Why Most Businesses Fail And How To Avoid It

Austin McCurry: Ninety five percent of people will tell you they're self aware, and self aware is knowing how your behavior affects other people. Only fifteen percent actually are.

Steve Trang: Yeah. And

Austin: so usually when I go to work with a client, first thing we look at is lead management, like, right out of the gate. Mhmm. How fast are we responding to web leads? It's, you know, twenty four hours, two hours. You know, it's rarely Painful.

Ever is it two minutes. And and sales partners in particular, and leads come in, and we have this very casual, nonchalant, whatever. And I'm looking at them like, I would lose my mind and fire people. Hey. This is a $35,000 wholesale flip whatever.

And your people are just like, yeah. When we get back to somebody, get back to it, and you guys aren't losing your mind right now?

Steve: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of disruptors. Today, we have Austin McCurry with Sharper Business Solutions, and he flew in from Chicago to talk about the biggest difference between average operators and elite businesses. And Austin's actually coming here because he's actually coaching me and my team. Guys, I'm on a mission to create a 100 millionaires.

The information on the show alone is enough to help you become a millionaire. And in the in the next five to seven years, if you'll take consistent action, you'll become one. Guys, if you get value out of the show, please hit that subscribe button. That way we can all grow together. You ready?

Austin: I'm ready.

Steve: Alright. So first question is, what was your life like right before you got in the business?

Austin: Well, I was a school teacher Mhmm. For six years. Yeah. Six years before that. Yeah.

So a lot different. I it wasn't a nine to five job. It was, like, an eight to 03:30 job. Okay. And I taught in the private sector.

So we only had school four days a week.

Steve: What do you mean taught in the private sector?

Austin: So I taught in the private school, which is Christian private school.

Steve: Okay.

Austin: So we only had school Tuesday to Friday. Interesting. Yep. We had every Monday off. So I had a three day weekend every every weekend, every holiday, every summer.

I got paid the entire time. Mhmm. So it was, like, a very, like, laid back, easygoing I don't don't really know. The more I talk about, I don't know why I left it.

Steve: Yeah. I'm kinda wondering the same thing too.

Austin: I don't either, except, you know, you're still making any money at it.

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: You know? And so, and that's what I went to school for. Mhmm.

Steve: And

Austin: what's what's, really cool is I fast forward to where I'm at now in life, and I get to use all of that knowledge that I got from teaching. Because really in in coaching, and we'll get into it tomorrow, it's a lot of it's it's knowledge transfer, especially when we're doing an initial implementation of the RISE curriculum with a client. It's train it's it's it's, teaching teaching them that. And we're

Steve: gonna be talking about today, not tomorrow.

Austin: Yeah. About tomorrow. So but, it, so a lot of what I do now is incorporates the education. I mean, today, I I think in every call that I was on with clients today, brought we brought up education and talked about education, teaching, training. You know, you guys do say, you know, sales training.

Steve: Right.

Austin: And, you know, it's that knowledge transfer. There's all those things you mentioned, you know, nobody cares about college. And, so as as educators, we get, like, really upset because, like, we went to college to learn how to transfer knowledge. Mhmm. And then you talk to anybody and they're like, oh, I'm gonna go teach.

Mhmm. Like, did you go to school to know how to do that? Well, no. I'm just gonna do it. And so we get a little we're like, well, we went to we learned how to do it.

Steve: Well, I mean But I learned how to teach by failing a lot of teaching. Right? And then you learn eventually

Austin: one way to do it.

Steve: The right way to teach. Like, oh, that doesn't work. Oh, this does work, and we're still learning.

Austin: Yeah. Well, listen listen to one of your podcasts. You're gonna get your PhD again. Right? Because your mom wants you to go get it.

Yeah. Of course. It was seven. So That's a good

Steve: if it's not a return on time, effort, investment, or anything like that, we're not doing it. Yep. And a PhD has offers no return whatsoever.

Austin: Yeah. I could see that. I have no desire to go back to school. I spent enough time there. But, that's what it's college for.

Mhmm. But I I had passion for it. I love doing it. I I got I love the job. What I ran into for me was it was the same thing over and over again.

Every year was just start back over, teach the exact same thing. Mhmm. Mhmm. You know, go through the same motions.

Steve: Same as that curriculum.

Austin: Yeah. Same exact thing. And so it really didn't come down to, the money as much. And as I've gotten older even, I realized that it was more just the challenge. Mhmm.

You know, so I was felt like I kinda had mastered it and it was just there. It was the same thing. And I was like, I want something different, which oddly enough, we're gonna talk about PI is not part of my profile.

Steve: I was gonna say with The Guardian, that's not No.

Austin: I'm situational, but it was just like the same thing over and over again. Mhmm. And so, I I was just looking I think in some ways, I had almost too much time on my hands is probably what it was. I needed more than that. Yeah.

And so, I

Steve: And so you found something else?

Austin: Yeah. So I was in when I was in college, I worked at Papa John's delivering pizza for and pay I paid for all of college through it, walked out with no debt delivering pizza.

Steve: You're You're a pizza delivery guy.

Austin: I had a pizza delivery guy for Gotcha. All through college, who makes significantly more money than you think they make. And I was really good at it. And, again, paid for all of college, you know, debt free, delivering pizza.

Steve: One get good at delivering pizza.

Austin: Yeah. It's it's knowing, you know, not getting lost oddly enough. Yeah. Other just not goofing around. It's and it's also sales.

I show up to the door, and it's can I sell myself in thirty seconds for you to give me more of a tip? Because that's all the interaction action is. Like, at a restaurant, you had a little more interaction. In pizza, I got about thirty seconds

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: To get you to give me a couple extra dollars.

Steve: To maximize the tips.

Austin: Yeah. To maximize the tips. Yeah. And so it does become sales Right. At the door, but only in thirty second I'm good for about thirty seconds, and that's about it.

So from there.

Steve: And then at what point did you decide to do something different?

Austin: So, I I've been teaching for six years, and I was in administration at that point too. And so I got a call from the, franchisee that I had worked for, who's a very good friend of mine who, oddly enough, works for me now. Mhmm. And he had sold out and got moved on to other things. And he called and said, hey.

This store in my hometown, he's like, they're gonna, you know, they're gonna close it down. If you wanted to get into your own business, you probably could pick it up pretty cheap. Now in the franchise world, franchisees already have money. So when you see a franchise as a franchise owner, they already, national franchises only sell to people who have certain amounts of net worth, who are proven operators. It's why you hardly ever see a franchise close Mhmm.

Because there there's already money behind them.

Steve: Right.

Austin: So I wouldn't have qualified. My dad was a truck driver for UPS. I was a school teacher making $35,000 a year. I had no assets. I owned my home, but, you know, it was a small house.

And, but they were gonna close the store down. And not too much detail, but it was like the perfect storm of they just didn't wanna close any more stores down in the Chicago market

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Where the owner told them either approve the sale, and he sold it to me on contract. So create I started with real estate investors, not creative financing. I'm like, oh, I I did that a bunch of times, creative financing. So owner financing. And, he sold to me on contract, and they approved the sale because they didn't want the store to close.

I've never heard of them doing it before or since. Yeah. And so, that's how I kinda got into it. I remember because they wanted me to go to two weeks of training Mhmm. Six weeks of training.

And I couldn't afford to go to the six weeks of training, so I had to talk them into letting me walk right into the store and just take it over. I walked in in day one. I didn't know how to answer the like, I didn't know how to work the computer system because it had been so many years they had changed it. Mhmm. And, it'd been five years.

And so I didn't know how to I had to have one of the drivers teach me how to, like, take it, process an order in the system, stuff like that on day one. And, so jumped into that. Worked open to close every day except for Sunday mornings. I took off for church. My wife, my daughter was two, and we worked the entire day shift.

My youngest brother was 12. He was my weekend pizza maker to help me on the rushes on Friday and Saturday nights. And, it, it the first year in business, it was the fastest growing store in the country. And so it just took off right out of the gate. And, the second year, I had the opportunity to buy another one, owner financed as well.

Actually, the store I had worked at in college.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: And once once you're into the franchise, then you can buy it everywhere. Right. And so, bought that store. It was the fastest growing store in the country that year. We walked into year three, had investors at that point who saw my success and want to invest money.

Mhmm. So we were building a brand new store. In the middle of that, another owner wanted to sell. Same thing. Owner financed it.

That store was the fastest growing store in the country that year. And I opened a store. It was the largest opening they never had in Chicago in that store. And then it just kinda kept going from there. Built a fifth one, bought one up in Ann Arbor, University of Michigan.

Sorry for the Ohio State fans. And then built two more up in Michigan. So I ended up with eight of them, in about six years.

Steve: Not bad for someone that had no training, couldn't afford the training.

Austin: No. Couldn't afford the training. Didn't have any money. Like, you know, the the the that growth, like, they just had to walk into it and kind of, you know, cobble it all together from there. And, so, yeah, I ended up with I actually, I have a copy of my first payroll.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: There's five five names on it, and I have the copy of my last payroll, which is 200 over 200 names on it. Yeah. Pages long that I have.

Steve: So what's interesting so you you know, you had to finance it. You had to I wanna finance it. You had to get it approved. I remember, I read, one of Robert Allen's books. Right?

K. In the multiple streams of income. Mhmm. And one was, like, you know, getting MLM. You learn sales skills, networking skills, so on.

Other ones, like, buy franchises. And so, like, when I was still working at Intel, I was looking at buying franchises. You look around, it's like every like, it seems like everyone's trying to sell, like, a house cleaning business. But the ones that were interesting to me, I was looking at the consumer, like, well, which ones would I go buy? Buy?

And I was looking at, like, Jamba Juice. Mhmm. Okay. Jamba Juice. I can franchise the Jamba Juice.

And look at how much it cost to get involved in one of those. It was, like, 150,000 to get started. Right. And on top of that, you had to have had a track record of 70 successful stores. Wow.

Who the heck has this? Yeah. Has 70 stores and has a 150,000 lying around. I guess, you know, some of these other Yeah. Franchisees.

But it's it's a fascinating world. To break in the franchise, you have to have a lot of

Austin: things going on. Or It it was it was just an anomaly and, like, of of of a perfect storm that was happening during that period of time in the Chicago market with stuff. It's a story for another time because it's interesting. It crosses, like, political stuff even of what was going on back then.

Steve: But So what would you attribute? Because you're not even part of the the Papa John network. What What do you attribute to having multiple fastest growing stores, best opening Yeah. With no from outside looking in, no reason to expect that?

Austin: Well, yeah. I know I know money because that's the thing you look at is to say, okay. Well, how are you gonna increase revenue? Well, you gotta spend money to make make money, so you gotta put money into marketing, especially in that kind of an industry. Yeah.

You know, what are you gonna do? You won't find restaurants that have sales departments. Mhmm. They're like they don't exist. Mhmm.

You you know? And and there's no pipeline in the restaurant industry either. Your pipeline is you it doesn't exist.

Steve: Either they call you or they don't.

Austin: No. Right. Yeah. You know what's gonna come in that morning. And, so when it when it happened, they called me, the, the marketing department calling Papa John's, and they're like, what are you doing?

Like, you know, they're thinking, you know, I'm coming from the outside. I must have brought something in. There's something new I'm doing, you know, whatever I did. And I said, I answered the phone. And they were like, what?

I'm like, yeah. I just answered the phone.

Steve: And because you guys already took care of the marketing.

Austin: Yeah. I

Steve: just didn't answer the phone. Yeah.

Austin: I didn't spend any marketing extra marketing dollars for the first three years I was in business. All three stores are fastest growing.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: We've got no marketing dollars spent on them. And, I said I just answered the phone when it rang. Mhmm. I was nice to customers and I made a nice I made a good pizza Mhmm. Like that.

And every store I'd go into that I bought, it was funny because I buy existing stores and I'd go in and the GM that was there, who usually I fired on the first day, but that's another story, I'd walk in the door and they'd say, yeah. I have all these ideas, you know, of things I wanted to try that we can try and do to grow sales, and their previous owner wouldn't listen to me. And I would say, yeah. We're not gonna do that either. Mhmm.

And I said, well, what are we gonna do? I'm like, you're gonna answer the phone? They're like, what? I'm like, more than likely you're not answering the phone. Mhmm.

And in the consulting, that that principle when I walk into businesses is like, I start from that. Mhmm. Like, you know, what what what's your phone? Like, what is, like, the basic thing you should be doing? Yeah.

You and they'll go to Masterminds, and they'll hear all these fancy things going on. I'm like, but are you executing the basics Right. Of that? It's not not socialities. So back then in that industry, the phone was the lifeline.

Everybody you call in, you order a pizza. You know, very few people just walk in and order a pizza. And that was the lifeline, and they would just stop answering the phone. Yeah. That's another thing.

But, our hourly employees. Our employees are trying to be as efficient as possible. And efficiency is not answering the phone because I'm mopping the floor trying to get out of the store. But you want me to get out at night on time, don't you?

Steve: Yeah. So

Austin: I shouldn't take orders.

Steve: So This is, like, kind of, kinda like call reluctance. I don't wanna pick up the phone and call out, but at the same time, I don't wanna even answer the phone because if I have to answer the phone, I have to do more work.

Austin: Exactly. Well, I mean and to go over to any kind of sales organization Mhmm. You know, I I, I don't, wholesalers, I don't call them wholesalers. I call them direct to seller Mhmm. Because that's really what they're doing.

You're direct to seller marketing Yeah. And sales. And so usually when I go to work with a client, first thing we look at is lead management, like, right out of the gate. Mhmm. How fast are we responding to web leads?

Mhmm. You know, and inevitably, if the performance is bad and you can talk to some of the service providers Mhmm. It's, you know, twenty four hours, two hours. You know, it's rarely Painful. Ever is it two minutes.

Then you go to the elite operators, and it's two minutes. Mhmm.

Steve: You know?

Austin: And there's all kinds of studies about an airline when the airlines did one about how much more people will pay if they are on hold, like, for less than two minutes. Mhmm. And so, it it's just it it goes to the basic side of things when you go to

Steve: Me me personally, I know if I know I'm gonna get $1,800 Mhmm. Answer or it's gonna be like a it was an IVR. Right? It's the, you know, like, press 1 for this, press 2 for that. Like, for me, like, I'm already dying Yeah.

On the inside.

Austin: Oh, I just push 0. I just keep pushing 0 till I get to a person. Like, I don't even listen to the stuff.

Steve: So I was on I was in tech support with a company the other day, Calendly.

Austin: Mhmm.

Steve: They don't have a phone. Right? So I I think I dropped the f word inside the AI bot.

Austin: So I

Steve: try to see, like, how many f words will it take

Austin: That's great.

Steve: For this to get escalated Yeah. To an actual person. I didn't hit a 100,

Austin: but it Maybe that was the number.

Steve: Maybe that was the number. Right? We'll never know. But it about 80 ish was not the number.

Austin: That's great.

Steve: Right? But, like, you'll keep hitting zero because you're aggravated by this experience.

Austin: Yep. I mean,

Steve: right now, we got all these AI bots and everything else. Like, you know, like, there's not a human touch.

Austin: Yep.

Steve: And it makes a big difference.

Austin: Well, it's like one of the things that we changed right out of the gate was this, and it aggravates me with restaurants, is that we took orders until the minute we closed. Mhmm. Like, we close at midnight. We take orders till midnight. We don't close at midnight.

We stop taking orders at midnight. Mhmm. Like, things like that. That was just that was basic stuff. Like, you would say, you know, it's of course, you would answer the phone.

You know? But I would tell them, I said, just so you know, if it's 11:59 and the phone rings and you don't answer it, just go ahead and put your key on the counter and leave because I'm on my way there to fire you. Because I just I had zero tolerance with it because that was my lifeline. And it's interesting too when I work with, you know, truck to seller companies. Mhmm.

I mean, a phone call to me was worth $10.20 bucks. Right. Something like that. What did it cost me to make that phone ring? You know, we do marketing a little different.

You know, in real estate especially, they're looking for a needle in a haystack. It's very targeted marketing. In the restaurant industry, it's who's my avatar? Anybody who's hungry.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: It's everybody. Right. So we're doing mass amounts of marketing. And so the marketing is cheap when you do that, you know, sense. I think it cost me, like, $50 per thousand or something like that to send that stuff out.

Steve: Wow.

Austin: And, so to make the phone ring still cost me money, but not the kind of money where I mean, what really, I mean, a a good PPC lead cost you $250.

Steve: Right.

Austin: You know, I've heard TV leads as much as 6 or $700. Mhmm. You know, guys will put money on it. And I'll go in, and you're talking to lead management, the call the incoming call, and we're gonna talk about people today, and the person answering the call. And we have spent 250 to $700 to make that phone ring.

Mhmm. And we're just kinda like, whatever. You know, we've we've spent potentially thousands of dollars to go on an appointment, and it's like, yeah. You know, maybe we'll go on it. We won't.

Can we come up with a reason to not go on the appointment? I always talk to people like, you know, are we qualifying leads, or are we disqualifying leads? Because big difference between those two. Yeah. And, you know, when I can when I get the the owners and leaders to understand how much they have spent to make that phone, sometimes you'll see the anger come up in the owner when he realizes it.

I have spent this much, and we're not answering the phone. You know, we're not responding back to people in two minutes, and it cost me how much to make that PPC lead come in. You know, like that. If you talk to, like, Audantic and Chris Richter Mhmm. You know, and he did a big study on, you know, how many how many leads came in that are in people's systems that sold Oh.

For dollar amounts, we would have sold we would have bought it for, You know? And We went through that audit. Marked it as dead.

Steve: We went through that audit. It was it was very, very painful.

Austin: Yes.

Steve: It it causes to be more hyperaggressive in the follow-up. Mhmm. And I could say, like, you know, as a solo operator, when I was just doing my own campaigns, right, there was only one number that if it rang, I could stand up from the dinner table. Like, I can be talking to my wife. We can have a nice dinner.

If this phone rang Yeah. I'm taking the call. Yeah.

Austin: And we

Steve: were on the same page because she knows how much it costs for the phone to ring. Yeah. Right? And this is back when getting the phone to ring was not a couple $100. It was, like, under $100.

Yeah. But the potential on that was $10.15 or more thousand dollars. Yep. Right? So, like, she was totally on board.

Like, a regular lead comes in, you know, back in the realtor days, buyer lead, seller lead. She's, like, back and wait. But if the We Buy Houses campaign phone number rings, because it was a special phone number, if that phone rings, I have full authority, it doesn't matter where I'm at, just stand up and take the call.

Austin: Yep. As I was in college, and and Papa John's standard is to answer the phone within three rings. Mhmm. Franchisee I worked for, he'll probably listen to this because he works for me, was was two. Mhmm.

And I remember he called one day, and the phone would ring on his end, then ring at the store, ring on his end, ring at the store, ring on his end, third ring, I would answer. Twice on my end, three on his. Oh, he would light me up. Mhmm. It rang three times.

What were you doing? You better answer that phone in three in two rings. All he would just and I'm like, I did. One day, finally, I think I recorded it to show him

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: What it was doing. He was in the store one day, and I I showed him to to show him. And but then I come over, and I work with business owners and and sales partners in particular, and leads come in, and we have this very casual, nonchalant, whatever. And I'm looking at him like, I would lose my mind and fire people over not answering a 10 I had a $10 pizza call.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: And you guys, this is a this is a $35,000 wholesale flip, whatever. And your people are just like, yeah. Let me get back to somebody to get back to them. And you guys aren't losing your mind right now. Like, it would just you know, I'm used to a, revenue happening in minutes, you know, and teams will have no revenue for several weeks in a row.

And I'm like, I would be losing my mind right now.

Steve: So Right. But Let's go from here to, at which point did you start working with real estate organizations?

Austin: Sure.

Steve: Most business owners waste their time and money on solutions that never fix the root problems. They'll address all the symptoms due to slow revenue. And because they're only fixing the consequences, the real problem stays hidden and the cycle of wasting time and money continues. It's like having a lingering headache that won't go away despite trying every over the counter medicine. When reality, you should've just gone to the doctor and had them figure out exactly what was causing the headache.

And that's what's so difficult about business. You can see and feel the symptoms and yet struggle to find it. Now imagine you can find a prescription that doesn't just mask the symptoms but actually addresses the root cause. Where would your business be if you address that right now? That's what our sales event is about.

Your marketing doesn't suck. Your leads aren't bad, and your operations aren't terrible. It's that you haven't addressed what actually makes you money in wholesale, which is the conversations you have with homeowners. It's critical that you build trust with sellers, demonstrate that you fully understand their situation, know exactly what's keeping them up at night, and paint the ideal outcome that leads them to a better future by working with you. That's what it takes to get signed contracts and keep your business going.

Simply put, at our event, you'll walk away with the framework, phrases, questions, documents, and process to close more sales and buy more houses. Join the hundreds of others who have come to our live event and dramatically grown their business. Our event is happening soon and is available for you to join only if you're willing to take the pill. Did you start working with real estate organizations?

Austin: Sure. So I had the stores for ten years.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Sold all of them kind of in a couple different sets. So so exited, you know, successfully out of that that industry there. I was 38. It just kind of or it just kinda happened. I wasn't, like, looking to sell.

They just kinda just kinda happened.

Steve: Like, someone just came in and just gave you, like, a ridiculous amount of money?

Austin: Yeah. I got That's nice. I, I had the Ann Arbor stores in Michigan, which were University of, U of M. And, another franchisee called me up from Florida, and he he wanted them. His daughter-in-law was from there.

His son was moving back up there, and he's like, just tell me how much. Corporate thought I was selling him all eight of my stores. I'm selling him three. Mhmm. Because I found out he had a bunch of money and he didn't really care.

And so I I just signed the contract for the the big house, the stadium, to sell on the stadium Mhmm. That fall. And so I was like he called me and like and I I think with business owners too, and this is, we're diverting a little bit, but it's, and, you know, I I get a lot of feedback, from people over, like, the masterminds. When they go to masterminds, they start to realize that we come from a place of this problem can't be solved.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Not like, oh, this but like this let me just go do something else. Mhmm. And so when you attack a problem with, okay, there's a solution somewhere in here, and so we couldn't figure out how to market to the college students. So I ended up getting a hold of the directory of all the students' students. 60,000 names and email addresses were in there.

And this is back 02/2017.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: We manually entered all of them into Mailchimp. I hired somebody and manually entered them all. It was the only way to get them in because they wouldn't give me a digital copy, only a hard copy. Mhmm. And so then we started to be able to directly email the students.

And so we finally had cracked that code because Ann Arbor is the home of Domino's. I could see Domino's corporate office from my store.

Steve: Okay.

Austin: Yeah. And they were ruthless too. They were trying to put me out of business. Mhmm. There's more stories there, but I have a lot of stories.

But I, so he came along, offered me. I sold year later, I sold just threw it out there. They were sold in two days, the rest of my stores were. Again, I had one of my stores the highest sales per capita in the country Mhmm. For Papa John's, and really good stores.

Well, we had really good, really good team. And people often ask me, like, how do you evaluate a business? And it starts with, like, how good is your team? Right. Because when I sold, the store still had to open the next day and who was gonna open them.

Steve: Were you planning on retiring?

Austin: I I kinda came out of nowhere when I sold them, so I didn't really, like, have a plan. Oddly enough, which is kind of just happened up real quick. And, so Gary Harper, my business partner, and I have been friends since we were teenagers.

Steve: Okay. Of course, Susan Troublemakers.

Austin: Yeah. Well, he's the troublemaker. I'm keeping he I my job is to keep him out of jail.

Steve: There you go.

Austin: So Susan's my cousin.

Steve: Okay.

Austin: And so I've known Gary since before he dated Susan, but Susan's my cousin. And so, which we can talk about that in PI because we we hire a lot of family and people always ask us that. Like, y'all we hire a lot of family. Mhmm.

Steve: And we

Austin: talk about that in the hiring process. But, because all all family still goes through the hiring process Mhmm. For us. And either they match or they don't match. Yeah.

You know? So people are like, well, you hire family. I'm like, yeah. But let me show you the resume Mhmm. Of each one of the family members and their PI profile along with what the target is, you know, and you'll see that each one of

Steve: us

Austin: is, like, a 10 out of 10 match with experience for the position. You know, we we just not long ago turned down a family member because who needed a job Mhmm. Because they didn't fit the position we were hiring for. Right. So I don't really care who they are, but if they don't fit the role, I'm not offering them a job.

And so, but I'm also not gonna disqualify them. Some people do, and that's fine. But I'm gonna disqualify them over it. But, so I sold out. So Gary called me.

Oddly enough, I had given Gary the idea of going into business consulting. I had just hired a business coach a few years before, and he came over to meet with me. And he was like, man, I'm trying to get what I wanna do, and I'm doing real estate. And I said, well, I just hired a business coach. I went to business coaching.

And then couple years later, I'm talking to him. He had started Sharper and Right. About the the year before that. So Gary called me and was like, hey. What are you gonna do now?

I'm like, man, I have no idea. I know I'm going to Florida for I sold my stores, got in the car, and drove to Florida. And my wife is like, when are we coming back? And I'm like, I don't know. Mhmm.

Just whenever I finally feel like it. And then one day, I just, like, got up. Like, alright. Let's go back home. Yeah.

And so I said, I I I, you know, I don't I don't know. I haven't quite figured out what I'm gonna do yet. Take a break for a while. Enjoy the kids. My kids are still young.

And, he goes, well, I just started Sharper. Why don't you come help me at Sharper? And I said, alright. Three things. Number one, I don't do sales.

Mhmm. Number two,

Steve: from home daily.

Austin: Yeah. From home, I don't do sales part time. Mhmm. Well, part time for Gary is half a day. Mhmm.

Half a day is twelve hours.

Steve: Right.

Austin: I work from home, but I travel every week now. Yeah. I'm somewhere in the last month. It's been I've been all over

Steve: Tempe is your home for the next couple days?

Austin: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I've been all over the world in the last month. We've started picking up international clients.

Steve: You're doing Columbia. Right?

Austin: Columbia, Cairo, Warsaw. I went to Warsaw at the July. I just got there.

Steve: Who's in Warsaw?

Austin: A a new client in Warsaw. Okay. I was just in Cairo Mhmm. Few weeks ago.

Steve: Call center?

Austin: Call center in Cairo. Well, call center and do does VAs in in general. But, I went on-site for that for that one and, which has been really cool. I I think my dad and my son on that trip with me. So it was Very cool.

It was a very, very, very good trip. And, but, anyway, so I travel every week. Part time is twelve hours for Gary. Mhmm. And then, I get my first business card and it's a sales manager on it.

In fact, if you go to LinkedIn, and I I leave it up for this reason too. LinkedIn says that I'm sharper sales manager is what it says. And the business card came in, I called Gary. I said, what is this? Mhmm.

And it was me, him, Susan, and Susan's sister. It's part time. It's all it was time. And I said, what is this? He goes, well, you're just gonna manage the sales department, which was him.

Mhmm. I'm like, I'm gonna manage you. Right. Whatever. So and it was funny too because I talked about before the show a little bit of, like, ego check.

Mhmm. You know, I was coming off of I had all kinds of sales awards. Mhmm. Sales and pizza, those well, we can talk about that, but, it's a little bit different. I was I guess it is sales.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: I I had sales awards. I was youngest franchisee in Chicago the entire time I was there. All kinds of stuff. You know, people knew who I was. I had had John Schnatter, Papa John had flown to us and taken us out to lunch.

I I mean, I knew he knew who I was, like, things like that. And so then I go into the real estate space. I don't know anybody. And people call me like, oh, are you Gary's personal assistant? I'm like, no.

I am not Gary's personal assistant. Like, you know, I'm I'm retired here. And so, that kinda kicked off with Sharper early on, and was primarily just helping Gary would be in consults all day.

Steve: Mhmm. When was this exactly?

Austin: Two thousand eighteen. 2018. July 30.

Steve: So 2018, you start working with Sharper as quote unquote the sales manager. Yeah.

Austin: Quote unquote the sales manager. Mhmm. And so, Gary and I were getting sales calls together, but my job was, you know, you you know Gary, my job was to make sure I got all the notes. Mhmm. Because he get off the call and he call me, like, I just sold the client.

Okay. You have their name? And here's their name. What's in the company? I don't know.

Their phone number? Message him on Facebook. Like, he wouldn't have anything at all. I'm like, no more phone calls without me on the call with you. Yeah.

So he and I, you know, would meet together. I would kinda do lead management. We'd jump on a call together, and he would he would close it from there and then just kinda hold hold him down the fort with that. And so, it just kinda grew from there, and wasn't really sure where I would fit with him. I I just came on thinking, I'll be with him for a year and kinda just help him and, you know, figure out what I wanna do from here.

And it's and it just kinda kept snowballing. It was interesting because I was just going back to some financials, and the quarter that I came on with Sharper, and this is talking about elite companies, like, bringing on people. Mhmm. We did more in third quarter than he had did in the first two quarters combined. Mhmm.

Like and then it just kept doubling, like, really, really fast. And, just to bring in bringing on except pat myself on the back, I guess, that I was the right person. Mhmm. But, you know, bringing on the right people. And so it just kinda picked up from there.

But one of the things, is, kind of in the in the coaching world is having, a specialty. What do you specialize in? Right. And out of the gate, I did not specialize in real estate. I owned my house.

Mhmm. That was about it. Yeah. You know, I remember going to Masterminds and being like, I don't know what's going on. So really and and part part of what you talk about in the intro of your show is the amount of education that you can get in the era that we live in off of podcasts, YouTube.

I mean, just go down So

Steve: shortage of information.

Austin: Oh, no. And joining masterminds and groups like that

Steve: Mhmm. You

Austin: know, hiring the right coaches. I mean, you can get the education, just if you're willing to put the time in Right. You know, to it. And so, attending those, listening to those things, I got up to speed pretty quick, talking real estate all day all day with guys, not being afraid to ask questions. You know, I think that's often a lot of times people don't wanna ask questions.

So these people don't say, I don't know what that means. Can you explain it to me? Right. Oh, yeah. This is what it means.

Steve: So what are you response are you still the sales manager?

Austin: I am not the sales manager. Now I do manage the sales manager, but I am not the sales manager

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: Of it anymore. Oddly enough, I am the number one salesperson in predictive indexes history.

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: I have sold more subscriptions in a single year than anybody ever has in seventy years in

Steve: the Oh, you're And

Austin: I'm not a salesperson.

Steve: You're my guy on the

Austin: Yes. I'm your guy on it.

Steve: On the PI.

Austin: But we can when we get into PI, we can't talk about what that is

Steve: because If someone wants to buy a PI important.

Austin: Talk to us. Just call me. I'll take care of it. I'll get you a test deal. You can get it.

Steve: So then what are you doing for Sharper? Because like I mentioned, beginning the show, like, you you flew into town and you're doing my quarterly

Austin: Yep.

Steve: Tomorrow. So last quarter, it was Brandon. The quarter before that, it was Mandadin. Two quarters before that was Mandadin.

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: And Amanda's basically, I'm tired of you, like, bring someone else out here. Right? Like, she handles she already has to deal with me twice a month on the CSO.

Austin: Does she? Nice.

Steve: Alright.

Austin: So I, what I'm responsible now is I just took took back over the COO position Mhmm. In Sharper. So I, we run an ecosystem model with business unit leaders that run each of our businesses and the day to day operations. Mhmm. And then we have finance, sales, and marketing are all shared resources for each of those business unit leaders.

So kind of think about them like a, like, they're the third party. They could contract out their finance to that company. So what it allows is it allows our executive team, which is me, Brandon, Gary, and Susan, to, kinda control all of that together by us. All the finance goes to the finance department. So if I need finance numbers for any one of my companies, I go to the finance department.

I'm not calling all the different businesses and kinda what's going on. Same thing with marketing, Brandon, make sure it's, a consistent message across all the platforms that are not, you know, costing over each other, things like that. Mhmm. So I manage all what we call business unit leaders. So they all they all respond directly to me.

Yeah. Which, again, as we're talking about people today, is really important. Those are the right people because I don't have a lot of time to interact with them. They get about an hour a week is what they get from me. Mhmm.

And so they've gotta be right on their game. So I manage all of them as the COO. I am officially the CFO as well, but I have a finance department that runs all the finance there, but I make all the decisions for that department. And then kind of going down a level, I manage the CSO. So Amanda, like, works for me in my department.

Don't tell Amanda that I said that she works for me. Mhmm. You know? But, like, all the CSOs

Steve: club specifically.

Austin: What'd you say?

Steve: We'll send her this club specifically. Yeah. Specifically. Thanks.

Austin: I appreciate that. Yeah. But, so all the CSOs work for me. So I I manage that department as well. So all, like, the coaches, interact with all of them.

And then, yeah. And that's that's kinda what I What is And then and then I do coaching.

Steve: So if I was one of your business unit leaders. Yep. What would I get in my hour a week with Austin?

Austin: We're gonna jump straight into identifying, discussing, solving problems. Mhmm. Like, we cut right into it, like, really fast. They know they got about sixty minutes, so they have to come prepared with what they need out of me.

Steve: Mhmm. And

Austin: then what I'm listening for is, well, helping them solve problems, number one. You know, anything that they can't solve. Mhmm. But, I I so I do a lot of coaching every week as well. I'm out on the road two days a week, middle of the week.

And then I also do CSO calls like Amanda does too. Right. So Mondays and Fridays are my CSO calls. Tuesdays are my internal meetings. Wednesday and Thursday, I'm out with clients.

Gotcha. It's usually my my typical schedule.

Steve: And then So in your coaching role Yeah. In your capacity, what are you doing on-site visits?

Austin: Quarterlies. The Raw Rise curriculum implementation. Mhmm. All those things are like the next you know, with you, it's quarter quarterly meetings. Mhmm.

You know, which are resetting the goals and conditional training, you know, big problem solving. And then we do a two day implementation of our of our curriculum in the RISE business framework.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: So I do that as well. So, like, the rest of this week actually have another implementation to roll out as well. Gotcha. So,

Steve: how does someone come about, like, raise their hand and say, I wanna get implementation training?

Austin: They just reach out to Sharper. You know, we we we run audit on their business first, kinda see where they're at, what what type of product is a best fit best fit for them. Mhmm. We are somewhat picky with clients that we bring on. And we need them to be at certain stages of the business.

And let's say that I've worked with clients who don't have any employees yet. You know? And then we work with companies that have hundreds of employees. Yeah. So but it's evaluating kind of where they're at and what they need, to, kinda customize that a little bit along with what coach is gonna be the best fit for them.

Mhmm. So, like, I work well, I don't know. We've got clients in all kinds of different industries, from restaurants to real estate to education to, beauty supplies to call centers. I mean, I could go just it goes on and on and on of Yeah. Client list that we have.

Steve: Yeah. Gary mentioned to me there was a giant smoothie company you guys.

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Recently onboarded. It's it's pretty cool to see, like, this reach because, right, you guys started in just, like, kinda, like, this real estate niche. Yeah. And now you kinda, like, you're you're expanding your reach to who you work with.

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: So we talked about, you know, the difference between average operators and elite businesses. What is the biggest difference?

Austin: People.

Steve: Okay.

Austin: You know, we kinda talked about a little bit before we got started. Mhmm. And I'm a firm believer in it. I, my my my my best example, I guess, is the two Taco Bells by my house. Mhmm.

They're both about the same distance from my house. Actually, the one the one's a little bit further. They get the exact same product, the exact same processes, the exact same equipment, everything's exactly the same, but I would go to one Taco Bell that's further away than I'll go to the other one. Why? Because the people who work there

Steve: Right.

Austin: Are just they take care of customers better. I know enough about the industry to know when, like, they're stealing. Like, the one is constantly stealing, you know, from it.

Steve: How can you tell?

Austin: After, like, 08:00 at night, all of a sudden, they don't take credit cards anymore.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Cash only. And then when you ask them for a receipt, they can't give you one. That happens? Oh, yeah. But soon as they say I mean, nowadays, in restaurants, like, the credit card machine is never down.

Mhmm. Like, if the Internet goes down, there's an automatic cellular backup for that system. So it never does go down. So as soon as they say, our credit card machine is not working anymore, I that's a red flag. As soon as the cash comes in, they they just stick it in their pocket, hand you the taco, and that's that.

You know, inventory control in a restaurant is

Steve: pretty I mean, I I I've heard, in fast food that, theft is the greatest challenge. And it's not necessarily I didn't know about, like, the pocket and cash. It was like, hey, Austin. Come in, and I'll just give you a sandwich for free.

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: Right? There's a lot of, like, oh, you're my friend from high school, from college. Just come on in. We'll hang out.

Austin: Oh, it's well, it's and the other thing too is that the the employees themselves don't view certain things. For example, a 20 ounce of Coke. And I should have any machine upfront. It's got my attention. I struggled.

You know? You know, I've got cases of, you know, Coke in in there. Well, Pepsi now. I guess, Papa John's, but Pepsi out there. Yeah.

And they're they're thirsty. Mhmm. They're working hard. It's hot in the store. They think, oh, I'll just grab one.

It's not that big of a deal. They grab one. Well, I had 200 employees. 200. If everybody grabs one Mhmm.

You know, just start doing the math. Right.

Steve: You

Austin: know, it adds up fast at a dollar 25, a 20 ounce it cost me to buy those. You know, I mean, I can blow through, you know, $300 worth of Pepsi every day. Mhmm.

Steve: Like What is your, in in Papa John's, what was your profit margins?

Austin: In a good store, about 15%. You know, I had you know, when they were low volume, it was like five. Mhmm. If you could you could crack it. So it really is about scale.

It's about producing. And that's the thing, like, I work a lot with it's kind of funny. I have a degree in math. And so I work a lot with people and finance. Mhmm.

That's where I spend most of my time with clients. Usually, if that's struggling with one of those two, that's usually where I come in is to go through finance. I'm not an accountant, but I do a lot with finance. And, they, let's say, I forgot what we were talking about, where we were I was going with We're

Steve: talking about profit margins.

Austin: Yeah. Thank you. Profit margins. So, the faster the cash conversion cycle, usually the lower the profit margin. Mhmm.

The longer the cash conversion cycle, the higher the profit margin. Interesting. I wouldn't say that that's a law that's true all the time, but it it The trend. It usually is a trend. Yeah.

I think about wholesaling compared to flipping. Mhmm. You know, wholesaling, faster Mhmm. But a low amount of money. Or do I wanna flip it

Steve: Maximize it.

Austin: Double my total my money and go longer. You know, like that. It's that play. So if you're like, why would you go into a restaurant industry at a 15% profit margin? Because my cash conversion cycle is minutes Mhmm.

Long. You know? I mean, I'm making cash instantly.

Steve: Gotcha.

Austin: Whereas in real estate, I'll come into clients often, and the hires will say, so we're almost out of money. Mhmm. Can you come in and try to help us figure this out? And I'm like, okay. Well, what's in your pipeline?

Well, there's nothing in the pipeline. Okay. So if we sign a contract today, we're, what, thirty days at best on a wholesale from seeing revenue?

Steve: Thirty to ninety days.

Austin: Oh, yeah. Whatever. You know, innovation, a 110, flip longer than that. You know, like, you know, how much money do we have on hand? Well, you know, maybe, you know, two weeks.

Mhmm. Okay. So what do you think we're gonna do here? You you're not gonna see revenue for thirty days, and you only have two weeks of money. So paying attention to that cash conversion cycle, pipeline, a lot of people refer to that as pipeline.

But even more than that, knowing how fast your pipeline is gonna convert in business is, salespeople don't like to discuss that. Yeah. So they don't think about that. They just think, well, if I just sell more, I'll be okay. And there's so many more pieces.

There's the

Steve: Well, the reason I'm asking that is, like, wholesaling is really as tough as it is. Mhmm. And, like, a good operator like, an excellent operator is 30 to 40%.

Austin: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? Average operator is 15 to 20%. Is that is that what you see typically?

Austin: Yeah. I don't see much above 45%.

Steve: Right.

Austin: And I 45,

Steve: yeah, it'd be really lean or really small. Like, I it's one of those things.

Austin: Occasionally, you'll hear somebody that'll be above above that. There's always a catch. Mhmm. Always something going on, with it as to why is and if you dig deeper, you usually figure out why. But, yeah, if they The

Steve: ones I've seen that have had crazy crazy is that they're both the visionary and the integrator. Yeah. Right? They they can wear both hats well. Right?

But that's not a a a it's not something you can you can bet on. But the reason I'm asking this is that, you look at restaurants with, like, their 4% profit margins and you look at this Pepsi theft.

Austin: Mhmm.

Steve: Like, that gets you from 4% to losing money.

Austin: Oh, yeah. Real fast.

Steve: Real fast.

Austin: Yep. So there's just not

Steve: a lot of, like, room for error. Whereas, like, you're talking about, like, you know, the guys that are the phone's ringing. It's, like, they're not losing their minds. But it's, like, yeah. But I can make that up

Austin: Right.

Steve: On the next one. Right? Like, there's there's a lot of margin for error. Although that margin for error is getting tighter and tighter these days.

Austin: Well and you're looking at, you know, how many how many $10 pizzas do I have to sell Mhmm. To get to a $20,000 wholesale fee compared. Like, right, you can just say it well. And that often is to the mindset with them and their finances. Like, oh, well, if I just sell one extra deal, it's like, okay.

But can you actually sell can you actually get one more deal and get it closed in the period of time where we gotta have it closed in? Right. And so you're right. It does create a little bit of loose lackness, not as much discipline. Like, I had a I had a full time person do nothing but audit everything every day.

And it's funny because I hired her into Sharper. And I remember, Gary, spent some money on a credit card, which was fine. But she called the next morning, and she's like, what'd you spend on? He's like, what? And he calls me.

He's like, she just called me, and, like, I just spent something last night. She called me this morning. I said and she had worked for me in the stores. I said, yeah. That's what she does.

That's what she's used to doing because she audited everything. And Gary is like, I like this. Like, he liked the fact that there was somebody watching the money, like, that tightly.

Steve: I got a because you

Austin: you have to.

Steve: I got a message this morning from my team, and they're like, did you have Fuzzy's Taco last week? I was like, I did.

Austin: Alright? You guys have got, like, two of my favorite restaurants in the country, by the way, in Phoenix. They can cut the salad.

Steve: Which which,

Austin: Angie's Lobster It's amazing. I had last night. Mhmm. I'm gonna have it again tonight. I had changed it

Steve: to the menu, though.

Austin: I know. I'm gonna try something different tonight. I'm gonna try one of their grilled

Steve: I'm not sure I like their business direction with that.

Austin: No. They were they it's slowing them down already. Yeah. You know, I analyze that stuff when I go in.

Steve: Yeah. Like, I'm looking as, like, okay. So you sold one thing

Austin: Yep.

Steve: And you crushed it. Yep. Now you, like, added, like, eight other things.

Austin: Yep. And

Steve: I'm concerned that you're changing your business model.

Austin: Yep. And they're fresh grilling it, so they're adding time Mhmm. To it as well. I'll I yeah. I'll see how it goes because I'm, like, I'm not ready to call them and be like, hey.

Can I franchise license it? Probably license this

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Up in, like, Indiana? Because that the the model they had with the lobster and everything like that.

Steve: Yeah. Angie's lobster by itself, fantastic. This new thing, I'm a little less excited about this direction because I I I I've been in business long enough that the more complexity you add, the more Yep. The worse it is. Alright.

What's the second one?

Austin: Jalapeno box.

Steve: That'd been that one. Oh, I think that's the one that Gary

Austin: I'm not gonna because I told him about it. Yeah. And and I'm not gonna get to it. I'm not gonna get to it on this trip. It's kinda far.

Yeah. It's kinda far out, and I'm I'm not gonna just my timeline, I'm not gonna make it. But So Anyway sorry.

Steve: So let's go back to Right. Oh, we're not cutting it out. There's no censoring here. So, we've only we've only cut two episodes. We only edited two episodes this whole time.

Okay. Dude, got 300 episodes. Alright.

Austin: Well

Steve: One, because the guy went really long on the story. Yeah. Another one, the guy dropped a derogatory term for a group of people. I was like, did this guy just say this in a podcast?

Austin: I guess he just thought you were gonna edit it,

Steve: Yeah. So, like, as soon as it's over, I talked to the producers, like, hey. Trim this part out.

Austin: Yeah. Wow.

Steve: Right? So Profit margins.

Austin: We're talking about No.

Steve: We're talking about so the difference between excellent between average and and elite. Right? Yeah. People. So I see this happen all the time.

And, like, it's such, like, an obvious thing to me today, but it was not obvious thing to me when I was hiring. So screening on profiles. Yep. What are what what is the difference on on the excellent and the average people businesses?

Austin: The excellent people are disciplined enough to wait for the right person to come along, not just so okay. Most of us in high and I've hired over 7,000 people. Wow. K. High turnover business, we were hiring always.

I've I fired and hired every week for years, which is just part of the process. Yeah. And, So

Steve: you only got to keep 200 after you got how many years? Oh, yeah.

Austin: Yeah. That's why it was constant turnover. It was just constant Yeah. With it. It's always fire firing.

Theft every week. Debt with theft every week. So it wasn't is somebody stealing from me, it's who is stealing from me, let's find them this week. Man. Yeah.

It's just it's always it's always So

Steve: you might even be more jaded than I am.

Austin: Oh, I am very, very much am. And so I, did a lot of hiring. And when you hire, most of us hire. We sit down and interview, and, we're we're hiring on our gut and how we feel about it. We just, you know, people tell me, I'm a good judge of character, and I'm like, no.

You're not. Like, none of us really are. You know? And because yeah. There's just things you don't know about about them.

You're not gonna get an interview. Salespeople are gonna interview great.

Steve: So

Austin: you'll hire a salesperson to just about do anything because they will sell themselves on the job. Right. You know? But if you hired a salesperson to be your bookkeeper, you got a big problem. But if you hire if you interview a bookkeeper and you interview a salesperson, the salesperson is gonna interview way better than the bookkeeper is.

Mhmm. And my team has even done it. Couple years ago, they went to hire somebody. They interviewed these three people, and, like, we really like this guy. And I looked at his profile, and I'm like, no.

You're not hiring him. Was it operations role? And they're like, well, he interviewed really, really well. I'm like, of course, he interviewed well. He's a maverick.

Mhmm. I'm like Oh

Steve: my god.

Austin: This is the girl you want. Mhmm. And they're like, well, her interview was just kinda. I said, go interview her a second time. She doesn't connect quickly with people.

Mhmm. So interview her a second time. They came back and they're like, oh, yeah. She was much better than the second time. I'm like, I told you.

And she's a phenomenal employee. Mhmm. But their gut reaction, they knew better, was to go with this one here.

Steve: Right.

Austin: What behavioral assessments do, and I think it's a misnomer, is that they don't tell me that somebody can or can't do something. Mhmm. What they tell me is what motivates somebody. So what I'm looking at is do they essentially, do they like doing it to put, like, on the bottom shelf? Mhmm.

So what we do is we a behavioral assessment comes in and actually, it happened today. I got text message today from from from the client Mhmm. With a profile that is not the right profile. Mhmm. And they're like, well, this person just they interviewed really, really well and they have experience and all the those kind of stuff.

You know? What do you think? And I just text them back. No. Because what this person did was they told you what they like doing Mhmm.

And what, in turn, they don't like doing. And what you said was, I don't really care. I'm gonna have you do it anyway. Even though they said they don't like for example, with me, if you look at my my reference profile or my my my behavioral assessment, it'll tell you that I'm not motivated by social interaction. What do you do in sales?

You interact with people. Yeah. So I just told you, yes, Steve. Talking to people doesn't really motivate me. Mhmm.

And you're gonna say, well, that's okay, Austin. We're gonna have you talk to people all day anyway. You'll be fine. It'll be great because you're a good guy. It's wonderful.

Steve: You'll figure it out. Yeah.

Austin: You'll figure it out, you know, from there. And that's that's what we do. And and that's these are the real high level. So starting off with, it doesn't mean you can't do something. That's what you could do whatever you wanna do.

And if I make them other if I make if I motivate you enough by something else Mhmm. You will do it for a long period of time.

Steve: Right.

Austin: My dad's a great example. He worked at UPS, drove a semi Mhmm. For thirty five years from Chicago to Indianapolis and back every day. He's a very social, outgoing person. So why would he lock himself in a truck for twelve hours a day and not talk to anybody?

K. For thirty five years. Well, I had a handicapped brother. The insurance paid out $4,000,000 on the insurance. My dad had to have the job.

Mhmm. So he put up with it for thirty five years because they paid out $4,000,000 for my brother, and he couldn't couldn't couldn't afford to lose the job under that. Right. My brother passed away. My dad retired two years later.

The day the day he was eligible for retirement, he was gone. Mhmm. Because he no longer had to have the job. But they to motivate him to do it Right. Was something entirely different.

Steve: And it's like, I've I've shared, you know people don't believe me, you know, when I first started as a realtor. Mhmm. My paperwork was spotless. Yeah. Right?

Like, I didn't miss initials or signatures or this or that. Like, it was really good until I got busy. Yeah. Right? Then it got a little sloppy and sloppier and sloppier over time.

But, like, if someone hired me today to be a transaction coordinator and that's the only thing I was doing, I've told people, I can crush that rule for two or three days, and that's about it.

Austin: Yep. I have another PI consultant who works with, nuclear power plants.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: It's a three hundred and fifty thousand dollar a year job. Turnover cost them a million dollars. To by the time they train somebody, get them in there, all of that, and they're in the job for a year and they quit, it cost the power plant a million dollars in that person. Your only job is to sit there and look at gauges all day. It's all you do, and you get $350,000 a year.

Steve: Just to look at the dials

Austin: That's it.

Steve: And make sure the dials aren't wrong.

Austin: That's all I gotta do. They had a 50% turnover rate, and I couldn't figure out why. Mhmm. Well, I'll use Gary Harper, for example. Gary is very, very social.

Steve: I love Gary.

Austin: Very fast paced. I love Gary. He's already something.

Steve: We're not putting him in that role.

Austin: I I would never I won't be in business without Gary. And, Gary and I are a great team. We were great together. So when I say this, I said we're we're exact opposites. That's also why it works.

Mhmm. And so, right, you put Gary in a room with nobody around and tell him, don't touch anything. Just look at this stuff. And if that dial does this, put up the phone and call somebody. So responsive work.

Don't do anything till something happens. Mhmm. Gary's gonna say, well, what do you want me to do while I sit here? Nothing. Don't touch it.

We we don't want Gary touching stuff while he's up there.

Steve: Right.

Austin: Right? And that was the job. And then

Steve: And don't look at your phone. Yeah. Don't look at anything Right. Both dials.

Austin: 5050% fallout rate, and it would cost them a million dollars. Yeah. You know, because people weren't and the 350 wasn't enough motivation even to sit there for how many hours of

Steve: That sounds like Toyota. Dials.

Austin: Yeah. And so, but that's where assessments come into play. Mhmm. It's also, they say that 95 of people will tell you they're self aware, and self aware is knowing how your behavior affects other people. Mhmm.

K? So 95% of population

Steve: feel that way.

Austin: Thinks what thinks they're self aware that when you talk to them. Mhmm. Only 15% actually are. Yeah. So when you sit down in an interview and you're interviewing this person and and, essentially, the line of questioning is, do you like this job and do you wanna do it?

They have no idea anyway.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Especially if you're in the real estate space.

Steve: So even, like, when they're answering your question, they're they think they're being honest

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: But they're wrong.

Austin: They don't even know. And so and especially when you get into the real estate space, especially, you know, real estate investors and wholesalers and all those kind of things where there's not a lot of people working in that industry Mhmm. There's nobody with experience. So you're hiring somebody with no experience who more likely doesn't know, so they don't know what the job is Mhmm. And they don't know what motivates them.

They're They're just sitting there saying, well, real estate sounds really cool in the office.

Steve: I've always wanted to get in real estate.

Austin: And you see HGTV.

Steve: They make a lot of money.

Austin: Yeah. Exactly. I watch HGTV. I can do this. Mhmm.

And most people doing the interviews are salespeople, so they're selling the job anyway to come work for them. Mhmm. So this person's all bought in. Right. And then they come in and we're like, wow.

What happened? What I find with most companies when I come in, and in the RISE curriculum, we have a a an employee nine box where we evaluate employees with it, and there's a they they they tell me I have a team full of stars, which means they're high performers with high potential. K? That's what it means. And what I find when we evaluate the team is actually they have what we call workhorses, which are high performers with low potential from there.

So they're performing, but they're not looking to grow in the company at all. They wanna come in, work Monday through Friday, nine to five, and go home. Make a

Steve: lot of make a

Austin: lot of money. Yeah. But, you know, they they work life balance and not against work life balance at all. I have four children.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: I I gotta pay attention to it. You know, not against it, but that's that's what they're looking at. They're not the they don't really like the work that they're doing. They may like their boss. They may like the company.

They may like the industry they're in. But they if I were to ask them, do you like the work that you do? The answer would be, well, I mean, not really. I like working here. Mhmm.

Right? So they're not a fit for the job, and they're not looking to grow within the company from there. Like, they're just again, I no. I don't wanna be the sales manager. So they're but they're high performers.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: And that's what we call we're not I would never recommend you ever get rid of a high performer. Like, that's just ludicrous. Why would you get rid of a high performer? K? But, also, when we realized that we don't have a team of stars, which stars are looking to grow.

They're looking to move up. They're looking to expand whether their knowledge, looking to move into another role, looking to to really make more money. Right? Like, all those things. And so we don't have a team of stars.

We have a team of workhorses because they can perform because they gotta pay their bills. Right. Gotta pay their rent. But they're not a behavioral match, you know, for the job. They don't like doing it, so they're not really looking to move up in the company and grow from there.

Steve: Gotcha. So looking into, like I don't know if you like being pigeonholed in this. Right?

Austin: K.

Steve: But, like, you're my PI guy.

Austin: Alright. Oh.

Steve: I've texted you. We've had conversations about this. Right? And so there are people that are watching the show that may be familiar with PI.

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: There are people that are may not may not be familiar with PI. So real quick, can you give everyone a breakdown of what predictive index is?

Austin: Sure. So it's a series of assessments, two of them, cognitive and behavioral. We haven't talked about cognitive yet when you talk about that. Mhmm. Cognitive behavioral assessments that predict long term job performance based on the concept, that one of the concept, but human behavior works by people have drives, drives create needs, and behavior is a response to a need.

So in other words, if I tell you that I'm thirsty, drive, I would drive for thirst. You would say, well, Austin, you need water, and you predict that my behavior is I'm gonna go get a bottle of water. Right. K? So drives, needs, and behaviors.

That's the science behind it. It's you know, use the military, and and predictive index came actually out of the military. Gotcha. You took the ASVAB that they have everybody in the military take. When you apply to go in the military, do the ASVAB, and the military then tells you what you can do in the military.

Mhmm. You don't go to the military and tell them what you're gonna do. You know, I won't be a fighter pilot. They're gonna say, tough luck. Mhmm.

Maybe you are, maybe you're not. Take these assessments, and we're gonna tell you whether you can do that or not. Right.

Steve: We're gonna we're gonna see whether you fit into this box or not.

Austin: Correct. But some reason, in the hiring process, we sit down with them and we just say, I have a good feeling about this person and feel like they really, really want it, or they have experience their on their resume Mhmm. Have experience, so they've done it before. Okay. Just because somebody did something before doesn't mean they're good at it.

Steve: Right.

Austin: K?

Steve: What does ASFAB stand for?

Austin: I have no idea. As somebody in the military, I just don't know if that's what they take.

Steve: I'm curious because, like, I took the PI. Right? I looked at it. And then I there was a test I took a long time ago at Keller Williams as I was being heavily recruited. There was a time where I was actually a realtor that brokerages wanted.

Austin: I think

Steve: you can imagine that. Right? I can't, but but, like, they had me take this thing. It was the AVA.

Austin: Okay.

Steve: Right? And it had five things.

Austin: Yeah. Right? Keller Williams has their own, like, behavioral assessment.

Steve: Yeah. And I look at that those five things, and I look at my PI, and they just happen to look very

Austin: Very similar.

Steve: Similar. Yeah. So I'm thinking, like, they

Austin: Probably based on the same algorithm.

Steve: Right. They were saying, like, oh, and this is our proprietary thing. Yeah. But I'm wondering if it goes back to this this ASVAB thing. Yeah.

And, what was interesting was, at that time, they had 17 different, like, job profiles. And you had to take the AVA, and they'll tell you that. Okay. Based off what your result is, kinda like this whole mil like, the fighter pilot thing, we can determine which role you'll be in. Right?

Owning a brokerage, being the broker, being a team leader that recruits realtors, being a sales a buyer's agent, a listing agent, a team leader that has a bunch of agents transaction, like, all these different things. Right? Mhmm.

Austin: And I

Steve: took my test, and they gave it back to me. And they're like, Steve, you don't fit Yeah. In any of these roles.

Austin: So Well and that's what in real estate, I I get called a lot on that because they'll say, hey. This person came in as this profile.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Where do they fit my they'll they'll do it. They'll they'll they'll do the opposite what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to build the target, assess people, and then call people in for interviews that match the target. That's what you're supposed to do.

Steve: Right.

Austin: But they'll say The

Steve: same time.

Austin: Yeah. Like, I have this person. I really like them. They took the assessment. Here it is.

Where do they fit in my company? Mhmm. And my answer oftentimes is nowhere. You only have so many positions in a real estate company. Mhmm.

Right? Five or six maybe. Yeah. I mean, like, you're not Disney World where you can just stick somebody on a different in a different position. You know, clean a bathroom instead of, you know, run a ride.

And so, they just don't fit. And that's the reality is you might have somebody who's a good person and Mhmm. Matches culture, you trust them, all the other things, but they're just not you just don't have enough positions in your company Right. For them to fit into. And and like I said earlier, they have told you what they like doing, and you're gonna say, I'm gonna have you do this anyway even though you just told me you don't like doing that.

Steve: Right.

Austin: So now it's gonna be driven their success not success. Their performance is gonna be driven by something other than the fact that they like the job. Right. If I come apply for your company in a sales role, I can put together, especially with ChatGPT, a really, really good sale rep resume. Mhmm.

And I've got, like, the pedigree. I mean, I'm a sales manager. I mean, LinkedIn says I'm sales manager.

Steve: I have

Austin: a business card for it. Right? And I broke all these sales records. I can build this stuff. But so what I'm good at is I am good at selling a highly technical product over and over and over again.

That's what my profile is good at selling. People say, what do you know about Myers Briggs? Absolutely nothing. Mhmm. I sell PI.

I know PI, and I know it inside and out.

Steve: Right.

Austin: K. So you can't

Steve: do necessarily sitting sitting in a living room with all these different types of personalities.

Austin: On the fly, not having all the information? Absolutely not. You would have to give me so much information to go on an appointment that you would just be like, awesome. I don't know. You're just gonna have to get there and talk it out and see what happens.

Yeah. And I'll be like, well, Steve, there's no way. How am I supposed to figure this out when I go? Mhmm. You know?

If

Steve: you handed The the incompleteness of information will drive you crazy.

Austin: I have to have everything about it, freedom from risk of error. I I but if I know once I know everything about it, I will sell it over and over and over again. So you take, like, that cup right there. Gary Harper would sell right now in this moment would sell you that cup. Mhmm.

And then he would sell you that remarkable, and then he would sell you that microphone, and he would just do it on the fly. Right. Actually, if I told him to go sell 50 of those cups, he would be like, oh, oh, I don't wanna sell 50 cups. Can I sell, like, 10 and sell something else? Right?

They like the variety, the change of pace, things like that. They do really well Mhmm. In real in real estate acquisitions Right. Because it's always different. Every house is different.

Every feel is different. Every problem is different to solve. They never have all the information.

Steve: That's fine.

Austin: Off the fly.

Steve: Favorite part about sitting in the living room is the same thing I love about sitting at the poker table. Every hand is different.

Austin: Yep.

Steve: Every situation is different.

Austin: Which is?

Steve: Get to figure out how to where do all the pieces come together

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: So we can come with a solution that works for them.

Austin: That's awesome.

Steve: There are two types of salespeople out there. They're the convincers, and they're the sales professionals. For the first nine years of my career, I was the convincer. Convincers are always out there trying to convince people to meet with them and buy from them. Their strategy is to try to push hard and never take no for an answer.

And by focusing on this strategy, I spent a lot of time on cold calling, the next marketing gimmick, features and benefits, how they and their company are the best, following up until the prospect buys or dies. All of this requires time and energy. The problem isn't the model itself. It's that their approach pushes prospects away. And this is the same exact thing that happened to me before I figured out to close more sales formula.

The solution? Sell customers exactly what they want to buy. That's right. I said it. We sell customers exactly what they want to buy.

Because I would rather get an easy sell with a happy customer instead of a difficult sell from a customer who felt sold. No. Thanks. I did that before, and it sucks. So here's the deal.

I explain everything in the closed mortgage sales course. It's an 11 module course that shows you everything you need to know to close more sales. The best part, you can use this in any industry, not just real estate. So no matter what you're selling and to who you're selling to, this formula will lead to easier sales. Go to closemoresales.com/salesmasterclass, one word, closemoresales.com/salesmasterclass for them.

Austin: That's awesome. Which is also, though, why the transaction coordinators don't get along with the acquisition reps. Mhmm. Because it's been a lot lately, actually, in a lot a lot of lot of meetings. TC is like, we're getting to, you know, like, two weeks before closing, and also when we find out, oh, there's a tenant in there who's not paying.

Why didn't acquisitions pick this up in the initial acquisitions? Like, oh, we don't know. We didn't ask. We got we got a contract. What more did you want from us?

Yeah. They're like that. So what comes with that no doesn't mean no. Mhmm. You know, we don't need all the details and information.

Mhmm. We can do it on the fly. Sure. Send me an appointment. I'll figure it out as I'm going.

Right.

Steve: I

Austin: have incomplete information. Also then creates a get to the TC, and they don't have all the information.

Steve: You know, my admin team doesn't really like me, if you can believe it.

Austin: Don't they? Yeah. Well, you're an individualist. Right? Yeah.

So you do what you want with whoever you want, whenever you want, however you want. Exactly. As long as it makes sense.

Steve: As long as

Austin: it makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: So, you know, it's it's we talk about we have our training. So we have acquisition manager training.

Austin: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? And then we also have discipline manager training and lead manager training.

Austin: Which are all three different profiles.

Steve: All three different profiles.

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: And what I always say to the lead manager on the lead manager calls right? Because you have, like they all have their different dynamics. And so, like, the acquisition manager would get upset with the lead manager. Like, why did you book this appointment? Right?

And so one of the things I talk about on my our lead manager call is, like, objections you're having with the sellers, but also objections you're having from the acquisition managers. Yeah. Right? Like, let's talk about how you can sell the acquisition managers better. And acquisition managers get upset with the dispo managers because dispo managers get upset with the acquisition managers.

Austin: So I

Steve: was like so

Austin: so I

Steve: was like, hey. What are some of the challenges you guys are having so I can help you guys talk through and sell this to each other?

Austin: Well, and the different profiles too, so there's three things that we kinda look at is that they communicate, make decisions, and take action different from each other. Right. And so you have a lead manager who is taking action, making decisions, and communicating different than acquisitions manager is. And so when they're looking at the same exact problem, they came up with two completely different solutions. Yeah.

When I'm in meetings, Well, and it's interesting in my profile being so much different than the typical person in real estate. Mhmm. It's actually exact opposite. So when I walk into a meeting, a consult meeting, I'm looking at approaching a problem completely different than anybody in there does. And I'm looking at them like, how did you come up with that solution?

Like, you did what? And then they're looking at me like, where are you coming from? Like, you know, now it ends up, you know, creating some creating, enough friction that we get to where we're going. You know, like, it it actually helps of getting the different perspectives in there. But when you're trying to manage all of that Mhmm.

That's why I tell people, okay, if you had half a dozen profiles that all could do acquisitions, let's just say, k, you now have to manage all of them differently. Mhmm. I was just with a client last week, and his lead managers are four different profiles. Mhmm.

Steve: And

Austin: in the if you're seeing the quadrant and PIs or the four quadrants. Yeah. So each one of them, he had five. It was one here, one here, one here, and two down here. I looked at the sales manager.

I'm like, I am so sorry. Like, you have to walk into that lead management meeting. Mhmm. And when you say something, all four of them hear something completely different.

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: You're speaking you're speaking four different languages. No wonder and they were having a really hard time getting them all on the same page. No wonder they all hear four different things. They all take action completely different. Yeah.

So even if you could say these six profiles could work in that that one, as a manager, why would you wanna do that to yourself?

Steve: Yeah. I never thought about that one.

Austin: Yeah. You go down to and that's where, like, from building a team. We often miss that. I mean, I know I know you like I saw your basketball jerseys, and I know you you like basketball. Yeah.

But you look at these teams, Brooklyn, that's a couple years ago. You stick, like, what, three all stars on this team, and they can't make the playoffs? Right. And you're sitting there thinking, like, what just happened here?

Steve: It was the bronze team, The USA, dream USA dream team that took bronze. It's like, doesn't matter. You got a bunch of alphas if they can't play together.

Austin: Right. They can't communicate, take action, make decisions the same way, and it just doesn't work.

Steve: So for everyone that's listening, right, like, you know, if they're a wholesaler or a flipper or they run a different type of business when they have, you know, outside salespeople, what are the things that someone should be looking for on a PI for an outside salesperson?

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: And then what should have profiles that generally line up with that? Sure.

Austin: So first thing we're looking for in okay. So there's two different kinds of sales. Mhmm. There's hunting and there's farming sales, you can say. Right?

Hunting is I've never sold to you before, and I probably will never sell to you again.

Steve: A little more transactional.

Austin: Yeah. Farming is I'm either sold to you before or I'm gonna sell to you again. I'm building a relationship that's gonna be a long term thing, you know, stuff like that. Two different kinds. So acquisitions is hunting.

I even I I struggle to call acquisition sales Mhmm. Because it's not we're not selling them. And I'm I'm a very literal person. Like, you're not selling anything. The only thing you're really selling and here I am talking to you, the sales trainer.

You're selling the fact that you're the best option for them. Yeah. Like that. That's what you're selling. And so it's like, okay.

You're you're the buyer, but now there's a lot of the same skills involved, which is why you're like salespeople.

Steve: Or buying houses. Because I actually had this conversation with RJ Bates the other day. Yeah. It's not really you're not really like a salesperson's like, no. You really are.

Right? But we're not selling them to discount their house 30. Mhmm.

Austin: We're

Steve: selling someone that needs to

Austin: sell. Right.

Steve: So my job is to sell you on selling a house to me versus the three

Austin: other guys.

Steve: Exactly. Right? So I'm selling me. I'm selling trust Mhmm. Certainty, peace of mind.

That's what I sell.

Austin: Which is why the people component is so important in this business even amongst other businesses. Right. Because other businesses, the people component is more operational based.

Steve: Yeah. My company is this. Honda's got this track record. Yeah. All these other things.

Austin: Do do you really care go to McDonald's. You're gonna interact them for all of, like, five seconds, and she's probably taking the order of the next person. You don't really care. Because my credit card might get like, let's move on. Right.

Do you care what the burger looks like when it comes out, and it's McDonald's? But you get you get my point. Like, yeah. You care they got it right. It's more about the operation side of people.

With this business, it's it is I mean, the lead managers are the first person they interact with in your company. Mhmm. If that interaction isn't good, I mean

Steve: It all falls apart.

Austin: Right. And I heard this so long ago that you realize who you're competing with. You're competing with, like, Disney World. You're competing with all the other companies that are calling them too. Mhmm.

Not the other not the other wholesalers because they just got off the call with somebody who's got great customer service, and then they get a call with your person, and they're like, oh, what just happened here? Like Yeah.

Steve: I never looked at it from their perspective. Yeah.

Austin: I dropped I I heard that long ago with that. And it's like, that's who you're competing with when you're dealing with phone sales. Mhmm.

Steve: It's

Austin: everybody else who's on the phone, not just your direct competitors. And then the interaction at the at the house, and, you know, they can work with you on on all that. But it's it's gonna come down to the people component of it. But in in acquisitions, first thing we're looking at is is this a dominant or collaborative role? And the answer is it's dominant.

Mhmm. There's conflict going on. You know? I still have to tell you that, by the way, your house we're only gonna pay you half of what you're you think you're gonna get for your house, whatever that number is. Right?

I've gotta engage in some amount of conflict there. I gotta be comfortable with that. I also have to be competitive. Sales is competitive.

Steve: Yeah. I mean,

Austin: I don't like sales. I'm I'm collaborative. I'm not real competitive. And so, like, to tell me, like, let's crush this. Let's do this.

I'm like, yeah. Whatever. Okay. Like, you know, I'm gonna play basketball, CG, whatever. Sure.

You know, I guess. So it's like, there's gotta be dominant. They gotta be comfortable with conflict. They have to enjoy a challenge. Mhmm.

Right? They've that's that's the first part of it. Second is the social side. They've now acquisitions is interesting in that it's one of the only sales sales roles, I'm air quoting for those of you who aren't seeing the sales roles, that requires somebody to be more task, the a, more dominant than people focused.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: So acquisitions can actually be kind of low b. Mhmm. Whereas most every other sales position out there is high b, high social that interact with people. Now it does help if they're high b, but I run into a lot of acquisition reps that are low b, because they they don't really they they need to they need to not need the seller to like it. Yeah.

Because they're about to tell now your inside sales reps, different. They've got to need them to like them.

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: But when they get inside that house, yes. They're building trust. Yes. They're building a solution. I don't want them to be a jerk to them, I'm talking about.

I feel like that's some soft skills that kinda come in there.

Steve: Yeah. But I need you offensive.

Austin: Right. Don't be offensive.

Steve: Offend them, but don't be offensive.

Austin: But I need you to not sit on the couch and cry with them for two hours. Right. Like that. And then pay him $10,000 more. Gary stopped going on appointments when he was doing wholesaling for that very reason.

He'd sit on the couch, cry with him for two hours, and then say, I guess I can give you $10,000 more. I need them to be more dominant than social, which means that more about the goal Mhmm. Which is, like, we've gotta make money. I'm sorry you're losing your house, but, like, I can't not make money and there's risk involved here. Mhmm.

So really the combination is I need a more dominant than social. The social can kind of float Mhmm. As long as they have some soft skills.

Steve: So then would a persuader have a problem in that seat?

Austin: That I look

Steve: I look at persuader as basically a nicer maverick.

Austin: Yes. That so Gary is a persuader. Now and that's where, like, okay. This is, like, going way down a rabbit hole with them. Okay?

That a and that b, that dominance in that social, if they're close to each other on a so persuaders are more social than task oriented.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: K. Goal oriented. Mavericks are more goal than task oriented. So if the persuaders a and b, the b is higher than the a, but they're close to each other, it's okay because they can flex Mhmm. Kind of over if they need to.

But if you had somebody like Gary Harper, whose b is almost off the chart, and then his a is high, it's like maybe one and a half sigma high, but the b is very high. It's because a lot more people than task focused. He wants everybody to win. K? Mhmm.

He would those persuaders strongly do great in dispo.

Steve: Yeah. Well, I was thinking because I got Gino Paloma. Right? Yep. In Atlanta.

Like, for me, I always call him Boy Wonder. Like, he's, like, the best person that's gone through our training.

Austin: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? And he's a persuader.

Austin: Mhmm.

Steve: But he can make it work. That's why that's why I was curious.

Austin: Yeah. I I I've pulled Geno's. My guess is his b and his a are very close to each other. So If

Steve: I remember correctly, it's just a little bit higher. And then we got, like, you know, Paul Sparks, my partner in the Wheel Club, and, like, he's like, I I could not stand going to appointments because I am just drained. Yeah. And I was like, I could sit four seller appointments a day.

Austin: Yeah. It's really weird that and that's what people even say. They'll look at, like, a reference probe like a persuader. Mhmm. Oh, will persuader work?

And I'm like, where's the b and the a at to each other? Because it's that's where it gets a little more detailed Yeah. As to what it is.

Steve: So going back to acquisition Yeah. So I look at acquisitions is Sorry. And I also look at acquisition a lot kinda like listing agents as well. I think they're very similar in in in behavior. So high a.

High a. B is not as important. It's nice, but it's not as important.

Austin: It's just right. Well, a is gotta be the right of the b is what you're looking for. Yeah. In any kind of a hunting, it's gotta be about the goal. You know, I mean, to use, like, hunters for you know what I mean?

I mean, you know, I I don't care that I took a life. I and to be, like, blunt. Like, it's, you know, it's okay. Yeah. You know, I I I got food served.

Steve: I got

Austin: food for my family and like that.

Steve: It served a purpose.

Austin: Right. It served a purpose. And so in that scenario, it's which also and this is where, you know, to go into all the other parts of what we coach on, which is culture, is often why in this industry gets a bad name Mhmm. Because it's made up of hunters Mhmm. Who then don't have any values Mhmm.

And don't don't care about the consumers and like that. At least that's the impression they have.

Steve: That's outside looking in.

Austin: That's outside looking in.

Steve: So looking in.

Austin: Careful with that when you're hiring that profile that you really push your values, you know, your culture, things like that. That, you know, hey. We're here to help people who are in a tight spot

Steve: Right.

Austin: Even though we've gotta win.

Steve: We have to win. So Mavericks, everyone knows that. Right? Captains? Yep.

Venturers? Yep. So what about strategists? No. No.

Okay. So What's wrong with what Yeah. Why in what ways would a strategist struggle in this role?

Austin: So in general with sales, you don't want high so we talked about I didn't get the c is fast paced. Outside sales is fast paced. Inside sales is slow, high high more patient. Mhmm. That's kinda your difference.

If you're looking at sticking something on a computer screen all day, doing inside sales Mhmm. You want somebody with more patient, higher c and PI. Outside sales, lower c.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: And then the d, which is the bottom one, which is their drive for rules and structure. Mhmm. Generally, in sales, you want somebody who has a low drive for rules and structure. And the reason is because no doesn't mean no to them. Right.

So I'm a high d. I have a high drive for rules and structure. I would be close to closer to a strategist than I would be to a maverick. Mhmm. My problem in sales is that when you tell me no, I say okay.

So if I'm on a sales call for Sharper Mhmm. And the client says, ah, never mind. I'm not gonna hire you guys. Gary will say, how'd the sales call go? I said they said that, no, they're not interested.

Why were they not interested? Like, I don't know, Gary. They said no. Give me the number. I'll call them.

They didn't really mean no. You didn't provide enough value to them. You didn't whatever. Right? I mean,

Steve: They said no, but they didn't really understand why they said no. Yeah.

Austin: Yeah. Sales tactics are get to know so you can overcome the no. Yeah. And when you take somebody who has a high drive for rules and structure Mhmm. Like a strategist, like me or like me, when somebody says no or says call me back in six months

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: That means call me back in six months. I mentioned earlier, I'm I'm a literal interpretationist. Mhmm. So whereas somebody like you would say, I'll call him back next week.

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: Right? Like that. Because that that didn't mean six months from now. Mhmm. That just meant calling back whenever Yeah.

Steve: I get I get in trouble from time to time about rules. Alright. Yeah.

Austin: So So that's why strategists would struggle. Mhmm. However, if you put them in a high technical position where they with a lot of details they have to know, like, I have a client that does stack testing. You know, they they test the for the EPA that that does stacks on, factories. That salesperson, it's a highly technical sales role.

Yeah. They're a high d. It's a little bit different.

Steve: So engineering sales would be great. Software sales.

Austin: Yes.

Steve: So that's outside sales. So about inside sales, lead manager.

Austin: That's right.

Steve: What are we looking for there?

Austin: So collaborative Mhmm. Which is kinda surprising. But when you think about when somebody calls in, what's the interaction you wanna have with them? And that is we can help you. Mhmm.

Collaborative. Listen. No don't engage in conflict. Right. Get the information.

Schedule the appointment.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Right. So collaborative and then high social. In particular, where I mentioned that acquisitions is more dominant than social, inside, you flip it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: When you put an a over b on the phone, more dominant than social on the phone, they sound robotic. When you stick somebody who's more people than task focused, they sound empathetic. So you wanna b over an a on the phone. Mhmm. So collaborative, high social, likes talking to people.

They're patient because you want them to sit there and listen to what's going on. Mhmm. Like, not interrupt the person on the phone. Be willing to listen to them. Oh, I'm so sorry.

All that kind of stuff. Right? Be more patient. And then now they are low d as well. Just because they said they wanted retail for their and their house is in perfect condition, doesn't mean that they're gonna take rates down their house and their house is in perfect condition.

Steve: Right.

Austin: So, you know, get the appointment scheduled, get them moved on to the next phase. So we're looking at like a collaborator or a promoter. Mhmm. Now if now to say that, that's ideal like somebody who's gonna sit in that role for a very long period of time. Yeah.

Now to go back to you mentioned persuaders earlier. If you are looking to move somebody you're looking to use lead management as a feeder for acquisitions

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Persuaders are the perfect match to go from lead management into acquisitions.

Steve: That makes total sense.

Austin: They can move they can kinda move through that as long as the a and that b aren't too far apart from each other.

Steve: So persuader I'm sorry. Promoters and

Austin: Collaborators. Are your ideal, and that's what you're gonna want the persuader to adapt to is that role. But they're already b over a. They're low c, and that's why they might need a struggle, which is why a persuader starting off in lead management would be career path as they're gonna move into acquisitions and probably gonna do it in six to twelve months Gotcha. Like that.

Steve: Alright. Let's talk about Dispo. Yeah. Is Dispo much different than a lead manager?

Austin: I've so DISPO is one that I've seen a few different profiles work in it. Mhmm. I've seen lead manager, the collaborators, and and promoters work okay in it. Mhmm. And it kinda says in the name, we're promoting the property to sell it.

Right.

Steve: But I love promoters in that role.

Austin: Yeah. It also kinda depends on so there's a couple different ideas out there lately. I've been hearing pop up Mhmm. In terms of my consulting things. I talk to so many people every week Yeah.

Over over at Dispo. Some of it is some people like selling to the same buyers over and over and over again. Mhmm. If you're selling to the same buyers, you know, VIP buyers list, same people buy from you, promoters and collaborators. Right?

Get along with the sell buyers.

Steve: We're friends. We're friends.

Austin: Right. We're gonna do business with them again. You know, if you gotta cut up a deal here and there, that's fine. Things like that. But there's another kind of idea idea going on of all I want are brand new buyers.

Mhmm. You know, just get a bunch of new buyers. New Western takes that approach. Yeah. Just keep building the new the buyers list, get new buyers.

Now new buyers also tend to be a little more, they take more work. Handholding. Right. They've never done the process before, but they pay a little bit more. Right.

You know, things like that. So a lot there's two different approaches kinda going on out there. If you're looking for new buyers, now you're kinda back to you need a hunter kind of profile. Mhmm. We're gonna sell to you once and I mean, not see you for twelve months.

It's gonna take you twelve months to flip this house. Right. Right? Or I'm just constantly adding new buyers to it. Then a persuader would kinda fit more into that role.

They're a little more hunting than like a promoter or collaborators. That's why I say you kinda gotta value within your company. Mhmm. What's your strategy? Because that strategy, you know, the person that's going to enjoy executing that strategy is gonna be a little different than what it may be for somebody else's company.

Steve: So those are the salespeople. Yeah. But we require more than just salespeople to run our organization.

Austin: Yeah. In A

Steve: little bit. Transaction coordinator. What am I looking for in a transaction coordinator?

Austin: So transaction quarters are interesting in that there's in PI, there's factor combinations, how the combinations work with each other. Mhmm. So for example, somebody with a high a, low c.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: So dominant, fast paced is proactive. Mhmm. High patient, collaborative are more responsive.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: The person you want running the nuclear, you know, thing is responsive. Mhmm. Don't do anything. You don't want a proactive person working nuclear. Right?

So in, transaction coordination, and this is, I I actually had title companies, so I began to understand what was going on because people were hiring people with, title company experience, thinking I'm gonna hire them for my TC because they worked at a title company, and then they came in and they were terrible, and they're like, I don't know what just happened. They worked for a title company for ten years. Well, in a title company, think about what are they trying to do. They're trying to protect, mitigate risk. So you have somebody who's responsive and careful with rules.

Right? Slow paced, all those kinds of things. Well, in especially the whole in any of it, we need this transaction to move like now.

Steve: Yeah. I don't care what happens. Just get it done.

Austin: Right. So I need a proactive person, high a, low c. So that's, like, the main factor when you're looking at a t c. If you don't have a high a, low c

Steve: Really?

Austin: T c, they're probably underperforming. And, you know, now that now that I said that, go back and look. It happens almost every time I say it, and they're like, oh, yeah. You're right. Usually what Well, yeah.

Steve: That's what I'm saying. Yeah. You're right. Because where I struggle is I don't have higher high A, low c because usually they're high A, low c. I'm trying to put them in a sales role.

Austin: Right. And so it's a proactive. You'll this is what this is what you'll hear. You'll come in in the morning and say, where are we at in this file? And they'll say, I don't know.

Let me call. Responsive. Mhmm. You walk in. Where are we at in this file?

I just talked to them yesterday. Proactive.

Steve: Yeah. That that responsive thing is where I die every time. Yep. Like, a little part of me dies. Every time I was like, well, let me get an update.

It's like, I'm asking you for the update.

Austin: Right. They're responding. Yeah. And so that proactive profile is the best one.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: The b, I found, can be almost anywhere. And, again, it's kinda like it's kinda like the sale, like, okay. If your title company loves your TC, that's a problem. They shouldn't hate them, but they shouldn't think soon as I walk in and they say, well, the title come I I've heard this many, many times. The title company, they really like our TC.

I'm like, yeah. That thing's gone the issues list. If you know Hunter you know Hunter Jarvis? Yeah. He told he told me that he's got one of the fastest conversion rates I've ever seen.

Mhmm. And I was like, wow. He he does the at least last I talked to him, he was doing the TC work. And he's like, yeah. I have to buy my title company a really good Christmas gift.

Mhmm. He's like, because I'm I could jerk to them all year long. That's what he basically told me. But if they like them to again, I don't want them to hate them. They need to get along.

But so the b is kind of that one that can float.

Steve: But I have

Austin: You need to hide d That's the other thing.

Steve: Yeah. So we had one. Right? And she was a specialist.

Austin: Okay.

Steve: Yep. But, like, we would have the title company. Like, this is the one we had. And title company complained about her. And I was like, what do we like, what do you guys have said to us?

Like, she's, like, rough around the edges. Like, yeah. But she getting the job done.

Austin: Yeah. Right. Yep.

Steve: Loved her. Never had to wait for an update. Right? Like, she is impatient. Like, I want this done now.

Why is it not done yet? She was great. Mhmm. So we're looking for a high a, low c, b.

Austin: High low c, b. Doesn't really matter. Matter. High d. So what It's gotta be right.

It's a legal document. It has to be filled out properly.

Steve: So what profiles are we looking for that?

Austin: Analyzer Mhmm. Will work for it. Strategist, if the a is high enough and the c is low enough.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: So I'm not good with the the profile names because I always use the, I I look at their exact profile. Like, I'm looking at a over c with a high d. If they have that, I'm good. Right. Let's see.

Strategy Network Analyzer might work. Let me think. Man, you're testing my PI knowledge on this one. I just anyway, those are kind of what you look for. Not scholar.

Those combinations are what you want Yeah. In that TC. But again, when you pull a resume of somebody who's worked at a title company, it's usually not what you get. You get a guardian.

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: That's what you usually get. You get Right. Like, yeah, you get artisans. And it's like, those are all responsive, high detailed person Mhmm. But all responsive.

They're generally low a, high c's Mhmm. Which is why when you call a title company and they're kinda like dragging their feet on it Yeah. Pisses me off. It's because they're all they're they're they're responsive people who are worried about risk. Mhmm.

And so they're collaborative, steady, and that's the profile they hire.

Steve: Alright. So I think that was probably the biggest takeaway, at least for me Yeah. Here so far and I think probably for people watching because we've all heard about hiring Mavericks, captains, and adventurers. Yeah. We've all heard that.

Yeah. That's what we ever hear about. Yeah. But the TC, I think, is often overlooked as an important part of your team. What about integrator?

Austin: So, you know, that's probably the biggest question I get.

Steve: Is it?

Austin: Is the integrator. Okay. I will start off in that the visionary integrator relationship. Mhmm. The most important thing is trust.

Mhmm. Just take PI out of the mix. If they don't trust each other, it doesn't even matter from there. From there, looking at to kinda go a little broader of a company, if you have a heavy operations company Mhmm. You want an integrator who is, high, high d, high rules and structure.

Mhmm. If it's a sales organization, it's a lower d. It also kinda depends okay. The easy answer is a captain. Mhmm.

So there's that. Like, it's a captain. Right. The high a, high b, a to the right of the b. Mhmm.

Low c, with what we call a corporate hook, the d comes up a little bit. So that looks like that. Is is a captain is is the easy answer from there. So Captain is

Steve: my favorite profile. And like I said, every city except for finance for me.

Austin: Yep.

Steve: Right? But what I found is what's been working for me recently is a strategist.

Austin: Okay. Right?

Steve: Because a strategist is, like, I want it I want it. Like, I want it. I want it right now, and I want it correct.

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: And now we're starting to see, like, we're hitting milestones. We're hitting targets. We're hitting deadlines.

Austin: So this is what you wanna do with strategist. Yeah. And there's been several people who have had very good success with strategist. Chris Johns?

Steve: Mhmm. You

Austin: know him? He's a strategist.

Steve: Makes sense.

Austin: Yep. What you'll find with most strategist when they come in an organization, that becomes high turnover. Mhmm. They're low social. They don't need people to like it.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Steve: Right. That's Chris. Yep. That's Chris. Chris to a tee.

Austin: And so I I remember when, Mark Mark put Mark put it up and he had high high turnover when he brought Chris on. And and Mark was point that he had he needed to replace the staff. Mhmm. But I was checking a little bit because I'm like, okay. And you brought in the right guy for that because it was somebody who didn't care whether a turnover was not or not.

Yeah. You know, from there, it's like you don't like it. Okay. I'm a low I'm a low social. So when I was buying stores that were underperforming Mhmm.

After store number one, I fired the entire staff when I walked in the door on day one. So I mentioned that earlier that I looked at the GM, like, they weren't gonna be that long anyway because I was firing the entire staff.

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: I didn't care. And so your strategists are really good at holding people accountable. Mhmm. And by the way, holding accountable means that something's gonna happen. It's actually what accountability means, and people always say that I'm gonna hold people accountable.

I'm like, well, then what are you gonna do about it? It? Mhmm. Well, I'm gonna hold them accountable. No.

No. No. That's not what that means. Accountable is that something's going to happen. Right.

You don't do this, this is gonna happen. Mhmm. And so the low b's, are really good at holding people accountable because they don't need them to like them. Mhmm. Now it doesn't mean they can't it doesn't mean they can't interact with people.

They just don't they don't have a drive.

Steve: They could relieve it.

Austin: Right. So And so

Steve: we hired a sales manager. Yeah. He was at the last CG.

Austin: Mhmm.

Steve: And, he's a strategist.

Austin: K.

Steve: And, I actually had that conversation with him today. It's like, hey. I need you to hold me accountable. I know, like, I pay you.

Austin: Can his eyes light up?

Steve: He was like, I'm I'm I'm appreciating that you're giving me this because yeah. Yeah. You need to be more accountable. Right? So but I got him.

I got Manny who he met here. He's a strategist. Right? And we put him in this role, and, like, now, like, yeah, you might feel a certain way, but the deadlines are the deadlines.

Austin: So what what I have found, and I know we're talking about integrators here, is that a lot of organizations like certain profiles. Mhmm. I was just talking to to a client of ours in Northeast, and he found that acquisitions for him and I told him, do you need prepared? Because when you tell people what you hired, they're gonna tell you you're crazy. Forgot what it was.

It was again, a profile is, like, opposite of what you think it should be. Mhmm. And even I, when he said it, I'm like, you have what? He's like, yeah. I've got three of them.

What do you think? And we're doing a PI training. I'm like, let's walk through this. Well, the way he manages, the way he does his sales process Mhmm. The way he wants to interact with his customers, that is the profile for him for him and his organization.

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: So as an integrator, some so okay. If you hire a high d integrator, this is what's gonna happen. Okay? You're a strategist.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: I'm a guardian. I'm a COO. And you notice I mentioned this morning that I am or in the call earlier in the in the podcast, I'm the COO and I'm the finance manager. Mhmm. If my sale I was hired sales manager.

If the sales manager quits, you know what I'm gonna do? Hire another sales manager. I am not taking on the sales department. Right. My finance person quits, I'll just do finance.

My operations person quits, I want operations for all. I don't care. I will gravitate towards operations and finance. Right. I will not gravitate towards towards sales.

Mhmm. Now you take somebody who is a low d integrator, a captain, venturers, something like that. If their sales manager quits, they'll just sit in the sales manager for a while. Eric Goodson.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Eric is like the sales manager and the COO. Mhmm. Because he likes the sales department, and it's a big part of their business. So he kind of he's you know, he's kinda sits over that. But if they lose their finance person He's

Steve: not doing that.

Austin: He's not selling to finance. He's gonna hire a higher finance person. So you hire an integrator, you kinda have to look at your company and say, where do I want this integrator to sit right now? And that's why it's important for you to know what your strategy is in business. Yeah.

Because that integrator is gonna implement the strategy you want. So if your strategy is, I'm a fast growing, gunslinging company, we'll deal with the finances later, you know, because out of the gate, we're gonna be doubling every year

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Then you need an integrator that's gonna think like that. Yeah. Which is gonna be your Mavericks, your captains, your venturers, all those things. Mhmm. Now if you're a well established company and you're like, okay.

Things are going well. You know, we gotta make sure operations and finance are tight. You're gonna bring an integrator in who's gonna focus on those types of things.

Steve: Well, yeah. It makes a lot of sense. The reason why I like strategists is that and we're asking earlier to the AVA Mhmm.

Austin: And

Steve: said, like, here are your two greatest weaknesses. And I completely forgot about what I'm good at. Right? Because I just go straight to, like, where where do I suck?

Austin: Mhmm.

Steve: Alright. My two greatest weaknesses, giving praise, which probably is not a shocker for you. Right? And holding people accountable.

Austin: Yep.

Steve: Right? And then that's where the the high c on the individualist Yep. Kicks in. Right? So high c, low d.

I don't even pay attention to details anyways. So what do I hold them accountable to if I'm not even paying attention to details? Details?

Austin: You're patient and it doesn't really matter. You know, it's okay.

Steve: We'll figure that out later.

Austin: Right.

Steve: So that's why I need a strategist. Yep. Because they're the ones who'd be like, no. This is we're gonna hold the line here, and that's why it's been really helpful for me.

Austin: And that isn't that's where to go back to, like, self awareness. Mhmm.

Steve: You

Austin: know, you've gotta have as a okay. The number, read a survey of Fortune 500 CEOs that the number one skill that every leader has is self awareness, oddly enough. Yeah. And as a leader, are you self aware enough to know what you need? Mhmm.

I was watching that show a long ago, Men Who Built America, and they were interviewing Mark Cuban. And Mark Cuban said, you know, you always have to have the opposite of what you are. Mhmm. That sounds really good, but when you bring in the opposite, guess what? They take action, make decisions, and communicate completely different than you are.

Yeah. Gary and I get into meetings. They get a little lively because we both are like you know, I'm like, what are you thinking? He's like, I don't know. What are you thinking?

Now massive amount of trust like I I guess, started, but we both know we have our each one's best interest at heart, and we're trying to grow a company. And so Gary and I are best friends. Right. And it's it's all it's always good. But if you walked into a Sharper meeting or closed door meeting with me and Gary and Brandon and Susan, like, it's it's interesting.

You'd be like, who are these people? Because it it turns on. And and by the end of it, we're hugging it out. We're great friends, and let's go Disney World or something together. Like like that, we're good friends.

But are you self aware enough to know what your behavior is? And then, you know, emotionally intelligent opposite because it's really what you need. Are you willing to do that? Because the amount of friction that's gonna create in your business is gonna be a lot, but it's also what helps you grow. It's the roid of the Walt Disney.

You could literally go through the list over and over again of visionaries, integrators who are opposites of each other that accomplish great things. But as leaders, are we are you really willing to do that? Yeah. Most most aren't. And you would and people who are listening are thinking, oh, of course I am.

You are until you walk into a meeting and they look at you and they say, yeah, we're not doing that.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: You know, and the friction kicks in. And so what what you've done is you've realized that I need that friction. I need that yin to my yang. Mhmm. And that's what's gonna help the business be where it needs to be.

And now now it's created here.

Steve: Yeah. And for me, it is grading at times. I hear these things like, no. I want you to say yes. Right?

And I gotta sell it. It's like, no, guys. Yeah. Like, I gotta draw the picture or paint the picture. I gotta show it.

Like, here's why. So I find myself selling more

Austin: Yes.

Steve: In these meetings.

Austin: Yep. Oh, Gary Gary sells in the meetings Yeah. With it. You know? And, and often with with us, you know, I have to we'll go into a meeting and with Internet Sharper, and Gary will pitch the vision and what he wants, all those kinds of things.

And then I will have to tell him, like, okay. Either I need you to, like, be quiet for a few minutes and don't say anything or leave the room. Because what we're about to do is gonna really make you angry because the way that I solve a problem Mhmm. Makes it look like I I it'll look like his idea is a really bad idea. Mhmm.

Steve: And I

Austin: finally am like, stop listening to me and let me work through what I'm working through because I solve problems differently. Mhmm. Then when I get there, because I'm gonna get there Mhmm. Then we'll come back together, you know, and and Gary just like, just let's just go do it.

Steve: Yeah. You know? Well, I've had conversations with Gary.

Austin: Yeah. I was

Steve: like, hey. I could you know, let's do this this and this. I was like, hey, Steve. I think everything sounds great. Let me talk to Austin and Brandon because they're gonna be the ones that are gonna say, no.

This is a terrible idea. Yeah. I mean, going back to detail oriented, right, so we just didn't realize. Right? So everyone everyone's watching this right now.

They might be wondering why this looks different. I didn't even bring it up yet. Yeah. Right? Because I'm not even focused on this.

So we're doing a little bit of remodeling. It looks a little bit different than normal, but that's the reason why why it looks like this. So but, and I want like, where does The Guardian

Austin: So my podcast is gonna look completely different than everybody else's podcast. This is, like, a very unique podcast. Mhmm. It

Steve: is. Yeah. It'll never look like it'll never look

Austin: like the way you only one.

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Austin: Back to strategy, what's your strategy Mhmm. Of your company? K. If your strategy right now is to increase profitability Mhmm. K.

Not revenue, profitability. Mhmm. K? Like, that's or or operations. Like, we've gotta, you know, really dial in our operations side.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: We're going to I play defense. So we break it on the offense and defense. I always play defense. I always approach every problem from that. Soon as we come in and we say, hey.

We have a problem. We're not making money. I'm gonna look at it. I'm gonna say, okay. What are we cutting?

Mhmm. Right out of the gate. Yeah. Gary's gonna tell you how much more revenue can we generate. Right.

And so, well, of course, we're not gonna cut anything, but it's gonna drive revenue, which is why the the two of them coming together works, so you find that middle ground. So if it's something that we're playing defense, which is saving money Mhmm. Improving operations, looking for efficiencies, all of those kinds of things like that. That's where I'm gonna where I'm gonna thrive at. So for me, you know, bring me in in your finance department, you know, from there, and anything with operations.

I'm gonna streamline that. You could bring me into a sales department, but I'm I'm going to streamline it is what I'm gonna do, which is gonna drive the salespeople nuts

Steve: Right. From

Austin: there. You do not wanna put me in sales. In real estate, it's oddly enough, I would do alright in marketing, real estate marketing. Not almost any other industry's marketing. Real estate is very data driven.

So actually, same thing. If you hire like TC, you hire somebody who has a marketing background to do your marketing for your real estate company, usually doesn't work.

Steve: Yeah. They just wanna spend money.

Austin: Yeah. They are they're they're, Brandon, our CMO, is a collaborator. Mhmm. Very concerned about how people feel about our brand. That's what he's concerned with.

Yeah. You know? Not that not data points, not like those kinds of things. You take me, and I'm gonna say, I don't really care how the consumer feels about it, but what are all the that you know, give me all the data

Steve: in this Does this drive revenue? Are we profitable on the sales? Right. Yeah.

Austin: And so that's where you wanna have that. So I could do your marketing. I could do your finance. I do your operations, and do a little bit of project management, from there, but not anything in your sales department. So if you're trying to grow your company very, very quickly Mhmm.

At rapid pace, you know, and that's just like a new startup, I'm not who you want.

Steve: We had, a broker. Right? So when I had my brokerage, I had a broker. She was a guardian.

Austin: K.

Steve: And, she was great. Everyone hated her. She was great, because when we finally got audited not because we did anything wrong. It's just every seven years. That's just the way it is.

Right? You you can't go seven years without getting audited as a real estate brokerage. So I survived long enough, so I was clean enough until they audited me in seven years because they just had to. Yeah. And if I was the broker of record well, I I guess, technically, I was the broker of record.

I had to sign some documents to give her the authority to to do broker stuff.

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: So but if I was the one reviewing it, like, everything got approved. Right? I was constantly doing, like, last minute reviews. I was like, ah, it's good enough. I was like, ah, it's missing initially.

Ah, it's good enough. Right?

Austin: That's funny.

Steve: I just approved everything. She, if we were missing one initial, she'll just kick it back over and over and over again until the salespeople got it right. Yeah. And so we had her audit, passed it, flying colors. It was, like, nearly a a perfect score.

But, man, the salespeople hated her.

Austin: Yep. Right? Our our sales department, it's funny because they'll call call me. Conversation hadn't been long ago. They, they sold something that they made up on the fly.

And they

Steve: I would do?

Austin: They call me, and they're like, I got a hold of it. And I'm like, I call them like, what is this? And they're like, well, well, the client needed what I'm like, we don't do this. And they're like, well, we made a sale. Did you not want us to make a sale?

I'm like, not if we don't have it. No. I don't want you to sell it. And they're like, well, I only made a sale with the deals. But that's that's their approach to it.

So, yeah, they don't like me very much in sales department, you know, and but that's yeah.

Steve: I had a I turned in a contract, last year. Right? So we went through kind of a reorg. And so I'm out in the field, and I'm signing contracts. I was like, I don't like the way it's contracts.

So I'm just, like, writing things into the contract. And, I turned it in, and the TC was like, what am I supposed to do with this? It's like, it's what it says. Yeah. And then she's like, fine, whatever.

And then she turns it into the title company. The title company is like, what are we supposed to do with this? Right? So I had to rewrite the contract to say that purchase price to reflect seller walking with $60,000 net. But I just struck out the purchase price, like, seller walks with 60,000.

Yeah. Right? They did not like that. So I had to redo the contract to say seller nets or purchase price to be whatever nets sellers.

Austin: High d low c's, which should be your t c Mhmm. Are there a consequences to not following the rules? Right. Like, it's an intensity that's added to it. You know?

Yeah. Follow the rules or I'll break your hand.

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: It's like that. And so with that, like, you you if they were high d, low c, that's what they looked, and they said, we can't do this.

Steve: Right. Which is the people that We want in that c.

Austin: We want in that c, but they want when well, we're willing to put up with it.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know who they hate more, our sellers or me. So, so looking at your your your life and business today

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: What would you do if money was no object?

Austin: I'll say I'm a low b, so you're supposed to ask me these questions ahead of time so I have time to process them. You know? So if money was not an object, what would I do right now? Oddly enough for not being, like, a low, low c, I like to travel. People like you travel every week.

How do you do that? And a certain amount of travel I like. Yeah. I probably would do a lot of traveling. Mhmm.

To say that, the last thirty days, I've been in Rome, Cairo, Luxor, Istanbul, London, Paris, Edinburgh, Scotland, Dublin, Ireland Mhmm. Other parts of Ireland.

Steve: In the last thirty days?

Austin: Philly, Toronto, and now Phoenix since May 16.

Steve: Wow. Where's Luxor?

Austin: Yeah. South Of Cairo. On an hour flight. The ancient city of Thebes if for all you history people out there.

Steve: I had no idea. I didn't know that was a real city.

Austin: Yeah. I didn't even thought it was the pyramid. Well, I

Steve: knew it wasn't that. That's why I had to ask. Yeah.

Austin: Luxor is built on the ancient city of Thebes, which was the ancient kingdom, the head of the Middle Kingdom, I think.

Steve: Who's in Rome?

Austin: Egypt. Who was in Rome?

Steve: Like, I I

Austin: was on my way to Egypt, so I stopped in Rome for a

Steve: couple of

Austin: days on the way.

Steve: Check out Same

Austin: thing with us.

Steve: Get an espresso. Yeah. Yeah.

Austin: Just Pizza.

Steve: Enjoy the scene.

Austin: It was great. Yeah. It was nice. Hang

Steve: on by the tower of pizza.

Austin: Yeah. Yeah. Now that's not in Rome, but

Steve: That's not in Rome. Whatever. Whatever. What is your epic life goal?

Austin: So I I'm what I realized in in personal experiences for me is that, I have, I don't have a lifetime goal. Like, I kind of like, you know, why am I placed on this earth? And I have some personal experience as to why I, like, don't have that. Mhmm. I more go with shorter term purposes, ten year kind of stuff.

It's kind of the world that I live in. Mhmm. And so, right now, what I, and Gary and I spent a lot of time talking about this. What I realized I really enjoy in purpose is helping business owners, avoid I have a lot of just the number of employees that I had and then how much I did in that period a ten year period of time Mhmm. Which is a lot.

And so helping business owners avoid some of those some of the pain that I had to go through with it is something that I really, really enjoy doing. Yeah. And so, like, epic life goal is, you know, how many businesses how many business owners can I help? Mhmm.

Steve: I

Austin: got a conversation this morning with somebody because it's not just about business, but also, the personal life. Personal life of being a business owner, it's 3% of the population are entrepreneurs. Mhmm. So I'm a math guy. So I look and say if 3% of the population are entrepreneurs, what are the odds that you married a fellow entrepreneur who also understands what it takes in business.

You mentioned I hope it was during this or beforehand about, you know, a certain phone call coming in and your wife understand that if that phone rings, she understands that. Yeah. You know? And that is a, also as business owners, we're on twenty four seven. Mhmm.

It never turns off. Right. We go on vacation, it doesn't turn off. And we get a a lot of flexibility, but we're still always on. Mhmm.

And that's really, really hard to understand to people who aren't you know, my dad was a blue collar worker who Yeah. Came home from work, she knows uniform, and never talked to anybody again. And as business owners, that that mental toll, on your personal life Mhmm. Is massive. At the same time, most business owners will tell you I'm doing this for my family.

That's usually what they'll say.

Steve: That's what they'll say.

Austin: They'll say.

Steve: I don't believe it.

Austin: No. But as Gary likes to say, their perception is your reality. Is that their perception of it? Mhmm. And we can sit and say, like, you know, I'm doing this for that reason, but is that their perception of it?

And so working with business owners to to understand, like, you know, there'll be another deal. Like, you know, your kids won't be this age another day.

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: You know, things like that. I, it's something that I talk a lot to when I'm in clients and offices is like, okay. What is the priority here? What are we trying to accomplish? And setting up a system for them where they still know what's going on in their business and but yet can focus on what they need to focus on.

Right. Yeah.

Steve: I wanna say for the first ten to twelve years of my business, I genuinely believed I was doing this for my family.

Austin: Mhmm.

Steve: And now I know I was lying to myself the whole time.

Austin: Yeah. Right?

Steve: But it took a long time to figure that out. I missed something a moment ago. We talked about all these different profiles.

Austin: Yeah. What do you

Steve: do with an individualist?

Austin: Whatever they want. Oddly enough, okay. So individualist, I find do well in training. Mhmm. So okay.

Individualists are like this utility player. They can almost play in any role. Right. I'm a Chicago Cubs fan, not much right now, but 2016 comes from the World Series. Mhmm.

MVP of the World Series was Ben Zobrist. K. Probably anybody even knows who Ben Zobrist is.

Steve: That is. Yeah.

Austin: MVP of the World Series for the one time the Cubs have won the World Series, right, in a hundred years. What position did Ben Zobras play? All of them. Mhmm. I could I could rattle off to you all nine players from that team on the Cubs when everybody played, and then Ben Zobras is, like, number 10 because he's he actually he's what got them through the season because the first baseman could sit for a while.

Mhmm. His benzos could play first first base. He could bet anywhere in the batting order. Yeah. He wasn't our best first baseman.

He wasn't our best second baseman, etcetera, etcetera, but he could play every position Right. And was the MVP. Individualists usually fit that role. You can put them almost anywhere Mhmm. And they'll be a seven or eight.

They're not gonna be your star, but they're gonna do a really good job. But you usually wanna move them around. So they'll go sit in acquisitions for a little while, gonna hold down the fort for you, and they'll do a nice job. Right. And then you might wanna move them over to something different.

Mhmm. They do a good job of training. I was just talking to Phil Phil Green about or Eric Gibson about this. They also are great at auditing. Mhmm.

Oddly enough.

Steve: Really?

Austin: Yeah. They're really good at auditing because their their dominance, they've

Steve: no problems

Austin: auditing anything.

Steve: Okay.

Austin: They're really good at their dominant. Mhmm.

Steve: So they

Austin: have no problem telling people that it's wrong. Mhmm. They're low social, so I really need people to like the fact that I just told you it's wrong, but with the conflict. But they're patient because auditing takes some patience Right. Digging through things.

But then you would think it would be high d behavior, high rules and like, are they following the rules? It's actually low d behavior because it's they have to come up with either, a, creative ways to look for their problems or, b, creative solutions to propose to the team. So it's actually not high d. So auditing is actually something they do really good at. Interesting.

I'm actually moving Susan Harper into that role in Sharper of auditing the entire ecosystem. She's an individualist like you are. Yeah.

Steve: I think she's been

Austin: pretty good at that. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think I talked to her about it. I think she's excited about it.

But, yeah. So auditing is something that, which if you're not auditing, you should be. Like, it's to me, there's three parts of management, auditing, solving problems, and training.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: If you're not auditing, you're you're missing a third of what you should be doing as a manager, which nobody wants to audit. But they're just a good auditors and they're kind of that utility player. I've seen them literally in any position in a company.

Steve: Well, it's interesting you say that because I would have the most fun just sitting in someone's businesses and tell them everything they're doing wrong and everything that that they can do to fix it Yeah. And then move on. Right? I don't wanna sit there and watch them fix it.

Austin: Right. I just

Steve: wanna tell everybody doing wrong and hear all the things you need to do. Yeah. Right? And then call me in three months.

Austin: Yep.

Steve: Right? I'd have the most fun doing that.

Austin: So that's where we usually sit in the business.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. And then wouldn't that be an adapter?

Austin: It could be an adapter. Adapters are a little tough. Mhmm. Problem with adapters is that we can't predict their behavior. Like and that's what we're looking with with predictive index.

I'm predicting long term job performance and I'm predicting behavior, and I can't predict an adapter's per I can't predict an adapter. Mhmm. Especially, we didn't talk about it too much, but the objective or subjective, which you understand. Mhmm. A subjective adapter is really tough because based on how they feel.

So they can come in every day different based on how they feel. So they're the most unpredictable profile? Extremely unpredictable. Objective adapters kind of fit into that individualist kind of profile. They kinda can bounce around a little bit Mhmm.

From there. But if you're looking at individuals through an adapter, it's gotta be like, I'm looking for a generalist that kinda can sit in a lot of they're good it's good to have one on the team that kinda can just slide into any role. Mhmm. You got a whole team full of them. They're a bunch of generalists, kinda nobody's really great at anything.

Yeah. You know? Not to say you're not great at stuff, Steve.

Steve: Sorry. Oh, no. I appreciate that. So my best friend who sold this company for a very large exit Mhmm. He's an adapter.

And, like, it didn't make sense to me. Like, how are you an adapter? Like, you're so competitive. You're a natural salesperson. Like, how are you an adapter?

It's just you took the test twice.

Austin: Is he high e or low e?

Steve: I'm guessing he's in the middle. Maybe more maybe lower e.

Austin: So

Steve: Lower e, probably.

Austin: Yeah. If the e is But he's not

Steve: an emotional person, but he can Yeah. But he can emote very well.

Austin: Gotcha. Yeah. If the I know. It's another conversation, but it might it might be it might be the e. But, we didn't get into this, but the other half so the number one predictor of job performance is cognitive cognitive ability.

Yeah. We didn't even talk about it because it's but it's 42% predictor of long term job performance. A resume is 12. It's not much to talk about it because, like, they just take it and they either score above, but it's it's It's a pass fail. It's hot yeah.

It's how fast do they solve a complex problem. It's not can they solve a problem. It's a misnomer. It's how fast. So I I taught math.

You finish a test in twenty minutes, I finish in forty minutes. We both get a 100%. Which one of us is smarter? We both got a 100%. We both could solve all the problems.

Yeah. Who has a higher cognitive score ability? You do. You did it in twenty minutes. I did it in forty.

Mhmm. Just that's the difference between the two. A lot of people confuse them and think, oh, it's IQ. It's intelligence. No.

It's how fast. I've seen low IQs with high cogs.

Steve: Really? I

Austin: know. Weird. Right? Mhmm.

Steve: Yeah. So this is, we're talking about my best friend. So we both went Yeah. To go get our master's degree in electrical engineering.

Austin: Okay.

Steve: Right? He got when we went to grads, we had to take this test. So he got a perfect score on reasoning.

Austin: Mhmm.

Steve: I got the perfect score on math. And we're both, like, neck and neck on the on other stuff. But, yeah, he was the Interesting. He was the reasoning guy. Yeah.

I was the math guy. So wonder how that

Austin: But I would wonder what I what I was getting to is I wonder where his cognitive is at of

Steve: So I would imagine I mean, he's got a master. I imagine his cognitive is

Austin: pretty good. Yeah. I would think so. Yeah. But that's, that's something that often I go into and people complain.

They're like, my personal team that does they ask me which profile solves problems, and it's not a profile. It's a cognitive score. Mhmm. And often we put people in roles that they're just not capable of solving their problem fast enough for what we needed to be solved. Yeah.

Steve: That's, From there.

Austin: So if you're having a problem solving, it's not a profile. I'd be looking at cognitive out of the gate. Can they solve the problem the speed that we need them to solve it?

Steve: Wouldn't a though be like, I won't give up until I solve the problem?

Austin: Okay. So alright. So the high a's all will tell you they're problem solvers, and they'll brag about the fact that they're problem solved.

Steve: Eat problems solve problems for no. Eat problems for breakfast. Stephanie's like

Austin: Usually, what it means is that they create problems so they can solve them. So low a's will look at it and be like like me, for example, with with Gary, you know, cut this part out for Gary. It's like, I'll look at it and say, there was never a problem to start with. Why are you looking for a problem? Right.

Because Gary were like, hey. I found this problem. You know, I think I have a way to solve it. I'm like, why did you even go looking for a problem? There's nothing wrong with it.

It's just fine. Just happened the other day. And he's like, but it's a I'm like, but why did you even go looking? Right? So the high A's who say they're problem solvers are generally because they like they're motivated.

Right? We're measuring motivation. Mhmm. They're motivated by by problem solving. Mhmm.

So therefore, they will create problems to solve them when problems don't exist and then say they're problem solvers. Sorry. You're getting me on a soapbox right now.

Steve: Oh, you're good.

Austin: They have a behavior of problem solving. It's literally in PI. It's it's under behaviors. Behavior, what we see, is problem solving. It does not mean the low a's can't solve problems.

It's the high a's have a behavior of it because they're almost looking for it. So, really, when you're going to problem solving, that's what happens is they'll hire a high a thinking they're problem solvers, but then they have a low COG score. They're not capable of solving the problem as fast as the company needs it to be solved. Doesn't mean it can't be solved, just not as fast as the company needs it to be solved.

Steve: There is an inordinate number of times. I'll say in a coaching call where someone say, I I have this problem. Like, how do I solve it? And I was like, I just want you to stop right there. That's not a problem to be solved.

Right? Just back it up here. Like, how often is this happening? It's like, this first time it's happened. This is not a problem to be solved.

Do not spend any more time on this.

Austin: Yep. Right? Right.

Steve: You guys solved it. You're good. Do not have a prevention mechanism for this.

Austin: Yep. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's the eighty twenty rule. Yeah.

Right? The 80% of the time, the process isn't going to I'm sorry. 20% of the time, the process isn't going to work, which is why you have managers to manage the 20% of the time it doesn't work. Right. We build out a lot of process maps, and people want this process map for all these contingencies.

And I'm like, how often does that happen? Mhmm. Well, it happened one time. Then we're not putting it into the process map. Right.

Because it's it's an anomaly that the manager will deal with when it comes up Exactly. To your point.

Steve: Alright. What is your biggest struggle today?

Austin: My biggest struggle? Like, personally, business, or just in general?

Steve: In general.

Austin: You know, I think, let's yeah. That's a that's a tough question. I have to say a good question. It's a tough question. And I thought I don't have struggles, but, you know, how open do I wanna be here?

Mhmm. I think like anybody else, consistency. Mhmm.

Steve: You

Austin: know, I think, for me, I'm working a lot right now on leadership, and there's leadership and there's management. I prefer management, not leadership Mhmm. Which for me, leadership is, all the all the all the actual people usually think is the good stuff. Mhmm. I look at people and, like, you get paid on Friday to do your job.

Right? And leadership is, leadership is, to me, is providing hope when there isn't any.

Steve: Interesting. Haven't heard that definition before.

Austin: Well, when you look at, like okay. Is it there's a, I heard this that, most entrepreneurs pre World War two studied Napoleon Mhmm. And post World War two studied Napoleon and Churchill. This was the common thread amongst them. Interesting.

K? So when you look at those two two men, what did they do? They provided hope when there wasn't any. Mhmm. And that's what they're known for.

You get Churchill, who's not gonna last much longer, and he's out there in the streets of London telling everybody, you know, bring it on. We got this, knowing full well that he's running out of few food and ammunition.

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: You got Napoleon with a 125,000 men up against 600,000. Waterloo, what he's known for losing Mhmm. Almost wins Right.

Steve: With

Austin: a 125 outnumbered six to one, you know, with this kinda army, you know, but somehow has convinced these guys that they're gonna pull this off. Mhmm. You know, and so over and over again, you see these men who are phenomenal leaders, and it was in the face of adversity. They were the ones up there providing hope, Mhmm. You know, to everybody knowing full well that they probably weren't gonna win this.

And that to me is the thing. As leaders in organization, when you know the chips are down, you know, what's your attitude with your team?

Steve: Yeah.

Austin: You know?

Steve: Darren Hardy, I went through his, training some time ago. He says your job as a leader is you're a hope dealer.

Austin: That's the that's one that's the statement from Napoleon. Napoleon said leaders are dealers in hope. Yeah. That's from Napoleon. Yep.

Yep. I I heard that from him as well in studying. I've been studying those two quite a bit, because it's just a, Roosevelt's another great one to study with it. That is just like, I don't know. Roosevelt's approach to leadership is is pretty pretty, savage.

But anyway Yeah. He had no problem leaving people behind. So

Steve: I didn't know that. What is your superpower?

Austin: Pattern recognition in business. Mhmm. At this juncture, I've done this, worked with almost a thousand companies. Mhmm.

Steve: You can't you can't connect the dots.

Austin: I can connect the dots, and I'm pretty good at it. Mhmm. When I go in, and I kind of always been that way. Mhmm. In the math brain, you know, math brain, just that way.

You just math math is about solving problems and connecting dots. Mhmm. And I would say that's I, that's my superpower when I go into things. I connect dots really fast.

Steve: My understanding is that's one of the main definitions of intelligence, pattern recognition.

Austin: Yep. Right? Well, they say that's what intuition is. Intuition is actually subconscious pattern recognition. Yeah.

So when you have intuition, it's just you don't recognize is a pattern you see, you just don't remember that you saw it. Mhmm. So either way, IQ is just pattern recognition. Yeah. So when you have business IQ, it's because you recognize the patterns in business.

Mhmm. When you have social IQ, you recognize the social, you know, patterns. Yeah. Just IQ is pattern recognition. Just where do you have your IQ at, you know, from there?

So

Steve: yeah. That's interesting. Because, like, if you look at, like, the Myers Briggs, like, I'm not an intuitive person.

Austin: Mhmm.

Steve: But I have enough data Yeah. Where I just know, like, nope. This is wrong. This is what's happening.

Austin: Yep.

Steve: I can't explain it. Right. It's not intuition. Yeah. It's just I've had I have enough life experience like we were saying earlier.

Like, you're both you and I are both extremely jaded. Mhmm. From enough experience to say, no. Something bad is about to happen, and it's probably gonna look like this.

Austin: Yeah. I I'm I don't know how many a week. I mean, 25 businesses a week Mhmm. Analyzing for pattern recognition and working with teams and people, whether I'm virtual or on-site. And at this point, it's, I work a lot on the people component side of things, whether I'm doing predictive index, whether I'm helping with hiring, whether I'm employee reviews.

It's it's done it thousands of times at this point. And I there's times where I'm sitting in the meeting and somebody just does something. It's a bot and it's something I've seen before, and I don't know, but it's I'm just I remember one time I was in a I was in a meeting, and a guy, he did something. And I'm like, as soon as he did it, I'm like, I pulled up his LinkedIn. He was looking for a job.

And I Leon was next to me. Actually, I was here in Phoenix. And I turned and, like, the guy it was just there was something there that just triggered it. And I can't explain why. And I can't teach it to anybody, but it was just it was there's enough there's enough in there at this point now of connecting dots.

And when they do something, it's like, which is what's hard in in hiring as we think, oh, I I've seen that before. Usually, most people haven't hired enough to really see it.

Steve: Right. Well, Brian has talked about it. And then Gary, I mean, he had it. He came here in this very room. We ran a quarterly meeting.

Austin: Yeah.

Steve: And he's like and he knew the cancer in the room. He's got picking at the guy, picking at the guy, picking at the guy. And at the end of a quarter, the guy quit. Yeah. He just knew.

He wouldn't let that guy alone.

Austin: Yep. Yeah. It's it's it's it's just something that it's repetition. Right? Repetition is the key to learning, but on my education background.

Mhmm. And so you just have to see it enough times. And, anyway, that's

Steve: that's true. So I want you to think about a message I wanna leave everybody with. Right? Guys, if you guys got value out of the show, again, please subscribe. A rising tide lifts all boats.

We we're working hard to create millionaires, and the best way for us to do that is to get our message out there. And, again, Austin's here to coach my team, so I can't emphasize the value enough with Sharpen Business Solutions. I wouldn't be where I'm at today. You guys bring a ton of values. I appreciate you guys.

Austin: I appreciate it.

Steve: What are some last thoughts you wanna leave all the listeners with?

Austin: I would just tell them and that because, you know, I do a lot with hiring

Steve: Mhmm.

Austin: Is, hire for positions, not people. And I know it's a people business, and I said that. But look at the position you're hiring for, design that position, and then find the person. Take your time. Find the person who fits that position.

And then I I probably sign off with clients with this statement more than, like, any other statement, which is said to me is that, winning is fun, so go have fun.

Steve: There you go. If some somebody wants to connect with you, how would they best do that?

Austin: Yeah. Sharperbusiness.com. It's a great way to reach out to us. I'm on, I think, all the social media platforms. I have people who homework department manages that as well, so that that too.

Austin@SharperProcess.com is always a great way to reach out to me directly as well. Alright.

Steve: Perfect. Thank you so much.

Austin: Hey. Appreciate it, Steve.

Steve: Appreciate you guys for watching.

Austin: Shout out to

Steve: you guys now.

Austin: Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. Disrupt us.