I Wish I Knew This BEFORE I Started My Business

All right. Terrific teams. Inevitably, when you start going to build a business, you're going to have to have a team.

It's funny, when you come to work at one of my businesses, the first thing that we do is we talk to you about your terminology. We do not, at my businesses, have employees.

There's an old adage that if you have an employee, it's actually a thief in disguise.

Why? Because employees don't necessarily feel valued. They don't feel seen, they don't feel heard. Therefore, they don't give a rip about your business. They don't.

Now, if you step up to the plate and you start treating people how you want to be treated and you start actually showing them that you care about their life as much as you do, and you're looking to have what we call goal alignment. I know for a fact that Brian Bethea back there, who's been there with me for 10 years, and his wife want to buy a house.

You best believe I'm trying to do everything in my power to put him in a position to buy a house of his dreams.

I am.

Now, we may not be able to get there overnight, but we are creating a plan. He and I have had numerous conversations about, this is what you need to do in your finances. This is what we need to do with our business. This is how many people we need in our pipeline that we have to have the opportunity to serve that really believe in what we're doing for us to generate enough revenue for me to be able to give back to you so you can buy your house, baby.

You get me? That's called goal alignment. You cannot build a business without building a team. You don't need employees. You need a team. You need people that believe in your business as much as you do. But you need to make sure that they understand that their business is a methodology in a way, for them to get what they want, too.

It's not about you. It's about the team. It's about the community. It's about the service. The quicker you understand it's not about you, the quicker your business will explode. It's not about you.

You getting what you want out of the deal is nothing more than a byproduct of doing it well. It's that simple. So when it comes to leadership, you're gonna lead that way. One of my former CFOs just left here recently to go take an offer that I couldn't. I literally could not. She got offered triple what I was paying her, and I was like, baby girl, Come give me a hug. I love you. You gotta go like you got nothing but love for me. Nothing but love. You helped me out of a difficult situation. You're a rock star. However, can I help you? But she had this one thing that I used to love that she said.

And she said team members rarely leave a business. They often leave the leadership.

People don't leave businesses that they enjoy working at.

People leave businesses because the environment is not conducive to their personal growth. If you go all the way back to day one. All the way back to day one. What did I say? Your business is designed to be whatever it is masquerading as a personal development company, which means you have to have your team reading books. It means you have to be vulnerable with your team. It means you have to be talking to them about the things that matter.

You have to show up and show out. You have to show that you care. You have to induce empathy. Am I stern with my team? Yes. Do I have a very high standards with my team? Yes. So am I very specific with kind of vision and what I see? Yes. But at the same time, if they've got a good point, hey, let's do it. How many of you guys have enjoyed those juices? I know I have. Did you know Brian had to convince me.

He spent 48 hours saying, man, we should let other businesses in here. I'm like, I don't know, man. We're trying to. I'm really trying hard to get teach. I don't want to get distracted. Da, da, da. He's like, I'm telling you, if we're about serving people, if we're about serving businesses, then by golly, let a business that needs to start in the building.

I said, brian, you got me, buddy. Let him on in the door. Let's go. And I've had a chance to enjoy those wonderful drinks myself, and I'm looking forward to watching that business explode. It was my pleasure to hop on a little Instagram Live thingy or restore him. Like, this drink is amazing.

The best thing that you can do is when you're at a place of authority, is to use that authority in the service of other people.

And since for some reason people are beginning to respect my voice and what I have to say, by golly, if I can help you win, I'm going to. But I need you to understand that it's your responsibility to lead your team, no matter how big it is. You got one person. Great. Treat them like they want to be treated. You got 10 people fantastic. Treat them how you want to be treated.

Pay them well to the best of your ability. When you're in the early stages of a startup, you may not be able to pay market rate, but why not do a contribution side? A couple of the startups that I've got, I'm working on key team members. Those key team members that have been ride or dies, have never given up on me, that have always believed in me.

Creating something that. What Paul referred to as a phantom stock plan.

Which means when this thing clicks and it looks like it's starting to right now, when this thing really clicks, they get paid big.

So they're not. It's not just empty promises. Working for salary.

You can look at profit sharing programs. Maybe you share a percentage. It doesn't have to be a lot, just has to be enough for them to feel like they matter.

Treat them well. If your team feels invisible, they will find your business invaluable.

Especially in the early days. Know their names, know their spouse's names, know their kids. Go to the baptisms, go to the births, go to the funerals.

Let them know that you're in their corner.

And if they leave your business anyway, it's okay. Because you still did the right thing. You came from a place of love.

I think I'm the only person in the business sector that says you should love. Use the word love as a thermometer of how to practice yourself in business.

My secret sauce in all the businesses that I have is my team. Over time, not right away, you gets to understand my heart.

So when I do act like a jackass, they can forgive me for it. Cause they know my heart's in a good place.

When I do.

Especially when I ain't had no sleep, I ain't had no food.

Angry Steven is not a pleasant Stephen, I can tell you that.

But I've also, over time, learned that I've got to slow my roll. I gotta check my emotional intelligence at the door. You know what holds me more accountable than anything else now? When I get up, the crap that you need to be doing, that I'm currently doing, that I'm working on doing, I know I have to do a better job at it. You guys with me? All right. Basic human needs. I've been saying this all week. You should be able to fill in the blanks without even having to hear me say it. What do people need? Seen, valued, heard, appreciated.

You treat your relationships, whether it's business or life or whatever, and you put effort into helping them feel seen, valued and heard. And appreciated, you are going to find that it's reciprocated.

Brian, my ride or die, my right hand man for 10 years now, has walked through two different business reversals that weren't his fault. He's watched me fight through them. He stood beside me. He's been offered more money to do something similar to what he's doing for us right now. And he stayed.

He hasn't told me this. You can ask and ask him after the fact. But I feel like. I feel like he stayed because I feel like God said, this man. Stay with this man.

I also feel like, because Brian knows that if he calls me at midnight and he and Brittany are stranded on the side of the road in Arizona, I'm getting my butt in my truck and I'm driving to Arizona.

Because that's what he would do for me.

That's what he would do for me.

And I guarantee you, Brittany's like, babe, we need to earn more money. Babe, we need to buy a bigger house or we need to get a house. Babe, I'm tired of this apartment. Babe, we need to get going.

I can feel it.

And I've been telling. I've been telling Brian and Brittany for a while. Just. I'm working on it. It's gonna click. I'm working on it. I promise. I'm working on it. And then every time Brian goes past my office, he sees me at my computer.

First one there, last one to leave. I want him to know that I'm committed. Does your team know that you're committed? Do they. Do they really know you're committed? Does your spouse know you're committed? They are part of the team. They may not fully understand everything that goes on with the business, but every major person in my business that wasn't supposed to be my business, Guess who saw it first. My wife. Had I listened to my wife, I could have saved myself $2 million.

Of frustration, time, energy, and two years of her health.

There's a proverb in the Bible that says, he who can find a virtuous wife for her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely. The heart of her husband. I want to mess that up. The heart of her husband can trust her and. And he will have no lack of gain.

Your spouse is your thermometer. You may think, and I'm just being frank with you guys, you may think you got it all figured out and that you can hide stuff and that you shouldn't be sharing certain things.

Why don't you just sit down in humility and just like, look, I don't have it all figured out, but this is what I'm trying to do. Where am I going wrong? What do you see that I don't see? Because as much as I want my wife to be wrong about some stuff, she's right about a lot of it.

She was the first one to tell me eight years ago. Eight years ago, before I started this, before I went through three other specific crushings to put me right here. She says, you're not gonna succeed at it right now. I'm like, why? She says, cause it's all about you.

It's all about you being on stage. It's all about you talking.

And I was, no, that's not true. There's no way that's not true. Of course that's not true. No, I'm here to serve.

Yeah, you're there to serve. When life is trying to take your feet out from under you and you still show up.

I had to fight. I had to fight.

And she was right. You know, when I felt like God was ready to put me in this environment to help teach and mentor and share, is when I didn't want it. He crushed me so hard that I didn't want anything to do with this. Nothing. Brian, watch me go through it. He knows I'm telling you the truth. I wanted to walk away. I wanted to run away. I wanted to go run and hide and cry.

I'm telling you right now, your team. Your team is the support system.

They are not expendable. An employee is expendable. A team member is valuable.