Thank you so much first of all my name Is Dave hey Dave hey Dave what I've Understood is the core principle of Growth is finding the right people and Building the leadership and the culture Of you know building more and more Leaders So if somebody has to Build a leadership team or the culture Of leadership what advice would you give To somebody like me to build a Leadership culture finding right people To take more decisions yeah good Question Steve so first of all I I Joined YPO which I think you're a part Of years ago I'm no longer in it I gave The spot to Eric my president But when I joined I went and met with All these other Young Presidents across The country or North America who had run Businesses that were a billion or bigger And I asked them the question what's the Hardest is it a million 10 million 100 Or a billion and everyone's like a Billion is the easiest every person Without exception And I said why is that and they said Well a million is the hardest because It's the first copy you're trying to Figure out the systems you're trying to Figure out if it even works And you're making lots of mistakes and Losing money 10 million 100 a billion it Gets easier because of the culture the
Team You're Building you're not doing Everything anymore you focus in on what You do extremely or exceptionally well And you let others go so it's Interesting that you've obviously done Your your research and you've learned That you know billion is the easiest But it's getting there through all the Hard times with the culture of Leadership and great people recruiting People at a million in sales Very different people than the ones at a Billion I mean I couldn't have afforded Eric Church when we were a million in Revenue nor would he have been Interested in the type of business we Were building Cameron Harold who came in from 2 to 106 Was a great friend gave me a deal on Compensation until things got bigger and Better he was bought in he was fly by The seat of his pants what worked to Help us get to where we needed to go Stopped working and that's where you Ultimately end up making changes which Aren't easy so I think had the advice of How do you build a culture that you want We came up with our values passion Integrity professionalism and empathy we Actually sat down as an eight-person Team at about a million in Revenue we Took Post-it notes and we were on a Little Retreat we put them all up in the Windows of the place we stayed and I
Told everyone to write a word that Describes or write words that describe Who we already are not who we're trying To be or want to be but just write them Down kind of yeah 400 words we group Them together similar similar words and It came out to be passion Integrity Professionalism and empathy when Recruiting people do they fit our values Of pipe they don't have passion they're Not right for us doesn't mean they're Not a good person but we want people That show up that go ah I love this Business I love my team empathy if Someone can't cut someone's slack and go Dan why did you just mess that up you Failed again blaming each other yeah we Want people to have a heart and deal With things with Grace So know your Values And I've seen people go out and do the Values exercise like what we did The key is when you've got the right People as a smaller company say a three Million Revenue company How do you involve the people who are The right people and saying what are our Values what values attracted you here That we possess It's not coming up with values that you Want to be they have to be what's Already a part of as you said DNA and Inside you thank you My name's Andrew hi Andrew nice to meet
You so I've got a question I'm currently Running three businesses in real estate So I've got an investment model where I Take on rent to rent properties I've got A a mentoring company and I'm also Sourcing properties to investors now I'm Only at six figures at the moment I'm Just a bit confused because I'm trying To run three businesses there's one Business I prefer than the other which Is making me most of money which is the Mentoring company do I stick to that and Throw the others away or do I continue To try and grow all three businesses Yeah I can't tell you what to do but my Opinion from my experience is focus uh Trump's Running three businesses I mean when you Said oh running three businesses is Confusing I'm like yeah three businesses Is confusing because they're all very Different because real estate mentoring You focus on 1-800 for how many years Before you even Like sunshine and all that like yeah 22 Years before we added one day yeah Added another franchise other brands 22 Years one thing and we have had leaders Go between Our Brands one that's worked With wow one day and then went to shaft China and that kind of thing and they're Like you know what it's the same Business so while for us we can go oh I'm running three different businesses
First of all we have a managing director Or a president owning the p l running That business fully it sounds to me like If you're making the 120 pounds a Thousand pounds you're running Each of the brands yourself yeah yeah I Think dedicated leadership dedicated Focus is incredibly important and Um It certainly never worked for us when We've tried to do other things we got Into the roll-off container business 1-800 got junk we're about 10 years into The business And it was different enough Because you're dropping off these big Cans you then come pick them up people Would beat them up like them on fire all Sorts of things would happen to these it Wasn't the friendly uniformed two truck Team members that come into someone's House and sweep up that was a service Business the roll-off container business Was really just a commodity commodity And so we decided to focus and after Three years pulled the Chute on it and Said we're done Even though you might think it's kind of The same category but just that one step Away it's it's too different totally Yeah that makes sense I mean you look at Some of these companies like doordash And ubereats and they go hey we're Sending people to someone's home uh
Picking up something from one location And sending it well let's deliver let's Be a courier let's deliver groceries Let's deliver pharmacare let's deliver Everything and it I think it dilutes Um the brand maybe they'll figure it out Like Amazon did I mean I guess you get To a certain size Where you just go yeah Amazon can be all Things to all people they started in Books and if they hadn't stayed focused In books for so long I don't know that Bezos would have gotten to where he got I agree that's where my confusion is is It a smart idea because I'm still at a Low scale to go and work with someone Who's got more experience and has built This massive business or do I continue With my mentoring Do you do you know many people in your Circle that have had success having two Families No I think in the early days while you're Building a business you're building a Family whatever you're doing you go all In Doesn't mean that I don't mean to say Obviously different examples where Someone's not being loyal and not saying You're not being loyal by having a Second business but you're not being Focused on going my business Pick one family that you just go hey I'm
All in I'm going to grow it I'm going to Give it time I mean that's I thought About all these different ideas in my Own business when I was the first eight Years getting to a million I thought There was a shortcut there wasn't a Shortcut I needed time And I needed to focus So just my perspective yeah thank you Hey Patrick I love your uh calm and Confident demeanor and like really Inspires me like oh man like Ryan's just Like another guy like I think you can Get to Brian's level one day but my Question for you is you kept saying over And over again the first million is the Hardest part specifically for you what Was that hardest part how did you Overcome it yeah I mean the first Million was the hardest by far because I Was everything I needed to hire people I Needed to do payroll I needed to cover When anyone was sick and canceled and Couldn't come to work I had to sometimes Answer phones I had to throw myself in The trucks I just had to do it all I had A cell phone 24 7 and people were always Calling me and so I didn't have time to Be creative I didn't have time to work On scaling If anyone's ever read the book The E-myth Revisited by Michael Gerber It talks about build your business out Like a franchise
Because franchises succeed at a higher Level than a non-franchise business Because of the systems the processes Teaching people how To replicate your success and when You're so small and you can't get Yourself out of the business to work on The business versus working in it You get caught in a vicious cycle and so If you don't break out of past the Million it's a challenge 10 million I I Shifted from being a junk removal Company to being in the franchise Business yeah and it was trying to Figure that out yes so Service but to selling a business Opportunity right yeah and franchise Owners would say this doesn't work in my City yeah my city is different yeah and I'd say you know give it time it's it's Like Paul guy when he told me that the City will take anything for free well Maybe they will but have you tried this And it requires Focus faith and effort People have to really work your systems Hard and if they're not following the Recipe that we've created based on proof On a proven model they can ultimately Fail And we've had people fail And most of the Smart Ones will Literally sit there and be like you told Me to do this but I didn't and I Understand why I failed it's a tough gig
Growing a business but we get to do this We had interviewed a friend of mine Robert Herjavec who's on the Dragons Den Shark tank and all that great guy And he was uh at one of our conferences And I interviewed him and I said you Know what advice do you have for Entrepreneurs working through all these Different stages Ups and downs roller coaster things go Wrong you know you almost lose the Business he's like remember we get to do This And it's an absolute Privilege And honor to be able to run a business And go we get to hire people train them Give them opportunity help them make Money but you got to have the right Attitude in doing it I think awesome Thank you thank you Foreign
