The Power of Purpose and Leadership in Business with David Zerfoss

Living it, coaching it, repetition and supporting it. Also be uncompromising about it. That doesn't mean you don't hear new thoughts and new ideas. But once you compromise your purpose, your vision and your values, you're lost. And you see that very much in the world here today.

Good day everybody. I am Jeff Duden and we are on the home front as always, this podcast is brought to you by Homefront Brands. Simply building the world's most responsible franchise platform. Encouraging entrepreneurs to take action to transform their lives, impact communities and enhance the lives of those they care the most about. All the while delivering enterprise level solutions to local business owners out there on the home front where it matters. So if this sounds like you, check us out@homefrontbrands.com today and start your next chapter of greatness, building your dynasty on the home front. I will be right here looking for you. And today we have a guest that has been the most impactful person in my business life and a lot in my personal life. David Zirfoss. Welcome David.

Well, it is absolutely fantastic to be with you. You've always brought so much energy into the room and that always excites me. So I feed on that. So we'll make it a blessed day for both.

That we will. And I'm so excited for you to share some of the things that have been so impactful in my journey and I know this is going to be a great time. It's a real treasure. So I will do a formal introduction right now. So David Zirfa formerly served as President of Husqvarna Professional Products, Husqvarna North America. David led his team in generating hundreds of millions of dollars in company growth. Somewhere around 19 year, 10 year in the leadership role there maybe from $30 million up to over $500 million in sales through the division. So exponential growth, incredible leadership and really a testament to building a business. Well, his leadership was instrumental in nurturing an entrepreneurial culture within the large corporation, fueling its success. After retiring from this role, David transitioned to become a Vistage Chair, which is where I met David. Drawing from his experience as a Vistage member during his 18 year tenure at Husqvarna as a Vistage Chair, he guides members to achieve transformative growth, emphasizing accountability, integrity and personal development. David's dedication to fostering purpose driven leadership has earned him several prestigious awards including the Chair Excellence Award, the Master Chair Award, the Star Award, the Pat Holler Hindman Award and the Robert Norse Chair of the Year Award. Beyond his professional pursuits, David is a Devoted lifelong learner and executive in residence at Queens University McCall School of Business and enjoys spending time quality time with his family in Florida. David, welcome.

Well, it is exciting to be with you today, Jeff. And when I listen to that, I'm just wondering who that guy was. Well, to have this opportunity to be with you and folks that are entrepreneurs planning to become entrepreneurs and just that fascinating journey that I have been involved with small medium sized business and very large businesses. But my heart is really at that entrepreneurial the small medium sized businesses that really pour their whole heart and soul into it because they are the absolute background. They provide over 60% of the GDP in the in the US which is a lot of money and they're the backbone of who and what we are. So I'm just delighted to have that opportunity.

Well, I appreciate that. And that's what you do every day in Vistage. And I know we know what you're doing now. We'll get into that. But would you mind sharing a little bit of your background, your early story, some of the transformative things that happened to you in your life and kind of what led you to your business career?

JEFF It's a great question and the older you get, it gets to be a longer answer. Just curiously enough is I just returned last evening from a family reunion in my hometown, which was actually in the farm in the middle of nowhere in western Pennsylvania. But it's an unlikely story in my journey of where I ended up. My life started. I was born on a farm in the middle of nowhere in western Pennsylvania. And the operative term I was born on the farm was not in the hospital, et cetera. In fact, is my middle name comes from my uncle. It was just returning from World War II. It walked from the bus station about seven miles away and was walking up the lane when I sort of got introduced by my mother to the world. And so I got his middle name of Riley in that process and I was able to share with one of his great great grandchildren, which he is not alive. But that story, which was refreshing, but it was on a farm in the middle of nowhere and it was when I share that is it was a great experience growing up on a farm and one I didn't appreciate as much as I should have, but I learned is I have many lessons I didn't figure I was going to be sharing with people along the way because it wasn't nearly as wonderful as today as with GPS and tractor cabs and all of that. It was very hard work and my dad had to work A midnight job just to be able to support the hobby of farming, which wasn't a hobby, it was supposed to be a paying enterprise. But you know, I went to a one room schoolhouse for five years of my early part of my education. And you said, and I like to though make sure your listeners know I didn't repeat the same grade, but I learned a lot in a one room schoolhouse of how to grow, how to grow up. We had, we got, had chores to do like bring coal in for the potbelly stove that was in the middle of the school room, the large schoolroom. We also learned the green environment. We had things called outhouses, et cetera. But you know, I learned so much in that process. And the great part about it is that when I was having some attention deficit, I could listen to what was going on in the other grades in between when we were supposed to be quiet. But I also learned is that the teacher ruled with an iron fist. That's the only way you kept three grades in the same room. So I learned a lot of discipline. I learned discipline in school, I learned discipline on the farm, et cetera. That has served me well, even though I might have not appreciated all at the same time. But I can also remember going to a place, the public school or the consolidated school when we walked into that were about eight different of these country schools came into the city school and we became part of it. And I mean this was a scary experience. We walked in and the hallways were longer than I could hardly see. And they had these things called lockers. I didn't even know what a locker was. And so they were trying, the teacher was trying to do their best to make us country folks feel at home where we had cloth hoppers and the, the city folks had penny loafers and a bit different and disorienting. The good news was my last name was Zerfa. So when the teacher went around the room and her exercise of trying to get us to meet each other of what we wanted to be when we grew up and as they went around, of course all the town kids are going to be engineers, are going to be doctors, they're going to be farm and all that stuff, things I didn't even, probably even know what they were inside of it. And I'm trying to think where, what am I going to do when it comes to me? Well, you did eventually get to me and in somewhere I blurted out is I'm going to become a businessman and carry a briefcase. And the only thing I can relate to that is That I learned the term cold selling. Inside of my dad, we rose in addition to the other farming, we did truck farming of raising strawberries, sweet corn and peppers and stuff. And he would drive the car, if it was a car or pickup, down the middle of the road. And my brother and I would go to each side of the street and knock on doors, which were pretty intimidating for a farm kid because these houses look like monstrous houses compared to what I grew up in, with manicured yards and all of that. And so I learned a lot of lessons there, even though they were a little bit scary at the time. But then is when we were in the Main on Main street is we saw all these folks are they had these bright new cars. Our cars were all rusted out and sort of patched together, et cetera. And. But they had these brand new cars. And of course, at that time, they were really long cars and they were wearing suits and they were carrying briefcases. So that's the only thing I can reflect is where I came up with this maybe not so quick responsive answer. But, you know, it has served me well. And as I reflect is I didn't realize what a powerful declaration was when I made it. So eventually it worked out pretty well to be the head of a large public corporation. And the aspect of it is I have more briefcases than I should share because Barbara's always troll trying to give them away. But it really taught me a lot. But I do realize what a powerful declaration was of who we decide and what we want to be is somewhere our subconscious mind goes to work to help make that happen. So a lot of lessons I learned along the way went on to college, worked my way through work full time. When I graduated, I had three children and a wife. And so I was dead propelled as I launched into my professional career with Exxon on their executive development ladder, which was really interesting. So it was a world that I kept growing at every level, whether I wanted to or not. But I also learned is if you're not growing, you're going backwards. So in some way, shape or form, perfectly done.

So a couple of things I took away, I learned early the power of exposure with my kids. If people don't get exposed to things, then they rarely put them into their vision. And the example that I learned, so my family grew up in Chicago, and my mom ended up moving to a farm in Wisconsin. So we would go when the children were young, and we would make the pilgrimage home for Thanksgiving or a holiday or whatever it was, and we would go and spend Time with family in Chicago and Wisconsin. When it came time for my son to make his college football list, he aspired to play football in college. What are the qualifications? Well, you know, I don't want to go too far from home. I want to look, you know, whatever those were he had, all of the schools conformed to the parameters with which he said. And then he put University of Wisconsin on there. And when I asked him, I said why in the world would you put University of Wisconsin on there? And the only reason was, is because he was exposed to it at a very young age. So I really realized at that point that wow, what I need to do do really to inform my kids thinking is not teach them what to think, but teach them how to think and then put exposures and experiences in front of them that will then inform their thinking. So I really, that's when I move towards really experiential learning and really trying to put people in my kids lives that could impact them. And it's really the same thing whether you're building a 12 year old football team or you're building a franchise business or like you did a dealership model. And then the other thing, one of the things that you shared with me, that I share with anybody who will listen is this concept of being an on purpose person and understanding truly purpose at the top of the house. And you've said you serve by unleashing exponential growth in leaders. I've also heard you say over the years that your purpose was transforming leaders. But it's all around this concept of speaking into leaders lives and giving them the tools and perspectives that you've learned over a very successful career spanning many decades and helping these people really open up their minds to what they can achieve. Would you care to talk a little bit about how you think about purpose and how that works into the decisions that you make and how you invest your time, energy and money.

Interesting enough is the, the author that, that I must have given out about 10,000 of his books literally. Plus inside is Kevin McCarthy and I just had a conversation with him Jeff, because I'm. I'm concerned about the fatigue I see in leaders at certain, at certain times that there's a lot of factors which is a whole separate subject but on the conversation of renewal as, as leaders and it really comes full circle and renewal is the, the power of purpose, vision, mission and values and the attitudes and behaviors that come from that. It's one of those things I knew it was intuitive and right that sometimes we think it was. It's Almost a politically correct or check that box thing. Let's have identify our purpose, vision, mission and values in a business hang it up on the wall and then just go live the way we're going to do it being real attentive in church and then go back to sinning on Monday. And and I this to me was a core of of my development even though I could have defined it as early that my purpose that sort of the next step as which goes together is transforming leaders and their lives is unleashing exponential growth. Is that within that. Within that context that that's what that I wanted to accomplish. But the the concept of purpose, vision, mission, values. Purpose is the heart of who you are and what you want to be. And every human being needs as you said is purpose, meaning and direction. And I see it no matter what age and what time is whenever we lose that people deteriorate in some way shape or form. And and I see it dramatically in executives that that have either sold their businesses or they have reached that in quote retirement age which I think should be about 98. But the perspective is they sort of drop right off the edge if they don't have that next step of purpose in their life giving back in some way shape or form to to keep active Vision is your eyes where you want to go. The values or the mission is is how you're going to do it. Your values are what you're going to believe and they are so visceral within a person is that people can only work against their values for a very short period of time and then they act out the way who they really are inside of that. I find this was so necessary for our growth to 29 million to our focus was on a billion. And as it separated out we had the divisions that we spun off were responsibility. We added up to that including our professional division about a 500 plus million which was incomprehensible to a lot of folks. It was. I didn't have it all figured out that was for sure. But I did find out in purpose, vision, mission, values. And when you identify those four yourself and and when you identified for a team of people they have the chance to choose into something People as leaders is folks around you can't go any farther than where you stand in the future. And it doesn't mean you got it all figured out but the aspect of it is is you have got to be that that's your responsibility as a leader. It doesn't mean you have to be the expert in everything but you've got to be committed in going to that level. And so that was the focus. And I saw the way we were going to get there was through daily living, purpose, vision, mission and values. It was not just a trite saying is we covered it in meetings. We covered it started our quarterly town hall meetings. We covered it with vendors, we covered it with new employees, we covered it with existing employees. And we covered it every day in some way, shape or form. And we were surrounded in that organization by visuals. People were very much on visuals. But I told very early on and quite frankly, when I took over as a leader, we were sort of in a dysfunctional situation. And I knew the only way I was going to bring them together was is to develop our charter of who and what we wear and help them participate and help to develop that. But I saw is right readily. I saw, as I told Faith, we were going to be. We were not going to be ducks and waddle around and quack. And I don't have anything against ducks, by the way, before Peter calls me. But the aspect of it was that duck sort of waddle and quack. I wanted our folks to be eagles and to soar above. The eagles are the only bird that could actually soar above the storm. They actually is when crows pick at them, et cetera, they simply fly higher because the crows can't exist in that atmosphere up there. But they certainly have tremendous vision. They see things from a mouth in the air that as small as a small mouse or rabbit or whatever. And there were so many things about the eagle characteristics that I wanted to see both in our folks and in our leadership. We were, we were soaring above the. Of the rest.

David, I'd like to, I'd like to unpack that a little bit. And because it's. There's so many people even at startup organizations that are growing fast. You've got a group of people that are connected to you directly. They have privity to you on a daily basis. It might be your leadership team, it might be your salespeople, whatever it is. Then you've got another group of people that are next level down that you're you that are being led by the people that you're leading. And you come into an organization, you grew your revenue line through a dealership network. So you use dealers as distribution. So now you've got this disparate group of dealers. You don't have great control over dealers. It's very much a give and take relationship. It's not like a franchise where company standards, you know, you Know the brand standards, all of this type of stuff. Dealerships, they have to maintain the standards of your products that you're putting into their shops. But it might be some, you know, Bob's Landscaping Equipment and Ottumwa, Iowa somewhere. Right. And you. They are a dealer, an authorized dealer of Husqvarna products. So you've got that dynamic of. Of dealers. Then you've got people that are reporting directly to you, which is a relatively small group. And then you've got all the complexity. You've got manufacturing, distribution, supply chain marketing and all these different things. How do you communicate and cascade down the messages that you think are most important, that you really want to infuse into the culture of the organization? Do you have any tips, tricks, standards, as you think about that?

Well, I believe you have to develop that charter of your purpose, vision, mission and values. And you got to be prepared to live it every day. You got to be prepared to defend it. You also got to be prepared to understand it and interpret that and share that with a way with the people that they. They understand it. But they understand it best when they see leaders doing the things they should do, their peers doing the things that match up with it. Because I wanted very clear, Jeff, for them to be able to choose in or choose out in that. In that process. And it only comes from repetition and belief in repetition, not just whining about it, is sharing examples and who we are, what that is. And it's also defending it. And you've got to defend it in your organization. As I'll repeat it, I didn't want a vendor to come into us that was the cheapest supplier. What I wanted one who was that aligned with us and believed in us and believed in who and what we were. Just as surely as you would not invite bad actors into your home. You're going to perfect your home, you're going to perfect your, protect your family, et cetera. That's how strongly I believe about purpose, vision, mission and values. And you're teaching it every day by examples. And I knew when I was winning, when I went down the hallway and I heard folks repeating that to whoever they were talking to, whether that was a customer, whether it was one of the folks that reported to them, et cetera. That was our litmus test of how we evaluate who and what we were and going in that direction. But I also think you've got to put at the heart of this and share with you over the years are the typical organization people say, well, I hate silos. Well, they Draw it like silos, an organizational chart. So I decided there was a different way to do that. We had called the Donut Organization. The Donut had multiple rings on that, and in the very center was our customer. And that's who we had to focus on, who they wear, what they wear, and deliver to them in a way they wanted to. But also the next circle out was our folks that dealt with them directly. And so I wanted them pouring their purpose, vision, and mission into the customer. Then there were people outside that next ring that were either managers, et cetera. And as we went out inside, that ripple effect is all arrows were pointed to the inside, treating not only our customers at the center of it, but we had to treat each other like customers in the way that we believed in them, supported them, et cetera. And because it's not too long, I see new business leaders go in, they're excited about serving the customers, et cetera. And boy, that's a very exciting time. But then we find out those customers are like people, and sometimes they make crazy demands, Sometimes they just seem demanding, sometimes they're bristly, sometimes they're not as charming, et cetera. And sometimes people lose the love of those folks. That doesn't mean, as I told our folks, the customer isn't always right, but they're always the customer, as long as we chose to do business with them. And so what we had to do was make them feel that way. But as long as we kept that picture in mind, and I know I've walked your hallways and you have the customers up on the walls and the pictures, and we did, too, because I wanted to keep that at the heart of it. But I also wanted to keep sharing and teaching inside and coaching in those examples of what we had our eagle values. We had our purpose. They were all very short terms, but what we wanted to have in our heart was a narrative. Those were the reminders we wanted, you know, because that's the biggest mistake people make. They say, I'm going to get this. We're going to. We're. We're going to be politically correct. So they got purposes that are about three or four paragraphs long, and they got visions that are that long. And then they don't know the difference between, et cetera. They don't make distinctions inside of that, so it becomes confusing. It's a really good thing. But they don't know it, and only till they know it, and it's embedded in them. You know, the Ten Commandments was sort of a guideline for this and you just got to decide what yours are as a leader. But it becomes between living it, coaching it, repetition and supporting it, but also be uncompromising about it. That doesn't mean you don't hear new thoughts and new ideas. But once you compromise your purpose, your vision and your values, you're lost. And you see that very much in the world here today. So which could be a whole other.

Subject, but it can keeping it simple, articulating it on a regular basis, speaking a bold and powerful future into existence inside of a set of purpose, vision, mission and values. It's almost easier said than done because to your point, you can see these very long and lofty statements that include all the stakeholders and you're trying to, you're trying to mention everybody. But at the end of the day, these need to be executable. They need to be something that people can take with them and put to work inside of conversations that happen every day, put to work inside of negotiations. And everybody needs to be pulling deep on the oars in the same direction. An aligned organization is a healthy organization, is a free, functional organization. Organizations are full of people. So that's where the heavy lift comes in. You know, everybody has a need to serve inside of a, a franchise organization inside of any, any corporation. And you know, that's, that's the tough stuff. The, the cultural piece of it is not the soft stuff. It's the foundation for healthy productive conflict. Healthy productive growth. These things take real work and real skill. That's why you see CEOs at the highest level get paid so much. It's like, how can this person be worth so much? Well, because that's the level of impact that, that they can make if they do this well. And it's, it is easier said than done. You know, leadership in the most extreme situations is a challenge and a talent, but it's something you can refine, it's something that you can work on, it's something that you can constantly iterate on and, and start of it. Part of it begins with getting yourself around a bigger table. So along those lines, David, with all of your experience and, and with the, you know, hundreds and hundreds of, of small business owners and mid sized business owners that you've had the pleasure to coach over the years, speak to a first time business owner that's listening to this right now, that's like, man, that sounds like a tall order. Like how do you take somebody that's getting ready to start a home front franchise and they're going to go out and build A team. And if they do the people piece well then the business will start well go well speak to that first time business owner. Where do they start? If they've been in corporate America and now they're really grabbing that steering wheel of their first business for the first time, what would you say to them to inspire them and give them confidence that they're going to be okay?

What's coming to mind here is an example I shared with my Vistage groups members last week is that what happens is in every one of these extraordinary adventure stories start, somebody finds a map. Generally that map was designed at that time, whether it's a pirate movie or whatever it is this treasure map and that's what folks are looking for is they they want to build a business that is a treasure. But what happens on that map is that on that map you would see something and on that map you would see a drawing that showed the the known world. And between that end of that known world and the edge of the map was usually a dragon was drawn et cetera. And there was a Latin expression here be dragons. Folks interpreted that in two different ways. The cartographers, the map makers interest was to advise them is this is as much as we know to draw out a known world and out before there is just be aware most sailors and folks would take it as it was a prophecy. They would die if they went there. And so what does that have to do. It'd be a good question now for your listeners and yourself of where. Where is Dave going with this? I would suggest to you that we all have mental maps that we get up with each day. And your folks coming into this because we're human beings. Dave had a mental map that was limited but but guess what is there could be a prophecy of this is could be doomed. Scary. There's a lot of negative things could happen out there. But the aspect of it is if you see it as opportunity because for those captains and sailors, that adventurers and explorers that went out they found amazing new worlds. And that's where the journey that your folks are on. And the aspect of it is where are we in our mental maps? Because once we step out of the unfamiliar it is different. But what you do is you align yourself with a peer group of folks that are like minded, not group think, group think is everybody sort of thinks the same stuff like minded is you think about it. But you have a diversity in skills that you bring into that room is you want to be surrounded by those folks. And I think that is the absolute genius that you have in your model, Jeff, is just what you're sharing. I just, I'm so proud and so excited just to have this conversation with you, Jeff, is that you're providing with the heart and intent of these folks your version of unleashing exponential growth inside of this. And yes, they are standing here be dragons out there. They at least looks that way. But they're going into that with a partner that's going to pour into them experience and education and knowledge and be there with support. That is what I just believe the genius and the power and the strength of what you are offering. So yes, some of these hopes. There's things that are going to be exciting about not working in a corporate world, for instance, or working for someone else. But then there's also some scary stuff that goes with it. But when you have a belief in yourself that you don't have it all figured out but it's figureoutable, you have a partner with you that is guiding you and sharing with you and pouring into you every step of this way. Now it's up to you and each of the folks that decide to take that journey. Are they going to be open to that? Are they going to share it when they hit adversity? Are they going to dust themselves off and get back up or what are they going to do? Now that's a choice we individually have to make because it won't always be a. An interstate. It's going to be some bumpy roads, there's going to be some rocky roads and we're going to. And as long as you're up for learning and growing at each of these experiences, the folks that are leading these, the franchise or it is just amazing what can be accomplished when you work together in that. As I know anybody that's opened their heart and thinking to help, I know Jeff Dune and his team. You're going to pour into them in some way, shape or form. Like you say, the hammer doesn't help a carpenter unless he picks it up and does something with it. Now that's a responsibility we have. But that's where I see this world of opportunity is that if our mindset is into growth, we surround ourselves with the right people. As I said, as W. Clement Stone said from the toilet Hill, what we can believe and conceive but we can achieve. And that is all possible when you're, when you are equally yoked with the right people and I think that's an important term is equally yoked with folks that believe and think the same things.

Yes, what's fascinating is I don't believe you've ever shared with me the customer and the employee being at the center of your leadership and making sure that the right stakeholders were at the center of what you built there. And our president of franchising, Michael O', Driscoll, 36 years, just a storied career in franchising, international franchising over the years, just one of the best backgrounds and resumes you'd ever see in franchising. A year ago, he introduced this diagram into the slide and it was. And he said the best organizations focus on human centered design. And he said, what we need to do is we need. Our organization needs to put for us because we're directly engaged with the franchisee. We put the franchisee at the center of our organization and we do it like you said. I said, how do you do it? Visually, there's a graphic. We use it and we share it and we speak to it. But our franchise owners also need to be thinking in terms of that. Who goes at the center of their organization and what are all the things that we're doing to uplift and support and to coach and to guide and to serve. And from our perspective, we always need to take a back seat to the success of what our franchisees are doing in this organization, who they are, what they're doing. And so subtle, but significant. You make different decisions when you constantly remind the organization who is at the center and it's our role to serve them. So that really answers the question. Because what I was getting at was, okay, you grew this company and you shared with me one time, every hundred million dollars that you grew the organization, you had to kind of break it apart, put it back together for the next phase of growth. And I probably have these numbers wrong, but I think you said at $500 million, we had half the number of employees that we had at 250 million or $300 million. Because automation and supply chain and maybe business model changes or things that you did differently or did better or outsourced or insourced, whatever you did there. But it was a constant evolution that was always mindful of who you were there to serve, who needed to be successful. So that answers my question is visually represent in as many ways possible what it means to be an eagle in this organization. Why eagles succeed. Who's at the center of the organization? Is this decision we're making today relevant? Does it serve the constituents that are at the center of our organization? And if it doesn't, then we really need to Think about why we're doing it. You know, there's a great book out there called Fake Work and there's. And it's, you know, as companies grow and they add people, they, they start doing habits that, that, that really, you know, that lose sight of the out for the people that you're really there to serve. And, you know, I use the example of, I mean, Elon Musk. I mean, here's a guy who has no limiting beliefs. Whatever is in his psychological makeup, that guy has no limiting beliefs. He can acquire a company like Twitter and oh, by the way, look at it for two weeks and then say, these are the only things that matter. Anybody that's not doing that, we don't need fire 80% of the people. And then some two months later, my Twitter icon changes to X on my phone. Automagically, how does that. That's never happened before.

Right, so.

And oh, by the way, the service continues to provide the same service that it did before, you know, with 20% of the people. So that's an extreme example. But I don't think the example is lost on us is knowing the small subset of things that truly matter in a business and keeping those front and center for your team and your act, informing your actions, your behaviors, your decisions, and where you spend your time. You know, organizations can get fat and sloppy very quickly, and it's not anybody doing anything with the wrong intention. They're just not clear on what the purpose of the organization is.

I would again say amen, Jeff.

How is that, teach? How's that, coach?

Great, boy, you're doing great. I'm learning from the student. No, no, the perspective you mentioned, sharing some insights and what you just shared is that Elon Musk is. He was on a panel discussion some weeks ago and he spoke about, you know, how he got there and what they do and what he believes in. Me, as he looks at life as first principles. And first principles is an idea goes back many, many years. But first principles were absolutely necessary. And first principles are. Is being a customer centric organization, what are those fundamental truths? How do we simplify our business? People make businesses very complex. And you would say complexes to help serve the customer. And they don't. They actually are a negative. But you have to understand what are the most basic and important things we do. And those are really the first principles because the world right now is chasing a lot of shiny stuff. And all it does is burn up time, money, and energy and the process of doing it, but not adding value. Because I think as Drucker said, you're either adding value or you're destroying value by each of your actions. There's no middle ground. No middle ground. And then the question is, is how to simplify. And that's how we did and where we were able to significantly cut our workforce. And it wasn't because we didn't love our workforce. We did it through attrition, repositioning people, etc. But the aspect of it is the world was changing. And right now, I am sharing with members that my word for this year is readiness, because there's so many shifts and changes out there in leadership. And that term, buca, that was a military term that was derived in the Cold War era. And then it went into business learning and strategy until we had these windfall times, and everybody sort of forgot strategy. They sort of just said, hey, I'm really good. And I forgot. Maybe the world was really good at that point inside of it. But Boca being it's a vault world, it's uncertain, it's complex, there's ambiguity, et cetera. And I want people ready for it. It's like the. The Navy seals thing is you don't rise to the occasion. You fall to your level of preparation, and that's what you do with home brands and your franchisees, which I think is so admirable. You prepare them. Things are shifting and changing, and you're preparing and shifting and changing for their success. And when you're relating, it was. Miller wrote, the book is a story brand, and it was always about making the customer the hero. And whether that customer at that point is a specific client or it's one of your team members, I want to make them the hero. You know, we get caught up in selling all the features and benefits, and we pour into them, and there's good things to have, and that's important. But at the end of the day is what the customer's gonna do is, what does this do for me? And they all have hopes and dreams and challenges, et cetera. And if we come alongside to make them the hero, guess what happens? That same tide raises all ships, and I think that's what we are called to do. And how are we ready for those? And are we ready to truly listen?

So well said, Dave, in what you do now, would you care to talk a little bit about Vistage and how that enables you to speak into entrepreneurs and business owners? And I will share that I was a member of maybe your first Vistage group in the Charlotte region, and I think the average tenure of Vistage members is somewhere around eight or nine years. I don't know if it's changed over time, but I was in for nine years and I was in it all the way up until the time that I sold Advantaclean. So I joined in 2009 and I was in all the way up to 2018. So every step along the way I had a opportunity to go sit with other business owners and leaders and also be coached and mentored by Dave. And it was really, I really can't articulate the impact that that made. So Vistage was, you know, kind of when the student was ready, the teacher appears situation for me. What is going on with Vistage today and anything you'd like to share about how that organization works and why you chose. You could, you could literally do anything. Dave, I imagine you get calls every day. Come run this company, come, you know, do this, come do that, speak here, speak there. Give me one on one coaching. You just have a resume that I know. People reach out to you for help all the time. Why Vistage for you?

Vistage put me in the center of the, of the donut. I was a member for about 12 years and never use average and Jeff Duden in the same sentence. That's why that's my coaching advice. I appreciate your humbleness but a member for 12 plus years. I have been a chair for 12 plus years now in that process as a facilitator et cetera and see these groups and folks grow and I'm delighted. I honestly told by Jeff Doon and a great how much Misty Jen Dave did for now I'm just saying how, how proud I was as a member. I haven't lost my sense of humor but the aspect of it is, is that if the only coach you have is yourself, you've got a fool for a coach and that's pretty strident. It sounds a little bit tough but the aspect of it is, is who you surround yourself with. And it's interesting in growth there are certain instincts that get you so far in life and you have folks that will be hearing this, that they're hearing this because they've had a level of success so far and you're going to help them surpass that by exponential increments. But then is there after you get past instincts, people start to get some skills and stuff. Then we start making judgments and judgment sounds like a good thing or a bad thing. But the judgments get to be like the known world map. And what happens is then we don't step into the familiar because we have all the answers. At least we're comfortable with wanting to have. And now we got to step into this land of unfamiliar which is opportunity and risk, et cetera. And fact is for my last Vistage group I have my hands here. You would know this as a coach red flag. It's a challenge flag. And Vistage as, as a member, as at in my role as president of US Born North America they provided that challenge because when the challenge flag is thrown it stops the action, right? And then as you got to evaluate what the decision was and made and then, then you go forward, whatever that answer is. Now some of the fans don't accept it. But inside of this but we've got to be willing to throw the challenge flag on ourselves to start with. And that's what we do at at Vistage. And now I have the great opportunity to work with a hundred plus executives. I just. It is a delightful experience. It's my give back in in the world which I have been blessed and I want to see others blessed. I want to live my purpose. And there's a non selfish side. There's a selfish side of that. If I'm living my purpose, I've got energy, I have life, et cetera. And people stop having purpose that they sell. Retirement sounds like a great idea. And I said what are you going to do then? And what I will notice if they retire and don't have something to do, they unfortunately pass away shortly. But I also learned is inside of this is I hold up and you've seen this from me before is whose job am I doing now? And this is the learning is that I'm just thinking about my, my heart pouring out to these folks that are going to be taking off and investing their life, livelihood, time, money and energy to follow their dream. And to do it is you know it'll be heavily on your shoulders to begin with. But what you've got to develop is whose job are you doing to begin with you're doing everybody's job. But for that work to scale is you start to get the right people around the table with you that can help lead and take this to the next level. And that's what Vistage does is it helps you step on beyond is if you're doing everything yourself is you have one of the things in leadership is how do you get work done through others. Even though to begin with is I wore about three or four different hats just like they will inside of that. But as you scale you got to scale and bring the right minded people Alongside you. And that's what Vista's taught me. The other aspect of it is, is you got to keep pouring into leaders that you surround yourself with. If you're not developing your leaders, you're not really executing as a leader. And so that development is necessary, is getting an environment where they can learn, where they can grow to change. Because like I said, there's stuff going on in this world as far as leaders. We think when we talk about companies, we think about hierarchy. There was a word invented a couple years ago called wirearchy. And what it simply means is that every job is essential. And this guy, pretty smart guy Cotter, wrote this book, change. Harvard professor has written a number of books. But inside of changes, anything you do at this time, everybody's got to be informed in the organization because there's so many impinging points and connection points. Where the term wirearchy comes together is you need everybody that is thinking through shifts, change, technology. I'm just thinking about AI, getting my members ready. How do you deal with this? How do you figure it out? How do you harness it? How do you capture it in a way that adds value to your organization and to your customers? So there's a continuous learning that's going to take place. People got to keep stretching. You know, as I said, as a challenge flag, and we threw this out. The last meeting is no challenge, no change, no growth. And that's what I believe is our purpose in life. And that's what we'll be remembered by, is how we poured into other leaders. And we also had the courage to throw the challenge flag out for ourselves and for our team and for our customers. If they don't stop what they're doing and evaluate it, they're going to keep on getting what they don't want. And so I think this is the goal. As I tell folks, I'm not much into smart goals. I'm in the thing smart. I'm into genius goals. Genius goals is, I think that stands for greatness of purpose. I think E stands for exponential, N for no limits, I for impactful, U for unreasonable, and S for stretch. And generally what happens in smart goals, we figure out a way to stay safe. And when you stay safe is you don't venture out into the land of the unfamiliar. And we don't reach out in the land of the unfamiliar. We don't ever learn what is that potential for greatness and richness and rewards that that are out there.

I hope everybody listening is prepared to put time on their calendar to listen to this again with a pen, with a paper and to write down and to really ask yourself these questions that Dave is asking us today, because this is, this is the stuff that great companies are made of. Whoever's got their hands on the wheel of the ship, you know, really have an obligation and responsibility for leadership. Anything left to itself always goes from bad to worse. You might take a break and you might think, well, there's people working on it and it's fine. That's a fallacy. There's constant alignment, constant inspection, constant feedback, constant conversations that need to happen just to make sure that again, in a very competitive business environment that you are and your team are competing in the greatest way possible, with the greatest efficiency, with the best thinking and allowing people to be great by providing them the autonomy that they need, but also the purpose, meaning and direction speaking into them. So, Dave, this has just been amazing. I can't thank you enough for speaking into people's lives today like you did for me over more than a decade. And it's just such a pleasure. So as it relates to Vistage or anything else that you're doing, how can people best get in touch with you? Where would you direct them?

My email is david.zurfossistantagechair.com and that's V as in Victor I S T A G E. I just encourage them on LinkedIn under David Zerfos. So you're welcome to reach out. My goal is whether you're a Vistage member or not, I'd love every one of you to be that, by the way, because I believe in that growth experience because I personally experienced that there's to reach out. And I'll be glad to chat if you, if this raises questions in your mind because that keeps me on purpose of sharing and doing it. So I share with folks in addition to my members. But I also thought of one thing else, Jeff, in this process is that when we started and as we grew at Husqvarna, I think is a lesson that's really important to your new business owners and your existing ones is paint the picture of where you want to go write your stage play the best you can get up on that stage and you got to start acting, talking and walking like that. And that isn't being a phony. It isn't inside of that. When our people are 29 million and I wanted to go to a billion is I wanted them, they had to get up there and start walking and talking, acting like a billion, whatever your number is. And there's only that that one just has commas behind it. The point is, is where do you want to go? And you got to start walking and you got to start talking like that and you got to start acting like that to be able to get there. And there's no better guide than you have and than Jeff and his team of incredible people that share in that same customer centricity to make things happen in your success.

Wise sage advice for everybody. When I sold my business, we had a call and you counseled me that whatever it is I chose to do next, always check and make sure that it was aligned with my purpose. And that was a statement that you made to me that I carry with me to this day and to the best of my ability. I am always considering alignment of purpose in the things that I do. And it because when you come out of the decompression chamber of building business over 25 years and now you have opportunity to do almost anything you want to do, there is a. There's a little pitfall there where you do try to do too much and just because you did something before, you think you can do it again. So that's been really impactful in my life. It's probably kept me out of trouble and kept me between the lines on the road as I've gone forward. If there was another sentence that you would share or one thing that you would share to somebody to speak into their life to make an impact in their life today, what comes to mind.

Be on purpose and take some time to unpack that Kevin McCarthy wrote a great book on purpose person and on purpose business and then he has chief leadership officers out now. But I just find this purpose is absolutely essential. And as I shared early on, is this renewal that's necessary in this country, in this world. And I think we can play a small part, but a big part is that in this renewal is living on purpose and a very clear purpose and then not compromising. It is hearing people and it's listening to others that have different thoughts and different ideas. But don't compromise on your core principles and who and what you are. But being on purpose is life itself. When I'm on purpose and sharing the things that I evolved from, my life is exciting and exhilarating. Make sure you get back in there and re exhilarate it. This renewal on your. On your purpose, vision, mission and values and the world's exciting and I'm just excited about the difference they all are making in this world. One family, one home at a time. That's. That's where it works.

Well, that's perfect. David. On behalf of everybody, thank you for investing your valuable time with us today.

You are extremely welcome as always.

This podcast with David Zerfoss has been brought to you by Homefront Brand, simply building the world's most responsible franchise platform, all the while delivering enterprise level solutions to local business owners out there on the home front where it counts. So if this sounds like you and you're interested in fulfilling your future with Homefront brands, check out homefrontbrands.com today and start your next chapter of greatness on the home front with us. I will be right here looking for you and thank you for listening.