Nobody who drinks their own Kool-Aid survives in business

Well, I'm the one that's thrilled. I I appreciate you reaching out and it's wonderful to be on your show and hopefully we can make an impact together.

Well, it's a great question and credit to you for asking and especially for your listeners. I think there's just real opportunity ahead of us. Just like anything else, the timing must be good, the market conditions must be ripe. And when you recognize the forces of the economy and the movements that are making, not only in the United States, but but globally, you know, things move quickly. And there was a day and age where a consultant or a professional advice counsel giver Would try to help small, medium, large companies, but it took forever. And so the fractional opportunity is saying, let's react to it quickly, let's put the know-how behind it, and let's not deal with all the junk associated with narratives and long-winded things. Let's cut to the chase. How can we help? How do you make money? And can you solve my pain? immediately. And that's really where I think a lot of the fractional opportunity is going and it makes every good sense.

Yeah, thank you. Well, I as you mentioned, and thank you for that, my roots are in the hospitality sector, starting with my career with Marriott International. And of course, Marriott's global now across the world, as you know, a really fine corporation, you know, well known for taking great care of the customer, making well known for making money and being the best of the best. So that's the roots of it. Philosophically, when you start with a company like that and adapt the philosophy philosophy. Philosophies of the Marriottes of the world, the family, it evolves into what you believe in and carry with you as you transcend into other jobs and other opportunities. So, with that, this is where I think success can breed itself. If you adopt the philosophies of Bill and Alice Marriott and really understand that taking care of the associates who will end up taking care of the customer, and the customer will take care of the cash register. Is a very profound statement. But that's the reality. And so many of our small, medium, and large businesses today are not focused on the customer and satisfaction and employee satisfaction. And that's what's missing, and that's what create problems because the The company that's just saying I wanna get my net profits and I wanna sell out and move it, you know, they're just not gonna succeed. So if you wanna be the best of the best, then that's the only reason to be in business. You commit yourselves to certain values and those values are never Are never given up. It's not that they're non-negotiable. So, you know, in essence, that's that's where I'm at. As I transcended from Marriott, I still love the hospitality industry. And they play a key role globally and domestically in the service industry, from restaurants to private clubs to hotels to resorts. to you know inns, you know, small inns. So that's where I kind of hang my hat. I try to help entrepreneurs, h help small companies succeed. And third party wise, tell them the things that they don't want to hear. And that's what being objective and also being a polite contrarian can be very helpful to the wise owner or the wise manager.

Well well you really have to care and you can't be artificial and it has to be a longtime commitment. So you desperately care about what people think, what people do, and how they feel about their environment. And you have to seek out that information. And you have desire to have listening ears on. One of the nice management tools that we incorporated was called the proverbial rap session, RAP. We sit down, I take off the name name tag, they take off the name tag, and we're just people. And we need to be able the one that says, tell me how you're feeling, tell me about what you're going through, tell me about your family. Tell me what your criticisms are. Tell me about how we could get better. And you know, this sounds so easy, but seldom is it done because there's too much caught up in making money. It's too caught up in egos, and that has no place in running a successful business. The managers or the owners that don't want to listen to the contrarian or the voice that doesn't agree with them. Is a loser. And that's where shift change. I desperately want to listen and I want to learn and I gr want to grow. And I don't care how old you are. You could be 108 years old like me, or you can be a young person. You still want to be able to always be in tune with the people that are working with you. And family is easy to talk about, but it has to be committed to because you want to really instill a family atmosphere, a family culture.

No.

Well, I think that I think the largest one is controlling your PL statement and making sure your financials are in order. and you really have a budget process that's really, really in sync. You know your margins, you know how many hours you're budgeting by category, by position, and you in essence know what you're doing. You know, the classic statement, if you don't know where you're going, all roads will get you there. And that's not where you want to be in small business. You want to know if we get up every morning and know where I'm going and what we're about to accomplish. So if you don't have a strategic plan, if you don't have your financials in order, and if you aren't studying all of those key components on a daily basis, you're gonna lose sight of what's important. In the end of the day, it's the controllables that you're controlling, and it's the things that come up. That you're taking a long look at, and you have a budget process, you have a forecasting process, and you're analyzing your labor cost, in my case, food and beverage cost, across the board, rooms cost, overhead cost, you know where you are all the time. Because once you have a control of your financials, that dictates the course of action. Because that's where you get in the problem solutions business. And therefore you're not finding yourself like, my gosh, my gosh, we're not making it. I'll not cutting it. So you got you need to incorporate that and you have to be involved in the community. You have to understand who your competition is, and you can't let the business tear you down. It's you y I get, you know, the it often comes up, well, I c I I'm too busy, I can never get out. Well, that's going to come back to haunt you. Because if you're not engaged in the community and you're not active in the community, and you're not engaged with your even your competitors, you're losing sight. So operating on four wheels and knowing where you're going, it's like, well, that sounds pretty easy. But it doesn't get done. And that's why you see bankruptcies, that's why you see it consultants coming into play, because you just lose sight of it. You know, I want to in the restaurant business, we have owners that just say, you know, I want to go around shake hands with people and just, you know, I own this place and I'm a big deal and you know, let me buy you a drink. It's like, really? That's not what it's all about. It's about taking care of your people and it's also about making money. And that's not how you behave when you're an operator.

Well, it's a great question that you ask, and it's very profound that you would even look at it that way, which is a again credit to you. it comes about because as you develop a stro a strategic plan and you have stakeholders involved in in my vernacular, I call them champions for the cause, you're laying out that roadmap that I l alluded to before. And once that strategic plan is is put together. You've established directional priorities that coincide with the goal. And you know what one, two, three, four, or five, those are my marching orders, those are my priorities. And as you go about that, you'll learn very quickly that consensus building and cultivating these champions for the cause is the key to success. So if you want to build a billion-dollar project, or if you wanna build a half a million project, You're in the sales business. You have to begin to say private sector, public sector partnerships are the key to the war chest. So is that local mayor need to be involved? Yes. Does parliament need to be involved? Yes. Does Congress need to be involved? State officials? So the partnership is built based upon consensus. And once you have consensus, everything comes easier. You know, because then yeah, we're gonna have to raise, you know, a half a billion dollars. How do we do that? Well, you have another strategic planning session. You're spending a lot of time cultivating people like, well, if we increase food and beverage tax, how would you all feel about it? You know? So we're selling benefits. In America, what's going on across the world is investments in in data plants. You know, should people involve invest in data? Well, what if you don't? Well, we heard long and hard for the last month that we're only, you know, a footstep ahead of China. And so if we don't give up on that and if we don't commit ourselves to the inevitable, you either decide you're gonna lead or you're gonna follow. Proper group is about meeting with people and saying, We wanna lead. If you wanna be a follower, we're probably not the firm for you. But if you want to lead, great.

Here's the deal, we'll be able to help. And mind you, help. We're not the doctor, we don't make the cure happen. We're the ones who get the individuals to see the vision and then commit to the vision and we're a partner in their success.

What do you like? What excuse me, what do I take? You mean cost?

Well, the common the commonalities is the ones that cross the board that, you know, you think you're doing well, but you don't. You aren't in tune with your employees and you have a morale issue. You're the owner of a business and you're the architect of the business and you've been successful for fifteen years. But all of a sudden you've taken the foot off the pedal and you've forgotten. And you're not talking to your people anymore, you're not engaged in the business. And you know what you find out? That 75% of the workforce is pissed off. They're not enjoying what they're doing. Where are you? I'm playing golf. I'm up doing rugby. I don't know what you're doing. But you're not engaged anymore. So I think that I think the I think self is very destructive. Ego is very destructive. And once you start drinking your own Kool-Aid, destructive. you know, that's the problem. When you start believing you're bigger than you think you are and believing your own headlines, you know, it tumbles or you get taken over. And so every day, a game. If you're a rugby player or if you're in soccer, man, if you want to be in the World Cup, it's like, man, I gotta perform. I gotta perform. And that's why some of these, you know, you take the the biggest stars in in soccer, they perform, but they're out there all the time. So, you know, these things sound, you know, maybe simple, but in execution they're not. And that's why it's helpful to come come in to have a third party, like the proper group say, we're not here to stroke your ego. We're not here to make you feel good. We're here to tell you the way it is. And after we get done interviewing your employees and your customers, we're going to tell you what they think. And most often it's not what you think. And so your business can turn around if you get back to the basics. You want to be in a position where I know where I'm going, I'm taking the right road, and I know I'm going to stay on that road.

Well, I I think I made a lot of mistakes. you know, I I did nine hotels with Marriott. Number one, I would have never transferred that many times. You know, transferring takes, you know, a lot out of you. And I think getting cemented into a a a city where you have relationships as time goes by and life becomes more and more significant. if you want to be a mercenary. and just go from, you know, or an I or an itinerant pastor going from site to site. You know, it may be productive for the short term, but the long term, it is about relationships. So number one, I probably wouldn't have accepted. I wouldn't have my kids accept many transfers. I'd play I'd wait it out and become part of something bigger than yourself. Number two is I would have studied more about financials. And really cause I'm a sales guy and I'm a manager, but I think really really understanding, you know, money and how it's used more so than just generating revenue, bringing it to the bottom line, but how private equity firms work. How does, you know, EBITDA numbers really impact the bottom line? You know, what is your take home? What kind of margins? So I would have spent more time understanding financials. I think I have a pretty good grip on it now. But like I said, I'm 108 years old. So my time is gone. I'm not really 108. but so I would No, I hope And then you know I think I think the rest of I think the rest of it is say, man, it's a changing world.

I mean it's crazy. The w the conventional ways you used to do things. I think you have to outreach to people like yourself who are young, you know, brilliant, and they have answers that it's like, man, I didn't first of all I didn't even know that stuff was available. You know, all the software programs coming out, all the artificial intelligence, or now Donald Trump wants to call it S one. it's it this is this is something that keeping on your toes is important because You don't want to become a relic. And to stay relevant takes work. It does. You know, I it it does for me. I mean, I'm not naturally a tech guy, but I have to I'm committed to trying to learn as much as I can and then be smart enough to say, man, I don't even know this stuff. I gotta find somebody that does. I go on, but that gives you enough stuff.

Well, we want to keep the t we want to create you know, the proper group going. And so, you know, we want to help people. You know, what do I want to do at this stage of life? And one day, believe it or not, you'll enter the fourth quarter of your career. That's a heck of a long time from now, but you will end up in the fourth quarter. And when you get to that fourth quarter, you have a whole bunch of wisdom that you've acquired through trial and error. And the greatest teachers that ever changes and chisels you is from what you failed in, not what you succeed. I can't remember really my successes. I you know, I was just yeah, I did some nice things. But I remember my failures. And my failures shaped me. and rounded me. And I said, so what's next is saying, well, this is the my fourth quarter. So I hope that I can help a small company. I hope that I can help mentor, you know, young people to be excellent at what they do. And I think fundamentally they need it because the work ethic is missing. the quick fix is running rampant. And you have to get back to values. And if we lose sight of the values not only in our homeland, but values in the workplace, it's gonna be hell to pay. And so that's what it is. The successful coaches, be it soccer, American football, NBA, they're always getting back to their values. What is important and makes us win. And I think my final point is you have to be able to know how to lose together. It's not so important you know how to win together, but it's how do you lose together. And that's where the rubber meets the road. In business, we're loosing. How do we hang together? Or do all of a sudden everybody go their way and abandon ship? So if you want to build a strong team. You'd build it around those values and be prepared when you lose. You're not gonna have donkeys, you're gonna have people that wanna keep forward. In my my day, they were called blue chippers. They're people with great attitudes, they want to go for it, and you rally around those type of folks.

The best way? we we you're in a different country, but here'd be like make your nine one one call, which is you know emergency services. So the emergency service that I offer would be contacting me by email, Dave N at the proper dot group, my phone number four eight zero three four zero one nine eight. Or just yell really loud and I'll try to put on my listening ears and I'll see if I can track them down.

Well, it i credit goes to you. And you're smart enough, you're young enough that you got the whole world ahead of you, and you're starting off really, really well by asking great questions, setting people up for success, and continue to drive forward. And that's a credit to you. So, you know, I applaud you on what you're doing, what you're trying to achieve. You're gonna be successful. I gotta already see it, and you make the most of it and go get