Nov. 19, 2025

Put to the Test: Rising Above Adversity with Derrick Girard

Put to the Test: Rising Above Adversity with Derrick Girard
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This week, we dive into a candid conversation with Derrick Girard, former financial advisor turned tech entrepreneur, author of Put to the Test, and speaker.

He shares his powerful journey navigating lawsuits, scaling a business, and embracing a “Figure It Out” mindset. 

Derrick discusses how:

  • Personal responsibility and relentless problem-solving fuel entrepreneurial success
  • Facing three lawsuits simultaneously became a catalyst for growth and resilience
  • Building solutions by deeply understanding customer pain points differentiates you in the market
  • Instant responsiveness and rapid iteration empower business agility and client trust
  • Leaders must prioritize asking meaningful questions and truly listening to their teams
  • The path to leadership involves continuous learning, humility, and embracing discomfort
  • Effective entrepreneurs focus on solving problems, not just chasing the title of entrepreneur
Whether you’re launching your first startup or refining your leadership approach, this episode offers inspiring models and actionable strategies to figure it out and lead boldly.

Resources Mentioned:
  • Put to the Test: When Life Demands More, Will You Make Excuses or Figure It Out? - https://www.amazon.com/Put-Test-demands-excuses-figure/dp/196619059X
  • Website and contact: https://derrickgirard.com
WEBVTT

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This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better

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More at Teechbetter dot com slash podcast.

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I don't care what the problem is. We have to

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find a solution one way or the other. I was

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the user of the product. Again, I solved the problem

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that I solve for myself. Whatever it is you're dealing with,

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an excuse doesn't solve the problem. The problem still exists.

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We have to solve the problem.

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Do you want to be a leader in a constantly

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changing world? Our emerging leaders look different, come from various

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backgrounds and from all different age groups. Leadership is changing

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and it's hard to keep up. But the good news

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you can be a leader too. You can be an

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e merging leader. Welcome to the Limitless Leadership louanch A

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try generational conversation for emerging leaders.

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Come spend some.

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Time with us to discuss leadership from three angles. The coach,

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Jim Johnson, the Professor, Numah Kareem, the host, John Gering,

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a monthly guest, and you get in on the conversation

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on Facebook and Instagram, and be sure to follow us

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on Apple podcasts, Spotify and Speaker. So come on in

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and make yourself comfortable.

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Our debt today is unscripted. He's loose and he's a

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lot of fun. We're excited to welcome in Derek Gerard

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on the Limitless Leadership Lounge. I'm John Gerring. Joint is

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Always by doctor Numa Kareem, Coach Jim Johnson, and today's

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conversation we know will benefit you as a young and

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emerging leader. Whether you're a leader of a business, an organization,

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maybe a leader in the educational world, or just a

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leader in your community or in your family. This is

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for you. So Coach, go ahead and introduce Derek. Let's

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dive in today. Yeah.

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Absolutely.

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I got a chance to get connected through one of

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our connections, and I get a chance to talk to Derek,

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and he's got some fascinating stories. I know he's going

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to be able to share with us. So let me

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just give you a little bit of background. Derek Gerard

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is a former finance advisor turned tech entrepreneur. He founded

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the my rep chat to solve a real problem in

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the industry, skilled it with all the sales team, and

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landed major financial firms nationwide. Despite facing three lawsuits at once, which.

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I'm sure we're going to delve a little bit into.

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From an investor, a competitor, even a family member. He

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fought through and won and ultimately sold the company in

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twenty twenty three. Now he helps others embrace what he

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calls the FIO to figure it out, mindset to the

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key to navigating obstacles and building something to the last.

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And he also is a speaker, and he's the author

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of put to the Test. When life demands more, will

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you make excuses or figure it out without further ado

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Derek Gerard, Welcome to the Limitless Leadership Lounge.

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Thank you for having me that. It was a great introduction.

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I appreciate that.

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Yeah, absolutely, I got to ask you. I did get

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a chance to talk to you, but we got to

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share this to the audience. So tell us a little

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bit about your journey from financial advisor to being a

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tech entrepreneur and that certainly we've got to add a

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little spice to it with maybe a little bit about

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the lawsuits.

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Yeah, yeah, it was. It certainly wasn't planned. It certainly

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wasn't intentional. I never had any desires to do that.

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It was accidental. So I found myself in this unique position.

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I worked generally with retired people and people that are

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hearing retirement, and I found myself in this position where

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my clients kept texting me. And back then in twenty sixteen,

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this would have been it was against the rules, against

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the regulations to communicate through texts. You weren't allowed to

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do it, and so all the different requirements in order

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to have written communications couldn't be met through a text

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message at that point. And so I went to my

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compliance officer and said, hey, there's got to be a

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solution to this problem. What do I do? When my

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compliance officer said, there isn't, so you just cannot do it.

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So I told my clients I can't text, it's against

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the rules. Don't communicate through text with me. We have

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to use email or phone call. And what I learned

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was that my clients didn't really care. This is how

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they chose to communicate, so they just kept texting. And

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so figure it out to me is it's one of

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those things that I think a lot of people say

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that sometimes when it means not my problem, Like when

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you hear that word use or that phrase us, or

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like you figure it out what that means is not

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my problem. To me, I felt like, this is my problem.

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I have to solve this otherwise I'm going to break

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all these rules and get in trouble. And so I

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just started on this journey of asking questions. I just

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wanted to know how to solve this problem. What was

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the regulations, what was the problem, what was the challenges,

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what was getting in the way. And that ultimately led

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me to my uncle, who was a computer programmer, and

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I said, Hey, this is what I want to build.

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If I tell you what to build, can you build it?

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And he said, yes, I can do that, and we

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were just off to the races from that point on.

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And then I started showing it and sharing it with

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other people because I knew the industry was looking for it.

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And when I started showing it and sharing it with

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everybody else, I realized, Holy cow, this isn't a solution

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just for me. This is a solution everybody wants. And

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that's one from this really cool idea to something much bigger.

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And that's where I ended up as the founder of

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a tech company.

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And I think I resonate with you on figuring it out,

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because everybody tells me that I am crazy, like leaving

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my full time job and then starting my own nonprofit.

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Then I'm planning for another startup company, and I was like,

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I will figure it out. Everybody keep telling me you

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don't have the experience in the business world. I will

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figure it out. And there are so many tools. But

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one thing I have realized that crisis and chaos gives

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opportunity to learn and grow. So I have learned so

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much from I started a school and there was like

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this lady who took control of my school. Then I

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have a lawsuit and all those kinds of things, and

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now I'm learning what to do and what not to do.

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So from your point of view, how do you see,

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how did the crisis help you to grow? What are

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some is that you learn from these crisis.

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It's the biggest crisis obviously, was the lawsuits. Feeling like

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we were hitting this point where I knew the trajectory

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of the company. I knew it was going to take

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a little bit of time. The financial services industry is

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very slow to adapt new things, and so I knew

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I had to get the name out there. I knew

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I had to get the solution out there. But I

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also knew it was going to take time, and the

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pendulum started swinging. Were not only were we landing real

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substantial clients, we were landing the biggest fish in the pond,

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like the big ones were coming to us. And it

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was right at that point when everything went sideways. And

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so for me, it was a test ultimately of can

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I actually do what I preach and can I do

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what I believe firmly in my heart. But the also

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the other thing was, and I said this to my

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son the other day, it was an opportunity for me

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to prove how much I enjoyed learning, which is weird, right.

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I wasn't the greatest students in high school. My son's

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in high school. And he said to me the other day, Dad,

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I feel like now I'm actually enjoying learning. And he

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said it like this was an epiphany. And I said,

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I'm glad you figured that out in high school. I

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didn't figure that out till college, right, that I actually

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enjoyed learning. And so that crisis, that chaos, it was

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just this moment of I can either step up and

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do what I believe is right and learn and educate myself,

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or I can just shut down. And I think a

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lot of people do because that scares them and they

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don't know what to do, so they crawl back into

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what feels comfortable. And so for me that was, like

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I say to everybody else, when these lawsuits hit, I

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became a law student. And it sounds crazy, but I

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just paid three different lawsuits in three different areas. All

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I did, on top of running the business, I barely slept.

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All I did was just study the law. I had

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to know everything that was going on, so I wasn't

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just being surprised day in and day out.

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Yeah, he became a student of it. And that's what

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we all have to do in leadership. Now, going back

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further a little bit, because some call you an accidental entrepreneur.

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You found a problem and you solved it. But I

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would argue that there has to be mindsets and processes

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in place that you had before you came across this

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problem and became an entrepreneur. Is there even such a

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thing as an accidental entrepreneur? What mindsets did you establish

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throughout your career before finding a solution to that problem.

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So many things you just said there that I'm so

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excited to touch on. The First thing is I love

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speaking on college campuses and getting in front of students,

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and I love getting in front of entrepreneurial students and

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students because there's now degrees, there's majors for entrepreneurship, which

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I think is really interesting. What I've found in my

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experience is that most entrepreneurs don't start off and don't

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set out to be an entrepreneur. Most of them are

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just problem solvers. And so it's in my experience I've

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met students before that have said, look, we want to

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be an entrepreneur. We're going to start a company to

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do this, and I go, great, walk me through why that?

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And they go, we don't know what's the market for it.

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We're hoping to figure it out. What's the need? I

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don't know, So in their mind like, we're going to

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be an entrepreneur, and then we work our way back

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to the problem. And I think most really great entrepreneurs

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and products and success story start with the problem and

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then you become the entrepreneur, right and you just find

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yourself fitting in that bucket. And so I never really

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had this idea that I'm going to be an entrepreneur.

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Previous in my career, I was given the opportunity to

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run my own firm and step out and be that

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entrepreneur and I failed. And I talk about this in

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the book. Perspective is massive, right, It's so important to

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have that perspective to know what I did wrong, so

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I know how to get it right. And I think

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a lot of people that crushes them as well. So

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it wasn't that I was an accidental entrepreneur. I never

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saw myself going into the tech space, but I always

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saw myself and I have been my entire life a

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problem solver. So when there's a problem, I firmly believe

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excuses don't solve problems, so I don't care what the

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problem is. We have to find a solution one way

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or the other. And in this case, it just led

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me to being the creator of a problem in a

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company that solved the problem.

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Very cool, Derek, you said you like to speak to

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college students, so let's delve into it because obviously with

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the Limitless Leadership Lounge and we want to help young

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in emergent leaders can use the zero down to if

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you were helping young college students, and not necessarily all

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college students are young, but most of them are. Is

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that what advice would you give them on how to

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be a more effective leader.

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The biggest thing that I say all the time is listen,

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ask questions, and listen all of your I firmly believe

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this in life and in business and in leadership. All

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of your answers are in your questions, not your statements.

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And so many people, especially young people, who in my experience,

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again I was the same way, So I'm not blasting

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somebody else. I was the same way. I think young

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people that get to a position of authority or management

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or leadership, they think the title means something, and the

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reality is that the title doesn't. It's how you behave,

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it's how you interact, it's how you ask questions. The

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greatest leaders in the world don't have the answers, but

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they know how to engage the audience and ask the

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right questions and empower people. And so I think, especially

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when people are young, they get real sort of power

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hungry and title hungry, and they realize it really doesn't

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make you a good leader. In fact, it can do

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the opposite really fast. Again, I learned that the hard way, right.

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I came out of the military and went into leadership

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in the civilian world, and I had to learn in

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real time that military style leadership doesn't work in the

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civilian world. Right, So all these different lessons you learn

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as you grow and you develop. That was really important

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to me. So my advice to anybody is college students

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are young leaders or even experienced leaders. If you find

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yourself not being as effective as you want, stop and

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reflect and find out. Am I asking more questions that

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I'm making statements? Am I engaging people? Am I letting

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people talk most of the time. The answer is no,

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it's you're just not You're not doing that as well

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as you should be. And that's the difference between either

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being not very good and good or being good. The

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great is and you ask really good questions and listen.

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Yeah, we've had whole episodes on that, on military leadership

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versus other tellings. The leadership is a fascinating topic.

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And the military I can tell you what to do.

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You can't talk back, you can't leave, you have to

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do it. In the civilian world, I come down to

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you too hard. You just disappear because you leave, you

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find a new and so it just doesn't work.

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But I love some aspect of the military leadership because

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the discipline I think that is what lacking in the

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real world. So a lot of the discipline of time management,

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talking to people, respecting others. I think those are some

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tools that we can really assimilate into the civilian world.

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And those are the things that I like to teach

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my volunteers and my students, Like discipline is one thing

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that will give you the edge. So from your point

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of view, I have seen and you are so right

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that nowadays, and I think this is a different generation

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as well, because they are digital natives while we were immigrants.

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So the digital worlds you mentioned that texting was like

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everything has to be emailed. Nowadays, when I'm dealing with

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the younger generation Gen zs, they only want to have

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let's create a WhatsApp group texting. They do not want

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to email, send everything through texts. So that has been

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the norm and I had to adjust and adapt to

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those changes. So from your point of view, how do

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we combine those elements of military type of leadership and

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also the usual real life leadership to create that path

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of effective leader leadership technique? Any ideas that you are practicing.

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Yeah, I'll give you an example. There's an organization I'm

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working with now that over the years they've had their

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leadership is hair, brain, ideas, new ideas. We're going to

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implement this, and they get so excited, they get so

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gung ho. They tell everybody, here's what we're going to do.

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It's going to be different, it's going to be revolutionary.

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All going to love it. It's going to change everything.

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And at the end of the day, what ends up

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happening is nothing changes. In fact, it goes the other

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way because when nothing changes, the people stop believing in

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the leadership's statements, that their exuberance and all that stuff

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just goes down. They go, yeah, we've tried this before,

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We've tried this, we've tried this. And so when I

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was brought in, one of the things that I've been

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doing is I've spent a ton of time interviewing everybody here,

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just picking their brain, asking a million questions and saying

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very few things. And as I went and I rolled

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out to them that the changes that need to be

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made in the structure and the processes for how things

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are being done so they can systematize and scale. And

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had one gentleman say to me, why aren't you just

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coming in and telling us what we have to do?

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Just come in and tell us. And I just when

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he said it to me, it took me back, and

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I went, has that strategy worked yet in this organization?

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And he said no, And I went, so, why would

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you ask me to do that again? All I'm doing

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is asking questions. I could tell them I think you're wrong,

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but instead I want him to tell me. And so

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I was just trying to get him to understand, and

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then he finally realized what I was doing was I'm

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engaging everybody here so we can collectively get on the

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same page and we're all moving forward in the same direction.

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I said to somebody the other day. They said, this

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is a big uphill battle, and I went, yeah, I

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just need people to help remove obstacles and stop putting

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them in the way. But yes, it's still an uphill battle.

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It doesn't need to be any harder than it already is.

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So can I just interject, because I'm wike with you that,

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in fact, I kid people that I think effective leaders

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are the CQA, the chief question askers, but I'm always

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looking for can you give us just a couple examples

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of some of the questions you use, because I think

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it's fascinating I.

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Use a very interesting acronym and I write this down

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if I'm going to go into a discussion DGFRT. And

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one of the things that I always try to do

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in that acronym is the first it stands for define.

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I want to know everything. Tell me what this means

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to you, Tell me what success is, tell me what

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you like, tell me what you don't like. I want

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to know as much as I can define for me

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the world that we live in, what it is that

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I need to know. And then going is the g

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Tell me what's going towards this and tell me what's

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going against it. Tell me everything that's working, tell me

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everything that's getting in the way. So I want to

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know everything about what we're trying to accomplish and where

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we're going. And then I want to know what's working

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and what's not working, everything we have going for us

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and going against us. And then I want to know feel.

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So the next thing is feel. How do you feel

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about the progress, how do you feel about the momentum,

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how do you feel about what's been tried and what's failed?

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And how do you feel about the turnover people that

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have left or people that have been brought on I

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want to know everything about it and then recap. Let

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me tell you what I think I heard, so I've

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defined it. You tell me what you have going for,

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You tell me how you feel, and I'm going to

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repeat back to you what I think I've heard. And

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I always say that I'm going to repeat back to

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you what I think I've heard. So tell me if

351
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I'm missing something or if I said I'm catching something wrong,

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or I'm missing it completely. Most of the time I'm not.

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And then the last thing I do is tie in.

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Let me tell you how I I think I can help,

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and I'd love your feedback on that, right, And then

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at the end of the day, you do that in

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a conversation. It is amazing. They're sitting there going, yeah,

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you hurt me correctly, you understand how I feel. You

359
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repeated it back to me, and you've painted the vision

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for how we're going to do this thing moving forward.

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And now when I ask them for your help, can

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you help me in these areas as we do this.

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Can you be a champion in this area when we're

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trying to get over this hurdle or this hump. Can

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you help me engage this team? They never say No,

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they're excited now that it's not just me telling them

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what we're going to do, but they were engaged in

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the entire process. That's great. Thank you for sharing that.

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So I've been asked over the years many times, can

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you tell me the questions? I never give the questions

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out because I don't know what they are. And I

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don't want people to use a script because scripts become

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just mindless answers without people even understanding what they're writing.

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I just want to use a framework. Let's just use

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the framework as we guide the conversation. And if I'm

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doing it right and I ask really good follow up questions,

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we'll have a really good conversation.

378
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Now, Derek, you went from a trained in financial services, right,

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trained in that area too. Now you run a business

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and you have to be a salesperson, you have to

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be an account manager, you have to be marketing all

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of those roles, and you were able to scale that

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without a huge team. Now, tell us a little bit

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about how you did that, even in a non traditional way.

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The most important thing, and I say this all the time,

386
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and I certainly didn't create this phrase. This was said

387
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to me many years ago, was and I repeat this

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constantly is I never let the tail wag the dog

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when I when I was selling the company, so many

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people would say to me, how did you build this

391
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thing and land all of these massive clients? What makes

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you so different than the competition that's out there? And

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that was always my answers. I never let the tailwag

394
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the dog. I was the user of the product. Again,

395
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I solved the problem that I saw for myself, and

396
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so I was the advisor. I was also the compliance officer.

397
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I was licensed to do both, and so I understood

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both sides of the equation. What compliance needs to see

399
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and what the advisor wants to see. All of my competition,

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everybody that I competed with regularly out there in the marketplace,

401
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eventually when there was more, they were all built and

402
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developed by engineers. And there's nothing wrong with the engineer.

403
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But the engineer doesn't know what I went through as

404
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an advisor. They don't know what the compliance officer goes to.

405
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They just know how to write the product and build

406
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the tool. So the difference was I gave the instruction

407
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and the guidance to the engineers, and they built what

408
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I asked them to build. All these are the companies

409
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that I competed with. Every time you'd see it, you go,

410
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does this person even know what we do as an advisor?

411
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Do they even know what we're looking for? And the

412
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answer is no, they don't. And so it was just

413
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built completely different. So how I did it was that

414
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was the foundation. I knew the audience. I knew they

415
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were going to be very difficult. I knew they were

416
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going to be very stubborn, They're going to want certain things,

417
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and we built it with that in mind. The next

418
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thing we did, and the reason we could do it

419
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without a sales team, was I listened to the users,

420
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and so everybody knew when there's something you liked or

421
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didn't like, I want to know. I personally want to know.

422
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Tell me, and so if it's not right, then you know, darn,

423
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I'm gonna make sure it's right nine six months, not

424
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nine months, not in twelve months. There was sometimes John,

425
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and this is no joke. I was talking to an

426
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advisor one time who used a CRM that I had

427
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never heard of, and as I'm talking to him, I

428
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sent a message to my engineer and I said, how

429
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long would it take to build the integration with this

430
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CRM and no joke. Before the thirty minute demo was done,

431
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I told the guy on the other end of the phone,

432
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can you please refresh your screen? And it was there. Wow,

433
00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.680
it was that fast. That's just how that's how we

434
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did things. So my team was they were so good

435
00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:54.759
at what they did. They knew we were small, they

436
00:20:54.839 --> 00:20:57.240
knew we were nimble, but they also knew that I

437
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didn't like to drag my feet because our customers did

438
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want to wait, and we just didn't do it that way.

439
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:05.079
Yeah. Yeah, I got to say that I'm a big

440
00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:08.200
fan of the Ed Mylette podcast and his books and everything,

441
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and one thing that he often talks about is immediate,

442
00:21:11.079 --> 00:21:14.200
massive action. And that's what that sounds like. So often

443
00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:17.279
we're trying to wait for the right moment until everything's

444
00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:20.160
just exactly right before we release something, but then we've

445
00:21:20.200 --> 00:21:23.160
already blown our opportunity and missed our windows. So that

446
00:21:23.400 --> 00:21:25.480
sounds like that's the same mindset that you take.

447
00:21:25.920 --> 00:21:28.119
Yeah, we had some companies say what is your cadence

448
00:21:28.200 --> 00:21:30.079
for making updates? Is it once a month? Is it

449
00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:32.839
once a quarter? And I went, no, it's six times

450
00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:36.880
a day. We were my engineers as we were making updates.

451
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We didn't wait. We updated them, We threw them on

452
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our test environment, we verified, made sure everything worked correctly.

453
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Then we pushed it out so people could see these

454
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things changing and updating really fast. And so they knew

455
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we were listening. And they always knew how to get

456
00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:53.079
a hold of me. So if they felt like somebody

457
00:21:53.079 --> 00:21:55.079
else wasn't listening, they knew how to call me. Every

458
00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:57.000
minute of the day, they could get a hold of

459
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me and know that I was listening. And to me,

460
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that matter reason why when somebody went from one firm

461
00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:06.079
to another where my product wasn't approved, That's why I

462
00:22:06.119 --> 00:22:08.160
didn't need a sales team, because they got there and

463
00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:10.200
they said, I'm not moving unless I can use this

464
00:22:10.319 --> 00:22:12.880
tool in the company. What is this tool? And they

465
00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:14.920
will call me to go Apparently we need you here.

466
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And that was it.

467
00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:22.039
Derek, your book put to the test. When life demands more,

468
00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:26.119
will you make excuses or figure it out? Can you share?

469
00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:29.240
Give us a teaser of the book, Share one compelling

470
00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:32.440
story from the book, a lesson you learned from it.

471
00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:35.640
The book is a I didn't want to write the

472
00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:38.480
book completely about the tech business and going through these

473
00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:40.599
lawsuits because I don't know if people would find that

474
00:22:40.759 --> 00:22:43.559
unbelievably intriguing. So I opened up a lot in the

475
00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:45.519
book about the way I was raised, and I grew

476
00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:47.839
up in a military family. I went all over as

477
00:22:47.880 --> 00:22:51.880
a kid. Change was constant for me. The ability to

478
00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:54.720
make excuses was always presented to be on a silver platter.

479
00:22:54.839 --> 00:22:56.759
If I wanted them, they were there, and they were

480
00:22:56.759 --> 00:22:59.799
generally accepted. I think most people can find that. So

481
00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:02.200
I also share a lot of personal stories, a lot

482
00:23:02.200 --> 00:23:04.359
of things that I've been through that it's just very

483
00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:08.119
real successes and setbacks and that sort of thing. One

484
00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:10.400
of the stories that I put in there is, and

485
00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:13.119
I mentioned this already, the first time I was given

486
00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:15.720
the opportunity to run my own firm, my own agency,

487
00:23:16.359 --> 00:23:18.559
I was twenty nine years old. I was the youngest

488
00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:21.160
person to ever beget to be given this opportunity within

489
00:23:21.400 --> 00:23:25.839
this particular organization, and it was amazing to me. I

490
00:23:25.960 --> 00:23:29.640
was so confident, and my self confidence is a terrible

491
00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:33.720
substitution for self awareness, and I learned that. And I

492
00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:36.200
remember getting into this role going I can do this,

493
00:23:36.279 --> 00:23:38.680
I got this, and then I get there and realize

494
00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:41.720
what am I doing? I don't even know who to

495
00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:44.640
turn to. I'm now in charge, I don't know who

496
00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:47.240
to turn to. And I realized really quick I was

497
00:23:47.279 --> 00:23:49.960
completely unprepared for this. And so one of the things

498
00:23:49.960 --> 00:23:53.680
that I talk about in this example is success is

499
00:23:53.759 --> 00:23:55.359
stairs all the way to the top. It's not an

500
00:23:55.400 --> 00:23:57.960
elevator ride, and you don't get to skip stairs. And

501
00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:01.880
I was given the opportunity to skip a floor, skip

502
00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:04.880
two floors. Right. I was literally given something that was

503
00:24:04.920 --> 00:24:08.240
so far above where I actually was that at the

504
00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:10.119
end of the day, after a few years, I was

505
00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:13.559
brought back down to reality to hit those steps. And

506
00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:15.799
in one way I can look at and go, that

507
00:24:15.880 --> 00:24:18.240
was a failure, right, I didn't accomplish what I set

508
00:24:18.279 --> 00:24:20.839
out to accomplish. And the other side of things, it

509
00:24:20.880 --> 00:24:23.519
was the greatest success I've ever had in my life

510
00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:26.759
because I learned so much from that. And that's one

511
00:24:26.759 --> 00:24:28.400
of the things that I'm working on with this company

512
00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:31.480
now and helping them is this leader is struggling with

513
00:24:31.559 --> 00:24:34.079
certain things, and I just shared with them the other day,

514
00:24:34.559 --> 00:24:37.160
You're literally where I was the first time I went

515
00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:40.640
through my journey of trying to lead an organization. You're

516
00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:43.599
making the same mistakes I made. You're going through the

517
00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:46.839
same growing pains I went through. It's not that you're

518
00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:49.079
doing it wrong, trust me. This is part of the process.

519
00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:51.599
These are part of the stairs. The difference is you

520
00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:53.599
got me here who's been there, and I'm here to

521
00:24:53.640 --> 00:24:55.680
help you. I didn't have that. I didn't know who

522
00:24:55.680 --> 00:24:58.000
to turn to, so nobody could help me figure that out.

523
00:24:58.079 --> 00:24:59.880
And that to me matters a lot.

524
00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:04.480
Yeah, and you see so many young people trying to

525
00:25:04.519 --> 00:25:07.599
take the shortcut to success, and I keep telling that

526
00:25:07.720 --> 00:25:10.440
there is no shortcut, then you will if you go

527
00:25:10.559 --> 00:25:14.480
too fast in that position, you will fall and you

528
00:25:14.519 --> 00:25:17.680
have to learn your lesson and this and we see

529
00:25:17.720 --> 00:25:22.079
this scenario in the global startup industry. So many ninety

530
00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:25.440
there's a ninety person of the startups are failing. So

531
00:25:25.640 --> 00:25:28.680
ten persons fail within the first year, and there's seventy

532
00:25:28.759 --> 00:25:32.319
person fail withinto two to five years. And I've observed

533
00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:35.680
many young people in Bangladesh also they get million dollar

534
00:25:35.880 --> 00:25:39.200
seed money and they waste it on in a like

535
00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:43.240
a Google like environment, overhead cost and all these kind

536
00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:46.160
of stuff, and within two to three years they just collapse.

537
00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:49.759
So what would be some of your advice to those

538
00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:53.960
young startup leaders? They have the idea, but they're in

539
00:25:54.039 --> 00:25:59.519
their twenties or early thirties, might not have some those experiences,

540
00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:01.359
but they had the idea and they got the seed

541
00:26:01.400 --> 00:26:04.599
money and now starting a startup. But what are some

542
00:26:04.759 --> 00:26:07.200
advice that you might want to share.

543
00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:10.119
Yeah, this other organization that I'm working with, one of

544
00:26:10.119 --> 00:26:12.559
the things that's interesting is they're looking to raise capital

545
00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:14.559
and there's money that's available to them from one of

546
00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:18.400
two different places, same amount of money. The money that's

547
00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:22.119
available to them from a private equity venture capital type. Right,

548
00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:24.640
they're not going to help them build their business, but

549
00:26:24.680 --> 00:26:28.200
they want a smaller percentage for the money this other one,

550
00:26:28.359 --> 00:26:31.400
same money. They can actually help them build their business.

551
00:26:31.400 --> 00:26:34.240
They can literally hand them their next clients on a platter,

552
00:26:34.519 --> 00:26:37.759
but they want a bigger percentage. And in this entrepreneur's

553
00:26:37.799 --> 00:26:40.119
mind is why would I give away a bigger percentage?

554
00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:43.519
Seriously that I just told you why Because one of

555
00:26:43.519 --> 00:26:45.160
them is going to help you build your business. The

556
00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:46.960
other one's just throwing money at you, hope and you

557
00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:49.720
do something great with it. The biggest thing for me,

558
00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:52.240
as I've said this before, and I learned this, and

559
00:26:52.279 --> 00:26:54.279
I firmly believe this, and I don't mean this to

560
00:26:54.319 --> 00:26:57.680
be derogatory towards somebody who runs a company or has

561
00:26:57.759 --> 00:27:01.519
a great position. I have to find somebody who's done it.

562
00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:03.920
One of the things that I learned when I was

563
00:27:04.759 --> 00:27:07.319
failing and struggling the first time was the people that

564
00:27:07.359 --> 00:27:09.799
I was surrounded with. The organization was trying to help

565
00:27:09.799 --> 00:27:12.640
introduce me to people. They were people that didn't build

566
00:27:12.640 --> 00:27:15.880
it from the ground up. So I remember meeting a guy.

567
00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:19.480
He's running a firm of financial advisors with two hundred advisors,

568
00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:21.319
but he inherited it when it was one hundred and

569
00:27:21.319 --> 00:27:24.920
eighty advisors strong. He had no idea what it took

570
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:28.119
to go from zero to one hundred. He went from

571
00:27:28.119 --> 00:27:31.119
one eighty to two hundred. He already had the leadership team,

572
00:27:31.160 --> 00:27:34.200
he already had the systems and the structure. It's a

573
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:37.720
very different mindset, it's a very different challenge, it's a

574
00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:41.160
very different struggle, and so you have to find people

575
00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:44.160
that have been there before. I talked about in the book,

576
00:27:44.200 --> 00:27:46.839
I went to college. Nobody else in my family went

577
00:27:46.880 --> 00:27:50.240
to college. That wasn't what we did. Nobody did that,

578
00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:54.119
and so when I was making that decision, I couldn't

579
00:27:54.160 --> 00:27:56.880
lean on my family for that choice because to them

580
00:27:56.920 --> 00:28:00.079
that wasn't that important. Just you don't need to do that.

581
00:28:00.119 --> 00:28:02.119
You can do these other things like we all did.

582
00:28:02.759 --> 00:28:04.240
And so you're going to go down the path of

583
00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:06.799
starting a business or solving a problem or doing something

584
00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:09.440
bigger and better and different than people that are in

585
00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:12.640
your network or surrounding. Find the people that have done it.

586
00:28:13.279 --> 00:28:16.160
Find those people and ask those people the questions, because

587
00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:18.599
that's what matters in my opinion. Yeah.

588
00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:20.480
Yeah, It's one of the biggest things I see too

589
00:28:20.480 --> 00:28:24.119
with entrepreneurs is going from say, a forty hour a

590
00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:27.920
week work week, traditional nine to five job too, Okay,

591
00:28:27.960 --> 00:28:30.559
now it's sixty hours a week or more, and we

592
00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:33.519
get that we might even know what we're signing up for.

593
00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:37.240
But one of the challenges is the structure versus now

594
00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:40.799
utter lack of structure. So I'm curious more from a

595
00:28:40.799 --> 00:28:44.640
personal standpoint, how do you structure your days? Because I know,

596
00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:48.319
going from a normal nine to five work day for

597
00:28:48.480 --> 00:28:51.240
me to ay, okay, I'm ready for this sixty hour

598
00:28:51.279 --> 00:28:55.440
work week, But where do I even begin? How do

599
00:28:55.519 --> 00:28:57.359
you make sure that you have some sort of structure

600
00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:00.519
still in your life despite not having all of those

601
00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:04.200
calendar meetings in place like you did in your previous career.

602
00:29:04.839 --> 00:29:07.519
Yeah, it is a The time is interesting. I remember

603
00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:10.799
going one of the universities I spoke at. I asked

604
00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:13.319
the group if you'd be starting, if you start your

605
00:29:13.319 --> 00:29:15.039
own business, how many hours a week do you work?

606
00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:16.559
And I had the marker and I was writing it

607
00:29:16.599 --> 00:29:19.480
on the whiteboard and it was like forty fifty sixty.

608
00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:21.880
Everyone's throwing numbers out and then I just wrote all

609
00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:24.640
of them. You work all of them. That's the thing

610
00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:27.160
is you're trying to figure out what's the number of

611
00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:28.880
hours I got to put in to say I put

612
00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:31.359
in the right amount of time. It's all of them.

613
00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:33.039
You wake up at two am, you don't go back

614
00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:35.519
to sleep because your mind's racing. That's how it works.

615
00:29:36.279 --> 00:29:38.200
I think the biggest thing when it comes to what

616
00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:40.480
you're talking about in terms of the lack of structure

617
00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:43.440
is we talk about the onset of this call right,

618
00:29:43.480 --> 00:29:46.759
the accountability partners right, finding the people you can lean on,

619
00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:49.640
that you can talk to, that can hold you accountable. Right.

620
00:29:50.279 --> 00:29:52.599
You have to be open to that accountability. A lot

621
00:29:52.680 --> 00:29:56.400
of people aren't a lot of people will make excuses. Yes, Jim,

622
00:29:56.440 --> 00:29:59.000
I was going to but this happened, and therefore I

623
00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:01.519
didn't get it done. But when you're running the business,

624
00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:03.480
I didn't get it done, it's not acceptable. If it

625
00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:05.000
had to get done, it has to get done. I

626
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:06.880
don't care what time of day or what struggles you

627
00:30:06.920 --> 00:30:08.319
had to get through to get it done. You have

628
00:30:08.359 --> 00:30:11.759
to get it done. That's important. And the second thing

629
00:30:11.839 --> 00:30:14.599
is you have to prioritize. And that's where I think

630
00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:18.039
a lot of these people fail is they can't properly

631
00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:21.759
prioritize what needs to get done, what is a must,

632
00:30:22.279 --> 00:30:25.880
and what is a They have these different buckets of urgent, important,

633
00:30:25.960 --> 00:30:28.680
all these different things. I used to have two different

634
00:30:28.839 --> 00:30:31.519
things on my desk, and now the urgent was on

635
00:30:31.599 --> 00:30:34.759
top and then the important was on the bottom. And

636
00:30:34.799 --> 00:30:38.839
the objective was very simple. I filled the top tray

637
00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:41.599
every single day with stuff that I had to do

638
00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:44.920
the start of the next day. So at the beginning

639
00:30:44.920 --> 00:30:48.039
of the day the very next day, by about eight am,

640
00:30:48.200 --> 00:30:51.079
that top tray had to be empty because I took

641
00:30:51.079 --> 00:30:53.480
care of everything that was urgent, and then I spend

642
00:30:53.480 --> 00:30:56.279
the day filling it back up right, and so I

643
00:30:56.319 --> 00:31:00.200
have my tomorrow's urgent things right. And then the import

644
00:31:00.319 --> 00:31:03.119
was on the bottom. This is not urgent. But when

645
00:31:03.160 --> 00:31:04.640
I get time at the end of the week or

646
00:31:04.680 --> 00:31:06.400
something like that, I can pull this out and get

647
00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:08.240
things done. Maybe over the weekend, if I get a

648
00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:10.720
free hour, whatever it might be, I can pull that

649
00:31:10.759 --> 00:31:14.759
out and get the important things done. It's not as

650
00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:16.960
simple as I think. A lot of people will block

651
00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:20.319
their time sometimes and the blocks can mess with their heads.

652
00:31:20.920 --> 00:31:23.319
I didn't do the blocks because it was so hard

653
00:31:23.319 --> 00:31:25.240
for me to follow the blocks. I just tried to

654
00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:28.519
prioritize my day and knew what I needed to get

655
00:31:28.519 --> 00:31:31.720
done throughout every single day to make sure it was effective. Derek,

656
00:31:31.759 --> 00:31:32.680
I got a Delvin.

657
00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:35.079
First of all, I know you said you served in

658
00:31:35.079 --> 00:31:37.759
the military, so thank you for your service. With that

659
00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:40.920
of mind, though, because you did say there are some differences,

660
00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:44.000
but what were you able to transfer from a leadership

661
00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:46.880
perspective of what you learn from the military that you

662
00:31:46.920 --> 00:31:48.680
could take into the civilian world.

663
00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:51.359
The biggest thing you take away and any sort of

664
00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:55.079
military training is adapting and overcoming. I mean it. When

665
00:31:55.079 --> 00:31:57.359
I was on a deployment, I messed my backup really

666
00:31:57.400 --> 00:32:01.079
bad in two thousand. I remember it's been long and

667
00:32:01.119 --> 00:32:03.240
I remember going to the doctor, and the doctor was like,

668
00:32:03.240 --> 00:32:04.680
we don't know what's going on with your back, but

669
00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:06.960
we don't want you working anymore because we need to

670
00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:09.799
figure this out. We were stretched thin. I was a

671
00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:13.519
fuels a fuel's guide, so I was refueling airplanes constantly

672
00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:15.920
throughout the day as they were coming and going. And

673
00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:18.039
we knew we were thin. We didn't have enough people.

674
00:32:18.240 --> 00:32:21.319
And so I remember going back to my squad leader.

675
00:32:21.720 --> 00:32:23.400
He said, what did the doctor say? And I said,

676
00:32:23.400 --> 00:32:25.519
the doctor told me to get back to work, and

677
00:32:25.559 --> 00:32:27.119
I did and I went back to work, and I

678
00:32:27.160 --> 00:32:29.839
was in so much pain for months. I couldn't sit,

679
00:32:29.960 --> 00:32:33.440
I could barely stand. It was. I was miserable. But

680
00:32:33.720 --> 00:32:36.640
work had to be done. And so for me it

681
00:32:36.680 --> 00:32:38.920
was one way or the other. We had to get

682
00:32:38.920 --> 00:32:41.160
the work done. The pain wasn't going to stop me.

683
00:32:41.240 --> 00:32:42.960
It wasn't going to kill me. I had to get

684
00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:45.440
it done. And so the thing from the military for

685
00:32:45.480 --> 00:32:48.160
me is whatever it is you're dealing with, an excuse

686
00:32:48.240 --> 00:32:50.799
doesn't solve the problem. The problem still exists. We have

687
00:32:50.920 --> 00:32:53.759
to solve the problem, and nobody else was going to

688
00:32:53.759 --> 00:32:55.599
solve that. I couldn't make the guys that I was

689
00:32:55.599 --> 00:32:58.440
there with work twenty hours a day. We were already

690
00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:01.480
working fourteen, right, so I had to step up and

691
00:33:01.519 --> 00:33:03.279
do my part. To me, I felt like that was

692
00:33:03.319 --> 00:33:06.319
my responsibility to do. And so I think the biggest

693
00:33:06.319 --> 00:33:09.599
thing that most people coming from a leadership background, it's

694
00:33:09.640 --> 00:33:13.000
the ability to adapt, recognize things that maybe aren't working,

695
00:33:13.079 --> 00:33:16.119
recognize things that are, and create a new path and

696
00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:17.160
just figure it out.

697
00:33:17.759 --> 00:33:20.079
But sometimes do you think that you also need to

698
00:33:20.079 --> 00:33:23.799
be a little bit compassionate about yours on about yourself

699
00:33:23.839 --> 00:33:27.039
also because your well being matters, Because if you are

700
00:33:27.079 --> 00:33:31.519
not that leader, who is who's having that mindset well being?

701
00:33:31.799 --> 00:33:35.920
Well being in terms of health, emotion, all these areas,

702
00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:40.759
sometimes we cannot even serve our people. So what are

703
00:33:40.799 --> 00:33:44.319
there things that you are now tackling more to take

704
00:33:44.359 --> 00:33:47.200
care of yourself? How important is your well being now?

705
00:33:47.880 --> 00:33:50.359
Yeah, it's different now. I think that's one of the

706
00:33:50.359 --> 00:33:53.039
things that comes with time, right, is you know, when

707
00:33:53.039 --> 00:33:55.480
you're young, like I wasn't just gung ho. I was

708
00:33:55.519 --> 00:33:58.400
willing to work, you know, eighty ninety hours a week.

709
00:33:58.440 --> 00:34:00.279
It didn't matter to me. It was just that's what

710
00:34:00.319 --> 00:34:03.400
I was willing to do. As I've gotten older, I

711
00:34:03.480 --> 00:34:06.559
recognize that's not smart. That's not healthy. You have to,

712
00:34:06.880 --> 00:34:08.559
like you said, you have to take time for that.

713
00:34:08.679 --> 00:34:11.760
And so my approach to not only how I treat

714
00:34:11.760 --> 00:34:14.079
myself but everybody that works for me is very different

715
00:34:14.119 --> 00:34:16.880
as well. Right, I'm just I'm a lot more willing

716
00:34:17.239 --> 00:34:19.760
to just let people do what they need to do,

717
00:34:19.880 --> 00:34:23.000
take time, go to the gym, go to your family,

718
00:34:23.079 --> 00:34:27.199
take a vacation. As again, younger, eager, so fired up.

719
00:34:27.239 --> 00:34:30.239
Sometimes I was not there. I I wasn't. I think

720
00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:32.679
a lot of people make that same mistake. I just wasn't.

721
00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:36.360
But that's just the way it was for me. Though.

722
00:34:36.519 --> 00:34:39.519
The other challenge and I still face today. And Jim,

723
00:34:39.599 --> 00:34:41.440
this is your point and the same for you is

724
00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:45.360
I'm a very black and white person. I don't spend

725
00:34:45.360 --> 00:34:47.599
a lot of time in the gray, and so I

726
00:34:47.639 --> 00:34:50.880
don't deal with kindness. Maybe it just is or it isn't.

727
00:34:51.400 --> 00:34:52.920
So if you set a goal, if I'm going to

728
00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:55.119
accomplish something, did I do it?

729
00:34:55.199 --> 00:34:55.360
Yes?

730
00:34:55.480 --> 00:34:59.960
Or no? That's it. And so my kids struggle with this.

731
00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:03.760
My wife is like, people are not wired like you, Derek. Right,

732
00:35:04.280 --> 00:35:06.840
It's just not that way. It's if I set a goal,

733
00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:09.920
did I accomplish it? And the biggest thing for me is,

734
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:12.119
let's just be honest. If the answer is no, the

735
00:35:12.159 --> 00:35:15.360
answer is no. Ninety five percent of the way is

736
00:35:15.400 --> 00:35:19.320
a no. That's okay. I'm not upset about that. The

737
00:35:19.360 --> 00:35:21.239
answers are no. Now we have to figure out what

738
00:35:21.320 --> 00:35:23.719
was the difference between ninety five and one hundred, so

739
00:35:23.800 --> 00:35:26.320
the next time we can get it even closer. Right.

740
00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:29.679
So it's just it's very simple to me in my head.

741
00:35:29.800 --> 00:35:32.840
That's just the way I'm wired. Civilian world, I think

742
00:35:32.920 --> 00:35:35.480
is wired a little bit different, right, I asked my wife.

743
00:35:35.519 --> 00:35:39.039
I don't get anxious about anything but being late. Like

744
00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:42.320
people being late. People are like, I'm close enough, dinner

745
00:35:42.320 --> 00:35:44.480
was at five, I'm here at five point fifteen. No,

746
00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:47.719
I've been here since four point thirty. I'm sorry you're late.

747
00:35:47.920 --> 00:35:51.320
That drives me insane. It's just a black and white thing.

748
00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:53.079
Were you on time? No, it drives me.

749
00:35:53.199 --> 00:35:56.719
N It has to be a decisive answer or else

750
00:35:57.000 --> 00:35:59.599
I will keep everybody hanging in the middle. So if

751
00:35:59.639 --> 00:36:02.559
I'm able to go there or not, if I'm able

752
00:36:02.599 --> 00:36:04.880
to submit it on time or not. And I have

753
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:08.320
seen some leaders who are like, oh, probably I will

754
00:36:08.360 --> 00:36:11.559
try to get that paper done. No, just let me

755
00:36:11.679 --> 00:36:14.320
know if you could do it or not, then we

756
00:36:14.360 --> 00:36:17.719
can take contingency plan and things like that. And I

757
00:36:17.800 --> 00:36:21.280
think that is so appreciable and one of the key

758
00:36:21.360 --> 00:36:24.239
leadership skilled from my angle beingdecisive.

759
00:36:24.599 --> 00:36:26.599
Well, I live in Minnesota now, and if you've never

760
00:36:26.639 --> 00:36:29.360
heard the term, I'll introduce you to it. It's called

761
00:36:29.400 --> 00:36:33.840
Minnesota nice and Minnesota nice to me, and I'm not

762
00:36:33.880 --> 00:36:35.599
from here, and I always laugh at it that it's

763
00:36:35.639 --> 00:36:40.119
not really Minnesota nice. It's Minnesota passive aggressive. And you

764
00:36:40.639 --> 00:36:43.840
hear this kind of yeah, maybe sort of right, and

765
00:36:43.880 --> 00:36:47.119
it's no just yes or no? Can you get this done?

766
00:36:47.199 --> 00:36:50.599
Yes or no? Not Maybe it's just let's just be honest.

767
00:36:50.679 --> 00:36:53.239
Let's just move forward and be honest. And that to

768
00:36:53.280 --> 00:36:55.559
me is a really big deal. And it's nothing for

769
00:36:55.639 --> 00:36:58.639
me that I do out of being rude or anything

770
00:36:58.719 --> 00:37:00.639
like that. It's just once you get to know me,

771
00:37:00.679 --> 00:37:02.960
you realize, hey, we just let's just to your point,

772
00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:05.320
just be decisive, Let's make a statement, let's follow through

773
00:37:05.320 --> 00:37:06.760
on it, let's be a man of our word and

774
00:37:06.840 --> 00:37:08.960
move on good points.

775
00:37:09.159 --> 00:37:11.119
One thing. And then I get a question, but is

776
00:37:11.159 --> 00:37:13.599
it Derek, You and I would get along because my

777
00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:16.480
players know how strong I am about being on time.

778
00:37:16.679 --> 00:37:18.480
I used to give him the option, if you can't

779
00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:21.679
be on time, be early, so they usually figured that

780
00:37:21.719 --> 00:37:22.079
went out.

781
00:37:22.519 --> 00:37:24.840
It was funny. I remember coaching my son's football team

782
00:37:24.840 --> 00:37:27.239
when he was really little elementary school, and there was

783
00:37:27.280 --> 00:37:31.159
a kid that I coached in like second grade, and

784
00:37:31.239 --> 00:37:33.440
he was playing corner for me on defense, and he

785
00:37:33.519 --> 00:37:35.639
knew the rule was you were never allowed to let

786
00:37:35.679 --> 00:37:37.760
somebody get outside of you on the corner. That's the

787
00:37:37.800 --> 00:37:40.960
number one rule, never allowed. And I hadn't coached the

788
00:37:41.039 --> 00:37:42.960
kid for three years after that, and then he was

789
00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:45.039
on my team again and he said, I can't wait

790
00:37:45.039 --> 00:37:47.360
to play with you again, coach, And I said, do

791
00:37:47.360 --> 00:37:49.239
you remember my number one rule? And he said I do.

792
00:37:49.320 --> 00:37:51.480
I'm never allowed to let anybody get on the outside.

793
00:37:51.559 --> 00:37:54.280
I remember that. I've never forgot it. I'm like, perfect,

794
00:37:54.360 --> 00:37:56.840
that's good. I don't have to reteach it. You got it.

795
00:37:57.159 --> 00:37:59.400
That's the rule. Don't let it happen. And every I

796
00:37:59.400 --> 00:38:00.960
don't care if he the tackle on care if he

797
00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:03.159
scores a touchdown, but he's going to go inside of you,

798
00:38:03.199 --> 00:38:06.400
never outside of you. That's just the way it's gonna work. Yeah.

799
00:38:06.639 --> 00:38:10.000
Hey, in entrepreneurship and really in life in general. This

800
00:38:10.119 --> 00:38:12.239
is just something that I've noticed, and I don't know

801
00:38:12.280 --> 00:38:14.639
if it's a trend that we've all noticed, but just

802
00:38:14.960 --> 00:38:18.719
this softness and this inability to take feedback. A lot

803
00:38:18.719 --> 00:38:21.960
of times we feel offended. It's a cultural thing right now.

804
00:38:22.039 --> 00:38:24.840
We feel offended by feedback. We consider people who are

805
00:38:24.880 --> 00:38:28.280
giving us, maybe even constructive feedback, as just haters who

806
00:38:28.280 --> 00:38:32.159
don't understand how we conduct a business. But taking feedback

807
00:38:32.239 --> 00:38:35.159
is so important. Two part question for you. Number one,

808
00:38:35.440 --> 00:38:39.280
how has feedback externally helped you in the growth and

809
00:38:39.320 --> 00:38:43.400
the scaling of your tech company? But then step two,

810
00:38:43.480 --> 00:38:47.079
how do you effectively implement feedback to your team members?

811
00:38:47.599 --> 00:38:49.840
Yeah? So, look, when you are, when you're going to

812
00:38:49.880 --> 00:38:53.159
step out and be an entrepreneur right and build something

813
00:38:53.199 --> 00:38:55.559
and do something different, the world has a way of

814
00:38:55.599 --> 00:38:58.039
showing you things right. It just has a way of

815
00:38:58.079 --> 00:39:00.800
reminding you. The one thing for me that I think

816
00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:04.000
is also really important about feedback is, and I actually

817
00:39:04.039 --> 00:39:07.400
write about this in the book, is the network you

818
00:39:07.440 --> 00:39:11.280
surround yourself with matters a ton And one of the

819
00:39:11.280 --> 00:39:15.480
things that was a shock to me is and I

820
00:39:15.480 --> 00:39:18.000
certainly don't mean to be controversial, but it was amazing

821
00:39:18.079 --> 00:39:22.119
to me how many people you could tell didn't want

822
00:39:22.159 --> 00:39:26.119
me to succeed, as weird as that sounds, and I

823
00:39:26.119 --> 00:39:28.400
see it now with my son. He's a basketball player,

824
00:39:28.440 --> 00:39:30.760
he's a great athlete, he's a great kid. You can

825
00:39:30.840 --> 00:39:34.119
see it because the competition is so great that they

826
00:39:34.119 --> 00:39:36.559
don't want you to succeed, and so instead of being

827
00:39:36.559 --> 00:39:39.360
there to help somebody, there's a lot of people that

828
00:39:39.440 --> 00:39:42.039
are there to pull you back. Youth sports is crazy

829
00:39:42.039 --> 00:39:44.079
to me because it's not just the other kids, it's

830
00:39:44.119 --> 00:39:47.599
the other parents that sometimes you see it from. And

831
00:39:47.679 --> 00:39:49.679
so for me, I'm always trying to the feedback with

832
00:39:49.719 --> 00:39:53.199
my son and with athletes and with everybody else. The

833
00:39:53.239 --> 00:39:55.760
biggest thing I think is trying to remove your ego

834
00:39:55.800 --> 00:39:58.519
from it. Early on in my career, my ego was

835
00:39:58.559 --> 00:40:01.000
a big part of my feedback. I was like, I'm smart,

836
00:40:01.079 --> 00:40:04.280
I have this title, I have this position. Nobody cares.

837
00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:07.840
And so the second you realize take my ego out

838
00:40:07.840 --> 00:40:10.440
of it, you can just watch the other person just

839
00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:13.719
disarm almost immediately, where they realize I'm not doing this

840
00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:15.800
because i think I'm better than you. I'm not sharing

841
00:40:15.840 --> 00:40:18.400
this because I'm smarter, than you, or I'm better than you.

842
00:40:19.079 --> 00:40:21.280
And again, I also don't do it in a way

843
00:40:21.280 --> 00:40:23.880
that I make a lot of statements. I ask a

844
00:40:23.920 --> 00:40:26.840
lot of questions. There was a communication that came through

845
00:40:27.199 --> 00:40:29.480
two months ago with an organization I was working with,

846
00:40:29.519 --> 00:40:33.000
where this gentleman responded in a text message to a

847
00:40:33.039 --> 00:40:36.639
group of people very rude, and so I just called them.

848
00:40:36.920 --> 00:40:38.760
He said, if you could go back and do it again,

849
00:40:38.800 --> 00:40:42.079
would you send the same message the same way? And

850
00:40:42.119 --> 00:40:44.960
he said, no, if you could go back and do

851
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:48.000
it again, how would you change that message? And when

852
00:40:48.000 --> 00:40:49.599
I went, don't even say it, just send it to

853
00:40:49.639 --> 00:40:53.000
me directly. Just send it to me. And he sent

854
00:40:53.039 --> 00:40:54.519
it to me, and when he got done sending to me,

855
00:40:54.559 --> 00:40:57.599
it was completely different. And I said, okay, my only

856
00:40:57.639 --> 00:40:59.559
last question to you, is there any reason why you

857
00:40:59.559 --> 00:41:02.280
wouldn't he send this to the group this way versus

858
00:41:02.280 --> 00:41:06.119
the other way? And he went, no, good hits, send

859
00:41:06.639 --> 00:41:09.920
it's fine. I could have said you're one hundred percent wrong.

860
00:41:10.360 --> 00:41:12.519
I could have just berated him and yelled at him.

861
00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:15.000
That wasn't the right thing to do. And I think

862
00:41:15.039 --> 00:41:18.679
in order the receptiveness of the feedback, John, take your ego,

863
00:41:18.800 --> 00:41:20.639
get rid of it. It's only going to get in

864
00:41:20.639 --> 00:41:22.400
the way. There's a book. I love the book. If

865
00:41:22.400 --> 00:41:24.320
anybody's listening to this and you haven't read it, Egos

866
00:41:24.360 --> 00:41:27.519
the Enemy. It's a phenomenal book and that talks a

867
00:41:27.519 --> 00:41:30.760
lot about that get rid of that ego. It's amazing

868
00:41:30.760 --> 00:41:34.000
when it does to feedback sessions. That's really good.

869
00:41:34.320 --> 00:41:36.800
As we wrap up, I have one final question, Derek.

870
00:41:36.960 --> 00:41:40.320
I actually depends on I see a football behind you

871
00:41:40.440 --> 00:41:42.519
with the Jets is at the New York Jets.

872
00:41:42.760 --> 00:41:44.559
It is, yep, all right, So I gotta have a

873
00:41:44.559 --> 00:41:45.360
little fun with you.

874
00:41:45.559 --> 00:41:48.159
I'm a Bills fan in both of these although they

875
00:41:48.199 --> 00:41:50.440
Jets have won one Super Bowl, the Bills have been

876
00:41:50.519 --> 00:41:53.559
there four times. But I'm curious because the Jets have

877
00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:55.079
been through a real drill. They haven't been in the

878
00:41:55.119 --> 00:41:57.559
playoffs in a long time. Give me your insight on

879
00:41:58.079 --> 00:42:00.920
what's the issue there? Why are they been so bad

880
00:42:01.000 --> 00:42:01.599
for so long?

881
00:42:02.079 --> 00:42:03.760
First, you got to remember I also live in Minnesota,

882
00:42:03.800 --> 00:42:06.320
so I got a bunch of disappointed Vikings fans every year.

883
00:42:06.400 --> 00:42:09.320
Yes, yeah, like the Bills lost in four Super Bowl

884
00:42:09.360 --> 00:42:10.000
so we know that.

885
00:42:10.440 --> 00:42:12.320
First of all, let me tell you real quick why

886
00:42:12.320 --> 00:42:15.320
I'm a Jets fan, and it's one hundred percent spite.

887
00:42:15.719 --> 00:42:18.039
When my dad retired from the Army, we moved here.

888
00:42:18.079 --> 00:42:20.519
I didn't have a favorite football team, and I was

889
00:42:20.559 --> 00:42:22.719
in eighth grade. I remember telling some kids I didn't

890
00:42:22.719 --> 00:42:25.400
have a favorite football team, and I mentioned the Jets,

891
00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:28.360
like Keishawn Johnson or somebody like that. I just mentioned

892
00:42:28.360 --> 00:42:31.639
something about the Jets, and everybody started making fun of me.

893
00:42:32.119 --> 00:42:34.440
You're a Jets fan and I'm going no, but they

894
00:42:34.519 --> 00:42:36.000
kept making fun of me, and I went, you know what,

895
00:42:36.039 --> 00:42:39.199
that's it. I'm a Jets fan. I've been a Jets

896
00:42:39.239 --> 00:42:42.000
fan since eighth grade, one hundred percent out of spite,

897
00:42:42.079 --> 00:42:45.079
and I suffer every year as a result of that decision.

898
00:42:45.480 --> 00:42:48.079
It's hard to say, you know this right. In sports,

899
00:42:48.840 --> 00:42:53.639
winning is contagious. Losing is contagious. Right. You can feel it.

900
00:42:53.719 --> 00:42:55.599
You can feel the aura when you go into a

901
00:42:55.679 --> 00:42:57.880
room of winners where it's just nothing that's going to

902
00:42:57.960 --> 00:43:01.000
get in our way. Somebody's hurt, We're going to step up.

903
00:43:01.039 --> 00:43:04.239
It's no big deal. And you can tell in any

904
00:43:04.320 --> 00:43:07.199
locker room, in any sports or athletic or even company

905
00:43:07.239 --> 00:43:10.079
culture environment where they're like, we're not going to let

906
00:43:10.119 --> 00:43:12.559
something hold us back. From accomplishing what we're great at,

907
00:43:12.559 --> 00:43:14.920
what we're set out to do. I just don't think.

908
00:43:14.960 --> 00:43:16.400
I don't know if the Jets over the course of

909
00:43:16.440 --> 00:43:18.800
the years just haven't had that. I don't know. It's

910
00:43:19.039 --> 00:43:20.920
it's a hard thing to put your finger on. It

911
00:43:20.920 --> 00:43:23.039
can't be a talent thing, because there's so much talent

912
00:43:23.079 --> 00:43:26.079
in this league, but there's clearly that sort of issue

913
00:43:26.119 --> 00:43:28.760
that permeates a lot of teams in this league. The

914
00:43:28.800 --> 00:43:31.280
Bills are great. I firmly believe it's going to be

915
00:43:31.320 --> 00:43:33.480
the Bills or Baltimore this year in the Super Bowl.

916
00:43:34.239 --> 00:43:36.119
But both of them have a hurdle to get over.

917
00:43:36.360 --> 00:43:38.440
They got to get over that hump, so we'll see

918
00:43:38.440 --> 00:43:41.039
what happens. They're fun to watch though, they're really fun

919
00:43:41.079 --> 00:43:41.440
to watch.

920
00:43:42.400 --> 00:43:44.840
Yeah, yeah, it's Derek. As we wrap up in our

921
00:43:44.880 --> 00:43:47.840
time here, and you know, it's okay. You're probably talking

922
00:43:47.840 --> 00:43:50.199
to a lot of Bills fans, So I hope nobody

923
00:43:50.239 --> 00:43:53.119
lost too much respect for you now, although I think

924
00:43:53.440 --> 00:43:56.440
we can fund some respect for you because of the

925
00:43:56.480 --> 00:43:59.760
amount of years that you've gone through horrible suffering that

926
00:43:59.800 --> 00:44:02.559
it is to be a Jets fan, and I certainly

927
00:44:02.840 --> 00:44:05.440
genuinely hope it gets better for you. Guys. I can

928
00:44:05.480 --> 00:44:07.679
never wish good on the Patriots, but we can wish

929
00:44:07.719 --> 00:44:08.440
good on the Jets.

930
00:44:08.480 --> 00:44:10.760
We can collectively agree to that that's fair.

931
00:44:11.239 --> 00:44:15.119
But so you sold the company and now you're in

932
00:44:15.159 --> 00:44:17.199
a different sort of venture. Tell us a little bit

933
00:44:17.239 --> 00:44:20.360
about what you're doing now and what that transition was like,

934
00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:23.360
as you obviously very exciting to sell a company, but

935
00:44:23.480 --> 00:44:25.480
also a huge change.

936
00:44:26.039 --> 00:44:28.440
It's a bigger change, and I think most people recognize

937
00:44:28.480 --> 00:44:31.039
the company that bought mine. They wanted me to stay on.

938
00:44:31.159 --> 00:44:32.760
I wanted to stay on. There was so much that

939
00:44:32.800 --> 00:44:35.400
I wanted to accomplish after winning all these lawsuits and

940
00:44:35.440 --> 00:44:37.360
doing all these things, and I did not want to

941
00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:40.679
leave the company. And when I stayed on, they kept

942
00:44:40.719 --> 00:44:43.079
me on and they were excited to have me on.

943
00:44:43.159 --> 00:44:45.079
I just realized the way they do things was just

944
00:44:45.119 --> 00:44:47.639
so different, and I found myself and I remember saying

945
00:44:47.679 --> 00:44:49.599
to them, like, I'm the problem. I'm the fly in

946
00:44:49.639 --> 00:44:51.840
the ointment. I'm used to doing it the way that

947
00:44:51.880 --> 00:44:54.719
I've always done it. You guys have teams of people

948
00:44:54.800 --> 00:44:58.280
and departments and all these people making decisions. I'm not

949
00:44:58.320 --> 00:45:01.000
even in these conversations anymore, or it just doesn't feel

950
00:45:01.079 --> 00:45:02.679
right to me. And so that's when I said, I'm

951
00:45:02.679 --> 00:45:05.159
just going to step away. And the product's doing great,

952
00:45:05.159 --> 00:45:09.000
the company is doing great, but man, that separation is

953
00:45:09.079 --> 00:45:11.639
really hard. When you love something and you believe in

954
00:45:11.679 --> 00:45:14.119
something and you fight for it for so long, when

955
00:45:14.119 --> 00:45:16.239
you walk away from it, it's really difficult. And I

956
00:45:16.320 --> 00:45:18.559
don't think a lot of people can understand that until

957
00:45:18.559 --> 00:45:21.000
you've done it. But people send me all the time.

958
00:45:21.119 --> 00:45:23.559
Founders never stay. It's way too hard, and I went, noh,

959
00:45:23.599 --> 00:45:26.599
this will be different. It's really hard. And so for

960
00:45:26.679 --> 00:45:28.480
me it was like therapy, right. I wanted to write

961
00:45:28.519 --> 00:45:31.599
the book to just share my story and get that

962
00:45:31.719 --> 00:45:33.719
out there and just tell everybody what I went through

963
00:45:33.719 --> 00:45:36.480
and make sure people understand I'm not special. There's anything

964
00:45:36.519 --> 00:45:40.119
about me that's special, but here's how I think. And

965
00:45:40.159 --> 00:45:42.760
then took some time for myself and then just started

966
00:45:42.800 --> 00:45:46.199
consulting and speaking and I love that stuff. That's so

967
00:45:46.280 --> 00:45:47.519
much fun for me. Yeah.

968
00:45:47.599 --> 00:45:49.679
Yeah, So where can we find put to the test

969
00:45:49.840 --> 00:45:51.920
and get in touch with you if we're interested in

970
00:45:52.320 --> 00:45:54.239
learning more about your consulting or speaking?

971
00:45:54.440 --> 00:45:56.920
Yeah, so the easiest place. The book is available basically

972
00:45:56.920 --> 00:46:00.480
anywhere Amazon, Barnes, and Noble Walmart. But thanks to all

973
00:46:00.519 --> 00:46:02.639
of that too on my website where you can also

974
00:46:02.679 --> 00:46:05.239
contact me, and the website is just my name, Derekurard

975
00:46:05.239 --> 00:46:06.079
dot com.

976
00:46:06.239 --> 00:46:09.079
Derekgirard dot com links in down there in the show

977
00:46:09.079 --> 00:46:11.920
notes and it's a d R r ick, So just

978
00:46:12.079 --> 00:46:14.679
a heads up on that link down in the show notes,

979
00:46:14.719 --> 00:46:17.400
so just click that, head on over to Derek's website,

980
00:46:17.519 --> 00:46:20.239
learn more, get in touch if that's something that interests you,

981
00:46:20.280 --> 00:46:22.880
and definitely check out Put to the Test. That link

982
00:46:22.920 --> 00:46:25.760
also down in the show notes as well. There for you, Derek,

983
00:46:25.800 --> 00:46:28.239
you shared so much with us today for entrepreneurs, for

984
00:46:28.360 --> 00:46:30.440
leaders and I love how some things that you shared

985
00:46:30.639 --> 00:46:33.239
doesn't really matter if you're an entrepreneur or not. Your

986
00:46:33.360 --> 00:46:36.119
FIO mindset and all the other things that you talked

987
00:46:36.119 --> 00:46:38.400
about so valuable for all of us. So thanks for

988
00:46:38.440 --> 00:46:41.840
your time today on the Limitless Leadership Lounge, Thanks for having.

989
00:46:41.639 --> 00:46:44.079
Me, Thank you for joining us this week at the

990
00:46:44.119 --> 00:46:47.519
Limitless Leadership Lounge. To listen to this episode again and

991
00:46:47.639 --> 00:46:51.719
to find previous episodes, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

992
00:46:51.920 --> 00:46:54.320
and Springer. You can also get in on the conversation.

993
00:46:54.519 --> 00:46:57.280
Find us on Facebook and Instagram. Then tell three of

994
00:46:57.320 --> 00:47:00.559
your friends to join in as well. Coach and John.

995
00:47:00.599 --> 00:47:04.599
We'll be back again next week for another trigenerational leadership discussion.

996
00:47:04.880 --> 00:47:09.639
We'll talk to you then on the Limitless Leadership Lounge