Employee Communication Best Practices

This is part of that growth is saying, hey, I just want to ask, did I screw that up on Saturday? Did I communi. I'd love to tell you what I meant to communicate and I'd like you to tell me if that's what you understood or not.

Good idea.

I'm trying to be better about this. As I'm saying these words, I'm realizing, okay, I definitely need to put these in my list of magic phrases going forward and I wish I could go back in time and share them because this is key stuff right here.

I agree.

Business Brain the Entrepreneurs podcast episode number 400 for Wednesday, October 5th, 2022. Greetings folks and welcome to or welcome back to Business brain here at BusinessBrain show where we are small businessing and using our business brains for everything. Our small businesses, our lives, everything and every single week. Sponsors for this episode include Bambi.com where you can go and schedule your free trial. This is one of the. This is a fantastic platform with you. Get your own HR manager. We'll talk more about that in a minute. Shopify.com SBS where you can go your 14 day trial and full access to Shopify's entire suite of features. Sell to anyone from everywhere. We'll talk about that in a few minutes too. For now here, happy to be doing episode 400 of Business Brain in Durham, New Hampshire. At least that's where I am. I'm Dave Hamilton.

And in Lafayette, California, I'm Shannon Jean. 400. Cheers.

I know, yeah, cheers.

Congrats. I think that's great.

I think it's great.

Consistency.

Very, very important.

That was my first thought. We haven't given up like, yeah, oh no.

And I can remember when we first started and I wanted to do this and you're like, okay, we just need to start recording shows, not publishing them, but just getting used to doing it. And then after we did that for a while, your comment, I just remember it's like, hey, we have to. The key is consistent consistency. We have to do this every week and I don't think we've ever missed a week. We've done a couple of best of shows like during holidays and breaks and everything. But it's been consistent and that's part of the reason it's been successful.

I think so. I think it's great. Yeah. And part of the reason we've got folks writing into us all the time. And David wrote in to feedbackusinessbrain show and he says, hey guys, I just finished listening to the most recent episode. Great job as always. And I love the artwork for the employee burnout show. He says the photo's amazing. Yeah. Shannon pulls together some great artwork for each episode, so make sure you're checking those out. They should show up in your podcast player, but you can see them all at BusinessBrain show. In fact, we have basically a gallery of them right there as you visit the site. He continues, though, on episode 398, I'm pretty sure Shannon promised us a tip on the next episode that would save us lots of money on equipment purchases. But I don't remember hearing that tip in show 399. Did you miss it? No. David. Yeah, you did promise it and we did not share it last week. So we will, we will share it now. Yeah, sorry.

Thanks for holding us accountable. That's good. Yeah.

Yeah, it's good. You want to share? Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, well, I've got, you know, we're both come back come from like the Apple world. That's how we met and technology and computers and other stuff. And one of the, you know, I've always focused on the trailing edge of technology, not the cutting edge. And one of the biggest ways that you can save thousands and tens of thousands of dollars for your business is not to buy brand new equipment, even though it's shiny and, you know, it looks really great and it all the greatest. Latest bells and whistles. Buying refurbished product, you can even say also buying open box product. And I'll describe what those are as we have this discussion. But those kind of products will save you a ton of money. And I would argue that the quality is as good or maybe even better than a brand new piece of equipment that's never been put to the test.

Yeah. Oh, for sure. I mean, you know, you, you mentioned the Apple market, which is really where I learned the value of refurb stuff. If you're buying refurbs directly from Apple, you're getting the same warranty that you could get on a new product. You can even sign it up for AppleCare, which is Apple's extended warranty program, which is one of the very few extended warranty programs I would even consider recommending. Theirs really often pays off. Not always. It is an insurance policy and therefore the house always wins. But you win sometimes too, you know, but. And I found most of the time the stuff I get from Apple's refurbs is truly brand new. As far as I can tell. There's. It's not like it comes with dings and, you know, other people's data on it. Or anything like that. It just, it's out of the box and it feels new. The box doesn't look new. The box is generally a plain white or cardboard box or something. But other than that, everything else feels, feels like I'm getting a new whatever phone. Mac.

Yeah, yeah.

And you can often get the latest tech, you don't get it on release day as a refurb, but usually three or four months after it's released is when those things show up on Apple's refurb store. So yeah, I like it a lot.

Yeah. And there's, you know, going to the manufacturer is a great way and a very safe way to do it. I think there's even further savings to go to third party retailers that do refurbishing. But I do like getting something with a warranty. And when I mentioned open box product, that's another way maybe, you know, somebody bought something, turned out they didn't want to, didn't use it or change their mind, it goes back to the manufacturer or goes back to the retailer and so they put it back up for sale. And often those open box, I think Amazon has, they call it Amazon, Amazon Warehouse or something like that up on their site and they do this for lots of products and it's a great way to save. You can often still get the manufacturer warranty or the balance of any manufacturer warranty on it. And I think you can buy a third, third party warranty on some of this stuff. But it just depends. Yeah, it depends on how, what your risk assessment profile is in the sense that it's a roll of the dice, like everything is and are how much, you know, just weigh the savings versus that. Okay, I'm going to buy this open box or I'm going to buy the refurb. If the warranty is exactly the same, there is no risk.

Yeah, with Apple there's no risk. That's right.

But no risk.

I'm sure other things that's. Yep.

Yeah. And but like I always look on ebay, I go buy, you know, an open box, a store return and what I'm looking for is a unit that as far as Apple products is something that still has AppleCare on it. Because I know that, okay, if I buy something turns out a problem down the line, you know, I've got some recourse to, you know, take it in, have it, have it repaired. So just look at that and there's no doubt you will save a ton of money. And if you really get into it, you can get in a cycle of okay, how long do we keep this equipment before we sell it as used and go put money back into buying refurbished or open box product to keep the cycle so you don't, your tech doesn't get so outdated now. It's, I think you have a longer window on that than we used to because a lot of this stuff is incremental improvements in. Because like I really want that M2 MacBook Air. But my M1 MacBook Air just works terrific and handles everything I throw at it, which is a lot. But I think there's a time when you start to see the M2, you know, drop onto the refurb list and you can sell your M1 and you know, do it so, so something to look at and definitely can save a ton of cash.

Absolutely. Yeah. No, I'm in the same boat with my, my M1 air versus the M2 air. I, I want the new one but I, I, I can't even to me being like the only justification I can have is well I do run, you know, a fairly popular podcast about Apple products, MacGeek Gab for those of you who don't know. And so the justification would be someone in the MacGeek Gab, you know, co host family should have an M2 so that we can talk and compare and contrast.

Right.

And so that's, but other than that sort of legitimate but not practical justification, I have no practical justification for needing it. So I'm in the same boat as you.

Yeah.

If you are in the market for an Apple product specifically there is a website called refurb-tracker.com and we put all these links in the show notes so you folks don't have to, you know, remember what you're hearing here. Just visit businessbrain.show and you'll see it. But Refurb Tracker is fantastic because the, the inventory on Apple's website, their refurb website changes by the minute. And what you do is you go to Refurb Tracker and you, you pick exactly what you're looking for right down to the specs and the color and you know, I want it with this much RAM or this much whatever. You know, you get as granular as you like and then you subscribe to email updates from Refurb Tracker and they will tell you when one of those has appeared in the Refurb store and send you a link so you can just go and buy it. And I have done this, I've done it countless times and it works great. I mean it makes me spend money but you know, if my plan was to spend some money, then it's a good thing. So there's that and then there's Back Market is another one that a lot of our listeners over at macgeekab have been using recently and told us and shared very good experiences with. I mean, there's lots of these sort of used marketplaces that come and go, and Back Market seems to at least currently be one that folks are having good luck with. So have you ever used Back Market, Shannon?

I haven't, no. I'm checking it out right now. It's interesting.

Yeah, yeah, it's good stuff. So that's our tip to save thousands, folks, we're going to talk about confusing messages that you can send to your team and maybe some other stuff here. Hey, you know, when you're running a business, your employees can create all kinds of interesting situations. Like, let's say an employee reports a serious issue like sexual harassment, and you're not sure if you have a documented policy. You better talk to our sponsor, Bambi. With Bambi, get access to your own dedicated HR manager, starting at just $99 per month. It's true. They're available by phone, email and real time chat. So onboarding and terminations run smoothly. Team members reach peak performance, and your business stays compliant with changing HR regulations. And with Bambi's HR autopilot, you'll automate important HR practices like setting those policies and training and feedback. It's amazing and it's true. I've checked this out. Bambi's actually got these dedicated HR managers. They're all US based people, but you get one that's dedicated to your business, giving you access to the HR expertise and personal touch that you need. And you know, an HR manager can cost like 80 grand a year, but like I said, Bambi starts at $99 per month. You can schedule your free conversation today. Go to Bambi.com right now and type in Small business under podcast when you sign up. It'll really help us with the show. Spelled BAM B E E.com Bambi.com Type in small business. And our thanks to Bambi for sponsoring this episode. All right, so I had an interesting thing that I've been cogitating on for the last few days here, Shannon. I want to, I want to run this by you because I think there are lessons for all of us small business owners to learn from this scenario. So my, I think I can share who this is about. My daughter woke up. If I can't, well, you know, then I, then I've then I've screwed up already. Then I have another lesson to learn. My daughter woke up on Saturday morning with the sniffles. And she. She does. She works a few things. She's working in a few capacities right now. One of them is she does some nannying, and the other is she does some event work. And so she had an event to work on Saturday. She likely got these sniffles from one of the kids for whom she nannies. They just started school. It makes sense. She was fairly certain, and I think she's correct, that it's. It's not Covid. It's some other cold.

Right?

She. She had just. The kid that. That she would have gotten these from, had just had Covid not that long ago. And so there are many reasons to believe that. That. That this would not have been Covid. But, you know. Sniffles showing up at an event, maybe not so good. So she texted her boss for this event that she was supposed to work, like a wedding or something on. On Saturday and said, hey, I'm all good. I'm. I'm raring to go. Going to be on my way shortly. I'll see you there. But I just wanted to give you a heads up before I got there that I, you know, I have some of the sniffles. If you want me to wear a mask or whatever, that's fine while we're setting up, you know, all good. And immediately her boss texted her back and said, yeah, you know what? We're good. No worries. Stay home. We don't need you today. And my daughter said, no, I feel bad canceling. I was planning on coming in. I just wanted to let you know. And her boss's reply was something along the lines of, you're not canceling. I am. We're all good. And that was it.

Right?

I mean, at that point, it was pretty clear, okay, don't come to work today. Now, that. Don't come to work in this scenario, very clearly, to everyone involved, my daughter and her boss meant you don't earn money today.

Right?

Okay. And, you know, these are long events. So, you know, whatever the hourly rate is, it's, you know, times 10 or something. Like there's, you know, there's. There's a lot to be earned or not earned. And so as she told me this, I'm thinking it through and kind of dissecting it and overthinking it, because it's what I do. And I was wondering, you know, did her boss just teach her and potentially all the other employees not to share their health Status as freely as my daughter did. Just because, because they know that they won't be able to work if they share this stuff. You know, there was no, like, hey, because it wasn't my daughter canceling, it was the employer canceling. And so, but there was no but, hey, look, you know, I'm canceling on you last minute.

So a manager, supervisor, owner, owner of the business.

Okay, yeah, owner of the business. So, you know, this was the owner of the business canceling on, on one of their employees or contractors, you know, whatever. I don't know what the arrangement is exactly, but you know, whatever it was, this was, I'm canceling on you and I'm not going to pay you anything today. Not I'm, let me cancel, but here, I know you were going to come in, let me pay you for, you know, four hours of the time or whatever it was.

Right.

You know, like there was nothing to encourage to support this behavior.

Right.

You know what I mean? It was. And it's a small business. I get it, you know, if you can avoid paying out. And I have no idea what went through the mind of the, you know, the, the business owner here. I, because I wasn't there. But also, really, neither was my daughter. This all happened via text, which I think is another layer of this text. Can I read through the whole trail? I paraphrased it here as best I could, but it's really easy to under, to misunderstand. And we came up with six different ways that everyone's messages could have been interpreted. And it could have been that, you know, her boss thought, well, my daughter wants to cancel, but it feels bad doing that, so she's not going to. But if I cancel on her, I'm doing her a favor.

Right?

That could be one interpretation of this. It would be inaccurate, but it's a legitimate interpretation of the scenario. And then the other interpretation is, well, wait, you told me you were sick. I don't want you here no matter what. Even though I know you want to be here. I'm canceling on you. But you don't know. And so there's just so many things that these split second decisions that we make that essentially communicate things to not just the one employee with which we're making them, but with everyone. And I have no idea what this communicated to all the other members of the team.

Right.

But I do know that it communicated to my daughter. She was like, man, I feel like I screwed up. Maybe I should have just gone and had the conversation there, you know, And I, I don't know, like, it's a, it's a lot to unpack. There's a lot to unpack.

Yes. The, the, the one thing that I, I'm really more and more, I'm, I'm believing that texting is not the way to manage anything. And I, I, I, it's an overarching statement, but it's, you know, it used to be when, when our employees would, they would call in sick, but they would typically call in before we opened and leave a voicemail. Right. Hey, I'm not feeling good. I'm not going to come in. And I'm sure now it's, you know, over. You know, overwhelmingly somebody sends a text to their manager or whatever, say, hey, I'm out for today. I'm not feeling good. But in the case of your daughter, you know, she's just trying to be cautious. So she doesn't, I think, show up and everybody says, oh, man, you got Covid. You got the sniffles. Which, you know, I can appreciate that. But I think as the owner, you probably need to pick the phone up and have a conversation because there's no nuance in the text and, or often the nuance goes the wrong way.

Right.

Because you don't know how to interpret those words because they're just so flat. Where if you're in a conversation, he could have said, hey, you know what? Just kind of out of an abundance of caution, I don't, you know, I don't want to have to have other folks. Let's, let's, let's have you not come in today, and I'll, I'll make up your hours at another event or something like that. You know, some way to deal with it. Yeah, it takes a little bit longer, but you're not left with these. I don't know what they meant. And are they, you know, happy, frustrated, mad? You just can't tell. You can't tell. You have to talk to people.

Yeah. Okay.

The first takeaway.

So let's stay on this text thing, because this was definitely one of the aspects of this that, that, you know, came out to me as a highlight that this entire interaction at this, even at this point in time, we're recording this, you know, earlier in the week, the following week from this happening. I don't think there has been a voice conversation. I think everybody thinks, oh, well, this conversation happened because it happened via text. And I know I'm an old guy, but I have a different. Well, but you and I, I think you and I, certainly, I have a different history with technology than most people my age.

I would agree.

I started on with text based communication on bulletin boards, but it really is all the same. I started with this at 14 years old. And so that doesn't make me all that different from my kids in terms of I grew up as a digital native, right. Most people my age, you're probably better.

At it than they are.

Well, that's what I'm saying because I've had more experience. I've been doing this since I was 14. So have they. I've just got 30 years on them.

Right.

So I am better at this. And by saying that I'm better at really the right word that I would choose is I am more experienced, I am not better at this than them. I fail at this texting thing and interpreting texts. And by text I mean texts, emails, Facebook, comments, messenger, whatever. Text based communication. I fail at interpreting it all the time. And I also fail at believing that I am the one person who, who can communicate emotions and nuance and intent via written word like none of us can. Occasionally it happens that everybody interprets things the same way, but. Yeah, but that is happenstance, not by design, right? So I've learned that it will just more often than not, when there are multiple ways to interpret something and you have multiple people involved, they will each walk away with a different interpretation. And it does. And it happens with you and me. You know, in simple things. Text based communication is fantastic for.

For.

Communicating details, but it's not great. Like if I have to send you, you know, hey, somebody paid us X amount of money or hey, here are the dates that I need to work and the hours that I need to work or communicating when we're going to do this show, right. If it's just between you and me, you know, talking about the time so that you and I can look at a text of what the other person said and compare that to our calendar. That is what text is perfect for. It's so much better. Booking, air.

Questions. Yes, you know, those are, those are great. But at the same time, you know, because when we say texting again, emails, posts, comments, customer service, Twitter, whatever you want to say, you know, text. But I know still in my daily life there are people that if I send an email to, I can't put in more than one topic, right? Or I will not get the kind of response, you know, that I'm looking for. And so you have to break things up or at the same time you, I realize, oh, I can't write in paragraphs because it's going to get ignored.

Yep.

So I break things down into simple sentences. Step one, do this, I need this. Give me the, you know, whatever. So.

But that's learned, that's learned behavior.

Right?

Like, I mean you, you do that because you've tried the opposite and it's failed many times.

Right?

Yeah, yeah. I'm involved in a large project right now. Not to make this all about texting, but it's, but it's timely. I'm involved in a large process.

Important. Yeah, yeah.

Managing a group of volunteers and I've tried to get them into Slack, tried to, you know, get them more organized, but they just insist on, you know, using group text to kind of try to manage this big unwieldy beast of a project that we're involved. And in my, I mean, it's good for certain things and keeping connected is great and like seeing everybody involved, but it's terrible for so many aspects of trying to manage anything, whether it's communicating with an employee or an employee to a boss, trying to keep people on track, trying to share data. It just, it's awful. It's not meant for that, I don't think. And it doesn't work very well.

Hey, can we talk about notifications for a second? Who actually leaves those sounds on anymore? Well, I mean, except that kind of sound because that's the sound of another sale on our sponsor, Shopify, the all in one commerce platform. To start, run and grow your business, Shopify makes it simple to sell to anyone who from anywhere. So whether your thing is vintage teas or recipes for ghee, start selling with Shopify and join the platform, simplifying commerce for millions of your favorite businesses worldwide. With Shopify, you'll create an online store in your vibe, discover new customers and grow the following that keeps them coming back. And Shopify has all the sales channels sorted. So your business keeps growing from an in person POS system to an all in one e commerce platform. It's how every minute new sellers around the world make their first sale with Shopify and you will too. Shannon and I have used Shopify for various businesses that we've talked about here on the show in the past. And it's never been easier to start and grow a business thanks to Shopify. When you're ready to launch your thing into the spotlight, do it with Shopify, the commerce platform, backing millions of businesses down the street and around the globe. The best part, you can try Shopify for free. Sign up for a free trial at shopify.comsbs all lowercase go to shopify.comsbs to start selling online today. Shopify.comsbs and our thanks to Shopify for sponsoring this episode. All right, I think we've agreed that texting has utility, but it's limited utility. So let's, as we sort of continue to unpack this thing, let's, let's leave the texting behind for now.

Yeah.

And, and okay, so this has happened, right? What should we as employers think about when we're making split second decisions like this? Or what should we think about after we've done it? Because I think maybe that's more important. These things are going to happen, right? You, you have to make split second decisions. You don't want to put yourself in a scenario where you give yourself an excuse to suffer analysis paralysis.

Right.

You know, like in this scenario, her boss needed to make a call and did.

Right.

And made an executive decision. So, fine, you make those executive decisions. It communicates something. You don't necessarily know what because it's almost certainly different than what you thought you communicated. So how do you deal with the ripple effects, like, should we be doing debriefs or post mortems? And how do you know when you're supposed to even do one of those? How do you set your culture up so that these kinds of things don't wind up being just perpetually misunderstood?

Yeah, those are very good questions. I think some of this, I think you have to trust your gut. And if you feel like something, it depends how in tune you are to these things. But, you know, sometimes you have a discussion where you just have a sense like, well, maybe that didn't quite go the way I wanted it or they, they maybe didn't interpret it correctly. Some people are oblivious to this stuff and, and I'm sure I am on some level, but sometimes, you know. Yeah, yeah. After you, you have some kind of conversation, you think, well, maybe they, maybe they didn't pick up on it or I didn't get the kind of response I was expecting. Maybe that's part of it. Like, I don't know how your daughter responded to them, but if he didn't get the response, for example, perhaps she could have said, okay, I understand. You just, you want to keep the rest of the team healthy. I'll see you at the next event. Okay. That would have kind of maybe been my expectation, but I, I think I would have gone over the, the top a bit, which I've learned to do. And I don't want to focus just on text, but when you're Communicating with your employees, you've got to lay it out there because they don't know what's in your head. And as we've talked about here before, they don't think. They don't think like you do.

Right.

And you don't necessarily want them to. They think like employees, so their priorities are different. And so I think you have to try to put yourself in their position.

If I may, I think if I can crystallize the thought you are making here, I think what I'm hearing from you, and maybe I'm getting it wrong, and we're going to share an example of this happening in real time. But I think what you're saying is it's not up to your employees to read your mind. It's up to you to make sure they understand what you intended.

Yeah.

It's your responsibility. You know, I always use this phrase, if you want to give praise, look out the window. And if you want to criticize constructively, of course, look in the mirror. So I'm constantly like, okay, did I handle that right? Did I say the right thing? And if I kind of get a sense that I didn't, I take the initiative to go back. Because you're in power, let's face it, right. You're the power player. You own the business, you're the manager, whatever. In that relationship, you're in power. So it's up to you to make sure things got handled correct so there are no misunderstandings.

Yeah, that's right.

You have to be the one. Like, in this scenario, I would say it's up to her boss to call her this week and say, hey, I just wanted to check in. First, how are you feeling?

Right.

I mean, that's not a bad way to have that conversation. And second, I just wanted to talk through what happened on Saturday morning. I know we had a very quick interaction and I want us all to digest that a little bit more so that we know better for what happens next time or whatever.

Right.

Because these things are going to happen. But in order for that to happen, like you said, as the employer, you need that level of self awareness where you say to yourself, I might have f ed this one up. I don't know. And that's the thing, because there's so much about starting a business and running a business and growing a business that requires you to be a little bit arrogant, if you will. Like, there's lots of people that are going to tell you, you can't do that. It's not going to work. You'll Never have success. And you just need to believe in yourself. Nope, I'm right. I'm going to make this work. That's super important and don't let that go. But the same time in parallel with that, you also have to be willing to question yourself. And that takes a lot of confidence to do that because without breaking you, you know, in every other aspect of your business, in fact, this is part of that growth is saying, hey, I just want to ask, did I screw that up on Saturday? Did I communicate? I'd love to tell you what I meant to communicate and I'd like you to tell me if that's what you understood or not.

Good idea.

I'm trying to be better about this. I, as I'm saying these words, I'm realizing, okay, I definitely need to put these in my, my list of magic phrases going forward. And also, I wish I could go back in time and share them because this is key stuff right here.

I agree. And I think that for me, as I got older and more experienced, there was one thing that I gained that I know I didn't have enough of as a, as a young business owner because I was just, you know, hard charging forward and trying to build something from nothing.

Yeah.

I didn't want to let anybody stand in my way, whether it was employee that, that I thought, you know, should have understood it anyway or whatever. But, and, and that word is empathy. And as I gained experience and not maybe some age, but I think just experience, if you have empathy from where your employees are standing and be being self aware of it as well, you're going to react differently. And you're also going to, you're going to say things in a different manner and maybe you're in a rush, like let's say this guy was, but you could say, hey, quickly, we're going to deal with it this way. But I will follow up with you this week and we'll talk more about this. We're going to go this route right now. I gotta run. Right. But I'm going to follow up and we'll have a quick chat about it, or have a chat because everything is different when you work for somebody else and they're trying to make you happy. They're trying not to, you know, they're trying to excel and do the right thing and you make an off the cuff remark and it could be devastating.

To them that you have no idea.

Yeah.

No idea.

All right.

So that's why.

Well, that's the part I want to, that's a thread. I Want to tug on it the when you have no idea. Because in this scenario, we are assuming that her boss knows things could have been misinterpreted.

Right.

Like that's the only way any of these things that we've just proposed could happen with her boss. Like you said, taking initiative to see if there was a misunderstanding. But if her boss doesn't know this, and even if you're really good at these things, you are going to miss some of them.

Right.

You're going to make that offhanded remark that, that you thought was truly offhanded and irrelevant and it changes someone's entire perspective.

Right.

And you don't know. So how do you create this culture where the idea of overanalyzing things is like, it's okay for your employees to initiate that and I don't. We have a culture of overanalyzing. It will come as no surprise to anyone who's listening to this show.

Right.

That clearly at the businesses I have, we are constantly overanalyzing things. Like how could this interaction have gone differently? What can we learn from it? What was good, what was bad? We're always doing this because it helps us get better.

Yeah.

How do you encourage your team members to do it to you?

I think it. Yeah. I think that some people will never have it. It's just in whether you're a business owner or not. You're just cruising along, but if you're not. Yeah, you just don't have it. Doesn't mean you're not great at other things.

No, but you just don't have this.

Yeah, you just don't have that. So I think it's important to try to surround yourself with people that are good at things that you're not. And I think a great way to. Let me back up, I would say the best business owners, the best managers, the best supervisors are people that are very self aware of this one specific topic because they know their words have power and they can connect with their people, their team on a different level because they have that empathy or they know that. Oh, you know, I, when I was an employee, I remember this and I want to take care of it this way. So in your business, let's say your daughter, she took the initiative to reach out to the boss and said, hey, I just want to clarify this. You got a minute for a call? Well, if you're running the business and you're getting that feedback up to you where maybe you should have asked and taken the initiative, that person is somebody you really want to take Good care of. Because I would say that person is going to advance in your organization. They're going to add a different level. And you can ask them, hey, let's say they become a supervisor, a manager, a vp, whatever. Have them call you out on those things.

Right.

Have them help, help you. Because, you know, if you start seeing that, gosh, you know, you know, Bob in accounting is constantly messaging me or mentioning to me that, hey, you know, you said X in the things. Just like you, Dave, this morning, you're like, oh, hey, we got to answer this guy's question. Because you made a promise and you didn't follow up with it. Well, as business owners, we do that stuff all the time. And maybe, you know, you get busy or there's a million things you're dealing with and your bandwidth is only so wide. So having someone around you, whether it's an assistant that you specifically pay to help you clean up stuff like this, or just somebody on your staff that starts to weigh in when that stuff happens, that those are signals, that those are people that you should make sure you take good care of.

Yeah. Somebody that's willing. And the problem is not most people are not going to be comfortable calling out their boss like this.

Right.

But most people are not.

But some people that do, those are the ones to keep on your team.

Yeah, yeah, those are your future. That's, that's the. You got to make sure they're on a good career path so you could go, wow, you know, you know how to do this stuff better than I do. How about you run this department? How about you take over the HR and work with Bambi, you know, dot com and develop an HR department quote, you know, for our small business and a virtual hr. And you can help manage people and all that kind of stuff. That's the, that's the natural life cycle of the business. You know, we talked. You called me out last week and my. Some of the tips that I was giving maybe sounded a little too corporate. You know, this is exactly how small business people start. You know, you just start filling people in and go, wow, you're really good at that. You're picking up on all this stuff that the other people are saying or things that I said, can you take this role? And then the next person does something and they're, wow, you're really good at. Look at you did to the warehouse. You, you filled all the stuff in. You made it all organized. Why don't you be in charge of this? I mean, that's how it works for me. You know, and if you're bootstrapping and starting everything, like on a grassroots level. So pay attention to those people that mention these things to you. Absolutely. People are the future of your business.

Yeah. I mean, and if, you know, I know we have all kinds of people in different roles listening to this. If you're someone who works for someone else, know that that is like one of the fastest paths to advancement is helping your boss, helping your superior do their job better. If you make them look good, they are going to sing your praises to everyone and they're going to keep you around. So, you know. Yeah, yeah.

I tell my kids, you know, I think we're coming up on a challenging economy the next year. So I, I just, I think we're going to see a lot of not great things happen with many businesses and the housing market and all that kind of stuff. I think there's lots of signals and I tell my kids, now's the time to make yourself indispensable where you work. And this is one way to do it.

This is absolutely one way to do it. And as an employer keeps, keep your eyes out for these people. Don't take offense. The worst thing any of us who employ people could do is take offense and have that knee jerk defensive reaction when someone comes to us and one way or another communicates, you screwed up in managing me or managing that person in this scenario. You know, suppress that knee jerk defensive reaction and listen to them because those people are valuable to you and, and you have an opportunity to make them loyal to you in that moment by saying, wow, thank you for bringing this to me. You know, if you got somebody who's bringing this kind of stuff to you three times a day and they're just a whiner, totally different. But you know, you'll, you'll know. You'll know.

Yeah.

Good stuff. Oh, man. I feel energized after this conversation. This is good stuff.

Good. Yes.

Yeah.

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