He was deployed to 9/11 and Katrina

Welcome to another CEO Wisdom Podcast. We have Jeffrey Weiss with us today. Jeffrey's a broadcast engineer and author, leadership coach, production professional. He was CEO at Advantage Video System for quite some time. He's been a volunteer for the Red Cross as well. He's been a chef, so been through various hoops and circles. Jeff, welcome to the pod. Tell us a bit more about yourself and what you're building.

Well, thanks, Charles. You know, you know, I'm just like every other entrepreneur, you know, out there in the world. We never— there's never one— there's never one thing that we do in life. We, we try different things and we accomplish things and we, and we build things and then we move on and we accomplish more things. And so, yeah, I, I, you know, being part of the Red Cross and being a big brother for 30 years and being part of Habitat for Humanity and working to help, help people is, is a core of what I'm all about, you know. And then building businesses and, and building them to a point that I can, that I can, I can pass them off to somebody and then build something new. That's, that was, that's what gets my juices going, you know. Some people, that's what, that's me.

Yeah, and let's start with your early career. Advantage Catering, right? So why did you launch that company? And yeah, you were a chef basically. Tell me a bit more about that one.

Well, I love cooking. I, I, when I was a little kid, I, I, you lived near the Ambassador Hotel, uh, it's an old hotel, Hollywood hotel on here. And this, I met the chefs there, they taught me how to cook, and it was, and it was a passion of mine. And so they taught me everything I needed to know about cooking and Then I just one day decided, hey, you know, I, a friend of mine said, oh, I'm doing a party and I need someone to do it. I says, I can do that for you. It's 150 people and no problem. And so I cooked for 150 people and I said, this is a great thing. And so I started, I opened that up. I joined the CaterSource International Catering Association and started marketing the business and, you know, and fumbled and tripped and, and made mistakes. But, you know, that's— we get up, you know, always fail upwards. And, you know, that's— and, uh, so that's, you know, that— and I started doing that for many, many years. And, and then I kind of— and then I got into my, my Advantage Video Systems business, and that business came— was like rocketing into the stars. And— but I couldn't do both. I really— I just— the bandwidth was not there. So I found someone who wanted to buy, buy the company. And I sold it off to somebody else to put more money into Advantage Video Systems. And so that's where I'm— that's the kind of transition. But yeah, I've cooked with, uh, famous chefs like Jacques Torres. I went on a world— a U.S. tour with him, uh, promoting, uh, Ghirardelli chocolates. Uh, I cooked with Tommy Tong, went all over the United States teaching chefs about Thai hominy rice instead of jasmine rice, which is the same thing. It's just, you know— and then I also worked with Wolfgang Puck at the, at the during these— his Oscar events and stuff like that. And then had my own little catering. And we were— we started off doing Jewish events, you know. We started off, uh, doing, uh, Shabbat in a Box, if my Jewish friends out there will know what that is. And Essence of Havdalah, which is, uh, after the— after— after— in the end of Shabbat, uh, and it's kind of hors d'oeuvres, kind of a party type of thing. And that was funny. And then, you know, it's fun. And then we had, um, our, you know, different Jewish events like, like the break fast at the, at the end of the High Holidays and stuff like that, and Sukkot. And, you know, so there's all these many holidays. Jewish people have lots of holidays, just like everyone has lots of holidays.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a, a Jewish chef on the pod not so long ago. He's still active in LA, and he does, uh, delivery, right? Like catering on all these major holidays. And it's a lot of work. Also looks uh, like delicious food. So what was the transition between chef and Advantage Video System, right? Like, how did you go from one to the other?

Well, you know, like I said, I was— I, I had, you know, doing my— I was actually had the Advantage Video— I actually was working in the, in the business of computer engineering and broadcasting before, you know, during the same time as I was doing the catering. And then, you know, and then what launched me into starting my own Advantage Video Systems business was actually 9/11. So I was actually working for a company selling broadcasting systems and 9/11 happened and I told my boss, I need to go to New York to help out. And my boss said no. And I said yes. And he said no. And I said yes. He said no. And I said, I quit. And I quit my job and I went to New York, worked for a month and a half with the Red Cross, almost 2 months.

Wow.

and came back and said, I never want to work for somebody who doesn't let me be me. You know, you know, you got to be you. You got to find the inner, inner part of what— who you are. And so I put my soul and heart into— started Advantage Video Systems. It was tough at the start. You know, a business is not easy. If you want to get into business and you want to have your own company, and, you know, and you— it's not an easy job, and you're going to have to work a lot, a lot of hard nights. hard days and you're gonna have disappointments. You're gonna have times you just want to quit and you want to, you know, but you've got to persevere. You know, you've got to build that. And what really helped me, inspire me was, you know, some of the people in my life who's been my mentors, whether it's been direct mentors or other mentors, you know, like John Maxwell, who, you know, I know, but I don't really, you know, not like I go to dinner with him every night, but you know, on teaching on leadership, and Zig Ziglar, who I met at 12 years old and inspired me to be a great salesperson and, you know, to take care of people, you know. And, you know, and the people in my life who has really helped me become who I am, and lots of people who I knew personally, and they inspired and they gave me that extra push to help me push through and make it work, you know.

Interesting. Before we get to Advantage Video System as well, you've been the Red Cross for like 25 years. How does that work? Like, how did you plug that into your days?

Well, yeah, it's also difficult to be, but you know, being an entrepreneur, you make your own schedule. So, you know, I had staff and I could tell my staff, You know what, this— I'm going to go— this disaster happened. I have to go to New Orleans. I have to, you know, when Katrina— I was there for 3 weeks, you know. And, uh, 9/11 was the first— one of my first national deployments. Was there at 9/11. I was there for a month and a half. And, um, you know, you just— and, and you— but you can take care of things, you know. They— we have, we have phones and we have computers and we, you know, back when I was starting, we didn't really have these phones, but We had landline phones, but— and we didn't have computers back then. So there was ways to run a business remotely. It wasn't as easy as it is today. You know, today I can just go on my computer and hire and build 20 agents, 20 super agents to do all my tasks, get 90%, you know, do a lot of my work for me. And I can hire virtual assistants. You know, back when I started, we didn't have virtual assistants, you know. You want to hire an employee, you went down to the employment office and hired employees. And, you know, but, uh, you know, it's, it's different than it is today. It was more difficult, but it was possible. And, and, you know, there is no impossibilities. The only impossibility is the ones you create.

Right. And do you get paid during these deployments by the Red Cross?

No, no. 98% of everyone who works, or 95 to 98% And everybody works the Red Cross as a volunteer.

So that's crazy.

Yeah, well, you know, it's— I'll tell you a little story. When I was, um, when I was a kid, I had this best friend Christopher. We went everywhere together. Even at 4 years old, we went to Woodstock, and we were the best of friends. And Christopher, all he wanted to do was plant trees and make people happy. But at 10 years old, him, his mother, and father were tragically killed by a drunk driver. I lost my best friend. And in my sorrow, I went to my grandmother's and we did some things. And one of the things we did was we went to Washington. There was a— the National Portrait Gallery was having an exhibit of the Roosevelts. And I stood before this giant statue of Eleanor Roosevelt. And my grandmother whispered the words that was written on the statue. When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. Those words hit me in like a bolt of lightning, and I made a commitment to my best friend Christopher and to myself that everything I would do in life would have a level of contribution or not be worth doing. And then sat out there. And, you know, volunteering, it's a— it's also great business because you meet people. I've met people on the line who I volunteer with, and they're in another business, and I've made business, and I've done— I don't do it to make business, but it's a great business networking opportunity because you're already aligned with the people you're working alongside. When I'm on a— when I'm working at Kenzie Cares Foundation making meals for the homeless, and next to me is a CEO of a large production company, we're connected. And then when he looks to— when he would look— when he looks for someone to help him on his next build-out, he's going to think of me first. And that he did. And so it's, you know, you know, giving back always gives back to you in ways you can't even fathom.

I agree with that. Tell me about some of your deployments, starting with 9/11, which is happening soon. I'll be running on the 9/11, funnily enough, 125K, remembering like what happened, right? Like, but you were directly there. So what was the story?

Well, so my first thing was that we drove a truck out to them to support them. So the first week was actually driving across the United States with a, with what's called an ERV, emergency response vehicle. And we drove it to New York. And then I worked in the intake center, in the customer client intake center. People who needed support, they came to us and we filled out forms. We talked to them. We find out what their resource needs. And then we hooked them up with our partners, different partners that we had. And we handled the client casework. And we did that. Also, I did something called door knockers. You know, some people were so afraid after 9/11 that they wouldn't pick up the phone or go into work or anything like that. We didn't know if they were alive or dead. So we would— they would send us out in these Red Cross trucks so it'd be visible that we're not a threat. And we would go and knock on their doors and say, if they were there, we would give them pamphlets and tell them where they can go to get resources and give them all the support they needed to and sit down and talk with them and cry with them sometimes. And, you know, and then if they weren't there, then we would pass it on to more investigators who can go investigate and find out there. Some people we didn't know they're alive or dead for weeks, you know. So yeah, and, you know, like I said, it's all about caring for people, you know. I remember one shelter I was working in, people came into the shelter and they were frantic and no one knew how to help them and they weren't being able to they weren't following the directions to be able to help them. And instead of dealing with— instead of like talking with them, I just sat down with them and held their hand and just didn't say a single word for 5 minutes. And then they calmed down and we were able to help them better. So the Red Cross teaches, you know, teaches you lessons in leadership. Because when you lead people, when you have people, employees, and you lead employees that you pay, they follow you because you're paying them. But volunteers, you're not paying them. So leading volunteers is much more difficult than leading employees because you don't fire volunteers. They decide to quit, or, you know, I mean, you can't— there have been people who have been fired from volunteering, but that's because other issues. But, you know, it's much— if you want to learn about leadership, try leading volunteers.

Yeah, that's a very good one. Uh, what about Katrina? That was even wilder, right?

Katrina, well, Katrina was a little chaotic because it had— there had been a lot of new, um, government influences that had come in and people, and there was no synergy set up, you know. So, you know, and it wasn't as bad in a lot of places as people say they were. There was, there was a lot of good work done and a lot of great people. And, you know, There's a million stories I have of all these people who just stood up. There's one woman who had lost her family, lost some of her family, lost her home, lost her business. Instead of being apathetic, she went and she got pallets of water, spent her last dime buying pallets of water and renting a truck and driving it down the street and passing out waters to Right. You know, and it paid big time because, you know, later on, people helped build her house and, and they went to shop at her businesses because she was there for them when they needed it most. A bottle of water means so much to someone who hasn't had a bottle of water in a day or two. You know, it, it just, you know, the little things in life are just there, you know. Right.

Um, yeah, you've witnessed so much like, uh, human experiences, right? Like, when's the last time you were deployed as part of the Red Cross?

Well, you know, we had the, we had the big fires out here in Pasadena and, and, yeah, Palisades. So I was there running. I was helping manage a shelter, uh, in Pasadena for, you know, a couple weeks. And, you know, and, you know, we had logistics. We, you know, Red Cross has been doing this over 100 years, but Every time we have a disaster, it's a learning experience for everybody. It's never going to be a perfect— okay, it's never a perfect disaster, you know. But Red Cross definitely has people and, and have been part of it who, you know, had the— has the experience. People like me, other people who are even more experienced than me, who, you know, who, who get out there every day and are there and, and, and just remarkable people that I, that I truly love because they're, they're part of my heart and they're part of a family that I belong to, you know. And the Red Cross is a great organization to belong to, even if you just give blood to the Red Cross, you know. Donating blood to the Red Cross makes so much, makes so much a big difference, whatever you do. And if you can't give time, if you can't give blood, you know, supportive money, or, you know, whatever you can do— buy, buy a case of water and drop it by a shelter, you You know, uh, it's just, you know, it means— and it's about people helping people, you know. That's what it is. It's about us coming together and being responsible for each other. Everyone is like, oh, me, me, me these days, you know. It's not— the Red Cross is not— you have to learn that you are not the center of what's happening. You are a— you are part of this great organization that's been around over 100 years, and it needs your help, your support, and your love, and your What you're— whether— if it's— even if it's money, money is great, but, you know, but it's the people in the Red Cross that make the Red Cross what it is, you know?

Right. But did— what lessons did you take from this and brought to your businesses?

Well, you know, like I said, you're learning to— learning to lead volunteers helps you, helps you understand really how to lead people, you know, in your— who are employed by you. But it also teaches you humility. It teaches you patience, you know, you know, because you got to be really patient. You know, people come in and it's the worst day of their life. They've lost everything. They've lost their house. They've lost their— maybe they lost their cat or their dog, or maybe they, they lost— maybe they lost a family member. And not that cats and dogs aren't family members, but they are, because maybe it's— they lost their pictures. They lost everything that they've, that they've loved in their lives, and they're very chaotic. And some of them, you know, some, some disasters— I mean, we had disaster With a, um, at a, at a, at a, uh, a farm, a farming community that was growing flowers for, you know, and you had all these migrants, you know. So you have people that are scared because they're afraid that immigration is going to come in and take them away. And they're also, they're also coming from a thing where their family's living in an 8 by 8 room, and you have a family of 5 living in an 8 by 8 room. That's worse than a jail cell. And, you know, and you bring them in and they have language barriers and they have fear of official law enforcement and they have fears of all these things. And you gotta let them know that the Red Cross doesn't care about your immigration status. When you come to a shelter, we are not gonna ask you if you're a citizen of the United States. We're not gonna turn you over to ICE, none of that stuff. We're gonna take care of you and support you and give you 3 meals and snacks all day. And have people there to love you and support you and and and and help you move on. And you know, so it's all about learning how to serve your man, you know, and you you really learn how to serve your you know, and you learn contribution, you know, the level what what contribution actually means. And that's the most that's a really important lesson that people don't learn. You know, it's not you; it's them. You know, and then you also learn things, important lessons like scene safety. You know, you may think, you know, in a Red Cross event, you think, oh, you're gonna take care of other people first. Well, the most important person you need to take care of in a disaster is yourself. Because if I'm hurt, if I go find a disaster and I run into a burning building and I get hurt, now there's more people to save, you know. So if, you know, you got to make sure that you're safe And then you can then help other people be safe. So it's all about also doing that too. You know, we all think we're going to help other people, but, you know, you— the first person you need to help is yourself so that you can help other people.

Advantage Video Systems, what's the next step to it? Like, seems you're now in your coaching phase. Did you leave the AVS? Like, what's next for you?

Yeah, I kind of closed Advantage Video Systems in December of last year. I kind of like ran it I think it's ran, it's lifespan. I could do a lot more with it, but I was just not really growing much anymore. The industry was having some major downticks and unions had some problems and this and that and AI and all this coming through. I had a lot of calls from people who said, hey, Jeff, you're a John Maxwell leadership coach. You're an exceptional leader in the Red Cross. You're an exceptional leader with young men in the Big Brothers Big Sisters. You lead people in Habitat for Humanity, that business, that organization. What can you do for me and mine? I wrote a book a year ago called Leading the Cut, which is on Amazon, and I'm actually in the process of updating it. I'm coming out with a new— redesigning it, and it's going to be incredible. Everyone who's read it said it, not just me, but many people have said it's really good, called Leading the Cut. It's It's on Amazon. And, and they— he was like, so I started putting together these classes and courses on leadership because in the entertainment industry there's nobody teaching leadership in with the language of broadcasting and long, you know, and post-production, you know, visual effects and, and audio editing and video editing has its own distinct language. Every business has really own language. The culinary industry had its own language, and, and you can't You can't just walk a generic leadership program into a catering, into a restaurant organization and teach leadership to them and have it really stick 100%. You have to know the language of that business. And I've, 25 years I've been studying the language of broadcast engineering. I built over 250 TV stations. I built hundreds of post-production and visual effects studios. I worked over 100 churches, built over 100 churches in my day. They all have their distinct languages and how they do. And, you know, and then to teach, so you need to— that lessons and how to lead people in that industry really excites me because I love leadership and, um, and I love to create leaders. You know, John Maxwell says, you know, leaders create leaders, you know, and that's true. You know, leadership is all about, you know, your job as a leader is to create more leaders. And that's what you— and so that's what I— that's what I'm— that's my next journey is how can I help people in my industry, in my broadcasting industry, to create really substantial leadership. And so that's what I'm out doing.

Right. And how do you get these clients?

Well, you know, uh, so I'm, I'm all over YouTube. You can go to my YouTube channel. Uh, I'm sure, I'm sure, I'm sure Charles is going to put the link, my links in the, in the, in the notes. And, you know, and so once you subscribe to Charles, you can do— he'll subscribe to me as well. Well. You see my YouTube channel. I'm on LinkedIn all the time. LinkedIn's great. I have a LinkedIn newsletter. I reach out, you know, like, so when I started the newsletter, the first newsletter got 350 subscribers. I'm up, I'm, I'm up to a few thousand right now, um, you know. And so I do that. I do a, a, I do a, I do a MailChimp newsletter, you know, printed newsletter. I do a LinkedIn newsletter, uh, I do YouTube videos on leadership and teach that. And then we have our online courses. And so we, we hope that people see us on great great podcasts like Charles's podcast here, which is really incredible podcast. I looked at some of the— I listened to some of his podcasts and it's really good. Not, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm honored to be among the guests that you've had on your show. So, you know, it's all about, you know, getting out there and making the word and promoting yourself through great podcasts like Charles's podcast. And, you know, and then, and then, and then this YouTube thing that people— I don't know if you heard about it, but it's great. And it's all about getting out there and promoting yourself and expanding your word.

Jeff, where can people find out more about you?

Yeah, I mean, uh, jeffreyweiss.biz is my website. jeffreyweiss.biz. You can go to that. That's my, that's my home base. You can go to that. Then from then, you can go to my YouTube channel, and you can go to, you know, my LinkedIn. Uh, just, just do, you know, Jeffrey Weiss Leadership Coach, or, um, you know, You find me there, you know, and whatever. But I'm just all over the place, you know. So just, you know, Jeffrey Weiss Cook.