0316 | Brian Biro
4 Aug 2023 · 41 min
Brian Biro argues kindness isn't soft. Companies like Southwest and Chick-fil-A cut turnover and boost loyalty by treating people well. He offers a framework called the four W's: Welcome, Warmth, We, and World-class.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Brian Biro, www.brianbyro.com and you're listening to EA interviews.
EA interviews, episode 316, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week. Join Mario Ficcini for today's expert Authority Effect interview. How would you like to know the surprising secret that creates long term success? How would you like to know what major corporations do to increase their roi? I'm going to cheat a little bit here, but check this out. Spoken for. Starbucks 35 times, Lockheed Martin 97 times, Pizza Hut 40 times, Allstate Insurance 23 times. Microsoft 40 times. Kaiser Permanente 60 times and ReMax 60 plus times.
I am beyond excited to have by Brian Biro here, the author of the ROI of Kindness, because he's going to be sharing all of these insights and more right right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. And that's why I'm launching my new book to help you, regardless of where you think your current writing abilities are. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.com Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Brian Biro. Brian, how are you feeling today?
I am feeling great with that wonderful introduction. It just proved I'm old.
It proved that you're, you have a wealth of wisdom and experience. And I'm excited to learn some of that because, you know, I see, I saw the one sheet, you know, probably a month or two ago, whenever it was, I was like, wow, absolutely. And you know, reading it over the last couple of days and even now I'm like, I'm not gonna mess this up. We get one shot, this thing's live. And I generally don't look at something, but I'm like, I just wanted to make sure you got the credit because you have just so much experience and I am so excited to have you here. So why do you think kindness is so important?
Well, you know, Mario, first of all, thank you for that. I feel honored to be with you. You're doing an incredible job and you're making a difference with incredible interviews. And why is kindness so important? Well, we all want kindness in our lives. We want to feel that we're treated with kindness. It feels good to be kind. But I wrote the book the ROI of Kindness to point out something that really breaks through a myth so many of us have been raised, especially in the business world to think that sure, kindness is nice, but it's weak. Kindness has got no place in business. It's dog eat dog. But I wanted to first of all research and find the truth. And the truth is that is real old thinking that kindness not only feels good, kindness rocks. Kindness works all the way to the bottom line. Your return on investment.
In every way that you can imagine, from reducing turnover to of course, building up a feeling of loyalty and commitment and inspiration from your team to the way you interact with customers and clients. So I wanted to really bring out the fact that kindness is not just a nice thing, it's it is a practical, productive, awesome culture building tool that can change the way that your team functions, changes the flow of your business and differentiates you in every way. And I also believe we need kindness in our whole world more than I've ever seen in my lifetime that there is so much separation. My mentor was the greatest coach of all time. His name was John Wooden and he used to say we need to be able to disagree without being disagreeable. And that's really at the heart of something that has been building in me. And that's why I had that passion to write this book and not only talk about kindness, but to help people understand how you really deliver it.
What would you say for an organization that is going, ah, that's just that floofy stuff and you know, they're just stuck with that old thinking.
Well, let me give you a specific example.
In the fast food industry, the quick service food industry, what is the biggest challenge that they face? It's very simple. Anybody who has been around it knows it's turnover. And the average turnover in the quick service food industry per year, average annual turnover is 170%. So essentially you have to turn over your employees twice a year. There are two companies in that industry that are known for building a kindness culture. In fact, it's the cornerstone of their entire flow. It's how they are built, it's how they reinforce every day, it's how they train every day. It's in their orientation. Those two companies are Chick Fil A and Starbucks. So an industry with 170% turnover. The turnover for those two companies at Chick Fil A is 14% and at Starbucks is 24%. And when you figure that it costs in that industry about $6,000 every time you replace an employee, that's a lot, lot right to the bottom line. And that's just measuring those dollars. It's not measuring the improvement in customer service. You get with people who have a little more experience or already into. There's a great example, another great example, an industry that, that I use a ton up until about a year ago and starting again because I'm a professional speaker out there, is the airline industry. What's the company that's synonymous with the combination of kindness and fun that is the core of their culture? Southwest airlines. Southwest Airlines. 46 years without ever having a layoff, without ever. Without ever being unprofitable. They were profitable 46 years in a row.
Wow.
Their average turnover is less than 3% in an industry that's 30%. And when you consider how much, much more than 6,000 a person, it does to replace someone in that industry.
Woo.
Kindness rocks.
Absolutely. Those are some killer stats there. It's no longer just floofy or anything. You have, like hard data on it. And I had no problem with it to begin with, but I know some people, you nailed it, saying, oh, it's weak. It's this, that, the other thing. It's like, you know, even if you do have the profits, if you have no soul and no one, you know, oh, they're a good business, they're efficient. But people don't want. I don't. I know. People don't want to do business with businesses and blank, faceless entities. It's a human interaction, and people want nice people.
They do. More than ever. In fact, in the last five years, the single component, the single element, that. That is the biggest element of choice. So how do we differentiate? When you think about almost every industry, if we're in that industry, deliver somewhat the same products, we got to differentiate somehow. And it really comes through people. And by far the most important in terms of how important is in the decision we make. I mean, who we're going to buy from, who we're going to work with, who we're going to stay with. And also in terms of the rate at which that importance is growing, kindness, I'm talking about three times as much as any other element. We want to feel good when we go to the dentist. We want to. Well, we may not feel good at the dentist when we come out, but we want to feel good about how we were treated. We want to feel great about the experience that people really consider us to be important as a customer, that we mean something, we want to feel, and that's how we build an organically sustainable business. Because ultimately what we want is organic growth, meaning we don't have to spend billions of dollars to create that growth. That it comes from word of mouth, that it comes from referral, that comes from people talking about how awesome they felt with you. And I think that every one of the people who turn into your podcast, they think about the companies that they really, really like to patronize, the countries, the companies that they talk about that they go to. I guarantee you somewhere in there is that focus on. On the way that they're treated with kindness, with a sense of, hey, you make me feel like I matter, and I can. I'm not just a number. I'm not just a thing. I'm a human being and somebody that you really want to take care of.
You know, you reminded me a lot of when I was at this leadership event. Horst Schultz, I believe is his name. He was the CEO, or still is, of Ritz Carlton. And he was talking about, you know, if there's one industry you want to be nice to people in, it's the hotel industry. And. And he was giving away all the secrets of why they're so successful in the experience. And, you know, I love that you have the data backing it up. And I'm sure you have a list of a hundred other companies that are super succeeding. So what would you say to someone who wants to incorporate it, but the team might not be on board or they want to incorporate it for business reasons, but it's not the core of who they are?
That's a great question. I think that the key is that kindness. I talk about in the book, that starting place to build a kindness culture is something that's called a kindness value proposition. And the key to doing that really well in an organization is get buy in from your teams, to have your team engaged in the process of designing this. Very simple. It's a kind of vision statement. It needs to be very short, no more than 10 words. But a kindness value proposition is a way of expressing who we are and how we deliver kindness. So, example, Chick Fil A. It's a pleasure to serve.
At Southwest Airlines, having fun and serving people. They don't talk about airplanes and they don't talk about chicken in those. They talk about how we deliver kindness and when people really come around to a simple, clear message. I have a personal experience. When I was in my corporate career long ago, before I went into becoming a professional speaker, our organization turned around with our kindness value proposition. And it was that we are champions of empowerment. Now. We wrote that as a team 35 years ago, and I can guarantee you everyone on that team today will be able to tell you those same words, because there is only Five words. We are champions of empowerment. And every decision we made, every way, every time that we wanted to acknowledge and appreciate someone was built around that core culture. Building principle, culture eats strategy for breakfast. And building a culture starts to be sustainable, starts to be scalable, and that's what we really want. We want to be able to grow with that culture. So start with that simple foundational piece and get by in it. It's funny to talk about, you brought up the best way, the best way I can describe it is when we came up with that simple idea. I was the boss. I walked in the room with this really long, what I thought was really cool written piece that was going to be our kindness value proposition. I don't think they kept one word. All right, Everybody else turned it into we are champions of empowerment. And though it wasn't my words when we came out, it was our words and it became our passion and it became our litmus test as to whether decisions were the right decisions. If they didn't serve, if they didn't fit. We are champions of empowerment. We didn't do it.
What, what time, timeframe should someone expect it would take to implement this? Obviously you could say, let's schedule a meeting, we'll have a group roundtable, we'll mastermind this and that. You can do that within the next 24 hours to a week, depending on the schedule, the industry, this and that. How long would you say it takes to get everyone on board fully, not just fully implement it, but get it into the organization and then have it start taking the roots where it is fully implemented. Is this like a week long process, a 60 day process, a two year process? How quick can someone turn around to start getting these results?
Well, inch by inch, anything's a cinch. So the starting place is to create that first statement. And that can be, it depends upon, of course, upon your, your, the size of your organization. It depends upon, you know, your, where everybody is right now, but you can literally do that within a week, come up with that simple piece. But the way to think about it is not as when are we going to get it done? It's an ongoing piece. You consistently reinforce it. You think about every single aspect of your communication has to come back to that piece. Every meeting you have starts with your kindness value proposition. And it's corny, but it starts to build that piece. And every great team is built around some simple principle, simple belief. Coach Wooden said success is peace of mind. It comes from knowing you have been the best of which you are capable. He Created a simple model called the Pyramid of Success. But the key wasn't they did those. The key was that they were always there every single day until it becomes built in your DNA. So it is really important. I love that you asked the question because we tend to think in terms of tasks and we get it done and then it is done. No, this one is alive, this one is breathing. This is something that you feed every single day. But the initial piece to come up with the kindness value proposition you can do in a very short period of time, even if you're a huge organization, just depends on how much feedback and what mechanisms used to generate that input and feedback to come up with what becomes your model that you run with.
So we talked about why you should be doing it and what the benefits are. Obviously increased profits, loyalty, all these different things. What does it do to the customers when they start having this experience, you know, regardless of the money and the profit margins? Because they don't know those. But what would you say it does to the customers and the brand over the life of the company?
Well, again, that's again a great question. And that is what, what happens with kindness is? Kindness is, is a multiplying kind of impact. Example. There's a wonderful story and Starbucks and, and Chick Fil A of all these stories. But here's a simple little story. A customer came in probably a couple times a week through Chick Fil A one day was in a hurry or was on a phone call while they're picking up their food at the drive thru window and forgot to take their change. It was $2.83. Well, in another organization that doesn't have a kindness value proposition called A Pleasure to Serve, what happens to that? $2.83 goes into pocket, it goes back in the till, that's that, it's over. But because of that litmus test, because of that ongoing cultural phenomena called A Pleasure to Serve, that person who was handing out the food, took that money, put their name on, put the name of the client because they also part of kindness is paying attention to who the person is and learn their name, put it on an envelope, put it in front, made a note to anybody else who was there. Well, a week later, the person comes back in, they get their chicken sandwich at the same time, say, hey, you forgot your $2.83 last week. Here you go. Now how do I know that story? Because it's been told 75 trillion times, starting with that person who was treated with that extraordinary level. So the impact on the customer is Multiplied. I'll give you another example, a personal example.
Please do.
One of the industries that is right front and center in our world in the last year more than ever is healthcare. And I have done over 60 training events for, for one of the larger HMOs in the world, Kaiser Permanente. Well, I was brought into one big medical center who had an area in their company that was not living up to their patient care standards. And patient care is everything that Kaiser is about. And they are very meticulous in how they measure it. And you must be at least above 85. Well, it was mother child health care, which is birthing babies. And you think, boy, that is a good thing in a hospital. But they were having trouble. They could not get over 60 on this scale where 85 is the minimum acceptable. So I came in and did a series of interviews, then we did trainings. And what we established was a really wonderful format to build kindness in your organization that we called the four W's. The first W is called welcome. That kind of starts with the welcome. And not just the first time you walk in, but welcome everywhere you go. And from the team, I found out there were places where people were not feeling welcome. The second was warmth. Now people think kindness, warmth, they're the same thing. But here's where it really matters. It's easy to be kind to kind people. Where warmth and kindness counts is to be kind to people who are not kind, people who are scared, in pain, worried, doubting. That's where they felt they were falling short, was they were kind when people were kind, but when people were a little brusque. And then when you're giving your birth to your first child, sometimes you're in pain, you're worried, you're scared. It's a new experience. So the second W was warmth. The third was one that is vital at any organization. And it's we. We. It doesn't do enough to provide kindness to your customers. If you're not providing it to one another, sooner or later it's going to come out to the customer as well. And they found that, hey, we do a pretty good job in warmth and welcome to our patients, but we're not that way to each other. We have these silos between night shift, day shift, between the different functional groups within the organization. And when you put those three together, welcome, warmth and we and put them in the context of kindness, that fourth W will come. And it's called world class. And after one quarter of implementing it, after two years of being under 60 on their scores, they were 88. The next quarter, they went to 92. And they've never gone back because they continually focus on these simple four W's. That's how effective and simple it can be in a gigantic organization.
That's impressive. That's a very significant jump. It's like 20, 25%.
Huge jump. A huge jump. And. And then think about the other side of it. Think about how good people feel to be an organization that is creating that kind of word of mouth, that kind of. That kind of feeling that when you walk in, you feel really a part of something rather than it's just a.
Job and keeping it going. You said they never fell back. It's one thing to get there, and by all means, you know, for people that have done that, great job. But it's another thing to keep it, no matter what the industry, business, personal, you know, anyone. I don't want to say, well, yeah, anyone can get there. But it takes a different type of person to maintain it.
And it's keyone key principle to make that happen is simplicity. Keep it simple. You know, the kiss principle. Keep it simple, superstar. Because we tend to complicate things. And when we complicate things, then it starts to get. It starts to get tougher to maintain that focus. All right, so the key there was. It's the four W's, and we repeat them and repeat them. Everybody knows them. And. And so it starts to build, as I say, into the DNA of the organization to where it's an automatic. It's a habit. It's an absolute natural focus, and that's how we can maintain it.
Do you think there's any way they could go from 92 to 3, 4, 5? Is there anyone at 98, 99, or 100? Or is it, like, just the way it's graded?
Well, you're talking to the eternal optimist. So is there any way. Absolutely. We can get up there, but, um.
I'm with you on that.
You raise a key point. There's going to be always somebody who, you know, we all had teachers where we did the best job of our life, B plus. And we knew it was an A in any other teacher. So you're going to have some graders. They're going to be tougher from the patient care standpoint. But so I think that the key is to keep moving forward, keep setting 92, say, hey, it wouldn't take that much to get to 94. And when you're at 94, 96 doesn't look that far away. And 9697 doesn't look that far away. That's how you get there. My first career was as a United States swimming coach and something powerful. A principle called what you focus on is what you create. And, Mario, I can't tell you how many times I had athletes who were striving to make a time standard. So the way you qualify for the national championships is you must meet a time standard. You have to swim an event within that timeframe. Right. I can't tell you how many times I had athletes hit exactly that time standard, because that's what. And we're talking to the hundredth of a second. And it always made me think, what if I would have told them the time standard was a little bit faster? They probably would have hit it. Because what we focus on is what we create, whether it's good or whether it's bad. So that's why it's so vital to focus on what you want to create.
Wow, that's powerful.
1 100th of a second. You never told them. I mean, could you have told them it was one second faster than what it really was?
Well, that's what I thought. I should have done that. But, you know. But they know the standard when it comes to it. But it made me realize how much more we have in this. One of my books is called There are no overachievers. And that was something that John Wooden would say a lot. And what it meant was, we have no idea really how much we have inside of us. Every so often, we may approach our potential, and when we do, it's such a remarkable feeling. And so when we set those standards a little bit higher and we really keep moving those standards forward, we have something in us that can move us towards that new destination and help us identify things ourselves we didn't know were there.
Yeah, and we're always striving for that. You know, the next point, if you're ambitious enough to go from A to B, you want to go from B to C, C to D. And you know something I tell people frequently is don't forget to enjoy the journey, because where you are today is exactly what you were praying for. You know, in my case, 100 episodes ago.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And focus on controlling your controllables. This is a big thing in the last year because that is how you enjoy the journey. When we are controlling our controllables, we feel momentum, we feel confident, we feel inspired. But when we try to control the things we don't control, how do we feel then? Worried, frustrated, angry, Lost. And So all of my work is about focusing on the things we do control. Now, we want great results, but what we need to focus on is what we need to do to get to those results. We focus on what we put in, great things will come out. And so the whole foundation of everything that I teach is about what I call breakthrough leadership. And kindness is a perfect part of this. But it's about the first controllable is to shape your future. And that's about vision that if you're focusing on what you don't want, you're going to get it. Because what you focus on is what you create. If you focus on what you do want, that is like setting that time standard. I'm going to get there. I'm going to get to that. Over 85. The second is to energize and engage your team. One thing that happens in an environment that feels a lot of kindness is energy starts to rise. And here is an incredibly important, simple principle to our children, to our customers, to anyone that we care about having a major positive impact on our life. Our energy is our example. Our energy is our example. People won't remember that much of what you say, no matter how well you say it, and they will never forget your energy. The energy is speaking much louder than words. And so energy is a controllable through the way that we move and our focus on purpose, that is how we can elevate our energy. And the third controllable is to build people, build teams, and build relationships. Mario, every person who watches your podcast, no matter what industry they are in, they are in the same fundamental business. It is called the people business. It is the relationships you build. It is how you grow. It is how you adapt. It is how you change. It's the way you help others do the same that's going to determine as you, not only the success of your business, but as you say, the joy, the fun, the inspiration you have along the way.
This is some great insight. And I want to ask you, like, 551 more questions, but I want to go back first and talk about that energy. Because whether you're in a room with someone, on the phone, you know, on video, whatever the case is, how do you think people sense that energy? I'm glad you talked about the importance, but if you can't see someone, if you're even on the phone, it's easy to tell. When you're in a room with someone and you're near them, you can, you know, you can tell, but how do you pick it up? On the phone, how do you pick it up on. Through video? Why do you think it permeates through all these different mediums regardless? And where does it start with?
Well, that's. Again, you have some beautiful and very, very insightful questions. The banner study on communication was done at UCLA many years ago, and it. And it looked at the three elements in our human communication. There's body language, so that's. That's what we're saying without words, it's tonality. So that's not what we say, but how we say it. And then there's finally, the third element is words. And so this study was set to ascertain what is the relative importance of each of those in what actually communicates. Well, 55% of communication is body language. 38% is not what we say, but how we say it is tonality. Words are only 7%. Now you raised the point. Well, what about over the phone, when they can't see? Of course, now we see each other even on the phone. But the truth is, you can read somebody's body language without seeing it because it's coming through their tonality. You can feel when somebody's really energized. So the first understanding is that communication, that's like when we travel to a foreign country and we don't speak a language. We still can communicate through our body language and even our tonality, we'll get there. The second key is to be fully present. And if there's one thing that I hope I can give to more people than any other idea, it's the importance of being fully present. Energy is transferred only when we're fully present. And the fact is, you can't fake that in communication, you know, on the phone, whether somebody's, you know, multitasking while you're talking to them, because that tonality, that body language shifts, and you pick it up immediately. You can tell when they're watching ESPN when they could be talking with you right now. So being fully present means that when you're with someone, 100% of your mind, body, and spirit is with the person you're with, where they are now. And that sends an unmistakable message. Whenever we're fully present with somebody, it says to them, you're important, you matter, you count. And whenever you're not present, it sends an equally powerful but different message that you're not that important. Now, I think that part of the reason you've been so successful with your podcast is just doing this interview. You're so present. You're right there. You're really listening and taking it in before you formulate what you're going to say next. This is what I call the gift, being fully present. Because I believe that our job, no matter what our position is, our job is what. And I think we're all breakthrough leaders, is to help the people that we lead, that we serve, that we love to know they're important. And the fundamental way we deliver that message is by being fully present.
Wow. I could listen to you all day. Like I would. I can't wait to see you on stage, like, six hours straight. You're. You have so much, your sharing, and I appreciate it. And, you know, I want to make a joke about the phone because, yeah, you can tell when someone's not listening. You'll hear them rustling or just meandering, or am I on speakerphone? Or you have these context clues. But I'll just say this for anyone who tries that crap, change your freaking settings. Because if you're texting someone and the phone is vibrating and you hear.
It'S.
I don't get it from people I talk to a ton. I'm going real back in the long, long time ago. But I was like, really? Really?
All right, then you can't fake being present. We know instantly when somebody has shifted their consciousness away from us.
And you're right. It's in their tone. I mean, I'm making a joke. I'm not making a joke. Seriously, check your settings if you're doing that crap. One, be fully present and it's not an issue. But two, seriously, like, whatever, but you can hear in the tonality, shift in the focus. You don't need all these other things. It just makes it very easy to tell Mario.
I'd love to share a really quick story about how. Please move from your. From your head to your heart. The greatest gift I have ever been given was given by my two daughters when they were 8 and 3 years old. And at that time, my speaking career had taken off. I was on the. And I was consulting for a company that was growing very fast as well. So I was on the road about 24 days a month. And we actually moved from the big city of Seattle to a little town in western Montana so that I would be a more fully present dad. That when I was home, I would work out of my home. I would be there to get them ready for school. I'd be there after school to take them to dance, help them with homework. We'd have family dinners, tuck them in at night. But sometimes we know what to do. We don't do what we know. And at that time almost all of business was done on the phone. We didn't have much email, we had no social media, no text or anything. So I would.
Sounds nice.
Yeah. I would go in my office at 4:40 in the morning and long story short, I missed all those beautiful moments. And one night when I could have been tucking in my daughters and reading them a story and being present, instead I was reaching for my phone in my office and about to take care of a whole bunch of voicemails. And my daughters walked in, crawled up in my lap, looked me in the eye, eight and three and changed my life. And they grabbed my heart and they shook it and they said, daddy, we just want to know before we go to sleep tonight, do you love your phone more than you love us?
I felt the blade go in deep. Mario, you know, Emerson said what you do scream so loudly I really can't hear a word you're saying. And I was living my life as if my phone was a higher priority than my daughter's. Well, I will tell you, I tucked him in that night. And I never missed another night when I was home. The next morning I got them ready for school. And I never missed another morning when I was home. And my wife was like the happiest person in the world because she's not a morning girl. She had been doing, carrying the load of presents. That day I made a significant shift.
Good for you.
And I said from that day forward, I would never do more than seven events a month no matter what you pay me. And so from that day forward, my goal in life became to be more fully present. I never missed one of their dance performances, I never missed one of their school events. But here is the part I thought I was doing it for them. Every dimension of our life, professionally, health wise, everything, elevated with that simple decision to be more fully present. Because you don't get less done being present, you get more done. And none of my books got written until my daughters shook my heart, woke me up and made me realize that the greatest, the thing that is going to last when I am gone to them was that I was present for them even in those special moments when it really matters.
Good for you. Yeah, that's what they're going to remember.
That'S for sure. I was just. I had Garland Vance on a recent episode and he actually was a director for Chick fil A for 15 plus years and we had a great conversation and I'm seeing a pattern here because we were talking about you know, when people remember at the end of their life. And I love what you said about, you know, no matter how much you pay me, because the reality is you can do 35 events a month, or you could do seven and get paid five times as much. It's just math. It's just math.
Very good math. And I will tell you, that became my. That's how I determine my fees. When I started to get demand beyond those seven events, it was time to raise my fees because I was not going to change and I never did. And I'm. And I really appreciate it because presence is the key to balance. We're not going to have equal time. We're just not going to. There's so much going on in the world, but five minutes of being fully present with someone is worth five years of faking it. And you can't fake it.
Oh, I like that. That's a great expert authority insight. I like that a lot. I have one more question for you before we thank our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round.
And I think you're gonna absolutely love it.
I love it. Yay. I'm ready.
It's the wheel of whatever you want. Yellow or black.
I love it. Let's go yellow.
Oh, I've never done this before. That's interesting. Fun. You said yellow. Okay, cool. Yellow. Oh, I gotta ask you that one. Okay. So many questions on there. So my question for you is with the ROI of kindness, obviously it's working personally, it's working in business. Let's take it a step further. What would happen to sports and politics if we incorporated the ROI of kindness?
Now you got my hidden motive, especially the last one, politics. I just believe that what we've done is created so much separation, so much us against them, and it never works. My corporate career. We had my first job in the corporate arena. I ended up becoming a vice president of a large transportation company. And we were, as politics are now separated. Operations hated sales. Sales hated operations, just hated the home office a little bit more. And that just was so foreign to me from my background in sports, where team, team is everything. And that is where I started doing team building training. And I watched us turn from. Not from the outside, not from the marketplace, from the inside. We turned into an enormously successful organization. And that was simply because we understood that we can disagree without being disagreeable. We can respect each other, and then we can start to really honor and value differences. I don't want a team of people who are just like me, because then they'll only see the little bit that I see. I want people on my team who have talents I don't have. I want people on my team have passion in areas that I don't have. And then if we're working towards that common end, that kindness, value proposition, that goal that we're going together, then we're going to be a thousand times stronger than it just having a bunch of people doing the same thing. So a lot of organizations say we got to be like minded. I think we got to be like hearted. That's what really matters. When we're like hearted, then we value and honor differences. And another word for differences that I think is a much more productive word and it leads towards kindness. And we can do this in politics as well is called resources. Differences are resources. I want people who have great talents in the, in the areas that I don't. That's a new resource. So what would happen to this world if we could again remember that we can disagree without being disagreeable. We can find some common ground. We can be a model of that for our children rather than if you don't believe what I believe, you're bad.
The insights just keep coming. Love that. Thank you for the deep, thoughtful response. And I've always envisioned that just what if, you know, the whole why can't we get along? What if we did? What would the world be like if we just stopped some of the nonsense and found ways we could help each other. One of the main reasons I started a business, all it is is asking people for help and you get rewarded for it. Not really that hard of a concept.
Great perspective. We can respect each other, we can respect each other that we ultimately want the same things. We want to live joyous lives. We want our families to be, to be happy, to be healthy, to be safe. Ultimately we got to remember we are going towards the same things and we may have different ways of getting there, but if we start from the place of respecting each other's ultimate outcome and those are the outcomes, then we should be able to find that common ground and treat each other with kindness.
I like what you said about the like hearted.
A lot of people like minded but more need to be like hearted. So thank you for that. We're going to thank our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round. Brian, you've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why I'm launching my new book@eapublishingmethodbook.com so you can learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori, I went from having.
An idea and a possibility to actually getting my book published.
Or Catherine, thank you for making my.
Mom number one best selling authority.
Or Mary Alice, what he got done for me in three days regarding my book launch.
Unmanageable.
John Cody I've worked with Mario over the phone and online and he's been very helpful in getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books.
Rocio, there's no way in the world I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process. Adele, if you're looking for an amazing business coach, I highly recommend Mario Ficini or Bill Benner.
I can't make a higher recommendation for.
Than to work with Mario Ficini. He has been great for me and right now I won't work with anybody else except for Mario.
Hey, their words, not mine. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get your copy and I look forward to hearing your transformation and is our next video success story. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.com and we're back with the imperfect action round. Brian, are you ready to take imperfect action?
I'm ready, I'm ready. I'm loose, I'm ready to go.
All right, three questions, 60 second or less answers. The first question is what is the fastest path to the profits?
Kindness.
Very good. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it.
For prospects making, they tell instead of ask, ask more. You got two ears, one mouth, good ratio, listen first and then you'll make, then you'll make the right direction. You'll go in the right direction.
Excellent. Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?
I could, I could fall back on kindness, but I would say be fully present and deliver kindness that way. And then you're going to really, really build customer loyalty, customer joy, customer referral and recommendation.
I appreciate that, but you would have been fine with kindness. I'm like, we just spent the whole time talking about it and how profitable, how much better it is. Customer loyalty, like all these things, you know, it's a no brainer. So thank you for that. What books would you recommend to Expert Authority World?
Well, obviously the Roi of Kindness is a book that I would love to get everyone to read. It's a quick read, it's a fun read. It's filled with stories. And stories are 22 times more powerful than just facts and information. So stories are way we take things from the head to the heart. I love to help keep alive the principles I learned from John Wooden. My first book was called Beyond Success and it's built around what he called the Pyramid of Success. And if there's a book that I didn't write that I encourage people to read because I think it can change your life. It's called Man's Search for Meaning and it was by Viktor Frankl and it shows humanity how we can endure the toughest challenges as we've gone through in the last year and come out better on the other side.
I like that. Constant improvement, changing the world, making it better. Nothing wrong with that. Actually, let me rephrase that. Everything good with that.
Everything good with that. What you focus on is what you create. Focus on the breakthrough, not the obstacle.
There we go. Where would you like people to learn more?
Simple. Just go to my website, Brian biro.com b r I a n b I r o.com it talks about my speaking, which is my passion. Joke Mario When I am on stage I am 25. When I get off stage I go back to 66 but on stage I am 25. So Brian biro.com thank you so much.
Excellent. Well, it was a pleasure and thank you again for sharing everything. Expert Authority World we have another great episode here today. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day and God bless.
You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate qualified leads while increasing profit for you 247 and if so, how well are you promoting it? With my new book, the Expert Authority Effect Publishing Method, I take you through my process step by step. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get started now. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.Com thanks for listening to today's episode. I would love to know what you enjoyed most from it if you haven't done so already. I invite you to connect with me on my new LinkedIn. You can go to it directly at eainterviews.com LinkedIn Once again, that's eainterviews.com LinkedIn lastly, check out the full eainterviews.com site for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you on the next one.
More from Mario
0551 | Beyond ChatGPT: AI as the Next Evolution of Business Automation with Ethan King
0551 | Beyond ChatGPT: AI as the Next Evolution of Business Automation with Ethan King
0549 | Beyond the Scale: There's a Better Way to Lose Weight with Author and Secret for Weight Loss CEO Dr. Todd Cevene
0548 | Liberty Spenders: How to Reach The $5 Trillion Market of High-Value, Conservative or Faith-Based Clients to Grow Your Business with Author and The Prosper Group Co-founder Kurt Luidhardt
0545 | Scaling Rich: Create Predictable Profits To Grow Your Business Without Burnout with Author, Speaker, and Your Biz Rules Founder Leslie Hassler
0544 | Ego-Free Leadership: Secrets to Breaking blind Spots and Empowering CEOs with Leadership Coach and Vistage Chair Aviva Leebow