S1: Let's talk about how do you settle a dispute with
S1: your partner? Now, I work with thousands of business owners.
S1: We have a company with all sorts of different partnership agreements.
S1: We own businesses. And this is one of those tricky
S1: things that a lot of stuff goes behind the scenes,
S1: goes on behind the scenes as it relates to structuring
S1: partner agreements. And we give a lot of advice around
S1: how do you enter a relationship where both parties are
S1: excited about it, but also know what the structure looks like? However,
S1: we've never really created content around what happens when there's
S1: a dispute. What do you do when there's a falling out?
S1: Especially when there's family involved? I happen to work alongside
S1: my business partner and also my life partner who is
S1: my husband, and we have this very clear process that
S1: we go through. If ever there's an issue that we're encountering,
S1: and we use the same process with all of the
S1: partners that we have inside our portfolio to just navigate
S1: the disputes or the issues or the frustrations that can
S1: come up. Because if you're growing your business, there are
S1: going to be issues like, I'm just going to say it,
S1: say it bluntly. If there are issues or if you
S1: want to grow your business, there are going to be issues.
S1: So if you know that they're going to be issues,
S1: you have to have a mechanism for handling what those
S1: issues are. And it can't just be about feeling, it
S1: can't be about emotion, because all of those things distract
S1: from what you're trying to do, which you have to
S1: remember what you're trying to do. Why did you start
S1: this business? You started it likely because you wanted to grow.
S1: And so I want to walk you through our process
S1: for when there's an issue, when there's a frustration inside
S1: a partnership that either we have or maybe even I'll
S1: give you some examples of our own frustrations inside our
S1: own partnership, which might get a little juicy, but don't worry,
S1: Brandon's on board with me sharing, so let's dive into it.
S1: My first piece of advice on bringing up any sort
S1: of issue that you're running into with a partner is
S1: that you do everything that you can in preparation for
S1: this conversation, to use facts instead of emotion. Now, it
S1: shouldn't feel like a dissertation of these are the 45
S1: things that you've done wrong. However, you should know what
S1: your numbers are. You should know the details of whatever
S1: the exchanges that you're frustrated with. You should really be
S1: able to come to that meeting prepared to talk about
S1: a very specific list of things. Don't throw every single
S1: issue in the petty little stuff, ideally, is just not
S1: even talked about. It's not. You're not worrying about the
S1: petty stuff, but the big things need to have great
S1: documentation and great preparation so that you're not winging it.
S1: And I can speak from personal experience on this whenever
S1: I'm emotional about something and I'm emotional about partnerships, not
S1: all the time, but it happens from time to time.
S1: There was an instance that happened within the last three
S1: months that I was very emotional about, and I was
S1: frustrated with the situation, and I knew that despite me
S1: wanting to call the person up right in the middle
S1: of my frustration and my irritation and my overwhelm, I
S1: knew that I just needed to wait and to get
S1: every detail that I needed to have in order to
S1: properly have the conversation, because if I would have just
S1: called them when I was emotional, it would have turned
S1: into this big nasty fight. And I don't know about you,
S1: but I hate getting in fights with people. I don't
S1: like being frustrated. I don't like people not liking me.
S1: I just want to go through every single day being
S1: excited about where we're going, pushing towards the target, being
S1: hard on the team so that everybody can achieve their goals.
S1: And when you have these issues and you bring emotion
S1: into it, it clouds everything else. So huge recommendation here.
S1: Use facts and if you're emotional, wait. Just wait to
S1: have the conversation. Okay, now the second piece. Let me
S1: just consult my notes here. This one's important. When you
S1: come into an agreement with a partner, it's not likely
S1: that you were really clear on who was doing what
S1: in terms of job descriptions or roles and responsibilities. Now,
S1: there might have been like, vague communications around this, but
S1: the things that you're fighting about probably aren't documented anywhere. Meaning,
S1: if I'm fighting about something that I thought I was
S1: supposed to be doing and they're doing something that they're
S1: not supposed to be doing, but it's involving me, or
S1: maybe it's involving my team. The nuances of that probably
S1: wasn't documented anywhere. So when I'm preparing for a conversation
S1: like this, I want to get really clear about, hey,
S1: what's my role in this situation? If I'm the president
S1: of Cardone Ventures, what is the president's role in the business?
S1: What is the purview of the decisions that I should
S1: be making? So let's say Brandon and I are having
S1: a discussion and we're frustrated because he's stepping on my
S1: toes or I'm stepping on his toes and the business
S1: just feels hard. And we're married, but we're also partners.
S1: What I'm going to do is I'm going to say, okay,
S1: as president of Cardinal Ventures, this is what I'm responsible for.
S1: My understanding as CEO is this is what you're responsible for.
S1: You are encroaching on my responsibilities. So is it because
S1: you don't trust me in this area? Is it because
S1: I don't have statistics in this area? What is causing
S1: you to not focus on your job, but do my job?
S1: Or if the opposite is taking place? Let's say I'm
S1: negotiating some deal and I didn't bring Brandon into the
S1: into the deal. And it was something that he was
S1: supposed to be working on. I bypassed him for some reason.
S1: I would have to then look at his job description
S1: and say, yeah, you're right, I did that. And let's
S1: say I, I frustrated him in the process because I
S1: didn't keep him in the loop. And then he looked
S1: silly talking to somebody else I would have to own.
S1: You're right. I did do your job. And in our
S1: little scenario, what would be really important is for me
S1: to say, I don't want you to have to do
S1: those things any longer, because I think I can handle them.
S1: And I'd like to take that off your plate. But
S1: if I didn't communicate that ahead of time and we
S1: didn't get clarity on who's responsible for what and why,
S1: the stepping on toes is taking place, that's where all
S1: of the frustration lands, and that's where all the emotion lands.
S1: So having these job descriptions, although it sounds ridiculous, is
S1: so beneficial to constructively moving the conversation forward. Because if
S1: you believe in your partnership. Most partnership conversations end in
S1: fights about money. So if it's how you're managing expenses,
S1: if it's what your travel and expense policy looks like,
S1: if it's how you're taking and distributing cash out of
S1: the business, all of those financial components, if you're the
S1: person that's responsible financially for the organization, then you should
S1: have clear documentation and policies in place, and that is
S1: in your purview. Ideally, you guys aren't 50 over 50.
S1: And this is where we we have the most issues
S1: with business owners. They got into a partnership agreement. They
S1: were 50 over 50. Everything was lollipops and rainbows and
S1: fantastic at the start. And all of a sudden they
S1: are fighting because they don't see eye to eye, and
S1: the 50 over 50 doesn't allow one of them to
S1: have more say than the other. This is where you
S1: have to use the job description to say, hey, I'm
S1: proposing that this is my role and that this is
S1: your role, and we have to figure out who is
S1: actually responsible for making these decisions. Because the only thing
S1: what is this saying? I'm going to mess it up.
S1: The only thing worse than a bad general is two
S1: good ones. The only thing worse than one bad general
S1: is two good generals, because you can't make a decision,
S1: and then you're gridlocked and no one knows who to
S1: go to for what. And it feels like mommy and
S1: daddy that kills the growth inside a business. Okay, so
S1: the next thing after you have your prep, you have
S1: your job description. When you have this conversation, you start
S1: with the intention. And the intention should always be, we're
S1: here to make this work. We are on the same team.
S1: We want the same thing. I want to figure out
S1: what we can do to make this work, because I
S1: believe that there is always a way to make it work.
S1: So when you start off the conversation like that, instead
S1: of being heated and frustrated, you're like, hey, wait, we're
S1: just going to recenter. We want to make this work.
S1: What would we have to do? Knowing the problem to
S1: make it work, what would that have to look like?
S1: And then you can start from that place instead of
S1: potentially starting with a dissolution, like in my partnership with
S1: my husband, there is no potential of dissolution. We are
S1: in this thing. We are figuring this thing out. But
S1: it's worth reminding in partnership conversations, whether it's with your
S1: significant other, your business partner or any other partnership, that
S1: there is high stakes communication that's online. Clarify that your
S1: intention is to make it work and that's the place
S1: that you're coming from. That is your responsibility. Now, once
S1: you're clarifying that that's your intention, um, ideal scene is
S1: that you actually have contractual clarity. So whoever is the
S1: managing member of the organization gets to make the final decision.
S1: There was some provision in place that stated what things
S1: had to be signed off on from both partners, versus
S1: the managing member. Getting to make other decisions, like those
S1: types of things in the communication should be brought up.
S1: If you do have contractual clarity that, hey, this is
S1: what I'm supposed to do, so I need to be
S1: doing this. And if it's if you're preventing me from
S1: doing it contractually, this is what's supposed to happen. So
S1: what do we need to fix? Because this is the contract.
S1: This is what we all signed up for. This is
S1: what we agreed to. My last piece on this. As
S1: you're going through an issue with the partner, ideally the
S1: first conversation that you bring up solves the issue, right?
S1: You have a three hour meeting or a four hour
S1: meeting or whatever. The amount of time is for you
S1: to sit down and to work through the problems. But
S1: in all reality, in the way that I've always seen
S1: this play out, it's not just one conversation that fixes things.
S1: It's multiple conversations. It's changing operating agreements. It's potentially changing
S1: a contract or employment agreements. There's there's there's legs that
S1: challenges can create. Right. There's legs that, um, that disputes create.
S1: So as you're going through this process, just remember that
S1: you are supposed to keep the main thing, the main
S1: thing with your team. So they should not have any
S1: wind of this, your team, you show up to all
S1: of your meetings. You have conversations with all of your
S1: leaders the exact same as you would have before. There
S1: is no conversation around it. There's no nattering about it.
S1: There's no like, oh, I'm so overwhelmed I can't make decisions,
S1: keep making the right decisions, make the ethical decisions, make
S1: the decisions that are in the best, uh, A course
S1: for the organization because that is the right thing to do.
S1: Even if you could start making shady decisions, do not
S1: make shady decisions. Whenever I have like there's like these
S1: little moments where I'm like, oh man, I could really
S1: jack things up right now. I think that every once
S1: in a while I'm like, not an angel all the time.
S1: And then I'm like, wait a second, I am highly ethical,
S1: I am moral, I have integrity, I want the best
S1: for everybody involved. There is no there's no issue that
S1: I want to create. I want everybody to succeed. But
S1: sometimes you have to remember, remember that and remind yourself
S1: of that when there's real life stuff happening in business partnerships.
S1: So despite all of those feelings and all of the
S1: leverage that you could have, be ethical in the process
S1: and treat somebody how you would want to be treated
S1: if you were in that same position. So those are
S1: my tips on what you do when you're having a
S1: dispute or an issue with your business partners.