Being Open to Opportunities for Growth with CEO of Paladin Software James Creech

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind.

I am here with James Creech. He's. What is your title With Paladin Software?

I'm the co. Founder and CEO.

Co founder and CEO. So if things go wrong there, he gets all the blame.

That's right.

And if things go well, it's due to the success of his incredible team.

You got it. That's right. 100%.

How many employees do you have, James?

We're a little over 20 people now. 21, 22. Somewhere in that neighborhood.

Yeah.

It's amazing how big you can get and how much territory you can cover using technology with just a handful of people right now, like you say, you guys are expanding into multiple countries. You've got offices and three continents. It's just amazing how you don't need hundreds and hundreds of people to do astounding things if you use the leverage that's available today. So let me ask you this. How did you wind up in. Did you have an interest, what kind of interest in business or what direct growing up? What were your forming things that you gravitated to that you feel like, influenced you when you started your business?

Yeah.

In other words, what gives you the right at 25 years old to start your own podcast? You've got to have a certain confidence about yourself to be able to start that. At 25 years old.

Yeah, sure thing. You know, to be honest, it was just, why not, right? I mean, I was listening to a lot of podcasts at the time, and I figured, hey, I want to be able to learn from these great guests and share their stories with more people. So just said, hey, why can't I give it a shot? And I think that's a great philosophy and attitude that a lot of young entrepreneurs need to have is, you know, you can't wait until someone gives you permission. You have to be willing to take risks and take chances to do it on your own.

And so growing up, were you, you know, what did you do right? What would you say, and why did you do the those things?

Well, I'm fortunate to have awesome parents and a really great family structure that I think helped me in the early days. And, you know, I did a lot of things when I was young. I Was I was really academic oriented and loved going to school and learning new things and participating in a lot of, you know, sports, playing tennis and soccer and everything else growing up, but then also doing things like mock trial. That was one of the formative early experiences for me where, you know, it got me interested in playing political science and I was pre law at usc. Figured, you know, I wanted to go to law school at a certain point and ended up interning at a law firm and really enjoyed it, but kind of found myself going more the business direction. So I think just being open to opportunities, whether that was as a kid or, you know, in college, and just saying kind of yes to a lot of things, exploring different things, and then kind of figuring out, okay, what do I like, what do I not like? And then, you know, going from there.

Where did that come from? Did you have any role models that kind of influenced you, encouraged you to go in that direction, that, that caused you to feel like that was the way to go?

Certainly my parents definitely have been inspirations and role models for me throughout my life and then been fortunate to work with some really great people over the years and trying to glean things from each one, professional contacts and relationships. Gosh, there's so many Clint Soli, Jason Rapp, Eric Brownstein, probably many more that I'm forgetting, but just incredible advisors, mentors, resources for me in my life that have encouraged me, believed in me, and challenged me to continue on my growth and, you know, encouraging me to try new things and experiment and learn and, you know, figure everything out on my entrepreneurial journey.

Well, let me ask you this. What did they have in common? And because it's like this, people can, you know, you don't have to just. If you didn't grow up and naturally have these kind of people in your life, you can find them. You can spend time, you can go out of your way and look to associate these with these kinds of people, you know, and there's ways of finding people like this. So you need to know, be clear what kind of people, what kind of influence is, is going to be a positive. And then so when you're looking for, at your associates, the people you're spending time with, you don't just take leftovers.

Yeah.

You can be selective about who you wind up following, listening to, going out of your way, calling up for coffee, bouncing ideas off of. And so what would you say this group of people. Because I'm the product of having some really powerful, positive people along the way impact my life. And I wouldn't be here without them. I mean, there's just no question, hey.

Listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business, has accrued over $5 billion in assets under management, and has done well even during trying times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar Now I've compressed a decade of learning into five short weeks. Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others move up.

Oh, absolutely. I feel the same way. I mean there's, there's so many qualities that these people share in common, but the biggest thing is that they were willing to give. Right. I think I recognize that these are great people. They're very grounded. They have awesome kind of complete lives in the sense of their family, their profession, their community. They found ways to be very enriched and complete and balanced in all those important areas. And they were willing to give of their time and their energy to me. They figured they saw, I think, potential in me or they were also very open to sharing their wisdom. And you know, this snotty nose kid saying, hey, I'll take you under my wing and I'll teach you things. And I try to also pay that forward and then also give back to them when I'm able to. So I'm totally grateful for them. But I think the pattern and the commonality among all of those great resources and guides I've had along the way is their openness and their willingness to give.

Did they ever, did any of them ever say anything to you that you didn't understand at the time or you felt was not really on, on target?

I'm sure, yeah, no immediate examples necessarily spring to mind, but I think there's, there's, you know, things you hear when you're young that you're not ready to hear or fully appreciate and then, you know, you realize them later on. A great example of that is, you know, as I observed, for instance, like my parents relationship in their marriage these many years now that I'm engaged and preparing for marriage with my fiance, there's a lot of these lessons that either you observe or this advice that you've been given that you weren't quite ready for at the time, but now, you know, it carries so much more weight and gravity and you appreciate it as you're ready to enter that phase. So yeah, don't discount those lessons that you get along the way. Sometimes it's not for you right now, but it might hit for you ten years later, even right now.

What things do you look back? What are the things that you're happiest that you did? You know, we all make mistakes and do things like that, but what are the things that you look back that you feel like gave you the biggest advantage?

I think I'm happy that I chose my own path and there. It's changed a lot over the years, but I've, you know, been very purposeful about, okay, what do. What do I want to do with my time? I'm grateful that I elected to start a company and took the entrepreneurial leap of faith, which is a very scary thing and a very difficult thing in the first few years. But I think what I've realized is adulthood in particular, is really all about mastering yourself. And so I've been very fortunate to, you know, have these people around me, have these experiences that have allowed me to understand myself in a very deep way and then take those lessons and apply them as I continue to sharpen the saw. Right. Improve myself, and then also to help others make my business better, and then, you know, coach people that I work with internally at Paladin, but also externally through my other advisory relationships to say, hey, how can. How can I help you, you know, learn from these lessons? And what can I learn from you through this as well?

I appreciate. I appreciate you taking the time, and I'm excited about your career. I am curious what main thing motivated you to start your own business when you did start it?

I think it was an opportunity to challenge myself, and I'm very privileged to have two incredible co founders, and collectively, the three of us thought, okay, this is the right moment in time. We've got a great team, We've got a good idea. We can execute against this. We don't have all the pieces necessarily perfectly assembled yet, but we can figure that out as we go along. And we want to bet on ourselves because we see Influencer Marketing as this huge, explosive growth channel. We see the opportunity, and we want to help realize that. So I think that's been probably the biggest lesson throughout.

Yeah, and you make a great point, is that when you launch all you need, you don't need the perfect plan, but you just need to see your way clear to where, you know, we can make this work. Any of the unknowns we could figure out along the way, we'll either figure it out or we'll ask somebody else. You know there's nothing new under the sun. You know, somebody, whatever we run into somebody else has figured out, but this is doable and so we're going to go for it. And so thanks so much, James. This has been a lot of fun. Best wishes moving forward.

My pleasure, Larry. Thank you for having me. It's been such a delight getting a chance to talk with you.

I'm going to look forward to the next time. Thank you, James.

Me too. Thanks. Take care.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as as possible. I'm Larry Weidell and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go.