Episode 116: Winning at Business and Life with Jeff Baietto
24 Jul 2020 · 9 min
In this concise 6‑question, 7‑minute interview, Professor Pete Alexander talks with Jeff Baietto, co‑founder and COO of Enjoy Global, a software company that leverages neuroscience and positive psychology to help organizations build measurable, high‑impact workplace cultures. Jeff highlights the pervasive problem of employee disengagement (68‑72% per Gallup) and argues that cultivating a positive mindset yields exponential benefits: higher sales (31‑37% increase), productivity gains (up to 37%), and improved retention, translating into clear ROI. He stresses that culture should be treated like any other business function—defined by core values, observable behaviors, and tracked over time—yet only about 4% of companies currently implement such structured programs. Jeff recommends two thought leaders, Neil Eady (Myers‑Briggs expert) and Elise Craft (spiritual business coach), for future podcast episodes. He shares an anecdote from his first job at a small Wisconsin grocery store, noting how his early idea of a personal shopping service pre‑dated modern platforms like Grubhub. The episode concludes with contact information for Jeff (LinkedIn, enjoyglobal.com).
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
I'm Jeff Byetto, and I'm the co-founder and COO of Enjoy Global, and we're a software company that has, that uses the latest in neuroscience and positive psychology to create a simple way to create and reinforce a really truly positive culture in your, in your organization.
Jeff, it's so great to have you on the show. Question number one.
So great to be here. Thank you.
I love your energy. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?
You know, Gallup every year puts out this study where they interview millions of employees, and like between 68% and 72% of us rate ourselves disengaged from our careers. That's 2 out of 3. And the best thing about working in our industry is that we're out to lower that number. We're, you know, we spend most of our adult life at our job, in our career,. And we're huge believers that we should enjoy that time. And that's what we're all about.
I love that.
It happens to be good for business as well. So it's a classic win-win.
Oh, absolutely. I mean, we spend so much time at work, you know, it'd be a shame that you're miserable most of the time.
Yeah.
Yeah. So question number 3, I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
The first one should be on positive psychology. Business leaders today in this day and age, learning about this and really getting into the research as to the impact that having a positive mind, a positive environment, and creating a positive culture has, it's not incremental benefit. It's exponential. And to be a good leader, and we all know this intuitively, we all know that when we're in a good state of mind, we're more creative, we make better decisions, we're more patient. But the research is just coming in in droves. And I think what's most important is that business leaders take culture and get it out of like a nice-to-have or some sort of nebulous thing and really get that this is something that they can create. And when they do, it affects every single business metric for the good.
And then if it hits every business metric, it hits the bottom line perfectly, I assume. Am I right?
It's pretty substantial. You know, positive cultures, positive mindsets, people with positive mindsets outsell people with negative or neutral. By 37%, by 31%. Their productivity goes up 37%. You know, retention is much higher. There's just like very huge numbers where you could apply that against any metric that you're measuring in your business and see a substantial ROI, which is really something that culture hasn't lived in that world, but needs to. It needs to have an ROI.
I agree 100%. It's great stuff. 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
Yeah, thank you. You know, the number one thing that we talk about is just our passion is making culture a real thing. Like, we would never go about our business without a sales plan or marketing plan, an operations plan, and yet culture often gets resigned to being like a company picnic or a holiday party. And that's ridiculous. It should have a plan, and it really should have a way to measure whether or not it's working. For us, most people still, we talk to a lot of people who feel like there's not really a formula. There's no real way of doing that. But there is, and it's simple, and it's your values, the values that as a company you want to stand for, with the behaviors that and actions that you want those values to mean and to look like, practiced over time. That's it. And for any organization who does that, less than 4% do, But any organization that does that, again, the results and the loyalty and the overall success productivity are just palpable. I mean, it's just, it's awesome. So that's the number one thing.
And it just, it seems like such a simple equation that you, that you mentioned that it's amazing that only 4% of companies actually do that.
They do the work on the values. Like so many of them have great value statements or even gone as far as what that means to them. And then it becomes a nice plaque on the wall., and that's often it. And what we're saying is use technology to kind of democratize. What if you could have everyone in your organization practicing integrity, practicing excellence, practicing— like, that's doable at every level of your organization, and now technology allows that to be in someone's pocket or on their computer. So it's a light lift, and, and it's just inexcusable in our opinion to not have that be a major focus of, of your business like any other area.
Very powerful. I love that insight. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
You know, I had actually a lot that came to mind, but 2 that I would like to share. Neil Eady, he's awesome and does a lot of work with the Myers-Briggs personality work and just has worked with a lot of the Fortune 500 companies. But he's an expert and just has a huge passion for what he does. And then Elise Craft, I just also love. She brings a spiritual quality to her coaching. And it's just, it's deep. Like the work she does is really deep and she has helped businesses, you know, go to the next level for 20 years. So she's just a— those would be the two that come to mind.
Wonderful. I'll reach out to both of them. Thank you for the referral. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
You know, I love this question. I grew up in a tiny little town in Wisconsin, not a whole lot to choose from. So I ended up working at a Piggly Wiggly, which is a local grocery store, you know, bagging and stocking and doing those things. But the part of it that still like keeps me up at night sometimes is I have this idea, like I had memorized what was in every aisle, like I could run through that store. And I'm like, you know, I don't actually like shopping. There has to be other people that don't like going to the grocery store. So I made flyers, and I put them on everyone's windshield and And I would, and I was saying like, hey, I'll shop for you. Just let me know what you need. And I'll shop and bring it right to your house. Guess how many people called me on that? Zero. I didn't get anybody, not a single phone call. Now, that's like 25 or 30 years ago or whatever it was. But when I saw Grubhub or whoever just got bought by, you know, like, I was like, oh, I was just like 20 years off from that being a good idea. But that was a, that was a beautiful part of my childhood.
It's funny because I just had memories of Webvan during the dot-com boom. And it was just, you know, I'm thinking, oh, I invested in that. And I was like, oh, that was— I just threw my money away.
We all have some of those. I have a lot of them, but that was one.
Oh, Jeff, it's been so great having you on the show. How could people find you?
So on LinkedIn, just my name, Jeff Bieto. Also our company website, enjoyglobal.com. It's I-N-J-O-Y global.com. Both of those are great places.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
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