2090: Navigating the Storm: A CEO's Tale of Business Triumph in Turbulent Times

Welcome to the show.

This is Jason Hartman, your host. And every 10th episode we do something.

Kind of special, kind of different.

What we do is we go off topic. So regardless of which show it is on the Hartman Media Network, whether it be one of the financial shows, economics.

Real estate, investing, travel, longevity, all of the other topics that we have, every.

10Th episode we go off topic and we explore something of general interest, something of general life, success, value. And so many of our listeners around the world in 164 countries have absolutely loved our 10th episode shows. So that's what we're going to do today and let's go ahead and get.

To our guest with a special 10th episode show. And of course on the next episode.

We'Ll, we'll be back to our regular programming.

Here we go.

This show is produced by the Hartman Media Company. For more information and links to all our great podcasts, visit hartman media.com.

By the way, I'm just going to give Jason a shout out. He came on stage at our event, at least the black card event you talked about. You like inflation's coming.

They, they are.

Quantity easing is so much inflation destroys debt and you, I, I, I don't remember, I think we had disclaimers, not financial advice. But I remember you on stage saying it might not be a bad time to get a lot of debt right now and ta da, we're a couple years out. I don't know, it's been two years, two and a half years later and it's like, wow. The people that followed that council have done pretty well so far, which is pretty cool.

Welcome to the Creating wealth show with Jason Hartman. You're about to learn a new slant on investing, some exciting techniques and fresh new approaches to the world's most historically proven asset class that will enable you to create more wealth and freedom than you ever thought possible. Jason is a genuine, self made multimillionaire who's actually been there and done it. He's a successful investor, lender, developer and entrepreneur who's owned properties in 11 states, had hundreds of tenants and been involved in thousands of real estate transactions. This program will help you follow in Jason's footsteps on the road to your financial Independence Day. You really can do it. And now here's your host, Jason Hartman with the complete solution for real estate investors.

Welcome to episode 2090. 2090, an in keeping with our tradition that has lasted well over a decade, maybe a decade and a half, now this is a 10th episode show where we're going to talk about a topic of general interest to help you be more effective and more successful in life and business and investing. So, without further ado, let's dive right in to our 10th episode show. Today.

It is my pleasure to welcome Johnny Serpilla to the show. He is the author of a great book entitled Life is Hard, But I'll Be okay. And he has been through some tremendous hardship and achieved some incredible success. He's the former CEO of Camping World, which is a company you've probably heard of. He had 12,000 employees one point, managed a whole bunch of stores and dealerships for RVs and motorhomes. And he's just done some incredible stuff. Johnny, welcome. How are you?

I'm good. Jason, thank you so much for the kind introduction. I was only president, so.

Oh, president, sorry.

Yeah, that's right. So. But it was an honor to serve there with other great executives. So it was awesome.

Fantastic. Well, you have really overcome some incredible hardship and gone on to achieve some incredible success. I know you're investing in businesses. You sit on, on several boards. You've got a lot of stuff going. So why don't you take us through that and some of the lessons we can learn and how important gratitude is and leadership. You know, I'll just let you start where you want.

All right, that sounds great. Well, first of all, I have to say that, you know, that that idea of a work life and a personal life, my personal view on that is there's really just life.

Right.

And we approach our lives with one heart and one mind. And, you know, typically what I've seen is people that are just a train wreck at work could be a train wreck at home, and the same thing goes the door swings the same the other way. And so for me, I recognized when my life got really hard, when we had triplets, two sons and a daughter that passed away 28 years ago. And when my wife and I went through that experience after years of infertility, building up to that, their passing, you know, I kind of thought that there was a separate, you know, work life. As you know, I needed my employees to come to work ready to go and leave their personal problems at home. And while it's fair for any leader to assume that their employees come to work ready to go and take care of their customers or their patients, that's all fair. There's nothing wrong with that. But to think that their personal problems can be left at home and there's a hard line drawn and it doesn't bleed into their psyche in some way, the way they interact with coworkers Their temper or their lack of patience, whatever it might be. I really realized that people really couldn't do that. Well, then if I was going to try to have an impact there, I needed to make sure the work culture that we as leaders created the best space for them to be able to thrive, take care of our customers and be better prepared to go home to their families.

So how did you do that? I mean, and how do you translate something like that to 12,000 people?

Well, first, when Nicholas, Marion Peter passed away, I was running my family business. So I only had 80 employees at the time. So I got to test it there. Yeah, so I got to test it there where I had full control. Right. Because as the owner, I could do exactly what I wanted to do. And, and what I wanted to do was change the culture inside my own company because I had permitted and I had tolerated behavior that was very bottom line focused. It was behavior that was short sighted and allowed me to forgive things that should be unforgivable in terms of disrespecting a coworker, applying undue pressure or in the wrong way, showing responsibility that we need them to do and act a certain way, but not really taking the time to care and to pour into those people. And so for me, I started with my own business and my own team and I set out a year long journey of telling them very clearly what I'm going to do and that our culture is going to change and I am going to at the end of that year make decisions on who stays with the company and who doesn't. And I said, I'm not saying that my way is the right way. I'm just saying in my company, this is how it's going to be. And so when you come into work every day, it's like walking up the stairs of integrity and concern and respect for others that you may or may not be living in your personal life, but in your professional life you're going to. And it's my hope that as you do that genuinely during the day, as you learn to do that, as you focus on doing it, then it can improve your personal life as well. And I thought that was really fulfilling my role as a leader. And then of course, I took that same premise and thought into Camping World when we started that in the early days of acquiring dealerships, I'd say that.

The thing that's amazed me most in the business world is this sort of level of shortsightedness and how people so many times are so transactional. It doesn't seem like it's as much as it used to be. And I'd say that the demarcation point was the early 90s, really, where things just seem like they really shifted. Some would say the 80s, because of course, the famous movie was Wall street, you know, which was just the bottom line is all it's about. Right. And then before that, you know, Milton Friedman, way back, I don't even know what year he was saying, you know, shareholder value is everything and nothing else matters. You know, but how do we deal with this in. In the business world? How should one approach that? Because, you know, it's not just your own philosophy, it's everybody else's you have to interact with. Right. You know, so that's right. Give some thoughts on that.

So, Jason, I love the way that you kind of built up to that question because, you know, it is so generational what employees bring to the workplace every day. And I say that because as I tried to peel back the onion of a tough leader in the organization or tough manager or employee, what I oftentimes found was their issue wasn't so much of what's going on in our company today. It was a resistance that they had to leadership or authority figures really from their household that they were raised in. So when you think about that, if you're raised in a home where at the dinner table back in the time when there was a family dinner table and people were really spending a lot of time around it, and mom or dad is talking terribly about management, saying that the boss is always expecting more and is cheating me and not giving me enough, and they're harsh and they're yelling and there's no raises and all these things, imagine growing up with that. And then you get out to the workforce and you walk into that assuming that every boss that you have is just like the one you heard about as young person, and you might not even be able to discern or break away signs that the boss is really pouring into you and caring. You're just not trusting. And that's really what I found, that the people that had that guard up, they didn't want to be uplifted at work. They didn't even know what that would look like because where their mindset was on a boss. So those people were hard to impact and change. And I think generationally we need to get to understand in the workplace if we're going to go make an impact, who's our audience that we have to deal with. And when you look at all the different age groups from the Gen XERS and millennials and on and on up to the baby boomers. There's very different mindsets, and so I think that you have to approach each group individually. There's not a one size fits all in leadership, and you need to figure out how to meet them, where they're at, and start working from there to level them up and grow their mindset so they can be more receptive to the cultural change that you want at work.

How many companies are thinking this way, though? It seems pretty rare.

You know, it is. I would say that, you know, in the 90s, when I was talking about it and talking about it with peers or others, I'll go so far as to say I got laughed at. Like, you know, Johnny, you're. You know, you're. It's. It's just not that way. I mean, you got to focus on the bottom line. You know, my background was accounting and finance. I get the bottom line. I. I certainly get that. And I could build the P and L, so I understand that. But my master's was in organizational behavioral management, and I didn't go back to grad school until my early 30s, and that really did open up my mind a little bit differently. So I would say, Jason, that now the dialogue is there. The question is, even if the companies where the dialogue is there, is the practice there? So what I think is even more harmful is for the company to put that out as a priority and something that needs to happen, and this company's value statement reflects that, and then the reality is that they don't. That's more damaging, I think, than not having it in your value statement and just having a terrible culture. Because now you're hypocritical and you're saying one thing and you're doing another.

Yeah, sure, sure. Let's kind of move to another really important element, I think, of this, and that is just, how does gratitude play a part in life and business?

I'll tell you what, I've been practicing gratitude for so long now that I don't know how to live personally or professionally without an attitude of gratitude. So I think it's that critical, especially as a leader, to have gratitude for the people that you're leading. You know, the test of every leader should be every now and then, you turn back around and see, is anyone following you? And you shouldn't take for granted that people naturally are. So, number one, be grateful for the people that you lead. Understand the responsibility that you have over their careers, and they're not people that you're stepping on to build your own career. Because that's certainly what a lot of employees following leaders would think, that the leader has it all about himself or herself and willing to do whatever it takes for them to go up. So I find gratitude as the way to just center my thoughts in any situation, personally or professionally. When something is tough, to really use it to give me the fuel that I need to get through a tough situation, to be grateful for the situation, that it's not going through a current thing with one of my kids. And my kids, you know, in their 20s, have had some significant chronic health issues and I continue have to practice gratitude thinking that it isn't X and it's only why, why has been significant and what diagnosis have been rheumatoid arthritis, Lyme disease, mental health challenges. I mean they've been real chronic long term life situations. But gratitude for the right doctor and gratitude for the medicine and gratitude for my kids attitudes, right?

So I think you're making a very good point. You know, when I first started talking on my show about, I don't know, 10 years ago about this idea, you can't hear the dogs that don't bark, right? And I always say on my show, compared to what these are kind of two similar ideas. And I remember thinking one day when I, you know, I've moved many times and you know, moving is like the world's biggest hassle. Nobody likes to move, it's such a pain. And you know, things always go wrong, right? Moving and you've got a lot of furniture and logistics to consider. And you know, I remember thinking to myself, you know, that was such a headache to move. But look at all the things that could have gone wrong. The moving truck could have crashed, stuff could have been stolen, things could have been broken, the movers could have walked off the job and quit. They could have tried to overcharge me. Like there's just a million things that did not go wrong, right. And did not happen. You know, the dogs that didn't bark, right. And I think if you approach life with that idea that, you know, like you said, well, it's this but when you were talking about your kid's chronic health. But it could have been this, right? Could have been worse, right? And that's really quite true. You know, a lot of things could have been worse, right. You know, or so I think that's a good way to maintain a certain level of gratitude.

Isn't is and I love you said about the dogs don't bark is I'm going to have to remember that, because I love the analogy. You know, in my book, one of the chapters is entitled why not us? And the reason that was done that way is. And that thinking was because at the funeral and calling hours and for years after, the most common comment that people made was, I'm sure you're wondering, why did this happen to me? Why? Why me? And our answer to that was genuinely no, we did not think that. Why me? We did not think that at all. Why not me? Bad things are happening to good people all the time, every day. So why wouldn't that happen?

Right.

Me, when something bad happens, why would I think that I'm exempt from that? So if you can approach life with that mindset, number one, you're a little bit more prepared. And as my wife and I felt, because we both shared that thinking, we went into therapy maybe a step ahead of some others who were stuck on asking the question, why me? But then even further, we're more open to thoughts of gratitude because we accepted this happened to me. So there's other things that are happening to me as well in these dark times that are really very positive and we have to soak those in because that is fuel for the journey.

Yeah, yeah, no, good point. So that's how to be grateful. But maybe the bigger question is, why is gratitude even important? Let's be skeptical for a moment. You know, why does it matter? What does it do for you? You know, when you're approaching life and challenges and so forth? Sure.

I think it controls your thoughts and controls your mind. So when we lose sight of our minds, when we lose sight of the thoughts that we entertain, you know, they. There's a study that's been done on to go out and find the 100 happiest people out there in the world and what they found in those hundred happiest people, that income levels vary, health varies, all those things. But there was one common trait that the researchers found, and it is this. You don't have to believe everything that you think. And so as somebody with anxiety, like.

Hang on, don't, don't dismiss that. That's a really incredible line. You don't have to believe everything that you think. That's right. Just let that one sink in for a moment, folks. That's a gem. So we're all having all this self talk all day long. Right. You know, it's constantly going on. We're talking to ourself. It's the most important conversation you'll ever have is the one with yourself. Right. And you're Having it all day long, all the time. But you don't have to believe all of those thoughts that come into your head just because they come into your head. You know, this person is this or this person treated me badly or why does that always happen to me? Right? Like, you don't have to believe that just because you thought it, right?

Not only do you not have to believe it, but you don't even have to process it, Jason. You can literally just let it go. And the practice of letting thoughts go was really unnatural to me. I thought if I have a thought, I gotta understand where that thought came from. Why do I have it? What do I do with it? How do I change my behavior? All these comments and directions come around it. But when you think of the millions of thoughts that we have a day, some of them very damaging, you don't have to process every one of them. Some you really can dismiss. And so when you have an attitude of gratitude and you're practicing gratitude thoughts, it really does put you in a mindset to be ready for maybe the intense fight that's ahead of you. Because we only have 100% energy pool of every day. There's a finite amount of energy that we have daily before we need rest again at the end of the day or before we can perform at peak performance. How much of that energy do we want to give up to thoughts that not only send reactions up to our brainstem of polluting our mind, how much time are we going to waste on that? And so you really need that gratitude thinking to be your foundation, to prepare you for the challenge ahead. And as my book is entitled, Life is Hard, I really do believe that. I think no matter how blessed of a life you have, life is hard. There's people that you love that come in and out of your life. There is financial hardship, there's death, there's illnesses, all these things. Life's really hard, but there's a lot of good things around it as well. And so you need to soak those in to be able to get through and thrive versus survive.

Yeah, very good points. Wrap it up for us with any other thoughts you have. Maybe a question I didn't ask you, Johnny.

Number one, I love your show. I love, you know, the way that you go deep into business and then go, you know, on some of these other tangents of experiences that as business people we all have. So thank you for putting out such good content because it's impactful. It is really impactful. I think that I'd want to leave people with the thought of the responsibility that you carry as a leader. And it's not only about the bottom line. It's not only about achieving goals. It's realizing the impact that you're having on the human souls that you're engaging with every day. And you're leaving an imprint on them, good or bad, based on every interaction that you have with them. And I'm not talking about creating an environment where there's such sensitivity that you can't deal with truths. You have to deal with truths. You have to address challenges. There's just a way of going about it that does take a little bit more time, but ultimately it saves you time in the long run. And what I have found is that the principles that I preach about in leadership or in my keynote talks or in the boardroom is that they do have an ROI impact on the bottom line. There really is that investment, whether it's lack of turnover and your improving on that. We all know the cost there. You're going to pay the price at some point if you're not having healthy engagement with your team and strong leadership. And if anything else, if you got a good stirring heart within you, you genuinely care about the impact that you have on someone else's life and maybe even most importantly, the family that they go home to and take out, maybe the frustrations that you put on them, they go home and they're abusive and you're a leader and you made them feel insecure and weak and held down all day at work. They're going to take that out on someone.

Yeah, yeah. No, you sweep it under the rug and it's going to, you know, those kind of emotions are going to express themselves somewhere. So you're really doing the world a favor by not making something contagious. Right, so that's right. Good, good points, Johnny.

Give out your website, johnny surpilla.com or encourage33.com so both go to the same site.

Excellent. Johnny Serpillo, thanks for joining us.

Thank you, Jason.

Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure to subscribe so that you don't miss any episodes. Be sure to check out the show's specific website and our general website, hartmanmedia.com for appropriate disclaimers and terms of service. Remember that guest opinions are their own. And if you require specific legal or tax advice or advice in any other specialized area, please consult an appropriate professional. And we also very much appreciate you reviewing the show. Please go to itunes or Stitcher radio or whatever platform you're using and write a review for the show. We would very much appreciate that. And be sure to make it official and subscribe so you do not miss any episodes. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode.