The Secret to Building a Company Everyone Loves

Again, I think to go back to what we said, I think it does start with your hiring and firing. I think leaders make a big mistake by keeping the wrong people in their culture too long. And I think if you are desperate to fill seats in your office, you make a big mistake by just hiring someone because you like them and you made it easy in their interview because you thought they'd be a good employee. So my best advice to entrepreneurs who are trying to fill seats is hire slow. And when you recognize right away when someone's a wrong fit. If you're trying to build a strong culture, get them out and don't apologize for it and be up front. And it's always easier to be tough when you start and then get more tender. Don't start off being so easy because it's always harder to become tougher. So I think the hiring process starts, and then I'd say as a leader, you have to find your playbook, your nuances, what makes you the leader that you are. And obviously, it starts with looking in the mirror and getting clear with who you are and having a big vision that you can get people and. And, you know, I define leadership by influence. Can you influence people and can you get them to rally, you know, around your. Your idea, your product, your service, your vision, whatever it is, and then encourage them to do the same thing? But you have to be distinct yourself and stay connected to everybody. And I think it's a hard thing when you're growing your company and, you know, there's distance. Created our leadership program. We had probably a fifth of the people show up to it every. Every couple of weeks. And I'm paying. I'm paying thousands every month, investing, and people weren't showing up. And I used to get upset. I'm like, how could they not want to come? Right? But why do you think they didn't? I think. I think self help and professional development, it gets a bad rap, and I think it usually gets a bad rap from people who don't want to do it. Why do you think it gets a bad rap? You're talking to a guy who's obsessed with it. So I don't know. You know, I can't understand it. And I don't try to because I don't care, because I'm always trying to get better. No matter what I'm doing, I'm always trying to get better. And I. I've learned that, you know, your choices have come. I called my company Choice Recovery because I like giving people choices. And I used to Say your choices have consequences. So if you choose to not come, that's your choice, that's cool. But as we grow and you don't guess what's going to happen, you can't, you know, either we outgrow you or you're so uncomfortable because the strength around you is, has just gained and you haven't that you end up opting out. And that's exactly what happened. It's slow and it's gradual, but that's what happens. So this constant never ending improvement was like, that was a core value of ours and I drove it. And so I attracted other people around me. And if you chose not to be in that circle, you know you're gonna get tagged. You know, people would say, oh, he's. They're kissing butt. They're this. No, they're just trying to get better. Right. And is there a sense of that? Of course, I think it's normal. But I think, I don't know why people don't want to do it. I think it's hard and takes work. So you know what, I'll tell you why. Maybe it's just because it's easier to not. It's easier to be distracted and pick up your phone. You know, you pick up your phone, you click on your stats and you see how much time every day guarantee four hours, six hours, eight hours. That's why people tell me they don't have time to come to the leadership practice. I'm like, really? Everyone got same 24 hours. You know, what you make a priority to do in your life is going to be what you do. And so people just didn't make it a priority. And I think there's a time and place for it. I had plenty of people who weren't into it and then later on they were. So I think timing has a lot to do with it as well.