Don't Do Anything I Wouldn't Do: How to Clone Yourself and Build the Perfect Team

How are you ladies doing? Wow. Yesterday you were in all black. Now you're in all white. Like, they're just.

You guys are looking so coordinated. Right?

I know. Loving the shoes. Listen to me. I love the shoes.

Don't you love those?

I do love those. Those look really comfortable.

All about.

I know, I know. Squirrel. Okay. Okay. So as we talked about yesterday, and if some of you weren't here yesterday, just a quick recap of the amazing talents and wisdom of these two women. They're both on our mentoring team, and Melissa is our chief mentor. Actually, last night, she said she thinks she's the queen mentor.

Somebody told me queen was a better.

Word instead of chief. I don't know.

Yeah.

So anyway, so Melissa has built a multimillion dollar company called JW Tumbles, which was a children's gym. I actually took my daughter there when she was younger and franchised that to 40 locations in five countries. And so she really knows how to build a solid company, and she's phenomenal. Tammy Moore built 19 restaurants from scratch, managing 1400 employees, and sold it for 23 million to Sizzler. So they kind of know their stuff. So that's why I thought, well, gosh, I want to have them on this. This stage so that you can hear what they've done in the hiring world, what worked, what didn't. And are you. Are we. Yeah. Can you put the IMAG up so they can see on these sides over here? Okay. So how did you. This is for both of you. How did you know you wanted to scale the business?

Well, I mentioned that yesterday in my intro, and I knew I wanted to scale the business simply because I needed freedom. I mean, that was the real reason. Like I said, we had been working around the clock for a very long time. We loved what we did. We were busier than we could ever imagine. We were very successful, but we were doing everything. And I thought, the only way I'm going to be able to have some freedom and is if I put some systems and processes together so that we don't have to be there all the time. And our biggest fear was that nobody could deliver a customer experience the way we did it. I mean, nobody could. And we didn't really know how we did it. We had no idea what we were doing. We just knew that we were really good at it. Anybody that came through our program, 95% of the time when we were there, 98% of the time, they would sign up. And when we weren't there, that didn't happen. So we had to think really hard about what is it that we do that's so special and then try and document it. So that's basically why we did it.

Right. So, you know, oftentimes you might think building a team and scaling is going to be more work, but actually when you systemize it and you do it properly, it frees you up.

Oh, yeah. And I mean, it wasn't easy. It was not easy. It was simple, but it wasn't easy. It took probably about eight months, almost a year for us to really get it down. But after that, that's how I was able to franchise. And I wasn't even thinking about franchising when I did it. I was simply thinking about how can I be free of this business when I want to do something else. Right.

And how about you, Tammy?

Well, I think it was like Ali Webb said, you have an idea and then you have to have proof of concept. So when we opened the first Pat Oscars, which was a tiny little 1,200 square foot, five employees, I can't remember, five or eight somewhere around there, it's kind of a blur. But like she said, we were lined up around the building and that was fantastic. But then the proof was in. Can you duplicate that? So when we moved and started our second location in Encinitas, it's can you duplicate, replicate? Can you have the same chicken? Can you have the same breadsticks? Can you have this great team members who smile and do the same things day after day? And that's when we really realized, okay, this is scalable. And the other reason we scaled was because if you really want to attract the right team members, they have to see this big vision. You have to sell the excitement, the vision, the journey, because you want to hire up. And that was part of our success, was really being able to hire these key people who came in and brought their enthusiasm and their strengths to help us be who we were.

I think that's such a good point, Tammy. And I think a lot of people forget that. But when you are going through the hiring process and if you're able to say, look, this is the vision of the company, that's like that big picture vision that I handed you, we hand that to the people that we interview.

I'd love to share an example. So when we were getting ready to hire our real estate guy, he came from Marcus and Milchep, he was on the, you know, 13th floor. He had an office overlooking La Jolla. And we marched him into the corporate office, back to the warehouse where his Desk was. And he's like, really? But vision. When next. When we move to the corporate office, in a year, you're going to have another big office, but right now you're working in the warehouse. It is true. So again, we sold the vision to him.

Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Now, what did you love most about building teams?

So what I love most about building teams, I. The kind of employees that we had, we attracted. It was somewhat of a transient position because these were college kids that were working with children. Some of them had just graduated from college. So we knew that this was sort of a stepping stone to the next place that they were going. And I loved that I was able to provide them with an opportunity to launch a career in teaching. A lot of them came to us not because they wanted to be teachers. Some of them were studying science or philosophy or English, but after seeing the impact that they were making with children on a daily basis, they were, like, turned on. And I still actually, to this day have employees that are telling me I couldn't, you know, had I never worked there, I never would have become a teacher and loved my life so much. So that. That was very cool for me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's awesome. What about you, Tammy?

So what I liked the best about hiring was really empower.

I'm sorry, what was hiring?

Building team. Building a team.

It was really. We empowered people. And I know a lot of people say that they empower their team, but you really have to give them the control in order for the creativity and the innovation to come out. So when you inspire that and you really do allow. And I was talking to Melissa, I said, beg for forgiveness instead of asking for permission. And so we really inspired that within the company because that's the only way you're going to get a lot of creativity and growth and prosperity in that, is bringing out the creativity.

Right? Yeah. So that's giving them a sense of autonomy and ownership.

Like, oh, my God. You know, so when you create that process, they're like, I did that. I was part of that. You have to, you know, make them part of the growth. If not, they just go on to something else. So when they know they're part of something bigger than them themselves.

Right? Yeah, exactly. And, you know, as you grow, then you're in. You're not answering every question for them. You're saying things like, how would you handle this? Because what you're saying is, you know, you've got this. What would you do? I want to learn from you. Now, let's Talk about the challenges of building a team. There's a few. And so how did you. And what were some of the challenges and how did you work through them?

The challenges of building a team? I think for me, it was just stepping into being a leader, like wearing the leader hat and understanding that I had to. My main job as a leader was to develop people. And I was always in hiring mode. Always, always in hiring mode. I always hired forward. I had a whole stable of people I could count on when I needed them. But I did learn a big lesson, and that was around employee meetings. I was doing employee meetings. We would meet twice a month. All the employees would get together. And this was after our gym closed for the day. So oftentimes people had to drive up from another part of town, and I noticed nobody was coming to the meetings. They had all these excuses. So then I was like, oh, I'm going to offer dinner. And these are all college students, so of course, you know, free dinner. They came, and then I realized, oh, great, this is really fun, because all I'm doing is talking at them, and I could see their eyes glazing over, and I can see them just not even paying attention. I felt like that. Womp, womp, you know, like that's all they heard me say. I felt like I was their mom. It was terrible. So then I said, well, you know, what I'm going to do is I'm going to task each one of them to come with an idea, a question, a concern, and they're going to have to present that to the group. And then it became a way to build their confidence. And again, this was part of their development, and they pretty much owned these meetings after that. I didn't have to do any of the work anymore, any of the heavy lifting. That was a huge aha for me.

Yeah, that's so great. That is great. Because again, it becomes part of their meeting that they're designing.

Yes.

And they're like, I better show up. I better think about this, because I've got it. I've got to show up.

Right? Yeah.

Love that.

That's great.

How about you, Tammy?

So early on, we realized, you know, you talk about the vision, but they have to really see it. And so we created this process, and this. It was actually a booklet we handed to everybody, and it was called the Roadmap to Success. And then that was some pyramids and some diagrams. But it really taught people how, once you come into the Patton Oscar family, how do you make it through to better yourself? So whether you Came in as a dishwasher, or whether you came in as a busboy or an assistant manager, it was very clearly defined in this roadmap what you had to learn, what test you had to pass, and where you fit. And to this day in Temecula, you can go up and meet Gerardo, who started as the dishwasher, who is the general manager. 22 years later, he made his way to the top. And so when people started doing that and saw examples of it, everybody wanted to. And it was really. So firing was not a problem because it was like, hey, if you don't fit in this pyramid or into this roadmap, that's your choice, not mine. And it was funny because I had a. At the bar last night, I walk up and the guy goes, tammy. And I'm like, eddie. And it was a gentleman I had fired eight years ago. But honestly, Eddie fired himself because he didn't fit into the roadmap. He didn't fit into the culture. He wasn't living the core values and he knew it. And so he's like, what are you doing now? Any room for me? I mean, so that's the type.

You're like, no, Eddie, I'm, you know.

You know, but maybe he wasn't ready at that time. Maybe it was, you know, know, it wasn't his time. But. But even, you know, like I said, eight years later, he's looking to me to go, is there somewhere for me in your organization? And I think that says a lot.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, it can be a positive experience, letting somebody go. As hard as it is, it's like one of the hardest things ever. But it's a big wake up call for them.

Yeah. And he took total responsibility for it because again, he didn't do what it said.

He wasn't the right fit.

He wasn't the right. He was the right fit. He just wasn't ready to execute the core cultures.

He just. Yeah, yeah. So are you getting some AHAs? Isn't this great? Great stuff. Let's see. And I want you to share the story about systems.

Okay.

Because I love this story. I put it in my book and because with. Well, I'm just going to let you tell it. I'm just going.

To.

Shut up.

Shut up.

I'm kidding. Okay. So I mentioned to you that I had the big aha. That I needed systems and processes, and it was a big deal and it took a long time because she wanted.

To run off to Mexico for milk.

I did, I did. I just wanted to run away. I just needed some, some space. And so what we did was we actually, we hired a paralegal to come and follow us around and follow our staff around and just like observe. And she was there for like six months. I am not kidding. She lived in la, she'd drive down twice a week and she'd hang out with us. And she was also like a, you know, a manual person. She loved riding, writing manuals and things like that. So she was able to identify every little tiny thing that we did, every nuance that we did in terms of how we set our gym up in the morning, the way we greeted children when they came in, the way we cleaned our equipment in between classes, how we cleaned the bathroom in between classes. I mean, she saw every little nuance. And then she and I together worked with my partner at the time and who was the magician with kids. I mean, he had this like magical way of reaching young children. He knew just how to get them comfortable, which is not an easy thing for like a three year old. You know, three and four year olds, if you know anything about them, they're not real comfortable without their mommies. So he was able to do that. And we were trying to think, well, how does he do that? So I would notice every little thing that he did from the way that he got down on one knee when a new child came in, and he never looked at them. He would take their hand and he never looked at them in the eye and he'd say welcome. And he'd say it in a way with his intonation in his voice, but he never looked at them. And this gave them the confidence to know that it wasn't confrontational. I mean, little tiny things like that, how he used his voice tone on everything he did. And that is what we wrote in our manual. And we, we were able to train all of those nuances of behavior, which is, you know, people think, how could I possibly ever do that? And it worked. And when I went to visit our gym in China, in Beijing, they literally did the exact same thing that he did. It was like I had cloned him, you know, like 100 million times. And that was the real the test. And they didn't even speak the same language. The culture was very different, yet it was the same nuances they were able to learn. And it was pretty amazing.

Yeah, Isn't that fantastic? I love that. That is because, you know, you talk about creating systems and you all are so busy, so if you have someone that's actually following you around and documenting because there's a lot of things you do that you don't realize you do or people on your team. It's unconscious. He probably didn't even notice some of the things that he was doing.

Oh, no. And everybody would say to us, there's no way you could ever clone him. No way. And I think a little piece of them was like, I don't ever want to be cloned. I am. You know, but we did it. We did it, and we did it really, really well. And that's why when anybody says to me, any client comes up and says, well, I'm the only one who knows how to do it, I'm like, we can figure out what you're doing. Especially, like, when it comes to sales, too. There's certain things that people do in a sales role, especially when it's your own business, that you're really good at it and, you know, you want to get out of it, but you don't know what you're doing that makes you so good. That would be an opportunity for somebody else to come and watch you and really pick out what those things are, those little behavior things that you do, like when you take a breath, when you take a pause, all those things are really important.

Yeah, exactly.

So what are.

You know, in pinnacle global network, we work with our clients on their teams and team issues and so forth. What are some of your favorite client breakthroughs around team?

So one that comes to mind is a woman who has been in Pinnacle for a while, a couple years, maybe two or three years. She has an event company that she was. She came saying, okay, I have this event company. I'm at this place. I'm about, you know, like three or four hundred thousand dollars. I'm bringing in revenue. I want to get to a million, and then I want to get to 2 million. So I said, okay. The first thing we talk about is, you know, how do you spend your time? She had a team of about five people. They actually were doing it out of her house. So I was saying, you know, how do you spend your time? And she was literally doing everything her team was doing. She just. That's what she was doing. And I said, so you're doing everything your team is doing. How are you ever going to grow? And it was seriously a mind shift for her to have to think about, how am I going to be a leader and how. Here you go again. Nobody could do it as good as I can. What happens if the client's upset with the event? Are they going to be able to Handle it. So we really took time, we dialed it back and we looked at how she spends her time, what she does really well, what she can delegate, what she can outsource and what she can automate. And just that in itself gave her the freedom to say, oh, yeah, look how I am spending my time. All these things I'm doing, I can be outsourcing these things, I can be delegating these things. And she literally changed her entire mind about the way she ran her business. She ended up hiring a professional coo, which she took out a loan to do this. And it was scary and risky, but it changed the absolute course of the way her business ran. And then she spent most of her time developing her team, so she wanted to be supportive to them. And, and we worked out a process for her where she would work with them. She spent like half a day every week meeting with each employee for like 15 minutes, 15 to 30 minutes, finding out what they're doing, finding out how she can support them. And they kept saying, is this really a good use of your time? And she was like, well, this is what my mentor is telling me to do. So I think so. And literally it turned out that that was exactly what she needed to do. And now all she does in her business is business development, which she loves to do. She meets people for lunch all the time. She's constantly, you know, wining and dining people. And that's where she's getting her business and her team is doing what they should be doing. And it's been transformational.

That's awesome. That's awesome. How about you, Tammy?

So my example, lots of pins are doing amazing, amazing work. So congratulations to all of you. But Steve Michio comes to mind because he came to us. He had been doing his company for 18 years, and the last eight, he's been really wanting to scale. And he is a nonprofit. And one of the first things we did was we looked at his vision and we're like, Stuart's like, you're thinking way too small. You're not building on a $20 million company. You're building a hundred million dollar company. So, so the shock of that, okay, let's figure out what you're going to do. And then my job was to really break it down for him. Work that backwards. And where you are now today, at the two and a half million, what's stopping you from getting that next level, which is 5 million? And it was really the people. Square pegs and round holes do not work. You have to really look at the skill set, what the person is contributing. So we moved a lot of people around, put them in the buckets where they really needed to be. Luckily, Steve didn't have to fire anybody, but sometimes that happens. You have to let people go. They're just not the right fit to get you where you need to be. But he just reallocated where they were. And that's the other thing I think you guys get stuck is because people wear multiple hats when you first bring them in. And then you have to start taking a hat away and they have to start becoming a specialist in that. Right. Whether they might be recruiting an HR in training. Okay, well, where are they going to go from there? So that's what I did with Steve, and I'm happy to say he immediately moved to 5 million. He's going to go to 8 million next year. And then we see 20 million, literally year three, because he's putting the right people in the right places. And then he used one of our Pinnacle members to really help him hire that next up. So he hired properly and that's how he was able to double in one year.

Yeah.

And he got a four million dollar contract right after our Gold Day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he flew in his whole team for our Dream team event from New York. And so we worked with the whole team. So it's really. It's transformational. And we met Steve. I remember he tells this story. He's not here this weekend, but he tells this story that he felt like he was drowning in his business and he'd been doing the same thing over and over. And when we were talking on the phone, he was literally standing. It was pouring rain outside, so he was literally drowning.

And we talked and he had no life. And he's not here because he's moving in with his girlfriend. He's working out. I mean, we transformed his whole life.

Yeah, exactly. Well, this is fantastic. Thank you, ladies. Was this helpful? Let's give them a hand. Awesome.

All right.