S1: Welcome back to work woman. This woman is going to
S1: be talking about teamwork and give you a little bit
S1: of a sneak preview into the upcoming episodes that I
S1: can hardly wait to get into whatever listening device you're
S1: on right now. I don't know if you're listening to
S1: this on a HomePod, on an Alexa, if you got some,
S1: maybe the AirPod Max, maybe just the AirPods, whatever it
S1: is that you're hearing, my voice, or maybe even watching online,
S1: there are you're just gonna be excited. There are just
S1: so many good episodes that are coming to you from work. Woman,
S1: regarding this thing right here, my book teamwork. Now, it
S1: has officially been one year since I wrote teamwork. It's
S1: one year. Think about the time that I wrote this.
S1: It was June of a Post-quarantine world. Now we are
S1: out of quarantine for the most part. However, there has
S1: been things like the Great Resignation that has taken place
S1: and now with continued conversation about interest rates, rising, inflation
S1: going crazy, a recession that's upon us. I think it
S1: is now more than ever the time to really implement
S1: these strategies. And I also want to give you guys
S1: updates on the things that I've learned over the last
S1: year while I've been implementing these strategies inside our own business.
S1: Cardone ventures to let you know, hey, like double down
S1: on this or hey, pivot this one a little bit
S1: in order to achieve this result. And so this series
S1: is going to be diving into teamwork deeper than I
S1: go into the book and giving you some more behind
S1: the scenes of the questions that I get from clients
S1: constantly and the insights that I've had over the last year.
S1: So this is going to be a very exciting series.
S1: This is the first of the series and we're just
S1: going to dive right in. So Before, just like going
S1: into the content. And oftentimes I don't think that like
S1: talking about the introduction of a book is the most
S1: sexy or interesting thing. However, the introduction to my book
S1: is something that is, to me, a teachable and notable concept.
S1: I'd like to read this to you. So this is
S1: how I open this thing. I'm no fluff. You guys
S1: know this about me. I'm like, no bullshit. Cut to
S1: the chase. My book is just as direct as I
S1: am on this podcast. And so this is how I
S1: introduce myself on this podcast or on this book. I've
S1: dedicated the last decade of my career to understanding how
S1: to align team members goals to the business goals, in
S1: order to create a culture where everyone is winning. I've
S1: led my own teams and worked with over a thousand
S1: clients to help them create high performance teams. Building and
S1: scaling teams is my passion over the last two years,
S1: I have been responsible for hiring, training, firing, and operating
S1: at an organization called Cardone Ventures. In our first full
S1: year in business, we generated $16.4 million in annual revenue.
S1: Freaking fantastic. I'm currently writing this in July of our
S1: second year of business. Exactly one year ago right now,
S1: and we're on track to hit $40 million in annual revenue. So,
S1: mind you, I was writing this halfway through last year,
S1: and I put this out here that we are on
S1: track to do $40 million in revenue. We are currently
S1: at 66 team members and will end the year at 80.
S1: Fast forward to the end of last year, and we
S1: hit $39.5 million in annualized revenue, and we ended the
S1: year at 78 employees. So the team stuff on pause
S1: for a second. This is something that is a characteristic
S1: of a leader that absolutely has to exist for them
S1: to be successful. Your ability to see the future, to
S1: speak it into existence, and to be so confident that
S1: you are going to get there is invaluable. Your team
S1: needs to know that you see where you're going, that
S1: you are crystal clear on how you're going to get there,
S1: and that you're taking steps forward with that each and
S1: every day. Last year at this time, we predicted the future.
S1: We said, this is what we're going to do. This
S1: is how we are going to do it. We're going
S1: to hire this many people. Guys, we have doubled our
S1: team since I wrote this book just one year ago.
S1: We've literally doubled. We went from it says 66 employees.
S1: At the moment of writing this, at the moment that
S1: I'm talking to you right now, including our business, on
S1: the health side, we have 150 team members, 150 freaking
S1: team members. So a double. More than a double? Actually,
S1: a double would be 120. We technically have 120 at
S1: Cardone Ventures, so that's a double. And then the acquisition
S1: of Ten-x Health creates the 150. So how are you
S1: setting your team up to know what the target is?
S1: How are you setting them up to have confidence in
S1: you as the leader for having a vision, creating clarity
S1: and allowing them to to really put work in, to say, okay,
S1: I'm up for the challenge to achieve this vision that
S1: you've put out there, because it's not just about having
S1: all these high hopes. Building a high performance teams. Mean
S1: team means I have targets, I have these dreams and aspirations,
S1: but I'm also going to push and fight and grovel
S1: and beg and do everything I have, do everything I can.
S1: You get the point. Do anything that's necessary, that's still
S1: ethical for me to be able to progress this business forward.
S1: So I love that I introduce this book like this
S1: because it's such a reminder of like, this was a
S1: moment in time and I will say, just so that
S1: there's not, you know, imposter syndrome going on for you
S1: that you don't think existed with me when I wrote this.
S1: It's like, shit, what if the business does not do this?
S1: And now it is written in ink in the first
S1: two paragraphs of a book that I'm going to look
S1: at for the rest of my life. Like, that's going
S1: to be really freaking embarrassing if we don't actually do this.
S1: But then this alternative thought took place, which is, hey,
S1: if I'm committing to this and I am publicly stating this,
S1: I'm going to hold myself accountable to do this. I'm
S1: going to take myself seriously to do this, which actually
S1: increases the likelihood that I'm going to achieve this thing.
S1: It's scary. And yes, I feel that sometimes too, like,
S1: am I really going to put this out there? Because
S1: what if I fail? What if I'm not successful? It's
S1: okay to feel like that. I give you permission to
S1: have that momentary thought. You have it, and then you
S1: continue to press forward. You don't erase that line from
S1: the book. You don't not have that team meeting. You
S1: don't not share the target. You still share it while
S1: still feeling like, oh my God, this is scary. And
S1: I might feel like an imposter and I might, I
S1: might fail like there's an option, but it's not really
S1: an option because I'm not going to let myself get there. Okay,
S1: so teamwork. I started chapter one of teamwork, talking about
S1: the employee engagement cycle. And now more than ever before,
S1: I see this as one of the number one challenges
S1: for business owners to overcome with their mindset around their
S1: employees development inside their business. Like the when people get it,
S1: they change the culture When people don't get it, they
S1: don't change the culture. And then they still wonder, man. Like,
S1: why is my team stuck? Why can't I find great people? Oh,
S1: it's so hard to find remarkable talent. Oh, the Great
S1: resignation took all my best people away. Let's just be
S1: really clear. The Great Resignation did not take all your
S1: best people away. A challenged economy did not take your
S1: best people away. People having side hustles and the growth
S1: of the MLM market. That is not the reason that
S1: you don't have great team members. You do not have
S1: great team members because you have not clarified for them
S1: how they're aligned with the business. You have not helped
S1: them develop. You have not allowed them to have success
S1: through working with you, because it's not something that maybe
S1: is top of mind for you, and then you also
S1: haven't shown them, hey, what is transition? What does progress
S1: look like here? And so this employee engagement cycle I'm
S1: just like going to say this. I might say this
S1: for every single chapter because every piece is so Important
S1: in this puzzle. But if you don't understand the framework,
S1: to me, this employee engagement cycle, it is the picture.
S1: It's like the box for the puzzle. If you don't
S1: have the picture with the box, there's no way you're
S1: going to put the puzzle pieces together in the most
S1: accurate and timely fashion. You might never put them all together.
S1: So this employee engagement cycle is like the framework. And
S1: to the extent we get the framework, all of these
S1: pieces are going to fall into place. I do on
S1: page 11 say, that's exactly what this book is going
S1: to give you. The whole system it takes to create
S1: a people process within your business, including the resources, including
S1: the resources and structure you need to create cultural, operational
S1: and financial scale. Now, what I've learned since writing this book,
S1: and now with talking to so many business owners, is
S1: it's really easy for people to cherry pick. I'm going
S1: to do one on ones, but I'm not going to
S1: do the performance review. And instead of doing a daily
S1: all team meeting, I'm going to do a weekly all
S1: team meeting. Listen, I do this every single day in
S1: order to give you a blueprint of actual success. This
S1: is what we do every freaking day. This is what's
S1: worked for us. You're not going to hear anything in
S1: here about what's not working. You're only going to hear
S1: in this book about what's working. And it is an
S1: entire system. So if the employee engagement cycle that I'm
S1: about to go through is the picture, all of the chapters,
S1: all of the the individual nuggets, those are the puzzle pieces.
S1: And still you don't have a complete puzzle if pieces
S1: are missing the fulfillment of, oh my gosh, I finished
S1: the puzzle and look at how beautiful it is. That's
S1: never going to happen to you if you have these
S1: objections internally about moving forward with some of these recommendations.
S1: I had a meeting an hour and a half ago,
S1: about one of our clients who says they're so bought
S1: in and says all of the right things and shows
S1: up and seemingly does all the right things, and yet
S1: they're working with our managed services team, who is actually
S1: in the weeds with them on a day to day basis,
S1: understanding what they're implementing. They freaking cherry pick things, and
S1: then they wonder why they're not growing. They're not growing
S1: because they're not implementing the full system. And it's my
S1: job to give people a slap in the face, not
S1: a literal slap, but like, give them some hard truth.
S1: Give them some. Like, hey, where's your commitment? Why is
S1: your commitment so low? That's my job. Because I know
S1: that this system works. I have that much confidence in
S1: all of the pieces. And so again, me going through
S1: this with you is like, I want to be able
S1: to give you some additional context that I wasn't able
S1: to provide in the book, because I ran out of
S1: space and I ran out of time with that employee
S1: engagement cycle. The biggest things I see as a challenge
S1: with the employee engagement cycle is the lack of understanding
S1: of how all of the pieces come together. So think
S1: about it like this. When you read the book, you're
S1: going to you're going to visually see and you can
S1: like see that I have like all of these visuals.
S1: The visuals inside the book were so important to me.
S1: You're going to visually see that the top part of
S1: this cycle, it literally is a cycle with arrows. So
S1: for those of you who aren't watching it, it's like
S1: I'm making a circle motion with my finger to say,
S1: like it starts, but then it continues. Like there's this
S1: continued circling. It's not like you make one loop around
S1: the circle. It's like a clock right where the hands
S1: just continue and continue. That is the idea of an
S1: employee going through this cycle with you who is successful
S1: in your organization. The first step is aligning an employee.
S1: Everything that you do to align an employee is seated
S1: in the introduction that they have to your business. It's
S1: seated the onboarding process that they have with you, which
S1: is so critical to getting somebody spooled up as quickly
S1: as possible to what your business does, how your business
S1: does it, who the important players are in your business
S1: and your team for them to get to know. There's
S1: so much intentionality that should go into onboarding many problems
S1: that come along in that development phase. Remember, I call
S1: it development purgatory. When team members are stuck in a
S1: position in the same role in your organization for a
S1: long period of time, like three years in the same role,
S1: that's of course, somebody is not going to be motivated
S1: and excited because they're stuck in development. So alignment is
S1: step one. Then development alignment really ends after the person
S1: is onboarded and is fully capable of doing their role
S1: without you explaining new things to them the first time.
S1: So I like to think of alignment as like the
S1: first somewhere between the first, um, 1 to 6 months.
S1: Some roles are more complex and complicated than others. Um,
S1: traditionally it would be like three months is where somebody
S1: is fully in alignment. They understand how the business works,
S1: they understand the customers, the team members, etc. and how
S1: to be successful in their role. So that's the alignment
S1: phase then development. Now I describe this as a cycle,
S1: but for many of you, you don't think of this
S1: as a cycle. You think of it as steps. Step
S1: one is I onboard my team. Step two is they're
S1: part of my team and there's no cycle. It's just
S1: that's the end. Well, it's not the end because in
S1: the development phase they should be focusing on how do
S1: I get better at my role, how do I get
S1: better to where I'm adding more value, I'm contributing more,
S1: I'm excited about the work that I'm doing. I'm solving
S1: bigger problems. And the reason that they're going to be
S1: so excited about those things is because they have the
S1: opportunity to transition. Transition looks like a promotion. So this
S1: is like if if I don't ever see how I
S1: could get promoted, why am I going to work my
S1: ass off for you? Ask yourself that question. If you
S1: were one of your team members, why would you give
S1: it your all? It's easy as a business owner just
S1: to think, oh well, they could be doing so much
S1: more and there's so much opportunity and why don't they
S1: work harder and yet take that hat off as the
S1: owner and put on another hat? Which is why would
S1: I work this hard? Is the leader inspiring? Am I
S1: coached on how I could get better? Are there resources
S1: available for me to learn the things that I don't
S1: know to add more skill sets? Are are there transparent
S1: numbers to where I even understand how close I am
S1: to my target every day so that I know if
S1: I am even getting better? So some of these things
S1: are just feelings that we have because we see these
S1: little momentary cracks in a team members performance. But this
S1: system of, oh, it's not just A12 step, it's not
S1: somebody onboarded and they're just an employee. It's actually somebody onboarded.
S1: They're aligned with me. Now I'm developing them so that
S1: I can transition to the next role. There's going to
S1: be a whole slew of issues and potential opportunities in
S1: there that you are wrongfully assigning as, oh, it's just
S1: because the person is lazy or not motivated, or they're
S1: from some XYZ generation that isn't as hard of workers
S1: as mine was, which is all a bunch of bullshit.
S1: It really is. The reality is, if somebody has a
S1: picture of where they're going, if they have a picture
S1: of where the business is going, and they understand what
S1: it's going to take for them to get to from
S1: where they are to where they want to go, you're
S1: going to have aligned engaged team members unless they're just
S1: not really interested in working that hard, which, to be
S1: honest with you, what we see here at Cardinal Ventures.
S1: That's maybe 15% of the staff that we hire. It
S1: is not 100% of the staff. It's maybe 15 where
S1: they're like, Holy shit, I had no idea when you
S1: guys said that you were all of these things that
S1: you actually are all of these things. When you guys
S1: said we were ten x, I didn't really understand that
S1: you were ten x. We're like, yeah, we were as
S1: clear as possible about that on the front end. We
S1: put it everywhere, but we really are these things. So again,
S1: I will get into some of this nuanced stuff in
S1: later podcasts and later, um, chapters of this book. But
S1: this overarching framework, once you have this in place, what
S1: you can more properly do, the way that this becomes
S1: so workable is identify a team member that you have
S1: an issue with, and then figure out the step which
S1: is always going to be backwards, right? It was something
S1: from the point in which you had the issue behind you,
S1: not forward that created this problem. Once you start being
S1: more prescriptive in thinking of it in this cycle, you're
S1: going to come up with better solutions and better ways
S1: to get in front of these things, because logic is
S1: going to state for you to scale your business. You're
S1: just assume you're going to have this problem a hundred
S1: times over until you fix it or provide some sort
S1: of answer and then some sort of solution to whatever
S1: the problem is. And as we go through this, I'll
S1: give you as many examples as I can of employee
S1: issues that we've had, where all of a sudden it
S1: became really obvious to me, oh my God, we just
S1: never put this in onboarding. I can give you guys
S1: an example of this right now. Uh, we had team
S1: members in our last big meeting who decided to go
S1: to a strip club, two separate team members, two separate
S1: strip clubs with clients. One of the individuals actually posted
S1: pictures at the strip club with a stripper behind them
S1: in their Cartoon Ventures gear, and the other one did
S1: not post a picture, but a client came up to
S1: one of our team members at 4 a.m. in the morning.
S1: When they were back at the hotel, the team member
S1: that they approached was leaving for the airport because it
S1: was a 6 a.m. flight, and the client came up
S1: to the team member and was like, oh my gosh,
S1: I just saw you at XYZ strip club. And the
S1: team member is like, uh, no you didn't. I just
S1: woke my ass up after working five straight days and
S1: barely sleeping in order to work this event. Like, what
S1: are you talking about? And they're like, yeah, I saw
S1: you there with the hat on that had the ten x,
S1: and it was another one of the team members who
S1: was actually at the strip club. So here, same night,
S1: two entirely different instances with team members going to strip clubs.
S1: So can Natalie or Cartoon Ventures really get involved with
S1: what our team members do in their personal lives? In
S1: most cases, no we cannot. However, as soon as our
S1: brand is brought through and represented at these places, all
S1: of a sudden we can absolutely have a say. And
S1: yet we had never had a policy about this. It
S1: wasn't something that I had encountered before. It wasn't an
S1: issue that we had really thought through, like this wasn't
S1: something that had actually happened already. When I think about
S1: that issue, you could just write it off as, oh,
S1: that's just a one time thing. Or hey, maybe your
S1: culture is good with that kind of thing. Our culture
S1: is very much opposed to that. We do not fraternize
S1: with our clients. Our team members are not allowed to
S1: drink with our clients so that we can protect our
S1: brand and the guidance and the advice that we give.
S1: And we want people to be in a sober state
S1: when they're communicating with our clients is just important to us.
S1: So when this happened, is it because the team member
S1: is an idiot? Well, there might be that that like
S1: maybe potential however like what what Responsibility can Natalie take
S1: to say, how could I have been more clear with
S1: these team members? So now our policy has been updated.
S1: It now says, hey, when you go to an event
S1: with us, these are the things that you cannot do.
S1: And we spell it out. And not only do we
S1: spell it out, but it created this opportunity for us
S1: to revamp our entire events training process to have our
S1: team members read the events training. But now one of
S1: my greatest tips on this is we have them take
S1: a quiz. Anything that you know is going to be
S1: important in your business. You have somebody read the information
S1: about it, but then you also quiz them later. So
S1: now there's this whole events quiz on the things that
S1: you can or can't do, so that I feel confident
S1: growing and scaling my business forward. So this cycle, when
S1: you think back, it would be easy just to assess
S1: the situation as, oh, it was just this one person. Oh,
S1: it was just Sally. Oh, it was just Joe. Well, no,
S1: not really because you could hire ten more Sally's and
S1: ten more Joe's, and you're gonna have to deal with
S1: this 20 more times. That's not that's not ideal. So
S1: what do you do in the alignment phase? That's that
S1: first bucket in the talent engagement cycle. What are we
S1: doing to align people to say these are our expectations.
S1: If you don't if you're not clear, if you're not,
S1: if you're not setting an expectation, that's so crystal clear
S1: with people on the front end, then of course it's
S1: just going to kind of happen by default. You don't
S1: want things happening by default. As Sharon Lechter says, you
S1: either have your culture be by default or you have
S1: it be by design. So when you think about the
S1: employee engagement cycle, what's really going to help you actually
S1: crystallize this path is putting your team members inside it.
S1: When you open up the book, this one is on
S1: page 14, the first like big cycle. Make a list
S1: of all of your team members and identify which phase
S1: they're in. Are they in alignment? Are they in development
S1: or are they in transition? Transition would look like, hey,
S1: they're transitioning out. Maybe they're taking another job. They are
S1: on a performance improvement plan. There's like some sort of
S1: transition to where they potentially are no longer going to
S1: be with you, or they are transitioning into a new
S1: role because they've been promoted, because there was some growth there. Now,
S1: I have this sinking suspicion that once you do this activity,
S1: you drop your employees into, hey, are they aligning? Are
S1: they developing? Are they transitioning? As you look at that list,
S1: what you're going to find is probably the majority of
S1: your team is going to be in that development phase.
S1: That's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. But we have
S1: to have a clear path for how they move to
S1: the next phase. When you look at your team members,
S1: how many of them have been stuck? One of the
S1: criteria that you should be looking at is if a
S1: team member has been in the same role for more
S1: than a year and a half to two years, there's
S1: likely a problem there. There's some caveats to this, of course.
S1: What if somebody is just good being where they're at.
S1: They're not really interested in growing. They're not really excited
S1: about that. I would tell you this if you have
S1: a team member like that and you have less than
S1: 50 employees, that's going to be a struggle for you.
S1: And the reason why is you need people who are
S1: excited about growing. You need people who are going to
S1: help you grow. And if you don't have the majority
S1: of your team saying, I'm all in, I will do
S1: whatever it takes. I'm excited about this opportunity. I will
S1: develop myself. I will go above and beyond, and instead
S1: you have people who are just like, ah, I'm good
S1: where I'm at. It is going to be extremely difficult
S1: for you to grow. Extremely, extremely difficult. So if you
S1: know that your growth is the target, why are you
S1: going to put barriers in your way? That's going to
S1: cause difficulty in doing that. You need team members who
S1: have that thing inside them. And I don't know where
S1: that thing comes from. I do believe it can be developed.
S1: I don't believe people are born with that tenacity, but
S1: it needs to be present across all of your team
S1: members if you're below 50 team members. So you got
S1: your activity. You know what you're doing. You're all good.
S1: If you are not good and you're not clear on
S1: the activity, just rewind this about two minutes. Take a moment.
S1: Do this so that you can really start to to
S1: crystallize this concept of the cycle. Because the rest of
S1: the book hinges on understanding where team members are at.
S1: And then once we know where they're at, we can
S1: better assess what the challenges are, how to get them
S1: to overcome those challenges so that you have an aligned
S1: and engaged team. If you have not picked up a
S1: copy of teamwork yet, my friend, now is the time
S1: to do it. This is going to be an in-depth series.
S1: You're not going to want to miss out on the
S1: additional context that the book gives you, so that you
S1: can supplement it with the conversations that we're going to
S1: be having over the course of the next few weeks
S1: on this podcast, so you can find a copy of
S1: Teamwork at Cardone ventures.com/teamwork. It'll come to you by giving
S1: it to you for free on that link. All you
S1: have to do is pay for shipping and handling and
S1: that book will come right over to you. I'm excited
S1: to kick this off. I'm excited that you are investing
S1: in yourself, in your business, in your leadership skills, and
S1: most importantly, your team so that you can create the
S1: environment that you have always dreamed of and not just
S1: settle for people around you who might be holding you back.
S1: Because really, that's only holding yourself back to where you
S1: want to go with that. Have a spectacular day and
S1: make sure to do the activity. I can't wait to
S1: see you next week!