The Complete Entrepreneur – EP25: Let’s Start Celebrating Success

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hello and welcome to the complete entrepreneur we’re going to get started in just a moment as a hello. Colin is Michael Gilmore. Our hosts joins. Let me moderate everyone. Welcome, Michael, how are you? Oh, it’s good to be here once again, Jeff, it’s fantastic to be here. In fact, like I always say it’s my favorite time of the week is the complete entrepreneur.

And it’s just hearing from other entrepreneurs hear from yourself. Jeff Kohler. Michelle is just, I must admit it is the highlight of my week and this is the week before we fell the same way. Uh, day’s, we’ll offer them. Michelle, appreciate that. But look, it’s one of the things that really strikes me about entrepreneurship before we get into today’s topic is it’s [00:01:00] all about communicating with other entrepreneurs and learning from each other and that engagement and that tussle of ideas.

Um, and then have those ideas percolate up into the marketplace and the marketplace ultimately decides which I’d use the best idea. And the thing I’d love hearing is from other, um, entrepreneurs in the complete entrepreneur talk about their life’s journey and it’s something that’s, it’s absolutely fantastic.

But speaking of life’s journey, how’s it all going with startup.club. I’d love to hear what’s happening. And what do you got planned for next year? Cause I know there’s so many things going on, either of you. It’d be great to hear. This is a great question. We have some amazing. Rooms plan for 20, 22 already.

We’re so excited about it. Seriously. You know, I didn’t think it could get better, but it is getting better. So we are going to be live from CES, [00:02:00] with Procter and Gamble’s venture studios, January 5th through seventh. So we have some amazing sessions with expert inventors and groundbreaking inventors and VCs, every, you know, everyone that makes the ecosystem work.

Um, some really cool interviews, some new people that have never spoken on clubhouse, where that we’re going to be doing some special sessions with. So you should be looking for details on that in our social media, as well as on the website. So make sure you’re signed up for email lists and you can do that by going to www startup.club.

Also, the man. The one and only Jeffrey Moore, who is a best-selling author of crossing. The chasm is going to be live with us here for the first time ever on January 14th. I’m so excited about this, you know, he, he’s definitely a must read. And I [00:03:00] would say he’s probably coined these terms, you know, crossing the chasm, talking about technology.

So we’re super, super excited that Jeffrey is going to be live with us on January 14th. So mark your calendars, sign up for the email and stay tuned. Um, while we get these events out to you, um, they are already scheduled actually on the startup.com. You know, on the calendar here at clubhouse. So, you know, you can go ahead and start marking it, but we’re going to be reminding you.

So thanks so much, Michael, for asking, it’s a super exciting time for us, and we’re really happy, you know, that we’re going to be able to jump into 20, 22 with some amazing content and folks. And I, I just read a new feature. Well, Michael, Michael, I just want a new feature that just came out on my app today that if you go to the room, the session and you click on the bell, that it will automatically set it up for a replay for you as well.

Um, so it’s, there’s two ways of doing it. One, you could do [00:04:00] that, or you could just go to the website, enter the email address, and then you’ll be notified of the events. But the other way is click on the bell for some of these events.

Oh, I bought a great idea calling that’s for sure. But so Jeffrey Moore is coming on the 14th. I got to ask, do you have the time locked in is yet. Um, we do, I don’t have it in front of it’s two o’clock it’s on the serial entrepreneur hour, two. O’clock on Friday two. O’clock Eastern. Okay. So call, let me understand this.

You’re going to force me to get up at like at 4:00 AM in the morning, down here in Australia in order to get 10. That that’s your short. Yeah, no, I mean, look, I mean, it’s been a long story. I’ve been communicating with Jeffrey Moore for about three years and I feel like I’m pulling them out of retirement to do this project.

He’s never been on club before. He’s considered to be one of the top five business authors in the world. Um, and he’s coming on and he’s really excited about doing it. So we’re looking forward to seeing that happen. Uh, at the end, it’s [00:05:00] fantastic. Like what a coup for startup startup luck club, that’s for sure to get someone of that caliber, um, they’d be able to share with the community, um, and it’s not to be missed that’s for short.

Um, the question I wanna know is when are you guys gonna get someone like Elon Musk on? Cause let me tell you that would just be awesome. So on twice we had Mr. Wonderful on twice, twice, but you know, I think getting Elon Musk on that’s our next goal. How about that? We’ll do that in 2022, but you gotta be on the email list to know that sounds great.

I’ll tell you what I’m I’m already on the email list. I’ll tell you why I love being on the email list and you’ll be crazy not to be on there, but yeah, for those of you are in the room right now, this is the complete entrepreneur, and we’re going to do a really unusual topic today and it’s going to depend upon you and the audience and the today’s topic is celebrate entrepreneurial success.

And want to take some time out to [00:06:00] celebrate our successes and share the joy of what it means to be an entrepreneur. I want to hear some great stories from you. So put up your hand, make sure you raise your hand, say, Hey, I’ve got a great story to happen in 2021. I know it was being dim and dark and everything with COVID and that sort of thing.

But you know what? Here’s a positive, great story that happened to me and raise your hand up so you can share, share what happened to you as an entrepreneur. And hopefully that is going to inspire. To go forward as well. And I must’ve been, I was just thinking about my own entrepreneurial journey in life.

And, uh, the very first business I ever launched, I launched with a friend of mine and it was called frontier publications when I was 16 years old. And, and we, uh, raised four grand of debt, capital paid exorbitant interest on it. My dad and underwrote the loan, which was nice. And we, we manufactured a game and published it.

I learned so much from that [00:07:00] experience. It was one of the best experiences of my life. In fact, I learned about stock control. I learned about marketing. I learned about production. I learned so much this 16 year old, doing all these things. And, uh, it put me in good stead on my next 40 odd years of my life as an entrepreneur.

But that’s a highlight for me. It does that. So if you’re in the audience right now, make sure you stick up your hand and say, you know what. This is what happened to me. And it was just an awesome event this year. Let me tell you about my business and do it in a couple of minutes and to share what happened to you this year, which is this fantastic let’s celebrate Ms.

Tami year of Christmas. Living is all that celebration to celebrate entrepreneurship. So stick your hand up. That’d be great to hear from you and Colin. What happened to you this year, which is worst before we get into that, Michael, I think we should acknowledge that. I think entrepreneurs, for the most part don’t recognize their success.

We don’t [00:08:00] stop and enjoy the moment we don’t. Uh, I mean the, you know, you hear the cliche, you know, stop and smell the roses. I really think that the vast majority and probably everyone in this audience can relate to the fact that we’re, we’re stressed out and we’re always trying to get to the next level.

We’re always trying to make the next tip, make the next win, survive another day, make payroll. I mean, it’s, it’s such a roller coaster ride. And then when, you know, you’re at the top of the roller coaster, you know, something’s going to come around the corner and get you an X, so you never really stop it.

Enjoy the moment. And I can say, Hey can say for the most part that’s, that was my career for the first 20 years as an entrepreneur. And, you know, we’d done a number of public companies and, um, two of them actually, and then we’d done a number of exits and stuff, but I still was never satisfied. I was still was never happy.

I think I started to change with.club and, uh, and, and I, and there’s, you know, [00:09:00] obviously it’s the people around you as well, you know, with Jeff and Michelle. And the fact is, you know, what, what Michael was alluding to her a minute ago was that we did have a big success. Uh, we, uh, sold.club.club as an alternative to.com.net.org.

And we had over a million registrations, uh, register. Uh, and go daddy, uh, made an offer early in 2021 and we closed around, uh, you know, mid 20, 21 and a deal has gone very well. And, uh, we really, obviously a lot of people within the company and investors benefited from that, but it was a real achievement.

It was a real achievement for Michelle. It was a real achievement for Jeff and it was a real achievement for the team. We did something, we launched a new domain extension, sold over a million of them, and then we exited on a high. And so that was pretty cool. And we’re going to celebrate that right? Jeff and Michelle for a very long time.

But I tell you it’s it’s, you know, and I think almost anyone who’s [00:10:00] had a business and had an exit can relate to this it’s mixed emotions too, and absolutely it’s worth celebrating, and we’re certainly happy with the outcome, but at the same time, you know, you spend so much of your life focused on launching a business, growing the business, you know, hiring people, making partnerships, uh, all of these things.

And then suddenly when it, when it comes to an end, um, yes, you know, you’re happy and, and glad it was successful, but at the same point, um, you’re going to miss it. You’re going to miss that child that you’ve been living with for, you know, in our case, you know, many, many years. And, um, even now it’s very pointed for me at least this week, because technically everything that my involvement with the company is goes away at the end of this month, including an email address.

Jeff had get.club that I’ve been using for for 10 years practically. And, and, um, it’s just weird thinking [00:11:00] that that’s just going to go away. So on the one hand, absolutely. Michael, I’m celebrating and I’m very happy and appreciate everything that Colin and Michelle and the rest of the team accomplished over these years.

But at the same point, I’m going to miss it. I’m going to miss getting emails that Jeff had get.club. Yeah. It’s a tough one. Sort of like, it’s a bittersweet thing, isn’t it? Um, I think that’s always the case with every entrepreneur is, um, it’s funny. I was talking to my wife this morning just about, I don’t know how it got brought up, but I remember I was talking about this topic.

We need to celebrate our successes and stuff like that. And she goes, so what do you do? She actually asked me and I said, well, you know what I do? I said, no, but what do you do? I said, I’m a chief problem solver. I look for problems. I look for difficulties and I go in, I solve them and that’s really what my life is all about.

I rarely stop to celebrate a success. [00:12:00] I’m just looking for problems. And in fact, when I, when I finally solve one problem, I’d go on to another problem and I get onto another problem. And if you solve enough problems, you end up building a business like a dark climate, for instance, or in myself, the businesses I’ve built over the years.

I remember when I built up an ISP in the nineties, only upselling the ISP and I, I felt like I was selling one of my two. And it needs to bidder that bittersweet show is great. Cause he’d get a hold of the money. He never thought that, but a lot of those people ended up knowing personally, cause I was on the early days I was on the help desk and it really is a, it was an amazing, uh, it was amazing time, um, going through that, that mixed emotions the whole, the whole time.

And is that a bit of a challenge? Do you think all them well, I was just gonna say, you know, I’m coming back to my point earlier that [00:13:00] there are so many entrepreneurs. I think most of us don’t celebrate our success. We don’t look at what we’ve achieved in 2021. And if you’re in the audience again, if, if you want to celebrate a success, come on and talk to us on stage.

If you also relate to what I’m talking about here, we’re always driving to win, win, win, and yet we never stop and smell the roses. Please join us on stage as well. We want to hear. This is a, this is an open conversation and we really want it to be interactive. And I know there are people, there were other entrepreneurs who’ve gone through this as well, but Michael, I was curious what your thoughts are on that, that we don’t celebrate our success.

We don’t stop and think, I agree. We don’t, we don’t do that. And I don’t do that enough. That’s for sure. Um, and the thing that I look at is, um, I find the success of my current business is my team. Let me share with you. Something happened to me yesterday. I normally have [00:14:00] a regular meeting with one of the team members, um, on Skype every single day, 11 o’clock my time have a meeting and I get this note from him, um, and he says, I’m going to.

And, and not at all. Okay. That’s fine. That’s all right. I would happen to be racing around anyway, doing stuff. And so I’m sitting at my desks desk and I get to about 10 past 11. I look at the window and there he is walking down the driveway, knocks on the door and says, I just wanted to give you a Christmas present.

That meant so much to me, to me, that was a celebration of what it means to be part of a great team. And we spent some time together and we hadn’t actually seen each other physically for years. Um, here in Melbourne, it was, um, it’s been very tight, locked downs and so forth. And [00:15:00] just to be able to see my colleague and having to do something like that for me, was unbelievable.

Then I found out from him in the conversation that he’s actually drove to every one of our team, every one of their houses. And it gave each person a little Christmas present. And, uh, to me, that’s what success is all about is when people end up doing that sort of thing. It’s just, it’s such a special, special occasion labor.

The day later yesterday, we had a, uh, an event we have normally every Thursday it’s called water cooler coolers, a zoom call with the whole team and all that sort of stuff for pathologic. And, um, and I insisted that we all had to have Christmas backgrounds, at least wearing a Santa hat or something like that.

And it was just, I think it was a great time of celebration of what, what are the businesses come through the year, but it was a celebration of team. And I think the thing I notice about, [00:16:00] um, Jeff Cole and Michelle, the way you guys talk is not about an, I did this. No, I did that. You always talk about team and that really, what I think is a defining, uh, defining ingredient for success is when you have people, they celebrate the.

They celebrate, um, what the team has achieved, not what I have achieved or something. And, and an outflow of that. You’ll find that there’s these little events, like what happened to me yesterday, um, where it become highlights my entire year, where one of my team came and gave me a Christmas present. And it was just, uh, I really went out of the way they drive long way by the way, to be able to do this.

Um, and it was really special, but we do need to celebrate our success. We need to stop. And maybe now is the time to do that to stop. What’s your thoughts on that call? Well, I think it’s important and I think that I was saying, you know, [00:17:00] we as entrepreneurs don’t do it enough, but I actually think that, that we do a disservice to our employees and our teams, um, even our customers, our vendors, and also our.

You know, when we actually have an achievement at work, I think it is nice to bring the family into that. I I’m pretty careful with that and that I don’t often like the family I don’t want when I protect my family from shocks and the, and the whole rollercoaster thing. So I’m pretty careful about that.

But you know, when we did sell.club, I, um, I did a few things that I reached out to a number of members of my extended family and, and help them out and, and paid for some education for a lot of, a lot of people in my family. Um, so, you know, it’s just something that I was happy and proud of. And I, and I shared that with everyone.

So I think as entrepreneurs sharing it with our family, having, having this, sharing the success with our family, but not necessarily the Lowe’s and our staff and our team and [00:18:00] success doesn’t always mean you sold the car. It could mean you hit your MVP, your, you know, your first stage gate or you’ve launched your first thousand customers.

It’s success at the early stages of a startup. You know, it looks very different than a company that’s exited. I ran, man. I know you’re itching to go here by, are you ready for Roman? Yeah, man. It’d be great to hear your story it. Yes, sir. Thank you so much. Can you hear me? Well, we can hear you really well.

That would be great, sir. You know, I really like what. What Michael said, and Jeffrey, and all of you guys about the entrepreneurship and celebration of entrepreneurship as a being entrepreneur for 27 years as an immigrant entrepreneur. And I’ve been through a lot. And I just want to add to you guys that, uh, myself doing everything and not going to work, like everybody asks me why you are successful.

And I said, you know, it’s not me. It’s about the team that [00:19:00] were standing behind me and, you know, and everything in the company is my fault. And they say, what is your fault? I said, because you know, as a leader and as somebody that over and used to move and shake and mentor all these. Everything will be my fault, but the success is yours.

It’s theirs because as I said, you know, we can do anything as a person. And I had a as a, as a, just the very nicest story. I met somebody at the Starbucks yesterday and, you know, we were getting a coffee and he asked me, Hey, what do you do for a living? I said, I’m an entrepreneur. And you know, and he said, entrepreneur, everybody’s saying this day is an entrepreneur.

I said, yes, because a is a shiny title, but there’s a lot of harsh and, you know, Uh, bad things that sometimes you go through and you go up and down, but we love it every moment. And this year we’re going to celebrate that because we made it through the COVID and everything else. And I really didn’t know what this person [00:20:00] does.

And he said, what is your major thing? What do you do? I said, I’m in business of giving and helping, and mentoring and supporting other people. And the, you know, the rest and the money would follow anyway, make the story short. And I figured that guys are one of the most respected. The tech CEO is in Austin, that, and then she called me later.

He said, we should talk to do something. And a lot of the things is that our horizon, I said, you know, the, this entrepreneurship celebration is not more than be who you are and what you stand for. Nothing. That’s what we have to do as a, as entrepreneur, I think, and proud of what we do good days and the bad days, and then rest would follow.

This is a, this has been my journey for 27 years. I’m always a giver and help her. And for, for some reason everything’s happening. And I love my team and I cannot leave without him, you know, and most of our tech, you know, I own a tech company and [00:21:00] most of them, the young kids, but, you know, I love it. And they are the future of this country and the future of entrepreneurship.

But I’ve been, I’ve been so blessed, so blessed to, uh, you know, to, uh, consider myself an entrepreneur for almost 30 years. Um, what a great story. Let me tell you, and it’s really so encouraging to hear you talk about your team, um, team, that sort of way. Um, I, I just think that team. When you get a group of people, um, together and around a common vision, there’s, there’s nothing like it.

We’ve had the same core team in my company pack logic for basically close on 15 years now. And, uh, people, we look after our team, but you know what it’s, it’s, it’s about, um, it’s special when you’re, you’re working with a [00:22:00] group of, of individuals which come to work each day, not because of a paycheck, they come because you know what, the change in the.

Um, they’re, they’re, they’re, they’re doing some amazing thing and that, and that sort of stuff. And it’s, it’s, it’s more than just, I find the celebrations more than just a, um, another business. Like they’ll, they’ll come and go and it’s also buying into some amazing vision. Um, and that’s what I love. Um, I love what I do.

I love the people I work with and I just want to celebrate them. And, uh, just all the, all the great things happen. So if you’re in the audience right now, you’re listening to the complete entrepreneur and we’re talking about really unusual and that’s called celebrating our successes. So what successes this year, I want to share something with you.

Go [00:23:00] forward and every, all the members here. You know, it’s amazing, right? Like of course, I think most people want their employees to be happy. You want to be happy at work, but you know, there’s other rewards that it actually fosters. I was reading this study because you always hear these things. And I heard I’m actually reading it from a study that said 83% of employees said recognition for contributions is more fulfilling to them.

The rewards and gift. Like I think sometimes we just have no idea the impact. It makes even the smallest little recognition that we give to fellow coworkers, as well as our employees. I mean, I know for me at the beginning of my career and even now, like, it really, it does mean a lot because I truly believe that most people want to do really well in their job.

And I think in. Employers [00:24:00] that sincerely and honestly, and consistently do that. You know, they reap the benefits for that. They replay loyalty, they re productivity and, you know, gosh, who doesn’t want to work with a bunch of happy people at this stage in my career. I only want to work with happy people. So there’s a lot of, you know, intangible and tangible rewards, right.

For giving that recognition. I completely agree with you, Michelle. I really do. And I think the thing is, is when you’re giving a, like telling someone they’ve done a great job or something like that, or acknowledging that they’ve done a really good job, it’s, it’s not about, um, I’m telling that person that they’ve done a great job so that my bottom line get better and I can go along and become more profitable.

That’s a selfish, motivation is telling someone they’ve done a great job out of a sense of love. I hate to [00:25:00] hate to say that, and it’s not, there’s not the Eros love or anything like that. I’m talking about. I’m better. It’s a sense of love on you. Genuinely love that team member. You, you genuinely care for them and you want to acknowledge that they’ve done a great job.

You want to, you want to see them successful in what they do. One of the words I quite often will say in meetings is what can I do to. Um, one of the phrases I use, so what can I do to help? And cause the reason why is I would have seen them sell a bill to celebrate their successes, because that actually means more to me than me celebrating success.

Actually, my success is seeing someone else in my team successful and that’s, that’s my whole modus operandi day. And I’ll just looking at them and say, what can I do to make this person successful? How can they shine? How can they, how can they flourish in the way they want to flourish? [00:26:00] Not in the way I want them to flourish.

And that is cause for celebration. Because as I’ve said on this show, many times before the adventure of life is discovering new things about yourself and those you love. That’s really the adventure of life and see those, you love flourish and develop and become who they want to be. And if you can play a small part as an entrepreneur and seen other people become who they want to become, then what an honor and a privilege that is, and that’s cause for a huge celebration.

So at this time of year, yes, it’s Christmas and everything like that as a time of gift-giving. And as you so rightly so that Michelle, yes, we can give gifts and that’s great, but we can also give a word of encouragement. One of the things we did yesterday was that each person that team was asked to say a few words about another member of the team, of how much they mean to them [00:27:00] and how much they’ve appreciated them.

And it was just great here. And I think it makes everyone feel really special. It was, it was a, it was a good time. But anyway, so, um, you’re listening to the complete entrepreneur and we’re talking about celebrating entrepreneurial success. And it’s a thing that we’ve done that we don’t often do as entrepreneurs.

And as Colin said before, is that we quite often, uh, so focused on problem-solving a gain through the next crisis or something like that. We forget this stop and celebrate and give your team a break, let them smell the roses of success. Yeah. And, um, as well, and it’s, uh, it’s very special. So coming back to you, Colin there, um, so what’s your thoughts on, on what it means to, for [00:28:00] you to celebrate 60.

Um, do you find you get more of a buzz of seeing other people successful or your company successful or like what, what is it that really lights your fire? Yeah. So this might be slightly controversial, but I’ll say this, um, you know, and this started back at Hostopia, which was a small, publicly traded company in the two thousands.

And, uh, I really don’t like to celebrate birthdays because there’s not less controversial. I know. And so what we did at Hostopia we had 600 employees, um, is we would do a monthly birthday event. All right. It became too much at a certain point. We just had too many people. But what we did do is we recognized greatness.

We celebrated achievement and to put it in perspective, we had a, a, um, a five star customer service award that it could take you a year or two years, if you’re really good at it to achieve. [00:29:00] And when you did achieve that five star status, not only did you get an actual diamond for five, five diamonds on a pin, um, you actually also got, um, and it was around a cow cause it was two cows at the time.

But anyway, um, oh, sorry. This was for internet direct. I’m mixing up companies. Now my age has gotten to me now. Right. But we had a customer service award. And what would happen is we would name that day after that employee and we’d pay for lunch for the entire company. And that’s the kind of celebration we had.

It was very important for us to celebrate success, to celebrate individuals who achieved greatness and went well above and beyond the normal call of duty for their role in the company. And that’s something we put a lot of energy into. We just didn’t put a lot of energy into celebrating birthdays. Maybe a little controversial.

And I know we have a smaller office now where we do celebrate birthdays and we do recognize people on their birthdays. But for me, it’s, I really prefer as an [00:30:00] entrepreneur to recognize achievement from the individuals within the company. And, uh, I do get a lot, I do get a kick out of it. Michael. I really get a kick out of seeing others succeed.

Others make money. You know, a lot of our employees had options in the companies that I’ve been involved with. You know, when we do an exit, they, they do well as well. So I really get a kick out of seeing other, other people rice. But the question for you just before it got to you, Jeff, um, Colin, why did you do this whole pin thing, that diamond kit?

Like what was the motivation for you behind? Yeah, I mean, the reality is it was it’s recognition and it really doesn’t cost a lot. I mean, there’s a saying, I can’t remember who phrased it, that people will die for pieces of tin and metal, um, on the field, right? Yeah. You know, there’s no comparison obviously to our employees and those who actually serve in the military, please, I don’t want to in any way, make that comparison.

But the fact of the matter is people do appreciate and recognize, you [00:31:00] know, an achievement and they, they, they, they, they know in their email, they change their status. I’m a five-star employee at, um, customer service agent at this company. You know? So it is a really a status thing versus I would say more than just a, a pin, but you haven’t answered the question, Colin.

I asked you why you did it. I didn’t ask you what you did. I asked him why you did it, why we did it. You want, you want the truth? You want the actual truth, the whole truth. We did it because exactly we did it because we wanted to provide better customer service for our customers. We wanted to increase our net promoter score.

We wanted to have better quality service. And by putting the system in place, it helped us achieve that. And that’s just the ruthless straight direct answer. I also do believe in employees. And I do believe in, in recognizing those employees that [00:32:00] really do go far and beyond the call of duty. And sometimes in organizations, those people are not recognized.

The people who are recognized are the ones who spend most time at their desk or, you know, speak the most in meetings or whatever. And so we had an objective criteria for measuring this kind of success. Yeah. But why I’m trying to drill into here and to really, to understand is this is a cost of the business and yes, you want to go increase customer service and all that sort of stuff.

I understand the business motivation there, but I asked not why did the business, did I asked why did you use. Okay. Now, Michael, you’re like, uh, uh, an attorney here and I’m on the stand. Why did I do it? Um, but the reality is I did it because I wanted our company to succeed and I felt that was a winning move and recognizing greatness, which is something that I put in the core values, core pillars of almost every company that I’ve [00:33:00] started since then.

Uh, we did that with Hostopia. We did that with.club, recognize greatness. Don’t recognize good. Don’t recognize good work, recognize great work. And to art more often than not in organizations, most organizations do not recognize people or individuals who have created greatness. And that’s something we, we, we, we did and will continue to do in all my companies.

Yeah, but the thing, the thing I’m trying to drill into here is called is your motivation to celebrate someone’s success. I actually think it’s more than just recognizing their greatness or anything like that, but it comes from a core belief that you have, if I was to put words in your mouth, and that is you believe in the team, like I look at the way, um, even the.club team over the years has interacted.

Unless you believe in the team, I look at the way you’ve spoken even today. And the way you personally get an absolute kick at a scene, [00:34:00] someone become great or do something great. And that’s where it ultimately came from short. Your there’s sure there’s business outcomes and all that sort of stuff. Uh, but that’s important because we want to have sustainability in all of our entrepreneurial activities.

But the fundamental reason why ultimately you personally did it was because of who you are. And that is a really special gift. You understand what I’m saying? No, I understand. I understand that, but I think every great leader, every leader needs to think about their top people and their top performers.

And if they’re not what Michelle said earlier about this point, that people, I don’t know if she has some study, 80% people would rather have recognition than additional compensation. And again, you know, if a leader, if you’re going to have a successful company, we need to celebrate the success of those.

High-achievers. I’d argue that it’s not just the top people, right? You want to have a [00:35:00] culture where everyone is recognized and to Michelle’s point feels like they’re making a contribution. I think what’s interesting about the startup world in this regard is, is humans by nature. Um, want to be part of a community.

That’s how the human race has grown and taken over the planet to the point where now we’re destroying it possibly. But, um, we want to be part of a community and we want to be part of something that’s bigger than ourselves and in the startup world, because of the acceleration of going from nothing, going from an idea of.

To building a company around that idea to creating jobs, to creating products and services that other people are willing to pay for. You know, we get to feel that sense of accomplishment and that sense of purpose much faster than you would at an established company, right? Because an established company is not growing necessarily at that same pace.

So you don’t see that sense of, of momentum. [00:36:00] That we all get to experience in the startup world. And I think that’s one of the attractions, um, not only to entrepreneurs, but to the employees who enjoy and want to work at a startup because they want to be a part of that trajectory. They want to be a part of that, that purpose in that community and see that growth.

So it’s not just the leaders, it’s really everyone in the company. And we did an exercise recently@oneofourstrategysessionsatpod.com. That was really neat. And I want to mention it because you might be able to do it, you know, within your own group, if you’re a manager or within your own company or with the executives, but we had, uh, we have, we passed out.

Index cards, a bunch of index cards for each person in the room. So let’s say there were 10 managers in a room together, and we went around the room and said, you know, write down on each index card, the name of one of the people in the room. And one thing that you really appreciate about them, just one thing, right?

So everyone took a few [00:37:00] minutes and wrote down someone’s name and one thing they appreciated. And then we went around the room and read what was on the cards, which was kind of cool. So everyone got to hear some acknowledgement from their peers, from the other people on the team, but then the better part of this is at the end, everyone was handed all of the index cards for them, all of the index cards, with their name on them and their one thing that was appreciated.

And now we all have a stack of index cards sitting on the corner of the desk. I’ve got mine right here and on a day that’s rough or a day that’s frustrating or a day that you write. You know, not really seeing the progress you hope to see. It’s really neat to pick up that stack of index cards and just read through them and see what your team members have said about you and, and have said about the things that they appreciate you about you.

So I thought that was a really neat exercise. Um, that’s very much in the spirit of celebrating your accomplishments and celebrating your team members. So I just [00:38:00] wanted to share that. Well, what a great idea, you know, to really galvanize a team together there that you share, Jeff, uh, really appreciate that.

So if you’re in the audience right now, and you’re saying, you know what, I got a story about a success that I had this year, and I just want to go along, just tell some people and shared that, put your hand up. We’d love to hear from you. Uh, we’ve had a few people put their hand up and when you say, Hey, come to the stage, but you know what, they ended up vanishing for whatever reason.

So, um, it’d be great to have you out there. Maybe there’s some sort of connection issue if there’s issues it’s time, but yeah, it’s, it’s an interesting thing. Um, celebrating, um, successes. Let me share you an experience. I had, um, I’ve known a particular team of individuals for quite some time. And, uh, for me, it was over a decade in fad and learned to respect them as individuals [00:39:00] learn to hold them friends.

And, uh, one time I have to be traveling around the world and I went to their offices and the scene that struck me that all the, all of the people in the office reflected the, that team of premium individuals and they’re outgoing, they’re they’re, um, friendly. They’re just, they’re laughing. They’re clearly enjoying what they were doing.

That thing was.club. And it had a really big impact on me when I went to the offices in Fort Lauderdale. And just seeing that in action. But the thing I found was fascinating was that the different staff members there, if you said hi and all that sort of stuff, they were reflection of the management team and it was a [00:40:00] celebration and you guys should celebrate.

So I know you’ve sold.club now, um, to go daddy. And I think it’s going to just go on from strength to strength there and congratulations for that. But you should be very proud of not just what you’ve created as a business, but what you created in that culture, because the culture is often a reflection of the entrepreneurs and the senior management team.

And to celebrate that to stop and just say, wow, it’s not just about the top team is about everyone in the organization and how you’ve impacted them in such a positive way for their life. And I just want to celebrate that with you and how it really impacted me. So, Colin, congratulations on that. I’m going to celebrate that for you.

All right. Thank you. Thank you very much, Michael. And I will say that, uh, we, as a company did take celebration and partying probably to a whole new level [00:41:00] when it came to some of those events that we put on, uh, we had about 150 distributors and you’d put on these events that I can, but I think we kicked it off with an event in New York, uh, with a 50 cent, uh, who came, came into the party and we had about 200 people show up and that was insane.

A lot of media and stuff. Um, I remember an event in Singapore, uh, you know, overlooking that very cool building in Singapore with hundreds of a hundred people. Or so the top of the top of the, the penthouse of the hotel, I remember in, you know, in Montreal with. With the, um, you know, the tiny little pub that we got a hundred people into, you know, it was insane.

So for us, we’ve had that culture of sucks of celebration and partying and, you know, people might’ve questioned it along the way. I know our CFO definitely questioned a lot of the bills that we brought home from us when it came to some of these events. But in the end we, we, uh, sold, we did very well in the investors did very well as well.

So [00:42:00] yeah, I think, yeah, we definitely had a lot of fun. Yeah. And you should, you should be able to have a lot of fan. And one of the things as entrepreneurs we need to remember is that it’s not just about the exit or you’ve not made $10 million in your flash, your profit or whatever it is. Okay. It’s a journey.

And as you would just share and then call them it’s about the journey you guys went on, that you celebrate along the way. And that whole attitude of celebration is, is so, so important, but saying it’s great to see you on the, on the stage. Oh, Shane’s has vanished. I just want to invite you to share your story, but anyway, if you happen to come back, it’d be great to be able to see you again.

But, uh, yeah, celebrating those times. It was when I was doing some research for this topic. One of the things that I found was that 79% of staff leave due to under appreciation 17, 9% [00:43:00] not due to, uh, I can get a better pay packet elsewhere. 79% leave. Would you do under appreciation 65% leave, uh, some receive no recognition in the last.

65%. It’s Christmas, this time a year, we should be going to all our staff and saying, thank you, thank you. How can I be of help for you? How, what can I do for you be a servant. One of the things I find about it that really lights my fire as an entrepreneur is to find out those things are different staff members like doing that they don’t tell you about.

They could be interested in programming. They could be interested in all sorts of weird and wonderful things and trying to scratch my head and think, is there anything I can do to help them and then celebrate that [00:44:00] and just, just lots of my fire, but, um, celebrate. So this is the time of year. Yeah. For celebration.

So what’s some ideas or how we can celebrate, um, celebrate successes. You mentioned some just then, um, call them. But, uh, just before we do so Sandra, it is so good to see you here, Sandra, welcome to the stage on the complete entrepreneur, but to hear about you and how you celebrate. Thank you so much. Well, happy holidays to everyone here.

Um, this is an interesting topic. Um, I love a lot of what was said when it comes to the way the team in, you know, your team is, uh, being celebrated or being appreciated. Um, I had a scenario today at a client’s office. I mean, he, it’s a, it’s an amazing business. Um, but he’s a little rough around the edges.

You know, he doesn’t exactly know how to speak to a lot of the people. So, I mean, we’ve [00:45:00] replaced. Not replaced, but there’s been two people that have already come and gone. And, and I, when every time I pop in there, I’m probably in there about once a week, but I stayed communication with the team of, you know, all the time.

Uh, but today I popped in there and there was one girl who, or one young lady who had just started maybe about two weeks ago. And she, yesterday, she called out and I’m talking with one of the guys, uh, you know, via slack, via one of our channels. And I’m like, what do you think? You know, do you think she’s going to last because I can read those things.

I think of, you know, if we all been around the block, we can read some of those signs. So today I particularly made sure that I went and spoke to her and just kind of got her feel about what she feels about the mission of the, of the company that what exactly we do. Right. Because it’s easy for a CEO to treat individuals, which they shouldn’t.

I mean, this is like. Uh, against everything, but to treat them like as a production, like give me your, um, I’m [00:46:00] happy with your output, your, but you as a person, um, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s easy for many individuals to like bypass that, like I just, I just want you to get done what I need you to get done, you know, not taking time out and understanding the power of.

Principle of nurturing the relationships with your team, the more that they feel cared for, the more that they feel that they have an input in your business, the more that they’re going to give to your business off hours. And I think that that is so important. Um, you know, just kind of talking to her and I had to remind her not only because I’ve already read the, you know, I read stuff I read right through people.

And when I reminded her about the mission and the benefits in the women that it’s helping and me as a, you know, um, uh, you know, I’m, I’m actually a client of theirs as well. You know? Um, when I told her that her eyes lit up, like she got re invigorated with like, wow, we are doing something really different here.

Um, and it’s really [00:47:00] powerful, but those things have to be nurtured. You know, I, I’m definitely not there every day, but the CEO and this is. My consulting with him and part of the process and conversations, but it’s hard to train someone who’s done something that same way for 40, 50 years, you know? Um, but it’s so important that when we think about celebrating it, we can’t celebrate anything on our own.

Nothing that we do that’s success is we did it alone. It is the team around us. It all, it is the people. And it’s important that we acknowledged them, that we show them appreciation and that we, we remind them, we inspire them, right? Because people don’t want to come to work. They don’t want to go into an office to be miserable, to have negative energy, to have people yelling.

It’s gotta be an environment where you feel like, wow, we’re in this thing together. And we’re doing this amazing thing, you know, and everybody wants to work for a company like that. Everyone wants. Come to work and feel like they’re making [00:48:00] a difference in some people’s lives and, you know, in whatever industry and whatever market that you’re, that you’re going after.

So that’s just my input, but Sandra, it’s fantastic. When you just share it. Can I just say that, uh, so question for you, when was the last time you celebrated as success? You’ve done. Hm. Um, I think every day I got it. I, you know, I, I take them as little bits, right? Like I, this morning just, you know, some ad campaigns that have been doing like amazing.

I’m just like, I just celebrate it inside. I feel myself at a point in life where I have no time for anything else. I understand the true value. Giving it, your all being proud of your work and, and celebrating those things. Not, not consistently the judgment, what could I have done better? Yes. We need that.

I do that to myself every day. How do I be better than yesterday? How do I do this thing better? How do I [00:49:00] do this faster, more efficient? You know, I think that we all have those self talks of, you know, oh, I’m not good enough at this yet. I appreciate those little, those little nuggets. I’ll take them every time they come and I’m like, I get that breeze up.

Damn, that’s some dope work. That’s some kick ass stuff we just produced. You know, that’s a great piece we just created for that client. Like I celebrate the, I, I feel I’m at the point in my life. I don’t, I don’t think I could have said this answer maybe two years ago, you know, but I think at this point in my life, I understand the importance for each and every one of us to be proud of what we do and stop worrying about what we don’t do so perfectly and focus on your skillsets, focus and nurture your strong points and be grateful for those things.

I agree with you with that. It’s great to hear that you celebrate a little bit each day, but you know, one of the things that I, I do every now and then is there’s that stupid thing you’ve always wanted. [00:50:00] Well, it could have been that, um, even could be that that toy you’ve always wanted or that perfume or that show you want to see or that whatever it is, it doesn’t have to be a huge sum of money.

But I find that every now and then, like last year I get so frustrated with being continuous locked down and all that sort of stuff. I bought myself a drone, why I just wanted to have a drone and I just went and did it. Why just celebrate? Um, and it was great. Sometimes we need to do that. It’s great having the little, little, little, um, rewards internally, but sometimes there’s something about a physical thing.

Every time I look at that drone, every time I take it and fly it somewhere and have a bit of fun, I’m chasing a seagull or something like that, which is quite fun by the way. Um, th th I look at it like, yeah, I’m celebrating right. And I’m celebrating some great successes in this past year, but it was great to hear for you Sandra on a love.

Your enthusiasm really comes out in [00:51:00] the club house here. So Linda coming back, coming to you. So how did you go with this whole topic on celebrations? Hi, I’m new to clubhouse, so I’m not really sure how, um, you know, all this tech stuff work in regards to that. But this struck me as being a serial entrepreneur who has probably celebrated over 187 jazz and blues legends in 10 years.

I don’t, I have not celebrated myself. I don’t know what it is to celebrate me and the successes of celebrating others. So, I guess givers sometimes don’t know how to give back to themselves. And so it’s just been encouraging, listening to this conversation. Yeah. And Linda, that’s how I sort of kicked it off [00:52:00] earlier in the session.

If you were there. When I say, you know, most entrepreneurs, I really feel it like, you know, I know I didn’t for 20 years, um, look at each and every one of those small achievements, like the way Sandra does, but I think it’s important to do that. I really believe that maybe Sandra, you might have some thoughts for Linda here.

Yeah. I, I, um, you know what, I don’t think we have another choice. You can’t look at it any other way. You know, you, you have to come, especially as an entrepreneur, you know what you’re good at? You know, what, why it is that you doing what you’re doing? You know, you have to take yourself through, through that process.

Then run with that. You know, I don’t think that we’d have the luxury of thinking negatively. We have to kill that. We have to stop that, you know, it’s really quick and it’s, it’s human, right. It’s easier for you to pick up a negative thought and think that route versus thinking. Wow. I’m really good at this.

You know, I think it’s important that everybody looks at themselves in the mirror every [00:53:00] morning and call out what you’re good at. You know, be proud of yourself for what you’re good. At one thing, I think it was Lisa Nichols. Um, there was something she said, you know, look in the mirror and, and forgive yourself.

First of all, you know, look at yourself in the eye and go through the process of forgiving yourself for what you think you’re not good enough at that’s one and then congratulate yourself for all that you’ve done and what you’ve achieved thus far in your life. You have to, we don’t remember those things.

And we’re always, our default is to think about where we lack as opposed to where we rocked. You know, we have to, we have to remember those things and we have to put them at top of mind, the more that we think negatively, what happens, you’d neck, you’re going down that tunnel. The more that you remind yourself.

Wow, man. Awesome. I just dis today went amazing. I did great and not, and be realistic, obviously. Not every day’s going to be rainbows and sunshine, but through the midst of those downhills, you can still say, I still have purpose because I rock in these [00:54:00] things and I’m realistic enough to know that every day can’t be sunshine, but we need the rain.

We need the rain. So don’t take those things as any, anything that comes in, uh, in a negative point of not being able to appreciate yourself, where maybe it was. Criticism, you know, whether it’s from yourself or from outside, you have to be, we have to develop that strength inside of us. That instantly says, man, I’m a powerful being and I’m here creating an a that’s my purpose here.

I’m, I’m here to create, and I’m here to exude the gifts that I have, that I want to nurture, that I want to give to the world. And I have meaning, and I have purpose. Everything else is crap. You want to grow something? Think about those same things, how it applies to your client base. Everybody is trying to sell when all you have to do is connect with people and talk to them, right where they’re at.

Meet them right. Where they need to know they want the same things that you do. Nobody wants to be sold to, but everybody wants to [00:55:00] buy. So we, we have to talk to people in the same way that we want to be appreciated. We have to show that team appreciation to the people that we’re looking to do business with.

But when it comes to ourselves, we have to say, Hey, if I can appreciate these people outside of me, why is it harder for me to do that for myself? And when you have that thought, you have to like, I mean, I call it like kick your own ass, man. We have to wake ourselves up at a point and say, you know what? I know better, because we do know better.

We just don’t act on those things. So I think it’s a matter of saying, you know, the little things, it could be the little things I make. I make a great coffee, you know, wherever you’re at, there’s always something that you do great, you know? Um, This little thing that could be meaningful, meaningless to you.

But when you start with reminding yourself of those little things, it’s going to become easier and easier to acknowledge the things that you’re really, really good at. And those things, therefore, as a result, will grow and you’ll become even better at because you believe [00:56:00] it because if you don’t, if you don’t believe it, nobody else is going to believe it.

What a great, what a great speech. I would say, call it a speech, but it’s not a speech. Be take it the right way. Is there Sandra? What a great word of encouragement you just gave just then. And I lived off hope you take that to heart. You know, one of the things I actually do each morning, uh, as I’ve, uh, uh, many times celebration and my celebration is it really starts with an attitude and gratitude.

I think about all the different people. Um, my team, my family and the lecture stuff, and I think there’s something about them. I may even write it down at times and I think, what am I grabbing? What am I grateful for about this person? And I write down and I think that, I think it’s something else and, and just being so grateful for where I am in my entrepreneurial journey and the people [00:57:00] around me and the people I get to have the privilege of interacting with and things like that.

And just thinking, gee, I’m really, really grateful for that person for doing X, Y, and Z. It could even be a pattern, could be a supplier, and then I’ve got my hit list during the day and I can call them up or reach out to some of them and just say, look, I really appreciate what you did the other day and trying to think.

Uh, thank you for that. And it makes, it’s like a mini celebration along that way, and it’s so special and it’s something I enjoy doing. And one of the things I also enjoy doing is hearing about startup.club salad club is something that, uh, I think it has tremendous vision and the end of the end of the year.

And right now we’re coming to the end of the year with Christmas and everything. And it really warms my heart hearing from Jeff, Colin, Michelle, a batched out for clubs. So [00:58:00] we heard at the beginning of this session, uh, some of the great things happening with Jeffrey Moore is that right? Tell some more about that guys.

Yeah. And I just wanted to say that, um, it’s been an incredible year. Uh, we are, the largest club on club has I think over 760,000 members. Um, if you go to start-up dot club, we have well over a hundred recorded. I think we’ve probably got about 20 or 30 shows from the complete entrepreneur as well. So if you really liked this topic or this theme about, you know, the entrepreneur and the holistic entrepreneur, I think that this is, this is a really good theme to, to connect with.

And there’s a lot more shows that are available for listening. I often say that if you go to the startup.club and you listen to all of those episodes, you’d have an MBA in entrepreneurship. So if you know of anyone else, who’s interested in that in being as you know, launching a startup or being an entrepreneur, it’s a great website to, uh, to check out, yes, Jeffrey Moore.

We’re trying to pull them out of [00:59:00] the retirement, get them in here. He’s never been on clubhouse. You know, he’s coming in on, on, uh, on July 16th. But if you want to get notification of that, the, you can use the app, but because we had so many shows a day, it’s often difficult to find. Um, just please sign up to the mailing list rate on the front page.

We are live from CES and I think the next time I’m on club. I will be at CES with Michelle and we’re doing four sessions live with entrepreneurs, set up with P and G Procter and gamble ventures. Um, we’re working with them, um, with a number of successful entrepreneurs, very interesting entrepreneurs, some incredible stories.

Um, and we’re, um, doing sessions live from CES. Hopefully we’re going to touch into some new technologies. I’m hoping our Macron doesn’t, you know, cancel the show. And, but if it does, we’re still move forward. Cause it’s clubhouse and we can do it on an audio chat. Michael, have a very Merry Christmas and everyone here in the audience, it has been incredibly or it’s shop.club.

If [01:00:00] you haven’t joined the club, please click on the, um, the link or the startup club and the house at the top, joined the club and also, uh, join the email lists. Have a very Merry Christmas. Yes. Thank you for those kind words calling. I just wanted to say thank you for everyone in the audience. Um, and for those of you who kind come up on the stage, appreciate you, your stories for your insights, your thoughts, and for your wisdom as well.

And also for all those people, who’ve come up on the stage over this past year on the complete entrepreneur. It’s something that I love hearing what other people are doing. I love hearing the stories. I love hearing the input from each and every one of you. So thank you very much for that. Um, but I’d like to highlight in particular, uh, my Mo my co-moderator moderators here, Jeff, Colin, and Michelle, uh, your inspiration and each one of you, and you have a wealth of [01:01:00] wisdom, um, about startups.

You have a wealth of knowledge about what to do and what works and what doesn’t work and the way you give it. So freely. Is an inspiration for us all. So I’d like to thank you and applaud each one of you for the incredible amount of work you have done and put across this past year, uh, with startup.club and all the different sessions you’ve been contributing to.

So thank you very much for that. And I want to wish everyone, a very Merry Christmas, have a safe and happy new year and may, um, Cron, whatever it is, um, uh, be a thing of the past. So this time, next year we can gather in, in clubhouse and sort of say, isn’t it great to be free once again. Thank you very much.

God bless you. Well, thank you, Michael. Thanks for everything you do as well. Thanks everyone. Have a wonderful [01:02:00] let’s go celebrate. Let’s go celebrate it.