Hire an Integrator Who Isn’t Job Hunting | Chad Perez & David Myers

Everybody thought I was completely crazy. Like, you're leaving a career and, you know, you have a pension and all of this stuff, you're leaving all that and you know, you can retire. I could have retired in 10 years. After that, at 45 years old, collecting a pension the rest of my life. And now you're leaving all that behind. Said, yeah, it's just. It's just not for me. It's just I can't stick around. And I didn't like being told what to do by people that I thought didn't know as much as I did.

Everybody. Today I have Chad Perez and David Myers from Pinnacle Security, the premier security services provider in the Gulf south region. Founded in 2014 by CEO Chad Perez, Pinnacle offers armed and unarmed security services with an emphasis on their core values of service, professionalism, respect and accountability. Thanks for your time today and welcome to the show. Chad and David.

Hey. Hello, Mark.

Thanks for having me.

Glad to meet both of you and appreciate you taking the time to join us. So I read that intro and I hear armed and unarmed services. And so maybe you could unpack that for me just a little bit, kind of. What's the difference there?

Yes, I guess I'll jump in. So the main difference is obviously one's armed and one is unarmed. Right. And the types of clients that, you know, select, which service they want us to provide. You know, typically an office building is going to be an unarmed type site, whereas neighborhood patrol would be an armed.

Patrol for the most part.

So it has to do a lot with the different type of clients.

Okay, so is it. Do you do, like, if I'm a, you know, somebody and I'm traveling, do you provide like armed security for somebody like that or is it all kind of local in your market there?

No, it's, you know, not necessarily local. I mean, we cover as far west in Louisiana as Lafayette, throughout the Baton Rouge region, throughout the greater New Orleans area, and as far north as Jackson, Mississippi. So it's not really local. We don't do a lot of temporary kind of close protection. That would be called details. You know, we look for long term contract security.

Gotcha. So, Chad, how did you get into this? How did you get into starting a business in this space?

Well, my career prior to this, I was in law enforcement. So I was a New Orleans police officer for almost 15 years. Oh, my. Started there as a kid, like 21 years old. So really grew up, you know, on that police department. So I was there, spent most of my career there working in swat, in narcotics and Then the last couple years I was there, I did gang investigations here in New Orleans.

Oh, wow. So that's got to be. You've got some crazy stories from that. So were you born and raised in Louisiana?

I am. I grew up in St Bernard parish, which is just outside New Orleans.

Okay, and then, so you got on the police force, you said, age 21?

Yes.

As a kid in the city?

Yes.

And I mean, I've been down there, you know, I've been, you know, in the French Quarter and seen the guys on horseback and, you know, had them yell at my friends and, you know, all that kind of stuff and, you know, just the kind of crazy stuff you see down there on a normal night. I can't imagine some of the stuff that you must have seen, you know, just kind of being there all the time on duty.

Yeah, yeah. Lots of craziness, lots of stories. That's probably for a different podcast.

That's the stuff TV shows and movies are made of.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty much, yeah. So it's. There's a lot that goes on outside of the French Quarter, you know, especially when it comes to law enforcement, in a large majority of it is done outside the French Quarter. So, yeah, it was quite a shock when I first got on. I grew up in the city. I visited the French Quarter. You know, don't tell anyone, but I started going there, like 17 years old, you know, up and down Bourbon Street. So when I got on, that was really the New Orleans that I knew parades and things like that. I didn't know the inner city parts of New Orleans. So it was a pretty big culture shock once I started.

So how many years did you spend on the force?

Just at 15.

Okay. And so you get out. Did you get kind of the entrepreneurial itch? What was kind of the trigger? How did you get off into starting your own thing?

Yeah, it's something I've always wanted to do. I've kind of always wanted to, I guess, work for myself. My dad was an entrepreneur. He started a dental laboratory making dentures, bridges, crowns, back in the 70s. So I kind of grew up with him, you know, run his own business. It's something I've always wanted to do. I saw an opportunity when the police department went under a consent decree in 2012, and they were looking to change the police detail structure to where all police details were going to be run in house and managed by a city department. I knew that really wasn't feasible. I knew businesses were going to be looking for another option, and there really was no mid level option at the time, meaning you had security guards and you had police details and there was no kind of mid market thing, meaning like a retired police officer with a little more experience than a security guard. Right.

Okay.

So that's kind of the vision I saw and kind of the niche I saw that we could fit in. And that was kind of when I took the lead, left the department relatively quick, sat down, talked with my girlfriend at the time, said I was thinking about doing it and really made a decision, like in a couple days to leave that career behind.

Was she supportive?

She was, yeah. She, at the time, she had her own company. She was kind of an entrepreneur early on and was running a corporate housing company. So I was really able to get out while I was trying to build a structure of what the security company may need, may look like. I was able to work with her and really kind of cut my teeth in, you know, private sector. I had known nothing but public sector, you know, structure and the way things work there. So it was a complete.

Very different.

Very different.

Very different.

Very different.

Yeah. It's interesting that you mentioned just sort of that support. One of the patterns that we see a lot is. I was going to ask you, but you offered that your father was an entrepreneur. Right. And a lot of times we see that somebody sort of seen it modeled in their family somewhere, you know, parent, uncle, you know, aunt, whatever. And so that helps support sort of the scary leap that you make. And then if you got people around you a lot of times where, you know, girlfriend, spouse, you know, good friend, whatever, you ask a lot of people and they'll be like, you're crazy. What are you doing? What are you thinking? You know, and so to have somebody that sort of reinforces and supports that, you know, maybe you're not crazy, it helps to kind of take that initial leap, doesn't it?

Oh, absolutely, Yeah. I mean, everybody thought I was. Everybody thought I was completely, completely crazy. Like, you're leaving a career and, you know, you have a pension and all of this stuff, you're leaving all that and, you know, you can retire. I could have retired in 10 years after that, at 45 years old, collecting a pension the rest of my life, and now you leaving all that behind. So, yeah, it's just. It's just not for me. It's just I can't stick around. And I didn't like being told what to do by people that I thought didn't know as much as I did. If that makes sense.

That makes a ton of sense. That Makes a ton of sense. All right, so we're going to get to David here in just a second, so hang in there, David. Want to kind of bring the story along. So Chad starts this company and, you know, out of the gate. Chad, how many people did you have on board with you in terms of other employees or contractors or what?

Zero.

Zero. Just you?

Yeah, actually, I think I told David this story recently. We're at lunch and, you know, so I was out plugging away. Plugging away. Plugging away. I knew a lot of people in the city from a. 15 years I was on a police department, and everybody knew what I was trying to do. And at the time, the police department and the city was having a big crime spike. So people were leaning on me, like, to give commentary about crime and safety in a city. So I was getting interviews on Channel 6 and I got invited to do a talk radio station. Went on a radio station, talked about the company, talked about, you know, this is what we do. This is it. And I had zero employees. No one but me at the time. You know, I believed in the vision that much and what it could be, that it almost manifested that it was there at that moment and was able to talk as if we had it. But I had no one, not even a single employee, not a single contract at the time.

So how long was it before you brought on your first employee about. Or how long did it take you to land that first contract?

About eight months.

Okay.

Yeah, about eight months.

So you probably had some dark nights of the soul maybe along during that period of time where it's kind of.

Like, oh, absolutely, absolutely.

Did I do. Did I do the right thing?

Yeah, absolutely. Start to doubt things and, you know, start to believe, oh, were the people right? That I should not have done this?

Well, it worked, right? So you got through that and the thing, you know, begins to take off and grow. And, you know, at some point. Well, tell me this. How far were you into it before you sort of got exposed to the idea that there's this other role, this other seat that maybe goes along with your seat that could help you get more done, help you grow, help you make your vision a reality?

That was probably about two years ago. So all the way up until that, I guess you don't know what you don't know. Right. So, you know, I was starting. I knew I kind of came into my own, realized I'm not good at certain things, but didn't really know, okay, how do I make up for that? What is a structure to make up for that, you know, how should I do that? And that's when about two years ago is when I found EOS and kind of started to learn about this visionary integrator idea and what it's about. And it was. It was an aha moment. Tell you.

So you figure that out and you go like, okay, this is a pretty good idea. I like the sound of this. And so you jumped into, hey, let's get an integrator in place out of the gate. Oh, no, you didn't.

Oh, no.

How did that transition work?

So I figured that I could still do both for a while, of course. Yeah. So I did that and it didn't work out well. So, you know, we started running on EOS in January of 21. Now, over these the years prior to that, we had experienced a lot of growth. I mean, we had gone from zero to. At the time of January last year, we probably had about 100 employees somewhere right now.

Different world.

Yeah. We were successful despite the fact that despite I say, you know, we just successful despite, you know, the lack of structure. I guess initially I didn't think. And I, I knew at that time I had read rocket fuel. Rocket fuel was like the light shining from the sky directly on me saying, now it all makes sense.

Wow.

You know, now looking back, a lot of things that happened in my police career and kind of the way I knew I looked at things a little bit different than a lot of the people, but it was like an aha moment. Like, well, this makes sense, you know, why a lot of things happened the way they did, both good and bad. So initially when we started, I didn't think I had an integrator on my team. Just at that time knowing and the studying and the reading I had done on what it is, my understanding of it went through our focus day to start and decided to give someone on our leadership team the opportunity to move her into that integrator role.

Okay.

And I still had a little hesitation to it walking out of that day, but I decided to give it a shot. So then we went into the structure over the next few months, kind of what that looks like. And kind of it was a big change for the leadership team to understand what that structure is. There was a learning curve. And within a few months I realized that she wasn't the integrator. And there were some real, you know, highlight moments that made me realize, like, no, that's that an integrator, where they handled that completely different.

Right. So was the team noticing it as well?

Yes, the team was yeah.

So you kind of had that pressure building on you. You're seeing stuff, they're seeing stuff. And so a few months into it, you're like, we got to make a change.

Absolutely.

Got to make a change. So moved her off the integrator position, out of the integrated position. I then stepped into that role.

So quick question on that. So the person who you put in the integrator seat at first, did they stay with the company?

They did, yes.

And so it's somebody who, you know, good core value fit. I'm guessing, you know, that's pretty important to y', all, Right?

Yep.

And so just, you know, it was a right person, wrong seat when you put them in that integrator seat, but there was another seat in the organization that was a right seat for them. So you got back around to that?

Yes, Correct.

How did she feel about it? The whole experience of kind of having the opportunity and then not being the right fit?

She took it at heart at first. I mean, she felt like it was a. She failed, I guess. You know, we had some long conversations about it, and, you know, we went through the whole right person, right seat, and find your unique ability and kind of what this role is. And, you know, so she actually stayed with the company for another year. She ended up leaving early this year. I don't think she ever got past that.

Interesting. Well, let's keep going. I'll come back to my question there. So. All right. So, you know, you said a few months you stayed in that situation, which is good. You know, a lot of people get in a situation where it's not working out, and they don't deal with it. Right. They just kind of keep riding it out, and it just can cause a lot of challenges. So you're strong enough to deal with it and make a change. And so at least in the interim, did you go back into that seat so you're back in both seats again?

I did, yes.

Okay. What else did you do at that point? Did you take some other action to move you forward?

Yeah, so I went back into that seat, and at that point, I kind of had a taste of one foot out of the door. Know, for lack of a better analogy, out the door into the full visionary role. So I had a taste of it.

So you got a taste of it? You got a taste of it?

Yes. Right. So I went back in and, you know, kind of put my nose to the ground and really started moving the company forward where we needed to go, knowing in the back of my mind, like, this is not Me, it was wearing me down. You know, it was taking every bit of bandwidth that I had to do. So then, you know, started talking with our implementer about an integrator and realized that I needed one. You know, I knew I needed one, but was hesitant in pulling the trigger on it for a number of different reasons. Costs.

Talk about those reasons. What was the biggest thing kind of holding you back at that point?

Cost was a big one.

Let's break that down. So how did you think about cost? So you knew that bringing in somebody was going to cost you. How did you think about the other side of the equation, what it might do for you?

So, you know, fought long and hard, talked with my implement about it, and it's like, okay, well, this is what it's going to cost. Right. It's going to be the highest salary we've ever paid in the history of the company. More than I'm making right now. Right. And, you know, can the company afford it? And if the company can afford it, what is the return and how long does it take to get that return? Right, Good. So, you know, luckily we had some cash in reserves, so I said, okay, the cash is just sitting there. Do I take it out and look at it as an investment in the company and, you know, saying, okay, well, we. This will cover the salary for the next year or two, and let's see where it can take us and what the return would be and how quick we can get a return. So that was kind of the.

That's the decision you made?

Yes.

How long did it take you to go from, okay, you know, changed out the person you put in there initially, you step back in there yourself, and now you decide, you know what? This isn't working great for me. I want to be fully the visionary. So you decide you're going to commit to bringing somebody in from the outside. How long was that time span?

About three months.

That's pretty quick.

Yeah, I wanted to get out of it.

That's pretty quick. Chad, you're a quick learner, man. So that's good. All right, so three months of kind of fighting through it, and you're like, all right, we gotta sort this out. Do the math. We're gonna make an investment here. And then how did you approach the problem of, all right, now we gotta go find the right person?

Well, I looked at it at some of the inefficient hires that we've made. We were hiring people that were looking for jobs in this integrator. I didn't want it to be Somebody that was looking for a job. So I decided to get with a professional search firm and went that route.

Okay, who'd you use?

Titus Talent.

Titus. Okay, sure. Okay. So, David, let's bring you into the flow here. So at this point, we're what, we're late 21, something like that? Mid year to late year 21?

Yeah.

Late 21.

Yep. And quarter four.

Q4. Okay. And what were you doing? So, you know, Chad said he was looking for somebody that wasn't looking. That's why he brought in a recruiter. So what in the world were you doing this whole time?

I was previously working at another security company. It's a global firm. In fact, it was the largest firm in the world. And I was working on more of the kind of national level clients for that particular company and just various different roles that went along with the title of. Was the title of Vice President of Enterprise accounts, essentially what that was. But I oversaw a book of business of national clients. So.

Okay, where were you geographically?

Here in. In Louisiana?

You were.

Yeah, remotely. Correct.

Gotcha. Okay, so you were, you were local, you know, working, covering these national accounts. Big company. And how long had you been there at that time?

They acquired our company, so. And all together, about 16 years.

Okay, but you were a smaller company that was acquired by the larger company somewhere along the way?

Yeah, correct. I started back in 2005 in the industry, and they were also a national firm. I actually got into the industry because of Hurricane Katrina and helped with a lot of the relief efforts. You know, and it wasn't just, you know, individuals and companies. It was just kind of a collective effort on everybody's part. And I had a friend who worked in the industry for that company and asked me to come on and kind of be a temporary project manager to help steer things and put some structure around some of the things to manage the efforts.

Okay, so you've been in the industry for a good while, different sizes of firm. Right. So you got experience across that you're familiar with the marketplace, you're familiar with the industry. So you pop up on, I guess, Titus's radar as somebody that might be a good fit for this. How'd they reach out to you? So you're happily employed, I guess, and just kind of plugging along, doing your thing. And phone call comes in. What do they say?

Yeah, so I was reached by the. Through LinkedIn from a guy from Titus. And we, in the beginning, you know, these days we get texts and emails and you never really know if it's, you know, if it's spam or if it's some kind of ad, you have to unsubscribe.

Sure.

So I actually discounted it the first two times. Like, I, you know, I didn't think that someone was reaching out to me, you know, for a job on LinkedIn. So by the third time he had sent an email, I realized, okay, this is a live person actually trying to get in touch with me. And so I reached back out to him and we just kind of started that conversation. And I was cautious, right. Because in our industry, there's a lot of competition, whether it's local or national, and folks are always looking to, I guess, poach, if you will. But. And to your point earlier, I was. I was happy with, you know, where I was, so I approached it cautiously, but I really didn't have a lot to lose. So I kind of opened up and like, hey, well, you know, I really want to hear about.

So I'm assuming at that point, David, you had not heard the term visionary and integrator. Is that a fair assumption?

No, that's correct.

So at what point did they sort of introduce that language or kind of tell you, hey, this is the structure, this is the role that we're. Or the opportunity we're talking to you about. Did that come in pretty quick?

It did.

How did they explain it? How did they translate that to you? A person who had never heard the term integrator? How did they get you to understand that that's what it was?

They. He kind of compared it to what like a chief operating officer would be under a normal, you know, like a traditional structure, if you will, or traditional title, how you kind of manage and bring all the pieces together, you know, to make sure everything's running the way it should be. So, you know, within our industry, I understood the chief operating officers. A lot of the companies that I work for had that. And so I kind of compare that to what the integrator would be and kind of understood what they were looking for.

Okay, so how long was the process? So, you know, the phone call that you get or the LinkedIn outreach, I guess, and then to the point where you actually first have a conversation with Chad.

If I remember correctly, it wasn't all that long ago, but it seems like a long time ago. I would say I had about four conversations with the recruiter prior to being able to initially have a sit down with Chad. And then after we had Chad and I had our initial sit down, and he kind of explained what the company was about a little bit More into detail about, you know, pinnacle, specific stuff. Then I went back to the recruiter and then we kind of bounced back and forth. Chad. Altogether, I think we had about five in person meetings, just kind of asking questions back.

The two of you met five times before the final decision, correct?

Four or five times.

I think it was. I know, at least three or four.

Yeah. Somewhere. Yeah. Probably four. Probably more.

So, Chad, from your perspective, from the time you engaged Titus to the time that, you know, David accepted the offer, I guess. How long was that? How long did it take?

Probably about two months, maybe somewhere around there. And it was.

That's pretty fast.

Yeah, yeah, it was. You know, we. David and I met at a coffee shop first time and just kind of talked and then, you know, I wanted to meet him outside of a, you know, okay, first meeting. How's this person? Everybody's going to present themselves a certain way. Right. So then.

So you went to Cafe Dumont and had beignets?

No, we actually went to Starbucks. But we should have gone to Cafe, definitely. Yeah. So then we actually. We actually went to dinner at Roots for steakhouse.

Nice.

Second time, I think we sat in there probably two and a half hours.

I think it might have been a little over three. It was a good.

Maybe longer than that.

Wow.

So it was a way to get to know David outside of a structured, you know, so we got to kind of talk a lot of things, business, personal, you know, that came up in that. Which was great and went a long way, you know, with my decision to make an offer.

All right, so two months, let's just say, you know, kind of small cycle time from the time you engage them to the time that, you know you've got an accepted offer. Did that seem fast to you? Did that seem slow to you? How did that time match up with whatever your expectations were going into that process? Chad?

No, it took way too long. I needed it to happen relatively quick. So, yeah, no, it seemed like it drug out for a while to me, but I guess looking at it in the overall picture really didn't. But we had a lot of internal issues that I was dealing with at the time. So it was like, I need this person to get here. I need this person to get here. I need this person to get here. When it's going to happen. When's it going to happen? Because I'm still dealing with internal operational issues and things like that. So I think that's why it seemed like the timeline took much longer than it did.

Sure. You're anxious, you're ready Today, how many qualified candidates did they put in front of you?

They sourced a lot, and then I would go through, I would vet them. So I would say we probably got down to a good 10 to 15. I ended up interviewing maybe five or six at most.

Okay, so you had, you know, choices, right? So they work that funnel, get a whole bunch of people, you kind of thin it out and get down to the, you know, the handful or a couple handfuls that really seem like they got a shot and have those conversations and sounds like, you know, you and David pretty quickly realized you had lots of stuff to talk about. So then you kind of. So now we're, you know, we're married. And you start off down the path right out of the gate. David, as you're entering into this relationship, what were you thinking? Man, I've got to. This is something that I've got to make sure happens quickly. This is something that we got to do soon. What was your prime focus as you came into this role out of the gate? David?

Being in the industry for a while, I understood that the operational part of it is by and large the meat and potatoes of what we're doing, what makes the company successful. And so I understood where the first focus needed to be in the dive in and kind of get our hands around that. And Chad and I had talked about some of the challenges that he was having, and it's not unlike challenges that I've dealt with in other companies. But understanding that where Chad wanted to go with his company and where he was now and how I could help him get there was really exciting for me. And so I kind of focused on what are the most critical aspects that we have to get our hands around first and who is going to jump in that with me.

Okay. And so same question, Chad to you. You know, so now you're. You're making this big investment. You spent two months, a bunch of time and energy and expense to find this guy and bring him on board, you know, out of the gate, you're thinking, what's your number one focus as you're trying to get David up to speed and productive as quickly as you can.

Yeah, I think in line with David said, I knew we had to. We had a lot of issues, operations and operations that needed to get fixed and fixed relatively quick and fixed in the right way. You know, we have been doing some work and processes and different things around some people that are in operations there deficiencies that were really handicapping us. So I knew we needed to fix that relatively quick. And you Know, I guess David can confirm. I guess we kind of got thrown in the pit sooner than we were both expecting because within a matter of two weeks of David starting, it was him and I running all of operations. So we had either got rid of all the operations personnel or they left.

All right, so you get in, you start making some changes, and then other people react to that. Next thing you know, you guys are wearing multiple hats, just trying to hold it all together and make it do what you want it to do, to kind of fight through it. So, you know, trial by fire, that can. You can learn a lot about each other in a short period of time when that's going on, right?

That's right.

Oh, yeah. I'll tell you today's credit. You know, it was within that first week, you know, him and I were here in this office till 10, 11 o' clock at night for the first few weeks.

That's probably a flashback to the early days for you, Chad.

It was absolutely.

So, David, when did somebody first put the book Rocket Fuel in front of you?

I had actually. Chad had tasked me with reading that prior to coming on board so that I could get a good understanding of not just what to expect as an integrator, but that relationship between health visionary and integrator. So I had done that prior.

Okay, and so did you get Chad to do what we call a wish list? Was that part of your alignment process to kind of get him to do that brain dump of all the things he wished were different or fixed or better?

No, I don't think we went through that exercise. No.

Yeah, that's probably still a good one for you guys to do as you have time. But I'm sure you've adopted the same page meeting discipline.

Yeah, absolutely.

Talk to me about that. What does that look like for you? How often do you get together to do your same page? How long do you spend? Where do you do it?

So Chad and I, every Monday, we take an hour off site for our same page and we decided we're going to do it over lunch so that, you know, we can be in a little bit more of a relaxed atmosphere, but, you know, at the same time. And this all started, of course, when it was us wearing three hats each.

Sure.

So we said we can't be gone for too long. So we kind of mixed the two, but it had to be awesome. And so I. And I quickly understood why that was. You know, I had read about that, but I understood why we need to kind of step outside of the box to really talk about what we need to talk about and not get pulled away in the middle of a sentence or a conversation. And then, of course, all of our same page meetings are an hour throughout the week, and I'm trying to actually restructure those to where it makes a little more sense. Based on some of the new hires we've recently brought on board in the last couple of weeks.

One of the things I hear often is the integrator, over time, will begin to kind of understand their visionary in a way that they know the right way to give them information, the right way to ask them questions. You know, so sometimes that's, you know, over a meal, because it's easier when there's food, and sometimes there's sort of strategy as to whether I do it, you know, before the meal or after the meal. They kind of do certain parts of the conversation at different times. Have you figured out some kind of pattern like that for Chad yet, David?

No, not really.

When's the best time to give him bad news? When's the best time to ask him a tough question or give him bad news?

Usually at lunch, I think would be the best. During our same page, or even if it's not same page. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of distractions here, and so I try not to be a part of that distraction. But, you know, when it does come to bad news, I try not to couple that with more bad news. So I try to find a good segue into saying, hey, by the way, this is what's going on, and here's how we're approaching it. So, you know, and there's. And Chad will tell you, you know, there's just. There's so many detractors in our. In our company, in our industry that can pull you in many different directions. So.

Good, Chad. So you had an integrator for a little while that, you know, wasn't the perfect fit. So what's kind of the biggest difference that you see now that you've got somebody that you're feeling really good about? And, David, what's one of the biggest differences that you see from when it is right versus, you know, when it's just not quite there?

I'd say probably confidence to make decisions and not feel like they have to come to me for my blessing or okay with everything. Right. It's been a big one for me.

Okay.

Yes.

So the integrator's confidence.

Absolutely.

Them having enough confidence to believe in themselves and believe that they understand. Okay. Interesting.

Yeah.

So when your integrator's Confident. What does that do to you? How does that change you?

Oh, it takes a weight off my shoulders. Right. So I don't have to worry about. I'll give you an example. We've been going through some relatively large startups for new contracts recently. And prior to David coming on board, whenever we would have a startup, we have kind of weekly conversations with those clients and updates. And I would always have to spearhead that. I would always have to, you know, kind of run those meetings and do that. I haven't had to do that. It was refreshing, you know, back in, I guess, April probably, where we had a call with a large startup client along the Port of New Orleans, and, you know, I just logged in. I was on the call. I didn't say a word. There were times where I wanted to kind of jump in, but I just sat back and I literally didn't have to say a word on the entire call and got off and was like, man, that was nice.

Right? That's a pretty cool feeling. And, you know, again, thinking back to where you kind of started off, it was probably hard to imagine that you could ever get to a point like that where you could count on the team, right. And somebody that's a strong leader beside you to kind of make that possible. That's a great feeling of progress, I'm sure.

Oh, absolutely.

So, David, what's been the biggest sort of surprise or aha for you as you've kind of got into this and you've kind of lived this relationship for a while? What's something that I never would have expected? This or this was really new and different for me.

I think probably the biggest aha for me is coming to work for Chad in his company. And Chad's core values and belief and where he wants to drive this company really resonated with me, which is a huge part of why I took the job. And just the kind of person that Chad is about, caring about his employees, that means a lot to me. One of the biggest aha moments for me is that I realized quickly that I'm working for someone now that not just cares about me as one of the employees, but cares about my opinion, cares about my experience and my decisions, letting me make those decisions and supporting those decisions, not based on something that they feel like the company should be doing, but he has the confidence in knowing that I might make that right decision. And even if it's not the right decision, I made a decision, and he's going to support it either way. So I think one of the biggest Aha. Moments for me is I'm not working for someone who actually not just cares about the employees, but cares about the industry and what we're doing and why we're doing it. That's a big thing.

Love it. Chad, same kind of question to you. What's something that has really sort of surprised you as you've gotten into this and was maybe an unexpected success or positive facet of the relationship so early on?

Conversations with David, and the ongoing conversation with him is, know, me sitting in the visionary role, him as the integrator. Right. I have these grandiose ideas on where I want the company to go. And although he is in the integrator role, and he's a hell of a lot more structured than I am, because I'm not structured at all, it's refreshing that his vision may even be bigger than mine as far as the potential that this company could go to. You know, there's been conversations where we've talked about revenue goals for the next, you know, year or three years, and he's like, man, I don't know what kind of company you think we're going to be, but you can double that. And so it's, you know, that's been a very refreshing thing to hear in that. You know, look, we don't have to slow down because, you know, he's not here to help us, you know, to be an Achilles heel, flourish to say, wait, hold on. Although he does that like, hey, wait, let's slow down. Let's do this a little bit different. The fact that he sees a vision as big as mine is very refreshing.

That's very cool. And there's something about the visionary and integrator are naturally wired very differently, but there almost always has to be this sort of overlap on vision where you see the big picture and you can kind of talk about it. So it's sort of a shared language there.

Right.

And the visionary is normally tugging this way, and the integrator is trying to be practical, but this level of understanding. And, David, I'm guessing from some of your experience with larger businesses, you've kind of seen the future a little bit in terms of what's possible. And so that probably is helping bring some of that into the equation, which is a cool thing as well. That's great, David. If somebody's listening and they're kind of, maybe this is the first time they've heard about integrator and never knew what that was, but for whatever reason, they're listening to this because we think there's a lot of people out there probably like you that would be be really great at this if they only knew about it. What would you say to them? Somebody who's sitting in a big corporate job, kind of maybe frustrated because they're a little more entrepreneurial than the people around them. What words of wisdom would you have for them after having actually made a transition like this?

I would say maybe slow down in the beginning, take a look at the processes, the structure that you're working within. And one of the things that really helped me understand and continues to help me drive and be an integrator is how EOS kind of structures everything in terms of bringing forward the most critical things that's going to get the company where we need it to be based on our goals. And every company does that. But I think within EOS and the integrator role specifically is that we sit down as a leadership team, we identify those, and then the integrator is, you know, with the delegate and elevate the departments and the teams and the leadership teams are going, are out there doing the work and the integrators out there helping them, supporting them, and making sure that it kind of brings them all together towards that goal. And I think, again, most companies will do that, but this was different for me in terms of structure. It really helped me understand, you know, the whole idea behind the rocks and the sand and the water. You know, I mentioned earlier about a lot of detractors in our industry.

There's a lot of minutiae and a lot of noise.

Yes. And we get pulled away a lot every day. We still do, and we will continue to because of based on our industry and what we do. But the EOS structure, the integrator, that keeps it together. And you are putting your confidence in your team to make sure that it allows you to put your confidence easier in the team so that they can do their part to get us to where we're going to go. I don't know if I'm saying that right, but to me it's, you know, if I go to the finance department, I go to operations or, you know, any of our other departments, I feel confident that we got the right people in the right seat and that they're doing what they need to do and it's moving us in the right direction. So. And I think EOS is a huge one.

It's a really big deal. Getting the right people in the right seat changes everything.

That's correct.

So that's really, really a big point. Okay, Chad. Similar Question for you. So, you know, a lot of visionaries out there that are where you started and they're just finding out about this whole concept of a visionary and an integrator and they're stuck. They're not as action oriented as you are. And so they are like, yeah, I'm just going to keep doing both seats. I've always done that. I need to do that. I'm scared not to do that. You know, whatever their thing is, or they're looking at the money side of the equation and going, man, I know it's going to cost me a lot. I know it's going to cost me a lot. I'm not sure it's going to do anything for me. So if one of them, the visionaries are probably going to be the last ones that would still be listening at this point of the podcast. But let's say they've hung in there, so they must be in some pain. So if they've hung in there this long and you could say just a little bit to them about how to fight through that resistance, how to take the step, have the courage to make the leap, what it might do for them, how would you say that?

I mean, first I'd say just do it, make the decision and do it. It will change things for you personally. It'll change things for the company for sure, but it'll change things for you personally. The amount of relief that you'll get from having a really good integrator, you can't put a number on that. I mean, you know, you can't put a number on that. I sleep better at night. My inbox has less in it. My email inbox has less in it. If you're like me, that you, you know, you like to walk into a meeting, figure out things, talk about it, come up with a strategy, but really want to walk out, not have to do anything after. Like, I want to do it, I want to walk in and figure it out, but I don't have to do what we have to do to follow through with it right after because I'm on to the next thing. If you're anything like that, pull the trigger and get an integrator, a really good integrator. It will change your life. It really will, you know, and it will be a learning curve for the people on your leadership team and people in your company for them to stop coming to you for the answers, for everything. Right? But once they learn that, they'll realize that and they get a good understanding of the two roles, it makes your relationship with them stronger individually, you know, with your head of finance or your head of sales, marketing, whatever it may be, and they get a good understanding of that, you know, you can really kind of pour the gasoline on the fire and watch things grow from there.

Great advice, great advice. Well, I really, I'm grateful to the two of you for taking a little time out of your day to spend with us and share some of your experience, some of your story. I know that in doing so you're going to help some of our listeners, right, because they're along that path, you know, places that you've been. And so hearing your experience, you know, can help them get there maybe a little faster, maybe with a little less pain. So that's really valuable and that means a lot. So for our listeners, you know, if they want to get ahold of you or find out more about your company, what's the best way for them to reach you?

You can reach us on our website, securitybypinnacle.com that's security. B Y P I N N a c l e.com give us a call here at the office, 504-934-1411. If you have a company that uses security services, we can definitely help you out.

Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, to our listeners, thanks for listening. You know, if you like what you're hearing here, you know, give us a review on whatever platform you're listening to the podcast on. And until next time, go rock it. Thanks so much for joining me today. I really hope you were inspired by our guests. If you're interested to discover how your current visionary integrator relationship compares to the relationship you'd like, I invite you. We invite you to go visit rocketfueluniversity.com and take our free crystallizer assessment. You'll get both your visionary and integrator indicator scores and that's going to help you figure out your next step. You cannot build a great business on multiple operating systems. You must choose one. EOS1 is the simple to use software exclusively from the makers of EOS. By bringing everything EOS into one place, EOS1 allows you to run better meetings, access the foundational tools faster, and build a More accountable team. One vision, one system, one team. Start your 30 day free trial of EOS1 today@eos1.com.