Episode #636 - Managing Your Business Sales Team with Joel Yi, CEO at Joel Yi LLC

Welcome to this edition of the Million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

It's interesting that you, you see there are, I mean, we, we have had some CEOs that seem to be in their monster stage when they would come down to run the company. You know, we went through a period of time with our company out in Atlanta where they would send out one, one incredibly strange CEO after another down from New York. And you know, we did get, most of them are pretty, pretty decent. But we, we did have, we did have one that would, you know, fire people on the elevator if they didn't basically bow down. Oh, you know, yeah, who is that guy? Fire him. You know, you know, get off the elevator, go back there. Who's that guy on the elevator? Go in and fire him. You know, I've been with the company 35 years. You know, gosh, you know, things like that or you know, come in and you know, we had a kitchen outside of his office and bring in, you know, he'd have breakfast in the offices, secretary would bring in, our assistant would have, bring in his cereal and if it wasn't the right temperature, he'd throw the, you know, milk and corn flake up against the wall and you know, just a real, you know, real five year old, you know.

Right, right.

But you don't have many of those. Most. What do you find that most of the people at the top have realized you got to get things done with people.

Yes.

And the better you treat them, it's easier for them to go the extra mile putting up with you. Because none of us are going to be that easy to work with.

Absolutely.

Especially if you're in a leadership situation, you know, and one thing that people need to know when, especially if they're being coached, you know, it's just like don't expect yourself to be perfect and emotionally, you know, and it's like, you know, there's, there's going to be times where you're just going to be hard to live with. But you know, apologize for it as much as you can or when you can treat people as good as you, you, you can. But don't overdo it when you getting down on yourself because you really screwed up, you know.

Right.

Because everybody's going to really screw up and then you just really make, make it right, you know, one way or the other. And then if the people can't get over that and accept the apology or whatever, then that's their issue. That's not your issue.

You know, like well said.

Well, they, that even, you know, say in the Bible, I think it says live at peace with, with, with other other men and women as much as it's in your power, you know. And so past a certain point, don't get over yourself because there's a lot of pressure and a lot of, a lot of fireballs that fall out of the sky on the head of whoever's in charge.

Yes.

And you don't what I. What creates the most stress. You don't have time. You know, it's just like, bam, you know, you're in the middle of this thing, stressful situation and that's when everything unravels. You know, they unravel at the worst possible time. You know, they, you know your house is going to burn down the day after you lapse the fire insurance, you know.

Right, right. Yeah.

And the leaders got to somehow cover all of that and make it come out right. And so you're not going to be perfect, but you can solve it and keep on going. That's the main thing if you're treating people right because they'll give you the latitude. And so what kind of things have you, what do you think you've had? So let's talk about some of the turnarounds you've had here recently and how, how and why you think you were. You made a difference, you know, like what do you bring to the table, what you know and where you could say that was very satisfying. You know, it's like when you're talking to yourself, you're not going in in front of the company and prayed and say, thank goodness you guys are smart enough to bring me in here because you were going nowhere. And then when I showed up, everything, you know, you can't do that. But when you get off by yourself, again, you're giving all the credit to them. But when you get by yourself, yourself, you take satisfaction when you do a good job and you are making a difference. Where do you think you make a difference?

I think based on what I shared about my leadership learning experiences, I made the most difference, at least in the past two years, really with people. That's a great book. I'm sure you know the book who, not how by dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. And it's just literally what you said. Like, the top leaders recognize that they need people to accomplish goals. Right. They need to treat their people right. I've been On a path to really make sure. Just a saying. Right. Like in business, that your clients always come first. Client obsession. Right, right. That's cool. But I believe in employee obsession. I believe when you take care of your team members first, they'll take care of your clients.

Yeah.

So I've been on that mission to really make sure that I'm a good leader, I'm a good person. I'm setting the right example. I'm being a good role model, and I'm leading from the front, and I'm saying sorry to people when I make mistakes. Doing my. I'm doing my best to do that. And so I think, for me, that was a big. I think that's a big thing that I brought to the table, the leadership.

And how does that work out in. When you come into a situation and evaluate a situation and you're called in to help turn them around and get going, how do you. What are things. How do you go about getting to that point where you can make those kind of contributions?

Yeah, Great question. So a lot of my clients these days, they hire me for sales management consulting. Literally, they say, joel, got a problem? My sales team is converting at less than 10% conversion rates. Our short rates are horrible. Can you come in and take a look? So I come in, and the first thing I do is not only I don't just question the salespeople, but I figure out what is going on at the leadership level.

Yeah.

What are the leaders not doing? And I guarantee you, the miss. The issues are always at the leadership management.

Wow. And so then what do you do?

Well, then I literally say, well, here's my training program for leadership for sales management.

Yeah.

Let's go through it. Let's jump on once a week and let me coach you through. And then. Then the results. The results improve. Right. Just from that.

But with the top. But you're. But you do it with the top people.

Yeah, I do it. Yeah. So, like, I. Okay, so here's the mistake. When I first did sales consulting, when I first did sales consulting, I would only go and train the salespeople. Right Then I realized, this isn't working. Because as much as I could make these salespeople good, they had so many obstacles on top, at a top level that held them back. So I realized I actually have to. Actually have to work with both parties.

Yeah.

Both the people, but also the management.

And this is why I recommend people who really want to get an education. Go and find all of the old episodes of Caesar the Dog Whisper.

And.

Watch those Things because you find out he could train the dog, no problem. You know, the vicious this, that and the other. But it's always. He's always. It's the owners that are the problem.

Amazing.

It's like with my, you know, I go see my sister and her family and, you know, they have the dog inside the house and acting like a lunatic. And I said, yeah, but you guys always watch, you know, Caesar, you know, what's the deal? What I said, all you got to do is this and the other. Well, we don't want to do that. You know, and this. Yeah. You let the dog. Right. It's one thing to watch the program, but.

Right.

You know, because he established that the dogs want discipline.

Right.

They want order. They, you know, in the absence of that, they're going to act out to see if they can make you stand up and take charge of the situation. If not, they'll take charge.

Right, right.

And I always love these things on the episodes where you have, like, in Central park, you got like, Garrett, someone like, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, like Jerry Seinfeld.

Yes.

Taking his total out of control dogs out through Central park and he's got to walk them, you know, a couple times a day.

Yeah.

You know, or have them walk. But usually, you know, it's amazing how much they walk them themselves. But no, when they go back into their sanctuary, their. Their 20, 30, $40 million house in the east, Upper east side, that they're going into a kingdom ruled by two or three out of control.

Right. Yeah. That's funny.

All you gotta do is assert yourself and you're not being bad to your team. Install some order and things like that, and you want to do it in a way where they understand. And what was one of the most difficult cases you've had so far to get to bring people through, would you say?

I think. I think the toughest moments are the moments where, like you said, the commission salespeople, they really want to make money and they want to win. And their offer, their product has so much potential and it's a great product. But then for me, it was just having a leader that had a big ego, you know, like inflated ego, that wouldn't want to listen, that wouldn't want to change. And like, I could literally see all the potential being, like, literally burnt, dissipating into the air because one person's ego, and to me, those are always the toughest because they're not. They're not going to. I mean, I can lead a horse to water, but I Can't make the horse drink water, right?

Yeah.

I can point these things out to the leader as a peer, but it's up to him or her whether they want to implement what we teach them. I think those are always the toughest moments where I can't get through to a fellow leader. Basically.

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Yeah, and I think that's one of the things that's rewarding about getting bigger and bigger and bigger is that you can say yes, no to bigger and bigger. Bigger people. Like, you know, I don't care how much business you bring, this, that the other, it's not, not a good situation for me. I don't, you know, I don't think that you and I would, would mesh. You know, your style obviously works.

Right.

You know, I don't want to be the, you know, creating problems and just back away, you know, and because you want to get a situation where you can be successful and I'm sure you analyze things in that you've learned to analyze things that way. How long? What the contracts that you have with people, how long do they usually run?

Yeah, so I always start engagements at three months. But because that gives me time to analyze, put in plans to play, do coaching, have my team come in and then we go month to month from there. There are clients who I've known for like years before I worked with them. I give them month to month contracts. But just like you said this week, we literally gave out, you know, multiple. It was, you know, Almost, probably almost $50,000 of refunds to clients that we just didn't want to work with. Yeah, they were just not wanting like they were. We're just not a good fit. Right. So it's like at the end of it, say, you know what, I've gave you something for free. You can keep, you can keep the scripts, keep the templates, but here's a full refund.

Yeah. That's a really good feeling, isn't it?

Yeah. Oh, it's. It's scary, but it's also a good feeling. Right. It's like, you know. Yeah.

Well, it's a part of your progression. And the thing is, you might. You might as well let them have it because they're never going to pay any attention to it anyway, even if you were there. Right. There's. There's some people that won't get it. Even if you're in front of them screaming the answer in their face, I go like. I don't know.

I just don't get it.

It's like, you know, but there's no, you know, there's no reason. We're not always, you know, and sometimes it's our fault that we're just not communicating with them. So we don't need to be on the high horse to where they're not good enough for us or whatever. It's just like, I just don't think I'm your. I just don't think I'm your guy, you know?

Yeah.

So what would you. I think I'm going to have to force myself to wrap this up. I think we could go on and on for quite a while. What did you. What would. What would you say? How did Ulysses broaden your scope right off the bat and things that you found yourself doing? Because not everybody's going to find Ulysses, but you can start doing, you know, the ideas are out there for people to use. So what are some of the ideas he used with you right off the bat to get you known more?

Yeah. So I think the first thing is, like, being consistent. Posting content online, it's not expensive. You don't have to get a fancy camera. You could do it yourself. Right. You don't have. Like, if you. I've been posting content now for exactly a year, and to be fair, it's not like my followers have skyrocketed. I've only gained probably, like, you know, 3,4000 followers in the past 12 months. But it's the habit and the consistency of doing the same thing over and over again that I'm actually looking for. Right. So we post a video every single day. And I think that's one of the best ways is just get your organic content up. So when people search for you, they don't see an empty Instagram. They see that you have hundreds of videos about your topic. Right. So that's the first thing I would do. If you don't have access to or you don't want to hire like a Ulysses. And the second thing I would do, I highly encourage, is people to actually go to in person events. Right. In person events. Invest money in that. It could be free, it could be paid, but go and actually network with people. I still believe, like, I'm a part of a lot of masterminds, Larry. Well, when I say a lot, I mean four. But the true value in masterminds is actually, for me, the people, the networks. Right. I believe, you know, that your net worth, your network is your net worth. Yeah. I believe that the right networks will open the right doors. For me, it's like being able to get out of my comfort zone and being able to talk to people. So anyone that's listening or watching, it's just about being brave or taking the first step to go to an event and then actually talking and adding value to people and trying to see whether you can solve the many problems. Right. Maybe without expecting anything in return in the beginning. Sure.

And a lot what we've seen over the last decades here is the growth of local entrepreneur groups and networking groups and where business leaders in a community get together, meet, lunch, talk over things, have a speaker, but just interact like that. But you don't have to be flying all over the country to these things. And, you know, to get in front of the biggest leaders in the world. You can start locally, and it's just start where you are, start where you can, and start giving you a bigger. Bigger exposure. And how did this change your outlook when. When you started doing this? When you see how it changed you and your thinking.

You mean networking?

No, with. You started dealing with Ulysses. He puts ideas in there. It caused you to do things that maybe you. Well, I'm sure you weren't doing, but maybe you didn't know if it would be worth the effort or whatever. And you're saying. But then from the process. Light bulbs go on in your head.

Yes.

How did that work?

Yeah, I think, you know, with Ulysses, because it's PR and press releases, public relations, but it's more about, I think, controlling the narrative. Right. Of what the world sees about you or your company. And I think that's a very strong. That's a very powerful thing to be able to do or control. And so what I've learned is basically, whoever controls the narrative will always win. Right. In history, the winners and losers of battle. But whoever writes history is always the winners that writes history. Right. In the history books and everything. So I think, for me, it's just. It's kind of one of Those things where it's a, it's a double edged sword. You can use it for good, you can also use it for bad. Right. Like for example, I could come on and just embellish and lie about everything I've done. Right, sure. Well, that, you know, will that, will that get me, you know, bigger, faster? Sure, I suppose. But then eventually you're going to get found out.

Right.

For me it's just carefully, you know, carefully balancing how I use pr, if that makes sense.

Right.

Making sure it's like again, integrity, legit. Yep. Ethical.

Well, congratulations. And the thing I would tell you about your followers, you know, the, all of these things, you really need to hold your judgment until the third or fourth year because it's kind of like, you know, you know, it's like when we went to, because of the regulations we weren't able to make pull this off. We went over to the UK to build a marketing organization and financial services in 2003. And when I went over there, I knew it was going to be brutal. But what I said to myself was like if it takes a whole year of me beating my head against the wall to get just three people, you know, in a part time management, you know, just three decent people that if I call a meeting they'll be there and they're, they're know enough to where they can explain things to other people. If I keep that same program going, second year I will have nine, you know, and then the third year I'll have, you know, 27. And then after, before long I'm, I'm around 180 to 100 wide on my management team because you have to give time for your efforts to compound and multiply. So I think if you stay on your track, yes, this is, we're switching roles. But if I would say to you, the way to look at those numbers is like, it's fantastic because I did get that many. But we're laying the foundation for thousands where we're getting hundreds now and tens of thousands after that, you know, so.

I appreciate that Larry, thank you.

The whole idea is to get, in fact I did a talk on this on Monday. It's like how to recruit tens of thousands of people for decades. And that's what I've done in my business. It's like, you know, you have to have a system and you have to, it has to be simple and you have to stay with it. And that's what I'm hearing from you that you've got going. So I would say stay on track, man.

I appreciate it. Thank you, Larry.

And last words here that you want, you have a last word you want to pass on to the people who've been listening.

I always say this when I, when I wrap things up. And I'm a big proponent of, you know, the whole gain and mindset, which is like winning. Right. So I would say for anyone listening right now, you know, to take a, take a look every night before you go to bed at what you've learned today, what have you gained, what have you won? And then just write it down and that will really serve you every single day.

Yeah. The lessons you learn, you know, like, not everything works for everybody, but we're in the process of finding out what works for us.

Yes.

And that's really gold once you find it, you know, because you can use it forever to create profit for yourself and the people around you. Thanks so much.

Thank you. Larry with you.

Let's stay in touch.

Thanks, Larry. Take care now. Have a good day.

Bye.

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