there , right

15:38

? So they hired companies to come in

15:40

and train them how to use their computer and how

15:42

to set up the computers . Then

15:45

, a few years later , it started becoming

15:47

more mainstream in the homes , right

15:50

? And then there were classes out there on how to use

15:52

your computer . But then what really

15:55

started happening was companies

15:57

started making that a requirement when

15:59

they hired you . Do

16:01

you have PC skills ? Do you know , back

16:04

then , lotus 123

16:06

, borla and Debase ? Right Now it's . Do you know Excel

16:09

or Microsoft or do you know Google

16:11

? Sweet of services . And

16:14

what's happening is the majority of companies don't

16:16

understand how to use AI . I

16:19

say that when they use AI

16:21

, it's like asking Stephen Hawkins

16:23

what one plus one is . That's

16:26

how limited their understanding

16:28

of what this can do for them . And

16:32

so it's necessary

16:34

for a company and

16:36

it's necessary for individuals

16:38

to learn about generative

16:41

AI , and you don't have

16:43

to know what a transformer

16:45

is . You don't have to know a

16:47

whole lot , but what you have to learn is

16:50

prompting , is how to get

16:52

out of that AI . What you

16:54

need , and

16:56

the only way that you're going to do that , is if you train

16:58

it . Remember GPT generative pre-trained

17:01

transformer GenGPT

17:04

is not trained on your business unless

17:06

you're some mega ginormous

17:10

company . They don't know any

17:12

of these small businesses and

17:14

you can go in there and Google it or

17:16

you can type in this is who I am , blah

17:18

, blah , blah , blah , blah , and then it'll generate decent

17:21

content , but then , 30 days from now , it's gone

17:23

because it doesn't store it . Okay

17:26

, so you type in all this stuff about your company

17:28

and it's not going to remember it 30

17:30

days later . Okay , but

17:32

there's a way to train it , and

17:35

so that's what one of the things that we

17:37

kind of do for companies right now , one of the

17:39

problems that we're solving is

17:41

helping businesses train their AI

17:43

, train their generative AI

17:45

, chat , gpt for their business and

17:48

then teaching them how to prompt it so that they can

17:50

do anything they want with it . They can set up email

17:52

campaigns . They'll write all the emails . They

17:55

can set up social media calendars

17:57

where they'll write all of their social media

17:59

posts for an entire year . Right

18:01

Things like that . Analyze their

18:03

website for SEO . If

18:05

you train the AI how to do that for

18:08

your business , then it can do it Wow

18:11

.

18:11

I mean so very , very helpful , very

18:14

useful . And what I'm hearing , chuck

18:16

, is learn to embrace it

18:18

and figure it out , so you're not afraid of it .

18:21

Yeah , or learn to embrace it or

18:23

go out of business . Yeah , that's like

18:25

real story . It's not going to

18:28

work .

18:28

Yeah , it's not going to work . Yeah

18:30

, so you're not afraid of the risk

18:32

of ? Are we replacing

18:34

human beings ? Are we

18:37

losing our identity ? And this AI thing

18:39

is going to know more about us than we know about ourselves

18:41

. But how do you help people get over

18:43

those fears ? Because some of that is

18:45

not replacing human beings , it's reusing and reallocating

18:48

where you use human power at Well . How ?

18:49

do you help people get over ?

18:50

those fears .

18:52

Well , there was a study that I saw and it

18:54

was talking about when ATMs came out , right

18:57

, and they said it's going to reduce the number of tellers

18:59

that banks have . And it didn't . It

19:01

increased the number of tellers , right , because

19:04

the bank became more mainstream , I

19:07

guess , I don't know . So here's

19:09

my philosophy Right , it will

19:11

take you however you want to take it . I believe

19:13

in what's called human augmented intelligence

19:15

. Human augmented intelligence is a human

19:18

manipulating AI

19:20

to get a result . I don't

19:22

believe that AI should

19:24

be used to control

19:27

mechanisms or to control

19:29

button pushes or knob turns

19:32

, even though it will be at some point in time

19:34

. But that's kind of where I you know the whole

19:36

Skynet thing , right . Terminator yes

19:39

, it shouldn't have that much control

19:41

. It shouldn't be able to make decisions that impact

19:43

a flip of a switch or something like that . Yes

19:46

, at least a critical one . But

19:48

human augmented intelligence , where

19:50

you're telling AI and getting out of it

19:52

what you want right

19:54

, is really really where

19:56

I see this going , at least for the

19:58

next , you know , five or 10 years , because

20:01

I don't think our government's ever going to allow AI

20:03

to grow much more past

20:05

that . I mean , I

20:07

guess AI does make some decisions , like you

20:09

could have a chat bot on your

20:11

website to where someone could

20:13

ask a question and AI can look up

20:15

the answer or know the answer , or you

20:18

know whatever . Assimilate an answer , but

20:21

it's not turning your lights off , right

20:23

? No , but actually it is , because Alexa

20:25

is a form of AI , absolutely

20:27

.

20:28

That's been part of my life .

20:30

As long as we don't have A Alexa fire those missiles

20:32

. Right then we're screwed , yeah

20:34

yeah .

20:36

And I think that's important part is that there are a lot of

20:38

benefits to AI that really

20:40

are risk associated with , but there's

20:42

a risk with driving your car . I think you

20:45

know . If you operate from a place of fear , then

20:47

you're not going to take full advantage of learning that because

20:49

you allow fear . And I think

20:51

for us as leaders if you're listening and you're

20:53

watching it's going to require us

20:56

to show up as children . Dude in a classroom

20:58

, they have very little . If you put a pair

21:00

of skates on a kid that's never skated before , the

21:03

first thing they're going to do is figure it out . Yeah

21:06

, they're not going to be like , oh , I can fall , I

21:08

can get injured by the block . If you take a kid

21:10

that's never swam before and you take them to

21:12

the pool , they're going to figure

21:14

out how to swim if they see other little kids

21:16

doing it so , or ride

21:18

a bicycle , they're gonna figure it out . So I would say with

21:20

this , you're gonna have to practice it , you're gonna

21:22

have to play with it , you're gonna have to say what else

21:25

can it do to make life more convenient , because

21:27

people want convenience . So , leaders , if you're listening

21:29

like , take the time to learn it so

21:31

you won't be afraid of it . Let's unpack for

21:33

a second . When you think about

21:36

the problems that you solve , the work

21:38

that you do , what are some reasons

21:40

that a company should say , hey , we need to reach

21:42

out to Chuck . We got to hear him

21:44

on the podcast . Unpack . What

21:47

are some common problems that you companies

21:49

will have that say , pick up the phone , call

21:51

you so probably 90% of the

21:53

problems that I see are revenue

21:55

related .

21:57

So a company will come to you and say listen , I'm not making enough

21:59

money , I need to make more money . Right , and

22:01

that's a symptom , not

22:04

a problem . Yes , right , not

22:06

making more money could really be

22:08

the symptom of spending too much money

22:10

, right ? Yes , I think I need to make more money

22:12

. Company come to you and say I need you to increase

22:15

my revenue by you know 35% over

22:17

the next you know six quarters . Can you do it ? Yeah

22:19

, I probably can . However , let's

22:22

make sure that it puts you out of business , because if you're selling

22:24

the loss , they'll put you out of business . So we have

22:26

to analyze that . So a good example

22:28

I like to use is there was this

22:30

company that came to me a

22:33

little over a year ago . They were

22:35

positioning themselves as a virtual

22:38

assistance company for roofers , so

22:40

they did the back office support for roofers . And

22:43

she came to me and she said you know , chuck

22:45

, I've been stuck at $14,000 a month revenue For

22:48

over a year and I can't just see , I can't seem to get

22:50

past that . And we're bringing on customers

22:53

and you know we're having a hard time . And

22:55

I said , okay , let's take a look at it . I started

22:57

to analyze then . First thing is is a rebranding

22:59

effort right ? So no longer a virtual

23:02

assistant is Basically

23:04

a race to the bottom for pricing yes , so

23:07

we need to . We need to stop calling yourself a virtual

23:09

assistance company and call yourself a business

23:11

process outsourcing company . Yes , and

23:14

then to be able to justify that

23:16

, we need to get your people trained . So , because

23:18

you do back office support for roofers and

23:21

you use a lot of software , you know , use their CRMs

23:23

. We need to get your people certified

23:25

in those CRM so they can say we're certified

23:27

in all these different CRMs . We

23:30

need to make sure that you develop SOPs

23:32

so that anyone in the organization you know at the

23:34

time she had about 15 people , I think she actually has

23:36

73 Wow

23:39

anyone to do anyone's job Right the process , it

23:41

needs to be a machine , okay

23:45

. And then the other shortfall

23:48

that they had was that they were offshore in Argentina

23:51

and Brazil and , even though they speak English very well

23:53

, they

23:55

had issues sometimes in like communicating with customers

23:58

via email . They had

24:00

problems with that in social media

24:02

for their self and they would miss out on , they would miss spell words

24:04

or not use English Properly

24:06

. And then when they were replying the CRM

24:09

, it wouldn't always be like proper English

24:11

. So we brought in AI

24:13

right . So we built them their

24:15

own transformer that knows about

24:17

their business , knows about their customers

24:20

, knows about their keywords , their target and all

24:22

that . And now they can use that AI

24:24

to either run things through

24:26

to make sure and say make this better

24:29

, and then paste it and makes it , but it's trained

24:31

on them so it can , or

24:33

they can , use it to Create a month's

24:35

worth of social media content . You

24:37

know , give me a month's worth of ideas for

24:40

a tick tock campaign that

24:42

would generate engagement and

24:44

Comes out and gives it to you and tells

24:46

you what kind of video you should shoot , things

24:48

like that . Anyway , long story short , in

24:50

about eight months they went from 14,000

24:53

a month in revenue to $140,000

24:56

a month in revenue . Wow , just

24:59

by making some minor tweaks

25:01

and changes to their organization .

25:03

Wow . So , if you're listening , the message

25:06

that I'm getting from Chuck is how

25:08

do you bring someone in like Chuck and his company

25:10

to ensure that you

25:12

have the right systems to do interact For

25:16

you , for your business solutions ? How

25:18

do you take this and leverage it to your advantage

25:20

? It's how you use this company . So

25:22

if you want to grow and you want to scale and you get it in

25:24

your own way and you haven't figured out and you get stuck , and

25:26

oftentimes in your business you will get stuck , bring

25:29

the hop side to explain , to say here's what

25:31

we're seeing , because all of us have blind spots

25:33

. Sometimes you can't

25:35

see it because you're so close to it . So

25:38

bring someone in with a different set of lenses

25:40

to help you see the thing that

25:42

you're trying to figure out , but you just keep missing it . And

25:44

here's the analogy for you , it's like when you buy

25:46

a new car , before you buy it , you never see

25:48

it . The minute you buy it , you

25:50

see them everywhere because you're more aware

25:52

now . So bring someone in your

25:55

company that will help you be able to see the things

25:57

that you're overlooking every day , because

25:59

they become natural to your lenses . You

26:01

just miss it . Fresh set of eyes , yeah

26:04

, super important to you . So , chuck , I'm doing

26:06

a lightning round with you , the lightning round for us , and

26:08

I do a lightning round with everyone that's watching . It's

26:10

just to learn a little bit more about our guests . And

26:12

so we'll do a lightning round of questions just

26:15

to have fun and learn a little bit more about our guests . So

26:18

, chuck , do you prefer the mountains or

26:20

the beach ? Mountains the

26:22

mountains awesome , all day

26:24

long . Would you rather be bowling

26:27

or would you rather go fishing , fishing

26:29

, fishing , ok

26:31

, Awesome Black fishing , yeah . Black

26:33

fishing , yeah . Travel

26:36

do you prefer to take

26:38

a trip by boat or

26:41

would you go on an airplane ?

26:44

Yeah , if I can drive there , I'm driving there

26:46

. You're driving . Yeah , if I can

26:48

drive , but if it's got to , yeah , I'm

26:50

not a big cruise guy , so yeah

26:53

, I get on the plane . I've flown a lot

26:55

, but I don't like the cruise ship .

26:56

Chuck , if I can drive , I'm driving . So

27:00

do you prefer , on a Friday evening

27:03

, a good hamburger place

27:05

or a nice piece of place ?

27:08

You know that's tough because I

27:10

try not to eat out that much . Right

27:12

, I'm the cook in the family , so I cook it Friday

27:15

night . But you know what ? Let's not call

27:17

it Friday night . Well , actually Friday night . No

27:20

, you're right , friday night . Friday night is pizza

27:22

night , because that's the day that the house

27:24

cleaner comes cleans the house and I refuse

27:26

to dirty the kitchen on Friday .

27:28

So little place here called Italian

27:30

.

27:30

Village that has good

27:32

pizza and wings .

27:34

Supporting the business and you support

27:36

the business , Chuck , and you're not messing up the kitchen

27:38

.

27:39

That's right , that's right ?

27:41

Yes , so the last thing and

27:43

it's not a lightning round question , it's more about

27:45

understanding what you would do if

27:48

you could do it . If you had all the revenue

27:50

in the world and you arrived at a location where

27:52

you'd been successful financially , what

27:54

nonprofit would you help and why ?

27:57

OK , so for me , I'm big on

27:59

local nonprofits . Right , and

28:02

nothing against the big ones , the St Jude's

28:04

. We give money to them . I

28:07

, being a veteran , I tend to lead

28:09

towards more veteran focused

28:12

organizations and nonprofits . There's

28:14

a little one here in Rockwell that's actually . They're

28:16

nationwide but they're out of my town , which is Rockwell

28:19

, called Patriot Paws and they train

28:21

dogs to help disabled servicemen

28:24

do their laundry or

28:27

help them . There's all sorts of things

28:29

that they help them do . So that's a good one . But I

28:31

would say that spread the money

28:33

out local make more of an impact

28:35

, at least from my philosophy

28:37

.

28:38

Yes awesome , awesome , thank you . So

28:40

, chuck , we're coming to the end . What three

28:42

things would you leave with the audience ? As just nuggets

28:44

? You say , hey , I know we talked about it a lot , we covered a

28:47

lot , we went to AI , we talked about

28:49

leadership . We're talking about being an entrepreneur

28:51

taking care of your team . What would you leave

28:53

with the people that are watching and listening to us today

28:55

as a nice takeaways ?

28:57

So problems exist

28:59

, solutions await . There

29:03

is a solution to every problem . You

29:05

just have to be willing to ask what

29:08

the solution might be , and whether you can

29:10

figure it out yourself or not , that's

29:12

just to be determined . But

29:15

, as an entrepreneur , a lot of times

29:17

we feel that we have to do everything . We're

29:19

afraid to ask for help , like it makes a scene

29:22

that we aren't as competent . What

29:24

that matter is that I'm a big

29:26

believer in outsourcing and delegation

29:29

, whether that's to an outsourcing or

29:31

delegating within your people , within

29:33

your team . So don't try to do

29:35

it all . Find someone that can give you the answer

29:38

and help you . Anyone can identify

29:40

problems all day long

29:43

, but find someone that can fix the problem

29:45

. Come up with a solution .

29:47

Yes , yes , you cannot do it

29:49

all by yourself and serve

29:51

people at the capacity that you really want

29:53

to serve . So please use your team , delegate

29:56

and power and be intentional about letting

29:58

other people be smart Like use your entire

30:00

team will be phenomenal . So

30:02

, chuck , if someone wants to bring you on to a podcast and

30:04

I know you're touring and you're getting visibility

30:06

for your company and you're going on different podcasts

30:08

but if someone wants to bring you on a podcast

30:11

or they want to just reach out to you because they want

30:13

to leverage your services and have more questions , what's

30:15

the best way for them to reach out to you ? So

30:17

our website- is Ask

30:19

Interact .

30:20

So askinteractcom

30:23

. It's pretty simple . You go there

30:25

and then there's a little menu

30:28

button for interact with us and you can

30:30

schedule a virtual coffee

30:32

, a consultation , you can call

30:34

me , you can send a web form

30:36

. That's an easy way . It's got all our social media

30:38

on there , so just askaskinteractcom

30:43

.

30:44

Awesome , awesome . Thank you for putting it out and

30:46

thank you for joining us Again . This is Ron Harvey

30:48

with Unpacked with Ron Harvey podcast

30:51

, and we release every Monday a different episode with

30:53

leaders from around the globe , from all different backgrounds

30:55

, so we really truly appreciate every time a guest

30:58

comes on and share their wisdom . I'm

31:00

taking time out of there today just to help make our organizations

31:02

, our cities , our communities better than

31:04

we found them . So , chuck , it's been great

31:07

and for all of you , if you ever need to reach me , just

31:09

use my name , rharvi

31:11

at gcsconsulting . It's

31:14

the easiest way to reach me directly and

31:16

I'll be happy to support you . I'll be happy to put

31:18

you in touch with any of our guests . I'll be happy

31:20

to answer any of your questions . Our goal is

31:22

to add value to you , to make a difference for

31:24

you and be a contributor within our community

31:26

and our society . So thank you all for joining

31:29

us , chuck and I've had a great time with you . We hope you enjoyed

31:31

the podcast . Until next time , we'll

31:33

sign off with Unpacked with Ron Harvey .

31:36

Well , we hope you enjoy this edition

31:38

of Unpacked Podcast with

31:40

leadership consultant Ron Harvey

31:42

. Remember to join us every Monday

31:45

as Ron Unpacked's sound advice , providing

31:47

real answers for real leadership

31:50

challenges . Until next time , remember

31:52

to add value and make a difference

31:55

, where you are , for the people you

31:57

serve , because people always

31:59

matter .