Douglas Vermeeren is an author, filmmaker, and founder of the Certified Entrepreneur Coach program

Transcript

Full transcript page · Interactive episode

============================================================
TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
============================================================

[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Countless Podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to Calgary's podcast with Mario Toneguzi on Canada's podcast network.
[00:12] SPEAKER_01: Joining me today is Doug Vermeeran, who is founder of Certified Entrepreneur Coach.
[00:18] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us today Doug.
[00:20] SPEAKER_01: Hey Mariel, thanks for having me. It's really good to be with you guys.
[00:22] SPEAKER_01: Well let's start just by the start to conversations by telling me what Certified Entrepreneur Coach is.
[00:30] SPEAKER_00: Sure. Well you know what's interesting. I've been teaching entrepreneurs myself for a really long time.
[00:35] SPEAKER_00: But what I've noticed is especially over the pandemic we've seen a really big shift as people sort of lost their jobs and they've been let go and so forth.
[00:42] SPEAKER_00: In fact one of the stats that I recently read suggested that there's more than 548 million new entrepreneurs in 2020 loan, which is literally 1.5 million a day.
[00:51] SPEAKER_00: Yeah that's crazy right.
[00:53] SPEAKER_00: And so these are people that some of them they've never started a business. They've never had an enterprise.
[00:57] SPEAKER_00: And so that's really what we strive to do is help them to do things right so that that income stream that was disrupted can carry on and keep going.
[01:05] SPEAKER_01: Okay can you give me a little bit of the background of when you started it, why you started it, how you started it.
[01:11] SPEAKER_00: Yeah for sure. Well you know the interesting thing is as I'm a Calgary boy, hooray hooray right.
[01:17] SPEAKER_00: And when I was about 19 like my family was stuck in the poverty pattern.
[01:21] SPEAKER_00: What I mean is my daddy worked in construction my mom, baby, some kids in the home and that was kind of the idea of I guess how they thought you know the future should be for me.
[01:30] SPEAKER_00: And at about that time I ran into a book called Think and Grow Rich and I started interviewing some of the top business leaders that I could find.
[01:36] SPEAKER_00: Now obviously being a Calgary guy I started with people I knew right here in town people that had made a fortune in a variety of businesses.
[01:43] SPEAKER_00: Certainly a lot of oil and gas people.
[01:46] SPEAKER_00: And I started asking at the end of these conversations who else do you know that I should talk to.
[01:50] SPEAKER_00: And very soon I was being introduced to some pretty heavy hitter business leaders.
[01:54] SPEAKER_00: I got to for example the co-founders of federal express the former founder of Reebok Nike the Aveda group the founder of Uber the founder of Reebok the founders of Ted Baker.
[02:05] SPEAKER_00: And many many other companies and so basically through that time I really kind of learned how businesses and entrepreneurship is created.
[02:13] SPEAKER_00: And I literally got to about 400 of these top achievers and as a young man I used their skills to build my own businesses.
[02:20] SPEAKER_00: And it was kind of interesting because I didn't I didn't set out to be a coach or a speaker I was kind of like selfish looking to learn for myself.
[02:27] SPEAKER_00: But you know I had this group in Calgary I think it was the Calgary executives club or something said to me one day you know what did Richard Branson teach you about business come talk to our group.
[02:36] SPEAKER_00: And so I showed up there and interesting enough as I shared some of these ideas some of the other thought thoughts that came from some of the other experts came out and at the end of that I had three or four of the people inviting me back to speak to their groups.
[02:48] SPEAKER_00: And next thing you know I was teaching business owners and coaching so that's kind of what led to it.
[02:54] SPEAKER_01: So when you look back at some of those people just save him Calgary who are some of the names that you spoke to that people would know.
[03:02] SPEAKER_00: Wow okay so and I'm still friends with a lot of these guys too so one that was really kind of a big inspiration for me was Brian Sadorski who many people know on the town of real estate in town.
[03:13] SPEAKER_00: I had a chance to connect with some of the sharks I had a chance to connect with them in fact one that was also pretty instrumental a lady by name of Luanne Mitchell who owned Mitchell find food.
[03:23] SPEAKER_00: And she sold it off and there were some that were involved in big companies like Petro Canada Brian Henninger is another one off a Henninger toy old and so like I mean there were just scores of these people.
[03:33] SPEAKER_00: But what's funny is as soon as I started kind of getting outside Calgary I realized actually this is strange how much Calgary is actually connected to many many big businesses that are out there.
[03:44] SPEAKER_00: For example like McDonald's there one of their head offices is right here in Calgary right.
[03:50] SPEAKER_01: That's true yeah so how I'm just curious when you were doing this how how did you manage to get to talk to these people.
[03:59] SPEAKER_00: Well you know I still wonder that every day the reality is is like it's kind of funny because nowadays it seems like the gatekeepers that people have set up are in fact even a little bit more intense.
[04:09] SPEAKER_00: Yeah and some of the ways to kind of get to people are a little bit more tricky because now like when I was doing it no kidding social media and things weren't what it was.
[04:16] SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of times you know getting even their contact information was a trick but the real real key I think that got me in the door with people is asking for those personal introductions.
[04:27] SPEAKER_00: So for example you know when I got to say Bill Farley who is the former owner of Fruit of the Loom Christian Dior, George Ash Jeans a lot of these it was actually an introduction from someone else that made that happen.
[04:37] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[04:37] SPEAKER_00: Or what I got to say Frank McGuire who is the former VP of Marketing for all of KFC and American Airlines one of the co founders of FedEx again it was a personal introduction.
[04:45] SPEAKER_00: So I think that that's really the key is you don't know who people know and we've all heard this idea of the six degrees of separation but let me tell you right now because of social media it's more like one degree right like you can almost get to anybody.
[04:58] SPEAKER_00: If you know just a couple of connections in between and it's pretty easy to do.
[05:02] SPEAKER_01: Yeah so tell me just a little bit about you know were there any common threats for you.
[05:07] SPEAKER_01: You know from speaking to all these people of what made them successful.
[05:13] SPEAKER_00: Oh certainly there were yeah in fact I think that there's a lot of things also it's really interesting for me as I as I looked at kind of what's taught in personal development today.
[05:22] SPEAKER_00: And what the top teachers really do there's a lot of disconnects too so for example one of the things that we often hear is that if it's meant to be it's up to me you've heard that right.
[05:30] SPEAKER_00: But that's total garbage the reality is is the idea starts here but if you're going to create something big it's always by team it's not you you're not you're not the one who's responsible.
[05:40] SPEAKER_00: In fact I think that that's a really interesting insight because if we look at people you know they think big they get this really great business idea and then suddenly they begin to doubt it themselves if they can really implement it and make it happen it's because they're again reverting the idea back to them.
[05:53] SPEAKER_00: And the reality is is it's not kind of the idea of what can I do it's who do I know that's the better question.
[06:01] SPEAKER_00: One of the other things that was also kind of interesting is you hear a lot of gurus talk about people need to step outside of their comfort zone to create success.
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: Yeah and when I notice with the top teachers they do not step out of their comfort zone in fact they stick into the what I call their brilliant zone the things that they're really really good at and they actually delegate as much as they can.
[06:17] SPEAKER_00: So for example they're not going to go build their own website they're not going to do their own you know day to day stuff they actually look at where they really are strong and then they find other people to support that.
[06:27] SPEAKER_00: And then you know one of the other things that I also found was really like an earth shattering aha for me you sometimes see a desk a sign on people's desk that says the buck stops here right.
[06:37] SPEAKER_00: But I saw a sign on one of these entrepreneurs desk that said the buck starts here and when I asked him about it I said what do you mean by that right and he says no it doesn't start there on my desk it starts here.
[06:47] SPEAKER_00: Yeah and then he said that resources follow resourcefulness and that was really an interesting insight that when we have good ideas and especially if we start assembling a good team behind it we start attracting better and better because everybody wants to be part of a winning team.
[07:01] SPEAKER_00: So rather than going out to try to become rich try to be somebody of value first and try and create an idea of value and you automatically attract all the other things that you want.
[07:10] SPEAKER_00: So those were three of the really big ones but what's funny I actually wrote a book a couple years ago this got 21 of those tips that I noticed in the top achievers that quite frankly are not being taught by either business coaches or other gurus that are out there.
[07:26] SPEAKER_01: So I've asked this question before the others I'm just curious what your take is do you think entrepreneurs are born or they made little bit of both.
[07:36] SPEAKER_00: I think you've got people who quite frankly are just always overflowing with curiosity and that's the that's the main thing about an entrepreneur right yeah we've got to be curious about the world how can we you know improve things streamline things simplify things do things more cost effective ways that's what an entrepreneur does.
[07:51] SPEAKER_00: But the other part of being an entrepreneur I think that can be taught is just the organizational part of it traditional businesses all about you know a hierarchy the man at the top basically hires people and tells them what to do is the boss.
[08:02] SPEAKER_00: Yeah and sometimes even you have a small business owner that quite frankly if someone doesn't show up for a shift they end up having to fill that shift so they're kind of self employed yeah the reality is isn't as an entrepreneur needs to look at things almost as though they were a conductor of an orchestra right if they try to play every single instrument that's in the orchestra even if they've got the sheet music it's going to sound terrible because they're going to bounce from the piano to the base to the
[08:25] SPEAKER_00: tympani to the whatever you fill in the instrument right yeah but what an entrepreneur really does is they're actually conductor they they really are the role is to find the best player of each of these instruments the best team member and then they need to learn how to conduct and orchestrate that to create the greatest results.
[08:43] SPEAKER_00: And so that is a skill I think definitely that can be learned and mastered but I also believe that a smart entrepreneur when they come up with this great idea they can also find someone to co-conduct.
[08:52] SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's a really important thing too especially if you're you know working with venture capital people a lot of these guys have experience you've got the idea let's get their experience involved where they can help you actually find and assemble the right team to hit a winner so it if it's meant to be it is not all up to me it really is something that we can learn and we can do.
[09:12] SPEAKER_01: Yeah what do you think some of the key qualities of an individual are to be successful entrepreneur.
[09:19] SPEAKER_00: Well I think there's quite a few that we could go through but the reality is is I think if they have the drive to really pursue their idea then they're on the right track.
[09:30] SPEAKER_00: Yeah something that I'll maybe just disagree when I did read that book thinking grow rich one of the things that's in there it says if you believe that you can achieve it yeah and I tend to say that that's not really true.
[09:40] SPEAKER_00: And maybe as an example that the audience could understand we've all seen American Idol or America's got talent and there's always that guy that the interview in the back room who says I'm the next winner I'm the best thing that there ever was except that he really believes it of course he does right but then he goes into his audition and it is a disaster right it is just terrible.
[09:58] SPEAKER_00: So I think of a person truly believes it then they're going to also be open to what I need to do to become the best or to really nurture these skills or develop the talents or assemble the team and I think that this is something that smart entrepreneurs do is they have the ability to recognize where they have deficiencies right.
[10:16] SPEAKER_00: They have the ability to recognize where they need help and they're also brutally honest with themselves they don't fool themselves into thinking that they're greater than they are but at the same token they also don't discount who they are in the value that they do bring and the boundaries to protect themselves in those things too.
[10:32] SPEAKER_00: So I think that that's probably one of the strongest attributes and a lot of the other stuff I'm not saying all of it but a lot of the other stuff can actually be received through outside support right if you don't have that skill set not a problem there's a lot of things that are not good.
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: So I think that's the best thing that I think is that there's people that you can find or partner with that do.
[10:49] SPEAKER_01: So Whitney you look at entrepreneurship in general.
[10:56] SPEAKER_01: Is your thoughts that anybody could be an entrepreneur?
[10:59] SPEAKER_00: I definitely think so and I think that we live in probably the best time in the history of the world for that as well and one of the reasons is I'm just going to use my phone as an example of the principle of convergence right now what do I mean by that is I mean even just this little device right now has open the opportunities to so many people and really love it.
[11:16] SPEAKER_00: We've lowered the barrier for competition in the marketplace. So my phone just like yours has a camera it has the Internet it has the ability for payment processing it has the ability to like you fill in the blank I can connect with anybody in the world I can partner with anybody in the world and I can run the entire business almost through here now I'm not saying that every business is you know is scalable by your phone I just want to clarify that that really you know but but it has open the opportunity for people to explore their ideas in their dreams.
[11:43] SPEAKER_00: And there's also a variety of platforms where we can share our ideas and we can also attract
[11:49] SPEAKER_00: customers and find people everything from YouTube to, you know, things like iTunes and everything
[11:53] SPEAKER_00: else.
[11:54] SPEAKER_00: So there's never been a better time in the history of the world to get your idea out there.
[11:58] SPEAKER_00: And then one of the things that I think is really important that a lot of entrepreneurs
[12:01] SPEAKER_00: maybe don't think about, if you want to become successful, rarely do you come out with
[12:07] SPEAKER_00: your first idea of being the winner.
[12:09] SPEAKER_00: But with this technology, we can test a lot.
[12:12] SPEAKER_00: We can see what's going to stick and those tests can happen rapidly.
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: They can happen inexpensively.
[12:18] SPEAKER_00: We can gather tribes together and we can survey and we can connect with people to see
[12:22] SPEAKER_00: what they're really going to buy.
[12:24] SPEAKER_00: And we can get a lot of answers right.
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: Whereas in the past, I think a lot of other, you know, traditional business models really
[12:32] SPEAKER_00: took a long time to pivot and to find these discoveries.
[12:35] SPEAKER_00: So I just think now there's so many advantages.
[12:37] SPEAKER_00: I mean, we could talk for hours about the technology that supports us, right?
[12:41] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[12:43] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, most entrepreneurs are really consumed with what they do, right?
[12:47] SPEAKER_01: You know, in many ways, it's like a 24-7 job career, whatever you want to call it.
[12:55] SPEAKER_01: How important do you think it is for entrepreneurs to learn to step back, learn to do, I guess,
[13:04] SPEAKER_01: to have areas where that they can get away from what they're doing and maybe reenergize
[13:13] SPEAKER_01: or have some stress release, etc.
[13:17] SPEAKER_01: How important is that on the journey?
[13:19] SPEAKER_00: It's essential.
[13:20] SPEAKER_00: It's essential.
[13:21] SPEAKER_00: In fact, here's the thing that I think is maybe a misunderstanding.
[13:25] SPEAKER_00: A person who's self-employed is actually not an entrepreneur.
[13:28] SPEAKER_00: So if you are, again, the one who's having to tend and mind everything, you're not really
[13:32] SPEAKER_00: an entrepreneur.
[13:33] SPEAKER_00: It comes back to that idea that we hear from Michael Gerbera is working in our business
[13:37] SPEAKER_00: versus working on our business.
[13:39] SPEAKER_00: Now, there's something interesting that I had a mentor teach me very early in my career
[13:43] SPEAKER_00: and it made a really big difference.
[13:44] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to just show you a diagram that I think is really kind of cool.
[13:47] SPEAKER_00: And when I saw this, it really made a big, big difference in my company.
[13:52] SPEAKER_00: So there's really actually, how do I say this?
[13:55] SPEAKER_00: Maybe I should give the story on how I was taught this, too.
[13:58] SPEAKER_00: So anyways, when I was doing the interviews with all these 400 of the world's top achievers
[14:03] SPEAKER_00: and business leaders, I got bit by the business bug.
[14:05] SPEAKER_00: I wanted to be a business owner myself.
[14:07] SPEAKER_00: And so I had a friend who was worth multi-million to dollars.
[14:12] SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to take him out to lunch.
[14:13] SPEAKER_00: You know this idea, I'd take a millionaire out to lunch, right?
[14:15] SPEAKER_00: So I was going to pick his brain and I sat down with him and I brought this really thick
[14:20] SPEAKER_00: business plan because I thought quantity equals quality, right?
[14:23] SPEAKER_00: And quite frankly, it was mostly full of fluff.
[14:25] SPEAKER_00: And I set it down on his desk.
[14:26] SPEAKER_00: I tried to make the biggest thud that I could.
[14:28] SPEAKER_00: And he didn't even pick it up.
[14:30] SPEAKER_00: He just asked me, he goes, what are the key transactions?
[14:32] SPEAKER_00: Well, I'd never heard that before.
[14:34] SPEAKER_00: So I started saying, well, this is what we're trying to do.
[14:37] SPEAKER_00: These are our customers.
[14:38] SPEAKER_00: And he said, no, what are the key transactions?
[14:41] SPEAKER_00: Again, now I try to talk about marketing and this kind of what we're going to do.
[14:43] SPEAKER_00: And he just kind of rolled his eyes and the minute later said,
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: what are the key transactions?
[14:48] SPEAKER_00: And I try to give some other demographics or something like this to kind of BS my way through.
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: Because I was 19, I didn't know what I'm talking about.
[14:53] SPEAKER_00: So he said, no key transactions.
[14:56] SPEAKER_00: In other words, you're going to give people either a S I see,
[15:02] SPEAKER_00: which stands for an asset, a service, information, or community.
[15:08] SPEAKER_00: Those are the only things that you can sell.
[15:10] SPEAKER_00: Right?
[15:10] SPEAKER_00: You can sell an asset, service, information, or community, right?
[15:15] SPEAKER_00: And in exchange, they're going to give you money, right?
[15:17] SPEAKER_00: That's the transaction.
[15:19] SPEAKER_00: Now, the interesting thing is, as most entrepreneurs don't really know what their transactions
[15:22] SPEAKER_00: are. In fact, most business owners don't.
[15:24] SPEAKER_00: And that's why they're slowly spending time outside of their business and all of these other things.
[15:28] SPEAKER_00: But if you think about it, there's actually a variety of steps that need to occur
[15:33] SPEAKER_00: between the two of you in order for these things to transpire.
[15:37] SPEAKER_00: And now we can divide these into a variety of categories.
[15:39] SPEAKER_00: For example, tell how are people hearing about your business, the tell of your business,
[15:44] SPEAKER_00: right? The marketing, the word of mouth, all these things.
[15:46] SPEAKER_00: Sell.
[15:46] SPEAKER_00: How are people buying things from your business?
[15:48] SPEAKER_00: What do the agreements look like?
[15:50] SPEAKER_00: How are your accounts receivable?
[15:51] SPEAKER_00: How does the cash flow through the company?
[15:53] SPEAKER_00: How do they get what they're purchasing?
[15:56] SPEAKER_00: And lastly, service.
[15:57] SPEAKER_00: So tell, sell service is really about how this keeps them satisfied and comes back.
[16:03] SPEAKER_00: Now, you asked a little bit about this idea, well, how do you find balance and start kind of maybe
[16:08] SPEAKER_00: the term we almost want to use is making this more of a passive opportunity so that you actually are,
[16:14] SPEAKER_00: again, the conductor, you're not the worker.
[16:17] SPEAKER_00: Well, it really comes down to, well, we identify what these steps between are and then we look at how can I eliminate some of these or
[16:23] SPEAKER_00: delegate them or get other people to support that are higher.
[16:27] SPEAKER_00: And the more that we can kind of give away to others, well, the less we have to do, but we still receive the income.
[16:33] SPEAKER_00: And so if you look at it, this idea of working in your business versus on your business, it's almost like a continuum,
[16:39] SPEAKER_00: like a line, right?
[16:40] SPEAKER_00: The more that you can sort of get the support to take care of these things in the transaction, where you don't have to do them.
[16:45] SPEAKER_00: And really, you're now the leader who's kind of supervising or conducting again, these individuals,
[16:51] SPEAKER_00: the easier it is for you to kind of step away.
[16:53] SPEAKER_00: And that's where I don't know, not really in Calgary, but you can go and enjoy golfing or scuba diving or all these wonderful things that,
[17:00] SPEAKER_00: I don't know, we Calgary and envy and other people, right?
[17:04] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no kidding.
[17:05] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[17:06] SPEAKER_01: So Doug, what would you say the most common mistakes are
[17:12] SPEAKER_01: bionic partners that they make?
[17:13] SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah.
[17:14] SPEAKER_00: Number one is that they try to do everything themselves.
[17:16] SPEAKER_00: They become a jack of all trades, a master of none and pardon the expression, but it totally kills their business because
[17:20] SPEAKER_00: think about it.
[17:22] SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever gone to a network, like a networking event, and you've come in the room and said,
[17:26] SPEAKER_00: well, where are the losers I can do business with?
[17:28] SPEAKER_00: The people who are mediocre, the people who are average, where is somebody who's kind of got his plate overloaded with 10 different things?
[17:33] SPEAKER_00: Like nobody goes looking for some like that to do business with.
[17:36] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[17:36] SPEAKER_00: So these entrepreneurs who think they can do everything, they ultimately are really creating a very weak business for themselves.
[17:43] SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I'm actually graduated the Harvard Business School's entrepreneurship program.
[17:48] SPEAKER_00: And there was an interesting statistic that was given in there that I thought was interesting.
[17:51] SPEAKER_00: They said about solo-proners or self-employed people that they generally have the capacity, meaning the bandwidth, time, energy,
[17:58] SPEAKER_00: resources to serve effectively five people.
[18:01] SPEAKER_00: So in other words, you've got five customers that you can pretty much juggle pretty good.
[18:05] SPEAKER_00: But once you get number six, everybody has a problem because you just don't have that bandwidth anymore.
[18:10] SPEAKER_00: And so to juggle, you end up serving people at a lesser capacity.
[18:13] SPEAKER_00: So again, if you're trying to do everything by yourself, you immediately put a ceiling on yourself and you'll never exceed higher.
[18:20] SPEAKER_00: So the CRA actually recently, a couple of years pre-pandemic put out a stat that talked about the majority of small businesses and self-solar
[18:28] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneurs actually reach about a 200,000 K limit.
[18:31] SPEAKER_00: And that's the highest that they can go.
[18:33] SPEAKER_00: But as soon as people start kind of expanding beyond that to get a team, that's where we start seeing people who are now rising even up into the millions.
[18:40] SPEAKER_00: So it's a really big interesting mindset that people have, like, scarcity.
[18:44] SPEAKER_00: I got to hang on to this and I'm in charge, right?
[18:47] SPEAKER_00: The reality is you got to ask yourself, what would you rather have?
[18:49] SPEAKER_00: Like a whole grape or half a watermelon, right?
[18:53] SPEAKER_00: So get a team and it's going to be easier for you.
[18:55] SPEAKER_00: And like we've demonstrated here, you'll get your time back as well, right?
[18:59] SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
[19:00] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[19:00] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I guess that's the toughest thing, right?
[19:02] SPEAKER_01: Is learning to let go, you know, because you're the person that started everything, right?
[19:09] SPEAKER_01: You're the, you know, you planted the seed and so you want to see it grow.
[19:14] SPEAKER_01: And you want to be your hands on it, right?
[19:17] SPEAKER_00: Because the other thing, yeah, and the other thing that happens is I think people get this idea if I pass it to somebody else, they're going to do it wrong.
[19:24] SPEAKER_00: And they also get the idea that it's going to be expensive to hand it.
[19:26] SPEAKER_00: Somebody else will number one, this idea of handing it, somebody else being expensive as a total lie, right?
[19:30] SPEAKER_00: Like I'm not saying that you want to go and hire all your staff as VAs from the Philippines.
[19:35] SPEAKER_00: But if you want to start there just to try and see how it works, I mean, you can find people who are, you know, less than $300 a month that will help you, right?
[19:42] SPEAKER_00: So go try it.
[19:43] SPEAKER_00: But this idea of doing it perfect is really interesting.
[19:45] SPEAKER_00: I guess I always ask the people that we're coaching in our program, I said, do you do everything perfect?
[19:50] SPEAKER_00: Like in your business right now is everything that you do, is it perfect?
[19:54] SPEAKER_00: And they kind of shrugged from it and they're like, well, I guess I got to admit that it's not.
[19:58] SPEAKER_00: And I said, well, give me a number.
[19:59] SPEAKER_00: How often are you getting it perfect?
[20:01] SPEAKER_00: Like what would that look like?
[20:02] SPEAKER_00: And for most people, it's typically about 80 for some 70, some,
[20:07] SPEAKER_00: his eyes 90 depends on the task.
[20:09] SPEAKER_00: And so we say, listen, you know what, if you could delegate to somebody who would probably get it 70 to 80%,
[20:14] SPEAKER_00: but you'd get paid every time and you get all your time back, would you be willing to try that?
[20:17] SPEAKER_00: And the reality is, is why are they only getting it 70% right?
[20:21] SPEAKER_00: Well, let's be honest, a lot of it has to do with the training that you're giving them up front.
[20:25] SPEAKER_00: So it is your fault still, right?
[20:27] SPEAKER_00: It's interesting. I was talking with a friend of mine who is actually the regional present for all of
[20:33] SPEAKER_00: whole foods. In fact, he was in charge of 45 stores at one time.
[20:37] SPEAKER_00: And he and I earlier this week had this really cool discussion about leadership,
[20:40] SPEAKER_00: right? Like delegating and leadership.
[20:42] SPEAKER_00: And he said that generally when we give someone an outcome and we tell them to go ahead,
[20:47] SPEAKER_00: that can sometimes be their fault if it doesn't work out.
[20:50] SPEAKER_00: But if we give them a process and tell them what to do and micro-manage them,
[20:53] SPEAKER_00: then it's our fault because we didn't give them any options on how they could actually go about it.
[20:58] SPEAKER_00: And then he pointed out something interesting and I love this phrase.
[21:01] SPEAKER_00: It's that people make mistakes, processes fail.
[21:05] SPEAKER_00: And I think that's an interesting observation.
[21:07] SPEAKER_00: If we allow them to discover a process, they can improve upon something that we might be prejudiced
[21:12] SPEAKER_00: to think this is the only way. And one of my other friends, I thought this was interesting,
[21:16] SPEAKER_00: said this once. I think this is true for a lot of things. But he says,
[21:20] SPEAKER_00: whenever you say you believe something, you are immediately subscribing to a lie.
[21:24] SPEAKER_00: Because when you believe something that this is the only way, you've cut off all the other
[21:29] SPEAKER_00: possibilities. So how many ways are there to make a million dollars? Well, there's a million ways
[21:33] SPEAKER_00: to make a million dollars. But if you believe there's only one, you've all of a sudden cut off all
[21:37] SPEAKER_00: the other possibilities. There are some things that are always going to be true that are just
[21:43] SPEAKER_00: eternally true. They're always going to be fact. But there's a lot of things that we believe
[21:47] SPEAKER_00: that quite frankly, our way is not always the only way. Yeah, well, excellent. Well, thanks very much,
[21:53] SPEAKER_01: Doug, for joining us today. Oh, we had so much fun, Mario. You're awesome. I love it.
[21:57] SPEAKER_01: Well, okay. That was great. I really appreciate your time, Doug. That was Doug Vermeeran.
[22:03] SPEAKER_01: Got it right. Didn't I? Sure did. Every time.
[22:07] SPEAKER_01: Better than from that I've been with. Okay. He's a founder of Certified Entrepreneur,
[22:13] SPEAKER_01: Coach in Calgary. This has been it's sorry. This has been Calgary's podcast on Canada's podcast
[22:20] SPEAKER_01: network with Mario Toneguzi. Thanks for joining us today.