Episode 193: Winning at Business and Life with Corey Poirier

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.

My name is Corey Poirier, and I am a multiple-time TEDx speaker, and I'm passionate about helping influencers go to the next level or up level. So I want people to be able to get their message out to more people and make a difference in the world.

Corey, it's so great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?

Smile or laugh? I feel like if I go the smile, it's probably when you have a person come up to you after an event or privately send you a message after something you posted and says basically along the lines of, "I so needed to hear that today. Thank you for making a difference in my life." Oh, I like that.

And I can hear the passion in your voice. It's really neat. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?

I feel most companies should read the chapter on cash flow. So the chapter titled Cash Flow is King, as I feel a lot of people spend their time living in future, future revenue and/or trying, hoping that they cover the cash flow for that month and cover the cost for that month. So Cash Flow is King.

I couldn't agree with you more, and I think every business leader who's listening will agree as well. Question number 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?

I think a big thing that a lot of people don't realize the power of, and it's a twofold answer, but one is how to deliver what your customer didn't even know they needed. So I call it delivering the unexpected or the wow. If you can wow your customer, and most people think that they're doing, doing a great job of customer service, but I don't know if they're wowing the customer. If you can have your customer tell somebody else, wow, you need to hear about this company, I think that's one major thing companies could be doing that they're not doing for the most part because it takes a lot of work and it takes ongoing practice to do it. The secondary side is to make sure you're working on your business more than in your business. Most companies spend their time working in their business. So to work on your business, and for people that don't know maybe what that means, what I'm getting at is, you know, rather than always being in the business, tied to the business, like if you're running a one-person show doing everything, the accounting, the and maybe that you hate, and hiring and everything else. Instead, work on your business, growing your business, finding new customers, and maybe hire for those weaknesses.

Mm-hmm. I think that's really sound advice because, yeah, if you're weak on certain areas, bring in somebody who can do it right for you. And even though you're paying them, you're gaining back your time, which is so often with business leaders, they forget that the time is such a valuable asset. Am I reading you correctly?

Yeah, 100%. And I feel like as well, the challenges were almost taught growing up, especially going through the school system, that we're supposed to work on our weaknesses, spend our time getting better at our weaknesses. And I remember teachers telling me, oh, you're already good at that, so don't worry about it. Yeah, but I love doing it. And yeah, but do less of it because you're already good at it. Focus on that thing you hate. What kind of logic is that? And what I noticed is that when I started interviewing thought leaders, and I'm When I say this, just for context for people, I'm over 6,500 interviews. So I'm not saying this from a couple interviews over the last few years. When I say that, what I've learned in these interviews is the top thought leaders hire for the things they're either not good at or hate doing and spend their time doing the things that they're a genius at. And so I think it's counterintuitive to be teaching kids, and we're still doing it to this day, that you should worry about your weaknesses more than your strengths. So that's, that's really what I'm driving at is as a company, focus on the things you're really good at because that's the thing you can maybe do that nobody else can or better than somebody else can. The weaknesses you're probably never going to do better than somebody else can.

Very insightful. Thank you for that. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?

I have this person in my world who I call her a super connector. Her name is Rosalyn Fung, and she is, again, super connector. She just seems to have this magnetic energy that she draws the right people to the right people, and she loves connecting them both. And as somebody else used to say in my world, letting the smoke rise from there. You know, I connect two people and watch the smoke rise. And so Rosalyn, I think, would be a great fit. She also has her own podcast, and she's used to this. So it's not like it's somebody that's, you know, that like I'd be putting them on the spot in their first time doing something like this. So Rosalyn is the first person that popped into my mind.

Perfect. I'll reach out to her. Thank you for that referral. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.

My first job, I worked at— people know this name— Kentucky Fried Chicken, or KFC as we called it when we worked there. And it was an experience, you know, it was my— like, I worked for my grandfather. He was a carpenter, so I helped him on the weekends before that, but this was my first real job where I was working a lot of hours, like some weeks in the summer, like 50, 60 hours as a student. Like, I was in the summer, I was off, so they took advantage of every second that I could work. And, you know, I worked 50, 60 hours, work until 2 in the morning, walking around on grease, you know, from the oil, like from all the chicken and stuff, and breading the chicken in the whatever that thing is that there's their secret recipe. And it was just I mean, I don't know how to describe it other than to say it was just an experience. Like, I, um, I got sprayed by a skunk one day when I went out to the— what we call our garbage house to throw the garbage in. I got burned with oil and had to go to the hospital. Like, it was just a treat. I was there 2 years, and I remember when I was leaving to go back to school, like, to college, one of the people working there said, you're making the biggest mistake of your life. You're about to be promoted to assistant manager. And they were like telling me that I was throwing my life away. And, but yeah, it was just an experience. Like it was a fast food restaurant experience, whatever that is. And it taught me a lot. I mean, you learn about maturity at a young age. And I was, by the way, my mother, once I hit a certain age, I think it was 16, but basically she said, "Good luck, you're on your own as far as money-wise." So up until that point, I used to smoke back then. She even bought my cigarettes every day and my lunch for school. The day I had my own job, And I was 16, I got my own car, and she said, "Good luck, you're on your own." So I was earning my own money, which meant I could buy my own clothes, pay for my own gas. And by the way, I probably wouldn't have been able to afford to do all those things without a job that was paying, that I was working 60 hours a week. So I can say all the funny stuff about it I want, and it was definitely, I wouldn't recommend it for everybody, but at the same time, I had more money than most of my friends, other than the ones that were getting it from their parents. I had more money than most of my friends. On a weekly basis all throughout the summer. So, you know, for better or worse.

Great story. I just love it. And I'm just—

the visuals that you have there really added to the impact. So it was really fun to listen to. And Corey, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?

I always like to give a gift away if I'm visiting somebody. So what I'd like to do is I mentioned that I'm a TEDx speaker. I also help people get into speaking. And so I have a book called The Book of Public Speaking. You know, the name's pretty easy to remember, but The Book of Public Speaking. And the website where people can go to grab themselves a free digital copy is thebookofpublicspeaking.com. So I'd like to gift that to everybody listening. You can go grab yourself a copy. It's a full-size book. It'll send— we'll send it to you as a PDF automatically. You'll have it right away. And again, it's called The Book of Public Speaking.

Wonderful. Thank you for that. And this is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.